Hungry for Peace with Kim Shapira

Summary

Podcast Summary: Intrusive Thoughts with Adam Rippon — "Hungry for Peace" with Kim Shapira

Date: October 9, 2025
Podcast: Intrusive Thoughts by Adam Rippon
Guest: Kim Shapira, Los Angeles-based dietitian, founder of the Kim Shapira Method, and author of This Is What You're Really Hungry For

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Episode Overview

This episode features a lively yet deeply insightful conversation between Adam Rippon and Kim Shapira, exploring the complex relationships we have with food, our bodies, health, anxiety, and self-care. Drawing from Adam's personal experiences as a figure skater and Kim's expertise as a dietitian, the episode dismantles diet myths, addresses disordered eating, and introduces the listener to the six practical steps of the Kim Shapira Method—all with warmth, candid humor, and vulnerability.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. How Life Experiences Shape Food Relationships

• Kim’s Backstory: Kim describes her teen years spent with painful, isolating illness, surgeries, and hospitalizations, leading her to develop a shopping addiction as a coping mechanism ([03:56]).
• Coping Lessons: She learned early from a mentor that “food can make a person sick or healthy” ([05:47]), influencing her decision to pursue nutrition.
• Emotional Roots: Kim reveals, “We all pick careers and partners to master a trigger.” ([03:55])

2. Nutrition, Trauma, and Emotional Layers

• Client Stories: Kim shares a pivotal moment realizing how emotional trauma (such as sexual abuse) can drive disordered eating patterns ([09:01]).
• Addictions Parallel: She likens many clients’ relationships with eating to her own with shopping, connecting compulsion, avoidance, and discomfort ([10:07], [05:39]).

3. Adam’s Athletic Perspective

• Athlete Food Challenges: Adam reflects on pressure in figure skating to be lean for both appearance and technical reasons ([12:27]).
• Unhealthy Practices: He shares restrictive diets enforced by coaches, including eating only apples or tomatoes, and the normalization of harmful behaviors in elite sport ([13:05], [14:27]).
• Changing Mindsets: There’s a recognition that “being poor was the best diet I was ever on” ([12:54]), but also that his best performances correlated with healthier eating, not extreme restriction ([17:21]).

“I started to connect the feeling of hunger to working hard. It felt like if I could push it a little more, I was getting closer to the goal.” — Adam Rippon ([16:32])

4. Gender, Body Image, and Post-Sport Transition

• Men vs. Women: Adam notes men have more leeway post-sport (“I can bulk now”), while women often feel stuck in the “thin or nothing” box ([19:24]).
• Body Positivity: Both discuss the challenge and seeming radicalism of “actually loving your body” ([20:04]).

5. Weight, Numbers, and Wellbeing

• Obsession with Scales: Adam admits to tracking weight, not body composition. Kim urges: “That number doesn’t mean anything. You need to get a new scale or throw that one out!” ([21:25])
• Food as Anxiety Response: Adam describes his lack of emotional connection to food and confesses to “priding” himself on losing weight during holidays ([22:22]).

6. From Restriction to Peace

• Kim’s Philosophy: “We’re hungry for peace around our relationship with food and nutrition and our health, more importantly.” — Kim Shapira ([30:04], [31:00])
• GLP-1s & Diet Culture: Kim addresses the rise of GLP-1 drugs (Ozempic, etc.), clarifying they may affect appetite but don’t fix the root relationship with food ([42:44], [43:06]).

7. Diet Trends and Pseudoscience

• Maha Movement & Food Fads: Adam expresses concern over influencer-driven diet trends (“raw milk”) and the distrust of science ([33:12], [33:34]).
• Kim’s Take: All choices arise from “trust or fear.” She notes how people ignore obvious links between gut discomfort and behaviors like excessive gum-chewing ([34:19], [35:31]).

8. Myths: Metabolism, Hunger, & Fasting

• Metabolism Explained: Kim uses a stovetop analogy: all six burners are on for athletes. If you stop fueling/moving, they go off—easy to restart with regular eating and activity ([41:51]).
• Why Not to Skip Meals: Skipping meals signals the body to go into famine mode, slowing metabolism ([56:44]). Eating regularly (every ~3 hours) keeps systems running and supports weight loss ([57:04]).

9. The Six Simple Steps — The Kim Shapira Method

Full walkthrough at [60:08]—[75:55]:

1. Eat when hungry; eat half, wait 15 min ([65:03]):
   • Tune into true hunger. Take your normal portion, halve it, wait 15 minutes for satiety to register.
   • “It takes 15 minutes for food to go from our mouth to our stomach to tell our mind that we’ve had enough.” — Kim Shapira ([67:03])
2. Eat what you love, but it must love you back ([68:27]):
   • No “good/bad/should/shouldn’t”; pay attention to how food really makes you feel.
3. Eat without distraction ([69:46]):
   • Focus on food, not TV or phones. We eat 30% more when not paying attention.
   • Adam: “At home I joke like, you got me fat because I’m just eating what [partner] is eating.” ([68:15])
4. 10,000 steps a day ([72:17]):
   • Movement is crucial for maintaining metabolism and mood. Most people underestimate how little they move.
5. 8 cups of water daily ([73:55]):
   • Hydration is key for kidneys, metabolism, and avoiding fatigue/mood slumps.
6. 7 hours of sleep per night ([75:08]):
   • Continuous, regular sleep reduces inflammation and hormone imbalance.

10. Self-Love and Consistency Over Perfection

• Underlying Message: “You can follow the rules, but the reason you follow them is because you want to take care of the machine—or yourself—or whatever.” — Adam Rippon ([76:33])
• Progress Mindset: Both Adam and Kim stress that change is not about all-or-nothing “disorders,” but compassion, self-reflection, and returning to balance ([53:11]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Career and Triggers:
  “We all pick careers and partners to master a trigger.” — Kim ([03:55])
• Peace, Not Perfection:
  “We’re hungry for peace around our relationship with food and nutrition and our health, more importantly.” — Kim ([30:04])
• Food Rules:
  “If you can’t get past that [feeling triggered by rules], then you’re never gonna succeed.” — Kim ([62:09])
• Adam on Skating & Food:
  “I started to connect the feeling of hunger to working hard. If I could just push it a little more, I was getting closer to the goal.” — Adam ([16:32])
• Sleep’s Role:
  “When you feel drowsy, put yourself to bed…melatonin turns into an antioxidant when you’re sleeping and it cleans all your cells so you wake up less inflamed.” — Kim ([75:44])
• Self-Love Insight:
  “If I cared about myself…That’s quite interesting.” — Adam ([32:29–32:43])
• Humor in Vulnerability:
  “I’ll sometimes wait…save my calories for the night. Oh, God. I’m hearing myself and I’m going, I don’t think so.” — Adam ([47:25])
• Holiday Food Mentality:
  Kim: “Maybe that week you’re just choosing cookies and Thanksgiving dinner seven times in a row—what’s the big deal?” ([71:41])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Kim’s Personal Story & Why She Chose Nutrition – [03:49] to [06:39]
• Adam’s Relationship with Food as an Athlete – [10:56] to [20:04]
• The Problem with Just “Numbers” & Male vs. Female Athletes – [21:25] to [20:04]
• Myth Busting: Metabolism & GLP-1s – [41:41] to [46:29]
• Six Simple Steps (Kim Shapira Method) – [60:08] to [75:57]
• Hydration, Sleep, and Caring for Your Body – [73:55] to [76:12]

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Final Takeaways

• Our relationship with food is deeply entwined with emotions, habits, cultural messages, and self-worth—not just knowledge or discipline.
• Building peace with food begins with mindfulness, self-trust, and consistency, not perfection or punishment.
• True health is holistic: movement, sleep, water, emotional health, and joy in eating all matter.
• “Progress looks different,” and reframing setbacks or triggers is part of self-care—not evidence of failure.

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For More from Kim Shapira:

• Instagram: @thekimshapiramethod
• Website: kimshapiramethod.com
• This Is What You're Really Hungry For book club (free)

“Love yourself enough to practice these values and, eventually, sleepwalk through them.” — Kim Shapira ([64:11])

Transcript

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[Adam Rippon]

Kim Shapira, thank you so much for being on Intrusive Thoughts today.

[Kim Shapira]

Thanks for having me.

[Adam Rippon]

So. Hi, everybody. This is Adam Rippon. This is Intrusive Thoughts. Kim Shapir is here with us today. She's a Los Angeles based dietitian and she's the creator of the Kim Shapiro method. It's six simple steps. We're going to talk about them later because I want to dig into it.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

And she's also the author of this Is what yout're really Hungry For.

[Kim Shapira]

Yes.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. I'm dying to know what I'm really hungry for. This is going to be great. So actually how we met was I've mentioned on this podcast that I am opening a medical spa. And I've been so lucky to be connected to so many different owners and different medical spa people and all of that. And so I went to a women's health seminar.

[Kim Shapira]

You sure did.

[Adam Rippon]

That you were speaking at. On a panel. And it was all about talking about, like, the what stage of. Of menopause are you going through?

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And I just want the listener to know that I'm the only, like, man here. Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And that when it did come to me, I did say, I don't want to brag. Because we were all saying, what is our, what's our, what stage of menopause are we going through? And I went, I've got a good one. And I said, I don't want to brag. I've never had a period.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Which went over really well.

[Kim Shapira]

It did.

[Adam Rippon]

In a room filled with hot flashes pre and post.

[Kim Shapira]

You're right. You're totally right.

[Adam Rippon]

It went really well.

[Kim Shapira]

It did.

[Adam Rippon]

But I thought that you were so good on the panel.

[Kim Shapira]

Thank you.

