¶ The Intersection of Yoga and Nutrition
So you're thinking about running but not sure how to take the first step . My name is Brian Patterson and I'm here to help . Welcome to Brian's Rompod . Welcome back to the second part of our discussion with Joanne Hart , the founder of Health and Heart .
You haven't heard our first chat , then please do have a listen , as we covered how she got into being a nutritionist after working in the corporate field as an IT professional , amongst other topics .
In the second part of our discussion , we started talking about her other string to her bow yoga , then came round to chatting about nutrition in other cultures and what we needed to be thinking about with regards to our nutritional balance for certain running events . I really do hope you enjoy our chat , sid .
You came back here and you did yoga , or did you start doing yoga in America ?
I trained to be a yoga teacher before I went , and then I finished my training off when I was there .
I did it with British .
Wheel of Yoga . So they let me do it remotely . Just had a teacher over there that had to supervise and things , which was quite lucky to do . Then I taught yoga there at YMCA as a voluntary piece of work for a while . Did a few other bits .
Yeah , that's interesting to do . I did my personal training through the YMCA .
Did you ? Yeah , it was nice . It was a nice one , newport Beach .
All right . Do you find that in the nutrition advice that you offer and the EO , do you find with some clients they merge or they help each other in any way ?
Yeah , so a lot of my consultations are video ones with people . So they're from all different places , so I'm not seeing them to physically teach them yoga . But I talk to them about yoga because I can see the benefits of it and it forces yoga on them .
I might say it's just something you can do like this , but often they're interested in it and probably because they see that I do that or they do it already . So I might talk to them about relaxation techniques or breathing , or sometimes some certain stretches might help . Yeah , which yoga pose might get into a certain part of that kind of thing ?
Yeah , because from what you were saying earlier , this kind of holistic approach in terms of your nutrition , I suppose yoga helps to certain extent . I don't know .
It seems very good for the moment and you're at peace with yourself . Yeah .
Yeah .
I was trying to think there was research that says that yoga increases levels of GABA , which is your relaxation , your relaxing neurotransmitter . So , like serotonin , is your happy one , gaba is your relaxing one , and things like going for walk can as well .
So when you're doing activities like you're running many of us are it depends how relaxed you are , doesn't it ? Many people are a bit more stressed state , aren't they ? They're on the go . It's that fight or flight type running , training and things .
So having something that's the opposite of that is really valuable to help with the stress hormones and to bring yourself back into balance .
And I think also , when you do yoga practice , you notice the niggles before they happen , before they get worse , because you'll feel like , oh , I've got a bit of an ache in my back , but I need to do some back exercises or I've got a bit of a sore toe , that kind of thing .
You'll notice it faster , whereas if you go out on an hour of run with that sore toe or whatever , you're probably going to make it worse , aren't you ? What do you ?
think from what everyone you've seen , is there anything generic that people are getting wrong , or there in terms of the issues they're having , or what could it be ?
There's a lot of people not necessarily getting it wrong , but following trends and things , there's always a new trend coming out , isn't there about how to eat ?
Yeah .
And Some of those , whether you call it a trend or not , some of those are . They're coming about not necessarily for health reasons . So if you , some people argue within this , but if you think about the whole plant-based , discussion that's coming from all these different angles , isn't it ?
That's coming from the angle of environmental , it's coming from the angle of animal welfare , ethics all these different areas . But for an individual , is that the best diet for them ? That's the question , isn't it ? Fundamentally , is that the right diet for that person ?
And obviously , if somebody wants to eat like that , that's fine , and I would definitely obviously help them along the way . Yeah , but I wouldn't . I would help educate people on what you think is the right thing for them to do .
Because you think they may be missing out , Because if they've gone down this path , they may be missing out on .
I don't know . Yeah , of course . Yeah , people that eat an animal-based diet are missing out on something , so sometimes they still need to do something additional . But I put on my Instagram and I had a salad somewhere when I was out .
I'm not a vegetarian , I eat all the different foods , but I had a vegetarian salad because that was the best option at the place and I liked that . I liked vegetables , so fine .
And it said it had tofu and hummus in it , but there's hardly anything in it and there's just not enough to sustain a person to be not hungry afterwards , and I could have had that at home and could have filled myself up with different quantities and put in different things in it . So it's about you need to know how to do it as well .
And then , with the plant-based food as well , you can eat you can eat lentils and your beans , fantastic but you can also buy the packaged food as well , and so if you buy that in the supermarket , the wisest thing to do is turn it over and look at the label , see what the ingredients are in it , and do you recognise those ingredients ?
