Emily: 0:00

Heinous. So today we're going to talk about something positive, which you've been kind of complaining that we are really negative on this podcast a lot lately, which I think is kind of the nature of it, because we're really here to like, do a lot of myth-busting and like complaining about bullshit. So I feel like this is going to be a really good episode for you.

Vanessa: 0:22

Yeah. I just felt like we were really tearing everything down. You know, it's a negative things that we tear down, but I was like, I really just feel like we need some positivity. I feel like Halloween is the kickoff to the holiday season. So this is a season of joy and love and good things. So we're gonna kick it off.

Emily: 0:40

wow. Yeah. I'm really excited that you said all that. And I'm really excited for all of our like themes. I just don't mind. Really call it. Like, I really enjoy like sitting here and complaining and calling everybody out. But I think it'll be good for me to focus on like some nice things too. And we have a lot of really fun themed episodes that we have planned. And so everyone's going to really enjoy that. So y'all have something to look forward to. But let's get into it.

Vanessa: 1:08

Let's get into it. So in this episode, we are talking about our favorite things and we have a bunch of different categories. I'm really excited to tell you about our favorite supplements or favorite lifestyle practices. How we eat beverages nutrition, products, workouts, and just foods that we really like. So let's get into it. Let's go ahead and start with supplements. Cause. Always something people are wondering about. So, Emily, what is your favorite supplement?

Emily: 1:49

Yeah. So minus like a little bit targeted toward the plant-based folks. Not surprisingly, but really like vegetarian too. Or even if you don't get a ton of animal products, which as we've said before, I think a lot of people are shying away from that these days. And. My supplement is B12. And I know so many people that when they're establishing care with me, I'm like, do you take a B12? And they're like, not really, or there'll be like, oh, I take this like once a month. And just like, hope, so, and yes, this is definitely directed towards vegan or vegetarian people, but even just a low consumption of meat can send you into a B12 deficiency. It's really a good idea to take a supplement. There's a lot of different varieties. A lot of them are sublingual, which means that they just dissolve under the tongue or you can do a spray. So it's a really good idea to get a supplement and the research supports one B12 supplement daily that provides 10 micrograms or a weekly B12 supplement providing at least 2000. There's two types of B12. So you want to make sure you're getting cyanocobalamin rather than methological. That one is not. Easily absorbed. And then another thing that people usually tell me a little bit, like, well, autonomy foods are fortified with B12. You still probably want to take a supplement just because we don't have a ton of research on that. And all of these recommendations that we're giving are obviously evidence-based and have had a lot of research. And so. Products with B12 supplemented into them. The research is just not very clear. It's kind of mixed how stable those fortifications are and if they can truly meet the needs of an adults and deficiency for B12 can go on for months to a year. It could be blurred, vision, numbness, tingling, and lots of the times it has to be cured with B12 injections. And so really it can take a long time if you've been vegetarian for like six months and you haven't had B12, maybe just check in, take a supplement, find one that you only have to take once a week. And another tip for you is that B12 status isn't always checked on standard blood work. So if you are following a plant-based diet or just include a lot of those foods and you don't eat a lot of meat, it might be a good idea to request that at your next physical, to be added onto your blood work, just to check, make sure that everything's going okay since it does develop over months, maybe even years. And so you might not even really know that you're kind of on that path. And so it's good to get some answers and then you can take your supplement.

Vanessa: 4:12

Yeah. And B vitamins are really important for good energy levels too. So if you're feeling kind of fatigued or more tired than usual, it, that might be a good indicator that you should get that checked out.

Emily: 4:23

Definitely. Vanessa, what's your favorite supplement? I already know what it is and I knew before you even told me, because you never stop talking about it.

Vanessa: 4:31

Yeah. So my favorite supplement is, oh, I was going to remember. And when we were in college, how we used to take B12 sometimes and be like, what? We're like feeling all this energy now. Well, I, if we'd like to like, stay up for an exam or something, we'd like spray some in our mouth and be like, we can stay up all night.

