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Transcript
- 12:32 The College Primal Challenge
- 16:20 The Stoplight Grading System
- 17:35 Simple, Easy-to-follow, Paleo Tips
- 22:02 Recommended Paleo Alcoholic Beverages
Wendy Myers: Welcome to the Live to 110 Podcast. I’m your host, Wendy Myers. You can find me on myersdetox.com. If you didn’t listen to last week’s podcast, allow me to introduce my new co-host, Leigh Lowery of generalleigh.com.
Leigh Lowery: Hello!
Wendy Myers: Hello, everybody. She is a fitness expert and body builder that is going to be my partner in crime from now on and teach you a thing or two about fitness which I know you’re dying to learn. Today we are interviewing Monica Bravo of bravoforpaleo.com. Monica is a contributor to myersdetox.com and I was really impressed with her site and the fact that she’s still in college and has already written a book. I wanted to interview her about it on the show. Her book is called College Primal Challenge and it’s about how to eat Paleo while you’re in college and how to navigate the school cafeteria and the food courts which is really hard to do because when I was in college I just wanted to eat everything in sight. There were all those bad food and fast food on the campus. But first we have to do the dreaded disclaimer.
Leigh Lowery: Here we go. Please keep in mind that this program is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or health condition and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. The liveto110 podcast is solely informational in nature. Please consult your health care practitioner before engaging in any treatment or fitness regime that we suggest on the show.
Wendy Myers: Thank you, Leigh. If you’re all geared up to meet some of your weight loss goals in 2014, I just put a new and improved version of my Live to 110 by Weighing Less E-guide on the site. If you want to learn about the latest science on weight loss or the Modern Paleo diet, my version of Paleo, go to myersdetox.com and sign up for my free 35-page Live to 110 by Weighing Less E-guide where you’ll also get my 14-part email series about The Modern Paleo Diet which is my new and improved version of Paleo. It’s all about taking Paleo to the next level.
And I’m really excited to announce that I am done with the rough draft of my first book, The Modern Paleo Survival Guide. I can’t even believe it. I wanted to write this book to show everyone how to take Paleo to the next level. The book is all about surviving in our modern world because in my opinion, it’s just not enough to eat a Paleo diet to be healthy. We need to be eating the most nutrient-dense foods allowed on a Paleo diet. This book has a million tips on how to choose and cook the most nutrient-dense foods for maximum nutrition. Sadly, many foods that were once healthy in Paleo times are not healthy today due to toxins and contamination in our modern food supply. I’ll teach you how to navigate though these toxic foods.
And lastly, the book is about how you can the healthiest Paleo diet in the world but you’re not going to live a long, disease-free life unless you detox from heavy metals and industrial chemicals that plague our modern environment. It’s just our modern reality. I have a chapter called “Detoxify or Die” in the book. That goes into exactly how and why you need to detox. It’s a little bit dramatic but if you don’t detoxify, you are very likely going to fall ill and die an early death. Unfortunately, it’s kind of dramatic but it’s true. That’s the book in a nutshell. So look for that for sale on the site in March 2014.
So basically our show today is about how to eat a healthy diet in college. So Leigh, did you eat healthy in college?
Leigh Lowery: Oh my God, I was totally thinking about this and I was excited that Monica, where she’s at in her life, in her age and stage because I thought back to my college career and it was full of amen and Totino’s pizza rolls and I was just in a rush and on a budget and I didn’t have the information I think that there is out there today so I would say that it was like a carb-sodium festival for me. I don’t know about you. What about you?
Wendy Myers: It was ugly. At that time eating healthy wasn’t even on my radar. I thought, “Well I’m a smart person. I eat healthy.” I thought that if I ate a salad once a week I was doing really really good but it was totally a cereal in the morning. I thought I was eating a totally healthy, nutritious breakfast for under 200 calories if I had a bowl of frickin’ frosted flakes.
Leigh Lowery: It’s so funny. All three of us are Southern women as we talked about before, and I think one of the funny things is my mom puts broccoli next to macaroni and cheese and fried chicken and she’s like, “Well, we got the broccoli so it’s healthy.”
