This One Habit Makes Fat Loss Way Easier (Most People Eat Wrong) - Rachael DeVaux

Well, let's start first with the simple swaps that people can make every day to increase the amount of protein that they're getting in their diet. — I think a big part of that is front loing your protein earlier in the day. Obviously, going back to real whole foods is going to be the best thing you can do for your body. — Most adults in this country, they save their protein for dinner. — Yeah. — Why is it important to distribute your protein intake like more evenly throughout the day? — That's going to stimulate muscle protein synthesis so as a threshold at each meal. — Can prioritizing protein at each meal directly translate to weight loss? The more protein you're eating, the less calories of other foods you're consuming. So, it can definitely support fat loss if you're also doing the right things. So, strength training a couple times a week. People are consuming 17 teaspoon of sugar on average a day. That adds up to 4 12 lb of sugar a month. — Crazy. — Which can be 55 lbs a year, which is like out of control. I feel like a lot of saturated fats are within ultrarocessed foods that we're eating. — 100%. — So, if you can eliminate those and avoid those, then you're going to naturally eat less saturated fats. — 100%. — Yeah. Rachel Dvau, welcome to the show.

How you doing? — Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. I'm honestly a huge fan of your podcast and your book. So, this is like kind of crazy that I'm here. — Oh my god. — Yeah. — In the flesh. — Well, I'm excited to have you because first of all, you've got a beautiful book. — Thank you. — It's a cookbook after my own heart because it places protein front and center. — Everybody's talking about protein now, but uh you have all these incredible credentials, fitness, dietitionian. Maybe well I want you to unpack why protein is so valuable from the standpoint of health and aging and longevity and body composition. But let's start first with the simple swaps that people can make every day — to increase the amount of protein that they're getting in their diet because most people likely are getting adequate amounts, right, but like not sufficient for optimal health. — Yeah, I think a big part of that is frontloading your protein earlier in the day. A lot of people, you know, realize once they start tracking maybe or just being more aware of how much protein they're consuming, it's maybe 10 to 15 grams per meal. And, you know, for most women that's 50 to 60 grams for the whole day, which is highly undereating protein. So yeah, um once you just start focusing on making protein the backbone of your plate and your meals, you're going to naturally crowd out, you know, maybe the snacky foods and the ultrarocessed, you know, foods that a lot of us are consuming. And so I think just obviously going back to real whole foods is going to be, you know, the best thing you can do for your body. Um, I love a good chicken sausage patty in the morning with some fried eggs. That really sets me up for success. Or if I'm on the go, I'll make a protein smoothie and it's just super quick. So, I just love convenient recipes, especially becoming a mom recently. It's like I'm all about, okay, well, if I have 15 minutes, what can I do with those 15 minutes? — Well, first of all, congrats on becoming a mom. That's a big deal. — Yeah. Uh what when you said prioritizing protein first thing in the day like and how that sets you up for success. What do you mean by that? Like what does success actually look like? — Yeah, I think it's becoming less obsessed with food because you're always hungry and you're thinking about your next meal or your snack. That's a phase that I went through during college. I would always grab like a bar an hour after I was eating a meal cuz I was just hungry. And it wasn't until a few years later that it clicked that, okay, I need to be really focusing on adding bulk protein to my meals. And that's going to keep me satiated. It's clearheaded and focused, and it's just going to kind of push away those cravings that I have throughout the day. — Is that like what people refer to as food noise? — Yeah. So, I think it can definitely quiet the food noise if you um just eat enough protein. I we're just we think about food less during the day. And especially being a mom, if I can consume meals that are going to keep me full for a while, that's just going to take, you know, some mind share out of my day, which it's going to decrease the decisions that I make, which is obviously going to be a lot easier.

