September 9, 2025 • 20 mins
Forget the never-ending debate about which diet reigns supreme. The truth about nutrition is both simpler and more profound than the latest trending eating plan. Drawing wisdom from the world's Blue Zones—regions where people routinely live healthy lives well into their 90s and beyond—we explore what truly matters for long-term wellness when you're an active adult who simply wants to stay healthy.
The secret isn't found in restrictive dieting or complicated rules. It's about cultivating daily habits that naturally support health, just as these long-lived cultures do without ever picking up a diet book. We break down the core principles that work across all healthy eating patterns: prioritizing whole foods, balancing macronutrients without fearing carbs, minimizing inflammatory processed foods, and focusing on protein-centric meals.
Many people find themselves trapped in a frustrating cycle—eating less but unable to lose weight due to metabolic dysfunction caused by years of poor nutrition choices. We explain why this happens and how to reverse it through patient, consistent nutrition that gives your body what it truly needs. The approach is refreshingly straightforward: plan around protein (aiming for roughly one gram per pound of body weight), batch cook healthy basics, shop the perimeter of grocery stores, and make nutritious snacks intentional rather than afterthoughts.
What's most striking about Blue Zone communities isn't just their longevity—it's their quality of life. At 80 or 90, they're still walking, socializing, and enjoying life without the disabilities that many consider inevitable with aging. Their nutrition isn't exciting or Instagram-worthy; it's consistent, seasonal, and embedded in a lifestyle that includes movement and connection. By adopting similar principles, you can create sustainable habits that support not just a longer life, but a fuller one.
Try changing just one habit this week based on these principles and see what happens. Your body might thank you more than you expect.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
today we're talking about the best diet to follow if
you're an adult who isn't aprofessional athlete but you do
exercise, move your body andwant to stay healthy long term
keto, vegan, paleo,mediterranean, intermittent
fasting which is best?
Let's simplify it today, onliving a full life With me, dr
(00:26):
Enrico Dolcecori Thanks fortuning in for another week of
living a full life podcast.
These are fun.
This one's going to bejam-packed, fast-paced and kind
of a summary of all the dietworkshops and seminars and
podcasts that I've done over mycareer.
There is no one diet to follow.
If we really want to look aroundthe world, especially the blue
(00:48):
zones, they've been studied sowell and deeply because they're
trying to figure out why dothese certain areas live so long
and so well?
It's not just their centennialage, it's that they really do
really well with overallwellness, and that's the beauty
of eating well and a healthydiet.
So they don't follow a diet,they don't pick up the
Mediterranean diet book and eatthat way.
(01:10):
Their culture surrounds themwith daily habits, just fall
into good eating and goodexercise.
And how can we mimic that inour lives, no matter where we
live in the US, europe, aroundthe world, wherever we're at how
do we mimic that type ofbehavior to influence our
overall health and wellness, toget those types of results?
(01:30):
These people live with lowosteoarthritis, low inflammatory
conditions, balance is great,their lean muscle mass is
maintained.
They have all these greatthings that they've maintained
because of the daily habits thatthey're on.
They're not on a diet.
Their diet is their habits, andwe have to start to focus in
that type of a way in order toinfluence health in our life and
(01:52):
maintain wellness and influenceour children to live healthy
lives as well.
So those daily habits and whatwe fill our home and our
environment with that keeps ushealthy and on point with foods.
There's a lot of temptingthings out there to get, both at
the grocery stores and fastfoods, but what we're going to
talk about in today's podcast ishow to surround ourselves with
things that will just influenceus easily to do the right things
(02:16):
habitually.
That's the focus of thispodcast today.
So there's some core rules tofollow.
When we talk about diet, we needto prioritize whole foods.
This is just number one to thefoundation of this.
If we don't do this, the restall just falls apart.
It has to be whole food based.
We can't be opening up boxesand cans and packages and
(02:39):
expecting health in returnhealth and wellness.
It's not going to happen.
It's going to come from thewhole foods.
Whole foods have everything thatwe need.
That's why they're called whole.
They have everything we need inthem for our macro and
micronutrients in the human body.
So we've got to prioritizewhole foods like vegetables,
fruits, lean proteins, healthyfats and even whole grains.
(03:00):
Whole grains is what we want alittle bit in our diet as well.
And then we want number two isto balance our macronutrients.
Don't fear carbs.
They're not bad.
We have to get these carbs in.
It's just.
Where are we getting thesecarbs?
They have to come from wholefoods, fruits.
That's where our carbohydrateshave to come from Fruits, grains
(03:21):
and vegetables.
Fats are very important andproteins.
Each plays a role in the humanbody and are the foundational
building blocks to everythingthat we do Our hormones, our
cells, our skin everything isbuilt off of the macro and
micronutrients that we eat.
