Amy F. White

71 – Amy F. White

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[00:00:00] Tony Winyard: Habits Health episode 71.

[00:00:13] Tony Winyard: Habits & Health. My guest today is Amy White How are you Amy?

[00:00:19] Amy F. White: Great. Thank you.

[00:00:21] Tony Winyard: And you’re in California?

[00:00:23] Amy F. White: I am in Northern California.

[00:00:26] Tony Winyard: Is that where you actually come from?

[00:00:29] Amy F. White: No actually I’m from Boston. So the east coast. And then, I lived there my entire life and then my husband and I moved to Chicago, when my kids were in high school, which they still are angry about. And then from chicago, we moved over to Northern California.

[00:00:44] Tony Winyard: And was that because of work?

[00:00:46] Amy F. White: My husband’s business. Yeah. So I’m a nutritionist. My husband’s in the beer business.

[00:00:50] Tony Winyard: So how long have you been a nutritionist?

[00:00:53] Amy F. White: I have been a nutritionist now for, I’m gonna say over 12 years, but 12 years with all my certifications.

[00:01:00] Tony Winyard: What made you decide to go into doing that?

[00:01:03] Amy F. White: So again, like everybody’s story, it had to do with a family health issue, not mine, but my daughters. So my daughter had always had gut issues. As a little kid and growing up, I just assumed that was normal. I’m like, oh, this is what happens with little kids, so anyway, as she got older and was getting ready to go to college, I was like, I don’t think this is so normal.

We should get this figured out before you go away. So we ended up doing the conventional medicine thing and not getting any answers and me getting very frustrated. And then somebody introducing me to a nutritionist. And I was just like, I don’t even know what that is. But we’re open to anything, and, she suggested some very minor dietary changes for my daughter and it was like magic. And so I was just like, wait a second. I’m all in here. And I think what happened was I just started reading everything. I could find just devouring information. And I ran out of things to read, I didn’t know where else to find stuff. And I said to my husband, I think I’m going to need to go back to school because I need a reading list. And so that’s how I ended up in getting my master’s degree in nutrition. So I needed a reading list.

[00:02:10] Tony Winyard: Just before you saw the nutritionist and you’ve been seeing a normal doctor and whatever advice it was that they were giving, wasn’t helping and I’m presuming it wasn’t any nutrition advice they were giving?

[00:02:21] Amy F. White: Oh, no, I can tell you, we went and had an actual scope done. She went under anesthesia. She was in had the scope came out in recovery and the gastrointestinal doctor came in and said, she’s so healthy. She’s so great. And I’m like, what? what? yeah I know she’s healthy. Mostly.

She can’t eat food without not feeling sick. Okay. And she’s yeah, no, she’s great. She doesn’t even have reflux. Her esophagus is completely healthy, so that was good news. Cause we’ve been told since she was an infant that she had reflux. And then she said, her small intestine is red and inflamed, but that’s nothing. And then she left and that’s what I was like red flag. What do you mean? It’s nothing red and inflamed seems like something. So yes, that’s where I was at. And it was terrifying because I. I don’t like not knowing the answer. I will always find an answer and I will do what I have to do to, if I have a question, I will find an answer and I was at a dead stop.

I’m like, that was the expert. Who else am I supposed to ask? So I was really, and the only reason that my friend introduced me to the nutritionist was cause I was complaining. I’m like, I don’t know what to do. Who am I supposed to talk to? And then she said, you should talk to this nutritionist. Okay.

[00:03:33] Tony Winyard: And so once you saw the nutritionist, did she get back to completely normal? What happened?

[00:03:36] Amy F. White: Yeah, no, it was, so it was basic. This was, I don’t know, what would I say? 12 over 12 years ago. So the nutritionist said stop eating gluten. Right. And 12 years ago, it was just like, oh, that gluten thing, I’ve heard this coming up. It’s this thing, but fine. So we went to whole foods immediately from there and bought everything we could find in a bag and a box that said gluten-free.

And so that’s what We did. And so it really wasn’t that big of a change. It was still processed foods and it was still not garbage basically, but it made a difference. It was significant. So this kid had always had really bad dandruff, really stinky feet, always puffy in her belly and just always had really intense, discomfort when she would eat. And we couldn’t figure out what was going on. And we took out the gluten and her dandruff went away and her stinky feet went away within days. And then, she started feeling better. Like she wasn’t feeling sick after she ate food. And so this was like, wait, what? So it was within a couple of weeks that she noticed, like she felt totally different.

