Physical Health Foundations: Nutrition

Sara Childers (00:00)
Welcome back to the Metabolic Wisdom podcast. My name is Sarah Childers and I'm your host and we are talking all things womanhood, metabolism, and just hormonal health in general. And today I'm finishing up my little season one series about the foundations for a fully feminine metabolism. So if you have not been keeping up with this podcast, I have been going over

what the foundations are, both mind, body, spirit, and physical foundations, what those are for a fully feminine body. And when we talk about a fully feminine body, we're really talking about how to be the healthiest woman that you can be without feeling overwhelmed, without feeling like you are spinning a ton of plates at one time. I've really simplified it.

to a few key components. And today I want to finish it out with talking about nutrition. And this is going to be a very broad spectrum look at nutrition and what you need to do in order to eat with your biological design, because that is something that I teach to my clients is working with our biological design and not against it. And so that's what we're going to get into today. And as you can see, I am

just really in the raw here. I'm in my Camero shirt. I'm so casual today, but I feel like I don't even really need these notes that I made for the podcast because nutrition, of course, since I'm a registered dietitian, is my bread and butter. This is something that I've been studying for years. And in the last two or three years, I've really honed in.

on what works and what doesn't so that we can cut through the clutter of what diet culture tells us. And I think food is so interesting because it's something that is talked about so much, but I feel like the implementation is not always there. And I think it's because food is so overwhelming and there's so many diet fads and there's so many feelings around food. A lot of people are scared of food. A lot of people...

demonized food. A lot of people really love and have an emotional attachment to food. So I want to take that into consideration when we're kind of going through these principles. But I'm going to give you guys a broad spectrum look at what I do when I'm thinking about my nutrition and also my clients nutrition. So there are a few two foundations really.

As far as like nutrition goes, the first thing that I always do with clients is we look at your goals because if we don't know your goal, we don't know what we're heading towards and if we don't have a destination to put in our GPS, that is gonna make it really impossible to get to that destination. So when I work with clients and I'm mostly talking about in my Fully Feminine program where I work one-on-one with women to help them.

pretty much reinvent their health from the ground up. Our first interview is all about, okay, what are your goals? Are you wanting to lose weight? Are you wanting to prep for conception? Are you prenatal, postnatal? Are you wanting to maintain your weight? And I've even had clients who are wanting to gain weight or to gain muscle. And so that's the first thing we look at because that's gonna determine your calories and your plating method and how we plate your foods.

⁓ And that's something that I want to talk about first. So of course those all have to be taken into consideration when we are thinking about your food. We need to know your goals because if you're trying to reinvent your health lose weight

help with your liver, all the things, your diet's gonna be tremendously different than somebody who is wanting to either gain weight or support their fertility because preconception, you shouldn't be fad dieting preconception. And also like pregnancy, even postpartum, when you're breastfeeding and you have a lot of calorie burn from breastfeeding and just being a postpartum mother, it's absolutely completely different.

as far as like calories go and how much fat you need and how much protein you need. So that is the first place that we want to start out. Are we looking to be nourished and to really nourish our bodies not only with micronutrients like vitamins and minerals, but also with calories? Or are we wanting to restrict and detox and really slim up our diet so that we have high protein but maybe

not as many fat or carbs. So that is the first thing we look at. The next thing I like to do with clients, and this is something that I do in my Fully Feminine Program, it is my bread and butter of this program, and that is doing a hair tissue mineral analysis test. So I talked a little bit about this test when I talked about minerals in my last podcast episode, if you want to check it out. But we do a hair tissue mineral analysis test on

almost everybody that I work with who is looking to change their food up as far as like calories or restriction or a surplus of calories is concerned. And the reason for this is because your calorie needs and your macro needs, so how much fat you need and how much protein you need and how many carbs you need is actually very bio-individualized. Like it does matter what your metabolism is doing and

somebody could be on a low carb keto high fat diet and do really well and then the next person could do the same diet and actually gain weight and it not be good for them and it all comes down to your metabolism and how fast your body metabolizes things or how fast it oxidizes things. So the reason I do the hair tissue mineral analysis test is because it actually tells us what metabolic type you are. So you can either be

a slow metabolic type or you can be a fast metabolic type. And what that actually means is if you're a slow metabolizer, you are actually in what we call, you're not in fight or flight mode. You're in rest and digest mode. Everything in your body has slowed down a lot. Your metabolism has slowed. The amount of calories you burn at rest is likely slower than a fast oxidizer. You are not burning through nutrients efficiently.

And in that case, having a high fat diet is gonna actually be probably a pretty bad idea. It's gonna cause probably some inflammation, probably some weight gain, and something like a keto or low carb diet long term is not gonna be good for you. And then you have a fast oxidizer, and this is somebody who is in fight or flight mode. They're not in rest and digest. Their entire body is alarmed and...

