#47 How to counteract a Gluten Attack, how to fix gut health, and is Alkaline water really good for you? With Autumn Smith!
Welcome back to the Waist Away Podcast! Today’s guest is the cofounder of Paleo Valley, which is an INCREDIBLE online resource, with a ton of helpful information, and a line of incredible products that she helped create. She is also one of the cohosts of the Optimize Paleo Podcast, which has become one of my favorites to listen to. Please welcome Autumn Smith!
To listen click here: https://chantelray.podbean.com/e/wa74/
To watch click here: https://youtu.be/Is_z5WprLns
Or read the full podcast transcription below!
Chantal Ray: Hey guys, welcome to this week’s episode. And today I have Autumn Smith and she co-founded Paleovalley with your husband Chaz. And this was after you battled different health issues and you are the co-founder of Paleovalley, which is just such a great online resource that it has such great information. The products are amazing and I know that you cohost the Optimize Paleo Podcast, which is one of my favorite to listen to. So everyone, please welcome Autumn Smith. Welcome.
Autumn Smith: Yay. Thank you so much. I’m so honored to be here and glad that you are enjoying the podcast and the products [inaudible 00:00:40] really hard. So that means a lot.
Chantal Ray: So I know that you had some frustrations with ‘healthy foods’ that were on the market and all of their crazy ingredients, which drive me crazy too, so you created a bunch of your own. How did your Paleovalley product line come to be?
Autumn Smith: Ooh, that’s a great question. So I was in the fitness world before I transitioned over into this kind of nutrition wellness realm. And I actually was, I found Paleo. It helped kind of ameliorate my irritable bowel syndrome that I suffered from for 15 years. Everyone told me there was no way to cure it, but I did it with diet and it was amazing. But then I went away on a tour and I wasn’t able to maintain the lifestyle because there wasn’t anything available. So I was in a different country basically every day. And it’s not that these countries didn’t have the food, it’s just that it wasn’t readily accessible and I didn’t always know what those other ingredients were. So when I came back from the tour and my husband and I decided, this Paleo thing is really important. It’s been the missing piece for us health wise and we need to be able to not only share information but also facilitate this lifestyle with the products.
Autumn Smith: And so we just started taking a look at what’s on the market more importantly, what’s not on the market. And our [inaudible 00:01:58] product are beef sticks, what we noticed about all beef sticks is they contain this up awful little ingredient called encapsulated citric acid. And it’s basically, it’s designed to drop the Ph. Right? It contains hydrogenated oil, which we all know is a disaster and a drive from GMO corn. So that melts into the product and it’s allowable and you don’t have to label it. That’s just the standard. So we decided to ferment them like our ancestors did, so that not only we can avoid that ingredient, but also there’s probiotics in it. And basically all of our products are the result of us just finding this gap in the market either wasn’t available or people were cutting corners. And so that’s our product line came to be-
Chantal Ray: That’s amazing.
Autumn Smith: [crosstalk 00:02:42] was help to other people.
Chantal Ray: Yeah. And so one of the things that you have on their, and we’re going to give it away, is, well, did you want to give away the Essential C Complex or the Grass Fed Organ Complex?
Autumn Smith: We can give away one of each.
Chantal Ray: Okay. Perfect. So we’re to give away one of each of those. And this is the thing that I absolutely love about your products is that there is no Magnesium stearate and there’s no all these other ingredients that make you sick when you take them. So when you take vitamins, even if you go to whole foods, even if you get the best vitamins, there’s so many that have Magnesium stearate or vegetable stearate. I mean just all these different ingredients that are terrible for your gut. So talk about those two products for just a second and what’s exactly in them.
Autumn Smith: Oh, awesome. Okay. Yeah, and that was the problem that we were having to, we were just like all of these really smart companies doing such beautiful formulations and then just adding this other stuff that, they’re just like, what? So Organ Complex. This came about because I was pregnant and I love to feel good and liver makes me do the happy dance. It’s nature’s multivitamin. It’s amazing. Best source of B12 and vitamin A in natural form. It literally takes my energy to a whole new level, but I can’t eat it. I can’t eat it. If you can eat it, that’s amazing. And I’m-
Chantal Ray: It’s awful. I know liver is … I don’t know how anyone can eat it. I think it’s absolutely disgusting.
Autumn Smith: I know, and I tried so hard. I did the pate, all the things, but I just, I couldn’t choke it down. So we put it in capsules, along with a little kidney and the little heart because all of the organs have different benefits of their own and nothing else. Nothing else. Just a gelatin capsule on this guy. No crap, nothing. This is a whole food vitamin a lot of people write in and say, this synthetic [inaudible 00:04:37] or what amounts and it’s just like we took the Organs and we freeze dry them obviously from grass fed animals of course, grass fed and finished animals. And then we didn’t add anything else because I believe, nature knows better than we do. And then we have the vitamin C complex. Now this little guy I wanted A vitamin C because it’s had a profound impact on my immune system, my mental health and all of it.
