Midlife Blood Sugar, Insulin Resistance & Protein
Beth Bollinger (00:00:00) - It's important to think about how you want to age, how strong you want to be as you get older, because that helps you to prioritize the protein.
*Sarah Milken * (00:00:15) - Hey peeps, welcome to the Flexible Neurotic Podcast. I'm your host, doctor Sarah Milken. Yeah, you heard that right. I'm a real PhD doctor long, long ago, like last fucking year, I was sitting in the midlife funk wondering, was this it for me? That day, I realized I needed to get off my ass and start my midlife remix. I dusted off my PhD, wiped the menopause sweat off my forehead, grabbed my golden shit shovel, and started digging deep to all my midlife bitches. It's not just luck, coffee, and hormones that get you through your midlife remix. It's action steps. Let's do this. Hi peeps! Welcome back to the Flexible Neurotic Podcast. I'm Doctor Sarah Milligan, the flexible neurotic. This is the Midlife Self Reinvention podcast, where we get into all the Uggs and fabulosity of midlife. Today I have a guest who I've had my eye on for a long time on Instagram.
*Sarah Milken * (00:01:18) - I love what she posts, how she posts, and what she says. She's a health and nutrition expert, and a certified holistic nutritionist, she is a recipe expert and shares her knowledge about food and health on Instagram. Her recipes are free of dairy, gluten, sugars and are all metabolically balanced. She makes it look easy, although I'm not sure it is. Maybe it is. I want you to meet Beth Bolinger of Nest Wellness.
Beth Bollinger (00:01:49) - Thank you for that.
*Sarah Milken * (00:01:50) - Oh my God, I'm so happy to have you here. I of course I see you popping up on Instagram, so it's always nice, even though it's not in real life. It's like closer than an Instagram post away. So I'm so happy to have you here. Thank you for saying yes. I know sometimes doing podcasts can be, you know, an extra thing can feel scary outside of your comfort zone. So I'm so happy you're here.
Beth Bollinger (00:02:18) - Well, thank you for having me.
*Sarah Milken * (00:02:20) - Let's start with the fact that I don't cook.
*Sarah Milken * (00:02:22) - So for me looking at your Instagram, it's like food porn. I can't make it, but I love looking at it. I'm not going to say I can't. I just haven't dove in to really trying yet. It's like my Achilles heel, you know? Like everybody's got something that they either can't do, have fear around, like something, right? Cooking is that thing for me.
Beth Bollinger (00:02:48) - Why is that?
*Sarah Milken * (00:02:49) - I don't I don't know, I just feel like my mom didn't cook, so I didn't grow up in a house with my mom cooking. My dad cook. He he didn't make it like a family thing. It was like he was the chef. He was making us this beautiful dinner, and we were going to sit down and have a family dinner together. But I wasn't part of the process. So for me, when I see someone like you, I'm like, oh my God, I have such like inspirational envy. Like she makes it look so easy, like she cooks the food, she like gathers the food and it's all metabolically perfect and all the things.
*Sarah Milken * (00:03:25) - So today, for the intention of this episode, in this podcast, we have a golden shit shovel. The golden shit shovel digs through all the midlife layers of all different things raising teens, being metabolically healthy, midlife freedoms, so many of the things that are all on our minds and we're all thinking about. But today I want to talk about. Kind of your philosophy, your hacks, your expert skills in creating a lifestyle and wellness plan for midlife women. Not, I mean, I know for you, it's not just for midlife women, but for the purpose of this podcast in kind of achieving, I guess, what you call the no frailty plan.
Beth Bollinger (00:04:11) - Yeah. Yeah. Right.
*Sarah Milken * (00:04:13) - And so I kind of want to get into what you're doing, how you're doing it, how do you make it look so easy and kind of break down some of the little parts of it? And I think so much of what you do is your personal story and how you got here. So I just love for you to kind of give us like a quick snapshot into, like, I know you had a health thing your husband did, your daughter did.
*Sarah Milken * (00:04:39) - And from all of that, you know how they sometimes say, like your pain becomes your purpose? you know, kind of how how you got to where you are and having this Instagram account and website and business.
Beth Bollinger (00:04:53) - Yeah. So, I guess I'll start back when I was 23, I suffered from uncontrolled chest pain. Nobody could figure out what it was. lots of testing, lots of. Imaging studies. You know, nobody could find anything that was wrong. fast forward about 12 years. By the time I was 35, I was finally diagnosed with a mitral valve prolapse syndrome, which causes. It's a benign heart condition, but it causes chest pain in some people. And so there was very little research at the time, but the research that I was able to find suggested that increasing magnesium, increasing, hydration and cutting out sugar would all be helpful. So I did all three of those things, and I felt really good. for the first time in a long time, I started to be a label reader for the first time in my life.
Beth Bollinger (00:06:00) - I ate up until that point, really the standard American diet. And I realized that there was refined sugar in just about everything. So I cut out fructose corn syrup. White sugar, brown sugar, multi-tool. You know, all the different names for sugar. And I started using just small amounts of maple syrup, honey and dates in cooking. And at that time there were very few food blogs or recipes. You know, this was 22 years ago, so very few resources for cooking that way. So I recreated family favorites using natural sugars. And that was really the starting point of my health journey.
*Sarah Milken * (00:06:51) - You had your husband. You said he turned into dad bod.
Beth Bollinger (00:06:55) - He did.
*Sarah Milken * (00:06:57) - That made me laugh.
Beth Bollinger (00:06:58) - Yeah. So that was sort of sort of related to my daughter. had been one of my daughters. I have three daughters and one son. So one of my daughters had been born with some health issues, and she was prescribed many, many rounds of antibiotics. And we know now that that's not the preferred treatment for ear infections in children.
Beth Bollinger (00:07:18) - But at the time, 23 years ago, that was what they did. They just prescribe antibiotics. And so by the time she was seven, she really had a lot of gut dysfunction. And so we went to specialists and they suggested that she was maybe just constipated and that we should increase her fiber intake. And they recommended Fiber One bars. And I don't know if you've ever seen the ingredient list on a Fiber One bar, but I kind of.
*Sarah Milken * (00:07:43) - Like the brownie one. I'm not gonna lie, for the reasons that you're saying, it's like, terrible.
Beth Bollinger (00:07:52) - So they said, you know, increase your grain intake. So we did that. We so we, you know, in solidarity, because I was the one doing the cooking. We all increased our grain intake. My husband's weight ballooned, my weight ballooned. We all felt terrible. We got sicker and fatter. I thought, this just can't be right. There's something wrong here. And I happen to bond. you know, the books that were out at the time, grain brain and wheat belly.
Beth Bollinger (00:08:21) - And I realized this was not the right direction to go in. And so at that point, we cut grain out of our diet. And again, there were just not that many recipes and resources available. So I was cooking pretty much grain free, sugar free at that point. That helped us all to slim down again and, feel good again.
*Sarah Milken * (00:08:46) - Now, I also read that. So your husband's a doctor, and then later in life, he gave up his practice and was working at a hospital. And the hospital. Food was just horrific. So you said, okay, dad bod, some metabolic issues, pre-diabetic, like we're going to get this under control. So you started making him breakfast and lunch, by the way, super wife. I'm not sure I would have done that. I still don't do that. But kudos. I'm impressed. and you said that, you know, that really started to change things for him because he wasn't eating the garbage from the hospital cafeteria.
Beth Bollinger (00:09:27) - Yeah, yeah.
Beth Bollinger (00:09:28) - So I knew he was eating well at home. and so the thing that really changed course for him was packing him breakfast and lunch for the hospital.
*Sarah Milken * (00:09:41) - And so what is like what would that what was what is a typical breakfast and lunch and dinner look like in your house? Because it doesn't look like what it looks like in my house.
Beth Bollinger (00:09:51) - So for my husband, he typically has no oats for breakfast, which is my three seed combination. It's ground flax, hemp hearts, and either basil or chia seeds.
*Sarah Milken * (00:10:02) - And you just came out. It's called no oats. So it's kind of a play on that. It's not oatmeal.
Beth Bollinger (00:10:09) - Exactly.
*Sarah Milken * (00:10:10) - Right. And you just came out with your own product, which I just got in the mail yesterday. Thank you so much, by the way. I can't wait to try because oatmeal is my breakfast of choice and I know there's issues with that. So I'm excited to hear about this.
Beth Bollinger (00:10:24) - It was my low carb oatmeal swap. Basically several years ago, I started wearing a continuous glucose monitor to develop recipes that created a level of glucose response.
Beth Bollinger (00:10:34) - And I realized pretty quickly that oatmeal was a big blood sugar. Speicher. Even in combination with that fiber and protein, you know, a lot of people say, don't eat your carbs naked. Well, even non naked oatmeal, is a big blood sugar spike. Oh, my.