[Adam Rippon]

And my life, like, as an athlete has dealt. I've. I've have so many things that involved nutrition and eating and things like that. And my relationship with food, like, pretty candidly, is like, so odd if I really think about. And so I just remember I thought everything that you said on the panel. Well, it was in for this panel, obviously it was in regards to menopause, but it's just. Was everything about health in general is so.

[Kim Shapira]

I hope so.

[Adam Rippon]

I took a lot away from it. Okay, good. One, that I never had a period. And two, we all got that. Everybody did get, like I said, it really killed in the room. Had to be there. But I remember you were up there, and I just. I thought I had so many questions for you, and I wanted you to come here. And when I saw you up there, you were from neck to ankle, full denim. Obviously, I'm going to trust every word you have to say totally. And I. Before we get started, can you let us know a little bit of, like, how did you get involved in this space? I have a theory that it's always like, people who get involved in this. It's never like, I just loved food. It's always a little bit of like, I need to fix something.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Yes. First of all, we all pick careers and partners to master a trigger.

[Adam Rippon]

Oof. Woof. Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, yeah. So I'm 52, but my story goes that when I was 12, I got sick. So that was 1986, very long time ago. And medicine was very different. And so I spent five years going back to UCLA every single week. So just.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Every week.

[Kim Shapira]

Every week. Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

What was it? What were you, like, going through?

[Kim Shapira]

Oh, my God. That I don't never even share, really. But you can imagine that I had four reconstructive surgeries. I was one of eight people who had ever been born with this. So they didn't know what to do with me.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. So they really didn't know what to do with me for the first year.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

People still don't know what to do with me. So that eventually. Yeah, that's fair. Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah, Yeah, I feel you on that, basically, is what I'm saying.

[Kim Shapira]

I felt like I was totally on an island by myself.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. And now it's more common, and it's crazy. But that's not even the important part. The important part is that I was, like, really shy and really quiet and in so much pain. And I was crying one day and my mom said to me, let's go shopping after your Doctor appointment. You don't need to cry. And it was like really great advice because she gave me a place to put my mind didn't have to stay in my body, which was not comfortable. And so every single Wednesday, like clockwork, we went to Bullock's, which was in Westwood. And the entire time I was at the doctor and I had four male specialists. And I was 12, so just already a lot, you know. Yeah. So I would just think about what I was going to buy. And so a deep rooted shopping addiction kind of like took root. Took root.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

That's the right thing. Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And somewhere in the roots were planted the seed. They were.

[Kim Shapira]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Adam Rippon]

Gardening. Gardening addiction. Which is a great place to start here. Totally.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. It was watering it. So in high school, a doctor mentor of mine told me that food can make a person sick or healthy.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

And so there's the fix. Because I was so sick that all I wanted to do was be healthy. And I imagined that everyone did too. And then I was wrong.

[Adam Rippon]

Wait, how were you wrong?

[Kim Shapira]

They wanted to be thin. They wanted to be told what to eat. They didn't want to pay attention to what was going on inside of their bodies. And so I didn't learn that straight away, but really, really quickly into my career. So I wasn't that interested in food. Food wasn't that important to me. I ate it when I was hungry. My mom had been restricted as a child, so we had everything in our house. So my house was the one that people would come to and they would eat the whole box of like a Kudos Bar or Twinkies. And like, I was like, no, I don't want that. It's always there kind of thing.

[Adam Rippon]

What's a Kudos Bar?

[Kim Shapira]

I'm so old. It's like a. The original, like, bar, like protein bar, whatever. Like it was like a little. It wasn't a candy bar, but it was like a snack bar. The original.

[Adam Rippon]

It's the first thing I'm gonna like, look up as soon as this is.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, they were delicious.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. Ye trust that if you said it in like succession to then Twinkie, that.

[Kim Shapira]

It'S same kind of thing. Exactly. We had a lot of them in every flavor.

[Adam Rippon]

Did you. Was that like a conscious decision because you felt like restricted in the past that you were like, I'm not living this way.

[Kim Shapira]

I never felt restricted.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, I felt like isolated and in pain and sick and like a victim mentality.

[Adam Rippon]

How did you go from there to then, like the other side of it of trying to Teach people how to eat better or live better or. Yeah, I mean, what is your philosophy or mentality? Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

So books on tape had just become a thing in 1986.

[Adam Rippon]

Great invention, by the way.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, yeah. And my dad's in entertainment. He's a talent agent. And so somebody had gifted me this old man, like, he was 200 years old. And he came and he sat down on my hospital bed and. And he told me how he cured himself of an incurable disease by laughing. And that was it. So, like.

[Adam Rippon]

And that was me who said that to you on the. I said, listen. Listen to this podcast. It's my podcast on tape.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Fifteen minutes of laughter gives you two hours of, like, pain free time is what he told me.

[Adam Rippon]

Wow.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Oh, that's really crazy.

[Kim Shapira]

His name was Norman Cousins, and there was an entire building dedicated to him at ucla. So he was like the original guy who was talking about neuroscience but didn't know what he was talking about. And he was also talking about positive psychology. So one negative thought, you need three positive thoughts to erase what that does to you physically. So in graduate school, I kind of went back and studied the psychosocial dynamics of disability, because I had one. You just couldn't see it. And I knew I wanted to help people. And so I started, like, having these little patterns kind of show up. And those were the threads, right? So it was Norman Cousins, it was this doctor, and then one of my first clients put her on a diet. She lost 30 pounds. And I'm like, I'm so good at.

[Adam Rippon]

My job, you know, she's not a genius. Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

She got off her medicine, like, this is what I wanted to do. And then she told me she was going to gain the weight back because her husband wanted to have sex with her all the time. And she had been molested as a child. And so that was like the moment where I was like, okay, I'm actually hurting people.

[Adam Rippon]

So is that the correlation is basically like, to. Because she has this weird. Not weird, but she has this bad relationship with sex. She copes with it with food.

[Kim Shapira]

Was that it started to take hold. Like, I started to kind of understand it back then, but again, this is like 1997. Right. And so I was very new at this. And again, like, food was supposed to make us healthy, so eat some kale and you know what to do. Right.

[Adam Rippon]

God, it's so much more layered.

[Kim Shapira]

It's so layered. And you're dealing with everyone's thoughts and you're dealing with. Dealing with everyone's ideas and everyone's diet and everyone's expectation and nobody focuses on themselves. And I wasn't doing that. So what had happened is I started seeing that my clients were eating the same way that I was shopping. Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

Addiction.

[Kim Shapira]

Yes. Yes. And everyone's like, you shop a lot. And I'm like, no, what are you talking about? I don't do that. I don't have any money in the bank. But, like, I'm definitely going shopping. Like, you know, I didn't see it. I didn't see it.

[Adam Rippon]

What was not to take us off track, but what were your go to things to shop for?

[Kim Shapira]

Anything.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Everything.

[Adam Rippon]

You just needed to hear the Cha Ching. Exactly.

[Kim Shapira]

I mean, every paper I wrote was on the chiching. Every paper.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. I mean, it really is so much. It's more complicated than we really think it is. Because even when I was getting ready to speak with you today, I was just trying to think about, like, my own past, like, relationship with food.

[Kim Shapira]

Tell me everything.

[Adam Rippon]

So my background is like, I am a former athlete, and I would not consider the way that I ate to have, like. I wouldn't consider myself to have, like, an eating disorder. Because at least in my mind, when I think of, like, eating disorder, I think of, like, you look in the mirror and you go, I hate myself. I don't like the way I look. I need to fix this. And maybe this is like. Maybe like, I'm being totally ignorant.

[Kim Shapira]

Let's revisit that.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. Pin in it.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

I was always. Because in my sport, there are two components to being like. To being a figure skater. Is that, like, lean is a look, but it's also a function where if you're leaner, there's, you know, less things to catch wind when you're spinning in the air. It's just, you can move faster if you're leaner and thinner. And I remember the first time I had a coach who told me that, like, I needed to lose weight. And I was 17. And it was just this, like, very, like, jokey way of like, I don't know how you got so fat. And I, you know, was like, oh, yeah. I don't know how it. How it happened either. And it continued. And I. I worked with tons of different coaches from Eastern Europe, North American coaches, Central Europe. So it was not like a cultural thing in that respect. It was more of, like, in the skating culture ethos.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Of like, be as lean as possible.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And I think that I. I never wanted to be somebody who, like, starved themselves. So I never was doing that until I moved to California, and I had, like, no money, and so being poor was, like, the best diet I was ever on, because I couldn't, like, I had to, like, pay for my ice or pay for groceries.

[Kim Shapira]

Right.

[Adam Rippon]

And I was like, well, you don't need groceries to skate. Right. And so I remember that when I moved to California, I first moved to Lake Arrowhead.

[Kim Shapira]

Oh, interesting. That makes sense.

[Adam Rippon]

There used to be a big skating.

[Kim Shapira]

I grew up there. Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And so there's like. There's nothing up there except, like, you would become a member of the hotel to go to the gym.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Love that hotel.

[Adam Rippon]

And it was like 40 or $50 a month, and. But they had apples and they had Tazo tea for free. So I'd go in there with a backpack and, like, throw all the apples in, and they just go to Stater Bro with no skin off their nose. Right now they're just gonna go buy more Tazo, no problem. And so that's. I was just eating, like, apples, and then I started to lose, obviously, weight. I'm like. And that's the podcast. That's how you do it. And so I start. And it started to correlate where I did actually start to skate better, but it was also, like. It's this horrible combination of a few things happening at once. I was skating with a good coach and really motivated and working really hard. I was becoming leaner, but I was getting praised for getting better. And I was, like, correlating it to being leaner. I never took it to a point of. I felt like, it's dangerous, but I did absolutely go on, like, crazy diets. And this is where I'm like, I don't know if this is, like, an eating disorder for, like, a personality disorder, where I would be like, yeah, I'm not eating anything.

