Episode 50 — The Flexible Neurotic

Creating Juicy & “Do-able” Midlife Nutrition Habits

PART 1

Sarah Milken 0:04

Hey peeps, welcome to the flexible neurotic podcast. I'm your host Dr. 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 pump 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 wipe the menopause, sweat off my forehead, grabbed my golden shit shovel and started digging deep to all my midlife bitches. It's not just love coffee and hormones that get you through your midlife remix. It's action steps. Let's do this. Hi, peeps. This is the next episode of The flexible neurotic podcast. And I'm Dr. Sarah Milken, the flexible neurotic. Today I have a cool guest that I just met at a common friend's birthday party. We had such a fun chat about midlife colonoscopies food, new businesses, Instagram, and now I get to introduce her to you. She is a certified holistic nutritionist, health coach and behavioral change specialist known for her busy as bullshit approach to health and wellness. She's a master of healthy snacks and shows you how small shifts with minimal effort which is like my mantra can create lasting changes in your energy, weight and overall health. She's your blunt, bestie, who gets you well, she might be your second bestie hopefully I'm your first bestie and she is your bestie because she is you and she will never try to convince you that a bell pepper is a button. She's got 10 plus years of knowledge and experience dialed in and simplified for you and her better body membership app. You can also work with her one on one and her Instagram is addictive. We're going to talk about that. It's like all these short health acts and you just keep fucking watching and watching. It's like she's reading your mind. If you go to her Instagram prepare to get yourself into the Jenny Giles rabbit hole. Yep, her name is Jenny Giles. Hi, Jenny. Hi, what an awesome intro. Oh my god, I'm so happy you're here. We've already discussed how, you know we both had colonoscopies and I'm already fucking sweating because somehow I was in the wrong Zoom Room where you were whatever, but we're all here. Okay, so Jenny, I know you've listened to this podcast and I know that you have a metaphorical golden shovel. You have to

Unknown Speaker 2:42

know the metaphorical shit shovel is all these things that we know to do for ourselves for to be healthier, right like and what you said on Instagram yesterday like it's not easy. It's not

Sarah Milken 2:55

easy and why can we fucking do them? It's like how can we not create these new habits for ourselves? We keep reading about them on Instagram we keep hearing people like you talk about them. But like knowing that you have to drink fucking bone broth, but not doing and like actually doing it are two totally separate things. We have midlife body weight composition fucking muffin tops, hanging arms, armpit fat bra fat leg dimples, stretch marks and all the wrong places. Cholesterol and inflammation numbers. Oh my god. Yeah, I'm probably speaking for a lot of us. We're all thinking about these things. Many of us are stressing, trying new diets failing, getting a little obsessive or discouraged. And then there are some who have had really great small personal wins and health and fitness and healthful mindful eating. I haven't struggled with my weight my whole life, but I'll definitely say that I tried on four pairs of jeans before my two week college tour, and I was like, Oh, these aren't zipping. And I haven't had that for a while. To be honest. This is sort of like new to me. And I feel like I've grown a little bit of a muffin top. It feels a little sweaty, tired. And I don't want to eat more fucking plants Johnny. I don't like plants. So today you and I are you're

Unknown Speaker 4:15

in shitshow you got to dig into some plants.

Sarah Milken 4:18

I mean, So today you're gonna have to help us find the sweet spot in the middle of all this too skinny too heavy too mushy to cholesterol too obsessive about food and exercise not consistent enough. You know, we have to get our midlife to just enough as we are and doing the best we fucking can. And I feel like that's sort of where you sit on the spectrum of not being too obsessive in one direction or the other. So my intention for this episode is to dive deep into small hacks and changes we can make to see our bodies and minds start to change. I mean, we all know Rome wasn't built in a fucking day. So I want you behavioral specialists, holistic nutritionist to bring Get down for us. And just dive in. I mean, I know you live during this snack well phase of everything fat free just like I did. You're a real estate agent for 15 years, which was so fascinating to read that you go from real estate agent to holistic nutritionist, and you describe your experience as soul crushing. So I want you to tell us like a quick overview of where you're at how you got there, and where you are today. And then we're going to like dive deep into like Jenny hacks.

Unknown Speaker 5:32

Yeah, great. Like you said, I started in my 20s as a real estate agent, and just really focused on career and work and was fueling myself on I think, what I call the three C's at that time, which was like car like croissants, coffee, caffeine, you know, just yeah, those are my three faves. Right? Yeah. And getting through the day, which on just so much stress, right and knocking out the next thing, but it eventually led me down a path of systemic issues, that stress all the time was kind of wreaking havoc on my health. But again, like you'd said before, like, I felt fine, right? Like, I was fine. I didn't, I wasn't overweight, there was nothing that really stood out. That was a huge piece. It was just things that I deemed fine, which was I was on the verge of an ulcer, the doctor said, I have chronic sinus infections, I was exhausted headaches, my anxiety was out of control. You know, just like these things that I thought, Oh, this is just what being an adult is. And I really didn't know what to change about it. Like I said, a doctor said, you know, here's some pills, right to take on but I was from Texas. I when I you know, it was a can of green beans that had bacon in it right? Like that was there was no was it topped with steak. Like vegetables, were not something I purchased at the store, you know, whole beans cookbook was the cookbook that I had, right? That's the rules and all of that. So nothing really changed until I got pregnant. And my gynecologist was the first doctor that was like, you know, you might want to think about cleaning up your diet a little bit because all these things, you know, aren't normal how you're feeling. And it kind of I went down that rabbit hole right of just learning all about health and why I was feeling crummy. And it just kind of blossomed from there. And then I started volunteering and teaching at schools and doing all these things and starting a blog and became began writing and then that led into certification. And

Sarah Milken 7:43

so it's sort of like your midlife REMAX.

Unknown Speaker 7:45

Yep, that's awesome. Yeah. And it really like kind of one side stepped into this newer version of myself, like with a REMAX, I had stepped into a newer version of myself and real estate no longer fit for me, it was soul crushing to me in a different way, because I just didn't resonate with the same things that I used to resonate about it right, like the drive and that hustle and all of that stuff was just, you know, and was it

Sarah Milken 8:10

hard for you to give all of that up like that kind of like adrenaline rush and kind of go into those sort of more woowoo lifestyle, as I like to call it?

Unknown Speaker 8:20

I think so because it felt so part of my identity. Yeah, right. And just from my own childhood stuff, right, I lived in an anxious, driven place. That's what was comfortable for me to kind of, and I still have to today to kind of lean into another direction isn't always, you know, an easy thing that my default is high strung.

Sarah Milken 8:46

Yeah, I can totally relate to that. Because my whole life has been this like performance benchmark driven road, and then you get to midlife. And like as I've said 40,000 times it's like I was a stay at home mom and then I got the midlife issues and okay, what am I going to do now? But for a lot of us, it doesn't just fucking jump out of the sky. And you're like, oh, Sarah, Jenny, be a holistic nutritionist. Like, do a podcast like it doesn't work like that. Like how did you go from real estate agent to a holistic nutritionist? Like did you like talk to friends? Did

Unknown Speaker 9:21

you sign up for a class? Like what was your deal? I really started volunteering and learning more. So I worked with Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Yeah, long time ago, but he had a foundation. And it was all about really teaching kids, which because he was like, Look, we're all screwed. We gotta go with the younger generation because we've got to teach them how to eat actual foods, right, less processed crap, which is what I grew up with, you know, like we'd said, like, Yeah, that wasn't bagels or the answer back in the 90s. Yeah.

Sarah Milken 9:50

And then when they're not the answer, 15 minutes later, you have another one just to make yourself feel better.

Unknown Speaker 9:55

Yes. That's where it led me right to just kind of learning all of that from that foundation and then teaching in schools in that direction. But when I started doing it all for myself, because I went down this rabbit hole and deep dive, I was like, there's so much noise. There's a lot of stuff out here. And there's a lot of stuff in all directions. And I don't have time I had, I had two kids, you know, under the age of two at the time, I was like, this isn't I can't I'm not a homesteader like every all the information online, like blogs, and all these people that I was trying to learn from, I need to find a, you know, a farm down the street to go pick up my milk. And I was like, that's not a reality for me. And I need to find something that's simple. That's also keeping me healthy. So I really kind of shifted and started finding the key pieces and all of the science evidence of like, what are all these doctors really boiling it down to? What are they really telling us? Right? Because when we start looking at too much of the marketing that's out there, and what because every couple of years, they have to present something new to keep us interested in tethered into something. Yeah. And

Sarah Milken 11:01

then something new is presented. And then like a few months, or a few years later, it's like we might have been a little wrong on that. We're not sure. And I love that point. Because it's also like, there is so much noise out there. And what works for one person is not necessarily going to work for the next like I know, you and I have talked about it's like, there's a whole intermittent fasting phase. Well, that doesn't work for everyone or a lot of women are, you know, obsessed with Weight Watchers, but that doesn't work for everyone. And I think I really like your kind of non bullshit approach of finding, I think what you describe as like every single person's like their own blueprint of like, what works for their bodies, their lives, their kitchen, their skills, like your 62nd salad, I was like, Oh, I could maybe do that, even though I'm like so bad in the kitchen. And it's kind of making these things that seems so big and so hard, like more relatable, and creating these mini habits. So in your sort of clientele and in your practice, what are you seeing in terms of like forming a habit like you have a woman come to you and it's like, I have this issue this issue this issue, you put out suggestions, like how long does it take to develop a new habit?

Unknown Speaker 12:17

Well, I'll first say this, we have to start here first. And that is sometimes people come to me because they were either told to come to me by a doctor or something like that, right? Or, and then when they arrive, they're bringing me habits they want to take on that they think they should take on. And that's kind of the deep dive at the beginning. Because you can't start a habit of something you actually don't want. That's never right. Like the example I guess I use often is I am never gonna run a marathon. I don't want to run a marathon.

Sarah Milken 12:53

Oh my God, I feel like you're reading my fucking mind. I have like a sentence about that, like a note about that. I'm like, don't make me fucking run. I'm never run.

Unknown Speaker 13:03

No, I'm never gonna run. That's not a thing that's gonna happen for me. No, that's never gonna happen. That doesn't mean I'm not ever going to move my body. Right? But I have to find what moves my body works for me and back to like in my 20s like I like vowed I was never going to join a gym like I was like, I'm not into this. I even worked for Shape magazine which Marius is going to help us salad bar. And I was like, when are we going to Quiznos? Why is nobody want to go to Quiznos here, right? No, but I had to find things that work for me. Right? I like to walk. I love yoga. Right? I do beach volleyball that on the week.

Sarah Milken 13:42

Oh my god.

Unknown Speaker 13:43

It's so fun. Because it's play for me, right? This is like an active, something that I enjoy. So the client comes to me and is like, I want to, you know, all this start setting start running. It's like do you write like what's well, because

Sarah Milken 13:57

I think a lot of times we hear and read about things that have instant results, or seem to have instant results because like, let's be honest, if you're sedentary and suddenly you start running three miles a day, you're gonna lose some quick weight fast.

Unknown Speaker 14:11

Yes and no. All right, but

Sarah Milken 14:13

then it lasts for two minutes. That's the thing. It's like anything extreme that brings an immediate gratification or impact seems appealing at the time.

Unknown Speaker 14:22

It does. And the goal is and with my approach to write, I'm not trying to find something that gets somebody immediate results. I'm trying to find something that changes their lifestyle forever. Right? We're trying to find all the pieces, right? I'm a holistic nutritionist. So it means we're not just talking about food. We're talking about our body as a whole system, right? There are so many things involved with what makes a healthy body and what helps you lose weight. That isn't just what you're putting in your mouth or how many calories you're burning. Right? How much cortisol is going through your body.

