What, um, something I really wanted to talk to you about, um, and curious to hear your input because it's something I get asked a lot about, frankly, like I've never struggled with it. So I, I try to help clients through it over the years, but is, but I've never been in the thick of it, but is emotional eating, have you ever at any point been an emotional eater, like to a point where it was a problem? I

would say I am an emotional eater and then I get so much joy out of food and I do turn to food, you know, if I'm frustrated or whatever it may be. And so, you know, and not diet I do drink alcohol. Yeah. And that has probably been even more of a struggle for me and one that, you know, I've made some significant changes with recently because I looked at when I turned to alcohol and when I turned to food and the reason I'm turning to both of them. And you know, obviously you can cut alcohol out of your life completely as you have. You can't cut food out of your life. So they're both quite separate, you know, with the food. You know, I've admitted I'm an emotional eater the same way as I've admitted my lack of discipline just in general. You know, my clients say to me, you're the most disciplined person I've met. And I'm like, I'm not disciplined. Actually, I've just admitted I'm undisciplined and I've taken the time to out plan my lack of discipline. So whether that's by not having my trigger food in the house, whether it's by buying the certain right amount of a food, because if there are leftovers, those lethal leftovers are to be eaten. You know, later today or in the middle of the night, they're going. But also probably most, I guess, impactful is getting real clarity on the person that you want to be. And again, that's aligning your values and your beliefs. And as a fitness trainer, as a health coach and personal trainer, not being in control of my food and my alcohol feels really incongruent, and it feels like a lack of integrity, and I feel like I'm letting myself down. So that was probably the biggest step of quite a few steps, but the biggest step so far is coming in control of both my food and also my alcohol.

Which I mean, but vulnerability is such the outside. When you just get rid of it, people appreciate that. I love that you're undisciplined, but you outplanned your lack of discipline to appear to be disciplined because, but I agree with you. People look at me that night and I have a buddy who this just, I mean, he served in the military. It just comes natural. He is just, he doesn't have to think about it. Where I appear to be disciplined, but I can actually really relate with that. Left to my own devices, I'm very undisciplined, but I create a lot of structure and out planning I love that to make sure I do stay disciplined, but it does not just come natural and for some people I think it does more than others but with the emotional eating and I'm glad you separated the two because they are different I've heard people, you know where you can eliminate alcohol or drugs, completely abstinence. You can't just abstain from food. So it's a much harder game to learn to have a healthy relationship with that. And you know, with the part about not having some of your favorite fruits, I used to tell people, but this was just my ignorance. Like, no, like you need to learn to have any of your favorite fruits in the house and you need to learn to eat them in moderation or never going to be successful long-term. And I have learned the hard way that there is a few things I will not buy. And if I do buy it, I'm having one little bite or something out, I won't take it home to my house because if there's four of these danishes, I will eat all four, whether I want to or not. And I've completely shifted my verbiage on that because I do believe there are a few things that I just are no, no fly zones for me, to be honest.

So when I used to have a little bit of that thing, like a mini pack of Maltesers or whatever it was, it's almost like I'm getting that little hit and I'm still craving that thing. And when my mom would make like my favorite Anzac biscuits or favorite vegan carrot cake, she veganized everything, still crappy food. Like I'd get that hit and I could just demolish the whole 10 of those biscuits, right? And so it might sound a little bit restrictive. However, for me and my eating personality, I find it easier to have these rules in place that, yeah, these are pretty much no-go zone foods for me. However, also equally, there has to be these abundant delicious alternatives that I turn to that are a little bit more whole food based and they have some nutritional value and they still feel indulgent and joyful for me so that I can turn to that because sometimes as an emotional eater, when you've got that urge, you don't want to phone a friend or walk around the block or have a glass of water. Sometimes you actually do just want to demolish something. And so that's when it's good to have something like semi-healthy, semi-nutritious on hand that you can demolish and you're not going to feel guilty afterwards. There's no value in guilt.

That's a good point. What other steps have you done to or help clients with when it comes to emotional eating?

So probably my go to with anyone who's stuck is is harping back to that align your values and beliefs. I call that the eliminating the decision making process. So we've got to look at the why what they're looking to achieve. So they're big goal that they've got huge emotional around, you know, that they really, really want to achieve and the why behind that big goal, what it's going to mean to their life and to the lives of everyone that they love. So we build huge emotional intensity around the goal. We recognize that some actions that you're taking, you know, aren't aligned with that goal, the emotional eating. We really drill down on that and on the alignment between this is the goal I'm looking to achieve and this is how it is in alignment with their values, again, bringing back those values. I'll give you an example. Say someone's number one value was like love and family. You know, that's the most important thing to them in their life. And they also have a goal to lose a set amount of weight because they want to be around for their kids as their kids grow up and they want to actually be active and play with their kids. And then also they're an emotional eater and they demolish a tub of ice cream at night, whatever it is. It's pointing out, letting them come to the conclusion that there's a conflict between the actions they need to take to live aligned with their values and to be there for their family. There's a conflict in the actions that they're taking right now, demolishing that ice cream and what would be a more supportive strategy that is in alignment with the person that they want to be. Because when you get that true alignment, as I said, the decision making process is eliminated. Bringing it back to exercise, I've decided if I'm a personal trainer, I need to look the part. I can't be out of shape, I just can't. If I'm an animal rights activist, one of the most effective ways to advocate for the animals is to be fit, strong and healthy. I'm letting them down if I'm that stereotypical weak vegan, right? So there's an integrity there that is super important to me that basically I never think, do I train today or not? I'm not wasting energy on that. I'm like, I've decided that training gets me the results. I've aligned my values with those results that I want. And so I train. I don't even think, do I? Don't I? I just train. And that's so much simpler. And so that's what I'm looking to achieve for all of my clients that aren't there yet. Oh,

