EP. 14: Interview with Colin Logan
Where do you take someone on a first date when they tell you that they’re gluten-free and vegan?
When Colin Logan first met Heather, he would usually choose to eat something like Taco Bell and maybe have a beer to unwind since he got out of work late. As the Owner/Operator of Logan’s Irish Pub in Findlay, Ohio, this was commonplace and probably sounds familiar if you work or run a business in the service industry.
"I realized I wanted to be a good husband, start a family, and be a good dad. How could I be all those things if I couldn’t take care of myself?" So, he committed to a nutritional U-turn.
Colin and Heather just celebrated their 9th wedding anniversary. They both have challenged each other in different ways and speak about all the things they've learned from each other in their time together. They both read, research, and share information to work towards a clean and healthy lifestyle. There are a multitude of health and wellness practices they both agree upon and that they use in raising their family.
Show Notes
0:00:00
All right, so today on our podcast I have a special guest, my husband, Colin. So with many of the questions you guys have asked about him, I figured he would be a great guest. So here he is, he's agreed to come on the show. And of course if you have any questions, any follow-up questions, if you'd like to see him back or any other questions or anything like that just let us know. He could certainly be a regular guest on the show. So one of the main questions that had come across was when we first
0:00:40
met did you always see my perspective or my point of view? And tomorrow we will have been married for nine years and it's kind of funny because when he, when we started dating, I was running a lot, I was vegan, I was gluten-free, and totally different nutritionally than where I am now. So I'll let Colin talk a little bit about his upbringing because we both come from medical backgrounds, and just his experience with my point of view and things he's taught me and kind of go from there.
0:01:16
So my father was a surgeon, my mother was a nurse. Grew up with a pretty wide understanding of Western medicine, but nutrition-wise, we were pretty all over the place. We did a lot of fast food, running around the soccer games, sporting events, different kind of things.
0:01:33
I've got a brother and sister, so it was kind of easy, convenient food all the while. And then in 2010, we opened up, my family and I opened up a restaurant, so owner-operator. And that is coincidentally when I met Heather. And our first couple of dates went really well. And then on the third date, she told me she was vegan, gluten-free, and I think there was one other in there.
0:01:59
But I didn't even know what gluten was at that point in time. I mean, I knew it was flour, but I didn't know the sensitivity to it and what was causing it and everything. So in order to try and get to her level and a better understanding of it,
0:02:16
spent some time researching it and kind of came around. And that was kind of the beginning of our nutritional journey together. And like she said, we've come a long way since then. So yeah. Yeah, you kind of grew up, again,
0:02:30
like in the medical model, vaccines, antibiotics, not really thinking of food as medicine, just kind of thinking of food as enjoyment and nourishment. So I think that's kind of been a shift. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
0:02:45
And we do a lot of home cooking. My mother would always try and cook as much as she could, and it was always delicious. And I think at the same time, food itself has gotten less clean since then, as far as antibiotics go and what they're putting into it,
0:03:04
what you're getting out of it. Just the regular run of the mill, everyday meal that you get at the store now is not quite as nutritious or as we said clean as it used to be. So Heather kind of opened my eyes to the organic side of things, the non-GMO side of things, and then it was kind of an education in and of itself that certain labels and certain texts and wording that are on
0:03:33
different boxes. Gluten-free doesn't always mean that or non-gmo isn't always the healthiest or free-range versus Cage-free when it comes to eggs or chicken. That's a whole world in and of itself. So that's been an experience Yeah, I think you know since we met Being gluten-free there weren't that many options out there, but now of course there's so many options thankfully and there's so many options for organic and many options for organic. And for me when we met I always like to try diets out on
0:04:08
myself so at that point I was vegan and then I just started feeling awful. My knees hurt from running so I started to add eggs in and then just because of convenience with where we live and dating I started to add more fish in and then more chicken and then just with the research coming out and how I felt with trying to prevent any autoimmune from coming out.
