Overcoming Health Issues and Surgery Living a Clean, Low Carb Lifestyle with Gigi Ashworth: 3

Well, welcome everybody! I am really excited to have one of my favorite Instagram people with me today, Gigi Ashworth, and she's making a face like she doesn't already know that, but you know you do.

I have to act shocked, right?

Right, of course. Well, welcome. Um, so Gigi, I read, um, if you're listening to this on audio, I've read your bio obviously, but can you kind of just share with people in your own words how you came to this way of eating and some of a little bit of your past. I think you have some really interesting things that you have done in the past and then leading up to some health issues that you had where you had to change the way that you ate.

Uh, do you have like 15 hours?

We have as long as you want.

I don't think people want to listen to that for that long, but anyway, so when I was around 14 years old, I actually went to boarding school for snowboarding. I used to competitively snowboard back in the day. Whoa. And now I'm like, oh, don't get me near the ski mountains because it's too cold. Anyways, um, so when I was doing that, I, I was exerting a lot of energy and I started to like really focus on how I was feeling and I wasn't feeling good. It's just, it's really funny how when you start to, you know, do a lot of physical activity, you take note of how your body feels even at a young age, 14, and you're like, there's something off, there's something not right here. I did physical activity beforehand, like I was on the track team and all that kind of stuff, but I don't know, I guess I just didn't really care or pay attention, or I was like too into like wanting to be popular. So I don't know. Anyways, when I was in boarding school, I was complaining to my mom about it, who actually has been doing the keto diet for the last 30 years or so. Yeah, she's been doing it for a long time. She's a doctor and she always wanted to be a nutritionist, but her father was like, no, you're gonna be an OB-GYN. So that's what she wound up doing. Anyways, so I was complaining to my mom and she sent me this book that didn't have a book jacket or anything on it, and she's like, "Hey, just read this book," and she took notes of things that I should really focus on in the margins of the book. And what I found, what I realize now is it was a diet about keto, or excuse me, it was a book about the ketogenic diet. And it told you to go low carb, to ditch the sugar, to not even eat many nuts, even though the keto diet's like, "Hey, you can eat nuts." But even eating nuts can affect your your energy levels and that sort of thing if you eat too many. And if you're on a weight loss journey and you're doing the ketogenic diet, eating too many nuts ain't gonna help. So anyway, I took a lot of notes from that book and I took it to heart and I started to feel better. And that led me to a high protein, high fat diet. And then, you know, whatever, boarding school happened and it closed down. There's a lot of different stories that happened in boarding school, but it closed down. So eventually I moved back home. And then I also was diagnosed with a lot of food allergies and intolerances during that time period, as well as celiac disease and ulcerative colitis and IBS and blah blah blah blah blah. Just because, you know, during the same time of me not feeling well, my mom and I thought it would be a good idea to like get some tests done and stuff like that. So eliminating foods that aggravate things for like celiac disease, sufferers and such like that really helped me because I have those things. Whoa. Um, so anyway, uh, when I was sort of eliminating food groups and all that kind of stuff, I did go to some extremes. I was anorexic for a little while, so that screwed me up a little bit. I had osteoporosis, blah blah blah, you know, that sort of thing. But I think what, what it comes down to and how I've made this lifestyle sustainable for me is I have found alternatives and I don't just, I wouldn't consider myself a ketogenic diet because, you know, I incorporate sweet potatoes and I'll, you know, I'll do certain things that aren't necessarily keto approved, but they're paleo or whatever. So I call my, my diet, if you will, like the Gigi approach, because I truly believe that everyone needs to, you know, educate themselves on on multiple different types of eating regimes and then be their own guinea pig to determine what works for them and what doesn't. I had a girl, she's one of my best friends, and she was vegan for the longest time. And then she was diagnosed with Sjögren's disease, which it's another autoimmune disease. And basically it was telling her she couldn't eat vegan anymore. And one day I'm like, girl, you just have to eat chicken and you have you have to eat other animal proteins and you have to see how that makes you feel. I understand that, you know, you may love the environment, animals, and all that kind of stuff, but for your health, you may need to do this. So she did, and now she does eat animal proteins because she can't eat the vegan lifestyle anymore because it's too grain-heavy and stuff like that, and grains just don't work for her. Um, You know, that being said, I have my master's in nutrition thanks to the fact that I've been so passionate and interested in how food affects the body. So when people come to me asking for advice or they want me to coach them through nutrition, whatever, uh, Nutrition 101 if you will, I always tell them that they need to write down their food like 3 to 4 days look at what they're eating, and then we can determine the best approach as to, you know, healthy swaps, or, you know, what works for them and what doesn't. Because I'm not necessarily going to tell them, hey, you got to cut out that rice, if that rice is what's giving them energy. Um, I'm going to simply tell them, you know, obviously I'm going to tell them sugar is just not okay for everybody. That's just a universal fact. Agreed. Um, and processed things, not so great either. But like If you're not eating so many packaged foods and you're eating a lot of things from the perimeter of the grocery store, I think that that is beneficial to one's health. So for me, I mean, I'm also not going to lie, how I've made this lifestyle sustainable for me is I'm— I have very, very strong willpower. I don't, I don't ever want sweets. I don't care. I have a salt tooth. I could literally eat the exact same thing every single day of my life, and I do. I mean, a lot of People like variety, so I'm just kind of weird in that respect. Um, but I, I literally could subsist on salmon and sweet potatoes and spinach every single day of my life. My husband thinks I'm psychotic, as do a lot of people, but it works for me and it's, it's safe and I know I can digest it easily and it won't necessarily cause any sort of issues. However, the food industry here in the United States is really messed up and, um, Sometimes I will eat, you know, salmon, sweet potatoes, and spinach and feel totally fine, and then a couple days later I'll eat the exact same thing and I'll feel terrible, which to me— oh weird, sorry, the heaters went on in the house and everything just like flew up from the air. Excuse me. But anyways, in my opinion, what that means is there's something funky going on with whatever chemicals they're putting on the spinach I'm eating or the sweet potatoes or whatever. So So that creeps me out a little, but overall I make it work for me and I try to help others, give them advice as to, you know, what to do too if they want it. Never force anyone to do anything they don't want to do, but if they want advice, I'm here.

