Ep. 22 Gut Health 2

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If stomach acid levels are low, bacteria can actually grow in the stomach. Whereas if acid levels were high, it wouldn't survive there. There'd be no bacteria able to survive in high acid levels.

Hello friends. You are listening to the All Things Good 4U podcast. I'm your host, Brian Bowen, founder of.

Integrative Health, Inc. And I'm Amy Christiansen, your co host and creator of Amy Christensen Health and Wellness Coaching.

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Good morning, Brian.

Good morning. How are you doing this morning?

Oh, I am great. How are you?

I'm doing great. Just making sure my Internet. I'm having some Internet troubles here, so hopefully it's not disruptive to this amazing conversation we're going to have today for our second episode on new Gut health and nutrition.

Yep, I hope so. Well, if we lose you, we'll keep rolling because we are going to have a lovely guest with us today.

Yes.

Yes. I'm very excited. You're gonna, you're gonna love her. I'm not gonna introduce her yet, but you're gonna love her. She is, she's amazing. And really, I think the more people we get involved in this conversation because even going from our first episode how many different things there are to dive through, it's such a overwhelming conversation and so much information out there. So I think it's gonna be fun just to, you know, you have amazing perspective and to get some other perspectives. I know you're super passionate about it and it's just kind of interesting and exciting to hear kind of where people come from with this and, you know, how we put this as a lifestyle.

You know, it's wonderful growing field, everybody. The field of health and nutrition and coaching and that kind of thing. It's, it's kind of like it's growing just because there's so many aspects to it, and it's kind of. It's kind of one of those things where you go to a doctor and you come away with it. Like, I work with a functional doctor and I work with his clients to help guide them along with the process that he sets up for them, because it can be overwhelming. I mean, it's endless information that's coming along, and we're always updating and learning new things. So the. The field of health and wellness in general is certainly growing and changing and morphing and becoming much more individual focused. And it's always fun to have another, you know, nutrition and health guru or enthusiast professional coming in and joining us so we can get in and talk about all the things that are good.

All things good for you. And which brings me to, again, just, you know, for those of you who are jumping in on this episode, go back and listen to previous episodes, because this is really coming from a holistic perspective about how everybody can transform and grow and become more in tune with their bodies and what their needs are and all the different stuff about health and wellness and challenge you to explore and have fun and be creative. So we're trying to cover a lot of topics, you know, certainly ones that we're passionate about, but. But also, you know, being as complete as possible. And so we're turning over every stone for you here.

Yes, we are turning over every stone.

Coming up in the future. And so just cut out for a second.

We'll try.

Not all.

You heard. Yeah, I'll try not to cut you off, but yeah, if you, if you phase out here, if you. I'll jump in and keep us rolling.

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Yeah, so on that note, we're gonna. We're just gonna keep chatting along with some gut health and nutrition information over the next or over a few podcasts. And today, do we want to bring in our. Our lovely guest?

Oh, is she. Is she available for us right now?

He is in the waiting room. Dun, dun, dun. All right. I am so excited. We have our lovely guest on today. Brian, you want an intro?

Yes. First of all, this is our second episode of our Gut Health and Nutrition. So if you didn't listen to the first one and you're jumping in on this, please go back and listen to the first one. We appreciate it and it'll bring the context together. But I'm super excited to have our guest on today. She is a bright and shiny star, and I mean that. And I can't tell you how much she's so adorable and loved by all. She's creative, she's smart. She's super passionate about health and wellness. She's been involved with health and wellness for over 13 years. She is a yoga instructor. She is a functional nutritionist, therapy practitioner. She's a co founder of Compass Fitness, Compass Wellness and Compass Online. She also produces fitness and yoga events and she recently did one for 5280 magazine. I mean, the list goes on and I'll let her tell you more, but I have to tell you, she makes you want to be a better person just being around her. Before we jumped on the podcast, I actually went and did 10 pull ups. I just felt like I, you know, I'm going to be on here, Jillian, so I got to like step my game up a little bit here. So. Jillian, Kevin, welcome and everybody, welcome Jillian Kenefani.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, you guys. I'm honored to be here and talk about all the things I'm so passionate about. I appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you. And did I say the last thing? I don't know why I always call you DJ Jillian. Just so you guys know, Jillian is also a DJ and she did one of the first silent yoga events I went to where you have headphones on and she's literally DJing. And she is amazing. So she brings that spark of energy everywhere she goes.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Yes, you did say it correct. My mom was a high school art teacher and when she would introduce herself, she'd say, My name is Mrs. Keaveny and it's like heaven with a K and a Y. So that was like her way of it's complicated. I get a lot of things. My name is very intimidating to look at. So you did a great job. You did a great job.