*Sarah Milken * (00:10:51) - God, that I know. And my whole my oatmeal is like a science experiment, Beth. It's like I have the oatmeal that has ten grams of protein. It has a little bit of flax already in it, but it's probably a really scant amount. Yeah. Then I add a protein powder. Okay. Which is the trouvent one, which is a plant protein. Okay. Then I add creatine. Then I add chia seeds and organic walnuts. So I feel like in my mind I've made it like much better than it could have been. But I'm not sure if I put a glucose monitor on what would happen.
Beth Bollinger (00:11:31) - Yeah, I mean, that's why I love glucose monitors. You know, everybody's reaction to food is going to be different.
Beth Bollinger (00:11:37) - and that's why I encourage all of my clients to try a continuous glucose monitor to see what their own reaction is to certain foods.
*Sarah Milken * (00:11:46) - And first, for the people who don't know who what it is, will you explain it? Because it sounds like you're like hooked up to like an IV, but it's so different from that.
Beth Bollinger (00:11:53) - Yeah. So a continuous glucose monitor is I don't know, it's about the size of a quarter. And it's a little device that you wear on the back of your arm for 10 to 14 days. And it measures your glucose continuously. And it syncs with an app on your smartphone. And so you can see in real time your body's response to food, stress, exercise, lack of sleep. It's really informs you about the workings of your own body. you can see, you know, your oatmeal. I mean, it sounds wonderful, but the you know, the seeing in real time, your body's response, your glucose response to that oatmeal is really powerful.
*Sarah Milken * (00:12:37) - And how many times, like, how long would you wear it for? And is one reading of one oatmeal enough to make a decision about it?
Beth Bollinger (00:12:45) - I recommend that the first couple of weeks you're wearing a glucose monitor that you just eat as you normally would.
Beth Bollinger (00:12:51) - Don't change anything and just see how your habits are affecting your blood glucose. And then from there, you know, if you find that oatmeal bowl, spikes your glucose more than 30 points.
*Sarah Milken * (00:13:05) - What is it supposed to be like? What is that number when you look at it on the glucose monitor, that that's kind of within normal range.
Beth Bollinger (00:13:13) - So you ideally want your fasting glucose to be well under 100 optimally in the 70 to 86 range.
*Sarah Milken * (00:13:23) - Good deal. So when you eat your no oats, what are you adding to it? I know you have all sorts of beautiful concoctions on your Instagram. I'm like blueberries and all this stuff. What's your fave?
Beth Bollinger (00:13:37) - so lately I've been doing yogurt bowls with.
*Sarah Milken * (00:13:41) - Okay, so.
Beth Bollinger (00:13:42) - Oats and then some berries or some nuts.
*Sarah Milken * (00:13:45) - And do you find that fat of the nose is what's satisfying about it? Or is it the fiber because the the no. Oats has a little bit higher of a fat content than the average oatmeal is, but is that the sort of secret sauce is satiety factor to it?
Beth Bollinger (00:14:04) - Tiny factor absolutely is much, much greater than oatmeal.
Beth Bollinger (00:14:07) - So it's it's the fiber and it's the fat and it's the protein too.
*Sarah Milken * (00:14:12) - So once you add the yogurt, the notes and then whatever kind of plant milk substance or I think you use goat milk or something, right.
Beth Bollinger (00:14:22) - today, well, like today, I had, yogurt go away. No oats, berries and nuts. and also just mix the three seed mixture with warm water or with unsweetened nut milk.
*Sarah Milken * (00:14:39) - And what's your favorite yogurt like? You don't eat dairy, though. So how do you do the yogurt piece?
Beth Bollinger (00:14:44) - Yeah. So I don't tolerate, some Cowdery. So I'm allergic to the A1 protein. In dairy, which is most powdery. You can find A2 protein cow dairy now, which is what I can tolerate. So the A2 protein is the protein that's in goat and sheep products.
*Sarah Milken * (00:15:06) - So I will be an example product like when you're at this Whole Foods. Like what what brand is that. What is it.
Beth Bollinger (00:15:14) - so Bellwether Farms is a local, a local dairy that raises A2 cows.
Beth Bollinger (00:15:20) - And so I've been using their yogurt lately.
*Sarah Milken * (00:15:23) - Does that mean that it's not dairy? What does that mean?
Beth Bollinger (00:15:26) - This means that it's a different protein. It doesn't contain the A1 protein, which a lot.
*Sarah Milken * (00:15:31) - So you know how when people say dairy causes inflammation. Does the A2 not cause inflammation or just doesn't upset your stomach.
Beth Bollinger (00:15:42) - It just it does not upset my stomach. And I don't inflammatory for me.
*Sarah Milken * (00:15:47) - I see okay. Because it gets a little bit confusing with that. And then how do you feel about the other yogurts? I know you did a post on comparing three different kinds of yogurt. Can you take us through that? Because I feel like midlife and protein are such so interlinked and like needing to increase our protein. And a lot of us want to eat, yogurt. But like coconut yogurt, for example, is not dairy, but it's not high in protein. So then you get into the whole loop of, okay, let me add protein powder in it. And then that's a whole shitstorm because then you're like, okay, which protein powder is it? Way is it plant? Is it this.
*Sarah Milken * (00:16:27) - And it's like it's so many things Beth.
Beth Bollinger (00:16:29) - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're right. We do need to lean into protein in midlife. 30g of protein per meal as a goal is a really good goal to have. so as far as yogurts, Greek yogurt is always going to be highest in protein. So if you tolerate cow dairy, Greek yogurt is an excellent source of protein. Because I don't tolerate Cowdery, I don't choose Greek yogurt for myself. So I do end up adding goat way to my yogurt when I go away.
*Sarah Milken * (00:17:03) - Beth.
Beth Bollinger (00:17:04) - Yes?
*Sarah Milken * (00:17:05) - Explain, please.
Beth Bollinger (00:17:08) - So go away. whey protein is high in leucine. Helps with lean muscle. you can get cow way, but like I said, I don't tolerate most cow product.
*Sarah Milken * (00:17:19) - Is that what most whey protein powders are?
Beth Bollinger (00:17:23) - Okay, most whey protein powders are powdery. Yes. Okay. So that's why go away.
*Sarah Milken * (00:17:29) - Yeah okay. So so the goat milk is different now. Just go away. Have some of the kind of inflammatory stuff that regular way people talk about regular whey potentially having.
Beth Bollinger (00:17:43) - Goat weight is very well tolerated, very easily digested, very bioavailable. Yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (00:17:49) - Got it. And does it taste the same as the other ones?
Beth Bollinger (00:17:53) - I've never tasted a cow whey product so I couldn't tell you, you know the difference between the two. But we buy the plain and the vanilla because my husband can taste that little bit of goat in the goat way, and which I don't mind. So he he prefers the vanilla.
*Sarah Milken * (00:18:12) - Oh, interesting. Okay. And so what would be an application for him or you using that goat way powder. So you, would you add that to your breakfast bowl or was that part of the list.
Beth Bollinger (00:18:24) - That's part of the list. Yeah. So I because the yogurt that I'm consuming is lower in protein than a Greek yogurt, I'll add a scoop of the goat way into me.
*Sarah Milken * (00:18:32) - And how many grams of protein does it go away have?
Beth Bollinger (00:18:35) - So two scoops is 24g of protein.
*Sarah Milken * (00:18:38) - If you put two scoops of your goat way into that yogurt bowl, oh no.
*Sarah Milken * (00:18:44) - Oats concoction. Yeah. Do you get the powder to kind of really integrate with the with everything? Yes, yes. Is there a certain order it should go in? Because maybe I just am screwing up the order.
Beth Bollinger (00:18:59) - I just put the yogurt in the bottom of the bowl, dump the seeds on, dump the goat whey on, and I mix it with a do you have to.
*Sarah Milken * (00:19:05) - Add water or anything?
Beth Bollinger (00:19:07) - You know, if your yogurt is thicker, you might need to add water. A2 and goat yogurt tend to be thinner.
*Sarah Milken * (00:19:15) - So okay.
Beth Bollinger (00:19:16) - You don't have to add.
*Sarah Milken * (00:19:17) - Now what brand of goat way powder do you like?
Beth Bollinger (00:19:20) - I really like Mount Capra. It's straight from the farm. It's a small family farm.
*Sarah Milken * (00:19:26) - Oh, okay. So it's not like an Amazon ticket. Yeah, okay. I do.
Beth Bollinger (00:19:31) - Have a coupon if people want to try and I.
*Sarah Milken * (00:19:33) - Can. Okay. Amazing. Amazing. Okay, so tell us, with this kind of health lifestyle that you're living, you know, where health comes first.
*Sarah Milken * (00:19:45) - One of the things that I read about on your Instagram and your website is how we, our bodies, need plants and need the plant diversity. I almost fell over when you said 30 because I was like, shit, do I hit three in a week and you're talking about 30? Tell us why we need so many plants for our gut microbiome and how in God's name do we get all of that?
