February 17, 2025 • 56 mins
As we continue our journey into 2025, many of us are looking for ways to feel better, move more, and make healthier choices—without feeling overwhelmed. But what if getting healthier didn’t require drastic changes? What if a few small shifts could make a big impact on your well-being?
That’s exactly what we explore in the latest episode of the Agile Always Podcast: "Simple Shifts to a Healthier You."
In this episode, we sit down with Ryan Atkins, a certified holistic nutritionist and nutritional health coach, who shares her personal journey from health struggles to transformation. Together, we break down four simple, yet powerful, changes you can make right now to feel your best this year.
· Cut back on processed foods – Learn how small swaps in your grocery cart can lead to better digestion, more energy, and improved long-term health.
· Balance your blood sugar – Discover why pairing carbs with protein and healthy fats can help you avoid energy crashes and weight gain.
· Move your body daily – No need for intense workouts—simple, joyful movement goes a long way in boosting both physical and mental well-being.
· Manage stress effectively – Practical strategies like deep breathing and mindfulness can help you take control of stress before it takes a toll on your health.
Ryan doesn’t simply provide a list; she talks through how you can take steps to start on this path – no matter when you start. Her insights will leave you feeling inspired, not intimidated, and ready to take control of your health—one simple step at a time.
Listen to the full to the full episode now, and be ready to write down ALL of her suggestions!
You can connect with Ryan on Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/ryathegirl/ or https://www.instagram.com/rya_eats
Here’s to small shifts, big wins, and a healthier, happier you in 2025!
Thank you for spending time with us today! We hope you enjoyed our conversation, related to something we said, and learned something new along the way.
Please give us a like and subscribe to our podcast, so you don't miss ANYTHING!
Follow us @AgileAlways and be sure to check out our website, www.agilealways.com!
A special thanks goes to @yancylott for producing, editing, and creating the music for our podcasts!
xo,
Robin & Rudy
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Robin Fenner (00:00):
Welcome to Agile A lways by Officially Fenner.
Today Rudy and I are talkingabout the power of four simple
shifts you can make for ahealthier you in 2025.
We're helping everyone tothrive.
Thriving in 2025 is a titleeverybody's using, but we're not
using it just for January andFebruary.
(00:20):
We're going to use it all yearlong.
Rudy Fenner (00:23):
We're talking about taking back 2025.
Robin Fenner (00:24):
We want you to thrive the entire year and
beyond.
So, but today we're excitedbecause we have a guest with us,
Ryan Adkins.
We're going to tell you alittle bit more about her in
just a few moments.
But we do know that this timeof the year can feel like a
fresh start for so many of us,and it's a time when we look
(00:44):
back on our habits and thinkabout how we can feel and be our
best in the months ahead.
So today we're here to talkabout the top things you can
focus on for a healthierlifestyle, and this is not from
a place of judgment, but from aplace of empowerment.
So this is what you arechoosing to do.
It's not what someone is saying.
Here's what you should do.
We're saying, kind of, hereare things you can do to help
(01:05):
yourself, but we want you tofeel like this is something that
YOU can take on and you'redoing it for you.
So this episode is about findingways to feel your body and feel
great.
So, as I mentioned, we'rethrilled to have Ryan Atkins
with us.
She is a family friend.
(01:25):
She and our daughter workedtogether some time ago and she
has been so gracious to join ustoday, she is certified in
holistic nutrition andnutritional health coaching, and
you became certified inholistic this area through AFPA,
american Fitness Professionalsand Associates Ryan, back in
(01:46):
2020, you said yes, and you'vebeen doing this as working as a
nutritional health coach overthe last several years.
So tell us how did you get intothis?
What made you go down this path?
Ryan Adkins (02:00):
So I feel like there were a few paths that led
me to, you know, a certain forkin the road.
One path was I was always thatgirl on a diet.
I was never too, you know,never too big, but always a
little chubby and always tryingto lose weight, did gain a lot
(02:26):
of weight and I guess I couldjust never lose the weight.
I did all the things that youknow people on Instagram or the
fitness community said to do andit wasn't working for me and it
it was really disheartening foryou know me to not be able to
improve myself.
And then.
So that was one path.
And then another path was thatmy mom's her digestion stopped
working in her early thirties.
Um, she, she went, she like shelost a whole bunch of weight
(02:50):
really fast, a whole bunch ofhair, and so she started going
to the doctors and nobody knewwhat was wrong with her.
They just told her that herdigestive tract stopped working.
She saw 13 differentspecialists, she even went to
John Hopkins university andnobody could figure out why her
digestive tract stopped working.
But essentially she could nothave bowel movements without
medication and they told sheeven went to John Hopkins
University and nobody couldfigure out why her digestive
tract stopped working, butessentially she could not have
(03:10):
bowel movements withoutmedication, and they told her
that she would have to havemedication for the rest of her
life to just even have a bowelmovement.
And so as I got older, closerto my 30s, I started
experiencing digestive issuesand I was afraid you know that I
was going to end up like my momand not be able to have bowel
movements anymore withoutmedication.
And so this was going on, andthen, right around, it was
(03:31):
around, I want to say 2016.
No, it was probably the yearbefore my husband's father's
cancer came back and he had beendoing so well for so long and
it came back with vengeance.
And he had been doing so wellfor so long and it came back
with vengeance and within likesix months, we lost him.
And during that time, that'swhen me and my husband really
(03:52):
started digging into health andwellness.
Like, what is causing cancer?
Why is everybody getting cancer?
Why is it at an all time high?
Every single year, it just getsworse, and so that's when we
started digging into the foodsthat we're eating, the things
that we're putting on our bodyor in our body.
I think that's when we gave upfast food.
That's when we cut back onpharmaceutical drugs.
(04:14):
We stopped.
My husband stopped smoking coldturkey I was never a smoker and
I never liked that he was butgave it up Cold turkey, cold
turkey.
We stopped eating out at fastfood restaurants.
So we we started making thesechanges and that's when I really
started digging in to how tosupport my health, and I believe
it was um at the end of 2017that I was like, instead of
(04:38):
trying to focus on losing weight, which has always been my goal,
I was like maybe I need toshift things to focus on being
healthy instead, and my thoughtwas if I'm healthy, I'll most
likely be at a healthier weightas well.
So that's when I started reallydigging into nutrition and I
made a couple of diet changesand immediately saw results
(05:00):
within a month just diet change.
I wasn't even working out ornothing.
A month in, I lost 10 pounds.
I hadn't been working out ornothing.
A month in I lost 10 pounds.
I hadn't been able to lose.
I think the year before, I lostsix pounds in six months.
So 10 pounds in one month.
My energy levels, my digestiveissues had gone away.
I felt amazing and I becameobsessed.
Obsessed Anything I could reador watch or listen to about
(05:23):
nutrition.
Obsessed Anything I could reador watch or listen to about
nutrition.
I did for like the next threeor four years.
That's all, that's all Ifocused on, and so I felt
amazing.
I ended up losing like 50pounds.
All my digestive issues wentaway, my energy levels, like I
felt like a kid again.
I felt like I could run aroundand hang out with the kids.
I felt amazing, and so I reallywanted to share this.
(05:43):
I want other people to feel theway that I felt after just just
changing my diet.
That's all I did was change mydiet.
Robin Fenner (05:51):
I, I love that story.
I'm sorry for thefather-in-law's loss and and all
that, but I I'm just amazed,just I mean, I just listened to
what you're saying and it reallyresonates with me, with us, I
think, and I think for a lot ofother people too.
Just knowing those kinds ofthings, and when you had that,
those issues, you just starteddigging to find out what kinds
(06:12):
of things you could change tomake a difference.
You did it and and uh, nowyou're here to share it with
everyone else.
I'm thinking out loud, as I'mtalking to you actually, but
yeah, okay.
Rudy Fenner (06:23):
So first of all, my head's exploding.
It's so much that just happenedhere.
Let me just let me let me goback and just touch a couple
things that you hit.
That just kind of blew me away.
So let me ask you this, I thinkfrom a father, brother, husband
, boyfriend, son perspective,what do you think caused you to
(06:47):
feel so?
It almost sounds like I want tobe careful, mildly obsessed
with the diet thing.
Why did we make you, why didpeople make you feel like that
back at the beginning?
Ryan Adkins (07:00):
Before I got into nutrition.
Rudy Fenner (07:02):
Yeah, so.
So so you were talking aboutthat's one of the things that
you were always on a diet.
So I think there's things thatwe are unaware of that we do in
our behavior that takes you guysto these places.
Yes.
Ryan Adkins (07:15):
Yes, you know, I felt like I grew up in the 90s.
Kelly's only a few years olderthan me, so I feel like she can
relate, and I'm sure that youguys can relate from this.
But you know, the 90s wasskinny, skinny women.
Rudy Fenner (07:27):
That's all we saw.
Ryan Adkins (07:29):
And women.
You know we've been told for solong that we had to be skinny
or we weren't pretty if weweren't skinny.
It's funny seeing like memesfrom the early 2000s of that
show, Americans Next Top Model,with Tyra Banks being like oh,
you're overweight or you're aplus size model, and the girl
was like skinnier than me.
(07:49):
So I'm like this is where Igrew up, this is what I grew up
seeing and I feel like probablymy mother's generation, you
guys' generation, you guysprobably had the start of that
and we got the end of it.
Rudy Fenner (08:02):
Yeah, yeah, I think that was that a lot, and I do
think, if I'm thinking alongthose lines, we there was so
much messaging that I think wewere oblivious to we don't even
know.
We were burning down villagesand never even noticed a small
fire.
You know what I mean right andand now, thank goodness, there's
(08:24):
been more communication where,where women have become bolder
about saying that's jacked up,okay, and and catching us in
that insanity.
Um, that I was just curiousabout that.
The other thing was this yousaid, you said, when you first
started to make those changes,the first changes that you made
(08:44):
out of the gate nutritionally doyou remember what any of those
were?
Ryan Adkins (08:50):
So at first I gave up gluten.
Well, I try to give up as muchprocessed food, but that's it's
kind of hard to do.
But I gave up gluten at firstbecause I had a feeling that my
mom might be sensitive with allof her issues.
But I didn't really like divedeep in.
I was just I just gave upgluten.
And after a month of giving itup I went to a friend's house
for dinner and she had Hawaiianrolls.
(09:12):
You know I couldn't pass up ona Hawaiian roll.
I had one and it wrecked mystomach to the point where I had
to leave the dinner early.
I had to go home with like themost upset stomach ever, like I
don't want to go into too muchdetails of it, but it was like
no.
I can't be in public if this iswhat gluten does to me.
(09:33):
I waited a week and then Itried it again and it did it
again.
So I knew like I must have somesensitivity to it.
My body does not likeprocessing this, but I still
didn't feel that great justgiving up gluten.
So then the next month I madesome, a few more changes to my
diet, and that's when it reallyset off for me yes, so so the
(09:54):
thing, the reason I caught myear is you.
Rudy Fenner (09:59):
You, I think a lot of just right out of the gate
that you've said a lot of whatyou are saying is surrounded by
grace and the way you justdescribed, just taking a single
item and focusing on that item.
That's allowing yourself toenter into this new, this off-r,
(10:23):
if you will, but with grace,because we can focus on one
thing and we can take that onething out and just what you
described.
It's a tremendous impact thatthat one thing has.
Right, that's, that's pretty,that's pretty, that's pretty
fascinating.
Yeah, that's, that's yeah.
Robin Fenner (10:40):
Well, yeah, so that that is, I mean, the
gluten-free diet.
A lot of people are sensitiveto gluten and they find out
these things later.
And you know, it's sointeresting because you talk
about what happened in ourgeneration.
I don't remember as much ofthat.
The fat shaming, skinny thingmay have started then, but when
you think about the food, thefood then didn't seem to be the
(11:00):
same as the food now.
Ryan Adkins (11:02):
So a hundred percent yeah.
Robin Fenner (11:04):
And I feel like food has changed.
I hate to say it, but I think.
Ryan Adkins (11:09):
No, it's true.
Yeah, a lot of the food thatyou see today wasn't even around
a hundred years ago, and a lotof the chemicals within our
foods weren't even around 70years ago.
Right so how are our bodiesable to process this stuff it's
never been exposed to before?
Robin Fenner (11:22):
Right, exactly, it's probably not supposed to
process it either.
So that kind of takes us tosome of the things, the four
things I think that you weretalking about, that you kind of
focus on, and one thing was theunprocessed food diet.
So can you tell us about that alittle bit?
How can we shift to that?
What does that mean?
Ryan Adkins (11:41):
Yes.
So the American diet today,which a lot of people call the
sad diet, the standard Americandiet, it is mainly processed
foods and I think, statistically, americans, their diet consists
60% of processed foods.
So we're not even eating thatmuch real foods.
We're eating primarily fake,manmade foods that are full of
(12:04):
sugar and sometimes theseingredients that I don't even
know what they are or know howto pronounce them, and yet I'm
eating them and putting theminto my body.
These are the things that arereally causing issues for our
health, and when things areprocessed they lose a lot of the
nutrients that are naturallyoriginally within them.