Emily: 4:53

Placebo for sure. I

Vanessa: 4:54

Yeah. Oh, for sure. I don't think it works that quickly. Unless you're getting it like intravenously, but if you're just taking it sublingually I don't think, it's going to work that quick. So anyway, my favorite supplement and if you follow me on Instagram, you could probably guess this is magnesium. So I find, I personally find magnesium hugely helpful. PMs in breast tenderness. I was actually just telling Emily last month that I, for some reason was not taking my magnesium regularly. And boy did I feel it when my period came around. So, I also run a little bit on the anxious side which magnesium can also be helpful for. So if you're someone who's stressed, your body actually dumps magnesium. When you're stressed and magnesium, we need for tons of enzymatic reactions in our body. So it's really, really important. There are a lot of magnesium, rich foods. But unfortunately because of soil depletion, we're not actually always getting as much from our food sources as we'd like to. So magnesium is not only super beneficial for PMs. It's also beneficial for diabetes, coronary, heart disease, hypertension, and migraine. And it can also be used for constantly.

Emily: 6:08

Yeah. And for me, like the way after you recommended magnesium, to me, I felt so much less muscle twitching. I think it was like kind of a stress response. I feel like my anxiety is better as well due to the magnesium, and I can really notice a difference when I come off of it. I'll be like, dammit, I know that's the problem. And admittedly, I'm not always the best about taking my supplements, except my B12. I always take that one because it's my favorite supplement. But sometimes when I feel like, oh, I missed a few days of my magnesium or something, I'll take a nice hot bath with some magnesium flakes in it. And Vanessa, did you notice kind of like questioning with the research of like, if it's better to do a lower temperature bath, like 100 to like one 10 or something? And

Vanessa: 6:55

I haven't read that, but that does make sense. You know, what would be better?

Emily: 6:59

Yeah. They say it to like, keep the, some current research says to keep the water temperature a little bit lower than you'd probably like initially fill your bathtub up with just because then you're not like sweating everything out and your body's in a better stage to like uptake all of the magnesium that's in your bath.

Vanessa: 7:16

Yeah, I have to get my magnesium orally because I love my baths really hot.

Emily: 7:22

Yeah, there you go. Something for everyone. Everyone can get my museum in different ways.

Vanessa: 7:28

Definitely. Okay. Let's go to our next category. So our next one is lifestyle. So This is. kind of broad. So I'm curious what Emily is going to say. But what is your favorite lifestyle thing or lifestyle wellness trend?

Emily: 7:44

So I was just not to say mine's like the unsexy as most boring, like the thing ever, but eating breakfast. This is like my lifestyle thing. For me, breakfast is really tough. I've just never really been super into like the quick breakfast foods, if it's like a vegan Benedict or like waffles or something. Sure. That's great. But nothing that like, I actually can like make quickly in the mornings appealing to me. I'm not like a super big oatmeal person putting all of the options. And I really notice when I'm not eating breakfast. I do not feel well. And it follows me the whole night. Like usually I'm like rating the cabinets at night, looking for more food after dinner, because I missed a whole meal of my day where I could've gotten like 500 calories. And so, and really this is something that everyone's always like breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And it might just be something that, you know, your parents told you growing up to like, get you to eat food. But also there's a lot of research. And recent research has really reaffirmed these nutritional benefits. Including just generally feeling well after consumption and longer term improvements of overall diet quality. And it's interesting, there's less conclusive research, but there's evidence of a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease reduced risk of type two diabetes and better cognitive performance, which that last one. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because your brain needs food to function. And. Especially too, like it's easing the caffeine that you're consuming. I feel like there's a lot of overlap between the people who are not eating breakfast and the people who are drinking a lot of coffee in the morning. That just feels like that group is like really just like together. And that's the same people and, you know, coffee can be an appetite suppressant as well. And so maybe that's kind of like what's happening for you, but if you're feeling resistant with breakfast, just starting out super small a lot of the research too. Operating under the fact that you're eating a pretty balanced meal for breakfast, with protein carbs and fat. Of course, it's really difficult to research specifically one meal because your breakfast could be, look really different than mine. But even just like something, even like a beverage with more calories, maybe have like a glass of, you know, milk or plant-based milk, whatever you like. Just getting some sort of calories and nutrition into your body in the morning is really going to set your day's worth of nutrition up for success. Otherwise you're just kind of like peddling backwards the whole day. Wondering, okay, why am I so hungry? What do I need? And it's really difficult to get your needs in with just two meals a day.