And you're very good and you're very generous about your time with all that stuff. And there's so many things that you said there that we align so well on, which is probably one of the reasons I've enjoyed following your account for so long. But, um, You know, even last night I was doing a live cook-along and, and, you know, we were talking about, um, I did a cheesesteak in a bowl basically. And so it was like some onions and peppers and I'm like, you know, some people will try to tell you like, oh, that's too many onions and peppers, like for, you know, to be strict keto or whatever. And it's like, uh, meanwhile, nobody ever got fat from eating vegetables, right?

So thank you. Yeah, I feel like I don't— I mean, I've been doing this lifestyle for a good 17 years and I don't count macros or anything like that.

Plus I think numbers drive me crazy.

And like it just reminds me of when I was anorexic, I'd always weigh myself and I'm like, you are not defined by numbers. So for me, I don't really count macros. And like, if I'm going to have, you know, peppers and onions, I'm going to have peppers and onions. Like I got Mexican food the other day and yeah, it was fajitas with peppers and onions and girl wolfed those down and didn't give a shit.

Yeah.

They're healthy.

Well, and I can just about guarantee you, since you've been doing this lifestyle for so long and you're extremely active— and we can talk a little bit about some of your workout stuff too, maybe— but, um, I would almost guarantee you were 100% still in ketosis after that meal. I mean, people have this weird idea, I think, of what the keto diet is, or, or that it's super restrictive. And in some ways, you know, it is if you're truly trying to be in ketosis for, for example, like for your autoimmune disorders, or people that are treating other things like depression or anxiety. Maybe you need to be a little more on the strict side to get those more therapeutic levels. But for most people, and especially for people, um, that are trying to manage diabetes or they just want to lose some weight or whatever, if they want to make this sustainable, you know, trying to be, you know, weighing some peppers and onions every time you eat is just absolutely ridiculous. So I'm glad that you brought that point up because, you know, you have been doing it for quite a long time. I'm going on 5 years now. I mean, there's plenty of things that I would probably never eat again, but there's also some things that's like, hey, if I just have a random craving and I don't have any digestive issues like you do, thankfully, um, I'll have whatever it is I'm gonna have, you know. And it's like, that's what makes it easy to do long term.

