Podcast Episode #173: All About Nutrition Challenges, Part 1

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Liz Wolfe: Hey friends! Welcome to Balanced Bites podcast number 173. It’s post New Year, and this one is all about challenges. I think it’s an official challenge month for a lot of people, so we’re going to address some questions about that. But first, hi Diane!

Diane Sanfilippo: Hey!

Liz Wolfe: I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve talked to you, because you’ve been in some horrible place in some horrible part of the world doing horrible, boring things with terrible people.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} It was horrible, every minute. No, it was amazing. I’m so tan. But the funny thing; Scott and I were joking, and I was telling him, oh we’re going to be so tan when we go back to the gym! He’s like, dude, everyone at the gym is so tan. We’re in New Jersey. I’m like, oh you're right! {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: You live in New Jersey. Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, but anyway.

Liz Wolfe: Cool. Well, let’s do a little word from our sponsors. We have some amazing sponsors who make this podcast possible. We’ve handpicked them, and we want you to know about them.

First up, I want to thank Vital Choice for sponsoring the podcast, and also encourage everybody to visit their online store at vitalchoice.com. You’ll find an amazing array of some of the world’s best seafood, including wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, tuna, sable fish, cod, and prawns. I don’t think I’ve ever had prawns. Have you had prawns? They’re like giant shrimp, or tiny lobsters? I don’t know.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Giant teddy bear bigger than you are.

Liz Wolfe: They’re like fancy cray fish. I don’t know. Crab, scallops, sustainably harvested shellfish. These are not just delicious foods, but they’re also vital choices for your health. Hence the name. You’ll also find grass-fed organic Wagyu beef, live fermented foods to promote gut health, fresh frozen, I’m having some trouble today! Fresh frozen organic berries, and dark organic chocolates. Vital Choice offers you healing foods that you’ll love. They’re offering our listeners 15% off any order using code BALANCEDBITES. Remember that orders of $99 or more ship for free. This year, we hope you gave the gift of health from Vital Choice, and if you didn’t, it’s not too late! {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: Sorry. I’m a little rusty. Next up, Pete’s Paleo. The 21-Day Sugar Detox is great for your body in so many ways, but consistently feeding yourself right can be a challenge. Pete’s Paleo makes delicious, seasonal, ready to eat meals that strictly follow the 21DSD program. They’re shipped directly to your door, ready to go. Let Pete’s Paleo help you with your 21DSD success. And don’t forget that their bacon is also sugar free. Coupons for Pete’s Paleo, 5OFF21DSD, that’s a coupon code is for $5 off 21DSD meals, and 5OFFPETESPALEO is a coupon code for $5 off regular Pete’s Paleo meals.

And, finally a sponsor that I’m thrilled about. Dragonfly Traditions. Natural, nourishing skin care with absolutely no unnecessary chemicals. It’s natural nutrition for the skin. Folks know that I am a huge fan of Dragonfly. I love their serum, their night cream among other things. Their stuff is amazing, it just goes on so beautifully and it makes my skin really soft and happy. I just can’t recommend Dragonfly Traditions or the owner, Phoebe, enough. If you head over to DragonflyTraditions.com and add Balanced Bites to your shopping cart for 1 penny, Phoebe will not only send you 2 free lip balms with your order, but she’ll also send you that penny back. You’ll literally get a penny in your order.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} I’ve seen folks posting a picture, and I was like, oh, she really did send a penny back {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: You know what I’ve thought about recently.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s hilarious.

Liz Wolfe: I love it! Well, I love things, I love mailed surprises. Pleasant surprises in the mail.

Diane Sanfilippo: You should come live at my house! {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Oh my gosh.

Diane Sanfilippo: People mail me things all the time.

Liz Wolfe: I ordered like one thing from Nordstrom the other day, and it’s coming in 5 shipments.

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s crazy.

Liz Wolfe: Which is like half the reason I even order from Nordstrom, because I get a million shipments.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: But I’ve been thinking about. You know how we complain, or we lament how Facebook and newsletters don’t always reach people that want to get them. I’m thinking I should just start sending real letters to people.

Diane Sanfilippo: Do it!

Liz Wolfe: Right?!

Diane Sanfilippo: To all of those people. All 10 of them.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. So I’m going to need 50,000 stamps.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} So maybe I haven’t really thought it out.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: But I think that would be fun. Just get a little letter from me.

Diane Sanfilippo: It would be. Now everyone listening is going to be looking for a letter from Liz Wolfe.

Liz Wolfe: Oh geeze.

Diane Sanfilippo: I am. You better send me one.

Liz Wolfe: Didn’t I send you a thank you note at some point in our friendship?

Diane Sanfilippo: Thank you for being a friend?

Liz Wolfe: Probably.

Diane Sanfilippo: {singing} Travel down the road back again.

Liz Wolfe: Do you do thank you notes? I did when I was trying to impress my future mother-in-law but then she became my mother-in-law and I kind of fell off.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} I don’t know that I’m really sent a lot of gifts that I would send a card for.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} Everybody gives you stuff you hate.

Diane Sanfilippo: NO, I mean. {laughs} I get a lot of things sent to me that are kind of unsolicited random things from companies. I don’t know, I think I like handwriting notes, but if it’s kind of a little token that someone has sent me, I’ll send them a text or call them to say, thanks, I received it. A Chipotle gift card in the mail yesterday. Well, I opened it yesterday. I sent my friend a text with the picture of our meal from Chipotle {laughs} so that was kind of my thanks. It was very nice to come home to, not to cook a dinner when we had no groceries.

Liz Wolfe: Thank you cards are nice, but we did just get this card in the mail the other day, and I was like, is there a check in it?

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: And my husband was like, no. I was like, why didn’t they just give us the 2.50, instead of going and buying that card.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I know. I mean, I actually really do love sending than you notes, but sometimes I’m just like, well, this is more paper than I need to be using. Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: You’re so environmentally minded.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} if you could see the piles of paper on my table right now, I’m not sure about that.

Liz Wolfe: Mm.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

1. What’s new for you from Diane & Liz [6.58]

Liz Wolfe: Alright. So what’s new with you.