Autumn Smith: Most of it, something like 90% of vitamin C on the market is from GMO corn and it’s derived[inaudible 00:05:08]. Yeah. So I thought, you know what, I want those benefits. And it’s funny because some studies show that synthetic vitamin C does have some benefits, but I think you’re buying basically when you’re doing the synthetic version, that’s just one part of the vitamin C complex and all the other things you’re going to get from food. It’s kind of like just buying a steering wheel instead of the car. So this is just the world’s most potent natural sources of vitamin C-
Chantal Ray: So let’s talk about vitamin C for a second. Because I’m a huge, huge proponent of vitamin C. And the biggest thing with vitamin C is there’s been studies where there’s this one guy who talks about vitamin C and he’s like, it doesn’t matter what I have, if I have some kind of illness, he’ll literally take 15 vitamin C and in the next day or two, he’s healed. Because it’s such a powerful tool for healing. And the problem is, is if you go even to whole foods, my office is literally across from whole foods. If you walk over there, if you have 10 vitamin C, first of all, you’re going to have the worst diarrhea you’ve ever had. Your stomach is going to be upset. You know what I mean? And it’s terrible. And the ingredients that you have in your vitamin C is phenomenal, one of the top best.
Chantal Ray: So I’m just so impressed with your product. So, I’m so excited. Thank you for being so generous and we’re going to do a Facebook giveaway. Go to our Facebook page and we’ll have it in the show notes of exactly where that is, but for the Essential C Complex and that grasp at Oregon Complex, those two are like, do not pass. Go. Do not collect $200, get them and there’s or 100% grass fed beef sticks. Those are delicious. My husband , he eats grass feed beef sticks like they’re going out of style
Autumn Smith: Does he? It’s so good. And just so people know, they’re not like most beef sticks on the margin because or they’re like less jerky likes that like kind of make your jaw tired. They’re more like those hickory smoke summer sausages you get around Christmas time in terms of the taste and texture, is that your experience too?
Chantal Ray: Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, you told me that one of the things that you are passionate about is educating people on micro nutrient deficiency, which can just rear its head in everything from Dandruff to weight gain to high blood pressure and it’s such a big issue. Can you talk a little bit about that micro nutrient deficiency?
Autumn Smith: Yeah, of course. And so I’ve been kind of in this wellness space for like five years and what I’ve noticed is the people who come to me and need help in this area, they’re looking at the macro nutrients. Now macronutrients are just carbohydrates, proteins, fats, those are so important and tweaking the ratios can have profound impacts on your health. I’m never going to argue that. What I think what we’re missing is the bigger picture with these micronutrients, the vitamins, the minerals, the amino acids and the essential fatty acids that are actually the workhorses of the body. So if we work all day long and these macros, but we don’t have the micronutrients that are going to run our immune system, that catalyze our metabolism, our health is still going to suffer. And the problem is like threefold actually, that 95% of Americans are deficient in at least one nutrient.
Autumn Smith: I’d say way more than that. And that’s 300 million Americans. So the fact that it’s really, really prevalent, it’s an epidemic actually. The second thing is it’s dangerous. And we know not only are you going to have these annoying symptoms like brittle hair and nails and skin issues and fatigue, we are also going to significantly increase your risk of disease. Just vitamin D for example, one study a woman had lower levels. They increase their risk of cancer by something, by 200%. That’s profound. Vitamin B12. If we have it, if we don’t have enough, we can increase our risk of mental health issues and dementia. It’s just it’s a big deal that I don’t think is talked about enough. And the last piece, the last thing I think I want to mention is just that it’s silent. We don’t always feel this. There are sub clinical effects like for full later vitamin B9 we’re not going to wake up and notice that our DNA isn’t being repaired.
Autumn Smith: But that’s what’s happening. And so our body, what it does with these micronutrients is it triages them. So when we have some, it’s gonna prioritize our short-term survival over our long-term health. And why I think this is … I mean obviously it’s a problem if you want to live long, but I think today we’re living longer or we’re going to start seeing an increase in this lifespan. And I hope that with more awareness around this issue, we can also increase the health span or the time that you really, really feel good in your body and in those years. So that’s why I think it’s a big deal.
