Burnt Hands Perspective
This is a raw and unfiltered look into the pu$$ification and state of the restaurant industry as a whole, powered by longtime friends Chef/Owner Antonio Caruana and former bartender turned News Anchor/TV Host Kristen Crowley.
Representing all aspects of the industry from the front to the back of the house we will dig into the juiciest stories and pull from decades of experience in one of the sexiest and most exciting industries in the world...the food and beverage industry.
From international chefs, sommeliers, industry pros, and so much more, this show will cover all of it without a filter. You turn up the volume; we'll turn up the heat.
Support the show here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2388325/support
Burnt Hands Perspective
Ep 26 - Battle of the Bulge: The truth about weight loss and working in the restaurant industry
Our latest discussion is a bit different as we bring in a nutrition expert and former bartender who covers the intricate relationship between weight management and the culinary world. We get real about gut health with nutrition specialist Jocelyn Sidwell.
Dive into her insights on how chefs cope with the challenges of maintaining a healthy lifestyle amidst a demanding industry and crazy schedules.
• Exploring the emotional toll of weight fluctuation
• The importance of gut health for overall wellness
• Balancing moderation and indulgence in eating habits
• The impact of stress and its connection to health
• Simple nutritional strategies for busy lifestyles
• Understanding the role of restaurants in food choices
• Encouragement to develop self-compassion in health journeys
• Practical tips on mindful eating and digestive health
If you enjoyed our conversation, please subscribe, and check out Jocelyn on Instagram @lifestylelevel for more insights!
Welcome to the show! Burnt Hands Perspective
VIRTUAL TIP JAR: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2388325/support
CONTACT US:
www.burnthandsperspective.com
info@reframeyourbrand.com
IG @Theburnthandsperspective
Thank you to our location sponsor, Luce Secondo, located in Summit Pointe in Chesapeake, VA www.lucesecondo.com
For sponsorship opportunities, don't hesitate to get in touch with us directly.
*The views and opinions on this show are meant for entertainment purposes only. They do not reflect the views of our sponsors. We are not here to babysit your feelings, if you are a true industry pro, you will know that what we say is meant to make you laugh and have a great time. If you don't get that, this is not the podcast for you. You've been warned. Enjoy the ride!
All right, lose weight. You look like shit. You look like you hurt. Okay, you look like you hurt. You look like your body's in pain. Do something about this, please.
Speaker 2:Is this like our internal monologue daily with ourselves?
Speaker 1:Yes, this is what I think when I see people who are so overweight and they don't do anything about themselves. It hurts, it looks like it hurts.
Speaker 2:We're all a little overweight as am I.
Speaker 1:But damn, let's do something about it. Why, how, who this is? Who right here we is, who right here we're?
Speaker 2:shifting gears for this podcast, since we talk about food in general, we're representing all parts of the industry, and health food is a big part of it. It's a trend everybody's excited about, so we had to bring our friend on who is kind of the master of gut health here in the 757. So, jocelyn, introduce yourself to everybody. Hi, I'm.
Speaker 3:Jocelyn, I'm a gut health nutrition specialist. I've been in the industry health wellness industry.
Speaker 2:Do you want to say how long?
Speaker 3:I was going to say how long and then I was like well being in a restaurant. I was like I was in the restaurant industry years ago.
Speaker 1:So you were in for a long time.
Speaker 3:Now the reason why you fit and she fits good for this show is because who do we have to talk about that? I just had a birthday. Well, we do know this.
Speaker 1:We do know that you fit well with this show because of Burnt Hands. Perspective, of course is a restaurant, industry-focused type show with chefs. You've been in the industry for a very long time.
Speaker 3:Very long time You've been behind the bar.
Speaker 1:You've been through other parts of the service industry and you've kind of transformed yourself into who you are now, which is pretty much a fitness slash health guru in my eyes locally.
Speaker 3:for sure, I appreciate the gurus. I like that.
Speaker 1:Well, it is true, I mean, I look for you for assistance, obviously.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and a lot of people do.
Speaker 1:So. The reason why she's such a good fit for this show is because not only does she understand what she's doing, but she understands where we're at and where we come from, and that's why she's on the Burhans perspective.
Speaker 3:Yes, there you have it. Yes, yes, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:Well, that was the best, that's it. You got it. So basically what it is, it comes down to this as a chef, we eat, we get big. I live in a fluctuation of about 20 to 25 pounds. That's my cycle. So when I'm training and I lift and I work out, I can lose that weight quick. About a month, month and a half, I can drop 20 pounds. But it takes a lot of work. So the cycle is I get in shape, I'm in shape, I'm in shape, I feel great.
Speaker 1:Let that go for a while and then you start eating to get unhealthy, not because you want to get unhealthy, but because you're done with all the work. Right, it's a lot of work and that's fun. It's fun going through the cycle of gaining the weight. What's not fun is, once you gain it, living in that shell, and then what's even worse than that is understanding when you go to lose the weight again. Going to lose the weight again, that's the worst part of all of it. But once you start going in it and it starts going, in a couple weeks and metabolism works, you start rolling again. So that's my quick rundown of how this shit works for me. So go ahead and tell me.
Speaker 3:I'm like over here, like itching.
Speaker 1:I know you are, I can see it. I've got all these things I can say to you right now. I love it, I love it. But that's why I wanted to start out, to get you to do that.
Speaker 3:So I'll say this in the way that I don't like to call people out, but immediately I'll say why are you so inconsistent? Why are you fluctuating so hard on wanting to lose 20 pounds in a month and train so aggressively and then, all of a sudden, it not become part of your lifestyle? Because it needs to be something that's more consistent, instead of so up and down, and up and down, and up and down. And yeah, don't get me wrong, life's busy, chefs are busy, it's hectic, it's crazy. There's food, there's this, there's travel, there's all the things, and there's always something that's going to get in the way. But it comes back down to finding the simplicity of it that you can do consistently, instead of constantly having to go so hard, so hard. I think I sent that to you the other day and I'm like pick one, can you do something for five minutes? Pick one, instead of doing all the things so aggressively.
