Nika and guest Beth Ritter Nydick dive into the art of “Drinking Clean in a Dirty World,” focusing on creating cocktails and mocktails with clean, non-toxic ingredients. Beth, a clean-living and craft mixology expert, shares her knowledge on how to enhance your favorite drinks with healthy, nutrient-dense recipes. This allows listeners to indulge in their preferred beverages without compromising the efforts made towards maintaining a healthy lifestyle through diet and exercise. Beth’s approach emphasizes the importance of enjoying life’s pleasures mindfully, ensuring that a good drink can also be good for you.
CONNECT WITH THE GUEST:
CONNECT WITH NIKA: https://mtr.bio/nika-lawrie
Instagram: instagram.com/biohacking4babes
TikTok: tiktok.com/@biohacking4babes
YouTube: youtube.com/@NikaLawrie
Facebook: facebook.com/biohacking4babes
SUBMIT A QUESTION OR REQUEST A TOPIC:
I would love to hear from you! Please record your question or topic request to be featured in a future episode: https://www.speakpipe.com/NikaLawrie
DISCLAIMER:
*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business or personal success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.
Nika and guest Beth Ritter Nydick dive into the art of “Drinking Clean in a Dirty World,” focusing on creating cocktails and mocktails with clean, non-toxic ingredients. Beth, a clean-living and craft mixology expert, shares her knowledge on how to enhance your favorite drinks with healthy, nutrient-dense recipes. This allows listeners to indulge in their preferred beverages without compromising the efforts made towards maintaining a healthy lifestyle through diet and exercise. Beth’s approach emphasizes the importance of enjoying life’s pleasures mindfully, ensuring that a good drink can also be good for you.
CONNECT WITH THE GUEST:
CONNECT WITH NIKA: https://mtr.bio/nika-lawrie
Instagram: instagram.com/biohacking4babes
TikTok: tiktok.com/@biohacking4babes
YouTube: youtube.com/@NikaLawrie
Facebook: facebook.com/biohacking4babes
SUBMIT A QUESTION OR REQUEST A TOPIC:
I would love to hear from you! Please record your question or topic request to be featured in a future episode: https://www.speakpipe.com/NikaLawrie
DISCLAIMER:
*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business or personal success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.
Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Laurie podcast. Hi everybody and welcome. I am so excited to have my guest today. Her name is Beth Ritter-Neidick and she is a health coach and she also really focuses on something super cool that I think you guys are going to love. So welcome, Beth. I apologize, Beth, Welcome, and I'm thankful that you're joining me today. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm so excited to be here. Are you kidding me? We talk about something very exciting.
Speaker 1:I know I can't wait, so, beth, can you?
Speaker 2:Sorry, go ahead. There is a fun side to being healthy.
Speaker 1:There is a super fun side. I love that. Yeah, people just think it's eating like broccoli and pinto beans, and that's not it at all. So, beth, tell me a little bit about what you do and then we'll get into the fun stuff too.
Speaker 2:Sure. So I've been a health coach since forever. So, like 2010, I had my own practice. I've worked at gyms. I've done a lot of different things. In 2016, I was standing in my living room having a party with my friends and I had made three different cocktails for them. You know, the big picture is a big thing. I'm standing there and said to myself, oh, this is something other people would enjoy. About a year later, I met somebody who wanted to do it with me. We got a book agent and we were published came out the end of 2017. Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:I had the idea and what really came through it was I had been working with women for 10 years and every single person would say to me but when can I have a drink? Can I have a glass of wine? And it I just started creating. Well, I'd created a lot of these drinks in college because I'm not a sugar drinker and I took that. So essentially, what the cookbook is is all your favorite cocktails made with healthy, nutrient-dense ingredients.
Speaker 1:That's amazing Because it's so hard to find that and I'm actually I'm not a big drinker, and one of the reasons I'm not a big drinker is because of all the sugar and the chemicals and weird stuff that you find in normal drinks, and so I love the idea of doing a clean cocktail. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's clean cocktails, righteous recipes from the modern mixologist. We use herbs and spices, fruits and vegetable juices, even a little kombucha. There's a whole section of mocktails, so you don't need to actually be a drinker.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:How to bring flavors together, how to make bitters, how to make syrups so that you can have your own. We were calling it the pandemic home bar, but definitely the home bar whenever you're home, to really include the ingredients that are going to make you feel good, and not the chemicals, the dyes, the oversaturation of sugars that give you that gross headache, hangover feeling in the morning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Do you find that people have less of a hangover with your types of drinks because of that?
Speaker 2:So if you had two of our margaritas from our cocktail book versus a cocktail margarita from like Fridays or Chili's, there's, I believe, over 70 grams of sugar in the Chili's one Gosh. I think there's nine, even less if you make it the way I like it.
