He & She Eat Clean | Healthy Recipes & Workout Plans

Your Genes Cannot Change, but Your Lifestyle Can

Whitney Carlson1 Comment

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Helix for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Whew! Can you believe it’s already February?! It feels like yesterday but it was last fall we introduced you to Helix and how easy it was to send in our DNA samples to be sequenced (read about that process here). Now it’s time to talk about the fun part…our results!

Just a quick recap, Helix is both a state-of-the-art lab that can sequence your DNA and safely store the data for you, and also a store for DNA products. The store offers many different apps and services powered by your DNA (like family planning and inherited cholesterol testing). Here's how it works: once your DNA is sequenced in the Helix lab, Helix safely shares just the relevant parts of your DNA with the partner whose product you bought so that the partner can generate the insights that you're interested in and share the report with you. You can come back to the Helix store again and again to get new insights from different products, without having to get your DNA re-sequenced every time.

We tried the Fitness Diet Pro product made by DNAFit and available in the Helix store. After mailing our DNA sample back to the Helix lab for them to sequence, it took me (Whitney) about four weeks to get my results from DNAFit. Scott’s first sample was unable to be processed, so he was asked to send in a second sample, but now we both have our reports back and we are excited to share! We received an email once our reports were ready. We were then able to log into the DNAFit website to get our results and reports. We loved how easy the website was to use and also that they offered the option to download the report. We decided to download the reports to our computers. They were very easy to read and described everything in just enough detail!

It was very interesting to see the results. Some we were surprised by, but some confirmed we’ve been doing a lot of things in line with what our DNA says. ;-)

Remember: Your genes cannot change, but your lifestyle can. <<< I absolutely loved that statement from the reports. It’s so true!

Below are some of the results of our reports:

Power or Endurance? What Do Your Genes Say?

Fitness Report

  • Power/Endurance Profile
  • Recovery
  • Personal Injury Risk

Whitney:

I had a pretty even split between power and endurance response…which is good because this is typically how I train! I’m definitely not a long-distance runner but we do hike some very long distances. When I do run, I typically only enjoy running distances of 3 miles or less. My recovery time was analyzed as very fast and my personal injury risk was analyzed as very low. Interestingly, my personal experiences seem to agree with those. I have to have a quick recovery time in order to take some of the two-week hiking trips we take where we hike over 100 hard miles!

Using this information, I will continue to train the way that I have been using our workout plans (currently using the She Sweats 12-Week Run Builder) because they already incorporate both power and endurance. Having everything already laid out for me ensures I will be getting a good mix of weight lifting, running, sprint training, AND rest days!

Scott:

My report came back that my genetic profile falls more into the endurance activity zone. Which, as Whitney stated, we already incorporate with our hikes and me with my road bike. When many people think of endurance activities they only think of long-distance running but it applies to many different sports. I’m jealous of Whitney’s fast recovery response though! Mine came back as a medium recovery time. As far as my injury report, the results didn't say that I would definitely experience injury, just that I may have a higher predisposition than other people. Considering the fact that I’m currently injured, I would agree with that assessment!

I have been doing our She Sweats 12-Week Transformation plan (yes, a man doing She Sweats…we need to re-brand and change the name!!!!) and will continue since it incorporates a lot of weight training and the cardio that my body needs. I will definitely take rest days more seriously and focus on proper warm-up, cool-down, and stretching to try and avoid injury in the future. Yoga/stretching was something that we had as a goal for our Detox Your Fitness Challenge last month and neither one of us did yoga once! After getting these results back, I think that’s going to change. It will become more of a priority in our lives!

Low Fat or High Fat? Low Carb or High Carb? What Do Your Genes Say?