Sarah Milken 14:56

You're reading my mind. Yup, that's all my list Jenny

Unknown Speaker 15:00

I love it. So yeah. For this you guys,

Sarah Milken 15:03

I know, I know. So let's talk about cortisol. And let's talk about inflammation because that's sort of like a really big deal right now. And I know a lot of the listeners know what inflammation of cortisol are, but kind of give us like the one sentence Zinger for

Unknown Speaker 15:19

each. Yeah, so cortisol is the body's main stress hormone, right? We need it for lots of reasons. But we don't want too much of it all the time, because it affects other things, especially in midlife, because when our estrogen level changes, we don't regulate cortisol as well. So I'll get inflammation. But just while we're here, one of the things that I talk to you about those of us more in the midlife range is let's talk a lot about how you're handling stress. So then, how many snacks are having, right? Because that's really going to trigger a different response in your body. Right? If you're in a sympathetic response, which is like that fight or flight,

Sarah Milken 16:04

yeah, like you're running for your life, you can't get to carpool fast enough, you forgot your socks at home, and you're going to the gym, it's, it's the worst,

Unknown Speaker 16:12

the worst is the worst. And it's normal, right? We all live these kinds of like crazy all over the place. Lives, right. But if we're in chronic fight or flight, then our body doesn't do what it's supposed to do, meaning it stops the functions that our bodies need in the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest and digest. And part of that is metabolism. When you're fighting the lion, right? Your body isn't like, you know what, we should burn those calories? No, it's like, we should store this, because we don't know what the fuck is going to happen next, right? We've got to prepare for the worst because something's going on. We shouldn't be afraid. And we need to, you know, lock it down, that in

Sarah Milken 16:52

midlife, that's like storing the fat around the middle. It is and it

Unknown Speaker 16:56

directly correlates to that. They call it like stress belly, I think there was a study at Yale, and that's what they were, you know, aiming at to whatever, because the cortisol think it's connected in some way. But just how so? It's important for us in those moments, right? When? Yes, we're running to take our son there. They outfit they forgot. Yeah.

Sarah Milken 17:19

Well, and yeah, that was me yesterday, thinking of all of

Unknown Speaker 17:23

those things, right. And I always say, and I know you want to talk about this, too, right? Yeah, habit stacking. But in that moment, when things are kind of, you're flustered, you're stressed out all of that, can you then put your car in park and take a minute to breathe and reset, we have plenty of opportunities throughout the day to reset. And we don't take advantage of that. We think Well, I just have yoga at seven. I'll just wait till yoga to relax, right? Or this weekend is when I have the thing. I'll relax then. Right? That's our programming. But if we're just like, Okay, that was really stressful. Right, she has

Sarah Milken 18:01

her hand over her chest, her eyes are closed. She's deep breathing with a beautiful plant in the background.

Unknown Speaker 18:07

Yeah, just like, simple in and out slowly. A key piece of this too, is to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. But just doing that a few times resets your nervous system, right gets you out of the fight or flight and into the rest and digest place. I love to suggest that people do this before they eat. I've seen tons of correlation between somebody thinking they're having an issue with gluten or having an issue with whatever, but they just start eating in a frantic state.

Sarah Milken 18:39

Yeah, or they're scrolling their phone or watching TV or blah, blah, blah. I mean, believe me, we're all we're all guilty of it. But I do. I do think you know, it's I had someone say to me, like, do you hold your breath a lot? And I'm like, I probably do. Like, I probably don't think about my breathing enough. Because I'm always like, Oh, fuck, I gotta take the baseball uniform. Oh, my God, I'm recording a podcast in 20 minutes is the gardener cutting the trees? And I feel like a lot of times, I'm like, oh, and I'm not breathing. And then I'm like, okay, breathing is stupid. Like, who cares? But it actually matters. All of these little things matter? Because our bodies know. Like, what's happening? When I read about this, I find it fascinating that, like, the research shows that like your body doesn't know whether like you're really having the experience or not right.

Unknown Speaker 19:31

Love that. Yeah. Because it's so true. It has no idea what's real and what's not. So we're constantly in a loop. Right? And I'm with you with that, I think was one of the first things my therapist said to me was, you know, are you breathing? And you're like, I think so. I was like, 22 or something. And I was like breathing like, what's that? You know what, you're right. Our body has no idea what isn't real, whatever we're telling it. It believes and it's the state that Yeah,

Sarah Milken 19:57

I mean, it's like they keep saying like okay, Imagine yourself in a relaxed state. Imagine how you would feel being your best self. And it's interesting that the research does show that your body doesn't know the difference, because I'm like, you know, I would look at that and be like, who the fuck cares? What my body imagines are things, but I think they're saying, like, those emotions and those feelings become realities inside your body.

Unknown Speaker 20:24

Yeah. Secure. Yeah, it's like you're actually manifesting it for your body, right to experience that it thinks that there is something very dangerous happening. And thus, then it reacts accordingly.

Sarah Milken 20:36

Like, you're going to eat the whole fucking bag of chips.

Unknown Speaker 20:39

Yes. Right. Yeah. Once again, in, you know, evolutionarily, that makes sense, right? It's like, oh, especially in this like, Star binge. Pattern? Yes. Right. It thinks it's not safe when it's starving. And so then the next time it gets food, it's telling you to continue eating more of it, because it thinks I don't know when I'm going to have it again. Right. So there's a huge piece of it's not necessarily what you're putting in, which is important. Yeah, yeah. When? When are you doing it? Right? And are you ever stopping? Yeah, grazing.

Sarah Milken 21:16

Because I know, we've talked about this offline before with intermittent fasting. And I heard one author woman, like say that, you know, if you can intermittent fast, and I know you're not a believer in that, but if you can intermittent faster, give your body a break for an extended period of time, at least tried to like maybe not eat between meals, like just give your body a little bit of a break to not be constantly processing food.

Unknown Speaker 21:42

Definitely. And I'm in 100%. With that, along with the intermittent fasting, we do naturally fast, if we do and stick to our natural circadian rhythm, right, we should eat. And then we should not eat for three hours before we go to bed. Right? That helps us sleep better at night, it processes our body goes into fat storage at night. So if you're eating at nine o'clock at night, that food sits in your stomach in a very different way than it did at 630. And so you don't eat three hours before you go to bed, which is a lot earlier than a lot of us are accustomed to because we've got these long jobs and kids to pick up and face, you know, for Yeah,

Sarah Milken 22:19

and then we're watching TV, and it's 10 o'clock at night. And finally our kids go to bed and we're like, oh, the ice cream. Oh, that. So you may not call it fasting or intermittent fasting. But you're basically saying sort of the same thing like set up your day so that it mimics the circadian rhythm of fasting. And there is a benefit of giving your body I don't know how many hours you think. But let's just say like a 12 hour break from, you know, hand to mouth.

Unknown Speaker 22:49

Yes. And I only just don't use intermittent fasting, because little bit of what we talked about earlier if it's too trendy right now. Yeah. So I just want to boil it down to what our natural body does fast. That's what we do. And intermittent fasting is highlighting that in a different way and trying to extend the fast 1416 hours, right? But yes, if you are eating at seven, going to bed at 10 then not eating again. Right until eight, nine in the morning. You fasted, right, right? An amount of time. It doesn't need to be that it's already intentional. If you just follow

Sarah Milken 23:26

you have to choose to do that. Because I'll be honest, like I've been trying to do it over the past couple of weeks. But it's a conscious effort to be done eating by seven 730 and to not put another thing in my mouth until whatever eight or nine the next morning. That's conscious that's not oh, it just happened to work out that way. For me.

Unknown Speaker 23:45

I think you're right. I think that it is a habit that we get into

Sarah Milken 23:50

well it's like the sugar habit and that's the My next question for you sugar it's like the $10 million question like we'd all be billionaires if we could like solve the sugar problem. I love sugar, sugars part of my day. I can't be like some of my friends who are like no sugar no even fruit sugars. No this no that what's your sugar story?

Unknown Speaker 24:10

I mean, sugar is yes, the root of all evil. I am a full sugar addict or used to be I love sugar, you know, because it goes hand in hand with like, the caffeine and you know, all of that, right? But it's it is really, you know, harmful to our systems. Right? So

Sarah Milken 24:26

what are your hacks or you're not even hacks? Like what are the strategies you're teaching your clients? Let's talk about the different sugars there's like monkfruit and like agave or date syrup, like what's the bottom line? All of that?

Unknown Speaker 24:42

Right? Well, okay, so sugar is sugar and all forms the two that you're mentioning like stevia and monkfruit. Right or don't have a glycemic index, meaning they don't spike your blood sugar but all other sugars, honey maple syrup, regardless white cane sugar, they're all going to spike your blood Sugar, which the goal is you want to try to keep a level blood sugar. Throughout your day, there's hacks on how to do that, which we'll get to. But the reason you don't want these ups and downs is because a that creates an inflammation creates insulin resistance, right? All these things that lead us to problems later on down the line. But on a daily process, it's getting that sugar spikes us, like if we were putting sugar in our coffee in the morning, it's spiking us. And then we crash harder, and need something sugary again, right? It's that same, like, it's not a willpower thing, our body is smart, just like with the finding of the lion or the looking.

Sarah Milken 25:41

It's like recharge the battery, get it, get it, get it and we

Unknown Speaker 25:44

are now low, we got to get something quick. And it really kicks it on and says we need a car and we need sugar quickly. Right. Whereas if you're more balanced and flat throughout the day, then it doesn't have that intensity that it used to have. So with clients, right, we're just trying to keep you balanced throughout the day, less of a good bad right or wrong about what sugar when you're putting your sugar, right, just trying to balance you so that you're not craving as much right now cravings and sugar are a big deal.

Sarah Milken 26:19

I mean, like I've heard, you know, drink something that's alkalizing you know, eat something that's green, have some lemon in your water. Is there truth to that? And like what are the sort of tips to reducing the cravings other than cutting it out completely and dying for two weeks and just getting over the withdrawal? Really good. First

Unknown Speaker 26:39

tip is to not have a sweet breakfast, try to have a savory breakfast. So you're not starting yourself off on that trajectory of something sweet, right? Maybe have something sweet after lunch, or after dinner or something like that, if you're going to have your treat, which we can talk about that. Also, you know when to prioritize your treats and how to savor them all of that. But hacks are I talk a lot about in my program and with clients about fat fiber and protein, right? Yeah, make sure that you have those pieces. Having fiber in your body before you're processing sugar. It slows the sugar absorption into your intestine, right so then your glucose spike isn't as strong so that's the crash isn't as strong. So how

Sarah Milken 27:25

much fiber do midlife women need? And how do we get it and what would my day look like if I were the ideal fiber consumer on your plan? Um, yeah, ideally, you

Unknown Speaker 27:36

want 25 grams minimum,

Sarah Milken 27:38

I just want to like have a visual of the day is it like one cup of raspberries some Metamucil like what is like, like five visual things of fiber in a day look like because when people say fiber, I'm like, oh, that sounds like intestinal cloggy and like farty and Metamucil. Li and gassy?

Unknown Speaker 28:01

What is it? Yes. So fiber when I talk about it is vegetables, right? Like good vegetables. But then also, I love the use of raspberries because it's one of those. I

Sarah Milken 28:12

only know that because I read on your website. Let's be honest.

Unknown Speaker 28:15

Okay, right. Right. Right. So raspberries are one of those foods that are really high in fiber. Avocado is to right, just like what you said, you think of fiber, and you think of the regular things that we're talking about. Like yeah, would you like the gassy stuff? Right? Yeah, yes, fiber Racing's right, this whole grain bread or whatever, which is delicious, right? But thinking of fiber in plants again, could you have a bowl of raspberries with the, you know, yogurt and or toasted peanut butter or something like that, right. So just up the fiber that's happening throughout your day. And meaning I don't want you to be so conscious of like, I've got to get the 25 Right, but just focusing more on can I uplevel this meal in a way can I add something in here? That's going to increase my fiber

Sarah Milken 29:00

so what is my ideal meal look like in the Jenny Giles no bullshit program, like what is it? Is it like all plants and a dash of chicken? Like, what's my what's my plate look like?

