Hello and welcome everyone. We are so excited you're here. We have a really great guest today. This is Olivia, and she has just joined us at Uplift For Her. So welcome to Uplift For Her, and welcome to the podcast.
Thank you for having me.
Olivia is a registered dietitian, and we are going to talk a lot about even just what a dietitian is and why you would want to see one, and how they're helpful, and then dive into some of Olivia's passions. Does that sound good? That sounds great. All right. Well, Olivia, give us a little bit of a background. You have sort of an unconventional journey to become a dietitian. Tell us about your journey. Yes. So I am a registered dietitian, and I used to be an accountant. I was a certified public accountant for a while. What was it that came up in your life or in your brain that was like, I think I'm gonna switch from accounting to nutrition?
Yeah, big change, like 180 in terms of the right career. And I started getting interested in my 20s. I just found I was really passionate about it. I would find myself listening to podcasts, reading books, all this stuff where I was working in accounting, but I really like looking into nutrition and just wellness and health overall.
Yeah, I think it's so incredible. My journey is very different from that. But there was definitely a time when there was this aha moment about nutrition and the power that food has for us, which is a little bit embarrassing because it happened long after I was a doctor. You know, I went through four years of medical school and four years of residency and practiced medicine for many years before it really hit me the importance of food, and I think that's not unique to me as a doctor. I think we're just not really trained in any sort of nutrition or food and medical schools, so I can totally identify with that. I think most people have heard of a dietitian, right? People know that a dietitian is like someone who's going to help with nutrition and food. But I don't know if people would actually know what that would look like to work with the dietician. So will you just tell us at a basic level, like, what does a dietitian do?
Sure. So a dietitian can do a lot of different things. You might see them right in a hospital setting. So that's more clinical, where they're helping people who are inpatient, they might help people with outpatient and that's a little more similar to what I would be doing with patients and clients, is one on one. We're talking about a wide variety of things. It doesn't only pertain to nutrition, because so much of our lifestyle impacts our nutrition and our choices, and so it's going through, what's going on, what might be a struggle that's happening in that person's life, and then we go back and think of ways that we can fix that. Or it might also be even more detailed, if there's a lot of chronic disease or various conditions that are coming up, and though, how those interplay. So it's figuring out how we can change our nutrition, add different things to support ourselves and support that client, to feel better. Yeah, I love that you mentioned in there that it's more than just about nutrition. I think that any time we go down this road of food as medicine or food as fuel, it's really easy for people to become fixated on the idea that if I just eat well enough, I will be in a, you know, the best state of health. And it's tricky, it's a fine line, right? Because food is so powerful and it is so important for us to understand the messages that the food that we eat is sending to our bodies, and how it's actually programming our systems and our cells to function. But at the same time, we have to recognize that eating your way out of disease is not sufficient. You know, we have to still regulate our nervous system, and we have to still exercise, and we have to still sleep, so food is essential, but not sufficient when we're talking about whole health. So I love that you said that, and also we were talking about this before, a little bit this idea of, sort of your your basic dietitian who's going to focus on sort of helping you once you have a disease state, but tell us a little bit more about what that would look like from a preventative standpoint, and explain to us that difference of approach from a dietitian who's going to kind of, Oh, you already have diabetes. I can help you. Or you're currently hospitalized, you just had a heart attack, compared to someone who's also going to bring in the preventative side of things, right? So once you've gotten to you know, in the hospital, you might have had some breakdown of certain systems that aren't working the way they should, and maybe can't go back. So. Way. Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't. And so a lot of that is, how do we support you to not have the disease progress? How do we support you to make you more comfortable, right? And there are changes that can be made at that point. But preventative wise, that's really trying to stop from getting to the point of that disease, you know, being diagnosed with, say, diabetes, and that could come into play right with pre diabetes, or even before that point is, if you're if someone's noticing, say, their a 1c is getting higher, then they might, you know, be able to make some changes. Usually, we can make changes before we get to the point of having systems in our body that aren't working the way that they should. The a 1c, is the marker for diabetes or prediabetes, yep. And so that's where a dietitian can come in, especially on the preventative side, we can come in and work with individuals to help them make some of those changes, but make them in a way that works for them. Because we see lots of things out there, right? Lots of recommendations, and a lot of times I see people coming in feeling really defeated that