458: Stop Eating Stupid Sh*t (And Start Fueling Like a Runner)

If you’ve ever finished a run feeling drained, ravenous, or wondering why your body isn’t responding the way you want it to… this episode is for you.

We’re taking a page from our rescue dog Jasper—who eats everything—to highlight how many runners fuel in ways that don’t actually support their training. 

And we’re not talking about cutting things out or going on another diet. It’s the opposite actually.

A lot of runners are training like athletes… but eating like dieters. And that disconnect? It’s costing you.

This isn’t about food rules or perfection. It’s about giving your body what it actually needs.

We break down how underfueling, diet culture, and relying on quick fixes lead to low energy, cravings, inconsistent training, and frustrating results—especially for women in perimenopause and menopause.

Then we simplify what works: eat enough, prioritize protein and carbs, fuel your runs, and build real meals first—using supplements only when needed.

You don’t need more willpower.
You need better fuel.

06:35 Undereating Backfires

13:25 Diet Culture Trap

20:10 Eat For Training

21:33 Fuel Before And After

26:13 Supplements Aren't Meals

29:40 Performance And Cravings

31:50 Underfueling Warning Signs

34:12 Dieting Versus Fueling

38:51 Nervous System And Food

40:38 Four Fueling Basics

41:37 Protein And Carbs

46:42 Supplements That Matter

Join the 30 Day Running Reset and get a plan that will help you build a strong and injury-proof body by combining running and strength training in a way that actually works for runners like you.

Gain access to my new secret podcast, Unbreakable: The Runner's Guide To Injury-Proofing Your Body After 40. Click here: https://www.realliferunners.com/secret

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Welcome back to the Real Life Runners Podcast. This is episode number 458. Stop Eating. Stupid Shit. What's up runners? Welcome back to the show. Hopefully you are okay with cursing. There's not gonna be a lot of cursing in this episode, but we're definitely gonna be saying the S word for a bit because like you see it's in the title.

Speaker 2 0:42

Are we marked explicit?

Speaker 0:44

I don't know. do you think that's an explicit word?

Speaker 2 0:46

yes.

Speaker 0:47

So if you don't want your kids hearing that word, we're not gonna be using other bad words to my knowledge. But if you don't want your kids,

Speaker 2 0:54

we'll see how the show goes.

Speaker 0:55

We're just gonna go completely off the hinges and off the rails today. If

Speaker 2 0:59

we mark EI can let anything outta my mouth.

Speaker 1:01

Oh Lord. The, obviously the title of the episode is Stop Eating Stupid Shit. So I'm guessing that you might be guessing, or I'm wondering if you might, have a hint that this episode was also inspired by our dog because our dog likes eat stupid shit. And you guys have been following along with us for a little while, we're, we just celebrated our six month anniversary with our rescue pup, who is about two years old. And, he ate stupid shit.

Speaker 2 1:29

You've said that he was two years old since we got him. I'm curious how old he is.

Speaker 1:32

two and a half, three. I mean, I feel like both the, both vets that kind of evaluated his age, like one said he was between one and two. One said he was between two and three, so I'm just gonna say two and we're just gonna celebrate his gotcha day as his birthday.

Speaker 2 1:46

Excellent. So

Speaker 1:47

he's two and change. I don't know, we don't know how exactly how old he is anyway, unless we do one of those doggy DNA tests, which yeah,

Speaker 2 1:52

we're not doing that.

Speaker 1:53

it might, I might do it. I'm not, don't put it, don't put it past me,

Speaker 2 1:56

and when we do, it's going to be a podcast. But this one is about him

Speaker 2:01

because we already have plenty of family stories about DNA tests.

Speaker 2 2:04

Yes,

Speaker 2:05

but

Speaker 2 2:05

maybe we'd had some dog

Speaker 2:06

stories. That's definitely not a topic for today's podcast. no. All I have to say is beware. If you take one of those family DNA tests, just be prepared for your com world to be completely rocked because our sure was

Speaker 2 2:17

no 23 and me went bankrupt. And now you can find everybody's information online.

Speaker 2:20

Wild.

Speaker 2 2:21

but this one is about the dog just heading out into the backyard or off on walks or any time ever in any location, he'll just eat stuff. Yeah. Like he'll just eat whatever he finds. Is it a plastic bag? Alright, let's go for it. Like it doesn't really matter what? It's so ridiculous. If there was ever food in the plastic bag, he'll eat the plastic bag. It's gonna be fine.

Speaker 2:41

Like it's so ridiculous. But last night, so basically he ate the rubber coating off of one of his balls. Like we had this ball that my mom gave him and it was like this kind of, it's spiky, but it was like rubbery. So it wasn't sharp, but he just completely. Ate through the outer coating and peeled the whole thing off and not just peeled and decided to ingest the whole thing. what are you doing, dude?

Speaker 2 3:07

Yeah. And if you're curious like how much that would be like if we laid it flat, it'd probably be like the size of a full sheet of paper. You think so? And he ate it all. Yeah.

Speaker 3:16

Yeah, pretty wild. last night we were oh shoot, what should we do? Should we call the vet? Should we make him vomit? Should we just see what happens? And so far he's doing okay. So we played the wait and see game. So if you're a vet and you think that we did that wrong, my apologies so far. He's doing okay. he's been, and he is already, so he threw it up like basically he woke up last night that, or this morning, woke up barking at 5:00 AM'cause he needed to be let out of his crate. And I walked out. There was like a pile of. Rubber ball on the outside of his crate and he had to go outside and go to the bathroom. but anyway, it basically inspired, we don't need to go into the gross details of all of this, but what you need to know is that, that the dog eats stupid stuff and. It made me think about runners because we runners often do the same thing. And when Jasper eats stupid shit, it then leads to consequences like digestion issues and mess and cleanup and diarrhea and throw up and all sorts of gross things. And we runners. Even though we're not eating backyard weeds or rubber balls, thank God or mango pits for no good reason. That's the other thing, oh,

Speaker 2 4:25

the mangoes.

Speaker 4:25

We have a big mango tree in our backyard and he's been eating like the little small mangoes that fall to the ground. He just eats them whole, and that's not good for him either. So we do our best to try to prevent him from eating things because we realized that, since we first got him the first, within the first couple of weeks he started eating, like he ate a like almost a half a pound of pasta. And a baguette. A baguette that day.'cause we always had a small dog. We had a little 13 pound dog that couldn't reach the counter. And so counter surfing was never a thing. And now all of a sudden we need to. Understand that with this 42 pound dog. So we're learning and we're doing our best to try to prevent him from, eating things he shouldn't be eating, but going back to us as runners. We have to understand like a, what are we even talking about when we're saying don't eat stupid shit? Because the goal here is not to make you feel bad, not to shame you, not to tell you, oh, you have to eat clean. You're never allowed to eat. Processed foods. that is definitely not what this episode about. It's not about being perfect. It's not about cutting out all of the foods like sugar and. Ice cream and dessert and the things that you might want to eat are all fun food or never eat fried food. So this episode is not about food guilt at all. Eating stupid shit here for us in this episode means that you're putting things into your body that don't actually support what you're asking your body to do. So you are a runner and you need to fuel your body in a certain way. So if you are eating in a way that does not support that's what we're talking about here.

