Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Beyond Calories: Ditching Diet Culture to Heal Your Gut and Fuel Your Life With Best-Selling Author Elyse Kopecky

Transcript

Beyond Calories: Ditching Diet Culture to Heal Your Gut and Fuel Your Life With Best-Selling Author Elyse Kopecky · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Raising kids that are watching me do something that I'm
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: so passionate about is the biggest gift of all in
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: this whole career journey.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hey, hey, Emily, here, you are listening to another episode
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: of Hurdle, a podcast featuring the mindset, secrets, and true
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: stories of the most inspiring women in sports and wellness,
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  Speaker 2: empowering you to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: and of course conquered your own hurdles. This week, I
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: am thrilled to welcome an individual whose journey embodies resilience
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: and passion and the power of food.
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  Speaker 3: And that is Elis Kopecki.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: You likely know her for her best selling cookbooks, including
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Run Fast, Eat Slow, that she co wrote with good
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: friend and olympian a friend of the show, Slene Flanagan.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: And today we are getting into all things food, nutrition
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: and getting very excited about Elisa's new superhero muffin mix,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: available direct consumer on the website.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Superhero Muffins dot com.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Now listen to the end of this intro because I've
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: got a coupon for you anyway. In today's Chad, Elise
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: opens up about the intense personal journey that led her
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: to becoming a champion for real food and intuitive eating.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: As a young.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Athlete herself, she struggled with severe a dire related complications,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: including low bone density, stress fractures, and even health issues
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: stemming from a low fat diet mentality. She shares the
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: poignant moment she realized her unhealthy eating was wrecking her system,
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  Speaker 2: leading to profound pivot in her life. We dive deep
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  Speaker 2: into why indulgent nourishment is the opposite of deprivation, the
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  Speaker 2: non negotiable role healthy fats play in hormonal and brain health,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: and the shocking truth about white flower and high protein fads.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Elise also shares her incredible full circle story of leaving
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: her corporate job to go to culinary school, only to
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: realize her real calling was in the launch of her
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: brand Superhero Muffins, we discussed why it's okay to jump
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: in before you have all the answers, and how that
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  Speaker 2: bravery fueled by delicious food can leave you to the
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: ultimate dream job. Make sure you're following along with Hurdle
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: over on social It's over at Hurdle Podcast. You can
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: also check out Ihartwoman's Sports over at Iheartwoman's Sports and
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: me Over at Emily Abodi. Listen to Hurdle with Emily
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Abody on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you'd
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: get your podcasts. Was so fun to catch up with
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Elise for today's episode. We met when she came to
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: New York to run the marathon with Saline, and I
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  Speaker 2: promised you a coupon code, and I'm going to stay
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  Speaker 2: true to that.
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  Speaker 3: If you head on over to Superhero.
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  Speaker 2: Muffins dot com, you can use the code Hurdle one
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  Speaker 2: five to get fifteen percent off your order today. I'm
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: big on the chocolate banana, but I have the apple
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  Speaker 2: sn in the pantry ready to make this weekend again.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: That code at checkout for fifteen percent off is Hurdle
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  Speaker 2: one five. With that, let's get to it. Let's get
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: to hurdling.
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  Speaker 3: Today.
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  Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Elise Kapeki. She's a three
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  Speaker 2: time New York Times best selling author. She's an educator,
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  Speaker 2: inspirational speaker, co authored Run Fast, Eat Slow, Run Fast,
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  Speaker 2: Cook Fast, Eat Slow, and Rise and Run with Friend
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: of the show, four time Olympian and New York City
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  Speaker 2: Marathon champion Selene Flanaga, and Elise.
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  Speaker 3: Welcome to Hurdle. How are you.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: I am great.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I'm so impressed you got the cookbook titles correct. Most
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: people say it the opposite way, they say run slow,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: eat fast. But so excited to be here on the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Hurdle podcast. Longtime fan, and I'm so happy, like years
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: later after we've met, that you're still running the show.
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  Speaker 3: Still running the show over here.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I know it feels like you were just in New
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: York yesterday when it was the fiftieth anniversary.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: How are we feeling over there? At least you've got
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: a lot going on.
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  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been so long since I ran the New
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  Speaker 1: York City Marathon. It was such an incredible experience and
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  Speaker 1: I have not run a marathon since because it could
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  Speaker 1: never be topped. So I was like, I'm just going
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  Speaker 1: to retire from my one road marathon and call it
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  Speaker 1: amazing good. It's been so busy over here, so many
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  Speaker 1: new projects going on, and I've done a big pivot
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  Speaker 1: from writing cookbooks. So it's been an exciting year.
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  Speaker 2: A big pivot from writing at cookbooks, not going to
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  Speaker 2: hold back any longer. The pivot is you are now
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  Speaker 2: in CpG. You're bringing superhero muffins to cabinets.
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  Speaker 3: Everywhere. What's it been like, how are we feeling?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been crazy. We launched just forty five days ago,
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  Speaker 1: our Superhero Muffin Mix. I swore I would never start
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: a food company. I had experience developing recipes for Picky
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  Speaker 1: Bars several years ago, and like the first thing out
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  Speaker 1: of my mouth when I started working for them was like,
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  Speaker 1: I'll develop recipes for you guys, but I would never
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: do what you're doing. But here I am ten years
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  Speaker 1: after starting Run Fast Eats Slow.
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  Speaker 4: I just couldn't.
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  Speaker 1: I told my husband one day, I was like, if
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  Speaker 1: I don't try this, I'm gonna regret it ten years
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  Speaker 1: from now. So I just as a mom of two
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  Speaker 1: young athletes, I got so frustrated with the amount of foods,
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  Speaker 1: packaged foods that are pushed at athletes and kids and
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  Speaker 1: busy people that have zero nutrition. So I felt compelled
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  Speaker 1: to start our own baking mix line. We launched with
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  Speaker 1: Superhero Muffin Mix, which you can see here. I've got
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  Speaker 1: three flavors, but we have lots of other ideas to
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  Speaker 1: expand the category. But we really want to stay in
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  Speaker 1: baking mixes because it still inspires people to get in
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  Speaker 1: the kitchen. Add whole food ingredients to our already whole
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: food nutrient dense mixes, and they're still cooking and they're
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  Speaker 1: turning out something fresh baked for their families. But they
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  Speaker 1: can do it in five minutes instead of the usual
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  Speaker 1: like forty five minutes that it takes to prep superhero muffins.
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  Speaker 3: Wow. Okay, A lot to unpack here.
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  Speaker 2: First and foremost, I love the mentality of I knew
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  Speaker 2: that I would kick myself if I didn't try. What
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  Speaker 2: was the straw that broke the camel's back for you
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: to say, you know what?
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  Speaker 4: Game on probably two things.
