podcast

Addicted to Fitness Show Notes – Twelve Healthy Habits We’re Dropping in 2018

Make sure you listen to this week’s entire episode to hear the “healthy habits” that we’re going to give up in 2018 and why!

We begin this week’s episode with a call to share and engage – common themes during the holiday season – by visiting our ATF Podcast Facebook page and engaging with us.

Also, we’re sharing the awesome 20% off promo code (“ATF”) from our sponsors, The Hemp Coffee Exchange so you can stock up on some tasty, and nutritious, coffee – just the ticket for gifting or making it through all your holiday parties!

Now, we know our training recaps have become a bit lagging lately, but it’s life! We report on the ebbs and flows of our training and we’re currently in a… well, lull. Life is providing more than enough activity in general and taking care of our baby girl continues to challenge us physically.

Nick did have a particularly exciting update related to his training and business though – he was on the radio this week! Specifically, he made an appearance on his client’s show on 102.5 The Bone, talking about his own fitness story (people always find it hard to believe Nick used to be much heavier and NOT that into fitness), and to promote the Tampa Strenght Fit Moms program.

If you listened to last week’s episode, you’ll have heard about the importance of exercise for moms. The upcoming Fit Moms program, which starts in January, works to help make fitness a priority for moms with an accessible kick-off to a training program. Learn more about it on tampafitmoms.com and if you’re a Tampa Bay resident, enroll today!

I, on the other hand, have absolutely no training recap to share this week. That’s right. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Instead, I talk about why I don’t feel bad about not having anything new to report (seriously).

Also, I am working on on a Mommy & Me/Baby workout based on yoga. I’ve been trying out various moves with Ella in the past couple weeks and will hopefully be sharing the workout I create with you in the future – blog post, live stream, video, who knows! Stay tuned and let us know if it’s something you’d like to see.

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Today’s main topic is a bit of a reverse on a traditional year-end topic. That’s right, we’re talking resolutions or rather anti-resolutions.

Instead of taking on a load of new goals or habits, Nick and I review the 12 “Healthy Habits” that we’ll be dropping in 2018.

Listen to the podcast for the full list, but here are some of Shannon & Nick’s “healthy habits” we’re going to give up in 2018:

SHANNON’S HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Drink More Water – Nope! Dropping it. Instead, I’ll be focusing on incorporating more probiotic-rich kombucha and green juices (low in sugar).
  • Drink Almond Milk as Go-To Dairy Replacement – See ya! Turns out almond milk is a very nutrient poor diary milk substitute so I’ll be working to try other non-dairy drinks.
  • Measure Fitness by How Your Clothes Fit – Not anymore! Especially coming off a pregnancy this previously go-to rating has proven very inaccurate. Strength, endurance, and energy levels are a much better measurement of fitness.

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NICK’S HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Drink More Juice – Not anymore! Whether it’s 100% fruit juice, fresh squeezed or cold-pressed, juices made primarily from fruit are high in fructose (sugar) which negates the beneficial vitamins & minerals it contains.
  • Lift More – Nope! Though it’s important to lift heavy on a regular basis, Nick is going to focus on incorporating more functional movements into his training instead. Isolation exercises (eg. bicep curl, back squat, military press, etc.) with heavy loads will be more beneficial and are less likely to cause injury.
  • Meditate When You Can – Heck no! Finding a spare minute (or 10) whenever he can isn’t enough, so he’ll be using his favorite mediation app – Headspace – to be sure he makes time and meditates at least 3 minutes every day.

We have six more habits we’re saying farewell to that we go into in the episode.

Finally, a couple more quick reminders to like and follow the Addicted to Fitness Podcast Facebook page for exclusive content including an upcoming mommy-daughter workout and protein bar taste test!

Visit hempcoffeeexchange.com to get some delicious sustainable super coffee and make sure you use the code “ATF” at checkout to get 20% off.

Links to this week’s episode:

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/twelve-healthy-habits-were-dropping-in-2018/id1121420986?i=1000397630992&mt=2

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nick-burch-702220833/twelve-healthy-habits-were

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/twelve-healthy-habits-were-dropping-in-2018

Addicted to Fitness Show Notes – A Review of Food4Thought_F4T Meal Prep Service

This week’s episode includes a recap and a review.

