Healthy Habits for Optimal Performance: Insights from Tony Castillo

In the latest episode of The Small Business Show, we host elite dietitian, Tony Castillo, who brings valuable insights gained from working with renowned sports organizations right to the small business owners. Tony uses his personal experience of transforming from an overweight student into a fitness enthusiast to fuel his mission. His aim? To improve performance and vitality not just in the boardroom, but in every aspect of life.

During the discussion, Tony shares fascinating insights about his holistic approach to nutrition that goes beyond mere diet. He challenges common myths and brings the spotlight on the importance of hydration, protein, and carbohydrates for sustained energy. He also provides tips on how to maintain energy levels during long business events and shares precautions around trending green powders

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Transcript

0:15

Running and growing a small business. The Small Business Show is the official podcast of Garuda promo and branding solutions. Hello, everyone. You're listening to the Small Business show. My name is Swayer Ho. You can also call me the promo guy. Today. My guest is Tony Castillo from Nutrition for Performance. Tony is an elite nutrition expert specializing in sports nutrition and optimizing small business owners to boost their performance through nutrition. Tony's background is dietetic led him to work with Major League Baseball team such as Toronto Blue Jays and the University of Florida. Tony's journey started in middle school as an overweight student and continued to high school until he jumped onto a diet, resulting in an unsustainable weight loss. Today, Tony is on a mission to teach executives about the significance of healthy lifestyle modification that can optimize performance from the boardroom to the bedroom. How are you doing, Tony a swire ho thepromoguy I'm going to call you Swire. I just prefer your name, but I'm super excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. And as we began this call, we are both hydrated. So if you are tuning in, please make sure to hydrate. Yeah. Tony, I think your bio is one of the best that I have announced the show. You catch everyone's attention, especially you could optimize your performance from the boardroom to the bedroom. Before that, I wanted to dig deeper. Is it the main reason why you get into become a dietitian because of your own experience in middle school and high school? Swire 100%. You have kids. When I was 13 years old, I went to go see a urologist and the urologist told me I can either do testosterone replacement therapy or plastic surgery because I had man boobs at 13 years old. And I was very embarrassed by my body. I was even bullied by people in my class because I was just overweight. I didn't do either of those two options. And I can't believe that that was even an option offered to a 13 year old, much less. That's the quick option we typically look for today. There are better ways to go about it. And my mission is really to help people see to stop doing these drugs that are promoted as the silver bullets or doing these surgeries. We could talk about Ozempic, we could talk about wagovi. All these things we hear people are doing, it's just another diet fad. You're not changing the diet, you're not changing your lifestyle. It's like putting a band aid on a broken leg. You're not going to fix it. You have to find out why the leg is broken and what needs to do to mitigate it. Right. So why do we keep putting these bandaids and buying these green powders or fat burners or trying new supplements versus what's actually going to work for you? Right. And I think that's really been my passion because I just see people keep falling and falling for the same things. Heck, it even happens in my own home. My my mother, she's been taking Ozempic. And I'm like, mom, what are you doing? And she's like, I know you're not going to like me taking it. I'm like, why not? Mom? She's like, because I still get cravings. I'm not listening to my cravings. I'm probably going to gain the weight back. And I'm like, yes. So why are you doing it? Why are you investing your time and wasting your time with these things? So it's just this. We live in a time of instant gratification, and one of the things I work on with my clients is that it takes time. As you told me today. Swire you were doing a little bit of kettlebell workouts, and you're seeing a change in your body. So it just takes time in order to see change. As much as we want things to happen overnight, at this moment, it doesn't exist. I think the social media contributed to the right now effect. Also like before, back in my days, right? So you're supposed to read a magazine, you do some of the work, and then you test it out in like a month. But now I just want to the next post that I have, I have to be incredible. If not, I'm looking for going under the knife. Or I take, like you said, some powder, and those are expensive too. So from what you're saying, we need to look into what we obviously put into our mouth and maybe to see what's missing or what's too much and to adjust it. And that will be probably the way you approach it. Is that correct? Absolutely. It's about what we put in our mouth in our minds. How are we moving our