free meditation
photo of a meadow

taking supplements is a form of self-care 

Somewhere along the line, “self-care” became synonymous with spa days. And while I love a good spa day, I believe self-care extends to any action we take to honor our mental, physical and spiritual well-being—including how well we nourish our bodies.

For 20 years I struggled with food addiction, binge eating and body image issues. Thanks to my spiritual practice, today I’m free. I now make positive, mindful food choices and feel at peace. 

One of those choices is to continually educate myself about nutrition. That’s what led me to eat more protein, and specifically, to take an amino acid supplement.  

the building blocks of our body

I’ve dug into the science and talked with nutrition experts, and here’s what I’ve learned: Our bodies use amino acids, which are derived from protein, to rebuild various organs, such as our heart, liver and kidneys. If we don’t consume enough quality protein, it can affect not just our physical fitness, but also our mental state, immune system functioning and longevity.  It’s more important than I realized. 

Protein aids in natural metabolic turnover, allowing our bodies to be refreshed regularly. It’s kind of miraculous, actually.

how protein can help you age better

Aging is a beautiful thing, if you have your health. One easy way to support health and longevity is to increase your protein intake. And starting at age 40, your protein requirement increases with every decade. Also, it’s crucial to consume not just enough protein, but quality protein—this is a non-negotiable for me. 

High-quality protein helps us build and maintain lean muscle mass, which is critical. Think about how important muscle strength is—it allows us to be functional and independent. As we age, we want to be able to lift our own grocery bags and walk without assistance for as long as possible. Protein helps with that. 

commit to your consumption

Just as with a spiritual practice or learning a new skill, doing it regularly is a major driver of success. In this case, consuming a good quality amino acid supplement consistently can benefit health—and adding it to, say, a smoothie each day is one simple way to remember to do it daily.

while you’re making that morning smoothie, express gratitude for all your body does to carry you through the day

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How consuming quality protein is vital for health and longevity
  • Why quality counts as much as quantity
  • The reason I believe self-care extends to your diet
  • How to infuse what you put in your body with positive energy
listen now

So whether you’re sipping on a high-protein smoothie or soaking your feet, I hope you do something kind for yourself—a form of self-care, whatever way you define it—while you listen to this episode. 

weekly card reading

When I’m grateful for what I have, I can feel good along the way to what I desire.

When I'm grateful for what I have, I can feel good along the way to what I desire.

In a world overflowing with endless options, it’s easy to forget what we already possess. When I’m in the energy of appreciation, I perceive challenges as pathways to growth. Feeling good and being content are not just the result of our circumstances, they are the byproducts of the conscious choices we make each and every day.

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disclaimer

This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and support you on your personal journey towards inner peace. I am not a psychologist or a medical doctor and do not offer any professional health or medical advice. If you are suffering from any psychological or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified health professional.

dear gabby #165 Sep 25, 2023 physical wellbeing

the secret ingredient in my longevity and wellness toolkit

Listen on:

The following podcast is a Dear Media production.

GABBY: Hi there, Gabby here. This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and support you on your personal journey towards inner peace. I'm not a psychologist or a medical doctor and do not offer any professional health or medical advice. If you are suffering from a psychological or medical condition, please seek help from a qualified health professional.

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Hey there, welcome to Dear Gabby. I'm your host Gabby Bernstein, and if you landed here it is absolutely no accident. It means that you're ready to feel good and manifest a life beyond your wildest dreams. Let's get started.

GABBY: Welcome back, my friends. Welcome back. One of the many things I love about this show is how much I learn throughout the process and that I can get super nerdy about the things I'm super into, particularly the wellness stuff that isn't my expertise, but it's something that I'm really passionate about.

And I know my audience is really passionate about this stuff as well. And right now, I'm really focused on how to keep up my muscle mass. So I decided to do an entire episode with an expert on this topic and particularly how we can use exercise and aminos and make different food choices to really keep us in alignment with our muscles.

And so this is my selfish podcast episode where I really get my own information that I need. With me today in the studio is the co founder and CEO of Kion, Angelo Keeley.

It's a super cool supplement company, but their biggest focus is on aminos. And I loved this conversation because it taught me a lot about what happens to our body as we age and specifically what happens to our muscles, which is my biggest concern at the moment and how we can continue to support our physical wellbeing at any age.

Then we talked a lot about protein. We talked a lot about aminos. We talked a lot about these secrets to longevity. So, if you are wanting to know the most important secrets to your longevity, then you're going to want to listen to this episode. I get super nerdy. I get super excited. I also walked away with a ton of information.

So dive in, listen, enjoy my conversation with Angelo Keeley.

GABBY: Angelo, welcome to Dear Gabby.

ANGELO: Gabby, thanks for having me.

GABBY: I'm really, really, really excited that you're here because you are the co founder of Kion, one of my favorite brands. And I, in this stage in my life, am really looking for all the supplements, products, anything out there that can really support my longevity.

I'm turning 44 in November. It's middle aged. Somehow I'm f-ing middle aged. And I know a lot of people in my audience, whether they're in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, they're all really caring more than ever about their, their inner being. But not just their inner being, but their performance, their energy levels. People are just wellness hacking their way through the world.