— Let's talk about uh quality and quantity. like what how much are you thinking about in terms of like the quality of the protein that you're eating — and then in terms of quantity because I know you know there's this I posted once I think it was on X or Instagram or maybe both where you know some people will eat two eggs for breakfast and assume that that's like enough protein in terms of like protein quantity. — Um I for one I love bringing high quality protein or just ingredients in general into our home. I'm more flexible and less rigid when we go out to restaurants. Like it doesn't have to be organic and wild caught. Um I actually just watched your Target video last week and I feel like we really aligned on that is like — I loved how you just bought a carton of conventional eggs to show that, you know, an egg is an egg. It's going to offer you nutrition versus, you know, just grabbing a granola bar in the morning. Like any egg is going to be great. any egg. — Yeah. — It's like when I go to a diner, like when I'm on the road and I want breakfast and I go to a diner, I'm not grilling the waiter like where those eggs came from. Like I just want eggs. — Yeah. And I think that's just one of the things you have to figure out yourself and for your family is like putting those boundaries in place of you can't just listen to all the nutrition noise today. You can go down any rabbit hole you want — and find out that this food is not good for you and you. So I think just I want to give people a framework and how to build their meals um especially if they're cooking from home um with just you know a few guidelines and the first is you know obviously start with a protein source and then I really also focus on less added sugar because I think that is also you know a huge factor in today and the processed foods that people are eating. It's in everything. Um, I mean, people are consuming 17 teaspoons of sugar on average a day, which, you know, that adds up to 4 and a half pounds of sugar a month. — That's crazy. — Which can be 55 pounds a year, which is like out of control. So, I think um I mean, according to the American Heart Association, we should be consuming, you know, women should be consuming six teaspoons or less a day. Men is I think at nine, and then children are three teaspoons or less. So, I really focus on very little added sugar in our diets. And that's going to make you actually taste food so much better. If you actually focus on decreasing the amount of sugar you're consuming on a daily basis or doing like an added sugar detox for seven days and just removing those added sugars, your taste buds will become so much more sensitive to sweet tasting things like fresh fruit and it's just going to taste so much better. — It's amazing. — It's not even your taste buds. It's like your brain recalibrates. Yeah, it really does. And so that's one of the things I've noticed obviously I well in college I was just snacking on so much fruit I feel like and it never really hit me that you know that does add up at the end of the day. And I think if you can obviously add protein to a carb source that you're eating, it's going to obviously slow digestion and increase satiety. But if you can also decrease the amount of added sugars you're eating, it's really going to make a difference. and your sleep, your mood, your focus, your skin, which sugar is so dehydrating. So, I think there's like ultimate benefits from that. — And also like the stats that you gave us, like probably children consume way more than that. — Way more than that, — I would assume. I mean, I don't have kids, but — yeah, I mean, there's something to be said about avoiding added sugar for the first 2,000 days of life for kids. And that's something as a mom that I'm really focusing on. like I can count on my hand the amount of times that he's had added sugar. He's 19 months now and so obviously it's going to happen, you know, in his life. We're going to go to birthday parties and he's going to eat what he wants, which is totally fine. But I think if I can limit it until he turns two, like I feel really good about that. And it just opens up, you know, his taste buds to so many more different foods and, you know, trying to delay that picky phase, which I know will come and there'll be different phases, but yeah, so that's a huge focus in our house. — Yeah, I know. I love it. That's awesome. Um, I've got two little nieces and it's uh it's become pretty clear to me that like you can somewhat control what's in the house, but like — once the kids are out of the house, all bets are off. — Oh, yeah. And then if you have more kids, obviously the second kid is going to have more access to, you know, what the older kid is eating. So I know I can only you know try and control it as long as I can but yeah if I can keep majority of whole foods in the house and you know structure our meals as a family with whole foods and you know protein at the forefront then I feel so good and obviously I've you know become more um relaxed going out and you know just traveling I think is really hard to stick to your routine. in your structure. Um, so being flexible is huge

too. — Yeah. What are the big like misconceptions when it comes to like prioritizing protein or at least like ways in which people I don't know are maybe doing it wrong. Like I was reading a review a couple of weeks ago that um pointed something out that I hadn't previously known that most adults in this country they save their protein for dinner. — Yeah. Like the majority of adults, they they save their big protein meal for dinner, — but then like over the course of the day, all they're doing is like snacking on. I mean, they might get like a little bit of protein here and there, but for the most part, they're it's like starches, usually refined starches, added sugars, things like that. — Um, why is it important to distribute your protein intake like more evenly throughout the day? — That's going to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. So, as a threshold at each meal to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. So I think distribution is huge and again if you do maybe not pay attention to your overall daily protein needs like my benchmark for majority of healthy people is 100 grams of protein. Of course people you know will need more than that. Um but I think it's a good goal because it is hard to eat a lot of protein and you know change your diet to do so. So, if you were to just focus on breaking that up to your meals and trying to get 25 to 40 grams of protein per main meal, I think that makes things a lot more feasible and less intimidating for people. — Yeah. Can doing that, can prioritizing

