ATHE_Transcript_Ep 448_Alicia Snyder
JJ Virgin: [00:00:00] Welcome to beginnings and breakthroughs. This is where I celebrate and coach people just like you, who are on a mission to heal their metabolisms, feel better, fast, and live their best lives. We will be walking through. What's worked for them and what they've discovered on their journeys, and then I'll coach them on their next best steps.
And if you're interested in being a guest, stay tuned and I'll be sharing how you can join me too.
Welcome to another session of beginnings and breakthroughs. I am super excited to introduce Alicia Snyder to you. She is a registered respiratory therapist who works on a flight transport teams in Cardinal Glennon. I gotta tell you when I hear that because of what. You know, nearly losing a son who was on a flight transport and been you know, had this going [00:01:00] on, shout out to you first for, for what an amazing career and the work that you do.
And. I'm super excited to share Alicia with you. She started on the Virgin diet through her doctor, her functional medicine, doctor Dr. Chris Warner. So, and then Dr. Chris Warner's business is healthy by design. So a big shout out to Dr. Chris Warner too. And we are gonna talk about her experience with the Virgin diet, and then we are gonna walk through where she's gonna go from there based on what's going on.
I think you're probably gonna hear a lot of things in the story there going, ah, that's just like me. That's what I need. So. There's lots of great takeaways all throughout this coaching session. And if you would love a coaching session, either you're just beginning or you had a breakthrough on one of my programs and you're looking for where to go next, all you need to do is go to JJvirgin.com/signup, and we will be in touch to see about having you on the show.
All right. I will be right back. So stay with me.[00:02:00]
Okay, Alicia. So what I'd love to do is start from the beginning of our relationship together. What, when did you find me and how did that happen and what was going on with you? What were you looking to change? Okay.
Alicia Snyder: I was in a low point in my life. I had reached out to a couple of I had seen an endocrinologist cuz I had noticed a nodule on.
Thyroid. And I just wasn't feeling myself tired all the time. I just didn't feel right. So I went to see an endocrinologist where they told me that I was fat and depressed, which I was aware. But I wanted to know why. Because I am an active person. I do like healthy foods. I do, you know,
JJ Virgin: so, and did they ever tell you anything about the nodule?
Alicia Snyder: So I got a biopsy on it and they basically said, oh, it's it's It's benign. So we're just gonna watch it. And I was not, oh, the
JJ Virgin: old famous watching Uhhuh. Yeah, I was not. [00:03:00]
Alicia Snyder: Okay. So I have a really good relationship with my chiropractor, who then had been working with me for some sensitivity training on, on some other things.
And he sent me to a functional endocrinologist. His name is Dr. Chris Warner. So I met with him and sat and cried in his office and it was a two hour doctor's appointment. And so he, you know, we, we set out on a plan with supplements. I was to read this book the, the Virgin diet. So I ordered the book, read it and got started on it.
And he uses your book actually for a lot of his patients. I have to know this guy, shout out
JJ Virgin: to him. He is shout out to him. Dr.
Alicia Snyder: Chris Warner, Dr. Chris Warner. He is with it's called health by design. And it's located in Chesterfield, Missouri.
JJ Virgin: All right. Yeah, that just makes me beyond excited and we need more functional medicine doctors doing, [00:04:00] doing the work, so a plus all the way around.
Okay. So then what.
Alicia Snyder: So I started October 11th, 2021. And by day three of my, my Virgin diet experience, I was having those intense cravings that you talked about in the book. So,
JJ Virgin: so you thought this is fantastic. ,
Alicia Snyder: you know, it, it. It was crazy how good I felt, but even in the first two days the mindset had changed.
The, it, it wasn't, it wasn't just trying a diet. It, it was, it was just different. So I got through day three and day four of the, of the cravings. And I guess I'm one for self torture because I. It, it was coming up on Halloween so I had candy all over my house, cuz it's a big, big deal in our subdivision and managed to get through my, my cravings and it was wonderful.
I, I, I had fun [00:05:00] finding things that didn't have the high five foods in there. It became a game almost.
JJ Virgin: So hear that everybody fun. It's a game and you know, what's so cool is, I mean, when I first wrote the book, we're, we're redoing it now. And it's gonna come out of swap to drop in January 20, 24, because there's so many swaps.
Now there's so many awesome things, right. It's so much easier than it was.
Alicia Snyder: I really enjoyed It was just, it, it really was fun. I got a couple friends on it as well. I had one friend that had been battling like a skin issue for two years and I'm like, dude, I'm telling you, it's gotta be this. Or it's got, you know, you gotta read this book.
And so her and I had fun, you know, she would find something that I hadn't found yet. And then I would find something like, you gotta try this salsa. There's zero sugar in it. It's you know, so it was,
JJ Virgin: it was. Cool. Okay. So what happened?
Alicia Snyder: So I am down in my weight. I have stayed away from gluten, cuz that was a huge, I mean I [00:06:00] triggered within, I don't know, 30 minutes of eating the pasta that I had.
JJ Virgin: And what happened? I
Alicia Snyder: bloated out to like, I was seven months pregnant. I couldn't breathe like that feeling of. And I think you talk about it in the book too. Like when you eat a meal, you're supposed to be Contently full, but not like I can't breathe full. And while eating that, I was like, oh, I just feel like I'm so full, but I hadn't even, I don't even think I'd eaten a quarter of it yet.
I already felt the fullness. But then after that, the bloat came along. And I was, I was miserable. Like I was showing my stepdaughter. I had
JJ Virgin: a t-shirt look, I'm not pregnant. You know, what I love about that is it takes away this idea of, I think I'll have a cheap day , you know, cause you're like, oh, no way.
No,
Alicia Snyder: no. Like, I mean, it, it is legit of somebody offering you something. And you're like, oh, I can't have that. No,
JJ Virgin: none.