But you have a very clear through line that can sort of wash over all the other mess and the noise and give people exactly what they need when it comes to muscle and longevity and overall energy and well being. So that's why I'm pumped that you're here.

ANGELO: Well, I'm pumped to be here for the same reason. To share the story.

GABBY: We don't have to get into much backstory, but I want to hear a little bit about why you decided to devote your life to getting people on amino acids, getting people to really think about their longevity, their strength, their endurance, their overall well being.

ANGELO: It started with my childhood. I think like many of us, you try to understand why you do things. And oftentimes you go back and you find like, wow, like my earliest roots, there were seeds planted.

And pretty obviously I was actually raised in a family that was really into natural health and into protein and amino acid nutrition. My parents owned a natural health food store.

GABBY: Okay. So your parents are like my heroes. I grew up with a hippie mom. I was always in a health food store. My favorite happiest place is in a health food store. Carry on.

ANGELO: Yeah, I still like remember like the smells.

GABBY: Yeah, totally, such a strong smell.—a mix between like celery and incense or something. Yes, that smell. Okay, carry on.

ANGELO: I would say that was like our core focus in many ways. Nutrition and, and physical fitness. And I think nutrition from a standpoint of whole foods and really thinking about like, what are the things you put in your body? And we supplemented too.

Like we took vitamins and we took very specific supplements like amino acids and I learned in early age about why, you know, so I started getting taught about it and there's just the faith is kind of put in you when it's what your parents do.

And I think I just, you know, I kind of went along that path for many years and, um, my parents were also entrepreneurs. So in my spirit was a wild child, I don't know how else to say it. And so, when I got into adolescence, I got into a lot of trouble. I kind of provoked a lot of intense experiences. I had a pretty intense near-death experience when I was 16.

And recovering from that, I just started seeking out, like, what like what works, you know, what, how do I heal myself physically and mentally? I had a pretty serious injury on my knee where my patella tendon was severed. So to not learn to walk again, but to really recover my, my, my function and be able to like move again, but also just recover mentally and spiritually from what it meant to get that injured, I turned to things like meditation and spiritual practices. I turned to acupuncture and nutrition honestly played a bigger role than I think I could have ever imagined. And I started to understand why my parents were so into it as a kid. And one of those things was protein nutrition.

And I started realizing that this is what really turned into why so much of what I do now and I care about now is around protein and amino acid nutrition is that it actually is the building blocks of our body. We eat carbs and we eat fat and those two other two major macronutrients for fuel. We eat protein because it's actually what builds our body.

It's what rebuilds our heart, our liver, our kidneys. It's what helps maintain our muscle. It's what the metabolites of protein are what turn into neurotransmitters. So literally our emotions are basically like the metabolites of proteins. If you don't eat quality, you don't eat enough, your whole life is going to be impacted.

It's going to impact not just your muscle, which I think lots of people think about protein around like physical fitness. It's going to impact how you think, how you feel, how your immune system functions, how long you live. And so it became a really big focus for me and, you know, I think the rest of my life.

It was fast forward like 20 years later. Or 15 years later when I finally founded Kion. But I think that's one of those things where the thread starts early in your life and then it takes its own form.

GABBY: My mom would bring me to ashrams and teach me how to meditate and so of course that's the career path I chose because it brought so much to me then as a kid, right?

So or I could go the other way, but we luckily found our path through that. So okay, let's talk protein because again, I'm turning 44. We're always had a six pack. It was just one of those people that I don't know. That's not true. I worked out. I don't eat sugar. I did a lot. Like I could have easily gone another way, but it wasn't so hard for me to maintain muscle.

And in fact, I would build muscle really quickly. So I was the girl in the gym with like three pound weights, you know, and I was like, it wasn't get a bigger weight. I'm like, nah, this is great for me. And then here I am. And I turned 40 and it started to get a little different. Then I had two pregnancies and the body changes.

And now I'm like 40, almost 44. And I'm like, Where the hell is my muscle? And so tell me why protein and Kion are so important for my muscle because I need help.

ANGELO: So yeah, the way that protein works generally in your body is that all of what as I described earlier, our organs, our muscle tissue, all these things are made up of proteins.

Literally the tissues themselves are made up of proteins. And the way the protein works is that it's in a constant state of turnover. That means it's breaking down and it's rebuilding. And it breaks down and it rebuilds so it can be refreshed in a way. And you can get new, good, better proteins. But when that happens, you discard some of the old proteins.

And when you discard them, what you really do is, there's these little amino acids. That's the first time I guess I'll introduce this word we'll talk about today. Amino acids are these building blocks of the proteins themselves. Some of them, you basically just pee them out. That's the simplest way of describing it.

And so you must eat new proteins. to rebuild all those other proteins. And as your body ages, you get worse at that. That's really the simplest way of describing it. When you eat protein and your body tries to digest it and break it down, you don't digest it as well as you used to. When those little amino acids that make up the protein try to stimulate the development of new proteins, they don't do it as well.

So unfortunately, you have to eat a lot more protein. Or you have to find another way to get the essential amino acids that are in the protein. Why you need protein in the first place is these nine essential amino acids. You have to find another way to get them that will stimulate the protein synthesis to the degree that it did when you were younger.