Chantal Ray: Now, another thing that you’re passionate about is functional testing, which I know so many of our listeners would be interested in because so many people want to know what’s wrong with me. Why am I not feeling good? So we need to get your gut checked, your hormones, text your antibodies, and just a bunch of other stuff. So what have you learned about functional testing and talk about it for just a minute.
Autumn Smith: Okay, cool. So have you ever heard of functional diagnostic nutrition?
Chantal Ray: Yes.
Autumn Smith: Okay. Yes. So I just completed their program because same thing, people would come to me and I would have these tools and the toolkit that I could change their diet and we could tweak their lifestyle. But if I didn’t ever get a glimpse into what was happening inside their body, because the same symptoms can be caused by very different issues. And so it is, it’s about getting to the root cause and that’s where the functional testing comes in. So functional diagnostic nutrition is just a program that teaches me and allows me to order labs for people. Now, before early in my career I would have said, yeah, testing for my food sensitivities really cleared up my skin issues, right. So I identified a garlic allergy or a garlic sensitivity that was just-
Chantal Ray: Oh my goodness, garlic. That’s awful. I’m like obsessed with garlic. My husband’s not crazy about the fact that I have so much of it, but I’m obsessed with it.
Autumn Smith: Yeah. And I was juicing it and causing like getting these just gigantic cystic acne everywhere. So that was helpful for me at that time. But what I’ve learned since is you’re going to listen to a bunch of different podcasts. They’re going to tell you about all the different tests. I’ve created a program that I’m launching with my good friend, Amanda Montalvo, where we do two tests. And my problem with functional testing is, is not readily accessible. Insurance doesn’t always cover it. And so this program will be doing the best and highest quality and most cutting edge gut testing, the GI map, and also the Dutch testing for your hormones. And that’s important because if you have parasites, if you have yeast, if you have bacterial overgrowth, if you have a leaky gut, if you have unaddressed HPA axis issues are your stress levels are out of control or have been, your healing, we don’t know where to start.
Autumn Smith: And we can throw a bunch of supplements at it and you can change your diet. But if your gut is not allowing you to absorb the nutrients and your stress levels are not allowing your body to relax and repair and restore, then you’re not gonna get anywhere or you’re not going to get to where we want you to be.
Chantal Ray: And how much are these tests? So let’s say someone wanted to take those tests, would they go to your site? Would they go to paleovalley.com?
Autumn Smith: Yes.
Chantal Ray: If someone wanted one of these tests? What would they do?
Autumn Smith: Yeah, I think reach out to me at automatepaleovalley.com no, I’ve designed this other program called Radiate in 28 which is kind of a prerequisite because it just takes people and it gets them over to a whole food lifestyle because I don’t think like, I don’t want to throw everything at them all at once. If we’re going to implement some protocols. I want to do that after you’ve kind of got your feet under you in doing all of the dietary things and then what we do is starting in March we’ll be offering this program and for the two tests it’s going to be, I think the program is going to be like 9/97 and that’s going to come with like three months of videos, just five minute videos each day that teach you how to implement this lifestyle. It’s going to come with support and it’s going to come with personalized protocols.
Chantal Ray: Awesome. That’s great.
Autumn Smith: Yeah and not having to go and have an appointment school and not having to go and have an appointment with a [inaudible 00:13:29], which is money, I’m not downplaying that. If you can afford that. Awesome. And this is just for people who can necessarily.
Chantal Ray: Right. So before we get started with our listener questions, I want to ask you something. I always ask all my guests, walk through us through a day in the life of Autumn. What do you eat in a typical day? And what did you eat yesterday? What’d you have breakfast, lunch, and dinner? What is your diet look like?
Autumn Smith: Okay, awesome. So in the morning I try to intermittent fast. I always give my body at the very least 13 hours from the time I eat dinner. But usually, ideally between 16 sometimes even 18, so in the morning I don’t just do nothing. I do my golden milk. I love golden milk. Do you drink golden milk?
Chantal Ray: No, I don’t tell me about it.
Autumn Smith: Okay. It’s just I take either coconut milk or almond milk and then you heat it up and I add a little coconut oil. I add as much tumeric as my taste buds can handle that day. Some ginger, just the tiniest bit of almond butter and maybe a little stubby as some people do. Honey, cool. If that were ever wherever you are, but yes, so I drink that and my collagen, we have a bone broth protein powder that I put in there too just to keep my blood sugar is stable, help my skin, hair, all this stuff.
