nutrition

Nutrition Experts Podcast Episode 53 Don’t Get Overwhelmed with Meal Prep with Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN

May 6, 2019 by matheaford Leave a Comment

With 20 years experience in the food and nutrition industry, Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN is an award-winning dietitian and Wall Street Journal best-selling cookbook author who believes that healthy and wholesome can also be appetizing and delicious.

Toby is the founder of Toby Amidor Nutrition, where she provides nutrition and food safety consulting services for individuals, restaurants and food brands. She is a founding contributor to FoodNetwork.com Healthy Eats blog and the nutrition expert for FoodNetwork.com for 10 years. Toby is also a regular contributor to U.S. News and World Report Eat + Run blog, MuscleandFitness.com, Shape.com and has her own “Ask the Expert” column in Today’s Dietitian Magazine. She has been quoted in hundreds of publications like FoxNews.com, Self.com, Oxygen Magazine, Dr. Oz The Good Life, Mic.com, Reader’s Digest, Shape.com, Women’s Health, Redbook, Men’s Journal, Huffington Post, Everyday Health, and more. Toby has also appears on television including shows like The Dr. Oz Show, Coffee with America, and AMHQ with Sam Champion.

Live. For the past 10 years she has been an adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University and also is an adjunct at Hunter College School of Urban Public Health in New York City.

Toby trained as a clinical dietitian at New York University. Through ongoing consulting and faculty positions, she has established herself as one of the top experts in culinary nutrition, food safety, and media communications. Toby is the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Media Excellence Award recipient for 2018.

Mathea Ford [00:00:28] Hi there! It’s Mathea. Welcome back to the Nutrition Experts Podcast. The podcast featuring nutrition experts who are leading the way using food starts today right now with our next guest. It’s great to have Toby Amidor on the show today. Toby welcome to Nutrition Experts.

Toby Amidor [00:00:44] Thank you so much for having me.

Mathea Ford [00:00:46] I’m excited to have you on the show and share your expertise with my tribe. I know you have a lot of experience doing a lot of different things. So I’d like to let you start with telling my listeners a little more about you and what you do.

Toby Amidor [00:00:58] Sure. So I’m a Registered Dietitian with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics from NYU which I actually received while my mom got her Master’s Degree in Food and Nutrition from NYU. We graduated together. Since then I’ve taught at culinary schools in New York City and eventually I am now the nutrition expert for Food Network for the past 10 years. August will be eleven years and I’ve also a cookbook author. I have four cookbooks I have two more coming out. One of them is a Wall Street Journal best selling cookbook. That’s my Easy Five Ingredient Cookbook. And then I do a lot of spokesperson work and I write for about I don’t know five or six national publications. You might have seen me on U.S. News or Shape or on Yahoo or something like that because I would like to write a lot.

Mathea Ford [00:01:50] One of the things you specialize in is really helping people do meal prep and focus on that. So why do you think that meal prep is important?

Toby Amidor [00:01:59] I have to meal prep books. The Healthy Meal Prep cookbook and Smart Meal Prep for Beginners and The Healthy Meal Prep cookbook was just it did phenomenally well. And the reason is a lot of people don’t have enough time and nobody has enough time these days. And so what it tries to do is helps you organize, shave off time during the week but then allows you to eat healthy well-balanced meals. And so I think a lot of people appreciate that you don’t have to cook up go home 30 minutes every evening and make a meal you can actually pre prepare it in advance which is nice.

Mathea Ford [00:02:35] So in your books you really talk about how to make healthier meals? You said you have a book called Smart Meal Prepping for Beginners and that I think is your latest book right?

Toby Amidor [00:02:47] That’s the latest one the first one was The Healthy Meal Prep cookbook and The Healthy Meal Prep cookbook. I didn’t really take into account that someone who is never meal prep before. So after it came out it’s still doing phenomenally well it’s a bestseller. You know for us since it came out in 2017 on Amazon but then we were like you know my publisher and I were like you know what about those people who are just getting started and need a little bit more of a 101? So, then I did Smart Meal Prep which is almost like a prequel so you can actually use the recipes and combine the two and you’re you know you’re good to go. But my Smart Meal Prep what it does is let’s say you get really nervous you know all those people on Instagram have like 9, 10 recipes and it’s overwhelming and that’s something you don’t want to do get overwhelmed you know because then you won’t do it. So in smart meal prep what I have is I have five or six meal plans but I start with like three recipes. That’s it. So, you can have a breakfast and then I have like two lunches that you can rotate between and that’s your three and if you want to continue to do it at 3. That’s great! If you want to continue to evolve and do more because you really want to do like breakfast and lunches or lunches and dinners however you want you can build on it to make it individual so you are comfortable with it.

Mathea Ford [00:04:03] So why did you call it Smart Meal Prepping? Kind of what is Smart Meal Prep?

Toby Amidor [00:04:08] Well, with Smart Meal Prep, I really have five steps to help you meal prep so I really take that 101 and give you all the steps. So, the first thing is to choose when to prep. And I think it’s a misconception people think that you have to do everything on one day and sometimes that just doesn’t work like my kids on Sunday they have activities and a lot of driving. I don’t know if you have kids too. And if you’re driving them and you know our stuff is our one day sometimes it’s not possible to do all that prep and so you can switch it into two days a week if that helps you too. You could do two or three dishes one day and two or three dishes the other and kind of break it up. But just choosing one is step one. And then deciding what you’re going to prep I focus on healthy. So, everything I have is in the healthy arena. And you know looking online and finding and printing and then knowing what you’re going to prep that step two. Step three is going food shopping which you do have to plan for. One of the biggest things I like about food prep is that it helps also minimize food waste. How many times you go shopping and then you go and you’re like “oh! I just bought something I have already. I’m not ever going to finish both that’s going to go bad.” So when I make my shopping list I don’t know about you, do you like I sit down with the three or four recipes or whatever I’m doing. I actually send one of my kids do I have this? Do I have that? Do I have this? Go bring it out put it on the counter I take all my dry goods on the counter and I write down so I’m not over buying.

Mathea Ford [00:05:31] Yeah we do that. My husband I’ll say “this is what we need.” And he’ll go through and open the cabinets and say “this is what we have. We have that! We have that!” And we mark it off.

Toby Amidor [00:05:40] Exactly. So, I literally go one ingredient by one ingredient so I don’t forget anything. And then after your food shopping it’s time to prep and cook. So you have to set time to do that. And I’m always slow cooker is the great is like one of my favorite tools because you could put it as the first thing to do and it takes a while to cook while I do my other two dishes for I want to do three dishes total let’s say. And the last step which I think people forget and it really makes a difference when you’re trying to eat healthy is to portion and pack. So, a lot of times when you hear healthy eating and nutrition it’s all about portion control. And this is where you have it the most control. So, you don’t want to leave like a big dish. You actually want to portion it out into those individual dishes so you can either take it to work or you can pull it out of the fridge when you need it for your meal.

