Cassandra Scotto | Diet help from a nutrionist, FDOE review, how to read labels, and more!
55:09 Share

Having a versatile, high-quality piece of clothing feels great. But having a whole closet full of favorites feels even better. American Giant puts the quality, durability, and comfort they're famous for into everything you need for your spring days.

From premium t-shirts and jeans to lightweight French terry joggers and their legendary best hoodie ever. Get 20% off your first order at American-Giant.com with code STAPLE20 at checkout. That's American-Giant.com. Code S-T-A-P-L-E. 2-0. What's up, guys? It's Sam and Taylor. And we want you to put your shoes on. Pop open that energy drink. And go.

Hello friends, it is just Taylor here because me and Sam are separate. We're both home for the holidays. Speaking of, if you're listening to this on Friday, Merry Christmas Eve. I hope you guys have a wonderful holiday, whatever you're celebrating or, you know, just enjoying the time with your family and friends and loved ones.

Wishing you all the best this holiday season. This episode honestly doesn't need much of an intro. We talked with Cass for a long time and she gave us such valuable information and I know you guys are going to love it. And I honestly don't want to procrastinate anymore and just want you guys to hear this wonderful episode. We go through so many things. She gives us such helpful tips, how to read nutrition labels. She even goes through Sam's and mine full day of eatings and tells us things we could do better.

which I mean, we already know we're not doing the best right now. So she gave us some tough love. But yeah, it was super fun. And we definitely need to do like a part two or something with Cass because it was just so informative. So yeah, with that, let's get into the episode. Hey guys, we are here with Cass now. She's a good friend of mine. We used to work together. So Cass, if you wouldn't mind just introducing yourself a little bit.

Hi guys, my name is Cassandra, I go by Cass for short. I'm originally from Pennsylvania, currently living in Orange County. I just moved here about in September. I am a nutritionist and personal chef, currently just running an online business with my best friend,

Shiva and it's called build yourself up. I recently started this post working closely with Sam for a different company. And I do some private chef services on the side where I go in house to clients in the area and I meal prep for them. So that's kind of like the gist of what I'm doing right now. I love that. I, I remember you were starting that up. So is that like now like

kind of a bigger thing that you're doing than like a few months ago? So it, it was bigger for me actually, when I was living in Pennsylvania, because I just moved and we kind of started, you know, build yourself up. It's been more of a side gig, but I feel like I connected with a nutritionist down in orange County. Um, and I think post holidays, it's going to be a bigger thing. Um, but right now we have a couple of clients here. So yeah. Yeah.

That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, with the whole new year thing in the new year's resolutions and stuff, that's he like, I mean, having someone come meal prep for us would be like, I'll have to visit and meal prep for you guys or something. Or when you come here, I'll have to like meal prep and you guys can take it back with you or something. Oh my God. Yes. I would love that. Yeah. So we obviously do have a lot of girls that are obviously into the whole like fitness and nutrition aspect and want to take that on like,

pretty much full-time as a job as well. So if you want to touch on like how you went from discovering that's what you wanted to do and then what you did in order to get like those certifications and stuff like that. Yeah, of course. So I wanted to become a nutritionist mainly because I

I think it comes from my background and my culture. Like I am Italian. I was born in Pennsylvania, but I grew up in Italy and obviously the Italian culture and the food is not the healthiest. And I've had my, my mom has always struggled with being overweight, obese, just unhealthy, has diabetes. So that is what really inspired me to go into the field of nutrition and

And the way I kind of gained my certifications, I actually did go to school for nutrition. So I went to school in Philadelphia. I completed a bachelor's in nutrition program there. And then once I moved to L.A. postgraduations, I was.

I did a culinary program that was nutrition focused. And that's how I gained like my credentials for the private chef services. And now to like, I'm always kind of continuing education and trying to learn whether it's through reading books, listening to podcasts,

In the spring, I'm actually going to be starting a master's program in functional nutrition and functional medicine, just because that's kind of like the route I really want to go in. And I guess we'll touch on that more a little bit. But yeah, that's kind of what I'm doing. And I think for anyone that wants to pursue a health and fitness career,

career, I definitely, definitely recommend obviously getting some sort of credentials or going to school or honestly just personal experience, like putting yourself through a journey and like diving like headfirst into it. So you can really learn and like gain that experience. Yeah, definitely. I think with, sorry to interrupt you, but I think with literally anything, it also is like

when it comes to like fitness and nutrition, it is your own, like your self, your body is your own experiment. And I think that's like the coolest thing, being able to like experiment on it yourself. I agree. And I think with a lot of like nutritionist or personal trainer or whatever, all those little titles, you can get those, the little piece of paper online fairly easily. Like you really just got to like pay attention

pay for it truly. And you can kind of get it. So I think it's important for people when they're either, I mean, want to have a good background for themselves or are looking to pick someone to work with. Like, you know, you didn't just like get a piece of paper off a website. Like you went to school, you took classes, like you research on your own. Like you need to like, it's more like your own background than the piece of paper. Yeah. Which is why I kind of hate the question. Like, are you certified? I'm like that little piece of paper kind of means the least out of like

the days I spend in the gym, that's the research, not the piece of paper. No, I definitely agree with that. I feel like, like you said, especially nowadays, it's so easy to get a piece of paper from anything online.

