April 10, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode of the Buena Vida Podcast, we’re joined by Dr. Tabbetha Lopez—a registered dietitian, licensed dietician, who holds a Ph.D. in Kinesiology and is a former collegiate athlete—for an inspiring and practical conversation about nutrition, movement, and well-being. Dr. Lopez shares her personal journey and professional insights into how we can shift from a restrictive mindset around food to one that’s rooted in balance, joy, and sustainability.
Together, we explore:
- How to ditch diet culture and embrace a more balanced mindset around food
- Practical, science-backed strategies to eat more fruits and vegetables
- The psychology of emotional eating and how to navigate it
- Why food is more than fuel—and how to cultivate a positive relationship with it
- What it really means to live a “good life” when it comes to health
Whether you’re just starting your wellness journey or looking to reset your relationship with food, this episode is full of empowering takeaways and real-life strategies.
Resources Discussed:
- Buena Vida Well-being Program (Join Five to Thrive Nutrition Challenge here!)
- Nutrition Programs: Wondr and Real Appeal
- HealthSelect of Texas Health Plan Resources (Search Nutrition in the document)
- Join "Motivation Monday" sessions each week to talk about health and well-being and to move a little to start your week!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Lopez (00:00):
It's really about consistency, so that 80-20 rule
I use a lot.
If we can choose healthy foods80% of the time, then that 20%
is kind of a wash.
Lacy Wolff (00:14):
Hi everyone and welcome to the Buena Vida
podcast, where we explore whatit means to live a good life
through health, well-being andbalanced choices.
I'm your host, lacey Wolfe, andtoday I am honored to be joined
by Dr Tabitha Lopez, who is apowerhouse in the world of
health and nutrition.
Dr Lopez holds a PhD inkinesiology and she is also a
(00:35):
registered and licenseddietitian with a deep passion
for helping people buildsustainable, healthy habits.
Her career has spanned clinical, outpatient and bariatric
nutrition, giving her a uniqueperspective on the challenges
people face when it comes tofood and well-being.
Her journey goes beyond justnutrition.
Dr Lopez herself was acollegiate athlete.
(00:57):
She was a dancer at theUniversity of Houston all
throughout college and she alsowas a Houston Texans cheerleader
.
Her background in movement andperformance gives her a holistic
and interesting view of health,and I think she does a really
great job of connecting the dotsbetween nutrition, fitness and
overall well-being.
In our episode today, we'regoing to dive into practical,
(01:19):
science-backed nutritionstrategies and how to develop a
healthier relationship with food.
We'll talk about shifting fromrestrictive dieting to a
balanced mindset.
Dr Lopez will also sharestrategies for integrating more
fruits and vegetables into ourdiet and why that's important,
and her thoughts on emotionaleating and how she actually
(01:39):
works with patients to manageemotional eating challenges.
We will, of course, wrap upwith our Buena Vida question
what does living a good lifemean?
And she has some really greatinsight into what living a good
life is.
I think so if you've ever feltoverwhelmed by nutrition advice
(02:00):
or you've struggled to find arealistic approach to healthy
living, this is a greatconversation, so let's dive in.
Here we go.
Good morning, dr Lopez, andthank you so much for being a
guest on the Buena Vida podcast.
I am so happy to have you.
I think nutrition is one of themost confusing and
(02:20):
controversial issues when itcomes to health, so thank you
for being with us.
Dr. Lopez (02:25):
Thank you so much for having me Lacy.
I look forward to thisconversation.
Lacy Wolff (02:29):
Yeah, I'm really hoping you can help kind of
clear some things up for folksand that we can get into some
strategies and things that canreally help improve health, just
simple things that we can alldo to improve our health through
good nutrition.
So let's get started.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
You have a very interestingbackground.
Can you tell our listeners alittle bit about you?
Where did you come from and howdid you get into the world of
(02:53):
dietetics?
Dr. Lopez (02:54):
So currently I'm an assistant professor at Sam
Houston State in the College ofHealth Sciences.
I am the director of thegraduate program in dietetics,
which means I am training thefuture dietitians that we're
putting out into the workforce,and so we get to do a lot of
activities with them communityoutreach things like that to
(03:18):
kind of give back and providethat nutrition education into
the community.
Lacy Wolff (03:23):
Yeah, and I was so grateful for the opportunity
when I met you.
It's because of the work you'redoing to support the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice,who is also in Huntsville, which
I mean it's just amazing workthat y'all are doing there and
so wonderful that you have thesegrad students that are fired up
and passionate about supportingtheir community.
So I love that.
(03:43):
Yeah, so you worked in clinical, outpatient and bariatric
settings.
You talked about how you workeda lot.
You have a focus in obesity anddisordered eating.
What are some of the biggestchallenges that people face that
you've seen from that work?
Dr. Lopez (03:59):
That's tough and maybe I maybe I should go back
and tell you a little bit moreabout how I became a dietitian,
because I think that influencesmy trajectory as a dietitian.
So I actually did not even knowyou could be a dietitian.
I didn't know that that waseven such a thing.
I actually was a collegeathlete.
I danced for the University ofHouston for four years and then
(04:23):
I decided to pursue cheering forthe Houston Texans and during
that process is actually when Iwas working with a personal
trainer and I was working with adietitian and found out that
you could be a dietitian and sowas very interested in both,
decided to go back to school todo both.
So I got all my personaltraining certificates while I
(04:48):
was going to school to get mynutrition degree worked as a
personal trainer, was a leveltwo Pilates instructor of every
certification you can imagine,worked up as the lead educator
for Lifetime Fitness.
So I was training all of thetrainers for Lifetime Fitness
and then during this wholeprocess realized well, maybe you
(05:12):
know, I should just be anutritionist, maybe I don't have
to be a dietician, but as I'mworking with all these people, I
realized that I could not helphalf of my patients, half of my
clients as a personal trainer,with nutrition, because they all
had disease states.
And that's what really issignificant about a dietitian is
(05:34):
that we use medical nutritiontherapy to treat disease states
with food.
And so, just as a plainnutritionist, I couldn't help
half of my clients that I wastraining with food, and so that
was really my motivation to kindof go back and be a dietician.
Of these disorder eatingbehaviors from healthy
(05:56):
individuals to my overweight andobese clients, like kind of the
whole spectrum, even kids thatI had worked with.
So that kind of like directedmy path when I later became a
(06:16):
dietitian.
So, yes, I worked in theclinical setting.
Clinical, you really get to seea little bit of everything.
I think my outpatient settinghas provided me with the most
experience dealing withindividuals and their individual
(06:37):
issues relating to food, and sowe do see, you know,
misinformation is huge.
People are bombarded with theinternet and all this nutrition
advice that's out there.
Sustainability and what I meanby that is like sustaining long
term change will come to me lotsof patients and be like okay,
(07:06):
well, I did this, I did this fora couple of months and it
worked really well and I wasachieving my goals, okay, great,
like why did we stop Right?
And like identifying thosebarriers and trying to work
around those barriers thatprevent that sustainability of
change.
Emotionally it's probablyanother really big one.
I think a lot of people myconcern with emotionally eating
(07:28):
is a lot of people don't realizethat they're doing it, and so
my counseling sessions tend tobe a little deep and we kind of
pull on those littleheartstrings a little bit to
kind of get that out of likeokay, well, I, the patient, is
experiencing overeating, but whyare you experiencing that
overeating?
Like what else is going onduring that time that's causing
(07:52):
you to overeat, right?
So sometimes it turns into alittle bit of a counseling
session too.
You know there are some deeperissues and I really think the
other thing is probably lack ofaccess to nutritious foods.
High calorie, low nutritionallydense foods are readily
available to us.
(08:13):
They're everywhere, so it'seasy just to grab a bag of
potato chips right, and thenkeep doing whatever it is you're
doing, so helping people getaccess to healthy food and
knowing how to use healthy foodright, right, absolutely.
Sometimes we make it reallycomplicated, yeah for sure.
