# Ep. 4: The Key to Longevity + Graceful Aging with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon

An episode of [Grounded Wellness by Primally Pure](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1768354655), 2 Oct 2024, 1 h 01 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/11070acb8/podcast/play/117236844/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-2-20%2F420445526-44100-2-a8622dd3ae19e.mp3

In this episode, we sat down with the incredible Dr. Gabrielle Lyon to talk about the impact of muscle health on full-body health. Muscles comprise roughly 40% of body weight and are a huge (yet often neglected) factor in wellness. Dr. Lyon’s muscle-based approach to wellness brings unique insight into the importance of healthy muscles to live capable and full lives, well into old age. As a board-certified family physician and a pioneer in muscle-based wellness, Dr. Lyon helps us understand why building muscle is key for longevity. She helps simplify the things we all want to know, like how to: • Burn fat more easily • Feel energized throughout the day • Look even better than you feel • Reduce your risk of chronic diseases In other words, she teaches us how to age well. Dr. Lyon is the person you need in your corner. With dual experience in geriatrics and nutrition, she brings a unique + impactful insight into the body’s aging processes. She takes a new approach to medicine you probably haven’t heard of before. Her muscle-centric medicine model is based on the concept that the health of your skeletal muscle directly affects your overall health – for better or worse. Let’s dig in. Episode Resources: Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Website: https://drgabriellelyon.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drgabriellelyon/ Explore more from Primally Pure: Shop: https://bit.ly/4e1HzVv Blog: https://bit.ly/4gAeIsY

## Transcript

[0:01] Welcome to Grounded Wellness, your go to podcast for
[0:04] simplified and trusted information on how to live a
[0:07] more non-toxic and holistic life.
[0:10] We're your hosts. I'm Bethany McDaniel, founder of
[0:13] Primarily Pure, biohacking enthusiast and mom of three.
[0:16] And I'm Courtney O'Connor, holistic esthetician with over
[0:19] 15 years experience in the healing power of touch and
[0:23] holistic skin care rituals. Growing older doesn't have to be
[0:26] miserable and full of symptoms of declining health.
[0:30] If you're someone who wants to feel amazing and look great as
[0:32] you age, Doctor Gabrielle Lyons unique approach to health and
[0:36] Wellness is going to be right up your alley.
[0:38] In today's episode, Doctor Lyon is going to explain muscle
[0:42] centric medicine and I love her no nonsense approach.
[0:45] Your muscle health is directly affecting your overall health,
[0:49] for better or for worse. I really enjoyed this
[0:52] conversation and I know that you will too.
[0:54] Let's dig in. Doctor Gabrielle Lyon, thank you
[1:02] so much for coming out here and for joining us today on Grounded
[1:05] Wellness. I am so excited to dig into this
[1:08] conversation with you. First of all, thank you for
[1:10] having me, of course. Secondly, I have never been on a
[1:14] podcast set that is on the ground and there are chickens
[1:19] and pigs and trees on set. I mean all the.
[1:22] Animals. It's extraordinary.
[1:24] We just. Had a pig run through here.
[1:26] I mean, I, I don't know if I could ever podcast again.
[1:30] This will be. Amazing.
[1:31] This is it. This let.
[1:32] This be the last. One, this is it, and I'm so
[1:35] happy that it's here with you. They're running around playing,
[1:38] so yes, it's been fun. So beautiful.
[1:41] I'm sure they're having a great time.
[1:44] So you really were the first person that I had have seen
[1:51] really pioneer the movement of muscle centric medicine and just
[1:55] talk about the importance of muscle for health and longevity
[1:59] and protein to the extent that you're doing that and to the
[2:02] extent of like the masses that you are reaching with that
[2:05] conversation. And I think now it is starting
[2:08] to catch on. But thinking back, like, I feel
[2:12] like it was really you who spearheaded this whole
[2:15] conversation. So tell us a little bit about
[2:18] how you got into this and how you came to discover the
[2:22] importance of muscle when it comes to health and longevity.
[2:26] First of all, thank you so much because it's the most
[2:29] underappreciated conversation. Especially in Wellness, there is
[2:34] a bit of a division between fitness and then the Wellness
[2:39] community, skeletal muscles, everything.
[2:42] And before I tell you exactly what it does, let me tell you a
[2:45] little bit about the story of how this all happened.
[2:47] Let's hear it. I did my undergraduate in
[2:50] nutritional sciences. I was very active and you know,
[2:55] when you land in the presence of someone that changes your life
[3:01] in the way that you think. We've all had that experience
[3:04] where we're either listening to our mentor or we're seeing
[3:07] something and it just evolves our thinking in an instant.
[3:12] I was at the University of Illinois and I was in nutrition
[3:15] class and here comes Doctor Donald Lehman, my mentor now of
[3:19] over 20 years and he is one of the world leading experts in
[3:23] protein metabolism, protein and muscle.
[3:26] Here I am in the cornfields of Illinois recognizing that I'm
[3:31] learning from one of the best in the world.
[3:34] This changed everything for me. And then I I dedicated my life
[3:38] to nutrition and muscle. Fast forward to medicine,
[3:43] medical school and I have to say I was a bit of a reluctant Dr.
[3:47] The reason I went to medical school is because I felt an
[3:50] obligation to be able to do more than what I was able to do by
[3:54] just studying nutrition alone. And the reason I'm fast
[3:57] forwarding this is because this is like a 17 year education
[4:00] process and nobody has time for that.
[4:01] And by the way, I also don't recommend that for anybody.
[4:05] After two years of psychiatry, three years of family medicine,
[4:09] I went back. I went back to do a fellowship.
[4:12] I did a fellowship in geriatrics and nutritional sciences.
[4:15] You're probably thinking, why do you want to go back and do
[4:18] geriatrics? You were thinking that, weren't
[4:20] you? Anybody.
[4:22] I mean, geriatrics wasn't my first choice.
[4:24] I have to be honest. And for someone who's listening
[4:27] or watching, Geriatrics is the study of people 65 and older and
[4:32] being very interested in fitness and muscle and protein.
[4:36] The deal was in order for me to do nutritional science training,
[4:41] I had to choose a specialty to go back to get funding.
[4:44] It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because
[4:48] while I was studying nutritional sciences at Washington St.
[4:52] Louis, I had to do a graduate project, and that project was
[4:56] looking at body composition and brain function.
[4:59] I imaged this one participant's brain.
[5:03] She was in her mid 50s, a Mama 3.
[5:06] She'd always struggled with the same 20 to 30 lbs yo-yo dieting,
[5:10] doing what everybody told her to do, and her brain looked like
[5:15] the beginning of an Alzheimer's brain.
[5:19] And I felt responsible. I was like, she was eating less,
[5:25] exercising more, and doing what we were telling her as a society
[5:31] to do. And she couldn't get it right.
[5:34] And it's not her fault. It's impossible to get through
[5:39] the noise. And I had this flash of insight,
[5:43] and I'm sure you've had moments of that that's just changed the
[5:46] trajectory of primarily pure or the product or the information.
[5:51] And this moment of insight was that we've been focusing on the
[5:57] wrong tissue. She didn't have an obesity
[6:00] problem. What she really had was a muscle
[6:03] problem. And the challenges that she had
[6:05] been faced with from diabetes, insulin resistance, elevated
[6:11] triglycerides, all of the things that we put the fault on adipose
[6:15] tissue, it was her skeletal muscle health that was
[6:19] everything. You're focusing on the wrong
[6:21] organ. It was the wrong organ.
[6:22] It was the wrong organ system. We've been trying to fix an
[6:26] obesity epidemic for the last 50 years by focusing on the wrong
[6:29] thing. It was at that moment that
[6:33] Muscle Centric Medicine was born that the concept that I created
[6:37] in Fellowship was born. Wow.
[6:40] And so the idea of muscle being an organ was something that was
[6:44] unfamiliar to me until I heard you start talking about it.