Yes, that's, that's the attitude and approach to take, I personally think, too. Um, I think like, hey, there's some Brussels sprouts over there, I'm gonna eat those. They may be a little higher in carbs, but they're Brussels sprouts and they're delicious. So it's not something I'm necessarily going to eat every single day because, well, if you're real, Brussels sprouts in my digestive tract, not real good time. Um, I do love my husband a little bit, but you know, as you said, if you're craving it and you want it and you know it's still categorized as healthy, like why not?

Totally agree. So to back to your workout stuff, so you are pretty intense with your workouts and I think one time you told me like, I'm just gonna pretend I'm gonna be beauty competition even though I'm, I'm not. Um, so how did you get— I mean, obviously you've been very active with sports and stuff through your whole life. Is working out now just sort of an extension of that, or do you have like some goals around— for example, you mentioned that you might have had osteopenia or osteoporosis before. Through eating tons of salmon bones and through doing this weight-bearing activity, have you seen any improvements in that situation, for example? And is that, you know, maybe one of the reasons you do that? I don't, I don't know any of the answers here, but I'm just the one asking the questions.

Oh, I mean, you're, you're sort of dead that it's just more of an extension to my active lifestyle from the past. I was raised in a family who was very active. They're all very active. Every single morning they all either go hiking or do something in the gym for 2 hours every day, and that's what I do as well. I am the type of person that likes to work out indoors. I don't know, I like to have a time limit on things and I like to see visuals. I've always hated going hiking with my parents because they just like keep on walking and I'm like, "When are we stopping?" Oh, at that like tree over there. Yeah, which one? Anyways, they love hiking. They go every day. My sister works out every day, my brother too. So it's really just, it's how I was raised. That activity is extremely important. And on top of that, like I physically feel so much better when I'm done working out. It's like my morning cup of 10 cups of coffee, excuse me, because it gives me lots of energy. And it makes me feel better and lighter on my feet and focused and calm. Like, I, I praise myself for being very relaxed and cool, calm, and collected in situations and not really stressing out or sweating the small stuff. And I truly believe it's because I work out every single day. Now, obviously, I don't necessarily recommend people work out 2 hours a day every day like I do. I'm just crazy. Um, but that's what works for me. And again, as I said, everyone's their own guinea pig. You know, a 10-minute walk outside is what makes you feel light on your feet and ready to go, then that's amazing. But if you need that, that 2 hours of extreme strenuous exercise where you're sweating bullets like I usually do every morning, um, then yeah, go for it. As long as it doesn't impact your health negatively, I say there's absolutely nothing wrong with working out as long as you want. And I, I am a very active person. I wear this ring, actually, it's called an Oura Ring, and it counts my steps. It actually tracks sleep and my readiness and all this kind of stuff. So this actually makes it a little more fun, and I just like flicked you off, but it makes it a little more fun too because I'm always kind of like trying to beat myself from the day before. So, um, I mean, I don't know if people care about step counts or whatever, but usually they recommend around 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day, and on average people get maybe like 3,000 to 5,000, which is kind of sad. But you know, at the same time, everyone has like an office job, so they're just kind of sitting at their desk all day. Which, by the way, when I'm working on my computer, I stand because it helps your back, or at least mine. Um, but for me, I get around 18,000 to 20,000 steps a day because I just can't stop moving.

I'm actually kind of surprised that you don't have a treadmill desk.