Or does that food fit into that ultra-processed food category , which we know isn't what we want to be eating ?
Yeah .
So yeah , pen's how you want to look after yourself .
Yeah , and then whether this is a controversial point . But do you think we're always advised that we should be eating more fish ? But I can't help thinking that for most people that's too expensive . Yeah , what do you think about that ?
Difficult , isn't it ? Fish yeah , I know I love fish . Yeah , it is expensive , isn't it ? And even when you're at the coast it's expensive . You don't seem to get any benefit from buying it from these places . They're cheaper . It's really interesting . I think my approach for that would be yeah , fish , I think , is a good idea because it's a lean protein .
So you're getting your protein , but you're not getting the saturated fats that you get within the meats , and for some people , too much of that could be a problem . Not saying for everybody always depends what's going on for them . And the oily fish as well , like salmon and mackerel and herrings and trout those give you your omega-3s as well .
Yeah , but they are quite pricey . So I would say things like buy some canned fish yes , that's one approach , isn't it ? Or they quite often do a deal , don't they , where you get three pieces of fish in the supermarket for the price of two . You need to be looking out for things like that . Or buy fish that's not as popular .
They've got different names for the cheaper . I can't think of what they are at the moment , but they're a few , aren't they , that are priced a bit less in price and you've got to learn to cook as well , really , haven't ? You have some basic cooking skills to ?
get the best out of some of those things as well .
Yes , because a piece of fish on its own will be tasteless , but so would a piece of chicken or something . So you've got to learn to make a bit of a sauce with some lemon juice and some capers or some herbs , or a ratatouille or something like that , those kind of things .
In fact , you just highlighted a very big point that we were discussing as a family . Do you think people don't know the basics of cooking ? Because basically just doing knowing how to cook ?
Because I was taught to cook by watching my mum and it's the same as my wife Katie she'd watched her mum and whatever and it's knowing how to cook and enjoying I enjoy the process of cooking . I do a pie here and I love cooking the pie .
It's nice to do .
Do you think , enough people ? Not enough people know that .
¶ Prioritize Cooking and Fast Recipes
Yeah , I don't think people always know how to cook , but I think a lot of people that do running their priorities . They go to work and then they want to do their exercise , so the food has got to fit in .
Somehow they're not putting their effort always not all of them but they're not always putting their effort into prioritising cooking that meal in the evening . So they need some faster recipes . I think things like stir fries are really easy . You can knock up a stir fry , can't you ? In 10 minutes ?
A bit of garlic , onion , some chicken , pineapple and ginger and some veg . Job done , and that's quite a filling meal . You can have a packet of microwave rice if you want . It's that kind of thing . That's cooking skill or making like a bolognese sauce . I think everything needs to learn , don't they ? Just a few recipes for themselves ?
There's a few companies Do you think the reality is a nation for that , because , whereas everyone keeps saying how the Mediterranean diet is the best diet and it's ingrained into their DNA , into their culture , and then maybe it's something that maybe we're not , we haven't really grown up with .
It's hard to say , isn't it ? The more people at home there they've got the time to cook than here , because if you're out all day going to London commuting , coming home have you got time to cook in the evening ? That's the thing , isn't it ? You've got to be quite organised to get some of these things in place . You've got to put priority .
So my food is my high level , probably my top my running and my food , because if I don't have those two things right , I'll be miserable . I feel so well and then everything else isn't going to and I just I feel that , and I think some of us probably feel it faster than others , so we maybe put the effort into it .
Like when I was younger , I was often hungry and so I was keen on cooking because I'd want to make extra snacks sometimes or add something else to the meal or whatever that kind of thing . So I always wanted to know how do you make food ? That for me was a real interest area and I like tastes and flavours and things . Yeah , yeah , yeah , it's interesting .
But yeah , I'm sure there's a lot of people that don't know how to cook and I've worked with the odd client in different countries and in some countries it's even more fast food and they don't have oh right , they don't cook so much , they have , they're darling food deliveries and things . In fact , I was thinking about it .
I was working with a young group recently like a community project and we did a topic about how to make a bolognese sauce , but also we had a session where we talked to them about ordering and got them to teach us what is this ordering work . And they do that because that's the quickest option that comes to their mind .
It's available , so they order that food in , don't they ?
So different ? It's a different form of fast food , isn't it ?
Yeah , whereas I'd be thinking Sometimes I might do that , of course , but I would probably be thinking that it won't taste as good as I can cook many times anyway . It'll cost more money . I've still got to wait an hour .