Thank you very much. Well, I would love just to jump in here. So we were kind of turning over in the pavement with gut Health nutrition. And again, it's so there's so much information out there and, and so many different perspectives as well. And so we kind of were pretty general on our first episode just discussing, you know, gut health and, and health and wellness and how like stress and sleep and lifestyle and all that stuff affects gut health. But I would love to hear from you kind of the history of where we've been with.

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Nutrition and kind of how it's evolved today from your knowledge and experience.

Yeah.

So I'm going to kind of loop around to that to finish. I feel like there's some things I want to start off by saying a little bit to kind of set the stage. So I think that in the world of nutrition and just like general awareness around health, I think that gut health and blood sugar regulation are kind of the two topics that are gaining attention from people and I think will be the next huge awarenesses when it comes to our overall health, which I think is so, so important and needed because metabolically and all of that, it's just all of it ties together with overall health. So I'm really excited that these two things are starting to come to the forefront more. A little bit of background in regards to my personal relationship with gut health is that my dad died of esophageal cancer when I was 16. He was 48. And for a really long time I just thought that he drank a lot, was super stressed, and that that happens. And then I think as I got older I realized like, wow, like, that's young. And I wanted more information and I just never felt like I could really grasp why he died so quickly. And so fast forward to the last like five years, I was really looking for a nutrition school, a program, something that had a more holistic lens. And throughout those years I narrowed in on the school that I ended up going to, which is called the Nutritional Therapy Association. And I had a few friends that I met over the years that did it and just had nothing but great things to say. So I started the program and within the first month of school, I realized what had really happened to my dad. I read a few books and we had a couple modules on digestion. And I, to be honest, was really angry. I was like, I can't believe people don't know this information. And I just wanted to get it out there so badly. So in regards to gut health and sort of some big awakenings that I had were around the idea that digestion is really a north to south process. Right. So it all begins in the brain actually, and then it travels down and if any part of it is messed up, all the other dominoes are going to fall. And so a couple of things I want to say about going back to your question of like, where have we been? I think as you both agree and have said, like, gut health has become a very confusing thing where like, we hone in on one certain aspect but we kind of ignore the rest of it. And I think that's where we get into trouble. So in regards to esophageal cancer, my dad, stomach acid, first phase of digestion, gut health, all of that. My biggest push when I teach my clients about this is like, it's the whole thing, right? So like we need to be in a parasympathetic state to properly digest. That means we're not in a sympathetic state, which is fight or flight mode. Which us as modern day humans, we exist pretty much all the time, but we've convinced ourselves that that's fine and that's the way that we just generally operate. But digestively and nervous system wise, our bodies are in that sympathetic fight or flight mode most of the time. And then we try to eat and then our body's like, wait, you're eating? You were just working out, you just were really stressed. Like, it doesn't really know that that's what it's supposed to do. So first phase of digestion starts in the brain, right? When we start thinking about food, our body starts producing stomach acid, it starts producing digestive enzymes in the gut, we start salivating, right? And then we start to chew the food. And when we properly chew it, it starts to break down the carbohydrates first. It starts to go down the esophagus and into the stomach. So when I talk to my clients about this first phase, I really emphasize of sitting down to eat. First of all, getting our body into that rest and digest mode, really important people are like, oh yeah, I just stand up and eat in the kitchen, blah, blah, blah. But really that is the first phase that the rest of the way is going to be kind of a shit show if it doesn't start there. So with the stomach acid thing, one of the biggest awarenesses that I had was around what happens between the esophagus and the stomach. Kind of going back to like ph scale