144: The Meat Mafia

Hi friends, welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Swan. And today's episode is a little bit different because I'm actually being interviewed. I recently went to Austin and I was a guest on the Meat Mafia Podcast. You may recognize that podcast because I actually had those guys on a couple months ago. It was a great episode. When I was in Austin, they had me come in their studio and we recorded an episode together and you guys, it's really good. I really loved their questions a lot. I think we had a great conversation and we covered a lot of topics and we reached out to them and asked if we could share it on my podcast because I wanted to share it with my audience. We dive into my transition from working in music and then over to nutrition. We also talk about my transition between being vegan, actually I was a vegetarian, not vegan, for five years and then going back to eating animal foods. We also talk a lot about women's health, women's hormones, balancing, coming off of hormonal birth control and so much more. It was a really great conversation. So I hope you guys love it. And if you are enjoying the podcast, please, if you could take a second to leave a rating and review, it means so much to me and it really, really helps the show out. With that, let's get into the episode. Did you guys know that over 70% of sodium in the US diet is consumed from packaged and processed foods? When you adopt a whole foods diet, you are eliminating or hopefully eliminating these processed foods and therefore sodium from your diet. Now the solution is not to reintroduce processed foods in your diet, but by not replacing that sodium, you can actually negatively impact your health and performance. If you guys listened to my episode, the salt fix with Dr. James Dineck, we learned that sodium is actually really imperative mineral for the body. Sodium helps maintain fluid balance. It's an electrolyte, so it helps keep us hydrated. It also aids in nerve impulses. It regulates blood flow and blood pressure. It's incredibly important. And if you're eating a whole real food diet, chances are you're probably not getting enough sodium. Also, this is probably going to be a shock to hear, but if you are just drinking water without adding minerals back into your water, you're not actually hydrating. My personal favorite way to stay hydrated throughout the day is through drinking element every day. That's L-M-N-T. It's a delicious tasting electrolyte drink mix that has everything you need and nothing you don't. So that means lots of salt. There's no sugar in there. It's formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs and is perfectly suited for people following keto, low carb, and paleo diets. It has a science-backed electrolyte ratio, 1,000 milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, and 60 milligrams of magnesium. I drink one of these every single morning. They have a ton of amazing, super delicious flavors. I know a lot of us listening are avoiding natural flavors, so they also have an unflavored one, which is my personal favorite. I love to put it with lemon, but if you want the flavored ones, they have a great variety of different flavors, and they have given me an awesome offer to share with you guys. So you guys can claim a free element sample pack when you make a purchase through the link. The link is DrinkElement. That's L-M-N-T.com slash Real Foodology. In the element sample pack, you're going to get one packet of every flavor so that you can try all of them and see which one is your favorite. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do. Again, it's drinkelement.com slash Real Foodology. That's drinkL-M-N-T.com slash Real Foodology. Courtney, welcome to Austin. Hi, guys. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, we're so pumped to have you in studio too. I know this is fun. And we're trading because we went on your show. Now we're having you in person so much better than doing it over Zoom. I totally agree. You know our combo was great. We were kind of dividing and conquering this weekend because we were speaking at KetoCon, which was an incredible event. A ton of people there trying to just learn about their health, get into animal protein, saturated fat, all the good stuff. And then you were at the force of nature, the what good shall I do conference. How was that for you? That was amazing. I went last year too. And for people that are not aware of what force of nature is, they're a regenerative, organic meat company. And they also have a ranch outside of Austin in Fredericksburg called Rome Ranch. And the story is so cool because one of the founders of force of nature was an original founder of Epic. And then he sold that company and he bought this ranch. And he describes this ranch as being, you know, it was conventionally farmed and so it was really dead and it didn't have a lot of biodiversity. He bought this land and then completely regenerated it. And now you go out there and it is beautiful. He has bison roaming. It's just like, it feels like just serenity being out there in nature, you know? And they, and now they sell these amazing, regeneratively farmed organic meats and they put organ blend, they put organ meats in their blends, which I love that about them. Yeah, it was just incredible. And every time I leave that conference, I just feel so inspired and have a fire at my ass just about wanting to do change in the food industry. There's such thought leaders in terms of how we think about quality food. You were there last year too, by the way. I don't know. That's crazy. We didn't across paths, but... Did you go last year as well? Yeah. Wow. So we completely missed each other. That is crazy. I met so many people this year that were there last year that I didn't even meet. That's so funny. He said it was a small, it's like a relatively small conference. Like I feel like by the end of it you're like, okay, I know all these people. I know. Yeah. How was it this year compared to last year? Was it similar? Do they do anything differently? No, it was pretty much, it was very similar. It was the same kind of setup. The only difference was there was a lot more time in between, which I really appreciated. Because there were so many people there that I really wanted to meet and connect with. For various reasons, just to say, I love your work or I'd love to have you on my podcast. And it was just cool to meet. That was the most inspiring thing about that conference last year and this year for me is meeting so many people from so many different walks of life that all come together with this same passion and desire to change our food industry. And it really gives me a lot of hope to know that there's so many people on this issue right now. And I feel like because of that, they were actually going to be able to make change. One of the things I loved about last year was there's so many different types of people who showed up. Like you would have ranchers, ecologists, us two who were just interested in getting involved. We were just starting our media platform. So I was like, hey, how can we contribute and just see what people are talking about. So it was just cool seeing the variety of people that show up that are interested in making the change. Yeah, it was awesome. It's super inspiring. Yeah. And we were saying too, prior to hitting record, your brand, Real Foodology, is your perspective on nutrition. I think that we're so aligned. And we had someone come up to us, a keto con that was saying, hey, have you ever heard of this brand, Real Foodology, Cortney Swan? This was yesterday. He was saying, he was like, I just love how she doesn't take this extremist approach. And she does these videos showing you about all the regular grocery stores that people go to. And she just teaches you how to shop the grocery store effectively. And I think that that's really needed in the space right now, just more like genuine perspective on food and nutrition. And you have an incredible story about how you got into this whole thing. It's a music background. So I think we'd love to just learn a little bit about you, your story on health and how you got here today. Yeah, awesome. Also, I told you this yesterday, but I was so flattered by that comment. And we talked about this a little bit. The way I view all of this is that we really need to meet people where they're at and what I don't love that's happening in nutrition right now is that people are going into these very extreme corners and saying, you have to be this one diet or, you know, we know the people of the world that are like, these vegetables are going to kill you. And I'm not out here to like vilify them, but I'm just saying, like, I feel like we really need to zoom out because so much of our population is so unhealthy. And they're also so confused on what to actually eat. And we're just throwing all this stuff at people. And so my message is very, I try to simplify it as much as possible and try to make it as accessible for just the average human. And just say, look, we just need to be eating real food. We're eating so much packaged crap. Everything is, you know, engineered to be more highly palatable, more addictive. Let's just cut all that out and not be so concerned about like, oh my God, well, this kale is going to kill you or what, you know what I mean? It's like, let's just like start with the basics. So that's really what I built my entire platform on. And it's actually funny enough of how I came up with the name real foodology. I was actually, I was so we're recording in Austin right now for those of you guys listening. I created real foodology here in Austin in 2011, where I came up with a name. I had just quit touring. So to give background on that, I went to CU Boulder and two of my best friends in college had started this band called 303. And when we graduated, they got like national recognition. They had a couple songs of Katy Perry and Kesha. And I was super in music at the time. Like, in fact, I really was, I was a little bit in nutrition, but I was like, I'm just dead set on working in music. So when they graduated or when we all graduated, they were like, do you want to come on tour with