Living a Nutritious Life with Keri Glassman

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Stronger with Don Saladino

Episode: Living a Nutritious Life with Keri Glassman

Release Date: May 19, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this thought-provoking episode, Don Saladino is joined by Keri Glassman, renowned healthy living expert and founder/CEO of Nutritious Life. The conversation dives deep into what it truly means to "live a nutritious life"—a holistic approach to health spanning far beyond food and workouts. Keri breaks down her eight foundational pillars for wellness, explains the importance of mastering the basics, shares actionable routines for sleep and stress, and dispels diet and hormone myths. The episode is a blend of relatable personal stories, science-backed advice, and plenty of “a-ha” moments for anyone looking to simplify their wellness journey.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. Redefining Strength – It's More than the Gym (03:30 – 04:00)

• Main Idea: Both host and guest emphasize that real strength is built through daily habits, not just workouts or diets.
• “So many people out there are focused on the saunas or the cold plunges or what supplements they're taking...But we're ignoring the most important things.” (Host, 01:40)
• Keri’s approach is grounded in simple, foundational practices that create strong, sustainable health.

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2. The Backstory: How Nutritious Life Began (04:00 – 06:47)

• Keri started conceptualizing Nutritious Life as a college athlete, noticing direct links between her sleep, study habits, nutrition, and athletic performance.
• “When I slept well, I would study better. When I studied better, I would perform better on the athletic field. It was just more like, funny how that all works.” (Keri, 04:43)
• Her practice evolved to focus on eight key pillars, rooted in the interplay of behavioral and physiological health factors.

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3. The Epidemic of Over-Complication (09:07 – 12:24)

• People today are overwhelmed by health info—social media, trends, quick fixes.
• “They hyper focus on one specific ingredient or one specific nutrient...and they don't look at the big picture.” (Keri, 10:01)
• Both agree: Mastery of basics is often overlooked for fads and hacks.

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4. Cutting through the Noise: Advice for the Average Person (13:18 – 16:17)

• Where do you start if you can’t access a coach?
  • Prioritize the basics: sleep, hydration, stress, movement, quality food.
  • Address root energy/symptom issues by honestly assessing sleep and hydration before jumping to complex interventions or supplements.
• “If we fix your sleep, we don't change one thing with your food—let's just fix your sleep...make a couple tweaks and that same person could come back saying, I feel like a million bucks.” (Keri, 14:19)

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5. Why Basics Are Not Sexy (22:03 – 23:34)

• The drive for quick-fixes overshadows foundational habits.
• “It's boring and it's not sexy. But they are the things that work. They are the foundation of what everyone, for the most part, needs to be doing—and they come first.” (Keri, 22:08)

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6. The Eight Pillars of Nutritious Life (24:18 – 25:23)

Keri’s Eight Pillars:

1. Drink Up – Hydration
2. Eat Empowered – Nutrition
3. Sleep Deep – Quality Sleep
4. Stress Less – Stress Management
5. Sweat Often – Regular Movement
6. Live Consciously – Environment & Mindfulness
7. Love More – Relationships/Community
8. Nurture Yourself – Self-care & Personal Rituals

“Love—obviously healthy relationships, community, which is a huge aspect... Sweat often. That’s not just about infrared sauna—that’s about moving your body.” (Keri, 24:53)

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7. Deep Dive: Stress and Meditation (26:07 – 29:34)

• Meditation is the most accessible, underutilized tool.
• Even 5 minutes of mindful breathing can disrupt harmful stress responses.
• “...when you are breathing properly, your body isn’t having a physiological stress response...you're changing your body's physiological response, which does have health implications.” (Keri, 27:20)

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8. Sleep Struggles & Routines (30:08 – 42:12)

• Keri candidly discusses her lifelong sleep and stress challenges, especially through perimenopause.
• Key solutions:
  • Cutting alcohol to improve sleep quality
  • Establishing a consistent wind-down routine: early face washing, chamomile tea (“builds up in your system”), magnesium glycinate, occasional tart cherry, and—if needed—bioidentical progesterone
• “If I get to 10pm, I'm just going to just, like, not do the whole routine, right?...At 8:30 I have to wash my face and do my whole wind down routine.” (Keri, 39:34)

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9. The Eating Pattern Dilemma: Why Nighttime Cravings Strike (43:16 – 48:41)

• Many eat too little during the day, leading to nighttime binges or junk snacking.
• “They're really focused and diligent with breakfast, with lunch...And then it's a melee.” (Don, 43:36)
• Keri’s fix: Lay a foundation of protein, fiber, and healthy fats earlier in the day; carbs, especially complex ones, can be helpful at night but must fit the person’s context (eating out, at home, etc.).
  • “You're not laying the foundation. You need to lay a foundation in the morning of protein for satiety, fiber to keep you full, and to help stabilize blood sugar, healthy fats again for satiety...” (Keri, 45:27)

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10. On Calories, Deficits & Weight Loss Myths (48:58 – 52:55)

• The “eat less, move more” dogma can backfire, especially for women.
• More isn’t always better: under-eating leads to slower metabolism, worsened sleep, and stress.
• Success depends on sleep, hydration, balanced macros, and not skimping on healthy calories for the sake of the deficit.
• “There’s a lot of other things to look at before you just say, okay, reduce calories...It might take X months. And that's the thing people never want to do—they don't want to be patient and consistent.” (Keri, 50:30)

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Quotable Moments

• “The basics are still the basics. They're not the sexy things...but they are the things that work.” (Keri, 22:08)
• “People are trying to hack things they don't want to do.” (Don, 54:15)
• “Cortisol’s not all bad...It's about creating a nice, beautiful curve. We want our cortisol high in the morning, to give us energy, and act anti-inflammatory.” (Keri, 57:36)
• “Most people are not doing the basics. And then they try to layer on the more complicated things and they sort of miss the boat.” (Keri, 23:03)
• “My goal is to get someone consuming nutrition to where they can move and be energetic and recover and sleep well.” (Don, 43:51)

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Memorable Segment: The Dream Dinner Guest (61:25 – 64:53)

• Don asks: “If you hosted a party for a dream dinner guest, dead or alive, who would you invite and what are you serving?”
• Keri’s Answer: Her late grandmother, Ava—emotional, heartwarming exchange about generational wisdom and gratitude. She’d serve a favorite healthy meal (salmon, farro salad, roasted broccolini) “to show her what I'm doing in my life and share that healthy meal.”

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Rapid-Fire Questions & Final Takeaways

Belief changed over career?

• Used to recommend low-fat dairy—now prefers full-fat, less processed.

Nutrition shift to help with stress:

• "Managing your blood sugar" (Keri, 57:20)

Hormone myth to debunk:

• “That cortisol is bad—it's not always about lowering it. It's about creating a nice beautiful curve.” (Keri, 57:36)

Protein requirements:

• 0.75 – 1g protein per pound of ideal body weight is a good aim. Start small if you’re not used to eating much protein.

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Important Timestamps

• How Nutritious Life was born: 04:00–06:47
• The eight pillars explained: 24:18–25:23
• Sleep struggles & solutions: 30:08–42:12
• Eating patterns and nighttime cravings: 43:16–48:41
• Emotionally resonant dinner guest stories: 61:25–64:53

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Final Message

• Focus on foundational habits: sleep, stress management, hydration, nourishing food, movement, relationships, environment, and self-care.
• Don’t be seduced by trendy hacks—get “phenomenal at the basics” and build your strength, health, and happiness from there.
• “You want to troubleshoot, you want to get started? Like, these are the basic things which you’re talking about. It’s not sexy, but it's not going to change. And that's what I think everyone is looking for.” (Don, 52:55)

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For more wisdom from Keri Glassman, visit NutritiousLife.com or listen to her podcast, “Living a Nutritious Life.”
For direct questions or to share your strength story, call or text Don at 855-348-3546.

This summary omits non-content sponsorship and outro sections as requested.