First, let’s talk about Nick and my training.

To be honest, it’s been a bit light on my side. Taking care of our little one and traveling for the holiday took over most of my week. However, I was able to squeeze in some short yoga and spinning sessions at home. As much as I love spending time with our little girl, I do confess how much I’m looking forward to getting back in the yoga studio for a full hour-long yoga session.

Nick meanwhile, has been truly enjoying his training sessions as they also serve as workouts. His fellow trainers at Tampa Strength have been passing along some new exercises that Nick has been busy learning, as they all prepare to launch a new training program targeted at moms. More details to come soon!

I made a comment about a hypothesis that more people are trying to be health conscious around the holidays nowadays, rather than waiting until after. This has actually been our approach in recent years – balancing the big holiday feasts with activity and more wholesome, light meals.  In fact, we actually discussed ways to survive holiday eating in a past podcast (listen to the episode here).

Nick suggest another great idea to stay health conscious around the holiday. The members of Tampa Strength are taking part in a challenge called Project Zero, which involves focusing on maintaining your weight through the holidays instead of obsessing about losing weight. It acts as a great accountability tool to help participants be more mindful about holiday eating. It also has financial incentives, which always prove to be a great motivator as well.

As for our holiday, we followed our usual Thanksgiving tradition, driving to see family. This year’s biggest difference was that we had the baby to introduce to everyone, which proved to be a lot more work than we anticipated. If you have any interesting holiday stories you’d like to share, please feel free to share them with us on the Addicted to Fitness Podcast Facebook page.

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Our review this week features a meal service from right here in Tampa Bay.

It’s not the first meal service that we’ve tried given the number of companies in this particular industry. We’ve used larger meal services like Blue Apron previously, who have grown to the point of going public this year and apparently been slipping in their rating as well as their stock price, and also tried some other local meal prep companies (which we’ve previously reviewed in an earlier podcast episode).

This time around, we are sampling Food4ThoughtF4T, who reached out to us on Instagram and asked if we’d be interested in trying their meals. Owner, cook and delivery person, Adrienne Padron, dropped off several meals and asked us to review them. Being fans of food in general, we researched the company and decided to give it a go!

Food4ThoughtF4T has easy online ordering available and even delivers to local customers. You can enjoy multiple meal quantity packages (whose menus change each week) with the average cost per meal being $7.50. The meal options range from vegetarian, seafood, poultry and red meat.

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I reviewed a couple of meals – “Caramelized Onion Turkey Burger” and “Chicken Fried Rice” – that Nick chose for me. Nick tackled the “Protein Packed Prosciutto Quinoa Salad” and “Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps.”

Pros:

  • Compact packaging that even separates out some of the ingredients to prevent items like lettuce from going bad
  • Use of cheese to add flavor
  • Ingredients are fresh
  • Ingredients and macros are included on the packaging

Cons:

  • Some of the dishes can be a bit on the bland side
  • No real heating instructions on the package
  • Nutrition info not included on the website

Be sure to reach out to them for more info – email – help@food4thoughtf4t.com; number – (813) 586-1348 – or visit their website to pick out your meals and get started today!

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If you haven’t done so already, please head to iTunes (link) give us a rating and review. We’d also appreciate it if you’d support our sponsors. Stop on by their website, hempcoffeeexchange.com, and research their products. When you’re ready to buy their sustainable super coffee, use the promo code “ATF” will get 20% off your order.

As always thanks for listening & sharing the podcast and stay healthy this week peeps!

Links to this week’s episode:

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a-review-of-food4thought-f4t-meal-prep-service/id1121420986?i=1000395585338&mt=2

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nick-burch-702220833/a-review-of-food4thought_f4t

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/review-of-meals-from-food4thoughtf4t-meal-prep-service

Addicted to Fitness Show Notes: An Interview with Clinical Hypnotherapist Hayden Sutherland

This week’s podcast episode features an interview with Hayden Sutherland – owner of Essential Balance Holistic Wellness Center.