Mathea Ford [00:06:27] So, I guess I was thinking of meal prepping as food that you’re packing basically for your lunches for the week but you made a little more than that right?

Toby Amidor [00:06:36] I do it so if you want to do a double batch of let’s say meat balls and then freeze it for later because sometimes you don’t have time over a weekend so you can actually again you plan it however works for you. But if you have time you’re like you know I’m going to do a double batch of this and then I’m going to save it in the freezer and individual containers and then you can defrost it a month, two months later whenever you need it too. So that helps some people too.

Mathea Ford [00:07:00] A lot of my nieces use Pinterest a ton for recipes. They were actually like I have a I have an instant pocket book and they’re they’re like “Do you have your own insta pot?” “Yeah! I use this cookbook. I do.” They’re like “use a cookbook?” Any tips on finding like really healthy recipes on Pinterest? How to search for those or?

Toby Amidor [00:07:21] Well, I mean I have boards on Pinterest that I put my recipes or healthy recipes on you just want to make sure whoever you’re finding from first of all is tasty because that’s a huge thing. Just because it’s something is healthy doesn’t mean it’s not tasty and they still are recipes out there that use like you know just go low fat on it or use non-fat and you’re like “oh! You can’t do that all the time. It’s not going to taste as great.” So, you have to find those that really taste well. There’s a lot of dietitian and healthy food bloggers out there with amazing recipes. But just definitely look through it and read through it before you decide to make it, read the reviews on it if you can. And once you like it this is what I do once I like it I check market and I put it in a binder.

Mathea Ford [00:08:04] So you can find it later?

Toby Amidor [00:08:05] Yeah I’ll do my a if you do it digitally and someone knows how to organize it digitally you could do that as well like do a digital cookery recipe book cards on your on your computer but whatever works for you but I’m good with pen and paper. I’m a little old school.

Mathea Ford [00:08:21] Like I said I have a bunch of cookbooks. So, yeah. So, thinking about meal prepping and you mentioned your five steps, what are some of the things that people do wrong? So, you mentioned how to do it right. What are some of the things where people do it wrong or get messed up when it comes to meal prep?

Toby Amidor [00:08:36] First of all, they don’t leave enough time. They don’t plan and they want to do meal prep last minute and that just doesn’t work. You really need to plan to find the recipes. You need to plan to get your shopping list together even if that takes 20 minutes to go in your pantry and check and write a list digitally or pen and paper. You need to find time to go to the supermarket that takes at least an hour because you’re remembering shopping now for not just one or two recipes but for many more. And then you need to leave yourself time to cook so and pack. So all these things take time. So, although you may not be doing it every night of the week and it does help shave off about 45 minutes during weeknights you still have to plan for everything else. I think another mistake people do is they rush and they’re like “Okay, I got to do like nine dishes for that you know gung-ho and going full force ahead. But if that doesn’t work for you and that’s going to make you like fail you’re not going want to do it again so you have to do things that are doable for you and that you like to do and that work for you. Another thing is freezing extras. You might have an extra like few batches or few meals in there. You know don’t just throw it in the fridge for you know who knows where it’s going to go. Could go to waste. Put it in the freezer label it so then you can eat it within two months and then you have for a rainy day that you didn’t have time to meal prep. Those are just some of the things.

Mathea Ford [00:09:59] So, you know when you’re thinking about planning your meals you mentioned not enough time. I’ve found that the older my kids get that the more input they want on meals and that’s a big thing in our family like what do you want? You get to pick a meal this week or something like that so that they’re involved and they’re more likely to eat it because they I wouldn’t call them picky eaters but they do like to….

Toby Amidor [00:10:24] Take their individual plate. Right. The individual tastes and flavors and I think that’s really fun when you get the entire family involved. You can have if you’re doing four recipes and you have four people in the family then everybody can pick a recipe. Could be mains or sides or whatever it may be and they can even help in the kitchen. My soon to be 12 year old she’s actually my recipe tester with me. So, she comes she knows at 12 she’s like what’s the yield? What’s the serving size? So, she can actually help me formulate and edit my recipe. “Oh! How much does it measure?” She pulls out the right you know measuring cup, she knows the measurements and at this point she can help me cook the meals. Yeah, it’s just really getting involved. Even coming to the supermarket I have my older daughter she’s just turned 14 picking produce because then you can teach them. This is the colors and then one time she brought an onion home or pepper home and it had a blemish on it and I didn’t say anything and I opened it up and and you can see it was no good it was black and in the inside and I wanted to show her. “This is the black mesh. When you open it this is what you see.” It wa more of a learning moment. I was able to use half of it and then she knew for next time this is how we select and what we’re cautious for. So, there’s so many different learning moments when it comes to food and kids of all ages. My kid was my youngest was 18 months so I’m wheeling around showing her the colors and the protest styles. So, that’s great. And I picked a sorry avocado and just to press it with your fingers and pears like we do that together all the time.

Mathea Ford [00:11:53] Well, that’s life skills that people don’t always think about. I noticed that when I taught dietetics at a local college that some people had not experienced their parents cooking at home very much. They did a lot of out to eat meals and stuff so they didn’t have that base of how to go find foods in the grocery store. You know like you said what is a good fruit? What is a good avocado? That type of thing. I love that you also mentioned that doing like nine meals at once because you see these epic blog posts and they’re like plan for the whole month. Make twenty seven crockpot meals and fill up your freezer and if you had a lot of help maybe if there was like I know sometimes like me my little sister talk about this like we should get together and make a bunch of these freezer meals together then you’re doing like half the work and you share in the bounty but doing it yourself that’s just almost overwhelming especially initially.

Toby Amidor [00:12:46] And with so many meals I advise then do some insta pot and some slow cooker recipes just those are so it’s like basically dumb things and closed cook. And those are really easy to do.

Mathea Ford [00:12:59] Yeah I love my instant pot. I just have been getting really into it. So. My kids seem to like they act like the slow cookers like not very good. So, I’m like “fine. I’ll do it in an instant pot it’s similar idea but.” So, speaking of a little bit healthier meals, what are some things that you do to recipes or that people can do to recipes to make them healthier for meal prepping?

Toby Amidor [00:13:23] Well, I like to bulk up a lot of my meals with fruits and vegetables. So if I have a pasta dish I will most certainly add that you know fresh tomatoes even like shaped carrots. I just do anything to bulk it up to add those fruits and vegetables because we know that 90 percent of Americans just don’t get the recommended about vegetables and about 85 of Americans don’t meet their fruit recommendations. And then one of the things I also realized with meal prep to make it healthier a lot of these main meals don’t have a lot of dairy in them or fruits. So, those two foods sometimes can be missing from your main. And think about it in your main meals unless you’re drinking a glass of milk or really putting a little cheese you’re really not getting dairy or fruit in there. So, making sure those snacks you can meal prep snacks and I have those in my cookbooks or just make sure you get like a yogurt and put some fruit on the side of that are fresh fruit when you go. So, plan for those missing food groups as your snacks and that’s something important to remember.

