#080 Why a Morning Routine is so VITAL (And How to Create One!) and Can You Overdo Protein? How Much is Too Much?

Your day is getting programmed whether you choose it or not, and the “golden hours” after waking and before sleep are where that programming sticks. I walk through what’s happening in the brain and nervous system during those windows, why we’re more suggestible and neuroplastic, and how a few small choices can shift your baseline from reactive to regulated. If your mornings start with scrolling, stress, and quick dopamine hits, you may be teaching your body to crave agitation, distraction, and tunnel vision all day long.

I share my flexible, repeatable morning routine built around spirit, mind, and body: meditation done out of bed, intention setting that acts like a GPS for your subconscious, and gratitude to create heart-brain coherence. We also talk about discipline versus willpower, how to create natural dopamine through learning, and how movement and breathwork help clear cortisol so you can think bigger, feel steadier, and respond instead of react. These are practical nervous system regulation tools you can adapt to any season of life.

Then we pivot to a topic I’m seeing everywhere: protein. Can you overdo it? Absolutely. I explain why protein can still drive insulin, how excess can spill over into glucose production and fat storage, and which symptoms can signal “too much” for your body, from digestion and dehydration to sleep disruption and hot flashes. We zoom out into pathways, not just macros, comparing mTOR and IGF-1 growth signaling with AMPK, ketosis, and autophagy so you can balance building muscle with cellular repair, metabolic health, and long-term longevity.

If you’re ready to stop copying influencers and start listening to your biofeedback, press play, then subscribe, and share this with a friend who’s stuck in health noise!

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Resources mentioned:

Ketone and Blood Sugar Testing Masterclass

Ketone Testing

Ra Optics (Code DRSTACYND) blue light blockers
Higher Dose (my FAV sauna blanket with low to no EMF) code DRSTACY
CGM *2 months free with code DRSTACY
Structured/Living Water *code DRSTACY
Spring Aqua (my FAV water system) 

For more from me, follow me on IG @dr.stacy.nd

Episodes Mentioned: 

Dairy Paradox/Insulin Impact 

Calorie Deficit versus Fasting

Thank you for listening! 

This information is just that; information only - not to be taken as medical advice. Please contact your primary care before changing anything to your routine. This information is not mean to diagnose, treat, or cure disease.