Speaker 3 (00:20:13) - On.
Beth Bollinger (00:20:15) - Yeah. So our gut microbiome thrives on plant diversity. So for a healthy gut microbiome we need a wide variety of different plants. And by plants I mean not only vegetables and fruits but herbs spices nuts seeds. And a good goal would be 30 different plants a week, including fermented vegetables, fermented fermented foods. the average American, I think I read eats 3 to 5 different plants a week, most of them being, lettuce, tomato and potatoes, like, in the form of French fries. So.
*Sarah Milken * (00:20:54) - Or on In-N-Out burger.
Beth Bollinger (00:20:56) - Exactly.
*Sarah Milken * (00:20:58) - yeah.
Beth Bollinger (00:21:00) - Yeah. So the wide variety of plant materials we can include in our diet, the happier our gut bugs will be.
*Sarah Milken * (00:21:08) - How does the average person go to the market? And where do you even start? Like, did you start out thinking like, okay, I'm just going to start out with, you know, adding three different ones a day, like how does the average person start doing something like that? Because it seems really massive.
Beth Bollinger (00:21:27) - I try to keep it simple and not necessarily force people to follow a recipe. So I do something called assembled meals. So, you know, if you think of your plate as a, you know, half of it being leafy greens or vegetables of some kind, a quarter of the plate being protein, and the other quarter being a combination of complex carbs, fermented foods, coming up with an assembled meal, can be an easy way to think about it. So for dinner, for example, decide on your protein whether that's going to be fish, red meat, chicken. You know, whatever, whatever that is. And then around that protein, pick 2 to 3 different vegetables.
Beth Bollinger (00:22:19) - And that can be a really simple dinner formula. And those. Components can be prepped on the weekend, so it's not a rush at dinnertime. So on the weekend, I might roast a chicken or cook a couple pounds of ground beef, steamed some vegetables, cut up some vegetables. So then when it comes to dinner time, you can just assemble a meal with components that you would.
*Sarah Milken * (00:22:46) - That be considered meal prep. Yeah. Or yeah, meal batching or I'm trying to think of like what the terminology would be. So do you like, do you go to the market one day or are you the type of person who's at the market five days a week? Do you know what your whole week is going to look like?
Beth Bollinger (00:23:03) - I don't really plan out specific meals I like. I kind of like variety. I know a lot of people, a lot of my clients. I will create a meal plan for them that they follow to a tee. but I like to prep components ahead of time and then just assemble a meal based on what we're feeling like having for dinner.
Beth Bollinger (00:23:27) - My freezer is stocked with frozen, regenerative raised meats and wild caught fish so I can pull from the freezer. You know, at the last minute even.
*Sarah Milken * (00:23:39) - Got it. And do you find. I mean, I know your kids. How old are your oldest?
Beth Bollinger (00:23:44) - So my oldest is almost 28.
*Sarah Milken * (00:23:47) - Okay. And then they go down to what.
Beth Bollinger (00:23:49) - 28, 25, 23 and 15.
*Sarah Milken * (00:23:52) - Okay. So you have one at home, one at home, one at home. And does he comply with I mean is he like what is this woman doing. Why do we have to eat everything perfectly? Or is he so used to it because he was young when you started.
Beth Bollinger (00:24:05) - He was he was three, I think when we sort of got into a paleo ish diet. And so he really doesn't know any different. and he likes to cook, so he will help me or.
*Sarah Milken * (00:24:19) - you know, he's adorable. I always see him on Instagram. What does he feel about it? Like when he goes out into the real world or goes to a birthday party or dinner? How does this lifestyle kind of work in with that?
Beth Bollinger (00:24:33) - You know, he eats whatever he wants when he's at a friend's house or at a birthday party or, In social situations, I let him make those decisions for himself.
Beth Bollinger (00:24:45) - You know, occasionally I'll tell me. Oh, I had a hot dog, and then I had a headache after he said, you know, I wonder if there was something in the hot dog that gave me a headache. So he he's aware, and he, can make the connections now that he's a teenager, between what he's eating and how he's feeling.
*Sarah Milken * (00:25:05) - What is the research saying? Like, once you've eliminated certain things, then can you really never have that, like accidental bite of a croissant or something like that? How does that work? Like for you guys? Is it is it a choice thing?
Beth Bollinger (00:25:21) - for me, I don't feel good if I eat sugar or if I eat grain. It gives me chest pain and connecting the dots. When I started using a continuous glucose monitor, I realized those are the things that give me a really big glucose spike. And those, for me, translate into chest pain. So it's so.
*Sarah Milken * (00:25:40) - Interesting.
Beth Bollinger (00:25:41) - Not worth it to me to eat those foods because I don't feel good.
Beth Bollinger (00:25:46) - Right? for my husband, if we're going to a friend's house and they have bread or they're making pizza or whatever, my husband will totally eat whatever is on offer. And same with my son, but I just need to be a little bit more careful because it affects how I feel.
*Sarah Milken * (00:26:02) - Got it. So do you sort of. If you're in a social situation, do you sort of like eat before you go or something? Like I try to say that to my mom. I'm like, we're having an event. I'm not sure I can like get a gluten free thing. Like, can you maybe eat something a little bite before you come so that in case I don't have something, it's hard on both ends?
Beth Bollinger (00:26:23) - Yeah, yeah. So if I'm going into a situation where I'm not sure what the food options are going to be, I'll have a handful of nuts and a hard boiled egg before I go. I'll always bring something that I can eat that other people might enjoy so that there's at least one dish that I know I can eat.
*Sarah Milken * (00:26:42) - And do you feel like it? Like it's hard with, like, social stuff and all of that, or it's just, like part of your life.
Beth Bollinger (00:26:49) - It's just a part of our life. I don't even really think about it anymore. In the beginning, it was hard. I remember taking a trip shortly after we cut grain and sugar out of our diet and landing in our destination, and we were ravenous and going to a convenience store. And, you know, a convenience stores are like they're all wheat and sugar. and so, like, the only thing that we could find in this convenience store that we could eat was like a banana and some nuts. And so that in the beginning was a little tricky to navigate, but, it's just second nature now, I don't know, are there.
*Sarah Milken * (00:27:29) - Any bars or snacks that you can recommend to people that are kind of metabolically on target that tastes pretty good, that you don't actually, you know, like a throw in your purse kind of thing where you don't have to sort of, you know, open the peanut butter jar and then make a little Tupperware like.
Beth Bollinger (00:27:49) - Like my my biggest, grab and go, go tos are nuts and salmon jerky. those are what I gravitate to. I find that most bars really are not blood sugar friendly.
*Sarah Milken * (00:28:08) - And how do you how do you manage? Like my husband was like I was eating a lot of nuts. And then suddenly I was like £5 heavier. Who knows if one had anything to do with the other. But how do you manage, like the fat content or like how much you're really eating of that supposed healthy snack? Is it like you put in a little baggie, or are you pre measuring it because he was like grabbing handfuls and it turned into like a thing, you know.
Beth Bollinger (00:28:33) - Yeah. So when I take nuts to go it'll be in a, you know in a snack size baggie or in a, you know in a small container.
*Sarah Milken * (00:28:41) - Got it. Okay. Because I just feel like for me, without having some kind of bar or something, I, I eat the I don't even know if it's that good for you, but like the chomps.
*Sarah Milken * (00:28:54) - Oh, yeah, it says it's clean. Those are great. and though each of those has ten grams, I'm not sure how healthy it is to eat. I don't know is jerky. It reminds me of a hot dog a little bit. You know what I mean? An amalgamation of something.
Beth Bollinger (00:29:13) - Those are super clean. And Paleo Valley makes good one. but yes, I think those are a better option than a protein bar because most protein bars are just loaded with sugar, okay. And and very little protein now.
*Sarah Milken * (00:29:25) - So for blood sugar, obviously blood sugar is like the bane of a lot of our existences. Social media is all over it being metabolically flexible. Now with all of these GLP ones and people saying like, oh, I'm not just taking them to lose weight, it's controlling my blood sugar too, and metformin and all these things. How it seems like such a large and daunting task. You know, as a midlife woman, you're like, okay, I need to cut back on sugar.
*Sarah Milken * (00:29:55) - I need to cut back on grains. I need to cut back, you know, all of these things. How have you taught your clients to instead of kind of seeing it as this, like imposition or let's hope, fucking hard or I don't want to give this up. Like, what's the mindset to kind of adopt it as a lifestyle rather than a diet?
Beth Bollinger (00:30:18) - I think it's important to think about how you want to age. How? Strong you want to be as you get older. because that helps you to prioritize the protein. and that's a good first step, is prioritizing the protein. If you can get to 30g of protein at breakfast to start your day, you're going to have better energy, better mood. it's going to keep you satiated longer. it's going to help you build and keep muscle as you age. So baby steps, I would say, starting starting with nailing the protein.
