Fuel Your Body to Maximize Your Life | Season 2, Episode 2

Greg  0:03  

Hello and welcome to the Imagine That podcast. I’m your host, Greg Weimer, founder, partner and wealth manager at Confluence Financial Partners. Each month, we’ll explore new ways to help you maximize your life and your legacy. And meet some extraordinary people along the way. So if you’re looking to get more out of your life today, and legacy tomorrow, let’s get started. I’m Greg Weimer, and I’m here with Sarah. And Sarah has joined us. What about three months? How long? Yeah, June 1, new, new unusual associate. So that’s why it’s gonna be fun. So Sarah is a dietitian with Confluence. And that was a new thought for us. Probably not totally new in the industry, but a new thought for us. And we knew we wanted to hire a dietician for a while, actually, in fact, if you go back and listen to one of our older podcasts, you know, we were interviewing Dr. Mary Lamb. And she just said the words wealth and health and I’m like, okay, wealth and health. That’s so cool. So, we hired Sarah, to help with our clients’ health. We understand we’re 100% focused also on wealth. But Sarah is a dietitian, and Isaiah and her daughter, Addy, and he’s, what, six months now? Fresh six months, so yes. So we knew we wanted the dietician. But when we found Sarah, it became a lot easier of a decision. So welcome. We’re delighted you’re here. I think first because when we were going through the interview process, one of the things that I was very confused about was like, There’s dietician, there’s dieticians. There’s nutritionists like, and I’m like trying to figure out everybody’s just to make sure you have the right person, not only from a culture standpoint, but from a credential standpoint. So if you could just spend a couple minutes or a couple of just telling us what’s the difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist?

 

Sarah  1:49  

Yeah, so that’s a really common question I get asked a lot. So nutritionists, that’s not like an accredited term. So anyone could really call themselves a nutritionist, you could take some courses online, get some certificates. So it’s not to downplay the knowledge that can be there. But dietitian, there’s credentials behind my name. So kind of the process to go through as you get a bachelor’s degree, you do a coordinated program, which is like a supervised practice for so many hours, and then you sit for the national exam. And then once you pass it, you get credentials, and then you have to keep up on continuing ed. So it’s a very, like, regimented process. Yeah, it just, it has a process to Wonderful.

 

Greg  2:33  

Okay, so you’re credible, we got it, let’s go. So our goal, actually, of this podcast, is we’re not going to change the world. But holy cow, if we could bend the curve, our goal here is just if we could just help people make more informed and therefore better decisions around their health and more specifically, around their diet. So if right, let’s try to do that together. And if we think about the mission of Confluence being maximizing people’s lives and legacies, it’s really hard for us to think about maximizing someone’s life, if we don’t help them also with their health. So for us, it makes total sense. So let me just go through a couple things. Because for one of the things I find, it’s complicated. Like I hear keto diet, Paleo Diet, water’s good, intermittent fasting. So we’re gonna have to get overly detailed, but let’s unravel some of those. So when you think about like paleo, keto, that type of stuff, what goes through your head? What advice do you have for folks?

 

Sarah  3:41  

Yeah, that’s a good question. So there’s, you know, like anything because of the internet and technology, like there’s so much information out there. I think when it comes to nutrition, for most people, like getting back to the basics, you know, maybe it’s not super sexy, but the food groups have, you know, your whole grains, your dairies, your fruits, vegetables, proteins, I think eating a mix of all those foods for most people is going to be what keeps you healthy, those foods have the nutrients that our bodies need, that we can’t create on our own, to give us energy to get to give us energy to help us get through our data to have that kind of capacity. So not processed stuff. Yeah, so not processed, the more food that we can consume and whole form back to its natural state is going to be better for us. There’s a lot of food additives. Now, that can really influence like our energy levels give us energy crashes, provide a lot of inflammation in the body. So as far as like, okay, the keto diet, Paleo like looking at those individually, you know, those have been researched. Those can have some success. I think it really depends on the individual what’s actually realistic for their lifestyle, telling someone like keto to consume predominantly fat If that can be done well, and you can get into ketosis and burn fat, but it could also be done really poorly and ended up hurting your health, making it more difficult to take weight off it. So it kind of depends what your what your goals