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  Speaker 1: One. I can't go anywhere without getting called the muffin
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  Speaker 1: mom or the Superherr muffin Lady. Even get stopped in
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  Speaker 1: like random airports within Bend. Every time I go to
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  Speaker 1: the grocery store, someone's like, oh, hi, I just made
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  Speaker 1: a batch of such and such superhero muffins, or you know,
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  Speaker 1: I get people messaging me saying like I ran my
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  Speaker 1: best marathon ever and I ate a superhero muffin before
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  Speaker 1: women saying like I used to not be able to
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  Speaker 1: eat anything before running, and now I've discovered Superherr muffins,
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  Speaker 1: and my digestion feels so much better. So one it
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: was like everyone constantly coming up to me and giving
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: me their superhero muffins story. And two it was I'm
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  Speaker 1: not going to name brands, but there's other muffins and
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  Speaker 1: other mixed companies that the packaging is so misleading. They
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: talk about it being like high protein, low sugar or
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: or low carb or something, or they perceive it. They
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: use colors that look vibrant and healthy, pitched to kids,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: and then you look at the ingredients and it's all
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  Speaker 1: this gut disrupting ingredients that are terrible for athletes, or
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  Speaker 1: fillers or cheap additives, or natural flavors which are actually
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: not natural at all. So all the misleading packaging and
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: taking my kids to soccer games and them getting handed
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  Speaker 1: these packages of different treats and cookies and muffins and
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  Speaker 1: bars that like I would look at the outside and
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  Speaker 1: think from the front of the package it's healthy, but
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  Speaker 1: then look at the ingredient list and realize how harmful
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  Speaker 1: these ingredients are for young athletes.
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  Speaker 3: Let's unpack what the bad things are.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's a really good place to start, because
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  Speaker 2: so many people are listening to you being like, what
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  Speaker 2: am I buying. Am I buying something that is actually
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  Speaker 2: completely wrecking my gut? So what should we be mindful
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  Speaker 2: for when we're shopping at the store.
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  Speaker 1: You want to when you're looking to buy something, package
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  Speaker 1: to save you time, which is fair. Everyone needs to
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: save them some time around here. You want to look
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  Speaker 1: at the ingredient list, not the nutrition panel. The ingredient
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  Speaker 1: list should be ingredients that you could source in your
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  Speaker 1: own kitchen to cook something yourself. It's okay to buy
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  Speaker 1: quick fix, shortcut things if the list of ingredients are
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  Speaker 1: foods that you recognize, but a lot of packaged muffins
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: or store bought muffins or treats like either they're making
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  Speaker 1: a health claim, like they're saying they're keto, and then
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  Speaker 1: they're using sugar alcohols which are really gut disrupting or
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: artificial sugars which are really not good for our digestion,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: or they're using they're saying, oh, high end fiber, and
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: then they're using like chickory root, which is refined in
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  Speaker 1: a lab, or other fibers that are refined in a lab.
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  Speaker 1: You don't want to any of those fiber drinks or
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  Speaker 1: added fibers are super gut destroying and digestion matters, Like
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  Speaker 1: if your digestion is not dialed, your energy is not
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  Speaker 1: going to be good, your sleep's not going to be good,
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  Speaker 1: you're not going to feel good exercising, you'll feel bloated.
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  Speaker 4: All the time.
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  Speaker 1: And most importantly, what people don't think of with digestion
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  Speaker 1: is the more you can enhance and boost your digestion,
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  Speaker 1: the more nutrients you can absorb from your food. So
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  Speaker 1: if your gut health is off, you're not going to
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  Speaker 1: be able to absorb micronutrients, so you could become anemic
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  Speaker 1: or low in other nutrients because your body is not
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  Speaker 1: optimized to digest and absorb the good foods.
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  Speaker 4: That we're eating.
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  Speaker 1: So you want to look at the ingredient list you
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  Speaker 1: want to avoid a lot of products are just white
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  Speaker 1: flour or refined flowers, which basically is processed by our
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: bodies as a sugar. Muffin mixes are notoriously mostly just
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: wheat flour and sugar some form of sugar, whether it's
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: cane sugar or an artificial sugar. So you want to
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: avoid any of those artificial sugars or overload of like
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: just cane sugar, and starting your day especially you don't
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: want to spike your blood sugar levels first thing in
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the morning. Then you want to watch out for any
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: of the fillers that are like cheap and inexpensive that
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: big food companies are adding just because it keeps their
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: margins low. And any natural flavors that are natural flavor
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: is very misleading because it usually when a product says
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: like natural blueberry flavor, it could mean that there's like
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: ten ingredients behind that labeling of natural. So yeah, those
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: are the things to look out for, but mainly you
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: should know what the ingredients are on your package. Anytime
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: it sounds like it is, you know, some weird protein concentrate,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: it was probably made in a lab and our bodies
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: don't know what to do with it.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's we don't have time for that. We're busy enough.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Like you said, there's no reason for us to be
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: dealing with all of this wonky digestion, something that you yourself
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: are extremely familiar with, because I know that for quite
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: some time you too struggled with your diet and nutrition
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I really want to help the next generation because
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I suffered so much as a teen and young athlete
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: all through high school and college, I suffered from athletic
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: amenorrhea from not eating enough healthy fats, which led to
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: low bone density and stress fractures. And then I suffered
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: from IBS and anxiety directly related to what I was eating.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: As soon as I discovered a better way of eating,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: when we moved abroad to Switzerland, everything changed, Like my
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: all my health issues went away. I think so many
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Americans have no idea how good you can feel like.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: We're just all used to like walking around feeling like
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: sluggish and low energy, and everyone's not sleeping good, and
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: everyone is stressed, and everyone is, you know, suffering from
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: various like ailments and diseases, and so much of that
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: is one hundred percent related to nutrition. A lot of
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: people like talk about like oh I got to exercise,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: I got to sleep better, I got to reduce stress.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: But if you don't nail nutrition first, the rest of
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: those are going to suffer. You're not going to have
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the energy to work out and exercise if you don't
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: nail nutrition, You're not going to sleep good. If you
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: don't nail nutrition, your stress levels are going to be higher,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: your anxiety is going to be higher. If you're not
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: eating the healthy fats and balanced hearty food.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: You mentioned you suffered from athletic amenorrhea. Talk to me
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: about how this really manifested for you.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I suffered from athletic amenorrehea. I didn't get my period
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: at all during high school. It wasn't until I was flagged.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I ran D one cross country at UNC Chapel Hill
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: in the first month of school. We met with a
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: team doctor and they couldn't believe I had never gotten
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: my period before, so they put me on Instead of
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: addressing the root cause of that issue, they immediately put
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: me on birth control, which meant I got my period,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: but it didn't address the issue, which was that I
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: wasn't eating butter, I wasn't eating olive oil, I wasn't
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: eating all.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: These good fats.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I always had a huge appetite as a kid, but
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: my mom thought like everything had to be low fat.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: So I grew up in the eighties on all the
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: classic like snack weell cookies.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Isn't it so funny that snack well is always the
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: first thing that comes up when someone talks about the
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: stuff that they ate when they were trying to eat
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: no fat growing up.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, I had no idea that I was doing.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: My mom had no idea that she was doing more