so true. Yeah. I don't, uh, I rarely, rarely ever have decision fatigue, whether I should go to the gym,

I don't

know he's want to. There's times when I'm going to be nice, but I'm not, but I don't, but I don't, I don't play this game of like, Oh, should I look at my shoes? You know, the thing where you're like, I want to put, I mean, I could go here. I just have it built into my day. And sometimes I'm driving there. I'm like, not in the mood today. And some of those end up being my best workouts. But you're so right. It doesn't, I don't get, I don't have to worry about decision fatigue. And that is such a beautiful place to be. And I think that, um, so what I hear you saying is it's more about kind of, I mean, this whole mind body spirit can, like changing the internal structure more than like drink 16 ounces of water. If you feel like you're going to do this. And like, I mean, I'm not saying those things don't work, but if you, they're going to be in a very band-aid fix. Like we have to fix the internal issues, right? Yeah.

They're just a rule that won't stick, whether it's a good rule or a bad rule. Like you're not gonna cling onto it with discipline, unless you've laid the foundation and you've done that groundwork so far as your goal and your values, beliefs, all of that.

So true, I go off on that. Let's kind of wrap up here. I got a couple questions for you. I'm curious just on, as a, you know, as a plant based person and what, how are you able to keep your protein count high? There's probably people out there listening that are like, so I tried that. I could never get enough protein. What are some of your go-tos?

It was a slight hesitation for me when I first became vegan because I was already that weird veg-o trainer in a Jim Bro gym. I remember one of the other trainers saying when I announced, because I did the big announcement that I'm becoming vegan and he said, well, goodbye, lean muscle mass. He was wrong. I did get super strategic and made it like...

And there's studies to back that, that as long as you keep straining, trying to keep your protein, you will absolutely not lose muscle if you're playing with it.

100%. The big guy's caloric density is a thing. So if a big guy, if I'm weighing between 56 and 60 kilos and a guy's weighing 100 kilos and we both go vegan and he eats the same way that I eat, if he swaps his beef for broccoli, he's going to lose too much mass. Like caloric density is absolutely a thing. He's going to need to eat larger meals. That's something to be mindful of. I used to do all the macronutrient breakdowns. Now I just aim for 15 to 20 grams of protein per meal and snack, that gets me up to my daily requirements easily. And you just need to do your research once. It's a bit of work upfront to know that, hey, there's 17 grams of protein in 100 grams of tofu and in a cup of adename. And this is how much is in lentils and chickpeas. And a couple of things are different in that as plant-based or vegan, your protein's probably not going to come from one thing. It's not going to come from one hunk of animal flesh, for example. It's going to come from multiple components in every single And so maybe there's going to be the star of the meal that is like your tofu or your lentils, maybe there's that. But then also I kind of have like the scatter over, like the little protein things that are good to scatter over a meal, the nuts and seeds and such that still have protein. Maybe you stir through. I kind of, I have the five S's that I probably won't remember all of them off by heart, but there was the star, there was the scatter over, there was the stir through. So maybe that's the hemp seeds that have more protein per gram than beef that you stir through a smoothie bowl or through your porridge. Maybe there's the side dish. So sometimes if I'm having an amazing meal, like I'm trying a new recipe, I'm recipe testing, I know it's absolutely delicious. Maybe I'm entertaining for friends and family, and they've got their meat thing over here and I've cooked all the vegan side dishes, but I know mine's a little bit lacking in protein. I'll just have a protein side, like I covered edaname, so easy. There's 17 grams of protein right there in addition to that actual meal that I'm having. And my last one with the S I think is probably a sauce. So you can make some really high protein sauces, be it tofu ricotta or like a cashew cream or an edaname guac. There are all these protein sauces and a lot of them are like lentils and legumes. I'm a huge fan of them now. I never used to eat them when I was vegetarian. There's such variety. They're so cheap. They're so quick. So many of these things can just be blended into a sauce or stirred into your stir fry or curry. It's actually super simple. However, I thought it was going to be hard before I started. And I probably made it harder than I needed to early days because I had a point to prove to all of my clients who are watching and also to all of those other trainers in the Jim Bro gym that were waiting for this veggio to turn into a really scrawny little vegan.