 

Greg  5:13  

are. So here’s the so let’s do let’s do, let’s do specific goals that sure someone is in business or in life or a mom or a dad and they want to be at, you know, their peak performance for the day. Yeah. Because you said, you said you know, sugar crashes and stuff like that. We don’t want that. We don’t want that in conflict. We don’t want that with our clients. We don’t want that in the world. So like, give me an ideal scenario. Yeah, I wake up. What do I eat? When do I eat carbs? window window, a protein? Just you know, I mean, just just a quick overview of what like a perfect day would look

 

Sarah  5:44  

like? Yeah, yeah. So it’s a good question. So I would say the perfect day would be that you are waking up drinking water. You’re staying hydrated right off the bat. So nighttime cups of coffee right away. Maybe some I would wait on that. Maybe water first. Yeah, and change. Water first. If you can, a glass of water. Just start the hydration process and then drinking your coffee. If you can drink it black, that would be the best recommendation. And then some people

 

Greg  6:12  

no matter how much coffee I drink, so I don’t know how to get through the day. I’ll promise a bit like a bit like Yeah, so like a pot could be too much. Yeah,

 

Sarah  6:21  

I think different. Like we all have different probably caffeine like tolerances. But does that count as a fluid. Yeah, so that’s good. But yeah, I would say for the normal person, focusing on your carbohydrates, like in the morning and daytime, that’s when our body is most primed to like process like what

 

Greg  6:38  

does that mean? So like, what? Like, what is what so what do we do you do eggs in the morning? Do you like to do eggs and bacon? A lot of these breakfast bars? How do you know like which one to eat? Which one not to eat? Yeah. Right, because they all are marketed to be healthy.

 

Sarah  6:51  

Right? Right. What do you look for so Okay, let’s kind of over like, let’s go back to simplifying it. So I would say with each meal, if you could eat a balance of your focus is protein. So protein foods, that’s going to be your eggs. That’s gonna be your meats like chicken, pork, beef, all the animal products. And so if you can kind of surround your plate with that is like the centerpiece focus that’s going to keep you balanced Protein helps keep you fuller longer. So if you can make that the star of the show every plate, then you’re off to a good start. So your protein foods like breakfast, specifically, big fan, big fan of eggs. Some people don’t love it, then you could go like Greek yogurt. But as long as that is your focus, and you can kind of surround it with some natural carbs. I’m talking like fruits, veggies, that would be ideal. Not everyone is doing that in the morning. Yeah, veggies. Okay. Yeah, but you can also do things you know, that add fiber, like, which is fruits, veggies, but also like your flax seeds or chia seeds if you’re making a smoothie. So in the morning time you want something that’s going to keep your energy balance. Okay, so as opposed to grabbing a croissant or like a muffin, bad, bad. processed food packaged food. Because really what that’s gonna do, right, it’s gonna, it’s just going to taste good, but it’s going to spike your blood sugar, which usually when our blood sugar is spiked, we feel jittery. And then it’s gonna crash, and then we’re gonna be hungry again. Yeah.

 

Greg  8:25  

For all the business owners out there. Or, or, you know, mom, dad, I guess in your homes. One of the things we have Sarah doing in our firm is going through our kitchens and making sure that we’re not having crashes through the day and you can be crisp. So you’re redoing our snacks, right? Tell me about lunch. Here’s Yeah. How about that? How about our conversation about the wrap? Yeah, the wrap was bad news. Yeah, I’ll come clean on this. Here’s my view. My view is we started with the salad. Yeah, healthy right. Then if you wanted to be a little less healthy, you went to a wrap? And then if you wanted to be totally healthy, ate like bread in a sandwich or something? Yeah. So what we found was a wrap in a sandwich. You don’t like this, but it’s equally bad.

