Muscle Is Medicine: Why Strength Training Changes Everything

Opening and guest introduction 0:00

You know, muscle is medicine to the topic, right? And so why is that, with all the metabolic dysfunction, the Metabolic Syndrome, what you alluded to earlier, think of muscle as your metabolic engine. It's a glucose disposal unit, every time we lift weights and we contract our muscles, our body is depleting our muscle cells or fibers of glycogen, which is just stored carbohydrates. So Dr. Gabriella Lyon said it best. She's like, your muscles are like suitcases. Every day when you lift weights, you get to empty them.

When you eat carbohydrates, You get replenish them." Welcome to the Holistic Truth Podcast. I'm Jamie Dorley, CEO of Nutritional Frontiers. And I am Christine Genovese, creator of the Soul Intelligence Method. We're here to help you break through chronic disease and dysfunction physically, mentally, emotionally, and energetically. with real proven strategies, protocols and tools you can use in your practice today. Hello again, everybody, and welcome back to your favorite podcast for natural health, functional medicine, healing, And today, fitness.

I'm your host, The Holistic Truth. And I do that with my partner in crime, our chief growth officer. Welcome back, Christine Genovese. How are you? JD, I am excited. The guest we have today always brings it. She has got so much energy, such good positive vibes, and I'm so thrilled that we had her as a guest on The Holistic Truth today. I would much rather have her a guess than running to the hut again on the beach with her last year. And I was told it was a level one workout. But let's give a nice warm welcome to our friend, IFBB Pro.

She's a functional medicine consultant, and she does an incredible job making the world healthy. So let us welcome back Nikki Raymond a la Nikki Fitt. Welcome back, Nikki. Thank you, guys. It's pleasure being here. I always love, you know, being in a room, a world with like-minded people. so I know that our mission is to just make every single person the most optimal human they can be. So excited to be here and talk to you guys. Oh, yeah, and I love when we met and, you know, I learned you're an IFBB pro.

I want to talk about that for a minute because I originally grew up in New York. My brother's five years older, so I got exposed to working out when I was nine and pumping iron to come out at that time before both of you were alive. But, back then, that was so exciting. And then after college,I decided to move to Pittsburgh because that is the home of the NPC, the amateur level. And the IFBB owned by Jim Manion and the Manon family. And then to learn you were an IFBB pro. Some people may not know what that is, but International Federation of Bodybuilding.

So I want to hear about that, I wanna hear more about your story and your background too. Can you share with all of our people out there, how'd you even go about the IFBB level? Because a lot of pro sports, you just turn pro, You know, but in bodybuilding and fitness, you actually have to win competitions to qualify for a pro.

Nikki Raymond's fitness and bodybuilding journey 3:08

So let's talk about your journey in fitness and then we'll get started there. Well, I think that I don't want to put the cart for the horse, so I'll start further back and kind of come to where we are right now and how I became a Pro. I started when I was about 19 years old, and I had got a personal training certification. I had been working as a receptionist at a law firm and I hated it. It was awful. And, you know, there was a class or a school called National Personal Training Institute, and it was six month course, three hours in the morning in classroom, 3 hours and the afternoon in gym.

That was like my first introductory to fitness. I played sports growing up, I play high level competitive softball. So I always love being active, right? So once I actually went through the certification and became a trainer and started actually working with clients, I knew that I had landed in like my wheelhouse. It was my area, it was MySpace, and I loved it. I got the opportunity to start helping people change their bodies. And I really fell in love with becoming an educator. So that was really cool.

But one of the things I realized extremely fast was that nutrition was something that just kept coming up, Right? And at that point in time, didn't have a lot of experience in that. so I went back to school for nutrition. and then was doing that in tandem with training my clients. And it was interesting because once I started working with people virtually for nutritional coaching and counseling, the people that I worked with virtually that, I never met ever in person, maybe they lived in a different state, were getting better results than the, people are actually trained in-person.

So I was like, okay, we're onto something here. Time goes on. I ended up just moving away from coaching athletes in, person for physical training. and just did nutrition. Then another roadblock happened, then I started getting people with hormonal imbalances, gut health issues. And I was like, okay, there's more to this, I need more education, and I don't understand how I can help these people. So I went back to school for functional medicine, it was actually a functional nutrition certification.

Food is medicine concept, being able to heal the body through supplements, like the wonderful Nutritional Frontier supplements. I exclusively pretty much use nutritional supplements in my practice now. But I did that, in the interim, While all this was going on with work and career, I fell in love with bodybuilding. So I loved being in the gym. And I had been a runner and I'd done a bunch of marathons and half maratons. I was like, what's next? Right. Ended up signing up for my first body building competition.

