Getting A Kickstart To Fitness & Nutrition | El Paso, TX (2021)

Introduction

In today’s podcast, Dr. Alex Jimenez, Health Coach Kenna Vaughn, PUSH Fitness Owner Daniel Alvarado, and Sports Nutritionist Lizette Ortiz discuss how fitness and nutrition play hand-to-hand on a functional body.

 

Nutrition & Fitness Goes Hand-In- Hand

 

[00:00:05] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Today, we’re going to be talking specifically with a fantastic health trainer that we met through LinkedIn, right? Kenna, you can take over the camera, so we’ll do this as we go. Yeah. So what we can do is discuss health issues and how it pertains to El Paso. So one of the things is is that we see massive changes with this COVID 19 thing. And it changes everyone’s kind of perspective as to how they work out and what they do and what they don’t do. So, Lizette, I want to introduce you. Lizette Ortiz is a personal trainer here in El Paso, and we want to talk to her about what’s going on with her life and how she does this new adaptation process. You have clients that you work with, correct? Yeah. Yes. Tell us a bit about what you do.

 

[00:00:54] Lizette Ortiz: Well, I do nutrition coaching, and I also do fitness coaching, so I do personal training. My personal training also includes nutrition because you can’t have one without another. Yes, very proper health and balance. And so right now, because of COVID, everything I’m doing is virtual. I didn’t use anything virtual before, and now everything, both nutrition coaching, and fitness training. So basically, I train people to reach their goals. They’re usually a weight loss, strengthening flexibility. I also have some older clients working more on not losing their strength and gaining some core strength and having more flex in the tools and then setting them free, so they can just live their lives.

 

[00:01:37] Kenna Vaughn: Exactly. We want to educate them.

 

[00:01:39] Yes, I want to teach them. I’m not giving them the fish.

 

Lizette’s Story

 

[00:01:42] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know, Lizette, we have been working with patients for a long, long time. And I want to ask you a bit about what got you into fitness. OK, so start from the beginning of like what got you into fitness and let the people know what it is, who you are, and what it’s about? What was the reason for your story? So really makes it easy for us to get it?

 

[00:02:04] Lizette Ortiz: So basically, I’m originally from Juarez, so I’m originally Mexican, and I grew up over there, and I went all the way through high school, and then I moved to El Paso to go to UTEP and get a degree in psychology. So my whole life growing up, my mom’s been struggling with weight. She’s always struggled with weight because my mom’s family tends to be overweight. Like, you know, they even suffer from heart disease and other diseases that just come with it. And so I grew up with that like my mom was always on a diet. She was consistently exercising. She always had exercise tape. So I guess it was ingrained in me to not be in that situation, but it still didn’t stop me from gaining all that weight.

 

[00:02:50] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You got heavy?

 

[00:02:52] Yes, of course, because I didn’t have the tools, you know, I didn’t know any better. So I was eating like we all usually do. Like when you don’t know about things, you know, just a lot of bread, sweets, and soda. I didn’t drink water daily until I was 16. Yeah, my drinks were always Coca-Cola was the family drink, the family beverage, and then maybe like Kool-Aid and things like that. Yes. And so I didn’t start drinking water until I had to be on treatment for UTI or something when I was 16. And that’s when I learned my first lesson was, OK, well, you’re on to treatment so you can’t eat like acidic things, so I couldn’t even eat lime. But I couldn’t eat candies either, so that I couldn’t eat sugar. I love tamarind candies. I couldn’t eat that. I couldn’t eat sugar, no chocolate, no coffee, no cream. Like, they cut many things, and I had to drink only water the first time I had to drink a glass of water. I thought I would throw up; it was so bad. And so then a month of this treatment, I lost like 15 pounds, and I felt amazing. And this was when I was 16 and like, “Oh my God, this feels great. And I lost all this weight.” Of course, that’s all. I was focusing on that point because I was 16, right? So it’s like, “Oh my God, I lost all this weight. I look great.” And so I started exercising more with the focus of being more fit, and so little by little, that happened. So that happened the rest of my high school. Then I came to the U.S., started college, and gained like 30 pounds, right? Like you do, like one does.

 

[00:04:33] Kenna Vaughn: Yeah.

 

[00:04:34] Lizette Ortiz: And then I didn’t care. I did care, but I didn’t care. Like I wasn’t doing anything about it. But it did depress me, and it caused me a lot of inner turmoil and anxiety and just depression and things, among other things. And so I started exercising. I always kept active; what’s interesting is because I grew up with my mom, always like having the videotapes and stuff. I always was on and off exercising. And then, I started doing more research, and that’s when I started teaching myself by looking up exercises. Luckily, we already had the internet, databases, and things, so I learned a lot about that and started doing my own workouts. I started watching what it is, and I started to like eating every three hours because supposedly that accelerated metabolism, which now we know is not the case. But I started doing that. So that shrunk my portions, and I learned how that helps, too. And then I was going to move to L.A. because that’s what I always wanted to do when I went over there and pursued a career.

 

[00:05:32] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: At what age did you go to L.A.?

