Well with Arielle Lorre - 3: BRIANNA DIORIO - You Can Put the Celery Juice Down

Episode Date: May 1, 2019

In this episode Arielle talks to clinical nutritionist (and holistic life coach, functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, and NASM CPT) Brianna Diorio about the validity of popular lifestyle trends. They cover everything from celery juice to the Ketogenic diet. They also discuss the importance of living a balanced lifestyle and the concept of doing less to achieve more. Brianna is incredibly smart, funny and brings her contagious energy to the podcast. Enjoy!   To discover more about Brianna Diorio go here:  www.instagram.com/briannadiorio https://www.briannadiorio.com/   Follow Arielle here on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/ariellelorre/ And catch up with Arielle here on YouTubeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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or sunnycars. You're listening to Over the Influence. I'm your host, Ariel Lori. I'll be talking to movers and shakers in the world of wellness and beyond, and people who have had their own interesting journey, whether it be physical, mental, spiritual, or professional. Thanks for joining. Let's get into it. Hello, hello. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope everyone's having an amazing week. Really weird to be sitting here talking in a room all by myself. I know other people's podcasts are bigger productions and they have people around and there's usually like a producer or an assistant or a co-host and a guest.

But so far, it's just been me and the mic and it feels really awkward. But I don't know why I'm even sharing this. Maybe I'll edit it out. Maybe I'll keep it because it seems like, um, Everyone's been craving some realness, at least over on Instagram. And, yeah, I guess I'm bringing you the realness. So a little bit of housekeeping. If you don't follow over the influence pod, make sure to follow over on Instagram.

I'll just be putting out some different content and things that align with my intention. for this podcast, which is to entertain you, but also inform and inspire you, the listener, to basically live your best life and thrive. And it's a journey. It's a journey for me too. I certainly don't do that every single day, and I'm a work in progress, and I'm constantly evolving. and I hope I always am. I don't see a finish line. I think if we're not evolving, if we're not growing, if we're not challenging ourselves, then what? We're stagnant, right? It's not something that I want in my life, even though the growing and the evolving and the changing can be

overwhelming and painful and scary. It's better than the alternative, and that's life. So I'm really excited about today's episode. I have Brianna DiOrio on. She's a clinical nutritionist who advocates for a holistic and naturopathic approach to nutrition. She's also a Czech Institute certified holistic lifestyle coach. Rob also went through the Czech Institute, I believe. She's also a personal trainer, and she's a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner. But she's so much more. And I'm going to let her introduce herself because she has a lot going on. She is a curious soul. She's always researching and I found her on Instagram and I was just drawn to her energy, her no bullshit delivery of science and her humor. She's really funny in a dry way. I really love people

who are like deadpan and witty and dry and sarcastic. So she just kind of checked all those boxes. And I decided that we would do something a little different with the episode. I feel like I'm rambling. So I'm going to get into it. But we started off by talking about lifestyle trends and talked about the validity of them. And then we kind of got into a conversation about living a balanced lifestyle and what that looks like. and what that means to us. So it was a really, really amazing conversation. I certainly learned a lot

and I just had fun hearing Brianna break it all down. So without further ado, Brianna DiOrio. Welcome, Brianna. I'm so excited to have you on today. Thank you for having me on. I'm super excited. We're going to nerve it out. I feel like I'm like your number one fan girl. Oh, God. That means more to me than you'll ever know. I feel like such a creep. That's what social media is about is making creeping acceptable. Like people used to go back in the day, but now everyone's like, hey, I stalked you on social media and it's kind of just part of the game nowadays.

It's like a compliment, right? Like, I stalk you. Totally. Yeah. So I'd love for you to tell me and the listeners just a little background about yourself and how you got started in your career in nutrition. Yeah, so I'm sure people have probably heard my background story by now, but I actually originally, I went to school to be a Spanish teacher. So my undergrad was in Spanish originally, and then I became a personal trainer when I was a sophomore in college at this place called Mike Duffy's personal training in O'Curth, New Jersey.

