Fueling For Movement

Transcript:

Leah: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition, brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness. We are a family owned Minnesota company that specializes in real food nutrition education and counseling. My name is Leah Kleinschrodt. I'm a Registered and Licensed Dietitian with a master's degree in nutrition, but I also have an undergraduate degree in exercise science, which these days, I mean, feels like a lifetime ago that I was getting that undergraduate degree.

And so I am really looking forward to chatting with my cohost today, Brandy Buro, about the marrying of those two degrees. So we're going to be talking about fueling for movement, and so I like to think of that; in other words, how can we make sure our nutrition is working with our physical and our exercise goals and not against them? So Brandy, it's good to see you again.

Brandy: It's good to see you.

Leah: Yeah, and I know we'll talk about this here at the beginning, but I know exercise, movement, fitness, these are all important aspects for you and they have been for a while, so why don't you just tell us a little bit more about like what role movement plays for you.

Brandy: Yeah, I mean, movement has been a really important part of my life for a long time. Didn't really start that way. I would describe myself as an indoors kid growing up. But it became more of a curiosity when I started on my health and weight loss journey as a teen. So that became something I used to support my weight loss, and it really did help.

Leah: Yeah.

Brandy: But you know, as time went on, I discovered all the other things that it did for my body and the way that I felt. So it started out just kind of riding my bike around the farm. I remember the first run I went on as a kid.

Leah: Core memory.

Brandy: Very core memory. My dad was coming home. He just, he stopped on the side of the road and was like confused. He thought there was an emergency and I was running for help. You know, it was so unusual that I would be doing something like this.

Leah: Sure.

Brandy: But you know, it is something that I now prioritize because I've found how important it's for managing my anxiety. And, you know, most recently managing my pain. So now it's just kind of a medicine, a tool that I use to feel my best all the time. So it's. I need to prioritize that daily dose.

Leah: Yeah, absolutely. Just like you prioritize your nutrition, it's like for you, part of that picture taking care of yourself is moving your body in a way that feels good. And it sound, it sounds like your why for exercising or for movement or things like that has transitioned over the years or it's morphed over the years with different, you know, again, like it was more maybe about weight loss in the beginning versus now a little bit more like kind of managing some other things or helping you cope or helping you just better your disposition maybe.

Brandy: Absolutely. Yeah, it's a really powerful tool, but not only a tool, but it's a great way to see the world. You know, for me, I'm outside, I'm running, I'm biking, I'm hiking, I'm kayaking, so it's like a two for one. I get to experience the outdoors, but also, you know, take care of myself.

What movement means & our focus for this podcast

Leah: Mm-hmm. I love that. When you can get a two for one with that movement plus the outdoors. And get a good bang for your buck. So maybe now would be a good time to define what movement means and then what the focus of our show is going to be on today. So the dictionary definition of movement. So I looked this up. And it's movement is an act of changing physical location or position. So that's broad.

Brandy: Yeah. Right.

Leah: So I mean, that could mean anything from, okay, well now we're just moving our fingers up and down, typing on a keyboard. Or it could mean like hurdling down a racetrack, like the a hundred meter sprint going full out. Or maybe you're doing, if you're a gymnast doing giant circles on the uneven bars.

This is probably highlighting my lack of gymnastics knowledge right there. And so those two things would be, I consider those like on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of movement. One of those examples, the typing on the keyboard involves very little physical movement, while the other one is like, it's a lot of physical movement and these are very specific things that people train for years or even decades to learn how to do. It's a very specific kind of training.

Brandy: Right.

Leah: And I did in my work here at Nutritional Weight & Wellness at one time work with one formal Olympic athlete for a little while.

Brandy: That's right.

Leah: So, yeah, so like we have seen, we have worked with some very high level athletes through Nutritional Weight & Wellness. Really for most of our clients, and I call us mere mortals, like you and I, Brandy, we end up in the middle of those two movement extremes somewhere. Many of us have more sedentary work environments, but then we still try, we still make the effort to get up and push ourselves in various capacities.

And whether that's some kind of structured exercise, like going for a run, going to the gym, or maybe you are still involved with a competitive sport or a recreational sport or a league. Or maybe, you know, for some of my clients, it just means we, they want to be able to do a little bit more physical laborious activity in their community, or even in their own home, just doing like home renovation types of projects.