 

[00:05:33] Lizette Ortiz: When I graduated college, I was twenty-four when I moved, but before I moved, I was like, I can’t go to L.A. to want to be an actress and have 30 extra pounds because when I see T.V., you’re sold this image of I need to look like this and this. And of course, I never filled out any of the requirements, but I still wanted to do it. And so I really focused on this. Not in the healthy way, though, you know, like, I was not eating well enough. I was probably exercising too much and not eating the right things because I wasn’t necessarily feeling any better while losing weight. And so, once I moved to L.A., I continued to work out and study and learn. Then I studied nutrition when I was over there in the city college, that’s when I learned, and that was my next big lesson when I learned about nutrition, how like certain foods and too much of this, too little of that, the wrong balance of things, the importance of vegetables and fruits, which I’ve always loved. But you see the difference between filling up on vegetables and fruits instead of filling up on pasta and bread. And the repercussions that it has on your health, not only on how you look like we were mentioned earlier, not only in the way that you look but also the way you feel and just learning that changed my life completely. One day, when we learned about additives in foods and dyes, we talked about red 40 and how all these additives can have repercussions. They build up in your system. Kids usually get more hyperactive because of the mix of dyes and additives than they do because of the sugar. Because if you eat like a lot of honey, you don’t get hyper, necessarily. But if you eat a bunch of Skittles, maybe because it has many other things in it. And so we learned about that and like, Oh, red 40. And then I get home, and my husband had like this three-pound thing of red vines, and I went, “Oh no.”

 

[00:07:37] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: What are red vines? Are those like Twizzlers?

 

[00:07:45] Lizette Ortiz: They are precisely like Twizzlers, and my husband brought three pounds. The package literally said “Three pounds,” and I was like, We can’t eat that. Like, I just learned all this. And so, every time I learn about something, it’s like a new epiphany in a new item that I didn’t keep on my shelf anymore. You know, it’s like, Oh my god, like this fluffy white bread that’s delicious and sandwiches have zero nutrition for me, right? I need to get something that’s more whole grains, you know, like if I’m going to do a P.B. and J, I need to find my peanut butter that’s just peanuts in my bread that is like sprouted grains and whole grains. And if I’m going to stick to the bread, I at least need to do it right. And so that really like just that knowledge changed everything for me. Then I decided to get certified as a personal trainer because I kept being told by people at the gym that I should, and they would come to me like, “Oh, let me join you,” and I would say, “Oh, well, shall we exercise together?” And they would see how I would exercise and push myself. And they’re like, “Have you ever thought of being a trainer?” And I was asked that so many times I think, No, I do this for me. You’re crazy, of course not. And they kept asking, and I was told that by several trainers over the period of maybe five years, and I was like, You know what, perhaps I should, because then people would ask me, Hey, how do you do this? How come you’re fit? How can I do this? I’m like, Well, OK, all right, I’ll do it. But I also wanted to live in Japan. That was another dream that I was waiting to fulfill while I was in L.A. I went in the meantime because, as I said, I’m from Mexico, but to teach English in Japan, I needed to be an American citizen and my mom’s American, but I was a resident. So I had to wait until I had my citizenship to apply to go to Japan. So in the meantime, I went to L.A., and I did acting and modeling there. And then I was like, OK, but let me go to Japan first. But what if I don’t get in? So I got my certification before I left; I did get in and went to Japan for two years. I taught P.E. classes in a Japanese high school a couple of times, and it was super fun. I was an English teacher, but you know, they have you get involved with the students. And it was just really, really fun because I taught them I did three different ones, and one was just all cardio like high intensity, like high-intensity interval training. And then the other one was just yoga, and then the other was strength training. And so, I kicked little butts, you know, like it was awesome.

 

[00:10:06] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: How old are they? How old were the kids?

 

[00:10:08] Lizette Ortiz: They were in high school. So it was the last three years of high school, because they do years, like in Mexico, where it’s like three middle schools, three high schools. So they were between 15 and 18.

 

[00:10:16] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Wow. Kenna that sounds familiar. How did you begin? How did you start your fitness stuff?

 

[00:10:21] Kenna Vaughn: Oh, my mom’s always been super active. We come from a super active family just because my mom has crazy amounts of energy. She’s always like, Let’s go hiking, swimming, let’s do this. Like, we never just watched T.V. or did anything. So I just grew up exercising and in sports; it was just always a thing. So, yeah, I just continued it and then, in high school, joined high school sports. And then, once I got to college, I wasn’t in any sports. Now I just felt weird. Like once you have been active for so long, you can’t just sit around. So I kept working out, kept doing that. And then, you know, I really loved watching your body change. It’s fascinating. So I just watched my own body change and not even that, like you said, how you feel, you’re like, oh, I have so much energy. I’m sleeping great. I’m doing better in school. Like, everything just starts to come together. So I just changed my major. Initially, I wanted to do physical therapy because I wanted to help people. But then I realized that I wanted to help them in more ways than just that. And so I switched it to exercise science, where it’s more focused around nutritional aspects and things like that, where I could kind of do almost a little bit more with it for where I wanted to go in life. So then I switched to that, and then we ended up moving to El Paso. And now we’re here, and we love it, and we’re still working out when I have a son. So he’s always busy, always playing, and we’re always looking up like, what’s the youngest soccer league they have? Like something to get them interested? Because I also think if you give people tools early on, it also helps them so that they don’t have to have that same struggle you had. Because even though my mom was always active, she was still always like on a diet. She always wanted to look at how T.V. looks. And it’s not always real as they look. So she never really went about it the healthy way because she was uneducated. So she was just kind of like that. Yeah, sorry, mom. She doesn’t know about fitness and how carbs and everything actually works in your body. She sees Pinterest, and she’s like, Oh, same how you were talking earlier. Well, this keto works for them, so I’m going to do it. But suppose you don’t know what’s happening in your body, how you don’t know the results because you’re not doing it correctly. In that case, you’re not following everything because there’s so much misinformation. So I love that you love to spread information and teach our clients real-life skills that they’re going to use and implement.

 

[00:13:07] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Lizette, what kind of other clients do you have? What kind of clients do you like to train? What’s the thing that you enjoy the most?