I do think like even with my schooling, like, yes, I went to school, I completed a four year program. But I feel like I really, really learned when I went through like I did a prep, I competed one time. And that is when I fully learned about my body. I fully learned about what I needed, what worked for me, what didn't work for me, all of that. So I definitely agree a lot. Yeah.

like we'll obviously touch base on it more like when we do our full day of eating and you kind of evaluate it but like taylor and i i know taylor and i honestly have learned so much just from like our own experience with like bringing our own body through a reverse diet and then maintaining and then now we're in a bulk and it's just so crazy to like think that how much we've learned since like a year and a half ago yeah yeah i really want to hear more about your guys bowl maybe we'll go into that obviously oh we will don't worry

But I think one of the biggest things that I love that you kind of like stand by and preach, which I think is a little bit opposite of how we're going about it right now, just because we are in a bowl, is quality matters with your food. And I think also, like we said, it's not how we go about it right now. One, because we're insanely busy. And two, because the bulk, we have zero appetite. So at this point, we're just trying to eat. But also, this isn't our knowledge. Like we don't know the...

the actual nutritional benefits of certain foods. That's not our realm of expertise. So when people ask us questions about food, I'm like, look, I don't, I don't know. I'm like, I know how to lose weight, gain weight, maintain, but I can't tell you if that's healthy quote, like air quotes, like healthy for you. Like, I don't know. Another thing that we get asked a lot too is like,

like foods that cause bloating or like indigestion. And I'm just like, honestly, I feel like some of the, me and her compare our foods all the time. I'll be like, well, I can have that, but you get bloated from it where she can have something specific, but then I get bloated from it. So it's like, it's honestly different for everyone, but obviously the like,

the more whole foods we'll talk more about, but yeah. Yeah. So going off of that and what you were just saying, Sam, I mean, everyone has their like own bio individuality, right? So like what's healthy for Taylor may not necessarily be healthy for me. What's healthy for Sam may not necessarily be healthy for the next person. So it's really per client basis. It's not, it's not going to be the same for everyone. And

you may get bloated off of asparagus and Brussels sprouts and the next person may get bloated off of cauliflower. Like it's very different. As far as like quality, I've always been a very, very, very big believer in quality. And I focus this as like the that's like the primary focus I place on everything with my clients is.

Obviously, when you're in a bulk and when you are in a surplus, it's a little bit harder to make sure that all of your foods are quality because the caloric density of healthy foods is going to look a lot different than the caloric density of other foods. Right. So it's a bit difficult, but I truly believe when it comes to someone that is trying to maintain or weight loss,

reverse diet, anything like that. I truly believe that like food is medicine and we are what we eat. So if like, think of it, like if you're fueling your body with shit, like processed foods, like every single day, and that's all your eatings, if all you're eating is refined sugars, processed carbs, like it's the same as fueling your mind with negative thoughts. Right. So the more processed shit you're having, um,

the shittier outcome you're going to have in the way that you feel and the way that you work and the way that you show up. So it's kind of the same concept. Like if you're constantly feeding your mind with negative thoughts, it's going to release like negative neurotransmitters in your brain. And same thing with food. If you're constantly fueling yourself or feeding yourself bad foods, that's, that's going to be the outcome, right? Um,

And again, like it's, it's different for someone that is just maintaining. It's different for someone that's cutting. It's, it's going to be different for someone that is bulking. That's kind of my two cents on that. Yeah, no, I can definitely say that I've started to experiment and notice those changes because, you know, we're in a bulk and I'm eating way more carbs. I'm like, you know what? Like,

I'm feeling great in the gym. Like I'm getting great workouts, but then like later in the day, I'm like, why do I feel like crap? Why am I so tired? Like what is going on? And then, yeah, then I started to realize I'm like, holy shit. The amount of like,

processed stuff that I'm eating now compared to like three or four months ago is insane. And I started to notice those like play a role in like my energy, my mood, even my indigestion. And then I started to switch a few things, which again, we'll get more into that a little bit later on, but I can definitely say like I've experimented with all of that and it goes to show that quality of food is very important. Yeah. And I think too, like obviously whatever you're, you're feeling and going through right now when you're in the height of the

bulk as well is also dependent on like where your metabolism is at too. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I was wondering, cause obviously we're saying processed foods, processed foods, and I know that could be a very like general label. Cause there's some like healthier foods that are still like processed as in put in a can, put in a box, like everything in the grocery store has been probably processed in some way. So is there like

or like, is it that you like would determine like, okay, like that's processed crap versus like, okay, that's processed and okay. Yeah. So yeah,

The way I view like processed foods versus not processed foods, anything you buy, you buy in the produce section or anything that you can think of that you have to cook at home and make yourself, that would be, to me, that is unprocessed food, right? So anything else, whether it is like, I don't want to say brands, but whether it's like a healthier brand or not,

it's processed, right? Because it's not being grown from the ground. It's not food that you can just pull from a crop, right? So that's kind of my two cents, but obviously like the world that we live in today, like it's not really possible to just fully eat unprocessed foods, right? So when you're going to the grocery store and you're looking on the shelves or trying to like

more processed foods or like fill, maybe have some of those in your diet, I would always just look at the ingredients and I would just, anything that you can't pronounce, I would stay away from. And if a packaged food has more than 10 ingredients, I wouldn't purchase it.

And then I very much focus on with my clients, I just focus on like looking for carrageenan, which is a cancer causing agent. I look for like dyes, gums, things that can affect the digestive system. So there are very specific things that I will tell my clients to like look out for. And then I try to tell them, hey, like try to keep anything that has more than 10 ingredients in the ingredients list out of your pantry. Okay.

