Confessions of A Wannabe It Girl
Unlocking the Secrets to Kidney Health and Body Detox with Dietitian Jen Hernandez
Ever wondered how keeping your kidneys healthy could greatly affect your life day to day? Join us as we uncover the crucial role of kidney health and detoxification with Jen Hernandez RDN, CSR, LDN, a seasoned dietician who specializes in kidney health. Jen provides you with practical and easy to calculate tips to keep your kidneys in top shape.
In this episode, we also explore the powerful world of plant-based nutrition and discuss the big media buzzword: detoxification!
Tune in for a wealth of knowledge that will help you prioritize your kidney health and make informed nutritional choices.
Jen Hernandez's IG:
@plantpoweredkidneys
https://www.plantpoweredkidneys.com
You can watch the full episodes on our Youtube
Youtube - Confessionsofawannabeitgirl
Confessions of A Wannabe It Girl’s TikTok:
@wannabeitgirlpodcast
Confessions of A Wannabe It Girl’s IG:
@confessionsofawannabeitgirl
Ever wondered how keeping your kidneys healthy could greatly affect your life day to day? Join us as we uncover the crucial role of kidney health and detoxification with Jen Hernandez RDN, CSR, LDN, a seasoned dietician who specializes in kidney health. Jen provides you with practical and easy to calculate tips to keep your kidneys in top shape.
In this episode, we also explore the powerful world of plant-based nutrition and discuss the big media buzzword: detoxification!
Tune in for a wealth of knowledge that will help you prioritize your kidney health and make informed nutritional choices.
Jen Hernandez's IG:
@plantpoweredkidneys
https://www.plantpoweredkidneys.com
You can watch the full episodes on our Youtube
Youtube - Confessionsofawannabeitgirl
Confessions of A Wannabe It Girl’s TikTok:
@wannabeitgirlpodcast
Confessions of A Wannabe It Girl’s IG:
@confessionsofawannabeitgirl
Welcome back to Confessions of a Wannabe it Girl, the podcast helping you filter out the BS in pursuit of becoming the next it girl, and in today's episode we are touching on health. I think it's fair to say that when you feel good, when you're taking care of your health, life just becomes a little easier to be grinding, hustling, pursuing that wannabe it girl life. I love doing health episodes because it's something no matter what you're doing in life if you are becoming a professional athlete or you just want to be a human and live a long life, health is obviously super important. So in this episode we are talking about detoxification and kidney health. We are joined by Jen, a dietician, to talk about what's really going on with our kidneys, why kidney health is important, and, of course, we talk about kind of that buzzword in media detox. A little bit about health and like nutrition-y points as well. So I'm excited for you to listen to this episode and keep improving that health yin.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Confessions of a Wannabe it Girl. I'm your host, marley Fregging, and I'm here to help you filter out all the bullshit and become the next it Girl. This podcast explores the reality of what it really takes to make it out there. As it turns out, it is way less Instagrammable than I thought it really takes to make it out there as it turns out. It is way less Instagrammable than I thought it was going to be. I'm still very much a work in progress, but there's simply nothing else I'd rather be doing than chasing my dreams. So let's learn from my mistakes and work together to achieve our dreams with more confidence, clarity and direction. Let's get after it. Well, hi, jen, welcome. So much to the podcast. I'm very excited to have you here today to talk about all things nutrition and kidney health. So thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for having me, Marley. I'm really excited to chat with you today and always excited to geek out on kidney stuff.
Speaker 1:We love that. So for somebody like myself who, you know, maybe went to college and high school but, you know, didn't really maybe retain the information regarding a kidney, can you tell us a little bit about kidney health and you know what our kidneys do for us and why it's important to have healthy kidneys?
Speaker 2:So the kidneys do a lot of the stuff on the back end of our health. It's taking care of our blood pressure. It's making red blood cells to get oxygen through to our body, which is incredibly important. All of our cells, all of our organs need oxygen, so it's creating the vehicles to help do that. It's balancing our acid-base balance A lot of people talk about alkalinity and acidity, and the kidneys are really functioning to help take care of that and it takes care of our bone health. It regulates and creates hormones. I mean, the kidneys are an incredibly important organ and unfortunately, it's just one of those things that we don't really think about until there's something wrong and then all of a sudden it turns into total panic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. I think it's like something we're like. We know we have kidneys, they're working, but we're like, and then they're like, oh, something's wrong with your kidney. So what's some signs of an unhealthy kidney?