Speaker 1:Right? I think the answer to that question for me is I miss it. It comes down to missing it. So I am such a foodaholic, I love food, it's my place, it's my pleasure at all times, so I can eat healthy because I love that type of food. I love all types of food. So the problem I have as a chef is, yes, life brings you down. Yes, you want to get tired of working out All that stuff.
Speaker 2:The life, everyone.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter whether you're a chef or a railroad worker, it doesn't matter right Right right, the ups and downs of life always have you, yeah, but as far as I'm concerned, with me and with most chefs in the industry who are trying to go through this I miss food. I miss it.
Speaker 2:So I can go six months eating healthy the heavy braises, the pastas the pies, the cakes, yeah, but I know where she's going to come in on this because she's like you can have that in moderation all the time.
Speaker 3:Sure, sure you can it's not about so you should. And again I'll toot, toot the horn of the level lifestyle. But you should never live in deprivation, because that's not consistency and that's not a lifestyle. You're aiming for too much perfection and I'll have you know I will never be deprived. You should never live in deprivation of anything. Be like I can't have that. I try to retrain everybody's brains on not saying you can't have that, you should have this, but you can have that also because it should be. It's like think of every day. If you could think of every day like 80, 20, 80, healthy 20, don't give a shit what you eat, because then all of a sudden you're not going to feel like you have to. You know, overload yourself with all the fats and everything.
Speaker 1:You're living normal. You're living more normal.
Speaker 3:If you call that normal, yeah that's normal have the pizza, have the this, have the cake, have all the pasta.
Speaker 1:Your plant's got pasta in it as I get older. I'm absolutely understanding this.
Speaker 3:You learn it as you go. I was aggressively strict for years. I am just now figuring this out.
Speaker 1:As a chef, you have to watch out for a lot of nutritional people. You have different values, you have different people coming in here for different issues and you become understanding of it. Then you kind of relate some of it to yourself. Now I really understand my cycle. I understand where I'm at, when I want to. I'm in that position now where I'm starting to just get right back on it in a non-hardcore, aggressive way absolutely I'm really introducing it to where my body knows.
Speaker 1:I know I need a certain amount of carbs, I know I need my pasta, I know I need this, but it's in moderation and timing. So I come to the conclusion that you know you can, either at my age, 50 years old, yeah, you can either live healthy, right. You can live healthy right and die normal right, right, or you can live miserable right and die in pain and and and dies. It's hard right, you know, I'm saying, and regardless, we're going to die. So how do you want to live that life as you're older? When you're younger, it's just a matter of more or less vanity and, of course, a little bit of health, but as you're getting older, it's really about health, correct? Really, I don't give a shit about the how I look so much anymore because I'm getting older and I'm I'm more age appropriate. When it comes to that, there's only so much I can do.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you say the age thing because I mean, when we were young in the business, in your 20s you eat 7-Eleven every day and fucking Taco Bell and you know just shit all day long. But your metabolism was different.
Speaker 3:Things my body couldn't even handle yeah.
Speaker 2:Now we can't because we build up intolerances over time. Histamine, all the things happen in our bodies. You can't process it and now we just have to be careful with what you eat. But it doesn't. I mean, if I'm going to want something, I'm going to eat it and I'm going to feel like shit after, but I still do it. But I don't do it all the time.
Speaker 3:So I think it's you, pick your pick your hard. It's either going to be really hard or it's going to be just a little hard every day.
Speaker 2:But it is amazing in the restaurant, like the people who are still in it, that you're lucky, though you have good ingredients here, you're not using like crappy fats and oils and shit.
Speaker 3:That's like processed, ultra processed food. That was going to be my biggest point. Like you're saying all this thing and you know, not saying like don't be so hard on yourself. But yeah, we all probably have a couple pounds or want to do something, we all have something we want to tweak and fix, but at the same time you're like you're not putting crappy food in your body, so you're already ahead of the curve with the knowledge of the cycle.
Speaker 1:Like I, said my cycles. I've always been in sports, I've always been healthy, I always trained, I've always lifted and I've always slacked a little bit, but I've always got myself back. So enough about how I feel about it, right. So it's let's talk about how, this, how, how the health in the world. Now, you are a health food, health conscious person. You study this right, you're studying trends aggressively.
Speaker 2:You're studying?
Speaker 1:trends. Now we can sit here all day and talk about like like a typical show where we're going to go tell you how to lose all this weight. I'm I'm more interested in how do you relate this to what's going on in the world today when it comes to health food or lack of restaurants, for instance? How can you go to a restaurant and really trust what's going on there? How can you with what's being processed in the world today? It's almost impossible sometimes for a normal restaurant not one like mine or one like my level of restaurant where we can really vet out our produce and our product and our protein.
Speaker 2:You're spending more money on your food here. Some places are buying the cheese package. They have to, they have to.
Speaker 1:So that's 90%.
Speaker 2:honestly, that's 90% out there, it is yeah.
Speaker 1:So how do you go about it? How do you tell people about this health conscience, Not so much the losing weight but the healthiness of it?
Speaker 3:As far as when they're eating out, or just the big picture of dining out the big picture. Big picture. I'd like to use the term take it down a notch. Tell everybody just take it down a notch.
Speaker 1:What does that mean though?
Speaker 3:Taking it down a notch means to just slow down. You're overthinking either what the health food is because, honestly, it also comes down to the basics of gut health and are you simplifying your food? Are you eating fiber, eating protein, eating the right carbs and yeah, I know that sounds loaded, but it's different for everybody but also, too, at the same time, making it as simplistic as possible, because there's every supplement out there. Somebody's shoving something in your face every day on what you should buy. This healed me. This is your longevity. This is this, this is that. This is the cure-all for your cortisol. No, it's no, it's not. No, it's not.