So when we process foods, welose those nutrients.
(12:26):
So if our diet is primarilyprocessed foods, we're not
really nourishing our body withthe nutrients it needs to
function optimally.
So having a diet that focusesprimarily on whole, unprocessed
foods, you know that's going toconsist of fruits and vegetables
, nuts and seeds, animalproducts, healthy fats you know
(12:49):
those foods that don't reallyhave a nutritional label on them
.
They don't tell you what'sinside of them because there's
nothing else, it's unprocessed.
I love to say think about thefood that God made us on the
earth.
He made these foods for a reason.
Food is our medicine.
It helps.
Food is either energy ormedicine.
That's what it is.
That's the main purpose that weeat food.
(13:11):
And so when we start digginginto the foods that man created,
those are the foods that arereally harming us.
Yeah, so I can say, cause it's.
You know, it's not possible togive it up a hundred percent.
I mean, you can try, it's alittle hard, but we have to live
a little.
So I always say doing like an80-20 rule where 80% of the time
(13:32):
you're primarily eating wholefoods fruits, vegetables, meats,
healthy fats and then everyonce in a while we have to live
a little.
We can go out, have a littlesomething little processed foods
.
It's not the primary base ofour diet, but it's okay to have
and I hate to say in moderation,because I feel like we've used
that too much.
People think in moderationmeans all the time.
(13:56):
Yeah, exactly, every once in awhile it's okay.
But trying to focus primarilyon whole foods is going to be
should be the baseline to anydiet that's out there.
Robin Fenner (14:07):
Yeah, and one thing you said that I know, I've
heard, and that was things youcan't pronounce.
So when you have goods and boxthings and what they tell you,
what I've heard is you know,when you're shopping in the
grocery store, make sure you'reshopping the perimeter more yes
and so you'll find those freshitems.
You'll find, you know, pureprocessed items there.
Uh, without words I can't evenpronounce.
Ryan Adkins (14:30):
So yeah, but right look for those in the packaging
right and those and thosechemicals weren't around a
hundred years ago.
Yeah, like, look at our, ourgrandparents and how they're you
know, they lived up to 90s, to100.
They're saying now that thenewer generation is not going to
outlive their parents.
How crazy is that?
Rudy Fenner (14:50):
we're seeing it because there's a story almost
every day about the wider numberof young people diagnosed with
different diseases and differentailments and then diseases are
getting younger and younger yousaid something to you, said a
lot that caught my attention.
Diseases are getting youngerand younger.
Yeah, yeah, you said somethingto you, said a lot that caught
my attention.
I wrote down so many thingsSlow down, buddy, slow down I am
(15:15):
.
I was walking through in mymind when you mentioned the
processed food.
Ryan Adkins (15:22):
And.
Rudy Fenner (15:23):
I believe part of you're actually so much that
you're saying is confirming whatmy heart has said I don't even
know if I've articulated it insome cases before, because in my
, in my mind, if I ever have thetime I'm going to, I want to
write a book about nutrition andit would be entitled the Cost
of Convenience, because Ibelieve that, ultimately, we
(15:46):
have allowed our lives to beovertaken by activity and the
activity has overtaken time forpreparation for anything, so
everything has to be instantlyready, and when that?
Ryan Adkins (15:59):
comes to food, the when that comes to food.
Rudy Fenner (16:03):
The only way that happens is through a drive-thru
or microwave, and all of thosethings require some level of
processing and and and I thinkwhat you're saying is right you,
you, you and I and I.
I'm sorry, I can't remember ifit was before we actually turned
the recording on or not.
You mentioned or you saidsomething that just blew my mind
(16:25):
that tied back to theconvenience.
It was.
Oh the grace Because I think itis if we meet people where they
are just like you do many of us.
You're right that 80-20 deal.
You said 60%.
I think there was some peoplelike me that we were existing on
(16:47):
80% processed food.
Easy, actually, and honestly itmight even go higher.
Uh and you're right to comefrom to to, to move from 80% to
anything that's better is goingto take some work, but it really
takes planning, right?
Yeah, and that's a questionthat I don't.
(17:08):
I don't I mean with this.
Let me just ask so forunprocessed food?
I don't mean to stop, to stopyou, robin with your questions,
but with the unprocessed.
So if I'm to move fromunprocessed to processed, what
ideas or what encouragementwould you give us for doing that
?
Because for some of us we areso microwave driven we don't
(17:28):
have.
There's some refrigerators withthat one fresh thing in it and
we're trying to figure out howto?
How do we move into that space?
Ryan Adkins (17:35):
Right?
Well, I always tell, when Icoach people, I usually give
them a.
I call it a healthy meal.
It just it shows like how yourhalf your plate should be
primarily vegetables, and thenyou want to include healthy fats
and a protein in every meal,and then it has a food list on
there and I usually tell them togo through and highlight their
favorite foods.
So you guys make a list of someof your favorite fruits and
(17:58):
vegetables that you you know youlike and you know that you're
going to eat, and then, when youare trying to make up some
meals, look at those first.
How can I include a fruit?
Or how can I include avegetable and a meat and a
healthy fat?
That's my dinner right thereand it's going to take some time
.
I felt like for me beforechanging my diet.
I was not a huge veggie eater.
(18:18):
I ate green beans and corn andpotatoes.
I think that's pretty Americanof me and that was about it.
I did not like a lot ofvegetables I would not eat.
I would be that person whowould pick them all out.
I'll pick all the onions out,or whatever it was.
And then, as I changed my diet,my palate started to change and
I would become curious.
Literally I would be atsomeone's house and he was
(18:41):
cutting onions and I've never inmy life had liked onions before
and I became curious.
I was like you know what?
I kind of want to try them andever since then I love onions
and I eat them all the time toinclude more whole foods and
less processed foods, becausewith the processed foods they're
also highly sugary and thatdilutes our palates to where
(19:06):
fruit and vegetables don't eventaste good anymore to us because
they're not as sweet as theprocessed food that we're eating
.
So you kind of have to do thatswitch over, and it kind of does
take time, but I always what Ilike to do for me that makes it
easier is I'm either mealprepping I love meal prepping,
especially my lunches for workor I'll do a meal prep I used to
(19:30):
have a name for it, but it'snot quite 100% making the entire
meal, but I'll prep theingredients for things so like
maybe I'll have stuff for asalad, all the stuff's chopped
up and in containers, and thenall I have to do is just grab a
bowl, grab some lettuce, grabthings I've already chopped up,
grab the chicken I alreadycooked and throw it in.
(19:51):
So having some things likechicken or some veggies already
pre-cooked and just chilling inyour fridge can sometimes be a
quick, easy way to way to.
You know, let me just whip outdinner, let me just whip out a
lunch real quick.
There's already fridge andthere's already chicken in the
fridge, I can just pull it out.
So sometimes pick it a day andjust make it a whole bunch of
something that's a great ideaalleviate.
Robin Fenner (20:12):
I saw someone on social media one day and they
had.
They had a lot of kids, I thinkmaybe 10, 12 kids, and they had
this whole like a commercialrefrigerator drawer or something
.
But they had everything preppedlike that and they could easily
make all the food.
That's a great idea.
I really want to try that.
I haven't gotten to that point.
Ryan Adkins (20:32):
It does take time.
You have to like schedule that.
Robin Fenner (20:35):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, and I guess I've gotten to
the point where I'm not I'llmake a salad every night, just
because I don't have to cook it,I don't have to think about it
ahead of time and I don't haveto thaw anything out.
So there's that.
Rudy Fenner (20:46):
But that's tremendous value in what you're
saying, orion, because I'mtelling you I will eat,
absolutely perfect, but if myschedule gets into, a jam.
I will reach into somebodyelse's freezer, grab one of
their frozen White Castleburgers out of the freezer and I
will eat it like it is thegreatest burger in the world,
(21:07):
and that is.
I will revert back to thosehabits.
If I don't have the path andI'm, you know I tell Robin every
now and then she will.
Robin can eat a leaf and she'llsay, oh, that was wonderful.
And I'm looking at her likewhat in the world?
I am a very active person and Ieat.
(21:27):
I need to have calories in.
It just doesn't work, and so Ihave to plan what that is going
to be, because it will go southin a second.
You made such a good pointearlier.
Uh, to live a little and goback to those things I can not
have.
I can not have a burger for sixmonths, but it's six months in
(21:49):
one day.
If you take me past the rightburger place, it's got the right
quality of beef for me.
I'm all in and I'm going toenjoy it.
And I will revert back to thosehabits if I don't plan and if I
don't put the right things inevery day.
Um, you said something too Iwanted to you.
You gosh, I want to saysomething real quick yes, kind
(22:10):
of like what you're saying rightnow.
Ryan Adkins (22:11):
Um, I think one thing that people do when they
are trying new habits or tryingnew diets is they'll try really,
really hard and be 100% allweek long and then something
comes up and they eat a burgerand then they feel like they
failed and then they just oh, Iruined it, I'm quitting.
I'm not going to keep doingthis.
What I like to say is you cantry again tomorrow.
Rudy Fenner (22:33):
Yes, yes, yes it's okay.
Ryan Adkins (22:36):
It's okay that today your schedule you know
this happened, that happened andyou couldn't do what you wanted
to do and you didn't get to eatthe foods that you wanted to
eat, and this is the only option.
It's okay.
You have tomorrow.
You can just do better tomorrow.
Robin Fenner (22:49):
Yes, that's what I say about so much.
Tomorrow is another day to getit right, so yeah.
Rudy Fenner (23:08):
Yeah, exactly, you said you mentioned sugar earlier
and I am.
I don't know how to connectthese things to I used to.
I there was a time in my lifewhere I thought a lot of things
were oriented to regions,oriented to race oriented,
oriented to gender, and I've themore I grow, the more I find
out.
Actually.
No, that's a problem for a lot,a lot bigger audience than
you're trying to say.
So I, I spent, I think, most ofmy adult male life as a
(23:29):
pre-diabetic.
My, my glucose was always threedigits.
It just never came below it andI, I learned to live with that.
And it was kind of ridiculousto to live with it when I really
think about it, like, but thatwas dumb, but anyway, um, I, I
started to change my, or atleast think about changing taste
(23:49):
and we went to a uh, aplant-based uh restaurant and it
was one of the honestly fromwhere I was nutritionally at the
time.
It was like having a plate ofwood.
I just I was almost like, oh mygosh, this is a fail.
This is not this is going to bedisastrous, but what he taught
me one of the guys that wasthere.
(24:10):
He taught me something and Ipulled it up real quick on the
internet because it'sscientifically supported.
Taste bud sales undergocontinual turnover, even through
adulthood, and their averagelifespan has been estimated as
approximately 10 days.
Taste bud sales undergocontinual turnover even through
adulthood and their averagelifespan has been estimated as
approximately 10 days, and thattime you can actually retain
your, retrain your taste buds tocrave less refined foods and to
really appreciate the vivacityof plant-based foods.
(24:32):
Now I said that to say everyday at two o'clock I am mocked
by people at work because I havea cup and a third of grapes and
blueberries.
And you would think I am eatingthe most delicious, scrumptious
food of all time my taste hasbeen.
(24:53):
It has beat down the sugardemand so much until that is so
bursting with flavor.
Sugar demands so much untilthat is so bursting with flavor.
And what I do is the season.
As the seasons change and thefruit isn't as good, I'll take
dried blueberries and mix themin as well, so that gives my
blueberries an extra little kick.
Ryan Adkins (25:09):
And and everything tastes.
Rudy Fenner (25:11):
But but that's just to say.
There are people who know me,who listen to me, say things
like that and say, my gosh, he'san alien.
That's not the same guy.
He is not, that is not.
But it's understanding that andbeing patient the grace that
you mentioned and then knowingthe science behind things like
that and giving myself a chanceto change.
(25:33):
And it just dramatically changedall that to a place that, if
it's something really sweet now,if I drank, if I had a
coca-cola now, I would taste itand you'd see my face get a
little weird because it's likethe sugar is in the forehead.
Robin Fenner (25:46):
It's like a baseball bat in the head it is,
it is, that's how it happensthat's amazing, amazing that
kind of leads us into keepingthe blood sugar balance and that
was another one of yourprinciples.
So tell us, like I, I guess youkind of started a little bit
about it, but tell us what yourecommend.
What do you say about doingthat?
Ryan Adkins (26:06):
Yes.
So blood sugar is actually myfavorite topic.
I love talking about bloodsugar.
Anytime I hear anybody say, oh,I have diabetes or I have
diabetes, I'm like, please comeand see me.
I love talking about this.
I can we can literally have awhole podcast just talking about
blood sugar.
But it is the baseline to ourhealth and our everyday health.
So I love it because it is sosimple to control.
(26:30):
But we are not taught anythingabout blood sugar.
Pretty much the only time youever hear about blood sugar is
you go to the doctor.
They check your blood andthey're like oh, your blood
sugar levels are a little toohigh, you're pre-diabetic or
you're diabetic, and they don'treally tell you.
