Midlife Metabolism Makeover Challenge Discussion

Yeah. Well, hello everybody. Welcome to the Get Healthy You TV Q&A being the first one in 2025. Happy New Year everybody. I'm Chris Freitag that you probably know that, and of course you know my sidekick Sam Kam.

Hey, hey, hey, good to see you for the first time. You're so cute today. You're like, your hair is clean. Oh yeah, it was a washing day today. My hair, not so much.

And we have a special guest today. Mika Kinney, good to see you. Yeah, I'm so happy to be here. So fun to have her from Joy to the Food. She is the foodie who is responsible for the meal plan that goes with our 28 day challenge that we are running here in January.

So we are all ready to talk to you about everything, food and fitness. I'm sure you have questions and thoughts as we are starting January of 2025 and things that are on your mind. Um, but I do want to tell you there's still time to sign up for our challenge. So if you don't even know what I'm talking about, you're like, what? You guys have a challenge?

You can still sign up. We started on January 1st, but you can start tomorrow, January 10th, and be 10 days behind. No shame in, in the behind game. Um, you can do the workouts, you get the meal plan, and download the meal plan. We will leave the workouts unlocked for a couple extra weeks so that those of you who are starting late can do them.

Do we have that banner that can go on the, um, you guys probably weren't ready for me to just mention it right out of the gates, huh, my tech people. There we go. So you will be able to, um, join and Sam's putting links in different places so that you can go ahead and download everything once you're in fun workouts. One thing I do want to comment on before we get into it is some people have said holy banana. Because I'm so sore.

Like I am so sore. This is really hard. This is a hard challenge. Now you guys, in January we have surveyed you guys so many times and the overall feeling is challenge us in January. So it's a little tough and we say, although you might not have read all the fine copy, please modify if your body needs a day off, take a day off.

Move a workout or skip a workout, because if you are new to this, this is definitely a challenge, but here's the thing. Take adversity head on. That's one of the things that working out regularly teaches you is that it's OK to be out of your comfort zone. It's OK not to be perfect. What's one of our mottos progress over perfection so do the best you can and um we're just really proud of you for joining us.

OK, let's get into this. We have a whole hour to talk about food and and fitness and health and your journey. Mica runs of uh Joy to the Food, which is a website, and she's gonna tell you all about. It, but that really focuses on high protein and one of the things we are focusing on this year in 2025 is strength training, and I'm, I'm going to get all into that because you guys know I'm on my soapbox. You have to be strength training as you age.

muscle is the secret to metabolism. It's where glucose and insulin are regulated. It is how you move your body. It is how you will feel good in older age. Food, protein fuels your muscles.

You need more protein. So this was such a fun, um, marriage because joy to the Food is all about high protein. So before we get into some of the questions, Sam, I just want Mica tell the audience a little bit about how Joy to the Food came to be and, and, you know, how you guys go about creating these protein-based meal plans. Yeah, so Joy to the Food is something that came out of mine and my husband's lifestyle. We started about 4 years ago.

We have done many hikes. I grew up in a national park. We've hiked Mount Whitney, so we've hiked to the highest point in the US and the lowest. Yeah, and you have to be fueled to do this, right? So eating high protein has always been part of that.

I myself have struggled. I did challenges, whatever. I said you need to get 100 g, and I was like, that's crazy. So when we started this site, we were like, we need to help people do that because that's what we're trying to do. And now that I have a son, we have scaled back on the protein powder, so we do everything without protein powder.

Um, to get all natural sources and then he can eat it and we eat it and it's family friendly. It's great. That's awesome. How old is your son again? He's he's almost 2, yeah, yeah, he's a little one, so if you heard her say they really focus on non-protein powder recipes, which I love because I am a protein powder lover.

Um, I have a protein shake almost every day. Here's the thing is like you don't want to get all your protein from protein powder. Like it's important that you are eating real food and I think people misunderstand like protein powder is great for after a workout when you need that really quick hit of that amino acids. You don't necessarily need it throughout the rest of the day, right? Like it has its time and its place, and I had it one this morning, but you don't need it all the time.

To learn how to make protein rich meals, um, and the other thing I'm loving about this meal plan is that often, you know, when you go when you're doing something like a meal plan you want to feed your family it has to be something that the kids want to eat too or that your husband wants to eat. My husband is a meat eater. He like he wants meat at night, you know, like what are we having for dinner? And these are really creative recipes that are delicious. We'll, we'll get into talking about some of them.

So, um, I was commenting, I just wanna say, so Mica and her husband are engineers, um, by degree and now foodies, and I think like engineering and scientists are such good recipe developers because you. are so into the science of it. Me, I'd be like, what should I put in this recipe? I, you know, but recipes really are a science in many ways. You want to get the right flavor, the right mixture, the right texture, especially with baked goods when you're dealing with protein baked goods, when you're dealing with hemp seed and almond flour as a replacement, making things gluten-free, things like that.

Um, we really have to like fine tune and recipe tests and things like that. So it, it goes hand in hand surprisingly great. So you guys are getting a two week meal plan for free. Check out those recipes. You might not like them all.

That's OK. Like you're not, you're not gonna like every workout either, but go ahead and play around with it, and then Mica will tell you a little later how you can join her. She does have some free recipes and then she has a, a paid membership where. You can get meal plans, yeah, and it's so you get a 4 week meal plan with this program, um, but you also, um, if you don't like something, like let me know and um I have tons of other recipes. We have hundreds on our site that you can access as well.

So Mica is in our um Facebook group for those of you wondering, so if you guys are part of our private Facebook group and you want to ask Mica a question, you have her attention for a couple weeks. So go ahead, ask away. Um, OK, Sam, do we have a few questions we want to get started with, and then we'll lead into more conversation about and we actually just had, so based off of what you just said, we did have a member ask how do you join the group chat while following this program that started on January 1st? So can everyone join our private Facebook group or you know how does that work a really interesting thing. So they have been letting people into the Facebook group that are not members because it is a you have to be doing the challenge and what you do is you go to Facebook and you click on the.

Get healthy TV TV squad group. It's a group, not a page, it's a group. So you click on it you ask to join and there are 3 questions. Answer those questions and say that you're a part of the challenge. You'll get into the group.

We do scrub the list throughout the year, so if you do not join Get Healthy UTV, you might get kicked out later in the year. But for right now you can be in there and take part in all the conversation with the people who are doing these workouts, making the meals, cheering each other on. I gotta say I. I am always, I've been doing this for 35 years and I'm still so inspired by people's comments. Yeah, it's it's a very motivating group, um, just like keeping each other accountable too if you like don't have the motivation that day and you sign on and you see what everyone else is doing, it's just like, I know, I'm going to get my butt I'm going to make this recipe.