they've tried these things and they just can't do it. And it's not the fact that they just can't do it, it's the fact that they're trying something that maybe doesn't work for them. And there's a lot of different options with nutrition. It's not all. Just one size fits all, and that's where dieticians can come in, because we have seen a lot of different conditions. We've seen different lifestyles. We have ideas of things that we can do to change. You know, what someone's doing that actually works for them and is sustainable, because making sustainable changes is what we have to do to prevent those diseases or to help support someone who's already in that state. We need, you know, long term solutions, not something that we just try for a little bit. I think that's so important. I think the idea of working with a dietician to gain a skill set, I think there is this sort of misconception that if we know what to eat, then we should just be able to do it, and that, like, one day we should just be like, Oh, okay, I will just change my macros, or I will just cut this food out, or, Oh, I should try this diet. I think it's sort of it makes me so sad talking to people because they feel like they should already be able to do it all instantly, and that takes a skill set. And some people have that Knack a little bit better, and can make changes to their food really easily. But for some people, that is not their natural inclination to think, what am I going to get at the grocery store? How many of these things do I need to buy at the grocery store? How do I prep it? When do I prep it? And so it really is more complex than even just the scientific part of what you should eat. There's also that coaching side of things that's like, Okay, now, how do we actually incorporate this into your lifestyle? So I love that you brought all of that up. So tell us a little bit more about different recommendations, and why are they conflicting? You would think that fueling the body would be fairly straightforward, right? Why is it so conflicting? I get so many frustrated patients who say, Well, I heard over here that I was supposed to eat more protein, but I heard over here that actually don't eat too much protein, and coconut oil is good, but it's also high in saturated fat. So tell me just a little bit about like, why are the recommendations so all over the place, a lot of it is that we have different needs as people, right? We're all individuals. We all have different lifestyles. We all have different backgrounds in terms of genetics, even that can play into how we respond to different foods, right? So that's one of the biggest things, is the fact that you might hear like someone feels great being really low carb, and they feel great that way, and then there's someone else who tries it and they like experience brain fog and fatigue and feel absolutely terrible. And so part of it is just our needs, right? And it's also activity level and stress level, and there's so many things and hormones that come into play. So it is complicated, but it's also there are ways to make it a little more straightforward, and that's what I kind of hope to do when I meet with people. Is, first of all, taking away, like, the shame of like, it's not you, it's that, whatever we're trying maybe it just isn't quite the right fit. And, you know, we just live in an environment that has a lot of we have a lot of information and a lot coming at us, and it is hard to figure out. And so some of it's an experiment of, let's try this and see how you feel, and then, you know, regroup, and maybe we need to make some tweaks, or maybe it actually works really well and someone feels great. So there are a lot of trial and error and being okay with the fact that it's not always going to be exactly you know, the first thing you try isn't always going to work, or the 10th thing you try sometimes doesn't work. So which
I think is why it's so helpful to have someone who can help guide. Do through it, because I think when we make changes and they don't work, then you're thinking, Did I not do them enough? Did I not do them long enough? Do I need to bail on this plan altogether? Do I need to add something to it so having someone who can sort of help manage the nuance of it, I think, can be really helpful. And I think also, you mentioned that, like, nutrition recommendations are different because people are different. And just a huge plug in there that so much of the dietary research has been done on men, not on women, and so much of the data, especially around keto and low carb, it was really just extrapolated to women, that if this works well for men, then it probably works well for women. And we're just more and more finding that actually women are different than men, which doesn't surprise any of us, but I think sometimes it surprises the researchers who think like, why can't I just extrapolate this information to women, which is frustrating but also important for us as women, to understand that when we're looking at dietary guidelines, that we have to stop and say, Where did this research come from? Now, the average person shouldn't have to stay on top of that if they don't want to, but that's a big part of what you do, is staying on top of especially as a women's health dietitian, to say, what is the dietary guidelines for women? What are the dietary guidelines for women, and what data do we have to support that research in women? Right? I mean, it is true. You're that, yeah, women are not researched on a lot. Even in animal models that are being done, they don't tend to do that. So, you know, and just nutrition research is complicated because we it's hard to do randomized control trials where that's what they use a lot for, like medications, but it's hard to do that in terms of nutrition all the time, just because