Speaker 2:So there can be quite a lot of signs and some of them, unfortunately, are a bit more broad. So, like a common sign is feeling fatigued, which can be covered by so many different situations. But I do think if a person is feeling really drained of energy and just cannot keep up with things, then it's a good thing to go to the doctor and just make sure you kind of run the gamut and just check through all of these things, especially if you do have a family history of high blood pressure, diabetes and, of course, kidney disease, because a lot of these things are hereditary and so if you have family members that are predisposed to them, it's a really important thing to talk to your healthcare provider about so that they know what to track for you kind of down the road and when something like this comes up. So fatigue is a really big thing to be looking into If you have blood pressure issues that can cause kidney problems down the road.
Speaker 2:If you have diabetes, any type of blood sugar control issues that also can cause kidney damage down the road. Other signs could be swelling of the extremities, so some people might get swelling around their ankles. This is typically more of a late stage kidney disease problem. However, it's really unfortunate that a lot of people don't actually learn about kidney damage until it's at a very late stage. In fact, most people don't learn about kidney damage until they qualify for dialysis or a transplant, which is end stage kidney failure.
Speaker 1:Right. So that's like the yikes-o status that we obviously don't want to be getting towards. Is there, like you mentioned, that it's pretty hereditary, but like? Are there things maybe like in our day-to-day life that we don't think of, that is currently damaging our kidneys?
Speaker 2:don't think of that is currently damaging our kidneys. Definitely, hydration is really, really important, so it is incredibly important. I mean, it's getting warmer now so it's easier for us to be thinking about staying hydrated and drinking plenty of water, but also, just throughout the year, making sure that we are drinking enough water throughout the day, not thinking that we have to chug a whole bunch of water at one point and we're going to be good for a while, but really kind of continuously drinking fluids, beverages, primarily water, throughout the day is incredibly important. It's basically giving your kidneys the roadway in order to help filter out wastes, which is one of the roles. One of the things that it does is it produces urine to help get rid of toxins and waste out of our body. So we want to make sure that we're staying really, really hydrated so that the kidneys can do that function for us and can keep going.
Speaker 1:Well, I love that you brought up drinking water, because I feel like we kind of all hear like we should drink more water and then everyone's like, well, how much is enough water? Which I know is like a very tricky question because everybody's different sizes and weight but like, how do we know we're getting enough water?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can be really tricky. For sure, a general rule of thumb that you that most people can kind of go off of is about half of your weight in pounds would be the ounces of water or fluids for you to drink. And I go back and forth between saying water and fluid because, yes, coffee and teas and all kinds of beverages, those still count as hydration, they have some diuretic effect, but it's not like you drink eight ounces of coffee, you pee eight ounces, so they still count as fluids to stay hydrated. So back to the water or fluids. For example, a person that is 150 pounds would be aiming for about 75 ounces of fluids throughout the day, and so that's a really good starting point and you can always check with your doctor to make sure you're on the right track. You might need a little bit more. If you're like in a really hot area that you're sweating a lot, or if you're working out a lot, you might need more fluids. But at least that gives you kind of a starting point.
Speaker 1:No, I love that. We need just like a hot tip that we can like figure out quickly on the go and just be like. This is, like my base starting point. It's very actionable. You know, we think about the kidneys a lot in like flushing out the toxins and something that's become very trendy through social media and also like maybe in the health and wellness space is saunas and whatnot Like does this help our kidneys or is this like not the need?
Speaker 2:No, this is really not. It's, if anything, it's going to be creating more of that dehydration effect by having you sweat more and eliminate more fluids. So it's definitely important, if you're using a sauna, that you really want to stay hydrated. We have liver. Even our skin is detoxing for us, like our body is pretty capable of detoxifying things for us, on our behalf, and it's incredibly resilient of what it can do and the things that we give our bodies right.
