Pain-Free Athlete's Podcast
Are you tired of feeling pain? Are you recovering from a surgery? Do you want to learn how to stay active and pain-free? I'll share tips and strategies that can help you stay safe and pain-free while you're working out. I'll also interview experts in the field of fitness, rehabilitation and pain management.
Pain-Free Athlete's Podcast
Unlocking the Secrets of Functional Nutrition with Eugene Smith
In this episode of the Pain Free Athlete Podcast, host Dana Jones speaks with Eugene Smith, a functional nutrition counselor, about his journey into nutrition, the importance of understanding individual dietary needs, and the impact of nutrition on athletic performance and recovery. They discuss various dietary trends, the significance of gut health, and the mind-body connection in wellness. Eugene also shares insights into cultural influences on eating habits and the programs he offers to help individuals achieve their health goals.
Takeaways:
Eugene's journey into functional nutrition began with a personal interest in food sourcing. Understanding food labels is crucial for making healthy choices. Injuries in athletes can often be linked to nutrient deficiencies. Gut health plays a significant role in overall health and injury recovery. Dietary trends should be approached with caution and tailored to individual needs. The mind-body connection is essential for effective nutrition and wellness. Cultural and familial patterns heavily influence eating habits. Eugene offers various programs to address specific health and nutrition needs. Functional nutrition looks at the whole person, not just their diet. Education is key to helping individuals make informed dietary choices.
Eugene Smith is a Certified Functional Nutrition Counselor (CFNC) and a researcher in health and food science.
He is the creator of B Life Like Nutrition, a holistic Functional Nutrition practice where he works with clients in finding root cause solutions to their health goals. Furthermore, he works with athletes to enhance their athletic performance capabilities holistically through his Athletic Performance Enhancement Program.
He is also the creator of Life Like Beverage Company where they make Functional Beverages , Botanical Extracts, and Nutrient Enhancers.
In his spare time he trains and competes in track and field as a USATF Masters sprinter.
Links:
https://blifelike.com/
Podcast Disclaimer:
The Pain-Free Podcast is presented solely for general information, education, and entertainment purposes. Any information presented in this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional diagnosis. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. As always, users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition that they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
@djsfitnessevolution
Welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones. I am a certified personal trainer and I'm here to help you achieve your fitness goals without pain. In each episode, I'll share tips and strategies that will help you stay safe and pain-free while you're working out. I'll also interview experts in the field of fitness and pain management. So if you're ready to learn how to stay active and pain-free, then subscribe to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast today. Hi everyone and welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast today. Hi everyone and welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones, and today I am joined by Eugene Smith. Welcome, eugene Hi.
Speaker 2:Hi, my name is Eugene Smith and I am a functional nutrition counselor, a practitioner or advisor, whichever one you choose. Anyway, let me start that off. Hi, my name is Eugene Smith. I'm with Be Like Life Nutrition. I am a functional nutrition practitioner.
Speaker 2:My story starts about 18 years ago when I started growing vegetables and herbs as a hobby, and so as I started doing that, I started getting a little bit more interested in where my food came from, and that meant, you know, I guess a little while later I started spending two hours in the grocery store looking at labels like, okay, what is this? What are they putting in the food? What is this ingredient? And so I started learning what ingredients were not good or were not healthy for me and my family. So with that that led to just more learning on the Internet and just doing a lot more research and you know what supplements were good. And at the time I wasn't doing any hard workouts, I really wasn't working out at all. But right around that time my dad got sick and he was in the hospital for about six months before he passed. But during that time it was kind of really rough because my dad was my best friend. So I went through a lot. But you know, when he'd come home from the hospital I said Dad, you don't need to be eating that. He'd be like oh, you know, I'm 79 years old, I can eat what I want. I'd be like, okay, you know, I couldn't say anything to him, you know.
Speaker 2:So eventually, when he passed, I went through a bit of a rough patch and then through that rough patch I started getting myself together and with that I started training, started working out and I was looking for something a little bit more to do once I got to a certain fitness level. So I looked up and joined a track club which a track team or track club which I was coaching by Bill Collins, and I looked at a couple of other teams, but Bill's wording on his site just felt comfortable and I called him up and talked to him a few times before I actually went out. And I think I talked to him in November, I think it's February. I finally went out and I was like, oh, I'm in shape, you know, I can hang, because I think I went out to do a little spying and stuff. I was like, oh, I can do that, I've been doing that, I've been doing that, I've been doing 100 repeats so I can do that.