and like, you know, middle school chemistry, high school chemistry. So my dad's esophagus was right on the esophageal sphincter. It's basically the flap in your esophagus that separates your esophagus from your stomach. And that's where his tumor was. And that point in the body is very, very important because the esophagus is a very alkaline state. So from your throat down to where your stomach is so that basically means that no acid should be there. Very alkaline, very high in the PH scale for going back to chemistry class. This flap, the esophageal sphincter, separates the esophagus, very alkaline, no acid, to the next thing, which is the stomach, which should be very high acid because that's where all of your food is broken down. So there's this, this little flap that separates no acid, high acid, okay? And we're relying on that flap to do its job properly. So in a really healthy gut, someone that has high amounts of stomach acid, low stress, is eating a really nutrient dense whole food diet, not a lot of processed, refined carbohydrates, good fiber, not a lot of alcohol, not a lot of sugar, is going to have a functioning esophageal sphincter. What happens in a functioning body is that the food comes down, the flap opens. Our bodies are so intuitive. It's so crazy, especially in the gut. It's insane. Food goes down, the flap shuts, it goes into the stomach. There's lots of stomach acid there. It's like high level battery acid, which is what we want. The food is properly broken down. It spends the appropriate amount of time before it moves on to the next sphincter that separates the stomach and the small intestines. So it doesn't hang out there too long, it kind of moves around. So that is like healthy digestion. What tends to happen for a lot of people in America, we tend to have low levels of stomach acid, which is not a good thing. And this is actually how people have acid reflux, heartburn, gerd, all of those things, which is what my dad lived with. So in a non functioning first phase of upper GI digestion, what tends to happen is we're rushing around, right? We're doing our jobs, we're super stressed, whatever. We try to like pop in a couple bites of food. We're not in that rest and digest state. So our stomach acid never got the message that, like, oh, we're going to be eating soon. So this, this next concept blew my mind. I was like, holy crap, this is what people need to know. So I want you guys both to think about a toilet bowl, like when you flush a toilet, okay? So that flap in the esophagus is just like the thing in the back of the toilet that tells the toilet to stop filling up with water. Okay? So what happens is when you flush the toilet, the water goes down in the tank and it slowly starts refill, right? And there's that Little flap at the top of the toilet that goes, oh, that's enough water. I'm going to shut now so it doesn't overflow. Okay. So that esophageal sphincter is doing the same thing. So when we have high levels of stomach acid in the stomach, that flap opens, the food goes down. High levels of stomach acid alert that flap to shut. So if that doesn't happen, that esophageal sphincter stays open and then all that stomach acid starts to go up into the esophagus and that's where we get heartburn. Gerd all acid reflux. Which my dad, I never remember a time where he didn't have a TUMS in his hand or in his mouth. Like he living off of Tums. And we have a lot of people that are having like priloseconds, like major acid inhibitors, when actually our body needs more. So again, we're treating the symptom, we're not treating the issue, which is we need more. So this was like, I was just like, holy crap. Like, how did we not know this? That really there's so many things you can do to build stomach acid, yet we're just again, treating the symptom and making things a lot worse. So those antacids, whether it's a TUMS to something like a prilosec, is basically telling the body to stop making the little stomach acid that it is.

And I always like to say it's like it just is gallbladder confusion and it's fine and understandable. We need our medications when we need it for certain situations. But just like many things, it becomes just a quick fix of a symptom rather than really addressing the root issues. And often just adding some acidics into your system will trigger the gallbladder to understand that there's a happy balance and a happy environment in the stomach and stop over or under producing.

Yeah. And there's so much you can do with like stress management and eating a whole food diet and all of that, like makes a huge, huge impact. And I think that we sometimes don't start there.

I love these imageries and the foundation you're laying. And I'm really curious, continuing south, can we. Can do you have some more for us? Continuing south. I love it.

