Nutrition tips for injury recovery and body composition

Welcome to the Performance Place Sports Care podcast, where you can learn about sports injury theory, rehab, diagnosis, and how to understand the doctor lingo you didn't understand at your appointment. And now, your host, Dr. Sebastian Gonzales. Hey, how's it going? This is Dr. Sebastian with the Performance Place Sports Care podcast. And we have a live guest today. It is Jenn Zerling, who's going to talk about some nutritional facts for not only injuries, but also like general public and exercise. And we might just go everywhere with this podcast. So hopefully, you get some good information on how to eat better and how to address some of the issues that you're having. So here is Jenn. Jenn, can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Absolutely. And I'm looking on the sheet, Dr. Sebastian, you spell my name with one N. It's two N's. But let's make it easier. You can call me Jay-Z for short. To be fair, the only thing I got walking in today, I was like, what's your real name? She's like, it's Jenn. I think it's Jenn. So we had to double check on the website. Yeah. And if you looked at the website, it doesn't say one N, does it? Well, at the top, your logo was Jay-Z at the top. I'm like, this doesn't help either. So we had to go through the bio. And we're like, oh, okay. Oh, man. You got to search deep to find out who I am. Well, that's what we're going to be doing with our audience today. You got to search deep to figure out who you are.

Who they are. Who I am. And you too. Okay, good. I was going to bring a juice in here just to tease you. Just only to drink a juice. Right out of the gate, he thinks he's doing me a disservice. You know, I consider juicing diabetes in a bottle. So it's your body. Do what you got to do. You want to drink juice? Have fun. I was just going to crush a whole thing of orange juice today. Oh. Oh, yeah. So tell us about yourself, how you got into the whole nutritional thing and whatnot. So I come from a family of obesity. Back in the day, I've been an athlete my entire life. And being from a family of obesity, it's very upsetting to see your family constantly getting sick, having allergies, getting injured, struggling with self-image.

And just all these things that, you know, when people come to me and tell me about that, I'm like, I understand it because this is where I come from. Now, myself, I've only been 25 pounds heavier than what you see today. Just because no one can see you, what's your rough, what's your measurements, I guess? You want to know my bra size? What are you asking, man? Well, that does equate in the body fat, so you could actually do that. So I'm about 5'9", and my body weight currently is 137 pounds, as far as my, what else is there? There's body fat. Body fat percentage, so I'm about 18% body fat. Okay. What's normal for women, by the way?

That's a great question. So based on calipers, it's 19% to 26%. Some people say 18% to 26%, but based on DEXA scans, which is what I run at the medical clinic I work with, there's no measurement, actually. So we'll tell people not to be more than 26% for ladies, and then for males, no more than about 14%. But, you know, I'm glad you bring that up right out of the gate, because a lot of people are so obsessed with the scale. So it's really nice to have a lot of different measurements, you know, circumference measurements. I'm not going to get into detail about those for myself, but they're within awesome ranges.

You don't want circumference. You're not talking about, like, the 18-inch cankles or anything. I don't have cankles. I actually have nice ankles. And my dad for my entire life said, you have me to thank for your nice legs. I'm like, thanks, Dad. Thank you very much. And actually, I struggled with having a nice butt, because, you know, you get too lean as a tall girl, you end up losing your tush. But I've been working on that as well. So whenever I had a trainer who, you know, trains people with the nice tush, he'd look at me and be like, we've got to develop the hamstrings. So there's always something off.

And I'm like, geez, this is how I'm built. I was thinking it would just stunt your growth early on in life, and it wouldn't have that issue anymore. Stunt my growth? Yeah. I just wanted to surpass my mom, and then I was good. I was like, see you, Mom. Five foot eight. Ta-ta. I didn't realize both of you walking in, you're much taller than either of us. All right, well, yeah. We got Dr. Allen over here, my hubby, and he's, what, six foot three? Six foot three, yeah. Yeah. Dr. Allen just graduated chiropractic school, so he's sitting in. So you guys are actually thinking about, or Jay-Z's thinking about doing our own podcast later.

So we're kind of learning as we go here. That's okay. And that'll be announced on jayzfitness.com, so thank you for that ability to plug my website. Of course. You've got to learn more about what you're going to talk about. Right. So I got into it because, you know, it hit home with me, and, you know, I kind of fell into training by accident. I joined Valley Total Fitness when I was in college, and my parents didn't let me have a job. They were like, you need to pass school. I was the girl in high school that just wanted to be popular, play my sports, and not really study. And on the way down here, we live in LA, down in Orange County, we were talking about how we hated studying growing up.

I hated it so much. I hated writing. I hated everything academic. I just wanted to focus on being popular, having a good time, going to the gym, and that was it. So, you know, I ended up joining Valley Total Fitness because the university campus at Albany, which is where I went undergrad, was dirty and just far away from the campus. And actually, if you saw where I lived, to walk over there in minus 15 degree temperatures was hell. Did you get there on the Jay-Z line? The Jay-Z line? No, there was no Jay-Z line. There were these dark tunnels, and I was told if I go in them, I can get killed. So, I ended up freezing my butt off and just didn't go.

