On this episode of Circuit of Success, Brett Gilliland interviews Tony Castillo, an elite sports and performance dietitian. They discuss the importance of hydration and electrolytes, the benefits of having snacks that don’t get your hands dirty, and the importance of eating every third hole while golfing. Tune in to learn how to optimize your performance and live your best life!
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Brett Gilliland: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Circuit of Success. Back again with another great guest. Tony Castillo is with us. Tony, how you doing? Doing great. How are you doing, Brett? I am great, man. It’s, uh, good to be with you. You’re down in Florida, so it’s a little warmer probably. We, we, for some reason we cannot get this warm weather to stick around here, so it’s in the mid fifties to low sixties, I think today.
So, but we’ll get there. We’ll get there. Oh yeah. And
Tony Castillo: I’m excited. And since we mentioned before this, you went to go watch a spring training game this year, right?
Brett Gilliland: I did, I went to see a little, uh, St. Louis Cardinals. We’re not doing so hot right now, though.
Tony Castillo: Well, how do you feel about the pitch clock? That’s been the big thing this year,
Brett Gilliland: right?
It is. You know what, man? I like it. It, it, uh, the game we went to, it went pretty quick and it’s, you know, it’s like my attention span for going three and a half, four hours at a baseball game anymore. Just, you know, doesn’t, doesn’t do it for me. So I like it. I think it’s gonna be good. And it’s funny when you see some of these guys.
Get called on it. Right. And they get a strike against him and nothing’s even happened or vice versa, ball. But it, uh, I think it’s neat. I [00:01:00] think it’s great for the game, don’t you?
Tony Castillo: Oh, I absolutely loved it. I remember when I was working in ball, a lot of the players had challenges with it. And from a nutrition standpoint is how do we keep them fueled?
Cause it’s a lot quicker. And how do we Oh yeah. Stop them from being injured because now you have someone pitching a lot faster than he was and you have someone batting a lot faster than they were previous. Yeah. So it’s really like you have to lock into the game. So some of the challenges we heard about it, but I absolutely love it.
It helped make the game go way faster. I went to one with my brother-in-law. And I just said, I think we’re two hours in. He is like, oh my gosh, we’re already through middle of sixth.
Brett Gilliland: And I was like, whoa. Yeah, it flies by it. It’s funny. So when we were sitting there, I said, Hey, the ownership of all these teams, they’re gonna have to figure this out because you know they’re gonna wanna sell beer longer because you, it used to be, it was three and a half hours.
We get to stop in the seventh inning. Well now the seventh inning, maybe only two hours. Right? So you’re losing an hour of beer sales, which that’s millions of dollars probably by the end of the year. So, It looks like some of the teams are making a change and not waiting until the seventh inning to shut her down anymore.
They’re going, they’re going a little longer, but that’s all right.
Tony Castillo: Yeah, [00:02:00] I didn’t even think about that, but that’s so true.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah, right. They gotta make that money and they gotta pay those salaries. That’s
Tony Castillo: right. And you gotta sell the beer. Cause that’s the highest ticket item
Brett Gilliland: they got. Exactly. Best 12, $15 you can spend in the whole stadium.
So, well listen man, you all elite sports and performance. You’re an elite sport and, uh, performance dietician and, um, and you worked with the Blue Jays, uh, for what, a, a couple years in, in baseball in the University of Florida. Um, and so, uh, again, an elite nutrition expert. You specialize in sports nutrition and, and helping athletes and business leaders all over the country.
Uh, really live their best life, is the way I would say it, right, is how to optimize, uh, the things that they’re doing and so we can all be better. So I think our listeners will like that because we’ve had a lot of performance people on here before, but we’re all like-minded, you know, hard charging folks no matter what we do for a living.
And so it’s good to see how can we work at our peak performance. So you ready to chat about that? Oh,
Tony Castillo: Brett, I am so stoked, especially after listening to a couple years, and I mentioned this prior, you know [00:03:00] what you do with the first 90 minutes of your day like you have in your journal and F to the six power, like those are just things that I talk about with my clients, but I love to hear how some of those things cross paths, right?
Because one F you forgot is food. So you might need to change it to f to the seventh
Brett Gilliland: power. F to the seventh power. That’s a good point. I guess I put that in my, and shame on me for that. I put that into my fitness type, you know, cuz it just happened to be where, uh, the F worked there. But, but you’re right man.
Cuz that’s some really, really important stuff and uh, you know, garbage in, garbage out. Right?
Tony Castillo: Absolutely. And we can even just dive right in, right? Talking about garbage and gumming out. We’re talking about supplements, but we’re also talking about the food we put in. And how we’re brought up, right? Because I’m sure you’ve been on the golf course and someone’s grabbing a Gatorade.
Do they really need a Gatorade at that time or what should they be having? Right. These are just some of the simple conversations talking about with some of the bus business leaders I’ve worked with, like should they be having something like a, a lower sugar product? Versus that full sugar Gatorade, which is for someone who’s running a marathon.
And as much as I love golf, even if you’re walking [00:04:00] and not taking the cart, you probably don’t need that
Brett Gilliland: full sugar Gatorade. Yeah, right. That’s a good point. Yeah. You’re not losing that much that you gotta replenish. Right. You know, it’s funny you say, so I, uh, I don’t even where I saw this, but somebody interviewed Tiger Woods and they said, what’s.
What’s one piece of advice that you would have for the amateur golfer out there? Right. And I’m thinking he’s gonna say something about the drive or the putting or chipping, whatever it may be. And he said, I would focus, if I could do anything, I would make sure I focus to eat on about every third hole, you know?
And so it’s crazy, that little thing I have found that does actually keep me in the game. So I keep, you know, little snacks or orange or whatever it may be in my bag, and I do find that. And so then it also then carried that into the business life. Right. Having those little baby snacks throughout the day, having my water here in this amazing cup that my son made in his ceramics class in high school, cheers to Drew.
Oh, that’s awesome. Um, but that stuff matters, right? So, so walk us through if you can, I want to, and we’ll go back in a little bit to what’s helped, uh, make you the [00:05:00] man you are today, which is the way I normally start. But walk us through some of the no miss habits that we need to, to do day in, day out, uh, to live our best life, uh, as business leaders and, and family leaders.
Tony Castillo: Well, even going back to what you just mentioned, Brett, what do you eat on the third hole when you are golfing? I’m, I’m curious now.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah, so I do like a, uh, like peanut, um, sunflower seed, raisin little, little piece of chocolate mix. I love that stuff. It’s got a little bit of everything, you know, and so I’ll do that.
And then, uh, I, I don’t know, they call ’em Cuties at our grocery store. Yep. Like the little, like tangerines or whatever they are. Uh, I’ll carry two or three of those in the bag. Um, so I’ll just do that. I’ll have a couple bags of the, the peanut mix thing, and then I’ll have a couple, 2, 3, 4 cuties throughout the day.
And then I have a lot of, uh, a lot of water.
Tony Castillo: Oh. Brett, I love it. One of the big things I talk about is hydrate or Hydrate, so we’ll jump into that. But when we’re talking about, let’s just talk about golf and then at work, as you mentioned, but when we’re talking about golf, when I was at the University of Florida, as you know, in Florida, there’s a lot of golf courses.
