Military veteran and master fitness trainer Korin Sutton on why he went vegan and how it’s changed his life. Plus, the importance of gut health, why “functional training” is the best way to exercise, and how to consistently get a good night’s sleep.
Can you get all the nutrition you need if you’re vegan:
“What I teach a lot of my clients is learning how to do a hyper nourishment diet. Hyper nourishment means that you want to get more than enough vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. When it comes to overall health and wellness, especially dietary fiber.
The average American only gets about five or 10 grams of dietary fiber per day. The benchmark is at 32 grams of dietary fiber. So, when people enter my program to help with their gut microbiome, what we do is we try to exceed that from 32 to 60. We try to get a lot of fiber into individual’s gut so they can create more pre and probiotics, so they have a good gut microbiome within themselves.“
Why is a good gut microbiome so important:
“The gut is literally the second brain if you kind of think about it, and I like breaking it down very simplistically. When your stomach hurts, do you feel like doing anything at all? You shut down, right? Same thing if you had a, a strong migraine. It’s like you shut down. You can’t really do anything. You’re hurt because it’s literally the second brain.
And when you have a good gut microbiome, that’s going to help with your overall immune system and it is going to help with dopamine and serotonin production because a lot of it is in the gut, not in the brain.
People think serotonin and dopamine are only in the brain, but most of it is produced here in the gut. So, the more fiber you actually feed your body, technically the happier you’re going to be, the better you’re going to be, the healthier you’re going to be because these are important organs that have to be good.”
And how do you get enough protein:
“When it comes down to it, you’ll figure out that kale, spinach, and fruits like oranges and apples have protein. Some have a little bit, some have more. Now, if you want to look at primary protein sources that are more comparable to meat, then you have tofu, tempeh, seitan, protein powders, and mock meats.
So those are going to have a high range between 20 all the way up to 80 grams of protein. And then with the combination of plant-based foods, that’s how you’re able to get all the protein you need for whatever goals you’re trying to achieve.”
What’s the best way to exercise if someone only has 20 minutes a day:
“I would recommend a functional training program. Functional training is basically a full body workout where you’re able to activate multiple muscle groups at the same time while moving the body in multiple planes in motion. So pretty much like the ‘Beach Body’ workout where you’re moving your body, you’re getting the sweat on, and you’re burning calories very fast because the goal at that point is just moving your body and burning calories.
By activating more muscle groups, you’re able to burn more calories, because more muscles are being activated versus just going to the gym. If you’re in the gym just doing a machine for only 20 minutes, you’re only activating one or two muscle groups and you’re in an isolated position. And for someone being in an isolated position, you’re not going to burn a lot of calories in a short period of time.”
How important is a good night’s sleep:
“Sleep is everything because that’s when your body actually recovers and repairs itself. All the magic happens when you’re sleeping. So, if you’re not getting good sleep, your hormones could be off your, your cortisol could be skyrocketing, and that can actually play a significant effect when it comes to weight loss and weight management overall. Even when it comes to exercise, it could lower your performance.
If you’re not getting proper sleep, it can also ruin your work performance because mentally you always feel stressed and fatigued. So, sleep is where it’s at.”
