REAL LIFE RUNNERS PODCAST: EPISODE #266 – How Food Affects the Way We Feel and Perform with Kristi Goode (Transcript)
ANGIE: All right. Real Life Runners. We are in for another treat today. I have Kristi Goode on the podcast today, and Kristi is a macronutrient health and wellness coach. And she is here to talk to us today about how a food, how food affects our bodies, how as runners, it's really important for us to be conscious and be aware of the food that we're putting into our bodies so that we can maximize performance so that we can feel better so that we can maybe stop experiencing some of these chronic aches and pains that a lot of us, um, tend to have. Sometimes a lot of it can be caused by food. And so Kristi's gonna tell us a little bit about.
Her journey and how she kind of figured this out for herself and give us some ideas on how we can use food to better help support us as runners and just help us feel better, feel healthier, um, get stronger and all the good things. So Kristi welcome to the podcast.
KRISTI: Hi. Thank you.
ANGIE: I'm so glad you're here.
KRISTI: Yeah, me too. Me too.
ANGIE: So let's, let's just start out by telling us a little bit about your story. Okay. Like how, like,
who are you, what do you do? Who do you like to help?
KRISTI: Well, my name is Kristi, of course, and I'm a registered nurse and I'm a micronutrition coach. And I like to help. I generally, it seems like the people that are attracted to me are women over the age of 40.
Okay. But, uh, So do help men. Um, also, so I like, I liken it too. I like to teach people how to build their plate and that's just come from years of me learning how to build my plate. And when I say build your plate, I mean, what foods to put on your plate? Mm-hmm, So I generally help women over 40 lose weight, but we've also noticed over time that most of them are decreasing their sugar cravings and they're increasing their energy along with losing weight.
Um, how I got started in my ourney was it's been about seven years ago. And I went to my primary care doctor and just said, Hey, I'm just not feeling well. You know, something's going on? So after we did some blood work, of course, I noticed that, or she told me that my iron level was really low. And that's really what hit the button for me because I don't to take a lot of medications unless they're absolutely necessary. I tried to avoid that. So I turned to food and I tried to research and figure out how food could help me fix my iron level, because I knew there were some more iron, rich foods that you could eat. So I started delving into how I could help my iron level where it all began. and I looked at different diets because as we know, there's multiple diets out there, you know, it's, there's paleo, there's keto. There's just multiple, multiple diets that you could look at. And I kind of fell onto paleo. It was a book that I found that talked about the different nutrients and the importance of whole foods.
And that's where my focus mainly is when I coach women. When I coach men, it's learning how to focus and add more nutrient dents and whole foods to your diet. So for me, once I found like, you know, that red meat, spinach, just different foods could help my iron level. That's what I started eating. Well, as time went on, I started to notice and it was truly, it was right when I turned 40. So I was like, oh my gosh, everything is going downhill. I started noticing that when I would wake up in the mornings, my body would just feel so tight. I would just be sore. So morning after morning, I would wake up and it was all I could do is to get downstairs, to let our dog out. And I would tell my husband. There is no reason that I should feel this tightness. So I even visited, um, just a friend, who's a physical therapist and we worked on because I had a lot of neck tightness, mainly neck tightness. And that's, that's a key here is to listen, [00:04:00] when I say I had a lot of neck tightness, um, and sometimes it would make me feel flush.
So we worked on ways that we could stretch out my neck. She gave me certain exercises and you know, it, it did get a little better over time, but then one morning I came downstairs and I made a latte every single morning with whole milk. Um, and I just happen to think, you know, Could dairy be causing inflammation because I was starting to research all of these foods, you know, with the iron level. And I turned around and I Googled it. And of course the American arthritic organization came, popped up and it said that dairy can cause inflammation for some people. So that very next day, cuz I'd already made my latte that very next day I was like, I'm just gonna try this totally eliminated dairy from my day that entire day. And I ate a lot of cheese. I ate cottage cheese. I ate, you know, I had the milk and everything. The next morning, the day after elimination, I woke up and I was like, oh, I wasn't as tight. I wasn't as sore. So I was like, okay, I've gotta try this another day. And I was, I was dedicated to it. I was like, we're going to try this and see if this is what happens, eliminated it the next day. It was like, I jumped out of bed. So at that point, I was under
ANGIE: Just two days?
KRISTI: Yes.
ANGIE: Wow.
