Boom! Welcome back to Mind Pump.  It's confusing what we have the answers for you. We have nine ways that you can determine what are the best foods for you for your health and fitness. By the way if you want short clips on how to build muscle, how to lose fat, workout programming and a lot of other topics we have playlists for you over at our Mind Pump Clips YouTube channel. Make sure to go over there and check it out and subscribe. Alright enjoy the show. The best diet for you is the best diet for you. It's not the best diet for somebody else. In other words diets can be extremely individual. In today's episode we're gonna talk about the things you should pay attention to to help you decide what foods are best for you as an individual. Best for your fitness, best for your performance and best for your health. Are you gonna clip that Andrew? Best the best diets are the best diets for you. Yeah it's a little deep right there. You know why? Well you know why diets are I mean they're massively individual. I mean how many times did you guys have to get hit with this with clients? Yeah where a client would follow and look by the way this is why you'll you'll have a friend that follows one diet let's say it's keto then you have another friend that follows another diet let's say it's vegan and both of them are like they feel good they're healthy. One's amazing, one's super inappropriate for the other person. Yeah it's just like you know you hear all these different diets and all these different people saying this is the best thing in the world. You've got studies showing and supporting so many different diets and it can be quite challenging to figure out well which one's kind of best for me and what's going on and the problem is people really don't know what to pay attention to or how to judge what works best for them except for maybe calories and macros and weight on the scale which those will tell you some stuff but they they scratch the surface right they barely scratch the surface is so much more you want to look at in terms of kind of determining what works best for you. What I like about what you built in this episode is it reminds me of kind of like the the journey I had as a as a coach and trainer you know quickly I realized like how many I mean it seemed like at least early on in my career it felt like every year there was like a new gimmick diet that was getting popular attraction and and so quickly I was like oh this is stupid you know and like look at all these people falling for this and I was really I was really adverse to even even looking into it or utilizing anything from it I was like anti all of it and then I then I had enough people were I saw that like you know they went vegan and it was like life changing for them or you know or you know they before keto was popular they were you know doing what I would call zone or no no no thank you it was like life changing for them and so it's like and you know when you get somebody who it's like changed their life like that like try telling that person oh your diet's stupid or it's you know so so I had to like okay accept that okay there are some cases here that have really really helped these people out by switching to this this sort of diet and then I then I started to go a little bit deeper on all the different diets and realized that we have all these different scenarios and cases where these diets are very applicable to some people in some some groups and then I'm like okay well how do I apply this as a coach and a trainer so what I started to do was actually teach the methods all but then I would set the table with my client on why we're doing this and what what the whole idea of this was and what to look out for yeah and and the things that you listed off are literally the things that I would tell them like this is we're gonna do this diet and I and I want you to follow the protocol and I want you to give me the feedback on all these things also tell me how much you're enjoying it and you like it too like I want to know that too right yeah so each one and I went through that same process with a lot of different clients because you you find like one like say it's the Mediterranean diet or whatever like this worked really well with like the majority of my clients like initially and so then I tried to apply that same formula for all the rest of the next clients coming in and then it just didn't have the same effect and so trying to tease that out but you know revisiting it later on in my career and like going through all the different types of diets and and kind of you know navigating through all that you start to realize there's characteristics between each of these types of diets and like what benefits they provide might be a little bit different and might apply you know specifically to somebody else you know that's seeking those very specific type of characteristics like I need something that's a little more digestible like it that's addressing my food intolerances that's you know like super like specific individual things that you identify from those diets that I can then pass on well this is the conclusion that I came to and and then I and I real and then but I found was really important though because and I probably made mistakes early on I'm not communicating it well enough was that I would teach somebody something and then they would go through that same process of like oh my god it's life changing I love this is you know whatever diet insert whatever diet and I realized I'd quickly have to explain to like no no no it's not the diet it's that you were eating this way these types of foods didn't agree with you and you didn't realize it until we eliminated them in a diet your body needed more of these foods over here and then you didn't feel that good until we added it and so really it's less about this diet is what did it for you it's that these foods that are that we were ignoring before or these foods that you were allowing the diet that is what was affecting this and so that's the real takeaway from here is not that you need to live in this box for the rest of your life and say you're a so-and-so whatever you're you know and again insert diet it's more about what did you learn about those you know specific I need to up my fiber intake right that's what I learned from this diet exactly I look there's no two people are identical okay no two people are not even identical twins by the way are identical they still have different experiences and food food our relationship to food and how it affects this is actually extremely complex so let's start with physiology your physiology is unique you have a microbiome for example that's unique so how you digest foods your immune system is unique how it reacts or doesn't react to certain foods okay your psychology is unique is psychology an important factor when it comes to diet you better believe it right how you feel how foods affect you what about the