Mathea Ford [00:14:21] Yeah. I love yogurt. I especially love Greek yogurt so I always try to get some breakfast because I’m just not a milk drinker but I always try to get those other options like you mentioned with the cheese because there’s also help you to feel more full. So, like you mentioned like you can have cardboard healthy food or you can have tasty healthy food. And I think some of that is your spices and your flavors and some is just being willing to try a variety of things and add those other in there. You mentioned the five steps. Those don’t have to be all done in one day right?

Toby Amidor [00:14:54] No. So if you’re picking recipes you could do it as you see them you know in the evening and you’re picking them and then you have to you know by the end you have to settle on X amount of recipes and if you have to think about it if you get fed at work for lunch you don’t have to go out. You don’t have to make those if let’s say dinner. You know you have a couple dinners that week for work you’re going out those don’t need to be meal prep so you have to work within your own constraints in your own life. You know you have to do what works for you.

Mathea Ford [00:15:24] So, when you’re thinking about making like for recipes for the week about how long are you thinking that’s going to take for a person?

Toby Amidor [00:15:31] Three or four recipes shouldn’t take that long depending on what you’re doing. I’d probably like I said I always like to start with like an instant pot or like a slow cooker or say can make let’s say a chili so that can be one. All you have to do takes 15 minutes and then you press the button so then you really worrying about your other three meals. So, let’s say you want to breakfast, do you want to do like muffins? That’s easy. That’s 15 minutes to prep and 15 minutes to cook. You’re done with that. Maybe a side of broccoli or cauliflower steamed and however you want makes sure divided up and then I don’t know. Let’s say you want to wholegrain, rice let’s say brown rice. So, you have to think about how all these kind of come into play and you know when one thing is going like the Rice let’s say it takes 40 minutes to cook brown rice, I can then go steamed my broccoli and so you’re working in tandem and once you start getting the hang of it with smaller amounts of items then you can build slowly on it. So, I would say like four recipes about a half a day. Start going more it’s going to take you like three or four hours. You take a little bit more goes longer.

Mathea Ford [00:16:31] I love the idea like you mentioned with your kids that are a little bit older. But even at different ages there are different things they can do. It is teaching them a life skills so letting them peel the carrots, letting them cut something if they’re old enough to handle a knife or letting them you know even just get out the bags and write on the bags what everything is or the tubs, containers or go through the cookbooks.

Toby Amidor [00:16:55] And actually flip through them if they’re you know some of them they’re on the computer all the time so I don’t mind I’ll pull out some of my cookbooks because I get a lot in the mail too or just going through mine. I said “What do you want?” And they’ll go through “Oh I remember this one I want you to” because they’ve taste tested and I have between 100 to 250 recipes in every book. So, they’re like “oh! I remember the the lime chicken three or five ingredient cookbook. I want to do that one.” So, you know and of course whatever they want I’ll try to incorporate. Another thing I do at smart meal prep, I have meal plans developed and what I try to do to minimize food waste is let’s say I’m making like an egg muffin for breakfast with broccoli in it. I try to have that broccoli used for another meal for that week so maybe it’ll be like as a side or maybe shredded into a pasta salad whatever it may be. But I utilize the food so you’re not like “Okay, I need one carrot. Now what do I do with the rest of the bag?”

Mathea Ford [00:17:51] Yeah! I think that’s important because not only are you making healthier food but you’re also saving money. If you plan on buying groceries and you put the food together you’re not buying lunch, you’re not getting post mates, you’re not going through the drive through. So, yes it’s healthier but it’s also a cost savings don’t you think?

Toby Amidor [00:18:12] Yes, I absolutely think and I’ll go to those big warehouse stores and I’ll get the hamburgers and I know like I usually have a pound and a quarter of hamburger meat that serves four. If I need more I’ll add on that’s like one of my recipes and then I’ll all separate them out. So, if I want to make two portions I take two bags once I get home I’ll separate out the meat into portions and then I know exactly how much I need per person. And so that’s why all of my cookbooks also have a Toby’s tip on the bottom which is an action will tip if you want to swap something, you want to add something, you want more vegetables, you want a different grain, you don’t know how to store the herbs like I always put some sort of actionable tip ’till like “oh! I could do that!” So, it’s kind of fun to read through my recipes in that sense too.

Mathea Ford [00:18:59] What tips do you have for people just getting started doing meal prep so like you mentioned your whole smart meal prep is really for beginners. What are some tips that you have for people starting with meal prep?

Toby Amidor [00:19:12] Start with just a few recipes. Like for example, the first meal plan that I have in the smart meal prep book has three recipes. I have a smoked salmon breakfast bowl which is basically have smoked salmon, you have a hard boiled egg, some vegetables and cheese and like some lemon. I have a deconstruction chicken burritos and then I have a beef and mushroom stir fry with brown rice and lentils. That’s it. And if you want to swap anything you’re allergic to something you don’t like smoked salmon for breakfast you can go there I have recipes and you can swap it and so you can have three. Once you’ve done that and you feel comfortable with the process then start adding a fourth. Start adding two different breakfasts that you can rotate between and I think that’s really important. Another thing that’s really important is to remember to divvy everything up like do not forget that step because if you forget to divide and have all the ingredients there you’re still going to take time to assemble it and you’re not going to have time during a very busy workweek to do that.

Mathea Ford [00:20:11] So, what about people who maybe want the same food every day versus people who maybe want to have something a little different? So, for me for example, if I made chili I’d eat it for three or four days but maybe there’s people that really are I can’t stand Chili two days in a row type thing you know? How do you handle that?

Toby Amidor [00:20:31] So, the smart meal prep was designed for people because that’s the feedback we were getting is that people wanted to eat the same thing every day. But then I started hearing other feedback. “No no we don’t like that.” It’s like almost like you know like on your on your plate. People like food touching and people like food not touching?

Mathea Ford [00:20:47] Yes.

Toby Amidor [00:20:49] I don’t like my food touching though I’ll let it. It’s like it’s being done right. I like how they taste together.

Mathea Ford [00:20:54] My daughter. This weekend we had quesadillas for dinner and she put ketchup on her plate and she went back to get a second case study and I put on her plate and she said “oh! It touch the ketchup! I’m like “well, aren’t you going to pour ketchup on it anyway?” So, how do you handle those different things.