Diane Sanfilippo: What’s new. So, alright. This episode is going to be airing on, I guess it will be January 8th, so the official 21DSD for January has kicked off, and it’s a huge group, and I’m super excited, and I’m excited because I know we’re going to be talking all about challenges today because we have tons of questions and thoughts and opinions and all that good stuff that kind of circulate, so that’s the first thing that’s new. I’m really excited, because we also launched, while I was on vacation {laughs}. For anyone who thinks that I actually ever take time off, it’s totally not true. But vacation is still relaxing for me, even if I still do some work. But I’m just absolutely insane, and I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: We were indignant but you're not sorry. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: #sorrynotsorry.

Liz Wolfe: #vocab.

Diane Sanfilippo: I really like what I do, so I don’t dread it. But anyway, we kicked off a 21DSD coaches program, and I just launched a beta version, so essentially it’s a test group. It’s a small group, it’s just over 100 people, and we’re just kind of getting that rolling, so I wanted to put the word out. If you’re interested in becoming a coach, you can join the Facebook group, I’ll be posting more information about it there as it becomes available. We’re going to be going through just a bunch of testing with the folks who signed up really early for it and making sure the materials were all kind of where we wanted them to be and that they’re effective and useful for everyone who’s out there going to coach folks on the program. I’m just really excited about that, there’s’ been a really great response so far, and even the handful of folks who’ve gone into the program and looked into our main handbook for it are just really excited about it, and I’m excited about that. So there’s that.

A couple of other points of news. I found out yesterday from our publisher, we have the same publisher, that Practical Paleo was the number 6 bestselling cookbook in 2014. I was like, I’m sorry, what?

Liz Wolfe: Dang!

Diane Sanfilippo: Crazy pants. Kind of just running behind Ina Garten. I don’t know who all has watched the Food Network; I’ve watched it for pretty much forever. She is the Barefoot Contessa, and her book basically came out just a few months ago, and just has been crushing it. Everywhere you turn, you see Ina Garten, if you’re looking at cookbooks at all. She and the Pioneer Woman were kind of in the top few, Pioneer Woman had 2, then the Thug Kitchen cookbook, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. Really cool fun idea, but it’s all kind of plant based, so I’m kind of like, meh. And then Skinny Taste cookbook was right ahead of Practical Paleo, and that one’s just kind of a low fat cookbook. I feel like it’s the only low fat cookbook out there that’s kind of hanging on, but really paleo kind of representing with Practical Paleo at the number 6. And I was like, holy cow! It kind of blows my mind, but it’s awesome. I think it’s really cool that we have that representation.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, very cool.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. And then, just quickly. A couple of events I have coming up. One is this weekend, right here near me in Wayne, New Jersey. I’m going to be signing books at the Costco, that’s kind of my local store, so I’ll be there for a couple of hours. I’m not exactly sure what time, I want to say it’s like 12 or 1 to 2 or 3. Check my website; there’s an Eventbrite listing that you can RSVP there. If you don’t have a membership, you can come in with a friend, or grab a gift card I think ahead of time or ask for a day pass, I think they’ll probably let you in.

And then, Friday the 23rd of January, I’ll be in Salt Lake City at the Barnes and Noble Sugar House at 7 p.m. Super excited about that, I have not done an even in Salt Lake City ever, so hopefully I will see you there. And, I think that’s pretty much what I wanted to update folks on. What’s new with you, my friend.

Liz Wolfe: Well I guess a couple of weeks ago on Christmas, I dropped a little bomb and then kind of walked away, on the podcast.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, and then, did it actually get out?

Liz Wolfe: I don’t know. I’ve had some people mention it. I think people are kind of picking up on it. I haven’t been so much as dropping hints as just, I’ve been pregnant for long enough now that it’s really difficult to not inject certain anecdotes into every day conversation, especially in the interviews I’ve been doing for Real Food Liz radio, I’ve been talking to parents and things like that, so it will drop in there. And then I put a little something in the newsletter that went out, email Monday, that went out yesterday, January 5th.

Which, by the way, the newsletter that went out yesterday was about New Years’ resolutions, and I’ve gotten amazing feedback on it. I had no idea that it would be that impactful for people, but I was getting text messages, and Facebook messages, and emails, and so if you missed it, go sign up for email Monday at RealFoodLiz.com, and you’ll get the link to the archive, so you can go back and read it.

Diane Sanfilippo: Awesome. Yeah, we both have archives in our email and that was one thing I think last, not this past week but the one before, so yours go out Monday, mine go out Sunday.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: But it wasn’t this week I talked about it, but the previous week I talked about tips and tricks for handling the New Year.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: Same thing; everyone was just really excited about the ideas and the advice and all of that. I just think it’s a really good time to kind of talk about all this stuff.

Liz Wolfe: So, back to my uterus. I am with child.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: As my friend Quinn calls it, I have a uterus thing. And I’m super excited. I think people are a little surprised that I haven’t been sharing more about it, and I did want to just remark on that quickly. It’s been, obviously people know that I’m passionate about fertility and all that stuff, and I have been for a really long time.

And I have the Baby Making and Beyond program in the works; it’s going to be out, hopefully by the summer. You just never know with these types of things, but I’m working with an amazing midwife and friend who’s just a genius, and she’s all over the project, as well. That will come out eventually. Head over to babymakingandbeyond.com, you can sign up for the email list to get notified when it’s ready to go. I think a lot of people understand that you can tell people what to do all day long, but then when it’s you, it becomes a little bit different. And what I mean by that, I love talking about fertility, and pregnancy, and healthy babies, and things like that, but this was my journey. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.

Liz Wolfe: It just was not for blog fodder, to me. And it’s been an amazing time. It’s been very meditative and sweet, and this amazing time for me and my family. That’s why I played it close to the vest for a while .I wasn’t trying to hide it or anything like that, but it’s just that so much of what I do is already dumped onto the internet, and now this will be dumped onto the internet, the kid doesn’t really have a choice. So, I’m just kind of playing it close to the vest for a while and enjoying this time, and hopefully everyone can understand that.

If you want to kind of know where I am in the pregnancy timeline, I’m post being able to feel this baby hiccup inside my body, which is a trip.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: It’s like, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s crazy.

Liz Wolfe: That’s what it feels like. And I’m like, pre-giving birth.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} So if anybody knows about where that would put me, then you’ll have an idea.

Diane Sanfilippo: Crazy.

Liz Wolfe: I’m kind of right in the, what were we thinking coordinates of the map.

