URBAN HEALTH METHOD

Stephanie: Hello and welcome to the urban health podcast, keeping busy city executives and entrepreneurs over 40 empowered. I'm Stephanie Webster. I'm a nutritional therapist on Harley Street, London, specialising in gut health, hormone optimisation therapy and fat loss. I have a 12 month program and my clients optimise their health, lose fat, build muscle and they get the gut in order particularly because I have Ulcerative colitis and I tend to attract those sorts of clients.

But today to talk about a topic which has been on my radar for some time, we have a Vegan plant-based PT Mr. Adam Stansbury on the show.

Adam is a personal trainer, nutrition coach, public speaker and former fitness model who specialises in body transformations for men and women using a plant-based diet.

Situated in London, he offers one to one coaching as well as online support, (very useful for those of you who travel) using his own personalised app, delivering training programs and nutritional support wherever you are. He has been training himself for over 20 years and personal trainer since 2009 and has been a vegan personal trainer since 2014. I'm so, so excited. Adam. Tell me about the similarities in our journey to health. 

Adam: Well I guess just knowing you also suffered from Ulcerative colitis. Back in 2005, 2006, I was diagnosed and was on anti-inflammatory steroids for about six months, before I had an emergency operation to remove a blockage and I was given a colostomy bag for about six to eight months. After which, I had a big operation that ultimately led to the removal of my large intestine.

Unfortunately, I didn't know then what I know now about nutrition, health and wellness. It wasn't caught early enough, and the disease got too bad that they had to operate on me. They ultimately removed my large intestine then recreated it doing an operation which they call ‘the internal pouch’ where they looped the small intestine back on itself and reconnected me back in 2007. I've been really healthy ever since. So that was a big part of my journey into all of this.  Two years later, I became a personal trainer in 2009.

Stephanie: That's interesting because I was told, Stephanie, you're going to need to have a colostomy bag. I was quite defiant. The rebellious, running out of hospital sort of a person! They didn't manage to pin me down enough to do that. Intuitively, I knew it wasn't the answer. I just didn't have any answers, until I found nutrition. So, looking back, do you think that if you knew more about nutrition you could have avoided some of those procedures? 

Adam: Only to a point. I had gone through quite a lot of financial stress early in 2005 and that was really what had caused the problem in the first place. The stress. I'd been away on a modeling job at the time and I think I got a bacterial infection from the food that I'd been eating. As soon as I came back from this job in Spain in May 2005, I started to get really, really bad diarrhea and then it just basically progressed in terms of it became black and then I started bleeding.

I went back and forth to the local GP about four times. Every time I was sent away from the GP with a new pharmaceutical to try and fix the problem, you know, you had the standard sort of stuff and I knew deep down that what they were giving me wasn't going to fix the problem, but I just didn't have the resources and the knowledge at the time to do anything about it. 

It wasn't until about six to eight weeks later, I got to see a specialist. I think I saw the specialist in August time, and I think in which time quite a lot of damage had been done up until that point. Then from August, after getting diagnosed until January when I was operated on, I was on anti-inflammatory steroids. I think up until May to the end of the year, if I'd have known what I know now about nutrition and stress and everything, then I think I could have prevented it progressing to the level it got to.

When they had to operate on me in January, there was kind of no going back at that point. It had created a blockage in my large intestine which caused what they called polyps, little flaps of skin that hang down through all the ulcerations in the large intestine. It just created this kind of bunch of grapes, blockage that nothing can get through. I became very ill and my stomach got very distended so there was no way back at that point. So, I wish I knew then what I know now, and I think I could have prevented.

Certainly, in the early stages of going back and forth to the GP, I think if I switched to a more plant-based approach. If someone had started talking to me about stress, what was going on in my life and all these sort of things, then yeah, it would have made a big difference if I'd had access to a functional medicine practitioner or a specialist at the time. 

But on the flip side of that, I was super, super lucky to be in London. I went to Guy's and St Thomas' hospital. I had an amazing surgeon who is one of the pioneers in this kind of surgery. Yeah, I'm very lucky. I’ve got a very good team of people that ultimately look after me. I'm was also very lucky because I had a good family and good amount of support around me to help me recover.

I’d say that my body ultimately ended up taking to the procedure because some people continue to have problems for the rest of their lives. Touch wood, I've not had any problems since because you can end up getting something called Pouchitis which is basically like Ulcerative colitis but in the internal pouch which can create all kinds of complications. 

Stephanie: I have such sympathy for your journey. I really, really appreciate what you've been through because I've been there myself, so I understand the symptoms. Certainly, my condition did not progress in the same way that yours did, but then there are so many different permutations of how this disease get expressed.

