99: How To Boost Low Energy With Whole Plant Foods

Anita: 0:58

Then you're going to be hangry, you're going to feel exhausted, and you're not going to be able to do all the things you'd love to do chase your children around, build a business, travel the world, all those things that are on your bucket list that you want to do. You've got to feel great enough to do them. And that includes having enough energy. And one of the reasons I started doing this was because I had low energy, right, I was exhausted all the time I was sitting around, I couldn't even walk up one flight of stairs. Imagine that

INTRO: 1:22

You're listening to the smarter Healthy Living podcast where we firmly believe that getting healthy should never feel like torture, we're your host, Jarrod and Anita Roussel we're college sweethearts, and health professionals who help you redefine what getting healthy looks like using a whole food plant based lifestyle. It's time to hear from the experts and learn the best tips and tricks that helped others get beyond the overwhelm, to create a vibrant life they love. If you're sick and tired of being sick, and tired. You're in the right place. So pull up a virtual chair, grab your matcha latte, and let's get started.

Jarrod: 1:57

Welcome to another episode of smarter healthy living. Alright, today we are talking about low energy. Maybe that's what's going on. You got low energy?

Anita: 2:19

I do not have low energy. I'm actually doing pretty good today. I was just gonna see what she did. If I was just quiet and let you roll with it.

Jarrod: 2:26

She's trying to make me sweat it out. Well, actually, we're talking about low energy, but we're talking about it from the frame of we hear this a fair amount where people starting this lifestyle, have a complaint of low energy. And I think it's especially whenever they go in pretty quickly.

Anita: 2:45

Yeah, usually sound something like this, hey, I started a whole food plant based on too long ago, and I'm just so tired. I mean, I'm normally an active person, or I want to be active, but I'm just feeling exhausted all the time. And why is that? Well, we know that one of the main reasons is because whole plant foods are lower in calorie by nature than the standard American diet, which is a great thing if you're wanting to get healthy and lose weight and feel good. But if you eat too many low calorie foods, and you're not getting the stick to your rib healthy plant based plants, right, it's right. If you're not getting the things that will stick to your ribs, then you're going to be hangry, you're going to feel exhausted, and you're not going to be able to do all the things you'd love to do chase your children around, build a business, travel the world, all those things that are on your bucket list that you want to do, you've got to feel great enough to them and that includes having enough energy. And one of the reasons I started doing this was because I had low energy, right, I was exhausted all the time I was sitting around, I couldn't even walk up one flight of stairs, imagine that to tuck my children into bed at night. It was exhausting. And it was heartbreaking because I couldn't do the things that I wanted to do on a regular basis. And my children were having to do more and more of the things that I should have been doing. And that's not the case. Now I have to force myself to go to bed at night. But you just have to learn the right way to do this. But

Jarrod: 4:05

I think a lot of that low energy was from a lot of the inflammation and a lot of the damage that was going on with your body.

Anita: 4:12

Absolutely.

Jarrod: 4:13

But in the case of all these foods, you're going probably literally from 1000s of calories a day to possibly hundreds of calories a day. And your body needs more than just that. And if you're eating nothing but lettus, and I was sharing with Anita earlier about this ad that I saw on the internet where this guy he's a bodybuilder type guy. And he's got this commercial where he says, Hey, would you rather eat this and he shows a bowl of salad which is primarily just lettuce, or this box of pizza. So of course you don't want this rabbit food because you're going to eat and then all you're going to want is this pizza. Now maybe he's able to lose a bunch of weight while eating pizza, but there's no escaping the fact that he's still clogging his veins and causing all of this damage that will catch up with them eventually.

Anita: 5:00

And a side note we eat pizza so we're not saying you can't eat pizza and be healthy because there are healthy ways to eat it but the standard american way to eat pizza is not healthy.

Jarrod: 5:10

It's cheese with an extra helping of cheese.

Anita: 5:12

I'm a cheese lover so even how we make pizza today we have cheesy things on it. But he's comparing a standard American pizza without a recipe upgrade right it has not been upgraded to whole food plant based deliciousness to a salad that has nothing in it but lettuce.