Unknown Speaker 29:12

I mean, like with the 62nd salad, right, that formula just kind of makes it simplifies it so you can put something on your plate, but that doesn't mean it has to be a salad. It can be a wrap, also. So the base of it though, is two cups of greens, right? Whatever you like. I really love arugula, spinach, romaine, whatever it is, right? You're throwing in the greens and whatever vegetables that you want. That's peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, greens don't count as vegetables. They do I'm just separating. Oh, okay. Okay. But for a salad Arabica, okay, greens to so that's all going together, right? And then your protein can be whatever you want, and it's usually about a small handful of protein. So chicken tofu, tempeh, salmon, you know, good quality meats, all that good. depends on where you are in that, you know, world. And then again, the next phase is like what toppings and things can I use to uplevel? My salad? Can I add hemp seeds? That's going to up the fiber of the protein? Get some omegas, right?

Sarah Milken 30:18

I mean, I add walnuts to my oatmeal every morning. I know I probably shouldn't be eating the oatmeal because it's not savory and it's sweet. But eating eggs for me at breakfast is like, Oh, I just can't do it.

Unknown Speaker 30:31

I love it. You're eating oatmeal, I

Sarah Milken 30:32

think I mean, I have I have oatmeal. My whole morning routine is like I make the oatmeal. I have and it's like a small portion. It's not like you know, when you go to a restaurant, and it's like for five people, you know? And I'm like, do three people want to split this with me? So it's like I eat the oatmeal. I'm mixed collagen powder in it. I dumped some cinnamon on it. And then I crushed like organic walnuts that don't have shit net. And then I mix it all up. And that's my Oh, that's my breakfast.

Unknown Speaker 31:01

I love it. And all I would say is could you add have cup of raspberries too? Yeah, because

Sarah Milken 31:05

I have raspberries in my fridge. But I always thought like, oh, fruit more sugar. And that's another topic I want to talk to you about. Because the sugar fruit thing is stresses me out, like I know on weightwatchers they're like unlimited fruit. And then other people are like you can't eat that kind of amount of fruit and not sort of get a little chunky or have too much sugar. What's the deal on that?

Unknown Speaker 31:28

Sugar is a magical package of fiber, right? It's packaged in that way. An apple, think of it this way. You to eat an apple, right? It's filling,

Sarah Milken 31:43

it fills you up. And it's crunchy, crunchy, it's

Unknown Speaker 31:46

delicious. The sugar absorption is very different in your body because the fiber is in there to not create that spike. Right? And you could probably like, what's the maximum of apples? You could probably eat an acidic one. Okay, but if I gave you apple juice or L OS, you could have 10 apples. That's like a liquid crack. Yes. It it means it's liquid, like, poisoned to be Yeah, but right. It doesn't have anything to slow it down in your body. It doesn't have anything filling. It's not doing anything, right. You're not getting any, any of the benefits from the apple, you're just getting the sugar and the fructose, right? So think of it that way, you can have all the fruit that you want, you eat the whole fruit, right? Don't trick yourself into thinking I'm going to go, I don't have time to eat and I kind of washing my weights, I'm just going to go to the juice store and go grab a beat and pineapple juice. You know, like that's all sugar. Yeah, that's not going to do anybody any favorites gonna make you feel terrible? Because that sugar is just gonna, you know, again, yeah, there's

Sarah Milken 32:47

something about an apple peel two that I think has fiber in it, or pectin, or blah, blah, blah, I don't know,

Unknown Speaker 32:53

all of it. Yeah, there's tons of fiber in appeals of all of these things. So anything that you can keep, you know, keep the peel on, but that's a good solid snack, right? Having an apple with a nut butter or some nuts, keeping that in your bag. So that when you know you've got this crazy schedule, you've got to meet, you know, some the teacher at the school, and then you've got to run home to do the podcast. And you've got to whatever, right, like really thinking, what's something, that fiber protein and I can check off, it's going to fuel me that doesn't have to be this huge meal. But that's going to satiate me.

Sarah Milken 33:28

Yeah. And that's also going to save you from running into Starbucks and getting like a scone and telling yourself you're only eating half. And then you get some weird drink that's like sugar free with 10,000 chemicals in it. I mean, I've been on that fucked up train like a million times.

Unknown Speaker 33:43

And that's true, too. Because all the sugar free stuff, right? Just yeah. All the science around that is that it actually makes the cravings worse, and it makes the weight gain. Well, that was my

Sarah Milken 33:53

question about the sugars like when you're eating monk fruit, or what's that word? Ethanol? What's that weird

Unknown Speaker 33:59

refers Hall? Yeah, I

Sarah Milken 34:01

don't know. Like, they say that like that kind of messes up your gut and screws with you like, what's the deal on that?

Unknown Speaker 34:08

Yeah. And that's, it's really great that we're learning so much that kind of gut microbiome stuff. Like that's still pretty new science we've had over the last decade. And it's really great, what we're learning that we didn't know, in the 90s to how much sugar is wrecking our microbiome, you know, when you get sick, and you have to take an antibiotic and the antibiotics isn't just killed the bad bacteria or whatever it is, yeah, there's all the good bacteria too and have to spend some time kind of rebuilding at the same sugar feeds the bad bacteria, right? So it can create an imbalance in your gut. And you don't want that obviously, because when there's an imbalance that can cause more bloating, more uncomfortable stuff going on, it wrecks your immune system, it can create more weight gain, right, lots of things involved from a microbiome, a gut that has its sugar fueled,

Sarah Milken 35:01

right? So if I'm not like the perfect midlife woman eating sauerkraut and fermented foods, and all of these weird things are that appear to be weird to me right now? Like, is there a tip or probiotic pill? Like I'm all up for the pills? I'm like, if I don't have to fucking eat that mushroom, or, you know, eat that sauerkraut, like, stuffed me with the pills or there's like liquids, I think there's one like called Restore, you know, these kinds of things that are supposed to like, rely on your gut, what are your thoughts on that?

Unknown Speaker 35:36

I really love a probiotic called Seed. I use that. Okay, I love it. And I have seen so many people have like night and day differences in their bowels and all kinds of stuff. It has a prebiotic and probiotic, meaning the way that it's set up is the pill doesn't digest until it's needed later in your digestion track. Because sometimes we'll get these just, you know, basic ones at the grocery store, and they're not making it through the digestion to do what it needs to do. Right likes down too quickly. And then it's

Sarah Milken 36:10

right. So how do you have your clients you see, let me see if I'm using mine properly. And I also ran out, so I have to buy more subscription, which is why I love it. Yeah, I know. But I think I like I went through accidentally and I accidentally cancelled it because I went through to see how many random subscriptions I had. And I think now where you can get like, I know my husband's like stereo your fucking subscribe to all of these random things. Why are there like razors showing up and teeth bleaching things? Because my daughter sometimes does it do or she checks the wrong box? We must have like 37 teeth bleaching kits. Like can you not subscribe to share it? Can you buy it? I know. But then I get stuck in this situation where I'm like, oh my god, I'm out of it. Okay, so tell us about

Unknown Speaker 37:00

anything with PVC. And I had to like pause it for a while because like, I just kept getting in my door. And I was like, behind and once you're behind that, it's just like, Ah, I have all these probiotics. Yeah, just making sure that you're taking them also making sure that you're taking them you know, when we travel, right travel can really mess with Oh, right. It's messing with our circadian rhythm. Right?

Sarah Milken 37:21

It's messing with our hydration eating Chipotle. Like, for breakfast. I wanted to just die. And what's so funny about me is that I brought like, my whole like, tray of like, you know, all my supplements. I didn't take one, Jenny. Let's be honest. I was like, I'm sorry. I just ate Chipotle at nine in the morning. Like, I can't take like, be 12 right now. I just gave myself like a total break.

Unknown Speaker 37:47

I just couldn't take it. And it is fine. Right? Like you're just like, Screw it. Yeah, that's not another thing I talk a lot about plants with right it's it's consistency over time. Right? We're not trying to be have perfection, and not have just kind of let it go sometimes. Yeah, right. But you want to not get in a pattern of like, it's got to be perfect. And then if I screw up well then fuck it all. Yeah, right. Like, it's just like, Nope, I screwed up the next meal, isn't it? Yeah, you

Sarah Milken 38:14

haven't you had an Instagram reel. That was like, okay, like the birthday cake was here. Okay, buy fucking birthday cake. It's not sitting in my fridge for four days. It's so true. Like we can celebrate those moments but they can't go on for fucking ever.

Unknown Speaker 38:30

Right? It's because that's what we do. It's like some sort of this weird we all we didn't even like grew up in this depression time. Right? But like this weird scarcity thing. It's like we're I paid for this birthday cake or somebody brought me this birthday cake. I must then eat it until it's all gone are

Sarah Milken 38:47

like the cupcakes that are delivered to your house and you're like you love the friend who delivered you know, who said them to you? And you're like, Okay, how many can I give away? I'm going to eat one right now. I'm going to Save one for tomorrow. But that's it. Otherwise, I will eat the whole

Unknown Speaker 39:02

box the whole box and and it's the what I call the drive by right? It's like you don't want to like admit like I'm going to sit down and eat this cupcakes.

Sarah Milken 39:10

pass by and have a bite. Oh yeah. Oh ye I've justified by just eating the frosting off the top. Right when it's full trans fats.

Unknown Speaker 39:21

But that's the thing. And then that's when it creates this spike where it's like if you're just like had your regular lunch, your rap filled with vegetables and all these things. And then you're like, now I'm gonna sit down outside on my, you know, patio and just eat this and savor this cupcake that's gonna have a totally different blood sugar experience than if you pass by every 10 minutes and like a little bit of the frosting, right? Okay, we all do. That's what we do.

Sarah Milken 39:45

And so it sounds like to me based on talking to you that like you're not just about like, eat this or do that or do this. It's about like creating a whole lifestyle out of it. And that sounds like obviously easier said than done. But like Can you just like take me through like a Jenny Giles midlife day? Like, are you waking up in the morning and drinking 16 ounces of water with minerals in it? Like, just tell me like, what your day looks like and what your food looks like. It doesn't have to be perfect, just like a general sense, because I think we all just, there's like you said, there's so much noise and so much information. It's just like telling me what to fucking do.

Unknown Speaker 40:22

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So, like we talked about, like, yeah, holistic approach. So when I wake up in the morning, right, again, my cortisol has spiked, because that's what wakes us up. Right? Because you were having dreams about your spouse all night. Yeah, totally. We had some set of traumatic dream.

Sarah Milken 40:41

Dreams lately have been like, I was going to my bar mitzvah. But like, I couldn't find all of the parts that I needed. You know. And like, it seemed like to go on all night. And I woke up and I was like, Thank God, that's not really

Unknown Speaker 40:53

happening. I was weirdly in Ryan Seacrest bedroom the other day. Oh, that's cool. Yes. But his bedroom was also like, he had rows and rows of like flea market finds. Oh, strange. Yeah, okay. Anyways, it freaks me out a lot. But we wake up, we're totally stressed out, because that's how we are. And it's really key to do something if meditation isn't your vibe, right? Like, like, marathons are not our via Yeah, okay, then don't you know, if you

Sarah Milken 41:25

meditation is hard for me in the morning, because I like want to get up I want to, like, get my coffee, I want to like say goodbye to the kids before they leave the house. And my son drives my daughter's school. Like, I have no time for meditation in the morning.