Yeah. So again, in a healthy digestive state that food gets properly, you know, or broken down in the stomach, it starts to move into the small intestines, where that is the place where your body absorbs the most nutrients. Right. It's like it's probably broken down. It starts to absorb the vitamins and minerals, the nutrients, starts to convert those macronutrients into fuel, things like that, where digestion can kind of go awry in the small intestines is kind of a common. You know, a common term that some people hear is leaky gut, right? And people are like, well, what is actually leaky gut? So leaky gut basically means that the lining of your small intestines expands and contracts in a way that is not great. So it can. It becomes permeable. So that lining expands and the food particles that are not quite ready to get into the bloodstream, into the body, get through, basically get through the fence. And your body's like, oh, what is this foreign object? Like, I don't recognize this thing. And then it can start to attack itself, and then we have kind of an autoimmune response there. So leaky gut is also very much stimulated by stress. So someone has a very healthy gut, but they're. They're experiencing a lot of stress, whether that be emotional or toxic load exposure, whatever it is, can trigger this leaky gut response. So healthy form, it gets broken down, things start to absorb in the small intestines in a really great way. It moves into the large intestines, where the large intestines, medicine's job is basically to, like, say, okay, body, like, is there anything left of this food, this load that we can utilize before we, like, flush it out with water and then kind of get rid of it? So it's kind of the last phase of like, hey, what is there left here that we can utilize? So that's kind of the north, in a very general term, north to south process. And again, what gets in the way are high levels of stress, not enough fiber, high sugar, and refined carbohydrates. Those would be kind of like the three major issues that can come into play.

And people don't realize that even though it's a complex process and it does often take a little bit of time, everybody's a little bit different. And just adding in basic foods, like upping our fiber, Most people are not getting even half the amount of fiber that we should be getting. And fermented foods makes such a big difference and can make such an impact on your body. It doesn't have to be a fancy supplement. It can be. But really just starting off with the simple things, it seems like it's such a difficult topic to get people to understand that it really can be just as simple as adding a few healthy things into your diet. Every day.

Oh, you're 100% right. I didn't realize in doing this work, I call myself the adult vegetable pusher. Like, that I would be working on trying to get adults to eat vegetables. I was like, wow, I just think this would be a lot of part of my day. And here we are. A lot of people don't like adults. They might have one at dinner time. And I'm like, what about the rest of the day? Like, your body needs that fiber. And you're totally right, Amy. Like, one of the foods that I suggest to my clients that actually build stomach acid and prepares the body to properly digest is sauerkraut or kimchi. And it's really easy. You don't like at first, when I was in school and they're like, do this. I was like, well, I've only had it, like, on a brat. Like, where else am I gonna put this? But it really goes well with so many foods. I put it on, like, eggs and kale and, like, anything savory, basically. And it doesn't have to be a lot. You can start with like a tablespoon, you know, it doesn't have to be a ton.

It doesn't have to.

I love the spicy kimchi.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yum. Yes. And you can. It doesn't have to be like, what did we. Fermented red onions is a new thing that's going around, like, starting up on. In more traditional foods or putting that on there. And it's fantastic.

So it's so good.

And it's actually not that hard to even ferment pickle your own foods. Like, I remember years ago, my kids. Well, my ex husband, his family lived in Minnesota. And in Minnesota, asparagus grows natural, just wild and free on the side of the roads. And we used to. Yes, we used to go for hikes and go and come back with bushels of asparagus, and then we would pickle and ferment Asparagus. Right? Fresh from. Isn't that amazing? I'm jealous of that. But I don't have that anymore. So if you're in Minnesota and you go pick asparagus, please do so.

That's awesome. I've never heard that. How cool.

So it can be fun. It can be an interesting process to add in.

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What other types of things do you, I mean what kind of other things do you recommend? If there are some people who cannot handle eating fermented foods, so what, what kind of ways do you like to approach that?

So one thing that is another simple thing to do as far as like especially with, with the stomach acid thing. Another thing that decreases stomach acid is any carbonation. So anything carbonated, even sparkling water, whatever.

