Dr. Justin Marchegiani and Andy Hnilo engage in a very informative discussion about skin care, scar healing and recovery. Know about the natural ingredients found in Alitura Skin Care line and be informed about the products it offers.
Learn about how Andy Hnilo came up with his clay mask and how his past and present experiences as an athlete and model contributed to his success. Gain some very helpful insights about his lifestyle and the natural food supplements and ingredients that he uses for a healthy and glowing skin.
In this episode, we cover:
06:55 Natural Ingredients for scar healing and recovery
11:57 Micro needling and laser resurfacing
16:59 Skin Health and Gut connection
27:51 Acne Issues
34:30 Plant Stem Cells
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey there! It’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani. Welcome back to Beyond Wellness Radio. Really excited. We got Andy Hnilo here. It’s a silent “H”, right, Andy?
Andy Hnilo: Silent “H”—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Haha.. I know, right? Same with me with the last name “Marchegiani” So I get it. I feel your pain.
Andy Hnilo: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: How have you been today, Andy?What’s going on?
Andy Hnilo: Hey, I’m good. I’m good. Livingthe dream out here in Glen Oak__. I got a nice backyard now whereas before I just had a— like little single apartment. I just moved here, so—this is like my second podcast that I’ve done but, yeah, it’s fun. It’s like a whole different area, I’m trying to find good lighting, you know, nice comfortable place to do this but—wouldn’t want to have it any other way, man. I’m good. How about you? How are you?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Just great. It’s like 80° Austin, Texas. They gonna be uh—going to do some waterskiing this weekend if the weather holds up nice, so really excited.
Andy Hnilo: What? Lake Austin?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Lake Austin, man. Love it.
Andy Hnilo: Right on.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. You’re coming down for Paleo effects in May, right?
Andy Hnilo: I am. Yeah. You’re speaking right here?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I’ll be excited to check out your booth. I know you don’t want to share.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. We did that uh—see, we did that was it the year before where we only have one product and that— it was really good. Very busy and that— it's growing as you know – as good confer—good conferences like that—just— it’s easily the biggest Pale conference probably in the world.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, yeah.
Andy Hnilo: One of the top health and wellness conferences. You can go to that. I would say Bulletproof, natural products is pretty good. But, yeah—it’s big. I’m really looking forward to—to be able to have more—a lot of products now, so—most people—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you actually crossed my radar screen. Number one: you had an amazing story that I wanted you to kinda talk about. Kind of that, you know, far from grace and this whole experience kinda brought you this— or where you're at now with Alitura. I really want you to go into that story in a sec. And also, I've heard uhm— lots of patients and even staff members that work for me that the rave about your skincare line. They were saying, “Yeah, we’re using this line.” Just tell me more about it. And then they send me your info and I was educating myself on it and just seeing the quality of ingredients. And I know Dave Asprey was betting you which, you know, Dave puts his stamp of approval, it’s gotta be high-quality product, so—
Andy Hnilo: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I love the product.I want to get more info. I got a whole bunch of uhm— product coming my way so I’m looking forward to trying it myself, number one. And number two I'm excited to, you know, for the listeners to hear your story in kinda what you went through to—to bring this kind of __?
Andy Hnilo: Well, yeah. First, thank you. That’s awesome. It’s uh—it’s always fun. I mean this uh—it all startedMarch 20, 2011. I was in an accident where I was hit by a by a westbound heavy vehicle hittin’ the eastbound lane and then run over by a landrover
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: My God!
Andy Hnilo: And I woke up—yeah. It’s pretty—pretty—pretty rough. I mean we just passed the six year anniversary with uh—about a week and half ago.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.
Andy Hnilo: So—it’s—it’s always difficult to remember where my family was at that point and where I was in a state of recovery. I’m justlucky to be alive, so— It's pretty difficult but I mean—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: I’m movin’—I definitely moved past it. I mean I have something now to like—to you know, look forward to wake up to, which is the business. Definitely was uh—became—it became of that uhm— accident, so— I just uh— I've always been into health wellness definitely skin care before the accident but purity of ingredients were not there and the scar creams and the serums of that my surgeons are recommending that I use to just reverse the scarring and I’d stick uh two inch scar right here from on of the uh point of impact after I landed. I got slipped around a little bit and then—on the concrete I landed. Actually my jaw was punctured into the bottom of my mouth. It was like a 90° angle, there were pieces to my whole left side of my face—was uh in pieces, so I uh—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow!
Andy Hnilo: There’s a very bad compound uh—maxillo—uh you know, jaw brake. So we had a maxillo-facial surgeon from Cedars-Sinai who came in and he couldn’t do it. He needed backup so that’s when we knew something was serious and my parents, we look into someone private.Luckily my mom had connections that uh with Dr. Schendel up in Stanford University.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Andy Hnilo: He specializes maxillofacial uh surgery and so he had like on of his uh—one of his best student. I forget the term for—but he was working here in Beverly Hills.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And he came right over, his name is Joseph B___and I just knew that uhm—well we felt like we were in very good hands and so just uh—in a point of your recovery that's what you need. But he was uh—he had this scar creams and but serums that I was going to buy but I look at the back and they were just loaded with chemicals and corticosteroids and fragrances and just fillers. I mean there’s very little active ingredient. But what is that active ingredient, you know, it’s synthetic, it’s chemical. I thought it was kinda productive in healing so I just—I was thankful to have a good surgery. I wanted to do my recovery based on my own research and create, you know—I didn’t wanna leave the house so I just started to buy my own extracts, oils, potters and everything. I just started melting things down in my kitchen. My little iron casket uh—I was serious. I was melting down cacao butter, uh beeswax, sea buckthorn, clary sage, lavender, adding CoQ10, colostrum, butter I mean just making these little paste. After, I would make a mask. I was uh—little routine there I would do daily that I would see via results and it made me feel good. So the clays were pulling out the impurities that I was going through with all the antibiotics and all the x-rays and CT scans that I had to go through. And I was just in a fog. I was in a daze. I was like a zombie. I lost my zest and it—I would have to go on walks to get that circulation from uh—from head to toe. Bottom line, I really wanted to reverse the abrasions and the scarring that I had from the accident. And I did that through just research. I mean, so much information out there and I was just using myself as my biggest science experiment. I mean, necessity is the mother of invention and well and behold, years later, I have a product on Dave Asprey’s website called Alitura clay mask and that’s what really led to—just after—you know, like you said, getting that stamp of approval from Dave Asprey and having him invest in the brand and just really back it. Obviously the customers have to like the product and so the review started flowing in. And that's when I knew I had something. So I just took it and ran with it. I mean people really respond to the fact that your skin is your largest organ so you really want to treat it like another__. What you put on is gonna be absorbed in your bloodstream, it’s gonna pass through your liver and you have to treat it as such. So I just—I take a lot of pride with my ingredient. And going at it with a different approach. I mean searching everywhere for things that other people have heard of or don't use. I really like being unique in that sense. I don't work with a research and development teams. I do it all myself. The products, I do it all on me.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So let's run down the list of ingredients that you follow with the scar healing and the uh—skin recovery. What were the major ingredients? And we know you put in your formulas now. What were some of the big ones you found that really move the needle for you?