Transcript

[Podcast Sponsor Host]

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[Carrie Glassman]

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[Podcast Host]

Hey everyone, and welcome to Stronger. Today. I brought on Carrie Glassman. Keri is a healthy living expert and the founder and CEO of Nutritious Life, a wellness lifestyle brand and coaching education platform that empowers people to live healthier, more balanced lives. Now what was so interesting about our conversation is that we really got back to the most important things that so many of you are not focusing on. So many people out there are focused on the saunas or the cold plunges or what supplements they're taking. And these are still very important things. But we're ignoring the most important things. And she jumps into her eight pillars that she's created and I think it's just so refreshing to hear her stories and really talk about how when you're able to make these very simple changes that are inexpensive, they don't cost any money, the return that you receive from it are astronomical. We get into sleep quality, how she's improved hers throughout the years. She also talks about evening routines, just overall nutrition, fiber, protein. There's so many areas that we jump on that, I think you guys are going to find incredibly valuable. Carrie and I could have spoke for hours. It was just such a fun episode, and I'm just so excited for you guys to listen to our conversation. So get ready and hope you enjoy. So, first off, I want to thank you for coming and I've heard great things about you for years. I think it was Sue Varma, right? Was it sue who referred us?

[Carrie Glassman]

I think she's the one that, yeah, introduced us.

[Podcast Host]

Sue Varma.

[Carrie Glassman]

She officially introduced us.

[Podcast Host]

She's fantastic, by the way.

[Carrie Glassman]

She's amazing. Amazing. I have loved her for so long. And, yes, she's been worked in my community and we've, you know, she's come on and spoken to my coaches that I train and we've, you know, I think we first met actually at the Green room at the Dr. Oz show, I think is when we originally met, like, years and years ago. So, yeah, she's amazing.

[Podcast Host]

And you've been doing a lot of tv. So when I read up on you, it was more. You're on the Women's Health Advisory Board and you're a contributing editor and you've done a lot of tv and I've actually seen some of your stuff.

[Carrie Glassman]

I mean, over the years, it's been a long journey. I've been in this industry a long time. Like yourself, though.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, we've got our. We've got our years added up. Yeah, we're not going to talk about that right now. How many years have we been doing it?

[Carrie Glassman]

It's all good. It's all experience. It's good.

[Podcast Host]

I know, but. So you're. So you have a podcast called Living a Nutritious Life.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yes.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, talk to me about that. I find that a fascinating yet simple delivery. We're living a nutritious life. Like, talk to me about living a nutritious life. What is that definition for you?

[Carrie Glassman]

Okay, well, I love that question because I always ask people that question on my podcast. I always say, how do you live your most nutritious life? So I like it being thrown at me. So in nutritious life. So I'll just go back because it really relates to how I got into this whole field when I was in college, I always say, that's actually when nutritious life was born. So nutritious life's the name of my business. And again, when I was in college, I say, I didn't know it was being born at this time, but it was in the sense I was a college athlete and I.

[Podcast Host]

What'd you Play.

[Carrie Glassman]

I. I play. I actually played soccer and lacrosse my freshman year, but then I played lacrosse for the four years.

[Podcast Sponsor Host]

I love it.

[Carrie Glassman]

I love it. Yeah. So. But I was, you know, juggling all the different things, and the. My freshman year, I gained a whole lot of weight, yet I was playing these two sports, and I was stressed and I was busy, and I just felt like. I remember, like, my sophomore year, really trying to, like, zone in on how can I be a little bit healthier? Like, I'm an athlete. I'm supposed to be able to, you know, how can I perform on the athletic field but still fit into those skinny jeans on a Saturday night? And so I really became interested in just. I had already been interested, I would say in nutrition, but I became further interested in it and how all these different of what I now call pillars of a nutritious life work together. So I noticed that when I slept well, I would study better. When I studied better, I would perform better on the athletic field. It was just more like, funny how that all works. I felt better and like. So I really became interested in how all these different. All these different, again, what I call pillars work together. Fast forward. I didn't go right to study nutrition. I took. I worked somewhere else for a couple years. But then when I went back to study nutrition a few years after I'd graduated college, I was really fascinated again, not just on what we eat and how we fuel ourselves, but also all of these other pillars that work together physiologically and behaviorally. So how sleep affects our stress levels, and then stress affects what we eat. And again, from a behavioral and a physiological perspective, how they all work together and feed on one another. So that's really what a nutritious life is all about. It's these eight different pillars, how they work together. And so when I started my private nutrition practice, I. I said, and I mean, now people ask about stress and sleep all the time now, but, you know, back then, when I started my. My first office I opened in 2002, when I would ask people about their stress or SL. You know, sometimes they would look at me like, I'm coming to you for a diet plan. What are you asking me about this for? You know, they look at me like I had three heads, but I said, actually these things are equally important. And so that's really what a nutritious life is all about, how all of these pillars work together, but really how. And how we can support them all. Because sometimes the first thing you should be looking at is not your food. Even though Again, I'm a dietitian. I really like to talk about food, but that's not always the first pillar we need to address.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, my God. We're, like, speaking the same language here. And I started as a. A trainer. I was always a coach.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

People think it's all revolved around the fitness piece. And I'm like, oh, my God. For me, it was all about energy. Like, if my energy was high, that I knew that my sleep was good, I knew that my nutrition was good, and then I can go in and I can do the activity that I wanted to do at the level I wanted to do it at, and my brain function was good. It was. It was all a very simple thing early on. This is probably 1999 and 2000. So it is. It is interesting now. I mean, you got to admit, you get sometimes a little like. Yeah, you know, we were talking about this stuff. 25, 30 VO2 testing. Like, I did my first VO2 test in 1999. It's like. And now they're talking about this now in the correlation of longevity. So it's great that we've been at the forefront of this, or at least talking about it earlier.

[Carrie Glassman]

I know. Well, no, exactly. And sometimes, like, I've been saying this for so long.

[Podcast Host]

I know finally someone's listening to someone.

[Carrie Glassman]

But it's okay. It's all good. It's all good. The world is here. And listen, I'm just happy that more people are focused on it. Right. And more people are. Are putting these different tools into practice to. To live a healthier, more nutritious life.

[Podcast Host]

So before my next question, what. What university did you go to?

[Carrie Glassman]

Undergrad? I went to Tufts.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, cool. Great school. Awesome. I was just curious. I'm just wondering, so where did you.

[Carrie Glassman]

Just wanted to see how tough of an F of a lacrosse team I played on.

[Podcast Host]

That's it. No, that's a. That's. That's.

[Carrie Glassman]

It was division three. It is a great program.

[Podcast Host]

It's a great. It's a great. It's a great university. No, I was just more curious. I just like to know, like, what area of what. What. What area did you go to college in and. And travel and being away from your family. These are all. These are all variables in life when it comes down to stress and comes down to, like, what we learn. I think living in the city. Like, I lived in the city for. I went to school at Sigart University, but I lived in New York city for almost 14 years. Okay, maybe 15 years. So for me, living in the city was. Now looking back on, I'm like, I don't want to raise my kids here, but what a gift to be able to be here and experience that. So that's what I just think. I think about the same thing with, with universities. I'm like, where did someone go and what area?

[Carrie Glassman]

No, I always ask that question too. I like it. Just interesting.

[Podcast Host]

So where do we over complicate nutrition then? So people are to you and they, most of the time they're coming to you a bit vulnerable. Like very rarely I'm sure you have someone come to you like, oh no, I'm nailing everything. Like, let's just face it. Like where, where do, where do you think statistically with the people that you see, where are they, where are they over complicating this whole, this whole thing, nutrition?

[Carrie Glassman]

I think people are over over complicating everything. People are over complicating everything when it comes to nutrition because they want quick fixes and they want sort of black and white answers. And there's so much information out there now. There is so much information. So I would say that again when I started seeing clients way back when in, you know, again, I told you I opened my first practice in 2002. I'd actually even been seeing clients before that. So let's just say 2000. All these years, 26 years, right, of seeing people. I would say people complicated it back then because they wanted again, they wanted black and white answers. They want, you know, to be. To know this or that. They want, they just, they want it to again, quick fixes. But now with all of this information, social media, I think it's just confused people so much more.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Carrie Glassman]

And so I think they really do they over complicate everything. They hyper focus on one specific ingredient or one specific nutrient or one specific, you know, time that you're supposed to do something and they don't look at the big picture. And I always tell people, you know how many times I feel like I say this all the time. Like, take a step back, let's zoom out, let's look at the big picture here. Your body isn't tallying up everything on a, on a day to day basis. You're, you know, like, it just doesn't work like that.

[Podcast Host]

But back then had to be a little bit more simple, right? Because what were they reading? They were reading Women's Health, right? Shape magazine, Cosmopolitan. It's like they would come in with an article and they would ask you that question. Now people are getting bombarded all day long with some information that's fantastic, but others that you're just like, wait, no, this does not retain you.