So, for those of you who are listening, who want to learn more about this inspiring, wonderful gentlemen, please the plant powered pt.com. There's also a seven-day course that you can subscribe to by inserting your email. I think that for anyone who has ulcerative colitis, Crohn's, digestive concerns, malabsorption, anyone who has issues that I have not yet been diagnosed, going to a plant-based diet has proven beneficial for me and also for Adam. Just give it a go. It's a seven-day course. Just give it a try.

Going off our questions, having the glamour of being a model and yet the lack of glamor of talking about poo in general, which I find quite interesting. Do you find that quite ironic because you have to pose and smile and be happy and yet inside you're gurgling, you're worried about going to the bathroom every two seconds. Is there something you can say on that?

Adam: I mean, the whole experience is a really fascinating insight into life and just having to deal with some stuff I never, ever thought I'd ever have to deal with. You know, I went from kind of shooting the front cover of healthy for men magazine, being in tip top shape. Then a month later I had my first operation and when I got back and I was healthy again but I still had a colostomy bag. I carried on modeling, but there'd be times where I'd be doing a shoot and my colostomy bag would be tucked into the trousers and the stylist would be coming up sort of moving the clothes. So, I was kind of quite conscious of it. But for me, I always tried to tell people about it rather than hide it. 

I always much preferred for people to know what I was going through so I wouldn't have to feel like I was trying to hide anything from anyone. So yeah, for me it was a big lesson in surrendering and accepting where you are. You know, that's not a defeatist attitude. It's like, well, okay, I've been dealt this hand of cards. I have to deal with it and there's no use crying and saying what if and why me. You just have to get on with it and try and learn as much from the experience as you can tonight. You know, got on with my life. I remember going clubbing when I had my colostomy bag and taking a spare colostomy bag with me to the club so I can change my colostomy bag if I had to at some point in the night. 

Stephanie: That's fantastic.

Adam: And having sexual partners when you've got cost me bag is a tough thing to let go in terms of yourself confidence. So that was another interesting situation to sort of find myself in and you know it just helps you to learn more about who you are and can help you to let certain things go. 

Stephanie: And it's also a question of judgment. I have had sex with somebody with a colostomy bag and he found me to be very empathetic and understanding. I didn't care really. I was just into him, his mind and I found him attractive in multiple ways. Did you find the reaction of certain partners to be, Oh, what's that? Or Oh yeah, sure. Whatever. Did you find different reactions and how did that affect you psychologically? 

Adam: First, having sex with a colostomy bag is like having sex with a bag of crisps between you I used to say. It’s quite funny. there'd be this like rustling going on. So, we used to laugh about that. But what it did do is totally restored my faith in human beings, especially females. It was amazing, it didn't bother them one bit. They were sympathetic, empathetic and it was never a problem. It made me suddenly realise, Oh, if it's not problem for them, it's not problem for me, you know? So that was a nice feeling. Like I said, it restored my faith in people. 

Stephanie: Ok so, let’s talk about plant-based nutrition. I was vegan for three months. So, I have tried it and I do like it and I think that eventually we're all going to turn that way. I think we'll turn to insects first; I'm talking globally. However, what's helped me with my Ulcerative colitis but also my clients is this idea of no processed food and they follow sort of Paleo I suppose. No processed food, no processed thoughts. No negative self-talk and no processed people. By that I mean if certain personality types stress you out, stress has a huge impact on inflammation. So, it's about reducing that altogether. Let's go back to the diet and focusing on plant-based nutrition. I love the vegan ethos. I can't think of any carnivore who can listen to the compelling arguments of the vegan movement and the achievements that they have done over the last decade and not be bought in to at least some of their way of thinking. 

I just wish that it wouldn't come across so much like a cult, but it should come across like a good idea that we should all sort of convert to. So, at the moment, I am paleo with no processed food. Tell me, did you transition from that into vegan? You've been vegan for five years, so tell me about your journey there.

 

Adam: At the end of 2013 I did my last fitness show. I did a lot of training for it. I picked up a bit of a shoulder injury and got something called Bursitis in my shoulder. So, when I came into 2014, there was a point where I couldn’t lift any weights in the gym. My shoulder injury was so bad, I had to totally reevaluate the way I'd been training. Trying to put on muscle and train kind of like a bodybuilder. 

Then through that realisation, I also took a step back from what I was eating. It suddenly dawned on me that I probably didn't need to eat the same amount of animal protein I'd been eating to try and put on muscle because I wasn't training the way that I had been. That made me look at the way I'd been living. I felt like I was in a kind of animal protein prison. I couldn’t have a meal without having some form of animal protein in it so I didn’t feel like I was lacking or going to lose all the gains I'd worked so hard for in the gym.