 

Sarah  9:14  

So what we’ve been talking about Yeah, I don’t know if we’re not agreeing. It depends on the type of person so like, carbs get a bad rap, like, um, you know, rice, bread products, pasta, all that. It’s because those break down quickly in our body to sugar, we want to use that as quick energy. If we’re not using that as quick energy, then it’s just stored for later. And that’s how we can put on weight. So we just want to make sure we’re balancing those kinds of carb foods with high protein foods that take longer to digest and break down they’re actually keeping us full. So what we were talking about was like, if it’s a whole grain than that is in its full form, so it’s not been processed. So there’s more nutrients to it. There’s more fiber to it. Um, so I would absolutely pick a whole grain wrap. Especially you’re putting like salmon in, right? Like, that’s excellent. Yeah. And then you can fill a rap with vegetables, you know, hummus, like it

 

Unknown Speaker  10:10  

just sounds easier not to have a wrap. Yeah. Well,

 

Sarah  10:13  

if you’re, if you’re satisfied without the wrap, okay, but like, don’t be afraid of the wrap. Don’t be afraid.

 

Greg  10:18  

And then dinner. So like, we were talking about carbs? Not as, like, be careful at dinner, correct? Yeah,

 

Sarah  10:27  

So the theory kind of getting in a little bit behind that is like, our bodies have circadian rhythms, we have a natural process that regulates our hormones that we like that the body prefers to thrive off of. So during the daytime, that is really, there’s a lot of signaling, from daylight, Sunshine like that. This is when our body processes food.

 

Greg  10:49  

We in fact, an allergy. Like we actually had someone come in and speak to our farmer about how to slow dementia and lowering your ability, your chances of getting it. And one of the he He’s incredible. And one of the things he said is important is in the morning, it’s really important to get like natural sunlight. Yeah, in the morning. Yeah, not in natural sunlight. So So yep, exactly.

 

Sarah  11:10  

So kind of going off that, like our bodies have a preferred time to process energy. So there’s something called insulin, that’s a hormone that helps the sugar get inside of ourselves to make energy. So in the evening time, our body is less insulin sensitive. So what that means is that we’re just not going to process it as well. So we probably should not be eating as many carbs in the evening, we’re, a lot of people were more sedentary, you know, you’re getting ready to go to bed. So, you know, going back to like, your plate should be surrounded by like a protein as the centerpiece and then fruits, vegetables, and then like complex carbs. Like if you want to add in some like potatoes, or some like Keane was something like that. But the closer that you can get to those types of like, eat more of these foods, the better.

 

Greg  12:02  

And don’t eat after when like, yeah, like, what time at the in the evening? Should you stop eating?

 

Sarah  12:08  

Yeah, that’s a good question. So going back to like, it has to be realistic for the person to make sense for their lifestyle. But I would say like, if you can have a cut off time of around like seven o’clock at night, that would be really good for your body. Yeah, yeah.

 

Greg  12:23  

So it’s been so much fun to have you around, because I could have like, Hey, Sarah, how about this? Like, Hey, Sarah, how about this? Hi, Mickey. Yeah, hey, sir. How about this? It’s been wonderful. One of the things we talked about is, how about intermittent fasting? You’re hearing all about it. And then I heard you say earlier in the conversation about inflammation, and how it can actually, you know, I’ve heard that intermittent fasting can help reduce inflammation in your body. Is that true?

 

Sarah  12:46  

Yeah, so I’m a big fan of intermittent fasting. There has been a lot of research surrounding it. So it’s not just another fad diet, fasting has been around since the beginning of time, you know, whether, you know, not not out of, like luxury, but more of necessity, really, like in our western civilization, like we’re eating around the clock bodies, we really don’t need that we’re really over fueling ourselves for what we need. So that is contributing to the obesity epidemic. And so essentially, intermittent fasting, it can take a lot of different forms, the most popular one is probably the 16 Eight approach, which is choosing 16 hours within the 24 hours of the day, that you’re going to fast and then there’s going to be an eight hour eating window. So a lot of people include in their fasting time, you know, sleeping, so it might actually be eight hours that you’re awake, that you’re just refraining from food.

 

Unknown Speaker  13:41  

So it’s not that bad. So you skip breakfast. It’s

 

Unknown Speaker  13:43  

not bad. Yeah, it’s depending on how you set it up. So

 

Greg  13:45  

set it up you you skip breakfast, and you go from you eat lunch and dinner, right as long as you’re done by Right, right.