So, I joined Valley's, and there was this short little Asian guy. His name was Chaz, and he was listening to my first personal training session with Pablo. Because you know how you get like two free sessions at a gym? So, I took advantage. I'm like, let's see what these clowns are going to offer me. And, you know, Pablo was like this hot, you know, Spanish guy. And Chaz was like this big, muscular, five-foot-three Asian dude. And he's like, I like your energy. He's like, we need a female trainer. And I'm like, that's wonderful. You know, at the time, I wanted to be on Broadway. So, I'm like, I'm not going to work here.

You know, I do sports, but I'm not going to train people. I wouldn't even know what to do. So, he basically like actively recruited me, and I said, well, what do I need to do if I do this? And, you know, because he convinced me that I could work around school, and he'll make it work for me. So, I called my mom up, and I'm like, listen, great idea. You know, Chaz came up with this idea. I want to be an actor. I don't have to be a waiter. I could be a trainer trying to be an actor. So, can I have like 500 bucks for my first certification? So, and that was like right after I asked for money for a sorority.

So, my mom was like, no, you can't. How much does the sorority cost, actually? Oh, my gosh. It was so expensive. I don't even know, because mom and dad paid for everything. And I'm not a spoiled brat. I was growing up when it came to certain things, but I wasn't the girl who had the brand new BMW and all that stuff. I was given like the boat. You remember the Cutlass Supreme Oldsmobile? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, imagine being captain of varsity cheerleading. None of the girls wanted to go in my car, because I grew up in a rich town. So, everyone who had the BMW, oh, bye, bye, Jay-Z. We'll see you later.

I'm like, okay. But, you know, it was expensive. And I only stayed for one semester, because these girls were all about drinking and partying. And, you know, by college, I loved to party. I'm not going to lie. But, you know, at some point, you got to graduate. Yeah. I realized at one point, that is a full-time job. That's really, really hard to do something the next day. No kidding. And to do even that again the next day is really hard. Can you imagine standing in line for those bars in, like, negative 15-degree temperatures? No. But, no. No jacket? Well, it's kind of funny, actually. We went down to San Diego, me and my friends, a couple weeks ago.

And it was cold enough. In San Diego? It was cold. It was cold enough for me. Like, I definitely thought, ooh, this is jacket weather. And we were going to go into a concert, which we actually never got into. Right. But, so, I was wondering, do they have a jacket check or anything like that? Because I didn't want to get in there and, like, behold my jacket the whole time. Yeah, it's not cool. Yeah, it's not. So, I can only imagine how hard life is going to a club or the bar when it's cold outside. With no jacket, because you didn't want to check it in. That's right. That's why I lived here the whole time.

You're from California. Yeah. You can always go short sleeve, long sleeve, and just sweat your pits off. That's right. So, yeah, but fast forward, I ended up being a trainer there. And I did it during the summertime. I fell in love with it. I was helping the coolest folks, like people losing weight. I was helping this guy who just retired from the military. And, you know, he ended up fainting one session to find out that he had something on his eardrum. And I had to catch the guy. And the guy was, like, 250 pounds. So, you know, that I even trained on a Playboy model. So, up in Albany, you would never know.

There were these hot chicks. I got to train them. And all the guys were like, oh, can I befriend you and get to know her? I'm like, I see how you work. Oh, the other trainers were? Oh, yeah. I was part of the boys club, you know, because they needed a girl. So, it was just, it was such a great, rewarding career. And then, you know, I ended up going down to New York City where I pursued my acting career. And I did that until 9-11. So, you know, just fast forward a little bit. I was like, acting is not for me. Even though I sing, you know, that's essentially why I got into that. Well, I heard the Broadway thing earlier.

So, at some point here, there might have to be. You can sing Jay-Z songs, can't you? Yeah, I don't do that. How many don't play that? So, yeah, I mean, I ended up training in New York City and getting clients. And after 9-11 happened, I ended up just reassessing my life and saying, you know where I really want to be? I want to be in California. You know, when I wanted to be an actor as a kid, I would always see, like, the palm trees and read all these books on Hollywood. And I was just so intrigued. I also loved Beverly Hills 90210. I'm like, I want to be like them. No, I'm just kidding. I didn't, I never watched it.

So, I can't say, I can't make any fun. I just know Luke Pair was a dreamboat, wasn't he? He was. And then the other guy, whatever his name was, Brandon. But then there was, like, Melrose Place. And so, there was always this beautiful picture of every day of your life, you're on vacation in California. And actually, that's exactly how I feel. Still? I do. I mean, I do a lot of hard work now. But every day I wake up, I look outside and I'm like, wow, it's like snowing on the East Coast. They're trapped indoors. And even though I have a very big day, I get to feel the sun and just walk with no jacket on.

