#161 – A former fitness competitor’s IVF journey and what healthy really looks like | Sara Beemer & Ben Grynol

How does a former bodybuilder go from carb-loading for competitions to eating for longevity and fertility with IVF? Here’s a look at the journey of healthy eating from a fitness competitor turned nutrition coach. In this episode, Sara Beemer shares the importance of finding personal motivation for your health journey, why you shouldn’t lean toward extremes, and how to teach your kids healthy eating habits.

16:22 – Find your motivation

If you want to create long-lasting lifestyle changes, you need to find a personal motivation that keeps you moving forward.

Everybody’s body is different, and again, I think that that all goes back to everybody’s lifestyle and finding that motivation. That motivation when the doctor’s saying, “You need these to get healthy,” because that’s what’s going to help your body get pregnant, that’s going to help the ovaries, the blood circulation, all of that. So yeah, I think it would be great for people going through IVF to have those resources. And it goes back to any doctor’s appointment, right? You have some doctors who may say, “You need to lose weight, you need to do this,” okay, great, then they leave the office and that’s it. But when they hand them the information or they say, “Hey, go to so and so, they’ll help you out, they’ll guide you along,” because I can’t imagine walking out of that office not having the history, not having grown up to see what it’s like to work out and eat healthy, because otherwise you’d be lost and go, “Let me go to the next doctor.” I hear those people that don’t want to go to the doctors because they don’t want to hear that, “I need to lose weight, I need to lose my body, eat healthier.” And again, just what is healthy? Some people go, “Okay, well, great, I’m going to eat protein bars and I’m going to eat fruit all day.” And we did grow up with a lot of fruit and the starchy vegetables, and we’d always give my dad a hard time because he doesn’t like asparagus or any of those really good veggies, but back then, my parents did the best they could and they did a great job, but I can only imagine some of the people going through IVF and just all their ideas of what healthy is.

26:00 – Make gradual changes

Extreme changes can help you lose weight short-term, but if you want build a sustainable lifestyle, you need to focus on gradual changes.

You tell anybody, “Go out there, change your lifestyle.” people take it to the extreme. And my own thing is, make gradual change, it has to be a lifestyle, because if it’s too extreme, great, you could do it for a little while, it’s just like people who can really cut down their calories and diet, lose weight fast. And when people come to me and say, “I want to lose 10 pounds this month,” like, well, wait, we want this to be a lifestyle. Sure, I can tell you how to drop weight really quickly, but this is more about a lifestyle, this isn’t the rest of your life, this is about doing it the healthy way. So the extreme can only last so long, but the benefits too, whether it’s IVF, again, having now kids, we are such an example for them to see in the way we eat. So even through IVF, you don’t want extremes, you want it to be a lifestyle because their kids are going to pick up on that as well. So whether it’s the foods you’re eating, obviously you have to nourish the baby too, and your body, so it is healthy, but if they do approach it the right way, it becomes much easier, those gradual changes, and then they continue on those habits, and those filter down to the kids or just to other family members.

27:52 – Create good sleep habits

Poor sleep habits can make your blood sugar skyrocket. Maintain good sleep hygiene to make it easier to stabilize your metabolism.

Sleep, that’s probably my biggest challenge. And I don’t get enough sleep and I had a bad habit of… Because I wake up earlier to go out, I wake up earlier than my husband, but at the end of the night, when the kids are in bed, if I just want to hang out and talk, I’m down here talking, then okay, I will just fall asleep on the couch while he’s finishing watching a show and then wake up, and then go up to bed. Oh, man, seeing what was going on through levels of the CGM and just seeing my blood sugar just skyrocket, once I wake up on the couch and realizing, “Oh, it’s interrupting my sleep pattern,” man, that really hit home.

29:57 – Don’t be extreme

Sara used to have an extreme diet when she prepared for competitions, but with Levels she doesn’t feel the need to take such drastic measures.

Everything in balance. That’s another thing, I don’t want to have the kids see me be extreme with anything. I had to do that when I was preparing for competitions and all that. I don’t want them to be extreme because I know they pick up on everything. But Levels has been great because they ask a million questions about it and they know I have to have my protein and veggies, so before anything I always ask, “Yes, we had our veggies. Yes, we had protein.” So it’s been fun, it’s been a great learning experience for them.

33:00 – The benefits of meditation

Meditation is a great way to slow down, reflect, and relax your body, but you can’t rush to or through it.

One of the things I got into was meditation from my acupuncturist but also my life coach. And so I remember her saying, “Try to meditate in the mornings,” and I was like, “Well, I’m getting up at 4:00 to go work out and how am I going to stop and just meditate for five minutes. Okay, fine, I’ll do it.” There was a point where I was in the car going, “I didn’t meditate, let me turn on meditation on the way to the gym.” So we know what’s good, and this was before I got the CGM too, so it was, “Okay, I know I need to meditate.” I tell everybody too, I tell my clients, I send them information, and that also the morning may not be the best time for everybody, maybe afternoon, any little bit is going to helps, it’s very individualized, it’s what works best for your lifestyle. But again, seeing what happens to my body in the morning when I wake up, it is wake up and I’m ready, I’m on alert, I’m ready to go, and you can feel your heart racing and would it benefit from just slowing down and just maybe taking a couple minutes to just relax? Absolutely.

37:27 – Schedule out your week

If you plan out your week ahead of time, then it’s easier to make sure you’re including important things.

Look at the week ahead. For me, every week, it’s, “What’s going on this week? Let me check my schedule. Okay, here are the important things.” Let’s take for example, the workouts, okay, I know this is going on, I’m going to have to have a backup plan. One of the reasons I work out first thing in the morning and suggest that to people, unless they really can’t, that’s the only time I know I can get it done because things come up later in the day, right? But like you said, you know there are those pockets that you can count on and it’s a matter of creating them too, it’s well, how important is this to you? As well. There may be other people that go, “I just didn’t have time for getting food, I didn’t have time to eat, I didn’t have time.” So it’s making sure you know what’s important, setting yourself up for success, setting yourself up for those basics, what’s important for your week ahead.

