Well with Arielle Lorre - 367: The Best Diet and Exercise Tips for Weight Loss, Getting Lean and Feeling Your Best in 2025 with Celebrity Trainer and Nutrition Expert Harley Pasternak, MSc

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

Harley Pasternak is a nutrition expert, celebrity trainer, best-selling fitness and nutrition author and Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto. He joins the show to discuss how to live well in 2025 including the exact workout breakdown we should aim for weekly, how to get steps in, nutrition tips and tricks for weight loss and underrated things he wishes more people did when it comes to their health. We also talk whether diet or exercise is more important for weight loss or management, specific foods that burn calories, the pros and cons of GLP-1’s, why some of us get puffy from working out and on a more personal note, the story of how he set my boyfriend and I up.This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.Visit openphone.com/BLONDE for 20% off 6 months. Go to cozyearth.com/well and get up to 40% off with my exclusive code WELL.Visit soaak.com/blonde and use code BLONDE at checkout to get your first month free. That’s S-O-A-A-K dot com slash BLONDE, and use code BLONDE for the free first month. Visit qualialife.com/BLONDE for 50% off of Qualia Senolytic and code BLONDE at checkout for an additional 15% off.Visit OSEAMalibu.com/BLONDE for 10% off and free shipping on orders over $60.Produced by Dear MediaSee 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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The following podcast is a dear media production. In a world of ever-changing wellness trends and information, what does it mean to truly be well? I'm Ariel Lurie and I'm going to explore this with you. I am bringing you candid conversations that will equip you with everything you need to live your best life and look good doing it. Think of well as your go-to resource for all of the latest in wellness and me as your internet bestie. Well, let's get into it. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show and Happy New Year. year. For the new year, I wanted to bring back Van favorite Harley Pasternak. He's been on the show,

I believe two times before, but not since beginning of 2023. So it's been quite a while. So a lot of you know that I have trained with Harley for years. We also became friends. And he is also who introduced me to my current boyfriend. So we talk about all of that because I left a question box for you guys on Instagram. And there were a lot of questions around that. But then of course, we are also talking about how to kick off the new year in the best way when it comes to your diet, your exercise, so that your routines are really locked in in this new year. And you have a solid foundation, which is another thing that we really talk about the importance of. So Harley Pasternak is a nutrition expert. He is a celebrity trainer. He's trained so many people, including Lady Gaga,

Hallie Berry, Megan Fox. He's also a bestselling author. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto. He is a gym designer. He designs for four seasons. He is a man of many talents. And he is just such a great guest to have on the show. He's so knowledgeable and so funny. And he's one of my favorite people. So like I said, we are talking how to live well in 2025. We talk about the exact workout breakdown we should aim for weekly how to get steps in nutrition, tips, and tricks for weight loss. We talk underrated things that he wishes more people did when it comes to their health. We also talk whether diet or exercise is more important for weight loss and weight management, specific foods that burn calories, pros and cons of GLP-1s, his thoughts on raw milk and other nutrition trends, why some of us get puffy from working out. And like I said, we also delve into some more personal stuff. It's a really fun episode.

So please enjoy Harley Pasternak. I'm wearing the same jacket as two years ago, just FYI. Are you serious? Yeah. I looked at what I wore two years ago. I dressed like I was going to rob a bank. Yeah. I had a beanie on and a winter coat.

You were bundled up. To be fair, it was peak winter. Right. When we recorded before. Right. So. And windy. I don't remember. It must have been. I have nothing to warm my head, so I have to keep something.

Yeah. Today you're doing the all aloe. This is like your aesthetic. You've found your aesthetic and this is it. And what I love about you is you have an aloe for every occasion. Yeah, down to the socks. He's showing the socks. Like the party that I saw you out a few weeks ago, you had the party aloe. I had the party aloe. Yeah, I feel like I've seen so many different occasions of alo. Hawaii aloe. So many. Okay, so it's been a long time since we recorded. Yeah. Last time was two years ago, exactly. Happy New Year, everyone, by the way. New Year, New Year. New Year. Yeah.

And before that, I think, was even earlier, like 2020 or 2021. So we're going to rewind because a lot of people had some personal questions. Yeah. First question was how you and I met. Yeah. So you and I met through Ashley Tisdale. Ashley Tisdale. Yes.

And I was talking to Chris, my boyfriend, who everybody knows familiar with. We'll get to that in a second. But we were talking about how if I had not met Ashley, I wouldn't have met him because I met him through you. But then we went back even further. And the way that I met Ashley was through an oat. It was like a banana oat muffin recipe on Instagram. She saw the video. She made it and posted it and tagged me.

And I was like, oh, thanks. And we started DMing. And that's how she and I became friends. And then she introduced me to you. So that was like six years ago, I want to say. First of all, I don't think she made the muffin. For sure, her husband did. He's the one who cooks from the family.

I mean, to be fair, you put oats and bananas in a blender. Right. And you blend it, pour it into a muffin tin, pop it in the oven and take it out. It's like the easiest thing. Two ingredients. Two. Yeah. No protein.