 

Lizette’s Transition

 

[00:13:14] Lizette Ortiz: My thing? You know what? I enjoy all kinds, and I really have had all sorts of clients. I’ve had everything from people who used to be athletes in school who now aren’t like they’ve only been out from being athletes for like six months. So they’re still super fit, and they want to keep training, you know? So I can push them really hard for that. So that’s fun because I get to play with them, test them, and have them do crazy things that I come up with. It’s like, OK, now let’s jump over that box, and then you’re going to pick up this weight, and then you’re going to do a clean and pressed, and then you are going to turn around, and you can do it again. And they’re like, OK. Because they can, right? But then also something that I love is the people looking for a transformation. They’re like; You know what? Like, I feel sluggish. I feel tired. I just don’t feel good. I’m starting to feel the pounds adding up, and I just have aches and pains. It’s like, OK, let’s begin, and I love seeing them progress. Yes, I love seeing a person who can do ten squats and be dying. And then, by the end of the month, they’re hitting up the twenty, and by the twenty, they’re dying. But they look so much stronger; they feel great. They already told me I feel stronger. I can sleep better, you know, like, that’s just so I feel like my favorite is probably the transformations,

 

[00:14:36] Kenna Vaughn: It’s like seeing their aha moments almost when they realize that they’re like, I’m here, this is what I’m doing. This is what I’ve wanted. And yeah, as you said, that progress when you first start seeing that gives them even motivation to help them even more. And it’s a great excuse to keep going.

 

[00:14:52] Lizette Ortiz: Precisely like when people are like, oh, struggling to do a push up on their knees. And then the first time you see them do five off their knees and they’re so proud of themselves, you’re so proud of them. It’s like, yes, or like, Oh, I didn’t have any cravings this week because they finally were able to put themselves through, you know, like cleaning out their eating. And now they’re used to eating healthy and eating like the healthy versions of sweet things, you know, and just having them have their aha moment, having them feel and live the transformation and understand it and be like, I love this, I can do this, and I want to do this forever. That’s my favorite.

 

[00:15:34] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: It makes a big difference. You know, El Paso has been in the last couple of years. I’ve been here since 1991, so I’ve seen the transition. When I first came here, El Paso was dilapidated. It was a different town, and I got to say that I came from South Florida when I first came. My background was a fitness person, and we were all into exercise physiology in Florida and California; when I came out here in 91, there was no one into fitness. They didn’t understand what it was to diet. There was a lot of metabolic syndrome and many issues with weight, you know, waist-hip ratios. It wasn’t important. As I mentioned before in a previous podcast, El Paso was considered the fattest sweaty town in the United States at one point. So within about 2000, I started seeing a migration of many fitness people and many people that took to it. And it’s cool to see you guys because you guys have a love for fitness that’s endemic and everywhere in El Paso, where right now we’re inside of the PUSH Fitness Center. It’s a CrossFit type of fitness center. Daniel Alvarado owns it, and he’s the one that might be here in a few moments. But what I wanted to say was that the world has changed in terms of fitness, and it’s got a lot of individuals like yourselves that are out there teaching people, showing people, Where do you teach people at? Where’s your fitness center at?

 

Working Out From Home

 

[00:16:57] Lizette Ortiz: Well, right now, at the moment, I am not at a fitness center, but when I do have a fitness center where I have been, is a Mets personal trainer and wellness center, which is on Airport Road. So I am one of the trainers that use those facilities. Before that, I was working at Gold’s Gym, but right now, the goal is to have my own small, just a small gym for only personal training and coaching. I originally wanted to have like actually kind of like this, like the PUSH Fitness Center, you know, necessarily CrossFit, but like a small gym where anybody can come and do their workouts. And also I like HITT. So I like teaching like short 30 minutes HITT classes.

 

[00:17:39] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: When you say HITT, what do you do, particularly in your HITT classes?

 

[00:17:46] Lizette Ortiz: Gosh, so many things. So for HITT, I enjoy anything that is a lot. It’s a very singular word because it’s like you kind of hate it at that moment, but then you feel so good afterward, and it’s a lot of jumping. So a lot of plyometrics, so a lot of jumping on. I like box jumps, love the burpees, combos, and something else. So, for example, like a burpee to a clean and press, and then do that like ten times, and then you do something else. A lot of slam ball, you know, I love doing those and a lot of compound movements. And I also like doing the HIRT, which is high-intensity resistance training. So it’s like HITT, but instead of so much jumping right, you’re doing more of the strength. So really pushing short sets. Repeat between four and six minutes, give them a break, maybe 45 seconds to a minute, and then keep going.

 

[00:18:42] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: That’s awesome. You know, with the transition, with the people who are stuck at home. I guess you have adapted to that situation in terms of the COVID protocol.

 

[00:18:50] Lizette Ortiz: I know. Yeah. Well, seeing everybody virtual. I live in a small apartment, but I have a space where I can move. So I just tell my clients or make sure you find a spot in your house, your backyard, wherever you can. We have enough room to do a, b and C before we have our meeting, and then we meet up on Zoom, and I usually end up working out with my clients. I’m going, be honest with you; I can’t stand there watching you do push-ups.

 

[00:19:21] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know what? That’s true. As a fitness individual, I don’t know the idea that the best workouts are when you do it with somebody, right? So, you know, even as a young kid, I was involved in training individuals, and it was not fun watching. It’s like I’m wasting my life here watching you, right? So you get in there with them, you know, and while you’re in there, you give them a significant amount of time to rest, and it’s almost like back and forth. So it’s kind of in tune the same way. So I like that. What other things do you do in terms of the times?