We had a really good golf team [00:06:00] and working with business leaders, golf is something that we talk about. So I always want to find snacks that you don’t get your hands dirty because I don’t know about you, but if you saw Tiger Woods licking his hands on screen, you’d be like, what is
Brett Gilliland: he doing? Yeah, that’s a good point.
Tony Castillo: Yeah, so I always think of things such as fruit, as you mentioned, those cuties. I also like bananas cuz you can just peel ’em and eat ’em and not get your hands dirty. The same thing’s. Another one with an apple. I also like beef jerky. It’s a nice source of protein to help that muscle building going on, and it’s very easy for you to rip and you can eat it versus having to stick your hand in anything.
So just what are things that you can have that are portable, that are not gonna get your hands all sticky and even, I’ve worked with players where they even have sandwiches, pretzels. It really depends on what their goal is. And the reason I say pretzels, because we talk about electrolytes, it’s hot outside and the the four main electrolytes we lose are sodium, potassium, magnesium, and chloride.
And it’s in that order. And many sports beverages out there, they start with potassium. One thing I always hear with business leaders is they’re like, well, I’m trying to stay natural, Tony, so I’m gonna drink coconut water. Unfortunately, coconut water’s dehydrating you [00:07:00] really, because it’s full of potassium and it has no sodium.
So when we have too much potassium, if you know anyone out there that is taking a. Uh, uh, medication to lower blood pressure. It’s most typically high in potassium because it attaches to that sodium so that you urinate it out. So if you’re someone who drinks coconut water, you definitely want to add sodium.
So that means adding salts to it. And I know that sounds a little weird, but it’s the best way to actually stay hydrated. And you didn’t even know how many dieticians I’ve had to say that message to because when you don’t work in that performance side, you don’t understand what happens inside the body.
So talking with business leaders, they’re talking all day, they’re moving all day, they’re making moves. They’re breathing and when you breathe out, we’re losing the sodium, potassium, magnesium, and chloride. So we tend to have them have those either low sugar sports drinks or find a way to get those sodium, potassium, magnesium, and chloride in their way to eat.
Right? So going back to that golfer, that’s why you have pretzels with salt, right? So I that eating every third hole is something I truly believe in, whether we’re on the field [00:08:00] or on the boardroom. Right. We’re trying to build our business, right? So
Brett Gilliland: pretzels are good.
Tony Castillo: Oh, it depends on what we’re doing. So pretzels are good cuz they’re that quick source of carbohydrate or energy that gets us through.
So if you have a meeting that you want to go to and you’re looking for a quick pick me up, I’d rather you choose that pretzel, which has the salt or the sodium that’ll, yeah. Maintain water inside. So we have that better performance, better mental clarity. Because typically if we are dehydrated, our mental performance drops from anywhere from seven to 10%.
And then you want the carbs that’ll keep, keep, give you that energy you need right before that meeting. So I always like having that as a good snack. And then I always like to pair it with protein and as we were just talking about a moment ago, every third hole, a good rule of thumb I like to mention is eating protein every three to four hours.
Okay, because there is a muscle building switch you have in your body, Brett, and it’s called mTOR. It’s lowercase m than all capital t o r. And it gets turned on and off every three to four hours. And the way it gets turned on is when you have a palm of protein. So that’s anywhere between 20 to 30 grams of protein, depending on the size of your palm.[00:09:00]
Just as a good metric. Yeah. Don’t use your, your wife’s palm. Don’t use one of your four kids’ palms. All right? Yeah. Make sure you use your palm Brett, and you wanna keep that muscle building switch on and what they showed in the studies, Brett. Is that after 16 weeks, the people that ate protein every three to four hours versus having an in unequal protein distribution, which is the standard American diet.
So to put it to you this way, let’s say someone has an egg for breakfast. They might have a chicken breast for lunch and then dinner. They might have a nice steak. Well, you have an unequal, unequal protein distribution. So what happens is that muscle building, which never got turned on until the nighttime, versus those that had it, uh, equated throughout the day, they actually built 10% more muscle after 16 weeks.
And I know that sounds crazy cuz that sounds like almost a steroid like level. Yeah. But that’s what the research showed. And as much I don’t up and that’s by, that’s by doing what?
Brett Gilliland: Eating. That’s by doing three to four hours. Okay. Okay. I thought you meant that. But the morning, noon and night, you’re saying iss just, there’s too much gap in between those.
Is that, is that true Gap
Tony Castillo: and quantity because one egg doesn’t have anywhere near 20 to 30 grams of [00:10:00] protein. So what do you
Brett Gilliland: get if you’re, what do you, what are you eating in? Uh, let’s say it’s my three hours is up right now. Which it probably would be close to that. Um, What, what should I be eating if I don’t have time to make an egg or, you know, I don’t have a kitchen here in my office.
Right? Or our studio here. So what, what, what’s a, what’s a form of stuff that I can have laying around the office to get my 20 to 30 grams.
Tony Castillo: Love this. Are you a sweet or savory snacker, Brett? Ooh,
Brett Gilliland: boy. I don’t know. I like a piece of chocolate with caramel.
Tony Castillo: Oh, okay. Do you like, there’s two things that come up in my head immediately, but do you happen to like Greek yogurt.
No,
Brett Gilliland: no, sorry. Greek yogurt fans. I do not.
Tony Castillo: I’ll toss it out the window. There’s this drink. It is called Core Power. Uh, you can get them at most stores and you can keep that in your office. And the reason I like, it’s because it is not a supplement. It is actually made for milk and it’s shelf stable, and it’s what we used at the pros.
Now, why am I shearing away from [00:11:00] supplements? Well, when we talk about a supplement, there’s two things I really want us to think about. Is it third party certified? Which, so third party certification, so there’s two websites. Yep. One is called NSF for Sport and the other one is Informed Choice. So that tells us what’s on the label is in the bottle.
And what’s in the bottle has no banned substances got, so there was someone I was working with, we sent a sleep supplement to this third party certification. And Brett, what do you think they found in the sleep
Brett Gilliland: supplement? Probably something that would allow me not to play Major League baseball.
Tony Castillo: Methamphetamines. So I don’t know what your experience is with methamphetamines. Hopefully none.
Brett Gilliland: None. But, uh, none. None.
Tony Castillo: Yeah. It keeps you awake. So think about that. Why would you take a sleep supplement to keep you awake anyways, back to the snack? I’d recommend. That’s why I wanna stay away from those supplemental drinks, which we see at the grocery store, because those protein powders that they put in there could have a banned substance.
And yes, you’re not getting tested, but everyone I work with, I like to treat them like that elite athlete, and I don’t want them taking anything. That might have things that they’ve also found as cocaine, right? Again, [00:12:00] I don’t want you having that in your system because you don’t need it. You’re not using it for that tool, whatever that may be.
So we wanna stay away if it’s not NSF or sport certified or informed choice. So snacks that core power, it actually comes from milk and it’s shelf stable, meaning that you can just have it at room temperature. However, I definitely recommend you chill it cause it just tastes a little bit better. Yeah. So that is, what are some of your go-to to, or if you like any protein bars,
Brett Gilliland: Dude, I, I literally don’t do anything like that.
I mean, I go, I, uh, and this is one of the things I wanna chat about today too, is you can, you can, I could have 10 people like you on there or, or go to Google and ask 10 different questions, right? And I’m gonna get 10 different answers. And that’s why I was looking forward to our conversation, because this is what you do for a living.