Speaker 1:I had no idea there was that much sugar, even if it's close to that. That's insane, so that's crazy.
Speaker 2:My favorite drink is a matcha latte. You can get a matcha latte at Starbucks. A medium there's 37 grams of sugar. Like you make it at home with some of the sugar that's in the oat milk, so it's really paying attention to the ingredients you're putting into your body.
Speaker 2:And also, you know we work so hard. Before pandemic we were all working so hard in the gym or eating really, really well. But then you go out with your girlfriends or with your husband or your wife or whomever your partner is for the night, have two mojitos. You've ruined everything, everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Everything.
Speaker 1:So like you can, I would say you can have spinach all day, but you can't have sugar cocktails all night, Like it just right, I love that you talked about the ingredients, cause one of the things I really really try to drive home with my clients and just people I'm helping in the sense of health coaching is to actually read labels, because we just eat all this food and we have no idea what's actually in it, and so my big proponent thing is to, if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it and really understand what are what's in our food. So I love that you're doing this with with cocktails. I think it's awesome.
Speaker 2:I see that your daughter is five or six. You had just said yeah, she's five. So if you're a five year old, can't read the label, don't eat it. My grandmother was born in 1920.
Speaker 2:If she didn't recognize it. Don't eat it. Yeah, don't eat it, but really we're all food shopping or having food delivered now, so it's really thinking about the ingredients that you're eating in every meal and what that looks like. I can't tell you how colorful, rainbow-y my meals are since COVID, so I have the extra time I'm bringing in different kinds of food. It's not so fast anymore. I'm not drinking a shake because I don't have time to eat my lunch, because I'm so busy. I'm really focusing on whole, real foods. Blueberries taste really good after dinner. If you need a snack, frozen blueberries are my favorite.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite things recently is freeze-dried raspberries. These sound really weird, but I'm telling you they're absolutely delicious, yeah. So can you give me a couple examples of some of the cocktails that you actually have in your book?
Speaker 2:So my favorite is called the Day Drinker. So my favorite is called the day drinker. Sounds good right now. It would have been good today. So it is lemon, grapefruit with sage and a little bit of honey syrup. So, depending on how sweet you like things, like, I love to ask your audience to think about how sweet they like it and how sweet they like it, because there is there should be a difference. And if you can think about how sweet they like it and how sweet they like it Because there should be a difference, and if you can think about it like, if you're making a day drinker this weekend and you put two tablespoons of sugar syrup in it, then maybe next time you make it put one and a half, and I promise you that as you do it slowly, your taste buds will change. You're not?
Speaker 2:going to taste the sugar You'll taste more of the flavors from the citrus, because I know lemon seems tart and grapefruit seems tart but it's also really sweet. But putting that savory sage in it makes it sweeter, so you don't need all the extra sugar. Like, for example, we also have my writing partner's favorite cocktail is the Meyer lemonade. That's with Meyer lemons. Meyer lemons are a lemon and mandarin orange together, so super sweet with vodka and seltzer. A little honey syrup Again, you don't need as much if you're really upping the level of the ingredients you're putting in there.
Speaker 2:But my favorite right now is a Verde Bloody Mary, green tomatoes, cilantro, parsley celery, green tomato, cilantro, parsley celery. You know, it's just been that kind of day in the weekend. Yeah, it's been that kind of like six months, so a while, um. But I think like really paying attention to what, what you're eating, the quality of what you're eating, because if you're thinking about the quality you don't need to think about the quantity. Absolutely. Like I had a, a pepper, for lunch, like I couldn't eat three, but I could probably have one and a half and you know what what? 47 calories.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:No fat and no protein, but it's really thinking about that. So if you're going to make a cocktail with a red pepper, a little bit of a spirit, maybe some citrus and some herbs, it's really low calorie. They're really filling because there's that fiber that's in them and you can really create your favorite favorite cocktail and just in a better way, what's your favorite cocktail, gosh?
Speaker 1:Honestly, my favorite drink is a toasted almond, which is not healthy whatsoever. So I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to get your book and kind of rethink what I'm, what I'm doing when I go and drink. What are some of the mocktails? I mean, are they the same just without the alcohol, or do you have different versions?
Speaker 2:There are different versions. We do a couple elixirs, a couple hangovers one with tart cherry, which is really good for digestion, and the antioxidants that sounds good. Kombucha charcoal is really my favorite one. That's actually something that I drink regularly to just kind of help. I have some stomach issues, so it just helps everything stay spacious. That's great, yeah. But a little bit of everything I wanted to make sure that whatever was in the book, you could go out to like your local bodega or your local grocery store and find it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Yeah, that's so important because I think there's so many people who struggle with just finding healthy food right now or finding ways to incorporate it into their life, so that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, one great way to incorporate it is to grow it, so growing mint is the easiest thing.