You know ways to keep itbalanced with the way that you
eat they.
If it's too high, they justprescribe you, you know,
(26:50):
metformin or something.
So they don't like with.
With blood sugar, you can changeyour blood sugar every time you
eat, every meal.
You can change your blood sugarevery time you eat, every meal.
You can change your blood sugarand it's, I feel, like the
baseline to optimal health.
If you could be doing all theother things, but if your blood
(27:10):
sugar is not where it should be,it's still going to create
inflammation in your body, it'sstill going to create free
radicals in your body and it'sstill going to put you in a fat
I mean a fat storing zone ratherthan a fat burning zone.
And I find, like a lot of peoplewho are trying to lose weight,
I think that's a big topic for alot of people is weight loss,
and now we have these shots andpills that are making people
(27:34):
lose weight really fast and Idon't think it's quite the
healthiest sometimes, but we'rejust we're not taught that if
your blood sugar is balanced,that you will have an easier
time losing weight.
And I think that's the issuefor a lot of people who are
trying to lose weight.
They don't know that they haveto have their blood sugar in
balance and if it's not, theyphysically cannot lose weight
when your blood sugar is out ofbalance.
(27:54):
But it's it's so important tolike our energy level throughout
the day.
Have you guys ever, fouro'clock in the afternoon, felt
like you needed a nap?
Robin Fenner (28:03):
crash time.
Yeah, yeah, that's my sugarright, so let me or yeah, keep
going I was gonna ask you thisquestion.
You talked about being able tochange it every time you eat.
Is it by counting like grams ofsugar you're taking in a meal,
or how do you do that when youmention changing it whenever you
?
Yes?
Ryan Adkins (28:21):
okay, so the food that we eat we blood sugar is
from what we eat.
Of course, we eat primarilyprotein, fat and carbs.
That's what all of our food ismade out of.
Protein and fat do not affectour blood sugar at all.
Um, fat has been shown toactually lower blood sugar, but
carbs are the only thing thatcan affect our blood sugar.
And when I I?
(28:41):
I like to say it this way,because usually people when they
think about blood sugar, theythink about sugar and they think
about sweets and treats.
Um, when any carb can actuallyspike your blood sugar, so a
carb is going to be fruit,vegetables, anything made out of
grains.
Those are all carbs.
Every single carb digest intosugar in our body.
(29:02):
So even eating somethinghealthy like a banana could
still spike your blood sugar.
If you don't know how to keep itbalanced, the best way to
balance carbs is to eat it withprotein and fat.
I always say never eat a carbby itself.
Make sure there's alwaysprotein and fat in there to help
keep a balance.
And this is because protein andfat take longer for our body to
(29:25):
break down.
This is because our body usesmore of it, so it slows down the
breakdown of carbs into sugarand it doesn't get dumped all
into our bloodstream at the sametime.
So always make sure that's likemy number one rule.
I have a whole bunch of hacksfor blood sugar, but my number
one is always make sure that'slike my number one rule.
I have a whole bunch of hacksfor blood sugar, but my number
one is always make sure there'sprotein and fat when you eat
(29:46):
carbs, like if you I never heardthat before, but that's really
great to know.
Robin Fenner (29:51):
Oh my gosh Right yeah.
Ryan Adkins (29:52):
So like you go to Olive Garden and you get a pasta
and this bowl is ginormous.
It's a huge bowl of pasta thatis going to cause a huge blood
sugar spike, but you could stilleat pasta if you knew how to
hack it right for your bloodsugar.
So if you were to eat a saladbefore your pasta oh, fun fact,
fiber, which is going to be inmost vegetables and fruit, block
(30:16):
the absorption of sugar.
Block the absorption of sugar.
So if you were to eat somethingwhich there are these new
studies that have been comingout this past year on the order
in which we eat food If you eatyour carbs and your sugary foods
first, they're going to breakdown, they're going to get
absorbed into your bloodstreamfirst.
If you eat the protein orvegetables first, then the carb
lasts.
(30:37):
That carb doesn't get all, itbreaks down slower and all that
sugar doesn't get dumped intoour bloodstream.
So if you were to, you wantedpasta or you wanted pizza for
dinner and if you had a saladbefore dinner, that's going to
be fiber and vegetables, um, andthen ate your pizza or your
pasta second and you had a muchsmaller portion.
You're not going to create sucha imbalance in your blood sugar
(30:59):
levels that way.
Robin Fenner (31:01):
Wow.
Ryan Adkins (31:01):
I never heard that, I never heard it before.
Rudy Fenner (31:03):
We got to write this down.
Ryan Adkins (31:30):
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait.
Yes, the sequence.
So, um, in the studies theyshow that eating fiber or
vegetables which is where youget your fiber from eating fiber
first, protein second and thencarbs last, has a smaller
glucose spike than eating carbsfirst, then protein and fat, fat
I mean protein and fiber.
They've even combined somethings in the studies, so
they've done like you eat yourprotein and fiber together and
then you eat your carb lossstill showed a lower glucose
(31:54):
spike.
So eating the carb first justcreates that huge glucose spike,
but then eating the fiber andthe protein first reduces that
glucose spike.
Rudy Fenner (32:03):
Now for the slow people in the class.
I want to really be careful.
When you say fiber, tell mespecifically what are you
thinking when you say fiber?
Ryan Adkins (32:13):
So fiber like fibrous foods are going to be
anything green, leafy greens,cruciferous vegetables so
broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower,brussel sprouts any of those
Fruits like berries are alsovery high in fiber.
Avocados are great fibersources.
Nuts and seeds things like flaxseed or chia seeds those are
(32:35):
also great fiber sources.
Artichoke you can look throughsome processed foods like pasta
or breads.
Sometimes they add back infiber or you can buy fiber
supplements.
I don't really recommend fibersupplements because I think
they're nasty, so I just try toget them from food.
They're gross.
(32:57):
I don't like it.
I'm not going to do it.
Yeah.
Robin Fenner (32:59):
I get it Totally yeah.
Rudy Fenner (33:01):
So the crazy part about what you're saying, ryan,
in my mind is blown now, becausethis is the sequence that I eat
, but the reason I did it.
I had no idea what you justsaid.
I ate it because I noticed Iate less and fewer of the carbs.
If I was sort of kind, ofeverything else from the salad.
(33:22):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, I didit to eat less of the and so
that is interesting because, um,my glucose I've been the thing
about this is so this is goingto sound so strange when I say
it.
I say all the time when you'rediagnosed with a disease like
cancer, you become a member ofthe Health and Wellness Witness
(33:46):
Protection Program.
As a result, they are scanning,testing, checking, scanning,
testing, checking, and it neverends.
So I have data and readouts at ahighly more available rate than
the average person.
I've been able to monitorclosely glucose through blood
tests, through their monitoring,for almost two years now where
(34:10):
my glucose was at one time 120,115, 115, 110, 115.
It now the last.
My blood test.
Just a week or so ago it was 83.
Yes, it was 83.
Yes, it was 83 from 80.
It had been 80.
And so it stays in those areasand that is a lot that I'm
(34:38):
saying time because I have theresults from what you described,
without even knowing the reason, the reasons that you described
it, for I've done that and Ihave seen I have absolutely seen
those results and I believethat that 83 glucose has
triggered a number of otherpositive effects on my health
(35:00):
and everything about my being.
Ryan Adkins (35:04):
I love that.
I mean I could.
I love going into, like how ourblood sugar works, the process
of it, telling people thesethings, because I mean, most
people don't know but when Iexplain it to them it's like
mind blowing a little bit thatthis is the process, this is why
my body storing fat this way,and so I I just love talking
(35:26):
about blood sugar, like I cankeep going if you want me to.
Robin Fenner (35:30):
Well, you know what?
We'll dive into that, perhapsagain, because there is so much
to but wait.
Rudy Fenner (35:35):
I did have one thing.
So before you leave this topic,let me just ask this what do
you find is the thing that mostof us, beyond what we've already
said?
Is there anything else thatmost of us you find don't know?
About this glucose processabout sugar and processing in
(35:58):
our bodies.
Ryan Adkins (36:00):
Right.
So I mean there's a lot.
There's a lot of things thatmost people don't know about
sugar and how it affects ourbody.
Most people don't know aboutsugar and how it affects our
body.
With our glucose levels we havethat range that our body has to
be in at all times, and if weare outside that range, sugar is
literally toxic to our bodiesand our body turns off other
processes to process that sugaraway somewhere else in our body
(36:24):
to keep us safe.
So most people don't know howtoxic sugar is.
There is no need for sugar likegranulated sugar.
There's no need for sugar inour diet whatsoever.
We get enough sugar from fruitsand vegetables that we should
not be eating so much sugar.
And one thing that I thinknobody knows not a lot of people
(36:45):
know and this one's a big oneis that when we consume sugar
and we create these blood sugarspikes, it turns off our immune
system for up to five hours.
So a lot of people say that youknow the fall we always call
the fall flu season, but a lotof health professionals call the
fall sugar season.
A lot of health professionalscall the fall sugar season where
(37:08):
you have Halloween, we haveThanksgiving, we have Christmas.
We have lots of sweet treatsthis time of year.
This is the time of year we getmore sick.
Robin Fenner (37:17):
Wow, I'd never heard that.
This is amazing.
Ryan Adkins (37:29):
And then one final thing that I love telling people
and I kind of mentioned weightloss a little bit but when we
have unbalanced blood sugar andwe have high blood sugar over
that healthy range, our bodyliterally turns our ability to
burn fat off when we have highsugar in our blood.
So if you are trying to loseweight but you are constantly
spiking your blood sugar, thatability gets turned off.
And that's all based on ourblood sugar levels.
(37:52):
Even our energy, our brainsfunction.
Our brains are very sensitiveto our blood sugar levels.
So when we have too low bloodsugar levels, that's usually
when we become hangry, irritable, mood swingy.
We can't focus or concentrateon our work.
Robin Fenner (38:07):
So it affects a lot of different aspects of our
health and then what people dois grab the closest thing to
them, which is something that'sprocessed and probably has sugar
in it.
Ryan Adkins (38:15):
You, know they're hangry and it's like, just give
me something, yeah, yeah, sothat's not helping and right.
And what makes us hangry?
When we have low blood sugar,our body releases a hormone
known as cortisol, which is ourstress hormone.
So when you're stressed, yourcortisol levels rise.
If you have unbalanced bloodsugar, your cortisol levels rise
(38:36):
.
So you're unintentionallyraising your stress levels in
your body.
And cortisol one of its jobs isit makes us crave sugar and
carbs carbs.
Rudy Fenner (38:55):
Yeah, okay, okay, I'm sorry, just one more, one
more.
So one thing I just realizedthat I'm I'm hoping for
confirmation or clarificationfrom you.
I remember I mentioned tosomeone recently about eating
fruit and I said you to eat moregrapes and their response was
well, I'm worried about thesugar in grapes.
And I said nah, hang on asecond.
(39:16):
Um, help us understand thatthat is it is it.
Are there occurrences where wehave so much fruit until it
negatively affects that glucose?
uh, just that whole thing.
Tell me a little bit about that, I'm sorry yes.
Ryan Adkins (39:32):
So, um, I mean, too much of anything could be
harmful.
But, um, I recently listened toa podcast with, uh, this doctor
her name's um, oh man stacymeans, I believe and she she was
the one who created the, thecontinuing glucose monitor,
called levels, which is forpeople who don't have diabetes.
(39:52):
They just are curious abouttheir glucose.
Um, and she said that one ofthe most the number one
surprising food that spikespeople blood sugar is grapes,
and that's because I mean itdoes have a lot of sugar in it,
um, and usually do eat grapes bythemselves for the most part.
So fruit and vegetables canstill cause blood sugar spikes
(40:14):
if we don't pair them withprotein and fat.
But there are some fruits andvegetables that are lower on the
glycemic level and have morefiber.
So anything green is usuallypretty low in sugar and higher
in fiber.
So I say greens, eat green asmuch as you want.
And then berries, sostrawberries, raspberries,
blackberries, blueberries, thoseare all very low actually on
(40:39):
the glucose level, on theirsugar levels, and they're high
in fiber, so that fiber helps toblock the sugar from the fruit.
The same with citrus.
So when you're eating fruit inits whole state, you're also
getting that fiber which isgoing to block the sugar from
the fruit.
The same with citrus.
So when you're eating fruit inits whole state, you're also
getting that fiber which isgoing to block some of the sugar
.
When we extract, like orangejuice, they extracted the fruit
juice, so there's no more fiberanymore.
(41:00):
That's going to cause an evenbigger glucose spike because
we're missing the rest of thefruit which was properly made.
You know a way to support ourhealth, but you could still eat,
you know all of it.
I would say you know, add somenuts with it and then it
wouldn't spike your blood sugaras bad.
(41:20):
And then fruit is stored alittle bit differently in our
body than regular glucose.
That's why a lot of animals eata lot of fruit in the winter,
because sometimes it can bestored straight as fats if we do
consume too much of it.
But I mean, fruit is the bestoption.
(41:40):
Like you want something sweet,eat some fruit.