us? And I was like, yeah, let's go. Let's do this. What a dream. Yeah, it was incredible. It was incredible. And then I was their tour manager. I was them, I was with them for like two and a half years. And then I went to another band that I was with for two and a half years. And then all during this time period, by the way, I had taken a nutrition class as my last class, my senior year in college. And I remember calling my dad being like, I finally figured out what I want to do. It was just so funny. I literally like my last class. And he was like, Courtney, you need to just finish school. Like, stop. But it sparked my interest in nutrition. And so then I just started doing all this deep diving on my own. And on tour, I was reading all these books and I was stalking our bus with all this like healthy, organic food. And I just became so passionate about it throughout the years as I was learning more stuff. And I was finding people like Mark Hyman and Michael Poland and Dr. Axe. And eventually I got so passionate about it that I was like, this is what I really need to be doing. So I quit. And I left this band in 2011. I moved to Austin actually because I was born in San Antonio. And I was like, kind of like, you know, go back to my roots. And I started my master's program in nutrition. And when I started that program, I was about like two years in. I had met because music is such a small world, actually, like everyone knows everyone. And I had a friend that was tour managing this band, Third Eye Blind. Maybe you heard of it. And I just went out to a festival to say hi to him. And a singer, Stephen comes up to me and he's like, how do you know Kyle? I was like, oh, I used to be a tour manager. And you know, we've toured together in the past. And Stephen goes, I need your number. We need a tour manager. And I remember thinking at the time, I was like, he's just asking, like, it was just like a clever way of him like hitting on me and asking for my number. Well, he called me in the next day and he goes, send me your resume. And I was like, okay, send him my resume. And he basically like the next day is like, we want you to be our tour manager. And at the time, I was like, I was so torn because I had been so on this path of nutrition. And I was like, I just want to be, I thought at the time, I just wanted to be a nutritionist, have clients. And but I remember at the time, telling my boyfriend, I was like, I like, I can't, I can't say no. Like when third line calls, you can't say no. Yeah. That's a hell yes type of opportunity. Yeah. And I was so torn, but I was like, okay, I'm going to do it. And it's so, this is one of those moments where it's so interesting to look back on your path. And at the time, it may feel like you're, you're diverting or you don't really know what you're doing and like everything doesn't feel clear, but you can look back and be like, wow, this was just all part of my journey, right? On like the steps to getting to where I eventually needed to be. And all of it, like life is just a journey like that. But so I ended up with third line for a year. Steven ended up being super into health. He was good friends at Dave Asprey. He got me on the Bulletproof diet. And like I was stalking their bus with all these healthy organic foods. And like, so then what happened was I essentially was like helping them with nutrition. And I also had a friend at the time that was tour managing this pop star called Tovlo. And he calls me one day and he's like, hey, court, he's like, I just started working with this pop star Tovlo. And I was wondering if you would want to come on and do nutrition for her, like make smoothies for her, help her be an eat healthy. We wanted someone who has a background in touring. And we also want someone who knows a lot about nutrition. And I was like, yeah, let's go. So she was Swedish, right? Yeah. So I was traveling like 36 or 40 countries over five years. Yeah. Four years. I was with her for four years and I went to probably with her. So I've been to 36 countries total and probably with her it was about 30 countries or maybe like 32 countries that I went with her. Yeah. What is the actual wear and tear like being on road for that long? I mean, it's why I stopped, honestly. It's a lot. You're working really abnormal hours, super long, late hours. It really throws your body off for years, you guys, after coming off of tour. I could not get on a stable sleeping pattern because like your body is just so I basically had trained my body to just sleep whenever I could because there'd be one day where we'd have a show, we'd play a festival at like 2 p.m. There'd be another day where we'd play at like 1 a.m. You know, we'd be working till like 4 a.m. and then having to get up for a 7 a.m. flight. And so it was like days off there would be days where we're literally just text-tove and be like, I'm not leaving this hotel room bed and it would just sleep all day. So it's a lot. It's really hard on your body. But alternatively, that was literally my job was to make sure that she was my main focus, but it was also the entire band. We had a crew of 11 people, it was 12 with me. And part of my job was to write our writer. And so the writer is what you send out to a venue or a festival or whatever it is before you play and they'll stock your green room with that. And then I also stocked our bus. So it's in another list and be like, this is everything we need for the bus. So everything that came through was like organic, didn't have seed oils, super healthy. And the band after the first tour was like, oh my God, this is incredible. They're like, we have energy, we lost weight, we feel great. Even though they were still like, you know, they were still like partying and like staying up late and all this stuff like we would, they would always laugh because we would, we'd have like a really late night out and then I'd get up in the morning and I'd go to like a juice shop and I'd just bring everyone like ginger shots and green juices and like all this stuff. And so we'd all, we'd get on the bus and I'd just be like handing out like supplements and like, yeah, it was. So there's a lot of things you can do. It's kind of that like bio hacking, you know, where you're like, okay, I've been doing a lot to my body, but here's all the supplements and, you know, all the amazing food that I can give you at least to like counteract some of the effects of it. Is there any semblance of balance on a tour like that or do you just all go, go, go? Really? You have to just, you have to create it in those small moments when you can find them, you know, because it's really, like I said, like every day the shows, I mean, depending on if you're just flying around like what we did a lot for festivals, your, your stage time would be different every day depending on what festival you were playing. But if we were on a proper tour and she was like headlining, we knew every night she was going on stage like nine p.m. So sometimes it kind of depended on what, yeah, like where, where we were at as far as like touring schedule goes. But yeah, I mean, it's, you're really, you know, it's, it's hard to find balance in all that. I imagine a lot of people don't take what you took seriously, which was, you know, health, they can carry yourself. And that actually affects their performance, I'm sure, right? Like, did you see anyone like from an outsider's perspective who toured really well, like yourself? Like, you know, you would help the band take care of their nutrition, probably tell them to sleep more or all this stuff. You see what else like doing it right and like seeing that performance actually pay off or that routine payoff in their performance. Like other bands. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we did a tour with Coldplay and the singer, oh my God, I'm blanking on his aunt Chris Martin. Chris. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We would always see or no, actually, you know what, it wasn't Chris Martin. Sorry. We also went on tour with Maroon 5 and I'm getting them mixed up. We would see, we would see the singer of Maroon 5 running every day with his trainer. So a lot of these like really big bands will bring trainers, chiropractors, nutritionists, and we'd always see him like working out for the shows. The Coldplay tour was really awesome because we were, not only because we were touring Europe, but they had this amazing catering every day. Because that's a lot of it too is if you don't have someone who's actually paying attention to the catering and like really like curating in a good way, a lot of times like the, these small venues are just notorious for giving you just crap food. So I would do something which is called a buyout. I would always tell the venue is like, we're doing a buyout. We're not doing catering because basically like it was like, I don't trust you to feed us good food. Yeah. And then I would find healthy organic foods to like, or restaurants to then order from. Yeah. And I know you were saying that a big part was like bringing in juices and wellness shots and things like that. And one of the things I was going to ask you is from your perspective, like how did you think about managing the meals themselves on the road and like, was the seed oil movement kind of a thing back then, were you attuned to that at all? Yeah. I mean, the answer to that is like, yes, and no. I've known for a very long time that canola oil was really bad for us. But I did not know the extent of all the different oils. One that were being used and also didn't even really think about the fact that there was all these other oils that we had to worry about. And when I was eating and we were eating out so often like that, I wasn't even thinking about the oils at all because all the places I was finding for the most part were organic and healthy spots. Like I'd find a lot of these like healthy juice bars that would be making like sandwiches and salads and whatever and stuff like that. And so no, I didn't really think about it at the time. Now I'd be like way more on it, especially with that seed oil scout app. Oh yeah. It's incredible to work that they're doing. For you, what is your personal progression