I know very motivating. I couldn't believe it when I hopped in there. I was like, my gosh, these people are so inspiring, so inspiring and so incredibly consistent, but anyway. Um, so obviously with, uh, protein being kind of the topic with strength training, um, can you kind of talk about why we need more protein as we age? Yeah, I'm gonna quickly talk and then I want you to talk about sources.

Um, so protein is made of amino acids, and amino acids are the building blocks for helping to repair, recover, and, um, you know, build your muscle. And so you need protein to help with building, maintaining, repairing muscle. If you don't eat any protein, you're doing yourself a disservice. So if you're strength training and you're not eating any protein, you're not gonna see the gains that you want. Now protein isn't a miracle.

You can't just sit at the table and eat protein every day and hope that you gain Popeye muscles. You have to do the work. You my famous line that I say almost weekly is there is no pill for strength training. You have to do the work, but if you are actively using your muscles, you want to feed. Amino acids and there are um what is it 20 amino 22 amino 9 and 11 I think it's 20 amino acids and 9 of them are essential, meaning that your body doesn't make them on their own so you have to take them in through food and animal products are the best products for that because animal products contain all the essential amino acids.

Now that being said, plant-based products have nice mixes of those. So if you're mixing up your proteins throughout the week or throughout the day, a little bit of beans, a little bit of nuts, a little bit of egg or whatever you're doing, you're gonna get your profile, um, and the one thing I'm just gonna add is that after a workout you have about a 45 minutes to 2 hour window to get the amino acids. That's when your muscles are most ready to accept amino acids. They're gonna, it's gonna be the best time to get that protein in. So after a workout if you're not gonna eat for two hours, have something quick, a snack with protein.

If you're gonna have a meal like let's say you finish your workout, this is my life and I think yours too. I finished my workout, you know, 6:30, 7 in the morning or whatever. I go, I eat breakfast within that next two hours, so I'm not trying to supplement with a snack because I'm ready for a meal, so it depends, um, and then why don't you talk a little bit about protein sources? I think sometimes people don't even know what what has protein. Yeah, so everybody's familiar with meat, obviously meat, eggs, those are basics, dairy, some things that have protein that kind of get overlooked hemp seeds, almonds, things like that, things like peanut butters, those can be questionable or tricky because they do have higher fat content and carbs and things like that, but they are a source of protein.

So when you're mixing them in and you're being intentional about it, it's a great option. Um, some other ones are bone broth. I love using bone broth instead of regular broth. Not only does it have 9 g of protein per serving instead of 1, it has tons more flavor because it's, it's simmered longer, right? Um, other ones, you know, Greek yogurt, it's the reason it has more protein is it's strained longer than the standard yogurt.

Um, so typically the lower the fat, the higher the protein. Same with cottage cheese, um, those are my favorites. Love cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is having a moment. It's having a moment right now.

I kind of forgot about cottage cheese because I'm not a big like just cottage cheese on its own, but putting it in recipes and even I put it in a smoothie the other day and I was like. Yeah, it's literally like so decadent. If you made our chocolate cheesecake smoothie, it's cottage cheese and it literally tastes like chocolate cheesecake. It is so good, but what I'll do is I'll buy two cottage cheese containers of small ones, and one will go straight into the blender and I'll blend it and the other one will stay whole curds. Then I can mix it into anything.

OK, interesting. And beans also. I don't know, and beans, and also like quinoa. quinoa is one of the only ones that has all the amino acids. So yeah, there's a couple of plant-based ones.

Something with plant-based is like she said it doesn't have all of the amino acids typically. So there's something that's called the three sisters, so it's corn, bean, and squash. When you have those three together, you get all 9 amino acids. So if you're eating vegetarian, that's like a really easy way to like mentally think about that. Wow, nice.

All right, good, good to know. Good to know. Um, we do have people saying thanks Micah for providing um like non-meat eaters some options because it's also hard to get some high protein meals in. So thank you for providing that for people. I'm working on more so we have a bean series coming up.

We love our beans. OK, a bean. I love that. Yeah, I love beans too. I know you, yeah, I know they make great.

I love using them instead of pasta pasta salads now like a vinegary thing. It's so good. Um, yeah, and for those of you who are vegetarian, we were just talking about this prior to coming on, um, you know, on screen. Um, Michael was saying if there are more people who are interested in vegetarian meals, perhaps you'll start developing more vegetarian meals too. I mean, kind of like get healthy UTV if you guys tell us you're looking at, you know, you want this type of workout, we're going to film it.

So you know, if you ask, they will build it kind of a thing, right? Exactly, yeah, yep, we love plants, we love eating plant forward, so we can definitely incorporate that if you want it. Um, what is a protein for breakfast if you're allergic to eggs? Um, she uses protein powder for shakes in the morning, but looking for like more bang for her buck for protein if you're allergic to eggs. What's your suggestion?

I love hemp seeds, so what is it? 2 tablespoons of hemp seeds has like 9 g of protein. It's, it's pretty substantial. I have to double check on that one, but it's the highest, um, so putting that in my smoothie, I like that. Um, the cottage cheese in your smoothie instead of protein powder.

So with those combo and then a little bit of nut butter, I can get my protein shakes up to about 23 g of protein, um. Without using protein powders, protein and without eggs, um, if you don't want a shake, um, something I like is you can do baked oats, but instead of egg whites, you can use Greek yogurt and apple sauce, um, if you're allergic to it. So that one I think with egg whites it's about 20 g without it's about 15 per slice, um, and then top it with more Greek yogurt because it's delicious. Um, yeah, Greek yogurt, it's I love it because I like ice cream. I mean like I love.

Ice cream. I like the texture of it, the flavor of it, and so anything that's creamy like that, um, so any other recipes you can think of that you have, um, on your website, or, you know, I know it's, uh, through the paid, but, uh, that are non-egg breakfasts. Yeah, muffins and uh protein bites. I like those, um, protein bites if you're trying to get actually substantial, I would add protein powder to that, um, because it can be hard with just the nuts and stuff, um, but I love having Blender muffins and so instead of eggs we'll use Greek yogurt again or apple sauce. They also stabilize in that sort of situation and then we incorporate almond flour into that and the hemp seeds and lots of other natural sources to get it up to like that 1215 g range.

I love it and I'm in this phase of my life where I just put chia seeds in everything. I put chia seeds. I just throw them in everything. I know, yeah, and I'm that way with hemp seeds, but cheese seeds and flax seeds are the other options for that, right? Yeah, yeah.