Speaker 3:Learning to Eat more fiber, learning to chew your food, learning to stop and take a deep breath and help your nervous system calm down, is really what's going to help regulate the body. But then, when it comes to dining out, unless you're dining out five days a week, I tell most people, most of my clients, when they're like what should I eat when I go out, and I'm like eat whatever the hell you want If you're not eating out? Again, don't get me wrong. It's fine to eat out, but you're right, there's so many ways and there's so many ingredients and things you have to navigate and I told people you've got to be your own advocate, you've got to do a little bit of research and you don't always have to go through the drive-through. I bet there's a salad bar somewhere. There's a Wawa that probably has a better salad than what you're getting at Chick-fil-A. Sorry, I know. No judgment on not calling out brands, but saying that because I know I'll get reamed.
Speaker 2:I love Chick-fil-A, I know you do, it's fine, and I'm not saying that's bad. You can get re-engaged.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, there's always going to be something we don't care about the remit.
Speaker 2:No, there's always somebody who's pissed off.
Speaker 1:We definitely always got something to say, there's always going to be someone bitching about something, exactly.
Speaker 3:But it's about trying to make the smarter choices and smartest choices for you every single day. Do you have healthy food on hand in your home that's readily available, or do you have to Uber Eats just to get your next meal?
Speaker 2:Well, you're not going to get the best thing you can get if you're not setting yourself up for success.
Speaker 3:I think I went around that in a bunch of different ways, but I guess, very long story short, it's about knowing what your goals are and sticking to them, and yeah, it's going to be a little bit of a challenge. I'm not saying it's going to be super easy and you don't need to put in effort. There's nothing easy about it.
Speaker 1:And it's not so much it's changing your life habit is the hard part. It's not so much that it's not obtainable to go do this stuff. That's easy if you put your mind to it. But it's changing your life habit and understanding food and what it does to your body. Let's think about this. Some people don't give a shit, or know they don't. There's a lot of people out there who've never played sports, they've never had a reason to train, they've never had a reason to eat healthy, they never needed stamina, they never needed cardio.
Speaker 2:They're sedentary like 99% of the time, so they don't have any clue of what we're talking about?
Speaker 1:No, and that's sad.
Speaker 2:The sad standard American diet is sad for that reason because it just kind of covers and that's the other point of like. You know you're in the restaurant If you go somewhere and you have a salad with a piece of chicken on it, if it's not organic, it's still better than you going and having you know something heavy. I have that battle with people all the time it's still better food for you Eggs, all of it, yes, stop overthinking.
Speaker 3:Oh well, I have to get these eggs. Worry, just get the answer One step at a time.
Speaker 3:Yeah exactly and read your ingredients. I mean, it takes two seconds. If your ingredients label is that long, can you find an ingredients label? That's that long Can you pronounce the majority of everything that's in the ingredients? Can you look? All I want you to do is stop looking at the calories. Stop looking at that. Stop looking at that. I want you to look at the added sugar. Don't even look at the sugar. Look at the added sugar and then look at your ingredients. If it's aggressive, put that shit back.
Speaker 1:Aggressively, like if it's aggressively high yeah, like throw the added sugar back into the container. Don't add questions, just throw them back and splatter them everywhere.
Speaker 3:So there's a term that I've heard recently and it's kind of been a trend online. I actually really like it and everybody's going to and they're using this term single ingredient, which I love, yeah, and they're calling it like single ingredient meals. So to somebody that doesn't know what that is, they're like what do you mean? Just eating chicken? Are we doing carnivore? What are you just going to make me eat lettuce? It's like no, the point is that's exactly it Chicken, lettuce, tomatoes.
Speaker 2:Everything is one word that goes on your plate.
Speaker 3:It's not ranch dressing, infused croutons and ranch dressing all over everything and all that. It's one ingredient.
Speaker 2:And you're creating that it's real whole food Versus supplementation. When you said it before, though, of having stuff at home, what would be your like if you had your top things that everybody should have on hand at their house that's easy to grab in the middle, like you know. If you're heading to your shift or you're heading out, what are the easiest things that you always have in your fridge?
Speaker 3:Me personally that I always have. I've always got canned beans, always lentils and beans. I'm all about the convenience foods. You've got to have things that make your meals easy. I'm not always going to have the time to boil or soak my beans and do all that stuff. I'm not and it might be a little bit of surprise being fully realistic here. I keep ready rice around, so that way I don't always have to. I can just pop that shit in the microwave because it's realistic. Now, in the grand scheme of things, do I want to use less plastic and make sure that I'm doing less processed food? Like I said, I'm being very realistic here. You can't always. I don't have 45 minutes to do a perfect meal Sometimes.
Speaker 3:I have to sell that, though that's, people like to sell that idea, but it's not but it's, but, it's not but, and I don't want somebody to come to me and be like you're unattainable. I remember being so aggressively strict uh years ago. I had a couple people tell me that and it kind of went you're not relatable.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, but it's like sorry, it's sweet potatoes, it's beans, it's clam shells of greens, it's chickens always available, uh, some sort of steaks, usually ready. I keep frozen salmon always available. It takes. If I had to make a meal, the maximum amount of time that it would take me would be 20 minutes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, max maximum which is faster than nothing's ready that would.
Speaker 3:That would be if literally nothing was ready so so the diet industry, we all know.
Speaker 1:So you said it before a little bit earlier. It's very confusing there's so many things. There's a million books. You go on amazon or you go on audible, you find a million books decision, everything, but this is what I say to people. When I get on this trip, when I get back on my thing, the best thing I say is it's confusing, but it's not.
Speaker 1:Don't overthink it. Just pick one and it's better than what you're doing now. It doesn't matter what. They're not wrong. They're not one better than the other. There's not one that's going to be so much more life-changing than that. You still have to go through the steps. Just pick one of any subject you're in, whatever you're doing. If you're going to the grocery store and you want to pick a fruit, just pick one. You don't have to buy seven because you want to try a variety. Just pick one and try that. If you want to buy a book and look at a book, just read one. Just blindly pick one and open it, and it's going to be better than what you're doing now.
