New Year New You SERIES (A) Cheryl Buckley Registered Dietitian

Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley cup champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Welcome to another episode. And today we are going back to our show that we're going to call it the New Year New you with Cheryl Buckley. She's been on before. We talked about holistic nutrition. She's told us her story. She has a fantastic background being one of the original people with the Greek yogurt company Chobani, where she did so much. She even did something at the White House at one time. But she, she's a licensed registered dietitian nutritionist. Cheryl, it's great to have you today.

Thanks, Mike, for having me back. I really appreciate it.

Well, it's been one heck of a year. I can't speak for everybody, but I could speak for myself and I'm probably could speak for you as well. This has been a really tough year for people physically, emotionally, mentally. And we talked about early on about properly fueling your body. We, we talked about like fitness and nutrition. But I thought this was so important to have this topic. A new year, a new you. Can you tell me like a little bit about what that means and tell me even about your program, the New Year new you program.

Sure. So like I mentioned before, I like to practice what's called holistic nutrition, where it's really the mind, body, soul approach to better overall health. And going into the new year, you know, gives us the opportunity to really hit the reset button. Like you'd mentioned, 2020 has been really tough for everyone, whether it be mentally, emotionally, physically. There's been a lot of challenges for us and no better way to really hit the reset button for 2021 than to look at our, our health and the habits that we currently have and understand the trials and tribulations that we've been through and how can we make them better. Going into 2021, I can tell you a little bit more about the program and, you know, kind of what I've seen this year with my clients. If you find that to be helpful.

No, it really would. So the, like the tell me about your program. So starting it off because I believe that no matter what you do, if it's working out, if you're studying leadership, if you're, whatever it is, you need a plan in place. So can you give us some sort of a plan or a basic plan just so we can call ourselves, you know, the New Year, New you?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think what I found a lot with my clients this year is that, you know, not only just the social isolation part of it, but a lot of stress. And with a lot of stress came maybe some unusual habits for some people of finding themselves emotionally eating and not eating exactly healthy. A lot of people were turning to drinking, they weren't having access to gyms and working out, so they weren't really moving as much and they'd gained some weight. And really we're trying to figure out how do we take what we've learned this year and put it into next year to put us on the right foot of starting out for a healthier new year. And it really is that holistic nutrition program of looking at different components and I'll just briefly go through them just to kind of give you a snapshot. But we covered this in one of the podcasts that we've done before called the Physical part. And that's really just looking at your sleep hygiene, ensuring that you get anywhere from seven to eight hours a day. It's looking at what you're consuming and eating on a daily basis. I'm a huge advocate of an anti inflammatory diet, which is basically a Mediterranean diet. It's very high in plant based foods, which are your fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts and legumes as well. It's really just making sure that you eat nutrients, dense foods and reducing the amount of processed foods that you're consuming. And processed foods are anything like potato chips, pretzels, soda pop, ice cream, cookies, cake, things that don't have any nutritional value. But a lot of times people turn to those types of foods when they're in a stress mode because they find some sense of comfort. So we just want to make sure that we get our sleep where it needs to be, eating correctly and getting moving, like you said, with exercise. And that can just be anything, as little as 20 minutes a day of walking. It can be a jog, run, it can be body weight, anything, just to get somebody moving, at least minimal. 20 minutes a day to get you active.

Well, for some of us that don't know. Can you give me the definition of holistic nutrition? Because I would think like holistic would be something that's, I don't know, spiritual, something that's healthy. I don't know, give me a, give me a background.

Yep. So it's. There's different areas to it. There's the physical, which we just covered. There's the emotional, there's the social, and there's the spiritual. So we covered the physical. And I can go through the other components. The emotional one is, you know, how do we maintain a healthy way of life emotionally, and how do we know how we can manage our stress? And there's, there's ways that we can do that. And I had already mentioned sleep, but it is really important. If you don't get your proper sleep, you're not going to be on your game the next day. You're going to be tired, you're going to be fighting to stay awake, you're not going to have the energy. And it starts to weigh on people emotionally where they get a little edgy and sometimes they lean on caffeine, multiple cups of coffee or tea to get them through the day because they're so tired. So from an emotional aspect, it's important to get your proper sleep. But also there's the mindfulness of it, which is what I like to call any way that you can reduce stress. One way that I absolutely love to do this, and I know you've had some people on in previous podcasts that talked about this is meditation. I personally use headspace. I don't have any type of connection with them, but I just personally love it. I do one every day that is a 10 minute guided walk. I just go for a walk outside because emotionally it allows me to clear my mind, breathe in some fresh air and just take a guided walk and listen to this, this meditation for 10 minutes. And it allows me to be present in the moment rather than, you know, trying to meditate and having interruptions of my cell phone ringing or my emails dinging in the background. And I get, you know, kind of distracted and not stay focused. So I, I leave the house, do this meditation for 10 minutes. And it just brings me back to a really good place of kind of getting myself emotionally stable. You can also do journaling. I know people that love to just write out their thoughts and their concerns for the day. They find it very therapeutic. And then last but not least, you can always seek professional help, whether it be a psychologist or a counselor, where you can get actual therapy on some of the things that are emotionally bothering you. So. So that's the emotional component.