Awesome. Um, speaking of almond flour, uh, we have somebody saying she's never used almond flour before. Do you guys have a brand or tips or tricks of what to like look for in almond flour? So typically I look for um fine milled almond flour. Um, you can use almond meal for most of our recipes.

It's just a little bit thicker. Um, what the typical rule of thumb is, is if a recipe calls for all-purpose flour, you can substitute up to 1/4 of that with almond flour. Um, if you're doing all almond flour, it gets trickier, and you definitely should use a specific gluten-free recipe. Um, brands, I'm not really particular. I buy the Costco brand.

You can also buy like Bob's Red Mill. Um, organic is all I look for really organic, and I buy the Bob's Red Mill a lot, but, um, I like almond flour. What I've noticed for myself when I'm baking is almond flour is more moist than like an oat flour. So for instance, on Get Healthy, you, we do have one recipe, my Healthy oat muffins. They're my go to's and um I started making them with oat flour because they just were more substantial like a.

Better muffin feel to them, but I do sometimes put half almond flour, half oat, because then it gets a little less, you know, it won't dry out. Yeah, something with almond flour if you do incorporate it. I always let the batter rest for at least 5 minutes, preferably 10 minutes so you can see how the almond flour is going to absorb, and then you can add more. I don't typically add more milk. I'll add like another egg or something of fat or more Greek yogurt to amp up that moisture because it just draws it out and it makes things dry, yeah.

Interesting. I'm like learning all these new things. Um, we have a saying, I'm not a cottage cheese lover, but the egg bake yesterday from the recipe and absolutely loved it. So people are trying new cheese eggs like it's a game changer. people are wondering what is your favorite recipe from this meal plan, the pesto pasta.

I just that's the one that I that I haven't done like I'm not a big with it. I don't like. Pesto pasta and I was really adamant when I developed this recipe that pesto pasta to me has this like gummy nature like it gets tacky and I was really adamant when I made it that I could not have that. So there's two tricks that I've learned over the years of watching Italian shows and other things. Instead of pasta water, I actually use a splash of bone broth in there.

It adds protein, it adds flavor. It makes it silky. The other thing that you do is you take an egg yolk and you mix it with Parmesan, and then that gets folded into your warm pasta and it emulsifies, and that sets the base. For the pesto and then the pesto I make with hemp seeds, so it's higher in protein instead of pine nuts or walnuts, um, and I actually use arugula on mine because I like the pepperiness, but you can use basil too. But I also, I usually forget to buy basil, but I have arugula, so it's like it's one of my favorites for sure.

It's so good and I've seen the big bag of hemp seeds at Costco. That's what I have the big one, and I just recently bought the big bag of chia seeds, yeah, so awesome. So that pesto pasta, if you're nut free, could have it then. Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, because I don't use pines, yeah, I'm a severe, so anytime there's pesto I'm like can't have it, and that is brilliant nuts. I love it.

Yeah, and like if you're dairy-free, it's one of the few things Parmesan or plant-based parmesan is one of the few dairy-free or plant-based cheeses that actually tastes good. So it can be used in the pesto, it can be used in the past. Wait, are you saying that Parmesan cheese is always dairy-free? No, no, no, the plant-based one. No, no, no, no.

The plant-based version of Parmesan cheese is the only one that I think actually tastes like, yeah, and melts OK. Wow, that is really interesting to know. Chris, have you tried? What's your favorite recipe from? Um, I haven't done them, but I like the meatballs.

I, so my husband is always like because I tend to be more like chicken, fish, or I'll even eat vegetarian, and he's always like, Can we have some meat? He loves so the cottage cheese meatballs, I think they're awesome. Good. That's awesome. Yeah, one of our favorites.

I haven't done the, the, the second week. I'm like slowly myself into some of these. I've tried the shakes too delicious and I do add protein powder because I like to just up the protein, and that's the nice thing is you can add more protein really fast if you do want to use it, so yeah. Um, a couple of like strength training questions. Um, so, um, what about doing back to back strength workouts?

So we've been, I mean, people also like maybe talk about how we put these together too because I think sometimes they think we just slap workouts together. Um, that's not how we do it. Um, so talk about back to back strength training days, people get sore. Can you switch the days around kind of all that stuff. Yes, of course nothing in fitness is set in stone.

It is not exact. You have to be a little bit flexible pun intended. So when we put these calendars together, we expect that some people will go, you know what, this day I don't have time for a 30 minute workout. I'm going to move it to a different day or I'm too sore. I'm going to move this one over here.

We typically give 2 days of rest in each calendar. Per week, so you might have 5 workouts, 2 days of rest. Some of the calendars like this calendar, I think only has 1 day of rest, right? The, uh, because it's a January challenge, um, but we expect that some of you are going to skip one workout or two based on how sore you are and where you are in your journey, if you're brand new, you might be a lot, you know, you will obviously get more sore more quickly. Um, a couple calendars we do have, we have a new one that's coming out that has a workout every day, but one of the days is like a mobility type, um, or flexibility workout.

So they're all different. OK, now back to back strength days again, there are no rules. So it is out there in the universe and it is true that if your muscles are super sore, that means you've really engaged them, you've broken them down. I always say you got to break them down to build them up. If you are super sore, yes, take a day of rest.

If you can barely get up off the toilet, which you know people say my butt is so sore I can barely get up, then take a day off. Yes, you taxed those glutes and they are sore. Give yourself a chance to repair. Often it. Is delayed, so it's called DOMS DOMS delayed onset muscle soreness.

So sometimes you don't feel sore till day two after then take a day of rest. But here's the thing, when you become consistent at strength training. You won't get super sore from every workout. I do strength training 4 days a week and sometimes I'm like, oh man, I'm kind of sore today, you know, and so I'll take it easy on whatever mus my triceps are sore today, so I'm gonna kind of, if the workout that I'm doing involves triceps, I might sub it out or I might switch it, but I'm still gonna do the strength training on consistent days because my muscles are used to working out. I tax my muscles often.

I'm not super sore. That's fine. Um, so there's nothing wrong with doing it back to back unless you are super sore, then please take a day off. Some of our calendars, we will do like an upper day, a lower day, a core day, take a break, then a total body day. So we switch it up like that.

Sam and I put a lot of thought into the calendar, so it's not willy-nilly slap a bunch of workouts in. We try to put the cardio in the middle if we're going to do a cardio day or a flexibility, we mix it up knowing though. That you guys are gonna move them around a little bit too based on your schedule, but I will say at this point now I just don't get that sore and honestly I have been upping my weights so it's been something that I've been trying to do um it's kind of one of my goals for this year and end of last year was to start lifting a little heavier and the reason was, OK, I'm approaching 60. I'm gonna be 60 this year. What?