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: harm than good. She was trying to feed me what
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: she thought was healthy for an athlete, and meanwhile I
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: was like hungry all the time. I could eat like
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: an entire box of snack Wells because it had zero
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: actual nutrition in it, so you're just left like hungry.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: So I would be like, you know, late night snacking
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: on cereal and fat free skim milk. And she bought
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: like the you know, low fat, fat free yogurt and
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: fat free salad dressing and everything was fat free, and
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: it made me really sick. So it wasn't until I
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: even through college, no one once told me. Of all
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the doctors I saw for my issues, not one doctor
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: said all you need to do is eat fat. It
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: was always like take this supplement or this this will
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: make your stomach feel better. There was even a point
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: where they were like, you should because you have IBS,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: you should take like a depression pill. I forget what
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: it's called, like an antidepression medication. It was like crazy,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: the stuff that was thrown at me versus like one
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: doctor acknowledging like that nutrition can make all the difference.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Isn't it wild that you just want to feel seen
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: by these people and you want to feel validated for
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: your experience, and oftentimes they're doing exactly what you say
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: that they did for you.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: They're just putting a band aid on the real problem.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I have some like just crazy stories,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Like I remember being sixteen and my mom taking me
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: to the doctor and the doctor like looking at me
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: and saying, well, maybe she doesn't have a uterus. I'm like,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: and then I had to get an ultrasound. It's like,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: come on, people, Like, it's amazing. I mean, there's a
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: lot of really good doctors out there, but it's amazing
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: how little nutrition training most medical doctors in our country do.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Right, And so you said you moved to Switzerland, but
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: before that you did experience a slew of other complications
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: from a lack of healthy fast in your diet, including
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: you said, some stress fractures.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Yes, so when you're not getting your period, your estrogen
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: is usually the cause of it. So I had really
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: low estrogen, which led to low bone density. Because I
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: went to a D one school, we had access to
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: good medical teams, So I had a bone density dexas
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: scan done and it came back that I was osteopenia.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I think they call it like pre osteoporosis in my twenties. Well,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: actually then I was probably eighteen, which is really scary
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: to be. You only have a small window of time
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: to build up your bone density. Once you hit like
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: your mid twenties, you're already at your maximum for your lifetime.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: So I've kind of screwed myself for life. But I
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: was defined as osteopenia in college in low bone density
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: and from those stress fractures directly related to that. I
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: have to say, though, although it's not all doom and gloom,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I have not had a stress fracture since college, and
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I've run higher mileage than I've run in college. When
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I was trained for the New York Marathon, I was
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: running a lot more on roads. Right now I run
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: more trails, so that can also help. But I haven't
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: had a single running injury knock on my counter since
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: since college running and I am still running every day,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: and so I attribute it to I was able to
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: get my bone density up. It'll never be like as
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: high as it could have been. I did have a
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Dexis scan done recently, but it's much better than ever expected.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: And I attribute that to eating foods like full fat
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Greek yogurt. The full fat dairy is better for you,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: it's easier to digest, it's less processed, it has more nutrition,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: it's got the good fat in there and the good
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: protein and calcium. So I eat like yogurt every single day.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I eat foods like traditionally made like bone broth, and
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: lots of like soups and stews, and I'm not afraid to,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: you know, eat these really foods that our culture has
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: said is unhealthy, like really hearty meals. Has really helped
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: me with my bone density and also other areas like
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: mental health and everything else.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you actually.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Bring up a really important point, which is the mental
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: side of things. Not to go into my personal health history,
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: but I went through a time period where I was
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: trying to sort through some things with my care team,
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: and the frustrations that go hand in hand with not
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: understanding or having a full grasp on what's going on
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: with your body, they can be insurmountable.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is hard to find the right care
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: when you're dealing with something stressful like a health issue.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: For sure, it still is. I bet I feel better
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: at age forty four than I ever did in my
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: young twenties.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I love to hear that.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: So you move to Switzerland and your diet changes completely,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: what are the first signs that you experience or symptoms
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: perhaps that show you that something good is happening for
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: your body.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: When I met my almost husband and we moved abroad
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: to Switzerland, we got married while living abroad. We knew
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: we wanted to start a family when we came back
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: from the US, and I had had like years and
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: years of doctors telling me that I was going to
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: have trouble getting pregnant someday. So I decided to go
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: off birth when we moved abroad, and then had I
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: had gone off of it multiple times in my twenties
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: to kind of see if I would get my period,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and I never did, so I was back on it.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: But then we moved abroad, I was eating butter and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: like you'd go to the market and shop and there'd
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: be only like one choice for like grass fed ground beef.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: There wasn't like the ninety nine percent fat free meat.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: So we were eating like butter and cheeses and full
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: fat dairy and grass fed meats and good quality eggs
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and within I would I don't remember the exact amount
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: of time, but within three months of living in Switzerland
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: we were on this big hike. I remember the exact moment,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: and I got my period naturally for the first time,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: and my husband and I were both in tears. In
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: your thirties, yeah, yes, yeah. And then we came back
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to the US a couple. We were in Switzerland for
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: just a couple of years, came back to the US,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: decided we want to start a family. Into like our
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: big shock, I got pregnant, like our first month trying.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: So it was like a true testament to how much
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: changing your diet can really impact your hormones and your
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: estrogen and your overall fertility and health.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so wild because someone might hear this story
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: and be like, wow, it sounds kind of nice not
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: to have your period in your thirties, but it's not
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: nice for someone who wants to feel quote unquote normal, right.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's a huge As women, we are
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: so lucky to have that period every month as a
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: sign of health and vitality and that things are working.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of male athletes suffer from same
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: similar issues. But they don't have that little sign every
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: month that things are on track. And I'm like super
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: proud to say that, despite still loving running and training
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and training for the New York Marathon, I've never missed
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: a period since except for when I was pregnant. Obviously,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: but obviously everyone hates having their period every month, but
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I also kind of celebrate it because I'm like, I'm
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: doing fueling my body with the right foods, fueling my
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: body with the right foods. And this is also related
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: to a top that you talk about pretty regularly.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: The idea of indulgent nourishment.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about this for the audience
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: specifically that may be stuck in a diet mentality. How
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: do we define indulgent nourishment and why is it essential
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: for us to really think about moving away from deprivation
