[MELISSA]: Fitness, your health, your wellness, your entire journey, it’s not just about a diet plan on a piece of paper for the next six weeks, or being like, just give me some killer workouts. It’s a process. And just like Todd’s book, it’s about learning, figuring out what works for you, reprogramming, bringing in your mindset along with your nutrition. That is what’s going to be able to help you sustain this for life. Hey, what’s up everyone? If you’re looking to be inspired, motivated, educated, and entertained, you have come to the right place. Welcome to the Bomb Mom podcast, the podcast where we explore your fitness, life mindsets, and actions that help you become unstoppable. You’re worth it and it’s time to finally make changes in your life that will last you the rest of your life. Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Bomb Mom podcast. I hope today finds everyone happy, healthy, safe, getting a good workout in, feeling your body, enjoying your family. I know it’s been a very long day here for me, non stop work, working out, trying to just fit everything in, so I fully understand the fast paced life that we’re all living even with other things going on. I hope everyone is still trying to find time for you. And one thing that I have to bring up and share with you guys is on these days where it’s so busy and hectic, I have found one of the most amazing protein bars that I want to share with you guys. They’re called G2G Bars. They are amazing. And on the days where I am just go, go, go, I grab them. They’re so natural and so fresh, you actually have to keep them in the fridge, which is a really good thing. They will go bad. I mean, not like overnight or anything, but if you want them to last a little bit longer, you gotta keep them in the fridge and you guys, that’s a good thing. You don’t want them to outlive you, right? Like you don’t want your food to have a longer shelf life than you. So I wanted to share this with you guys, because I know everyone’s always messaging me and sending me emails and DMS and just like, what do you eat? What is a good thing out there? And I prefer to always eat real food. But sometimes we gotta grab things out of a package, and we need something, especially as Bomb Moms and busy moms to just grab something and go. Something that’s gonna fuel us and not be full of a ton of chemicals and preservatives. So you guys have to check out this company – G2G Bars. These bars have eighteen grams of protein, four grams of fiber, they’re gluten free, they have essential fats, there’s no preservatives and they’re naturally flavored. Not using natural, artificial flavors, like, these are naturally flavored. And the thing that caught my eye with this company when I first was introduced to them was when I look at the package, I pick it up, I look at the package, I look at the ingredients, and you can pronounce everything on the back. They use non GMO ingredients, all organic, and you can read and pronounce everything on the label. That’s pretty impressive. I absolutely love that. So make sure you guys check them out. And guess what, just for listening, you guys get to use my code and it is going to save you twenty percent off of your order. So when you order, use the code Melissa and you will get my discount; you’ll get twenty percent off. So check them out, you guys. They’re great for kids. My daughter’s love them. On the way to volleyball practice, and in the car, and between things. Sometimes they just need half of one. There isn’t a bad flavor. I’m not kidding you. I hate coconut. It’s not my favorite flavor, and their coconut bar is phenomenal. And I’m like, I don’t even like coconut and it’s super good. So if you’re an athlete, if you’re a busy mom, if you are a college student, if you are a man, or a woman, anyone, check these bars out. They have the best ingredients and they’re so safe that kids can even eat them, and they use just the purest form. And I love that you can flip it over and your six year old could read every ingredient on the back of the bar. Okay, so talking about food, that takes me in to our guest today, you guys. I cannot wait for you to hear this episode. It is phenomenal. We have a special guest named Todd Nyholm, and Todd wrote a book called ‘Ah food. Why do you trouble me so?’ That’s how I think it’s being said in my mind. ‘Ah food. Why do you trouble me so?’ And we talk about how food isn’t the enemy in your weight loss battle. So Todd started early on in his journey to learning about health, vitality, diet, because he had chronic problems from a young age. And he studied both modern and ancient health methods, and has been running a semantic therapy practice since 2002. And writing this book on diet has become a long standing dream to help people get a method they can use over time to help reprogram themselves in regards to their diet, emotional eating, and help them get themselves off the quick fix merry go round of fad diets. And you guys know me, you’ve heard enough episodes by now, and if you haven’t, make sure you go back and listen. I’m all about a way of life and a way of eating that’s sustainable, achievable, and not a quick fix because we all know quick fixes don’t work. They last… and yeah, sure, you’ll get some results and you’ll drop some weight but, like, what did you learn? And then all that weight comes back and then you gain some more because you didn’t learn anything. Todd also has this food ladder method and it changes how you think, feel, and act about food. And he goes through these steps of what you can do and say to yourself and like this checklist that you do before you eat. It was so cool, you guys, so I cannot wait for you to hear this episode. Sit back, relax. If you don’t have a pen and paper and you’re driving your car, no worries, don’t worry. Everything is in the show notes. Again, it’s called ‘Ah food. Why do you trouble me so?’ So check it out. Here we go. Loved having Todd on the show. And I can’t wait for you guys to hear this. ________________________________________ [MELISSA]: All right, everyone. Welcome to the Bomb Mom podcast. We have an amazing guest today. Amazing author. His name is Todd Nyholm. Did I get it right? [TODD]: You got it. [MELISSA]: Yes. Because if I was left to like, my own to pronounce it, I would have been like, Nailum, yes. That’s it. Nailed it. Nailed it. [TODD]: That’s kind of fun though. [MELISSA]: But yeah, yeah. Todd, your book is so impressive and it’s like right up the alley with the Bomb Mom podcast, my program Busy to Bomb Fit Mom, and just all about a loving relationship with food and how you can get unstuck and like, not hate it, like, it’s not the devil, right? [TODD]: Well, that’s what I was after. I felt the same way. That’s why I put that all together. Yeah. [MELISSA]: Yes. Well, you did an amazing job. So I just got finished with lunch and I’m going to tell you what I had and then you can grade me, okay? [TODD]: Okay. [MELISSA]: So tell me if I’m doing good. So I had… have you ever seen those wraps, and it’s like egg, cauliflower wrap? I know Costco carries ’em right now. [TODD]: Yeah. [MELISSA]: Have you ever seen them? [TODD]: I think so. Yeah. [MELISSA]: So I got the big one. I had that, and it had grilled chicken in the middle with feta, romaine, and diced up pickles. How does that sound? [TODD]: Well, the first thing I would ask is how do you feel now? [MELISSA]: I feel amazing. [TODD]: Yeah. Was it emotionally satisfying? [MELISSA]: I do. I do feel… cuz I love that the egg and cauliflower ones – I got the big ones. You can get the little ones, but I got the big ones – and I love that I can have three of them, and they’re big, and filling. [TODD]: You feel satisfied? [MELISSA]: I do. [TODD]: I’d say it’s great then. If it makes you feel good, and you digest it well, and there’s no ingredients in there like, you know, Cheetos and Coke that you mixed into the sandwich or anything. [MELISSA]: No. I swear. I swear. I may have some chocolate peanut butter cups after, but, you know… [TODD]: Gotta have some fun too. Yeah. [MELISSA]: Right. Right. Right. So Todd, your book is called ‘Ah food. Why do you trouble me so?’ [TODD]: Yeah, that made me laugh. [MELISSA]: It’s perfect. It’s perfect. Because I swear to God, it’s like so many people look in their pantry and they’re like, ah food. Why do you trouble me so? And then that’s the name of your book, so I love it. Give us a little background before we go into the book. Tell us a little bit about Todd. How did you come up with this book? There’s so much to know about you. So I’m gonna let you start where you want to start with your background and your history. Where did Todd come from? [TODD]: All right. Well, so I’ve had health problems since I was really young, and I can’t remember not having them. So that kind of led my life in a different direction than most people, because I was always trying to find ways to make myself feel better, you know? [MELISSA]: Yeah, yeah. [TODD]: So I went through all the typical medical stuff, which in some ways was helpful, but I had to go kind of far outside of it to get a lot of the answers that I needed. And then I had to make up a bunch of answers that I needed, meaning I had to put a bunch of things together and reorganize them to get them to work. So if I could find something that was four thousand years old that I could make work for myself, then I would do that. But I’d stay up to like two or three in the morning, trying to figure things out and reading old texts from Ayurveda, or Chinese medicine, or wherever I could find it, and then try to apply it to myself. So that’s where a lot of this got started. [MELISSA]: What did your health problems consist of, if you don’t mind me asking? [TODD]: No, not at all. I had a lot of digestive issues pretty much – almost all the digestive issues you could imagine – a lot of headaches, a lot of fatigue, a lot of joint pain. And later on, I found out a lot where that came from as I got better doctors, we got better testing, and things like that. There’s a lot of problems stacked on top of each other, which made it more difficult to figure out as well. [MELISSA]: Right, right. So once you started getting answers, did light bulbs start going off for you of like, oh, okay well that explains that, and…? [TODD]: Yeah, absolutely. As you make more connections, and particularly when you look back in older stuff, you see these connections between the mind, your body, your emotions, the way you see life, that connects everything in a little bit different way than we would now which was extremely helpful for me. [MELISSA]: Yeah, yeah. That is one of the biggest things that I’m always – I guess I’m gonna say preach – I’m always preaching to my group, and my program that I run and stuff, is like the mind body connection and how powerful it is, and to develop this loving relationship between food, your mind, your body. And women especially, they don’t realize that like, when you actually feed your body and give it the food that it needs, it’s going to work with you, and let go of fat, and just produce overall health and wellness. Do you see the same thing and agree with that? Or am I doing it all wrong? [TODD]: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. No, I think that’s the exact same conclusions I came to. People always try to force their diet, but they don’t lovingly address themselves, they don’t address their mind, they don’t address their emotions and so they’re kind of working at cross purposes. And the more you can take different angles into that same problem so that you can change how it all fits together, the better results that you’ll have over time, and more long lasting, so you’re not living on broccoli water for six months and hating life or something. [MELISSA]: Right. Right. I like that you use that word ‘forced’ into it, because… and I’ve talked about this before in other episodes, but there’s so many camps around here, and just different programs and things that you could join, and they give you like this six week diet plan to follow. And it’s like, you know, chicken and broccoli every day or like, I think broccoli might be pushing, it’s like, asparagus. [TODD]: Yeah. [MELISSA]: And they are, they’re like forced into that. What do you think of those types of diets? [TODD]: Well, I think they’re troublesome because they don’t make the changes at the levels that you need to make a long term diet work. And so you might even get some radical change in your body. [MELISSA]: Oh, for sure. [TODD]: But you might swing back so hard. And you do that five or six times and now your health is going to take a pretty good hit. And so that’s kind of dangerous over time if you can’t maintain what you did, and often they don’t teach you the next step, and the next step, and the next step, to go through that. Because that’s the way that fad diets work, right? It’s this quick, give me this money, we’ll do this for six weeks, you’ll be great and everything will be fine. I don’t know, maybe for five percent of the people that might be true. [MELISSA]: Right. Yeah. Five is probably even generous. And so many people end up leaving that and then they’re