Ep 572: Your Health, Your Responsibility with Adam Ross

Podcast Introduction and Guest Welcome 0:00

Welcome to the Health Fix Podcast, where health junkies get their weekly fix of tips, tools, and techniques to have limitless energy, sharp minds, fit physiques, or life. Hey, health junkies on this episode of the health fix podcast. I have Adam Ross. He is a registered dietician. he's a badass. Like the guy is just real when it comes to food. And boy, are we going to break down some stuff today. We're going talk about taking responsibility for your health and your nutrition and what goes in your mouth and not in like a jerky way.

we're just going straight up be us. Um, yeah, we're gonna be real. And here's what I'm gonna say. I didn't fully admit that in the last, like, couple months I've really started to not wanna cook. At all. Anymore. Feel done with it. Funny, since I live on property where we grow a whole bunch of food, and now I have a freezer sitting next to us with a WHOLE BUNCH of FOOD in it, AND I HAVE CANNED A WHOle Bunch of Things, We have A TON OF THINGS STILL POPPING OFF IN THE GARDEN. and I don't know if I wanna COOK THIS STUFF.

So I'm gonna have to figure that out, right? I've gotta own that responsibility of what's going on in my brain and be like, all right, instead of fully imploding and cooking and hating it, I wanna maybe find somebody to help me out to cook. My husband's doing a great job. Maybe I can entice him to keep doing great a job, or maybe we find someone to helps us out with some of the meal prep. And this is me being completely like real with you guys because let's face it, we get a point in life where we don't really wanna cook.

Sometimes we just wanna eat popcorn and call it dinner. And sometimes you might wanna be like me and eat squirrel-like and have nuts and seeds and called it good. Well, knowing that about yourself is half the battle and Adam is gonna talk all about that today in the podcast where, hey, you can eat out every stinking meal as long as you know your macros and you're going to good quality restaurants. Hey, who does that not help feel a little bit more free about eating better and eating macross and getting healthier?

Like what I can you eat it out and your not gonna take all these foods away from me? What? Yeah, so it's a different thought process compared to you gotta eat keto, you got to eat carnivore, this, that. And the longer I've been in the game, the more I realize, like, more we are looking at the basics, better this is for us. We've come way out of balance when it comes to basic nutrition, basic fundamentals for health, and focusing on problems and not looking like what's the realistic solution? Because I could easily be like I don't wanna cook and I'm gonna eat popcorn every night for dinner and what gonna happen?

I'm gonna gain weight. I could also be like, you know, I am just not gonna eat, too. And I know for a lot of folks, grabbing protein bars and convenience food and going by fast food or getting pizza because they don't want to cook are other solutions, but there are solutions that can mess with our metabolism.

Taking Responsibility for Health Choices 2:50

So why not find solutions are beneficial for our metabolism and offset a little cash flow there? Because like yeah, it's probably gonna cost a couple hundred bucks a week. to have someone cook for you. And it's probably gonna cost a couple hundred weeks. hundred weeks, a couple hundred bucks of money to do certain convenience things that help you when it comes to figuring out what works with you, not what what work for the carnivore, the keto, or the fasting plan. So why not invest in yourself in this way?

Make it easier for you to eat in a way that is healthy for your body. I don't know. Let's reintroduce you Adam Ross and let's talk about it a little bit. All right, let us dive into the podcast. Hey, Hell Junkies. I have Adam Ross back on and I had to bring him on because he emailed the most epic email out to his readers that I couldn't say no to. And I also was like, please come talk about this. It had do with his hard stance on wellness and like your approach to your own wellness, and being real with yourself on it.

So Adam, thanks for coming back and chatting with me about the topic. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. Yeah. I had a blast the first one and I know we're going to have a good time the second time around for sure. No doubt. We've given away our power for our health, we've give away power a lot of things, and now we're giving away the power of our own responsibility when it comes to our heath. You know, as much as I would love to be like, there are 85 reasons why someone may have gained weight, or 85 million reasons for why somebody may be chronically stressed or ill, we do have to take some responsibility because no one is going to fix it like you do.

Would you elaborate on that? Because this responsibility thing is so huge. Yeah, no, I think, you know, my big thing, and I want to preface this by saying, you know, common nature for human beings, right, is that we're amazing at identifying problems, but we are not great at moving beyond the problem identification and into the solution piece, so we know. The deck is not stacked in our favor right now as human being in terms of our society and our health. There's a lot of trash foods out there, there's lot marketing, a lots of ways we can go wrong.

But it's also never been any easier for us to go the right direction either, I don't think. So that was kind of my thing, right? Is like trying to take a hard stance on the understanding that, yeah, hey, like there's a million ways where you can go wrong and it is all very easily accessible, but there is a millions where we can right. But we just have to find that solution and we need to think beyond the problem. We need stop letting the problems control us. You know, whenever I speak to people, you know I ask them what's wrong.

They can tell me 25 things that are wrong with them. When I ask them if they've ever thought beyond what's wrong and how to fix it, you typically get silenced there, right? Or we start to get a lot of excuses built up, these baked-in excuses that we all do. We all have them. You have, I have and we're all human beings. You know, look for the easy way out. But that's kind of my take on it, right? Is that we can't keep taking the Easy Way Out because it's sending us in a terrible direction, you know?

Like metabolic health in the country is probably the worst it has ever been. And I think people are sicker and, more stressed and fatter and all of the above than they've ever it's not a great trajectory that we're on, right? So at some point it becomes on us, it comes on me, and it come on you to take care of our own health and our our situation and find a way around all of these problems that continue to find ourselves running into every day. You know, I think the first thing you mentioned that I've been kind of thinking about a lot is in even in the medical field, in nutrition field in any health field we do focus so much on the problem more than we're looking at, you know solutions and trying to get the mind out of that especially when it's tied into weight loss because I found even my in my own weight being obsessed like I just can't get any weight off and I would say probably 60% of my phone calls with women throughout the week have to do with I can get the weight of not, well I've tried this or done that.