bodies, how much sleep are we getting? It's about the things we're ingesting that gives us our most outward view of the world and of life and how we can optimize it. Is the things that we're consuming aren't helpful? Okay, so let's get into it. I'm really interested. This is the one thing that I hear from people. You don't have to be in business, right? They complain that they don't have enough energy throughout the day. I can mention some of it. I'll drink more coffee. I will take the Five Hour Energy or powder or whatever. I don't know, whatever they do. Are there things that we could subtract or add into our diet that can make us more energetic throughout the day? Absolutely. Swire so let me also state, I'm a small business owner. I used to have these same fumbles that you might have had, which is trying to have enough energy throughout the day. I used to rely on coffee. For example, a client that I was just working with, he was someone that would drink a whole pot of coffee all day. He would even have that afternoon espresso to get through that afternoon slump. So the number one thing we can do today to improve our energy, I'm going to give three things right now, but the number one thing we can do, and the first secret is just drink enough water. One of the main things I talk about is literally hydrate or hydrate. We are chronically dehydrated. 60% of our body is made of water, so that means most of our body and our brains are made of water. So if we need to have enough energy to get through the day, we want to make sure we have enough fluids in our body. So a good way to figure this out swire for anyone listening is doing half your body weight in ounces of water, right? For ounces, yeah. Okay. How much do you weigh? If you want to share that? Swire I am 144. I weighed 144. So you need to do at least 72oz of water, and that doesn't account for physical activity. And for those tuning in, they get a little surprise. Right now, live, I'm going to pull out my jars of pea. Yes, I said my jars of pea. And you're probably like, why does Tony keep jars of pee on his desk? But here we go. Swire we got our jars of pea right here. We have the clear urine. This is not pee. Let me just make sure. I say. We have one that looks like lemonade and one that looks like diet soda. I used to have an apple juice one, but that one fell. Swire to be honest. This with you. So the apple juice one is where we want to stay away, and we want to stay away from the dark urine as well. We want it to look like lemonade, and we do not want to have clear urine, which is a big misconception. We'll talk about how that relates to energy right now. So when we have clear urine, it means we don't have enough sodium, potassium, magnesium, or chloride or electrolytes. So it doesn't hold in our water. We urinate it out, and we get rid of it. So we need to make sure we get enough of those electrolytes in, which can be through electrolyte rich beverages or adding salt to our meals. If we don't have those electrolytes, we can't think well because we're constantly running to the bathroom versus being focused on our tasks. So that could really draw away our energy. The other side of the pendulum, which is we have this dark urine, which I have seen as well. Swire there was a story of a gentleman I was working with. He sent me a picture. I actually got to go see the urinal he was in, and it was a baseball player, and it looked just like that. And he's like, Tony, I thought you'd be so proud to see my dark urine. I was like, this is the worst thing I could see before your game. I asked him what he did the day before. And he was drinking Fireball, he was drinking Miller Light, just really enjoying life with his buddies and playing golf, which happens to many small business. They enjoy it. The next day, they wake up a little bit tired. Well, his urine was so dark, he actually went out to play and pitch. He actually had no energy. He felt nausea, he felt dizziness. And if you know anything about baseball, he gave up ten runs in the first inning. He was a pitcher. They pulled him out immediately. Right. So these are things that affect our energy, and it's something that we typically don't even look at. So you want to make sure you drink half your body weight and ounces as a minimum. That doesn't even quote. Does it mean that no matter how much weight we are, we still go by the half of our body weight roots? Correct. So if you were, let's just say, swire somehow gained 300 pounds, I'd want you to be drinking at least 150oz of water, because that also helps our thirst signal and our hunger signal, because sometimes we forget and our mind says, oh, we're actually hungry, or are we actually thirsty? So drinking enough water can help us reduce that hunger need. If it's not hunger, if it's actually just thirst. Because in our brain they're in the same area, so sometimes we confuse it. Do you think we should track it like I used to? I have an app that when I drink water, so I have one, so it's 32 ounce, and I will do four a day. So I would track that. And I think this cup that I have here is about 32. So do you suggest something like that to make it easier? Because sometimes we forget. So when people forget, one of the tips is number one. Absolutely. Track that is a big tool. A lot of the people I work with may not have enough time