Oh, I've wanted one. I do have it too, so bad downstairs in the exercise room, but my treadmill is not underneath it. And also I keep itching my nose because it randomly decides to like run right now and I don't have tissues and I don't do any sort of drugs, guys.

Oh, funny. Um, the one thing I did wanna go back to you that you kind of glossed over a little bit and you don't have to go into super detail, but, um, as far as your Crohn's, colitis, all those autoimmune stuff, you did end up having to have surgery at one point. So does that continue to impact your health now, or is— are things more stabilized? Like, I know you had to go to that one extreme because I, I'm, I'm not sure what the episode was or what they found. Um, but you know, how does that impact you now basically? And, and did it help, I guess?

Um, you know, after I had this surgery, it was called SIBO volvulus. Um, I had it when I was 21, so this was after I was diagnosed with colitis and IBS and ulcer and all that kind of stuff. This just randomly moved, that kind of happened, situation like I was feeling pretty good. I even remember I was in college and I was walking home from my advisor meeting or whatever and I was like, sweet, I only have like 2 more classes to take before I graduate. And I called my mom and I was super pumped. And then I remember that night I had lamb and eggplant and like, I can't look at lamb or eggplant ever again because that was my last meal before this situation occurred. And steeple volvulus, if you don't know, is when your large intestine— there's like an obstruction, it twists into a knot and it cannot untie. So they have to go in and do surgery. I mean, they actually did give me the suggestion of, hey, we can untwist it, but we can't guarantee that this won't happen to you again in a week. And I'm like, ah, we're not gonna come back here in a week, no. Or they could take out the large intestine, so that's what they did. Initially, there were a lot of complications and problems for me, like I had to adjust, and they recommended I use Miralax, and then I'm the type of person who's like totally all or nothing, so I went to the extremes and used so much Miralax, like literally 8 scoops a day every day, like I was addicted. Because, you know, your body gets used to that one scoop, so you're like, okay, I gotta do two, now I gotta do three, now I gotta do four. And I was putting it in like a smoothie to make like a nice, fun, delicious ice cream consistency type thing, so it was actually really delicious. But it really messed me up. Like, that stuff is toxic. I actually wrote a blog post and a YouTube video about it.. And if I didn't meet my husband, I probably would still be using it now, and it probably would have caused 50 million more problems. But, um, Miralax, basically, you know, obviously it's a laxative, and it basically would like lock me in my apartment. And after 6 PM, like, I did not have a social life after 6 PM because I'm like, okay, I'm gonna take the Miralax and I'm gonna be like on the toilet all night. When I met my husband, you know, Being locked in your apartment after 6 PM ain't gonna fly when you're like trying to date someone, you guys know that. So it really helped me step back from it. And then there was one night where he and I were not hanging out, he was in some sort of acting class, and I took Miralax and it just didn't work. And I was on the floor in so much pain. Basically experiencing the exact same pain that I experienced with my fecal globulus, to the point that I called him. I have a very high pain tolerance, and I don't like to bother anybody when I'm, you know, suffering or anything like that. But I called him in his acting class, and I said, you have to come get me, and we have to go to the hospital. And after that evening, I totally stopped Mirelax. I said, I can't do this anymore. I'm killing myself. For someone who advocate such a healthy lifestyle, I'm killing myself in this other way, and that's not, not healthy, obviously. So I stopped it completely, and then I let my body adjust and train itself to eliminate, if you will. It took some time, but you know, you gotta just deal with it, and you have to, you know, keep on believing that your body can regulate itself because It can, just like, you know, everyone's like, oh my God, I need to detox my liver. No, you don't, because your liver detoxes itself as long as you eat a healthy lifestyle. So that took a little while, but when I first met my husband, I literally said to him, hey, FYI, I have so many digestive issues that if you can't handle that, you should not talk to me right now. We should never see each other. We should just stop this right now. But he kept talking, so here we are. So clearly he can handle it. Handle it. Um, so yeah, I feel like anyone who suffers from these types of issues and they're in the dating world or what have you, you have to own them. You have to be almost proud of them in a way, in a way, and just be very open about it and realize, you know, some people aren't going to be able to handle it, and that's fine. Those people don't need to be in your life. But you need to be— you need to be open, as I said, because otherwise you're gonna cause more stress on yourself, and stress is really not good for your digestion either.