It's burning through calories extremely quickly and so it metabolizes things super quick and therefore we want to almost not slow down the body but for lack of a better term we want to slow things down just a tad bit and they will do better with a high protein diet, high fat diet, lower carb diet. So that's kind of the difference there. I will go ahead and say most clients that I get in my practice are women who have

put a lot of stress on their bodies from chronically dieting for years and years and years and they're to their wits end and they've restricted their carbs so much. They've done the low carb diet, the carnivore diet, the keto diet, and they have all this stored inflammation and this weight loss resistance. And I can't tell you how many clients we have actually worked with who we've switched their diet from being like keto, low carb, restrict, restrict, restrict. We've literally given them a

really healthy proteins, really good gut healing and liver healing supplements. And then we've also encouraged them to eat less fat and to eat more carbs. And they are able to lose weight so much better because when your body has been stressed out for so long, when your thyroid has slowed down, your hormones aren't being made efficiently, when your digestion has slowed,

It takes a really long time for your body to metabolize fats and often times those don't get metabolized and they get stored as fat tissue. But if you give your body the easiest thing to work with, which is carbs, it usually almost lets your body calm down a bit and feel safe again so that you are in a place where you can lose weight. Now, personally, I think this is a good time to drop this.

bomb on you, but as far as carbs are concerned, I am pretty picky about what kind of carbs I consume and also what kind of carbs I encourage my clients to consume. So I don't do allergy tests just a whole lot, but that is part of my practice and something that upon request I do with clients and something that I can interpret and help people with. have experience.

helping people reverse their allergies, their foodborne allergies, by healing their gut. And so this is something really important. But I've never had an allergy test where somebody wasn't allergic to wheat or gluten. So usually my biggest thing with carbs is yes, we need carbs. We want carbs. But gluten is extremely inflammatory.

Usually so many people out there have a gluten intolerance and they keep eating gluten. Even if it's like a low carb keto rep that still has gluten in it, they're feeding themselves with these diet foods that still have gluten in them and still have a lot of things that are artificial and cause inflammation. And that's actually some reason why their body holds on to weight. I can think of one client in particular and I'd love to have her on the podcast.

but she had had her gallbladder removed and she had had trouble with her weight her entire life. This is somebody I knew personally and she went from being keto, keto, low carb, low carb to actually eating healthy carbs, pairing it with protein, low fat. She was so diligent, so self-disciplined. Like she lost 80 pounds in a year and she's still losing because she was giving her body when she started doing

the incorporating the carbs back into our diet. She was incorporating healthy carbs that were gluten free. And we'd actually realized from working with her and then her mother doing the same thing that she did, the same protocol she did, and getting the same results and having so much weight loss, we actually kind of looked into their family history and realized, wow, like you definitely have a family history of a leukemia that can...

actually be mistaken as a gluten intolerance and vice versa. So this family in particular, they had a history of this, what looked like leukemia in their family, but in the long term we learned that it was actually a gluten intolerance. And I'm not going to get into that today. That would be for another episode, but it's so interesting because I've seen time and time and time again,

where I tell clients to cut out gluten and I'm not just saying get gluten-free chips. I'm not just saying get gluten-free crackers. I really do encourage my clients to just go as grain-free as possible. And when I say grain-free, I really mean just going wheat, barley, rye-free. Not eating things that still have wheat in it, but are just gluten-free. Really focusing on the carbs that are like fruits.

fruits don't have gluten in them. Vegetables like potatoes, root vegetables, summer or winter squash, things like that. Roots and fruits, things that are super natural, super easily digestible, have a lot of vitamins, nutrients, minerals and fiber in them, but don't have those inflammatory, often glyphosate sprayed.

grains in them. And I still like rice. I still advise people to still have rice, maybe rinse it off or get a really good organic source. But to really plan their meals around these healthy whole food carbs that are either from dairy, vegetables or fruits.

to not be so into the grains or into the inner aisles of the grocery store. And usually we see that so many people have really great results with that. And that's kind of how we see that initial weight loss. So a lot of times when you start a new regimen, if it's good, you're gonna lose quite a bit at first. And then it'll slow down and that's normal. You might plateau.

and then it'll drop off again. That's usually how we know that inflammation is being taken care of and you are on a good track for losing weight.