Well, one thing that you helped me with a lot is putting the gadgets away at nighttime. Cause I know I would be on my phone or the computer up until, let's say I go check out, maybe look at Facebook or I'm looking at searching through different events or listening to things, I'm looking at my phone. How, how unhealthy is that for you?

Yeah, so the blue light, we know that there's enough studies on it that it really does disrupt your sleep, which obviously can spill over to the emotional component as well. Because if you're getting yourself fairly wired up at night, you're going to have a hard time relaxing and falling asleep and getting into that deep REM sleep that you need for recovery. So if you're watching a lot of TV or you're on your iPhone, or you're on your iPad or your laptop and you're doing social media things, or even if you're checking work emails or even maybe, let's say, shopping on Amazon for, you know, holiday gifts or whatever it may be, it's distracting and it's definitely disrupting your ability to get into a deeper, sounder sleep, which is going to affect you emotionally throughout the next day.

So, like, the holistic way could be even before you're going to bed, not get into deep conversations or don't think about work, or don't start doing things that are going to keep you wired and awake. That's what happens to me at nighttime. Sometimes I'm laying in bed and I'm thinking about, oh, I have a meeting tomorrow and I know I'm prepared. I always try to prepare myself the best I can the night before. But how do you do away with that? That's very hard to do sometimes.

Yeah, that's a great question. So a way that would really work for you is I always like to say, like, have a pad and pen by your bedside. If you start thinking about all these things that are going through your mind, sometimes you just have to. It's like a trash can. You have to empty it out. And a way you can empty those thoughts out are to write them on paper of, you know, whatever your areas of concern are, or maybe you're thinking about things that you need to do tomorrow. So you put a to do list together and once you write that on the paper, you put it away and you try to go to sleep. If you're still having issues with shutting it down, that's where a meditation would really come into play again. There's headspace, there's calm, there's a lot of free ones out there that give you anywhere from a three to a ten minute free meditation that can be guided or unguided to kind of help you unwind at the end of the Day. So I think a couple of those would be good for you.

So we do a lot of leadership development and we do a lot with. With athletes and coaches. So this would be great for. Especially for somebody in corporate America, because especially with your background. You worked for Chobani and they were. It's corporate America. So you were the person that I understand, like, would read labels innovative. You've done so many things, the, the nutrition side and the wellness side. And is this something that we have to take upon ourselves? Is there. Is there a lot of resources out there for some of us that don't know where to find some of these?

Yeah. I mean, honestly, you can do a Google search and stuff like that. And it's funny, when I worked in corporate America, I was my. My own worst critic, Meaning I had the nutrition background, but I really didn't have this holistic training under my belt where I understood all the different aspects of it tying into and how to deal with stress or, you know, traveling quite a bit and having limited sleep and needing to be in a meeting and presenting and always being on. I didn't have these tools that I have now that I've learned through my holistic nutrition training that I wish I would have had that I could have implemented through that process. But there are tools that you can find out there. Um, you can go to my website. I have different resources that are online that people can, you know, take for free. And, you know, I'm here to, to guide people in that healthy process. So that's also an option.

That's great because we need that no matter what you do, especially now with. With the amount of stress that I know that some of us are going through, because I have several different clients that, that share that with me, that they're going through so many ups and downs with COVID I mean, this happened, what, last March, and now we're in the new year. Unbelievable. I mean, it's crazy.

Well, I think too, when I work with my clients and just friends and family in general, when we're talking about everything that's transpired this year and how we can really take that mind, body, soul approach. And again, it's not just sleep and what you eat and exercise, it's that emotional. But there's also the social and the spiritual, which you had mentioned, which are super important. And I think if we look at the social component of it, even though we are isolated, we have the ability to still interact with people via zoom or facetime. And I personally had a opportunity where we did a Baby shower with my family over the weekend. And it's literally the first time I've seen my friends and family over a year. So it was just really did the soul good. It made me so happy to see everybody and to be able to connect. So people need to remember that if you're not. Not able to see people in person due to the circumstances, that you still can lean into your network of friends or family and do a FaceTime call or a Zoom call or even if it's possible, I know that there is some socially distancing volunteering that can be done in the community. Say a toy drive for. For Christmas. If you want to gather things and then you drop them off in a location where you're not having contact with people. There are ways to get involved socially but not put yourself at risk. If that makes sen, that's great.