Transcript

Why Mornings Rewire Your Brain

Screens Prime Stress And Dopamine

The 90 Minute No Screen Rule

Spirit First Meditation And Gratitude

Mind Work Discipline Over Willpower

Can You Overdo Protein

Body Work Cortisol Movement Breath

Insulin Signals And Biofeedback Clues

Night Routine To Protect Sleep

Signs Your Protein Is Too High

mTOR Versus AMPK Growth Versus Burn

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome back to Fiving Well with Dr. Stacy. I am Dr. Stacy here to remind you that help is found in the things that we rope the most, and today is no different. We're gonna deep dive into the power of a morning routine, what's actually happening with things like our brain basic, adjustability, neuroplasticity, all those wonderful things that we are really missing a lot of potential if we aren't tuning into on a daily basis, especially if pain is something that we're trying to achieve. We're also gonna be talking about chasing health. Is that something that our nervous system really is gonna respond positively to? And how to prioritize health without obsessing over it, how to cut through the noise. And then lastly, how do you overdo protein? And how does that happen? How do I know if I'm overdoing it? What are signs to look for? Um, there's always this health curve too much of a good thing if I really want to unpack this because I think that we look at things like protein, and then we think there's no way we can overdo it. So let's unpack that too. Um Pink Tight, we'll be right back. Okay, so we're gonna start with how to create the perfect morning routine. And I was you know, kind of like a template on how to do that. Everybody's version of it is gonna be a little bit the same, but I really want to dig into why. It's such a powerful, powerful time to create some change, to refocus, to align with your goals, and just really take your day head on. And because if you're not setting intentions to start the day, if you just let the day get the best of you, then we live in this very reactionary state. We're living by default, and then we wonder why things don't turn out the way we want them to. It's like we never even set the GPS, right? And so let's talk about that. So there's a lot of things that are happening. The hour we raise and the hour before we go to sleep, we are the most suggestible, the most programmable. Which, if you think about it, we're gonna talk about what to do, right? To help you get to your goals quicker and help you align with your goals, but also what not to do. So if you can imagine, if you are, you know, taking in media, if you're scrolling on your phone, if you're taking other people's ideas and you're you go to bed overwhelmed, confused, or activated in some way, right? By any kind of negative emotion, we'll talk about this in just a minute, then that is literally priming your nervous system to be your new baseline, to be your new normal. We are the most neuroplastic, so we're in what's called a theta brainwave pattern. And so it's very slow and rhythmic and coherent, right? And so that means if we want to bring about a new baseline for our nervous system, this is the time to do it. If we want to be open to new ideas and, you know, spend some time looking back and reflecting and changing and shifting things, this is the prime time to be doing that. So many people get stuck in this loop of creating the same day over and over and over again and feeling like our life is out of our control. And a lot of that is because, like I said, we are living by default, we're living by reaction, and we feel like everything's just happening to us because we've never, like I said, we've never set the direction and the trajectory of where we want to go. Remember, I've talked about this before as our subconscious being, this GPS system, right? And our reticular activating system is looking for things to reaffirm our current state, right? Our current belief state, our current emotional state. Um, we've talked about how our emotions dictate our nervous system state, right? All of these things are so, so important, whether it comes to change, whether it comes to our health, all of the things, right? All of that means is that our bodies, if we have symptoms, if we feel like we're um, you know, things are not going the way we want, we really, it's it's our external reflecting from our internal state. So the more we take that into our own hands and change the inside, the outside reflection will also change. And a lot of this has to do with that brainwave state, what the subconscious is doing as you are really taking the day head on and priming it for something, right? So, like I gave the uh example before, if we are looking at social media and we're, you know, we're getting all these emotions and, you know, let's be real, it's primed to keep us in a negative emotional state, whether it's fear or judgment or whatever it may be, it's all negativity. And if we're primed for that, then literally our subconscious is gonna look throughout the day at all the things, maybe out of a place of lack, out of a place of judgment, out of a place of shame, because we're we don't have the perfect morning routine like the person we just saw. And it just spirals, right? And and these are these become our thoughts and our beliefs, right? And then our subconscious is looking for things throughout our day and even from our past experiences to say, you're right. Remember that one time that was you got so embarrassed, you did that really dumb thing, or you know, just reaffirming things and we call it bad luck, but it really is what we are focused on in the emotional state we exist in the most. And then we add in the power of not just the information on our screens, but even the lighting is a hit of dopamine, right? And even just how the whole scene is set, it's going to decrease things like melatonin, increase things like cortisol. And so it throws our biochemical, um, our, you know, physicality. And so, and it makes us more addictive to these quick hits of dopamine and also makes us more agitated, more frustrated, more reactive, less patient, less able to see the big picture, right? We're zooming in constantly, and that's kind of a survival instinct where we zoom in. If you can think about that, it would be really beneficial if you're being chased by a predator, right? Where you're just like tunnel visioning to get your exit strategy. But to go through life like that and not be able to zoom out and look at how everything influences everything else and not be able to see other people's perspectives or the big picture, um, not the best way to live, right? And not only that, but these quick hits of dopamine and the addiction onset, like I said, the more you do these screens right before you go to bed and right when you wake up, that kind of primes your nervous system for what's acceptable for the whole day, right? And so kind of primes you for addiction the whole day. And that's why a lot of people have a hard time being still, being in the present moment, even sitting in meditation or just being present. They feel lazy, they feel like they're unproductive. Rest is, you know, associated with laziness. And a lot of it is because we are super addicted to these quick hits of dopamine and we feel like if we're not constantly doing, right, we're just wasting our time. But most of it is because we've primed our nervous system into this baseline. And so it wants to maintain that level. Stress hormones are very addictive, and so it's going to seek out other things in your day-to-day and experiences and you know, all of these other stress hormone-induced activities. So you're going to be stressed, anxious, exhausted, right? Because you've now primed your nervous system to say, this is, this is where I'm at. This is my normal. And so we have this dopamine loop, right? Where we have more addiction, less willpower, less desire, less ability to be still and be present, um, less pain. Uh, and I'll talk about this too. The more dopamine hits we get, especially from our artificial sources, the more we are, the less tolerant we are to actual chronic pain. Um, so there has something to do with tipping that scale as well. We also have less ambition. We're seeking more hits. We're, you know, and and also thinking about other dopamine hits from things like hyper palatable foods, caffeine, rate, just all of the other additives, all the other lifestyles. Maybe it's shopping, um, maybe it's other forms of media that are super addictive, um, addicted to gossip and drama in our lives, so many things. They all stem from this just kind of influx of chronic dopamine and cortisol. And so after a period of time, we become desensitized, like anything. When we just push on a receptor for so long, eventually we need more of that to feel anything. And so that's why we start to, you know, uh reaffirm those things in our lifestyle, the drama, the um, you know, feeling lack, feeling scarce, the negativity, the judgment, all of these things, those just become part of our normal because of that where our bodies and our brains are working together to try to seek that out in our day-to-day, you know, not to mention just what we're doing. I love how we think that we are tuning out. Like I love when people are like, oh, it's just a mindless habit that I do. When it's actually the opposite of that, it's changing your nervous system, right? And so it's not a mindless thing. I know you think it's mindless because it's not requiring much brain power, but it is very much taking your nervous system and creating a different state and different addictions. And it really is changing how your brain is wired, um, especially those couple hours of the day. So if you can imagine over time running off high, especially artificial hits of dopamine. And when I say that, like normal, natural hits of dopamine are things like learning a new skill, right? Like learning a new language, being able to be present, reading a book, right? Those kind of things are normal hits of dopamine where we feel motivated, we feel um a sense of completion, right? Do we ever feel a sense of completion when it comes to like social media? No, because you're like, I gotta stay on because I feel like I'm right there where I'm gonna figure out that one post that I need to hear today, right? And so it's very addictive. Whereas a normal, natural hit of dopamine is gonna be something that is challenging, but also keeps you motivated, but has some sense of, like I said, completion. And uh that is important. So um the other part of it is we swing that high dopamine, high cortisol, it's going to cause imbalances in