[6:48] I don't think we often think of muscle as an organ.
[6:50] And you talk about how muscle is actually the largest organ,
[6:53] which most people will say that skin is the largest organ, but.
[6:56] That's so passe. Tell us a little bit about like
[7:00] the importance of having muscle and what it what its function
[7:03] is, because I think most people think it's just a vanity thing.
[7:06] It's a, it's a metric, you know, people that that want to look
[7:09] good, but there's so much more to it than that.
[7:11] Yeah, you know, skeletal muscle is the largest organ system in
[7:15] the body. What about if you don't have
[7:17] much muscle? Is it still Do you still have
[7:19] more muscle than your than your skin?
[7:20] What? A great question.
[7:21] Yes, by sheer mass, I mean, I'm saying that blanketly, but for
[7:26] the majority of people it's roughly 40% of your body weight.
[7:30] And for some people it's more, yes.
[7:32] So could you imagine if 40% of your body weight is this organ
[7:37] system and if it's unhealthy then you are walking around with
[7:42] low levels of chronic inflammation just based on the
[7:45] health of this tissue? So it's not only the amount,
[7:48] it's the health of the. That's everything.
[7:50] So if people care about how they're going to age, if they
[7:54] don't want to get heart disease, if they don't want to get
[7:56] Alzheimer's, there are all these diseases and things that we want
[8:00] to protect and prevent, then we have to take care of skeletal
[8:04] muscle. And I'm going to explain why.
[8:07] Skeletal muscle, you'd mentioned is very important for strength,
[8:11] mobility, looking good naked, all of the things that we care
[8:15] about, which if people say they don't care about it, you do.
[8:19] They're lying. They're lying.
[8:20] You guys are totally lying. But the other aspect of skeletal
[8:24] muscle is it's it's it's our metabolic sink.
[8:28] We have this great smoothie which I'm sure is lower in
[8:30] carbs. Protein whey protein smoothie
[8:34] that I made for us this morning. Skeletal muscle is the site for
[8:38] glucose disposal. The carbohydrates that we eat,
[8:41] the nutrients that we ingest, it has to go somewhere.
[8:44] It's so fascinating because when we eat, when we eat carbs,
[8:48] right, the glucose circulates in our bloodstream, causes
[8:50] inflammation, but the more muscle we have, the muscle can
[8:53] actually utilize that glucose and take it out of circulation.
[8:57] Yes, which is so cool. And everybody is is talking
[9:00] about insulin resistance. Insulin resistance, The pancreas
[9:04] produces insulin. Insulin moves blood glucose out
[9:08] of the bloodstream into cells. But what's so amazing is
[9:11] exercising. Skeletal muscle does not require
[9:14] insulin. That means that if you have
[9:18] carbohydrates and then you're active, your body doesn't depend
[9:23] on insulin. The body is using its own
[9:27] mechanism to be able to be under metabolic control.
[9:33] And skeletal muscle, as the metabolic sink, it utilizes
[9:37] glucose, which is important. Also, at rest, it burns fatty
[9:40] acids. We have 40 million people on
[9:44] statins. A better choice would be to have
[9:48] healthy skeletal muscle. And statins are what are
[9:50] prescribed for cholesterol high blood.
[9:54] No, just. Cholesterol.
[9:55] Exactly. Statins are medications.
[9:57] There are multiple different kinds whether it's fat soluble
[9:59] or water soluble. But these statins are almost
[10:05] giving out like water. It's like candy.
[10:06] Here's your chiclets side of the statin and whatever else that
[10:10] you're having so. Easy.
[10:12] And even when we're not using the muscle, it's there and it's
[10:15] working and it's benefiting us, right?
[10:17] That's now you're bringing up something that's really
[10:19] important. Sedentary muscle is not healthy
[10:21] muscle. There is no such thing.
[10:23] Just over the course of a day. So you know, we're using it
[10:26] regularly, but maybe not right in this moment, but it's still
[10:29] active as it is, but. And actually, it burns fatty
[10:32] acids at rest, which is great, which is wonderful.
[10:36] Sign me up. Yeah.
[10:37] Skeletal muscle also does a number of really interesting
[10:40] things. When you exercise and contract
[10:42] skeletal muscle, it releases myokines.
[10:46] And myokines are little hormones that go throughout the body that
[10:50] interface with your brain and your bone and your immune
[10:55] system. Skeletal muscle creates this
[10:59] inter organ crosstalk. It's this way that it can lower
[11:04] inflammation based on the intensity and duration of your
[11:07] training. And that becomes incredible
[11:10] because I think at the end of the day, what do we all want?
[11:13] We all want to live in a body that's healthy, that we feel
[11:17] good in, so we can spend time with our family, so that we can
[11:22] do good by humanity, do things that we love.
[11:25] And if we are feeling unhealthy and not being the best version
[11:30] of our self, then we we struggle.
[11:33] And the people around us struggle.
[11:34] Yeah, and it's also when you think about the pillars of
[11:37] health. Skeletal muscle has to be at the
[11:41] foundation. It's not just our physical
[11:42] foundation, but it's our foundation for metabolism.
[11:46] It's our foundation for how we can live in the world.
[11:49] You have to be strong. It'll make pregnancy better.
[11:52] The fitter you are, the easier your pregnancy should be.
[11:55] The fitter you are, the better your survivability against
[12:00] disease. You know, it's very unusual to
[12:02] be able to say this one organ system.
[12:05] The healthier it is, the greater your ability to survive nearly
[12:09] anything that you come in contact.
[12:11] With across the board. That's very unusual to be able
[12:14] to say. The benefits seem to be endless,
[12:17] like immune function lowers inflammation.
[12:20] Talk about like, as we age, what what does muscle do for, for
[12:25] aging people as they're, you know, getting up there in years?
[12:28] Well, what's so fascinating is skeletal muscle, I didn't tell
[12:32] you, is a nutrient sensing organ.
[12:34] It has the ability to sense the quality of our diet.
[12:39] And one of the reasons why I think that it has maintained
[12:42] this ability is that, for example, skeletal muscle is very
[12:47] sensitive to dietary protein. And your original question was,
[12:50] well, what happens as people get up there and as they age, the
[12:54] ability to sense nutrients, the quality of the diet goes down.
[12:59] Skeletal muscles ability to sense nutrients, dietary protein
[13:05] reduces as we age. What does that mean?
[13:08] That means that you can overcome what we call anabolic resistance
[13:15] with improvements in diet and exercise.
[13:19] Anabolic resistance is the decrease in the efficiency of
[13:22] being able to turn over or being able to maintain skeletal muscle
[13:26] health. Which happens as we age.
[13:28] It can happen as we age. Which can happen.
[13:30] I would also argue potentially it happens if we're sedentary.
[13:34] If you are younger and struggling with obesity, I think
[13:40] that there are components to youthful muscle almost
[13:44] responding like aging muscle. So maybe it's even more so just
[13:49] that we're more sedentary as we age, not necessarily even that
[13:51] we're aging. I think that there are
[13:55] components to that that are very likely true and that this idea
[13:58] of aging that is so pervasive may not necessarily just be an
[14:03] aging phenomenon. It is the way that we've treated
[14:07] the health of our skeletal muscle both nutritionally and
[14:09] through training that changes everything.
[14:12] And that if an individual goes through life and does the
[14:18] activity that they did when they were younger and let's say
[14:20] midlife, they're too busy. They're not training as much.
[14:23] Or in high school, they start being, you know, that they're a
[14:27] lot less active, you know, because when we were growing up,
[14:30] we didn't have all these tablets and the.
[14:34] Exactly. I mean, we were just talking
[14:35] about that like. We didn't grow up played, you
[14:37] know? For fun, that's what we did,
[14:39] right? It's just so the opposite now
[14:42] and it's so sad. And that the challenge is, is I
[14:45] think that we're accelerating the aging of our skeletal muscle
[14:48] because we are so inactive. The human body was designed to
[14:52] be pushed. Yes, it was.