Robin Fenner (41:44):
Right right.
Ryan Adkins (41:45):
You're going to get other nutrients and
phytonutrients from fruit.
Robin Fenner (41:50):
Fruit over cookies .
Yes, well, you know cookiesactually kind of a weakness I
have a little bit, just becausethey're so easy to kind of just
pick up.
It's not like a slice of cakeor something like that.
Ryan Adkins (42:02):
So well, I could tell you how to eat a cookie and
it not spike your blood sugar.
Robin Fenner (42:06):
Okay, go.
Ryan Adkins (42:09):
So that order I was talking about earlier, about
eating protein and fat firstbefore your carbs.
You can do this with yoursweets.
I say save them for dessert.
So if you had a meal and yourmeal had protein and fat and
fiber and then after that mealyou ate a cookie or some M&Ms,
it's not going to create such abig glucose spike as it would if
(42:30):
you just ate them on an emptystomach as a snack.
Robin Fenner (42:33):
Got it.
Ryan Adkins (42:34):
Okay.
Robin Fenner (42:35):
That's good.
That's good to know.
I try to be careful.
Ryan Adkins (42:37):
But you still have your treats.
Yeah, just save them, yeah.
Robin Fenner (42:39):
Try to be careful with them, but it's good to know
I can be even more careful.
Oh, that's good, all right, soI know there were two other
parts of this piece that we werehoping to touch on before we
let you go.
This has been.
This is fantastic, by the way,I just I'm sitting here, like I
said, we're taking notes, so ifwe're quiet for a moment, it's
because we're writing thingsdown, not because we can't think
(43:00):
of what to say next.
But, this is such excellent,excellent information.
Two other things that youmentioned that are part of your
top four.
They're different from thefoods you talked about
incorporating daily movement.
Now, that's right up, kind oflike Rudy's Alley, Mine too
actually.
Ryan Adkins (43:22):
But tell us what your recommendations are about
that.
So one, we were just talkingabout sorry, sorry about that.
We were talking about sorry,sorry about that.
We were talking about bloodsugar.
So our muscles use the most ofour blood sugar, so
incorporating daily movementhelps to keep our blood sugar
more balanced.
Also, when we have more muscle,we can utilize sugar much
(43:43):
easier and better than peoplewith less muscle.
So just getting in some kind ofmovement is going to be great
for your blood sugar Also.
Hey, baby bear, sorry you guys.
Robin Fenner (43:57):
No, that's okay.
We've got little ones too, soit's just fine.
Ryan Adkins (44:01):
Give me a few more minutes, okay?
Here there's gummies on thetable.
Go get them.
Go get those gummies.
Can I open them?
I'll open them for you.
Robin Fenner (44:10):
Okay.
Ryan Adkins (44:12):
So, including daily movement, and what I like to
say we don't use it, we lose it,and we need to be able to move,
and this is why I love workingout today is so that in the
future, I can still be able tosit up off of a chair or off of
a toilet or be able to pick upmy grandkids.
But you don't have to.
For optimal health, you don'thave to be doing weightlifting
(44:35):
or going to the gym, including,you know, start small Going for
a walk every single day.
I love walking and I thinkwalking is very underrated.
Walk has tremendous healthbenefits.
So going for a 20 to 30 minutewalk every day can have great
health improvements, if that'sthe only thing you even did.
So I say it doesn't matter whatkind of movement you do, just
(44:57):
move somehow every day.
Robin Fenner (44:59):
Good, good, okay, that walking is easy doesn't
require any equipment, just goodshoes.
And I always say start smallyeah.
Ryan Adkins (45:06):
When, what?
After having a baby, you know,I wanted to get back into
working out, but I did not havethat motivation to do so, and so
I just started with like 20minute walks in the morning, and
then it eventually led tolonger walks and then I felt
like I could do more at onepoint, like I feel like I can do
something else now.
I've been walking every day, soI started doing yoga and then
(45:28):
eventually I worked my way backto going to the gym.
But start small, do littlethings.
What can you incorporate intoyour life that are easy?
After dinner walks Great.
Robin Fenner (45:38):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, that's really good.
And walking with a friend, youknow, and before you know it,
you're doing that, you'reengaging with someone else and
you don't feel like you're youknow working out.
Or or you're not distressed ifyou don't like working out, for
example, you know right, rightor?
You're not used to it, you'rejust kind of it's an excellent
way to start.
You're absolutely right aboutthat.
Ryan Adkins (45:56):
There's so many and any.
I say I consider any kind ofmovement.
You know that could be playingwith your kids in the backyard
or dancing in the living room.
We have dance parties everynight, so move your body somehow
yeah, good, that's, that's howI try to do dance parties.
Robin Fenner (46:11):
Sometimes they don't always work out, but yeah,
but we but we move, so that's agood thing.
Um, okay, and then youmentioned managing stress, which
is, yes, a biggie, a big onethis was a tough one too.
Ryan Adkins (46:27):
So they're calling stress the new cigarettes.
Stress is killing us and it iscreating disease within us.
But that's it's saying.
Managing your stress is mucheasier said than done.
Right Ways to manage our stress.
The obvious one would be to getrid of your stress, but that's
(46:47):
not always possible because thatstress can be coming from your
job or your family.
But finding ways to be able tomanage your stress is going to
help with your overall health.
Like I mentioned earlier,cortisol is our stress hormone.
It makes us crave carbs andsugar.
It also tells our body to storefat in our midsection.
(47:08):
So that's why we see these beerbellies, these people with huge
guts and all their fat's justright in the middle.
That's cortisol.
That's stress.
It hinders a lot of our body'sfunctions.
It turns off a lot of ourbody's systems.
When we are high stressed itturns off our reproduction
system.
It turns off our immune system.
(47:29):
So having being under stress, alot is going to affect the rest
of our body.
So some ways that you can manageyour stress.
It could be exercise, like thatis stress relieving.
For some people it could bewalking, doing something that's
repetitive.
But like it's repetitive, as in, you're not really thinking
about it, like walking.
That could also be great forpeople with stress.
(47:50):
Um, I love doing some kind ofdeep breathing.
That is one of the easiest waysto get us out of stress.
So when we are stressed, we areactually entering our fight or
flight mode, um, which was handywhen we were hunter gatherers,
but today's world we don't.
We don't really need it, uh,and everything stresses us out.
We're constantly in this state.
(48:11):
The best and fastest way to getus out of this state is by
doing slow, deep breaths.
That will switch us to ourparasympathetic state, which is
our repair mode.
So when we're stressed, we'rein this fight or flight.
We want to get into our restand repair mode.
So, doing deep breathing andyou don't have to do it for very
long Studies show that just aslittle as three minutes of just
(48:34):
doing some really slow, long,deep breaths can support mental
health and get you out of thatstress state.
Other things you could do Ilike to go outside and ground.
I put my feet on the grass, inthe dirt, you know, touch my
skin to the earth a little bit.
I do it for like five minutesin the mornings.
Yoga is a great way to alsorelieve stress Any kind of way
(48:59):
you know.
Maybe it's alone time.
I found alone time for me.
I need that sometimes as amother.
I think most mothers can agree.
Give us a little bit of alonetime, maybe a bath or something.
Whatever way you can do to justcalm the brain and release some
of that stress is going to behelpful for your health.
Robin Fenner (49:15):
Yeah, yeah, that all sounds good, because there's
just so much going on.
It just seems like it's addingon and adding on, so I can see
that being considered the newcigarettes and we need to
address that, because we'relooking at the whole body, the
mind, the spirit, all thosekinds of things and um, and
definitely this is uh and yeah,and for stress too it's.
Ryan Adkins (49:36):
It's a lot of our minds, so our body, our body,
doesn't know the differencebetween perceived stress and
actual stress.
So worrying, I feel like a lotof people worry a lot.
Right, you are stressing yourbody out unnecessarily because
you worrying that you might walkup onto a bear.
Or are you actually walking uponto a bear?
Our brain thinks, right, there,it's the same.
(49:57):
We walked up onto a bear.
We need to go into fight orflight mode.
Yeah, so sometimes like tryingto be more positive mindset,
that can also be a hugesupporting factor for our health
yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, Okay.
Robin Fenner (50:10):
That's, that's there.
Those are all all good andagain, like I said, I'm I'm
going I get we'll all have achance to hear all this again
because the podcast will be out.
But these are all such goodtips.
I'm just making notes because Ithink that, um, there'll be
wonderful to share with peoplewho I know and all that.
But so I want to ask you, as weget a little bit.
(50:33):
So tell me, do you work withclients virtually?
Tell me about how you, how youdo that.
Ryan Adkins (50:40):
I do.
I can do virtual one on oneswith people I do the company I
work through.
It is a free service for thecustomers that shop with our
company.
So they come in, they justschedule appointments and I
coach them or I help them shop.
I also teach classes around mycommunity on different topics.
(51:00):
So, yeah I, I one day want tojust do my own, you know, be out
here coaching and teachingonline.
Yeah.
Robin Fenner (51:09):
That's my goal.
Yeah, I'd love to have you here, our listeners.
I don't think we mentionedearlier that you're in Oklahoma,
but I'm like okay, how can wetalk to her here?
How can we get her here?
Yeah?
Ryan Adkins (51:22):
I mean, I come to the East Coast all the time.
I still have friends and familyout there, oh good.
Robin Fenner (51:26):
I go to the East Coast all the time.
I still have friends and familyout there.
Oh good, Well, maybe we'll beable to arrange something,
Because one of the things thatwe want to do with what we're
setting up now is to have someevents and activities so people
can get together.
It's not always somethingthat's online or whatever.
Ooh.
Ryan Adkins (51:36):
I love that.
Robin Fenner (51:36):
Because we think community is really important.
Yes, it is and everything isyou know.
So we want to bring peopletogether periodically where we
can, so we would.
I would love to number one,connect with you when you come
(51:57):
here.
Number two, we'd love to haveyou back.
If you don't mind to tell usmore, because this is what
you're telling us is suchamazing, engaging, valuable
information, and you tell it ina way that's very easy for
people to get into follow,follow, understand and still,
like I said, feel positive aboutyourself.
You feel good, you don't feellike you're, you know, being
kind of that.
(52:17):
I can't do this you give us astarting point
Ryan Adkins (52:22):
And I absolutely love it and I feel like that's
what's wrong with you know allthe health and stuff on social
media.
It's like you can't eat this,you can't eat that, don't do
that, and it's so confusing wedon't know what to do.
Robin Fenner (52:32):
Yeah, yeah, but the way you present it, it's
really something that I thinkalmost anyone who wants to make
a change can relate to, and Ithink that's terrific.
Do you have anything else youwant to add?
Rudy Fenner (52:44):
I'm just so sorry he's like I am, I'm talking,
he's writing.
He's talking, I'm writing butjust to one thought that I had
just so stuck when you talkedabout the stress and we talk
about this at work and I'vebecome the old dude back in the
corner that lobs out thesegrenades to people every now and
then and somebody was talkingabout something that we went
(53:06):
down the path of.
uh, the fear of death is worsethan death itself and that is
that is applied in so many areaswhere we stress so incredibly
over the moment and the momentalmost never lives up to the
stress right.
And trying to understand thatperspective and maintain that
(53:27):
perspective can do so much toreduce the stress and anxiety.
I'm noticing, especially now,in our current climate and in
our world, so many of us are soexcited and just overflowing
with anxiety, yeah, things that,honestly, are highly unlikely
(53:50):
to happen in the way that wedream.
It is a thing and it is a validconcern, but it is not quite
what we've imagined, because wekind of all dream in color and
it's kind of like whoa, I don'tthink it's going to happen quite
like that, and so trying to tapdown and I work around and live
(54:10):
around a lot of people who arevery emotionally charged,
energetic, brilliant people, andthat brilliance fuels their
imaginations and fuels theirexcitement and thus the stress.
So that is really.
I think the nutrition that wetalk about is really powerful
and it's science-based fact.
(54:32):
But that nutrition piece thatyou're talking about right there
is gaining, gaining ground andit's gaining traction in terms
of.
There is a scenario where I seewhere we will run into folks in
the not too distant future thathave nutrition perfect stress
jacked up and it almost lookslike a person that's
nutritionally just void andright exactly to do nutrition.
Robin Fenner (54:55):
It's all about the stress, so that's it's true,
okay, so, um, so, before we go,would you like to tell people
how they can reach you if theyhave questions for you or want
to, you know, get your advice,talk to you virtually or
whatever, if they're not inOklahoma and yeah, I mean they
(55:16):
can follow me on Instagram andmy personal one which I use the
most, is Raya the girl.
Ryan Adkins (55:22):
It's Ryan without the N, so Raya the girl.
And then I I do have one thatwas for nutrition After having a
child.
I haven't been doing it as much, but I my goal is to get back
on it, and that one is calledRaya Eats.
Robin Fenner (55:36):
Right, right, good , good, good, because I follow
you on both, but I wantedeveryone else to know as well.
So, anyway, but this has beenjust an amazing conversation.