things like our mood, our energy. We're gonna feel really low, unmotivated, but also overwhelmed on the same hand, right? And so we find ourselves recreating the same day emotionally, which entrains our nervous system, right? Which entrains the rest of the body. And so this is one place where a lot of nervous systems get stuck. And I know we talk a lot about nervous system regulation, and it's really impossible to do that if everything in your day-to-day, especially how you start and end your day, are priming your nervous system for this to be your baseline. So, a couple other things that happen if we're ending our day this way, we are causing disruption in our glymphatic system. So, this is where the brain actually drains into the lymphatic. So, if you think about senescent cells and toxins and things that don't really need to be hanging out there any longer, it's just kind of like that recycling process that needs to happen from our brain down. Kind of important, right? Especially in a world where we have so much neurodegenerative behavioral disorders, mood disorders, all those things, really pertinent that we're tapping into the glymphatic drainage part of our sleep. Um, we also have reduced mental energy, so reduced alertness. We're visually and cognitively drained to start the day, right? And like I said, it's the blue light, it's a screen, it's the intensity, the brightness of the light, it's the addictability of what we see on those screens, all of those things. Um, so just so you know where I'm coming from, I think that if you're going to do, obviously, we all have to have screens, right, for something. And I'm thankful for all the things that the screens do benefit us, but I would certainly prolong it as long as you can, at least 90 minutes upon waking. And we're gonna talk about what we will do in those 90 minutes in just a second here. Um, but for the best overall, just thinking from the brainwave state to actually waking up to not running on these fake hits of dopamine and cortisol to start our day. Let's wait 90 minutes before we even touch a screen or device and see how life-changing that will be to start. So, what do we want to be doing when we first wake up, right? If we really are the most neuroplastic, we this is the time to start something new, right? A new normal, a new nervous system state, a new set of behaviors and thoughts and habits and actions and all the things that are derivative from that emotional state, how important that is that we hang out in an emotional state that we want to exist at to start the day, because that's informing our nervous system, right? Um, it makes us way more open to more possibilities and opportunities. Like I said, being able to zoom out and see the big picture of how we fit into everything, but also being able to zoom out and see things other than things that are derivative of negative uh mindsets, right? And negative uh media that we are taking in. We want to start that day as positive as we possibly can. And so I usually have like a three-step routine. And sometimes those steps change, and I'm sure that your will yours will look different than mine, but each step has a different focus. So, really, I do mind, body, and spirit. And so we'll talk through what each of those requires and what it consists of and what you could interchange so that you can build your perfect morning routine. So let's start with spirit. Um, this is really a time where, like I said, you're in that theta brainwave state. Your brain and your heart ideally are very coherent, especially if you're trying to induce positive emotions to start the day. Um, when your heart and your brain work together, it's just priming the subconscious and telling every your body and your mind, like, hey, this is it's safe. It's safe to create. Like I said, you'll be able to tap into way more potential possibilities and opportunities when you're in this state. And it's not to say, oh, like, like just be happy all the time. That's not it. But elevated emotions are way more coherent, they're way more harmonizing. And if you work those in in a time where your brainwave state is also coherent, you're going to be able to create change so much quicker. And so that is why we use these what I call golden hours to really work in some new stimulus, right? So I always start the day with spirit because you are in that sleepy, dreamy state, right? That is your access to the subconscious. That is your door there. And what that means is this is where you can be really intentional, right? And where you can practice those positive emotions, those coherent, those regulating emotions, right? To start the day. So what I do is I first start in a meditation. I make sure that I, you know, I'm out of bed, right? You don't want to like lazy meditate. And I've done this before. Don't do it because where you're like kind of like really getting an extra hour of sleep, you're dozing in and out, right? You're not really actually up meditating. Um, get out of bed. I usually go sit outside because I find that the sounds of nature are very harmonizing as well and very coherent. And it does help me kind of take in the day in a very gentle way. So we wake with a um like a sunrise type light, and then I think it has a bird noise if we don't wake up to the light. Um, try to not to wake up in a really jarring situation because it will kind of kick you out of that brainwave state, right? You don't want this like fire alarm going off to wake you up because your cortisol is going to be through the roof and you're gonna kind of miss that window of opportunity. So wake up as calmly as you can. If I'm not waking up to that, my husband will wake me up if he gets up earlier than me, which is also a gentle way to wake up. So I love that. Um, and so I will meditate 20 to 30 minutes most days, some days longer on the weekends. I also get up at the same time. I'm getting up at five in the morning, and I will just do everything a little bit longer since I don't have to get out the door on the weekends. So I just I'll have longer to meditate and longer to do the other work that I do. So from there, I will sit in meditation and then I will write down my intentions for the day. So, you know, whatever that day is gonna consist of, if it's a client meeting day, if it's a weekend day, and I really just want to have a great time with my family and we want to spend time out, whatever we want to do. I write it all down how I want things to go, right? And it's not it's it's never like I go back and be like, oh my gosh, this didn't go exactly the way I planned, but it's just to kind of put your subconscious in the right direction, you know? How do you want the day to go? How do you want to feel today? What thoughts do you want to think today? What emotional state do you want to exist in today? Like, this should be a blessing to be able to do this, right? A lot of people are like, oh, more work, more chore to do. But like, this is what is more important than like taking your day hat on and living a life that you want instead of a life of default? Like, what is actually more important than that? So from there, remember I talked about getting into a higher, more coherent emotional state. The easiest way I can get there is gratitude. So I will kind of seal that practice in and do a gratitude practice where I'm looking at everything that's good. I mean, we're building a house right now. There's there are things that are happening that we're just not focusing on because we have so much good happening that how are we gonna like look at these little blips and be like, oh, this is horrible? Like, honestly, a few years ago, that probably would have like wrecked us or sent us spiraling where we're like freaking out. But it's like we have so much good. Why would we worry about this one little thing? It's just like a speed bump. Who cares? You know? So when you redirect that emotional state to one of like faith and hope and all the good and appreciation and love, you know, um, whatever that looks like, I do a whole gratitude list. I write down sometimes. I'll go into like what I'm grateful for and how those things make me feel, if I really feel like I need to amp up my emotional state a little bit more. Um, but either way, it's it's a sealed in part of my practice, meditation, intention setting, and gratitude. That is a non-negotiable that will happen every single day. The rest of the things will kind of they might intertwine. So um from there, I will do something mind-based, right? So that may be reading a book. It could be finishing up a course that I'm taking, it could be just doing a little bit of time, you know. Um, it's not work. I'm not doing work, I'm doing something that I enjoy. Now, sometimes I might combine that with body and like listen to a book I've been reading and go on a walk or something like that. But, you know, either way, it's just something for my mind because you're you are very, like I said, you're very suggestible. Your mind is open to learning new things first thing in the morning and banking on that time where you're really like taking that information in. How many times have you tried to read a book and you're like in the middle of your day, you're so distracted, you you don't even know what you do. You read a whole page and you couldn't even repeat any of it because you're just not there, right? But in the morning, your your brain is primed to take in information. So do something that you enjoy, right? Maybe this is a time where we're getting that natural hit of dopamine, reading an actual book, you know, which I much prefer than listening to an Audible or something like that, but it's there, you know, for people who um don't want to sit and read. But reading, um reading a book, learning a skill, practicing, you know, something new, those are all going to get your body and your brain motivated and um more in that place of discipline, right? Discipline works so much better than willpower because if we're always relying on willpower, that waxes and wanes, right? But discipline is like showing up and committing to yourself. Like I love you so much. I'm gonna show up for you every single day in this proximity, right? I can't say I won't, I'll be a hundred percent, but I'm gonna show up because I deserve that and you deserve that and I love you. And that's what discipline is. Willpower is like, I'll do it when I feel like it, right? And that's why we we often just lose our weight because we rely too much on willpower. And it really comes back to like, don't give up on your future self for temporary comfort, which is very reliant on willpower, right? And willpower