Speaker 2 5:57

Yeah, and I think him eating mangoes in the backyard is an actual perfect example of this. It's delicious.'cause I watched him get at a mango that wasn't like fully right, but it was like a decent. Decently ripened, but it was also half eaten, rotting and covered in ants. And the issue isn't the mango, the issue is the rest of the stuff that came along with it. I'm sure that eating a whole bunch of ants is probably not good for him. Definitely eating the pit is not good for him. And this is the thing is it's not that the fruit was bad. It's not that the sugar was bad, it's that it came with this other stuff that he wanted something sweet. It tasted delicious, but he overdid it and took it in everything, and that then had problems later on, like hours later when I took him for a walk and it came back out. And you're like, that, that's not ideal.

Speaker 6:44

Yeah.

Speaker 2 6:45

this is the thing is there's not good and bad food. But there's how it reacts to our body. And we need to make sure that we're putting in the foods that our body responds appropriately to.

Speaker 6:53

Yeah. And it's also that we're eating in a way that aligns with our goals. Because one of the biggest issues that we see with a lot of runners, especially women runners over 40, that notice that they're gaining weight and that wanna lose weight is under fueling. And under fueling is the opposite of eating. Stupid shit in a way, but also not, and this is how they're related. So basically when you under fuel, when you don't eat enough food to support your body and to support the way that you're training, especially if you're training for any sort of longer race, your body needs carbohydrates. And there's a lot of women that are trying to cut carbs because they believe the narrative that carbs make you fat. But carbs are your body's preferred source and primary source of fuel as a runner. So you need to eat carbs, you need to eat enough calories so that your body actually has the energy that it needs if you to train, to build muscle, to build endurance, to build those little mitochondria and capillaries and all the things that we like to talk about. Your body needs fuel for all of that stuff. And so oftentimes if you are under fueling throughout the day. Then that will lead to overeating random stuff at night. So that is eating stupid stuff because it's eating things just because you're so hungry or you're so ravenous and you didn't eat enough of the good stuff earlier in the day. So now your body's just trying to find whatever it can, because your body is always trying to survive. Your body's always trying to take care of itself, and so your hunger goes. up at night because you haven't eaten enough throughout the day, and also your willpower and your decision making has gone down, so now you're just eating whatever the heck you want. And people wonder why they're gaining weight.

Speaker 2 8:32

Yeah. in that same line is eating as though you're a sedentary individual. When you're actually performing like an athlete. And this contradiction, this, contrast shows up all the time. Is the whole 2000 calories recommended daily allowance.

Speaker 8:46

I think you need to take a drink. your voice is going a little wonky there.

Speaker 2 8:50

Thank you. That 2000 calorie recommended allowance is an arbitrary number in the first place. Yeah. But especially if you start going out there and exercising quite a bit, the amount of calories and it's just logical, the amount of calories that a person who's exercising needs versus someone who is. Not putting forth any physical activity.

Speaker 9:09

Yeah,

Speaker 2 9:10

these are gonna be different numbers and your body does adjust back to baseline as you start exercising. It'll start, burning less calories through the exercise and kind of balances yourself out. But you need the calories to exercise, like in, if you are going through physical activity during the day. You need to be putting fuel into those activities. And on top of that, just flat out skipping meals is never gonna work. that goes right to under fueling all day. If you're skipping meals, you are definitely crashing later in the day. And that's basically gonna lead to the same thing as under fueling all day, where you get to the evening, you're so short on calories, that you open the pantry, you open the fridge and you're going for anything. Yeah. And that's where the eating stupid shit comes in because it doesn't even matter what it is at that point, your body just says, give me calories. And. Most likely it's looking for the most calorically dense thing It possibly can because it's looking for survival. if you've been starving yourself all day, it's going to try and get in any calories It can, as much as it can. It's not thinking to itself. It would be a great idea. Some vegetables, a delicious salad. Yeah. Like it's not, it wants something dense and caloric because you've underfed it all day long.

Speaker 10:19

Yeah. Another reason or another example of this happening is if you are someone that's living on processed snacks instead of real meals, and that is often connected to some of the things we've already been talking about. If you're skipping meals or you're not eating enough and you're like, oh, I'm just so hungry, and you grab a protein bar or this, like lots of different processed meals you're giving your body, in theory, the protein, but it's a lot of processed food and not the real food, and your body needs real food and that. In alignment with that is like spending money on powders and other things instead of food. So none of these things by themselves are bad necessarily. I, I shouldn't say that. I really, I avoid using the word bad because there's, they're bad, there's not, right? It's not like a good or a bad, but it's about not being aligned with the goals that you have. So if you're someone that wants to feel good, if you're someone that wants to improve as a runner. And you're not giving your body the food that it wants, or you're giving your body a lot of processed food or you're skipping meals, you can see how that's not in alignment with your goals. And the key here is to understand why this is happening. And we've already started to go into it a little bit, but we wanna definitely. Expand on that because this is not about blame, it's not about guilt because if you just say, oh my God, that's me. I feel so bad. I'm such a bad person, I need to be able to be in more control. That is not helpful in any way. this is not about willpower and self-control and you being bad. This is about understanding how to eat better so that you can support your body and support your goals. So one of the first reasons that this happens, like getting down to the root cause of some of these. eating stupid shit things is that number one, you're not eating enough, and this is really the biggest one. You're undereating during the day, your body's hungry and hunger overrides logic. So anytime you're trying quote unquote trying to be good, your body, your hunger signals are going to override that. And. You might be able to push those hunger signals down for a certain amount of time, but ultimately, at some point in time, your body's going to win out because again, this is a survival mechanism. And so if you're not eating enough, then oftentimes you end up grabbing whatever's fast, easy, and available. And that's not a lack of discipline, that's just biology. That's your body trying to protect you, trying to keep you alive and give you the calories that you need to survive and to, the biggest calor expenditure. in your body. That's, that wasn't even a word. The biggest calorie taker. In your body is your brain, right? Like in order to, for your brain to function like you need calories and so your body's going to make sure that you eat the calories necessary to keep you alive and functioning.

Speaker 2 13:02

Yeah. It's, it is trying to maintain all of the key systems in your body way before it tries to maintain, I'm able to go out and run fast. that is way down on your bi.

Speaker 13:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:13

So your body's priority list.

Speaker 13:14

Exactly. So if you are trying to get faster or improve your endurance like you are trying to. Improve some measure of performance and you're not giving your body what it needs just to survive. There's no way your body's gonna have the extra in order to build the muscle and build all the things you want for performance.

Speaker 2 13:30

So then you go out and you try and perform and you just, you never feel great. You always feel like something's missing. You always feel a little bit flat. There's not really pep in your step. That's because there's not calories in your body.

Speaker 13:40

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:40

Pep in the step comes from calories in the body. Yeah. So have some food.