Autumn Smith: And so then I usually don’t eat anything until lunch and then I make my kitchen sink salad and all I do there is, it’s like my goal to get at least 10 different vegetables in this salad. So it’s kind of like a game. And then I top it with organic olive oil, usually apple cider vinegar and some sort of protein. It just depends on how lazy I am. Sometimes are beef steaks, sometimes salmon, whatever and then for dinner usually like vegetables. And last night we had this amazing steak that my husband cooked, a New York Strip and it was really awesome and Brussels sprouts. And then I usually have more tea somewhere in there if I’m going to do some snacking, it’s usually something like almonds or an apple or I make these chocolate fat bombs. I have chocolate every day. But super high quality because I used to be really strict with my diet and I realized, you have to love your life and you have to love what you’re eating. So basically, yeah, lots of vegetables, fruits.
Chantal Ray: So tell us about this chocolate bomb that you eat. What’s in that.
Autumn Smith: I love this. Okay. So in my chocolate bomb, I take raw cocoa and probably, I think I’d do like a cup and then I’ll do a cup of coconut oil. And then I do my bone broth protein powder and then maybe two dates. That’s it. And I spin it up and then I will melt it obviously put in a blender. And then I pour into these little molds and I’m someone who really likes a little texture. So I’ll chop up almonds and put it in there. And then, yeah. So I just have these little heart shaped silicon molds because I have a baby or a toddler and he likes those. And then we put them in the fridge. And then just whenever I’m eating some chocolate, there it is chocolate has so many [inaudible 00:16:26].
Chantal Ray: I just made this new, these ginger cookies and if you get to chantelrayway.com/recipes, it’ll be up there, probably tomorrow and it is going to be … You will love them. They’re made with almond flour, but I believe they are the best paleo cookies you can find. They’re paleo, they’re Vegan. They are to die for. So they’re just amazing.
Autumn Smith: Awesome.
Chantal Ray: Yeah. You have to try. I need to send you some, you have to send Allie your address and I’ll mail you a couple because they are that good. Every person who’s tried them. I was like, maybe I need to just sell these because they are that good.
Autumn Smith: Yes, please send them to me because my little guy loves a good cookie and if I can get him-
Chantal Ray: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Great. If you had to say 95% of your diet is Paleo, 100%. Is there ever a day where you say, you know what, today I’m having X. What does that look like for you?
Autumn Smith: For sure, for the last few years I go through seasons. I think it’s helpful to go through seasons and I actually do like a paleo keto, because that really good for me, three times a year. And then the other times, yeah, once or twice a week, I just, I feel like deriving pleasure from your food and truly enjoying what you’re eating. But making it a special occasion is really, really important. And I definitely do that. So I’d say when I’m not in my keto, I do 28 day challenges. I’d say. Yeah, 80, 80, 90%
Chantal Ray: 80, 20, or 90, yeah. And that’s for me too. In my book I talk about eating 80% of your diet is paleo because it’s fruits, vegetables and lean meats and then 20% eating whatever you want. But I’m getting ready to roll out another edition of my book. And what I’m going to talk about is if you have some of these chronic illnesses like thyroid issues, autoimmune issues, rheumatoid arthritis, all these different things, then you might have to go to 95% you know what I mean? Depending on where your health stage is at 80, 20 is kind of if your, health is good, things are going good, but if you are in a position where your thyroid’s not functioning, this isn’t functioning, you’ve got to really be closer to that 95%.
Autumn Smith: So true. And did you do with autoimmune?
Chantal Ray: Yeah, I did. Yeah. I have some thyroid issues, some autoimmune issues, some psoriasis, so I have to really keep things really dialed in. Otherwise, my thyroid doesn’t function as well. My psoriasis starts coming back, all of that, so I have to be careful. All right, let’s jump in. This is from Carol in Arkansas, “I was at one of my favorite local restaurants last week and requested my sandwich on a gluten free bun, but I immediately felt horrible afterwards. My stomach was in knots and I felt so icky the rest of the day. I figured that they accidentally gave me regular bread, which has happened before. Next time this happens, which hopefully it won’t. What should I do to counteract this gluten attack?”
Autumn Smith: For me, I would do … If I ever do that because it’s funny, I used to be able to get away with a little gluten, not anymore. So I always do. Yeah. Activated charcoal will help. It will bind to all those toxins it will relieve. And then also a digestive enzymes. I don’t know. Do you know who Dr. Tom O’bryan is?
Chantal Ray: I don’t.
Autumn Smith: Oh really. Okay. He’s this amazing gluten expert and he’s actually created a glutenease line so you can get these, I think it’s called glutenins. And you can buy it and just for when you get glutened accidentally you can take it. And then the other thing is on top of those two, I would definitely be really focused on just reducing the inflammation. So I did some bone broth going. I would add some tumeric. I would add some ginger. I would really be concerned with my diet and all of those anti-inflammatory foods for the next part of the diet. And then probiotics obviously. Do you have a favorite probiotic?
