All right,

Amber,

welcome to the show from New York.

How are you feeling today?

Hi,

Simon.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm feeling really good today.

Today is a good day.

The sun's out.

So very nice in New York today.

Beautiful.

Excellent.

Well,

for those people who don't know who you are,

what you do,

why don't you just give us a brief background

about those things?

Yeah.

So,

I'm Amber Trejo.

I am a registered dietitian and certified personal

trainer.

And boxing instructor here in New York City.

I work with people,

helping them achieve their body composition goals,

developing a healthier lifestyle,

getting stronger,

and developing a better relationship between food

and exercise.

Amazing.

So you've got the boxing in there.

You've got the dietitian work.

Do you have to I don't think if you if you if I

was your client,

I think I'd mess around with my program.

If you're a boxing,

boxing instructor.

They they they follow the rules.

My clients,

they they they know what's good.

I certainly believe that.

So on your website,

you've got that you provide evidence based coaching.

And I found that very that section very

interesting.

And I read through it.

So I just wondered if you could explain to us,

you know,

what is,

you know,

what's evidence-based coaching and are other coaches

out there offering,

are you offering non-evidence-based coaching?

Yeah,

so that's actually a really good question.

Because you see a lot of this,

I feel like evidence-based has become like a

buzzword on social media right now.

Evidence-based is when you have supporting scientific

facts with what you're recommending,

recommending to your clients with whatever you're

you're preaching,

you know,

to the public.

It's backed by science.

That is what I base a lot of what I do on,

I make sure that everything that I do is backed

by science,

peer-reviewed literature,

meta-analysis reviews.

You know,

everything is rooted in science.

And it's not just a vague or generic

recommendation.

Um,

you know,

there's like with for example you'll see maybe the

recommendations on like certain supplements um you

know like uh powdered greens and stuff like that

for like better health but there's no science

behind it that supports it.

And there's a lot of evidence that supports that

those things could actually be a little bit more

harmful than beneficial.

Um cause you really don't know where that stuff is

coming from.

Um,

where it's resourced or all that stuff,

if they're adding anything extra in there,

which is very common in the supplement industry.

Um,

so,

you know,

I don't just blindly give advice.

It's rooted in science.

Wonderful.

Yeah.

I mean,

here at True Hope,

you know,

we're,

we're certainly all about that.

I mean,

we are a,

we are a nutritional supplement company,

but you know,

we have 36 peer-reviewed journals on our flagship

product and Power Plus,

which for a supplement company,

just,

that just doesn't exist.

And there's so much more information about that on

our website.

We're going to talk about that in a little bit.

No,

I don't get into that today.

But is there,

um,

is there like a realm within like actual physical

training in PT work that is like,

you know,

that's more like evidence-based,

cause I know,

I've not,

I've not really dived that much into the,

the research when it comes to training.

So when you're talking about evidence-based

coaching,

is that,

is that kind of just like the nutritional

supplement supplement stuff,

or is that also working within the actual physical

work that you do as well?

Yeah,

sure,

sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

with the nutrition and with the physical so when

it comes to the fitness aspect uh with evidence

based coaching it would be you know more so like

what movement patterns are gonna be um you know

through like um what's the word i'm looking for

through uh experiments right like when people are

doing studies and observations on people and

measuring um muscle contraction you know based on

certain exercises like what you know if someone's

trying to you know build their glutes like what is

the ideal glute exercise and you know you would

say it you know it would be like your squats your

thrusters you know deadlifts lunges things like that

versus like a booty band like there's no evidence

uh supporting with a booty band that that would

grow your glutes um and right now glute focus

workouts are a big thing

Right now,

um so just like whenever someone tells me I want

to grow my glutes and I'm like,

all right,

well we need to lift heavy,

we need to put resistance on that muscle,

um progressive overload and do a strategic workout

plan to grow those glutes.

And it's not just a bunch of random exercises,

um body weight stuff like things like that,

you know,

like relying on studies that have supported weight

training,

things of that nature to grow muscles,

awesome.

And this is just a side question because I,

I just,

I've just genuinely not looked into the science and

research when it comes to like,

you know,

using individuals in a Particular study group,

and are they using physical activity or or whatever

that might be muscle growing?

But when they're doing most of these studies,

are they using like athletes or are they using

like average people,

because that's kind of like what most people who

are probably looking for that type of information

are looking for with with research um you know if

in the uh fitness in the physical activity aspect

um there's a range there's you know there's you

have your older population that they use they have

their athletic population that they use and they

also have an obesity population that they use so

there's there Is variability in the research on

different populations the only thing I would say

that would really be limiting?

You know,

studies done on uh females you don't see a lot of

that.

Most of it's mostly men.

Um,

that's where I would say like the evidence is like

really lacking on on that aspect.

That's interesting.

Is there a reason for that?

Um,

you know I don't I don't I'm not too sure to be

honest.

I i just feel we get left out a lot of them um

because you know we talk a lot about who do we

think are are um the um analysts or the reasons

why when we think about research are um if um um

when it comes to um we could blame the researchers

on

That one,

yeah,

for sure,

I mean,

I'm sure they're looking for participants and,

you know,

men are usually a lot,

uh,

you know,

don't really think about things through properly and

just sign up for anything,

so I don't know anything could be going on there.