to track. So we do notifications where they put a little Post It note on their computer, just like where we are, and it says Drink water. Because when that annoying post gets in your way and you need to move it, it'll remind you to drink water. The second thing is always having a water bottle or a water cup around you just like what you're doing, swire. And then of course, you want to make sure you can put reminders even on your phone or on your calendar, to take a sip of water. So those are just some simple ways for us to remember to drink water. It's almost free, too. Oh, absolutely. Always free. So nothing fancy. You don't have to get like special. I know you could pay like five, $6 for a performance. And whatever water, old fashioned water is fine. So those PH waters that we hear about, they typically just make you run to the bathroom more. And here's the thing once it goes into your mouth. I've confirmed this with dentists, and recent research shows that when you have these PH balanced waters, they actually cause your teeth erode, and you can actually get cavities, and it messes up the microbiota in your mouth. So we hear a lot about gut health. Well, the first part of your gut is your mouth. And when you drink these PH balanced waters, they actually mess up the PH balance you have in your mouth. By the time it gets to your stomach, it's all going to be acidified. So it's really a waste of time, because if your body actually could be changed by just the water you drink, we'd all be very sick many parts of the time. Our body's very apt to survival, not to dying off. So with that, absolutely. So water is the most important thing when it comes to energy. Swire and then that second piece would be making sure that you eat enough carbohydrates. Okay. This is probably something that people are running and screaming about, because every word now yeah, it's a dirty word. I was actually at my friend's bachelor party. We went to a comedy show. They go through all my friends what they do for a job. It was like tech, small business owner, a CIO. And then all of a sudden they get to me and they're like, sir, what do you do? And I said dietitian. The whole crowd turned on me, so why are they all boo? And the comedian says, wow, take away their guns, just don't take away their carbs, it sounds like. But it was just so interesting because dietitians get this bad rap. But you have to have carbs. Carbs are our body's main fuel source. Swire and when we eliminate them, that's what leads to those big crashes in energy. So when we tend to eliminate carbohydrates, which is the main fuel source in our body, then we tend to lose that energy. And when we talk about carbohydrates, we want to make sure those that are higher in fiber. So there's actually something called the carb to fiber ratio, not net carbs. Net carbs is just a marketing term. It doesn't mean anything. Which you are great at marketing. I have nothing against people in marketing. You guys do a great job, but net carbs does nothing. It is just a term that was made up to make you feel better about what you eat, but it has no actual help in your health. So what you want to do is called the carb to fiber ratio. And that's something I'm more than happy to share on, but I want to make sure we touch on everything. Is that okay if I touch on that for a moment, it yeah. So you mean like vegetables, right? Instead of broccoli? So vegetables, fruits, those are what I like to call those premium carbs. So the ones that give you full energy. But when we talk about that carb to fiber ratio. You can pick any product that is bread, rice, pasta, chips. You take the total amounts of carbs and you divide it by the total amounts of fiber. And whatever number that comes out to has to be five to one or less. Anything that's six, seven, 8910 is going to be that regular carbs. It's going to make your energy shoot up and crash back down. So we want anything that's five to one or less to keep that steady energy throughout the day. And there's many products out there that are available. Some of my favorite would be quinoa is a great one out there. Sweet potatoes. Even potatoes have fiber, right? We're talking about whole grain rices. Those are the things that are going to make a bigger difference in your energy throughout the day versus actually cutting them out. Because carbs are only stored in our muscles, right? And in our liver, and that is it. They're not stored anywhere else. So in our livers and in our muscles. So if we're constantly using our mind, which uses carbs as a fuel source, but doesn't store it, there, we're taking away from our liver and from our muscles. So we need to refuel those sources. So definitely want to make sure you get enough carbohydrates to give you energy throughout the day. Is there a formula like the water or it really depends on the person, on how active they are and what kind of maybe profession that they are in. It depends on how active they are. Swire so typically for a person, it is about three to 5 grams of carbs per kilogram of weight. Okay. That is a good model, and that's what the science backs, and I say kilograms. I know we use pounds here in the States. However, the research is done with the metric system, not with pounds. So I don't want to sit here and make up some numbers. So if you're 144, that puts you at about 