Lacy Wolff (08:38):
And, yeah, you laid out so many things there that I
think all of us can relate to,because, even if you can't
afford good food, it's harder tobecause you have to buy it, you
have to make it, it'sadditional effort, whereas the
readily kind of what we callultra processed food is just so
easy.
It's right there in thatvending machine.
You know if I'm not so, yeah,when it comes to and you talked
(09:00):
a little bit about, I want tocome back to you said medical
nutrition therapy.
Can you explain for people thathave not any experience with a
registered dietitian what thatlooks like and what it is?
Dr. Lopez (09:13):
Yeah, so what it means is that we treat diseases
with food, and so maybe that'sincluding certain foods or
excluding certain foods.
It depends on the disease state.
Maybe it's managing thosemacronutrients like your
carbohydrates, your proteins andyour fats, so adding more of
(09:34):
those or taking out some ofthose, like, depending on the
disease state.
And that's really.
You know where we, asdieticians, work with the
medical team.
So we're trained to understanddisease states.
Look at lab values, understandwhat test values mean, how we
can impact someone's diet whichwill impact those lab values.
Lacy Wolff (09:57):
And do you think that when you treat someone's
disease state with food, is thatas effective, or could it be
more effective thanpharmacological treatment
sometimes?
Or what are your thoughts onthat?
Dr. Lopez (10:12):
Sometimes I don't want to step on any of my
medical team's toes.
We try to work in partnership.
Okay, sometimes we asdieticians can't necessarily
cure the disease, but we canimprove the disease status.
Ok, I'll give you an example.
But diabetes, for example, anewly diagnosed diabetic, may be
(10:35):
initially on medication andthen we would hope, as
dieticians, to work with thatindividual to change their
behaviors and their dietaryintake and over time we'll
actually improve their bloodsugar and we can even get them
off that medication.
So sometimes maybe that's atemporary solution.
We get them on medication tostabilize them while we're
(10:58):
making those kind of behavioralchanges.
Lacy Wolff (11:01):
Right, and that behavior change, like you said,
is the hardest part.
Dr. Lopez (11:05):
It is, and then sustaining it right Once we make
that change.
Lacy Wolff (11:09):
So let's talk about that behavior change.
I think that's a really goodtransition into the next thing
that I wanted to talk to youabout how can people actually
work to shift their mindset froma more restrictive dieting,
like one thing we think aboutall the time like I'm going on a
diet to this idea that we couldjust eat well, forever right,
(11:33):
having a balance and sustainingthose good behaviors.
How can we shift that mindset?
How do we do it?
Dr. Lopez (11:39):
Yeah, so the first thing I really work with
patients on is that this is nota diet.
We are starting a lifestylechange and that's really how we
have to look at it, because adiet like the whole 30, not to
pick on one, but the whole 30has like start date and an end
date, right, and so it's likeyou can do anything for 30 days,
(12:01):
right, but no, what we reallywant to do is develop that
consistent change in ourselvesand our intake.
So that's rule number one.
There is no diet.
This is a lifestyle change.
Also, understanding, I think,that health is not perfect.
It's really about consistency.
So that 80-20 rule I use a lot.
(12:23):
If we can choose healthy foods80% of the time, then that 20%
is kind of a wash.
So I think you know givingourselves some flexibility and
some grace, you know, aroundfood, I think also like balance
All food is good food.
(12:43):
It's just how do we balance itin our day, and so we spend a
lot of time talking about that.
Sometimes I'll use the analogyof like a bank account.
You know we got to balance ourbank account and like okay, and
so that patients tend to bepretty receptive about balancing
your bank account.
Lacy Wolff (13:02):
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense Because I mean there's
there's's gonna be days whereyou're gonna go into a deficit,
but then tomorrow maybe you savea little more.
Dr. Lopez (13:10):
So yeah, yeah, or even just on a day-to-day basis.
I think sometimes people thinklike, oh well, if I'm on a
healthy diet, that means I can'tgo out to dinner.
No, it just means maybe I havesomething light, maybe I have a
salad with grilled chicken on itfor lunch so I can save more of
those calories that I'm goingto need for a dinner restaurant.
(13:37):
And so kind of like figuringout how to balance your day and
what's important to you, kind ofwithin some constraints.
Lacy Wolff (13:46):
I love that you picked on Whole30, because my
husband and I we call it wholelife.
We're always like whole lifediet because it can't be for 30
days, so I don't know if anyoneit's a much better perspective.
Yeah, it's a great nutrition.
I mean it's good, but can youdo it forever?
Is the question always when westart anything.
(14:07):
So, all right, let's talk aboutsome of the conflicting
nutrition information out there.
I know there's a.
There's a lot of like dietrecommendations.
There's a lot of people whokind of call themselves experts
that may not have training innutrition online.
We look at Instagram and thingslike that.
What core principles like what?
(14:29):
What are some things thateverybody could benefit from
when it comes to nutrition andkind of bust through some of
that misinformation.
Dr. Lopez (14:38):
Oh, oh gosh may open a whole can of worms for me here
.
What is it?
So?
I think balance is a big thing.
I think a lot of themisinformation we hear are
extremes.
We should be having nocarbohydrates, or we should be
having all carbohydrates or nofat, right?
They're the extremes when youreally look at the biochemistry
(15:02):
of the body and how the bodyfunctions.
The body needs carbs, proteinsand fats, and it needs a good
balance of those, and so it'snot the extremes.
Your body doesn't want thoseextremes, and so if we can
balance out those macronutrientspretty well in the body, it
functions at its highestcapacity, and we see that across
(15:25):
normal people, we see thatacross athletes right, sometimes
we weigh a little bit more inone than we do in the other, but
really they're all kind ofpretty level.
I think the other thing that Iwould want people to know is
about supplement use.
There is not a lot of researchon supplements.
Supplements are not regulatedby the FDA, and so there are a
(15:50):
lot of supplements on theinternet.
There's a lot of supplements onTikTok.
Please be very careful,whatever it is that you're
choosing to take or to try,because they're just, they're
not regulated, and so really youdon't know what it is you're
(16:11):
putting in your body and it kindof along those same lines there
, like there is no magic pillOtherwise, as a dietician I
would not have a job.
So there is no like magic powder.
I won't pick on anyone inspecific.
There's no magic powder.
You mix in your water and thenyou lose 20 pounds.
Like it doesn't happen,unfortunately.
Unfortunately, I mean, for allof us.
(16:34):
It doesn't happen.
I think those I've been.
Oh well, there's dietarypatterns, so like when we when I
say dietary patterns, I'mthinking like keto or those
whole 30, those kinds of dietthings.
There is no one size fits allsolution.
(16:54):
You have to figure out whatworks best for you and maybe
it's a combination of that, likeyou mentioned your husband and
you follow like the whole 30 asa lifestyle, which is great and
maybe that would work forsomebody else, but maybe we need
to modify it a little bit more.
Lacy Wolff (17:12):
I follow it, but I also make sourdough bread,
Tabitha.
Dr. Lopez (17:18):
You have modified it so that it works for you Exactly
.
Yeah, no dairy, no simplecarbohydrate, no potato no, it
is potato.
You can eat potatoes, but norice no pasta, anything like
(17:51):
that.
Lacy Wolff (17:52):
And we took that and we were like, okay, but I'm
going to eat yogurt, I'm goingto eat cheese.
Dr. Lopez (17:59):
It's creating a, and so it's not even at all the
whole 30 really creating a, andso it's not even at all the
whole 30 really, but you havetaken something that worked for
you and modify it to make itmore consistent for you, and I
think that is what, as anoutpatient dietitian, that's my
goal is to learn about mypatient and help them find
(18:20):
something that works for them,and so that's very
individualized.
Lacy Wolff (18:25):
Yes, that makes sense.
So you talked a little bitearlier about emotional eating
being one of the main issues orchallenges that people face.
How do you help people that?
How do you work through some ofthat for people that may be
dealing with it?
Dr. Lopez (18:43):
Yeah, I think the first thing is awareness, so
helping people develop thatawareness of what's happening
and so what I use.
There's a couple techniquesthat we use.