Speaker 1:So, anything you do is better than now. Now you have these people that come to you all the time and they want all this help. But a lot of them want miracle help, right? A lot of them have this I'm getting married in six months, blah, blah, whatever it may be.
Speaker 3:or my doctor said I need to lose weight. My cholesterol, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly I want to shred.
Speaker 2:You want to shred, right, yeah, shred. I want to cut, right now I need to cut. I need to bulk. That's my excuse.
Speaker 1:Every time I get fat, I'm bulking.
Speaker 2:You're bulking. That's what you tell people.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing Carb loading, that's what I call drinking.
Speaker 3:I still drink.
Speaker 1:I like I'm carb loading From your point of view, your perspective, right. When do you say, all right, you know what. You tell people coming back? You see them in the street. They haven't changed a thing, but they're still bitching about how they do. They're still going to change everything. When do you look at them and say, you know what? Just go eat and be a fat fuck, I don't care, just go Go die, go eat everything you want and inject fat into your veins, I don't care no-transcript cabinets, not of her fridge, but all the food that was in her cabinets.
Speaker 3:And I'm like, and I'm again, we all have something. I'm not picking on her in any way, shape or form, just telling it out. I'm just literally painting the picture. She was quite obese and so that told me there's something up here that's a learned behavior that I don't know if I'm going to be able to get through, and I'm like I gently gave her a therapist. Because it's like this is out of my scope of practice, I'm not going to get through to you.
Speaker 3:And normally I either get nasty and harsh with people and it's like, why are you paying me?
Speaker 2:You're wasting your money.
Speaker 3:Then you know what. Keep paying me if you don't want to do it, thanks.
Speaker 2:Right, it's free money. It's like I appreciate it. I was like I'll keep doing exactly what I'm doing and you'll keep doing what you're doing, you're, and so I try my best to get through to them.
Speaker 3:I'm like are you doing your water before coffee in the morning? Well, I'm not doing great at it. Okay, can you do five ounces, four ounces of water in the morning, before your coffee upon rising? That's all I want you to do. Stop doing it. Well, I did it yesterday, but I didn't do it the rest of the week. Okay, and I try to flip the script. One day is better than nothing. Keep going and you just try to. It's, I just have to be a freaking cheerleader.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3:I think that's what it is, and there's nothing wrong with that, don't get me wrong, it's my job. Yeah, I think that's what people are paying for when they don't really know.
Speaker 1:The accountability yeah they're paying for somebody to guide them every minute of the way every step.
Speaker 3:I feel like that's, when people don't make, they don't get, they don't make the effort, because they're like just tell me what to do Correct, and not only that. Here's the other thing Just tell me what to do.
Speaker 1:If you continuously take these people on, we said a minute ago take her money, fuck it, take the money. Yeah, fine, I'm fine. Unfortunately, though, on the flip side of that, it's not a good testimonial for me, representation of your service. If she's going to be out saying that you're her person, then people are going to be like oh Riley it's working out well. She's a monster, huh.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean Exactly.
Speaker 3:It's not good. You also care, I mean you care they get actual results on it. I'll be honest, I'd probably care a little too deeply sometimes. You know that it's almost like it's like's. I will go deeper and I'll be like fine, what does it take to get you to the next step, Do I? Need to bring somebody else in. It's like I'm going to make this happen. You came to me for a reason, it is.
Speaker 2:And CBT like cognitive behavioral therapy cognitive behavioral training has had more of an insurgence in the past 10 years, and mostly in the fitness space, because a lot of people don't know. You can ask your personal trainer for nutrition advice. Legally they are not supposed to give it to you Because they are not a registered dietitian. So unless you are a registered dietitian, you are not allowed to give nutritional advice.
Speaker 3:So what I do is I write meal options, not meal plans.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 3:Because I tell everyone. I was like I don't write meal plans for a reason. First of all, you're going to read a piece of paper and you're not going to technically learn anything. What are you going to do and I take that away? What are you going to do when you go to a restaurant and you'll be like I don't know what I'm supposed to pick? Yeah, granted, again, you know live a little bit.
Speaker 3:But I'm saying, if you're trying to be as clean as possible and you're like I went back and got the Alfredo again because I didn't know what else to pick, it's my go-to, Okay, well, how do we clean it up later? Yeah, but it does come down to creating, what I like to say, more options than plans for people and the mindset of it, because, if not, I'm just, instead of telling people what to do, I'm trying to not only live by example but gently show them what to do, creating the consistency and the habits which I try to take the word. Speaking of cognitive, I try to take certain words out. Now I try to take the word habit out, and that's why I start saying the word essential, because it just feels kind of squishy and happier, which I know sounds stupid. But people are like oh, I would do the essentials. Okay, I can handle the essentials. People are like healthy habits. They're like mm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds like it's forced, like we're making you learn something, so they have to want to do it. Sometimes habits don't feel good.
Speaker 3:Or it gives that negative connotation in your brain and you're like I don't, yeah, my habits are not good, and then you think they're not good. It's not that they're not good, they just need to be tweaked a little bit. Essentially, what can you do every day to improve your health and just better your body every single day?
Speaker 1:That's what it comes down to and that's the hard part. So it's hard, like I said. Back to my cycle. If I'm on the top of my cycle, where I'm in my best shape, I feel wonderful. There's no more snoring, I can move around.
Speaker 2:Your neck pain goes down, my neck pain goes away, my swelling goes away.
Speaker 1:This is not me just reading out of a book. What happens, this is really what happens. You know what I mean. My sleep is amazing. My thinking is clearer. Everything happens when I gain the weight, as I am now and right now. Like I said, last week I started back, so I feel already better. I already feel better. I feel the inflammation starting to go down. My knees don't hurt when they shouldn't. You know what I mean? Little things. Arthritis-type situations don't exist already already so in the pain, then it actually is harder to lose it, but people don't realize that. Who've never done that?