I'm drinking that right now. Is that bad for me?

Are you going to eat soon?

I ate a bit before I drink it.

Okay, good answer, Brian. So I tell my clients no carbonated things before a meal or during. Because again, carbonation suppresses the build of stomach acid which we want to be high, especially around mealtime. So in between meals, after meals, fine, but try to avoid it before. That was something that I, I do. And then for people that, that need help rebuilding stomach acid, or maybe you've been on Prilosec or something like that for a long time. Something you can naturally do is just a hydrochloric acid supplement plus a digestive enzyme like pepsin. Those two naturally build stomach acid. It's not one of those things. It's not like a medication where the body is like cool, you Gave me the thing. I don't have to do it on my own. It's not like that. It just encourages the body to produce more.

In reference to that. Oftentimes you take medication for something the body may be not doing well or enough of, and then it becomes more dependent on that supplement or medication. Yeah, yeah.

So I wonder what the sparkling water. Boom. If there's been an increase in acid.

Reflux, that would be an amazing, like, correlation to connect. I wonder the same thing. Oh, because, yeah, I mean, it's great. I'm like, people are drinking less soda. Fantastic. And like, as far. And that's great, you know, blood sugar wise. But like, as far as gut health goes, like, again, it's just like, you know, people get so into the minutia of, like, small intestines, large intestines, but, like, if you're not sitting down to eat, if your stomach acid is crap, like, those things actually don't matter because, like, it's already a mess to at the top.

Right.

So I would learn the same thing.

It's amazing how many people, like people that come into my office when I'm doing kind of a body check on them to find out how their systems are doing. And you get to digestion. A lot of times they're like, oh, yeah, I'm fine. And then you find out they're on, you know, later, you know, you can't just take fine. Later on, you find out they're on medications. It's okay. Under medications, they feel like it's not a problem, but even, you know, constipation and diarrhea. So continuing south, I would like to hear your perspective. In Chinese medicine, you know, we believe, like, poop has to have a certain quality and texture and quantity and all this stuff. So continuing south for you, like, how many bowel movements are healthy a day? And is there. Do you guys, from nutritional perspective, kind of look at the texture, color, all that good stuff?

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So I, when I work with clients, I have them fill out, like a food and mood journal. And it's like, not just like, oh, what did you eat? Neat. Cool. It's actually like, very specific. It tracks, like, what time you get up in the morning, what beverages you have, supplements, if there's movement, your mood, your energy level, and then also your poop. And there's kind of a scale, like a one to six, four being the optimal kind of middle ground. Like, one is like super hard and like pebbly and like six is like basically all liquid. And so I get very into that with my clients. And it's funny, some people just like don't fill it out. And I'm like, oh no, no, no, you're going to be filling this out. So I, I believe like one to two bowel movements a day is healthy. Like I live in the more of the one category. I also think like around the same time is a good sign. Like doesn't necessarily need to be that, but like your body when it loves routine. Right. We're like, we are like toddlers. We want to go to the same bed the same time, we like to eat around the same time. That's a really healthy thing for the body. So like if you can imagine that one through six scale kind of like I described like that middle four like kind of formed solid but not like hard to pass type of poop is like is, is what I believe and what I was taught is optimal.

Yep. Yeah. And watching feel like and, and, and I, I know a lot of times I grew up believing that you were supposed to have a bowel moving movement every time, you know, shortly after you eat. But that is not actually the case anymore. There's actually pretty, a lot of research that shows even just one elimination throughout the day is still okay as long as it is a healthy process. And like you said, it's around the same time. And you know, it's often correlated to high cortisol release too. So that tells you a little bit else about what's happening with your body if you are having a bowel movement at a certain particular time of the day. Just checking in on a good cortisol reaction.

