Talking Nutrition

Johan Vesters

Talking Nutrition is the podcast for women who did everything right and stopped seeing results. Hosted by Johan Vesters, online nutrition and functional health coach, and founder of Odyssey Coaching Systems, the show digs into what is actually going on under the surface: metabolism, fat loss, thyroid, hormones, gut health, blood work, and the mindset and behavior change that makes results stick. No crash diets, no quick fixes, no fear-mongering. Just education, real client stories, and honest conversations, so you can understand your own body, ask better questions, and take ownership of your health.Follow @johanvesters_ocs on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johanvesters_ocs/For coaching applications: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/coaching-application

  1. Sep 21

    #222 - Blood Sugar 101: Reversing Diabetes With the Basics - w/ Caitlin Jones

    Johan sits down with Caitlin Jones, a functional nutritionist who has spent the last three years focused on blood work, blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitivity, including reversing pre- and type 2 diabetes. They open with the CGM-and-oatmeal posts that circulate online: a blood sugar rise after a meal is normal, and what actually matters is the rest of the meal and whether the basics are in place. Caitlin shares how she was diagnosed pre-diabetic while powerlifting and reversed it with a calorie deficit, lower carbs, steady protein, walks after meals and the same lifting she was already doing. You'll walk away with a plain-language picture of how blood sugar rises and falls, what an unbalanced eating pattern does to that baseline over time, and where labs, muscle and maybe even a GLP-1 actually fit. More from Caitlin: https://www.caitlinjcoaching.com/https://www.instagram.com/caitlin.j.coaching/ In this episode Why the CGM-and-oatmeal posts show something normal: a rise after carbs is expected, and nobody eats a carb by itself.Caitlin's story: diagnosed pre-diabetic about four years ago while powerlifting on 370 grams of carbs a day, fasting blood sugar in the 140s, 192 pounds at 5'2".Over-eating and under-eating can feel the same in the body: tired, poor sleep, poor recovery.The protein craze, fortified everything, and why so many clients come in over-eating protein and under-eating carbs.How her parents taught balance without making it a thing: soda or ice cream at team dinners, never both.Blood sugar 101 in plain language: it rises after eating, insulin brings it down, and an unbalanced pattern slowly pushes the baseline up.Type 2 as a lifestyle condition, and why "you don't look pre-diabetic" is not a diagnosis. The stick-thin client whose doctor doubted it until a week of testing said otherwise.How Caitlin reversed hers: a deficit, lower carbs, protein held, walks after meals, same lifting. Her transparent take on an eight-month semaglutide microdose as a tool, not the reason it worked.Why people who skip the basics on a GLP-1 tend to regain, and what she does with them next.What she checks first with a new client: three to five days of food logs (under-reporting, hidden fats, the coffee), then A1C and fasted insulin.Why muscle is one of the best blood sugar tools you have: the sugar has somewhere to go.The hardest part: the habits people didn't know were habits, and eating for a purpose.A little hunger is normal and doesn't need fixing right now.Intuitive eating as "the PhD of eating": the long-term goal, not the method.- - - - - Talking Nutrition is brought to you by Odyssey Coaching Systems. Website and free resources: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/Follow Johan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johanvesters_ocs/Apply for coaching: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/coaching-application

    #222 - Blood Sugar 101: Reversing Diabetes With the Basics - w/ Caitlin Jones
  2. Aug 31

    #219 - What Sobriety Taught Katy About Nutrition, Behavior Change, and Social Pressure - w/ Katy Margison

    In this episode of Talking Nutrition, Johan is joined by his friend Katy Margison - nutrition and fitness coach, founder of Athena Nutrition, and known on Instagram as @thesoberweightlifter. After 13 years inside the US healthcare system, Katy walked away from what she calls chronic disease management to coach disease prevention instead. And behind that career change is a bigger story: overcoming alcohol and cocaine addiction, and rebuilding her identity from the ground up.  This conversation is about what the hardest form of behavior change teaches us about nutrition, fat loss, social pressure, and becoming the person who follows through. This isn't a lecture on drinking. It's an honest story about what change actually takes. In this episode: Who Katy is: 13 years in healthcare, and why she left to coach prevention instead of disease managementCoaches as the missing piece in preventative healthcare: education, accountability, and more than 15 minutes of your doctor's time"It creeps up on you": pre-gaming everything, the moderation lie, and how 2023 snowballedDecember 15, 2023: rock bottom, and why she still waited until January 1 to quitThe first sober Sunday morning, and what the substances were really covering upWhy food addiction can be even harder: you can quit alcohol, you can't quit eatingTier 1, 2, 3 days: planning for chaos so one bad week doesn't undo everythingWhy maintenance is harder than fat loss, and why comments about your plate are usually projectionWhether alcohol is poison, the culture that glamorizes it, and why we might look at it like cigarettes in 20 yearsThe birth control conversation: 16 years on the pill, and learning to advocate for yourself at the doctor's office Connect with Katy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesoberweightlifter Website: https://athena-nutrition.com- - - - - Talking Nutrition is brought to you by Odyssey Coaching Systems. Website and free resources: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/Follow Johan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johanvesters_ocs/Apply for coaching: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/coaching-application

    #219 - What Sobriety Taught Katy About Nutrition, Behavior Change, and Social Pressure - w/ Katy Margison
  3. Aug 24