Unknown Speaker 41:39

Right? So then that's the thing. So if that doesn't work for you, then then I would say just do some reading, right? If you can, just before you get up to brush your teeth, right, just five inhales and five exhales it takes less than 30 seconds. And it changes the way you start your morning. Right. And that repetition, I mean, specifically, with meditation to like it changes the way our brain processes, it makes us less reactive, it makes us have our compassion piece of the brain, you know, gets bigger all of these things over time. But breathing can really change your nervous system so that you can start your day a little bit better. Because as we all know, once the rails are off in the morning, like it's crazy chaos, right? So I really tried to do that in the morning in the mornings that I don't there's a significant difference right of how

Sarah Milken 42:22

chaotic The kitchen is. And then do you tongue scrape?

Unknown Speaker 42:26

I do. Oh my god.

Sarah Milken 42:28

I'm like read on your fucking mind. Because I read all this noise. I

Unknown Speaker 42:33

tongue scrape and yes, I've read the stuff about you know, the Ayurvedic stuff, but I think it's not really even why I do it. I do it just because I don't like how gross My mouth feels in the morning. Yeah, the brushing of the teeth. But then like, once you do the tongue scraping and you're like, oh my god, it's really satisfying. Yeah, gross. But again,

Sarah Milken 42:51

as long as no one else is tongue scraping or flossing in front of me. I can handle my own. But if if like my husband were to do it, I would like projectile vomit. Right. You're like you need a new bathroom. Yeah, but by

Unknown Speaker 43:03

but so my tongue scraper hangs on the charger cup. That is with my toothbrush, right? So it helps with that habit. Stack habit stacker. So you scrape that tongue you brush that teeth, you go downstairs, we all brush our teeth in the morning. Most of us I definitely got the times. Right. But sometimes people don't. But I'm saying it's a habit that I like to use a lot to stack on. Because most of us do that first thing in the morning.

Sarah Milken 43:26

Oh, yeah. And then I bleached my teeth while I put makeup on. I mean, I know yes to do that. No, sorry. But yeah, no, that's Yeah, it's like five minutes, like five minutes. I mean, I don't I don't do it every day. But if I remember I'm like, okay, the subscription you know, dental bleach that my daughter has could sell like have a store is sitting on my bathroom counter and it takes me like five to 10 minutes to put my makeup on. So I'm gonna bleach my buck and tea.

Unknown Speaker 43:50

So great. And I love that right? But just thinking of that, like what can I do? I'm brushing my teeth, right? We're doing nothing. We're literally just pacing around standing there brushing is there a habit? A mental habit? A body habit? You know, could you do a wall squat while you're brushing your teeth?

Sarah Milken 44:09

Anything what could you do? It's gonna bring my inner thigh bandhan do it i Yeah, plenty of times where I'll do like oh my god

Unknown Speaker 44:19

days or whatever just throughout the day because I'm not gonna spend all that time that maybe I don't have to do

Sarah Milken 44:25

for Yeah, and I also like have a bottle of water in my bathroom always and on my nightstand so it's like okay, I'm putting my makeup on I'm kind of thirsty. I'm gonna have like a half a bottle of water while I'm putting my makeup on. That's to me is like a very easy habit stack I got a half a bottle of water and

Unknown Speaker 44:42

yes, another habit stack I would do for back to like when you first wake up in the morning. Yeah, everybody reaches for the phone. It's terrible. We all do it. It's really hard unless you're gonna go to the extreme of put it across the room. I

Sarah Milken 44:55

can't do that. I have teenagers. It's like I'm getting like text. I'm gonna be home at one in the morning. You know,

Unknown Speaker 45:01

I just can't do it. Right and I just need it there. It's like I have parents I just can't. Yeah. So I say put your, your glass of water on top of your phone so that at least you have to grab your water before you grab your phone. That's a good idea. drinking your water. And then you can reward yourself by looking as long

Sarah Milken 45:21

as you're not stupid like me who left the bottle of water the top off, knocked the water bottle over like soaked everything on my nightstand.

Unknown Speaker 45:33

We just had like, yeah, a huge spill in the pantry and they fell off a minute ago to God such a mess. Um, so anyways, just trying to make your morning habits set you up for a more calm, whatever. Right? Okay, so then what do you eat for breakfast and breakfast is a variety of things depending on what I've got, if I've got clients early if I'm on carpool jury that day or not, you know, those kinds of things, but like today, example. I did Ezekiel cinnamon raisin toast,

Sarah Milken 46:02

right, so you actually eat fucking bread? Oh, yeah. And I love it. Okay, that's cool. Because some people are like, I don't eat bread and I only gluten free bread. I'm like, Wait, there's like so many things. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 46:14

there's a lot around the bread topic. Yeah. And Ezekiel bread is a sprouted bread. It's an organic bread. It's high in fiber. Right? Again, all the things that we were talking about bread. I'm not I'm not going to be talking specifically to gluten. Right. But yeah, in general, where we get into trouble is that we eat it by itself. Right, which it doesn't really have any narwhal was on your bread. So peanut butter. And then some berries didn't have raspberries today. But I've got cherries and strawberries. So that's what I ate. Right? Could

Sarah Milken 46:47

you eat one piece or two?

Unknown Speaker 46:49

It depends, right? Today I had two pieces. And it's, that's fine. That's not a but some days I don't, I don't need the other piece. Especially if I know I'm gonna have lunch soon. Or I'm planning a snack or something. Just cuz I liked

Sarah Milken 47:02

that point. Because it's sort of like knowing what you need. Like, sometimes I'll do my oatmeal. And I'm like, God, I'm still kind of hungry. That feels like I don't and I'm not comfortable. So like, I'll grab another handful of walnuts so that I only eat 17 other things in the pantry. But I think that some of us are in that like deprivation mode or like no, I have to stop right here. But like, I don't know, sometimes you're in like a hormone dip or you didn't have a good sleep or your kids stressed you out the night before and like your body just wants a little bit more.

Unknown Speaker 47:34

Yeah. And I think it's really important for us to be attuned to our own bodies, right? Because what I eat for breakfast and what you eat for breakfast, right on every day is a different day based on exactly just what you said, our hormones, what happened, there's so many different pieces to that puzzle. So knowing for yourself like, am I you know, am I satiated? Does this feel good? Or am I hungry? Because I'm hungry? Or am I hungry? Because there's an emotional need

Sarah Milken 48:02

that maybe yeah, I'm so glad you'd mentioned that. Because I did another doctor and a doctor on the podcast who's like a weight loss doctor and she wrote a book called, it's like, what are you hungry for? And it's basically a whole essay collection about all of her different patients and clients who, you know, it's like one person was hungry for relevance, and another person was hungry for love. And I'm sure that that's something that comes up in your practice a lot. If you're dealing with midlife women, it's, you know, we all have hungers that are not related to food. But we use food to satisfy those hungers.

Unknown Speaker 48:42

And a connection to that I see is like, a shift into empty nest. Oh, don't think that we really acknowledge how painful it feels. It's really hard. Yeah. And when our days are packed with those things that we joke are annoying, and Oh, I gotta drive over here or whatever. But when it's gone, right, there's a lot gone.

Sarah Milken 49:07

Yeah. And I said that yesterday on my Instagram stories. I was like, that was annoying to bring the baseball uniform in between podcasts yesterday. But then I posted something else. It's like, in a year, he's not going to be asking me for that. So I'm happy to do it even though I was like, Are you joking? Like, he's not going to be here for me to do that. Yeah. And then I might need a brownie.

Unknown Speaker 49:28

Yes. But having that awareness right because I see that often. Right where the the afternoons become difficult. Yeah. So then the seeking the not actually just sitting down and fueling yourself or being like, I'm gonna have a tea with you know, whatever my snack is that I'm gonna happen instead, the kind of unsettled passing by the pantry eating a few pretzels grabbing this, right like, it's because there's something missing, right? Yeah. And too, we need to stop and listen and recognize that something's missing and try to take care of ourselves.

Sarah Milken 50:06

It's like rituals. When I don't have my oatmeal coffee in the morning. It's annoying to me. Like if I have a board meeting that's like at 7:30am I'm like You fucked up my day. Like, I'm not going to have oatmeal and coffee at 630 before the meeting. I don't want to eat your weird egg souffle and blueberry muffins that are being served at the board meeting. So it like ruin my sort of like ritual. And I'm trying to create an afternoon ritual, which is like Macia, and I'm trying to find an evening ritual right now and I haven't, I'm looking for like the perfect evening drink that doesn't quote, break the fast isn't just gonna make me pee, like decaf green tea. I need a night ritual.

Unknown Speaker 50:49

I love that. Okay, so I love the brand. TEECCINO. Okay, coffee is really too hard for me. So whenever I'm having like a coffee craving, they have these teas. You can do tea bags, or you can brew it like a coffee. That tastes remarkably like coffee. It's got like Ramon seeds that have a coffee. Does it have caffeine, though? No, it's caffeine free, interesting, really caffeine sensitive. And I can't do it. Like I only have one

Sarah Milken 51:18

cup of coffee in the morning. And if my daughter's home, she makes me matcha like in the afternoon because my matcha sucks. How do you spell that to chi now, it might be te CC I'm gonna look it up and put it in the show notes. And let's talk about the perfect macho for a second. I've tried a lot of different marches, the marches that I get to charge and macho or wherever it tastes a fucking hell of a lot better than ones that I'm making because they have real sugar in them. How do you make macho so it doesn't taste like Hey,

Unknown Speaker 51:47

I mean, that's a thing. It is an acquired taste everybody. It is Grassi. Right. Yeah. I try to remember what all of us used to not like coffee too, right? That's true. You're like, oh, adults drink coffee. So I guess I'll drink coffee and it tastes like burnt chocolate. So we acquire that taste over time. But so you can grow to love matcha but what do you put in yours? But I put in a use either. Good milk? Do you know good milk cocoa? Yeah, of course I have that. I love her almond milk? Or three trees or mock one of

Sarah Milken 52:22

them? Yeah. Oh, good. I'm so glad because that's on my list to ask you because I have. I've tried all of them. I don't know which is the best one. I mean, three trees is like $9 A bottle but whatever. I feel like I give myself that treat in my oatmeal every day. Wait, first finish the mantra that I'm gonna ask you the story behind the milk because of the filler situation.

Unknown Speaker 52:42

Yes. But also I want to say coconut milk and not the box time but like straight up can creamed coconut milk,

Sarah Milken 52:49

you can do the light if you want to do okay, we have to talk about the fucking coconut milk for a second because I opened a can of it the other day. The kitchen stuff is like not my specialty. The water or like the liquidy part was on top and like the chunky gross stuff was on the bottom. How do you get the contents from the can into a moksha? Like what are the steps? Do you take the chunky shit or the liquid shit? I had no idea I dumped it into Tupperware and my daughter goes What the fuck is that? And I was like, I'm embarrassed to tell you but it's coconut milk and I don't know how to manage

Unknown Speaker 53:28

this. It's so funny and really depending on what can you get it was like a Trader Joe's one Okay, yeah, but like meaning sometimes it's a real hard solidified you know, block at the top and the liquid at the bottom but sometimes you open and you're like oh it's all you know. Emulsifiers Oh, I didn't have that. It just depended on hints on the brands and I'm kind of not remembering which ones I like more but like I had native which is the green Yeah, simple because there's not many gums or anything in it but this yesterday I opened it and it was perfectly smooth and then today I opened it or you know a couple days ago Yeah, today I opened it and it was separated so I never what do you do I just scooped the fat the cream and then plop it into my frother we had water so if I'm using the coconut milk or clay you don't use the liquidy part. You just use the chunk part cream Yeah, because it just I don't even know

Sarah Milken 54:23

what it looks like putting with water on top

Unknown Speaker 54:27

and I have the red rebel frother which I didn't buy for like so many years because like this is totally unnecessary. I don't need this I don't need this and it is changed my

Sarah Milken 54:35

life. So I need to buy that. Yes. It's okay so take me through the steps of the MATA you open the can of coconut. I put

Unknown Speaker 54:43

a half I take my little Bramble thing and fill up half of water and then the rest with either almond milk or coconut milk. If I'm using the coconut milk then it'll be a little bit more water and then a big scoop of the cream and You turn the little macho thing on and it warms and Frost's, sometimes, if that chunk is thick, it'll get caught up in it, you kind of have to, you know, shake it. Yeah. Fix it. And then I drop in half a teaspoon of matcha. collagen, to which which collagen. Vital Proteins are further food, okay, collagen, I believe in and like, I think it's great. And all of these things in 10 years is gonna be one of those things where we're like, do you remember when we were

Sarah Milken 55:30

put in college and I put it in my oatmeal every fucking day for the last decade? Do I know if it works? I have no idea.