Yes. And I will. And along those lines I will say too for me personally on the mornings I like, I own a gym, I teach fitness full time. I've kind of gotten my schedule to. I don't get up at 4:30 every day, but the days I do like on Fridays I teach at 6am and it's not always the case that I go on Friday mornings because it's like that stress, my body's like oh my God, you're up early, gotta go. And it just doesn't. And I think there's a very high correlation between again going back to that parasympathetic state. If you're like high school stress, high strung, that's not encouraging for elimination at all.

And another thing I think is important for people to realize is like you were saying Brian, is that people think no, I'm on medication. And so it's sedated these symptoms and that's Normal and I'm okay. Constant gas bloating, smelly gas and belching and upset bloated stomach. That's not normal. It's, it's, it's an. It's understandable that happens occasionally. But if that is your general life and it's a problem like constantly happening, it's a problem. There's something going on there and so many people think it's normal and they just live with it.

Yeah.

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I'll say something else on top of that. Amy. So in regards to the stomach acid thing, if stomach acid levels are low, your food actually sits in the stomach too long because the next sphincter, the next door, I would like to say where the food's going up to the next door to go into the small intestines. That door again, our bodies are super intuitive. That door stays shut. That food's up against. It's like, no, it's not ready yet. This food hasn't been broken down adequately because there isn't enough stomach acids, not enough digestive enzymes going on. So that food sits in the stomach longer than it should. So there's like some fermentation going on. There's some of the belching, things like that and even some bloating, some eventual constipation. And what can happen if stomach acid levels are low? Bacteria can actually grow in the stomach, whereas if acid levels were high, it wouldn't survive there. There'd be no bacteria able to survive in high acid level state. And so now we've got food sitting in there longer. We've got possible bacteria growing in the stomach and that again affecting it like gas floating, you know, both ends of the spectrum.

Yeah, exactly. So for when you're working with clients, I think Brian had asked this earlier too. I know that there's. Everybody's an individual, but is there something that you like that you approach if they are not taking a food as there a supplement base. I mean I think there's like, I can't even tell you how many bacterias there are that we can be eating. I think there's like 11 primary probiotics and a little nod to prebiotics. You also kind of need to balance Your prebiotics, which really is just again, can get that in just lots of fiber. But what, what do you like to kind of recommend? Do you have something that is a go to?

Yeah. So like, I, first of all, like, my personal belief is like really addressing the root cause. Like, if you just have a crap ton of stress, you're not eating well. Like, a pre and probiotic, honestly, is probably not going to do that much. So I am really in the camp of like looking at root cause very intensely first. And then if that has been addressed, I would say like looking at whole foods first. Right. Like, if dairy is an okay thing, like eating a very nutrient dense, like whole food, whole fat yogurt, I think is a great place or kefir to start as far as getting those into your system. I am not the expert, the expert on, on all any of those things, but I start there and then a pre and probiotic would be my next step with that.

And I, I don't know. I think we, I think Brian was cut off of our conversation. We were having some Internet troubles like you'd mentioned, but so we'll just dive in and be a little nutrition nerdy if you're good with that. It's like people don't Even know what 30 grams of fiber look like. I found like a lot of my clients when I first start working with them, we just do visual understanding of how, what this type of. And what, how much that food looks like an apple a day is no joke. Like, eating an apple is so good for you. Yeah, on a number of levels. So. But a fabulous way of getting your fiber years in. And do you have another food favorite that you like to recommend for fiber?

Yeah, I mean, I, I love kale so much and I think like, initially I was like, didn't know how to cook kale or prepare it to make it like, not taste terrible. And I think kale gets like a bad rap. But there's. I, first of all, with my clients, really try to encourage them to like, you know, five things at every meal. Fat, protein, fiber, and water. Like, and people are like, oh, how am I going to do a vegetable at breakfast? But like, I take a whole bushel of kale, wash it, strip it from the stem, cut it up, and I saute it for just a couple minutes and a little olive oil and salt and it's fantastic. First of all, it cooks down to where like you are eating that whole bushel of kale and like, what happened to it? But it gets a lot smaller just like Spinach does and like throw some like over easy eggs and like I use siete tortillas or whatever. Like, it's so good and so, I don't know, just satisfying it is. I'm a huge kale fan. I also make this really amazing cheesy kale salad, I call it, with a use nutritional yeast. So I basically like same thing. Wash it, strip it, massage it like with my hands to kind of get a little bit softer.