With that being said, let's get into the other components of your diet or your plate. when I think of a healthy diet, I think of it in terms of plates, in terms of meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and an optional snack. I never tell somebody to skip breakfast. Every single client that comes and sees me who's having weight issues always comes and sees me and is saying,

yeah, I don't eat breakfast. Every single client who has weight issues before they actually figure out how to eat healthy says that they do not eat breakfast. And I think that's so interesting because our blood sugar and our digestion actually works better in the morning and at lunchtime and so I'm not into intermittent fasting. I don't tell my clients to do that. I often talk them out of doing that.

and they end up feeling a lot better and getting better results. But for those who just cannot break up with intermittent fasting, you do not need to be skipping breakfast. If anything, skip dinner. anyways, when I'm thinking of a healthy meal, I'm thinking of it in terms of breakfast, lunch, dinner. So meals, plates, we don't do anything like the food pyramid. We're looking at your plate based off of your goals.

we will tell you how to plate your foods on your plate and it makes it so easy for you to remember and kind of have in your toolbox when you're out and about and you're still trying to eat healthy or when you're planning your meals on your own. But when we think of the food components, we're thinking of healthy carbs, like I just described, grain free, fruits and roots, sometimes dairy, you know, if that's an option for you.

And then we're thinking of protein, ideally in equal parts, but I'm not gonna get into the proportion sizes and stuff, but we're thinking carbs, protein, a little bit of fats, because fats are likely gonna be in your protein as well, and you're probably gonna cook your meal in fat and oil or butter.

And so the fat will be added that way. And if you're not restricting fats too much, maybe adding a healthy fat in there like avocado or something on top. Fiber, so this can actually encompass a few things, but we're thinking carbs, protein, fat, and vegetables. I'm not a huge proponent of somebody just...

gluttonously eating tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of vegetables, especially raw vegetables. I find that people who haven't eaten healthy in a long time don't actually do well with that and sometimes they feel worse before they start to feel better. And so having like equal parts, you know, vegetables to whatever else you're eating on your plate is a really good idea. I find most people do well with cooked vegetables because

Cooked vegetables really helps to break down some of that food that often makes us bloated if we're not used to eating that much fiber. And then a little optional probiotic on the side. So we're thinking of your plate, we're thinking, okay, carbs, protein. I always tell people to eat equal amounts carbs and protein to stabilize your blood sugar. A little bit of fat, a good portion of vegetables, likely cooked if you're new to this.

And then if you aren't eating anything like, like I know some people make their vegetables pickled, like kimchi, something that has probiotics in it. But if you're not having that, if you're just having regular cooked vegetables, if you're really wanting to support your gut health, it might be good to add something almost like a kutremit, is that what they call it? Or like a little zhoozh of something on the side that is.

pickled or fermented such as kimchi if you're eating like an Asian meal or I love to have like a spoonful or two of sauerkraut at some of my meals or yogurt something that's cultured that has natural probiotics in it that you can incorporate into your meal that is going to give your gut like something to hold on to and to grow and to help rebuild that gut lining so

Everything you're eating, if your meal consists of a balance of all these things, is going to be super healthy and healing from the ground up. So you have your protein and carbs that are giving you energy, helping you to build muscle, but also since the proportion sizes are going to be the same, it's stabilizing your blood sugar, which helps to balance your hormones.

And then you have fats, which you need fats in your diet in order to make hormones in the first place because hormones are made from cholesterol. Yes, saturated fat is cholesterol. And then you're having your fiber from your vegetables and some of your carbs, because your carbs, if you're eating roots and fruits and things like whole foods, sources of carbs, those are going to have fiber in them as well. So you're getting a good bit of fiber in there.

fiber feeds the probiotics in your gut and helps them to grow and helps to make what we call short chain fatty acids. And this actually helps with your immune system to fight infection. It helps with your gut lining. It helps with how you digest food. It just helps with so many things all at once. And so having that in your diet in conjunction with some natural probiotics is awesome.

And I say natural probiotics, you can take a probiotic if you want to, but to be honest, they're in a good source of sauerkraut. There is four times the amount of probiotics in a tablespoon or two of sauerkraut than there is one probiotic pill. And sauerkraut, kimchi, they're very cheap to make, but they're also very cheap to buy.

at the grocery store, it's something very accessible. And so if you're somebody who doesn't want to be on supplements forever, I would honestly highly recommend just getting a lot of your healthy probiotics from food. Unless you get a gut health test and you have a lot of gut issues, and maybe you see on your gut health test that there are certain strands of probiotics that you're missing. And then in that case, we do want to take a probiotic.

Seed your gut with the with the right things that is going to build your health back up That's something that I do in my program as well with clients who have a lot of gut issues we will do a GI map test if needed and We will dig into okay. Do we need to detox from anything? Do you have a bacterial or yeast overgrowth? Also, what is your good gut bugs look like? How can we seed your gut with good probiotics and

actually eat things that make those probiotics grow in the gut. So you weren't really, we're not actually meant to be on probiotics in the same probiotic forever. It's honestly a waste if we're always on the same probiotic because for one we can get probiotics from food as I said, but also if you keep seeding your gut with the same strand of probiotics and it's really

bountiful in your gut because you're eating fiber, but maybe you're lacking a strand of probiotic that you aren't taking, that is just a waste of money, to be honest.