All day, every day. But it, you know, and I didn’t do this because of any reason, but I’ve always been like, what they call an intermittent fasting. I didn’t, I just did it cuz of nerves as a, you know, growing up. But now it just has become a habit. But, so I’ll eat dinner at, you know, whenever I can before or after a game for my kids, and then I won’t eat again until lunchtime.
And then, so again, [00:13:00] that’s, from what I hear, I’m not getting them every three to four hours. My protein, uh, and maybe, maybe I should and I’ll hit the golf ball a little bit further, but, um, so I don’t have those snacks, man. I’m this boring guy that goes, and I’ll have, you know, like, uh, and if I do have my, my morning breakfast, it’ll be like some wheatgrass that I get from a, from a guy that I know, right?
Some wheatgrass or, or a green juice. And then that’s it. And then I’ll eat my lunch and then, uh, water throughout the day. And then I’ll probably have one of those, the bags of nuts, raisins, and chocolates on the, on the way I leave the office. I usually eat it on the way home. And then I’ll eat dinner tonight, and then that’s it.
Like, I’m not a snacker. I don’t set around and eat power bars all day. I don’t eat snacks. I don’t, you know, sit down and grab some chips. I just, I don’t do that. And, and so, um, I don’t know why, but I just, I just don’t.
Tony Castillo: Well, Brett, you sound like many of the people that I’ve worked with where they come to me and they fast, and the research on fasting is this, it can improve testosterone if you do it once a week.
If you do it every day for long periods of [00:14:00] time, it has actually been shown to decrease testosterone levels in the long term. Hmm. So if we’re looking for more mental clarity, the first thing you do is eat more. And then a very simple analogy, I love using Brett. Let’s say you’re gonna drive down and visit me.
You’re we’re gonna I, I’m gonna invite you to a spring training game and I’m gonna give you the options of two cars. Brett, the first car is completely full of gas and I give you a key to it. The second one is completely empty, and I still give you a key, but you have to push it down. Which one are you taking to visit me?
Yeah, the gas. The gas, right? So, so many people do this fasting because they think it’s just easier cause you don’t have time. My goal is to help you find what are some of those quick and easy hits that you can eat if you do have time, right? And when you don’t have time. So you could easily do, let’s say, oatmeal with some sort of protein powder in it.
That’s a great way to get carbs and a great way to get protein, right? That’s just an easy, simple way. And I promise you, Brett, it doesn’t take more than two minutes. Right. I’ve even done a challenge where I lined up a bunch of baseball players and I had to make PB and j’s, and when I made it a [00:15:00] competition, they made 25 PB and JS in a minute.
So I’m pretty sure everyone has a couple seconds to make. That’s right. Worse. A PB and j.
Brett Gilliland: I like it. That’s true.
Tony Castillo: Absolutely. And we always go fault. Like, oh, we don’t have enough time. Well, what are we prioritizing? Are you prioritizing being your best self? Are you prioritizing being the best self, not only for your family?
But for the people you work with. So many, so many entrepreneurs I’ve worked with and small business owners, one of the first things they tell me two to three weeks in is that their wife says, you’re not grumpy anymore. And I’m like, what do you mean you’re not grumpy anymore? Well, it’s because they start eating and they didn’t notice this, but their spouses notice it, that they come home grumpy cuz they just want dinner.
Uh, they haven’t had anything to eat all day. And then they go do, as you said, their kids’ events. Imagine you’ve just taken an empty car, you filled it up, once worked, and then you’ve gone to see your kids’ event where you’ve literally had no more fuel. So now you’re pushing your car, pushing your body, and things will make you crankier quicker and you don’t even notice it.
And people think that’s just dad [00:16:00] normally versus what’s dad look like when he feels his best. It’s not just looking your best, which is part of it too, Brett, I’m not gonna lie here and say aesthetics are not a piece of this, right? But what happens when you feel your best. Sometimes we lie to ourselves because we don’t have enough time and we hear that fastening works.
I’m here to tell you fasting can work in the short term, but it’s not a long-term nor sustainable approach to being your best self per research. Now change. Brett. I’m open to it. I’m open if for research comes out.
Brett Gilliland: But it does make sense. And you hear that, you know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
And then you’ve got all the people that research it, say, fasting’s the best thing you can do since sliced bread, you know? And so, so again, you got the, you called it, uh, core power drink. What else am I putting around the office? Sitting around in my, you know, my desk or something like that, my table, so I can, uh, I can get my protein in, but I don’t have time to make the eggs, the chicken, and the steak.
Tony Castillo: So if you don’t have time to make eggs, they sell hard-boiled eggs that you can keep in your fridge and you can swap em out. Yeah, [00:17:00] I’m not doing
Brett Gilliland: that either. Sorry.
Tony Castillo: Hey, no. I’d rather you be honest with me, Brett. Right, right. I love problem
Brett Gilliland: solving, and I shouldn’t say our listeners will probably do that, but for me to, to, to buy hard-boiled eggs in a, in a grocery or a gas station, sounds disgusting.
Tony Castillo: Well, what about beef jerky? That’s always one of my favorite. I, I’ll
Brett Gilliland: do that. I can buy some beef jerky. Beef
Tony Castillo: jerky is probably one of my easiest ones to keep at the office cause it doesn’t go bad. Some other options, which I bet you don’t like, but I’m gonna say it anyways. Cottage cheese. Okay. Nope.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah, that’s, Hey, Brett, I’m telling you my dad loves cottage cheese, but I, yeah, no, not me.
Tony Castillo: I’m with you a hundred percent on that one. That’s a tough one. Uh, I even, but I like to give the options. Yes. Not, not something to think about. Another one is tuna packets. Again, a lot of people don’t like that because the smell.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. I’m striking out here. Tony, I’m sorry.
Tony Castillo: Hey, don’t strike out. This is just an area of opportunity that we can look at.
What are some other options. Now, one thing, um, I meant to ask you, [00:18:00] so do you use any sort of supplements? I do
Brett Gilliland: not. I, I do, um, a vitamin D, uh, you know, like a pill for vitamin D. My blood works as I’m a little low on vitamin D. So I do that. I do some fish oil and uh, I do a multivitamin. That’s it. I do that and then I wake up every day and I eat like some sort of chicken and french fries.
Terrible. I know. Try throwing a salad most of the time, but it’s usually today. I, I went to this place here in town. I won’t name the name in case we go. And say how bad this is for my diet. But I had a, a, uh, buffalo chicken sandwich and an order of fries, you know, yesterday, yesterday I had a burger and a salad.
Tony Castillo: Yep. Well, I love that decision you made yesterday, and I love the decision you made today because we also have to go back, Brett, that sometimes what we grew up eating, we’ve been told we can’t have. And a lot of people see that as their culture being an obstacle versus it being an asset. This is where the foods you love, how do we fit [00:19:00] them in and keep them, because that’s how we make the sustainable diet plan, right?
Without that, nothing will work. You will keep going to the drawing board because we’re not figuring out a plan that works for you. We’re figuring out a plan that just works for someone else. So that’s one thing I’ve seen that’s been a big barrier. Now back to the snack dilemma. Yeah. Because I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna let you go unless we, we come up with at least three snacks.