protein at each meal directly translate to weight loss? Can it directly support weight loss efforts? the more protein you're eating, the less calories of other foods you're consuming. Um, so it can definitely support fat loss if you're also doing the right things of, you know, strength training a couple times a week. A report actually just came out um for 2025 stating a 25% increase in strengthbased workouts among female users and nearly one in three women now want physical strength as a top goal in 2025. So I think that's really exciting that it is becoming a huge priority and focus for women especially. Yeah. — Do you think that women tend to undereat protein? — Oh exceptionally. Yeah. um under eating protein, especially pregnancy and postpartum. Going through it myself, I think um obviously that was a goal of mine, especially in writing my book during that time, which was challenging. Um but yeah, I think that's a those that window is obviously huge for a woman to either keep your protein or lose or keep your muscle mass or lose it. You know, it's also um huge creating downstream effects later on and just affecting your metabolic health later if you don't prioritize protein during that window. — Yeah, it's so important. I mean, I remember like, God, I've been doing this

podcast for so long now, but like back in the day, I would hear all the time that women historically would avoid foods like red meat because they were ultimately seeking to be smaller. And there was this perception, this misconception — ultimately that, you know, eating meat would make you bulky. It would lead to big bulky muscles and the like. I mean, I think these days we're seeing the opposite of that. I, for one, focus on strength training. I follow an eight-week program that I created. It's just easy for me to follow because I know exactly what I'm doing every single day. And the rest days are also incorporated. I have found the opposite. I have found that I'm in potentially the best shape even before having a baby just by focusing on strength training and also combining that with focusing um on protein. So the more muscle you have, it's metabolically active, the more calories you're just going to burn at rest doing nothing throughout the day. So I mean strength training is huge. I think it's a big value ad to everyone, especially women. — Hell yeah. — Yeah, — I love that. What's your strength training routine I see in the gym? — Yeah. No, I'm obsessed. I'm uh I'm in my like bodybuilding era. You are? Okay. Yeah. Well, I mean, I guess I've always really been into it, but I'm, you know, I'm like 43 — and uh — and natty, so, you know, like I think people's perceptions of what it means to be like uh like to regularly resistance train like I think a lot of the people who lead with like their um body composition progress, especially on social media today, are either filtered or augmented. Um, so yeah, I think it's really important to be like realistic about your goals, but I've been training for a long time and I've never been stronger. I've never been I mean, right now I'm particularly lean. I've been on a like a bit of a cut for the past couple of months, actually. Um, but no, I mean, I'm resistance training five days a week. — Okay. Do you follow a plan or do you just go in knowing what you're going to do? — I just do like a basic bro split and um, yeah, I do that and then like I take a few days off, but I'll still I try to go to the gym every day. not necessarily to train like to weight train, but to — um like I'll do mobility stuff or I'll do like — I think there's this like two misconceptions or like I think a big mistake that a lot of people make is that they don't train with sufficient intensity to stimulate muscle growth. But on the other hand, I think there's this misconception that whatever training you do has to be to a level of intensity — necessary to stimulate muscle growth. Does that make sense? Like you can go to the gym and like not everything you do in the gym has to be like with the intent of stimulating muscle growth. You do mobility stuff like — Yeah. Well, you can also have a hard workout and not move the needle — enough versus going in there and focusing on progressive overload. — Yeah. — You know, over time. So, is that something that you focus on or you're lifting kind of the same amount of weights? Do you track your weights? — I don't track. — Or are you like upping them as the weeks go by? — Yes. — Okay. — I up them. I up the weights. Or if I'm not upping the weights cuz at this point I'm like I guess what in the literature would be described as somebody who's like trained like I've been doing it for long enough where like I'm not getting big strength increases workout to workout. like many workouts go by where I'm not increasing the weight, but maybe I'm, you know, maybe that last rep is a little bit easier than it was the week before, — right? — Um but yeah, no, generally I find that like I kind of gauge whether or not I've got more or less energy um every subsequent workout than the last. The past couple of months have been a little different because I'm on a cut and especially now I'm probably pretty I'm probably around 10% body fat and so my energy is not quite what it normally is but uh — that's amazing though. — Yeah, — good job. Congrats. — Thanks. No exciting. Yeah. No, I'm pumped about it. I think it's like