 

[00:19:54] Lizette Ortiz: Well, besides that, we do because many people don’t have equipment at home. So I am implementing many of my HITT workouts with the people who can do it. But for example, my older clients can’t really be jumping around and doing things like that. But we work more on balance and flexibility and just essential strength. So no equipment workouts, which honestly, you don’t necessarily need equipment to get a good workout. You can always kick your butt with nothing, just your own body weight. So I do a lot of body weight. If people happen to have the equipment, you know, like some of us have a couple of dumbbells or a band or something. So I adapt to whatever they have at home, be that nothing or using the gym at home. You know, some people are lucky, and they have a total gym so I can go.

 

[00:20:45] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: What do you think of this new movement where the rubber bands and people using, you know, elastic bands to be able to supplement?

 

[00:20:51] Lizette Ortiz: I like it a lot because of several things. One, it’s cheaper. So it makes strength training more reachable for anybody more approachable. And you can take it anywhere so you can travel with them. You can keep your routine even if you travel. And it’s another thing that I like as a trainer and a fitness person; you know you need variety both in what you eat and what you do activity-wise. So I think they also add a nice variety to what you can do with them. The only thing is you need to know, like with so many other things; you need to educate yourself or have someone educate you about how to properly use them because it’s so easy for a band, for example, to put it in the wrong place by your knees and put the pressure in the wrong place. And I’m sure, as you know, you could mess up joints by not putting the right equipment in the right place. So if you’re using a band wrong, you could potentially cause some damage if you don’t know how to use it properly.

 

[00:21:52] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Yeah, I was watching my son, he trains people, and they got caught in Chicago, and they were held into the university, and the gyms were closed and out there in Chicago, and they developed these kinds of fantastic rubber band techniques. And he calls his group the functional fitness fellas. But what they learned is that all those exercises that you guys do with the rubber bands, you know, it helps out the joints because the rubber bands kind of glide in the direction of the body movement. And that’s not obvious until you go through it; you feel like, man, this feels good. And then you also get the negative joy out of it because you’re holding it from snapping back, right? So it’s a cool thing. So I think that’s cool. Do you work on diets as well?

 

Cutting Out The Carbs

 

[00:22:42] Lizette Ortiz: Yes. I do a lot of nutrition. So, anybody, I train for fitness, I also coach them in their nutrition again. We were talking about how they go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other, right? And so for diets, it usually depends on people’s goals. Most people, especially in El Paso, like we’re talking about, most people are looking to lose weight, get fit, right? So, first of all, to lose weight, we need to balance things out. I always suggest to everybody that just for health, in general, is to balance your plate in a way that half of it has to be seventy-five percent of it should be vegetables. That’s what makes me happy, you know? Yeah. And I think that’s the best. Why? Because they have fiber. They have vitamins. Mineral. They have all the good stuff that we need.

 

[00:23:32] Kenna Vaughn: Well, if you look at a food plate now, if you Google like what a food plate should be. So much of it is grains and bread, and it’s like the person who made it isn’t. They need more vegetables, you know? So but yeah, we need more.

 

[00:23:47] Lizette Ortiz: They struggle with that. With clients precisely because they see that plate. And it’s like here it says that I need to have bread every day. I know how to order my plate should be bread, and I’m like, Well, no, though, yeah, especially if you want to lose weight and especially not that bread, it’s like, you know, and so basically, I always recommend you want weight loss. You want to feel better. Let’s cut out all the super processed grains first. First of all, there is no pasta, bread, cookies, processed sugar, or added sugars. That’s my first step.

 

[00:24:18] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: What do they say when that happens?

 

[00:24:21] Lizette Ortiz: They get very sad. It’s always that sad face, but it’s also like a knowing sadness. Like, I knew you were going to say that, you know, it’s kind of like, they don’t say it, but you can see it in their face. And it’s like, I’m sorry. I know everyone wants to hear magical. What are you calling a recipe? A magic recipe that is just like snaps, and I can eat and do whatever and just Netflix all day and eat chips and be skinny but and fit. But you can’t. So like 50 to 75 percent veggies. The other quarter or half should be balanced between proteins, healthy fats, and maybe a few carbs, but whole grains. And I always suggest that whole grains and that type of starches and things are kept to a minimum. I always recommend keeping them out entirely or two to three times a week, especially for weight loss. I would say no more than three times a week is what I recommend, and I usually recommend my clients eat their grains whole. Preferably, you know, brown rice or quinoa or buckwheat. Oh my god, I love buckwheat. I just started buying it and eating it, and I love it. I mean, but it’s very little like you need half a cup, you know, like, you don’t need a million pounds of this. You don’t need to fill up a bowl with rice or something and then put like three vegetables on it. It’s the opposite.

 

[00:25:48] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: So, do you do the Zoom diets too as well? Do you help them out with their diets?

 

[00:25:52] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah. So I do nutrition coaching. We usually talk, and it’s basically a conversation. The first time I got to know my client, we talked about it. What are your needs? What do you do? What is your schedule? Do you like to cook? Do you have time to cook? Because all of these are essential things, you know? And yeah, cooking makes life easier. But at the same time, not everyone has the time or the ability,

 

[00:26:16] Kenna Vaughn: And you want to make a plan for them that they’ll stick to.

 

[00:26:18] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, exactly. And you want them to stick to it. So I always try to work with them regarding, OK, what do you have available this and this? I make my notes. We talk about it. I give them the information verbally. But then, once we’re done now that we’re doing it this way, once we’re done, I send an email that has all the knowledge that I have. So everything that we talk about portions, the plate portion sizes, like measure your proteins like this. Like, for example, your fist is good to measure your vegetables. And for example, for women, we want to eat at least four to six portions a day. So it’s like, that’s the easy way to eyeball it.