So one, we said the core power, that was you. Yep. Beef Jerky was the second one. That’s right. Trail mix. I like, but here’s, uh, people say peanuts and peanut butter are full of protein, but you would need eight tablespoons of peanut butter to get the amount of protein you need to make a true impact on that muscle building.
Wow. Which we were talking about earlier. Now, Brett, I’m, I’m sure it’s a lot of peanut butter. That’s a lot of peanut butter. So for sure, we definitely want you to do have those two options. Now, here’s some other ones on here. I’m gonna, I’m gonna throw them out. Uh, deli meat. Yeah. String cheese? No. No.
Alright. Hey, see, [00:20:00] I, I gotta throw ’em out, right? Um. And then the rest are the ones I mentioned earlier. Those are the ones that come off the top of my head that I have on this list. So, hey,
Brett Gilliland: deli, meat, pork, but this’s good. Most people listening to this are probably not as picky as I am, so they’ve got something already.
They’ve got a nugget. And, but I, I do think having a good source of some, uh, you know, almonds, whatever it may be, pistachios, things like that, uh, it’s, it’s probably better for you than not eating. Uh, I would say I agree. And then, but the, the, uh, the beef jerky and the, and the, uh, core power I can get behind and I’m a boring.
Guys so I can just, you know, edit, copy, edit, paste every day. I, I can eat the same thing all the time. Doesn’t ba doesn’t bother me. Brett,
Tony Castillo: you sound like a lot of the people I work with. You’re not picky. You just know what you like and that’s important, right? Yeah. And being able to have it, cuz you said you have another location down here.
So what I always like to tell people I work with order a case and just leave it at that office. That way there is no excuse, right? Yeah. It’s there. And as I said, they’re sha shelf stable, meaning that they can get warm. We want them cold. But that way when you get to that office, you can just throw ’em in that fridge and if not, [00:21:00] you have some under, under your desk that you can just, yeah, pop in.
So do you
Brett Gilliland: think the beef jerky you see, like at grocery stores, like is that not even grocery stores, I’m sorry. But like at a gas station, you know, you see like there’s a whole wall, like sidewall of beef, jerkies. Like are those healthy? Are those, you know, I always wonder like what in the hell do they actually put in all that stuff?
So then it like makes me not eat it. Cause I’m thinking I’m probably getting worse stuff. Even though the package says real big, you know, 40 grams of protein or whatever. And so, uh, we go there, is there a website for find out what beef jerky is safe or what do you recommend? What kind?
Tony Castillo: I like the 1 37 rule.
So the 1 37 rule is when you have one ounce of protein, you want it to be under three grams of fat and over seven grams of protein.
Brett Gilliland: Okay. So, so I’m one ounce of protein, three grams of
Tony Castillo: what? Under three grams of fat and over seven grams of protein. So we, we have one ounce of beef or beef jerky. You wanna make sure it has under three grams of fat and over seven grams of protein.[00:22:00]
Brett Gilliland: All right, so ev, for every ounce of protein, it needs to have seven grams of protein. Of protein, yes. And then less than three grams of fat.
Tony Castillo: Correct. So if you look at a beef jerky, it should say that right on the back cuz they label it by ounce or two ounce. So if it’s a two ounce serving, then that means it needs to be under six and under 14 and above 14.
Okay. Yeah, very simple math.
Brett Gilliland: I like that though. See those are good nuggets to take away that when I’m in the grocery store, our listeners in the grocery store, they can say, okay, the 1 37 rule. And look at that and say that one’s better than that one. And then from a health standpoint and preservatives and all that stuff, like how do we know that it’s a quote unquote clean beef jerky if there is such a thing?
Tony Castillo: Yeah. So we, we wanna look for the, the minimal ingredients. That’s really it. And that’s gonna be tough, right? Yeah. If you can get someone that can make beef jerky locally and you can find it. So typically when I go in a gas, a gas station, sometimes you’ll see like a local beef jerky, and that’s typically gonna be the best [00:23:00] option because it’s.
The closest made to you, you’re closest to, to that farmer where that was well cut and dried. Yeah. Versus something that’s made now. If you’re in a, in a food desert or a place, you can’t reach that, then just go for really any beef jerky that’s out there that has that one through seven rule and has the least amount of ingredients.
Right. Okay. Because they might put a lot of added sugars that you may not need. Yeah. Okay. I’d rather get something with less added sugars because you don’t need that extra energy. Going back to that Gatorade we were talking about earlier. Most people don’t need that extra energy to push you through,
Brett Gilliland: right?
So what, so let’s talk about that. So that’s good. All that stuff is great. We’ve got our snacks now, but what, what are the things that we need to be doing for the mind? Cuz I think the food’s important. The mind is obviously really important. How do you marry those two together in your world?
Tony Castillo: So let’s just talk about something I like to call the carb to fiber ratio.
Okay, so when we’re talking about carbs, it has a bad wrap, Brett. People always want to demonize carbs, especially most recently with some of the bigger diets we hear out there. So this is called the [00:24:00] carb defibrillation. So I want you to imagine we have two carbs. We have a Lamborghini, and we have a Toyota Corolla.
If we put premium gas in Lamborghini, it’s gonna run really well. Now, Brett, what happens when we put regular gas in that
Brett Gilliland: Lamborghini? It’s gonna, it’s gonna, over time, it’s going to, uh, not do as well. Perform at its
Tony Castillo: best. Absolutely. Now in the Corolla, what happens when we put premium gas in it?
Brett Gilliland: Not much changes.
I wouldn’t think. It may run a little bit more, uh, more performance, but, but not as much because it’s a Corolla versus a Lambo.
Tony Castillo: Yeah, no, you’re absolutely right. But it will get a little bit more miles per gallon. So, uh, I’ve driven acro in the past, so I have nothing against them, but we always know we’re probably gonna put that regular gas in.
When we’re talking about our bodies, we wanna put that premium fuel in. So when we’re talking about that premium fuel in, I’m gonna talk about that carb defi ratio. So when you look at any sort of carbohydrate product, so that’s gonna be rice bread, any sort of grain, even chips, you wanna take the total amounts of carbohydrates, so the grams of carbohydrates.
And [00:25:00] divide it by the total grams of fiber. So one of my favorite examples to use, and you might have heard of this product, Brett, it is Special K. Have you ever heard of it? I have, yes. It’s probably one of the most well known quote unquote diet foods out there. Now, if you look at their carbon fiber ratio, it’s somewhere about 30 to one.
So I haven’t even told you what the parameters are. The parameters of the carbon fiber ratio is you want it to be five to one or less. So anything that’s 10 to one and above means it’s a regular carb, meaning you’re gonna get a boost in energy, but also a crash in energy. It’s gonna do the same to your blood sugar.
So that energy spike and that energy crash, where you might have is when you’re eating some of these regular carbohydrates. The premium carbohydrates will give you sustained energy throughout the day and will also monitor your hunger and your energy. So you want anything five to hundred or less. So that special K when pe, they had this two week diet that people were doing and they always felt.
Lulls and highs of energy, it’s because there was no fiber to sustain it, so it helped the mind. If it has more fiber and because of that you’d have brain [00:26:00] fog doing these two week diets. So what are some products that actually have that carb de fiber ratio? One of my favorites is the Dave’s Killer Bread.
Those definitely have some of those. Um, I’m not sponsored by them. Uh, let me just clarify that. Uh, now some other products that I really like are those, if you are someone who likes chips, the ESE chips, they actually have a really good carb de fiber ratio. If you are looking for something like that as a salty snacker.