we can't force people to eat a certain way for months, years on end, right? And a lot of those studies that are able to do it are like only, they're not going to be super long term studies, because we can't control someone's diet for that long. We can't necessarily put someone in a room and control for all the things, their lifestyle, all the other factors that might impact it. And and women just Yeah, we have cycles. We have hormones that differ a lot more. And that makes it even more complicated than research too, absolutely, and especially as you think about the phases a woman goes through in her life of before puberty, and then from puberty, and then preconception and pregnancy, and then postpartum. Heaven help us all. It's an intense change in needs during those times. And then you get to the 30s, and then the perimenopausal years, and then the menopausal years, they're vastly different in the way that our bodies utilize energy, whereas for men, it's it's very much the same throughout, except maybe for puberty, before and after. So it's really important that when we're looking at advice, we're looking for advice that really relates to who we are and where we are. I also think it's a great plug for personalized medicine. You know, to say to take data is very good. We like data. We really want a study that says, in general, when people use this intervention, then the majority of people have this outcome. That's really helpful to us as practitioners, but at the same time, that's just an average, that's just a ballpark. And so really, to be able to work one on one with an individual and to say, Huh, yes, the data did show that this intervention, like keto or like low carb or high protein, would work well. But for you, it doesn't seem to be working well, maybe we could tweak something else. I just think that's so important, and especially as people get frustrated about, you know, I tried this thing, it was supposed to work, and I was supposed to feel better, and I don't, and now I don't know where to go from there, that that sometimes happens, and sometimes means we need to look at you as an individual, and to look at the context of your life, and what are your stress levels, and what is your sleep and what is your job. And how do you do this? This? How do you handle this approach to food when you're working, you know, graveyard, or when you're working from home and you're surrounded by the kids' food, and those are all things that I think we take for granted, but they're not easy. Tell me there is in our culture right now so much guilt and shame and emotional connection to our food. How do you as a dietitian help women with that when it comes in, when they come in and they're feeling like, yes, I'd like to make the change, but I'm still stressed about it, or I don't know how to implement it. How do you approach that with them? I think of a really good example is a lot of people come in saying they're craving sugar constantly. So Right? Sugar is in it's a carbohydrate. It's not like there's just different macronutrients, right, that we need, we still need sugar, we still need carbohydrates. So I What comes up is they'll say, I'm craving sugar a lot, or I notice every evening, I'm so hungry and I just want to eat some sort of cookies. I don't know. That's an example. And I come at it and say, This is a normal physiological response our body, if we're maybe not getting enough calories through the day, not getting as much protein as maybe we need, maybe going a really long time without eating. Totally normal response, because our brain is like, hey, I need fuel. I like sugar. Our brains like glucose, right? Glucose and sugar comes from carbohydrates. So we our brain is like, I need that. And tells us to. Then we have a craving of, I want something quick, right? Our blood sugar gets low. You can usually feel that you're low energy, fatigue, those sorts of things. And our brain is smart and our body's smart and says, I need that. So we feel those cravings, right? And so I like to tell people, I You're probably, you're probably craving it for one of those reasons. And a lot of times when I talk about it, they're like, I did go six hours, you know, I do go six hours, seven hours without eating between lunch and dinner, or, you know, they they're like, Oh yeah, I tend to not have a lot during the day, and then I'm super hungry at night. And it's a normal response. Our body's trying to tell us, either I need some more calories, my blood sugar's low, like, whatever's going on. So I like to kind of take the shame out of that, of like, it's probably it really doesn't have to do with you as a person and any sort of good or bad moral you know at all. It has to do with that's how our body works. And so it tends to help people when they know like they have this moment of being like that like resonates with them, that they're like that happens to me, and then they understand that it doesn't necessarily have to do with them. Obviously, there's more work around working through, like, some self compassion there, even though they we logically know, okay, now it's not something that I'm doing wrong. Maybe I just need to alter a couple things I'm doing through the day of eat a little more often, or include more protein, or whatever it might be, but I like to talk about that so that people just have that perspective to start with. I think that's so important. And you and I have talked about that, the importance of that add, add, add mentality, which is so opposite of what our culture says, which is cut, cut, cut, cut. And yes, eventually we do need to come back to the foods that we shouldn't be eating and that may be harming our bodies, but not first. I think first we have to fuel, because the body really will keep looking for fuel until it gets everything that it