Yeah, and that's, you know, that's one reason I think it's so great that you are so open and share about this on social media, is because I'm sure you're helping, you know, countless people that have had some digestive issues or had, you know, didn't know what was going on with them and maybe didn't even know that, you know, it's so fortunate for you that your mom was not only a doctor but that she had already been eating keto and put two and two together that that could actually help your autoimmune. There are still plenty of doctors out there today that know nothing about this, and yet we're out here without, you know, without medical degrees, but we're trying to spread the good word about like how having proper nutrition can really, you know, not only help you lose weight, which is what a lot of people are focused on, but just really function optimally. And that's kind of where I am in my thing, is, you know,— I initially came to it because I was at a time in my life where I was super stressed out, not sleeping well, all these things, and realized like something's got to change. And, you know, was lucky enough to stumble upon some information that led me down the path of going low carb and then finally keto. Um, but it was never a doctor or anything like that. It was something that I found on the internet or on social media. So the fact that, you know, you share that so openly, I think, is really a service to us all, quite honestly.

No, and it's, it's funny that you say that because when I got my master's in nutrition, they were teaching the old-school approach. They were teaching that, the food pyramid and all that kind of bullshit. And I got in a lot of fights with my professor, and I was like, this is not correct. But in order to pass it, you kind of just have to like go with the flow. But it just makes me sad. So anyone who has their, you know, nutrition degree or whatever, I look at it a little wary because they're teaching such old information, and there's been so much more documented research that's been published as of late and in the last 10 years that still isn't used in schools because these schools are being funded by, say, the Grain Council or whatever, right? So they, they just feel that they need to bow down to those who are paying for their whatever. And it makes me really sad. That being said, there are also, you know, online courses for keto educating, whatever they are, but like, oh, you could be a keto educator or whatever it is, and they're kind of scammy too because, you know, you read the people who are selling these courses and they don't have any sort of nutrition background. And I understand that a lot of people just, you know, learn through experience and stuff, but I don't know, it's just, it's very hard to get good information these days because people aren't properly educated. But at the same time, like, where should they be properly educated? Because everybody has a different experience. And, you know, the only places that can actually give you legitimate information is Nutrition periodicals and journals that have done blind controlled studies and stuff like that. But even then, when articles like are published on Yahoo News or CNN or whatever, they don't know how to read those periodicals and journals, right? So they're literally only reading the headline, and the headline may come off weird, but in the whole— if you dig into like the meat and potatoes of the whole thing, it's totally different from what the title of the article is, and they just confuse everybody. So that was probably very confusing for everyone to listen to. So it's just, I think my overall thing is you really have to read between the lines, and you cannot trust everything you read. You cannot.

No, and that is one of my pet peeves that you mentioned, because I also went to graduate school for psychology. But as part of that, since you, you did the same thing, I'm sure you go through research design, you go through, you know, how you're writing up things to submit as part of your master's degree or PhD eventually, obviously you have to write and submit to journals. And you're right, the Yahoo News, they'll take this headline and then I'll dig into this, I'll read the study, I'll go to PubMed or I'll go find it and I'll actually read the study and I'm like, they didn't even— this is not even what it said. People read the headline and they say, oh, keto is the worst diet, or then it'll be, you know, eggs are bad for you, eggs are good for you. I mean, it's, it's always something like that. And the people, to your point, like they're there are some very good journalists that do write in the nutrition space. For example, Gary Taubes, Nina Teicholz, that have done these huge exposés that turned into these books that have been, you know, like so influential in our little community. But in general, most journalists, they don't know how to read a study and they just like look at one line or they say, they make it say what the kind of norm is, or, you know, like saturated fat is still being villainized.

Headlines, they want clicks. Yeah, that's their actor.