That was nine years ago. And the first show I did not win, I placed horribly, but I loved the process. And then I ended up hiring a coach. Then from there, after my second show, started winning. What was just like a bucket list thing, then became like, oh, really like this. I love the structure. Love the discipline. Make all my food anyways. So it gave me something to work towards. Like I said, over years I started wining and then moved to the ranks. This goes back to how you become an IFBB pro.

You have to compete in amateur level shows. and then you have to win an amateur show to be able to get invited to Nationals. I went to nationals multiple times, failed multiple time, because you had to WIN at Nationales, and so, you know, when I actually won my pro card, there was 40 girls competing against me who would all want to show, so everybody was good. But so finally I did, I finally did place, then I got my Pro Card, now this is my third season in the IFB as a registered pro athlete. And you now, it's just one of those things where I feel like that It goes so hand in hand with what I do.

I help people with the physical or the internal health piece as well. But a big part of what i do is teaching people how to work out, teaching, people had to eat, but that's kind of how it all started. It started from just a very simplistic personal training certification. As I moved through life, realizing there was just more needs. And then I just always wanted to educate myself so I could show up best for my clients. Wow, that's a lot of energy, Christine. I'm ready to work out right now. Holy cow, Nikki, you are fired up today.

Love it. Your passion and enthusiasm is second to none. What a story. We were just doing a show, me and Christine, on metabolic syndrome. And I always say, hey, when I got into this as a kid or a young adult, working out for four weeks or four months and eating good was enough. But it's not anymore and you just sum that up with, hey, now you get into the gut health and the hormones and then peptides and, you know, it has become more and more complex because the way our cultures change, the ways our activity levels have changed, and way the food has changed and training concepts, I don't think they've made it any easier with all this fancy equipment because, They make it training easier.

In fact, I learned one very popular chain gym, you know, their weights are calibrated and their machines are so that it's easier to use their machine, right? Which doesn't help your muscles. Yes. Yeah. Get out of here. I found that out. So I'm very careful when I go there. I wanna go, they're everywhere. All right, I'll go over there, but I know how to navigate through there." But I think you brought up a great point. Yeah, that's how I talk to clients all the time. That when they go to different gyms, their weights are different.

Because they are like, well, what's my weight when when i go out of town? And I am like you have to go by feel. You can't just look at a number on a plate and say I should be lifting 45 pounds because all equipment is different Yeah I learned that a long time ago. 10 pounds is not 10 lbs? I mean what kind of weight do you want? That's crazy. All right. Well, you guys know, I am not the gym girl, but Jamie has gotten me into Pilates. That has become my strength training for tennis. And I really am digging it.

I was like, classes? I don't know. But I have really gotten into it and I've really enjoyed it, and it's a whole body workout for me. Yeah, your body's changing and she was shocked because it's her first class she went to with me. She couldn't believe I was able to get through it. And she's like, this is harder than I thought. I go, I know. That's the part I love. You know, as watching Dorian Yates, you know for Mr. Olympia, he was making fun of Jay Cutler. These are two bodybuilding guys. He said, yeah, Jay's doing yoga and Pilates.

Because I laughed at him and said what are you doing? He goes, and I went into the class. He said, these things are harder than you think. And I loved how he brought up the concept of stress, right? And no matter if you're doing tennis or you do pilates or yoga or weight training or machines, you know, I learned years ago, back when I had no money, and I drove this old car and it broke down one day, so I to push it off the road. It was up a slight incline, but I was by myself. And my calves have always been a stubborn body part when I was doing bodybuilding.

Why muscle matters for metabolism and longevity 9:58

And you know, they were sore for like three days. Yeah. And my friend goes, you're finally actually working out hard. I said, I was pushing my car. So it reminded me that, the bite doesn't know much weight you lift. Can you remember the old days? You go to a gym and somebody is like, well, how much does the sled weigh on the leg press? I go, who cares? Right? And some of the light presses are calibrated too. That makes it easier. I'm a big fan of stress on the muscle and that, you know, um, You don't have to kill yourself, but you do have build that foundation.

Can you talk a little bit about that? Cause I think some people are looking for this magical workout and the magical equipment. And if I can go back to myself 35 years ago, I would have said, look, The consistency and the reps are just as important in how much weight you lift in because I suffered with some of the joint and injuries and stuff. So, because, I think a lot of people may not have the aspiration like you do as an IFBB pro. However, they want to change their body, right? So can you give us some other words of wisdom on that?