KRISTI: Days. And it was total elimination, you know, I paid attention. I looked where all the dairy was, you know, in my cheese, in butter, you know, in everything. I was happy, but I was, it was bittersweet for me because
ANGIE: Yeah, cause now you have to, now you can't eat dairy.
KRISTI: Yeah, exactly. And I was like, seriously. So I took it as far as. I just felt better every single day, but I did take it a little, a step further because I was like, you know, I visited my allergist. My kids went to see an allergist for seasonal allergies and things like that. And I told him the story and he was like, that doesn't even seem right. And I said, could we test me for a dairy allergy just to make sure. So we did, and I wasn't allergic to dairy and, um, I don't know how many people listening will know this, but you have to actually, in order to be diagnosed with an allergy, um, it like you have to actually have the allergy. It can't just be a sensitivity. And what it seemed to me was it was more of a sensitivity. You cannot diagnose through blood work sensitivities to foods or, um, you know, to dairy or to peanuts. It has to be an actual allergy. So for me, he was just like, well, at this point, we're just going to have to avoid it. So I was like, okay. So, but I felt so much better that I didn't want to add it back in. Um, and then after that, I researched a little bit more and this, you know, this was over time and that's what so many don't understand. They don't realize that sometimes finding out, um, when your body doesn't feel good, sometimes it takes time to figure out what the cause is to figure out what the triggers are. So then I looked at gluten because that's another common inflammatory for some people. Now people can have celiac disease with gluten. but you can also just have a sensitivity and so gradually, and this was probably about a year later, gradually I started eliminating the gluten to see how I would feel, and I noticed that it was hurting my joints. So yet again.
ANGIE: That the gluten was hurting your joints, not eliminating it. Like, so your joint started feeling better as you eliminated the gluten?
KRISTI: Yes.
ANGIE: Okay.
KRISTI: My joints. Um, and then what I started to notice, and this is really important for anybody is after my workouts. And I, I like walked, I, I did a lot of power walking and I had slowly started to weight train and things like that. Um, yoga, this is another, another, um, thing that I did, um, whenever I slowly eliminated the dairy and the gluten, I wasn't sore postworkout the past, it was a different type of soreness. It was almost like, oh, this is the sore I'm supposed to fill. Not the really, really tight feeling that I had been filling. So with the dairy and the gluten. I recognized that they just didn't work for me. So I just looked for ways to work around it. I found different foods that I could eat in place of that, which ended up being the more whole nutrient dense foods in general. Now I'm not saying that I don't have, you know, like a cookie here and there because I do, um, but I just know that it's not gonna make me feel my best mm-hmm and so many people don't realize is while you hear, you can hear that, you know, of course you wanna eat the whole foods. You wanna eat nutrient dense foods. We all know that that's better for our bodies to get the vitamins, to get the minerals, um, to get the micronutrients, the micronutrients. However, it's also good to know foods that can cause you issues. And, um, just learning that was what really helped me along my journey because now I just feel so much better. I don't feel like, you know, I did when I turned 40 and I was like, oh my gosh, it's all downhill from here. That's what they said. But it really wasn't. yeah, it was just. It was just a food.
ANGIE: Did you have, did you notice it was difficult for you to eliminate dairy? Because like you said, you were eating yogurt and cottage cheese and regular cheese and the, the milk in your latte, like, was it difficult for you to, to eliminate the dairy?
KRISTI: Uh, It was. Um, and I did it slowly, um, after I realized that's what it was. And then, and gradually I would bring food like different types of dairy back. Like I might totally eliminate everything for two days. And then I would bring back cottage cheese. Well, is it cottage cheese? Does it affect me? And when after three days of reintroducing it, I would realize, yeah, I don't feel good again so I would totally eliminate everything again for a week or so. And then I would try a different food, like a hard cheese, because some people can be like, for instance, lactose intolerance, some people can be affected by the softer cheeses and some people can be affected by the harder cheeses so it was really me trial and error and. A lot of people don't wanna take the time to find these things out, but I did because I wanted to feel my best. I wanted to be able to optimize my body and to be able to fuel it for, um, my workouts so that I could, you know, go run around their yard with my children and not be like, oh, you know, I just I'm sore. I'm tight. I don't wanna do these things. So yeah, it was me trial and error with foods. Um, and it's still interesting to this day, certain ones will, um, like the harder cheeses will make me feel bloated. Um, maybe the dairy will give me indi- or the milk. I'm sorry, will give me indigestion. Or, um, the cottage cheese just causes me to feel inflamed.
