Understanding CBD: Fitness, Wellness, and Beyond

You blow my mind.

Hey, everybody, I'm Amy and this is the Be where youe Are Today podcast where we connect with fitness and nutrition professionals to help you wherever you are in your journey. Today I'm talking with Ryan Dills, co founder and managing partner of the Georgia Hemp Company and the Simpleaf wellness brand. And today we're talking about the world of cbd. What is it? What do we need to know about it, and can it be helpful in our fitness journeys? So Ryan and I have known each other for a long time. We've been friends for a long time. So I know you, but I would love for you to tell everybody else what who you are and what you do.

Hi, Amy. We have known each other a long time. So yeah, I'm Ryan Dills. I'm based in Atlanta from Georgia originally and we're both from the south. And so we're under the simpleafe wellness brand. We have simpleafe Sports cbd, which is what brought us together professionally. And so we started a wellness company about six years ago and it's taken us all different places and now we're starting to work with professional sports teams and different athletes and different fitness brands like yourself and. Yeah, that's who I am. And we used to live. I used to live out here, but now I'm based in the south and I try to get here when I can and here we are. So great. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, I'm super excited. I have been. We just announced I built will be working with Simply Sport CBD as one of your athletes. And I'm excited because it's something that I've been wanting to learn more about as I've been using it as well. I'm excited to talk more about it and get more information and spread that with our listeners as well. The first thing that we're going to do is a little get to know you game. It's just rapid fire questions so you can answer as quickly as possible. In fact, that's what's fun about it. Just say the first thing that comes to your mind. Okay. How tall are you?

6. 2.

What city do you call home?

Atlanta, Georgia.

What is your favorite exercise?

Oh, wow.

The hard one. I know.

No. Anything? Hiit Workouts are my favorite. Yes.

What's your favorite sports team?

Atlanta Braves.

What is your favorite muscle?

Shoulders.

Oh, minus the heart.

Boulder Shoulder.

Okay.

Wow.

What's Your favorite number?

8.

Why?

It's like infinity. Everything's connected. It never ends.

Aww. What's the next place you want to go for a vacation.

New Zealand.

Me too. Cats or dogs? Bingo is going to be real disappointed if you don't.

Oh, man. I'm going to get a lot of flack for this. Cats.

Ah, of course. What is your favorite way to unwind at the end of the day?

Just sit and stare off in the horizon and watch the sunset.

Number one question from our fans. Are you single?

I am single.

You heard it here first.

I was not aware of this segment.

I know I surprised you with that one with all of these questions. Right. So Ryan was talking about how I have a cheat sheet with my laptop here, but he just has to go with the flow. Good thing, this stuff, because this is what you do.

I'm embarrassed.

All right, so let's get into some questions about cbd. It's trendy, it's all over social media. It's something that we're hearing a lot about, but I think a lot of people really don't know what it is and how it can be helpful and is it right for me? So what is cbd?

That's a perfect first question. I think we started our company based, focused on education and awareness and I hope that translates. I think it does with a lot of our customers. So that's the biggest question. And people still don't know what it is for the most part. So CBD stands for cannabidiol and it's just a non psychoactive component in the hemp plant, in the cannabis plant that aids in recovery. Its main attribute is being anti inflammatory and also just helps the overall system operate more efficiently so your body can take care of health imbalances on its own instead of reaching for an external solution. So it feeds that system. We have receptors for a cbd and so yes, cannabidiol, non psychoactive will not get you high or make you impaired mentally. And. And it helps with recovery, which is big for people obviously, that live an active lifestyle or any athlete on any level. Yes.

Yeah. So I think you'd answer this, but I think probably one of the main questions that a lot of people have is what makes it different than products that have thc, which is the part of the plant that gets you high. Right?

Yeah. So thc, yeah, it's what we traditionally know as the one that impairs you. And it can be more of a body high or head high. And I like to say in this layman's terms, but CBD is actually treating the source of an inflammation or the source of the pain, whereas THC is changing your perception of the pain. So you don't feel the pain as much. But it's not really treating the inflammation as much as CBD would. It's just changing your perception of it, which help, which is relevant too for some cases. But from an athlete standpoint, from recovery, CBD has a lot of powerful qualities.

So what are the potential benefits from using cbd?

Not that you've aged any, but I've gotten a little bit older and I know Kurt has.

So just recall Ryan and I are Both in our 40s. Full disclaimer. But he is older than me.