[14:55] I love it when you talk about this.
[14:56] And I have another question on this too, but like this idea
[15:00] that women, that women should not engage in certain types of
[15:05] exercise because it's like too stressful for our bodies.
[15:09] Totally disagree with that. Explain.
[15:12] Yeah. And it's it's fascinating, I
[15:15] think that what we're seeing and you know, again, in the Wellness
[15:18] space, everybody means well. And there's a lot of
[15:24] complexities to being human, right, Being a human, at least
[15:27] it hasn't tells me that that human beings are complex.
[15:31] And you'll hear in the media or even on social media that women
[15:37] should change the way that they're training because whether
[15:40] it's resistance training or metabolic conditioning is too
[15:43] stressful for the body. Now, I would say that that is
[15:48] largely untrue. And of course, there are certain
[15:51] cases in which that may be true, with young athletes maybe
[15:56] becoming amenorrheic because of the volume and the stress.
[15:59] That's losing your period. Yes, but the reality is 50% of
[16:04] Americans don't exercise. Nearly 75% of Americans don't
[16:09] even meet the baseline criteria for physical activity.
[16:13] That's 30 minutes a day and two days a week of weightlifting.
[16:19] Nearly 75% of us don't meet that.
[16:23] Well, when I hear that women should cut back on their
[16:27] aggressive training, I think that that's a mistake.
[16:31] Yeah. And I know it's a mistake.
[16:33] I'm a physician that sees patients, right?
[16:36] We don't see that in clinical practice.
[16:38] What we see is that most people are not effective in their
[16:44] training. They are going and they are
[16:46] doing the same thing or they don't have a plan.
[16:50] They just decide to go to the gym and listen.
[16:52] Doing something is better than doing nothing but having a
[16:55] structured plan with a goal in mind.
[16:57] However, when it comes to training, you have to be
[17:00] organized. My goal for training is I want
[17:05] to become stronger. If I you know and I know that
[17:08] you've just recently embarked on a new strength training program,
[17:12] which I'm very excited to hear. Now you've opened Pandora's box
[17:15] because I'm going to be checking in on you, OK?
[17:17] Good. I'm ready for it because.
[17:19] I want to see you get stronger. I don't want you going to the
[17:21] gym to go to the gym because you're checking off a box,
[17:25] right? I want you going there because
[17:27] we've chosen movements that we think are important for you,
[17:31] whether it's push ups, whether it's squats, whether it's
[17:35] deadlifts. I want to know that once we've
[17:38] chosen these exercises, that you're progressing and that
[17:41] you're getting stronger and that you're getting more
[17:44] metabolically fit. It's amazing how quickly it
[17:48] happens. Like I, I've only been doing
[17:49] this for about 6 weeks and I already feel better and stronger
[17:53] than I did when I started. And it just, I feel like the
[17:56] muscles they're just like waiting for you.
[17:58] Like OK, when are you going to start using me?
[18:00] When are you going to start pushing me a little bit?
[18:02] Because something changed when I started utilizing my muscles
[18:06] more and not just like during workouts, like I have more
[18:10] energy throughout the day. I feel like I'm sleeping better.
[18:13] It impacts so many things like we've already talked about it.
[18:17] It's pretty wild. And one thing that we didn't
[18:19] talk about is, you know, skeletal muscle.
[18:21] Healthy skeletal muscle looks like a flay.
[18:25] Unhealthy skeletal muscle looks like a marbled steak.
[18:28] Interesting. And what happens is over time,
[18:31] if you are inactive, you get fat that infiltrates that tissue.
[18:36] Wow creates fibrosis, can displace mitochondria and not.
[18:43] Fat in the muscle, yes, can grow.
[18:45] It's called myosomatosis, yes. And when you look at a
[18:49] cross-sectional area of, say, a thigh, you will see fat in this
[18:54] tissue, and that changes its ability to produce strength.
[18:59] It also changes its ability to produce energy.
[19:02] What you're talking about is you're talking about the health
[19:05] of your mitochondria. Just by doing some kind of
[19:09] activity, your skeletal muscle gets immediate benefit.
[19:14] So can you get rid of that fat that's marbled into a muscle OK
[19:18] just by utilizing it more? OK.
[19:20] And the other thing is, is you've always been an in shape
[19:23] person. You've been active your whole
[19:25] life. Yeah, maybe you didn't have a
[19:27] defined program to the. Extent that I wanted with
[19:30] strength in the last few years, but yes.
[19:32] But because you did that and you set that foundation, it will
[19:36] always be easier for you to go back to that.
[19:40] And also, for the moms listening, it's never too late.
[19:42] I love how you say I've heard you say this before.
[19:45] The best time to start strength training was yesterday.
[19:47] The second best time is today. And that's absolutely right.
[19:50] Yeah, I think about my trainer. He's he's almost 60 and he
[19:54] didn't start until he was in his like early 50s and he is jacked
[19:59] now. So he's amazing what kind of
[20:01] progress you can make even later on in life.
[20:03] Yeah. And when you know what I think
[20:05] about all the things that we're trying to do in our lives to
[20:09] maintain energy and go to bed at this time and wake up at this
[20:13] time and eat these different foods, that is all critical.
[20:18] But if you are not addressing the health of your skeletal
[20:21] muscle, it doesn't really matter.
[20:24] And that's a big statement. Yeah, yeah.
[20:27] And I was just telling you earlier, like with my second
[20:30] child, I, I struggled a lot with recovery postpartum, just
[20:34] feeling like myself again, feeling good, losing baby
[20:37] weight, all of these things. And that's when you were so
[20:39] generous with your time and got on the phone with me and kind of
[20:41] broke down your protein recommendations for me.
[20:45] And you had some other really helpful tips too.
[20:47] But that was the only thing I changed at the time.
[20:50] I had been strength training previously, didn't start that
[20:52] again until very recently. So I wasn't strength training.
[20:55] I only changed my protein intake and kind of started balancing my
[21:02] meals around protein and that alone changed everything for me.
[21:07] You know, and the reason is, is as we age, our protein needs
[21:10] actually go up. It's the one macronutrient that
[21:14] we need more of, not less of. And in the beginning of our
[21:17] conversation, you said, OK, well what happens to aging muscle?
[21:20] And I said, well, it's ability to sense nutrients goes down,
[21:23] but also it's ability to turn over goes down.
[21:27] So its ability to maintain itself reduces as we age.
[21:31] The way to overcome that is only two ways.
[21:34] There's literally only two ways which makes this so simple.
[21:37] Strength training and protein intake.
[21:39] That's it. If you had to choose one, which
[21:41] one would you choose for people? I say OK, well first of all, no
[21:47] one ever has to choose one. You never have to, yeah, but you
[21:51] don't have to choose. It actually is strength
[21:53] training. Really.
[21:54] And that was one of the things that I really had to change my
[21:57] mind on. I always believed it's all about
[22:00] nutrition. And it is.
[22:02] I mean, you cannot build muscle without protein.
[22:05] However, you cannot just eat protein and build muscle.
[22:11] Yeah, I suppose you could maintain your lean tissue if you
[22:15] weren't, if you were low protein and then you're adding it in.
[22:19] But you're not going to essentially grow in a meaningful
[22:22] way without the stimulus. And you need that.
[22:26] And it doesn't take a lot of stimulus.
[22:28] You know, I worked on some of these early studies of post
[22:31] menopausal women and we had them doing five days a week of
[22:35] walking and two days a week of resistance training and eating
[22:38] protein. They maintained their muscle and
[22:41] they even put on muscle. Well, it wasn't crazy.
[22:44] It's not. Yeah, everyone can do that.