And what do you feel like some the really most important foundations are? You know, I think that understanding why it's important to lift weights also is a big piece of that too, right? So, you know I You know, muscle is medicine is the topic, right? And so why is that, with all the metabolic dysfunction, the Metabolic Syndrome, what you alluded to earlier, think of muscle as your metabolic engine. It's a glucose disposal unit, so every time we lift weights and we contract our muscles, our body is depleting our muscle cells or fibers of glycogen, which is just stored carbohydrates.

So Dr. Gabriella Lyon said it best, she's like, your muscles are like suitcases. Every day when you lift weights, you get to empty them, and you eat carbohydrates, You get replenish them. Well, when people have insulin resistance and that mechanism of action in their body doesn't work well anymore, they need to give their pancreas a break, right? But they still need clear the glucose out of the cells, out the body, because too high a blood sugar causes inflammation, causes weight gain, cause stress on organs.

So it's one of only ways to clear glucose or pull glucose into the cell that leaves the pancreas completely out of it, right? So it's something you can do that's good for your cellular metabolism. It helps build bone strength. And it is truly a longevity organ. The more muscle we have, the better we age, and I think that one of the things I ask people is, it depends on how you weigh. the question is not how much do you weight, It's how muscle do carry. Right. That should be the big question and what we're trying to find out with someone.

But, you know, to answer your question, that was quite long-winded. I'm sorry. No, this is fascinating. So many things in my head now. Good. And that could look different for everyone and anyone, right? Maybe it's Pilates, maybe it is bar, Maybe its YouTube videos in your home, Right? But the goal is to load the body with some kind of mechanical stress and resistance, and that can be as simply as doing it one time a week. Consistency is key, so building the habit and I think that a lot of people I talk to, they want to just do it all at once.

And it's like the body needs time to adapt. If you haven't been strength training, you can't go lift what you and me would lift, Jamie. Like, right? Like that's not appropriate for Christine. It wouldn't be. Or whomever. But I'm pretty good at planking now. Right? Exactly. I remember when I couldn't hold it, and your arm would just shake crazy. So I have noticed subtle changes in the Yeah, and that's fun. You're building the foundation, just like a house has a foundation. So I always tell people start light and start with body weight, right?

Then you can add load and it start at your home. There's so much technology, there's chat GPT, There are all sorts of AI, apps, free apps. there are paid apps that can really get someone going. And so I was telling people don't overcomplicate it. you don' have to be a bodybuilder, you just need to load the body. right, you need to just have resistance. It's great for our hormones, it's good for fat loss and body composition, its great to our blood sugar regulation, and it is truly the muscle of anti-aging.

Its one of the biggest things we have because sarcopenia, most of our, hopefully some of your viewers know that term and I'm sure you guys do, is the loss of muscle mass, right. We become frail as we age, as our hormone decline and if we don't give our body the stimulus, in the fuel to say, hey, hold on to this muscle, we're gonna do this again later down the road, then we literally wither away. And then fall risk happens, that increases, comorbidities increase. So I just think it's very important just to start and it looks different for everyone.

It's almost like grace upon grace, give to yourself and just do something that you love, whether it be Pilates, or whether be yoga, find something you'll show up for consistently. That's such great advice, Nikki. You know, when you were talking about the frailty, my mom is turning 80 this year, and we had to change the size picture that she could hold in terms of filtered water. She has trouble getting water bottles open, like she's lost the muscle strength in her arms and her hands in particular.

And so I gave her, you'll love this, Jane, I found three pound weights and so gave my mom three pounds weights just to do a little something, right? Because she really is struggling to open things now. She does use a cane for drop foot and the fall risk is higher, definitely. I have people that come to the office that maybe they are larger and maybe there are a little bit heavy set. This is a person I'm thinking of in particular. But this particular individual was in their face and could barely get out of the chair.

And they weren't that morbidly obese. It wasn't they were over 300 pounds. They were 200 plus, but the weight they we're carrying and the fact that they're so deconditioned. I told this individual, I said, look, this is way more than just wanting to look good naked, right? This is your health at this point. This you declining at an age. You act like you're 70, 80 plus years old and never worked out your whole entire life, the fact that you can't stand up would buy yourself without holding onto a chair is an issue and being in your 40s.

Right. And we see stuff like this over and over. We have a DEXA scan at the clinic and people come because they want to know their body fat percentage. But I've got youths, I say youth, people in their 20s females in particular, that have bones of an 80 year old. And it's wildly scary. And so the conversation then is no longer, I want to look at naked. It's like, Hey, we have actually a real health issue here that needs to be addressed. Your prescription I am giving you is strength training, not just diet.