[Kim Shapira]

It's not a flex, but I get you.

[Adam Rippon]

I know. It's. I know that now.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

I know that now.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

But I remember some of the, like, crazier things that I did where. I don't know, like, what the craziest diet I was asked to go on was. Tomatoes. Wow. Period. Wow. Just tomatoes. Why? Right.

[Kim Shapira]

Who in the world.

[Adam Rippon]

I can tell you who, but it won't. It won't matter. And then I said, like, I thought that I was going to just, like, pass out every day.

[Kim Shapira]

So sad.

[Adam Rippon]

It's so crazy. Yeah. And so then, like, I would put myself on these, like, more restrictive diets of, like, I'd have a few slices of bread and then a whole bottle of kefir. And so it was just like, I'd have kefir, just a bottle, like, every day.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And I think that there's been a real change in, like, our sport and the way people talk about, like, food and body. Yeah. Image and everything. This is still. I'm talking maybe like, 10 or 15 years ago was totally different still.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, I agree.

[Adam Rippon]

And so I remember, like, we'd have, like, Team USA camps, and we would meet with, like, a dietitian or a nutritionist, and I would, like, very proudly be like, nope, I'm not going to be eating that. I'll just be having kefir and, like, walk out of there with my bottle of, like, warm yogurt at this point, because I've been holding it all day.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

It eventually does catch up with me. Like, the problem is, is that I'll eat. I eat like this. I get better. I got better. I kept getting better. Because I think the human body can just like, withstand so much until a point.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, I think you're right. But I am curious about the intrusive thoughts, like, what came first, because when you are restricting, you're. You go into full temper tantrum. Right. Like, I always use the example. If I tell you I'm going to allow you to pee one time today, and I'm going to pick that time, we would immediately become anxious.

[Adam Rippon]

See, I always got to this point of, like, anytime I started, this is, I think, where it gets like, oh, okay. I started to, like, connect the feeling of hunger to working hard. And it felt like I was like, you bonded it. Yeah. And it was like, I'm working so hard, and anytime I'd feel that hunger, if I could just push it a little bit more, I was getting closer to the goal. And I always told myself, I knew that this was not right, but I was always like, when you're done skating, when you're done competing, you'll address it and you'll eat normally. This is just what it takes.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

It ends up catching up with me where it's like a year before the Olympics. I break my foot, like, just walking, and I'm like, okay, maybe there's no nutrients. And I start working with a nutritionist at the Olympic Training Center. I think that I was the healthiest version of myself when I was at the Olympics. That's good, but not the leanest and not the best shape. I say, like, in quotes. Right. But it was the. It was. I would not have made it to the Olympics in the shape that I was in my best shape in yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

And I like the quotes, and I'm just curious, like, would you have done better or worse? Like, when you're even comparing your weight at that time?

[Adam Rippon]

Maybe I would have been able to do more. Technically. I had. I, like, definitely watered it down by the time I got to the Olympics. But, I mean, I skated as well as I wanted to. Like, I did everything I wanted to do. Yeah. But if I look back on my career of, like, when was I in the. And again, like, best shape of my life. It was probably, like, two years. A year before I broke my foot and two years before the Olympics.

[Kim Shapira]

I'm just curious if it's possible that you haven't even gotten to the best shape of your life yet.

[Adam Rippon]

All right. And I think that's it on the podcast today. I mean, that's a crazy. So, like, I think that when I. So I make it through the Olympics, I'm like, okay, time to, like, be normal. And so I, like, eat. I just, like, don't have the restrictions anymore because, again, like, I never saw myself as, like, eating disorder. And I. My husband. Boyfriend at the time was. He's 6 4. He can eat like a fucking truck, Whatever the saying is. Yeah. He can just. He, like, doesn't have any issues with eating. He eats a few times a day. And he saw the way that I was eating was, like, very worried by it.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And, like, it's fine. Whatever it is. Nice.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

So I relaxed with it. And I think that, like, when it comes to men and women leaving the sport or changing, like, their mentality from, like, being a competitive athlete to not, I think men have it easier because we can go like, oh, I'm bulking. I want to get bigger in a way that I couldn't as an athlete. And I think women are always put in this box of, like, thin or nothing.

[Kim Shapira]

Right.

[Adam Rippon]

And so I was able to.

[Kim Shapira]

Or love my body and be overweight.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah, exactly. Or I'm positive about it.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Which, like, that felt like the craziest thing to ever be positive about your body.

[Kim Shapira]

Imagine. I couldn't imagine loving your body.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. And so I definitely eased up on the restrictions, and I was just, like, obviously not as active as I was before. So when I was competing, I was at, like, at 150. Not that I remember the exact numbers, but 150.2. And I eventually found myself, over the last few years, hovering around the. Again, I'm not obsessed about it. 168 to 172 range. My husband is from Finland, and He likes to go to Finland over the summertime. He'll go for a few weeks. I'll catch him at the end of the trip. And he's always. And I think that, like, sometimes I just, like, don't connect. Like, oh, eat breakfast. I'll just do it later. Eat lunch. So he's always been on me of like, we're gonna eat now. You have to eat. Okay. So I, you know, get up to the 68. 72. I'm like, it's no, whatever. That's just life, baby. Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And then I'm like, you know what? I think it's time. This is about three or four months ago. I think it's time to kind of like, let's buckle down. And so recently, I've lost, like, 18 pounds. And I think it's. I've obviously lost a lot of the muscle that I had when I was competing. Like, my legs are almost, like, half the size.

[Kim Shapira]

Well, that makes sense.

[Adam Rippon]

And so the number is just a fascinating thing to me. I don't look at it, and I don't.

[Kim Shapira]

Well, I'm curious. When you look at the number, are you just looking at that number? Are you looking at your muscle mass, body fat and body water?

[Adam Rippon]

Just the number.

[Kim Shapira]

Metabolic age? Yeah. That doesn't mean anything.

[Adam Rippon]

No, it doesn't.

[Kim Shapira]

You need to get a new scale or throw that one out.

[Adam Rippon]

Ooh, God.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

This interview is getting expensive.

[Kim Shapira]

No, they're like, $19. Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, you can do it.

[Adam Rippon]

It was just, you know, it was just. I.

[Kim Shapira]

The mental health that you're going to gain is, like, insane.

[Adam Rippon]

Right? There's no cost.

[Kim Shapira]

No.

[Adam Rippon]

To the mental health I'll gain. But, yeah, I think, like, my relationship with food is just weird because even when my husband and I talk about, like, the holidays, the first thing that he says is like, oh, my God, I can't wait for Christmas or whatever, because we make all of this food. We're, you know, with his family and stuff, and I can't wait to make all the food. And I didn't even think about it, and I said, oh, well, I can't wait for the holidays because I'm gonna do my famous trick of losing weight during the holidays when everybody else gains it.

[Kim Shapira]

That's funny.

[Adam Rippon]

And I'm like, oh, God, that can't be good.

[Kim Shapira]

So funny that, you know, you jumped into that thought. But the reality is, he's like. He wants to make the food.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. Which already feels dangerous to me.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, I get that. But it's not about the food. Like, there's so much anxiety around it. I'm even curious, like, as you were getting older and you were, you know, participating and getting ready for the Olympics, what happened to your anxiety?

[Adam Rippon]

You know, again, it's like, nothing is so, like, black and white. Because I had broken my foot the year before, which is terrible. And I just told myself, like, let's just see what we can do. Because I was an alternate to the team in 2010, then did not make the team in 2014, and by the time I was gonna be 28 to try to make that team, which at that time, when I did make the team, my teammates were 17 and 18.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

It's like, I was, like, the oldest first time Olympian since, like, the 1920s.

[Kim Shapira]

Wow. That's amazing.

[Adam Rippon]

Well, it also comes with this. Like, there are no expectations. And I just was, like, grateful that I was able to do it and be there, that I did not have a lot of anxieties when it came to eating or food or weight. Because at that time, that 150 was, like, I could kind of do anything, and I wouldn't go above or below it. Yeah, it was a pretty solid number that, like, I just checked. I think in the past, I had looked at the number and would be worried if it was, like, higher. But I always. And I still think it's important that, like, athletes weigh themselves so they know a number, but they need to be honest if they're performing better at a certain number that might be higher than they think. Because I did have coaches who were like, there's this one math problem we do, and that's how we get it. It's like, you know, you take your height in meters, you subtract the day of the week, you spell out, you know, what's your mother's maiden name? You add that all together, and then it's like this. I remember I did whatever math problem it was, and my trainer looked at me and was like, this is your ideal weight for your height. Wow. And it was like, 125 pounds. Wow. Which I. Maybe my leg was right.

[Kim Shapira]

I don't even think you would have had the right amount of muscle to do what you needed to do anyway.

[Adam Rippon]

No.

[Kim Shapira]

Or strength or any energy. And that would have affected almost every one of your organs, especially your mind and the ability to think rationally or irrationally.

[Adam Rippon]

I mean, totally. So I think at the Olympics, I. I felt like I was. I was doing with the. Like, the dietitian and the nutritionist from the Olympic Training center was how they were guiding Me, I was still, like, on my own, which is how it. You know. Yeah, that's how it is. But I was following their, like, rules. So I felt like. I think when you're an athlete, you also are so inclined to seek guidance and follow rules and structure from, like, authority.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Adam Rippon]

And so then if you're following the rules of somebody who, like, knows better, I always felt, like, the relief of stress.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, that's good, actually. Okay. But performing also didn't feel like you were just, like, natural. You didn't feel anxious every time you got on the ice?

