S4E05 · Nina Surtees

Alrighty, beautiful people, welcome back to the Verdi podcast. We have a very special guest today. Nina, welcome. Thank you. Now, first question for you. What gets you out of bed in the morning? Two things. Get me out of bed in the morning. Don't say coffee. No, you can say coffee. We love coffee. Work out, mainly. Yes, good. We love an early sesh. Yeah. I mean, I am a morning person, so getting up early is like... What's it like? Cause I'm not. Just naturally wake up in a good mood. I'm actually so jealous. Yeah. Well, my partner's not a morning person, so it doesn't go very well together.

I feel as though everyone marries the opposite. Oh yeah. Yeah. And it never, they never, no one ever converts. Like I'm not a night owl at all. Yeah. So yeah, morning workout. And then of course after the workout I'm like, get me a coffee. Especially in an Australian coffee. Post session? No, and sometimes... Pre coffee and post coffee or just post? Not pre, not pre. Yeah, where else is? Love that. Love that. And Australian coffee, better, right? Oh yeah. I don't know how I'll be drinking an English coffee. Before you came to Australia, what, what was, was it coffee?

And you just like, this is, this is all there is? Had to have a syrup in it. Yeah. Okay. No syrup here. Just... Yeah, no, don't even think about it. Yeah. That's wild. Yep. That's actually wild. So not from Australia originally. Talk, talk me through what got you from where you started to here. So in terms of moving here. In terms of moving here. So where are you from? Yorkshire. Yeah, I love that. Tiny little village called Liversidge in West Yorkshire. Yeah. Awesome. For those playing at home that don't know where Yorkshire is, where's that? Good question.

It's in England. I don't know where. What do you mean you don't know where you live? You live there. North of England. North of England. Okay, good. I'm sure you could tell by the accent. It's a Northern accent. Yeah, the North of England. Yeah, awesome. So you grew up there? When did you move, make the move across, across the pond? The 18th of June, 2024, so 2024. Yeah. Well, so fresh, fresh, fresh off the boat. Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. What, what, like, I'm always fascinated by anyone that moves their life to a different part of the world.

So talk me through like the process of going from, I live in North of England to now I live in Melbourne. So 2018, 2019, me and my partner did like long distance. So he went traveling, came here, did a year, did all his farming and all that stuff. Yeah. I came for three weeks and absolutely like fell in love with it. I was like, I want to live here. Like 100% want to live here. Yeah. Finished my studies and then we traveled for four months around Japan and Southeast Asia. Yeah. And then we came and moved here and absolutely love it.

The sun obviously was the main reason and just the lifestyle here. Yeah, that's wild. That's wild because anyone that lives in Melbourne be like, the weather sucks, which it doesn't. I think we're, we're spoiled a lot, especially this summer. It's been phenomenal. What was the, like you said, you love the lifestyle. What were the draw cards of the lifestyle? Like obviously the weather's a little bit better than the North of England. I'd imagine. What else? Just everyone's really outdoorsy, positive. Yeah, mostly like outdoors, like the beach, obviously every UK citizen would say that. Yeah. Like everyone's active, looks after themselves, just more of a positive country I'd say.

Yep. No, I like that. Like that. And then what was the process like going from deciding you were going to move to then actually making the change and coming across? So we decided in 2019, okay, we're going to do this. Obviously there was so many, like it always got pushed back for some reason. Yeah. But it was just saving really, getting enough money to save. We knew we wanted to travel before we moved here. Yep. So it was just saving up the money and kind of sorting everything out before we came here so that we'd be comfortable when we actually got here.

Yeah. And what's it been like the last eight months? Oh, amazing. So good. Better than I thought. Like I thought I might get here and be like, what have I done in the UK? I did an amazing job. I've got amazing family and friends there. I was like, I don't know how I'll feel. Absolutely love it. Awesome. Tell me, what have you, what have been your top three highlights from the, from since you landed? Oh, that's a good question. Question without notice as well. Eh, so I went on, met, so I train at Jamie Mornington, met some girls there.

We went on a girls trip. Awesome. My friend from England came over. Wolf 10, CrossFit, get around them. Yup. If you want to do CrossFit, that's what you go to. Just around the corner. Um, so we went on a girls trip, went to WA. That was probably the highlight. Where else did you go in WA? Uh, Fremantle, Margaret River and Perth. Amazing. Yeah. So good. Beautiful part of the world. Yeah. Amazing. Like still so much to see, but that was very, very nice. That would probably be my first one. Love that. What else? I would actually say like first getting here was a highlight.