Andy Hnilo: Oh, man. So cacao butter, for sure. Cacao butter, Manuka.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Cacao butter.
Andy Hnilo: Cacao butter, Manuka honey. The two different plants where I have stem cells. I talked to—her name is Maggie, out of North Carolina. She’s really—you know, I just, I love cold calling. And people respond to passion, you know. When you have a story and when you’re the owner of the company and not an assistant calling for someone and you back it up, “Hey, look, I just wanna – wanna figure out like what the cutting edge ingredients are.” But even before that, I would just uh—just select the basics. So right in the beginning stage of where I was making it uh—you know just ingredient-by-ingredient, step-by-step. The ones that really stood out were colostrum—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: Cacao butter, the—you know the carrier of a good olive oil through things like uh—sea buckthorn I mean there were just so many. Red clover. I had 31 ingredients in that night cream which was essentially my scar uh—removal cream. I mean this was two and half inches now, I mean people after pointing out—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I can’t even see it on Skype. That’s phenomenal. You got amazing recovery and healing with that.
Andy Hnilo: Thank you. I mean I—I hit it—I just became my obsession. I really want to heal it from the inside to really build up blood and you know, help the—the cell turnover accelerate but also heal it from the outside. Make sure you’re extremely consistent uh— with that. I didn't miss days. I mean everything had a purpose, I mean—coz I was just bummed out. I’m going to figure out a way to just see, you know, see if I could reverse all that. I wanted to be back where I was before. My goal is to be back in better shape than I was before.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Always.
Andy Hnilo: I did that, so—yes. And it’s funny, you know—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And with the initial injuries, do you stay out of the sun for a period of time to make sure there’s not any—
Andy Hnilo: Yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: That’s why I went on uh—I went on walks at night during the day was my research time just to find cutting edge ingredients and kinda do my mixing and blending. I moved everything out of my bedroom in my living room and made my bedroom my little lab office type. And I would just sit there and I would think, I would write little notes down on a journal uhm—I would check out reputable website. I would check out non-reputable websites. I just want to hear, you know, hear different opinions and uhm— different people stories—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And what they do—that’s where I came up my blend of clays, that’s where I came up of different extracts, that’s where I came up experimenting with things like American ginseng topically, pro__ topically. I’d never seen any of that but I had nothing but time. So I figured out—believe me, a lot of things didn’t work. I mean there were some—there were definitely some ingredients that did not make the__ for a very good reason, but I mean, it’s okay.That’s you know,trial and error. It was you know—I was my own biggest beta tester for probably a year and then when I found that I had something—they say people saw me in the ICU—ICU room were just blown away with the recovery and so then I started traveling around town with my little backpack and my little plastic jar of clay and my little bottle of apple cider vinegar and essential oil blend. I would just go over their house and make some for them and they would gather there and stuff like that. And they would—I would—All I wanted just—be back. I mean, I’d never—this is way, way before Alitura. This is before I had a website, anything. It was called, “the clay mask” and I uh—yeah, I mean, hour—hour and a half later, though, I would get it right now. The feedback is great, so—I knew I had something but it's like how do you go about—where do you go, how do you reach out to—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah, Estée Lauder and just go, “Hey guys, I have this amazing mask.”So I didn’t really—It’s tough. I would just—friends of friends would refer me to make up artist and people who had Med Spas and—and salons but—I mean people like it but we don’t really have that credibility. It’s like, “What do you do?” is luckily I had a friend own a Medspa in San Diego and she took it on board uhm as a trial to some—some patients that she trusted. And they loved it, too.So then she took it on her menu of treatments. And that was like my own little victory right there. I mean I was like I, you know, I had something. I still didn’t have a name. They just called it the mineral-dense, nutrient-rich mask and it was like, they charge like 499 bucks with three treatments so it was like, “What?!?” It’s like—how do you—just to have something that people—that you created that people would pay for. I don’t care if it’s a meal— but anything. It just felt good and so that little flicker of momentum led it—led to uh— a really, you know, it’s like, man it felt good, like a little validation. And then I just went from there. I called, emailed Dave Asprey. I—I—I just uh—I tried a lot of different combinations of his email address, with like copy, pasting the exact same thing and one went through and so he uh—he took me on board as a Bulletproof ambassador, have me on his podcast and the rest is really history. I mean, it’s fun to look back on, but uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s amazing.
Andy Hnilo: Took that and run with it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s actually amazing. So with uh—with all the things that you did in your recovery, so we obviously use some of the really awesome ingredients and did you do any supplemental procedures as well to help? Did you do like any of the micro needling or any of the laser resurfacing? Anything at all supplementally?
Andy Hnilo: Absolutely. So uhm—before the mask, I just did it right now. Actually, I do micro needling. We actually be releasing the titanium uhm– micro needle here within the next month or something. Because it really just help escort those micronutrients just pass the dermis and uh—just really uh— accelerate the absorption and uhm—it just—it turns up the mask a little bit so I would start doing that just in scar and I’d see the results and I’m like, “I’m just gonna do this all over my neck, face everywhere—even in my scalp, too.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow!