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Right off the bat Nick and Hayden talk about one of their shared interests, Tony Robbins, who Hayden had just seen live in a seminar that he vowed made him a better person for his family and clients. Both Nick and Hayden encouraged people to check out the Netflix documentary on Tony Robbins called “I’m Not Your Guru.”

Hayden, who is a former pharmacist, said he quickly found out that he was just managing symptoms, not curing causes, so he went searching for a better way. His search led him to holistic/eastern medicines, which he calls “traditional” medicine as opposed to “alternative” medicine. He created and set up the Essential Balance Holistic Wellness Center to have the best practitioners across multiple traditional medicine modalities (hypnotherapy, chiropractic, massage, yoga, acupuncture, etc) in one place.

Hypnotherapy, which is Hayden’s area of expertise, is used to help tap into the unconscious to change a belief that may be causing a negative health impact (smoking, eating disorders, depression, etc). In the most basic summary, hypnotherapy is no more than intense guided meditation. It helps people get over plateaus and blockages by focusing on changing insidious habits that bypass what you consciously know and think and tap into what you believe and feel unconsciously!

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One of the groups Hayden treats is service men and women who suffer from PTSD. He describes how he uses primarily conversational hypnotherapy, though he does also specialize in the more well know “trance” methods.

Towards the end of the interview Hayden shared his belief that if you want to change your life you have to change your mindset by changing your physiology, your focus and your language. Be sure to listen to the whole interview for more!

Learn more about Hayden and his center by visiting essentialbalancetampa.com. I encourage you to contact Hayden by phone 813-928-9850 or email hayden@essentialbalancetampa.com to get a free consultation.

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Be sure to visit our sponsors website, hempcoffeeexchange.com, to stock up on sustainable super coffee for the holidays. Don’t forget to use the promo code “ATF” to get 20% off your order. Thanks again for all the support and stay healthy this week peeps!

Links to this week’s episode:

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/addicted-to-fitness-podcast/id1121420986?mt=2&i=1000395303435

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nick-burch-702220833/an-interview-with-clinical

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/an-interview-with-clinical-hypnotherapist-hayden-sutherland

 

Addicted to Fitness Show Notes – From the Vault: Answering Health Questions From Listeners

We’re jumping into the Addicted to Fitness time machine for this week’s episode and heading back to the days when the podcast was known as the ETT Wrap Show. As you’ll hear, this throwback show features our past cohost, Tyler Knox. He also made an appearance on a more recent ATF podcast discussing how being a new dad affects your fitness (click here to listen), and given my current situation, a lot of what he mentioned is coming true in my life.

Tyler and I kickoff this old school episode giving our respective training recaps. I discuss a recent 4 mile run Shannon & I did on the the Tampa Riverwalk which is a nearly 3 mile walkway that snakes its way through downtown Tampa. Tyler on the other hand recounts the scuba diving he had to do for his job. Most people think of scuba diving as a recreational activity you do while on vacation in the Caribbean, which it can be, but when you do it several hours a day and have to perform specific tasks underwater, it can be very physically demanding.

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Former ATF cohost Tyler Know just lying around

After our training recaps, we give a thorough UFC update. Unfortunately, if you’re looking for recent UFC news, this throwback episode won’t satisfy you. BUT, it’s still interesting to look back and hear about Cris Cyborg signing with the UFC and Jon Jones trying to make one of his many comebacks. If you are looking for the most up to date UFC news, I’d recommend checking out MMAFighting.com.

We do get into some evergreen health topics including tips to perform a “proper” squat. I put proper in quotations because, as you’ll hear, different physiologies create different squatting mechanics. We also answer a few interesting health questions from listeners including how many grams of protein a person should eat per day? Make sure you listen to hear the answer because it can vary depending on your fitness goals.

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I love looking back on these throwback episodes, not only to see how we have progressed as podcast, but also to see how the topics we’ve discussed have evolved. I hope you all enjoy these time capsule episodes as much as I do. If you do, we’d really appreciate it if you gave us a rating and review in iTunes (link) or on the Addicted to Fitness Facebook page (link).

We’ve got a lot of great podcasts lined up for you all, including an interview with a hypnotherapist. You’ll definitely want to subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t done so already, and please rate, review and share Addicted to Fitness with anyone and everyone.