Diane Sanfilippo: The oh no, this thing is going to come out soon?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. It literally has to come out, and then I have to keep it alive. Which will be great, it’s a very exciting time. But, yeah, that’s kind of where I’m at right now. You know, I will share more. People have been hungry for how I handled things, what I’m doing with labor and delivery. A lot of other questions have come up. And I will share that stuff. I will likely share it within Baby Making and Beyond. Because as we know, we put things on the internet and it’s like peeing in a pool.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: And like I said, the kiddo doesn’t have a choice. So I do want to kind of put that extra layer on, well who really wants this information and this look into what I did and my journal for what I did for the whole oral glucose tolerance stuff, and all that. I probably will keep that within Baby Making and Beyond, just because I really do want to keep that information for the people who really want it and need it.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: It’s important to me that I at least put a little bit of a layer between just dumping everything out for people. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: I think the context is appropriate there, too.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: Just sharing about it on your Facebook page and everyone and their sister is commenting, which we welcome typically. But on that type of stuff, I really do think like a safe space for the conversation really makes sense.

Liz Wolfe: Totally.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think that’s awesome. I can’t wait to see the program.

Liz Wolfe: 100%. Yeah, it will be fun. And other than that, Eat the Yolks is out on audio book, and people have been excited about it. I got a review from my mom. She says I’m better than Stockard Channing, who did the Ramona Quimby books.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: So, that’s huge!

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s amazing.

Liz Wolfe: That’s amazing. So grab the audio book and please let me know that you did. I would be very grateful.

2. Shout Out: Amy Spofford, paleo rap parody[16:30]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, so we’ve got some shout outs today, hey?

Diane Sanfilippo: Hey! Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: This is one you’ve been just cracking up about for a week.

Diane Sanfilippo: We have! We’ve been sitting on it, but then we were like, oh we have to share this. And then we had so much other stuff going on. But I’m really excited. I don’t know if she has a website, but then I’m going to say her name, and she can let us know if somehow missed her website, or you can let me know. Amy Spofford. {laughs} I wouldn’t know how else to pronounce that.

Liz Wolfe: I know she’s on the internet.

Diane Sanfilippo: She’s on the internet. She did a paleo rap parody to Tupac’s changes. And holy bejebus, this girl is awesome.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} So good.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think she has some cojones for recording this rap video. I’m watching it, and I mean, she’s probably rehearsed it quite a bit, because she is on point.

Liz Wolfe: She is smooth.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, really smooth. We’ll definitely link to it. I’ll see if we can get a small clip of it into the podcast. I think that would be really fun for you guys to hear little bits of it. But she basically takes; and if you’ve been a long time listener, she takes little clips of our advice, and has worked it into this rap song. Do you have a favorite line? I feel like you kind of wrote a line to me that was one of your favorites, and I don’t know where I put it.

Liz Wolfe: So much of it was good. One of my favorites, the where I was like, oh my god! She goes, it’s time for us as a people to start making some bone broth! {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Oh gosh. It’s really good, and I don’t know. I was listening to it, I was like, wow. She’s really been listening, you know. {laughs} It’s pretty awesome. So I think our longtime listeners will love that. And if you’re not a long time listener, but you’re a paleo peep, or you’re new to paleo, you’ll love it too. And I think she gave us the lyrics somewhere, so maybe I’ll try and get that attached at the end of the transcript for this podcast, if you go to BalancedBites.com or RealFoodLiz.com and you want to check it out. I don’t think she put the lyrics on her YouTube, but we’ll definitely link you guys to the YouTube, as well. That’s our shout out to Amy; Amy thank you so much! That was amazing, awesome, we loved it, hilarious, you freaking rock.

3. This week in the Paleosphere: Kristen Cavallari shouts out Liz Wolfe [18:59]

Liz Wolfe: Alright. As if things could get any cooler, this week in the Real Food Paleosphere, Kristen Cavallari totally kind of shouted out Eat the Yolks a little bit.

Diane Sanfilippo: So awesome!

Liz Wolfe: On her app. I don’t think she has a website. Ok, Kristen Cavallari, she’s from…

Diane Sanfilippo: Excuse me. Our listeners better know who Kristen Cavallari {laughing} just kidding.

Liz Wolfe: I almost said Orange County. She’s from Laguna Beach, yeah?

Diane Sanfilippo: Laguna Beach, yeah.

Liz Wolfe: And she’s married to Jay Cutler, for football fans. Just kind of put the little Cavallari map together. These are all things I learned last night, when my friend texted me that

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: Kristen Cavallari had shouted me out in her app. But she’s got an app, and actually, I wasn’t sure what I was in for, but I opened up her app and at the very front, it’s got this whole post on fermented foods. She seems to be very crunchy and holistic. And then she pretty much summarized a pretty big chunk of my book, and then linked to this Huff Post article that I was quoted in. I was like, dang! That’s pretty cool.

Diane Sanfilippo: That is pretty cool. I just love seeing when, either mainstream media is picking up stuff, or especially folks in these different communities where we might have some assumptions that the way that they’re eating is not embracing all of these kind of traditional approaches, and then we’re surprised pleasantly. I just think that’s really awesome, I love seeing that. Because I think the type of readers that she might have, or fans, they’re probably not getting this information in another way, so I think it’s pretty awesome.

Liz Wolfe: Pretty sweet. Thanks Kristen!

4. Nutrition Challenges [20:42]

Liz Wolfe: Ok, this week, the meat of the show, we’re talking all about nutrition challenges, like a 21-Day Sugar Detox or a strict 30 day paleo challenge for example. Diane, you put up this question every once in a while, we’ll just shout out for questions on the Facebook page.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: I didn’t even need to put the question on my page, because you got crazy response to your question about this.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. People are really, there’s a lot of questions. A lot of them are really similar to each other, and a lot of people were commenting, yes, I’m echoing that person. So we have kind of the gist of it in our boiled down handful of questions here. But yeah, this is a huge topic, and I think it’s very relevant and timely because we’re recording this essentially the first week of January, and this is when everyone is kind of diving into a challenge, or resolutions, or what not. I’m definitely pleased to see that response, because we definitely want to interact with you guys and see what’s on your minds, so thank you to everyone who posted a comment.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, so we’ve talked a little bit about this before, but almost 200 podcasts in, it’s always good to kind of bring the topic back out fresh and kind of talk about it again. But let’s discuss the pros and the cons of challenges. Who might be a good fit for a challenge, and who might not be a good fit for a challenge.

