Unlocking Fitness Secrets: Expert Answers to Your Top Health Questions
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Favorite Packaged Snacks, Canned Foods To Avoid, Fight A Cold | #AskLiveLeanTV Ep. 023
Welcome back to episode number 23 of #AskLiveLeanTV.
This is the show where we take your questions when you use #AskLiveLeanTV.
If you post them on Twitter, you are most likely going to get your question answered first.
If you don’t use Twitter, you can also post your questions on:
Alright ladies and gentlemen, let’s jump into it.
Here Are Today’s 10 Viewer Questions
- What Olympic event would you love to take part in?
- How long does it typically take for muscle soreness to go away after a workout?
- What are your favorite packaged snacks?
- How did you start Live Lean TV? What motivated and kept you on track?
- How do you recover from a cold?
- What are the benefits of Chia seeds?
- How many calories are in your break the fast smoothie?
- What are some acceptable canned foods?
- When you finished with your body recomposition, did you buy clothes you never thought you would?
- Having hypothyroidism and PCOS has been a struggle to lose weight, any advice?
Question 1: What Olympic Event Would You Love To Take Part In?
Rebecca @rsam87 on Twitter asks:
What Olympic event would you take part in?
Jess: I would do track and field.
Brad: Which event, though?
Jess: I think that hurdles are really cool. I think I personally would suck at them, but I think they’re so cool. Based on how I did in high school, the distance events were my thing because I am the most stubborn human being alive. I will not let someone pass me.
Brad: Yeah, but when you say distance events, you don’t mean a marathon, right?
Jess: No, I’m referring to a 2 mile, a 1500 meter, or maybe even the 5000 meters. I don’t know. I don’t like the sound of that today, but if I were to train seriously, I feel like I would really excel at that event.
Brad: For me, I’m all about speed.
Jess: I know I would prefer to do the 100 meter, but I think I would suck at it.
Brad: I think you would do great at it.
Jess: Thank you. I’m not that fast. Maybe if I trained for it.
Brad: I would be in the 100 meter dash. If not that, I would be in basketball.
Jess: Basketball is weird because that doesn’t seem like an Olympic event to me.
Brad: I know. It was really hard to get into Olympic basketball because the U.S. just dominates. Since basketball is already professional sport, with it’s own championship, it’s hard to think of it as an Olympic sport.
Jess: Track and field is unique since you don’t see it all the time.
Brad: Yeah, I agree, but I still like it.
Jess: l also really like the relay races with the girls. I would love to be on a team of four girls and pass the baton.
Question 2: How Long Does It Take For Muscle Soreness to Go Away After a Workout?
Dex2Real from Snapchat says:
How long does it typically take for muscle soreness to go away after a workout?
Brad: Oh, yes, the DOMS.
Jess: When does the DOMS leave you?
Brad: If you were following us during our pregnancy, during Jessica way saying how much it hurt being in labor. At the time, I was also experiencing major DOMS, and joked, “Dude you don’t even know what I’m going through right now”. 😂
Jess: Anyway, depending on the workout and your fitness level, DOMS can take up to 5 or 6 days. Normally it takes 2 days.
Brad: If you hit a heavy leg workout for the first time, and I’m training you, you’re going to feel sore three to four days later. For example, I was training a doctor before and I had him beat down.
Jess: If you were working him out on Monday, he then calls you on the weekend, and says, what did you do to me?
Brad: However, if you’re like a seasoned athlete, you won’t feel the DOMS unless you do something totally different. For example, you change up the training modality to something completely different.
Jess: If you’re experienced, you’ll probably be mildly sore for a maximum of maybe 2-3 days after starting a new workout program. If you’re a complete newbie, then it’s going to hit you like a ton of bricks, so you may have to take up to a week to recover.
Brad: Think about the DOMS as earning your stripes. Every newbie has to go through it, so get excited about it. Change your mindset towards feeling sore. If you’re feeling sore, it means you did something good.
Jess: Yes, think of it as a good sign that you actually did something to positively impact your muscles.
Question 3: What Are Your 5 Favorite Packaged Snacks Besides Nuts?
Apexer4eva from Snapchat says:
What are your five favorite packaged snacks besides nuts?