like, okay, well now what? Or they binge after. [TODD]: Yeah. [MELISSA]: And then they really get in trouble, and then they gain thirty pounds from when they originally started. [TODD]: You bet. And then they don’t know their emotional triggers. So they went through all that time forcing themselves away from it. And then they can struggle emotionally and mentally afterwards because they’re not using this food to address some of those things as well. [MELISSA]: Right. Right. So you’re a somatic therapist. What does that mean? [TODD]: So in the fields that I work in, there’s a lot of different methods that we use from different teachers, which all have long names like visceral manipulation and cranial sacral therapy and things like that. And so one of my teachers who was teaching me some of that, he just started calling it somatic therapy. Somatic refers to the body. So in a way, it’s like body therapy. And so a lot of what I do is working through the body to help people make changes in their life, which means I have my hands on people as I work with them, and I’m working through their body in a lot of different ways to make change that way. [MELISSA]: Like what? What do you mean working through the body? What’s that mean? [TODD]: So let’s say someone came in and was really anxious. I would lay them on the table and I would work with their head and neck, and get their nervous system to relax. And then I would probably work on their wrists and work with some acupressure points. And while I was working through things like that I would talk them through some ways to look at things just a little differently, which is mostly just conversation, getting them to tell me what’s going on, so that I can kind of hit some of those levels we were talking about before. So it’s not just a physical way of getting into the person, but also sort of an emotional way, and a mental way. And so I try to combine all that to get people a little better result. [MELISSA]: Yeah, yeah. It kind of – and correct me if I’m wrong – I had Reiki done before. And I remember going to this lady’s house and she was amazing at it. I don’t know if it helped or worked. I played collegiate volleyball and I was a middle, so it was constantly jumping and landing and just pounding on my shin, and my shin just killed. It was my right leg. It hurt so bad. And I had, lo and behold, a stress fracture, shocking. And they were like, oh, your seasons done. I’m like, what? I’m on scholarship. You’re lying. No, this is… I’m gonna just shatter the rest of my shin. You cannot make me stop. And someone was like, you gotta go see my aunt, she does Reiki therapy. It’s amazing. And I’m like, I’ll do it. I’ll do it. And I kid you not, I went there and she just, like, it sounds like what you’re doing, like working through my body and working on my shin. And I swear to God, within like two weeks, I was walking pain free. I finished my season. And they’re like, we don’t know what you did but you were supposed to be done for the rest of the season. [TODD]: Yeah, it’s amazing what’s possible to do when you get the right avenues into things. There’s a lot of things that as a culture, we haven’t done much with, particularly some of the like, you might think of as energetic techniques, or ways of connecting things that we generally don’t use because we’ve gotten so good with surgery and pills and those kinds of things. And so it’s a little outside the way most people do some of those things, but can work brilliantly if you put it all together. [MELISSA]: Yeah, absolutely. So let’s get into this book. [TODD]: Okay. [MELISSA]: How did this ‘Ah, food. Why do you trouble me so?’ – I just love saying that – how did this become, like, how did you birth this book? [TODD]: Well, so I was building a method for overall health, which I was using to kind of put myself back together, which kind of got bigger and bigger. And then, after I had a surgery a few years ago that got infected, I got really big afterwards and I needed to lose some weight. And so I was putting together all that stuff and I used some of the principles and put it together for myself in a method to help me build my health and lose weight together. And so I lost about sixty pounds. And so as I looked at that, I’m like, this might be a good way to start talking about some of the principles for overall health that I wanted to get at. So I embedded those in the book basically in a diet format, so that I can connect them later to how to sleep better, and how to recover better, and how to build a good relationship with yourself. So I have all these principles that I use for all those different ways of helping your health, and so many people I know are struggling with diet it seemed like a great place to start. [MELISSA]: Yeah. And so this started out as just a, you said, like a method for overall health? [TODD]: Yeah, absolutely. And so I was trying to put everything together, like I said, to fix my health and working with so many different people at the clinic who had so many different problems. And often I’d see people who, for thirty years have been struggling with things and haven’t been able to get any health. And so I got really good at helping people with pretty odd problems. And so I started to develop a different way for me to look at health. And so I started writing it down and putting it all together, and so part of that was a manual method of how you would work with people mechanically with your hands and fingers, and that grew into some of what’s in the diet book, and what will be in the sleep book, and some of those things. [MELISSA]: Okay, cool. I love how you say – I don’t remember if this is on the title or written inside the book, I don’t know – but it says, food isn’t the enemy in the weight loss battle. [TODD]: Yeah. [MELISSA]: Explain that to me. How is it not the devil? Because I’m pretty sure we all feel like it is. How is it not the enemy? [TODD]: I think in some ways, it’s like the framing of what people eat. And so some food is gonna make you feel great. It’s gonna make you healthy, it’ll make you feel vital, it’ll keep you alive, it’ll help you think better, it’ll help you stay more calm, and all kinds of ways that it interacts with you. And then some food will do the opposite. It’ll make you feel terrible, it’ll help you gain weight when you don’t want to, it’ll make you tired, it can give you digestive issues, it can lead to all kinds of health problems down the line. And it’s not that food itself is the problem. It’s the context in which you’re eating the food, what food you’re eating when, and how, and how