So we have to minimizeprocessed foods.
They're around, they'retempting, they're there all the
(03:44):
time.
Your job as a parent and as anadult is to minimize the
purchasing of these things andthe consumption of these things.
It just has to be a rule.
You just don't walk through themiddle aisle.
You don't buy a lot of packagedstuff Reduced added sugars,
refined oils, fried foods andpackaged snacks.
(04:04):
Sugars, refined oils, friedfoods and packaged snacks.
If you do that, the 90% ofeverything else you buy is going
to be good.
It's the number one thing inWestern culture that has crept
into our homes and into ourdiets.
That is, the number one causeof most of the diseases that we
can link back to is fromprocessed foods.
We know this, we all know this.
(04:26):
You can't pretend like this isthe first time you've heard this
.
We know this.
Minimize the processed foods andI also get an understanding of
what processed foods are.
Some of you are like okay, I'llpick up the Oreos, but
everything else is good.
No, if it's packaged andprocessed in a plant, there is
no wholeness to that food.
It is diminished and it'sfilled with salts, msgs,
(04:49):
preservatives, sugars and rancidoils.
That's the problem with thesefoods.
They actually cause inflammation.
That's the issue with processedfoods.
Once you eat them, it'skerosene on the fire and it
causes more inflammation.
Then what we have to do,because we live in this world of
processed foods, is eatanti-inflammatory foods berries,
(05:12):
leafy greens, fatty fish, oliveoil, nuts, turmeric, ginger
these things should be in yourfridge and in your home at all
times because they act asanti-inflammatories when you
cook with them or eat with them,they're wonderful to have in
your home.
We need to hydrate well.
Another reason forinflammations we're just a
(05:33):
little dehydrated sometimes.
So water first.
We have to be drinking water.
A hundred ounces of water perday limit.
Carbohydrate drinks, sugarydrinks and excessive alcohol
these things just cause moreinflammation in the body.
So, minimizing the bad,accelerating the good that's the
blue zones around the world andwhat they do.
(05:53):
I think one major thing aboutmost of the blue zones, aside
from California's blue zone andItaly's blue zone well, I think
just California's blue zone zoneis they don't have access to
all the processed foods asreadily as maybe that group in
California.
But the other blue zones aroundthe world Japan, greece, italy,
(06:14):
costa Rica these places don'thave access to the amount of
processed foods like other areas, and that's one of their
successes is because they justdon't have it.
They're not tempted with it,they don't have it and that is
why they live healthier.
When we say healthier, it's notjust living to a hundred.
It's making it to 90 years oldand walking, and still being
(06:36):
able to walk, go down the streetwith the dog, come back.
That at 90 is great.
When somebody on your 80thbirthday asks you would you like
to come golfing, you're like,yeah, I could go, do nine holes,
let's go.
That is what health is allabout being able being able to
do the things that you want todo and not being disabled.
(06:56):
Does that make sense In a wayof old age crippling us down?
That is the definition oflongevity and health.
So Timing, timing Last one here.
Timing matters less thanquality.
Aim for consistent meals tosupport energy and exercise
recovery.
(07:16):
Another problem in America,specifically in the Western
world, is people under-eat,under-eat and are obese.
It's a conundrum, it'sconfusing, but really, when you
look underneath, in the panelsand the hormones and what's
going on on the inside, they'vewrecked the hormonal balance in
their body from all the yo-yodieting in their lives and now
(07:39):
their endocrine system justdoesn't work as well as it used
to.
They're insulin sensitive.
They are thyroid paralyzed.
They have a lot of issues thatare going on that even though
they eat low calorie, they'renot able to lose the weight.
Their body hangs onto itbecause of the nutrition that
they're eating is processed.
So the body sees this, itdigests it.
(08:02):
There's not the macronutrientsthat it needs and it puts the
body into starvation mode,thinking that they're just not
getting nutrition and thatthey're dying.
So they don't want to loseweight.
That's what happens instarvation mode is we just don't
want to lose the weight.
It's metabolic catastrophe andthat's why we get stuck.
What do you do to reverse that?
Very difficult to reverse it.
(08:23):
What you do is you eat morefood whole foods and then
eliminate anti-inflammatoryfoods, and this takes time.
You have to be patient, youhave to do it for a while.
And what happens with thenutrition?
Over time, it replenishes thebody.
The body heals properly.
We've seen thyroid start tofunction better, we've seen
pituitary start to functionbetter.
(08:44):
We've seen sex hormones startto produce better and all of a
sudden now the increase in thenatural metabolic changes in the
body start to burn fat.
So just through food I didn'teven mention anything about
exercise just by doing that, wehave to get ourselves out of the
rut of the metabolic syndromethat we're in.
So timing matters.
We have to eat meals throughoutthe day.