Wendy Myers: Oh yeah. And I thought that morning cereal was healthy because it had all these sprayed-on vitamins. I’m looking at the RDA and go, “Oh, it’s 100% vitamin C and it has iron and it’s healthy.” It’s just one of those things where I thought I was healthy but I was really eating for the most part, gluten all day and Domino’s pizza and all kinds of GMOs. I had no clue about GMOs at all. So not on my radar. Haha. Well, today I’m thrilled to introduce my friend, Monica Bravo. She is currently a student at Louisiana State University, an honor’s college, with a Biochemistry major and Anthropology and Business minors. Her plans are to become a doctor and treat patients holistically using food as the greatest form of medicine. That sounds like a good idea to me. She just finished her first book, College Primal Challenge, that we’re going to be talking about today and I’m so impressed that she’s in college and she wrote a book already. I hate you. Haha. So Monica, how are you?
Monica Bravo: I’m great. It’s great to be here. I’m really excited.
Wendy Myers: So why don’t you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself to start with?
Monica Bravo: Okay. I’m Monica Bravo and I blog over at bravoforpaleo.com, as Wendy said, and I blog about living this Paleo lifestyle in college which I’ve been doing myself for a little bit over two years but it took a little transitioning to figure it out, and learn all the information for the first 6 months. And I actually got into this lifestyle after my father, an Iron Man triathlete, had a stroke after he did P90X. Six months later, while doing cross fit, he had a third-degree heart block and he was diagnosed with a 90% LAD blockage which they call the “widow maker”. He now has four stents and a pacemaker. So he made it his mission to find out why the wheels came off for him. We basically figured out that it was not about the exercise and that everything was about the food. To make a long story short, he came to the Paleo lifestyle and at that point, it made sense for me to adopt the lifestyle too.
Wendy Myers: That’s how I found it too. My father having all kinds of health problems and then, unfortunately, passing away from his treatment from esophageal cancer. Our parents’ getting ill is a very powerful, life-changing force that makes you look for answers. For me, it was I didn’t want to end up like my father. I didn’t want to die like him. But my father smoked, he never exercised. He kind of signed up for that but your father; it’s got to to be really confusing for him and for you. He’s a strong, fit man.
Monica Bravo: Exactly. It’s the same thing. He thought he was eating healthy and he ate the sub-standard American diet and, same thing, if he added broccoli on the plate, he thought he was healthy. But we figured it out and we’re both so much happier right now. His plaque in his arteries have not progressed any further. He feels better than he ever did. He’s leaner than he was when he was training for triathlons and stuff. So it’s amazing. He’s thinner and leaner now than he has ever been.
Wendy Myers: Is he following a really strict Paleo diet?
Monica Bravo: Yes, both of us do. He’s a little bit more into ketogenic than I am but I do more crossfit training and things like that so I eat more carbs than him. I eat sweet potatoes and things like that but he’s strict Paleo.
Wendy Myers: Good for him. He’s lucky to have been able to find that. If he did what his doctors just said, he probably won’t be doing too much.
Monica Bravo: His doctors told him to actually take the pills and don’t do anything with your diet. A few of them said that and he said, “I’m getting a new doctor.” He knew he needed to change something if he wanted to stay living to see his grand kids and things like that.
Wendy Myers: Unfortunately, my father was such a brilliant man but he was 100% faithful in western allopathic medicine without realizing that it’s wonderful but it does have shortcomings, there is a myopia and then everything is treated with drugs and surgery. He actually had some surgery that removed his esophageal tumor. And there was a diet list that he was given and everything in it was horrible for you. Haha. I didn’t believe it. I’m like, how on Earth is he going to heal eating these foods? It’s not going to happen and it didn’t happen. I’m glad your father is questioning his doctors. Is that part of the interest you have in becoming a doctor what you’re studying in college?
Monica Bravo: Yes, definitely. Once he had started to research and find out what the problem was, we both started reading a lot of books on Paleo and nutrition books. He actually found the diet by reading the book Track Your Plaque which is written by the same guy who wrote Wheat Belly. He read that book first and then found it through that. And I started reading all the time just for fun and so I’m really interested in the biochemistry of all this and what’s really going on in our bodies. That’s how I kind of confirmed that I wanted to be a doctor. I’ve always had interest in science but that really confirmed it for me that I wanted to be able to work with patients everyday and help them through diet.
Wendy Myers: So do you want to be a medical doctor or naturopathic doctor?
Monica Bravo: I’m going to get an MD first and then decide. So yeah, I want to go to a normal medical school and then see if I want to go with a somewhat natural approach after and see if I want to further my education with that. I probably will.
Wendy Myers: So you’re a closet nerd?
Monica Bravo: Yes, closet nerd. Haha. I love studying and I love school a little bit too much.
Wendy Myers: I am too. I’m actually going back to school soon myself. Haha. I want that nerd to fully blossom inside of me. Haha.