That's just a couple days. So yeah, just recovery and just putting myself in the best position to still function and operate at that high level on anything active I'm doing, whether it's a walk in the woods or a 5K or a HIIT workout or one of your workouts. Right. So I can perform like I did 20 years ago and not be as sore and I can recover faster in a sustainable, healthy way without leaning on ibuprofen or something like that, which are great products but not meant for long term use. So it's just a better solution that's sustainable and to help me be the best version of myself, whether it's athletically or just normal day to day tying my shoes and getting out of bed, which you know, gets harder and harder if you don't do these kind of preventative measures.

Yeah. And I think a lot of people, myself included, like we're all looking as we age, we're still, we still look young, but, but many people are looking for a quote unquote natural solution versus like you said, there's a time and a place for medication. But when it comes to things like recovery, when it comes to things like inflammation or pain, and as you and I have talked about with this top, everybody responds to things differently. So it's trying things and trying things that you know that come from a legit source that you know and trust to see how that affects your body.

And your brain is something your body wants. Right. It's something natural to your system. And again, there's a lot of great products and different things out there. And this is another thing for your tool belt, if you will, to help you manage the day to day stresses, tangible and intangible and self created or just that by default. Yeah, yeah.

We know that the world of CBD is largely unregulated. So this is something that Vivian, our body fit dietitian and I talk about when we talk about supplements. Something we say is food first, supplement second and I think movement, mobility, that first and then obviously supplementing, like you said, your body's natural systems. But something that we tell people to look for is again, knowing the source and knowing that a lot of these companies are unregulated. There's not a lot of oversight. So you want to know what you're putting in or on your body. What do you tell people to look for or to avoid when they're considering a CBD product?

That's the biggest challenge right from a consumer standpoint. So as far as regulation on the consumer side, when it comes to most food and beverage of fda, and you just assume when I drink this can of coke or I eat this candy bar or I eat this lettuce, it is what I'm getting, what it says I'm getting the nutritional value and the ingredients. So parts of the process, farming to manufacturing, it has regulation and standards, but the consumer side does not. So number one thing is third party testing.

That's what we always say.

That's it. And that's easy to find. It's either on the company's websites, they have to be transparent about that. If they're not, then there's, there's issues there.

Right.

And just like with anything, the ingredients can't be pronounced or you start throwing other things in there, it's always a concern. But yeah, third party testing, a reputable company that's accessible, not just online, that you can't speak to somebody, those are big things. Sounds small, but in this industry we're not regulated on the consumer side. On the, on the face to face side, what are you getting what the label says? Are you not getting what the label says? And that's really the main thing we focus on, is third party testing by reputable companies and make sure that our manufacturers, our farmers, our distributors are all following those same protocols. And if they're not the gmp, all these different regulatory agencies that, that, that cater those parts of the process, if they don't have that, then we don't work with them. And it's not something I'd put in my body or my family's body, then it's not going in my customer's bodies. You'd be surprised.

And we see that with third party testing or when oversight groups will come in and look at even something as simple as protein powder where it might say it has 20 grams of protein and they test it, it only has three. And that's on a benign level. But on another level, again for safety standards, you want to make sure that you know where it's coming from, who it's coming from. And that's one of the reasons my audience knows that I don't with very many brands. And when I do, if and when I do, it's always something that I know that I use myself and that I trust.

No, you've done the due diligence for them and that's huge.

If I'm going to recommend something, it is or partner with a brand, it is because I trust it. Because, yeah, there's a lot out there. There's a lot out there that is unregulated and people are putting titles or names on things and you don't really know what you're getting or what you're putting in your body. That's good to know. So tell us about Simp Leaf. Can you tell us about the line?

Yeah. So SimpleAF was created for our wellness side of the company, wellness brand. And we're excited this year, we started last year, we've partnered with some kind of major professional sports teams like the Atlanta Braves and things like that. And to work with those kind of entities, they're heavily, you know, regulated and watched over by MLB and getting to the NBA and the hockey leagues and all that, those things. But NSF certified products protect athletes from taking anything that's prohibited or that's unsafe. And those leagues have recognized NSF sports certified products as safe for their athletes to take and that they don't have to worry about anything. So. And that includes the Olympics, you know, recognized inside NSF certified products. So we developed, we, we have some NSF certified products. And so that's how we have these relationships now with, you know, from folks like you to the Braves to these different sporting arenas, to other announcements we'll have, whether it's CrossFit athletes to lacrosse to whatever. And so it's our wellness side. If we want people that are active lifestyles, whether you're a professional athlete or you still live active lifestyle like I do, that you're taking things that you know what you're taking and that's why we developed it and we look to grow that more and more as the, as the years go on. We even have a surfer now and a professional fisherman, you know, so no matter what your walks of walk of life is, we wanted a solution that catered to all of that without having any concerns for any type of health risks.