Brad: I’ll throw mine out there. I like beef jerky and trail mix. Trail mix is different than nuts, so I’m using it.
Jess: We don’t eat a lot of packaged foods, but I like dried fruits. When I go to Trader Joe’s I like to pick up dried apricots and dried mangos. Dried mangos are my favorite.
Brad: Another one would be packaged tuna, not canned tuna. This is the tuna that is packaged in a pouch, so you can eat it on the go.
Jess: Yes, I guess that could be a snack.
Brad: The next one would be a protein bar.
Jess: In the produce section you can also find a square snack pack or veggie sticks.
Brad: Yeah. There you go peeps.
Jess: We did it. We came up with five.
Question 4: How Did You Start Live Lean TV? What Motivated And Kept You On Track?
BobCorn @sa9ar1 from Twitter wants to know:
How did you decide to start Live Lean TV? What motivated and kept you on track?.
Brad: I love this question. I recently talked about this with a friend on a walk. Live Lean TV wasn’t the very first YouTube video I ever did. The idea of branding this YouTube channel Live Lean TV came from the gym locker room. A bunch of people in the gym locker room were always asking me questions about how I maintain my lean physique all year-round. I remember them saying regardless if it was January, March, or December, every time they see me, I was always lean. This was unique because a lot of other guys would be doing the typical bulk and shred, where there weight goes up and down.
Therefore, I kept getting asked the same question over and over again, how do you do what you do? I think my response was, “I just decide to Live Lean”. After that a light bulb went off in my head.
Jess: You also added “TV” to the title because you wanted to make it into a show.
Brad: Yes, I wanted to brand it as a TV show. For example, this is a show that airs on Mondays at 6 pm Eastern. That way, when you turn on your computer, you know you’re going to see a new episode.
Jess: Isn’t it amazing that you have been doing regular episodes for over 4 years.
Brad: I think the Live Lean TV show originally started in April of 2012. That’s why I decided to start Live Lean TV. Now let me answer the question about what motivated me to stay on track. Since everyone kept asking me questions, I knew I wanted to help more people that just answering the question for one person. Rather than just helping out one training client at a time, I knew I wanted to put this message out to the world. I decided there is no better way to do that than put it on YouTube.
Jess: You were also motivated because your topics would also come from people’s actual questions, right?
Brad: Yes. Now let me touch on what kept me on track, since that’s the big piece of it. In the beginning, I was putting so much stuff out there, and nobody was listening. Why would I keep going and putting out videos day after day when nobody’s listening? Well, I had an end goal in mind. I had a vision. I understood that success doesn’t happen instantly. This goes for anything in life. If you think success is going happen the next day, because you did one thing, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You have to keep putting those steps in place, keep moving forward, keep hustling, and keep working for it. Then the success is going to come. I knew that from a mindset that I had with my career. It just had to be done.
Jess: I think the other thing is you started getting little notes of appreciation. For example, people writing in saying they lost this many pounds because of you, or you changed my life, or you’ve motivated me to start my fitness journey. I think things like that really kept you rolling. The amount of those messages just grew and grew. Now we get messages and photos every single day from people all over the planet. It’s awesome and just makes you feel so good inside since your work is valuable. I think that’s what keeps both of us going now.
Brad: If you have any before and after transformation photos to share with us, send them to info@LiveLeanTV.com. We love to put those on the success page on our Live Lean TV website.
Jess: Celebrate the small wins. Every little bit of success matters. If you were to just brush those little successes off and think they did they don’t matter, then maybe you wouldn’t keep going. Always ermember to savor those little minuscule successes.
Brad: One other quick thing is to chunk it down. In my example of creating this Live Lean TV series, my goal was to get to a 1,000 YouTube subscribers.
Jess: Oh right, you had incremental goals.
Brad: Yes, I remember the first goal was to get to 1,000, and then I would feel good. Once I accomplished that, it was to get to 10,000 subscribers. Then it was 50,000 subscribers, then 100,000 subscribers, and so on. We always celebrated every one of these goals by going out for drinks or do something fun. My point is, when you are starting out, rather than only focusing on a huge goal of 1,000,000 YouTube subscribers, on day one, focus on one subscriber, then go from there.