Good to know. Yeah. Cause I think I might start. Um, and obviously I think an issue with that, that I found, um, obviously some of it is a little bit more expensive. I'm the first one to say, I don't think eating healthy is too expensive and unattainable for people. I've always preached that because I'm vegan and people are like, Oh, it's too expensive. It's, it's not, it's really not if you know what you're doing. So I'm not saying

the only way to eat healthy is buy things that are more expensive. But in terms of those processed snacks, which are not really necessary, you could find, let's say like a Whole Foods, a little bit of a more expensive brand that has the fewer ingredients, you know, that might be like, okay, like we eat like Pop-Tarts. I could probably find at Whole Foods a very low ingredient list. Yeah. Like Pop-Tart alternative, even though it's probably more expensive. Yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty sure. I think, have you guys heard of the brand Simple Mel's?

Yes, we made so many baked goods from them this week. Their stuff is so good. I'm pretty sure, don't mark my word on this, but I'm pretty sure they have like healthier Pop-Tarts that...

that again because we can get stuff like that if you look at it like if you go to the grocery store take a regular pop-tart box and put it next to the simple meals I'm pretty sure that's the brand but I may be wrong put them side by side and just look at their ingredients list yeah and you're right about this Taylor like it is a little bit more expensive but at the end of the day

Think about the expense of that, right? You may be paying a little bit more for it now, but long-term when you're old and gray, right? You're going to be saving on your medical bills, right?

Right. Right. That's, that's the way I view it. And that's the way I think about it. And obviously it's sad. And like, especially in our country, it's just like, not everyone has access to that. So I think if you are trying to stay more so on a budget, just go for the fresh produce and go for, for rice and beans. If you have to, like, it's, it's possible to keep it in a budget, like you said. Yeah.

Yeah. That's so funny. You just said rice and beans. Cause if you didn't say that, my example was going to be how I said, when people are like being vegan, it's so expensive. I'm like rice and beans is probably the cheapest thing you can get at the grocery store. Yes. Potatoes cheap. Like so, but people think vegan is the healthy snacks. Yeah. And it's not, I always, whenever I have like plant-based clients, vegetarian clients, I'm always like

okay, let's look at what you're eating because sometimes people think that being vegan or vegetarian is healthier, but if you're looking at what they're eating, it might be unhealthier, right? Cause they're, they're filling up on processed things like processed soy, not good versions of soy, not good versions of like a vital wheat gluten and things like that. So

Yeah. There's a lot of misconception there too. And that's probably me right now. And a lot of people don't understand that I more do it for like ethical, moral reasons and the environment. So people are like, why would you eat that? That has so many chemicals. I'm like, that's not why I'm vegan. Like I'm not vegan for health, like a little bit for health, but

more so it's for like the environment and stuff so people don't really understand I'm like I never said I was healthy I just said I don't a little bit more but obviously I follow you and I see what you I feel like you don't eat that much processed stuff but I could be I could be wrong I don't know it's more snacks like honestly like our food like our day-to-day food like is fine it's more like the pop tarts the

The cereal. I had a Pop-Tart before we filmed it. I know she did. So because we've been bulking, we've been having to obviously have a little bit more of those things. So it's like, it's all like really clumping up and coming together that we're having it more frequently. Yeah.

Whereas like if I was just like maintaining whatever, like I'm not going to be having those things as often. So that's why I don't see a big problem with it when I'm having maybe a pop tart like once a week, not even because like the macros for that are just like really high, but like just something that's not necessarily the best. Like if I'm having it like once a week,

then I don't see a problem with it. But because now I'm doing it like every day, I'm like, oh my goodness, I need to figure this out. I definitely, sorry Taylor, I didn't mean to get you off. Sorry, no, keep going. So I'm going to get off topic. So let's like stay on topic. I think too, like if like you're saying, Sam, if it's something you're doing once a week or even like once every couple of days, I feel like that is like still within, cause I'm a firm believer in the 90-10 rule. I still feel like that falls in the 90-10 rule.

as long as it's not every single day, twice a day, you know, and it's in moderation. I kind of hate that saying a little bit because some people abuse the word moderation. But yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I agree. I was going to ask a question. It's probably going to be in the questions from the stories, but I'm just curious. And I feel like this is a big one and something I'm actually curious about. Yeah. Okay. Like, so the deal of like sugar, yes. Like processed sugar, like what effects, like, cause I kind of want to actually start getting better. I used to be really good at it, but I took a little break from worrying about labels. Cause I've talked about Sam with this for me. I kind of,

kind of need to do the, if it fits your macros, because for my relationship with food, looking at labels and ingredients was really, really toxic for me. That's like, that's where my like disordered habits came from was because I really fell into like added sugar so bad and I can't have anything with the green. Like that's really what, what like, and it led to me under eating a lot because I was just eating vegetables and never full. So that's where my

disorder to have it's come from. So I've been very, just kind of sticking to my macros or my calories and that, but now I'm better with food. So I kind of want to get back into the whole added sugar and like stopping that. What is that like?

Could you like explain what, so what I learned in nutrition and in schooling is if you look at a nutrition label, right. And it says like, it says protein, it gives you the full nutrition label. And then you have your macros, protein, carbs, fats. If you look at the carbs, if say something has 20 grams of carbs, right. And the added sugar is 10. If it's more than half of the total carbohydrates, right.

you want to try to stay away from the item because it's more processed sugars and added sugar, like table sugar, right? Like refined sugars versus naturally occurring sugars.