Jarrod: 5:33

My takeaway from that though is he's given the impression that going plant based is nothing but salad and that's completely not true. If you're eating nothing but that nothing but a lot of green leaves which is excellent for you a lot of great nutrients in that. A lot of health boosting benefits to that but you're not getting enough calories and there are a lot of other foods that are higher in calories such as beans, potatoes, a lot of the starchy vegetables that have the energy to keep you going all day long.

Anita: 6:05

Well, yeah. And if you didn't hear it, go back and listen to episode number 91, where we talk about building the perfect salad since we're on to salads here. But this is about so much more than just eating salads. So you're going to be eating a wide variety of whole food plant based deliciousness, right. So you got to have the ways to do that, that it sticks to your ribs and makes you feel satisfied, not just with salads, but with other foods that you're eating as well. And many people come into this and they start avoiding starches. They think, Oh, I can't have potatoes, because they're really high carb. And people have been scared to death, potatoes have become this big enemy.

Jarrod: 6:40

It's like starches have become this big Boogeyman like you could make a horror movie out of it. You've got people running down this town square, and you got these big giant potatoes and carrots coming chasing after them. I know obviously that my example is kind of ridiculous. But that was on purpose. Because I feel like that's just how ridiculous it is that we're so scared of starches that are good for us.

Anita: 7:03

That and just carbs in general. I mean, I won't forget, I'll never forget actually being in. I was shopping actually in a clothing store one time and I hear an associate up front, telling this guy who's checking out just whatever you do, man just don't eat bananas. They're not one of the more starchy foods, but just because their carbs don't eat carbs don't eat bananas. Same thing. And when I was in a health food store, I hear this employee telling this guy just don't eat carbs, and the truth is we're made to run on carbs. And so when I hear stuff like that, it just really is frustrating and concerning because people are getting the wrong message. And what we know and what science shows us is that you've got to have them long term for success, you've got to have them or you're gonna always be craving them, because your body was made to have them in a healthy way. Because not all carbs are equal either.

Jarrod: 7:56

That's true. And really 70% of our energy should come from starches,

Anita: 8:01

Let's think about this, you just started a whole food plant based you have low energy, odds are you're not getting enough calories. And we're talking about calorie density here. So just by nature, whole plant foods have less calories, I mean, you can eat one tablespoon of oil that's pressed out with none of the fiber, very poor nutrient profile next to nothing, and you're putting them on your food and thinking it's healthy. And every table spin you put on there is 120 calories. But all you need to know is which whole plant foods are higher in calorie, so that you can start adding some of those to your diet, that doesn't mean those are gonna make you gain weight, they're still extremely low in calorie compared to the standard American diet foods. Alright, so we're going to talk about some of the different calorie densities of the different foods now and give you a little glimpse of how simple this can be.

Jarrod: 8:54

And it can be very stark the differences. So one example would be vegetables, vegetables, in general, when you're looking at a pound of them, which is quite a bit of food is anywhere from about 60 to 200 calories per pound. And obviously it's gonna depend on which vegetable you're talking about.

Anita: 9:12

So you want to fill your plate with those. They're amazing, especially if you're wanting to lose weight, but they are going to give you some energy. I mean, they're packed with the nutrients you need. So you need the vegetables. Absolutely. Next thing are fruits. Now obviously, that's super high in sugar, or so w think.

Jarrod: 9:30

Looking at a pound of fruit, it goes anywhere from about 150 calories to 400 calories per pound.

Anita: 9:37

So were are you being sarcastic about the sugar?

Jarrod: 9:40

A little bit? Yeah, it does have sugar, but it also has the fibers that slow down the absorption of the sugar. And I really don't think it has as much as we think they do, mainly because they taste sweet. Now there are a lot of refined foods, though, that have a lot of sugar, but may not taste it. And an example would be something like Coke or any kind of carbonated beverage. Because you have the the carbonated water it's kind of acidic, so it has that acidic flavor. But that acidic taste kind of hides that sweetness. So you don't know that where on the flip side in something like blueberries. They taste sweet to us so we automatically assume Oh, this must be high high in sugar. It's really not.

Anita: 10:28

And the other thing they're just loaded with the good stuff, all these phytonutrients and antioxidants and things your body needs to be able to heal and be healthy and to give you the energy you need. So get your fruits on a regular basis super important berries, all kinds of fruits and try some new ones.