and him and his wife pretty much changed my career path because being the inquisitive nerd that I am, I had asked him if he had any suggestions for some books that I read. And he turned me on to some holistic practitioners. And I was kind of always that girl who was like reading the book about glycemic index and high school bringing my own lunchbox. Like so I've always been a nerd. I've always been into my whole life, all that kind of stuff. My family's pretty healthy. But when I was personal training. I was like, this is so fun. People make money doing this. This is like, I'm in workout clothes. Like, this is rad. So I decided that I wanted to go to graduate school and get my master's degree in nutrition. And a lot of people were like, yeah, but why don't you just, you know,

finish your Spanish education degree? Like, it's a good fallback career. I kept saying myself, like, I'm just not a fallback person. Like, plan B, I just think life is too short. And, you know, so I walked into my advisor's office actually the day before senior year. all I had left to do was student teaching. And I was like, so I don't want to be a teacher anymore. I want to go to graduate school. So I ended up picking up like a health studies minor. And then, yeah, from there, I went to the University of Bridgeport,

which is a naturopathic program back east. So it's in Connecticut. So I got my master's there. And then I have also got my holistic lifestyle certification through the Czech Institute, which was really cool and very eye-opening because it taught me a lot more than just, you know, nutrition and then I also got my functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner certification, which is cool because that allows me to run labs and dig a little bit deeper and do some cool

things like the Dutch test and the stool tests and all those things where you can really nerd out. So and then from there, I had opened a CrossFit gym at the time and my nutrition practice. And so I've had that for about six years, not the CrossFit gym anymore, but my nutrition practice still. And then currently, I am the director of education for a private label nutraceutical company. They are actually based out of New Mexico, but I live in Costa Mesa, California. So I go all over the country giving lectures and seminars and dropping knowledge. So I am just a full-time nerd. I could be wrong, but aren't you getting your PhD? I am. Yeah, it's way on the back burner. It's definitely a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. But PhD, I'll be a doctor on paper

eventually one of these days. So it's in the plan. Wow. Yeah. So that's incredible. I mean, I feel like for us to even scratch the surface on, you know, various topics, it would, we would need hours. We would need to do a whole podcast series because you're so knowledgeable. I mean, you should just, you should have your own podcast, but I'm sure people tell you that. I appreciate it. I know. I feel like people do tell me that all the time, but I'm just like, I have nothing new to say, you know? I feel like, But my Instagram, anybody who follows me on Instagram, that's pretty much what I do all day is just post little snippets of research that I'm doing and kind of drop knowledge. So that's like my version of a podcast. And then I go on random rants as well.

So, you know, I try and mix humor and education together when I can. That's one of the things that I love so much about your Instagram is that you're always researching and you're always sharing it with your audience. And it's like, it's science. It's real. It's not, you know, I feel like 95% of the stuff that you see on Instagram. Well, you call it ho science, right? Oh, and grow science, for sure. Yeah.

And it's so funny because I actually even do, I get super offended by, you know, it's people's health up the end of the day, which is really serious. I mean, you can have all the money and fame and whatever else in the world, but if you don't have your health, like, you can't do anything. And, you know, people take that for granted. Even something as simple as like, you know, I'm healthy all the time. But if I'll get like a stuffy nose, I feel. feel so terrible and I'm like, oh my God, I can't go on. So I don't even understand how people

live with chronic diseases for so long. And by the time people reach me generally, because, you know, I practice functional medicine and root cause and, you know, Ayurvedic medicine and all that kind of stuff, people have already gone through, they've jumped through a lot of hoops. They spent a lot of money. They've kind of, you know, done some of these quick fixes. And it's partially their fault, but it's also partially, you know, the current state of the industry where we're in, where people don't have to have degrees anymore and, you know, they can just post things on social media and think that they're like a quote nutrition coach. And I'm like, listen, I've watched a lot of Grey's Anatomy in my life. That doesn't mean that I'm going to do open heart surgery on you.

But for some reason, nutrition like gets that pass. Like people don't have like law coaches or doctor coaches, but like nutrition coaches is a thing now. And so it's offensive to people who have taken the time and, you know, put in the energy and work to go and get the credentials. do the work again because it's people's health and that should be taken seriously. So the research is important. So I'm always like, here's the science, guys, do what you want with it. Right. Yeah, I love that. I love that you're a proponent of that because it is so important. And it is people's lives ultimately. And it's not something to be taken lightly. I think something that would be fun and helpful to do today, which we talked about, would be to kind of talk about some of these