the most fun aspect of like nutrition and fitness, you know, if you're able to do it — and not kamicazi your relationship with food. — Yeah. — Um — hyper focus on it. — Yeah. I mean, I've never I've always had a really good relationship with food. I'm just like a tinkerer and I'm obsessed with the science of body composition. So, — um so yeah, it's super fun to me. — I love that. — Yeah. — When do you I guess when my rest days I still focus on movement like I'll do 20 to 40 minutes just incline walking which I Yeah, I think that — is huge and focusing on rest you know for your time to body to recover and you know rebuild. — Um — 100%. — Yeah. Walking is amazing. Um, I think it's like we live in a world that has engineered like movement that would have been here that like has humans have had to move, you know, — like all day long for the majority of our time on this planet up until relatively recently where now like I don't even have to get up off my couch to change my thermostat. I can do with my phone. You know, — the convenience is Yeah, it's hurting us. But I Yeah. Well, what's funny is my Aura Ring year-end um review came in a few weeks ago, and it's so funny because you can see the exact moment when my now toddlers just started crawling. Like, it's I was at a stagnant just straight line, sitting at my, you know, computer most of the day, like not really moving a lot outside my workouts, but the second he started crawling and then walking and now he's like running. I don't sit down often during the day and I think that has just helped my total energy expenditure like just through the roof. — Wow. — So I think that's a huge just something that I didn't realize. You know steps do add up every day and that is going to you know contribute to how you feel every day. Like I feel more energized just moving. — That's amazing. — Yeah. — And do you still are you still your resistance training? Are you do you track your lifts? Uh, I try to when I am following my 8w week program, I just feel like a two-month um, training plan is very doable and it's not, you know, too intimidating. Um, so I found eight weeks really helps, but I'll take like a few weeks off and then I'll restart it from ground up. So I'll go back to body weight and really low weight and then I'll just gradually increase it and trying to, you know, by week seven or week eight trying to pass my PR from the previous round. — I love it. which yeah, I found so much success through it. — That's amazing. Yeah. No, I don't track. I just uh I just try to like lift with I go by like the intensity of my workouts. Like I try to just like give it my all. Like — I had uh Stan Eferting on the podcast and I was like, "Well, what's the like rep range that you're like aiming for with every, you know, with every set? " And he's like, "All of them. " — Like I'm just doing all the like it doesn't matter the rep range really. Like as long as you're doing all of them — or getting close to that, right? like close to failure. — Yeah. — If not to it. — Yeah. Failure. I mean that is huge. Um and then going past failure obviously um is going. Yeah. — What do you have like post-workout? — Post-workout protein. Um some carbs, you know. — Weey — whey. Okay. — Um yeah, like a whey shake. I like these. I get I drink these like Pioneer Pastures. — I've seen you talk about Yeah. — Yeah. They have like these 30 gram protein shakes. They sell them at Target actually. — And uh 30 grams of protein for 160 calories or something like that. So it's like pure protein. It's like a ultra filtered milk or something like that. — So I haven't got into I know you use a food scale or you recommend it a lot of the time. I personally haven't gotten to that. I feel like I obviously doing this for so many years like I know what I'm eating just visually. Um, but I yeah, I would love to know more about like when you started the — Yeah. — food scale because I just love to give people the framework of starting with protein obviously and then layering in your fiber richch veggies, your healthy fats, your complex carbs, um, and giving them more of a visual, I guess, through my recipes and my reals and my photos and everything. But — it's amazing. — Yeah. So, — I'm not saying my way is better. Your way sounds great. — I would. — Yeah. Your way sounds awesome. I just think it's like the more tools people can have like to pick and choose from. — For me, what has been amazing about it's like I just like precision, you know? — Yeah. — From a from the standpoint of precision for me, — like you and I could scoop out like a tablespoon of peanut butter from the jar and come out with wildly different — Yeah. the added sugar in there. like amounts of peanut butter and whatever. But like the digital scale doesn't lie. So like 15 grams of peanut butter is butter. And so that to me is like a really great Yeah, it's just a great tool like when I'm, you know, if I have a recipe and I'm trying to like if I'm making like overnight oats and I want to use a serving of oats, like — I'm going to weigh 52 grams of like I know, yeah, you know, 52 grams of oats as opposed to like because also food nutrition facts are determined by food weight, not by food volume. Like if you look on the nutrition facts panel of any food, it's always like you're given a gram amount, — right? So, just the nerd in me like wants to know, okay, am I actually getting the five grams of protein that I want from this serving of egg whites or however many serving servings — the oatmeal or the uh — Well, that's what bugs me when I go out to order a smoothie. You know, — you have no idea. — You're getting a protein smoothie, but are they doing the full scoop? And then I always look after they make the smoothie. There's half of the liquid still in the blender after they pour you the cup. So, it's like you're missing out on that valuable protein in the smoothie. So, — I watch like a hawk. — Yeah. — Like, don't skimp me on the creatine. — Yeah. — That I just paid $3 extra for like a serving of creatine. — Mhm. — So true.