Um, it's harder to maintain muscle and keep muscle on my body. I'm moving slower than I used to just matter of fact, for me and my body, I don't whip weights around and I'm really cautious about my joints because I know in older age everyone has elbow pain, knee pain, hip pain, and I want to be really smart about the way I move so I'm like if I'm gonna go. Slower I'm gonna go a little heavier and really feel it so that's kind of my style right now but even as I've upped my weights, I'm not getting that sore even if I've gone from a 15 to a 20, I'm not really getting overly sore because my muscles are used to it. So it depends on where you are in your journey. If you're brand new, someone emailed the other day and said I'm brand new.

Pick up a 5 pound weight. That's gonna be, let me tell you, that's going to be heavy. My 86 year old mother, a 1 pound weight is heavy for her, so it all is where you are in your journey and then work your way up. There's no, nobody is, you know, gets a Medal of Honor because they're lifting 15 pound weights or whatever. You, you need to do what works for your body and work your way up.

But um, yeah, there is no problem with moving things around. But throughout my last 30 years of weightlifting, uh, my schedule has changed based on my. Family to really, to be honest, like my kids' schedule. So there was a time when my weight lifting days were Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, like those were my days and it was all, it worked with my kids' schedule hockey, dance, you know, whatever was going on in in my work or whatever. Now I lift Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday like that's just where I like it because Friday is my cardio day.

It just has always, I just like that and now the weekends have been more enjoyable for me with friends pick a ball, walking. Um, you know, outdoor stuff, and so I just, your lifestyle is gonna change based on what you do. Yeah, absolutely. And I think um the same um individual said like being sore is really real. Um, is it bad to force yourself to to like do that next workout the next day or um switch it around and like I guess I would say there also the difference between like being super sore and also like make like moving your body the next day too and I don't think you need to do that extra strength if it's like strength, maybe move the bar workout or you know the yoga workout like.

A day early just to move your body or a walking or something so that you're like moving your body but you can let that like soreness kind of go away a little bit, right? And one of the things is about injury. So you're trying to prevent injury. So let's just say you're super sore, your glutes are so sore you can't stand it. So you, but you go ahead and do this workout now you're compensating somewhere else.

You're leaning to one side or you're using something else because you're trying to avoid the pain that's happening in one part of your body and so now you end up with pain in the other part of your body. So that's why you would take a day off. But like, You know, there are days where I'm like, oh, my triceps are really sore today, but not so sore that I can't do tricep exercise. And I will say from a nutrition perspective, like if I'm not eating enough, I get sore so much faster and I just don't have the ability to lift this heavy. So if I'm doing a challenge like this, I need to actually up my calories because I'm trying to build muscle.

I'm not necessarily trying to lose weight. Even with that though, you want to keep those calories around that 17 and 1900 range to repair that muscle to do. All those things and thank you for mentioning that this meal plan is approximately 100 g of protein a day and everyone always says, how do you get 100 g in one day? Well, look at this meal plan. When, when you presented it, I was like this is amazing, like, you know, um, and it's not even including protein powder but to Micah's point and what I had said earlier in this hour was protein feeds your muscles.

If you are strength training and you're not eating any protein, you are not gonna see the gains that you want to see. Um, a question, Mica and Chris, you can bounce off of it too, but when buying cottage cheese and Greek yogurt, is it best to get the low fat rather than the full fat versions for more protein? What do you look for? Yeah, so this is going to depend on your needs and your family's needs. So like I have a little, you know, a toddler and he needs higher fat, um, so we actually buy whole milk, but it has less protein than a low fat does.

Um, if you are older, like I personally would probably buy low fat, um. Because generally what happens is if it's low fat, it's strained more so it's higher protein because it's a percentage base so it's less fat, more protein. So are you saying when I look at because like when I go buy cottage cheese, if I were to buy the low fat versus the full fat, the low fat will have more protein than the full fat typically a gram or two more, um, so that's like, you know, the range is what like 2% to 6% I think for cottage cheese. I don't know if there is a 0%, um, but same with Greek yo. Yogurt if you go from 0% to skim to um whole milk, um, so we do buy whole milk and we buy whole milk Greek yogurt.

We buy 4% Greek or cottage cheese, um, but it's still really high protein, right? So like whole milk Greek yogurt has like 15 g and then, uh, low fat has upwards of 20 sometimes, um, and I will say it varies a lot in brands. So like if you buy the Target or the um Trader Joe's brand, it only has like 7 g, which is really sad. Um, but if you buy like, um, Wallaby or uh, I'm trying to think or um. Chobani, it's gonna have upwards of 15 plus.

Well, and what I personally look for is organic, so I'm a little bit on the, uh, the scale this way of like organic, clean. I'm like I'm on the crusade of all the bad chemicals and ingredients in food, um, but I tend to go say to myself, no this is just my own eating habits, but I go lower fat on my like Greek yogurt and my caches because I eat a lot of nuts and seeds and I eat a lot of avocado, so I do the same thing. Yeah, I get a lot of fat from nuts. And seeds and so I'm like, I probably don't need to also add fat calories in my dairy. So that's why I would buy the lower fat.

But number one for me is the organic too. Yeah, and I should say I don't mention that because that's just how we how we buy things so it kind of goes over my head when I forget about it. But yes, we also buy organic and grass fed and all that, yeah, if we can buy local, that's great. um, can you talk about other benefits from chia seeds besides um the extra protein? Well, chia seeds are the ALA in the omega 3s.

So you have the omega 3. Everyone says take your omega 3s, which you think fish oil, right, which is right because the EPA and the DHA come from fish, those two, but the one of the three omegas, the ALA you get in walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseed too, is that, uh, I don't know about flaxseed, to be quite honest, but so you're getting a little bit of omega in there. You're getting a higher fiber content. It's really good for fiber. So people are like, my gut needs, you need fiber to move your gut first of all for a healthy microbiome but also so you're not constipated, which is a problem with American diets.

So I literally throw a teaspoon of chia seeds in my Greek yogurt and my cottage cheese every time I eat them because you can't taste it. And that's another option for if you're allergic to eggs, cheese seed pudding is like delicious, it's so good. You just have to floss after, yeah, don't go in public until you've looked in the mirror. Yeah, get your teeth. Yes, yeah, so all of that and flax seeds do you have the ALA omega, um, so that is another option.

So Flax does. I knew, yeah, because those are just flax, hemp and chia are just such amazing, yeah, they're a great trio. um, these two kind of go hand in hand. So let's ask the first one, why do you think medical doctors aren't advising us to increase our protein as we age? Oh my gosh, I could talk about this all day.