That's interesting. You bring that up. Cause when I first went through, um, my certification, which is American college of sports and medicine in 1994, Um, remember I worked at a private health club and then, you know, They said it would take two years to build a clientele. I said, I don't have two year, so I got two months, right? I went on the floor and I helped anybody for free, and what I noticed is a lot of women who are older, they're really in that 40 to 60 category. How old were you at the time?

Because you're using that term older. 25. Yeah, just competed in the midst of Pennsylvania. Perspective changes, okay. And it was just, yeah, it's interesting, right? Because I was talking to them and the number one, why they gave me, I always ask them, well, Why would you want to do this? My mom had osteoporosis. My aunt had, my grandma had. Most of the women were afraid of getting osteo process because they see how debilitating that was, Right? So the fact that some of these younger women, you wonder why, right?

Talk about their diet, they're not eating the fruits and veggies and the quality proteins, all these sodas people are drinking, and they are not physically active. You know, when I was a kid, we weren't allowed to sit around the house. I got kicked out of my house! I got kicked out of my house on a Saturday morning. Get out. Go play. There was games. You talk about going to the woods. We played kickball and dodgeball, and manhunt, anything to do with a ball and a bat. Yeah. Tennis ball, stickball.

And we weren't allowed to sit around. we made up our own games, we'd go in the wood and do man hunts. and we would constantly be doing stuff because if you wanted to stay in my home, they'd put you to work, right? Right. Riding bikes, you were taught to rest. Right. Todd to rest was lazy. Right? He'd get out, go play, and they didn't want you making noise. They wanted you out of the house, so it would be peaceful. Yes. Get out the of house. Be home at 5.30, start at five-twenty-nine, come running in the Yeah.

Come back at dark for dinner. That was pretty much it. But we were so active. Talk about the bike riding. My bike was my car before I got my first car. Right, me too. And we can change a flat. We can fix bikes. Can we build a bike? We always knew what to do with those. Because with your bike, you were done. You were stranded. Kids nowadays don't even think they ride bicycles anymore. Rarely. If I see a kid riding a bike, I'm like, oh my God, it's like seeing an alien. It's, like what did I just see?

But you're right. And I think the big word I use now for people is consistency, right?

Training foundations, consistency, and resistance work 19:38

And even if you do moderately intense, but I the consistency is really the key with anything. I mean, what happens is people think that they've got to overdo it and then they You know, we tracked a little bit because they might be sore or injured or hurt or don't even continue to do it. But I think the consistency is key. You brought up something really key for me, at least is this whole glycogen storage, right? So it's stored carbohydrates in the muscle. Can you, in very simple terms, because a lot of people don't have your sophistication as far as your knowledge level, can you talk about that?

Because there's probably one of the big misnomers in our field and in country is carbohydrates, how important they are, but the limited capacity to store, which is really based on your muscle. And someone taught me years ago, really, you should be eating for what you're going to do. not for what you just did. You can eat for recovery, but you know, people go out and they work all day, then eat this huge meal and then they kind of just relax. So you can talk about that whole concept of glycogen storage because I think this is probably, think of all the carb-free diets and low carb and Keto's and carbs are bad, they're really not.

They're a key fuel source. And I think they probably get the bad rap. Can you explain a little bit more about that? Because that would help clear up. I love the fact that your suitcase is full and now it's empty because now I got a visual. It's a vision, right? And it is such a great visual, thank you, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon. So if you don't know who she is, she talks a lot about muscle as medicine. She's one of the pioneers in this space in regards to optimizing your health or resistance training. Carbohydrates are not the enemy, but how much glycogen or stored glucose that you can actually hold within your muscle cells and or your liver is going to be based upon how much muscle mass you have.

So, you know, people ask me, well, how many grams of carbs do you eat today? And I was like, Well, what I eat is gonna be different than what you ate. Because, I'm 150 pounds, but I have 120 pounds of lean muscle, which is a lot for a female. Now, it has taken me years to put that much on, right? But I won And I'm using myself as an example, need the carbs to fuel that engine, right? Cause my engine is bigger. So if someone has a smaller engine or their suitcases are smaller, if they eat too many carbohydrates more than their body needs, then it's going to spill over.

And it different than like the body's body building spillover. Jamie knows what I was talking about. What I am talking is too much glucose in the. If it can't get pulled into a cell, If there's insulin resistance, and it is going get turned into triglyceride. that triglyceride is going to get shuttled into a fat cell. And so that's how we accumulate fat over time. So people always talk about, I want to lose weight. I'm like, don't chase fat loss. Chase muscle gain. It's way more fun to attain than, oh, it's negative.