So I'd say that's where we're going to kind of focus. When we talk about movement today, that is where we're going to focus a lot of our discussion is kind of the clients where it's like, most of the time, unfortunately, we're sedentary at work, but then we still try to kind of bump up the intensity and try to sprinkle some exercise in throughout our weeks.

Brandy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. More intentional movement outside of like what's already kind of engineered into your day.

Leah: Yes, absolutely.

Brandy: And yeah, I mean, this time of year a lot of my clients are wanting to be more active. They're getting outside, they're riding their bike, they're playing pickle ball. And they're just noticing that they want to improve their strength and endurance and they're just noticing the opportunity to be a little more intentional with their movement so that they can enjoy these things a little bit more. You know, and in my neighborhood this time of year, it's, if it's not pickleball, it's volleyball. You know, volleyball is really popular in my community. And I'm kind of catching the bug too, so it's like I want to get out there just as much as everybody else.

Or, you know, people are training for races. Yep. You know, this is race season, maybe a 10 K or a marathon. But I also have some clients where, this isn't really a seasonal thing, this is a year round priority where they are dedicated. Members of their gym. They have their spin class, they have their maybe an appointment with a trainer a couple, few times a week just for that accountability piece.

And that is the type of movement that we want to focus on when we're talking about how to fuel our bodies. So we are focusing on some of those higher intensity activities. Where it's maybe a longer duration. You're breaking a sweat, your heart rate is up there, you're challenging your muscles.

Leah: Yep.

Brandy: So movement that's just a little more intentional to build that strength and endurance.

Leah: Yeah. Perfectly said. I love that summary. And so, when I sit down with a client, my guess is your thought process is the same, Brandy. So when I sit down with clients and they are asking specific things about how they might be saying, what should I eat before I workout? That's just a very common general question that I'll hear. What should I be eating before I work out? How should I time my food around my event or around my workout? Another common one I'll hear is like, I work out at 6:00 AM.

Brandy: Yeah.

Leah: And I'm not hungry, so should I force myself to eat or should I skip it? And just kind of plow through and then eat when I'm done. Or maybe, you know, I was hearing this for a while, like, I had a group that I was teaching and a lot of the ladies loved to swim as part of their exercise.

And they, there was a common theme that they would get out of the pool and they would be ravenous after getting out of the pool after swimming. So they're like, what is this about? And just how can we balance our blood sugar better? How can we fuel or get some of those nutrients in after we work out in a sensible way that just still supports the activities that we want to do.

Brandy: Right. And in that case maybe under fueling prior to exercise, you are so depleted afterwards that the food choices you make at that point may be not the best for your overall health. So that kind of, factors into this overall picture.

Leah: Yep.

Brandy: When we're planning with clients.

Leah: Those are all awesome points and these are all important questions that people are asking. These are important things to consider. Because like you said earlier, I think most people, they want whatever it is that they are doing, whether it's in the gym or in their sport or even just doing things around the house, they want to perform well in what they're doing.

And ideally over time you want to see improvements with what you're doing. You don't want to be doing the same workout that you were doing a year ago and be doing the same weights or the same amount of time on the treadmill and just like not really getting anywhere. Spinning your wheels, I think is what you said.

Brandy: Right.

Leah: Yeah. So my clients and I too, I would want to be faster, stronger, lift heavier things, have more of that stamina, just be more energized and feel more capable. Be, feeling like I am able to move around with a lot more ease. Like we want these efforts in the gym or on the playing field to translate over into other areas of our life. And that's, I mean, that is the idea behind exercise is like we want to take what we learn or what our bodies adapt to there and translate that into the rest of our lives.

Brandy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's an investment into something better.

Leah: Yeah, exactly. And let's be honest, I mean, most people, kind of like what you started out with, Brandy, is like most people do exercise to help them lose weight.

Brandy: Yeah, definitely. I would say for a lot of my clients that's often part of their motivation to have some kind of consistent structured movement. And if you are doing some kind of exercise or an event and you find that in the middle of it you're running out of energy, you're kind of bottoming out, you're just not really able to complete the planned exercise, you're probably not really getting the benefits from that movement. And I would guess you're not really enjoying it that much.