Speaker 13:44

And the second reason, and this is a big reason why the first thing is happening. So a lot of the reason that you're not eating enough is because of diet culture. Diet culture has probably been influencing you your entire life, whether you realize it or not. And most of us realize it, but most of us will know that. We've been told all sorts of things growing up. we grew up in the eighties, the nineties, two thousands, and things keep shifting, right? Fat used to be bad. Now carbs are bad, so we have a fear of carbs. We have a fear of calories. We're trying to eat clean all the time. We were taught to label certain foods as good and bad, and the results of all of that. Is a lot of restriction of I can't eat this thing or that thing is bad, or I shouldn't eat that. So there's a lot of restriction and your brain does not like that at all. And so that lasts for a little bit of time. you can grin and bear it and willpower through it for, a certain amount of time, but it almost always leaves to a rebound effect because you can only restrict for so long. And so your brain, your body ends up rebounding. And that just leads to a ton of frustration.

Speaker 2 14:49

And this diet culture slips in all the time, even when you're pretty confident that you've overcome it because you feel pretty confident that you've overcome it. But when we were talking about the first reason, oh

Speaker 14:59

yeah.

Speaker 2 14:59

You very clearly said you've been being good all day. But what you meant was you've been restricting yourself all day and it slipped out as you've been good all day. And then it hits the evening, and now you're like, I need a lot of food. And then you're gonna eat whatever you want. And it sounds like you've been being good all day. It's that you've been restrictive all day long.

Speaker 15:17

I said it that way because that's what's in a lot of people's heads, right? that's how a lot of people think of it.

Speaker 2 15:21

And that's where restrictive and diet culture come together, is eating less is somehow characterized as good. And it's not because there's not. There's simply the food that you need for the activity that you're doing. That's all it is. Yeah. Is the food that you need, and if in doubt, you should probably err on the side of having a little more so that you can really get in some good exercise, which we'll keep going into of really how that kind of works itself out.

Speaker 15:45

Yeah. the thing is, I feel like I've done a lot of work on my thoughts about diet culture, and I still find myself falling into this trap a lot. it, it's one of those things that I feel like still wants to creep in, especially now with social media because every little reel or video that you see is now telling you that this is bad or that's bad, or that's wrong, and that's how these reels, these videos are designed. They're designed to grab your attention and in order to grab your attention with the attention economy that we have today. our attention spans are so low and so small that they have to hook you within the first one to two seconds, or you're already scrolling past. And so they put these huge, really big, bold claims out there that make you think that everything that you're doing is wrong. And that really messes with your psychology, and even me as a. A scientist, I'm a physical therapist. I'm, I've been researching this for decades and I understand all of the, the psychological maneuvers and tricks and everything that the diet culture, has really been use using against us. I still find myself falling into it, and I can recognize it and I can notice when I'm falling into it and then decide to do something else, but I think that's a really big pieces of it is realizing and then. Understanding we are allowed to make a different choice.

Speaker 2 17:03

Yeah. Otherwise, you're stuck in this restriction, rebound and then get frustrated that you rebounded. Yeah. But like restriction is why every diet out there always works over a short period of time. Because it's simply harder to find the correct quote unquote correct foods to put into your body, which means you're gonna be in a calorie deficit, and then you're gonna lose some stuff, and then you're gonna get frustrated because you can't eat whatever you want. And then you'll rebound back too far because you're annoyed that you're restricting. And so that's like diet is just a constant loop that you're gonna be on,

Speaker 17:35

right? And even say you can stick to this restrictive diet, your body's gonna rebound. So even if you don't. Rebound and just start eating other things, your body's gonna still rebound because your body's always adjusting. It's always trying to maintain balance in the body. And so if you cut your calories for too long, your body just lowers its set point it, it's called a metabolic set point. Your body just decides, okay, I haven't been getting the amount of calories that I needed. I better. Become more efficient and start burning less calories with some of these daily activities so that I don't need as many calories. And so your metabolic set point goes down and so that your body just naturally rebounds for you. And so now all of a sudden you're eating the same amount of calories. Not only do you stop. Losing weight, sometimes you start gaining weight too. And so then people find themselves on this terrible hamster wheel of just trying to cut more calories, and you're just digging yourself into the hole deeper and deeper every time.

Speaker 2 18:32

Whereas the flip side of it is throw plenty of calories at it and the fire actually just keeps burning hotter. And you're able to actually burn even more calories. Yeah. You ramp your metabolism up and it's putting in putting more food does not seem like it's somehow going to help me lose weight. And it's if you think of your body as a furnace, throwing more fuel into the furnace is going to allow the furnace to continue burning. If you stop putting fuel in it, the fire gets so very small. Yeah. And it burns so inefficiently.

Speaker 18:59

but

Speaker 2 18:59

that's what we're,

Speaker 19:00

but you still need to choose fuel that is aligned with what you want to do. It's not like you can just start eating anything you want. And that's one of the big problems that a lot of runners have.

Speaker 2 19:10

yes. Very true.

Speaker 19:11

They're just like, oh, I'm running now. I'm training for a marathon. I can eat whatever the hell I want. And now they're. Overeating and they're overeating these very calorically dense foods that are giving you a lot of calories but not giving you the right nutrition that you need.

Speaker 2 19:24

And then,

Speaker 19:24

because there's a difference between calories and nutrition

Speaker 2 19:27

that works so nice in like early twenties, but is not necessarily a great plant right

Speaker 19:31

now. Yeah. As for you as like a thin, skinny boy that like burns anything that you look at.

Speaker 2 19:36

A hundred percent. But there's a point where it gets to, you have to make sure that you are throwing good fuel at the fire. That your baseline is taking in the fuel that you want to take in. That's where we open with skipping meals. You wanna make sure that you're actually getting in solid meals throughout the day, and then we will talk about supplements and stuff like that. But the basis needs to be good, solid meals. With the proteins in it and all the micronutrients and the vegetables and the carbs, like all of the nutrients need to be in there. There's not a substrate that we're really trying to avoid. All the nutrients need to be in there, but they need to be coming in good, solid meals throughout the day. That's going to be your primary way of getting most of the calories.

Speaker 20:21

I, I love that you just used the word substrate, like you're such a chemist.

Speaker 2 20:25

Thank you.

Speaker 20:26

By nature.

Speaker 2 20:27

Nailed it

Speaker 20:27

substrate. I love it. All right, so reason number three of why this is happening and why you find yourself eating stupid shit is that you're not eating for your training. You're trying to run and train like an athlete. You want the results of an athlete, but you're eating like someone who isn't training. And again, I'm gonna raise my hand like I find I've found myself. Falling into this trap too, because of reason number two that we just talked about because of diet, culture telling us all these things. So some of the ways that this can manifest is not adjusting intake with mileage. So if you are in a phase where you are increasing your mileage, you need to eat more. So whether you're training for, 10 k, half marathon, marathon, ultra marathon, the longer the distance, the more food you need to take in. That's just. Straight up math and chemistry, like yes, it's not as easy and your body's not as simple as calories in, calories out. There's a lot more to the picture, but math wise, when you start increasing your mileage and increasing the amount of time spent training, you do need to increase your calories,

Speaker 2 21:31

not just increasing mileage. What about if you're maintaining mileage, but you're increasing intensity?

