Nutritious Life with Keri Glassman

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Sweet Ray Ban Meta Glasses available at Ray Ban stores and other authorized retailers. Welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show with celebrity nutrition expert, fitness hall of famer and four time New York Times best selling author, JJ Virgin. JJ is a warrior mom whose knowledge and expertise have helped change hundreds of thousands of lives. With over 3.5 million podcast downloads and appearances on Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, the Today Show, Rachael Ray, Larry King Live.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. This show is about you, not about me. I want to help you find practical, real world ways to dial in your health and mindset so you can finally lose that weight and feel strong and energized. Stop settling for less than your personal best. It's time to find out how to look and feel better than ever. And I'll be right here with you the whole way. So one of the things that I love most about doing this podcast is getting to know the coolest people on the planet as guests. And I'm lucky. I've met a ton of them over the years in green rooms, at TV stations, backstage at events, and, you know, just around, around. But one I never met before, which was crazy because we are like just rotating in the exact same circles, is Carrie Glassman. And we got connected, I'm not even quite sure how, and decided that she was going to come on my podcast. Now this has taken months to organize and finally what you're going to hear today is two people who should have met years ago getting to hang out together. So super fun, where we share ideas, kind of go back to where it all started, all the different nutrition fads, all of that. I'm really excited to share this interview with you. If you don't know who Carrie Glassman is, I'm surprised. But if you don't, here's, here's who she is. She's a celebrity nutritionist, a healthy cooking expert and wellness thought leader and she is on TV all the time. She's a Today show tastemaker, she's on Rachael Ray as a nutrition contributor and she's also on the board for Women's Health magazine. She's offered four best selling books including the New you and the Improved diet and the O2 diet. And she's also on the Today Show, Good Morning America, the doctors, Dr. Oz. She's all over the place, the media and lives in New York City with her two two kids, Rex and Maisie. I love that name, Maisie. So super cute. And she also is the CEO of Nutritious Life and the Nutritious Life Studio where she trains people on how to work in get a successful career in the health and wellness industry. So super fun. I mean we were both like, how have we never met each other before? So I'm excited to share this interview with you. She's got a great gift for everybody at jjvirgin.com forward/nutritious life. And before I dive in, I want to do a shout out to Vicky Boo 25 who said love the Ty Ballinger interview five stars. I started listening to your podcast a while back back and love the guests you have on. But today's interview interview with Ty Ballinger has got to be my favorite. Anytime we're talking cancer prevention and cures, I'm all in. She said cures. Just so you know, I didn't say cures. Thanks so much for the great info and you are welcome. And that's what I really strive to do on these podcasts is just keep the amazing information going by just bringing on super cool people like today's guest, Carrie. Now, before we dive in, I want to share another favorite with Deal.

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Carrie Glassman, welcome to the show. I cannot believe I don't know you already.

I know, it's crazy. I cannot believe after all this time of knowing you for so long and I'm sure we have a million mutual friends. I cannot believe that we have not met in person before. It's crazy.

I know. Or at all ever.

Exactly. We haven't chatted at all. I know. It's really.

Email, Direct message. Nothing. Not as if.

So crazy. I'm so, so, so happy to be chatting with you now.

Yes. Well, I've heard of you. You've heard of me. And now it'll be fun to see like, you know, like what, what like where we, where we kind of coalesce where we may not. It's kind of fun. So let's dive into all of that and see like, I'd love to know. Really. Well, let's start from the beginning. How the heck did you get into all of the nutrition and health? How'd you get here?

Okay, so whenever people ask me that question, I'm always like, do I go way, way, way back?

Are we talking like five years old or like.

Well, so since I don't. Since exact. Since we are starting at square one, I will start at square one for your. For your audience as well. So I always say I was born to do this. I was born to be in health and wellness. I was an athlete my whole life. I played. I mean, I grew up being a gymnast and a swimmer and a runner. And then I played soccer and lacrosse in high school and then in college. So I was always athletic and I was always moving my body, so the fitness side was always there. And then I was always interested in how. How food fueled the body. And I always tell this story. But when I was in seventh, it's true. So that's why I always tell it, because I think it says a lot. In seventh grade, my friend will always say how she remembers me saying in science class that I needed some Almonds. Because my body. My body must need vitamin E since I was craving almonds. And I always.

He's looking at you like a freak.

