Episode 5-5486 – Nutrition with Dr. Rachel
https://shows.acast.com/runrunlive/episodes/episode-5-486-nutrition-with-dr-rachel
Hello my running friends.
Here we go – 2 episodes in a row!
On today’s show we talk to my nutrition coach Rachel. I’ve worked off an on with Rachel for many years. She recently earned her doctorate and she is looking for new clients.
She gave me a good excuse to do another chat. It all works out. You get another show and I get to catch up with Dr. Rachel.
I’ll talk a little about my nutrition journey in section one.
In section two I’ll talk a bit about the scary and fun world of artificial intelligence.
On with the show!
Section One – Nutrition
Nutrition is the gift that keeps on giving. It seems to be a constant challenge for some people, especially in today’s world.
I was never what you would call obese. I think I topped out at 220 pounds in my late 20’s before I started running.
But, I was always a chubby kid. Not fat, but chubby. Endomorphic.
Many of us got into running to lose weight or to get fit. It’s a common story I have heard over the years. A person, male or female, gets to a point in their life and they feel unhealthy. Or a doctor tells them they need to change or they will die.
Then they come to running.
That’s not everyone. I have other running friends that are naturally skinny. They have never worried about eating what they want.
I have had the following conversation with them.
“Hey, let’s meet for ice cream at the ice cream place!”
Me: “I can’t eat ice cream.”
Them: “What do you mean?”
Me: “Well first of all it’s a dairy product and I try to avoid dairy products and second an ice cream cone is worth about half my daily caloric limit…”
Then we go get ice cream because, let’s face it, who doesn’t love an ice cream after a run on a hot summer day?
But, if I’m watching my nutrition that ice cream cone will set me back a day.
My point is, and Rachel makes this same point, each of us has a unique body that has unique needs and that deals with nutrition differently.
Which makes it hard to find universal solutions.
The challenge is knowing and having the right goals. If your goal is to lose 10 pounds, well that’s pretty easy.
That’s why it is very useful to work with a coach, if only for a couple of months, to understand how your particular machine interacts with food.
Because as much as we try to avoid it, the truth is that nutrition is a major contributor to your quality of life.
The challenge is how to have healthy nutrition all the time, to have nutrition that supports your life goals. As part of the lifestyle equation. That’s much harder.
Food comes with so much baggage. Emotional baggage. Cultural baggage. Political baggage. Even relationship baggage.
It’s really hard. Everyone has an opinion. Weight loss is an industry for a reason. It’s the best kind of business. It competes on fear and self-loathing which we apparently possess an endless supply of.
But that shouldn’t prevent you from getting help. Think of it as a research project. Go in with an open mind. Learn as much as you can and apply what works for you.
Find those little things, those particular foods, those specific lifestyle hacks, that work for you.
This week I got an offer from my company’s health plan. (I work for a big company now so I get these kinds of things all the time.) It is for the Real Appeal coaching program.
Apparently this is a weight loss program and it’s part of the health plan. So I signed up. Do I think I’m the target audience? No, probably not, but I might learn something.
They’re sending me a ‘Success Kit’ with a bodyweight scale and a food scale and a bunch of helpful stuff – all for free.
And then there will be online coaching.
Why not? I might learn something. Meet some new people.
What have I got to lose?
So, in summary, nutrition is a overgrown jungle of misinformation and personal peril, but, you should lean in. Take help where you can find it. Get some coaching and learn something.
You only have this one life so you should figure out how to live it well.
Featured Interview
Dr. Rachell Shuck
Rachel Shuck holds her doctorate in Integrative Healthcare with an Emphasis in Clinical Nutrition. She has evolved from a runner chasing her own goals, including being a Boston Qualifier, to a beacon of hope for those lost in the maze of metabolic health issues. She’s not just teaching diet; she’s sharing the wisdom of holistic health. Her emphasis is on the crucial interplay of proper nutrition and the body’s innate healing capabilities. Her insights and experiences have graced platforms like Mind Body Green, Personal Growth, and Livestrong.com, bringing her message of health and empowerment to a wide audience. Her message is clear: Food is Medicine.
https://www.instagram.com/dr.shuck/
https://www.facebook.com/doctorshuck
Section Two – Fun with AI
I’m sure you’re all sick of AI talk. So…Let’s talk about AI.
First of all, AI isn’t a new idea. We’ve had the AI algorithms for decades, but we now have the technology to make it work.
I’m not here to explain how AI works. So…let’s talk about how AI works.
This is a bit like trying to dissemble an iceberg with a toothpick, but let me try.
One type of AI that is very useful is called machine learning. Machine learning is an algorithm that gets more accurate the more you use it. For instance, I work with software that analyzes the front and back of trailers in logistics to find the trailer identifier.
For a human this is really easy. You look at the back of the trailer and you see the number that is the trailer ID. For a camera with machine learning it is not so easy. You need to teach it what the back of the trailer is, what the number is, where it is and how this particular number is the one you want.
Because the back of that trailer may be a specific color, may have phone numbers, web addresses, weight and capacity numbers and even logos – but we don’t want any of those. So we train the algorithm to locate the back of the trailer, and pick out the number we want.
Believe it or not the initial training is manual and human intensive. An engineer needs to annotate hundreds of photos to show the algorithm what to look for.
But once it gets the picture (hah hah) it gets better and better.
On a cold start without any previous data we might get a 20% accuracy out of the algorithm. But, with an existing database of just 2 or 3 customers we’ll get a starting point of 80-90% accuracy.
If you look at the internet and the cloud as one giant database you can set learning algorithms of all types loose on this data and they can learn to do many things. Not just identify objects in photographs.
