Project Elivate Episode 5: Nutrition Basics

Welcome to project Elivate, where we will discuss all things related to health, hormones, esthetics and longevity. The topics discussed are the opinions of Olivia Stivers nurse practitioner. They're not intended to diagnose with the treatment conditions. If you have any questions or concerns, reach out to your provider or see us at Elivate. 

Elivate podcast episode number five. And per request, we have decided to dive into nutrition basics. I think that this episode is going to be a little bit jam packed. So, bang with us. Oh my gosh. Bear with us. Bear with us. We're going to bang it out and you bear with us. 

But before we do that, we are excited, because not this weekend, but next weekend, next weekend, we're going to the Valentine's gala for the Fight Foundation, who supports childhood cancer research. So by the time you listen to this, we have went, we have gone and you should look at our pictures. I know you're pretty cool now you are too. We're wearing green. Two redheads wearing green. I think Ashley's wearing like a velvet crushed outfit. Look out.

So it'll be a good time. Alright, so let's first talk about we always preach balanced nutrition. But what does that mean? I think that a term a lot of people use. How many times do you hear, “I eat clean, eat healthy.” Every time we sit down with somebody, “we eat clean.”

What does that mean?

So in my, I guess I could say my opinion, but I would say it's fact. There are really, I don't believe that there's any such thing as a bad food. Get that bad food out of your out of your mind. Don't think you cannot have a certain food. You can. It's how you put that certain food with other foods to make a balance, how you incorporate it into your life. Yes, the way we teach our patients to focus on nutrition is in a way that's we're not taking foods away unless there's like a food allergy of some sort. We don't have an option. But we try to teach people how to eat the macronutrients, which are your carbs, your fats and your proteins, in a way that's balanced. So one of the things that we use to determine someone's nutritional needs is by checking an InBody scan. We use an InBody scan, it gives us the metabolic rate. It tells us how much muscle mass you have on board, especially muscle masses in your legs, where your visceral body fat, or total body fat, is. We look at these things and we determine, Okay, what are your goals? And most of the time, I would say a lot of people think lose weight. That's the number one thing here, yep, but we have to look at that basal metabolic rate. And first determine, are you metabolically stable in a calorie deficit to lose weight? And so there are three things we could be doing when we could either be maintaining your weight, you could lose body fat. That's cutting, yeah. And then there is a Yeah, like a recomp where you're trying to put on more muscle mass. I don’t like the term “bulk,” because it scares people, but essentially you're trying to eat enough to build muscle. Yes, you do lose fat when the process of gaining muscle, but your weight specifically does not change.

So from there we determine calories. Let's first determine, if you ask anybody what a calorie is, a lot of times people say, “I don't know, it's just in food, yeah.” But calories just a term, and it's job is to define a unit of measurement of energy, yes. So when you're giving someone 150 calories of a snack, they're taking in 150 units for their body to use to break down into glucose, to shuttle into the cell for energy to exercise and live. So those calories, when you're looking at food, those calories, can be determined by the macronutrients within that food. So I've got a little snack here, and again, our macro fat and your protein, and we'll talk about what those do for our bodies here in just a second. But this here, I've got almonds, a pack of almonds, and the calories per serving. So this is for 19 pieces. The calories are 170, calories. Where are those calories coming from? Well, 14 grams, your carbohydrates are 10, and your protein are five. So if you are, if you're driving, please don't do this. But if you're sitting still, I want you to do me a favor. Get a pen and paper right now, write down and commit this to memory. One gram of fat is nine calories. One gram of carbohydrates is four calories. One gram of protein is four calories. If you take this nutrition label and you take 14 grams of fat, and you multiply that by nine, you will get that's 126 so, so write down 126, apply this 10 grams of carbs by four, because one grams is four calcium, that's 46 we've got 40 now we're going to determine our protein. It's five grams in the snack. Five times four equals 20. So then add those three together, you're going to get 186 calories. So this label is, I don't get caught up in that. I'll explain that in just a minute. So for 19 pieces of this, you're actually getting 186 calories, and most of those calories are coming from your fat macronutrient. Okay, so that's not a bad thing, but let's dive into what each macro nutrient does for our bodies. Is that very nice? And you might have to watch that. Back a couple of times just to kind of get it into a patient here, Elivate wellness locally, somewhere that there is an embody that VMR calculator. There are plenty of ways you can get a hold of that online. The InBody is a little more specific, because it's actually truly using your weight and everything and measurement while you're on platform, but those calculations online that you can find going to get as close enough? Yeah, go with it. Yeah. Go with it. That's a great start.