*Sarah Milken * (00:30:58) - Now do you intermittent fast.
Beth Bollinger (00:31:01) - I do.
*Sarah Milken * (00:31:02) - I do. So what's your window?
Beth Bollinger (00:31:04) - So I usually eat, in a, a ten hour window, and then I fast for 14 hours.
Beth Bollinger (00:31:10) - And that just seems to work well for me. Some people can go 16 hours. and I will occasionally. But 14 seems to be the key.
*Sarah Milken * (00:31:20) - I find sometimes with the fasting, like it's hard for me to get all that protein and all those meals into the time frame without feeling like I'm exploding.
Beth Bollinger (00:31:31) - Oh, yeah. Yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (00:31:33) - So do you feel like you're so like, what are your meal times in that ten hour window?
Beth Bollinger (00:31:38) - So, lately I've been breaking my fast around 11. Okay. and then I'll eat lunch around 230 and then dinner around 630, something like that.
*Sarah Milken * (00:31:50) - And do you work out fasting?
Beth Bollinger (00:31:54) - Yes, yes, I'll have in my tea in the morning. I'll have creatine and collagen and that'll be before I work out.
*Sarah Milken * (00:32:03) - Got it. Okay. And so you put the creatine powder sort of like I do my oatmeal. And do you. How many grams do you use.
Beth Bollinger (00:32:10) - Five grams.
*Sarah Milken * (00:32:11) - Of. Is there a particular brand that you're obsessed with? I really.
Beth Bollinger (00:32:15) - Like Thorne.
*Sarah Milken * (00:32:16) - Okay. It's my favorite. Do mine doesn't really have a taste. I think mine's momentous. Mine doesn't really have a taste. And you know, when people say to you, well, is that working? Like, how does that making you feel? I take so many things, Beth. I'm like, I don't know. You know what I mean? Like, how could I how could I just narrow it down to like, oh, yeah, I'm taking this omega three and it's making me feel amazing. I'm taking 35,000 things. Anything in your regimen where you like absolutely know for sure this thing is working or you couldn't do that? well.
Beth Bollinger (00:32:51) - I do blood tests, you know, every six months. So I know what my nutrient levels are, and I know my omega three to my omega six ratio. And I know, you know, I know if I'm on track with my nutrients.
*Sarah Milken * (00:33:04) - But there's nothing that you take on the daily where you're like, oh, if I don't take that for two weeks, I'm going to feel like shit.
*Sarah Milken * (00:33:10) - You know? Like we're all looking for those secrets of, like, what's best little secret.
Beth Bollinger (00:33:17) - you know, when I travel, I don't necessarily take my creatine and my collagen with me. No. I don't think there's. I think it's just being consistent with my protein and my fermented foods. Keeps my gut happy. I think that's what I would say. Being consistent with protein, fiber and fermented foods, that's what we.
*Sarah Milken * (00:33:38) - Have to talk about the fermented foods. Because to be honest, it like kind of grosses me out. I'm like sauerkraut. What? Like, what are you talking about? Why do we need fermented foods? And what's an easy way of incorporating that? That doesn't sound sauerkraut. We.
Beth Bollinger (00:33:56) - I think the easiest way to for people to start with fermented foods is maybe apple cider vinegar.
*Sarah Milken * (00:34:01) - Oh, okay. That's tolerable.
Beth Bollinger (00:34:03) - Yeah. That's tolerable. And you can make a yummy drink with glass of filtered water, tablespoon apple cider vinegar, some basil seeds, a couple drops of stevia.
Beth Bollinger (00:34:13) - And it's almost like a, I don't know, like a fun drink.
*Sarah Milken * (00:34:17) - So is that instead of sauerkraut? Yes. Oh my God, we're best friends now. Oh my God, we're such best friends because I, I'm like, I can't eat certain things that are like, I don't know. Yeah. People are like, eat pickled whatever. And I'm thinking, I don't know what you're talking.
Beth Bollinger (00:34:34) - Oh that's good. That's a good starter. Fermented food for you okay.
*Sarah Milken * (00:34:39) - Oh my God.
Beth Bollinger (00:34:40) - Another good one. Miso.
*Sarah Milken * (00:34:41) - Is miso okay. But is that miso that you make or you're saying like at a restaurant in a Japanese soup?
Beth Bollinger (00:34:49) - Yeah. You can have it in, in soup form. or you can make a nice glaze for fish or, you know.
*Sarah Milken * (00:34:57) - You and you and I are going to become really good friends here. because I need some of these secret tricks. Because there's certain things I don't know how to make and certain, like, I don't know, there's certain textures of foods that, like, are weird to me.
*Sarah Milken * (00:35:11) - Like, I don't eat fruit salad because I don't like all the fruits touching. But if each fruit is dry, I can eat it because then even if they're touching, they're not seeping into each other. But I don't feel that way about cooked vegetables or sauteed vegetables. It's just the fruit in terms of the protein. Let's get back to that for a second, because protein stresses me out too, because there's so much information out there. Like that's not like collagen is not a complete, complete protein. And, you know, beef protein is better for you than plant protein. Like, can you break that down for us? Because I don't know what I'm doing. What's counting towards the protein number is my plant protein in my oatmeal counting towards the real protein number as if I was eating a piece of chicken or not really.
Beth Bollinger (00:36:00) - Well, animal protein is the most bioavailable and the most complete protein you. I think it's a good idea to get a wide variety of protein, from a wide variety of sources.
Beth Bollinger (00:36:13) - And I know people say collagen is not a complete protein, but as long as you're having animal protein, other sources of protein, you know, it all counts.
*Sarah Milken * (00:36:23) - Okay. Yeah. Because, like, I'm drinking this coffee right now that I didn't have earlier, and I throw the collagen in there because I was like, that's ten grams, you know? But then some people would be like, that's not really ten grams because it's not a complete protein. Like, oh my God, what should I put a pepperoni stick in there?
Beth Bollinger (00:36:41) - Like so it all counts. It all, it all counts.
*Sarah Milken * (00:36:45) - Now do you try to use so in your mind you would use the goat weigh over a plant protein?
Beth Bollinger (00:36:54) - I would yes.
*Sarah Milken * (00:36:55) - Okay. Like in an ideal. In an ideal scenario.
Beth Bollinger (00:36:58) - Exactly. Exactly. Because it's a complete protein. It's a great source of leucine. Yes.
*Sarah Milken * (00:37:02) - Okay. Now in terms of going back to the collagen for a second, I use a particular brand of collagen. I don't find that any brand is different from the other.
*Sarah Milken * (00:37:13) - My hair is not growing like a maiden, you know, like, my nails aren't perfect. Whatever. But I take it because it says, you know, life says to take it. But I saw on your Instagram that there was a certain, collagen protein that you like because it had two specific elements in it. I could not possibly remember what they are. It was four to something. Can you tell me about that?
Beth Bollinger (00:37:37) - So it's a it's a patented, formula that's supposed to be for the bone. I, you know, it's it's a patented formula that's supposed to be good for bone. Okay. parasol and Florida gel are supposed to be good for collagen and skin. Hair and nails.
*Sarah Milken * (00:37:57) - Okay, wait. What brand was that again?
Beth Bollinger (00:37:59) - It's, designs for health. Okay.
*Sarah Milken * (00:38:01) - Oh, I have a lot of stuff from them, actually, I feel like I should have. I feel like I should have a, like, a membership there or something. I'm like, oh my God.
*Sarah Milken * (00:38:12) - Now let's talk about sweeteners for a second. There is so much information out there on sweeteners I could lose my mind. I know that you have a lot of experience with it and know a lot of the research, and you're actually doing a lot of the experiments in your kitchen with all the amazing desserts that you're showing. Tell us like what's good, what's bad, and what's ideal and how to use them.
Beth Bollinger (00:38:37) - Okay, so the three best sweeteners for blood sugar that are also considered healthy sweeteners would be allulose. And there's this is such a weird word.
*Sarah Milken * (00:38:48) - Will you spell that.
Beth Bollinger (00:38:50) - A l l l o s.
*Sarah Milken * (00:38:52) - E? Okay, I learned about that for the first time on. Your Instagram. I purchased it, I haven't used it yet though. You and I are going to talk about that along with the, you know, apple cider elixir drink. Okay.
Beth Bollinger (00:39:04) - These are showing that Allulose is actually good for metabolic health. So not only is it a good sugar replacer, but it's actually good for you.
Beth Bollinger (00:39:13) - Good for your, good for your metabolic health.
*Sarah Milken * (00:39:16) - So does that mean that brownies don't count as calories if you use it?
Beth Bollinger (00:39:21) - Well, there's still going to be calories. But the way I make them, they can be protein. Nutrient dense. Yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (00:39:28) - Wow. Okay. Keep going.