(09:05):
That is what the blue zones dotoo.
As soon as they start to feel alittle bit of hunger, they
drink water and then eat a snackor eat their meal, and it's
time they wake up.
In the morning, they have theroutine, lunch they have the
routine, and dinner they havethe routine.
And I'm going to show you theseroutines in this podcast today.
Here's some meal planning tips.
Before we talk about the foods.
(09:26):
I know that you just want tohear doc just tell me what to
eat.
I'll do it.
No, you won't, but you'll.
You think you're going to do it.
But here's a tip.
We had a plan for success.
So plan around protein.
This is tip number one.
Each time you're going to eat,you have to think what's the
protein I'm going to eat?
Because if you don't think that, then grabbing some crackers
and some cheese and somecarbohydrates and some fruit and
(09:48):
some blueberries and whateverprocessed foods we grab chips,
all the snacky stuff that wegrab is all high in
carbohydrates and bad fats.
There's very low protein inthem.
So if we don't think proteinfirst, this is how we really tip
the scales to a very highcarbohydrate and fat diet and a
low protein diet, which ismetabolic disaster.
(10:09):
So plan around protein.
Start with lean proteins firstChicken, fish, eggs, legumes,
greek yogurt and build mealsfrom there.
I told you about meats, I toldyou about vegetarian options.
I just told you I coveredeveryone's bases right there
with just those five, sixexamples.
So think of protein.
First, batch cook.
(10:29):
Then we want to batch cook andprepare meals.
Prepare proteins, roastedveggies and grains in bulk.
To save time, cook a batch ofroasted veggies, cook a batch of
chicken, cook a batch of, or awhole pot of rice or quinoa or
whatever it is for you, so thatyou can portion it and plan it
for your lunches throughout thenext two, three days.
(10:51):
Shop the perimeter of thegrocery store.
That rule still applies wellfor most grocery stores.
It avoids the central aisleswhere all the processed food is,
and that's where all the freshfood live.
For a majority of the stores.
It's a good rule to follow.
Make snacks intentional.
Don't just wait till you'rehungry and go grab the
carbohydrate, the pretzels andthe chips.
(11:12):
What we need to do is we needto plan our snacks.
Have them packaged so that wedon't get into any trouble.
Nuts, fruits, hummus withveggies, protein shakes have
these readily available so thatyou can consume them when you
need them.
Keep it simple, repeatable andseasonal when you need them.
Keep it simple, repeatable andseasonal.
Rotate two, three breakfasts,three or four lunches and
(11:38):
dinners and change with theseasons so that when the
watermelon season comes out, youstart to bring that in as your
fruit and then when the squashescome out in the fall, you start
bringing squash into your diet,if you like that stuff, just
when those seasonal things comein not pumpkin spice lattes,
people, for Pete's sakes.
What we're doing is we want tobring in the squashes, the other
ones, the spaghetti squash, theother squashes, and bring those
in in the falls and start maybecooking with them as our
(11:59):
veggies.
That way we're eatingseasonally as well.
It keeps a mix of your diet andthen gives you some of those
micronutrients that you might bemissing from time to time and
brings them back into the bodyHigher levels of copper,
selenium, zinc, whatever it isthat you're missing from some
ground vegetables.
It's just a great rule tofollow.
And guess what the blue zonesdo?
They eat seasonally as well.
(12:21):
Best meals to prepare here yougo the meat and gravy of this
podcast.
There you go, the meat of thispodcast.
Give breakfast ideas.
There's two ways to do this.
I eat almost the same breakfastvirtually every day.
I just default to it.
It's egg whites, an egg, maybesome deli turkey or some ground
(12:41):
turkey in it, veggies, if I havetime to chop them up, and
either oatmeal as a carb or apiece of Dave's bread with
peanut butter or almond butteron it.
It's just a well-rounded 45, 50gram of protein meal, 30 grams
of carbs, 12 grams of fat.
It's just one of those 475calorie breakfast.
(13:02):
That just starts me off theright way.
But ideas for you overnightoats with chia seeds, berries,
almond butter, peanut butter,whatever it is.
Veggie omelet with avocado or aside of fruit Any fruit you
choose.
Berries are the best.
Greek yogurt with walnuts, flaxseeds and blueberries.
There you go.
When your kids are like I wantto wait for breakfast, get them
(13:23):
excited about Greek yogurt, getthem excited about avocado
Omelets, toast with their almondbutter on it.
These types of start your kidsoff to a great morning as well.
But for you, those are someexamples there as well.
It's not cereal, pancakes,cupcakes, starbucks, drive-thru.
That's not breakfast.
It's just rancid oils, too highin fat and a lot of
(13:47):
carbohydrates.
It's just not protein centricfat and a lot of carbohydrates,
it's just not protein centric.