lifestyle and wellness, trends, whatever you want to call them that are so, you know, prevalent right now that you see everywhere and talk about the validity, you know, whether they're legit or not. So I want to point out that if any of these are something that the listeners do and incorporate into their lifestyle and enjoy it or feel like they're getting benefits from it, we're not trying to deter anybody from that. But if, you know, I know that I've tried some of these trends and felt frustrated when I don't notice any benefits. And so I just want to kind of talk about these, talk about the science behind it and let the listeners do with that what they wish. Yeah. And I like to always kind of preface that too by telling people like there, it's a trend for a

reason. For some people, it probably is working because we all have biochemical individuality. And that's why people who, when they do finally find something that works for them, that's great. And they get super excited about it and they want to tell everybody about it. But that's a very fine line. Like anecdotal research is not the same as, you know, science and clinical research. And then there's always great areas with that as well. But I always tell people like, you are your best clinical trial. So obviously, don't become a zealot about anything. or preach any one gospel or, you know, about nutrition philosophy. Like, I always tell people to be a nutrition agnostic because you should try different things

because depending on where you are in your life or your health journey or what you're focusing on, like things that didn't work for you a couple years ago might work now and vice versa. So it's good to be open-minded and kind of just like learn to listen to your body and, you know, but also use incredible research as well. Yeah. And I can definitely attest to that. I mean, we're constantly evolving. And I know that for me, things that I did a year ago don't work for me now.

So let's start with the big daddy of them all, in my opinion, celery juice. I feel like it's everywhere, everyone that I see drinking celery juice. My celery is sold out at heroin. It's crazy. Some of the claims are that it can help or even clear up digestive issues like SIBO. It can reduce inflammation, clear up sex. skin conditions like eczema, detox the liver, fight acid reflux. It kind of sounds like the magic elixir. Totally. So what's the deal? Yeah. So I think people at the end of the day, of course,

are always looking for number one, a quick fix, like a Band-Aid protocol and then a cure-all as well, again, because people ultimately just want to feel well. So, and people always ask me all the time, like, they'll slide in my DM and be like, why do you hate celery juice so much? I'm like, I don't hate celery juice. I have nothing against it. If you want to drink celery juice, do you enjoy it? Like, have a good time. But what people need to realize is that there is nothing inherently magical about celery juice itself. So like, again, anybody who follows me knows that I post about plant compounds all the time because I am super passionate about it. This is what, you know, research companies and pharmaceutical companies, like they study these pathways

and these compounds that work on different enzymes in the body that they, you know, target. cellular mechanisms. They do all this kind of stuff. Like they, you know, affect our DNA. They have antibacterial properties. They can protect against oxidative damage. So there's about like 4,000 different phytochemicals that exist that we're researching currently, right? So like celery juice, for example, has some plant compounds like chlorogenic acid. They have flavonoids, tannins, there's camphorall. So that's really cool. But the thing is, all of these plant compounds are found in other things as well. So like the, you can find this also in things like apples and potatoes, lettuce, green tea, caffeic acid is found in coffee, right? And celery is a part of

the carrot family. So you could very well drink carrot juice. You could also drink parsnips and dill and coriander, parsley. Those are all also a part of the opium gravelins family, which is essentially the family that celery comes from. So again, it's not that. celery juice is super magical, it's that there are these active plant compounds that are directly working on, you know, having antioxidant support in the cells, supporting mitochondrial health, like interfering with enzymes that can work on, you know, some of these inflammatory pathways in the body as well. And again, it's, you know, just trying to increase your diversity of plant compounds in general. Like flavonoids, for example, like there's 6,000 flavonoids alone.

So the more green things that you eat, and then I always joke and say, shove as much stuff in your ninja as you can, like if it's green, if it's blue, if it's purple, right? Like all these different colors that you hear very basic things that we know about nutrition. Like they all can provide anti-oxid support and, you know, work on some of these same pathways in some regard. So it's not, you know, I think who knows like celery juice is popular now. Like maybe, you know, I don't know, parsley will be the new thing. in 2020, who knows. But so it's just, it's trending and part influencer and all that kind of stuff. But like I said, you know, there's, it's a part of the, you know, the carrot family.