Toby Amidor [00:21:11] So, what I try to do is I try to repurpose it. So, let’s say I have a white beef and chili on my Healthy Meal Prep Cookbook and that white bean chili actually repurposed it to make you can put the chili in the quesadillas with a little bit of cheese in it. And so I repurpose it that way. I also have a barbecue chicken in the slow cooker which is really nice and soft. So, what I do over there is I can make a pizza with barbecued chicken. My kids love that. And so we would do wholegrain pizza crust that you can buy. You can put some tomato sauce or make your own tomato sauce or you know and then you have your chicken on there and so you’re repurposing it you can make them into tacos you can make a baked potato and put the barbecue chicken on it. So, you’re still utilizing. This meat’s expensive. You’re still utilizing that dish but you’re just serving it in a variety of ways.

Mathea Ford [00:22:00] It’s just one of those things that you just don’t always think of but it really it makes a lot of sense to do it that way.

Toby Amidor [00:22:06] And you always have like extra quesadillas is usually laying around or an extra potato you know or sweet potato. So, it’s like stuff you have in your house.

Mathea Ford [00:22:14] I like the idea you mentioned earlier of putting things into the freezer instead of keeping them in the fridge. So, for me if I make like I said a bowl of chili. I’m going to keep it for three or four days if I make a large bowl of chili for the family and then I’m the only one eating it for three or four days after that then I do take part of that and freeze it in containers and put it in the freezer so that I can use it in a week or so and it not go bad.

Toby Amidor [00:22:39] Right. And you can actually put it at. The only thing I would do is label it but you can actually eat it up to two months later as long as you know you put it and you could do an individual or you could do it in a family style and then you reheat it right on stovetop if you don’t want to use microwave. You could do it that way too. But yeah it’s just using your freezer not over filling it with some other junky foods you know that people have because I’ve had that complaint too that people have very very little freezer space. So, if you want a meal prep with very little freezer space your best bet is probably meal prepping twice a week so you can eat it you know do half a week half a week. So, again this is what I mean by individual. How much space you have? If you have many people in your household. If you do have a lot of freezer space, are you going to eat it later on as opposed to some people will toss it which you actually don’t want to do so you have to know yourself too.

Mathea Ford [00:23:26] All right. So, thinking about what we talked about with the meal prep, how can this information be used by the listeners in their day to day life and a lot of the listeners or dietitians and then I know I get a lot of feedback from people that are just looking for nutrition information, healthy nutrition. So, how can dietitians use this in their day to day work when they work with clients?

Toby Amidor [00:23:48] Well, what I try to do when you’re building for meal prep for a healthy meal prep you do want to keep in mind all the food groups. You want to talk you know wholegrain, fruits, vegetables, lean protein, low and nonfat dairy and of course healthy fats and like I said one of the things I was noticing just from a nutrition perspective is that fruit and dairy tend to be minimized in those main meals especially lunches and dinners. So, to make sure that the snacks or meal prepped compliment whatever new nutrients are not in that dish. So, I have like a delicious poached pear and like a wine sauce that’s in slow cooker and that and the sauce is so good. And that would be a perfect like that would stay basically all week as a snack or a dessert. Either way it could be done. So, I think that’s something that’s important to realize and also the education component in terms of portion control and the right size how to measure everything out. All my meal prep cookbooks actually have measurements for each serving. So, I don’t say like that divided by for a quarter of the recipes a serving I actually say two cups of this, a half a cup of thism one cup of this and that’s how you should build it.

Mathea Ford [00:25:01] And what about people who are just doing meal prep done it for a long time is there any ways you have that maybe they can add some variety?. Any ideas with that?. If they kind of feel like they’re stuck in a rut?.

Toby Amidor [00:25:13] Yeah if you’re stuck in a rut I have besides my two meal prep books I have the Easy Five Ingredient Healthy Cookbook and that could be swapped in to for any of the meal prep. You know meal prep recipes don’t have to feed 16. They can feed four, six, eight. It doesn’t. It really is how you use up that meal. And so any of those five ingredient recipes which are so easy to make you know you can find some really fun ones, fun recipes, fun varieties that you like and kind of swap that in.

Mathea Ford [00:25:43] All right. So, a question I ask everyone that comes on my podcast is because we’d love talking about food is what your favorite food?

Toby Amidor [00:25:51] I know I have so many. I know I’m always like..

Mathea Ford [00:25:55] You pick one.

Toby Amidor [00:25:56] I now I like my steaks but then I also love my pizza. And then I love my ice cream. So.

Mathea Ford [00:26:03] What’s your favorite kind of steak?

Toby Amidor [00:26:06] Filet. The filet mignon that’s usually what I order out. Because usually I can find them in a smaller portion as well.

Mathea Ford [00:26:12] Yeah like six ounce usually.

Toby Amidor [00:26:14] I’ve even found them four ounces in a steakhouse that was Toby portions I was very happy.

Mathea Ford [00:26:21] Well great. Toby, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It was a pleasure to have you on the show. I know you my listeners learned a lot about meal prep and I loved a lot of your tips and ideas that you gave. So, if listeners want to connect with you what’s the best way to do that?.

Toby Amidor [00:26:36] They can go on my web site. So, it’s Toby T-O-B-Y Amidor A-M-I-D-O-R nutrition dot com. tobyamidornutrition.com. There’s a link to contact me and there’s also a link to my books and blog and articles and recipes so there’s a ton to poke around and learn about over there.

Mathea Ford [00:26:55] What type of stuff do you write for Food Network?

Toby Amidor [00:26:58] I’ve been writing I’m a founding contributor to their Healthy Eats blog. So, I write about a lot of the latest trends. I wrote about the last article that’s live right now that’s the top of the list over there is how I always follow the Mediterranean diet because my family is from the Mediterranean or from Israel. So, I discussed that. Honestly, anything and everything nutrition I talk about over there.

Mathea Ford [00:27:22] Okay. Well, guys it’s been another great episode of the Nutrition Experts podcast. The podcast that is all about learning more so you can do more with nutrition in your life you’ve just listened to an episode of the nutrition experts podcast.

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Nutrition Experts Podcast Episode 07 Eating Right Matters For Your Sleep with Christine Hansen

June 18, 2018 by matheaford Leave a Comment

Christine Hansen is a holistic international sleep expert, speaker, and sleep coach. She is the creator of the “5 Step Sleep Like A Boss Process” focusing on sleep foundations, gut health, thyroid issues, nutrition and hormones that helps people to fall and stay asleep without having to rely on sleeping pills.

As a certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, Spencer Institute Certified Sleep Science Coach and Nutritional Therapist, Christine combines emotional, lifestyle, and biochemical stress management in bespoke programmes for her clients.

