The Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast

E129: Strength, Flexibility & Fuel with Ashleigh Gass – Transforming Health Through Movement

• Kerry Reller

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Welcome to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast with Dr. Kerry Reller! This week, I’m joined by Ashleigh Gass, a licensed dietitian nutritionist and co-owner of MOVE, a gymnastics-inspired strength training facility in Clearwater, FL. In this episode, we discuss how integrating strength training, mobility, and functional nutrition can transform your health—whether you're recovering from injury or just trying to feel better in your body. Ashleigh shares her personal journey, how MOVE was created, and practical tips to overcome fatigue, under-eating, and metabolic dysfunction. We also dive into common nutrition myths, why flexibility matters more than you think, and how functional movement supports healthy aging. Tune in for real, actionable strategies to move better and feel better—at any age.

Ashleigh is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), Licensed Dietician, Sports Nutritionist, Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) and Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner.  She’s co-owner and founder of MOVE Gymnastics Strength Training, a local training facility famous for 
integrating traditional strength training with calisthenics, mobility & stretching protocols.

00:29 – Meet Ashleigh Gass and her background in exercise physiology
02:31 – What brought Ashleigh to Clearwater and how MOVE was founded
03:17 – The origin of MOVE's gymnastics-inspired training method
05:41 – Why mobility and stretching are critical for long-term health
08:34 – The importance of functional movement as we age
11:00 – Client success story: reversing fatty liver and restoring movement
15:13 – What is functional nutrition and how it differs from conventional care
17:36 – Labs Ashleigh reviews and how she works with patients’ doctors
22:40 – Common issues Ashleigh sees: fatigue, under-eating, inflammation
26:34 – Nutritional myth busted: “Carbs make you fat”
29:56 – GLP-1 medications: thoughts on their use and long-term questions

Connect with Ashleigh Gass
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleighrgass?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashleigh.gass/

Connect with Dr. Reller
Connect with Dr. Kerry Reller
Podcast website: https://gethealthytbpodcast.buzzsprou... 
My linktree: linktr.ee/kerryrellermd
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerryrellermd/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClearwaterFamilyMedicine
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clearwaterfamilymedicine/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kerryrellermd
Clearwater Family Medicine and Allergy website: https://sites.google.com/view/clearwa...
Podcast: https://gethealthytbpodcast.buzzsprou...

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Kerry:

All right. Hi everybody. Welcome back to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Kerry Reller, and today we have Ashleigh Gass as a very special guest. Welcome to the podcast.

Ashleigh:

Hello. Thank you so much.

Kerry:

Yeah, I'm super excited to connect with you and talk with you today as I know you are very close to me in the proximity in our Clearwater office. So definitely a great networking opportunity for us. But why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Ashleigh:

Yeah, for sure. So Ashleigh Gass, I've been in the exercise phys arena for almost 30 years. I'm 46 years old, and my first like course before getting into university I was 18, so that's a bunch of decades ago. And just fast forward multiple years I grew up in Canada and got to the states, did my master's degree in nutrition, then went in sort of the first half of my career was very strength and conditioning focused. I got really good at integrating calisthenics with strength and conditioning, and was able to recover from very serious low back injury from integrating those two modalities. And then was fortunate enough to co-own and, and found Move which is a training facilities called Move Gymnastics inspired strength training. And we got a great group of coaches and we specialize there in strength training, mobility, flexibility, and what was known as gymnastics inspired strength training. So, and then I just really got into the, deeply into the nutrition side probably 15 years ago and just did more and more training down that route. Fast forward till today I'm a licensed dietician nutritionist and did a year of training in functional medicine under the Chriss Kresser Institute. And Chris Kresser was one of the original functional medicine guys dating back probably 20 years ago now. So. I just kind of put it all together.

Kerry:

Yeah, that's, I mean, you have a very impressive resume and lots of different like certifications and titles and you even have a different vernacular. I notice like you're like exercise phys and you know, that's not something that I hear every day from the different training background, but very, very cool. Also, you know, you came from Canada and what brought you to Tampa area.