Speaker 1:It's very hard to break your habit and everything else. That's hard too. But for me it's a lot harder when I'm in the pain. I'm not sleeping right, I don't feel right in my clothes, everything I know about me is not right and I'm off. You carry that complaining on to other people. You carry that negativity on to other people. Then other people got to hear you bitch about oh, you shouldn't eat this. You know I can't do that. I'm getting fat. No one wants to hear that nonsense. So it's negative. Being in that position is negative to everyone around you, even when you don't realize it. So it's hard to live that way, and it's also hard to get better.
Speaker 3:But once you get better, the results are way better. One of the biggest things I tell people now and it was when I went through because the main reason why quick backstory why I started on my gut health journey is because I went to a couple of different hormone specialists and different things and tried HRT and all this and yeah, I might go back on it later, but right now it's just not for me. Did try it, but my point is and I remember looking at one of the doctors and I said no-transcript, I'm not getting changes. Could it? Could it be something in my gut like am I not absorbing something properly? Is it something else? Do I have lower iron? Is it this? And he literally looked at me. He said it's possible yeah, I was like for the love of Christ.
Speaker 3:Why am I? Why, what did you? Just shrug your shoulders?
Speaker 3:yeah, I which of course I'm a different patient because I know certain well- you're educated, I'm educated, so I know I'm a different patient, but my point is that's and I said f that I'm gonna figure this out on my own and that's why I wanted to get certified as a gut nutrition specialist. But the biggest thing that they talked about the entire time when I did all my studying and I'm still learning so much is the nervous system and why I say take it down a notch is stop and take a deep breath, because the most, most of the time, what we're not doing and it's not, yes, it's food, yes, it's movement, yes, it's this but we're not stopping to take a real cleansing, big, deep breath through the nose and out of the mouth and getting oxygen into our body.
Speaker 1:What is this she speaks of? Yeah, taking a breath. What is this language she's talking? So it's about stress reduction, and that was the biggest thing. Skylar, what is she talking about over here when it comes to?
Speaker 3:weight loss. When it comes to dropping inflammation, losing weight, all these things, it goes back to the freaking basics of circulation in the body. That's what movement is. I'm not saying and don't get me wrong I feel like a rock star after good workouts the endorphins, all the things but if you're not taking that deep breath and getting circulation into your body, that's why there's so much.
Speaker 1:I have anxiety right now because I feel right now I'm not deeping breath enough.
Speaker 2:I'm not breathing deep enough. I'm not deeping breath enough. You need to create a parasitic response. I'm not right. Something's wrong.
Speaker 1:I'm actually feeling the agony.
Speaker 2:The pressure.
Speaker 1:I'm not breathing deep enough.
Speaker 3:But it's true, it is, and that in itself people are like now I'm getting dizzy and I because you. Okay, but you're right.
Speaker 2:Relax, take a breath.
Speaker 3:We all go like this. All the time. Everybody tenses up while they go to. I'm tense right now. I'm probably on camera right now talking like this. I'm sure A little yoga thing.
Speaker 1:I'm still mad that the rock hit my windshield on my brand new car on the way here.
Speaker 3:I'm stressed out about it Very stressed no, but there's.
Speaker 2:There's a doctor that we work with as a doctor, stephanie Estima, so she's kind of does like some really good like you know, she's very balanced in the sense of how she lives her life, and she has a great word that I know you'll love for the like again the overwhelm which causes more stress is infobesity. I love that.
Speaker 2:So information overload You're basically getting fat on information because you're overloading yourself with so much and you're like, oh, how do I? Well, no, if you're not getting up and doing the cold plunge and meditating for four hours and getting into a sauna and eating 30 grams of protein per meal.
Speaker 1:I love the trailer voice right now, yeah.
Speaker 3:I know it's everything. It's a sales thing.
Speaker 2:But you said they tell you, oh well if you don't do? Well, that's not true, because we all have different markers, we all have different like hormones, whatever we're dealing with. So there is no perfect fucking answer.
Speaker 2:There's no perfect answer. You have to start learning what's intuitive and actually relax, and then you can be like oh okay, it isn't as stressful as it needs to be. And your recipes? I mean, we could talk a little bit about the food too, for when you balance out recipes for people, do you teach them macros, do they learn that, or do you try and stay away from all of that to not overload them, exactly?
Speaker 3:I do my best to not tell people about macros, because then they just look at me and they start going cross-eyed.
Speaker 1:They go to big macros and they're like wait.
Speaker 3:So more protein, less protein, less carbs. I don't eat carbs.
Speaker 2:Car protein, less carbs. I don't eat carbs, carbs are bad and I'm like but now, carbs are good and carbs are energy, but only if you eat them pre-workout and if you eat them before, like it's just there is no, there's no way to be sugar and it's cortisol and it's this and it's that, and it's it's what your genetics are, and it's all the things.
Speaker 3:And it's like and again, that's why I always tell people, that's why I use the term take it down a notch, because everybody, we're hit every day with something new. This worked for your sister. This worked for your next door neighbor. My favorite influencer said this Well, now the cortisol, this is the supplement that I need to take, because she lost this much and she got ripped. That's. It's not what she did. It's not what she did.
Speaker 2:I mean not telling you. And even this is lying, these, these damn watches and Fitbits. They will make you neurotic. So I tried food. We all did it, we competed, I did the tracking and I was so neurotic that I was making myself more sick because I was literally stressing over every like carb cycling and this day had to be this many grams and then the next day was like I was doing everything and it was so stressful and by being that quote unquote healthiest I ever looked, crashed my entire hormonal and adrenal system and went postmenopausal before 40 because of my over dieting.
Speaker 3:Probably what I did to myself as well. I guarantee you mine started around 38. I guarantee you, I know I did to myself. I think anyone in that phase does it happens to men too.
Speaker 2:So no, that's not healthy.