[Adam Rippon]

No, this is like, wow. I definitely had moments of, like, I'm feeling, like, anxious or, like, I have, like, anxiety or whatever. But again, like, it really is so convoluted where it was, like, I could be. I'd be the oldest one at a competition by 10 or eight years. So anytime I'd feel nervous, I'd, like, look around and I'd see these younger kids, and I'm like, they have no. Like, they don't really know, so it's not that serious. And so I had all of these little things around me to kind of take away any sort of anxiety I would feel.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay, that makes sense.

[Adam Rippon]

And I'm a master, like, idiot. Like, I can truly manipulate myself into, like, whatever I want myself to do.

[Kim Shapira]

And you always could do that, I think.

[Adam Rippon]

Whenever I reassociated the anxiety.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

With adrenaline. And I would say, okay, adrenaline is this thing where, like, a mother can pick up a truck off of a baby.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And so this adrenaline thing is a good thing. And so I would associate it in a positive way.

[Kim Shapira]

I see that.

[Adam Rippon]

Are you. See, you are reading. I am nuts.

[Kim Shapira]

I don't think you're nuts.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

No, not at all. I just. I am curious if you're in your.

[Adam Rippon]

Body, though, when I'm describing, when I'm hearing myself, I'm going, probably not. I'm in a body.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

But maybe not my own. Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Like, I mean, you have to be in some capacity, but at the same time, like, you're already thinking ahead and like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, when I met you and when you told me your podcast, the name of it, I was like, oh, I totally get you in, like, so many ways. Because somebody either has OCD or anxiety when they have that, you know, that name and. Yeah. I mean, who doesn't have it? It's my baseline, anyway.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

That's what I always think about anxiety, too. Even when you're asking the question. I'm still thinking, like, well, isn't everyone always anxious? Yes, they are. Right.

[Kim Shapira]

Especially right now.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. And it's getting worse and worse by the day, so.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. With kind of no sign of ever getting better at this point.

[Kim Shapira]

Right. And so that's why, like, I love teaching people how to be back in their bodies anyway.

[Adam Rippon]

Well, what. What do you teach them, AKA what would you tell me? Because I. So I actually have a lot of people who, like, call in or, like, they leave messages. And I think because I was an athlete, I have a lot of people who ask me about, like, I'm trying to eat healthier. What do you do? What do you, like, recommend? I wrote down my favorite message from somebody, and it said, I'm getting fat. Please make it stop. Thank you. Oh, been there.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. I just want to hug that person.

[Adam Rippon]

I know we love our. Our listeners, but I. I don't know. Do you know what I mean? Like, I still feel like. I don't feel like I have, like, a. I'm scared of food, but I definitely don't have any sort of, like, emotional attachment to it. Like, I've actively worked against feeling anything about it.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, well, that makes sense, especially if you're mostly in your mind.

[Adam Rippon]

That's where I am.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. But, like, the person who asked that question even, like, thinking about being healthy. Like, they're looking for answers outside of themselves. And it all is about coming back to our body and understanding what we're feeling, you know, and being able to deal with that feeling.

[Adam Rippon]

The title of your book is like, what are you really hungry for? What am I hungry for? What do you think?

[Kim Shapira]

Like, what do you think?

[Adam Rippon]

I don't. I don't even know. I mean, if I had to answer, I truly am like a Red Bull and Gushers.

[Kim Shapira]

It's not food.

[Adam Rippon]

Oh, God. Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Red Bull and Gushers. That's funny.

[Adam Rippon]

It's good, though.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, sure. Yes. No, it's peaceful.

[Adam Rippon]

Good night. What? Yeah, Peace.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, we're hungry for peace around our relationship with food and nutrition and our health, more importantly.

[Adam Rippon]

Yikes.

[Kim Shapira]

We want to be around and we want to stay. Well, you know, I have a. I have a. I have a lot of male clients, interestingly enough, and they have a lot of disordered eating, and it's a lot of shame around being a man and having this kind of eating habit. But one in particular, he got his doctor to give him a GLP one, and he was already thin. And his wife is very upset because he's really. He's 144 he probably needs to be 170. And he fell the other day, and I was like, you need a trainer. You need muscle. Like, this is no joke. And he probably aged. He looks like he aged about 10, 15 years. He's not thinking 10 or 15 years ahead or 30 years ahead, you know, and his world is full of anxiety right now.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Oh, yeah. That's really tough.

[Kim Shapira]

That we're hungry for peace.

[Adam Rippon]

Oh, I mean, that's.

[Kim Shapira]

So you hate it.

[Adam Rippon]

I do. I mean, I. Here's the thing. I get it, but I. And I want to hate it, but I understand it.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Because I. If I have to think about myself for just once, for just one second, if I just think about myself, I think that, like, I would do what somebody told me is healthy.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Like, if there was like, a roadmap, like, again, like, if there was instructions of, like, eat. Because I could eat the same thing every day and not care.

[Kim Shapira]

Me, too.

[Adam Rippon]

So if there was sort of like, this is. Just do this, I would do it. And I don't think I would feel. I would. Like, if there was something like, hey, I want to be more tone or something, I would address that in another way. Like, I would address that by working out more or being more active or something like, that's. I would address it in another way aside from. Well, I know that this is. Right.

[Kim Shapira]

Right. That makes sense.

[Adam Rippon]

So what. What do I do, Kim? What do we do from here?

[Kim Shapira]

Well, first we have to get inside of our bodies, and we have to love ourselves. You know, there's a great quote from Perks of Being a Wallflower. It says, we accept the love we think we deserve. And I think, like, you know, there's been many times in my life where I'm like, I didn't. I can't believe I loved myself so little that I would allow myself to be in these situations.

[Adam Rippon]

That's a crazy way. I mean, it's, like, very true, but it's a crazy way to now reframe that in my own mind of, like, oh, if I cared about myself. Yeah. Oh, that's quite interesting.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

It's almost like you're a professional.

[Kim Shapira]

I try to be sometimes.

[Adam Rippon]

Actually, that, like, leads me to another question of, you know, we were just talking about, like, people being nervous about. Obviously, we're living at a baseline of anxiety, of everything, like, going on, which makes me really feel. It makes me think about, like, the Maha movement and the, like, the pseudo science that's become, like, really big popular.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And sometimes, like, I'll see These people online talking about, like, the one thing that really makes me want to, like, pull my hair out is, like, the raw milk stuff and everything. Like, what are your thoughts on this? Is it, like. Like, good intentions got, like, completely skewed, like, the wrong way? It's the Maha stuff. Scares the shit out of me.

[Kim Shapira]

Why?

[Adam Rippon]

It scares the shit out of me because even as somebody, like, I've just, like, spilled my guts and, like, on how my relationship with, like, food and health and, like, whatever, but at the end of the day, like, I will. I want to. How about that? Want to follow, like, the science.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And there's something about, like, the research and the science. And what scares me is that this, like, mistrust in it. And people are willing to. Because they mistrust it, are, like, willing to go this completely other direction of, like, no, we already figured out that, like, we should be pasteurizing the cheese.

[Kim Shapira]

Yes. A hundred percent. We need to do that. Yes.

[Adam Rippon]

How do you think we got here?

[Kim Shapira]

Fear.

[Adam Rippon]

Ooh. Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. We make all choices from a place of trust or fear. And so you kind of said it like, people are not trusting. And I get that they're not trusting, but again, they're not going back into their own bodies and, like, listening to what they think is right or wrong or, like, understanding what's going on. Let me rephrase that. I can't tell you how many people I know that chew gum and don't believe that the gum is related to gas and bloating, even though it kind of says it on the label.

[Adam Rippon]

Excuse me.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. And so many people.

[Adam Rippon]

Because you're, like, chewing in air and.

[Kim Shapira]

Stuff, and because of the ingredients inside of the gum. What I'm really trying to say to you is, like, I. People will say to me, I am not well. I have diarrhea all the time. I have bloating. I have gas. I'm burping. I get headaches. And we'll go through what they're eating. We'll fix any, you know, food sensitivities. We'll look at the lining of their gut health. And then, like, I'll say, do you drink anything with, like, fake sugar or do you chew anything like gum or mints? And they will totally deny. And sometimes I'll catch them. They'll be on. You know, they'll be with me, and they're chewing gum, and I'm like, there it is.

[Adam Rippon]

Oh, my God. And, like, you're, like, staring right at me. I've been, like, farting the whole time. I'M like, no way. That is crazy.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. So I think that sometimes.

[Audible Narrator]

Oh.

[Adam Rippon]

It's everything.

[Kim Shapira]

We don't hear or see, like, what's right in front of us a lot of the time. And, like, celery juice. People are like, I'm having so much success, you know, losing weight, because they're really having diarrhea.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. I was just gonna say I've done the celery juice, and I've felt no closer to death.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Than the first morning or two I've done. Well, one, because the medical. Are you, first of all, crazy?

[Kim Shapira]

Yes.

[Adam Rippon]

That spirits are telling. Okay. Yeah, whatever.

[Kim Shapira]

I mean, I do love spirits. I really.

[Adam Rippon]

I love spirits, but they've never told me that, like, just drink a bunch of celery juice.

[Kim Shapira]

Right.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. So I think people need to. Yeah. I mean, I can't get everybody to listen, but there is something.

[Adam Rippon]

And, like, it's so dangerous. And I'm not playing devil's advocate, but there is something sort of like, oh, my God, this is the answer of, like, just the celery juice.

[Kim Shapira]

Because people feel like they've failed so many times, and they don't really have any proof that they can do it. Right. Because they failed every single time. And so if I'm telling you you can do celery juice, then your willpower is like, yeah, I can do that for three days or five days. Right. They don't have to rely on, like, inner power, on inner strength. They don't have to change. They don't have to believe in themselves, because this is, like, the answer. But then the second they become emotionally triggered, they can't do the cellular reviews anymore, and they don't know how they fell off. They don't know what went wrong.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. I know why I fell off, because I was like, I don't think there's any liquid in my body. I was, like, going to shrivel up to a raisin.