 

[00:26:56] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You love that Kenna.

 

[00:26:59] Kenna Vaughn: I’m not the best at always getting in four to six, but it’s a good memory to have.

 

[00:27:04] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Four to six is good. You know what? You try to figure out which diets can work for people for many diets. Sometimes we end up with Mediterranean, low fat, you know, low carbohydrate diets; these diets change. I’m finding that many of them are just for El Paso in general, from the Mediterranean to low fat to even ketogenic diet. And there’s been a lot of talk about the ketogenic diet. What do you do and offer those, or what kind of diets do you like working with an individual?

 

Different Types Of Diets For Different People

 

[00:27:36] Lizette Ortiz: It really, again, it depends on the person because you also have to consider vegan people, you know, people who are vegan, who are vegetarian, or who have specific allergies to certain things. And so you need to take a lot of that into account. And so, I don’t necessarily prefer very restrictive diets like keto and things only because people have a tough time sticking to them.

 

[00:28:05] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: I don’t know anyone who can for a long time now.

 

[00:28:07] Lizette Ortiz: It’s hard, and then they always want to like, kind of cheat and say, Oh, but I had this too. And it’s like, No, if you’re doing keto, it’s so specific like Kenna was talking about, if you don’t know what this process is doing in your body, like, there’s a particular reason why you’re only supposed to eat A B and C, but not D E F, you know. And so if you add a little bit of these other ones, you are throwing the whole thing off balance, and instead of losing weight and still feeling better, you’re actually going to ruin it. So I prefer to work on something sustainable, which would be just OK, kind of like proportioning yourself, try aim for the plates. But I do like paleo. Paleo. Yes, I love paleo. Or like primal-ish. Yes, I always say that my diet is kind of primal-ish. How so? Because I stick primarily to meats, vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts. I don’t do a lot of byproducts like I’ll eat eggs, for example, that, but that’s something that you could have gotten me primally. And then the ish comes from the grains. So my ish comes from grains. Sometimes cooked potatoes would say that wasn’t a thing they were doing. And my added sugars, I guess, which I don’t do a lot of, and I use monk food and stevia. But for the most part, I try to eat as whole as possible, and I consider that primal-ish because it’s mostly things that are the least processed possible. And that’s what I prefer to do.

 

[00:29:47] Kenna Vaughn: Do you give your clients like help in the grocery store like I know I learned when I first went to college and I had to buy my own groceries that if you stick to usually the outsides of the grocery stores, you’re going to be way healthier because once you start going in those aisles, that’s where you start all of the bad stuff, all the additives, it all starts coming in and a lot of people, I didn’t even think about it until I was in that position. I was like, Wow, that’s so true. Yeah. So what kind of tips do you give your clients when it comes to grocery shopping and success and things like that?

 

[00:30:21] Lizette Ortiz: Basically, that exactly. When I first heard the saying, I was already doing it, but I hadn’t thought about it enough. And so when I heard shop the perimeter of the store, I thought of like, Oh, no wonder, I never know where anything is inside, like in the middle aisles if I ever need a can of something. Yeah, I’m like, I don’t know where they have that or like if I’m going to bake and I need regular flour for something like I don’t know where that is because I always like, shop the perimeter of the store. So yes, I would definitely do that when shopping; stick to buying things that are the least amount and have the least amount of processing. So if you go around the perimeter, you get all your vegetables, you get your meats, you get your animal products where you have your milk, cheese, you have all those things. So I think that’s an excellent idea. You also have your freezers, which, while they do have all the bad frozen stuff, also have frozen fruits and veggies, which, as we know, sometimes can be better than buying fresh. Because if the zucchini is sitting in your fridge for two weeks, yeah, it’s lost a lot of nutrition. But if you buy some frozen stuff, it keeps its nutrients a little better so you can make smoothies, especially for people who don’t have a lot of time. I recommend frozen fruits, for example, and just kind of like, throw them in the smoothies, some yogurt, and let’s go, you know, quick breakfast.

 

[00:31:46] Kenna Vaughn: We are big smoothie fans here. Because, as you said, they’re so fast. And just throw everything you need in there. You’ve got your fruits. You can do vegetables there, too.

 

Daniel Alvarado’s Transition

 

[00:31:57] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Hi Lizette, we got Daniel here. Daniel, come on and have a seat. Have a seat. Daniel, he’s come on into a camera view. You know this is Daniel Alvarado, we’re in his house. We’re talking about diets and food, and nutrition Daniel. This is Lizette, and your microphone is right here. And we got the cameras on them, so they both fit in there. OK. So what we’re dealing with is, is we’re talking about how we can help people out in this crazy period of time, specifically with their diets. Can you hear, OK,? We are giving you the small chair today.

 

[00:32:40] Lizette Ortiz: That’s why I scooted the chair up.

 

[00:32:41] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: He’s six foot six now. We gave him the broken chair.

 

[00:32:49] Lizette Ortiz: I know. My feet aren’t even touching the ground, so you know how short I am.

 

[00:32:53] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Daniel, just to turn to you for a little bit here. In the last couple of days, I’ve noticed that this place gets packed in terms of people looking for new fitness during these periods. How has it been during this COVID time for you regarding diets and terms of fitness?

 

[00:33:09] Daniel Alvarado: It’s been a lot of adaptabilities. Trying to make sure to make everybody feel as comfortable and safe as possible. So we have constantly like screening every single class as far as wiping things down and mopping every area. I mean, the gym has never been cleaner than ever before, which is…

 

[00:33:25] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: And I can attest to that. I love this place. I really want to eat in this place, man. I want to eat off the floor.