Vanessa: 10:17

Yeah, I almost added breakfast to my list actually, because I am historically, I was one of those people that was just a coffee drinker in the morning. Basically spent my whole morning jittery and anxious and sending my blood sugar on a trip. And then I've been converted though. And breakfast is definitely something that I would not go back to living without again. Like Emily said, it's so important. You really notice once you start eating a good breakfast and it's really important to make sure you're including protein too. But you really notice that you're not having, you know, those nighttime cravings because maybe you didn't get enough calories throughout the day. and your body is actually hungry. So breakfast 10 out of.

Emily: 11:04

Yeah. And really to like another thing is that that really helped me personally, because it's something I've always struggled with. Letting go of the fact that like, it has to be breakfast foods. Like I'll tell you straight up this morning, I came back in between classes. I taught a 7 45 and a 10 this morning and I. Ate pasta with a like pumpkin Sage cream sauce on it at 9:00 AM. I mean, I'd already been up for a few hours, but I had like a banana as I left the house. Cause I was just really busy. But I was like, okay, this is how I can get some calories in me. And I came back and that's what I wanted. And that's what I ate because otherwise I wouldn't have really eaten anything because breakfast foods weren't sounding good. So you can always eat lunch foods at breakfast. If you want, everyone's going to judge you really hard. Like I feel like even Vanessa, like looks kind of like disgusted when I said that to us

Vanessa: 11:48

No, no, I do that too. I do that all the time. I'll have like dinner, leftovers for breakfast because Yeah. sometimes breakfast is kind of boring and the options seem limited. So, don't get stuck in.

Emily: 12:00

Yeah. And even too sometimes like it's because it's the most convenient option I'll make overnight oatmeal or something like that. And it's not the best meal of my day ever, probably. But is it really practical? Is it really helpful and nourishing for my body? And do I feel great when I eat it? Yeah. So just letting go of the perfection or the fact that every meal has to be like this rockstar, like fun enjoyment trip, because that's letting go of that idea is going to help you actually eat breakfast.

Vanessa: 12:28

Yeah. So actually my favorite lifestyle thing is something that happens in the morning as well. So part of the morning routine, and that is morning sunlight. So that might seem kind of boring too. But even just 10 minutes in the morning to help me wake up and support a healthy sleeping pattern and healthy circadian rhythm is so, helpful for my overall sleep patterns. It's our bodies are made to, you know, wake up when it's light and go to sleep when it's dark. So if you're someone who's having a hard time falling asleep at night, it might sound counterintuitive. Like why does it matter? You know what I Do in the morning, but that is going to help set your circadian rhythm. And if you're finding that you can't fall asleep at night, It's actually studies have shown that it'll move up your sleeping time and make you sleepier. Once the sun goes down it can also help the duration of your sleep and improve your sleep quality. So once you get up, open up those blinds, I know it might be tempting to kind of stay in your little cocoon and not get up, especially in these winter months, but get out of bed, open the blinds, if you can. Eat breakfast or have a little bit of time you know, sitting by your window and getting some sunlight. If it's warm enough. Going outside, I know here in Michigan, in the mornings, it's been like in the thirties. So, I've been a little less feeling like I want to go outside right away. But either bundle up or just stay in the window. And you may find it'll help your sleep a lot.

Emily: 14:06

Yeah, that's definitely something that I personally struggle with. And I'm grateful to my dogs who get me out of the bed and force me to take them out immediately into the sunlight upon waking.

Vanessa: 14:19

That's probably, way more helpful than you even realize with with your sleep. Okay. So our next topic is how we eat. So what is your favorite trend here?