[22:46] Everyone can do that, but the caveat is put on as much muscle
[22:50] as you can as early as you can. Women are afraid that it's going
[22:54] to stress their bodies out too much or they're going to get
[22:57] bulky. That will never happen, But what
[22:59] will happen is your ability to put on muscle becomes more
[23:03] challenging as you age. If you can do it when you are
[23:08] younger, that's amazing. If you decided that that wasn't
[23:13] part of your program, you can still do it, but you're going to
[23:16] have to be much tighter on your nutrition.
[23:19] And from a dietary perspective, I recommend close to 1g per
[23:22] pound ideal body weight. OK.
[23:25] If someone is 200 lbs and their ideal body weight is £150 then I
[23:32] recommend 150 grams of protein. So what does that look like for
[23:37] you, like a a day of eating? How do you kind of build your
[23:41] meals around protein? What is your practically, what
[23:43] is your protein? What kind of proteins are you
[23:45] eating? How much?
[23:46] Well, you nailed it with a whey protein shake and I'm going to
[23:49] make this really easy for the listeners so they can go OK, I
[23:52] watched Bethany and Gabrielle. I know exactly what I need to
[23:55] eat. I know exactly how I need to
[23:57] train. Let's lay down with the have to
[24:00] eat. In the hierarchy of dietary
[24:02] protein, the first most important aspect is how much
[24:06] protein you're getting in in a day.
[24:09] So if we're thinking about this hierarchy, the base is how much
[24:12] protein. Now again, .7 to 1g is what I
[24:18] would consider ideal for everybody.
[24:21] If you are more plant based, then you need closer to 1 gram.
[24:27] The more plant based you are, the more overall protein you
[24:30] need. Because it doesn't.
[24:32] They're not often complete protein.
[24:34] It's not the same. It doesn't have the same amino
[24:36] acid profile. You need more of it.
[24:39] The second most important aspect is the quality of your protein.
[24:45] Where are you getting it? I use lean red meats, I use
[24:51] chicken, I use. Fish, I use.
[24:52] Eggs. I use Greek yogurt a lot.
[24:56] See you like dairy? I do.
[24:58] You like raw dairy? I well, you know, we don't have
[25:00] access to it. OK, I would, I mean, I would
[25:02] totally be all for it, but I mean, we live in Houston.
[25:07] I don't see. Certain parts of the country.
[25:08] Yeah, I mean, I I'm sure there's somewhere there, but yeah, we
[25:11] eat dairy and then also shakes. So when you think about people
[25:16] say, you know, I'm a busy mom, I run a business, I'm writing my
[25:20] second book. There's all kinds of I run a
[25:22] podcast. I need things that are easy.
[25:25] Whey protein is actually great for me and also for the kids.
[25:28] Same, I give it to my kids all the time.
[25:31] So that makes it super easy. And then the next thing that we
[25:34] have to think about is how we distribute protein.
[25:38] The recommendation that I have is make sure you hit at least
[25:42] two meals of between 30 and 50 grams.
[25:45] The first meal is the most important, and then I would
[25:48] argue that the last meal is the most important.
[25:51] Yeah. So quality.
[25:54] So breakfast, dinner in the middle, you've got a little
[25:58] wiggle room. Yeah.
[25:59] Yeah. And then one gram of protein per
[26:03] ideal body weight. Yeah, for everybody.
[26:05] And definitely, if they do nothing else, then they have to
[26:08] understand that that first meal of the day, increase it to 30
[26:11] grams, 30 to 50 grams. You know, I have a protein
[26:15] conversion chart for free so that people know what is 30 to
[26:19] 50 grams. Yeah, it would be a four ounce
[26:24] chicken or steak that would have around 28 grams of protein.
[26:29] OK, easy. I actually I feel like your
[26:32] protein recommendations are so easy to implement like that.
[26:35] It's not extreme, no, it's going to make you feel better right
[26:38] away. Something.
[26:39] That. Anyone can do, yes.
[26:42] And So what about strength training?
[26:43] Like what is the bare minimum that everyone should be doing?
[26:46] Two days a week. OK.
[26:48] Two days a week, full body. It's not ideal.
[26:51] They should do more. I would say I'm happy if you do.
[26:55] If someone is just listening, going, OK, how do I get started?
[27:00] We'll say two days a week. Full body of lifting.
[27:03] Weight and it could be a push, pull, squat, hinge.
[27:06] What about body weight versus lifting weights?
[27:08] They can start with body weight and then move to bands and then
[27:11] after bands I want you to move to weights.
[27:13] Yeah. And you can lift a heavyweight.
[27:17] I mean, the evidence would support that you could just do
[27:19] lighter weights and go to failure, But that takes a lot of
[27:22] time. I was showing you videos.
[27:24] My daughter is picking up a 35 LB kettlebell.
[27:26] Yeah, she doesn't even think that she can't do it.
[27:29] If we can make iPad and cell phones and computer screens part
[27:34] of our daily activity, how can you tell me we cannot make
[27:39] physical fitness part of our life?
[27:42] Right, it's all about conditioning.
[27:44] You brush your teeth. Having some.
[27:46] Push ups, I mean, and people would say, oh gosh, you know,
[27:50] that seems so extreme, but is it really?
[27:53] I'm priming my children to be strong and capable.
[27:56] Everything is so easy now. We have to manufacture
[27:58] challenges in our life in order to have the outcome that we
[28:02] want. I've never thought about that.
[28:03] It's so convenient. It's so easy that we have to
[28:05] manufacture challenge. Yeah, like you talked about like
[28:08] doing some push ups after you brush your teeth or like I'll do
[28:11] air squats. Like after I eat a meal, I'll
[28:13] like do air squats just to kind of like get that, get that
[28:17] glucose out of there. And that's exactly.
[28:18] Right, that's exactly how you leverage skeletal muscle.
[28:22] Two days a week, resistance training, full body.
[28:26] Every day you should be moving, every day you should be walking.
[28:29] And you can do things like add a little weight vest.
[28:32] Yeah, I've been using this. It's called an ion compression
[28:35] Compression vest. OK, It's amazing.
[28:38] How many pounds is it? It's like. 6 lbs five pounds.
[28:41] Great. I wear it all day long.
[28:44] Oh, that's awesome. Those little things make such a
[28:46] difference. I have these, that's it.
[28:48] It's called Bala I think Bala ankle weights and they're 2 lbs
[28:51] each so it doesn't seem like much but when I go on walks.
[28:54] I need to get that. Such a difference.
[28:56] They're kind of cute and you can put someone like.
[28:58] Sometimes I put some on my arms too, but.
[29:00] Those are the things. So how do we increase our non
[29:03] exercise activity because going and training two days a week,
[29:08] that's great. Is it enough?
[29:10] Well, it's enough to maintain what you have, but how do we
[29:13] then incorporate into our life doing more?
[29:16] Yeah. What's So what's the next level?
[29:18] Things like what's ideal for you?
[29:20] I think three to four days a week of for me, I do three to
[29:23] four days a week of resistance training.
[29:26] That's what I'm starting to do. Yes, and by choice I tend to go
[29:29] heavier. Well, you get more out of it,
[29:32] right? Not necessarily.
[29:34] No. That was another thing I had to
[29:36] change. OK, I believe that you had to go
[29:38] heavy in order to create stimulus, but the reality is you
[29:43] just have to go close to failure to create stimulus.
[29:46] For me, I only want to go to 12 reps If I was going really
[29:51] light, that might take me 25. I also think there's something
[29:56] about mental focus and concentration that becomes
[29:59] important. Yeah.
[30:02] Three to four days a week of those exercises and I don't do
[30:06] and I actually do so personally, I do full body because I'm
[30:10] working on overall strength and rehabbing some injury.
[30:14] But that would be a great place for people if they if I could
[30:18] wave my magic wand and say, OK, Bethany, in six months you are
[30:23] doing four days a week of resistance training that you
[30:26] could even imagine that you are going to train.