I think there's a song in there. What? I think there's a song in there. Wash it, rub it down.

And then I add nutritional yeast, a lot of it, and garlic and salt and pepper and some green onion. And it is like cheesy deliciousness. So it's so good. Yeah, I do that. And again, I just try to show my clients visually like this is what your plate can look like and like if you have like a majority vegetables and then you have those three other macronutrients on there in the form of whatever you choose. Of the three that are whole food based, like you're going to be pretty set, like less worrying about grams and measuring and all of that. But just, just again, going back to the visual like you said, I think.

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It is. It is. And I love putting, you know, spinach in my smoothies. I'm not a big huge kale fan in my smoothies because I do. I come from the park of. I think you should saute and your, your heavy greens need to be broken down on the cellulose wall just a little bit. And spinach, I freeze mine. I take those big bags from Costco and I throw it in the freezer. And so it already helps weaken and break down that cellulose wall. So when you throw it in your smoothie, it blends up really nice and your body's able to digest it and absorb it really well. So yeah, there's a couple of good ways to get our veggies in in the morning. Although I honestly would wake up and eat broccoli for breakfast if I. Oh, amazing.

Yeah, I think like opening our eyes to, to like foods throughout the day versus like I'm eating breakfast foods only I think is. And I too put cauliflower rice, like frozen cauliflower rice in my smoothies. I think it like makes it more dense without having to put so much fruit.

Yeah.

But I do cauliflower rice, frozen spinach. Same with you. A little bit of fruit, some fat, some protein, like, and it's again, you, like, you don't taste the cauliflower rice. It just kind of is a thickener, I would say.

Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic. So, yeah. And your. What else can we throw in there? Is there? I know we kind of wander on our podcast and I want to make sure that you've gotten your opportunity to kind of talk things through and when. Because you, you have a work, you have a studio, like, you have a gym, right?

Yeah. So I, I do a few things. So my business partners and I started Compass Fitness almost four years ago on South Broadway in Evans in Denver. And we opened like, it's like 7,000 square feet. We do group fitness classes and it's fantastic. And then a month before COVID perfect timing, we signed a lease for our second brick and mortar studio called Compass Wellness. It's two blocks north. And we focus on like low impact classes. We have cable machines versus climbers. We actually have an infrared sauna. We have an acupuncturist. We have a physical therapist there. It's a more of a wellness space. We also have a room where we film all of our Compass Online classes, which was birthed during the pandemic. So we have like a live class every day for Compass Online. And yeah, so that's like one tier of my existence. And then I, I also personal train a lot of clients and then I have nutrition one on one. And then I actually just released two online courses for nutrition in December. One is called Nutrition and Wellness 101. We go over gut health, stress management, all those same kind of a broad spectrum. And then I have a second course which is really my passion. I think gut health is number two. Number one passion for me is glucose management. So it's on stress, energy and the blood sugar connection and hormones and how to properly manage your glucose. And that was kind of my. Along with learning with my about my dad in school, I learned like my metabolic health wasn't as healthy as I thought it was. And so I wore a glucose monitor a few times with Levels health, which was very eye opening. And so those two nutrition courses was something I've worked on for the last year. And it feels so good to have that information accessible and out there. So that's kind of been my most recent push there.

That's awesome. I think so many good things came from the new way of approaching life for a couple of years there. And one of them is just that easy access and the ability to reach, reach so many more people. And we don't realize, you know, that's obviously, I think when we come from a functional medicine point or a whole self point, where are going to address those root causes like gut health and insulin resistance and balancing. When you get those things on track and going well, your hormones level and your weight comes off. And that's where I kind of have that same approach. Like, let's look on the actual health of your body and the aesthetics will come. And we don't realize how bad our metabolisms are. I mean, we went through such kooky things and some of them well intended. You know, the diet culture and the low fat culture and all of that coming out of like the 80s and 90s. And there's just a large portion of our society who are out there functioning on way too low calories, poor density of food, and their metabolism is just shot. It doesn't know what to do. It's, it's constantly in starvation survival mode. And as we get older, you know, it really damages the hormone production and insulin resistance like a constant. The whole snack movement kind of, you know, now you're constantly keeping your blood sugars up. So that's a whole nother podcast.