We need to loose weight, we need lose body fat. No, no, you need more mass. You need you to take up more space in life. That's something very positive for people to obtain. But like I said, carbs aren't bad. how much you need is going to depend on how big your metabolic engine burns. What is your demand? How much muscle mass do you have? And then when it comes to timing of carbohydrates, that's also very important. So when I always tell people, this is very simple. I love my analogies. Think about parentheses, right?

You want to parentheses your workouts with carbohydrates. You wanna have carbs before you work out to fuel your workout. Don't go fasted. There's nothing beautiful and magical about a fast workout or fast cardio. People say there is a call BS, there's not. It's better to have carbs in your system to go train so your workouts better. Even if you're just going to play tennis, do cardio, whatever it might be, eat before you workout. And then after you work out, you've depleted, emptied your suitcase, so now we need to replenish.

One, that's going fuel you for your next workout, those carbs that you are eating aren't going get stored as triglycerides because you going use them. Think of like your muscles like little sponges. They're just going to absorb it and so you can use it for the next workout. And the other thing that carbohydrates do after workout is spark protein synthesis, which is the body rebuilding and laying down new muscle cells, Which is name of the game. You know, the thing I always tell people too is I ask them this question.

There's no right or wrong answer. I say, what do we build in the gym? Most people will be like, oh, we build muscles in the gym. Well, that's not true. We don't build anything in a gym, We only break down tissue. So we're trying to damage tissue and we are trying fuel the body in way that sparks the recovery and says, hey, and your body's really smart. It's like hey she's going to do that again. so we need to put down more muscle tissue so the next time she breaks this down, were stronger and were able to handle that mechanical load.

And so that's the whole entire concept of putting on muscle. It's breaking down, it's recovering, rebuilding, breaking, recovering rebuilding. But we do need carbohydrates. You're just going to base your carbohydrates around one, your goals is a goal to put on muscles, the goal is to lose body fat. And then two, how much muscle mass do you actually have? Because that is going dictate how you can actually eat. Well, that's super cool. So I remember getting on one of these scales, like an in-body machine and finding out, you know, cause I weigh a little more than you do.

Okay. And finding that more of my weight was muscle than fat. Heck yeah. I have an athletic build. That's so cool. And then learning about your biological age versus your chronological age. We all want to rewind that clock. So what kinds of measurements do you do and how do determine how much muscle is in somebody's body and where to go? It's a great question. So I'm a big fan of DEXA scans, because that's the gold standard in body composition testing. And for the listeners out there that don't know what a DEXTA scan is, it was originally created to see how much bone mineral content or how dense your bones are, right?

Then they figured out, oh my gosh, this is the most accurate way to look at muscle mass and body fat percentage and visceral fat. We invested in one of the clinic. I do think some kind of testing beyond the scale needs to happen. I do think in-bodies are great, definitely a tool, right? I always tell people they can be accurate, but there's a pre-test protocol to get on an in body. I'll share that with everybody because a lot of people have access to in bodies. So the pre test protocol, to give the most accurate results out of the inbody is no workouts for two days prior to your test.

to stay hydrated so make sure you drink enough water leading up into that and then do be fasted when you do that test so don't work out and a lot of people have access to these things at gyms so they go workout and they do in body and I'm like well you're not getting an accurate measure right so but I think

Carbohydrates, glycogen, and workout timing 26:18

that that would be the number one tool is some kind of test whether it be in-body their seca scans dexa scans just something where you can get a physical number to know how much muscle mass you actually have, and then from there, you can figure out how many grams of carbs you need in your daily life. Does that answer your question? Yes. And everything pasta, let you know, is my favorite carb of all time. It's so funny. I've talked about my mom. She has two favorite foods, pizza and pasta. and I'm like, mom, You really need to go back up North because having you in my house for five months is not a good thing for me.

My suitcases are full. Okay. Yeah. The other thing, too, when it comes to carbohydrates is processed carbohydrates are not our friend, right? They get into the body extremely quick. They're higher in the glycemic index, they're spiking our blood sugar, making us release more insulin. And then, to me, the blood-sugar crash happens. It's the up, down, up-down, blood, sugar roller coaster, so not all carbs are created equal. The best carb sources are going to be those that come from whole foods, and then fruits And when I think whole foods, I thing potatoes, quinoa, rice, doesn't matter what kind of potato, it doesn' matter of what kinda rice.

Beans are okay. Some people have a hard time breaking down beans, lectins, which can be a little much on the GI track if somebody's having some GI issues. But on top of that, to go even one layer further, is if you're eating rice and eating potatoes making them a resistant starch. So what that means is you would cook said food carbs or excuse me rice or potatoes and let them cool overnight and it changes the molecular structure so it doesn't increase the blood glucose that lowers their glycemic index so you know even every carbohydrate I eat It's a resistant starch, because I'm eating a lot of carbs.