43:27 – Try new things

Sara loves going grocery shopping so she can find new, healthy foods to try. She also enjoys including her kids in food shopping.

I love grocery shopping, that’s one of my favorite things to do, to just go and check out foods and the labels, and just, “Oh, how does this taste? It’s got good ingredients and they actually taste good.” But also, I love taking the kids, so I’ll have them choose a new vegetable and vegetable, fruit, whatever it may be somewhere in the produce, but I make sure that there are options in the fridge because some days, they don’t want mushrooms. I’ll usually, when it’s almost lunchtime, I’ll bring out… Or before dinner, if we’re not having a salad, bring out a couple different options, so it’s not like, “Broccoli doesn’t sound good today, here’s a variety, as long as you guys are eating.”

47:54 – Understand what’s going on in your body

Instead of telling people a certain food isn’t good for them, explain why that food isn’t beneficial for their body.

What seems to help them, is them understanding the why, what is beyond just, “Oh, this tastes great”? If you tell somebody, “It’s not good for you,” okay, well, great, that doesn’t really mean much to people. If you tell them why or what’s going on inside their bodies, then they may try to reduce that. So the why, like I said, it works with kids, it takes a while, but even just the slow changes, struggle-wise, you’re taking away their favorite thing. And again, I’m all about balance, I love sweets, like I said, my whole family, we may be very health conscious, but listen, when it’s dessert time, we are healthy during the week so we are enjoying dessert. Sure, we’ll fast in the morning, have our good meals, but we are having dessert. And we all have those things.

52:13 – Let your kids learn with you

Sara has found that cooking alongside her kids has helped to develop their interest in healthy eating.

What’s been helpful is just having them in the kitchen cooking, it’s fun for them. When they can help, it’s just more exciting, they want to know more, learn more. Now, my daughter is going to be 11, my twin boys who are eight, their palates change some days where it’s, “No, I don’t like raw broccoli, I like it cooked,” well, wait, last month you said you didn’t like it cooked, you wanted it raw, so that still happens. And the rule in our house house too is try everything, you have to at least try. We look at it more as an adventure, something fun. When we go out to dinner, also we try to order a variety of foods, almost every time we go out it’s family-style dinner when even that restaurant is not family-style, because it’s a perfect opportunity for them to try different foods. So I always try tell them, “It’s going to be fun, let’s go here,” or, “What are you going to order? Let’s try something new,” and now they want to end up making it when we get home.

Sara Beemer (00:06):

You know you could always count on good food, we love food and we love dessert, but absolutely, my sister will make a dessert with almond or coconut flour. There’s always plenty of protein and veggies, always start off with that. So it’s funny how even our parties have changed over the years, we were younger, we’d have big family parties at my parents’ house, big bowls with M&Ms, all these different snacks all around and Coke, and now, fast forward, you don’t see that. You’ll see the veggie platter, we’ll start with our salad, this is just everybody. So it is helpful, so surround yourself with like-minded people and take those points from them and it’s fun if it makes it easier.

Ben Grynol (00:51):

I’m Ben Grynol, part of the early startup team here at Levels. We’re building tech that helps people to understand their metabolic health, and this is your front row seat to everything we do. This is a whole new level. Sara Beemer grew up in a family focused on physical fitness and nutrition, it was always a big part of her life, but it wasn’t until later in adulthood that she got into fitness competitions and she started to think about the way that she was fueling her body. Well, full circle comes around and she gets introduced to Levels, she starts using CGM, and what she realized is that the way that she was fueling her body made a big difference in her physical performance, her overall fitness routine, and the way that she thought about maintaining a health and wellness journey. And so Sara and I sat down and we talked about everything from IVF to fitness and nutrition. She shared a lot of intimate details about her journey, and it was a really important conversation to have. Here’s where we kick things off.

(02:09):

Why don’t we kick it off with, let’s go into your background. So we know you’ve been a Levels member for a while and you’ve had the spotlight article as one of our featured member stories, but very cool background as far as the way that you got into health, and wellness, and fitness competitions later in life as a working professional, as a mom, and there are all these layers, so why don’t we take it way back and let’s unpack it with a bit of your background before you got into health and wellness, and then we’ll take the journey up through there.

Sara Beemer (02:41):

Well, I’ll take it back just to middle school and then we’ll go back and how everything does tie back. So our family is very athletic and my parents are very health-conscious, and I grew up playing sports, but was also a tubby kid. So once college rolled around and I wasn’t playing sports anymore, it definitely packed on the weight, and that lasted for quite a while, and I always enjoyed working out, but it was more just to lose weight, that’s the only reason I was in the gym. And I’d enjoy it afterwards and how it felt, but it wasn’t until later when we were trying to get pregnant that I really had to start to pay attention, and I actually had my IVF doctor tell me, “Hey, you know what, after the third try, you need to eat better. You need to do everything you can to have a healthier body.”

(03:43):

And that’s never fun to hear, and it was okay, that’s where I really started to think more about what I was putting into my body. Like I said, growing up, I was chubby and I’ve been on every diet you could think of from Weight Watchers to the cabbage soup diet, all of those things in grade school, Carnation shakes for lunch. So yes, during IVF and going through that, I started really pay attention to the foods and then also doing acupuncture, that was a big part of it too, just really the connection of the body and the connection, acupuncture’s really my hit home the idea of that it’s all connected, you got to nurture your body and just different foods, and everything made more sense, everything was a little more connected.

(04:36):

Wasn’t just doing, doing, eating and exercising to lose weight, it’s so much more than that. So eventually, we did get pregnant, and during my pregnancy is also when I would read all the books and I really took it seriously when I heard you are literally feeding your child, everything you put into your mouth was going to them. So that’s when I would try to eat all the different fruits, the vegetables, make sure I got my vitamins. And also, I also heard you’re developing their palate too, and so for me, it was, “Okay, great, I’m going to make sure I eat a variety of foods just so they start getting used to it.” But that’s how the connection started, but had kids, gained weight after pregnancy and working out, trying to get back in shape, really pushing myself, trying out different workouts and then had different trainers.

