Speaker 1: Oh why, hello there.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us Healthyish listeners on this daily
Speaker 2: podcast from Body and Soul. I am your host for listening,
Speaker 2: halle and joining us today is the legendary Dan Churchill.
Speaker 1: Yes he is back. He joins us from New York City.
Speaker 1: Of course.
Speaker 2: He is a chef, athlete and performance coach. He has
Speaker 2: a new book out called Eat Like a Legend, and
Speaker 2: we're going to chat about his guidelines today, how he
Speaker 2: eats like a Legend and how you can too to
Speaker 2: improve your every day. If you like what you hear
Speaker 2: from Dan, tune into Extra Healthyish where we talk about
Speaker 2: how to eat for performance, so you can catch that
Speaker 2: wherever we get your podcasts. Dan, nice to have you
Speaker 2: back on Healthish the third time. As you just reminded me,
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming back.
Speaker 3: Mat Always a pleasure speaking to you and listening in
Speaker 3: on what's going on in the world in Australia.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: Well, one thing that is going on is that your
Speaker 2: book just launched and I want to talk about that.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 2: This whole philosophy of eating like a Legend. What's this
Speaker 2: all about?
Speaker 3: No, I've you know, before I was a chef, I
Speaker 3: was a strength and conditioning coach. I left school not
Speaker 3: want to want, not knowing what I wanted to do,
Speaker 3: but having to do a master's and exercise science was
Speaker 3: just natural to me. And I really learned about how
Speaker 3: athletes looked at their ability to improve their performance through food,
Speaker 3: and I was someone who helped facilitated that after it
Speaker 3: became a chef too. And then when I recognized that, like,
Speaker 3: this isn't just for athletes, this is for everyday legends,
Speaker 3: I started to cut my own philosophies and principles how
Speaker 3: we as individuals that, regardless of our athletic prowess, can
Speaker 3: be treating ourselves better through our food. So the cruxt
Speaker 3: of it is is to be able to look at
Speaker 3: food as something that helps improve our performance and not
Speaker 3: just for aesthetics.
Speaker 4: In fact, aesthetics is just one principle behind it.
Speaker 3: And so the books really tailored to help people really
Speaker 3: really optimize their ability to perform through food.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it's interesting to put a perspective
Speaker 2: on this where it's not just performance in fitness, it's
Speaker 2: performance in the whole of life. I mean, sometimes you know,
Speaker 2: when we hear people like you and we think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: but you're you know, this amazing athlete yourself, and I can't.
Speaker 1: I can never perform with those standards.
Speaker 2: But you actually have to perform whether you're a mom
Speaker 2: or whether you're at work or just getting through life.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's honestly it like it was.
Speaker 3: I had a bit of a moment as many years ago,
Speaker 3: but I was speaking to a mom and she was
Speaker 3: telling me like what she did in her day, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, hang on, Like the amount of stuff that
Speaker 3: she does in her day is nothing like no athlete
Speaker 3: can compare to. So I'm thinking like, well, she's putting
Speaker 3: a variety of strain on her body, whereas athletes are
Speaker 3: very much physical strain focus Like a mother has to,
Speaker 3: you know, put up with so many last met changes
Speaker 3: like the stress, the hormonal impacts.
Speaker 4: And not just the physical like doing everything.
Speaker 3: And so I was like, well, hang on, what if
Speaker 3: we just apply the same principles to what an athlete
Speaker 3: would be, to what every principle that every other legend
Speaker 3: would be.
Speaker 4: And that's exactly how it came about.
Speaker 3: So, whether you're looking to get a promotion, if you're
Speaker 3: looking to you know, be better around your family, if
Speaker 3: you are like a mother who's having to look after
Speaker 3: like my mom three grown boys. It's like, you should
Speaker 3: show up for yourself, and a big part of that
Speaker 3: is putting yourself first. And unfortunately, I'll be honest, I
Speaker 3: don't think a lot of us do that.
Speaker 4: We put ourselves not even just second.
Speaker 3: We put ourselves close to the bottom, which means our
Speaker 3: food and our decisions for our health go to the bottom.
Speaker 3: Everyone can relate to this. It's like when something comes
Speaker 3: up in the day, the first thing to go is
Speaker 3: the decision to look after ourselves and our health.
Speaker 1: So absolutely, yeah, we can all relate to that.
Speaker 3: And so yes, whether you're a mom, whether you're trying
Speaker 3: to get a you know, you're giving a presentation, whether
Speaker 3: you're going out to you know, hang out with your
Speaker 3: friends socially, just showing up for them and giving your
Speaker 3: best performance for them. The idea is you should be
Speaker 3: eating the right foods for you.
Speaker 2: Now, you've got these five guidelines in the front of
Speaker 2: your book for eating like a legend.
Speaker 1: Can you talk through these? The first one? Eat good?
Speaker 1: What's this all about?
Speaker 3: I mean, I think I've talked to you about before,
Speaker 3: but eat good is a very fundamental thing that we
Speaker 3: can already know.
Speaker 4: I'm like everyone listening in knows the answer to this.
Speaker 3: Don't eat refined sugar, eat plenty of colorful foods and
Speaker 3: add the choice of protein that works for you.