Alicia Snyder: so I do [00:07:00] think so. I've, I've noticed I mean, I'll be completely honest. I didn't have a reaction to soy, so I was like, okay. You know, no reaction,
JJ Virgin: whatnot. And do we know anything about your thyroid nodule?
Is your thyroid normal?
Alicia Snyder: it's it got smaller. So the nodule started to get smaller. I mean, I couldn't even like wash my back in the shower. Without pushing it into my airway and sending me into a coughing fit. Right. I don't wanna have surgery. And so when I talked to Dr Warner, he said, you know, he goes, I'm not saying that surgery's completely out, but let's do these things right.
Let's do the elimination. Let's do so since I have not been direct with. Keeping soy out. I've noticed. I mean, the nodule is like right here and it's starting to come back again. So today I've in my phase two of elimination, so I'm gonna do another round of it. [00:08:00]
JJ Virgin: Okay. So we soy gluten, any other ones that.
You noticed didn't work well for you? Dairy.
Alicia Snyder: I break out
JJ Virgin: horribly. Me too. Isn't that a bummer?
Alicia Snyder: it is because I love
JJ Virgin: cheese. who doesn't. I, I don't trust someone who doesn't love cheese, but I, yeah, the reality is very few people are loved back by cheese. That's that's the sad thing, but you know, there's, there's a lot of options out there now.
Thankfully mm-hmm okay. So dairy, gluten, soy. I, I think we're so much better off not having these in the diet anyway. How about corn or peanuts.
Alicia Snyder: So I haven't had any reaction to corn or peanuts. I still try to stay away from that stuff though, like anything, because I just, I, I resort back to what your book says about it, and I'm, I'm blown away like, oh, I'm, you know, I know that they talk about corn where you don't really get much out of it.
But not only do you get much out of it, it's not putting great things in your [00:09:00] body. You know,
JJ Virgin: so right now, if you're in a barbecue and they've got organic corn on the cob and you know, they're barbecuing it, Hey, big deal. But if you're like eating all this process, GMO corn, this is a major problem, major, major, major, major, and that, and the problem is that's really where people are getting their corn.
So. Yikes. So, yeah, that's, I mean, that's what I talk about. It's just, you know, I mean, gosh, you could do peanuts, legume, you know, one of the more moldy crops, or you could do all these tree nuts, which have better fatty acid profile, not a hard thing to, to do. And then what what's your story with sugar?
Alicia Snyder: Oh, sugar is my worst enemy.
I'm not gonna lie. I mean, I would, if I, if I sat here and was like, oh, I'm so good at staying away from it. I would be absolutely lying to you. So in this whole process as well I have stopped drinking [00:10:00] alcohol. I realized that that was a problem, but I've noticed that I've kind of replaced that vice.
With my sugar intake.
JJ Virgin: I will tell you when I was working a lot in Palm, the Palm Springs area with clients. And so as a result, I had clients that were coming out of Betty Ford. It's big center there. And what would happen? Not saying that you're, you know, a Betty Ford level like needed, but what I saw there was that once someone got through the alcohol, they went straight to sugar.
If we didn't fix. So . Yeah. Yeah. So we can talk about that too. So, and any issue with eggs? No. Great. No, I love pastured eggs. If you can handle 'em a lot of people with autoimmune disease, it can be a trigger. So then really, you know, that soy, gluten, dairy are out that you really, you know, are just staying away from corn and peanuts.
And so it sounds like where we really need to focus next is on the sugar and. Is why I wrote sugar impact diet. And we'll get to that in a moment. [00:11:00] So where, so tell me what happened in terms of like weight loss symptom shifts, where you know, what changed and now where do you wanna go from here? Okay.
Alicia Snyder: So first weight loss I lost I think I lost 13 pounds in the first week and a half. Wow. Yeah, it was very. It was, it was quick, but it wasn't like, I could feel the difference in my clothing. So I tried to stay and still, I tried to stay off the scale. Cuz I know sometimes that can get frustrating.
JJ Virgin: Well, we're gonna talk about how to use a scale correctly, but when you lose that kind of weight that quickly, it is you were having inflammatory response to that stuff, right?
Alicia Snyder: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So to me, it, it was it was kind of eyeopening in the sense of like, what have I been doing to my body?
Even, even stuff that I, you know, maybe thought healthy, like, [00:12:00] oh, I'm having popcorn as a snack, you know? And, and stuff like that. So I lost, I lost the weight. I ended up losing a total of 25 pounds once all was said and done I.
I used to be really Ragey. Very short tempered, very you know, I have a, a six year old, so it was, if it wasn't the way I expected it was, you know, it was a, I, it was a yelling household for the most part. And , and I've, I, that. It's very much. I'm very much now back to my, my old self that I feel like where I'm.
Oh, I mean, like, let's talk about it. Let's you know and again, I'd be lying if I, if it, if I said there wasn't any cuz you know, she's six , but I've, I've calmed down a lot. I'm not as anxious and high strung and. I do a lot of affirmations. I do a lot of meditation now to [00:13:00] help as well and nice and overall, I overall just feel so good and
that's why I was like, oh you know, let's
JJ Virgin: do another round. Well, where would you like to go from here? Like what, you know, you look forward three to six months a year and what would've changed in your health so that you can do, you know, again, like you talk about how different your household is. We don't get healthy to get healthy.
We get healthy because of what it allows us to do. So what, like, you know, where do you wanna be? What do you wanna see shift in your health? Like what's gonna happen here cause we'll future self it, and then we can make it happen. So
Alicia Snyder: really, I don't want to feel dependent on sugar to make me happy. I don't want that.