Don’t forget to visit our sponsors website, hempcoffeeexchange.com, to stock up on sustainable super coffee for the holidays. Make sure you use the promo code “ATF” to get 20% off your order. Thanks again for all the support and stay healthy this week peeps!

Links to this week’s episode

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/from-the-vault-answering-health-questions-from-listeners/id1121420986?i=1000395026764&mt=2

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nick-burch-702220833/from-the-vault-answering

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/from-the-vault-answering-health-questions-from-listeners

 

Addicted to Fitness Show Notes – 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Day Macros Game

Autumn is in full swing, the Halloween candy has been devoured, and signs advertising turkeys are posted in pretty much every grocery store window in America. Yes, it is almost Thanksgiving time! Which is why this week, we’re bringing you the return of our Thanksgiving Marcos Game where Nick and I face off in a battle of nutrition knowledge (kind of) and deductive reasoning.

But first, we highlight training notes for the week and share a tip for your holiday eating this year.

Let’s start with Nick’s training. He’s been enjoying a surprising aspect of his position teaching classes at Title Boxing & Kickboxing; he gets to meet a wide range of individuals, including a YMCA sports director and a science professor at our Alma Mater (University of Tampa). The feedback from those taking has class have been flowing in and it’s been really positive. Meanwhile, the ETT tribe has also added some new members recently in addition to welcoming back some returning folks.

Finally, Nick hinted that we’ll soon have some exciting information to share about a new program geared towards moms that Nick will be launching soon at Tampa Strength. More to come on that in a future episode, so stay tuned!

I, meanwhile, missed the mark on my training targets this past week due to some increased time demands from our baby girl. However, I did manage to get on the Peloton for a couple rides and incorporate some short yoga and circuit training workouts in addition to the daily walks/trips with the little one and our dog. Any activity is good!

shannon and the peanut

Now, we’ve talked about some holiday eating tips in the past (check out that episode here), but this year, we’re bringing you something new! And it all goes back to a very simple instruction that you probably heard from your parents growing up – Chew your food.

I discovered an interesting story in a book that we’ve had on our shelves for some time, that described the importance of chewing and cited a story from a book by Lino Stanchich, Power Eating Program: You Are How You Eat. The story was about Lino’s father, Antonio, who was a concentration camp survivor.

Hear the whole story in our podcast, but the quick summary is that Antonio and his two friends who practiced chewing their water (yes their water) survived the labor camp amidst starvation conditions, while the 29 other people in that camp did not. Chewing the water gave them more energy! The very act of chewing impacted their ability to survive with so little food.

Once Antonio was free and home, he tested the impact of chewing on his food (once up to 300 times per bite!) and found that chewing a bite of food (150 times per bite was the sweet spot he discovered) had tremendous results on his energy. Official studies have also detailed how important chewing your food is, primarily because properly chewing your food allows the rest of your digestive system to do their own jobs, versus taking extra energy to do the job of breaking down food. This is why you feel so tired after large Thanksgiving meals – you likely didn’t chew your food and your digestive system was having to do overtime to digest that monster meal!

So this year, take a page out of Antonio’s book (or rather his son, Lino’s) and really chew  each bite of your holiday meal. You don’t have to aim for 150 bites, but set a reasonable goal of 12 or 20 – just to try – and see if you feel more satisfied and have more energy by the end of your meal. It truly comes down to enjoying each and every bite. You’ll likely consume less food too, which your waistline will appreciate.

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Next we break into our 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Macros Game! (Test your knowledge and hear how we scored on the first game in this previous episode.)

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the Macros Game, it is a nutritional trivia game that requires the contestants to guess the macro nutrient (fat, protein or carbohydrate specifically) when given its amount in a serving of a certain food.

This time around, Nick and I test each other’s nutritional knowledge on foods like bone-in ham, mash potatoes, apple pie, and more items you’ll probably see on your Thanksgiving table. Listen to the podcast to see whether I was able to maintain my winning streak or if Nick broke through with the win.

Also, make sure you play along and send us your scores. If  you get a perfect score we’ll share it on all our social channels with a special shout out post!

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As we conclude, we have to share a special congrats to our sponsors at The Hemp & Coffee Exchange for closing on their first brick-and-mortar store location. More details on that announcement to come soon.