[Carrie Glassman]

And the other problem is not only are they bombarded, but they're bombarded with little short clips. And so they hear something and they take it out of context and then it's blown up, and then you see it a thousand more times that week. And so all of a sudden, you know, you have this one thing, like anything. It could be about gluten, it could be about lectins, it could be, you know, I heard I'm not ever supposed to do that, and I can't have this. And you just, you know, again, you have to, like, zoom and put it in perspective of, you know, you have to have context around it, right? It's like. And also, even just things are sensationalized, right? Then even. Even in, you know, even in an article that might go into depth and isn't just a quick clip, the title of the article could still be, like, sensationalized. And it's like. And people just read that. People don't have the, you know, they don't have the attention span, so they just read a title. They don't even read the article. So then. And not only was that article not written for them specifically, it was, but they didn't even go into the information in the article. And then even if they had, they have to still take into account their specific genetics, lifestyle, you know, availability of foods, or whatever the topic may be. So, like, again, you have to really look at context and you have to, you know, kind of, again, take a, like, take a step back and it's hard. It's hard, though. Listen, I talk. I talk about it all the time. And, you know, it's. It's really hard for people with all of this information out there.

[Podcast Host]

My hope would always, always be that, you know, someone that I work with works with someone like you. Because I like, I like when someone's diving in deep and there's another person holding them accountable. And when you have this team surrounding them, it's not always necessary. Right? Like, some people don't always need a trainer. They just need you. Or, you know, maybe they are nailing the nutrition and they need it. They actually just need a trainer. But what are you saying to someone that is on, you know, unable to work with you or cannot connect with you? How are you telling them to, you know, kind of push aside a lot of the noise? It's not their job to know who knows what they're talking about? Who doesn't? Now this has all become about editing and social media, which is a very, I think, can be a positive thing. But it can also, as we said earlier, it could muffle the waters a bit. So like, what are you telling to someone who's living, you know, in another state and who's just kind of taking all this information? How do they filter it?

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah, it's a great question. And it kind of goes back to like, you know, I said before, the people are over complicating everything. So it's like, how do you under complicate things and then where do you begin? Like you said, if you're just someone out there and you're not going and working with a team of people, where do you begin? Well, first of all, I would say, are you having a specific issue? If there's a specific issue, let's try, let you know, you might need to see a doctor, you might need to go see someone first. But if it's a simple issue, like you mentioned energy before, I'm tired all the time. Well, let's look at the basics. Let's not complicate it. Let's look at the basic things. So, and this would be, you could be a little tired, maybe you have a little bit of gi. Distress or, you know, so let's just say some basic things going on. Let's take a basic look at things first and not complicate it. So take a step back and let's look at this like, sort of like the lowest hanging fruit first. Are you sleeping? Because sometimes people are like, I'm tired all the time. Well, how are you sleeping? I don't know. Usually I have like a glass of wine every night and then I'm kind of passing out on the couch and then I get up and then I go into bed and I'm like, okay, well, that's not the way to start your sleep. Right? That's not a good way. So that's, you know, that would just be a first example. Okay, how are you? Are you hydrating? Well, no, I kind of, you know, I have a Diet Coke in the morning. I maybe have one glass of water with lunch. And I'm like, okay, well, that's probably a pretty big reason that you're tired, right? So this is, we're just talking, okay? If we fix your sleep, we don't change one thing with your food. Let's just fix your sleep. Let's look at that and let's take out that Diet Coke and aim for eight glasses of water a Day, which is like so cliche, but a good place to start. Go to water, fix your sleep a little, make a couple tweaks to your sleep hygiene. And that same person could come back saying, I feel like a million bucks. My energy's better. So that person might not need to go much further. It may have just been simple things like that, but you would be amazed at how many people are like, well, I eat my, I have a salad every day and I take my Omega 3s and I go to the gym six days a week. Why am I so tired all the time? And then they'll give me that answer about like the glass of wine and the not drinking water or the whatever,

[Podcast Host]

you know, these things cost no money. That's exactly, that's what's amazing about it.

[Carrie Glassman]

Exactly. So, so again, look at, so take a step back, look at those pillars of a nutritious life as, again, as I call them. Your stress, your sleep, your hydration. There's so many things you can look at before you get into these real specific details of are you getting in, you know, the exact amount of, of X, Y or Z, or you should be adding in that supplement or you should not be eating after this time at night. Like, although I do like people that have a certain break in their day of not eating. But you know, before you start to complicate it and go for a food sensitivity test and all of, and spend all of this money, there's often very simple things that you can do to really up level not only your overall health, but just how you feel feel on a daily basis.

[Podcast Host]

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[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

All right. And he then went into a functional medicine doctor. The functional medicine doctor put him on trt, put him on testosterone replacement therapy. And I said, I'm like, why did you do this? He goes, well, my doc says my levels were creeping down and I was a little tired. And I'm like, let's go through your nutrition. And we went through it, and I kind of matched up his energy, his td, his total daily energy expenditure with what he was consuming. There was a massive deficit, right?

[Carrie Glassman]

And I said, eating enough, he wasn't enough, wasn't getting enough.

[Podcast Host]

And he just. And he's so smart, and he gets it. And he just looked at me and he was like, oh, my God. And I was just like, like, this is the most basic. This is the primer that goes on the wall before the paint. This is the most basic thing that we need to focus on. And. And it upsets me a bit that the doctor is quick.

[Carrie Glassman]

Well. Cause they go, right? They just, you know, five interviews with someone and they. It's the same thing. If you go to a doctor and you have high cholesterol, they want to put you on a statin right away. Maybe they'll say to do, you know, a couple other tweaks to your diet first? But if you say you're eating pretty well, like, sometimes they go right to that. It's the same sort of thing. And listen, that's how doctors are trained. Like, that's how they're trained. Like, we're trained one way, doctors are trained another way. So I understand for some perspective, but for some, you know, reasons why they do that. But, but don't you think they should have a team?

[Podcast Host]

Don't you think they should be turning to someone like you and saying, carrie, listen, absolutely.

[Carrie Glassman]

And some doctors do, right? And some doctors do. But I, I, yeah, I mean, I, I, I totally agree with you. It's, it's, it's interesting. You were saying that, and I knew exactly where you were going. I knew you were going to say something.

[Podcast Host]

I had to fluff it up a little bit.

[Carrie Glassman]

I was like, you know, like, he's, no, no, no. I'm saying, like, he's not, this guy's probably not fueling himself well enough. Right. Sometimes it is those simple things. But I do think, like you said, how often do people jump the gun? I think they're jumping the gun a lot because, again, they have a problem. They see something quick on TikTok or Instagram and they say, ooh, I'm gonna buy that supplement. And listen, I'm all for supplements. I love them as tools. As tools on top of doing these basic things first. But you always start with the foundation. You start with those basic, and then you can actually see where you need to add in other tools, whether it's a sauna, whether it's, you know, meditation or whatever else, although everyone should be meditating. But, you know, you add in, you add in these other, other tools appropriately where they're going to be most effective. And it's not just from being efficient, because people only have so much, you know, energy and time in the day to put towards their wellness. So. Right. So you want to be efficient with what they're doing, and you also want people to have to spend the money on things where they should be spending the money. Right.

[Podcast Host]

100. I wonder what percentage of people, though, are not. Maybe exhausting is the wrong word, but yeah, at least exploring the basics.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

And focusing on getting great at the basics. Like, if I had my wish, it would be. And that's what I love this so much living a nutritious life is really you getting people to explore the basics.

[Carrie Glassman]

Exactly.

[Podcast Host]

And to get phenomenal at that.

[Carrie Glassman]

And I always say. And that. Listen, listen. It's not sexy.

[Podcast Host]

No, but it works.

[Carrie Glassman]

It's boring and it's not sexy. And I've been saying. This is why I say I would like. There are certain things that, from when I first started in nutrition, that I obviously. Listen. Nutrition's still a young science. Things are changing every day. There's many things that have changed from when I first started. We didn't learn about the microbiome when I was getting my master's in clinical nutrition. There's many things we didn't learn. Fat we didn't look at. There was no place for. There was a place for fat, but there wasn't a place for saturated fat, really. So a lot of things have changed. But what I always tell people is the large majority of what I teach now, I was teaching 25 years ago, because the basics are still the basics. They're not the sexy things. They're not the things that necessarily get clicks on on Instagram, and they're not necessarily going viral, but they are the things that work. They are the foundation of what everyone, for the most part, everyone needs to be doing, and they come first. Now, of course, there are people with different, certain specific conditions and things like that, but for the large majority of people out there, they are not doing the basics. And then they try to layer on the more complicated things and they sort of miss the boat where maybe they needed a couple little complicated things or a specific supplement or a specific type of a tool, but they need that on top of, again, these basics.