Exact. And by the way, there's no way I knew what vitamin E did, and there is no way, like, I actually had any clue what I was probably saying, but I must have read it somewhere, and it just. To me, it just shows, like. And again, as being a mom, I sometimes think, like, when my kids, like, give, like, you know, little bits of things they show interest in, I like to write it down just to almost, like, remind them of the things they naturally gravitated towards when they were younger. So anyway, I think I had a natural gravitation towards wellness and nutrition and how the body was fueled and how food gave the. And how food fueled the body and et cetera, et cetera. And then so fast.

Okay, we're so. We're so aligned there. Like, that was me when I was in junior high. I was, like, obsessed with food and studying nutrition, going to the health food store and not eating. What my mother would put on the table, which had. Was covered with, like, dressing and sauces and white bread and garbage. Right. So I'm right there with you.

You were so funny with that that you're saying that about, like, what your mom had. So my mom always, like, cooked great dinners, and it was always, you know, that we started with a grapefruit, and then we had a. We had a salad and a vegetable and a protein and a starch. It was a very balanced meal, but definitely not always healthy. And then aside from the actual meal.

Wait, you always started with a grapefruit?

Isn't that funny?

Yeah. So did she have, like. Did she think that that was gonna, like.

Do you want it? So funny. I know whenever I say that, it's.

Like, it sounds like the early grapefruit diet.

I feel like it sounds like very fancy, like. Like Catholic grapefruit course. It was not that fancy.

So I'm from la. You know it. So that's like the grapefruit diet. Oh, my mom served that because it was supposed to neutralize the lasagna coming next.

It was not that at all.

It was.

No, it was not that at all. And it was not fake. It wasn't the grapefruit diet, and it wasn't fancy. It honestly was because she grew up with her mom doing that, and her mom just did that for whatever reason. It was part of, like. It was just part of the. A traditional meal. I don't know where it originated from, but her mom did that. But I will tell you what's funny about it. We used a sprinkle sugar on the top. Like, loads of sugar on the top. So there was nothing healthy about. But anyway, so she gave us, like, great balanced meals, but we also had cabinets filled with what I always say is, like, fluorescent orange food, like the Doritos and the Cheetos and the whatever. So we had, you know, there was a lot of healthy food around, but there was also a lot of junk around. So that's how I grew up as well. And with an interest, though, in nutrition and so fast forward.

And Carrie, my nickname growing up was Poppy because of all the Pop Tarts I ate.

Oh, my God. Wait, that's hysterical.

Wait.

I love it. I love it. I love it.

I love it. Well, okay. We're so bonding right now. I swear.

So funny. I love it.

No, I do.

I love that. Hysterical. So, yeah, fast forward to college. I played sports in college. I gained a whole bunch of weight, and I was. And I kept. I would always think, you know, I'm the one. I'm gaining the freshman. I think it was like a freshman 20 at the time. I gained, not the freshman.

And what were you doing that was making you gain that freshman 20?

It was really. So I was playing sports. But as you know, I mean, you can exercise for three hours and eat a piece of cheesecake, and those three hours don't really mean much. Right. As far as gaining weight goes.

Right.

I mean, for your health, they mean something, but not as far as, you know, gaining weight. So what I would say I ended up doing was the bowls. This was like the fat free time. So I would go, oh, yeah, yeah.

That worked really well.

Exactly. Yeah. The whole world became obese pretty much when we started doing that. So good. That was really. That was. That was. We get to have a whole. We could talk about that.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

When you really look back at the research that had come out and how.

They actually manipulated it, it was so crazy, so insane.

I think it's.

It's so much damage. It's unbelievable. Like, it's damage still that will be.

Paying back for years, decade, decades and decades. It's hard. It's so horrific when you really think about that and how they had just. And they knew their information was wrong. Anyway, we digress.

Yes.

So what was I doing? I was eating. So I would get bags of candy, like Swedish fish, and go to the.

And go, oh, because they were fat free. So, yeah, Swedish fish and all that ridiculous fat free Garbage that we were living on. Like fro yo.

I know, froyo, Fro yo. Swedish fish. Yogurt covered pretzels. Exactly. But I used to go and grab. There was this a little, you know, the little store, the campus store. And I would get a thing of. There's all the bulk candy. I would get a bag of Swedish fish and a bag of yogurt covered pretzels and go to study for three.