0:04:31
I shifted more towards kind of a organic grass-fed carnivore keto. And he actually told me when I was diagnosed, when I caught my own Hashimoto's from my lab work, he said, you know, you should check out Jordan Peterson and his daughter, Mikaela,
0:04:49
because they have autoimmunes and they Nearly reversed their autoimmunes with diet and I said no you just can't do carnivore keto and you can in moderation, right? Everything in moderation So that's kind of what shifted me towards the carnivore and keto and so now it's kind of funny because we're at the point Where Colin's doing research? He's reading things and he'll suggest something and I'm like, oh, I don't know about that. And then I start looking at it on my own,
0:05:16
or then I start adding it into my diet and I feel completely different. So it's kind of cool to see that come full circle that he's introducing this to me. But simultaneously, you know, as we've kind of evolved on this journey together,
0:05:29
I've, when we were running and everything, I started getting, you know, tight chins and the calf muscles and my Achilles tendon was acting up. And she suggested, why don't you cut out gluten? And I was like, well, gluten's in everything. But that was when I really started to explore that
0:05:45
as an option, and eating a little cleaner, cutting out the carbs, cutting out the wheat and the grains, and going more seafood, more vegetable. And what I found was actually, the inflammation went away. I didn't even need any serious treatments. It was just kind of a massaging and within two weeks,
0:06:04
I think diet cleaned things up. But the biggest thing for me, I was a big beer drinker. And ironically, as my diet got cleaner and I cut out more carbs and more gluten, when I would have a beer, I'd notice that I couldn't breathe through my nose for three or four hours.
0:06:21
And when I'd had pasta or, well, I mean, with exceptions to stuff imported from Italy which is a whole nother subject but you know I'd have problems breathing through my nose and I'd be achy the next day and when I was active it was more sore and you know I definitely could tell a difference in my own processing of that so that was a cool a cool little self experiment so I was open to it I'm glad I've totally cut out beer. I don't remember the last beer I had.
0:06:52
It was probably a couple years ago, but seltzers are a big help. Yeah, that market's really exploded. And even when, I mean obviously I'm pregnant so we're not drinking right now, but when we do it's more vodka and gin. Wine. Wine from Italy, so cleaner alcohol.
0:07:12
Actually, it's funny, I had a patient yesterday that came back from Italy, and she is celiac, and she was worried about eating over there, and she ate all the pasta, she drank the wine, and she's like, so why do I not have a hangover when I'm in Italy?
0:07:28
I'm like, it's cleaner, it's a different world. So, and I know we've experienced that firsthand. So, and I think probably when we started dating, you weren't taking any supplements. Nope. Right, so now you're taking? I think the biggest one's magnesium. Yeah. I think magnesium is completely underrated and the more I read about it the more important it becomes, not only for
0:07:49
recovery from lifting or exercising but just as a general well-being and balancing supplement. We started doing turmeric. I do turmeric when I feel like things are getting inflamed or when I've had an injury. We do a couple things for testosterone. Which one's that? We do one called testogaine and it's a combination of like horny goat weed. I think there might be some saw palmetto in there and just some natural boosters,
0:08:19
herbal boosters. Because of course as you get older, as guys hit 30, testosterone declines significantly. So more fatigue, the belly comes out, you have a harder time building muscle mass. And losing the fat mass. And losing the fat mass, getting that dad bod,
0:08:39
which thankfully you've staved off with working out. And diet, diet makes such a big difference. So, and it's cool because from what you've experienced with changing your diet and lifestyle, you've talked to your family about it too. Yep, it's interesting because my sister specifically
0:09:00
started texting us not too recently, or not too long ago about what kind of options are there for getting plastics or clean plastics, swapping out plasticware for glassware or ceramics. She asked about options for deli meats which are actually pretty, I mean we can get right
0:09:29
down to it, they're not as healthy as you might think, but there are clean deli meats out there. You know, I don't remember the brand, we particularly. We like Applegate. So when I give the kids something it's like the Applegate turkey.
0:09:57
Flynn loves, like they have little breakfast sausages. I love their untured bacon. And there's no nitrates. No nitrates. No nitrates, no preservatives. Yep, they're a clean option.
0:09:46
Yep. So, and then, you know, my father, the best one I think was my father when he was having back issues. My brother kind of went through the same journey, but when he was having back issues,
0:09:57
came over and you acupunctured him. And that was a whole new experience for him. He's a career surgeon, been doing this for, I don't know how many years, but came over, asked for acupuncture, and it was, I think he put like 60 needles in him
0:10:12
or something like that. And he looked like a porcupine, but now he swears by it. My brother has the same issue, has ankle issues occasionally, and he'll pick up the phone.