Speaker 1:Well, and like I feel like we became so buzzword obsessed for a while there about like the detox or the cleanse, and like you know, also being a nutritionist who obviously focuses in kidney health but like what's your take on like the juice cleanse and like is this actually helping her health or no?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean just like a juice cleanse. Okay, I'll tell you something really quick. Um, back in when I first became a dietitian, this was like 10 years ago. Um, there was like a juice bar that opened up when I where I was living in Texas and I was like, okay, they were selling this like juice cleanse thing. I was like, all right, let me just try this out, Cause I have a lot of clients that are interested in this, I kid you not. I think I lasted like six hours before I had to eat something.
Speaker 2:My husband was like you bought like I don't know $100 worth of juices. That, like we ordered pizza because I was starving and I was like cannot, cannot, absolutely do this. So it's really not healthy to be doing anything, that you are restricting yourself so much. And while juices can have a lot of great nutrients and a lot of great benefits, they can include amazing nutrients, vitamins, minerals that our body needs. It's not all inclusive and it's just not going to cover all of the things, including calories, that our body needs just simply to keep our heart pumping and our lungs breathing and our brain thinking. So it's really, really important to make sure that we're getting enough nutrients and a more balanced diet. And again, if you want to include juices, by all means, that definitely can be a great option, but it wouldn't just be the only thing that I would recommend.
Speaker 1:Well, you recommend some great stuff on your Instagram. Your content is really all about the swaps you can make to be promoting healthier choices, to be helping your kidney and overall wellbeing. What are? Are some like food swaps you're really into right now? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I am a huge fan of beans and I feel like beans are like the low key superhero of nutrition.
Speaker 1:Go off because I love beans.
Speaker 2:Good, good, I we um, yeah, they're. They're really, really fabulous and you can include them in so many ways and just the pure variations of beans that there are. It's incredible that you can have a category of food and not get bored of it, like you could with like chicken or something. But the really amazing thing about beans is that it's not only providing protein for us that we need and just another kind of thing maybe we can get into this in a bit but like it's providing plant protein and it's not providing a sheer overwhelm of protein, but it's also providing us with fiber and a whole array of vitamins and minerals. Like it is very comprehensive in the nutrition.
Speaker 2:And I know already people are maybe thinking about like this idea of a complete protein and that's been debunked. That's no longer a thing. We know that our body does have some amino acid stores and that we are able to kind of put together amino acids which are the building blocks of protein, based off of foods that we eat, as long as we're eating a variety of foods in our diet. So beans, I think, are a great swap for a lot of ground meat options. Like you could do it for tacos, you can do it for like bean burgers. You can incorporate them into lasagnas and casseroles. You can, like, air fry them and turn them into a nice, really really good, like crispy crunchy snack. They're so good. They're so good and they're so affordable. I mean this day, same age, with the cost of food going up so crazy. Dry beans, canned beans, those are all really really good, affordable options.
Speaker 1:Well, we're going to go right where you wanted to go, which is talking about a plant-based diet. As somebody who has been a pescatarian I think I've been a pescatarian since seventh grade and I was a vegetarian maybe for like two years I'm obviously a big fan of the plant-based diet. I mean, I'm closer to 30 than I am fifth grade now and I'm still at it, so I obviously really like it. What you know and especially right now I'm feeling and hearing so much about you know this push for like heavy meat diets and whatnot. What is it about the plant-based diet that is so successful, or being more plant-based, even focused?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. The funny thing is is like we use the term plant-based a lot but there's not actually like a definition, a true definition of what plant-based means. So I mean, I use it a lot, just thinking. I'm the age where, like I grew up and then in my nutrition school, like the food pyramid, like the classic food pyramid yes, the iconic food pyramid, yes, yes, that is what I grew up learning and so I always think about the base of the pyramid being the fruits and vegetables. It's like that's where my mind goes to when I think about a plant-based diet is, as long as your foundation is including plenty of fruits and vegetables, then those smaller parts of the pyramid are going to be more modifiable and adjustable and they can still be a part, you know, whatever those smaller pieces are. But if you have that foundation of plants, you're really setting yourself up for success.