(05:33):

And just really again, it was much more than losing weight., it became well, what’s really going on inside my body? During my workouts, it was okay… No, there’s always the mind-body connection, I think with each and every person I mentioned, my IVF doctor, my acupuncturist, to being in the gym, what is the connection? Don’t just do, find out what the connection is and just make such a difference as far as just enjoyment as well. So I became fascinated with the body, fascinated with, “Okay, if I do this, if I work out this way, this will be good for cutting down or this will be for muscle growth. If I have such foods before a workout, this will give me the energy.”

(06:22):

So I really just got into that, I would always ask a million questions to everybody, and that’s how I really became serious with the workouts and decided, “Hey, yeah, these competitions look very interesting, it just looks like a good challenge.” So I was up for the challenge and I would work out and eat as though I was getting ready for a competition because I didn’t want that pressure. And then I did that for maybe two summers in a row and then my family was like, “Why don’t you just actually do a competition? You’re going through all this hard work, why not just go out there?” So that’s how that came about, and I did a competition and really learned again, macros, the macro nutrients, the main ones, the protein, carbs, and fats.

(07:14):

And then like I said, the timing and just how it really affects the body as I was prepping, going through different stages, you either go through the stages of, “I’m trying to add bustle here and there. Okay, well, how should I be eating?” And then it was, “Okay, now I got to cut down.” And it was just exciting, it was fun, it was really neat to see how the body responds. So that’s why I loved it, and I enjoyed it, it took a lot of time and effort, but I learned so much about the body and all the different changes. And that I did have control, and I think that was the difference, is that growing up, it was, “Just do this, just do that,” there’s no understanding of what’s going on, then it’s much harder and not enjoyable.

(07:58):

Now it was, “Great, let’s see,” and I’m still at way where it’s, “Okay, I was going more with the carbs, I’m going to go more higher fat. I’m going to do intermittent fasting.” I love just trying out different things and just see how my body reacts, and during this time, in fact professionally, I wasn’t in the health industry, I was doing consulting for cities and counties, doing overhead studies, fee studies, revenue studies, so I enjoyed going out, and meeting people, and traveling.

(08:33):

But once the kids came around and just the understanding of health, things just really shifted, and people started reaching out, asking for help with their nutrition, with their workouts. And I find myself, that’s all I want to read and help people with, it was fun because I had to… Like I said, I was traveling a lot, had kids, my lifestyle changed, so over the years, I guess I fell in love with health and fitness. And then I had to learn to adapt because I still wanted to be healthy, I still wanted include some workouts or good nutrition, and so it was, “How am I going to do that on the road? How am I do that less time with the kids?” And then also just along the way, teaching them about this as well, because if they can have that early connection to food and understanding, they’ll start early and have an understanding and a healthier life growing up.

(09:36):

So that has led me to where I am now, to where I’ve helping more people, I decided this is what I’m going to do full time, this is what I’ve been doing, is the nutritional coaching, the training, and now it’s individuals and families as well. People want to know, “Okay, your kids eat that? How? Why?” Or they’ll tell, “I don’t have time to work out, I don’t have time to do this,” so I can give them all the tools, all the things I’ve done over the years. And it’s fun, it’s just really fun to listen to people, tell me about your life and we make it work for them. So it’s been a fun journey and that’s where I’m at.

(10:21):

And well, let me take it back originally when I was talking about acupuncture and going through IVF, I also had to realize that I was going through that too, because when I was four years old, they found out I had a tumor my spine. And so I had surgeries for that removal, had bowel obstruction, and then I find out all that scar tissue is what led me to IVF. Oh, the body is amazing, it can heal itself, but also sometimes, that can get in the way, and just the connection through all that, it’s like, wow, something from years ago is now affecting me that I never even thought of. It also was, “You know what? You’re lucky to be able to walk,” because they severed a major nerve in my leg and they weren’t sure I was going to be able to walk, but my brothers and sisters and physical therapy helped me, so I was able to walk.

(11:18):

And so all of those pieces fit together to where I am now, just understanding no, the body will heal, let’s help it heal, let’s give it everything it needs through physical therapy, through food, whatever it may be and a great support system, of course. And then a couple years ago, Levels, to really go, okay, now I have even more information available to know, “Oh, my gosh, what’s going on inside my body?” What’s been going on inside my body this last couple years when I’ve been changing the way I eat? Like I said, at different times when I was preparing for the competition, I’d eat to gain muscle and a little bit more carbs, and seeing oh, my gosh, my blood sugar was going through the roof.

(12:05):

At times, obviously it was very helpful because I have it for my workout and I knew I was using that fuel for my workouts, so now it’s, “Okay, great. I’m going lower carb, let me see what happens.” Obviously, I’m not trying to gain muscle, not trying to compete or anything now, it’s more of, “Hey, I want a nice, steady blood sugar. I know those fluctuations are not good since I’m not using that right before my workout every time.” So to just have the information really available has been so much fun, so that’s where I’m at with Levels. There are times where it’s like, “Okay, I know what’s going to happen,” other times, it definitely surprises me, it’s, “Wait, what’s going on here?” And definitely discovered a lot of different things about me and it has helped change my lifestyle, whether it’s sleep and other things I do throughout the day, so it’s been fun.

Ben Grynol (13:03):

The exploration is so cool because it seems like it never ends, you’re always unlocking these things. Why don’t we double click on this period of your life, the chapter when you were first going through IVF? When you got that input from your doctor and they said, “Hey, you’re going to have to make changes,” what were the courses of action? What did you do? Was it one of these things where you had the insight, you were going to have to make changes and they are X, Y, Z, or was it you’re going to have to make changes, brick wall, and you have to go down this phase or this path of personal exploration to say, “What does this mean? Where do I go?” Was it one of the former or the latter? Did you have a foundation where you knew what the next steps were? Was it related to lifestyle, or diet, or all these things, or was it just, “Hey, this isn’t going to work unless…”?

(14:00):

And the reason I ask is I’ve got so many friends, my wife and I have friends who’ve gone through different fertility treatments and the answers they get are often the, “You’re going to have to make changes,” and they just walk out, they have no idea what to do or where to start. And so I would love to hear more about what that looked like and felt like, and how you processed it to get… Because now we have to highlight, you’ve got three kids, I believe you’ve got three kids now.