Totally clickbait.

Yeah.

Well, since we both have websites, we can appreciate that, right? Speaking of that, we did—

You know, clickbait inside. I have clickbait news and information coming tomorrow, so FYI.

Oh, nice.

Just gonna throw that out there.

Cool. So speaking of that, you do have a website called Gigi Eats Celebrities, right? And I'm just curious if you can tell people— so there are a lot of recipes and cool videos on there. But if you could maybe tell people why you decided to start that site and then how it got a little bit more food-focused over time.

Yeah. Okay. So Gigi Eats Celebrities is a play on words because when I first started this website a long time ago, it was when I first moved to LA and I was making fun of diet and fitness trends and celebrities. So eats is a play on words for like making fun of celebrities. Um, uh, back when I moved to LA, like these fad diets, like the cabbage soup diet or the egg white diet or whatever it was. That these celebrities were doing was like everywhere. It was literally splashed on all these magazine headlines, and I just thought they were the stupidest things I've ever seen. So I wanted to debunk these myths of what helps you lose weight. So I made these little spunky videos, and they were all produced nicely and filmed and blah blah blah. Anyways, I shot those videos. I think we had like 12 episodes. And the whole reason why I started making YouTube videos and I started my blog was because I wanted to be an entertainment reporter, and I was told by all my contacts in the field that I needed an online presence so people could Google my name and be like, okay, that's what Gigi is all about. Um, so that's how I started doing all my videos, and then it got me those, uh, those journalist jobs where I was online reporter, and I went to a whole bunch of movie junkets and premieres, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, that was my old life. Um, but when I was doing it, I really realized I do not give any shits about celebrities. I really don't care, especially the celebrities of today, which are like winners of Big Brother and The Bachelor and shit like that. And I'm like, clearly the only reason why you are on those shows is because you want your Instagram following to grow and you want to get a big paycheck afterward by breaking up with this person, getting the fans to appreciate you and your story, and then you can get some sort of TV hosting job. I know, I know it because I was on The Bachelor and the sole reason why I went on The Bachelor is because I was like, cool, maybe, maybe this will get me a hosting job afterwards. That being said, after 2 episodes I quit because I was like, this I can't do this. I hate women. No. Um, so anyway, back to my blog. I realized I didn't really like celebrities, and people were starting to be interested in who the face behind the blog was, aka who I was. So then I started doing this spin-off where I was just talking about low-carb keto products, because back then keto wasn't even really a thing.

I—

this was like 8 years ago. Um, so I was showcasing these like funky products that people didn't really know. And then I started to talk more about me and my lifestyle and my complications, and people really attached to that versus the celebrity lifestyle bullshit, because I'm more like, I'm touchable. That doesn't make really any sense, but like, I'm just more relatable. That's the word I need to use. I'm more relatable and I'm open and I have conversations with every single person that comes to my blog or my Instagram page or YouTube or whatever because I love to talk, obviously.

Um, I never knew that about you.

Oh my God, I know. Anyways, uh, so I literally talk to everybody and I think that people appreciate that because, you know, I get these comments a lot where they're like, oh my God, thank you so much for like messaging me back, I can't believe— like, I don't like That's weird. Like, I appreciate that comment, but at the same time, I'm like, who would ignore you if it's like a simple question? I just don't understand people who would do that. Um, that being said, you know, whatever. Um, so again, people thought I was more relatable, so then I just, you know, opened my book and just let it out and let everybody know literally everything about me. I really don't even think I have Well, I do have a couple secrets, but I am revealing them this week. But aside from that, like, once I reveal those secrets, like, that's it. You guys know already.

Well, you're probably gonna say no, but I've gotta try this because you know this won't publish for like, I don't know, at least 3 weeks maybe. Is there anything you want to like give more of a hint to knowing that it won't be out there until you've already announced it, or do you want to just keep it super, super, super on lockdown. Well, put you on the spot.

I'm just gonna publish in a week or two or whatever. I'm pregnant. Oh my God!