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. Coz it just make sense to open up those pores and just you know, especially hit the part at the scalp. It just made sense to me and I would really massaged it in and just helps, you know,create a little circulation to the scalp, to the dermis, everywhere and so that was one. As far as the laser, we—I did a little pixel treatment on the scar area uhm—I can’t really say it did a whole lot uhm—I heard the the cold lasers are great. But as far as the pixel, it really became inflamed. And what it does, basically, it creates uh you know, a burn and it has to heal again. I mean maybe did a little bit but you gotta be ready for some downtime if you’re gonna be doing an intense laser like that but I hear cold lasers are good—very good these days, so that could be an option as well.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. Anything else you did to move the needle? And by the way—
Andy Hnilo: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: When are you coming out with the uhm—the—the micro needling thing you mentioned
Andy Hnilo: They are in production right now. They are in production right now. Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Great.
Andy Hnilo: It’s a nice titanium uhm—so they’re gonna be sent to me in, who knows, maybe about by the time this airs. I don’t know. But it’s great. What we use to have that is like a nice little add-on. I mean, people keep asking me for that. I would refer them to others. And I’m just like, “Why won’t I just make my own? Make it easier for me.”
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, that’s great. We’ll put al the products that we mention on the show below. So anyone needs to ask us so they can get them pretty fast.
Andy Hnilo: Yup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Perfect.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And I know your kinda history coming into this you’re model for a while, you are also collegiate athlete baseball, right?
Andy Hnilo: Right. Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So you were doing a lot with your body. You’re doing a lot, you know, your— your body essentially was your income.
Andy Hnilo: Right. Yeah. And so that—after the accident, I lost 17 pounds. So I don’t really have a lot of weight to lose. So I just build in that weight back with strictly through doing a lot of this uhm—this research. I’m trying these herbs.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: Adaptogens—uhm—you know, things like that jus to help build my blood, circulate that blood, remove the impurities and reduce inflammation.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: Strengthening the immune system. Amino acids have been huge. And I just—I did this morning tonic just to help build my blood and circulate that blood and really just get me going. And I have this nighttime tonic to calm down and uh—help me recover and sleep my best and that just became this—everydayIt was part of my routine. And so that was— that help me build back my frame quicker and also just help me throughout my workouts. And eating to a point where it was just—it’s similar to like uh—excuse me—a Paleo diet but it’s with a twist of lot of uh—just rich uh—tonics and things like that throughout the day. So it's mostly Paleo with a little—yeah, it’s pretty much Paleo, I would say.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: How about collagen? How much collagen are you adding into your diet?
Andy Hnilo: Two tablespoons. I use the Bulletproof Collagen Powder every morning in my coffee.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nice.
Andy Hnilo: And so throughout the day post-recovery. I—for connective tissue and joint— joint health and things like that. I mean I just feel so good uhm—just—as a post-workout as well, but in the morning adding that. It just dissolves nice. Doesn’t’ taste like much butI feel—you know my parents are on that as well. I think that’s the most absorbable form of protein and the most beneficial form of protein uhm—we can do that. Gelatin is great but I like to stick right between those two and then the colostrum. Uhm and just to hit with a little nice absorbable form of IGF-I growth factors but uhm—what about you? What are your thoughts on that? I mean, I’m still learning but, you know, I—people are so used to the Whey protein and the you know, the—the things that you—you find it—all around. I mean, I like to get the most absorbable form of protein.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, yeah.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. I’m a huge fan of Collagen Peptide. I have my own line as well called TruCollagen, but—very similar: grass-fed, organic in peptide form to maximize absorption. Love the—the glycine content which is great for the enterosite turnover in the gut. Also great for glutathione precursors for the liver.
Andy Hnilo: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Also hydroxyproline. Proline, a lot of the— you know, collagen. A lot of the peptides that help kinda rejuvenate the skin, cartilage. All those things. So its—I’m such a huge fan of that. And I see a lot of patient with gut issues as well. And we’ll talk about this next because the skin is kind of the mirror of the gut. What's your take on skin health connected to the gut?
Andy Hnilo: I just— so—maybe you can explain—I heard that from someone like yourself and so I just ran with it and started eating as much fermented foods as I could.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: So, lot of crop, lot of fermented—uh—you know, beets and I like a brand Farmhouse culture is a great brand. I mean I take out a bag of those every other day. I mean so I’m going through. I mean they’re expensive but I really feel like it takes care of that gut. I mean with my diaphragm sits closer to my spine. I’m nice and light on my heat. I’m just going through uh—I’m just more uh—you talk about uh—you know functional nutrition I think that's the essential part of it. You know I’m not creating any issues with digestion through eating those fermented foods so I’m taking care of that gut. It’s just so important. And you know that’s the thing. These probiotics are becoming like this catchphrase and I went through—I went through probiotics but I’d rather get it naturally through food. I mean I don't—I didn’t really see or feel too much bad effects. Some of it will make my stomach bark a little bit and kinda like a little bloated, a little gassy. But now, it’s like I just stick with uh—the fermented vegetables with every meal. It just really helps—helps me but uhm—I’m open. Do you have any ideas? Are you a fan of any fermented vegetables as well?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, of course. Yeah. I mean sauerkraut, uh– spickels, the Kombucha, the lower sugar Kombucha. A lot of the Kombuchas today have becoming like soda if you look at the sugar.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So I like the GT Dave’s. 2 grams of sugar in the uh—in the ginger Kombucha. Huge fan of that, for sure.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Again, therapeutically, some people that have infections in dysbiosis, you know, they—they benefit by cleaning up the gut, right? You know, you go in the garden, you pull the weeds out before you turn down the seeds. And I find a lot of people if they have some weeds in there, the weeds kinda interact with the seeds i.e. you get some of the bloating and such. But you know some people they get a little histamine response as well. So huge fan of the probiotic.I thing that’s big to get big. You also mentioned in the past, you had a placenta smoothie. Tell me a little bit more about that.
Andy Hnilo: Ah, yeah. Well, uhm—Yeah. It so—I—I was trying everything and I’d— some people recommend. So here’s what I did. I’m talking bison liver. I chopped them off and I take little connective tissue lines. So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: That goes to—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. That’s all good.
Andy Hnilo: So I would do that, egg yolks. Coz my jaw was wide stretched.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: So I was trying to get much nutrition in as possible. Deer placenta, I would brake up the little capsules for those days. Uh—four capsules a day. Uh– egg yolks, bison liver, I mean (laughs) colostrum. So I was just trying to get much nutrition back into my system as I could. So I couldn’t eat. And uh—So yes, a lot of people get gross stuff but the placenta, apparently, is the most nutrient-dense source of the animal. I mean it’s some of the—Dave’s saying some of the animals eat their placenta after giving birth.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: All of them do except humans. I recommend a lot of my patients to encapsulate their placentas.