I usually start with justmaking them think for like 15,
30 seconds before they go to thekitchen and get that snack.
Just stop, give me 15 seconds,think about why are you going to
(19:08):
get that snack?
Like, what are you feelingright now?
Like, are you feeling truehunger?
Like your stomach is growling,you have some stomach pains.
Like you're feeling lightheaded, like you have true hunger.
Please go get that snack.
Right, I want you to eat, butif you're sitting there going,
I'm not really hungry and I'mjust stressed out with work and
(19:32):
I can't believe I have to dothis.
I can't believe I have.
You know this is going on right.
Then, like, do we really needthis act?
Is this?
And then, like, is this notgoing to solve that problem?
Maybe temporarily, for the nextfive minutes, but after that no
.
And then we start working onokay, now we've identified those
(19:55):
times Like okay, I emotionallywhen I get stressed out at work.
Okay, now we've identified thatand we're getting better at
picking up on those times whenyou do that.
Now, what can we do instead ofgoing to get something to eat?
Maybe it's going for a littlewalk around the building, maybe
(20:16):
it's breathing techniques, maybeit's, you know, calling your
friend and venting for a coupleof minutes Like everybody's
different right.
But what is that?
What is something else that wecan do to release that that
would actually probably be moreproductive and may actually work
than just pulling out somethingand eating it Because really it
(20:39):
seems like we eat for all kindsof different emotional reasons.
Lacy Wolff (20:43):
I think there's the cliche like eating the bucket of
ice cream when I'm sad, but wealso eat when we're happy to
celebrate, and we eat becausewe're bored.
So there's a lot of emotionaltriggers.
Dr. Lopez (20:57):
Yeah, and a lot of habits that we develop too.
That's something else we workon.
I always use the example ofthere's people who get in their
car because they eat in theircar.
That's a trigger for them, sothey get in their car.
Their brain says I'm hungry, Iwant to eat, and so they'll
actually tell you that when theyget in their car they're hungry
.
And I'm like are you reallyLike?
(21:19):
You just left lunch 20 minutesago.
Are you truly hungry?
And I feel hunger?
Left lunch 20 minutes ago.
Are you truly hungry?
And I feel hunger.
But their body has created thishabit where their mind thinks
oh, we're in the car, we shouldeat now.
Yeah, so trying to figure thatpiece out can be challenging too
.
Lacy Wolff (21:39):
Wow.
So yeah, you're, you kind ofserve, as I mean it's like a
nutrition therapist.
Dr. Lopez (21:46):
You're right.
Sometimes I feel like we do alot of counseling.
Yeah, my patients and I ask alot of personal questions, but I
need to understand my patientin order to help them and make
those recommendations.
Lacy Wolff (22:00):
Yeah, that's great.
I'm sure so many people couldbenefit from sitting down and
talking with a dietitian likeyourself, and I think that's one
of the things that I will beputting in the show notes are
the guidelines for our healthplan for people actually want to
work with a dietitian.
We also have a program calledWonder Health that I've been
(22:22):
through several times personally.
That's really helped me with alot of the things you're talking
about with understanding hungercues and what emotions are
driving this eating behavior,like putting my fork down in
between bites, because the habitof just eating fast is
something that I struggle withpersonally.
So I'll put all that in theshow notes.
If you're listening and youwould like some resources, we
(22:45):
will have those available.
So I wanted to kind of talk toyou.
I know you said you have a PhDin kinesiology and that is a
great love of yours is a studyof exercise and movement.
How does exercise or physicalactivity help support a healthy
diet and how can that also helpus with our long-term health?
Dr. Lopez (23:04):
Yeah, you know we need exercise.
You know, the thing I see mostfrequently is that people just
struggle with exercise and Ithink actually it's very similar
to diet in the fact that we puta lot of rules around what
exercise looks like and I haveto go to the gym, I have to
(23:26):
spend an hour there, I have tobreak a sweat, like all of these
things right, whereas we losethe point that actually just
movement is so important tohealth in our bodies.
And so, even if we can, justsome of my patients are like,
okay, they're very set.
I had a patient yesterday let'sset a goal of walking 2000
(23:47):
steps a day.
Can we do that consistent?
Like it doesn't have to be a lot, it can be something small to
get us started and then overtime we can slowly increase that
.
Maybe it's taking five minutewalks at the office, you know
every hour, get out of yourchair, go walk for five minutes,
then come back at work.
Maybe it's instilling,something like that.
(24:10):
So I think being moreopen-minded about what physical
activity is is a great place tostart.
But then you know, as peopleget more into consistency of
working out, then we can reallytailor it to what their goals
are and what they're trying toachieve for themselves.
Lacy Wolff (24:30):
Yeah, that makes so much sense and I think it's
interesting because when you'redoing more physical activity,
you are going to be hungrier,and so often do you find that
people may be overeat becausethey are moving more, or does it
help support eating better?
What are your thoughts on that?
Dr. Lopez (24:50):
Oh, it depends.
It depends on the patient first, because we want to.
So if the patient is gettinghungrier and like loss of
adipose tissue, increasing fat,is our goal, right, then there's
other things that we can do,like low calorie foods that we
can help support them with.
We can change up the timing ofmeals, things like that, to help
(25:14):
support them.
So we don't necessarilyincrease the caloric intake
coming in, but sometimes we wantmore calories, right?
If I have a patient who'strying to build mass or build
muscle mass, we want thoseadditional calories.
So the strategies may beslightly different for that
person.
Right, we may be trying tofigure out how to get more
(25:34):
calories in.
We deal with that with athletesa lot like our college athletes
and we're trying to get, youknow, four or 5,000 calories in
them a day.
And you're like my gosh, Idon't.
The kids are like.
I can't eat anymore.
It's so much food.
So it just depends on whattheir goals are and what they're
trying to achieve.
(25:55):
But there's strategies aroundboth things that we can help
patients with.
Lacy Wolff (25:59):
Yeah, and I guess eating at that point for the
college athlete kind of becomesa job and then when you stop
doing that sort of movement andyou've built those habits of
eating so much, then that canbecome a disordered eating
pattern, I guess.
Dr. Lopez (26:15):
Yeah, yeah, and we see that a lot, especially, I
see it in college kids.
You know, those kids that wereplaying high, intense sports in
high school, you know,practicing three, four days a
week.
They could eat whatever theywant when they wanted it right
and, like, still had greatperformance, maintain their body
composition.
(26:35):
And now we've transitioned tocollege and they're still eating
the same amount, but they'renot exercising, they're sitting
at a desk for long periods oftime, you know, in class or
studying.
And so how do we adapt thoseeating behaviors to their new,
you know behaviors, physicalactivity behaviors, right?
Lacy Wolff (26:58):
Or how do we find that happy medium, that classic
freshman 15 that we maybe couldrelate.
Dr. Lopez (27:07):
We just published a study.
We're doing health screeningson college students and we just
published a study.
We're looking at blood pressurein college students and we
assumed that some collegestudents had high blood pressure
um based on stress and poordiet quality and poor physical
activity.
That was kind of our assumption.
(27:27):
Well, 60% of our sample couldbe diagnosed for hypertension.
Wow, Really scary when you're20 year, know 20-year-olds, yeah
, wow.
Lacy Wolff (27:43):
What do we do with that?
I mean, can you, are youworking on an intervention for
them?
Dr. Lopez (27:47):
Yeah, we're still collecting data.
That was some preliminary datawe had, but, yes, the next step
will be.
You know how do we encouragehealthy eating behaviors on
campus, and so we work veryclosely with the food pantry to
make sure they have access tohealthy foods.
We're publishing a cookbookwith the American Heart
(28:09):
Association that should becoming out this summer, and the
fall we're starting a cookingshow and that'll be actually
available to the public, and sowe'll be using the recipes from
the cookbook, but also justminimal resource recipes, things
that are easy to make, that youdon't need a ton of ingredients
for.
A lot of our recipes can bemade in the microwave, because
(28:33):
most people don't know, in adorm you only have access to a
microwave, so we've gottenreally creative in making like
microwave recipes for ourstudents too.