 

Sarah  13:51  

And there’s, there’s ways to do it wrongly, but kind of just to get into it. Like, I like to say that the body is really smart. Some people think that like refraining from food, you’re going to go into like fat storage mode, the body’s going to, you know, freak out and turn on itself, that’s really not the case. The research that I’ve seen is that it can really be beneficial. When we are putting in food in our body for energy, the body creates energy to utilize. And then once those stores are used up or used up, that’s when you start getting into like the fat burning mode. So depending on the timeframe, usually 16 hours fasting won’t get you into like anything like ketosis, anything like that. But that is kind of like a good reset for the body that it can not be stimulated by that insulin hormone, like we said, and therefore not kind of like build up the fat stores. So we’re not stimulating insulin when we’re not putting food in

 

Greg  14:47  

right. What I appreciate about the way you the way you think about this is you have a realistic approach. Like in talking to you it’s not you’re not an extremist of every bread, and it’s like hey man, if you want pizza It like, don’t be afraid of the pizza. Yeah, right. Which which is, which is wonderful just to just to let our listeners understand how we’re going to be using stairs, knowledge and ability inside of Confluence is right now she’s working on content, you’re probably seeing some of that content online, that’s been very valuable. She’s going to be working with our associates internally, to make sure that we, you know, we perform for our clients at a high level, and then we’re going to start doing some lunch and learns so so you’ll start seeing some lunch and learns where we’ll invite you know, clients and friends into our into our offices. And we’ll have, we’ll have just, you know, just some, some five things you need to know about eating in the summertime, or how to eat fast food healthy, or whatever that is, or maybe we’ll dig into some local restaurants, menus. And you can say, like, Hey, if you’re gonna go out to eat in the South Hills, or North Hills, whatever, here’s what you should eat. And then ideally, we would like to make Sara available to some of our clients also, on an individual basis, so that’s the thought process behind it. So a lot of stuff on diet. We didn’t touch on what I asked, like, how do you know cuz I know, I brought in my breakfast bar for you. And you’re like, Yeah, you’re good, even though you sort of made fun of the taste a little bit. But you looked at certain things. So if you’re out there and you’re looking at a breakfast bar, what are the numbers they should look at? And what should they be?

 

Sarah  16:25  

Yeah, that’s a good question. So in full disclosure, I did make fun of it, you did, and I’m sorry, I felt really bad afterwards, I gave it to you. So there’s a time and place for breakfast bars, I get it like I’m a super on the go person, like that’s easiest to grab. When you’re looking for a breakfast bar, just like protein bar in general, I would recommend at least 10 grams of protein, I don’t think it’s worth it. To do any less than that, you’re going to want to always look at the ingredient list to see just how many like additives. You know, chemicals are in it. And you know that, yeah, so it’s gonna be really weird names that like you might have trouble pronouncing. So you want to look for more like natural ingredients that you can pronounce. So one of the the bars that I’m really on a kick of right now, or those are x bars that have those four natural ingredients just really compressed together. It has like dates, maybe like walnuts, chocolate, and you know something. So if you’re eating a bar that just has a ton of chemicals in it, your body is probably not going to know what to do with that. So it would be more advantageous to get the nutrient density of that protein. What about like fats and stuff? Like you know, they what percentage of fat should the bar have? Yeah, so I don’t know about percentage. But if the bar can focus on there’s, there’s different types of fats that are more beneficial. So you want fat and the dye is helpful for keeping us fuller longer, it’s the most energy dense macronutrient we have protein, carbs, fat, it’s going to keep you fuller. So we really want to avoid saturated fat as much as possible. Mono on saturated fat is good. So mono comes from like olive oils, avocados, walnuts, and then saturated fat is what contributes kind of to heart disease. So,

 

Greg  18:16  

so bad. Okay, so here we go. So we talked about the meals. What are the healthy snacks? Yeah, so like, like, if someone’s saying, Yeah, that’s great. But like, I need a snack. Yeah, so what, let’s go through some snacks. So if you just like instead of maybe the Doritos, and this and these things, that long term, you know, may stop you from enjoying your life later on. What are some of the healthy snacks that we could that we could have?