Beth Bollinger (00:39:30) - so then the second one would be monk fruit. monk fruit sweetener. and then the third one that I is also blood sugar friendly would be stevia. Pure stevia.
*Sarah Milken * (00:39:41) - What are the ones we don't want? We don't want high fructose corn syrup.
Beth Bollinger (00:39:45) - High fructose corn syrup, sugar alcohols, aspartame, saccharin, malted tall brown rice syrup, 100 other names for. Okay.
*Sarah Milken * (00:39:56) - Yeah. And but and you also use maple syrup and dates, which still is sugar, but it's just a is it like a, like if you were going to compare among fruit or a stevia, those don't have calories were a syrup and a date do have calories.
Beth Bollinger (00:40:13) - Exactly.
*Sarah Milken * (00:40:13) - So one would you use either like what's the instance for either category?
Beth Bollinger (00:40:20) - I usually give options in recipes for, a sweetener like monk fruit, allulose and stevia, or an option for dates, maple syrup and honey.
Beth Bollinger (00:40:30) - Because some people don't want to use the sweeteners, they only want to use the natural sugars. The natural sugars in combination with fat, fiber, and protein can produce a level glucose response. And so that's why I give those options. So, they do contain calories. They will raise your blood sugar by themselves. But in combination in a recipe, for example, you can make them blood sugar friendly in combination with other ingredients.
*Sarah Milken * (00:41:01) - So if you make Beth's cookies, the salted caramel cookies or whatever, and you, you make one version that's with dates or syrup and one version with, one of the other three, the allulose or whatever. Number one. Can you taste the difference in number two? Is there one that you would just pick? I mean, would you pick the one that was calorie free just because that would make sense?
Beth Bollinger (00:41:29) - I guess it depends what your goals are. If your goal is blood sugar balance and, lower calorie, then I would always choose monk fruit and stevia.
*Sarah Milken * (00:41:40) - Okay.
*Sarah Milken * (00:41:41) - If you were to make cookies and one was with the calorie free versions and one was with the dates in the maple syrup, like, why wouldn't you always sort of choose the calorie free one? Because then you could eat more. Are you saying it's just like, in what instance would you do that in your house if picking one over the other?
Beth Bollinger (00:41:58) - Well, so if I'm making something for my son to take to school, he usually prefers maple syrup or honey over monk fruit.
*Sarah Milken * (00:42:09) - because he can, he can sort of taste the difference.
Beth Bollinger (00:42:12) - He can sort of taste the difference. Yeah. And I think it's also more normal for the other kids.
*Sarah Milken * (00:42:19) - I think I get it. That makes sense now in terms of cooking. Like, I mean, to me that all of it sounds stressful. I know that on your website, you talk about all these different kinds of pans that you can use because of the chemicals. Can you kind of give us like a quick snapshot? I know that sometimes I go into Amazon, I try to buy it's like called a green pan or something.
*Sarah Milken * (00:42:42) - And then when I go to cook a sausage in it or something, it like it's not as non-stick as the shitty ones and it stresses me out, like, how do I deal with that?
Beth Bollinger (00:42:55) - My my go to is cast iron. So I really Staub or enameled cast iron and they're just indestructible and I can cook really anything.
*Sarah Milken * (00:43:07) - So do you wait. Is cast iron the one you don't use oil in?
Beth Bollinger (00:43:12) - No. You can use.
*Sarah Milken * (00:43:12) - Oil. Yeah. Oh you can. Yeah. Okay. And then how do you what are the rules for it. Like do you have to clean it in a specific way. I feel like there's some kind of. Yeah.
Beth Bollinger (00:43:22) - Enameled cast iron. You can clean it just as normal. You can, you know, a couple drops of soap and a, you know, a brush. And with water, it cleans.
*Sarah Milken * (00:43:32) - So that's different than, like, the seasoned cast iron.
Beth Bollinger (00:43:36) - Exactly.
*Sarah Milken * (00:43:37) - Okay. Because that can. So if you if somebody just wanted like in every day all purpose okay I'm making the Trader Joe's chicken sausage this morning.
*Sarah Milken * (00:43:47) - And I don't want a 17 hour cleaning of the pan project. What is that pan?
Beth Bollinger (00:43:53) - That is my Staub skillet.
*Sarah Milken * (00:43:56) - Yeah, and it's called the enameled skillet because I need to buy one of those immediately.
Beth Bollinger (00:44:01) - Enameled cast.
*Sarah Milken * (00:44:02) - Iron. And are there any other tricks like that that we that we should know about, like in terms of the pans and pots.
Beth Bollinger (00:44:09) - For the ceramic pans, the green pans, you know, I, I own a couple of them, but they're finicky. You can't go over a certain I know, you know, they get ruined really easily. you have to use them on very low heat. That's. I know.
*Sarah Milken * (00:44:25) - And then like, you're like, why isn't this cooking? Hurry up, I gotta go.
Beth Bollinger (00:44:29) - Yeah, yeah. So those are frustrating.
*Sarah Milken * (00:44:32) - Okay, so you use the cast iron most of the time in terms of oils, like, I know I even though I don't, I'm not a cook. I do know that you can't use olive oil at high heat.
*Sarah Milken * (00:44:42) - So what instances do you use olive oil.
Beth Bollinger (00:44:46) - Olive oil can be used safely up to 425 450 it's.
*Sarah Milken * (00:44:52) - So is that a myth?
Beth Bollinger (00:44:53) - It is a myth. It is a myth, yes.
*Sarah Milken * (00:44:56) - So, like, you can saute something in olive oil and you're not going to make it go bad. It's interesting. So then what's all this push about using avocado oil? Because it is a higher smoke point. I don't even know.
Beth Bollinger (00:45:11) - Yeah. I mean, avocado oil is great too. I use them both. I also use ghee. Tallow. And coconut oil. Those are. Those are all the ones that I use.
*Sarah Milken * (00:45:23) - So how do you pick like on the average, you know, like I go and get the avocado oil spray. I can't even remember the brand. Like what's your go to everyday oil.
Beth Bollinger (00:45:34) - Olive oil.
*Sarah Milken * (00:45:35) - Olive oil okay. And is it the extra virgin. And like what brand. Because they say that even if you go on the market and you buy the $42 one, it could still be shitty.
Beth Bollinger (00:45:45) - Yeah. There was a UC Davis study that showed that a lot of olive oils on the market are cut with other oils like caramel. So I there's a farm here in Sebastopol, in Sonoma County. It's Gold Ridge Farm, so I use their olive oil. La Conoco is a really good brand. I use their olive oil. so those are my two go to.
*Sarah Milken * (00:46:08) - Okay. And then what is there a specific avocado oil or is avocado oil more run of the mill?
Beth Bollinger (00:46:14) - it's a little more run of the mill. Chosen Foods, I can think of thrive market makes a good avocado oil.
*Sarah Milken * (00:46:24) - And in terms of, like, I see these amazing recipes on your Instagram and I'm like, could I really make that? That looks really hard. It has so many elements to it. How do you for your clients and like you create these meal plans? Like how do you make it easy for like someone like me? You know, I'm sure a lot of your people are people like you who have great experience in cooking.
*Sarah Milken * (00:46:48) - But for like, the average person is like you're making some kind of Chilean sea bass or cod. And I'm looking at that and going, mine is not going to taste like hers.
Beth Bollinger (00:46:59) - But it can, it can. You know, I take all of that into account when I'm working with someone, how many ingredients they want to cook with, how much time do they want to spend in the kitchen. I can take all of that into account. If they want completely simpler recipes, I can totally do that. I take all of that into account when I create a meal plan for people, and I can absolutely make, you know, simple.
*Sarah Milken * (00:47:24) - And even if I like, put ground chicken or ground beef in a pan, like, why is it always dry? And then I don't even want to eat it the next day. So when you say batching food, I'm thinking to myself, I don't even want to eat the chicken that I made tonight. How am I going to reheat it three days later?
Beth Bollinger (00:47:44) - Yeah, yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (00:47:46) - what's your secret?
Beth Bollinger (00:47:47) - I don't use a lot of ground chicken because you're right, it's dry. Do you, do you cook it in olive oil? Do you? You just cook it in?
*Sarah Milken * (00:47:54) - Yeah. But I it's like I'm like, I'm thinking to myself, okay, am I supposed to use one of those grind, not a grinder. The thing that kind of separates the meat in the pan. Am I not getting it sort of thin enough? Or the oils, like soaking in? I haven't mastered that yet. Where it's like, even if I just try to make something super simple like that, it's still just doesn't taste like if you made it.
Beth Bollinger (00:48:18) - what about sauces and dressings? You know, that's another thing that I teach people to on the weekend, make three different sources or dressings, and that can liven up any old vegetables or ground chicken.