So that's just something if somebody says, oh, well, I've already eaten rice and pasta, or excuse me, not rice, but pasta. Rice and potatoes, and how can I optimize myself even further? Then I would say, you know what? Make them resistant to starches by cooling them and then eating them the next day. Well, that's a great point and also combining things, right? Like, you know, not just having the carbs by itself, unless maybe it's the fruit an hour before your meal or so. But also the importance of protein, because I think that is something I noticed years ago when I was working, especially a lot of women, but anybody who is more like your regular person, You know, they weren't consuming enough protein.

And I said, you know protein you need. I always say carbs and fat are your energy sources. You can't have too high of either one or both. Yeah. you got to pick one of the other and you gotta adjust because some people like myself, I do better on lower starch, um, and a little higher fats, but also do you better, on moderate to higher proteins. So, can you talk about the importance of protein? And, uh, start every day as you, know what my, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, which is my peanut butter super shake and my chocolate greens.

Love it. So the importance of, you know, protein and also, like you mentioned, the parentheses for the carbohydrates, but also with meals. I was just talking to a good friend of mine. He's been involved in the fitness industry for years. And I just saw him. We went to dinner. Man, he looks like he lost some weight. He said, oh yeah, I'm finally doing the smaller meals more frequently. I said you've been around Jim Manion in the industry for 50 years. He says, no, just love to eat and I have usually a couple of big meals a day, but just by doing that for a month, he says he didn't even look swollen, like he's a big guy.

So I think, you know, really like to hear a little more about protein importance and where do you put the shakes in this program too? So I'll go to say that I love shakes. I think they're great, right? I thing that it's really hard for most people to eat the physical food, protein-wise, that they need in a day, so I that shakes are awesome. Not all shakes create an equal. You know, I loved all the shakes from Nutritional Frontiers. They're fantastic. So quality matters. Want to preface with that.

Don't just go Target or Walmart and just grab something, we need clean product. Let me comment quickly on that, okay? Years ago, I was upstairs at the wellness center and someone called the girl at front and said, the guys down here want to know about weight loss. So I went down there and the guy was definitely overweight. And he says, your protein caused me to gain 16 pounds. I said, really? I'm thinking, what did you mix it with? Ice cream, whole milk, juice, and peanut butter. He says, no. So after talking to him a few minutes, I finally physically picked up the container of the best way and put it in his hands.

I go, was it this protein? He said no, oh, okay. It wasn't my protein, a protein caused weight. Where'd you buy it? Walmart. I said, oh, is it body fortress? He goes, how'd you know? I say, it's not whey protein, its milk protein. You could have went and bought the carnation milk powder on aisle seven. It's the same thing for five bucks. And the amount of lactose and sugar he was getting in it. So it was a great point you bring up. Let's hear a little more about the shakes and then which ones you like.

When do you put that in someone's program? Yeah, absolutely. So first off, I'm going to answer how much protein in a day, and I'll make it really simple for people. If you don't have access to an in-body or a dexascan or some kind of testing tool, then what I always tell people is eat one gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. So if you're 203 or 200 pounds, you are on a weight loss journey, but your ideal weight, or maybe like when you, what I call your fighting weight. You know, when were like, man, I felt good at that weight!

Right? That's the goal. That is the number you want to go for. Right, so maybe that's 140, 150, depending on the person. So that is just a really easy way to just simplify it and get started. I think that protein is important across the board, right, throughout your day. You don't just want to have one protein here and then eat carbs and other things the rest of the day, it needs to be evenly dispersed. So the body has this like constant influx of a tool that should, to me, almost like a regeneration tool.

We're made of protein, fat, and water, so I'm just going to go on a little bit of soapbox. When people say, you know, they're vegan, I mean, that's fine. It is hard to get complete proteins and get what you need for the amino acid profile to really help build muscle. Now, that being said, we have great shakes at Nutritional Frontier, some of the vegan plant-based shakes. The Naked one's really great. I like that because you can add stuff to it. But that's a complete protein. right so we need complete protein not just plant protein sorry if anybody's vegan they can yell at me later sorry but not sorry, but you know I love the ultimate shake for people who are in a hurry and they use it as a meal replacement shake it does have some carbohydrates it has some fat in it I loved the whey The collagen is great.

If you guys haven't tried the clean collagen, it mixes amazingly in coffee, like ridiculously in copy. It's so good. And I do think my, my new favorite, I used to love the super shake and I still do love this super shakes, but I love to clean the, the naked one. That way it just gives people a variety and they can add stuff to it and give it some of their own spice and flavor. But no, but I do think protein is extremely important. It's the foundation, it's building block of ourselves. Like we need protein.