connections you have with foods like I have certain connections to foods that you guys don't have because you didn't grow up eating those types of foods right or how about this here's a good example of that like you ever eat something that you always eat but then for some reason it makes you sick once and then you can never eat it again for years right so that means that connection that psychological connection to that food might have changed food relationships are extremely unique so you're a unique individual and although humans were all generally very similar especially when you compare to other animals were very very similar we're also extremely unique and if we don't pay attention to all these factors we're about to talk about what you'll be stuck in is this let me follow this diet let me follow this diet let me follow this diet and not really knowing what you don't know because you don't know what to pay attention to and you've fallen this in and out type of thing this I'm on the wagon off the wagon I gain weight I lose weight I feel good I don't feel good or I feel good right now and then this diet stopped working all of a sudden I don't feel good anymore what the hell is going on because everything I just said as unique as you are physiologically psychologically the connections in your food relationship those change as you get older and as the circumstances and context of your life changes as well whole another layer of complexity we just added that's right so you may be thinking or hearing this right now well how the hell do I figure this out that sounds really complex and it changes so once I figured out I got to figure it out again well yes and no yes it's complex however we're about to explain to you and go over really simple things to pay attention to that are actually in the long term more important than many things that you're told to pay attention to when it comes to food so first off I don't want to discredit things like calories and proteins fats and carbohydrates those are obviously very important but I so I'm not going to discredit those but what we're about to go through when it comes to long-term success actually plays a bigger role in finding the diet that works best for you and finding the one that's going to work for you for the rest of your life but you know I don't I don't even think that statement exists in fact I'm going to say something that's going to be very unpopular or controversial which is I think if you have landed on a diet and you think it's the best diet for you and you've stayed there you're you're I think you're being misled because what I have seen in the past that has happened time and time again is just a minute example of like the fiber so let's let's go down that way so I have a client their digestion is off and so that and they and I put them on the vegan diet right and they go and we go vegan and oh my god digestion has never been great before and then okay well it's because they were eating like no no fruits and vegetables they weren't getting hardly any fiber in their diet and so now that but what now dramatically shifted was now protein became like a really challenging thing but they don't feel these effects not yet right it takes sometimes months sometimes years of eating this way and being depleted you know and not quite hitting your RDA on a regular basis for a long time before the the hair starts to kind of fall out or skin feels weird or they can't build muscle or something doesn't feel right about their body and they don't connect it to the diet because the diet made them feel so amazing initially so I feel like this never stops like I'm never I don't land on oh this is how I eat this is what has made me feel okay for the time being this has made me feel better than anything else we can say that but it's more about investigating the foods that you're eating and how they're affecting what a good point and then being aware that it may be temporarily making you feel better than what you did before but also making sure you're watching out that okay now it's not observing you you might not be that might be getting neglected yes that's such a good point I mean to take it even a step further you could have a nutrient deficiency like magnesium change your diet to get a lot of magnesium feel amazing until you're eating too much magnesium because your body stores it now becomes too much magnesium now becomes detrimental so what we're about to talk to you are the things to pay attention to that will always keep you on track that'll that'll help you find the perfect diet for your body when you find the perfect diet for your body you feel the best you get the best results and it's the easiest to stick to it's all three of those things and really what we're about to talk about isn't as much as pay attention to these things it's literally just don't ignore these things because the ones I'm about to go through oftentimes we ignore because we're paying attention to the scale only to the gym only and maybe only to macros and calories and we ignore these other ones yo what's 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use the coupon code 15 special for the discount and the free ebooks all right here comes the show so let's start with the first one this one's the most important which is digestibility there's a there's a saying that is you are what you eat it's actually not true you are what you digest that's what you are if your body can't properly break something down or if what you eat and i don't care what the food is it can be the greatest superfood in the planet if it causes inflammation bloating constipation diarrhea or an immune response that food is not only not right for you it's actually bad for you to use an extreme example um a healthy food think of a very healthy food like eggs or a fruit like vegetables like strawberries right well if you're allergic to those foods it goes from a healthy food to don't eat this so you'll die right that's an extreme case but it could be as easy as you know i get a little heartburn or i feel a bit inflamed or this makes me feel lethargic for some reason this causes a blood sugar crash which by the way is very individual we're learning this now with these I'm also going to add to that to make this even more complex but it also sometimes can be a food that didn't bother you for a very long time correct and then now it's something that you've consumed and this is what i think is most common most common yeah but this never bothered me before exactly because i've been eating this my whole life how could it be that it can't be that food well it's absolutely can be like anybody over the age of 30 knows that the foods that they could eat before not the same as the foods that they could eat uh now so digestibility is extremely extremely important digestibility is more important than food quality what do you mean by food quality well protein quality or how many essential fatty acids are