Speaker 2:I got on the track my first day and they were like okay, we're going to do 100. You're going to do 100 repeats, which is basically what they do for the new guy, right? So I think, okay, you want to do 10, 100 repeats? I was like what you know? 10, 100? Okay, so I did 10, 100 repeats. I struggled through that and then Bill's wife Stephanie was like okay, now you're going to do 100 sit-ups, holy moly. And I'm like what? Okay, I'll do 100 sit-ups. And then that went on. I got kind of more acclimated than one day when we were doing a stadium workout indoors I think it's because the weather was nasty outside we went into the basketball stadium at.
Speaker 2:Rice University where we trained, we were doing a stair workout and I was like, oh my god, this is killing. I was like, man, I love doing bio. Bill was like, well, you're in good shape for your age, you're okay, but you're not in traction. That evolved into me training more and I think I competed that first we had our first race and I started February with them and we had our first race in June, I think I did that was my first race and so I ran 100 meters and I ran 100 meters before, I think, the rest of the season and I was like, okay, look, I need to get my 100 better. So I started running the 200 later and then, once I got 200, I'm like, no, I need more. So I said I want to run the 400 and then go back down. Once I got to the 400, I was like man, I like it.
Speaker 1:This is so hard for me to grasp.
Speaker 2:Wait so to order to run faster at shorter distances. You're running longer and more. Well, yeah, because you want to be able to run through that distance, you know, keeping as much energy and velocity as you can. So you want to run over. And that's funny because a lot of 100-meter sprinters come to train with us or join the team or whatever they're like.
Speaker 2:I've never trained like this. All we did was run 100 meters, 150 meters. We never ran 300s, we never ran 300s. We never ran 400s, we never ran 500s. Philosophy on that? Because a lot of sprint coaches will they only do speed work. And Bill's philosophy is hey, look during the off season, from September or August all the way through, starting January, december. Look during the off-season, from September or August all the way through, starting January, december, January we do base work and then gradually start doing speed work. Because his philosophy is you do the base work to get your legs ready to handle speed so you don't have as many injuries when you start doing a lot of speed work. Because speed work, sprinting, speed kill and you pull something, especially when you're 40, 50 years old or even a younger guy Some of the we have young guys train with us as well and you know you start pulling things and it's always good to have that base training.
Speaker 1:So I have a question for you how old do you have to be to compete in Masters track?
Speaker 2:Masters, they will let you do. They brought the age down from 35, I think 30, 35 to 25. Holy moly. And they made it to 25 because they want to bring more people in who weren't running track in college or finished college. They want to bring more people in but we were always like, well, you know, well, it's not exclusive if it's bringing the younger guys in, but the younger guys cannot compete in World Masters. They have to be 30 and up and I think, nationally, I don't think that 25-year-olds can compete. They have to run over.
Speaker 1:Now do they separate you by your age groups.
Speaker 2:Like I know, with triathlon it's a group of five, so I'm sorry to cut you off. So it's groups of five like 50 to 54, and then 55 to 60, and then on, and on, and on and on, up to as long as you can run. They have 100-year-olds running.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've seen those. There's been a couple of super cool people that I've seen that are, you know, are 88 years old and run in like a 9-second 100 or whatever 10-second 100.
Speaker 2:There was a video of Bill out there that says he ran a 10, I think it was a 10.2 or 10.6, and they said he was 60, but Bill was like no, I wasn't 60. I think he said I was 50, 55. He said he was younger. But he said that video is wrong. It's misinformation.
Speaker 1:But you understand how crazy that is, though. Right, yes, okay, for those of us that are not sprinters, that's. That is some insane that's really insane yeah, that's. That's just amazing, you know, and insane in a good way, like if your body is capable of doing those things, then that says a lot about who you are. And even doing the work because it sounds like like doing the work is also pretty intense as well. It's very intense.
Speaker 2:It's more intense than PT in the Army was when I was about 20. Granted, I wasn't in the Special Forces or Infantry, so the PT was not as harsh, but it could still. It could still be brutal. You know, running five miles in formation is not fun.