needs. And so any sort of deficiency, I think, throws off our body's own signaling and our body's own cravings, and whether that's a nutrient deficiency, like maybe you're not getting enough vitamin C or antioxidants, or maybe you're not getting enough fiber, or maybe you're not getting enough protein or water or minerals or sleep or too much stress, you're not getting enough recovery from stress, the body will just seek to make itself whole, and it's so sad to me that we've made that mean that, well, you're probably a bad human, you know, like that is just an animal instinct. We are animals and that, and we are seeking to be full. That's not immoral, that's not shame inducing, that just is nature. And the beauty of that is then, as you continue to help people fuel and to meet all of those needs, to meet those nutrient needs and fiber and protein and fat needs and sleep and stress and all of those minerals. The body doesn't crave things as much. And I do find, in my opinion, I and maybe you can tell me what you think, I find that the cravings are different at that point. I think that when I am missing something, like, I've eaten too, too long ago, or I'm protein deficient, it's a craving, like an intense like, I will eat whatever I can find in the cabinet. Like I will, you know, dig through the cabinet and find some random bag of chocolate chips and eat the bag of chocolate chips. Versus, when I'm really well fueled, I might still get a sweet tooth and feel like, Oh, I could really use a treat right now, but it's a completely different feeling in my brain and my body, of, well, I'll take it or leave it like, maybe I'll go have something, or maybe I'll have some raspberries, or maybe I won't like it's just such a completely different feeling for me, of that craving that's trying to meet a need versus a little bit of a sweet tooth. Have you found that at all to be the case? I
you know from talking to people, I do think that happens right, like it makes it easier to make a decision on things right, especially if we haven't gone a super long time without eating, if we're getting like those fruits and vegetables fiber, right, all the things that we need and in like amounts that are helpful for us, we tend to be able to make decisions on like, what feels best for our bodies, rather than, yeah, if it's that I feel primal, like urge of, I need to get my blood sugar up, and I need to do that now, like it is something that you. Seeking something that is going to help do that for sure, break it down for us a little bit of, how do you approach food as fuel in like its various categories? Because there's lots and lots of different foods, right? So it's hard to say, well, you should eat this many beets and this much broccoli, but just general categories. How are you approaching that with a patient or a client to say, let's just look at your overall nutrition. So that includes your four big macronutrients, right? So that's your protein, your fat and your carbohydrates. So I like to start there, just because, right? We need those main categories, and then typically, if we're getting variety within those main categories, we're getting those vitamins and minerals that we need, those micronutrients. So I like to look at, are we getting enough? You know, are we are we balancing first, those meals, so or snacks? A lot of times, especially snacks, we tend to forget about having some protein or, you know, sometimes even fats in there. A lot of times it's we reach for, you know, an apple, which is a great option, but then we don't have a little protein or fat to kind of slow down digestion, keep us full longer, be more satisfying. That's something that I've talked to people about a lot, is that let's, let's look at first are we trying to get all those categories into our snacks and meals, and making sure that the protein is there right, and the fiber, especially, like those are two big categories I talk to people a lot about, because we tend to do pretty well getting fats in healthy fats even, or, you know, at least, shifting to some healthy fats is a little bit simpler, but then it's the fiber and the protein that a lot of times we miss out on, especially in those snacks. So I talk about that a lot, is, how do we balance that first and make sure those things are there, and then going deeper into, you know, variety in terms of the foods that we're getting for micronutrients, I agree, and I think it's, it's sort of, I mean, it's sort of annoying that we have to know so much. You know, I think if we were back in our ancestral days and we were cave women walking around, we wouldn't need a dietician to tell us what to eat, right? You would, you would eat the meat sometimes, and you would eat the berries, and you would eat the nuts and seeds, and you would find what you could. But the truth is, right now, it's complicated. It's really complicated, and I think that the simplest way is to say uncomplicated and just eat food, like if we can just eat whole food, then it definitely does simplify it. But on the flip side, a lot of us are busy moms or busy working women, or we have lots going on in our lives. And as much as I'm an advocate for it, and I continue myself to continue to work in that direction, there are some times when you've got to grab a protein bar. There's some times that you don't have the time to create a whole all three of your meals from scratch. And so I think that's where it does get a little more complicated, of trying to make sure that we have it balanced. And I find it to be so helpful with my patients when they do get these macronutrients. And I'm not even talking about, like, macro counting, yeah, I'm just talking about like, Can you can you get some protein in for breakfast? Like, when they do even get anywhere close to the balance, they just feel so much