I want to thank you so much fortaking time today and really
giving us food for thought, ifyou will, but it's really been
(55:59):
good and we look forward toagain, like I said, having you
here with us having you again,if you don't mind, on the
podcast.
We'd love to have you come.
Ryan Adkins (56:05):
Yes, I would love to.
I love talking about nutritionand we can get into more like
topics yes, yes, so we can talkmore about that.
Robin Fenner (56:13):
We were going to try to do gut health today, but
I thought, oh, this is going onfor some time.
I thought we probably want towrap it up and and give people
something to look forward to.
So we'll do that.
So anyway, she's adorable.
We love seeing her beautifullittle girl thank you alright.
Well, look, we're going to letyou run.
Thank you so much for beingwith us yes, and let's keep in
(56:36):
touch.
Let's do this again you have awonderful rest of your weekend
thank you, you guys officially.
Rudy Fenner (56:45):
Fina thanks you for joining us.
Robin Fenner (56:47):
Please subscribe and hit that like button.
Welcome to Agile A lways by Officially Fenner.
Today Rudy and I are talkingabout the power of four simple
shifts you can make for ahealthier you in 2025.
We're helping everyone tothrive.
Thriving in 2025 is a titleeverybody's using, but we're not
using it just for January andFebruary.
(00:20):
We're going to use it all yearlong.
Rudy Fenner (00:23):
We're talking about taking back 2025.
Robin Fenner (00:24):
We want you to thrive the entire year and
beyond.
So, but today we're excitedbecause we have a guest with us,
Ryan Adkins.
We're going to tell you alittle bit more about her in
just a few moments.
But we do know that this timeof the year can feel like a
fresh start for so many of us,and it's a time when we look
(00:44):
back on our habits and thinkabout how we can feel and be our
best in the months ahead.
So today we're here to talkabout the top things you can
focus on for a healthierlifestyle, and this is not from
a place of judgment, but from aplace of empowerment.
So this is what you arechoosing to do.
It's not what someone is saying.
Here's what you should do.
We're saying, kind of, hereare things you can do to help
(01:05):
yourself, but we want you tofeel like this is something that
YOU can take on and you'redoing it for you.
So this episode is about findingways to feel your body and feel
great.
So, as I mentioned, we'rethrilled to have Ryan Atkins
with us.
She is a family friend.
(01:25):
She and our daughter workedtogether some time ago and she
has been so gracious to join ustoday, she is certified in
holistic nutrition andnutritional health coaching, and
you became certified inholistic this area through AFPA,
american Fitness Professionalsand Associates Ryan, back in
(01:46):
2020, you said yes, and you'vebeen doing this as working as a
nutritional health coach overthe last several years.
So tell us how did you get intothis?
What made you go down this path?
Ryan Adkins (02:00):
So I feel like there were a few paths that led
me to, you know, a certain forkin the road.
One path was I was always thatgirl on a diet.
I was never too, you know,never too big, but always a
little chubby and always tryingto lose weight, did gain a lot
(02:26):
of weight and I guess I couldjust never lose the weight.
I did all the things that youknow people on Instagram or the
fitness community said to do andit wasn't working for me and it
it was really disheartening foryou know me to not be able to
improve myself.
And then.
So that was one path.
And then another path was thatmy mom's her digestion stopped
working in her early thirties.
Um, she, she went, she like shelost a whole bunch of weight
(02:50):
really fast, a whole bunch ofhair, and so she started going
to the doctors and nobody knewwhat was wrong with her.
They just told her that herdigestive tract stopped working.
She saw 13 differentspecialists, she even went to
John Hopkins university andnobody could figure out why her
digestive tract stopped working.
But essentially she could nothave bowel movements without
medication and they told sheeven went to John Hopkins
University and nobody couldfigure out why her digestive
tract stopped working, butessentially she could not have
(03:10):
bowel movements withoutmedication, and they told her
that she would have to havemedication for the rest of her
life to just even have a bowelmovement.
And so as I got older, closerto my 30s, I started
experiencing digestive issuesand I was afraid you know that I
was going to end up like my momand not be able to have bowel
movements anymore withoutmedication.
And so this was going on, andthen, right around, it was
(03:31):
around, I want to say 2016.
No, it was probably the yearbefore my husband's father's
cancer came back and he had beendoing so well for so long and
it came back with vengeance.
And he had been doing so wellfor so long and it came back
with vengeance and within likesix months, we lost him.
And during that time, that'swhen me and my husband really
(03:52):
started digging into health andwellness.
Like, what is causing cancer?
Why is everybody getting cancer?
Why is it at an all time high?
Every single year, it just getsworse, and so that's when we
started digging into the foodsthat we're eating, the things
that we're putting on our bodyor in our body.
I think that's when we gave upfast food.
That's when we cut back onpharmaceutical drugs.
(04:14):
We stopped.
My husband stopped smoking coldturkey I was never a smoker and
I never liked that he was butgave it up Cold turkey, cold
turkey.
We stopped eating out at fastfood restaurants.
So we we started making thesechanges and that's when I really
started digging in to how tosupport my health, and I believe
it was um at the end of 2017that I was like, instead of
(04:38):
trying to focus on losing weight, which has always been my goal,
I was like maybe I need toshift things to focus on being
healthy instead, and my thoughtwas if I'm healthy, I'll most
likely be at a healthier weightas well.
So that's when I started reallydigging into nutrition and I
made a couple of diet changesand immediately saw results
(05:00):
within a month just diet change.
I wasn't even working out ornothing.
A month in, I lost 10 pounds.
I hadn't been working out ornothing.
A month in I lost 10 pounds.
I hadn't been able to lose.
I think the year before, I lostsix pounds in six months.
So 10 pounds in one month.
My energy levels, my digestiveissues had gone away.
I felt amazing and I becameobsessed.
Obsessed Anything I could reador watch or listen to about
(05:23):
nutrition.
Obsessed Anything I could reador watch or listen to about
nutrition.
I did for like the next threeor four years.
That's all, that's all Ifocused on, and so I felt
amazing.
I ended up losing like 50pounds.
All my digestive issues wentaway, my energy levels, like I
felt like a kid again.
I felt like I could run aroundand hang out with the kids.
I felt amazing, and so I reallywanted to share this.
(05:43):
I want other people to feel theway that I felt after just just
changing my diet.
That's all I did was change mydiet.
Robin Fenner (05:51):
I, I love that story.
I'm sorry for thefather-in-law's loss and and all
that, but I I'm just amazed,just I mean, I just listened to
what you're saying and it reallyresonates with me, with us, I
think, and I think for a lot ofother people too.
Just knowing those kinds ofthings, and when you had that,
those issues, you just starteddigging to find out what kinds
(06:12):
of things you could change tomake a difference.
You did it and and uh, nowyou're here to share it with
everyone else.
I'm thinking out loud, as I'mtalking to you actually, but
yeah, okay.
Rudy Fenner (06:23):
So first of all, my head's exploding.
It's so much that just happenedhere.
Let me just let me let me goback and just touch a couple
things that you hit.
That just kind of blew me away.
So let me ask you this, I thinkfrom a father, brother, husband
, boyfriend, son perspective,what do you think caused you to
(06:47):
feel so?
It almost sounds like I want tobe careful, mildly obsessed
with the diet thing.
Why did we make you, why didpeople make you feel like that
back at the beginning?
Ryan Adkins (07:00):
Before I got into nutrition.
Rudy Fenner (07:02):
Yeah, so.
So so you were talking aboutthat's one of the things that
you were always on a diet.
So I think there's things thatwe are unaware of that we do in
our behavior that takes you guysto these places.
Yes.
Ryan Adkins (07:15):
Yes, you know, I felt like I grew up in the 90s.
Kelly's only a few years olderthan me, so I feel like she can
relate, and I'm sure that youguys can relate from this.
But you know, the 90s wasskinny, skinny women.
Rudy Fenner (07:27):
That's all we saw.
Ryan Adkins (07:29):
And women.
You know we've been told for solong that we had to be skinny
or we weren't pretty if weweren't skinny.
It's funny seeing like memesfrom the early 2000s of that
show, Americans Next Top Model,with Tyra Banks being like oh,
you're overweight or you're aplus size model, and the girl
was like skinnier than me.
(07:49):
So I'm like this is where Igrew up, this is what I grew up
seeing and I feel like probablymy mother's generation, you
guys' generation, you guysprobably had the start of that
and we got the end of it.
Rudy Fenner (08:02):
Yeah, yeah, I think that was that a lot, and I do
think, if I'm thinking alongthose lines, we there was so
much messaging that I think wewere oblivious to we don't even
know.
We were burning down villagesand never even noticed a small
fire.
You know what I mean right andand now, thank goodness, there's
(08:24):
been more communication where,where women have become bolder
about saying that's jacked up,okay, and and catching us in
that insanity.
Um, that I was just curiousabout that.
The other thing was this yousaid, you said, when you first
started to make those changes,the first changes that you made
(08:44):
out of the gate nutritionally doyou remember what any of those
were?
Ryan Adkins (08:50):
So at first I gave up gluten.
Well, I try to give up as muchprocessed food, but that's it's
kind of hard to do.
But I gave up gluten at firstbecause I had a feeling that my
mom might be sensitive with allof her issues.
But I didn't really like divedeep in.
I was just I just gave upgluten.
And after a month of giving itup I went to a friend's house
for dinner and she had Hawaiianrolls.
(09:12):
You know I couldn't pass up ona Hawaiian roll.
I had one and it wrecked mystomach to the point where I had
to leave the dinner early.
I had to go home with like themost upset stomach ever, like I
don't want to go into too muchdetails of it, but it was like
no.
I can't be in public if this iswhat gluten does to me.
(09:33):
I waited a week and then Itried it again and it did it
again.
So I knew like I must have somesensitivity to it.
My body does not likeprocessing this, but I still
didn't feel that great justgiving up gluten.
So then the next month I madesome, a few more changes to my
diet, and that's when it reallyset off for me yes, so so the
(09:54):
thing, the reason I caught myear is you.
Rudy Fenner (09:59):
You, I think a lot of just right out of the gate
that you've said a lot of whatyou are saying is surrounded by
grace and the way you justdescribed, just taking a single
item and focusing on that item.
That's allowing yourself toenter into this new, this off-r,
(10:23):
if you will, but with grace,because we can focus on one
thing and we can take that onething out and just what you
described.
It's a tremendous impact thatthat one thing has.
Right, that's, that's pretty,that's pretty, that's pretty
fascinating.
Yeah, that's, that's yeah.
Robin Fenner (10:40):
Well, yeah, so that that is, I mean, the
gluten-free diet.
A lot of people are sensitiveto gluten and they find out
these things later.
And you know, it's sointeresting because you talk
about what happened in ourgeneration.
I don't remember as much ofthat.
The fat shaming, skinny thingmay have started then, but when
you think about the food, thefood then didn't seem to be the
(11:00):
same as the food now.
Ryan Adkins (11:02):
So a hundred percent yeah.
Robin Fenner (11:04):
And I feel like food has changed.
I hate to say it, but I think.
Ryan Adkins (11:09):
No, it's true.
Yeah, a lot of the food thatyou see today wasn't even around
a hundred years ago, and a lotof the chemicals within our
foods weren't even around 70years ago.
Right so how are our bodiesable to process this stuff it's
never been exposed to before?
Robin Fenner (11:22):
Right, exactly, it's probably not supposed to
process it either.
So that kind of takes us tosome of the things, the four
things I think that you weretalking about, that you kind of
focus on, and one thing was theunprocessed food diet.
So can you tell us about that alittle bit?
How can we shift to that?
What does that mean?
Ryan Adkins (11:41):
Yes.
So the American diet today,which a lot of people call the
sad diet, the standard Americandiet, it is mainly processed
foods and I think, statistically, americans, their diet consists
60% of processed foods.
So we're not even eating thatmuch real foods.
We're eating primarily fake,manmade foods that are full of
(12:04):
sugar and sometimes theseingredients that I don't even
know what they are or know howto pronounce them, and yet I'm
eating them and putting theminto my body.
These are the things that arereally causing issues for our
health, and when things areprocessed they lose a lot of the
nutrients that are naturallyoriginally within them.
So when we process foods, welose those nutrients.
(12:26):
So if our diet is primarilyprocessed foods, we're not
really nourishing our body withthe nutrients it needs to
function optimally.
So having a diet that focusesprimarily on whole, unprocessed
foods, you know that's going toconsist of fruits and vegetables
, nuts and seeds, animalproducts, healthy fats you know
(12:49):
those foods that don't reallyhave a nutritional label on them
.
They don't tell you what'sinside of them because there's
nothing else, it's unprocessed.
I love to say think about thefood that God made us on the
earth.
He made these foods for a reason.
Food is our medicine.
It helps.
Food is either energy ormedicine.
That's what it is.
That's the main purpose that weeat food.
(13:11):
And so when we start digginginto the foods that man created,
those are the foods that arereally harming us.
Yeah, so I can say, cause it's.
You know, it's not possible togive it up a hundred percent.