[30:28] Other days you will be transformed.
[30:34] I can imagine. I mean, the thing I I really
[30:36] have noticed differences in six weeks.
[30:37] So in six months, I'm like, I'm so excited.
[30:40] And now let's throw in high intensity interval training.
[30:43] OK, how about for that? Yes, metabolic conditioning, one
[30:47] day a week of you could even take it to your Max.
[30:50] So Sprint interval training, that's what I do and that's
[30:53] what. Sprinting is intense.
[30:56] I actually can't Sprint. I do it on an air dine.
[30:58] OK, and we go for the bike. All out kind of thing, yeah.
[31:02] Between 10 and 30 seconds is 30 seconds.
[31:07] You're probably not even pushing hard enough because you're doing
[31:09] an all out effort. But for me, it takes a second to
[31:12] kind of get into gear and you do that for four or five rounds
[31:16] until you can't really maintain those RPMS.
[31:18] And just once a week for that. Yeah, I mean.
[31:21] That's not that bad. No, but you throw that in one
[31:24] day a week and you're going to be doing amazing.
[31:29] Of course there's cardiovascular activity.
[31:31] Everyone is talking about Zone 2 training and yay, I don't know
[31:35] if anyone has time for that. There are ways in which you can
[31:38] improve your VO2 Max or your exercise capacity by doing high
[31:44] intensity interval training. It doesn't have to be this long
[31:47] drawn out kind of experience, but I do think the more you
[31:50] move, the better, yeah. Yeah.
[31:53] And so we talked about like, we're meant to perform under
[31:58] challenge. This isn't we're women, We're
[32:01] not like these delicate flowers that are not capable of being
[32:05] challenged and strained. What do you think, though, about
[32:08] like cycle sinking? Do you?
[32:10] Nothing. Nothing.
[32:12] OK. I don't the data is still too
[32:14] early. I think a more valuable point
[32:19] would be when women are perimenopause or post menopause,
[32:24] there seems to be an increase in tissue injury, tendon injury,
[32:28] because estrogen, progesterone, they all play a role in tendon
[32:32] health. And I think that's.
[32:34] And they decrease. Yeah.
[32:36] And I think that's the real, the real impact.
[32:39] But the cycle thinking for training, we're just the
[32:43] evidence doesn't really support that yet.
[32:45] Interesting. It's just you don't have to be
[32:47] truthful with the science. It's just not there.
[32:50] I mean, is there, there is emerging evidence that
[32:56] potentially that these hormones and it would make sense impact,
[33:01] but do we need to change our diet and our training with our
[33:04] cycles? I think it further complicates
[33:07] things. Yeah.
[33:08] And I think like everyone can kind of tap into their own
[33:10] intuition with that too. Like if there are days that you
[33:14] are just really like not feeling it for one day or another, you
[33:17] can kind of make adaptations based on that.
[33:19] But I also think it can be overcomplicated for some people
[33:22] to where you're trying to think, OK, the phase and the diet and
[33:26] the workout, like how do I tailor everything perfectly like
[33:29] it? It shouldn't be that.
[33:30] It can be kind of distracting. I would imagine it's just really
[33:32] trying to. It's a distraction and it it's a
[33:36] layer of complexity that I think is unnecessary.
[33:40] Yeah. What do you think about fasting
[33:43] for women? There's nothing magic about
[33:46] fasting. OK, tell me more because I'm a
[33:49] fan of fasting but I want to hear your perspective.
[33:51] There is. So I think the first thing is
[33:54] how do we define a fast? Are we talking about an 810 hour
[33:58] restricted feeding window? I do that.
[34:01] Yeah, and I think most people would consider that a form of
[34:04] fasting. But in my mind, fasting is 3
[34:07] days without food, 24 hours, 48 hour.
[34:11] That's kind of when I think about fasting.
[34:14] Yeah. But an 8 to 9 hour feeding
[34:16] window is perfectly acceptable, and it's a great way to manage
[34:20] calories. Yeah.
[34:22] And I've heard too that your growth hormone increases when
[34:25] you break a fast, like if you're if you're practicing a shortened
[34:31] feeding window regularly, that once you break the fast, your
[34:36] growth hormone hormone can increase.
[34:38] Is that is there any truth to that?
[34:39] And then you have like a higher propensity to build muscle.
[34:41] I would say no. And none of that is meaningful,
[34:46] right? That if, if it if that were
[34:48] true, then would that increase in that moment be meaningful?
[34:53] And it wouldn't be. Yeah.
[34:55] The way to build muscle is to train and to feed.
[34:58] Yeah. Fasting will not help someone
[35:00] build muscle. Now I will say the one aspect
[35:04] that I find very interesting is this training low training with
[35:09] low muscle glycogen that might impact muscle by causing it to
[35:13] release more myokines. What does that mean?
[35:16] Means when you contract skeletal muscle as an organ system, it
[35:19] releases these peptide molecules called myokines that are unique
[35:23] to skeletal muscle. And when you are training, say
[35:28] in a vasted, low carbohydrate way, meaning you've depleted
[35:34] your muscle glycogen, then your muscle responds differently and
[35:40] you might burn more fat, you might have a different brain
[35:44] effect, It releases more of these molecules.
[35:47] I think it's hard to say exactly what that outcome is, but that
[35:51] would be something where I think it's very interesting to think
[35:54] about. And that's training in a low
[35:56] carbohydrate state or in a fasted state.
[35:58] Well, in order to get to that low carb state, it's AI think.
[36:02] To burn them up by. Yeah, I think it would be a
[36:04] combination of a low glycogen state.
[36:07] OK, So not necessarily low carbohydrate diet, but I could
[36:12] put my body into a low glycogen state in a day.
[36:16] Yeah. So if you're training in the
[36:17] morning after after sleeping maybe and kind of.
[36:21] Maybe I see what you're saying. So maybe a two days of a low,
[36:27] depending on how high your carbohydrate is in your diet,
[36:30] maybe 2 days of a low carb diet and then you're training in the
[36:33] morning. Yeah, that potentially would be
[36:36] a low glycogen state that could have impact.
[36:39] OK. But here is where fasting.
[36:41] So, so let's kind of lay this out.
[36:44] An 8 to 9 hour feeding window is perfectly acceptable and that
[36:47] would be intermittent feeding. Intermittent.
[36:50] Would you call it intermittent feeding or intermittent fasting?
[36:52] I suppose either one, but if someone is older then I don't
[36:59] think that they should push their fast earlier in the day.
[37:02] So their first meal should not be if you are a perimenopausal
[37:06] woman or not perimenopause, let's say post menopausal woman.
[37:10] If you are 50, you don't have hormones, you're not on hormone
[37:13] replacement, then I don't think that you should fast all day and
[37:17] then have your because now you haven't stimulated muscle.
[37:19] Remember, the overall goal is how do we incorporate muscle
[37:23] health? Yeah, keeping the muscle
[37:26] building muscle. Right.
[37:27] So fasting, if someone is listening to this and they're
[37:30] like well I want to fast, then keep your feeding windows
[37:35] earlier. And then end them earlier in the
[37:39] day. So eat, you know, starting at
[37:41] 8:00 and then end earlier. Yeah.
[37:44] If someone is trying to get pregnant, I do not recommend
[37:47] fasting in the morning. Yeah, I have found that that
[37:49] seems to, and this is just anecdotal, but it seems to
[37:53] increase cortisol a little bit. It just doesn't seem like it is
[37:58] a good strategy. OK, that's good to know.
[38:00] What about? What do you do?
[38:01] Just in case for number 4. Just in case for number 4.
[38:05] Just throwing it out from the. Distance maybe?
[38:07] Maybe. But what is your you?
[38:12] I've heard you say you don't eat until a little bit later.
[38:16] But. Are you still doing that or?
[38:18] For me, I am very structured, so I have my meals typically very
[38:21] structured. I prep for the whole week.