No. Okay, okay. Nope. Just straight carbs. But I was talking to Chris and I was like, that's crazy. That's something that I did years ago, something seemingly. so insignificant, like making a muffin recipe, that's how I ended up meeting him. Yeah, it's funny how the world has a way of, but I do believe, and I said this to you,

maybe I said it to Chris, you would have met him either way. I believe if certain people are meant to be together, they're going to meet each other. Okay, so that was the other question. How did Chris and I meet through you? So we have permission to talk about this, by the way. Okay. Do you want to tell the story? Yeah, I mean, how much of it am I able to tell? I mean, there's not that much to it. So you introduced us when we were, when I was separated, beginning of 2020. You put us on a text. We were both in Miami, beginning of that year. And I should preface it by saying, Chris is like my brother. Yeah. My dearest, dearest, dearest. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember I was in Miami and you were like, he's the best person. Like, he's just such a good guy. I just wasn't in that place. So I think I texted him once. He asked to go to lunch or something. And then I didn't respond. And then 2023. Yeah. you knew that the divorce was happening coming down the pipeline for a long time before it actually happened. And you were like, you really need to meet my friend Chris. And I'm like, what is with this Chris guy? But I remember saying, if you really think that we're going to hit it off so much, wait until

I'm like moved out, actually divorced, et cetera. Then he and I were in Miami again, January, 24. And we met. And that was that. And that was it. And you guys that really haven't been apart for more than a day since. Yeah. So how do you feel about being such a successful matchmaker? So I'm batting about 10%. Yeah. I think. I've tried it 10 times this one worked. My wife actually prior to this says that I'm the worst, not just matchmaker, but inviting people over for dinner. I bring people over for dinner that shouldn't be in the same room at all that have nothing to do with one each other going to clash. I have nothing to talk about. So this is an outlier. And now the problem is like you guys have said, that I'm a matchmaker. My wife has said some other people. And we went to that party the other night.

And I had five or six women come up to me who were just so overtly nice. And at the end, they're like, hey, you know, I heard you're really good at matchmaking. Wait, wait a minute. I write weight loss books. What does this have to do with anything? Your legacy now is matchmaking, the one couple, and soup. Get lean soup. Oh, yeah. Soup is. Oh, gosh. How sad is that. 10 years of university. And this is now my legacy. This is what. such as the world we live in now, though. Yeah. And we've had this conversation.

I'm like, my legacy is going to be taping my face at night. Like, that was not what I expected to contribute to the world. But here we are. Did you try taping Chris? Taping him. Yeah. I've never called him Chris. It's weird for me to say.

I know. Yeah. But for anonymity reasons, I know what you're doing. No, I have not taped him specifically, but he's very enthusiastic about it. People are like, how can you get in bed, like, with your partner? They must think that's so fucking weird. He's actually so enthusiastic. He asked me if I want him to film me for content and all of that.

He loves it. As far as the sleep thing goes, I know when every couple starts dating, they're scared to show the other person their weird sleep stuff. So my wife, shortly after we met, I figured I learned that she sleeps with an eye mask and earplugs. Oh yeah, me too. And I mocked it. And now I sleep with eye mask earplugs, cold room, special pillow, mouth guard, nose strip. Mouth tape? No mouth tape.

No, not yet. Uh-uh. That's a yet, probably. I broke my nose so many times playing hockey that if I tape my mouth, I probably wouldn't wake up. Okay, got it. I have the mouth tape. It's sitting on my bedside table because I'm like, that might be a little much to do the tape all over my face and then also have the mouth tape. That might be a little creepy.

That's a lot. A little bit like on my forehead next to my eye. Not a big deal. I do it a couple nights a week. And he is like a sleep before me anyway. Right. You know, you can't stay away. So that's not an issue.

But yeah, the mouth tape. I think he's the one that needs mouth tape. My wife is only because she talks a lot at night in her sleep. Yeah. So that might, yeah, I mean a lot. Really? Oh, yeah. Something about a parking spot, something about a, yeah.

But that's the only negative I have to say about it. Jess is the best and we love her. And you did cross-check the matchmaking prior to setting Chris and I up, right? You asked Jess and didn't she say, oh, that makes sense. She said that makes sense. Yeah. She generally says you're out of your mind. Not only is it not going to work, but they're going to hate each other.

I had a really bad one I did a couple weeks ago, feeling overly confident based on my success with you guys and wonderful people. And the girl called me the next day. She said, so I ubered there and at the end it didn't go well. Oh, I heard about this one. So he said, did you drive? And she said, no, I ubered. And he said, do I have to stand here and wait for the Uber to come?

I remember, I'm like, oh, gosh. I heard about that one. I didn't know that that was you making that connection. Yeah. Okay. So let's get to the good stuff. Yes. New years.

Yes. Everybody wants to start their diet, their exercise, kick off the new year with their whole routine down. So what do you think are the fundamentals that everybody should be doing, like universally? if you can say that for their diet, fitness, wellness routine. You know, whatever you do, if you're waiting until January 1st to do something, if that's you and that's your personality, and you need some kind of empirical or date to start, start small,

change one thing, maybe two things. Don't change everything because it's not going to last. That which burns hot and bright burns out quickly. So I tell people, why don't you start with walking around the block that you live on every morning, before you leave the house. And then when you come home, walk around the block before you go in the house. Let that be the thing you start week one. Maybe week two, it's starting off with a great breakfast. And then week two, three, adding in a great lunch. And so rather than week one, you're hitting your steps, you're doing special breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, weight training, meditating.

You're doing all that stuff. Not to name another podcast, but Huberman, bless him, he just overwhelms people and they become paralyzed by all the advice. And he's like, look, New Year's, you got to do, You've got to wake up in the morning. You got to stare at the sun. You got to take an ice plunge. You got to take a hot sauna. You got to have a collagen shot. I mean, all of these things are just not sustainable.