So you can also, you know, have parsley and coriander and carrots and get a lot of the same benefits as well. I tried doing the celery juice thing for, I think I lasted two days. And I just felt, I mean, it took away from my morning because I like to get up and make my matcha or drink my water and then make my matcha and like that's something that I enjoy and it just kind of sets the tone for my day and I felt like chugging down this kind of like funky tasting water I just couldn't stick with it. At the end of the day I think and again I don't really care where you stand on some of these you know theories like at the end of the day I think we can all inherently

agree on some basic principles right like moving around more stressing less uh and eating more whole real foods. Like none of that is magical and should be like blowing anybody's mind. But what a lot of the research is also finding is that it's about compliance and longevity and your ability to adhere to a plan. So, and I tell us to clients all the time, like if you're somebody who hates celery or hate celery juice and I'm telling you like you need to drink this every morning, you're going to do it for two weeks and you're going to hate the process, which is going to stress your body out, which is going to activate the HPA access. And then ultimately have this whole other, you know, negative feedback loop in the body and cascade. So it's about like, what can I do that's

going to allow me to enjoy this process of reaching my health goals and figuring out how compliant you can be with that. So if you don't see yourself doing it in three months, six months, nine months from now, there's a good chance that it's ultimately not benefiting your overall health. Right. Yeah, I love that. I think also, I mean, I don't want to speak for people who do this, but I kind of wonder if some of the people who have experienced this life-changing result from drinking celery juice were like maybe replacing their morning frappuccino with celery juice or something. Totally.

That totally is it as well. Like people, if you're drinking celery juice, there's a good chance that you're not going to start your day like by doing that and then say, I'm going to go have a Big Mac. I mean, there probably are people who still do that, obviously, but there's a good chance. That's why any of these diets, like keto, paleo, like it doesn't matter. Again, Pigen, like most of them are still focusing on removing a lot of these pro-inflammatory foods and, you know, sugar and wheat, corn, soy, dairy, like a lot of the things that, you know, people tend to have issues with, as well as, you know, artificial colors

and sweeteners and all that. So, like, of course you're going to feel better. Is it the celery juice or is it because you're removing all the other garbage from your diet as well? Like, you're probably sleeping better. You're probably exercising more. Maybe you've also gotten rid of pro-inflammatory people in your life because you're living a healthier lifestyle.

So, like, it's one piece of the health puzzle. Right. So bottom line is it could have health benefits, but it's not be, you can get them elsewhere, and it's not the magical elixir. Definitely. There are definitely health benefits, but like I said, you know, if I could encourage anybody to do anything after listening to this, like, just literally go Google phytochemicals and PubMed, and you'll find all these different ones, like, you know, Allison, which they find

in garlic or pro anthocyanins, which you can find in things like cruciferous vegetables and, you know, flavonoids and quercetin that you can find in, you know, things that are rich in sulfur, like onions, glucosinolates. All of these different compounds will all support your body on some level. And at the end of the day, it's about healing from a cellular level and supporting your mitochondria. So go and just try and increase your consumption of plant compounds in general. And if it's from celery juice, cool. But if it's not, you can also eat a lot of other things and still get those plant compound benefits. Love it. Okay. Well, I think another, I think right up there with celery juice would be keto. And the ketogenic diet, it's claimed to aid in weight loss,

increase good cholesterol, lower bad cholesterol, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar and insulin levels, improved brain function. Again, sounds like a cure-all. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah. So again, I don't think anybody should ever, you know, have just one, quote, diet that they stick to for the rest of their life. Are there health benefits to doing keto? Absolutely. Like some of the things that you just name, like there's very good research, you know, particularly for, you know, people who have, you know, disregulated blood glucose levels, you know, insulin resistance, you know, maybe people who need to lose weight. But keto can also be a very slippery slope. And I think a lot of these kind of extreme diets where if you have a poor

relationship with your body and food in general, like this goes with like fasting as well, you know, are you just kind of using this as an excuse to, you know, either have some kind of, you know, form of an eating disorder or another disordered relationship with food. Like, why are you doing it? Do you feel better? And are you also just kind of getting caught up in the, you know, the marketing puffery of keto bombs and keto pancakes and keto shakes? Like, that's not how any of this is supposed to be. So if you're truly doing keto and you're truly monitoring like your blood ketones every day or even, you know, you're urine ketones, whatever it is, like, yeah, that could be beneficial. But if you are, you know,

somebody who has issues with particularly like dysregulated HPA access functioning. Maybe your cortisol levels aren't as ideal as they should be. Maybe you have thyroid issues going on, women who have missed their period, things like that. You do need a certain amount of carbohydrates and glucose to actually support thyroid health. You know, there's mixed research about it being able to increase strength for men and, you know, like testosterone levels and things like that. So there again, of course there are benefits. but I think you have to meet yourself where you are in your journey and see how you feel with it.