Some lunch ideas Grilledchicken salad with mixed greens,
olive oil and quinoa it's agreat lunch.
Lentil soup with side ofroasted sweet potato, turkey
wrap in a whole grain, tortillawith hummus and veggies.
Just off the top of my head.
You can substitute otherproteins there ground beef, fish
(14:11):
, whatever you want to make.
Different salads, differentmixes.
I typically default to eitherchicken mostly chicken or salmon
, roasted veggies and somequinoa or rice.
That's my typical go-to lunch.
The roasted veggies may switchup every week.
There may be onion, zucchini,eggplant in one of them, then
another one, cauliflower, onions, mushrooms and another maybe
(14:32):
just cauliflower or justbroccoli, whatever you mix it up
.
But I'm eating the same sevenor eight veggies all day.
I'm eating the same three orfour proteins every day and I'm
eating the same four fruitsevery day and then, as the
seasons come in, we're like, oh,pineapples are out, or oh,
watermelon is out, or oh, it'scherry season or whatever it is.
Then you substitute those inand you have a variety of fruits
(14:53):
as the year goes on.
Dinner ideas baked salmon,steamed broccoli, roasted
potatoes they can be yellowpotatoes, they can be sweet
potato, they can be whatever youlike.
Stir fry with lean beef,colorful veggies and brown rice,
chickpea curry and spinach andcauliflower rice, making it all
(15:14):
fun.
Once you start to learn howfoods work, you realize the
macronutrient portions start tobecome a lot easier to follow
once you're protein centric, ifyou make sure your protein is
there.
Now how much protein should yoube eating?
You've heard everything fromhalf a gram of per pound of your
body weight all the way up toI've heard two grams, which is
(15:34):
ridiculous.
So what is right?
If you walk 10,000 steps a dayand you eat well, this is the
rule you want to follow.
You want to eat one gram perpound of body weight.
So if you're 175 pounds, youwant to eat 175 grams.
Aim for 175 grams of protein perday to maintain your lean
(15:54):
muscle mass.
If we're in a weight lossprogram, we go down a little bit
.
If we're in a bodybuildingprogram, we go a little bit
higher.
But that's not most of us.
That's very few of us that aredoing that at the time.
Most of us are trying tomaintain a healthy lifestyle.
That's the rule from theliterature that shows how to
prevent sarcopenia, how tomaintain lean muscle mass, how
to be stronger boned when you're80, less falls when you're 80,
(16:18):
better balance when you're 80.
That's where the research allpoints back to about one gram
per pound of your body weight.
Okay, that's when we want tolook at that.
So let's say it's 175 grams ofprotein per day.
So 200 times four that's almost800 calories of your diet,
which is about seven.
Let's say 720 calories per dayof your 2000 calorie diet is
(16:41):
going to be protein works out toabout 35% of your diet, of your
macronutrients.
The other 35% should becarbohydrates and then you're
left with about 30% of your dietfats.
That's the simple rule.
It's simple.
It works really well.
It's the blue zone way ofliving life and people are very
(17:01):
successful on it.
Some snacks apple slices withalmond butter or peanut butter
my kids like that for morningbreakfasts and snacks.
Carrots and hummus Just hummushas a lot of protein in it.
Protein smoothie with spinach,banana and plant-based protein
powder to just pack it up withsome more protein in there as
well.
So that's some food for thought.
(17:24):
That is the diet basis thatjust works.
When we're in a bodybuildingprogram, we work with coaches to
help us with the diet and theworkouts to supplement that.
We eat more protein, we pushheavier weights in the gym to
try and build muscle.
That's anabolic.
Anabolic dieting, dieting.
(17:47):
Then there's catabolic dieting,which is breaking down, losing
weight.
That again is usually coached.
We want to have a coach forthat.
We do the math.
We put you in a calorie deficitfrom 2000 down to maybe a 400
calorie deficit to 1600.
See how that goes and see howthe weight starts to come off.
But at first we have to have ahealthy metabolic system in
order to either gain weight orlose weight.
So if you're in that category,then you just need a little bit
(18:10):
of help.
But the fundamental is fix thediet first.
Then you're going to start tosee results immediately.
If you're overweight and youeat like this, you're going to
just naturally lose some weightby doing this.
It's just the way it goes.
If you're underweight, you'rejust naturally going to put on a
little bit more weight becauseyour body is going to be
fulfilled with nutrients.
(18:30):
It's really cool what ends uphappening for a lot of people.
And if you're just sick andtired of being sick and tired
and you do this, I guarantee youyou're going to feel better in
most ways Maybe not always, butin most ways you're going to
notice a difference.
Health isn't about perfection,it's about consistency.
That's what all these blue zonesdo.
(18:50):
It's like their life is onrepeat.
It's not very exciting.