Okay? And I want to, don't let me forget, because I do want to go back into that base when I was all great, and add your current activity. So and that's something that being more online calculator, too. If you're not having your inbox, it does for you. Here in office, we actually do that for our patient class, how they're working out,  what their normal lifestyle looks like. Yeah. Okay,

so let's talk about my protein, protein and fiber. But protein, is king of all micronutrients, not getting enough protein or several, is why you can't lose, why you're not building muscle. So protein is actually Greek word that stands for first place. Yeah, its job is to superficially. This is there's more to this, but builds muscle. It's immunoprotective, it stabilizes blood glucose, and it helps with satiety. So when you're eating your protein naturally, you're going to feel fuller. You're less likely to binge on things that don't serve your body as well, and it increases your metabolism. So when we talk about being it, being immune when we come in contact with viruses or build up antibodies to those antibodies are protein. If you're not eating enough protein, you have a difficult time building these in the body. I don't care. This is me being okay, get my tin foil hat, I guess, whatever, what you put into your body to increase your antibody, such as, like vaccines and things like that, those vaccines you can't build build up.

So two, which leads back to, like, high orbit patients that we're still getting vaccines, we're not gonna go down there, because we're not coming their lifestyle put them at those risk factors and not beating their body properly. But then the risk factors, yes, you're taking a vaccine, but you're not able to utilize that. We talk about the increased metabolism. So when we're taking in protein, it actually you, your body burns more calories to break that down, compared to something like your simple sugar likes and things like that you need to use a protein to do right there.

Again, we use antibodies Gambit.

So anywhere from point eight to 1.2 grams per pound of lean complex is what we use. Yes. So if you're more active, if you're an athlete, you're going to need the higher end, 1.2 grams. If you're a little bit more sedentary, let's say, yeah, you still need a lot, but it's like more like a point eight to one gram per pound of lean muscle mass, especially when you're first starting to incorporate protein really into your diet. People's gonna learn very fast. You're not eating a lot. So sometimes starting off with our patients on that lower end, just eating protein, is a great place to start. Yeah, exactly. And it is one of those things you have to gradually add that in if you're used to on average, like if you look as in my fitness pal, yeah, their recommendations actually, what is it the FDA, their recommendations are 60 grams. That's standardized across the board, and that's, no, it's not. It's enough to keep someone who's sick laying in a hospital bed, like a lot. That's it. So we definitely need more than I would say, on average, people are actually eating around 60 to 70 grams a day, and they need to gradually increase that little by little, but doesn't throw their GI tract off. Yeah, you have to acclimate. Okay. Anything else on protein? Oh, hello. Go ahead. I was going to say too. Just food for thought when I had my surgery too, that was actually part of my post-op care on healing my incision, healing wounds and stuff like that. He told me he specifically wanted me drinking a 30 gram protein shake with my meal, every meal. So the shakes alone, I mean, I was eating 200 if not more, grams protein a day. I was in health, just food for thought, like we're not the only one that thinks this way. This is we're talking about a plastic surgeon who's like sitting here taking like, 30 grams of protein every meal, every meal,