Sara Beemer (14:26):

Yeah, exactly.

Ben Grynol (14:26):

So would love to dive into that if you’re open to talking about it.

Sara Beemer (14:31):

Absolutely, and definitely open about all that, because I know some people are very private and absolutely understand that, but I always tell people, if you have any questions, please ask, I’d love to share. I know technology and everything has changed over the years, but emotionally and the things that helped along the way, emotionally, physically, that’s important, and anytime you have resources and something they guide you, just knowing that is a huge help. So my doctor, he is very healthy and fit himself, he’d always talk about his running and everything. And when he told me I needed to get healthier, there wasn’t an exact plan, but yeah, I think because we did talk about the foods, exercise, he did go over that.

(15:22):

Thankfully I did have the background, did know, again, I grew up playing sports, my parents again, worked out, seeing that growing up, that’s just what we do, right? So wasn’t this new idea. And that’s what’s interesting now to see other people help other people, some of them have never really worked out or seen their parents work out, so this is, “Oh, my gosh, I have to work out,” it sounds horrible to them.

(15:48):

So for me at that time, yes, I knew it was diet and working out, was there a exact set plan? No. So I had to go off of what I knew there were options out there, I knew, okay. Work out, that’s just because of my history, but I could see how other people would go, “Great, what does that mean?” Even still, you have people that have worked out or dieted their whole life and they’re still like, “It’s not working,” or, “What am I doing wrong?” Maybe they don’t have the resources. So everybody’s body is different, and again, I think that that all goes back to everybody’s lifestyle and finding that motivation. That motivation when the doctor’s saying, “You need these to get healthy,” because that’s what’s going to help your body get pregnant, that’s going to help the ovaries, the blood circulation, all of that.

(16:41):

So yeah, I think it would be great for people going through IVF to have those resources. And it goes back to any doctor’s appointment, right? You have some doctors who may say, “You need to lose weight, you need to do this,” okay, great, then they leave the office and that’s it. But when they hand them the information or they say, “Hey, go to so and so, they’ll help you out, they’ll guide you along,” because I can’t imagine walking out of that office not having the history, not having grown up to see what it’s like to work out and eat healthy, because otherwise you’d be lost and go, “Let me go to the next doctor.” I hear those people that don’t want to go to the doctors because they don’t want to hear that, “I need to lose weight, I need to lose my body, eat healthier.”

(17:33):

And again, just what is healthy? Some people go, “Okay, well, great, I’m going to eat protein bars and I’m going to eat fruit all day.” And we did grow up with a lot of fruit and the starchy vegetables, and we’d always give my dad a hard time because he doesn’t like asparagus or any of those really good veggies, but back then, my parents did the best they could and they did a great job, but I can only imagine some of the people going through IVF and just all their ideas of what healthy is, and then just understanding of a lot of people that are there also have PCOS. So there is a certain way to eat for that, but I can imagine how lost they could be.

(18:17):

And I don’t know what resources as far as other offices have, but at least my doctor did explain a little bit, and I think if I maybe said I have no idea what to do, then he would’ve definitely laid out some plan or referred me to go somewhere to get some workout nutrition plan because he was so focused on health and just… I knew he was a runner. We talked about anytime he traveled, he made sure he was out there getting his workout in and exploring the city, so we had those conversations.

Ben Grynol (18:53):

It’s such an important foundation to have though, because one of the things that you highlighted is this idea of, well, what is healthy? And so let’s make the assumption that somebody is insulin resistant, but they don’t know it because they’re active, they’re physically active, let’s not even put a time box on how many times per week the duration, the type of work workout, let’s just say air quotes, active, they’re physically active. But the food they’re consuming over time is what they think is healthy, so this is where the gap without having some data or some feedback to say, “I’ve had that for my whole life,” things like quinoa, and brown rice, and sweet potatoes, and you start to compound all of these carbs.

(19:37):

And let’s not to say that that is entirely bad, that’s not the message, the message is, let’s say you have the brown rice, quinoa, and sweet potato all in this bowl together, and you think, “This is really healthy and I’m doing the right thing for my body,” and over time, you go, “Wait a minute, this thing…” You see some data finally, “This thing that I was having for so long caused me to become insulin resistant,” and where it gets even more challenging, Dr. Lustig talks about this often, Dr. Godfried as well, where somebody can look physically… By her mental model of what physical health is, somebody can physically look healthy, but inside their body, they’re not, right?

(20:19):

You’ve got chronic inflammation, you’ve got insulin resistance, you’ve got all of these biomarkers that are off because of so many lifestyle factors. And so that’s where it gets really hard, and that’s why I asked about having that foundation when you were going through IVF, because the gap sometimes is just this knowledge gap of not actually knowing what to do. And I would imagine it feels deflating where somebody walks out just based on the anecdotes from our friends where they say, “I feel lost, I feel more lost than ever, I don’t know what to do.” And so knowing that there are people like you who are open to talking about things like this and sharing your journey and your story of how you thought about making these changes, it’s so important to… Even if that message spreads to one person, it makes a difference to spread to two and to four, and on and on, so I appreciate you sharing this story.

Sara Beemer (21:15):

And we hear about all these healthy foods, you’re talking about the quinoa, the brown rice, and sweet potatoes, yes, and it could go the other way too, right? I do love people that they tell me, “I’m having my salad, I make my own dressing, I drizzle on the olive oil, I add the avocado,” and then by the time they’re done, ooh, that’s a lot of fat on there. And so like they say, too much of anything isn’t good. But same thing happens with smoothies, right? “Oh, I’m having a smoothie every day,” and too much of anything is [inaudible 00:21:51], just having that balance, but yes, now understanding… And that’s why I love that I learned about macros, learning what really is a protein, what is the carb, what is fat, and just using that now with Levels to…

(22:05):

Okay, now I know to have protein and fiber packed in with my meals and I could tell everybody, don’t just have a carb on its own, unless you’re going out there, and competing, and running a race, that’s fine. But yeah, it’s interesting because we just sometimes focus on what’s supposed to be healthy, great, I’m throwing all those healthy foods in there. So it can get a little complicated, you do a little bit of everything. Just being open, I think for me being open about the IVF journey, again, like you said, you tell one person, give them a little tidbit and it could just make such a difference, and it could filter down because maybe they pass it along. It’s the same when we’re talking to parents or kids about health and their lifestyle, giving them little pieces of information and seeing how that impacts the whole family, that’s fun.