Speaker 1:Oh my.
Speaker 2:God they're black. I kill almost everything I really do. There's no plants in my house that I haven't killed. I let my kids do it now. But seriously, when you go to the store, get a plant sorry basil plant or mint plant and put it into a pot, even on your front steps If you go to my Insta you can see I have a sage plant on my front steps that I literally haven't touched and it's this big, like herbs. If you can't grow anything, you can grow herbs. Yeah, you know, sometimes herbs are expensive or you can't get them. So having your own herb patch, which you can do inside, even if you're in a tiny apartment in New York City, or out in New Mexico, where maybe you can't get all the herbs that I can get because I'm on the east Coast Just a simple way and a cheap way, yeah, Absolutely cheap, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And mint grows like weeds. Basically, it grows nonstop. You can pour acid on that plant and it'll continue to grow. It tastes so good Nothing like fresh mint and it's so different when you're cooking with fresh herbs. It just tastes different. It's got a different energy to the whole meal, whatever it is that you're making when you have fresh stuff like that really is just a change.
Speaker 2:And I like taking like having a whole meal. So like if you made one of our mojitos and then you had a salad and you put, you chopped up some mint and put it into the regular salad or made a salad dressing from it or then made a chimichurri sauce what herbs you have and then added some of the mint to. If you had some watermelon or some frozen blueberries, like you can really create a menu around the herb so that not only will you, if you have enough of it, you can use it up, but also just give yourself more options.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:And I feel like kids will eat things that taste like mint.
Speaker 1:This is true, they will. Yeah, if you can give them a little bit of you know sweet flavor or just something that's you know kind of kills the spice or whatever it is, they'll totally eat it up. Yeah, yeah, where can we find your cookbook? Where can I get you, get a copy of it?
Speaker 2:It's available on Amazon, but I would like to ask your audience if they can call their local bookstore. We are in a ton of local bookstores, but they will order it from you, and then you were supporting a local store.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I love that. One of the things that I've really tried to focus on is really trying to shop local, especially with like mom and pop stores, um, and little restaurants and stuff like that, especially with everything that's been going on. So I love that, definitely. So, beth, are you okay if we get a little personal? You have a really interesting backstory Sure, awesome. So I want to talk a little bit. So you have come from a family that didn't really focus on clean eating when you were a child and then you kind of went through a weight loss journey and then you became a health coach. I mean that's a pretty incredible transition over your life. How did that really happen? Can you tell me about your backstory a little bit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd love to. Well, first I have to acknowledge that I was born in the seventies, and the seventies is when all of the processed food really came onto the scene in a hard way.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember pouring Tang, yes, okay, yes, container, and my friend bringing iced tea in her little container and we would like lick the spoon and put it in and lick it. That's what I remember being a snack, like my mom always cooked. We'd make a joke that she used to make orange chicken like chicken with orange juice poured over it. It tasted really good but there wasn't like a. There was no education they weren't educated about nutrition.
Speaker 2:Mom just gave us real food but there wasn't any education around it and I unfortunately don't have a body metabolism that's fast. I grew up with my sister, whose metabolism was much faster, and a little brother, so, and especially being a middle child, which we can talk for an hour about being a middle child. But you know, like I had a skinny older sister, beautiful older sister, I had a younger brother and I was kind of in the middle with no education, but I was. I think I was one of the first girls on a boys baseball team in my town growing up.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful. I was always an athlete.
Speaker 2:I always wanted to play hard and go hard and there weren't girl teams. So I was always sort of an athlete. But then, when I started turning into a teenager and getting more voluptuous and rounded, I also discovered I had an eating like a stomach issue. But again, this is in the mid eighties and this is when doctors told young women that their pains were in their head. My mom took me to several doctors that were like she's fine, here's some antioch, you know indigestion reflux, like it wasn't anything that helped me, it was just they wanted to throw pills at me. My mom, being a little bit of a hippie, was like I'm not giving her these pills, and I also had a sister who had different kinds of stomach issues.
Speaker 2:So I really didn't get diagnosed with IBS till almost I went to college.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that's a long time ago. Without a diagnosis, yeah, but also.
Speaker 2:IBS was like we don't know what's wrong with you, so you have this.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It wasn't like a real diagnosis. So in college I first went to school to become a physical trainer. I wanted to be like the only woman on the field at a football game. And then I went to a football game in upstate New York and I was like this is too cold, I don't want to do this. So I found and one of my loves was always TV. So I became a TV communications major in TV so I had a little extra time on my hands and my stomach always hurt.