Like being like, wow, like this is amazing. Like settling in. What were the, what were the overwhelming, like emotions in that first like week or two? Like, was it like apprehension? Was it fear? Was the excitement? Excitement. Like never once did I think, what have I done? Which I thought I would. Yeah. And obviously like the first week is like a holiday. Like I didn't, it didn't process, but I still don't feel like that. Yeah. That's pretty cool. And I was like, obviously you've got a, we've got a partner and got a pretty strong family. Yes.

Um, family support network here. Have you had times in the last eight months where you, not, not that you've regretted the decision, but where you've like missed chunks of home? Yes, absolutely. Like my brother had a baby since I've been here. So that was probably the period where I was like, Oh, I wish I was at home now. Yeah. Um, and then like when my friends go and do stuff as a group, I'm like, Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's, I guess that's normal, right? Like there's always going to be that, like, you know, I really love the idea of like, you know, anything you want, not everything you want.

You just make your choice and get on with it. So you're like, yes, you'll miss out on that, but you get to create a whole life of memories. Yeah, that's pretty cool. But you are going home soon. Yes. Seven weeks. Yeah, that's huge. Yeah, that's huge. So like, we'll get to that in a second, but talk me through what you do, why are you seeing with me here? Um, yeah, tell me, tell me more. Tell everyone, let's introduce yourself from a professional sense to everyone. Okay. So I am Nina. I've got a master's in public health and nutrition, um, and an undergrad in health and wellbeing and social care.

This is water by the way. Um, yeah, so I did that master's degree and then started private practice. So in the NHS, in the, in England, it's obviously national health service. So like private public sector, initially that was the route I wanted to go down, but then realised like coming from like an athletic background. So like doing CrossFit, doing it, just exercising. These are the people that I wanted to help. So started working at, uh, the box that I attended in the UK, which is HX five CrossFit working there with, uh, just the members there, obviously already had that connection there.

And then, yeah, it's just grown from there. Like word of mouth, basically. That's very cool. Moved here and then kept some of my UK clients, but also branching out into Australian clients, which is why I'm here. That's why you're here. Told me about like nutrition, like what got you into it initially and like, why, why has it become such a big part of your existence? So you're going to be like, everyone's always like, why did you get into nutrition thinking I'm going to be like, Oh my God, I love nutrition. The reason I actually got

into nutrition is why majority of people get into nutrition is I disordered, really bad disordered eating, like ridiculous, over training, eating like 800 calories, maybe even less. That was breakfast. So I was like, okay, how can I lose my weight? How can I make myself even smaller? I'll study nutrition. I'll learn new tricks. And it's so, so common. Like once I've got into the field and like spoke to people, so common. Did the opposite. I learned, like I sat there and I thought, Oh, in lectures, like, Oh my God, what am I doing to my body?

Like obviously in nutrition, which is a lot of people don't actually know, but you learn like biochemistry and anatomy. Like it's so science-y. You're in a lab for 50% of the degree, like doing like lactose testing, lactase testing, like honestly, all sorts of things that I didn't even know I'd be doing. Doing this test, I was like, I cannot continue to do this to my body. Like, no, did the complete opposite, which is what people say. Yeah. And then that was like where the passion and the drive came from. Cause then I started noticing people like me and I was like, listen, like, if you want to fuel, you want to perform, you need to do this.

And fixing people's relationship with food is like center to everything that I do in nutrition. What would be your, and like answer this however you want. What would be your like elevator pitch to say your like 60 second pitch of like what people should know about nutrition to the world? Like if, if you were just in front of everyone and you're like, all right, I've got 60 seconds to tell you, this is what is important for nutrition. What would you throw out, throw their way? So the main thing I would say is it's not as complicated as it, you think it needs to be.

It's not put this in your diet, put this in your diet, put this in your diet. You need to change this. You need to change this. It's what do you already do? What can you put in and the other things will naturally come out and that's what I work with clients to do. It's not, okay, we're going to take this out, this out, this out. It's okay. Your sugar's high. I'm not going to focus on your sugar. I'm going to focus on your fibers low. The thing to replace the sugar. We're going to increase your fiber.

The sugar is going to naturally fall because the cravings are going to disappear because you're actually satisfied from your meals. Yeah. Um, I would say don't do what your friend does or what you've heard is good. Don't follow TikTok, Instagram, things like that. Like work with a professional that actually like, hang that in a loop. Seriously, literally for everything. I'm sure like the whole fitness industry, don't do what your friend does. Yeah. If you saw it on TikTok, like, and it's not part of your program, don't send it to your coach. Say, Hey, can we start doing this?