 

[00:33:31] Daniel Alvarado: Yes. But with that and then with still the online training programs that we’re sending. I’m sending people the option to either come into the gym or do it at home. We were able to rent some equipment out to feel comfortable and do it at home until they felt safe and returned to the gym. But through all of that, whatever I’ve told people, they have to make sure that the workouts have to be a little longer than here because they’re living a more sedentary lifestyle so they can eat the same as it were before. Even if you were used to driving from point A to point B up and down and around, you’re still doing more activity than we were before because now you’re just behind a computer sitting down, and you sit down, and then you go to the sofa. And then when you go to the couch, and then you get up and water the grass.

 

[00:34:26] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: It isn’t going to the refrigerator exercise?

 

[00:34:29] Daniel Alvarado: Yeah, unless you’re prepared for your refrigerator away from your house.

 

[00:34:34] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: It’s a good idea to come to your house and everyone to eat at your refrigerator.

 

[00:34:39] Lizette Ortiz: Only ten burpees on your way to the fridge every time.

 

[00:34:43] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Yeah, that’s a good idea. Ten burpees on the way to the fridge. You know what? That makes it worthwhile. Just the punishment for opening the door. Exactly. So I’ve noticed that everyone is doing; I know Lizette was speaking regarding that; she does the telehealth over the phone, over the systems, and on the internet and Zoom. You found that to be very comfortable. I know you began that process when this COVID got hard and heavy; you were all over just talking to people, one on one on the internet. How did that work out, Daniel?

 

[00:35:19] Daniel Alvarado: Yeah. It was a harder transition for me first; it took me about a week afterward shut down to get it going just because. First of all, I’m not the craziest about even face time, I wouldn’t say I like looking at myself when I’m talking to someone, which is weird, so I would have to shut off the camera, but then it defeats the purpose because, you know, some people want to see you. So we develop videos, and it shows you how to, whether it’s another instructor or me, and how to do the workouts and things like that. And then all our app is messaging so you can instantly message on the app, and we send our motivational quotes, daily tips, you know, things like that to help them keep them going through the transition because I got used to interacting with people on a day to day basis. So sitting on a computer, which I hadn’t done in a very long time since I was back in school. Yeah, it was different for me, but it was good. I mean, you have to adapt to survive, you know?

 

[00:36:19] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know, I’ve seen the whole world go through a massive transition in terms of fitness; she talked about the diet and how you help people with diets and tune in to diets during these periods of time?

 

[00:36:31] Daniel Alvarado: Initially, I asked them what their lifestyle was like. Obviously, they love working in a warehouse. Trying to keep them on a low-carb diet is probably not the most ideal, and they’re sweating those electrolytes, things like that. So then they get grumpy, and dehydrated feel weak, right? Then at the end of the day, once they get through their lifestyle, I can adapt to their courting needs from there. If they only work out three times a week or just have more carbs than those workout days, you know, fewer carbs on the non-work days. So everything’s just right. Yeah, balance and manageability according to the individual’s lifestyle are like.

 

[00:37:15] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know, it’s a big thing, and let me ask you this: how are people adapting to coming out, especially during these times? How do they feel when they come in? And with all the regulations and all the fear that is behind people?

 

[00:37:29] Daniel Alvarado: Well, we ensure that if before they walk into a door, if our primary focus is that they can smell bleach, OK, if they can smell bleach, then our gym and facilities clean. So we try to keep that. And I said, I know it sounds dumb, but I do ask people, Hey, how does it smell? You can smell the cleaning from the parking lot. Cool. We’re good. So that’s what makes people feel initially comfortable. Obviously, they’re not inhaling it at all, so don’t misconstrue my words.

 

[00:38:01] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Well, we do have a biochemist on the line here. OK, so the biochemist would be my son, and he calls me up. He goes, Hey, Dad, listen, I know that you like the smell of bleach. And I go, Yeah, OK, that makes it clean. It goes, but I want you to know some chlorine is odorless, right? It’s a good point. So he says it’s when it binds to specific urea molecules, right where the smell of the chlorine comes out. So actually, the scent at a pool and the scent in the area is the actual effect of its combining with human dynamics. Isn’t that interesting?

 

[00:38:39] Kenna Vaughn: I don’t know if I wanted to know that.

 

[00:38:40] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Yeah, I think you won’t know it. You know what? I got to tell you, and it lets you know that when it’s being used, and you smell that combination, it’s doing its job.

 

[00:38:48] Lizette Ortiz: It’s working.

 

[00:38:50] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: It’s working because of chlorine…

 

[00:38:53] Daniel Alvarado: Ask him if farts are odorless?

 

[00:38:54] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Well, you know, I don’t know. This is a different kind of show. I mean, it’s a different kind of call. You took it too well; thank you for coming by then. No, so we’re looking at it, and it is a big difference because you’re seeing a lot of people. And when I was surprised with Danny, is knowing how many people are out there, Lizette, there’s a lot of people out there that need the fitness. Are you finding many people coming to and knocking on your door asking for your kind of like, help me now because this is a huge problem? Many people don’t know what to do, and they need help. Do you see that there’s a lot of people outreach towards you?

 

[00:39:32] Lizette Ortiz: Right now, because of the situation? Yes. Now, especially now that it’s been months and people are seeing the effects of their change of lifestyle, you know, the less walking, the less activity, and the improper eating. Yeah, over the last week, I have even been approached by like three people within two days. Yes. So that’s not normal because I’m not even promoting right now.