For those who don’t live in the Tampa Bay Area, you can still enjoy their sustainable super-coffee by visiting hempcoffeeexchange.com, and using the code “ATF” at checkout to get 20% off your order. It makes an incredible gift for the coffee-lovers in your life!

As always, please take a minute (seriously, it’s that fast) to rate and review the podcast in iTunes and on the Addicted to Fitness Podcast Facebook page.

Connect with us via email (elementaltampa@gmail.com) and on social media (Facebook, Instagram or Twitter).

Links to this week’s episode:

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/2nd-annual-thanksgiving-day-macros-game/id1121420986?i=1000394733610&mt=2

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nick-burch-702220833/2nd-annual-thanksgiving-day

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/2nd-annual-thanksgiving-day-macros-game

Addicted to Fitness Show Notes – Coping With A Miscarriage

We have a bit of a more serious topic today for the podcast episode, but one that both Nick and I wanted to share.

Before we get into the main topic, we check-in on our current training and diets. Nick has been training three times a week at Title Boxing Club in South Tampa where his current and past clients are starting to attend, including Spanish and Carmin from 102.5 The Bone.

He is also choosing to focus more on nutrition and diet. The latest challenge? Currently he’s doing a 14-hour daily fast, mostly during the night. His efforts have been the result of a ton of research he’s collected from individuals like Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Rhonda Patrick which states that intermittent fasting can help you lose weight and allow your body to clean up damaged cells which may cause detrimental health conditions like cancer. Click here to watch a video from Dr. Rhonda Patrick explaining the benefits of intermittent fasting in more detail.

Meanwhile, while I have not been participating in the fasting, I have been more aware of my food and am working on looking at food more as fuel for my body versus just something to consume. I also got back on the Peloton bike this week, despite not having yet completed the recommended 6-week waiting period after Ella’s birth. Don’t worry, I’m taking it easy so that I can get some regular, low-impact activity into my routine. I performed a 20-minute session and I’m happy to report that it was a success!

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Now, we move on to the main point of our episode today. As October is Miscarriage & Infant Loss Awareness Month, it felt like the appropriate time to share an experience that we’ve kept to ourselves for over a year.

It may seem surprising, but miscarriages happen to 10%-20% of known pregnancies (depending on the study you read). You would definitely be surprised if every person who has experienced one came out and shared the info, but few actually do. There’s not a great deal of information about miscarriages out there beyond the info about them mostly being caused by an incompatibility issue with the chromosomes during development at some point during the first 20 weeks.

When you’re looking for how to cope with one though, there’s very little info. Furthermore, there is even less info about what a person or couple goes through.

I recently blogged about our experience with a miscarriage that we experienced last year on A Dash of Sparkle.

Daddy & Ella

In the podcast though, we discussed a bit more about how both Nick and I felt during and after the miscarriage.

As personal of an experience it is to go through, the lack of conversation about it has led to women/people going through this tragedy in silence in many instances. Only recently have more public figures (celebrities and such) come forth and admitted to having gone through one (or more).

I was lucky enough to follow some bloggers/vloggers who shared their experience and thoughts on the their personal situations, which provided me with information. It was still a very difficult time in our lives, however, no matter what we read.

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We hope us sharing our story and feelings connect with those in need in a positive way.

Don’t forget to please support the sponsor of the ATF podcast, The Hemp & Coffee Exchange by visiting their site, hempcoffeeexchange.com, and get 20% off your purchase by using the code ATF at checkout.

We always encourage you to reach out to us via email (elementaltampa@gmail.com) or on social media (Facebook, Instagram or Twitter). Whatever your health questions or comment may be, we’d love to hear it. Thanks for listening and stay healthy this week peeps!

Links to this week’s episode

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/addicted-to-fitness-podcast/id1121420986?mt=2#episodeGuid=82d09804b5168ddd1e91882bdb6cb393

Android: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/leaky-gut-the-benefits-of-probiotics

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/coping-with-miscarriage

Addicted To Fitness Show Notes – Leaky Gut & The Benefits of Probiotics

Welcome back! This week’s show notes are brought to you by Shannon…

Both Nick and I had training updates for the first time in a bit (I have been a bit lighter on the training as of late).