It's not very Netflix.
No movies are remade of theirlives on Netflix.
They're not exciting lives.
There's no drama there.
They have a lot of friends,they do the same things they sit
down and drink coffee.
They have time, they haveculture, they have social skills
(19:12):
, they have socialization.
They're not stuck in front ofscreens, food is joy and they
walk everywhere.
These are how these culturesall make it, and you can see how
different our culture is andwhere we live off, hopping in
the car to go everywhere anddoing all these things, and why
we end up feeling the way we do.
Eat real food, mostly plants,not too much, and include
protein in every meal and tryand change one habit this week,
(19:33):
just for listening from thispodcast and see what ends up
happening.
Give us some feedback, tell ushow it went.
If you have any more questions,info at fulllifetampacom, let
us know.
Have a great and healthy week,stay well, stay healthy, Take
care.
today we're talking about the best diet to follow if
you're an adult who isn't aprofessional athlete but you do
exercise, move your body andwant to stay healthy long term
keto, vegan, paleo,mediterranean, intermittent
fasting which is best?
Let's simplify it today, onliving a full life With me, dr
(00:26):
Enrico Dolcecori Thanks fortuning in for another week of
living a full life podcast.
These are fun.
This one's going to bejam-packed, fast-paced and kind
of a summary of all the dietworkshops and seminars and
podcasts that I've done over mycareer.
There is no one diet to follow.
If we really want to look aroundthe world, especially the blue
(00:48):
zones, they've been studied sowell and deeply because they're
trying to figure out why dothese certain areas live so long
and so well?
It's not just their centennialage, it's that they really do
really well with overallwellness, and that's the beauty
of eating well and a healthydiet.
So they don't follow a diet,they don't pick up the
Mediterranean diet book and eatthat way.
(01:10):
Their culture surrounds themwith daily habits, just fall
into good eating and goodexercise.
And how can we mimic that inour lives, no matter where we
live in the US, europe, aroundthe world, wherever we're at how
do we mimic that type ofbehavior to influence our
overall health and wellness, toget those types of results?
(01:30):
These people live with lowosteoarthritis, low inflammatory
conditions, balance is great,their lean muscle mass is
maintained.
They have all these greatthings that they've maintained
because of the daily habits thatthey're on.
They're not on a diet.
Their diet is their habits, andwe have to start to focus in
that type of a way in order toinfluence health in our life and
(01:52):
maintain wellness and influenceour children to live healthy
lives as well.
So those daily habits and whatwe fill our home and our
environment with that keeps ushealthy and on point with foods.
There's a lot of temptingthings out there to get, both at
the grocery stores and fastfoods, but what we're going to
talk about in today's podcast ishow to surround ourselves with
things that will just influenceus easily to do the right things
(02:16):
habitually.
That's the focus of thispodcast today.
So there's some core rules tofollow.
When we talk about diet, we needto prioritize whole foods.
This is just number one to thefoundation of this.
If we don't do this, the restall just falls apart.
It has to be whole food based.
We can't be opening up boxesand cans and packages and
(02:39):
expecting health in returnhealth and wellness.
It's not going to happen.
It's going to come from thewhole foods.
Whole foods have everything thatwe need.
That's why they're called whole.
They have everything we need inthem for our macro and
micronutrients in the human body.
So we've got to prioritizewhole foods like vegetables,
fruits, lean proteins, healthyfats and even whole grains.
(03:00):
Whole grains is what we want alittle bit in our diet as well.
And then we want number two isto balance our macronutrients.
Don't fear carbs.
They're not bad.
We have to get these carbs in.
It's just.
Where are we getting thesecarbs?
They have to come from wholefoods, fruits.
That's where our carbohydrateshave to come from Fruits, grains
(03:21):
and vegetables.
Fats are very important andproteins.
Each plays a role in the humanbody and are the foundational
building blocks to everythingthat we do Our hormones, our
cells, our skin everything isbuilt off of the macro and
micronutrients that we eat.
So we have to minimizeprocessed foods.
They're around, they'retempting, they're there all the
(03:44):
time.
Your job as a parent and as anadult is to minimize the
purchasing of these things andthe consumption of these things.
It just has to be a rule.
You just don't walk through themiddle aisle.
You don't buy a lot of packagedstuff Reduced added sugars,
refined oils, fried foods andpackaged snacks.
(04:04):
Sugars, refined oils, friedfoods and packaged snacks.
If you do that, the 90% ofeverything else you buy is going
to be good.
It's the number one thing inWestern culture that has crept
into our homes and into ourdiets.
That is, the number one causeof most of the diseases that we
can link back to is fromprocessed foods.
We know this, we all know this.
(04:26):
You can't pretend like this isthe first time you've heard this
.
We know this.
Minimize the processed foods andI also get an understanding of
what processed foods are.