And then within a month she’d lost she wasn’t over-weight. But she lost that puffiness and maybe a little bit of extra weight. It just went away. It was magical. And I thought, this is just the tip of the iceberg. What is this? So since then, she’s going to be turning 30. She has, adjusted her diet to meet her own needs. Like she’s had to take out mostly dairy aisle, she’s careful with their dairy. She’s never eats gluten ever. So she’s very strict about gluten cause she can tell I’ve made something that we make all the time and she was eating it. And within a few bites, she’s mom, this has gluten in it. I don’t cook with gluten, there is gluten we eat this all the time. She’s no mom, there is. And sure enough, she started having this pressure in her chest and all these things that happen. And, so in the middle of the night, I was like, what, how could it possibly have had gluten?

And I realized that I’d run out of baking powder. And my pantry, it was my normal baking powder, but I went digging, in my pantry and I found an old baking powder and I just used it. It was a teaspoon of baking powder and I got up in the middle of the night and I went into the pantry and I looked and it didn’t say gluten-free.

Whereas my other one says gluten-free and I thought you’ve got to be kidding me. It’s just from this one teaspoon of baking powder, but she was just, she, everything, all of it came back. She was having all the reactions. so. she’s got a real tell, which is, makes it easy for her to avoid grains and things with gluten.

It’s just easy because she has that. Most people don’t have that kind of a reaction. So, we tend to feel like I’m fine. I can eat anything. I want gluten doesn’t bother me because we don’t have that sort of visceral sort of reaction. When in fact, a lot of people are suffering with IBS. They’re suffering with migraines and headaches and depression and anxiety.

They’re sluggish. They have no energy and all of this can be related to what they’re eating in their diet. It’s very interesting. Sometimes it’s better. If you have a severe reaction.

[00:06:40] Tony Winyard: How did you find the actually journey of studying to be a nutritionist? How was that?

[00:06:45] Amy F. White: Oh my gosh. I love, I loved it. And fortunately I’m board certified as a holistic nutritionist, so I constantly am reading and getting new books. Following lectures and going to conferences, but because I’m board certified, I still need a certain number of CES every year.

So it also makes it feel, it makes me feel like, oh, I should go to this conference or I should do that because I need those CES anyway. So it’s just, you just constantly learn new things. But it was interesting because I was going through a shift in my life at that time too. I was in my early forties and right around 37, I noticed that.

I was living in a body that I was completely unused to, I was puffy. I was uncomfortable. I was achy. I was putting on weight, which has never been something I dealt with before in my life. And I couldn’t figure out what was happening. And so once I got into nutrition school, I really started to make that connection between food and the body.

More is food is information. And what I realized. I was giving my body the wrong information. So I wanted my body to do things. I wanted to have great energy. I wanted to sleep well. I wanted to be a certain weight. And yet what I was eating was actually telling my body.

We should really not move much. We should just lay around. We should feel very tired. We should definitely pack on extra weight or fat so that we have that stored up, it’s disrupted my sleep, so I was actually telling my body the wrong thing. So I say to people, it’s a communication issue.

And so my work has really morphed into more body balance or metabolic balance, especially for women, 40 and older. In late thirties, 40 and older, because you get to that point and think, this is just what happens, right.

I’m getting old. Everybody says, this is what happens.

And I’m here to tell you, no, that is not what has to happen, but you have to understand how to communicate with your body, because what you could tell your body when you were 20. Is different than what you should be telling your body now. So we metabolize for real, we metabolize sugars differently as we get older.

And so I’m 55 now, and I am in way better shape than I was when I was 37. I’m in better shape than I was when I was 40, 45 and even 50. So I’ve just progressively, I feel like I’ve gotten better and I look around and that’s my message. I’m just trying to let people know, do not say.

You don’t have to settle. You actually can get better. And I always drag my husband and he’s my husband’s going to be 65 in December. And he is in the best shape of his entire life ever. So I’m like, don’t settle. There’s no reason to settle. You can have great health. You can feel really good in your body, but you just have to know how to communicate.

[00:09:35] Tony Winyard: The clients that you’re working with when they come to you, do they typically already have a certain amount of knowledge and realize that nutrition is going to be the key that’s going to help them? Or are there cases sometimes where they’re really surprised at how much nutrition can make a difference?

[00:09:51] Amy F. White: Yeah, I would say most of the people that are coming to me at this point are very well educated, and they also eat healthy. Most of them already eat healthy. Like they make a point of, making all their own food, buying, fresh food, they have gardens, they’re working, they’re doing these healthy things.