Ashleigh:

At that time business and boyfriend I never heard of Clearwater. We were in California first for about six months, and then I had an opportunity to move across the country, and here we landed in in Clearwater. It just wasn't hot enough in California.

Kerry:

Yeah. Yeah, sure. Oh man. And coming from Canada, you're probably melting here, but a very strong, obviously fitness background and what your, your gym is just such an interesting, like, integration of all these different types of training that you've done. And then also picking up the nutrition and functional medicine recently is, you know, very amazing to compliment it and put it all together. Tell us a little bit more about the move your gym move and what's the training philosophy? How does that stand out from a conventional gym?

Ashleigh:

So it's a good question and it just goes, kinda goes back to the origins of move is that I went through, I mean, years and years of, of small back injuries, but led to a big one and the only way I was able to recover from that after neurosurgery was to put together the missing links between traditional strength and conditioning, which is lifting a lot of heavy stuff with certainly some stretching and injury prevention work integrated into it. But at that time, there wasn't a huge amount of emphasis on like stretching and mobility. It was sort of an afterthought. So when I, ran across Christopher Summer. He, he was the men's national men's national gymnastics coach for like 40 years. Men's national team, him and Rob Wolf did an interview and Rob Wolf is the original paleo guy. So they did an interview about back injuries. I heard that story and I just launched myself into the curriculum that Christopher had designed for adults, which was called adult Gymnastics Inspired Strength Training. So I just started to weave together the missing pieces of mobility, stretching, spine work high level core work. So not just kind of like rolling around on the floor doing sit ups, but more advanced and very clear progressions and putting all that material together allowed my back to get really better, like not just symptomatically better, but MRI better. And this takes us back now to 2015. So what move really is, is it's the byproduct of what I learned to get myself out of trouble and then applied to a lot of clients before move was even a vision to get them out of trouble and doing well on their training. So it was just, the difference really comes down to, it can be very difficult to go to a training facility and find multiple training methods integrated into one system where you can go to classes and get strength training, stretching, and good mobility work. Without having to do it later or go somewhere else to stretch or go somewhere else do your skill training.'cause some adults, they wanna learn how to tumble. They wanna be able to do somersaults again. We've got adults that are doing back handsprings. And that's not an easy, it's not an easy combination to come across. So that's really our difference. And then to kind of take it one step further is in addition to classes, we have private training and all of our members actually have access to their classes, their coach and private training sessions. So it's just integrated on so many different levels. It's kind of your one stop shop for, for training.

Kerry:

Yeah, I mean just I find, I find that like some programs, like you were saying like strength training programs or HIIT or something like that, they often leave out that stretching component. Right. And that, I guess mobility as well, just kind of goes a little bit hand in hand. And I think that some people, you know, also also neglect it because they don't wanna make that time for it. So how do you encourage individuals to see that that's super important in, you know, their fitness journey, I guess.

Ashleigh:

with some people it takes time, but I really, so there's a few ways I'll answer that. Some people it takes time and they have to experience doing it. To go, oh, all right. My hips have been bothering me for the last five years, but after a month of training in, in this lower body stretch class series, my hips don't really hurt anymore, and I can get on and off the floor easier. So usually folks figure it out for themselves based on an, an actual result. So there's folks that come to us and they're not sure. Then there's folks that actually seek us out because they're having issues and they're like, you know what? I can't touch my toes anymore. And I actually can't, if I were to get to the ground, I can't get back up again. That's the thing. Other folks, my shoulders are hurting and I can't just bench press and shoulder press anymore. So a lot of folks come to us, they know that they're missing something, but they're not really sure where to start. So we're in a, a different era than we were, I think a decade ago, where folks are really well aware of this stuff as opposed to 10 years ago, they're like, ah, stretching. Isn't that what people do in yoga? Like they just kind of poo-pooed it off to the side. And I really don't think people are doing that anymore. They get it. They're like, all right, if I can't move very well, what's the point in being crazy strong?

