Thank you for checking out The Community Conversation, brought to you by Prototype Training Systems, home of CrossFit Prototype! This episode of The Community Conversation is a NUTRITION EDITION! Typically, The Community Conversation highlights a different member of the Prototype Community each week and allows them to tell their story, share their life experience, and communicate their perspective on all things fitness. For this episode, we have two of our Prototype Nutrition Coaches dropping some Nutrition knowledge bombs!

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For this nutrition edition of the Community Conversation, Prototype Nutrition Coach Jon Collette and Prototype Nutrition’s Registered Dietitian, Sam Hally will be discussing Halloween. If you’re looking to learn more about nutrition for yourself or pick up some tips, you will want to check this out!

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Jon 0:03
All right, welcome to community conversation, I’m not going to read the full script, I’m done doing that. Sam and I are going to talk about nutrition, community conversation, you guys here, you guys hear from the members but we also try to educate you guys to is right now Mike’s actually run it through his leadership series, we’re gonna continue doing our nutrition series. And what we want to kind of maybe get you guys thinking a little bit about is kind of how to approach like Halloween a little bit. Um, I mean, we all know that Halloween is gonna involve like, lots of candy, and stuff like that. I mean, sometimes when there’s any type of event or holiday, it’s kind of a few ways you can approach you can approach it as this thing has, like, complete control over me. Like, if I have this, then I it’s like, you know, I can’t control the amount I have. It’s almost like an excuse more than anything else. And the other thing is reasons why some of these things get really hard for us to have like, why is it sometimes difficult to, you know, control the amount that we consume when we have things like Halloween candy and stuff like that. And we think it’s important that you actually have that stuff so that you don’t fear it, you’re able to have it. And what Sam and I want to talk about today is, you know, maybe some stuff that we can think about. And it’s not just about you know, putting that piece of candy in your mouth, but it’s thinking about your day and your week and your lifestyle as a whole and what could potentially lead up to that being a very difficult, you know, type of treat to consume in moderation. So I’m Sam hauling candy. Let’s start off what’s your favorite?

Sam 1:45
Ah Twix, Twix, and that’s yeah, it’s a long answer, because I used to like everything with peanuts. And then I found out like a year ago, I was allergic to peanuts, so I have to think I’ve to think hard because I can’t say like Snickers anymore. But Twix Twix is the top. What’s yours, John?

Jon 2:05
Woo it you can’t have Snickers anymore. Because I’m allergic to peanuts. Is this a new allergy?

Sam 2:11
Yeah. has like a year and a half ago. Yeah, it’s a bummer. Yeah, okay. We still get to eat all the good stuff.

Jon 2:20
I like Almond Joys. It’s one of those either love or hate. I love it.

Sam 2:25
I’m so good.

Jon 2:27
So these are I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely gonna have an Almond Joy. Or to probably have probably a five. That’s usually like, that’s, that’s my number fives my number. I’ll have variety on Halloween. But anyways, um, why? Why can it be hard to have something like candy and not want to eat? Like, the entire bag?

Sam 2:51
Yeah, so candy is like high satiety when it comes to like when you’re looking at foods because it like has sugar it has. Low, sorry, low satiety, right? Like it has all these things. And like, it makes you want more, but it’s not anything that’s like, gonna fill you up. Right. And so like, you have this handy piece of candy. And it’s like, oh, that tasted good, but it’s not filling you up. And so you want more. And if you’re someone who doesn’t have candy on a regular basis, like you put it on that off limits list and you refuse to have candy any other time of day, it feels like if Halloween is a day, you’re going to have candy and you have this low satiety food, you’re instantly going to want to eat it all in one sitting, which I don’t know about you, John, but I would not recommend doing because you’re not going to feel great. Not not going to be a good Halloween for you if you eat the entire bag of Halloween candy.

Jon 3:54
I also think to that, um, you know, a big reason why some of those things can be can be difficult is because we crave them. Like why? Why might we crave like those foods that are you know, sugary and salty and like really like high calorie, what you would consider like you’re not healthy foods to go ahead and eat. And I think a big thing is and I don’t know about you soon, but if someone’s consistently not eating enough food, like isn’t that what your body’s gonna start to crave is like high calorie foods because you’re not eating enough. Right?

Sam 4:32
Yeah, fun fact is sweetness is the only taste we’re born craving because it literally equates to calories. When your baby it’s like sugar equals calories. So that’s what we want. So yeah, as an adult, same thing. If you’re not eating enough, you crave it.