Leah: That, that doesn't sound like a super enjoyable experience.

Brandy: And if that were my experience, that wouldn't really be motivating for me to keep doing it every day. So I would also argue that the recovery aspect of working out or doing an event is just as important as the fuel to prepare yourself for those activities.

Leah: Yeah.

Brandy: So even if you're just crushing a workout, but then you're so depleted at the end of it, or maybe you're so sore that you're kind of out of commission for the maybe the rest of the week.

Leah: Yep.

Brandy: That's when we really need to start thinking about how we can give the body the resources it needs to do the repair work to recover on the backend. That way you can bounce back quickly and movement or structured exercise can be a consistent part of your routine.

Leah: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yes. The consistency, it's the, the consistency over time that builds the results that we want to see. So and I want to double click on what you just said that exercise and movement depletes us, and it's not a bad thing per se, it just does. Like we are expending a lot of energy and expending a lot of resources.

Fueling for movement & recovery (lots of factors considered for each individual)

So we want to make sure that we are leveraging our nutrition to ensure that the body has the resources that it needs to come back at least back to baseline and ideally coming back stronger, more resilient than it was before. And that starts with how we fuel our body before we add this stress and strain of exercise or sport or whatever it is, conditioning, whatever it is that we're doing.

If I have a client who wants to maximize their precious time in the gym or they're out on their run or they're again playing pickleball or volleyball I'd start by asking a lot of questions. Like I want to know what exactly, what kinds of movements are they doing during this time period that they've dedicated to themselves. You know, what time of day are we doing those activities?

What are we currently eating? What is the timing of your meals and your snacks of how you have it structured right now? How does I always ask, how does their stomach feel during exercise. Because I definitely, we get the polar opposite. Some people are like, I could eat almost a full meal 20 minutes before and go do my workout. And some people are, that are like, I can't even like look at food for three hours before I work out, kind of thing.

Brandy: True.

Leah: Yep. So I always ask that question and then some of what you were saying there, Brandy, I do want to know during your workouts, how are you feeling? What is your energy level like? Do you feel like you're able to complete them the way that you want to? And then how soon are you refueling? How soon are you able to get to some nutrition after you've worked out?

So again, like lots of questions. We kind of explore what's going on on both ends of that exercise to kind of try to come up with that plan of like, okay, how are we going to maximize this time for this person?

Brandy: Yeah, really understanding the entire context surrounding it so that the plan fits. You know, not a one size fits all, recommendation. And, you know, figuring out too, like what's the duration, what's the intensity of that movement. How often are you doing this throughout the week. If you're somebody that's like seven days a week that comes into play because, you know, should we plot some recovery time in and switch up the types of movements?

Leah: Yep.

Brandy: So that all comes into play. We really need to understand the full story. I'd say like age and gender play a role as well. And you know, we work with a lot of women. So when it comes to female physiology, there's somebody that I turn to in particular for advice when it comes to fueling for exercise.

Move away from a restriction mindset & think "how can I fuel the tank?"

And that's Dr. Stacy Sims. So we have mentioned Dr. Stacy Sims on the podcast before. She has a PhD in exercise science and nutritional science, and I would say she's a leading expert in female physiology and sports performance. So she has a lot of great insight in this topic. So I just wanted to borrow a nugget of wisdom from her book for just a second.

Something that I love about her message is that she's always reinforcing this idea that women do much better in a fed state compared to a fasted state. And that's because we women have hormonal feedback systems that are much more sensitive to restriction and deprivation compared to men's systems.

So I think her messaging is really refreshing compared to what we've probably been taught for so long about like that move more, eat less, to get what you want. What she's really telling us though, is that we need to eat enough, often enough to support the activities that we're doing, especially as women. So shifting away from that restriction mindset and thinking more about how do I fuel my tank enough?

Leah: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Her other famous or infamous saying is, “Women are not small men.” And so that's where a lot of her work has been around, like, how can we get more scientific research into the literature around again, yeah. How do women's bodies adapt to exercise? How do we tolerate heat? And just like a lot of the gender differences in there.

Yeah. And so, I just want to restate what you said there again, like we're quoting Dr. Sims here, that “Women do better in a fed state than a fasted state”, especially when it comes to performance, exercise, movement, and things like that. Yeah. I love Dr. Sims. I've been following her work for a really long time, so it's, she's a go-to for me as well.