You're seeing the same thing I'm guessing here in terms of. Yeah, a hundred percent, right? And it's always, you know, we go very outcome oriented as opposed to process oriented, and again, these are all conversations I find myself having often is we were very hyper focused on the outcome. And yet if you kind of sat back and you took a deep and hard look and just held yourself like very accountable, do your actions every day, every week, add up to the outcome that you're trying to achieve, right?

So the thing that I'm typically having conversations a lot with people is like, yes, I know you want to lose five pounds, you wanna lose 10 pounds. We all do, Right? You want look better, You wanna feel better. You on a function better in some way or another. So what have your actions been over X amount of time and do they align with the out come that your trying achieve? And I think if we really dig down deep, and this is where we have to get a little uncomfortable and we kind of have call ourselves on our bullshit sometimes and try to understand, hey, what have I done that has been in alignment?

What have done has that been out of alignment and what is the weight of those two things, right? Unfortunately, especially if you're trying to make change, the actions that are in align with your goals have heavily, heavily outweigh the action that is not in line with the goals. I do think as you get closer to achieving your ideal body composition, your idea health, the ideal outcome, you actually do get a little more leeway or a bit more leash. But in the moment, when you're really going after a lofty goal or something that's significant change for you, You do have to be heavily weighed in favor of like your actions have two aligned with your goals, right?

And it's like, hey, life happens. There's always going to things. We all have a thousand excuses every day as to why we can't do the things that we know we need to do. But unfortunately, like, you know, I always say like the body just doesn't care. You know? The body does not care if you had a stressful day, if traveled, If you were out late with friends, someone peer pressured you, your boss was mean to you.

Planning Ahead Instead of Eating on Autopilot 9:20

The Body does NOT care, it doesn´t. So for you to stop at the fast food restaurant on the way home or whatever it might be and drown your sorrows in whatever it might be, right? Alcohol or excessive calories or, you know, treats or snacks. You know? I get it. It serves a purpose, but it doesn't serve the purpose of you achieving your goals and your body literally doesn' care. Right? It's just adding up the calories and it's, uh, stacking up, the nutrients, whether it is, micro nutrients or macro nutrients that you're putting into it, And it's just rolling with what goes into it, right?

So I get it. We all have the emotional side of everything and we all stressors and things in our lives. Again, if we have a grand goal, the actions have to align and the excuses have start to drop away at some point. Because again, it's like, you know, kind of cliche, but you do you have your success or your excuses kind in two ways, right? So sage advice, because I think so many people, we know what we need to do. I interviewed someone once that I wrote a book that says I know I need Exactly. I'm like this freaking genius.

And like, even myself, like we wouldn't have overweight nutritionists, right? We wouldn' have over weight doctors, we wouln't overweight medical staff if everyone, if it was just real simple, all of us know what to do. It's just the leading up to it. Like you're saying these actions have to outweigh things. We have like to set up life for success and, you know, I came onto this podcast saying I've only dusted my face off because I just ate some popcorn and I had some salt in it and needed my electrolytes.

I mean, and my carb boost, right? And, like, why did I need that? Well, because... I didn't have enough for breakfast. you know, clearly, right? And my lunch probably didn't have enough protein in it, and so I decided I needed a snack. And so there's things going like, okay, well, I didn' set myself up for enough meal planning on this level. So do you feel like one of the biggest behaviors or habits that we do find ourselves not keeping up with and then kind of like diverting the responsibility is the busyness, the business factor and like needing a meal prep, needing shop cook, all those things?

Uh, you know, I think the big thing is like the proactivity, right? Like I just think like we, yeah, we're not proactive enough, most people, myself included in a lot of cases, are not proactive enough in terms of like taking control of their day and controlling their outcome. I come from a sports background. I always tell everybody or anyone who comes from a sports background or whether you're in business or whatever it might be, it's like you don't show up to work without an idea of what you are going to do today at work.

Or you just going sit at your desk and twiddle your thumbs or you going do random things here, random there and you won't achieve anything. I never showed up a single hockey game. without having some kind of a game plan. We had reviewed the team we were playing, we knew what our gameplan was, We knew the plays we're trying to run, and we had a strategy, right? So right now we just lack strategy. And so many people are just kind-of flying by the seat of their pants. You wake up in the morning, you quickly run down to the pantry, whatever you see first you grab.

Or you might be just hitting a Starbucks or whatever on the way to work. To work with you, you don't know what you're having for lunch. You're just going to see what everybody else is doing. Don't what your doing beyond you know that for snacks or dinners or anything that night. And this is i think where we end up kind of losing the battle right is it like there's not enough pro activity there is not planning and you can just get ahead of ourselves. And again, like I don't even like, I'm not a meal prep guy.

Like, sitting there for four hours on a Sunday, prepping out my whole week and planning in the head. That's not what I enjoy. But I do know what i'm going to do after I get off this podcast with you. I know I am going have for a snack. By the time I go to bed tonight, I'll know what I'm going to do for breakfast and lunch tomorrow so that I have myself in a situation where I can be successful. Does it take a little bit of planning and prioritization and time? Absolutely, it does. But again, just like anything, like just the routine that you may be in right now.

of just flying by the seat of your pants and running around and just letting the cards fall where they may, if you start to create a routine and a structure around planning your days, it becomes a lot easier. You know, everything's always hardest, especially habit change, right? It's like it's hardest in the beginning. Like to start do this is not simple. And this where now the excuses start come in, oh well, I have this or I had that, or this was hard, this a long day, that's great, like I get it.