And since we're talking about probiotic rich foods, I think that's a good, I think this is a good transition to talk about other things that are not just fermented and pickled like sauerkraut, but also things like sourdough or sprouted type of grains.

or even soaked and sprouted beans and legumes because those are kind of related to things that are fermented and pickled, kind of like sauerkraut or yogurt. when we're thinking of our healthy carbs, it is really restrictive to be on a grain-free diet forever. Some carbs that I like outside of the roots and fruits are

⁓ something like sprouted Ezekiel bread because when you sprout things like Okay, for instance Most of your carbs that we are traditionally used to eating like beans and rice and wheat bran rye barley all those grains

When we really think about what those are biologically, all of those things, whether it's grains or legumes, are things like beans or lentils, all of those things biologically are seeds. And if you remember biology, seeds have this bran germ on the outer coating of them. And unless we break that outer coating, it's going to be very hard for us to digest.

well and break down that seed. And so what happens a lot of the time, and I wonder if this is something that has messed up our gut health in the long term, but what happens when we eat wheat that isn't cultured like sourdough is, we are actually feeding ourselves with something that is not bioavailable. So...

and not to mention it's also probably sprayed with glyphosate and other chemicals and stuff, but outside of that, the nutrients and the vitamins and minerals that are biologically in that seed are not able to release and be absorbed by the body. So really unobsorbable. So that's why every time I recommend this to clients like,

I recommend people simplify their diet and eat roots and fruits first as their carb. But as you get into eating healthier and you get into a healthier mindset and you don't have as many cravings because you've balanced your blood sugar and you're not just craving all this processed bread and bad carbs. Once you get to that point, I recommend that people look into,

Maybe you can tolerate sourdough because a lot of people can tolerate sourdough even if they can't tolerate wheat because it's pre-digested because it's cultured and it's broken down or I'll suggest to them that they if they want to eat beans like say they have a traditional diet of rice and beans they want to eat beans just try to soak and sprout those beans so that that seed is germinated and

the nutrients in that seed is more bioavailable and it's easier to digest and break down because that's what happens is when we soak or sprout a seed or when we culture so like when we have the yeast that are forming in a sourdough it is pre-digesting and breaking down those nutrients so that we can better digest them and this

just is aligned with our biological design and our ancestors because our ancestors, this is how they prepared foods. They would soak and sprout beans. If they even ate any at all. Many cultures that are super healthy don't eat any sort of beans, grains, or legumes. But if they did, that's how they prepared them. And then sourdough was a way to

make bread rise without having like that instant rise stuff that we put in breads a lot of the time. It's a natural way to pre-digest breads and make them from scratch with just like two or three ingredients. So that and going back to the fermented and pickled stuff,

Our ancestors within the last two or three hundred years did not have frigerators. They did not have freezers. They didn't have like canned goods at the grocery store or maybe they did, you know, in the last hundred or so years. But they usually pickled their own food to keep it and make it last longer.

And that pickling and fermentation process actually makes our food more digestible. So if you think about like pickles or pickled onions or the sauerkraut or the kimchi, like this was a preserving method that actually worked in our benefit because it gave us natural probiotics because when something is able to be

immersed in something like sugar and vinegar and then natural probiotics, natural good bacteria is able to form and grow. It preserves that plant but also gives you really good probiotics in the long run. So that was a long explanation but that's how that works.

So we've talked about carbs, fiber, talking a little bit about fats. I won't talk much about them, but a mixture of things like olive oil, coconut oil, and healthy saturated fats, such as fats from meat, MCT type oils, fats from, of course, you know.

You don't have just fats from meats, but you have fats from dairy or eggs, super good for you. I think a mixture of all of them is amazing, gives you a lot of benefits. You don't want to skip out on the fats. And I think that's what has happened to a lot of like middle-aged women who went through like the 80s or 90s when they had like zero fat to low fat diets. I think that was a turning point for their hormones to be completely off kilter because

When you have zero fats in your diet, your body cannot adequately make hormones like it should. And that inhibits a lot of processes. It can cause hypothyroidism. It can cause us to not make as many things like progesterone or testosterone that keeps our metabolism going really well. So you don't need to overdo it with fats. Definitely not. But you do need to have some, just a few in your diet. So we've gone over fats, carbs.

fiber and now we're talking about protein. I feel like protein is so

Protein is so controversial in a way. I personally love a mixture of like bone broth, protein to, I do beef isolate, protein powder. I try not to have that just too much, but that is something that I use because it's a really good tool. Protein from Greek yogurt, but mostly protein from meat. And...