I am slowly getting back into adding some activity, but am holding off on real training since my doctor mandated I not do any strenuous exercise for at least six weeks after childbirth. So I’ve been settling for daily walks with our dog and the baby, as well as some “slow flow” yoga, both of which are still making me sweat.

I’ve been super excited to get back to a prior-to-childbirth workout routine, especially since I’m getting back to regular clothes (no more maternity clothes!).

Meanwhile, Nick has been spending more time at home with the baby, which means he’s doing more at-home workouts. He puts them on his Instagram Stories, so be sure to follow @ETTampa and check them out! He’s also been getting some training leading the classes at Title Boxing, since he has to demonstrate the whole workout versus simply coaching like he does for personal training. He now teaches three classes a week (at noon, Monday-Wednesday).

In addition to the training, Nick has also made the decision to clean up his diet by focusing on nutrition. Diet has been a challenge for both of us since childcare has really minimized the amount of time we have to prepare food.

Whether we have time or not, we’re always fascinated with nutrition. One topic we wanted to get more in-depth on was one we have mentioned previously – leaky gut.

So what is it? Leaky gut is simply defined as increased gastrointestinal permeability. It’s commonly a symptom of conditions like Celiac and Crohn’s disease.  Interestingly enough, though it’s a term that is used more often these days, many medical sites and professionals reporting on this “condition” also call out that it is not one that can be diagnosed accurately.

Even medical celebrities like Dr. Oz are somewhat skeptical of the cause/origin of leaky gut, mostly since it’s not yet been determined whether it is the cause of other conditions/illnesses, or simply a side effect/symptom of something more serious.

Some research states that inflammatory foods (e.g. refined sugar & carbs, fast food, etc) may damage the function of the small intestine and thereby allow undesirable substances such as bacteria, viruses, un-digested food particles, and waste products to leak into blood stream. Nick mentioned a podcast episode by past ATF guest, Vinnie Tortorich, which discussed a recent study on the damaging effects fast food specifically can have on an individual’s gut health.

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Symptoms often associated with leaky gut include: bloating, cramps, fatigue, food sensitivity, achy joints, rashes – which are also symptoms for many other conditions.

The book, Practical Paleo claims that grains and seeds are the primary inflammatory foods, calling them anti-nutrients. Since many of our feel-good hormones and antibodies ( e.g. serotonin) are produced in our gut, it’s critical to focus on gut health. The best course of treatment for leaky gut is eliminating inflammatory foods from your diet for 30, 60, 90 days or longer. Practical Paleo offered up details on how to repair leaky gut, summarized nicely in one page (see above).

One of the ways to repair, the book calls out, is by taking probiotics. And this leads us to our discussion on the power of probiotics.

One of the few supplements we both take on daily basis are probiotics daily. Probiotics are the good bacteria that help keep the bad bacteria in check and maintain gut health.

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Recently Nick saw a study by ATF favorite, Dr. Rhonda Patrick (find her on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram @foundmyfitness), who also just had a baby, about the effect probiotics have on breast milk. The study found that mothers who take probiotics during the time they’re breastfeeding produce milk that seems to improve gastrointestinal functional symptoms and decrease incidence of infantile colic and regurgitation in their infants.

So we looked further into what the best probiotic foods are, as supplements are not the only place to find this gut-health-helpers. Healthline.com highlights the “Top 11 Probiotic Foods,” which includes some of our favorites like pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut and yogurt. Check the full list here.

We finish our chat with a friendly reminder; don’t forget that antibiotics can kill beneficial probiotics in your gut in addition to the bad ones, so be sure you take a medicinal dose of probiotics after you finish your antibiotics to restore your supply.

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That’s it for this week’s episode!

Don’t forget to like & follow the Addicted to Fitness podcast page on Facebook, give us a rating & review in iTunes and please take advantage of your 20% off discount on coffee from our new sponsors, The Hemp & Coffee Exchange, at hempcoffeeexchange.com.

Learn more about our sponsors in our previous ATF episode where we interview the founders and taste test this delicious coffee here.