Cause it's on TikTok. I always say to clients, just cause they've got a hundred K followers, they don't have a qualification. Yeah. Yeah. Which is, which is hard. How like, obviously the, with the proliferation of social media, since you would have got into your degree, what have you found the hardest, um, aspects to push back against or that you felt the need to push back against in terms of what people are learning online? I always say to clients, if you see something, ask me, or if somebody tells you something, question it. Like always, I say this to everybody, like question my knowledge, question your PT's knowledge.

Like if they're telling you something to do with like nutrition, question them on it. Do they actually know why they're telling you that? I do it with me as well. I say to my clients, if you, if you think I'm saying something and you've read different question me. Yeah. Like, cause context is so important, right? And then actually being able to articulate the what and the why behind what, why, why are you trying to do something? Like, yeah, I think that's like, you know, you're obviously, everything you do is individualized. Like you would have principles and frameworks that you would use for everyone.

We're the same with coaching, but ultimately the reason why you're doing something is different for most people. Um, and being able to articulate that for me is the job of a coach, for you as a job, is a job as a nutritionist. And I think that it's so easy to see a 15 second clip on, on Instagram and be like, oh, they're doing this. I need to do that too. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it's just making people aware. Yeah, there is some amazing advice online. Online is like TikTok recipes and people do do research these days before they make a reel and things like that.

Yes. Do you think it's getting better? Like overall the, I guess it's, it's, this is a very ambiguous question because it depends on who you follow. But yeah, um, I think at the moment the, I was actually talking about this with a client the other day. So obviously there's phases in social media. There's one week we're training every day with under fueling, we're eating only vegetables. The next we're doing carnivore. The next, at the moment, it's fuel for performance. Like it's huge. And that is what I, like, that's what I believe in. I think it is becoming better, but I think over training at the moment is in, that is promoting more than it should be.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would probably agree with that. I think like we're, we're really, I feel as though we're really sheltered sometimes. Like we're in a bubble of like, well, this is how we structure us, our weeks. This is how we structure it. And then like, you know, I've, I've eight months, nine months ago, I joined another local gym just to get out of this space when I'm training. And it's so some of the stuff I'm saying is like, this is outrageous that I just forgot. No, I didn't forget. Yeah, I forgot. Let's go with, I forgot.

I forgot that existed. I forgot that this is what the way people thought or did things just because it hasn't, I haven't been exposed to it. And obviously I imagine your Instagram would be very similar into all your socials would be very similar in that you follow the people that you know what, that they know what they're talking about. So when you're like, yeah, I follow a handful of people that do the like reactions to what different people are doing. And I'm like, how do you guys follow so many people that are talking like the wrong about the wrong shit?

Because I'm just like, I follow the 30 people in nutrition that I know they're dialed in, in terms of what the science says and what what actually works. But ultimately, what we consume makes such a difference to what we believe. Yeah, absolutely. As individuals, what are the, on those like principles, what are like the handful of principles that you would have as, again, not, not ultimate truce, but the things that kind of underline your nutrition advice that you give, and I know it's individualized, and I know this context is important, but if they're like a handful that you would be like, here are my five things.

Yeah, carbs, like, so much fear around carbs. But if you work with me, like you're having carbs, and fiber, and obviously protein. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And how much is too much? Is there too much? And yeah, there is too much where the body wouldn't use it for recovery. What's what's too much? Would you say like, it depends on obviously the person but if you're eating like three grams per kilogram of body weight, you really don't need to be doing that. It depends on the performance and goals and training volume and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, like if you're in a high deficit, you want it.

Proteins and macronutrients going to keep the fullest for the longest. So we want to be higher in protein because we're eating less calories and we're probably going to be hungry. Yeah. But we also want to recover well. And yeah, there's loads of different factors, menopausal women, we want more women at different points in the cycle. We need more protein. So many factors. That's three. Yeah, give me two more fruit and veg always. So micronutrients. And then, I would say like, eating foods that you enjoy, like it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle. So it's okay, how can we work towards your goals, but do it in a way that's sustainable, enjoyable, and not restricted in any way.

I love that. Like we, again, non nutritionist, but we do a nutrition lifestyle aspect of our onboarding process, right? And then the first thing we go, one of the big things we go through is nutrition. And like the first thing is like, I want you to eat what you want to eat. As long as it's as long as we shape it around what your goals are, right? Like if someone's wanting to train four times a week, and they're playing football on a Saturday, and they're doing all these things, but they're like, I actually don't like protein, like, they're probably gonna struggle, right?