Um,

Can you tell us what a muscle-centric approach is,

please?

Cause I also,

that's another part of your website that I thought

was interesting and I've never even heard of those,

those words put together before.

So,

um,

I can make a kind of guess at what it is,

but you know,

as the pro,

why don't you,

why don't you talk us through that?

Oh,

I,

I love talking about this because I,

I love muscle.

Um,

that's really what I focus on with a lot of my

clients is building and preserving lean muscle mass,

you know,

to help support their immune system age well,

and also with aesthetics.

Um,

so this muscle centric approach is really focusing

on building and supporting and preserving your lean

muscle mass,

making sure that we're eating the right amount of

protein.

So I have a,

like in my method of coaching,

I have a high protein intake with my clients.

Um,

so we focus on high protein.

We focus on heavy lifting.

So adding that volume,

that resistance to the muscle to get it to grow,

and then using nutrition to help support that

growth and repair the muscles.

So that way they grow efficiently and your body's

fueled for recovery.

Um,

so like really just having that,

that balance there between exercise and nutrition to

support muscle growth,

um,

while assisting with fat loss,

um,

when you are,

cause everyone's,

everyone's always looking to lose weight.

Um,

and I,

when you are in a calorie deficit or on a weight

loss program,

if you're not trying to preserve that lean muscle

mass,

it will decrease.

So in a deficit,

you will lose some muscle mass.

The goals,

the goal with a muscle-centric approach is to

reduce the amount that you may lose.

You want to lose the least amount as possible and

try to gain the most as possible,

preserve it.

Um,

because muscle is really important.

It's,

um,

a,

you can.

Can synthesize glucose better with more muscle mass.

You have a stronger immune system with more muscle

mass.

You protect your bones more with more muscle mass.

So that way,

like when you're older,

you can stay independent much longer.

Um,

and then also like it improves aesthetics.

You know,

people want that lean look like a muscle

definition.

Um,

so that is where I come from with that

muscle-centric approach.

So it's building,

repairing and preserving your lean muscle mass.

So that sounds fantastic.

And that kind of sounds like what every person who

goes into a gym,

who's looking to either,

you know,

lose fat or lose weight or,

you know,

gain muscle,

like that type of fully rounded holistic approach

to,

to it.

Because I,

you know,

when I think of,

when I think of gyms and I think of like muscle

and weights and like getting bigger and stuff,

it just makes me think of like a lot of people

going there to just get the size rather than like

the actual quality of the.

Muscle because,

you know,

at the end of the day,

like growing muscle technically isn't that difficult,

but I'm sure there is a way,

a bad way in,

in getting big.

And then there's a good way of being able to

actually create really good quality muscle protein.

And that's,

that's,

you know,

optimal and functional.

Yeah,

you,

that's why it's really important.

You know,

if you are in the gym and you are lifting

weights,

that you have a sound nutrition program to support

that.

Whenever I look through people's journals,

like their food logs,

just to kind of get an idea of where they're at

nutritionally.

When we first get started with coaching.

Um,

I,

oh,

it's very,

very common that they are under eating their

protein.

So they're not consuming enough protein and then

they're working out and they're doing.

You know,

some weight training,

they could go heavier than what they think that

they could do.

Um,

and they do a lot of cardio.

So there's a lot of,

you know,

there's.

So if you have low protein intake and you have a

bigger emphasis on cardio vascular activity versus

resistance training,

you're more at risk to lose more muscle that way.

So I will increase their protein intake.

I'll reduce their cardio exercise and also increase

their weight training.

Um,

and then also increase like the amount of weight

that they're doing.

So,

you know,

if they're coming from,

you know,

five pound dumbbells,

I'm like,

all right,

we're going for the eights and the tens.

Like.

Like we're going to increase here,

you know,

um,

I've had,

I have clients that,

you know,

they started with,

you know,

a 45 pound squat and now they're at 200 pounds,

so it's progressive overload.

It's consistency.

That's what is really key,

you know,

is being consistent with it because it's not hard

to gain the muscle.

It's just tedious and it takes a while.

So you just need to put in the effort every day.

Absolutely.

What type of,

what type of protein do you recommend?

Like,

obviously,

you have to take the individual into,

into consideration with,

you know,

perhaps like diet,

dietary restrictions,

but what do you find that works the best?

Because there's,

there is some controversy in regards to,

you know,

plant-based proteins versus animal proteins.

So what do you find,

um,

what works best for,

for your clients?

So I am pro animal protein.

Um,

that does work best when it comes to building

muscle.

When it comes to plant-based proteins,

yeah,

that's great,

but the bioavailability of it is not as well,

it's not as well absorbed in the body as an

animal-based protein,

um,

the plant-based proteins could be,

um,

lower and essential,

um,

amino acids that we need like leucine.

Um,

that's re that's a really important amino acid for

muscle growth.

Um,

you want to make sure that you're having protein.

You want to make sure that you're having complete

proteins and the more animal-based proteins that you

have,

the more bioavailable it is,

it gets to the muscle,

the body soaks it up a lot easier,

um,

versus like if you have a plant protein,

you got to eat more of it.