But after we start working together, they realize, oh my gosh, I had no idea how much sugar I was eating. I had no idea, how unhealthy some of my healthy things were. And I like to say, there’s no bad food. You basically shouldn’t fear any food. As long as you understand how food impacts you personally, then there is no fear because, and once you understand and know something, don’t be afraid of an Oreo cookie, but understand what that, Oreo cookies going to do to you, how it’s going to make you feel. And then you get to decide, do you want to eat the Oreo cookie or don’t you? And sometimes maybe you’ll say, yeah, I’m going to eat it. And I know I’m going to sleep like terrible, but I’m going to eat it anyway.

Whatever, it’s, don’t fear the food, just understand the impact. And then you make your choices based on your goals, what you want, how you wanna feel.

[00:10:59] Tony Winyard: It’s interesting that what you just said about most of the people that come to see you have already got a pretty good knowledge. They understand the importance of nutrition and so on. And the people who are in most need of your help, are the ones who know nothing about nutrition

[00:11:15] Amy F. White: Those are my favorite. I love the people that don’t know anything.

[00:11:19] Tony Winyard: And how often do you get to see someone like that?

[00:11:21] Amy F. White: Not super often, although I will say that most everybody’s going to tell me that they eat really healthy or they try to eat healthy, they try to eat healthy. And then once we start getting into it a little bit more and we start talking and I’m like, geez, I’m not really sure what’s going on based on what you’ve outlined, what you’re eating and all this.

But then as we slowly get going, there’ll be like, once I get into bed, I really, I get so hungry. So I always have this, this bedtime snack. Or I owe my act, and finally I was like to said to somebody recently, I’m like, so you don’t snack. You don’t treat yourself.

But if you were going to snack or have a treat, what would it be? Cake is my absolute favorite thing. I’m like, oh, so how often do you have cake? I only have. At the most three times a week. And I’m like okay, hold on. So this is the person that? eats really healthy and they make their own food and I’m like, Okay. hold on. So there’s these kinds of things. Start sneaking out. And so we’ll work on that, but it’s it. I love the people that are starting at zero, because it’s so fun to watch them go and just to see the change that happens so quickly when they make a little tiny adjustment it’s amazing. But even to see the adjustments in the people that actually do eat healthy and really do make their own food, but then start shifting maybe what they’re making or some of the things that they have in their pantry or some of their typical ingredients, then all of a sudden they start seeing shifts.

It’s you know, what I find super frustrating is when I go to the grocery store and I see somebody’s filling their grocery cart with what appears to be really, this person is obviously trying to make good choices for their family. They’re buying the healthy granola bars. They’re buying, a pretty low sugar cereal, thereby, all these things.

They’re actually making an effort to eat well and to give good food to their kids. But I look in that cart and I’m like, Oh, they’re just one square over, they just, they haven’t quite made it in just if they were, if so I find that so hard. Cause you don’t yet, you would never say anything, there’s always, I look at those granola bars and I’m like, I think I have some better ideas for you, they’re trying.

[00:13:33] Tony Winyard: Do you ever get people? Who come to you, who clearly are trying, and they’re taking a ton of supplements. What happens. Do you ever get anyone like that?

[00:13:44] Amy F. White: So I, you know what, it’s so funny that you mentioned that?

Usually most of my private clients, aren’t taking supplements. If they’re taking anything, they’re taking a few things. I have sometimes people who have been really working with naturopaths and other doctors and they’ll come in with supplements and things like that.

But I actually always, I don’t even go there with supplements at first. Like I just don’t do that. I just broad strokes. We always start with food. And then I feel like if there’s some specific supplements that I know will help with some sort of imbalance, we will look at that. But that’s interesting.

Yeah, I don’t get a lot of people who are just, With tons of supplements, which is nice because I would basically let them, I basically say, if you want to take them and then you think they’re working for you and you want it and it’s working, you can do it. Then you should just, do what you want to do.

But it’s yeah. I always find if you give somebody or suggest more than maybe three. Maybe four things. They tend to take nothing, it just becomes too overwhelming. so.

unless there’s a reason for them to take something specific, it just, they just won’t do it.

[00:14:59] Tony Winyard: I know you, you have a program called hangry to healthy. I’m intrigued as to how that came about.