Yeah, it. About it, um, so the, the RDA, the recommended daily allowance for the US, is substantially low. I think it's like 0.54 pounds or grams per pound. Um, when in reality, new studies show that you should be upwards of a pound or 2 pounds even depending on your activity level of ideal body weight. And people when they hear that they go, oh my God, I know, but it's like you're looking at studies that are so outdated and it's drilled in our heads and even so that.

is based off of a sedentary diet. So that's like if you didn't do anything like this is how much you need to like survive. Um, the other thing is after you get over around 35, you start to lose bone mass and muscle, yep, and those two go hand in hand. So protein is super critical for that. So actually that even increases more as you get older.

Um, and can I throw one other thing? Yeah, your body isn't as efficient as we get older, um, so it's not using the nutrients maybe as well or converting the bone. And so you have to do the things like I say, like aging is a gift. Every year is a gift. The wisdom you have is a gift, but you, you are losing muscle mass, so you have to actively replace it.

You have to eat enough protein or more calcium or more whatever to keep. You have to do a little jumping to keep that force going through the bones. Those things are so important and as we age for some reason people tend to eat less protein. No, it just kills me. And so the other thing is studies are showing that that 30.

grams that everybody's talked about is basically the number that's been determined to start muscle synthesis. So that's why it's really important in the morning because 30 g in a meal, yeah. So after you've come out of a fast overnight, you need 30 g essentially to start your muscle synthesis and then throughout the day you just kind of feel it and keep it going, you know, it's like starting a car, but as you get older you're less efficient, so you actually need more. So there are new studies as you get upwards of 80 that it even goes up to 50 g. I think it's Dr.

Lyman or Lien. um, he's done a lot of They've done a lot of research on this, um, so anyways, back to doctors, um, I don't think doctors are recommending it because it seems unattainable. It is not the standard, um, and a lot of them are not trained in nutrition. So like that's what I was gonna say is like my brother is an orthopedic surgeon and he doesn't study nutrition. You know what he studies is how to fix bones, you know, but if you ask him a nutrition question, he's like, that's not my, my thing.

And I do think that, you know, and I, I don't know the. Sure, not every doctor, but a lot of doctors are gonna go with the RDA. They're gonna go with what's recommended in the manuals from long ago. I think what we have to do is also just get really like own own it like own your body. How do you feel?

I noticed when I started eating more protein that I felt better and my workouts were better. I felt stronger and I my muscle repairs faster, so I like that. I feel fuller even though fat usually is the more, you know, satiating of the macros, but. I, when I do eat more protein, I don't crave as much. I mean, I got a sweet tooth, but I don't crave all the sugary stuff.

Yeah, I also noticed, um, so after I had my son, that's also around the time when the protein intake started to finally kick in that I was actually hitting 100 g, um. I am so much stronger. I'm so much more energized. Like if you look at even photos of me before my son and after, which you think would be the opposite, like my face is like, ah, versus like, you know, like, oh my gosh, another day, um, so it protein, I really attribute that to protein like I've never felt stronger or better or more energized, you know, and I don't drink as much coffee. That's awesome and what I love about your recipes is it it is, it is a chore like you have it is something that you have to think about.

We have to take our, our, you know, health seriously just like we take whatever anything else in our life that we care about and so it, it is work to meal plan. It is work to, but that's why I have started. I love the whole. You know, internet with foodies and stuff. I love when somebody gives me the recipe, the grocery list, like kind of plans it out for the week, how I could use the leftovers and I'm like, love this.

I know. And what we started doing too is we're batch prepping proteins and grains. You say that again batch prepping proteins and grains batch prepping so we'll make a whole bunch of chicken breasts. Bunch of ground beef, a whole bunch of or bison, a whole bunch of quinoa, whatever, and then put it into different meals. So like the chicken will go into a chicken salad, the chicken will go into enchiladas, the chicken will go into a bowl, a green bowl, um, and just like repurpose it, and it makes it a lot easier.

It takes the mental load off. So that's something you'll see implemented in our later meal plans this year. Um, it's really nice for busy families. I, I love that Sam and I have always talked about. Meal prepping, we kind of both have used sundaes as meal prepping days and a lot of times I will like pre roast a bunch of veggies or sweet potatoes or I'll make a bunch of chicken breasts or I'll ground up a whole bunch of ground beef that I have then to use and my husband often and I often eat like kind of I don't know if you call them Buddha bowls or mixed bowls where we're like a little bit of beef.

A little bit of sweet potato, a little bit of arugula, a little bit of grain, you know, you kind of, I love that. I know, me too, yeah, and I, as a foodie, I do get bored with things, so I've really had to um push myself to like reinvent just a grain bowl into like um sliders or something that really feels different and has different flavor, but if you do a basic chicken breast with salt and pepper, you can do so much with that. Yeah, you really can. Um, there's another question. Um, what are some good protein powders for women?

Um, she's heard that soy protein is not good for women. Um, so talk about some protein powders that you guys like. Well, I will say that you don't want GMO soy, and soy is one of the highly GMO crops out there along with wheat, sugar. Um, so you have to be careful with soy, and I, I'm personally not a fan of soy, so I use whey protein. I'm not a vegetarian.

Whey is, so I have to tell you this, that whey is the most efficient protein for your muscles because whey protein is high in leucine and leuccine is the one amino acid the the getting a little technical here, but the three BCAA's lecine, isoleucine, and Valle are the three BCAAs which stands for branch chain amino acids and leucine. Is the one that is most responsible for protein synthesis and lucine is high in whey proteins so I will after a workout use whey protein. However, um, and I like currently I like Naked Way is the brand that I use. You'll have to say what you, you use, but it's very clean. I go for very few ingredients, no extra yuck, no chemicals.

If it's got a long ingredient list, I am not using it. And then I also like Tara's way, um, and I think that that is, and my husband's been really liking the Tara's way too. We like both of them. Um, from a plant base, I love Truvani. I love, uh, Vonnie Hari who created it.

I love the Food babe, that's her name on all social media. She is a crusader in the food world to try to get chemicals and food dyes out of our food. Her protein powders are all plant-based and they're all like 5 ingredients, so it'll be like vanilla. Chia seed pea protein like just all natural stuff. It is some people say it's too sweet.

um she sweetens naturally, but I love sweets so to me it's the one protein powder that I will shake up in a shaker with water and drink it because most protein powders, I'm not gonna shake with water. I'm going to add yummy stuff to it. So I'm a fan of that. So those are mine. What are yours?

so I. Use, well, for a long time I was dairy free, so I used one called Drink wholesome which has literally 5 ingredients. It's um an egg white powder based one. It's the only one I've tried that actually mixes in well. There's something though with egg white protein powder, it is not the same.