Chantal Ray: Yeah, I do. Actually, it’s on under Chantel Ray Way. Things I love, it’s under there. My only concern with the probiotic that I love is that I think it’s like, I got to look at the count, but it’s such a high dosage of it that it’s called VSL number three, and it’s called probiotic medical food. And it’s a high potency probiotic capsules and the problem is it’s 112.5 billion, live lactic acid bacteria and it’s literally the highest available concentration of live bacteria. And so I get it from Amazon. It’s very expensive. I was taking too many of them for a while. I’ve really kind of calmed down a little bit on my probiotic take, I’m not taking as much as I used to. But I’m really focusing on taking, I love your Organ Complex, the Essential C. So I kind of, I don’t take it all the time. I’m not, I think it’s good for you to kind of change it up a little bit and not always take the same probiotic, change things up so your body’s not so used to it.
Autumn Smith: Yeah, I love that. And I really like Just Thrive. If you’ve ever talked about that or MegaSporeBiotic, have you ever talked about that one?
Chantal Ray: No, I haven’t.
Autumn Smith: Okay. The cool thing about it is just that it’s I mean this microbiologist Kiran Krishnan created it and he is incredibly intelligent and he saw the problem with most like VSL. I know that’s a pretty good quality one. Most probiotics don’t even survive the trip through the digestive tract. And so this one is spore based and it does and they’ve clinically tested that it healed leaky gut and I think 100% of participants in their clinical trial, anyway.
Chantal Ray: Wow.
Autumn Smith: It also has this one strain that produces any oxidants right at the site. So this one for me has really revolutionized my health. So-
Chantal Ray: And it’s called Just Thrive, right?
Autumn Smith: Yes. So MegaSporeBiotic is the one with, it has a few more strains, but it’s only available through practitioners, but then they’ve created a more consumer friendly, Just Thrive, which you can get anywhere on their website also on Amazon and it has a few less strains, but also is as effective and is also using the clinical trials. So yeah.
Chantal Ray: Awesome. All right. Pamela in Forest, Virginia, she says, “I developed a really bad staph infection and had no choice but to take an antibiotic, which I absolutely hate to do. I was scared and didn’t want it to spread. Anyways, I’m done with that antibiotic and my staph infection has gone and now I want to get my … ” Did we just do this question?
Autumn Smith: No.
Chantal Ray: No. We just were talking about, she said, “But I want to get my gut back in order. What can I do to get my gut health in check after wrecking it with antibiotics?” I was just like, wait a minute. We were just talking about the answer to this question. Did I just ask this?
Autumn Smith: I know, yeah, kind of. But, for me, I would definitely make sure that you’re not eating any inflammatory foods that are gonna further kind of damaged the grains, the sugar, the dairy for a while. And then also, yeah, adding probiotics not only in probiotic form but also in food form. So, sauerkraut, raw sauerkraut, things like if you eat kimchi, I don’t know if your listeners are open to that. Our beef sticks, they’re fermented, Kombucha. If you can find like a low sugar version, I think that’s a great option. And yeah, probiotics, I have a few that I like, Just Thrive is one. I really like, sometimes it’s kind of crazy. You want to test before you just throw like a bunch of probiotics because you don’t really know what the composition of your gut microbiome is.
Autumn Smith: And so, it’s always a good idea if you have that available. I also really like Dr. Grace Lou, do you know her?
Chantal Ray: No, I don’t.
Autumn Smith: Okay. She’s got a great probiotic as well, but yeah, that’s what I would do.
Chantal Ray: Awesome.
Autumn Smith: [inaudible 00:24:54].
Chantal Ray: All right. This is for Mariah in New Mexico. “My friend has been obsessed with alkaline water lately and she swears by it. I saw it for sale by the gallon and my local juice bar the other day and asked the cashier about it. She said I should start with a level seven because if I started with a level 10 I could become ill and get a migraine since I’m not used to alkaline water. It struck me odd that any sort of water could make me sick. And then I remembered something you said about how you aren’t a fan of it when eating, but I couldn’t remember when, why on your last podcast, what is your opinion on alkaline water and why?” I’ll let you go and then I’ll give my opinion on it.
Autumn Smith: Totally. Okay. Yeah, so my opinion on alkaline water is, it just, it depends. I don’t use it. I don’t use any artificially alkaline water, my water comes from a spring and so it’ll have these minerals. It’ll be slightly alkaline, but I think that, yeah, anything that gonna make you dizzy, give you migraines, that means you’re probably too alkaline to begin with. And you need a balance in the system. And like she was mentioning, if you drink it too close to mealtime, I’ve seen a lot of people drink it and then have undigested food in their stool. We need acid in our stomach because we have to break down the proteins, it also, if we don’t have it, we’re not going to be protected from all of these microorganisms that are potentially harmful. So the acid’s really important. I definitely would never drink it around mealtime, and if you’re just dead set on trying it, I would definitely do something that’s naturally alkaline if you really want to go that route. But I’ve never worried about it. And so it’s not something I recommend.