Lacy Wolff (28:43):
I love that.
So yeah, meet people where theyare.
That's, that's the goal.
Dr. Lopez (28:48):
Yeah, I mean I'm glad you said that that's a huge
thing that I follow in mypractice as a dietician is I've
got to meet the patient wherethey are.
And yes, there's this ideal,you know, healthy eating,
healthy physical activity goal.
That's up here.
But we got to start fromwherever that patient is
Absolutely.
Lacy Wolff (29:08):
I know that.
You know, I used to do a lot ofhealth coaching in a clinical
setting when I worked for thearmy and I remember someone told
me if you start from a place ofjudgment, people will feel it.
Someone told me, if you startfrom a place of judgment, people
will feel it.
And I think that's a reallyimportant for any of us that
work with people, meeting themwhere they are.
But I totally digress here.
Dr. Lopez (29:32):
No, and I'm glad you said that too I think a lot of
people think, as a dietitian,that we're just going to tell
you what you should be doing.
Here's some carrots and somecelery and that's what you
should eat the rabbit diet Iwould say.
But no, I think if you find areally good outpatient dietician
, they're going to meet youwhere you are and they're going
(29:53):
to help you achieve your goal,and that's ultimately what what
we should be doing is helpingthat patient achieve.
You know, whatever helpful itis that they have set for
themselves.
Lacy Wolff (30:05):
Yeah, absolutely.
We have no idea what people'sexperience was until the you
know point they walked in thatdoor, I guess, just taking it
all in so well.
I wanted to ask you.
We have a challenge coming upwith ERS, with our new Buena
Vida platform, and it's a simplechallenge.
It's called Five to Thrive.
(30:26):
The goal is to get fiveservings of fruits and
vegetables on a daily basis.
So I ran a report.
We've had about 8,000 peoplecomplete our health assessment.
Only 6.5% of our population areeating five or more servings of
fruits and vegetables.
So that's where we're startingfrom, and the goal here is to
(30:47):
make eating more fruits andvegetables a habit.
Can you talk a little bit aboutjust the benefits of fruits and
vegetables and why that can beso helpful?
Dr. Lopez (30:57):
Yeah, so fruits and vegetables is really where we
get all of our vitamins andminerals from, and so we leave
them in our diet so we don'tdevelop any of those
deficiencies, right?
So protein is great,carbohydrates are great, but
really, you know those greenvegetables, orange vegetables,
your antioxidants from yourfoods.
(31:17):
That's where we get all thosegood things to protect our body
and to make it healthy.
The other thing that we reallyget from fruits and vegetables
is fiber, and so I talked tomany, many people who have GI
issues, and so that fibersupport is so important, and a
(31:39):
lot of people don't realize howmuch fiber they should be
intaking.
So women should be having like25 to 28 grams of fiber a day,
and men like 28 to 30 grams offiber.
Just FYI, that's a lot of fiberand that's right.
Consciously intaking that muchfiber, you're not getting that
goal, and so that's where thatfive servings of fruits and
(32:00):
vegetables comes in is thatwe're trying to increase
people's fiber intake and thatfiber can really help regulate
GI symptoms, help people relieveconstipation, some other issues
that they may be having downthere, so it is really important
.
Lacy Wolff (32:18):
Yeah, yeah.
So many benefits to it, but itdoes seem very difficult for
most of us.
How do you, do you have anystrategies for getting more
fruits and vegetables in yourdiet?
Like I mean, I know we can.
There's the books where yousneak it in.
But, like, how do you helppeople to like fruits and
vegetables or find ways to makeit a part of their life?
Dr. Lopez (32:42):
So that's actually interesting.
There's actual research aboutbitter taste is what vegetables
are, and we're not born withbitter taste buds.
We actually develop them overtime.
And so I always findinteresting patients who are
like well, I don't likevegetables.
I'm like, well, do you eat alot of vegetables?
Or have you eaten a lot ofvegetables in their past?
(33:03):
No, usually the answer is no.
So they never actuallydeveloped those taste buds for
bitter foods.
So there is like a biologicalreason why I don't like them.
But you can develop those tastebuds.
We just had to increase ourintake of them.
(33:32):
But I think trying to includethem like putting spinach in an
omelet, putting asparagus in anomelet those are easy ways to
add them into breakfast.
I think breakfast is probablythat one meal that we really
don't think you can havevegetables in, right?
We're like, oh gosh, bellpeppers, mushrooms in an omelet,
all those things count, onionscount, right.
(33:52):
So adding those things like inthe omelets and into your tacos,
quiches are kind of old school.
But burritos, breakfastsandwiches, sandwiches, things
like that, adding thosevegetables in to those things, I
think also, you know, I knowcauliflower is really trendy
right now, but if you cook itthe right way.
(34:14):
I cook mine in a skillet witholive oil and kind of roast it
in the skillet a little bit.
Most of my rice dishes are atleast half cauliflower rice and
I serve them to people all thetime and they have no idea.
So I think if you it's not, bad.
Lacy Wolff (34:30):
I mean, I think that there's a mental barrier we
have to overcome, maybe yeah.
Dr. Lopez (34:36):
If you cook it in the skillet and make it a little
bit crispy and not mushy.
I think it's a big textureissue for people, but then also
think you don't have to fullytake your rice out.
Maybe use half cauliflower,half rice, right, you know
that's another way.
You're sneaking in, you know,one or two servings of
(34:57):
cauliflower into your fried rice, or something like that.
Lacy Wolff (35:03):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
We started using spaghettisquash instead of pasta and I
don't mind it.
I actually think it tastes good.
It doesn't taste the same aspasta but it still looks the
same kind of on the plate.
I don't know.
It just fulfills that mentaldesire for pasta somehow, but
tastes really good.
I like really all squash, butyeah, that's great.
(35:26):
Well, I wish everybody had theopportunity to sit down and do a
one-on-one with a person likeyou to really access a, you know
, the support of a dietitian.
But I am grateful we get tobring you to everyone in our
health plan at least so, and Ilook forward to seeing those
resources.
I hope we can share yourcooking channel.
I think that'll be wonderful toput out to our health plan
(35:49):
participants as well.
I want to close with my onequestion that I ask every guest
and that is related to our title.
Our program is called BuenaVida, which means a good life.
So, dr Lopez, what is a goodlife for you?
Dr. Lopez (36:07):
So I really think a good life is about joy and how
you find joy.
I find joy in giving back toothers.
We didn't talk about this atall, but in my job I do a ton of
service for the community andhelping with food and food
resources.
But in my personal life, youknow, I'm a sustaining member of
(36:29):
the Junior League of Houston.
I volunteer for the HoustonLivestock Show and Rodeo.
I've worked for many missionsand organizations in Houston as
a volunteer, and so giving backand really helping others is how
I find joy and I really thinkthat's what makes it a great
life.
Lacy Wolff (36:48):
That's amazing.
Well, thank you for all you dofor all of us.
Thank you for the supportyou're providing for the Texas
Department of Criminal Justiceas well.
I know that they are extremelygrateful for the collaboration
of criminal justice as well.
I know that they are extremelygrateful for the collaboration,
and we at ERS are so happy toknow you and to be able to reach
out information that you areputting together through Sam
(37:10):
Houston and your amazing program.
So, thank you, dr Lopez.
It's really wonderful to sitdown and talk with you and I
know this is going to help a lotof people.
Thank you very much, people.
Thank you very much.
What an insightful conversationwith Dr Lopez.
I really loved how she brokedown nutrition into simple and
(37:30):
sustainable strategies andemphasizing the importance of
balance, whether it's in the waywe eat, the way we move or
really just the way we thinkabout health in general.
If you enjoyed this episode,please share it with a friend or
colleague that also might findit helpful.
Don't forget to subscribe toour podcast Wherever you listen
to podcasts we've got some greatepisodes coming your way and
(37:52):
also don't forget to check outour show notes for the resources
I mentioned in our episode,including the eligibility
requirements for HealthSelectparticipants to see a dietitian,
links to register for ourHealthy Lifestyle and Weight
Management Programs, wonder andReal Appeal.