over time, that little voice, when you're trying to bring about change, that little voice is gonna be like, oh, this is this is kind of uncomfortable. You should just go back to what you were doing before, right? It's always gonna try to drag you back to the known and the familiar. And that's just because when the nervous system senses a change, it's it's like, oh gosh, this is this is different. I don't like this. Let's just go back. No matter how dysfunctional normal was, it's gonna want to go back, right? Especially right there on the on the cusp of change. Now, if you continue to wait it out and you continue to bring in those different habits and actions and behaviors, eventually that voice will die down because it will know you're serious. That's where the discipline has to come in, right? So think of it as that that that love letter to your future self. Say, I know it's gonna be hard and I know we're gonna like this is gonna feel scary and unfamiliar and challenging, but you're worth it. And I'm gonna show up for you every single day. So back to the mind. It's primed and ready, right? So we're making massive amounts of BDNF, which brain derived nootropic factor that will increase if we do our activity before we do the mind part. And so that's why I'm saying this may be interchangeable to. You I like to meditate first because I feel myself in that theta state and I feel the most connected and just kind of like loopy and dreamy anyway. And I want to kind of keep that out. Like I want to ride that out a little bit because I feel like I can connect to my intuition better if I do that first. If you some people jump right into activity first, and there's nothing wrong with that. I just feel like it can be harder to drop into meditation. Um, but some people they find it easier if they do the physical things first, kind of clear the cortisol and then drop in, whatever works best for you. And that's why sometimes I play with these things, and then I always go back to that same order of like meditation first, intention, gratitude, mind, and then body. But however you want to do it, this is just as far as the mind practice goes, this is the best time to learn something, right? You're the most neuroplastic, the brainwave state we mentioned, and the brain derived nootropic factor, all those things are working in your favor. So practice a skill, master something, grow, right? Like if we're if we're not growing, we're dying. And I don't mean that negatively. I'm just like, that's why we're here, right? Like to experience as much as we can. So why wouldn't we do that? Why wouldn't we utilize that? And I love that the morning routine is just like such a sacred time because nothing else needs our attention. We make it this like disciplined habit, this gift to ourself by waking up early before the rest of our family and like having a couple hours in of just nothing but self-awareness and self-reflection and like self-growth, right? And and there's nothing more important than that, in, you know, as far as I'm concerned, because the better we are, the better we can do everything else, every other role we have to do in our life, the better version of ourselves we are, the more we have to give and serve. And that's why we're here, you know, to experience, but also to give back as much as possible. And so for me, it's an it's a non-negotiable, it's a no-brainer. I'm gonna make myself the best version so that I can take the day head on instead of letting life happen to me. Now let's talk a little bit about body, the body part of thing. What's what's happening? So we get a surge of cortisol when we wake up. It goes a lot higher if we jump on screens and things like that, but we do want to kind of flush and move the cortisol out, right? And so that's why a lot of people who, especially if someone wakes up in a higher cortisol situation, they feel a lot better if they start with their activity first. They find it easier to drop into meditation and all the other practices if they do that. Um, but what is happening in the morning? So we know that we are making massive amounts of brain-derived nootropic factor that will increase if we work in something like an activity or a cold plunge or something like that, right? Where we're repairing brain cells that were damaged from stress and toxins and, you know, just normal metabolic needs. We also are accelerating neuronal connections to form, right? So that neuroplastic state, which is wonderful and does get magnified if we do a physical activity to start the day. We also are increasing neurogenesis. Um, so activity is also going to boost attention, but also increase the calm, right? On the back end of that. Because, like I said, we're clearing through cortisol, which is wonderful. So sometimes people feel like they need to do that before they can drop into a meditation. Um, we also are regulating the limbic system and we are also more in a place where we can tap into what's called emotional intelligence, which is, you know, like I said, self-awareness at its finest. So a lot of times we react to our emotional state and we've never even reflected what that emotional state is. And if you just listen to the thought patterns and your belief systems, and and like I said, just look at how what your external world is reflecting back to you, that will tell you the emotional state you exist in. It's just most people don't really take a peek at that. They they have a bad day and they're just like, I don't know why I'm in a bad mood. But in all reality, they've been priming, you know, based on their everything they're consuming, their media, all of these things, just not reflecting, not breaking um these patterns of thoughts, not bringing in a new pattern of thought and a new belief system or a new emotional state to start the day. And so we just become reactionary and living by default day after day, because like I said, negative emotions are way more addicting, right? Because we have this physical addiction that comes from them. And so until we break that habit and also come in with a different state, nothing new will happen. And one other thing I wanted to mention about the body part of things is that breath. So breath from physical activity or intentional breath work is another way to really make the brain and the heart coherent together. Um, I know I have a whole episode on heart coherence and emotional health and all of the things and how those dictate our nervous system and the physical body from there on. But breath is a really quick way that we can bring everything to into coherence. And so that's another prime way when it comes to the body part of a morning routine and how that impacts the rest. It's like it's an oscillating system, meaning it pulls other systems into alignment. And so when we can get the breath focused and intentional, and we can get the heart and the brain focused and intentional, it just magnifies and expands our ability to create a new outcome. So when we focus on these three aspects, and like I said, it may look different for you and what you do. My even the body part of things, some days it's a walk. Some days we're running sprints on the beach, some days I'm lifting. It doesn't, you know, it's it's different every single day, but it but the consistency is that I'm doing my body spirit every single day, right? And so that is interchangeable, right? And some days I might be reading a book, other days I might be listening to something, you know, a lecture or something like that that I find that I want to really take in. Um, so like I said, it's consistency that lays down the new groundwork. So it lays down new patterns of thinking and believing, right? Behaviors, habits, actions, those are what ground it in to the physical because the repetition of what is what makes it our new normal. Unfortunately, most of us are living by repetition of default, but that can be changed. And so I want you to focus on what you can change, right? We're always focused on the good, what we can control. And so when you are working on those three things interchangeably, there's no doubt in my mind that you will see big shifts in your life. Um, because not only the time of the day that you're prioritizing these things, but the fact that you're actually taking the intention to practice some self-awareness and self-reflection and just self-care, right? Um, you will see a huge shift in just what you're doing on a subconscious level, on a physical, coherent level, lots of amazing things are gonna come your way just by starting to make this a normal practice. When we start to change what we want to see and what we want to believe and what we want to think, and the emotional state that we want to be our new normal, everything else is everything around us will also change. Remember that your external world is a reflection of what's happening internally. And I think this is why so many people get so lost because we're looking at everybody else's map for the way, right? We're comparing ourselves, we're judging and critiquing others, that negative part in us that maybe experiencing some lack or like we see the highlights, right? And we're comparing our life to that because we don't really see what's really happening behind the scenes. And it keeps us really just in that negative emotional state. And then our subconscious is reaffirming that constantly, right? And so it's very easy to feel lost if you don't have an anchor and you don't have a sense of direction and you don't have any kind of, you know, um, we're constantly consuming but never creating, and that's why we're here. And so if we don't have a sense of direction to start our day, we do feel like things are just happening to us and we have no control over it. And while there will be things in our lives that we have no control over, what we can change is how we choose to respond and how we choose to view the world, right? The lens we choose to look at things from. And so the more regulated we are, the less those outside experiences are going to affect us. The more we can look at somebody else's situation and be happy for them, or look at, you know, look at their situation and just be grateful that they are who they are, be grateful for so much difference in our in today's, you know, in what we're exposed to, that everybody gets to live the life they want to live. Let's enjoy the diversity of everybody's different lifestyles instead of looking at it and be like, oh, I wish I had that, or I'm comparing myself to them, or, you know, whatever it may be that keeps us in that negative. Remember that negative emotional states keeps us very incoherent. That