So it's just different. How, while it's still all one category, certain foods can. You feel differently?
ANGIE: That's interesting. Did you try like different brands as well? Like did you ever test out kind of like between like organic versus non-organic or one brand versus another brand? Because as, as you know, you know, I'm sure on your journey, like when you look at the food labels, like not all food is created equal, right? Not all cottage cheese has the same ingredients or comes from the same kind of cows or the quality of different ingredients, um, or different brands are different. So did you ever test that out as well? Like did you notice that it was like all cottage cheese or what were, you know, certain brands worse or better than others?
KRISTI: That's a great question. No, it seems like it was all cottage cheese and it really did not depend on the brand because I did look into that.
ANGIE: Yeah.
KRISTI: Especially organic or like more of your less processed foods, because you know, with yogurt, a lot of times. There's fillers in most yogurts, unless you're getting a plain Greek yogurt, there's gonna be extra additives, extra fillers. Um, and I did, I recognized all of that. And the other interesting thing that most people don't know is casing, which is also a milk protein can be found in some deli meats. So I have to be careful because sometimes that will cause bloating. So I have to look for like Applegate farms is a great brand for me. It does not bother me. Um, pepperoni, certain brands will bother me, so I just have to be careful and watch for casing as an additive.
ANGIE: Oh, okay. Yeah. So, so did you notice a difference like between organic and non-organic for like anything?
KRISTI: No, not. But honestly, um, yeah, because we did, we, my husband and I, we were trying the organic, there was an organic brand of milk that we tried and we tried that I even tried lactose free milk thinking.
ANGIE: Yeah.
KRISTI: Maybe this is lactose issue, but it wasn't, it was truly, it's a milk, protein issue that bothers.
ANGIE: Yeah, that's really interesting. Um, and I, I think that it's important, what you said. I wanna kind of go back to what you said earlier, because you had said that, and, and I totally resonate with this, like how it is a process, right? It takes time to. Eliminate certain things and then add them back in. And there are, there's a lot of debate out there of like whether or not elimination diets are good or bad, or, you know, like people like to put labels on everything, which I don't really agree with. I don't really like to label anything is good or bad. about I believe that, you know, we need to find what works best for us, right? Like, and what, what works best for our individual bodies. And that's really what I'm hearing you say here, but what I wanna point out is how you said, like, About how it does take time. Right. And you have to kind of eliminate some foods and then add them back in and then wait for three days and see how your body feels and then actually assess all of that and how your body is reacting to that thing, which takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot of. Time, it takes a lot of you understanding the cues and the signals that your body is giving you. Um, but you were willing to do that because of the outcome that you believed you were going to gain from that, which is your body [00:14:00] feeling better, being able to be more active with your children, being able to run around and play with them and do those kinds of things. And so I just want to kind of make our listeners like tap into that for one second, because there, it is there for running or for anything else that we do when you understand that deeper, why that deeper purpose of why you're doing something that can really make all the difference in the world of actually making you stick to this thing that you quote unquote know that you should be doing right, like, or that you want to do, but it's a pain in the butt, like, sometimes these things are like a pain in the butt, right? To do them. And they, they take time and they take focus and they take consciousness and awareness and all of these things. Um, so knowing that deeper purpose behind it is a really powerful driver.
KRISTI: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And actually, and I love what you just said, how you said about foods are not good nor bad. And you don't like to label anything. I don't either. And that's a huge thing because especially with elimination diets and fat diets that are out there, a lot of people think, oh, if I eat this food, I'm bad. No, the only thing that's gonna happen is that food could make you feel bad. Yeah. The way I look at it, like if I wanna have, um, a chocolate chip cookie, I mean, granted, I know that there's gonna be gluten in it. And I know there's potentially dairy in it from the chocolate chips, but if I want it, I'm going to eat it. I just have to recognize that I might not feel good for me. But. Can eat them and feel fine. So I, I think that's a great point because I try to teach my clients a lot of that, um, the good versus bad, because food just, you can't label it because at that point, when you do start labeling foods, it tends to take you down another path of, oh, I'm bad if I eat this or, oh, I was good today I only ate this, but that's not what it's about. It's about figuring out what works for you and what doesn't.