Even though it's not very easy to do, I think it is important to incorporate some things that are not muscle meats into your diet. Because if you're constantly having like chicken at every meal or and then shrimp and then a steak and you're never having like egg yolk or bone broth or maybe even like if you're into it liver or kidneys like organ meats.

You need a variety of proteins in your diet. And I don't say that to stress anybody out, but I think every once in a while it's good to have something different other than just like a super lean muscle meat.

Because people who eat a ton of muscle meats, like I'm talking a ton of muscle meats all the time, usually have problems with their kidneys, but we won't.

really dwell on that because that's pretty hard to do. think the biggest thing, because most people that I coach are under eating protein. So whatever you can do to get enough protein by all means, but just know that sources such as muscle meats, bone broth protein, protein from Greek yogurt, protein from egg yolks or egg whites.

those are much more superior to your plant proteins and I always teach my clients that plant proteins actually are not going to go into the protein category. A lot of people love to say, yeah, peanut butter and nuts and seeds, so high protein. No, they're not. They're not. They're not high protein. They are fat.

those are going to go in your fat category. Now by all means add some nuts to your salad or to your yogurt parfait or you know if you want to have some almond butter with like a healthy dessert go for it but those will be in the fats category they're not part of the protein category in my mind. They're mostly fat with a little bit of protein and that's if you look on the nutrient facts label you will be confirmed.

that that is true. It's mostly fat, a little bit of protein. So it's going to go in the fats category. So we don't need much of them. And that's a huge thing that I see people doing is overeating nuts and seeds because they are like, it's high protein and it's really good for me. And they just are hammering nuts and seeds and they end up either not losing weight or gaining weight from it. And they don't know why.

and the nuts and seeds are white. Because if you get a handful every now and then, and if you're eating like tons of handfuls of nuts and seeds every day, that's a lot of calories. It adds up really quick. Another thing that the plant-based peoples love to talk about is how high protein lentils and beans are. They are not high protein. They are high carb. They have a little bit of protein in them. It's not as absorbable in the body. And it has...

lot of fiber as well so they're still good for you but those will be a carb. When I eat a soup in the fall I have ground turkey or ground beef or chicken in that soup that is going to count as my protein plus if I cook it in bone broth that adds even more protein to it and then my carb is going to be like if I'm eating a chili

The beans. The beans are the carb. The beans have a little bit of protein, not enough to make a difference, but they're mostly carbs. So they go in the carb category. I just, want to share this because this actually is what gets people results is when we put the right foods in the right category. Like I can't tell you how many times people can't lose weight because they're overeating beans or they're doing too much plant-based diet where they just are not getting enough protein and they're getting a surplus of carbs and fat.

because they're eating beans and seeds and nuts and lentils all the time. Or when somebody doesn't know that fruit is a carb and they keep eating fruit and they're just eating tons of carbs from their fruit and under eating protein. And that is causing their blood sugar to still not be super stable. Maybe it's a little bit stable or than it was before, but it's not where it should be. And so they don't lose weight. They may even gain weight and

us putting food in the right categories is going to be the most important thing you can do. Now with a lot of clients I start out just seeing how they do with the meal blueprint, seeing how they do with categorizing foods, and if they want to get fast results quick and they're willing to do the work then we start to calculate, then we start to count macros, but if they're able to get a lot of leeway and a lot of progress without that we usually just don't count.

anything.

So there are a few things to transition kind of out of the basics of nutrition. I feel like this is just super basic and entry level, but to transition out of the basics of nutrition,

Number one is why meal plans always fail. Number two is why you don't have to restrict so much. Number three is eating whole foods based is the best. I've kind of already made my case there. Number four is sugar isn't the enemy. Number five is why low carb and carnivore fail. Six is keep it simple to get results. Seven is meal prepping is the only way. And eight is the dangers of...

over complicating things. let's start from the top. So why do meal plans always fail?