And I'm not bundled up to my ears. Yeah, yeah. You know? So, this is such a gift. So, I guess you have to be from another place to appreciate it. Mm-hmm. I mean. I've only been, I've only been to the East Coast a couple times and I went to Boston last year. And so, I had a friend who lives in Boston and. Boston. Ba. Boston. Park your car over there. I thought that was Rhode Island. Isn't that Boston? Car? The car? That's the car. I love you Bostonians, though. The Boston people, the ones that I talk to, like, I'm like, how do you like living here? They're like, oh, it's great. And they're like, eventually in the conversation, they're like, ah, but the winter sucks.

It was like the, like life came out of them. Like, as soon as they, like, mentioned the winter, I'm like, yeah, this doesn't sound like the right place for me. Um, okay. Well, um, now that we learned a little bit about you, can you tell us about, uh, what are some common goals that at least people usually, uh, give you or a target, like when you, when they're contacting you about nutritional stuff or. Right. So let me just first start saying, um, there's a lot of nutritionists out there in the world and, you know, you just need a certification and call yourself a nutritionist. It's the same thing with like life coaching.

You just need a certification in life coaching and suddenly you're an expert on how to help people's minds. So I have a master's degree in kinesiology. I ended up going back for a graduate program and, you know, in that I essentially wanted to help the obese population, which is what I stated earlier. Um, so I fell into, because right as I was graduating, I ended up falling into medical, um, weight loss. And I worked in a clinic where we would put them on a specific plan and the number one goal was weight loss. Okay. And pounds, not percentage. Okay. No, we didn't even talk about body composition as long as a patient lost 10% of their body weight in 10 weeks.

And that's a success. Okay. Um, it was a ketogenic diet and ultimately, um, the patient would come in every single day. So I got to coach those patients. We would see like 120 patients a day. It was like an assembly line, you know, come in, get a shot, talk to the nurse, talk to me, get out, ta-ta, see you tomorrow. Hope you lost weight. Hope you went to the bathroom because you're up two pounds. I mean, it was literally one of those situations. And I just, I did that for several years and then I ended up going into age management medicine. So, um, testosterone therapy and like, if anyone has like a hormone deficiency, they'd come into this clinic and spend thousands and thousands of dollars for an evaluation.

And they would spend four hours with me. I would do all their nutrition coaching and then I would do all their exercise testing. So, you know, VO2 maxes, um, we would do balance testing for proprioception. We would do, um, strength tests, you know, dynamometer, stuff like that just to see where the patient was. And people would be as young as 30. And they'd come in hormone replacement 30 because they had lack of mental acuity. Their libido was low. They had a lot of central adiposity, which is belly fat. They, um, just didn't feel like they were on their a game. And these are top level executives, even 30 years old.

Some of these guys had their own companies and women. So, um, to go back to your original question, you know, um, with nutrition, why do people come to me? You know, I, I just like to tell people that I do have about eight years of in clinic experience, working with people, working with physicians, looking at labs with each patient to see how my methodology works. Um, and it's all basic stuff. I'm not taking on people who have a disease that needs to be monitored by a doctor. It's just mainly people come to me and what do you think their goal is? Yeah, I'm sure it's, they want to look better. They want to look better.

They want to lose weight. So is it, is it ever really that they, that they want to feel better at all? Or is that like, is that a major drive? I know that probably the older people, older populations really want to, but. Do you know, it's ironic because I have to draw that out of them. Yeah. You know, it's not like they call me up. They're like, I want to feel better. Let me call Jay-Z fitness. You know what I mean? Like they call me up because they're like, I heard she's, you know, a weight, loss, you know, specialist or whatever they want to call me. And I heard that, you know, my friend did very well with her.

So let me call her and see what she can do for me. And the first thing I say, you know, is what are your goals? I want to lose weight. I want to lose 10 to 15 pounds. And it's, it's interesting because they have such a perception of what their optimal is or what their quote unquote norm is. But then I ask a ton of questions to follow up with that because ultimately if you have somebody like take, for example, a woman who's 200 pounds and she's like, I just want to, I just want to lose like 10 to 15 pounds, you know, to her, that's good because she's been riding 170 pounds most of her life, you know, and she's only what?

45 years old. I'm just giving you an example. So for her, that's fine. That's her norm. Is that optimal? You know, that's to be determined by what we have to look deeper into. It's interesting. I always find that, um, I find that people are really drawn to the numbers on the scale more so than body fat percentage or any other type of, uh, um, measurement. And I even like found myself too, like, I don't know if Crystal told you, we're doing like a, a six week, we did a hydrostatic one a couple of weeks ago. Oh, perfect. I'm sure I'm going to lose, by the way. She's much more dedicated than I am.

You're going to lose body fat? Well, no, I'm going to lose a little bit, I'm sure. Um, but you look pretty lean as it is. What's your body fat? It was 13-ish. Okay. I think last, but, um, but I definitely, I have bad habits. Like I go out and call them business meetings. I go have beer and pizza and whatnot every, once every couple of weeks. And so I'll, I'll, I'll text her. Every couple of weeks? That's not bad. Well, but that's with one person. And then more, then more come. I had Halal Brothers yesterday. Um, but no, I'm, I'm sure she's going to win. But anytime that I go on, on the scale, we have like a, um, electroimpedance one at home, which is one of the ones where you, uh, uh, the, basically the signal goes through you.