I'm not saying that you didn't have a hard day. I'm just saying if you're not prepared for what you are going to do the next meal or tomorrow, you will probably end up staying stuck in the same position and feeling the way you feel right now. So all of the things outside of your health and your wellness and nutrition aside, You still got to prioritize and get the job done here. Or else you're going to stay exactly where you are, right? So I think, you know, again, it's not like an empathetic thing.

It's just like a reality, like, hey, if you've got a deadline at work today by 5 p.m., you got to get the job done by five, and if lunch is coming at 12, and you don't know what you're going to do, you haven't given it some thought, even an hour ahead, like, hey, where am I going go for lunch today? You know, just a little bit of planning ahead can go a really long way. So my big thing is proactivity. I think we just lack that structure and that pro-act, that, pro activity that can create a ton of success, but people kind of, I forget about it or just skip it over.

I would agree, I absolutely agree. I'd say myself too, because we become like the minds busy on other things. The next thing you know, it's 7.30 at night and you're like, oh, we don't even have any meat in the house. Exactly. You know those kind of things, so I find it fascinating that you are like yeah, i don´t meal prep, cause I think a lot of people are convinced that anybody who is a dietitian is like a master with meal prepping like all the time. So people might be like Adam, you don't meal prep, like how do you even like, what?

How do prep for the day then? What do, how you tell yourself like this is what I'm gonna eat and stick with it. That's the other kicker, not diverting from the plan of what you set up for yourself. How you do it? Yeah. So I guess I do cheat a little bit right now. I pay for a meal delivery service and that's how I get my lunch. But I will say that, I mean, that was in the last year, right? I'm 38 years old. so I went without the meal-delivery service for 37 and a half of them. Right? So, if you can outsource it, obviously it's going to be the best.

Because it just makes life simple. And again, it's time saver, all these things. So if you have the means to do it, I do think getting into some kind of like a meal delivery service and just kind having that done for you is really simple, but before, and even on days where we don't have that, We typically just plan ahead at dinners, right? So we do cook dinner at night, you know, whether it's usually nothing fancy on the weekdays. Me and my wife are both very busy. You know I'm going into the city.

I typically don't get home until 7, 45, 8 o'clock most nights. My wife is very with her work right now. She forgets, even though what time it is, half the nights I walk in the door and we don't have dinner yet. We keep things very simple. Basically, we do a lot of ground meats and things like that where we can batch prep stuff. So we'll cook a big pot of rice and it'll feed us for the week, or we cook two pounds of brown beef and that'll be dinner tonight, that will be lunch tomorrow kind of thing.

So we do a little bit of planning ahead there. And again, like we're just proactive, we just get ahead of ourselves a bit. So, you know, even on a night where if I didn't have a meal prepper, if we didn t have dinner, I would absolutely be planning, what I need to do for tomorrow, whether that's like, cook something ahead, or like in my case, i always tell people just like you need a plan A,

Meal Delivery, Simple Routines, and Backup Plans 17:20

B, C, right? So plan a would be okay, You're not doing meal prep, but you cook extra dinner every night so that you can bring it for lunch, right? So that would be say plan A. Plan B is that, all right, maybe, you know, don't have anything planned. But you do know that there's a select couple of restaurants or whatever near your house or near work or wherever, where you get a couple good meals and you kind of just rely on those, so I know. I mean I'm lucky I am in New York City, I've got plenty of options but I also super picky so, there are a few places right around my office where if I don' have lunch on a specific day, i know exactly where I going.

Oxford Cafe, I'm doing a salad with double protein with an egg with sweet potato with hot sauce on the side. Like I can tell you exactly, right? And it wouldn't matter, like where I was, that would be the structure of the meal that I am trying to consume. But I've planned ahead, thought ahead. I have done the proactive work to get myself set up with these options. And then again, just kind of relentless in my approach of like, not making an excuse, if I got to wait an extra couple of hours to go to Oxford because I didn't bring my lunch this day, And I got to sit in the office and be a little bit hungry for a couple hours until I get a minute to get out.

Like, I will do that. Right. So I do think like, there's also that level of accountability where like we always have our plan A or plan B or Plan C and then plan C obviously would be like convenience. right. so like I also like. I'm not I don't plan and prep everything I. Do like my snack every day is two scoops away protein, some kind of a. protein bar process, but fine from an ingredient standpoint, and maybe a handful of raw nuts or whatever. So it's not like I'm cheffing up a meal every time I eat or what, again, I know that I have a high protein, 50 grams of whey protein.

I've got maybe 30 to 50 g of carbohydrate based on the bars that i'm eating and I got some healthy fats with my nuts and i control my intake that way. It's just I'm just intentional. And I think if people can be very intentional about what they're doing, then that allows us to find the foods and the meals and stuff that fit that structure. Again, I really do think just like the more intentional you get, the More you prioritize it, The more these you start to, you know, find solutions instead of just, like, oh, hey, it's a busy day.

I'll just grab whatever, You know is laying around the office or whatever is going on, right? you just hold yourself to a little bit of a higher standard than that and you kind of make it happen. And, you know, for lack of better term, it's like we just, the job just has to kind get done. Yeah, yeah. Well, and I hear you saying like, you're responsible for what you put in your mouth, right? No one's holding you down and putting anything else in, so if you do, on autopilot, walk to somewhere that isn't as healthy, like you gotta call yourself out.

And speaking of autopilots, this is where I think a lot of people are on and they don't even realize like where these things are coming in. and it's like over before. They already ate the food, they already went there before they realized like, oh crap, I did like four times this week. Starbucks drive-thru, dang it. Do you see that quite a bit too? Well, a hundred percent. Yeah. Just a lot of, yeah. Like mindless, you know, again, like habitual routine based things, right? Like I'm, I am the biggest believer that like, human beings were just, we're habit and routine-based.