Kerry:

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, I am guilty of that as well. You know, I feel like sometimes in the past I didn't do a good job making time for stretching. I'm still maybe a little bit guilty, but doing better. Doing better. Yeah. And I am, I would definitely can relate to the you know, the hip thing actually, like running more. And then my hips were bothering me and then all of a sudden I started, you know, doing more stretches and then not having that problem anymore and, ah, voila.

Ashleigh:

I know it's, and it's not that. Where do you train, if you don't mind me asking?

Kerry:

At home.

Ashleigh:

Oh, good. Okay.

Kerry:

Yeah. Everything at home. My, my weights are, you know, right behind me and everything. Yeah. The other thing you mentioned was like the p patients or patients, people, whatever clients you wanna call they, are um you know, difficulty getting up the floor, touching their toes, and they have a hard time realizing how important this is. Right. So we talk about like functional movements and things like that. Sometimes when I'm talking to someone like you or just even with a patient and just how critical, like do you feel like those functional movements are to life? I mean, obviously you would know if you had to, you know, had injury or working with other patients too.

Ashleigh:

Yeah, well, you just take those movements away and someone realizes really quickly how important they are. So I think that's the fastest way to get someone to appreciate, is to just take them away for half a day and just go, okay, well for the next hour, here's the things you can't do.

Kerry:

So I have, you know, a lot of patients that we work with with weight management and weight loss, and I think one, one I can remember in particular is always a great one for me because she's had a great journey. I've been working with her a couple years, but one of her things was, is that. She's gonna make herself get down to the floor and get up like every single day so that she can, you know, continue to do that like for the rest of her life. Like it's something that was a pain point for her, like difficulty getting off the floor, right? So now that's like saying I'm making myself get down there. Like multiple times a day actually. And you know, get back up. And we do see a lot of older patients too who need these functional movements. Do you see any like clients that are older age that maybe lost some of these movements and help recover that? Mm-hmm.

Ashleigh:

the time. And hats off to your gal who just, her method is just forcing herself to do it multiple times a day. That's, that's hard, hard way to do it, but congrats to her.'cause it's, that's the hardcore discipline. I'm just gonna force myself to do it every day, multiple times until it gets easier. There's no gradient there. There's just like, do it like, okay. So yeah, we.

Kerry:

do think she had a gradient into the, yeah.

Ashleigh:

She did. I'm like, that's that's very brave. Like, let's just get down. Yeah, we do. We see people and it's not just an old person thing. This affects folks that are of all age groups because, you know, our lifestyles now, a lot of people I. Are fairly sedentary, working over the course of the day and it adds up. So yeah, we have all age groups, all levels of progression and and, and pain. Folks often avoid these movements because their knees are starting to get really, really sore. Their back doesn't move very well, so they're scared of rounding over. So we just have to figure out with everyone that comes in, and this is part of why we're not just to come in and, and sign up for your membership. Jim, because we know, we know, we know everybody there. We know their background, we know their injury history and we know what we're working on with them at any given time. So yeah, people come with these things

Kerry:

Tell me about like a, a person who may have had like such a major quality of life improvement from working with you.

Ashleigh:

Well, that's a good question. We've got almost 150 Google reviews of sort of, of similar stories like that. But let me just see if I can bring one that really jumps out. I would say, if I just go back over the last six months, coach Jorge. So Jorge is director coaching fantastic fantastic young man and, and really experienced coach. But he brought a guy on in his early thirties lawyer, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease for sure. And really quality of life was getting bad. I mean, he was definitely obese, but just wasn't moving well, and we're talking about a 31-year-old I recall. So Jorge's turned him around completely. And we're not even working with him in the nutrition space formally. It's just chipping away at giving him little tidbits here and there. And Jorge, as his head coach, has brought him a long way. He can do split squats. He can do, he's doing upper body pulling movements. He's working on believe it or not, I mean, he's working on skills like handstands. He is working on upper body strength. He's working on. All of the stuff, and he's just doing so much better. He looks, he, he looks awesome, and he's really doing well. And he didn't, he's not there seven days a week for an hour at a time. He trains with Jorge once and then does a couple classes. We're 24 hour gym now, so he's got open card access. He can come in and do extra stuff on the weekend. So that's one story that jumps to mind over the last three months.