[Kim Shapira]

That's terrible.

[Adam Rippon]

It is terrible. I mean, I was like, this can't. There can't be that many heavy metals in my body.

[Kim Shapira]

No. And we have 37 trillion cells that need fuel. That is so many single day.

[Adam Rippon]

So many.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Whoa. Yeah. It's so funny that you brought up the celery juice. I was completely on that. Nothing has made me feel, like I said, knocking on death's door.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. I don't know why people are. Yeah. I actually was listening to your podcast, and it was so funny about TikTok.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. I.

[Kim Shapira]

And then you're like, but we're not Authentic on Instagram.

[Adam Rippon]

Yes. Well, I, I know.

[Kim Shapira]

That is so funny actually.

[Adam Rippon]

It's so, it's so true though. I, you see, and I see so many of these and I like have obviously been susceptible to like. Here's the thing also where like with a lot of this like pseudoscience stuff for a while, I would say let's go back 10 years.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

It was fun. Like this was like fun like let me try this for a week. And then we like go back to like. I think all of this was just supposed to live on Facebook and it wasn't supposed to go anywhere else. And now it's like creeped its way into every. I mean it still even blows my mind about like you have people like. Yeah, I just, I don't believe in vaccine. I want to go back to the way it was. And I'm like, the way it was was like you'd be dead at 35.

[Kim Shapira]

This is what I do not understand. Like the secondary, the secondary infections of not getting some of these things would be very, very disastrous. Right, right. Not good.

[Adam Rippon]

I don't, that's what I don't understand of like our ancestors lived this way. And I was like, yeah. They first of all had just got thumbs and second of all just learned how to make fire. And third of all would be dead. Drop dead. Middle age at 15.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And dead at 30.

[Kim Shapira]

They would have. You're right, 100%.

[Adam Rippon]

So what do you mean our ancestors lived this way? I would not want to live like my ancestors. Ancestors.

[Kim Shapira]

No, not at all. I mean, no. But it's weird because now I'm thinking about spirits. Back to spirits. I'm like, always goes back to spirit. My grandma's phone number totally like popped in my phone today. So anyway.

[Adam Rippon]

Really?

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, really random. I mean, she hasn't been alive for 20 years.

[Adam Rippon]

So anyway, she's here and she. Yeah, I think she's here. She's like, I hear ya on the raw cheese. Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Anyway, back to the food.

[Adam Rippon]

Uh huh. It's intrusive. It's contagious.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, it is actually. But it's weird because I have three daughters and so I've been very careful raising them. Like nobody can come into my house and use the word calories or fat in a way that is describing anything negative. It's really interesting.

[Adam Rippon]

What do you think is a negative way of using. What's a positive way of using calories? Of like this has a hundred calories. Like just saying it like that's a positive way.

[Kim Shapira]

Of course. Like I Mean, actually, the first chapter of my book uses the word. It's just about fat and calories and how we think about it and diet. Right. Because it's so triggering. But the fact that we need them, that it's so important just to survive and don't we want to be alive?

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. I mean, that it's so. It's so interesting because I think. I think, like, I'm even taking myself as an athlete out of it, but, like, now as, like, a normal person. Yeah. I always think of, like, oh, you don't want, like, fat. Burn the fat. No more fat.

[Kim Shapira]

You know, your body does that naturally. Like, it's amazing that you broke your ankle. Was it ankle or foot? So it was like a tight. Yeah. Okay, so you broke your foot and it healed.

[Adam Rippon]

Yes.

[Kim Shapira]

That's amazing that your body can do that. And if we just kind of sat back and recognized, like, my body heals. If I sit back and give it the support it needs, we heal. We heal.

[Adam Rippon]

I mean, it's amazing and a bit scary, isn't it?

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. And, like, people who have a slow metabolism can have a fast metabolism tomorrow. It's not, like a permanent thing.

[Adam Rippon]

Can you explain that? Like, how does that. So I later wanted to ask you a little bit of, like, some of these, like, myths or misconceptions or maybe these are, like, things that are real. Of, like, one of them was metabolism. Of, like, I have a slow metabolism. I have a fast one. If I don't eat, I'm going to. I'm going to ruin my metabolism. What?

[Kim Shapira]

All true.

[Adam Rippon]

First of all, what is a metabolism? And can we ruin it? Can we fix it Just like, we heal.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Okay, so a metabolism. Think about, like, a stovetop with six burners. As an athlete, you had all six burners on. Like, you're on fire. Right.

[Adam Rippon]

So completely correct.

[Kim Shapira]

If you put anything on that stove top, it's melting. If you stop exercising and you stop eating, you turn those burners off, and suddenly you're not burning at that same rate. So the only thing that we need to do to get it burning at that same rate would be to be eating often and to be moving often. And we fix it just like that.

[Adam Rippon]

It's just like that.

[Kim Shapira]

It's just like that. I think it's just like that. So, like, even when you look at somebody who just recently started a GLP one, right. Which is a normal hormone that all of us have in our body, what.

[Adam Rippon]

Are your thoughts on the gl?

[Kim Shapira]

I mean, they're not going anywhere, right.

[Adam Rippon]

I Think that they're, like, very helpful. Yes.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Blood sugar is the link to, like, longevity and increasing, like, our health span. We want to be well for as long as we can, you know, so we're probably all going to be on one is what I think for many different reasons. I mean, you're finding it helpful in addiction or, you know, metabolic diseases for weight loss, but it doesn't heal an unhealthy relationship with food.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. Peace does, as I learned.

[Kim Shapira]

Peace actually does.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Trust in that does. Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

So you think that we'll all be on.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Like, currently 9 million people are on one in the year 2030, it's predicted. 30 million, yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Wow.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Very, very low doses to increase our health span, I believe now I.

[Adam Rippon]

Maybe you can not. Maybe you'll obviously be able to give a better description of it, because I have friends who have taken it or are on it, and they describe it as, like, basically they're just not hungry and they feel absolutely sick at the thought of having food.

[Kim Shapira]

What was their weight like before they started taking it?

[Adam Rippon]

I mean, two of the people I'm thinking of, like, they should have just gone for a walk and they would have lost the weight. And one of the people I'm thinking of, they had weight to, like, they had weight to lose.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay, so let me explain this back to the burners, right? When you have weight to lose, you probably have a history of losing and gaining. Every time you lose, you're losing water, fat and muscle. And every time you gain, you're most likely gaining fat, making you fatter than when you started. This slows your metabolism because body fat requires one calorie per pound to sustain itself, where muscle, depending on the size of the muscle, could be up to 25 or 50 calories per pound. The sustained itself. Okay, I'm making up that number right now because I don't know the size of the muscle.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay, I'm going. I'm not checking. Believe me, I'm here 100% with you.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay, so let's.

[Adam Rippon]

I'm not going. I don't think so. I'm with you.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. So if somebody had gained and lost weight and they have high body fat, so for a man, it's over 18%. In Kobe Bryant's heyday, he was 3% in. If a woman is higher than 24%, then she has higher body fat. Every 1% of body fat over where you should be is about 3 pounds of extra fat. So if someone is 27% body fat and they're a woman, they need to lose at least 3.3%. That's about 9 pounds of fat to increase their metabolism.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay. So that's why you need a different scale, so you can pay attention to what's really happening inside. So what happens with the GLP1 and what happens with eating is if we know that food is fuel. And some people like to fight me on that. You know, like, they're really like, how.

[Adam Rippon]

Do they fight you on that?

[Kim Shapira]

They're like, no, it's comfort and joy. And I'm like, well, that means that you're not actually really present and irrational. Right. Our irrational mind totally rationalizes food. Yeah. So if that's the case and you're hungry or you're taking a GLP one and you have body fat that's too high, what ends up happening is you weren't actually as hungry as you thought to begin with. That was more emotional hunger. Okay. And so now the second we become, like, emotionally triggered, it like, kind of flips our mind. And so we go from rational thinking to irrational, but it tips off the hippocampus. And the hippocampus is our memory center, so it remembers the last time you felt this stress or angst or whatever it is you ate and you felt better. So the GLP1 quiets that.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

So that people are no longer thinking of food when they have emotional triggers. So now they're actually able to understand their hunger from ghrelin, which is a hormone that kind of tells you you're ready to eat. And they're understanding leptin, the hormone that tells you you're satisfied because their GLP1 is harmonizing in sync. And so we're not getting that, like, flipped off energy now. We're like, oh, my God, I'm so stressed. What do I do when I'm stressed? And we can re parent ourselves, but restricting in any way or under eating, like, let's say like I said earlier, it's not a flex to undereat. And if you're starting a GLP one and you're not hungry, that's not a flex. That's going to actually slow down your metabolism. You want to make sure you're eating every three hours.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. I wanted to ask you about that. That's real.

[Kim Shapira]

Say more. Say more. Ask more. What do you mean?

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. My husband is, like, always, like, eating all the time.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

I think in my mind when I see him eating, I'm like, that's a. That's like just a ravenous animal. But it's not. He's not like, eating, like, a Thanksgiving fucking buffet. Right. Like, he is like, I need to eat, like, multiple times a day. And I like. I'm so sorry I'm about to say this. Well, sometimes, like, Let me brace myself. Yeah. Hold the table. Well, I'll sometimes wait or I'll eat a little bit, but I'll save it. I'll save my calories. I can already tell I'm looking in.

[Kim Shapira]

Your eyes and you're going to. No eye contact with you.

[Adam Rippon]

I'll save my calories for the night. Oh, God. I'm hearing myself and I'm going, I don't think so. So, okay, what does that do? What am I doing to myself? Be honest.