Whatever is the habit that we are in and the routine that were in, that's what we do. Right? So if you go through the Starbucks drive through one time and that was super simple and you got a coffee and a egg bite thing and he really liked it, That's going to become very habitual. You know, it's an easy routine to kind of double down on. So, yeah, and I do think like again, you know I keep bringing up like office or maybe it is like, if you work from home, the kitchen is right there, habitually and just routine based.

A lot of times we are just kind walking around grabbing whatever snacks are available, a little bit of grazing here and there. maybe not really prioritizing meals as much because we have been grazing a little bit throughout the day. So then food quality is down a bit, macronutrient controls down, you lose track. It's like, oh yeah, a few handfuls of nuts here, couple bars there, bag of popcorn there. Maybe you had whatever to drink. And like, it just gets away, right? Just like anything that we don't focus on and we're not super mindful of, It just kind of gets way from us, and I know this because I've got the food side of things figured out okay, but the rest of the things in my life aren't exactly like perfect, so.

I totally understand where not having the best routines and habits around certain things can be a burden or whatever or unhelpful in the long run. So I think that's kind of what it is, right? It's just a lack of mindfulness and then it's these routines, and these patterns that we follow all day long that just aren't beneficial to the goal. Yeah. Of course, you mentioned protein powder and you mention your protein bar. I'm curious, what brand do you use? What do like? Like what's your fave? Yeah, so right now I'm using Legion because my wife has like a deal with them.

So we buy the Legion. Before that, I was buying Diamatize ISO 100, just a whey protein isolate. It was like, a decent, like the taste and the price was decent for the quality. You know, from what I recommend for like my coaching clients and the people that I see, I really like Legion. It's a really good brand. Really like ProMix. So from like a no added ingredients and no artificial ingredients, no fillers, you know they've got a nice report on pesticides and heavy metals and things like that. They test their products heavily, so I like really Promix for that, that's great brand And then from a protein standpoint, I really like Transparent Labs as well.

It's the highest protein per scoop that I've seen. And it's like 28 grams per scope of a nice high quality whey protein, minimal ingredients, those types of things. So yeah, for the whay protein that's typically the three brands that, that recommend and kind of gravitate toward. Awesome, awesome. I think it's kind of what everyone's looking for, at least in my practice. They're like, well, what brand do you use? What do like? And the big, I mean, there's nothing worse than spending a bunch of money on a tub of protein powder and it tasting like crap.

It's the worst. And at this day and age, a lot of us are getting to the point where, yeah, the meal prep thing, is overwhelming. And I'm happy to hear you say that you invested in a food service. Because I think a lot of people feel like they're failing if they don't meal prep. I feel 100% No, I agree. Everybody I've ever spoken to who's like, thinking of like dialing in their nutrition is like so shy meal prepping every Sunday. You don't have to. To me, it's like I'm a very, very convenience-based eater.

I am about as basic as a dude as you're going to find. If I can't make it in 15 minutes, there's no way I'll cook it. Literally, if I cannot grill it on a barbecue or it is not ready in fifteen minutes I probably am not doing it, right? So again, that's me. That's about myself. So what do I need to do to set myself up for success knowing that about me? And I think that's what we need to understand. And this is where people fail like really fast, right? It's like everyone thinks it's got to be that four-hour meal prep on a Sunday.

It has got be the fancy Instagram thing where everything gets portioned into the Tupperware and you stack it up all nice in the fridge. But the reality is that by Tuesday or Wednesday, you're burnt out on that meal. The food's starting to get old now. You're not enjoying it. And then you end up probably wasting the second half of it, and then that's where we find ourselves at the Starbucks and whatever. So again, I think it's to each their own here, right? If you are a meal prep person and you love to cook, maybe go ahead and do your meal preparation.

If not, we just need to find an additional strategy. I'm not even opposed to like, if you want to go out for lunch every day, great. Go out to lunch. Just find a is aligned with your goals and your calorie needs, right? And macronutrient needs and just double down on that. Like if you told me, hey, and I mean, Right now I'm working at a concierge medical service in the city, pretty high on clientele. These people are not, they're busy. They are very busy and believe me they are packing a lunch, right?

So it's not about that. It's just about finding what is the meal structure that's gonna fit your goals and then how are you going to achieve that, however you wanna do so. So like I said, it doesn't have to be meal prep and it can be ordering out, It can plan B, plan C type of options. We just have be willing to, again, like find the foods that align with the goals, and help us achieve the goal. And as long as they're moving us in the direction, then that's all we need. You know, and I think like that the other piece of the puzzle is like everybody's looking for like the perfect thing, right?

Mindless Snacking and Habit Loops 25:40

And it's like, oh, well meal prep's perfect. I'll have the Perfect macros and i'll only eat this and won't eat any snacks. And that falls off a cliff, you know very quickly. It, I don't think that that is what it is about. Right? It's about like again, finding the right structure that you can stick with, that can be consistent with. All you got to do is be moving in right direction. So it's like even on the weeks where you're not perfect, if you feel like you made strides toward the greater goal up here, then great.

Double down on that. Learn from the positives and let's bring them forward into the next week and then figure out what didn't work. Maybe that was like, hey, I prepped meals this week. I hated them by Thursday. And then I went out for food Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Okay, so let's figure out what we need to do. Like Monday through Wednesday, maybe you do prep half your week, knowing that Monday to Wednesday you can do meal prep, but Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we better have something else in play, right?

So maybe that is like on Wednesday night, I cook a big dinner, have extra food for Thursday and then I make that plan for the remainder of the week. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect and it won't be. Perfect and knowing that it. Won't. Be. perfect. I think is even better because then that allows us to, again, just get like, be a little bit more realistic with ourselves, get behind the curtain of like K, where do I actually need to start making some changes and then go after that? Right. And the thing that we need.