Hours and go to town.

Yeah, exactly. Go to town. Exactly. Or go to actually sit in the library and probably just talk with friends and eat and pretend that I needed the fuel to study. Right?

Oh, yeah, because you needed brain fuel.

You got the worst brain fuel in the world. So, yeah, that's the junk that I really. I think it was a lot of that and then a lot of, you know, dinner of just, you know, making you. Going to the dining hall and eating those. Do you remember those big, big, huge bowls that they would have in campus cafeterias? And you'd fill it with either salad with like 10 types of cheese and dressing, or you would fill it with cereal, which was probably equivalent to like five cups of cereal.

Yeah, the Cracklin brand. Cracklin brand.

Oh, my God, yes. Wait, those squares, those square. They were squares with the holes in them, right?

The crackling.

Gosh.

Remember it was a little round thing.

Yes.

With a hole.

With a hole through it.

Yes.

And we were like, oh, it's healthy cereal. Right. With the fat free milk. And probably, I probably would eat, right. Like 1500 calories worth at one time. And it was just pure processed junk. Oh, my God. Okay, so, yes, we are speaking the same language, so you understand how I came to college. But at the time, at the time, you know, again, I was like so confused about it because I thought, well, wait, I'm the athlete. How come my friends that are doing all kinds of unhealthy things like drinking diet soda all day long? I didn't actually. I drank a little bit of it then, but not even so much. But also not really eating that much, being unhealthy, drinking a whole lot and doing whatever other unhealthy things they were doing. How come they're the ones that, you know, aren't gaining as much weight? I felt like I was the one that, you know, gained the most and I was supposed to be the athlete, and I didn't really. I know my body isn't meant to be, you know, 20 pounds heavier than it is, than it should have been then or should be now. And so I really became just really, really interested in how can I fuel my body to perform on the athletic field and still feel good putting on my, you know, skinny jeans on a Saturday night? Because I felt like I didn't. It wasn't about being skinny. It was about being fit and strong and healthy. And I just knew whatever I was doing was not right and there was something wrong. And I. And I also just really gained this interest in how everything worked together. As far as when I ate well, I did perform better on the athletic field. I studied better, and then I slept better. And when I slept better, I obviously had more energy to then perform better on the athletic field and study better and just feel happier. So I always had this interest in how all these different areas of wellness work together.

And so did you study that in college? Was that your field?

No, I didn't. I actually studied political science, and I was an English.

I was a theater and then an English major. I'm right there with you.

And you want to know the funniest thing was that I was really afraid of taking nutrition because I thought I'd heard it was so hard, and I didn't think of myself as a science person. So I was. I really. I didn't take it, even though I was at Tufts, which had this amazing nutrition program.

Oh, my God.

Right? What a shame. So I didn't. And then when I started, I started working at Sports Illustrated when I graduated, and I had, you know, an interest. I wanted to do something in the sports world. I had an interest there. And so I got a job at Sports Illustrated. And that was the time when we used to get all of our. All these magazines for free. And whenever health magazine came around, when it came out each month, I would sit there at my desk and obsessively read every single word. And so that's when I was really like, wow, I should really be doing something in this area if I'm this excited and interested in it. So I took nutrition one and then, you know, as they say, the rest is sort of history. As far as my getting into it, really getting into it, obviously building a business as a whole other thing. But as far as, you know, diving in and. And going back to school for nutrition, I eventually, you know, from that one class, I eventually then went and got my Masters of Science nutrition and then became a registered dietitian. But that's how I really ended up diving in. I really just. It was just like that passion for health and wellness just kept creeping in. And then I finally listened.

Well, you look at, like, yeah, it's like, it's so funny because if you look at, like, what we've gone through over decades, like, and you look at all the crazy ideas that have been brought forth, and I feel like we're almost sort of kind of getting to a sane place right now with maybe, hopefully.

Yeah, I agree with you. I think it's come really, I think the whole wellness world and health and nutrition and diet and exercise world has definitely come a very far, at least from when you and I both got involved.

Yes, yes. So if someone's going to categorize, like where you're at right now, when you were going to tell people, okay, what does it mean? Because your whole program and company is called nutritious life, like, what would that mean to you? What are the components?