And the link to join Buena Vida,our well-being platform, where
you can access tools andresources to improve your health
(38:14):
and support your health,including communities and our 5
to Thrive Challenge that'scoming up in April, including
communities and our 5 to ThriveChallenge that's coming up in
April.
Through our Buena Vida program.
We believe that small,consistent choices can help lead
to a healthier, happier lifeand I'm so grateful for your
time and for you as being withus.
So until next time, take care,stay well and keep living the
(38:35):
good life.
Take care everyone.
It's really about consistency, so that 80-20 rule
I use a lot.
If we can choose healthy foods80% of the time, then that 20%
is kind of a wash.
Lacy Wolff (00:14):
Hi everyone and welcome to the Buena Vida
podcast, where we explore whatit means to live a good life
through health, well-being andbalanced choices.
I'm your host, lacey Wolfe, andtoday I am honored to be joined
by Dr Tabitha Lopez, who is apowerhouse in the world of
health and nutrition.
Dr Lopez holds a PhD inkinesiology and she is also a
(00:35):
registered and licenseddietitian with a deep passion
for helping people buildsustainable, healthy habits.
Her career has spanned clinical, outpatient and bariatric
nutrition, giving her a uniqueperspective on the challenges
people face when it comes tofood and well-being.
Her journey goes beyond justnutrition.
Dr Lopez herself was acollegiate athlete.
(00:57):
She was a dancer at theUniversity of Houston all
throughout college and she alsowas a Houston Texans cheerleader
.
Her background in movement andperformance gives her a holistic
and interesting view of health,and I think she does a really
great job of connecting the dotsbetween nutrition, fitness and
overall well-being.
In our episode today, we'regoing to dive into practical,
(01:19):
science-backed nutritionstrategies and how to develop a
healthier relationship with food.
We'll talk about shifting fromrestrictive dieting to a
balanced mindset.
Dr Lopez will also sharestrategies for integrating more
fruits and vegetables into ourdiet and why that's important,
and her thoughts on emotionaleating and how she actually
(01:39):
works with patients to manageemotional eating challenges.
We will, of course, wrap upwith our Buena Vida question
what does living a good lifemean?
And she has some really greatinsight into what living a good
life is.
I think so if you've ever feltoverwhelmed by nutrition advice
(02:00):
or you've struggled to find arealistic approach to healthy
living, this is a greatconversation, so let's dive in.
Here we go.
Good morning, dr Lopez, andthank you so much for being a
guest on the Buena Vida podcast.
I am so happy to have you.
I think nutrition is one of themost confusing and
(02:20):
controversial issues when itcomes to health, so thank you
for being with us.
Dr. Lopez (02:25):
Thank you so much for having me Lacy.
I look forward to thisconversation.
Lacy Wolff (02:29):
Yeah, I'm really hoping you can help kind of
clear some things up for folksand that we can get into some
strategies and things that canreally help improve health, just
simple things that we can alldo to improve our health through
good nutrition.
So let's get started.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
You have a very interestingbackground.
Can you tell our listeners alittle bit about you?
Where did you come from and howdid you get into the world of
(02:53):
dietetics?
Dr. Lopez (02:54):
So currently I'm an assistant professor at Sam
Houston State in the College ofHealth Sciences.
I am the director of thegraduate program in dietetics,
which means I am training thefuture dietitians that we're
putting out into the workforce,and so we get to do a lot of
activities with them communityoutreach things like that to
(03:18):
kind of give back and providethat nutrition education into
the community.
Lacy Wolff (03:23):
Yeah, and I was so grateful for the opportunity
when I met you.
It's because of the work you'redoing to support the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice,who is also in Huntsville, which
I mean it's just amazing workthat y'all are doing there and
so wonderful that you have thesegrad students that are fired up
and passionate about supportingtheir community.
So I love that.
(03:43):
Yeah, so you worked in clinical, outpatient and bariatric
settings.
You talked about how you workeda lot.
You have a focus in obesity anddisordered eating.
What are some of the biggestchallenges that people face that
you've seen from that work?
Dr. Lopez (03:59):
That's tough and maybe I maybe I should go back
and tell you a little bit moreabout how I became a dietitian,
because I think that influencesmy trajectory as a dietitian.
So I actually did not even knowyou could be a dietitian.
I didn't know that that waseven such a thing.
I actually was a collegeathlete.
I danced for the University ofHouston for four years and then
(04:23):
I decided to pursue cheering forthe Houston Texans and during
that process is actually when Iwas working with a personal
trainer and I was working with adietitian and found out that
you could be a dietitian and sowas very interested in both,
decided to go back to school todo both.
So I got all my personaltraining certificates while I
(04:48):
was going to school to get mynutrition degree worked as a
personal trainer, was a leveltwo Pilates instructor of every
certification you can imagine,worked up as the lead educator
for Lifetime Fitness.
So I was training all of thetrainers for Lifetime Fitness
and then during this wholeprocess realized well, maybe you
(05:12):
know, I should just be anutritionist, maybe I don't have
to be a dietician, but as I'mworking with all these people, I
realized that I could not helphalf of my patients, half of my
clients as a personal trainer,with nutrition, because they all
had disease states.
And that's what really issignificant about a dietitian is
(05:34):
that we use medical nutritiontherapy to treat disease states
with food.
And so, just as a plainnutritionist, I couldn't help
half of my clients that I wastraining with food, and so that
was really my motivation to kindof go back and be a dietician.
Of these disorder eatingbehaviors from healthy
(05:56):
individuals to my overweight andobese clients, like kind of the
whole spectrum, even kids thatI had worked with.
So that kind of like directedmy path when I later became a
(06:16):
dietitian.
So, yes, I worked in theclinical setting.
Clinical, you really get to seea little bit of everything.
I think my outpatient settinghas provided me with the most
experience dealing withindividuals and their individual
(06:37):
issues relating to food, and sowe do see, you know,
misinformation is huge.
People are bombarded with theinternet and all this nutrition
advice that's out there.
Sustainability and what I meanby that is like sustaining long
term change will come to me lotsof patients and be like okay,
(07:06):
well, I did this, I did this fora couple of months and it
worked really well and I wasachieving my goals, okay, great,
like why did we stop Right?
And like identifying thosebarriers and trying to work
around those barriers thatprevent that sustainability of
change.
Emotionally it's probablyanother really big one.
I think a lot of people myconcern with emotionally eating
(07:28):
is a lot of people don't realizethat they're doing it, and so
my counseling sessions tend tobe a little deep and we kind of
pull on those littleheartstrings a little bit to
kind of get that out of likeokay, well, I, the patient, is
experiencing overeating, but whyare you experiencing that
overeating?
Like what else is going onduring that time that's causing
(07:52):
you to overeat, right?
So sometimes it turns into alittle bit of a counseling
session too.
You know there are some deeperissues and I really think the
other thing is probably lack ofaccess to nutritious foods.
High calorie, low nutritionallydense foods are readily
available to us.
(08:13):
They're everywhere, so it'seasy just to grab a bag of
potato chips right, and thenkeep doing whatever it is you're
doing, so helping people getaccess to healthy food and
knowing how to use healthy foodright, right, absolutely.
Sometimes we make it reallycomplicated, yeah for sure.
Lacy Wolff (08:38):
And, yeah, you laid out so many things there that I
think all of us can relate to,because, even if you can't
afford good food, it's harder tobecause you have to buy it, you
have to make it, it'sadditional effort, whereas the
readily kind of what we callultra processed food is just so
easy.
It's right there in thatvending machine.
You know if I'm not so, yeah,when it comes to and you talked
(09:00):
a little bit about, I want tocome back to you said medical
nutrition therapy.
Can you explain for people thathave not any experience with a
registered dietitian what thatlooks like and what it is?
Dr. Lopez (09:13):
Yeah, so what it means is that we treat diseases
with food, and so maybe that'sincluding certain foods or
excluding certain foods.