Chantal Ray: Yeah, I agree. I mean the thing is your stomach produces hydrochloric acid, which is HCL on demand. And when it does, it also creates sodium bicarbonate. And so those two, HCL and sodium bicarbonate are produced. It’s also produced on based on what you eat or drink. And so if you’re drinking alkaline water while you’re eating, you want that stomach acid. The whole point of stomach acid is, people think, oh stomach acid’s not good. No stomach acid is what you need to digest your food. And a lot of people with all of their issues that they have, one of their biggest issues is they’re not digesting their food properly. And so that is my problem with alkaline water, especially when first of all, I don’t think you should be drinking water when you’re eating anyway because, it goes back to you want as much stomach acid as you possibly can. And that’s been an issue for me, is my digestion of my food.
Chantal Ray: So that’s why I’m really big on eating, the most important thing to me is eating alkaline foods like vegetables, leafy greens, salads, that’s what you need to focus on. And idea that alkaline water is going to be the end all cure all, my thing is you need to have clean water that doesn’t have a bunch of chemicals. That portion of it I do like is when I’m not eating, having clean, pure water, and having it filtered the idea of that I love.
Autumn Smith: Yes. Couldn’t agree more because you will find balance if you’re eating the right kinds of foods for your body. So, yeah. Awesome.
Chantal Ray: All right. This is from Karen in Northern Virginia. “I recently started eating paleo and I’m really enjoying the energy I’m feeling during the day, but I’m having the hardest time sleeping. I’ve also noticed when I do sleep, I’m having really weird vivid dreams. I was reading online that this is common for people who cut out sugar. Why is this and will I go back to normal soon? Karen in Northern Virginia.”
Autumn Smith: Interesting. Right? Okay. So I noticed a few dream changes when I transitioned and generally like having vivid dreams isn’t really a bad thing. It shows that you have cortical arousal. Your brain is working, you’re probably getting more REM sleep. So those are all really good things. There was even a study about vitamin B6 when you increase vitamin B6 and I think this was done in supplemental form in the study, but I think the foods you’ll be eating in paleo or we have more B6, then you would, if you were reading the standard American diet and that was shown to increase dream recall and make dreams more vivid. But then there’s also this other pieces, is there anything else you’re doing? Are you taking any medications like SSRI and blood pressure medications?
Autumn Smith: They can also increase your dreams, make it more vivid. I noticed, and this is the strangest thing, and there’s no literature that I’m aware of to talk about this, but if I eat a really poor quality food, specifically animal products, I don’t know what it is. I will have violent dreams [inaudible 00:30:18] I don’t know what it is. It’s just been a few times when I go out to this restaurant. And, but yeah, so I would say if you’re having trouble sleeping, you might want to look, I always go first to your blood sugar and what are you eating? You might be eating paleo, but are you stabilizing? Are you making sure that you’re not just substituting the sugar in your diet formerly for natural sugars, which are maybe better but can still keep you on that blood sugar rollercoaster.
Autumn Smith: And then what I’ve found it to be really important is eating like high quality protein at night and a little carb. Sometimes I do my golden milk with a little honey and the bone broth protein and that really, really helps me sleep. But I’d say it’s not usually a bad thing and it just means your brain is probably alert and you’re getting better sleep if, unless you’re just actually not sleeping at all. And that’s a different story. But I’ll definitely start with your blood sugar and I wouldn’t worry about it. What do you think?
Chantal Ray: Yeah, I mean I agree with you. I think that I wouldn’t worry about the dreams. I think that does mean that you actually are getting into a lot deeper sleep than possible. And I think one of the things is, is that with me, especially like when I’m doing 100% paleo, the amount of energy I have is just amazing. That’s the biggest thing is that you just have so much energy and so you’re not quite ready. So the one question I would have is what is the caffeine level? So that is one thing that you have to be careful with because let’s say someone’s normally drinking three cups of coffee, when you’re eating a paleo diet. One of the biggest things and why I’m such an advocate of the paleo diet is, is your thyroid functions when you’re eating paleo at such an optimal level? Your thyroid, literally. I mean, I’ve done test where because I’m like obsessed with getting my blood tested and I’m just out of control. My doctor’s like Chantel we literally just checked her blood work a week and half ago.