There's no good way to say this other than a dietitian or nutritionist is a dietitian or nutritionist and not your mother. There are so many people that have so many weird diet restrictions or they have like texture issues or they're just like a chronically picky eater, just like a five-year-old in like a 35-year-old's body. And when we make a meal plan,

for somebody, oftentimes we're not taking into all the nuances of their life, of their wants, of their needs, maybe of their family's needs, all the things. And usually, you know, the allergens and stuff are on point, but I haven't met many people, I would say 3 % of the clientele that I get actually follow a meal plan that I give them. Everybody else.

gets overwhelmed by a meal plan or they eventually stop eating according to the meal plan and they haven't learned anything about nutrition and so they don't know how to plate their meals. They don't know how to plan their weeks or a menu and so they end up losing their progress and backtracking and either gaining their weight back or their blood sugar becomes unstabilized again or their gut health gets really bad because

They're so overwhelmed and off of the rails and they don't have that knowledge to back up their meal plan. So that's usually where we start. Now sometimes people follow a meal plan and while they are following a meal plan, we do education and that ends up working out fine. But I find that most people do way better with having their own autonomy over their meals and learning a framework really well. So us testing their metabolic type,

tailor making a plating method for them and educating them on what's a carb, what's a protein, what's a fat, what's a vegetable, what's a probiotic, how can we incorporate this on your plate, what are your choices, and what are the proportion sizes gonna be. And when people can really get the hang of that, that creates long-term success, and that's why I'm not a super big fan of meal plans. Now I do make them for clients, especially upon request.

But the clients that have done really well and have had long-term success are the ones who keep it really simple and who are able to learn a meal framework and learn why they need certain things, and we teach them that.

The second thing is why you do not have to restrict so much. I personally am not a huge fan of over restricting. Now, did I say that I like for people to follow grain free diet? Did I say that plant-based is not as good as eating like protein from an animal source? Yes. But I think when you become so consumed with restriction and so scared of eating and so...

Legalistic about it. I think that creates more stress in your body and if you're on a healing journey It can almost inhibit you from healing and so when we're over stressing like I can't eat that I can't eat that and wanting to be perfect with it that sometimes can create more problems than solutions so what I like to do and this kind of brings me to my other point is

to keep it so simple. So when we are trying to get results and when we're trying to not restrict but also do what we want, you have long-term success,

So for instance, I'm obviously country is cornbread and I love cornbread. I love southern food and that's not something I plan to never eat again, but I don't eat it every day. I would say once a month we plan out a time to have either dinner with friends or with family or we go out just being my husband and we eat a really good southern meal.

And I know I need to prepare for that. I know that I probably need to have like a digestive enzyme. I'm probably gonna have to bounce back. It's probably gonna take me a few days to recover. But I really enjoy that cultural experience of a Southern meal. And that's just something we're preparing for. And sometimes I try to make it healthy, like, you know, trying to balance my plate, still follow the meal blueprint, all the things. But most of the time it is gonna be...

grain-free, you know, tightened up diet. If you're somebody who doesn't feel good about giving up a lot of things and if you're somebody who gets really bored with what you eat and you want to eat something different every single day, just being super honest, it's going to be really hard for you to get the results that you want.

which is my point that I was trying to make before, if you want to get results, you need to keep it so simple. when I am talking about results, I'm not just talking about weight loss, although weight loss is huge here. I don't think weight loss is the only thing that matters, and I definitely don't think it should be the only thing that matters to somebody. I think when you are chronically imbalanced and your hormones are out of whack.

maybe you're infertile, maybe you have hair loss, maybe you have digestive issues. I honestly think weight loss should be the last thing on your mind and if it's in the forefront of your mind, even if you're chronically ill, you definitely have some issues there that we need to address around your ideals or beliefs around food. But if you want to get results, like say you are healthy and you want to...

lose weight or you have a goal maybe you are into CrossFit or something and you're trying to lean out or if you are somebody who is detoxing and you want to just really do justice with your detox you need to know that you need to keep it so simple that is how you get results. Having recipes a million recipes that you're never going to make does not get results. Having simple foods where you know like one ingredient foods that you know where it came from and you're not

confused about it or wondering what's all in it, like, it's gonna be so much easier. So for example, like, if you had a sweet potato on your plate as your carb, it's a sweet potato, there ain't nothing to it, you know where it's from, and you know what it's made of, you know it's a carb, that's it. Versus if you had like a potato casserole, like a healthy potato casserole, maybe unhealthy potato casserole,

That potato casserole has cheese in it, which is fat, protein, and carb. It also has potato, which is a carb. It might have egg, which is protein. It might have a lot of butter, lot of whatever else, a lot of fats in it. So it's gonna be a conglomeration of multiple macronutrients. And it's gonna have a lot more calories. It's gonna be harder to know what's in it. It's gonna be harder to balance your plate out.

And so my biggest suggestion is, like, if you want to get really good results really fast, keep it simple. One ingredient for every food group that's on your plate. Having just ground beef or chicken or whatever for your protein. Sweet potato for your carb. Regular vegetable for your vegetable. You know, it's, and a lot of people think, ⁓ my gosh, that sounds so boring.