It doesn't um synthesize the same as whey protein, so it's a little bit different in its use. I actually usually take it before a workout, um. I actually wrote a blog about that. OK, the difference between like egg white protein, whey protein, we do have a whole blog that kind of tells us when you'd want to time something like that, but yeah, um, as far as like um yeah, and I really like their plant-based one, the best, uh. Those are really the only ones I use.

I pretty much say I've tried, I think, 13 or 14 different protein powder brands, and those are what I've stick to. Yeah, I I used to use Biro because we worked with Biro for 1010 years. We loved Biro. It was a very clean way. And then they, long story, but they were sold to a big, uh, company, and then they canceled basically they canceled it so it was so sad.

So I've probably tried like 15 different protein powders too, and that's what I've settled in on. Um, but Slave City, I do like, it just was always sold out. It used to be always sold out, and we were like, how can we recommend that to people when they can't even get it. It's probably because I typically buy the vegan one for that one and it's not sold out. Um, I did that or my drinks.

I'm gonna check out I'll have to check that out. I just sent it to you so that you have it. OK, good. Um, uh, so talking about protein, um, her calorie goal is about 500 less than what the meal plan is recommending. Um, her goal is weight loss.

Is that true to kind of take down the protein, um, content and, um, your calories for weight loss or what does that kind of look like? If you're trying to lose weight. Yeah, I don't know if I would go down 500 calories. So it's a lot if you're doing the challenge too. I mean that's and we don't know anything about you.

Like, are you 5 ft or are you 59? I mean that makes a big difference. How much do you actually weigh? Um, what is your bone structure because you know somebody who's only 5'1 might need. 3400 less calories than I do a day, um, just based on their body mass, um, but to take your calories down so low you don't wanna feel hungry or irritable or super sore where nothing's repairing quick enough so you kind of got to get a read on that.

Me personally, like I think like you said, 1700 calories for me is low. I mean when I'm when we're working out so much and something to know like if you're using a. Calorie tracking app or like my fitness pal or something like that and they have a recommended macro for you like for me I'm only 5'1, maybe 5'2 on a good day and so for me it recommends like 1400 calories and I know for a fact that I feel terrible if I eat that. So I stick to about 1700 so they seem to be low as far as protein, I would stick to about 1 g per pound of ideal body, yeah. So let's just say you're 200 pounds but you wish you were 150.

The 150 and you're looking for about 150 now that is for a lot of women they can't get, yeah it's crazy. They can't get to that. So that's why we kind of use that 100 as a standard, but I probably eat more like 1700 to 2000 calories every day. And when I'm really so I play soccer and I do different training things. So when I'm active like right now I'm, I'm working out like 6 days a week, I'm actually more like that 2000, um, because I just need that much energy, right?

Right, yeah, so yeah, so taking your calories down super low is a way to lose weight, but it's not sustainable. So a lot of people who go on these really high calorie deficits, well, that didn't make sense, really low, like low calorie deficit. They can sustain it. Let's say they make it 2 months and they lose 20 weird quick pounds then you go back to normal eating and your body just. Puts the weight back on what you wanna do is change your body composition and your habits so you wanna get into good healthy habits with real food.

You wanna get to a good sustainable calorie amount where you feel satiated and good and you wanna lift weights and build more mass as you're reducing fat, you know, we were talking about this, um, and again this is another article that I just wrote that's on our website, um, is do you wanna lose weight or do you want to lose fat because when people come to me, especially women, and they go, oh I gotta lose weight. I'm like, OK, Do you mean really you want to lose body fat? And they're like, yes, I want to lose body fat. You know, it's not necessarily that I care what I weigh on the scale. I want more muscle than fat.

Yep. And as you build muscle, you're going to burn fat inherently and so an interesting thing I guess as a case study for myself, I went in a calorie deficit down to about 1300 calories um in October and initially I started at 1700 and I was feeling really good losing fat because I was actually doing a DEXA scan to monitor that. Um, and then I went down to 1300 and actually it messed up my gut microbiome so bad. So, you went to what, 140 I went from 1700 to 1300 for part of November or December, excuse me, um, and I thought you said October. It was October and November I did the 17,000 and then December I did the 1300 and just like lost my appetite.

I had gut issues and It's an interesting phenomenon where when you don't eat enough, then you lose your appetite, but then you need to eat enough to fix it. Um, and so until I worked my way back up, I was just out of it. And why did you do that? Yeah, I mean, after having a kid you're trying to lose fat for sure. And so I had all this muscle.

I was lifting heavier weights than I ever have, um, and then I wanted. To lose fat. So just about like anybody else, you're like, OK, I'm going to go into a calorie cut, and I had never done one and so I felt like I was at a place that I could do this and I could mentally understand that like if it went wrong, this is what I need to do to correct it, um, and so it did so I corrected. So because you're like I don't like it when my gut doesn't feel good. Yeah, exactly, yeah.

So now we're back to normal and now we're lifting heavy weights again. Yeah, I love it love it. Um, let's see, how do you feel about Aura Organics plant-based protein? Have either of you ever heard of it? I've heard is how she spelled it.

I've never heard of it. We got to look it up real quick. I mean there are a millions. I think the main thing is just looking at the ingredients. If there's things you can't say it's a vegan.

Um, and it looks, I mean, first look, it says so lean and so clean, good marketing. It has a lot of um superfoods in it. It looks pretty good. Yeah, enzyme blend, which is nice. Yeah, it's more than just protein powder.

It's got a lot of like blueberry, broccoli, um kale and the digestive enzymes can be helpful because the plant-based proteins can be really hard on stomach. Yeah, yeah, that is the other thing is whey protein is just easier on the stomach. Um, a lot of plant-based proteins sometimes give people trouble. Um, that looks like a good one, you know, you have to trust yourself. You have to trust yourself.

We inherently are smart. Look at the ingredient label. If you see things that look like chemical words that end in ASE OSE, like weird. Words look them up on the internet. They come out their chemical or food dye or, you know, all these weird flavors.

No, not good. But if you look at something, you're like that looks inherently good, you know, you kind of know um what greens do you recommend? Um, she has had taste and texture issues with some greens. Well, you know what we like, so we promote athletic greens, AG one, and Have for 3 years because we believe in it um I've been using it personally for 3 years and it's actually been, I will say a life changer for me I was never super regular with taking vitamin pills. I, I don't have any problem with taking pills.

I just, I'm not regular like I don't get up in the morning and go I want to take all these pills and I just would go in phases where I took vitamins and I didn't. And when I started AG1 I love that I'm the first thing in the morning I shake it up, I add my collagen to it, so I get 15 g of protein off the get go, drink it down. I take vitamin D and omega with it, omega 3s, those are the two that aren't in it. I get some hydration in me. I feel energized.