 

[00:40:02] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: We promote via social media, I guess.

 

[00:40:05] Lizette Ortiz: You know, it’s like, Oh, geez, OK.

 

Healthy Tips For A Functional Body

 

[00:40:07] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know what? Sometimes, I get deceived by the context through the push, and I see people three o’clock in the morning. Hey, I need help at two o’clock in the morning. People all over the time. Just we need help. We need to have individuals who can help us and guide us. So it’s cool to see what’s going on. Let me ask you this in terms of these times nutritional tips. Tell me a bit about what kind of nutritional tips you tell people. And Danny just mentioned some things about, you know, certain things to eat. How do you do it?

 

[00:40:37] Lizette Ortiz: Well, along the lines of what Danny said was precisely like a great point is making sure that what you’re taking in matches, what you’re doing during the day. So if you’re doing your workout that day and you have like really intense workout or intense job, you can eat maybe your carbs that day, you know, like add some rice or some buckwheat or quinoa to your lunch. On the other days, if you’re not doing anything, you only maybe walked for 30 minutes or an hour and then went home and just chilled all day. Then good salad, some grilled veggies, steamed veggies, and grilled proteins or alternatives would be good. So my biggest tip is to cut out all the additives that you don’t need, like sugars and super processed foods. But make sure that if you are exercising the days that you are active, you are ingesting the right amount of food and the suitable types of foods. Just match your foods, your intake to what you’re doing and mostly stick to the veggies, stick to the lean proteins, and then when you’re active, you can have a little bit of the starches.

 

[00:41:50] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: I’d like to ask both of these questions because I know we can talk forever, and we have some of the communicators here. But let me ask you this, Danny, in terms of like a visual are how to set up a kitchen, you know, for success. I was, you know, kind of questioning, how do you approach a person and say, this is how I want you to set up your kitchen so that you can be successful? This is the domain. Everything starts in the kitchen. It begins there, and from there, it propagates, so how do you help them prepare the philosophy or the way of thinking for their kitchen?

 

Mindful Eating

 

[00:42:26] Daniel Alvarado: That can be designed in 101 different ways.

 

[00:42:30] Lizette Ortiz: I guess it depends on the person, huh?

 

[00:42:32] Daniel Alvarado: But what I tell people is if they’re going to lose weight and it’s not healthy. Please don’t buy it. It’s probably the easiest thing. Tips, obviously. Don’t buy them. Candy. Please don’t buy it.

 

[00:42:48] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: That’s true.

 

[00:42:51] Daniel Alvarado: It’s a realistic way because if you buy it, I don’t care who you are. Even me, if there was a bag of chips at home. I’ll open them up and start to like to eat them. Yeah, exactly. Yes. So I will tell people all you know that willpower is just saying no to those chips. It’s dumb, you know? Don’t buy it because, obviously, at 9:00 at night, you’re less likely to go out to the corner store and buy chips or candy or ice cream or something like that. So please don’t buy it. So if, for example, your cheat day is on a Saturday, then go out on a Saturday and go to the grocery store and buy like a tiny little container of ice cream.

 

[00:43:31] Lizette Ortiz: For that one day. For one sitting only.

 

[00:43:34] Daniel Ortiz: Yeah, because if you buy a tub of ice cream because you know you’re not in it. Well, I mean, you might be finishing today, but don’t. But at least you have a gauge as far as what to do and what not to do. And then you could also do it as far as. All right. So I didn’t buy this amount of extra junk. I say 40 bucks. Why don’t you take that 40 bucks and put it into an additional account? You add it up. That’s an issue range of dollars a month, and use that to reward yourself. You could buy. I don’t know whatever you’re you’re into unnecessary new clothes, something for your car or something for your house, you know, but find other means of reward for yourself. Because if you’re just looking for food as a reward, then you’re going to go into a constant cycle of never losing weight.

 

[00:44:19] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Danny, you mentioned something important, and I think sometimes we need some way to quarantine ourselves because we’ll be good if we’re quarantined. And one of the things is through the budget. If you can take the budget and say, my family typically spends, let’s say, $400 on their food a week because it gets expensive, right? How about just saying, you know what, I will not allow me this myself to spend more than $300, right? And in that $300 you got to make, you got to shoot it perfect. In other words, you’re not going to get the extra junk, the ice creams, and the stuff; you’re going to get them the stuff that is healthy inside the diet. And if you can do that, I bet you say that if a family that eats four hundred dollars a week can say, I’m going to make my budget last for 250, let’s say 250, start with 250 and bust yourself to work 250 in that store and make sure that you don’t put anything extra at that point. You’ve hit close to the market, and before you know it, your refrigerator starts looking good; it starts to look nutritional things. You don’t have the extra bonbons, the sugary stuff, the chocolates, the cookies, and all those things get that are bad in our diets if they’re expensive, too. And that’s what you were alluding to that you say; you know what? That’s extra money. But if we don’t know, what’s a hundred bucks a week for food, for a family that’s four hundred dollars a month? Well, that’s four hundred dollars. That’s five. That’s $5000 a year. That’s $5000. So if you look at it, if you look at 100, you can save about $2000 almost if you had $150. What can you do with two thousand dollars a year? That’s just on the budget side of things, right? So if you can contain it and say, you know, I’m going to stick to that, it may help people also guide and make the right choices because I don’t have the option to go ahead and buy the chips aisle. That’s expensive. And that’s the stuff that gets us, you know, kind of unhealthy. Well, the well-nourished is what they call it. That’s what I call it in the books, Well-nourished. So those are the awesome things. So let me ask you this in terms of nutritional tips for people to be left with today because I know we can talk for three days here. Nutritional tips. What are the nutritional tips during these times? Could you give them that? Lizette, tell us about your nutritional tips for people to help them out during these times.