0:10:23
And he actually told me the other day, he tells people all the time, now hey, you should try acupuncture. Have you tried acupuncture? You should try acupuncture. So, which is a pretty cool turn of events for him. Yeah, it's pretty cool to see that evolution.
0:10:36
And I mean, there's a reason why herbs and acupuncture have been around for centuries. Now we're just getting the research behind of it. One thing I know that's important to us, now that we have two and soon to be three kiddos, is just kind of raising them clean. So we notice when our three and a half year old has high fructose corn syrup or dyes
0:11:02
or junk food from anywhere, he is a totally different kid. He has a 48 hour hangover. I'm like, where did this child come from? So yeah, because he's so clean, you know. He's a hyper reaction.
0:11:19
Yeah, both of our families kind of tease us that we eat nuts and berries and we don't have any food in our pantry. But our kids eat so clean that when they're exposed to this, like Colin said, they're hypersensitive. And they're just totally different.
0:11:34
So I'm a firm believer in having the kids eat clean. Well, and what was cool for me, coming from a restaurant background, is there's a common misconception that things are egregiously more expensive if you go clean route.
0:11:50
And I honestly, in my experience, I thought that was gonna be the case, but it's not been, especially when you put things into moderation, as you said. If you sit down and you eat six hot dogs a day or, you know,
0:12:05
burgers and scarf things down, it's gonna run the bill up, but when you start eating in moderation and more appropriate portions, you know, you can kind of start sticking it out. Now Riley goes through three pints of blueberries a day, I think, so that kind of gets costly, but, you know, I mean, she doesn't eat much else right now, so. Yeah, berries, they both go through berries like nothing else, apples and peanut butter.
0:12:29
It is, it's a feasible diet. So yeah, it's feasible and don't get me wrong. I just, Flynn hated fruit snacks and I don't like fruit snacks, but we will occasionally with church do like the Annie's organics,
0:12:42
like the little tractors and cows and pigs. He loves them, but like one pack is plenty for him with the sugar. He doesn't think so. He doesn't think so. He doesn't think so, yeah. And like I said before, we do hot dogs, we'll do grass-fed uncured, and they're not really picky. I mean Riley
0:13:00
ate blue cheese the other day. Yeah. So and I think the earlier you introduce them, the better their palate is, they don't crave that stuff, and again our kids have never been on an antibiotic. We've never had him to the doctor. Yeah. Flynn will be four in December. Riley's a year. Yeah, but he just got his first cold. Yeah, mild cold. So yeah, what I'll do soon is just make some elderberry syrup form with some whorehound cough drops and I'll share that with you guys. Yeah, but just the natural stuff. And it's so funny because now that he's been sick, I give him a magnesium gummy
0:13:42
and an omega-3 gummy every day, twice a day. But now that he's sick, he's asking for his chewable probiotics in the fridge. He never takes those, but he knows enough when he says he's not feeling good that he asks for the probiotics. Well, he also sees us taking vitamins, and he knows that's a vitamin. So I think he's replicating the behavior, too. But, I mean, it's all for the better. He takes it and doesn't, yeah, he's fine. He's actually getting it out of the fridge himself.
0:14:07
Yeah, he is, yeah, he's opening a little Tupperware and then Riley still gets her probiotics in her bottle and her fish oil, so those seem to be working out well. Yeah, well and the other thing I think with the diet that we get, that our kids are exposed to is, you know, I think with social media and everything, and the ease of which you can gather information and knowledge and research, you know,
0:14:34
there's a new school of thought kind of developing, especially when it comes to kids, that it's not about when they eat or how much they eat, because they're going to eat when they get hungry, but, you know, not making it a task, like can't get up until you finish your dinner.
0:14:49
You know, I mean, if they're not hungry, they're not going to eat and they're just going to fight it and it's going to become a bigger issue and more stress than it needs to be. But I think we've applied that kind of laissez-faire approach to it. You know Flynn's not hungry, Flynn's not hungry. Now it does come back and bite us in the butt occasionally when it's bedtime and he's hungry and then you kind of have to put bedtime aside let him get enough to eat.
