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Summary
On episode 352 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with KJ Landis, who works in a restaurant at night and as a health coach during the day, to talk about her book Happy Healthy You.
KJ walks through the nine-step whole-food protocol she built for herself and her fat-loss coaching clients, starting with water and working through gluten, grains, sugar, fats, and food sourcing, all taken one step at a time rather than all at once. She also explains how the endocrine system ties food, light, and sleep together, and why processed food confuses the hormones that tell us when to stop eating.
The conversation closes with her negative thought pot, a simple, physical way to interrupt the negative self-talk that keeps people stuck.
Links
- https://superiorselfwithkjlandis.com
Key Takeaways
- Start with water, a gallon a day. KJ says building up to a gallon of water daily helps you tell the difference between real hunger and social or emotional hunger, since a couple of glasses of water will often resolve a headache or an urge to snack within about 20 minutes.
- Cut gluten first, then all grains, then dial back fruit. Modern wheat is heavily hybridized and drives systemic inflammation for a lot of people who don't realize they're sensitive to it. Once gluten is gone, dropping grains entirely and then reducing fruit intake addresses the next biggest sources of blood sugar swings, since today's fruit is bred sweeter and higher in sugar than it was decades ago.
- Upgrade your fats and skip manufactured oils. KJ traces canola oil back to rapeseed and explains that the high heat used to extract it changes the oil's molecular structure into something less healthy. She uses grapeseed oil, butter, and coconut oil for cooking and saves olive oil for after cooking or on salads, respecting each oil's smoke point.
- Cut added sugar and choose real alternatives. Honey and agave still spike blood sugar despite their health-food reputation; KJ instead recommends whole-food sweeteners like monk fruit (Lakanto) or xylitol in moderation, saving sweets for occasional dessert rather than every meal.
- Choose pastured and raw foods where you can. Pastured eggs and raw dairy carry more nutrients than their conventional, pasteurized counterparts, and while they cost more up front, KJ and Allan agree that eating real food curbs cravings enough that total food spending often goes down.
- Save beans and legumes for last, and eat them sparingly. Beans carry anti-nutrients that block full nutrient absorption unless they're soaked and cooked properly, so KJ treats them as an occasional food rather than a diet staple, fitting an overall 80/20 approach of eating clean most of the time.
- The endocrine system runs on both food and light. Processed food full of additives confuses the hormones that tell your body when to stop eating, while nighttime light exposure suppresses melatonin. KJ recommends blue-light-blocking tools in the evening and eating according to your own hunger signals rather than forcing breakfast if you're not hungry.
- The negative thought pot interrupts bad self-talk. Write a negative thought on a strip of paper, burn it in a small pot, and the next time that thought resurfaces, consciously reject it: “you no longer have power over me.” KJ uses this with herself, her kids, and her workshop clients.
- KJ's three strategies to get and stay well: track and drink a gallon of water a day using a marked bottle for a visual reward; build movement into everyday life, from standing desks to arriving places 10 minutes early so there's time to walk; and practice silence and meditation to reduce reactivity and stress.
“It's magic, it's more than magic because you're creating an energy that is more powerful than the negativity.”
KJ Landis