Oh, I just need a Dr. Pepper with the carbonation and the, you know, or the, oh, I, you know, These gummy bears are gluten free. I can
JJ Virgin: eat it. You know, beware the gluten free trap. Be [00:14:00] there ,
Alicia Snyder: you know, but it's it's it's oh, I can have this little you know, this little treat it's I, I want, I don't want to depend on sugar because, you know, I used to depend on alcohol and I've successfully, I will be nine months sober on the.
JJ Virgin: So I, yeah. Well, if you can do that, you can do this. I know. I know. So let's do this. Okay. Okay. So get rid of the sugar. I'll tell you when I wrote sugar impact diet, I wrote it after the Virgin diet, because when I first was playing around with the Virgin diet online, it was not dropped seven foods. It was dropped six foods.
It was gluten, dairy, eggs, corn, soy peanuts. I do not have a sweet tooth could care less. I would plow through like salty any day of the week, but crunchy but sugar now. And so I tell people to pull these six foods out and guess what they go eat. And I'm like, what are you doing? Just like you said, oh, there's gluten free gummy bears.
I'm like, oh my [00:15:00] gosh, stop it. Yeah. So So I realized I had to pull seven because really when you look at it, the thing that can massively disrupt your gut microbiome is sugar and especially fructose. And of course, artificial sweeteners, we know, make us glucose intolerant. So I was like, all right, you know, we gotta get rid of this stuff.
And I had people coming off the Virgin diet who were like, you know, Gluten dairy eggs, corn, soy, peanuts. No problem. But I can't quit the sugar and or people that were going, but it's honey. , it's like, I'm like honey sugar. It's honey. It's fruit juice, concentrate. It's but I'm using Splenda. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna, I'm going to tackle this one next.
And my goal was to clear up all this confusion out there. It's really not. Eating a no sugar diet, you know, all carbohydrates turn to sugar. We just wanna make sure that we are making them slowly from the food we eat, not mainlining sugar. And so it's really knowing which to choose which to lose and, [00:16:00] and getting control of your sweet tooth, because,
unless you retrain your taste buds to appreciate like a blueberry or cinnamon or vanilla as sweet, you will be trapped. And that is why these things that are out there that are treats totally undermine you because it's like your body goes, Ooh. Ooh, you know, yeah. Wow. Yeah. I need more of that. And we're reality is, you know, we, we were never, we weren't built to be in a world with food available all the time and food that's been developed by food companies to be overly sweet and, and not very satisfying so that you eat it and you go, oh, That was good.
I need more. Right. You know, and I think that's one of the big differences between eating, you know, more whole foods and sitting down eating a real meal versus eating some of that stuff is you're just never really satisfied. You just want more, so, that's what I did with the sugar impact diet. That is gonna be the one that you're gonna [00:17:00] wanna move into because we've really uncovered your hidden food intolerances.
Now we need to retrain your taste buds to appreciate the natural sweetness. We need to get rid of your sweet tooth, cuz you can't white knuckle your way through it. Like when I looked at. All the sugar stuff. I went, the biggest mistake we're doing out there is, you know, and, and it was very helpful being in Palm Springs with the Betty Ford clinic.
Cause what I saw there was, you know, they would take them out of the environment where they got in trouble and put them in there until they got them through it. But with food, you can't do that. What are you gonna do? you know, we eat it's all around us. You can decide you're not gonna go to a bar or have alcohol in your house, but you can't, I'm not gonna have food here.
I mean, you could, it's not gonna work for very long. So one of the things I first discovered about this is that if we lead first with protein, That for so many of us, we're not getting enough protein. Protein is like we have three macronutrients and then I really wish fiber was considered one and water.[00:18:00]
Now what's interesting is we have protein, fat and, and carbohydrates. We can live without carbohydrates, but we can't live without protein and fat. And protein of all of those macronutrients is. The most satisfying satiating. It's also the most thermic. It's takes like 20 to 30% more calories just to have your body assimilate it.
It's gonna help you with your muscle mass, which when you've got better muscle mass, more muscle mass, which as soon as we start to get over the age of 35, 40. We start to become anabolically resistant where we can't build muscle as easily. When you have more muscle, you have better glucose tolerance, you are more insulin sensitive.
So that's really gonna be your next step is working through that so that you break free of it because that's what we have to do, you know? So that's what we're gonna work on, but I have a couple questions for you first, before we get into that. Number one, how's your sleep?
Alicia Snyder: My sleep. Let's rewind to three weeks ago when I didn't
JJ Virgin: have the puppy.
yeah. [00:19:00] Let's without a puppy. Yes. Without a puppy. See, I got our puppy and I wasn't home for three weeks and my son was, and he trained the puppy. And when we came home, the puppy sleeps through the night. Lucky you
Alicia Snyder: lucky you. Yeah. Right. lucky you mm-hmm . Yeah, right before we went home, he was sleeping five or six hours, but that was just for two nights.
So before that I, that was another thing that I really with, with seeing Dr. Warner, I really changed, like I said, it was a mindset thing. Mm-hmm so I do have shift work as far as I work night shift and 24 hour shifts with work. Mm. And I was not making sleep a priority. Like I was like, oh, I'll sleep when I'm dead.
Or you. I've got
JJ Virgin: things that, that statement's like, well, that's good, cuz you'll be dead sooner. You'll be dead to do that. You know?
Alicia Snyder: I mean I would work. I would maybe take a two hour nap during the day. I'd go in tonight. My night shift at 7:00 PM. I'd get off at seven 30 in the morning. And then if I had things to do, I would just stay up [00:20:00] it.
Horrible.
JJ Virgin: All right. I think the longest. So what do you do besides puppy situation?
Alicia Snyder: yeah, no. So now sleep is a priority. Sleep has become where I wanna be in bed by 9, 9 30. My little one will wake up anywhere from six to seven, just depending on the day. And. I went from not being a morning person at all.
I mean, struggling to even get out of bed some days to being ready, you know, like, all right, let's get up and let's go. And you know, so when she comes in, I'm up for the day when I do work, work On my 24 hour shift that I work, I do try to nap as much as possible. Cause you never know when you're gonna get a call and if you'll be, you know, up during the night because of work.