Her expertise has been featured in numerous international publications, such as The Independent, The Guardian, Business Insider, Reader’s Digest, Huffington Post, Elite Daily, Entrepreneur on Fire and many more.Christine is a mother, #1 Amazon best-selling author for her book Sleep Like A Boss – The Guide To Sleep For Busy Bosses and award- winning entrepreneur of the coup de coeur award of the Creative Young Entrepreneurs Luxembourg Awards. Christine is based in Luxembourg and fluent in English, German, French, and Luxembourgish.

[00:00:00] You are listening to the Nutrition Experts podcast. Featuring guests who take the scientific talk about food and break it down for practical use. You’ve heard the phrase you are what you eat. Come find out what that really means. Experience conversations with experts in the field of nutrition and understand the power of food for our health, wellbeing and beyond. Now here’s your host registered dietitian and nutritionist Mathea Ford.

Mathea Ford: [00:00:27] Hi there! It’s Mathea. Welcome to the Nutrition Experts podcast. The podcast featuring nutrition experts who are leading the way using food starts today right now with our next guest. It’s great to have Christine Hansen on the show today. Christine welcome to Nutrition Experts. I’m excited to have you on the show and share your expertise with my tribe.

Christine Hansen: [00:00:48] Hi everyone! It’s super great to be here. I can’t wait to dive into this!

Mathea Ford: [00:00:54] Great. So let’s start with letting you tell the listeners a little more about you.

Christine Hansen: [00:01:00] All right! So, I go by the title of a sleep expert and coach but also I work very holistically and I think that’s really what makes it special. So, I started off with simple sleep hygiene kind of the typical thing. And then I added nutrition which was absolutely key and functional diagnostics. So, now I really look at five pillars which is nutrition, thyroid, guts, hormones and sleep foundations. And that is what changes the world for my clients.

Mathea Ford: [00:01:33] Excellent! So, what created your interest in this topic? How did you get to be a sleep expert?

Christine Hansen: [00:01:38] It all started when I was pregnant with my daughter.

Christine Hansen: [00:01:41] And it wasn’t as many people believe because she was a bad sleeper but it’s because I was really worried that she would be one day. I saw everyone around me having kids and becoming sleep deprived and I’ve always known that my life depends on how I sleep. And so I was really really scared. I was honestly very very anxious about it. And the more people I saw who were you know miserable the more I thought there has to be another way. And that’s how I got into sleep. And then it took a couple of years of development you know as well as for myself because I became an entrepreneur. And it was two roads. It was my development as an entrepreneur and on top of that also my sleep kind of knowledge development realizing how complex sleep is and how many different facets are to sleep.

Mathea Ford: [00:02:33] So, how do you know as a person, individual since you’re a sleep expert. We all sleep, right? Everybody’s probably got an opinion but how do you know how much sleep you need? Just to start out with.

Christine Hansen: [00:02:44] It’s when you go to bed. And when you sleep well. The way that you know that you get enough sleep is that you wake up and you feel great. That’s a very simple way of knowing.

Mathea Ford: [00:02:55] So, if I wake up and I’m tired and groggy because I didn’t go to sleep till late and then in the morning I have to get up early to get my kids off to school. So, if that happens three or four days in a row I get more progressively tired but can I catch up on that sleep over the weekend? Is that such a thing?

Christine Hansen: [00:03:16] Yeah absolutely!

Christine Hansen: [00:03:17] That is a thing. So the scenario that you described is a person collecting sleep debt basically which means that every day we don’t get enough sleep and that’s accumulating. And the good news is that you can catch up on your sleep debt within one night. And actually there was a guy in there I think it was probably the 80s or 90s who tried to set up the world records in the Guinness Book of Records of not sleeping and he didn’t sleep for a few days. I think it’s probably seven or eight and he started hallucinating having all kinds of issues. But the thing is he slept for a day afterwards like a little bit more than 24 hours and everything that had gone wrong in his body due to sleep deprivation was back to normal. So we can catch up very quickly on sleep in that sense.

Mathea Ford: [00:04:11] So, what are some signs that we’re sleep deprived? Because I know it when I mean if I’m staying up too late I’m getting up too early but maybe there’s more signs or more ways to know if it’s not that obvious.

Christine Hansen: [00:04:26] The thing is that a lot of people start to get used to being sleep deprived so they don’t really remember what it’s like not to be sleep deprived. So, things that we need to look out for is just our reaction time.

Christine Hansen: [00:04:40] A lot of times we suddenly noticed that we’re slower, slower in the way that we’re thinking, we are drifting off a lot more quickly and the difference is if when you’re not sleep deprived you notice that your mind is wandering pretty quickly but if you are sleep deprived your mind will wander off and it will actually take some time for you to realise that and put it back on track so you’re wasting a lot more time actually being sleep deprived. Other things are that while you will have obvious signs that your body will react in terms of the way that you look, you will age a lot more quickly, your skin is going to be a lot more it’s not going to be as healthy and then you have a cascade of reactions that are going to happen. So, you start to have you know your body is basically breaking down so you have digestive issues, concentration issues, your mood is obviously impacted, you will feel that you handle stress a lot less positively or you know just have a lot more trouble with that. Your patience obviously. So it’s really your body and your mind starting to act up. I have to say though that most people that I work with they are not in the position where they voluntarily don’t sleep in terms of that they know that they are pushing their bedtime too late. But for them it’s they actually really want to, they try to, they have a great sleep hygiene, they tried to do everything right but they still can’t sleep and I think that’s a big big difference that we need to think about. You know there’s a huge difference between the people who want to sleep but can’t and those who are living in circumstances where they push their bedtime.

Mathea Ford: [00:06:18] So, you mentioned that there are five pillars that you typically look out with relation to sleep and one of them is gut health.

Mathea Ford: [00:06:26] So, how does your gut health relate to your sleep? What sorts of things does that involve?

Christine Hansen: [00:06:33] So there’s different ways that the gut is connected to your sleep. So number one is that a lot of the clients that I work with have been under chronic stress so their cortisol has created damage in their intestinal lining. So, leaky gut is a huge issue that I encounter a lot. So suddenly you have molecules peeking through your gut into your immune system and it creates inflammation and a lot of that inflammation happens at night because the liver kicks in around 2 to 3 A.M. and a natural anti inflammatories are hormones like cortisol or adrenaline and those two are actually stimulating hormones. So, when you wake up at 2 a.m. which you most likely do because you know a sleep cycle is done and you should get into the next one. But if you have a full on inflammation going on it’s going to be tricky because you have stimulating hormones messing around. The other thing that happens that when your gut is weekend you tend to have opportunistic parasites and bacteria settling down and those create a lot of damage. They are also nocturnal so they will also be active at night time stimulating your body. So, that’s a huge issue and it’s my job to find out what is going on you know. Is there presence of parasites or bacteria? What is causing inflammation? Is it maybe food sensitivities that we need to look at? These are crucial crucial pieces that are just take detective work for me to find out what is going on.