Monica Bravo: I know. It’s just a great feeling. Now I love school but I love blogging and I love learning about things online too so it’s a constant struggle if I should be reading my textbook or blogs like yours and stuff.
Wendy Myers: Let’s talk about your book a little bit. It’s called the College Primal Challenge. Why did you feel compelled to write this book?
Monica Bravo: Well, my friends and a lot of other people my age were continually asking me to help them start eating like I do. And I was surprised by it because when I first started eating this way, I didn’t think anyone would want to make that kind of commitment and get healthier. I didn’t think anyone cared so I wasn’t just going around talking to people about it. They would just see me avoid the pizza or see me avoid the candy. It was like leading by example and then all of them wanted to know. When I got in a sorority, a lot of the girls were extremely interested because they wanted to lose weight. A lot of them want to lose weight or some of them have digestion problems or they exercise but they know they eat terribly.
Wendy Myers: Like they’re really good-looking but they have diarrhea all the time ha ha ha.
Monica Bravo: Exactly. They’re thin but they’re sick. I guess after I started the blog, I realized people need guidelines, in particular, people my age who have to deal with all these stresses. I also think that my generation’s more receptive to accepting all of these ideas because they don’t really know what’s healthy and what’s not. They know that they don’t know. So when I would start telling them about the Paleo diet, what I did, how I avoid grains, a lot of them we’re like, “Oh, is that what’s healthy? Okay, I’m going to try that out.” A lot of different people who knew I ate that way would find me on Facebook and be like, “Hey, do you think you could talk to me about eating this way in college? How do you do it?” Basically the e-book is just guidelines on what is Paleo in the simplest way and then how can you possibly do this at college and then some recipes.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, it’s really hard. Because for instance, I went to USC and I did the entrepreneurship program there and one of the former students, they came up with Carl’s Jr. That was born at the USC Entrepreneurship School. So there’s a Carl’s Jr. on the campus and it would be like this tractor beam that I’m trying to walk away from. But then I would be really stressed at finals time. I would succumb and gob down my nasty hash browns.
Monica Bravo: I think it’s a lot about preparation. My two roommates actually eat Paleo too because once we started living together, it was just easier for us to cook together and plan our meals together and it’s cheaper. So if you can buy in bulk and just all cook the same thing,…
Wendy Myers: Or did you crack them up like, “You must eat Paleo?!”
Monica Bravo: Haha. No. It was funny because the first year my roommate, she doesn’t cook at all so I was cooking every night for whatever I was eating and she would just be like, “Okay I’m going to buy what you buy and you can just cook double.” So that worked out. Then my other roommate who moved in with us, she had always been really health-conscious. She used to do the counting calories thing too, both of us did in high school. We were dancers so we both cared about being thin. Once we started adapting this lifestyle, we both just have a healthier relationship with food. I think that’s a huge thing for people my age. The girls struggle with having a good relationship and seeing that food as actually fuel and nourishment and you need to eat.
Wendy Myers: What’s the stoplight grading system that you developed in the book? What’s that all about?
Monica Bravo: In the book, in order to explain which foods are the best and the worst for you, I used a stoplight. Red foods mean you need to avoid them at all cost, yellow foods mean you should be cautious about them and green foods are completely Paleo. I used this analogy to explain healthy-eating to one of my friends and they thought it made a lot of sense. The more green foods you eat, the better success you’re going to have. Where yellow foods are things like dairy. Maybe you’re lactose intolerant so you need to avoid dairy and just different things that are on the borderline of I’m not sure if they’re going to help you or hurt you and you need to be cautious about them. And the red foods are processed foods and most grains and things like that.
Wendy Myers: I like how you give instructions on how to navigate a Paleo diet in the school food court and cafeteria because that’s what every day the reality of what college kids are faced with, all this horrifying array of tasty food. What kind of pointers do you give to them to make better choices?
Monica Bravo: I’d say the biggest advice I gave in the book is to look for meat and vegetables and avoid the processed foods and the packaged foods. In the book, I give some typical fast food type restaurants that I know were at my school and at most colleges and I tell you what food on their menu is green and yellow. I think it would be a disservice to tell them that the fast food restaurants are okay but there are some healthier options in the food court and cafeteria. For instance, there is a huge salad bar and in many of the restaurants, if you ask them to grill the chicken or grill the meat; they’ll grill it for you.
Wendy Myers: I used to go to Carl’s Jr. when I was in college and I ordered the chicken sandwich in whole-grain bun. And I thought, “Oh, it’s so healthy right? It’s got a big green chili on it.” The Santa Fe chicken sandwich was so yummy I still dream about it.