I would be interested to how many? How many times? Oh, man, I'm rich. Seriously, my kids, if you ask them, right now, what do I preach? I don't care. Listen, people tell me, I eat protein. You don't eat that protein. No, I'm not especially Okay, so there are different types of proteins, so you need to remember there's complete proteins and there's incomplete protein. So I am not by any means dogging vegan or vegetarian or anything like that, because I know you guys are working really, really hard to get your protein intake in. But when it comes to you have to put foods together in order to get the complete which actually has all non essential amino acids, yes, meaning our bodies do not make them. We have, we have to actually take those in. And I think too, people don't realize so when you're starting a lifestyle, and when you're doing vegan and things like that, you're trying to get your protein via food, you're going  to increase even to meet that requirement. And already I have problems with my patient till 10, I don't eat till things you're not you're going to make order on yourself if necessary. Yeah, and there's like she said, I'm, we're I'm not against it either. I'm not against it either I'm not at all. But you just have to be mindful on what task or what what battles you create for yourself, and is that worth that battle? That's a good way to say that.

Okay, carbohydrates would be our next one. Okay, I want to say this carbs, I think it's they're becoming more friend there. For a while it was like, carbs are bad. Carbs are bad carbs are bad carbs in moderation, yeah, you have to have carbohydrates. They’re our body's preferred source of energy. But there are, there's a difference. I mean, there are simple and complex carbohydrates. Yes, complex carbs are harder to break down. They're good for you. They could generally contain more fiber. And those I try to add into their diet. That doesn't mean that you can't have, you know, a handful of gummy bears every now and then I get it like most. And this is where that healthy versus clean comes into play. And I think before I eat clean. Understand too what a complex carb or simple carb is. And this is kind of rule of thumb. I kind of tell my patients, if you can pluck it from the ground, or if you it's a grain, anything like that, if it's something in its whole form from the outskirts of the supermarket, that is more likely to be a complex carb versus anything like a chip bag, a donut, anything you pop, feel,  open, rich, smells good. That's a quick carb, like gummy bears, chips, crackers, like little tidbits like that, just kind of consuming something really fast versus having something of value.

A sweet potato, nutrient dense. Yeah, and this going just again, going to serve your body well,

which we could even go down that one, and I can literally show you calories. Look how much

a whole potato, potato, slapping some butter, cream on there, and you're just a couple more calories, more than this yea, 12 Doritos that you had. And that's just things you learned wrong way.  Fats are the next one. So fats are important because build healthy cell walls. They help maintain, yeah, hormones. They help us absorb vitamins such as A, D, and E. You have your essential fatty acids, such as omega threes, and those are things your salmon, some types of things there. Or you can supplement. I always recommend that you supplement with Omega three. Yes, because our bodies are continuously breaking down, you have to replace the Omega threes. They are essential again, meaning that we don't make them.

We have to rely on outside tools.

You have your monounsaturated fats or polyunsaturated fats or saturated fats and your trans fats. So your healthy fats, I guess, should be your monounsaturated fats and your poly. Yes, those are gonna be like again, your nut butters, your omega threes, your saturated fats and your trans fats are typically going to be found in more of like your processed foods, trans fats that are actually going to be like your life takers. They have now those used to not be. The FDA has now said that you have to label these on food labels. We understand the value of them more and what they play in our home, and that's why we do. In general.

But it's true. So they're back in what the 80s, 90s facts were like, Oh, you gotta be a low fat, low fat, low fat, diet. But we have to have enough fat. We have to have a healthy cholesterol. We actually have to have a total of 150 our cholesterol has to be at least 150 for a healthy one yes. And so if you're like limiting bad or you're on things that are going to reduce that, obviously you're going to have some hormone dysfunction, and that's all fat. So now let's go into because I think the biggest question is, okay, so this could go many ways to anyone application. So first of all, anywhere you are, let's just start there and that, and I say that with a low margin, and that's where we have to first of all, if we're going to choose to optimize our health, we're going to have to track you. I always say this to you, have to be a researcher for yourself in your own health. First, you have to take responsibility, and you have to make you have to choose yourself. There's no way around that. So first of all, I think that's the thing I do that with my patients a lot. I'm like, why are we doing this? What's your what's your goal, what's your achievement. So then we remind ourselves of why, therefore you have agreed. Now we're going to develop a plan, and we're going to try to stick to it. So we use things like My Fitness Pal, we talked about this before, but I don't care if you put it, and I said this on my own personal pages. I don't care if you put it in your notepad, whatever. Take accountability and pay attention to what you're putting in your mouth. First in steps number one, that's hard in itself, because we have to be honest with ourselves of how much we’re eating.  That's accountability.