in there organic or yeah or or vitamins and minerals or organic well if you can't break it down properly and if it causes inflammation and bloating it really doesn't matter doesn't matter that the quality in a lab is shown to be better if it affects your body poorly digested you know with your digestion it's not going to be good for you so one of the things to look out for well um do you have really bad flatulence does it smell really bad do you have bad stool right are you not passing good stool is it painful is it constipated is it diarrhea do you have heartburn do you do you get skin issues oftentimes skin issues from food come from digestion type issues so am I getting rashes or dryness or oiliness like these are all things to pay attention to and even if the food that you're eating is supposedly a super healthy food if it causes digest digestion issues then don't eat it and on the flip side if you eat something that just digest so well where you eat it you're like oh my god that just I feel like I I even though I'm satisfied I feel like I eat air it just I don't feel bloated my digestion is incredible that's a good food that's a good food yeah because look at all the downstream effects that causes I mean it gets it finds its way into your sleeping pattern it finds its way into your recovery into your performance in the gym um performance at work the way that you think the way you walk around during the day your self-confidence like it's there's so many psychological factors to that so and you don't really know that until you've really focused on just consuming foods that are easily digestible and like how you can then you know move forward and thrive with that type of energy you also said something at the beginning I think it's important that it makes it easier for people to you know adhere to right to stick to this diet if it's if it's a diet that feels good or checks some of these boxes that we're talking about right and and this is something that just like literally happened this last week um you know Katrina and I have been busy we've had some long nights where we didn't get a lot of rest we've talked about it before she obviously was in the social she knows I've shared where you know when your lack of sleep those when the cravings kick up her go-to thing her go-to thing is five guys five guys and french fries that's like a major treat in our house it's normally her who brings it up and says she wants it I normally say yeah if we haven't had in a while I'm down to have it um I knew that we had been uh inconsistent with our sleep for the week I also knew that I only had one day of training in the last three or four days at that point and she's like oh burger can we do burgers and I'm like no I just and I want to tell you what what makes me say no is I actually can I can visually imagine what I feel like after I eat it boy going down it is amazing and I and so initially I think that like who that does sound good right now you're right that sounds good but what I instantly switch over to is the like but every time I do that it feels like a rock is just sitting in my stomach and it normally will throw my stool off and I won't feel good for another good 24 hours after that switch over to what we had which was bison sweet potato and just some onions some of my boring bodybuilding type of diet food and you know going down doesn't have that same burger juicy taste but like you mentioned it felt like air like I I felt satisfied I've no longer hungry but didn't it felt so good afterwards and so learning to connect those things is so important to to making that choice because it's hard to make that choice when you feel like that especially if you're tired and the cravings are are strong and you haven't ate yet but this to me is one of the biggest keys to being successful with making good food choices yes is exactly being able to connect these dogs when your digestion is off you're more inflamed you have higher levels of stress hormones lower levels of the anabolic rebuilding hormones sleep becomes worse blood sugar becomes more erratic it affects lots and lots of different things cravings go up so poor digestion makes you either not hungry at all and then when that goes away cravings go through the roof so it's the most important thing to consider now here's the thing most people it's not even that they don't think that they don't think about digestion they ignore it they'll follow a diet I had people would follow keto diet and that became popular and they'd be like hey when is the constipation gonna go away well probably not for you right it's probably not for you I don't think you should eat or I'm following this great diet I've lost lots of weight you know I've got this terrible heartburn but it's okay because I take prilosec or whatever every single day and say well it's not it's not working for you right so digestion's number one here's the second one energy not just long-term energy but also immediate energy if you eat something and you notice that an hour or two later you feel sluggish or tired or you need to take a nap so this happens to me when I a large serving especially a large servings of of gluten containing carbohydrates so if I like a pasta or bread and I love I mean my family's from Italy I love pasta I love bread I know about an hour to two later I'm I need to take a nap I feel so lethargic I feel so tired I have to either take caffeine or go and take a nap now long-term energy this one obvious right so if you're following a diet over time you start to feel less and less energetic you feel more and more lethargic and by the way feeling lethargic and low energy it will stir up cravings because your body's trying to seek something to get you to pick up again a little bit now we have cgms now continue glucose monitors that people can wear and this is giving us some ideas as to what's going on with energy with some people and this is very individual somebody could wear cgm and so what that does it measures glucose in the blood and they could eat oatmeal or they could eat you know ice cream so you would think well oatmeal is going to be much better on blood glucose than ice cream well for the most part that's true but there's cases and we've seen this where it's not the oatmeal causes the crazy spike and drop so somebody in this case might ignore that because they're like but I oatmeal is a healthy everybody says oatmeal is really good and and so I don't know why I'm tired I don't know what's going on right so not paying attention to these things means you're going to continue to push yourself down the wrong path have you guys identified foods for yourselves like that yeah gluten for sure it's very similar to you and I was just thinking about what was funny was was how we used to load so much with with those types of carbs before games thinking that we were doing ourselves a service and I would get to the game I would be so lethargic and tired and was