[00:15:05] Amy F. White: I’ve been one-on-one coaching clients for again, like 12 years. And over time I realized that it’s I have a system and we go through this same pattern and I thought. I really want to move this more to a group program. Cause I get energy. I know not everyone does, but I get energy from people.

So to me, a group program is like the greatest thing ever because everybody can work together and there’s this motivation that happens in this support and everybody’s sharing ideas. So the hangry to healthy program basically is what I’ve coached, privately one-on-one, but now put into a program and it’s a three phase system.

It’s 12 weeks. And it starts again by bringing your body into balance. The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to get rid of those most common inflammatory foods. And we’re going to balance out your metabolic hormones so that you actually remember what it feels like to feel good. So your energy is going to go up.

Your sleep is going to improve. Your cravings are going to go away. Your appetite is going to balance out. So you’re not hungry all the time. You’re not like getting home from work and bingeing cause you’re so starving. You’re not running around looking for nasty crappy treats all day because your energy’s tanking.

So first we’re going to balance all that out. And then once that’s in balance and everybody’s feeling really good, we move into phase two and I just recently started to describe this, because I think a phase two is this tangible phase, but it’s not really right. Cause you can’t put your hands on your body and shift your body mass.

You can’t let go. Okay. I’m taking off this fat and I want this lean muscle. You can’t tangibly do that. So it’s almost tangible. I say, it’s like having this control knob that you now know how to turn and you go, okay, I’m turning the knob. I want to be at fat burn. Oh, I’m now turning the knob. I want to be living at maintenance.

Oh, I’m turning that knob. Okay. Now I’m going to gain some fat. I want to like, pack on some weight. So you actually have control over this little knob or dial and you can set that. This is what we do in phase two is I explain some, a couple of dietary theories. Around energy and protein and fat burning versus fat gaining versus, eating in a way that’s going to maintain the status.

Stay, which is a skill. This is another problem is people don’t understand that you can’t always be building or burning. You have to settle into maintenance at some point, and then you can go back to burning or building, but maintenance is a skill. And so people Get.

into this mindset where they’re just like, okay, I have to lose weight.

So I’m just always going to eat this way. But I’m like, no, you have to go back and you have to live at maintenance. And so anybody that yo-yo diet. I think can understand this idea of maintenance being a skill. Like you learn how to stay, where you’re at. So anyway, so phase two is all about the dial and tuning that dial based on your goals.

I want to burn fat. I want to gain fat. I want to just live in maintenance. And then phase three is just taking that everything they learned about their body, about food, about that communication and bringing it into real life. So how do you go to parties? How do you travel? How do you enjoy the holidays?

How do you now add healthy stressors back into your life? So we’ve reduced all that overall chronic stress that was happening under the radar. So now you can add healthy stressors, like exercise and fasting and things like that. So that’s what we do in phase three. And then you learn more about how do I just live in maintenance?

So how do I eat? That’s gonna allow me to just hang out right where I wanna be.

[00:18:53] Tony Winyard: Why the word hangry in that title?

[00:18:55] Amy F. White: Right. So. I’m a low sugar nutritionist. So I refer a lot to this idea of blood sugar rollercoaster. And when somebody is living on a blood sugar rollercoaster, they, eat some food. That’s gonna, shoot their blood sugar really high. So their pancreas reacts with usually too much insulin. And then it crashes and when you crash, this is when you feel hangry. This is when you can’t think this is when you’re like I’ll talk to you after I get something to eat. I can’t work right now. I just have to get a snack. I, you just have this, all you can do is think about this food or this pick me up that you’re going to have, because you’re a little bit dizzy.

You’re a little nauseous. You’re not really thinking, you’re angry because you’re hungry. So that’s the hangry part. And so you just live through this all day up and down. And you’re basically eating every hour and a half to two hours because you’re crashing because the food that you eat when you’re hangry is going to spike your blood sugar.

People always say we have muscle memory from when we exercised or played sports. But you also have sugar memory. And so, as soon as you hit hangry in your body is basically having a blood sugar low and it’s in a panic because it’s like, you’re going to die. If we don’t get something right now, you’re going to have this parade or slideshow in your head of every yummy treat you’ve ever had and what you should go get, oh, we should go get those Fritos or we should go get that donut or that muffin or whatever it is. So that’s, what’s running through your head.

[00:21:11] Tony Winyard: A lot of people now are using continuous glucose monitors, they’re getting very popular, aren’t they?

[00:21:17] Amy F. White: They are,

[00:21:17] Tony Winyard: Do many of your clients use this?