Then I started just to think how unsustainable the way I'd been living was. If I was going to be on this planet for another 50 years, did I want to have to count the calories to have to eat 200, 250 grams of protein every day?  Did I really want to be doing this? So, it made me become a lot more mindful of where my protein was coming from. I initially just thought, well, I'm just going to eat less of it and just get it from ethical sources, spend a bit more on it and get better quality.

I then ended up going to a friend's dinner party in September 2014. She cooked this amazing raw Vegan lasagna and raw Vegan chocolate cake. I was totally blown away by the incredible flavors in the food and I suddenly felt, wow, I could eat this all the time. It was the first time I'd been exposed to good Vegan cooking.

Then later that month I went to a spiritual retreat and the retreat requires you to be on a vegan diet. It was a good opportunity for me to try it out again. Not really intending to go fully Vegan. I came back after the retreat; it was about three or four days long and I felt amazing. I thought I'm going to try pescatarian for a month. So, I went pescatarian for a month, just have my eggs, fish and dairy in that. Then I thought I’d try vegetarian now. So, I narrowed it down, went vegetarian for a month. That month of being vegetarian, I decided to watch three documentaries, one of which was Cowspiracy which kind of attacks the whole argument for animal agriculture, the costing, the huge proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions. It highlighted the effect my food choices were having on the environment. That was the first time I'd really dared to think about it.

A week later I watched a video. It was a lecture by a, an animal activist called Gary Roski who is based in the States. He was giving a talk at a university. He put together this compelling talk with slides showing different footage from animal slaughterhouses. About halfway through watching this, I just burst into tears. It just suddenly dawned on me how complicit I'd been and the food choices that I'd been making without any form of attachment to the trauma and the suffering that had been going on just so I could get enough protein every day. So, I could fill my freezer every week with chicken breast and steak and all these kinds of food groups, not having any form of thoughts of the trauma that the animals would going through to create this. 

The penny just started dropping for me at that point. Then a couple of days later I watched another documentary called earthlings which is a pretty dark and a difficult documentary to watch. And at the end of that I decided to make the change and that was five years this month. So, it was kind of a little bit of a gradual change. Then in the early days I did lose about three kilos but for me, looking back it kind of made sense to me really. You know, your body can adapt to anything that you give it, but if you've eaten a huge quantity of meat for about 36 years and you then completely switch your nutrition sources, your body's going to have to start adapting to new sources of amino acids. 

Stephanie: Okay. So, this is very important. Sorry for interrupting you there. You lost three kilos, and do we know where? you're speaking like its muscle. So, let's talk about it. 

Adam: Just to finish what I was going to say. For me, it made total sense that my body was having to find amino acids from new sources. It was breaking down muscle tissue to get those amino acids, so it made sense that I lost a bit of weight. This doesn’t happen to everyone, but it happened to me. I don't know whether it was to do with not having a large intestine, but it made nutritional sense to me. Then it probably took me a couple of months. It was probably about four to eight weeks of regaining the weight. I had a little bit of dairy back in my diet for a couple of weeks and then it came out again and then eggs came in and came out again. Then I started taking Creatine monohydrate, which is a good supplement if you are on a plant-based diet and your strength training. That helped me to gain a lot of my muscle mass and weight again. 

Stephanie: Is Creatine Vegan?

Adam: Yes, Creatine monohydrate is one of the best supplements that you can get. It's been highly studied and works well. It’s pretty cost effective as well. You don't get a natural source of creatine on a plant-based diet whereas you'd normally get some steak and chicken. You use Creatine to create strength in the body. I found when I went to strength training in the gym, most just initially in the early days, I felt like I was lacking a little bit power. I added Creatine back into my diet to help with power in the gym. It helps to give my muscles more fullness, but it also acts as a cell volumiser, so it attracts and draws water into the muscles as well. It really helped to keep my bulk, that fullness and help me put back on the weight.

Stephanie: I have a lot of respect for what you've done and I'm going to explain a bit about my process to help me help the clients that want to go Vegan because I don't feel equipped or that I’m the right person for them. When I measure somebody's body composition, I take their lean mass and I convert that in kilograms into pounds and prescribe a gram of protein per pound of lean mass per day, sometimes up to three grams. If you are on two 50 grams of protein a day, we're getting close to that. If you're a high-performance athlete, you will need quite a lot of protein every day. So, I struggle to put my clients on a Vegan diet that has adequate amounts of protein to increase lean muscle without increasing also the carbohydrate content. I am fan of, of Vegan protein, particularly Sun Warrior and Free Soul. I only recommend Vegan protein powders because I'm anti dairy. I was surprised because I find dairy inflammatory, particularly for Ulcerative colitis. So, I struggle to keep the carbohydrate down. Is there an argument for being largely plant-based, having lean protein in when you're obese, when you get down and your body can metabolize carbohydrates better, then it's going to be easier for them to stay lean once they're lean on a Vegan diet. I'm just wondering.