Sure.

Yeah.

Great.

Yeah.

So when it comes to athletes or just in the fitness world in general, what are people usually looking to use? CBD for what would you say are the potential benefits? And as we talked about, everybody's different in how their body responds.

But yeah, so really when you, when you think about CBD and its recovery aspects and products that will aid in that and you think about things you've taken or done before in your life with a topical, be more focused on certain area just inflammation, whether it's like a back patch or something like that to taking, ingesting something internally and really just to address that inflammation. Because if you're sore or you, if you're an athlete, right, you stress your body more than the average person. And so sometimes recovery is a big thing. We got to rest, we got to, we got to be prepared to do it again the next day or two days later, depending on what our specialty is. So CBD just helps us get back to our normal baseline self quicker and in a more sustainable way, in a healthy way, so you can be at your best more consistently instead of having to wait. I used to, if I ran a 5k, I'd have to wait 3 days before I could even like really walk normal. But taking proper warmups and focus on mobility and approaching workouts in a more balanced way instead of how much can I bench and taking and having my health and diet fall in line with those aspects, CBD just goes right into that. From a natural alternative measure to fight your inflammation. Especially as you get older, your body just doesn't recover as quickly on its own as it used to. So CBD from an athlete, it just makes sense. So we want to get in that space not to sell cbd, but we have it for sale because that's what I use and what makes me operate at a high level. And I'm like, like you pointed out for no reason in the beginning, I'm in my 40s and. But I feel just as good as I did 20 years ago. And I think, I'm not just saying that. I think, I think a lot of people that are around me, work out with me or active with me in different activities that I would agree. It's, we want to share that message. We want to educate people, raise awareness, partner with people that kind of have the same mindset as far as trying to how can I help improve people's day to day lives of being so they can be the best versions of themselves no matter what level they are of fitness. It's not just something I take, it's a life. It's not a, it's not, it's not a short term choice. And It's a lifestyle choice and it goes, it's in alignment with that. Yeah.

When you mentioned running the 5k, were you talking about that time that I beat you in the 5K? Yeah, but I think we were in our 20s.

But that first lap at that time, do you remember the first 200 yards I was in first.

You took off, which is the problem.

I was in first place for a minute.

I mean, if we're being honest, Kurt beat us both. But we really.

There was a moment though when people like, oh, that guy is amazing. Then I threw up. Yeah. And that was a long time ago.

I beat you and Kurt beat me. And yes, we have a good picture.

That was unnecessary memory, but we had a good picture. We have a poster size picture and we look good. But I had pneumonia feel if you remember correctly.

Yeah. Anyway, just a little sidebar. I had to. You said it took me 5, 3 days to recover from a 5K. Anyway, so tell us what are some products, some simple products that you get excited about?

For me, I always keep a topical round and ingestible. It's something I do in my daily regimen. I stay very active and I'm. And I take that very seriously. Sometimes I don't have the lower back issues like I used to because I warm up better and I prepare better for these workouts. But I still keep something handy and case I do it gives me some relief if I do that. And I have a. I'm on. I have a lot of Delta sky miles as you may, may or may not know. But just sitting on a plane, right. Sitting in an environment where I can't just get up and move around and stretch. It's just regardless of how active I am or what my body type is, that's tough for anybody. So it helps give me the relief I need to get through those situations when it's a three or four hour flight because I go across the country a lot. So the products I'm excited about is just the basic, just CBD oil beside the low hanging fruit and what people are mostly familiar with and having it be within like a healthy oil, MCT oil. So I take that, take a top. I do use a backpack on occasion. Again mostly for those longer situations. A plane ride and then so and we saw NSF products. We have an oil that's been NSF certified. We're working on. We have a gummy that'll be out soon that also have some other immunity kind of fighting elements in it and then working on a pre workout as well. Gummy that's a healthy version of a pre workout, not just get you all jacked up in caffeine. Yeah. Whether it's B12s and things like that and taurines, we're in those process. NSF is a great organization. It's non governmental, but operates that way. There's a process involved and that's why there's not many products on the market currently.

Takes a while.