I mean, you can try, it's alittle hard, but we have to live
a little.
So I always say doing like an80-20 rule where 80% of the time
(13:32):
you're primarily eating wholefoods fruits, vegetables, meats,
healthy fats and then everyonce in a while we have to live
a little.
We can go out, have a littlesomething little processed foods
.
It's not the primary base ofour diet, but it's okay to have
and I hate to say in moderation,because I feel like we've used
that too much.
People think in moderationmeans all the time.
(13:56):
Yeah, exactly, every once in awhile it's okay.
But trying to focus primarilyon whole foods is going to be
should be the baseline to anydiet that's out there.
Robin Fenner (14:07):
Yeah, and one thing you said that I know, I've
heard, and that was things youcan't pronounce.
So when you have goods and boxthings and what they tell you,
what I've heard is you know,when you're shopping in the
grocery store, make sure you'reshopping the perimeter more yes
and so you'll find those freshitems.
You'll find, you know, pureprocessed items there.
Uh, without words I can't evenpronounce.
Ryan Adkins (14:30):
So yeah, but right look for those in the packaging
right and those and thosechemicals weren't around a
hundred years ago.
Yeah, like, look at our, ourgrandparents and how they're you
know, they lived up to 90s, to100.
They're saying now that thenewer generation is not going to
outlive their parents.
How crazy is that?
Rudy Fenner (14:50):
we're seeing it because there's a story almost
every day about the wider numberof young people diagnosed with
different diseases and differentailments and then diseases are
getting younger and younger yousaid something to you, said a
lot that caught my attention.
Diseases are getting youngerand younger.
Yeah, yeah, you said somethingto you, said a lot that caught
my attention.
I wrote down so many thingsSlow down, buddy, slow down I am
(15:15):
.
I was walking through in mymind when you mentioned the
processed food.
Ryan Adkins (15:22):
And.
Rudy Fenner (15:23):
I believe part of you're actually so much that
you're saying is confirming whatmy heart has said I don't even
know if I've articulated it insome cases before, because in my
, in my mind, if I ever have thetime I'm going to, I want to
write a book about nutrition andit would be entitled the Cost
of Convenience, because Ibelieve that, ultimately, we
(15:46):
have allowed our lives to beovertaken by activity and the
activity has overtaken time forpreparation for anything, so
everything has to be instantlyready, and when that?
Ryan Adkins (15:59):
comes to food, the when that comes to food.
Rudy Fenner (16:03):
The only way that happens is through a drive-thru
or microwave, and all of thosethings require some level of
processing and and and I thinkwhat you're saying is right you,
you, you and I and I.
I'm sorry, I can't remember ifit was before we actually turned
the recording on or not.
You mentioned or you saidsomething that just blew my mind
(16:25):
that tied back to theconvenience.
It was.
Oh the grace Because I think itis if we meet people where they
are just like you do many of us.
You're right that 80-20 deal.
You said 60%.
I think there was some peoplelike me that we were existing on
(16:47):
80% processed food.
Easy, actually, and honestly itmight even go higher.
Uh and you're right to comefrom to to, to move from 80% to
anything that's better is goingto take some work, but it really
takes planning, right?
Yeah, and that's a questionthat I don't.
(17:08):
I don't I mean with this.
Let me just ask so forunprocessed food?
I don't mean to stop, to stopyou, robin with your questions,
but with the unprocessed.
So if I'm to move fromunprocessed to processed, what
ideas or what encouragementwould you give us for doing that
?
Because for some of us we areso microwave driven we don't
(17:28):
have.
There's some refrigerators withthat one fresh thing in it and
we're trying to figure out howto?
How do we move into that space?
Ryan Adkins (17:35):
Right?
Well, I always tell, when Icoach people, I usually give
them a.
I call it a healthy meal.
It just it shows like how yourhalf your plate should be
primarily vegetables, and thenyou want to include healthy fats
and a protein in every meal,and then it has a food list on
there and I usually tell them togo through and highlight their
favorite foods.
So you guys make a list of someof your favorite fruits and
(17:58):
vegetables that you you know youlike and you know that you're
going to eat, and then, when youare trying to make up some
meals, look at those first.
How can I include a fruit?
Or how can I include avegetable and a meat and a
healthy fat?
That's my dinner right thereand it's going to take some time
.
I felt like for me beforechanging my diet.
I was not a huge veggie eater.
(18:18):
I ate green beans and corn andpotatoes.
I think that's pretty Americanof me and that was about it.
I did not like a lot ofvegetables I would not eat.
I would be that person whowould pick them all out.
I'll pick all the onions out,or whatever it was.
And then, as I changed my diet,my palate started to change and
I would become curious.
Literally I would be atsomeone's house and he was
(18:41):
cutting onions and I've never inmy life had liked onions before
and I became curious.
I was like you know what?
I kind of want to try them andever since then I love onions
and I eat them all the time toinclude more whole foods and
less processed foods, becausewith the processed foods they're
also highly sugary and thatdilutes our palates to where
(19:06):
fruit and vegetables don't eventaste good anymore to us because
they're not as sweet as theprocessed food that we're eating
.
So you kind of have to do thatswitch over, and it kind of does
take time, but I always what Ilike to do for me that makes it
easier is I'm either mealprepping I love meal prepping,
especially my lunches for workor I'll do a meal prep I used to
(19:30):
have a name for it, but it'snot quite 100% making the entire
meal, but I'll prep theingredients for things so like
maybe I'll have stuff for asalad, all the stuff's chopped
up and in containers, and thenall I have to do is just grab a
bowl, grab some lettuce, grabthings I've already chopped up,
grab the chicken I alreadycooked and throw it in.
(19:51):
So having some things likechicken or some veggies already
pre-cooked and just chilling inyour fridge can sometimes be a
quick, easy way to way to.
You know, let me just whip outdinner, let me just whip out a
lunch real quick.
There's already fridge andthere's already chicken in the
fridge, I can just pull it out.
So sometimes pick it a day andjust make it a whole bunch of
something that's a great ideaalleviate.
Robin Fenner (20:12):
I saw someone on social media one day and they
had.
They had a lot of kids, I thinkmaybe 10, 12 kids, and they had
this whole like a commercialrefrigerator drawer or something
.
But they had everything preppedlike that and they could easily
make all the food.
That's a great idea.
I really want to try that.
I haven't gotten to that point.
Ryan Adkins (20:32):
It does take time.
You have to like schedule that.
Robin Fenner (20:35):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, and I guess I've gotten to
the point where I'm not I'llmake a salad every night, just
because I don't have to cook it,I don't have to think about it
ahead of time and I don't haveto thaw anything out.
So there's that.
Rudy Fenner (20:46):
But that's tremendous value in what you're
saying, orion, because I'mtelling you I will eat,
absolutely perfect, but if myschedule gets into, a jam.
I will reach into somebodyelse's freezer, grab one of
their frozen White Castleburgers out of the freezer and I
will eat it like it is thegreatest burger in the world,
(21:07):
and that is.
I will revert back to thosehabits.
If I don't have the path andI'm, you know I tell Robin every
now and then she will.
Robin can eat a leaf and she'llsay, oh, that was wonderful.
And I'm looking at her likewhat in the world?
I am a very active person and Ieat.
(21:27):
I need to have calories in.
It just doesn't work, and so Ihave to plan what that is going
to be, because it will go southin a second.
You made such a good pointearlier.
Uh, to live a little and goback to those things I can not
have.
I can not have a burger for sixmonths, but it's six months in
(21:49):
one day.
If you take me past the rightburger place, it's got the right
quality of beef for me.
I'm all in and I'm going toenjoy it.
And I will revert back to thosehabits if I don't plan and if I
don't put the right things inevery day.
Um, you said something too Iwanted to you.
You gosh, I want to saysomething real quick yes, kind
(22:10):
of like what you're saying rightnow.
Ryan Adkins (22:11):
Um, I think one thing that people do when they
are trying new habits or tryingnew diets is they'll try really,
really hard and be 100% allweek long and then something
comes up and they eat a burgerand then they feel like they
failed and then they just oh, Iruined it, I'm quitting.
I'm not going to keep doingthis.
What I like to say is you cantry again tomorrow.
Rudy Fenner (22:33):
Yes, yes, yes it's okay.
Ryan Adkins (22:36):
It's okay that today your schedule you know
this happened, that happened andyou couldn't do what you wanted
to do and you didn't get to eatthe foods that you wanted to
eat, and this is the only option.
It's okay.
You have tomorrow.
You can just do better tomorrow.
Robin Fenner (22:49):
Yes, that's what I say about so much.
Tomorrow is another day to getit right, so yeah.
Rudy Fenner (23:08):
Yeah, exactly, you said you mentioned sugar earlier
and I am.
I don't know how to connectthese things to I used to.
I there was a time in my lifewhere I thought a lot of things
were oriented to regions,oriented to race oriented,
oriented to gender, and I've themore I grow, the more I find
out.
Actually.
No, that's a problem for a lot,a lot bigger audience than
you're trying to say.
So I, I spent, I think, most ofmy adult male life as a
(23:29):
pre-diabetic.
My, my glucose was always threedigits.
It just never came below it andI, I learned to live with that.
And it was kind of ridiculousto to live with it when I really
think about it, like, but thatwas dumb, but anyway, um, I, I
started to change my, or atleast think about changing taste
(23:49):
and we went to a uh, aplant-based uh restaurant and it
was one of the honestly fromwhere I was nutritionally at the
time.
It was like having a plate ofwood.
I just I was almost like, oh mygosh, this is a fail.
This is not this is going to bedisastrous, but what he taught
me one of the guys that wasthere.
(24:10):
He taught me something and Ipulled it up real quick on the
internet because it'sscientifically supported.
Taste bud sales undergocontinual turnover, even through
adulthood, and their averagelifespan has been estimated as
approximately 10 days.
Taste bud sales undergocontinual turnover even through
adulthood and their averagelifespan has been estimated as
approximately 10 days, and thattime you can actually retain
your, retrain your taste buds tocrave less refined foods and to
really appreciate the vivacityof plant-based foods.
(24:32):
Now I said that to say everyday at two o'clock I am mocked
by people at work because I havea cup and a third of grapes and
blueberries.
And you would think I am eatingthe most delicious, scrumptious
food of all time my taste hasbeen.
(24:53):
It has beat down the sugardemand so much until that is so
bursting with flavor.
Sugar demands so much untilthat is so bursting with flavor.
And what I do is the season.
As the seasons change and thefruit isn't as good, I'll take
dried blueberries and mix themin as well, so that gives my
blueberries an extra little kick.
Ryan Adkins (25:09):
And and everything tastes.
Rudy Fenner (25:11):
But but that's just to say.
There are people who know me,who listen to me, say things
like that and say, my gosh, he'san alien.
That's not the same guy.
He is not, that is not.
But it's understanding that andbeing patient the grace that
you mentioned and then knowingthe science behind things like
that and giving myself a chanceto change.
(25:33):
And it just dramatically changedall that to a place that, if
it's something really sweet now,if I drank, if I had a
coca-cola now, I would taste itand you'd see my face get a
little weird because it's likethe sugar is in the forehead.
Robin Fenner (25:46):
It's like a baseball bat in the head it is,
it is, that's how it happensthat's amazing, amazing that
kind of leads us into keepingthe blood sugar balance and that
was another one of yourprinciples.
So tell us, like I, I guess youkind of started a little bit
about it, but tell us what yourecommend.
What do you say about doingthat?
Ryan Adkins (26:06):
Yes.
So blood sugar is actually myfavorite topic.
I love talking about bloodsugar.
Anytime I hear anybody say, oh,I have diabetes or I have
diabetes, I'm like, please comeand see me.
I love talking about this.
I can we can literally have awhole podcast just talking about
blood sugar.
But it is the baseline to ourhealth and our everyday health.
So I love it because it is sosimple to control.
(26:30):
But we are not taught anythingabout blood sugar.
Pretty much the only time youever hear about blood sugar is
you go to the doctor.
They check your blood andthey're like oh, your blood
sugar levels are a little toohigh, you're pre-diabetic or
you're diabetic, and they don'treally tell you.
You know ways to keep itbalanced with the way that you
eat they.
If it's too high, they justprescribe you, you know,
(26:50):
metformin or something.
So they don't like with.
With blood sugar, you can changeyour blood sugar every time you
eat, every meal.
You can change your blood sugarevery time you eat, every meal.
You can change your blood sugarand it's, I feel, like the
baseline to optimal health.
If you could be doing all theother things, but if your blood
(27:10):
sugar is not where it should be,it's still going to create
inflammation in your body, it'sstill going to create free
radicals in your body and it'sstill going to put you in a fat
I mean a fat storing zone ratherthan a fat burning zone.
And I find, like a lot of peoplewho are trying to lose weight,
I think that's a big topic for alot of people is weight loss,
and now we have these shots andpills that are making people
(27:34):
lose weight really fast and Idon't think it's quite the
healthiest sometimes, but we'rejust we're not taught that if
your blood sugar is balanced,that you will have an easier
time losing weight.