Then of course any fruits, vegetables, and whole grains will typically fit that range. But I always like to say it’s always good to check, right? So anything five to one or less is something you wanna reach for. And it’s been shown that you can have that steady state energy. And when I was working in baseball, I had a strength coach say, so you’re saying if I have a Snickers and a Metamucil, my energy’s gonna be sustained.
You always get the call. You know what I’m saying, Brett? Well, right. I dunno if you’ve heard of these continuous glucose monitors, but it’s to monitor your blood sugars. And I wore one for three months, Brett, and I tried it out and I said, you know what, I’m gonna test out his theory. So I had a Snickers and a Metamucil.
And what do you think happened? [00:27:00]
Brett Gilliland: I would say you crashed, but I don’t know, maybe I’m not intelligent enough to figure this out, but I would say you probably crashed, uh, even though they were quote unquote hit the, hit the numbers.
Tony Castillo: I actually didn’t, I actually sustained my energy, but it was not a snack that I wanna recommend because no one should be pairing Metamucil, right, with a, with a Snickers bar.
But what it did show me is that having that fruit, which would be fiber, having some sort of fiber source in there is really gonna be helpful to maintaining those blood sugar levels. And using this carb defi ratio that I just shared with you is something that people can use today. The people listening to this.
They can use it and go in the grocery store and see any of the options they have or any gas station. As you mentioned, Brett, they could go in and they can use this carb. Now remember, this is only for carbohydrate products. This does not count for things such as fats or proteins, which some people will send me, oh, what about nuts?
I love nuts. But that is a fat versus a carbohydrate product. Okay? So that carbo fiber ratio will help you with your mind because now we’re not having those peaks and valleys. We’re getting that steady energy throughout the day because we’re getting enough [00:28:00] fiber throughout the day. Yeah, and not only that, Brett, The gut-brain axis, we keep hearing about gut health and how important gut health is, and we hear about all these supplements coming out, right?
If we don’t eat enough carbohydrates, 95% of the serotonin or that happy, happy, uh, neurotransmitter that we have and our, and our gut is made. Yeah, from carbohydrates. So when we restrict carbohydrates, we’re literally restricting our happiness.
Brett Gilliland: That’s why I love spaghetti then, I guess.
Tony Castillo: Right. And there are some good carb de fiber, fiber spaghetti brands that I’ve worked with Italians, and they told me this is actually pretty good.
One of them is called Za Pasta Bon, and it has bon some really good carb de fiber ratio.
Brett Gilliland: Yes. Za pasta writing it down. Yeah.
Tony Castillo: There you, you gotta let me know how you, if you like it or not. I will,
Brett Gilliland: I will. Um, so what about, what was my thought Just gonna be, so the, um, So, I mean, how, how are you on the standpoint of like, for literally peak performance and which is what we want, right?
People [00:29:00] listening to podcasts usually want that, but at the same time, we have our guilty pleasures of like today, again, my, my buffalo chicken and my fries. And, and and how much, how important is it to, to, to decrease that? Obviously the, the, you know, zero would be great and perfect maybe, but. But realistically, how much can we maintain peak performance and still have a subpar diet long term?
And I think that’s me for 22 years, by the way. But,
Tony Castillo: but as
Brett Gilliland: I’m aging, as I’m aging, what, what do we need to be thinking about?
Tony Castillo: So we always wanna make sure we focus on protein, but to give you numbers, because the people are listening, um, such as yourself, are numbers, people. Yes, we always hear the 80 20 rule, but how does that actually apply to meals?
If we think about how many meals we have, which are breakfast, lunch, and dinner, that’s 21 meals. So 17 of those meals need to be in line with what your goals are with the other four being whatever you want. Now, if you have a high point of competition, now when I say [00:30:00] competition, it could be for an athlete or someone like yourself.
Let’s say you have a very important deal that you’re, you’re closing or something’s going on, that’s when you want to be 95 5. That means you are 95% compliant with a 5% wiggle room. There should always be wiggle room because if not, it could lead to that binge restrict guilt cycle, which we want to avoid.
So for you to have a buffalo chicken sandwich with some french fries, I dunno if that fits in your 5% or your 20%. But the important part is that hopefully fits in those percentages because anything over that is when we tar start to see noncompliance or we start to see the the drop in
Brett Gilliland: performance. Got it.
Okay. So 17 of my 21 meals need to be the, on the healthy side of how we would define healthy based on my goals.
Tony Castillo: Yes. Love it. And I think the great way to, to do that is a plate method, which is something I teach, uh, to the people I work with. So it is one palm of protein, as we were mentioning earlier, your palm, the same thickness and the same size, not counting your fingers.
You wanna have one fist of carbohydrates [00:31:00] and you wanna have two fists of fruits and vegetables. Combined that is the plate model. You should be looking for about 80% of the time with the other 20% really being whatever you
Brett Gilliland: enjoy. So one palm of protein. So I eat chicken, Turkey, whatever, where I’m getting my protein, and one fist of carbohydrates,
Tony Castillo: carbs.
Okay, so that’s gonna be the breads, pastas, um, potatoes. Those are the things that click in my mind first. Yep.
Brett Gilliland: Okay. 80% of meals. That’s right. Okay. Good news is I like fruit.
Tony Castillo: What about
Brett Gilliland: veggies? Yeah, I got, I got a love hate relationship with them, but, but I’ll, I’ll eat some asparagus, I’ll eat some broccoli and, uh, that’s about to the extent of my, I some peppers, I’ll eat some peppers.
Uh, but that’s about the extent of my, uh, relationship with veggies. I get mine from, uh, much better.
Tony Castillo: What’s that? That’s a [00:32:00] much better relationship than most people I’ve worked
Brett Gilliland: with. Okay. I, but you know what’s crazy is I don’t like, but I love like green juice. Like I love green juice in the morning, like pheno, you know, it has a bunch of kale in it and lemon and apple and whatever else they’ve got in it, um, where I buy it and it’s uh, it’s amazing.
I love it. And I feel like that’s probably pretty good for me, at least in my mind. It is. Do you want the real answer? No, cuz you’re gonna tell me it’s not good for me.
Tony Castillo: Well, Brett, just going back to that car de fiber ratio. Yeah. I want you to look at what that green juice’s, carbohydrate to fiber ratio is.
Ugh.
Brett Gilliland: So what do I do instead of my green juice? No, no, no.
Tony Castillo: You can have the green juice. I’m not negating the fact. Right? So that’s that carb source, so that’s gonna give you energy. Yeah. So I’d love for you to add some sort of protein in it, because as we’re aging, Brett, We might hear that people at the older age group, they typically fall and break their hips, not because they’ve lost balance because of something mentally, but it’s because they’re losing muscle mass.
They don’t have that core strength anymore, and that’s because we typically [00:33:00] tend to stop eating as more protein as we age. And protein’s what helps keep muscle on. And that muscle building switch I was mentioning earlier. Got it. So if we’re looking at that longevity piece, how can we add a protein to that green juice?
What’s something that you not, you don’t have to add it in it, but what could you have next to
Brett Gilliland: it or beside it? Yeah, so even as simple as that beef jerky, you know, getting some good beef jerky that’s clean in, in the morning. I’m having some grass fed beef jerky and my green juice. You’d like that. Or if I did a little avocado toast with some sort of maybe almond butter or peanut butter with some avocado on top and, and, and that with my green juice.