My gut has been so much better and it's just my go to and I'm so regular with it because it's just so easy. And I know Sam, Sam's the one that actually got me into it, um, and I originally was like, oh, I don't want to try that because I don't like greens. They're so little, a plant and earthy and chalky, and I don't, we don't think that about AG one. I mean, we love it, so we'll give you a link, um, to get a whole starter pack and all the goodies that you can get with our link. But that's our favorite greens.

I haven't dabbled in other greens. Do you take something different or do you have any other? No, I've tried, um, AG one, and I. Tried clean simple eats greens. Um, I like them both.

I don't take them, uh, ever. I, I just don't want to pay for it. I get it, but I have tried it and I think they taste great, so I highly recommend. I just saw somebody yesterday who said that they take athletic greens every other day. AG1, it goes by AG1 now, uh, AG1 every other day.

Therefore their, their pouch lasts for two months instead of one month, and they feel like they're still getting that nutrients and, um, yeah, so it does add up. But I will say that if you were to add up all the other things that people say, oh, I bought this something I'm doing this, I'm doing that, and you don't end up taking them all the time or whatever. And by the way, vitamin D is a game changer for people and if you we live in Minnesota, uh, there is very little sunlight in November, December, January, February. I mean, literally it's the greatest month ever. You have to be taking vitamin D.

It is a game changer in your energy levels and the way that your hormones rate. Um, work, it's really important. Um, can you talk about your favorite, uh, collagen that you use? There's so many good ones. I mean, collagen is collagen.

I personally use vital proteins, but I also like Primal Kitchen. Both of those just happen to be two brands, but there's a million of them out there. There as long as they are just collagen, you trust the company. Yeah, um, I'm the same way. I've used, um, I think it's a really good one they have a higher protein content.

They do vary quite a bit. The only thing that I look for is I actually do the marine collagen. It seems like it blends better. You like the marine, yeah, and I do the bovine, yeah, so, and I've tried them both. The other one I like is Lake Wellness, I think it is.

You can get it at Trader Joe's. It's super affordable and it mixes really well and it's really called Lake Wellness. It's wellness at Trader Joe's. There you go, yeah, so. That's what I started with.

A collagen to me is tasteless, and I don't like anything in my coffee. I do not like creamer. I like black hot coffee. Like it is my go to. It is my thing.

So like my husband puts his collagen in his coffee. I want it in my greens because I, I don't want anything in my coffee. So it's called Great Lakes Wellness. Great Lakes. OK, that's a good tip.

Uh, yes, we have a couple of people saying that they have been diagnosed with osteoporosis. Um, so what else can they do besides lifting weights to um work on their strength? So osteoporosis, so if you're diagnosed with osteoporosis, you're past the osteopenia then, which is bone loss when you start to have bone loss, osteoporosis, you really need to work with your doctor. You need calcium, you need vitamin D, um, you need a good nutritional profile period and you need strength training. But with osteoporosis, depending on, you know, how your bones have progressed, you have to be careful with crunches, with twisting motions that, you know, it's treated very differently.

Like when someone says to me, I've got osteopenia, I'm starting to lose bone loss. I'm starting to lose some bone. Um, but I'm fine to move around. Great. Get moving, use your weights.

If you're like severe osteoporosis, you shouldn't be doing a lot of forward flexion things or twisting things. You have to be very careful, but start moving your body, driving force through those bones, weightlifting, walking, if your body can take it, I always recommend a little jump training whether you jump, just, you know, pretend you're jumping rope or just kind of shuffle on the floor. Or whatever, just get a little bit of mass do jumping jacks the easiest way to drive some force through your bones, um, and then really talk to your doctor because once you're at the point of osteoporosis, you really need to make sure that you are, there are some also pharmaceuticals if it gets to a really bad place where your doctor's probably gonna recommend that. I, I of course always try for everything but the pharmaceutical, but if you get to that point, listen to your doctor. Yeah, for sure.

Um, we have somebody that has been exercising with you, Chris, for the last 2 years, but recently has been starting having um neck pain with any kind of exercise, any tips. I mean, I can't recommend anything if I don't know anything. Well, first of all, I'm not a doctor, but I mean find out from your doctor why all of a sudden it's occurring, but one of the things that can happen is that people use their traps too much when they're lifting weights, so your traps are those muscles surrounding your cervical spine right there in the back. And if you do any scrunching, we always talk about during our workouts about. Uh, relaxing your shoulders away from your ears so you're actually using the shoulder and not the trapezius.

The other thing too is anything you're doing on the floor with heavy weights. I always point out like put your head down. There is no benefit to hold your head up off the ground while you're doing a chest fly. No benefit. You're not trying to get nice muscle in the back of your neck.

Put your head down and. Don't strain. The cervical spine. C1 through C7 in the back of your neck. You just have to really be mindful and protective of it.

Those would be two things that I think of that could cause neck pain. But if something weird is going on, like I don't know if something happened to your disc. I don't know if you have some degenerative thing. I would definitely consult a doctor, um, because that, you know, you have to be very careful with your, with your neck neck. Um, we have a couple of people asking about probiotics that you recommend that I recommend anyone, yeah, like, oh, which one I would, which one?

Oh, so, uh, probiotics are in AG1, so that's what I use. I don't take any other probiotics, so I'm not really up on any other brands there. So again, like collagen, there's so many good brands of probiotics. Yeah, probiotics, um. The general, if you're gonna have them separate, a lot of people like to get the refrigerated ones like at Whole Foods, um, because they think they're more stable.

Research is pretty mixed as to whether that makes a difference. Um, like AG one is not refrigerated. I take a probiotic, but it's not refrigerated and it seems to help, um. I really try to get it mostly from fermented foods and things like that first, um, Greek yogurt, things like that, um, sauerkraut kimchi, I know they get a bad rap sometimes. I love sauerkraut.

Oh, I really like kimchi. OK, so there we go. Um, yeah, so and I eat Greek yogurt every day too, so that is a fermented. Um, food kombucha, which is a sweetened tea that is fermented, is kiefer is another thing that you can add to your protein shake, um, but the AG one has the probiotic in it, which is another reason why it has digestive enzymes probiotic. I just feel like it's a complete all in one, you know, solution to.

Buying everything else if you looked at the Mary Ruth probiotic and then a digestive enzyme, so maybe I should do, yeah, and so you should add up what you're paying and then see and then here's the other thing is people have the most gut when they travel because when you travel, you don't take a suitcase of all your things or if you're like, you know, probiotic can't go on the airplane or whatever, so you show up at your. and you don't have all your exact things you're not eating right and then people go, I'm constipated but every time I travel I'm constipated. I'm bloated. I don't feel good. I've got gut pain.