It's not a dunk tank. It's the ones that are typically on scales. I'm talking to them, not you. Um, I'm talking to the audience, but I don't know if I told you that the, like the reason for this podcast originally was because if people come in with very, uh, like a lack of knowledge of you and basic terminology that I would use, like, is there's people that like I would talk to him about like a back condition and I'm like, well, you're, you're flexing when you're lifting and when you're sitting, you're doing all this stuff. And then one guy, he's like about five times in, he's like, I get it. I get what you're talking about now.

This flexion is what I run. What's that? I said, that's awesome. It's so important to educate people. You know, I mean, we're the experts, but ultimately if they walk out of here and they don't have the information that we like studied so long for, then what's the point of them coming in? Yeah. You know? And I feel like it's really hard to get to like the more important topics if they don't understand like the basics or at least the, like the language we're using. Right. So, um, uh, I forget where I was going with this. So, so biologic impedance analysis, you did that just as a measurement because obviously you can't dunk every week.

So you're kind of using it as a, as a reliability, right? Yeah. I was hoping that it would at least, um, it would go, if it's going to go one direction or another, it's going to be the right direction. Right. So I know if I'm, oh, I'm making great decisions. It's probably, it's going down. By the way, I was really surprised that, so going into that, the dunk tank, um, we did a guesstimation of like what we're going to be. And I'm like, well, probably about 20 ish. Cause the scale said that scale said 20. You're 20 on the BIA, uh, um, BIA, oh, BIA. We've got to teach the audience, BIA, bioelectrical impedance analysis.

I don't think I've ever used that. I even stunked the doctor. Look at me, Crystal, you see this? I thought you were dyslexic. You're talking about BMI. Um, so yeah, so it said 20 and, um, but yeah, so I ended up being 13. So getting on the scale now, um, I just, I'm like, well, let's dip as long as dip and blow 20, I'm going to be good. But anyways, the reason I brought it up was because, um, I see the, I'm making healthier decisions and I'm hoping that the number on the scale, the, the actual weight drops. And I'm like, this has no correlation with what I'm actually, what my goal is. And I don't know why I keep looking at it and I don't know why it shows up first.

It pisses me off. And then I come off the scale. I'm like, oh, I didn't lose a pound. I'm like, just don't, I don't want that mentality, but it's hard to get away from. That's very right. And you know, the thing is, if somebody is legitimately overweight, um, by BMI, um, body mass index is a good tool, especially for women. Um, however, and this is really important. If somebody has to lose 50 pounds, for example, I'm not going to go into that relationship saying, I need you to lose 50 pounds. I'm going to say, can you commit to small, simple changes over the next year of your, your life. Okay.

Because if you can master one thing at a time and just, you know, for example, drink more water for the next week, um, unless, you know, you really want to just dive headfirst into the process of change. I think that's more empowering for people because now they know that if I really commit to shifting my behaviors over the next year, I could wait a year for this to happen because why most people fail at dieting is because it's frustrating. Like you just said, you get on the scale, nothing moves and you're like, you know what? Screw this. I'm not going to eat vegetables. I'm not losing weight anyway.

And I don't like vegetables. You know, I'm going to go eat my pizza and beer. Yeah, they were good. See? So, you know, if you give yourself a really realistic timeframe then, and you set up small, simple goals within that big timeframe, I find that success is more consistent and it's more longterm. Well, what we noticed with, what I was telling, uh, Crystal and I think it was the first time I mentioned Crystal on the podcast. So she's, she's someone who works for me. She's a strength coach in the office. So we're just having a competition over six weeks or so with the dunk tank. And so I told her that, that I've never been calorie counter ever, ever at all.

And over these six weeks, I was going to have one of my favorite beers is Port Mongo. So I looked up calorie intake or calorie, uh, composition of Port Mongo and I'm like, I'm like a bomber has like 300 calories. Holy shit. I don't, I don't want this. And I started thinking about Michelob Ultra and Bud Light and all these beers that I don't really like. Um, but over a six week period of time, that's such a short timeframe where I'm like, well, it kind of calorie in and out would work, but I don't want to think like that. Right. So I feel like the short duration is really hindering of, so anyways, calorie counting is so archaic.

A lot of people still count calories and obviously at the end of the day, calories in, calories out. But number one, people don't measure food correctly. Um, I actually, with my nutrition coaching, I have my clients keep a photo log of what they're consuming because if I see what they eat by just what they write down and I don't see a correlation with a picture, then to them, they had one serving of whatever it is, even chicken or, um, rice or whatever they have. And when I see a picture, I'm like, wow, where's the vegetables? You have too much rice, or maybe you don't even need rice for that particular meal.

Um, so, you know, calories in, calories out. If people could start just getting a better balance of their macronutrients and just eating more plants, if one thing that people can walk away from this podcast is to just have every single meal as much as possible. They eat more vegetables. Okay. Vegetables have all your antioxidants. So do fruits. Fruits obviously have sugar in them. Um, and people will be like, oh, but it's good sugar. But at the end of the day, if you're going to sit at a desk for the next three hours, then that sugar is no longer good sugar. Your body's going to not need it particularly in that moment.