Is that all right?
Tony Castillo: Yeah, that’s beautiful. And okay, real quick, on Grassfed beef, all beef is grassfed except for the last one to three months where they might be fed some sort of grain. And I learned this because I went to go talk to Cattleman and do this for a living, and I thought that was very interesting because we’re all fed, yeah, this data on grassfed, but it’s typically the last one to three months that they might change what it’s being fed.
Brett Gilliland: Okay. Interesting. Yeah, I’ll have to talk to my father-in-law. That’s where I get my beef [00:34:00] is, uh, you know, the Williams Farm over there in southern Illinois. So hopefully he’s doing, ask him. I love to hear for, I’ve only been eating it for 25 years almost. So. Um, so talk to us about, uh, alcohol. Like, uh, you know, this isn’t a question for me.
I’m sure somebody’s riding in right now as we’re speaking. They wanna know. So we’ve got, we’ve got beer, we’ve got wine, we’ve got tequila, we’ve got vodka, and we’ve got bourbon. Is anyone quote unquote better for us than the other?
Tony Castillo: I always like to ask Brett, what are your goals? So if we are talking about someone trying to optimize fat loss and build muscle mass and help with that peak performance, I want you to think about in your house, if we have a leaky faucet and a fire, which one will you attend to first?
The leaky faucet or the fire? The fire. The fire. So anytime we drink alcohol, it’s like there’s a fire in the house. Look, I drink alcohol, Brett, so lemme be clear. I’m a big bourbon fan myself and I know what happens. So yeah, so what happens is the [00:35:00] body’s gonna try to get rid of that alcohol as quickly as possible.
It’s gonna try to put out that fire because losing body fat and increasing muscle mass is like that leaky faucet. It’s gonna be the last thing the body’s gonna wanna do or attend to. So alcohol, it actually. Depletes our muscle glycogen. So in our muscles we have these storages of carbohydrates, which is called glycogens, and we drink alcohol.
It actually reduces those stores by 50%. So if someone drinks and they wake up the next day to do some sort of workout, you will feel much more tired. And the other thing with alcohol, it actually increases our cortisol or stress hormone. So anytime someone has a nightcap, it’s actually probably one of the worst things you can do for bed because it’s gonna increase that stress hormone.
Right. Meaning you’re gonna wake up in the middle of the night and go pee and you might not be able to fall back asleep. And it’s because of that cortisol being raised. And typically after a night of drinking that next day, you probably want a nap in the middle of the day. And that’s because you were never truly able to get that deep sleep.
Brett Gilliland: Got it. Okay. Yeah. So, uh, favorite bourbon, what is it? [00:36:00]
Tony Castillo: Oh, it is the Blanton’s, straight from the barrel. Mm,
Brett Gilliland: some good stuff. What about you? I like Blanton’s, but I’m a big, I like Weller. I like Weller. I think the best, my favorite story in bourbon is, is Horse Soldier. And I’m dying. I just got a bottle, a bottle autographed by one of those guys.
Are, are you familiar with the Horse Soldier?
Tony Castillo: That’s the one out of, um, St. Pete. Is it not?
Brett Gilliland: There is, there’s, they have a, a horse soldier restaurant there. Yeah, they, they make it up here in Kentucky. Um, but do you know the story? No, what’s the story? So they, you know, the 13 horsemen that rode in, uh, to the mil, like in the, um, to Afghanistan started to war off September 11th.
So I think it was four of those guys when they were done with the military service, they started a bourbon company and they called it horse Soldier cuz they came in on the horses, right? And they sourced, uh, and I’m not an expert on this, so I’m, I’m going off of what I’ve learned and read and, and watched YouTube video on, but they sourced the steel to, you know, you gotta make your bottle formation right?
So every bottle. Was made in steel that came from the World Trade Centers on September 11th. [00:37:00] It’s unbelievable. So every single bottle that you touch has touched the World Trade Center. So it gives me chills, uh, just thinking about that. So it was pretty cool. My wife’s cousin got to go meet one of the colonels, uh, that’s one of the four guys that made it and, you know, got to meet him and get an autographed bottle and all that stuff.
But I just think that’s awesome, man, for our country and what they’ve done. And, and so now to have that bourbon story, I think every bourbon’s, you know, there’s a lot of bourbons that are great, but I just love the story behind it.
Tony Castillo: I did not know that. What a great story. And I, I felt some chills as you were telling me.
I was like, oh my gosh, I wanna go buy it. To just show respect, like, thanks for what they did,
Brett Gilliland: right? Yeah. Yeah. So they’ve got three different kinds. You know, they got the, the lower price, the medium, and you know, they’re 52, maybe 72 and 92 or something like that box. And uh, they’re all phenomenal. All great stuff.
So, uh, anyway, we could talk bourbon. That’s a whole nother podcast. Maybe we’ll create the Tony and Brett bourbon show or something. Um, I
Tony Castillo: love that. We could talk about Pappy’s. I’ll bring
Brett Gilliland: them out. Exactly. I like it. Um, so talk to us about exercise. [00:38:00] Obviously you being a nutritionist type stuff, or dietician I should say.
Um, but exercise is critically important with our food intake. So for you, are you focused on strength like weight training? Uh, flexibility, mobility, cardio, like where does that fall in those, what I would call the big three.
Tony Castillo: I always say, what can you do for the longest amount of time? A lot of people now have been going towards pickleball, actually, that I’ve seen.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. They found it to be very enjoyable and I found that a lot of people I’ve been working with are getting more injured from it because they’re not used to those explosive movements in that short distance. Yeah. So it’s always taking care of the body because the body’s constantly breaking down.
So real quick, I think I would say whatever you can do long term, but they show that strength training is probably one of the best ones. And I’d be an advocate for, yeah. However, I am more about personalization. Meaning what do you like to do for the long term? What do you actually enjoy doing? Not. Hey, you should go run a marathon because that’s what’s gonna help.
It’s like, well, what’s gonna keep you longer is what you can do the longest and enjoy doing. [00:39:00] Yeah,
Brett Gilliland: that’s a good point. That’s a very good point. Yeah. So how do we, um, we probably talked about some of this stuff, but some of the notes I, I wrote down is, uh, what one of the most common dietary deficiencies, uh, that you see out there, and how do we address those?
So you
Tony Castillo: mentioned earlier in the background, taken them. Yeah, my daughter just came home from school. She really wants to see her dad.
Brett Gilliland: I’m sure you can tell her to come in and say hi. I’ve got four kids. Yeah, I know what it’s like. All right. Hold
Tony Castillo: on. Yeah. Lemme see if she wants to come in. All right. Gimme a second.
Amaya, you wanna come
Brett Gilliland: say hi? We’re gonna get a new, uh, a new podcast guest here? Yeah. Oh, she
Tony Castillo: what? She just bumped her head. Oh, she bumped her head. Amiya. You wanna come say hi? No. No. She
Brett Gilliland: said no, dad. I do not. Yeah. She’s like, she just bumped her head. Oh, well that’s awesome. That’s, uh, well, hopefully she’s okay.