You know, and like I said, kind of seeing if it's something that you can do for the long term. If you really enjoy eating like that and you feel better, fine. But if you're going to, you know, do it for short term, like I don't think that you need to do that. You can also cycle in and out. I'm a really big fan of cycling diets in general. So like if you want to try keto, cool. Do keto for like four weeks. See how you feel.

And if you don't like it, then do macros or do carbs. or tri-paleo. But, you know, I think if you're truly monitoring your blood ketones, then it could be beneficial. But there are some people who definitely, I wouldn't suggest being on ketogenic diet for a long time. I'm definitely not a professional, so I don't want to dole out any advice. But I just feel like from what I've seen and from conversations I've had with other people that to people think that modified keto is keto right and or people are not truly doing keto when they think they're doing keto they're buying into the marketing and buying all the keto this and that but to truly be doing keto i mean it's so low carb right right um and it seems

like this keto diet that's kind of trendy right now is maybe more of like a modified version where it's high fat, moderate protein, and low carb, but not like as low as if you're really monitoring your blood. Yeah. And that is what I see a lot. I see people doing a lot like a modified meathead bro diet where it's like exactly what you said. They're just doing a relatively low carb diet.

They're not monitoring their actual ketones. They're probably not even getting into ketosis. And then, you know, their quality of the food that they're eating might not even be that great as well. So like, yeah, you could, you know, pound bacon and steak and all that stuff all day. But there is going to be a little bit of a tradeoff. Like if it's not grass-fed organic, like that, I think all that also adds, you know, importance to what the diet is going to be. And then also, you know, that it can be hard on your kidneys. Of course, there are people, you know, if you ever talk to a keto zealot about it, like they'll debate you all day long. But, you know,

your kidneys and your adrenals, you know, definitely can suffer from that as far as electrolyte balance goes and that again can go back to HPA access dysregulation and you know for women again because your HPA also influences your you know your ovaries and what's going on with hormonal health like I don't always see it as successful for women so and it's funny too because you see this trend now where people become super hardcore about something and then they don't talk about it until months later where they're like I did keto for six months and I really felt like shit actually or I lost my period And I'm like, oh, now because you want to talk about it. So I think, like I said, you know, and if you're working out a lot and things like that, too, like, you know, carbs aren't inherently bad.

Like, they're, you know, they're good for you. You know, they can benefit your body in other ways, too. So I think it depends why you're doing the keto to begin with. So when is it appropriate? I think if you're somebody who is advanced with their nutrition, you really know how to listen to your body and you are very aware of your symptoms as far as, I don't feel great today because X, Y, Z. Like, I didn't sleep enough or I've been traveling or whatever. Because I think that is very important for anybody, no matter what you're trying to change

in your diet. Like, you need to know how to listen to the symptoms in your body. So if you have been noticing maybe, like, you haven't been feeling great or you just want to try something new, maybe you want to, you know, play around with, you know, like muscle gain and kind of, you know, strength in the gym and things like that. So I think you do need to have a basic understanding also of macronutrients and portion control. So you can't just go around, again, eating a bunch of, you know, butter and almonds or whatever else, you know, people are eating and not understand that there is going to be a caloric

ramification. So understanding what four ounces of meat looks like and, you know, what an ounce of almond looks like as well. So, again, that does take a little bit of being an advanced person with your nutrition as well. But also, again, you know, like if you are somebody who has, you know, like I said, maybe, you know, dysregulated blood glucose going on, insulin issues happening. There is some research with things like seizures and whatnot as well. So I would say work with a real qualified professional, not just somebody who's running like a 12-week shred keto plan. So not for the newbies. Yeah, I mean, I think it sounds

easy enough for newbies to do, but it actually, like I said, does take a little bit of work because you could potentially go into keto flu. You do have to know how to monitor your blood ketones. Like you do have to understand how to listen to your body. So I think you do need to kind of have a little bit of awareness of what's going on with your current health and, you know, just how your body feels in general. Something that you talk about on your Instagram and that a lot of people ask me about, and this is kind of in line with keto and the whole high fat thing, is bulletproof coffee. or just butter in your coffee. And the claims are that this can aid in weight loss again.