So, you know, even your bones need proteins. Right? And I talk a lot about bone strength when I'm talking to patients and athletes and stuff, because people just don't realize how important that is. So that goes back to the mechanical stress that you put on the body from resistance training. And then you need to give the the tool to build the muscle or build bone, which is going to be protein amongst other nutrients. I am not saying it's just that, but it is foundational. All right, this world of intermittent fasting and people doing all kinds of extreme programs.

You know, the way I was trained, you know you'd eat two, three, four hours apart depending on your level and what you're trying to accomplish.

Protein intake, shakes, and supplement simplification 34:18

This whole thing of skipping meals and I'm not a huge fan. I understand why some people do it. But I also ask, well, what are you eating when you do eat? So what do your thoughts on it? I know there is research that shows You know, the only thing that can prolong life is a reduction in calories, you know? Because the body goes into that preservation mode. But for a healthy person, if someone's trying to be healthy, what are your thoughts on? Is that why you use the shakes? How many meals are you trying get in for somebody?

And what's the spacing that you like for an everyday person that's maybe an intermediate level? Awesome. Great question. First off, I don't like intermittent fasting for most people. I think people already aren't getting adequate nutrition. And so if you shorten that window when they can eat, a lot of times, you know, if need 140 grams of protein and you're only eating for four or five hours a day, My gosh, like it is going to be damn near impossible, excuse my language, to get what you need in.

Also too, there are studies that show that actually can decrease growth hormone when you intermittent fast. And there's some that say that it increases it. So I don't like intermittent fasting on the regular. I do like a 12 hour fast every day that just gives you, it's a gentle fast, so if I eat my last meal at eight, hey, try not to eat till like seven or eight the next day. Just gives the body and the digestive tract some time to rest. fast that you could do on a daily basis. I think autophagy fast, where you're going for 48, 72, when you are going these days upon days, I there's some health benefits in that.

But I don't think it's something that needs to be a staple. Maybe you do it a couple of times a year, right? And that's very strategic. You're doing it for a set period of time or some people do for religious purposes, I get that too. So I think autophagy fasting is great. I thing for the average Sally or average Joe, fasting's usually not a good thing. When it comes to meals per day, what I usually do is say figure out How many meals a day can you eat? Two is not an option. We have to have at least three, right?

At least So that's not my answer. Weeks out. So three four five it shakes count. It shakes Otherwise I'm a big trouble No, shakes absolutely count. And I'll go back to where I feel like shakes fit in. So what I would tell people is say, let's say you need 120 grams of protein a day, right? You live a busy life and it's really hard to get food in, so start with a shake. Don't just do one scoop, do two scoops. Now we've just knocked off 40 grams approaching off your 120 gram number. You're making Jamie smile.

He subscribes to that for sure. And then all we need is 80 more grams of protein in a day. So I always tell people, if you eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a shake, maybe a recovery shake. Maybe as a snack. Maybe it's your first meal out the door in the morning on the way to work and then you have a breakfast or your First meal first feeding of the day at work Maybe in afternoon dinner when you come home and you can easily get in three or four or five meals So I don't necessarily with my patients set a number of meals.

Like I said, I dont accept two We need at least three because we have to have enough time for the body to digest and absorb the protein and then do it again. But I would always go back to how much do you need? If I figure out that number first, then really look at your day and say, where can I fit this in? And try to just keep it really simple. I love shakes. Even if I have two shakes a day to get in what I need, I absolutely will. Well, I heard you say something really cool that one of your favorites is the clean collagen.

And you know, we have it in a cacao flavor, but what we just released last week was a brand new flavor rocket pop. Remember like the red, white and blue bomb pops? That's what it tastes like. We collected all the ice pops that were melting and put it into a drink. So you're going to have to give that a whirl when you come to the professional training event and taste that one. I definitely will. And that's another thing too, is like there's so many options. One of the reasons that first off, if you guys don't know, which both you probably already do, I'm obsessed with Nutritional Frontiers.

But, you know, I've just been able to remove so many crappy supplements from people and really be able simplify their supplement routine. I know we're talking about protein, but simplify your supplement routines because of the formulations, right? So people aren't taking 30 things, and I got it down to like five and people are like, thank you. I remember the first time we met in the gym, me, you and Rhonda, and right away we were just, it was like this now, we're running out of time, right? Yeah.