To do, I. Think it just kind of leads back to that initial comment of, like it's just, basic problem solving. Like, it's so basic. And it is like, I tell everybody, like food is the furthest thing from rocket science. It's like you know exactly what needs to go in your mouth. You know, exactly. What doesn't need to. Go in. Your mouth, and you need. To make sure more of the stuff that needs. to, go. In goes in and less of. The stuff. That shouldn't go, in goes. in, And. it. Is not a one hundred and zero, right?

It is. Like maybe a, you. Know, 85, 15, 90, 10, but again, It. is very basic problem solving skills. But again. I think we just get overwhelmed and we get ahead of ourselves and, we don't. I guess, you know, we get a little we kind of confuse ourselves or talk ourselves out of even doing good. I think we overcomplicate like like no other. And I mean, I see this in myself, too, because I've done many different fitness plans, many, different nutrition, fitness, plans just to see like what would happen.

In at the end of the day, i will find that one. Yes, they get sick of food and some people will tell me like, look, can eat the same thing every day. and I'm like bless you for being able to do that because like. Yeah. I can do that, I'm that guy. I could eat the same thing every day, all day. And I do. Yeah, that's my meal prep. So the delivery service we use is great. They've got a ton of variety. The food is really good. But I only order one meal. It's like, I always tell everybody, just live and learn.

Like I have lived and learned enough. I've made enough mistakes down this road over the last 20 years that I'd been doing it that, that know exactly what I need to do to be successful. And I know what exactly derails me, right? So, like I don't need the decision fatigue. It actually stresses me out when I had like two different meals and I'm looking at them, and like oh, this one's got these macros, That one has got those macross, what do I do? I dont want that. i don' need it, i dont need that decision.

like i got enough things going on in my brain. Like I don't care. So, you know, it's like I've basically kind of come to the conclusion that like, I just do the exact same thing for breakfast, lunch, and my afternoon snack every single day, because those meals are more functional for me. Those are my meals that I, just, want to eat well. so those work for, in terms of what I'm looking for right now. And then at dinner, we branch out a little bit, right? We'll do something that's, like a whatever homemade meal or whatever it is.

There's a bit of variety there and stuff. I get my variety at night. But again, just from a decision fatigue, you know, standpoint and just making sure that again it's just like habit routine. I don't want to think about it. Yeah, I just do the same thing every day because I find that's what's easiest. Yeah, agreed. And like, I'm not saying if you have a nutrient poor diet, right? Like if the diet was like an egg bite from Starbucks in the morning, a couple Oreos for lunch, bag of popcorn in a middle of the afternoon, it's still keeping at a calorie deficit.

You could do it, you know? You can hit those weight goals probably if had a yogurt in a couple of cookies at lunch and a bag of popcorn, you're probably sitting at 500 calories for the day right there. But again, from an energy level standpoint, nutrient intake standpoint and nourishment standpoint like muscle protein synthesis, all the functional things that we'd want to work toward, it's not going to be enough, right? So I think like that's the thing to understand, is like, okay, Is your diet actually providing you the nutritional value that you need to get from it?

And then that kind of like the other piece of the puzzle. So, I'm okay with people doing similar things every day or the same things everyday, but I am also very clear that like yeah, It's going be a good idea to branch out when you have an opportunity at dinners or on the weekends or whatever, make sure you're getting variability in You know, your, plant-based foods and things like that so that we get different polyphenols and different antioxidants and fibers and all this stuff. Right. So I'm not saying just to kind of, you know put yourself into this box where you eat the same thing every day and run the risk of like nutrient deficiencies.

But I do think that, if our diet's decently high quality, I don't see a big issue with repetition. Cool. Yeah, I mean, so what I'm getting at here and why I am gelling about these certain things is if we look at it as a whole, it takes a lot of pressure off people to know that like, okay, if my meal is nutrient balanced and it's the same thing every day, that's not so bad. And if I get some of the variety in the evening or weekends or whatnot, now it's like more more doable and we can take more responsibility because i feel like we give away our responsibility when we get overwhelmed with the situation yeah 100 i think that is the the thing right is yeah as soon as things get hard we do like, we kind of default to like what's easiest right or you know we default to that like level of where we feel comfort.

So no, totally. And I think that is the important thing for everybody to know is like, again, like you said, you're not like me and I'm not you. A lot of people don't want to eat the same foods every day or whatever. But I really do think it just comes down to like again get very specific about who you are, what you like and what foods kind of fuel your goals best. Then we just try to implement those things. If you need more variety, then you know that you might have to prioritize a little bit more time in the kitchen or a bit of more creativity on the meals

Protein Brands and Practical Nutrition Tools 32:40

that ordering out or whatever it might be. I don't want to give that much time to my nutrition. So I have just found this work around where I just do the same thing, you know, but again, it's to each their own. Right. And I think like, that's the thing that, and again it was like you look at all the research and you looked at the information out there and it always kind of comes back to the idea that The best diet is something that's obviously highly nutrient dense and the one that you enjoy and you can stick to the longest.

It's not the perfect macros, it's the highest protein intake, the lowest carb or whatever. Something that obviously suits your needs, fits your goals, and fits the lifestyle that can you stick with. The message I'm trying to hammer home here is that There's no one perfect approach. It is to each their own, but it's up to you as the individual to understand what it is that you need to succeed and you to prioritize that. And you needs to be okay with the prioritization of that, which can, you know, it takes work.

Its not simple, right? It does take time. it can be a pain in the ass. That is a little bit inconvenient at times. But again, for myself and for a lot of the people that I work with, The inconvenience of planning your meals and planning, your days a little bit is far better than the inconvenienced of being fat, sick, tired, sluggish, and wondering what's wrong. Or again, knowing what is wrong and dealing with the mental stress of not understanding how to fix it. So I think it's one of those things where, yeah, I mean, everything's work, right?

