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Women In Wellness: Dr Dana Ryan of Herbalife Nutrition On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Eat after you exercise, even if you are trying to lose weight: Many people think this will help them lose weight, but consuming protein after a workout will help you build muscle and boost your metabolism.

As a part of our series about “5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Dana Ryan.

Dr. Dana Ryan is the director of Sports Performance, Nutrition and Education at Herbalife Nutrition and a member of the Company’s Fitness Advisory Board. In her role, she is responsible for helping establish the company as a global leader in sports nutrition. Her primary focus is supporting Herbalife Nutrition-sponsored athletes around the world by developing nutrition and sports performance programs as well as designing and managing sports clinical trials.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the story about how you first got involved in fitness and wellness?

Fitness has always been part of my life since I was a competitive gymnast at a young age. However, I started to understand the true value of wellness when my ability to be active was almost taken away. In college, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that threatened to sideline me from the rowing team and school in general. I then understood that exercise was simply not enough and that a healthy lifestyle was all encompassing, from how you move your body, to what you eat and your mindset.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I suppose the most interesting thing happened before I started my career and was back in college about 9 months after being diagnosed with Crohn’s. Our team won a race, and, for some reason, my coach decided to tell the press about my health and recovery. Now I am a pretty private person and would have never said anything, but the next thing I knew there was a story about my health and what I did to recover (nutrition, exercise, etc.) in several newspapers. When it was published, people came out of the woodwork to thank me for speaking up and that is when I realized that one person’s voice can make a difference. So, I never forget that when I wonder if something I write or say is going to be boring or I question if people will care about it. If you are speaking from a place of truly wanting to help people, whether it is about health and wellness or really anything else, people will listen.

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?

Pretty early on in my career I was giving a presentation about sports nutrition in another country. During the planning meetings (which were not in English) I understood through translation that I was going to be giving a presentation to team doctors, trainers, and other medical professionals. I had a high-level presentation prepared, so you can imagine my surprise when I walked into the room to present and saw a group of 12- to 13-year-old boys looking at me! This was not the audience I was expecting, but somehow made it work. The moral of that story is always double check you know your audience but also don’t be afraid to pivot from your original plan, because at the end of the day you are the only one that knows what you had originally prepared!

Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?

The natural answer to this would probably be to list all my degrees in the space, however I don’t know that is enough to make you an authority (although I do believe it is very important)! To me, my experience is more important and what makes my point of view unique. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve led a very healthy lifestyle my whole life, the textbook definition of health and wellness, but then I was faced with not 1 but now 2 autoimmune conditions. This made me realize that the version of the healthy lifestyle I was leading wasn’t going to work anymore. I had to try new things and figure out what worked for my new circumstances because wellness isn’t a one size fits all. If we try to fit everyone into one version of what we think wellness is, we are going to be limited in who we can help. It is very important to really understand people’s unique situations and craft strategies to help them with their individual goals.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

It may sound cliché, but it would have to be my mom. She passed away when I was younger from an autoimmune disease. Watching her fight so bravely, while always having a smile on her face, is something I derive strength from daily and is my motivation to do what I do.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, exercise more, and get better sleep etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the 3 main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?

  1. The stories we tell ourselves like “I don’t have time” or “It’s too expensive” can be very powerful, and we often believe that these excuses are true.
  2. We may not be convinced that those things will make a big difference, especially if we are young, healthy and have plenty of energy. So, we may ask ourselves, “Why change things when I look and feel fine?”
  3. The lack of self-efficacy about cooking or exercising, as people can be afraid to try something new if they don’t have the confidence that they can do it successfully.

Can you please share your “5 Non-Intuitive Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”? (Please share a story or an example for each, and feel free to share ideas for mental, emotional, and physical health.)

  1. Eat after you exercise, even if you are trying to lose weight: Many people think this will help them lose weight, but consuming protein after a workout will help you build muscle and boost your metabolism.
  2. Sometimes less is more: take the day off, let your body rest. If you keep pushing and pushing, eventually your body will force you to stop. Incorporating rest will help you achieve your goals.
  3. Throw away your scale: Weight is not a good indicator of overall health. Instead focus on how your clothes fit and the energy you have.
  4. Focus on movement over exercise: Moving around all day is going to benefit you more than a 30-minute workout and then sitting still all day. Find ways to incorporate movement throughout your entire day.
  5. Let it all out: Don’t be afraid to experience, accept, and embrace your emotions so that you can move forward.

As an expert, this might be obvious to you, but I think it would be instructive to articulate this for the public. Aside from weight loss, what are 3 benefits of daily exercise? Can you explain?

  1. Mood: Exercise and being active significantly impacts your overall mood and outlook on life.
  2. Focus and Concentration: If you can’t focus on work or homework, take a break to do a short workout. When you return to the task at hand, you’ll have an easier time focusing.
  3. Energy: It may seem counterintuitive, but the more you exercise and move the more energy you’ll have.

For someone who is looking to add exercise to their daily routine, which 3 exercises would you recommend that are absolutely critical?

  1. Walking
  2. Daily Stretching
  3. Planks

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?

Anything by Michael Pollan. I find his outlook on food, eating and cooking fascinating.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I wish we could eliminate diet culture. Eat because you enjoy it and the company you’re eating with. Exercise because you love yourself and want to do what’s best for your amazing body, not because you want to change your body. Embrace your body for all that it can do for you.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

It’s simple, but “Never stop learning!” Always assess where you are in life and how you can learn more. After years in the corporate world and despite multiple advanced degrees, I decided to get my MBA because I knew I didn’t know enough about business. The gifts that program and experience gave me are endless.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

I would love to meet Michael Pollan and pick his brain about all things health, wellness, and nutrition.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

@dr.danaryan on IG

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Women In Wellness: Dr Dana Ryan of Herbalife Nutrition On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.