Emily: 14:30

Yeah. So this is something that I feel like. It's kind of common advice for a lot of different ailments, like small meals often, or eating regular at regular intervals. I'm looking at you intermittent fasting for spreading the rumors about this one. It's almost like, I feel like my stuff's like the opposite of the trend and like what the real information is. So classically I'm still like complaining about something. You can be positive all you want, but I'm gonna still go play. So. Eating at regular intervals is really, really powerful. And it goes along with my little spiel about breakfast, but research shows that eating regular meals is going to give you a steady or blood sugar. It's going to help control your appetite in a positive way. Whereas you won't be like scouring for snacks in the middle of the night. Cause you're actually getting enough calories. And it helps with cognitive function. So during whatever responsibilities you have during the day or evening, regular meals is going to really help you. And everybody knows that primal hunger space where you get home from work or from whatever you're doing, everyone's remote these days. So these like common expressions don't quite work the same. But you're get home from working for a really long time and you're like, oh my God, I'm so hungry. What am I going to do? So really kind of surrounding yourself with food, I guess is my, like, how I eat is basically just like, there's a lot of food around all the time. Like even if you can put a little snack in your purse or bag, or if you can put it in your car, that can be really helpful. You basically want to identify points that. Commonly feel very hungry and think about how can you practically address that. Right. So like, if you're really hungry on your drive, home from work, okay. Put a snack in the car. I that's easy. Right? That's going to distract you. Maybe you can eat it like before you start driving. I don't know. I don't know what kind of snack that you're really bringing something portable and. By doing that. You're also able to make choices that are more supportive of your health when you do finally reach that next meal. So, you know, rather than just eating everything in sight, over eating, Or choosing something that just sounds really good in the moment, but isn't, long-term what you really needed that day. Like a carry out pizza instead of, you know, a green bowl or something else. Whatever it might be if you really want pizza. Great. But if you're just doing it for the convenience, and maybe you had takeout for lunch you know, giving that snack in your car and giving yourself a moment to pause and assess aside from that primal hunger space can be so helpful. So basically my recommendation is just to eat long story short.

Vanessa: 16:58

Yeah, then I mean, that is not a bad recommendation. My kind of I interweaves with yours a little bit, I guess. And mine is trying to calm my nervous system before eating. And I'm not always good at this. You. know, like I mentioned with taking the magnesium, I'm definitely someone who runs a little bit more anxious. And so sometimes when I sit down, I still feel a lot of that anxiety or stress from the day. So trying to take some cleansing breasts before I. My meal so that I'm not I'm just calming my nervous system and I'm not in that fight or flight where my I'm not going to digest my meal. Well, something I'll also do to try to help with this is if I'm feeling anxious and I'm cooking sometimes I'll home or something like that. Even to just kind of like start to prepare my body and relax.

Emily: 17:49

Yeah, that's really interesting. I was just talking with a friend about somatic therapy and kind of like movement or some different activities that you can do to really place yourself in the body. Because a lot of times when we sit down to eat, we're not really in our physical sense, you've just cooked, which is a big mental task. A lot of the time, or you're having a working lunch or something like that. So, yeah, that's a really great tip.

Vanessa: 18:12

Yeah. And it, it only, I mean, it only takes a minute to take a couple breaths. So even, especially if you feel like you're in a big rush and you're really anxious to get to the next thing even more important to, you know, take the time to.

Emily: 18:26

Absolutely. So our next topic is our favorite beverages and this one actually is a real trend. And I'm not going to say anything negative about it the whole time. I'm just going to talk about how awesome it is, and that is macho. Everybody's probably heard of macho. This point. You can get it for like seven to$12 at a fancy coffee shop tea shop anywhere in a major city. You can also buy the powder to have it. It's actually not super difficult to make matcha on your own. There's a lot of benefits to macho. And I'm going to tell you that about all that in a minute, but first I'll say that usually research shows about one to two cups per day to receive the maximum benefits that. Without experiencing side effects, keeping in mind that macho a cup or so of matcha about a teaspoon in eight ounces is around 70 milligrams of caffeine. So it's pretty similar to coffee. So you're just keeping that in mind, you know, like eight cups is not better, right. Just having like one or two. So there's a lot of different compounds in Matcha tea. And this also to clarify as not to you, that's an, a teabag green tea is great. But matcha is the pulverized tea leaves. And so that's going to give you more of a benefit in your body. And the benefits are that matcha has vitamin C in it, which has been shown to be protective against cancer, as well as phenolic acids, which also inhibit cancer cell growth. So lots of anti-inflammatory benefits for Macia there's cardioprotective benefits as well. Reducing oxidative stress reducing the activation of inflammatory response and strengthening the blood vessels. It's also been shown to improve cognitive function which may or may not have something to do with the caffeine. There's also a few other compounds in there that might be responsible for it and it can improve your insulin sensitivity. In addition to all of that can be another sort of mindfulness practice making tea. It can feel like a nice ritual for you at whatever time of the day that you choose to engage with it. Maybe not too late in the evening, since it does have a really good amount of caffeine in it. I usually drink it iced actually, when I'm making it at home, I don't tend to get it too often at a coffee shop, because like I said, it's. And macho even for the home is hella expensive as well. But a little does go along with, if you go to like an Asian grocery store, like an H Mart or something, they usually have it for a really good price. That's kind of like my top tip to find your cheap Macia cheapest anyways. So while coffee, there's nothing wrong with coffee. There's definitely a lot of added benefits to macho. And so maybe if you're curious, you can switch up one of your cups of coffee and explore this green tea powder. That's super health promoting.