Jarrod: 10:47

About 140 to 400 calories. The next thing would be unrefined carbohydrates, so things like potatoes, rice, yams, and included in that was corn, hot cereals, pastas, things like that. But you'd want the whole grains, not a refined product. Those go from about three to 600 calories.

Anita: 11:16

And I'd say the pastor's are the ones that are more on the 600 calorie. And so these are the things that you need to get some of in every meal to have stick to your ribs, energy that's going to last you Okay, so these are still extremely low calorie compared to the standard American diet.

Jarrod: 11:34

And you'll get a good sense of that in just a moment, because we're going to hit some of the other standard American foods, and you'll get a sense because right now, you're probably thinking, Oh, my goodness, 600 calories per pound. That seems like so much but it's really not.

Anita: 11:45

It just has more calories than the vegetables and fruit. So you've come into this thinking all you can eat salads, and you're getting a whopping big salad every day, and you're not putting any potatoes, or rice or whole grains, anything like that on there or beans, right, then you're not going to be feeling satisfied, and you're going to crash You're not gonna ave the energy you need, ecause you're not getting the alories that you need from each meal.

Jarrod: 12:12

Now, you mentioned putting beans on our salad, that's the next category. You have beans, peas, lentils, legumes, those are anywhere from about 300 to 800 calories per pound. So a standard can of beans is about 15 ounces. Actually, that might be fluid weight.

Anita: 12:32

Because there's a lot of there.

Jarrod: 12:34

You probably have about half a pound of beans in there, maybe and we'll we'll take sometimes we'll do a salad, take a can of beans, drain it, and then just pass it around. And each of us just put some on there. And it's actually, as we're putting on there, it looks like a lot, but that one can will serve all of us one maybe two times. So I don't want you to think oh my goodness, I just ate a can of beans. I 'm eating 800 calories.

Anita: 12:59

Yeah, that's absolutely not true. And you need to be eating beans every single day. If you're not eating beans, peas, lentils every single day, you're not doing what you need to do for your health. Number one, it is going to fill you up, you're not going to be as hungry, you're going to get the calories you need. But also, they are going to give you vital nutrients that you're not going to get anywhere else. So you ate those beans, peas, lentils, and legumes. It's really important and they're delicious.

Jarrod: 13:26

Don't be scared of them. And don't be scared of the calories in them. Because we actually have a podcast episode where we talk about adding beans to your diet, or add to what you're eating and not changing anything else. People that did that in this particular study that we referenced there, they actually lost weight, they lost weight by adding calories to their diet, because you're getting all that fiber and all those vital nutrients like you just said.

Anita: 13:54

And then the next category is breads, bagels, fat, free muffins, and dried fruit. And those are going to be higher calorie, now you're getting into the basically red light zone is kind of like what we like to call it you think of your green light foods and now you're kind of crossing over. These are the foods that if you want to pack on the pounds if you've lost too much weight, and believe it or not, that's the thing eating this way a lot of people do. Now, we're not saying you need to just pack yourself full of the green light foods and just eat all the time all day long. That's just not a good thing either. It's not the way to eat. And we're going to talk more about that as we go. But we want you guys to know that the green light foods are amazing for you, you need to get a lot in all of those categories when we talk about the five foundational foods right? Right. So you want to get a lot of those. And that's the vegetables, the fruits, the whole grains, the legumes, and then we add in the nuts and seeds for the fifth category, because you do need those every day. And we're gonna get to those as well.

Jarrod: 14:55

But with those breads, bagels, the dried fruits, those are anywhere from about 900 to 1400 calories per pound.

Anita: 15:02

So that's a big jump up.

Jarrod: 15:03

You don't have to completely avoid them. You just may not want to sit down and eat five bagels at one time every day. I mean, you could have maybe for breakfast, in conjunction with maybe some fruit and things of that nature.

Anita: 15:18

Iif you're eating these things, like the pastas and breads, make sure you're eating whole grains. Buy ones that don't have oils added really, really, really important because again, we've talked about oil, that's 120 calories per tablespoon, super easy to gain weight that way if weight loss is one of your goals, but these are not the foods that are going to fuel you for the long haul, make you feel great, and give you the most nutrient dense calories. I want you to start thinking in different proportions. Not that you can't eat whole grain bread and pasta because you're going to gain weight. What I want you to think is it's okay to have some of those if I like those because really, I mean, I have A friend that a doctor asked her What's your favorite food? And she said pasta. And the doctor turns around says, Well, you can't have that anymore. And that was her advice.