It depends on the disease state.
Maybe it's managing thosemacronutrients like your
carbohydrates, your proteins andyour fats, so adding more of
(09:34):
those or taking out some ofthose, like, depending on the
disease state.
And that's really.
You know where we, asdieticians, work with the
medical team.
So we're trained to understanddisease states.
Look at lab values, understandwhat test values mean, how we
can impact someone's diet whichwill impact those lab values.
Lacy Wolff (09:57):
And do you think that when you treat someone's
disease state with food, is thatas effective, or could it be
more effective thanpharmacological treatment
sometimes?
Or what are your thoughts onthat?
Dr. Lopez (10:12):
Sometimes I don't want to step on any of my
medical team's toes.
We try to work in partnership.
Okay, sometimes we asdieticians can't necessarily
cure the disease, but we canimprove the disease status.
Ok, I'll give you an example.
But diabetes, for example, anewly diagnosed diabetic, may be
(10:35):
initially on medication andthen we would hope, as
dieticians, to work with thatindividual to change their
behaviors and their dietaryintake and over time we'll
actually improve their bloodsugar and we can even get them
off that medication.
So sometimes maybe that's atemporary solution.
We get them on medication tostabilize them while we're
(10:58):
making those kind of behavioralchanges.
Lacy Wolff (11:01):
Right, and that behavior change, like you said,
is the hardest part.
Dr. Lopez (11:05):
It is, and then sustaining it right Once we make
that change.
Lacy Wolff (11:09):
So let's talk about that behavior change.
I think that's a really goodtransition into the next thing
that I wanted to talk to youabout how can people actually
work to shift their mindset froma more restrictive dieting,
like one thing we think aboutall the time like I'm going on a
diet to this idea that we couldjust eat well, forever right,
(11:33):
having a balance and sustainingthose good behaviors.
How can we shift that mindset?
How do we do it?
Dr. Lopez (11:39):
Yeah, so the first thing I really work with
patients on is that this is nota diet.
We are starting a lifestylechange and that's really how we
have to look at it, because adiet like the whole 30, not to
pick on one, but the whole 30has like start date and an end
date, right, and so it's likeyou can do anything for 30 days,
(12:01):
right, but no, what we reallywant to do is develop that
consistent change in ourselvesand our intake.
So that's rule number one.
There is no diet.
This is a lifestyle change.
Also, understanding, I think,that health is not perfect.
It's really about consistency.
So that 80-20 rule I use a lot.
(12:23):
If we can choose healthy foods80% of the time, then that 20%
is kind of a wash.
So I think you know givingourselves some flexibility and
some grace, you know, aroundfood, I think also like balance
All food is good food.
(12:43):
It's just how do we balance itin our day, and so we spend a
lot of time talking about that.
Sometimes I'll use the analogyof like a bank account.
You know we got to balance ourbank account and like okay, and
so that patients tend to bepretty receptive about balancing
your bank account.
Lacy Wolff (13:02):
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense Because I mean there's
there's's gonna be days whereyou're gonna go into a deficit,
but then tomorrow maybe you savea little more.
Dr. Lopez (13:10):
So yeah, yeah, or even just on a day-to-day basis.
I think sometimes people thinklike, oh well, if I'm on a
healthy diet, that means I can'tgo out to dinner.
No, it just means maybe I havesomething light, maybe I have a
salad with grilled chicken on itfor lunch so I can save more of
those calories that I'm goingto need for a dinner restaurant.
(13:37):
And so kind of like figuringout how to balance your day and
what's important to you, kind ofwithin some constraints.
Lacy Wolff (13:46):
I love that you picked on Whole30, because my
husband and I we call it wholelife.
We're always like whole lifediet because it can't be for 30
days, so I don't know if anyoneit's a much better perspective.
Yeah, it's a great nutrition.
I mean it's good, but can youdo it forever?
Is the question always when westart anything.
(14:07):
So, all right, let's talk aboutsome of the conflicting
nutrition information out there.
I know there's a.
There's a lot of like dietrecommendations.
There's a lot of people whokind of call themselves experts
that may not have training innutrition online.
We look at Instagram and thingslike that.
What core principles like what?
(14:29):
What are some things thateverybody could benefit from
when it comes to nutrition andkind of bust through some of
that misinformation.
Dr. Lopez (14:38):
Oh, oh gosh may open a whole can of worms for me here
.
What is it?
So?
I think balance is a big thing.
I think a lot of themisinformation we hear are
extremes.
We should be having nocarbohydrates, or we should be
having all carbohydrates or nofat, right?
They're the extremes when youreally look at the biochemistry
(15:02):
of the body and how the bodyfunctions.
The body needs carbs, proteinsand fats, and it needs a good
balance of those, and so it'snot the extremes.
Your body doesn't want thoseextremes, and so if we can
balance out those macronutrientspretty well in the body, it
functions at its highestcapacity, and we see that across
(15:25):
normal people, we see thatacross athletes right, sometimes
we weigh a little bit more inone than we do in the other, but
really they're all kind ofpretty level.
I think the other thing that Iwould want people to know is
about supplement use.
There is not a lot of researchon supplements.
Supplements are not regulatedby the FDA, and so there are a
(15:50):
lot of supplements on theinternet.
There's a lot of supplements onTikTok.
Please be very careful,whatever it is that you're
choosing to take or to try,because they're just, they're
not regulated, and so really youdon't know what it is you're
(16:11):
putting in your body and it kindof along those same lines there
, like there is no magic pillOtherwise, as a dietician I
would not have a job.
So there is no like magic powder.
I won't pick on anyone inspecific.
There's no magic powder.
You mix in your water and thenyou lose 20 pounds.
Like it doesn't happen,unfortunately.
Unfortunately, I mean, for allof us.
(16:34):
It doesn't happen.
I think those I've been.
Oh well, there's dietarypatterns, so like when we when I
say dietary patterns, I'mthinking like keto or those
whole 30, those kinds of dietthings.
There is no one size fits allsolution.
(16:54):
You have to figure out whatworks best for you and maybe
it's a combination of that, likeyou mentioned your husband and
you follow like the whole 30 asa lifestyle, which is great and
maybe that would work forsomebody else, but maybe we need
to modify it a little bit more.
Lacy Wolff (17:12):
I follow it, but I also make sourdough bread,
Tabitha.
Dr. Lopez (17:18):
You have modified it so that it works for you Exactly
.
Yeah, no dairy, no simplecarbohydrate, no potato no, it
is potato.
You can eat potatoes, but norice no pasta, anything like
(17:51):
that.
Lacy Wolff (17:52):
And we took that and we were like, okay, but I'm
going to eat yogurt, I'm goingto eat cheese.
Dr. Lopez (17:59):
It's creating a, and so it's not even at all the
whole 30 really creating a, andso it's not even at all the
whole 30 really, but you havetaken something that worked for
you and modify it to make itmore consistent for you, and I
think that is what, as anoutpatient dietitian, that's my
goal is to learn about mypatient and help them find
(18:20):
something that works for them,and so that's very
individualized.
Lacy Wolff (18:25):
Yes, that makes sense.
So you talked a little bitearlier about emotional eating
being one of the main issues orchallenges that people face.
How do you help people that?
How do you work through some ofthat for people that may be
dealing with it?
Dr. Lopez (18:43):
Yeah, I think the first thing is awareness, so
helping people develop thatawareness of what's happening
and so what I use.
There's a couple techniquesthat we use.
I usually start with justmaking them think for like 15,
30 seconds before they go to thekitchen and get that snack.
Just stop, give me 15 seconds,think about why are you going to
(19:08):
get that snack?
Like, what are you feelingright now?
Like, are you feeling truehunger?
Like your stomach is growling,you have some stomach pains.
Like you're feeling lightheaded, like you have true hunger.
Please go get that snack.
Right, I want you to eat, butif you're sitting there going,
I'm not really hungry and I'mjust stressed out with work and
(19:32):
I can't believe I have to dothis.
I can't believe I have.
You know this is going on right.
Then, like, do we really needthis act?