*Sarah Milken * (00:48:32) - So you so if you make these sauces and let's say you, I don't know, cooked chicken over the weekend and then you go to reheat it a couple days later.
*Sarah Milken * (00:48:41) - Do you feel like it has the same.
Speaker 4 (00:48:45) - Umph.
Beth Bollinger (00:48:46) - Yeah, well, one of the things we do is roast chicken, make a, you know, the peanut dressing. That's a really popular one on my blog. And so, you know, that chicken in combination with that peanut dressing and some fresh vegetables that makes a great salad? you know, reheating something over and over is going to dry it.
*Sarah Milken * (00:49:07) - Out, right?
Beth Bollinger (00:49:08) - But using that roasted chicken in a salad where you're not having to reheat.
*Sarah Milken * (00:49:12) - It, I say, okay, because when you reheat, do you? I mean, I'm so lazy, I just reheat in the microwave and my daughter's like, that's so weird. You have to reheat in a pan. I'm like, that's like so many steps. And then we get back into the green Pan saga, you know?
Beth Bollinger (00:49:27) - Yeah, yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (00:49:29) - I'm obviously you can see I'm like, I'm trying to figure out how we could have like a routine here where it's like the same kind of 5 or 6 things over and over again, because I feel like all the variety almost creates too much anxiety.
Beth Bollinger (00:49:46) - Yeah, yeah. I hear what you're saying.
*Sarah Milken * (00:49:48) - You know, I think my husband would probably eat anything. Kind of. Yeah. my kids are a whole other story, you know? It's like, I'm I, I'm like, there's no way I'm going to create a meal that you get at an amazing Japanese restaurant that that's going to taste like that.
Beth Bollinger (00:50:06) - Nothing I make is going to rival a five star restaurant, either. Exactly.
*Sarah Milken * (00:50:12) - It's like I'm like, not every meal has to be like an entire party. You guys, let's just eat and be done with this so you don't eat sugar at all. Which is so insanely amazing to me because I could never picture that being able to maintain that. So even like the things that you make, the cookies and all that stuff on your Instagram, that's not part of your routine.
Beth Bollinger (00:50:35) - I don't eat sweets very often. No. Frequently when I make things for Instagram, they go to neighbors or my son and his friends or, you know, I like a couple squares of dark chocolate in the evening after dinner.
Beth Bollinger (00:50:49) - and that satisfies my.
*Sarah Milken * (00:50:51) - So you don't want that, like frozen yogurt with shit all on top?
Beth Bollinger (00:50:56) - Really? No.
*Sarah Milken * (00:50:57) - Oh, my God, I'm so jealous. I'm so jealous.
Beth Bollinger (00:51:01) - I would, you know, I would get I would feel bad. I would get chest pain and it's not worth it. So I have that motivator.
*Sarah Milken * (00:51:09) - Yeah, I totally I totally, totally get that now in working with your clients. Like, tell me what like a kind of coaching package looks like.
Beth Bollinger (00:51:21) - Yeah. So most people, come to me trying to figure out, a meal plan. And sometimes it's just for themselves. Sometimes it's for themselves and a spouse or partner. Sometimes it's for the whole family. they want to increase their protein. They want to increase their plant diversity, or they're, you know, looking to shed a few pounds. so I'll meet with them initially and we'll discuss likes, dislikes, allergies, how much time they want to spend cooking, all of that. And from there, I'll create a meal plan, based on all of that information.
Beth Bollinger (00:52:01) - Now, do.
*Sarah Milken * (00:52:01) - You go through the pantry with them.
Beth Bollinger (00:52:04) - If they want me to? Yes.
*Sarah Milken * (00:52:06) - Okay.
Beth Bollinger (00:52:07) - Yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (00:52:08) - And they can ask, like, can they ask you dumb questions, like about apple cider and aloes and pans and all the things?
Beth Bollinger (00:52:18) - Yes, absolutely.
*Sarah Milken * (00:52:20) - And do you in terms of just you personally, in terms of supplements like what are your like go to supplements that you take on the daily.
Beth Bollinger (00:52:29) - So I take an activated B vitamin in the morning. and I take omega three. And in the evening I take magnesium. I take a curcumin. Trying to think I do take melatonin. Vitamin D and vitamin D and K3. Yes.
*Sarah Milken * (00:52:55) - Okay, I'm trying to think of what else I take. Do you take any of, like, the esoteric ones? You know, like, I don't know all the David Sinclair ones like the NMN and all of those things? No. Okay. In terms of omega threes, which brand do you like? Because they're all kind of like stinky and gross.
Beth Bollinger (00:53:15) - Nordic Naturals. I find that you don't get that burpee fishy.
*Sarah Milken * (00:53:19) - Do you use the one that's like the two times amount? The pellets, the small pellets? It's a two times. Whatever.
Beth Bollinger (00:53:28) - it's like a gel. Like a right shape. Yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (00:53:33) - And do you take those in? So you take those in the morning.
Beth Bollinger (00:53:35) - I take them with breakfast. Yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (00:53:37) - Okay. And what about a probiotic? The probiotic thing stresses me out too, because there's so much information.
Beth Bollinger (00:53:43) - I don't find I need a probiotic.
*Sarah Milken * (00:53:45) - Oh, but you're eating 30 plants.
Beth Bollinger (00:53:47) - Plants and the fermented food, and that keeps my gut. Yeah. So I don't think like.
*Sarah Milken * (00:53:54) - Oh my gosh. I'm like, oh my God, I can't eat. I can't even relate to that. That's so crazy. Is there any like alternative modality that you do that we should know about? I don't know, sauna, cold plunge, meditation, crystals, anything kind of fun and out there.
Beth Bollinger (00:54:13) - Fun and out there. my husband's building a sauna in the basement currently, so I am looking forward to adding that to my routine.
Beth Bollinger (00:54:22) - Currently strength training three times a week. zone two exercise on alternating days so that can look like a hike with a weighted vest. a bike ride.
*Sarah Milken * (00:54:33) - I have my bestie. Bestie? You?
Beth Bollinger (00:54:36) - Yeah, yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (00:54:37) - And how many pounds is yours?
Beth Bollinger (00:54:39) - It's eight.
*Sarah Milken * (00:54:40) - Yeah, I went from 8 to 10 recently, but I do it on the treadmill in air conditioning because then I don't have to wash my hair.
Beth Bollinger (00:54:49) - Right? Right.
*Sarah Milken * (00:54:50) - So tell me. So tell me what the week is. Three days a week. You're strength training. Are you going to the gym or is that in your house?
Beth Bollinger (00:54:57) - I work with a personal trainer on Tuesdays, and then Thursday and Saturday is strength training in our gym in the basement.
*Sarah Milken * (00:55:04) - Okay. Got it. Okay. And do you lift heavy? Yes. Yeah. Okay. And how do you kind of keep know knowing where you're at and like if you're increasing at the right rate and all of that stuff.
Beth Bollinger (00:55:18) - Yeah. So I kind of leave that up to the personal trainer.
Beth Bollinger (00:55:22) - She's always increasing the weight. and then I also keep track. I have a scale at home that measures percentage of muscle. And so I just want to make sure that I'm always keeping up with my muscle and not not losing muscle.
*Sarah Milken * (00:55:40) - Machine. Do you use my. My son has one. I can't remember which one he has.
Beth Bollinger (00:55:44) - Brand is Omron, in, Omron 4K scanner.
*Sarah Milken * (00:55:52) - Okay. And it tells you your kind of body fat to muscle ratio, because I think that that it's a big topic right now because of the GLP one medications where a lot of people are losing weight and losing muscle mass, but they don't really 100% know that because they're just looking at the scale number versus the percentages.
Beth Bollinger (00:56:13) - Exactly. It's important to to keep an eye on the percentage on the the amount of muscle that you're building.
*Sarah Milken * (00:56:20) - Okay. And in terms of water, I know water is a big deal for you. And everyone talks about water. How much water do you drink? Do you drink a plain? Do you put salt in it? Do you put lemon in it? Do you put hydration powders in it? This is Beth's brain day.
Beth Bollinger (00:56:36) - So a good rule of thumb is to drink half your body weight in ounces of water every day. And I would include herbal tea and green tea in that number sometimes I'll add. Salt and lemon. Sometimes just lemon, sometimes sparkling water. It all counts toward that number. Half your body weight.
*Sarah Milken * (00:56:59) - Do you have to peel the time?
Beth Bollinger (00:57:01) - Oh, probably. Yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (00:57:03) - Yeah. Oh my God. Honestly, yesterday I went into a store and I had to pee when I walked in. I had to pee in the middle. And then I was like, okay, I have one more last pee before I leave because I had just had an entire bottle of water with powder in it. And I'm like, this is so annoying. But then I keep reminding myself, okay, hydrating from within, hydrating from within, you know, my skin and blah blah blah. It's hard or and I and I don't want to drink when I'm on the plane because having to climb over my husband or other people and go into that gross bathroom.