Just a wither away. I'm like, what should you not eat much of the processed stuff? Yeah,

look, they're transitional foods, right? So I mean, it's the same as like any approach to healthy eating, the more whole food focus on, the better value for your body, the better for your gut, the better for your body composition. I still eat those processed foods. I don't like the ones that are pretending to be meat. I was out for lunch with friends from work yesterday and there was a vegan burger with fake chicken, fake bacon, fake mayonnaise, and fake cheese. Look, if you used to eat fast food as a meat eater and you wanted to eat that as you were transitioning to plant-based, if you were doing plant-based for the environment or for the animals, amazing, go there. However, if you're doing it for your health, then I would absolutely recommend a bean-based burger, a chickpea or lentil-based burger, which is so much more whole foods, right? So I didn't order that burger. I had like an adapted Japanese-style bowl with edaname and brown rice and avocado and such, and that was much more my style.

I've seen some people who, I mean, they go, that's the only way they can get, it was a male friend of mine. So it's protein count and requirements a little bit higher, but tons and tons of the Beyond Meat. And again, I have my fair share of process things too. But just like you, I try to get my food from single ingredient whole foods, whenever, as much as possible. But like we said, you're kind of transition foods. And there's some, yeah, protein. Do you drink protein drinks? Like

protein shakes? I do. Like again, you don't have to. On my weights training days, I do. Do you know, I've always said that actually, I love them so much. I drink them on my non-weights training days as well. And not because I need to to get my protein intake up just because I have a nice salted caramel one. It's basically the only sweet thing that I still have and I do love it. And it is really, it is really fast and delicious. So I have it. You don't have to have it though.

Well, there's a variety of good plant proteins now and good-minded bros and don't taste. I actually have some that I prefer to mix in over waste sometimes. So well, sorry, I was just curious because I know there's always people that are like, oh, but people on plant, I'm glad we hit on that. People on, they go plant-based, lose muscle. There is ways to get your protein up and yeah, sure, initially you got to think outside the box more, but just like with anything, it just becomes a way of life and normal. Like, yeah, look what I do and like that seems like that's so much work and I'm like, it's not because I've just just what I do.

that leads to those long-term results, right? You know what is like really frustrating and a whole lot of work forever is a stop start approach where you never get results and you're always starting something new and you're never getting the benefit for your effort. You know, that is like a lot of exhausting, frustrating work. But just finding those recipes that work for you, I will say if you have a recipe flop, don't blame it on the veganism or the plant-based. You've had plenty of bad meat meals as well, right? And it's just have another go. I've had some flops and now most of my meals are pretty good. A hundred

percent. This has been a great conversation. I really appreciate you hitting on these things. I feel like I could have dove even deeper. And so your podcast is the Healthification podcast, right? Yeah,

absolutely. So it's been going for 10 years now. And basically, I interview passionate and compassionate athletes, authors, activists, doctors, entrepreneurs. And it's my heart because whoever I respect most in the world, I email them and say, hey, do you want to spend an hour one-on time with me? And very often they say yes. And that just gives me hope and hearts for the world I'm looking to create. And very diverse range of subjects as well. Some very animal-right, so just some very totally healthy and mindset-related and a big mix.

That's amazing. On all platforms, I'm assuming, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Big show. So we'll list that in the show notes for you guys, Healthification Podcast on all platforms, 880 episodes. And where are you hanging out most on social media? Like where can people get in touch with you? I know you got a book as well that you just launched that you're pretty proud of.

Thank you so much, Brad. Yeah, best place is just via the website. So StrongBodyGreenPlanet.com. The book is the Plant Positive Journal. It helps you adopt a healthy plant-based lifestyle. It's also a daily planner and I basically include a lot of beautiful artwork and recipes, but all the mindset steps and strategies that let a healthy lifestyle stick. So if you've struggled with the stop start, whether it's plant-based or just a healthy lifestyle in general, that is the Plant Positive Journal. Finding it via StrongBodyGreenPlanet.com is easy. And version two is actually about to come out in about a month or so. So yeah, super proud of that. Amazing.

Congratulations on that. We'll list all that in the show notes. You guys go check it out. And if you're curious about plant-based, I was just kind of asking her some general questions. Sounds like the book would be a great place to start and definitely go listen to the podcast. Thank you so much for your time, for coming on, for getting up even earlier than you normally do on a Saturday of all things at 4am. So thank you. I super appreciate it. It was great to chat with you.

It's easy. My absolute pleasure. I appreciate you being such a generous and open-minded host. It's been an absolute blast. So thank you so much, Brad.

Thank you so much. We'll chat with you guys next week. Bye-bye. Hey guys, it's Brad here. Just wanted to thank you so much for listening. We couldn't be any more grateful that you took the time out of your day to listen to us. We hope we provide a value. If we did, it would mean the world to us. If you would subscribe and share this with your friends.