Christine Hansen: [00:08:01] But it’s it’s a huge piece that everyone who is not healthy and doesn’t know why should look at.

Mathea Ford: [00:08:07] So, for something like bad bacteria setting up in your digestive system what do you typically work with people to get probiotics or what types of other things do people do to improve that?

Christine Hansen: [00:08:22] So I have a protocol that I set up with my clients. So, usually what I do if we suspect that there is something in the gut that is not supposed to be there I will start with something that’s called a biofilm disruptor and the biofilm is like a protective shield for parasites and bacteria and it’s basically first of all protecting them from medicine but also from being detected. And it’s also according to new research allowing them to communicate with each other. So, before I do anything I use a biofilm disruptor to basically disable that shield so that when we do testing to figure out what we are actually looking at it will be easier to pick them up. Plus, we will have weakened their defenses. So that’s what I start with. And then depending on what we find out that is there in testing I will use herbal protocols to clean up everything that’s in there. And the good thing about herbal protocols is that they are selective so they will get rid of parasites that are not supposed to be there but they will not be toxic for good bacteria for example. I always use probiotics especially Lactobacillus Rhamnosus GG which is a very specific strain that has been shown to be super efficient and beneficial for a lot of different conditions so I always recommend especially that strain and then it really depends. So, when we have parasites bacteria and yeast. I would first start with parasites, then bacteria and then yeast or fungi – always in that order. I would give some liver support because all of that is going to release some toxins. So, we want to support the liver to get rid of that if my client is showing detoxification symptoms I would use something that kind of binds all of those toxins together to reduce those and that’s how we would work. I would also look at nutrition of course. So, really reducing sugar during that time gluten usually. And it depends on every client. But I would really try to have a harmonic kind of work – working all the different pieces together.

Mathea Ford: [00:10:26] So that leads really well into my next question because you mentioned another one of your pillars w as nutrition and I know certain chemicals -caffeine – can affect your sleep but what types of things about nutrition truly are disruptive to sleep and then maybe even w hat things are helpful to sleep?

Christine Hansen: [00:10:48] Yeah absolutely! So, I really start with the basics. Really figuring out whether my clients have enough nutrients in their bodies so I would do a nutrient assessment to see whether they’re vitamins and minerals in good levels. Because all of that is affecting our health and the way that our body is working. And then as you said you know the first ones that we’re going to avoid is obviously caffeine and any stimulants like sugar but if we’re looking at sleep in particular there are a couple of things that I give a little bit more attention to. So, I’m going to share those with you and for anyone who’s listening.

Christine Hansen: [00:11:24] If you have insomnia if you’re working with people with insomnia those would be a couple of protocols that I would look into. So, number one is I always look at magnesium and magnesium levels. Magnesium is just a relaxant and it’s a muscle relaxant and it’s been really shown that there’s a big relation with sleep. So, that’s something that I look at. Also calcium and Vitamin B6, those have tranquilizing effects so those are some that I put priority to. Then, I also look at tryptophan which is a precursor to melatonin. It’s difficult to get all of those just via food you know for me nutrition it’s also supplementation. So, tryptophan I would really look at a supplement that has 5 HTP. So, the number five and then the three letters HTP which is really grade to increase tryptophan and highly effective for insomnia. It’s also non-addictive. So, I actually prefer it to melatonin and then I would also look at eating seeds, nuts, roots, green leafy vegetables is great because they are high in calcium and m agnesium. Nightime Teas can help like he said include Camomile, Tilia flowers, Spearmint, Blueberry, BlackBerry leaves, Orange blossoms, Lemongrass, Hawthorn, Rosebuds or Rose Hips -those are things that I would include in my nutritional protocols and then during the day and basically for all meals I would really hugely advocate low glycemic foods. Foods that will slowly rise your blood sugar levels or basically release that sugar more slowly into your system so that you avoid having those spikes and crashes because you don’t want to have a blood sugar spike at night time just because your body is used to living in that zigzag pattern. So those are things that I would implement.

Mathea Ford: [00:13:21] With regards to hormones as well. What sort of hormones are going to be affecting our sleep and is there anything that nutrition helps with that?

Christine Hansen: [00:13:32] Well all our hormones are affecting our sleep. So, what I really notice is as soon as a hormone is out of balance it will affect your sleep most likely. So, whether that is your estrogens, whether that’s your testosterone, your progesterone doesn’t matter your cortisol you sleep will be affected pretty quickly also your thyroid hormone. So, nutrition wise everything that helps your body to relax is amazing so it’s really important for me to get a food sensitivity test done or to have an evaluation which I can also do with my clients without having to do the testing and avoid anything that stimulates that inflammation because that is going to put the body in high alert and contribute to having hormonal imbalance. So, that’s my first thing to focus on foods that do not have inflammatory capacity which is different for every kind. And then there’s different things that you can do – cumin or tumeric is an anti inflammatory for example – so I tried to have that in a lot of my clients’ diets. It has a musky taste. It’s beautiful yellow colour so I include that a lot. Again, blood sugar levels are super important so cinnamon is something that I include in a protocol for example or suggestion program that I do for my clients.

Christine Hansen: [00:14:56] Otherwise, sometimes it’s difficult just with food alone to really influence hormones too much but what it does is if you have a healthy diet which doesn’t include processed foods, doesn’t include artificial fats or doesn’t include too much sugar and is organic, it just basically going to reduce the stress load on the toxic stress load on your body so much that it’s going to start to relax and everything is going to start to get into balance as well so it’s an absolute necessary foundation as well that you need to have in place.

Mathea Ford: [00:15:32] Is there anything related to age that seems to be consistent? Like is there a point in our life where we tend to have more issues with sleep?

Christine Hansen: [00:15:44] I think for women definitely menopause you know when estrogen levels start to drop. It’s a huge huge impact on sleep. Night sweats keep women awake and things like that. So, definitely for men it can be as well. However, it’s also important to know that we don’t need less sleep just because we’re getting older. It’s a misconception that a lot of people have but a lot of the time what is happening is the older we get the less we often need to work because of retirement. And people start to nap too long and that is why a lot of older people have suddenly issues sleeping at night it’s because they have a lot of naps. And I think that plus a lot of people being suddenly indoors for a long time not getting the sunlight which is contributing to having a disregulated biological clock that can contribute to having issues of sleeping at night. But it doesn’t mean that we need less sleep. That’s actually not true if we just look at how everything changes on a homeowner basis, I would definitely say women in the perimenopause which can start with 40.

Christine Hansen: [00:16:52] It doesn’t mean that you need to be 55. You can really have symptoms pretty early but pre menopause and menopause is definitely two stages were in for women that will contribute to that. Yeah.

Mathea Ford: [00:17:06] Are there any chronic diseases or conditions that tend to cause issues with sleeping?