Speaker 21:36

True.

Speaker 2 21:36

What about you're maintaining intensity and mileage, but you're upping your strength training?

Speaker 21:39

Yes.

Speaker 2 21:40

All of these are times where you need to adjust your eating. You're going to need to be taking in more Than you're used to. Yeah. If any area of your training is getting ramped up, your food needs to get ramped up accordingly.

Speaker 21:52

Another reason that this happens is that you're not fueling before and after your runs. Both are important. If you are someone that is trying to run and improve your endurance or even your muscle strength, eating before your runs is very helpful. Now, there's a lot of debate about this out in the social media world and the, I really wanna just bring it down and just. Help you understand. Don't overcomplicate it, because there's a lot of people out there that wanna tell you exactly how many carbohydrates, exactly how many grams of protein, exactly how many calories that you should start with for just for starters, if you're not eating before training, start eating something. It could be something small. It could be something like a piece of toast or a banana. You have to maybe. Play around with a couple things to figure out what works for you. You might have to play with the time window'cause it's when do I eat? some people can eat something 15 to 30 minutes before they run and be fine. Other people need an hour because of their digestive system. So this is something that you're gonna have to experiment with and you're gonna find what works for you. And then once you can start to just consistently take in some calories before your runs, then you can start worrying about some of the details. But at first it's just about building the habit. So maybe that is some coffee, maybe it is, some juice.'cause juice is great. Or an energy drink'cause that's giving you some liquid calories in sugar and energy. Like those are good things to take before a workout. So fueling before your workout is important and then fueling after your workout, whether it's a run or a strength workout. And refilling. Restoring the energy that you just used in that workout is really important, and you need to be giving your body both protein and carbohydrates after the workout. And again, you don't have to worry about these crazy details yet. You can just start by eating something after your workout. Once you get there, then you can start to worry about, okay, how much protein should I be eating? Or how much carbohydrates should I be eating? After your run, your body, during your run you're using carbohydrates. And so after the run, your body needs carbohydrates to refill what's called your glycogen storage, which is the stored form of carbohydrates in your muscles so that your body can then take that glycogen and convert it to glucose to use as energy when you're actually doing your training. So you wanna refill all of your glycogen stores and then you need protein to help rebuild the muscles that you broke down during your workout.

Speaker 2 24:14

It's an excellent synopsis. I have a couple comments on not fueling before.

Speaker 24:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2 24:18

I think that this is a trap that a lot of people fall into. For convenience.

Speaker 24:22

Yeah.

Speaker 2 24:22

Not even necessarily like leaning into diet culture. There was a push for a while back in like late nineties, two thousands of fasted training. Yep. Which is not a great idea.

Speaker 24:31

it's not And it's still around.

Speaker 2 24:33

It's still around. Yeah. it has predo. It certainly at the elite level, it still pokes up some time in male athletes, like freakish male athletes sometimes are still doing this almost the entire women's field. Top to bottom is not fasted training. There's just, there's no signs that it's working and there are a lot of signs that it is detrimental for women's training. Specifically, yes, there's some outlier men that can gain some benefits. You're probably not that. Like almost no one is that. if you look at a field of the major marathon, we just had Boston today, there might be one or two people in the entire field that are the freakish outliers that could benefit from fasted training. So have something. But I think a lot of people look at it and they're like, but if I get up so early. How am I possibly gonna get up and then fuel and then get out the door? I'm gonna have to get up even earlier, and I think that your answer of liquid calories is the easiest way to start this. Okay. And you might think to yourself, it'd be better if I had something that was more like a natural food, like a piece of toast and part of a banana and some peanut butter smear. It might be, that might be great, but if the option is fasted. Or some Gatorade. Choose the Gatorade. Yeah. Because that's getting some calories into you and that is drastically better than trying to find the perfect food. And it's probably better than losing sleep. Because you have to get up so that you can digest for an hour before you go out for a run. Yeah. Get something into you. Liquid calories is by far the easiest way to start.

Speaker 25:57

Yeah. And then along the same line, making sure that you're taking in enough carbohydrates, because as your training volume increases, like I said, carbohydrates are your body's primary and pre. Third source of fuel. So if you want to perform better, it's better when you eat more carbohydrates, period. Like it just is. And there's, like Kevin said, there's people out there that talk about fasted training. There's people out there talking about fat adapted training. And again, it works for some people, but the majority of humans work best with carbohydrates as fuel for training.

Speaker 2 26:30

Yes. Yes, a hundred percent.

Speaker 26:32

All right. Reason number four. That, you could be eating stupid shit is that you are outsourcing your nutrition to supplements. And I have fallen into this trap before too. I think all I've fallen in all of these traps, which is why I can talk about'em.'cause it's definitely not just me on a pedestal wagging my finger at anybody else, because I've made all of these, mistakes and I've done all of these things, so powders. Green powders, pre-workout powders, recovery drinks, protein shakes. These are tools, but they are supplements. And by definition, a supplement is something that is additional to your primary source of fuel. So instead of building meals that are around real food and food that gives your body. The nutrition that it needs. A lot of times people are eating more processed foods and then just trying to supplement the heck outta themselves to make sure they get the vitamins and minerals that they, and the protein that they need.

Speaker 2 27:30

You might be, you'd be far better off actually having lunch than grabbing a protein bar and popping some vitamins. Yeah, and vitamins are gonna have some benefit. Like it's a multivitamin is a nice way to make sure that you have all of your bases covered. There is a time for recovery drinks, there's time for all these various things, but if your plan for general nutrition is eat whatever I can possibly find It's probably gonna have to be in a package and then I'll just keep popping vitamins because that will cover all my bases. That's not a great place to start.

Speaker 28:03

Yeah. I had a client that was doing this and she thought that she was doing the right thing, and I'm like, what are you typically eating during the day? She's Would tell me, she's I'm having this for breakfast. And then I usually have a protein bar, and then I have a salad for lunch, and then I have another protein bar. Like she was eating multiple protein bars a day because she wanted to get in the protein, and I love that she wanted to get in the protein. And we also have to look at the quality of the protein that we're taking into. And again, that's a higher level thing, right? what I said earlier about, let's just start here. Start with just eating something first and then we can work on quality. I agree with that too. Like we have to make sure that your body's getting. What it needs at the minimum, but we don't wanna be outsourcing all of our nutrition to these supplemental things, and we can get so wrapped up in this because the wellness industry right now is like multi-billion dollars of industry. And so their job is to just sell you all the stuff. And so they're telling you all the ways that regular nutrition is not good for you or is not giving you what you need and how you need all these other things and trying to make you spend your money with them.

Speaker 2 29:02

Yeah, all the pre-workout and post-workout to optimize it to make sure that you're not, you're able to actually burn through the lactate that you're accumulating with your pre-workout stack, and then you're able to recover best with your post-workout shake. Like you could just eat some food.