ANGIE: Yeah. A hundred percent. So what are some ways like for, for us to kind of start to figure that out, like for us to, when we decide, you know, when, when we eat something, how do we know if it's the food that's causing us to feel tired or to feel the muscle tightness or that's causing some of these other symptoms in our body versus just, you know, we haven't been sleeping well, or we had a really hard workout or cuz there's so many causes. Right? And I think that's what makes this so tricky is that it's not often of like a, a direct cause and effect, like we can kind of see correlation, but causes are a lot harder to point to because there are so many factors, right? And it's not like you are only eating dairy. You're also eating, you're eating dairy, you're eating vegetables and you're eating meats and you're eating like all of these things. So where do we even know where to start?
KRISTI: That's a great question. I feel like everybody, and I even have my clients that come to me to keep a food log. And now I'm not saying you have to track your food. Not everybody that I work with, tracks their food. I'm meaning keeping a journal of writing down. And any doctor that you go to, if you have an issue like a GI doctor, for example, if you are wondering if certain foods are going to affect you or something's going on in GI wise, we'll put it that way. They're generally gonna have you keep a food log. So, I always have people write down what they're eating, whether it's on a piece of notebook paper, it doesn't matter. Just kind of keep a journal of what it is. You don't have to weigh it. You don't have to do all of that but then that way you can look back and you can make little notes, maybe that night you, the night before you didn't sleep well, you can just write poor sleep, you know, nothing major to where it's gonna take up a lot of your day, but just spend five minutes jotting down, how you felt, um, and then go back and you can look at it.
So, for me, I'm really big on. Just being aware, being aware of what you put in your body, being aware of how your body's responding in general. So if you keep these notes, then you can go back and you can start to pinpoint maybe some areas, oh, you know what? I had spaghetti sauce and I had indigestion. I mean, that's a common one, you know, the acidity and the tomatoes could that have caused your indigestion.
Well, then you just pay attention the next time that you have spaghetti sauce or you just make notes. Today, I woke up and I just felt, blah. Well, did you, what did you have for dinner last night? Did you have a snack late before you went to bed? It's just being aware and that's where you can start to break it down and pinpoint maybe a food that's bothering you. And what I like about this is I actually foods that are more nutrient dense can still bother you. It doesn't have to be the processed bag of chip that you ate. You know, the whole bag of before you went to bed, I have had clients that even green apples have caused them indigestion and they didn't realize it. I have a client that's allergic to potatoes and had no idea. So. It's not always like what we were saying just a little bit ago. That's why you don't label foods as good or bad because they affect us all differently.
ANGIE: Mm-hmm yeah. And that's one of the things I think is interesting about the healthy label too, right? Like people like to label foods as like healthy or not healthy, but like, you know, one of the ones that I like to point to a lot of times is quinoa. Like quinoa is quote, is a quote, unquote super food. It's a healthy food, right? But there are some people that can't digest quinoa. Well, like they just like, it messes up their digestion. Right. So for that person, quinoa is not a healthy food. Like even if quinoa has the most benefits of anyone in the world, like another one, not anyone, but any food, but like eggs, right? Like to me, eggs are like, the one of the best foods on the planet, because of all of the, the vitamins and the minerals and the protein and the fat, like, it's just such a complete food, but some people can't tolerate eggs when they eat eggs, it causes, like you said, indigestion, stomach upset, like burping, like, you know, all the things, right? Like, and so for that person, the egg is not the best food. Right. And so I think that a lot of times we can get caught up with this diet culture. In what's healthy and what's not healthy and wanting to eat the healthiest things and, um, sometimes those quote unquote health foods can cause issues with us. And I think that's a really important thing that not a lot of us realize.
KRISTI: Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
ANGIE: And that go ahead.
KRISTI: I was just gonna say that is true about Quin too. It can affect people differently that can, it can do anything with your digestive system. Yeah.
ANGIE: So what I'm hearing you say then is like, when we start taking, you know, if we decide we're going to try to figure this out for ourselves okay. Step number one is awareness. So step number one is writing down the foods that we're eating and also how we're feeling at any given point in the day. Right? And then step number two is like, kind of going back. And I like to say it's kind of putting on your detective hat, right? Kind of trying to figure out like patterns. See if we're noticing like certain patterns of symptoms after we eat certain foods. Is that right?
KRISTI: That's exactly right. And that's what is so important. And that's every client, like I said, that I [00:21:00] start out with, I always have them journal. They don't have to track per se. Um, just because I do macro counting and I, I have some people that like to track their macros in particular. But this is truly just keeping a food log mm-hmm and so you can go back and you can pinpoint those areas.