Kerry:

And I, I bet his metabolic health markers have totally improved as well. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. That's awesome. So you said you weren't working with him nutritionally, what do you work with many of their clients Nutritionally. And tell me more about that.

Ashleigh:

So nutrition is something that I used to do more on the sort of informal side. If we, if we go back about three years,'cause where I had difficulty along the way was, as you know, nutrition can be very subjective and I had trouble coaching that. Because the concept of, of teaching people to, to just eat the word clean, I kind of, that, I don't use that word a lot because it, again, it brings to mind all sorts of stuff. It doesn't, isn't necessarily helpful. It, it took me a little while to wrap my head around systems because when you're coaching someone, you've gotta have systems to work with and, and clear benchmarks and they've gotta understand their numbers and Their body composition start, where are they going? How are they getting there? So when I figured that out, then I really started to dive into it. And I coach a number of people that are members at MOVE that were referred to me or just found, found us on social. And then I work with a number of folks that are across the state or across the country, and they're not they're not training at move. So it's sort of a mixed group of, of folks that aren't move and folks that are not at move.

Kerry:

Yeah. So you're able to kind of do both things from like different platforms basically. You're not necessarily working with them physically one-on-one in the gym, but you might be or something like that. Yeah.

Ashleigh:

Yeah, I'd stepped back from the hands-on physical side about probably three and a half years ago because we, when we first opened, move of course I did a lot of classes in the majority of the personal training.'cause MOVE was a continuity of the business that I already had, which was exclusively personal training with some classes that I taught out of a super small physical therapy space. So the evolution was we, I, you know, we got moved to a place where we needed, you know, because we didn't start off with a, a manager. We didn't start off with front desk. We didn't start off with any sort of like central control, the, the, the central control of the business was Ashley in her cell phone basically. So as I brought more coaches on board, I was able to transition outta that, into being fully on the business and running it, and running it and doing all the things. So I stepped out of the physical delivery side. Then grew the business, got everything well systematized and stabilized, and then got back in the business on the nutrition side as that grew. So now I'm sort of a combination of in the business with all my nutrition folks and then on the business from a CEO oversight standpoint as well.

Kerry:

Okay. Okay, so what, what would you say like functional Nutrition means to you, and how does it differ from a conventional approach?

Ashleigh:

From a nutrition standpoint.

Kerry:

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ashleigh:

So, and this is kind of goes back to what we were talking about before we started, is Peter refers to it as Medicine 2.0. So Medicine 2.0 is the detection, and I don't even know if we can use the word detection. It's, it's treating disease as it starts to really show up on labs or present strongly in symptoms. That's what medicine 2.0. Got great at, we have a procedure for it. We have a drug for it. We have a, Hey, we gotta watch this. Like we have those protocols and I think that. That's what medicine got great at. But what medicine, and if we use the word medicine or nutrition, missed the boat on was what Peter calls Medicine 3.0, which is longevity, early detection, keeping people as healthy as possible for as long as possible, and not just treating something as it shows up in labs or not just kind of ignoring it until it's so elevated on labs, or it's close to that cutoff point that you're like, Hey, by the way, you're pre-diabetic. Let's put you on a drug. Like, why didn't we say something two years ago like that,

Kerry:

Really, it should be 10 years ago. Right. So that's part of the flaw in some of the lab tests that we do. Do you do any lab tests or anything like that?

Ashleigh:

yes. I do labs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll do labs sometimes. I mean, I don't, I tend to not be the one that's how do I that's initiating them from like nothing. So usually people come to me and they have lab work that's been done, and so I'll, I'll look at it and I'll say, okay, well what wasn't tested here was hemoglobin A1C wasn't tested and we don't have a Hs CRP, that those weren't tested. Can you, can we get these done please? And they'll just go back and get them done. Or sometimes in the case of, of thyroid, if I'm looking at that, the doc may have done TSH, but really nothing else, or TSH and T four, but we're missing T three. So then I'll send them back to their doctor with a list of, Hey, can we get these other things done, please? So I keep it interactive with their doctor as much as possible because I'm, I'm not a doctor. I know what I'm looking for and I know what I'd like to see. But I do like things to stay kind of in the hands of their MD and have the MD know that they're working with with me, and that I'm trying to help.