It just depends where you want to put the work in. When everything is uncomfortable, it just happens where do you wanna be uncomfortable. Yeah, that's kind of the I don't know the way I try to conceptualize it for myself and kind Of you know, I guess lay it to my people as well You've just locked a lot of little bombs there that if people just kind put him in a perspective and I'm gonna try To reiterate them as best possible here Like, one, really we're putting our own pressure on ourselves to try to put a box of what nutrition should be.

When in reality, the better we know ourselves, what we want, like what's a pain in the butt and what not, we use that information, and we create a plan that we can stick with. I'm like, genius, sounds really simple, but we get in our ways. You know, but we get in our ways, and this is back to that responsibility thing. The better we know ourselves and are willing to admit, for me, I can't live the world without popcorn. I really like it. And so I have to think of how that you know that and nuts and seeds and here's a here is a fun story So I've seen many different like I'd mentioned before many Different folks for nutrition and fitness and a lot of the times what will happen is they'll be like well You can't eat nuts or seeds anymore or you can eat, you you cannot have any popcorn anymore It's too high glycemic because my two issues of where I like to overeat are fat and popcorn I mean and basically nuts in popcorn part squirrel.

Yeah Because I have squirrel tendencies, I've been told I can't eat these things at all. And I think for a lot of people, being told they can eat something, then it's like, well, that's all I want. So, and that what I like. What do I do? So help me through my madness here, Adam. Let's do a little bit of spot. Like, what would you tell someone like me that, like I'm told to cut out these, but I really like them and they feel good to me. And they're not junk foods. I'm making my own popcorn. And nuts and seeds are raw and whatever.

So for the healthy folks out there that have these things that they've been told, no, stop eating them. Yeah, just I wouldn't. Right. You just got to understand the hierarchy of how this works from a physiological process. Calories are going to be the king. Protein is going be slightly below that in terms of where we're going get the most benefits. Nutrient density below or beyond that, I guess. And then after that, it doesn't really matter. You know, you just gotta understand the variables. So if you know that nuts are, I know the nuts or nine calories per gram, like they're high calorie.

so if I'm gonna sit around and have four handfuls of nuts a day, might be getting 800 calories worth of Nuts that aren't filling me up. I actually did this with a person yesterday. He said he was eating about 70 almonds a Day. It worked out to 500 calories. And it was like less than 100 grams of food from a weight standpoint. So what we decided, I was like, hey, what else do you like? He's like I like yogurt, oatmeal, berries, fruit, whatever. So I'm like okay, this is not going to be the same macronutrient structure, but what ended up doing was building him another 500 calorie snack that was 500 grams of food as opposed to 86 grams or whatever it was.

It's just kind of understanding what you're working with and what's providing what. I think the big thing is there's a knowledge deficit when it comes to nutrition. because unfortunately it's not something that we learn like as kids in school or whatever and there's so much just junk online right so at the end of the day like if you have a goal of you know a specific body composition your calories have to be in alignment with that goal and your protein has to you're

Why Meal Prep Is Not the Only Solution 37:40

going to do better if your nutrient quality is also in alignment with that goal, right? Because generally higher nutrient dense foods are going be those like lower calorie foods, so then we can get a lot of volume, we get nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, polyphenols, fibers, all the buzzwords, and we go about it that way. And then on the foods that we really like to enjoy, you just need to learn how to input them into the diet, under the guidelines of like, hey, how many calories and how much protein are you getting, right?

If you want to eat nut, if you've got a 1500 calorie intake for the day and you wanna eat a thousand calories worth of nuts, you're probably not gonna be able to achieve your protein needs and other things like that, so it's like okay, maybe we need to cut the nuts in half and then we needed to focus on more protein, more high volume foods to kind of fill the remainder, that whatever, 1100 calories that we have left, I mean that's kind the way I go about it. is it's largely just understanding like what each of these things that you want to put into your diet is providing from a macronutrient standpoint.

And then just like a puzzle, you're just kind of putting the puzzle pieces together. So it like, again, I'll just use the 1500 calories. I want 1500 and I 150 grams of protein. Those two things get prioritized above all else. And then after that, I don't really care that much what you do. If you like popcorn, have popcorn. if you're like nuts, Have nuts. You feel like both have both, but just find a way to get 150 grams of protein. Keep your calories around that 1500 calorie mark. and then what should fill underneath those needs is not near as important.

as those primary, I guess, like divers of your success, right? So that's kind of the way I go about it when I plan meals or plan diets out with people is, yeah, we prioritize what we need to prioritize. And then after that, if you want to fill with a treat once in a while, or you like your nuts or your seeds or popcorn, then we absolutely put it in. But it just needs to fit the structure. Gotcha, gotcha. You know, I think I never thought about it, the weight, like the 70 almond weight versus like something where, and I thing a lot of people don't realize that that might be why they're still hungry too.

100%. 100%, yeah. Yeah, there's some research around like human beings eating for volume as well, right? So like about three to five pounds of food a day is pretty typical for a human being. So again, if I'm trying to eat three pounds I'm going to be looking at, I don't know, i'm just going take a guess, you know 3000 calories, 5000 calories. I dont know. If I am going try to eat 3 pounds of spinach and grilled chicken and fruits and berries and things like that, it's going be a lot of food. So that's the thing.

Food volume, again I've done this as well where I build out Hey, like, here's a day that's more processed. You know, again, it's like all these processed foods, right? Because they're extremely light, there's no water, no fiber, and there is no nutrition. So if I'm trying to hit three pounds of processed food, I can probably run me 3,000 calories to do it. Right? If I am trying Whole foods that are more nutrient dense, I can do it in 1500 calories. Right. And again, it's just, you know, we, go with these options that.