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: and toward this kind of fueling.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so, indulgent nourishment is a phrase I came up
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: with ten years ago when I was writing our first cookbook,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Run Fast, Eat Slow. And I love going back and
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: flipping through the early chapters of that cookbook because everything
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: I was writing about back then is still true to
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: this day. There's not like I think that's why our
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: books continue to sell well is because the nutrition messaging
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: is still upholding ten years later. Unlike these diet trends
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: that come and go so indulgent. Nourishment is all about
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: celebrating eating real food and delicious food, and teaching people
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: that healthy food does not have to be bland and boring,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: and you don't need to count macros or calories to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: eat right. Cooking should be enjoyable, eating should be celebrated
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: and delicious and not getting bogged down in any diet trend.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Basically like keep going back to like the roots, Like
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: you don't need to stress about like measuring things and
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: counting macros. All you need to do is get in
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: your kitchen and cook. Anything you're going to cook in
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: your own home kitchen is going to fuel your body
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: and you'll be eating much more balanced than people who
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: rely on ultra processed foods. The shocking thing is over
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: half of American's diets is ultra processed foods, and those
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: foods just leave us constantly hungry, constantly reaching more for more.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: They're designed to be addictive, and they don't leave you
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: energized or feeling good. They give you a quick hit,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: a quick dopamine hit, a quick energy spike, but then
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: they just leave you angry the rest of the day.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: And I'm not completely I'm all about balanced. So it
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean you can't ever have like your favorite chips
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: or your favorite can, but like, just having balance and
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: trying to cook the majority of your meals at home
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: is the way to go if you don't want to
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: stress about dieting.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Right, Like, we are what we do most of the time,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: and obviously there's going to be a time and a
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: place for indulging and enjoying something that may be a
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: little bit processed.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: I mean a hinge of the holidays right now, but.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean my kids eat ice cream like
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: three out of seven nights a week, and I really
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: want my kids to not I don't say no to
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: anything they can have. Their friend gives them a lollipop,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: I don't like throw it out in the trash. I
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: just try to offset it with like, let's have some
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: apples with peanut butter before we eat that lollipop, so
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: you that you feel you feel good, so that there's
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: not left like feeling angry.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: I want to bring this back to fats because for
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: so many years fat has been completely vilified. You speaking
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: about how fat can be such an important part of
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: a well balanced diet. So let's talk a little bit
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: about what the non negotiable roles of fat, like olive
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: oil and butter and nuts, what those roles in a
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: diet can be for everyone, ranging from hormonal balance and
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: brain health to fighting inflammation.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, fat is so important. It's a great
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: source of energy. It's going to balance your hormones better,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Like your body can't even like manufacture and create these
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: important hormones without right amount of fat in your diet.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: If you're using like good quality fats like butter, olive oil, avocado,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: nuts and seeds, yogurt, dairy, good quality dairy, those fats
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: are going to help with like everything from satiation is
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: so important. If you eat a meal that's like white
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: meat chicken, breast, rice, and broccoli, and there's no sauce
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: on there or no fat on there, you're going to
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: be hungry the rest of the night, and you're going
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: to be reaching for the chips and the chocolate and
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the snack foods. But if you take that same dinner
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: and you add a really delicious sauce one you're getting
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: like the good healthy fats so that you feel satiated.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: And two, fat is a carrier for flavor, so everything
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: you eat is going to taste better. So adding fat
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: or adding a homemade sauce is going to make you
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: feel more satiated and energize and less likely to have
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: sugar cravings. Supports our brain health, It supports our digestion,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: it supports our hormones. Fat is one of the basic
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: important building blocks macros for nutrition. But then also a
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: lot of micronutrients are fat soluble, so your body can't
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: absorb a lot of vitamins without fat in your diet.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: So if you're taking a supplement, you want to make
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: sure you're taking it with something that has fat and
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: in it, or else your body can't absorb the fat
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: soluble vitamins.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: You mentioned macro nutrients.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Obviously, fat protein carves a lot of people stick scared
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: of carbs and now because of the way of the
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: world consuming way too much protein, talk to me about that.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: Oh man, the protein obsession is out of control.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: You're obsessed. My coffee must have protein foam on it.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's important. Protein is important, But we've
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: taken it too far like we typically do. It's crazy
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to me. I feel like the more obsessed we've become
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: with like nutrition or diet trends, that more unhealthy we get.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: So we just rely on these like protein supplements, which
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: most of them are like super hard to digest, and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: you're not even absorbing the amount of protein you're consuming,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Like you can only absorb so much protein in one meal,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: So the protein obsession is driving me nuts. I do
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: think it's important for someone who maybe has zero knowledge
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: to be to spend some time being aware of what
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: does have protein, because you do want to incorporate protein
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: into your meals in every snack, but don't you don't
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: need to take these like you know, forty gram protein
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: bars or twenty gram protein drinks. If you're eating a
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: balanced diet, you're getting enough protein. But it is good
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: to be aware that, like maybe you want to switch
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: from whole milk yogurt to greek full fat greek yogurt
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: because it's high in protein, or you want to incorporate
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: eggs into your breakfast routine, or you want to incorporate
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: meat and like a lot of people you know, want
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: to eat vegan, which it can be done in a
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: healthy way, but you it's really hard to if you're
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: not eating a small amount of like meat or fish,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: to get enough protein just from beans and rice and
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: lagoons and things like that. So yeah, just being aware
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: and learning, but then not counting or weighing or obsessing
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: over it. A lot of companies are using gluten as
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: their protein source, so they're adding gluten is already hard
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: to digest, and then they're adding like refine gluten as
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: a protein. Gluten is actually a protein, but it's hard
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to digest and it's a very cheap ingredient. So a
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: lot of companies, a lot I'm not going to name
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: which one, but a very popular pancake mix the main
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: protein that they're adding is like a refined gluten. So yeah,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: just be aware of a lot of these protein powders
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: also have the artificial sugar alcohols and the weird flavorings
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: and a lot of other ingredients. So if you my
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: favorite protein, if you do want to add like a
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: scoop of protein to your yogurt bowl in the morning
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: or to your smoothie, I like single ingredient protein powders,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: especially pumpkin seed protein which is I buy like an
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: organic pumpkin seed protein that is just one ingredient, nothing
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: else in it, and that one is minimally processed and
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: easy to digest.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Never have I ever heard of pumpkin seed protein, but
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: you have opened my eyes now to this.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: I just said, a.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Huge fan of pumpkin seeds in general. And so that's
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the other thing is by adding the pumpkin seed protein
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: powder instead of just a handful of whole pumpkin seeds,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: which is way cheaper, you're getting the protein, but you're missing.