means the opposite of creating something new, the opposite of reaching our highest potential, and the opposite of even seeing new opportunities and possibilities that could otherwise be available to us because we're closed off and we have tunnel vision and all we think about is everything we don't have. So that's why gratitude is one of those practices that can just bring you right back where you can zoom out and be like, actually, I have a lot, right? Like I have a lot to be grateful for. And it's okay. And I'm happy for everybody that has a lot to be grateful for too. And I'm gonna give where I can and I'm gonna be as present and live as fully as I can and experience and learn and grow as much as I can with my time here. And that is my gift to myself, right? That is why I'm here. And taking the time to do that consistently, like I said, everything is gonna change um in your world. And so I'm really excited to see that for you. And I really, I would love to hear how these things are are changing as you make this one of your primary, um, primary habits, right? Like I said, it's it's this love letter to your future self, that discipline of saying, hey, you're worth showing up for every single day in some way, right? And I know it may not be the same way every single day. That's why I'm saying you it doesn't have to be a hit workout. The second you wake up, you know, you hit the ground running and you're, you know, running sprints every morning. It doesn't have to be that, right? Like it can match the season of life you're in right now, but you are worth showing up for every single day. And you are worth having the life that you dream about. And it takes some time and attention and intention setting to do that, right? And so if you feel like things aren't going the trajectory you want them to, you have the power to change that. And this is the wonderful like golden hour right when you wake up in the morning and right when you go to bed. And and you know, just like a little side note, what I would practice when you go to bed. I don't have a whole evening routine because we do go to bed pretty early. Um, but what I will do as I'm drifting to sleep is think about three things that went well that day. And so I'm already priming my subconscious to start to look for reaffirmations of those things, right? And so I just think about those and I try to go to bed in a place of gratitude. And sometimes I will even bring in a certain box breathing where you're breathing in for four, holding for four, exhaling for four, and then holding at the bottom for four. And so sometimes I'll entrain that in as well just to kind of get into a parasympathetic state, a very suggestible state as my brain is transitioning into that more theta brainwave pattern. Um, so that's just a little bonus if you want to take the day head on. But I certainly am not scrolling. Um, I'm certainly not on any kind of media or device within, you know, within an hour before bed or even an hour two, three after waking up. Um, so try to extend those times as much as you can away from any kind of media so that you can really hear your own intuition because that's what I'm saying. I think so many of us are lost because we're trying to be on somebody else's path. And the more you can tune into yours, the less likely that will happen to you. And you'll be able to cut through that noise and confusion so much more. With that being said, this is a perfect like leeway into can you overdo protein, right? I know it seems like it's like completely not related, but it is related because that just goes back to like comparing what this influencer does to get blah, blah, blah, grams of protein every single day. And we're recreating it and we think, like, oh, we're gonna look just like them if we eat the same way they do and you know, do all the things. And unfortunately, that's not the case. And I want to talk to you about this because it's something that I see come up all too often with my clients. Um, excess protein, I think there's so much noise about protein right now. And for one, like if your protein's coming from like being added into every processed food you're eating, that that is not the protein you need. So I'll just let's start there, right? We don't need processed protein coming into our diet through processed food. Um, can you overdo protein? Absolutely. And what I want to talk today about is pathways. So we've talked about the hormonal and metabolic response to food in conjunction with calories and macronutrients, but I want to talk about pathways where where we look at the actual macronutrient when it comes, okay, what does a high protein diet do metabolically and hormonally? What does a fat-based diet do? And what and how are they different and which pathways are they kind of stimulating? And so let's go into that without being too overwhelming. So, protein in and of itself, um, you know, we've talked about dairy being very insulinogenic. And I've already like kind of get given you this like, hey, before you start making everything out of cottage cheese and Greek yogurt, you might want to think about your insulin, right? And you might want to, even though you're getting protein, you're not gonna see an insulin response on a CGM, right? But you'll see it in your biofeedback. And so this is something that I see all too often where people, they might even be having stable blood sugar, but they're not seeing their insulin response. And remember that insulin and glucagon are another uh counter-regulatory process. So when insulin's hot and heavy on the scene, for one, you're not gonna see your blood sugar spike as much. So if you have really high insulinogenic foods, you're not gonna see that swing, but the insulin is still doing the damage, right? So you want to learn your feedback, and that's what we're gonna talk about today how much is too much, and should I be eating the same amount of protein every single day? Like, where do I where do I even start with that? And so, um, so when your your glucagon is also coming on, so your insulin comes in, drops your blood sugar, glucagon comes onto the scene to raise blood sugar. So sometimes we can have all the effects of a blood sugar dip and not see it on a glucose monitor, but the damage is still done where the insulin has come on the scene and glucagon has also come in to counter regulate that before you see it. So it's just like I said, it's just a matter of zooming out and looking not just at your data, but your biofeedback too. How are you feeling, right? Because I have a lot of people that feel the blood sugar swings and they don't see them on the glucose, um, the glucose monitor, which I mean, and in generally it is going to be a guiding light. But like I said, if your insulin's already high, you're not gonna see it as dramatically if you're in the hyperinsulin and insulinemia state. So how you feel if you're having brain fog, if you're having energy dips, if you're having um cravings that are out of control, if you're having insomnia, those those are your signs that insulin is high. Okay. So, and we'll talk about a few more. So, anyways, so protein, let's just go through a few things before I get into the actual pathways. So, the the one question I first want to start with is uh I see I've been in this world for a long time. The health and fitness world I've been in for as even since I was a teenager. So, ever since I was 15. So it's been some time. I've seen a lot of things and a lot of agendas being pushed in that time frame. Right now I'm seeing this protein agenda. And uh I'm not I'm not getting conspiracy theorists on you. I'm just saying when somebody is pushing in excess of anything, you need to take a step back and say, how does that really fit in for me? Like, how does this like how does this match my goals? Right. And when we talk about the different pathways protein stimulates, uh, you'll understand this a little bit more. But protein is also just like, you know, we were talking about dairy is insulinogenic. Protein is not nearly as insulinogenic as high carbohydrates, refined foods, processed foods are, but it is still stimulating of insulin, meaning you can overdo it. Okay. And so this whole part of the episode is about finding your balance and learning where how often and like how much of it we want. So I guess the first question I would have for you is why are you eating so much protein? And why are you eating so much protein every single day? Right? Like, are you using it? Because I have a lot of people that are eating a certain amount of macronutrients and they're not weight training. Should you be weight training every day? No, because the recovery and the muscle building actually happens in the rest, right? So we just live in a world where a little bit of something is good, then we're gonna do a ton of it, right? And protein is one of those things I see being as way, way overdone for the average individual. Okay, and so this is what I see most commonly, uh, in addition to like, let's just add protein in every freaking processed food we're consuming, right? Which is ridiculous. Um, and just more inflammatory anyway. Like we have to know that we do not, we do not need that much freaking protein. Like it's way too much. Um, but are are we using the protein that we're consuming? Are we actually weight training? Because the thing is, we're like, oh yeah, we're eating a bunch of uh protein to build muscle, but like you're not gonna build muscle unless you're you're bringing the protein in and also bringing in the stimulus that is heavy enough to create that stimulus and response to build lean tissue, right? Most people are not doing that, right? So are you also trying to hit a goal or a number no matter what your activity level looks like? Because I seriously do not recommend weight training every single day. Because, like I said, the growth and the rebuild happens when you're resting. And so you are probably, if you are like counting calories or macros, you're probably just eating the same amount of protein every single day, regardless of your activity level. And there is a difference between like actually being active and getting lots of movement throughout the day, or just like doing your power hour in the gym and then being mostly sedentary the rest of the day, which is the average American right now. So, how do we know how much is too much for us? Well, we have to learn the body's feedback to know what you need specifically, not the influencer, what I eat in a day, not the 20-year-old who, you know, is ripped no matter what they do right now because their hormones and metabolism are way more resilient