The Smart Nutrition Made Simple Show with Ben Brown

All too often, clients join our Smart Nutrition Coaching Program having spent years taking care of everyone else but themselves, only to realize that the person they see in the mirror is no longer a reflection of who they want to be.

This exact scenario played out with my wife, Kristina. A former collegiate athlete and all-around hard-charging individual, Kristina put all of her time and effort into work, taking care of our three kids, and volunteering what little time she had left. She found herself drinking more alcohol than she'd like to admit, snacking in the evenings, hitting up fast food restaurants on the way home from work, staying up too late, and not getting enough sleep. She realized that she wasn't living up to the person she wanted to be for her kids.

A few years ago, Kristina made a massive shift. She left her job in corporate America, became my business partner, hired Coach Joey, started to prioritize herself, and her results have been incredible.

In today's episode of the Smart Nutrition Made Simple Show, I'm excited to share my wife's experience both in the trenches at Body Systems and as a client, along with all of the wisdom, knowledge, and advice she has gleaned over the last few years.

If you're pouring all of your energy into your children, your career, and/or your commitments, and you're unhappy with the person you've become, then I hope this conversation resonates with you and gives you the kick in the pants to start shifting your mindset around what could be possible if you start prioritizing yourself.

As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review, and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. And if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat. Just schedule your free nutrition strategy call at https://www.bodysystems.com/free-strategy-call/.

RESOURCES:

Book a free call to learn about our new men's hybrid coaching program PrimeFitOS: https://www.primefitos.com/call

Grab our FREE Fat Loss Fix Guide: https://bodysystems.com/fat-loss-fix-guide/

Check out our new High Protein Recipe Pack – Over 52 Easy to Make Protein Dense Meals + 2-Weeks of Shopping Guides and Meal Plans: https://bodysystems.com/high-protein-recipe-pack/

We’ve recently partnered with Fullscript, the #1 online source for only professional-grade supplements, to create our own Smart Nutrition Made Simple Supplement Shop! As a loyal subscriber of Body Systems, you automatically qualify for 15% off all supplements – https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/bslnutrition/signup

Connect with Us:

Email: [email protected]

Join our Smart Nutrition Community: https://www.smartnutritionmadesimple.com

Check out our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bodysystemscoaching

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodysystemscoaching/

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminbrownnutrition/

Most of us think that if we eat less and work out more we will lose weight, but that’s simply NOT the case. In fact, doing so is often a recipe for weight gain. Why? Well, the answer lies in understanding the metabolism and what it takes to function optimally.

If you’re curious about how the metabolism really works, you’re struggling to lose weight and can’t figure out why, or if you’re simply interested in optimizing your metabolic health, then you need to check out my podcast with Dr. Jade Teta.

If you can remember that the metabolism is simply a stress barometer, you can start to understand why it runs into problems very quickly when you don’t let is seek its natural balance.

Dr. Teta is an integrative physician, highly sought after expert in the realm of metabolism and self-development and author of the best-selling books The Metabolic Effect Diet, Metabolic Aftershock and Lose Weight Here. He spent the last 25+ years immersed in the study of strength and conditioning, hormonal metabolism and the psychology of change and success.

Additionally, Dr. Teta is the founder and creator of Metabolic Effect, an international health and fitness company, as well as the creator of Jade Teta, LLC, where he combines his knowledge of fitness with his expertise in self-development and mindset change.

During our extremely informative discussion we take a deep dive into metabolism, why metabolism is so important, the ideas of metabolic damage, metabolic compensation, and metabolic resistance, why we experience weight-loss resistance and how to adjust our nutrition, exercise, and mindset in order to help our metabolism function the way it’s supposed to function. Dr. Teta also shares both subjective and objective tools to help identify and overcome common metabolic issues many of us are struggling with on a daily basis. I guarantee this is a podcast that you will not want to miss.

Not many people can walk onto a college football team having never played a down of high school football and end up in the NFL. But my next guest on the Smart Nutrition Made Simple Show did just that.

Today I chop it up with Nick Hardwick. Nick is a former NFL center for the San Diego Chargers turned 1 on 1 fitness and nutrition coach. He is the owner of HardwickLIFE, a health and wellness company that focuses on helping individuals reclaim their health and their lives. Nick also serves as a certified NFL transition coach to help former NFL players successfully navigate the oftentimes difficult process of transition out of the highest level of professional athletics.

In today's discussion, we talk a lot about Nick's experience in high school, collegiate, and professional sports, the nutritional protocols he was using to gain and maintain weight in the NFL, and the injury that ended his 11-year NFL career.

We talk about his transition from professional athlete to everyday life, the struggles he encountered figuring out his new identity, and the unique nutritional protocol he used to shed a massive amount of weight post-NFL.

Finally, we talk about his biggest frustrations as a fitness and nutrition coach, why we all deserve to be healthy and make ourselves a priority, and how he shows up as a father and sets an example for his kids.

Connect with Nick:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickhardwick/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicholas.hardwick.3

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hardwicklife

Website: https://hardwicklife.com/

As always, if you love what you hear on this show, then do me a favor and subscribe, leave a positive rating and review, and share this episode with a friend or loved one whom you think could benefit. And if you want to talk about working with me personally, I’d love to chat. Just schedule your free nutrition strategy call at https://www.bodysystems.com/free-strategy-call/.