And you were showing me another brand you carry, I knew some guys that worked there. So can you give us an example of that? Because my goal is always to make it more implementation for better outcomes for people on the better side. Yeah, oh my gosh. Can you get us some examples of a formula like maybe Women's Complete or something where now I've cut from five to three or GI Complete. Yeah. So obviously, I love all the GI supplements. I think they're great. One that I've been using a lot recently is Estro Cleanze.

We do a whole lot with female hormones and male hormones, right? So we've tried to move some of our males off of the pharmacology of estrogen blockers on TRT therapy. And so we use Estros Cleanse and replacement of that. It's a more holistic way to balance estrogen or for females having estrogen problems. But I loved that formulation because it has DEM and has the calcium deglutarate in it. So, once again, there's a couple supplements right there. They only take one supplement versus multiples. Thyroid Complete.

Love this one sitting right here on my desk. I love this. This is one of my favorites. The list goes on and on. Like, you know, I would want somebody to take 1, 2, 3, 4, at least 5 of these ingredients on here to support their thyroid, but that's Right? And so they just have to take two capsules. I, myself, only need to two take capsuls, and it's great. Let's see, what else do I love? The Thyroid Complete, I like Candy Kill. They do a lot with gut health, so that's a really great one. So instead of people having to have four or five different things, they can just take Candy Kil.

And it works for so many different gut help things. Not just Candida. It's good for balancing blood sugar, just for gut microbiome health in general. What else? PSA is a great supplement. So these are some that people may not realize that you guys even carry. I know we talk a lot about the GI completes and the protein powders and stuff, but that's a great supplement for prostate. And it's also good for people maybe that have PCOS or have high androgens that may be converting to DHT, they're starting to lose their hair, or they are noticing that.

It's got salt and palmetto in it. and it has a bunch of other different nutraceuticals as well that are really great for hair. So that is something that we use, you know, we want to call it off-label. I think it's geared towards men being a PSA something, but I've got a lot of ladies using it too. Yeah. I'm listening to one of my clients, Susan Marincine. She's a functional pharmacist and she uses that and calls it hormone balancer for females. Well, I really know our formulations well. You make me so proud today.

Thank you. We're going to have to hire her as an influencer and send her boxes of product to just open online. Part two and part three and four here. It's never ending. Well, Nikki, I am sure everybody has enjoyed this discussion today as much as we have. And I'm going to encourage everyone to comment, like, and share this with someone who needs to hear it. I don't know who wouldn't need to here it, but I sure people out there are wondering, look, probably even some of our healthcare providers,

Where to find Nikki and closing remarks 41:48

how do I work with you? How can I partner up with? So Nikki where can people find you. Well, I'll say this, it never costs anything to talk to me, right? I know a lot of practitioners charge for their consults. I've dug my heels in the sand on this and I want people to to for free if they have questions, so you can go to my website. It's experience, spelled with an X, experience.health and you book of what's called a free clarity call. Now it's not a 90 minute console, but it is a 15-20 minute call so I can get to know you and kind of figure out what next steps are.

But I love talking. I Love educating. So the best way to get in contact with me would be my website. And like I said, book a free 15 minute Call. Right? It's always free to talk to me.I don't want money to ever be the line in the sand where someone can't get the care or the education that they need or support. So just know that my offer stands. I love answering questions. So like I said, if anybody out there needs help, needs some guidance, I would be happy to discuss. Most of the time people can find you in the Atlanta area, right?

Oh yes, I am in Atlanta and we do all sorts of stuff at my clinic. We do everything from nutritional counseling to functional medicine. we Do a lot with female hormones, male hormones to peptides, GLPs. You know, we our GLP is completely different than most people do. Do we micro dose everything? That's like a whole nother story in itself, but you know we are in the Atlanta area, licensed in all 50 states and I was virtual for a very long time before I opened my brick and mortar. So I literally have people almost in every state that I work with.

That's awesome. All right, Dave. Yeah, I've referred a few people to one from Ohio, my daughter in college. She's doing great. And you really taught her a lot. So thank you. A good friend of mine, Chef Anthony, and I just saw him the other day. He's doin' good too. They were both virtual. You didn't physically have to see them. I think that's where the nutrition really plays a huge role. the training, the workouts are really important." He said, but the difference, he goes, look around the gym. Most people look the same.

He says, The difference is they're not following a solid nutritional program. And that's where he got me into the nutritional component. It's at least 50%. Some people say 70, 80% of the results. So if you're getting results, give Niki Fit a call. She'll be at our event this week. We're so excited to see you. Thanks for making time in your very busy schedule. Really appreciate it. Thanks Nikki, thanks Christine and thanks everyone for following us at the Holistic Truth through number one podcast for health, wellness and fitness.

Thanks everyone. Have a great day. Bye guys. God bless.