70, 65 kilos, give or take. Yeah. So 65 times three, which is the lower end? Well, we'll do 70 times three because that's 210. That's easier for my math. So you should be having about 210 grams of carbs. Swire and this is my rough math, right? I don't have my calculator out per day as a minimum threshold. So what's the third one? What's the third one? It is not buying the greens powders. Not buying those green powders just because. Don't buy it. Don't buy it. Okay, now you're putting a lot of money in my pocket today. I eliminated I have had green powder. They're expensive. They're like, I think, like a small can is like $40. Yes. So, one, you don't have to buy the PH water. I've saved your money on that. Two, you can actually eat the foods you love. So carbs, because I love carbs, and I'm sure you eat carbs wire. And three is to stay away from those greens powders. Recent research has actually shown those green powders are very heavy in metals. Because I want you to imagine how many vegetables do they have to pulverize and dry out to make one single scoop of that to give you your full day of nutrients and vitamins, which, again, it hasn't been shown. Every time we do research to people who eat fruits and vegetables versus the greens powder, which one do you think wins? Poly? The fresh ones. The fresh ones. Every single time? Every single time. Not only in what our longevity factors look like. We're talking about health factors, we're talking about weight, we're talking about energy. We're also talking about the gut, health microbiome, having healthier guts, because we're actually eating the foods, digesting it, and letting the body take the fiber. Versus the greens powder. You're pulverizing it, you're putting a lot of metals, and it's actually been shown to have a longer term effect on your liver that is negative because of the metals that you find in these greens powders. Yeah, because I'm looking at the green powder, and I just so happen. I like gardening myself. I have vegetables garden, so when I eat the fresh vegetables that I picked, it's really fresh. Versus if I, let's say, go to the market and they've been in the freezer for I don't know how long, it's not as fresh. And I'm sure that the green powder that they have, you never know what kind of vegetables they put in. And then I think they're dry. So how much nutrient can they really save from those powder? I think that's a great point. And they probably add something into it, too, to make it fit the nutrition label, right? Absolutely. I don't know what they add into it, but I know it's not things you need in your body. So save the money. Throw the greens powder away, and it's affecting your energy because it's not doing anything for you. If you ate the actual fruits and vegetables, you'd have more of that steady energy throughout the day versus masking it with a powder that's doing nothing for you. Is there a map for the vegetables or again, it depends. Or is it like a fist? Five servings? I think it's like five servings, right? Yes, you should be having five servings. So five fists. Your fists, not your kids fists, not anyone else's fists, because people always like. To mess with that, like crumble, or is it loose? Or you have to pack it. I would just say about your fist, I would say if you could pack it, you don't have to pack it, like if you're going to bake something. But I would say a loose fist would be comparable. Now, if you're having salad, that's where it gets a little tricky because you would need about three fists of a greens mix to equal one fist of vegetables. But besides that, it's about five fists of fruits and vegetables a day. That's really a good point. I think all the three points led me to this question and I think I don't want to say I speak for all, but I am trying to attempt for that. Let me give you a scenario too, right? People, myself included, I go to conference, right? Usually it's a morning conference or afternoon conference. Assume that I eat good on my breakfast, right? But I have to sit in for the presentation for at least three to 4 hours. Sometimes I'm not allowed to bring my water bottle or I don't want to get up and go drink water and come back. That's not business line, right? So I'm dehydrated, I'm kind of hungry and then if I go to some good conference or trade show at noon, they reward you for your sitting out there. So they will have a feast, they will have pastries, they have pasta, they have all kinds of things in there and then I eat that, I feel happy. But then I am really tired in the afternoon and those are the meeting when in the afternoon we start losing people. Can you speak on that? And in general sense, what should I be eating when I'm really hungry and dehydrated coming off from all morning meeting? So there's a lot to pick up there swire. So the first thing we're going to talk about is let's work backwards. So that afternoon slump, it is completely natural for all of us to have that our circadian rhythm.

So what puts us asleep and keeps us awake typically goes down between that one to 04: 18:28

00 period in the afternoon and many people turn to caffeine, which can be helpful but can also be detrimental if you turn to coffee and it ruins your sleep, so makes you go to sleep later, then we know it's an issue. And it takes about 6 hours for caffeine's half light.