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: Out on a lot of the micro nutrients.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: So pumpkin seeds are an incredible super food for athletes.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: They're high in iron, they're high in minerals, they're high
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: in zinc, they're great for your immune system. They're got
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: healthy fats and protein. But when you do just the
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: protein powder, you're missing out on the healthy fats. So
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: it's like a trade off, a trade off.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: And what I really appreciate about the conversation that we're
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: having on protein is you're saying the best way to
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: be mindful of your protein intake is to simply be
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: mindful about what you're keeping in your home. It's not
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: about weighing things or reaching for supplements all the time.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: It's more so just keeping options around which are going
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: to help you get to where you want to be.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then eating balance nutrition, So like I can
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: easily get in enough protein in my diet at dinner
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: by having a chicken breast or a burger, But if
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: I eat just a plate of protein and vegetables, I'm
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: not going to feel good afterwards. You want to eat balance,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: so you want to have your complex carbs in there too.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: If I sit down and eat just like a plate
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: of eggs in the morning, I feel gross. Like if
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: I have that same plate of eggs, but I have
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: some of like my favorite sourdough bread with butter and
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: an avocado, like, I feel so much better. So cook
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: your dinner but also include rice or sweet potatoes or
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: pasta so that you're getting your carbs, you're getting your protein,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: and also adding in a sauce or a fat like
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: avocado is great. It's you really want to feel good
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: after eating. So many people have lost touch with that.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: They when you take math out of the kitchen and
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: you stop obsessing over counting, you can get back in
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: touch with listening to your hunger signals. Our bodies actually
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: know what we need and can tell us what we
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: need if we get the like packaged foods out that
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: have all that. You know, we crave the salty snacks
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: or the sweet snacks because that's what we're used to.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: But once you get that out of the out of
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: your like every meal, every diet, every day diet, like,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: you can get back in tune with listening to your
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: body's hunger signals.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you're really highlighting the blatant truth here,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: which is that so many people have lost touch with
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: their natural hunger and fullness cues.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: So let's expand on this a little bit more.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: What would you say is one simple practice that the
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: listeners can adopt today to help them reconnect with their
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: bodies inherent wisdom about when and how much to eat.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: It's so important to just have a healthy relationship with
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: food and not being afraid of it. I mean, something
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: I always want to put out there, but like I'm
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: afraid to say it on Instagram, and like, like, real
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: food does not cause waking. Let's just like stop even
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: thinking that real food is. It should be delicious, it
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: should fill you up, you should feel satisfied and energized.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: It's the other stuff that keeps us snacking or that's
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: cut breaking havoc on our metabolism. It's not the real food,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: like the artificial. If someone is trying to like diet
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: and lose weight and they're leaning towards buying something that
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: has that is a sweet treat but made with artificial sugars,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: your body is like tricking your body and thinking it's
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: your body's thinking it's getting the cat and it's not.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: So then you're just like constantly in a state of
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: hunger and like reaching ended up like end of the day,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you're just reaching for all the like quick fixed snack foods.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: But real food does not Like just getting people to
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: enjoy and celebrate real food and not think of it
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: as a villain. Real food should be amazing and delicious
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and we should never think like it's causing harm to
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: our body when we're cooking wholesome meals.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: And just to reiterate, for like Clarity's sake, we're talking
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: real food.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: We're talking unprocessed foods.
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: Or minimally processed foods.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Like you could argue that like yogurt is processed or
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: pasta is processed, and I'm not I'm a fan of
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: celebrating carbs, and even like more refined carbs like pasta,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: we don't have to be afraid of it, or having
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: your favorite like local sour dough bread with butter in
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: the morning, Like, don't fear those carbs, because we need
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: as athletes and active women, we need both the simple
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: carbs and the complex carbs very important.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: And I'm sitting here and I'm learning so much from you,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: and I'm thinking that it is so wild to pivot
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: a little bit, that you weren't always interested in being
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: the kind of person that would be sitting here talking
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: to me in this way today. I know that you
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: have a background as a digital producer at Nike and
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: now you're a cokebook author. Talk to me a little
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: bit about that decision for you to step away from
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: an in house job and go out on your own
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: and get into this arena.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's kind of a crazy story. But I
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: worked in digital marketing at Nike for almost ten years,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: and I was fast tracked there. I mean, in my
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: low twenties, I was already making six figures. I had
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: they sent me abroad to do a stint at their
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: office in Amsterdam for two years, and then I was
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: back in Portland working at the Nike headquarters and learned
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: a ton. It was kind of like a ten year
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: MBA program. I learned so much, so I really appreciate
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: that time. But when I came back from later working
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: abroad in Geneva, Switzerland, I knew like after ten years
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: of like the grind of corporate it was pretty high stress.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Every day felt like a lot. I just wanted to
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: do something completely different, and I became so passionate about
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: nutrition and cooking from living in Europe and traveling all
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: over Europe and being inspired by the food culture over there.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: So I decided to quit a very successful career and
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: go to culinary school in New York at the time.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Once I graduated from culinary school in New York, I
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: went to a program that was focused on nutrition and
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: culinary arts, so you learned how to become a chef
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: or also but like a nutrient like a chef focused
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: on nutrition. So we spent half of the time in
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: the classroom studying nutrition, the other half of the time
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: in the kitchen cooking. When I graduated from that program,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: I was like, I just made the biggest mistake of
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: my life. Like I moved back to Portland. I had
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: no car, I was living in like a small apartment
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, what was I thinking? I had no job.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: I was like, how is this going to crossover? I
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: really like I did not like culinary school. I had
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: to do an internship at a very high end restaurant
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: in Portland as a helping assisting a chef, and I
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: just like really hated the grind. I hated being going
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: from like being a leader at Nike to being an
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: intern in a kitchen restaurant, working till midnight and being
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: treated like I was at that point. I was in
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: my thirties and I was being treated like as I
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: was an eighteen year old, like hustler in a kitchen restaurant.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: So anyways, dragging the story on, but it was a
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: huge regret of mine that I had left my career
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: and gone to culinary school. But I found a good
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: opportunity of crossing over my digital marketing career and helping
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: chefs in Portland with social media. So that kind of
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: kept me afloat for a little while. And then one
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: night Slaine Flanagan, who is my dear friend of twenty years.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: We were college roommates and college teammates. We were sitting down.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: I cooked her an amazing dinner and she was starting
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: to really amp up her mileage to train for her
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: first marathon. And cooked her this amazing meal, and she
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: was like telling me about now that she was training
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: with such high mileage, she was just hungry all the time.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: And I looked at her and I was like, maybe
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: you just need more butter in your life, or some
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: kind of phrase like that. And we're just sitting around
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: the table eating this amazing dinner and she's raving about
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: all the dishes I had cooked, and on a total whim,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: without any thought behind it, I just said, maybe we
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: should write a cookbook someday. But I didn't think it
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: would ever happen. It was just kind of like a joke.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: And then like we did like six months of like
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: text messaging back and forth of like, oh, if we
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: wrote a cookbook, like no one would probably want to
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: publish it, we could maybe we could self publish it.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: What would happen? But then it took.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: When my daughter was born, like I knew I needed
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: to do this thing that I felt really passionate about
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: So that's when I was like, Okay, let's make this
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: a reality, and I pitched. I wrote a fifty page
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: book proposal, found an agent, she pitched it out to publishers,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: and we had like ten or twelve public sure's been
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: on our first book. So I was like, Okay, we're
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: not going to have to hustle and self publish.