Unknown Speaker 55:37

Right? No idea and newer science is saying that there is some validity to it. But yeah, I'm like you I'm like, I'm just

Sarah Milken 55:43

my nails still suck my hair still stalks, you know what I mean? Like, whatever.

Unknown Speaker 55:48

You know, it warms it and frosted altogether. Sometimes there's a mushroom powder in there, right? Like lion's mane or something like that. But that can really change and make the taste and what about a sweetener? Sometimes a little like a teaspoon of honey, depending on so you don't do stevia or drops or anything like that. Got it. Okay, don't like it. But if you really wanted to go no sugar, do a liquid Stevia. I have that. Yeah. So you could do that if you really wanted to go? No. Does

Sarah Milken 56:17

that change your microbiome?

Unknown Speaker 56:19

They're saying it doesn't.

Sarah Milken 56:21

Okay, there. I love the day. It's like who the fuck is day? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 56:25

those doctors now with the earth recall I think is different because it can upset some tummies. Yeah, I know. I've heard that straight plant right there making it into a liquid like you could you could make the little dropper at home.

Sarah Milken 56:39

Yeah, and date syrup. Do you like that? A lot of people are in the dates, period, but I'll see I'm not a date eater. It looks like a shriveled cockroach. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 56:50

I told 1,000% agree with you. And this year of format I can do it. Okay, but it's great. But again, it's breaking down that fiber right we want all the fiber intact all the time, as much as we can.

Sarah Milken 57:02

Okay, so you're the fiber police. So when I have a shit attack, I'll call you for sure.

Unknown Speaker 57:07

Photos. That's all

Sarah Milken 57:15

Hey, peeps, it's me again. I listen to this episode with Jenny Giles, holistic nutritionist so I could summarize the golden nuggets for you to have actionable items to start using today. I know that when I'm listening to a long episode, my fucking midlife brain is like, oh my god, I love that. But now I can't even fucking remember what the specifics were. This is why I come back and do a golden nugget summary. In this episode we discuss small hacks and changes we can make in midlife to benefit our bodies and minds Golden Nugget number one. Cleaning your diet up can help Springboard your midlife remix, cleaning up her diet was the first step to Jenny Giles, body and mind transformation. Before Jenny cleaned up her diet. She mainly fueled herself on what she calls the three C's croissants, coffee and caffeine. Yep, sounds about right. While working as a real estate agent. This led her down a path of stomach issues chronic sinus infections, headaches and anxiety. Then she decided to change the path and she fell down the rabbit hole of health and nutrition. And Jenny said it just blossomed. From there. She began volunteering and teaching at schools writing her blog, getting her certification, and becoming a holistic nutritionist. Jenny explains that she stepped into a newer version of herself, where real estate no longer fit for her. By focusing on her health and starting a new career path Jenny found herself in her own midlife. freemax Golden Nugget number two, bypass the bullshit and find your blueprint. Jenny says that we have to ignore the noise of ads and fads and find our blueprint of what works for our bodies and our own lives. Peeps. Every person is different. So no one thing is going to work for everyone. If your kitchen skills aren't the best like mine, then learn easier recipes that are healthy for you but don't seem so daunting. I mean, look, you guys yesterday, was it yesterday or the day before I actually made the toast that Jenny said that I could make that was like, you know, Jenny approved, and I had hummus on it and microgreens and all these things that I wouldn't normally eat. She explains that she's not trying to find someone immediate results. Jenny's approach is to change someone's lifestyle to be happier and healthier working within their parameters. Golden Nugget number three, creating the ideal meal with small app levels or hacks. Jenny teaches us how to make the ideal meal by sharing a concept she calls up leveling, which is using small meal hacks to uplevel nutrition for example, you can add raspberries to your oatmeal to provide potassium and lower your blood pressure or you can add chia seeds to your salad as an antioxidant and more fiber. Her, Jenny also shares her 62nd salad recipe. The fun part about this recipe and others like it is that it's not strict. And it just serves as more of a baseline where you can add in your favorite things to make it more appealing to look you guys today I ordered a Chinese chicken salad and I added slice walnuts, microgreens and avocado so that was like up leveling a very basic salad. Once again, Jenny teaches us that we can find things that are healthy or uplevel our meal to our liking and nutrition. I mean, only 60 seconds. Needless to say, I tried this right after and it really really worked like right after the episode. Okay, golden nugget. Number four. What is habit stacking and how do we integrate it in our everyday lives. integrating new unhealthy habits into our lifestyle can be easier said than done. One way Jenny says she does this is by habit stacking. Habit stacking is adding something to an already existing habit. For example, before you brush your teeth, do five inhales and exhales as a mini meditation before you start your day. And I even talked about I think in this episode that I sometimes bleach my teeth while I put my makeup on because it's sort of like a two for one special. Anyway, if we take these habits we already do and add or alter them, we can seamlessly start to create healthier habits for our bodies and our minds. The gold is dripping off these nuggets, grab it use it, there are three things you can do. First, fucking subscribe to the podcast second, share with some friends who like midlife shed and third write an apple review. I know writing reviews suck. It's annoying. It's an extra step. Guess what? It really helps podcast grow. And you think your little review won't matter. But it really does. I know I say this over and over again. But if you went to a show and everyone said my clap doesn't matter, then there will be no clapping for the performers. You all matter. We all matter. DM me, you know, I always respond. If you've messaged me, I'm the only person in my Instagram so if you get a response to a comment or a DM it's all me. Oh, and of course follow my instagram at the flexible neurotic the flexible neurotic on Instagram da peeps. The golden nuggets were endless for my conversation with Jenny Giles. Honestly, I know I just said this, but I'm gonna say it again. Go and listen to part two of my episode with Jenny, where we dive deep into how to use midlife passion and energy rather than snacking and how to enjoy a treat without feeling guilty. Don't miss out on more small hacks and up levels that we can start doing today.

PART 2

Sarah Milken 0:04

Unknown Speaker 1:29

love Gatorade like any other kid, right, but we don't want Gatorade. Yeah, you're in the artificial colors and like all that crap. And there's not really another option. But Ultimate is an electrolyte, right? It's sweetened with stevia and that you can get like blue raspberries. Yeah, actually, this is one for my son. And like you got back from track right to end to have that. So they love it. It feels really sweet and special in that way. Gatorade asked but it doesn't have all the Do you drink it? Or you're not into it? Not enjoy? Because if I do, it's a little bit because it tastes it's overpowering. Yeah.

Sarah Milken 2:05

And what about minerals in your water? No, I'll

Unknown Speaker 2:07

do like a chlorophyll drop. Okay,

Sarah Milken 2:11

I have a hard time with looking at chlorophyll to be honest. It's very, very green. But I know you're into athletic greens. I saw that. I've been using that for like about a month. I don't know why other than I'm not a big vegetable eater. So I'm like, Okay, well, if I can get three bites of vegetables in by eating the Greens powder, I don't even know if that's true. If it's significant. What are the benefits of the green powder,

Unknown Speaker 2:39

I like to use it as like your plan B, right are filling in any gaps that you're missing in your diet. And it is full food, you know, base, which is great. It's not chemicals or additives, things like that. It's very solid ingredient list and it doesn't have sweeteners. I think it might have a little bit of stevia. But I usually again don't like things that have any sort of sweetener, because it tells your palate you need more sweet. Yeah. Right. But it's great. And I think that, especially like when you're traveling and you don't know what the food's gonna look like, just to kind of fill in the gaps for what you might be missing throughout the day. So like you're saying you're not a great vegetable eater. So I think it's doing a lot, right. Yeah. And where you're kind of missing, but it's still prioritize trying to get in vegetables, right?

Sarah Milken 3:26

Is there like a specific time of day you drink it or you just use it as like a fill in as needed.

Unknown Speaker 3:31

It really changes in the winter like it was cold. They didn't really want to drink it in the morning. So now I'll drink it more in the morning. Sometimes I just drink in the afternoon. I actually liked the way that it tastes. And sometimes I'm wanting the water to taste something different.

Sarah Milken 3:48

Yeah. Do you put lemon or anything in it? No.

Unknown Speaker 3:51

I know a couple people that do and so it makes a huge difference. Yeah, I

Sarah Milken 3:53

can do without it. But I definitely like the lemon on my athletic greens for sure. And then I feel like at least I've eaten like a few vegetables. Okay, wait, let's go back to the milk for a second. People are like, Oh, milk is bad for you.

Unknown Speaker 4:08

But it tastes the best. Because it's like,

Sarah Milken 4:11

it's like, I don't know frothy or whatever. What's the story on all the milk? There's like no milk, flax milk, almond milk, cashew milk.

Unknown Speaker 4:20

In the mix milk the best right? Because it's thick and all that the reason you don't want old milk in alignment is what we were saying earlier blood sugar, right? Oh does it grain grains can spike blood sugar especially when you're eating on their own especially when they're not attached to some fiber or some fat

Sarah Milken 4:36

right that was my oatmeal okay, because I'm eating the walnuts

Unknown Speaker 4:39

or eating the walnuts I would add butter or coconut cream or something like that to up your fat to like the walnuts have fat too. I would add chia seeds and flax seeds also, Okay, walk right just broke it up and add raspberries like all of these things. Right? We're not changing your routine. You're going to still eat your oatmeal. Let's just uplevel it a little bit. Yeah,

Sarah Milken 4:58

I love that term they use To the up level, it's like how can I make my shitty shit better?

Unknown Speaker 5:05

A little bit, right? You know, it's like, Alright, I want this piece of sourdough with butter. Okay, I hear you. I want a piece of sourdough with butter too. Could we put an avocado on it? Right? Like uplevel that a bit? It's like when

Sarah Milken 5:18

you're wearing an outfit, and you're like, How can I like make this a little better? Oh, wait, if I put a belt on it, like it's more finished. It's a nice little uplevel. So I think all of your sort of little hacks and things here and there. It's like, like you say, like the icing on the cake. We all

Unknown Speaker 5:33

are living in these kind of fast paced, right noise of marketing. All of this stuff is weighing down on us and any way that we can simplify. over simplify is the name of the game.

Sarah Milken 5:46

I know I love your Instagram posts. It was titled like, how to I don't know something like how to stop those fucking soul crushing weeknight dinners that you have to make for your family or whatever. I was like, Oh my God, she's reading my mind.

Unknown Speaker 6:01

Right? I mean, like, it never gets better. Like, if somebody asks me What's for dinner? Like, I don't think anything triggers me before age,

Sarah Milken 6:06

right? Like, it's like the worst question on the planet

Unknown Speaker 6:11

there. It's so terrible. And yeah, like my kids just say no. Now I'm like, you're welcome to make it if you want to make dinner.

Sarah Milken 6:20

The funny part is my daughter does make it but then she's like, I need basil. We don't have basil and Instacart and basil. I'm like, so we're gonna have $19 Basil. Like what are you even talking about? So it's kind of like a funny thing in our house because she's like, am I the mom or you're the mom I'm like marrying Come on. I do everything fucking else except for cook some master chef dinner for you get over yourself. That's I was gonna ask you to do you ever just roast a bunch of vegetables? I mean, she rose like broccoli and everything seems hard to me. Like it seems like it's gonna taste bland. What's like an easy vegetable roast recipe off the top of your head.