Jarrod: 16:08

That was the end of the conversation from what I heard was that's all she said, she didn't really offer any alternatives. Anything else iit was just oh, you can't have pasta anymore.

Anita: 16:15

And so how does that help, like, I could give somebody probably easily just off the top of my head, maybe 10 to 20 different ways to have pasta that you can eat it and really enjoy it. And we're going to share a couple of those with you now. So I want you to start thinking about different proportions. So instead of that typical bowl of pasta that you would eat, that you put maybe a little marinara sauce, or some type of sauce, maybe even some sauce with a little veg in it. I want you to start thinking about having a big bowl of vegetables with some pasta thrown into it, start thinking about having a big bowl of salad with a little pasta thrown into it again, whole grain, it needs to say either whole wheat or brown rice pasta, it needs to be a whole grain pasta.

Jarrod: 17:01

There are some great pasta alternatives made with things like quinoa and bean.

Anita: 17:24

You can make veggie pasta, there's all kinds of d fferent ways you can make it a ain, I've got probably 20 ff the top of my head. But I j st want you to think about a sim le way to do this. So you want to switch your proportions swit h the way you do things, kind f flip it on its head, fill up o the stuff that's going to giv you those nutrients, and the fiber and all those things tha you need. They're gonna make ou feel great and give you energ, get some beans into it, g t some potatoes in there an put a little pasta.

Jarrod: 17:57

I just had an idea here right off the cuff. Normally we do pasta with the marinara sauce, the marinara sauce that Anita mix is absolutely amazing. And I've never thought this but you could do just a bowl of the marinera and put a little bit of the pasta in it. Now that may seem kind of crazy. But in the past, we've made tomato soup that is kind of like the marinara maybe not as seasoned. We could just call it something like pasta soup where we have just a ton of marinara.

Anita: 18:30

I mean, there are all kinds of ways you could do it. I would want a lot of vegetable thrown in to soak up the sauce, and then a little pasta.

Jarrod: 18:37

You could do that too. But we have made tomato soup even in our VitaMix where it's been nothing but just a tomato. And whatever else you put it.

Anita: 18:46

Yeah, to make it creamy. And just think about your flavor profile, you're going to the flavor profile route. Now we're gonna get totally off topic.

Jarrod: 19:00

But again, think outside the box, because we're normally thinking a ton of pasta with a little bit of the marinera It may seem kind of ridiculous to pour a big old jar of marinara, and then just float a little pasta in it. But it's almost kind of like when we were younger and we were eating the Chef Boyardee. spaghettios. Right? Well, that's exactly what that was. Yeah, just probably a lesser quality version of that. But you could do that

Anita: 19:28

And then you're mentioning the spaghettios. And I'm thinking, Okay, when you're pouring that big bowl, pasta sauce, you just make sure what the ingredients are in there. That's another tip. Because they all have a lot of oil. It's super high calorie and very low nutrient. It's inflammatory, oils are inflammatory so just be careful about that. And you can buy it without it. There are several brains out there without oil. But also, it's so quick to make your own. I mean, it's one of the easiest things. Well, I mean, there's so many easiest things. If you know how to do it, this way of living is just not hard. But we're going to get back to the topic at hand. So next is

Jarrod: 20:09

that now this is one that is very well known to the standard American diet, and that would be the fatty proteins like meats and cheese. We loved our cheese back in the day.

Anita: 20:19

Yeah, that's an understatement. It's really bad.