It takes a while and there's a lot of. They test everything. It's not just a casual process. So you got the product is clean and it's not concerning for people to take. And so we want to have different options. We got a topical in the works, we have a couple gummies and again we got the oil already. And that's why we're able to do, you know, these relationships and relationships like the Atlanta Braves and, and I'm not pushing that. Just saying it's a professional sports team that they don't go into things lightly. We have, we have the hockey team, we have the lacrosse team, and we have CrossFit athletes that are in the top 20 in the world. So they don'. Do that lightly. So they have a brand, they have a, an image, integrity, a character like you talked about earlier. But those things we take seriously in our lives. We joke a lot and we have a good time, but when we say something, we want it to mean something and not just something we did without doing our due diligence ourselves. And this is why it led me down this path. And it's really cool to have these kind of come together from a personal level to a professional level and help other people in their journey of improving their lives one step at a time.

Yeah. And something that we have said a lot through Body Fit by Amy, through our communities is we've done a couple athlete challenges and we say we're all athletes, right. And when we look at what athletes do, it's a combination of all the things. When it comes to taking care of your body, like you said, they don't take it lightly. They don't go to things lightly. So it's a combination of the strength training, of the mobility work, of the endurance, of the nutrition side, of the certainly on the medical side, they have doctors and sports trainers and physical therapists and other, like you said, alternative ways to support your body's systems. So I love that of just looking at it as like it's not one way or the other, it's never black and white, but ways that we can support our bodies just for Long term health and mobility, there are lots of ways to do that. And knowing that there's something that other athletes, beyond the everyday athlete, like you and me are doing, we know that's probably something we all should be looking at.

In that same thought. I think it brings home the point is like living the 80, 90, 100 years old doesn't mean that much to me unless I have a high quality of life. I'm able to take care of myself, myself as the best I can and have a high quality of life and still function and be. Do functional movements and be able to bend over and tie my shoe or pick up a niece and nephew or play with a cat or a dog outside. I regret that answer, but I don't. But I like big cats too. I like tigers anyways. To be able to do these things and not just watch it from the sidelines, no pun intended, but be able to like, I got great nieces and nephews, right. So be able to do things with them active outside or even hike and see things and travel. It takes to do that comfortably without being taken traditional medicines to get through it. It's very important to me and I just want to help educate and raise awareness of that and let people do what they want to do, but let them know there's an option that doesn't have to be the way it's always been.

Yeah. Yeah, Great. So, last question. Tell us, where are you in your fitness journey? Where are you today?

Much further along than your husband? No. It's funny how things change. We've known each other a long time and I've been heavily involved in CrossFit over the years and I don't regret any of that or doing kind of more heavier, intense things. And I still operate at a high level. I just, I like doing HIIT workouts, cross training, the stop and go type format. So I'm also doing cardio conditioning type things while I'm doing my strength stuff. And so I'm. It's all about functional movements, mobility. Yeah. Again, being able to always still lift my arm up above my head and touch my feet and by still maintaining a level of fitness that, that suits me. And so I'm not like trying to lose all this weight or I feel so feel like I'm strong as I ever was, but I'm not lifting heavy weights. I'm just doing things that make sense for living a healthy life outside of the gym. So it's more about just focusing more on mobility and again, outside the gym, fitness, nutrition and what am I putting in my body, what am I? Even the mental stress side, mental health, relationships I have around me, who's my tribe and what makes what your passion is, what are you working towards from a career standpoint, which is why I'm involved in hemp and cbd. So all those things play into a factor in your overall health and your just your overall happiness and well being. So it's not that I didn't focus on that before, but I really didn't. So focusing on in the gym doing more functional mobility type movements than outside the gym, focusing more on nutrition and the people you have in your life and the things you have in your life and the things you let take up your time just being more intentional. I wish I'd got there 20 years ago, but that's part of the journey and why you get there, right? So you live and learn and I look forward to the next 20 years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great. Now would be a great time to let everybody know that we do have a mobility series over on the YouTube channel, the Body Fit by Amy YouTube channel where I have partnered with Simply Sport CBD to take you through a series of short mobility workouts. They're all around 10 to 15 minutes. Ryan is in quite a few of them so we've really put his mobility to the test especially since we know that's something that you are working on and we're all we all should be working on and you and trying to improve. So make sure you check out the mobility Series sponsored by SimpleAF Sports CBD and thank you Ryan for being here. If you want more information on simpleafe Sports cbd, check out the links and info down in the description. Or if you want more information on Body Fit by Amy and everything that we do, it's all right there for you and we hope to see you back here soon. Thanks for joining everybody. Sam.