better. What are some specifics of what you've seen with your clients when they really just even start moving in that ballpark of those balanced macros? Yeah, people I've worked with, they have said, you know, once they're maybe it's they're tweaking one of their snacks to make sure that their snack between lunch and dinner. You know, we usually go pretty long time between lunch and dinner. A lot of people need a snack. So a lot of them will have a snack in there, and they add something to it, right? So maybe it's they were having an apple. And then there I'm like, can we have a cheese stick? I mean, they choose something. I usually we find something that they are like, tastes good to them and that they like. And maybe it's, can we have a cheese stick in there and they add that in, and they're like, I get to dinner. Like to cook dinner, feeling so much better. I'm not just grabbing anything when I get home. I'm not super hungry at that point, like I'm getting there, but not super hungry. And so that's kind of the biggest things I've seen for people is a lot of times finding like, I can cook that meal for dinner because I'm not quite as hungry because I included a snack in the afternoon. It's so true. And I think that that's one of the things that patients come in a lot with feeling is this afternoon crash. You know this I can power through the morning. I can get things done in the morning, and then I get to lunchtime, and I'm holding on, and then around one to 3pm just tanking in energy. And that can be lots of different things, but a huge part of it is just fueling and I think that's been really complicated now with the idea of intermittent fasting, which we won't go into too much today, but maybe. Another time. But it's complicated. Is the short version, especially for women, is that prolonged intermittent fasting doesn't certainly does not work for all women. And I'm I'm not as much of a fan if women are still in their childbearing years. So I get women who sometimes are saying, Well, I heard intermittent fasting was good, so I didn't eat breakfast. I ate my first meal around 1011, or noon. Well, what did you eat? Well, I had a salad with some chicken on it. How much chicken? Well, and, you know, they point to their hand and it's like, two ounces or three ounces, and I say, Okay, well, so that's about, you know, 12 to 15, maybe 16 grams of protein. What else was on your salad? Well, nothing. It was chicken and lettuce. Okay, so now you've skipped your your first half of the day of fuel, and then you've had a tiny bit of fuel, and what are we asking our bodies to run off of the rest of the day? They won't. They'll just shut down, and the brain will shut down, and it will say, Oh, I'm just so tired. Can I just go take a nap? So when we flip that script and we say, okay, breakfast, 30 to 40 grams of protein and plenty of fiber, and then maybe you have a mid morning snack, or maybe you don't, but then you have a really great quality lunch, that afternoon crash almost always goes away. Now, not always. Sometimes we still are working, from a medical perspective, to adjust that, but so often, when people eat a good quality breakfast and a good quality lunch, they feel better, and that seems so novel, but it is kind of a great reminder for all of us, as we get hustling and hurrying through the day that we grab a protein bar, or we grab a tiny bit of something, and it's just not enough. Our bodies are requiring a lot, and we have to fuel them to get them to do what we want them to do, yep, and that's what I want to help people with, is right? We want to get to a point of you want to be able to do the things you're passionate about, the things you want to do. You want to show up for your families, or show up in your life, right, in a way that you want to and not just like struggling through. We don't want to just struggle through our lives. You know, we're going to go through times that are hard, but if we can fuel ourselves and also some of those other right, health wellness behaviors that's going to help us get through our days and help us change, you know, women can change the world, right? We have, we want to do those things and but we have to have fuel. We have to have, you know, not the brain fog and not the constant fatigue. And I want to help people get to that point of, okay, I'm feeling pretty good. And there's always little tweaks. Things happen, right? Things change over time. We're always making tweaks, but getting to a spot of having a pretty good foundation that we're feeding ourselves. And you mentioned the breakfast piece, like, I like to see people eating breakfast, because it does set us up for a day of, you know, not feeling kind of that roller coaster of our blood sugar, of emotions, of energy, trying to kind of keep that constant, you know, nice energy level. It really like mimics our blood sugar levels A lot of times in terms of, like, energy. So for the women who are listening, who are like, yeah, yeah, I hear what you're saying, and yet it's really hard as a woman, as a mom, as a wife, as a working woman, what are your biggest tips for women who are like, Okay, I hear what you're saying. I need to fuel my body so that it has the energy to function, to not be fatigued, to have a good mood, you know, so the brain has what it needs, and also to have the fuel to heal from chronic disease, or, you know, to transition through perimenopause. I know I need plenty of fuel for that. So we have women who are like on board with that part. But how do we actually do that when it's so difficult to spend the time meal planning and grocery shopping and and preparing the foods, right? That that's the tricky part. Like, we live in a time that we're so busy, right? We have lots going on. There isn't as much time to prep. We don't have we're not all like living on a farm where we don't leave the farm, and it makes it easy, right? You know, we