    #218 - The Thyroid Checklist: What Actually Supports Production and Conversion

    Last week was about reading your thyroid labs. This week is about what you can actually do. Johan walks through the full thyroid pipeline - from the brain's TSH signal, to T4 production, to the T4-to-T3 conversion that sets your metabolic rate - and turns it into a practical checklist: the raw materials your thyroid needs, the factors that quietly inhibit it, and why stress and chronic low-calorie dieting push your body into reverse T3, the metabolic brake. In this episode: 00:00 - Genetics load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger: why this week is a checklist, not a lab lecture04:49 - DM Johan a topic on Instagram - first suggestion in might become next week's episode06:14 - The pipeline from the top down: TSH, T4, T3, and reverse T3 as the metabolic brake06:59 - The raw materials for T4 production: iodine, tyrosine, iron, zinc, B vitamins, vitamin D3 with K2 - and why chronic dieting leaves you short on all of them09:25 - What inhibits production: stress above everything, plus infection, trauma, fluoride, toxins, and autoimmune attack on the thyroid itself10:37 - The conversion step: zinc and selenium (two Brazil nuts a day), and what shifts T4 into reverse T3 instead - stress, low-calorie diets, inflammation, liver and kidney dysfunction13:34 - Testing smart: full panels once or twice a year, trends over single numbers, and the free at-home gauge - your body temperature --- **Free resource: The Thyroid Decoder** Everything in this episode in PDF form - which labs to ask for, the leaky gut and trigger side of Hashimoto's, and a symptoms quiz to gauge whether hypothyroidism is even on the table for you. Free guide, linked below. https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/thyroid-decoder - - - - - Talking Nutrition is brought to you by Odyssey Coaching Systems. Website and free resources: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/Follow Johan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johanvesters_ocs/Apply for coaching: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/coaching-application

  4. Aug 17

    #217 - The 5 Thyroid Markers I Actually Look At (Not Just TSH)

    If your doctor has told you your thyroid looks fine but you don't feel fine, this episode is for you. Johan breaks down a real client case where a "normal" lab result missed autoimmune thyroid disease for a year and a half, and walks through the exact markers, ranges, and lifestyle factors that actually explain how your thyroid is functioning. In this episode: 00:00 - Why "my labs are normal" doesn't mean your thyroid is actually fine08:30 - A client with no menstrual cycle for 18 months, and the labs that finally explained why19:49 - Two clients who brought autoimmune conditions into remission through nutrition and lifestyle21:53 - What "normal" actually means on a lab report versus what's functionally optimal32:57 - The 5 thyroid markers to ask for, and what each one does (TSH, T4, T3, reverse T3, TPOAB)39:37 - The diet and lifestyle factors that push your body toward reverse T3, including iodine, selenium, stress, and undereating42:06 - Building your own toolkit: Dutch tests, GI maps, and why trends matter more than a single lab result **Free resource: The Thyroid Decoder** Johan just released a free guide and symptoms quiz built to help you make sense of your own thyroid labs and symptoms - what's high, what's low, and what it actually means, plus a breakdown of the three factors behind Hashimoto's. If this episode sounded like you, start here: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/thyroid-decoder This isn't medical advice, it's the questions to bring to the doctor who gives it. - - - - - Talking Nutrition is brought to you by Odyssey Coaching Systems. Website and free resources: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/Follow Johan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johanvesters_ocs/Apply for coaching: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/coaching-application

  5. Jul 27

    #216 - Reverse Dieting: The Missing Half of Every Diet

    You lost the weight. Then, within a year, it came back. I hear this story constantly, and the diet itself usually wasn't the problem. The problem is that the diet ended. One day you're tracking everything, the next day you're on your own with a slower metabolism and zero plan. In this episode I walk you through the reverse diet, the half of the process almost nobody teaches. This is step 4 of my RESTORE Method, and it's the step that decides whether your results last. In this episode: - Why regain after a diet is a process failure, never a willpower failure - What a reverse diet actually is: calories climbing week by week while weight holds - How metabolic adaptation reverses, so you eat more than you have in years - Why the industry sells the weight loss but never the exit ramp - How we run reverses at OCS: small weekly increases, mostly carbs, heavy mindset coaching - Why I reverse clients into summer maintenance before vacation season hits Real client example: Kristine messaged me when we started her reverse: "I'm scared of going back. I trust you 100% but I don't trust myself completely yet." Four weeks in, calories are up from 1,365 to 1,900, weight is stable, and her waist measurement was down. Read about her reverse diet here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DaM2yoAlVqg/ FREE calorie calculator. Want to know your real maintenance calorie range, or fat loss/muscle gain targets? Click here: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/tdee-calculator  - - - - - Talking Nutrition is brought to you by Odyssey Coaching Systems. Website and free resources: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/Follow Johan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johanvesters_ocs/Apply for coaching: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/coaching-application

4.7
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

Talking Nutrition is the podcast for women who did everything right and stopped seeing results. Hosted by Johan Vesters, online nutrition and functional health coach, and founder of Odyssey Coaching Systems, the show digs into what is actually going on under the surface: metabolism, fat loss, thyroid, hormones, gut health, blood work, and the mindset and behavior change that makes results stick. No crash diets, no quick fixes, no fear-mongering. Just education, real client stories, and honest conversations, so you can understand your own body, ask better questions, and take ownership of your health.Follow @johanvesters_ocs on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johanvesters_ocs/For coaching applications: https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/coaching-application

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