 

Sarah  18:44  

Yeah, so depending on your goals, like if you’re trying to lose weight, or like, if you’re just trying to be healthier, I would just always recommend when you’re choosing a snack, like just be mindful of what you’re choosing, like you said Doritos, like, the bag of chips. Like that’s really not going to get you anywhere in terms of hunger and like satiety. So, I think always having a well rounded snack and what I mean by that is, so like, if you’re go ahead and do a whole fruit so like an apple that’s gonna have good fiber in the skin, a lot of good nutrients,

 

Greg  19:21  

a little bit of an apple. So we got to do something.

 

Sarah  19:25  

Okay, it’s coming. So an apple would be great, but also combine that with with like a hard boiled egg or a beef stick

 

Greg  19:34  

and tell him about when you came in for an interview. The hard bone oh

 

Sarah  19:37  

my gosh, this was amazing. I was like who is interviewing? Yeah, oh, okay. So yeah, we were just like walking around the building after I interviewed and gosh, I’m gonna butcher this it was something like you you really like hard boiled eggs.

 

Greg  19:57  

First of all, let’s just acknowledge making a hard boil. bag perfect is really difficult really difficult. Just acknowledge that. So yeah, so we had some hard boiled egg makers here we gave everyone in the firm a hard boiled egg maker, which is incredible by the way best advice you’re gonna get on this podcast ever hard a boiled egg. Everything I’m saying they make them perfect their partner perfectly put together so anyhow so hard boiled eggs. We love them. We have them in our offices so great to have hard boiled eggs in the fridge. What else?

 

Sarah  20:29  

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, combining those things together. I would say like we’ve talked about before. If you could do veggies like raw veggies with hummus Yeah, so we talked about what was it carrots and celery? Yeah.

 

Greg  20:43  

And is it like there’s so many I felt like there’s all different flavors of hummus doesn’t matter. Like hummus was good.

 

Sarah  20:48  

Yeah, so hummus or hummus is like ground chickpeas. It’s a Mediterranean. Yeah, some people don’t like chickpeas on their own Mediterranean side that has some oil in it. I don’t know that any is better than other there’s garlic there’s red pepper. Yeah, yeah.

 

Greg  21:03  

And like nuts. Like which ones are good? Which ones are bad? Are they all good? Like

 

Sarah  21:11  

yeah, so nuts have the good fats as mono unsaturated so a handful of knots is usually equivalent to like an ounce. There was actually a study I was reading that it was like for people who are consuming at least five ounces of like mixed nuts per week. It decreased their cardiovascular disease risk by like 30% Like it was huge just by adding those in but with that being said, like walnuts are going to be really good source of Omega threes, which are anti inflammatory and actually really help your brain health. Which is important with aging and cognitive function just staying on your game. So walnuts are great pistachios, almonds. The higher like density like calorie nuts would be peanuts and like cashews, which don’t have as many benefits but are so good.

 

Unknown Speaker  22:00  

Yeah, your face was like not as impressive. Yeah,

 

Sarah  22:02  

I would just say like, if you can do the unsalted and like be like note weld or like, okay, those kinds of things, keeping them natural. That would be a really good

 

Greg  22:12  

use. We’re gonna do I’m gonna give you a little warning, rapid fire sort of so like, if I were listening, I would want to know Okay, that’s all great. I got it. I got it. I got it. I think I got I got framework or my day, sleeps really important. We talked about that. We talked about that in another podcast, measure your sleep sleeps important. It’ll keep you healthy. But now give me we’re gonna go through five things bullet points, if I could only do five things. If I right, just like give me the five things you would do. If you’re thinking about our listeners. Yeah, you’re driving down the road. like, Alright, give me some homework. So we’re gonna do five things that you think they should do one?

 

Sarah  22:46  

Yeah. What can I just say this is really focused on nutrition. But you know, we’ve talked about like health. Yes. Is encompassing like you said, sleep stress management, physical activity. So plans. We talked about that quote, Oh, yeah. And he therapy too. There’s so much to talk about.

 

Greg  22:59  

Because you want to get your Nobel Prize. Yeah. Yeah, right. We that’s like the rage.