Speaker 2:There's a story that I was a freshman in college I remember going to the bagel store, getting a bagel and cream cheese with like six of my new girlfriends and I ended up in the bathroom and two of them are not like hard knocking at the door what's wrong? And I was like going to the bathroom like literally I let them in and they're like we decided you have an eating disorder and we need to help you. And I was like I don't have an eating disorder, I have a bad stomach. Like my friends thought I had an eating disorder because I would eat and then go to the bathroom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Until I spent probably six months in the library studying. Okay, Remember, before really internet, I didn't have literally like photo. You know what's that called that fishing in the library the.
Speaker 2:what are the scan disc things? Yes, I think I'm older than you. I don't think there were scan discs yet, but I was like looking in journals and I remember reading all these health journals. I went to the. There was a nutrition minor on campus. I went to the department head and had a conversation with them. She then directed me to one of the first vegan restaurants in New York state. Um met some amazing people there. They took me to my first farmer's market. Like I I just have a chills. Yeah, like the Warren farm. Like everyone thinks that there were farmer farmer's markets all the time, there weren't. And I live in New Jersey, the Garden State.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So until I figured out oh, whole real food means no stomachache, my life changed.
Speaker 1:I think you and I have a really similar story in that sense. I kind of went through the same thing I too, I have a degree in communications and in psychology and I went and I worked in the film and music industry for years and I was unhealthy, I was depressed, I was gaining weight, I was just miserable, like life wasn't good, I was working way too many hours and I finally decided to. I was living in New York and LA and I left. I moved back to New Mexico, where I was born and raised, and I just dove into health and wellness and tried to figure out what was wrong with me and ended up getting to where I am now simply by trying to fix myself. And so I think, yeah, it's a lot about just learning that the most of the issues that we're having especially as women, but in, you know, people in general is is based off the food we're eating. It's is. Is it, you know, healthy, is it clean or is it, you know, this messed?
Speaker 2:up quality.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a conversation. And now I feel like if someone came, came, came to you and said, oh, my 12-year-old daughter, every time she eats cream cheese she gets a stomachache, You'd be like, well, let me stop eating cream cheese.
Speaker 2:But back then, not eating dairy wasn't even a thought it wasn't even a conversation and there was no to so when I remember I think I was 13, like 10, 12, 13, this booty came out with an ice cream and I went to a roller skating party. I mean, like I was little, I went to a roller. I take that back. I had to be like 8, 9, 10. I went to a roller skating party and I had my. I brought my own, put it down in front of me and one of the girls that worked there came over and swiped it away and threw it in the garbage, like she thought it was a mistake, and I just cried that's my ice cream. You ruined everything. I just remember freaking out about it because I was like, finally I get to be like everybody else and I get a little ice cream.
Speaker 2:But I have to say, when I went to work in New York in television, I went back. I went back to Diet Coke on the way to work, diet Coke at work, diet Coke on the way home from work. Maybe a sweet potato. I mean, there was a Wendy's underneath us so I would get a plain potato, a baked potato. Yeah, nothing to eat. I've never been a big meat eater, but a little chili on top maybe I couldn't do the cheese. I knew, at least I knew that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Not until I got to work on a different floor that they had the executive commissary a salary where I got real food at work. It was just by chance, yeah, yeah. When I went down to work in LA. Everyone ate a lot healthier in TV in LA than New York.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I think it was definitely. There was definitely a difference for me in LA as well, but it was still the go go go mentality, where food is an afterthought and not a priority, was just hard, it was difficult.
Speaker 2:Very, very hard. There was no snack bars. They didn't have anything in bars or kind bars. There wasn't anything like that.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think until I got pregnant, which was only a couple of years later, that I was like okay, no more Diet Coke, and now I can't even take a sip. It tastes totally disgusting to me now. Yeah, a good Diet Coke from the fountain, oh like, oh, the fountain cokes.
Speaker 2:it was the best, yeah but when I, when my kids were little, and I was making food for them and I was feeding them whatever I was making people, people started coming to me. I was in mommy groups what are you feeding them? You're giving him edamame and he's six months old, or tofu pieces at six months old and I was like, yeah, because I had been doing the research and now there was the internet so I could actually read and learn stuff. But people started coming to me for that and that's really how I got back into nutrition. Go ahead go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, it was people coming to me for information. I knew what I had, but I wanted some credibility, so I went back to school, got my degree and then I've been helping families and women ever since that's awesome. Now I don't help kids, yeah.
Speaker 1:Just the mommies this time it's really about the cocktails.
Speaker 2:I think I hit a chord because this was just before like even restaurants in New York had many cocktails that were clean-ish on the menu.
Speaker 1:There wasn't any of that and I remember yeah, I mean, I feel like that's been just within the last like five years or so, that I started to see that So-.
Speaker 2:Since my book came out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, trendsetter.