Speaker 2:And there are so many reasons as to why having a plant-based or plant-forward diet is healthy. I mean, for one, the gut, which is a really, really big popular thing right now such a big conversation, right. So including a variety of plants in our diet is actually going to give us more of those healthy microbes to help take care of toxins and that actually connects back to the kidneys, because a healthy gut is a foundation of what gets absorbed into the bloodstream and then is filtered by the kidneys. So having a healthy gut that can take away some of these toxins is really going to support not just I mean, you know so many other things but also our kidney health too. So I love having more plants in the diet for that reason there's also kind of in line with that as well as having enough fiber, which most of us don't get nearly enough fiber in our day. So including more plants is a really, really good option of how to do that.
Speaker 2:And when we talk about plants it's fruits, vegetables, even whole grains, nuts, legumes, seeds, like it's a. It's a big variety of foods. So those are some of the benefits. But there's also research to look into how a plant-based diet can help prevent or eliminate diabetes, like type two diabetes. It can help with mental health issues. It can help with just brain health overall, with long-term longevity of how we're getting older and the way that our body kind of breaks down essentially. But the plants are really helpful in keeping that better quality of life later in life and I've seen that with so many clients.
Speaker 1:Wow, even switching at an older age to a plant.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Well, and this takes me to something because you know, being a pescatarian for quite some time, I have definitely seen the rise of you know being a pescatarian for quite some time, I have definitely seen the rise of, you know, the impossible burger and the beyond burger. And you know, I saw on your Instagram a little bit about this, about like really looking at what's in them, like what is your take on kind of the vegan vegetarian food out there? Like what do we need to really be looking at and maybe what we should steer to look for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that there's been a good place of some of these food items to be integrated. When somebody is thinking about like how can I eliminate or reduce my animal protein consumption, I think it's a good stepping stone. There are some things that I like to look at when it comes to the nutrition profile of these types of substitutes, because oftentimes they're not that much healthier than if you were just to stick with the animal protein option in the first place.
Speaker 2:Right, Just because it's vegan, it doesn't mean it's healthier right, yes, but they love the marketing, they love putting that out there and they love talking just about how they can say we're vegan, we're plant-based. I mean, it's such a good selling, and then they can also probably double their profits just by putting that out there too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. So what are the things you look for in those foods?
Speaker 2:So saturated fat. For sure, it's important that we be careful with how much saturated fat we're getting in our diet, and animal fats, particularly red meats, do tend to have higher saturated fat amounts. But then some of these plant-based alternatives they might use fats to, for whatever reason, that they're creating the substitute, this lookalike they might be having a high saturated fat load as well, and so that's something that it can be better to come from a plant. But also we need to look at just the bottom line of the saturated fat content as well. So, keeping that in mind especially if you have a history or personal concerns about, like heart disease, cardiovascular disease, it's it's important to watch out for something like that.
Speaker 2:And then, along that line as well, is sodium, because while an animal meat burger may or may not have added sodium depending on if it's just the meat or if it's been kind of pre-seasoned or something a lot of the plant substitutes can be quite high in salt, and one of my easy rule of thumbs when it comes to sodium in any type of packaged food is to, to the best of your capability, look for something that has less milligrams of sodium than it does calories, and that will help you keep to a lower sodium diet, which is important for pretty much everybody because we get a lot of salt in our diet. But, for example, you see something that's 200 calories but it's 350 milligrams of sodium. That's going to be quite a high sodium load for the amount of calories that you're getting.
Speaker 1:I have never heard that and I'm so into it because I do feel like with the fitness trackers and the tracking, the calories, people are just all about the calories but really like what's the health benefit of it? And I want to pivot back to, you know, seeing we're kind of talking about like the macros I put in quotations here. You mentioned fiber. Like we don't seem to get enough fiber, which obviously you know helps people go to the bathroom and like you know, in your line of work, like what, how many times should we be going to the bathroom? How much fiber is too little fiber? How do we increase our fiber?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, let's do like a fiber one-on-one Cause I do feel like this is so important and you're right, it's definitely not talked about as much but it really should be, especially for, like I would say, like younger generations.
Speaker 2:We see a lot of things that are like supplemented with fiber, but they're not talking about like fiber from whole foods or even the purpose of it, right? So I would say to start with fiber goals for the day 25 grams per day for women, 38 grams per day for men those are the standards, but when you follow a more plant forward diet, you will easily go well beyond that. I have clients hitting 50, 60 plus grams of fiber per day easy, not even thinking about it. That's just something because of the plants that they're including. So that's the target that you want to be aiming for and coming from primarily whole food sources. So it's not target that you want to be aiming for and coming from primarily whole food sources. So it's not going to be the same necessarily. I mean fiber products, fiber rich products can be great, can be a stepping stone again, but at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we're getting our nutrients primarily from food as much as possible.