I'm like, OK, AG1 travel packet and a little empty, you know, bottle and you take it with you and you open it up and you add a little water and when I travel I am on the same regime as I am a regimen as when I'm at home and so I never have gut trouble. Um, going back to talking about collagen, is it more effective to take liquid collagen rather than a powder? Doesn't it matter? I don't even know liquids. Yeah, I don't think it matters.

Um they're both because you're turning the powder into a liquid form, so the absorption rate should be pretty similar. I believe the liquid collagen is a bit more expensive. Yeah, I think it probably is. I have seen that at Costco, but I've never bought it. Yeah.

Oh, this is an interesting one. what are your thoughts on protein bars? I like them for quick hits. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, um, but I try not to eat them often. And people know I'm not a big protein bar person, um, because I can't find one that's all high quality.

It is incredibly hard to find one that's decent. And the ones that are made of all natural ingredients tend to be high, high carb because they're like made from fruits and nuts and you know, I know and I know a lot of people like like the perfect bar. Um, and it has to be refrigerated and it is good, but it's just a lot of carbohydrates. I'd rather eat again I told you I love nuts, so I'd rather eat a handful of nuts and seeds or homemade trail mix or and I typically eat a beef stick. I prefer beef sticks, um, just like the no sugar and my husband.

He's always like, Did you bring the beef sticks? I'm like, oh for God. Well, it's my husband got me hooked on them, but I'm like, uh, and my son likes them. It's easy, and all those protein bars that have chocolate on the outside of them. OK, this is my pet peeve.

You take a bite of one, you're sitting in your car. Chocolate pieces drop into your everywhere. You have your seat heater on, so next thing you know you've got chocolate all over your pants and you're like, this is the dumbest. Thing and I will say people send me bars and they're like, hey, do you wanna try your protein bars and talk about them? And I'm always like, Sam and I, we talk about it all the time because I'm like, I'm not gonna tell anybody to buy those.

Yeah, well, the only one that we found that we like is aloha. um, we like the ingredients and we like the ones that are coated are better because the chocolate does not fall off. Um, they are plant-based too. Um, they are higher in carbs, but like when you have a kid and you're just like on the go, it makes for a really easy way to I would like to, you know, I'll try those because there are definitely times when I'm in, you know, I'm traveling and I'm like I would love to have something that's in a package that would be easy. I have a steer clear of, you know.

I'm like I just I just don't. You know, it'd be nice to have something like quick hit. I mean, I'm the one that's bringing like an apple ever, you know, like fruit and then or a banana and it's always smushed at the bottom of my bag. So it would be nice to have some other options. Yeah, you can also make protein balls without protein powder from our site, and we're going to turn them into bar form too, and those can be on the go and they're very nut and seed and you can add protein powder to it and make little protein balls, yes, yeah.

Um, Chris, you're gonna love this question. What's your opinion on walking with a weighted vest? Um, 12 pounds for a 129 pound woman. Oh, wow, go girl. Um, I love my weighted vest.

For me, it has been a game changer in the sense that I am a former runner that is now a walker. Um, and that like literally took me a good couple of years to like be able to identify as a walker because I just, I felt that it was hard it was hard not to be a runner anymore, um, mentally and so what I've noticed about walking with my weighted vest is it just gives that little extra oomph. It's nothing, it's not a miracle. You're not gonna all. And burn 200 extra calories, but I feel the extra effort.

OK, a couple of things. It drives more force through your bones, so I like that. It gives me a little extra calorie burn. I like that. I just feel like I'm getting my heart rate up a little higher, AKA the calorie burn so I love it.

Now the 12 pound one for me. And you're a tiny person 129. I mean, but I, if it gets, if it starts to ride on my shoulders from a long walk, it starts to like just ache in my traps. So what I do is I push it out on my shoulders, kind of get it out here. So I do like the 12.

I did buy an 8. And I couldn't find a good 101 that I wanted. I bought the 8. I love the 8 pound for long walks. I don't even think about it.

It does. I just don't even really notice it. I wear it. I wore it hiking just recently over the Christmas vacation and I was like, holy bananas, that was a game changer. Like my heart rate hiking a mountain in Arizona went way up compared to my regular heart rate, and I was like, wow, this, this is definitely worth it.

Wearing it on your treadmill at home or whatever, it's just that little extra oomph. It's not a miracle, but here's the thing about fitness miracles don't usually work. It's the small little changes, you know, that you make that add on to your, uh, to your life and the way to vest that Sam and I promote, uh, being an Amazon influencer is like $39. So it's not a big commitment. My husband's way to vest is $200 the one that he has, that's a commitment, yeah, and he can like.

Change out the weights and stuff, but I, I just like my little 8 pounder. I just clicked on your link and I was like I need a weight and it fits underneath my winter coat that's for, um, so it fits underneath my winter coat so that when I, you know, I'm walking outside I can still add it to the walk. All right, we have 60 seconds left. OK, do you have any questions? No, I mean we've done them all.

OK, um, so it's kind of. Fun chit chat, everybody. We do this every month. We've been doing it for years. We might miss maybe 2 months a year, so I bet we do it 10 times a year.

We come live on YouTube, get healthy YouT, Facebook, and Instagram. We love to chit chat with you, so be ready for next month. It's, well, we have another one this month. Oh, we do with Mica, my God, OK, because we're in the middle of a 28 day challenge, we have another one, and we're going to bring Micah back to talk more recipes and more protein. And more um information about all of that um and do you know the day of that?

I can quickly check. Yeah, I know I have my calendar, but. I know you can find it. The 30th, does that sound like a true statement? 30th.

OK. So, um, then we'll see you then we'll put it in the Facebook group. We'll put it on the Facebook page. We'll put it on Instagram. We'll let you know when it's coming.

We are so thankful for your time. We love chit chatting with you. Thank you, Mica. Thank you for joining. Thanks, Sam.

We'll see you guys soon. Keep working out. Don't give up on the challenge. And if you're starting late, if you're just starting the challenge, you're gonna sign up today. We're gonna keep those workouts.

Unlocked for, I know at least a week if not up to like 10 days so you can finish all the workouts and know that you can join Get Healthy YouT if you want to for a discount for the first year. We love it. Mica has her whole program and she'll be sending you emails to tell you you get a 50% discount on the meal plan if you sign up through theirs. So yeah, definitely check it out. Lots of great things, so many good things.

All right, have a great day. You guys stay warm if you're in a cold zone like us, and we will talk to you soon.