Meaning if you have a shot of espresso, which has 85 milligrams of caffeine at 02: 18:45

00, by

the time it's 08: 18:45

00 you still have about 40 milligrams of caffeine running through your system. So that's the first thing people try to turn to coffee and it's completely natural. So what do we recommend? One if you can take a quick nap, you want it to be 30 minutes or less. But typically at these conferences and business meetings we don't have time for a nap. So you want to have a protein rich snack and a carbohydrate or fiber rich snack. So one of my favorite things to do at a conference, you could bring some beef jerky, you could bring a protein bar. Those are going to be some easy things when we're talking about proteins that don't smell or stink up. You could also bring a protein shake, which would be an easy one to help with that hunger. Then you could pair it with fruit. I would recommend an apple, not a banana because one time someone brought a banana and they put their iPad and their computer in the bag and the banana got smashed. Yeah. So swire pro tip, no bananas at conferences or travel. As much as you might love bananas, wait till you get somewhere where they're not. Yeah, I think those are available. I would see them almost every conference. But people don't reach for the apples. They usually still intact, but then all the pasta, the pastry are gone. They typically go for all the other stuff. Yeah. So that high fiber foods, right? You can also bring some high fiber snacks. There could be some sort of high fiber chips that you like. Now let's go back to where you were. So we're working backwards, right? So when you're looking at a plate, when we're trying to build it, especially to avoid that afternoon slump, you want to make sure you have one fist of carbs, two fists of fruits and vegetables, and at least one palm of protein, right? Reason for that fist of carbs is because like you said, people get a fist of pasta, they'll get a fist of pastries, they'll get a dinner roll, then they'll get a big piece of chicken and a steak. No fruits or vegetables in sight. And then they go back for the candy that's on the table. So we're just really giving ourselves these regular carbs, which I was talking about earlier, talking about that carb to fiber ratio. So that boost our energy up, but cause the big crash down, right? I want you to think of a roller coaster. When you go up, you feel great and then all of a sudden you go down. You're like, why did I do this? So that's exactly how you're going to feel. It's going to put you right to bed and then even taking it back a step further, as you were talking about you're in the meeting, you're chronically dehydrated. You're not making the right decisions because only being 2% dehydrated swire can cause our performance to go down by 10%. So I want you to think about if you have to make a decision and you have a 10% less thoughtfulness or mindset behind it. So you're at 90%, probably not going to be a great business decision no matter what you do. As a small business owner, 10% can mean a lot, right? We're not this multinational, multi conglomerate company where 10% may not be as much. If you're a small business owner, 10% is a lot. So making sure you're hydrated. So what do I recommend? Having some sort of electrolyte. So this is where you could add salt and this is where if you add an electrolyte packet to your beverage would be helpful or salt during the meeting. Because remember, if you go back to my pee jars, it helps you absorb or keep that water in you. So it's really easy to just add a little bit of salt or electrolyte packets to your water so you can bring it with you to the meeting and you're not running or dancing around because you have to pee or use the bathroom. So that's a very easy way to stay hydrated when you're at a work or business conference and making sure that when you go to that lunch you're not as hungry because if you're hydrated, it will reduce your amounts of fake hunger that you may have. This is personal, right? Like you do your own thing and you don't comment on other people, but you actually suggest, let's say we add traveling into it, right? We're going to out of state conference or we have to stay at a hotel, right? You might not sleep as well. And then you might want to do some partying a little bit. Pre conference party they call it. So you actually want us to maybe take a look at our color of our peak, right? Absolutely. See where you are. So if you're really on the darker of the spectrum, that means you should not even drink your coffee and drink more water and maybe add a pinch of salt. How much salt would you suggest? Great question. So we need about the tip of our pinky fingers of salt throughout the day. So literally just a pinch that's really small. It's a very small amount. So if you feel dehydrated the next day you have that dry mouth or you feel a little bit more, lethargic grab some water. They have salt at most places, especially hotels. Put a little bit in your water and bring it with you. Or you can have some of the electrolyte packs that you can find everywhere that you can now put in your water or have a low sugar, electrolyte rich beverage. We don't need that high sugar Gatorade or powerade in your body. And one thing I almost forgot to mention, I keep saying electrolytes, but there's one electrolyte that you do need, but you don't need a lot of, and that's potassium. And you might have heard of coconut water or body armor or prime. These three beverages are dehydrating you. The reason is because they are high in potassium. That means it's going to actually attach to the sodium and make you pee it out. So it will give you a false sense of hydration. So those three beverages in particular. So if you're someone who really likes coconut water because you want