Adam: So, my realization having come onto the other side of the fence is that I was over-eating protein. You don't need as much as you think you need. It's the fitness and bodybuilding world's obsession with protein that's created this. We obviously need it. It's important but you realise that you don't need as much as you think you need. When I was on a meat-based diet, I was getting about 250 grams plus and on a plant based diet I probably aim for around 150-160 grams and still be getting fairly similar results because you’re getting other nutrients and there's amino acids in all the plant foods that you're eating as well. So, you realise that you don't need as much. 

So, if I'm making recommendations for clients, generally I'll recommend 20 to 25% of their daily count of protein. Obviously, that's in relation to what their body weight is. For people who are overweight or struggling with carbohydrates and you want to have them on a higher fat approach, then it's still easy to do. You just increase the fat levels in their foods and have more fibrous vegetables, don't have some many grains and starchy root vegetables.

You are still going to get carbohydrates. If you stick to whole foods plant proteins such as lentils and beans, you are going to get portion of carbohydrates but I think when it's mixed with a whole lot of other fibrous, cruciferous vegetables and other fats as well, I think that it has a good effect on their blood sugar. So, it's still quite easy to eat a high fat, low carb diet as a Vegan. I was doing it during the summer myself and it works well.

Stephanie: The question that I pose are not to challenge you in any way. I want to ask the nitty gritty questions that are on my clients and possibly your clients minds when they're making the shift.

Adam: Yeah, sure. 

Stephanie: A lot of clients go from not eating red meat to sustainably sourced, to pescatarian. Oh, I'll just have eggs. Then they go plant based, but they'll still wear a leather handbag and then they go Vegan altogether with Vegan skincare and no leather products. So, understanding that, but very much from a health perspective. French fries are still Vegan, so that's just something to be aware of. So, the health conscious, Vegan living. I was vegan for three months. I did feel more spiritually connected. I can honestly say that, and I wasn't expecting that. I felt cleaner, strange, but this is just my subjective view. I found that the increased legumes and beans caused me Ulcerative colitis symptoms, just being honest. I would have no objection to going back to that again. I just want to address that, and I think that it would be healthier for the planet, certainly. I'm just sharing my notes with you. 

Adam: No, that's brilliant. Really good questions. I think they're important. My biggest ethos is it's all about progress, not perfection. It's much better that someone that eats meat seven days a week now only eats meat four days a week. I much prefer the reductionist route because that's how we're going to make big, sustainable change. There's nothing on this planet that works 100% of the time for 100% of the people and to suggest otherwise is crazy. So, if you ate the steak once a week and for the rest of the time ate a plant-based diet, you'd still have a huge impact on the planet in a very positive way. That's my kind of ethos in terms of progress, not perfection. 

Then I think what's important is from a nutritional coaching point of view, even if we're not talking about necessarily transitioning people into a Vegan diet but getting someone just to eat a healthier diet. If someone's got an issue with say for example with drinking Coke and they drank 10 bottles of Coke every week. I wouldn't say to them immediately I want you to cut out all that Coke and go cold Turkey. It would be more like, week one, let's try and cut it down to six liters. You'd have that kind of gradient approach to them reducing the negative effects of these different food groups in their life. I think that's how we should approach transitioning people onto a plant-based diet because it can take some people a couple of years to fully make that transition. 

I was having this conversation the other day with someone and I realised that when I was a meat-eater, I never ate a meal that was just beans and vegetables. I had probably a chili con carne with a few kidney beans in it or maybe the odd bit of a lentil dahl in an Indian. My body was totally not accustomed to having that level of fiber and beans in my diet. So, I think that's why it's important to do it slowly because I think your body can then build up the enzymes and the ability to absorb and digest all these nutrients better. Obviously, there are going to be cases where it doesn't exactly work for some people and you've just got to work your way around it. That's why it's important to keep this progress, not perfection approach. 

I think it's better to do a little bit rather than nothing at all. We live in a society where people are going all chips in all chips out but we're not going to change the world and make it a better place if we have the attitude. That would be great if everyone was perfect but perfect doesn't exist so what's the next level down? How do we get people to progress and improve their life and their diet that's going to have an impact, not just on their individual health but on the collective health? I think this is where the conversation needs to go.