And her advice, like you said, tends to go counter to what many of us do in practice, and it's easy to slip into that thinking that if I don't eat before I exercise, and if I can put off not eating after exercise, maybe for an hour or two or three; that we're like kind of quote unquote saving calories.

Or we're banking those calories for later and that it's actually going to help us with our weight loss. And I am a thousand percent guilty of that through, at various times throughout my life also. So we're in solidarity with that. But what happens in the long run is that approach eventually, maybe not right away, but it does usually, eventually backfire for us women because it just puts too much stress and strain on our hormones and on our nervous system.

Brandy: Mm-hmm.

Leah: And over time, if we continue to eat too low calorie or too low energy for what our bodies need, and there's actually a fancy term for that. It's called low energy availability or LEA. You know, if we're always kind of chronically too low calorie, we end up in a constant state of low grade stress. We feel crappy instead of empowered by our workouts. And then our metabolism grinds to a snail crawl to accommodate that lack of fuel.

Brandy: Yep.

Leah: And the lack of resources. So this is the opposite of what most of us are aiming to do when we have our schedule set to work out or we plan and we're intentional about getting that movement in. So we're going to talk about just some ideas or some smart strategies to think about, to make sure that we are putting some fuel in the tank before we exercise. But first we have to go to break.

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Practical ideas for fueling for movement

Welcome back. Before we went to break, Brandy and I were just reiterating kind of some of the importance of making sure we've got some fuel in the tank before we start to go on some of these harder efforts with exercise or sport or some of our home projects and things like that, and how do we make sure our bodies have the nutrients and the resources that it needs, and so, Brandy, let's chat about some ideas, like some practical ideas that people could take away from this or experiment with on their own and figure out kind of what works for them to put a little fuel in the tank.

How long before exercise to eat & some food ideas

Brandy: Right. Well, just going back to the question of timing, you know, is it appropriate that I eat? And if it is, when do I do that? So my rule of thumb is, you know, if somebody has already had a balanced meal or a snack, maybe an hour or two, maybe even two and a half hours before they plan to exercise, most of the time, I don't think it's really necessary to plan anything additional, you know, 20, 30 minutes before exercise, and that's because, an hour or two before exercise, those nutrients should still be relatively available.

Leah: Yep.

Brandy: And ready to fuel whatever it is you're about to do. But let's say you ate lunch at 12:30. And then you plow through the rest of your work day. And then it's 5:00 PM and you're ready for your workout. Well, that is a situation where I would try to plan some kind of a snack, something small, maybe 30 to 60 minutes before exercise.

So in this case, maybe four or 4:30 PM and then that gives you 30 minutes to an hour to sort of digest that, and then you can be fueled and ready to work out at five.

Leah: Yeah.

Brandy: And ideally. You know, that snack would have a little bit of protein and a little bit of carbohydrate. If we can get some fat in there for complete balance, that's ideal. So some examples that I might suggest to a client would be maybe a meat stick with a couple clementines, one or two clementines and a little handful of nuts.

Leah: Yeah.

Brandy: Or a cheese stick or two with a piece of fruit. Or I really like to do a snack size smoothie with some protein powder, a little fruit. Maybe some peanut butter in there. Just really easy to digest, really easy to get down.

Leah: Yeah. I like that. Especially for the people that do have a little bit more, and I would put myself in this camp too, a little bit more sensitive stomachs. And like, you just wouldn't do well with like, maybe more solid food in your stomach or like more if you're doing something maybe like a run where it's like things would be sloshing around a little bit more. I love that protein shake idea for that.

Brandy: Protein balls, there's a couple recipes on our website for protein balls or protein bites. And I think that works on the level that you're speaking to. Just not a lot of volume. It's not sloshing around, but we still get good balance.

Leah: Yeah. Yep.

Brandy: Any ideas that you like personally?

Leah: Oh, I mean, I kind of thinking along the lines of the smoothie idea. You know, if someone can tolerate some dairy, like even a couple of bites of yogurt with a little bit of fruit mixed in. So you get a good balance of some protein and some carbs, and if the yogurt has some fat in it. Okay. We get a little stabilizing fat in there too.