ANGIE: Okay. And so what if we find something then like, if we go back and we find that, you know, like, we'll take the example that you use, like after you eat pasta with red sauce, you notice that you've got indigestion what's the next step from there?
KRISTI: The next step is to try it again and to reevaluate, assess how you feel. And then write that down. Take note because maybe the second introduction, reintroduction may not bother you. So then you just write, you didn't have any, you know, symptoms, nothing that came up from that. Maybe it could have been the pasta. So then you just introduce the pasta by itself separately, maybe with some butter or, you know, just alone. Maybe it is the pasta that's causing it. And then if you notice those symptoms again, then you write that down and then you just yet, again, it's trial and error. You wait a couple of days, you reintroduce that food again, and eventually you are going to figure out, like you said, it's a process, but eventually you'll figure out. Oh, okay. It definitely is the pasta. Um, it's not the tomato sauce. So that's kind of how you have to just reintroduce, take it away, reintroduce and take it away.
ANGIE: Yeah.
KRISTI: That's the only one.
ANGIE: So one of the things that kind of comes up now, like a question that comes up is like, what if there's multiple things that are causing issues with us? Right.
KRISTI: No, that is a good question. Then you just, I think keep track of it so that you can know, and then you can look at maybe it's a food group per se, kinda like dairy, you know, like I said, whenever for me, you know, there's so many items in dairy there. You've got milk. It could be cottage cheese, it could be the yogurt different. One of those are processed differently and some have different additives. So maybe it's an additive. And I know some people, there are certain additives in foods that bother them. Like if you look at gums, there's like gums or thickeners that are in foods. Sometimes they cause people digestive distress as far as bloating and, um, just not feeling good in general. Um, and another one are sugar alcohols, those can be something. So you have to take that particular food that you think is bothering you and look at everything that's in it, because maybe it's something that's in the food. I hope that didn't take you off track because I know we wrote. If there was, it could be a food group though. Like you have nightshades, which are a certain group of vegetables, um, some starches and things like that. And maybe you're, maybe it's the nightshade vegetables that are bothering you. And then in that case, then you would look at, you know, eliminating those for a while and then reintroducing and it could have been just one of those. So you just don't know. So that's why I said it's been almost, it was almost probably a good five year process for me to figure out what didn't work for me.
ANGIE: Well, that sounds like such a long time and so much effort though.
KRISTI: It, it does, it sounds like a lot of effort, but if you. So sometimes, like you said, it takes a lot of effort yeah.
ANGIE: And like you, like I said before, too, like going, going back to that, that why, right. Going back to that deeper reasoning for you doing this thing. Right? Because there are gonna be times where you just wanna have the cookie or you just wanna have whatever that the cheese, you know, And I like what you say here, because you know, the, what your approach sounds like very, um, very much like moderation, right? Like you, you add it, you take it out, but then you add it back in. Like, there are some people that wanna take something out and then just eliminate it forever. Right? Like, oh, that means you can't ever have that again. Right. And that's not necessarily what needs to happen in a lot of circumstances. There's a lot of times where there could be a certain food that's causing inflammation in our gut and by removing it, we kind of give our gut some time to heal. And then we can reintroduce that food successfully. Have you seen that as well with either with yourself or your clients?
KRISTI: Yes, absolutely. Um, I have seen that with me um, because garlic and onions bothered me for a little while. Um, it would cause bloating, it would cause gas. So I eliminated it for a while, like several months and I just kind of watched now not garlic powder, I'm talking fresh onions and fresh garlic, um, and I've noticed here lately, I can add those back in, like for example, at a Mexican restaurant, having fajitas, or even here making fajitas with peppers and onions. They don't bother me as much as they used to. Now, I don't eat them every day, but I know when I want them that they don't tend to bother me. But if I, if I had it every single day or, you know, three or four days in a row, maybe it would bother me. But before it was anytime I ate it, it would bother me. So I would have to just like, let my gut heal for a little while.
ANGIE: Mm-hmm so what, okay, so. For runners, like in like specifically, like why is this something that we, or should really think about and worry about as runners? I mean, I think that everybody's gonna kind of get what they, what they are hearing from this episode, but what would you say would be like one of the main things that one of the main reasons we would wanna even start to look at this.