have a lot going on, and it's finding ways to around that, of, are there certain foods that we can get that are pre cut, right? Like, can we sometimes, I'm like, buy the pre cut vegetable if you're gonna leave the other vegetables in your fridge, and then be like, great, I didn't eat the vegetables, and I wanted to, but I didn't, because I didn't have the, you know, bandwidth to do, like chopping, which is fine, that's we all have those times. And, you know, buy the pre chopped vegetable. I've even told people buy the, like, veggie platter and just the Costco veggie platter, and just throw the ranch away. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, like, buy that and eat off of that. So, or just find you, know, do you have, like, if you're chopping up something for dinner, can you chop up a little extra while you're doing it? So it's finding those strategies that work for someone, because someone it might work for them to meal prep an hour or two on the weekend, and maybe they're a. They have a partner that can help them, or maybe their kids are, you know, going to help too, or what? Or maybe they're just carving out that one hour. But other people, it may not ever work to prep those things, and maybe it's just buying those pre cut vegetables, and that's okay, you know, finding what works for you, because different things work for different people. So there's not that's kind of the trickiest part is there's not one size fits all. I have people, you know, just tell me how many, how much protein to eat. And I'm like, Well, there's a rain versus this. Yeah, this is exactly what you should have, right? And it's also like, then how do you take that amount and put it into the foods that you're eating? So my biggest tip is finding things that there might be some give and take, right? You're you're saying, Well, I buy the the pre hard boiled eggs,
because, you know,
that's just one easy step. You know, I've talked to people about doing yogurt in the morning, right? And they're like, I'm never gonna do the big container, because, right? It's not gonna happen. And so I tell them, how will we buy the smaller ones, right? And then you can just bring some granola, bring some fruit, and like or use frozen fruit, right? So there's lots of solutions out there that we have to get creative on. What works for people. There's frozen, there's pre cut, there's even canned things. Like, we can make those things work too in our diet. So that's where I come in on let's figure something out for you specifically versus, you know, I can, I can tell some broad ideas, right? Like the pre cut vegetables. Like that works for a lot of people, but sometimes we need to go a little deeper in. Yeah, I love it. I think somewhere along the way, like frozen vegetables got a bad rap. And there's nothing wrong with frozen vegetables. Like buy the frozen vegetables and then heat them very quickly. So there's, there's certainly not. There are some misconceptions about what it's supposed to look like. And I say quote, supposed to look like to eat healthy and and we want to kind of throw those out the window and say, Where are you now, and what are the next three steps you can take? And then what are the next three steps you can take? And I think on social media especially, there's so much shame for like, How dare you feed your kids that thing, or how dare you eat that. And so now we feel like we all have to eat it in the closet. But on the flip side, I see on social media the throwing off of all of that and like, Listen, I'm gonna eat my swig cookies, and I'm gonna do all the things. And we have to find this middle ground of we're gonna start where we start, and we're gonna keep taking steps forward. I do wanna say too, I that Costco veggie platter, or the grocery store veggie platter is something I use a lot with recommendations for patients. And the great thing about that is that kids, you know, a lot of us have kids that we're trying to get to do the same thing. So their brains and their bodies work is to eat the vegetables and eat the protein and eat the fiber. And a lot of people struggle to get their kids to eat vegetables. But there's something magic about a cut up veggie tray with hummus or or ranch. Just not the, you know, not the one full of corn syrup and and canola oil. But if you have veggies and hummus sitting out, kids eat them. Like almost every kid will find some vegetable on there to eat. So it really is, you know, get the veggie tray out. Set it out while you're making dinner, snack on that while you're making dinner, and then you've got your vegetable in. And you don't even have to cook a vegetable if you don't want to, just prepare the protein and call it good. So there definitely are some things and that can be really helpful. And I think starting where you are, don't shame yourself, don't try to overhaul everything day one. Like I think that's a lot of problem. Or I think a lot of people have problems with that, where they'll say, Oh, I heard this thing was healthy, so I'm going to do these 10 things, and then they get overwhelmed and they can't keep going with it. Instead of saying, Where am I at? What am I doing? Well, what feels easiest for me? Someone else may say, buying the veggie platter is an easy step for me, but if that feels hard for you, then is there a different first step you can take, and then a different second step, and then another third step? So I think that's really great, yeah, yeah. And I tell people, like, you mentioned the veggie tray, right? It can also be like, the veggie tray and like, a little bit of fruit sprinkled in there, right? Like, kids love fruit, right? And then once they get eating, maybe they'll have that veggie