0:15:08
But you know food-wise I think he eats plenty. You know his palates he'll eat what we eat, he might not eat it at the same time, but you know, that's been a neat observation as far as parenting goes. Yeah, they know their bodies. Yeah, they do. When they're sick, when they're hungry,
0:15:26
they're not gonna starve themselves. Yeah, and you know, I've mentioned this before on the podcast, how crazy it is for me to hear that patients say their kids don't poop. Like, our kids poop three or four times a day because they're getting clean food all the time.
0:15:43
There's poop everywhere. And it's just, that's normal, right? That's how it should be. They should be pooping all the time. Maybe not all the time, is it all the time? After meals, yeah, like three or four times.
0:15:53
Gotta make it one of those, yeah, okay. So yeah, the patients that tell me their kid doesn't poop for like three or four days, it's like, oh my gosh, no wonder they're cranky. Yeah. So, and of course, you know, the better quality food, the better they grow, the more vitamins and minerals they have for that. Better
0:16:10
immune system for the gut, let down the road. I know my family has autoimmune, your family has cancer, and some autoimmune, so you know, the more you can stave that off. I was just talking to a patient the other day that I grew up on fast food and vaccines and antibiotics and all of that. And my mom, if you ask her, she'll be like, well, you guys turned out fine. Well, I don't know if we did because we have autoimmunes now in our 30s and 40s. I think you turned out fine.
0:16:38
We think you. But I think, you know, you kind of find that good, better, and best and do as best as you can for the kids so that they're healthier than you at that same age. Give them the best chance they have. Yeah, because I remember my mom at 40, she was like 60, you know, as far as her body goes and her mental attitude, and now that I'm 40, I feel like I'm 20, but I feel like
0:17:06
you age better with your diet and your exercise and your mental health and all of that. Absolutely. I certainly don't feel like I'm 40. I probably don't act like I'm 40, but yeah. That's not diet so much as... Let's see, what else have you taught me?
0:17:21
You're always reading. The glandulars, you introduced the glandular therapy to me. So like liver glandulars. When I was having issues with fertility, I did a female glandular. What were those supplements I was taking up ancient nutrition yeah yeah which is basically all of the all of the beef organs put in because I don't like
0:17:49
liver I don't like organ meat yeah not really my thing haven't explored it a whole lot but maybe something maybe down the road but those are supplements that are all of the organs and you know I could think that the Eastern medicine theory is more you are what you eat. So liver helps liver, heart helps heart, lungs help lungs, etc. So that's kind of a cheat code for getting that. Exactly.
0:18:14
Checking those boxes. Yeah, just like our ancestors used to eat tail to snout. We just don't do that anymore. There's a reason why a lot of the Centurion cultures eat organ meat. So if you can't eat an organ meat because of availability or cleanliness or just preference,
0:18:32
the capsules are a good way to go. So yeah, that's a really fun thing. And you're always sharing stuff with me, which I love. So a lot of our guests coming up, Colin has introduced me to and shared. So we have some really good ones coming up soon.
0:18:45
Yeah, I try to work out every morning. And I'll go back and forth between music and podcasts. And there's a whole world out there as far as podcasts go, with information and resources and knowledge. And just, I mean, you could spend a lifetime
0:19:06
learning about it all. It's amazing. And the things you don't know become the things you want to know. So you keep researching, and then it takes you down different rabbit holes. You know I kind of always bounce
0:19:17
before I go too far down these rabbit holes I introduce them to Heather because you're a much more efficient researcher. You can kind of cut through the I mean you know I think I forget the first time you showed me a report and it was sponsored by one of the big-name pharmaceuticals and it was like holy cow like why would they saw oh there you go there's the answer so you know obviously there's a lot of money in nutrition or lack thereof you know without going too far into that
0:19:49
realm you know there's a lot of things that they don't want you to know so I think the more you know the more research you do on your own you know the better off you'll be in the long run yeah you always have to be your own advocate anymore. Yes, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And it's funny because I feel like people are pushing for that more and asking their
0:20:10
doctors for tests. And I've heard so much lately that their doctors are refusing to run those tests. And I don't know if it's because of, you know, then they're liable to do something about it or they just don't know what to do. Sure. But yeah, that's interesting.