I'm not a fan of the Vegan movement when it talks in very absolutes, our diets better than yours or this improve your health and that's bad.  I'd much prefer the Vegan movement now to get to a point where we say, okay, well look, there's another way of eating and living that can provide everything that your diet can and can be just as healthy. There's another way rather than being elitist and saying we're better than you.

So, once we get to that point and we agree that that's another way of eating and living that’s just as good as the other, we then need to look at what's the differentiating factor between the two of them. For me, the only black and white argument and unbiased argument is the ethical and the environmental impact that's heavy on animal agriculture products. The trauma to animals and to the environment. I think that's where the conversation needs to go. 

That’s the diet you’re eating but let's stop just looking at the health of the individual. Let's start looking at the collective health of the planet because at the end of the day 8 billion people can't eat grass fed beast. It might be a far greater nutrient-dense product but only a tiny percentage of the population are going to be able to afford that. If we want to make big systemic change around the world, then we need to adopt a way of living that is suitably fit for everyone on the planet. 

Stephanie: Tell us about your trip in Ibiza that you have planned next year. You've got a retreat in Ibiza the next year. 

Adam: Yeah, with a good friend of mine, Jo who is also my Reiki master. We're doing a retreat with a company called Navahaus. It’s a villa in Ibiza. It’s a five-day retreat. There's going to be a mixture of movement, animal flow, meditation, cacao ceremonies, dancing, sound healing, all that kind of cool stuff. I’m also a level two Reiki practitioner as well. My friend Jo, who I've known for 12 years, she's my Reiki master as well. So, it should be a lot of fun. Putting some good energy into the space. 

Stephanie: Adam, you've been amazing. You offer one-on-one training in Wandsworth, and you also have a coaching app. All of this can be found on the plant powered pt.com. Thank you so much for coming onto the show. 

Adam: Thanks for having me. 

Stephanie: Okay, great. Thank you so much for your time and your insights. You've been inspiring. 

Adam: Well thank you very much for having me. I appreciate being able to talk about all this stuff. 

Stephanie: Great. Have a good night. 

Adam: All right, thanks Stephanie. Bye. Bye. 

Stephanie: That was interesting. What I will say is that most of my clients want to lose fat, build muscle. If they have emotional eating issues, having the satiety that protein brings to each meal is useful when you're trying to deal with cravings and also, to maintain lean muscle mass.

So how much protein do you need? It is a good question. I explained my process. So, should that resonate with you, you're more than welcome to follow it. So, a gram of protein per pound of lean body weight.

Your body is composed of bone, lean muscle and fat. You want to lose fat and not muscle. We have bioelectrical impedance, but you can get a DEXA scan of you want to measure just how much lean you have in your body and how much fat you have, and you want to lose fat and not muscle. The lean that you have in pounds and you have a gram of protein per pound or two grams of protein per pound or three depending on how hard you train.

Now, if you're going to go on a Vegan diet, there's some things that you need to consider. We need to do things intelligently and I'm happy to do this with clients. It's just not been my expertise, just being honest.

You obviously you always must have less calories than you burn. With a Vegan diet that is going to be a bit tougher to keep your insulin levels low because the carbohydrate intake will naturally be higher because Vegan protein sources have a higher carbohydrate content. There are 21 amino acids that make up protein. We need to plan our meals carefully to make sure that we are getting adequate amounts of all these amino acids in a Vegan diet. 

The other thing is FODMAPs. A lot of you have reduced the amount of FODMAP foods in your diet, beans, legumes, because these have had an inflammatory effect on your digestive lining. We must rely on those sources in order to make up a Vegan diet. So, we might need to look at digestive enzymes or other systems to break that down, so we don't get the bloating and the symptoms.

You will also have to increase your cardio and your exercise in general to burn off the additional calories and the carbohydrates that have now increased in order to hit those protein levels. If you don't eat enough protein, you will lose fat and muscle. And I don't really want that for you.

The last thing is we will need to supplement with B12, vitamin D, long chain Omega threes, iodine, iron, calcium, and zinc. If you are happy taking supplements, that's fine.

So, I've got a plan of how to go Vegan. If you want to go vegan, maybe you want to do this in six months. Maybe you want to do it now. That's fine. That's the plan that I've got. That's my working model. As Adam said, progress not perfection. So, we start where we are, and we progress from there. He was such an interesting person. I'm just so glad to have the privilege of another person with Ulcerative colitis, Mr. Adam Stansbury on the show, the plant powered PT.