[00:21:19] Amy F. White: nobody has used them. I’ve done it. Cause I always, I want to try everything. So I want to see, you know, I’m going to talk about it. I want to have tried it. So I did try that. I didn’t actually find it that helpful for me. Mostly because I think I eat in a certain way and there wasn’t a lot of activity, so it wasn’t very exciting.

But it is something that if I have somebody who is struggling and they’re not, really understanding what might be impacting or stalling them or holding them, in a place they don’t want to be, I would consider saying, why don’t we try it? Let’s see, let’s just see.

[00:21:55] Tony Winyard: Maybe we should explain on it for anyone listening, who doesn’t know what a continuous glucose monitor is. It might be, if you could just explain what it is and how it might help

[00:22:03] Amy F. White: Yeah. So it’s this little, like a little button and you get it. And then you put it on your arm, on the back of your arm and it’s got a little plunger, so it’s what would you say. It pricks, you like it sticks in, it’s going to pull a poker. And so it sticks in, it doesn’t hurt.

It hurts for maybe a second and then you put it on and then you put your tape over it. So it doesn’t get banged and fall off or whatever. Cause you wear it for a week and you usually, it comes with an app on your phone. And then as you are eating. It will show you exactly what’s going on with your blood sugar.

So if you eat something that you personally react to or causes your blood sugar, to spike you’ll see that on your continuous glucose monitor, because a lot of times. I’ll say fruit is not a bad food, right? Fruits, a great food, but is it right for you? So maybe you can eat blueberries, but perhaps if you eat an apple, your blood sugar spikes, so you’ll be able to determine.

Oh, can I eat fruit at all? Which fruits are better for me? Which ones maintain this lovely wave of blood sugar versus the spike in blood sugar? Some people say potatoes are really good, especially if you’re not adding a lot of fat, you’re just eating it as a complex carbohydrate. So that’s a great one to test.

Can you eat just plain potato, like cooked, cooled little red potatoes, for example, what does that do to you? Does it maintain a nice level of blood sugar or does it spike your blood sugar? And it’s going to be different for different people, right? So there’s a kind of a fun way to test certain things. Maybe somebody who just loved oatmeal and you’re working with me and I’m like, listen, we’re not eating any grains.

We’re not eating any grains, at least right now until we balance blood sugar and metabolic hormones. And you’re like, but I just miss my oatmeal and I’d be like, go have a bowl of oatmeal. Let’s see what goes on. Let’s see. Maybe you can have oatmeal. so. It’s very, if you like data, it’s super.

[00:23:58] Tony Winyard: I’ve never actually tried, I know about them? And the theory sounds fantastic, but I’m wondering, are there any downsides to using one of those

[00:24:06] Amy F. White: People get super. So that’s part of the problem is I think people are getting to this point where they like don’t want their blood sugar to spike at all. Like they don’t want to see any, they just want this to maintain this very narrow band where their blood sugar. And I think that’s bad, it’s, you’re supposed to have a natural wave in blood sugar, So you shouldn’t be like, Creating this diet that gives you nothing, no flex, so I think that’s one of the bad things with it is I think people will get really strict about what they’re eating, because they don’t want to have any change in their blood sugar at all.

And so that’s why I don’t necessarily bring them up or talk to people about them. It depends on the client. There might be somebody that. Yeah, I do have certain clients that love data. As much as I do in those cases, I would be like, oh, you know what? You should do. Just try this. But for the most part, I just don’t and you know what?

Most people don’t even want to get into the weeds. They just don’t. They’re just like, tell me what to do. How can I do it? What’s the benefit. What’s going to work for me. They don’t want thedetails. They don’t want to go to nutrition school. They don’t want to go to the lecture. They don’t want to watch the webinar.

They just like you do that. And you tell me, so it’s not in my world. Anyway, it doesn’t come up much.

[00:25:19] Tony Winyard: You mentioned a few minutes ago about, some people might struggle, and there was a person who was eating three cakes a week or whatever it was. So for someone in that situation, who’s got behaviors. They really want to change and they struggle making that change. How do you help them to make those changes in behavior?

[00:25:39] Amy F. White: That’s one of the things about my program that I think is important is we have a call every single week. So there’s accountability and action steps every week. It’s baby steps. Even if that person. How about you have one cake a week, maybe we don’t say you’re never having the cake again right now or whatever, which is what I prefer.