Fantastic.

I mean,

I,

I totally agree with you.

I think that if more people put good quality,

um,

fatty fat,

fat and protein into their diet,

they are going to significantly change that.

They're going to change their body and most,

and most likely change their,

their mood,

especially if they're in like a anxiety or a

depression state,

it's just such a great energy,

energy source,

regardless of where you're training or not,

but that's,

um,

no.

Can you explain a little bit why it's like a

contentious topic in regards to,

you know,

maybe just using animal protein as part of that

growth,

strength increase?

What do you mean?

Well,

like we have,

I mean,

I mean,

it's,

whenever you go into like a health food store,

the majority of the protein powders you see are

coming from like,

you know,

coming from pee or coming from rice or coming,

and there's a,

clearly this huge push away from that,

let's say animal products.

Um,

I think there's probably many different reasons why

I don't investigate that a lot,

but I'm sure like in your industry,

like you must come across different articles and

different topics and,

you know,

cause you know,

it seems that whether,

whether it's,

you know,

whether this is just a trend,

but like the,

in my opinion,

the evidence is like super sound,

super clear that animal protein works significantly

better.

You know,

we've been consuming it for a long period of time.

You touch beautifully on the bioavailability of

those amino acids and the branch chain amino acids

and all those vital ones.

So,

is there like a reason why there's like this,

this,

this kind of like push towards plant-based proteins

when they just don't work as well?

It's more of a trend right now.

I feel,

um,

that's,

that's my opinion.

It's something that's trending,

it's popular and everyone wants to try something to

kind of,

um,

what's the word that I'm looking for,

I guess,

relate to,

uh,

you know,

it's this,

the market is trying to,

you know,

keep up with the trend.

So,

you're going to see more of a push on the plant

protein powders and plant-based.

Um,

like meat alternatives,

you know,

they are heavily reliant on it being more

economical and,

uh,

healthier and things like that.

And it's really not always the case.

Um,

you know,

like if I go into a store,

um,

and I compare a plant-based,

uh,

butter versus a real butter,

that real butter actually has less saturated fat

than the plant-based.

Yeah.

And the idea is to go plant-based because it's

more heart-healthy,

but saturated fat in excess is not good for your

heart.

So it becomes counterintuitive.

I feel,

um,

and I just feel like right now it's just a,

a buzzy trend that everyone is just trying,

they're trying it out,

thinking they're doing,

you know,

something great,

but they're not being led by evidence.

So that's,

that ties back into it.

Yeah.

Um,

you know,

advice.

Yeah,

I think we're,

I think the main push of that probably comes from,

you believe that you are doing something better for

the environment and therefore better for your body

by consuming something that comes from a vegetable,

you know,

rather than,

you know,

the,

the meat industry gets like a really bad rap and

animal consuming animal products,

it gets a really bad rap and it's kind of like

all over the place in regards to social media at

the moment.

But as you say.

Just because something sounds ethically right in

your head,

doesn't necessarily make it true in,

in the real world.

Right?

Exactly.

And,

you know,

I want to touch on when it comes like to the way

meat is produced,

I always tell my clients: 'Know where your food

comes from.' If you want to be ethically sound and

you want to be environmentally friendly,

just do the research on where your food comes

from,

reach out to a rancher,

reach out to a farmer,

see how they're practicing.

What their practices,

you know,

do their practices align with,

you know,

a better,

um,

sorry,

pregnancy brain,

I'm,

I'm six months pregnant,

so I got a little pregnancy brain going on.

That's great.

So I'm trying to remember the word,

um,

more environmentally friendly,

you know,

sustainable produce.

Right.

Yeah.

So like,

is it sustainable?

Are they sustainable?

Are they using sustainable practices?

Like definitely reach out to your local farmers and

ranchers and figure out how they are raising their

cattle and their chickens.

And you'd be surprised,

you know,

a lot of people are getting their information from

Netflix that is,

everything's very cherry picked,

um,

it's very biased.

So it's just do your own research.

I like to tell people and come to your own

conclusion and what you think would be the best

option for you.

Beautifully said.

Yeah.

I think if a lot of people made their own

conclusions about things,

the world would look a lot different,

especially over the last couple of years.

So that's,

yeah,

that's a really,

really important point.

That's great.

Um,

yeah,

I,

I,

I've moved around quite a lot in the last,

let's say seven or eight years and everywhere I've

gone,

I've been able to locate good quality farmer.

Some of them actually have their own,

um,

uh,

oh my God,

I've got your pregnancy brain now.

They're able to,

they're able to actually,

you know,

everything from the,

you know,

their,

their feeding animals,

taking care of them and,

you know,

their,

their abattoir,

they've got their own abattoir in the facility as

well.

And most of these farmers that do have good

quality practices,

they are more than happy to have you come and

check out what they're doing.

Um,

you know,

usually they're smaller facilities,

but because they are doing such a great job and

they do want you to start buying,

um,

your meat,

you know,

locally and probably paying a little bit more for

it,

but you're getting that significant quality.

You know,

we can talk all day about that.