KRISTI: I think it's important just for your performance in general. You never know, like after you've done a short run or a long run, you know, maybe you're having some tightness, some pain and you just think, oh, it's because it was a long run today. Well, maybe it's not, maybe it was what you ate the night before. Maybe it was what you ate that morning of. And when you look at like, things that usually runners eat like oatmeal, or you're going to eat more carb sources. Maybe you wanna reevaluate that and look and see, Hey, is the oatmeal causing me to have inflammation after my run? Or maybe it is that dairy? Um, but it's just one of those things to look at so that you can perform better. You can have that more optimal performance at the end of the day mm-hmm . So that's why I think. I think it's important for anybody, but especially people who do, um, like a lot of lifting, especially people who like runners, for example, I mean, you definitely do need to look at that because it can benefit you in the long run. Um, I'm actually working with a runner right now, and that's one thing that we're looking at different ways that maybe certain foods are affecting her longer runs.
ANGIE: Mm-hmm . Yeah. Yeah. And I think that, like the, the one thing too, that comes to mind for me is like a lot of runners, especially when they're training for races or those kinds of. They're so focused on race nutrition, right? They're so focused on what they eat before, during, and after a run for optimizing their performance. But a lot of times what people kind of neglect is their overall eating and how much of a role that plays if you're and like, we always tell people, like, if you're eating like crap, 80% of the time, then whatever you do during a run, isn't really gonna matter that much. Right? Like it's important. And that's where I think we speak more to your, um, nutrient dense foods. Like when you were talking about really focusing on getting more whole foods and more nutrient dense foods, what should we kind of be focusing on there as runners? Like how do we know if we're eating a nutrient dense diet?
KRISTI: You wanna look at, as far as the nutrient dense diet, it's one, that's pretty much, um, like your proteins, like your chickens, your lean meats, um, pork, beef, tuna, um, those are gonna be, and foods that aren't processed. Meaning when you look at a package. If it has less than five ingredients, that's gonna be more of a whole food in the whole food form, but anything that comes from the ground directly, like your potatoes, your vegetables, um, your fruits, you wanna look at using those types of foods because they are not processed at all, unless they come in a can or a box. And that's when you're going to find more processed foods. However, there are some that aren't as, as processed, you know, as we've gone along throughout the years, we've found better products, um, like pastas, for example, that's a really good one. Now you have. That are made with beans and they just have less additives in them. And that's, what's going to make you feel better, um, overall, but yet again, it's one of those things you have to test because maybe regular pasta is fine with you, but maybe it's not. Um, so looking for foods that are, um, like protein, like I said, your chicken, you wanna look for good quote, unquote, healthy fats, such as, um, avocados, such as coconut oil, um, even bacon, bacon, when it comes from a good source, you know, an organic source of bacon when you purchase it. Bacon's great. Um, it's a good, healthy, fat, and even cooking in bacon grease. That's a good way. That's a good, healthy fat also, um,
ANGIE: For some people in moderation, right?
KRISTI: Right. Exactly right. You don't wanna like eat a whole pound of bacon, but , you know, a couple pieces here and, you know, cooking in the bacon grease. That's not, it's not gonna affect you. So when I talk about nutrient dense foods, that's what I'm talking about. Fueling your body with that versus a processed food that burns super quick in your body and then it just pretty much gives you a sugar crash, just not too long after. And for runners, that's, what's important you need to find things that can give you instant, you know, cuz you wanna have that instant run. Like if you're doing the long distance run, I get that you need to have something that's gonna, you know, uh, give you immediate sugar.
ANGIE: Right.
KRISTI: But overall you wanna also watch that maybe the night before a run, you know, you wanna have a longer lasting, longer acting carb source. Mm-hmm . Such as tomatoes, such as your pasta.