Speaker 1:So we get down when I get down to like 215 pounds, which is very small for me. I sit comfortable about 220, 225.
Speaker 3:You look in the mirror and you're stoked.
Speaker 1:but I'll say you're pissed, no, but I'm tired when I get down below too low. When I start getting too low, I get weak. I have different pains in my body. Now the pain goes different. So the pain of being overweight wasn't as bad when I'm underweight, because when I'm underweight now I get the pain as well in a different way. I get more creaky, I get more pain, I get more ligament pain. There's a lot more things when I'm trying to work out and I can't because I can't lift properly, so my ligaments take the weight. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of difference.
Speaker 1:I think once you find where your body is the most comfortable of course not after eating. Well, you said stressing out man, you know there's nothing better than a Frank Pepe's New Haven pizza to settle down the stress, right. But after eating that, that pain is no freaking worse than the pain of being 215 pounds for me and eating healthy and just feeling like I'm wilting.
Speaker 2:You just had the dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, whatever all the shit happening in your head. That made you feel better for a second, and then you feel like shit again. So it's constant battle of mental, I think, over anything else but the food side. You said about chewing and like quick things, because I know you always said, like you don't do, bars typically right, like nutrition bars.
Speaker 1:I, only I, I no.
Speaker 2:Like, some people recommend them, some people don't. So where do you stand on that? For like, quick like, especially in this industry. If you're in the restaurants, you have to have something. Yeah, so what would you say? Like for people? I know you have an example of a bar.
Speaker 3:So I brought these just because I mean I like them, they're pretty clean, but also, too, in case we wanted to talk about chewing is why I brought them.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about chewing.
Speaker 3:But I do think I don't think that protein bars are the answer, but I think protein bars can be necessary because, I'll be honest, if I was back in the restaurant industry and I didn't have time to eat, I would much rather have something like that on standby than being like just give me. Just give me something really quick, or then you're grazing too much and you are overeating, yeah, and so I'd rather have. I'd rather be able to take a quick bathroom break and not worry about chewing and shove that in my face and get back on shift, cause that's real life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not going to be like I'm going to take my time and chew this properly. Sometimes it's like you got to do what you got to do, but in real life, yeah, I mean you, I would not. You know, I'd rather that not be a meal. Dive in if you want to, but I'd rather that not be somebody's meal replacement. But I think that it's necessary to have around, based on your lifestyle, Right? I? Think that's the best way to describe it.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's funny, and again, I have certain protein bars I can tolerate and some I can't because of sugar sugar alcohol different ways, whatever, but again people will look at this and they'll be like oh my God, there's tapioca syrup, so it's got sugar. Fuck, it's just like it's not going to kill, like you're not eating raw sugar out of a bag like this is not gonna hurt you.
Speaker 3:and that's what I. I try to find the best options as possible and it's like I literally look at it sometimes and again, I don't tell people to count the macros, but I want to look at it and be like is it as balanced as possible? Yeah, what are the? I because I know at least I can look at the ratios of it, if that makes sense. How much protein are there? A decent amount of carbs? Is there five?
Speaker 3:because it's the whole point is satiety is to keep you full yeah because if it doesn't keep you full and it doesn't satisfy you, when the hell are you gonna?
Speaker 1:eat. These people that we're talking about mostly are the ones who are just getting into it and learning a little bit, and now they know everything. It's like I can't eat it's middle, because the skin has sugar and the sugar is gonna turn to insulin and the insulin is going to turn to fat and then I'm going to shit water. It's all bogus.
Speaker 2:I think that people just over-educate themselves and they psych themselves out, they go to Dr Google and they go down to Google and they go down to Google and go for it.
Speaker 1:It's a puff. It's basically a Rice Krispie treat. It's a Rice Krispie treat which I'm winning. I'm one. Okay so.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, that's really actually good. It tastes like strawberry milk.
Speaker 3:They do a good job, which is why I'm serious.
Speaker 1:You might have to share that. Hold on what's this one.
Speaker 3:So the main reason why I brought it is just as a prop to talk about chewing, because that's the one thing that we don't do enough.
Speaker 2:She brought props for eating them. We're like fuck your props, we're going to eat your props.
Speaker 1:What flavor is that one Rice?
Speaker 3:Krispie Treat. I think that's just oh regular. That's a flavor of Rice Krispie Treat. You want to try both. They do a good job. It's one that I like to keep around because and let's be real there's nothing wrong with having a treat. Because I eat clean and healthy all the time. But if I want something, I will kill a bag of chips and guac and hummus. Strawberry milk.
Speaker 3:This is actually good and so every once in a while, this is like my thing, that it's like, oh my God, I don't have time, I wasn't prepared, I'm like shove that shit in my purse and get out the door, but it works. You got to have those things around. They are convenience foods that are here in our life. Utilize the ones that are good for you. You can have perfect example. This this, in my opinion, is not an ultra-processed food. It is a processed food. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Can you?
Speaker 2:pronounce you can pronounce most of the things in it. Everything in here is natural, except for natural flavors Exactly, which always makes me go whatever. Whatever I mean it happens it could be better. But how do you feel about a meat stick? Do you love a good meat stick? I actually do. Yep, love a good meat stick. And there's countless.
Speaker 3:I do, I think, because it's a quick protein source, fast Society of ultra-processed everything. So how can you make your life less processed and still utilize the convenience foods? Because it's here to stay, it's not going anywhere.
Speaker 1:I really thought you were going to go way off with that meat stick question.
Speaker 2:I was trying to set her up for it.
Speaker 1:I know you from the day. I don't understand how that's. I always have a. You know, I like the chomps. Ones Chomps are my favorite.
Speaker 3:Chomps are my favorite, so I always have chomps on me.
Speaker 2:Lineage does a really good job.
Speaker 1:I just tried those Epic Bar. They have bison, there's so many Still not what I was thinking he's still on.
Speaker 3:I'm trying not to.
Speaker 1:Dinner's dangling. That's what I was all about.