Stacy of Paleo Parents just published a post I believe about how, for example, for her the challenge mindset became a little bit toxic for her. It kind of became an excuse for her to have this orthorexic relationship with food that was really unhealthy, and maybe in some ways as unhealthy as whatever she’d been doing before. So, they’re not necessarily good fits for everybody, and again we’ve talked about this a couple of times before. We’ll just dedicate this episode, and maybe another one after this to these types of topics.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. I feel like we have so many more questions than we’ll be able to handle today, but let’s see what happens.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: So, I think also you and I just naturally fall on different sides of this.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think one thing that I think is really important for everyone listening to this episode, and who is doing a challenge or not doing a challenge. I had a conversation with somebody else that I’m friends with on Facebook that was very positive and in this direction, I think it’s #1 most important to remember that just because something does or does not work for you, that it does or does not work for everybody.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s kind of the same thing we always talk about with whether your paleo, whether your strict pale or not, whether you eat dairy, all these other things. I think just keeping that in mind as we go through our pros and cons and all the thoughts that we have on it, is that even you and I; I do really well with challenges, and I don’t necessarily see it as this bad thing, or rules that someone else has given me. I think it’s a very internal, I decide this for myself type of thing. But I know that for you, you just don’t jive with that approach for your personal approach to how you eat.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

5. Who do nutrition challenges work well for [23:44]

Diane Sanfilippo: So I think that it’s very different, and we have those two perspectives, and I think that’s cool and we can agree that not everybody does well with one way or the other. That being said, I think the people for whom challenges work really well are people who are very type A personality, who tend to be black and white in their mindset, or who tend to feel better, and this is partially describing myself, somebody who feel better taking decisions away from themselves. For me, I like having rules that are either set up for me or that I set up for myself, generally that I set up for myself. {laughs} Because I’m pretty much, I’m always the one to make the rules for myself. As an entrepreneur, that’s kind of how we tend to be. I like it because it kind of leaves no room for me to make more decisions.

And in the course of the day, I make a lot of decisions. I’m managing a team of about 8 people, and it’s just a lot for me to handle. So if I decide that the way my nutrition has gone is a little looser than I want it to be. Maybe there’s more chocolate coming in, or whatever, and I’m just not feeling great, not necessarily emotionally, but just physically not feeling great, and I’m feeling like everything else in my life could use a little bit of a reset, it really helps me get back on track. So if you feel like that helps you, then it could be right for you.

Also, if you’re somebody who likes to change a lot of things at once. Again, for me, I’ve done this for years. I would say well before I ever developed the 21-Day Sugar Detox, I have called it shaking the snow globe. Where, when I decide I want to change something, I don’t just change one thing. For example, in the past I have decided that I’m quitting a job, then I decide that I’m moving, and something else major. Within a one-month period of time. And for a lot of people, that’s too much to handle. For me, I like it, because it just kind of changes my scenery all around. So, picture a snow globe where all those little plastic pieces of snow are sitting on the bottom, and you literally just turn it upside down, and then let everything refall again.

For me, that works really well, because, I think this is for a lot of people, why sometimes making more than one change at once does work, because for example, if you decide I’m going to start going to the gym, but then you come home and eat the same food you’d been eating, it doesn’t actually feed into that other positive change you wanted to make. So you go to the gym, you come home and eat pizza. Something that doesn’t make you feel great, the next day you’re not going to feel great to go to the gym. So, there can be this problem where if you try and make one small change, the other parts of your life that are kind of still in place aren’t supporting that one change.

Or, sometimes that small change doesn’t feel important enough that you might just let it slip. So that’s kind of another thing, if you’re somebody that doesn’t do well with small changes because you just don’t see their importance as much, and you’re not going to allow it to have a cumulative positive effect, then a challenge might be a really good thing for you.

I also think that if you know a lot about yourself and your body and what works for you and what doesn’t, then that’s another time when a challenge can be really good. I think that for people, a lot of people come to the 21-Day Sugar Detox, or a strict paleo challenge, for example, they might already eat mostly paleo. Right? Or maybe they eat pretty cleanly most of the time. This time of year, and I again can speak from example, just after being on vacation for two weeks, it becomes a little bit like an overload. And it’s just, I had too much to drink. I think some folks saw me posting on Instagram or Facebook, I had indigestion for quite some time, which I never have typically, and too many treats, and sugar, and dairy, and all this stuff that I don’t normally eat at home. I could definitely come back home and say, ok I’m not going to eat it. But for me, I like setting up some rules where I just say, this is what I’m doing. I don’t have to think more about it.

I think those are the kinds of people, and again myself lump into that, that it works really well for. I don’t know if you maybe, Liz, can give some more thoughts on people who it works for, even though it’s not your personal experience, then maybe we can talk about folks who it’s not good for.

6. Who do nutritional challenges not work well for [28:10]

Liz Wolfe: It’s kind of hard for me to draw a line, like it works for this type of personality. I think definitely you have a huge point about the whole type A thing. But I think for me it’s more, and I guess this plays into that as well, what mindset are you bringing to it, because I know there are some type A, massively orthorexic folks who are struggling.

Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.

Liz Wolfe: That probably don’t need to go there, maybe kind of need to do some counseling in the other direction. But for me, I started out with a 30-day challenge. And then of course, I did the whole pizza and beer thing after that.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Maybe we did another one, and then didn’t backslide so much, and then I kind of changed the way I look at food, and now I’m pretty confident with all the decisions that I make. But it was appropriate for me at one time in my life, it was a decent introduction. It worked well, and it was a way to sharpen some nonexistent cooking skills.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: I mean, I had never even made a chicken breast before that. Never. So that was important and that was good. It kind of threw me into that space where I was uncomfortable, but we figured it out, and it was fun. And that’s when my original blog was born, back before it was Cave Girl Eats, before that it was Jerselizabeth. So, I wouldn’t even be here if it hadn’t been for a 30-day type challenge.

But, for me now, maybe I’m just not, maybe it’s that I have other things that need my mental space. I’m not the best multitasker. I don’t really thrive thinking of a million things at once. So, right now it’s getting ready for baby. And before that it was building the farm. And before that it was getting through deployments. For me, imposed structure is not liberating like it is for other people. For me, I really need to have an attitude of just let it be. Kind of take life as it comes and just do the best that I can in every moment, versus having this plan where I feel like if I fail it says something about me personally. That’s totally a mindset thing.