GABBY: Right.

ANGELO: So for example, when you're, say, when you were 25 and you had protein, it, let's say you had 20 grams of protein in some fish or something. When you now do that at 45, it has about half the impact as it used to have.

GABBY: Oh my god, half?

ANGELO: I mean, it depends on kind of your body. It could have up to half. If you're the type of person that naturally, like, couldn't even really lift weights because it just, you immediately put on muscle, it meant that your body was very good at stimulating new protein synthesis.

So maybe you're like, you know, it's 60 percent as well for you. But every, starting at 40, every decade, it gets worse and worse.

GABBY: Oh god.

ANGELO: So, um, you really have to think even more critically about eating not just enough protein, but really quality protein and getting protein with the essential amino acids in them.

GABBY: How much protein should I be gunning for every day?

ANGELO: So the recommended daily allowance, which is really a medical, you know, guideline for the bare minimum you should have. So like you don't have hair loss so that you don't have, you don't have organ malfunction, is about 0.4 grams per pound of body weight.

So for simple math, if you weighed a hundred pounds, that'd be 40 grams of protein. If you weighed 200 pounds, that'd be 80 grams of protein. But if you want to live vibrantly, if you want to be like fit, if you want to be active, if you want to age, you know, very well, then you really want to be aiming more towards a gram of protein per pound of body weight.

So if you, if you weigh a hundred pounds, that's a hundred grams of protein.

GABBY: Whoa.

ANGELO: If you weigh 200 pounds, it's 200 grams of protein. Yeah a lot of people are like, Whoa, I'm like not eating that.

GABBY: I'm like, Yeah. How do I? What? So how would I do that? Obviously you're helping me.

ANGELO: Yeah. So to get protein, if you're, let's say you're just trying to do it with whole food, there are some really great solutions like Greek yogurt.

You could take a whey protein type powder. You could take eggs are a great source and then naturally meats are all pretty high in protein. But yeah, for some people, it's like, man, I don't want to be like a bodybuilder eating little chicken breasts all throughout the day.

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ANGELO: So the part that I didn't mention about the protein a second ago is that inside of a gram of protein, what you're really trying to get are the essential amino acids. And in very high quality protein, let's just say eggs, about 40, 45 percent is essential amino acids. So less than half of it is the essential aminos.

The other half are other types of amino acids that you don't need as much. And actually when you eat the egg, you either turn some of those into sugars. Or you pee them out. So you don't actually use…

GABBY: Not even really getting exactly what you need.

ANGELO: Well, I mean, it's a good whole food, but you don't, you can't use all of it to stimulate new protein synthesis.

And so, one of the opportunities with something like an essential amino acid supplement is that it's 100 percent the essential amino acids. So compared to egg, it has twice as much, like gram for gram, because I'm not taking any of the other amino acids with it. If I'm comparing it to a plant source, you know, like rice and beans, it's like six, seven, eight times the amount.

So if you're plant based—

GABBY: Then you really need to supplement.

ANGELO: You supplementing can have a really big impact because it's, it's just so much more concentrated and then digestion comes into it as well. As I said, as you age, you're not as good at digesting the proteins, actually breaking them down.

With an essential amino acid supplement, you don't have to digest it. It’s immediately is absorbed into your body and goes into your bloodstream. So this is giving an example of a older demographic, but with women in their sixties, essential amino acids have over six times the impact of whole food protein.

GABBY: Whoa.

ANGELO: Yeah. So like a three gram serving of essential amino acids compared to 20 grams of whey protein, which is a very high quality protein in terms of essential amino acids, had the same amount of protein synthesis.

GABBY: So it's a scoop a day, right? That's how I've been doing it.

ANGELO: I think that's, that's the easiest way to start. I mean, I think with all health, it's really about adherence. We can talk all day about the science, blah, blah, blah, or you should do this training instead of that one. And it's like, you either exercise or you don't do either good foods or you don't.

And so I think with something like this, the easiest way to start is just. You do a scoop first thing in the morning and that—

GABBY: I've been putting it in water, but I've been tempted to put it in my smoothie.

ANGELO: Yeah, you can put it in smoothie if you want. Yeah, it doesn't affect its efficacy at all. But yeah, I like putting it in like ice cold water and shaking it up.

Yeah, just do it first thing in the morning. Uh, it's not the kind of thing that you only have to do once a day. Like similar to protein. It's not like, “oh, I, you know, I had my eggs this morning so I'm done with protein.”

You can do it. You can take Kion Aminos multiple times a day and you get more and more benefit, but I think the easiest way to start is like just do a scoop first thing in the morning and you're basically kick starting your day with the active components of protein, which again are going to support all of your immune function, your fitness, your body composition in many ways.

Which is a whole other interesting subject that I think people don't understand how important protein and amino acids are for just having less fat and having more lean muscle.

GABBY: Oh, 100%. You want to talk about that a little bit?

ANGELO: Yeah. Yeah. So I think one important thing that people should understand when you eat. This like a big tip for people is that when you eat carbohydrates or fat or protein, they don't all have the same metabolic effect.