(23:08):

So yeah, it’s so interesting now that you brought up the IVF and I wonder what the other offices, other doctors do, what resources they do give to the patients, that’d be very interesting to find out.

Ben Grynol (23:24):

Yeah, it’s debunking a lot of the things around… To go down the rabbit hole and digress a little bit, you touched on the idea of messaging and we often loosely discuss the idea of marketing gone wrong. And it’s not that people necessarily have poor intent when they do go down these paths, but things like juicing. So this mindset or this trend will spread throughout society, juicing’s great and it’s like, well, let’s really dissect that because what does that mean? Assume somebody is actually making their own juice at home, I think where this thought was inspired was when you said you’re making everything at home and you can control what you put in. So somebody starts juicing, they’re stripping away the fiber from that fruit, if they’re using fruit, right? But you’re taking all of the sugar, you’re dumping it in, and you’re dumping it into a drink and you’re consuming it really fast, that is just objectively not good for you.

(24:24):

And there have been many stories of people who over time have elevated their glucose or we’ll say… They’ve become insulin resistant, but they’ve elevated their average glucose levels significantly because they’re trying to go on a juicing diet or they’re trying to do something that is not metabolically healthy for them, and that is the point you made around everything in moderation, things like fat and things. So you have to think through all of these little data points, but what you think you’re doing that’s healthy, assume somebody… Let’s riff on this example, somebody is going through fertility treatments and they might hear you’re going to have to make changes, and so they don’t know what to do and they start thinking, “Okay, well, I’m going to be really clean and I start juicing,” it’s making worse and worse.

(25:16):

And so you need that, you need to start spreading these messages of what does it actually mean to eat healthy if people don’t have something like a CGM as one tool to give them some data or some feedback to say, “This is really what’s happening”? And the caveat to all this glucose is a single marker of many in the body, and so all these points come into consideration, but a lot of it comes through sharing stories in the way that you’re doing it with the people that you work with to change this message, and having that firsthand experience makes a very big difference for many people.

Sara Beemer (25:52):

No, it’s been great. And like I said, I think sometimes people, when they approach it, just like when I… Oh, you’d be healthy or you tell anybody, “Go out there, change your lifestyle.” people take it to the extreme. And my own thing is, make gradual change, it has to be a lifestyle, because if it’s too extreme, great, you could do it for a little while, it’s just like people who can really cut down their calories and diet, lose weight fast. And when people come to me and say, “I want to lose 10 pounds this month,” like, well, wait, we want this to be a lifestyle. Sure, I can tell you how to drop weight really quickly, but this is more about a lifestyle, this isn’t the rest of your life, this is about doing it the healthy way.

(26:35):

So the extreme can only last so long, but the benefits too, whether it’s IVF, again, having now kids, we are such an example for them to see in the way we eat. So even through IVF, you don’t want extremes, you want it to be a lifestyle because their kids are going to pick up on that as well. So whether it’s the foods you’re eating, obviously you have to nourish the baby too, and your body, so it is healthy, but if they do approach it the right way, it becomes much easier, those gradual changes, and then they continue on those habits, and those filter down to the kids or just to other family members.

(27:20):

I forget, maybe it’s on one of your podcasts where somebody said, “You want to know how healthy… I look at the five closest people around you, they have such an important impact on your decisions every day.” But yes, Levels, that’s another thing. Like I said, I was very health conscious and understanding of the foods, but to all of a sudden get the data, this whole time, we’ve been talking about food and workouts, but the sleep, that’s probably my biggest challenge. And I don’t get enough sleep and I had a bad habit of… Because I wake up earlier to go out, I wake up earlier than my husband, but at the end of the night, when the kids are in bed, if I just want to hang out and talk, I’m down here talking, then okay, I will just fall asleep on the couch while he’s finishing watching a show and then wake up, and then go up to bed.

(28:16):

Oh, man, seeing what was going on through levels of the CGM and just seeing my blood sugar just skyrocket, once I wake up on the couch and realizing, “Oh, it’s interrupting my sleep pattern,” man, that really hit home. And that even still is a bad habit, even because in Levels, you get to see those spikes in recording your food or just taking a picture, it’s very easy, but what’s interesting is even for me, okay, I’m like, “Great, I’m going to take a picture,” oh, my gosh, I just ate an hour ago, but I’m having a snack and you get to see it.

(28:58):

And so what’s nice is that it’s even a check for me to go, “You just ate an hour ago, what are you doing?” Is it because you’re trying to avoid something? You’re stressed? Give your body some rest, let it digest the food. But also, we take a picture of what you’re eating or write it down, it’s like, yeah, that’s probably not the best thing, but even for me, like I said, the sleep and the foods, or just even the other day, just taking one of those immune shots, a friend was like, “Hey, you tried this new one.”

(29:34):

And it was the first thing I ate, and it was interesting because it’s all fruit juice and it was good stuff in there, but to see the blood sugar, I knew better, but I didn’t have any protein or anything with me, fine. I can even take that too extreme, right? No, I can’t try this little bottle of juice because my blood… You’re going to be okay, I think every now and then, you’re… Everything in balance. That’s another thing, I don’t want to have the kids see me be extreme with anything. I had to do that when I was preparing for competitions and all that. I don’t want them to be extreme because I know they pick up on everything. But Levels has been great because they ask a million questions about it and they know I have to have my protein and veggies, so before anything I always ask, “Yes, we had our veggies. Yes, we had protein.” So it’s been fun, it’s been a great learning experience for them. So

Ben Grynol (30:30):

Kids are sponges.