Some of you are like okay, I'llpick up the Oreos, but
everything else is good.
No, if it's packaged andprocessed in a plant, there is
no wholeness to that food.
It is diminished and it'sfilled with salts, msgs,
(04:49):
preservatives, sugars and rancidoils.
That's the problem with thesefoods.
They actually cause inflammation.
That's the issue with processedfoods.
Once you eat them, it'skerosene on the fire and it
causes more inflammation.
Then what we have to do,because we live in this world of
processed foods, is eatanti-inflammatory foods berries,
(05:12):
leafy greens, fatty fish, oliveoil, nuts, turmeric, ginger
these things should be in yourfridge and in your home at all
times because they act asanti-inflammatories when you
cook with them or eat with them,they're wonderful to have in
your home.
We need to hydrate well.
Another reason forinflammations we're just a
(05:33):
little dehydrated sometimes.
So water first.
We have to be drinking water.
A hundred ounces of water perday limit.
Carbohydrate drinks, sugarydrinks and excessive alcohol
these things just cause moreinflammation in the body.
So, minimizing the bad,accelerating the good that's the
blue zones around the world andwhat they do.
(05:53):
I think one major thing aboutmost of the blue zones, aside
from California's blue zone andItaly's blue zone well, I think
just California's blue zone zoneis they don't have access to
all the processed foods asreadily as maybe that group in
California.
But the other blue zones aroundthe world Japan, greece, italy,
(06:14):
costa Rica these places don'thave access to the amount of
processed foods like other areas, and that's one of their
successes is because they justdon't have it.
They're not tempted with it,they don't have it and that is
why they live healthier.
When we say healthier, it's notjust living to a hundred.
It's making it to 90 years oldand walking, and still being
(06:36):
able to walk, go down the streetwith the dog, come back.
That at 90 is great.
When somebody on your 80thbirthday asks you would you like
to come golfing, you're like,yeah, I could go, do nine holes,
let's go.
That is what health is allabout being able being able to
do the things that you want todo and not being disabled.
(06:56):
Does that make sense In a wayof old age crippling us down?
That is the definition oflongevity and health.
So Timing, timing Last one here.
Timing matters less thanquality.
Aim for consistent meals tosupport energy and exercise
recovery.
(07:16):
Another problem in America,specifically in the Western
world, is people under-eat,under-eat and are obese.
It's a conundrum, it'sconfusing, but really, when you
look underneath, in the panelsand the hormones and what's
going on on the inside, they'vewrecked the hormonal balance in
their body from all the yo-yodieting in their lives and now
(07:39):
their endocrine system justdoesn't work as well as it used
to.
They're insulin sensitive.
They are thyroid paralyzed.
They have a lot of issues thatare going on that even though
they eat low calorie, they'renot able to lose the weight.
Their body hangs onto itbecause of the nutrition that
they're eating is processed.
So the body sees this, itdigests it.
(08:02):
There's not the macronutrientsthat it needs and it puts the
body into starvation mode,thinking that they're just not
getting nutrition and thatthey're dying.
So they don't want to loseweight.
That's what happens instarvation mode is we just don't
want to lose the weight.
It's metabolic catastrophe andthat's why we get stuck.
What do you do to reverse that?
Very difficult to reverse it.
(08:23):
What you do is you eat morefood whole foods and then
eliminate anti-inflammatoryfoods, and this takes time.
You have to be patient, youhave to do it for a while.
And what happens with thenutrition?
Over time, it replenishes thebody.
The body heals properly.
We've seen thyroid start tofunction better, we've seen
pituitary start to functionbetter.
(08:44):
We've seen sex hormones startto produce better and all of a
sudden now the increase in thenatural metabolic changes in the
body start to burn fat.
So just through food I didn'teven mention anything about
exercise just by doing that, wehave to get ourselves out of the
rut of the metabolic syndromethat we're in.
So timing matters.
We have to eat meals throughoutthe day.
(09:05):
That is what the blue zones dotoo.
As soon as they start to feel alittle bit of hunger, they
drink water and then eat a snackor eat their meal, and it's
time they wake up.
In the morning, they have theroutine, lunch they have the
routine, and dinner they havethe routine.
And I'm going to show you theseroutines in this podcast today.
Here's some meal planning tips.
Before we talk about the foods.
(09:26):
I know that you just want tohear doc just tell me what to
eat.
I'll do it.
No, you won't, but you'll.
You think you're going to do it.
But here's a tip.
We had a plan for success.
So plan around protein.
This is tip number one.
Each time you're going to eat,you have to think what's the
protein I'm going to eat?
Because if you don't think that, then grabbing some crackers
and some cheese and somecarbohydrates and some fruit and
(09:48):
some blueberries and whateverprocessed foods we grab chips,
all the snacky stuff that wegrab is all high in
carbohydrates and bad fats.