always battling that once I got into the game and didn't find like figured that out till way later on in my career whereas I could have been a lot sharper a lot more energetic if I would have just got better sources of carbohydrates like say even like white rice for me or potatoes as a different source versus you know having like something like like a gluten-filled like pancake like I'd mentioned or pasta so yeah that was that was a very interesting shift for me is to you know you go through that and you figure out which types of carbs and you ignored it for a long time yeah because everybody told you you're supposed to eat it completely crash it would be like so tired I want to go to sleep that's so I'm gonna I'm gonna stick with for the audience I'm gonna stick with the analogy that is like so recent for me that it because I just went through it and and as we're having this conversation and I know the the bullet points that are coming up it's interesting because I'm going like this is so funny because uh obviously we're having to articulate this right now but this whole conversation happens in my head when when this moment comes on when the wife says let's go have five guys sounds hella good to me and then right away my brain starts to kind of like you know I haven't done this I haven't done that oh I'll feel this way off of that way this way and this is all happening even to this point the energy right so at that point it's like I think five or six o'clock at the night I know at the end of the end of the night one of my routines is like clean the house and move the cars I straighten everything up I do the dishes and it's like if I have that that burger meal I know exactly what I normally want to do that's normally what I like to do like on Friday nights after house is all clean done because I know I don't fucking want to move it makes me just it now is it sit like a rock but then I just want to plop down on the couch and just be a vegetable and I know that's part of that process if I choose to go down that path it's like and so here we are in the middle of the week day I've got things to do still the house isn't clean completely and we eat that way too not only we're going to feel that way but I also know that I'm not going to have the energy to want to do the stuff that I really do which also will put me in a bad mood after that so it's like all these things and I'll touch on all of them to be the list like that conversation happened in my head to make that decision all right so this next one is going to seem obvious but I listed it because what I'm about to say is not so obvious so this is palatability all right what does that mean how enjoyable is the food for you to eat so you might be thinking well yeah no shit like I definitely choose foods based off of how how much I enjoy them okay here's why I listed palatability palatability isn't just flavor so when people think something palatable they think it's just the taste palatability includes the experience and how much you enjoy eating whatever you're eating so it's not just the taste it's also the texture it's also the mouth feel it's also the connection it's also the memories it's also all it's all those things for example that bison dish you were talking about you probably find more palatable because you know how good it makes you feel so you want it more because of that so paying attention to all the other things we're going to talk about will actually change the palatability of certain foods so the reason why I listed this is yes you want to definitely think about the foods you enjoy eating but also think how you can make the foods that make you feel good more enjoyable by connecting the dots to all these other I've I've made that's why I brought up that and I said that you know my boring bodybuilder food but I have now made the connection of you know there's a handful of you know consistent dishes that I ate and you know bison sweet potato and onions is one of them with just some seasoning on it is like one of the staple so I have this connection of not only does that did that feel good going down by the way when you're dieting that strict that is like sweet potato and but those that's a rich a rich meal for me so being able to have something that I know I like to to in replace of the burger and fries was a was a must for me if I it'd be a really even more difficult for me if I didn't have an alternative option of a good choice for my body that I actually like also so it does play a factor in that like if we had Katrina's like well we have nothing at the house or you know all we have is chicken breasts and or tilapia and asparagus would have been much harder to do that but I love the bison and sweet potato so it was an easy like you know what I'm gonna feel so much better I'll feel better after it while I'm doing it the day after I eat it like let's go that palatability is a value it's a real value of food it's an important one but on its own it's not very good because it doesn't take into a lot of other things into account so but we do want to be quite honest and palatability is very important so let's talk about an extreme case here you're following a diet and you hate the experience of eating all the food I mean does anything else matters at that point right yeah nothing matters but the the silver lining to it is you can actually you know build those associations you can actually increase your desire like it'll taste better at the end of the day once you like build those firm associations that this you know helps me to digest food a lot more effectively and I feel better overall in general when I eat these foods and so as I'm doing that I'm consuming it and I'm kind of reiterating that to my mind so I mean and this is like you mentioned before too like I've had a hard time with fish and you know and that's just something I'm just like constantly like still like really trying to program my mind to to be like okay this is good you know I need I need the megas from this I need like the health benefits from this the nutrients like this is this is doing things for me so that way too like the flavor of it actually kind of changes yeah and you know it's funny now you might not be able to work miracles but I bet you because Justin hates fish or hated fish I bet you didn't go from hate to love but you probably went from hate to I can tolerate yeah so and that's the key that's the thing that I'm talking about so yeah you're not going to be able to take a food that's super gross yeah exactly and all of a sudden make it like taste good but you may take something that at first you didn't like and then make it into something that well I can eat this I can actually eat this but palatability again it's very important it's a real value so you definitely want to consider it and by the way you can improve the palatability of most foods very simple with salt seasonings and if you don't mind adding calories olive oil