Monica Bravo: Haha. It’s actually surprising. It’s not as hard as everyone thinks. There are so many options now. There are so many restaurants on campus and in the union. The cafeteria has a huge salad bar and there’s grilled chicken, there are tons of vegetables, there is fruit, and there are eggs in the morning so it’s possible. I know it’s possible because I’ve done it and I know other people who do it. I just want to put it out there and tell people it’s possible.
Wendy Myers: Your website is very focused on recipes and you’ve contributed many recipes to myersdetox.com, they were really popular. What kind of recipes do you have in the book?
Monica Bravo: I have 5 breakfast, 5 lunch, 5 dinner, 5 microwave meals which are for the dorm room people, and I have a list of snacks that are my go-to snacks. Although, I shy away from the microwave and most of my friends do live in apartments so they don’t need to eat microwave food but I realize that the dorm room college kids have no other option so I do have 5 microwave meals that you can cook.
Wendy Myers: Well, you have to be practical.
Monica Bravo: Right, exactly. It’s a realistic thing. If people could just give up the fast food and the processed foods, I know that would solve the 70-80% of their problems.
Wendy Myers: I’m sure if you did a whole cookbook on microwave Paleo, it would be a New York Times bestseller. Haha.
Monica Bravo: Yes. That’s actually my next thing I’m thinking of. I’ve already been testing a bunch of microwave stuff because I want to write that.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. Haha. So we know that every college kid’s favorite past time is alcohol. What’s the 411 on alcohol in your book?
Monica Bravo: Basically, I get it through telling you where different alcohol stands on the grading system. But I also believe that in order to get amazing results with challenge, alcohol should be limited. I tell people 5-6 drinks a month would put you at your yellow phase but granted those drinks are approved ones, not ones filled with sugars and daiquiris and martinis and things like that. The hard part, I think, about this is that. College kids, most of my friends want to drink their 5-6 drinks in one night. I think it’s going to take more than that. This lifestyle is requiring you to change your way of thinking. It doesn’t have to be the normal to drink every night and never sleep, and eat junk food. I know a lot of my friends are seeing that especially when some of us who lead by example and would go out and only have one drink or go out and not drink and still have fun. It’s still possible to do that and get your sleep, and eat right, and you’ll make better grades because of this, and that’s why we’re at school in the first place.
Wendy Myers: What? You can have fun without doing beer bongs?
Monica Bravo: Right. Exactly.
Wendy Myers: Haha. I could have never fathom that in college.
Monica Bravo: It’s hard to believe but you can.
Wendy Myers: Haha. So what kind of alcohols do you think are Paleo and that you recommend too.
Monica Bravo: I usually recommend red wines and tequila and water usually. Those are the two go-to drinks I tell people to go with. I know a lot of people buy wine already and that’s not a weird thing and they drink tequila. A lot of my friends have already changed, just that being their only change, and have been really happy with that instead of drinking a bunch of sugary drinks and then they have a sugar hangover the next day too and the alcohol hangover. So a lot of my friends would ask me what to drink and then they end up just drinking red wine and tequila water whenever we go out and it’s a lot better.
Wendy Myers: I had a brilliant idea when I was in college once to drink Grand Marnier all night which is just such concentrated sugars. That was a horrifying day the next day.
Monica Bravo: Haha. It happens. I think, like with anything with food and health, it’s a learning experience. If that alcohol’s works for you and there’s no sugar then maybe that was for you. They do have potato vodka and some of my friends do that and I’m trying to get that in the bars. So that people can have that instead of all the other crap they’re drinking.
Wendy Myers: What about beer? A lot of college males and females too really love their beer. What’s your stance on beer?
Monica Bravo: I just tell them, “You got to get rid of it. If you want to be serious about this, you’re going to have to get rid of the beer and switch over to wine or tequila.” A lot of them know it’s bad for them and they’re still drinking it. A lot of them have changed their ways just because of that. Most of my friends, the girls especially, the guys, a few of them will give it up just for this.
Wendy Myers: The beer is full of gluten.
Monica Bravo: Right. Exactly. That’s what I tell them.
Wendy Myers: It’s made from fermented barley.
Monica Bravo: I don’t think a lot of people realize that.
Wendy Myers: There are gluten-free beers but you don’t see that around very much.
Monica Bravo: Not at the bars we’re going to. Ha ha.
Wendy Myers: And they’re not at that keystone price point exactly. Haha. 12-pack a keystone. Dr. William Davis, forget Wheat Belly. He needs to write a book called Beer Belly.