Jon 4:49
Yeah. Um, so, if you’re like, you know, a lot of times people are just I mean, a lot of us are trying to lose weight, right? So if we go hadn’t we cut her calories really low, you know, and then or were even just saving it up for Okay, on Halloween, I’m gonna have some candies. So we’ve basically deprived yourself all week, when you get the opportunity to eat something like that, it’s gonna be really hard to not want to consume it in mass quantities, right? Because your body’s finally getting an opportunity to get some calories that you’ve been restricting yourself from, from having for let’s say, it was several days, several weeks, maybe this is a cycle that we’re noticing where it’s like, okay, like, restrict, restrict, restrict, restrict the weekend, come on, we’re gonna like, go ahead and be a little bit loose, and you have the best intentions or just having like, you know, that one treat, but it ends up turning into like this massive, like, binge cycle, because it’s really hard to have willpower, when your body’s saying no, that was good. Let’s keep going. Like, you don’t get that same like, fullness feeling that you’d be getting, if you would consistently be eating the amount of food that you should be eating. Um, so my question for you, Sam, is for people that do have the goal of wanting to lose weight, like how do you how do we go ahead and learn like, Okay, well, how much is how much is the amount of food that I should be eating? Right in order, like, let’s say, I want to lose 10 pounds, or five pounds, or whatever it is, for whatever reason. I’m like, what, how do we how do we do that without like, you know, running into these, like, I feel tired all the time, like, miserable. This is unsustainable, like, what’s some advice you have? Like, how can I feel like Halloween and still have that as a goal?

Sam 6:39
Yeah, so I feel like my first advice is always like, you gotta trust what your body’s telling you. And like, listen to your hunger cues. But the problem is, it’s not really super easy for most people. Because the way that we live life kind of doesn’t really let us follow those hunger cues all the time, we work so hard dieting that we like, don’t listen to those hunger cues. And so if you’re like, I don’t know what to eat, and you’re feeling tired and lethargic all the time, then like, comma, holidays, this is where like all the challenges arise. So the best thing you can do is, figure out what your daily calorie needs are. And I think we’ve touched on this in other podcasts of like your, your total intake should be your basal metabolic rate, class, your purposeful exercise, plus the thermic thermic effect of food, plus what I call like your, like, day to day activities, right your activities of daily living. It’s neat in like technical terms, but what you do during the day, so like walking across the parking lot, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, all those things. So everything you do in the day is building up to what you should eat. And if you’re trying to lose weight, then you subtract a couple 100 calories to be in a calorie deficit across the week, right? If you’ve done all the calculations, and you’ve done the math, and don’t worry, if you don’t know how to do that math, we will help you out. It’s very specific to the individual. So that’s something that you should definitely sign up for a nutrition console with myself or John and come and take a body scan if you’d like to know your exact needs. But basically, once you figure out your needs, you subtract at most probably like 250 calories, if you’re trying to lose weight, because we don’t want you to be in too far of a deficit. Now that varies person to person. And if you’re in a bigger deficit than that 250 calories per day, you’re probably hungry, and you’re probably tired. Like once you hit the two week mark of eating too low calories, that’s where you’re really going to start feeling it. So if you come to these holidays, and you’re like wow, why can’t I stop eating candy? That’s like, flashing red sign of you’re eating too little. Um, and I went into a very long explanation there. John, did I answer that question or no?