Brandy: Yeah.

Leah: You know, I have a lot of clients. Not a lot I would say, but like a, a fair number who, sometimes they just need something a little quick or convenient. And so we might talk about something like RXBARs. I know those have been around for a long time, and I'll personally use those as like a pre-workout 'cause it's mostly, it's pureed dates. So you are getting a quicker carbohydrate source there. They still have egg whites in it for the protein piece. And you might only do like a half of an RX bar. So it's just something that gives you, I always imagine it kind of like a little bit of rocket fuel in there. A little bit of boost of carbohydrates with a little bit of protein in there.

Brandy: Yep.

Leah: And. And so that's, it's enough to get you through say, a good 30 to 45 minute workout, maybe an hour somewhere in there. You know, it's not, probably not something that you could rely on if you're going out for a two hour bike ride or something.

But something again, if for most people, realistically, if you're going to go get your heart rate up or do some activity for 30 to 45 minutes, that would be probably a good option there too.

Brandy: And it's, they're convenient.

Leah: Yeah. And they're convenient. Absolutely. And Dr. Sims talks about this as well. It's like when you are exercising, you are going to put those carbohydrates to use pretty quickly. So again, sometimes in our, I feel like in our podcast we come off as like carbs can be a little tricky or can be a little devilish sometimes, just because we deal with a lot of clients with insulin resistance, but around exercise especially, like, we're actually are going to use those carbs pretty quickly so we can use carbohydrates, ideally real food, carbohydrates to fuel these activities. And the body is going to use those up pretty quickly.

Brandy: Yeah. I say the same things with my clients. You know, if you're planning exercise before and after is kind of the optimal time to do some of those more concentrated starchy carbohydrates.

Leah: Yep. Yeah. So again, and in personally when I work out, I'm usually working out, like ideally, probably right around the time I would be doing lunch. But I, I time my workouts right now, I, like, right now I have the luxury of, like, my daughter goes down for a nap, that's my window to get my workout in. I can do it uninterrupted and no one needs anything for a little while.

But I ate at breakfast. And so that's probably like 8, 8:30 and then I'm not potentially getting my workout in until 1 or 1:30. That is where I might do that little half an RX bar or I might, if I have some protein balls made, I grab one of those and do that about 30 minutes in advance and just, and to toss that down the hatch. And my workouts, yeah, again, are about 30 to 45 minutes.

Usually a little bit more strength training, weight training oriented. But I know. And I've done these experiments many times. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not, that if I try to go into a workout without any kind of fuel, I always feel like I'm running a little bit more on adrenaline. And more on like kind of relying on some of those stress hormones to kind of get me through.

And when I actually put some food in my system, I just feel a heck of a lot better. And I feel stronger during my workouts and so this is where I think some, that's some of what we're reiterating is let's actually give your body some resources to run off of versus like kind of relying on some of those stress hormones or a little adrenaline or some caffeine or something along those lines.

And then like the trickier spot, so, okay. You mentioned Brandy, the, the example of somebody who ate lunch at 12:30, now they want their workout to be at five o'clock. And what that might look like. I find maybe the trickier spot for some people is if they are getting up really early and they're doing their workout at 5:30 or 6:00 AM. I have a client right now who gets up at 3:45.

Brandy: Oh wow.

Leah: In the morning to get his workout in. And so that's so he can get to the gym and come home, shower, do his stuff all before work. Lucky for him, he gets to retire next month.

Brandy: Good for him.

Leah: Yeah. So good for him. So hopefully he can start bumping that back a little bit.

Brandy: Yeah, I, I do have a lot of clients too though. They'll say if I don't do it immediately first thing in the morning, it's not happening. So I'm sure there's a lot of our listeners that are in a similar pattern here.

Leah: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, and with those early morning workouts, like sometimes it might even feel like your digestive tract even isn't even like up and online yet, because it is so early in the day. So some, it is easier for a lot of people to roll into those workouts fasted from overnight.

Brandy: Yep.

Leah: Some of it, sometimes you're getting up and you're leaving the house in 10 minutes and they're like, it's just a very condensed window. There's barely enough time to get anything in your mouth, let alone, getting it in like before you start your workout.