But rather than going to like,

you know,

Costco or Walmart,

for example,

to get your meat,

if you actually go and meet your farmer and go to

farmer's markets and meet these people who are

taking care of the things that you put in your

body,

that you are hopefully transitioning into,

into good quality energy and protein production and

things like that.

I think that that is a really big step into your

own personal health journey.

And yeah,

like we've gone,

I think a massive part of our health crisis as a,

as a,

as a,

as a,

as a world is the fact that we are so

disconnected from our food,

disconnected from the soil,

disconnected from our farmers,

you know,

like,

I think it's a really powerful thing to take a

step back and think about what,

you know,

what would my,

um,

grandparents or great-grandparents would have done if

they've,

you know,

moved countries or moved to a different city,

they would have like looked straight at their food

source because they knew how important and valuable

that would have been.

Yeah,

exactly.

Okay.

Wonderful.

Let's step into a little bit about healthy habits.

So like,

how do you help because,

um,

so many people,

I feel me as well,

like I've joined so many different gyms,

I've had different personal trainers,

um,

before,

this is all before I knew a lot more about

nutrition and it can be really overwhelming for

people to,

you know,

come in,

speak to a trainer and then you've got this whole

new nutritional protocol going on.

So,

you know,

I'm having to do all this physical work,

I'm having to take all that to the,

to the kitchen.

I'm changing a lot of habits.

How do you help people transition from like,

you know,

one state of being where they're not training a

lot and they're eating just their old habitual

foods to,

you know,

really kind of changing their lifestyle in a very

positive way,

but lots of changes can become overwhelming.

Yeah.

If you,

um,

if you throw something at someone all at once and

it's something that's like,

they're,

they're not used to.

And it's a lot,

a lot of newness,

it's very overwhelming and it's very easy to quit

at that point.

And you don't want that,

you know,

because if you're trying to do everything at once,

you're not going to build habits.

Your habits are what you do day in and day out.

It's what you do consistently and repeatedly that's,

and that's what you become.

Um,

and it takes time.

And I always tell people,

you know,

if they're like,

oh,

I want to do personal training and I want to do

nutrition.

I just don't know where to start.

I feel very overwhelmed.

I always recommend.

I was like,

well,

we could start with fitness or we could start with

nutrition.

Maybe let's start with fitness first.

Let's get you moving,

get you feeling good.

And then maybe let's talk about nutrition later.

Let's start with one thing and get you into a

routine here.

So that way,

you have the head space to make room in your life

for better eating habits.

You know,

focus on this,

try to develop habits with an active lifestyle,

whether it's walking more.

Get to the gym three times a week.

Um,

and then we can move on when you're ready to have

that established,

then we can move on to something else,

which would be your nutrition.

And I feel like nutrition is a lot harder than

fitness.

Um,

you know,

especially if like someone's not used to cooking,

uh,

they really have very little nutrition knowledge

with certain things.

So it could,

it could be harder for some.

So I always tell them pick one,

let's work on that.

Let's make that great.

And then let's move on to the next thing.

Okay.

In no way because like I said before,

if everything's done all at once you're gonna burn

out in a couple weeks and nothing was like,

it wasn't successful.

Um,

so I'm really big on habits and taking your time

with it.

Beautiful,

yeah.

Small,

small changes certainly lead to those big,

those big transitions going forward.

And I think that that's a really smart approach

because they're gonna complement each other.

Whether you start with the training or you start

with the nutrition,

you start eating better.

More energy,

you're going to want to train more,

you're going to want to use that energy and you

know use,

use these new feelings in the same way with,

when you start training,

you are,

you know you're going to,

you're going to be starving hungry if you're doing

it right and then you're going to have to,

you know introduce good quality foods to sustain

that change.

Um,

how important is it to have somebody work with you

as a coach during that type of significant habitual

transformation?

I think it's really important,

actually.

I think investing in a coach is probably one of

the best things that you can do while you're on

this lifestyle change,

you know,

with your diet and your exercise,

because you're having someone come in from the

outside and kind of observe what's going on,

and listening to what your barriers were and why

you're struggling,

and they could give really like a second set of

eyes on what you're doing and what you're doing

and what you're doing and how you could be

successful.

In this lifestyle change,

um,

they have the tips and the knowledge to help you

transform and develop better habits,

things that someone might not have thought of

because they didn't,

they weren't in that position before.

Um,

you know,

I see that all the time too,

like,

you know,

if I'm working with someone on,

um,

say like their nutrition,

they're a little nervous to eat out and I'll just

have some tips for them like,

hey,

you know what,

don't worry about it,

like maybe you know just make sure,

um,

you don't skip meals for the whole day,

like make sure you're eating balanced throughout the

whole day,

focus on that so.

That way,

when you show up for dinner,

like you're not ravenous and ordering everything off

the menu,

and then you're,

you know,

overly stuffed and rolling yourself out of the

restaurant,

um,

you know,

so like making sure that you're you're satiated for

the whole day and you have a balanced diet,

and then you go in,

you know,

and you just try to I also do like um menus with

my clients if they're going out,

I'll review the menu with them,

like,

hey,

you know what,

maybe you should share this appetizer that's going

to help you get your veggies in,

and then if you order this dish that comes with

protein comes with a fat,

you know,

and then you could.