Speaker 1:Well, that kind of brings me to you know protein powders as well. I feel like you're going to say they're part of like a stepping stone. There's so many options, You've got the raw, you got the vegan, you got the whey. How do you really like pick a protein powder and also like not think it's the be all end all of getting your protein? And I've definitely been guilty of that, of thinking, well, I drink protein powder today, I'm good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a big thing. I mean. So many people feel like it is an absolute necessity, but most of us don't need as much protein as we think and I know there's a lot of people, a lot of influencers, that'll come out and say, no, you need like so much more, but I would. I would counter that with. There are plenty of other people that are not eating as significant amounts of plant-based and a lot of research has shown that you don't need to have such a substantial amount of protein because one that can be really hard, and if you're, if your brain is a hundred percent always wired thinking you have to get your protein, that's not healthy either. So, incorporating a better balance in your diet and, of course, if you want to include some protein supplements, if you feel like that is best for you, or if it's something when you're like on the run and you do need something that's just grab and go, that can be great.
Speaker 2:Um, so, like a whey protein is pretty much like the gold standard also can be a really affordable protein option because it is everywhere, basically, um. So if that's something that you want to do, that is absolutely a possibility. There's um. I don't even know if it's like necessarily a trend anymore, but the like ultra filtered milk products, the ones that are not necessarily using like a protein powder per se, but they're just, they're kind of condensing the milk a little bit more to increase the protein content of the milk.
Speaker 2:You know I'm talking about like I don't want to shut up certain brands, but there are some brands of milk that, um, that do have a higher protein content because they've just gotten rid of some of the extra fat, carbohydrates, water, um, to help condense that protein, and that can be a really good option as well. That can be easier to find too. But, um, usually the starting point for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of your body weight and it's not that it's it's, it's not crazy high. Like a person who's about, let me see, I'm not great at math I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm teaching these calculators. Love that Podcasters also use calculators.
Speaker 2:But, um, I want to say I was just actually plugging calculators into some of my blog articles today on my website for references. Yeah, it's a great idea. So let me see if I can remember what I was plugging in. A 150-pound person would be getting, should be targeting about, I want to say 60, I think it was 60 or so grams of protein. I think it was 60 or so grams of protein.
Speaker 2:So you know a lot of these like meals that we see that are like super heavy or some of like you talk about. Like some of these protein shakes and supplements. I have seen some that are like crazy high. You know, like a 40 gram protein shake for somebody who needs 60 grams for the day. Like, yeah, that's going to cover a lot of your protein but it's not going to get you the calories you need and it's definitely not going to get you the other like fiber and other nutrients that your body needs too. So I would say, making sure that you are getting your protein from these other whole foods, like another shout out to beans, because it's going to give you so many more nutrients that your body really, really needs and loves and appreciates.
Speaker 1:I love that you do a lot of work with a renal diet.
Speaker 2:What is the renal diet? It is our like nerdy way of saying the kidney diet basically. So renal is another term of kidneys and so for different stages of kidney disease we have different types of renal diets. So like an earlier stage would be like, for example, like a normal protein diet, a normal potassium, lower sodium still, and then it goes down into like late stage renal disease and that's maybe lower protein, lower potassium, maybe more of the nutrients like magnesium or something, depending on what's going on situation. And then there's dialysis, which is end stage prenatal disease. So it's, it's just basically another fancy term. You know, in healthcare like we always have to have 10 different terms for like the one thing we're talking about. We can't make it easy, we have to make it difficult, we have to make it complicated, we have to use as much medical jargon as possible. So people are confused and totally reliant on healthcare.
Speaker 1:Love that you know, and I'm sure you have a lot of conversations with people and I'm kind of wondering, you know, in today's world with, like you know, the price of food going up and everything like, what are the common conversations you find yourself having? Like, what are issues that you seem to be hearing a lot about that maybe we can start to watch out for.