Beth Bollinger (00:57:35) - I know, I know well, I always choose an aisle seat on the plane and I.
*Sarah Milken * (00:57:40) - You know, I just I hate the bathroom, though. It's so gross. It's like, oh, I just don't want to touch anything. Be in there like, yeah. and in terms of your weight, what do you call the no frailty plan?
Beth Bollinger (00:57:55) - Oh, my anti frailty plan.
*Sarah Milken * (00:57:57) - Yeah. So your anti frailty plan is to ski until you're how old.
Beth Bollinger (00:58:01) - well, my original post, I said 80 and people told me that was a way too young that I.
*Sarah Milken * (00:58:07) - Oh that's good.
Beth Bollinger (00:58:08) - So that was good to hear to 100.
*Sarah Milken * (00:58:11) - Yeah.
Beth Bollinger (00:58:11) - I've never known anybody to ski past you know, 75. So I thought 80 was a good goal. But people said no, no shoot for shoot for 9100.
*Sarah Milken * (00:58:20) - So okay. So of all the things you do. Yeah. Like what is there one thing that you think is the most important or.
Beth Bollinger (00:58:29) - No I would say two. And that's protein intake and lifting heavy.
*Sarah Milken * (00:58:35) - Wow. Those are the two most annoying. Beth.
Beth Bollinger (00:58:40) - I know, I'm sorry.
*Sarah Milken * (00:58:41) - You know, it's like you want someone to give you some other answer. You know what I mean? But you know, deep down that that's the answer. And they're they're weirdly hard. That's why I called them the dumb weights. It's like it's it's just not as easy as, like, walking on a treadmill.
Beth Bollinger (00:58:56) - I know, I know, and I did my wits this morning.
*Sarah Milken * (00:59:00) - You did. I didn't because I was recording another podcast before this, and there's no way I'm diving into that later. So that means it's like it's done. It's literally done for the day. Your husband does it all too, right?
Beth Bollinger (00:59:12) - He does, he does. He plays hockey, ice hockey two days a week, and he works with a personal trainer one day. And then he's either bike riding with me or hiking with me, and then he uses our gym in the basement, too.
*Sarah Milken * (00:59:24) - And how do you measure this VO2 max? I know Peter Attia and all these people are talking about it.
*Sarah Milken * (00:59:30) - I've never measured mine. Have you measured yours? like the VO2 max? Really?
Beth Bollinger (00:59:37) - I just use the sort of loose guideline of working out to. You can not talk comfortably. That's kind of like. Hahahahaha. Zone two. My definition of a zone two is, you know, you're working hard enough that you can't talk comfortably anymore.
*Sarah Milken * (00:59:55) - So would that. And it would an example of that be you're wearing your £8 vest and you're hiking with your husband. Can you talk comfortably?
Beth Bollinger (01:00:04) - if it's uphill? Not necessarily. You know, that uphill.
*Sarah Milken * (01:00:07) - So how often are you doing the not talk comfortably thing in a week?
Beth Bollinger (01:00:12) - It's ideally you want to do 2 to 3 sessions a week basically.
*Sarah Milken * (01:00:18) - Now, do you feel like because your life is all about your health and your business is all about your health, that like it's all this sort of big, conflate, like conflated thing where I don't know how to explain it? It's sort of like your lifestyle is also your business. So it's like if you're cooking for your family, you're also cooking for Instagram and for your business.
*Sarah Milken * (01:00:43) - So it's kind of cool that it's all in one, because you could conceivably be, quote, working all day and you're in VO2 Max, but you're filming it for your Instagram.
Beth Bollinger (01:00:57) - Oh yeah. And my, my family always said, you know. And that's why I rarely share dinner because they want me to be done working. By the time, you know, my husband gets home, my son's home from school and they want to sit down and have dinner as a family and mom, no more working. Don't take pictures of the dinner. So that's why I have very few pictures of dinner.
*Sarah Milken * (01:01:16) - That's really funny. Now, before we wrap up, I can't help but ask this. You know, obviously when you start something and then it turns into 100,000 followers and all the things, there's, you know, women at home and like myself who are like, oh my God, how did she do that? Like, how did she get it? So big so quickly? And I know that it's not all about metrics, but like, how did you how did you start this? Were you scared and how do you keep going?
Beth Bollinger (01:01:48) - I'm scared every day, and I just keep going.
Beth Bollinger (01:01:52) - I started it because I wanted to share while I was sharing the recipes with my husband's patients, and I wanted to share more widely. So I created a website. and I also wanted to have all those recipes in one place for my kids. I guess each step of the way just built on. That idea of sharing my love of healthy food, wanting people to feel better. it was such a revelation to me that food affected the way I felt, affected my health, that I wanted to share that. So I guess just every step of the way, I just followed my passion. I realized in order for people to want to make the food, the recipes, they needed to look good. So I studied food photography and then I needed a way to share more widely. So I learned Instagram. I learned something new every day, and that's a part of it for me. I had to learn how to build a website. I had to learn what SEO meant. I know it just sort of evolved and I learned something new every single day.
Beth Bollinger (01:02:57) - And I am so passionate about food as medicine that that's kind of what drives me.
*Sarah Milken * (01:03:05) - And how did you kind of figure out the Instagram secret? Like, how did you get so many followers in such a short period of time and so much engagement? People ask me that and I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about, but okay, yeah, I'm.
Beth Bollinger (01:03:20) - Not really sure. I just try to share what people are asking me about. I get a lot of questions in my DMs and I try to answer them all. and then I base my content around all of the things that people are asking me all the time. I used to do all still photography, and when Instagram pivoted to reels, I tried to pivot to. And so, usually 2 to 3 reels a week and then one static post a week is what I shoot for.
*Sarah Milken * (01:03:51) - And do you find that stressful?
Beth Bollinger (01:03:54) - I do, and some weeks it's more stressful than others. last week I just was not motivated and just wasn't feeling it.
*Sarah Milken * (01:04:05) - Now, what do you do on those days? Because I feel like that's something that I ask a lot of guests, like those days and weeks. We were like, I'm just going to burn the house down. I can't do this for one more minute. This is so hard. Like, how do you get do you just sit in it? Like, how do you get yourself back in the game? Or you kind of just wait it out?
Beth Bollinger (01:04:23) - Those are the days that I'll repurpose content. I'll repost a reel from two years ago. And honestly, those are the ones that have gone viral for me. Is two year old real, you know, with a brand new voice over brand new music and suddenly people like it this time. So I don't know what that's about, but most of the time I just try to take a break. and that's why I'll repurpose old content so I can go write.
*Sarah Milken * (01:04:51) - Who's your main audience? Would you say?
Beth Bollinger (01:04:55) - my main audience is women, 35 to 70.
Beth Bollinger (01:05:00) - perimenopause, menopause. that and people newly diagnosed with pre-diabetes, people wanting to feel better.
*Sarah Milken * (01:05:11) - And are people finding you through reels where how are they finding you?
Beth Bollinger (01:05:16) - I think they're finding me one through the levels app. They're about 100 of my recipes on the levels health app.
*Sarah Milken * (01:05:24) - Tell us what levels app is.
Beth Bollinger (01:05:26) - So Levels Health is an app that works in conjunction with a continuous glucose monitor. So you can log your food. You can take pictures of your meals. There's a whole section in the app that has recipes. So about 100 of my recipes live in that app. So a lot of people find me that way. and then through reels, I think, and word of mouth, I think a lot of people share, with their friends, especially if they know someone with a new pre-diabetes diagnosis. They find me that way.
*Sarah Milken * (01:05:59) - Got it. Yeah. Because, I mean, I feel like the reason I also wanted you on the podcast, not just for my own selfish reasons of wanting to pick your brain and share all the information, but it's also, I think we have very similar demographics.
*Sarah Milken * (01:06:11) - It's women who are seeking. You know, kind of more nuanced health information rather than just drink more water. You know, there's there's a lot of things that we know to do, but we don't actually do them. And I think sometimes having conversations with people who bring, you know, a different perspective, a different edge to it, like one idea can kind of just change your mindset about something. Before we wrap up, I want you to tell people how they can find you, where they can find you, and all the things.
Beth Bollinger (01:06:46) - So my website is where all of my recipes live and that's Nest wellness.com. you can find me on Instagram at Nest Wellness Underscore.
*Sarah Milken * (01:06:57) - And tell us where we can find your product that I'm going to try myself and report back. So,
Beth Bollinger (01:07:04) - I launched the notes in in collaboration with Amy of Whitley's granola. So witnesses.com is where you'll find the notes. It's w I teases.com okay.
*Sarah Milken * (01:07:19) - So we can find your product. We can find your website. We can find your Instagram.