Order a side,

like if there's like a baked potato on the side,

like you could order that for your carbohydrate,

so like kind of helping them,

you know,

make these choices while they're out,

um.

It gives them more confidence too,

yeah,

I think having um,

having people browse over a menu and maybe looking

at it differently,

and how you can actually approach and order

different things.

A lot of people might not even think about

ordering a side or maybe splitting the appetizers

or,

you know,

they know that they you know they're on this

training regime with you and they're going out on

the Friday night and then they know why I was and

crazy.

On that Friday night at their favorite restaurant,

and they get their favorite thing right,

but and they might not eat all day because of

that.

You know,

if I don't,

if I don't eat all day then I can just you know

smash my three meals in one,

but yeah it's you know it doesn't quite work like

that.

There's obviously like little trips and little tips

and hacks in regards to ordering and ordering well.

I feel like a lot of restaurants these days,

you know,

they facilitate the people who want to be healthy.

You know,

like people want to want to be able to um have a

normal life go out there and be with their friends

and be able to do that.

And everything but,

like,

you know,

not have to just sit at home where everyone else

is,

you know,

going out enjoying their food because I'm sure you

agree with this,

I don't want to assume anything,

but food is supposed to be enjoyable,

it's supposed to be nice,

it's supposed to be a wonderful experience,

you know,

it's a pre-humane thing that we have this pleasure

of doing so.

Yeah,

taking having restrictions and,

you know,

putting a negative spin on on eating is never

going to,

you know,

complement the the training aspect where you need

to have like,

you know,

a positive energy and a good mindset talk towards

it,

so like,

having that negativity.

is never going to really produce long term results

so it's uh important to keep those things uh

positive you hit the nail on the head with that

that's 100 exactly um you know food is our

lifeline you know we're social creatures we're not

supposed to be um you know cut off from society

and when we wish over ourselves or or are afraid

to go out and and enjoy company because we're

afraid of you know destroying our diet it it's a

negative impact on our health overall um you know

so having that good relationship with food having

those good habits and being able to help people um

like develop that and then give them the tips and

the

Tricks and the skills to use to go out there for

social settings with success,

it's really good,

so make sure you watch out for those tips,

yeah that's a really good um,

you know I think you know investing in a coach is

a good idea because they could help you through

your social settings,

they can help you through your meal planning,

you know,

your work life like how do I eat well if I'm at

work and I'm you know I don't have time for

lunch,

you know,

so it's like really having someone strategize with

you and that that's what helps you then you start

learning from them,

you're like oh you know what,

like all right,

so after you Know six months a year of working

with someone like you,

you're good to go.

Yeah,

you don't want the um,

you don't want a training experience to be,

'You see someone once a week or every other week

for an hour and you just rip it and you just do

your workout and then you go.' And then when it

comes to the nutrition side,

here's what you eat and here's what you don't eat.

It's so much more complex than that because it's

like,

'Okay,

what do I...

you know?

I've been shopping for 30 years for the same

things in the same store in the same aisle,

you know?' And now I have to do all these things

differently.

So it's like,

'You're a coach in the gym,

technically you're...' A coach in the shopping

shopping market,

you know when they're at the restaurants ordering

meals,

when they're hung,

when they're like got these like crazy hungers

going on,

you know,

like you,

you're kind of like they're like the whole whole

way giving giving them these this advice where

they're able to actually transition from an old

pattern of thinking and feeling and behaving to

this completely new one,

which you know it can be it can be a really

scary proposition for a lot of people if they're

making these changes for like really significant

reasons,

whether that's for health-related reasons or they

don't want to be you.

Know significantly compromised when they're 80 years

old,

you know.

These are really good strong motivations and to go

from one way of doing things to another way of

doing things is difficult.

But having a coach that can help support you and

you know give you a give you a hug when you need

one and give you a kick up the ass when you need

that as well,

like you,

certainly need that aspect of having a coach,

you know.

Because,

you see me as a client,

I'm just on the,

you know,

I'm playing the game.

You've got the coach on the sideline,

you know,

keeping you through it,

absolutely vital.

And let's switch up and talk about sleep.

And the nutritional side and the training side,

because um I never remember where I heard this

from,

but somebody talking about you don't build muscles

in the gym,

you build them when you're sleeping,

right?

I thought that was really cool.

But yeah,

you talked a lot with uh you work with Theresa

tonight at Sleep Better New York,

MyC and we had her on episode 55 on the show and

we discussed all things sleep,

so you should definitely check that out if you've

not listened to that one yet.

But how do we begin to connect the food that we

eat or the food that we don't eat and our sleep

and our training routines all in one because

As you say,

sleep's so unbelievably important for just general

health,

in general,

but especially when we are looking to train and

you know,

throw nutrition into all of that,

so how do you,

how do you tackle that trifecta?

So,

with sleep,

um,

and yeah,

me and Theresa we've partnered up a few times like

on IG Live and stuff like that,

and we've talked about how sleep can impact muscle

growth,

the overall health,

it's and also like your gut,

like everything.

It's you,

you need sleep if you know your body when you're

sleeping,

that's your body's time where it's like,

yeah,

you're sleeping but like,

your body's going to work to repair Itself,

you know you don't want to cut yourself short on

that area; you want to be fully repaired.