[38:24] We prep a lot of lean steak and then a couple chicken dishes.
[38:29] So we have steak and chicken and vegetables, and we have rice and
[38:34] potato, and it's like exactly how we eat.
[38:36] Yeah. And it's all prepped.
[38:38] Yeah, we'll do crock pots in the morning, perfect with pot roast
[38:41] and carrots and potatoes and onion and it's like takes 5
[38:44] minutes in the morning to prepare and then you have an
[38:46] already made meal later that day.
[38:48] Or we'll do some kind of protein steak, chicken, something with
[38:52] I'll do like a big tray of roasted vegetables and potatoes.
[38:56] And it's very difficult to overeat protein.
[38:58] It is. Your body has this natural
[39:00] appetite towards it and so it will feed until it gets enough.
[39:05] And that's one of the reasons why people think with these
[39:07] highly palatable foods that they get obese or get overweight is
[39:11] because they're trying to feed for this protein.
[39:15] Yeah, their body, your body wants the protein.
[39:16] And if you you're not giving it, giving your body the protein, it
[39:19] will keep eating. It will keep searching for that
[39:22] until it has it. And it's so easy to overeat on
[39:25] carbs and fats. But if you're so would you
[39:28] recommend in a meal then like filling up on protein first?
[39:31] I do before you really like move on to these other food groups.
[39:34] I do. The other thing is we should
[39:36] mention carbs. How do we eat carbs?
[39:38] Because I don't think carbs are bad.
[39:40] And the idea is what's your carbohydrate tolerance?
[39:45] The current recommendation is 130 grams a day.
[39:49] The average American eats 300. The question is how do I know?
[39:53] The question is how do we dose our carbs?
[39:55] And if you are inactive, if you are sedentary at the moment,
[39:59] then your meal should not have more than 50 grams of carbs per
[40:03] meal. OK, you could do a one to one
[40:07] ratio of protein to carbohydrates.
[40:10] For example, the people that like carbs for breakfast, you
[40:13] can have 30 grams of carbs, but make sure that you're getting 30
[40:17] to 50 grams of protein. Yeah.
[40:19] So your meal should not exceed 50 grams of carbs per meal,
[40:23] otherwise you'll get it. This bump and insulin.
[40:26] Yeah. What about eating and working
[40:30] out in the timing with that? How do you how do you do that?
[40:33] How often after a workout do you need protein?
[40:35] Because I think the traditional way of thinking is like you need
[40:38] it right away. And that's what my trainer would
[40:40] tell me. But I want to know what?
[40:42] You think about the evidence supports that if you are young
[40:44] and healthy, there's no it doesn't matter when you're
[40:47] actually getting your carbs or your proteins in.
[40:49] Wow, there's no rush. It's in the 24 hour you.
[40:52] Don't have to race back home to make a protein shake.
[40:54] Where's Bethany? She left the farm.
[40:58] She ran to get her protein shining.
[41:00] But if you are older or if you have a lower protein diet, then
[41:03] it matters. OK, think about it.
[41:06] Because you now you've done resistance training.
[41:09] Exercise allows your body to respond like younger muscle.
[41:14] Older muscle responds like younger muscle when you drain
[41:17] it, meaning it becomes sensitive to nutrients.
[41:20] Because that's the whole thing is what are the blind spots that
[41:24] we're missing and that we have to account for?
[41:26] And one of the blind spots is understanding that our aging
[41:30] muscle is not the same as young muscle, but it can respond like
[41:34] young muscle. What we do is if you are, let's
[41:37] just pick an age, I don't know, 50.
[41:40] If you are 50 and you want to maintain the health of your
[41:43] tissue for you after you are done doing resistance training,
[41:48] getting in that protein, let's say I'll pick this number 90
[41:53] minutes and that's probably maybe pushing it a little bit
[41:57] because you you've now worked out and now you have blood flow.
[42:01] You want to provide nutrients in that blood to get to that
[42:05] muscle. If you are struggling with maybe
[42:08] a chronic illness that maybe is creating inflammation, one could
[42:14] potentially take advantage of nutrient timing.
[42:17] If someone is older, then this would be a way to take advantage
[42:21] of nutrient timing. So.
[42:24] OK, interesting. We haven't talked about skin
[42:27] yet. Great.
[42:29] What? How does muscle?
[42:31] It is not the largest. Organ.
[42:32] It's not the largest organ. We're going to stop saying that.
[42:34] We've said that in the past. We're not going to say it
[42:35] anymore. Never again.
[42:38] But how does muscle help your skin?
[42:41] Or does it? Does it have an effect on the
[42:43] skin? I've only seen one.
[42:44] I've seen one study OK that looked at those that did
[42:48] resistance training seem to have tighter skin.
[42:51] That's what I would think. I mean, I don't know if that's
[42:53] true, but. And like more circulation.
[42:56] Definitely more circulation. So definitely more circulation.
[42:59] The way that we move blood around is through activity,
[43:03] obviously through the heart pumping, but the way in which
[43:06] we're circulating and improving vasculature is through.
[43:10] Training and more circulation is great for skin health.
[43:13] So is pregnancy, apparently. Yes, the end of pregnancy.
[43:16] I love that those last couple of months I always have like the
[43:19] best skin ever. And you mentioned pregnancy.
[43:21] I know people are probably going to wonder what about during
[43:25] pregnancy like protein intake, strength training?
[43:28] What should women be doing? I trained throughout my whole
[43:32] pregnancy. You know, I think it's really
[43:34] important that we say, OK, what do we know and what do we think?
[43:38] And then what is my opinion? I looked into this literature,
[43:42] as you can imagine, at nauseam because I trained pretty
[43:46] intensely and I wanted to keep training.
[43:49] The general recommendation is to not stop what you're doing.
[43:55] Yeah, I feel like. People say that like don't if
[43:57] you're already doing something great, but don't start anything
[43:59] new. Which I always kind of wondered
[44:01] about too. Like, are we really not capable?
[44:04] I mean, listen, we are making a human.
[44:06] We could probably figure out how to do a kettlebell squat, right?
[44:10] Or raise a chicken or something. I didn't even know that they
[44:12] make noise like that. But the reality is, the
[44:17] healthier and more fit you are, the healthier your offspring
[44:21] will be. There is this idea of we know
[44:24] that when we train it changes gene expression.
[44:28] It changes gene expression for us and probably for our
[44:31] offspring. Wow.
[44:31] That's. Fascinating So.
[44:33] Like epigenetics already in the works, Yeah.
[44:36] Probably the best, the best advice that I would give someone
[44:40] is to train while you are pregnant.
[44:42] And it wasn't easy for me, by the way.
[44:43] You have to be really committed. Yeah, I had a hyperemesis
[44:46] gravidom. So you were sick like the whole
[44:51] time? For 10 months.
[44:52] Oh my gosh. For those that don't know what
[44:56] that is, it is where you vomit 9 to 12 times easily a day.
[45:01] It was terrible. How did you do it?
[45:03] I brought a barf bag with me and I would do a set and then I
[45:07] would throw up or sometimes I would do one exercise and then
[45:11] throw up. It was terrible.
[45:14] But that's dedication. I mean, I was going to be sick
[45:16] either way, right? I might as well work out it's,
[45:19] you know, I. Don't think a lot of women would
[45:22] have would have expressed that in this, like would have made
[45:25] that same choice. Yeah, that's amazing.
[45:27] I trained throughout both pregnancies and I swear.
[45:30] I mean, I don't know if this is true, but both of my children
[45:33] are very physically, yeah. I mean, I saw videos of of your
[45:39] kids like lifting like heavy weights.
[45:42] It's crazy. At their ages, it's pretty
[45:44] amazing. And I would say that the initial
[45:47] part of pregnancy, you're going to be very tired and you should
[45:50] absolutely honor that. But after that, I would say you
[45:56] have to maintain a fitness level.