Unknown Speaker 7:00

I mean, I love roasting anything for 25 with olive oil, salt and pepper and then it's all about the topic like a good lemon tahini dressing or,

Sarah Milken 7:08

you know, something you bought? Can you buy that or you have to make that you can buy it. Okay, tell me what the lemon tahini dressing recipe is.

Unknown Speaker 7:17

Just tahini, lemon, a little bit of water, garlic, salt, pepper. It's delicious. And so if you roast a bunch of vegetables, that's like cabbage, broccoli, asparagus, carrots, anything you can think of right all on the sheet pan chopped roughly around the same size by everything in a bag. It's already chopped. If you don't want to chop it, right, just

Sarah Milken 7:36

really simplify yourself. Put it in like paying $9 For chopped onions at Whole Foods.

Unknown Speaker 7:41

That's the thing you got to pay for somebody to do the work. Yeah, you don't want to do the labor but sometimes it's really worth it like it is. You know, like with garlic I keep the garlic and the little bags and then I take us a little bag into a jar and keep the jar in my fridge because that is a barrier to dinner if I've got to now smash the garlic and get the garlic on that so my daughter says I can't deal I can't do that. But if you buy it already chopped, it's not as good and like I got that speech show. Yeah, so just going through that but putting everything on a sheet pan there garlic on there to olive oil, salt, pepper for 25 for whatever sharpness you like I like it a little bit charred. Probably not on a microwave back some brown rice, right from Trader Joe's and whatever green that you want because you're obviously not gonna roast or arugula or your spinach your brown rice to the bottom some greens, your hot vegetables on top and then drizzle it with whatever dressing that you got or you have a teeny lemon tahini. Or I saw a very easy lemon dressing you had Wait Where is that? Wait, what

Sarah Milken 8:40

what was your lemon recipe? It was like something in a dash of honey if you want. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 8:47

just a simple lemon, like vinegar, that type of thing. Right? So just lemon olive oil, salt, pepper, and then you can do a little bit of honey if you want it. Kind of sweet. And it's a I want to make sure I'm giving the right ratio, so maybe I won't say it but I think it's a three to one right? Like okay, yeah, that sounds familiar me to olive oil to one. vinegar or lemon. Right. Got it. Obvious formula takes five

Sarah Milken 9:10

seconds. Now you also say that the reason we don't like salads is because our salads suck. Yeah, and you're so fucking right. Like when sweet green drops off the salad. I'm like, Oh, it's so pretty. And it's like organized and everything's the same size and whatever. So like, I know you give some ways on how to make your salad not suck. What are they?

Unknown Speaker 9:30

Some of the things that I love, like we talked about before, like paying somebody to do that work for you. I love buying the vacuum packed, sealed black lentils that are already cooked for me or the black beans that are already cooked for me. The vacuum packs have already you see that? Thrive Market. Target has the black lentils that I really love. Oh, but the reason I like the seal packs because they tend to have less liquid. The cans are very Yeah, they're kind of gross. It's like my coconut milk. And then I'm gonna go To the added step of like draining and then I've got to clean the strainer and like I don't have time for that, like I just need to open it and dump it on my salad, right? There's also a brand called paci po s h i which goes to. They have these vacuum seal packed of marinated vegetables, asparagus, cauliflower, green beans, artichokes, I really want to like show you a picture but they have big bags, and then they also have little bags. I keep the little bags in my purse all the time with a bags of pistachios too. So I know that something artichokes have tons of fiber, right? Yeah, I

Sarah Milken 10:34

saw you had the 100 Calorie bags of pistachios.

Unknown Speaker 10:39

Yeah, I love those. But so the Paci, all those marinated things, they also have like a bean salad. Again, that's already done that for you. If you toss that on top of whatever salad you have, and it gives

Sarah Milken 10:48

you they're not they're not dried, right, they're wet net.

Unknown Speaker 10:52

Mm hmm. Interesting. Yeah, it's really in they're really great. It's just like you're buying it out of, you know, a jar, but the ingredients of this brand is really good. And then also you're nuts and seeds. You have to have texture right to apply totally.

Sarah Milken 11:05

It's like even when I eat when I eat frozen yogurt, that's all chemicals. I'm like, Are the chocolate sprinkles. Where are my almonds? Like? I'm such a cruncher.

Unknown Speaker 11:14

You need a crusher and like I love toasted hemp seeds, or I really, really love toasted pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds have nine grams of protein for one tablespoon.

Sarah Milken 11:25

Do you have to toast them yourself? Or they come toast? The driver? Okay,

Unknown Speaker 11:29

get them in the store. Again. It's not it's a big bag and it's not super inexpensive. Okay,

Sarah Milken 11:34

so tell me like if I wanted to make myself like the perfect Jenny Giles salad every single day and be like Jennifer Aniston eat the same salad every day for 20 years. What is that salad?

Unknown Speaker 11:45

Two cups of greens, whatever it is, I would do mix greens and arugula because that's what I like. Right?

Sarah Milken 11:52

And what the fuck is a micro greens? I saw you talking about that? Oh, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 11:55

So it's like the baby greens of when things are grown broccoli, kale, things like that. And they're really packed with nutrients and at that stage, so it's just something easy, you can throw onto your salad, you don't really notice I love to buy those adding them to salads. I also love I'll throw a little handful into a smoothie. Right and my kids don't want to see that this maybe turned to green. Yeah, dump a few of those in there. And they you know, it's a significant difference. They're usually okay with it being green, but, you know, it's just another way you can add it to your smoothie. Also, people forget that you can add so many things to smoothies right? I add whole zucchini That's raw, you know, along with spinach or whatever else just you could blend it up throw it in it doesn't have a lot of flavor salad wise, building that right two cups of greens then you want to add in some vegetables of any kind. It doesn't matter. Does your body care if they're raw or cooked? certain vegetables, they argue are more bioavailable meaning you can observe Yeah, yes. If they're cooked I other myself with that. That's just too specific. Too much Spanish is better cooked. I don't like cook spinach. Am I not going to eat spinach because of that? No, I'm just going to eat some raw spinach and call it a day. Yeah, okay, fine. I'm gonna get my spinach nutrients right. From all the other things it's giving me right so many phytochemicals and so many you know, the fiber that's and spinach and all that. But vegetables are the things that I almost always have on hand because it's the things that my kids will eat in their snack boxes, which is bell pepper, carrots, cucumbers, right? That's always in my salad. But you can do a variety of what is there like a magic vegetable. Like when it solves all the problems kind of avocado is pretty magical. It's a fruit. Okay, it's pretty magical.

Sarah Milken 13:39

I know. I don't know why it's a fucking fruit. I

Unknown Speaker 13:41

don't get it. Yeah, the seed um, watercress, I think is the magic. Oh, well, like what is a water? It's lettuce like it looks it looks a little bit between microgreens and

Sarah Milken 13:54

so it's like white cabbage ish looking. It's salad ish looking but it's in like one of those clams like okay, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 14:01

right. But it's, you can see the roots of it, but they're super nutrient dense. I don't remember why

Sarah Milken 14:06

but okay, so if I put watercress and microgreens in my salad, I've like checked some fucking box or like moving to Mars that okay, cool. All right, because that's all about the cheat sheet. Okay, so and the other funny thing you said on your website is a big salad bowl which I totally agree with because I see my husband like try to put the salad in this like tiny bowl and it's fucking overflowing and then I made fun of him so then I came out and he had the salad and like a salad bowl for 14 Like one extreme or the other.

Unknown Speaker 14:36

Totally but now at least it makes sense. Yeah. And then like one of the things I think really makes this salad so we've up leveled at nutrient wise now up leveling it flavor wise. Yeah, right. I love adding fruit right like chopping an apple into my salad. Oh my god sweet green does that it because it makes a difference a it gives it that crunchy ah,

Sarah Milken 14:55

and then some of us are like stressing about the carbs and the sugar and I'm like What would it mean? The problem is when you eat a salad that's like just the greens. It's like, I want to eat a hamburger when I'm done. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 15:07

I mean, at that point I would because yeah, it's not doing what it's supposed to do, which is to satiate you and to nourish you, right? Okay? nourish your body with all of these things. So and then your proteins are so many options. I really love if I cook salmon the night before or throw on another piece on the sheet pan, so I have it for later in the week, right? Or same way, or tofu or tempeh,

Sarah Milken 15:29

or like you just have to buy an organic rotisserie chicken and shred it and just say fuck it, like I'm sorry, that's in my view is making a whole chicken I don't know, that's just like hard. And then you have to touch the body. And it's like too many things for me.

Unknown Speaker 15:44

Right? And then we have to like really recognize like, we're eating that. Yeah, literally.

Sarah Milken 15:48

That doesn't work for me when I think about it, or

Unknown Speaker 15:51

shredded. But totally, but yeah, it has a lot of good good things that we need. I'm 1,000% on with the by the rotisserie chicken. Just try to make sure it's organic, because you'd be surprised if you go to just a regular Oh, it's true. Or it's like, so many

Sarah Milken 16:06

flavorings and weird. Yeah. And it's hard to know, like, even when I go to Bristol, it's like, you can barely see it. But ones like an organic chicken, but one's not in there right next to each other.

Unknown Speaker 16:16

Yeah, check it out. Yeah. And then so you've got your protein, you've added apple or something to kind of do that you've added seeds to really bump it up. You've got hemp on it, you've put some toasted pumpkin seeds. Now you've got some good crunch, some good flavor, and then dressing really finding a dressing that you like, like three different variations and just make sure that you have those so you can change it up because you can have the same salad every day. And just by like we could add the same things we just added maybe not the apple, right, but then by adding avocado and salsa, right and then maybe, you know, just making it more. You could do ground beef or

Sarah Milken 16:56

Yeah, like spicy like a different feel to it. Like I had a salad the other day to place it was really good. It was like half kale half Romaine. I know Romaine is like fake lettuce,

Unknown Speaker 17:05

whatever. Right? Yeah, I think it's great. It's got tons of water. I think Romaine is great iceberg. It's really Yeah,

Sarah Milken 17:10

I did like half and half and then it had grilled chicken. Not sure it was organic. It had garbanzo beans. Garbanzo was the same as a chickpea. I'm a little confused. Okay. It is. And then I think it had like tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, with like a dressing. And then they gave me like spicy hot sauce on the side. So I just put like a dash of that in that.

Unknown Speaker 17:35

Love it. Yeah. And use the other places as inspiration. Right? Like, yeah, Mediterranean salad and the one we were describing before like making it more taco salad ask right and then just the simple lemon salad, right? We're salmon salad, right? Just leaning into that if you're doing a Mediterranean one oh, I can throw some olives on here and that's going to you know, Chino Do you have like all your salad shit

Sarah Milken 17:57

in separate containers for the whole week. So every day you're not like reinventing the wheel.

Unknown Speaker 18:02

Do you mean like do I prepped me Yeah,

Sarah Milken 18:05

like do you have like a container of like cut up cucumbers and a container of cut up carrots. So you're sort of just doing like a dumping mix?

Unknown Speaker 18:14

I don't cut ahead of time. Okay, do put them in containers so on it and it also that depends like sometimes I buy the carrots that are the baby carrots because I just don't have time that week right but then there's sometimes I go to the farmers market and I've even got the carrot tops and you know that whole thing and I've got to write them off and put them in

Sarah Milken 18:32

do you think there's a health benefit to cutting that day or you just don't have the time to pre cut on a Sunday? I

Unknown Speaker 18:41

think as time goes on they wilt and get more wilty or whatever as hot right is longer, you're better off and I also like I don't feel my carrots you know like I'm not gonna go through that you know if they're they're fine right got it. I got some organic ones from the farmers market there's some dirt on it it's good which is part of the reason we're all mineral deficient is because our soil is so depleted

Sarah Milken 19:06

yeah just go look the floor and then hummus do you make all that from scratch or you buy store bought?