Jon 9:03
No, you did. Yeah. I mean, okay. And then the takeaway is that there’s no rush into getting to that goal but you know, if we if we try to take shortcuts and things like that, it’s gonna be really hard to be able to make it sustainable. There’s also like so there’s this term in the nutrition space called metabolic adaptation this is like this is a view like constantly are restricting yourself of calories your body starts to get this like pattern of you know, this deficit being too much. So you’re you almost like, if you know anyone that’s ever done like a bodybuilding show or anything like that. Your body does, like literally whatever it has to do in order for you to burn less than fewer calories. But you know, literally blink less. You will feel less motivated to get off the couch and just go you know, do any do any basic activity. So some things that you can maybe pay attention to is if you don’t feel motivated, you feel tired all the time. And you’re really struggling to go ahead and like lose weight, if that’s what your goal is. I guarantee that if you were to eat more, you would probably see more, you’d probably see faster results. sounds counterintuitive, right? Eat more and see faster results of weight loss. Well, the reason why is it like your body literally doesn’t want you to like eat that little that, it’s going to send you increased cravings, which just make the whole process like very hard to even be able to stick to, and you’re going to burn fewer calories, when you go ahead and you actually do your workout you’re going to perform, you’re not going to perform as well, you’re gonna have a hard time building muscle. So I actually have a client that is a runner, and they were under eating, gave them like 500 more calories, and they lost five pounds in like, in like three weeks, it’s crazy, eating more calories on a daily basis resulted in that. And they don’t feel like, like shit all the time. So if this sounds like you where you’re just like, we’re talking about this, because this is why some things can be we can have that reason of, okay, I’m addicted to sugar, this is a trigger food. And we shouldn’t have these foods that seem like triggers to us, if we’re actually being able to, if we’re actually eating enough calories on a consistent basis. So when we have those things, it’s not such a shock to your system that you just had, like 100 calories in a bite size of like, basically pure sugar. And then And then, you know, your, your body’s like, that was awesome. That was you know, quick energy, let’s, let’s just keep on signaling for that. Because, you know, we, we understand what that tastes like when you’re saying with that. But that is you start to go ahead and get that, that response of, you know, you know, sugar or hamburger or whatever it is that it’s easy to go ahead and over consume, like, so we kind of think about this a little bit guys is, you know, if you’re hungry, like ignoring that hunger signal, because you’re trying to go ahead and be very, like well powered into sticking with your, you know, your nutrition, it’s actually counterintuitive, because you’re not going to be able to willpower is not what you’re gonna be able to rely on, you have to create habits and you have to go ahead and you have to also have your body trust that you’re not going to overly deprive it right you can like in order to lose weight, you have to be in calorie deficit. But if you’re, you know, being overly restrictive with not only your food choices, but your just your caloric needs in general, like you’re just you’re, it’s gonna be really hard to have, you know, three pieces of candy on Halloween, that’s gonna be if you have that you don’t want to eat an entire bag, then you’ll be like, Okay, that’s a trigger for me. I’m that that shouldn’t be happening. If, you know, we have, you know, a good relationship with food. And we’re also not, you know, eating 800 1200 calories a day, because the only thing we have is meal replacement shakes and salads. That’s when we’re going to start to feel like crap. And that’s when that’s when those foods are difficult to have in a in a balanced diet.

Sam 13:22
No, it’s true. And it’s your your reading phone reminded me of like how important like that. No, it’s all good. It’s probably because it ties into this stuff. Like when you deprive yourself of all that and then you get that like one piece of candy. It’s like a huge dopamine hit, right? It’s like the same thing of like, why people feel like they’re like on social media all the time. It’s like, yeah, if you feel like you’re addicted to sugar, the reason is probably because what’s happening in your body is that like you pride yourself all the time. So when you get it, it’s like dopamine. And so your body wants more of that. And so, yeah, so by not allowing yourself to have that on a regular basis, like that one experience is just so intense in the body. And of course, you’re gonna crave sugar in that capacity. So, yeah, like we say all the time, like everything really, truly in moderation. And like, don’t deprive yourself of that like experience, whether it’s candy, or like having a drink with your friends on Halloween night, or like being taking part of like, appetizers at a party. Like all those things can be eaten in moderation. And then you’re not setting yourself up for failure. In the sense of like needing that dopamine hit 24/7 John, do you have some strategies for like people who are like looking at Halloween coming up and are like, gay, you guys are totally describing me. Like what should I do right now to like, make sure that I’m not overeating on candy every single day of this weekend.

Jon 14:48
Yeah, I would say that. So the serving size for Halloween candies like two to three pieces. I would say exceed that and have a reason why a five is because You’re not going to totally, like ruin all your progress. If you have 200 calories of Halloween candy most serving size of hollow candy is like three. And it’s like 150. So let’s say like you’re having 200 calories of Halloween candy. And you just have, like, you move on like, right? Like, it’s just, that’s just, it was, it was it was tasty, and it was good and no guilt associated with that. It’s not a problem. It’s only a problem if we make it, like an issue where we’re like, oh my god, I did something wrong. Like, I can’t do this again. And then you throw all your Halloween candy out. And then Karen brings doughnuts in the work the next day, and you’re like, you’re right. And then we just have like, oh, man, like, whenever they like, remember, you have that food that you don’t think that you should be having. And that’s, like, demonized you, you know, you’re almost like, Okay, I gotta get this out of my system. Right? We that’s where we want to, like, want to work on not having that all or nothing type of like mindset when we have like, a piece of candy. But my I mean, my advice is just give yourself like a limit. Don’t give yourself a limit of like two pieces of candy because that’s like, bullshit very much. You only have two pieces of juice from out of this pillowcase a bag that you can’t write, like, let yourself have four or five pieces of candy. And you’re going to be fine, right, but like, put a limit to it, right? Don’t have 10 or 15. Because you feel bad about it. Like go ahead and have four or five pieces of candy. Enjoy it, pick some of your favorite ones. And, you know, if if I’m eating it, and I know that I’m going to have four pieces, I’m probably gonna enjoy it and not eat it super fast. Like, right. I always say this, like, if I were to go ahead and have, you know, if somewhere is say you can have as much cookies as you want. But you can only have a cookie every 10 minutes, the odds of me overeating or eating asleep of Girl Scout cookies is very low on time for that, right? So if you slow yourself down a little bit, when you’re eating those things, be a little bit more mindful with that, then that’s also like a really good strategy is you know, slowing the pace of play, I guess, right? Like, enjoy. taste your food, taste your food, like fully chew it before you put another piece in your mouth. What about us him? Any? Any strategies that you might give to someone that, you know, might be a little bit worried about having Halloween candy?