You can jazz it up if you have an imagination. You can add cheese to something, use herbs, use spices, use condiments. I love, like, one of my favorite things is chicken or tuna, cucumber, maybe with some carrots, and avocado, and then a fruit on the side as your carb. That sounds so boring together, just...

carrots, cucumber, avocado, and chicken. But then when you add, like I love Primal Kitchen's condiments. I love their buffalo sauce mixed with the ranch. And I'll put a little bit of ranch from Primal Kitchen and probably too much of their buffalo sauce. And that meal is just amazing with fruit on the side, of course, because I'm not having that with ranch or buffalo sauce.

but you put ranch buffalo sauce on avocado, cucumber, maybe some carrots and maybe like chicken, and it is the bomb.com. And you're taking something that's kind of boring, but it's macro-friendly, you're adding a little bit of flavor to it and it becomes your favorite meal. So it does require a little bit of finessing imagination and creativity on your part, but that is actually where you get long-term results is finding

what you enjoy and taking ownership and autonomy over your own health, your own meals, your own life, and your own success and progress with your health.

And that's why eating whole foods is the best. things like grains and wheat and things that you find on the inner aisles of the grocery store, even if it's a diet food, it lacks nutrients. So eating whole foods, so eating

Roots and fruits as your carb, eating vegetables, eating meats that you prepare yourself, you know what's in them. You don't have any sort of weird additives, hopefully, to them that are going to harm your health. And they all have really good nutrients. The thing I'm talking about most here is really with your carb. people love a cracker, people love a chip, and I do understand that. I love a crunch myself.

But when we are thinking about our health, when we're thinking about all the nutrients we need, especially if you're somebody who, like let's say for instance, you are on a restrictive diet but you still wanna have glowing hair and glowing skin, or you're not on a restrictive diet, maybe you're prenatal, maybe you're planning for conception, maybe you're postnatal, and you need a lot of nutrients in order to recover from that pregnancy or even prepare your body to be more fertile.

Everything that goes into your body needs to go into your body with intention. If you're having a lot of grains, a lot of chips, lot of like crackers for your carbs, a lot of empty calories, those aren't going to have nutrients. Those are not going to have vitamins and minerals and fiber that you need in order to move the needle with your health. Since most chronic issues stem

from nutrient deficiencies. So it makes sense that you would eat a whole foods diet in order to get all those nutrients that you need in your diet so that you don't have to go to bio and available supplements for all of your needs.

And since we're on the subject of carbs, my next point is sugar isn't the enemy. sugar is not the enemy. Sugar is actually good for you. Natural sugar is. So we're thinking about like fructose from fruits, natural carbs in like potatoes or in a fruit juice. Dare I say somebody have a fruit juice? But really...

like things like honey, natural maple syrup, things that are just super natural and found in nature but also have carbs in them. Those are super nourishing to the body. And so many times I see people demonizing sugar. They're like, I do sugar-free, I do Splenda, I, you know, no sugar, no sugar added, sugar-free this, I got keto sugar-free cookies or something. And...

To be the bearer of bad news, I would much rather have a spoonful of sugar than have 10 sugar-free cookies that are filled with additives and heavy metals and all the things. Sugar is not the issue. Sugar is...

Yes, do we have it in excess and do we not eat enough protein to balance our blood sugar out and that often cause issues? Yes. We need to be in control of the portion size. But once we're in control of the portion size of sugar, we need to know that sugar's not the enemy. Things like additives.

that additives, heavy metals, chemicals, all the things that are synthetic or glyphosate sprayed on our food, like those things are the actual enemy. Those are the things that build up in our body and cause chaos. Those are the things that cause our liver to slow down. Those are the things that cause our metabolism to not be good and our hormones to be out of whack. And so another reason why Whole Foods

winds, you know, when we're thinking about, how do I need to eat in order to move the needle with my health, in order to get results, in order to not have fatigue, anymore brain fog, or to recover from having like anything. Whole foods and not being afraid of sugar, but more so watching out for like the chemicals, the additives, the carcinogens that are in our food, which are often in the inner parts of the grocery store aisles.

And when we shop on the internet.

or when we start up on the outer perimeter of the grocery store aisle, we only have so many options. And I think that's actually good thing. So many times people think they want options. You don't want options. When you are trying to make headway with anything in life, whether that is your business or your health or whatever, you don't need more options. You need simplicity. And so the dangers of overcomplicating things when it comes to the food that we eat,

Like the biggest thing is the fact that people are really unhappy.

eating just whole foods. People want to also be able to find like some keto bread that they can eat their favorite comfort food with or they want to have like healthy pasta, protein pasta or whatever. They want to their cake and eat it too. And oftentimes I find that just wanting to have a million choices tends to actually over complicate things and

Not that we shouldn't let ourselves have things that are comforting to us. I think we should, but I think that we should make that 10 % of our diet and the other 90 % of our diet being things that we know are good for us. So like for example,

Let's take like a peanut butter and jelly or like mac and cheese for example, because those are some things that I consider not very healthy at all, but comfort foods and things that people have really grown up eating. let's say like during the week you're eating well, you're eating whole foods, you're balancing your blood sugar, but you really want mac and cheese. You really want peanut butter and jelly. Carve out a meal in your week to let yourself have those things.