Speaker 2:That's one of the reasons I think that we really got published, because I don't have 50,000 followers. My partner didn't have 50,000 followers, but we knew it was a really good idea, and it was an idea that people like I would tell somebody to be like yes, give me that book.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:With Corona. I have to tell you our book sales are up. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:I'm surprised one bit. I mean, it just gives people, you know, something fun that's still healthy to do at home and so, yeah, that's awesome. So you, you touched on this a little bit, but what are some of the um, like the mental shifts or the behavior changes that you had to make to really get healthy, kind of to make those changes in your life?
Speaker 2:Well, it's funny that you asked that, because I'm seeing that with my son, who's almost 18. He's, he's a big lacrosse goalie, he's this huge guy. And I said to him later I'm like I'm so sorry, you got my insides. It's really acknowledging how you feel and, I think, finding that first how I feel, journal, which is you know, this is what I ate, this is when I ate it, and then, two hours later, how I felt, how I felt about it yeah and that's what he's kind of dealing with now.
Speaker 2:He said he's like he literally had like six french fries yesterday.
Speaker 2:He's like I feel like garbage, I'm like yeah when you eat really clean and then you eat something that's not clean. So I say to my clients eat clean and stay there, because it's worse if you don't. It's almost like if you don't keep in your lane it's gonna be bad. So it's easier to keeping your lane, but I think that's a mind shift. Like somebody said to me well, it's Father's Day, it's time to celebrate. Celebration doesn't mean food. Only in marketing does celebration mean food yeah. Well, and then?
Speaker 1:you know, you can still celebrate with healthy food, Like we made a healthy meal for my dad for dinner last night but and it was delicious, we had a great time, you know. So, yeah, it doesn't mean junk food always.
Speaker 2:And you can have a health like you can have a healthy barbecue. Look indulgent, but not indulgent.
Speaker 1:Right, Right, Totally. I absolutely agree. I love that you said about you know, you have to start to understand the way you feel, because I think that's such a thing that people, we just are so busy with the outside world that we don't take enough time to just kind of listen to the our, our internal voice is telling us I feel good, I feel bad, I feel exhausted, I feel energized. You know, and really stopping to listen to that is is a game changer, I think.
Speaker 2:Oh, definitely. You know when I, if you were my, my clients come to me, I start with taking everything out of your diet no dairy, no sugar, no alcohol, no coffee I think I'm missing one. But you take all that out of your diet for three weeks you drop weight like that, like no tomorrow, but it's not real weight, like it's water weight, and then everything kind of comes off. But then when you put stuff back in and I have to tell you, oh, eggs, I have to tell you dairy and eggs, when you put those back into your diet, it's the hardest and you have to really think about is this because my body is not processing it right?
Speaker 2:The kind of inflammation that you lose when you take all those allergens out of your system for three weeks. You see the difference. If I eat a plate a white bagel, I literally fall asleep for three hours. So if I can't sleep, I might eat a bite of a bagel.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah, no, when you were mentioning your son earlier, I had, um, just like a junk cheeseburger and fries the other day. I hadn't eaten it and as long I can remember I couldn't like. I was so tired I had to go lay down, I mean, within probably 20 minutes of eating it. I was so lethargic and so exhausted. It was almost scary how tired I was afterwards.
Speaker 2:Isn't that amazing that your body says no, don't do that. So I would ask your audience to think about. It's not a diet, it's not a way of eating. It's really listening to your body. I just believe that taking doing that hard month of allergens out, allergens in it helps level, set your expectations and helps you lose weight rapidly and keep it off and it also gives you all that information that you know like, most of the weight people are holding onto themselves is inflammation. It's not actually weight. It's how your body is processing something.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know you do have a couple of drinks the next morning, your scale is going to go up a couple pounds. Yeah, I don't want to think like you can eat healthy and drink gladly and you're going to continue to lose weight. You're not. That's a conversation with him too. Like he had a couple of drinks and I'm like you're going to have to. You're, if you, he does scales on Wednesday morning, like you're going to have to really think about what that's going to say. And how much of that was the French fries and a couple, a drink or so or something else. Like it's not gonna. It's not gonna be there. But how do you feel? And that's the question, like even your five-year-old like start, how does that make you feel? I think it's really important to get them to do that mind-body connection.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, and I think I think it's really important for people to understand that not all calories are the same. You know you can eat calories from spinach and you can eat five calories that come from sugar. Your body processes those completely different and they sit on your body differently too. And so just kind of getting that, that understanding that you know, um, kind of back to the inflammation and stuff that these calories are affecting different hormones and different parts of your body and really process different throughout your body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a client who we took soy out of her system. So, if you don't know, soy is in makeup, moisturizer, sunscreen, hair products. I had no idea that soy was in so many products green hair products like I had no idea that soy was in so many products. Yeah, when I heard her personality change in three days, like her mother called me to thank oh my gosh, because she had been being, and the worse her inflammation got, the crankier she was. So I I just gotta chill again. I feel for this woman because I changed her life. But she did like that for 10 years. She got divorced.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that is heartbreaking.