I’m like, let’s no grains, no cake. We’re not doing it. But maybe this person it’s okay, how about if you have just the one, one cake this week? That’s it? So go from three to one, you everybody’s going to be different. But you gotta, we need to check in, I need to understand what’s going on and I need to know how you’re feeling, because if you’re craving that cake, then there’s more going on here.

So we have to understand what’s causing the cravings. You haven’t had the cake all week, but you’re craving that cake. So there’s something else going on. That’s keeping your, I like to say keeping your sweet tooth alive or humming. So what else is going on? So when I. Ideally when I first start working with people, I do want them to limit their sugars and carbohydrates, because that is the fastest way for those cravings to go away.

It’s the fastest way for them to feel better and make that change. I’m always going to give them an alternative option because I don’t say don’t eat these things and then be like, good luck. You better white knuckle it, grit your teeth, never. So I’m always going to say, we’re going to remove these things for now.

Again, it’s not forever for now, but. If you need dessert, here’s all these desserts that you can make. Some of them take 90 seconds in the microwave. Some of them you can put in the oven, some of them, you just whip up really fast. You don’t cook them at all, but these are going to be alternative desserts that are super delicious.

They’re going to be sweet. They’re going to be goofy. They’re going to be yummy, but they will not spike your blood sugar. So you will have a treat, but you won’t be cheating yourself because you won’t be creating cravings. So a lot of people like to use those treats, the first couple of weeks, but very quickly they phase out of them because they’re like, oh Yeah. I, oh, I forgot about that recipe. I wasn’t even craving that. So their blood sugar really quickly balances out and those cravings go away. But I love this idea of transitioning. So always make sure there’s something. If you have this favorite food, what can we use as a transition food? Break that addiction or whatever it is.

[00:28:05] Tony Winyard: They have maybe these fat diets, you know, the vegan keto and carnivore and so on. Do you ever have people who are convinced that is the right way to go, but their results are showing that’s not the right way to go?

[00:28:18] Amy F. White: Yeah, so if they come to me, I’m going to always say, what have you tried? What’s worked what hasn’t worked. And then, so my phase one is very low carb and it’s definitely even keto. Like a lot of the recipes I may introduce in phase one are going to be keto recipes and I’ve had people come to me and be like, I can’t, I’ve done keto. It doesn’t work. So I, while I’m a low sugar nutritionist, I also think that the keto diet tends to be people do it wrong, so to speak. There’s a lot of emphasis on fats, healthy fats and I’m a big fan. The problem is the pendulum swings a little too far. And So all of a sudden people are like, no, I’m supposed to be eating all this fat.

I’m being keto. I’m doing all these things and I’m just, I’m living on fat. I’m running on fat I’m keto. Yes. But if you’re going to add a lot of dietary fat, yes. And you have a goal to lose body fat. You will not succeed because yes, you’re teaching your body how to burn fat. And you’re optimizing your ability to do this, but the more dietary fat you’re giving your body, it’s like giving it fuel on a silver platter.

It will never dig for body fat. If it’s got to burn off what you’re eating, So people really run into this problem of not being able to shift their, they may, it had some success at the very beginning, but then all of a sudden it stops and they can even start gaining weight. So while I do like keto recipes at the very beginning, because they’re high fat, and that helps people break sugar addiction, we don’t stay there. I then teach them how to be low sugar, but not be super high fat. How we basically, this is when we start playing with that control knob I was talking about, you do run into that kind of stuff. I don’t work with vegans or vegetarians.

I am animal protein based. There’s nothing wrong with being a vegan or vegetarian, but I’m not your best option. There’s other people out there that specialize in that. And so I will always tell people, and I have nutrition friends who specialize in that. And so I will send them that way, but I’m not the right fit.

So I, I talked to the people that want to join my program and we make sure that it’s right for them and I’m right for them. And they’re right for me. So there’s going to be a good fit.

[00:30:35] Tony Winyard: What habits have you introduced that have been most helpful to you?

[00:30:39] Amy F. White: The habits that I introduced for me was definitely going grain-free. I said my daughter way back when gluten-free, it didn’t take long for us to realize that we needed to be grain-free. So people like rice, for example, is one of those safe grains that people are like, this is a gluten-free safe grain, and both my husband and my daughter react to it.

My husband will have an asthma attack if he eats rice and he’s not asthmatic. So this is when I realized, okay, all the grains let’s clear them all out. So grain-free, and then the other thing for me was definitely, prioritizing sleep. Tracking my sleep and getting at least eight plus hours of sleep a night.