Jess: Great point.
Question 5: How Do You Recover From a Cold?
Carlos_Ferreryro from Snapchat says:
Hello Brad! Big fan here all the way from south Mexico. Quick question, how do you recover from a cold? I’m battling with one and I hate it. Thank you very much.
Jess: Brad actually has a video about this one time when he was sick, way back in the Halifax days.
Brad: Yes, that was in 2012.
Jess: It was a video about being sick and whether I was going to the gym or not.
Brad: Here’s the link to that post.
Jess: We’ve received this question a lot about should you still workout or should you not. The answer depends on how sick you are. You said it’s just a cold, so you probably don’t have a fever, there it’s maybe okay. The best thing you can do is get active and do some physical activity, but nothing super strenuous. A light jog through the park, a bodyweight workout in your living room, the elliptical, or whatever you feel you are in the mood for. Get your heart rate up, get a little bit of a sweat, and then eat healthy foods, and drink lots of fluid.
Brad: A lot of times movement makes you feel better. If you decide to sit on the couch all day and just watch TV, you are probably going to feel like crap.
Jess: Even though this is probably want you want to do, it’s the worse thing for it, and not helpful.
Brad: At the time, laying on the couch may feel like that is what you should be doing. However, if you can get up, your heads not light or dizzy, and you don’t have a headache, you can go outside and go for a walk to get some sunshine and air.
Jess: If it’s just a sniffling nose, go breathe some fresh air and get active.
Brad: One thing I do to not get sick, besides eating healthy and working out all the time, is take a greens powder. That’s what’s really changed for me. When I started taking a greens powder it keeps my immune system strong and on point. Here’s a link to the greens powder that I use.
Jess: I think every aspect of Living Lean helps to boost immunity. People also ask us if Living Lean helped us with fertility. Eating healthier and exercising often is going to make you a healthier person, so you’ll get sick less often. So Live Lean y’all.
Question 6: What Are The Benefits Of Chia Seeds?
Tori on Snapchat asks:
Hey guys! I’ve been adding chia seeds to my water to suppress my appetite and aid in weight loss. I have seen you add them to smoothies, but am I just adding calories to water without benefits? What are the benefits of chia seeds? Thanks 🙂
Brad: Yes, chia seeds are a great food. I actually included them way back in 2012 as one of my top fitness foods.
Here’s a chia seeds video post that gives you more detail on what the powerful benefits of chia seeds are. Chia seeds are high in planted based omega 3 healthy fats. Although I still prefer omega-3s from fish oil, if you are plant based, chia seeds provides a great plant based source of omega-3s. Chia seeds are also a good source of fiber and they contain some protein as well.
Jess: Is the calorie count on a tablespoon of chia seeds around 60 calories? Therefore it’s not super high.
Brad: Yeah. Don’t think of it as empty calories. It’s packed full of nutrients and will keep you full. Therefore it’s not as if you are just consuming calories and not getting any benefits. I also take chia seeds everyday in my power smoothie.
Jess: If you don’t know what she’s talking about when it comes to adding them in water, they actually gel up. That’s why it helps keep you full longer, because they really expand when you soak your chia seeds in water. By drinking that, it’s like drinking gel that makes your stomach feel more full than it would with without just regular water. This is a good little hack to feel full on less calories. I’d say keep doing it.
Brad: Here’s a chia seeds pudding recipe that is a very easy way to make a healthy chia seed snack.
Jess: Yes, it can be used as a snack or a dessert when you put a little maple syrup in it to sweeten it up.
Question 7: How Many Calories Are In Your “Break The Fast Smoothie”?
Dex2Real on Snapchat says:
How many calories were in that “break the fast superfood smoothie” in a Live Lean Life episode 11?
Brad: That’s my vlog series. If you’re not checking on my vlog series, go check them out here. I think we’re on episode 15 now. In episode 11, I share my “break the fast” superfood smoothie, which I take after my workout.
Jess: You’ve shown that in several episodes because you do it every day.