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: Wow, Okay, what a story.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: Talk about feeling the fear and doing it anyway, and
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: so many different aspects of this story. I first wanted
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: double click on the decision to go to culinary school.
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: When you made that leap, how did it feel?
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: Well?
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Culinary one, It was really hard because my husband and
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: I were newly married. We knew we wanted to start
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: a family, and I moved to New York City and
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: he was in Portland, and we had just moved back
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: from living abroad, and it was a pretty stressful time
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: in my life. I had saved up enough to afford
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: culinary school, but I had not saved up enough to
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: afford New York City life. So I was CouchSurfing with
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: friends and I got, honestly the sickest I've ever been
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: in my life. I had like a you know, horrible
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: flu or cold that lasted for weeks, and then I
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: suffered from major stress and like digestion issues and slept
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: on a friend's couch for several weeks. I stayed in airbnbs.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: I eventually like bunked up with a friend that had
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: like a really good extra space for me in room
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: in her apartment. But it was just a weird, weird
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: time in my life, and I really regretted starting the program,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: but felt like I had to see it through. And then,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: like just the New York City lifestyle was so different
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: from anything I'd been used to in the hustle in
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: the kitchen, and I felt like the people in the
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: class like were all wanting to be like top chef.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: It was very competitive and cut throat. So I didn't
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: really love the non supportive environment after years of working
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: on like the Nike Women's team, where it's all like
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: everyone is supportive of each other.
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a hard decision.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: It took a huge a lot of support from my
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: husband to give up, you know, put on hold a
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: lot of like the dreams that we had, and also
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: give up like that steady salary that was like a
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: really scary thing.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and so I'm sure that once you got that
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: job in Portland and you got back in the kitchen
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: and it wasn't as glamorous or what you had thought
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: it was to.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: Be, that also came hand in hand with a lot
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: of emotions.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I find like a lot of things in my
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: life I'd jump into without knowing, Like I had no
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: I went to culinary school with zero plan of what
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: I was going to do as my career, like I
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: and I tend to do that, Like I jumped into
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: starting this CPCHG company and now a year it took
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: us a full year to get our SuperH muffin mix launched.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: I think if I had known what I know now
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: about like the world of grocery and retail and how
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: complex it is, I probably never would have started the company.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: But I think it's always been my thing, Like I
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: jumped into a career at Nike without knowing anything about marketing,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: and I jumped into you know, I've always just like
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: gone for it and not thought it through and it's
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: worked out so far. But yeah, sometimes I mean there's
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: always like stress and hiccups along the way. But I
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: think for a lot of young people, like if you
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: don't just do it and start. You're never going to start.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: It's better to go in blind and figure it out
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: as you go.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: Why do you think that is?
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Why do you think that you have this tendency to
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: just jump right in.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: I was like an extremely shy teenager and very timid,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: but the sport of running like gave me so much confidence,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: and I think that plays out into everything I do
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: in my life now. Like it taught me like work
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: ethic at a really young age. It taught me like
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: not to be afraid to get on that starting line
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: and put yourself out there and give it. You're all
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: not knowing like if you're gonna win or anything. So yeah,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know if the answers your question, but a bit.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously sport played a really big part in
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: teaching you that it's worth to go into uncomfortable places, right,
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: But sport also, as you spoke about, because of the
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: injuries and the complications that you experienced, really knocked you down.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: But what happened ultimately is that you also got up.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: So this is where I see it coming from.
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: For you.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: It's like I learned that I can jump in and
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: something not ideal might happen, but I'm still going to
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: be able to get out on the other side.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, you're so insightful and so smart. Yeah, totally, Like
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: it was the lowest point, like not being able to
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: run in college and having to quit the team because
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: I had repeated injuries. Running was everything to me and
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: to walk away from running on the team in college
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: was like giving up my family and my friend group
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: and my identity. But then to be if that had
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: never happened, if I had not suffered from all those injuries,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: I would not have found this career path that I'm
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: so passionate about that gets me excited to jump out
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: of bed at five am and keeps me energized and honestly,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: like now having being a mom to two young kids,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: raising kids that are watching me do something that I'm
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: so passionate about is the biggest gift of all in
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: this whole career journey.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: The note on if I knew when I started this
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: company what I know now, I wouldn't have done it.
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: What's been the biggest hurdle to this entire process for.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: You, Emily, Everything is a hurdle when you're starting a
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: food company. The biggest hurdle overall is that I'm going
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: up against big food companies that spend thirty two billion
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: dollars a year on marketing. Like, I am really struggling
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: as we are a two person team. It's myself and
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: my husband. My husband left his career in the outdoor
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: industry to do this together, and I have so much
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: I want to teach people and educate people and share,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: but we don't have the resources yet to hire like
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: PR or marketing or social media support or any I
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: could easily fill jobs for ten people with the amount
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: of work that I'm doing right now, So a lot
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: gets dropped, like I can't, you know, post on social
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: media consistently or do all the media outreach that I
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: should be doing, and things like that. It's just really
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: hard as a small food company because most food brands
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: that are on our grocery store shelves have huge marketing budgets,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: huge teams behind it. So there's that, and then a
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: lot of people don't realize how expensive it is to
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: get into retail stores, Like we've had retailers reach out
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: out to us and be like, we want you on
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: our shelves, but then you find out that you have
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: to have this like commerce system back end thing, and
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: you have to pay for If your product is going
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: on their shelves, you have to pay for shelf space,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: You have to pay If they're going to like run
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: a promotion on your food product, you pay for that discount.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: You pay for everything. So a lot of food companies
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: that are small and grow too fast end up going
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: under because they can't. They end up, like years into it,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: they're not turning a profit. So we're kind of trying
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: to be like really mindful of how fast we expand.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: So right now we're just direct to consumer through our
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: website Superhermuffins dot com, but some big ideas for twenty
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: twenty six and are definitely hoping to roll out to
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: grocery stores and retailers.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: I want to get very specific about Superhero Muffins and
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: why this is what we're considering to be the Holy Gril, right,
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: So what is it about how this particular product sets
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: you up for the day that makes it great? And
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: also what can we learn from that foundationally for anyone
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: whether or not they're going to have this mix in
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: their cabinet.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of breakfasts, so I'm a big
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: fan of first breakfast and second breakfast for active women.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: So Superheromuffins feels that what should I eat as I'm
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: racing around and trying to get out the door for
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: a run. It gives you just the right amount of
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: balanced nutrition of both complex carbs and simple carbs, and
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: a little bit of protein and a little bit of
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: fat and something that's light and easy to digest before
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: you run out the door to your workout. Whether you're
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: getting up at six am and running by six thirty am,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: or if you're going to the gym or whatever you're doing,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: it just gives you that energy boost. It jumps up
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: starts your metabolism, it wakes up your digestion, and it
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: gets you out the door. So I'm really into educating
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: women on the importance of eating, not fasting, but eating
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: something small before you work out in the morning. You'll
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: train better because you won't feel like twenty minutes into
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: your workout that you're like absolutely starving or you have
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: zero energy. So the SuperH muffin mix is made with
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: nutrient dense ingredients, no added refined sugar, so it's sweetened
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: with real fruits and veggies, dehydrated fruits and veggies and
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: date powder, so made from whole ground dates and dates
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: are an amazing source of simple carbs for athletes. It's
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: really going to energize you, but not because dates also
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: have the fiber in there. You're not going to get
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: that sugar spike and blood sugar spike that you get
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: from refined white sugar. So I'm a big fan of dates.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: So we're using date powder in our superher muffin mix,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: and then dehydrated ground up fruits and veggies like the
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: apple cinnamon one has dehydrated apple and dehydrated carret pieces,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: and then almond flour and oats.