So I kind of take the day to, to really sleep, but I've really tried to make, sleep a priority and I've really seen the difference.
JJ Virgin: Cool. And how often are you on shifts that [00:21:00] you have to interrupt your sleep? I have
Alicia Snyder: 1 24 hour shift a week and one 12 hour night shift.
JJ Virgin: So the one thing I'd recommend there, are you using any kind of sleep tracker like an aura ring or an apple watch or anything?
Alicia Snyder: I do have my apple watch.
JJ Virgin: Cool. So I would just definitely keep track of it, especially when you have your shift. So you can make sure that you are prioritizing sleep. I'm glad that you have, that's such a big one, especially for where we're moving into next, which is really. Watching insulin sensitivity blood sugar balance and like poor sleep you're done.
And you probably notice it when you've got a 24 hour, shift or a night shift, like the next day you're hungrier and right. And it's not, [00:22:00] you're not hungry for salmon low and behold. So , you know, be aware of that. Next thing is what, so your thyroid nodule, thyroid hormone levels, everything there is fine.
Alicia Snyder: Everything would always come back in the and I'm gonna do my little quotes here, quote, unquote, normal range,
JJ Virgin: which I'd mean I'd concerned if you didn't have a functional medicine doctor with the functional medicine doctor, they're not gonna put you into the lame normal, they're gonna put you into the ideal
Alicia Snyder: normal.
So, right. And he looked at so many different other things that, that goes into that, you know, it wasn't just like, oh, like your T3 and everything, you know, it. Oh, well, yeah, those might be in the, in the typical Western medicine, normal range. However you have this, this and this that's going on, that could be playing into that as well.
JJ Virgin: So you weigh yourself. Do you have a scale that also does your body composition?
Alicia Snyder: That I do
JJ Virgin: not. Okay. This is an expenditure you're gonna wanna [00:23:00] get. Okay. And we just were going through them. To find there is a Tanita scale. That's like a hundred bucks or less, that does body composition. And I will put the link on my website too.
So if you're listening to this going, I want this scale, I'll put it on my website under resources, but it's basically a body composition scale that tells your visceral fat and what we are gonna wanna watch. Now, do you know what your waist and hip measurements are?
Alicia Snyder: I have them in the notes on my phone. My hips, the last I measured were well, and I haven't remeasured, I guess, since I've lost on my.
weight. Oh, well, yeah, I, yeah.
JJ Virgin: okay. So when, one thing we wanna do. Yes. So I wanna get off of looking at a scale for weight and here's, here's an idea. Do you remember when we used to just look at total Cholesterol. And you'd look at total cholesterol and, and make a decision on people's health. And then we realized that total cholesterol was not a meaningful number that you needed to [00:24:00] see what was, you know, the different types, LDL and HDL.
And then we went further and went. That's not even meaningful. We have to see their particle size and number. It's the same with weight. You've gotta know what your weight's made up. Right. Right. So 150 pound woman who has 30% body fat is in a completely different health state, metabolically, healthy state than a woman.
Who's got 20% body fat one's metabolically healthy one is not. And so what I want to do is we we've got so much weirdness around scales and scales are purely biometric tools. That it's not a mean friend. It's not there to shame you. It's there for you to first go, okay. What is my weight made up of, and for you to approach it as a scientist, as a researcher, as a detective, right?
Not as the evil twin is gonna go say bad things about yourself. So that's overdone okay. You go in there and you go, okay. So if I weigh [00:25:00] whatever it is, and I'm just gonna use 150 pounds as an example, I wanna know what my weight is made up of. And there's two big components that you're gonna get on the scale.
One is fat and one is everything else. And everything else is called your lean body mass. Your lean body mass is your organs and your bones and your muscle. The thing you can really change there is your muscle. You're not gonna all of a sudden get your organs growing. if not, if you are, there's a bigger problem or getting a lot of bone density, it's your muscle.
And. Your muscle changes everything, because if you are holding onto and building muscle and for so many people, it's, it's, it's like they're, they're sitting, trying to lose weight when they really need to put on muscle. It's like, they're, they're going, they're approaching the wrong, the wrong direction.
Right? Right. So muscle holds everything in tighter. Increases your metabolism dramatically takes a lot for your body to maintain muscle on your body, [00:26:00] build it and maintain it. And it also is where you first start to get really good blood sugar control and, and your insulin starts to get sensitive. So I want you to have a body comp scale and a specifically one that can tell visceral what's called visceral adiposity.
It's the fat around your gut because that stuff's the really bad. That's more inflammatory and we wanna make sure I just had someone who went from six pounds of visceral fat to two. That is like a big win. And reality is we want you to be somewhere between, you know, for women, the range is 15 to 25% athletic, 15 to 20% normal, 18 to 22%.
You can scooch up to 25%, but more than. Don't recommend it. So we really wanna see where you're at and what needs to happen for you to get there. And if you are building muscle, you will then. Boost your metabolism and get better at burning fat. Like it will happen. But if you focus on just losing weight, [00:27:00] you might lose some of that muscle and you'll actually start to slow down your metabolism and make yourself worse.
Not better. Okay. You also wanna be watching your waist and hip measurements to make sure that you're losing your waist as you're losing weight and that your waist hip ratio is 0.8 or less. Like what? You don't wanna have people, you know, have yourself be a one-to-one. Right. You gotta make sure that your waist is coming down.
I would say if you're losing weight, but not losing your waist you're actually making yourself worse. Not better, cuz you might be becoming, you know, sarcopenic, you know, losing muscle. So in order to do that, Number one, you've got to monitor correctly with a body composition scale and, and once a week doing your waist and hip measurement.