Speaker 1:No, not at all as someone who's been there and doing it and, on top of that, singing.
Speaker 2:I called in Katie and everybody. You could smell the alcohol from the guys in front of you. It's not fun. I was fortunate enough to get a road guard there so I could be the road guard. I could just run in front of you and it's it's not fun. I was fortunate enough to get a roll guard vest so I could be the roll guard. I could just run in front of everybody.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that I was never in front, I was always in the back well, I had the older ncos within the the audience hills because they was a plot and just they were. They were there for a long time. They grabbed the roll guard vest so they were always in back but they never came to relieve me and I would always look like man. I got to sprint the whole formation and they're just like so, but that was good because you know I got to sprint, you know, during the whole formation. Eventually I just stopped complaining. Like you know, it's tough.
Speaker 1:It was a good deal. So I got to ask you a question because I noticed with me my fueling and food consumption was so messed up in the army because of the fact that we didn't have time to eat. I don't know what guidelines they were using at the time, but it was essentially protein and carbs. Like you know, your plate was like you got chicken and potatoes and, yeah, there's a little. I don't even know. I don't remember eating vegetables, but I'm sure there were vegetables there. It's been a while since I've been in, but like did that did you? Like now, as a person who actually pays attention to your nutrition? Like, do you see the patterns of that? Like, did that kind of pave a way for you, for you in a good way or a bad way? It was in a good way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was from basic training to AIT, which is when you train for your military specialty or your job. It was a six-month ordeal. School was six months and then basic training was six weeks or eight, six, I can't remember. Eight weeks, eight weeks. So the mess hall and basic training was great because they don't want to break you down. They're trying to build you up so you can stay in the Army. They're not trying to break you down like I would say in some of the older generations, like in the 70s and the 60s, where they could actually hit you upside the head whenever you went down the line. But anyway, the food and basic was good. And there was a unit that was in for TDY.
Speaker 2:I was in artillery, so it was an artillery unit. It was an airborne unit in for what is it called? Forward operating control. In other words, they call the artillery in or they call it an airplane Anyway. So the airborne guys, you know they were hardcore.
Speaker 2:So I'm like I was doing KP duty one day and I'm like, dude, y'all don't finish anything on your plate and it's like man, our stomachs are so tight from all the PT and all the running and just the training. There's no room to eat and I was like whoa. So that stuck in my head for a long time. And basically, when we were talking about protein, vegetables and carbs, yeah, it was that. But we had a variety of all of that so you could pick and choose what you wanted to eat. And so I just kind of ate like I grew up eating, you know, chicken, beef, potatoes and a vegetable. You know the three food groups. And you know we drank Kool-Aid. The Kool-Aid was for hydration, which I wouldn't do that now, but it's like drinking Gatorade or Powerade. It's so true, with all that Powerade, yes, but it laid a foundation.
Speaker 2:And when I got to Germany I was in active army for three years and I spent my whole tour in Germany. They had just activated the no more 18 month PTS back to the state. You had to do a full tour. So I did my two and a half years in Germany and the food in Germany was based off the economy food they bought. The men's hall bought food off the economy. So you got good meat, you got good vegetables and everything was good. So the food was excellent. I mean, you know, and the mess hall guys, you know we complained about it then. But looking back, the food was not bad at all. It was nutritious. So basically the same three food groups or whatever you know.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you, you know, at that age you eat like crazy. You might not want to eat anything but a piece of cake or whatever. But that stuck in my head because that helped me when I wanted to get back into shape. I said, okay, I need to eat first before I do any kind of training or trying to work out. And I hadn't worked out, I was a couch potato all during my 40s.
Speaker 2:I was like I got to eat first and let me feel my body, and so that carried over from the military for me to answer your question. Well, that stuck and it still sticks, and more so now because you know I'm a nutrition counselor, a practitioner. So now it's like, okay, well, I go do anything and I'll look at the workouts. Oh, we got to do 400 a day. Okay, I need to eat, because there's no way I'm going to do all these 400s without any food on me. Some of the workouts I can eat lighter, or some of my. If I didn't have time to eat, I can just kind of go and work out and eat later, but we gotta do 400s or 500s or 600s, or if you gotta do them fast, you gotta eat, you know so you had, um a period of time where you said you went plant-based.
