The Energetically Efficient Show

Why You’re Exhausted All the Time: The Hidden Link Between Stress, Blood Sugar & Blue Light

• Kristin Rowell

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Could your fatigue, anxiety, cravings, poor sleep, and hormone imbalance actually be connected to your light environment and blood sugar regulation?

In this episode, Kristin sits down with nutritional therapy practitioner and blood sugar expert Danielle Hamilton to unpack the powerful connection between circadian rhythms, artificial light exposure, cortisol, insulin, and metabolic health.

Danielle explains how modern lifestyles filled with indoor living, LED lighting, screen exposure, and chronic stress are disrupting the body’s natural rhythms and contributing to exhaustion, blood sugar instability, insomnia, hormonal imbalances, and nervous system dysregulation.

Tune in to hear:

  •  Why your body can become addicted to stress hormones 
  •  How artificial blue light impacts cortisol, insulin, melatonin, and blood sugar 
  •  The connection between circadian rhythms and metabolic health 
  •  Why sunlight is essential for hormone production and energy regulation 
  •  What reactive hypoglycemia is and how to recognize the symptoms 
  •  How chronic stress contributes to blood sugar instability 
  •  Why many women feel exhausted, anxious, shaky, or constantly hungry 
  •  The surprising health risks associated with excessive blue light exposure 
  •  Simple ways to improve sleep naturally without relying on supplements 
  •  Practical tips for reducing blue light exposure at home and while traveling 
  •  How grounding and outdoor time support nervous system regulation 
  •  Why modern indoor lifestyles are disrupting our health 

Resources mentioned:

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@energeticallyefficient

Connect with Kristin:

Work with Kristin 1:1: https://energeticallyefficient.com/book-now/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristin_rowell_

Website: https://energeticallyefficient.com/ 

SPEAKER_01

Body is addicted to the chemicals of stress. You start to become wired for the thing that you've created over and over and over, so your body gets addicted to it. Yeah. So literally, if you try to break away from that pattern, you have no idea how to do it, and you feel like nothing's working until you just go back to your pattern because it truly is an addiction, which is wild. Hello and welcome everyone back to another episode of the Energetically Efficient Show. I am your host, Kristen Rowell, and today I have an amazing guest with me. I am so excited. She is a fellow colleague, a fellow FNTP. This is Danielle Danny Hamilton, and I want to tell you a little bit about her before we get started and before I even let her say hi. So just hang on a second, Danny. So Danny is a nutritional therapy practitioner, same as me, which I love, but she specializes in hypoglycemia and complex blood sugar instability. She truly, you guys, is complete genius when it comes to these topics. She helps clients rebuild stable, consistent energy by addressing the deeper patterns of stress, undernourishment, and over control that drive chronic blood sugar crashes. By combining nutrition, minerals, and daily rhythms with awareness of the patterns that keep people stuck. She helps clients move out of the reactive cycles and into a more steady, resilient state. She's the host of the Light Up Your Metabolism podcast and creator of the Transformational Blood Sugar Mastery Program, which you've been running for so long, and I just love that you're still doing it because it's so powerful, which is amazing. So welcome, Danny. I'm so happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Kristen. I'm so excited to be here. And yeah, that this is the, I think, the 30th round of Blood Sugar Mastery, which is unbelievable. It's such a gift to have been able to work with, you know, 30 different cohorts of people and how much we learn clinically from what we're seeing in our practice. And that's where I feel like I've done most of my learning in just in myself and working with so many people and just seeing how nuanced all of this information is. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's interesting because you and I obviously both went through the Nutritional Therapy Association, which we can't say enough amazing things about that program. And there's so much additional learning that you do, literally on the job. I always say when I was practicing law, they call it practicing because you're literally practicing. And you and I now in our practice are practicing and learning. I can't even imagine how much you've learned through 30 cohorts of blood sugar mastery.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's amazing. Okay, so there's a bunch of different rabble holes I want to go down with you. You used to call your podcast Unlock the Sugar Shackles because it was much more focused on blood sugar at the time. And then I watched you, and I just love watching people who I care about. I love watching their transformations, as you sort of expanded into a lot of different information that you share now about light. And then even more so back on the blood sugar topic, the hypoglycemia and reactive hypoglycemia. So I want to talk about all of that today because I think my audience will be particularly interested. My audience, I would say, is this very typical classic American goes to the office. Maybe a lot of more people work from home now, but really feels like they have to be working morning, noon, and night all the time. They're not thinking about the importance of getting sunlight during the day. They're not thinking about the importance of sunlight in their eyes. So can we just talk generally first about why this is not even something that we ever were taught at any level of education and what a crime it is basically that we don't understand that we're powered by the sun and how important this is.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, yeah. And thank you for sharing about your audience because it it helps me direct what I'm gonna say because I have so much to say and I want to make this really powerful for you and use your time wisely. So I think that one of the most important things to remember is that we are as humans, we developed with this day-night cycle living on planet Earth that has this 24-hour rhythm. If we were on, I think it's Neptune, we'd have like a 17-hour circadian rhythm. If we were on Venus, we'd have like a 2,000-something hour circadian rhythm because of, you know, the whatever that like the day-night cycle.

SPEAKER_01

And they don't have our sun, they might have a different sun or something.