[00:31:17] Tony Winyard: Sugar, carb cravings, someone’s got ravenous, appetite are mood swings related with that.

[00:31:24] Amy F. White: Absolutely. We’re back to that blood sugar rollercoaster. So again, if you’re somebody who’s like very moody, It’s very likely that this is falling into that hangry category. So you’re, again, you’re having a blood sugar crash and you’re not able to function. So I am a total sugar addict. I have a very big sweet tooth and my husband and I, we’re lucky enough to go to the super bowl.

I don’t know how many years ago this is in the United States and it was in Texas. And I don’t remember how many years ago, but it was quite awhile ago. And I remember being at this big event. And in the morning just being so angry and just mad at everybody because I wasn’t on my eating schedule because we were supposed to be at certain places at certain times.

I remember at that moment in time, just thinking what is wrong with me? I’m at this huge event, we’re going to all these things and I’m mad because I can’t get. You know my eggs right now or whatever it is. And I thought what is happening, and it was me. I was living on a blood sugar rollercoaster and it was at one and a half or two hours and I was crashing and now it was just mad.

My mood was out of control and I thought there’s something wrong here. Yeah. So yes, the mood swings are a huge part of that energy crash.

[00:32:38] Tony Winyard: What is meant by body imbalance?

[00:32:41] Amy F. White: So that, so I try not to use the word metabolic that often, because I think most people don’t really know what that means. So when I say body imbalance, what we’re looking at is trying to rebalance the hormones that control your metabolism. So what that means is the hormones that make you hungry. The hormones that make you feel like you’re full and you should stop eating, the hormones, that are gonna allow you to use onboard energy. So body fat. So these are the hormones basically that tell you when to eat, when to stop eating, how full you feel, and then your level of energy throughout. So that’s what we’re trying to rebalance.

And so think of that as like factory reset. We’re trying to go back to those factory resets from when we were kids and we just ate when we were hungry, you ran around with that, oh, I’m hungry. I need a stack or I need to eat. Now we eat on the clock and we’re constantly thinking about food and when we’re going to eat and what we’re going to eat, and it takes up so much time in our day. But once you rebalanced those hormones, all of a sudden your cravings go away. Three times a day, Maybe sometimes two times a day. You’re not thinking about food all the time. You’re just, you feel balanced.

[00:33:51] Tony Winyard: What are your feelings about things like time restricted eating and intermittent fast

[00:33:56] Amy F. White: ing?

so in phase three of my program, once you’ve established that your body’s back in balance, those hormones are balanced. So that’s phase one and then phase two, you learn how to play with that dial, that control dial of what it is you want, and then how communicate to your body, how to do that.

Phase three is this ramp up. It’s this kind of reset ramp up. And that’s when we start to reintroduce healthy stressors, if you so choose. So that would be fasting. That would be exercise. And I want to make something very clear. Exercise and movement are two different. Everyone should be moving no matter what phase you’re in. But exercise is a stressor. And so if you’re already under a ton of stress and you’re going to add a lot of exercise, you’re probably just gonna cause more trouble as opposed to good. Your cortisol is going to go high. You’re not going to sleep well. So phase three is when, once I feel like everybody’s calmed down their body’s in balance, I’m like, okay, now let’s talk about some healthy stressors and fasting is one of those stressors, but I will always tell everyone don’t force.

I want your body to fast naturally. And at this point it should be fasting naturally. You should be going longer between dinner and breakfast, just because you’re not feeling hungry. You should go longer between meals because you’re full and satisfied, so you should be getting a lot more fasting time to feasting time without really trying.

And then if you’re really feeling good and you want us to. Push your fasting window a little bit. That’s when you should start doing that, get your minimum of 12 hours overnight. And then if you want to go to 14 hours or 16 hours or 18 hours, whatever, it’s going to feel good to you, then you can start doing that.

But especially for women, you want to be careful of creating that excess stressor And causing that spike in cortisol.

[00:35:46] Tony Winyard: And do you ever have people on longer fasts say two or three days water fast or anything like that?

[00:35:51] Amy F. White: I find with women, it gets tricky. And while most of the women that I work with are tend to be over 50. So menopausal, I do have younger women who are still menstruating. And so the extended fasting can become a little bit of a problem for them. cyclically.

But sometimes I’ll do a three-day fast. And yeah, I wouldn’t tell people not to do it. It is a little bit more of a forced fast, but if you’re feeling balanced and you feel like you’ve dialed everything in, then this is a fun time to, if you want to play with that?

then you can, I maybe do a three-day fast once or twice a year. I haven’t done one this year yet. So yeah, it’s, it just depends on the person, I would say.