And maybe you can do them for a day or two, but at some point you're going to burn out. So whatever you do, Jan 1, small steps, add something in every week rather than adding 10 things in day one. I have this theory, though, and I say it all the time on my show that people love podcasts like that because they want to be told exactly what to do. I don't know if it's just because it takes the guesswork. out of it and so many people have the experience of exactly what you're saying. Deciding that they're going to start overhauling everything and then the wheels start to fall off a couple weeks thereafter and then they just give up. Or probably this is part of it as well. It's like this oversaturation of wellness things and information and it's hard to discern like what is right and what is not

and what to apply to your own life. And so I feel like people go to podcasts like that because they just want someone to be like, this is what you're doing and this is how you're doing it. And when you and I started training together years ago, that's how we started. It was like, you're walking 10,000 steps a day. You were like, before we even work out, you're doing that. And you were looking at my food and all of that and we were tweaking some of that stuff. You're building a building, right? You need a foundation.

And then you got to slowly build up from there. You don't want to start with having a beautiful roof and no foundation. So I think it's analogous to reading books. You don't want to read 15 books. all at once. You're going to forget where you are with each one. You're going to be overwhelmed and not read any of them. Read a book, focus when that's done and you've mastered that, move on to the next and the next and build. And I think adding these behaviors, you know, there's a time management analogy that I learned years ago. I think I probably told it to you a long time ago, where when I was

in college, I went to take this course in time management and the professor had at the front of the class this big aquarium. And the aquarium was, call it three feet by two feet by two feet. And in it were these rocks. And each rock was the size of a soccer ball. And it was to the top. And he looked around the room and he said, does this look full? And we all looked at him and said, yeah, it looks full. He says, hold on.

He poured smaller rocks. And it filled in the crevices of those big rocks. He says, how about now? We said, okay, now it's full. He said, hold on a second. Then he poured in gravel, which filled in the crevices, then sand and then water. And he said, the point of this is you couldn't have done it in any other order. You can't go sand first and then rocks.

would be nowhere to put it. You can't start off with water and put anything else in because it would overflow. So you have to decide January 1st, what are your big rocks, what's your small rocks, your gravel, your sand, and your water. And you want to make sure that you put the big rocks in first and maybe the big rocks for you are sleep. Without sleep, it's kind of hard to exercise. You're too tired. So start off, identify what habits are the small rocks, the big rocks, the gravel, the sand, and the water. How do you suggest people identify that if they have no idea? I would say definitely by many of my books, I think that's a big, big help. No, I would say if you're someone who's normally very active and you don't eat well, maybe a big rock for you is going to be food. Maybe it's every

meal I'm going to have protein, the mass of my hand and some vegetables or something like that. If you're someone who has a moderately good diet, but you're very sedentary, maybe you start off with walking. That's one of your big rocks for you is adding a thousand steps a day every single week until you get to 12,000 steps a day and you stay there. If you're someone who walks in E12 but you don't have strength training as part of your program, maybe that's one of your big rock. So I think, you know, I can't tell everyone what their big rock should be. I think depends on your current lifestyle and what your goals are. After my episode on sound frequencies a few weeks ago, I have gotten so many amazing messages from listeners who have said how much these sound frequencies are

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what's more important diet or exercise or where to start diet or exercise? And I know for me, I kind of fall into that category that you just mentioned of like, I eat well, but I'm kind of sedentary. Like it's been a hard year for me physically, health-wise, and it's been hard for me to have any kind of consistent workout routine or any workout routine for that matter at all. You're trying to survive, not thrive yet. Exactly. I've been walking where I can, and I'm cognizant of that. If I am working out more, I'm more inclined to want to eat healthier. Yeah, they often go together these behaviors. Now, the flip side of it is some people who do a lot of exercise, see that as a carp launch to eat whatever they want. I know some people. Yeah.

Yeah, we both do to each his own. When it comes to losing weight, can you say which is more? Diet is way more important for weight loss because weight loss is a byproduct of calories in versus calories out. It's the law of thermodynamics. It doesn't matter what kind of genetics you have. People say, no, my genetics are different. It's calories in versus calories out. And if you are ingesting more calories than you're burning, then you will gain weight and vice versa. If you're burning more calories than you take and you'll lose weight. The most important thing for calorie burn is not what you do, but who you are. And I know that sounds strange, but if you figure out your weight in pounds, and I don't want to overwhelm people, but you divide it by 2.2 and you come up with your weight

in kilograms. So I know, for me, I know what my weight is in kilogram. So let's just say, for argument's take someone's 100 kilograms. That's how many calories you burn an hour if you don't leave your bed. If you stay in bed and don't leave your bed, you burn 2,400 calories a day. The more of your body, that's muscle compared to fat, that number goes up a bit more. Then the more active you are, that number goes up a bit more. Then the kind of food you eat can actually make that number go up a bit more. There's the thermic effect of food. Certain foods burn calories just to eat them. So I think there's a bunch of ways you can manipulate the caloric expenditure, but the most important one is, you know, the body composition that you have and just the calories you burn at rest.

Say more about these foods that burn calories. Yeah. Foods that take more energy. Foods, yeah. So like just table sugar just absorb. You can actually absorb some of it under your tongue. It doesn't require anything. The more processing your body needs to do to break down foods, the more the thermic effect of food is higher.

So if you have a food in its natural state, if you eat an apple and you chew the apple, that's mastication that requires energy. And then you send it down through peristolsus and through your esophagus into your stomach and it's exposed to acids and then your intestine and it's exposed to good, healthy bacteria. And all of these things help break down the food so we can access the nutrients. Versus if you just drink apple juice, there's nothing really for your body to do to access the sugar in the apple juice. So the apples wrapped in fiber, so that takes more calories to burn.