— Okay. So, tell me about this incredible recipe book. How do you Okay, you touched on how you're how you construct a plate. — And I think actually this would be really useful now more than ever for people because we've lost the my plate, right? Right. We now have a new food pyramid. So maybe it's helpful to um to describe for people like how you conceptualize like a balanced plate in accordance with your — you know this the high protein plate. — Well the first uh I think it's 46 pages is just information. So I really wanted to bulk it up with what I've learned over the years and you know what's worked for me. So I really wanted to give people visuals. I have a whole table that shows people how much protein is in our typical foods. And it's broken down by animal proteins, you know, vegetables, eggs, uh, legumes, nuts, and so you can clearly see like 4 o or 6 ounces of chicken is going to give you about 40 grams of protein. um three tablespoons of hemp seeds, which I love to talk about, is gonna give you 10 grams of protein, which I hemp seeds are in a lot of my recipes because I think they're just little nutrition powerhouses. Um — yeah, so I there's a lot of information in the bulk of the intro. I also have a 28 day meal plan that follows the actual recipes from the book. So, if you want it even simpler to plan out your meals, you could just follow the recipes that I've laid out for you. But, yeah, I mean, it's pretty simple. The framework is really what we've already talked about is like making protein the backbone of your meal. And I think a few simple things you could do during the week is just making one or two proteins ahead of time and making sure you have veggies in the fridge and you know knowing that those probably only take 10 minutes to make on a in a pan you know and throwing um that together with a bowl of you know roasted sweet potatoes or you know rice. I think that's an easy way to build meals. And maybe you make a pound of ground beef ahead of time. And then you want to make a variety of different meals throughout the week. I would double batch the beef. So you have a couple pounds. And then like Monday for dinner, you could add taco seasoning to it and make tacos. — So good. — Wednesday, you could add Italian seasoning and marinara and noodles to it and have a pasta dish. So I think it's all about um keeping variety in your meals. It also doesn't have to be this big production. like they could be simplified, which I love to show with my recipes. Um, but yeah, I just I want them to be functional. I want people to feel better consuming them. Um, so yeah, it's kind of my philosophy. — I love it. — Building. — No, we're super aligned. What how

do you um combat the, you know, the idea the misconception that some people have that eating healthy is boring. It's not delicious. It's too expensive. — I mean, I feel like my recipes kind of speak for themselves. I have 100 recipes in this book and so many more free ones on my Instagram and website that just, you know, from breakfast all the way to dessert. I think they do add up even in my dessert recipes. Like, you'll get, you know, three grams to 25 grams of protein per serving. Um, so I don't know. I think people also doesn't have to be about creativity. Um, picking just one new recipe a month even just to spice things up is going to, you know, add variety to your life. And finding what works best for you. If you know you don't have any extra time during the week and you have 30 minutes on Sunday, okay, actually take the time, take 5 10 minutes to plan out three dinners for the week and then if you have the ability to order groceries ahead of time just so you know when you get to the 11th hour at 6 p. m. what am I going to make for dinner? Okay, check that list. Can I put this meal together in 20 minutes? Yeah, this recipe will follow that. Um, I thrive off convenience and quick recipes and, you know, one pan meals and slow cooker recipes. So, I think that's what I've shared in this book. Exactly. — You have. Yeah. No, it's awesome. I love the idea of like uh meal like batching. — Um, what are some other surprising ways to stretch a buck when it comes to, you know, eating more healthily? Yeah, I think when you see sales at the market, you can throw everything in your freezer and really make that last. Um, freezer veggies are something that I use and I think, um, you can buy them for, you know, an affordable price and they really last as well. — Any concern about like I don't know, — they're flash frozen when, you know, at the peak of um, nutrition when they're done. So, I think No, I think they're great options. They have tons of nutrition. That's awesome. — Yeah. People are like they're not — I know. — I don't know. I don't know what people are saying, but like Yeah, Frozen's great. — I don't know what they're saying, but yeah. No, I think Frozen's great. Um trying to think of other tips. Obviously, groceries are so, you know, expensive right now. So, sometimes I just look on Instacart and see what's on sale at different stores, and sometimes I'll shop from, you know, two different stores to get a better deal. — Hell yeah. So, um, yeah, there's a handful of different things that you could do. — So, awesome. — Stretch a buck. Yeah, it's super important. — Do you have a favorite protein? — I will say when I'm at home, I don't cook salmon because when I order it out, it always tastes better to me. — Fair. — Um, I love probably ground beef. I always have ground beef with taco seasoning in the fridge. — Same. Actually, — it's so easy to heat up. You can make it a thousand different ways or into a thousand different recipes, I guess. Um, but we eat majority of that and my son loves taco seasoned ground beef. It's — so great. — Yeah. You just buy I do that all the time. I literally I sometimes like some nights go by where I like I make something for myself and I like zoom out and I look at what I'm eating and I'm like I'm b I'm basically like a dog. — I could eat the same thing most days. And I think that's another tip for people. If you can do that, if you can take away the decision fatigue of making the same thing for breakfast and lunch every single