Unknown Speaker 19:12

I don't I buy stuff around and just try to you know pick some better brands met like majestic garlic uses olive oil most of the time. Roots uses olive oil where you could think you'd get an oil free one meaning most of the hummus is you buy suck. I don't know if I know they Yeah, so like if you were what markets have the good ones, like Target doesn't have any unfortunately all the ones they have use canola or soy hummus is challenging. So the ones that tend to not use canola or soy are majestic garlic and roots and hope. Okay,

Sarah Milken 19:47

I'm gonna write that down because I tend to buy hummus and I'm like confused and I don't know which one to buy and blah blah blah.

Unknown Speaker 19:54

And like changing that to your right putting some white beans in the food processor just as a different flavor with like rosemary and lemon, blending that up into a dip. Right? It makes it taste a little bit different because the same idea.

Sarah Milken 20:06

Yeah. Okay, wait, before I forget to ask you, I have like all these random stream of consciousness things right now because I have like an expert here. Bone broth, honestly, like I've tried a few I want to throw up. I'm like, What the fuck is this? Why do I need to drink this?

Unknown Speaker 20:21

And why do I care? Then? Yeah, then don't you know

Sarah Milken 20:25

why No, but I'm just saying like, what's the benefit of it? If I just drink a cup of day? Is there a brand that you like? Do you make it from scratch? Like, what's the benefit of it?

Unknown Speaker 20:35

The benefit is it's it's filled with a lot of Yeah, nutrients and vitamins and it's got the collagen and those things, you know, we're using with the powders, right? It's just kind of an easy way to get those nutrients. Do you drink it every day? Oh, oh, okay. Because

Sarah Milken 20:54

some people it's like, oh, it's part of my daily routine. No, no, no, I

Unknown Speaker 20:58

don't drink it every day. I think it's great. There are brands that are great if I don't want to make it myself, but yes, there's tons of health benefits about it. But yeah, don't get caught up in that. It's not the magic elixir, it's gonna change everything for you. It's the consistency of lots of your overall habits, right? But um, that's another thing when you're buying that rotisserie chicken. If you have a slow cooker or crock pot, I do my crock pot. No, he's so nice. He cleans it up real good. You I take the carcass like everything that I've picked off of it and throw it in the crock pot with. If I have celery, onion and carrot then it goes in there not peel not chopped. Nothing just dumped in there. Fill it up with water. A little bit of apple cider vinegar pulls out the collagen and turn it on for as long as it'll go mangos. 20 hours and then you got it. Wow, just broth ever. Wow. And $9 You know, bonafide at the store.

Sarah Milken 21:55

Oh my god, you actually made it sound sort of easy, even though I don't know if I want to look at the chicken.

Unknown Speaker 22:00

Right? You could just you know, like, close your eyes and dump it in. But it makes your house smell so good.

Sarah Milken 22:07

Like tricks people. Oh, yeah, totally. Just like what's happening here. Okay, what about tumeric?

Unknown Speaker 22:12

Oh, tumeric is great. turmeric and ginger are both really good anti inflammatory spices. And one of the ways that actually really love to use it. I have a golden milk smoothie. It's on my like in the reals. Instagram, but I love it. Banana and ice and turmeric lattes, golden milk. turmeric milk. Okay, right. Oh, it's just Tumeric milk. Right? So, I mean, it's a Tumeric smoothie. Right? Are you doing which oh my gosh, this might be what your nighttime ritual is?

Sarah Milken 22:43

Okay. Tell me. You this. Okay, so

Unknown Speaker 22:45

golden milk is essentially milk of choice with some fresh turmeric, ginger, little black pepper and some honey. Hey, wait, I'm

Sarah Milken 22:54

writing this down. golden milk is a brand of milk. No, or it's the name of the drink you're making. Okay, so, thanks for making. Okay, so

Unknown Speaker 23:02

what's the base of my milk? Almond milk and or coconut milk. You can do one or the other or combo I tend to do a combo. Okay. What else? Wonder if I'm going with them. Are we doing the hot are we doing this movie? Hot? Hot. Okay, so you want to use some fresh turmeric. If you don't fresh turmeric powder is fine. Okay. It looks like ginger, but it's orange on the inside where ginger is yellow on the inside. Okay, and another little hack? Because it's annoying to have to get that little kind of course outside of both of those things. Or cut it off or whatever. I don't do any of that. I just use my microplane and I microplane it directly into the cup. microplane like a little zester. Oh, it's sort of like a small mandolin. Yeah, a small grader. Okay. Small little greater and it kind of keeps the little outside. Interesting. Okay, out so I can just get the

Sarah Milken 24:02

oh so I do that with tumeric and ginger and ginger. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 24:07

In there. And then Black Pepper helps bring out the you know, activate the turmeric in your body so that it coca sorbet, and then honey. blend that up and warm it up. And you will be so happy. So blended like in like a frother thing. You could do it in a frother or if you didn't have one you could just put it in a blender just to get it all you know, okay, cool. I'm gonna try

Sarah Milken 24:32

that. Okay, because I saw on your website somewhere. Wait, was there something called Reishi something?

Unknown Speaker 24:39

Yes there for SIG Matic has a Reishi hot chocolate which I also recommend to clients for their like evening ritual. Yeah, okay. You said ritual earlier because I'm I love a ritual. Yeah. Ah, so doing that it does have stevia. So if you don't like stevia, then you will like I don't mind. Okay. Oh, there we go. Hot Chocolate is great and it's not so much caffeine or it's gonna rub you up, but it's like having a hot cocoa at night. It's really really

Sarah Milken 25:05

nice. Okay, because I need that like nighttime like mental, like cue that's like, Okay, you're having this and then you're fucking done.

Unknown Speaker 25:14

Yes, yes, the white flag to everyone that's finished, which a lot of times you know, women are using wine is that it's like our note, like for the wine, and it's like, I just want everyone to know, mom's fucking finished. I love wine. Right? It can be one of these other. Thankfully, I'm

Sarah Milken 25:34

not a wine drinker, because that would be the end of it. I can't do sugar and wine. That's like too many fucking things. Okay, what about MCT? Oil?

Unknown Speaker 25:42

I mean, yeah, there's a lot of science that it's great. And it's a good fat. Do you need to buy it? Or could you just use some coconut oil? Sure. You know,

Sarah Milken 25:54

is the prep Do you have your clients use some kind of added fat other than an avocado in certain like drinks or whatever?

Unknown Speaker 26:02

I just I pushed them more to not be afraid of fat, right? Because God, it will come to me and I'm making salads with just vinegar. Oh, I know. It's just it's the talk about soul crushing. soul crushing. Like, please put some off olive oil on there. Olive oil is great, right? Can't get enough of it. Get so much of it. Yes, it's high in calories. But let's just get away from that, you know, focus on what's going to see shade and nourish you. And that's going to help you eat less overall, right? If you eat, I say this often if you eat more on purpose, meaning consciously presently, sitting down focused, making your meal, eat more on purpose. So you eat less overall, right? It's the grazing all day non stop stuff that where we get ourselves caught up into something that's not good and where our calories get over.

Sarah Milken 26:52

Yeah, and I also think that creating those rituals, it's like, Okay, I'm gonna have this for breakfast. I'm gonna have this first snack, then salad. Then my daughter comes home from school and like, we have a mochi together. You know what I mean? And then it's not like, Oh, my God, I'm going to eat 74 things from the pantry. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 27:09

I love that you said that. Because it is it's about knowing your daily routine. And even though sometimes our daily routine changes, there are anchors throughout the day that yes, will continually that you'll have in my the membership program, I break down like, again, the blueprint, you figure out where your blueprint is, but it does break down that daily thing around this time. And this time, this is going to happen around this time or this time.

Sarah Milken 27:31

Yeah. So tell me how your membership works like because you can either do membership with you, or you can do private coaching, tell me the difference between the two.

Unknown Speaker 27:39

So the membership is an app, right? So you pay monthly to kind of join in this community. And you get all the lessons and all the information and the rest of the library and all that is there for you. And then I do live, like sessions or live cooking classes, right? Where people come in and have questions, or I did one recently where we just talked about Thrive Market, right? Because it's really overwhelming for people. So

Sarah Milken 28:04

yeah, I haven't like committed to it because I actually really don't understand it.

Unknown Speaker 28:09

Yeah, and it feels really overwhelming. So we just did a deep dive on that and like how to simplify Thrive Market and what to buy and what things I like and that kind of thing. And then you know, people can ask questions. And that way, it's different from obviously working one on one because when we work one on one I, I create based on our assessment that we have together, I create your personalized blueprint for you. And then over a certain amount of time we tweak and edit and figure out what's working, what's not working, and get it into what's really kind of your lifestyle for life. Right.

Sarah Milken 28:43

So you're more so you actually add like lifestyle pieces. Like,

Unknown Speaker 28:48

I don't know, I'm making this up journaling, meditating, you're going to breathe five times before you scrape your tongue. Like you're really getting into the weeds of like, what your day looks like, generally. Yeah, so I have what's called the five pillars, right, which is nourishment. So the food piece, which is a huge piece, but there's other things right, and we've got movement, and that just doesn't mean like I just, you know, you've got to run cardio forever. No, it's like how are we moving? Throughout our days, a lot of my clients do what I call a walk and talk because they really can't fit in any sort of movement. So our sessions aren't on Zoom and we she walks right just making sure there's movement happening regularly mental health piece, which is to what you're saying, journaling, meditation breathing what are we doing to work on our stress to lower our cortisol so that we're overall better even writing our worries can really significant change how things are sitting in our bodies sleep, which is probably the one that

Sarah Milken 29:41

gets that is like I mean that's on my list to talk to you about but like our at our session, or today could be like 17 fucking hours. But like, are there like I mean, other than cleaning up your act like are there a few little like sleep packs other than not using your phone like Do you have your clients use magnesium or drill In calm or like, what's your thing with sleep,

Unknown Speaker 30:03

it's just important that we don't miss the window. Like we talked about before, our body has a natural circadian rhythm. And when the sun goes down, it starts producing melatonin, we start getting into this ready to go to sleep. And the problem is we finish our kitchen chores and our kids chores and or whatever. And that's when we should be getting into bed and reading or relaxing or doing something. I'm not gonna say you can't watch TV. But because yes, a blue light all that we know that's bad. Yeah. Right. In a reality you're like, but I want to wind down and I want to wind down to some TV, right? But don't get tricked into feeling that adrenaline to stay up longer. That's where we get tripped up. Our body does at a certain point, like we've talked about before, thinks that we're up for a reason. There may be a threat here. I guess we should turn on the adrenaline to wake up.

Sarah Milken 30:54

That's like your second wind. Yes. And

Unknown Speaker 30:56

we've all experienced that. When

Sarah Milken 30:58

we our kid misses. We don't get the kid down for the nap and time and then it's a nightmare. Yeah, you're the same. It does when my husband says I have a sex window. Oh, yeah. Where it's like if he doesn't walk in the room within 14 seconds of my window. The windows closed. For sure.

Unknown Speaker 31:16

And, and I joke about this too, but like an orgasm a day takes the doc keeps the doctor away. That's a lot of work, Jenny. It's a lot of work. And we obviously can't have an orgasm a day probably. Yeah, but I mean, I guess you could put like, if you're like before the shower, you're like, Alright, I'm gonna take care of this really quickly. Right? Like it definitely makes a huge difference in your health and your skin and your you know, everything.

Sarah Milken 31:41

So do you do orgasm accountability with your clients?