Some other ones are cold liquids, cold foods, believe it or not, actually require some heat for your body to bring the temperature down. Another one would be spices. So, you know, hot, spicy foods, I struggle with those, but some people, it actually elevates your thermic response to those foods. What about smoothies? Since those are kind of broken down, does that require less energy? for your body to digest? Great question. If you're just blending a banana or just blending an apple or just

blending these things, then sure, it would marginally be absorbed faster than not blending it. But generally when you make a smoothie, you're adding in things like protein. You're adding seeds or fibers. You're adding in healthy fats in the form of nut butters or avocado. And so the combination of protein fiber and healthy fats, definitely slow down the rate of absorption into your body, even if it's blended. Does the same thing go for your soups, your famous soups? Yeah, same thing for my famous soups.

By the way, I have to say there's this viral video going around of this guy, oh, he goes by doctor something. He's not a doctor. I don't want to say who it is. A lot of those. A lot of those. And he says, if you blend a banana, never put a banana in your smoothie.

If you blend it, it makes your blood sugar go up 400 times faster than something, something. It's made up. There's no signs behind it. He's never, he has no facts to support this. It's just a ridiculous wrong assumption and don't be scared of blending foods. Blending foods, actually, there's some really interesting research that found that I think this was done by the World Health Organization in the late 80s.

They looked at certain countries in Africa that had food shortages and that the World Health Organization sent them food. And they found that people had malnutrition still had malnutrition after they were given food because their digestive systems really weren't working well. And they looked at different forms of preparation of different produce, for example, having it raw, chopped, steam, boiled, fried, all these different ways. And they found that blended fruits and vegetables, blended proteins, the body's able to access the nutrients in a more bioavailable way. The vitamins and the minerals and all those things are more bioavailable. You can use them more. So that's a good thing.

Interesting. You have been going viral for all of your suits, your get lean soups for people who are wanting to get lean or stay lean or just maintain their physique. The soups are a great hack, right? Because they're filling, they have fat and fiber and all of those things. Are there any other nutrition tricks and tips that you have for people? Yeah. When I wrote the book Body Reset Diet, I don't know, a long 10 years ago. I think I was 18, so it must have been 10 years ago. The book was really a response to the popularity of cleanses and fasts and juice, juice cleanses. And those are so bad for you. You're robbing your body of nutrients. You have no protein, no fiber, no healthy fats. And I thought if you can't beat them, join them.

Don't really join them, but make people think you're joining them. And so I created the body reset diet as this rapid reset to expose your body to lots of nutrients as opposed to robbing them of nutrients. And the number one reason that people give for not eating well is time. I don't have time to cook. I don't know how to cook, to clean. So the simplest way is to use a blender. And I got people to use the body reset diet with a blender.

So I had them do a white smoothie for breakfast, a red one for lunch, and a green one for dinner with a crunchy snack in between. And it was great and it was popular and it was wonderful. And I looked at the people who didn't stick to it. And I kind of asked them questions like, what were you missing? And they said, too much sweet. I need some savory. Also, I know that the snacks are all crunchy, crunchy vegetables, but I kind of want to have more

vegetables throughout the meals. And I thought, okay, so when I rewrote the book for the revised edition, I do a smoothie, smoothie, then a vegetable soup and a blender. And then that's phase one. And phase two, you only have one smoothie and one soup and then a regular S meal. S meals are scrambles, salads, stir fries, open face sandwiches, etc., etc. You get the S, some sushi even. And so what I love about vegetables is I'm a bit of vegetables.

big kid, I don't like vegetables. I know. I know. Yeah. I know some of your other dietary preferences. Yes. And my kids, my kids also, it's not so easy to get kids to eat vegetables, but if you do it in a delicious soup, there's something that is more palatable, at least for me and a lot of people when you do in a soup. And you can put a lot of vegetables in a vegetable soup. And so I've got green soups, white soups, red soups, purple soups. Purple one didn't do so well. I don't know why. It seems like the algorithm likes green. The algorithm really does like green. That makes no sense to me. And I had, I don't know, I think almost six million people, you know, engaged with my green body reset soup recipe, which is crazy. And then I put up a white one and a red one they did pretty well. I put up a purple one.

Nobody cared. Purple? Yeah. It was really good. I wonder what made it purple. I missed that one. Purple Japanese sweet potato. Ooh. Right? Love purple sweet potatoes. Purple beans. Purple carrots. I did one with purple cauliflower. It was gross. I did a soup last night because I've been experimenting a lot with this. Yeah. So I posted today that that apple baked apple one, which is a classic favorite. I did a soup last night. I was so excited to do and I thought about it all day and I did it last night and it was it was hickama, celery, and carrots and it was absolutely disgusted. I was going to say. The consistency was bad. The flavor was bad. So then I called a friend of mine's a chef, Aaron May, and I said, gosh, I need help with this. He goes, okay, you have any shallots? Yeah, he goes, I want you to roast some shallots. Yeah, he goes, I want you to roast some shallots. Yeah, he goes, do you have any lime. I said, I got lime. Sorry. This is not about me anymore. You know, roast some shall eat some milk and then put them in and blend them with soup. I do that? I do it's still gross. I feel like it's missing an acid. He says, do you have any lime? I said, I got lime. Squeeze some lime in there. I squeeze some lime in there.

He says, how about now? I said it's worse. Everything I do is making this worse. I feel like it needs heavy cream. It probably needed heavy cream, but you know what? It needed more than anything was the garbage. Yeah. So actually my chickens ate it today. So that's their meal and they love it. Oh, yeah. I mean, as soon as you said Hickama, I know that you're a big fan for snacking. Yes. I feel like it's very watery. So I feel like and pulpy. Like you blend it down and it's like watery, flavorless pulp. The part of the reason that Hickama's great is that it's flavorless pulp. Yeah. Because the pulp is as fiber. And you flavor it with like lime and tahine.