Monica Bravo: Exactly. Haha.
Wendy Myers: So what do you think is the most pressing health issue in the world today?
Monica Bravo: I think it’s mostly misinformation. Luckily, with the Internet, people are spreading the good news about just eating real food and embracing the Paleo-type lifestyle. I think too many people don’t understand that it’s not all about calories and it’s not just about exercise. There’s just so much more to it.
Wendy Myers: So where could people find you on the Internet if they want to read your blog or get some of your recipes and buy the new book?
Monica Bravo: They can find me on my website which is bravoforpaleo.com. My Facebook page is facebook.com/bravoforpaleo. I’m on Twitter and Pinterest as well which are linked to on my site.
Wendy Myers: So when do you graduate?
Monica Bravo: I graduate in 2016, maybe a semester early. I haven’t decided but probably 2016.
Wendy Myers: So what can people expect from you in 2014?
Monica Bravo: In the past 6 months, my blog has grown incredibly. I just started blogging during the summer and now I’m getting about 65,000 views a month so I’m just going to continue blogging because it’s working out for me and I love being able to talk to my readers and just produce new stuff that they like. I expect to do some more podcasts and connect with some other bloggers. I really enjoy talking to other people about these pressing topics and it’s always great to learn more from people who know more than me, people like you, and read your blogs, things like that. This is my second podcast. The first one was with Jimmy Moore and I just really enjoy talking to other people and being able to share my youthful perspective on the lifestyle.
Wendy Myers: The Paleo movement needs more young people because people like to follow people their age so I think that’s great, it’s really important that you’re focusing in on helping students in college because we know that college kids tend to eat horrifying processed foods.
Monica Bravo: It’s a really important time to be eating healthy because you need your brain to be working at its best. I know for myself that whenever I’m not eating the best things or the few times I’ve ever got gluten, I just feel so out of it for a day or two. I just can’t imagine living like that every day and trying to study.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I think people have just become acclimatized. It’s like a fish in water. They just don’t realize they just feel subpar.
Monica Bravo: Yeah. They have no idea until they start eating better.
Leigh Lowery: I really like what you said earlier about when you found out about your father. From a fitness perspective, I think a lot of people think that they can counteract a bad diet with exercise and not have any kind of health problems because of it. That’s something I run into in the fitness world. People want to eat what they want to eat and then they want to work out to counteract that and that’s not just the way it works. I’m really thankful to have you as well on the show to express that point.
Monica Bravo: Exactly.
Wendy Myers: When I was in college, I was trying to figure out a way I could have a carton of Haagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream every night and just work it off at the gym and lose weight. It didn’t compete it. So Monica, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thanks for telling us a little bit about your book and if you want to go buy her book, it’s available right now on her site at bravoforpaleo.com if you want to do a College Primal Challenge.
And if you want to learn more about the Paleo diet, weight loss, or how to do a serious detox, you can find me on myersdetox.com. You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter @Iwillliveto110. I’m also on Youtube. I’ve got a bunch of really unprofessional videos over there at Wendy liveto110. I’m working on getting a lot better for you guys.
Leigh Lowery: They’re awesome.
Wendy Myers: Hahaha, I watched it and I’m, “Should I really be on youtube? Should I really be doing this?” They were so bad. But at the time I shot most of it, I had some thyroid issues. So I just can’t find my words or my thoughts. I’m a lot better now. You guys can also find it on Instagram and Pinterest. You don’t have to watch any bad videos there. I’m on Liveto110, that’s where you can find me. Leigh, what about your site? Where can people find you?
Leigh Lowery: Well now on www.generalleigh.com. I’ll be blogging on there. You can find me on Instagram at genleigh. I also have on Facebook, Follow My Fit Foods you can see what I’m eating and how I’m living on a regular basis. My Youtube channel is under Leigh Lowery or General Leigh. I will be posting glut routines. We talked about this last week, but how to make that big, kind of rounded tush that all of us women want. I’m going to be doing very specific routine on there this week and posting that so you women can learn how to get that big, rounded tush that we all want.
Wendy Myers: Ooooh. I have to watch that. Haha.
Leigh Lowery: That’s it. And if you like what you’ve heard on the show, please give the Live to 110 podcast a review on iTunes. We would absolutely appreciate it so much.
Wendy Myers: Thanks for tuning in. Remember, if you’re in college, you will do yourself a huge favor by eating a healthy diet. One, to prevent the typical college fifteen that students tend to gain but also because the time to be thinking about your health is while you still have it. Thank you so much for listening to the Live to 110 podcast.