So nutritious life is all about, as I mentioned in college, as I was saying that even then I had this taste for living a life that was not just diet and exercise, but it was also sleeping well. And when you slept well, again, you ate better. And so, so it's really evolved over the years. And I've always, and I've taken a look at the science and the research behind these different pillars of a nutritious life, but also just anecdotal evidence and, you know, working with clients, thousands of clients over the years. So living a nutritious life really involves these eight different pillars, from eating empowered to stressing less to drinking up, which obviously is the water component, loving more, which is the loving. And not just, not just loving like healthy relationships of all kinds. Like taking a look at all these different eight pillars. So I look at all of these different eight pillars. Live consciously is another pillar which is, you know, being, not just being, you know, living green and trying to do better for the environment, but also it's that, but also your environment. You know, we know that when your desk area is organized, when your closet is organized, you reduce stress, you feel calmer. You know, there's obviously there's different, it affects different people to different degrees. But all of those things really work together from a physiological standpoint and a behavioral standpoint. And I know you understand this, like when you sleep well, I'll just give this one example. When you sleep well, you know, and you wake up in the morning, your hunger hormones are in a better place than, let's say if you've slept terribly or you haven't slept at all. So now that's, you know, the physiological component. Then from the behavioral standpoint, when you sleep terrible and you're, you're not as motivated, right? So then you end up doing something quick, maybe going and picking up that muffin versus feeling great and being motivated to go and have that, you know, omelette with spinach and tomatoes in it. Right? So I really, I educate people on how all of these different pillars work together to help people live a nutritious life. So living a nutritious life, as I like to help people do, is all about incorporating what I call these eight different pillars. So, and you don't have to be doing every one of these pillars perfectly all the time, but it's being able to say, it's taking a look at these, at these eight pillars, seeing how they fit into your life best to maximize each of them, to live your happiest and healthiest life. So I'll tell you the pillars. Eat empowered, sleep deep, drink up, nurture yourself, live consciously, sweat often, love more, and stress less. So what I always talk about living a nutritious life is all about, you know, looking at all of those, how they affect each other from a physiological standpoint and a behavioral standpoint. So I know you'll understand this when I talk about it, like, you know, when you sleep well, you wake up in the morning, your hormones are in a better place, right? So you're going to crave healthier foods versus when you sleep terribly. So that's the physiological component.

Oh, you're like, sleep. For me, if I was going to pick one thing, this is. And I still remember, you know, and this is always so awkward when you're on a TV show and the host says something and you completely disagree with it and you're like, now what do I do? And I was sitting on Dr. Phil when we were doing weight loss challenges and they had a gal come up and they were celebrating the fact she got up at 4am to work out every day for three hours. And I thought, well, there's a lot of things wrong with this. A lot of things. There's so many things. Too much exercise, getting six hours of sleep, sleep a night. You know, all these problems. And I'm sitting there going, I what, what do I do now? You know, like, how do I. How do I like. You don't go, hey, listen, Dr. Phil, you know what's so crazy about it? I got like hate mail from people going, I can't believe. And I go, I didn't tell her to do that.

Exactly. You're like, I'm not promoting that. I'm so with you. It's so funny. When I used to See, clients, I would tell them, you know, they would push themselves, let's say, work out in the morning and get that workout in. And I always said, you know, stop.

Do a double, you know.

Right, exactly. And I would say, you know what? Like, stop setting the alarm. And then like, you know, and then pressing snooze five times and ending up not working out and not getting good sleep. Just decide two of those mornings you're not going to go and do the workout, set the alarm 45 minutes or an hour later, get some more good quality sleep. And that's so much better. That's so much more important for you than getting in those extra couple workouts. And half the time they don't get the workouts in because they're tired and would sleep through the, you know, keep setting, keep pressing, snooze. So I. I completely agree with you. You know, I would not be recommending that, but that is a tough situation. I have been in that similar situation before when you're like, no, I'm not going to completely disagree with you on your own show, but, oh, no, I hope everyone knows I don't agree with that.

You know, I'm sitting in the audience, like, shaking my head, no, don't do that. So, yes, sleep is such a key one. And I love what you're bringing up is that these things all go together. Like, if you're not sleeping well, you're going to be hungrier. You're not hungrier for salmon, let's be honest. And then it just starts the whole downward spiral. Then you don't have the energy to work out, Then you're eating more sugar, then you're more tired, but you can't sleep because you're wired. So then you don't sleep well.