When you eat protein. It actually stimulates your body to burn more calories just in eating the protein. And that's because of breaking down the protein. But also because when you eat protein, it makes you build new proteins in you body. It’s energy dependent activity.

So you actually burn a lot more calories when you just eat the protein. If you consume essential amino acids, you're having a very small dose of something you're consuming and it's, and it's stimulating that much more calorie burn.

So just think if you're eating protein or you're taking essential amino acids, you're burning a lot more calories just from the activity of doing it than if you're eating carbohydrates or fat. On top of that, though, is that we all just have what's called a resting metabolic rate. If we just sit here or you lie down on your bed all day long, you're going to burn calories.

Like you're just going to burn calories because—

GABBY: Oh, so I can lie in bed all day?

ANGELO: Yeah, you can lie in bed all day. I mean, you definitely have to, you have to eat less if you're going to move that much less. Yeah. But, um, yeah, you literally burn calories by just doing nothing. If you have more lean muscle, you burn more calories when you do nothing because you have more of this physical mass of these proteins that need to be rebuilt.

So if you replace a pound of fat in your body with a pound of muscle, so I'm not saying like, you're getting like crazy, bulky, big type person, just like slightly improving the tone of your body, that alone will make you burn more calories every single day, because the muscle in your body requires more calories than the fat in your body does.

GABBY: Oh, I didn't know that.

ANGELO: Yeah, so it's like a reinforcing cycle. You, you consume more protein and more essential amino acids. It makes you burn more calories. It helps you build and maintain more lean muscle and that lean muscle then helps you burn more calories. When you understand that, it becomes such an obvious, foundational piece of anyone that wants to look good, feel young, maintain their health and vibrancy as they age.

It's, you can't ignore it.

GABBY: Yeah, I remember, um, a girlfriend of mine, she's got her own businesses and stuff and she's super into this. And she said, girlfriend, you're 40. You better start upping your, your intake of protein. I was like, Oh, I know it's something we take for granted. So there's the 40 something plus that I'm going to represent here.

And then I want to talk about how it may support folks when they're younger as well. So for where I'm at, I know that I need to up that protein. I need my aminos. Thanks to you. I also know that when I work out consistently, I can maintain the muscle, but whereas five, ten years ago, I could work out twice a week and have killer muscles, now it's if I stop for a week, gone, gone, gone, gone.

So, of course, I have to consistently exercise as part of it, but I need these additional practices, whether it's meats, whether it's eggs, whether it's any form of protein plus the aminos to keep it going at this age. Really clear.

ANGELO: Yeah, and I would say also for younger people, it's the same story. If I'm talking to someone younger, what I want to communicate to them is, start building and maintaining your body now.

So that when you're in your forties, when you're in your fifties, when you're in your sixties, you're not feeling like you're having to play catch up.

GABBY: That's great.

ANGELO: You know, it really is, it's one of those things where it's like a savings account. And I think the savings account mindset works for all kinds of things.

Obviously, it works for like finances, but it also works I think for like, mental and spiritual health. Like if you devote more time to meditating, you develop more and more stillness inside of you. You develop more and more presence that you can then utilize as you age. It's the exact same thing with physical health.

If you focus on eating well when you're younger and you focus on maintaining activity levels as you age will become easier. And so like you, someone who, even if you were exercising a couple times a week when you're younger, but you being smart about what you ate, I promise you, you're feeling of like, where you're at now at 44 is much different than someone who didn't.

GABBY: I bet you're right.

ANGELO: So it's like if you want to look this good is what I would say. If you want to look as good as Gabby when you're 44, like, you need to. You need to think about it when you're in your 20s. It's not just a, it's not just a given.

GABBY: I appreciate that because, I was brought up homeopathic in and out of health food stores, much like yourself.

So as a child, I built up a palette for the health food store food, right? Like if you put a bag of Cheetos in front of me, I would get that out of my face, right? If I needed a snack, I'd get like an organic tortilla or something like this, right? So I'm super conscious. I have always been, and I do agree with you that that commitment and that early days, like really in your 20s and 30s, really, I got sober at 25.

So not only did I get sober and deeply spiritual, I also started really caring about my well being and healing my brain from cocaine and really just rebuilding and that I do believe is the effect of, in some ways, being in better shape than I was in college, you know, although I can't get the muscles to stay that long!

ANGELO: Although I really think now if you start applying even more of the protein tips I'm giving you and up the essential amino acids.

GABBY: Twice a day now?

ANGELO: Yeah! Do it twice a day. I mean, take it first time in the morning. This is how I typically advise people to take it. There's three main ways.

One is long gaps between meals. So if you're the type of person that goes like six hours between meals. Take this in between those meals because actually every three hours you go without consuming some type of protein you go into net muscle loss. Because what happens is all of your organs they have to keep rebuilding their proteins and if there's no amino acids in your blood, well, where are they gonna get it from?

Your heart is not just gonna like stop rebuilding its proteins your muscles will get sacrificed. So actually your muscle is not only your source of strength and endurance for your body. It's the reservoir of amino acids to help rebuild all the other proteins in your body. I'm not saying like, worry about it, but if you can, like every few hours, have a little bit of protein or have some amino acids, essential amino acids.