Sam 17:35
Yeah, I mean, I think you hit it on the nose of like, pace yourself, you don’t need to have all 70 pieces of candy in one sitting. Like if you buy the bag of 100. And you still have 50 leftover after the trick or treaters come through. Like it’s okay, if that last you like four weeks. Like it’s really it’s really okay, if that’s in your house. As long as you’re like realizing that candy can be part of a healthy diet candy can still be part of a diet that helps you reach your goals. You just have to do it slowly. taste your food is the biggest one. And I like to think about like, I think when you know like, for paint, we have a lot of parents listening to this, right? Like when you’re giving your kids their Halloween candy. You don’t let them sit there and eat the entire pillowcase because they feel terrible. Like, look at this as food of like, how does it make you feel like if you have one or two pieces, like you’ll feel fine. Like it’s just a little bit of sugar, a little extra fat, like maybe there’s some nuts in there. It’s just food. But if you go ahead and you eat 70 pieces in a row, you are not going to feel good. Like physically, you will probably feel ill and like why do you want to do that to yourself? You know, so go into like any eating situation being like, what do I want to get out of this. And as long as like you want to eat food to help yourself feel better. And to get yourself to better health. Like if you look at it big picture, then like you know, you’re not going to eat 70 pieces of candy amongst getting 70 is aggressive, maybe like 15. Right, because you’re you’re you’re going to have a stomachache, your head might hurt, you might feel like your blood pressure is rising just because you have so much of you know, sugar coming into your body all at once. So like eat what feels good for you. And then make sure that you actually enjoy every bite of what you’re eating because candy is delicious. And it is meant to be enjoyed. And I’m a big proponent of keeping your diet as long as you want to.

Jon 19:19
Yeah, absolutely. Great. So, you know, if you’re going to have candy and Halloween, you know, maybe don’t have ice cream after lunch like, you know, like checks and balances like we like you know, maybe make sure you’re eating a lot of nutritious foods that are gonna fill you up and provide you with enough calories in your day. And then have the candy like totally, totally fine. I mean, my last piece of advice is have five different pieces of candy. Don’t just have one. You got to have five different ones different textures. Enjoy each one. But yeah, so if you’re listening to this and you kind of like thinking to yourself, you know Let’s say it’s Halloween or it’s Thanksgiving or Christmas, or whatever it is, if you’re thinking, you know, like, there’s any worry that’s going through your body wants you like, you know, why don’t you think about talking to samurai? And you know, kind of like, you know, explain to us why you might be feeling that way. You know, we can help you with that. But hopefully this advice, this podcast episode was helpful to some you, Sam, any last things that you want to add before we sign off?

Sam 20:31
Just enjoy your candy. If you needed permission to eat candy this weekend, you have my permission, and you have Jon’s permission to have a couple pieces of candy this weekend. I feel like some people need that explicit direction and I’m giving it to you now. You’re allowed to have candy. You’re allowed to enjoy every bite of it. And Happy Halloween everyone. I feel like we got to say that that’s this week, right?

Jon 20:52
Oh, yeah. And where an awesome costume. I think this comes out on Thursday. So tomorrow you better have a sweet costume because there’s gonna be some candy at the gym too. And you get candy. Have a nice costume.

Sam 21:05
John, you have one picked out already?

Jon 21:07
my Halloween costume? Yeah. Being ash

Sam 21:11
I can’t wait. It is supposed to be a surprise. I thought you’re gonna shock us all. At once. Yeah, Pokemon.

Jon 21:19
Oh, there you go. Alright, you just use one up rank my

Sam 21:24
that’s all it takes know Pokemon and you’re good to go. And John Klotzbach

Jon 21:29
would be the very best.

Sam 21:32
Alright, everyone, thank you for making it this far. And like John said, if you have any questions or concerns come talk to us. We’re more than happy to listen to your story and hear you out and kind of help you through navigating this nutrition process. If you have future topics in mind, please let us know because we like to talk about the things you want to hear. And with that said, Happy Halloween and we hope you all have a wonderful day. Bye