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: I'm a huge fan of oats.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: You could sit down and eat a bowl of oatmeal
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: and get the same energy benefits as a superhero muffin.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: But I find that, like as a busy working mom
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: trying to get my kids out the door by seven
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: twenty and like go for my run either before they
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: get out the door or as soon as they're off
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: to the bus, I don't have time to sit down
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: to a bowl of oatmeal that feels like so much
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: effort to eat in the morning. A superhero muffin I can,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: like I eat one every single morning, and I'm sitting
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: at this counter packing school lunches and eating it while
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: drinking coffee, and then I typically try to run. This morning,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: I ran with some neighbors at six forty five am,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: still a little bit dark, but I don't like to
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: run in total darkness. But as long as the sun's
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: coming up, I'm out there. So it just helps me
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: get out the door faster versus like the effort of
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: eating a bowl of oatmeal, and like before the New
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: York City Marathon, and I was like, I'm gonna eat
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: a bowl of oatmeal that did not appeal to me
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: at all, But I had packed my own superhero muffins
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: and I ate two of those before the marathon and
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: felt amazing the whole race.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: Why is this at every household? Seven twenty is like
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: the time it's growing up. I also had like, I
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: remember when I got my first job in New York City.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: To get to the train on time, when I was
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: living in Milford, Connecticut, I needed to leave by seven twenty.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like our schools. Luckily we're only five minutes from school,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: but the bus comes at seven twenty. School out here
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: starts so early seven forty five, so I'm like dragging
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: my kids out the door, handing them a superhero muffin
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: on their way out the door.
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: Everybody gets a superhero above it.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Most runners rely on. I have a lot of women
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: or men tell me I was eating like a bagel
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: before every run, but I always got a side stitch.
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: Like the typical foods of.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: Like eating a bagel or eating a English muffin with
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: peanut butter, like those can be hard to digest because
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: most bagels on grocery store shelves are made with a
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: lot of refined gluten. So even if you're not allergic
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: to gluten or you're not celiac, eating foods that have
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: all that refined gluten is really hard to digest because well,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: they add all these additives to store bought bagels because
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: that's what keeps them like soft and chewy for like
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: three weeks on store shelves without having to be refrigerated.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: So yeah, superhero muffins don't have any of that added
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: their gluten free and just whole food. Every ingredient can
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: pronounce and understand and know what it is.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Can we talk a little bit about white flour again
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: because you mentioned that before, is like something that maybe
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: I should be weary of, and I have been.
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: They're not superhero muffins, but making those like.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: Four ingredient bagels, and they've been on my back burner
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: for a while now. So is starting my day with
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: white flour in my bagel maybe not my bestmo.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: So white flour is a simple carb. It's processed the
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: same as sugar once it hits your digestion, so you're
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: basically it's sugar. I'm not completely again and sugar or carbs.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Like I eat pasta. I've tried the whole grain pastas
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: and my kids won't touch them, so I eat regular pasta,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: which is also made with white flour, and we buy
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: sour dough bread from a local bakery which also has
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: white flour in it.
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: But it's what you eat with it.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: So if you're having fiber in it to balance that
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: blood sugar spike and fat, So if you're eating it
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: with like a bagel with some almond butter and a
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: banana or blueberries or something, you get like the fiber
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: and the fat in there, so you're not getting like
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: the blood sugar spike on an empty stomach.
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: So basically I'm just gonna make the Superhero muffin mix
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: that is now in my kitchen and you'll be good.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: And then we have like I eat the regular Superhero
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: muffin mixed before my run. But we have versions on
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: our blog on our recipes on our website for like
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: a high protein muffin where you can make it with
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: instead of adding water, you make it with Greek yogurt
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: to increase the protein and that's really delicious.
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: For like a post run.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Recovery, some really big on like get in your carbs
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: before your workout and then follow up with a meal
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: that's balanced and has higher protein and good fiber from
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: like fruits and veggies.
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: I love that. I love that.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: I also think it's so relatable when you were talking
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: about how you feel as though you could hire probably
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: ten different roles to support you right now.
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: As someone who's also.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: Been building on her own for a while, I can
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: really relate to that. I also believe that someone hears
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: that and they think, okay, but what do you do? Like,
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: how do you manage it? How do you not get angry?
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: How do you move forward? What comes to mind when
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: I say all that to you.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: This is why I can't sleep past four thirty or
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: five am because I just wake up and I'm like,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: oh my gosh, my to do list is so long today,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Like I need to jump in before my kids wake up.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: So I haven't quite figured out the system behind that yet.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: I do hope that we can hire more help in
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: the near future. Yeah, I don't have a good answer
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: if someone else does, like I guess maybe some AI
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: tools could help me save time, but I haven't figured
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: that out yet either.
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: So sometimes I feel like the best thing, at least
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: for me, is to ask myself, like, what's within my
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: power to navigate within this situation?
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: So, yes, the overwhelm is gonna come and I'm gonna
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: feel it in so many ways. But then I just
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: ask myself, Okay, what can I do right now?
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: Or okay, like what can I do today?
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: And so by breaking it down into little doables or
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: smaller action items, then I'm able to like slowly chip
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: away at the overwhelm instead of letting it chip away
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: at me.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good point. I need to do
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: more of, just like planning out my whole week versus
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: like diving into each day thinking everything has to be
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: done that day.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: But this is in your nature. You're the person that
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: just dives in and says, we're going to figure it out.