it makes you feel. And that’s really individual. People want to think that it’s all the same for everyone and there’s some things that you can certainly connect, but people are different, the way they look at things are different, their genetics are different, what their ancestors ate is different. And all that has to come into it, I think. [MELISSA]: Right, right. What are some ways that we can start looking at the other things, you know, like, bring it into it, like you said. [TODD]: I think the first step whenever I’m talking about food, or just about anything relative to health, is to connect with yourself and how you feel, like, really watch yourself when you do whatever the activity is. So with food when you’re about to sit down, just really watch yourself for a while in a very non judgmental way, and just see why you’re doing it. And then you figure out you eat potato chips because the drive sucked on the way home, or you’re eating ice cream because you saw it on TV when you were a kid and it still reminds you oh, on Friday night, we eat ice cream; there’s all these weird little things that we do. And then you start to break down the really obvious stuff, because you just see it clearly. Like, I don’t really need to do this anymore. And then you start to see why you, and you specifically at certain times, you’re doing things that makes it easier to pull apart. And then you can build from there. But that attention to what you’re doing, which is very hard to do with food because we’re all so used to talking, or watching TV, or eating in the car, or all those different things. [MELISSA]: Right. Right. And we use it as… so many use it as a comfort. And that instant, everything’s okay for this moment. While I’m standing in my kitchen eating my chocolate peanut butter cups, no one can touch me, nothing is bothering me. [TODD]: Oh, yeah. [MELISSA]: And then you develop this weird relationship between you and chocolate peanut butter cups. And I love that you’re saying that because I think so many people just grab and eat, or it’s out of boredom, or they’re like trying to fix something, and they don’t even realize it. [TODD]: Yeah, and it’s easy to fall into it. You learned a lot of that when you were a kid, and so it’s been a habit you’ve been doing for, let’s say, twenty years, and so it’s not so easy to see because it is a habit. It’s like when you drive somewhere and you don’t remember driving there, and all of a sudden you’re there and, like, all of a sudden, you just ate half a bag of potato chips for whatever reason. And so once you can see that then you can start to figure out why you’re doing it. [MELISSA]: What habits can you think of, like, do any come to the top of your head with kids? [TODD]: With kids? [MELISSA]: Yes. Like you’re saying, like, it starts when you’re a child and you start picking up these habits in relationship with food as a kid? [TODD]: Sure. I think a lot of what I see with kids, and for myself when I was a kid, is that certain behavior is rewarded, certain behavior is almost punished with food. Like, you have to sit here and eat this terrible chunk of meat that wasn’t cooked right, but you can’t go to bed until you eat it. You know, that kind of thing, that happened a lot when I was a kid. Or you did really great, so we’re gonna go out and you can have as much pizza as you want. And we’ll get you some ice cream and some sodas and so you start to connect, rewarding yourself with food that isn’t so good for you. [MELISSA]: Yes. [TODD]: Or punishing yourself… there’s a lot of these interesting things that connect that we do to our kids, often not even thinking through it, that leads to problems later on. [MELISSA]: Right. I tell my kids – because I have three girls – and I tell them all the time, I’m like, you’re not a dog. I don’t reward you with treats. [TODD]: That’s great. I like it. [MELISSA]: So I try and make it, like, you know, like, we’ll randomly go out and get ice cream. So it’s not like, oh, you did good on your test. Now we’re going to go get a pizookie at BJs, you know, like, I make it, like, hey, let’s just do this. Let’s just throw it in there so it’s just good balance, but it’s not… they’re not associating the ice cream or the treat with the behavior, like you said. I’m doing something right, Todd. [TODD]: It sounds like you are. I think it also makes you reward behavior with sort of intimacy with your kids that way. You start to know them a little better rather than just taking them to a restaurant. And so I think you end up connecting which is a good way to build relationships, rather than doing it with food, you’re kind of doing it more directly. And then you break the food out from it. So you’re doing a bunch of things right with that. [MELISSA]: Yeah, yeah. ________________________________________ [MELISSA]: Hey there. So I thought this would be a good time to fill you in a little bit more on my online program, Busy to Bomb Fit Mom, because I get a lot of questions about it. This is a ninety day program that is going to literally change your life. Now, is it me just giving you some meal plans to follow and a bunch of really cool workouts? No, this is a program that is going to shape your body, your mind, your self-love, your self-confidence, get your food on track, help you with accountability, and motivate you to get up, get moving, and make the changes that you so desire and that you deserve. This program is set up for three months and that is because I need at least that long to help you start changing your mindset, develop new habits, a new routine. You’re going to be placed with a group so you’re gonna have this complete support system around you, supporting you, loving you, and you’re going to get me as your head coach, your head mentor, your motivator. Imagine hearing and talking with me every single day, seven days a week. Yeah, that’s going to change you. That’s going to get you results. So if you want to know more, let’s talk. Visit www.busytobombfitmom.com, book a call with me. Let’s fill you in. I’m going to get an idea of where you’re at right now, currently with your health, your fitness, your wellness, what have you tried in the past? What are you looking to achieve? And then we can go from there and we can see if Busy to Bomb Fit Mom is a fit for you. All right, back to the show. ________________________________________ [MELISSA]: Another thing too I just thought of while we were talking about kids, because obviously this is the Bomb Mom podcast so we have a lot of moms listening, I see a lot of snacks. I don’t know about you, but like, when I