Speaker 4: That's eating a nutshell right now.
Speaker 3: That principles. Okay, that's a pretty basic principle. Dam I'm
Speaker 3: like cool. I had to say it. If I didn't,
Speaker 3: it wouldn't like make this book have any credibility. But
Speaker 3: just to remind people that if you just simply cut
Speaker 3: out refined sugar alone, that is already half the battle. Considering, like,
Speaker 3: particularly in America where I'm currently living, the impact on sugar,
Speaker 3: refined sugar on our health. Whether you know, it's linked
Speaker 3: to the five major causes of American disease, So that
Speaker 3: alone is a big one.
Speaker 1: Eat easy. What's this all about?
Speaker 3: As a chef, I know people think that my job
Speaker 3: means that I find things a lot easier in the kitchen,
Speaker 3: and to an extent, yeah, that's true. But in a
Speaker 3: chefing environment things can be hard, right, So I don't
Speaker 3: want people to.
Speaker 4: Think that we have it easy.
Speaker 3: We give ourselves the best position to execute in the
Speaker 3: most timely manner that still puts out the best quality.
Speaker 3: So put it out aside for a second, what does
Speaker 3: eat easy mean. It's like cooking doesn't have to be hard.
Speaker 4: For the home cook.
Speaker 3: And there's many principles I use in the book to
Speaker 3: help alleviate this common stress around the hardship or like
Speaker 3: the requirement to be a chef or a home cook
Speaker 3: and eat well. So simple things like sheep hands or
Speaker 3: using the grill are two basic principles to help you know.
Speaker 3: You understand how you can just apply heat simply with
Speaker 3: minimal use your time to get the best out of
Speaker 3: an ingredient. So as you go through the recipe book itself,
Speaker 3: you'll find a lot of links to these principles. But
Speaker 3: eat Easy is wholeheartedly what I believe my recipes are.
Speaker 3: I don't except for one section, which is Sunday cooking,
Speaker 3: which is especially a day that you may have more
Speaker 3: time for yourself. The principle I eat easy is simply
Speaker 3: just that making meals. That's something you can repeat on
Speaker 3: a Monday to Friday on a regular basis, and to
Speaker 3: not overdo it yourself.
Speaker 4: And I'll say this last thing.
Speaker 3: If I told you to pick one meal from this
Speaker 3: recipe book and to do it every Tuesday night for
Speaker 3: the next three weeks, you will undoubtedly cook the meal
Speaker 3: much better on the third time, much more quicker, and
Speaker 3: most way doing so because you put the reps in
Speaker 3: to do so.
Speaker 1: I like it. Now eat more. This seems kind of
Speaker 1: counterintuitive in some ways. But what's this? What does this mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, everyone's like being blame going, well, hang on, I've
Speaker 3: been told to eat less and need it a deficit
Speaker 3: and I'm like, yeah, the principle applies for if you're
Speaker 3: trying to lose weight consistently.
Speaker 4: But I will say this, I think if we took.
Speaker 3: In account eating the right foods and a large amount
Speaker 3: of right foods, it is a much better principle to
Speaker 3: improve our performance and then in turn increase our metabolism
Speaker 3: than eating the wrong foods but less of If it
Speaker 3: makes sense, the idea behind this is eating for performance
Speaker 3: and the vision of doing so. So eating for the
Speaker 3: foods that help you perform better is a mindset. A
Speaker 3: lot of people go to the gym, they look at
Speaker 3: themselves in the mirror, and they eat foods based on
Speaker 3: the way that it's going to make them look.
Speaker 4: Now, the people I live by, which is.
Speaker 3: Eating for performance is if you eat the right foods
Speaker 3: that help you move physically better, you're going to put
Speaker 3: out the better work physically in whatever you do, include
Speaker 3: the gym, which will in turn lead to better aesthetics.
Speaker 3: So if you're someone who looks at asteaks and doesn't
Speaker 3: eat the right foods, if you go to the gym,
Speaker 3: you the right food to support that movement, and then
Speaker 3: in turn you're not going to get the gains of
Speaker 3: the results or the weight loss that you want.
Speaker 4: So eating for performance over aesthetic is a.
Speaker 3: Better way to look at your description of food. And
Speaker 3: then on top of that, if I look at most
Speaker 3: people that I deal with, I'm like, I say that
Speaker 3: I just got off a call with a girl, She's like,
Speaker 3: she doesn't need enough, simply put. And so eating more
Speaker 3: doesn't have to mean a lot more, she means eating
Speaker 3: a little bit more to support that output can be
Speaker 3: a better way to improve your performance and therefore improve
Speaker 3: your aesthetics.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Dan, thank you for coming on healthy Ish.
Speaker 4: Thanks mate.
Speaker 2: If you want more of the good stuff from the
Speaker 2: delightful Dan Churchill, grab his book. It is called Eat
Speaker 2: Like a Legend, packed with delicious recipes. It is of
Speaker 2: course out now anything else head body and soolt dot Com,
Speaker 2: Dodu follows on socials. Grab our print edition, which is
Speaker 2: out in your local Sunday paper and until tomorrow, Stay
Speaker 2: Healthy is