[45:59] It's your responsibility and it's your responsibility to your
[46:02] children. And then protein recommendations
[46:05] for they don't have a ton of information out there, they'll
[46:10] recommend 90 to 100 grams. Is that enough?
[46:15] I mean, it's probably enough, but is it optimal?
[46:20] Maybe not. Yeah, I always felt the worst
[46:23] when I didn't have protein, like if I had a only carb meal that
[46:29] made me feel nauseous and gross while I was pregnant, versus
[46:33] like protein really seemed to satiate me and calm down any
[46:36] nausea I was feeling. I really I had a meat aversion
[46:42] when I was pregnant. It's not funny.
[46:45] That's that's awful. It's like a sick joke.
[46:48] I said this is a joke, this is terrible.
[46:51] But what I did do is I used a lot of shakes.
[46:54] Shakes are delicious. They're just, they're so
[46:56] convenient. That's a great way to get, I
[46:59] love whey protein. What about other forms of
[47:01] protein that we see in shakes, like if we're out at the juice
[47:04] bar or something? I see a lot of hemp protein, pea
[47:07] protein. What are your thoughts on those
[47:08] alternative like plant based protein?
[47:10] I mean, you can use them, they're high.
[47:12] They're, you know, I would say from a protein perspective,
[47:18] they've now made them so they have the same amino acid
[47:20] profile. Typically they've, you know,
[47:23] added amino acids to them. The other thing that we have to
[47:26] consider is we've been using whey protein forever.
[47:30] Pea protein is kind of a new invention.
[47:34] I'm sure that there are phytonutrients in there.
[47:36] And to the extent and to the degree at which we should be
[47:42] consuming that, I can't say. Yeah.
[47:44] Probably takes a lot of manufacturing to to take that to
[47:50] take like that food and turn it into a protein.
[47:53] But also what else is in it? I mean now we're highly
[47:55] concentrating this, you know pea that has some estrogen like
[48:03] activity. I mean, we don't know.
[48:05] Yeah. And soy kind of similar, right,
[48:07] in terms of the estrogenic? Yeah.
[48:10] So, So what I would do is, yeah, I think that they have a new
[48:15] kind of fermented plant based protein that might be a better
[48:19] choice. Yeah, but your preferred source
[48:22] overall is animal based. 100% yeah, more bioavailable, 100%
[48:26] more nutrients. I don't think plant protein is
[48:31] the way to go. Yeah.
[48:32] I think your plants for fiber and other vitamins and minerals
[48:37] but not for protein. Yeah, what do you think about
[48:39] organ meats? They're great for you.
[48:41] Yeah. But I'm not eating raw liver.
[48:45] I made, I made our shakes without rollover today.
[48:47] So. So you're good on that?
[48:48] But I do think, I mean organ meats are amazing.
[48:50] Yeah, yeah. And not necessarily high in
[48:54] protein content, right, except for maybe like the heart because
[48:57] that's a muscle. But, but in terms of nutrient
[48:59] profile, there's nothing. And they do have protein.
[49:02] They do. They do have protein, but I, I
[49:04] actually looked up, I couldn't find the data on it because I
[49:07] was curious about liver. Yeah, I wanted to see if it had
[49:10] the same amino acid profile. And from what I found, it was
[49:14] pretty similar. And I was surprised.
[49:16] Like I was surprised. Me, yeah.
[49:18] I was surprised. I haven't ever thought of it as
[49:21] like, I think of it as a multivitamin when I take it.
[49:24] So I never think of it as like, oh, I'm getting protein out of
[49:26] this. Totally.
[49:27] I don't eat a lot of it either when I eat it because it does
[49:29] taste so bad. Totally agree.
[49:32] But great. It's true.
[49:34] Great for nutrients. Let's talk about kids, family
[49:40] stuff. You are a busy, busy woman.
[49:44] You travel. How do you How do you do it all?
[49:48] How do you? I have no idea what day is it.
[49:51] I can't even find my socks. I'm so impressed by just like
[49:55] the fact that you brought your daughter on this trip, you know,
[49:57] I think that's amazing that you're giving her the chance to
[50:00] experience what you do and be a part of that.
[50:03] I think that's missing and it's, it's easy to just, you know,
[50:06] avoid that and kind of segment and separate things in our
[50:09] lives. But I love that you brought her
[50:11] here with you and that she's getting to like see what you do.
[50:15] So how do you, how do you kind of like bring her into your
[50:17] life? And then how do you stay healthy
[50:19] while traveling also? Well, for the moms out there,
[50:23] it's not easy. It's not easy to put forth
[50:29] effort to make impact, and it's not supposed to be.
[50:34] It's like that idea of like choosing your hard, right,
[50:37] because it's like it's hard. It's harder to, you know, figure
[50:41] out the right balance and incorporate your kids into your
[50:43] work and, and all of that. But it's also on the flip side,
[50:46] it would be hard if you didn't do that to later in life not
[50:49] have a close relationship with. Your child.
[50:50] I'm not doing that. Yeah, for me, I mean, they're
[50:55] integral into everything that I'm doing.
[50:57] Yeah, it seems like it. As opposed to, like you said,
[51:00] segment it, we, we work out together, we eat together.
[51:08] And I'd imagine they eat the same foods you eat.
[51:10] Yeah, but they're also kids, so, you know, they're exposed to
[51:15] junk food, too, from their friends.
[51:17] And, you know, I tried also not to make it a way that kind of
[51:24] creates a negative experience for her.
[51:28] She knows what's healthy and what's not and I give her the
[51:32] opportunity to self regulate. What's interesting is my son,
[51:35] who's three, he doesn't really like any of that stuff.
[51:38] Wow. He's really into healthy food
[51:42] and and that's what what he likes.
[51:44] Yeah, I think the earlier you start them, it's it's amazing.
[51:47] Like my kids were eating like liver was one of their first.
[51:50] Foods, that was. Disgusting like, but they loved.
[51:52] It and I lived in the bag like liver was our our first food.
[51:57] Too. So cool.
[51:57] Yeah. So if you give them that stuff
[51:59] early on, it's a lot easier versus trying to incorporate
[52:03] that later on. It can be more challenging if
[52:05] kids are used to eating eating a certain way.
[52:07] And we don't have foods that are not good in the house.
[52:11] Yeah, we just don't. And we do a lot of talking, you
[52:17] know, talking, being outside. What are you grateful for?
[52:20] Yeah. And I think that the.
[52:22] Emotional component is not something to be ignored when it
[52:25] comes to health and Wellness too.
[52:26] And then I think that you just build strong families, cause
[52:29] strong families are the future. Yeah, absolutely agree.
[52:32] Yeah, OK. I want to do kind of some rapid
[52:36] fire stuff. Great with you.
[52:37] Do you drink alcohol? No.
[52:39] Why not? It's disgusting.
[52:41] You hated it. You just hate the taste.
[52:42] You've always hated the taste. One of those people.
[52:44] OK, What do you think about alcohol from a health
[52:47] perspective? Is there a place for alcohol in
[52:50] a healthy lifestyle? Is this yes or no?
[52:55] Yeah. No.
[52:57] What do you think about creatine?
[52:58] Great for women, great for the brain, great for older
[53:02] populations. The current recommendation is 5
[53:05] grams. You could go higher and I've
[53:08] actually calculated how much food you would have to eat to
[53:10] get creatine in your diet. It would be nearly impossible
[53:15] to. I think in a pound of red meat
[53:18] it's like 2G. Wow, that's crazy.
[53:22] Yeah. So we're not getting that much
[53:23] of it. No.
[53:25] OK, yeah, I know. Growing up, it was always, I
[53:27] thought of it as something like bodybuilders used.
[53:30] And then more recently, I've learned about the brain benefits
[53:32] and just how it's really an important nutrient for everyone.