with nutrition been like just kind of like, how do you think about structuring your meals, cooking your meals, eating out? Like what are the foods that you really like to incorporate that make you feel your best as a woman? Yeah, I love this question. So I think especially for women, we've really been taught to fear fat because we have equated eating fat as gaining weight. Thanks to that Harvard study. You guys want me to mention that? Yeah. There was a Harvard study down in the 70s and what they found is that sugar is what actually leads to heart attacks and inflammation and cardiovascular disease essentially. And the sugar industry got wind of this and they pay these Harvard scientists off like the equivalent. I mean, it was not even that much money. I think it was like $50,000 or something to change their findings to it being fat actually instead of sugar that causes heart disease. Well, then what happened? It spurred the entire low fat movement. Everyone goes low fat. Well, what happens when you take the fat out of food? You have to replace that because fat creates that really good mouth feeling taste with your food. And so when you take out the fat, you have to add all the sugar back in. So then we're just eating like loads of sugar. And then as a result, like still to this day, people are so scared of eating fat. And for women, I mean, it's good for men and women across the board. But for women, it's really good for hormonal imbalance, for satiety. Eating fat actually helps you to maintain a healthy weight. It helps with fertility. There's so many amazing things about fat. And so for me, the way that I build a plate thinking about that is I make sure I'm always eating a good, healthy fat. That's like one of my number one priorities and then a good, healthy protein. And by protein, I mean animal based proteins. I do not believe in eating the plant based proteins. And we can also go into that. And then obviously like a good balance of a carbohydrate, I never eat my carbohydrates naked. And I think this is really important for balancing blood sugar. When you think about the rise of PCOS that's happening right now, the rise of infertility that's happening for women. And a lot of that is coming back to a blood sugar imbalance. PCOS is a blood sugar imbalance. And so you want to make sure when you're eating your carbohydrates that you're dressing them with good, high quality fats in order to keep your blood sugar more balanced, you're not going to have that extreme spike and then dip and then you're going to be craving more sugar and yeah, wear out your body. What sort of carbs do you think are fair game? We're coming from keto con. So it was basically like no carbs at all. But do you think that there is a place for carbs in a diet and what would you recommend? Yeah. Well, and this is coming from a woman's perspective and I've read a lot about this. A lot of the people that are huge proponents for ketogenic diets are men. And that's totally great. I actually, I think ketogenic diets are great for men. I do have a fee. I have a sense that being keto forever is probably not good for you. I think the best way to approach it is to kind of come in and out of it. I think it in general men's bodies respond better to it for women. We definitely need a little bit more carbohydrates and I've seen a lot of women talk about this. I've seen a lot of women go ketogenic and then come out and be like, this was actually really bad for my body. I can speak to it for myself anecdotally that when I went ketogenic, I was actually so lethargic. People talk about you get all this energy from being keto and your body is fueled by fats. I realized for me that I needed to have at least a little bit of carbohydrates. I can't go super heavy with them. And a lot of this too depends on your own biology and I want to encourage everyone listening to you're really going to have to figure out what works best for you. Like I have done so many different iterations of different diets because I've done paleo. I've done low carb. I've done keto. I've done whole throat. Like I've done everything and I got to this place where I just started making mental notes like, okay, I felt like crap when I ate keto. I was super lethargic. I couldn't. I had no energy to do my workouts. I was hungry a lot of the time. But then what I found too is when I went vegetarian, I was basically carb loading because you're carb loading when you're a vegetarian. And I got extremely sick on the opposite spectrum. So like for me, what works for me is on the lower end of carbohydrates, but I need some or my body doesn't function correctly. And I think that's the way for a lot of women. Are all carbs created equals though? Are you choosing rice, sweet potatoes versus, I mean, there's a bunch of like garbage carbs out there as well? Yes, that is a great point because there's that whole like, if it fits in my macros movement and people are just like, get your carbs, wherever from like cereal. Or there's this new trend that I was just told about the eating rice crispy treats before you work out. Have you guys heard this? Oh my God. I posted a video. Let's kill this one before it gets bought. You guys. It's so bad. I don't know the full ins and outs of it. All I know is the comments I've gotten, but I posted a video recently about how bad rice crispy treats are for you. Like the actual branded like, what's that brand? It makes it Kelloggs or whatever. Yeah, the little like packaged ones is what I'm talking about specifically. I had talked about all the different ingredients in there that were terrible for you. And all these people were like, no, that's like my pre-workout snack. Or someone was like, oh, I saw a TikTok on like, this is what you do before pre-workout. And I was like, what? No. So yes, not all carbohydrates are created equally. You definitely want to get, you do not want to be eating refined carbohydrates or like highly processed carbohydrates. You want to look for sprouted. So if you're buying bread, if you do eat gluten, I'm gluten free. But if you eat gluten, you want sprouted grains, like sprouted breads. I know grains in the whole like keto carnivore world is like a blast with me. But I'm okay with a little bit of it. As long as they are organic, because you want to make sure they're not being sprayed with glyphosate, the sprouting actually removes the phytic acid, which is what everyone in like the carnivore keto world are really concerned about. I think white rice is a really great option too. That's usually what I opt for. And white rice is actually better for you than brown rice, because it's lower in arsenic. It's easier to digest. And it's just, it's a better carbohydrate. Yeah. It was interesting in keto con because we were there promoting our company that's about to launch Noble Origin. So it's an animal based protein powder. And there were so many women that were coming up to the booth and were like, oh my gosh, I love this because I really struggle to get protein in my diet. And I thought that was interesting because from my perspective, I'm like, if you're able to cook two meals a day and you're getting like a good whack of animal protein, the size of your palm, you should be good to go. So I'm just, I was just so curious as to like, are they not cooking their meals? Are they not eating enough? I'm like, it really shouldn't be that difficult to get enough protein and fat in your diet. And I'm sure that's something you think a lot about. Yeah. You know, actually it's interesting because I had a similar experience recently where I got a bunch of blood worked on and my doctor was like, your protein was really low. And I was like, really? Like, how is that possible? Because I eat a lot of animal protein. I usually have animal protein with at least two meals a day. I don't, I don't, to be honest, like I have now been doing, I'm really excited about your protein powder because I have been doing protein shakes now because I thought just by eating, you know, steak and chicken and whatever else that I'm eating every day that I was getting enough. I think too, just maybe like women, at least for me, like depending on where I'm at my cycle, like my appetite is lower. And so I think I'm just eating less in general because it is, it's such a balance of like trying to figure out like how much protein and how much fat to get. And then you're really full and you're like, but I didn't have enough protein, but like, you know, you don't want to like completely stuff yourself. So it's, yeah, it's a balancing act for sure. What proteins do you really like to incorporate that sit well with your body? And do you have any recommendations for people that are just trying to source better quality protein? I know you mentioned force of nature, but would love your thoughts on that too. Yeah. So I'll give you a wide range because I want it to be accessible as possible. You want to look for organic grass fed. I'm a huge proponent for eating ground beef or just beef in general, which is so funny because most of my life, I didn't eat it growing up because I grew up in Texas and I don't, yeah, just for some reason I was fed so much of it as a kid that I was like, I don't like this. I think too, women more specifically, I think a lot of women go vegetarian because we're so sensitive to the thought of killing an animal. I was vegetarian for five years actually and I was the sickest I've ever been. And so I started eating meat again, literally out of survival. But when you, so what brought me back was I started learning about this process of organic and grass fed and farmers that were actually doing right by the animals where there's this concept of they only have one bad day of their life, you know? And so that's why for me, I'm so passionate about this because I had initially gone vegetarian because I started learning about all the factory farming that's happening, you know, the CAFOs, the concentrated animal feeding lots where they, I mean, they're sick animals, you know, they're being injected with growth hormones and given antibiotics and they're being fed grains that don't even work well with their stomachs, you know, and so we're creating unhealthy meat and it's also terrible for