[Podcast Host]

It's like the whipped cream without the ice cream. It's like, come on, man. Like, we got all of that.

[Carrie Glassman]

Exactly.

[Podcast Host]

You have to have this. Like, this foundation verse is so important. But everyone's talking about now with great things, right? The saunas, the plunges, meditation for phenomenal. I mean, meditation and saunas, to me are like the two things that I'm like, just. Just go free, but still not gonna. Meditation's pretty.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah, let's not put meditation in a cupboard. And by the way, I said, meditation's pretty good.

[Podcast Host]

I called myself that.

[Carrie Glassman]

I said it before, too. And also because meditation is the type of, one, that really fixes a lot. One, it's free. Two, you can also just sit there in bed and do it for five minutes. Everyone in the world can do it.

[Podcast Host]

Yes.

[Carrie Glassman]

Like the saunas, the cold plunges, They're

[Podcast Host]

Beneficial and I love them. But again, this is not going to replace all the other things living a nutritious life. You mentioned eight pillars.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, can you run through those?

[Carrie Glassman]

So drink up, eat empowered, sleep deep, sweat often, stress less, love more, live consciously.

[Podcast Host]

Ooh, I like that.

[Carrie Glassman]

Did I just say all of them? Did I? I just can't let it go.

[Podcast Host]

Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Carrie Glassman]

Drink up, eat empowered, sleep deep, stress less, sweat often, live consciously, love more, nurture yourself.

[Podcast Host]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. I had to actually check it off every time. I was like, yeah, nurture your.

[Carrie Glassman]

Pretty nurture yourself.

[Podcast Host]

That's about as complete of a pillar.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah. So love obviously healthy relationships, community, which is a huge asset. Aspects. Sweat often, obviously sweat often. That's not just about infrared sauna. That's about moving your body. We know, moving your body.

[Podcast Host]

I get it.

[Carrie Glassman]

Which by the way, also you don't necessarily need a sauna to sweat. You can also just get outside and exercise and sweat and reap some of those benefits of sweat and detoxifying, et cetera, et cetera. Obviously lots of benefits to exercise. And then the live consciously pillar is the one that people sometimes are a little bit like. Wait, what does that mean?

[Podcast Host]

What does that mean?

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah, I was about to say, so live consciously. It's sort of like the world around you, just being aware of the world, but also it's your space, right. Your environment. So, so your environment can be again the world at large, but it also can be your environment of your desk. Is it cluttered and causing you stress? Right? Is it? And also, you know, what are you even putting onto your body? Like what, what, what's in your environment, your cleaning products. So that can also go into then nurturing yourself. And, and which includes things like nurturing yourself could be, you know, maybe it's a cold plunge for someone. Right. Maybe it's a, a massage. Maybe it's stretching for someone. You know, it could be, but it also could be doing a great job face mask at home, you know, so it's all. Is anything that's going to like, you know, taking care of yourself.

[Podcast Host]

That's where people.

[Carrie Glassman]

I think it's really our self care.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. I think that's where people probably lose themselves the most because there is so much variety out there to choose from in reference to that pillar that they're like, well, what do I do? Like people want to be fed, like tell me to do this. And I'm like, well, you might need more meditation. I, I know when I. Meditation is probably the thing I struggle with the most. So this company, shiftwave, sent me a shiftwave chair, which call it true meditation or not. I'm laying in a chair and I'm actually doing a guided meditation. There's like a vibration going on in the chair, which is kind of nice. But I'm getting an additional 20 minutes a day now of like breathing, of breath work. And when I added that in, that probably was the most impactful thing that I've added into my regimen over the last 20 years. Yeah, amazing because it got me to relax for 20 extra minutes.

[Carrie Glassman]

But that's huge. That's like such a perfect example of something that's like, it's personal to everyone. Like I always say. I mean, I think the two things I struggle with the most with living a nutritious life is sleep and stress. And I've worked on my sleep a ton over the years and I've had to work on my stress a lot. But I just think I was always naturally a little bit high, strong stress type of a person. Like, that's just who I am. That's how I was built. So I've had to really learn how to manage stress. And so again, you start with wherever someone's coming from. So for you, if meditation was always hard for you, something like you said, just finding this other tool for you that was. Other people are like, hell no, I can't meditate. I'm never gonna meditate. But you know what I'll tell some people to do? I'm like, so for you, maybe it's not meditating. You don't have to do a guided meditation. You don't have to sit there and you know, on your meditation pillow, it doesn't have to be about that. But for you, it might just be literally taking a moment in your day. And you know, even if you're in an office, go into the bathroom, sit on the toilet, you know, sit on the toilet and breathe for five minutes. Literally just do that. Or, you know, I was talking to someone who's, she's a stay at home mom. And I said to her the other day, I was like, go into your bedroom, light a candle, close the door, lie in your bed for five minutes and just breathe and do. It could be box breathing, it could be an eight count breath, or it could literally just be, don't even worry about any of that. Just breathe in and out. And when you are breathing properly, your body isn't having a physiological stress response. So you might still have. So people say, well, how's that gonna take away my stress? And I say, well, you're not necessarily getting rid of your work stress or your financial stress or your divorce stress or whatever's going on and whatever big stressful things going on in your life, you're not. You're not taking that away. But what you are doing when you do something as simple as breathing properly, you are. You are actually changing your body's physiological stress response. And when you do that, even a couple times a day or even once a day, you're still improving. First of all, you might. You might change your behavior after that. You might respond to an email different. You might go in and talk to your children more calmly right after that. But aside from that, you're changing your body's physiological response, which does have health implications. It helps. It's important for your health. So, you know, there's multiple reasons to do things like that. And I think sometimes people think like, well, that's not gonna change anything. So why am I gonna go and breathe for five minutes? It's just wasting my time. I'm like, no, but it actually is. And sometimes it's just getting people to lean into it, trying something as simple as that. So you have to meet people where they are with. I mean, you know, with exercise, with, you know, you're not going to have someone come in that hasn't exercised and start to like, you know, no bench press.

[Podcast Host]

Absolutely not. No. And it is interesting because I will, I. I will admit that I was one of those people 20 years ago where I'm like, I don't need meditation. What I ended up, why I started doing it was I wanted my body to just feel better. I needed to relax more. I need to recover more. So when I initially started doing that, my. My body. Body actually started feeling better. My recovery started improving, less achy. It really gave me that type of feedback. And then all these other things with being able to relax and calm and really started kicking in. And now I'm like, now I'm hooked on it.

[Carrie Glassman]

Did you notice that you sleep better?

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, I do measure sleep through aura.

[Carrie Glassman]

Oh, yeah.

[Podcast Host]

And so I have been able to kind of quantify success with that. And you said the word sleep issue a few minutes ago. And I was like, that's my next thing I want to dive in on with you. What did you do? Talk to me about your sleep before and your sleep now. What did you do and what are you doing to continue to help to

[Carrie Glassman]

improve that personally, or what do I do with it?

[Podcast Host]

Okay, I want to hear Personal. And then I'd like to hear. And then after. Personal, I'd like to hear what you would.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah. You know, so I would say, like, I already said, like, I was sort of naturally a stress person. It's just, again, sort of. I think my genetic makeup. And I've had to really work on that. But I think sometimes when you are a naturally stressed person, many of those people often have sleep issues or they wake up in the middle of the night and your head spins or. So I was kind of always that person that I'd pass out. But I wake up multiple times a night. So again, I was always kind of like that. And then being busy, whether it was when I was in college and then working and then working and having two young kids and working around the clock and being a single mom and having two kids and working around the clock even more and your head spinning. So I feel like. Like, I. It was always the thing I kind of just put off. Like, I just have to push through this because again, I. The kids go to bed, then I do some more work, and then I wake up in the night thinking about something with the kids, and then I do it. So I was always. I kind of pushed off, like, really focusing on. I was like, I do all these other things. That's not the pillar I can totally focus on. Cause it felt almost. It almost felt too difficult to conquer. I actually shouldn't say that I never tried to work on any of it. I did try, but I.