than they will be in 10 years. That's not what you need to be comparing yourself to. You need to be comparing yourself to your feedback. What is your body telling you? Um, because you could eat your perfect calories and your perfect macronutrients. But if your insulin is chronically high, if you are constantly pulling on um growth factors and mTOR, and you have other things going on in your health that you're trying to address and balance and heal, you're not gonna find that if you're doing anything in excess, you know, not just to always single out protein, but anything, right? Um so we have to think about the hormonal and metabolic response to that food. It's so much more important than the numbers and the calories and the macronutrients, right? Blood sugar balance. Um, a lot of people have the misconception. And I find my clients also, you know, fall into this trap. I did too for a really long time. So there's literally no judgment here. But um, a lot of the time we're like, oh yeah, I need to balance my blood sugar. I'm gonna add more protein in. And that actually may be working against you because, like I said, protein does also stimulate insulin. Can you also overdo this? Yes. Is there a spillover for what the body cannot utilize for muscle protein synthesis? Does that excess protein get turned into glucose and either burned? But if your mitochondria is overburdened and you're already experiencing energy issues or metabolic issues, then that spillover will get turned into fat and stored as fat. So there is a like a bell's curve of like how much protein is good for you that supports your activity and your setaity, and how much is too much, right? So um, and I always like to preface this with like, if what you're doing is working, by all means, please do not feel threatened by this, right? But if you're doing all the things and you're still having the hormonal issues, you're still having the blood sugar, blood sugars creeping up possibly, um, you're having trouble balancing, your energies, uh brain fog, sleep is challenged, your hormones are challenged, right? Like all of those like tried and true metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance. It doesn't always look like weight gain, but a lot of times it looks like weight loss resistance. And I do see that driven by excess in protein. So all those symptoms of insulin resistance, metabolic issues, like I said, even just symptoms in general, are a sign that your cells are not processing energy properly, right? And we'll kind of bring this all in together so you understand that this applies to everybody. Um, Um, because it really is um what is happening on a cellular level that's the most important. Um but sometimes an excess in protein can look like digestive issues. Maybe we have this chronic constipation, um, especially when we're doing high protein, low fiber, like a carnivore situation, which I find that like when people bring that in, sometimes it's like super beneficial the first few months, and then they start to see trouble stabilizing blood sugar, or maybe they start gaining weight or they start seeing hormonal issues. That's because it's low fiber. And also after a while, your body adapts and eventually, like I said, that spillover of protein, what the body can't process will get utilized and broken down as glucose in the body. And so there's an insulin response from the protein, but then you kind of double down on excess glucose. Um, because a lot of times when I see people overdo protein, a lot of them are low carb and they're like, why am I not able to stabilize my blood sugar? I all I eat is protein and low carb, right? Um, but it's the excess in protein, right? Because the insulin, all the symptoms are the same, right? They're the same as someone who's struggling with insulin resistance because it's the same, it's the same process. And after that adaptation, especially when you end up being a lower fiber situation, and then you have the digestive issues, and then you're recirculating and recycling things that should be moving out, especially hormones, it just becomes this vicious cycle. Another symptom of excess protein is dehydration. So we have increased urination. Like I said, that could be the excess insulin response from more protein than we can process, and especially in one setting. The kidneys are working harder to metabolize all that protein. Um, so kidney, kidney issues, um, sometimes waking up to pee, sometimes it's the body flushing excess glucose, but sometimes it's the insulin response from excess protein. So I definitely have people titrate down not just on carbohydrates, but also finding their protein tolerance for a night where their sleep can be really good and sound and optimal. Hormone imbalance, like I said, when the hormones are out of whack, maybe it's because the diet's so imbalanced, the lack of fiber, um, the excess protein, the lack of fat, that we start to see these hormonal imbalances. And that's all just kind of like the hormonal response of that food being out of whack and the fact that insulin might be on the scene blocking the other, um the other hormones as well. Liver function. So when we overdo um protein, we also are are requiring a lot on the liver and kidneys to break down and remove ammonia. So that can also be part of it and hard on the liver over time. And I will say, even uh hot flashes I find to be such a um a connection to excess protein. I'm not saying no protein. So please understand that. I'm I'm pro, just like I'm not like full-blown keto like a proponent for that either. I'm pro finding what your body needs and listening to your feedback for how much is too much of anything. Okay. Um, but I do find a connection with hot flashes and um especially at night and protein consumption. Remembering that protein is thermogenic, meaning it it ramps up the body temperature when the body's breaking it down, which is what we love, right? Because we're like, yes, we're like, you know, we're we're building our temperature up and we're burning fat and all these things. But the thing is, you don't want to be doing that at night. Your core temp has to fall at night for you to run those repair programs and get into deep restful sleep. So when I find that people um are their hot flashes are pretty persistent, a lot of times it's because of that thermogenic effect of excess protein at dinner. So that can be a telltale sign that you're overdoing it, right? So it can be the timing of dinner, it can be the how much protein you're having at dinner, lots of things. That's where the individual part has to come in. Um, like I said, what the body can't use in one setting of protein will get converted into glucose and stored as fat when it can't be used. So making sure that we are always um thinking about that. But I do want to talk about two or three pathways, um, mostly two pathways. So I want you to think about the growth pathway, which is mTOR, or the mammalian target of rapamycin. This is our primary growth switch. Okay. Remember, I talk about always having things in balance. We are not teenagers in puberty anymore, right? We are not toddlers who do who are like most of their growth comes from zero to two, where they like they're just anabolic as hell, right? And they need to be because they're literally like they're supposed to be. As adults who are post-puberty, do we need to be and should we even be pulling on those growth factors all the time? Because what I see at, you know, at this stage in life, I see a lot of cancer, I see a lot of tissue and fibrotic and tumor formation happening. Um, all of those are reflective of excess growth and not enough cellular renewal, cellular repair. So it's always about finding that balance. And I'm not saying, oh my gosh, all protein causes cancer. Like this is not a black and white. There's always a gray area. And the gray area is how your body responds to what you're doing. So mTOR is a growth switch. IgF1 is an insulin growth factor. These are growth pathways that are stimulated by protein, specifically leucine, right? But when you are stimulating protein, muscle protein synthesis, you need, you need the protein and you also need insulin, right? And so that's why I've said even in the past, I'm like, with how bodybuilders are trained to fuel their body, it's never just high protein, but it is, it is high protein, but it's also high protein, high carbohydrate, because you need the two of those, you need insulin, but you know, I want you to take a step back. Like, we need a proper insulin response for that even to happen the way it's supposed to. Otherwise, we're just flooding the body with insulin all day, every day. I think the fitness world is getting on on target of like, let's probably not eat every two hours anymore. Um, but that was the going mindset for a really long time. And you can see how much insulin resistance that has caused. Um, no matter how clean you eat, it's all about the timing and the hormonal and metabolic impact of that food. Um, so I just want to simplify the fact that protein stimulates a growth response, which is needed, right, at certain times in our life. And even cyclically, I'm not saying you never need to grow new tissue, but we got to make sure we're breaking down the tissue that needs to be removed and going through that pathway too, which is the autophagy, ketosis, or AMPK pathway. So AMPK is a fat-burning pathway. That's why when people are like, oh, I want to build muscle and lose fat, I'm like, good luck, right? Because they're two completely different pathways. So which one are we gonna pick first? I always like to fix the metabolism first, and then we can build muscle any day. We know how to do that, right? Um, but the thing is if your insulin response is off, um, you're gaining weight, you're super inflamed, your cortisol's through the roof. Is eating an excess in protein and weight training every single day your answer and gonna fix everything for you? No. Will it help you maintain when you get your metabolism in check and you fix those things, and then you want to put on some lean muscle to stimulate more mitochondria and to help with that insulin response in addition to what you've already fixed? That's how you stay there. It's not how you get there. They're two different processes, okay? So when we're constantly feeding and we're constantly growing, we that is linked to accelerated aging and inflammation, right? Growth, cellular replication. Cells never get a chance to die off. So think about the toxic mutated cells, the senescent cells that are like they're there, but they're not functioning properly. If we're always