too. Or, I, like, so people, like, there's nothing I, you know, it just made me think of the fact that fruit has kind of got a bad like, oh, we can't have fruit because it has sugar in it. And I'm like, but has lots of good things. So fruit is just as good as vegetables. You know, we want to have a variety. Yeah, we want to have a variety. But that can be a way too, right? Like, if you're, like, I don't even love vegetables that much, maybe put a little bit, like, pick one of your favorite fruits and put that in there of, like, some apple slices, or some, you know, an orange, and you at least have a little variety in there. Yeah, I think I'm gonna emphasize that, because I actually do meet a fair number of women who. They like, listen, I understand what you're saying, but I don't like vegetables. And I think some of them, it's like old childhood trauma of their their parents forcing the vegetables and finish it. Yeah, what I will say is most people can find at least a few vegetables that they like. And for those people who say, like, I just don't like vegetables, try again and try it differently. Some people are not very good at making vegetables, and so if you take broccoli and you microwave it until it's mushy and disgusting, then no one likes that like but you might find a way to prepare it that you really enjoy. And so just to plug out there for people, I think they're it's okay if you don't like vegetables, and yet I would keep trying, you know, I'd try different ways and different types of vegetables and see what you do like, and go from there. And I help like, I, I like to, you know, cook. It's gone down a little little bit with the always Cooking for Kids thing. But, you know, I like to cook, and so I do come at it of here, here's a recipe to try. Let's just try that and see, right? And and a lot of times we're told, like people are, I've met with someone who was like, I'm just eating steamed broccoli, and I was like, that's probably not very tasty, yeah? You know? So like, we we can find ways to have it be healthful, but also to have vegetables taste good too, yes, but salt, yeah, yes, yeah. So that's great. I think another thing that has been sort of a funny mishap in our family sometimes that works well with the kids is when I'm making dinner and they're starving, so instead of getting everything ready and serving it all at once, we're taking bits of it out to them as they're sitting there. And if you finish the vegetable first, then you put it on the table, and they're hungry, they will eat it. And then next comes the protein, and then they'll eat it, and then you do the carb last, and they're kind of bored with eating at that point, so they'll eat a little bit. But they're not they're not digging in first to the to the other foods, and that's true for us too. It's not optimal, like, I don't want to be cooking meals while they're eating, but sometimes it happens that way, and it works out. Okay, yep, well, this has been so fun to talk about this. I am just such a fan of talking about fuel and about food, and I think it just makes massive differences in how our bodies work. And I think we could keep talking, and I think we'll have you back, and we'll dig in maybe to some more of the finer details and questions that people have in the future, but for now, how can people work with you? You are here with us at uplift for her, so they can find you on our website. And then, how does that work? You see people for a consultation, or you see people for a series of visits. How would that work when someone wants to work with you? Yeah, it depends. That is something that I think typically and have seen one visit isn't usually going to change, like everything, right? You might get some ideas, you know, if there's something you're kind of stuck on, but usually meeting a couple times, lawyer, it's like once a month, or maybe every two weeks, something like that with change, it just takes longer. Three months is pretty quick. Six months is probably the most realistic of when you're making changes, and it depends on how much support you need. So it could be every two weeks. It could be once a month, like I said, so that's something that depends on the person, but if you're wanting to make that change, and truly make that change, hopefully after those six months right of or six visits, or whatever it
is in that time period,
you feel like you can go forward, you've gotten to a point that feels doable, and are feeling, you know, nourished. And maybe there's the next thing that you're going to work on on your like, health journey. But I don't want to see people forever, so hopefully, after the six months, maybe even a year. Who knows, sometimes that stuff takes a while, that hopefully those people are ready to, you know, go off and and maybe they come back, because something changes a little bit and they need some support. But I, you know, want to see people on an ongoing basis for a little bit, and then hopefully they can, you know, move forward, and those things that they've learned they can take out on their own. Yeah, so definitely women who are just looking for sort of where to start, you know, starting off, and they're wanting to improve their health journey. They understand that food is a component, and they just want some guidance of the How to and also the learning of what's most important for them and what's true and not true for them. I think would be a great fit. I also think then women who have specific goals or specific conditions like PCOS or perimenopause or pre diabetes. Can then come to you and say, who I've got these things going on with my body? How can I use food to help my body? That would be a really, really great opportunity for them to say, where are you at now? Is it working or is it not working? And then, how do we tweak it? And just