Brad: Yeah, so I train fasted, and this is how I break the fast. This is a power fat bomb smoothie. When I say “fat bomb” I’m talking about healthy fats. It has hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, and I put fish oil in it as well. It has a lot of different sources of fat. If you want me to tell you the calories, I don’t know. I’ve never actually put it in my meal planner software to figure out how many calories are in that smoothie.
Jess: We should know. Every time I have you guess the calories, you get it. You’re pretty good at guessing, so let’s add it up.
Brad: If I had to guess, and put myself on the spot, I’m going to say 500-600 calories.
Jess: That’s the range I was going to guess too, but I don’t know the exact amounts of the ingredients.
Update: here is the actually nutrition facts of the “break the fast” superfood smoothie:
- Calories: 626
- Protein: 35g
- Carbs: 54g
- Fat: 31g
Jess: I’ve always thought it’s weird that dietary fat and body fat are both called fat. I feel like there should be a different word for that because fat has become such like a negative word. However, when we’re talking about fat in our diet, it’s such a healthy necessary component of your diet and nutrition. It should be called something else.
Brad: Dietary fat is so important to your cells and hormones.
Jess: Exactly. Unfortunately people are so afraid of it now.
Brad: Don’t be one of those people that comment, “you are what you eat”, meaning if you eat fat, you’re fat. Obviously that must be why we’re so fat and obese.
Question 8: What Are Some Acceptable Canned Foods?
CiscoBalls on Snapchat asks:
What are acceptable canned foods for you and your family? I guess let’s skip the baby foods if Kyla gets those.
Jess: Kyla doesn’t eat actual food yet, she is just on booby milk.
Brad: One thing you want to check out with canned foods is you probably want to buy canned foods that has “bpa-free” written on the label.
Jess: Is that with aluminum cans, as well as plastic?
Brad: Yes, BPA is definitely in aluminum cans as well. BPA is a chemical that can leach into your food. The problem with that is when you eat the food, it can assimilate into your body.
Jess: Whenever I open a can, I never put it back in the fridge just open like that. It’s important to dump the contents into a glass container.
Brad: I prefer coconut milk from a can because I love the healthy fats from it. Anytime I crack open coconut milk in a can, I’ll add it to my smoothie, then I’ll take it out of the can, and put it into a glass storage container, close it up, and then put it back in the fridge. Don’t put a can back into your fridge when it’s exposed to oxygen. This will help eat away at the inside of the can and leech the BPA into your food. I just did a video post called 4 Reasons Why You’re Still Hungry After You Just Ate. One of the reasons is because BPA is a chemical that can affect your leptin hormone, which is your hunger hormone. If you are taking in more BPA from cans, it can actually increase your hunger, even though you’re actually fully satiated.
Jess: Canned foods that we would use are coconut milk, sometimes we use canned tuna or chicken, canned tomato sauce.
Brad: No, I was going to say that I’ve never used canned tomato sauce. Tomatoes are one of the ingredients in canned foods that BPA can really leach into. If you look up BPA canned foods to avoid, tomatoes is one of the foods you should avoid. This is why I always get tomato sauce from a jar or bottle.
Jess: Even though we don’t eat beans, because we don’t prefer them, if you wanted to add black beans or garbanzo beans to your salads, that would be acceptable.
Brad: I really think the only cans that we have is coconut milk.
Jess: I’m thinking of our pantry and I think the only can is coconut milk and tuna. Those are the two.
Question 9: When You Finished With Your Body Recomposition, Did You Buy Clothes You Never Thought You Would?
toddler24 on Snapchat asks:
When you were finally finished with your body recomposition, did you find yourself trying on or buying clothes you never thought you would before?
Jess: Absolutely. There is no such thing as finished. I feel like I’m still not finished. When are you ever finished? There’s always things you can improve about your body, whether it’s your flexibility or your strength. It’s not always aesthetic. I would say when I got to a point where I was like, “damn I look good” aesthetically, I definitely went shopping and started wearing tighter things, and being a little more of a showoff with my body than I would before. I was always really concerned about my cellulite and my belly roll. I would wear looser clothes that would hide my body type. Then once I started looking better, I felt more confident in tank tops, tube tops, and short shorts. In my early 20’s you could say I got sluttier, I guess 😆. However, now that I’m a mom, I’m back to the big clothes.