[Podcast Host]

But you got discouraged at times.

[Carrie Glassman]

I think I. Exactly. I got discouraged. I'd say when I really started zoning in on. It was about 10 years ago when I was starting probably, like early perimenopause. And it was getting worse, and I was waking up more in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back asleep. And that's when I was like, okay, now I feel like my brain isn't even functioning. The next day, I really felt like. Because I felt the effects of, like, I used to be able to power through. I think that's what it was. I could power through more. So it was sort of the pillar I always pushed to the side. But when I felt like it started, like, again, and then there was perimenopause. So maybe it was just brain fog in general from perimenopause. Was it, you know, estrogens decreasing? Am I just more brain foggy and. Or is it because I'm really sleeping bad? Or is it a combination? It probably was a combination again, in conjunction with having you Know, at this time, like preteen type age kids and working a lot and all of that. So I said, I have to do something about this because I know, like, when you don't sleep well, your, I mean, you know, it disrupts your cortisol, your stress hormone. So it doesn't necessarily make your cortisol higher in the morning. We actually want cortisol, our stress hormone, to be higher in the morning, but it disrupts the balance of cortisol throughout the day. We have cortisol. I'm sort of going off track here. But the stress, the stress hormone, we actually, we want a beautiful stress hormone curve. Like, we want cortisol to be higher in the morning and we want it to flow and go down at night. But when you're, when you don't sleep well, you're really messing up that whole curve. Okay, so. And you're also, we know, increasing your hormone ghrelin, which is your hunger hormones. You're hungrier in the morning. So I would wake up hungry, which I actually, I still even want to have a great night's sleep. I wake up hungry, which I think is a good thing, too, but, you know, overly hungry, like, and craving carbs and craving, like, the work, kind of the worst type of breakfast foods. So you wake up, I'd wake up like that, and then I'd be a little. I would be a little brain foggy. And I just felt like, wow, like, if this is doing this to me now, what am I going to be like? And I have Alzheimer's, my family. So it really concerned me. And then also another thing about sleep is that we have a. I mean, we all know about our lymphatic system. We have something called the glymphatic system, which is really your waste clearance system of your brain. So there's these vessels and channels where the cerebral spinal fluid flows through your brain to clear out waste, waste. And part of clearing out the waste is clearing out the build up of, you know, like, amyloid proteins that are actually, you know, can put you at risk for things like Alzheimer's. So it really made me think, like, wow, like, my glymphatic system is not doing its damn job. Right. Right. I need to get that glymphatic system going. So it really pushed me. Okay, so now. So that was a long winded way to get to. So what did I do? No, but I think it's important for people to understand how important it is. Like, when you sleep, I always. Again, two things. If, if people could just Focus on two things. One, you need that glymphatic system working. Like we need to clear out that waste to keep, you know, toxins and waste to keep our, our brains as healthy as possible. We want our hormones to, we want to sleep well, to have our hormones more balanced. I already mentioned cortisol and ghrelin. Right. Those two hormones. And also, this is a really simple way of thinking about it. But when you eat healthy foods during the day, like you get your blueberries for your, you know, you're getting in antioxidants, all of those good health, healthy foods that you're eating, your omega 3s, your antioxidants that are anti inflammatory, you want them to go to work at night, you're eating all this good food during the day. It's not that they're not working at, during the day, but like at night it's like they go to repair. So it's like. And again, that's a very, it's not really a scientific way of explaining it, but that's a simple way to think. Like all that good fuel you're putting in, you're kind of, I don't want to say wasting it because I don't want to discourage people from eating it, even if they're not sleeping well, but you want it to really go to work at night. So if you can think about like those three reasons of why, like, proper sleep is so important, aside from the fact that you also want to feel energetic and good and all of those things, you know, that's really, it's motivating. So what I started doing is one, I stopped drinking alcohol. I didn't fully stop drinking alcohol and I never drank that much, but it really disrupted my sleep. So even if it was a couple nights a week, that can really start to mess up your whole week. And so I really, I can't. I mean, when I drink alcohol, forget it. And I drink maybe, maybe one drink a month at this point. And I'm always risking getting a migraine when I do it. So I'll probably have half of it or nurse it throughout a long period of time.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Carrie Glassman]

And so, and it would definitely only be on a weekend at this point. So that's a big thing. Like, I just, I can't do it. I cannot drink alcohol and expect that I'm going to get a good night's sleep. So that's one thing. Getting really consistent with a nighttime routine. Chamomile tea is one of my favorites things to do. It builds up in your system and the chamomile can actually help help you sleep better. Like, it builds up and when it builds up, it can be even as effective.

[Podcast Host]

I didn't know that it builds up. So that's something that you build up in your sleep. So you build that over time.

[Carrie Glassman]

If you drink it. Yeah, if you drink it consistently and you know, a couple hours beforehand. Because I still wake up to go to the bathroom multiple times a night, but I'm much better at falling right back to sleep. And then I have magnesium glycinate, which most people do. Yeah. And sometimes I add in. There's other supplements that I sometimes add into the mix. But whether it's like a little tart cherry juice, even in my chamomile, or, you know, and there's another things inositol. So there's some other things I do, but for the most part, like that is every single night. And then I also added in progesterone, but that wasn't until a few years later. But. And for all you perimenopause women out there. And this might be TMI for you, Don. I don't know, but I told you

[Podcast Host]

we were gonna go here. This is on. This is on my Instagram.

[Carrie Glassman]

But I will tell you, you know, I mean, I still, I still menstruate and I'm on because some people say, well, I still get my period. And I say, well, yeah, so do I. And I'm on progesterone and estrogen. Not necessarily for everyone. That is a whole other conversation. But I started progesterone before I started estrogen. And that also helped me with my sleep as well. And then another little thing. So those are like the big things I would say, but then also just like really winding down. Down. I mean, you know, I'm not great about have blue light glasses. I don't wear them every single night. But I am good at like, you know, putting away the phone, turning off, you know, putting the phone, you know, turning off, like just shutting it down from going on social and doing all that. I'm not, by the way, not perfect with that.

[Podcast Host]

The blue light glasses I've become perfect with.

[Carrie Glassman]

That's great.

[Podcast Host]

I will not like I. If I'm. And I should not be doing this, but I watch TV in the evening. It's just my wife and I get into bed. We're three dogs. It's just like our. It's our calm down.

[Carrie Glassman]

It's your wind down time. Yeah. And that's okay.

[Podcast Host]

And I have to. I know what I watch at night's really important because I'm watching shows like Prison Break or these crazy shows. Like I'm like sleeping poorly at night. I think it totally winds me up. So I normally have to watch comedies

[Carrie Glassman]

or just something that, oh yeah, something very light.

[Podcast Host]

But I could not believe how much that had something to do with my sleep quality. Like the actual content I was.

[Carrie Glassman]

Oh, my boyfriend puts on war movies every single day. And I hear things. I'm like, absolutely not. And sometimes I'm not watching. I'm even just like going to bed and I'll have this TV on a little in the background and I'm like, absolutely not. Like I can hear that. No way.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, I'm not watching Platoon before bed.

[Carrie Glassman]

Trust me, shut it down. I'm like, why do you always go to that? And I, I shut it down. No way. There's no, there is no, like, no, not allowed. Not allowed. But I should, but now, see, you're motivating me now to be more consistent with my blue light.

[Podcast Host]

Well, the blue light. But, but, but you're, but you're probably better than I am in reference to the wind down routine. So besides the chamomile tea and the magnesium, I do the magnesium. I do inositol. I do glycine, I do L. Theanine. Kind of make it into a little bit of a cocktail and I'll have that probably two hours before bed. I'm still waking up at night to use the bathroom. Like I just can't get out of that. I think it's because I am aging. But talk to me about your evening routine. Like is there a specific period of time before bed that you start winding down? Like what is you? What do you normally do?

[Carrie Glassman]

Okay, well I'm, I really like going to bed early.

[Podcast Host]

Oh no, I probably have, there's no way you have me beat on this.

[Carrie Glassman]

I really like, if it's up to me by 8:30 I would be like washing my face. Like I like, I like to do all that. And I actually can't do it that much later because if I get to like 10pm So I don't really actually get into bed to go to sleep until probably 9:45, 10. And by the way, my kids and boyfriend might say no way, 9:30, 9, 15 you're going to sleep. But I'd say probably 9:45. But by 8:30 I have to wash my face and do like my whole wind down routine. Because if I get to 10 for some reason, I mean, there's a chance, like I'M just gonna just like not do the whole routine, right.