And number two, you need to then work on exercise. That's gonna help improve muscle mass. So what are you doing
for exercise?
Alicia Snyder: So exercise I've been doing I [00:28:00] started Asana revel. Yoga. So I've been doing yoga at trying to do it at least three times a week. And what
JJ Virgin: kind of yoga is that?
Alicia Snyder: It's, it's an app called Asana.
JJ Virgin: Okay. So it's an app. Mm-hmm . So what style yoga are you doing?
Alicia Snyder: So it, it has me on this, like beginner's or I guess it had me on this beginner's plan and it kind of gives me.
A video daily. Like when I go, then the next video happens and then the next video. Okay. So how hard is it? I, I like it moderate, so I definitely like a challenge. I think I could be challenged
more.
JJ Virgin: All right. So can you change it? So cuz here's what, here's what we wanna have happen. You want to, and I think yoga's a great thing, but it's not gonna be enough.
So where I'd love you to do yoga maybe once or twice a week. I'd also like you to do some real resistance training. Yoga's [00:29:00] gonna give you good resistance training with body weight, but it's hard. You're not gonna be able to get everything that you need from that. So another easy thing to do at home is to get a TRX trainer.
These are like 120 bucks. You can go on YouTube and see all sorts of, I mean, there's so many different things you can do with this. So if you have a TRX trainer and a couple sets of dumbbells and maybe one of those big stability balls, you can pretty much get a full on home workout. Okay. So you can create a home gym for like, you know, 200, 250 bucks
Alicia Snyder: we've got, and we've got a lot of stuff.
It's just, that is it's it's making excuses. Yeah. So stop
JJ Virgin: that. Yeah. yeah, stop the excuses. Just, just stop it. any other thing you need help with? Just don't do that.
you have to, and this is honestly why I love personal trainers that, and I learned it early on. I was a personal trainer 30 years ago and, and I first was really lenient.
Oh, if you can't show up, just let me know. You know, and then I was like, no, you get, you get [00:30:00] charged. Whether you show up or not. And I started to think I should probably charge double if you don't show up. Because the biggest reason I think personal trainers are successful with people is cuz people. Show up yeah.
It's the number one success strategy show up. So you gotta put that in your calendar every day, some movement daily as a non-negotiable. Yeah, we
Alicia Snyder: so I actually had, before I saw my functional doctor, I was seeing a personal trainer because I was like, you know, I was to the point, like something has to change, something has to change.
But was just missing that additional little piece I had. Seeing her you know, just cuz I was like, nothing's
JJ Virgin: nothing's happening. Well, when you want to shift your body composition, step one is to fix your diet. Step two is to add this piece in. And I, I think that one of the best ways to use a personal trainer is to have them come and set up a routine for you.
And then like once a month come and mix it up. Okay. And give you the things to do. Okay. Unless you're not [00:31:00] disciplined enough, in which case, then you need to have 'em come over, but you know, get disciplined, right? Yeah. okay. What do you take supplement wise?
Alicia Snyder: Oh my goodness. I have a whole list. I take a multivitamin mm-hmm D3 K2.
JJ Virgin: Okay.
Alicia Snyder: I take a vitamin C powder. I take a probiotic mm-hmm and magnesium.
JJ Virgin: Okay.
Alicia Snyder: Zinc mm-hmm
I take biotin and
JJ Virgin: let's see what else. So the one thing I'm wondering about, and this would be great one to talk to your functional medicine doctor about sure. Is. Sometimes now this is where, you know, really making sure your sleep is dialed. You're start, you're adding in resistance training.
You're gonna lead protein first with this diet, and I'm gonna walk you through sugar impact diet which will help tremendously. But I heard you say these sugar cravings and, and the one thing I thought of is it may be [00:32:00] interesting for you to do a trial of five HTP. Okay. And you know, it's, it's, I have it in my sleep candy.
So I take it at night before bed. That's one way you could do it. You could try taking 50 milligrams in the morning, in the evening and see if that helps. So just straight that, but when I hear that, I always go, gosh, you know, we should do trial five HDP and see if maybe you are just your serotonin's a little low and that's why you're craving sweets, cuz it can make that happen.
So just, just to put that in there, now, walk me through like what's your typical eating day? What time do you eat, you know, eat your meals. Do you snack in between what's what's typical for you?
Alicia Snyder: Typically it is I am a horrible breakfast
JJ Virgin: person. All right. We're gonna reframe that. cause we're not gonna apologize or say things like that about ourself.
Okay. I, there are enough other people that
Alicia Snyder: will [00:33:00] say things about us. I don't like eating breakfast. How about that? Okay.
JJ Virgin: Well, you don't have to eat. You don't have to eat breakfast. Why don't you like eating it?
Alicia Snyder: I'm just not a I, I don't really like breakfast foods. I mean, even some people will be like, oh, let's have breakfast for dinner.
And I'm like, no, thank you. but
JJ Virgin: most breakfast foods are desserts, so that makes me happy. Realize that breakfast is breaking the fast. You could do that at 11, you could do it at noon. You can do it whenever you don't have to eat breakfast. Like all the rules are out. I used to be really hardcore eat within an hour of waking up, but the research really doesn't support that.
It does support eating more of your calories during, you know, the normal circadian rhythm. So you don't go, okay, I'm just gonna eat it all at night. No, don't do that. Right. And it does support stopping, eating at least three to four hours before bed and going to bed at a normal, decent hour and really optimizing circadian rhythm.
So sleep when it's dark. Be up when it's light eat the majority of your calories earlier in the light time when you're really active. So that's, that's [00:34:00] key. But you know, if you could do your perfect eating for you, what would it look like? Like what would make you happy and work with your, like when you're hungry, et cetera.
Alicia Snyder: So perfect eating for me would be
JJ Virgin: by perfect. I mean, that makes you happy. Oh, not that you're being perfect. Okay. Okay.