Andy Hnilo: Wow! Really?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Huge benefits. I mean every patient that I had do it, they have history of like post partum, you know, the depression that occurs after because basically the fetus is a magnet for nutrition. So if you can take that and bottle it up and put in the capsules, right, you get a little bit oxytocin and some of those nutrients, too.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah! That’s—okay. Yeah. And have they done it?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh yeah. I’ve had patients do it and had phenomenal results. I mean patients with three and four kids that had postpartum, postpartum, postpartum did it, and then boom! depression was gone after that last kid.
Andy Hnilo: It’s—Yeah. Ton of B vitamins, I would assume.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And if you know, obviously, women is gonna be trying to breast-feed so you get a little bit oxytocin which really helps facilitate that milk letdown reflex as well.
Andy Hnilo: Right. Yeah. Wow! Well so—I mean, that’s what I would do and then I would get a little b__ from the bison liver as well, egg yolks, super__ I would just try to pack as much nutrition in there as possible. Little spirulina, beet powder—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: So—Yeah. That’s what I did. I just felt so good. I mean there was a point wherein I was just rocked, you name it, seven broken ribs, collapsed lungs, and then—head to toe. When I felt pretty good shortly after and I blamed it all on nutrition or and uh—you know, topically with my mask just reduced, you know, a lot of that—just pent up uh—condensed just right around the eye area.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And I use a lot of that and pulled out a lot of the impurities as well, so—yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. So walk me through kinda your history. You’re a college athlete at where?
Andy Hnilo: Yes. I went to Burkley on a baseball scholarship, 2000 to 2002 transferred to Sacramento State.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: Uh—played a year there and then finished up finished at St. Mary's College in Moraga which is the West Coast conference uhm— had an opportunity— I’ve had opportunities to play professionally I just—I didn’t get draft and uh—I was really close when I was right there but it just didn’t happen and so I'm moved down to LA and I actually I’ve had a partial tear rotator cuff. So that was—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: But uhm—with the partial tear as you know, it just take those weird little exercises to grow back and so I was like, “ I didn’t wanna do that at home.” So I moved down to LA and started working out Beverly Hills high school and getting back in shape to go back professionally.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: I had an opportunity to at least uh—work out and play with the team which is still independent baseball called the uhm— Human Scorpions which back then was a gold in baseball league. But uhm—in being down in LA and living in my buddy’s couch, who was an actor, he was—he head me run these sides with them which are— which are like audition sides.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And it was pro baseball film and I was like still fresh out of baseball. And so it just came pretty quickly me and I didn’t have any nerves because I wasn’t auditioning so I was repeating lines better than he was. And so it was really cool that he did this because like man, do you ever thought of getting into this? Coz you’re—this is huge—this particular role. And I was like, “ I mean, I don’t know. What do you think?” So it was really nice just it never happens—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: But he reached to the director and he’s like, “This role I’m going out for, a buddy of mine is actually better for it than I am. Would you consider seeing him?” They saw my picture, they told them about my baseball background. Sometimes things like that happens. So they brought me in and I had nothing to lose. I did really well and I had a call back, screen test and ended up booking that role which is a lead in the future film. And so that I just gave up baseball and uh—just focused on that like representationand started really working a lot, book some operas, a lot of commercials, started modeling a little bit and then—yeah the rest is—yeah, I’ve beendoing that ever up until uh—yes so that was 2006—yeah, 2006 up until my accident 2011. So I was working a lot as well as an actor, and then the accident hit and then after that my—my attention to nutrition and skin care really just— that became my focus. And it was really— just stare me in the face my entire life. That's my passion. You know, just health andwell-being, nutrition, wellness you name it. So that's right where I’m supposed to be. But I still act and do a little bit of modeling but the acting is—but I’m very specific with my agent with what I wanna do. I want it to be something fun that I, you know, preferably, honestly, baseball. I want it baseball-related and if it’s not there, then I won’t do it. I actually booked a guest star on uh—HBO or FOX called “Pitch” so it was uh—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: It was a lot of fun for me to play that part.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. That’s awesome.
Andy Hnilo: I would do it, but you know, Alitura, my baby and my focus—absolutely. So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very cool. And regarding the baseball, what was your diet like when you're an athlete? I mean would you be as good as it was now with good fats and all those things? Or did you learn that later on?
Andy Hnilo: I learned that later on. Uh— you know back and this was early 2000 to mid-2000, I had not heard of the “good fat” thing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.That’s_back then.
Andy Hnilo: Back then it was called, “low fat”. But what I was uhm—low carb. I was focused on uh—nutrient dense. So right then I was big into the Men’s Health magazines.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And they were good with the basics. I mean they’re still god with just telling people and explaining very clearly and easy to—to remember way on what to eat, what— what vegetables to eat, why to eat them, what to stay away from.So that's what I focused on and I would just— some people, you know, at the dining halls, at the dormitory where I was staying,would see me doing this finicky little __and spinach and tuna and like no dressing. That was like my big thing, like—what—“how do you eat that without dressing?” I heard the dressing is the worst part for you in the South so I don’t eat it. And so that—year by year, it just accelerated. I got a little bit better year-by-year and that’s the way it’s gonna be. I’m constantly searching for new—the latest and greatest. But yeah, back then, I was 215 and it was just all—I was an outfielder pitcher.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Outfielder pitcher.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. And so like, it’s all about ball.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: How fast can you throw?
Andy Hnilo: 91.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Really?
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. 91. But I think it could be—I think it could be a little bit more because I never got my core involved.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Andy Hnilo: It was all on—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Andy Hnilo: So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And that’s the key. I work with athletes a lot especially pitchers. The key really is is the lower body the glutes, could you throw so much with those hips.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah and the stride length. I have no flexibility. I would just rely on my arm.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And I really feel like if—coz you know with the long tossing, you’re getting all that momentum and I could throw it further, you know.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: I could—but and that usually translates to loss__ But 91 was good but I-I want—I really feel like if I got that with all the technology these days as you know—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: So I’m really tight around this area and you see the pitchers, like they’re nice and loose. Although they’re getting bigger these days, guys like Jake ___They’re getting bigger and stronger but they’re also doing things like yoga and taking care of those bodies and getting that stride length out there. And so I—I really feel like I didn’t even dip into the potential of what I could bring velocity-wise but it’s all good.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. Do you ever wish that you had the knowledge you have now with like the good fats and all the nutrient density and all the things that you're doing now with healthy lifestyle habits you could bring that back in time sometimes?