[Podcast Host]

Just fall into bed.

[Carrie Glassman]

So I have exactly no. So I would say about 8:30. I do. That's when I like have my supplements, maybe my tea supplement. Like, you know, I take my magnesium. I take my progesterone. I have a little chamomile tea again sometimes the. The tart cherry. I sometimes do again, like you said, I sometimes am mixing in some other things like L Theanine and all that. But generally I do definitely the magnesium chamomile, progesterone. Wash my face. And I also like to. This is sort of just a little beauty thing, but I like to actually wash my face and moisturize and do all of that and put like. Because I also like love oils. And I like to do that at least an hour before bed as well. Because I like it to start to absorb in and absorb and not just sort of like land on the pillow.

[Podcast Host]

I get it.

[Carrie Glassman]

Then it goes to the pillow. And I'm just making the pillow sheet nice, not my skin. So I do that. And then I'll probably watch like I do either I'll read a little bit or I'll watch a little bit of tv. But in the living room, not in bed. That's what I try to do.

[Podcast Host]

That's smart.

[Carrie Glassman]

I don't really like to do it in bed. Then I like to get into bed and go to sleep.

[Podcast Host]

That's smart.

[Carrie Glassman]

And another thing I tell people to do and I sometimes do, this is not a nightly thing. So I'm very seeing, very honest here. And I am not perfect. I don't ever pretend tend to be perfect with any of these routines. But again, I think I'm pretty realistic, right? I'm like, I'm realistic. So when you have a lot of things that you're stressed about, I sometimes I write them down.

[Podcast Host]

You journal.

[Carrie Glassman]

Like I write down my stress. Not even journal. I won't even say journal. Cause this isn't like a full like writing down all my thoughts. It's literally just like writing down almost like a list. And I do that and it's sort of like putting it to bed. And it helps me sometimes not. I still wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I do. And I don't think I'll ever. That'll ever change. But it helps me wake from waking up in the middle of the night. My head's spinning. Do you know what I mean? Like sometimes like your head will start to spin in the middle of the Night. But when I've sort of put the stresses to bed, it's almost like, okay, I can attack you in the morning. And that I also have found many clients to really find that helpful.

[Podcast Host]

What's the one thing you think most of your clients struggle with in reference to sleep? Do you think it's that wind down period, that evening routine, or do you think it's alcohol? Do you like, where are you normally at with that?

[Carrie Glassman]

Alcohol? Absolutely, sure. Absolutely. Alcohol and really like the wind down routine. I think people are like going from dinner, glass of wine, falling into like a bed, watching TV with their laptop out, their phone out, like all different, you know, digital distractions and then maybe brushing their teeth and trying to go right to sleep. Like there isn't, well, the supplements, the winding down, the, you know, they're not, they're not giving themselves that time. Cause even like I did say, you know, I'll go and I'll watch TV for a little bit. I should actually note though, but I do try to turn that off at least a half an hour before I'm then getting into bed. And then maybe I'll do a couple things like in the kitchen, clean up a few things, organize a few things. Like I like, I'm not going right into bed from that. So I try not to watch TV in bed. And then I try to give myself at least like a half an hour hour.

[Podcast Host]

I've always seen with most people that I've worked with that throughout the day. Nutritionally, they're kind of eating like a mouse. They're like making, like I said earlier, they're, they're making good choices, they're just not eating enough. And then when they get into the evening and they get home and they relax and they take a shower and they lay on their couch, then it's like a melee.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

And I feel like they're, they're playing this tug of war with themselves where. Yes, if you're not getting enough calories, like I'm very against, against being in this deficit all the time. Like I'm like, we use deficits as a tool when we need it. My goal is to get someone consuming nutrition to where they can move and be energetic and recover and sleep well. But have you seen that a lot in your practice where people are just, they're trying so hard throughout the day, they're a little distracted and the evening comes and it's a melee.

[Carrie Glassman]

Absolutely. And that was actually another thing I was going to say I meant to mention. So I'm glad you brought it up because I said the alcohol and the lack of wine down. But also just the eating junk before bed. Yeah, like an eating. Eating too much before bed. And you're absolutely right. I see this all the time. And I've seen this for all the years that I've been practicing. People are, they're really focused and diligent with breakfast. They're really focused and diligent with their lunch. And then three, four o' clock snack becomes weak.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Carrie Glassman]

And then, and they're trying to hold, hold on. And then they try, they might even force themselves to have a really big balanced, what they think balanced healthy dinner. And they haven't had enough calories for the day. And then it becomes dessert because those cravings are higher because they haven't eaten enough throughout the day. So the cravings are higher. They're not, they weren't satisfied, their blood sugar was not balanced. So now they're starving. And then they have a little bit of a sweet and then like, I'm still hungry. And then they go for something else. And then it just, this becomes picking and generally it's not healthy foods. They're not going back for a little more of the chicken on their, you know, they made for dinner. They're going for the popcorn and then maybe it's some other kind of a chip and then maybe it's a bite of the cookies their kids made or, you know, so then they're, so then they're over consuming later in the day. So whenever I, when I look at someone's diet like that and I say, and you again, you probably see this a lot too. And I start to load up, they say, wait, I want to lose weight. Why are you telling me to have more in the morning?

[Podcast Host]

God bless you.

[Carrie Glassman]

And I say, because you're not laying the foundation. You need to lay a foundation in the morning of protein, for satiety, fiber to keep you full and to help stabilize blood sugar, health healthy fats again for satiety and to help you even burn fat. But, but for calories. Even you need those calories so that you don't go looking later on. And when you're not fueling yourself and you're depriving yourself, you're just looking for those calories. And that's what happens. You end up consuming, you know, all these calories at night. So it, and it's funny because sometimes, you know, I really think like many people need, you know, a good complex carbohydrate at night to help with. Even we know that it can help with serotonin and then melatonin and it helps with your sleep. But oftentimes what happens is some, again, it depends on the person and it's all personalized. So sometimes that's a really good tool. Someone's been depriving themselves of carbohydrates at night and they're not, you know, they only have like chicken and vegetables because they're trying to just have the protein and vegetables. And I'll add on some and I will, you know, use like a, have a half a sweet potato. That's actually going to help you be more full and satisfied. It might even help with your sleep and, and you know, so that can be a tool sometimes though, again with people that are maybe going out to dinner all the time and they're not eating enough through the day and they're not really there yet, they might not be ready to add that high fiber like starch at dinner because they're out to dinner and it's going to turn into the buttery potatoes at the dinner and too much of it. So we don't do that yet. So I'm just bringing up the point.

[Podcast Host]

It's tough to get that healthy.

[Carrie Glassman]

It's personalization when you're doing it.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Carrie Glassman]

Right. A carb again, like a food like a sweet potato or brown rice could be very helpful at night. But when they're, when someone that's not their lifestyle and they're out to dinner a lot and they're not necessarily eating enough through the day, it could just cause them to really just over consume.

[Podcast Host]

That's also really tough to consume at a restaurant.

[Carrie Glassman]

Right. That's what I'm saying. Their lifestyle is that they're going out to dinner and then you don't really know what's in that rice or the potatoes are like oil laid and then you have a lot of them and then that person hasn't eaten enough through the day and then they're eating like three servings of like these buttery fried type of potatoes because you told them to have a potato at dinner. So it really is personal. I sort of went, I kind of went on a little.

[Podcast Host]

No, you're like the first person I've actually spoken about this with on here because I feel like carbohydrates when you go out, that's the most difficult thing

[Carrie Glassman]

to find and the right ones and then to have it in portion control. So with people like that, sometimes what I'll do is I'll say when you're at home cooking, you know, and you're making, you know, roasted broccoli and, you know, grilled chicken and you know, with sauteed mushrooms. Like, that's when have that half a sweet potato or have a, you know, a great farro salad of some kind, like make some Greek faro. But when you're at, when you're out at a restaurant, skip that carb. You're getting enough, you know. And again, it depends on the person. That's not necessarily for everyone, but it can be a helpful way, way to, for someone to kind of get into the habit of having a healthier, balanced meal at dinner. But again, it depends on the time, place and situation.