Speaker 1:Like how did that work for you? I know that I've seen things, you know, because when you're online you follow different fitness influencers and there seems to be this, I don't know. I guess a trend toward the edges is the easiest way for me to say it right. It's like can't just have vegetable, I got to be, you know, vegan, or whatever. I can't just have protein, I got to be carnivore, or you know. So, as a nutritionist, like, how are you seeing those trends? And you know, is there one good trend for everybody?
Speaker 2:Not the way I practice, because the way we were taught and just intuition. Not everybody's built the same. Everybody has different genetic makeup. Everybody has their body. Their insides are just different, even though the insides do the same things. Instead of the same body functions, everybody's different.
Speaker 2:So I wouldn't treat this if somebody comes in with a specific. If two people came in with a specific health issue, I would not work with them the same way. First I'm going to find out. I'm going to look for the root cause, because if they have an health issue, you and I can have a cold or we could have God forbid diabetes 2 or something like diabetes. We arrive at it differently so I can't treat it differently. The root cause is going to be different. So I kind of look at these diet trends as they might work for a good group of people, because a lot of people swear off a carnivore. You know I'll eat meat and I lost 50,000 pounds. I'm like good for you, but you can't tell that person right there to do that because they might get sick and die. Or you know they might get sick and you know I think we've all seen that happen. You know, when I tried this or I tried keto and I, just my body, just you know, I gained weight.
Speaker 2:I gained weight on carnivore, and then some people will eat keto and flourish, you know, I just think it's a matter of individually, whatever the person needs for their particular, whatever their body needs for them, you know, and that's how I look at it.
Speaker 1:So if I come to you so like you know, we know the obvious, right, somebody comes to you. They're overweight or they have diabetes or something that is a very clear you know problem or project for you to handle, what about if I say you know, I'm just trying to get in shape but I'm noticing like I have all these injuries, like I'm always pulling muscles or you know whatever. Is that also a factor that plays into nutrition?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is one of the reasons why, within my athletic program, I created a section in there that's for injury recovery and a lot of injury recoveries, because I've seen them and what I've learned throughout the years, and especially when I went through the nutrition program, was basically a lot of injuries occur because of nutrient deficiency. You know, like an Achilles can sometimes be a nutrient deficiency. I've worked with people and I've had some twins in my Achilles. Where I got I did a therapeutic dose of, did therapeutic doses of glycine and I just kind of made sure that all my, all my minerals, my protein, my aminos, I made sure all that was up to snuff and I didn't have any more problems with that. But yeah, injuries a lot of times are from overtraining, of course, and a lot of them are from nutrient deficiencies. And once you can correct those deficiencies, then you start to see you know them recovery or you start to see them get injured left. I have some people that I run with and they have chronic injuries. They're like man, my leg won't stop hurting. I'm having a certain issue with my leg and the doctors can't figure out what it is. You know I'll bring it up, but a lot of times they're. You know, some people are stuck in their way so I'll say, well, hey look, tell your doctor to maybe do this test, and a lot of these tests that I might run are not regular doctors won't run them because they're not covered by insurance. So a lot of these tests will go right in and tell you where you're deficient and then those deficiencies, like I said earlier, can cause those injuries, and a lot of injuries are based off of just chronic inflammation and the inflammation comes from poor gut health. A person can be healthy on the outside, be a terrific athlete, but their gut health is poor, and this can be for anybody. What has 70% of the immune system in it? It has a lot to do with your inflammation and that's usually one of the first places I start with anybody is I work on their gut health. We start looking at their gut health and even, like with weight loss, which you mentioned earlier, some people can be doing all the right things. They can be eating, they can be eating the right I mean, they can be exercising and they cannot lose weight. But what we'll find out is it's something, let's say, maybe some trauma that they never let go of and they never addressed and because your body is in protective mode, it's keeping that weight off Right, and so once you can address that, then a lot of people have seen a lot of people that weight starts coming off.
