The Fed+Fit Podcast | Nurturing a Healthy Mindset for a Healthy Lifestyle
We’re back with our 50th episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!
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Ep. 50: Good Advice vs. Good Advice …and how to choose a side
On today’s episode, I’m talking about good advice versus good advice, and how you can choose a side. And just as a preview, the side I suggest you choose is your side.
Cassy Joy: Welcome back everybody! Thank you for joining me again on the Fed and Fit podcast. Today is episode number 50! 50 that’s so cool! It reminds me of the SNL skit; “I’m 50! 50 years old!”
Well today we are going to talk about something that has kind of been a burr in my saddle for a little while. If you can hear that orchestra of barking dogs in the background {laughs} we are puppy sitting once more for my whole family. There are 6 of them, so that’s 24 little footies, and 6 sweet little faces I get to kiss.
Some advice I had gotten, kind of in line with today’s episode. We’re talking all about advice, but some of the advice I got was that people really liked the episodes where I just kind of wing it and talk about things that are on my mind instead of silencing myself off in my little home studio, I am just going to talk to you from home because we’re cooking, and this is real life, and this is just a snap shot, dropping by to kind of share some of my thoughts with you. So that’s what I’m going to do; it’s a lot easier, and if y’all enjoy it more, then by golly I will meet you there.
So, the burr in my saddle that I want to talk about is good advice versus good advice. There is no shortage of advice givers and pieces of advice out there in the world. Myself being one of them, of course. How in the world are we supposed to navigate this enormous sea of pieces of advice? Everybody conflicts with everybody, they all stand on their own island. Again, myself being one of them; projecting our thoughts and what we think of the world and what works for us, and we make these blanket statements like, “there’s no other options for you to consider! It’d be ridiculous if you considered any other lifestyle!” Or path to health and wellbeing, or path to starting a business, or way to have a relationship, how to raise a baby. There’s an endless supply of advice, it all contradicts, and how the heck are we supposed to choose?
I just kind of want to pull back and talk about some of that right now. Especially with the New Year rolling around; there was a lot of good advice out there, and they all disagreed with each other. But there was a lot of advice on whether or not you should start a New Year Resolution. And at the end of the day, it can be really confusing if you don’t think that everybody, all the advice givers, if they don’t sit down and put their heads together or come up with a consensus, or say pointedly that they do agree with somebody or they don’t agree with somebody. It’s difficult as a consumer of advice to figure out where does all of this line up? Did somebody who say “don’t have a New Year Resolution”, did they consider all of these other possible benefits of having one?
So it can be pretty confusing and overwhelming, and I think where I’m coming from in this business is I’m trying to give advice, and I’m speaking from what works for me, and I’m speaking from the heart, and I’m speaking from the feedback that you guys give me. What resonates with me; what you really enjoy, and what inspires you. So I use that, and I roll it all up with my personal experiences; I roll that in with all of my continued education, and I try to deliver you advice, and nuggets, and direction, and pieces of my heart that are as uncomplicated as possible. That’s all I’m trying to do. And at the end of the day, my footnote on every single little page of everything I do and everything I say and everything I post is; that’s what I’m doing, but you do what’s right for you.
So, let’s talk about how to choose good advice versus good advice. And what does it really mean? So here are some examples of good advice versus good advice. Maybe good advice to you is not necessarily good advice to somebody else. I didn’t say that very succinctly. {laughs} What you might think of as really great advice for you in your life, something you can really use and rely and roll into your own personal habits, may be terrible advice for somebody else. Someone’s trash is another man’s treasure.
So here are some examples: Don’t count calories. That’s advice that we’ve gotten a lot. Especially in the last 5 to 6 years; calorie counting is a way of the past. We really need to focus on just getting whole, healthy foods. That’s really great advice; by golly, I follow that advice, and I thought that was great. On the other end of the coin, we’ve got people saying we still need to count calories. If you really want to lose weight, weight is only lost by what is calories burned versus calories eaten. There are a lot of physicians that I still talk with that that is their primary argument.