Or if they're like, I just want to go carnivore, I don't want to, I don't want to eat any carbs. It's like, well, if you want to be able to, you know, run fast, jump high and do that stuff and actually feel okay afterwards, we're probably gonna need some carbs. So I think it's just a matter of like, dialling in the things that you enjoy. Because this is the thing, food should, in my opinion, sounds like you're the same as food should be enjoyable. Oh, absolutely. It is one of if not the best part of our existence.

Eating good food. So being able to utilise that in a way that fuels you that sustains you that makes you a better gives you a bigger capacity to do more. That's I mean, for me, that's what fundamentally it should be. Yeah, absolutely. And like with all my clients, I say, it's cultural, like we love food. That's how we socialise. That's how we sit with family. That's how, like all our events like Christmas, Easter are all based on food. So like, if you, you need to get comfortable in that situation, and if you're not comfortable in

that situation, then you need to work on that with your professional to kind of make yourself so that particularly if you've got like children, like if they're in that environment, seeing you uncomfortable. Yeah, this is how it like gets passed on. So it's like working on it to be comfortable in that position, which for a lot of people is hard, but so worth it. Yeah, it is it is pretty wild to see so many different relationships with food throughout our community. And like, I feel as though our community is pretty switched on in terms of like what they need and what they want.

And we tend to attract people that kind of already have a decent idea of what they're doing, which is annoying, because sometimes not annoying, but it's knowing sometimes because the people that you give advice to are the ones that don't need it. The ones that ask questions are like, did you know what you're doing? Yeah. Right. And like, I think, like to highlight your point from before is it's so much simpler than we make it out to be. Oh, yes. So much simpler, like lots of fruit and veg. Not too little, too much of anything, lots of protein, some good fibre, carbohydrates for energy and drink your three layers of water and we're rolling.

Yeah, absolutely. Like you don't need to cut anything out. You don't need to do anything drastic. It's just chipping away every single day consistency. Yes. Yes. How do you I've recently dived into tracking properly for the flag. I've done it in bursts for many different times across my journey, but I've spent the last maybe three months like tracking everything. And I am loving it. Like it's almost like this will be part of my life forever now. Yeah. What advice would you have for people who want to because I guess this is the more data we have, the more we can make little tweaks and changes, right?

What advice would you have for people you imagine you would see people who love tracking and see people that hate tracking and see people that have that really negative relationship with it? What advice would you have for someone that's like, I really want to know what I'm eating, but I feel resistant to doing that. Yeah, so this is really, really common. So I get a lot of people come through, no, I'm obsessed with tracking. And I'm like, tracking should be an educational tool. It shouldn't control your life. Yeah, we were with my clients, it's okay, we track when we can, if we can't track, we don't track.

That's how we build that good relationship. Sometimes I might say to my clients, two days off tracking, and that will give me an idea, okay, are you becoming obsessed with this? Or is it working for you? But I would say it's an educational tool, like, use it to understand the nutritional content of foods. Some people think they're eating a high protein diet, because they've had three meals of protein, they've put it in, they've had 80 grams of protein, and I might have put their goal at like, I don't know, 150 grams and they're like, Oh,

my God, I don't know what to do with that, I don't know what to do with that, I don't know what to do with that. I go like, I don't know, 150 grams and they're like, Oh, my God, like, yeah, yeah, it's like, this is awareness, right? It's like actually uncovering the story we're telling myself the narrative we have versus what's actually happening. Like there's there's like, because ideally, the gap between those two things is minimal, if not, if non existent, ideally non existent, but most of us will be like, yeah, I pretty well. Like, you know, I've always been the, like, training and food.

For me is a means to win it, right? It allows me as long as I can do the shit I want to do, then whether I'm leaner or bigger or smaller, I don't really care. Yes. But when you do that for long enough, those two paths get further and further and further away. And you end up going, Oh, shit, I'm actually like, you know, yeah, having no not enough protein, or I'm 800 cows over where I should where I thought I was where I should be. And I think that the more often you can just have like, you know, it might be a spurt of three days, bring those paths closer together.

It allows everything else to kind of dial in as well. Yeah. Like you don't have to track your training, right? You don't have to track what you lift in the gym, things like that. But if you're like, I have no idea what I've done. Actually tracking what you're lifting will help you make progress. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It's the same with food, like just knowing what you're putting in your body. Knowing what your timing of food is like, like, okay, you feel you're telling me you can't get through a session. Let's look at when your last meal was.