day of the week, that's going to like make your life so much easier. And then you can add variety for dinners. — 100%. — Yeah. — But like people have this misconception that like dinner has to be this big production. — Everything's got to be I mean, you know, your recipes are beautiful and your photography is like gorgeous, but like and this is from like one cookbook author to another. Like you did an amazing job. — Appreciate that. But also I think like there's room to like just eat like a — what's the term like a slot bowl every once in a while. — I haven't heard that. — You haven't heard that? — Slot bowl. Okay. — Well, it doesn't sound that great if you're hearing it for the first time, but that's what like people have come to call like — you know — cava bowls and sweet green bowls. It's like just the bowl of protein and rice and whatever. And but like there's something deeply gratifying about like sometimes just like eating like a dog, you know? That's my main meal I probably have is the taco seasoned ground beef. Roasted Japanese sweet potatoes are my favorite. — That sounds so good. — And then some avocado and a veggie of some sort. If I don't make anything, I'll just cut up a red bell pepper cuz it's my favorite veggie. It's high in vitamin C. It's tastes sweet. Like it's just — red bell pepper. — Yeah, it's in most of my meals. Um — pretty dialed. It's a veggie or it's a fruit. Veggie fruit. — Well, — who knows? — Let's call it a veggie. Um, and then just drizzle of olive oil and some flaky sea salt and it hits every time. — Damn. — Yeah, — that sounds so good. — So, my slop bowl. — Your slop? Yeah, slap bowl. No, I think like there's no shame in the game. — Yeah. — Do you have a favorite recipe? I mean, I know that it's like asking if you have a favorite child, but — I know. Um, it it's different every day, but the one I make the most is u my it's called a weekn night hero. It's a ginger garlic turkey skillet and it takes 20 minutes to make and I feel like I always have ingredients for that in the fridge. It doesn't take anything crazy to make. It's super simple. Um it's basically ground turkey, um red bell pepper, green onion, coconut aminos, um ginger and garlic, which I feel like we should utilize tools that makes cooking easier. So, I love just getting jarred minced garlic and jarred fresh ginger, like minced. And so we'll add that to the pan and it's so good. Add roasted dry roasted cashews over the top. You could put it over rice. You can make it into lettuce cups. But it's those ingredients are always in my fridge every because I make it every single week. So when it is 6:00 p. m. 6:30 p. m. and I'm like I don't know what to make for dinner. I've been working at like my mind is everywhere. That's what I'll make. — Yeah. It's delish. — Wow. — Mhm. — I love Yeah. the uh what you said about like just the chopped garlic that's like already chopped like purists might be like — what the hell it's not as good but what's so crucial about that I don't want to just like brush under the rug is that what you're doing is you're reducing the friction — exactly — to using ingredients like garlic which have benefits you know like there are health benefits to garlic obviously there's like culinary benefits but like — if the barrier is like well I don't want to like chop garlic. It's such a I don't even know how to peel garlic. What a pain in the ass. Like you just buy it already like diced up and it's it might not be as good as fresh, but we can't let perfect be the enemy good of the good, right? — Yeah. I think that's also cooking from scratch is a big misconception from people. I think for me cooking from scratch is not homemaking every single ingredient that you're going to use. It's cooking wholesome food from your home like you know and utilize those easy tools like keeping jarred you know garlic and ginger in the fridge and you know buying the chopped up veggies already done so you don't have to do that. Maybe you're just starting out cooking and you know it takes you a long time to chop veggies looking at my husband. Um so yeah buy the chopped diced ones that are already done at the store. What's like your least favorite thing to do in the kitchen? Like what's your least favorite aspect? — Um, — get your husband to do that. — Yeah. No, he does a lot of the time. He does the dishes. Um, my least favorite I mean, I really enjoy cooking. I enjoy it when it's not a rush and I can actually, you know, think and put music on. Like, it's actually very enjoyable. But I think when it becomes rushed is when I don't have the most fun cooking and, you know, feels like a chore. Um, but in order to make it, you know, more enjoyable, it is planning a little bit ahead and just taking, you know, 10 minutes a few days ahead and just thinking about what I'm going to make or writing it down on a piece of paper on a schedule. And maybe that's having the same thing every Monday. Maybe that's having buffalo chicken tacos on Wednesday. Maybe that's having, you know, I love tacos, so a different taco, you know, meal on Friday. Um, and then pizza and then a protein richch salad. Like I have an Italian chopped salad in here that you get 35 grams of protein per serving. So, we love having pizza nights where you have a piece of pizza or two and then you know you're getting enough protein through the salad. — That's amazing. Is the pizza recipe in the — There's no pizza recipe in them. Okay. — Separate. — Got it. Pizza that you order in. — Yeah. um your pizza of choice. Wow, I like that. I found a there's a pizza uh that I've been really enjoying. No affiliation, but there's like a brand I think it's called LC Life for like low carb life. I'm not like low carb, but um it's like a frozen pizza. Like one of those like I grew up eating this brand of frozen pizza. I don't know if anybody's going to remember it, but it was called Celeste. — It's like this frozen pizza that you just like take out of the freezer — and you put in the oven. So, this is like a lot like that except the crust is made entirely of chicken. — Oh, well, I've been seeing these chicken burritos. — Have you seen that where you um pound out chicken on parchment paper