GABBY: That’s a very good hack right there. Thank you. Because I, I'm the kind of person that could sit at my desk all day when I'm working and like forget to eat lunch. You know, I need the aminos in my office, right? Now that's not a common thing. I try not to do that, but I'm on the run, you know, I'm working and everybody's busy and they need their solutions.

And so I think that's such a nice way to put it, put the aminos in the middle of those meals.

ANGELO: Yeah. And just, and just throw like a few aminos packets in your purse and then if you find yourself in a situation where it's like, I realize it's been a few hours and in some cases people are like, oh, is there a snack, but there's like no good food or good options around.

It's a great option. So between big, big gaps between meals, which naturally first thing in the morning is a great example of that. Like you haven't eaten, you haven't eaten for, you know, 12 hours, most people. Another good example of it is if you have really low protein meals, like sometimes maybe you're going out to lunch and there's like, you're going to have a salad, but there's like not really a good meat option.

Or if you're plant-based, like they don't have quinoa and beans and other good, healthy plant proteins for you. You can compensate by having some Kion essential amino acids right then.

GABBY: I'm going to be that woman who's like in the restaurant, like, excuse me, I just had to put my Kion into my drink.

Literally, I'm going to have a stack of them in my bag when I travel. I've already gone through like half of a, you have like these little like cases for the aminos. I've gone through half of it. And it's, and I have to say, I wasn't able to work out for two weeks, just given my schedule. And I don't feel nearly as taken down from the standpoint of my muscle than I would have maybe a few months ago before I started.

So I swear it's worth it.

ANGELO: So some really famous studies were actually sponsored by NASA specifically because astronauts go into space and they have no resistance training. So you said you couldn't work out for two weeks. They can't work out at all, right? For months. So they did a study where they put people at bed rest for 28 days, no movement.

Like you're just lying in bed, going to the bathroom in your bed, et cetera. And they supplemented them with essential amino acids. And what happened after 28 days was no net muscle loss. Like that should blow people's minds.

GABBY: That might be what's happening to me right now.

ANGELO: Yeah, I mean if you think about it, like if you're a bed rest, typically you get injured, you'll lose all your muscle, your legs will shrink up.

If you supplement with essential amino acids in a sufficient amount, now that's an extreme case. And they were trying to figure out how to solve problems with astronauts. They literally were able to have no muscle loss from these participants. Now it was higher doses, it was multiple times a day. But if you're someone who's staying active and you're still kind of eating, it can have a really big impact.

Another example is, and this is kind of unheard of typically, but one of the people from my team recently tried to, they wanted to cut a lot of fat and he wasn't like, he was an overweight guy. He's a pretty fit guy, but he just wanted to like get lean, cut, whatever. So he wanted to lose 20, 25 pounds and he modified his nutrition.

He focused more on protein and he kept up a very high intake of essential amino acids every day. He lost the 20, 25 pounds and no muscle loss. Most people who lose that amount of fat, you just naturally lose muscle too because you're cutting so many calories. But by ensuring that he was maintaining the essential amino acids, he was able to maintain all of his muscles.

So it's real. Like you saying you didn't work out for a couple of weeks, but you kept taking the Kion aminos. You really can maintain your muscle. I mean, you're not going to maintain like speed and endurance and strength if you never exercise.

GABBY: But I can get back in the gym and probably be quick to build that muscle back even more.

I mean, I've maintained more than I thought I would. So we've got this protein kick, which I think I'm grateful to you because I don't see a lot of founders of any amino acid company really being a spokesperson for it and really getting out there and carrying the message and telling the why.

You have a lot of products, but that this like one hero product is the thing that you're really wanting to make, because my guess is that's the one that is going to make the difference for every other supplement as well.

Right? Like if we're taking one of your supplements to sleep. Taking the aminos during the day will only benefit that, right?

ANGELO: Yeah. What I would say is when you think about anything in life, right, you have to prioritize, you have to choose like what's going to be most important over other things. And I think one of the very first things that I would advise everyone to consider is your daily essential amino acid intake.

Cause that's, what's going to predict how much lean muscle you maintain, how well your organs function over the longterm. And it's going to have one of the closest correlations overall for your whole life and your health. So yeah, it's like it's, it's the foundation. And if you have that kind of a healthy daily intake, you're going to be able to maintain higher activity levels.

You're going to have better body composition. It's going to support you in sleeping better. So yeah, it's, it's like that foundational supplement for more vibrant living. That said, it doesn't do everything.

GABBY: So I'm gonna have the energy of my four year old.

ANGELO: I don't know if you can have that because I think they have like the spirit of a four year old.

I was gonna figure out how to recapture that.

GABBY: There's hardcore toddler—well, he's not even toddler—kid energy. It's like blasting through the house. I wish I had some.

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GABBY: In terms of this space, so you had this introduction to all these different kinds of supplements and things, and this is the one you chose because of your own healing path. And so now that there's this one single point of focus of really focusing on these products, but specifically the aminos, what do you think is the core message that you want people to take away for why?

What is the most important thing I'm going to get out of this so they can say, hell yes, I want that.