[Kim Shapira]

So are you saying that the weight that you've recently lost, you've kind of changed some of your habits and you.

[Adam Rippon]

I'll say. Okay. The weight that I lost. What I did was I set myself up to not fail. And what I did was I took any sort of guesswork or, like, anything out of it. I spent one day chopping, like, two heads of fucking cabbage. I got two giant things of, like, mixed greens, whatever.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

I would go to Costco and make, like, all 17 steaks at once.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

And I would have everything. And I'd basically be running a sweet green out of my refrigerator. Like, I would, like, again, I don't really feel any, like, connection, like, connection to the food.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

So I'd, like, wake up, we're making a salad. Then I might have another, like, a yogurt for lunch, and then I'm having another salad for dinner. And I just, like, repeated that for. JP Was away for, like, two months. I did that for, like, two months straight. And I. Because I think I was just, like, also enjoying food for the first time.

[Kim Shapira]

Oh.

[Adam Rippon]

So I was like, it's time to, like, buckle down. But, like, let's not be weird about it. But I think as soon as I.

[Kim Shapira]

Did JP Know you were doing this, like, a conversation you guys had?

[Adam Rippon]

Well, because another thing is, like, if I.

[Kim Shapira]

If I don't want to stir the pot here.

[Adam Rippon]

No, no, I didn't tell him because it wasn't something I was, like, doing on purpose. I was doing it so that, like, I could make sure. Because I knew if he's really the one in our relationship who's, like, making the food.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And I knew that, like, if I didn't set myself up to, like, make the, like, have food made and ready for me to, like, get and grab.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

I would probably just, like, skip eating.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

Just out of like, I don't want to deal with it.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

And so I set myself up so I didn't do that. But then I was also like, no, you know, I wasn't having, like, the fun soup with a bunch of fucking, like, cream cheese in it that he's making. Or like, I just was having. Having like, a very lean diet.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And I started to lose the weight that way. Which then, you know, starts, like, get the hamster wheel going again. Of like, we can go harder, you know? Or I'm like, okay, we gotta like.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. I'm so glad I met you. When I met you.

[Adam Rippon]

It's. Honestly, it's like divine timing.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. There's so much to discuss. But how hungry do you get in the evening? How hungry do you get?

[Adam Rippon]

Okay, if I eat breakfast? Cause sometimes now, like, I'll for, like, it will just come to the point of like, oh, I guess I didn't eat it. I'll just wait. That's so. It's not like a conscious decision. Maybe it is. It's. It's not a decision I'm making of, like, I'm waking up and I'm like, no breakfast for you, bitch. Like, I'm not doing that. But sometimes I'll get to a certain point where it's like, oh, I guess I didn't eat anything. It's like 11:30. Let me just wait a little bit.

[Kim Shapira]

Why wait?

[Adam Rippon]

So that I can have, like, the dinner.

[Kim Shapira]

Mm.

[Adam Rippon]

I'm. Yeah. Why wait? Is it great? Okay. Yikes. Yeah. No, it's so true. Why. Why am I waiting?

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Like, if you pee now, is that, like, that's it for the day?

[Adam Rippon]

Yes. And I'm already. I'm done with my peace for the day. It's just one big one.

[Kim Shapira]

Right, Right, right.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. That's definitely a crazy, completely amazing way to think about it. Yeah. I'm waiting for no reason.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. I mean, like, do you ignore when you're tired? Do you ignore when you're thirsty? Do you ignore like, when you'. Angry?

[Adam Rippon]

I'm like, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. I mean, yeah. When I do start to feel hungry, I'm like, just wait. I. Well, you're not gonna like this. Not that you've really been enjoying everything I've been saying. I'll go and have gum.

[Kim Shapira]

Oh, interesting. Do you get gassy?

[Adam Rippon]

No.

[Kim Shapira]

Really? See, I'm not sure, you know, if you do or not.

[Adam Rippon]

And I. I said no. And I. I felt like if I was doing the Vanity Fair lie detector test fail, I'M sure.

[Kim Shapira]

I mean, I need to know, so you're gonna have to let me know.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah, let's go with yes. How could I not be?

[Kim Shapira]

I don't think you're. I think you are.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. There's 100% certainty that you will be, but also, it's also affecting your bowels. So, like, it's so much bigger than that.

[Adam Rippon]

Can I have gum or is it bad?

[Kim Shapira]

You can have gum.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. But not as a meal.

[Kim Shapira]

But then you have to think about it. Like, do I want it?

[Adam Rippon]

Oh, my God. Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Like, there's no. Nothing you can't have. You can have anything you want.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

But then again, it comes down to, like, how much do I love myself? And, like, would I be willing to stay in a relationship with something that does hurt me?

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

And maybe I'll find a different kind of gum that doesn't.

[Adam Rippon]

Oof.

[Kim Shapira]

You know, same thing with all food. But I think you have to be careful. And I hate to even say that, because I think even if we had any sort of eating disorder, and this is the pin that we put in earlier.

[Adam Rippon]

Yes.

[Kim Shapira]

And if you had any sort of eating disorder or disordered eating in your past, I don't believe that you will always have that. I, I, I don't want to be judged for the way that I shopped in the past.

[Adam Rippon]

Not. You won't be here. I can tell you that.

[Kim Shapira]

And I love shopping, but I don't. That doesn't mean buying anything.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

You know, and it also doesn't mean that, like, I know in my mind, used to think I needed to go buy something, and this is before we had the Internet even, but now I don't even do it on the Internet. Like, sometimes I do, but sometimes I don't.

[Adam Rippon]

That's huge.

[Kim Shapira]

I think it's not all the time, but it's not like there was a time during COVID Honestly, I think it was October of 2020. We were selling our house, and we couldn't find a house to buy, and we had 30 days to vacate, and we were all online. So I have three kids, a husband, and three dogs. And we had nowhere to go. And I went downstairs, and I'm like, matt, I'm freaking out. And he's like, you're ridiculous. Calm down. And he just completely ignored my feelings. And I walked upstairs, I pulled out my phone, and I started, like, I got, like, this, this email from Zadig and Voltaire, and it was like, fall sale or something. And I was like, oh, my God, it's like a healthy buffet. It's on sale. And there was a sweater. It was $700. That was the sale price. And I was like, I need that. I don't know where that money's gonna come from. I'm about to buy a house. And then I started laughing at myself, thinking, wait, I think I've been training for this moment my whole life. Yeah, I don't need this sweater. I need a yoga mat. And then I just put on, like, drums and, like, did some yoga and then started, like, kind of reciting to myself. I trust we'll find something. And it took me about 10 minutes to calm down. I never bought the sweater.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay, you needed a yoga mat that you owned already.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Cause in my mind, I was like, oh, you just were like, I'll just buy a yoga mat.

[Kim Shapira]

No, I just Covid. I pulled out my yog yoga mat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I just, like, relaxed. And the next day, we found a house to buy, and it was all fine.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

And I never bought the sweater. But, like, progress looks different, right?

[Adam Rippon]

Like, yes.

[Kim Shapira]

So sometimes, you know, I catch myself, but then I catch myself.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. Wow. There's so much to think about. Kim, you're so good at this. I, I. There's a few more questions that I have. So another thing that my husband always talks about wanted the multiple meals. He's, like, a huge. Now I'm like, okay, whatever. He's right. Another thing, not, like, now I'm not talking about myself. If there's somebody who's listening and they're like, okay, I want to lose weight. What is the healthiest way to go about that? Because now my husband has this other theory that, like, let's hear it. He's full of theories.

[Kim Shapira]

I love it.

[Adam Rippon]

That if you decide that you're gonna, like, reduce calories or cut your calories, that the body starts to, like, freak out and hold onto fat, which, like, he's.

[Kim Shapira]

He's right. He's right. Of course next time, he'll be here.

[Adam Rippon]

Well, next time, he'll be hosting. He'll be working with you. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so how does. So how do you lose weight then, if you're holding onto the fat? Okay, what is going on here?

[Kim Shapira]

Okay, so my whole world.

[Adam Rippon]

First of all, my Trident gum. I'm scared now. I know.

[Kim Shapira]

It's so good, though. But I love it. You won't love it after you realize what it's doing.

[Adam Rippon]

Well, after I realize I've been gassy. That's crazy.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay. Feel so good about that. What were you even talking about? We were talking. Okay. So basically your liver has a system called a gluten glucostat. And it is like a fuel tank and it is constantly spitting sugar into your bloodstream. So you have about one teaspoon of blood sugar in your bloodstream 24 hours a day. And it's going to any cell that needs it at any time.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

It has a five hour clock. If you don't eat within two and a half to three hours, it sends a signal to your brain saying to slow down all functions because it's going to run out of fuel. Which would be impossible because we are like this self healing machine. Right. But it does it by slowing everything down.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

So if you don't eat when you need food, like every three hours, that's kind of like telling your body that you're in a famine. If you eat more than you need, you won't be hungry in three hours. And you're also telling your body that you're kind of storing for the winter. So either way, it holds on.

[Adam Rippon]

You said this on the panel and I remember thinking, like, God, our bodies are so dramatic. Like, this is so uncalled for that we do all of this.

[Kim Shapira]

But like, it needs some respect, obviously. Obviously. Right. And so if we started trusting ourselves around food and like the way this happened for my. The way that I was able to communicate this to my client clients was seriously years ago. I was dying to get off the phone with my mom because I needed to get to Bloomingdale's to get to a sale. And she started laughing.

[Adam Rippon]

You were addicted.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, yeah, she was laughing.

[Adam Rippon]

You were.

[Kim Shapira]

Not at me. She's like, kim, Bloomingdale's has a sale every single week.