*Sarah Milken * (01:07:24) - I'm so happy you came on this podcast. I'm so glad that now I can pick your brain for all these secret hacks and I don't have to eat sauerkraut. I've been toying with the continuous glucose monitor thing, the idea of it for the past year, but I'm also one of those weird people. Like I don't weigh myself, so sometimes when it's a slippery slope for me, I never have, with monitoring because I'm just like, am I going to become, like, weirdly obsessed with it? but I feel like maybe if I just gave myself a month just to understand, like what my oatmeal science experiments doing to me, or, you know, all these things.
Beth Bollinger (01:08:05) - Even one month will give you tons of information, and it's it's it's worth doing. And and I can give you a coupon to share with.
*Sarah Milken * (01:08:14) - Your okay and does it and it'll, it'll like because you're because another thing that you did mention after I just wrapped up this episode because I'm such a lunatic, is you didn't mention that on your glucose monitor.
*Sarah Milken * (01:08:27) - It like, if even if you're just stressed, dehydrated or tired, it can spike your blood sugar. So how do you know what's food related and what's. I only slept for six hours.
Beth Bollinger (01:08:41) - Your glucose is always going to be higher if you didn't sleep well, if, you know, you'll be able to see on the app your response to food because you log when you ate that food. And so the time two hours after you eat, that's going to be your response to food. If you sauna increases your blood glucose. So you might see a spike from sauna, extreme exercise. When you're releasing glycogen stores, that's going to raise your glucose. So you'll be able to see on the app your response, you know.
*Sarah Milken * (01:09:18) - So you actually have to type in when you ate, when you exercised, when you did the sauna. Otherwise you have no idea what relates to what.
Beth Bollinger (01:09:27) - Exactly.
*Sarah Milken * (01:09:28) - Okay, I got it. Makes sense.
Beth Bollinger (01:09:30) - Even one month of doing that, you'll get a pretty good picture of.
*Sarah Milken * (01:09:34) - What an amazing summer project. Beth, that's so sexy, isn't it? Midlife midlife continuous glucose monitor. But I saw in one of your posts that you wear it on your stomach sometimes.
Beth Bollinger (01:09:47) - You can, you can? Yes, I prefer it on my arm. It's just more out of the way. I found that it rubbed on the waistband of my clothes.
*Sarah Milken * (01:09:55) - Oh, because I'm thinking like, oh my god, in summer it would be so nice to like, have it tucked away, but I didn't. I guess it depends on how it rubs on what you're wearing on the bottom.
Beth Bollinger (01:10:04) - Yeah, yeah.
*Sarah Milken * (01:10:05) - And the arm thing, it's like if you're wearing a sleeveless thing you're like, oh, here's the glucose monitor. Not that it's a big deal because so many people are wearing them, but I'd be the person with like the tan line that look like a bull's eye. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:10:17) - Yeah.
Beth Bollinger (01:10:18) - Well switch arms every, you know.
*Sarah Milken * (01:10:20) - Just have like, glucose tan lines all over my body.
*Sarah Milken * (01:10:25) - Oh my God, I love it. Okay, I'm wrapping this up. I love talking to you. Thank you so much for being here. We'll talk soon.
Beth Bollinger (01:10:34) - All right. Take care.
*Sarah Milken * (01:10:35) - Hey, peeps, it's me again. I listen to this episode with holistic health and nutrition expert Beth Bolinger from Nest Wellness. So I could summarize the golden nuggets for you to have actionable items to start using today. I know that when I listen to a long episode, my midlife brain is like, oh my God, I fucking love that. And now I can't even remember the specifics. This is why I come back and do a golden nugget. Summary. In this episode, we dig deep with our golden shit shovels in a conversation about overcoming health challenges through dietary changes and a lot of discussion around blood sugar, insulin resistance, adding more protein to the midlife diet and the dumb weights. Yup yup yup. Beth talks about her anti frailty program, where she basically wants to ski until she's 100. Golden nugget number one.
*Sarah Milken * (01:11:26) - Trial and error. Beth's journey is unique in the sense that she stumbled into health and wellness as a way to heal herself when there was no obvious healing path given to her by doctors. She had a heart condition that caused chest pains and started by cutting out sugar and increasing magnesium and her hydration to see if she can make an impact on her symptoms. Fast forward to her husband's, what she calls dad bod, her daughter's antibiotic related health issues, and some surface level advice from a doctor. And she was back to seeing food as medicine for her and her family. It took a lot of trial and error, including wearing a continuous glucose monitor and studying how she and her family felt with and without certain ingredients in foods. But she landed on a grain free, sugar free diet for her family and her, and they're all feeling super well and super healthy. She's not about extremes. You don't have to do exactly what she's doing, but Beth gives very specific advice on things that we can try, and it's all about finding what works for you and your family.
*Sarah Milken * (01:12:34) - Golden nugget number two assembling your meals. Organizing a meal is easier than you think. And you know I hate cooking. So Beth basically said, if you're not a recipe person, this is an easy way to think about it, she said. To fill half your plate with leafy greens or vegetables, a quarter with protein, and a quarter with complex carbs or fermented foods. This is great because if you're busy during the week but you want to stay healthy, which we all know is so fucking hard, you can prepare components on the weekend so that you aren't rushed to dinner time and tempted to order food or heat up whatever you can find in the fridge that maybe isn't the healthiest. I also love this because you aren't going to the grocery store thinking of and hunting down every ingredient for a recipe all the time, every minute, every day. Instead, you're thinking in terms of meal planning food groups, in terms of having the right nutrients for your body, and knowing that they can all go together for a balanced meal.
*Sarah Milken * (01:13:32) - And side note, peeps, she said, for the healthiest gut microbiome, we need to be eating plants, ideally 30 different kinds. I'm like, I think I ate three in a week, so we have to get creative with the leafy greens and veggies. I mean, I consider myself successful when I've had three different plants, but the truth is we need ten times that amount, not just the lettuce on your burger from In-N-Out burger. That doesn't count. It's like real vegetables. Golden nugget number three protein. Okay, guys, this one is big. Beth says that the two most important things to her are protein and lifting weights. Like the two most important things in general. You know, I always talk about the dumb and necessary weights. This is big because it's such a common theme with all my guests and experts who are on, and they're all super well educated in health, longevity, wellness, all the research protein so, so important and so impactful for our health, building muscle, feeding our brains.
*Sarah Milken * (01:14:31) - When I asked her how to make protein a natural evolution in your lifestyle, she said to think about how you want to age and how strong you want to be, and if you want to be prone to injury, all of those things, like as we get older, we need more and more protein. And once you set your mind on that goal, prioritizing protein gets easier every day, which is the first step Beth recommends, like many other experts, 30g of protein for each meal, especially starting the day off with breakfast at 30g of protein, she says. This will improve your energy and your mood, keep you satisfied for longer, and keep your blood sugar stable. Baby steps Golden nugget number four. How did she do it? I know that I get asked this question all the time, so I needed to hear the answer from another midlife woman. How did best start her Instagram and get everything going with her business? She was a stay at home mom before and now she's turned her passion into a business.
*Sarah Milken * (01:15:31) - You know, we love sharing the midlife secrets on this podcast. Her answer was simple. She said she learned it. She learned on the go. She started Instagram because she wanted a way to share her recipes that she was making for her husband and her family. She wanted to be able to share them with friends and family, and others who were interested in this carefully crafted mix of ingredients and magic recipes. She figured that social media was a good place where everyone could get the information. So she just started. She followed her passion every step of the way. She studied food photography during the pandemic because she wanted to make the reels look really appealing, and then learn social media so that people could actually find her posts and her Instagram account. She was dedicated to learning all the parts because Beth was passionate about food being medicine, and that fueled her to get into where she is and where she is right now. I love this because it's such a good reminder that it doesn't all come at once. There's no one Google answer that you will find, but many little answers along the way that you find over time.
*Sarah Milken * (01:16:37) - You keep asking. You dig. You ask another person. You might have to talk to 14 different people to get the answer that you want. It seems to be a little bit like the midlife theme if you're trying to find menopausal answers at your doctor's office, lol. That's the midlife journey. I'm still learning new things and I'm still figuring things out. I'm a few years into my podcast and finding new things every day that can be improved or implemented. It's all about iteration and iterating and iterating and always learning. The gold is dripping off these nuggets. Grab it, use it. There are three things you can do. First, subscribe to the podcast. Second, share it with some midlife friends who might like midlife shit. And third, write an Apple review. Writing reviews is really annoying. It's an extra step, but guess what? It really helps the podcast grow. You think your little review won't matter, but it does. If you went to a show and everyone said my clap doesn't matter, then there would be no clapping.
*Sarah Milken * (01:17:35) - You all matter. DM me. You know, I always respond. And of course follow my Instagram at the flexible neurotic duh. Love you talk soon.