Christine Hansen: [00:17:13] A lot of them do. Definitely anything that’s autoimmune like thyroid, Hashimoto’s or Grave’s Disease. A lot of autoimmune conditions that have to do with pain. Unfortunately, it’s kind of the feedback loop you have the pain having people sleeping not as well. And then the sleep deprivation is increasing the notion of pain so very often you have Fibromyalgia, Lupus that can be very painful as well. So, those are definitely also impacted by sleep and vice versa unfortunately.

Mathea Ford: [00:17:49] I know exercise, being more active. You kind of skimmed over it a little bit but I know that that’s been known to help people with sleeping just because you get that release of energy. How does exercise timing affect sleep? How does it go with around the time you know should you exercise late in the day? Should you avoid exercising late in the day? Should you always exercise in the morning? Is there any advice about that?

Christine Hansen: [00:18:17] Number one movement is absolutely beneficial and I’m on purpose s aying movement because exercise depending on what kind of state my clients are in actually be stressful. So, if I have someone who has already a lot of health issues I would not recommend them going to the gym five times a week which is additionally stressing out their body. So, that’s I’m seeing movement and movement could be having a funky dance in your bedroom.

Christine Hansen: [00:18:47] It could mean getting off the bus stop a little bit earlier. It could mean parking your car further away from the supermarket. You know just moving in itself is undoubtedly amazing for s leep. Exercise can also be great first of all for your health but also for stress release as in timing it depends on your system. So, in general, exercise has been recommended because your temperature goes up and when it drops it can favor the sleep because a temperature drop in general is really connected with going to sleep. So, the philosophy is that you know when you favor or when you encourage a temperature drop it’s going to help you to drift into sleep which is true but for some people especially after cardio, their body has a hard time of regulating itself back to coolness and then they are lying there and they have a racing heart have a high pulse and sleep is even worse than before. So, for those I’d definitely not recommend doing exercise especially cardio in the evening. Yoga or something like that is absolutely okay. The other thing is that if you go to boot camp and you have an instructor screaming at you and glaring lights and light and super loud music and you know it’s super stimulating that’s not going to help your sleep either you know. So, for some people they’re going to be so exhausted that they’re just going to drop dead and it’s fine or drop this you know for sound asleep. But for people who are sensitive to these things it can just be overstimulating and sleep is a process.

Christine Hansen: [00:20:25] You know, you drifting into sleep. It’s not an on and off switch so going from super stimulating c lass like that straight to bed can sometimes be counterproductive. So, there’s different things to consider.

Mathea Ford: [00:20:38] I have noticed that there are some habits that seem to lead to better sleep specifically putting my phone to the side 15 – 20 minutes before bed time and just relaxing by reading a book or talking to my husband. So, are there any specific groups of habits or anything that you recommend that if someone seems to have a little bit of trouble at times going to sleep what might improve that?

Christine Hansen: [00:21:08] Yes so bedtime routines are definitely helpful because they just train our brain right? It’s just like getting on autopilot and having a domino chain reaction. However, bedtime routines are highly individual because we just like different things. But my favorite that you have a timer that goes off an hour before you go to bed. And so an hour is a lot of time. You know you can get a lot done and it’s just preventing from that crazy wash that you have before you need to go to bed and you need to finish everything for the next day. So, set your timer for an hour before. I find that very very helpful. And then a couple of other things are to be tidy. That’s not what I used to be I can promise you the bedroom used to be the place where I lived in, worked in and everything but having a super tidy bedroom, very minimalistic, don’t have the chair with all the clothes on it. A plant in it, beautiful, simple, clean, empty, more less space is going to help you because it’s calming on the eyes.

Christine Hansen: [00:22:14] It’s calming on the mind. So that’s definitely something that I recommend. I also recommend doing your bed every morning because it’s just such a beautiful feeling when you come home and when you go to sleep so it’s just already connotation with something positive and then another technique that I love to use with my clients is that they have a beautiful notebook that they spend a little bit more money on and they write down three positive things before they go to bed and it simply helps you to not think about what happened during the day and finish that day on a positive note. So, that’s something that I always recommend as well. Then, of course leave the charger of your iPhone in the kitchen and leave your iPhone charging in the kitchen as well. You will be sleeping which means that you won’t be checking your iPhone.

Mathea Ford: [00:23:01] Well, there will be a problem of use t hat as an alarm.

Christine Hansen: [00:23:05] No that’s an excuse. That’s just an excuse. I’ve been being fine without iPhones for decades and they’re still good old battery operated alarm clocks out there. So, you don’t need your iPhone.

Mathea Ford: [00:23:20] Absolutely! So, my listeners are typically healthcare professionals, dietitians, nurses, doctors, students. So, thinking about them in their day to day life and when they interact with people what sorts of things are going to come up that may make them think that someone is having problem with sleep? Or is it a good idea to always ask about sleep and what types of follow up kind of information would you gather?

Christine Hansen: [00:23:52] Absolutely ask about sleep. There’s just been an article in a Harvard Medical Journal about Sleeping: The Third Pillar Next to Nutrition and Exercise and it’s really true. So, sleep has to be in my opinion really has to be a part of your intake form. Look a little bit, ask questions as to when they say that sleep is an issue. I often see that people are overly worried so that they think they have to get eight hours of sleep even if they are not tired in the morning. So, really listen to what they’re telling you. Are they having the feeling that they’re not getting enough sleep? Do they have control over not getting enough sleep in terms of I know that I should get to go to bed earlier? Or is it really about them not being able to sleep? So having done a lot of things but not being capable of. That’s when the red flag would go up you know all the rest you can do with coaching and lifestyle optimization. But when they really can’t go to sleep that’s when you have to go digging a little bit deeper.

Mathea Ford: [00:24:54] Okay. So, what do you think is next in this field of sleep and understanding sleep and how it affects us? What types of things do you see coming and how do you think it’s going to affect healthcare?

Christine Hansen: [00:25:09] Well, I was at the Web Summit in Lisbon in November and the CEO of Fitbit was there and he was talking about how Fitbit is focusing on sleep. How they are gathering data and they are working actively with healthcare providers to see how sleep is actually affecting health and also how they are actually telling people if they suspect that there is an issue which I find absolutely fascinating. So, I think sleep is going to be more and more a part of just a routine section of healthcare because it is so crucial and it needs to be a foundation before you try to just focus on the issue. Meaning that a patient who isn’t sleeping is going to have a much harder time recovering from any disease than someone who gets the restorative sleep that they need. So, that’s what it’s going for. I also think that at the moment if we look at medical sleep education it’s mainly about sleep disorders. So, let’s say Sleep Apnea, Circadian Rhythm Disorders, Restless leg. It’s not as much looking at other factors like hormone or gut health and so forth. So, my hope and my mission and what I’m doing with my certification program is really teaching people to do that, to look further and to help people getting back to sleep that way. So, I think that’s where it’s going it’s going to be just a standard pillar of any healthcare protocol. And hopefully it’s also going to be more holistic.