Speaker 2:I was working with one person and I was telling her. I was like, hey, bro, I'm eating okay, and I'm doing, and we had been going through this for a while. I said I want you to try something. Tell your metabolism. You want to speed up? Talk to your metabolism, talk to your body. Tell your body you want to lose weight, tell it what you want to do. And she called me back, or she texted me a week later Matter of fact, it probably wasn't even that long. She said I lost two pounds and I'm like I didn't say, see, I told you. Then she texted me back again. She said I lost X amount of pounds. I'm like great, great. Then I think I said I told you. I think you're laughing of course.
Speaker 1:Well, there is that belief, right, I mean on top of everything, because you can do as much, you know I can eat all the right foods, you know, if you're my person, but if I'm like this is crap, I don't even know why he's making me eat this. I'm not a rabbit, you know. Whatever it may be, then I may not receive the benefit, you know, of those nutrients. So I wanted to kind of switch over, because you know you were talking about the mind-body piece and you know how I mean, aside from you know, really getting in touch with your body, how do you implement that into your practice?
Speaker 2:It just depends on the person, because some people will come with that. They'll already have their mindset and they just need some. You know nutrition. They need to work on the nutrition and a few other things, but basically it's integrated. I'm asking you what's on your plate? I'm asking you all these different things. I'm asking about trauma. So I'm also looking at that from the mind-body standpoint as well, because you know when the mind is not right, the other two factors of your body, you know the I'm sorry the physical side can be okay or vice versa, but if the mind is not right, then you know it's just not going to happen. The same thing with the weight loss If your brain is not right or into it, it's just not going to happen. All these things have to work together in synergy for the right things to happen for good outcome.
Speaker 1:Right, well, and that's the thing it's like. If I'm stressed out, then that's going to throw off my body and it's going to help increase inflammation, and then the inflammation is not allowing my body to work the way it needs to work, which is, in fact, then going to stress me out, so it becomes this horrible bicycle that we're riding in circles. That is not going to get us anywhere. Well, you know, so it's yeah, right, and that's the thing it's. And you know, my daughter sent me something the other day because she was looking at it and she was. I can't remember where she saw it, but it was something about the fact that people of color have higher cortisol levels than other people because of the fact of, like, the generational trauma and how that affects us.
Speaker 1:And you know, I guess my question for you is how does that like? What are you seeing? Because I mean that like, what are you seeing? Because I mean it's people of color, but it's also just familial patterns, right, like how we cook, how we eat, I guess, the speed in which we eat right, because you know there are people that will sit down and they'll eat a meal together as a family. And it's funny, because if you're not religious. Sometimes it's interesting because that moment where you take a second to like, pray and have gratitude for your food, right, is that moment where you're connecting, right. You're grateful for the fact that the food is there. It's taking, you know, it's giving you the opportunity to disconnect from the craziness of your day and to make yourself present, to go ahead and probably have good nutrition and good, you know, absorption and digestion and all those things. But are you seeing that, like with your clients? Or you know these patterns, whether it's for people of color or for, whether it's for people that are just in bad, like nutritional-slash-workout-slash-wellness patterns?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I see it in people of color. I see it in a grocery store I'm just looking at what they have in their cart and a lot of people. I wish I had my statistics in front of me, but it's going off of what I see, you know, and me being on the third for a while, and parents and grandparents and just stepsisters or whatever I see. A lot of that comes. A lot of our eating habits comes from our parents, from our families, and then, you know, they get it from one generation and pass down, pass down and, like I was saying earlier, the food is not the same way as it used to be and I think a lot of us eat. A lot of people of color.
Speaker 2:I think we're in fight or flight a lot compared to everybody else, because now I think everybody's in fight or flight. We've been in fight or flight for so long. It's ingrained in us, so we pass that along to our offspring. And that has a lot to do with our health, our long-term health, because a lot of this stuff might not show up until you're 40, 50 years old. Why does this person have dementia? Why does this person have heart disease? And a lot of times it's not because your mom or dad had it. It's because you have the same habits, that they have the same eating pattern, the same mindset, the same trauma they might experience and pass on to you, or your mom passed on to you when they were in the womb. That's a lot of what I see and a lot of it you know. It can be corrected or misdirected, or directed with education, if that person's willing to receive it. A lot of people don't receive it, like no, I'm not doing that.