You ate five hours ago, like and then you're expecting to go into a session and hit 80% of your one rep max on a back squat, like you need some carbs closer to that. What are the and I assume that might be one of the answers, but what are the handful of like, corrections that you feel as though you make the most often with people's diets? Pre workout, like fueling. Yeah. And meal timing. So a lot, like majority of people are so out of touch with their bodies that they don't know when they're hungry. They don't know when they're full.

So hunger and fullness is something that I work on clients with. Even if at the start, they're like, I don't want to work on that. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, let's put this meal structure in place. You'll be fueled properly. And we'll get back in touch with hunger. Yeah. Couple weeks later, they're like, Oh, my God, like, I know when I'm hungry, I know when I'm full. And I would probably say for majority of my clients, it's helping them enjoy food again. Yeah. Like not just eating out of a tupperware, chicken and rice, like the typical like bodybuilder diet.

And they're like, Oh, my God, I can actually like, eat these things. And particularly with my clients, like I lead by example, like I share my meals on my Instagram. Not I don't share calories, anything like that. I just share what I eat, because they're like, Oh, my God, like, if you eat that, I can eat that. So it's just sharing, like, getting them to enjoy food again. Yes. Yeah. And then when they hear because I think there's that we run into there's good and bad foods, right? It's like, well, there's, you know, I really like everything's poison.

What matters is the dose. It's like, we got to find what, again, what we want, what, like, what marries up to what our goals are, and then what we want right now. And if we can find that, find that cohesiveness in what we're eating, and what we're putting in our body, then everything, ideally, finds a happy medium where we're like, I'm eating what I want, but I'm also you know, like, whether it's 8020 rule or whatever, I'm dialing in the majority so that I get to eat what I want. Like, I love dark chocolate with hazelnuts.

So I like, you know, as long as I've ticked the boxes throughout the day, I can, if I want to have half a block, I can have a half a block and know that it's not going to send me skyrocketing away from where I want to be. Absolutely. Yeah, it's about compromise as well. Like, if you like that food, but you want to lose, like, weight, if that's your goal, then we need to compromise. We want to have that food, but somewhere else in the day, we're gonna have to compromise that in like a healthy way.

Like, I won't promote like, okay, let's cut out this banana. Yeah, sub the chocolate for the banana. Yeah. Yeah, no, I like that. I like that. What's the, um, what most excites you about people's progress? Because I like, like, like, gym wise for us, it's really easy because it's like you get to see people get stronger and things like that. Is it the for you? Is it more psychological? Or is it more the physical changes that people make or both? It depends on the client and what they've come to me with. Like, I have some

high level athletes, like CrossFit athletes, when I see them go to a comp or I see them get a PB, I'm like, yes, like, this is what we're doing. Or they're like, Oh, my God, I'm squatting, like, I meant to be doing a one, squatting my one rep max that was a month ago, or cleaning or snatching. And I'm like, I'm on the rig doing gym, like muscle ups are easy. I'm like, that's why I do this. But then for like the everyday, like athlete or like active person, they're like, Oh, my God, like, I'm recovering better or I've got a better relationship with food.

I would have never eaten this food before. I'm enjoying food again. So yeah, it depends on the client. But I would say for myself, like, I know that my clients, some of my clients might want to lose weight and things like that. I don't focus on things like that. I focus on like energy training. Because I know coming from that disordered eating background of wanting to be smaller, those things are what kept me going and like, yeah, kept me doing what I do now and not going back not falling back into that. Yeah, like, if

you're happy to explore how you felt like what it was like going through that, like, can you paint a picture of like, what your life look like when you're maybe your worst or when you're in a space where, where you look back now, you're like, I can't believe that was me. Oh, God. Yeah, of course, like, constantly thinking about training, but I was getting when I look back on like you just getting nothing out of the training, constantly thinking about foods, not doing like social stuff as much. So you intentionally not go to events because you're like, I'm not gonna be able to eat there, or I would just go and be like, I've already eaten.

And I'd be like, Oh, yeah, I don't really fancy anything on the menu. Like I'm not really a fan or. Yeah. And I know how that feels like it's horrific to feel like that you're constantly thinking about food, constantly thinking about your body constantly thinking about Okay, when can I train next? When can I do this next? And, you know, it's bad because you're lying as well. Like, yeah. What did you know? Like, obviously, you know, it's bad. But did you know? Did you realize the extent to which like you're lying to yourself? Or was it more of like, when you got out of it, you were able to reflect and be like, far out.