 

Sarah  23:07  

Yeah, there’s, there’s some benefits to that. I don’t know that. There’s a lot of research to that.

 

Greg  23:13  

I want someone to figure it out. For sure. Before I do that, I do too, which sounds horrible. I gotta know for sure. But by the way, we should say consult your physician. We’re not trying to give medical advice. Thank you. Intermittent Fasting is not for everyone. If you’re allergic to peanuts, we’re not suggesting them. So talk to your physician. They’re just giving you things to think about. That’s

 

Sarah  23:33  

a really good disclaimer. Thank you. So I would say the five things for someone just looking to improve their overall health. Really back to the basics of like, make sure you’re staying hydrated, drink enough water that’s going to help your kidneys flush the toxins out of your body. There was something else that I read that it’s like, you know, low grade dehydration can be really like unnoticed, like symptomless, but that can actually shrink like your brain cells. And overtime like we do something like dementia. So it’s really important to stay hydrated. So that’s one thing. I would say if you can get in 30 minutes of movement per day, like concentrated movement walking, that’s going to be great. As far as nutrition goes, we talked about like, building your play. The

 

Greg  24:17  

one thing that this individual said that we were that we brought in to talk about dementia. He said the same thing. He said like you got to like move 30 minutes a day and he said if you could only do one thing, just one thing. Yes. A dance. Yeah. Why do you have a dance? He said because it’s stress relief. It’s exercise. It’s music, blah, blah, blah. So we got water. We got exercise. How many am I doing? 555 you got five. Oh, I don’t want to do 10 things.

 

Sarah  24:44  

Man I was gonna struggle there. So yeah, the third thing would be Yeah, surround your How did I want to word it? Make make protein the star of your plate protein. Yeah. So every eating occasion. You Eating foods that are high in protein to keep you fuller longer, and to keep your blood sugar stable. I would say that and then number four would be, I would say monitor your alcohol intake. Really? Yeah.

 

Unknown Speaker  25:18  

Can we have a different one? Yeah, I totally agree.

 

Sarah  25:23  

Right? Yeah, that’s, that’s a sneaky one. So alcohol is enjoyable as it is, you know, there’s not, it’s not very nutrient dense. It’s, it’s, you know, kind of empty calories. So, it can also like alter your sleep and just kind of the body, it’s processed in the body as a toxin. So just kind of,

 

Greg  25:45  

if you if you drink, you can’t burn fat for some period of time, because your liver is actually working to get rid of the toxin.

 

Sarah  25:52  

Yeah. Yeah, it’s true that so the liver prioritizes, breaking down the toxin, which I think the active ingredient is ethanol, which the body just doesn’t know what to do with so it breaks it down. And then that means that your the food that you ate with alcohol was further delayed. So if you drink alcohol in the evening, like most people do, that’s going to give you that overnight time to digest your food, which is probably going to lead to some crappy sleep.

 

Greg  26:18  

Yeah, well for me if I if I would drink like beer or wine, I fall asleep and then at two o’clock, I wake up because sugar kicks in. Yes, that’s bad. Wait, so what did we have we had

 

Sarah  26:28  

drink water, drink water, getting in 30 minutes a move 30

 

Greg  26:32  

minutes and movement? Proteins, this protein is the star more protein Hmm. Be careful how much you drink, moderate

 

Sarah  26:39  

your consumption, right. And then I would say the fifth thing is really try and cut out artificial sweeteners as much as possible. So that’s like in drinks. That’s, that’s kind of like sneaky. And like syrups of coffees. It’s in packaged snacks. So I guess what, that’d be checking your food labels and just try to, as much as possible consume the whole food version of snacks.

 

Greg  27:07  

Wonderful. Yeah. Well, we look forward to benefiting from you. We look forward to our clients benefiting from you. And as we were talking about, you know, what’s the goal? What’s the ultimate goal? Clearly, we want to help people maximize their lives and legacies. And we really do believe that helping them with their health is a big part of that. And God willing, someday you’ll be in the mall. And someone will say, Sarah, thank you. You really helped me make some great decisions and because of that, I’m leading a healthier life and a more full life. So we appreciate you. This is gonna be fun. Thanks. Thank you.