And I think that's the issuefor a lot of people who are
trying to lose weight.
They don't know that they haveto have their blood sugar in
balance and if it's not, theyphysically cannot lose weight
when your blood sugar is out ofbalance.
(27:54):
But it's it's so important tolike our energy level throughout
the day.
Have you guys ever, fouro'clock in the afternoon, felt
like you needed a nap?
Robin Fenner (28:03):
crash time.
Yeah, yeah, that's my sugarright, so let me or yeah, keep
going I was gonna ask you thisquestion.
You talked about being able tochange it every time you eat.
Is it by counting like grams ofsugar you're taking in a meal,
or how do you do that when youmention changing it whenever you
?
Yes?
Ryan Adkins (28:21):
okay, so the food that we eat we blood sugar is
from what we eat.
Of course, we eat primarilyprotein, fat and carbs.
That's what all of our food ismade out of.
Protein and fat do not affectour blood sugar at all.
Um, fat has been shown toactually lower blood sugar, but
carbs are the only thing thatcan affect our blood sugar.
And when I I?
(28:41):
I like to say it this way,because usually people when they
think about blood sugar, theythink about sugar and they think
about sweets and treats.
Um, when any carb can actuallyspike your blood sugar, so a
carb is going to be fruit,vegetables, anything made out of
grains.
Those are all carbs.
Every single carb digest intosugar in our body.
(29:02):
So even eating somethinghealthy like a banana could
still spike your blood sugar.
If you don't know how to keep itbalanced, the best way to
balance carbs is to eat it withprotein and fat.
I always say never eat a carbby itself.
Make sure there's alwaysprotein and fat in there to help
keep a balance.
And this is because protein andfat take longer for our body to
(29:25):
break down.
This is because our body usesmore of it, so it slows down the
breakdown of carbs into sugarand it doesn't get dumped all
into our bloodstream at the sametime.
So always make sure that's likemy number one rule.
I have a whole bunch of hacksfor blood sugar, but my number
one is always make sure that'slike my number one rule.
I have a whole bunch of hacksfor blood sugar, but my number
one is always make sure there'sprotein and fat when you eat
(29:46):
carbs, like if you I never heardthat before, but that's really
great to know.
Robin Fenner (29:51):
Oh my gosh Right yeah.
Ryan Adkins (29:52):
So like you go to Olive Garden and you get a pasta
and this bowl is ginormous.
It's a huge bowl of pasta thatis going to cause a huge blood
sugar spike, but you could stilleat pasta if you knew how to
hack it right for your bloodsugar.
So if you were to eat a saladbefore your pasta oh, fun fact,
fiber, which is going to be inmost vegetables and fruit, block
(30:16):
the absorption of sugar.
Block the absorption of sugar.
So if you were to eat somethingwhich there are these new
studies that have been comingout this past year on the order
in which we eat food If you eatyour carbs and your sugary foods
first, they're going to breakdown, they're going to get
absorbed into your bloodstreamfirst.
If you eat the protein orvegetables first, then the carb
lasts.
(30:37):
That carb doesn't get all, itbreaks down slower and all that
sugar doesn't get dumped intoour bloodstream.
So if you were to, you wantedpasta or you wanted pizza for
dinner and if you had a saladbefore dinner, that's going to
be fiber and vegetables, um, andthen ate your pizza or your
pasta second and you had a muchsmaller portion.
You're not going to create sucha imbalance in your blood sugar
(30:59):
levels that way.
Robin Fenner (31:01):
Wow.
Ryan Adkins (31:01):
I never heard that, I never heard it before.
Rudy Fenner (31:03):
We got to write this down.
Ryan Adkins (31:30):
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait.
Yes, the sequence.
So, um, in the studies theyshow that eating fiber or
vegetables which is where youget your fiber from eating fiber
first, protein second and thencarbs last, has a smaller
glucose spike than eating carbsfirst, then protein and fat, fat
I mean protein and fiber.
They've even combined somethings in the studies, so
they've done like you eat yourprotein and fiber together and
then you eat your carb lossstill showed a lower glucose
(31:54):
spike.
So eating the carb first justcreates that huge glucose spike,
but then eating the fiber andthe protein first reduces that
glucose spike.
Rudy Fenner (32:03):
Now for the slow people in the class.
I want to really be careful.
When you say fiber, tell mespecifically what are you
thinking when you say fiber?
Ryan Adkins (32:13):
So fiber like fibrous foods are going to be
anything green, leafy greens,cruciferous vegetables so
broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower,brussel sprouts any of those
Fruits like berries are alsovery high in fiber.
Avocados are great fibersources.
Nuts and seeds things like flaxseed or chia seeds those are
(32:35):
also great fiber sources.
Artichoke you can look throughsome processed foods like pasta
or breads.
Sometimes they add back infiber or you can buy fiber
supplements.
I don't really recommend fibersupplements because I think
they're nasty, so I just try toget them from food.
They're gross.
(32:57):
I don't like it.
I'm not going to do it.
Yeah.
Robin Fenner (32:59):
I get it Totally yeah.
Rudy Fenner (33:01):
So the crazy part about what you're saying, ryan,
in my mind is blown now, becausethis is the sequence that I eat
, but the reason I did it.
I had no idea what you justsaid.
I ate it because I noticed Iate less and fewer of the carbs.
If I was sort of kind, ofeverything else from the salad.
(33:22):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, I didit to eat less of the and so
that is interesting because, um,my glucose I've been the thing
about this is so this is goingto sound so strange when I say
it.
I say all the time when you'rediagnosed with a disease like
cancer, you become a member ofthe Health and Wellness Witness
(33:46):
Protection Program.
As a result, they are scanning,testing, checking, scanning,
testing, checking, and it neverends.
So I have data and readouts at ahighly more available rate than
the average person.
I've been able to monitorclosely glucose through blood
tests, through their monitoring,for almost two years now where
(34:10):
my glucose was at one time 120,115, 115, 110, 115.
It now the last.
My blood test.
Just a week or so ago it was 83.
Yes, it was 83.
Yes, it was 83 from 80.
It had been 80.
And so it stays in those areasand that is a lot that I'm
(34:38):
saying time because I have theresults from what you described,
without even knowing the reason, the reasons that you described
it, for I've done that and Ihave seen I have absolutely seen
those results and I believethat that 83 glucose has
triggered a number of otherpositive effects on my health
(35:00):
and everything about my being.
Ryan Adkins (35:04):
I love that.
I mean I could.
I love going into, like how ourblood sugar works, the process
of it, telling people thesethings, because I mean, most
people don't know but when Iexplain it to them it's like
mind blowing a little bit thatthis is the process, this is why
my body storing fat this way,and so I I just love talking
(35:26):
about blood sugar, like I cankeep going if you want me to.
Robin Fenner (35:30):
Well, you know what?
We'll dive into that, perhapsagain, because there is so much
to but wait.
Rudy Fenner (35:35):
I did have one thing.
So before you leave this topic,let me just ask this what do
you find is the thing that mostof us, beyond what we've already
said?
Is there anything else thatmost of us you find don't know?
About this glucose processabout sugar and processing in
(35:58):
our bodies.
Ryan Adkins (36:00):
Right.
So I mean there's a lot.
There's a lot of things thatmost people don't know about
sugar and how it affects ourbody.
Most people don't know aboutsugar and how it affects our
body.
With our glucose levels we havethat range that our body has to
be in at all times, and if weare outside that range, sugar is
literally toxic to our bodiesand our body turns off other
processes to process that sugaraway somewhere else in our body
(36:24):
to keep us safe.
So most people don't know howtoxic sugar is.
There is no need for sugar likegranulated sugar.
There's no need for sugar inour diet whatsoever.
We get enough sugar from fruitsand vegetables that we should
not be eating so much sugar.
And one thing that I thinknobody knows not a lot of people
(36:45):
know and this one's a big oneis that when we consume sugar
and we create these blood sugarspikes, it turns off our immune
system for up to five hours.
So a lot of people say that youknow the fall we always call
the fall flu season, but a lotof health professionals call the
fall sugar season.
A lot of health professionalscall the fall sugar season where
(37:08):
you have Halloween, we haveThanksgiving, we have Christmas.
We have lots of sweet treatsthis time of year.
This is the time of year we getmore sick.
Robin Fenner (37:17):
Wow, I'd never heard that.
This is amazing.
Ryan Adkins (37:29):
And then one final thing that I love telling people
and I kind of mentioned weightloss a little bit but when we
have unbalanced blood sugar andwe have high blood sugar over
that healthy range, our bodyliterally turns our ability to
burn fat off when we have highsugar in our blood.
So if you are trying to loseweight but you are constantly
spiking your blood sugar, thatability gets turned off.
And that's all based on ourblood sugar levels.
(37:52):
Even our energy, our brainsfunction.
Our brains are very sensitiveto our blood sugar levels.
So when we have too low bloodsugar levels, that's usually
when we become hangry, irritable, mood swingy.
We can't focus or concentrateon our work.
Robin Fenner (38:07):
So it affects a lot of different aspects of our
health and then what people dois grab the closest thing to
them, which is something that'sprocessed and probably has sugar
in it.
Ryan Adkins (38:15):
You, know they're hangry and it's like, just give
me something, yeah, yeah, sothat's not helping and right.
And what makes us hangry?
When we have low blood sugar,our body releases a hormone
known as cortisol, which is ourstress hormone.
So when you're stressed, yourcortisol levels rise.
If you have unbalanced bloodsugar, your cortisol levels rise
(38:36):
.
So you're unintentionallyraising your stress levels in
your body.
And cortisol one of its jobs isit makes us crave sugar and
carbs carbs.
Rudy Fenner (38:55):
Yeah, okay, okay, I'm sorry, just one more, one
more.
So one thing I just realizedthat I'm I'm hoping for
confirmation or clarificationfrom you.
I remember I mentioned tosomeone recently about eating
fruit and I said you to eat moregrapes and their response was
well, I'm worried about thesugar in grapes.
And I said nah, hang on asecond.
(39:16):
Um, help us understand thatthat is it is it.
Are there occurrences where wehave so much fruit until it
negatively affects that glucose?
uh, just that whole thing.
Tell me a little bit about that, I'm sorry yes.
Ryan Adkins (39:32):
So, um, I mean, too much of anything could be
harmful.
But, um, I recently listened toa podcast with, uh, this doctor
her name's um, oh man stacymeans, I believe and she she was
the one who created the, thecontinuing glucose monitor,
called levels, which is forpeople who don't have diabetes.
(39:52):
They just are curious abouttheir glucose.
Um, and she said that one ofthe most the number one
surprising food that spikespeople blood sugar is grapes,
and that's because I mean itdoes have a lot of sugar in it,
um, and usually do eat grapes bythemselves for the most part.
So fruit and vegetables canstill cause blood sugar spikes
(40:14):
if we don't pair them withprotein and fat.
But there are some fruits andvegetables that are lower on the
glycemic level and have morefiber.
So anything green is usuallypretty low in sugar and higher
in fiber.
So I say greens, eat green asmuch as you want.
And then berries, sostrawberries, raspberries,
blackberries, blueberries, thoseare all very low actually on
(40:39):
the glucose level, on theirsugar levels, and they're high
in fiber, so that fiber helps toblock the sugar from the fruit.
The same with citrus.
So when you're eating fruit inits whole state, you're also
getting that fiber which isgoing to block the sugar from
the fruit.
The same with citrus.
So when you're eating fruit inits whole state, you're also
getting that fiber which isgoing to block some of the sugar
.
When we extract, like orangejuice, they extracted the fruit
juice, so there's no more fiberanymore.
(41:00):
That's going to cause an evenbigger glucose spike because
we're missing the rest of thefruit which was properly made.
You know a way to support ourhealth, but you could still eat,
you know all of it.
I would say you know, add somenuts with it and then it
wouldn't spike your blood sugaras bad.
(41:20):
And then fruit is stored alittle bit differently in our
body than regular glucose.
That's why a lot of animals eata lot of fruit in the winter,
because sometimes it can bestored straight as fats if we do
consume too much of it.
But I mean, fruit is the bestoption.
(41:40):
Like you want something sweet,eat some fruit.
Robin Fenner (41:44):
Right right.
Ryan Adkins (41:45):
You're going to get other nutrients and
phytonutrients from fruit.
Robin Fenner (41:50):
Fruit over cookies .
Yes, well, you know cookiesactually kind of a weakness I
have a little bit, just becausethey're so easy to kind of just
pick up.
It's not like a slice of cakeor something like that.
Ryan Adkins (42:02):
So well, I could tell you how to eat a cookie and
it not spike your blood sugar.
Robin Fenner (42:06):
Okay, go.
Ryan Adkins (42:09):
So that order I was talking about earlier, about
eating protein and fat firstbefore your carbs.
You can do this with yoursweets.
I say save them for dessert.
So if you had a meal and yourmeal had protein and fat and
fiber and then after that mealyou ate a cookie or some M&Ms,
it's not going to create such abig glucose spike as it would if
(42:30):
you just ate them on an emptystomach as a snack.