was a kid growing up, like, I don’t remember my mom bringing up budget snacks for me somewhere. I feel like that’s a pretty new thing now. [TODD]: Yeah, it didn’t happen to me either. [MELISSA]: Yeah, I don’t know. Like, I don’t remember anyone bringing snacks for me in case I was hungry at church. But kids are, like, I feel like they’re constantly being fed. And we’re starting to use it more and more as like, I just need you to sit there and be quiet and eat this bag of chips, like here, have this snack and sit there and be quiet. What problems do you see that turning into later for an adult? [TODD]: I think it goes to that connection of using food for things other than nutrition, or working with yourself, and we all do that. I think it’s like, we have all these different things in our society that we use food for other than, here’s how you stay healthy. Here’s how you prepare something that tastes good and keeps you healthy and is nutritious for you. And so we’re still building in all these habits, and all these emotional triggers, and all these little things that make it very difficult to manage the food, not because the food itself is a problem, but it’s almost because all these connections between things that don’t necessarily belong there. Like, here we’re gonna parent our kid by giving them these treats for twenty minutes, and they’ll be bombed out for a while so we can do something else. [MELISSA]: Yeah, I know, it breaks my heart because childhood obesity is no joke. It’s real, it’s legit. And I don’t think people and parents realize that what they’re doing now is just going to affect them for the rest of their life. [TODD]: Yeah, it affects all kinds of health markers for the rest of your life, like you said. [MELISSA]: Yeah, everything, everything. [TODD]: And it’s new. We don’t even know what it’s gonna do because it wasn’t like a hundred years ago people did that. They didn’t have the access to the food, they didn’t have the same habits. So if you look at a picture from 1920 everyone was thin, you know, because they just didn’t have that kind of resource. So I don’t think we even know what it’s gonna do over the next thirty or forty years as we’ve done more of that, too. [MELISSA]: That’s so true. Absolutely. So you have the food ladder method, right? [TODD]: Yeah. [MELISSA]: Am I calling it right – the food ladder method? [TODD]: That’s perfect. [MELISSA]: And this changes how you think, feel, act about food? Can you explain that a little bit to us? [TODD]: Yeah, so I was trying to create something that I could use while I ate that would sort of break up the emotional triggers, and the mental triggers, and the physical triggers. And so ultimately, that ladder came from some of the other principles I had in terms of building your health, and I just applied them into that section of food. So that when you sit down and eat, you say, okay, I’m going to go through this… you could use two of the principles or you could use them all. The whole thing is kind of something I wanted to make as comprehensive as I could. But as you work through each piece, you can see what might be useful for you and you can sort of reprogram, rather than eating because someone broke up with you. You sit there say to yourself, I’m going to eat because this is gonna feed my body. And so you work through a bunch of steps like that, which I tried to make reasonably complete so that you could look at it, and then go over it, and over it, and over it, and over it until you reprogram sort of a software that you run relative to food. So like, sort of redoing the software on your computer, you’re redoing the software around food in your head, as you eat. [MELISSA]: Okay, so how many steps are there? Because you said that you could do a couple or you could do them all, like, how many is there technically? [TODD]: I put fourteen in the book. Now I use eighteen for myself, because I’ve added to it since I wrote the book. [MELISSA]: Really? [TODD]: But I don’t want to scare people away because that sounds like a lot. Once you get good at it, you could do the whole thing in thirty seconds and it’ll start to work on itself. It’s pretty easy to do. And I don’t want people to like run away from it because there’s fourteen steps or whatever but they could just take one and use that and then they’ll want to do two and it starts to be a little bit more fun that way. So I try not to chase anyone away by sounding like there’s too many. [MELISSA]: No, no, they can handle it. They can handle it. So okay, tell us like the first five of the food ladder method, just so we get a little taste of it. [TODD]: Okay, so I think step one is definitely the place to start. But you say to yourself before you eat, I eat to nourish myself and my life. And that’s to remind you of the purpose of food in your life. So rather than it being like a wedge to change how you feel, you start to realize what the food is for again. [MELISSA]: Yeah, and a great affirmation. [TODD]: Yeah, works great when you can kind of repeat it, and eventually you start to think that way. Step two, you get into your body, and you start to feel how you feel, like, literally in your body. And then you ask, is there space needing to be filled? So are you actually hungry? Is there actually space in your stomach for something? Which sounds simple, but there’s a lot of times you’re actually kind of full, but you eat because it’s 6pm and that’s the time everyone eats. [MELISSA]: Yeah, that’s interesting. And you know, sometimes I have to stop my kids too and ask them like, are you really hungry right now or are you just bored or, you know, sometimes when we’re at a restaurant and they feel like they have to finish, like, if your full or – it’s usually at someone’s house and they’re trying to be polite – I’m like, if you’re full you do not need to finish that. [TODD]: That’s a good lesson to learn because we’re all kind of trained to do that. And if you go out to a restaurant and eat like a normal dish, it’s usually like two thousand calories. [MELISSA]: Oh, God, yeah. [TODD]: Way more than you need, you know, when I get halfway through I’m done. [Unclear] done. [MELISSA]: Yeah. I love that that’s like, that’s right off the bat, number two, like, is there space for this? Do I need this right now? That’s great. [TODD]: Yeah. It’s worked well for me. And step three kind of connects what you’ve done with food plus your normal day. So have you done anything to stoke your metabolism? I think that’s how I worded it. Is your metabolism stoked? That’s the question to ask yourself. [MELISSA]: What’s that mean? Is