Diane Sanfilippo: Mmm.

Liz Wolfe: And maybe one day that will change for me, and I’ll be like, hey I want to tighten it up, I want to make some rules, and whatever and it will work great. But right now, when I want to tighten things up, I’m more focused on, hey am I getting in the good foods. Am I getting in the leafy greens, am I taking my cod liver oil, am I getting in egg yolks and other fertility foods, am I eating my liver. And a lot of times, when I just focus on that, every single meal asking myself, what’s the best I can do with this meal, it kind of crowds out all the other choices. And that’s kind of the approach that works for me.

So, this mindset stuff, you and I talk about it. Summer Innanen talks about it. She’s a total just dynamo on this topic, but I think the mindset that you bring to something like this is the number one first thing you need to ask yourself. You don’t need to say, do I need to lose weight, or do I need to improve my performance, or whatever it is. Do I need to evaluate where I am in my headspace right now before I approach this challenge so I can actually be successful at it.

Diane Sanfilippo: Right.

Liz Wolfe: Because if you’re coming at it from a place of dysfunction or self loathing, that self loathing is not going to go away just because you lose a couple of inches. I mean, maybe it feels like it does, but I really think those seeds are planted, and you can’t just yank them out of the soil unless you really, really do that work mentally and emotionally.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think that kind of comes back to that email that I was talking about earlier, the one that I sent about what to do in the new year and some tips, and the first point was finding your why. I think, to your point about why are people doing it, I have a really big issue with anybody deciding to do a strict challenge as a form of punishment or as a form of, I don’t know if the right word is repentance, or something like that, where it’s just, you know, I was bad and now I’m going to be good. It’s not about good and bad. It’s just about, or ideally would be about physically not feeling great, sometimes the holidays are a perfect time for that. We don’t tell people to keep things super strict at holiday parties and all that stuff. We want people to have a good time, and if they enjoy eating something that they might not normally, we always say, make that decision and do what you're going to do. I think sometimes people just decide, ok I want to draw a hard line for myself because it will help me. If it’s going to support you in maintaining the changes, then I think it’s a positive thing. If it’s going to be a form of punishment, it just kind of spurred me to think about that, and especially, and we had a question about this; what if you slip? A few days in, or a week in, or however far in. I just think punishing yourself, or making yourself feel badly about it, is never the right thing to do.

Liz Wolfe: Here’s the crappy thing; maybe we should differentiate quickly before we go forward. I just did a little review of the 21-Day Sugar Detox on my blog, finally, because I am a fan of the program. When I really got to know it, there’s support, there’s the why, there’s structure, but not punishment. When I really got soured on 30-day challenges was when I was looking through somebody’s basically gym created curriculum that said something about, if you make this mistake, you have to do 100 burpees. And that is B.S.!

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Building the punishment right into this 30-day challenge, to me, was completely toxic. So maybe we need to draw that line.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, it’s something as I’ve coached my team of moderators over the years, we’ve always told people, if you slip up on something, and you, a lot of times people just mistakenly eat something, like legitimately they didn’t realize it had an ingredient, then they found out after the fact, and they’re like, oh no am I a horrible person? Do I have to start over? And it’s like, no. Don’t beat yourself up for it.

The whole point of the challenge should really be, obviously first and foremost, you want to physically feel better because maybe you're putting better food into your body, but I think the point of the challenge, and your story about how that’s kind of how you started and now it’s not really what you do, but ebbs and flows, is to teach you something. The whole point of the challenge isn’t to then eat that way for forever; it’s to teach you about how you feel when you do eat this way. Which foods work for you, which ones don’t, and how can you proceed forward.

So if we’re teaching people that one mistake means they’ve screwed up the whole thing, and that they’re basically a failure, then it’s really setting them up for this mental beat down. We always tell people is, it’s up to you. Do you feel like, did you get significantly glutened on day 3, and you’re really feeling ill from it, and do you want to restart because you want to restart? It’s totally up to you. You can figure that out, but I think that’s a really good point, too.

Liz Wolfe: So, obviously whether or not a challenge is for you is one thing whether in the mental headspace to accept it and learn from it as you actually want to, but I guess some things to look out for would definitely be, number one are there punishments for slip ups in this challenge that your taking on. I think a lot of gyms design challenges for their people, and with the best of intentions. Because I think we’ve had a couple of questions about the gym designs the challenge, and the people hate it because you can’t drink, and other people are dealing with these punishments; it just sets up this craziness.

So I think maybe if we’re speaking to gym owners; gym owners please be very, very careful about how you put these forward to your people, because we really are supposed to be in the business of getting people healthy, and I think you're not responsible for babysitting people’s mental state, but you do need to make sure your providing something that achieves that, because otherwise there could be physical consequences.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: There could be people getting injured because they’re not well nourished, or because you made them do 100 burpees because they had a sip of wine. It’s like a web. It’s a tangled web, really.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Well, we want to also cultivate positivity with the challenge, so cultivating any sort of negative experience or emotions; look. These challenges are hard enough. So punishing or penalizing people for something that might go wrong; I think the better way to approach it is really to use it as an educational tool. Something goes wrong, how do you prevent that in the future? What made you make that decision? Is it something you thought through, or were you being impulsive? Just support them in helping them to figure out what was the scenario there, and was it, at the end of the day, they’re an adult and they made a decision, and if that’s the case, that’s their prerogative. They can do whatever they want, and just move on. And of course people can design their challenges to have points for X, Y, or Z, I just don’t think there should be certain penalties, because I do think that breeds the wrong mentality around that.

Do we want to maybe talk a little bit more about some of the downsides. Have we even gotten into more of that?