Is this?
And then, like, is this notgoing to solve that problem?
Maybe temporarily, for the nextfive minutes, but after that no
.
And then we start working onokay, now we've identified those
(19:55):
times Like okay, I emotionallywhen I get stressed out at work.
Okay, now we've identified thatand we're getting better at
picking up on those times whenyou do that.
Now, what can we do instead ofgoing to get something to eat?
Maybe it's going for a littlewalk around the building, maybe
(20:16):
it's breathing techniques, maybeit's, you know, calling your
friend and venting for a coupleof minutes Like everybody's
different right.
But what is that?
What is something else that wecan do to release that that
would actually probably be moreproductive and may actually work
than just pulling out somethingand eating it Because really it
(20:39):
seems like we eat for all kindsof different emotional reasons.
Lacy Wolff (20:43):
I think there's the cliche like eating the bucket of
ice cream when I'm sad, but wealso eat when we're happy to
celebrate, and we eat becausewe're bored.
So there's a lot of emotionaltriggers.
Dr. Lopez (20:57):
Yeah, and a lot of habits that we develop too.
That's something else we workon.
I always use the example ofthere's people who get in their
car because they eat in theircar.
That's a trigger for them, sothey get in their car.
Their brain says I'm hungry, Iwant to eat, and so they'll
actually tell you that when theyget in their car they're hungry
.
And I'm like are you reallyLike?
(21:19):
You just left lunch 20 minutesago.
Are you truly hungry?
And I feel hunger?
Left lunch 20 minutes ago.
Are you truly hungry?
And I feel hunger.
But their body has created thishabit where their mind thinks
oh, we're in the car, we shouldeat now.
Yeah, so trying to figure thatpiece out can be challenging too
.
Lacy Wolff (21:39):
Wow.
So yeah, you're, you kind ofserve, as I mean it's like a
nutrition therapist.
Dr. Lopez (21:46):
You're right.
Sometimes I feel like we do alot of counseling.
Yeah, my patients and I ask alot of personal questions, but I
need to understand my patientin order to help them and make
those recommendations.
Lacy Wolff (22:00):
Yeah, that's great.
I'm sure so many people couldbenefit from sitting down and
talking with a dietitian likeyourself, and I think that's one
of the things that I will beputting in the show notes are
the guidelines for our healthplan for people actually want to
work with a dietitian.
We also have a program calledWonder Health that I've been
(22:22):
through several times personally.
That's really helped me with alot of the things you're talking
about with understanding hungercues and what emotions are
driving this eating behavior,like putting my fork down in
between bites, because the habitof just eating fast is
something that I struggle withpersonally.
So I'll put all that in theshow notes.
If you're listening and youwould like some resources, we
(22:45):
will have those available.
So I wanted to kind of talk toyou.
I know you said you have a PhDin kinesiology and that is a
great love of yours is a studyof exercise and movement.
How does exercise or physicalactivity help support a healthy
diet and how can that also helpus with our long-term health?
Dr. Lopez (23:04):
Yeah, you know we need exercise.
You know, the thing I see mostfrequently is that people just
struggle with exercise and Ithink actually it's very similar
to diet in the fact that we puta lot of rules around what
exercise looks like and I haveto go to the gym, I have to
(23:26):
spend an hour there, I have tobreak a sweat, like all of these
things right, whereas we losethe point that actually just
movement is so important tohealth in our bodies.
And so, even if we can, justsome of my patients are like,
okay, they're very set.
I had a patient yesterday let'sset a goal of walking 2000
(23:47):
steps a day.
Can we do that consistent?
Like it doesn't have to be a lot, it can be something small to
get us started and then overtime we can slowly increase that
.
Maybe it's taking five minutewalks at the office, you know
every hour, get out of yourchair, go walk for five minutes,
then come back at work.
Maybe it's instilling,something like that.
(24:10):
So I think being moreopen-minded about what physical
activity is is a great place tostart.
But then you know, as peopleget more into consistency of
working out, then we can reallytailor it to what their goals
are and what they're trying toachieve for themselves.
Lacy Wolff (24:30):
Yeah, that makes so much sense and I think it's
interesting because when you'redoing more physical activity,
you are going to be hungrier,and so often do you find that
people may be overeat becausethey are moving more, or does it
help support eating better?
What are your thoughts on that?
Dr. Lopez (24:50):
Oh, it depends.
It depends on the patient first, because we want to.
So if the patient is gettinghungrier and like loss of
adipose tissue, increasing fat,is our goal, right, then there's
other things that we can do,like low calorie foods that we
can help support them with.
We can change up the timing ofmeals, things like that, to help
(25:14):
support them.
So we don't necessarilyincrease the caloric intake
coming in, but sometimes we wantmore calories, right?
If I have a patient who'strying to build mass or build
muscle mass, we want thoseadditional calories.
So the strategies may beslightly different for that
person.
Right, we may be trying tofigure out how to get more
(25:34):
calories in.
We deal with that with athletesa lot like our college athletes
and we're trying to get, youknow, four or 5,000 calories in
them a day.
And you're like my gosh, Idon't.
The kids are like.
I can't eat anymore.
It's so much food.
So it just depends on whattheir goals are and what they're
trying to achieve.
(25:55):
But there's strategies aroundboth things that we can help
patients with.
Lacy Wolff (25:59):
Yeah, and I guess eating at that point for the
college athlete kind of becomesa job and then when you stop
doing that sort of movement andyou've built those habits of
eating so much, then that canbecome a disordered eating
pattern, I guess.
Dr. Lopez (26:15):
Yeah, yeah, and we see that a lot, especially, I
see it in college kids.
You know, those kids that wereplaying high, intense sports in
high school, you know,practicing three, four days a
week.
They could eat whatever theywant when they wanted it right
and, like, still had greatperformance, maintain their body
composition.
(26:35):
And now we've transitioned tocollege and they're still eating
the same amount, but they'renot exercising, they're sitting
at a desk for long periods oftime, you know, in class or
studying.
And so how do we adapt thoseeating behaviors to their new,
you know behaviors, physicalactivity behaviors, right?
Lacy Wolff (26:58):
Or how do we find that happy medium, that classic
freshman 15 that we maybe couldrelate.
Dr. Lopez (27:07):
We just published a study.
We're doing health screeningson college students and we just
published a study.
We're looking at blood pressurein college students and we
assumed that some collegestudents had high blood pressure
um based on stress and poordiet quality and poor physical
activity.
That was kind of our assumption.
(27:27):
Well, 60% of our sample couldbe diagnosed for hypertension.
Wow, Really scary when you're20 year, know 20-year-olds, yeah
, wow.
Lacy Wolff (27:43):
What do we do with that?
I mean, can you, are youworking on an intervention for
them?
Dr. Lopez (27:47):
Yeah, we're still collecting data.
That was some preliminary datawe had, but, yes, the next step
will be.
You know how do we encouragehealthy eating behaviors on
campus, and so we work veryclosely with the food pantry to
make sure they have access tohealthy foods.
We're publishing a cookbookwith the American Heart
(28:09):
Association that should becoming out this summer, and the
fall we're starting a cookingshow and that'll be actually
available to the public, and sowe'll be using the recipes from
the cookbook, but also justminimal resource recipes, things
that are easy to make, that youdon't need a ton of ingredients
for.
A lot of our recipes can bemade in the microwave, because
(28:33):
most people don't know, in adorm you only have access to a
microwave, so we've gottenreally creative in making like
microwave recipes for ourstudents too.
Lacy Wolff (28:43):
I love that.
So yeah, meet people where theyare.
That's, that's the goal.
Dr. Lopez (28:48):
Yeah, I mean I'm glad you said that that's a huge
thing that I follow in mypractice as a dietician is I've
got to meet the patient wherethey are.
And yes, there's this ideal,you know, healthy eating,
healthy physical activity goal.
That's up here.
But we got to start fromwherever that patient is
Absolutely.
Lacy Wolff (29:08):
I know that.