Links to this week’s episode

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/leaky-gut-the-benefits-of-probiotics/id1121420986?i=1000393875009&mt=2

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nick-burch-702220833/leaky-gut-the-benefits-of

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/leaky-gut-the-benefits-of-probiotics

Addicted to Fitness Show Notes – How Having A Baby Changes Everything

Hi all! Shannon here.

This week, we’re talking about our own “labor day” recap and how having our baby girl (whom we are madly in love with) has changed everything, including our sleep habits.

We know there are a number of listeners who have been following our pregnancy journey closely, watching when we posted to social media for any sign that we “popped.”

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Without getting into graphic details, here’s a quick recap of our labor story:

Our last doctor appointment was on a Friday and the doctor basically informed us that we were no closer to labor than the previous week’s appointment, but since we were overdue at that point (by three days) it really could happen at any time.

Well, our baby apparently was ease dropping and decided she didn’t want to wait for an induction, because less than two days later, contractions started. I powered through them at home for about 17 hours (they started around 4am on a Sunday) but we finally went to the hospital late that night in the hopes of being admitted (yes, they do frequently send you home if you’re not far enough along).

Thankfully, we got the thumbs up to stay and after another 11 hours of contractions, a number of which were seriously intensified due to a dose of Pitocin, I finally asked for an epidural. It had been a total of 28 hours of labor at that point – it was time. Things happened pretty quickly after that and about four hours later our doctor arrived to give us the go ahead to start pushing. Less than an hour later our little lady made her grand entrance into the world.

Story time with Ella

Some respiratory concerns resulted in a trip to NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), but thankfully, she recovered en route so that she didn’t actually have to be admitted. A couple hours of observation in the nursery later, she arrived to our recovery room healthy and hungry.

As new parents, we were terrified for those two hours, but we knew she was in the best possible hands. Finally getting to hold her and have her in our arms was the best feeling we could imagine though.

Two days at the hospital consisted of all the usual tests, check-ups, visits, baby care lessons, administrative chores, and sleepless hours, but we were still just so grateful and happy. Our baby’s nocturnal habits didn’t match up with hours though and he need to be fed every 2-3 hours was one of the more challenging aspects. We knew it was coming, had been warned in all our books, classes and by all our friends/family, but that doesn’t make it any easier to prep for. Regardless, our exact words on the whole experience were, “We are deliriously exhausted and deliriously happy.”

Sleepy with Ella

Deliriously happy & exhausted

Once we returned home with baby in tow, life continued to change. Likely because we were struggling with sleep, a recent headline on the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Medicine caught our attention, as this year’s went to three Americans for their work on Body Clock Studies.

Their study focused on the health effects that the circadian rhythm has on adult humans who are naturally diurnal (meaning we are wired to be up during daylight hours). The scientists discovered that a protein actually builds up in the body during sleep (at night) and then dissipates during the day, which is concrete evidence that explains how our sleep syncs up with our natural body clocks. The discovery of this protein could lead to future advancements in treatment for chronic conditions that cause or are caused by a misaligned circadian rhythm (that is HUGE!).

At the end of the day (literally), sleep is crucial to your health, so if you’re not getting enough (like us right now) it is really important that you try to get back to that natural sleep rhythm. Until more studies result in a way to counteract or alter the circadian rhythm, we’re all attached to that body clock!

Nick and I will be trying to encourage better sleep habits in our household as soon as we can so that everyone stays healthy. In the meantime, we’ll stumble a bit through our days, but the podcast will keep coming!

Podcast pic 10-16

In fact, we are making some big moves regarding the podcast, including a new sponsorship and a discount code for you listeners. Please make sure you share the podcast with a friend and give us a rating and review in iTunes and on our new Addicted to Fitness Podcast Facebook page.

Follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) for loads of other updates and to see some proud parent pictures of our baby girl. We try to keep the posts balanced though, so don’t worry – they’re not all baby related.

Until next time, we hope you’re looking after your health and fitness and look forward to bringing you some new info in the next episode!

Links to this week’s episode

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-having-a-baby-changes-everything/id1121420986?i=1000393567380&mt=2

Android: http://subscribeonandroid.com/addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/rss

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/how-having-a-baby-changes-everything