[Podcast Host]

I would imagine I would almost put any amount of money on this. If we were to assign you to one of your clients and you were to cook for them all day, they're probably going to meet. Eat more protein, more fibrous foods, higher calories all day, and never have a craving at night.

[Carrie Glassman]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

And I've never seen a human being turn to me and say, well, I just got fat eating, you know, high quality proteins and fibrous carbohydrates and veggies. Like, when have you ever heard, well, I just overdid the sweet potato this quarter. Like, that's why I put on the extra. But think about that. You're talking about blood sugar level right now. You're talking about maintaining blood sugar levels, and that's going to come with eating more food. I could hug you right now because this is exactly what I want people to hear. Oh, seriously, this is exactly what I want people to hear because we're in a society right now with social media where it's always deficit, deficit, deficit. How do you handle someone who comes to you saying, you know what, I've been eating really healthy and I'm even tracking and I'm consuming like 1200 calories a day. 1100 calories a day. And I'm not losing any body fat or I'm not like, what are you gonna do? Tell them to go less calories? Like, how are you having that? What are you telling them?

[Carrie Glassman]

Oh, no, not at all. I would, I would absolutely not tell them to go less calories. So first I would probably take a look. I mean, there some people that 1200 calories is, is appropriate. There could be like a smaller woman who needs to lose. Like, that could be. That's low. Very. That is on the, the lowest end. But there are some people that, for weight loss that could be appropriate. So let's just assume that that's appropriate. Again, it also would depend on their exercise and whatever.

[Podcast Host]

But I've heard worse. I've heard people come to me with 900 calories. The person who came to me with 1200 calories should not have been consuming 1200 calories.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah, but there are some people that, that it could be appropriate for weight loss.

[Podcast Host]

100%.

[Carrie Glassman]

Many people, it'll be too low.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Carrie Glassman]

So what I would probably take a look at is all of these other behaviors, everything else going on. Like what is your stress? Like what is your sleep like, what's your hydration like? If you're not properly hydrated, your metabolism is going to be slower. You're literally not using nutrients for energy the way you're supposed to. You need water and to be properly hydrated for every single metabolic process in your body. So you need to be properly. So maybe that person isn't properly hydrated, maybe they need a little electrolytes in their water. I mean it could be something as simple as that. And it could also, so it could also even be, I'm just saying, even the hydration part, if you're not properly hydrated, you're not going to work out as well. Right. So maybe they're not getting a lot out of the workouts. Maybe they need to be increasing. Maybe they're like, they're kind of like, kind of just like trudging through, you know what I mean? They're not like, they're not, they're kind of going through the motions of that working workout because they're not like properly hydrated. So I would look at hydration, I'd look at stress, I would look at sleep, I would even look at like food timing, like when are you eating those calories? Like are you even, you know, are you having 200 in the morning? Then kind of like, you know, loading them up at night? Like what's, what's going, like where are you using them? Are you keeping your body burning throughout the day and is it 1200 calories but just from protein and a little bit of carbs and no fat? Maybe you need some fat to help you absorb those fat soluble vitamins and to burn. So you're telling your body you've got some fat coming in, you know, so like I'd look at, there's a lot of other things to look at before you just say, okay, reduce calories. And with someone like that I probably wouldn't. And then for someone, someone, you know. Cause sometimes people will say that, they'll come to me and say that and it will Be, you know, they've. They've been doing it for two weeks. And I was like, okay, yep. It took you X amount of years to get to this weight. It's not going to take X weeks. It might take. Take X months. Like, and that's the thing that people never want to do. They don't want to be patient and consistent, or I don't want to say they don't want to be. It's hard for people to be patient and consistent. And so I always say, like, again, it's the boring stuff you got sometimes, Sometimes that person doing the 1200, maybe they're doing everything really they're doing. They're doing things right. And they need to, again, tweak the sleep, tweak the stress, tweak the hydration, add in a little fat. Maybe they need a little. Maybe they need a little more calories. But again, we were trying to assume they didn't.

[Podcast Host]

No, but these are, these are the basics. This is actually turning into a great episode of. Like, this is something I would revert someone to watching. Like, you're. You want to troubleshoot, you want to get started. Like, these are the basic things which you're talking about. It's not sexy, but it's not going to change. And that's what I think everyone is looking for. They're looking for this magic pill. They're looking for some influencer to give them some information that is just, oh, my God, this is groundbreaking. I could cut a corner. What you're talking about right now. This has existed forever.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah, exactly. Well, that's why I said, even when I first, you know, I saw my very first client, you know, over 25 years ago. I would say again, a lot of things have changed in nutrition, but 90% of it is the same in terms of not even nutrition. I'd say lifestyle. Right. We just have all of this, this access to new tools and things that we are just like in. We. We just think we need to be doing all of these things. Which kind of goes back to what we were talking about before. Like, most of those tools, too, existed. They just existed in the form of, you want to sweat, go out into the heat and run. Like, you know, I mean, like, sweat. You don't need a sauna. Although I do love asana. But, you know, like, you don't need, you know, you, you, you don't need all of these different.

[Podcast Host]

Yep.

[Carrie Glassman]

You don't have to, like, go get some fresh air, go for a walk.

[Podcast Host]

People are trying to hack things that they don't want to do. At times, I find that I got a couple of. I'm not going to say these are rapid fire questions. I'm going to try and keep these quick.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

And I'd like to just kind of jump through them. What's a nutrition belief you held early in your career that you don't believe in anymore? Is there one? Is there one? There may not be one. I'm putting you on the spot here.

[Carrie Glassman]

No, it's okay. I'm trying to think of. Okay. Also, this is kind of like a basic thing, but years ago, in my very first book I wrote in 2000, because I always, like refer back to this example I used to recommend as an example yogurt, like Greek yogurt with some almonds. You'll get the protein and the calcium from the yogurt and you'll get the healthy fat and a little fiber from the almonds. Right. And that's a better combination. You're getting the healthy fat with the protein. Not that that's a bad snack anymore, but I would definitely recommend low fat or full fat. Even if you have half the amount of yogurt. Yogurt, low fat or full fat. Because there are some benef. First of all, a food that has not been as processed and the fat taken out like that. I would have dairy. If I'm having dairy, I would have dairy in that form. In a full fat form. And there are some benefits. Again, this is a whole other longer conversation. Not for rapid fire. But there are some benefits to some types of saturated fat in an overall healthy diet. So that's something that has changed.

[Podcast Host]

Again, these questions, Questions, they're, they're, they're not rapid fire questions. Even though I'm putting you under the spot. Because we could probably. We just did a whole episode.

[Carrie Glassman]

I mean, we could talk for hours and hours. I don't even got to any of the topics.

[Podcast Host]

We didn't get to any of the questions. But honestly, this episode is beautiful because we covered the things that I felt were most important. Everything else right now, we'll touch upon it for the rest. So let's get into stress. Okay. How much is stress sabotaging people's physique and strength goals?

[Carrie Glassman]

I mean, I don't have an exact percentage to give you, but I would just say a hell of a lot. Absolutely. Stress affects everything. I mean, it affects. I mean, when we're stressed, we are more. First of all, it affects our mood. It puts us at risk for all kinds of disease. I mean, heart disease, diabetes, I mean, stress affects everything. It affects our cognition. I already said our mood. It affects our motivation and our mindset, our emotional state. So if we're not. If we're constantly stressed, we've got that physiological stress. Right. But we also have that emotional side to it. So our bodies physiologically are not doing what they're supposed to do. And it's affecting again, I always say, like, our blood sugar puts us at risk for disease. Disease. But then mentally also, we're not. We don't. We're not motivated to go to the gym. We're not necessarily motivated to, you know, eat that healthy meal or, you know, cook for ourselves. We might just. That's when we might just order in or go for that pint of ice cream.

[Podcast Host]

Yep.

[Carrie Glassman]

So it affects it us dramatically.

[Podcast Host]

What's the simplest nutrition shift that helps regulate stress?

[Carrie Glassman]

Managing your blood sugar.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. Okay. It's simple. That's. That's about as rapid fire as we're going to get there. Is there a. Is there a hormonal myth that you'd like to debunk?

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah, that cortisol's bad.

[Podcast Host]

Thank you.