Speaker 2:She didn't get divorced because it was food it was. It wasn't even like something that she was willingly putting in her body. She just didn't realize that her foundation had soy in it. As soon as we took that out, it was like we have the right, we're doing the right thing. It was hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I love that too, because I think you know health is. Everyone always thinks about health as just being food or fitness, like nutrition and fitness and health really is all encompassing. I mean it really is. It's all the chemicals are putting on our body, it's our relationships, it's our career, it's, you know, all of these outside influences that are affecting different parts of our body.
Speaker 2:So I love that you bring up the cosmetics and and you have to really think about like you're putting on sunscreen, but now it's sunscreen, you know mosquito spray, plus whatever you put on your body. Really think about how those ingredients affect your body because they're going to and even if it says all natural, like I'm allergic to nickel, you know how many things nickel have, nickel have.
Speaker 1:I have no idea, but I'm sure quite a few.
Speaker 2:All the natural beauty brands all have nickel, oh my gosh, I did not know that. And I'm allergic to the emulsifiers the natural emulsifiers that keep lotions together.
Speaker 1:Oh, interesting, interesting. You know one of the things I did. I used to break out a lot up until my real late twenties and I finally just completely gave up makeup. I wear a little bit of mascara and stuff and this is Vaseline on my lips, but otherwise I stopped wearing makeup on my face and it, I mean it, changed my whole complexion and and it finally got clear. It was a huge, huge transformation for me.
Speaker 2:Beautiful skin? Oh well, thank you, but it makes a difference. So talking about is quality of your ingredients, no matter if you're ingesting them, washing your hair with them. That one gets me a little like if you really look and see what's in shampoo and then it goes on your body, that's a whole. That's a whole, nother podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm really thinking about. You know the outside, the things that you learned in high school. The outside is a supermarket, has a healthier ingredients, you know. You can recognize it from the ground or from a tree, like it's really. And the pushback is about fear, about change. It's about well, I'm not going to be a part of something, but enrolling those people around you to really think the way that you think. Like I have to tell you, my parents used to tell me that I was brainwashing my children and you know what, in the last three years they've regurgitated what I've been telling them for 15, 16 years.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, yes, I was thinking that earlier when we were talking about, you know, removing dairy from your diet. I did that probably like 15 years ago. I still eat a little cheese here and there, but I don't touch milk or anything like that. And I remember being teased by everyone like, oh, you don't eat milk. Like, oh, you're one of those people. And I'm like, no, it makes me sick, like that's why I don't eat it. And yeah, now, all those people none of them drink milk anymore. So it is funny how people will slowly get on the bandwagon. It's just a matter of getting that education out there.
Speaker 2:Exactly, it's all education and it's media and it's what you're reading and watching and what you're doing and the people that you're sharing. A lot of my sons I have two teenage boys and a lot of the guys and the girls they watch now talk about what they're eating.
Speaker 2:They talk about what they're putting on their body because it's becoming so important to their lifestyle and I'm so happy that our kids are really interested in it, because I think that our obesity rate is going to reduce in the next 10 years. And I want to caveat that with. I live in New Jersey. I know it's not the same everywhere and I live in Northern New Jersey right now, near New York city, so we have a different. You know it's a little. You know it's a little vibey here. My kids come a little faster than where your kids are, but they're really starting to understand that in the schools the messaging's different. You know, when I went to school it was like chocolate or strawberry. What kind of milk would you like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's still very much what it's like here in New Mexico. I mean, our school systems are sadly one of the worst in the country and the meals are even worse. You know, I know we have a governor who's really working on changing some of that and the school systems are trying to, but yeah, when pizza is considered a vegetable, my heart hurts.
Speaker 2:So first Michelle Obama when we need her. She did such a good job and really getting information out there.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, a lot about sugar. But you know and that brings us back to the cocktails like you need to. Whatever you're doing, no matter what it is if it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks or cocktail on the weekends the ingredients really matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So one of my questions for you were actually we've and we've kind of recovered. This was the benefits of eating clean. But more so since I think we've kind of covered that quite a bit, a lot of the things I hear from clients or just people in general is I want to eat clean, but it's really hard, Like it's hard to meal prep all the time. It's hard to get the food on my table. I'm exhausted after work. What tips do you have for somebody who likes the idea of eating clean or likes the idea of meal prepping but doesn't really know where to start?
Speaker 2:so batch cooking is mine. That's mine too. Yeah, yeah, google like for the audience. Google on our, go to our websites and then google yeah, we can dinners so I have two sons who are athletes, so I'll tell you what I do on sundays.