I've got to go through the effort of doing it on the phone app , so for me I'd create all those variants already and it might be cold and it might be cold anyway , and it might go to the wrong house . Yeah , exactly . Yeah , yeah , it's hard to know , isn't it ? Yeah , it was the cooking thing . It's a hard one .
Maybe it's one I could ask people more about when I talk to them , but I think , yeah , I normally work it out with people , because some people will ask for recipes , other people might sometimes be a bit educational cooking .
Do you actually give recipes to some of your students ?
To be honest , these days it's more send a link to a website the BBC Good Food website is a really good one for recipes and then I caveat it and I say , look , you don't need to put extra sugar in your bolognese , the tomato is sweet enough .
I'm guilty of that I put sugar . I'm guilty of that . I put sugar in it .
Yeah , I do . This porridge has got sugar on it . Do you really need that ? Do you don't need two tablespoons of honey ? Or I might say something that you might want to swap this out for the day .
On the other side , I do talk to people about ready meals , sometimes like some of the healthier ones cook and things a mindful chef and things because they fit into people's lifestyle when they've got busy lives and if you've got one of those in the freezer on that night , you might phone and deliver it . That's your next best option , isn't it ?
Having something like that in the freezer ? I think that's fine , it keeps .
great for following a recipe . I follow them in the higher recipe I follow is a guy who does it on YouTube . Every time I cook it I always have it on , even though I know how to cook it . But it's just like a bit of a comfort thing that you can't make it open .
Yeah , I'll have to use that . Yeah , I'll have to use that it's good . In lockdown . We did a couple of those meal boxes that you could get from different chefs and things . Okay , did you ever see those ? They send you a box with all the little components of the ingredients and then you get your instructions and things . I did the cook along . Go on .
I did loads of different ones . We had a lot of time , didn't we To our hands and those were nice and a few skills .
And one thing I'm a bit of a film buff , but the best food scene ever is in the Godfather , so in the first Godfather , when they make the meatballs and tomato sauce , if you haven't seen it .
Watch it . You need to see it . I think it's the best one .
I think you can even see it on YouTube or whatever , but I just love the way the guy explains it . I don't know , okay , did you grow up liking food with people like food in your family when you were growing up ?
Yeah , my nan Both of my nan used to cook a lot . We'd go around to her for Sunday lunch and things and she'd always do nice food . And then my other nan and granddad they were always making things . My granddad used to do it .
It's now like a fashion like he just did bananas in milk and he'd put it in a little glass and put it in the freezer and then every time he went round he'd mash it up a bit more and torment us when it was going to be ready .
Four weeks later he got this little mini banana ice cream thing which nowadays some people might make that as an ice cream , just blend up some banana and milk or yogurt or something for a healthier option . So they've all been free . And then they had an allotment as well .
So I would go picking and my mom and dad have always had an allotment , so I've been brought around those things , so always cooking and things like that . But then , like mom , she was at work , so there was a phase of having frozen food
¶ Nutrition and Food Choices for Runners
and all that stuff . You've watched that program back in time where they go through the different houses . So you see how the women's change in career really changed the whole , what food was available and things , and so , yeah , I'm sure we had pop tarts and pizzas and raspberry with ice creams and all these business and things .
Yeah , and I think that's quite good , definitely had a phase of that . Yeah , because my wife has an allotment now and she did have an allotment when the kids were growing up . Lovely , I think it really helps with the relationship I think my children have had with food , seeing it grow out of the ground and then eating it and whatever .
Yeah , it's exciting , isn't it ?
There's a lot of . I say there's a few farms now that do this regenerative farming and they're making a big deal in a good way , aren't they ? They've shown people how it all works and things , and really that's just how our parents might have farmed , isn't it ? Well , there are a lot of little things in the past .
Maybe they might use slip pellets or something , and I don't use those , but there's a few of those around if you go looking for them and you can buy the vegetables or just have meals or experience the places and things as well . So that's a nice way to get into those kind of areas and understand what's going on . Do you think like your food ?
I don't know . 50 , 60 years ago we ate better than we do now . What is that to generalist ?
I don't know . I probably had less variety . There's a lot of people just had British like meat and two veg , didn't they ? So ? Was that with all this gut health things were told ? We've got to have diversity of food , of spices and things that probably wasn't actually that diverse at that time .
It's probably when you go back further and there was more different kinds of beans and things in the diet , more broad beans and things that you don't see as often now that we would have to eat because we didn't have other food . I reckon it goes back further that era .
Yes , oh , I see Okay , but we weren't . I mean as a nation . We were a lot slimmer then than we are now .