Jarrod: 20:22

That you think okay, the breads and dry fruit that was 900 to about 1400 calories. So the fatty proteins and all that that's what a little bit higher Well, no, that's anywhere from 1000 to 1800 calories, so

Anita: 20:35

you're getting that almost to 2000 calories per pound now, correct from the vegetables and fruits, vegetables being 60 to 200 and fruits being around 140. Let's

Jarrod: 20:45

say worst case scenario, you're at the 200 calorie per pound vegetable that you eat. That's a pound of vegetables for 200 calories versus a pound of meat and thanks I mean, if you have a quarter pounder, I don't know some of these, they have a quarter pound. Like if you get a hamburger from a fast food restaurant, they might have two or three of those patties in there. So you're getting three quarters of a pound of meat. So you're getting close to 1500 calories from that alone

Anita: 21:14

to me. Now you add in everything else that's on the bread and all that stuff,

Jarrod: 21:19

sauces and all that kind of stuff

Anita: 21:21

and you finish that sandwich and you're hungry, and you're going out of sight a biggie meal, and I'm hungry, because there's nothing in there to fill you up. It's not that you're a glutton. Why

Jarrod: 21:32

are there no nutrients I would really

Anita: 21:33

say your body's still craving the nutrients it needs the fiber. And once you chew that down, there's no bulk. So you It's no wonder you're still hungry. It's not your fault. It's just the way it is. And you are really hungry. It's not in your mind. And so you've got to get these foods that fell yet, but yeah, I mean extremely high calorie meats and cheeses that was Jesus were my thing. You know, I was the day we loved them. Absolutely. And we still eat our cheeses. We just eat upgraded cheeses we eat them different ways and it's really easy to do. So now we're looking at sugars like honey molasses, even the the better sugars, maple syrup and things like that. You don't want to go crazy on him. Okay, I'm just gonna throw this out there. Like some of the recipes that are out there that people say look this is so simple this the easiest dressing it's just got three ingredients. Just pick balsamic and mustard and maple syrup. And I'm going maple syrup Scott, you know a lot of calories. I mean we're looking at 1200 1800 calories now per pound. Okay, so why we use maple syrup sometimes but I'm not gonna put it in something that's already sweet and let me just tell you balsamic is super sweet. Do not add maple syrup to balsamic it does not need it at all

Jarrod: 22:44

or very least try it first. Yeah, maybe add a little if you feel like you need it well because

Anita: 22:50

well it's just so right because

Jarrod: 22:51

some of these recipes she's talking about will have a quarter cup of the syrup maybe even more depending on what it is even

Anita: 22:57

if it's just a couple of tablespoons reserve that for something really tasty that you'll love the maple syrup in why added to something that's already sweet. You can make a great balsamic dressing I'm going to give you another extra here. Okay, balsamic dressing is easy as balsamic fresh garlic or a little garlic powder makes it really good that these things are optional, it can just be balsamic on your salad or you can do balsamic with mustard. That's it or it can be balsamic month mustard and fresh garlic if you want to make it taste great. Or you can add some fresh black pepper fresh ground crack black pepper is wonderful and that there's so many different ways that you can change it up you start adding herbs and spices. I don't have time for all that the mana Italian seasoning mix with no oil in it and sprinkle sprinkle sprinkle is one of the tastiest salads that will be anything with oil and any kind of oil and vinegar dressing that you could buy in the store. I've got these terrible visions of all these nasty old vinegar dressings, you have no oil, very low calorie can eat all you want is still has the same grape flavor. And you're getting all these healthy things like the fresh garlic and you're not going to add that extra maple syrup most likely now because you're going to reserve that for something where you really like a little maple syrup on it, you know. And there you go. So that's how we do that. Let's go on to so sugars, yeah, again, there are some that are healthier, and that are okay to use. But use them sparingly and choose where you're going to use them use them in the places that you're really going to enjoy them. That's not already sweet. Because we add sweet on sweet on sweet. And if you understand the flavors of something, and you know it's already sweet, then you don't have to add it.

Jarrod: 25:11

And what you could do with the sugars too is and this kind of a mindset thing is don't ever tell yourself, I can't have it

Anita: 25:17

exactly what

Jarrod: 25:19

was something like in pretty much only sweetener we use as maple syrup. Because we love the flavor of that

Anita: 25:24

little bit of honey some time we're not training again, we do use a little bit of

Jarrod: 25:29

Yes, but almost reserve it in a place that I won't say royalty, but almost think of it as a it's a commodity that is very sparse, like I can't readily get it. Now, obviously that's not true. You can go to any grocery store and there's tons of it. But you know, back in the day when you know a couple 100 years ago whenever you actually had to get the sap out of the tree and boil it down and maybe Yeah, maybe didn't have maple trees around you and someone brought you this jug of maple syrup. Think of it Ah, this is a precious commodity. So I'm going to use just a little bit when the flavor enhances what I'm eating and I'm going to enjoy this so if you maybe if you have kind of that mindset you think well I it's not that I can't have it but I'm a reserved for special stuff.