So, you know, I do. I feel it out with people. Okay. Are you open to trying a little bit of food or sustenance in the morning? How do they feel during their workouts? Again, and how do they feel like their recovery is after their workouts? Like are they just flat and depleted and feeling like they just got bowled over by their workouts?

Yeah. Or you know, do they come away actually feeling kind of energized? And then I would probably make a lot of those same suggestions that you were mentioning before, Brandy, especially again, like the protein. Either the energy balls or the protein shakes are some of my go-tos there.

Especially if someone's gut isn't ready to accept a whole lot of food at that point in the morning. I've noticed with my clients too, we might skip through the food, but we don't usually skip our coffee.

Brandy: Yeah. So, right.

Leah: The coffee's required pre-workout too. So like worst case scenario, could we get maybe 10 or 15 grams of some protein powder in that coffee? Or in a shaker bottle or something like that.

Brandy: Yeah, that's good.

Leah: So that it's like, you know, we, we get a little something, or maybe it's just a few bites of banana. Or half a piece of the toast or something like that. Or maybe overnight oats. That's another one. I forgot about that one.

Brandy: Oh yeah; with a little protein powder in there.

Leah: Throw a little protein powder into the overnight oats. Yes. That can be even a couple of bites of something like that goes down pretty easy. And some clients are just like not open to doing anything in the morning with those early morning workouts. So sometimes we are just having to be like, all right, can we just make sure we're loaded up at dinner with like good, solid fuel and then it's, we're just making that fuel last until the next morning.

Brandy: Yeah, that's a good tip.

Leah: Yeah. So it's just, yeah, it's just topping off your glucose stores in the muscle, in the liver so that it's like it's ready and available still in the morning. I would say, yeah, maybe that's more worst case scenario. A better idea would be like, hey, could we throw something down the hatch in the morning?

Brandy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Something's better than nothing. And if it's going to be nothing, at least prioritize a really good balanced dinner. So it, it does take some trial and error to really figure out like what the best strategy is going to be for that particular person. And if they're not used to eating anything before their workouts, they may just have to try it and see how it impacts, how they feel with their exercise.

Leah: Right. And do it more than just once. If it's, if you do it once and it's a train wreck okay, maybe that one didn't go well, but try something different next time. Give it a couple of shots at least.

Brandy: Exactly. So we, the goal is we're trying to optimize outcomes. And takes a little experimentation. But it's worth the effort. And like I said earlier for most of my clients, I do encourage those starchy carbohydrates and whatever they decide, hopefully we can fit some kind of a starchy carbohydrate in their pre-workout meal or snack. Because it is going to give us that burst of energy for a little more endurance.

So when I references starchy carbohydrates, I'm talking about like the fruit, the oats, sweet potatoes, maybe squash or quinoa. So those starches are going to digest into glucose and once that glucose is released into the bloodstream, then we have an immediate energy source for whatever exercise you're about to do.

And when you pair that starch with a little bit of protein or a little bit of fat, that basically extends the effect of those starches. So it results in a really slow, steady release of energy into the bloodstream, which is perfect for exercise. And hopefully we land on a combination of foods that's not too distressing on the gut. Something that's just right and not slowing you down or weighing you down.

Leah: Yeah. It's, it's, It's, sometimes it's a tricky balance to, to strike, a little bit of tinkering will get there. And so that's the fuel part of things or that's some of the, what we talk about food wise with clients.

Hydration is key: pre-exercise & the whole day

Another thing that I check in with my active clients on is how are they hydrating? How well are you hydrating both throughout the day and pre-exercise? Because being dehydrated will actually compromise your performance quicker and will make exercise feel so much harder than actually, almost than not eating before the workout.

Brandy: Yeah, a hundred percent.

Leah: Yeah. We're, we just talked about how important it is to fuel. And now we're stepping in and saying actually if you're not hydrated, that will compromise your performance more than the fuel piece of it will be. And I know with endurance athletes or those higher level athletes, like the very first concern is always hydration.

The next concern is like, how are we fueling? So I am always checking in with my clients on how are we doing with water intake. We're going to talk about electrolytes in a minute. And just and things like that. And when you're dehydrated, your heart's pumping harder than it should. It doesn't pump out as much blood.