So I think that's a good rule of thumb. And I tell my clients that too. And then obviously sugars from like fruits and sugar. And this is like, also people go back and forth about this, but sugars from fruits are not the same sugars from like a pop tart. Right.

Right. Yeah. I feel like I've definitely gotten a lot of messages in the past too, about like sugars from fruit and stuff like that. So I'm happy you did bring that up because a lot of people do get really worried about that. Yeah. Cause people forget that the sugar is cause some people are like, well, the sugar is like the same in your body, whatever, but the sugar in a fruit has vitamins. A fruit has a fruit has so many more benefits besides the sugar. Whereas a pop tart is

sugar only. No vitamins. This is a Pop-Tart hate video. Pop-Tart's never sponsored.

It's just the perfect example. I mean, it really is. Hey guys, I am nutritionist, but Pop-Tarts tastes good. Like they do. And like, and I'm not going to sit here and say like, Hey, it doesn't taste good. It definitely does. But when I think when you do have like experience and background in the nutrition, and once you like understand what is in your food and how it can affect you long-term, I think like perspective changes a little bit. Right. Yeah.

And I think that's why we both, I think people might have this misconception of us that this is how we plan to eat and live for the rest of the rest of our life. Like us, like tracking macros, like right now, like that's right now. I've always told Sam, I've told everyone, like when I'm a mom,

I want to be like no processed snacks in the house, like baking, like healthy snacks. Like I want to be that mom, like really full force, like totally plant-based vegan. Like that's how I want to be when I'm like settled down. I think people think I want to live like this. We do guys get comments like that. Like people think you're going to eat like this for the rest of your life. I think.

No, I think it's the macro tracking. Yeah. Not necessarily what the quality of the food is. It's just like, oh my goodness, like you're going to track macros for the rest of your life. I'm like, some people, it is the quality of the food because some people are like the supplements and stuff or like, they like,

you would like being fit like that, like that's so unhealthy. Like you think all this stuff is healthy. I'm like, I never said it was healthy. I said, it's what I is fitting my lifestyle right now. Like I know how I want to live the majority of my life. This is only going to be what three years of it. Like, yeah.

Like I will say, and like I told Sam, like when she asked me to come on here, like I'm never going to be, I'm never going to sit here and like judge you guys. Cause I like obviously respect whatever you guys are doing, but as far as like, you know, the energy drinks and the protein supplements and this and that, that you are incorporating, if your goal is to eventually be healthier, just slowly start like

minimizing the amount and then slowly remove, Oh, I'm going to remove the protein powder. I'm only going to have, instead of having an energy drink every day, I'm going to have maybe four this week instead of one every day. Like you can slowly start to like fade that out of your diet. Um, right. We're going to be different people after this. I already said when I go home, which, um, the day we're recording this, we go home tomorrow when this is up, we're home, but we

we go home tomorrow. I said, when I'm home, I think I'm just going to go back to like, maybe just doing like a, like coffee or like a matcha in the morning, just to give myself a little bit of like a, I like to do breaks. Like sometimes I'm like, maybe, maybe, maybe take a break. Yeah. So I might,

switch that up it doesn't help that i'm sitting right across from us is the biggest stack of energy drinks because i don't think i'd have them as much if we didn't have them we have so many right there there's a hundred yeah yeah you guys if you if you really wanted to and if it's really a goal maybe like every two weeks like donate a pack to to like a gym or somewhere so literally our gym we could bring them so yeah yeah yeah

I don't, yeah. I mean, it's, it's just so hard, I think. And I know a lot of people can relate. Like we have a lot of fitness goals right now. We have a lot of business goals right now. We have, you know, we're trying to really, we let our social life kind of go. So right now I'm trying to be sort of, that's another goal. So it's hard to do like balance it all. Everything. I get that. And that's why I was saying like, do one thing at a time, like reduce on one item every week and see how it works.

out for you guys and I also tell people um when people ask me for like advice on eating a little bit better or eating like vegan because even though we say we bad we better than probably yeah a good amount of the population yeah but I always say also like add things like add a vegetable to your meal like add something because then in turn I'll take something yeah yeah that's a really good point

Yeah, now I guess since we are talking about that, we might as well go into the full day of eating. Okay. So guys, what we're going to do, we're going to kind of tell Cass what we have for pretty much every, like a full day. And she's going to give her feedback back for each meal and like an alternative for them. Yeah. So starting off for breakfast, we pretty much have the same exact breakfast. We both do our quesadillas.

Quick Oats with vegan protein powder. You're going to hate me for this one, but I use Bomar butter on top and then some blueberries. I use natural peanut butter. Yeah, she used the natural peanut butter. Yeah. So that's a win for me. Okay. So you guys, what kind of vegan protein powder are you using? Mine has really, really, really simple ingredients. Okay. Like barely any. Okay. I use Beam. Beam? Yeah. Okay. I mean...

Obviously you guys have a set of goals right now. You're trying to put on muscle. So protein is necessary. I would, and are you doing a full scoop or half a scoop? What is that looking like? I'm doing a full scoop. Me too. Okay. So I would do Taylor. Do you eat or you're fully vegan? Yeah. Okay. So if yours has minimal ingredients, leave the protein powder. Okay. Okay.