Obviously higher nutrient density, lowering calories, and then those are also typically like these lower volume, lower weight foods. So again they move the needle in a bigger way, right? So that's another thing I do with people is especially people that're dealing with a lot of hunger. and this is a way that I'm able to drive people feeling like they're eating more than they've ever eaten, but still eating lower calories than I've every eaten. is that. We just implement more of these high-volume foods.

Even understanding that six ounces of potato is probably 150 calories less than six oz of rice, it makes a difference in the long run. That's where having that little bit of nutrition knowledge or another thing is like people avoiding fruit, right? Well, it's like, okay, well, fruit is highly nutrient dense and it is mostly water, so you are going to eat a cup of berries and that is going run you less than 100 calories. Who is eating that many berries? That is filling. So, we try to find things like that and we again try and plug those in because that's going fill you up for a lot less calories than, you know, whatever, almonds and bags of popcorn and whatever cookies and other like ultra processed foods and stuff, right?

So that's another area that I typically try to maximize with people. That's just, you know, it's like I just having to explain it kind of hits it harder for me to be like, dude, we need to think about this. Like this is really like taking back. You know some of the density and and the fillingness of The food because so many people are mowing through like chips or popcorn and all that. It's light Of course, you can stick it in. That's why they created that You can't eat just one lays chips cuz of course you Can't you?

Can's no one can because it's so light and I don't think a lot of people really think about that density per se you know I I was driving to work the other day and now is eating we have a whole bunch of fresh peas in our garden and i had like got him out of the husk i don't know what you call it yeah yeah still stuck that pot there we go apparently not my first language today but yeah those pods like you can't really chew them i tried to eat them because i thought well maybe it'd be like sugar snap peas right uh-uh those things are like i was chewing for days and i'm like and they're still sticking my teeth and I'm, like this is gross but the peas i had the pees compared to like, you know what i, was normally eating for breakfast was like my side i Was so full through the piece i couldn't even eat anything like Yeah, it's crazy, right?

And it'll be maybe 100 calories, but again, its high fiber, there's a lot of water in there. And then the other thing about that too, is like, again things that are leading to satiety, so like chewing, like even that, the more you're chewing the, more it is triggering a hunger, or sorry, a satiated cue. So yeah, that's the reason why we do these high volume meals, they are their fiber, they're higher in water, their lower in calories, you know, but and they move the needle a lot faster from a satiety standpoint with a much lower calorie count.

So cool. You know I feel like I learn something every time I talk to you because it's just like things that like you're like, I should know this. I probably learned at some point and threw it out because we are also thinking brainwashed. You know, we're brainwashed with like, We gotta do carnivore, keto, fast, this, that. Where's the freaking basic fundamental nutrition? It's out the damn window from way back in the day. Well, yeah, there's just too much out there. There's so much information flying around everywhere.

Everything's conflicting and you never know what's actually real or not or what is high level. And again, it's like people quoting studies and things like that, but is the study even valid? Is it even a well-done study? Was it in a human being? There's a lot of information, right?

Calories, Protein, and Food Volume Basics 44:40

It's just information overload. And again, it's like typically the crazier it is, the more people want to think like, oh, well, maybe that's me, You know, maybe I maybe my metabolism is broken, like maybe, I can't process carbohydrates or whatever. And it's like, you know we start kind of putting ourselves in these boxes and thinking that, there's something wrong with us or that we're broken or, whatever, and in a lot of cases, this is the cool thing about obviously what you're doing. at this, the health service that I work at, like have access to every bit of blood work and labs and scans and everything that's available.

You know, I think in most cases, people are kind of making assumptions about themselves that a lot of times aren't true. And again, it just adds more to that, that heaviness, There's something wrong with me and while like, why even bother? Why even try? If like I'm one of these people with a broken metabolism, what am I even doing? But like meanwhile, we really haven't even attempted to do the fundamental stuff. And I don't think it's for a lack of caring or a lot. Like, you know, I just think. It's like a literal lack.

Of understanding. of nutrition science and how it impacts your physiology and things like that. Because again, it's tricky and there's a million things that sound really, really cool or really polarizing online. But at the end of the day, I still am the hugest believer that the fundamental stuff at end-of-the-day is going to be the stuff that has the biggest impact. And we start there. We start with the fundamentals stuff. And then if you do need to, you know, whatever, eat less nuts because you're a little bit intolerant, like that'll be further down the line.

But I can tell you what, Like you, You know taking nuts out of the diet, if they're not helping create a calorie deficit is probably not going to have a huge impact on what it is that you are trying to achieve. Again, it's not something that You don't do or you don t consider, but I also think it s like one of these things where, If we're going get hyper specific on things, let's have the fundamental underlying structure figured out first. And then once that structure we know is locked in, then again, we can start seeking those outside things that might be contributory to other things, whether that's like whatever, like your digestive issues or whatever it might.

Right. So I think a lot of stuff would get cleaned up by just honestly, just cleaning up the food. And and that's where I definitely wanted to round out this podcast. I mean, it's we're taking responsibility for what's going on on the basics with ourselves. What's gone on with our habits, routines, behaviors. And then, yes, we can look into like, is it my thyroid? Is it, you know, food sensitivity? Do I need hormones? And honestly, folks, I'm going to tell you from my experience, It's it. It. The basics, more often than not, its the basic unless there's some things to Yeah, and I'm fortunate too, because I work with cardiologists, endocrinologists and functional integrative health specialists, women's health specialist, some of the best doctors on the planet.

I can agree with you on that. Yes, there are underlying issues for certain people, but also the recommendations of fundamentals is never going to change. Yes, you may have a little bit of hypothyroid and some medication is absolutely going to help that, but your endocrinologist or your functional medicine practitioner or specialist is not going recommend that you eat a bunch of Oreos and Starbucks coffees and stuff like that throughout the day. while you manage your thyroid, right? The recommendation is going to be, and it doesn't matter what kind of illness or what issues you're having, the recommendations are still going be for diet and lifestyle adjustments and that's already coming back to those fundamentals.