Your internal temperature regulation gets a little wonky. So you just, you tend to feel hotter and you get more uncomfortable quicker than you otherwise would. So again, I, I kind of wonder if water and hydration is such a big issue, especially with athletes or active people, just because with water, there's not a backup system in the body.

You either have water or you don't. Like, yeah, we do store a tiny little bit of water with glycogen in our muscles and stuff like that. But it's not like the fuel where it's okay, our bodies can, during exercise, run on carbohydrates, but then it can also tap into the fatty acids and worst case scenario, it can pull in from some of the proteins and amino acids. It's like if there's no water to work with, there's just no water to work with. Then that's heart stop right there.

Brandy: Exactly.

Leah: So it's again, like hydration has to be part, an important part of the picture.

Brandy: It's so crucial and really you got to get on top of that as soon as you wake up. Start your day with a glass of water. 'Cause when you wake up, you're just naturally dehydrated. And the goal for most people, this is what I recommend for clients, is aiming for about half your body weight in ounces of water every day. So for some people that's 90, a hundred ounces a day.

So to hit that goal by the end of the day, you'll have to get started as soon as you wake up. And that's the deal that I have with myself is I need an eight, 10 ounce glass of water before I even look at the coffee maker. So at least I am getting a jump on that.

Leah: Water before coffee.

Brandy: Yep. Water before coffee. Didn't you say you actually fill your coffee cup with water?

Leah: Yeah. Again, like I perusing social media. I saw that once as a tip and for whatever reason to me, that would just hit the light bulb. And I was like, oh, that's such a game changer. So it's because again, nobody skips their coffee. So if we attach something to that habit of okay, let's make sure we get some water in and yeah. If you have to force yourself of okay if I got to finish this mug of water before I fill it up with coffee then so be it.

Brandy: Yeah. It's a one checkpoint before the reward.

Leah: Mm-hmm.

Brandy: And I think it helps to have good tasting water.

Leah: Yep. Absolutely.

Brandy: You know, to hit that goal, I invested in a good water filtration system for my house. That's been a game changer for me. And just filling up a couple water bottles before I leave the house, so I always have something with me.

Leah: That's trendy too, to walk out with three water bottles in hand, right?

Brandy: Yeah. I've got a bag for my water bottles. And then three other bags filled with other things. And you mentioned this earlier, some people do benefit from some electrolytes in that water.

When might electrolytes be recommended?

Especially if they are heavy sweaters or maybe they're working out in hot or humid environments. So that's going to be more of a concern heading into the summer here. The more you sweat, the more water you lose, so that makes sense. And we're also sweating out some of our electrolytes, so we have to replace that.

Leah: Yep. Yeah, just, we know that 'cause our sweat tastes salty. And I agree. Yeah. The electrolytes in water before exercise can also be helpful for those early morning exercisers, especially when we've gone all night, haven't drank anything, and now we need to really hydrate up quickly.

And sodium specifically is great for helping to increase, again, like I read a couple of studies and they would talking about total body water status, so again, like fancy way, just to say that your cells have the hydration that they need to run well. So having a little bit of sodium in your water so you're not just drinking plain water helps with just making sure that those cells are really soaking up that hydration as optimally as they can.

Brandy: Right.

Leah: And again, here's the balance between like we want hydration, but we also don't want to over hydrate or get into the realm of like too much water flushing around in our bellies while we're trying to work out. So let's just do a brief overview of like if a client comes to you and says, okay, I've heard these good things about electrolytes, like what would you recommend? Or like, what should I be looking for? What do you say?

Brandy: Yeah, good question. So what we're looking for with electrolytes is hopefully something without added sugar or artificial sweeteners. I do have a couple of go-to brands that I'll just suggest so they don't have to like sift through all that there is to choose from out there.

Leah: Yep.

Brandy: We have a couple on the website, our website, nutrikey.net. There's one called Dynamic Hydrate. So I like that one because it does have a little bit of sodium, magnesium, some potassium and some other nutrients, some B vitamins that can help with recovery. And it does come in a couple different flavors. So if you like that, that's a good…

Leah: They're tasty.

Brandy: They do taste good. But I do have clients that do not like flavoring added to that.

Leah: Sure.