Speaker 2:I was like okay, and so you can't, you can't change anybody and like like my dad, you know, my dad, you know, and I found books with. I found health books like, oh, my dad, you know, and I found books. I found health books Like well, my dad read all these health books. What the hell you know? He had knowledge, you know, and he used to. My dad used to be the. He started out. He started out in, I think, when I was young in the 60s. He worked for Church's Chicken, he started Fried Chicken and he worked his way up to president of Host International, which was the president of Host International, which was the, I think, the holding company or the company that owned churches, that ran churches and so he had all these years of food experience. Because he would yell at me when I was like, use hot water when you wash the dish so you don't get the bacteria, and I'm like I'm just trying to get out the kitchen so I can go out.
Speaker 2:So a lot of it is just, I think, people's mindset and they, you know, they don't want to get out of whatever they're in when it comes to food. And a lot of people are just they're religious about food. That's just their thing. I mean, people can get hostile. I always say if I want to clear a room, you know I can clear a room faster. Just mentioning health, then it's I threw a grenade in the room. You know, if I threw a grenade in the room, people like, oh, okay, you know, I just gradually move. But if I say health, everybody's gonna scatter like roaches. It just it's a lot of different things and it's kind of hard to touch on just one and it's near and dear to my heart. So I try to educate as much as I can, but I also don't get caught up in. Okay, I'm not going to just try to drag you in. It's like okay, you either in or you're out.
Speaker 2:Right, hopefully you get it one day. Hopefully it might jog your mind and say, well, hey, I heard Eugene talk about this years ago or months ago and let me try this, so that's where I stand on that.
Speaker 1:It's funny, being in California. People have different attitudes, but I think a daily, fort, one, daily, weekly, depends on who it is. A portion of our existence is around wine, especially for where I am in Northern California, and so for years I had these fitness challenges, you know, after the new year, whatever it was, and I'd give you points for things that you did. You know. Did you have, you know, two cups of vegetables? Did you drink this amount of water? Did you, you know, sleep this much? Did you work out All these things?
Speaker 1:And one of the categories was abstain from drinking, and it was like you didn't lose points for not drinking, right? You just, you know, you just didn't get points for that category and all the things that I put on that sheet. That was the one that I fought with people the most and it was very much like for me, it was I'm not, I'm not telling you, you can go ahead and drink, Like you don't have to get the points in that column and they're like well, that's unfair and it's because there's certain areas where there's certain things, and for California it's wine. People drink a lot of wine here.
Speaker 2:You know alcohol. A lot of new studies are coming out about how alcohol is bad for you and people just go, hey they're offensive, they're offensive. They're offensive. They're like what do you mean? No, a little bit of alcohol is not going to hurt anybody. People have been drinking wine for hundreds of years and yet they missed the 30, okay.
Speaker 1:And the wine they were drinking was not all. Yet they missed the 30,. Okay, they missed 35. And the wine they were drinking was not all the stuff that we got Light crates and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Exactly, it's just wild. I mean, on the comments section people are just attacking a person, say hey, I'm not saying you can't drink, I'm just posting information, and it would go crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty interesting. So what do you have going on, like what are some of the things that you offer in your business? You know, because there's a lot of things that you have on your website which we're going to go ahead and drop all that stuff in the show notes. But you know, you have some meal planning. You have different services that you offer clients Would you like to share some of that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the meal planning is new because I always said I don't want to do any meal, I don't want to plan meals, but I started offering as a service. But what I've done and I've got to update the website is I've started offering it as a program, different programs, because that would serve people better than me just saying, hey, I'm going to send you a meal, I'm going to do an intake, or you ask the question, I'm just going to send you a meal plan. So I've been integrating those into the program. So one of them I have is like a 28-day meal plan or meal program where I do an extensive intake on your not the general intake I would do if you were, you know, coming into as a nutrition client but it has its own intake and I'm asking about your diet, I'm asking what you like to eat, what health challenges that you have or what goal that you might want to accomplish, and that program I have. I also have another program which is called a technical nutrition program and that's for men that are 40 plus and basically it's vitality. I do an extensive intake in that program and so I'm asking about everything you know, because the object of the program is to build vitality and resilience holistically. You know, I don't want to say get them off of medication, but if they can wean off of blood pressure or whatever, that's fine, they can get off the couch. But the program incorporates hey, you know it's all these things. We're going to look at the, we're going to look at your food, we're going to look at your body, we're going to look at your mind and spirit. So it incorporates all that out of one of the meal planning programs. And I'm still kind of working my way through this program.