Right, Exactly. You're absolutely right. And those are the physiological components. And then there's all the behavioral and the mental components as well that kick in. I mean, when you don't sleep well, you feel you're not motivated, you don't have energy, and you're not motivated to make yourself eggs and spinach in the morning. Really, you're saying, oh, you know what? I'm just going to go and pick up that muffin on my way to work. Like, you're not motivated. You don't have that energy to even make the right choices. And your hormones are actually in a place where you're craving the worst types of foods. So, yeah, it is a vicious cycle that could be a downward spiral, and it can also be an upward spiral in a Good way. When you do something like get a great night's sleep and feel great in the morning and drink that water and hydrate yourself properly, all of those things can also set off a great cycle. And that's really what I try to get people to do. And I always say, you know, if you, if one thing is completely out of control, like let's say you don't just for whatever reason, for two months, you can't exercise. That doesn't mean everything else, you know, falls to the wayside. Everything else, you can still keep things in order, you can still drink your water, you can still focus on sleep. So I think, you know, it really goes, what I talk about, nutritious life also really goes against, you know, an all or nothing type of an attitude, which I know that you, I'm sure, are not for as well.

Well, it's such an important point because there are going to be times in our life when we can't work out or when we're under more stress, you know, or we're traveling and we don't have like all the foods that we normally want to eat. So it doesn't mean like, hey, it's.

A free for all.

You know, when I look at those things, it really comes down to your margin of error is tighter. So if you can't get the workout in, you're going to make sure that you're really eating on point and getting your sleep and doing everything else. So I love that you said that because I was, I did a query to my list about fitness and they're like, I fell off the wagon because I, you know, got sick or I got injured and it was like everything.

Went sideways and it's. And I don't know where that even came to be in our diet culture of this on and off and starting and stopping.

I was good today. I was bad. I was like, it's like, yeah, and it is.

And, and it is such an important thing that we all break. We need to break that cycle of on and off and starting and stopping. It's like your life doesn't, like your body doesn't know that it's Monday morning at 8am do you know what I mean?

But yet no one starts a diet on Friday afternoon. Never once.

Exactly.

Which is why I also say another thing I always say is every meal is an opportunity to eat well. Every meal is a Monday morning. Which, when you can get into that mindset as well, of taking every meal as an individual opportunity, that does help. I believe I've seen it Help clients really break that cycle of the all or nothing starting again in the morning attitude. But I really do think also, you know, for some people, like saying, saying, you know what, don't even focus on the food for a moment. Don't even worry. Don't stress yourself out with the food if that's really overwhelming. Focus on getting in your water every day and you know, getting rid of diet soda, getting rid of soda, getting rid of whatever junk you add in your coffee and focus on drinking a lot, you know, your water every day and hydrate and focusing on sleep and maybe doing a meditation. Sometimes when you focus on these other pillars and you start to feel good in these other areas, all of a sudden the eating well just falls into place because you already feel so good, you want to do these other things. You want to then eat your ingredients.

And I would love it since you just kind of skimmed through it. The diet soda rant.

Oh my goodness. Diet soda. If there, I, I, there are very few things that I say you should absolutely never consume again. Diet soda is one of them. There is no reason to.

It shouldn't even be, it shouldn't be allowed. Like, like you wouldn't drink battery acid. Exactly.

It is all 100% chemicals with zero nutritional value. And the other thing is, it has also been shown to be worse for you than even soda. It actually, people think they're doing something good having it, that they're, they're, you know, they're not at least having, maybe they're not having their sugar, but it's actually worse for you. You. I think. I don't remember the exact study right now, but I know there has been studies that shown that people that drink diet soda have higher blood pressure. People that drink diet soda are more.

Yep. Inch bigger waist, 33% more chance of diabetes. I love.

That's what I was going to next is that they're actually way more than people that don't drink diet soda. So you're not the people that are drinking it thinking they're doing something good for their diet and they know it's unhealthy. But I want to eat low calorie or drink low calorie. Well, it's not going to do anything good for you there either. So there is absolutely no reason to have it. Really. One of the absolute worst foods you can consume. And on that note, I will go a step further. One of the other things I also say that people should never, ever, ever have. There's no reason for it is artificial sweeteners. Except for there is, I believe, a little time and place for good quality. Pure stevia is probably the only non nutritive sweetener. I should say that.