Sam, I would do, I would cut back to half a scoop of protein just to minimize. And then instead of doing the full scoop, I would do some egg whites instead.

to get a different, different form of protein or I would incorporate like a chicken sausage or a turkey sausage versus a full scoop of protein powder. And then, yeah, that is so smart. I would have never thought about doing that. To have something on the side. Oh my God. If I wasn't vegan, I would have done that. Honestly too, this, this sounds like insane, but I've tried this just like from trying recipes, oatmeal,

Egg whites in your oatmeal. I used to do that. Cooking that together and then adding turkey bacon or a turkey sausage with some maple syrup on top. Phenomenal. Oh,

Oh, I'm gonna try that when I go home. You know, when you get breakfast at like a place and you get pancakes and sausage and you put like maple syrup together, it would be like, that would be so good. That actually sounds really good. Yeah. And then Taylor for you, like, obviously if you're using minimal ingredients, I think that's great. There are like certain brands that I do recommend to clients in terms of like protein powders that are cleaner. Um,

so I could give you those recommendations. Yeah. I use a brand it's called Misfits Health. Yeah. I've heard of their stuff. Their bars are not bad. The ingredient list is small. So that's the only thing I know. Like, and it's,

Yeah. It's, it definitely looks like a very clean and get radiant list from. I looked up cause I had a client ask me about, um, protein bars and like what protein bars like were okay. And what weren't, I did go on to misfits cause I had you in the back of my mind and I looked at their ingredients and they're not too bad. Okay. You heard it here first. Well,

Well, now we'll go into our snacks. So we kind of both have like the same snacks too, but like I'll say one and make sure you say a different one too. Okay. So one of them is like a honey nut Cheerios with a soft honey nut Cheerios with a Owen plant-based protein shake like poured on top.

Okay. Like actual honey, Cheerios, like the cereal, right? Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes they're the Trader Joe's brand. Yes. I mean, yeah, it's the same thing, but I would look for, so whenever it comes to cereal, this is like a good thing you brought up. Cause I'll always like, I have clients that love cereal and I always say like, just as an example, like if you're someone that is eating like cinnamon toast crunch in your case, it's Cheerios, right? Yeah.

I have cinnamon toast. Try to find, try to find something that's similar, right? Where there are options out there nowadays. There's like the Cascadian farms brand. There's a lot of brands out there that make healthier swaps that they use like chickpea flour versus the enriched, um, like wheat flour. They'll use better ingredients instead of using like regular sugar, they'll use monk fruit or they'll use coconut sugar. So it's a healthier swap. The

The OWYN, I love their stuff. The only thing I'm not fun about, I'm sorry if anyone listens to this, is the sunflower oil in it. But it is organic, so I'll give them that. But other than that, I feel like that's an okay meal that you guys are having. Just me. Yeah, right. Swap the cereal. Okay, so a cereal I've been having, I got it last time I went to the store. I really liked it.

the like the kashi cereal it's a protein one yes so kashi they're okay look at whenever you're getting their cereal some of their cereal like look at the total carbs and then the added and the sugar some of them are okay and some of them are not cool yeah i will look

um what else do we have as a snack after oh we'll have like a bagel or like an english muffin yeah dave's killer okay killer okay i was gonna ask that was literally the next question either that brand or the food for life brand wow and if you guys haven't ever tried the oh sure i can't think of the the name off the top of my head there's a what about thompson's

Like the, like the plate, like normal brand. Yeah. Cause we've got the sourdough. Isn't that the brand we got that's in there? That we just threw away. It's like that. I know what you're talking about now. There is, I can't think of the name off the top of my head. Damn it. Oh wait, no, it's base culture. It's they have gluten-free bread and bagels in the frozen section at whole foods. And I usually am not like, I don't love the way gluten-free stuff tastes, but these are pretty good. So you guys could try those.

What's your opinion? Sorry, I went away from the mic. What's your opinion on gluten free? We don't have to get controversial. We don't have to get controversial. But I think in certain cases, yes, if there's someone that has like underlying conditions, like autoimmune disorders, like stuff going on, but not for everyone.

Okay, good. Cause that's like kind of the boat I was in. Like if it's not affecting you, then yeah. It's definitely a high inflammatory, inflammatory food like dairy, but it's case per case per case. Like it's not, it's not the same for every client for every person.

you want to do your lunch yeah so i'll do my lunch what i had a lot for lunch this week was avocado toast which is actually that's that's pretty good so that's like not that bad sourdough bread avocado and then i had vegan chicken patties okay then toast um what bread are you using did you say that sourdough what what brand

It was just in the bakery section. Just be careful with that because sometimes it'll be like sourdough, but there'll be something else mixed in with it. So just make sure it's like 100% sourdough. That's fine. Is there a good brand? Whole Foods. I can't think of the name. Okay. We're going to be shoving out Whole Foods. It's in a clear bag and it has like a...

I don't know what the name is, but it's a clear bag, clear like bag. And then it has like a, it's yellow and red, like labeling on the front. Okay. This one says, because I see it on my fitness pal, it's gold miner. I don't know. It was just in the grocery store. I don't know. I'm not familiar with that brand. But the avocado is great. Obviously a great source of poly and monounsaturated fats, great source of a plant-based spot. And then the vegan chicken patty.

tell me what brand that is Morningstar yeah yeah that's an I I don't I I'm not a fan of Morningstar um look at the ingredients um right have you tried the what is it the beyond is it beyond meat have you ever tried their like sausages

No, but are those good? They're better than Morningstar. They're not, they're not my top pick. The things I don't like that are in there are it's canola oil. And then they have like multiple gums at like the last ingredients will be like, it's like xanthan gum, guar gum. I think it's acacia gum too.