Speaker 29:17

Yeah. the. Best example of this to me are these silly detox cleanses that people do. Don't waste your money, okay? If you've ever bought a detox juice cleanse, that's the job of your liver and your kidneys, like you have natural, wonderful God made organs. That's their job is to detoxify your body. No juice, that your drink is going to be better than your liver.

Speaker 2 29:43

Yes. It

Speaker 29:43

just won't.

Speaker 2 29:44

Yeah, no. Like you, as long as you still have yourself a liver and some kidneys,

Speaker 29:48

yes,

Speaker 2 29:49

you're doing just fine in the whole

Speaker 29:50

detox. if not, you're on dialysis. So That's true. That's a

Speaker 2 29:53

different story. It's different

29:54

story.

Speaker 29:54

That's that. This episode does not apply to you if you're on dialysis. let's put that out there.

Speaker 2 29:59

Fair enough.

Speaker 29:59

So bringing it back to your performance and how you feel. if you're eating stupid shit, you're gonna feel crappy. You're gonna feel low energy on your runs. You're gonna notice that you're not recovering well between your training sessions. You're gonna have a lot of cravings because of what we talked about before. If you're not giving your body what it needs, your body's going to have. Cravings so that it makes you want to eat more. You're gonna notice incon, you have more,

Speaker 2 30:25

I wanna talk on that

Speaker 30:25

one. Okay.

Speaker 2 30:26

if you actually tune into your body and you're like, no, I feel like I am doing a pretty good job of fueling myself, but every once in a while I just have these weird cravings for things. That's probably a good sign of an area that you're under fueling.

Speaker 30:38

Yeah, or deficiency. Like it could be like a vitamin or mineral deficiency also.

Speaker 2 30:41

But so really lean into that if you make it towards,

Speaker 30:44

that could a fun thing to Google.

Speaker 2 30:45

Yeah. But if you make it towards the end of the week and you're like, I really need like a burger. It's possible that you're not getting enough protein. It's possible that you're not getting enough iron.

Speaker 30:54

Yeah.

Speaker 2 30:54

And your body's no. You're gonna need some red meat. if you're craving something like every night you need something sugary, you're like, no. It's not that you want dessert, it's that you need something, you're probably just low on calories and your body's gimme the sugar in whatever form you can because I need calories in my body. Yeah. And that's the easiest way to get it in. So tune into what these cravings are because they might be a sign that you're coming up short in some In certain areas.

Speaker 31:17

Yeah. And there's a lot of people that think, oh, I just have a. Sweet tooth and I just like dessert and that's fine, but it could have, it could be a habit that developed because of under fueling. Ooh. And there's a lot of times

Speaker 2 31:28

that is layered.

Speaker 31:29

Yeah. A lot of times people find that when they start fueling more and fueling better throughout the day, especially earlier in the day, that those nighttime cravings a lot of times just take care of themselves and subside.

Speaker 2 31:40

I still have equate the sweet tooth even on days that I just eat like crazy.

Speaker 31:45

I would, you know what I'm gonna say here?

Speaker 2 31:46

Oh, you're gonna say that I'm basically under fueled on almost every single day. But here's the thing. if I eat a lot during the day, I still wanna finish dinner and have something sweet, but I don't feel compelled to have as much of the sweet thing. Yeah. So it is definitely, it's a habit. But it's also, it's a habit that the amount of is definitely influenced by how much I've eaten all day long.

Speaker 32:08

Yeah. A couple of the other things, that you might be noticing if you are falling into these traps. again, inconsistent training because you just. Your energy is all over the place. Like when you eat better for your body and when you eat in more alignment with the training that you're asking your body to do, you're gonna have more energy. And that's going to lead to improved consistency because it's gonna be very hard for you to be consistent and get out the door for your training every day if you don't have the energy that you need.

Speaker 2 32:35

Yeah, if your muscles are tired and you don't have the energy in your. Brain'cause that, what did you say that's the biggest en energy and expenditures is, I

Speaker 32:42

don't know. I

Speaker 2 32:43

just made up some words. I forgot. Word you made up there. But there's something good.

Speaker 32:45

Yeah.

Speaker 2 32:45

But yet your brain uses the most calories

Speaker 32:47

of anything else. Maybe I haven't eaten up today. I feel full though. stubborn body composition changes, right? especially if you're a woman in perimenopause and menopause, you are probably, might be, I shouldn't say probably, but you might be noticing some body composition changes. It is a very common thing that. Women in this phase of life start to notice, specifically like around the belly and what have we all been taught? Like when we start gaining weight, we have all been taught to restrict calories. We've been taught to eat less and move more, but a lot of times that makes us. Problem even worse because it, there's a lot of other things. It's not just a calorie in, calorie out thing. There's a lot of hormonal things going on in the body and metabolic changes and all sorts of things. But if you are under fueling, then again, your body is going to be changing that metabolic set point that we talked about earlier and just downregulating how much energy you're using for the other activities. And so this is going to get into a nasty cycle.

Speaker 2 33:39

And that last. Nasty cycle can sometimes lead to the last one, which is increased injury risk,

Speaker 33:43

right?

Speaker 2 33:43

You start messing with hormones, you just start under fueling all the time, and it is going to drastically increase the opportunities for injury because you just don't have the building material in your body, right? Your body will start eating itself to compensate for the lack of food that you're putting into it. It's just, it's gonna start leaching minerals from your bones. It's gonna start wearing away muscle like you are just going to gradually. Weaken because you're not fueling your body

Speaker 34:08

and it's also because during your workouts you're actually breaking your body down. And so then if you're not giving your body enough recovery and nutrition. When during the re the recovery period to try to adapt to that training, then you're just breaking down without fully building back up. And that's just going to lead to injury. So your body can't perform that way. So that's one of the things that's, those are a lot of the main things that you're going to see.

Speaker 2 34:31

Alright. Which leads to how we really wanna look at the food that you're putting into your body. It's not dieting, it's fueling. It's fueling as the athlete that you actually are. Yeah. Not dieting as the restrictive human that you could be.

Speaker 34:48

Because remember when we say stop eating stupid shit, we don't mean stop eating. That's not what we're saying. It doesn't mean, we're not saying stop eating. We're not saying stop eating processed foods. We're not saying stop eating anything specific. Okay. So don't hear that from this episode. I really wanna make sure that we're hitting that home because sometimes our brain can be stubborn and we like to hear things that already support the things that we believe. So we are not saying that at all. We're saying you need to fuel your body because when you are dieting, that is giving you a mentality. Of restriction and telling you that I have to control all of these things. It's very weight focused. We wanna make sure, oh, I just wanna lose 10 pounds. I can't tell you how many women that I work with and I've, that I've worked with for years that still have this mentality of, if I just eat five or if I just lose five pounds, or if I just lose 10 pounds, then I'll feel better about myself. And it's not true. Like it's just not true. You have to change the way that you're thinking about your body and when you do that, you're gonna feel better at your current weight. And then you can still lose weight if you want to like, but you don't have to lose weight to feel better about your body.'cause I just had this conversation with one of my clients last week and she was talking about wanting to lose 10 pounds. You know who you are. I love you. This is all out of love. And I'm just gonna tell this story because I think it's so important. So many. People have gone through this. And I asked her, I said, have you ever weighed less than you weigh right now? And she said, yes. And I said, did you still have body image issues? And she said, yes. And I said, so it's not actually about the weight because you used to weigh 10 pounds less, you used to weigh 15 pounds more and it, you've had body issues your whole life, for decades is what she's told me. Because your brain comes with you to all of these places. Your thoughts are with you the whole time. So until you clean up your thoughts and until you stop deciding that everything is about restriction and control and my weight, and you start instead shifting over, like this is a mental reframe, y'all this is not just oh, I just have to start eating differently. This is a mental reframe that we're talking about. It is. Moving from dieting to fueling your body, because when you talk about fueling your body, now we're talking about how do I support myself? How do I enhance and improve my performance? How do I increase my energy and improve my recovery in between sessions? That's fueling, that is not dieting. These are two totally different ways to think about the same food that you're putting into your body.