[Carrie Glassman]

Cortisol's not all bad. People think cortisol, the stress hormone, it's bad. I got to lower my cortisol. Lower my cortisol. I say, no, no, no, no, no. It's not always about lowering it. It's about creating a nice beautiful curve. We touched on that before. Cortisol actually helps with your mood and your cognition and your immune system. It's an anti inflamma. Like, we want our cortisol high, like in the morning, to give us energy and acts anti inflammatory. We always think of it as bad and just that we want to lower it. We want to have a nice cortisol curve. So we want it balanced. We don't want it flatlined. We don't want it low. We don't want it always high. We want that curve.

[Podcast Host]

What shifts in women nutritionally during menopause

[Carrie Glassman]

or perimenopause, in perimenopause. And this is going to sound like maybe too simple, but the thing I. The first thing I always tell people during this time is that if you're trying to maintain your weight, because that's very often, you know, people start to gain weight because there's like sarcopenia and estrogen goes down and inflammation goes up. So there's a lot of different things happening. But what I generally say to people is a lot of the things that you need to do. Again, this is the unsexy stuff. A lot of the things that you need to do are the things you've been told for many years. You just can't get away with not doing them all great. Now, kind of like what I was saying with like the sleep. I got away with the sleep thing. I wasn't gonna get away with not really focusing on it anymore. So it's the same thing with your hydration. You have to be on top of that hydration, maybe add some electrolytes. You can't just. Oh, yeah, I have some protein every night at dinner, but then I kind of like skimp on it. You've gotta get that protein in breakfast, lunch and dinner. So a lot of the things you've always been doing, you just, you have to really focus in harder. And I will just go even one step further, especially really taking out sugar because sugar is inflammatory and our inflammation is already going up. So you have. But again, that's things you were already always told. And then. And again the protein and the fiber, not only to maintain blood. Well, to maintain blood sugar, but also the fiber for better overall your gut health, because that also can shift during those perimenopause years. I mean, this is like. I'm trying to just like I'm dumping a whole lot into this answer because.

[Podcast Host]

Phenomenal.

[Carrie Glassman]

There's so much we can talk about.

[Podcast Host]

This is where. This is where. Yeah, no, these are. These are tough questions to answer. Answer quickly, but you're doing a great job with it.

[Carrie Glassman]

So I'm never really short with, you know, short answers.

[Podcast Host]

You're nailing this. So in reference to. So the, the new U.S. guidelines. Yeah, the new food pyramid was just. I just had on Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Dr. Donald Lehman and Dr. Lane Norton. And they all agree around that gram of protein per pound of body weight. Dr. G was talking more about a gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. Body weight. Is that where. Where do you stand?

[Carrie Glassman]

I would say ideal body weight. And I'd go a step further saying that for some people, it still is really hard. It is. It's hard to hit. So I would say it really depends on your goals. So for some people, even 0.75 to 1 for it, depending upon where they're starting, can be a good start. So I just don't like people to get frustrated or like, I can never get to that, you know, 120 trained.

[Podcast Host]

Right. It's like anything else.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah. So if you're getting to 0.7 and listen in your weight training and you're seeing increased muscle mass, that Might be enough for you, but I. I would say the ideal body weight, 0.75 to 1 gram per pound.

[Podcast Host]

I love that. And I. And I try to tell people who are getting discouraged. It's like, if you're not used to eating that much protein. Yeah. It's going to be tough in the beginning. Let's start small, and let's build over. Over time.

[Carrie Glassman]

Exactly.

[Podcast Host]

Last question. This is a fun one, though.

[Carrie Glassman]

Okay.

[Podcast Host]

Okay.

[Carrie Glassman]

I had to write this down because I'm excited.

[Podcast Host]

If you hosted a party for a dream dinner, guests dead or alone live, who would you invite, and what are you serving them?

[Carrie Glassman]

I think I'd say my grandmother.

[Podcast Host]

I love that.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah. My daughter's middle name is Ava. She was named for my grandmother, Adrian, who passed away. She had cancer twice. I'm going to, like, start to cry. She passed away when I was in seventh grade, and I feel like I never really got to talk to her as an adult.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Carrie Glassman]

Oh, my God. I'm gonna start to cry. I've been talking so long anyway, so I feel like it would be like, that probably be the person.

[Podcast Host]

I love that. I mean, my. Definitely in that list for me would be my. It would definitely be my grandparents or among some other famous figures. But I think the meaningful ones would be because they were the ones who helped me with my pivot in my career early on, and they helped me with some financing early on. And they just did things that were so loving and so unselfish that.

[Carrie Glassman]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

And they were mentors. And there were things that my grandfather said to me back then that I think I brushed off when I was 13, because it was like, you know, he's. He's talking to me about peace of mind. Like, he's. He said. He looked at me one day when I was young. I've said this several times on here. But he said, what do you think? What is your goal in life? What is the ultimate goal? And he's. He said, mine. You know, he said, mine has always been peace of mind. And I said, grandpa, I want to make millions of dollars and play professional baseball and do all these things. And I didn't realize what he meant by peace of mind until later on in life. And now I want to, like, sit down with him and just tell him, you were right about it, everything.

[Carrie Glassman]

Totally. Well, that's why. Yeah. And that was really the first thing that came to mind.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Carrie Glassman]

It wasn't even. And I know to everyone out there, that's not like, okay, that's so interesting. But, like, to me, that was just really the first person that came to mind. And I would probably serve her a health one of like my favorite healthy meals of probably one of my. I make a lot of different salmon dishes. I make salmon, some kind of a farro salad with maybe a little butternut squash in there and like roasted broccolini or something like that. Just like a really healthy meal almost to just like shovel show her, you know, what I'm doing in my life and. And share that healthy meal. And I know that, you know, they didn't eat like that back then. So just to sort of share that kind of a meal and just talk honestly just talk about life.

[Podcast Host]

What was there, what, what was her nationality?

[Carrie Glassman]

She was dead Eastern Jewish. Eastern Jewish. From Eastern European Jewish.

[Podcast Host]

All right, so my grandfather was. Was Italian. But you know, the foods he ate was. They were healthy. It was like he cooked in olive oil. He was, you know. Yeah, there was pasta and there was. But there was fish and there was vegetables and all these things. I'd still pro back to one of the restaurants we used to go to. I think he passed away. A week before he passed away. I actually he met my daughter and we went to a dinner together. Was my wife, my grandfather and my daughter Amelia when she was. She was a newborn. And I remember sitting down and I'm not a drinker, but I remember having a couple drinks with him and I remember him taking me back to his house and he's telling me he was. I don't know why I'm talking about this. I'm going to get emotional now. But he said I bring it out. Yeah. But he brought me onto this battle balcony that he. At his house on the water back. This was years ago. And he. And he says, you know, I bought this house in 1970 something. I remember, I remember looking up at the sky and say, God, if you don't mind, I'm going to borrow this view for a while. It was before he purchased it and I'll never forget that. It was just there was such an old school thing and such a respect that I think, you know, you know, our grandparents had and there was just this level of class and just. I'm gonna. You've given me an opportunity to purchase this gourmet gorgeous property. If you don't mind, I'm gonna borrow this for a while. You know, it's just a very deep thing. So I think we both. I was ready to start hugging you there because I apologize that we got deep.

[Carrie Glassman]

I love that. I love that. I know. And again that was just sort of like my gut reaction. I haven't even like, talked. I mean, she passed away when I was in seventh grade. Yeah, like, it's, it's. But she lived with us that year right before she passed away because she was going through treatments and I lived. I grew up in Boston and she was going through treatments there. And so she lived with us and like. But I always think, like, I never got to talk to her as like an adult and ask her all these questions and. Oh, okay.

[Podcast Host]

Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing that with us. I don't even. Sometimes I don't even like to edit this stuff because it just shows the realist. Well, I want to thank. First off, I want to thank you for being here.

[Carrie Glassman]

This is awesome.

[Podcast Host]

It was such a pleasure. I feel like I've known you forever. And I also want to thank Christian Ponder, the Blind Nil team, everyone from the Post guys, they've been amazing and this place is special. It's just been a real pleasure to. And listen, we're going to end up doing this again at some point.

[Carrie Glassman]

Oh, this was so fun. I want to have you on my podcast.

[Podcast Host]

I would love to do that.

[Carrie Glassman]

I it really love want to do that. This was just so fun to chat with you.

[Podcast Host]

Easy to go guys. Thank you for joining in. Hope you enjoyed that episode. Thanks.

[Carrie Glassman]

The views, information or opinions expressed in the series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Chip and Joanna Gaines by Nail Audio nor Magnolia.