DNAFit Diet Report

  • Carbohydrate Sensitivity
  • Fat Sensitivity
  • Detoxification Ability
  • Antioxidant Need
  • Omega-3 Need
  • Vitamin B Requirements
  • Vitamin D Requirements
  • Alcohol Response
  • Caffeine Sensitivity
  • Lactose Intolerance

Whitney:

This one, as you can see with the information listed above, had a lot more information included. I’ll hit on some highlights. I’m proud to confirm that I am lactose TOLERANT! It’s hard when you hear so many people doing all sorts of things with their diets…sometimes you think you should do the same things too. Just because someone else is dairy free, gluten free, carb free, fat-free, etc doesn’t mean that is right for you too! This just confirms that. The report did state that I should limit refined carbs and saturated fats. Since I already eat a clean diet (for the most part), I am already doing this but once again it just reinforces that I am on the right track. Overall, I learned that I could benefit from increasing Vitamin D, Vitamin B, and antioxidants in my diet. I absolutely loved the fact that the report listed real foods that help in these particular areas. Sure, supplementation is an option but trying to get these from whole foods is something I will try as well.

Scott:

As Whitney stated, we do eat dairy products. We try to only consume organic dairy but we definitely incorporate it into our diets in the form of Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. I was pleased to see that I am also dairy tolerant. My report indicated a medium sensitivity to fats, which means that I should watch the amount of saturated fat that I consume (which I already tend to do!). One result that stood out to me was the fact that I should add more cruciferous vegetables to my diet. I do eat a lot of vegetables (thanks to Whitney for making juice for me!) but I don’t eat very many cruciferous vegetables. I will be incorporating more of these into my diet. Unlike Whitney, my need for antioxidants, Vitamin D, and Vitamin B were not elevated.

We will take these results and make a few tweaks to our fitness and nutrition plans. For the most part, we have headed in the right direction already thanks to clean eating and a solid workout plan!

Next, I think we’re going to order the Food Sensitivity+ test from Helix partner EverlyWell! This one measures antibody reactivity to 96 foods (like gluten, wheat, and dairy) as well as genetic influences on lactose intolerance, caffeine, vitamin B12, Vitamin B6, and magnesium. It will be interesting to dig deeper into the food aspect of this and have more foods analyzed!

Learn more about Helix and Fitness Diet Pro so you can start exploring your own results! Use the code HelixcmrU for 30% off any purchase at the Helix store!

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Essential Meal Prep Tools

Whitney CarlsonComment
Essential Meal Prep Tools for Clean Eating Food Prep

We post our meal prep often (mainly on Instagram Stories and Facebook!) and get many questions regarding what tools we use (especially the storage containers!). This is a list of tools that we use ourselves. We've had most of these for many, many years so they are definitely worth the investment.

As you probably know by now, sometimes we consider ourselves minimalist. We *try* to only purchase items that we know we will use. Sure, you could also get a veggie spiralizer and a million other gadgets but we didn't include those because we don't think those are necessary in order to get started. :)

We are doing a series of these posts in order to answer the questions we frequently receive. If you haven't already, check out our post on clean eating pantry staples and sign up for our newsletter so you don't miss the next helpful post!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Check our disclosure policy for more details.

Essential Meal Prep Tools for Clean Eating Food Prep

A kitchen scale is probably what we use most often. We're pretty good at being able to eyeball servings of protein and carbs but peanut butter and pistachios are a different story. Without a food scale, we could easily consume 2-3 servings at a time.

I really think that a kitchen scale is something that everyone should have in their kitchen, especially those just getting started. You might be surprised at how large some servings are and how small others seem!

We use a meat thermometer every single time we grill chicken or bake it in the oven (for things like turkey meatloaf muffins or monster meatloaf). Meat thermometers aren't expensive and it's worth the piece of mind to know that your meat is fully cooked. Many recipes you find online (ours included) may have cooking times that vary so it's important to learn the cooking times on your own oven and the easiest way to do that is by using a meat thermometer and checking the temperature of your meat.

Previously we used random plastic meal prep containers but recently invested in great quality glass food prep containers and we LOVE them. I've listed them below for you. We have the one compartment and two compartment containers. It's very easy to portion everything out and just grab and go in the mornings. It also keeps our refrigerator much more organized than the previous random sized containers everywhere!