Oh my God, Judy!

And that's— so I've been a little—

I promise it's on lockdown. This will not go anywhere until you have—

because I can't keep it a secret anymore because I can't do Instagram right now because I hate food. Like, I hate salmon right now, which is which is really sad.

I was wondering, like, your last few meals, like, I'm like, what is she doing? I'm like, I have never seen you eat this much things that are not salmon.

I know, I've gotten so many messages from people being like, where's the salmon? What's going on? Are you sick? And my response is always, oh, I'm just doing an experiment, because like, I don't know what else to say, but I literally cannot look at salmon, or I can't cook it or something. Because I did buy it from Whole Foods, like, pre-made with no skin on it, because skin is creeping me out right now too, which, again, psycho for me to say. Um, but I, I just can't. It's like, literally me saying that word makes me want to dry heave right now. So I haven't been feeling good at all, so I've been like hiding from my Instagram stories. But as I just said, I'm such an open book that me not telling this secret is like killing me inside. Because even though I'm super like early, like I'm only 7 and a half weeks pregnant, and usually you're supposed to tell people around 12 or whatever, I said to myself, okay, once I go to the OB-GYN, I see the heartbeat, I see the baby, whatever, then I'll fucking tell. So I went yesterday, saw the baby, saw the heartbeat, and I'm like, okay, we're gonna do this because I want everybody who follows me to come along this journey with me as long as I— as long as we can. So like, 7 and a half weeks pregnant, cool. We got a lot more weeks to go, guys.

That's for sure.

So like, I even thought about doing like a pregnancy journal on TikTok and stuff like that, and I'll probably start doing that like tomorrow or whatever. And I actually created some videos, some Instagram stories when I was super sick on the couch and stuff like that. And I'm like, I'll just post these when I actually announce announce it because I want people to see the real. And so often people see all this fake or covered up bullshit on social media that I'm not about. And I'm known for being open and honest and a real person. So that's why I want— I want to talk about this like now. So that's one of my secrets. I mean, other ones I have like book and all this kind of stuff, but I, I'm gonna write that book I don't know if I'm gonna self-publish it, but I'm gonna find publishers and stuff. I don't have a publisher with it right now, but it is salmon, a salmon book. Oh, that's salmon. And there's like 6 different types of salmon and where you can get them, and then there's gonna be recipes. And it's also gonna be a little on the raunchy side because, you know, sex, your mouth. When I'm not pregnant, salmon's delicious and hot. But I have zero motivation to write that book right now because I just do not feel good.

Yeah.

Um, so that is why I didn't wanna do the Skype the other day, cause I was literally on the couch dying. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

Well, glad you're feeling better today. Um, any final things that we didn't talk about? I think you did such a wonderful job, or just our conversation about how making it sustainable. Any other final, like, tips or tricks or, you know, questions that you just keep hearing from people over and over again about eating this way that you can just shed some extra wisdom on?

Well, I think that really quick, we could sum it up with clean keto and why we think that's really important because, you know, there's the ketogenic diet and then under the ketogenic diet there's like dirty lazy keto and then there's clean keto. And a lot of people do this dirty lazy keto because they are just transitioning into this lifestyle and they're— they miss their fast food and all this crap. So they're like, "Ooh, let me just take the bun off of this and I'll be good to go." But the problem with that is you're missing the nutrients that the keto diet provides to you. So if you're ditching that bun, well, from a fast food restaurant, there's probably not gonna be any vegetables on there to give you any sort of vitamins and minerals, and that meat from that restaurant is probably injected with so many hormones, it's disgusting. That cheese, probably not actually cheese. And you're also— it's just, it's lazy. It's— and you're showcasing how uneducated people are in the keto space. And I'm not saying to not do this at all. Like, if you need that once a week or once a month, like, okay. But your diet should really consist of quality ingredients. Like, you've got to go to the grocery store. You've got to get that free-range meat, that chicken, those eggs, the fish. And you know, I personally recommend if you're gonna have dairy, grass-fed and finished butter and cream and stuff like that. Um, and then of course you need to have some vegetables in there. I mean, those vitamins and minerals. Otherwise you need to supplement with a multivitamin. If you want to do carnivore, go for it. If that's what your body feels good with, go for it. But you do need a multivitamin. And you really just need to pay attention to labels, and you should not rely on these packaged goodies that literally everyone on Instagram always posts. Oh, this candy, oh, this baked food, oh, all this bullshit. I'm sorry, those things are not gonna help if you are on a keto diet for weight loss.