Speaker 2:But what it does is it teaches women how to eat and how to basically guide themselves through these menopause symptoms like hot flashes, you know, sweat, not sleeping, and basically it's just to get the hormones balanced. And you know we can do that in conjunction with. You know, if they have a practitioner that they work with as far as hormone therapy and things of those nature, then we can bring in tests and say, well, all the programs except for the meal program, I can bring in extensive testing, functional testing, and we can look in any area we want, from genetics to an organic acids test which is going to look for nutrients, lack of nutrients or wherever you're it's going to look for your nutrient balance, the typical blood panels, all these different things. That is a lot, yeah, and I also have. But there, well, let me finish this next part.
Speaker 2:I have a holistic performance enhancement for athletes which has three categories. Which is one is the holistic performance enhancement. The other one is impaired performance, which gets an athlete that might be overtrained. We can get him back into a normal state of training where he's not fatigued. We address fatigue and all these different things that are going on with that. And then there's the injury recovery. We help athletes recover faster, you know, and basically it's just doing inflammatory things, anti-inflammatory things.
Speaker 2:But all these programs have a link because it's all based on functional nutrition, which is based on the whole body, the whole person. You know not just what you have on your plate, but also you know your mind and your spirit. You know your whole body, physiology. So that's why you know and I was like, well, is this too many programs? Like no, it covers enough niches.
Speaker 2:You know that I wanted to get into and that you know, especially athletic one, because that's based on a lot of my training and a lot of my the way I experimented throughout my 10 years running, which is gonna be my 10th season coming up this track season. So it's based on that and I'll probably stay in that for a while. Um, I have some other things that I do that I that I'm developing, but they're kind of offshoot from these different programs and they kind of go into just what the individual might need, because I do like to work hard cases where somebody might come in with an autoimmune problem and so we'll try to solve that, we'll try to find a root cause of that and work on that.
Speaker 1:So it's all that is general health, you know the menopause, the athletic and the vitality and they all kind of tie together and I will tell you, just taking a peek at the meal planning, like it's legit, like it's funny, because my son is doing the HelloFresh right now and you know your meal plan looks very similar, except you're using good stuff and not stuff that's in packages that comes to our house. But in terms of, like, the explanation, the nutrients, the ingredients, you know you're laying it out so that if you're somebody who may not be familiar with cooking, it looks like it's enough to get them started and I think that people feel more confident once, because that's a good skill to have. Learning how to cook is a good. You know, learning how to garden is a good skill to have. Like, these are the little things that you need to have, but having it laid out on that meal planning card, I think, will give people confidence to continue to do the things that they want to do that are going to allow them to build a healthier body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm also within that I'm going to do just to kind of bring more people in, because that's a relatively new program, it's not that old. So what I'm going'm gonna do is what I'm in the process of doing now I just got to finish up some things is to get people in. On a new year. I'm discounting it, so I'll have the promo code up on the website just to bring people, just to bring people in, and I've changed the um intake where both of the there's there's two, there's two meal planning planning programs. One of them is plus and one of them is the regular one. The regular one also gets a consultation. There's some details I'm working on, but the consultation is gold because we can sit down and design a plan around the person and it's not just like here, eat this, eat that. I'm looking at all these factors of what you present to me Personalized, yeah, personalized, or what they say, catered what's the other word? I always forget this word Because of what I see.
Speaker 1:Curated Curated, that's a high-end word, right? Yeah, that's a. That's a high-end word, right, that's that? Yeah, that's a. That's a four-year degree where it works. Jean, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it, and do you have any final words for our listeners?
Speaker 2:no, I just just kind of like everybody to kind of look at nutrition without the fear, because you're going to tell me that I can't eat anything. You can eat whatever you want, we're not going to just make you eat grass or anything. But I just kind of want people to look at functional nutrition differently, because you know dieticians work differently than what we do. Everybody has their own, you know their function in life. But you know we look at, like I said, we look at the whole person and I'm trying to get people, educate more people on that, because it's actually a bridging. It bridges the gap in healthcare because we look at everything. So that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1:That is great information. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me.