Oh my God, I could literally have me back. I could talk about glucose for two hours straight. I mean, it's like, it's insane. And people don't have any idea how bad their metabolic health is. Like, there's no trigger. I mean, unless. Weight is obviously one sign. But like, and it all has to do with stress. Like stress in general is what influences glucose levels, right? And then like it just is, it's such a mess. And we don't realize like how food and lifestyle like greatly affect that. And what's interesting about the hormone connection is that that all of the body's organs and systems that manage hormones are the same ones that manage glucose. And so if you spent your whole life super stressed, your glucose, your metabolic health are terrible. Your hormones are going to be the same thing. And it's usually around pre menopause women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, where their bodies are like, hey, we're putting up the white flag. Like you have some serious hormone stuff. And it really has to do with like poor glucose management, all of those, like those systems and those Organs are like, man, we're toast. Like, and now you want us to help you transition to this next phase. Your adrenals are, like, trying to pick up the roles and responsibilities of your ovaries, and they're like, man, you've trashed me. Like, now you're gonna give me more to do. No.

Yeah, we're dying and we're just gonna hold on to everything and. And make sure I don't die.

Exactly. So it just. Oh, my God. Yes. We have to talk about that another time.

Absolutely. It sounds like we come from definitely the same. Same approach. And that's exciting and I think it's so good because Brian and I had mentioned this just before you came on. It's like, it's a never ending field. You know, there's no competition. All we can do is support each other because we're actually coming to a place finally, I think, in society where health and nutrition and the way we approach it from a healthy lifestyle with nutrition and fitness being a daily thing. And then more and more people are having coaches, more and more people are having personal trainers and recognizing that doing it this way is a lot more effective and affordable than having to show up in a doctor's office or a surgical room later on.

Oh, 100%. 100%. Yep.

Yep. Yeah. So. Well, thank you. We did unfortunately lose Brian on the recording, but he wishes us well and he's very excited. I know you guys have a connection and he. I'm grateful that he invited you onto the show and thank you so much for your insight and how can people find you if they want to learn a little bit more about you and your endeavors?

Thank you. Yeah, so I have a website and it's just my first and last name. So that's on this podcast and it's just JillianKebny.com that's also. My Instagram is just my first and last name. Trying to keep it simple. But my website has everything that I do, has the gyms, my personal training, and also has my nutrition one on one. As well as my courses are hosted on Teachable. So you can also, like search through Teachable, but it's also on the website and that would be the easiest way to learn more about what I'm doing and also to reach out as well.

Fantastic. And It's Jillian with two Ls, and it's a J, J, I, L, L, I, A, N, and Keviny is K, E, A, V, E, N, Y, and that. And Then so it's JillianKevany.com Huh. And did you say it's Jillianilliankeveny.com is your email?

Yes. Correct. Huh. Jillian, Keviny.com is my email and there is a way to reach out through the website if that's too much.

Perfect. Perfect. All right, well, thank you so much for coming on and I know we all have to rush off to help other people live healthy and happy lives. So I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope you've enjoyed being on the podcast.

Thank you, Amy, so much. It was lovely.

All right, thanks, Jillian. Have a good one. All right, bye.

Bye.

Hey friends, thank you for tuning in to the All Things Good for you podcast. Please note, any information, experiences, ideas or opinions discussed today are for educational and thought provoking purposes only and not intended as medical advice. If anything piqued your curiosity, please consult with your doctor or personal medical professional. And if you're enjoying All Things Good for your podcast, hop on over and leave us a five star review so we can continue delving in and providing great content. Thanks again and we hope you are inspired to stay informed and responsible along your health and wellness journey.

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