There's very low protein inthem.
So if we don't think proteinfirst, this is how we really tip
the scales to a very highcarbohydrate and fat diet and a
low protein diet, which ismetabolic disaster.
(10:09):
So plan around protein.
Start with lean proteins firstChicken, fish, eggs, legumes,
greek yogurt and build mealsfrom there.
I told you about meats, I toldyou about vegetarian options.
I just told you I coveredeveryone's bases right there
with just those five, sixexamples.
So think of protein.
First, batch cook.
(10:29):
Then we want to batch cook andprepare meals.
Prepare proteins, roastedveggies and grains in bulk.
To save time, cook a batch ofroasted veggies, cook a batch of
chicken, cook a batch of, or awhole pot of rice or quinoa or
whatever it is for you, so thatyou can portion it and plan it
for your lunches throughout thenext two, three days.
(10:51):
Shop the perimeter of thegrocery store.
That rule still applies wellfor most grocery stores.
It avoids the central aisleswhere all the processed food is,
and that's where all the freshfood live.
For a majority of the stores.
It's a good rule to follow.
Make snacks intentional.
Don't just wait till you'rehungry and go grab the
carbohydrate, the pretzels andthe chips.
(11:12):
What we need to do is we needto plan our snacks.
Have them packaged so that wedon't get into any trouble.
Nuts, fruits, hummus withveggies, protein shakes have
these readily available so thatyou can consume them when you
need them.
Keep it simple, repeatable andseasonal when you need them.
Keep it simple, repeatable andseasonal.
Rotate two, three breakfasts,three or four lunches and
(11:38):
dinners and change with theseasons so that when the
watermelon season comes out, youstart to bring that in as your
fruit and then when the squashescome out in the fall, you start
bringing squash into your diet,if you like that stuff, just
when those seasonal things comein not pumpkin spice lattes,
people, for Pete's sakes.
What we're doing is we want tobring in the squashes, the other
ones, the spaghetti squash, theother squashes, and bring those
in in the falls and start maybecooking with them as our
(11:59):
veggies.
That way we're eatingseasonally as well.
It keeps a mix of your diet andthen gives you some of those
micronutrients that you might bemissing from time to time and
brings them back into the bodyHigher levels of copper,
selenium, zinc, whatever it isthat you're missing from some
ground vegetables.
It's just a great rule tofollow.
And guess what the blue zonesdo?
They eat seasonally as well.
(12:21):
Best meals to prepare here yougo the meat and gravy of this
podcast.
There you go, the meat of thispodcast.
Give breakfast ideas.
There's two ways to do this.
I eat almost the same breakfastvirtually every day.
I just default to it.
It's egg whites, an egg, maybesome deli turkey or some ground
(12:41):
turkey in it, veggies, if I havetime to chop them up, and
either oatmeal as a carb or apiece of Dave's bread with
peanut butter or almond butteron it.
It's just a well-rounded 45, 50gram of protein meal, 30 grams
of carbs, 12 grams of fat.
It's just one of those 475calorie breakfast.
(13:02):
That just starts me off theright way.
But ideas for you overnightoats with chia seeds, berries,
almond butter, peanut butter,whatever it is.
Veggie omelet with avocado or aside of fruit Any fruit you
choose.
Berries are the best.
Greek yogurt with walnuts, flaxseeds and blueberries.
There you go.
When your kids are like I wantto wait for breakfast, get them
(13:23):
excited about Greek yogurt, getthem excited about avocado
Omelets, toast with their almondbutter on it.
These types of start your kidsoff to a great morning as well.
But for you, those are someexamples there as well.
It's not cereal, pancakes,cupcakes, starbucks, drive-thru.
That's not breakfast.
It's just rancid oils, too highin fat and a lot of
(13:47):
carbohydrates.
It's just not protein centricfat and a lot of carbohydrates,
it's just not protein centric.
Some lunch ideas Grilledchicken salad with mixed greens,
olive oil and quinoa it's agreat lunch.
Lentil soup with side ofroasted sweet potato, turkey
wrap in a whole grain, tortillawith hummus and veggies.
Just off the top of my head.
You can substitute otherproteins there ground beef, fish
(14:11):
, whatever you want to make.
Different salads, differentmixes.
I typically default to eitherchicken mostly chicken or salmon
, roasted veggies and somequinoa or rice.
That's my typical go-to lunch.
The roasted veggies may switchup every week.
There may be onion, zucchini,eggplant in one of them, then
another one, cauliflower, onions, mushrooms and another maybe
(14:32):
just cauliflower or justbroccoli, whatever you mix it up
.
But I'm eating the same sevenor eight veggies all day.