We started with a slow cooker. Many of the recipes on our site use a slow cooker and are some of our most popular (see: Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oats and Chicken Tortilla Soup)! We now have an Instant Pot too but still use the slow cooker as well.

We bought our Instant Pot years ago and it took us 16 months to actually take it out of the box and use it but we love it! We use our Instant Pot for things like chili, to boil eggs, and to make rice and quinoa!

We actually have two blenders. We have a small one, a Ninja, and we also have a Vitamix. We use both of them on a daily basis. The small one we use for things like protein shakes and the Vitamix we use to make juice and occasionally make our own nut butter. It took us awhile to bite the bullet and buy the Vitamix because of the price tag but it has been so worth it! We've had it for almost seven years.

A lot of our food prep we do on the grill (see: Zesty Grilled Chicken). We have a tabletop gas grill (that we purchased from Costco) and also a Kamado Joe. I knew Scott was looking for a Kamado Joe grill when we moved into our new house so I looked on Facebook Marketplace and found one an older couple was selling that was practically brand new and came with a table! We've used it way more than I ever thought we would!

If you don't have room for an outside grill, a George Foreman works great! We make our Italian Turkey Burgers on ours!

Do you have anything that you would add to this list? Let us know if there's a tool you use that we should know about!

Top 5 Clean Eating Pantry Staples

Whitney CarlsonComment
Top 5 Clean Eating Pantry Staples

Our pantry is always stocked with plenty of food, thankfully. We do most of our shopping at warehouse stores (Costco or Sam's) but also order a lot of groceries online, usually through Subscribe & Save. Below are some of our clean eating pantry staples, with links to where we order online. Sometimes you can find these products in stores like Whole Foods but they tend to be very expensive...plus we don't live near a Whole Foods so online ordering is much easier! I hope this helps you stock your clean eating pantry!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Check our disclosure policy for more details.

Top 5 Clean Eating Pantry Staples

We use oat flour in a ton of our recipes! It's in most of our protein bars and desserts. We also keep quick oats and steel cut oats in the pantry at all times!

Our favorite is Bob's Red Mill, which is what we have delivered almost every month on our Subscribe and Save order!

Yum - nut butter! We don't discriminate with nut butters, we love them all! We always have either almond butter or peanut butter hanging around the house. We use it on our Ezekiel toast, in our recipes, and consume it by the spoonful (or two). ;-)

We usually buy our nut butters at Costco but you can also get them on Amazon. When shopping for nut butters be sure to look at the ingredients. We prefer only peanuts (or almonds) and salt. Most of the ones you find online (like the ones listed below) will also have oil added. Try to avoid ones with added sugar or artificial ingredients.

Stevia is our sweetener of choice. We've tried a TON of different brands and, by far, prefer Now Foods stevia. It doesn't have the gross aftertaste that many do. We use the NOW Better Stevia in our oats, coffee, protein shakes, etc. When baking, we use Stevia in the Raw. We can find Stevia in the Raw at our local grocery store but also purchase both online.

This is one that we stock up on when Costco puts it on sale. I'm talking like we buy the maximum each time week go during the sale period. We usually spend around $200 on this tuna when it goes on sale but we are also saving a TON of money! Costco has Wild Albacore Tuna in a pack of 6 for $14.99 (when on sale it's usually $9.99). Tuna isn't our favorite food but it's great to have when we don't have any food prepped or don't feel like making anything. We typically mix it with mustard. If you don't have a Costco membership you can buy it on Amazon.

Below is a link to the brand that we prefer. When shopping for tuna look for tuna that is not packed in oil.

5. Oils

Coconut oil cures everything, right?! I'll leave that up to someone else to decide but we do use coconut oil A LOT when cooking! We use it weekly in our sweet potato cubes and in our chocolate chunk protein bars.

Olive oil is also a staple in our pantry. Scott actually adds olive oil (along with the mustard) to his tuna, and we use it for cooking, etc. When shopping look for high-quality oils.

Do you have any clean eating pantry staples that we left out? Let us know!

Have a Costco membership? Check out our Costco shopping list here.