RESOURCES:

Book a free call to learn about our new men's hybrid coaching program PrimeFitOS: https://www.primefitos.com/call

Grab our FREE Fat Loss Fix Guide: https://bodysystems.com/fat-loss-fix-guide/

Check out our new High Protein Recipe Pack – Over 52 Easy to Make Protein Dense Meals + 2-Weeks of Shopping Guides and Meal Plans: https://bodysystems.com/high-protein-recipe-pack/

We’ve recently partnered with Fullscript, the #1 online source for only professional-grade supplements, to create our own Smart Nutrition Made Simple Supplement Shop! As a loyal subscriber of Body Systems, you automatically qualify for 15% off all supplements – https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/bslnutrition/signup

Connect with Us:

Email: [email protected]

Join our Smart Nutrition Community: https://www.smartnutritionmadesimple.com

Check out our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bodysystemscoaching

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodysystemscoaching/

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminbrownnutrition/

Of increasing popularity is the adoption of a vegetarian or “plant-based” diet due to health concerns as well as those wishing to take a higher level of responsibility for the environment as well as the treatment of animals.

In this episode, I want to discuss several things with you that are worth considering when making this kind of lifestyle change as well as some (hopefully) helpful educational, nutritional and supplemental strategies to help aid you in your journey, including:

What’s the difference between vegetarian, vegan, and plant-based? Is one better than the other?

What merit does the “Game Changers” movie have with respect to the benefits of being vegan and what did they get terribly wrong? Who benefits from a movie like this?

Do vegetarians live longer than omnivores?

Vegetarian diets and muscle building, strength, and athletic performance.

Are animal proteins and plant proteins created equal? - Establishing protein goals for vegetarians.

What nutrients/micronutrients are missing in a vegan diet?

How to supplement a vegan diet

What (in my opinion) is a valid reason to make the switch and what is not and how we can stop arguing over nonsensical ideologies.

Let’s start with the basics: Terminology (Most to least restrictive)

Veganism: The strictest vegetarian diet. Excludes ALL animal products from the diet, including food products derived from animals (for example: milk, eggs, and in some cases honey). Some vegans even avoid using animal products made from leather or wool and avoid plants that are not organically grown.

Lacto Vegetarianism: “Lacto” means “dairy,” and this variation thus includes milk products, but no eggs or meats of any kind (fish, poultry or red meat).

Lacto-Ovo Vegetarianism: “Ovo” means “egg,” which is why egg products, but no meat, is included in this vegetarian variation.

Pesco-Vegetarianism: Are similar to lacto-ovo vegetarians, but also eat fish and crustaceans.

Semi-Vegetarianism or “flexitarianism”: Occasionally consume meat, but try to choose vegetarian options when possible. Some flexitarians exclude red meat completely, but still eat chicken and fish.

Plant-Based: Plant-based or plant-forward eating patterns focus on foods primarily from plants. This includes not only fruits and vegetables, but also nuts, seeds, oils, whole grains, legumes, and beans. It doesn’t mean that you are vegetarian or vegan and never eat meat or dairy. Rather, you are proportionately choosing more of your foods from plant sources.

Vegetarian Diets and Health: Do Vegetarians Live Longer than Meat-Eaters?

Vegans and vegetarians are probably some of the most health-conscious people on the planet - they tend to have a higher education, exercise more, sleep more, smoke less, and drink less alcohol. This also means that when you compare these people to the general U.S. population of non-vegetarians (less educated, less active smokers), avoiding meat is but one of a myriad of differences between them.

Observing differences in health outcomes is relatively easy but determining the cause of those differences is virtually impossible because of the confounding variables (education, exercise, smoke less, drink less alcohol, etc...).

But when adjusted for lifestyle, it turns out that the vegetarian diet doesn’t make us live longer. A 2017 meta-analysis looking at observational data from 130,000 vegetarians and 15,000 vegans, comparing them to a control group of non-vegetarians, reached this conclusion. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26853923)

Another major problem with this type of comparison is generalizing about what a “meat-based” diet constitutes - which in reality is comparing vegetarian diets to the Standard American Diet (SAD) Diet.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 sources of calories in the US and you tell me if you think it’s the meat that’s the problem:

1. Grain-based desserts (cakes, cookies, donuts, pies, crisps, cobblers, and granola bars)
2. Yeast breads
3. Chicken and chicken-mixed dishes
4. Soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks
5. Pizza
6. Alcoholic beverages
7. Pasta and pasta dishes
8. Mexican mixed dishes
9. Beef and beef-mixed dishes
10. Dairy desserts

Now despite the fact that everything on this list tastes fantastic, it’s easy to see how there’s far more, from a dietary perspective, to the sickening of the American population that just a meat-based diet.

I’d argue that doing literally anything but the SAD diet would positively impact health and longevity, with going more “plant-based” certainly being one of those things... but also low carb, keto, Mediterranean, the banana diet, the potato diet, the Atkins diet, etc... because all of these diets would effectively eliminate ...