olive oil makes almost anything that's healthy taste better seriously those and those are one those those two things salt and fat right there thrown on onto foods will make a big difference that that'll increase the palatability you know we're talking about the positive things with good good healthy choices and stuff like that but you have me thinking about something that I think most people have experienced most anybody I've ever met that drank beer for the first time or drank wine for the first time yeah did not like it I've never heard him go like oh man the first time I had a glass of wine it was so nobody liked it right so it's especially beer so what is it what is it that made us love eventually love love it right we've learned to attach positive associations to that thing enough times that you eventually ended up not only so like you but loving it right so it goes both ways same thing with black coffee you're training yourself to like it black black coffee too I don't know anybody that drank black coffee for the first time was like mmm this is delicious most people like oh this is girl then you get the caffeine the effects and all of a sudden you start to like to take start out with frappuccinos your nitros exactly all right so this next one it's another one that's important and you have to you know you have to validate this and that's your emotional connection both good and bad to food I gave an example earlier where you eat something you get sick all of a sudden you don't want that food anymore because it reminds you of of when you got sick right that's the power of something like this here's here's something else there's probably foods that you have a good connection to that you ate as a kid that if you were really honest with yourself and you just got introduced to them for the first time as an adult they're not that good but the reason why you like them like Kraft mac and cheese yeah or Twinkies exactly like because you have a connection to those things they actually you know you kind of enjoy them by the way food manufacturers do this all the time this is why we crave popcorn at the movie theater or you know there's birthday foods and stuff like that so emotional connection is very important and it's important to highlight the good and the bad connections that you have to food because this will help you become remember all all the things that we're talking about is going to help you develop a much broader complete view of the values of food for your body and the emotional connection that you have to foods by the way here's another one okay do I hear some of the bad potential emotional connections when I'm stressed what foods do I reach for yeah when I'm sad when I'm anxious what about when I'm bored what are the foods that I reach for what about when I'm happy or I feel confident or what when I feel insecure pay attention to these patterns because what you may uncover is that you may uncover that you're either numbing yourself or self-medicating yourself or eating foods maybe not so much because you want the foods but because of the emotional state that you're in and that can help prevent things like impulsive eating or using food as a drug which I mean that's the most commonly abused jug in western societies is food no this is exactly I actually pointed it out and she knew because when she when she asked me you know do you want to have five guys and again I'm processing all the stuff and I look back at her said you do know why you want that right she goes I know she goes 100% she goes I haven't slept we've had stressful days back so it's like to me it's just that the first step is becoming is the point you're making which is becoming aware of how powerful the psychology is that you know you you tend to gravitate to certain things based off of these emotional connections that we have and or stress and or lack of sleep and being aware of that makes it easier for you to make a better choice because you're you're on oh wow that's it's not just because I want it because I deserve it or it's a good time to have it it's because these other factors are playing a role now and do I have the mental discipline to make the better choice yeah here's an example of emotional connection when it when for me it outweighs some of the other ones now usually doesn't and it's usually a blend of things and they and then the the situation in my life of the context of what's going on some maybe are more valuable than others and that's what's wonderful about this is as you go through these and pay attention to these some will be more important depending on the circumstances my digestion is bad well then the digestibility is going to be much more important um I'm at my mom's house for Sunday dinner guess what matters very important to me my emotional connection you know I just talked about how gluten containing carbohydrates make me feel like crap but when mom is making homemade pasta sauce and homemade lasagna my emotional connection to that food with my family is so important to me and it's so valuable to me that I'll trade one for the other it's not only just that so and one of the things I I love that we've done since the beginning that we've we've started this thing is we've always been very transparent and honest with our our audience because um we're not trying to sell you this idea or image it's a it's a lifestyle and it doesn't mean that I don't choose the burger that's right I do choose to there's been plenty of times where I choose the burger so there's there's lots of times where that's what it does look like it's Friday Katrina and I had a killer week we crushed it we trained three or four times like we handled all kinds of bullshit in our relationship we killed it like her and I about to sit down watch a good movie or binge something that we hadn't watched like yeah I'm gonna let it sit like a rock in my stomach today I'm gonna have a bad shit tomorrow like yeah because I'm gonna and I'm gonna enjoy that burger going down because I want it right now and so the the the problem is and I think is that uh people justify that too much or ignore all the things we're talking about and the real secret to all this is just is having the awareness and learning to have balance in your life with this exactly what this leads to is balance right this leads to balance and and that's why there's so many of these and that's why it's important to pay attention all these yeah well one thing I wanted to bring up is just like when um you know we allow some of these emotional foods like to get too much hype so like in terms of like this is again my problem with cheat meals and all these things we're putting too much emphasis and good point um on our availability of like I I get to have this I get to have something and it just becomes like one of these things where we just completely indulge and uh you know go excessive and overbow I I spoke out since day one on that when I first got