I totally agree.

Yeah, you're gonna be hungry after you eat that little muffin, and you're gonna want to eat more and more and more. And at the same time, like, almond flour and coconut flour, they're very, very calorically dense. And at the end of the day, calories in versus calories out— yes, the type of calorie makes a difference, something like that. But if you're trying to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you ingest. And it's— so eating keto breads and keto pasta and keto baked goods all the time, every day, because it just says keto on the package, ain't healthy, sort of.

Yeah, that's, I mean, that's similar to what, when I talk to people about it, I mean, I think those kinds of foods do help people transition when they're still not sure if they can give up sweets totally or whatever, you know, but eventually I think you really, I try to get people to think of it from less of a weight loss perspective because that will happen, if you really start fueling your body with quality food. And you'll start to get in touch with your hunger signals again, and you'll start feeling what it's like to feel satisfied. And like, when you don't have all this garbage food that they've engineered basically to mess with your brain, because they put the right amount of fat, salt, and carbs together to make something so irresistible that people can't quite literally stop eating it because it's affecting your brain, you know. So I think sometimes in the beginning people might need those to transition, but I'm with you. I'm just really focused on eating as clean as possible. And yes, sometimes it might be a little pricier, but at the end of the day you're preventing yourself from major health problems and stuff. So I think you've gotta, you know, try to figure out a way for people to afford eating better quality food while at the same time not, you know, totally overblowing their budget. Because that is one thing I hear a lot is like, oh, keto can be so expensive. I'm like, well, only if you're buying all that crap in a box, you know. If you're just buying—

processed goodies are the most expensive thing. Right?

It's like $7 for a little cookie sometimes or something.

I'm like, seriously, $8 for a package? Are you kidding? No, no, no, no.

Right.

You buy, uh, a steak for $8 a pound or whatever, and that will fill you up for an entire day. Yeah. So agreed. That was my sum up because it had to be said. It had to.

Well, yeah, and I think people stay away from that because it's much easier to just say, oh, just like you said, oh, just take the bun off, still go to fast food. And again, I think in the beginning, hey, that's, that's an adjustment, that's something that people can do. But I think eventually, if you really want to get in control of your health, get optimal body composition, have your brain feel good, you need to eat some real food, not all this processed stuff. And you actually have this topic coming up at the Keto Diet Summit, don't you? There you are, you're talking about clean keto.

Yes, actually, the Keto Diet Summit, I'm talking about clean keto, cleaning up keto junk diet, and I basically just give people tips and tricks on how to morph their lifestyle into a clean keto approach, how to do it with, you know, significant others, who don't want to eat that way, or if you're working a 9-to-5 job and you don't have the luxury of having a kitchen next door or something like that. So I give a lot of advice on how to make this lifestyle work for them.

Yeah, awesome. And even though that summit will have already happened once this goes live, I'll still make sure I have all the links to all that so people can find you and still enjoy that talk and get all extra good tips that we didn't cover today.

Perfect.

All right, well, thanks again, Gigi. I appreciate it so much. And, um, congrats on the new little brother or sister for Falkor. It's so exciting. And I feel a little bad that I asked you that question because I know you weren't quite ready, but I promise it's in the book.

Okay, yeah, we're covering one until tomorrow, so we're good.

Okay, awesome. Even I can keep my mouth shut now.

I know, it's been very hard for I'm sure, I'm sure.

Well, thank you for sharing that as well, and I appreciate it.

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Okay, take care.

Bye-bye.