the animals. So I'm very passionate about this subject and I encourage people to, you know, put your money where your values lie, you know, and that means that you're going to be spending a little bit more money on really high quality meat, but it's not only better for the ethical treatment of these animals, it's also better for our health. It's also going to help change this whole movement and we can hopefully get rid of these factory-farmed animals because this is really what, you know, we're, I always hope vegans this. I'm like, you guys, we are all on the same page here. Like we are all against this and we want to get rid of this. So how can we all band together? And one of the ways of doing that is putting our money into the farmers and into the people that are actually taking care with their animals, you know, and so this is why I really love force of nature. They do these organic, regeneratively farmed animals. I'm trying to think of more accessible too. Like, you know, sometimes it's hard because I feel like there is a lot of green washing happening and you can't fully know what's really happening behind the scenes, but I have seen it places like Trader Joe's at Walmart at Target. I've seen 100% grass with organic meat and I always try to encourage people to buy that because generally speaking, it's usually only a dollar to two difference in the price. Like I said, I mean, you never know, like hopefully they're actually doing the practices right, but I'm just, I'm trying to meet people where they're at and I know people have differing budgets. If you can afford to buy your meat from places like force of nature, I highly recommend it because we really, I've met the people behind it. You guys have too, like we know that they're really doing it right. I'm trying to think of other, there's other companies. There's a brand called Butcherbox that does grass fed meat that's like delivered to your door, depending on where you live in the country, you can also check out farmers markets and go and I encourage people if you can do this, if it's accessible for you, go to farmers markets and talk to the people growing your food. Develop a relationship with them, you know, like find out where their farm is, find out how they're treating their animals and how they're treating their land, if they're spraying pesticides on it. It's a really important part of, of recreating that relationship with our food, you know, because we're so disconnected from it. I want to take a second to talk about some of my favorite organifi products and why I love them. I first started getting into health, I was an avid juicer. I was buying fresh veggies every couple days and wearing out my juicer and also wearing out myself by trying to constantly juice vegetable juices because I wanted to flood my body with all of the nutrients, the phytonutrients that you get from green juices. But after a while, I was like, I cannot keep doing this every day and also maintain my job, maintain my social life and everything else. But I really wanted to make sure that I had a good high quality green juice that was organic and I knew that I could trust came from a good source. So when I discovered organifi, I was so happy. They not only have a green juice, but they also have a red juice and I really like to mix them together because it really helps with the flavor profile. And you're not only getting all of the green phytonutrients from the green juice, but you're also getting all the antioxidants from the red juice. So it's like a win-win situation. I also really love their chocolate gold. It's their low sugar hot chocolate mix and it's loaded with ingredients like lemon balm, turkey tail, magnesium chloride and racy. There's also turmeric in there as well. So it really helps to calm down your nervous system before bed and it really makes me sleepy. It also helps to digestion because you have the turmeric in there. You have cinnamon, you have ginger, black pepper. So it's helping with digestion and inflammation. I'm a really big fan of this. You can also put in your coffee in the morning and it kind of helps to balance out the jitters that you might get from your morning coffee. And then another product that I'm really loving and taking every single day is their liver reset. Even living is incredibly taxing on our liver. Like just existing is hard on our liver because we are constantly being inundated with pesticides, heavy metals, environmental toxins, not to mention if we drink alcohol that's also going to put a strain on our liver. So I think it's incredibly important that we take something every single day to support our liver health. This product has trifala in it. It also has dandelion, milk thistle and artichoke extract, which all have been scientifically backed and proven to provide protection for the liver. And then of course the most important part about Organifi products is that they are all organic and they go a step further by guaranteeing that they are glyphosate residue free. Glyphosate is a known herbicide that is sprayed on a lot of our crops these days. It's also sneaking into organic foods and it is a known carcinogen. So it's incredibly important to make sure that we limit our exposure as much as possible to glyphosate. If you guys want to try any of the Organifi products and get 20% off, go to Organifi.com slash Real Foodology. You're going to see all of my favorite products in that store and you're also going to get 20% off. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I dot com slash Real Foodology. We worked pretty closely with a few farms here like Holy Cow Beef in Lubbock, Texas and then Purnial Pastures in San Diego. I don't know. Have you heard of them? No, I haven't. We got to get you out there big time. Yeah. Or we should all connect out there. Yes, that'd be awesome. Purnial Pastures is in San Diego and they're doing their full regenerative supply chain sourcing from a farm in West Texas, Montana and then San Diego. But to your point, I feel like the dogmatic nature of nutrition has created these weird alignments where we all agree on what the problem is, but we can't agree on just how to talk about it. So factory farming is the perfect example. It's like if an animal is unhealthy and I think it's like 80% of antibiotics go to animals. So if these animals are that sick, should we actually even be eating them? The answer is absolutely not. And so I think that just goes to show like all these issues are very interconnected. And if we can start having these conversations across the aisle like, hey, the people who actually care about how this food is being raised on the vegan side of the aisle are very similar to the people who care about how food is being raised on the carnivore side of the aisle. So I just think that like we do need to have this conversation and open up these nutrition lenses that people aren't as dogmatic. They feel comfortable talking about the issues and finding those common grounds because the issues are very much interconnected and feel there's more in common than we realize. Yeah, yeah, that was so well put. What is your perspective on like speaking to a fellow woman that's maybe like five years similar to you, plant-based vegetarian? They're hearing more about beef and animal protein, but they really can't like they can't make that jump to eating it because they're really worried about the moral piece of death. I'm sure you probably have a green perspective like actually being there, but that's something that I struggle with is like, how do we actually convince vegetarians to eat more meat? Because like we basically you're outsourcing death by, you know what I mean? Like just by you're basically outsourcing death by saying, oh, I don't want an animal to die where it's like death is integral to the process regardless, right? So I'm just curious, like, have you had any success converting like vegetarian women over to the animal-based? Yes, but it was never, how do I put this? I've never like been on a mission to like convert vegetarians or vegans per se. I just, my whole approach is I really believe in sharing the truth with people and I also believe in informed consent. And what's happening on a mainstream level right now is that we're being told that plant-based is healthy for everyone. Everyone can do it. Everyone should do it because we're being told that it's better for the environment, it's better for your health, et cetera. And I see that and I call bullshit. I'm like, this is a lot. We're literally being lied to. And so I just have this intense passion for like sharing the truth is really what it is. And so as a result of me sharing that, I've had many people come to me and say, oh my God, thank you so much. I was vegetarian for a long time and you encouraged me to start eating meat. And to speak to your question, there's a couple different things happening there. One, what was happening for me for a long time, and I've heard a lot of vegetarians talk about this is they say like, well, I don't want to take another animal's life in order for me to survive. So if that means that I don't live as long, there's almost this like martyrdom happening. So one, it's like, I see this disconnect of self-love where I'm like, you hate yourself so much that you don't want to actually like take, really take care of yourself and take note of what's happening with your health. Because I was so sick, but I was like, I can't do this because I can't take another animal's life. And I understand there's a lot of empathy there. And it's also a beautiful thing that we feel that way, right? Because I mean, thank God we do because otherwise it's like, I mean, I would be concerned of some of what was I'm feeling empathetic about it, you know? But we also have to understand that part of life is death. Like, unfortunately, I think there's not even a thing. There's this huge disconnect between life and death. And what's actually happening is a lot of people are not fully facing the reality of like living also means dying, you know? And it's all part of this cycle. And if we want to live on this planet and be healthy, there are certain things we have to do like eat meat, which is incredibly healthy for us. I also believe, I'm