Speaker 2:I literally well, my husband did it this week I bought it all um A five pound meatloaf, 80-20 turkey meat, three or four hard boiled eggs in the middle, A little extra protein, a little surprise for the kids. I probably do four or five pounds of chicken thighs and I probably do one or two sheets of roasted vegetables. Whatever I have in the house. That helps me not get the question what's there to eat?
Speaker 2:Because there is meatloaf, chicken and vegetables always in my house, and then on top of that whatever else I'm planning on eating. But I feel like doing that batch cooking once a week, or make enough for two weeks, or just try it out this week and see how it works for you. Finding those two things that you can make in bulk that your family will eat, be it chili, be it pasta, be it a meatloaf and chicken, a whole tray of cauliflower and broccoli, would be amazing. Using herbs and spices I love to use the everything seasoning from Trader Joe's. I hope you guys have that out there Put it on everything.
Speaker 2:If you have a favorite salad dressing, we're going to check the label to make sure there's not a lot of sugar. Thank you, marinate the chicken thighs. I marinated chicken breasts four packages of chicken breasts yesterday in Ken's Italian salad dressing. It's got a little bit of sugar but it's mostly fat. The salad dressing. My kids were like this is the best chicken you've ever made. Yeah, just finding those couple things and batch cooking. You know, if you can afford to do fresh, direct, ready-made meals, glory to you, go ahead and do that. But most of us can't, so it's fine. Really, instead of this big like what do I make, ask your kids what are the two things you like I make? Everyone gets their top two and that's your menu for two weeks and that's it. That's what you're making. See what works, see what doesn't work. But I just think those sheet pan dinners are the easiest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I really. I try to do every sunday and wednesday, so I'll I I get burnt out on leftovers after a while and so I figure if I can cook twice a week and, you know, make it through the other three days, then I'm good to go. So I'm same as you just as you just totally.
Speaker 2:Vegetables with a fried egg on top is a pretty good dinner. Don't forget about eggs for dinner. And I think that a lot of the working moms and and you know, I know you're home with your little one I have a client today I was talking to she's got three little ones. My head almost exploded just talking to her being home with those three kids, cause in Jersey we're still kind of shut down. Yeah, it's just finding those things and making sure that you eat. So I do eat a lot of eggs. I don't eat eggs for breakfast, but I do eat a lot of eggs for dinner because they're all eating meatloaf. I don't eat that. If they're all eating something that I don't really like, there's at least those vegetables made for me. Throw an egg on top and then I'm good to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I love it because you can do you know, make some kind of zoodles or some kind of good pasta, and then you can throw those veggies on top or make you know some stir fry or something and throw the veggies in the middle. It's really easy to just mix it up all the time.
Speaker 2:Yesterday I made pistachio pesto.
Speaker 1:Oh, that sounds delicious.
Speaker 2:Pistachios salt lemon. And then I went to my mom's garden and I got whatever green. She had basil mint and parsley. Yeah, basil mint and parsley. I'm like what else was there?
Speaker 1:And threw it in with a lot of olive oil in our little mixer and put that on any veggie.
Speaker 2:Your kid will eat it.
Speaker 1:Your husband will eat it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those fresh herbs, a little bit of lemon, a little bit of lemon, a little bit of nuts. So maybe, if it's not like they won't eat the plain chicken, find us something that they'll put on top of it. That's easy to make, that you can make a big batch and freeze, because you can freeze pesto in uh, ice cube trays. Take one out and use it. That's the best idea. An ice, an ice cube of pesto, put in the hot pasta. One, two three.
Speaker 1:That is a really good idea. Yeah, because I free. I freeze pesto and different pasta sauces quite often, but I've never thought about putting them in the cube the trays before. So that's a great idea I.
Speaker 2:I cube everything like you have extra anything I put. Put an olive oil in an ice cube tray. I have. I have lots of ice cube trays because I also do that. I love that. If I get a bag of lemons from Costco, I'll juice the whole bag and make ice cubes out of it.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a great idea too. You can do different. And one thing I do want to press is, if you have kids, get them involved now, like not in cooking and prepping and throwing out the lemon peels after you juice them, like whatever it is because I've been helping families eat healthy for, you know, over 15 years now, and the underlining message to all of it is get the kids interested as young as you can and you will have healthy eaters, no matter how picky they are at eight.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:They'll be at 18 and 48. They'll still be picky, so don't even worry about it.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's so true, and when you give them you know those specific, you know opportunities, or you let them pick and choose the things that you want to, they want to eat out of you know fruits or vegetables and stuff like that, they become accustomed to that and and it's just the way of life and so yeah, yeah it makes your life easier.
Speaker 2:Even if your grandparents are going to take them for ice cream and whatever else like that, that's fine. Let them do that yeah but having them be involved in the cooking in the house will just make them interested in healthy years um you know, and making them their, a cocktail version of your cocktail I love that.