And it'll keep you sane, but then plan on, after that, getting back into gear and continuing with your journey. And not over-complicating it and trying to get what you want and trying to indulge, but also restrict at the same time every single day. Have a time for indulging and then keep the rest, you know, in tune.

So how do we do this? One of my last points is meal prepping. So this kind of goes with nutrition. I know I've probably blabbed on a lot, but meal prepping, as much as I hate to admit it, meal prepping is really...

Like, I don't want to say it's the only way because I know some people have time to prep their meals during the day. I have time to prep my lunches if they're very simple during my days and I often have time to cook breakfast because I own my own business and I'm married and I don't have children. But if you have children and if you work outside of the home or if you're just busy...

Meal prepping is going to be so so essential for you to make progress with your diet. Like, I can't tell you how many times clients come to me for a check-in and they're like, yeah, it didn't go well this week. And when we dig deep and we see, okay, why didn't this go well? What did you eat?

it always comes back to lack of planning. And I think you need to have a plan. And that's why sometimes meal plans do work. But I think somebody sitting down and planning out what they like and following the meal blueprint and planning things out to where you are prepping a few things ahead of time to make your life easier, that is how you continue with something long term.

If it constantly is a huge effort and undertaking to do something, that is not going to set you up for sustainability. And it is, in fact, even if you don't think so, it is so, so, so much easier to make five meals at once than to make five meals separately. Like, for example, ⁓ and that's something that I try to tell clients is to have it stacked. So let's say you don't have time

on Sunday to make a meal, maybe on Monday, you make your dinner and while you're making your dinner, you boil a few eggs to have some extra protein lying around like throughout your days during the week. And let's say you also make some rice and some chicken and while you are in the kitchen already making your dinner for Monday night, you're prepping a few other things at the same time.

Maybe you have a more dishes, but you spent pretty much the same amount of time prepping your meals for the entire week along with your dinner that you would have already spent in the kitchen prepping your dinner. take that into consideration. It doesn't have to be a five hour fiasco every Sunday, but I think planning ahead, packing your lunch, maybe making overnight oat or

like yogurt parfait, chia seed pudding or something like that is a good idea. think maybe making some of your proteins in advance is a good idea. I always try to prep my eggs in advance, because I hate making eggs in the morning or trying to figure out what protein I'm going to have ready for.

Lunches to make that easier. It doesn't have to be that you're making a full-out meal and prepping it into these little boxes Every Sunday it can just be that you're planning your proteins because that's the hardest thing Honestly to get around is your protein and letting the rest fall right may just washing your vegetables washing your fruit Planning your protein that in and of itself makes food so much more available So you're more apt to make a good decision

because if the protein's not prepped, if the vegetables aren't washed and prepped, then you are going to reach for that bag of chips. And you're going to reach for whatever's easiest in your time of need. And so you need to make the healthy option the easiest option.

So I've pretty much covered all of my points. If you found this at all helpful, I would love to know. This is just my basic foundations for nutrition. It's a lot, and that is why I work one on one with clients and my Fully Feminine Method to really help you break down your big goals into smaller bite-sized goals. We take it so simple at first and...

We just get you set up with, what does your metabolism need? What's a simple meal blueprint for you? We try to make progress and over time, while you're slowly making progress with your own diet, we're educating you on how to hone in. So by the time we get done working together, after 16 weeks is up, because that's how long the program is, you have full confidence and full autonomy over your diet.

you're fully ready to go and take on the world and to maintain your changes and your health is transformed at the same time because we're not just focused on food. Yes, food is our foundation. We always come back to food in the program. But while you're changing your food and while you're learning how to eat healthier and eat in a way that is aligned with your biological design, we're also speeding up your metabolism. We are Taylor.

recommending your supplementation, we are working on lifestyle changes that help with your detox pathways. And over time, your gut, your hormones, your thyroid will be healed and will balance out. And so you will end up having the energy and the mental clarity and the fortitude to plan these meals to make a sustainable lifestyle for yourself. So if that's something that you're interested in, please go to my website saratildersonutrition.com.

And if you liked this video, please like and subscribe to this podcast or this YouTube channel wherever you're watching and leave a comment of anything else that you would like to see. That is it for now and I'll see you in the next one.