Kill cravings, boost cognitive function, improve your metabolism, and I believe even improve gut health. So I would love for you to unpack that. Yeah. So bulletproof coffee again, there is nothing magical about it. If you're somebody who likes the taste of putting butter in your coffee, like... Have you ever tried it? I have.

I just don't love it. Like, I don't think it tastes amazing. It's marketing puffery. Again, like, you know, Dave Osprey is a super smart dude. And, you know, it worked for him. And he did a really good job of creating a whole industry around bulletproof. So just because it's bulletproof protein bars or bulletproof coffee and now he makes coffee beans and supplements and whatever else, like there's nothing magical to it.

Wait a second. Don't come after my bulletproof protein bars. No, no, I'm saying like, they're good. Like, I've had them. I travel with them. They're really good. But I'm saying, so bulletproof in general, right? Like, that's a bulletproof is a brand.

So, you know, they've created a whole, he did a really good job, just like primal kitchen with Mark Sussone. Like, he did a really good job of creating that. So adding butter to your coffee, like MCT oils and all that kind of stuff. Like, again, there, of course, there's cognitive benefits, right? Like, it's supposed to help, you know, support your mitochondria, support inflammatory pathways in the body as well. It can help support the gut microbiome because of the beauty.

butyrate that's found in grass-fed butter and things like that. But you don't have to put butter in your coffee to get the benefit from all of those things. So you can cook your vegetables in grass-fed butter or you can use, you know, coconut oil in other ways as well. So again, you don't have to get it through the coffee if you want to still reap the benefits. So, and there are, you know, there's even certain vegetables like, you know, things that are like rich in lutein, tomatoes and things like that, carotenoids from other plant compounds that are found in vegetables, they actually are better absorbed in the body when there are fats present because they're fat soluble compounds.

So adding grass-fed butter to something like sauteing your veggies, you would get the same amount of benefits. But again, if you are somebody who is trying to maybe lose weight or you've been doing keto or paleo for a very long time, you're like, I don't get why my body doesn't look the way I want it to, you're starting your day with 400 calories like in your coffee. So you do have to be aware of that at the end of the day as well. Like, you know, calories do matter.

So if you are somebody who doesn't care about that, then fine. Drink grass-fed butter or coffee all day. But if you're somebody, like I said, is maybe trying to, you know, tighten things up or, you know, trying to be aware of counting your calories and macros, then you might not want to waste your calories on that. Yeah, that just, I mean, I've never tried it. I stopped drinking coffee maybe a year and a half ago. I just couldn't ever bring myself to try it.

It just seems like such an odd combination. Yeah. I've done, I mean, I have done the MCTs like in my matcha. I do eat a pretty high fat diet just because I feel like it, I just feel my best when I do. Yeah, I think it can be beneficial as well for people. If you're somebody who has like adrenal dysregulation, you know, there is good research it talks about like trying to cool it on caffeine first thing in the morning. kind of like sucker punch your adrenals. So for helping to kind of modulate any sort of

dysregulation in blood glucose, which can further stress the adrenals. So if you're somebody who's like, man, I just can't give up coffee right now, but I have adrenal issues going on too. Like, yeah, if you want to throw some butter in there or MCTs, like to help offset that, you definitely can as well. But like I said, it's, you know, you might maybe want to just take a break from coffee or switch to something like mushroom coffee or macho like you're doing, green tea, other things too. So again, it's fine. There's nothing, you know, healthy or unhealthy necessarily about it, but it can be a calorie bomb first thing in the morning. And you can, like I said, get the benefits of butyrate from things like grass fed butter using butter in other sources throughout the day.

And ghee as well. Yeah, totally. If you wanted to use ghee, same thing. You can cook with it, like I said, or you can put it in your coffee. I mean, it's up to you. So it just really depends kind of what your health goals are. Because there's definitely a difference between like, you know, short-term aesthetic goals and then long-term, you know, lifestyle goals. So again, if you're somebody who's maybe just like getting into your health and you're kind of, you know, switching over and into exploring different things about, you know, what's going on listening to your body, like, and you're not super concerned. Like I said, about total calories and all that kind of stuff, then, you know, try it out and see how you feel. But don't think, again, that it's magical and it's going to cure all of your other