You're not going to go and bring your car for an

oil change and be like,

'Oh,

just fill it,

fix it halfway.' You know,

you're not going to do that.

So,

you want the whole job done,

and that essentially is what happens with your body

when you're sleeping.

You know,

you sleep adequately,

which could be anywhere from seven hours eight

hours; um,

you have a weightlifting routine,

you do a little bit of cardio; um,

you're physically active throughout the day.

You know,

if you're non-exercise activity,

you're eating well; overall,

you have That balanced life right there,

that's the goal.

And with sleep,

and with food.

If you are not sleeping well,

there is a hunger hormone called ghrelin,

and that increases.

So ghrelin's going to increase,

and then during the day,

you're going to feel very munchy,

and that's when your sweet tooth starts getting out

of control.

And I hear this all the time when people are

like,

'I have a really crazy sweet tooth.' And I'm like,

okay,

how's your sleep,

you know?

And I track sleep with my clients,

because if there's inconsistencies with their weight

or they're gaining weight or they're just not

feeling good,

I'm like We need to look at your sleep,

and I'm like,

okay,

I'm going to sleep,

like,

what's going on here?

And I'll see,

I'm like,

all right,

your sleep,

you're averaging an hour less this week than you

did last week,

and also you're stressed out,

so this is not good.

We need to fix this,

um,

you know.

So,

sleep is a focus in my method of coaching,

um,

especially for muscle growth and weight loss.

And now,

when you have adequate sleep,

you have another hunger hormone called leptin.

So,

when you have adequate sleep,

you have another hunger hormone called leptin.

So,

when you are sleep deprived,

leptin is down,

which is what makes you full,

and graylin is Up which makes you hungry so you're

going to have more cravings um especially for

sugary foods to get that energy into your body um

and then if you sleep adequately,

Graylin is down,

Leptin is up,

you're more satiated throughout the day.

Your I say,

your Bluetooth,

your sweet tooth um is more is leveled out,

so you're less likely to be reaching for cookies

and candies in the middle of the day trying to

beat that midday slump.

How do you um how do you track?

Do you do you encourage the use of like wearables

that you find those to be like accurate?

Is that is that helpful or when somebody's tracking

their own sleep,

is it like literally Like,

they're writing it down on a piece of paper and

then giving it to you on the next session.

How does that work?

Um,

so all my clients,

they have their own personal Google Doc and in

their Google Doc,

they have a tab where they're tracking certain

metrics.

So,

they could track it on a sleep device,

like Fitbit,

their Apple Watch,

uh,

Whoop...

um,

any of those types of trackers.

They could use those,

or just simple pen and paper: you write down what

time you're in bed,

and then what time you wake up.

And then usually it takes about 15 minutes to like

fall asleep sometimes longer for some people and

then you can track it on a sleep device and then

you

Can track it on a person,

but just like kind of deduct 15 to 30 minutes off

of that time where like you actually fell asleep

um and then they'll just log it into their Google

doc and then I get that average for the week

perfect that's great yeah I think um I think

sleep's one of the most underrated and underused

health tools that there is and I always try and

explain to people about how you know as you say

like our hunger hormone and our hormones in general

that are you know predominantly controlled in the

brain if we're not sleeping very well and you know

we are we have to think about being cavemen and

cavewomen here like you know We would have been

down,

we would have been asleep sleep as the sun goes

down and waking up as the sun comes up,

and it would have been pure dark,

it would have been pure quiet,

it would have just been 'oh my god',

it would have been bliss,

it'd be amazing.

But we have all these distractions now,

we have all these screens,

we have all these things that are like confusing

our brain in regards to what hormone hormones to

have so it's like if you do have these wild um

hungers and sweet tooth cravings and sugar spikes

throughout the day,

yeah it's like you sleep without question,

like you've got to be going to that like first

first and foremost Because if you don't have like,

it's really difficult I think these days to have a

really good quality sleep routine,

especially to get the dark and the quiet and to

avoid the screens,

like you know you have to be actively working hard

that aspect of your life.

Because if you're,

if you're not,

if you are if you are in a noisy area,

if you're not,

like you know,

blacking out the um,

you've got the blacked out the curtains to stop

all that light coming in and getting to bed kind

of early,

especially in the winter months,

your body thinks it's it's in a it's in an

absolute,

um,

emergency constantly so hormones are going to be

all over the place you're never going to be able

to repair properly and really recover and get the

true beautiful benefits of sleep so it really is

and you do you find with your clients that that

sleep is a really difficult thing to nail down to

get that get that quality and especially when

they're training hard and they're going to be tired

more they're going to be a lot more tired

hopefully and they're going to want to sleep more

but you know as we as i said getting really good

quality sleep requires a lot of effort do you find

that to be one of the trickier aspects that

clients to get a hold of uh it's mixed um i've

had clients that have beautiful

Sleep,

um,

they're like,

you're perfect,

exactly eight hours,

and they even show me,

like,

they're on their app,

like,

'oh,

like my Fitbit said,

like,

I have a sleep score of,

like,

99,

like,

almost 100,

I'm like,

you sleep so well,

I'm like,

oh my goodness,

like,

I have someone,

what's your secret,

um,

you know?