And that’s also good advice; I’m not going to sit here and say that’s bad advice, because maybe that really works for somebody. Maybe that really helps somebody get to a place in their life where they can start thinking about just eating whole, healthy, nutritious foods. Both of those opposing stories are good advice, and at the end of the day it’s up to you to choose what sounds the best for you. And I’m in no position to say that one is wrong or one is right.
On that same token as far as eating and counting things, there are a lot of people out there that are very against macro counting. And once again, I think you do you. If counting your macros works best for you; if it’s the way that your mind works and helps you understand your body and what you really need, and you’re working towards a goal that means something to you, then you go do that. You are not wrong. And even though there might be a person out there on their own platform and their own soapbox saying that counting macros; and even if you’re counting micros, that’s a wrong way to live. Living like that is not living. Don’t let that person who’s standing on their point of view make you feel like you’re doing the wrong thing.
I don’t know if I’m getting this point across very well but I’m trying to get at is, it’s all good advice. It’s all good advice, it’s all right; and at the same time, it’s all wrong. It all depends on what you need at the time, and what you’re going to use to benefit yourself. If you use it, and it makes you feel good, and it propels you closer to your goals and your vision of what you have and it helps you appreciate your present moment, well then I cannot call that bad advice. It’s not wrong at all.
So more examples; don’t eat meat. Oh goodness, I once was in a very vegan-centric, oh gosh what do I call it; job. {laughs} That’s what you call them; you call them jobs. I once worked at a place that was very focused on following a vegan diet, and all the benefits. I read all the books; my goodness, we lived by China study and how to prevent and reverse heart disease. Very familiar with all of those, and I became very engrossed in that science. And I was vegan for about a year. Since then, I’ve also become paleo, as you guys know. I follow a paleo lifestyle. I eat lots of really healthy meats, all kinds. Poultry, beef, pork, all of the above, you name it; fish. So don’t eat meat, and eat lots of meat.
You will really get under someone’s skin, like a nutritionist, that stands on either of those soap boxes if you oppose their views. And it might be confusing to hear both sides of the arguments; they’re both very compelling. And when somebody comes to me, and says; well, I read the Engine 2 diet book, and I just don’t think eating meat is right for me. My answer to that person, even though I personally eat meat and I’ve also read the book is, that’s a decision only you can make for yourself. So it’s good advice, and if it’s something that makes you feel good; then by golly, you go follow it.
The only thing that makes good or bad advice is how you the consumer perceives whether or not it applies in your life.
More examples; lift weights, don’t lift weights. You’ll bulk up; oh no, you’re not going to bulk up if you start lifting weights. That depends on the person, depends on who you are. You might be picking up on a theme here.
Do cardio; all you need to do is cardio and you’ll lose weight. And then you have other folks who say; nu-huh, you really need to add in some strength training if you really want to lose weight and you really want to maximize your fat burning potential. Both of those really valid and really strong arguments. I’ve read both sides.
Running is the best; oh my goodness, if you want to get into shape, you really need to start running. You’ll also hear folks who say the exact opposite. They say that running and overrunning is a really good way to hurt yourself and your physical fitness goals. You’re going to really cut off your nose to spite your face in some ways, because you’re going to wind up hurting your knees and your hips and you’re really not getting any good full body motions.
Let’s see; out of the health and fitness world, here’s some good advice. Go get a degree; after you graduate from high school, you’re going to go get a degree, you’re going to enroll in either a community or a university. Get a degree and you’re going to start working, and maybe even from there, some really good advice is to go on to get your Masters, and maybe even go on to get your PhD. That’s great advice; you know what else is good advice; don’t go to college at all. We’re now in an age where you can start a business, if you find a passion and something that you’re really good at, well then why wait to start it 4, or 5, or 6 years later. Start now and you’ll really get ahead of the game. You don’t need that degree to do what you think you want to do. Both of those are really strong arguments; I see both sides. They’re both great advice. But what works for you is something only you can decide.