Well, it gives us insight to for tracking. This is, I prefer an app, because if you're tracking your group, let's say, let's that's when you realize, oh, wow, I'm taking in way less protein or way more calories, or way under calories. Yes, it gives where this is your baseline. We have to, I can't do the service if you're not just being honest with yourself first, yeah, and then how we're going to go about that then. So like, can we go into the InBody, we can just say that too well, so when we get your basal metabolic rate, we then ask you, how active are you? Well, then we use  an activity multiplier that we will multiply your BMR by, and that is your maintenance calories. So then we determine where your maintenance calories are, if you don't want to change anything, okay, if you determine your maintenance calories, we say, Okay, what do you want? Do you want to lose weight? If you're in a position you have enough muscle mass, is your basal metabolic rate high enough to where you can sustain a calorie deficit to lift calories from that maintenance, if we recommend, and we do this often that we actually spend some time doing metabolic repair. That's called a reverse diet. But some people need to add, we slowly add calories back in, assuming you're going to stretch, we build muscle, put you in a better place metabolically. Maybe it takes 6-12, months even, and then start doing a calorie deficit. Nobody wants to hear that, but that's a really important piece. Yeah, your metabolic and truly,

And if you've never tracked your food at all, even just putting you in maintenance calories, like she said, yeah, if you're not even used to eating that step one, that's going to be hard. So why would I sit here and put you some people can handle it. Some more, and others met in your personal preference. But we're trying to make if you're if you've never even like, looked at your food and determined how much I'm just eating on the regular, and then I'm out. Yo, well, we really want to take 500 away from that work to start off with when I like slower introduction, but when we're saying these things we do, it's like loving our hearts. I don't want you to be what it feels like to be miserable. And then that's when we get into things like protein and carbohydrates, and how we try to take that to you based off of labs, your A1C, your insulin, what your muscle mass is and how much protein you need. And that's when these macros really come into shine in that aspect. I still track my food. To this day, I still track my food, and I can get everything that I do and personal story. That's what we're about working on right now, is recomposition, and we're trying to improve overall physique changes. I wish people would get out of this mindset, let me lose weight. Let me lose weight. Let me lose weight when really you just want to look better and what else can I talk about making this attainable? Well, I think to going back to so once we determined your calories, then we take those calories, and that's when we divide them up into the micronutrients. For you, I typically you're probably the same way. I start with protein because protein's king. You never listen. It's the easiest one to figure out. You're going to eat your carbs, you're not going to hit your protein. Yeah, I'm sorry that's a generalized blanket statement. You're not eating your protein. So why? That's why we prioritize, if I'm going to prioritize to eat two things off the rip, calories, proteins.

Well, my thing is, if you're hitting your going to, if you're hitting your macronutrients, you'll hit your calories. I've prioritized. I look at protein. I'm like hitch protein. So we, we set your protein goal, then from there, we set your fats. So your fats should make up anywhere from like 30 to 35% of your overall calories, so that, and then the rest of it can be your carbohydrates Now, depending on the patient there are other factors that we may borrow from your carbs and add to your fats or add to your protein. So helping you out individually, once we've set it into my fitness pal, we ideally would like you to divide your meals out into like 4 even in a day. So you're eating your breakfast couple hours later, you're getting a snack, then you're getting your lunch, then you're getting snacks, then you're getting your dinner. Yes, you're going to feel full because you're actually fueling your meal correctly. You're getting more protein in it keeps that material going, but you're actually taking in less calories, and you're going to lose body fat if you're in a calorie deficit. In a calorie deficit. Now, how would we structure our meals, like, like breakfast? Let's, let's give some examples of what a breakfast, a balanced breakfast.