Andy Hnilo: Definitely. Seriously, I still hit. I still throw. I meanyou give me, I don't know, like months or 2 months I really feel like I could get back into it. I’m 35. I’ll be 36 in November but—yeah, I just was down in spring training with the Cubs Dodgers. I’m hitting with those guys. I haven’t picked up a bat for, I don’t know, years. Every Spring training I do it. So I probably didn’t pick up a bat for the—year before and hit. So I mean—I just—So all those things. We’re not thinking about it. That was my biggest thing was mind I wouldjust get to caught up where my hits, where my hands are supposed to be really are and you know—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And uh—but now it’s just kinda grip and rip. It’s so funny how that works sometimes it's mind over matter.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. And do you have history of acne issues or skin issues?
Andy Hnilo: And so—Yes, I did. And that— that's what got me so focused on skin care early on. I could—Man, I had bad back acne.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Ahh.
Andy Hnilo: And it was all—because the products I was using. That and diet.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-huh.
Andy Hnilo: It started going. Man, it was so frustrating. I couldn’t even– in my locker, I wouldn’t even turn around. I would just stand face out because it was really embarrassing. Yeah. Very embarrassing.So I just—you know, you have things that bug you and try to figure out a way to—you know, there’s always information out there. There’s like—look, I was using Clearasil.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: Uhm—a phase. And it was al—I would always have some type of irritation, always some type of—it was—my skin was reacting to the toxins.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: That’s where—that’s where it was. And then I was using the terrible body wash and I was eating bad, eating poorly. And so I just—that’s—yeah, I was what, 19-20 years old and I just start becoming interested in doing it. I did my first clay mask when I was—20—20 years old. And that night—that night and I just had one ingredient. And I would do that every Sunday, I think. And so that – I mean 20 years old, I’ll be 36. I’ve been doing it for 13 years. I mean, I’m talking I don’t miss weeks. I just—a clay mask is—to the people out there, it doesn’t have to be mine. It could be—that is undeniably effective internally, externally. That night clay is—and there’s a lot of great ones as well.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And that’s pulling out a lot of toxins and anyone can do it even if you're healthy. What are the benefits? Are you gonna see improvements with acne, with wrinkles, with elasticity? What do you see with that?
Andy Hnilo: So what I—All of that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: So what you see is you can spot treat—it pulls out—I’ve—I’ve heard of people putting my mask, you know, uh—spot treating little spider bites and it just pulls out that infection for that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Ahh.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. And bringing a lot of circulation into the surface of the skin. And the clay is so mineral-rich uh—pulling out heavy—it has like—electro charge so as far as like pulling out—it just uh—it works with your own electromagnetic uh—energy to pull out heavy metals.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And it’s just, you know, the military use it for—for that uh—source like your little bed night treatment internally, externally just to help pull out and deal it—deal with a lot of radiation, and things like that.Uh—as far—yeah, as far as mineral density in—in—I would say the biggest things as far as mineral density just escorting those good uh— nutrient factors and things like silica uh— profile is over 70% and silica uh—I mean just one of building blocks of collagen, I believe so.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: So just—it’s—it just uh—yeah, so I would say as far as like filling out wrinkles, I would say wrinkles are just creating circulation to that surface and kinda filling out those fine lines. Wrinkles also, I think uh— can be due to, you know, poor diets as far as sugar, dairy, uhm—hydration. Maybe a little bit too much sun exposure without replenishing that lost moisture and staying hydrated. I mean, there’s a lot of—I mean, just unbelievable extracts, butters, essential oils. You just kinda recondition, you know. Just stay diligent with that. Just put something on before yougo to bed at night. You wake up— I think even—it’s—the most important time to do when you’re in__ position for 68 hours.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Andy Hnilo: You put some night cream. I mean—hit it with uh—it can just be one ingredient. I started out with Cacao Butter and I started doing that. And I’m like,
“Let’s add some manuka honey to it, well, let’s add some colostrum to it.”
And just step-by-step, I created something that’s unlike—I really—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So someone’s trying to kinda dip their toe in and kind of figure out what product will give me the best bang for the buck in Alitura line. What would that be? Would that be the night cream?
Andy Hnilo: If you're— if you're going to do uh— take the time because mine is a mask, like say the clay mask—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Andy Hnilo: It’s just a powder mask and you will find it—whether it's rosewater, aloe vera juice, apple cider vinegar is uh—is very popular. If you’re gonna take the time to do it, I mean—that’s the most effective treatment.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So a mask is number one.
Andy Hnilo: Mask is number one. Uh—I would say, night cream number two.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Is that the best one for scarring as well for any skin imperfections?
Andy Hnilo: Yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it.
Andy Hnilo: Definitely.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And is there a second one after what I’m saying?
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. I mean it’s so—tough to tell you. It’s—I mean the—the moisturizer is great, too.We have the body lotion, uh—serum—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Any SPF in the moisturizer?
Andy Hnilo: Not that I can claim. Uh—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: But it’s just uh—we’re—I'm going to release uh—uh— sunscreen here, too. It’s just uh—I’m gonna—I’m gonna be using a non-nano zinc and then I can get about a 30 SPF rating.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: — which is good. People want it. So I just—I’m going to make one in—you know, I don’t really have a problem non-nano zinc.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: I mean it’s a mineral and it provides you some protective—uh—that’s what people want. So what I’ll do, I’ll just—I’m gonna create one that is, you know, without the need of the fillers. I mean where some—there’s a good brand out there, “Keys” K-E-Y-S. And they have the solar RX. It’s good. They just have—I think I can make theirs better. So that’s what I’m gonna do. But uhm—uhm—Yeah. I would say, you know, some good—some exposure but depending on uhm—you know, everyone’s history. I think it’s beneficial. Just absorbing nutrients, good vitamin D and just helping with overall sense of well-being. I mean I know people that live in San Diego that went Oregon flat-out went through seasonal depression because they didn’t have the sun.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Andy Hnilo: And so–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And what’s your recommendation on exposure? Just kinda get a gentle pain, you don’t want a burn, is that your general recommendation?