Anita: 26:15

I like that I

Jarrod: 26:15

think that's going to help you enjoy it more.

Anita: 26:17

That's a great idea. And then we have the dried cereals. These things are really high in calories. Okay big chips. surprised by this list. fat free crackers, pretzels popcorn, no popcorn. Usually is a higher calorie just because you're putting all kinds of stuff on it. You don't have to put all that stuff on the popcorn. popcorns Not, not hard to do. But the dried cereals tend to be the biggest problems for people and the chips and also crackers. So find other crunchy things that you love. There are a lot of different things that you can do to substitute.

Jarrod: 26:50

Well, the calorie count for that was about 15 to 1800 calories per pound.

Anita: 26:54

Exactly. So you're getting even higher in calories. Well, about the same.

Jarrod: 26:58

Yeah, it's about the same as the other now I will say with cereal. giant box weighs What? 14 ounces, right? It's mostly air. So you could have a bowl of cereal we would say go whole grain maybe like if you had a Cheerios equivalent and something organic,

Anita: 27:16

preferably organic. That's

Jarrod: 27:18

Yeah, just because they're sprayed heavily that different grains, but this is a healthy breakfast. Well, yeah,

Anita: 27:23

it's another one. That's things like pasta breads, you can say, you don't say to yourself, I can't have it. You can say I can have a little bit of it, and just use it more sparingly. I mean, that's the only way I can say it

Jarrod: 27:36

just you don't want to get fixed on just one particular breakfast. Kind of like me kind of like me. Yes, my oatmeal, chocolate now it's a good breakfast. Although lately I have started thinking maybe I want to branch out a little bit. I still love it. But the difference is getting not about me. This podcast, not about me.

Anita: 27:58

All right, so then we've got the net seeds net betters and Haney again, nuts on a daily basis are good for you on a daily basis. And studies

Jarrod: 28:08

have shown absolutely, that when you have a little bit each day that I believe it, they said it even extended your life what was some like five years, if I'm remembering that correctly,

Anita: 28:19

it was a while I remember it was yours. So the thing with nets is you want to make sure to put out the portion that you're going to eat and don't be getting it in the net milk and then a nut butter every day and then eat nuts and seeds plain as a snack and just look at how many nuts are you getting a day and how many seeds they're great for you. The seeds give you your omega sweet she and flax all the time we put those in drinks and smoothies. I could go on and on. And they're wonderful for you. But these are higher calorie foods. So if you want something to make food, stick to your ribs and you're making a salad, sprinkle a few nuts and seeds on it, it's fine, it'll start making it stick to your ribs, there's nothing wrong with doing that. They taste great, they're filling, they'll make you feel satisfied, and you're not going to hit those energy lows,

Jarrod: 29:04

well in their nutrients in them things like walnuts have vitamin E, you're going to have the omega threes, which walnuts are very high in omega threes. So there are a lot of minerals and things like that. And so there are beneficial things, but they are being a seed, it has to store a lot of energy for the new plant to grow. So there is a fair amount of fat in that which has nine calories per gram. Now getting back to our list, one pound of nuts and seeds ranges anywhere from 2400 to 3200 calories per pound. So that's much higher. But if you get just a little bit and make that part of your normal daily routine, then you're going to stay with within what your body needs. But it's also going to give you that energy to help you make it through the day. And obviously this is not bad too. Because if you have a small handful each day, you live longer.

Anita: 29:56

Exactly. And that's what we want. But we also want a great quality of life. So we want to get all of these wonderful five foundational fades in on a regular basis. But you got to make it stick to your ribs. You want to enjoy it and not be hangry hangry Yep. And here's the thing, if you've been doing this for a long time, and you're not new to it, and you start hitting a place where you have low energy, and you've gone through and looked at and done these things, or other things that we work with our clients on, like how to get the right amount of sleep, making sure you're getting sleep, these are things that can also the things I'm about to talk about also affects your energy. Right. So how's your sleep? Are you drinking enough water? How are you morphing right? Are you moving? If not, you need to get moving more because the more you may have, the more energy you have. It seems like it'd be opposite of that. But it's really not