Sara Beemer (30:32):

Yes.

Ben Grynol (30:33):

Our kids constantly ask to scan their arm even, they take the phone all the time, it’s pretty funny. But hat tip to Gabe Mendoza, that was the podcast with him where he said the biggest takeaway or ways that he was thinking about making change was influencing the five closest people around him so they can influence the five closest around them, and that’s how you start to get these movements, because it’s so much harder to change things at a policy level. And so yeah, it’s very important that that foundation or that… We’ll call it that group of people that you surround yourself with start to form these habits, because good habits and bad habits, habits are very hard to make and very hard to break, good and bad. So you can have a bad habit that’s very hard to break and you can have a good habit that can be harder to keep if you don’t set the right conditions.

(31:28):

And there’s all this science and all these great things about habit formation that we can get into, but it’s a much deeper conversation. When you start to think about other things though, along the lines of the way that you think about things like sleep being one input as a lifestyle choice or a lifestyle factor that impacts your overall health and wellness. And you can see some feedback, you can see some data, and you go, “Oh, that’s really what’s happening,” because you’ve got the nutrition component relatively figured out, you’ve got the fitness component relatively figured out, and everything is relative because it’s always… Relative is the caveat because it’s eve-changing for all of us at different stages of life depending on so many other factors, but everything is relatively stable.

(32:14):

But you go, “Wait, this one thing, I didn’t realize it was having such a big impact on my overall health and wellness.” And so getting those little insights make a very big difference. Even personally, I’ve found the same thing with sleep, it has been easy to dismiss sleep, even though you can read Matthew Walker’s book and you can listen to Andrew Huberman talk about it in a podcast, and you can understand all these things, but until you start using other wearables like AURA or WHOOP, or you see Levels data and you go, “Okay, am I going to keep pulling the wool over my eyes? This is just not objectively good for me long-term,” and so you start to think about it different, it’s interesting, that was a big insight or a takeaway that you’ve had.

Sara Beemer (33:00):

One of the things I got into was meditation from my acupuncturist but also my life coach. And so I remember her saying, “Try to meditate in the mornings,” and I was like, “Well, I’m getting up at 04:00 to go work out and how am I going to stop and just meditate for five [inaudible 00:33:18] Okay, fine, I’ll do it.” There was a point where I was in the car going, “I didn’t meditate, let me turn on meditation on the way to the gym.” So we know what’s good, and this was before I got the CGM too, so it was, “Okay, I know I need to meditate.” I tell everybody too, I tell my clients, I send them information, and that also the morning may not be the best time for everybody, maybe afternoon, any little bit is going to helps, it’s very individualized, it’s what works best for your lifestyle.

(33:54):

But again, seeing what happens to my body in the morning when I wake up, it is wake up and I’m ready, I’m on alert, I’m ready to go, and you can feel your heart racing and would it benefit from just slowing down and just maybe taking a couple minutes to just relax? Absolutely. So again, that drove home that point as well, it’s my cortisol, everything, wake up just like anybody else, but I mean, [inaudible 00:34:21] your heart racing, “I need to hurry to get to gym, I need to do this, I need to get this ready, lay out the clothes for the kids,” or, “I didn’t do this last night.”

(34:28):

So taking those, it goes back to the stress, it’s like, calm down, try to find those moments during the day when you can calm yourself, because if you were go, I can see what’s going on on my app, so it’s just racing to get the kids ready to go to the party this weekend, “Oh, we got to go to the baptism.” It’s fun to see them later go, “Oh, yep. We were just going to a party but there’s a lot more going on there.”

Ben Grynol (35:00):

As parents, that’s such an important thing though, is finding the pockets, right? It’s so easy to get discouraged by listening to people whom we might look up to individually, we all have different people, and so you look from an aspirational perspective, you say, “Look at the way that one person is doing that thing,” and it becomes harder because the benchmark that we created doesn’t mean that we’re yearning to be like them, we are trying to follow in the habits or the routines that they have. But if you try to take that model that they have and just inject it into your own life and your own routine, it doesn’t always work in that it feels a bit defeating, you feel like you’re letting yourself down because the reality is as a parent, you get up and your cortisol could be spiking at any time for any reason, it’s not the exact same time every day because there are too many factors.

(35:53):

And you know with three kids, it’s coming at all directions at all time. So as a parent, to find that balance, you have to find the pockets that do work, that you can maintain that routine, otherwise it gets really difficult and it doesn’t always go… If there’s any wiggle room that that routine could be broken for things outside of your control, that being you’re trying to do something around the same time that kids would have to be getting ready in the morning, waking up or the time that you would be maybe putting kids to bed at night. That fluctuates so much, you find the pockets around these goal posts and then you go, “No, this is me time and the only person who can break this is me.”

(36:39):

And then that becomes the mindset part of it where you go, “No, I’m anchored on maintaining this,” and the mindset is whether it has to do with physical activity, or mindfulness and meditation, or eating well, or all of these things. That’s where as a parent, having these pockets that are carved out for you know cannot be broken by factors outside of your control are what allow a person to maintain this path. And really, that’s how you start to feel better, because you go, “Oh, this all just connected,” and as long as they can keep connecting those dots every day, every week, you feel a lot better.

Sara Beemer (37:15):

Right, it’s planning ahead, really, you know what your week is going to somewhat look like. So it’s just like what I tell others, it’s look at the week ahead. For me, every week, it’s, “What’s going on this week? Let me check my schedule. Okay, here are the important things.” Let’s take for example, the workouts, okay, I know this is going on, I’m going to have to have a backup plan. One of the reasons I work out first thing in the morning and suggest that to people, unless they really can’t, that’s the only time I know I can get it done because things come up later in the day, right? But like you said, you know there are those pockets that you can count on and it’s a matter of creating them too, it’s well, how important is this to you? As well. There may be other people that go, “I just didn’t have time for getting food, I didn’t have time to eat, I didn’t have time.”