Speaker 2 37:20

it's a step back from what do I look like? What does the number on the scale say? Yeah. Versus what is the athlete that I want to be? Yeah. How do I want to perform? And if this is how I want to perform, then this is the fuel that needs to go into the tank. Like it's a hundred percent what it is. Like you don't head out to like the racetrack and see these phenomenal cars that, IndyCar races, NASCAR races. They're not putting in the same fuel from the gas station.

Speaker 37:46

No.

Speaker 2 37:46

Like

Speaker 37:46

they're just, they're not going to Costco to fill up on, on the regular 87 octane.

Speaker 2 37:50

that is not what's going in because it's not about what the car, it's not about, it's not about the weight because it's all about what is going in that is going to create the absolute best performance. And if there was some weird fuel that somehow when you put that type of fuel into the car, it made the side of the car bulge out slightly. If that fuel made it go faster, that's the fuel they're putting into the car. And that's exact, that's

Speaker 38:14

such a rant. It's a thing.

Speaker 2 38:16

Sorry. I got like the, I love

Speaker 38:17

it.

Speaker 2 38:17

I got like the car's cartoon going into me, so I'm like, those cars actually could, they could definitely move in various directions.

Speaker 38:22

I love it. Yeah, keep going.

Speaker 2 38:24

Those, the pit crew is a hundred percent only responsible for put the fuel into the car that makes it go the fastest, right? So when you try

Speaker 38:31

to win the race,

Speaker 2 38:32

when you view yourself as an athlete of how can I improve my performance? How can I be the greatest athlete possible, then it completely changes how you view the food in front of you. That is fuel coming in now. You can't go so far that it's purely food. I think you have to have some enjoyment with the food, and that's why you

Speaker 38:49

mean fuel.

Speaker 2 38:50

with the food that you're putting in this fuel, you can't view this purely as math equation. This is how many carbs, this is how many, how much fat, this is how much protein. You have to enjoy the process also. That's why we're saying nothing's off the table. It's not like this is good food. This is bad food. it's not an exact math equation because it's not exactly calories and calories out. But

Speaker 39:10

it's also, and that's really where the nervous system comes in. Yes. Which we weren't gonna get into too much on this episode. Fueling, like I just mentioned, when you think about fueling, this is a way to support your body, to improve your energy, to improve your recovery, and a big part of that is the way that your nervous system is responding. And so if you can eat, especially if you're eating a family meal, like we have family meals every night and. While some of them can be a little stress inducing, not gonna lie, the getting together with people that you love is a very calming thing for your nervous system because you're supported, you're around family. that is a good thing. And so the same thing with food. there are some foods that might not be quote unquote, Perfect nutritionally, but going out to dinner and going to that restaurant and ordering that dish makes you so happy that your nervous system is getting put in such a good place of zen and like relaxation that. You're gonna be able to digest better, your body's gonna be able to use that fuel better versus even if you were eating something really healthy, say you have like plain chicken and broccoli and rice, and you're like, Ugh, this is gross. And you were like eating it and just Ugh, this is nasty. Or you are eating a meal and being like, oh my God, am I gonna gain weight? Like being nervous and worried about. The food that you're eating like that is putting your body in a stressed out state that's going to also affect your digestion.

Speaker 2 40:26

that's one of the components I think of people putting on weight through the holidays. Yeah. Is they freak out about the food they're going to eat. Yeah. At the family gathering, at the office

Speaker 40:33

party before and during and after.

Speaker 2 40:35

So then you're not even digesting it appropriately. You're not enjoying the experience. Yeah. If you just sat back and enjoyed the experience, it would probably have. Far fewer negative consequences to

Speaker 40:43

you, and you'd probably eat less of it.

Speaker 2 40:45

Also true.

Speaker 40:45

Because you'd actually be enjoying it

Speaker 2 40:47

and enjoying the company of the people around you.

Speaker 40:49

Yeah.

Speaker 2 40:49

If you don't worry about the food that you're eating and you just actually enjoy the experience Then you can actually just enjoy all the experience.

Speaker 40:56

Yeah. So what do you need to do instead? Okay. So instead of eating the stupid shit, we're gonna make it. Super simple and super clear of what do you need to do instead? Number one, eat enough. Eat enough. This is a non-negotiable because if you fix nothing else, if you listen to this podcast and you're like, okay, I really have to. Look at how much I'm eating, and you fix this by eating regular meals. You stop skipping meals, you stop saving calories. If you can fix this, I can almost guarantee that you are going to feel a heck of a lot better if you are someone that doesn't eat regular meals that skips meals regularly, or that is very much. Chained by this restrictive mentality. If you start to let that go, even if it's just a little right, even if it's just okay, you know what? This week I'm going to make sure that I eat three regular meals a day. that alone, I bet you will improve how you feel and how your runs. Feel that

Speaker 2 41:55

a hundred percent Great. Great. First one, second one, eat enough protein. In all likelihood, that answer means eat more protein. Okay? We don't have to dive into the spec specific numbers off the bat. In all likelihood, the answer is more protein than you're going with.

Speaker 42:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2 42:09

That's your first step.

Speaker 42:10

Unless you are counting your protein, unless you are tracking your protein, you're probably not eating enough. there's a lot of people that are like, oh yeah, I think I'm fine. I'm like, unless unless you are intentional, you're probably not eating enough because it's not easy to eat. O over a hundred grams of protein.

Speaker 2 42:25

And

Speaker 42:25

like it is once you know how like I right now for me to eat a hundred grams of protein, super simple because I know exactly what I need to eat.

Speaker 2 42:32

Because you tracked for a

Speaker 42:33

little bit.'cause I know, right? Exactly.

Speaker 2 42:34

So now you, I've taken, so now you have a very good idea of how much protein is coming from various sources, right? And you can quickly add up is this, and

Speaker 42:40

I love cottage sheets.

Speaker 2 42:41

Is it 15, 20, 25, 30? You can start doing the math pretty quickly off of various things. You can estimate some of these things. But once you're like, all right, I probably need more. Unless you're already tracking and you know that you're doing well. The answer is likely more than you're currently doing.