And let's, and let's talk about that because that is not. Because I get people there like, well, you know, they act like stevia is an artificial sweetener, like it's not artificial sweetener. So we can like put the artificial sweeteners over there and agree they were like the worst science experiment that didn't work. Like, and they got tested on us like it's like ridiculous. And then you've got real sugar and by the way, because I was here, but honey is all natural. I'm like, huh? And then you have sugar and then you have these things in between these herbal types of things, you've got stevia and monk fruit, some other stuff. And you can't, none of them can be lumped into the other one.

They're all absolutely agree with you. Absolutely agree with you. And they all, I mean the art, let's just say the artificial sweeteners as you just said, bad science experiment gone wrong. Let's get rid of all of them forever. Done. Goodbye. If we can. Right, but and then sugar, we know like there's going to be a little bit of sugar in our diets even in a very, you know, even in a healthy diet. I mean, I believe there is a place for a conscious indulgence of a little bit of sugar. You know, there is a place in a diet for obviously for fruit where you're getting vitamins and minerals and you have sugar in your diet which is obviously natural sugar, which is, is different even than plain added sugar. It's another category. And there is a place in your diet for a little bit of that. I don't really believe you need to have any added sugar. You don't need to have any of it. There's a place for fruit, of course, but, but there is at least to me a place for an indulgence. When you know how to have an indulgence. When you know how to have a.

Well, if we not put indulgences in, then we get busy.

Exactly 100% right. I, if I ever try to completely take away any kind of sweets altogether, all I will want to do is completely overdo it. And I know that's just obviously me. Not everybody's like that. I'm just giving my personal example there.

But many people are like, no, I think most people, if you say you can never have this again, like, like no, that just so that's why if you look at things and go, all right, you're going to figure out if something's going works for you if you eat something. If you like eat gluten and it hurts, you exactly don't eat that. But you know, it's like we just celebrated my son's birthdays, both of them. My birthday, my buddy Mike's birthday, Easter and Mother's Day. We just did like a, and, and Passover. We matched the whole thing up and it just was, I was like, we did everything and it was really, honestly kind of ridiculous. We got like, we couldn't decide. So we got a salted vanilla caramel gluten free layer cake and a salted chocolate almond butter. Like it was, it was really ridiculous. And magic bars and chocolate Paleo brand, I mean, just so much stuff. Which actually we all looked at and had like a couple bites and we're like, ugh. But that's what we had.

We had a couple.

Exactly. If you never, ever, ever, ever had it, you probably would have eaten it all and felt sick and terrible because the second you had a bite or.

If I could never have it again, it was like, I'm never allowed to have that again. I'd be like, okay, I'm eating. You know. But since it was around.

Yeah, you know how to make it a conscious. I always say things like a conscious indulgence. You're aware you're indulging in a nice fun way. It's healthy, it's a healthy mindset. It's mentally healthy. To be able to do that on those fun occasions. That's when you should have an indulgence is on a happy occasion, not, you know, I always say it's those types of indulgences, like whether it's that magic bar, which by the way, you mentioned that. And I was like, that sounds good right now. That's my favorite magic. But whether it's a magic bar or chocolate chip cookie or whatever it might be, that's where you should have your, you know, your added sugar. You shouldn't have it in your salad dressing, in your bread, in your, in your, all these other places snuck into your day in your yogurt. You shouldn't have it in all these other places that you don't even think of as being sweet. So all of a sudden you go to have that cookie and you've already actually had seven indulgences that day of added sugar that you didn't even realize you had. Exactly.

Yeah. That snuck in that you're like going, no, no, no, I had a salad, it's all fine, it's all good. I had a salad and I had some marinara salad.

Salad with sugar coated cranberries. Sugar coated pecans dressing with sugar in it. I mean, exactly. There's a very big difference between a salad and a salad.

Yeah. And 30 calories of lettuce and you know, and the rest was like a Sunday. Yeah, garbage. Okay, final thing because I know you're gonna like get kicked out of where you are again. I'm just watching, going, and we're out. So where do you land? And I have no idea what you're about to say here. So now we'll see if like where this goes. Vegan, paleo, keto, vegetarian, breathetarian fruit. But like what's your thought on all the specific things?