Brad: I always get questions from guys about where I get my t-shirts because my arms are always snug and tight in the t-shirts. It’s not the t-shirts guys, the key is to actually have biceps. If you want t-shirts that fit you, fill it out with your muscular arms. This includes bigger shoulders and triceps, not just biceps.
Jess: Yeah, it’s not a special t-shirt.
Brad: I think that was just meant to be a fun question.
Jess: Oh you know what the other thing is. Your jeans fit differently. When I started lifting and squatting and doing all the leg exercises, my legs transformed to where my pants would be too loose at the top. I would always have this extra space in the back of my waistband. I started having to wear belts, which I never did before. That was interesting.
Question 10: Having Hypothyroidism And PCOS Has Been A Struggle To Lose Weight, Any Advice?
Lmishal on Snapchat asks:
Hey Brad and Jess! Congrats on the new baby! Just found your channel recently and am loving it. I am having difficulty losing fat as I have hypothyroidism and polycystic ovarian syndrome. I eat healthy (no trans fat, no cheat meals, just clean foods) and I go to the gym six days a week. It’s really frustrating to work so hard and not see results. Do you have any advice on what I should do? Thank you so much. Lots of love from Amman Jordan. I’m 23 years old and trying to lose 9 kg.
Brad: All right, so it sounds like you’re on the right path, and that is the key. You are on the path. However, how long have you been doing this for? We get these kind of questions all the time. You have to get out of this mindset that everything has to be instant. If you did this for two years, I guarantee you would be seeing results. If you only have been doing it for six days, or even six weeks, you are going to see some results. However, if you only have 9 kg or 20 pounds to lose, that doesn’t put you in an obese category where you’re going to see results instantly, like those newbie gains, also known as newbie losses, that obese people will see. Since you’re not in that category, it’s going to be harder for you and will take you a little bit longer to see results, because you don’t have as much weight or fat to lose. My only advice is get the idea out of your head that tomorrow you are going to look the way you want to look. It’s a journey. You’re going to get there, but it’s going to take time. Throw out all the ideas in your head of how long it’s going to take you to get there. This is a journey. It doesn’t matter how long it’s going to take you to get there. You will get there if you keep doing what you’re doing.
Jess: Maybe I’m just being picky about words but she says, “I go to the gym six days a week”. Even though you go to the gym, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re training. I feel people who are really training hard, would say I train six days a week and this is my workout split. If you’re just going to the gym, but you’re doing a little of this and a little of that, and you don’t have a program that you’re following, that’s going to be a lot harder for you to see body recomposition results compared to if you really get serious, you dial in your mindset, and you really focus on what you’re doing, instead of just going to the gym, you’re actually training.
Brad: Such a good point.
Jess: For me, that was a big game changer. Brad and I used to go to the gym a lot and just waste time. Just make sure you’re following a solid workout program and instead of just eating clean foods, you’re actually knowing how many macros you’re taking in, and and how many calories you need to be at to be in that deficit to lose weight.
That’s It For Today’s Show
We just answered 10 of your questions.
Thank you for all the really good questions.
You’re doing so good.
If you want to get your questions answered, once again, use #AskLiveLeanTV.
Twitter is the best place to do that.
This was episode 23 and we’re still really enjoying it and having fun.
Typically when you get to this point, the questions tend to be all the same, and we’re repeating ourselves.
That’s what happened to the last Q&A series we did on #AskBGTV.
Once we got to episode 29 of that series, we felt the questions were too similar, therefore we didn’t feel we were giving enough value since we were saying the same things.
However, we’re still getting good questions, so if we continue to get those kind of questions, we’re going to keep the show going.
Thank you for that.
We’re in this together, so let’s see how long we can go.
Question Of The Day
Since Jess asked last week’s question, my question is how did you originally hear about the Live Lean TV show?
Was it a Google search?
Was it a YouTube search?
If you did find us on Google or YouTube, what did you search for and what video popped up?
Let us know.
I would love to hear how you heard about Live Lean TV.
Not just about these podcasts or Q&A episodes but just in general like the whole channel like what made you start watching it?
Thanks for tuning in and thanks for listening to all our podcast listeners.
We’ll see you at the next episode.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.