0:20:24
And then, you know, going, like you said, going down that rabbit hole with traditional medicine being a sickness model and then nutrition, diet, exercise, mental health being preventative. It's kind of like the matrix right? Once you take that pill, you see the other side and you're like oh my gosh. But then everything else starts making sense and you start piecing it together. Exactly. It's yeah it's daunting. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah that's why I like to do research
0:20:53
and dig deeper and see exactly what's going on. We have our own little tinfoil hats we wear at home research, searching the internet. Did you see this? Yeah. Yeah, if the, yeah,
0:21:02
all we could see our search history. Yeah. Anything else you want to share with our listeners? No, I don't think so. No, I definitely, I've gained a whole new appreciation for nutrition self-help self-care
0:21:17
You know my diet was not clean when we first met and I think you can speak to that and then it was funny because I mean I was working late nights working long hours long weeks I think I went a month with two days off or something like that my routine was Can I can I say restaurant like yeah Taco Bell pizza and chicken wings like so but yeah it was kind of in a five-day rotation and it was just getting off late and picking something up on the way home and you know kind of unwinding as a $8.30
0:21:56
Taco Bell and I think after we got married. I asked you to tie my shoe, because I couldn't get my, yeah. So I probably weighed 175, 180 when we got married, and then I knew I had put on a little bit of weight, but there was that day that I asked you to tie my shoe,
0:22:19
because I couldn't get to my foot, and you said, I love you, honey, but I think you're putting on a little bit of weight. So I stepped on a scale and I put on like 50 pounds since we've gotten married. So I wear it well, I'll say that much.
0:22:34
But yeah, so that was kind of a eye opener for me. And I also knew that we wanted to have a family and I wanted to have kids, I wanted to be a father and I wanted to be the best husband I could be. So I can't do that when I can't take care of myself. How am I supposed to help take care of a family so that was
0:22:54
kind of a moment for me that stands out as okay I need to reassess I need to kind of change course here um we I stopped eating out as much we start cooking more at home um because of your diet at the time you
0:23:21
weren't eating a whole lot I mean that was palatable or you know whatever to me um somehow you can fill up on salad and I can eat a salad and be hungry 45 minutes later so to each their own but that was kind of a big change that was where my life kind of took a nutritional U-turn so to speak and then you know I think we
0:23:28
dabbled we did a cleanse shortly thereafter that was how long was that seemed like 90 days. Yeah, we started it January 1st and it was very January. And then we got pregnant in March. It was a completely non-inflammatory so it was like nothing was cooked, no meats, just raw vegetable, no coffee. I don't know how we did that. That's why it seemed like 90 days. No coffee, no juice, no soda. I think, oh obviously cutting out alcohol. Not that we were doing a whole lot but socially yeah so cutting all that stuff out I think I dropped 30 pounds in 30 days yeah and it stayed off which always seems to be the tricky part it's keeping it off yeah but yeah then it was kind of reintroducing slowly you know trying to stay away from the sugars the processed sugars the
0:24:20
processed grains gluten and all that and then going more with the heavy macros like proteins and then reintroducing carbs in a healthy manner with imported pasta. I don't know if you've gone into that with your listeners but that's an interesting, that was probably the most recent wormhole that we kind of went down. Why is imported Italian pasta not as inflammatory as the stuff that's right next to it made in America. Which, I mean, in my personal experience, was a big difference.
0:24:55
So, you know, kind of being able to make a quick pasta dinner was convenient. And it was also a nice break from, you know, just cuts of meats or cuts of fish and, you know, mixing it in with a salad or a potato here and there.
0:25:12
So that was probably the most recent journey we've been on, or the beginning of that journey. Yeah. So. Yeah. Well, good deal. Well, thanks for coming today.
0:25:20
Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, and again, if you guys have any questions, any follow-up, if you want to have Colin back on and ask him anything specific with, you know, workouts or what he does as far as supplements or his news sources or anything like that. He has a lot to share. So just send me DMs or fill out the contact form
0:25:43
on the website.
Transcribed with Cockatoo