I would say an allitarian. I've actually never said that before. But I'm just as you're, as you're asking me that question, I'm thinking this is, this is actually, this is a good, this is a good one. No, so I would say truthfully that. Well, that is truthfully, I don't really keep. I don't, I don't. Aside from like I was just saying the artificial sweeteners, aside from that, there is almost no food that I would, would never eat. Aside from again, diet, diet sodas, fluorescent orange foods loaded with chemicals, loaded those types of chemicals and highly processed chemical laden foods. Aside from that, there's almost no food that I would never eat. But my day to day diet is vegan meats, paleo, which I know that people have been saying it's the version of that with you know, so loads of vegetables, loads and loads of vegetables, loads of healthy fats like avocado and healthy oils and you know, nuts and seeds and then a little bit of, a little bit of fruit. I don't have lots of fruit, but a little bit of fruit and high quality protein. And I say that high quality protein could be grass fed beef or it could be, you know, another day it could be legumes in my salad and then the next night it might be grass fed beef. So combination of different protein sources obviously. Also I get protein from nuts and seeds and vegetables even too. But mostly like I just said, vegetables, healthy fats, high quality protein, plant and animal and a little bit of fruit and you know, a little bit of whole grains mixed in there. And what do I feel like I'm just missing something And I do. A little bit of date. I do. Yeah. Then I also have like, I'm sorry, I was just mentioning, I think I mentioned it before, but high quality, high quality dairy as well. So like I would have, you know, especially I like a grass, this grass fed yogurt that I get from a farm nearby. And yeah, I'd say that's my diet. Where do you fall?

All right, so I think that we need to have two words. I think we need to have a word that is like we use diet for all this. But I see diets as something that you use short term, therapeutically to either learn something about yourself, like if you're food intolerant to something or how many carbs you feel best eating or you know, to help get in a result, like get your blood sugar balance. And then I think there is the way you eat. And that's the word I'm trying to come up with, the way you eat. Because we use diet interchangeably for both those things. And honestly, if you used diets correctly, you would use them and go, okay, wow, I just went totally vegan. And you know what, I feel better when I incorporated in a little bit of fish and maybe some, I don't know, some grass fed beef or I went totally paleo, but I feel better when I eat a little less animal protein and more legumes. And so you start to learn what feels best for you at the time because this is going depend on your genetics and your epigenetics and your lifestyle and your likes and dislikes and your health status and your goals, right? And so these things shift and we look at it and go, okay, you're going to be vegan forever. I'm like, well, this is silly. Maybe you're going to do vegan for a couple of weeks because you want to get used to eating more plants. And this is a good way to kind of incorporate it in and move it over and get your gut microbiome shifting and then you're going to go, you know, stabilize that out so that you, you've gone. I really am getting 5 to 10 servings of vegetables in a day and then move to the next thing. But I really, in the perfect world, we'd be cycling, we'd eat seasonal, local and organic. And I think that honestly the most important thing that we are struggling with is not the stupid vegan paleo keto, all those wars, it's the fact that we have crappy food quality. And if all we did was start to improve our food quality, like it would change the world if everybody just would get a good night's Sleep, drink more water, eat more veggies, be kind to each other, hug some, move some like, and take a good multivitamin, mineral antioxidant and fish oil supplement. Life changes.

That's it.

Right? Well, I totally agree with you.

Yeah.

Because I was, and I was telling you with my diet that I was saying like what I personally do there, but in terms of, you know, recommending to other people, I am, I recommend starting exactly very similar to what you were saying.

I figured we're really simpatico. It's like I figured, yeah, get rid.

Of all the package processed. Right. It's so much less important whether or not you're having chickpeas or grass fed beef, let's say. Or, you know, it's so much more important that you're eating loads of vegetables, that you're eating high quality healthy fats. You know, we have on our website, nutritiouslife.com, i have a section called Diet Diets Decoded. And I start, we go through, you know, everything from paleo to vegan to all kinds of diets and really just critique them and go and give the thumbs up, thumbs down where we fall with them and. But I start that column every single time with all healthy diets, whether it's vegan or paleo, which obviously are on two ends of the spectrum, but healthy versions of healthy diet, the healthiest version of healthy diet kids all have, most, mostly are very similar. You know, get rid of all the packaged processed foods, get rid of as much added sugar as possible, load up on lots of vegetables, load up on healthy fats. So even whether that's vegan or paleo, you know, those are the same attributes to most healthy diets. So again, whether you're somebody that's vegan and has a little bit of, you know, meat every once in a while, call it your own thing, you don't. No one's, I always say, no one's grading you, no one's giving you a grade. No one's going to send you to jail because you were vegan and you had had something that's not vegan. Right. So I am completely with you. You have to really look at what works for you best. And everybody has their own.