Andy Hnilo: Absolutely. 15-20 minutes tops. I think uh—I read from Tim Ferriss’ book. I’ve read that anything—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: For our body.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Anything past 20 minutes, now you’re starting to burn. Uhm—so I would take 15-20 minutes daily. If you can, just get out and you know, just take your shirt off and get some good absorption all over the body or just face, whatever you’d like to. And it’s—just—it’s uh—definitely, I can. I mean so I can go without it. But I—I’d notice that—it—absolute result everytime after I get a little sun exposure.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And are you able to now get some sun on those old injuries because the scars are fully-healed now?
Andy Hnilo: Yes. I do. Yeah. I mean it—it’s uh been a while but I took it. Yeah, I mean I didn’t—I didn’t coz the sun just will_ again—that scar.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: So I didn’t get much sun through a long time. So now uh—yes, it’s—it’s pretty much healed so I’m—I’m out and about but that’s where it’s a good point. If someone is uh—recovering and has scar I would definitely say stay out of the sun and if you do, get some very good uh—natural uhm—sunblock over that area if you’re gonna go skiing or something like that coz it’s horrible for it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. And tell me about some of the plant stem cells coz that’s—they’re unique in your line.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And you mentioned—you found it from that girl there uh—over North Carolina.
Andy Hnilo: Yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But tell me more about that. How did you get that in there? And is that a big needle mover in your line?
Andy Hnilo: It’s—uh—Yeah. Absolutely. I mean nobody uses several different ones. And I—I tried F__, Oregano Uh—I probably tried six or seven uh— forms of all the different plant drug stem cells.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And I plant with a nice soluble form of uh—and Edelweiss and Gardenia. They both have studies, too. The Gardenia stimulates collagen production. And the Edelweiss just helps firm and tone. So that—the combination, it works extremely well together and in my formula, it's just— it's –it's about that particular uhm—blend is in the night cream and I'm—I’m gonna be working with bamboo stem cells, uh—ginseng stem cells on my scrub. I didn’t wanna use it in my cleanser because it’s a washed up product. But I mean I wanted to useit but it just didn’t make sense coz you’re just putting it on really quickly and washing it off. But in my scrub, you’re gonna be massaging in bamboo which is nature's highest form of silica into the skin. It’s just uh—yes, sorry I’m just becoming—coz plants if you look, they help prepare themselves when they—when they’re cut off. I mean—they just—they—they pinpoint that area to help regrow. I mean it’s a very, very uh—you know science—I’m very lucky that scientist started looking at that. And the fact that they repair themselves after injury and then nowhere after being cut or something like that so quickly. Uhm—and so I—I wanna see if there’s an aloe vera stem cell. There’s just got to be. I mean, if you see how quickly they repair themselves and they just grew it right back, I mean, it’s amazing, so—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: In saying, what’s your experience with human cell uh—stem cells?
Andy Hnilo: I haven’t—I’m very, you know, interested in. I haven’t done any of that. Dave is—Dave is all over that. I believe he does human, I’m not sure, but uh—it’s becoming the next biggest thing as far as, you know, with the—I think I heard you and _were talking about it with his knee injury.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Andy Hnilo: — his knee recovery. And—but—I’m—as far as topically in the skin, your regenerating tissue uhm—I’m—it’s something I’m very fascinated in but uhm—I just—uh—I don’t know, maybe you can—you help me out a little bit on it. What are so—have you worked with it?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, yeah, a little bit. There’s a product that use uhm— called, “J Bio”. J Bio Serum and they basically go to tissue banks and they extract stem cells from fat tissue essentially and they spend it out. The biggest issue is stem cells, it's—it’s kinda now you sell it and go in many different—different directions. So how do you stimulate it to go to skin versus uh—kidney or wherever direction. So the hard part is how you guide it. But there are some FDA studies right now. What they’re doing it on burn victims with they have these stem cell guns and they spray people at them just got them like massive burns. And a week or two later, like their skin’s back. It’s insane.
Andy Hnilo: What?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So that's probably the future of medicine, I think.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s that.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. Sounds like it. I had a friend who had a very bad burn—yeah, just—third degree burn all over his body and they did a—I think they did shark—shark uh—skin all over his, yeah, I mean—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: I just—it helped but man, about a week later, his skin is back.That’s amazing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I’ve seen that same thing in a lot of Oriental countries. They use like the skin of various fish. One: because of the omega-3, fatty acids because of the hydration. I've seen it they do all these wraps and people look like they have fish scale. It’s pretty crazy.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. Yeah. That’s what you had to do. And it’s back.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Unreal.
Andy Hnilo: It definitely didn’t take—took a lot more than a week. That’s for sure.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. Now tell me—we kinda went off the back acne issue. What was the needle mover for that? Were there any foods that were driving that? What did you do to fix the back acne?
Andy Hnilo: Oh, it was just processed food.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Andy Hnilo: I mean, diet, I would say diet and the products I was using Neutrogena body wash.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And I was eating pizza, hotdogs, burgers. I was trying to put on weight.
Andy Hnilo: I was skinny. It was going onto my body.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: I was about 18-19 years old, freshman. I was competing with, you know, 22 -23 year olds which were big and working out. I was a 168 pounds so I got up to 191 at that time just by eating whatever I want.That’s all I knew.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And you know, protein-fat calorie, you know—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Andy Hnilo: And uh—but it’s—that was one of the biggest uhm—catalyst in my uh—back acne. And my face will break out every now and then, too. So it was just uh—I cleaned that up through time. But I cleaned that up with the product that I was using. I went from that to I got—I think it was Aubrey Organics.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Organics.
Andy Hnilo: Aubrey Naturals now. But—uhm anyway, yeah. The great—switching that up. Just becoming very aware of the ingredients. I mean, just getting away from those big, heavily, marketed brands with toxic ingredients and going towards a more natural route. And that’s what changed my life. It really did. I mean uh—I don’t uh—I don’t have to worry about my back anymore.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s awesome.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah. And so really good. It makes me, you know, it changed my life for sure. That’s definitely why I’m so passionate about it, you know—coz you know how down then I was, and I just—yeah, feels good.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I’m very excited to start using your products. I got them queued up here, so, that will be great.