and you add your filling and you roll it up with the parchment paper and then you bake it and then you can It's like a chicken burrito that's — interesting. No carb. No, I've probably seen I've seen like the pizzas where they're — No, I haven't seen the pizza one. — It's almost like chicken is the new cottage cheese. — Yeah. — Among influencers on social media — where like cottages used to be able to like make pretty much you can make like — cottage cheese like a cottage cheese steak or what you know like. But now, um, chicken is this thing that like people are repurposing into like all kinds of like things that you'd never expect chicken to be repurposed into, like pizza crust and burrito, I guess. Apparently, — I mean, I know protein is trending right now and people are kind of rolling their eyes at this point, but I think it's fun when, you know, you could create brand new recipes that you would never think that you could do. I think it's I don't know. Some things I roll my eyes like uh protein latte at Starbucks like I don't really know, you know, wrapping my head around that. But um yeah, I think certain recipes like the chicken burrito could be fun. — Why not? — Yeah. People are using like ground chicken to do pretty much — Well, it's like find your vessel, you know, how you want to enjoy food. Like make it fun for you. And maybe that's making a weird trending recipe, you know, that is high protein. I think — that can be enjoyable. — So true. As a dietitian, are there

like there's, you know, social media is almost like the wild west these days with like health advice, information, fear-mongering and whatnot. Are there any trends or fads that that — that you wish would just die? Um, I think there's a huge um I feel like it's kind of on the way out, but telling people just to eat balanced, but a lot of people were never taught what balanced is, you know? So, there's a lot of wellness influencers maybe that roll their eyes at the protein trend and just say whatever, eat balanced, eat everything in moderation. But I want to change that and give people the framework and how to build a more balanced plate. — What does balance look like to you? — I mean, it's this whole conversation. It's the, you know, focusing on protein because it's not just for aesthetic reasons. muscle. It's for satiety. It's for supporting your neurotransmitters. It's for your immune system. You know, antibodies are literally protein structures. So I think focusing on the other benefits is it's going to help us in so many other ways than obviously just aesthetic. — Now did you learn all this stuff about I'm just curious like as a non you know healthcare provider like as a as an amateur like did were you taught this stuff when you went through like your credentiing or is this stuff that's like just come out — you know? I mean, I learned a lot of western style medicine going through dietetic school and I that's all I knew at that point. I didn't know anything different, but I kept researching and kept learning and I feel like over the last decade I've really dipped my toe in more holistically and looking at things as a whole and doing a lot of my own research. So, I think it's a good blend of everything I've the c um culmination of everything I've learned. Yeah. — No, that's so cool. Did

were you um like what was your gut like response to the um like first impression to the uh the new dietary like pyramid dietary guideline? — I was happy about it. I feel like we've made a good change. Yeah. Not every single thing is, you know, the best that it could be. But I think it's a huge step in acknowledging that we need to eat more whole foods and less processed foods and less added sugar. So, I think it's a step in the right direction. — Yeah. — What are your some of your thoughts? I know I've already So, — what are some of the extra tips you can add here? — Yeah. No, I um No, I thought it was awesome. like I uh well you know I was curious your take because you were like steeped in — the you know my plate and all those guidelines for so many years. — Um I found see I think that like the fact that most people don't even know that my plate exists is a testament to how it failed. like mo people, you know, like it's fairly well known that people don't follow the dietary guidelines. So maybe that's due to the fact that they've just been very like either too vague or too obtuse. — On the other hand, everybody remembers the food the original like the OG food pyramid. Yeah. — Right. — I mean, I don't know if that's still taught in school, but that's what I learned in school. — Yeah. It's not taught in school, but the reason why it's still relevant is because of how powerful of a heristic — the pyramid is, right? So, it's like the fact that we did away with the My Plate and we've now welcomed back this newly updated pyramid, I think it's like a wonderful thing. I mean, obviously only time will tell whether or not people adopt it. um you know it is it's not quite as specific as like how to orchestrate your play but like people weren't following that anyway so who's to say that was like that was the right way to go right like for all intents and purposes — I mean it wasn't so — yeah from what I stand for I feel like it's a huge benefit and a huge step forward and doubling the amount of protein we need I think is a huge testament in that we are moving in the right direction and just becoming more aware of, you know, whole foods in general. — Yeah. And people are like, "Oh, it's uh sending mixed messages because meat and butter is on the new pyramid, but it's still recommend. " — Yeah. 10% or fewer calories from saturated or whatever. Yeah. Calories from saturated fats. — But I'm like, it's totally possible to eat to like — Well, that's also Yeah. That's nuanced because I feel like a lot of saturated fats are within ultrarocessed foods that we're eating. — 100%. — So, if you can eliminate those and avoid those, then you're going to naturally eat less saturated fats. — 100%. — Yeah. — And by the way, do you know like this is fascinating to me. This is like so interesting. The — do I mean you probably know, but uh the so the guideline is less than 10% of calories