Liz Wolfe: Not so much. By the way, you make a great point about how people; I think gym owners have to deal with people who, a lot of times, just want to make an excuse for everything. Oh, but this is so hard because I’ve got this, and this is going on, and that. People just want to talk about it, and talk about why they can’t do something.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: You could feel free to say, that’s your prerogative. I can’t help you anymore.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: You know, I support you, I want you to work hard, but this isn’t for you, and I can’t spend a lot of time babysitting you emotionally if you’re not going to engage one way or the other. That’s cool. You don’t have to sit there and babysit people and play psychologist for hours and months and days and weeks and whatever because you feel like people need some mindset help. But there are people that you just can’t help {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, for sure. And I think the people for whom challenges aren’t right, I think that’s kind of where we lead into next, because if it’s not right for them, if they’re constantly making excuses, I think there’s probably a couple of categories of people who it’s not right for, and some of those people are the ones who just consistently false start. If they’re getting 3 days in, and they’re constantly self-sabotaging, they’re doing something and it might not be right for them to do a challenge like that. Because their head isn’t in the right space, they’re not doing it for the right reasons, and that doesn’t make them a bad person. So, if you start challenges over and over, and constantly sort of fail them, or give up on that promise you made to this big challenge, maybe the challenge is not right for you.

I think this is a common thing that happens with what people have done on “diets” for a really long time, where it’s like they feel like they failed, because they didn’t stay on the diet. And truthfully, sometimes the diet has failed you. Maybe you didn’t feel good eating that way, or it just wasn’t practical for you. And so I think that’s kind of the other side there. What else are your thoughts on folks who are in that other headspace where it’s not the right thing for them?

7. What are some ways I can strategize and not slip into disordered eating [39:57]

Liz Wolfe: Well, we had one gal write a post, and she said, “Paleo Parents had a post about disordered eating history and doing too many of these sorts of challenges. I did use to starve myself in high school, and I do catch myself in that kind of thinking 20-odd years later. So what are some ways I can strategize and not slip into disordered eating.” And that’s kind of one of those red flags. We’ve already made the differentiation between programs that provide appropriate support that don’t create this feeling of mental turmoil, and that are overall basically advocating a healthy approach.

We had some questions about Advocare that maybe we’ll get to in this episode, or the next episode. So challenges that are more punishing, or maybe based around fake food, we’ve separate those two things here. So you’ve got the healthy challenges that can be right for some people, and then you’ve got the personalities that are interacting with that challenge.

So if somebody came to me and said, I have a history of orthorexia, I think that’s where you have a red flag. I don’t know, Diane, do you think those types of people can modify a challenge to make it work for them, or do you think it will always be toxic?

Diane Sanfilippo: I actually think, I don’t know. I think it really depends on the person, because with everything we talk about, I don’t think they’re polar opposites. It’s like, an A or a B, and you’re always one or the other.

Liz Wolfe: Right.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s kind of like the whole introvert/extrovert, are you an extroverted introvert, all that stuff. So, when I think about it, for example, a lot of times I will give myself my own construct of whatever it is I want to do, and it’s not someone else’s program, it’s my own rules of what I want to do because I know what works for me. So I think that there are people out there who maybe see what the 21-Day Sugar Detox entails for example. And they’ve got something about their diet and lifestyle that they want to include that’s not included on the program. I think it’s whatever you want to do, you can do.

Now I think the downside to that is if you come into a program and you say, I’m doing the 21-Day Sugar Detox, and you have expectations that match the results and some of the feelings and outcomes that people have had that have gone through the program, and you don’t have the same experience, I can’t tell you what’s going on if you’re not actually doing the program as it’s written.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s kind of the downside to that, but I do think, first of all I always recommend if somebody has done a program at least one time, and they want to just kind of look at their own lifestyle and what they normally eat, and if there’s something about the program that doesn’t, they don’t need to follow that the second time through, for example, but they like the other parts of the program; go for it. I think it can become a downside if you’re making; for example, Shakeology is not included in the 21-Day Sugar Detox.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: I get a lot of questions about it; seriously, I get a lot of questions about it. I don’t have anything personal against Shakeology, it’s just not part of the program. I’ve read the ingredients, I think people use it as a crutch and don’t always want to make real food for breakfast, or they’re not making fresh food based smoothies, and I want to promote that. That’s what I want people to do for 3 weeks.

Now, if somebody has gone through the program one time, and they say, well I just want to have my Shakeology and sort of do the 21-Day Sugar Detox, well at that point you’re not actually doing the program, but you are free to do your own version of it and what you want to do. What I would tell people then is to not hashtag a picture with 21DSD if it’s including something that’s not on the program, because it does confuse people who are on it. But in terms of, is it helpful to do that for some people, yeah, do whatever you want. Whatever you think works for you.

And heck, I tell people, you don’t even have to do my program. If you want to create something that’s what you want to do to just get sugar out of your own life, totally do that. Sometimes I think sometimes the challenge itself might be something that spurs your or motivates you, and if you want to create your own rules about what you're going to do, that’s sort of what a lot of people did in the past when they would just try to think of something.

I did this a long time ago before I ever knew of any diets or anything. I was like, well I’m just not going to drink soda. I thought of the 3 things that were impacting me the most. This was years and years and years ago, and I was like, ok I’m only going to allow myself to have one soda, and it’s going to be on Sunday when I’m out to dinner with my girlfriends, and I’ll have a soda, and no ice cream and no fried foods. Whatever it was, those were my rules back in the day when I wanted to make a change. I made those rules for myself, and I stuck to them.

So if that works better for you; you're someone who having a construct that somebody else has created just makes you a little cray-cray.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I don’t think it’s going to be beneficial.

Liz Wolfe: So the question being, what are some ways I can strategize and not slip into disordered eating, that’s kind of that compromise where, you're going to look at the framework of a program, but number one trust yourself to maybe make some modifications that aren’t going to make you cray-cray.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Because really, this is not, these types of things are not prescriptions. They’re not take 3 times a day, and if you take it off label, then you're screwed, or whatever. You have to have some kind of self determination going into them, so you can make those decisions. I know myself, this is the behavior that I catch myself slipping into 20 some odd years later, as our listener said, and one way that she could strategize that is to say, where are the places that I could tighten things up, meal by meal, following these guidelines, but where can I be a little bit forgiving?

Diane Sanfilippo: I think one of the things about the programs that are out there is that there is so much community support. So if somebody does need help or has a question, then if you're on the 21-Day Sugar Detox and you come into the Facebook group, for example, or you go into the member forums, there are other people who are doing exactly what you are doing who can help you. So sort of the downside to making your own rules is that you're sort of on your own.

Liz Wolfe: Very true.

Diane Sanfilippo: There’s not somebody there who is like, oh I’m here, you can eat this instead, and then you have to tell them, well I’m allowing myself to include this, that, and the other thing. You know what I mean? So if you’re not all kind of doing the same thing, I think if people are not good with group think mentality, or are not good with that, then it’s going to be tough for them.