Chantal Ray: I’m like, “Please, can you just check it again? I need to check. Because of this, this or this.” And so I do my own little blood work studies and I could do one week if I wanted to do of not eating paleo and look at where my thyroid is and one week of me doing it and look at my thyroid numbers. It’s unbelievable. So so everything is functioning at such a much higher level. So if you are drinking, things affect you more. So if I’m eating 100% paleo, if I drink a cup of coffee in the morning, that coffee is going to go into my bloodstream more than … It’s kind of like think about alcohol, think of the way alcohol affects, let’s say you had shrimp and nothing else but just some shrimp and then you had three shots of vodka versus having two big pieces of bread and then having that vodka, well, how are you going to feel different, right?
Chantal Ray: You’re still both of those. You had three shots of vodka, but how does your body feel? I can guarantee you that vodka is going to hit you like nobody’s business. Right? So it’s the exact same thing that happens with like caffeine and stuff like that. So if you’re switching to a paleo diet and now you are having the same amount of caffeine, you might have a harder time sleeping. So that’s one of the things I would look at is not only when you’re cutting out your sugar, but are you cutting back on that caffeine and I think that will make a better … It’ll be easier for you to sleep.
Autumn Smith: That’s genius. Can I just say something? Because I think that’s so important and I forget because I’m pregnant and breastfeeding. I haven’t had caffeine in five years and it’s always something I asked people to eliminate for at least 28 days just to reevaluate your relationship. A lot of times people don’t notice that it’s at the root of your sleep issues. I love that you mentioned that. The second thing I just wanted to mention because I forgot, if your immune system is more activated at night because you have parasites or something going on in your gut. A lot of times people wake up then too. So just something to look at and just you can find out it’s a blood sugar crash usually between the hours of one and three are waking up. So that’s kind of clue there, that’s all I got.
Chantal Ray: Awesome. All right. This is from Laurie from Sparks, Nevada. “My question is that my scale has not moved and I have not lost inches, but I’ve looked at my Christmas photos and I look visibly smaller. My arms and my legs are way more trim. How is it possible for me to look thinner? But the scale and measurements haven’t changed? I love your podcast. I listen every day at work. Lori from Sparks, Nevada.”
Autumn Smith: Ooh, you want to go? [crosstalk 00:35:29].
Chantal Ray: Go ahead.
Autumn Smith: Okay. Well, I would say is my guess is just related to inflammation. Sometimes you don’t even like if I have a bad day, I fly off the rails. I wake up with marshmallow face and is yeah. And my weight isn’t always affected, but I’m just like, whoa. I look like a different person. So my guess is if you’re eating more anti-inflammatory foods, your body’s just like not holding on to so much water because it’s not protecting itself because you’re not irritating your immune system. So my guess is I can see it in people immediately when they switch to a better diet, especially in their face, in their eyes. That’d be my guess. What do you think?
Chantal Ray: Yeah, I think the main thing is, muscle, the biggest thing that I see in people when they doing intermittent fasting, they’re not losing the pounds because they’re losing fat and they’re gaining muscle. And so for me, when I first started doing intermittent fasting for the first three weeks, I didn’t lose one pound. I felt like my clothes were fitting better. And finally on week three I lost six pounds. So that would have been like two pounds each week. But it took three full weeks to actually show it on the scale. And the key is, is intermittent fasting does help you burn fat because once you’re done, when your body is looking for fuel, it’s using the fat instead of using the glycogen stores. So my favorite analogy that I love to give is that if you had $100 in your pocket right now, right?
Chantal Ray: And you also had $100 in your bank account, your body, let’s say you were going to buy something at the store that was 100 bucks, if you already had $100 in your pocket, you’re not going to go drive to the bank and take out $100 when you’ve got $100 sitting in your pocket right now. So the same thing happens with your body when it’s looking for energy. When it’s looking for energy, it’s not going to go to the bank to go get energy when you’ve got all that sugar right there and fuel in your body. Does that make sense?
Autumn Smith: It makes sense.
Chantal Ray: So the whole point is, is that, you’re burning fat, but yet you’re sometimes building muscle because so for that in your picture, you might not be losing any actual weight on the scale, but your clothes are fitting better. You are losing fat and building muscle. I have to tell you this story, my personal trainer is like a chisel, chisel, chisel. He looks like one of those guys on the magazines. You know what I’m talking about, where they have … They just look chiseled all the time and if you look at those people, they don’t look like that all the time. I mean, they like that for the day of the show, but they don’t walk around like that. This trainer that I have, he walks around like that. If you said, “Hey, no, I’m not joking.”