42:54

Yeah.

Speaker 2 42:54

Once you're past that, then we're gonna get into about a gram per pound of ideal body weight, which is a lot of protein coming at you.

Speaker 43:02

So there's different research that's really coming out right now that's been the recommendation late, and I've been using that recommendation is like one pound or one gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. Yep. Which is not bad. if you get a little bit of extra protein, it's not bad, but. The best place to start is add protein at every meal. Make sure that you're eating protein at every meal. Once you get that down, then you, if you wanna start tracking, see, I think that people are like, oh, I have to start tracking. I have to make sure I get all the exact macros. no. That's too, nope. Much not sustainable. Like I am not. Tracking has a place, it can be helpful for a short amount of time, but it is not a sustainable way for most people to eat.

Speaker 2 43:46

If you've had an eating disorder, telling somebody to track yes is

Speaker 43:49

a bad path to send them down. Not a good idea. Okay, so start with protein at every meal. That's number one. And then start to increase it. And I would say shoot for about a hundred grams of protein per day. If you can get to a hundred grams of protein per day, it's gonna be easier for you to get up to, 1 10, 1 20, 1 30. But some of the new research that's coming out is saying that like your body can only use, there's a ceiling on how much protein your body can effectively use per day, and it's about 1.6 to 1.8. Grams per kilogram of body weight. So if you're like 130, 140 pound person, about a hundred grams of protein per day is where you're sitting.

Speaker 2 44:27

A hundred is always a good place to

Speaker 44:28

start. It's always a good place to start. That's why I always tell people, start with protein at every meal. And then start tracking so that you're getting like 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal. Now you're, you're gonna be closer to that 100 gram mark if you're getting three meals and a snack.

Speaker 2 44:42

Yeah. This one, the whole idea that there's a ceiling as to how much your body can process.

Speaker 44:47

Again, that's, we're going into more details here. That you don't need at the beginning.

Speaker 2 44:51

I know, but it, that starts to make it, it sends my triggers up because it slides into the next one of eat more carbs. Yeah. Because there's a lot of research into how many carbs your body can process while running, and there's a cap per hour. But there are plenty of runners and a ton of cyclists that are well over that cap, and it's what are they doing? Like, where are those carbs going?

Speaker 45:14

They've also trained to get there, right? Yes. And so we can't just say, oh, start eating a hundred grams of carbs per hour. you cannot start there. That's not where we start. So what. Yes. Eat more carbs. Okay, so our three simple things that we're, we've already covered, right? Number one, eat enough. Number two, eat more protein because your muscle needs it to build. Number three, eat more carbs, especially runners because carbs are not the enemy. They are your fuel for running. They are your body's preferred. Primary source of fuel with your running. Make sure that you're increasing it as you increase your training. Make sure you're fueling before your runs and make sure you're replenishing afterwards.

Speaker 2 45:51

And this is where it doesn't have to be perfect. Yes. Ideally, we're taking a whole bunch of real food again. If you need to fuel something beforehand, you wake up super early. A sports drink might be the only viable option that you have beforehand. Maybe you get to a point where you could,'cause you can train your GI system to handle all sorts of different foods. You start taking in small amounts of real food and you can transition to having a peanut butter and jelly and heading out the door. Yeah, you can transition to that, but if you've never done it, if you are used to running in the morning, fasted. Try like a sports drink. That's gonna be a good way to go.

Speaker 46:23

Yeah. Number four, build real meals. First, before you start adding in supplements, try your best to build real meals first, and that includes like every meal should include. Protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, and fruits and veggies. Okay. That's what we say when we're talking about real food. We wanna make sure that we're hitting all of the different macronutrients there.

Speaker 2 46:46

Excellent. Yes, because supplements are called supplements for a reason.

Speaker 46:50

Yeah, and we're gonna be talking about supplements as well, because some supplements might be helpful, like what's actually worth it. But we don't, we definitely don't wanna be relying on supplements for the majority of our nutrition.

Speaker 2 47:00

Yeah. Do you wanna get to supplements?

Speaker 47:02

Yeah, we can do, we can talk about supplements now. because we do get this question a lot, like which supplements are actually worth taking? So a couple that you might want to consider. The first I think is protein powder. Okay. I, there's a lot of people out there that are like, oh, protein powder is highly processed and blah, blah, blah. I think protein powder can be a very helpful add-on. especially if you are someone that is having a hard time getting an extra protein. I think that protein powder, and especially, Maybe you're not eating three meals a day and it is easier for you because you have a very demanding job. Maybe you're a doctor, maybe you are a nurse that is working a 12 hour shift. there are real life considerations that we have to take into account here as well. So yes, ideally we're all eating, three meals a day with vegetables and protein. But if you are a nurse and you're running around between patients, it's, I know it can be very difficult for you to get that, those meals in. it's not like you just have a 30 minutes to sit down and have a relaxed meal on most days.

Speaker 2 47:59

It's also possible that your training at such a level that your protein needs are higher. Yeah. And so maybe with. Three meals a day. Even if you've got your three meals a day and you're around that a hundred, but you're, you just still feel tired. Your muscles are not recovering from workout from one day to the next. It's possible that a protein shake is going to help. Yes. But that's once you've established baseline, then you can throw a protein shake on top of

Speaker 48:22

it. I would agree that we do wanna try to get our calories from. Main food sources and real food sources, but I do think one protein shake per day can be a great way to get some extra protein in without causing any sort of issue.

Speaker 2 48:37

Yeah, no, I agree.

Speaker 48:37

Yeah. okay. Second one would be electrolytes, especially if you live in a hot climate like we do in Florida. During the summer, electrolytes are super important. so supplemental electrolytes can be very helpful. The electrolytes can help things like muscle cramping. It can definitely help with, especially if you're a heavy sweater, you wanna make sure you're taking in enough sodium, and potassium and magnesium can be a self, a helpful electrolyte to be, to take in, especially at night. Like I know, magnesium is a good supplement to take if you have a lot of muscle soreness or restless leg syndrome, that's. Definitely helped me in the past as well. so electrolytes can be very helpful both during your training and afterwards when you're replenishing your body.

Speaker 2 49:18

Yeah, that's one of those supplements that is very much dependent on what you did. It falls in the category of. Fuel the activity that you did. Yeah. Supplement the activity that might need it. If you're going out and exercising in the middle of winter, it's possible that you don't need a whole heck of a lot of electrolyte supplements. if you're not going out and sweating a whole lot, if you're in like the gym in our garage and you're just dripping, then electrolytes might be super helpful. If you're heading out for a run in the middle of the summer and it's 90 degrees and humid, electrolytes are gonna be super helpful. it's knowing when you might need it and when you're not going to get it. Yeah. But that's a good one.

Speaker 49:54

Yeah. creatine is another one that is very well researched. Creatine is one of the most well researched supplements on the planet, and it has been shown to be safe and effective for strength building.