Let’s see, what other examples do I have here. Back on the nutrition side, because obviously that’s what really works {laughs} that’s what I spend most of my time thinking about. But don’t eat sugar at all. Cut out all sugar altogether; and then on the other side, folks talking about how sugar really helps them. They really think that, even though they really follow a clean, so to speak, paleo friendly lifestyle, having the occasional boost of sugar is something they think really helps them out during the day. Well then great, follow that!
Don’t drink caffeine. Caffeine is really bad for you. Caffeine does all these horrible things to you, maybe propels your anxiety, yadda, yadda, yadda. And then you have on the flip side these articles that say all the benefits of caffeine. Maybe not to excess, but there are some benefits to caffeine, and you can learn about those if you scroll back through the log of the podcast, I talk about some of that in my caffeine 101 episode.
And then there’s also sleep. Sleep more; that’s great advice, really good advice. Sleep more; sleep 7-9 hours a night until you wake up rested, so that you can be as healthy and as ready to take on the day as possible. That’s great advice. You know what else is good advice? And this is a little extreme, and you guys are going to think I’m a hypocrite, but it’s also great advice; sleep less so you can get more done. And depending on the season in my life, and the projects that I’m working on, sometimes I follow that advice. Sometimes I will only get 4 to 5 hours of sleep at night, not for an extended period of time, but until I can really get through the work that I’m working on. Because sometimes I follow my work, and if I’m in a good writing groove, then I’m not going to stop it because it’s my bedtime. I’m going to finish it.
All of those are great pieces of advice. They all conflict with one another, and at the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide. So good advice versus good advice; how do you know which one to choose? It’s all up to you.
There’s kind of this thing going around on social media that we’ve entered into, I guess an era of being offended by everything. We’re offended by everyone’s point of views. We’re offended by the advice that so-and-so gave, and did they really look into the research. We’re just constantly looking for ways to be upset and looking for ways to be confused. There is an abundance of information out there, and I think that instead of taking personal responsibility and saying that myself as a consumer of all this information, it’s my job to sift through and decide what I want to listen to and what I want to apply. Instead of assuming that responsibility, a lot of folks are just up in arms about things that they disagree with.
So, what I would like to propose is that we shift the context from constantly being offended by things that challenge us and by things that we maybe disagree with, and just label it, write it off, as maybe that’s good advice for somebody else. It’s not good advice for me. Ok?
And I wanted to put this out there, especially because, like I said, as a content creator, I want you to know that all of us; and I’m speaking on behalf of my other friends and colleagues in this industry, we talk to each other. We’re friends, we support each other. And we have programs and projects and things that we put out there that do conflict with one another. But at the end of the day, we can all sit down together at a dinner if we’re really lucky and we all happen to be in the same place, or on a phone call. Whatever it is, we support each other because we know how hard it is to put your neck out there, and to do your own research and to make your own decision on the advice and the content that you’re going t publish.
So we do; no man is an island. We do support each other, we’re aware of what’s going on, and at the end of the day what we’re hoping is that if it helps, one, two, maybe three, maybe more people, then we did our job. And if somebody, a person who I would consider a colleague or maybe you would consider a competitor of mine; if their program helps somebody; one, two, three, more people, people that I couldn’t reach, then I consider that a win for the collective whole.
So that’s my one little rant for today. Good advice versus good advice. Really, it’s up to you guys. I hope that didn’t come across as a scolding. I just really want to empower you to be consumers that own that awesome responsibility of choosing what’s right for you and recognizing that it might be right for somebody else. So thank you guys for joining me again! We’ll be back next week with a little bit more of a normal episode, but I had to get this one out there. I hope you guys are having an awesome start to the New Year, and that you’re staying warm, and you’re staying fed, and you’re staying active. We’ll be back again next week.