Speaker 2:There's been a lot of conversations about potassium, which is another nutrient, kind of like fiber, that people just don't typically get enough of, and even for people with kidney issues.
Speaker 2:Historically we thought that there had to be a lower potassium diet, but now the research is saying that actually no potassium is still really helpful, even for people with kidney disease in various stages, and so a lot of my work is involved about talking about how to get more potassium into the diet, which I still, to this day, have people commenting or DMing to say I thought I couldn't have bananas.
Speaker 2:I mean it breaks my heart Like one of my students had messaged to say she didn't have a banana for like four years because she thought she couldn't. Yeah, she thought she couldn't because of her kidney issues, and we finally like went through it. We talked about the importance of potassium and she reintegrated bananas, like one of her favorite fruits, back into her diet, and so that is like something that I definitely talk about a lot when it comes to like getting a very lesser known nutrient back into the diet, and that's actually a fun fact. People not getting enough potassium is one of the reasons why you're going to start seeing it on nutrition labels now because Americans don't get enough potassium and so they're putting it in the bottom downlink by the vitamin D area to help show people where there are good sources of potassium.
Speaker 1:I also feel like is it possible to have too high of potassium, or have I just made that up?
Speaker 2:Well, if you have kidney issues, then, yes, there is a possibility. Yes, gotcha, but our bodies are incredibly resilient and in fact, even our gut helps to remove potassium through bowel movements and through just healthy waste removal. So our bodies are really really good at managing how much potassium we have in our body and it is one of those things where it really does need a lot of it. But you know, we don't necessarily get it. Give it as much. But yeah, in the event that you do have too much and your body is like okay, this is, you know, this is plenty, we're good, it'll eliminate it.
Speaker 2:Now, if you are a person in like later stage kidney disease, where you have a very low kidney function left, your kidneys might not be able to handle a high potassium load, and that is something that can become really, really serious. It's the medical term is hyperkalemia, it's high potassium in the blood, and this can lead to really serious health complications, including paralysis or death. I remember talking to a dialysis patient of mine and he told me how he had. So dialysis is where you have 10% or less of kidney function and you require a medical treatment to clean your blood. But he told me that one morning he woke up and he couldn't get out of bed. His potassium was high and he was literally paralyzed, and so it's like I can't imagine how terrifying that would be to wake up and not be able to move and to be in such a scary situation like that.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's fair to say, like your health is definitely not something to you know. Play with so continually seeing doctors working with dietitians or nutritionists to really like tackle. What you need is, you know, all we have is our health on some level, you know. So I totally agree, you know. I wanted to ask you a little fun question here, though you know, clearly, being in this space, what is your day-to-day like? Ideal days in your meals, like, what are you waking up? Or in grabbing to eat, what are your favorite foods? You can even shout out some brands and whatnot that you're absolutely loving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my gosh, I love this. So, um, in the morning I, right now I'm everyone goes through like their food kicks right, like just your, like trends right. So right now I am just totally in love with some delicious avocado toast using sourdough bread and avocados, but I have to mash the avocados and I mix in hemp seeds and some everything but the bagel seasoning and then, of course, chili flakes or some chili crunch, chili oil.
Speaker 1:It's got to have the same palette.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm definitely a savory breakfast person Same. So, yeah, that's been my like solid go-to now and I just I don't think I'll ever I don't know if I'll ever get tired of it. It's just always such a win. Um, if I do feel a little bit hungry later which, you know, avocado toast is great, but it's not necessarily going to keep me going for like four plus hours Um, so later in the morning I might throw together like a fruit smoothie frozen blueberries are always in our freezer, always it's a go-to and then I'll use a soy milk. I'll throw in like a little bit of oats, because I love the texture and even the flavor that it gives, and then some almond butter. So that's kind of like a really good um morning, kind of mid morning. Pick me up, uh, for my lunch. I'm always a fan.
Speaker 2:Even though I work from home, I am working really solid hours and seeing a lot of clients and so, um, I don't always get my full hour. Um, so what I'll go to is I will use like a frozen bag of veggies Um, right now I've got a really big one, a really good blend from Costco. It's like a Primavera, uh summer squash blend, and I'll do that with some broken up tofu or some tempeh, which I'm a really big fan of too, and then some coconut aminos. It has to have a good sauce, and I've been a really big fan of blending some cashews some like boiled cashews, because it softens them up with some like jarred pesto or some kind of sauce and then some nutritional yeast. Make a really really good sauce out of that.