Kerry:

Okay. Yeah, I mean, I can't tell you how many times that I see patients who have been seeing another doctor and then they're new to me and I run an A1C and nobody ever did. Sure they got a fasting glucose, so it was fine, but guess what? A1C high every single time, oh, I can't tell you almost every day is multiple times a day pre-diabetes diagnosis, because nobody ever pulled the A1C in the past.

Ashleigh:

Right. Right. And why do you think that that is?

Kerry:

Why? Oh, that is because insurance will not cover it, especially for Medicare things. So you have to say that there's like an abnormal lab result. So if they're getting normal fasting sugars, insurance won't cover the A1C mostly in Medicare. But I do think more private insurers are, you know, doing that, covering it now. But also the A1C is not all that old as of a test, right? I can't tell you the historical time of it, but it's not that old. So it's newer and it, right it's a measurement of, you know, basically three months of an average glucose, you know, computed to a number based upon the red blood cells life. So basically the red blood cells live about three months. So that's how we get it. And then you know, we do. Also not test fasting insulin. And that's mostly also due to, because the lab test itself is not consistent. This is the argument that, that some people say because the test isn't consistent across like different labs and depending upon what you do it, but it is still not a reason not to do it at all. Right. So I, I do order it sometimes, but I'm always, you know, asking the, telling the patient, you know, Hey, they may not cover this test for that

Ashleigh:

So if it's not covered, then fasting glucose will say 92 and you wanted to run an A1C, I mean, and again, you kind of went, smiled.'cause you're like, okay, and so it, if it's not covered, then does insurance just not run it? Or do they then bill a patient for that

Kerry:

They may bill the patient and I don't know, there's stuff I do to help my, do my best to not have the patient billed. But yeah, I smiled obviously, because, you know, normal fasting glucose according to a lab is gonna be less than a hundred where we know that's really not an optimal range. Like usually we wanna see that like 60 to 80 or so. So

Ashleigh:

Nobody had.

Kerry:

when I get them back from patients, I'm usually saying, Hey, you know. The lab reads this as normal, but I'm getting pretty picky. It may read normal, but this isn't optimal, so let's keep an eye on this or whatever, or tell them the same thing that I'm gonna tell anybody who has pre-diabetes as well, you know?

Ashleigh:

That's awesome. So, and this again, just a, a question for you is you have a really awesome approach to what you're doing. Why are not, why are you different? What have you decided to be different that the other MDs, a lot of them just go, everything's fine, see you next year? Like, is that a personal decision that you've made or is it a result of your training or both? Or why are, why is that not the, the, the standard of care across the board?

Kerry:

That's a great question. I don't know. So some of it may be that, you know, they're just following insurance guidelines. Some may be that they didn't, you know, go the next step and educate themselves. I mean, I am board certified in obesity medicine as well, and we do a, you know, I think there's some training in that when we get board certified in that, that it does, you know, say, Hey, we're looking at labs a little bit closer. I would say it's just something that bothered me that we're missing diagnoses earlier. So I probably, I. I don't remember the exact thought process in my head, but went back to, you know, do extra training and constantly researching and looking at different ways and more specialized tests, although they're still not all necessarily included. But quest is a nice, you know, panel for cardiov ascular risk that we'll get that H-S-C-R-P that you mentioned and LP little a and a bunch of little things. And like the size of the LDL particles and stuff. So there's, you know, more advanced testing. But if you're not actually doing what we call CME or continuing medical education, then you're not really gonna pick up on some of these things. And perhaps it's still not standard of care because insurance isn't covering it all.