But strategizing and not slipping into disordered eating; neither of us are disordered eating experts. But, I do think that making sure what we talked about earlier with the whole punishment issue, and the idea of being a bad person if you slip up; removing all of that I think is pretty much the most critical thing. And recognizing that the programs are there to teach you something, so at that moment where you feel yourself getting into something that you think is a little bit disordered, you stop and identify that it’s happening, and kind of ask yourself why it’s happening. Is it because the rules are too strict for you? Is it because you're hungry, and the program doesn’t allow you to eat certain things you want to eat. Is it because you made it more strict than you needed it to be?

Which is a huge, huge, huge thing that I see all over the place. Within the Sugar Detox, within just paleo, whether or not people are on a challenge, so many people restrict more foods than they should or than they need to, and this is a huge one in the 21-Day Sugar Detox, and one of the reasons why I put energy modifications, because I frankly do believe that there are people who need more of certain types of fuel than others. Someone who is sitting on the couch all day or is at an office at a desk all day, and is not physically active and maybe doesn’t even work out. I have no problem with somebody who doesn’t Crossfit, or train, or workout at all, coming to my program. I am here to help anybody who wants some help. But that person doesn’t need a couple hundred grams of carbs a day to fuel them. They will feel fine without all of that.

That being said, if somebody exercises almost in any capacity outside of maybe just light yoga or walking, or just light gardening or something like that, won’t require extra energy from food, but anybody else really needs to follow those energy modifications. So I outline it so that it’s there for you to follow, but time and time again, I see people saying, well I’m just going to not have it until I see if I need it. I’m like, well I’ve explained to you that you will need it, otherwise you might end up in this place where you’re just consistently restricting yourself beyond what the program has outlined.

I think it’s really important to not do that. It’s really important to understand that those of us who create these programs have our reasons for everything. Sometimes we can’t explain it in an Instagram response, or even on Facebook. It’s really important to read the materials that we’ve created, because for example in the FAQs or all of the information in the book really tells you why. Why are you getting more carbohydrates for example on the Sugar Detox if you’re training. It’s because after almost, coming up on 5 years of running this program, I know what people will need, and I know what will serve them, and I also know that doing it harder or more strictly does not prove for better results.

And that’s exactly the same thing you and I talk about all the time on the podcast. Paleoing harder doesn’t make it work better.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: And it’s kind of the same thing with the challenge, but it almost gets worse with the challenge, because people are like, these are the rules, and now I’m going to also remove this. And it’s like, well that’s not the program either. Now you’re making it more intense than it needs to be. These things are hard enough. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: They are hard enough. And you do have to understand, these programs are designed a certain way for a reason. And it’s not always the number of calories, carbs, grams of protein, those types of things.

Diane Sanfilippo: Right.

Liz Wolfe: It’s not all this concrete functional thing. Some of the ways these programs are designed are to take into account the mental stuff, the performance stuff, the lifestyle stuff, the sleep, the stress hormones, all of those types of things. So it does come to this point where, you have to understand that nothing is done arbitrarily, but this over focus on strictness and yes, no, must restrict carbs more because this is Sugar Detox. Must not have acorn squash. You’re pushing yourself into arbitrary territory, where this stuff, it’s not necessary for you to go that far. I don’t know, I think I never really thought about it the way you just put it, but just putting extra restrictions on yourself for arbitrary reasons or just for reasons of being overly strict.

Another thing I want to say is bad things don’t necessarily happen because you have your green-tipped banana. I think people are still so paranoid about carbohydrates, and maybe when they go out and they get the 21-Day Sugar Detox program, they’re thinking, this means no carbs. And then you give them these guidelines about who needs carbs, who might not need carbs, and also see what works for you, and people just get scared. They’re like, I got this program because I’m supposed to get off all the carbs, and that’s not necessarily the point. The point is to change the relationship with carbs with your body, with your mind, and how you use them.

I just have this thing about carbohydrates, because we worry about them so much. And I think the 21-Day Sugar Detox is a really great job of balancing that, and helping people create a more functional relationship with carbohydrates, but you’re right. People freak out. They really freak out. And I want people to know that I’ve had an apple, a banana, and berries today, and I’m fine. And I’ve done that a lot of times before in my life, and I’m fine. You really aren’t going to screw yourself up.

We had a lot of questions come in that I think maybe we’ll tackle in the next show about, what do I do if I slip up and have too much fruit?

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Move on!

Diane Sanfilippo: I know. And I don’t know if you can hear this horrible lawn mower in the background, hopefully you can’t.

Liz Wolfe: Nu-huh.

Diane Sanfilippo: But it’s insanely loud. Or trucks driving by or any of that good stuff.

Liz Wolfe: I’m good, can’t hear it.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, a huge thing that happens too is that folks, they come into the program, and I can mostly speak from, obviously, my own program experience, but when you go into a program and you don’t actually read the materials…

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: Perhaps you read what’s in and what’s out, and you don’t take any time to read anything else about it, you really don’t set yourself up for success. A huge thing that I see happening is that folks grab the yes/no foods list, which you’re kind of alluding to, yes, no, these are the rules. But that’s kind of the core of a guide for people. So if you’re at the grocery store and you're shopping, what do you buy. Can you hear that? It’s so loud.

Liz Wolfe: A little bit. It’s good though.

Diane Sanfilippo: Ok. Oh yeah, it’s so loud.

Liz Wolfe: So loud.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} You know, it’s sort of, what do you buy? What is going to be a good choice for you, or healthy choice, and how can I make it easy for myself? But the truth is, people have forget to read the limit foods list, where it’s on that limit foods list because I don’t want people to eat 10 cups of it in a day, but I want them to know that it’s not excluded. And people consider that a no food, because I’ve asked them to limit it. Or people will not read any of the supportive materials; the frequently asked questions or any of the sort of background information on each level, or the modifications for example, and just dive in. So as much as someone can tell you, oh it’s basically just this or that, and then you’re allowed to have this or that. Ok, that’s all well and good; I don’t want anyone to feel like they have to be excluded because they didn’t buy something. But at the same time, there’s a reason why I put the stuff into printed materials, into a book, into an online program, because quite frankly, I can’t give you a one-pager or a two-pager, and say that’s all there is to it. Because there’s more to it.