Chantal Ray: Because he eats like that, you know how the people get ready for the show. He eats like that all the time. So anyway, he said he went to the doctor and you know how he had to wear one of those shirts where you put the sleeves in and the back is open. And he said he had a doctor that was 4’8, she was Indian. And she says to him, “Well, your BMI shows that you’re obese.” His test, his weight and everything looked like he’s obese, if you saw this guy, he’s chiseled, Chisel, Chisel doesn’t have, he probably has like 8% body fat at all given times. I mean, he’s in perfect shape. And she says, “Your BMI shows that you’re obese.” She’s like, “I would like to suggest that you’d walk two times a week.” And she’s giving him advice on what to do because his BMI is showing that he’s obese. So-
Autumn Smith: Isn’t it crazy?
Chantal Ray: It’s crazy. So you’ve got to really look at, “Hey, what are my measurements? How do I feel? I mean, when you’re in your kind of fatter stage or not. So the bottom line for me is when anyone I’ve seen for intermittent fasting, they pay more attention to how their clothes are fitting instead of their scale and how they look and how they feel. So the fact that you look great in your pictures, that’s what really matters.
Autumn Smith: So true, I was a fitness trainer for Tracy Anderson and I worked out so much and I didn’t ever lose much weight on the scale, but people would see me and be like, “Oh my gosh, did you lose 30 pounds?” And it’s like, “No, I’m a lot more muscular.” So yeah.
Chantal Ray: All right. This next one is from Rosariel. I don’t know where she lives, but it says, “So I know at some point I got to give up cheese. I’ve always loved cheese. All of a sudden, however, I’ve been tasting the salt immensely in the cheese. I did pray recently to the Lord to change my taste buds to the foods that he wants me to eat. I like you, had the hypothyroidism. I know that God is calling me to do it, a natural way of eating. So in paleo I saw on a website that raw dairy cheese is acceptable. So in my case, what should I do? Rosariel”
Autumn Smith: For me, I just love a little raw grass fed cheese, like organic pastures when I lived in California was there and that was really cool. So my answer though, it depends on who are you? What’s your ancestry like? Do you have this ability to digest dairy? But some people do and some people don’t. So what I do with me is I can eat it but I got to make sure I space it out because I will start to get congested, my skin will start to break out so I can get away with it. Sometimes it’s just like not a daily thing for me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the answer for you. I think it just means you got to really tune in and start paying attention and start saying, is my immune system being activated or are there symptoms. So could be maybe, but yeah, you just got to experiment I think. What do you think Chantel?
Chantal Ray: Yeah, I agree 100%, for me personally, me and dairy do not get along well. They don’t, we just don’t do well together, if I want to not still not feel great but not terrible, I will incorporate some raw, she’s in my diet, but I look at that as like that’s kinda like my cheat is when I have that raw dairy cheese. But for people who, if you feel like a million bucks, I have certain friends that when they eat cheat, they’ll have raw dairy cheese and they feel like a million bucks, for me it’s the same thing. The problems that happen, I get very congested. I have a lot of mucus that builds up when I have cheese. My face breaks out like crazy. So it’s a matter of how does your body respond when you have it and how do you feel when you eat it.
Chantal Ray: And that’s really just very intuitive. And I think that’s a good point is that for me, I can have it in very small amounts and not have anything major, major happen. But I always feel better when I don’t. But again, I’m very big on not depriving myself. And so for example, every once in a while I’m not a huge pizza lover, but every once in a while I’m like, I want pizza. So if I want pizza I go, okay, I’m going to … The other day I made my own cauliflower crust pizza or I literally just took cauliflower and I have a recipe on chantelrayway.com/recipes but that’s to die for. And then just put vegan cheese on top Marinara and vegan cheese.
Chantal Ray: And now I feel like I’m really just enjoying this amazing piece of pizza. So yeah, it’s great. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today and don’t forget, we are going to be doing a giveaway of two of her amazing items. If you want to go check out paleovalley.com you can visit their shop. I cannot say enough great things about your products. They are everything, is just, it’s Chantel Ray approved for me. I am a huge fan of your products. I think you guys have done a fantastic job and a huge fan of your podcast. So thank you so much for being on our show today, Autumn.
Autumn Smith: It was amazing. And you’re wonderful. Yeah, it was such a pleasure. And I just wanted to say, aside from the giveaway, if you guys want to go to our store and try anything, you use the code Autumn 10 and we’ll just give you 10% off of everything because we love-
Chantal Ray: Perfect.
Autumn Smith: … So much.
Chantal Ray: Awesome. And that’s Autumn A-U-T-U-M-N 10 and you get 10% off everything. That’s fantastic. All right. If you have a question that you want answered, go to questions at chantelerayway.com. See you next time guys. Bye. Bye.