But it's one of the super vegetables or super ingredients. And I hate saying super ingredients and super foods. But I mean, it's got more potassium than banana. It's got more vitamin C than an orange. It has more a fiber than four bowls of oatmeal. It's one of the richest sources of prebiotic fiber of inulin. It's good for gut health. It's awesome.

And it's sweet without having really sugar in it. The inulin makes it sweet. But I don't know how to prepare it other than having it just slice. raw as a snack. I feel like that's the only way that you should be eating Hickama. Probably. I think that's the lesson learned. Are there any other dietary trends that you really think people should not adhere to? You know, the problem is, is that nutrition has been very politicized in the last few years. And there's, and I come from a very empirical evidence-based background. Aside from, you know, a decade in university, I'm an adjunct professor at the University of

in the school of public health. So everything I say has to come from a well-established, well-accepted, evidence body of research. So I'm scared to say certain things because there's some people out there with very extreme views who might follow a certain politician or other person and might get upset. But people got to stop with the raw milk. I mean, you've got to stop with the raw milk. It's, you know, in 18, I want to say 1867 or, you know, 68, Louis Pasteur, or maybe it was a 1600, a couple hundred years ago, a French scientist found pasteurization, his name was Louis Pasteur, because people were dying from milk. People were literally dying from milk because milk carries with it bacteria quite often. And he found that by exposing

it to heat, I think it's a hundred and throwing this out there, 160 degrees Fahrenheit for a very quick, quick exposure to heat and then cooling it right away, you're able to kill most of the bacteria, if not all the bacteria. And the milk is safer for you. And we've had no problem with that for the last 150 years. And then some guy who, you know, who's not going to say who he is, comes out and he's like, we got to stop, you know, we need to have raw milk. And there was two kids that were hospitalized in California this week for bird flu from raw milk.

Bird flu? Bird flu? Oh, God. From raw milk. Raw milk carries with campbellobacter, salmonella, e coli, so many other things. Yes. Right? Yes.

I was misdiagnosed with brucellosis last spring when I was super sick, actually two springs ago, like before all of the other stuff happened. But I ended up at Cedars because I was like six, like lymphadenopathy, all over my body for months, super bad fatigue, bone aches, like all this stuff. And I went to the hospital and they tested me for all these things. And I came back positive for brucellosis. And they were like, are you on farm animals or like they asked me if I was drinking any raw milk or anything?

And I said, no, they sent it out to like Mayo Clinic and some other lab that was highly specific and retested. And it was a false positive. And it just turned out to be toxo plasmosis. I mean, I remember that. I do remember that. You had a mystery illness and then finally they figured out what it was. But they were like, how do you have toxo and brucellosis? I'm like, I have no idea.

The bruselosis, that one I've only heard of three people ever having that I know of. Two of them were from raw milk and one of them was getting bit by a farm animal. And so, you know, these are things that we shouldn't have to do. with in 2025 in the modernized world. And a lot of people think, you know, who are conspiracy theorists and say, oh, it's big government, it's government. All right, let's say you go to Harvard's website and look up raw milk. Go to Johns Hopkins, go to Cleveland Clinic. Now, if you don't believe America, go to Canada. Look at any of the institutions. Look at Keralinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, one of the top physiology schools in the world. Ask them, is anyone having raw milk?

So, you know, you have anecdotal evidence of people saying raw milk, it's great, it's more delicious, It's sweeter. 100%. Maybe is the protein less denatured? Is it 4%, 5% better? Who knows? But there is no scientific evidence to show that raw milk is better for you. And there is a massive body of evidence to show that raw milk exposes you to some

unnecessary risks. I think the issue is that so many people don't trust science. And I'm using science. It's a general term. They don't trust any institution. They don't trust science, period. It's gone a little too far. and nothing's perfect.

Medicine is not perfect. It has flaws. And the pharma companies don't necessarily always have our best interests, but it's the best we got for most of the people for most of the time. And I think we have to keep in mind that there's not this massive conspiracy of some eight people that meet twice a year in Switzerland that are trying to kill us by pasteurizing our milk. You've been in the industry forever.

You've seen a lot of trends come and go and a lot of approaches, even approaches that you've used. You've talked on the podcast before about when you were training Hallie Berry for, I think it was Catwoman and, you know, super, super regimented, but it wasn't sustainable. And that's how you kind of landed on your approach now.

Have things changed at all in the last couple of years since you've been on this show? Obviously, we have the introduction of things like GLP-1s. A lot of people want to know if all your clients are on this. Oh, my gosh. That's probably the biggest, no, it's not probably, it's definitely the biggest change in,

in my world of health and preventative medicine, GLP-1s, OZempic, we go v. Manjaro and the category of the like, obviously originally for type 2 diabetics, used very safely for a long period of time, and then used off-brand for weight loss because it's essentially an appetite suppressant and used successfully for people that are morbidly obese or people that have very large amounts of weight to lose. And it can be the difference between someone living or dying. It can be the difference between a brittle diabetic and not a diabetic.

And so I think that the positives of this drug existing in the world is a good thing. I think I read last week that the obesity rates in the United States just plateaued for the first time ever. They plateaued. And going up like this. And because of this drug, they've plateaued. And because of this drug, apparently a lot of consumer product companies, a lot of, you know, PNG and Kraft and Unilever are having to change their forecasts on food sales because people are going to be eating less food. and snacking less and it's going to affect their business and grocery stores and a lot of other things and then the healthcare system is going to have to react to it so i think seeing the

popularity of these drugs pop up is is the net is more positive than negative but they're not for everyone and i think that's really important to say so i would say that you know SSRIs when they came onto this the scene you know serogenic serotonin reuptake inhibitors antidepressants prozac and zoloff and wellbutrin and all these drugs, they are amazing. There was a game changer and it saved a lot of people and improved a lot of people's life, but it's not for everybody all the time. So the analogy I say is like if you're having a bad day, you don't take Prozac because you're having a bad day.