Alicia Snyder: Usually waking up drinking my coffee to get me get my little caffeine jolt.
JJ Virgin: What time do you wake up? Anywhere from six to seven. Okay. Anything in your coffee?
Alicia Snyder: Almond creamer any sugar in that?
Yes, there is. So. But I like black coffee too, so I know that I could
JJ Virgin: choose good. So let's just have black coffee sounds good. That actually breaks your fast and messes up something called atophagy, which we want to extend because it's basically your body's cellular or detox. Okay. So we have coffee then what happens?
Alicia Snyder: Then it's usually bouncing around the house, running errands and stuff. If I, if I do lunch, [00:35:00] Usually my lunches are lighter and that was something that I did discuss with my, with Dr. Warner is eating a heavier lunch and then my, my lighter dinners. But it's, I'm even struggling cuz it's gonna sound like I don't eat a lot, but I do
JJ Virgin: well.
So when do you eat a lot?
Alicia Snyder: Usually it. Dinner is my biggest meal because that's usually, you know, all families home. It's the evening chaos of husbands home from work. Even if I'm working that night, but we try to have dinner on the table by five 30 every night.
JJ Virgin: Oh, that's great. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And what's a typical dinner, typical
Alicia Snyder: dinner consists of a protein and a starch sometimes.
And usually it always like protein starch and vegetable is usually what it consists.
JJ Virgin: Okay, take, give me a typical one, a typical one with the
meals.
Alicia Snyder: I mean the other night we had steak and a baked potato and a salad.
JJ Virgin: Okay. And how [00:36:00] big of a steak? What kind of steak? It
Alicia Snyder: was from my brother's farm. It was a ribeye, but I don't need the, I try not, I don't like that.
So I cut it all off. Usually. And I only ate half of it, so I probably ate
JJ Virgin: five ounces. Okay. And then a whole baked potato. I did do a whole baked potato that day, anything on it.
Alicia Snyder: I had. I did do sour cream. I knew I was doing . I was horrible this weekend, cuz I was like, I'm, you know, I'm doing my, my second elimination.
So
JJ Virgin: it was my, so that diet mindset is what hurts us all. And here's what's amazing. Have you tried kite hill sour cream? I haven't. It's awesome. Is it it's dairy free. Okay. You won't notice a difference. What's it called? You don't need to actually go cheat cuz you can just have that. Okay. Cool. Kite hill dairy free cream cheese.
I think it's [00:37:00] almond. Okay. So, and then you had a salad. How big of a salad?
Alicia Snyder: My salad was, I would say a cup and a half.
JJ Virgin: And what was.
Alicia Snyder: Tomatoes, cucumbers carrots, green peppers, sunflower seeds.
JJ Virgin: That's it. I think what kind of dressing?
Alicia Snyder: I do a, I is a Tuscan olive oil, cranberry vinegar dressing that I make
JJ Virgin: and cranberries like cranberry juice.
What is it? No, it's a
Alicia Snyder: cranberry balsamic
JJ Virgin: vinegar. Oh, okay. And just a little bit of that. yeah, cause that's pretty that's, that can be a sugary thing. So here's a simple makeover for that. Have a little bit more stick. Now, when I look at your overall, if you wanna eat two meals a day, are you having a snack in between lunch and dinner?
Alicia Snyder: I, it just kind of depends if my kid's [00:38:00] home and you know, if I grab a snack though, like I have cut up fruit, fruits and vegetables in my fridge that I'm usually grabbing. Because a lot of the snack food is more
JJ Virgin: processed and I also had issues food's gross. Don't touch snack food.
Alicia Snyder: had an issue with like losing my hair
JJ Virgin: and stuff too.
So, yes. Yeah. So I, well, whenever I hear that, I always think thyroid, when you eat, you eat lunch and then you eat dinner. What time is lunch usually hit or
Alicia Snyder: miss? 1130 to 1230.
JJ Virgin: Okay. So you're basically, if you didn't do breakfast and you normally don't do breakfast. No. Mm-hmm. So you normally eat like 11 30, 12 and 5 36.
So you're doing a really, like, you're doing a great job doing intermittent fasting, even though you didn't intend to do it sounds like, do you eat anything after dinner?
Alicia Snyder: If I do it's making like, like I'll do yogurt, fruit bowls for my little. So it'll be fruit, but she's in bed by, I mean, we're getting her [00:39:00] ready for bed and stuff by like seven 30.
So there's usually nothing consumed after
JJ Virgin: seven. Okay. And you go to bed when
Alicia Snyder: 9, 9 30.
JJ Virgin: Yeah. So what I'd love to do is just get that done by 6, 6 30. So it shut it down. You gotta stop eating three to four hours before bed. What happens on your shifts? Are you eating when you're doing the overnight shifts?
Alicia Snyder: So I try not to, usually I eat before I leave. And then I've been packing either leftovers from dinner and that I'll eat. Usually I try to eat it. A small, like before midnight. So that way I can lay down
JJ Virgin: and sleep. And do you need to do that? No, I
Alicia Snyder: don't. Okay. It's it's more or less that has, I guess, become my safety net.
Because if we do go out and travel. [00:40:00] for whatever reason, traveling. I don't know if it's the adrenaline rush of taking it's the adrenaline care of the patient, you know, and all that. Usually it's like, especially if we're flying, you know, it's God, we're starving, you know? So
JJ Virgin: usually that's so I would, what I call my emergency food.
I would really work on for you, cuz I think it's gonna help with your blood sugar. So when you intermittent fast, which could be anything from a 12 to 14 hour fast, but really the research is done on 16 hours, 16 to 18 hours. You naturally do that and it helps with autophagy cleaning out the cellular debris.
It helps with activating stem cells, growth hormone. Cleaning out all the bad stuff outta your gut, through your migrating Mort complex, it helps with blood sugar control insulin sensitivity to be like all this great stuff, right? The challenge will be making sure that you get enough protein when you're not eating that much.