I was so far away from who I wanted to be. Yeah, absolutely. Like I was never like at home, like crying, you know, like, people are like, I was so like, depressed. I was never like that. Like I still, I was at uni at the time, living in Liverpool, like my undergrad degree. Absolutely loving my life. Like, amazing. I was never like, hiding, locking myself away. I was still doing everything. Just, it would be on my mind. Yeah, all the time. Yeah. That's heavy. And then we're now looking back, like, what's it like to be able to reflect and go well, far out I've come so far.

That's pretty cool. Yes. So good, especially like, that was like bodybuilding, like type just, I would say like bodybuilding, like constantly, like, cutting, bulking, cutting, bulking, like just that kind of cycle. And then going into CrossFit and like lifting heavy weights and like Olympic lifting and like gymnastics and doing stuff that I'd never thought I'd be able to do. I never thought I'd want to do. I would have never been able to do it either. But I'd say CrossFit kind of contributed to me. And like wanting to lift heavy to making that switch as well. Yeah.

So you had the performance goals as you were figuring the other stuff out that kind of helped you. Yeah. Help pull you along because you're like, well, if I want to do these cool things, I need to be making sure I'm fueling. Yeah, absolutely. Like, I remember there's a girl, there was a girl at HX5 in the gym at home that I went to. She was cleaning and jerking like 110 kilograms, 100 kilograms. And I was like, I want to be like this. And I remember having a conversation with her and she was literally saying, like, you've got to eat, like, if you want to get like this, you've got to eat.

And I was like, oh, my God. But tables have turned because she's actually a client now. So it's like, that's pretty cool. That is amazing because she was the girl that like, I was like, wow, like, she's amazing. Yeah. And now I'm helping her with her performance goals. And it's, yeah, 360. That's pretty cool. What are the, what are the areas that you find like people who are high level like that? What are the areas that you feel as though they need the most help with? Timing. And this usually eating the same foods consistently. And then when we look at things, I'm like, okay, you eating the same foods every single day, I get an enjoyment out of it.

Are you making progress? And they're probably really deficient in something as well. Because when we look at them, like, your iron's low, but because you're eating the same foods every day, your iron is really low. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I guess if you have a deficiency and you're eating the same food every day, you have that like, slow decline. Yes. Because it's not coming from anywhere. Yeah, absolutely. Talk me through, I'm really interested and I'm sure the humans listening are watching. Talk me through your process when you onboarding your client. What do you go through? What do you chat about?

Yeah, give us an overview of like, what are the things that you cover? Yeah, so first of all, it'd be consultation, like having a conversation of their goals, medical history, and like what they've done before, what they want to work on, and things like that. Yeah. And then from there, it would be tracking their current diet for three to seven days, depending on what I think. So if they're like high level athlete, it would be like seven days. If they were training for like a marathon, it would be like five to seven days. Yeah. And

just the general, like gym goer or active person, it'd be three to five days, depending on what I thought after that conversation, okay, are they doing, how much is their diet change on a weekday or weekend, things like that. And then from that analyze their current diet. So put it through the system, Nutritics that I use brings up everything on a report. So like carbs, fats, protein, like vitamins, minerals, everything. So you go through the whole shebang? Yeah, absolutely. Then produce a report and then we'd go through that report from their work on like whatever the reports flagged basically that they need to work on.

Yeah. What would be the most common things that pop up initially for, obviously it's different for different populations, just go like general gym goer who wants to be happier, healthier. Yeah. But you know, everyone, apart from vegetarians, fiber, every single person that we get. Where do we get our fiber from? So there's different types of fiber. I'd say fruit, vegetables, whole grains. Eat more fruit. Yeah, eat more fruit. But then there's obviously prebiotics as well, which are fruit and vegetables, but also come from like drink. There's all sorts of like prebiotic supplements and things out there now.

But main thing, fruit, vegetables, whole grain sources. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. We haven't spoken about that yet, but supplements. Talk me through your view. And again, massive industry, massive, like the breadth of what we could talk about is infinite. But talk me through supplements and what you would either suggest for most people or stay away from most people. And I know it's hard giving generalized advice. Yeah, so creatine. More, more. Love. Literally, if you don't take creatine, you need to start taking creatine. Mum, a couple of months ago, I was like, should I start taking creatine? I was like, yeah, it's all yours, everyone.

I've got a client that I got on creatine and she's literally obsessed. Like she's always talking about creatine to everyone. And everyone's like, what are you, you've brainwashed this girl. Like her husband's like, what are you doing? You've literally brainwashed her. It is game changing though, when you realise how many benefits it has and how you actually feel when you have it consistently. Yeah, it's amazing. It's the best, the most researched supplement and literally the best supplement for everyone. And it's really cool. There's so much more research now coming out in terms of cognitive function, especially different populations, not just the, I want to hold a little bit more water weight so I look a little bit thicker.