on social media and so I didn't even know that was a thing until I got into the competitive world the whole like the idea of cheat meals is so cheat day thing was never so ridiculous yeah I didn't know any I've never heard that in my life for the first 10 years of a trainer it wasn't until the back 10 when I got into the competitive world that this become and the minute I I saw it and heard it I was I was against it because it just it's so obvious to me what you're doing you're you're not addressing a good relationship if anything you're promoting the the binge restrict that I mean that that mentality and that mentality I've already seen that in clients struggle their whole life you know with these crazy restrictive diets and then going off it all that is a is a condensed version of that so what people normally do is this diet really hard for weeks or maybe months if they're really good getting good shape and then fall hard off the wagon doing a cheat day or meal or whatever you want to call it is literally building that into a week and it's what you're doing it's dysfunction it's not flexibility yes it's not balanced yeah it's not balanced balance would be it's a meal right oh you're eating a pizza right now yeah it's a meal yeah not my cheat meal it's just the meal and okay well you want me to break down why I'm eating it well I'm connecting with my friends we're having a good time that's why I think it's valuable situational it's not like you're like scheduling correct correct all right so the next one this one's funny to me because for a long time and maybe even now although I think people are starting to wise up a little bit for a long time when I would have clients that would talk about changes in their hair or their skin and they go to the doctor and they've asked them things like could my diet be affecting my skin do you think my diet could be giving me acne or some of these rashes or inflammation and the doctors be like no has nothing to do with your skin has nothing to do with your hair and as a trainer strength people over and over again I was like oh my god that's so frustrating pay attention to your skin and hair your skin and hair first off your skin which is the largest organ in your body your skin it's like a delayed reaction but it will tell you if you're inflamed or if you have gut issues it's actually in fact you go to a functional medicine practitioner with chronic skin issues one of the first things they're going to do is look at your gut so skin and hair are actually great measures of things like nutrient deficiencies am I getting the right amount of fatty acids am I getting a good amount of protein do I have good digestion so if you're yeah so if you're eating a particular way and your skin is like cracked or dry or oily or itchy and your hair is stringy or not full it doesn't feel you know quote unquote healthy um look at your diet your diet may be the culprit for some of this stuff I mean this is uh this is easy for me but easy because I my autoimmune is arises so one of the quickest ways for me to know I mean anytime like someone sees my stress I'm like oh my god what's that or I didn't know you had that or yeah my response always is yeah my diet's not down right now if I'm if I'm eating out of bounce uh more often than not uh it quickly uh reminds me of that and so to me it's always been kind of a blessing in disguise of course it is I hate it I don't like it it's not ideal but it also keeps me in check because I it's a visual representation it's really easy sometimes I think for people to ignore the stuff inside yep oh my digestion's off oh my I'm just gonna ignore all that stuff because I can't see it but I see the these visual dry spots and itchy skin on me and it happens almost immediately I know you say it takes a little while to kick in I can eat something and within two hours I'm I I'm picking yours more stream right away I mean within two hours I've seen it you've told us you've said you've actually pointed out and said watch what happens yeah right away it'll it'll get it'll get bad and so um yeah no absolutely effects you know back to your point too about the dog thing that that's that still hasn't changed unfortunately I mean my my dermatologist who specializes in that in the skin shit it didn't tell me diet I mean that's the part that is crazy to me it's crazy to me that even even in in the fields that like this is your specialty is that that we weren't ever talking about diet it was always you know it's funny about the creams and shots you know it's funny about this uh or medication that they're testing you guys have dogs veterinarians know that the the dog's diet affects their coat right in their skin yeah it's really weird how humans are we different animals or something yeah different organisms completely I don't know about that it's so strange all right the next one is athletic performance different types of foods different compositions of foods will affect your athletic performance differently for me for example what may make me feel best digestion wise what may make me feel best mentally or whatever it may not be what makes me feel best athletically and vice versa so again this is all about balance but for me athletic wise starchy carbohydrates usually rice some good lean proteins and some fats not a ton of fats and then I just have the best athletic performance why is this important to pay attention to I work out I work out right I work out on a daily basis also athletic performance can give you a a nice gauge on your just overall fitness so if I want to be stronger feel better have more stamina well there's certain foods that I'm gonna eat that are gonna make me feel this way so this is definitely something you want to pay attention to if you exercise and you should exercise so if you exercise pay attention like am I stronger do I feel better to have more energy in my workouts and that'll kind of lead you to the foods that do better this is back to the whole characteristics thing and what applies best for whatever situation or goal that you have at the time and for me it's like if I've been feeling like my heart burns coming back like all these kind of issues I'm dealing with again like I'm gonna reduce calories a bit and I'm gonna focus a little bit more on up in my protein and you know things like that reducing a lot of like inflammatory type carbs that may sneak its way in you know I'm very much adamant about that because I know it works and then the same thing with the athletic performance it's like I gotta beef up the calories a bit for me and that that introducing of carbohydrates really does help with that and aids into you know my lifts and my training specifically a lot our audience might not know this um but our good friend and partner uh Jason Phillips made his bones in the CrossFit community by addressing this right yeah I don't know if you guys remember that yeah because when CrossFit first started it