ANGELO: Essential amino acids are the building blocks of life. I think that's like, if you can understand that this is not something that you need to modify some other part of your body or it's some kind of fuel source, it's literally the thing that's going to help you rebuild all the functions of your body that are most critical to just to living that if you can grasp that, you can grasp that you're—

You've probably been neglecting it to some standpoint and you haven't been getting enough of it. And if you can make this one foundational change through whole food nutrition and potentially through supplementation, then you can see huge impacts in the rest of your life.

GABBY: Right on. So how many supplements do you take in a day?

ANGELO: Like scoops or pills or types?

I think I take like five to six different supplements.

GABBY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

ANGELO: And they're, they're all Kion supplements. Yeah. They're the ones that I think are the most important.

GABBY: Well, you made 'em. Yeah, exactly.

ANGELO: And not just that, I mean, it's, it's, it's not like because I or a team made em.

GABBY: Yeah. But it's the what you want in there.

ANGELO: Yeah. I mean, we just, you know, we do a lot of research into what is actually most important for people. What's gonna have the greatest impact for the most number of people, and those are the products we make.

And then we make them at the highest quality, so, I mean, I want the most important products and I want them at the highest quality, so that's what I'm going to do. You know, I'll give to my kids.

GABBY: Well, here's a question I have. Could I give my kids some Kion? Is that okay?

ANGELO: So I give my kids Kion aminos every single day. And I do it specifically in the context of, when they're super active. Yeah, we have higher protein and amino acid.

GABBY: How old are these children?

ANGELO: They're eight and 10, they've been on it for years.

GABBY: So five is okay too.

ANGELO: Yeah, I mean, they've been on it for years.

GABBY: Same package I take?

ANGELO: Yeah. But they're but they're really active like ones in gymnastics, other ones in basketball. So around sports activities, it's really important because it helps their little muscles and their tissues basically perform better and to recover better.

So they don't. They have better growth opportunities from it. And then also, little kids sometimes, like, I'm constantly trying to be like, well, could you have a little bit of protein? You know, it's like, were you tuna fish? Or were you eating this?

GABBY: Finally, my kid's starting to eat meat. And I'll hear him like in the living room and he'll scream, Mommy, I need steak.

He says all he wants to eat is steak. It's the funniest thing. This is a kid who never ate any protein. So we're on the right track.

ANGELO: When I have a hard time getting them to eat protein. This is my solution. I'm like, well, if you don't want to eat protein, will you, you know, you have some Kion aminos and they happily do it now and they get it and it tastes good.

You know, I tried to get them to focus on learning habits of eating good high quality proteins and they’re kids.

Sometimes they only want to eat macaroni and cheese. And I'm like, but I'm like, but I, but I know that if they don't get these essential amino acids, it's going to affect their mood. It's going to affect their energy levels.

I'm going to deal with a cranky kid later on.

GABBY: I'm going to try it out on Ollie.

ANGELO: Yeah. The one thing I would say is just consult with consult your child's healthcare practitioner because every single child's different and it's always the best thing to do.

GABBY: Okay. Beautiful. I got that. Yeah. Now, what are you most excited about right now?

Business personally, professionally, what are you most excited about?

ANGELO: My family. Yeah. I just, I just like love my family so much. Yeah. So I think it's.

GABBY: Yeah. And you're a young dad. How old are you? Uh, I'm 39. Oh, baby. Not even in your 40s. You look even younger than 39. So whatever you're doing is working.

But I think that when you, when you're in your late 30s and 40s and you have small children, well, you were even younger when they were really little, but it's just such a gift to them to be able to have that stamina to keep up with them and not always be like, I'm tired. I'm this, I'm that.

ANGELO: Yeah. It's, it's taken, it's like influenced me and motivated me to a next level. Having children I think having children is definitely that in getting married have been the most positive impacts on my life.

I was saying recently someone you know, being a dad is my favorite thing after being a kid.

GABBY: That's beautiful. That's so beautiful.

ANGELO: Yeah, and it but it really does motivate me to to be really healthy, to be really healthy in my mind and like What's going on in my mental states, how present and aware and thoughtful I am, how I treat them, how I teach them, how to be through my behaviors in terms of like relationships, but also really through physical fitness.

Do they see me as someone that goes out for a run? Do they see me as someone that exercises that goes to classes that's able to participate in some kind of sport. And then do they see themselves in that way too? Like, and not that that's all that life is about, but if you don't have that physical capability and that physical modeling to your children, then they may not see it for themselves.

GABBY: They do what you do. They are sponges. And you know, I think that there's something quite beautiful about the, we were talking about the spirit of a child and the energy of a child. But really giving yourself enough protein, enough exercise, good sleep, amino acids, really making that commitment to yourself and your energy is probably the greatest gift you can give to your kids because I know when I'm exhausted from a day of work and I come home and I don't have that energy or that stamina, it takes a toll on him.

He just wants to play. He's the only child. He just wants to play with me and my husband. And sometimes I'm just tanked. So whatever I can do to maintain that energy all throughout the day is going to benefit him so greatly.

ANGELO: It's so true. When I come home and I'm like present and happy and joyful and aware and not seeking some kind of escape.

Whether that's I've been at work all day so I want to like watch something or get my phone or have a drink or eat something that's maybe not good for me and I'm really just like present. There's nothing. I don't know of anything greater I can do for my children. I can try to make up all kinds of lessons and talks and blah, blah, blah stuff for them.