Yeah , exactly . Yeah , I've upset a few people when I said to them . I said to them we're all a bit overweight and the people were unless you're talking to the right person . I don't say anymore because the game's in the wrong context . But we've got access to food all the time , haven't we ?
There's so much choice Food , alcohol , whatever we want , whenever we want to . We don't starve .
do it with wordies , we don't not eat and stuff , yeah , so before we go , because I know we've nearly done an hour and I think it's fantastic . Thank you very much . I've got to talk to you for ages .
Sure .
But I just want to know is there any sort of the basics you can give my audience , who maybe is the casual runner in terms of on the nutrition side ?
That you can run it . Yeah , what kind of distance do you reckon ? What sort of ? What's your typical ?
We're supposed from a 5k to a half marathon , yeah .
Okay , yeah , so if you're doing things like that are under an hour , then the general consensus is you don't tend to need any extra food . That's about having a good , healthy diet .
So good If you're racing . So is that what's the percentage split between carbs , proteins and fats ? So , with that be 2020 ? Yeah , I don't use that .
I think , yeah , yeah , more . So with protein I would be thinking more about grams per kilogram . So if somebody weighs , oh , okay , 80 kilograms , yeah , You'd say as a minimum you want one gram per kilogram . So you want 80 grams of protein a day shared across the day , Right ? And then if you're like an endurance sport person , it's more like 1.2 to 1.6 .
And if you're doing weights in the gym , it's higher than that you have to provide . Say , if you've got kidney disease , you wouldn't want to be doing that and it's not medical advice but the gen . That's the general amount . I'd start with that first , to make sure you get enough protein across those different meals and share it out as well .
That's my starting point there . And then the carbs . If you're doing short distance , you need enough to keep fit and healthy and feel like you've got energy . If you then start doing your I'd say , your half marathons , your marathons you probably then need to be eating realistically marathons , you probably end up eating carbs and a lot of the meals .
Yeah .
Make sure you get enough fuel . And that's the reality . It's all individual again .
So you can fuel the long runs and your training .
And yeah , we cover recovery as well and to support your immune system as well . Yeah , that's it . Because if you don't have it , if we don't have enough fuel , then some people might get bone issues or they periods might stop in women and you can get quite in the wrong direction .
So if anybody's having those issues , they should go and talk to the doctor or get some help from somebody else in those areas . Yeah , but yeah , you're general average person , average Joe . If you're doing over an hour , then you should add in some extra fuel . You might take like a fruit juice . That's 50% fruit juice , 50% water .
If you want something natural , yeah , you put a bit of salt in it or a bit electrolyte . If you're , then make sure you have like after 10k , have a good meal afterwards . That's got your carbs , your proteins , a bit of fats in it . Yeah . If you're doing your halves and your marathons .
You need to be getting more serious about what you're eating and when you're eating it . Yeah , yeah . And then color . You need to add color to food , as in the rainbow color of all the fruit vegetables as well .
Yeah .
Make sure that you're getting different nutrients that are reflected in those as well .
Good , excellent .
So a few tips there .
Yeah , yeah , like to end on .
¶ Sporting Heroes and Social Links Discussion
Do you have a sporting hero ?
I think it's just Seb Coe . I remember watching him in the Olympics . I remember watching him when I was younger years ago and just being really impressed . Yeah , well , yeah , with all that and I think just over the years he's done different things . I've just followed him and he's what is he ? What is he chair ? I don't know exactly .
So the Olympic Committee , isn't there always something ?
to do with that ? I think he helped with the 2012 , didn't he ?
Yeah , yeah , yeah . And I've just felt like , yeah , he's done a good direction , yeah , a lot of things that he's done , yeah , maybe my person , yeah him and Coe and Overt , we're in 1884 . Yeah , exactly , yeah . Yeah , that's my kind of area of being excited by running everything . Oh , look at that yeah .
And have you got any social links ? Or I know you've got your website .
Yeah , I've got websites Health and Heart , so that's H-A-R-T and it's and , as in , A and D , Got that one . Then I've got an Instagram which is J Joanne , then underscore health and heart . I've got a Facebook group which is the ravenous athlete . Got a few bits on the end of that , but people can join that for free as well and Facebook's Health and Heart .
So if you go on my website and look for my Instagram , you can probably track me down in all other areas as well .
And if people wanted to do a nutrition review call with me , I do a free 30 minute one just to have a conversation and see if I can help you and find out what's going on or point you in a different direction if it's not me , and you can book that on my website or on my Instagram as well .
Excellent and I'll include all the links at the show notes . Okay , but it's been really . Thank you very much for your time . Anyway , it's been fantastic , thank you .