Well, I had, I use that keto bread a lot, like cinnamon keto bread, just because I like to taste a lot of fiber that has fiber, I put a little bit of peanut butter on it. I weigh out my peanut butter, yes, I do. And then has an egg whites with it. So then I had some egg whites or my protein, my peanut butter, and it's not a protein, so I add my fats in there, and then I've got my carbs and my fiber. So that's all three of those things together. What do you have for breakfast? Ooh, I made protein pancakes and strawberry and I use sugar free, sure free syrup. I used sugar free syrup. I used Kodiak protein, like pancake mix. And I actually sent in some extra protein just to stick it in there. And then I used egg whites as my water based instead. And then I put cinnamon in it and nutmeg, just some little food, food stuff in it. Fire,It was fire. So how many grams of protein was that? This one? Oh my gosh, I think I hit like 35 okay, overall. So your day is started out, 35 grams of protein, 30 to 50. So then you'll have a very life protein shake already in the car waiting, okay? And then, like lunch, what? What's your lunch? I already have it prepped. I have shredded chicken tacos that I made with some rice protein. I have my protein little cheese on there. Okay, I'm going through a whole day. Do you know what you're going to have for? Oh, dinner's kind of open there. I always prep my breakfast and my lunches, just because it's easy. I can do three days at a time. It won't wear me out dinners. It's kind of like whatever's in there. I think I got the steak in there, probably thinking about my freezer right now and then I got brussels sprouts. Yeah, I'll eat. It's perfect or not. My favorite brush, yeah, I default to things like, because I don't like to eat. I love I love sweets, and I love salt. So like, I'll usually do, like, a Greek yogurt for my snack out and at lunch, and like, an apple with it. And then I've got my cookie. My fruits, like my protein, my chocolate, just fun, my apples, my carbohydrates and my fiber. And then for lunch, I usually, like today, I'll probably have a turkey sandwich. But the key is, I'm not just eating a turkey. I know how much Turkey I'm putting on my sandwich, so I can't just do two slices and then call it done. I'm probably anything I can do to add to each meal I do that. So that brings us back into and this is another podcast topic, but just trying to when it comes to like things like intermittent fasting, you know, before telling you to eat 150 grams of protein in a day. No, you can, I mean, your GI system is not going to really appreciate it so much. You didn't register for thought.

I think I've heard here from my patients, more than anything, you eat that much during the day? Yes, yes, I am eating every two to three hours. Yep,

I'm sorry. I had someone say something to me the other day. They were like, you eat my husband. Go ahead. I'm pretty sure you're getting me on your table. Yeah, not go like straight bags.

She she gets hangry. Y'all. It might get big in office when she hungry. Look out.

So what else I think, I hope that this wasn't overwhelming. I don't want to cram on 20 to 25 minute podcast. We can dive into more details if you guys want to. Yeah, but to recap, just track your food. Let's see where you're at for fun, start off, that's the first thing. Get an inbody scan if you want to come in. We're going to use that to help you determine where your cow should be based on where you are right now.

Just identify your goals. Make sure you keep those brain like you have to be your motivator. You're responsible for your health. You have to have to determine it's a priority.

What about the with or without it. What was our topic today?

We did, what did we included you in? Okay, heck, I don't remember. I don't know. We'll come up with the next one, I guess. Oh no, it's alright. We had it good. It was good nutrition topic, no, I said that was simple about, like, fake sugars, but you had another one. I don't know it'll come back, but alright, I'm sure you guys are done listening to us. If you have any questions,

hey, thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed our content, please comment, like and share our show. To stay up to date with our practice. Please visit our website at www elevatewellness.com or to subscribe to our YouTube channel and be sure to follow us on Instagram at Elevate Wellness LLC.