The thing I'm gonna emphasize. So I have these bars that are, are brownie collagen bars. [00:41:00] And what I would say is if you used those and took them with you on. On your trips. That way, if you are starving, you know, before the patient comes in, you can always have one of those that will keep you going. Or one of the keto bars that I have, I would keep a bunch of those with you.
Those are my emergency stuff that I keep with me. And if I'm trapped somewhere, because you never know when you're flying or what else, what, where you might get stuck. But instead of eating before I need to just in case, cause let's face it. When you're going into that and your adrenaline's up, you're not gonna be hungry.
It's gonna be after when everything settles down, right. That you're gonna go. Whoa. Because all of a sudden phew, so you'll have that there and you'll be okay. So that's what I would recommend there. And what I would say is we've gotta make sure at dinner, like how I would make over dinner is we gotta get your protein levels up.
Cuz where you wanna be in terms of body composition et cetera. Generally, it's a pound it's [00:42:00] it's at the lowest end, a gram per pound of ideal lean body mass. And at the high end, which probably is gonna be about 130 for you, 120, 130. So that's like, let's say your lowest end would be 120 grams of protein, but you probably would do better more with like 160.
So three, two meals getting in that much protein is not very easy, right? What I want you to do is you're building your plate and you'll see this, get the sugar impact diet. Cause you're gonna go through that and it's gonna help you get rid of your sweet tooth forever. And there's a tapering down that you do, but it really helps you focus your pro your meals on starting building your plate around protein.
or your smoothie. This is why I like smoothies. Cuz you can literally do, you know, I'll do two scoops of my protein powder and then I do a scoop of collagen and then I'll use this flax protein enriched rich milk from good karma. And I've got 40 grams of protein already. oh wow. You know? Okay. And I can just go, woo.
I've got that. So, you [00:43:00] know, you gotta look at now, how do I. 50 grams of protein at a meal, or even maybe 60, like we've got a protein focus then your non-starchy vegetables. And if you wanna get five servings of non-starchy vegetables as your baseline, each you know, floor each day, that's your bottom line.
We're gonna have to make sure, like, if you're doing a salad, basically I would've doubled that salad. Then we would've gotten three vegetable servings. Like how I would've made over that dinner is started with a little bigger serving of. Okay. More like eight ounces because you're not eating as, as often eight ounces of that.
I would've cooked, cut the potato down, but I wouldn't have done the potato next first. I would have you eat the protein and make sure you get it right. It's very satiating. You might find after that. You're like, I can't really eat that much more. I would've added in some broccoli, maybe with a little grass fed ghee and I would've added in a bigger salad.
And between the steak, the salad. [00:44:00] The broccoli you've got pretty much all the fat you're gonna need. Cuz you had some sunflower seeds there, the olive oil, you had a little maybe ghee or olive oil on the, on the broccoli. You also have your ribeye, even though you cut out the meat it's marbled. So you, and you had, I'm assuming a grass fed grass finish cuz it was from a farm.
So you're pretty well set there. And you're probably gonna be full. But if you're not full, it would've been half that baked potato, like half a small baked potato with a little bit of that kite hill sour cream, and you would've been done easy makeover and a typical lunch for you is what could we just throw in, throw in some smoothies here and there, because it's an easy way to kick this protein up.
Alicia Snyder: So I do have, I do have your chocolate protein shake. So I guess if I'm hungry in the mornings or I feel like I can't, then I'll.
JJ Virgin: You don't have to do that though. You could just have that for lunch. Okay. Like you could just make for lunch. It's it's what I do a lot of times just cuz I'm out of time.
so I'll just, I literally will take that good karma, flax milk [00:45:00] and collagen and my shake powder. And then I'll throw in some extra fiber and some more, some more flax. So I'm kicking it, you know, again, kicking that protein up to make sure that I'm getting what I need. It's easier to do. When you have three meals a day, it's a little tougher in two.
That's why you wanna lead with that first, which you're gonna find when you have enough protein and those healthy fats that you always have to count the protein, the fat and the protein. So, you know, if you're doing a smoothie, like I'm getting fat from the flax milk fat from the flax in there. So I've got a pretty well counted or maybe I'm doing some avocado.
So I'm doing protein, adding any fat I'm getting in from that then adding non-starchy vegetables. I'll tend to, if I do it that for lunch, have a salad on the side. I don't like putting greens in my shake. I wish I did. And then, you know, then we'll see what else happens if you do a little bit of a fruit and smoothie, that's part of your starchy carbs, but your focus really is protein, healthy fats.
Non-starchy vegetables and then maybe a little bit, and you'll see it when you go [00:46:00] through the sugar impact diet, how easy this is to do, but I think it's gonna make it really easy for you to go through this. Okay. So then
Alicia Snyder: do you recommend that I beings, I literally just started to do the Virgin diet since I understand.
What my sensitivities are and stuff. Do you, you already
JJ Virgin: know, so you don't like, I would check in once a year just to make sure eggs aren't an issue, but since we know that gluten dairy soy are out okay. And that you really shouldn't be eating corn, you know? Okay. There's better options than peanuts. Your big issue is sugar.
Okay. Yeah. So basically sugar impact. Diet's gonna be way easier for you to move into now that you've done the Virgin diet. Okay. There's gonna be the first phase where I take you from high sugar impact foods to medium sugar impact foods. You're already there. So it's gonna be, so you could actually, there's a taper week that I take people through so that I don't have to go cold Turkey, cuz that's how people fail.
But I'm guessing you've already done that. With what you [00:47:00] with how you've been eating so we could move you right into the next two weeks of it. Okay, cool. And then you'll see some and, and what it really helps you do the goal with that program is to get rid of your sweet tooth. I would like that. And , well, some of your sweet tooth realize, like if you are doing a job, that's kicking up adrenaline like that, it will deplete serotonin.