But just literally being present consistently every day.

GABBY: That's all they want.

ANGELO: And on that same point, when I don't eat well, I mean, this is one of the things where I just say, start with a scoop of Kion Aminos in the morning. Just start with essential amino acids first thing. It's because it gets you in the habit and the ritual of thinking about that throughout the day.

Thinking about have I had protein? Have I taken some essential amino acids? It's going to keep me from eating less sugar. It's going to make me want to focus more on healthy whole foods like vegetables and proteins, et cetera. It's like the first commitment I make in the day towards.

So it's like smart nutrition, and if I start the day, I don't know, with like a pastry, or something like that, I'm going to be on this blood sugar thing, I don't have protein, so my my neurotransmitters and my moods all dysregulated plus the blood sugar rollercoaster that I'm probably gonna have a less healthy lunch And then by the time I get home, I probably want to have alcohol. It's like you're just, you're in this, you're in a mess.

Make the first thing you do in the morning that whatever you do, you know mentally and spiritually whether it's journaling or meditating. You know if it's for nutrition make the first nutrition thing like a good commitment to your day.

GABBY: I can even take it to another level, right? So let's say you're in your kitchen, you're about to pour your coffee, and before you have anything else, just take your scoop of Kion.

And when you do it, here's where I'm going to add a Gabby moment, okay? When you do it, saying a prayer over the water glass, right? So you can say, thank you for giving me the protein and resources I need for this day. And that combo of the spiritual alignment, intention, energy infused into the water with the product, I promise, will make it have an even greater impact.

So, for myself, when I set myself up with those positive intentions from the get go, my day unfolds perfectly.

ANGELO: I love that. I'm going to start doing that. I don't, I mean, this is the first thing I do like that is the first thing I do before coffee, but I love the idea of actually turning it into intentional prayer.

Yeah making it more sacramental in a way, like really like honoring the moment. I love that.

GABBY: Yeah. And, and, and it is also—

ANGELO: Because it's a commitment to myself and to what I'm, what I'm praying the day may be.

GABBY: That's right. And when we put into positive attention to our food or our supplements or whatever it might be, we are giving it energy.

Giving it our commitment, our energy, and that focus is not, is not a small thing. That's everything. That intention throughout the day. I also love one small thing. That's why I love a powder. It's like, this powder. There have been times in my life where I'd open drawers and drawers and drawers of supplements, or like every cabinet was filled with this and filled with that and filled with this.

And I'm so happy today that I've pared it all down. My protein shake, your products, just and making sure I'm getting like the right Ds and Cs and all that. But at the same time, not piling on all these supplements like a crazy person, like, you know, 50 supplements a day wasn't really working for me anymore.

ANGELO: Yeah. I think it's for me, it just becomes like too much. I mean, I admitted earlier, I take like five or six a day.

GABBY: That's not even close to what I was doing.

ANGELO: And I mean, that's someone who's like, that's someone who was raised in this space and like, and I'm like work actively in the space, founded a company around it.

I like to have a more minimalist, easy to adhere to set of health kind of practices because yeah, I don't want to be stressed out or like counting all my different things or I don't want it to be all complicated. I want life to be honestly, like a child. I want it to be more simple and free and happy and vibrant.

And so what's the one thing I can do versus like the 25 I need to do to, and then I got to like, you know, put on this mask and then connect to that thing and then turn on this light and then…

GABBY: Get my, get my Norma tech boots out and I've got my red light and I'm like, wellness girl. Yeah.

Yeah. But it's cool. It is cool that these things like, you know, I've been doing H bot, like hyperbaric oxygen chambers and these things are really helpful cryo and all of it. Not everybody has access to all that stuff, but not everyone. could afford it or have access to it or has the time for it. You know, you go to an H bot and like a hyperbaric chamber, you have to go for an hour and an hour and a half.

You're lying there, you know? So I just think that you have to have these products in your back pocket that you can literally lean on to support you and your overall wellbeing. So before we close out, I just want to hear some of your other kind of wellness rituals beyond so you've got your Kion in the morning.

ANGELO: I think I trick and I try to keep it really simple. It's like it's nutrition. It's some form of like just movement throughout the day and it's then some type of like more intense activity. So really I'm saying from like my physical well being. So I try to get in like 15000, 20000 steps a day, which a lot of people are like, Whoa, that's a lot.

GABBY: It's hard to get to 10.

ANGELO: Yeah. But if you prioritize like taking phone calls. Honestly, COVID was one of the best things ever for me, whereas I realized, no, I'm not going to be on the Zoom video. Like, I'll be on the phone.

GABBY: Well, when we had our first conversation, you were on the phone. I was like, oh, that's cool.

ANGELO: And it allowed me to walk. Yeah. So I can walk.

GABBY: You know, I gonna start taking all my calls on the phone. I mean. Who needs to sit in front of a Zoom Although there is power in seeing people.

ANGELO: Yeah. I mean, I found, I mean, but it's, it's interesting for this conversation, for example, this could have been on zoom, but in this case I was committed to like, no, I want to like, yeah, I want to be in person.