So I don't know how deep you want to go into that type of stuff with nutrition, but I could talk about this all day. You know, because ultimately, um, you know, for weight loss, people just need to get that innate intelligence, which I'm sure you'd appreciate as a chiropractor is, you know, getting the understanding of what my body needs versus, oh, uh, my coach told me I have to eat X amount of times per day and X amount of ounces of chicken and fish. Like who the heck measures this? Do you bring a kitchen scale to a restaurant with you? No, but do people? No, it's not realistic. I mean, I've never seen that.

No one ever like cups their salmon. They're like, yes, that's about one serving. Like measuring it, you know, one hand to the other. No, it's not realistic. So, you know, to that point, if a protein just take the size of your palm minus the digits and the thickness of your palm will be one serving of protein. And by the way, no one knows there's absolutely no literature to support that you need a certain amount of grams of protein per day. I don't know if you know that. I have not looked into it, but I have, I've heard that if you intake too much, it basically becomes waste product, kind of like soluble, uh, soluble vitamins, water soluble vitamins.

Yeah. It basically is urine in a mouth. Okay. But it also could lead to inflammation because if it's too acidic, if you create an acidic gut because you're eating too many animal proteins in one particular sitting, then you have just a very acidic environment, which is inflammation, which, you know, on this, uh, you act like we have a sheet in front of us. No way. No, no, we don't have a sheet in front of us. No, he, he was like, let's talk about X, Y, and Z. I'm like, that sounds awesome. And I feel like we've been talking about, you know, beer and pizza and stuff like that. Well, the, uh, but yes, yes, we were going to touch on the topic of, um, what, what is a, um, what is a good game plan at least for, uh, like nutrition for pain or nutrition for injury?

Cause I actually did have a kid recently that he asked, um, he had a hamstring tear. He's like, should I change the way I eat too? I'm like, Hmm, not a great question for me, but yeah. So the biggest thing with injury is it's, it's, you don't want any inflammation in the body. Okay. Because in injury in an inflammatory environment is going to keep that injury, you know, longer term. So, you know, I tore my labrum in my hip last year and I kept my nutrition exactly where it was. And luckily I felt better and better every single day. You know, it definitely wasn't, you know, not painful because I ended up getting stem cell therapy.

Oh, cool. So I actually had to immobilize the joint for four months, which could you imagine an athlete not working out for four months? It was like, it wasn't good, but you pick up NBA jam or something. Exactly. You know, but I, I actually ironically gained five pounds, even though my nutrition was very tight. And that goes to my point with, if you have a genetic disposition for obesity, which I do, then exercise is so important for my prescription because without it, my body just puts body weight on for whatever reason. So when you're injured, you want to keep the inflammation low. And the only way to do that is to have enough plants in the diet.

So if you can get at least, at least 12 servings of vegetables a day, which is a lot. Okay. One fist is a serving. So when people show me that they had like five pieces of broccoli with their piece of chicken, I'm like, you're eating like a bird. You know, you could actually have all the broccoli you want, but it's important to have variety because, you know, different plants offer different micronutrients and you need minerals from other things. So if I eat just carrots, for example, I'm not going to get the benefits of what spinach gives me or kale or whatever you like. So, you know, it's, it's important to do that.

It's also important to drink enough fluid. You know, I'm working with a guy right now, the guy's 70 years old and he never stretches and he never drinks water. He wakes up in the morning, drinks coffee, drinks another cup of coffee, and then doesn't understand why his muscles are really tight. I said, you know, beef jerky. Well, that's what your muscles probably look like. Okay. Not pliable. They don't want to move. And every time you move your, you know, through your kinetic chain, your body's like, you know, screw you. I'm going to stop you. And I'm going to have a little bit of joint dysfunction, which, you know, creates other issues.

So where you might have an injury one place, now other parts of your body have to compensate and now it's a whole disaster. So nutrition-based, get back to the basics. I love low glycemic. I have an app actually, because people are probably going to be like, I don't know what the heck any of this means. It's cool. I was actually going to have you do some life hacks almost in a little bit, just to, some things you can implement today. Okay. Absolutely. But go ahead. Yeah. The glycemic index. So glycemic index. So Jay-Z Fitness Nutrition is the name of the app. I tell everyone to download the app because if they don't see it, then it's really hard to actually embody it.

You know, if you could think about when you put any carbohydrate into your mouth and you'll appreciate this because beer has more sugar in it than sugar itself. Yeah. So glycemic index is how quickly the sugar dumps into the bloodstream. Okay. Glycemic load is how much sugar is in the actual food. So take a banana, for example. I didn't know that. Yes. Banana has a half a banana, which is six inches. And usually people eat the whole dang thing is about 30 grams for a full banana of sugar. Okay. Compared to an apple or a peach has about, I would say, I think it's like five or six grams of sugar for the whole thing.