feeding, we never kill those off. And in fact, we end up replicating those, and then we wonder why we have tumors and fibroids and cancer, right? It's all connected. And so we have to think about like our current situation, which lever do we need to pull on more right now? Is it more growth? Or should we have a balance, right? Should we have a balance or maybe even spend more time in autophagy and apoptosis and ketosis to help the body repair these energy states and these um hormonal pathways, right? So when we are in AMPK, so really ketosis is um, I'll just kind of uh simplify these really quick. Ketosis is when you're burning fat for energy. It's kind of the door into autophagy. You have to be in ketosis for a certain amount of time before autophagy can take place. And then um AMPK is where you burn fat for energy. So all of these are inhibit mTOR, so they inhibit that growth, um, those growth factors, which is great, especially if we're like, I work with a lot of people that are in remission from cancer, um, kind of want to hang out there a little bit more, right? Not that we don't want to build muscle, not that we don't want to stabilize blood sugar, but remember, stabilizing blood sugar does not mean just load up on protein. And this is why. I just want you to understand that the switches and the signals that they give the body is different than what you're being fed of just like, oh, this stabilizes blood sugar. It doesn't, right? Like it might help, but it doesn't also stabilize insulin, right? Because it's still stimulating an insulin response. So you just have to learn to listen to what your body needs in this acute state. And I would say if the symptoms are there, you have symptoms of insulin issues and metabolic dysfunction, like 93% of the population. I would start there before growing and feeding and overfeeding, right? So autophagy lowers mTOR and increases AMPK. So fat burn for energy, way more stable, way more accessible. Um, most of us have that spillover of fats into our bloodstream, fat accumulating viscerally, fat accumulating in our liver. And so we've got to spend some time doing that cleanup. We can't burn that fat for energy if we're always feeding, especially always pulling on growth factors. So they're two different processes. And then, like I said, ketosis is when we get insulin down low enough that we can burn fat for energy, and then it's our gateway and our precursor into autophagy. So we need to be going between both of these systems for health optimization. If we are constantly feeding, we are missing the mark, we're not tapping into autophagy. And I want to talk about that for just a minute here because I think so many people are terrified to take their protein, you know, down to down from what they're doing, especially they've been tracking their macros for a long time, that they're gonna lose their muscle. And I will tell you, I've done this for a really long time. I've been on this metabolic journey myself for a really long time. I have the best muscle definition that I've ever had, and I don't track my protein. I don't weight train every day. I weight train maybe twice a week, but I get my insulin in check and I get my growth hormone up because of strategic fasting. And you recycle your protein when you are fasting. It does not always have to be coming in, right? You gotta think about everything from like hormones to cholesterol to even our cells and our gut line, all these things. Like we need to be cycling them in and cycling them out for optimization, right? We don't want to just be living off the same cells and the same, you know, chemicals all the time. We wanna be just moving in constantly in flux, right? That's optimization where things are flowing constantly. So when we're in autophagy, we're breaking down and recycling old, damaged, and dysfunctional proteins into component amino acids to create new healthy cells. That's what we want, right? We don't want to just be living off these toxic, senescent, mutated cells that are replicating. We need to be cycling in and out, right? So autophagy literally means self-eating, it degrades unnecessary or damaged components. Um the body recycles existing protein, right? And not functional muscle tissue because the growth hormone is switched on when we're in autophagy. We are conserving and preserving our muscle mass. So don't think that when you fast or you give your body some time in autophagy and ketosis and other fat-burning pathways, that you're gonna lose your muscle. You will not. Now, if you are only calorically restricting, which will not necessarily get your insulin down and not necessarily get you into autophagy, and that that's the whole misconnection. I talked about that on last, um, the last episode. So I'll link that up for you guys. It's totally different than just caloric restriction because when you are just like, let's just say you're, oh, I'm gonna eat 500 calories a day. For one, your hunger hormones are gonna always win and they're gonna go through the roof. For two, your body's gonna start to conserve energy because it senses that nutrient loss. And it can't necessarily tap into fat for energy because your insulin's still high. So you still are eating a little bit, not completely fasted, where you start to get into these repair mechanisms, the body can actually see the fat, the energy potential for, you know, for an energy source. It can only do that if insulin's low. So that's why it's different than just pure caloric restriction. And then, like I said, you don't have that protein recycling and things like that happening if you're like, oh, I'm just gonna eat 500 calories, mostly protein. Those things aren't happening. You're not teaching your body how to cycle in and out of these processes. You're just really calorically restricting it. And then you're gonna get like high cortisol, poor sleep, muscle breakdown, muscle wasting because insulin's still high. So the body's just really sensing like I don't have any nutrients coming in. So it's not recycling new protein. And it's like I said, it's not tapping into that growth hormone to conserve what muscle mass you already have. So yeah, you will lose muscle in that regard if it's just caloric restriction. That's why you have to teach your body how to be metabolically flexible, where it learns how to burn fat for energy, burn glucose when you eat, go back and burn fat for energy in between meals and at night, right? And just metabolically switch between the two. And the same needs to be said between the pathways we are stimulating with the food we consume. We should not always be growing. We need to have time to build and recycle and repair and go through those regenerative states as well and burn fat for energy. It is like the cellular cleanup processes that need to happen that keep us optimized and running smoothly. And that's where we, that's like our anti-aging, right? Like if we're always growing, we're always aging and we are at this place where probably not what the average American wants to be doing all the time, right? So when we are in autophagy, we are lowering that MTOR, that growth pathway. We're lowering IgF1, which is that insulin growth factor as well. And um also autophagy can only happen when we are in a lower protein state. So usually high fat, longer fast, those kind of things will stimulate autophagy. So, how do we know if we're overdoing it? Well, I want you to listen for some of those things, those symptoms of high insulin, right? Despite eating clean. Um, think about your digestion. How strong is it? Um, are you having trouble stabilizing blood sugar, even if you're low carb or just at all, right? Are you having some of those sleep issues, the hormonal issues? Um, does your protein intake match your lifestyle, right? Like are you high protein and like mostly sedentary throughout the day? Because at that point you're not using it to repair and rebuild damaged tissue like you would if you were actually having a workout, right? Or a strong enough workout. How often are you giving your metabolic needs and your digestion and your cells from producing energy a rest, right? How often are you tapping into cell repair programs and deep reparative work that only happens in autophagy in ketosis or when you're fasted? And I'm telling you, that overnight fast is not long enough to get there because most people are not getting into ketosis unless they are strategically trying to do so. This is how everything becomes overwhelmed. Our cellular function, our nutrient sensors, our drainage pathways, our liver, our kidneys, all these things, they become so overwhelmed because we're constantly feeding and wondering like, why are we not producing energy properly, right? Like nothing ever gets a chance to repair and heal. And it's another reason why, just to touch on why we have to worry about genetic expression so much, right? Why, why are we all of a sudden worried about all these gene expression and protein misfoldings and things like that? Because we never repair, we never heal, we never clear those cells that shouldn't be dividing, right? We never give our body a chance to repair and restore on a cellular level, right? And that can only happen if you give your body a true, like fasted state, a true state of autophagy and ketosis intermittently. Um so it's kind of like I'll just give you this quick analogy. It's kind of like filling a gas tank in a car, right? Like that the safety switch is broken. And also, let's just add to that, while the engine is still running, right? And so after a while, probably not gonna be the best outcome, right? You're gonna have a lot of spillover. You have a lot of excess energy, and that positive feedback of excess energy is gonna tell yourselves, hey, you know, don't work so hard, start conserving, right? And that's where we start to get the symptoms. So then we have increased inflammation from that, from that loss of function, that loss of proper cellular optimization. And then our demand for even more energy increases, but our body's conserving more and producing less. So, how do you think that just spirals into more and more subsets of symptoms that look like completely different things, but they all come back from what the body's doing metabolically, right? And then, like I said, when we just are constantly pulling on that fed and growth pathway, no matter how clean our protein is, we are getting stuck as a sugar burner. We cannot access fat for energy. That can only happen when insulin is low and low enough to tap in and test. You can even test for ketones to know like, am I getting into autophagy? Am I getting into ketosis?