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, the biggest challenge for me is I try
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: to be working mostly done working every day by two
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: thirty pm when my kids walk in the door from school.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: And then I've become soccer mom and dance mom. So
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: it's like I can work, but I can work in
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: very short bursts. Like a lot of people say it
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: takes them like twenty minutes to sit down and focus.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: Oh no way, Like I get five minutes here and there.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting in my car working while my daughter's at
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: her dance class. Like I'm like the very antisocial mom
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: at any kids activity that like doesn't chat with the
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: other moms because I'm usually like hustling back to my
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: house to get in like a tiny bit of work
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: before I go back to pick them up.
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: Or I'm working in my car.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot happening there. And oftentimes when there's
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: a lot going on, that's when the stress can really
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: impact us. I know you shared a lot about how
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: stress has impacted you over the years. I'm sure many
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: people listening to this can also relate to stress impacting
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: them dealing with digestion issues. What can we do if
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: this rings true for us, how can we combat the
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: effects that stress has on our digestion.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so my non negotiable is getting out for movement
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: every day. So starting my day with a run or
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: a yoga class is like my non negotiable. I think
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: why I'm so consistent with running. I started running at
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: twelve years old and I'm still love running at forty
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: four is I don't think about it as like a
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: physical benefit or weight benefit for me, It's one hundred
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: percent mental health. Like I feel so much better when
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: I'm outside at sunrise and in nature and start my
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: day with a morning run.
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: I don't run far or fast.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: Like my workouts are always less than an hour, so
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: like forty five minute run and then I start my
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: work day. So that's my like non negotiable for balancing
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: my stress levels. But then in terms of supporting digestion,
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: it's so important. If your body's in a constant cortisol
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: fight or flight mode, you're not going to digest, So
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: your body can't actually digest unless it's like resting. So
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: that's why my cookbook is called Eat Slow. So taking
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: the time to sit down and eat meals at the
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: table without your phone in front of you, not eating
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: like constantly. I'm guilty of eating my car but not
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: eating like full meals like while driving. Being aware that
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: if you walk in the door super stressed from your
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: day and you're like hustling to sit down to dinner
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: with your family, like just go for like a ten
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: minute walk that can really lower your cortisol levels, wake
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: up your digestion, and like reduce your stress before you
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: sit down to eat. You're gonna have a horrible stomach
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: ache if you eat when you're like super stressed. So
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: I'd rather do like five minutes of meditation or yoga
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: or go for a little walk if I've had like
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: a really stressful day before I sit down to a
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: big dinner.
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: Wow, that last tip is kind of mind blowing.
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, totally.
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: I mean so much of us have constant high quartersole
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: levels and then we're just not digesting or absorbing the
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: nutrition from our foods.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: Wow, I'm like, Okay, for the foreseeable future, before I
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: eat anything, maybe I should just do two minutes of
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: box breath and see.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like honestly or honestly, like if you can I
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: can tell when my cortisol levels are high, like right
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: before bed or something if I I try not to
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: like look at email, like right before bed, but if
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: I see something and then my work brain turns on.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: The thing that works is like movement. So do ten
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: push ups or twenty push ups to like move that
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: cortzo through your body. Like you can get rid of
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: so much stress by going for a walk or moving
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: or like not even going for a full run. You
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: could literally just like your neighbors will think you're crazy,
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: but just like a sprint down your street for two
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: minutes and then like you'll feel amazing because you're just
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: moving that quartzo.
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: Out of your body.
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, gotta do some quick sprints before bed the
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: next time.
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, Yeah, we're.
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: Going for a walk after dinner can be really good too, for.
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: Oh, I love I love a posting.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: I'm not good at it because it's so dark and
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: cold here right now this time of year in the summer.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: I love it, but it's so hard. I want to
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: be in my pj's at six pm. I don't want
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: to go for a walk.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: You and me, both, you me both Alice Before I
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: let you go. Today, I've got to ask you, in
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: the chaos that is starting this come from scratch and
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: building with your husband, have you taken a step back
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: and are you proud of yourself?
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: People who like people with my mentality that are like
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: always moving forward. It's so hard to I'm trying to
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: take more time to absorb like the emails I get
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: from people of telling me my cookbooks have changed their life,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: and take time to like read the letters and the
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: cards and the emails and the Instagram messages and like
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: really appreciate and absorb it.
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: But yes, I'm.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: Super proud of this career that I've chosen. And I've
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: seen the impact it's had on my daughter of her
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: watching me. She was super shy too, and now she
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: can get up in front of a microphone, in front
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: of dance on stage in front of hundreds of people,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: and she's eleven. So I've seen how much my career
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: has impacted her. I used to beat myself up a
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: lot over being like a working mom that couldn't be
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: volunteering at school, but it has resulted in my kids
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: being extremely independent and extremely confident. So I see them
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: watching me be passionate about my work and especially starting
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: the company. They've been there every step of the way,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: and they are have like these little entrepreneur brains that
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: have turned on in the process.
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: So I'm super proud of that.
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: It's so natural for us to pick ourselves apart for
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: the things that we feel like we should be doing. Now,
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: someone comes maybe to your Instagram page and they see
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: this New York Times bestselling cookbook author and now the
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: founder of this brand. But when you look in the
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: mirror at least, what is it that you see looking
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: back at you?
• 56:33
  Speaker 4: I see a mom honestly.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: First, first of all, like a mom who has a
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: level of care and passion that maybe is what drives
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: me to want to be a change maker. But number one,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: a mom is always what I see over like a
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: career woman or anything else.
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so special and clearly your passion for being
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: a mom is really coming through. And your daughter and
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: your son seeing you doing something that excites you. I
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: think it's such a valuable thing to witness and be
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: along for the ride on.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been quite the journey for our whole family,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: and we're really excited for the year ahead.
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: Well, right now, Elise, you have an opportunity to offer
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: yourself a piece of advice. Let's go back to when
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: you were working in that kitchen in Portland. You're stressing
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: out a little bit. It's impacting your digestion yet again,
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: and you're worried what did I do here? And is
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: it the right thing? Knowing what you know now, what.
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: Would you tell your younger self?
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: I would tell my younger self that everything happens for
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: a reason and will make sense someday in the future.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: So sometimes those lowest points of your life, whatever it is,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: the challenges that we all cross, will teach you the
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: biggest lessons. So your low points or your failures can
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: become your greatest success in life if you channel it
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: and take opportunities as they come to you and jump
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: into two new opportunities and do it without fear.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: Jump in and do it without fear at least. Coopeki
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: so happy that you were able to come sit down
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: with you today. For those that aren't following along with you,
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: just yet, give me the details?
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: Where are you online? Where can they find the muffins? Everything?
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: All right?
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: So I'm on Instagram at Alisco Pecky. My name is
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: hard to spell, So you can't spell that. You can
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: look for at run Fast, Eat Slow, and then Superhero Muffins.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: Our website is superhero Muffins dot com.
• 58:27
  Speaker 3: Superhero Muffins dot com.
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: I'm over at Emily a Body and at Hurdle Podcast
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: Another Hurdle Conquered.
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time