issues going on and you can't at the end of the day, you know, I talk about this a lot. Like, you can't out supplement your way out of a shitty diet and shitty lifestyle. So like, is bulletproof coffee going to fix the fact that you didn't sleep, you know, the past few nights or that you have a lot of stress going on in your life or you're over-exercising and under-eating? Like, you know, so it's all relative to where you are in your health journey and what your goals ultimately are. I love that you have such a holistic view. Well, you know why? Because I come from a place of not being, or I should say, I come from a place of when I was super meticulous about things and so extreme. I did fitness competitions back in the day and it's funny because I originally

did it to be like, yeah, I'm a holistic nutritionist and you can do this and be healthy still and have balance. And it's a very unhealthy sport. And I was very extreme with, you know, like even my social life, like, you know, not going out and watching my friends eat because I was on this quote diet and bringing my own Tupperware to family events and things like that where it was just like, this is not healthy either, you know? So having extremes with your health, and that's why I'm so big on being like a nutrition agnostic is, you know, believing any one thing or doing any one thing way too long or way too hardcore, like that's not great and that's not what health is supposed to be about. And all these things that a lot of people pretend to practice as functional practitioners or

traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic principles, all of that. Like, they weren't doing any of this stuff in extremes. Like, it was all about listening to your body and, you know, being kind to yourself and meeting yourself where you are in your health journey. And then, like, making changes relative to, like, what your big picture health is. So I'm a very big proponent of, like, it's all about your averages and kind of, like, big picture goals. Yeah.

I feel like I need to have you back on the podcast because I want to hear about your fitness competition day. and how that changed your perspective on, you know, your approach to wellness. Totally. And actually, I think a big part of that for me, and I said this a little bit in the beginning in the intro, was actually when I did my Paul Check, holistic lifestyle coaching certification, because when I went in there, because there were people from all different backgrounds who were going and getting the certification.

And it was, you know, it was a program in New York City at the time. And Paul Check actually came one of the days. It was really cool. But, like, I remember the first day we were going over kind of, if, you know, all right, so who thinks, you know, nutrition is most important? Who thinks exercise is most important? And I was also a personal trainer. So like, I came from the background of being like, okay, is diet more important? Is training more important? And me, like, come, you know, fresh out of grad school, I was like, obviously nutrition is most important. That's all that matters. And if your

nutrition isn't together, then like your life is a sham and it doesn't matter. And then I started realizing, like, as life went on, you know, and I started working with other, you know, doing more functional lab work. And then even things that occurred in my life, you know, being in an emotionally abusive relationship, being, you know, stressed out, like not having, you know, enough sleep and all these other things, like not drinking enough water, like other factors that ultimately play a role in the whole picture of health and like realizing that nutrition really is only one small aspect of that. And there's so many other things that, you know, can make you feel well or make you feel not great because it's like we're always on this continuum of feeling our best and feeling shit.

And, you know, we're not going to be 100% 100% of the time. So it's learning how to live a life that, that, you know, works with your daily life and your goals. I know for me, in my experience, I did the whole counting macros thing and bringing my food and Tupperware and everywhere. And I thought that like you were saying, my nutrition was the key to, you know, everything. And that became a stressor in itself. and became really detrimental in a lot of ways. But it's so common now. You see so many people, you know, on the macro train,

which I think, you know, can be good or bad. It totally depends. And it served its purpose in my life. But, you know, bringing your food to, like, restaurants and stuff. When you're not doing a fitness competition is maybe a little crazy. A little extreme. Yeah. And I, you know, I said it to people, too, like,

is it worth, you know, not having. a social life? Is it where I actually, it's funny. I remember I was like kind of newly dating this one guy and he was really smart and he was like a doctor. So I was like, oh man, this is awesome. He's like, you know, like the guy version of me. We were talking about the glyphatic system and all this stuff. And then we were talking about I had just gotten back from Italy with my brother and we were in the hometown like of where our family is from and Avalino and all this stuff. And I was telling him how I was like eating pizza there and pasta and all this stuff. And I was like, he was like, well, if you ever went back, like, would you eat that stuff again? And I was like, yeah,

absolutely. I was in the hometown of Italy, where my family is from, with my brother. Like, I would never pass up on that opportunity. And he was like, oh, I couldn't do that. And starts going on in this, like a whole tangent. And I just kind of remember thinking to myself, like, man, that's like no way to live life. You know, like, you don't want to look back one day and be like, okay, Brianna would have been way cooler if she weighed six pounds less and, you know, didn't, you know, or you don't want to think to yourself like, oh, you know, I wish, you're never going to say, I wish I didn't stay up late with my best friend and have ice cream together. Like, those are the things that I realized, especially when I competed, like, you can't, you never

know when you're making a memory. And a lot of that is based around food. And that's really big in cultures, especially, you know, being Italian or any, you know, culture. So to stress out about that or have that be something that will literally prevent people from, like, going out and doing things is, it's silly to me, you know, and it's unfortunate because we're seeing, you know, a lot of these extreme philosophies and mentalities with diet and nutrition. So I think there does, like I said, kind of need to be balanced with that.