to stick to something more natural, you need to add salt to that beverage because if you know anyone that has high blood pressure, they actually take a potassium pill to help you urinate it out. So it's a diuretic. So you want to stay away from prime body armor or any coconut water because those three things are dehydrating you and are not an electrolyte rich beverage for what you need. That's very interesting, especially for a listener and especially my wife is a. Yogi. You should do a lot of yogurt is they usually give you coconut water after your yoga class, and they like drinking it because they feel that it makes you feel more hydrated. But you're saying that you should add salt into it. So I think that's a really good point. I'm going to share with her on this section. Please do it's. Just because so many people think coconut water is hydrating, I fell for it as well. Swire. But it wasn't until I started to work with athletes and understand personalized hydration and what I apply to the small business owner today, they need to have sodium, they need to have salt in your diet. And having that coconut water, which is very high in potassium, you're going to be running to the bathroom, not running into a business meeting to make a deal. Yeah, a lot of good point there. So let's flip it a little bit. Let's go on the other side of the spectrum. There are people who like fasting. I've known people in business, too. They only eat at a certain time. They don't eat breakfast. They don't eat anything until the afternoon. And they go I watch them, too. Sorry. They went all out. They eat everything. They went on like a seafood diet. Everything inside, they grab it, whatever that it is. Is that good or are there a better approach? Or do you actually like fasting? So, Suare, let me ask you a question. I'm going to throw a question back at you. I want you to imagine I'm going to give you two brand new cars to come visit me across country. Car number one is full of gas, and I give you money for a gas card. Car number two is completely empty, and you have to push it all the way across country. Which one are you taking and why? I'll take the first one any day. Any day, right. So why do we think our bodies can run without gas? Why do we think our bodies can run without fuel? I am totally against fasting because fasting does not help us in any way. A lot of the studies that they're showing are done on animals, and yes, we can use animal studies. However, when we hear things about fasting boosting testosterone, that has been debunked, that is not true. If you want to fast, it's been shown if you want to fast, it could be once a month if you want to do it, or for one week out of the year. And I'm going to say that again, one week out of the year, not every single day. And as a small business owner, if I were to fast, I'm going into meetings as an empty car. I'm pushing my body to do something that it's not meant to do. So if you're agitated. Yeah, you're agitated, right. Someone comes in, they ask you something that day, you're just like, you say something, it comes off and you're like, that's not what I meant to say, but it's because you're hungry. And then, as you said, they go into these meals where they look like they're just pigs at a trough. They're just eating everything and as much as possible. So the more we tend to restrict, the more we tend to overeat later in the day. And one of the most telltale signs of anyone that typically fasts is that they eat at night. They get the night snackies. So nighttime hits, they just finished dinner, they have a scoop of ice cream. They have a handful of nuts. Now they go into their kids cabinets and have a couple of their kids snacks. Then they go back and have another scoop of that ice cream because they just pass by the freezer anyways. It's because they're not fueling their body, so their body's sending them signals. You need to eat now so that you have energy in the morning to do what you try to do, right? So our body is not going to waste away. It wants to perform optimally. And if you keep fasting, you're actually doing your body a disservice. You're hurting yourself because you're not providing it the nutrients it needs throughout the day. I think one of the way that people tell me they are fasting, especially in a business setting, right? We're chatting in a networking meeting is I think it's an excuse for they're too busy, they don't want to eat. But throwing me the fasting words, I was, okay, you're fasting. Then I stopped asking them questions. But what if let's say we're too busy, right? We have kids, we have to go to work, so we only have coffee or we grab like, a pastry, right, at Starbucks or whatever that is. And then we are so busy, like, we don't get to eat until after two. And then we ate something. Then we get the Snumpiness, and then at night we're going to drink wine, and then we end up not having a good night's sleep. So if you have a magic wine, what would be like a really generalized routine that we should be consuming to help us more energetic? Can you touch on that? Oh, absolutely. And as we know, everyone's different, so I will give some tips. But let me ask you a question here, Swire. I put a team of eight baseball players on each side, and I had them make PB, J's, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. How many do you think they made in 1 minute? I don't know. Like one. A team of eight. Do you think it took them? I don't know. If they could each make one, I would say like ten to 15. They made 26 in 1 minute. So you're telling me no one here has 2 seconds to make a PB and J? What I'm trying to say is that everyone says we're busy, but what we really are saying is you're putting other things as a priority. We need to put ourselves as a priority to fill our cup up so we can give up to