And then the canola oil, I'm not a fan of because it's a process, process, hydrogenated oil. That's like not good for your heart arteries. Right. I'm not a fan of canola oil either. That's, that's one thing that I do aware of. I think Morningstar has canola or maybe sunflower in it. Yeah. I know. Like, I just know like using can, like, we just bought that to bake something, but that's not something I like to. Yeah. You guys, have you ever done like, like, do you like tempeh?

I do like it, but I'd never buy it. Okay. Tempeh. I just made, I can send you this recipe. I just did a recipe yesterday. I made like Buffalo tempeh tenders.

um that sounds super good came out really good and it was with like I did um chickpea flour no I did all-purpose flour nutritional yeast panko crumbs and like a buffalo sauce and it it's like I feel like that has like chicken texture oh yeah okay because my thing is I don't like to have processed meat like that twice a day like fake meat I don't like to have it twice a day and I also don't like having tofu twice a day so I normally have

one at lunch, one at dinner. But if I start doing tempeh, it's fermented soy too. So it's like you're getting a fermented food in a sense for your gut as well. Um, tempeh is a little bit higher in fat than probably those morning start, but you have flexibility right now. So you could make it work. Awesome. I will keep that in mind. Cause I would like to

I don't like eating a lot of processed meat. I mean, sometimes I see even processed meat, like fake meat. Yeah. But you know, sometimes I just like it's easy. I mean, yeah. You also have protein goals. So I get it. Yeah. But I'll definitely start looking maybe to buy like tempeh as a source. I used to eat a lot of chickpeas, but they bother my stomach. When you get tempeh, make sure it's like organic too. It's like big. Then it'll ensure that it's fermented. Yeah.

and Trader Joe's has it. It's like, it's like $1.99 for like an eight ounce block of it. Oh shit. Nice. Yeah. Noted. Well, mine, my lunch this week was the reduced guilt mac and cheese from Trader Joe's. And then you're really going to hate me for this one. I used to do meal preps chicken lately. Cause I've been really lazy. I've been doing canned chicken. Oh God. You

And chicken, like think of the BPA in there first and foremost. The BPA can have a very, very like critical effect on your hormones. So just like be mindful of that long-term. And then reduced guilt, mac and cheese. We know I'm not a huge fan of Trader Joe's, pretty

prepackaged meals because of all the added stuff. And, um, a company I used to work for would like push that stuff on their clients and recommend it as like, like healthy meals, which is, it's not healthy. There's a lot of added shit every in, in it. If you're not having it every

every day sam okay if it's like a once a week or a bi-weekly thing okay she had it every day she did in fact have it every day make your own mac and cheese literally it's so easy like meal prep i can send you a recipe like i yes please do and i can even do like a vegan yeah i

I know cheese, like do it with bonds and noodles or like tolerant noodles, get some protein in there. You can get good cheese, like good quality cheese. That's higher in protein. And you guys have fats to play with. So you can even do a whole fat cheese. That's going to have higher proteins. Um,

Um, you're actually reminding me of a meal I used to make. I used to make vegan mac and cheese, but instead of cheese, I would do like hummus and nutritional yeast and a little bit of vegan cheese, but it wasn't like an insane amount of like melted vegan cheese. It was only a little bit. Yeah. Nutritional yeast has a hell of protein in it. And it's like a great source of B12, like

Yeah. And what you can do, I used to do this for a client back home for their kid. Like they loved like the mac and cheese I would make, but they, and they hated vegetables. So the mom's like concern was, Hey, I'm trying to get my kid to eat more vegetables. What I would do is I would blend broccoli in a like Nutribullet or a food processor with a little bit of like broth. And I would cook the broccoli in the mac and cheese. So you're getting micronutrients and you're getting good food.

Yeah. Oh, that sounds so good. Sam wasn't eating vegetables. So yesterday I threw a broccoli at her. Yeah. I did. I was like, I've been doing really bad. Like I have no appetite at all with this bulk. So like eating veggies just sounds like horrible. Yeah.

I feel like Taylor, you've definitely been a good like influence on her with the veggies. Yeah. Because when, when I would come to visit, I would buy like greens and in every single meal I'd put greens again, this was when I didn't have to fill my bowl up with insane amounts of rice. So for more volume, put like a lot of greens in there. And then you started putting greens in your bowl. And I was like, see, she used to like,

literally just buy like bags of like mixed greens and stuff like that I was like you know what I guess I gotta start doing this but um yeah I guess we can move into dinner because dinner is also pretty bad um my dinner this week has been not every night but like maybe like two nights this week was a the cauli power frozen crust pizza like crust from trader joe's

No, it's just from like a regular grocery. The brand is Kali Power. I've never heard of it, honestly. So it's just like a frozen crust. And then I've been just putting my own like tomato sauce, prosciutto, and then...

like reduced fat mozzarella cheese okay I've never heard of that crust so I like not familiar with the ingredients in that um is it like is it just cauliflower is it a mix of cauliflower and something else do you know you know what I'll be honest I don't really look at ingredients lists that often anymore my guess is there's something else yeah I'm thinking too in order to like bind it together

I'm trying to look it up. Yeah, look it up. But prosciutto is obviously pork. So I would just like, are you doing that every day? No. Okay. Like maybe like once or twice a week.

a month, honestly. Like I buy, she doesn't like, I really don't. That's like, that too is like the only thing that it eats. Like that's red meat. That's red meat. Okay. Okay. That's, that's okay. Moderation. Um, I don't think it's, it's horrible. I wouldn't eat it every day, obviously. Um, yeah. And then what, what sauce are you using? Um, it's like just

the basic brand at the store. I usually buy like Rao's sauce. Rao's and Victoria because there's no added sugars in those. It's just literally the sugars that are coming from the tomatoes versus like if you buy what is one of the like brands at like a basic grocery like Prego I think right? Yeah yeah yeah. They add like table sugar. Okay noted. I'm gonna get high points for my dinner. All right get out of here.