And I’m sure mommy will be out there fixing that. Yeah. And she wants mommy more than you anyway, right
Tony Castillo: now. So that’s the way it goes, Brett. We know how it goes as much. That’s, and my wife is pregnant with number two, so, and it’s a boy. [00:40:00] Oh. Oh, congrats. I need some tips from you. Thank you. All right. What to do.
Cause this one is, that’s awesome. It’s a girl, so I’m excited for a boy.
Brett Gilliland: That’s exciting. Well, congratulations. So, yeah, so the dietary deficiencies, how do we address them?
Tony Castillo: Yes. So you spoke about vitamin D. You spoke about fish oils. So two questions I have for you. You said you did taste test your vitamin D, and that’d be one of the supplements I would highly recommend, but you have to test it first.
So there’s three different levels. We have 20 and below, which means you are deficient and you’re not having enough. So you definitely wanna supplement with that. Anything 20 to 30 is insufficient, and what we found is that most doctors think 30 and above is okay. But in the sports and performance world and what we’re seeing in longevity, it’s actually 40 and above.
You want it to be at. Wow. That’s where that key vitamin D is at and that’s where research is actually gearing towards. And then with fish oils, there’s a few things you should look at. So we spoke about that third party certification, but Brett, you also wanna make sure the EPA and the dha, which is on the back of the bottle, add up to as much of the total omega threes there are in it.
[00:41:00] Why is that? EPA and e P
Brett Gilliland: is what you said. E p,
Tony Castillo: A and d H A. D
Brett Gilliland: H a,
Tony Castillo: okay. Yes. Because you might find at your gas station or local pharmacy a buy one get one free X fish oil and you might buy it thinking, oh, this, I’m getting a deal on it. But it may have a total of a thousand milligrams of omega threes and it only have 200.
EPA and DHA combined, that means you have 800 milligrams of garba of crack. Okay.
Brett Gilliland: So if it’s a, if it’s a, I’m making this up cause I don’t even know what the numbers would be. So if it’s a thousand omega three s I need the D, EPA and the DHA to have 500 each or whatever the closest
Tony Castillo: three. Yeah,
Brett Gilliland: yeah, absolutely.
Cause that means you need, and I’m sure the source I get it from these guys are the real deal. So it, um, I’m sure mine is perfectly fine, but I will definitely check, check it when I get home tomorrow. Tonight, please double tonight.
Tony Castillo: Tonight. And especially cuz you told me you eat chicken and Turkey. I didn’t hear a lot of fish.
And being in the Midwest, fish can be difficult to get in source and people probably don’t like [00:42:00] it. So there’s actually a test out there called the Omega Index. And what you can do it, it’s just like a finger prick and you drop three bloods, it’s about $50 and you can order it online. And what this does, it, it tells us, I think it’s called the Omega quant.
The, the company, again, not sponsored, just really wanted to push the right information out there. Yeah, you can test it and because you wanna find that omega-3 to omega six level ratio, you have, you want it to be 8% and above and the standard American diet is 4% and below. And the reason it is like that, it’s because a lot of the processed foods we eat, And the lack of omega threes we actually get from our food.
So what does this cause in the long term? It can cause heart disease, that brain dysfunction, because we use a lot of those omega threes in our brain. So why is this important and how can we test it using that omega quant test? And then how we can change it is by making sure we get high quality fish oil, and also trying to eat fish three to four times a week.
And that simple test, it gives us almost a four month picture of how your red blood cells have been using those omega three s. And that’s how it comes up with that. That’s why you poke your finger and you drop it on there. Yeah. So anytime [00:43:00] I work with someone where they, they tell me they, they feel inflamed.
I like to have them actually do this test cuz this will give us the numbers as an inflammation marker. And when they say they have family genetics of heart disease, this will also give me a gauge on things we can work on to help with their longevity and not just their right now performance.
Brett Gilliland: Okay. And so let’s speak while we’re talking about longevity, let’s spend some more time on that.
Other things that, uh, to aid in being that my, my goal in life is there’s a lot of goals in life, but one of ’em is to live well into my nineties and play golf on my hundredth birthday. Okay, so I love that if you’re around, we can go golfing. My hundredth birthday be November 14th of whatever year that will be.
Um, and so, um, what can we do to prolong and, and age well and live well into our nineties?
Tony Castillo: One thing we want to do is make sure we eat mostly plants. Okay? So eating those fruits and vegetables give us that fiber and has been showed to keep us around longer. Right. We also wanna make sure we continue with that protein threshold, so we should be having about 1.6 [00:44:00] grams per kilogram.
I know I keep pushing protein, but that’s how we keep muscle on. And one other supplement we didn’t touch base
Brett Gilliland: on. Say that again For the every, everybody else understood that, but I’m slow. So for every 1.6 grams.
Tony Castillo: Per kilogram. So that’s only because that’s what the science says, uh, to convert it to pounds.
So let’s say you weigh, let’s just put a number out there, 200 pounds and kilograms. That’s, let’s just call it a hundred. Cause it’s, it’s divided by 2.2, so we’ll call it a hundred. So you need about 160 grams of protein per day in order to meet that threshold.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So if I’m, I’m way 1 65. We can just Yes.
Tony Castillo: Divide that by two, just to give it a, a rough number. And then multiplied by 1.6, we’ll call it one 30, give or
Brett Gilliland: take. So 130 grams of protein a day is what I would need, is what you’re saying? Yes.
Tony Castillo: Approximately. And that 1.6 is that minimum threshold to help with longevity. That isn’t just me taking a number.
That’s what the research says. 1.6 is the, the, [00:45:00] the low end, the higher end is 2.2 grams, so that’d be a gram of protein per pound, but you don’t really need that, that hasn’t been shown to have any longevity. Yeah. Or ergogenic effect. 1.6, you’re, you’re doing solid and you’ll do just fine.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah, so that’s amazing, man.
So, I mean, cuz then I think about, you know, as you age too, it’s like, it’s harder. I’ve been blessed with jeans and I’ve stayed skinny, but like, you know, as I’m getting older, you start to see things that, uh, change more than they did when you were 35 versus 45, right? So how do we focus on not eat, so eat a lot, eat a lot of protein, which could argue that’s gonna make you gain weight, but then, but in, but we need it.
So how do we do that? And then stay skinny exercise, right?
Tony Castillo: So, Protein is one of the themic effects of food, so it actually burns the most out of carbs and fats and alcohol. So it actually keeps satiated, but it’s also one of the best tools to burn up that extra energy we have. So it won’t cause you to gain more weight.
It actually has been shown when they actually do [00:46:00] calorie restrictions, having a higher protein has been the one that’s actually helped maintain the muscle mass. Okay, now, in order to do all this, it’s, it’s a lot to think about, right? So my goal is to make it so that they don’t have a lot to think about.
So you wanna have that protein, you wanna have it every three to four hours so that you stay satiated and keep that muscle building switch on for that longevity reason. So how do you not put on the weight? Follow that simple plate method I mentioned earlier, and follow that 80% of the time. Right. Let’s just keep it simple.
I, I like to keep things very simple. I love and use things, love we have on hand, which is our hands, right? Most people have two hands and they can measure out their portions just by using their hands.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. And you’re doing this, you’re following, you’re eating your own or taking your own medicine. I mean, the 80% time and, you know, again, you can have your occasional bourbon and all that, but you’re doing the things that you need to do daily, uh, to live the life that you wanna live based on your goals.