others. So if you do go to a Starbucks, they have a bunch of wonderful sandwiches at Starbucks. I was at a conference a couple of weeks ago when I went to Starbucks. I got my typical cold brew because that's what I just love to drink. I got one of their breakfast sandwiches. It is the reduced fat egg white turkey bacon on an egg muffin. And I got a couple extra of the sous vide egg bites. Because always prioritize protein. Protein should be the first thing. Why is because there's actually almost like a light switch in our body that turns on and off every three to 4 hours. And every time we eat protein it turns on to build muscle. Every time it's turned off, we're actually losing muscle. There's another reason I don't like fasting, so I look for protein. So protein, if you're someone that's on the run at Starbucks, they have a bunch of sandwiches that you can they. Have protein bars too, that are pretty good protein bars. They also have protein shakes. You can literally get a protein shake. Shake it, it takes you less than 30 seconds to make. The other thing is if you have a minute, you can make eggs. One of the biggest things that I learned living in a hotel room for over two months was that you take a mug, you can spray it with a little of olive oil. Put some olive oil or butter in it, crack an egg in, you whisk it, you put it in for 30 seconds. Swire, you pull it back out, make sure it's not sticking, put it in for another 30 seconds or 15 seconds, you have a whole scrambled egg. So if you have 1 minute, you can make a microwaved egg, which again, everyone has that 1 minute. You could literally put that in. Put two pieces of toast in the toaster. You now have a breakfast sandwich that you didn't have to think about on the way out. A smoothie is another great one. So I said a protein shake. But a smoothie, you can make it the night before. You just have to re blend it in the morning. Right. So it's all about prioritizing planning, but protein is the first thing you want to do. Make sure you get some protein to keep that muscle building switch on. Then you want to make sure you have some sort of carbohydrate to give you energy. And then the third one, you have some sort of color on it so that could be fruit or vegetables. Another quick one. How long does it take to grab some Greek yogurt out of the fridge? Swire as far as the fridge is away from you, exactly. Which you're typically going to pass anyways. So grabbing it, opening up, then you start eating it on the way in. They even have drinkable yogurts now, right? So those are the things. It's about finding what's convenient for you. So protein, you want to have some sort of carbs and you want to have some sort of color. So protein options, microwavable egg, a breakfast sandwich at Starbucks or you can just make a smoothie or even a protein bar, the carbs, anything in that nature. So we could have the breads, we can have as we mentioned in the shake, you could put some sort of oats in it. It really is whatever you want to eat. And then finally the Greek yogurt, it has some carbs and it has some protein, then finally some color. So some fruits that are very easy to eat. And here is where you could have that banana where it's not going to be smooshed in your bag. Yeah, I really wanted to rethink the strategy and obviously it sounded like you are in the camp that you should not staff yourself but to space it out. So every 3 hours you have proteins. So we don't eat as much too. If we are snacking healthy throughout the day then we won't wait until maybe lunch or sometime maybe dinner to have like crazy amount of food and then we regret and then we are not able to sleep properly because we're too full. And not only that's why if we go back to fasting and just talking about eating protein every three to 4 hours there was a study done where they gave two groups and group A had an egg for breakfast, they had a chicken breast for lunch and then for dinner they had a really big steak. Group B had the same amount of protein but they had it spaced throughout the day so it had 30 grams per day. So instead of having a little bit to a high which, which was group A, group B had it steadily throughout the day. And when they compared their muscle mass after twelve weeks, group B that had protein every three to 4 hours evenly spread out versus the small portion and the medium sized portion. Large portion gained more muscle and had less body fat when comparing both groups and they have the same exact food just at different times. They have the same exact training routine but it was by having protein every three to 4 hours for what their body needed and the right amounts is what helped them build more muscle and lose more body fat, which is what many small business owners are looking to do, to be more mentally acute and to perform better. I think this is an important episode because when we talk about marketing, when we talk about sales, when I have guests on there are planning that you have to do and it's the theme for the show that there's no overnight success or achievement, you just need to plan for it. Maybe when you get to the next level, you do add on something onto it. I think nutrition, like Tony is saying, it's not overnight. If you're overweight or if you're underweight, if you're not feeling energy. Switching one thing might not help you the first day, but if you keep on doing that, if you build on on top of it, then you're going to see result. When you see result, you be more happy. You're willing to try. Maybe after you have a good diet, maybe really you go on to start doing some exercise right now, which is, I'm a big opponent of that. Then you start feeling better, you start feeling more energetic, and then you go out more. You're more happy and helpful person. Absolutely. We're trying. And just as you said, it's