I have tofu rice and a vegetable like every single night. Okay, what kind of rice are you doing? Just white rice. Literally she buys like a big, big ass bag of it. Okay, with just white rice, is it long grain, jasmine? Like, do you know? I think it's just like long grain white rice. It's right over there. I can open the cabinets right there. But sometimes it'll be like jasmine rice, but I got a really, really big thing of this one. It's just white rice. Just make sure it's not enriched.

Because if it's enriched, over time you can get like niacin toxicity. Okay. Well, I'm going to go check if it is. Because I'll get a new one. Yeah. Literally after this, I'm eating so clean. You don't even know. I don't think it has to be like...

It doesn't have to be an extreme change, but I think if you want to make some swaps, I don't think it'll hurt you. Right. Yeah. No, of course. It's enriched. It's also been affecting us. So well, he's affecting me with my energy. So yeah, I do want to, it does. It can affect like all your biofeedback, of course, especially when it's this much food.

Yeah. Right. It's also, I'm very into nutrition. When I've started getting into like health and wellness, I really thought I wanted to be a nutritionist. At first I was very vegan for the health. I was like,

you know, just like fruit and like raw veggies is the only thing good for you. I, that was like, that got very toxic for me. So I've switched from that. But in the beginning I was very, very food focused and wanted to be into nutrition and that's what I wanted to follow. So I do know like that I should probably like care a bit more, but I think as you guys like work out of

of the bulk, like come back down to maintenance and eventually into a deficit, like try to be intentional with better choices. Cause I think it really is. And like, I don't, I don't have honestly that many clients I did when I was working with past company, um, that were bulking, but right now I don't really have a lot of clients that are bulking. Um, I have a lot of clients that want to have a weight loss as a goal or like a reverse diet. Um,

yeah or maintenance and that's kind of the focus so yeah it's definitely different when you're in a bulk it's hard yeah no of course right we just need how long are you guys on this bulk yeah we so we've been doing it for about three months now and honestly our goal was to end going into the new year and just like start you know reverse reversing back down to maintenance and

But I'm going to see how it kind of plays out with me being home. I feel like being home will throw me off track and not want to really honestly track like as hardcore, but her intentions, she wants to keep going with it. I was on the same page when we started, but I have not gained nearly as much weight as I wanted. Sam's gained like,

almost like triple what I have like in in a good way like I'm trying to gain weight and I'm not gaining weight um I'm eating like 3,000 calories right now gosh I'm gonna have to bump it up to a little bit over yeah I never share my calories but I know saying 3,000 is not going to make anyone overeat or trigger them that is so much good question Taylor yeah real quick yeah so have you always had a leaner physique and like a fast metabolism okay yes I have like

I've had abs that shown since I was a kid okay so it's it's been hard for you to put on weight yeah I mean in the beginning of this I put on weight fairly easily but it was kind of more so because I was just getting to like what my body needed because I had under eight for a while but since I was a little girl I've had abs showing like I've always been very small wow yeah because I was gonna say it might be worth it to like do lab work and like get your your thyroid checked or like

you know really look a little bit more in detail as to why like you're not putting on mass yeah there's a good point I could do that because I'm I mean I didn't realize like having my numbers be so high and being like I have not gained weight since October yeah I mean I think it would be worth it

Definitely. Just to see, and like, obviously you could continue on with the bulk, but maybe that would give you some sort of answer as to like why you're not putting on weight. Cause that's a lot of food. Yeah. Maybe the scales are going to try mine. No, but maybe I will. That's honestly like,

A good point. Cause yeah, I'd never really noticed it as a problem. I mean, I could always eat when I was younger, I was always smaller. I didn't care what I ate at all, like at all, at all. Like I would eat nonstop. And then obviously I went through my cycle of restricting a lot and losing a good amount of weight. But ever since then reaching this point, it's been hard for me to get past that. Like, I think for me to get past this weight, like

I'd have to seriously seriously like and maintain it being high for a long time that'd be an insane struggle yeah and you feel you're in the same position as Sam like you feel full right after like the day is done yeah yeah huh yeah that's I'm curious maybe I will okay I think maybe when I schedule that for next week or something yeah my dad knows a lot of doctors I'll have him be like yeah which one of you can do this yeah yeah I would just take a look at things

So should we go into a few questions or do you- Yeah, just a few really good ones. Yeah, just a few. Yeah, so guys, we asked you guys on Instagram to ask some questions. We didn't say the guest's name because we didn't want to give the guest's name away, but we did say nutritionist. So we have-

a lot of questions and I'm going to try to skim through them and find some good ones. Yeah. I'm sure we've said probably some of them, but if there's like ones that repeat a lot. One is a really good one that doesn't really have to do with like the way we eat or anything. It's literally just what is the difference between a nutritionist and a dietician? Yes. I feel like I get this question.