You don't take one of these weight loss drugs because you're five pounds overweight or 10 pounds overweight because there are negatives that come with it. So probably one of the biggest is the potential of losing lean muscle tissue. And when you don't have a lot of fat to lose, you start losing weight. A big chunk of that's going to be lean muscle tissue. And one of the biggest indicators of longevity is our ability to maintain lean muscle tissue through later years of life. You don't want to live to 90 if you can't stand up.

You can't walk. You need that muscle. You need that bone density. So I think the net for the population is these drugs are a miracle, but the danger is if they get abused by people who shouldn't be using. I feel like so many people do fall into that category of needing to lose that, last five or 10 pounds and they're doing a Zempec. Like I know so many people, you can tell. I feel like you can see. I see people who have been one weight and had the same workout and diet for years.

And then all of a sudden they lose a massive amount of weight and they're tiny. You can see it in their face. In their face. Yeah. Not everyone needs to be ripped and super lean all the time. There's a great balance of somewhere to be. And there's people that if I prepare them for a film or a photo shoot, they look different than they normally look, but only for a very short period of time. If we diet for it's for something or, you know, they're really preparing for it, they look different than themselves, maybe a week or two, and then they go back to looking like themselves. When you're taking one of these drugs, for the most part, when you start, you can't stop for the most part. There's a few exceptions to this, but almost everyone gains the weight

back. And then some, because your appetite comes back with a vengeance and you've lost lean muscle tissue in the process. So therefore, your resting metabolism is slower than it was before you took the drug. So for people out there who need it, this will save their life potentially. And if you don't need it, just like, you know, have one less slice of toast in the morning and one last glass of orange juice and you'll achieve the same goals forever. We all know winter is very tough on the skin between the colder, dry air, and travel. It is a recipe for whatever the opposite of Dewe is. I can honestly say for myself right now, I just got off a flight from Miami. Prior to that, I was in New York. I just got to L.A., which is cold and dry, and my skin is looking terrible. So I'm

about to get in the shower. And as soon as I get out of the shower, I moisturize with Osias, Andaria, Algae, Body Butter. It's basically the ultimate half. to have healthier, glowier skin all winter long. So I have been incorporating this into my body care routine for years. It is so rich and luxurious, but it also absorbs instantly. So you just feel hydrated but not greasy. It is made with ingredients normally reserved for your face like Undaria seaweed and seramides. And it transforms dry, creepy skin to smooth, soft, and supple skin. Also, it has this incredible scent. So if you have used it, then you know it has this iconic citrusy scent that is like a natural blend of grapefruit, lime, cypress, and mango, mandarin. So it's very uplifting. I always get compliments on the scent when I use it. And when I shower and moisturize before bed, my boyfriend loves the smell too. He always compliments it as well. And something that I love about it is that it reminds me of this one specific. vacation that I took in Mexico a few years when I first started using it. So especially in these

kind of gloomy, dry, dark, dreary months that we are embarking on, I have this flashback to that warm, happy vacation. It always transports me back there. So skincare is a habit worth keeping all year round as we know, but especially during the winter and the body butter can help your skin have a healthy glow every day because I truly believe skincare is self-care. So treat yourself to clean, clinically tested skincare from Osea. And right now we have a special discount for my listeners. You can get 10% off your first order sitewide with the code blonde at Oseaamalibu.com. That's O'S-EA, malibu.com, and the code is blonde. We are talking about the importance of sleep in this episode and talking about how sleep

is really foundational to overall wellness and also it helps to support a better fitness routine, better diets, all of that. So when it comes to sleep, there are some really important things. I like to have perfect conditions. We're talking earplugs, eye masks, all the things we're discussing in this episode, but also your sheets are so important, which is why I am obsessed with cozy Earth's best selling betting. I had seen this all over Instagram and so I was a little bit skeptical about how good it actually is, I can tell you it is that good. It is deserving of all of the hype. So Cozy Earth's best selling bamboo sheet set is made from 100% premium viscos from bamboo. The sheets are so breathable, which is huge because I'm a hot sleeper. And they are uniquely

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better sleep. Wrap yourself in cozy earth. And if you get a post-purched survey, say that you heard about cozy earth from this podcast. Again, that's cozy earth.com slash well for up to 40% off with the code well. Let's talk muscle. Yeah. And it's protective qualities. One of the questions that I got a lot of is does lifting heavy weights and adding muscle help with your skin? This is for women. Does lifting heavy weights help with your skin? Yeah, because a lot of, I don't know, there's been a lot of videos and information out there about how it's like anti-aging, which I could see maybe for your body. I don't know about your face. So as far as the heavy weights thing goes, I don't know if specifically heavy, but intense and challenging. And I think people need to go

heavy, light, medium, high rep, low rep, all sorts of different things. But I think that either way, the lifting weight thing is resistance training. And resistance training can definitely help tighten the connective tissue under the skin, which can make the skin feel more taut and tight. And so if someone's got saggy stuff, all of a sudden the muscle underneath it is more developed, that could make the skin look better. I don't know from a physiological perspective what other things are happening. Maybe there's a hormonal change that happens through resistance training and increasing growth hormone release and testosterone release. And maybe those can help skin too. We do know that. So yeah, maybe so. You're big on training the posterior chain and resistance like