Speaker 2:I'm a dietician. I could talk about food all day, just to warn you, absolutely yeah. And then I'll do that with like some rice or some noodles or ramen or something, some kind of grain to help like. Really, you know, keep me going through the rest of the afternoon, cause I don't typically do like afternoon snacks, although this afternoon I, on a whim, decided to make some energy bites and I used oats I use old fashioned oats, almond butter, honey and chia seeds and some peanut butter powder, some of that PB fit, which I think is a really great way of having some another option for a protein and I just kind of mixed that all together and made some little oat energy balls and got those in the fridge, and I may have had like two or three of them, as I made them, cause you know, that's the whole point. Right, that's the whole point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, the snack is you're doing, and then what's on the. You know what's in your mind for dinner, maybe as well.
Speaker 2:For dinner. Honestly, I'm normally really really good about meal planning, but I just got back from two back-to-back conferences and so I'm kind of still playing catch up on my life and reorganize and refiguring things out. So I think what I have planned tonight is I think I have a whole pot of beans, sea beans, beans, it's like a yeah, it's it's so easy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, and you know, we just do a can. We have a couple of candle blacks beans, and then I'm going to do some quinoa, and then again those sauteed veggies and a really good salsa, and then we've got some avocado too, so some like a burrito bowl kind of style I think is going to be. Um, it's going to be key.
Speaker 1:Well, we absolutely love entrepreneurial women on this podcast. It's like a huge part of the show as well. Can you tell us a little bit, to wrap us out, about why you chose this line of work and like balancing it all as a female as well?
Speaker 2:Thanks, yeah, it is really, um, totally rewarding to be an entrepreneur. It's, it's terrifying, and not something I ever went to school, you know, for they did not teach dietitians how to create a private practice. They should, but not part of our curriculum. But, um, yeah, I started plant-powered kidneys back in 2018. And this was when I was going through.
Speaker 2:I had already been working in dialysis for several years and even before that, like taking on the role of working in dialysis, I was really terrified about that renal diet for end-stage kidney disease, because it's one thing to like know about nutrition, but to teach somebody whose life is literally depending on this, like that's terrifying, like what, what a responsibility. And so I got really into that and I got really good. I was, you know, really really good at being a dialysis dietitian and I was able to help my patients. But it broke my heart every time when I had a new patient come in and they had this like deer in headlights, look, and they were just like I had no idea. I did like I.
Speaker 2:Some of them would say I knew that I had kidney disease.
Speaker 2:I just didn't think it would happen like this.
Speaker 2:Some of them would say like I had no idea at all either way, like they just didn't expect themselves to end up in dialysis, and so that's when I started plant powered kidneys and I started just getting on Instagram and sharing information and teaching people to, like you know, pay attention to this, talk to your family, you know, learn from each other, be role models for each other about eating to take care of yourselves, and it's had a really a great ripple effect that I know that even when I'm teaching like a client or a student, that they're helping their family because I'm telling them, like you are officially the kidney spokesperson for your family and, you know, leading by example and including more plants and being active and taking care of yourself, going to your doctor's appointments, like all of that I can feel that ripple effect from what we teach, which, you know, it's what brings me back to this every day and helps me continue to learn and practice and keep doing what I'm doing Because, you know, as long as there are dialysis clinics that continue to pop up, there's a need for people to learn more about what to do to protect their kidneys and not necessarily end up in dialysis because it is preventable.
Speaker 1:I love to hear that there's. You know there's really opportunities to change your health course here through diet. Jen, you are wonderful. Thank you so much for taking the time to share all this with us on the podcast. Can you please make sure that our audience knows where to find you on Instagram? All the good things.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much, Marley. Yeah, you can find us on Instagram at plant powered kidneys. We're on Facebook as well and you can get a ton of free resources. Our blog has a lot of information, Like I mentioned. I was just putting in some plug and play calculators for protein in there at plantpoweredkidneyscom.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening to Confessions of a Wannabe it Girl. Don't forget to rate and subscribe to the show. As always, we'll see you next Tuesday.