And I have clients that they struggle where they're

constantly waking up in the middle of the night or

they're tossing and turning stuff like that,

so you know,

if you have,

um,

issues with falling asleep staying asleep,

you definitely need to speak to a medical

professional,

um,

for that,

or look into,

like,

a sleep coach,

like Theressa,

um,

to kind of help you uncover what is going on um

so i would you know it's it's been mixed um i

think one of the most common things i've seen

instead of a um like a quality of sleep it's

definitely a duration of sleep i do see a lot of

five hour six hour averages with sleep um and our

phones don't help i feel like that is a really

big issue you know with our cell phones and tiktok

and instagram i'm guilty of it sometimes you know

scrolling through tiktok at night um but like if

i'm doing it i know my clients are doing it too

and you know those are the nights where i'm not

sleeping that well and i'm like i should really

not go through my phone before

Bed so bad habits,

um,

and focusing on sleep is a really big issue.

Um,

better habits for better sleep,

for better fitness and nutrition,

yeah,

I mean,

sleep is such a tricky thing to get hold of

because for a lot of people,

their day or their their evening doesn't really

start until like maybe six,

seven,

eight,

nine p.m at night,

you know.

If you've got kids,

it could be like eight,

nine o'clock,

you know,

when you actually get some downtime to breathe for

the day and you know,

maybe get the opportunity to exercise or just be

with your family and you know,

and you know,

and you know,

and you know,

and you know,

and you partner or do something,

something.

Just for myself,

so it can be difficult for a lot of people to

even consider the idea of having to you know go

to bed at 8:30 or nine o'clock.

So,

it can be certainly be a challenge on I've just

moved from Canada to the UK for a little bit and

we've just moved to this like tiny little cottage

in this village,

and I wasn't going to buy a TV for six months;

without question,

not having a TV has been the best possible thing

for my sleep.

Because the kids go to bed at like 7:30,

might tidy up and clean up a little bit,

and if the temptation isn't there to like you know

just lie down and you know think that I'm actually

relaxing but my brain is not.

Enjoying the process of watching a show at all,

um,

I just like you know maybe we'll just like

meditate do some yoga or just go to bed at like

8:30.

It's like it's been an absolute game changer for

me and I'm like,

I think having a TV and having access to just

infinite media is really unhelpful,

you know.

I remember the days when on a Saturday night,

you know,

there were like three things on,

yeah,

like four or five channels,

and it was all...it was all garbage anyway,

so you weren't really that into it.

Um,

but now we have this like,

you could literally stay up all night and all day

and all weekend watching,

you know,

whatever show that.

Might be,

and it's obviously so tempting because you know we

have this like dopamine rush and it's just like

right there,

it's so easy to access,

but yeah,

like if you can go,

I think this,

we need to get some sort of trend going where,

like people just like put their TVs away or unplug

them or put them in the basement for,

especially for the it's tough,

it's tough to even consider not having a

television,

but it's honestly,

I mean it's just that's just what's worked for me

so unbelievably well,

yeah we we actually um we don't have a TV in our

room,

we never put a TV in our room,

um I feel like it's just it was a very smart

move for us not to do that.

Um,

I feel if I could compare years ago when I did

have a TV in my before I was married,

yeah,

I would stay up all night watching TV.

Um,

you know,

laying in bed and all of a sudden you're

binge-watching all these shows versus now if you

don't have a TV in your room,

you gotta go to bed as long as you don't touch

your phone so um,

I I do like not having a television in the room.

I don't know if I could be as bold as you and

not have a television at all because I do have my

favorite Netflix shows.

Um,

but I do think like there is a benefit to kind

of eliminating that stimulus you know from those

outside factors uh with having better sleep,

yeah it's certainly.

Um,

out there,

in regards to the more serious and more restrictive

personal restrictions,

there,

but yeah,

it's certainly not for everybody.

Absolutely,

um,

in the last couple of years,

have you seen any particular,

like trends or patterns,

um,

with your personal training work or nutrition

consultations?

Obviously,

we've had this like wild couple of years all over

the world with Covid,

have you seen like any,

you know,

anything in particular,

like more people coming in,

less people coming in,

more people coming in for a particular reason,

um,

what's been going on over there so fitness wise,

uh trends that I'm seeing or like more.

Of like,

a focus is um more glute-focused workouts,

I think this is like a focus on like the weight

loss and the weight loss and the weight loss and

the weight...

the year of the booty,

um everything is always about the booty,

uh so a lot of uh fitness movements and workout

routines are targeted towards that,

um which I'm not mad about,

I I love a good glute workout,

a good leg day,

so I think that's a great um trend to be on um,

but one of the things I do see that that does

get under my skin is like people trying to make

money off of like booty bands to build stronger

glutes and sell like workouts that way where it's

not scientifically backed.

Know it's like those,

don't do it um so there,

there is that and then nutritionally uh I think

one of the trends right now would be the the

vegan trend that's definitely popping on the

nutrition side right now um hopefully that dies

down and everyone knows that we need a balanced

diet for overall health um and that you know beef

and chicken both fit on your plate with broccoli

so you know it's all good,

we all get along um you know and then I would

say maybe uh what yeah I think I think that would

be it I think those would be the trends that I

see the most in those two sectors.