 

Nutritional Tips

 

[00:46:37] Lizette Ortiz: My nutritional tips? Well, part of the like with the kitchen setup, I feel like it’s essential that you can implement some of the suggestions that I’ve said before is having the right kind of equipment in the kitchen. For example, if you have, for example, good nonstick pans, that’s going to reduce the amount of oil because so many people are like, Oh, well, just so it doesn’t stick, right? Right? One million gallons of oil, that’s like, no, get a good nonstick pan. And then one teaspoon of oil should be thin enough to give your food a good flavor and like, you know, measure yourself, basically measure oil and make sure you have the right equipment, bake things. Make sure you have stuff in the kitchen to bake to grill anything baked. Anything grilled is much better than anything fried. Right? Of course. Get an air fryer, and there you can have. Oh my god, yes, you can get fries. You can have wings. Not extra greasy, you know, like now and then when you have your treat instead of a super greasy meal, you know you can make it. So basically, just make sure you have the resources to make healthy choices like Danny’s point is precisely something that I always say is don’t keep it. That’s also my number one is don’t keep junk at home. Only get it when you want it at the weekend; get one for that day, whenever your cheat day is. And that’s it. Other than that, fill up on veggies and lean proteins and save the starch and the carbs for either when you worked out hard or only two to three times a week and only whole grain.

 

[00:48:12] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: These are fantastic tips. I could see myself doing that. Do you got any tips, Danny, for people during these times?

 

Am I Hungry or Thirsty?

 

[00:48:19] Daniel Alvarado: Make sure you distinguish whether you’re thirsty or hungry. A lot of times, people will confuse that. And so we drink eight 16 ounces of water. Even you can swing it with little crystal light. I don’t. I always recommend that, but you can chug that first. And if you’re still hungry, your body needs some nutritional value. But if you get full after you get energized, you should be good. You’re just thirsty, dehydrated, and another thing is moderation of fruits, you know, apples and strawberries, blueberries, things like that. Anything like mangoes, bananas are a little bit higher in sugar. So maybe you can save way from those because they sometimes will make you hungrier as a result of the release of certain hormones, and they’ll take your body into thinking that it’s hungrier when it’s not so. But a lot of people will confuse that. When you eat carbs, you sometimes get full, you get full four for a short amount of time, and then you’re hungry right away again, and then you think your metabolism is going. But it’s not necessarily true. It’s releasing hormones as tricking the mind in the body into thinking that it’s hungry and not complete. But in reality, like it, you’re not hungry. So distinguishing those two is part of on top of what I just said that would help you. Like I said, the more basic, the better. The more complex, the more options you give yourself, the harder it’s going to be. There are so many diets out there, and they’re all excellent in their own way as long as you stay consistent. Yes, we’re using diets that don’t work is because everybody stops after 14 or 15 days, and then they have to start the loop all over again. It takes 21 days to create a habit, you know? So if you break that before you, you have to start every single time. So it’s like, drive yourself crazy. It’s insanity, you know?

 

[00:50:15] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Yeah. Well, I got to tell you, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot. You know, I’ve learned about monk fruit. You have mentioned the monk fruits and. And tell me before, before you go, What are you? What are your theories on monk fruit, Lizette?

 

[00:50:26] Lizette Ortiz: Well, for now, because remember how Splenda was good?

 

[00:50:32] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know what I got to tell you right now. Splenda is like; they’re saying, Hey, you know what? Even stevia, even organic stevia. It’s already like, you know, it’s on the list now.

 

[00:50:43] Lizette Ortiz: Oh, you’re going to leave me with no options. Well, so far, four until four. Now it seems like monk fruit. It tastes a lot like sugar, so it helps you with cravings. But it doesn’t affect that the fruits or the grains will give you where your insulin is going to drop, and then you’re going to be hungry again, or you store it in, it turns into fat or anything like that. So far, it looks like it doesn’t. I love it because it doesn’t have that bitter chemical aftertaste that maybe some stevia is due, and I’ve gotten away with sneaking that into desserts for kids and other people that don’t know that’s in it. They don’t notice the difference, and they’re cutting a ton of calories on it. You see, I love it so far.

 

Conclusion

 

[00:51:33] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: It’s a fantastic little dynamic option because one of the things is that with diseases, now the monster is insulin. And if we can stop the insulin reaction from occurring, that is the name of the game, whether through periodic eating or limiting you to time slots of eating. The whole thing is to stop lipoprotein lipase from putting it into fat. And the thing that does that is insulin, and monk fruit seems not to stimulate an insulin response. So that becomes the the the the biochemistry from what I understand it and like you said as of today, right? So we don’t know. So we’ll talk about those things as we go. Listen, I want to thank you guys up down on the bottom. You’ll see the connection to everybody here and the links directly to their facilities. And I look forward to having that. So we’ll talk about some more things in the future. Thank you. Kenna.Thank you, Danny. Thank you, Lizette. Thank you, me. We’re all here. Oh, and it was a comfortable place, and it was an exciting dynamic, and we’re going to be bringing different top. Kicks in, and as we go through the times and discuss those critical issues with our people in El Paso, it’s essential to understand the mines to be in with our patients. It’s not about them and us; it’s about we. So when we work together, we look together for solutions, and it’s not so cryptic when you realize that people like us are all trying to help everybody here. So look forward to connecting again and look forward to hearing from you. So thank you, guys. Thank you again.

 

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