Are we getting adequate calories for our goal or any kind an issue that you are having? are we getting adequate protein to support our immune system and to our muscle protein synthesis and satiety and weight and all these things, right? Are we get adequate micronutrition in the diet from vitamins and minerals? And then are getting enough fiber and antioxidants? Beyond that, in most cases from what I can find, the recommendations don't change a lot beyond that. Obviously, some things trigger specific recommendations, whether it's specific macronutrients, how much protein, carbs, fats and things like that if we've got real illness.

But beyond that, again, like I said, it's not going to be have more pop tarts and more popcorn and ice creams. It's never going be that. You know, why don't we start there? Like, I think it's like, yeah, let's start with the obvious, right? And then yeah. Absolutely. Go do the testing, go see if there's something underlying, you know? Especially if it is a thyroid or something, and you're going to want to know about it. It's not going hurt you to get that piece of the puzzle figured out as well.

But again, if you're listening to this and you are always hungry or always tired or you know, always lethargic or whatever, it's like, maybe ask yourself, how much water did you drink today? Did you put any quality food in your body? What time did go to bed last night? Do you sleep through the night like all of these things are going to be really impactful and can change them right now, today. as opposed to waiting to get the doctor and go to the skin and, you know, go get a blood test and get blood work back and call the doctors back, and the medication or whatever it might be, we could call that a month process, right?

As opposed like, hey, I can go eat a quality meal. I could de-stress a little bit. Put my phone down. Get a good night's sleep. There's a lot of things. Go out and some exercise in. Move more. I can drink half my body weight in ounces of water every day, and guarantee in between while you're trying to get in to see these doctors and stuff, I'll guarantee you start feeling better if you started hammering down on those fundamentals. Absolutely. You've heard it here, guys. We got a little we got to be real with ourselves and honest with themselves.

Hammer down the basics first and then move from there. So, Adam, we gotta tell folks how you're working with them, because I have a feeling some folks might want to reach out to you because we add from the podcast. Reach out. Yeah. Tell us a bit about like what your programs are like right now, how folks can can work with you. Because this is helpful to get the basic down. Absolutely. Yeah. No, and yeah, it was lucky. I had a couple of people reach out after the last podcast and things were great with them.

Awesome people that listen. So, yeah. In terms of what I offer, It is fully personalized, customized nutrition. And I would call it lifestyle stuff, right? I try to focus on nutrition and lifestyle for sure. So yeah, that would be coming. I mean, obviously setting up a meeting will kind of review, you know, where your diet is currently at and then kind like everything I just spoke about

Fundamentals Before Supplements or Testing 51:20

here over the last hour is like, it really comes down to like the customization and personalization of everything. So, we customize and personalized calorie and macro nutrient recommendations. And then after that, It's largely just about kind rolling with the punches and trying to understand like what exactly that you need from a lifestyle perspective and a structure perspective that's going to fit your needs. I'm kind of working through that whole thing on the daily, which is, you know, again, that's where it becomes a little bit more of a read and react situation.

Right. So it's really just largely, I say it. It's like, we get the initial structure down in terms of like what do we need dietarily? And then after that, it just becomes all about the strategy and how we implement. And yeah, I guess for people to contact me, if you want to follow me online, Instagram is primarily where I'm at. It's nutrition coach, all one word, underscore Adam. And from within there, you know, If you click the links that I have in my bio, then we can get you onto my email list.

I put out one email every Sunday. always obviously nutrition and performance and, you know, health and function related. And then my wife who's a physical therapist, she puts one out about like fitness and like the body and pain and rehab, rehabilitation and everything like that every Thursday. So yeah, we got our newsletters that go out Thursday and Sunday. Then if anybody wants to work personally, then obviously you can just reach out through email or through social or whatever it is. I guess like website, yeah sorry, website too is arnutrition.net.

Great stuff, guys. Like, do not miss out. I love their emails. That's how I got Adam on the game. Yeah, that's why I'm here. Why is here in addition to working with some of my folks? And I was like, I really want them to come back and chat because, you know, your info is real. It's realistic. it's good. And they're not, like I said, it is not like crazy advice and trendy advice. You're kind of breaking down a lot of the trendy stuff too, which I like as well. Yeah, I try. I don't know.

Working With Adam Ross and Closing Remarks 53:25

put it into understandable and relatable terms for, for everybody else. That's just trying to work through this thing every day. Right. And I think that's the big thing to understand is that that all we're trying do, you know, it's like, we just try to, work, through, this, every, day, and do a little bit better. You know that, I guess, like the topic of this is like. you know, taking responsibility for your own health. And I think that's it, right? It's like, the more we can keep this top of mind and the, more, we, can kind of challenge ourselves to take this on and stop letting, you, know everybody else and every ad and, every food company and ever bit of stress or whatever, kind, of, control us and control how we look, feel and function.

I, think, that, is kind the message I'm trying to get across, and then, with those emails and with that newsletter, That's what it's all about is just trying, to kind bust through a lot of the noise and help people understand that it doesn't have to be as hard as in most cases we think it is. And yeah, just try to put it in a no pun intended digestible form here for people to utilize. I like it. Thank you so much for coming back on, humoring me to chat today and just dropping a bunch of bombs on us today because I'm listening to stuff and I was like, yes, that's right.

Yes. The food weight thing. I'll be thinking about that for the rest of the day. That one I am going to look at because, you know, I talk about the popcorn guys. So nevertheless, Adam will bring you back probably here sometime in the new year. And heck, thank you again. Really appreciate you. Yeah, Thank You. Appreciate having me on. It's always a blast. We always have a good time. Hey fellow health junkie, thanks for listening to the health fix podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please help support me to get the word out about the podcast, subscribe, rate and review and just get that word.

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