small steps. Everyone keeps trying to do an overnight change. I always tell people if I had the perfect meal plan, I'd sell it for a million dollars. But guess what? The perfect meal plan doesn't exist. Because you could follow it for a week, you could follow it for a month, but after that you have a conference, something happens to a family member, you're stressed at work, something happened at the business, and now you go towards the other end of the spectrum. So you want to make sure you have a plan in place that you can go back to. But having a structured meal plan is not what you need. But I think a lot of time, people don't stick to it because it's too repetitive. Especially if you buy into like, a meal plan. Every single day is broccoli and there's white chicken breast. I looked at what they have and I'm like, it's not sustainable, right? Is that possible? Can you be healthy and then eating a variety of different things? Is that even possible? Let's say we're busy, right? Professional. Is that achievable swire? Absolutely. Just to give you an idea, I was in Texas, as I mentioned, just a couple of weeks ago for a conference. I woke up and had my Starbucks for breakfast. For lunch, they brought in barbecue. So I had some barbecue brisket. They also brought in some vegetables, and they also brought in what was the carb? It was like a corn casserole. Mind you, it was a group of dietitians, so, you know, they had a lot of vegetables. Then for dinner, we went out to Sushi. The next day for lunch, they brought in Tex Mex. So we had chips, guac and salsa. But there was also protein, there was also tortillas for the carbs. You can eat the foods you love and still hit your goals. One of my favorite highlights was one of the people I just recently worked with. He's a small business owner, and he's someone who came to me, he's like, I just want to eat pasta and pizza. Tony, if you can make that happen and make me look the way where I'm happy to take my shirt off at the beach. I would be head over heels. He's from New York and he went back to his old stomping grounds. He had pizza, he had pasta, and he had never been happier because he was able to eat it and not feel like he had to eat a whole pizza or a whole plate of pasta because he had the openness and the accountability to eat just enough to make him feel well and still hit his goals. Right. I think we keep making our culture an obstacle versus using culture as an asset. And I state that because both my parents are Hispanic, I was told I can't eat rice and beans. And I was like, why not? Right? We were told to stay away from it. But every day rice wire. Like if someone tells you to stop eating rice, be like, you are on the wrong plan. My wife do add quinoa and then brown rice into it and heads off to her. Yeah, hey, if she can do it, you can too. Swire but no, you got to have rice. So it's just about using your culture as an asset and not an obstacle. So making sure you eat the foods you love, because the more and more you restrict and you go to that chicken, that bland chicken, that bland rice and that bland broccoli, it's never going to work. Tony I think this is a great conversation and I know that we will be getting into specific for each individual. So for a listener who wanted to find out more what they can do, what would be the best way to reach out to you? Absolutely. So they can go to my website, which is Nutritionfp.com, and that stands for Nutritionforperformance.com Thesmallbusiness Show. There is a special gift for anyone that is listening or tuning in. There are three things they can do on there. The first one, at the bottom of that page, they get a small business owner wellness check in. So that makes sure they are doing ten things that they can actually do. The second thing they can do is they can get a free habit tracker. So this is something I've used with many of the small business owners I have worked with personally, and it helps them change a habit within 30 days. So they get it absolutely free. It's a tracker, it's a video, and they can even use it for themselves. And the last thing, if they really like this conversation, they want to know a little bit more about personalization and diet, they can schedule a call with me. So again it is nutritionfpforperformance.com thesmallbusiness show and just as a reminder, Swire, I was there as well when I started my business. Even though I knew the nutrition, I started to slide because I put so much time and effort into my business. I was drinking coffee twenty four seven. I was eating the quick and easy. It wasn't until I started to take a step back and notice, like, hey, health is my wealth and this is the only way I'm going to continue to build my business, is when I stopped having so much coffee. I use coffee as an aid. I started to eat the foods I love. I started to include foods I never thought I could eat and be happy with and finally perform the way I wanted to, look the way I wanted to and be the person I wanted to be and have this energy, right? Like this whole call, I've had energy. This is no coffee today, all right? This is all just me. So nutritionfp.com backslash the Small Business show. And I'll put the link Tony mentioned on the show notes. And if you have not already, you got to follow Tony on Instagram. He put a lot of fun into his video and he makes nutrition fun and he makes you notice things that you have not thought about. Thanks. I appreciate that. Swire thank you for coming on today. Tony thank you for having me. Thank you for listening to the show. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast and share with your friends or colleagues who might benefit from the conversation. Any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'd love to connect with you.

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