was about paleo and keto yeah yeah which is not the best diet yeah hardcore low carbohydrate diets um seeds and and now it what originally why it stayed around for as long as it did was because you had you know the what it did create was pretty lean bodies and it's healthy and you had yeah you had and it's healthy and you had these athletes that were still pushing through so but it was not what was optimal for athletic performance and he came in and completely flipped the nutrition model on their head that's how he got really popular you know the irony of that is do you know how many athletes these are athletes by the way so if you're watching this and you're not a highly competitive athlete you're even at a greater disadvantage these were athletes that were ignoring the signs that their body was telling them they were completely ignoring their athletic performance is going to shit just pushing through it that's why these things are so important because the average person doesn't pay attention to all these things they'll pay attention to the scale and they'll ignore all this other stuff and they wonder why they can't stick to a particular diet or why the diet doesn't work for them right anymore so it's really really crazy one here's the next one sleep this one's a big one your diet can have profound effects on your sleep especially the foods that you eat that are closer to bedtime so I know for me for example if I eat when I do eat carbohydrates for me if I want to have good sleep I'll typically eat them about three or four hours before going to bed now I know people are the opposite they have to be low carbohydrates before bed for me you give me some cars about three hours before bed by the time bed rolls around and this wonderful nice evening of sleep the right types of carbohydrates destroy me yeah but for you it's yeah there you go so there's the I have to have them all the morning they're just like that's I just need as many calories I can first thing in the morning that really helps me set my day out with good energy well this is another reason why I really like the the old advice that had been debunked and now is less popular and that's the old don't eat past six o'clock or eat morning in the morning like a king afternoon like a queen like a popper like a popper yeah I mean I mean that's and of course we had the science came out to debunk that's stupid if calories are all equated this in the same and macros the same that it doesn't matter if you eat it at midnight or but dude it it does it affects your sleep you know they're what they're measuring and testing what's not the same as the the calorie burn and the metabolizing of fat and they're they're paying attention to that but what they're not measuring is like is sleep you know I bet you if you took the same person who ate their the same exact calories always stopped by six o'clock and then they always and then that same person test them again for six months make them eat till midnight every single night I guarantee they would report back that their sleep was better when they ate at six you would see that and then if your sleep is not good then it goes back to that thing that we talked about earlier about cravings kick up and now it just makes it that much harder to make those good choices again and so it's like this cycle that is really hard to tease out and test somebody in a six to eight week study and say hey this isn't impacting all these things so that's why I like that and I always try and make it a goal to get done with my eating as early as possible six seven o'clock because I know I'm going to be up till 10 or 11 so I want to be I want to have been done for a while before I lay down and when I don't I always notice a difference in how I feel yeah and to take it a step further people don't even know that they're eating affects their sleep unless it's obvious right like I just ate before bed oh I feel sick people don't realize what they ate in the morning could affect their sleep or just what they eat on a regular basis could affect their sleep like if somebody has sleep issues there's lots of things that they look at food is almost never on the list that's my point with this is that sleep definitely gets affected by the types of it's also compounding sal right so let's go back to my burger thing that I told you feeling it sits like a rock imagine I eat the burger I go right to bed right afterwards so I I eat something that doesn't agree with my digestion then I lay down horizontally yeah you know and then and high calorie and late at night like yeah it's going to disrupt all of that it's disrupting the sleep disrupting the digestion and to think that that doesn't make a big difference long-term and then doing it over and over you're crazy totally all right this next one this is extremely important because one of the biggest challenges for people who are trying to maintain a healthy body weight right the average person is dealing with typically dealing with well I'm a little heavy or I tend to gain more body fat or maybe I'm trying to lose body fat so this next one is very important for these people which is again most people and that is satiety how long do I say stay satisfied after eating particular meals now I could I know there are foods that I will eat when I'm trying to gain weight and it's not because they're high calories because they make me they make I get hungry faster after I eat those foods I know that there's certain foods that make me really satisfied for longer and I'll choose those foods when I'm trying to eat less food so if you're trying to bulk for example well you want to pay attention to the foods that don't give you much satiety so you can fit in more calories if you're not trying to bulk and trying to cut well you want to pick foods that stay with you longer eat it and you feel better and not so hungry so for me for example a ketogenic diet tends to be the satiety producing one that's for me okay so high protein by the way for most people high protein just increases satiety regardless but for me high protein ketogenic diet I'll eat less if I'm trying to bulk then I'll drop the fats I'll keep the protein high but not as high as I had with keto and then I'll bump the carbs what happens with me I just get hungry more often so satiety is something you want to pay attention to as well because you need to manipulate this based on whatever your goals are so I love this one because if you've listened to the podcast long enough um there was a point where the I believe both of you at least I know you did I think Justin did too had went keto I was just coming out of competing and I was like at peak metabolism I was 5000 calories I think it was hitting like 600 grams of carbs a day I mean and abs feeling like a champ right and I could I could eat almost anything calorie-wise at that point and still stay pretty lean because my metabolism was roaring and I remember these guys running the