[53:35] Not actually goes to how do how do we create a diet though that
[53:41] has all these nutrients? The only place that you get
[53:44] creatine is from animal products.
[53:46] Yeah, just throwing that out there.
[53:47] Yeah, but 5 grams for muscle and 10 or higher for brain, OK.
[53:53] OK, good to know. Budget aside, what is your
[53:58] biggest health or Wellness splurge that you're loving right
[54:01] now? I don't know.
[54:10] Could be like a treatment that you've been getting or like AI
[54:14] don't know if you're into any like biohacking.
[54:17] I love a good cold plunge. I'm waiting.
[54:19] Yeah, I'm waiting for my new cold plunge.
[54:22] Which one did you get? So I got so I love the plunge
[54:26] have. You.
[54:26] That's the one. That we have.
[54:27] OK, so they just came out with a new plunge.
[54:30] OK, so how long do you cold plunge?
[54:32] How often? Oh, at least three days a week.
[54:35] Nice. At least three days a week.
[54:38] How long do you do it for? Well, I'm married to a former
[54:42] seal. Have you ever heard of Winter
[54:43] Hell Week? No.
[54:46] I've never have ever heard the end of it.
[54:49] So it's basically they're out there in 50° water for days, for
[54:55] four days. So Needless to say, when I do my
[54:59] 5 minutes, I might do 3 to 5 minutes.
[55:02] That's a lot. That's impressive.
[55:04] What is your biggest guilty pleasure when it comes to food?
[55:07] Or do you have one? I don't have one.
[55:10] You know what? I guess you could say caffeine.
[55:12] OK, how many cups of coffee do you do?
[55:16] 3. Do you ever have it late into
[55:18] the day? Because I.
[55:19] Yes, ma'am, and. You've sleep fine.
[55:21] Probably not, but I have two little children and three
[55:24] businesses. Probably not.
[55:26] I get that. What are your biggest secrets
[55:29] for healthy glowing skin? Collagen, Yeah, and great
[55:35] topical products that have vitamin C and Koji, I think it's
[55:39] called Koji acid. Is that right?
[55:44] I would say that that's it. Exfoliate.
[55:46] Yeah. Sunscreen A good derm?
[55:50] Yeah, your skin's beautiful. Thank you.
[55:53] And so collagen, yes, tell, tell our listeners about the benefits
[55:57] of collagen for skin health. Collagen is amazing.
[55:59] I think it's really underrated. And we'll first say that
[56:02] collagen is an incomplete protein.
[56:04] So please do not tell this. Do not.
[56:08] But for hair, skin and nails, I think it's amazing.
[56:11] So for me, I do, I might do 18 grams a day, and I think that
[56:16] there's probably benefit to going above that.
[56:19] And I use it every day I use it. I was telling you about this
[56:22] strong coffee and how can we get collagen in our daily life.
[56:28] And I think coffee is amazing to do it.
[56:32] I also think for skin, polyphenols are important things
[56:35] like adding in makia Berry or some kind of polyphenol, whether
[56:40] it's berries or whatever you're doing, anything that can be.
[56:43] Yep. Yeah.
[56:44] Also some good evidence for hyaluronic acid, topical and
[56:47] internal. And then really a good diet.
[56:50] I think a good Whole Foods diet that has plenty of protein.
[56:52] So in order to have good skin, you do need protein.
[56:55] Yeah, what are your thoughts on Botox?
[56:58] Sign me out. Yeah, Yeah.
[57:00] So what about so when it comes to like muscles and the idea
[57:04] that we want to utilize the muscles to build strong healthy
[57:07] tissue and like with Botox having kind of a paralyzing
[57:11] effect on the muscles, do you think that there are concerns
[57:15] with? That I don't.
[57:16] I don't because the muscles that we're talking about, our facial
[57:20] muscles versus muscles that you would be using for locomotion.
[57:26] I think that Botox has been around for a long time and I
[57:29] don't think it's a systemic toxin and I don't think that
[57:32] there's long term negative effects at all.
[57:35] What about like muscle atrophy in the face?
[57:38] I just don't see it because you're you use your muscle all
[57:41] the time and also depending on how they do it.
[57:45] For example, what is the outcome of having a paralyzed forehead?
[57:49] Probably nothing, because the muscles also so small that
[57:53] facial muscles aren't necessarily muscles that you
[57:56] would build and notice that you would build it.
[57:59] So, so small that maybe we're not.
[58:02] Even if they were kind of like wasting away, it wouldn't be
[58:04] something that you would that would be like noticeable.
[58:08] And I don't, I don't necessarily think that they would waste
[58:10] away. I mean, I think it's a very
[58:11] interesting question, but they're just such small muscles
[58:16] in the, you know, the not just diameter, but just the whole,
[58:21] the structure of it. Yeah, I know.
[58:23] I wonder about that just because of like the importance of
[58:27] movement for creating healthy tissue and like what is that
[58:30] doing? And we're not allowing that
[58:31] movement, you know, over an extended period of time.
[58:34] Yeah, I think it's an interesting question, but you
[58:37] know, I, I suppose I haven't ever really thought about that.
[58:40] But again, the muscles of the face are so small and yeah, I
[58:47] don't know. And I think that people have
[58:48] been using Botox for so long and we've never seen any negative
[58:52] outcomes. I feel like celebrities have
[58:54] been using it forever, but then the, but then they're also doing
[58:57] so many other things right that we don't even, most people don't
[59:00] even like have access to. And I wonder about the general
[59:03] population and, and I think with people that are less experienced
[59:07] now and ministering it on much on a much wider scale, like I
[59:10] wonder if there will be more implications down the road with
[59:14] with some of that stuff. And I also think it just depends
[59:16] on and what someone's beliefs are.
[59:19] You know you can age beautifully without Botox.
[59:23] Yeah, it's not a morality issue by any means.
[59:26] It's like it's a personal choice for sure.
[59:30] It's not something that anyone should feel like shame or guilt
[59:32] over. But yeah, I think it's an
[59:35] interesting, interesting thing to talk about.
[59:38] Yeah. What?
[59:40] What helps you feel the most grounded in life?
[59:43] My family. Sweet.
[59:46] Yeah. It seems like you guys are very
[59:47] close and like that you really prioritize togetherness and like
[59:52] creating a a solid home dynamic. Yeah, and you know, also
[59:56] friends. I think relationships are
[59:57] everything. I think that's so easy to forget
[59:59] about that as. Not for me.
[1:00:02] I love. That.
[1:00:03] No, but I've, I've gone through periods where I've been so
[1:00:05] focused on like my family and my work and then the friendships
[1:00:09] kind of are the first thing to, to fall by the wayside.
[1:00:13] And I've been working on that a lot in the last few years of
[1:00:18] really like making that a priority because it is
[1:00:20] important. Yeah, I think that.
[1:00:23] I think relationships are everything.
[1:00:26] Yeah, I agree. OK, I have your book here,
[1:00:29] Forever Strong New York Times bestseller.
[1:00:33] Tell us like people can buy this.
[1:00:35] Tell us where people can find good book, where people can find
[1:00:37] you and connect with you. So they can go to my website.
[1:00:40] Doctor Gabrielle Lyon. I have a podcast and Instagram,
[1:00:44] a free newsletter. I provide a ton of content.
[1:00:47] YouTube, we have a clinical practice.
[1:00:49] You name it, we do it. Well, thank you so much for
[1:00:52] joining us today. And then we probably went
[1:00:53] overtime, but I really, I appreciate your time and I'm
[1:00:57] sure our kids are not even like wondering where we are right now
[1:01:00] because we're having so much fun.
[1:01:02] Thank you so much for having. Me.
[1:01:04] I really appreciate everything that you're doing in the world.
[1:01:07] Thank you so much. Likewise, you're such a wealth
[1:01:09] of knowledge and I think our listeners will get so much value
[1:01:11] from this conversation, so thank you so much.

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