your metabolism stoked? What exactly does that mean? [TODD]: So for me, what I’m trying to get out of here is did you do enough things during the day that would require the amount of food that you’re eating? [MELISSA]: Ah, okay. [TODD]: And I go through that a little bit more clearly in the book than I just mentioned it there. But, like, if you’re running a marathon, that’s a totally different intake of food than if you’re, let’s say, spending a weekend at home with your lover watching movies or something. [MELISSA]: Right. [TODD]: So you need a different amount of calories, you need a different amount of… eat probably different food for that. And it’s important to pay attention to that, too. [MELISSA]: Yeah, and that’s not really something I think a lot of people sit down and none of these are, so this is all like, amazing, but that’s not something people sit down and think about. Like, do I need this caloric intake right now? Is this required or did I sit at my frickin desk all day? Yeah. [TODD]: It’s an important question I think almost no one asks. [MELISSA]: It is, well, some of the Bomb Moms in my group would definitely be asking it because I’m always like, if you’re lifting hard and heavy today, then yeah, your body’s gonna need that fuel. But like, what else did you do today? If you didn’t do anything today, then you don’t require as much. [TODD]: Yeah, you bet. [MELISSA]: That’s a perfect step three. Okay, go. Now I want more. [TODD]: Step four was get the most out of your food. Did you chew well? So like, is your food well prepared? Did you break it down enough so that your digestive system can burn through it easily? And this one really is important for people with chronic digestive issues, because you can really tell if you’ve had some digestive issues, that certain food you just can’t get through very well, and you don’t get much out of it, and it makes you tired. And so in some ways, that’s what that step was aimed at. [MELISSA]: Hmm, I love how you put chew in there, too. [TODD]: Yeah, it’s an important thing. I have this friend that was in the Marines and he can eat his whole meal – and I’m not kidding – in ninety seconds. And if I did that, I’d be rolling on the floor for like three days. Some people can do it a little bit, but you’re still not giving yourself a good chance to get everything out of the food that you want, because your body needs to be able to break it down, and then absorb everything, and then eliminate, and if you break up one of those three steps, you can really cause some problems for your health over time. [MELISSA]: And the chewing probably helps with the breaking down part because if you chew it properly, and it’s broken down into smaller pieces than swallowing whole pieces, I’m assuming that totally affects how you digest it right? [TODD]: You bet. It makes it easier for your stomach, which is breaking things down with acid. And then as it goes through your intestine, you’re breaking it down more and picking things up. But if you chew it well, and you get some saliva, some salivary amylase in there, it’ll break it down. It helps breaking down the sugars quite a bit, which is useful for people who are struggling with sugar and blood sugar, that kind of thing. So it can make a big difference for a lot of things. [MELISSA]: Now, you can be like, no, I don’t know anything about this. But I have a question. Teacher, I have a question. Water and drinking while you eat, do you know… I’ve heard that that really messes up the digestive process, and the enzymes and stuff that you break up. Do you know much about that, that you should drink throughout your meals and stuff? [TODD]: Yeah, I think in some ways, it’s a bit personal. Like, if your digestion is great, probably the water isn’t such a big deal. But if it’s kind of like middling or kind of low I think it would be really useful to drink your water first. So it also kind of likes, expands your stomach so you’re not as hungry. Kind of like, mechanically changes how hungry you are. But then it keeps you from diluting that acid I was mentioning. So if you’re drinking water at the same time that you’re eating your food, everything mixing in your stomach is getting a little bit diluted by the water. So probably not a huge thing for a lot of people but again, if you have digestive problems, you’re trying to get the most out of your food, it’s a great thing to drink the water first, or thirty minutes after the meal, something like that. [MELISSA]: Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard is like, drink it before, like you said, expand it and everything like that, but not a whole lot during it. And I know a lot of people who drink a ton while they eat and I’m like, mm, I try to not even have anything with me when I eat, but… [TODD]: It’s a habit, yeah, [MELISSA]: Yeah. Oh, yeah, it definitely is. And then like when you’re at a restaurant, and they just bring it to you. [TODD]: And they keep refilling it. [MELISSA]: Yeah, yeah, then they keep it full. And then like, especially if you’re drinking pop – I’m from Michigan so we say pop out there, but out here in California, they say soda – they keep refilling it. And then every time you’re drinking, you’re getting more sugar and more calories added to your meal. [TODD]: Yeah, absolutely. And then if you’re using something like soda, the amount of calories that’s in that that most people don’t look at, and then the amount of sugar that’s in it, which I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever have one, but it’s worth looking through how much is really in there and how many calories you’re just picking up from that itself, particular if you’re trying to lose some weight. [MELISSA]: Yeah, yeah. And then people are like, oh, but I got a diet, it’s a diet one. [TODD]: Yeah. And then you got a whole different problem with that. Yeah. [MELISSA]: Oh my god, a whole ‘nother can of worms. Okay, go, what’s number five? [TODD]: Number five was eat and drink foods that clean and cleanse you. [MELISSA]: Hmm. [TODD]: So this is the kind of idea if you can, like, move it into your mind. Like, what is helping everything in your system move well, so that you’re not feeling heavy, and fatigued, and things like that afterwards, and then literally cleaning your body out, like by drinking the water beforehand or… a lot of old cultures, they did a lot with soup so that you’re always kind of flushing as it went through your system. So things didn’t get kind of stuck in your system. [MELISSA]: Interesting, interesting. Okay, give me two more, will you do two more, please? [TODD]: Sure, of course. [MELISSA]: Okay. [TODD]: Step six, eat foods that assist digestion, assimilation, elimination, and movement. So this, again, is thinking all the way through the digestion process in your body. So some foods will help you break things down like spices, cooking with good spices helps break the food down. They can also help you eliminate, make sure it’s going out. So there are people I’ve met that like, if you ask them how often they deficate, they’ll say, oh, every five or six days, which isn’t necessarily so good for your health. So you start to look at the whole process of what food is and how your body uses it, and then how you get rid of the waste and all that. [MELISSA]: It’s a topic people don’t want to talk about, but it’s a serious one that people think that they’re normal and they’re like, oh, I go like once a week, and I’m like, dude, that’s not normal. [TODD]: Yeah. It’s probably not so great for you. [MELISSA]: No, not healthy, not normal at all. Okay, one more, give us one more. [TODD]: Step seven is to eat a broad variety of nutrients, food groups and colors within your veggies and fruit. And so this really helps you get a bunch of micronutrients, and helps get your body all the different things that it needs. So there’s a lot of things that are loaded in fruits and vegetables, particularly in the colorful ones, that can be really helpful. And the more you play with that, and particularly in some of the Asian methods I learned, they talked about it a lot, you know, try to get five colors at least once a day, and that was their way of sort of handling… getting a lot of the things that we might take vitamins and minerals to try to get now. So it also makes the diet more fun. You start playing with colors, and you start playing the spices, and it becomes an experience, which is fun too. [MELISSA]: Yeah, I like that. And being able to look at your plate and be like okay, how many colors are on here? Because if it’s just one and everything’s brown, that’s probably a problem. [TODD]: Yeah. Everything’s white, you know? [MELISSA]: Yeah, that’s not good. That’s not a good step. You also talk about the five exercises that fire up your metabolism so you can eat more and lose weight. Can you just give us a couple of them? What are some of the top exercises that you find that really kickstart that metabolism? [TODD]: I think if we’re talking about metabolism itself, it has to do with timing as much as exercises themselves. So actually doing some exercises before you eat can prime your body. So you can… [MELISSA]: Ooh, okay. [TODD]: So you might like… you’re gonna go eat a big meal and before you go, you kind of, I don’t know, bust out twenty push ups or something. Or I really like isometrics for that because you can kind of do them when no one sees you. So you may be sitting somewhere and you’re contracting the leg muscles, like, you might push against the floor. So you’re kind of contracting your hamstrings and your quadriceps or you can put your hands between your knees and push them together and you don’t let ’em move so it’s an isometric, and you can kind of stimulate some of your body to feel like it needs to burn and move some things that way. So, that’s a little bit of what I was trying to get at with exercising in terms of your metabolism. People who are working out really hard, who are really pushing weights, things like that, they probably don’t need so much of that because their body’s already pretty ramped up. And it depends on your fitness level. For someone who’s really starting, maybe you need five wall push ups. You go into a room where no one is, you lean against the wall and do five push ups. Eventually you’ll do ten and then maybe you can go up to five regular push ups so that you can build up from there, and that’ll start to build your metabolism in a different way. And if you really feel your body a little bit you’ll feel you’ll digest a little better after some of that, or at least I do. [MELISSA]: Interesting. I love this theory behind it. And that’s something so easy that anyone listening could do, like, you serve everyone, like, all the moms, you give everyone dinner on the table where everyone is sat, go and hold a plank in the kitchen floor for a minute. [TODD]: It also starts to connect how everything fits together, like oh, exercises have to do with my food, food has to do with my exercise. I think it makes some changes in your mind, and your emotions, and it can really be an interesting thing to connect to everything. [MELISSA]: Yeah. [TODD]: And you can do it slow enough, like, if your health is pretty bad and you’re trying to build into it, you can put it together with everything else. And if you’re really in good shape, you can play with all kinds of things beforehand. So you’re doing, I don’t know, fifty squats or something before you eat so you’re really pushing blood and musculature and things like that. [MELISSA]: Right. So you could like pray, squat, then eat. [TODD]: Absolutely, yeah. [MELISSA]: I love that. That’s a good one. I didn’t even think of that. And too, like, that’s a good tip for people who might be injured. They can’t run, they got a broken leg, or an ankle, or something like that. They very easily could sit down and do the contraction, like bicep curls, sitting there and really squeezing and contracting the bicep. [TODD]: Yeah, I don’t think we do enough with isometrics at all, particularly for rehab and things like that, it can be really useful. And then you combine it with your diet and you can really kind of take off with some cool things. [MELISSA]: I totally agree. And I do a ton of isometrics with my working out. So I like to superset things. So example, like, you do really heavy squats. And then as soon as you rack it, you get off and then you’re just holding, like you’re holding in a squat or just pulsing a little bit. And I get a lot of shit from other trainers and they’re like, no, you’re supposed to just recover, like, do it really hard, and then just recover, then go to your next set. I’m like, I don’t know, I feel like it challenges the legs more, and the muscle, and you know, they think they’re done lifting, but now we’re going to shock ’em with some pulses, and then you can rest. [TODD]: Yeah. And it also challenges your muscles and tendons and ligaments a little differently, because when you got that contraction going, you’re putting a lot of like a different strain towards the end of the muscle, which is great. And if you really want to get a little bit more cut and you’re getting kind of lean, that’s a great way to really