Speaker 1:well, beth, I just I want to acknowledge you for the support that you give to your clients for the uh, you know, clean cocktail book. I think that is such an amazing thing and I'm sure people are just loving it and just for you know, being out there and helping us get more health information in front of people. I think it's so important to educate people these days. So thank you for all you're doing in that sense.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, I appreciate you as well.
Speaker 1:It was a great conversation. It's nice to meet you, yeah, so I got. I got two more questions for you real quick. So the first one is where can people find you online? How can they connect with you?
Speaker 2:Oh, my website is blue barn kitchen and bethnydickcom. It's NY dick, just so now you remember how to spell it, cause not everybody does. Yeah, bethnythiccom as well. You can find me on Insta at BethNythic and Facebook as both. You know, if you Google BethNythic cocktails, it all comes up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, awesome, and I'll be sure to link to everything in the description as well. Definitely I do. I wonder where did the title of the Blue Barn come from?
Speaker 2:okay, this is a really sad story, it's not that oh okay, well, I always wanted to live up, live on a farm and grow vegetables and you know, live that kind of lifestyle, um, which I would probably hate because you actually have to get up early and be dirty and that yeah but my first.
Speaker 2:When I first first started the, my company was called blueprint for health and wellness Very long business name on a URL calling me that blue girl. Don't you do that blue thing. So when I when I rebranded and I was like, well, I'm going to teach everyone how to eat from the earth farm barn, blue barn kitchen and I, when I do videos, I'm like, well, I welcome people to the bar, to the kitchen of the blue barn, to give people that idea Like this is all natural and I get it.
Speaker 2:My food primarily comes from farmer's markets and I have lots of friends who like to grow and give me their extras, which is awesome. Love that. That's a great story. That's not a bad story. That's good reason. Yeah, I just and I really, you know, I really love the business of health and wellness. I love helping other women like us really level up and become who they can be, because I feel like we are the the vast edge to help people be healthy, like if there wasn't us in the world, if there weren't health coaches that you know high profile health coaches and great trainers. Right, we really educating the masses so that we can really survive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think there's such a gap between the education we get from you know, high school or college or whatever and from the health system. There's just this gap between how do I live healthy and live a normal life still too so yeah, the business of being healthy is not yeah, all right, beth, my last, my very last question for you what advice do you have someone who wants to make change either in their life, in their community or around the world?
Speaker 2:small baby steps. Start small and enroll people in your vision, because that's some people have ideas but aren't doers. Some people are doers that don't have ideas. So I call the people that don't have ideas but have action. Find your sneezer, find somebody that you can partner up with Maybe not on COVID, but you got to be kidding but have somebody else support you with the things that you're not good at. That's why one reason my co-author and I really did so well together because our strengths are different. They work really well together.
Speaker 2:But if you want to do something, start small. Start by telling somebody, by enrolling somebody, by teaching somebody and for the visibility part of it because that's really where my business head lies is telling people, putting on your IGTV, putting on your Facebook. I have a quick story. I have a friend who wanted to start doing sprouts. I didn't even know you could grow your own sprouts. That wasn't my thing, yeah, but you put it on Facebook and guess what? The next day I bought my sprouts, I was putting pictures on her Facebook group supporting her. Um, and I really helped her grow what she was doing because I got other people, other my friends, she brought her friends. So it's really getting your community to enroll in just the idea before there's any action, just the idea of what you want to do, because doing it alone it's just, it's just really hard, especially in the, in this part of it, the nutrition part of it, and they're going to call you crazy and you don't know what you're doing, and stop that.
Speaker 2:But have that core people who are enrolled and anxious to get done what you're looking to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you know, even with the, they're going to call you crazy and don't know what you're doing and all those things. I think a lot of times that is just our own insecurities kind of. You know. I think we worry about more what other people are thinking than people are actually thinking about us, and so, yeah, it's just kind of moving past that. But baby steps, that's my thing too.
Speaker 2:I take baby steps your partner in on it. You know I've come up, I hear what you're saying, but I've also come up with a lot of people who are vilified for losing weight, you know, ostracized from their families. They have a big family and they've all lost. You know one person has lost weight. It's hard. So I really wouldn't start with your family unless they're already enrolled.
Speaker 2:Go find your best friend, find your gym buddy, find the other person who's reading that book on nutrition and just get them. You know, start that conversation, because conversations make things happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or finding, you know, facebook groups where people are like-minded and kind of sharing ideas around the same stuff. So, yeah, yeah, love it Awesome. Well, thank you, beth, so very, very much. I am super grateful for your time and all the fantastic information you shared and I will be sure to share links and everything to your book and your page and just thank you, it's been awesome.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I ask all your audience to drink clean in a dirty world and have a great week. Yes, definitely. Thank you so much, bye, bye.