That's great advice for us because I'm. I've had that issue myself. I'm a sociable person. And next thing you know, you. Everything is done through, you know, through Zoom or through phone calls, and you're isolated and in one place and. And you've helped me. You talked about the physical a little bit. And we have all types of professionals coming on. We've had people that have some fantastic, you know, products and different things that. That they're bringing to us. But just walking, you had me walking even after a meal, and that had me feeling so good. So I know some parts of the country, it's cold and freezing outside, but. But share with us the walking part because that really changed my mindset of things. Now I'm looking at my steps. I have the beautiful watch that measures everything and tell me how important that is. Just to get out and move.

Yeah, movement is extremely important, especially now, because, you know, there are places that are going to be going back into lockdown soon. And it means that people aren't, you know, having the ability to get in their car and drive places and be social and do whatever they may have done for the past couple months here. But it's very important to get outdoors, number one, because of the fresh air. Two, you need a change of scenery. You can only sit in your house and do your work and be isolated around individuals for so long. So getting outdoors is important to get fresh air. It's a change of scenery. It allows you to be in a place with yourself and really just to connect on that emotional level to really, you know, get you in a healthier headspace. And there's even the spiritual component of it. That I know you mentioned earlier. And you know, I, I'm guilty of this. When I would hear the word spiritual, I always thought it meant religion. Well, that's only one component of it. Spiritual can be whatever it is to you for yourself. It's basically your own beliefs or values and that help guide you through life. So for some it may be spending time praying to God or it could be spending time outdoors in nature and just breathing in and meditating. Kind of like what I was talking about earlier. I like to walk and do the meditation component of it. And for some people it also could be yoga, connecting with your breathing and movement together. So there's many different ways of doing it. I know we've got some friends that are in California that they go to the beach and they look at the ocean. I know that would be. Our dream is to escape and just walk to the beach and walk by the water because that's something that's very soothing for us. But it's very spiritual as well. So I just suggest that people find some type of movement activity that really resonates and connects with them, that brings them into that inner peace that will really help calm them emotionally and bring the stressors down.

Now you've said it earlier, I'm going to take us back a little bit, several minutes back. And you mentioned the word Mediterranean. And for some like, like I know what that means, but for some of us who, who doesn't know what the Mediterranean diet is, can you. And I know you mentioned some of the components that go into the Mediterranean diet. Can you, can you elaborate on that a little bit? Like what is the Mediterranean diet?

Yep. So it's, it's a anti inflammatory diet. It, it is very high in plant based of fruits and vegetables. It also has meat components but it's kind of reduced to what maybe the standard American diet is used to. There's, you're not going to find a lot of beef or chicken on it. You're gonna find eggs a couple times a week, chicken maybe once a week. But you're gonna find predominantly more fish, like fatty fish like salmon or sardines. And you're also gonna find legumes which are dried beans which could be lentils, they could be kidney beans, they could be black beans, it could be great northern beans, whatever somebody likes in a bean form. So it's really a lot of fruits and vegetables. It's the legumes which are the beans that I just mentioned. A lower intake of meats like chicken, beef. You can also incorporate eggs. There is the Greek yogurt component of it for protein. And then there's the nuts and seeds. And the other component for some healthy fats would be extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, regular avocado sliced on top of a salad or on your bread. And it's whole grains. So things such as quinoa, brown rice, anything that, you know, a whole grain pasta. And really the Mediterranean concept is, is that half of your plate should be filled with fruits and vegetables, and then the other half of it, a quarter of that is whole grains, and then the other quarter is proteins, which again can be your fishes, your dried legumes, it can be, you know, chicken or beef once in a while, and then eggs or the Greek yogurt component as well. And then you want to have a little fat at each meal. So that means maybe like a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil that you're sauteing your vegetables in, or if you're in the mood to have some avocados sliced on top of your salad, that's an option. Or you can sprinkle some nuts and seeds on your meal as well to give you that fat component. So it's really a combination of all the different meal components. But predominantly, I always like to use the. The guide of. If you're looking at your plate, half of it should be vegetables and the other half should be, again, a quarter of it. Whole grains, a quarter of it. Protein, your fruits, you can have those throughout today. I always like to. To save, you know, instead of having cakes, cookies, or ice cream or desserts, have your fresh fruits in place of it. And I don't ever say you should only have certain fruits or minimize them. I don't believe in that. But I would rather people eat more whole forms of food than the processed, processed type foods.