not like religious, but I am spiritual and I believe that animals were put on the planet for our sustenance, you know? Because they were like nature's perfect food. If you eat nose to tail, like a cow, for example, you will get every single essential nutrient that we need in our diet and essential nutrients are ones that we have to get from our diet. Our bodies don't produce them naturally. And so yeah, I think there really is this level of having to, there's a bit of like a spirituality there where you just have to understand that like part of life is death, you know? Oh, and there's one more thing I want to say that I think a lot of vegans are not aware of. Like farming vegetables kills so many animals. So many animals, thousands. Thousands. I mean in plants, I mean, yeah, like the, I think people like to think that like the animal kingdom, you know, think about death just in terms of the animal kingdom, but they spray so many pesticides. It's like, it's like, it's in, or herbicides. Yeah. It's insane. Well, it's killing the microbiome of the soil. It's killing all the bugs off in a soil and also on top of that farmers will say that, you know, they have to, I mean, this weekend a farmer was talking about how like they shoot down all these, um, what do they call them? The ground hogs, like little prairie dogs. Yeah. I mean, they shoot them down like crazy. And you think about like, um, the snakes, the, all the critters that are living on the land that they have to kill essentially to like mow down and create this like sterile land in order to grow. And then there's also a huge problem happening with the bees right now. And without our bees, we don't have a food system basically at all. And we're killing off all the bees. Um, and then there's a huge problem with the birds now, not being able to find as much food because we are killing so many bugs and just like whole, the entire ecosystem by farming in this monocrop culture, you know, the big ag industrialized farming system that we have going on right now. Are you hopeful that we can reverse some of these trends? I'm very hopeful, especially after, uh, coming out of a conference like this weekend, there, there's a lot of big steps that are involved in, in actually changing this. What I am hopeful about is that we know the solution and there's a lot of people working on it and there's a lot of people very passionate about it. And there's a lot of people doing it the right way. It's really a matter of, um, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of shifts that need to happen in these large corporations, but that's where you, the listener right now, this is how we are a part of the change and we can actually make a massive change by putting our dollars into the people that are doing it right. Yeah. And that's an example that too, because when you were plant based and vegetarian, it's like, you're an informed consumer. You're trying to do the right thing. You're being told that going vegetarian and plant based is healthy. And so you're trying it and it's like, yeah, when you're going off the standard American diet and you're switching to real foods and cooking vegetables and things like that, you will feel better only up to a certain point. So we've had on a number of women that were formerly plant based vegan raw vegan and they were like, I tried it cause I was trying to do the right thing, but it was just the wrong approach. And as soon as they started incorporating the right foods, which are the most bioavailable, which are animal products, like you mentioned, they were health just skyrocketed. Yeah. But it's like you have to, it's like you almost have to, how do you teach someone to be able to develop that intuitive sense of like what I'm doing is not ultimately working. But I think just having more conversations like this and just putting out more material, going to things like Rome ranch, like go out and visit your local farmer, look at the way that the cows are being raised, the chickens are being raised. And then you realize, oh wow, these animals have incredible lives. And unfortunately, it's like they do need to die, unfortunately, for you to be able to get the best possible nutrition. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like the access to information too is hugely important. Like you were saying, just like a lot of people live in metropolitan areas where they are really disconnected to the food system that is mostly in rural areas. So they need to have people who can have these types of conversations or at least present them the information for them. So it's like they're not just getting information from the echo chamber of like, you know, urbanized food, which is generally, I don't think it's like supporting rural America very much. Yeah. Yeah. We're very disconnected from our food system. And it's showing right now. I mean, we're, we have a population of 7% that's healthy at the moment, you know, and it's very multifaceted. But a lot of it is because we are disconnected from our food and from that intuition that you were just talking about. And it's so interesting as I started my journey of this like real food, when I started my nutrition journey, essentially, when I first went vegetarian, looking back, I was very disconnected with myself because I can look back now and see the very clear signs that my body was trying to tell me that I was super unhealthy, but I wasn't listening. And I think a lot of it too is I was very disconnected from that intuitive knowing. And as I got healthier and as I dropped the processed foods and the highly palatable, you know, addictive food, like products as I call them, they're not even real foods, you know, you become more in tune with your body. Because that's, that's the coolest thing about all this is that our bodies really know what we need. And towards the end of my journey of being plant based, my, it was so funny. The whole like five years, basically, I was not craving meat until the last like couple months. And that was always my like, I'd like brag about it. I was like, I don't even miss meat. And then like the last couple months, I was like, you guys, it was literally having dreams about me. I have one time this dream is actually so fun. Just cows are. One of them I, I remember very specifically, I literally woke myself up in the middle of the night, I was air feeding myself chicken nuggets. Like I had a dream that I was eating chicken nuggets and I woke up and I was like, my mouth, my fingers were at my mouth. And I was like, I think that was the last straw. I remember calling my mom and my mom was like, please eat, meet your body is literally telling you and you're not listening. Yeah, we had on Bella, who goes by steak and butter gal. So she's a carnivore. I think she's based out of you. I think she's out of Seattle, potentially. She was raw vegan and she actually said the same thing to you. She started having dreams of eggs cooked in Kerry Gold butter. And when she finally made the switch over to like a carnivore diet, that was the first meal that she had. So it's like literally embedded in your subconscious. It's like your body, your mind, your spirit is telling you what it actually wants. Exactly. And so not to shift gears too much by no nutrition, real foods and building intuition. That's a huge part of your approach. But what are some of the other things that you really like to talk to women about in terms of optimizing their health, whether it's like sleep, getting off birth control, regulating your hormone health? I know that's also a huge part of your message too. So we'd love to dig into that. Yeah. Oh my God, I love talking about birth control. Yeah. Because talk about again, being cut off from your intuition. We are when women are on birth control, you actually don't have you don't ovulate. So you're not actually having a period, which is crazy. When I learned this, I was so mad because we hear from our doctors, you know, like, oh, yeah, you have a period every month on your birth control, but you also they would encourage us to skip it by just taking more pills. But what's actually happening is just something called a pill bleed. And they they just engineered these pills to make your body do that just so that you like could feel like you were just, you know, you still had a period and a cycle and everything, but you don't actually have a cycle because what's happening, we're, we're also told that it's balancing our hormones and so many women actually in the very beginning, most women are actually not even put on birth control for what its sole uses is birth control. It's actually a lot of women were put on for acne or PCOS or endometriosis, all these other hormonal issues that are going on. And it's been prescribed as this like fix all for hormones and we were told by doctors that, oh, this will balance your hormones. Your hormones are unbalanced right now. This will balance it. That is a complete lie. What's actually happening is that it's replacing your own body's natural hormones with synthetic hormones. So these are hormones that your body does not make naturally. It is replacing them entirely. So you're not ovulating. And what I love to remind women of all the time is that your entire cycle is so much more than just like your fertility and getting pregnant. It's literally your report card of your health every month. And so like if you're not getting your period, then that's your body telling you like something's up, you know, or if you're dealing with PCOS, like that's usually a blood sugar imbalance. So like I would go get checked for diabetes and really be on like your carbohydrate intake and your fat intake. So what's happening is when we're putting women on these synthetic hormones that are also classified as a carcinogen one by the way, which means that we know that they cause certain forms of cancer. And a lot of these women are getting put on birth control at 15, 16, like really young impressionable ages where they don't even understand the full gravity of what they're doing to their bodies. And I say all this like, you know, for any women listening that this is your story, not to make you feel shamed at all. Like this is what is being done to women