Robin Fenner (42:33):
Got it.
Ryan Adkins (42:34):
Okay.
Robin Fenner (42:35):
That's good.
That's good to know.
I try to be careful.
Ryan Adkins (42:37):
But you still have your treats.
Yeah, just save them, yeah.
Robin Fenner (42:39):
Try to be careful with them, but it's good to know
I can be even more careful.
Oh, that's good, all right, soI know there were two other
parts of this piece that we werehoping to touch on before we
let you go.
This has been.
This is fantastic, by the way,I just I'm sitting here, like I
said, we're taking notes, so ifwe're quiet for a moment, it's
because we're writing thingsdown, not because we can't think
(43:00):
of what to say next.
But, this is such excellent,excellent information.
Two other things that youmentioned that are part of your
top four.
They're different from thefoods you talked about
incorporating daily movement.
Now, that's right up, kind oflike Rudy's Alley, Mine too
actually.
Ryan Adkins (43:22):
But tell us what your recommendations are about
that.
So one, we were just talkingabout sorry, sorry about that.
We were talking about sorry,sorry about that.
We were talking about bloodsugar.
So our muscles use the most ofour blood sugar, so
incorporating daily movementhelps to keep our blood sugar
more balanced.
Also, when we have more muscle,we can utilize sugar much
(43:43):
easier and better than peoplewith less muscle.
So just getting in some kind ofmovement is going to be great
for your blood sugar Also.
Hey, baby bear, sorry you guys.
Robin Fenner (43:57):
No, that's okay.
We've got little ones too, soit's just fine.
Ryan Adkins (44:01):
Give me a few more minutes, okay?
Here there's gummies on thetable.
Go get them.
Go get those gummies.
Can I open them?
I'll open them for you.
Robin Fenner (44:10):
Okay.
Ryan Adkins (44:12):
So, including daily movement, and what I like to
say we don't use it, we lose it,and we need to be able to move,
and this is why I love workingout today is so that in the
future, I can still be able tosit up off of a chair or off of
a toilet or be able to pick upmy grandkids.
But you don't have to.
For optimal health, you don'thave to be doing weightlifting
(44:35):
or going to the gym, including,you know, start small Going for
a walk every single day.
I love walking and I thinkwalking is very underrated.
Walk has tremendous healthbenefits.
So going for a 20 to 30 minutewalk every day can have great
health improvements, if that'sthe only thing you even did.
So I say it doesn't matter whatkind of movement you do, just
(44:57):
move somehow every day.
Robin Fenner (44:59):
Good, good, okay, that walking is easy doesn't
require any equipment, just goodshoes.
And I always say start smallyeah.
Ryan Adkins (45:06):
When, what?
After having a baby, you know,I wanted to get back into
working out, but I did not havethat motivation to do so, and so
I just started with like 20minute walks in the morning, and
then it eventually led tolonger walks and then I felt
like I could do more at onepoint, like I feel like I can do
something else now.
I've been walking every day, soI started doing yoga and then
(45:28):
eventually I worked my way backto going to the gym.
But start small, do littlethings.
What can you incorporate intoyour life that are easy?
After dinner walks Great.
Robin Fenner (45:38):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, that's really good.
And walking with a friend, youknow, and before you know it,
you're doing that, you'reengaging with someone else and
you don't feel like you're youknow working out.
Or or you're not distressed ifyou don't like working out, for
example, you know right, rightor?
You're not used to it, you'rejust kind of it's an excellent
way to start.
You're absolutely right aboutthat.
Ryan Adkins (45:56):
There's so many and any.
I say I consider any kind ofmovement.
You know that could be playingwith your kids in the backyard
or dancing in the living room.
We have dance parties everynight, so move your body somehow
yeah, good, that's, that's howI try to do dance parties.
Robin Fenner (46:11):
Sometimes they don't always work out, but yeah,
but we but we move, so that's agood thing.
Um, okay, and then youmentioned managing stress, which
is, yes, a biggie, a big onethis was a tough one too.
Ryan Adkins (46:27):
So they're calling stress the new cigarettes.
Stress is killing us and it iscreating disease within us.
But that's it's saying.
Managing your stress is mucheasier said than done.
Right Ways to manage our stress.
The obvious one would be to getrid of your stress, but that's
(46:47):
not always possible because thatstress can be coming from your
job or your family.
But finding ways to be able tomanage your stress is going to
help with your overall health.
Like I mentioned earlier,cortisol is our stress hormone.
It makes us crave carbs andsugar.
It also tells our body to storefat in our midsection.
(47:08):
So that's why we see these beerbellies, these people with huge
guts and all their fat's justright in the middle.
That's cortisol.
That's stress.
It hinders a lot of our body'sfunctions.
It turns off a lot of ourbody's systems.
When we are high stressed itturns off our reproduction
system.
It turns off our immune system.
(47:29):
So having being under stress, alot is going to affect the rest
of our body.
So some ways that you can manageyour stress.
It could be exercise, like thatis stress relieving.
For some people it could bewalking, doing something that's
repetitive.
But like it's repetitive, as in, you're not really thinking
about it, like walking.
That could also be great forpeople with stress.
(47:50):
Um, I love doing some kind ofdeep breathing.
That is one of the easiest waysto get us out of stress.
So when we are stressed, we areactually entering our fight or
flight mode, um, which was handywhen we were hunter gatherers,
but today's world we don't.
We don't really need it, uh,and everything stresses us out.
We're constantly in this state.
(48:11):
The best and fastest way to getus out of this state is by
doing slow, deep breaths.
That will switch us to ourparasympathetic state, which is
our repair mode.
So when we're stressed, we'rein this fight or flight.
We want to get into our restand repair mode.
So, doing deep breathing andyou don't have to do it for very
long Studies show that just aslittle as three minutes of just
(48:34):
doing some really slow, long,deep breaths can support mental
health and get you out of thatstress state.
Other things you could do Ilike to go outside and ground.
I put my feet on the grass, inthe dirt, you know, touch my
skin to the earth a little bit.
I do it for like five minutesin the mornings.
Yoga is a great way to alsorelieve stress Any kind of way
(48:59):
you know.
Maybe it's alone time.
I found alone time for me.
I need that sometimes as amother.
I think most mothers can agree.
Give us a little bit of alonetime, maybe a bath or something.
Whatever way you can do to justcalm the brain and release some
of that stress is going to behelpful for your health.
Robin Fenner (49:15):
Yeah, yeah, that all sounds good, because there's
just so much going on.
It just seems like it's addingon and adding on, so I can see
that being considered the newcigarettes and we need to
address that, because we'relooking at the whole body, the
mind, the spirit, all thosekinds of things and um, and
definitely this is uh and yeah,and for stress too it's.
Ryan Adkins (49:36):
It's a lot of our minds, so our body, our body,
doesn't know the differencebetween perceived stress and
actual stress.
So worrying, I feel like a lotof people worry a lot.
Right, you are stressing yourbody out unnecessarily because
you worrying that you might walkup onto a bear.
Or are you actually walking uponto a bear?
Our brain thinks, right, there,it's the same.
(49:57):
We walked up onto a bear.
We need to go into fight orflight mode.
Yeah, so sometimes like tryingto be more positive mindset,
that can also be a hugesupporting factor for our health
yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, Okay.
Robin Fenner (50:10):
That's, that's there.
Those are all all good andagain, like I said, I'm I'm
going I get we'll all have achance to hear all this again
because the podcast will be out.
But these are all such goodtips.
I'm just making notes because Ithink that, um, there'll be
wonderful to share with peoplewho I know and all that.
But so I want to ask you, as weget a little bit.
(50:33):
So tell me, do you work withclients virtually?
Tell me about how you, how youdo that.
Ryan Adkins (50:40):
I do.
I can do virtual one on oneswith people I do the company I
work through.
It is a free service for thecustomers that shop with our
company.
So they come in, they justschedule appointments and I
coach them or I help them shop.
I also teach classes around mycommunity on different topics.
(51:00):
So, yeah I, I one day want tojust do my own, you know, be out
here coaching and teachingonline.
Yeah.
Robin Fenner (51:09):
That's my goal.
Yeah, I'd love to have you here, our listeners.
I don't think we mentionedearlier that you're in Oklahoma,
but I'm like okay, how can wetalk to her here?
How can we get her here?
Yeah?
Ryan Adkins (51:22):
I mean, I come to the East Coast all the time.
I still have friends and familyout there, oh good.
Robin Fenner (51:26):
I go to the East Coast all the time.
I still have friends and familyout there.
Oh good, Well, maybe we'll beable to arrange something,
Because one of the things thatwe want to do with what we're
setting up now is to have someevents and activities so people
can get together.
It's not always somethingthat's online or whatever.
Ooh.
Ryan Adkins (51:36):
I love that.
Robin Fenner (51:36):
Because we think community is really important.
Yes, it is and everything isyou know.
So we want to bring peopletogether periodically where we
can, so we would.
I would love to number one,connect with you when you come
(51:57):
here.
Number two, we'd love to haveyou back.
If you don't mind to tell usmore, because this is what
you're telling us is suchamazing, engaging, valuable
information, and you tell it ina way that's very easy for
people to get into follow,follow, understand and still,
like I said, feel positive aboutyourself.
You feel good, you don't feellike you're, you know, being
kind of that.
(52:17):
I can't do this you give us astarting point
Ryan Adkins (52:22):
And I absolutely love it and I feel like that's
what's wrong with you know allthe health and stuff on social
media.
It's like you can't eat this,you can't eat that, don't do
that, and it's so confusing wedon't know what to do.
Robin Fenner (52:32):
Yeah, yeah, but the way you present it, it's
really something that I thinkalmost anyone who wants to make
a change can relate to, and Ithink that's terrific.
Do you have anything else youwant to add?
Rudy Fenner (52:44):
I'm just so sorry he's like I am, I'm talking,
he's writing.
He's talking, I'm writing butjust to one thought that I had
just so stuck when you talkedabout the stress and we talk
about this at work and I'vebecome the old dude back in the
corner that lobs out thesegrenades to people every now and
then and somebody was talkingabout something that we went
(53:06):
down the path of.
uh, the fear of death is worsethan death itself and that is
that is applied in so many areaswhere we stress so incredibly
over the moment and the momentalmost never lives up to the
stress right.
And trying to understand thatperspective and maintain that
(53:27):
perspective can do so much toreduce the stress and anxiety.
I'm noticing, especially now,in our current climate and in
our world, so many of us are soexcited and just overflowing
with anxiety, yeah, things that,honestly, are highly unlikely
(53:50):
to happen in the way that wedream.
It is a thing and it is a validconcern, but it is not quite
what we've imagined, because wekind of all dream in color and
it's kind of like whoa, I don'tthink it's going to happen quite
like that, and so trying to tapdown and I work around and live
(54:10):
around a lot of people who arevery emotionally charged,
energetic, brilliant people, andthat brilliance fuels their
imaginations and fuels theirexcitement and thus the stress.
So that is really.
I think the nutrition that wetalk about is really powerful
and it's science-based fact.
(54:32):
But that nutrition piece thatyou're talking about right there
is gaining, gaining ground andit's gaining traction in terms
of.
There is a scenario where I seewhere we will run into folks in
the not too distant future thathave nutrition perfect stress
jacked up and it almost lookslike a person that's
nutritionally just void andright exactly to do nutrition.
Robin Fenner (54:55):
It's all about the stress, so that's it's true,
okay, so, um, so, before we go,would you like to tell people
how they can reach you if theyhave questions for you or want
to, you know, get your advice,talk to you virtually or
whatever, if they're not inOklahoma and yeah, I mean they
(55:16):
can follow me on Instagram andmy personal one which I use the
most, is Raya the girl.
Ryan Adkins (55:22):
It's Ryan without the N, so Raya the girl.
And then I I do have one thatwas for nutrition After having a
child.
I haven't been doing it as much, but I my goal is to get back
on it, and that one is calledRaya Eats.
Robin Fenner (55:36):
Right, right, good , good, good, because I follow
you on both, but I wantedeveryone else to know as well.
So, anyway, but this has beenjust an amazing conversation.
I want to thank you so much fortaking time today and really
giving us food for thought, ifyou will, but it's really been
(55:59):
good and we look forward toagain, like I said, having you
here with us having you again,if you don't mind, on the
podcast.
We'd love to have you come.
Ryan Adkins (56:05):
Yes, I would love to.
I love talking about nutritionand we can get into more like
topics yes, yes, so we can talkmore about that.
Robin Fenner (56:13):
We were going to try to do gut health today, but
I thought, oh, this is going onfor some time.
I thought we probably want towrap it up and and give people
something to look forward to.
So we'll do that.
So anyway, she's adorable.
We love seeing her beautifullittle girl thank you alright.
Well, look, we're going to letyou run.
Thank you so much for beingwith us yes, and let's keep in
(56:36):
touch.
Let's do this again you have awonderful rest of your weekend
thank you, you guys officially.
Rudy Fenner (56:45):
Fina thanks you for joining us.
Robin Fenner (56:47):
Please subscribe and hit that like button.
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