another reminder. Reminder for people that this is not a shame filled process. In no way should this be a judgmental like, well, if you if you had been eating differently or if you would just do different things, I think it's just unfortunate that that can be our our fear is like, Well, I'm gonna go tell her what I'm eating, and she's gonna tell me I shouldn't, or tell me I make fun, you know, make fun of me for doing that. What is your response when someone is sort of not completely in alignment with where their disease state needs to go, and they're starting, you know, where they're starting? I like to go from a place of, what can we add, right? Versus, and we talked about that earlier, versus, I'm not going to come in and say, like, don't eat any of those things, because it doesn't work like that. It's not if we just cut things out, a lot of times, we're still not going to feel very good, and then we're going to feel deprived, and then we end up going back to, you know, eating those things right? And it's more about what can we add, or what can we balance out right? Like, do we need to add a little bit more of that protein, or do we need a little more fiber in there. Do we need more colorful vegetables, right? So it's more about what can we add, and not that? Oh, you should just cut this out. And then eventually, sometimes we get to that point where we say you're doing great, but you might feel better if you do cut some of these things out. I like to think of it more as a conveyor belt, you know, if you just take things out of your diet, then you've just left a vacuum. You've just left a gap. And the body doesn't like big gaps. So if instead, we just keep piling things on the conveyor belt, then the conveyor belt keeps moving, eventually the less nutritive stuff just falls off the edge. And then it's I hope people will trust us on that, because it is such a different feeling process to remove things once you're fueled and once you understand how to to help your body work than it is to start by removing things. Yeah. I also love the number of tools that you have in your toolkit, so you're helping people understand where they're starting and then understand, sort of the more scholarly understanding of how food works in our body to whatever extent they want to or need to. But then also, you're working with people on grocery shopping or how to incorporate it as a busy mom and how to incorporate it with their kids. Tell us a little bit about your approach to that. I
Yes. I love the science piece.
I love the I think it's helpful to understand a little bit of it. And then if someone's Yeah, and if someone's like, I want to know more, we they can. I can send them an article. I can do we can talk more about those things, right? So we can go as in depth as people want to on the science part, but it's the practical part that matters a lot, probably the most, just because, how do we implement it in our lives? Right? You can read it's an article, and be like, Great, how does it translate, right? And so I do like the piece of right. We could talk about, how do I choose what type of brand I get by, right? We can talk about those pieces of practical, yeah, grocery shopping, the recipes like, give some ideas. I find that stuff super interesting. So I have a lot of resources after from meeting with people and just my own research and my own interest is, what are some, you know, ways that we can try new things and just ways for people to implement these things into their life. So I like to go about it. Where do we want to be? And really, it's led by the person meeting with me. It's not about, I think you should add more vegetables in. And they're like, Well, I feel like this is more of a better fit, as you mentioned, like finding the thing that feels kind of the easiest to start with. You know, the thing that's like, that feels like I can do that, because once we kind of start making those changes, then we, you know, are able to kind of keep going. There's motivation to keep going. So I like to work with people on where, where do we need to be, right? Where do we want to be? And, like, what are those steps? And that can be helpful, because I have kind of a third person right. I'm like, not directly in their lives every day, where I don't, you know, I want people to feel great, but I also don't have, kind of, it helps. It's like a therapy, you know, a therapist type thing, outside opinion, right? Where therapists come in and see that I'm not, obviously not a therapist. But that's kind of the, the piece of it, yeah? That third person, that outside perspective to give people, yeah, that non judgmental view of just bounce it off of me like you can ask me questions. I'll tell you what your options are, and then you'll get to make the plan from there and how to move forward. And I think it can be in conjunction, if people are taking medications for various conditions, or if they're not, it doesn't really matter that food is always you have to eat. You have to eat something. So how do you eat to best handle and best support your body, I think, is what you're you're so good at. So we're excited. You're here with us at uplift for her right now. You're only taking clients who are in the state of Utah, yes, but virtually Yep. So they don't have to be right here in Salt Lake. They can. Be anywhere in the state of Utah, and then just on our website, is how they find you. Yes, on the website, well, we will be back next week with a new episode, so make sure you follow or subscribe so you can catch it. And thank you so much for being here. Olivia, thanks for having me. Thanks for listening and come back next time for another episode. And remember this information is for education only and not intended to be medical advice. I.
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