right now that I think is absolutely atrocious and it's not our fault. You know, this is part of a system like a much bigger than us. And they're taking advantage of us like not, you know, being in the dark about our bodies and being in the dark about what these pharmaceutical drugs actually do to our bodies. And we don't teach women from a young age about our cycles at all. We know nothing like and we're told that we can get pregnant every day of the year, which actually it's really a window of like six to eight days. So why are we taking these synthetic hormones for 30 days out of the month, being scared that we can get pregnant when it's actually only like a six to eight day window. We're not taught anything about our cycles or ovulation at all. So if you're a woman listening to this right now and you've been on birth control for a long time, I never want to tell anyone that they should do anything anyway. Like I said earlier, I just really believe in informed consent, you know, like if you're on it and you love it and you feel great, like more power to you because like, you know, the only one that really knows it's best for your body. But there is this huge awakening happening right now of women just being like, Oh my God, what have I been doing to my body for so long? Another really wild fact that scares me and I'm so grateful. I actually never, I went on birth control twice when I was younger a couple of years apart and both times I couldn't even finish out the month because I don't even know how like I was just so connected with my body that I was like, Oh my God, I feel insane. Like I just felt so weird in my body that I couldn't do it. And so I stopped taking them. But a lot of women, what will happen is they'll go on birth control. They'll be on it for, you know, like 10 years. They'll meet their partner, they get married and then they start trying to have kids. So they come off the birth control and suddenly they're not attracted to their man anymore. And this is something that's happening because of the fair moans, because when you think about when you're on synthetic hormones, those are not your true essence. Those are not your real hormones. And we're attracted to each other by hormones. And so you're mad. I mean, I have friends that have these stories where they came off and they're like, he literally smells different to me now. It's so bizarre. It's so bizarre. So crazy. So when you just think about all these things that it's doing to your body, why would we want to be messing with that? You know, especially when you think about our hormones are vital to everyday life. Like this isn't just like talking about whether or not you can get pregnant or not. It's like your endocrine system runs everything for your whole body. You know, it's like how your body, it's yeah, you need it for. Yeah. And then you consider the age that most people are getting on these hormones too. It's crazy to think that most people are young adults or not even they're still in adolescence when they start taking those pills. They're girls. They're not women. They haven't even built up like the intuition of what their body is going to be like as an adult. Yes. Yes. So there is a huge percentage. I don't know the exact percentage, but there is a massive percentage of women that once they go on birth control, they shortly afterwards go on antidepressants because there is a massive swing in upswing in depression when you go on these hormones. And I can't tell you, I had a girlfriend telling me this the other day. She was like, I didn't even realize when I was on birth control for 10 years, I was literally living in this like depression cloud that she felt lifted when she went off birth control. It's crazy. It's crazy. What does managing or balancing your hormones naturally look like? Because I feel like that's something that anyone who's whether you're on birth control or off a, you should at least know how to manage it, manage your hormones naturally so you can feel good and feel comfortable in your body. Yeah. Well, so there's a lot of different things you can do. One, I would encourage everyone to find a really good doctor. I would encourage you to look for an integrative or, oh my God, why am I a functional doctor? Because these doctors work from a more zoomed out perspective and they look at the entire body as a whole and they're not going to be trying to push you to go on hormones or push you to go on certain pharmaceutical drugs. They want to look at your entire lifestyle. They want to look at your diet specifically and really, and too, they know how to, to what labs to order and how to read them because you, you can't just do this like shooting in the dark. I can't just say like, Oh, take these supplements and you'll be fine because it totally depends on like my hormonal makeup is going to be so different than someone who's been on birth control for 10 years, you know, as you're trying to rebalance that. So highly encourage working with someone who's going to do the blood work because that's going to give you a lot of insight about what's actually happening in your body. Also I love, there's an app called natural cycles that actually it's synced to my oring. So this oring is my birth control essentially. And so it syncs to an app in your phone and you don't have to get the oring by the way because I know the oring is really expensive. You can just do the natural cycles and just get a basal thermometer and you take your temperature every morning and then based on where your temperature is at, it tells you basically where you are in your cycle. So that's a lot of it too. A lot of it requires a bit of learning about your body and how your body works, but it's so much more empowering to know your body and know the ins and outs of it and know how your hormones work than just like taking a pill every month and suppressing all of it, you know. And so I'm a huge component of that or proponent for that. And then making sure that you're prioritizing really good healthy foods like high quality fats like I was saying earlier, making sure that you're eating enough protein. Also sleep, you mentioned sleep is a huge one. Thankfully, people are really starting to talk about this. I feel like sleep for a long time is kind of ignored. There was a lot of like, well, it's fine. Sleep whenever. But now we're really starting to realize that it's so important to be on a consistent schedule, try to go to bed around the same hour every night. Obviously no one's perfect and you're going to have a weekend where you got a party and it's fine. Like don't let that derail you. But for the most part, if you can go to bed on a consistent time, wake up at a consistent time, make sure you're getting sunlight first thing in the morning and your eyes. Go outside. Maybe take a little walk. If you have time, at least just go outside for a couple of minutes. All of these things will help to signal to your body, you know, what first of all, like where you're at in that time of the day, but also to help with overall hormonal balances. I saw, I think it was Paul Saladino. He posted a video outside of a Lulu lemon shop and was talking about the amount of like hormone disrupting chemicals that are in like the leggings and the tops and everything like that. And I don't know if it's BPA, I don't know the exact chemical terminology, but I'm curious if that's something you're mindful of if clothing, things that women should be thinking about too. I mean, and men obviously. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a huge problem across the board right now. So that's another one too, is that we are getting so flooded with hormones from so many different or not even necessarily hormones. What's happening is we're, there's so many different chemicals in our tap water in our food like pesticides. I'm also in our food, the plastic containers that a lot of our food is in or like plastic water bottles, for example, these chemicals like BPA, but there's also BPA or yeah, BPS and PFA's, which are forever chemicals that are leaching into our food and into our water. So they're getting into our body and then you look at women specifically, this is way more of a problem for women than men. Women on average are exposed to 168 chemicals a day because of the products that we use like the body lotions and the, you know, the makeup and just the general like care for women that men don't do as much. So we're being exposed to all these different chemicals that we now know a lot of them are endocrine disrupting, meaning that they are causing imbalances in our hormones. And this is also another huge reason why we're seeing infertility and why we're seeing so many hormonal imbalances and then the clothing is another one too. So I will say admittedly that's one I haven't even fully tackled yet. Like I'm starting to buy more organic clothes and stuff. It's just like, you know, I'm sure even the listener right now is like, oh my God, there's so much stuff we have to worry about, you know? And so it's kind of like, I want to encourage people like, you know, one step at a time, like clean up your makeup products, clean up your beauty products, clean up your cleaning products in your house. The clothing is a big one. Yeah, like Lulemon, all these massive, what's that company recently? She and I think where they found lead in their clothing? Are you sure? Yes. It's terrible. And then you think about like Lulemon. So I think what he found was PFA's, which are the poly, I always forget how to say it, polyfluorinated something. I can't remember exactly what the whole thing is. I don't know, we can look it up, but it's basically, yeah, basically they're forever chemicals and it's what's found in like Teflon, which Teflon I believe is being phased out now. But it's these chemicals that are like nonstick or the stuff that's being sprayed on stuff to make it waterproof. So all your like waterproof jacket, like rain jackets and boots and it's in like workout clothes and stuff. And we're realizing that they're calling them forever chemicals because once they're in the environment, they never break down. They're in the environment indefinitely. And then we know they affect the endocrine or they