There's so much more to it than that. Yeah. But even if you just want to look more jacked, have it anyway. Yeah, absolutely. And women, don't be scared. It's going to make you look great. Yeah. Women are scared of it. Yeah. I think because it's been kind of absorbed by the bodybuilding community, right? Like, there's still, which obviously is very unfounded, there's still that fear of like, I'm gonna look too big and bulky and, and things like that. Do you still find that with your, with your clients sometimes? Yeah. And the fact it makes you

sit heavier on the scales, like it's, it's scary for women that they're going to sit heavier on the scales, but I'm like, no one knows you're going to sit heavy on the scales. Yeah. It is crazy. It's like, it's an arbitrary number that drives so much real behaviour. Yeah, it's crazy. Like, I hate the scale so much. I understand it's a form of progress and tracking for people. But nothing that I promote clients to do. Yeah. But yeah, creating number one. Probiotic number two. So that is live. I got on some after you, after our conversation last week.

Exactly. Yeah. Get everyone on there. We're three days in. Yep. Obviously no big changes yet. No big changes yet. We'll get there. Yeah, best supplement ever. Like, live cultures, gut health. So the gut is like key to everything. Everyone's probably heard in research at the moment. It's like the huge thing. It stops you getting sick, better digestion, reduces bloating, good for mental health. Like, just the best supplement. I'm obsessed. I should have shares in life. Well, that's why I asked you, I was like, which one? And you're like, it doesn't matter. And I was like, just tell me one.

There's so many. So many. So many. And there is some that are more effective than others. And the way that the body kind of uses that, but what your budget is, is the one that you go for. Yeah, that's good advice. Yeah. What else? Electrolytes. Yep. Always. Especially Aussies. Yeah, definitely need them. English, you still need them. But winter. Yeah. It's tough. But still, recommended supplement. Probably as far as I'd go, which is surprising. What about like vitamin D supplementation, fish oils? Yeah, yeah. Omega threes for like inflammation, reducing inflammation. But they're specific, I'd say for like, everybody.

Vitamin D, yeah, probably. Sorry, I'm saying vitamin. Nah, you can say it however you want. Probiotics and creatine. There's your Holy Trinity. Dive into that. Creatine. Emphasis on that one. Yeah, good. Let's talk about your training. Tell me what you're training for at the moment and what your eating looks like to support that. So crossfit three times a week. Yeah. Why only three? Why not seven? I just have a three day membership. There's a good answer. Yeah. Because you don't want to overtrain, right? You were talking about overtraining before. Yeah, yeah. And clients in the mornings can't always train.

Lifting like once a week in their home gym. And then running once a week or twice a week. Depends. It always changes. Yeah. But you've got to, you're pretty active, pretty consistent. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Also, are you training for any particular at the minute? No, I'm not actually. Does that, is that, do you enjoy that or do you like, I need some? No, I don't. I'm not with someone that needs something like... I train well, just for me. Like I love getting stronger and feeling fit, feeling good. Yeah. I don't have to train for anything in particular.

Yeah. Do you, and does that, does your diet, and again, you share, like obviously you already share what you eat on socials. Yeah. How can people follow you by the way? I'll put it all in the notes and stuff, but... NLS nutrition. NLS nutrition. Get around it. Follow. What is your, how does your diet support that? What do you, what do you focus on? As like, it's, because it's kind of interesting, I always find professionals, what they do themselves, I think is like, just do that. It's like the, not what, like I always ask the question of like, what should I do?

But what would you do if you were in my situation? Yeah, that's good. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. So I, yes, everything supports training, like constantly thinking about recovering on the next day. Yeah. And so my current eating is three meals a day, two, I'd say five meals a day. Yeah. That's two snacks with big snacks. But big snacks, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you've, and that allows you to support your training, but also support your recovery. Yeah, absolutely. Like I can, like tomorrow I've got 18K run and then I'll go to CrossFit the next day.

I've recovered well off that. Previously, I would have slept all day after an 18K run. No more. Yeah. So if people are sleeping too much, they're probably not eating enough. Maybe, probably. Maybe, yeah. If you feel the need to nap all the time, eat more food. Or you've got some kind of deficiency. So that's definitely something to get looked at. Yeah. Do you, so the process for getting that looked at, what would you suggest? So I'd do the dietary analysis on somebody and if something flagged up that I could easily be like supplement or eat this, eat that, do that.