from saturated fat. Do you know the percentage of saturated fat that your average American consumes? — I don't. Not. No, not currently. — 11%. — Okay. — So 1% all of this anxiety and paranoia and infighting and whatever is about 1 percentage point — of saturated fat intake. So like we're only doing and the vast majority of saturated fats that Americans consume as you said perfectly is that it comes from ultrarocessed foods and like you know mixed dishes and desserts and things like that. So all of the arguing and all the fighting and all the anxiety that people have around saturated fat it's like most Americans are consuming yeah or on average are consuming 1% more than the guidelines. I think it's such a bummer we just can't be on, you know, more of a similar page with nutrition and feeding our kids and feeding ourselves. Like, you'd think that this would be, you know, a positive looking at the new pyramid that we flipped it on its head and we are focusing, you know, heavily on Whole Foods. But, you know, the internet gets loud. So, — it's so annoying. Yeah, — it's so annoying to me. Um, so you have

like this wonderful like a wellness guide along with your hundred recipes. — Mhm. — What number book is this for you, by the way? — Number two. — Wow. Amazing. — Yeah. I'm so proud of it. It I mean, obviously takes forever to make a book, you know. — Yeah. Um, this is like two years in the making, a little bit longer, but yeah, I worked a lot of it when I was like eight months pregnant and then 3 to 5 months postpartum. So, being in that time of I need foods that are going to help my recovery, to, you know, keep me as focused as possible even though I have this like brand new little being that I'm watching after. And so if it didn't kind of hit the um the formula of being convenient, being simple recipes, you know, made from a handful of ingredients, and it wasn't going to go in this book. So I think that's, you know, the framework that it took to build the high protein plate. — It's so great. But it's not only for pregnant women, right? — No, no, no. It's for everyone's going to benefit from this book. I feel like a lot of people that find me online are women, but it's fun when my recipes and, you know, workouts are used by entire households. — Where did you first um like how did you first get started in the space? Um because you've got like a massive social media following. — I started my food Instagram account when I was a senior at college studying nutrition. just sharing, you know, little pics of my meals and snacks. And I was posting one to four times a day and I didn't miss one single day for two years, which is like wild to me because now I don't post that much. — Yeah. — Being in this new season of life. Um, yeah, it was just consistency and obviously it wasn't on my bingo card to, you know, have a food Instagram and um, you know, later make two cookbooks. But I've just been given so many opportunities and meeting so many amazing people through doing it and it's been such a fun ride and yeah, I'm so grateful for my Rachel's Good Eats food community. Yeah, it's amazing. — It's been so fun. Yeah. You were uh you were super early to like social media and like the food content. — 2015 — space. 2015. Yeah. — When did you make yours? — I got started like probably around that time. Okay. — As well. Yeah. Super early. — And it's now like the wild west as I said. It's crazy. Like I don't know if I would start now. — Oh yeah. No. Right. — It's Well, yeah. It's such a different um Yeah. It's so different nowadays that I don't know what worked for me in the past in the beginning would work now. I mean, the bar of content I feel like is so much higher now. And probably one of the reasons why I don't, you know, post as much as I do, but I'm very much like quality over quantity now. And um yeah, so — well, there was like a purity back then where like you could gain a huge following from having beautiful photos of food — and recipes and — Well, mine weren't pretty. Mine were just I guess aesthetic in how I placed them, but they weren't like — well — what I do now. — But like now you the algorithm only favors like negativity it seems like. Oh, — you know what I'm saying? — Yeah. — Like to play that to play the game of the algorithm game these days. — It's impossible. Yeah. — You never know. I feel like what's going to do well or not. But like I feel like people like you and me wouldn't necessarily do as well in the social media algorithm landscape of today. — That's correct. — Because we're not like negative — narcissistic sociopathic. — Yeah. Creating controversy all the time. — Rage bait and like reaction slop reels that tend to go viral, you know. — I know. It's a bummer. is the bar — because I feel like what you're doing is incredible and you know you want to reach as many people as you can and just promoting a healthier um lifestyle in general. Yeah. — Yeah. Well, thank you for that. Thanks for coming out. — Oh my gosh. Of course. Thanks for h I'm such a huge fan. Thanks for having me. — Thank you. Well, I'm now a fan of yours and I love the book and people should definitely check it out. Pick it up. Um

I've got one last question for you, but before we get to that, where can people uh find you on social media and where can they pick up your new book? Rachel's Good Eats on Instagram and rachelgood eatats. com for my blog. And then you can grab my book at any major retailer, Target, Barnes & Noble, Amazon. — Damn, that Target placement. I know. — Good job. — I know. I'm excited. — Love it. Uh, what does living a genius

life mean to you? — Oh gosh. I think it's putting yourself first and your health first. Um, because it matters so much. It's going to um have so many downstream effects later on with your metabolic health, your daily energy, and your overall lifestyle choices. — Love it. Thanks for coming out. — Thank you. — You're the best. Thank you guys. Thank you for listening. The high protein plate. Check it out. It's beautiful. 100 satisfying everyday recipes. Sending love and I will catch you on the next episode. Peace. Hey, if you like that video, you need to check out this one here and I'll see you there.