Andy Hnilo: Nice.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So walk me through your routine. And I've heard it before but I want to know where is that now? What’s your daily routine like? I know you’re a big guy in the intermittent fasting. You’re doing high fats and also, I kinda want to know how you vary that routine when you're getting ready for like a shoot, like you're really trying to just lead out. It may not be sustainable, right? But I want to know the difference in how you—how you uhm— compare the two.
Andy Hnilo: Yes. So, as far—my current morning routine will be I get up within minutes of doing—I’m doing somethingt 'til failure.
whether it’s push-up, pull-ups—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo:–just to get that blood flow. Uh—I read at Men’s Health a while ago that really just helps—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup. Love that.
Andy Hnilo: –to have energy throughout the day.So, I’ll goright into that and I’ll make my morning tonic. I’ll do a lot of different Chinese herbs, spirulina, uhm—Hawaiian spirulina, schisandra, h__, gynostemma . A lot of these different uhm—Chinese herbs and then I’ll also add a little turmeric uh—so uhm—you know, amino acids, curl oil, curcumin. I mean uh—it’s a lot. But I’ll do that and so that is building off of the push ups to really getting that blood flow and then what I’ll do, if it’s not my mask day, I’ll just mask every other day. Like today was, so—I’ll throw on the mask and I have this table in my other room right there. And so what I’ll do is hang those up side down.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.
Andy Hnilo: Try to collect my thoughts and I don’t turn on my phone. Uhm—working on that. I don’t turn on my phone until all this is done. And so it kinda sets the tone for the day. I mean, I’m big on gratitude, big on perspective uhm—you know, lots of music going on in the background. So for about 10 minutes, I’ll be hanging upside down. It really helps lengthen out my spine and get that circulation going—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: —between the discs. Lot of blood flow of the mask on, so like you’re really getting that blood flow from the tur_ roller. And then the mask, I mean, it’s just insane. Yeah, it’s just part of, you know, just getting your best self getting ready for the day and just feeling your best locked in where you’re good. So after that, uhm—I will uh—shower up, get my Bulletproof coffee after and uh—I like to turn up the Bulletproof coffee a little bit, add in a little grass-fed butter.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: Uhm—cayenne pepper, butter, m__,tribulus, cordyceps, stevia. It sounds horrible but I love it. I love it and then, I’m just good to go. And so—and so that’s what I do pretty much everyday but—pre shoots—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: I—I’ve been noticing there’s like a—a little—there’s some vegetables to tighten you up. I call it trick wrapping.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: So cilantro, celery, uh—beets. Now, why is that? It almost acts like a diuretic.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes it does. That’s what exactly what you’re doing.
Andy Hnilo: Ohh. Okay. So just all that water weight and so what I’ll do and I – I do uh—eggs. So like pre-shoot, a couple of days before. So eggs are getting the good fats. I’ll do the yolks down. I’ll do those raw and I’ll cook up the protein and then avocado. So eggs, avocado, celery, cilantro, uhm—there’s another one—uh—beets, broccoli, a little bit but just maybe I’ll cut down the sweet potato course in size a little bit but just get all the good nutrients in there. And then uhm—yeah, definitely intermittent fast up until 8. So I won’t eat until 2 pm. So say it by—at 8 pm the previous night, I don’t eat until 2 pm. That’s for 12-16-18 hour fast. Then my body is in that state of ketosis, I believe, after the Bulletproof coffee that I’ve had that is high in fats but uhm—low in protein. Now if I do the collagen-protein, some people would say I—that takes me out of my fast, but I don’t know—I mean, does it? Because I’m adding that scoop of collagen protein and that’s it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I mean it’s good, but I don’t think so. You’re still gonna be in ketosis, though. The idea of the fast is to keep the ketosis going. And the whole idea is you don’t want too much gluconeogenesis which is basically making protein—making sugar from the protein, so—I think it’s still be in the ketosis there, for sure. I’ve heard you say in the past, so you really cut the fat, though, before a shoot. Are you still doing that? Or have you modified that?
Andy Hnilo: Avocado. No, I—I used to do that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: I just—I see—if anything, I just see a good benefit—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Andy Hnilo: —from the good fats. So a little vascularity—vascularity too. So say, if I’m doing something athletic for like Oakley and I really want like—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: You know, the shoots all work.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Totally.
Andy Hnilo: You know what I mean, I’m running around. So you gotta be—you gotta have some energy, so—But I—it’s yeah. The beets with the nitric oxide content—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Andy Hnilo: And then I’ll combine that with grass-fed butter, avocado and then just being mineralized. That’s a big thing is—you know, here’s the big misconception about salt, right? It’s just that you know water retention, you get bloated. I noticed that Himalayan salt uh—particularly does not do that. And so I’ll do a little bit with it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Andy Hnilo: But I’m talking whenever you know, when you get in the farm, that Himalayan salt is something that can wake you back right up. And so uh—those are two things I cut down as far as the good fats and then the—the salt content, but I—when you really just want to tighten up for a job, it’s uh—that’s what I do. Yeah. Parsley is another big one.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. Is that beet, parsley, celery—is that in a drink or are you juicing that?
Andy Hnilo: So yeah. What I do is uh—the beet I sauté up.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Andy Hnilo: And then the uh—the parsley, avocado, uhm—fermented vegetable, cilantro and celery is a mash. I just mash it up and then I'll do uh—just with the fork, you know, a little hot sauce, a little bit—I’ll do that in the day and that just satiates me. I mean it’s just something that all those nutrients are flow—flowing out throughout the body. It’s definitely something I do. Just keeps me on my—and then sardines, I know, I’m like—I love sardines, too. The nutrient content is amazing. Good fats, good amount of protein but also just it’s uh—it’s super bioavailable. I would say like to the body. It’s just—it just helps—helps uh—satia—just get the mind right, but also it’s not o—you’re not overdoing it. You’re not uh—you know, it’s not something that’s too difficult on your digestive system and you can absorb a lot from it, so that’s another thing I’ll do. Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I love it. That makes sense. By the way, how did you get the name of your business, Alitura?
Andy Hnilo: Alitura. So we’re looking around. It’s uh—it started off with “golden glow”
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Ahh.