Well, thank you for that. That's great. But now there's somebody like me. I know you mentioned eggs in the conversation, but somebody like me gets up very early. I start my day with a workout. I should put a little food in my stomach, but I don't. But I head over maybe to Starbucks, and I'll have a bagel and yogurt and a coffee. And that's not part of the Mediterranean diet. Is there anything I could substitute in there that's going to balance out to even come close to being part of that Mediterranean family diet that I probably need?

Yeah, so I think, like your sprouted bagel that you eat is fine with some butter, you have a little fat on there, or what I'd like to see you. Do you have the Greek yogurt, which is great. I'd like you to see you incorporate like a fresh fruit along with it at breakfast time. I'm not sure if this is an option for you, but smoothies is one of my favorite. Go to super fast and easy that you can grab and take it on the go anywhere. And how I like to make mine is I, I personally like to use non dairy beverages. So I use either anything that's like an almond oat or coconut milk. And I will add a collagen powder into it, a protein powder. I put cauliflower frozen rice into it. I put either a handful of spinach or a handful of kale, about a quarter of a banana and a couple ice cubes. And I blend it up and I go, that's my go to drink. And right there I've got two servings of vegetables and a part of a fruit. And then I obviously have my protein in it. So maybe incorporating a smoothie would be good for you.

Yeah, I think that that may work. I need, I, I'm gonna do that especially now. And a lot of us, before we get into the next question, we have these New Year's resolutions that we have. Like this year, I want to lose 30 pounds. I know you've had great stories with clients all over the country that have. We're down in their clothing size, pant size, weight size and everything else. But when we have these big expectations of a New Year's resolution, I don't think it's measurable. Like, I want to lose 30 pounds. Can you give us maybe some goals that we could shoot for? Because everyone can definitely use your help. We know that. But for someone that we're going to shoot for these goals to feel good about ourself and not just have these crazy resolutions that are almost impossible to achieve.

Yeah. And I always like to say this, that it's not a one size fits all. You know, everything that has to do with the nutrition practice that I, that I have is very individualized based on the person's background. Meaning, you know, they may have some medical issues, they may have some, you know, medical history as well that, you know, things that they've been through, they may be on prescription, prescription drugs may take a lot of different supplements, they may have food allergies or sensitivities. But really what it should come down to is what is going to make this person feel good overall, what are your goals for the year? I don't like people to, you know, self sabotage and say I have to lose 10 pounds in a month because it's unrealistic. It's what I like to call lifelong changes which take a lifetime to implement. It's something that is always evolving and always changing over time. So if you can go into it with I want to start eating better, let's just make that one small attainable goal and we start implementing and adding in tiny little changes day by day. You will start to feel better and notice a difference. So for example, what I would, what I would like to do is, is to have to say to somebody, okay, you want to feel healthier for next year and you want to lose some weight because I have, I'm not going to lie to you, I have a lot of clients this year. That was their biggest thing because of COVID It just really turned their lives upside down. What I do with them is again, it's looking at the whole process. It's implementing little tiny changes daily, such as like we were just talking about with you, adding in maybe a piece of fruit at breakfast and eating within the first hour of awakening. It's adding two vegetables at lunchtime, not one. It's going for that 20 minute walk either maybe it's right after dinner or maybe it's at lunchtime when you have a break at work. It's incorporating meditation and mindfulness. If you feel like you're having a really stressful day at work, take three minutes out to just go sit somewhere else and mindfully meditate for three minutes. It's implementing those small, tiny little changes over time that will give people the sustainable life changing efforts that will really make a difference for them overall.

Isn't that the truth? It's just little minuscule things. We call it the little things in details within professional sports or now we're using it within leadership with the, with businesses that we work with. It's implementing these little things and everything that you said is going to make a difference. Now we have a lot going on and we've talked a lot about the good. But what have you seen with your clients this year as their main struggles is time.

I think what's going on is a lot of my clients, they have families and they have full time jobs and they are trying to number one, hold the fort down, meaning working right to sustain and pay for their lifestyle too. They have children that are now being homeschooled and they're having to work with their kids at home. It's trying to get the food on the table. Before it was maybe you Feed them breakfast. They had lunch at school and then you were worried about dinner. Now they have breakfast, lunch and dinner to worry about. And you have different people wanting different things to eat at different meal times. So what I'm finding with my clients is that they have many different moving pieces going on that are extremely stressful for them and they feel very overwhelmed and they don't know where to start. And that's where I like to kind of break it down into small, digestible, no pun intended, but digestible components so that they can make small, tiny little changes to really help everybody, not just themselves, but everybody within their family to get a little bit healthier.