Speaker 3:Now you're talking about dangling, and now we're really going to get into it.
Speaker 2:That's all you had to say.
Speaker 1:Considered ultra processed dinner dangling show's over saturated health food downhill real quick one thing. I want to say is what about this? How about the? Fact that, oh yeah, it's time to stop playing, ladies, let's get back to business so Ozempic, all these things, the new trend now peptides, summer Ozempics everyone's competing in the summer ozempics now.
Speaker 3:What do you think about that? The summer ozempics. I'm going to get a lot of heat for this and I'm fine with it. This is a loaded statement. I know there's two sides to it, we're going back to dangling and loading here. Hold on. No, I have my feelings on it, so I want to hear yours. I don't have a problem with peptides and just like everything, if it's done properly. Yes, not overdosed, because it's not here's there are. As I'm stuttering through this, she's like I don't want to get banned, canceled.
Speaker 3:For this I know right well and I've told countless clients this and I have no problem talking about it. Um, peptides aren't the problem, it's overusing them. As always, it's abuse. You can do a dose and I have no problem talking about it. Peptides aren't the problem, it's overusing them. As always, it's abuse. You can do a dose properly, and I'm just talking about GLP-1s. And technically, peptides are and I've got a deep dive on the knowledge on this Peptides are beneficial.
Speaker 3:I've done yes, I've done a deep dive on this. I'm not certified in any of it, so this is truly, just straight up, my opinion. Peptides are nothing but basically amino acid chains. We have amino acids in our body, that's protein, that's all the things we have. Dlp1 that lives in our gut yeah, it slowly dies off as we age. So does testosterone and all these other things. I look at it like if you're doing peptides properly, because there's healing peptides out there that I firmly believe in. I've tried them myself. Now my brain just went blank BPC-157. Sorry, I was like BC BP.
Speaker 3:There's so many and people get really confused by it, but there's certain ones that I have felt a really big impact and I have seen a difference in my blood work. Now, when it comes to glp1s, I I immediately tell somebody I call bullshit, unless they are doing the all the other right things. If that's your only thing you're doing, then you're not allowed to do it under my practice.
Speaker 2:I will not agree to you people are also going to clinics that don't do blood work and are just giving it to them and if you are a precursor for certain cancers, you shouldn't take it like people aren't doing the actual work you have to do. And if you are a precursor for certain cancers, you shouldn't take it like people aren't doing the actual work you have to do. As always, you have to be your own advocate.
Speaker 3:Well, I lost so much weight and it's like, well, that's great. Now, and that's also the yin and yang of that, because I will say and I will, you know I'll, if you lost weight and your blood markers and everything got better, I'm also going. But now, can, can we now instill some of the habits, cause you're gonna, you gotta keep that weight off and you've got to now focus on now, since you're not as hungry.
Speaker 3:Now we can really implement the healthy habits, because a lot of it is starting to change. So, as with anything, it's, it's about trying to find the balance of it for people, and I don't see it as a problem if it's done properly. It has to be dosed properly and done properly. You don't need to drive up 10 milligrams every single week, slow and low. Do my eyes just like glaze over and get crazy there, just like titrate, titrate. It drives me crazy and it's like why do you think you have to go in every week just to up your dose? You don't, you don't? Why don't you take a little bit and see how you feel and take your time like anything else?
Speaker 1:I dabbled in it and I did the same thing. I started and I had to go up my body weight and stuff made me go up and it wasn't working. And then, all of a sudden, I went a little too much and it had a reverse effect. I was sick, I couldn't eat anything. And honestly, quite honestly, I wasn't losing shit for weight because I kept doing what I was doing. I didn't go in the program and that's the thing.
Speaker 3:It's like you've got it, you can do it. You can do anything properly, and I look at peptides as a tool in the toolbox If you're implementing the right things already.
Speaker 1:The blueprint has to be out. You have to already.
Speaker 3:I call it the foundation. If you don't have your foundation set, you'll understand this, and so will you. You cannot go to. You cannot walk into a gym not knowing anything about holding. Can you stand on one foot for longer than 30 seconds, okay? Can you hold a plank? Do you know how to hold your body into a body weight squat? You can't do that. And then, all of a sudden, you're going to go into a gym and try to lift 300 pounds. No, it's the same thing.
Speaker 1:You're in trouble.
Speaker 3:You're going to hurt yourself, you're going to overdo it and you're going to screw yourself up. Take it slow. It is supposed to be slow and low and a journey and you're not going to jump from that. You're it's. It's not supposed to be a jump, because that's again going back to what we talked about in the beginning. Calm down, take it down a touch, try to enjoy the journey so you're not stressing your body out and you can stick to things consistently and get real results in the long term so takeaway, like the beastie boy said, slow and low, that is the tempo right what would you say?
Speaker 1:so on a takeaway from all this, there's a lot of information again we get into this world that we talked about. It can be confusing, simply said. First of all, where can people find you? How can they look at what you're doing? You know any anything? You want to plug their nutritional stuff where you're at, and what would you take away from this? What would you want them to take away, less confusing?
Speaker 3:right to the point, the best thing you can do is start with water in the morning and chew your food, and can you pronounce most of everything that you're eating?
Speaker 1:Talk about chewing food for one moment. Yeah, what's the chewing food thing? I hear that a lot now, more so than I ever have.
Speaker 3:So it's digestion.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:And if I joke and say this, I'm looking for, like see, the size of Kristen's straw.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's Kristen's straw everybody.
Speaker 3:See the size of that Rice Krispies treat.
Speaker 2:Yep yes.
Speaker 3:That's literally like what we're doing to our body on an everyday basis. We're trying to shove that Rice Krispies treat in that straw Now don't get me wrong. Your intestines are a. It's a muscle. It can move, yeah, but we're not giving our body, we're stressing our body out more.