(38:07):

So it’s making sure you know what’s important, setting yourself up for success, setting yourself up for those basics, what’s important for your week ahead. Also helps with when you talk to other people, with my brothers and sisters, like I said, we all grew up with parents who were very health conscious, my dad would make sure he’d get his workout in before going off to work. We’d hear the air bike in the garage or he’d be doing his sit ups, and on the weekends, we’d go out running and doing all that with him as well. And another example of my mom, there were six kids, so it’s not like she can go off to the gym, there weren’t as many around at the time with the hours, but she would be in the kitchen cooking, doing her tricep tips on the counter or just moving, or she would even later in the day, “You guys get down on the floor, do your stretching.”

(39:03):

So that’s where we learned how to adapt, what was important and you get whatever you can, what’s important, do it when you can. And again, I talk about my brothers and sisters because some of them travel for work as well, everybody has families, everybody has kids, and so it’s interesting because we all do different workouts and little bit different lifestyles, and when we get together, talk about different foods, and it’s fun. When everybody’s on that same page, you take little pieces from that, and when we get together, we all go… In two weeks, we’re all going on vacation down to the beach for a whole week, and what’s fun is just to see how everybody gets their workouts in.

(39:51):

It’s all different, someone’s going running, someone’s going to the gym, someone’s brought… I’ll bring my weights but also go running, I don’t run every single day, but down there, I will because I’m out at the beach. It’s just a variety, and so it’s fun and we could always count on good food. We love food and we love dessert, but absolutely, my sister will make a dessert with almond or coconut flour, or there’s always plenty of protein and veggies, always start off with that. So it’s funny how even our parties have changed over the years, when we were younger, we’d have big family parties at my parents’ house, big bowls with M&Ms, all these different snacks around and Coke. And now fast forward, you don’t see that, you’ll see the veggie platter, we’ll start with our salads, this is just everybody. So it is helpful when you surround yourself with like-minded people and take those points from them and it’s fun if it makes it easier. So that helps us adapt that lifestyle.

Ben Grynol (40:59):

Yeah, and a big part of it that you mentioned is the aspect of planning or thinking a little bit ahead. I know Austin McGuffy, whom is a friend of Levels that many people are familiar with now. He had put up a story, I think it was probably a week or two ago, and he’s always very candid about the way that he’s eating, and working out, and exercising, and helping to spread the message of metabolic health and metabolic awareness, and he said, “Hey, I had a bad day today,” there were three things that he had eaten, I can’t remember, it was Chick-fil-A and something else.

Sara Beemer (41:37):

I think I remember it.

Ben Grynol (41:39):

It was all processed food and he’s like, “What do you think happened?” I gave myself wiggle room, had that little survey and what it was was, “Hey, don’t run out of whole food in the house,” we didn’t go grocery shopping and this was the byproduct of it, it’s really easy to go down that. And so that’s one of the goal posts that even in our house, it’s Saturday, we go to the market, we get our veggies and our berries, and the things that we get on a weekly basis, so you’ve always got that…

(42:08):

It’s not that we don’t really meal plan, but we’ve got whole food and that’s what we eat, right? And so having that, where you go, you’re not giving yourself the pocket to say, “Oh, I know I’m going to run out of veggies in two days, but I’ll deal with it then,” because you don’t know what’s… Especially as a parent, or a working professional, or anyone, we’re all busy for different reasons and you do not know what’s going to come up on that day. And that day can turn into four, or it can turn into an extended period of time where it’s really easy… Especially with on-demand food delivery now, it’s really easy to start to rationalize, like, I’ll fix it at a later date.

(42:46):

And that’s a slippery slope to get into that people don’t want to, especially when they’re trying to be disciplined, but the mind is a tricky thing, it is very tricky and it can take us down some interesting paths sometimes. So it was a nice, reinforcing point that he put that up and he said, “Hey, we all have these days, but the reason this happened was because of grocery shopping,” and you go, “Ah, I got to think more about that,” because it is very relatable..

Sara Beemer (43:17):

Absolutely. When we go to the store, half the time at Instacart, half the time we’ll go shopping, I don’t want to have to Instacart, I love grocery shopping, that’s one of my favorite things to do, to just go and check out foods and the labels, and just, “Oh, how does this taste? It’s got good ingredients and they actually taste good.” But also, I love taking the kids, so I’ll have them choose a new vegetable and vegetable, fruit, whatever it may be somewhere in the produce, but I make sure that there are options in the fridge because some days, they don’t want mushrooms. I’ll usually, when it’s almost lunchtime, I’ll bring out… Or before dinner, if we’re not having a salad, bring out a couple different options, so it’s not like, “Broccoli doesn’t sound good today, here’s a variety, as long as you guys are eating.”

(44:11):

And dips, sure, we’ll have Bitchin’ Sauce, I suggest getting Bitchin’ Sauce just to hear your kids say that, because it’s so hilarious. But yes, I always have frozen veggies as well as backup for me, because sometimes I don’t have the salad in there, there usually is, I usually have spinach, coleslaw, it just makes sure there’s a variety for all different options, but I always have the backup, the frozen spinach, the frozen broccoli so we can always use that in any of our dishes.

(44:43):

But you’re right, that is a big one, it’s make sure you have those backups and plenty of options, so there is no other choice. But it also goes to the point of too, if you have too many bad options, then there’s, “Okay, I don’t want that. Well, I may have this,” so it goes both ways, but it’s fun to see other people, how that happens. Or the challenge too sometimes is, some people, they want to try to eat healthy but maybe their spouse is like, “Hey, you better bring home those Ritz Crackers and those cookies, and that becomes very tempting for them. So working around that and coming up with different options, setting themselves up for success is something that we always try to find. But that’s always interesting when you have two different wavelengths within the house. Yeah, it’s interesting.