You know, I used to do a lot ofhealth coaching in a clinical
setting when I worked for thearmy and I remember someone told
me if you start from a place ofjudgment, people will feel it.
Someone told me, if you startfrom a place of judgment, people
will feel it.
And I think that's a reallyimportant for any of us that
work with people, meeting themwhere they are.
But I totally digress here.
Dr. Lopez (29:32):
No, and I'm glad you said that too I think a lot of
people think, as a dietitian,that we're just going to tell
you what you should be doing.
Here's some carrots and somecelery and that's what you
should eat the rabbit diet Iwould say.
But no, I think if you find areally good outpatient dietician
, they're going to meet youwhere you are and they're going
(29:53):
to help you achieve your goal,and that's ultimately what what
we should be doing is helpingthat patient achieve.
You know, whatever helpful itis that they have set for
themselves.
Lacy Wolff (30:05):
Yeah, absolutely.
We have no idea what people'sexperience was until the you
know point they walked in thatdoor, I guess, just taking it
all in so well.
I wanted to ask you.
We have a challenge coming upwith ERS, with our new Buena
Vida platform, and it's a simplechallenge.
It's called Five to Thrive.
(30:26):
The goal is to get fiveservings of fruits and
vegetables on a daily basis.
So I ran a report.
We've had about 8,000 peoplecomplete our health assessment.
Only 6.5% of our population areeating five or more servings of
fruits and vegetables.
So that's where we're startingfrom, and the goal here is to
(30:47):
make eating more fruits andvegetables a habit.
Can you talk a little bit aboutjust the benefits of fruits and
vegetables and why that can beso helpful?
Dr. Lopez (30:57):
Yeah, so fruits and vegetables is really where we
get all of our vitamins andminerals from, and so we leave
them in our diet so we don'tdevelop any of those
deficiencies, right?
So protein is great,carbohydrates are great, but
really, you know those greenvegetables, orange vegetables,
your antioxidants from yourfoods.
(31:17):
That's where we get all thosegood things to protect our body
and to make it healthy.
The other thing that we reallyget from fruits and vegetables
is fiber, and so I talked tomany, many people who have GI
issues, and so that fibersupport is so important, and a
(31:39):
lot of people don't realize howmuch fiber they should be
intaking.
So women should be having like25 to 28 grams of fiber a day,
and men like 28 to 30 grams offiber.
Just FYI, that's a lot of fiberand that's right.
Consciously intaking that muchfiber, you're not getting that
goal, and so that's where thatfive servings of fruits and
(32:00):
vegetables comes in is thatwe're trying to increase
people's fiber intake and thatfiber can really help regulate
GI symptoms, help people relieveconstipation, some other issues
that they may be having downthere, so it is really important
.
Lacy Wolff (32:18):
Yeah, yeah.
So many benefits to it, but itdoes seem very difficult for
most of us.
How do you, do you have anystrategies for getting more
fruits and vegetables in yourdiet?
Like I mean, I know we can.
There's the books where yousneak it in.
But, like, how do you helppeople to like fruits and
vegetables or find ways to makeit a part of their life?
Dr. Lopez (32:42):
So that's actually interesting.
There's actual research aboutbitter taste is what vegetables
are, and we're not born withbitter taste buds.
We actually develop them overtime.
And so I always findinteresting patients who are
like well, I don't likevegetables.
I'm like, well, do you eat alot of vegetables?
Or have you eaten a lot ofvegetables in their past?
(33:03):
No, usually the answer is no.
So they never actuallydeveloped those taste buds for
bitter foods.
So there is like a biologicalreason why I don't like them.
But you can develop those tastebuds.
We just had to increase ourintake of them.
(33:32):
But I think trying to includethem like putting spinach in an
omelet, putting asparagus in anomelet those are easy ways to
add them into breakfast.
I think breakfast is probablythat one meal that we really
don't think you can havevegetables in, right?
We're like, oh gosh, bellpeppers, mushrooms in an omelet,
all those things count, onionscount, right.
(33:52):
So adding those things like inthe omelets and into your tacos,
quiches are kind of old school.
But burritos, breakfastsandwiches, sandwiches, things
like that, adding thosevegetables in to those things, I
think also, you know, I knowcauliflower is really trendy
right now, but if you cook itthe right way.
(34:14):
I cook mine in a skillet witholive oil and kind of roast it
in the skillet a little bit.
Most of my rice dishes are atleast half cauliflower rice and
I serve them to people all thetime and they have no idea.
So I think if you it's not, bad.
Lacy Wolff (34:30):
I mean, I think that there's a mental barrier we
have to overcome, maybe yeah.
Dr. Lopez (34:36):
If you cook it in the skillet and make it a little
bit crispy and not mushy.
I think it's a big textureissue for people, but then also
think you don't have to fullytake your rice out.
Maybe use half cauliflower,half rice, right, you know
that's another way.
You're sneaking in, you know,one or two servings of
(34:57):
cauliflower into your fried rice, or something like that.
Lacy Wolff (35:03):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
We started using spaghettisquash instead of pasta and I
don't mind it.
I actually think it tastes good.
It doesn't taste the same aspasta but it still looks the
same kind of on the plate.
I don't know.
It just fulfills that mentaldesire for pasta somehow, but
tastes really good.
I like really all squash, butyeah, that's great.
(35:26):
Well, I wish everybody had theopportunity to sit down and do a
one-on-one with a person likeyou to really access a, you know
, the support of a dietitian.
But I am grateful we get tobring you to everyone in our
health plan at least so, and Ilook forward to seeing those
resources.
I hope we can share yourcooking channel.
I think that'll be wonderful toput out to our health plan
(35:49):
participants as well.
I want to close with my onequestion that I ask every guest
and that is related to our title.
Our program is called BuenaVida, which means a good life.
So, dr Lopez, what is a goodlife for you?
Dr. Lopez (36:07):
So I really think a good life is about joy and how
you find joy.
I find joy in giving back toothers.
We didn't talk about this atall, but in my job I do a ton of
service for the community andhelping with food and food
resources.
But in my personal life, youknow, I'm a sustaining member of
(36:29):
the Junior League of Houston.
I volunteer for the HoustonLivestock Show and Rodeo.
I've worked for many missionsand organizations in Houston as
a volunteer, and so giving backand really helping others is how
I find joy and I really thinkthat's what makes it a great
life.
Lacy Wolff (36:48):
That's amazing.
Well, thank you for all you dofor all of us.
Thank you for the supportyou're providing for the Texas
Department of Criminal Justiceas well.
I know that they are extremelygrateful for the collaboration
of criminal justice as well.
I know that they are extremelygrateful for the collaboration,
and we at ERS are so happy toknow you and to be able to reach
out information that you areputting together through Sam
(37:10):
Houston and your amazing program.
So, thank you, dr Lopez.
It's really wonderful to sitdown and talk with you and I
know this is going to help a lotof people.
Thank you very much, people.
Thank you very much.
What an insightful conversationwith Dr Lopez.
I really loved how she brokedown nutrition into simple and
(37:30):
sustainable strategies andemphasizing the importance of
balance, whether it's in the waywe eat, the way we move or
really just the way we thinkabout health in general.
If you enjoyed this episode,please share it with a friend or
colleague that also might findit helpful.
Don't forget to subscribe toour podcast Wherever you listen
to podcasts we've got some greatepisodes coming your way and
(37:52):
also don't forget to check outour show notes for the resources
I mentioned in our episode,including the eligibility
requirements for HealthSelectparticipants to see a dietitian,
links to register for ourHealthy Lifestyle and Weight
Management Programs, wonder andReal Appeal.
And the link to join Buena Vida,our well-being platform, where
you can access tools andresources to improve your health
(38:14):
and support your health,including communities and our 5
to Thrive Challenge that'scoming up in April, including
communities and our 5 to ThriveChallenge that's coming up in
April.
Through our Buena Vida program.
We believe that small,consistent choices can help lead
to a healthier, happier lifeand I'm so grateful for your
time and for you as being withus.
So until next time, take care,stay well and keep living the
(38:35):
good life.
Take care everyone.
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