Funny. A peach seems sweeter. But it's got fiber in it. So fiber actually slows down that whatever sugar is in it, it slows down that sugar dumping response. Now, when you dump sugar in your blood, there's a lot of things that go on in biochemistry that we're not going to bring back to the table. You already graduated like 50 degrees. I see all these like plaques on his wall. I probably won't remember that part anymore. Right. In one ear, out the other. I passed. I'm done. But if you could just think about insulin is like the main driver of sugar that pushes sugar into the cell, you can't have sugar hanging out in the bloodstream, right?

Because what happens if the blood is full of sugar, eventually it attaches to the proteins in the bloodstream and it could actually damage organs, specifically the nervous system. You know, because you have sugar molecules that actually attach to the nerves in the body leading to neuropathies. And we see this all the time with people who aren't even diabetic. So if you could just appreciate glycemic index, sticking to foods that are low glycemic, okay? Under which number would you say are low glycemic? So rather than even like worry about numbers, because people are going to be like, oh, aren't carrots high glycemic?

Aren't blueberries high glycemic? Blueberries are higher glycemic than raspberries, for example, but blueberries are phenomenal. Now, glycemic index gets kicked out the window once you add a protein or healthy fat to it. Okay, so even if you eat a high glycemic carb, just couple it with a protein or healthy fat and then you'll be better. I'm not saying you'll be great. Because it delays the response of the sugar intake. Right. And the more insulin you have in the bloodstream, because you have so much dang sugar in that bloodstream, the less your body's going to burn fat, which is originally what you said.

I want to get my body fat below 20% and I want to lose weight, right? So whenever you have any sort of inflammation, there's going to be a fluid retention response. People end up holding on to interstitial tissue fluids and they end up having water weight, which is not real weight. And they get upset about that. Now, people who lose a lot of weight very quickly, they're losing water. It's like the first, don't they say it's about the first week they lose? Yeah. Or? Because your body, so your body actually, it depends on the person. Because some people actually not necessarily drop quickly, but over the course of time, they'll drop weight and they'll be like, oh wow, I lost a lot of weight.

So people who are on like a 500 calorie diet, initially they might lose like three to five pounds. Okay. That's all water weight. But after that, they start to hit these plateaus and like, I don't get it. I'm still eating nothing. Why am I not losing weight? Because your body is like, whoa, what's going on? And it takes the body time to adjust to that. So at the end of the day, my original thing was you got to just stick with it. Okay. Don't ever quit. Give yourself a good solid year and learn what glycemic index is because you want to stick with those, uh, those items anyway. Okay. If it has a package, you probably shouldn't eat it.

So there's a lot of phone apps out there that have you scan the barcode and they're like, oh my God. Yeah. They shouldn't have barcodes. Thank you. All right. We can end the podcast. You said what I wanted to hear. Yeah. Life hack today. Don't eat anything with a barcode on it. Right. If it grows from the ground, falls from the tree, runs, flies, or swims, it's good for you. Yeah. So I'm telling you before, uh, don't, uh, like shop the outside perimeter of a store because that they're refrigerated at least and it won't pair or it'll, it's perishable. Yeah. Why do people know this, but they don't do it?

Right. Well, that's what that's, I feel like there's, there's something deep seated with people in nutrition and just exercise in general. Like we've, we've known for years, like it's not a surprise, like, uh, you know, like lift or exercise 30 minutes a day, you know, eat, eat your greens. It's like, and then they come out with a study on kale and also when people lose their mind about, Oh my God, I should be eating kale. Right. Dude, you knew this a long time ago. Right. You know, like, what's the problem? What's the mental hangup that you have? Kale used to decorate the salad bars. Remember that?

Yeah. It was a garden. The garnish. What's the garnish now? How do you garnish kale with kale? You don't. But you know, people do know this. So the question is why do they struggle with doing it? And there's a lot of reasons. And you know, that's where the coaching comes in. And I have people keep a log for me and they communicate every single day. And I just want people to own their own journey. Like, even though they know the information, why are they not doing it? And majority of the time I find that people aren't doing it because either a, they don't really understand it. Like, even though they logically understand it, they don't really know how to embody it.

You know, how do I actually, um, you know, take this couple, for example, the guy only likes to eat canned soup. Okay. It's easy. But what's the difference between a canned soup and his wife's homemade soup? I just like grabbing the can. Well, how about grabbing a container? I mean, I guess I could do that. And this guy's brilliant. But why did he not understand that? He just wanted the can. He likes the vessel. Maybe that's what it is. But he wasn't able to articulate that when I asked 50 questions about it. And I just assumed that because he thought it's a contained situation, it has his quote unquote vegetables.

He hates vegetables as it is. Why does he need the can? Because he knows the taste of it. Like you said, he likes the vessel potentially. I'll have to ask him an email later on about that. Yeah. People are out of notice it. Like, even with like, with rehab of like injuries, I've, I've, I've created videos where I made it basically an exercise library where everything that they'll learn in here, I have basically everything that I would have said here in a video. So you can repeat my nonsense that I'm speaking. Right. And you can go through it again. And I, and, um, some people didn't want to follow it because they're like, cause each one was a video in its own, right?