Jarrod: 30:43

well, it's kind of like tuning up an engine, it just runs better and gives out more energy. Yeah, and

Anita: 30:47

the other thing is, if you've been doing this for a while, hopefully plant based living and you've hit a place where you're having low energy, seek out your provider, you may need to have some blood work done, maybe your B 12 is off maybe your DS off, maybe you're having thyroid issues, not due to healthy plant based diet, just something that you need to do for yourself because of your body or whatever's going on. And it might be something you need to tweak with your whole food plant based diet. There are ways to make sure obviously, that we have we have episodes on vitamin D and vitamin B 12. And how to get those things a healthy plant based diet and how to make sure you're getting enough protein and all those different things

Jarrod: 31:27

we talked about. Everybody's unique and different. So what is working well for someone else may not give you everything you need. And everybody's is genetically different. So that even though you're doing all the right stuff, you may just for whatever reason have a thyroid issue. And a lot of times the fatigue can be something that found easily and easily corrected. But you need to see your health care provider. So we don't want you to, to ignore a problem. And neglect a simple solution,

Anita: 31:56

because it could be something as simple as one nutrient that needs to be tweaked. Right. And that could be something that you need to get by getting out in the sun. Well, that's true can be said, then you can easily get by taking a small supplement.

Jarrod: 32:10

And one last category that was on this list that we've that we have here is the oils. Now these are things that are liquid at room temperature, or fats, which are solid at room temperature, these are 4000 calories per pound.

Anita: 32:25

It's a huge difference. I mean, it's huge. And you look at eating just an equal amount of oil. Like look at pictures on calorie density, you look at a small amount of oil would equal a much larger amount of edge. Yeah, vegetables. I mean, you you're in all these vegetables, the same man college is totally filling your stomach, or there's just this little tiny amount of oil sitting in the bottom of your stomach.

Jarrod: 32:51

Yes, and one tablespoon of oil is 120 calories, which is actually about what a potato would be a potato is around 160 calories. You

Anita: 32:59

mean the potato? Yeah, absolutely. Every time I love them, there's so many ways you can eat them, they stick to your ribs and make you feel full, they give you the energy you need. And it'll keep you going for longer. And that's what we're to hold today, you got to have your energy. That's like I was saying before, you know, before I would live for the time when I could just fall back into bed, I would be getting up and on RTB thinking about how am I going to make it through this day. I'm so exhausted, never mind doing the things I wanted to do. I was in survival mode, I just wanted to know how to survive. And that's a terrible way to have to live. We want you to have long life that we want you to have quality of life. And once you can figure out how to get the right foods in that will give you sustained energy throughout the day, you're going to be like I am now not like I was before, but like I am now where I'm having to force myself to go to bed at night, because I still have enough energy. And I want to be up getting things done.

Jarrod: 33:54

Well that living has made you very bad at guessing time, especially at night. She'll, she'll ask me what time it is. And she always feels like it's about an hour or sometimes even two earlier than what it actually is. I oh my goodness, I gotta go to bed.

Anita: 34:09

I have no idea. It's terrible. And the time sneaks up on me because I don't feel exhausted. Like I used to when I would feel exhausted. I was always looking forward to bed. And now I'm just going still at night because I feel refreshed and lively. And just Yeah, good. Like I should have

Jarrod: 34:26

a finely tuned engine.

Anita: 34:28

It's wonderful. And I want that for you, Jared and I care about you. And we want you to have the most fulfilling, productive, vibrant life possible so that you can do all the things that you dream about doing. And we want you to know that it absolutely is possible. If you have any questions about the whole food plant based lifestyle, shoot us an email at info

Jarrod: 34:49

at podcast living.com podcast at smarter, healthy living.com

Anita: 34:55

Yeah, and then we will look forward to hearing from you and the questions that you need answered. We'll get those answered for you so that you don't have those questions anymore. And you can hit this place where you're just lemon, the whole food plant based life. We absolutely love it. We wouldn't dream about going back. We want this for you is absolutely the most enjoyable, wonderful way to live. And go out and just find something new to enjoy today. Get those stick to your ribs fades into your life on a regular basis. And we will look forward to hanging out with you again next time. On smarter healthy living.