You’ve probably heard of large language models. All this means is that they have collected a giant amount of data and fed it to a learning algorithm. That might be photos, videos, words, or audio. The algorithm is trained on recognizing this data and then comes the magic.
I won’t even attempt to explain generative AI… So… generative AI is the next step after the learning algorithm has been trained on the big pool of data you can ask it questions and tell it to create stuff based on what it has learned.
For example if train an algorithm on hours of my voice and then tell it to read a script in my voice. Or I can tell it to write a script in my style and then read it in my voice. That is what you get with generative AI.
So anything, literally anything that we can do as humans we can train an AI to do. It might not be perfect, but it’s damn close and getting better all the time.
I won’t even attempt to prove it to you.
So let me prove it to you. Here is an AI generated ad for my apocalypse podcast created by an algorithm called ekoz.ai.
I gave it the description of my podcast, my elevator pitch, and 3 short clips of audio from one of my outros. Then I gave it this prompt.
- 30 second Ad for the after the apocalypse podcast by Chris Russell
- Make it Enthusiastic, Funny and compelling.
- Add dark atmosphere
- For use on other podcaster’s shows
And from that the AI wrote this script and created the audio for it.
…
I would even ever try to generate an ad for Hoka shoes by feeding the engine the descriptions from RunRunLive and some copy from Hoka’s website.
So here that is…100% AI generated based on my prompts.
Hey fellow runners, Chris here from RunRunLive, diving into something that genuinely lights up my running journey. You know I’ve laced up more running shoes than I can count, but let me tell you, Hoka running shoes have a special place in my heart.
Whether it’s pounding the pavement or exploring rugged trails, Hoka has been my go-to. Their shoes, like the Clifton and Speed Goat, offer that sweet spot of cushion and support, making them perfect for runners of all ages and keeping those pesky lower leg injuries at bay.
So, whether you’re a marathoner or a casual neighborhood jogger, give Hoka a try. They’re not just shoes; they’re your new partners in conquering miles with comfort and joy. Trust me, your feet will thank you.
I think it makes me sound a bit Canadian, but if you didn’t know me you could not tell this was AI, right?
And remember – this technology is in its infancy. This is the worst it will ever be.
This is why so much money is being pumped into AI right now, because it is going to change the way we live and radically change the way businesses operate.
AI has the potential to cure disease, to enable science and make us better, as a new, powerful tool.
This is on the scale of the invention of the personal computer or the internet.
It’s going to keep getting weirder!
I won’t even try to explain this last topic, that I’m surely not qualified to talk on ‘Why is everyone so afraid of AI?’
I would guess 80%+ of people have no understanding of what AI is other than what they’ve seen on TV. So…that, right there, is going to be a problem. People fear what they don’t understand.
But, even people who understand algorithms and the cloud and distributed data and large language models are nervous. Why? Well if I can automate audio and video and writing then I can automate almost every white collar job. This time around we’re not talking about factory workers or farmers. This time around, with AI, big companies are going to clear out all the expensive office workers.
You are going to see a massive dislocation of white-collar workers. That’s what the economists are worried about.
Second, if we can automate the good stuff with the algorithms, then we can also automate the bad stuff. We can create generative AI agents to do almost any crime and do it better and faster than humans. Think hacking or market manipulation or election fraud. It’s all going to happen. The cat is out of the bag.
Finally, the big one, the existential threat of human existence is the ‘General AI’. A general AI is indistinguishable from a human. It makes its own decisions.
Theoretically, at some point the AI gets so powerful that it can train itself and ‘generate’ itself. When that happens it becomes exponentially smarter and more powerful at the speed of light.
And no one knows how it will treat its creators. Will it be benevolent and help mankind transcend? Will it be evil and snuff us out? Or will it evolve so quickly that we are merely ants on the floor and motes in the ether?
Outro
That’s it my running partners. I’m going to attempt a 2-week release cadence for this show. I have a couple of inter views in the can and lots of ideas.
And I am on a comeback!
I’m one week into a new nutrition plan and I feel awesome. I joined the first of 52 weekly team calls with the coaching offered by my company. I think I may be an outlier for this program. This poor coach is going to get sick of my know-it-all ways quickly.
I set three big goals for this season of my life.
Number one is to run a 100K race on my 62nd birthday. I have signed up for the Mamba 100 outside of Memphis on November 8th. It look like an interesting race and course. It’s a trail race, but my first impression is that it’s not highly technical. It looks like a series of 14 mile loops. I contracted my coach and friend Jeff to coach me up.
Now, I’m no dummy. Sometimes… I know I can’t achieve this goal unless I focus on nutrition as much as fitness. And focus on strength and flexibility as much as miles.
So my second goal is to stay on a clean-eating plan and lose the weight. I set a stretch goal of 165 pounds before race day. I’ve never been that light. But, the number on the scale is secondary. The real goal is to get lean and strong and healthy. That’s the only way I’m going to get there.
To support this second goal I’m leveraging the nutrition coaching from my company. I also discovered that this coaching includes a virtual fitness app where I can pick workouts, sort of like a peloton scenario. I’ve done a coupe of these and I think they fit nicely into my strength and flexibility goals. Plus, I can stream the videos from my iPhone directly to the 65 inch Samsung smart TV I just bought.
My third goal is to publish the first book in my apocalypse series and learn how to do that in the process.
My overall goal is to create a lifestyle of joy and accomplishment over this summer.
Are you ready to join me?
Learn something new?
Share in the adventure?
Stay tuned…
…
I’ll see you out there.