Vanessa: 21:19

I love matcha and now I feel inspired to drink it more often after that little segment. Because like I said, I really like it, but I don't have it that often. So that's my cue to go order some today.

Emily: 21:33

Yeah, I'll have to tell you. I just ordered like a really good brand. I'm the text. You, it.

Vanessa: 21:37

Exciting. Okay. So my beverage nutrition product and supplement kind of all wrapped into one a little bit. So I'm just going to reveal those favorite things at the same time. So my favorite beverage is coconut water. And that's because coconut water is super hydrating. It has electrolytes in it. like potassium, sodium, and manganese. So obviously super hydrating. Great for post-workout or, you know, if you just have a day that. You know, want some extra hydration. I put it in my smoothies quite often. I also use it to make an electrolyte mix. So that is my favorite nutrition product. And I know electrolytes are super hot right now. There's a ton of different ones on the market. We have a whole electrolyte episode. So please go listen to that. If you want to know more about those, I'm just going to go over really briefly. So I personally don't buy any electrolyte powders or anything like that? I don't think you necessarily need to. But you know, they can be simple to throw in your bag and things like that If you don't want to make it by hand. What I do to make an electrolyte mix is I combined coconut water. magnesium powder. I use. I'll do a dash of salt and some lemon or lime for vitamin C. And it's just a great way to make sure that water or your cells are actually uptaking the water that you're giving to them.

Emily: 23:03

you know? I really wish that. I liked coconut water. Did you know? I don't even like that.

Vanessa: 23:10

Well, one of my friends sent me a meme the other day that was like, so you like coconut water, you like the taste of water that tastes like it's been in someone else's mouth and now you're putting it in your mouth.

Emily: 23:28

It's true. It's so true. There's like one brand. I don't mind harmless harvest coconut water. It's like stupid expensive. It's a lot of like turns kind of pink. And I really didn't hate that one, but then I kind of overdid it and I don't really like it again. And I'm really sad because there's so many cool benefits to it. So I'll just sit over here with my liquid Ivy supplement powder, like a loser.

Vanessa: 23:55

Well, and that's the thing too, if you don't really like the taste of coconut water straight up, it's a great addition to put into your smoothie. So you can make like a very tropical tasting smoothie with coconut water, some spinach, maybe some pineapple and banana. And then you just have that coconut flavor without maybe the parts of coconut water that you don't like.

Emily: 24:16

Yeah. The part where it feels like it was in somebody else's mouth.

Vanessa: 24:19

Exactly.

Emily: 24:20

Ah, why is that so active?

Vanessa: 24:23

I

Emily: 24:23

Oh, I'll never be, I'll never be able to unthink that like, I don't even like even thinking about coconut oil. I feel like this backfire now everyone's going to be like the substance customer. If you've never tried

Vanessa: 24:34

drinking it.

Emily: 24:35

Yeah. You could still try it. Like, I guess you can. Totally. If you've never had people who've never had it are like, oh my God, I've never tried that. But I think a lot of people do like it. So I think for sure that you should try it if you haven't yet.

Vanessa: 24:48

I think something really important about coconut water too, is if you're trying it for the first time, try it very cold. Do not try it even close to warm. Very, very cold is the better way to.

Emily: 25:03

definitely. I would agree even from a non-con a sewer that makes a lot of sense. So, those were just a few of our favorite wellness tips that are evidence-based. They have scientific knowledge behind them. Otherwise we wouldn't be recommending them. And they can be generally applied for the whole population, which we barely ever give y'all. So you should be really happy that we gave generalized. That you can take and apply to your own life. We hope that this was helpful. And stick with us over the next few weeks. We have tons of fun holiday content coming your way. And I'm really excited about it. We keep doing this thing where we don't know what the fuck to say at the end. Like you have to say something, but

Vanessa: 25:55

Usually, you always make fun of me for like, sounding like I'm not excited when I say? stuff, but you literally just went, we're looking at doing fun episodes for the holidays, and I'm really excited about it.