affect the endocrine system by disrupting it, leading to thyroid problems, infertility, cancers in some case. It's a huge concern. And then you think about you're working out in this close. So you're like sweating, your pores are opening, and then those chemicals are going directly in your bloodstream. It's a concern, but it's like, man, there's a lot of stuff happening in our environment right now. There's so much stuff. It could be so overwhelming too, just for the average person. Like, I mean, for me, like, I like to make the changes that I can measure, right? Like the things like wearing cotton clothes and clothes is obviously a huge step in the right direction. It's something that probably accumulates over time. But for most people, they want to be able to like feel the change happen at least in like, you know, a week or so or two weeks, like at least to tell that they're going in the right direction. So I do feel like habit change is something that is so important to talk about when it comes to nutrition and lifestyle, because it's so much more than just do this to do that. It's how do you do it? How do you make it a lifestyle? How can you make it stick? So I'm wondering if you have any tips for people who are just stuck, need to like have something that just spurs them to make some action, create some positive habits in their life. Yeah. I think the first step is just really making peace with the fact that this is actually happening because I think there's a lot of denial of people saying like, oh, like that's a conspiracy or that, you know, they would never allow that on the shelves or, you know, the government's regulating all this. Guys, I'm sorry, but they're not, you know, and this is becoming one of the biggest issues of our generation that we will fix because so many people are waking up to it now. But that is part that is your first step. You got to admit there's a problem, you know, and, and then from there, it's, you know, it's kind of, it's a baby steps approach of, okay, what can I, what can I actively change today? Also really getting in touch with your why, you know, and using that as your north star, like why, why are you concerned about this and using that to remember to also, you know, be that kind of driving force? Like for me, my why is I want to live a long time. I also don't want to be sick while I'm here on this planet. I really would love to not get cancer. I would really love to not get all of these standard American diseases that so many people are suffering from on such crazy levels right now. And so for me, I'm like, okay, I'm going to do the best that I possibly can do. What are the tangible things that I can change today? And then it just kind of like spirals from there, you know, I mean, when I first got into all of this, it's not like I changed everything overnight. So it is baby steps and there's a lot of compassion involved knowing that you were doing the best that you could with the information you had then and now that you know better, you do better. And just knowing that you've been doing the best you can up until now and now you know, and now you can make these little changes and not feeling like you have to make all these changes overnight, you know, because as you do one thing, then another thing happens. And then it's just like kind of a snowball effect that just kind of naturally happens as well. And you just tackle the little things as you can, you know, definitely. It's such a good point. And we had Mark sissing on a couple of weeks ago and one of the things he was talking about, it really reminded me of what you're saying is there's something about human psychology where we're really wired to want all these biohacking tools versus the very simple, like sustainable solutions. Like we want the cold plunge, we want the ordering, we want the supplements, we want the protein powder, but it's like, why don't you prioritize sleeping eight hours? Like you said, shopping the outer aisle, the grocery store, maybe switching to some cotton clothing, getting eight hours of sleep. It's like these very simple things that are super unsexy, but like compounded over time, you can legitimately change your genetics, which is such an amazing thing. Yeah, most of those things don't cost any money. And then, you know, in added layer two to give some people some comfort. So the fact of the matter is we know that we're being infiltrated with all these different toxins from so many different areas right now, right? And we can do one of two things. We can totally spiral out and be like, Oh my God, we're all, you know, fucked and we can't do anything about it. Or there are things you can do like prioritize sweating every day, you know, prioritize moving your body. That doesn't, that doesn't mean like to your point, that doesn't mean that you need to go get like a $12,000 sauna and like an insane like $300 a month gym membership. That literally could look like you do a hot bath with Epsom salts in it. That's basically free, like hot enough to where you sweat and then go for a run outside, go for a walk around your neighborhood. Obviously if you have the money for all these tools, do it. You know, if you have the access to a sauna, I tell people try to sweat at least a couple times a week because that's at least going to get your lymphatic system moving. It's going to get a lot of those toxins out. Like there's things that we can do to mitigate some of the effects of it. And then it's, you know, being on your diet, making sure that you're eating healthy so that your detoxification pathways are open and clear so that your body can get rid of a lot of this stuff because another thing too is our bodies are miraculous. They're amazing. Yes. So there's a lot of things that our body is doing for us that we don't even give it enough credit for. So we're not completely fucked, but they're, you know, we need to be aware of this and be doing the things that we can, but yeah, like do the things that you can. And it doesn't have to be as hard as we sometimes make it out to be. Yeah. And a lot of it can be free too. Like most of the efficient, efficient and effective stuff is free. Getting more sleep, getting some might being active. Like you can do all of that without spending a dollar. Exactly. And fun too. I think there's this misconception with a lot of millennials, like friends that I have from New York that haven't made that shift over towards this lifestyle that think that like, oh, you're depriving yourselves of so many different foods and experiences and memories. And it's like, why don't you try cooking a meal with some of your best friends and see how much fun you have that night? Like some of my favorite memories ever, like getting a couple of people around a table, cooking some steak, some vegetables, like something really simple and just sharing a meal, maybe with like a little bit of wine and like you have great laughs. And I don't know. It's like these, these simple things. If you could just promote that to people, they don't even understand what they're missing out on. I love this so much. And it reminds me of what this woman said at the conference this weekend that was so profound. She was like, what people don't understand that are not, that are not paying attention. And they're just eating a standard American diet. They're eating these processed foods and not prioritizing their health. They're giving up their freedom. They're giving up their freedom to living a high quality long life. They're giving up their freedom to be able to play with their kids, have energy to see their friends, have energy to do the things that they want to do every day. Because when you're, when you're even just like moderately sick, like your joints are inflamed, your back hurts, like, you know, I'm not even talking about, you know, the diseases like diabetes and the stuff where it's really starting to affect people, even just on a like a lower grade level, if you're living with some sort of inflammation, you're not going to have the energy to go out with your friends and go for a hike or go do the things that you genuinely love to do. Or like if you have kids, like, I want to have a lot of energy for my kids. I want to be able to run around and like, you know, do all the things that they want to do and I want to be able to spend quality time with the people that I love. And when you're sick, even low grade, like you can't be present. And so you're giving up your freedom by not prioritizing yourself and your health. Yeah. And we were talking about this with Mark as well. I was like, that your health obviously should be the center of your life, but your life should like, you shouldn't be stressing about it. You shouldn't be white-neckling yourself to just like constantly be thinking about your health. Like it should just, there should be so much more flow with that relationship to your body. And just, I think you should be spending time enjoying the people and the things that you like to do. And the health should just be the backbone of that. Yes. And I will say too, I think everyone, oh, I can only speak to my experience, but when I first really started getting into health, I think there is this period of time where you're like, oh my God, everything's going to kill us and I can only eat these like five things. Right. But that passes. You know, like you find a place of equilibrium. It's kind of with everything in life. It's like you kind of go from one extreme to the other. And so if you're like at the beginning of your health journey and you're like, oh my God, I'm throwing out everything and I can only eat these like few things and whatever. Like, just know that you'll also find balance in that. Like I don't even stress about what I eat anymore. I don't really stress about like anything anymore because I feel like I just have it so dialed in and it's just so second nature to me now. And then I prioritize things like to your point where you're saying like cooking these amazing dinners with friends. And I love showing friends that real food actually tastes good. Yes. There's this misconception that food like when you eat healthy that it's like bland and like doesn't taste good and that people think of like