ANGIE: Yeah. And I think that's important because it is different. Like, and that's, that's one of the things that maybe not a lot of runners understand, especially when they get into this whole food, nutrient dense type of eating and journey is like, they think like, okay, I need to eliminate all processed sugars and all processed foods and only eat whole foods. And that's not what we're talking about here. You know, like it's important to have all of these things in a balance in your life. Right. Eating the majority of your food as this nutrient dense, but like Kristi was saying here as runners, we also need that fact fast acting sugar for our runs, especially on our long runs. Right? And so that's why a lot of the sports nutrition that you see whether it's drinks or gels or chews or all these things are very processed, highly processed sugars that, because that energy is now immediately available for our bodies to use. And so when we take those take in those types of things around our run, that can be very beneficial without a lot of health, you know, um, negative health risks involved with it. Right. But again, even those things like sports, nutrition, things, you also need to figure out which ones work for your body. Right. Because some of those things because they're so highly processed and because they're so, um, sugar dense, they can be total gut bombs for people. Right. And there there's a lot of runners that have major issues with certain types of gels and goos and all these things. And so again, trial and error, right? And this is one of the things we talk about with our runners all the time, part of training for a race. Also the nutrition is also figuring out what are the foods that are gonna fuel my body the best, not only right around my run, not only inside the run, but also the night before the run. Right? And, and right after the run refueling with protein and carbohydrates right after the run so that your body can start that rebuilding process. All of that is super important in the big picture.
KRISTI: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It is. And even like you said, even for training purposes, like during the week training up for, in the time for a race, you wanna feel good. You want to see how you can optimize that run even, you know, your training, that's gonna be important for you. And that's the time that you can also pick up on, Hey, this is bothering me. Hey, you know, that chew or the gum, you know, like the Gatorade chews you know, sometimes those bother people just. Like the in, um, not inflammation, but from bloating and gas, those can definitely really rec havoc on your stomach.
ANGIE: Yeah, for sure. Well, this has been super awesome. Is there anything that we haven't really talked about yet that you wanted to, um, circle back to for our listeners?
KRISTI: Um, I don't think so. I, I just feel like that, um, just so that everyone knows that, you know, you don't have to eliminate foods, but it is good to just be aware of how they react to you and how you want to feel no matter what you're doing, whether you're running, whether you're lifting weights, whether you're just wanting to run around the yard with your kids, but learning and being aware of how these can affect you is just gonna be so important. And you know, there's other things like sugars, sugars can affect people, too. Um, so just learning and learning how to optimize, you know, your body and fuel it properly is gonna be just beneficial. In the long run, it's also gonna help teach your kids, um, you know, what's important and you know how to choose those nutrient dense foods. But also another rule that I like to live by is what's called the 80 20 rule. where 80% of the time you are fueling your body with those nutrient dense foods that work for you. And then 20% of the time it's okay, you know, to have the piece of chocolate cake, it's okay to have the cookie it's okay when I go to Starbucks and I have a mocha yes.
ANGIE: A hundred percent and that's, it's so funny that you said 80 20 and I promise you guys, she was not prompted here because that is how we train our runners as far as like, um, the ratio of easy running to harder running too, to 80 20 principles, same thing, 80% of your running needs to be, um, easy and only 20% of it needs to be harder, but like that principle can apply to so many different things and, and nutrition is definitely one of them as well. And finding a plan that's individualized and that's customized to you and your body and how you wanna feel and your goals and all of the things is so, so important. So thank you, Kristi for bringing all of this. Um, Awareness to us. So that's really what I've heard a lot is like bringing that awareness and then bringing that intention to what you're eating, right? Like you can eat whatever the heck you want, but just know how it's going to affect your body and know, you know, is there something else that I could eat that might make me feel a little bit better, right. That might make me perform a little bit better. And that's really what all of this is about. It's about empowering you as the runner to make these choices for yourself to understand, to become more aware and then figuring out what's gonna work best for you, your life, your goals, the way that you wanna live.
KRISTI: Absolutely, absolutely.
ANGIE: Awesome. So Christy, how can our listeners connect with you online? If they wanna learn more about what you do or if they want to, um, you know, reach out and work with you, how would they, how would they find you?
KRISTI: Well, my Facebook and my Instagram handle are love livin low sugar. And my website is also love livin low sugar. And it's just a, V I N.
ANGIE: with no G.
KRISTI: Right? No G on the livin.
ANGIE: So love living, no sugar.
KRISTI: Low sugar.
ANGIE: Low sugar. Okay. All right. Awesome. And we'll put that all those links in the show notes for you guys, of course, as well. So if you're out on the run or if you're driving right now, you can just go to our show notes page over @realliferunners.com click on podcasts in the top right corner. And we'll have all that information for you guys in the show notes. Um, so Kristi thank you so much for coming on and for enlightening us to a lot of these nutrition issues that face a lot of us as runners and helping us to just learn ways to continue for us to feel better, to run better and just to live a life that we absolutely love to live. So thank you.
KRISTI: You're welcome. Thank you.