[Adam Rippon]

That's true.

[Kim Shapira]

I didn't know that back in the day. And how could you?

[Adam Rippon]

That's not your fault.

[Kim Shapira]

Right? Thank you. Thank you. But when I started recognizing, like sitting back and looking at it, I started saying to my clients, you know, there's food on every corner. There's food five feet away. You can have food at any time. You can even carry it in your purse. Like, no one wants to take food away from you. You can trust that it's there, but you need to sit back and see why your mind's telling you you need it. I kind of sit in that discomfort.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay, that's.

[Kim Shapira]

So if somebody wants to lose weight, then they need to understand hunger and satiety.

[Adam Rippon]

So basically, I mean, like, you need to be constantly fueling the body just to like keep it at, like, keep.

[Kim Shapira]

All systems go 100%.

[Adam Rippon]

That was something, I think, like, when I was an athlete, I always just, like, referred to myself as, like, I'm a robot.

[Kim Shapira]

Yes.

[Adam Rippon]

And that. It just made it easier for me.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And so that's how I'm, like, taking what you're saying, and I'm applying it of, like. Well, if you need, like, the gauges in the system to, like, stay, you can't go on the fritz.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Your body thrives in consistency. It actually likes to poop at the same time, sleep at the same time, same time, eat at the same time. All the same, like, everything. Right. This is called your circadian rhythms. You sleep and wake. Everything's the same. So we disrupt our systems.

[Adam Rippon]

Believe me, I've been disrupting my system kind of nonstop for 35 years, I would say.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Are you good to keep going for a little bit? Yeah. Okay. Because we did not get to your six simple.

[Kim Shapira]

We kind of did a little.

[Adam Rippon]

We did a little, but because, I mean, when I heard that you have, like, six simple rules, the first thing I was like, these are the seven stages of grief. They've got to be depression. Like. Yeah. I'm like, okay, we're here. Yes. Realization. What is it? Bartering. I'm like, yeah. Oh, yeah. I know these steps. So what. What are they?

[Kim Shapira]

How were you when you heard the word, like, rules? How were you? How'd you handle that?

[Adam Rippon]

Love. I love rules.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay. Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

I am. Which is so crazy because I. Sometimes I just. I don't. I'm like, whatever about them, but, like, I set rules for myself in every, like. And that. I think when I was an athlete, I felt a lot of joy in being a rule breaker. Kind of interesting when in reality, the. The world of, like, which you live in is so confined. And, like, if you want to be a successful athlete, there's only so much you can do. Like, you can have a glass of wine, you little bad right boy. You know, like, you can do that. And that's me being, like, breaking the rules.

[Kim Shapira]

Interesting.

[Adam Rippon]

And so I got some joy out of, like, you know that. But at the end of the day, like, when you're not an athlete, you can do whatever you want, and nobody's gonna say anything. Don't give a.

[Audible Narrator]

Right.

[Kim Shapira]

Right.

[Adam Rippon]

You know, it's such a weird job to have where every day is based on how you feel. I always thought of, like, if I wake up one morning, and it's the morning of the Olympics, and I just have a cramp, you're like, Fucked.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

It's over because you had a cramp. There's no other job where the stakes are. So based on, like, I didn't sleep well.

[Kim Shapira]

I know.

[Adam Rippon]

What a crazy thing.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And. But so I say that because, like, the. Like I said, like, the rules were like, the world you lived in is so small that I almost crave rules now because there aren't any.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. I mean, there's so much to talk about with even just that I think that's actually amazing training in so many ways. As long as it doesn't make you crazy or anxious. Because a lot of people fight me on the word rules.

[Adam Rippon]

Do they? What do they say? Yeah, I don't want them. Do they? Are they afraid of them?

[Kim Shapira]

They think it's very triggering and in a lot of different capacities. And I bring that. I want that. I want you to feel that. I want you to have that visceral reaction that angers me to feel that I have to have a rule. Because if you can't get past that, then you're never gonna succeed.

[Adam Rippon]

I think that as an athlete, I always was. You always, like, you're about to, especially in my sport. Like, you're just going out there and you're repeating what you've done a million times. There's no.

[Kim Shapira]

But the reason you're doing that is. So it's automatic.

[Adam Rippon]

Yes.

[Kim Shapira]

You're becoming the essence of that practice. It's like, we wouldn't want a doctor who did it 10 times. We want the doctor who's performed it 10,000 times. And so you have to keep doing it. And so you're sleepwalking, which is what we do all day, every day, intentionally or unintentionally. And that's the problem. We want to have these rules. So I really appreciate.

[Adam Rippon]

Well, and I think, like, sometimes when you're talking about it, it's like that I don't want to get into that triggering headspace of, like, when you're going out there and you're just gonna do it. You want to go sleepwalk. You envision. I think it's human nature, the worst case scenario happening, and you're like, no, stop that. Like, don't. And as I got older, I would go, no. Like, let's make it even worse. Let's make the worst case scenario even worse. You fall on everything and your pants fall off.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Wow.

[Adam Rippon]

And horrible. It'd be horrible. I mean, like I said, legs were a lot bigger, then it wouldn't have been that bad. Maybe some more endorsements, right? Yeah. But I was like, let's go all deep in and does anything, really. It's not ever gonna be that bad.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. And I love the way your mind thinks, to be honest. Like I said, kind of nuts.

[Adam Rippon]

Right? Like, it's.

[Kim Shapira]

I agree. So, like, if anyone's hearing that word rules, I want them to, like, stop and be like, oh, actually, that's only a set of values. And that's so important that I practice them every single day so I can now sleepwalk through this new set of values. That's the intention, right?

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

So rule number one, actually, before people can do rule number one, they kind of need to know where their mind is. So I love this one practice of kind of just asking yourself, where is your body? And then recognizing. It's like, right here in this room. And then asking myself, where is my mind? And then we all have the ability to go find our minds once we ask that. And if we're very anxious, we sometimes need to do it 10 times. Right. Because sometimes our mind is on what your next question is, or what I'm going to eat next week, or how bad's the traffic going to be later. Right. And our mind needs to be in our body that we can actually understand what our body needs right now. And then we move forward. The only time that we get to eat is when we're hungry. But normal eating is also like having birthday cake on a birthday, but not two days in a row or three days in a row or four days in a row. Does that make sense?

[Adam Rippon]

Kind of. Okay, as somebody who always avoided birthday cake, you did lose me a little bit there.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

But I understand the sentiment of what you're saying. Right, right.

[Kim Shapira]

So let's imagine that you have to pee right now. You would know that because your mind is telling you yes. And then you would use your mind to find your bladder.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. Okay. Now I'm like, I'm putting it together.

[Kim Shapira]

But you don't actually know where your bladder is. So that's the fascinating part.

[Adam Rippon]

That is true. I do know.

[Kim Shapira]

Nobody really does. But we know if we have to go right now and then, you know, we can figure it out. But nobody gets up and goes to the bathroom. I mean, you and I are in the middle of a conversation. It's not like I would just be like, okay, I'm going to the bathroom. Actually, maybe I would, but for the.

[Adam Rippon]

Sake of this interview.

[Audible Narrator]

Right.

[Kim Shapira]

And so. So if our mind says we're hungry, it's important to understand where that hunger is coming from. Is it my stomach or is it my chest?

[Adam Rippon]

Oh, now I understand what you're saying.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, okay. Yeah. And so we need to do the same thing when we find our bladder that we do when we find our stomach.

[Adam Rippon]

And we're analyzing, where is this coming from?

[Kim Shapira]

Where is this coming from? Is it food I need or is it a hug? And how much food do I need food right now? And where is the closest food? So rule number one is see when you're hungry, but it's to take your normal portion, to cut it in half, and to wait 15 minutes to see if you need more. So the person who asks the question, how do I lose weight? Healthy, that waiting 15 minutes is a fail safe. So you eat when you're hungry. You know you're hungry, you're cutting your food in half. Now our portion is kind of controlled without actually controlling the portion. And the reason this is so important is if you and I went to lunch right now and JP too, and we all order chicken parmesan, the chef is preparing the same order for all three of us, and we're all walking in with different appetites. And so it comes down to personal responsibility. I mean, JP could be hungrier than.

[Adam Rippon]

Both of us, guaranteed.

[Kim Shapira]

Right?

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

But what if I eat the same amount as jp?

[Adam Rippon]

Right?

[Kim Shapira]

Right. So paying attention to, like, how much do I need in this moment? I want to undo people feeling restricted. So the other half is right there. And really scientifically, it takes 15 minutes for the food to go from our mouth to our stomach to tell our mind that we've had enough. So we won't know for 15 minutes, which is why we all eat so fast. And then we're so full because we eat so much in such a short time. And it's another eight or nine minutes before we're actually feeling that fullness.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. I'm like, as you're saying all this, I'm like, envisioning it, and I'm like, applying it to, like, how I would do this myself. And that makes a lot of sense. Cause I do think part of the reason of why I did gain the 20 pounds was that I was just like, okay, like, the rules are what JP is saying. Like, that's. I changed my mindset. I'm just eating what he's eating. Like, at home, I choke. Like, you got me fat because I'm just eating what he's eating. Obviously he's six four, so it's like the. The needs of a six four man are different than a five. Listen, before this started, we'd had to Put the seats up on the chairs. Right. I'm five seven.

[Kim Shapira]

Right.