ketogenic diet and I'm like why would I I've held no I love carbs and I can eat all I have this I have this incredible metabolic flexibility to eat why would I do that and of course trying always to be as self-aware as I can I caught myself going like okay well that's why I should just simply because I said I don't need to or I don't want to or why would I so okay why not challenge myself what I found that I thought was so interesting and what has it has completely changed the way I eat today than what I did the previous years before that was I recognize this I recognize on the ketogenic diet how hard it was actually for me to I couldn't even hit my caloric goal the the food the food was so the higher fats and the higher protein was so satiating that I couldn't get the calorie intake which told me right away after I had been doing it for a while this is not a long-term diet for me but it definitely went hmm that may be useful very useful so when I'm not you know got a 5,000 you know calorie type of metabolism and I have more like a 3,000 3500 calorie metabolism right now boy it's a really nice tool to have that I keep my carbs now at 150 200 I would say 250 would be a really high day which I would that was when I used to carb cycle from competing is that your low carb my low carb day was 250 wow that was a low carb day which has now become the highest carb day that I would have in dining and what I have found with that is when I target foods that are higher in protein and fat as the primary source of calories from my diet it's just easier not to overeat where if I was allowed carbohydrates in there the carver the carbohydrates would stimulate the appetite and it would be it would take way more discipline for me to restrict and so it's made for a better balance for that now I didn't go adopt keto and say this was the best thing for me but I took some of the things that I learned from going through that have now modified my current diet and remember keep in mind we're talking about our personal experiences these are very individual because I know people who go higher fat lower low carbohydrate and it affects their digestion so poorly and then they feel terrible or people just get low energy on it so again this is all super individual we're just giving our own personal experiences but satiety definitely something you want to pay attention to and the data does show that high protein irrespective of carbohydrates and fats is very very satiety producing so if you're trying to get lean you should probably experiment with a high protein diet regardless because that'll probably help you out not everybody but most likely it probably will all right the last one here's the last one adam you added this one at the very end I think I'm glad you did because this kind of takes into account all the things that we just talked about which is adherence your ability to stay consistent on said diet so if you're following a diet that feels incredible gives you great energy good digestibility good athletic performance good sleep all this other stuff but it's like this rare marsupial from brazil that you have to eat you know three times a day you're not gonna be able to stick to it right so it's not a good diet now I'm using an extreme example but adherence is very important can you stick to this diet or is it so inconvenient or is it one that just so doesn't work with you or it's one that doesn't make you feel good whatever you have to consider all of that because at the end of the day the diet that you that you can't stick to is one that doesn't work for you it's just the bottom line it's meaning tiger like we're kind of well it's very similar to the little tagline you always say about inferior programs right like a inferior program done consistently is better than a superior program done inconsistently the same thing about a diet there could be a better diet for you out there but if you'll never stick to it you don't like it it doesn't matter it doesn't matter you're better off doing a diet that is less optimal for you but at least better because you're going to adhere to it so I think that's always got to be said which is why you know coming full circle in my my my coaching experience the towards the end of my career the way putting together diets for clients look like was I didn't build any diets I said you go eat how you always eat and I don't I literally if that means eating skittles at two on certain days do it that means going through McDonald's do it I want to see how you eat on a regular basis from there I'm going to make subtle modifications to it and move you in the direction that I know is probably going to be healthier for you and pay attention to all the stuff exactly and then help them make the connections on all these things that we're going to tighten little screws and you know closer to your goal that way I had the same experience where it was just like I had to throw away all the meal planning like that was just a big part of like personal training was like here's your meal plan here's like the the list that you're allowed to get and like let's avoid these foods and it's just like it's such a stark contrast of what they're already doing to where it's it's like steering a big huge you know steering wheel versus just like making these like tiny little changes that they're more likely to do and and are actually going to move the needle so much further so yeah I would just take them to the to the grocery store and we would shop how they would shop and I would just watch you know the behaviors okay they're gonna go for this type of a food you know and then maybe like look at the back and read the label maybe let's try this one you know and then just make like one or two little subtle changes and it would go so much further that's perfect yeah so basically if you follow and listen to all these different factors you can start to begin to develop a balanced approach to nutrition and ultimately find the best diet that works for you which will lead to the best results look if you like our information head over to mindpumpfree.com and check out our guides we have guides that can help you with almost any health or fitness goal you can also find all of us on social media so justin is on instagram at mind pump justin adam is on instagram at mind pump adam and you can only find me on twitter at mind pumps out this one's really important and that is to phase your training if somebody trains for a full year doing a bench press and they're always aiming for five reps if you compared that person to a person who did bench press where they did three or four weeks of five reps but then they did three or four weeks of 12 reps and three or four weeks of let's say 15 to 20 reps and then they'll throw on some supersets at the end of that year you're going to see more consistent progress from the person who's moving in and out and less injury that's another thing you'll see less injury as well