And it changes, you know, and it changes like, you know, what works for you at 20 is not the same as 50. And you know, things shift and it may be different from, you know, I went through a seriously traumatic stressful experience. Things shifted. So, you know, you go through menopause, things shift like so stuff shifts so that's what we. We just have to get better at connecting the dots of not trying to get, you know, because someone else told us this is exactly how we should eat. It doesn't feel good to us to, like, second. Second, you know, to judge ourselves and second guess ourselves. So.

But I like your idea of coming up with a new word, because what I usually say is, I say diet, like the noun and diet the verb. Are you dieting or should I say. But we all have a diet. So when I describe that I'm not on a diet, that was my diet. You have a diet. Everybody has a diet.

So this is why it's so confusing.

Exactly. We need to just change it so we don't have to do the whole noun, verb thing and we could just, like a new word. I totally agree with you there.

Yeah. So if you think of it, let me know. All right.

I like that.

I'm working on it. You work on it. We need to come up with it. It will be amazing. And I'm super excited to meet you in person. So this is for all of you listening. This is. This is is. You've been kind of like. We pulled back the kimono of us getting to know each other. We just decided to do it on podcast. I love it and. Cause it's, like, ridiculous. We've never met, but we will meet in person soon.

I know. I can't wait. It's going to be so much fun.

We will talk. It's going to happen. It will be.

And by the way, this conversation will probably go for three hours. We need to book a long time.

Absolutely. We'll hang out. It'll be super fun. Florida or San Diego or New York. It's happening. And I so appreciate your time. So super fun thing. I know you've got a great gift for everybody. Your perfect cleanse. And so we are going to direct you to that@jjvirgin.com nutritious life. So be sure to grab that gift from Carrie. Thank you so much, Carrie. I super appreciate you and your time today.

Oh, it was so much fun. Thank you so much for having me.

So I wanted to underscore something that I think is super important is Carrie talked about how everything's connected. Like, when you don't sleep well, then you're so tired, then you don't exercise as much, then you make poor diet choices, then you're more, you know, then you do something like have a bunch of sugar, then you're wired, then you don't sleep well. It just becomes like, this vicious cycle. And then she also said, you know, we tend to get into a situation where if like we're not working out or we're traveling, we're like, oh, heck, if I can't do one thing, I'm not going to do anything. And I thought that one of the important things that she pointed out that we always need to remember is that that that in fact is the exact opposite of what you want to do. Let's say that you are injured. You, you know, sprained your ankle and now all of a sudden you can't do your cardio bursting. Well, that does not mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater. Right? You could still do resistance training and you make sure that your diet's dialed so you do all the rest of stuff. So just because one pillar of your wellness is struggling, it doesn't mean that they all should go out the window. And that's a really important point for all of us to remember. And I think along with that, think about this. You're never going to be able to look at every single thing go, okay, I know I need to work on my stress. I need to deal dial in my sleep. I should be exercising more. I can improve the quality of my diet. I need to be drinking more water. I've got to think of some, some work on more stress management techniques and I need to see my friends more. Well, if you do that, you're overwhelmed and you'll do nothing. But you know, one by one, if you just start picking these things off and really move them in so they you shift the habits in your life. As you uplevel those habits, you up level your life. And again, if some one of those things is a struggle at some point, the other ones still stay up leveled and then it becomes less of an issue until you can bring it back again. All right, hope that serves. I want to remind you to grab Carrie's free cleanse@jjvirgin.com nutritious life and remember to subscribe to the show so you do not miss any goodness. All right, While you're over there too, if you feel up to it, I would love it if you'd leave a review and then I can give you a shout out on the next show. See you then. Bye.

That's all for this episode of the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show, which marks another step towards a healthier body in mind. Don't forget to raise rate review and subscribe to the show and we'll talk to you next week.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle. Author, blogger, and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I tag all things Books and Reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and Visit our website whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out more.