you just said. So is there an ideal workout breakdown once people are consistent? They have their steps down. They have their sleep down. They feel like they're pretty balanced in other areas of their lives and they want to, you know, create and maintain a good workout breakdown. What do you suggest? You know, the simplest thing is short, intense resistance workout. So assuming you're walking every day and assuming you're eating well and assuming you're sleeping well, I like to say four short workouts a week is great. Pick two body parts each time, opposite body parts. So train the muscles in your lower body that straighten your leg and the ones that bend your leg. And straighten the ones that straighten your arm and bend your arm, the ones that bring your arms forward and bring your arms

back, the ones that reach for the ceiling and pull your arms back down. So those are all antagonists, and you'll end up hitting all the muscles of your body as a result. Depending on your fitness levels and what your goals are, workouts as short as 10 minutes a day can be beneficial. I think if you're doing four days a week at 30 minutes, you're doing great. I try and tell people at least 90 minutes a week of resistance exercise. I say at least 90 minutes a day of walking. It doesn't have to happen all at once, It includes walking to the bathroom. It includes every time you're on your own feet, 90 minutes a week of resistance exercise, 90 minutes a day of unplugging from technology.

And so I think those are good numbers to think that 90 is a good place to start at least 90 minutes a week of resistance exercise. And what falls under that resistance exercise? Can it be Pilates? Should it be all strength training resistance? Pilates is strength training, right? Anytime you challenge a muscle or muscle groups and the limiting factor in doing that work is the fatigue of those specific muscles or muscle groups and not you. And the difference between that is, let's say you go for a run, it's going to be you that

gets tired before any one muscle gets tired. Whereas if you're doing a Pilates workout or yoga to some extent, resistance training, weightlifting, body weight stuff, it's going to be that one muscle or muscle group that gets tired and stops you from continuing. Okay. And then when it comes to the walking, an issue that people always have with this is time, time or circumstances. If somebody lives in, you know, Chicago or somewhere freezing during the winter and they can't be walking outside and they don't have a treadmill or they don't have access to a gym and they're working and they have kids. Like that is the number one issue that I think people have with hitting a certain amount of steps per day. Yeah, I get this every day from my clients who report to

me, you know, let's say I travel, how they have a travel day. And they said I had a six a am. flight this morning. And it was a six hour flight. When I landed, I went right into meetings. And at the end of the day, you do the best you can do. Just do the best you can do. And maybe you do more of other things. And so if you're not able to get all the steps that you probably should, then maybe if you're someone who normally likes to have a little treat every day or after dinner, you like to throw a little piece of chocolate in. All right. So maybe on that day, you don't have your treat. But you do the best you can do. You find opportunities where you can multitask. So if you are socializing with someone and it's the dead of the winter on the East Coast or in Canada, then hey,

meet me at the shopping mall. Let's walk around there while it's freezing cold outside instead of us going somewhere else. So at least we can have a, you know, we can multitask. We can socialize and do some physical activity. Yeah. Something that I started doing when I started working with you years ago was taking my meetings outside. And that's something that you can do in L.A. because it's pretty much nice year-round. But it just makes you cognizant of how sedentary, or I'll speak for myself, it made me cognizant of how sedentary I really was when I started to realize how much time I spent sitting down having meetings, sitting down doing certain types of work that I could do on the treadmill. Like, when I got really into it, I had a treadmill at home and it was nice out. So, you know, the cards were stacked,

like for me essentially, but I would get up, do the treadmill from like 630 to 8 and just walk, not exerting myself a ton, but enough that I could be on my phone working. I know it's a little early to be working, whatever, but I would get so much work done, emails, editing before 8 o'clock. And then by the time I was done, that was maybe 8,500 to 10K steps-ish. And then I would take a walk during the day during my meetings. And that comes back to the analogy of the aquarium with the big rock, small rock. For you, that big rock was you doing that. Before your day started, you getting on the treadmill, walking slowly, returning emails,

once that is at the bottom of the foundation, all of a sudden you can start to put the other things and your day can start and you can add the other things on top of it. Yeah. Okay. So let's do some rapid fire. Best tips for toning arms. focus on the triceps. Dips suck. I'm sorry. Dumbbell tricep kickbacks suck. Both for different reasons. There is nothing quite like a line dumbbell triceps extension, aka the Harley.

The Harley, which has the glute part of it as well. And if you have access to gym equipment, then using a cable for rope tricep extensions, overhead rope tricep extensions are great. But kickbacks and dips, forget about it. Something underrated, you wish people did more of. Oh, that's a good question. Hamstrings. They are so neglected. And even when you see people that focus on their lower body, they're just doing squats and lunges and step-ups and they tend to really focus on the anterior muscles of their lower body. But if they focused on doing like an RDL, which is a Romanian deadlift or a dumbbell stiff, dumbbell stiff leg deadlift, what that does for your hip hinging, your butt, your hamstrings is, is so understated and is an amazing exercise. I miss. I miss.

working out so much. I miss our workouts. As you're talking, it's just, we'll talk after. Opinion on high intensity interval training for females. You know, I don't like this idea that women have to train like women and men have to train like men. The truth is most of the training is very, very similar. And the goal is to challenge your muscles. And women are scared of getting big. You won't get big if you're not eating incorrectly and if you're not taking anabolic steroids. And men, you know, you should be doing, you know, butt workouts too and abductors and adductors and they're not just for women. So I think that there's less differences between training men and women than there are similarities.

And I think training intensely for women is really good for you. And if you really want to transform your body, you need to train intensely. Not long. You don't need to train for long, but you need to train intensely. Otherwise, you're just going through the motions. I'm curious though and somebody did ask this, is there such thing as getting inflamed from certain types of workouts? Because a lot of women say they feel puffy after workouts and I feel that way as well. And, you know, I haven't been working out in like over a year.