Amazing how do you see your work and support

people's mental

Health,

um,

that's a really good question,

um,

so working out,

you know,

releases endorphins,

it's a really good stress reliever.

And when you have less stress,

you're mentally better.

So,

you could focus more,

you have more mental clarity.

Um,

when you're eating better,

you have more mental clarity,

you feel better.

Um,

you know,

there's a lot of foods that support your mood.

And I'm like a huge fan of like blueberries and

walnuts and,

you know,

anyone that I work with,

if they're going through anxiety and depression,

I'm just like,

you know,

let's include these foods in here.

These are like brain boosting foods.

Let's make sure that we're getting high-quality

salmon.

Let's make sure that we're getting blueberries in

your diet every day.

Let's make sure that we're eating our walnuts,

you know,

our extra virgin olive oil,

like all these,

uh,

brain-healthy foods to help support your mood.

I incorporate that in there too.

Um,

but just overall,

like,

if you eat well and you're moving around and you

have that stress relief through exercise,

your,

your mood will improve.

Awesome.

Do you think that,

um,

we can get all the necessary nutrients just from

diet or do you recommend like a lot of

supplements?

It depends on the person.

I absolutely think that you can get everything you

need from food,

but if you have a nutritional deficiency,

you might need a supplement.

Um,

you know,

if you,

uh,

have an issue with absorption,

you might need a supplement.

Um,

so everyone's really individual.

So whenever I meet with people,

I always ask for labs if they have them.

Cause I just want to see what their blood work is

telling me or are there any nutrition deficiencies?

Is there anything that I need to refer you out to

an MD for,

um,

you know,

before we start working together.

So,

you know,

I think it's very individualized,

but I do think that,

um,

you know,

if you have a nutrition deficiency,

you might need if you have a balanced diet and

you don't have any absorption issues,

you can get most of your,

you can get all your nutrients from food.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

I think that,

um,

taking the individual into consideration is without

question the only way that you can really support

and help somebody for the long-term.

Um,

so many factors come into it,

whether that's um,

related to your gut health,

obviously genetics plays a part,

your um,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

your,

um,

where you're actually,

your food is actually coming from.

You know,

we know that our soil is just not what it was.

So now you can have to eat a heck of a lot more

to get certain nutrients in so many things,

but,

um,

it's just,

I just,

I always think it's amazing that we do have so

many amazing companies that make really amazing

supplements that,

um,

people can use and,

and,

and use that as a complimentary aspect to their

nutritional journey,

which,

you know,

is,

is different for everybody with the psychological

factor of just massive obesity.

So,

um,

I think that's,

I think it's amazing that you can,

you know,

start to make a change and,

and,

and,

and,

and,

and,

you know,

start to change the way you think,

feel and behave and take on these new behaviors.

People end up becoming new and amazing versions of

themselves that,

um,

yeah,

just because I just,

I love seeing people become more powerful,

whether that's,

they're doing it through food,

they're doing it through nutrition,

or they're doing it through some other means,

some other therapy.

It's just,

it's remarkable the potential that we all have.

And we do have so many amazing practitioners like

yourself.

Out there,

and so many options for people to to dive into,

and we're just so happy here at True Hope Canada

that we're able to speak with so many different

individuals who are out there who are making a

huge difference in people's lives because there are

a lot of people out there who are depressed,

who are anxious,

who are just,

who are just literally sick and need that support

from you know wonderful individuals because they

might not be able to access that from like you

know conventional means.

So yeah,

that's awesome!

So how can people connect with you,

Amber?

Yeah,

so people could find me on Instagram at underscore

naked wellness underscore,

or they could uh find my website uh

www.nakedwellness.us and you could shoot me A

message on there too,

um,

I'm always on Instagram; I'm very chatty,

so if anyone has like questions,

you know just let me know and I'll see you in

the next video.

Bye,

hit me up in the DM; I got you!

That's awesome,

I really appreciate that.

We'll make sure that um your website and your

Instagram uh is all set up in the show notes so

people can access to you.

But thank you Amber for taking the time to talk

with us today.

I don't think we've actually had um a guest on

the show but it's obviously so important that any

aspect when it comes to your mental health and

trying to improve anything within your body,

moving your body is an incredibly huge part.

Of that,

and I think it's a really important part of that.

And I think it's a really important part of that.

We were absolutely just looking at us we're

designed to move,

I mean,

we've just got these all these limbs everywhere,

designed to move them.

You know,

we've got so many aspects that are trying to get

us to just sit down and lie down and not do

anything,

but that's not going to happen.

We're going to prevail.

Um,

but Amber appreciate your time again.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

We'll make sure that um people can connect with

you.

But that's it.

Everybody for today.

Thank you so much for joining True Hope Cast,

the official podcast.

Of True Hope Canada,

don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already,

and I'll see you in the next one.

Bye bye!

You haven't yet,

and we're going to see you next week,

but that's it everybody for today.

Thank you so much for joining True Hope Cast,

the official podcast of True Hope Canada.

Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't yet,

and we'll see you next week.