Each exercise with its own video was its own video. And they're like, could you do one where it's all the exercises and I could just follow? Right. I'm like, really? You should know how to do them anyways. Like, what is this? P90X? Like, I'm not going to do it for 30 minutes just to do your rehab program. I'm like, I might stutter and have to do a couple outtakes. Just let me do my cuts. You know? So they didn't like having to start and finish, start and finish each individual video. It was too cumbersome for them to, yeah, like to do that. Right. I, I guess, I mean, I, I, I imagine like videos like Insanity and P90X, they were popular for a reason.

Like they have the bar on the bottom that has the time, the guy's talking to you the whole time, you know, he's doing it with you. Right. So it's, it's basically mindless, but I think in rehab, I, I kind of don't want people not to be mindless. They need to think about their, their cues that they're doing, you know, driving their hips to, you know, through the ceiling or whatever the heck it might be. Right. But to that point, people like camaraderie, I think, I think they like to feel a part of an environment that's supportive. And when you're by yourself, it's almost like, I don't want to do this.

First of all, it's boring. Second of all, you know, I have to go through the motions of bringing on the next video. And I, you know, you start to get that ADD. People just need things to be handed to them on a platter and they don't want to do the self work with things like that. Like the can of soup. Exactly. But if your wife is cooking you the soup, just eat your, your wife's love. Like there's love in that soup, you know? Yeah. But it tastes a lot better anyways. I think so. But you bring up some really good points. And I think people just need to learn how to be with themselves a little bit more.

Okay. And trust that it's okay to not have distractions all the time. Like you don't necessarily need your chiropractor on the screen for the next 20 minutes unless they, you know, unless they just want to be guided by you because they don't want, really want to press a timer on their cell phone, do this exercise for a minute. It's just too much work. Yeah. So the question is, what do you do about that? Yeah. I always tell them that they can, I'm like, you can come here. And I sound like an asshole when I say this, but I'm like, you can come here and pay me to babysit you. I'm like, I'll do it.

I'm like, but you, I mean, you'll get better coaching out of it because I'll give you cues and whatnot and like we'll clean up for them. But after that, after we've done it like 20 times, do you really want to keep paying me to do the same thing? Like I actually have a guy that comes in here and he, uh, um, he's got rehab at home, which he does at home. Yeah. He does. He does it very well. It helps him out. And then he comes in here and I want to advance him to new things. And he's very resistant of doing it. He's like, why don't we just do what I'm doing at home here? Right. I'm like, really?

That's what you want me to do? Like. Is there, are you having issues with it? No, I'm not. It seems to be working. Let's just do it here too. You know, like, but so I just tell him like, if you, if you want to spend more money here, if you want to give anybody more money, like they'll babysit you and give you tips and whatnot. But realistically you have to own your injury. You know, you have to own your own rehab. You, no one else can do anything and anything about it, but you. Right. So learn it, you know? Yeah. And it's just people like familiarity, like people like to succeed at things, which they should feel that way.

And that's why drawing small little goals within a huge goal for yourself is very important. Like if you have an injury, your number one goal should be thinking that the injury is going to go away. Yeah. And knowing that all the tools that, you know, you provide as their doctor and I provide as their, you know, nutritionist, it's just getting to a point where you own the journey, but you take little small baby steps along the way and you got to change your mindset. You know, there's nothing worse than somebody who's injured and they're like, oh, I'm in so much pain. Am I going to be like this forever?

And then they think so negatively about their life that they just end up almost succumbing to the injury. It's like, this is now their new reality and I'm just doomed for the rest of my life. And that's not the case. And you mentioned too about the, you said that you have obesity in your family. I feel like a lot of people, especially with, with weight loss, they blame genetics and it's like, this is just how I am. They do the same thing with arthritis too. They're like, oh, mom had it. Exactly. So. And epigenetics proves that thought process wrong. Okay. Epigenetics is the study of genes. And I had my genes tested.

I had to spit in a tube for like 10 minutes until the thing was like filled to the top and I was dehydrated. I'm like, you know. This sounds like an awesome test. It's an awesome test. You can also pull your hair out of your head. That's another test that you can do to check your genes. And, you know, it was kind of cool because I have, you know, heart disease in my family. So that showed up on the genes. I even have the ability to injure my Achilles tendon. So I ended up like ditching all the stiletto heels as soon as I got home that day. But then the obesity gene showed up and I have the propensity to gain weight.

So if I don't exercise. So when I did get injured last year with my labral tear, I was like, you know what? It's okay. Now that I know that this is a probability, I just need to ride the wave of this injury, get better, and then get back to the gym. So what I ended up doing was putting a little picture of one of my shoots. I did a shoot on the beach with me running. And I just looked at that picture of me running and I said, this is me. This is who I am. I'm going to go back to that girl because she never went away. And that inspiration brought me back to being a runner again with no pain. So you got to find little tools for yourself to keep your mindset on being healthy, being ready, and just believing that you're going to be okay.