I want to have this conversation. Like for, for me, that's for real. So, you know, you find the balance of that, but I think steps, I think really hitting steps every day. And then I think it's finding some type of sport or more intense activity that you do like that pushes you and like for some people it's like play.

You know like for me, I actually I've gotten really into Muay Thai which is kickboxing and I love basketball Yeah, so it's like those are my sports that I love.

GABBY: You’re getting that exercise, but you're not thinking about it.

ANGELO: I'm not thinking about it as much and I'm getting I'm getting to be more like like like a kid.

Yeah, and so it's like find that thing that gets you to push yourself, but you're not having to like push yourself because you just love it.

GABBY: Yeah. And within a week you're going to be hooked, right? Cause you get that all that great endorphins and you're just like, let's keep this going. Hopefully that's what happens for me.

Often when I get into a good routine and flow with my physical activity, then I just see it just carry on month over month. When I lose it for a few weeks, like now I've got to stroll back in. Right. But it's something similar to what you said. I always tell people move in some way every day, right. And do these one small things, take these small right actions towards your overall wellbeing.

Protein. Aminos, well rested, activity, exercise. My takeaways from you today. Ready? Here we go.

Number one takeaway is that we can walk on our calls. That's my number one takeaway. Have a coffee, start your calls on the road, walk around as long as you're allowed to, assuming your company lets you do that, because these moments in our day, when we just could be getting more exercise, we just sit.

And so I think that's genius.

ANGELO: I think you'll be surprised too. If you ask your team about it or talk about it, but people might think you're weird at first and then they'll be like, Oh, that's actually like pretty cool. Like, yeah. And you tell them why you're like, I'm wanting to like, feel better and have, you know, be healthier.

And like, why don't you, you know, why don't you do it too? Or we can trade, like one of us can be on the computer and try to take the notes or leave the thing and the other one can get to walk, like support each other.

GABBY: It's easy for me. I own my own business and everybody I'm, I'm, I'm walking. I'm not, you know, but people that work for me, they might not be comfortable doing that.

So giving them permission to walk. The value of aminos throughout the day was something I'm taking away from this, and the value, of course, of protein, because it's benefiting everything, our brain, our gut, everything, because for me, I can digest protein really well, and it really just saves me.

So any last messages that you want to share about longevity, wellness?

Anything that's like really hot for you right now, the hottest topic.

ANGELO: The hottest topic. I think I'm probably not like, what's the hottest topic or what's like the most cutting edge thing. I’m like what's tried and true and works. And I think that what's tried and true and works is finding something you will do.

GABBY: Dude. Dude. Mic drop. There we go. I know. Yeah.

ANGELO: People like everyone's searching for the new hot thing. It's like. What will you actually show up and do every day? Either because it's not too hard or because you love it. Find that. Find the simple, sustainable solutions that you'll actually adhere to, because that's worth way more than whatever new cool hip thing someone's selling you.

GABBY: You are nailing it. You're nailing it. Have more fun and do the things that bring you joy, and I carry that mantra in my own world. When you lean into joy, you are led. I believe deeply in that.

So finding that joy on the Zoom call or getting that walking desk or whatever it is that is going to help you be efficient in your work and your life, but also maybe take your kid for a walk after school, doing these small actions and how much that can add up. Sending prayer and energy into our food.

ANGELO: I'm doing that one. I love the idea of sending that intention.

GABBY: I’ll send you the recording. You can listen to me every actually, you know what? I'll put it in my app.

ANGELO: I want, I want to get the app. I was just, I was listening to the episode before this.

GABBY: The app is freaking cool. Got to get you in there.

ANGELO: Yeah, it sounds really cool.

GABBY: It's really cool. It's all these meditations and coaching lessons and it's all there just at someone's fingertips so you could just get Kian and get meditating in the same moment. There's a Get Gabby section with all these like quick things about to overeat or got anxiety. I can help now I'm gonna be like starting your day.

ANGELO: Mmm. I love it.

GABBY: Yeah, beautiful. Well, it's such a pleasure to meet people who have cared for their bodies and recognize that that is not just caring for your physical, but also for the spiritual and emotional side of who you are. And I really appreciate you going there in that way and opening up like that.

ANGELO: Well, thanks. Thanks for having me and thank you for all that you do.

GABBY: Thank you. Thank you. And now that you're on the show, I want to make sure everybody tries your products. So I love being able to give discounts to my community. And you have hooked us up with a 20% Off discount for anyone who wants to try out your products specifically, everybody go grab the aminos.

That's what I'm really swearing by right now. Go to GetKion.com/Gabby and everyone's going to get 20 percent off their first order. So thank you. That's awesome. So psyched. And I'm ready to just go have a, I'm going to go have a steak with my Kion in my handbag. Ready to go. Steak, mommy!

Thank you. This was beautiful. Thank you so much.

ANGELO: Thank you, Gabby.

If you made it to the end of this episode, that means you're truly committed to miracles. I'm really proud of you. If you wanna get more Gabby, tune in every Monday for a new episode.

Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of the guidance or special bonus episodes. Your experience at this show means a lot to me, so I really wanna welcome you to leave an honest review and you can follow me on social media at @GabbyBernstein.

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Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.