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Autophagy Metabolic Flexibility And Closing

SPEAKER_00 1:02:27

So it all comes back to what our hormonal and metabolic impact of the food we are consuming does. That's our most frequent input, right? Other than our like actual external environment, but just what we feed our bodies has the most impact and it's our tool for change, right? And so it's a combination of what we're doing and what our cell is actually this capacity to turn those things into energy, right? So I just want to leave you on the note of saying there there is always a gray area, and that gray area is the individual response, your individual response to what you're doing. So stop copying and like trying to replicate what influencers are telling you. Do not go by a tracker or a calculator to calculate your needs. Your body has the wisdom of that. And so you need to listen to your biofeedback and interpret that and adjust accordingly because it's all derivative of the same thing. So this is your biggest lever for change. Change is always possible in the quickest way there. Just like we talked about earlier in the um neuroplasticity side of things, the quickest way metabolically is the things that you repeat the most, right? The food that you are intaking, its hormonal and metabolic responses. Which pathways does it stimulate when it comes into your body? What do you need more of right now? And always think about the cyclical nature of being between building and burning and repair states. We need to hang out a little bit in all of those. And if you're always hanging out in one, then that's how everything becomes out of balance, right? And we we're out of balance, we start to lose energy, right? Our cells don't function the way they're designed to, and then you start to see symptoms, right? When you fix the energy of the cell, it performs the way it's designed to do. And that requires fixing the fuel source, being metabolically flexible, shifting from glucose to fat and back and forth for energy and optimization, um, how your cells make that energy and how they distribute that energy, right? Everything else from there is secondary, right? Everything else symptomatically is a subset to these main metabolic processes. And so you really just need to kind of cue into where you are at with your health, what are your goals and what with what you're doing right now, is it giving you the outcome that you desire, right? Because if it's not, that is your biggest tool for change, right? And so learning how and and trying different things or working with someone who knows how to help you switch and and and be more in rhythm with the cyclical nature of our metabolic needs is where you're you're gonna get ahead. But you have to look at more than just your lab data, more than just your glucose data, even you have to look with how the body's responding. Cause I have people that have, like I said, picture perfect glucose graphs, but their insulin is still through the roof day in and day out, right? And so you have to listen and read between the lines. How's your sleep? How's your energy? What's your, you know, your weight, um, your inflammation status, your hormonal status, all those things are reflective of what's happening metabolically. So if those things are out of whack, there's still something hormonally and metabolically with the balance of your diet that needs some adjusting. And so I hope this makes sense. I don't demonize any, you know, any mathematics. Macronutrient, but it's all about finding your individual needs and working with those and not just having this cookie cutter set of you know set of numbers. It's more than the numbers, it's about the hormones and the metabolism first and foremost. Then you see what's left over from there, which is not much. So I hope this helped. Follow me on Instagram at dr.stacy.ind. Message me any questions you have. I do QA's intermittently. I'd love to hear from you. And I hope that this has been helpful. I can't wait to hear about your morning routines. I can't wait to hear about how this whole protein message is received. And I will talk to you guys next time. Have a beautiful rest of your day.