Unknown Speaker 31:43

Some of them if they get that? You gotta gauge who you're talking to? Totally. Because some people because in that we talked about all the pillars. We didn't get to we ended it sleep, but we didn't talk joy as the other. Yes. Right. And so people were like, Oh, my joy, peace because sometimes they depending on how they want to log right. They're like, Oh, my joy besides sex last night. Alright, that's good. I'm keeping tabs man. I want to know I got I love it makes you feel good, right? Because that's what's overall here. We just want to be like, so much

Sarah Milken 32:17

of of life and lifestyle is accountability. But accountability is hard, too. Because it's like, it almost feels like oppressive sometimes like, oh, that like trainers gonna show up in my house. Or I have that appointment at the Pilates studio, or I paid for that class. So it's like, how do you find the fine line between like, healthy accountability and like, oh my god, are you my fucking mom.

Unknown Speaker 32:42

I mean, I like to think of it as like the same thing. I think about therapy. Like there's plenty of times where I'm like, I just don't have time for this. I do not want to go for that go to this right. But I'm always happy when I go. Yeah. Do you think go for a walk or go to a yoga class? Like I really don't have time for this. There's so many other things on my to do list I should be doing. You know what? I regret a workout. You don't ever regret regret going to therapy. You don't ever regret having your session, right? With your coach or your you know, whatever nutritionists in my show or your clients

Sarah Milken 33:11

meeting with you once a week? Yeah. Okay, that's a week for a

Unknown Speaker 33:16

certain amount of time. And then once we get into a good place, which is that various for everybody, then they move on to once a month, right? I want a little bit of a check in and to be able to kind of reach out to me for different things because like you're saying to at the beginning it they have access to me one on one, which is different from the membership, meaning they can text me at any point I'm at the store. I don't remember the brand. You said it's reached. Reishi. What? Right? That's to

Sarah Milken 33:42

me, I'm like, wow. Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker 33:44

it's a lot of that at the beginning. That obviously tapers off as things

Sarah Milken 33:48

after I fuckin figure out how to do the coconut mill how to get like it's separate.

Unknown Speaker 33:57

If you want to make GSC putting in like how it's like a rock hard chunk, you know, and yes, so blip blip, you can put it in the blender, blend it all together and import it in a jar, you know, like this and just put a lid on it.

Sarah Milken 34:09

Okay, I'll work on that. I'll work on that one later. Maybe I'll have my daughter tutor, man that oh my god. So now if you had I mean, obviously you meet with midlife women all day long. Like if you had one. I mean obviously you say in your website, which is so fucking funny. You have such sarcasm and similar humor. Like sometimes when I was reading it, I was like, did I write that? Or did she write that? Like what's happening here? This is just like saying is it it as it is? It's like so like spot on. But you're like there isn't one fucking ingredient that's going to change your fucking life basically. But if there's like a key piece of advice, like it just in terms of like mindset toward the whole muffin top sweaty bullshit midlife frumpy de Dumpty, what is it?

Unknown Speaker 34:59

Oh, I mean There's two pieces, right? So there's like the get us at the gut, which is, when you're on your deathbed, are we really going to be giving a shit about any of this body stuff? No. This is not a thing we've done, right? Live your life, enjoy your life, stay as healthy as you can. So you feel well come and do work to improve your body because you want to feel good for the moments you want to be present for. Right? Not for the weight to, you know, have your jeans fit differently or whatever, right that can come also. But let's focus on what's really important and is that we want to live our lives and enjoy our lives. The times that we have here, right and be more present because we feel good, not because we're exhausted, our stomach's hurting, or there's just stuff going on. And a key piece specifically for midlife is I would really love for all of us, me included is to just focus so much more on our mental health and stress level, because it really does affect how our body functions and how we digest food, how we processed food, how our metabolism, all of that, if we could change that, like we had said earlier to when our cortisol is up in our what's the word liking on it. Guerlain that?

Sarah Milken 36:17

Oh, yeah, the hunger, right, I

Unknown Speaker 36:19

call it girl. Like, it makes you so hungry. But if you're not sleeping, and you're not relaxed, then it revs that up. And then you eat more and don't feel as good and all of that. So really focusing on the things blocking out the noise. It's so specific of like drink bone, broth, intermittent fast, do all those things. Those are just small pieces to a much bigger, holistic puzzle of what can I do in my life to just feel good.

Sarah Milken 36:49

And I think feel good is also a very multi pronged concept. Because like if you take someone who like an empty nester, or let's say a woman who doesn't work and her husband is the breadwinner, and her kids are gone. And she doesn't have, let's say, a hobby or business or something, then it's sort of like they're left with this kind of like sense of emptiness and boredom and itchiness for the next thing. So I feel like there is some space, like you don't want to wake up on a beach every day and have nothing to think about nothing to stress about. And I don't even mean stress in a bad way. But it's like that necessary. Basic amount of like the judge to your life like you don't want to eliminate all stress because I think stress is helpful in certain circumstances as you move into the next thing. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 37:42

we need fire and we need adrenaline and we need excitement. And we need something to projects things to work towards. Right. But it's the like with inflammation, right? We need inflammation to it heals us, right? We need the troops to go to the ankle that is sprained. We need that just like we need stress. We don't need chronic and yes, yes.

Sarah Milken 38:05

Auto Mechanic. Yeah, yeah. And that's how I see it too, is I feel like there are a lot of midlife women, including myself, where it was like I was looking for that like spark of energy that was like my own not like, Does my son have his baseball uniform? Or what the fuck is for dinner? But it's like, what the fuck am I gonna do with the rest of my life? So I'm not waking up to the same day over and over and over again. Groundhog Day? Yeah, yeah, Groundhog Day. And so I feel like I think a lot of women also chew into this whole, like health and bone broth and tumeric and all this bullshit, whatever. Because it gives you a project. Mm hmm. You know what I mean? It really does it, but if it can become obsessive?

Unknown Speaker 38:45

Yes, I think it just focuses on the wrong parts. Partially, right? Yes, it becomes too, too black and right, white, right. Like and how we started this whole conversation was what works for someone doesn't work for

Sarah Milken 38:59

someone totally.

Unknown Speaker 39:01

Right. So we can't fall into that trap of like, oh, well, so and so. You know, I see it a lot with women and seeing the men lose so much weight on keto. Right. That's a the studies were done for men, white men, which is very different than how thing Yes, women, right. We are a different species. I mean, that our species, right? Because, you know, we grow humans. We're totally different.

Sarah Milken 39:29

Oh, we're totally padded for that, too.

Unknown Speaker 39:34

That's another piece of that too, right? Like we are built to have more padding. We had to sit on our asses and breastfeed babies in the village right and cook meals on rocks. Right where they didn't there. The men our bodies are different than ours are.

Sarah Milken 39:52

Yeah, and the reality is, is most of us are not in a bikini roaming the beaches of the Bahamas on a daily basis. So like if eating In the fucking cake once a week or whatever is gonna make you happy than eat the damn cake.

Unknown Speaker 40:05

Yes, my only suggestion would be to eat the cake. And really savor it. Yeah, right and make it a thing and not a drive by cake eating right. I love that with a friend. Then go off to Jenny's ice cream and you go stroll and eat your ice cream and laugh with your friend and live your life enjoying the things that give you pleasure.

Sarah Milken 40:27

I mean, honestly, on that college tour, I think I ate like real like ice cream ice cream, like a good three or four times. That's more than I eaten the whole fucking year. But I was like, I'm with my kids. My son wants to have ice cream. We're on his college tour. What am I going to be like the mom who doesn't eat ice cream?

Unknown Speaker 40:45

Right? No. You want anyone to eat some good ice cream? Yeah. Like yes. And don't what's going to be sustainable? You're not going to do something that's never going to eat ice cream again. I mean, obviously, we've got a lactose and that's all Yeah, and you're not going to live a life where there is no ice cream symbolic ice cream. Right? We have to create room for all of this because that's reality.

Sarah Milken 41:10

No, I love that and I have so appreciate it. I know we went over the time, but I just I just love this conversation. No bullshit, Johnny. I love fucking talking to you. I love picking your brain. I'm like, Okay, now I'm gonna text her at the fucking supermarket. I love it. You're laughing I love that I was able to ask questions that a lot of us midlife women have on our minds you know kind of just trying to find the sweet spot between neurotic and chill in this whole food body health blah blah blah part of the midlife remix to like you said not just look good but feel good and really participate in life if listeners want to find you and stalk you like I did. Where can they find you?

Unknown Speaker 41:56

Instagram Jenny Giles to Jays je and NY jail. Yes.

Sarah Milken 42:00

Okay, be prepared you guys you might get into the rabbit hole of Jenny. So have some time on you. Jenny, I want to thank you so much for being on the flexible neurotic podcast.

Unknown Speaker 42:12

Till next time. Yes was so fun

Sarah Milken 42:20

Hey, peeps, it's me again. I listened to this part two episode with Jedi Giles so I could summarize the golden nuggets for you to have actionable items to start using today. As you know, when I listen to a long episode, I'm like, oh my god, I love that. But then I can't even fucking remember what the specifics were. This is why I come back and do a golden nugget summary. And this part two, we dive deeper into more small hacks and changes we can make in midlife to benefit our bodies and our minds. Golden Nugget number one, what are the five pillars of a healthy life Jenny explains that there are five pillars to focus on when you're looking to change to a healthier lifestyle. First is nourishment, which is our food intake. We want to make sure we are both satisfied with what we are eating and that it's good for us to the second pillar is movement, which doesn't mean we have to be doing extensive cardio. This can be something as simple as taking a walk while you listen to your favorite midlife remix podcast or you know just about anything that moves your body. Mental health is the third pillar small things we can do like meditation or journaling, or hanging out with some friends to lower our stress levels. This is really important. Sleep is the fourth pillar and I know a lot of us mid lifers can feel like we're not getting enough of it. Anxiety keeps us up hormones, all the things. The last pillar to a healthy life is joy. This can be doing small things your day that make you happy. Finding your midlife passion project satisfying your sexual needs. Jenny did say an orgasm a day does keep the doctor away. You guys should get busy. Golden Nugget number two, choose to be healthy for yourself. If you want to take that step to actually be healthier in midlife, then you have to make sure that it is for you. We're constantly surrounded by images of how we should look how we should feel. This is an unhealthy reason and it should not be the driving force behind your new healthy choices. Jenny says you should be choosing a healthy lifestyle for how it makes you feel not others and then that way it will feel more consistent. You'll be more more motivated to stick with it. And it's not just to fit into your old jeans. This is why Jenny calls it a lifestyle. It is your life and you have to fully enjoy it. Golden Nugget number three how to satisfy our midlife hungers, peeps, you hear me talk about scratching the midlife issues right? Well Jenny is all for it. She explains it sometimes when you don't have that passion in your life to do something, then we can resort to Oh over eating to satisfy our metaphorical hunger for life. Jenny says that when we feel a sense of emptiness or boredom instead of grazing the pantry, we need to find the excitement to fuel loss. Golden Nugget number four indulgence without feeling guilty. Now even though Jenny has taught us all about healthy eating and up leveling your meals, she knows that everyone has to have a tree once in a while. Sometimes after being on a healthier diet, we can feel guilty for having a treat. Jenny says the way to enjoy a tree without feeling guilty is to save her while we're eating. If you're going to eat the cake and eat the damn cake, don't take a few small bites the week while you're driving or this or that, pick a day of the week where you sit down and enjoy the damn K to its fullest. You can also make a memory out of treating yourself by going for a walk with a friend or family member to get ice cream. If you're going to treat yourself then indulge baby have the cake drink a cup of tea sit on the porch just make it a moment the gold is dripping off these nuggets grab it use it there are three things you can do first, fucking subscribe to the podcast. Second, share it with some friends who like midlife shit and third, write an apple review reviews are so fucking annoying to write yes, they're 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 will be no clapping you all matter DM me, you know I always respond and of course follow my instagram at the flexible neurotic da and if you haven't listened to part one of this episode, go back and fucking listen. You'll love it. Love you talk to you.