And it's gonna make you want sugar. So it's kind of a rebound impact to follow up with something, you know, it might be interesting when you get through that, but that stress part to either get a GABA chewable to take there's a product there's there's a design for health has a great GABA chewable. I'm actually gonna start bringing this product out.
Cause it's a, it's a great way for you just to kinda like calm, calm down or following again when you're off work with the 5HTP. So I think that step let's test those and see if that can help too. And eating more [00:48:00] protein helps tremendously. Okay.
Alicia Snyder: Yeah. I Def, I mean, I can, I know that I don't get enough protein.
I
JJ Virgin: know that I don't, most people don't because in the United States, for some reason, we're scared of it. Like, you know, be scared of like the process, bad seed oils. Don't be scared of protein. You know that you eat a lot of protein. You're full, you won't eat, you eat, you eat cereal. You're gonna be hungry.
So. Cool. Yes. All right. So body composition, scale, weight training, TRX playing around with 5HTP and GABA to see how those work, you can talk to your functional medicine doc about it, and sugar impact diet. Those are your things. And then of course, from tracking your sleep and
Alicia Snyder: what was JJ, what was the name of that scale that you
JJ Virgin: recommended?
I'm gonna look at the one that we just. Because I just had Jason on our team. Who's awesome. Do some research for me because I hate researching [00:49:00] and he found I do. I'm such a baby. I don't blame. I hate research Tanita BC 5 30, 3 inner scan, body comp monitor. Right now save 17%. it's $99. Yeah. And it does all the things we want, but the most specific things I want is body fat percentage, body water, and then visceral fat.
So.
Alicia Snyder: And then do you always use flaxseed milk versus almond milk
JJ Virgin: versus no, you can rotate them around. The reason I'm liking that one is cuz they have extra protein in it. So it's a way for me to smuggle it in. So. You know, you can use almond, you can use coconut, just, you can't use ones with cream. And when you start the morning and you start with an almond milk creamer with sugar, you just told your taste buds wake up.
Yeah. And want more sugar. So you gotta stop that. Okay. One thing that does take your sweet tooth away is sour. [00:50:00] So, you know, like if you saw me, I was drinking the Suja lemonade. It's got a little bit of Stevia, but it's got cayenne pepper, so it's a little Zippy and it, the sour can take your sweet tooth away.
Okay. Yes. Super fun.
Alicia Snyder: Yeah. There were mornings there for a while. I'm also reading a book right now called atomic habits to try and build these mm-hmm smaller habits. That you know, pay off in the long run. And you know, it was the, the cup of lemon water in the morning. And I got away from that. And I was like, I don't even know why I got away from that.
I
JJ Virgin: just, you know, go back , you know, it's I work on one habit at a time. Last year during the pandemic, it was getting meditation going that took a year. I went to four Dr. Joe dispenser retreats. oh goodness. I was like, I am determined to do this and finally, I've got it in and now I'm working on another one.
Like then it was like making sure I get fermented foods in every day. So [00:51:00] just one, get one dialed, go to the next. Right. Give yourself grace. We all, we, we try to do too many things in our heart on ourselves and it's ridiculous. Yeah,
Alicia Snyder: that, that I think was the, the biggest you know, struggle. Is looking back.
I was so hard on myself and, and not, not looking in the right direction to try and, and heal. Where it was like the be skinny, lose the weight,
JJ Virgin: get, you know what, here's the thing. You don't lose weight to get healthy. You have to get healthy. And when you get healthy, your body's gonna burn stored fat for fuel.
You're gonna hold onto and build muscle. You'll have great energy. It's a byproduct, it's not the thing. And we get ourselves all messed up and then wrap all this shame around it. And it's just ridiculous. Instead of looking at the massive changes you made already that are crazy. Right. That should be celebrated.
right, right. Instead [00:52:00] you're going, I'm not thin enough. Like we just gotta knock it off. So this is just, you know, we, we get healthy by peeling the onion right. And layer. So now you're onto the next layer. Yeah.
Alicia Snyder: Well, I appreciate it. I really your, your book helped so much, it helped. Friends of mine. It's helped, you know, I, I love it.
JJ Virgin: Yay. Thank you. Well, I'm excited to get the, we were trying to get the, the you know, revised one swap to drop out for this January 20, 23, but publishing worlds backed up. oh, I'm sure there's no paper. So, you know, that changed things. So anyway, but it will coming soon. We're doing all new programs that are coming out fall 20, 22.
So all sorts of cool stuff on the horizon.
Alicia Snyder: Cool. Well, I have to even give my doctor a heads up, cuz yeah, I
JJ Virgin: wrote his name down too. And again, shout out to Dr. Chris Warner. Thank you. Yeah, it was funny.
Alicia Snyder: He was My girls would use the term [00:53:00] geeking out. He was just like, really, really? Cause I was like, oh, by the way, this is so random, but I'm gonna be on a podcast and I have you to thank basically.
JJ Virgin: So yes. Well I thank him. When you talk to him next, ask him about those two things and please let me know what happens as you do this. Okay. Okay. Love to, love to come back in and share what happens. Awesome. Okay. Thank you. Right. Thanks JJ. See ya, bye. Bye.
All right. I am super excited to hear what's gonna happen next for Alicia. Now that she's going on the sugar impact diet. And again, starting to monitor that body composition and add some muscle and go protein first. Again, if you would love to participate in the show beginning some breakthroughs, whether you're just beginning or you've had a breakthrough and would like to go to the next level, all you need to do is go to JJvirgin.com/signup.
And I am so grateful that you are tuning in. If you have not yet subscribed. [00:54:00] Hello. Make sure you don't miss any juicy tidbits by going to subscribetojj.com super easy. And I'll see you next time. Bye.