I'm eating the same three orfour proteins every day and I'm
eating the same four fruitsevery day and then, as the
seasons come in, we're like, oh,pineapples are out, or oh,
watermelon is out, or oh, it'scherry season or whatever it is.
Then you substitute those inand you have a variety of fruits
(14:53):
as the year goes on.
Dinner ideas baked salmon,steamed broccoli, roasted
potatoes they can be yellowpotatoes, they can be sweet
potato, they can be whatever youlike.
Stir fry with lean beef,colorful veggies and brown rice,
chickpea curry and spinach andcauliflower rice, making it all
(15:14):
fun.
Once you start to learn howfoods work, you realize the
macronutrient portions start tobecome a lot easier to follow
once you're protein centric, ifyou make sure your protein is
there.
Now how much protein should yoube eating?
You've heard everything fromhalf a gram of per pound of your
body weight all the way up toI've heard two grams, which is
(15:34):
ridiculous.
So what is right?
If you walk 10,000 steps a dayand you eat well, this is the
rule you want to follow.
You want to eat one gram perpound of body weight.
So if you're 175 pounds, youwant to eat 175 grams.
Aim for 175 grams of protein perday to maintain your lean
(15:54):
muscle mass.
If we're in a weight lossprogram, we go down a little bit
.
If we're in a bodybuildingprogram, we go a little bit
higher.
But that's not most of us.
That's very few of us that aredoing that at the time.
Most of us are trying tomaintain a healthy lifestyle.
That's the rule from theliterature that shows how to
prevent sarcopenia, how tomaintain lean muscle mass, how
to be stronger boned when you're80, less falls when you're 80,
(16:18):
better balance when you're 80.
That's where the research allpoints back to about one gram
per pound of your body weight.
Okay, that's when we want tolook at that.
So let's say it's 175 grams ofprotein per day.
So 200 times four that's almost800 calories of your diet,
which is about seven.
Let's say 720 calories per dayof your 2000 calorie diet is
(16:41):
going to be protein works out toabout 35% of your diet, of your
macronutrients.
The other 35% should becarbohydrates and then you're
left with about 30% of your dietfats.
That's the simple rule.
It's simple.
It works really well.
It's the blue zone way ofliving life and people are very
(17:01):
successful on it.
Some snacks apple slices withalmond butter or peanut butter
my kids like that for morningbreakfasts and snacks.
Carrots and hummus Just hummushas a lot of protein in it.
Protein smoothie with spinach,banana and plant-based protein
powder to just pack it up withsome more protein in there as
well.
So that's some food for thought.
(17:24):
That is the diet basis thatjust works.
When we're in a bodybuildingprogram, we work with coaches to
help us with the diet and theworkouts to supplement that.
We eat more protein, we pushheavier weights in the gym to
try and build muscle.
That's anabolic.
Anabolic dieting, dieting.
(17:47):
Then there's catabolic dieting,which is breaking down, losing
weight.
That again is usually coached.
We want to have a coach forthat.
We do the math.
We put you in a calorie deficitfrom 2000 down to maybe a 400
calorie deficit to 1600.
See how that goes and see howthe weight starts to come off.
But at first we have to have ahealthy metabolic system in
order to either gain weight orlose weight.
So if you're in that category,then you just need a little bit
(18:10):
of help.
But the fundamental is fix thediet first.
Then you're going to start tosee results immediately.
If you're overweight and youeat like this, you're going to
just naturally lose some weightby doing this.
It's just the way it goes.
If you're underweight, you'rejust naturally going to put on a
little bit more weight becauseyour body is going to be
fulfilled with nutrients.
(18:30):
It's really cool what ends uphappening for a lot of people.
And if you're just sick andtired of being sick and tired
and you do this, I guarantee youyou're going to feel better in
most ways Maybe not always, butin most ways you're going to
notice a difference.
Health isn't about perfection,it's about consistency.
That's what all these blue zonesdo.
(18:50):
It's like their life is onrepeat.
It's not very exciting.
It's not very Netflix.
No movies are remade of theirlives on Netflix.
They're not exciting lives.
There's no drama there.
They have a lot of friends,they do the same things they sit
down and drink coffee.
They have time, they haveculture, they have social skills
(19:12):
, they have socialization.
They're not stuck in front ofscreens, food is joy and they
walk everywhere.
These are how these culturesall make it, and you can see how
different our culture is andwhere we live off, hopping in
the car to go everywhere anddoing all these things, and why
we end up feeling the way we do.
Eat real food, mostly plants,not too much, and include
protein in every meal and tryand change one habit this week,
(19:33):
just for listening from thispodcast and see what ends up
happening.
Give us some feedback, tell ushow it went.
If you have any more questions,info at fulllifetampacom, let
us know.
Have a great and healthy week,stay well, stay healthy, Take
care.
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