the bodybuilders that are just eating the like boiled chicken with no spices and broccoli. I'm like, I wouldn't eat that. Right. It's a terrible way to go through life. Yes. Have you tried plucked seasoning before? No. You would love it. He was at keto con. He was like a gourmet chef that cooked for Tom Cruise and all these incredible celebrities. And he also went paleo and really get it started getting into his nutrition. And he was like, all right, well, I have this amazing ability to make food taste good. Could I make things like organs and ancestral tenants taste really good as well? So he has a he has a rub that actually has like an ounce of organ meat per serving, but it's like the most delicious rub that you ever have. So you can like put it on vegetables, you could put it on steak, but there's all these things, right? There's all these incredible brands that are coming out now that can make this nourishing food taste even better. Yeah. I mean, real food tastes good. It does. Yeah. Honestly, like I don't think the packaged food stuff even tastes good anymore. I tasted and I'm like, oh, this tastes artificial to me, you know? Because you've rewired your palate and your taste buds. And once you do that, you can't go back. Exactly. You had a you had a video where you're like your food should make you dance and excitement. I forget what was the rest. You made some incredible recipe. Oh, yeah. We're so fired up about it. Oh, my God. I was so happy about that. Oh, yeah. What did I make? It was honestly it was such a simple recipe too. It was this. Oh, my God. It was this coconut milk rice. And then I had these like tamari greens, like bok choy and there's something else in there with tamari. And then I just made this really amazing seasoned salmon and like I guess describing it I'm not giving the full potential of what it really was. But it was so good. And I was like dancing around my apartment and I was just like you. I have a personal rule that everything I eat has to taste good and also be good for me. That's a great sign that the food's probably pretty good. Yeah. You know, it doesn't mean that you have to be choking back like dry, you know, gross meat and unflavored, but you know, unseasoned vegetables. You can do it right. 100%. One of the last things that I wanted to ask you was obviously like I feel like the real foodology brand and Instagram you've taken off so much. You post so much good content. Do you have advice for any content creators that really want to get in the game and kind of share their gifts with the world? Like how to just be consistently posting and creating new content? Like what does that process kind of look like for you? Yeah. I mean, first and foremost, I would say make sure you're really passionate about it you guys because it is like this isn't like a woe is me journey or anything, but like, it's a lot of work you guys and I don't think people understand how much just that goes into it. So it definitely just makes sure it's something you're very, very passionate about because otherwise you will not have the energy to keep going. Yeah. That's the only thing that keeps me going is that I'm so passionate about this conversation that I think everyone needs to know and hear that I will do anything to get the message out there. But yeah, it takes a lot of work, especially now because the out because of the algorithm, it really favors accounts that are just constantly posting, which I really have. I have a hard time with because as a health professional and as someone who knows what social media is doing to our brain, I can see it firsthand and how I don't feel as good when I spend a lot of time online. And there's this juxtaposition where like you in order to really grow, you have to be on a lot. You need to be engaging with people. When I first grew my Instagram, it was like, I mean, I was on it like seven hours a day and I hate to admit that. But I was basically posting three times a day, engaging with everyone. So like commenting back to every single comment, you want to respond to all of your DMs as well. Because also too, like you have to think about it from a perspective of your, you're building a community and you, you know, I'm doing this because I'm genuinely passionate about it and because I really want to help people. So I feel this certain obligation to respond to every message and try to help people where I can. And so there is this element of you have to be very, very engaged with your community and you need to be posting a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Even what you said with real foodology, 2011, you started. So it's like a 13 year journey to get where you are now. Yeah. Just the position is a really interesting point too. Because I don't think a lot of people think about it in that context. I really do think that like the mental side of social media is something that all these health influencers probably run into at some point. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I really, I just hit the microphone. Sorry guys. I got so excited about this. I haven't even like really talked about this that much online, but I had a period of time where I was really struggling mentally with showing up online. And it was because of Instagram, it's not like there was something else going on in the background of my life, but it was like social media is, I mean, we're starting to talk about it. But my belief is that we have no idea what it's actually really doing to us right now. Like we're feeling the effects of it, but we're not actually going to really know. We're going to look back in like 20 years and be like, whoa. Wow. Yeah. We were really not doing well. And you can tell, you can just tell by, I've been, so I've been on Instagram since 2011. And I have seen a stark difference just even in the way that people interact with me in the last couple of years versus before that. And that just really shows you the mental state of our population right now, and especially people on social media, the vitriol that gets sent at you. And you can just tell a lot of people are really going through a hard time. And I think a lot of that is there's a lot of comparison happening. Maybe people will come on my page and think that I'm this like, holier than now, and I have everything figured out. And I do everything perfectly, but also like you're totally discounting the fact that like this was a really, really long journey. Like you said from me to get here, you know, and it's like that graph where you see where like success is not a direct line. It's like, you're going up and down and backwards and like sideways. And you know, and so people just can see where you're at in this very moment and they don't take into account like everything you've been through before that. And yeah, social media just, it's a, it's hard. It's crazy. Yeah, it's definitely double edged sword. I feel like you get so many overwhelmingly positive comments, but I have seen some negative stuff on your negative comments on your on your page as well. Cause it's like people that just miss assume that, oh, you're just trying to ride the wave, not realizing your passion for nutrition. And it's like, you have to just take that stuff with a grain of salt because no one that's commenting negative stuff on a TikTok post is doing anything productive with their lives. Exactly. And to be honest, whenever I, I, I try to put myself in their shoes and I think you have to be in a pretty bad place mentally to leave a really horrible comment like that on someone's page. And so I try to, I try to just like lead with compassion and I'm like, okay, you know, I'm just going to ignore it. They're having a bad day or whatever it is, you know, cause it's, yeah. Yeah. What can the world expect from real foodology going forward? What's next on the horizon? I love this question. I think eventually a book, but we haven't fully formed that yet. Would love to do a product. So I'm kind of like towing some ideas right now on products and I'm possibly, like I've talked about possibly doing a show at some point. That's really, I think my like number one passion. Yeah. But in the meantime, just more videos on grocery store. I want to go to more restaurants and I have a video coming out this week showing you restaurants in, well, a restaurant, but I'm going to try to do more of them where you can find seed oil free restaurants. That's a huge one. And yeah, that's going to wear them out right now. It's going to be super valuable. But you said it all though. Thank you so much for joining us. You've had a huge impact on us. You've had a huge impact on a lot of people and just appreciate the fact that there's people like you that exist that are fighting a good fight and we'll do around to it. Arowan and LA next time. Yes. I would love to take you guys to Arowan. Thank you so much. Yeah, I really appreciate you guys having me on. Thank you. Thanks, Courtney. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the Real Foodology podcast. If you liked the episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a resident media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer, Georgie. Georgie is spelled with a J. For more amazing podcasts produced by my team, go to residentmediagroup.com. I love you guys so much. See you next week. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider-patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first. Looking to build a more robust foundation in your health and well-being? From the producer of the Real Foodology podcast comes one of the most popular alternative health shows on Apple Podcasts. The Dr. Tina Schow. Dr. Tina Moore is a natural, pathic physician and chiropractor, traditionally and alternatively trained in science and medicine. The show features exclusive interviews with experts such as Sean Stevenson, Mike Mutsl, Mark Roves, and even solo episodes covering metabolic health, pharmaceuticals, chronic diseases, long-hauler syndrome, and pain management. Dr. Tina delivers the information in a no-nonsense real-world style, and she has the science to back it up. The Dr. Tina Schow is edgy, entertaining, and informative. 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