I love it because all of us need it. I mean, I don't care if you're a world class athlete or whatever you do and you need to take these steps to feel good in your life and take it with us, especially now. Some great for sharing and what can we do for 2021 to stay healthy? I know you gave us a lot of great points. I had to save this one for last. What can somebody do to get healthy for 2021?

You know, some people may say, oh, that's just. This sounds like a really selfish thing, but it really isn't. You have to take control of your life for yourself because if you're not in a good headspace or you're not healthy, you will not do anybody that you're around any good. You'll be doing a disservice not to yourself, but your friends and family around you. So be selfish and take the time to work on yourself for 2021. It's for yourself and it's for your friends and family. Because if you're not in a good, healthy headspace, you won't be able to be a caregiver to the rest of your friends and family if you're not there. So embrace tiny little changes going into 2021. And it could be something as simple as I'm going to put down my phone and not look at any blue light stimulating things two hours before bedtime. It could be something of I'm going to try to make sure I get a minimum of seven hours of sleep. It could be, I need to make sure I have four servings of vegetables tomorrow and start, you know, making little changes like that or taking a 10 minute walk at lunchtime, but trying to do some of those healthy changes for yourself day by day. Don't try to put it all on you at once because it can get a little bit overwhelming and stressful and that's the last thing we want to do. But try to make little tiny changes day by day. It'll be good for you, but it'll also be good for your loved ones that are around you.

Yeah, this is great for the people at home, but even for, you know, a lot of my clients or in leadership, that they have to take care of themselves. And I hear it a lot, oh, I don't have time to exercise. I don't have time to eat. Well, I'm just going to grab, you know, something fast food on the way. And I'm. And I said, listen, we have one of the top dietitians around that could help you at your disposal. Just take some of these little tips with you, because if you can't manage yourself, how are you going to manage your team at work? Or even if you're. You're a hockey coach, and how are you going to manage the little players, the little boys and girls that are on the ice? You're going to be tired because your body just. We said. Right. I think you taught me this. Your body's like a machine and not properly fueled. It's going to break down. Well, if you're in sales, if you're in leadership, if no matter what you're doing, if you look tired and exhausted, you're not going to be efficient, you're not going to be enough to. You're not going to show that why would somebody want to work with you or buy from you?

Right, right. And you brought up something that's really important that actually a lot of my clients say to me, you know, they're like, I just need to be realistic. You know, my family eats out a lot. I'm like, okay, that. That's fine. It's. It's not impossible. If you eat out a lot. Let me teach you and guide you and educate you on making some healthier choices while you're eating out. If you are time crunched and you have to go for fast food, there are healthy options. It's just trying to make some of those simple changes along the way.

Well, Cheryl, thank you very much. And before. Before I say anything else, I want people to understand that if you go back to the earlier episodes, you can listen to Cheryl from. From her first episode as she shares her struggles and her story and how she got to be where she is. She also had a nice piece about some more on nutrition. She talked about it earlier before about taking care of your body and doing different things. And back in another episode, and because she's with us. And this is three of five. She promised me that she's going to offer something something to everybody who's any of our guests because she has her site. Cherylbuckley.com c h e R Y L B U C k l e y.com that rolls off my tongue pretty good. Cherylbuckley.com and Cheryl, is there a discount we can give to all of our listeners on your I know. Is it pharmaceutical grade? I know you have top end nutrition because I'm a customer.

Yeah. Yeah. So I have, you know, a couple things I'd like to offer your clients. One of them is to set them in the in the right direction for the new year. And that would be a free three day anti inflammatory meal plan along with my E learning course which has 12 modulars to it. It really educates people on the basics of nutrition and movement and how to deal with stress. And then lastly is supplements. You know, obviously we're in peak of flu season and Covid it's really important to make sure that we eat correctly but a lot of times we're not able to eat a hundred percent. So you supplement where you need to and I will give 20% off on all my supplements that I have through my dispensary. And all you have to do is send me a email through the website like you just mentioned and just mention the podcast and I'll know what to send you.

Great. Cherylbuckley.com, cheryl, thank you so much for doing this.

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Hope everybody has a great holiday and a new year.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Mike Hartman Show. If you're enjoying what you've heard so far, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate that effort. We'll catch you in the next episode of the Mike Hartman Show.