get some definition. I don’t think enough people do. Yeah. [MELISSA]: No, no, see, I’m doing it right. Todd has my back on this one. [TODD]: I mean, to the trainer’s you have to be a little careful you don’t overdo that, because you could overdo it kinda easily. But if you’re paying attention, yeah, we’re great. [MELISSA]: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. But one of the other ones that I was thinking of, like vacuum abs, and those are I think the best way to train your abs where you’re just pulling your belly button, not just in but upward, and then just twisting. Oh my god, that would be a super easy one to do. And really close, obviously, to your stomach, to do before you eat. [TODD]: Yeah, and vacuums are great, because you’re moving your intestines, you’re moving your stomach, you’re moving that whole tract every time you do it. So it’s great exercise for the health of all those organs, as well as the movement, plus keeping everything from like, settling down into your pelvis. And so it’s an exercise I think everyone should be doing. And you can do them kind of anywhere, and it’s good for your lungs because you’re contracting up against your diaphragm and a lot of cool things that go on with that. [MELISSA]: Yeah. I always tell people to do three sets of fifty while you’re brushing your teeth. Because it’s something that you’re going to do every day, multiple times a day, just do them then. But I didn’t even think of the intestinal tract and how you’re moving and stuff like that. That’s a really good point. [TODD]: That’s one of those things I think a lot about because of the problems I’ve had. So every way I could think of to make a change there I probably have tried it. [MELISSA]: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Oh, my God, that’s awesome. Okay, we have talked your ear off. Is there anything else that you think our listeners should know about this book? Ah, food. Why do you trouble me so? I’m going to say that all day now. What else do you want our listeners to know about this book, or something that just they can take away? [TODD]: I think the thing that I’d most like to get across is that the book is written to kind of catch the area of diet problems that people have that they can’t find an easy solution for. So I tried to stack a bunch of things that you can use in different ways, particularly when the typical fad diets don’t work, or you’re struggling with digestion, or you have a hard time reprogramming some of the things from when you were younger. And I tried to write it in such a way that you feel like we’re friendly and I’m trying to like boost you up because a lot of people get a lot of negative feedback when they try to change. And so I tried to really support people through that, and give them some suggestions on how to do that without getting too much kickback as they do it. [MELISSA]: Right, right. Oh, I love that. And so many of our listeners, male and female, are going to really appreciate that and will be able to relate to that because, oh my god, so many people are struggling with everything that you just listed. And to be able to find all that in just one place, in one book, I love it. It’s perfect. [TODD]: That’s what I was after. Yeah, [MELISSA]: Yeah. Where can we get this book, Todd? [TODD]: It’s pretty much everywhere. So it’s on Amazon. There’s an audiobook version on Audible. It’s in the Apple bookstore. It’s in Barnes and Nobles. It’s on a bunch of digital bookstores I’ve never heard of. [MELISSA]: Oh, sweet. [TODD]: Yeah, it’s everywhere. The book company I work with tried to put it up everywhere. So you can find it hopefully everywhere. [MELISSA]: Perfect. That’s perfect. And are you on social media, Todd? [TODD]: I am. So you can find me pretty easily on Facebook at my author page which is Todd Nils Nyholm, or my website is nytality.com, which is the name of the health system I’ve been putting together. [MELISSA]: Okay. [TODD]: And then also on Instagram – I used an old name for that one, which was nyholm vital life method, which was the original name I was gonna use for all this, but it was too long and so it got shortened down to Nytality. So that’s where that all came from. So you can find me in all those places. [MELISSA]: Okay, very cool. And if you’re trying to write it all down, you guys, don’t sweat it, if you’re in your car. As always, we’re gonna put this in the show notes for you. So they’ll be able to find you, Todd. [TODD]: Great. I hope they say hi, when they do. [MELISSA]: Yes, yes. Send him a message and say ‘Hi’. [TODD]: Please do. [MELISSA]: Oh my God, this was perfect. I am so glad that we got to talk today and more about this topic of food and the relationship and just everything. This has been so beneficial to everyone listening. And you guys, when you’re listening to this episode, when we’re done, make sure you rate and review it because that’s how Apple and iTunes and all this stuff gets the word out. So make sure you rate and review. We really appreciate that. Todd, thank you for coming on today. [TODD]: Thanks for having me. I really enjoyed talking about it. [MELISSA]: Yes, this is just awesome. And all the steps, thank you for going into seven and not just five. [TODD]: I’m happy to do it for you. [MELISSA]: And you guys, make sure you get the book and read it so you know the rest of the steps and you can start applying it to your life. Remember fitness, your health, your wellness, your entire journey. It’s not just about a diet plan on a piece of paper for the next six weeks, or being like, just give me some killer workouts. It’s a process. And just like Todd’s book, it’s about learning, figuring out what works for you, reprogramming, bringing in your mindset along with your nutrition, that is what’s going to be able to help you sustain this for life, not just for the summer. So thank you again, Todd. Everyone, look him up, get the book. Until next time, everyone stay healthy. Stay safe. Todd, thank you again for being our guest. [TODD]: Thanks for having me. It was wonderful. [MELISSA]: Yes, we loved having you. Alright, goodbye, everyone. Have an awesome day. [TODD]: Bye bye. ________________________________________ [MELISSA]: If you’re ready to become a bomb mom, join my free course over at www.melissavogelfitness.com/course. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. This is given with the understanding that neither the host, Practice of the Practice, or the guests are providing legal, mental health, nutritional, or other professional information. If you need a professional you should find one.