 question is from Brandon LPZ 26. What should kids nutrition look like? Should I worry about giving my children more protein, healthy fats and vegetables instead of focusing on carbs, as the food pyramid suggests? So it's not that it's not so black and white. What I mean by that the best studies that we have on what's healthy nutrition are these really big cultural studies because most a lot of nutrition studies are done by survey very few really controlled studies so it's kind of difficult to tell you know what's doing what or whatever but there are some general things that we've kind of teased out one of them is over eating is probably not a good idea regardless of what you're eating. From a trainer standpoint I think creating good behaviors around food is really important and a lot of what your kids learn behaviorized around food are from observing you or from the way you and your spouse or you and their other parent or other you know parental figure eat foods. As far as carbohydrates proteins and fats are concerned you can go look you can go to some very healthy cultures you go you can watch some Japanese cultures are very very healthy and they're they're relatively carb dominant there's a lot of rice and a lot of starchy vegetables and a lot of vegetables and fish and not a whole lot of meat and you can go to other cultures that are more paleo with the way that they feed their children that are very healthy now one thing that all these cultures having combined that having common is they don't overeat and they also don't eat a lot of heavily processed foods and I think that's the real I guess this one's different for me right because my kids not here at this point although we were about to start introducing food and I think the way I would look at it um is exactly that the the biggest concern that I have with his his diet in the future is other people giving him things that are are less ideal like you know candy and sweets and ice cream and stuff that is for sure less beneficial than whole foods right so that and that to me is what I'm more concerned about and so and I think I would like pay attention to the way he's eating if I I know I think the boys both do this it's something that I would for sure do is I I would start their their plates with the like the vegetables and the and the greens and get those things get them eating those things first and then I would work my way to the protein and then eventually I'd work my way to the carbohydrate so I kind of served and I plan to serve dinner like that now I have no idea how that's going to go down like maybe it's going to be a nightmare for me and uh it's not going to work and at the end of the day uh as I'm going to be paying attention is he getting uh did he go a day two days with no protein okay well then tomorrow I make sure that that's definitely a priority in the way we eat or did I notice that he had processed food in his diet I'm going to make sure that the next day he has none of that shit in there so you know I'm going to be paying attention like that I'm I'm not going to be counting his macros and in making sure that he's every meal's got a 20 percent ratio of protein a 30 you know I'm saying I'm not doing that it's tough because I mean there is that like am I going to give my kid a complex like way too early you know about uh you know all these different parameters they have to fit in and you know for me it's it's different it's different and everybody's family is different everybody's kids are different uh but there are some of those things like you mentioned with like trying to avoid you know heavily processed foods like I just think in terms of that being like one goal that's a big goal right because you because you have juiced you have bought like yeah so and that's the thing too is like you know they are going to go out they are going to be at a friend's house they are like you know it depends on if you want to be that rigid about like what uh that looks like in your family but for me I like to make like I like to educate and we we've talked about this about like why it's good to rotate nutrients and like get introduced you know different types of these foods into their diet and like what kind of health you know that promotes and like it boosts your immune system this one gives you energy like this helps your muscles grow like you know very simple things uh you know where it's like more like I'm like I want them to want to get this because they're they're starting to move more to work out more and they want to benefit their body because you know those foods provide that yeah I think you know overall just it's okay to relax a little bit um you know because you know what happens when you have fitness fanatics who have kids uh sometimes it goes too far it's too rigid yeah and then you create some problems they'll they'll rebound and go in the opposite direction and have a bad experience with food because I look I have cousins like this I have cousins who's my uncle was a super in nutrition he's a chinese herbalist and his kids ate nothing that was not healthy they didn't buy anything that wasn't healthy but it was so rigid and strict the second they came out of the house they all you know they went crazy with their with their food and nutrition and you got to be okay be a little loose remember these kids live in the real world um and at the end of the day really what the most important thing is is the environment of the house they're gonna watch you they're gonna see how you eat 100 to me that's the biggest factor the biggest thing that I've had to coach to this point is with parents and it's like if you if you're the type of parent that you know makes your breakfast makes your dinner makes your lunch at home and you use you know mostly whole foods to get that done and the kids see you eat that you eat that with you you're doing better than 90 percent right and that's such a because they're it's inevitable right and I I have to make peace with this already because I know this is going to be one of my challenges so I'm aware that they're gonna make their way over you know to the uncle's house or my my grandmother the grand their grandmother's house one time and they're gonna sneak him a popsicle or give him an