Ben Grynol (45:41):

Yeah, everything takes a really long time and it’s not as easy as just saying avoid processed food altogether. We know anecdotally that it’s just not good, but it’s a lot harder for people to just stop altogether. Now, it doesn’t mean that people should keep doing that, by no means, but there’s got to be the flexibility to adapt, because people will have different journeys and that’s a message that we reinforce, is this isn’t a fast journey to health and wellness, it’s not something that you can snap your fingers and you can go from… If you’ve grown up and all you’ve eaten your whole life is chicken fingers and French fries seven days a week and that’s your standard meal, there are many issues with that, but if somebody’s done that, to just snap your fingers and go, “You’re only going to eat Brussels sprouts and chicken in the oven, fish, salmon,” that’s a lot harder change for people to make, and so you have to start introducing things slowly so that it…

(46:52):

Full circle to back what you were saying, these habits are things that you want people to carry on, you don’t just want to gamify it where it’s like, “Hey, eat Brussels sprouts for seven days so you can check a box and then go back to the old habit,” it’s how do you start to take away those old mental models of what people used to do and the way they used to think about themselves as far as their identity formation and the way they navigate the world? But how do you progress them along in the journey so that they don’t want to go back? They’re not doing it because you’re telling them, they don’t want to go back because they’ve been on the other side and they go, “Wow, I feel incredibly better. Physically, I just feel better because I’ve got good sleep now, I’ve started to practice more mindfulness, I’ve started to eat things that don’t make me feel like I have low energy,” right? The mental clarity changes in the way that you physically feel in the morning, and so it’s definitely a path.

Sara Beemer (47:48):

Yeah, it’s a lifestyle, but it really is just what seems to help them, is them understanding the why, what is beyond just, “Oh, this tastes great”? If you tell somebody, “It’s not good for you,” okay, well, great, that doesn’t really mean much to people. If you tell them why or what’s going on inside their bodies, then they may try to reduce that. So the why, like I said, it works with kids, it takes a while, but even just the slow changes, struggle-wise, you’re taking away their favorite thing. And again, I’m all about balance, I love sweets, like I said, my whole family, we may be very health conscious, but listen, when it’s dessert time, we are healthy during the week so we are enjoying dessert. Sure, we’ll fast in the morning, have our good meals, but we are having dessert.

(48:41):

And we all have those things, for me, if there’s ice cream, it could be a low-carb ice cream, but if there’s ice cream in the house, I know just to get one at a time because I don’t want to keep picking at that, or protein bars, there’s a variety, there are some that are more healthy than others and some that are ultra-processed, and some of those ultra-processed ones taste amazing. So my treat meal is usually a hamburger, Friday, pickled jalapenos, there’s definitely the balance, it’s not all health foods all the time, no, absolutely not.

(49:23):

I love food, I enjoy it, but there’s going to be that balance and I don’t want my kids to think there’s anything really that they absolutely can’t have. There’ll be very few things, but no, they know they can have dessert, we’ll have a little bit at a time, it’s just making sure that we are eating healthier options most of the time, but there’s always chocolate.

Ben Grynol (49:50):

Yeah, chocolate is good, chocolate nibs are my favorite, the raw ones that are very bitter, I don’t know what it is. Giving kids that foundation is the important thing, you’re educating them at the earliest level, so they understand what is healthy and so when they want certain things, they know it’s okay to have balance. I think we all have to have this sense of balance, balance is going to look different to every person, right? So you can’t say, “Hey, here’s your balance,” because one person’s balance is another person’s extreme, whether it’s with food, whether it’s with exercise, whether it’s with anything, finding the balance.

(50:31):

But there is a sense of objectivity when it comes to what is and isn’t good for people, so what is good for people? Eight hours of sleep, giving an average, what is not good for people? Three hours per night, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Objectively, that’s just not good. Same thing with food, it’s like, is it okay to have the hamburger on whatever day and eat it however you want? Assume that’s not your standard? Absolutely, 100%, do it, have that balance, but is it good to start doing this seven days a week, 365 days a year, maybe three meals a day if you’re on the extreme? No. These are the objective lines, so it’s helping people and it starts at the earliest age.

(51:17):

I know Kelly LeVeque talks about this often with kids when they are forming their palate for what? The flavors that they find pleasing or satiating, you’ve got that 18 month window, they’re very young, right? So introducing things like salmon, and Brussels sprouts, and cruciferous vegetables, all of these different things so they go, “Oh, that’s just it.” But then it’s not just the palate, it’s also the education of why they are having certain things. Giving kids that foundation is important, without it, it’s very challenging because it’s too often that you see the cranberry apple juice, the 500 milliliter bottle, and that’s just not a good thing for anyone to be having every day, nevermind kids.

Sara Beemer (52:10):

Right, and another thing is just… What’s been helpful is just having them in the kitchen cooking, it’s fun for them. When they can help, it’s just more exciting, they want to know more, learn more. Now, my daughter is going to be 11, my twin boys who are eight, their palates change some days where it’s, “No, I don’t like raw broccoli, I like it cooked,” well, wait, last month you said you didn’t like it cooked, you wanted it raw, so that still happens.

(52:39):

And the rule in our house house too is try everything, you have to at least try. We look at it more as an adventure, something fun. When we go out to dinner, also we try to order a variety of foods, almost every time we go out it’s family-style dinner when even that restaurant is not family-style, because it’s a perfect opportunity for them to try different foods. So I always try tell them, “It’s going to be fun, let’s go here,” or, “What are you going to order? Let’s try something new,” and now they want to end up making it when we get home.

(53:20):

But again, there are times where they’re kids, they have that day where no, they don’t want to eat it and that’s fine, or they want that treat, or they’re at a party, of course, enjoy the cake. But the hard thing these days is also, after you have birthday parties, events at school, and those all add up, so that’s hard to just relax about that, but they have an understanding that what they ate at school, whether it’s the cupcake and they come home, it’s well, let’s watch what we’re eating, you already had your treat today. So that education helps with that as well. I think I was going to tell you about the kids, but it’s fun, they have fun trying out new foods, but again, part of that is because we’re going to the store and all of that.

(54:12):

And just the rest of the family just being interested in food and every time we go over to my mom, all of us are in the kitchen cooking our separate dish, whatever we’re going to contribute that night. So yeah, it’s good. But they want to learn more, my daughter, Lela, she wanted to help me with my clients, wanted to do something, and she knows I’m working with kids, yesterday is like, fine, come up with food ideas, so she typed up the menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So it’s just interesting to see what was on there, but it’s fun to see that she’s taken to it as well.