Brandy: Or they don't really like the stevia that's in that. Yeah. So the Synerplex Revive is one that I would suggest. It's really bare bones. It just has your little potassium, sodium, magnesium. And it gets the job done. Flavorless.

Leah: Yeah. Absolutely.

Brandy: Do you have any that you'd like to suggest?

Leah: Yeah, I mean, those two definitely. I always point people to our website or if they're in person in one of our offices, we might look at some of those guys. A couple other ones that I have recommended to people is LMNT.

Brandy: Oh yeah.

Leah: It's higher sodium, higher sodium than most electrolytes out there. So keep that in mind. I think that is, again, sodium is helpful for getting that hydration into the cells and for like actually feeling like you have energy during your workouts and stuff. So I do like LMNT, and that is spelled LMNT.

Brandy: Mm-hmm.

Leah: And so I will recommend that one. That one you can only order online. It's not, well, actually I take that back. I think they are starting to come out in some storefronts. Like some targets and some Walmarts across the country. Yeah. So it's helpful. The, another one, a recommendation that I had gotten from another gal who worked here was, called Ultima Replenisher.

Brandy: Right.

Leah: So that one, yeah, that one we can, that one has a lot of different flavors. They even have a mocktini type of line. So it's if you're looking for something different, like a summery non-alcoholic flavoring, like just something to flavor up your water, as Melanie would say, and make you just feel like, okay, I'm enjoying a cocktail.

Like they actually have some decent options there, but I know they're a good brand. They use good ingredients. I think they're fairly readily available. I think I've seen it at Target before. So those are a couple other ones that I've recommended for clients if they've asked.

Brandy: Yeah. So those are some solid recommendations. Just to cut out some of the guesswork.

Leah: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, even bare bones, like we said, like a little bit of sodium in your water. If you took a little bit of like pink salt or some sea salt and sprinkled it in your water. I mean, that could be as simple as that.

Brandy: I've had to do that before.

Leah: Yeah. You make it work.

Brandy: You do. Mm-hmm. It gets the job done.

Recap

Leah: Yep. Yeah. So as we round out our show today, I think the number one takeaway I'd want people to walk away with from today is that eating around your workouts can be really a game changer with how you feel, how you perform in your workouts and activities and this is even for us mere mortals also who, you know, we're just, we're here trying to like just show up as our best selves and put forth some effort, get our heart rates up and challenge our muscles for 30 to 60 minutes a couple times a week.

Yes. It is even important for you to fuel and to have those resources available for your body. If you've been the person who's been trying not to eat before workouts, in order to maximize your fat burning and get an edge with weight loss, I challenge you to play around with some of the suggestions that we had earlier in the show and do that for two or three weeks.

Like I said, don't do it once and then decide that that didn't work. Like give it a fair go, do it a couple of times at least. And again, it might just, it might have to play around the different kinds of snacks or different kinds of fueling, but just see do you notice a difference with the efforts that you're able to put forth in that exercise, how you recover, and then also how you operate the rest of the day?

Because I have definitely done those workouts too, where it's like, I feel good during the workout and like we do okay maybe for an hour or so after the workout. And then it just kind of falls apart from there. And I feel so low energy and sluggish, and it's like, I just don't want to, I don't want to move around a whole lot. I don't want to play with my kids in the afternoon. So part of that is like making sure we've got the appropriate fuel on board.

Brandy: Absolutely.

Leah: So I think I honestly, I really think people, if you play around with this, you'll be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

Brandy: Yeah. You can just get so much more out of this and quality of life can really improve if you do things smart.

Leah: Yeah, absolutely.

Brandy: And if you are out there and you are our there and needing a little bit of support to figure this out for yourself, and you need more strategies to get the most out of your exercise, your physical activities and how it all fits with your unique schedule and your unique health needs, reach out to us.

Head to our website, weightandwellness.com. Learn about counseling, learn about our classes. You could also give us a call at (651) 699-3438.

Check Out Our Website For More Information on Nutrition Counseling & Classes!

Leah: So our goal at Nutritional Weight & Wellness is to provide each and every person with practical real life solutions for everyday health through eating real food. It's a simple, yet powerful message that eating real food is life changing. So it was good to be with you again today, Brandy.

Brandy: You too, Leah. Thank you.

Leah: Thanks to our listeners out there and make it a great day.