Or if there was something that I was concerned about, I'd get them to ring their doctors and get their bloods done. And then we'd look at that together after and be like, okay, what's the GP suggested and what would I suggest and let's work together to kind of get you feeling better? How do you go working with GPs on bloods? Because I think it's like, obviously the normal ranges for so many things is so broad and GPs, obviously, GPs are wonderful. But their role is as a general practitioner. It's like they're not going to have as much, speaking generally here, they're not going to have as much nutrition understanding as you do.

How do you go working with GPs on like the things that you want to see in the blood test, but then also like the advice that's given afterwards? Yeah, so the thing that I always say to clients is, majority of GPs work for, I work on prevention, they work on cure. So they're going to be looking at for a deficiency, I'm going to be looking at a potential deficiency. So we're going to work, we're not working separately, we're working together like that doctor is going to say you aren't anemic, you aren't low on iron. I'm going to say you could get low on iron, so let's do this.

That's nothing against GPs, like they're absolutely great, but they work in different ways. So it's working together. Yeah, and I think that's, that's what I've kind of, I feel as though that's been one of my biggest, like, biggest things I've learned over the last 15 years coaching is like, everyone has their like little wedge of the of the whole health and wellness spectrum. And the very good practitioners in any field, they overlap to a point with the ones around them to be able to direct people to what they should be doing or who they should be talking to, as well.

I think there's like, again, there's an infinite amount of things to focus on or dial into. But if we, as a society, if our GPs can be like, I don't know, like, I know this much, go like, this is what I want you to catch a nutritionist about. Because I feel as though like blood tests, for example, yes, that yes, it adds some requirements on the healthcare system, but I feel that should be so much easier to get than it is. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm not I don't have any experience in Australia having bloods, but yeah, in the UK.

It's a pain in the ass. Like it's just, I don't know, GPs can't keep away too much. The health system is built that GPs have to you have to go to GP to then go from there. Whereas I feel as though I should just be, I want to get a blood test, you can go get a blood test and then I can bring the results to you without having that middleman. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, awesome. Tell me about the your future plans in Australia. Like now that you've been here for eight months or so, what is what do you want your week and life to look like over the next 3, 6, 9, 12 months?

Do you know what? I'd say as it is like that. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like get obviously settled down somewhere and then keep building the nutrition but happy with life. That's so good. I never wake up and think, Oh, it's there. Like, yeah, as it is, I'd say. Yeah, really happy. Awesome. It's good. Brilliant. So Nina will be running a seminar here on the 13th of April. 10am Sunday morning, get here. Tell us about it. Yeah, so it's going to be going through like fueling for performance. So stuff that I spoke about today, but in more depth.

Yeah. Obviously generic, not individual, but there'll be opportunities to do that. Covering all aspects of nutrition that personally I think everyone should be working on. And just like some demyth, like some things that are on social media, maybe like picking them apart a little bit. But yeah, like, even like, if there's something you want to cover before the 13th, send it over. Happy to cover that. There'll be a chance at the end for like questions, but a little bit different. So it won't be a Q&A where you put your hand up and ask a question. It'll be okay, this is done.

Come over and talk to me so that you can ask questions that are actually like, maybe you might not want to put your hand up and ask a question. That's so it'll be a chance to speak to me one to one. Awesome. So all things performance, training, recovery, eating to fuel yourself to be able to do cool shit. Yeah, everything that my clients do and everything that I do is what I will teach it. Love it. Love it. And then we're working on you being available out of here as well, as well, which is super exciting for our community and our members and everyone on the Peninsula.

To have a kick ass nutritionist to lean on and help you with your goal. So if you are if you're looking for someone to help you understand what to eat, how to eat, how to fuel. She's sitting next to me. Yeah, so get around it. Yeah, absolutely. I'm your girl. First, anything you'd like to add before we finish up? No, what's your favorite part of the Peninsula? What's your favorite thing about the Peninsula? Do you know what the mix of green and see the ocean? I say see that's English. Yeah, same, same. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Yeah, because that home is green. So it reminds me of home a little bit, but also get the vistas of the Peninsula. It's a good part of the world. Oh, it really is. I love it. I do. Yeah, I'm biased, but I don't want to live anywhere else. No, no, me neither. Definitely not in England. Cop that. Beautiful. Thank you for coming on. It's been a pleasure. Lovely to get to know you a little bit better. And I am hanging out for that seminar. It's gonna be a good time. Yeah. See you all there. See you there.

Have a good day!