Ashleigh:

That would make the most sense, I think, because I know doctors are trying to do the right thing, but their hands are tied in a lot of directions. So it takes some, it takes some, it takes some guts to go off the beaten path and do what you're doing. It takes more work than more like.

Kerry:

it is it, guess, yeah, more work. And you know, I try to also, you know, when I'm dealing with weight, we're also trying to figure out if there's a medical cause of that. So I'm looking for insulin resistance. I'm looking for thyroid problems, right? So I will be doing that, but also when I do some of that, I'm always be like, well, you know, they may not cover this, but let's order this because I think this is important to, you know, find out what's inhibiting you from weight loss or whatever the reason may be. Yeah.

Ashleigh:

That's

Kerry:

So tell me back to you, so what are the, some of the common issues that you help clients with? Fatigue, inflammation, gut. What do you think?

Ashleigh:

Fatigue and symptoms related to undereating, I would say so. A lot of my folks are pretty hard charging people who are, they're training, they're really trying, they're trying to lean out, they're trying to get back to feeling a certain way. They're going to the gym, they're trying to eat well. Like they're not just kind of sitting around and lulla gagging through life. And they come to me because they're like, I think I'm doing the right things, but it's not working. So let's have a talk. And I go, okay. And I tend to not make any decisions. Well, I don't make any decisions at all actually, until I've had someone track for about a week inside of an app that I use and I can get inside it. I can get inside everyone's app. I can see all their tracking, I can see all their pictures. And it becomes pretty obvious what what's going on when I'm actually able to see what someone's doing. I don't, I don't want'em to tell me about what they're eating, a little bit of information. Sure. But I'm like, if I can't see it and you're not tracking it it's just, it's sort of a conversation that we're both gonna forget in the next 20 So that just reveals a lot to me. It reveals that someone's eating well beneath, or a little bit beneath their resting metabolic rate, and they're training four days a week. The training's high intensity. Okay? We know that that's not gonna work for very long and it's going to cause problems with sleep. It's gonna cause problems with mood. It'll eventually cause some issues, potentially with the thyroid and and hormones. So I just I go after the biggest missing pieces first. And I, I get people they come to move if they're at move if they're not, they'll get it done somewhere else. I get people to do an InBody scan because I wanna see lean mass fat, mass body fat percentage. BMR teach them what those numbers mean and then I, I teach them how to go. Okay. Do you see what's missing based on your body comp data and what you're tracking? Granted, the tracking is as reliable as it can possibly be, and it's, it, as you know, tracking's not perfect. So I teach people to see where their own missing links are.'cause as soon as they see them, they're like. Oh shit. Yeah, I'm undereating like by a lot. Maybe that's why my workouts are getting harder and why I'm not recovering and why I'm kind of in pain a lot and I just, I, I feel like not well rested. We just fix those little things week by week by week, and I can get someone feeling much better within a few weeks typically, if that's the biggest thing. And if I'm getting nowhere and I have labs, I'll be like, okay, let's, let's, let's take a look here. Let's kind of adjust this here. And that's how I start. So I just start by finding the missing links, the weakest points, and addressing them based on that person's lifestyle and what they're able to do.

Kerry:

Yeah. I mean, everything is, like you were saying, is very individualized to the person, right? can't have to take it one blanket approach, so I think that's really good teasing out what's going on with them. Yeah. And I'm assuming you have pretty good success working with them that way.

Ashleigh:

Yeah, I do. I love it. Yeah. I've worked with a lot of folks now, and I have on the, on our side, I've got a lot of before and after, before, during pictures because I work with people sometimes for long periods of time. So yeah. Yeah, we have a lot of fun. And it's not, it's, it's not like. It's not demanding. There's no demanding protocols. People aren't thinking that they can't eat all these food groups. So I just kind of teach people, you can really eat a lot of tremendous variety of food. You don't have to limit yourself, but here's, here's what we need to add in first. lot of issues with protein deficiencies and absorption as you, as you know, absorption challenges. So. Yeah, it's just teasing out what is gonna make it work for that person for sure.