Speaker 3:Oh boy, About not taking the time to chew our food because we I'm trying, I'm trying to stick to it, because my brain will go off on a tangent and then I'll forget what I'm saying. We don't chew our food, so we're not assimilating our food and we're not starting digestion there. And you're also. I always use the term. I say, you know, chomp, chomp swallow, chomp, chomp swallow, because we're not taking the time to chew, so you're shoving a piece of steak in your mouth that's that big and it's slow and you're slowly and that's fine.
Speaker 3:But why are you? Why don't you give your your body? Be gentle, be kind. Your body wants to heal and do what it's supposed to do. Give it the tools. Just slow down and chew your food.
Speaker 2:Okay, I have two questions, though, for the people that listen to our show. A lot of them, obviously, are in the industry, yeah, so I'm going to shift it. I have two questions on alcohol. So two things. One, what do you count alcohol as? You count it as a carb? Do you count it as? When you're trying to actually count it, if someone is like trying to track it, what do you count it as?
Speaker 3:That's awesome. That's a good question, because in a way, I kind of count it as a fat. Okay, because even though it is a sugar in our body which is technically a carb, if you've got a certain amount in your body it's going to be stored as fat, which technically, can you know? That's the sugar that's stored as fat because it's like hey, this is energy I'm going to use later, so we're going to store that Okay. So it's technically a little bit of both in my opinion, but I would say a lot of times I call it more of a fat and most of the time that makes people go oh, maybe I should drink less.
Speaker 2:Maybe that helps.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so in a way, it's like the positive well, the manipulation of the brain and being like yes, it's technically a carbohydrate, but at the same time, I look at it like it's a stored energy which is fat.
Speaker 2:So the other one is if, because most of us refuse, like even when I was training heavy, I still drank, I still drank.
Speaker 1:I still drank, but timing.
Speaker 2:So when you are drinking, is it better to drink at the beginning of the day, the end of the day, before a meal, after a meal? What's the best when it comes to timing your alcohol during the day?
Speaker 3:In a perfect world I would drink around 3 or 4 o'clock, yeah, because that way your body has time to metabolize. But at the same time, you know we all want that nightcap to calm us down. But that's actually one of the worst things you can do because you don't want to end your night in your body before you go to bed with just technically straight-up sugar, because that's kind of what it turns to in the body and you're giving your body instead of allowing your body to recover. It's got to work harder to burn and store that Overnight, yeah.
Speaker 3:And also I would say drink, I would say happy hour.
Speaker 2:So you open at 3. 3 o'clock.
Speaker 1:Happy hour 3 o'clock. And to touch off on her questions. To piggyback off of her tequila, that's white Tequila. Which Bresbosado Any.
Speaker 3:Honestly, just give me tequila.
Speaker 1:It's fine, yes, tequila it is. Just give me tequila. It's fine, yes, tequila it is Tequila.
Speaker 2:Give me tequila.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's my poison too.
Speaker 2:Tequila and potato vodka. That's all I got. Yeah, those are my two where I don't feel as crappy. Those are my good ones.
Speaker 3:Perimenopause took wine away from me, and it breaks my heart, I get migra.
Speaker 2:Hey, I'm not mad at that, doesn't?
Speaker 3:make me mad at all.
Speaker 2:We'll sip tequila at 3 o'clock today.
Speaker 3:Tequila on the rocks, people are going to be like that's all you're going to do and I'm like, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So, chefing it, living it, living this lifestyle, we have a lot of impact again amongst the purveyors and the producers. It's really hard for us to get healthy foods, but it's not hard for you to go find them. It's hard for us to produce them at a restaurant level, At most of the restaurant levels. It's hard because we have to really use a lot of fats, we have to use a lot of butters, and people who don't understand that it's just a process of cooking for generations, for years, centuries. That's how food has been.
Speaker 3:Butter's delicious.
Speaker 1:Butter's delicious, but what I'm saying is, you know, for me as a chef, it's inspiring talking to you. I do like to cook. As you said earlier, my ingredients that I use are all just happen to be. If you, if I lived on a diet and it was labeled, it would be definitely mediterranean. That's how I live my life beautiful, um. I eat very clean, I eat very healthy and the way I cook is also that right. So when you're coming to my type of restaurant or my restaurant, you're going to get a better option of getting more. Even if you get something that's fattier, that you shouldn't eat, it's still going to be better than somewhere else, because you're going to get the best quality.
Speaker 1:If you're going to go out and eat cheeses, eat a wet, more soft cheese that's going to have more liquid in it. The more hard cheese is, the more liquid taken away, which is you're left with the literal cholesterol and the fat. So so use these little things and I'm always using these fresh things to keep my food fresh, because if you're cooking healthy and you're making food healthy, you're obviously going to end up bringing a more healthy product for the customer and the food's going to be better because you're using the actual ingredients oh yeah, so we really appreciate you being here, it's it's awesome, it's and it's cool to deviate off of our restaurant, restaurant, restaurant all the time and we are
Speaker 1:talking about food. That's our goal is to talk to people about food, restaurant industry, hospitality, but, more importantly, just how you like food, and there's a lot of people out there who live healthy. They want, want to hear what you have to say. So if you like what we're saying here, just do us a favor, hit, subscribe, give us some support, check her out. Where can they find you?
Speaker 3:Instagram is probably best.
Speaker 1:You got a name on there.
Speaker 3:Jocelyn Level. Lifestyle Level.
Speaker 2:Lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Okay, wonderful. Well, thanks for being here.
Speaker 3:Do Keep going and going and going and going. She's got a lot, so go to her page.
Speaker 2:Great recipes, great ideas, so much great stuff.
Speaker 3:But yeah, no, I'm going to let you guys have any further questions or anything else you want to dive into no further questions. Your Honor that doesn't talk about you know.
Speaker 2:We're going to let you off the stand. You're done being grilled for the morning.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Not under the spotlight anymore. We love you, we appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the hookup on the options as far as my diet's concerned. Yeah absolutely Probably in a month you'll see my results. I'll be happy about it. I already feel good and I wish you all the best day you can have. And ciao for now, ciao.