Speaker 2 50:07

Yes. Make sure that you're actually getting creatine in your cre. Because there was that study that came out that a bunch of the gummies that they, that you could find online. Yeah. Had, no creatine in

Speaker 50:15

it. Yeah. So the best form of creatine is creatine monohydrate. And that should really be the only ingredient in the supplement. It should be a coming powder form.

Speaker 2 50:22

Yes.

Speaker 50:23

It's a creatine monohydrate. That's the only ingredient with no other fillers or any other. Crap in it.

Speaker 2 50:28

Yeah. Almost all good. Creatine is coming in powdered form.

Speaker 50:31

Yeah. Three to five grams per day.

Speaker 2 50:32

Yep.

Speaker 50:33

vitamin DI think is a big one. I think vitamin D now this is based on my research, my own personal research and obviously there are limitations'cause I have not read all of the research studies out there, but I do think that vitamin D is one of those vitamins that does a lot more than we all realize that it does. They just keep finding more things that vitamin D is involved in, like different bodily processes. And so if you are someone that lives in, an area that doesn't get a lot of sun, or if you're someone like me that lives in an area with a lot of sun, but your body just doesn't process it from the sun as well because the darker skin tone, Makes your body less or get less vitamin D from the sun. so I have to take a vitamin D supplement because I have chronically, basically had a vitamin D deficiency since I was young.

Speaker 2 51:21

But that's something that you're, you've known for a long time based off of blood work that you've gotten.

Speaker 51:25

Yeah. And so I've found, Vitamin D to be a very helpful supplement, especially in all my research too.

Speaker 2 51:30

Excellent.

Speaker 51:31

magnesium, like I said, is also one of those good ones for the restless legs, muscle cramping, sore muscles. it's also, it can also help with, stools, regularity.

Speaker 2 51:40

Yeah. It can also just generally be a calming supplement.

Speaker 51:43

Yes.

Speaker 2 51:43

The magnesium comes also, it's good

Speaker 51:45

for your nervous system.

Speaker 2 51:45

It comes in a variety of compounds, and some of them are better for like restless legs and some of them are better for just generally calming. Yeah. So check out which. Which type of compound you have for magnesium.'cause you're not just eating straight magnesium.

Speaker 51:56

Yeah. And then the last one that you might wanna look into is iron. So if you are, especially if you're a woman, that is menstruating or going through perimenopause, I know that like some women have a lot heavier bleeding. During perimenopause and during some, just during your regular cycles, iron can be something that you might wanna look into, especially if you're noticing like a drop in your endurance and just a lack of energy and chronic fatigue. you might wanna get those checked. So this is one of those supplements that you don't wanna just start taking, you wanna get your blood work checked. To see where your iron levels are and make sure that you don't just look at overall iron. You also get, take a look at your ferritin levels because your ferritin is your body's stored form of iron in the body, so it's not just about your hemoglobin and hematocrit. You also wanna take a look at your ferritin because ferritin is very important for you as an endurance athlete. Especially as a woman.

Speaker 2 52:49

Yes. Thank you. that's actually where I was gonna go with that. as it heats up over the summer, your body is going to have to start figuring out how to handle the heat more, which means you're going to create more blood. And if you don't have iron stores, it's gonna be really difficult to create more blood inside of the body. Yeah. So it's gonna be a rough summer that way. So keeping an eye on your iron level. Is helpful.

Speaker 53:07

Yeah, so those are our top five. not necessary like other supplements like fat burners, detoxes, all these other trendy powders out there. Collagen does not have good research, to back it up. It's not gonna be harmful for you, but it's. Basically, a lot of the research that I've seen on collagen is just showing it's not, it's just apen. You're spending your money without the, proven effects of it. but

Speaker 2 53:30

some people are gonna get, you're gonna need some anecdotal evidence off of that guy. Yeah. There's gonna be all sorts of different powders out there.

Speaker 53:35

Yeah.

Speaker 2 53:36

There's things that you can take before your workout or after your workout. They're gonna help you optimize your workout. You know what's gonna be better than making sure that you have the most optimum help you burn lactate, and. Sodium bicarbonate beforehand, all these different things is eating, just generally eating throughout the day Yeah. Is probably going to be more important than whatever, pricey powder supplement you can take Yeah. Just before a workout.

Speaker 53:58

Yeah. I think

Speaker 2 53:58

that just eat.

Speaker 53:59

Just eat. Yeah. And I think that kind of goes back to trying to optimize for that 1% and when you're not paying attention to the low hanging fruit. Yes, like the powders, maybe they're helpful if you want to spend money on them, but you might be better off just spending your money on eating more food or eating better quality food,

Speaker 2 54:17

perhaps low hanging fruit.

Speaker 54:18

Yeah,

Speaker 2 54:19

maybe you could have some of that sounds

Speaker 54:20

low hanging fruit

Speaker 2 54:20

sounds delicious

Speaker 54:21

and all in all, to wrap it all up. Again, as always, this is not about being perfect. This is not about getting everything right, cutting everything out, eating clean all the time, like you can still enjoy food. You can still go out to dinner, you can still eat processed food. You can still go to McDonald's for if you really want to, you can still drink Diet Coke, like whatever it is that you like. Just be intentional. Don't shoot for perfection. Shoot for. I am intentionally fueling my body and I'm trying to do so in alignment with my goals. Build that base first, and then if you wanna start looking at some of the details, you can look at some of the details. But this is a really solid base of where we would love for you guys. To all start.

Speaker 2 55:04

Excellent. All right, let's wrap this up. It's time for dessert.

Speaker 55:07

It's time for dessert. going back to our dog, just like our dog likes to eat random things and then create a mess, and then we deal with the consequences. You might not realize it in the moment, but what you're putting into your body matters and what you're not. Putting into your body also matters. if you're not fueling that matters.

Speaker 2 55:24

I think that was really the takeaway we have is, our dog puts stupid things into his body sometimes we as people don't put things into our body. And that is a bigger issue than anything is. Yeah. In the whole world of putting stupid shit into your body, lack of food is the worst option. Not putting the food in it is probably better to make a slightly questionable food choice and fuel yourself than avoid the food because it's not the perfect food for you to be choosing.

Speaker 55:51

Was this whole episode just a bait and switch?

Speaker 2 55:54

I thought it was just a chance so we could put the explicit and say shit

Speaker 56:00

and Yeah, I'm just, we're just gonna leave it there. alright you guys, so remember, fuel your body. Do what is best for you. Do it intentionally. Do it in alignment. Don't worry about getting it all right or getting it all perfect. and if you found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend. Make sure they know that it's apparently explicit. Now it's

Speaker 2 56:23

super explicit,

Speaker 56:23

so super explicit, because what you put into your body matters. And what you don't put into your body matters, right? Because what you eat becomes how you run. So make sure that you're fueling your body appropriately.

Speaker 2 56:38

Excellent.

Speaker 56:39

All right. Thanks for listening. If you like this episode, not only can you share it with a friend, but we would also be so appreciative if you were to leave us a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify or your favorite podcast player so that more runners can find the show and listen in with us every week. This has been The Real Life Runners podcast, episode number 458. Now, get out there and run your life.