[00:36:30] Tony Winyard: So changing the subject. One of the questions I always ask every guest is about books that have particularly moved them so does one come to mind to you?

[00:36:39] Amy F. White: So when you sent me this question, the book that instantly jumped to my head, it was a book I read when I was in my twenties, I think. And it was called “Expecting Adam” it was in my early thirties. It has nothing to do with nutrition or anything, and I’m not particularly religious. However, I think I’m more, probably more spiritual or.

Universal energy or however you want to describe it. And the book expecting Adam it’s a religious book in a way, because I think there’s a lot of God in the book, but it just was such an incredible book in the sense that it talked a lot about, it was mostly just to me, it was just like this whole sort of everyone’s connected kind of a thing.

I don’t know it’s it was really this cool book and it’s always stuck with me. But if I were going to talk about a book that in my world that I think is an amazing book and everyone should read, I would say, it’s the book called why we get sick by Benjamin Beckman?

That’s an amazing book as well.

[00:37:40] Tony Winyard: What is it about that book

[00:37:42] Amy F. White: So he is a professor and a researcher on insulin and metabolic health. And so he really does a nice job explaining that conversation that you have with your body through food. And so he outlines, why as we age, we suffer with these degenerative diseases and how it again, you don’t have to, that does not have to be your future. But I really liked the way he talks and I liked the way he explains things. And I think it’s a book that’s accessible to anybody. And I think it might, make people really stop and think, and it could be a very good first step toward making those lifestyle change.

[00:38:23] Tony Winyard: If people want to find out more about you and the programs that you’ve got and social media and so on. Where would they go?

[00:38:29] Amy F. White: So my company name is the simplicity of wellness and it’s thesimplicityofwellness.com instagram.com/thesimplicityofwellness/ facebook.com/simplicityofwellness I believe it’s that simplicity of wellness on LinkedIn as well. And so those are my social media. Play. If you look at the simplicity of wellness, I should pop up.

[00:38:53] Tony Winyard: And all the detaile about your programs. I presume on your website?

[00:38:57] Amy F. White: If you go to my website it’s thesimplicityofwellness.com and then, forward slash hangry to healthy. But if you click on the simplicity of wellness up at the top of the bar, I think it says work with me and that will take you to my hangry to healthy program. And then I did also, I think, give you a link to share that’s my seven day meal plan.

So that’s available. You can find that also on my website, but you have to dig. I think it’s over on my, about page. So I think I just gave you the straight link so that people didn’t have to dig for that. And then if you go to my homepage, you can jump right into a free five day mini course that you just get through email and that kind of introduces you to me and my approach basically.

[00:39:34] Tony Winyard: And finally Amy, do you have a quote that you like?

[00:39:36] Amy F. White: Yeah. So my husband found this quote a long time ago and I love it. And the actual quote is this it’s anonymous and it’s a handwritten, but it’s got a picture of a very old man on there with the quote and it says only one thing made him happy. And now that it was gone, everything makes him happy.

And I just love it because to me it’s one of those moments in time where you remember not to be so myopic, not so focused, but to always pick your head up, look around, there’s so much that you can be grateful for and happy for. But if you’re just focused on one thing, you’re going to miss it, you’re going to miss all the other great stuff.

And so I don’t know, that’s one that always pops into my head and I, I often share it a lot. I know I’ve shared it on all my social media at one point. Yeah.

[00:40:23] Tony Winyard: Well, Amy, thank you very much for your time. It’s been a real pleasure speaking to you. So thank you.

[00:40:28] Amy F. White: It was my pleasure. I really enjoyed being here.

[00:40:30] Tony Winyard: Next week is episode 72 with Hans Ambachtsheer. He helps people, especially men empowering them with their health, their physique, mood cognition, sexual function, hormones. And ultimately their lives. He’s a founder and CEO of Men elite. And he creates step-by-step solutions from articles and eBooks to coaching and consulting. That’s next week with Hans Ambachtsheer. If you liked this week’s episode with Amy White, please do share it with anyone who would get some real value from it. And it could be that some of the nuggets that Amy gives in this episode may not hit you right now, but it could be in a few months time, they really become valuable for you. So always useful, to make notes on some of these things and keep them somewhere where they can be found, because although it may not be Valuable to you now it could be in days weeks months or whatever. Hope you enjoyed this week’s episode and see you next week