Often. So a nutritionist basically cannot work in a clinical setting and a nutritionist cannot give a like comprehensive diet plan, like a meal plan. Whereas a dietitian can work in a clinical setting in a hospital with patients and can provide a full comprehensive diet plan. Gotcha. Yeah.

I got this also asked a few times if you want to just briefly, I'm not saying to go into detail, but briefly explain the different roles for like protein, carbs, and fats. Briefly explain? Yeah.

Yeah. Just, you don't have to go into like heavy. Yes, yes, yes. I can briefly explain. Okay. So carbs are obviously our primary source of energy. As we know, um, carbs also provide us with fiber sugars, which are essential for brain function, function, satiety, digestion, fats are our secondary source of energy. They provide us with energy as well. And our

mainly in purpose for satiety and then proteins are obviously needed to build and repair muscle to prevent osteoporosis also for satiety and to get our complete amino acid profile. Lovely. Did you find one that you liked? Yes. Is it bad if the only veggies we are frozen? So this is such a like controversial thing.

And I feel like if this is, if frozen vegetables are the only vegetables you can afford and that you have access to, I don't think it's bad. I think it's better than no vegetables.

But if it's because a, if you're only doing it for a convenient standpoint, yes, because they are cooked, right. And then frozen. So you're not going to be getting the same micronutrient profile as you would have like a fresh vegetable. Cool. Yeah. Yeah.

I love how everything just, we circle back with everyone we talk to. Like, it really depends. Yeah. It really depends. Cause that's a great point. Like if that's all you have, then yes. But like you said, if you're doing it cause you're being a little lazy. Yeah. Yeah. Like you gotta be honest with yourself. Um, I feel like I saw another one that I liked. Oh, this is just like celery juice. Thoughts on celery juice. Oh yeah. See, I'd like, like does come down to like

Different. Everyone's different. Everyone's different. And I think if you are doing celery juice for the purpose of an autoimmune disorder, for the purpose of digestion, yes. But if you're just doing celery juice because you think it's going to make you healthy or help you lose weight or the excess 10 pounds, then it's a F no. Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's a bad rep that like a lot of things like celery juice, apple cider vinegar shots, like lemon water, they get the bad rep of like, it's going to help you lose weight. Yeah, no. Which I cannot stand. It can definitely help. Like I have seen in many cases, like it can, it can help like autoimmune disorders. Like for people that have like psoriasis, I've seen like

huge improvements with that. And for people that have like severe IBS, if it is like incorporated with like doing the 16 ounces with a little bit of lemon juice in the mornings, it can help to alleviate digestive issues.

Is celery juice, like, is it because it's a celery or any like raw greens juice? I mean, it's specific because, because of celery, it's like celery and it's because it has like, it has a certain antioxidant profile. I can't think of the name off the top of my head, but it's because of the antioxidant profile that it does have.

I don't know what they're called. Good to know. Do you have one more? Not really. A lot of these are stuff we said, like what to look for on nutrition labels, processed food. A lot of these we've talked about. Some vegans asked if like all the processed fake meat is bad. A lot of the stuff we talked about. So yeah, I think, yeah. Yeah.

This is fun. They got their questions answered. And I think we definitely want to do more episodes, either a part two or like definitely with people knowledgeable in the nutrition area, because like I said, that's not our, our forte. Yeah. Like, I think you guys should give yourself some credit. Cause I feel like for people that are like out there with like

eating disorders and bad relationships with food I feel like you guys really show up well for that yeah and I think that's mainly our goal you know because for me like I had to make the switch of

Like I said, now I'm more capable to switch what kind of rice I'm using and stuff. But before I was getting into a place to be comfortable eating rice, you know, so I had to make that jump of like, okay, now I'm comfortable with it. Now I can do it. But if I came straight out of my really restricted past to still being like, what kind of rice can I eat? That would have

like really messed me up. Yeah, me too. You know? So, and obviously it's not like you're saying you can't eat other rice ever. I'm saying like, if I was shopping, I couldn't pay attention to that because that wasn't healthy for me personally.

Now, if you guys are not already following Cass on Instagram, please go ahead and do so. Cass, I encourage you to please, for my own help, but for also the girls that are going to now start following you, do more full days of eating, more recipes, because I definitely need it. Yeah, I love this. This was so fun. I learned so much. I did too. So that was a lot of fun. Yeah, I learned a lot. I'm really excited to grocery shop when we get back.

We just threw out like everything in our fridge. We did. We threw out so much. Not like things that were going to go bad because we're leaving on a trip. So we had to like clear it out. But yeah, we're going to start brand new. Yeah. If anyone here like listening to this, like if you have questions or like need some advice, you could always like reach me in the DMs too.

Yeah. And she just started her own little coaching business. So definitely look into that as well. She'll treat you right over there. I know for a fact. Yes. Yes. Quality guys. Quality. Yeah. Quality matters. So I guess that's it. Yeah. Wrap it up. Yeah. All right, guys. So we'll leave all of our stuff down in the description down below. But other than that, we love you guys and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye guys. Thanks so much.

See you on Friday. Mike Rowe here with a radical idea. If you want to see more companies make more things in this country,

Buy more things from more companies who make things in this country. I refer in this case to the incredible t-shirts, sweatshirts, blue jeans, and more made by my friends at American Giant. Everything American Giant makes is made in the United States. And right now, you can take 20% off your first order at American-Giant.com slash Mike. That's American-Giant.com slash Mike.