[Adam Rippon]

You're five two. It's going to be different, right? Okay. Yeah. Because I do. At home. I am like, you did fatten me up, right? He didn't. But I was not paying attention. I was just like, let's just, he's eating this, I'll eat this.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Okay. So that's gonna bring us to rule number three. But rule number two is to eat what you love, but to make sure the food loves you back. And so a lot of people have a lot of labels around food. Like it's good, bad, healthy, unhealthy. I should, I shouldn't have it. I can, I can't. We want to undo all that and we really want to get into the body and know, like, does this food give me gas? Does this food give me heartburn? Am I getting a headache? And like, am I loving myself enough to make some changes here? Generally, if something you love is making you sick, it's a sign your gut needs some support.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. And you're only eating it when you're hungry. So there's no. Like, a lot of people are like, you're telling me to eat cakes and cookies and like, things I don't normally eat, but I'm saying to do it when you're hungry and to start with half. So there's a built in fail safe. And also, who eats cakes and cookies when they're really hungry? If I was really hungry and you offered me cake or turkey burger, I'm probably going with the turkey burger. Doesn't mean I don't love the cake.

[Adam Rippon]

Yes.

[Kim Shapira]

But if I'm really hungry.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. Now that you, when you said that, I'm like, okay, yes, I'd go with the turkey burger.

[Kim Shapira]

Right.

[Adam Rippon]

Because at first I'm like, I don't know, Kim, I might go for the cake. Right. But you're right, if given the choice of the two are in front of me and you're hungry and I'm hungry, I'm going to want to eat something.

[Kim Shapira]

Something other than what you think I'm talking about.

[Adam Rippon]

Yes.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Okay. So that's rule number two. And rule number three is to eat without distraction. So we eat because of emotional reasons. We eat because the food is in front of us. We eat 30% more food just because it's in front of us. And we eat for physical cravings and we eat for hunger. And going forward, I only want people to eat for hunger.

[Adam Rippon]

Can people still, like, like, do you. What, what if, like People are having, like, the holidays and stuff.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. It's so interesting. I'm doing a salon, a talk on just food in general. And it's really interesting how to demagnetize what you just felt. Because there's an expectation that I just took something from you, and that is joy. Loss. You just lost joy from something that hasn't even happened or isn't actually happening. So I'm Jewish, and last night we had Yom Kippur dinner. And what that means is that, you know, it's brisket and whatever food was around. Right. We had all, like, the traditional Yom Kippur food. I only ate as much as I needed.

[Adam Rippon]

Right.

[Kim Shapira]

Trusting I can have more if I needed it. But my joy was being with my family. I didn't not eat.

[Adam Rippon]

I think this is gonna change a lot of people's opinion and conception of, like, food.

[Kim Shapira]

I hope so.

[Adam Rippon]

It's changing mine for sure.

[Kim Shapira]

Because you're not meant to lose joy. I want you to love what you're eating, but eat it when you're hungry and only as much as you need, trusting you can have more later.

[Adam Rippon]

So if, like, let's say it is the holidays and there are these, like, and things out there, and I am following your rule of, like. I'm just like, let's have half of it or let's have a piece of it.

[Kim Shapira]

Starting with half. It's starting with half.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. So you always keep the option open of, like, you can have the other half if you want, but make that decision.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

What do I do, like, then? Do I not eat, like, a meal later? Because I'm adding.

[Kim Shapira]

No, you're still needing to eat every three hours. And so maybe that week you're just choosing cookies and, like, you know, Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe you're having that seven times in a row. What's the big deal?

[Adam Rippon]

Right?

[Kim Shapira]

What's the big deal?

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah. Make a multiple.

[Kim Shapira]

Take a multivitamin that week and, like.

[Adam Rippon]

Take a Flintstone and call it.

[Kim Shapira]

I mean, maybe not a Flintstone, but, like, maybe there's some things. No, don't. No, no Flintstone.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. No Flintstone. Multi.

[Kim Shapira]

Multivitamin.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. So that brought us to the third rule.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, that's the third. And then the fourth rule is 10,000 steps, so the average American gets 3,000.

[Adam Rippon]

I will tell you that I got a. I've tried to get an Apple watch, like, a few times, and I just, like, don't like the. I feel like this is a satellite dish.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay. Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

But I got a Fitbit because it felt Like, a little more, like, analog.

[Kim Shapira]

Okay.

[Adam Rippon]

And I was like, I'm sure I'm getting. Cause we have two dogs. We walk them around the block all the time, take them for two, like, longer walks a day. And I was like, I'm surely getting 25,000 steps a day. And I almost did drop dead when I was, like, 3,500.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

And, like, one on a normal day, which. That. I think tracking them opened my eyes to, like, how not many steps.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Does that make sense?

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, I do.

[Adam Rippon]

So 10,000 steps.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. So we're meant to be fidgety, and we're so sedentary.

[Adam Rippon]

So true.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. And so the steps actually help your circadian rhythm. They keep your. They, like, improve your mood, digestion, your sleep, and they help you maintain your weight. So we really need 7,000 minimum a day as humans. Okay. That's gonna lower your risk of almost every disease by 50%. But we need 10,000 to maintain our weight.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

So the steps don't help you lose weight, but they help you maintain. You cannot maintain. Remember, those burners on the stovetop are not on without that movement.

[Adam Rippon]

So it's to keep a baseline to lose weight.

[Kim Shapira]

It's 90% what you're eating. To maintain your weight, it's 50% food and 50% movement.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

So then now we're on five. Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

What is that? Eight cups of water every single day. Okay. Yeah. Like, we talk about cleanses and detoxes, and that should be called your kidneys.

[Adam Rippon]

Call it out.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, so call it out.

[Adam Rippon]

I sometimes struggle with the water, too. Sometimes I just, like, don't drink anything.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, you gotta force yourself.

[Adam Rippon]

I have since gotten this, like, giant oala water bottle that I found, like, success with. And my husband does call it, like, the shipping container.

[Kim Shapira]

That's funny.

[Adam Rippon]

So he is right, because I got, like, the biggest one you could get. Because obviously it was like, do you.

[Kim Shapira]

Like carrying it around?

[Adam Rippon]

Hate it, but I love having it.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. So it's okay. Like, it has a straw. Right. So you just, like, basically can down the water.

[Adam Rippon]

So eight cups.

[Kim Shapira]

Eight cups every single day. We're not drinking enough water. Well, some people are drinking too much. We don't want to flush everything. We want to let our body do its thing. But we do need eight cups.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Otherwise our liver has to kind of jump in and help out. And then we end up storing fat, body fat, triglycerides, and cholesterol. And so we just need to support our kidneys. And 1% dehydration kind of feels like the flu, and we can't think well. Okay, so drink some water.

[Adam Rippon]

Get a shipping container.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, get a shipping container. And the last rule is seven hours of sleep. So the average American gets about six. And as you get older, it gets harder and harder. And if you're not sleeping well, like, hard to fall asleep. Hard to stay asleep or waking up not feeling rested. These are all reasons to talk to somebody.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay, yeah. So like that. You mean, like, continuous hours?

[Kim Shapira]

Continuous hours.

[Adam Rippon]

I'm like, wait, wait, wait.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Seven continuous hours.

[Kim Shapira]

And you want to fall asleep around the same time every night. And you want, like, as soon as.

[Adam Rippon]

You start strike one for me. There we go.

[Kim Shapira]

When you feel drowsy, put yourself to bed.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. Because that's melatonin being released. And melatonin turns into an antioxidant when you're sleeping, and it cleans all your cells so you wake up less inflamed.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. Which I want to be.

[Kim Shapira]

Yes.

[Adam Rippon]

I want to be as naughty. Peace. No inflammation.

[Kim Shapira]

Right?

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

So sleep.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

And if you're not sleeping well, it actually spikes your cortisol, which then also changes your sex hormones and insulin, so you end up gaining weight.

[Adam Rippon]

It is. It's actually, like. It's simpler than you think it would be at the same while at the same time being complicated.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. But I really like your background and, like, tapping into how can I make myself run? The best way that I can is following these rules and loving yourself enough to do that.

[Adam Rippon]

I think that's, for me, the biggest takeaway is that of, like, you can follow the rules, but the reason you follow them is because you want to take care of the machine or yourself or whatever.

[Kim Shapira]

Yes. We are a machine.

[Adam Rippon]

Yes.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah.

[Adam Rippon]

Kim, this was amazing. I've learned so much. I was absolutely right to trust a woman dressed head to toe in denim. I knew it.

[Kim Shapira]

So embarrassing.

[Adam Rippon]

No, it was so good. I'll remember it the rest of my life.

[Kim Shapira]

That's so funny.

[Adam Rippon]

But I'm so grateful.

[Kim Shapira]

This was so fun. Thank you for having me.

[Adam Rippon]

Oh, my God. It was absolutely my pleasure. You're welcome back anytime.

[Kim Shapira]

Oh, we have to do it again with jp.

[Adam Rippon]

Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You'll believe me. He'll have a lot to say. So where we met was at the Nomi Medical Studio in Calabasas with our friend Saba and Dr. C. Shout out to both of them where you work with both of them. You make sure everybody, if you liked our conversation, that you follow her on Instagram at the Kim shapira method. And imshapiromethod.com yes, on all socials. All socials, yeah. Anything else do you want to share?

[Kim Shapira]

I mean, I have nothing. I mean, I have a book club starting very soon if anyone's interested in reading my book with me so that if they're emotionally triggered, we can work through it right then and there. So that's coming soon, and that's free.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay.

[Kim Shapira]

That's just gonna be a fun thing to do.

[Adam Rippon]

Oh, I think that that sounds very fun, actually. No gum?

[Kim Shapira]

No gum.

[Adam Rippon]

Just eight cups of water. We'll see.

[Kim Shapira]

Yeah. No restriction.

[Adam Rippon]

Yeah.

[Kim Shapira]

Let's see how you feel.

[Adam Rippon]

Okay. In 15 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Kim, thank you. Thank you so much.

[Kim Shapira]

Let me know about the gas.

[Adam Rippon]

I will. Sam.