I think part of what goes into it is helping you to understand the whys behind it, or understand just some of the different angles, so that it does make sense so you don’t put yourself in a position where you're restricting more or beating yourself up if you ate an extra piece of fruit. It happens pretty often; folks will be like, oh shoot, I ate 3 pieces of fruit today and I just realized I wasn’t supposed to do that on the program. I’m like, ok, so just learn from it and move forward. You know what I mean? It’s not this crazy, oh you're horrible, you can’t do the program. We don’t kick you out. You’re not kicked off the island.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: So, that’s kind of my thought there. I think we have a few more questions here I know we’ve got one here from PaleoAllie who I know in real life {laughs} Hi Allie! Do you want to grab some of these? And I know we have one question on transitioning after a challenge that perhaps we can, well maybe we have to address both of these next time it looks like we have come up to our allotted amount of time for today.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, the last time I looked it was 20 minutes, and now it’s 55.

Diane Sanfilippo: Seriously.

Liz Wolfe: I think we’ve set some ground work here, and I think it will probably encourage more people to submit questions and thoughts, and maybe the next episode we can really focus on questions and feedback and whatnot, what do you think about that?

Diane Sanfilippo: I think that sounds good. I definitely think one thing I want to address in the next episode is what to do after the challenge and kind of how to transition.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: Because I do get that question a lot, and for folks who are in the 21DSD I’m working on some additional materials to support you for transitioning out that I’m hopefully going to be able to upload into the membership site. Maybe I’ll be able to do something with it for the folks who have the book and aren’t online, as well, in order to help you before the end of this month’s detox. It’s stuff that’s been on my mind already, so yeah, I think we’ve just got a lot more to talk about, so we’ll have to wrap it up into next week.

8. Diane’s Kitchen tip: storing your 21DSD fruits [57:24]

Liz Wolfe: Alright. So, do we have any special tips here or?

Diane Sanfilippo: Yes, I’m going to give folks a kitchen tip. Ok. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Sorry Scott.

Diane Sanfilippo: We may or may not have left appropriate space for that.

Liz Wolfe: I don’t think so. Because I just saw this clip with Randy for Vital Choice; are you doing that?

Diane Sanfilippo: I think folks probably got all of our awesome little interview clips with Randy, and I’ll see if I want to bring him back if he wants to come back.

Liz Wolfe: Very good.

Diane Sanfilippo: Let us know you guys if you like those. I thought they were awesome. I learned a lot from him, just chatting for a few minutes. So, anyway, I digress. My kitchen tip for this week, since we’re talking about the 21-Day Sugar Detox, is about green apples. If you buy green apples at the grocery store, which are part of the program, first of all I would love for people to buy organic green apples whenever possible. They’re definitely one of the dirty dozen, I think pretty consistently, which means that pesticides will be pretty abundant in green apples. This is pretty much true for any fruit or vegetable that you’re eating that has thin skin that you might also eat. While pesticides and things don’t always just live on the skin, obviously things can be absorbed or are coming through the water that these plants are eating, But it’s always important to recognize that when you're eating the skin on something, that is one to definitely look for organic. But that’s not the point of my tip this week.

If you store your green apples right next to something like a banana that maybe started out pretty under ripe and green-tipped as you wanted it to be for the program, it will ripen other fruit faster. So, this can be really beneficial if you bring home some super hard avocados, and you want to eat them sooner, you can definitely put your avocados right next to your green apples. I generally keep all that stuff on the counter. I sometimes will put apples in the fridge. But if you have your green apples next to your bananas, which is a common thing that folks are doing, because they’re buying both of those, your bananas will go brown a little bit faster. So separate them {laughs}. Put them on opposite sides of the room, put a piece of masking tape down the middle, just like sisters that are fighting, or maybe that was just me.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I’m just kidding. I think I pretty much saw that on TV, and was like, we need to do that! You stay over there!

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: But that’s my tip. It can be really helpful again for avocados. You can also ripen an avocado a little bit more by sticking it in a brown paper bag, and I think putting it in a brown bag with an apple will help it go even faster. So for those of you who are hastily making your guacamole with your unripen avocados, there’s a way to ripen them up a little bit faster beforehand.

9. Liz’s tip of the week: Baby Making and Beyond [59:55]

Diane Sanfilippo: Do you have a tip for people this week? {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: My tip is go to babymakingandbeyond.com and sign up for the mailing list for the program.

Diane Sanfilippo: Ooh, I’m going to sign up! But, I don’t want to make a baby.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} You don’t. Every time we talk about anything baby related, this is the text I get from Diane. “Ew”.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I’m really into a lot of things, babies are not one of them.

Liz Wolfe: I gotta tell you, I’m not really into babies either. So this is going to be interesting.

Diane Sanfilippo: I love you. I’m definitely scared right now.

Liz Wolfe: Tell me about it.

Diane Sanfilippo: I lose all my friends to this whole thing of procreation. What’s happening?

Liz Wolfe: I don’t know.

Diane Sanfilippo: Ugh!

Liz Wolfe: You birth a lot of babies. Book babies.

Diane Sanfilippo: Maintaining the species, man. You guys, I don’t know.

Liz Wolfe: Look, I kind of thought for a while that it was my duty not to procreate, just to not saturate this world with more human beings, but then I decided maybe…

Diane Sanfilippo: One more.

Liz Wolfe: I could contribute something decent to the world.

Diane Sanfilippo: Maybe a couple more.

Liz Wolfe: We’ll see.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think your babies will be pretty awesome.

Liz Wolfe: They’ll be good. And my partner for the Baby Making and Beyond program is Meg the midwife. She’s amazing. She’s on Instagram, hashtagging #babymakingandbeyond already, so go follow her on Instagram. Unfortunately I think she just changed her name on Instagram, and I think it’s Meg, let’s see.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, she changed it so now it’s Meghanne_reburn, AKA Meg the modern paleo midwife. So, head over there and follow her because she’s amazing, super, super smart, and already hashtagging #babymakingandbeyond. So there you go.

Liz Wolfe: That’s it for this week. You can find Diane at http://dianesanfilippo.com, and join me, Liz, at http://realfoodliz.com/. Join our email lists for free goodies you don’t find anywhere else on our website. And, while you’re on the internet, leave us an iTunes review. We’ll see you next week.