Kerry:

What would you say is like one nutritional myth that you like to bust with your clients?

Ashleigh:

Hmm. That carbohydrates cause fat gain,

Kerry:

Hmm.

Ashleigh:

like just that carbs will make you fat. So in, if you wanna lose fat, you have to cut carbs.

Kerry:

So clearly if you're working with people that are training a lot, they need to have carbohydrates on board. I mean, I, I do follow or know a lot of people who do like keto lifestyle, so, you know, they may not, I. But I usually, the most people that actually can sustain their, you know nutrition plan, diet, whatever you wanna call it are not, you know, gonna be keto anyway. So yeah, carbs are definitely an important component for training. Yeah.

Ashleigh:

Yeah, for sure. And even to, to your point I think that. Oftentimes people think they have to be in a category and it's gonna be that way forever.

Kerry:

Mm-hmm.

Ashleigh:

That's not, that's, it's actually very rarely the case because say we say that we, you've got someone who is pre-diabetic and they're insulin resistant and, and you start them off on more of a a keto approach. And say that in six months their labs have changed, they've lost lots of body fat. They're doing well. They're starting to train again. Well, then they're, they probably won't stay in the keto camp. They might go into the carbohydrate cycling camp where they, I. Have more carbs on their training days and less carbs on days. They're not training and so they kind of weave out of a strict approach to something and they integrate other nutritional concepts. It's okay. You don't have to be, there's not this loyalty to one approach forever thing that you have to buy into. You can actually mix multiple methods together. It's okay to do that.

Kerry:

I actually, I think that's a great point. I think I would totally agree with that. Sometimes I do really address like a lower carb approach with patients, especially if they're presenting with these insulin resistance issues and then they don't have to stay like that forever For sure. And I think I. Even with different changes in life, right? Like maybe, you know, menopause or things like that, right? You think about there, there, everything might not work the same, right? That's one of the biggest frustrations. I'm doing everything that I did before and it's not working well, guess what? It's time to learn something different and what's gonna work for you now. Right?

Ashleigh:

Yeah. And that's a, that's a big one to, to confront and it's, it's harder going through it, but I totally understand what you're saying with that. That's a tricky one as well. Is. Okay. When you're, when you're in your late forties and fifties, you have this concept of what you were and who you are. That's sort of around the age of 35, 3, 6, but all of a sudden it's not, we're not there anymore. How do you adjust to that? It's tough.

Kerry:

Yeah. Yeah. I, I mean, and everybody's gonna be different, and they may have to try a few things before they're gonna find what works really well for them.

Ashleigh:

Yeah, exactly. I have a question and something that really bugs me.'cause GLP are not my, they're just, they're not my arena. Understand there's probably some very good uses for them at certain times, but I have yet to come across a practitioner or a patient on them who is clear on the protocol to come off them if there is one. Is there, or like,

Kerry:

Well, I would say there is not a protocol to come off of them because these medications were used with the study. The clinical trials showed, you know, if you did take come off of them, that they would have weight regained. So. What the, I guess, pharmaceutical companies in the studies show is that you're supposed to do it for life, but if you, you know, come off of it, you may have weight regain. So I find that very. Challenging. There are some patients I think that maybe do need it for life, right? But I also think if you're really doing the work with the full picture and in a comprehensive program, rather than just getting it off online or some spa. Then you may instill those habits that you need to, you know, survive where you don't have to depend on the medication. I don't think using the medication is wrong. I use it plenty. I have plenty of patients that are doing fantastic on it and it is like life changing for them and they are still, you know, maintaining muscle mass. They are not, you know, becoming sarcopenic. They are doing like excellent. In other ways, their metabolic markers are great. They've come off of every other medicine that they were on. So, I mean, that's a big thing to say too, because it's really working on that emotional part of eating where sometimes they, that's just something that hasn't ever been able to be treated like that way. So. I mean, one of my fears and focusing on is trying to help support patients who are no longer going to have access to these medications or who, you know, didn't access it in the appropriate way or whatever. And then how to support them to make these lifestyle changes to move forward and maybe not need the medicine or, you know, like. Maybe they need it for a little bit and then they don't. Again, like, I don't know. I think it's just a, an arena where there is no protocol, there's no set thing. We're just trying to learn and everybody's learning at the same time. And we gotta just find out works best. What works best for each individual person.