Andy Hnilo: And it’s just acts—like a bronzer to many people. Luckily I didn’t go. Thankfully, I didn’t but, yeah, so you know, so it’s just—we started talking with my partners as far as I—search engine optimization. Someone told me, I don’t think it’s true, but that—it’s search engine optimization—it’s like alphabetized, uh—you know, they—they prefer “A” before “Z” obviously.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Andy Hnilo: So we started going into that. So I knew I wanted it to be “A”. Uhm—but then I was—started going back and forth and it’s Latin for “feeding”. I kinda want it to be something, you know, different in language and then yeah, we just went up and took awhile. And it was uh—it was this extremely difficult. They only—they only have one, but I really feel like it uh—just embodies what our brand is about. The logo is something—I have to tell you, the logo is something I’m really happy about. Coz we went to so many different graphic designers who were just giving me Google Fox.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: By the way, I just grabbed the shar_ you went to Kinko’s. It’s—I love my signature. I love, you know—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: And also, the whole model behind signing up on what’s inside the product. I mean, that’s my signature right there.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: It just uh—the product—twenty minutes writing the same thing, “Alitura”. You know, I copied it and then send it off to the graphic designer, we kinda just tightened it up and smooth it out a little bit, but yeah, that’s how the logo came about. It’s just uh—signing up on what’s inside, you know. And that’s what—I make that to—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That's awesome. I know you mentioned earlier that you're coming out with a new— a new design for the bottle, a new glass bottle. When is that coming out?
Andy Hnilo: Oh, that’s for the fragrance.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Fragrance. Got it.
Andy Hnilo: And we went—so the branding—we’re going on with an all like black matte to make that silver foil pop. Oh man, I wish I had it here. Uh—well, this is like uh—that’s a night cream right there.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Andy Hnilo: And so the mask—we’re doing the same thing. The mask is a—it’s a charcoal mask.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Andy Hnilo: It’s very subtle, but man, it looks so slick. So that's—that's—it just—it looks great. Uhm—it’s uh—it supplement really—just—you know, coz if you can— it’s something that we can control. You know, the packaging is so important and it’s got to reflect what’s inside it. But uh—as far as the fragrance goes, it’s gonna be a lot different. I didn’t—yeah—it’s gonna be like a smoked glass coming out magnetic cap, going metal top, nice little uh—like skin Alitura. It's called, “Presence”. The unisex, organic fragrance. It is—it’s mind-blowing. It’s uh—I’m actually meeting with uh Rob__ to get a sample today.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very cool.
Andy Hnilo: My hands—it’s like a little egg so we’ll see, I’m so excited for that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very cool. I only got two questions left. Last one, I know your evolution of being kind of the model, the baseball player, kind of the individual Hollywood actor to being the CEO and the entrepreneur. What was the biggest lesson? The most valuable lesson you learn to help you go from the solopreneur to the entrepreneur running your business?What was that big lesson for you that helped you?
Andy Hnilo: Whew!
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: If you will crystallize one thing. One thing that has been the biggest needle mover for you?
Andy Hnilo: Hmm—the one thing that I’ve maintained throughout all of the different industries that I’ve been is just—hum—the work ethic.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: The discipline. If you combine the work ethic and the discipline and uhm—that’s gonna take you far. That’s—regardless of what it is, I mean—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: Having that fear of failure—it’s still like when I was 14-16 years old—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: From a coach who gave me some really encouraging words that you have a chance but there’s somebody out there working harder than you right now.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: He fears uh—that I—that just has not left. There’s always something that can be done. And uh—it’s just—that’s you know, you have to be excited about the work that you’re putting in which is something do your best every single time and work—work til you—I’ve fall-I’ve fallen asleep in the parking lot in the post office before. My car rang—snapping back up. That—I mean it’s just—it feels good, you know to—you know, to—to know that you put absolutely, you know, in to everything. And then you don’t have any regrets. It’s just like, “Man, that’s pretty good.” I mean, you can’t—things that you can control such as what you put into it, how you treat others and gratitude and perspective, things like that. They all work together and–you live a pretty happy life.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I can see where the work ethic of sports probably transition over and really helped you with that.
Andy Hnilo: Absolutely. You know, competition, dealing with failure—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Andy Hnilo: Dealing with rejections, it’s gonna happen but, man, just keep going. You know in baseball, that’s—uh—that’s another one. That’s how uh—you know, dealing with failure, just being resilient, you know___ I was so scared–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: No, you did great. You did great, man. Last question for me: If you're on a desert island and you only can bring one supplement. Now, this may be hard for you with your concoction and drinks in the morning. If you could bring only one thing, what will it be?
Andy Hnilo: Spir—Hawaiian spirulina.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it.
Andy Hnilo: I mean we’re talking—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Spirulina.
Andy Hnilo: I mean we’re talking vitamin A, beta carotene, B12, B6, I mean, you’re gonna have a toothbrush but yeah—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Ha ha
Andy Hnilo: You mix that with—hopefully some clear water on that island and I—I mean I’—oh, and it has the highest protein content uh—per uh—per body—I mean per cup it’s a—yeah, very high protein content with that. Do you know that?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. I did not know. I did not know that, but that’s amazing. That’s great.
Andy Hnilo: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Have something everyday. So people are really jazzed up. They wanna learn more about how to improve their skin health and learn more about you and and get your products. Where's the best way to do that?
Andy Hnilo: Sure. So our website is alituranaturals.com0020 and that’s A-L-I-T-U-R-A N-A-T-U-R-A-L-S.COM and @andyhnilo.That’s A-N-D-Y H-N-I-L-O on facebook, twitter, instagram. Uh—I love any questions that you may have, please reach out. Info at alituranaturals.com I definitely wanna give your audience a 15% discount. What’s uh—so just wanna call it uh—“Wellness15”?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. We can call it “Wellness 15”. I’ll put the link below as well as the promo code below and people can use that. That’s perfect.
Andy Hnilo: Sounds good. If you have any questions, anything like that, please reach out. This is my baby. I love what I do. It’s—it’s—I—I encourage you to ask questions.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Andy, I appreciate that you know, I’m an entrepreneur myself helping patients and I just—appreciate the energy that you embody trying to create this great product to help people kinda get their health to the next level. So that's great.
Andy Hnilo: Well, yeah. No, I throw it right back to you. You’re making people’s lives better. And that’s a—it feels good. That’s fun, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, Andy, thanks for a great interview. I appreciate it.
Andy Hnilo: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Take Care.
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Get 15% discount on Alitura product/s by typing in the code “Wellness15”
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