And everyone's asking, what's your workout? And I'm like, nothing. It's muscle atrophy. And also I'm not puffy because when I work out, I feel like I do get like some sort of, maybe it's water retention or I don't know. But I know that's a common experience for women. But not for everyone and not all the time. And so if you bang your knee and your knee swells up, it's because you created some kind of trauma and damage. And the swelling is your body bringing nutrients and blood flow to help it heal.

When you strength train or exercise intensely, you tear muscle fibers. And as a result, some inflammation occurs in those muscles that you just tore for them to heal and recover. and it brings with nutrients and oxygen and all those things. Depending on how long you've been doing a certain form of exercise and at a certain intensity, that inflammation response will vary. If you have been sedentary for a while and you start, you know, walk lunging for 45 minutes, you're going to experience not only incredible pain for the next week, but swelling as well. So there's another condition called acute exertional rhabdomiolysis,

which is this rapid breakdown of muscle tissues. And I remember people who were taking super intense boot camps about 10 years ago. Someone's name boot camp. Two people I know were hospitalized after. They were urinating brown blood. There was blood in their urine. And they had crazy, their whole body puffed up and swelled. It's because they had proteins that were broken down.

There was too much. They had issues with their kidneys. So yes, the answer is inflammation can happen when you strength training too intensely or too quickly, but it goes away. Having a few people died recently as a result of from like, CrossFit maybe? Yes. So apparently that name that you said that I didn't say love suing people when you say anything negative about them. Historically. No, but historically, I believe the guy who started and found that it got kicked out. He's somewhere the new thing now. But I remember mentioning a bunch of

this before in articles I'd written back when that became popular, the prevalence of certain injuries was astronomical. And I believe the, I want to say she was the number one or number two. in America in that sport, if it's a sport. I remember came to see me because she had snapped her arm and broken her leg and she had back surgery and she was just a mess. And she said from that sport, and she's like, and I'm always swollen. And she says the best part of my injuries was I had to stop doing it for a while. And it's like my body's swelling all went away, even though I was injured. Do you have tips for portion control? Absolutely. Four components to a meal. Number one, protein the mass of your fist. That's how much protein there should be at every meal. Fish, chicken,

eggs, tofu, Greek yogurt, the fist. The second part of your meal is unlimited vegetables. So I do this this hand gesture where I wave all the way across. You're on YouTube. Like I'm ban away. Okay, perfect. And the third is a palm full of carbohydrates. We need carbs. Carbs are good. I'll be back in a few months because I have a book coming out about carbs. Yay. Finally. Very controversial. You've been teasing it for two years, Harvey. Two years, yes, very controversial. We need carbs, a palmful of carbohydrates. So whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, lentils, or tubers like sweet potatoes or new potatoes.

And last but not least, healthy fat, the mass of your thumb from the base to the tip, avocados, nuts, seeds, olives, et cetera. So that's the simplest way to break down a meal. Oh, love it. I thought there was more concise. Okay. Marriage advice or just partner advice, how to get your partner hooked on a healthier lifestyle and this is not my question. My wife is the fittest one in our family. Oh, is that your

answer? I mean, how do you get them fit on a life? I think lead by example and make it fun and not competitive. I think that's a big thing. I think when it's competitive in nature. I've seen that. It's not sexy. It's like there's a winner. There's a loser. I think everyone wins, at least for my wife and I, like everywhere we travel in the world, we walk to explore. We don't do any extreme sports. We We don't hike. Some people like hiking, which is otherwise known as walking. Hiking is walking. When people say, what's your hobbies and they say hiking, you're walking, you're just walking somewhere where there isn't retail or coffee shops. That's like Chris with his morning hike. I'm like, you're walking uphill, but it's on the street. I'm like, if there's dirt, it's a hike.

Right. Right. You're not, right, exactly. There's all terrain shoes and it's a paved street and it's very beautiful. But I think for my wife and I, it's really about family time we spend together. So after dinner, we walk together to the ice cream shop. Yeah, I was going to say, I was going to say, actually. Or like the four of us walked from one property in Hawaii to the next, to the coffee and cookie place. Great chocolate chip cookies. Yeah. Yeah. And really good fruit. Really good fruit. Really good matcha. I was wrong about what fruit I thought it was. I reached. search I was confidence about. I posted it. A lot of people attacked me. They're like, no, it's not that fruit. It's this fruit. So I just took it down because I don't really care. Yeah.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming back on. I'm excited for this year. I'm excited for you and for my best friend. And I'm excited to be back to talk about my new book. Not in another two years, right? It's actually happening now. It's, oh, it's actually. Yeah, there's a publication day and everything. Can you say month? I believe it's Q3. Okay, so that's late summer, early fall. Yeah, I think it's back to school, fall. Perfect. I was going to say summer, maybe not the time for carbs. No, I did launch a book in the summer once that did actually pretty well. If it's a diet book or? It was a diet book. They're all diet books. But it did well because there was a celebrity who was in a breakup at the time and lost a bunch of weight and credited

the diet in the book. And that's the only thing to book. Oh, I know who you're talking about. All right. Well, we can't wait. Where can everyone find you? On Instagram, Harley Pasternak. And my home address is, no, I'm not getting there. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked the episode, and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes such a long way in supporting the show. Follow the show over on Instagram at well.pod. You can also follow my personal Instagram at Ariel Lori. I'm always sharing great clips from the episodes. And we also have full episodes on YouTube as well if you want to watch in entirety. Thanks for listening. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and

services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or referred to in this episode.