Ashleigh:

Right, right. Yeah, no, that's a, that's a great answer. It's been a, a question that's been bothering me for a while, just because it's not my arena, but I work with some folks that are on them, which I think is fine, but I've just been wondering, okay, what's the end game here? Especially if someone gets their training right and their, their nutrition taken care of. What does happen if you titrate off of them? Is it a guaranteed rebound? Or if you have everything under control, is your body like, okay, good. Like we, we've homeostatic mechanisms are in place now. We're good. Like I, I, I just don't know the answer to that, so.

Kerry:

I don't think anybody does. So it's definitely gonna be individualized. And every patient may be different. we're not, we're not gonna know. Because I think some people could be okay, and some people may need it like weekly, forever. And some people maybe they don't even need it weekly. Maybe it's monthly, maybe it's every three months or they do a little bit or something like that. I don't know. But it's just. I think a work in progress and they have all these other new medications coming down the pipeline, some that are stronger and you know, it's just an exciting thing but also, you know, a little nerve wracking'cause we don't know what's gonna happen to patients as they were to lose coverage and things like that. And the hardest part is'cause it's just expensive and the for it. So yeah. definitely a hot topic for

Ashleigh:

Yeah, same with the,

Kerry:

a.

Ashleigh:

yeah, same with hormones. That's an area I'm starting to understand more and more and more. And I, I, I'm a big peer, a Tia fan in his recent interview with Dr. Robin Rubin is fascinated. I've got, I've had it on repeat for three weeks

Kerry:

Yeah. Dr. Rachel Rubin. Yeah,

Ashleigh:

Sorry, sorry. Yes, yes,

Kerry:

She's fantastic. Yeah.

Ashleigh:

Yeah. And I, I just love, I love what they're doing and I, I, obviously you, you're familiar, so

Kerry:

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, I yes, I've actually taken her course, so she is

Ashleigh:

Oh, good.

Kerry:

which I think starts now and you could, you know, sign up if you wanted to.

Ashleigh:

Is that through the the Swish website?

Kerry:

I don't think so. It's through her own, yeah. think Rachel Rubin, MD or rachel rubin.com. Yeah,

Ashleigh:

check it out.

Kerry:

I would highly recommend it.

Ashleigh:

Okay, good. Yeah, there's a course through Dutch that I I've got on my radar as well that I've, I've registered for, but yes, I, I totally will. Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna have fun. This is good.

Kerry:

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I, we've done the, the menopause base is definitely very exciting right now too, but I've done a lot of recent episodes on that, so I think we're good for now on that. But any other, like, things you wanna discuss before we I guess close up?

Ashleigh:

No, I'd just say I'm excited to hear you're taking new patients and I have a couple referrals for you, even myself. But no, I would just say for those of you that are. Out there hearing this, just keep keep doing the right thing, keep educating yourself, keep your training going, and just look for ways to sharpen up your nutrition. And that doesn't mean look for ways to eat less. Just look for ways to include better quality food in supplementation in, into your diet. So it's just sort of like parting, parting words.

Kerry:

I mean, that's really good advice. Include, you know, better whole foods into your diet. Usually adding in is an excellent tactic that a lot of people need, so. If people wanna work with you or join the gym or anything, where can they find you?

Ashleigh:

Yeah, just move gst.com and so g best as in Sam, T as in Tom, move to z do.com. You can Google us. We're really strong on Google and we're on Hercules Avenue in Clearwater, so move gst.com. Instagram is Move Training Cals. Then my own is just Ashley rga.

Kerry:

Well, thank you so much. We're gonna include all that in the show notes and everybody please find her on social media and everywhere she just said, and tune in next week for next week's episode. Take care.

Ashleigh:

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Dr. Kerry Reller

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