Yeah, and those experiences and meals and time with friends and family, and those are things that also contribute to our overall health. Definitely. If you want the listeners to take home anything from our talk today, what would you say? I'd probably say do less to get more out of your health. People are way over-complicating what's going on in health and nutrition right now.

And part of that is because of this whole functional fitness trend, which is cool. I get it. Like, I practice it as well. But I think people from like the functional medicine side feel like they've kind of been, you know, suppressed for so long because it was all about Western medicine that they're making such a strong comeback of being like you have to run all of these tests and you've got to get your stool tested and you have to see what's going on with your hormones. And like I said, sometimes it's really just about like getting back to the basics. Do you even know what makes you feel like shit?

Like what's going on with your sleeping habits? You know, how much water are you drinking? What's your relationship like with your body and yourself? What activities are you engaging in that maybe aren't serving your greatest good? And that also includes like health haters, people who give you shit for being on a health journey or people who are pro-inflammatory in your life. You know, people are so quick to be like, I'm never going to eat gluten and dairy again, but I'm going to stay in this toxic relationship or this friendship that doesn't serve me well, right? So it's about addressing some of those basics first. And I always tell people like, don't stress about stress.

So if trying, Dr. Michael Roushio actually talks about this in his book a lot. Like he says, if trying to get healthy is making you unhealthy, then you need to take a break. I'm obviously paraphrasing that, but it's true. Like some people will be so spastic, and I joke about this a lot, being a recovering super spas. Like people become so hyper-obsessed with fixing whatever problem that they have that I think a lot of it is, you know, being a hypochondriac, and they're creating problems that don't even exist and their body's always in this stressed out state. So it's also about like, okay, is me doing these, you know, seven things or totally never

having a social life or, you know, spending thousands of dollars on supplements? is all of this really ultimately getting me to my goal? So like not making it more complicated than it needs to be. And sometimes just like taking a break from everything and just really focusing on getting back to the basics, which is hard for people because they don't want to always do that work. People come to me all the time and they want these like crazy protocols and all this stuff. And yeah, like we eventually get to that. But like week one for a lot of my clients is generally like, all right, well, we're going to go to bed earlier

and we're going to, you know, drink more water. and we're going to like eat more plant compact, like very basic stuff. And I think people are just like looking for this mystery answer and there isn't one because if there was one, it wouldn't be, you know, this multi-billion dollar industry that it is. I love that. Do less to get more. I love it. So how can people work with you? So people can go to my website, which is briana deorio.com. And I have a services tab there. So I do, you know, one-on-one coaching. I recently just launched a group coaching session actually with this woman that I work with Doreen Corba, who helped me a lot with a lot of my mental, emotional stuff, like

learning how to reframe my brain and things like that. So I'll also be doing some more grouping sessions where it's a mind-body approach where we talk about mental health and then nutritional aspects as well. So that information can be found on my website. And everybody also go follow her on Instagram. She is obviously brilliant and badass and I loved chatting with you today. Thank you so much for coming on. I had more that I wanted to cover. We'll have to do another another one sometime in the future. Definitely. Thank you so much for having me on and you're awesome as well and I stopped you up media too. So we should meet in real life. We should definitely meet in real life. We won't drink celery juice together but we can do other things in Aramarkin, market maybe.

Amazing. Done. All right. Thanks, Priyana. Have a good one. You too. Ciao. All right.

I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I enjoyed it. And it's just a good reminder to explore what works for you and your body. We're all different and things that are promoted as being like the solution or the cure all. isn't going to work for everybody and it's just important to do your research and try different things until you find what works best for you. So as always, I appreciate you listening. Please rate, review, share, subscribe, do all the things. It really helps me to be able to continue to do this. and I'll be back next week with a new episode.