Mathea Ford: [00:26:52] Yes, I think the self measured society that we’re becoming where we have our tracking on our arm that heart beat and checks how much sleep you get. In a way it’s a very positive thing in some ways and it can highlight some issues that we may not even realize because people may not think that may think they’re sleeping just fine and yet they’re wearing Fitbit and it’s saying hey you’re waking up multiple times that you didn’t realize. So that could lead them to ask more questions.

Christine Hansen: [00:27:25] Unfortunately, I see it the other way more often. So even though I like that they say that sleep is just as important as the rest. Unfortunately, I see a lot of people with us measuring tools being worried about nothing. You know they are worried because their Fitbit told them they didn’t get enough sleep. And when I asked them “Well, are you tired?” They say “No, I actually sleep okay.” So you know it’s common sense. I think sometimes.

Mathea Ford: [00:27:50] No. I totally understand what you’re saying. It does make you more stressed and nervous like “Oh my gosh! I’m sleeping well.” But you’re not having any symptoms or issues then maybe it really isn’t a problem. Maybe it’s just your normal body thing. So, who is going to be best suited to doing that type of change?

Christine Hansen: [00:28:11] So, my clients are typically those who are sick and tired of hearing from their regular practitioner that everything’s okay you know. So, they know that something’s not right. They’re not sleeping. They usually have lots of other symptoms – digestive issues, hair loss, thyroid issues you name it. But when they go to a lot of regular practitioners they are just being told everything is okay. Everything is fine. And that’s when they just know it’s not true. So that’s when they come to me.

Christine Hansen: [00:28:42] Then when we look at the holistic kind of the the big picture and how everything is connected that’s when they get motivated because you know even though we often find that a lot is wrong with them when we do our testing, it’s great news because finally we have something that we can work on instead of just being told everything’s okay, well then nothing’s going to change. But when we actually see, “Look there’s things that are not okay we have to balance your hormones. We should look at your gut. We have to clean that up and coach sat back to health.” That’s when a beautiful journey starts. And anyone who knows that they’re not okay but they just haven’t found that person yet who is listening to them and who’s believing in them. Those other people that are my dream clients.

Mathea Ford: [00:29:33] We a ll have trouble sometimes sleeping and when I think about my kids on the weekends like Friday and Saturday night. They go to bed a little later but in them it’s always a struggle to get them to go to sleep at their normal bed time on Sunday night getting ready for school the next day. And so I always question whether I should keep a consistent bedtime or give them that little bit of freedom that they why on the weekends “because it’s the weekends mom, I shouldn’t have to go b ed!”

Christine Hansen: [00:30:04] Unless there’s really an issue like a real issue, just leave them the freedom it’s the same for us. I mean it’s a hassle b ut its going to get better but I think it’s beautiful memories that we create during that time as w ell. So, unless it’s a real sleep disorder and it’s really affecting them hugely I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

Mathea Ford: [00:30:25] Yeah my kids are kind of funny because they’re speaking to not necessarily going to sleep but waking up. My son has decided that there is a certain way that he wants us to wake him up because he doesn’t get his cell phone so he can’t have an alarm at night. So, he wants to be you know don’t just walk in and flip on the lights and pull back the covers. He wants to have a couple minutes to kind of bring that awareness of awakening and my daughter walk in there and say “Hey, it’s time to get up you flip off the fan, you kind of jostle her a little and she’ll get up you know but she’s not like so it’s just funny. It’s the opposite. She goes to sleep if you tell her it’s time for bed go to sleep. Go get in bed. Once she gets in bed she kind of have that routine takes up her glasses put some to the side and goes to sleep. So, anyway, enought about me.

Christine Hansen: [00:31:24] No! But it’s like I’m not a morning person. I hated when there’s a abrupt alarm and I think it’s also because it’s just from a scientific point of view it’s an alarm. So it’s going to raise a cortisol levels to huge extent and I think for some people that doesn’t matter as much for me I just hate my day when I have to wake up that way. So, I have a very gentle alarm and I just get up so peacefully but I need some time like I’m not there. “Okay. It’s Wake up time. Let’s go. That’s not me.”.

Mathea Ford: [00:31:57] So, what are some ways that the listeners can use this information we’ve talked about in their day to day life? So, just to improve their daily lives, what sorts of things do you suggest?

Christine Hansen: [00:32:10] So, I always start with a foundation so look at the sleep foundations that we’ve talked about to try to implement a couple. And then I think they know about nutrition a lot. A lot of it is common sense but really looking at having Low Glycemic Index food, avoiding processed foods, avoiding unhealthy fats and pesticides and then I think a lot of it is also feeling into yourself and seeing what is my body actually telling me like do I feel healthy? Do I feel great? If I don’t then something is probably off you know. So, that’s where.. That’s a really important step.

Mathea Ford: [00:32:51] Okay. So, one of my questions I tried to ask everyone is the food related question. What’s your favorite food?

Christine Hansen: [00:32:59] My favorite food is not a healthy one. It’s White Pasta Tortellini Panna e Prosciutto. So, which is ham and cheese and it’s great and so in the oven so Gratinati.

Mathea Ford: [00:33:21] Ohh! That sounds delicious! That got a cream sauce?

Christine Hansen: [00:33:22] Yes.

Mathea Ford: [00:33:23] OK. It doesn’t have to be healthy yeah!

Christine Hansen: [00:33:29] It’s not an either. If I have it at lunchtime, I’m not going to work that afternoon because I’m just like I’m so tired it’s it’s killing me but it’s so good.

Mathea Ford: [00:33:39] Alright. Well, Christine thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It was a pleasure to have you on the show. I know my listeners have learned a lot about sleep and how it’s affected by nutrition and your gut. And so listeners want to connect with you what’s the best way to do that?

Christine Hansen: [00:33:55] So there’s two different parts to this. Listeners who are like “Okay, I have sleep issues I want to look at that!” They should they can just basically go to my website which is sleeplikeaboss.com and for practitioners who say “Look, I really like what she’s doing I want to add sleep to my practice!” They can go to holisticsleepcoachinstitute.com which is where I am offering my certification program.

Mathea Ford: [00:34:20] Okay. Well, guys this has been another great episode of the Nutrition Experts Podcast. The podcast that is all about learning more so you can do more with nutrition in your life.

Recording: [00:34:32] You just listen to an episode of the Nutrition Experts Podcast. Be sure to get more information about this week’s episode at www.Nutrition ExpertsPodcast.com. Tune in next time for another great conversation with a nutrition expert and expand your personal knowledge in the field of nutrition. One conversation at a time.

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