Yeah. And I know that labral tears, I'm sure that was really hard for you. Labral tears to run again is really tough. Yeah. And actually, you brought up stem cell earlier. I actually have to do a podcast next week on, I'm going to do it with the stem cell guy. It's a really, really interesting topic. You know, I actually, if you want to do a second podcast, you can bring on Dr. Raj. He's in Beverly Hills. He did my stem cells. He's brilliant, this guy. He said to me, because I had two other orthopedic surgeons who said, you need that repaired. And I did so much research on what a labral repair is.

It's like they literally put a staple in your acetabulum, your hip, you know, putting this cartilage up. And I'm like, well, if I want to play sports, am I going to have this metal like pushing into my femoral head the rest of my life? Like, that just doesn't make sense. And I wasn't in enough pain to even pursue that. But right away, the doctor's like, you want to get this fixed? Otherwise, it can get worse. But then you look at the side effects of the surgery and you're like, well, they have to literally like extract your leg out of the acetabulum to fix it, which can turn off all the muscles in the leg.

You got to go through massive rehab. You can have nerve impingement. You can end up getting sciatic pain. You can end up getting arthritis. I'm like, okay, what are my next options? Yeah, I think you made a better choice. Right. So I made a better choice. But to your point, you know, it's really hard with a labral tear to go back to running. I have cut down the volume of my running. Not because of the tear, but mainly because I just don't want to run my joints down. Yeah. I feel like my personal belief, at least with running, is that I would rather do shorter distance harder. 5Ks, 10Ks, and so on.

And I used to do halves. I did a half Ironman. I just don't see the point really anymore. And I think lately people have been glorifying distance. And I think they should glorify speed more so. Yeah. And also, like, what ultimately is their goal? Like, why do we even want to do a 5 and 10K? Yeah. Like, sometimes you just need a goal to work towards, and that's why you go running to begin with. I bet if you ask a lot of the runners that they're trying to lose weight. Well, there you go. But, you know, to that point, because, you know, I teach at Orange Theory Fitness, which we do a lot of running.

And, you know, somebody who's very overweight gets on a treadmill. They're looking next to them at the, you know, the person who's been running their whole life and they're like, I want to be a runner one of these days. So now they, like, have the leap of faith. They start running. They have poor mechanics for whatever reason. And now they injure themselves. You know, they pull something. They hurt their knees or whatever it is. So it's always asking yourself, like, what is my goal? What do I want to attain? Why do I want to attain this? You know, what would that mean to me? And what's that going to provide me in the long run?

You know, and just with your fitness goals, if you want to do a 5K, there's nothing wrong with, like, initiating the process of training, working your way up, and then just getting through it for the first time. Doing a 5K, record the time, and now you have something to compete against. Versus, oh, well, my friend did it in this amount of time, so I got to be, no, it's about you. Yeah, I totally agree. I know one of the best races I ever had was one that actually didn't even care about the time. Oh, nice. You stopped and hung out with people. Like, I remember this one triathlon, I actually gave a guy a tire because he blew his out.

Oh, that's nice. Because that was a lot of fun. Okay, so I guess we'll wrap it up, since this is probably the longest podcast we've had in a long time. We're over 40 minutes. Oh, wow. We could talk forever. I know. We might have to make a part two. We didn't even hit some stuff on this mythical list that's not really in front of us. Okay, so, Jenn with two N's, why don't you tell us how to reach you, in case anyone wants to ask you about your services or ask you to another podcast, since apparently you're a good interviewee-er? I appreciate that. I'm the er, aren't I? That's so sweet. Yeah, that's right.

And you know, to that point, you're an awesome interviewer, and I feel very comfortable sitting in this room just having a conversation with you. So, thanks for bringing me on. I just launched my brand new website. It's Jay-Z. My initial is jenniferzerlingjz at jzfitness.com. That's my email. So, jzfitness.com is my website. It's, oh, it's, wait, it's jz at jzfitness? At dot com. That's my email. You said website. I'm like jz at jzfitness.com. I'm like, nope, that's my email. Yeah, you're going to get so much spam now. Wonderful. But absolutely reach out to me. I do a lot of nutrition coaching all over the nation.

You don't have to live in Southern California. So, if you have questions about nutrition, fitness, anything, I can definitely help you out. Cool. And, yeah, I see, like I said, there are some more topics that we could definitely go through. We might have to do a telephone one next time. I would love that. Well, cool. So, everyone, thanks for listening. Please subscribe to the podcast and keep an eye out for Jenn's podcast on her website, which they should be starting. When are you guys starting, do you think? We're going to be recording tomorrow, so they should be coming out in the next month. Okay, cool.

So, also, too, I know that I got some feedback on this podcast. And so, do Jenn the favor, and if you have any positive comments, constructive criticism on hers, sound quality, you don't like her voice, whatever it might be, then give her the feedback, because it really, really does help us here. So, again, my website is p2sportscare.com. If you have any questions for me, I will gladly bring on some experts so you guys can answer them and get you the help that you need. So, take care, and thanks for coming on again, Jenn. Thank you.