Tony Castillo: Brett, I do it because I was able to see elite level athletes do it that went to the Olympics, that have been to the World Series because I, I was able to educate them on it and I saw them do [00:47:00] it. Yeah. And it’s not only living my life, but it’s being the best performer I can be for my family. And I wanna teach that to so many others because as we know, we get so many outlets of nutrition.
But where is the right source? What’s gonna actually help us live longer, happier lives? So that’s why I use that 80 20 rule, because we need that 20% Brett. Yeah. And sometimes we hear these extremes, these fat diets. And even going back to that culture being an obstacle, right? So many people cut out their favorite foods and then they decide to do a diet that’s not meant for them.
Then they end up being unhappy and that’s what causes them to go over and over and over against these diets. Yep.
Brett Gilliland: Yep. So let’s recap. So 80% of my meals need to be one palm of protein, one fist carbs, two fists, fruits, and veggies. Um, check the omega threes. It sounds like a lot of people need to be taking omega threes anyway.
But you can do the blood work, um, eat mostly plants, and I’m gonna have around 130, 140 grams of protein per day. So people listening can do the math on their own weight. And that’s gonna help. Not only will you [00:48:00] not, I’m not guaranteeing, we’re not guaranteeing that you won’t gain weight here, but you know, that’s gonna help you not gain weight, cuz it’s gonna burn more of the fats and the, the bad stuff that we’re putting in our body, uh, by doing that every three to four hours.
Um, so that, that’s a big deal. Your favorite bourbon is some, uh, cast strength, uh, yeah. Blanton stuff, stuff, you know, Blanton’s. Yeah. And so that, that carb to fiber ratio, the 1 37 for the, uh, beef jerky. Take a look at that stuff. The core power drink. Um, if I could, uh, last, kinda last question for me here, Tony.
If I could pull one thing away, if, if I was gonna pull one thing away from your habits that you do every day, what’s that one thing like? It’s, it’s the master of them all. What’s the one thing that you hope I’d tell you? Okay. He’s holding up water. For those of you listening, he’s holding up water. That’s the most important thing for you, that if I took it from you said you can never do it again.
That’s the biggest one.
Tony Castillo: Hydrate or hydrate because so many of us are chronically dehydrated and we don’t know it. So many people, when I start with them, yeah, they start drinking [00:49:00] the correct amount of water, they start to perform better. They start to think clearer. Because we’re chronically dehydrated.
Then we have the other end of the spectrum where people overdrink water, where I have these jars of peas on my desk, which I’m gonna show you now. Uh, this one is clear pea. This one is a hydrated pea, which is like lemonade. And finally I have one that is a very dark urine. Of course it’s not actual urine, Brett, but when I was doing a talk to fifth graders, I wanted to keep their attention.
When I told ’em I had jars of pee on my desk, they all looked at the same time. So
Brett Gilliland: yeah, this guy’s crazy,
Tony Castillo: but that clear urine that we see, it’s a great way to, to see if we’re actually hydrated. Means we’re actually not getting enough of that sodium, potassium, magnesium, and chloride we were talking about earlier.
So that means you’re not getting those electrolytes and that constant urination, especially if you’re waking up in the middle of the night, probably means you’re not getting enough of the electrolytes to actually absorb the water, or you’re drinking too much at certain points in time. Yeah, because you want your urine to look like lemonade.
If it looks like apple juice or clear, you’re doing something wrong. Yeah. So if you were [00:50:00] to take away my hydrated or hydrate as I like to say, that would be the one thing that I think would be a biggest impact on anyone. Are you
Brett Gilliland: adding electrolytes to your
Tony Castillo: water? Yes, absolutely. Especially being in Florida.
You’ve been down here, you know the humidity. Yeah. I’m sweating out like a crazy man. Yeah,
Brett Gilliland: right. So what do you add? Like is that like little droplets? Is it like a little packet? Like what do you personally do? I, you don’t have to say the brand if you don’t want, but
Tony Castillo: Yeah. I, I like to add an electrolyte packet.
There’s a couple out there that I like. Um, one is element. L M N T is a good one. I like, oh yeah, I like the Propel. I like the uh, Gatorade Zeros are some of the ones I’ve been currently using because I don’t need that add added sugar because I’m not training for a marathon. The kind of physical activity I do, I might be able to add a little bit of those carbohydrates, but I’d rather get them from a food source versus a liquid beverage.
But again, someone who doesn’t like to have those liquid or like to eat anything before workout, I like to recommend those liquid hydrating beverages. Cause you get a little bit of carbs and you get. The electrolytes perfect for the golf course as well.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So if [00:51:00] I’m drinking and I’m holding this Yeti thing up, I don’t know how many ounces this is.
Let’s call it 16 ounces. Are you doing the electrolytes in every one of these? If I drink seven to 10 of these a day, so am I doing that in every one of them or just like in a few of them?
Tony Castillo: I would say one to two.
Brett Gilliland: One to two of the seven. So if I did seven bottles of, or Yetis a day, um, then I’m gonna do one to two of those with electrolytes in them.
Tony Castillo: Especially if you eat a whole food diet because you’re missing out on salt. Right. The good thing about processed foods, which you probably never hear anyone that’s in the food space say, is that it does have that sodium. Yeah. Which helps us retain water. Right. So if you do a whole food diet and you’re not adding salt to your food, you can definitely get it from just adding it into the, your hydration beverage.
So what do you
Brett Gilliland: think? I take some of my water in the mornings. I’d take a, uh, couple pinches of, uh, salt. I can’t, uh, what’s the salt? I, uh, I’m drawing a blank on what it is, the sea salt type stuff. Mm-hmm. Uh, and I’m putting that into my water. And you like, you like that.
Tony Castillo: Perfect. I love that. That’s probably the best way.
You don’t have to name drop any brands. You [00:52:00] can have salt to your water and that is the best way to go
Brett Gilliland: about it, Brett. Yeah. Okay. So it’s good. So I just keep it right in my little, we have an island in our closet there. I just put two pinches in the morning and out I go and I haven’t finished by the time I get to the office.
Little salty, of course, obviously. Uh, but it, but it’s good love. That’s a spice to my water. Tony, this has been awesome, man. What, um, where do our listeners find more of Tony Castillo?
Tony Castillo: Absolutely. They can go to nutrition fp.com/cos, which stands for Circuit of Success since I was on this podcast. They can go down Awesome.
On that page and they can find three things. The first one is an executive wellness. Assessment so they can assess how well they’re actually doing. The second thing on there is a habit tracker that I give out with the video. It can help you change your habits in 30 days. And the final thing on there is if they found this talk useful, they wanna know more about me, they can schedule a call with me.
So that’s three things on there. They can check it out@nutritionfp.com, back slash cos, which stands for Circuit of Success. I love it. We’ll
Brett Gilliland: put all this in the show notes, man. We [00:53:00] will send people your way. Tony, it’s been great having you on the Circuit of success, man. Tons of takeaways here. And, uh, I’m gonna go home and coach some sports tonight, but I’m gonna check my, uh, my, uh, omega-3, uh, you know, stuff first to make sure we’re in the right, right direction.
Let me know,
Tony Castillo: man, I’d love to, to help you and just lemme know what your levels are and I’ll give you some tips. All right, brother.
Brett Gilliland: Thanks so much, man. It’s great having you. Same. Have a great
Tony Castillo: one.