Oreo and or you may find that you know you're like with my kids like the if my daughter's like I don't want to eat anything that you know no eggs or whatever like okay we'll have a little bit of cereal I'll pick the right cereal have some whole milk with it it's not that big of a deal if you do that you know here and there and it's it's not a big deal and you just kind of be okay a little bit with that because you're going too far in the other direction because here's kids will fucking I swear to god this is the biggest battle that parents have with kids by far you ask any parent it's meal time that's the hardest hardest struggle it's it's the biggest stressor you're gonna find like as the kids you know grow up and that's why it is like you have to be kind of like strategic about how you're gonna handle it like because it happens every single night it's either like a serious battle or it's like you know like like I'm just gonna kind of let this one go now to that point though Justin you I think you shared with me this was before I had max and I was just kind of asking you dad questions like you know where I think the question I asked you one night when we're everything we're in sacramento or something and I said uh you know is there something that you did really good with your firstborn that you didn't do with your second and can you tell the difference in their behaviors and you shared with me that the way you were eating wise and the and you noticed patterns not they're older what was that so the first I mean we were very uh I think that that we put a lot of effort and attention into um you know like the sourcing and the quality of the food that we would like freeze ahead of time and have it all like pre-prepped so we would be able to like blend these things and introduce you know certain things one at a time and uh we did a lot better job of the diversity of the nutrients we expose our first kid to to where he like it I don't know like you know this is like again one of those things like anecdotal wise like I don't know if that was like why he's more of an adventurous eater and we'll try things you know or if it's just a personality thing where my youngest like so we didn't unfortunately you know like there was just way busier less attention you're busy you got all these things all of a sudden you know you're accounting for like a lot more in your house and uh you know it did happen it just didn't happen as frequently and we weren't as intentional from the very beginning and that's why I think that there might have been a you know a missed opportunity on some level uh to where it's been much more of a battle with my youngest uh in terms of like getting him to to span out of like the two or three things he'll even eat so uh but he's coming around and I think that again like it it's stressful as a parent because you feel like you're failing or like you know especially if you're in the health it's one of the number one things yeah you talk to any parent what's your number one stress with your child especially before their teenagers once their teenagers they start to make choices and you're like whatever but uh it's it's feeding time it's one of the most difficult absolute difficult things and it's like do you want to have a war well every time because that's not healthy I also think that's why a lot of them fold though I think that's why a lot of them fold and say fuck it we're going to McDonald's right you know or fuck it throw the frozen burrito in there here and you know what here's the thing sometimes that's okay sometimes it's okay because again at the end of the day this kid is going to live in the real world do you think they're not going to fucking drive by a McDonald's right when they're older you know it'll end up happening it's like again it's like those kids that are so so strict the second they get out rebel they rebel it's like this it's like the hyper Christian family whose kid grows up and it's like I'm gonna you know I'm gonna be a sickness or whatever yeah exactly that happens dude totally yeah I think that just did you just can't be extreme about it but and again in my non-experience of raising a child but all the experience I had with clients who had children and talking having this discussion a lot the ones that had the most success were the ones that just led from the front that they they lived a healthy life totally mom and dad looked fit they ate well they had energy yeah they ate together like those were the ones that that never seemed to have this the same type of struggle not to say that they don't all have struggle and they and at times not stressful like Justin and sour both saying but those those families that I was coaching those ones had the easier time it was the family that you know mom and dad both worked they rarely ever sat at the dinner table together you know maybe they picked they got to eat at work because they worked at a place like Google where they could eat there then they came home and then when they came home whatever was fast and easy they made the kids and they could throw from a box like you know you you do that and then you and then you see your kids start to put on weight and then you get all nervous like oh shit well he's getting this is getting out of control I'm putting my kid I'm putting my kid in a diet and they're gonna eat differently than the rest of the family yeah that that's not going to work yeah back to the the process food point though like I have noticed like and why that this is something that you definitely want to kind of consider is that like I've noticed them they'll eat a lot more calories if that's like included hyper palatable yeah so just like we I mean we talk about this but you visibly see it like with your kids if they're eating like more of the boxed stuff and like the chips and the crackers and all this they're they're they're not as good at self-regulating so like if not you kind of leave them to you know to themselves they know how much they should like feed themselves you're giving them kind of more whole foods like this is natural like mechanism they stop when they should stop so it is it's one of those things like calories is the thing that you know you want to let them sort of you know regulate