SPEAKER_03

No, they have our sun. Okay. They just, it's the like the rotation or like how how many hours of daylight they get versus their nighttime. So their day and night is different lengths. And so being on this planet, we have sort of that 24-hour daily cycle. And what that means for us as humans is that we're much better at doing certain things in terms of our physiology at certain times of the day or night. So, for example, our bodies are better at digesting and metabolizing food early in the day versus at night. So at 10 a.m., we have much better sensitivity to digest a meal, to manage the glucose versus 10 p.m., where what you'll see how that translates to real life is that if you were wearing a continuous glucose monitor or CGM and you ate a meal at 10 a.m., your your blood sugar might be pretty stable, like maybe no move, no movement or anything, or very minimal. And if you ate that same meal at 10 p.m. after the sun was down, very late after normal eating hours, your blood sugar is very likely to go up much higher and stay elevated much longer because our insulin system isn't working as well because that's not when it sort of works, right? So when the other thing is we're, let's say, better at digesting and metabolizing food early in the day, we're better at resting and repairing in the evening. And so there's all sorts of differences and and times when certain things are happening in our body. We just kind of think like, oh, our body does its thing, but it's actually receiving information from the outside in order to know what time it is and what to do. And so I like to use this analogy. Have you ever taken a really long nap and you wake up and you're like, what time is it? Where am I? Who am I? You're like pretty disoriented. So instantaneously, we almost experience panic, like this anxiety of I need to know what time it is right away. That's usually the first instinct we have in our conscious mind. And we also, like, why are we needing to know what time it is so badly in our conscious mind? Why is that so important to us? Well, I think it's because if I didn't know what time it was, I wouldn't know what to do. Should I be decorating for Christmas right now? Should I be putting on my pajamas and getting ready for bed? Should I be getting on my flight to go on vacation? Like, what should I be doing? And so we have to know what time it is in order to know what to do. And so that's why the light that hits our skin is so important because that's the primary what we call zeitgeber, or it's a German word that I'm probably butchering. But it's it's basically light is the primary time giver to our bodies. So when a certain light is shining on our skin, our body knows, like, oh, it's about nine o'clock in Austin, Texas, in April, you know, like for me right now, for example. So what that means is that, okay, my body's gonna run all the programs that it needs to. Now, what's happened in our modern world is a couple of things, and I'm not gonna go deep into the rabbit hole of like demonizing the government and all the powers that be. I'm sure we all are on the same page here. So we have just without any judgments or anything, we have been told get inside, don't be in the sun, the sun is dangerous, and it's the sun is gonna give you cancer, you need to put all the sunscreen on, all of that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

For sure. And it's like stay inside and you know, use your devices, of course, like just use your devices and turn on the lights, no big deal. Make sure you switch out to LED bulbs, and this is our modern world. And I'm gonna explain all those parts of that and and how that's impacting us. So we're told to stay inside, yet, if you just look at every single plant and animal almost in existence, they exist because of the sun. Plants are fighting for the sun's light. We ever see cats sit in like the the sun spot in the in a room, and animals are going towards the sun. Of course, when they've had enough too much sun, like lions on the Serengeti, they just go in the shade, right? They they regulate and go in the shade. It's like, oh, this is too much. So we naturally as beings on this planet, we seek the sun's light, and we we have so many things in our body set up to receive the sun's light and receive that information and use that information to keep our bodies running on schedule. Like I think about an airport. So what happens is when we're not in we're not outside, we spend over 90% of our time indoors. And this number is just, I know, it's just increasing all the time. So people are like, but no, Danny, I have windows, it's natural light. And unfortunately, new modern windows, they have they block out so many of the important frequencies of light. And so they're blocking out infrared, they're blocking out UV, and so we're getting a skewed signal. So even inside, the light is not natural. It's still better than a light bulb, like an LED light bulb, but it's not great. And so the other thing is like the sun is it's so bright. So being outside is extremely bright. Like, for example, right now, I have a little luxe meter on my phone. So luxe is how we measure light. And I'm sitting outside looking at clouds, but the luxe is 35,362. If I were to go inside right now, the luxe might be in my house maybe around 60. So 35,000 compared to maybe like 60 or 100 if it's really bright.

SPEAKER_01

So I have so many things I want to go back to, but let's focus on this right now. So the 35,000. So tell us why that matters with a luxe at 35,000 versus 60 inside. What is it doing for our body?

SPEAKER_03

Exactly. So we I I don't like to use the word evolved because who knows, but like we we, you know, there's just so much we don't know. But there's like we sort of evolved with this signal of extreme brightness during the day, even in clouds. And the brightness is an important signal for our body to tell us it's daytime, run these programs, do these things. And also the brightness of the sun helps us to stay alert, it helps bring up our cortisol. And the blue light in the sun is doing the same thing. So it helps as the sun goes higher in the sky, there's higher amounts of blue light from the sun. That's why our sky is blue. And so as the sun is going up, it's getting brighter and more blue. And so that's bringing up our cortisol levels, which helps us be alert, solve problems. You know, we were just talking offline about like a Dutch test. If you have someone who has a flat cortisol line, they're not doing well, they can't get out of bed. So we don't want to we want to make sure not to demonize any particular hormone. So cortisol is not a bad hormone. We need it, but we don't want, you know, sky-high cortisol levels all day or night, especially. What we want is a general increasing during the day and then a tapering off at night, so then we can fall asleep. And then the same melatonin, a lot of us know it as this hormone that is important for sleep, but it also drives all the repair processes in our body. So cortis, so cortisol and melatonin oppose each other. So in the morning, as that blue and brightness is coming out, we have the melatonin starting to go down. So we need that brightness signal to turn down the melatonin so then we're not, we don't have that sleep inertia and just are like pounding coffee and dehydrating us and drinking all our minerals all day. So that's a really powerful way to wake up and to is to see the sunrise because we're getting all those beautiful light rays in our eyes and on our skin, telling our body to start all the morning processes. Okay, start raising cortisol, okay, make pregnanolone, which is a precursor to all of our sex hormones. Yes. Let's like let's like slow, okay, take down the melatonin because she needs some energy. And so everything can regulate on its own when it's getting the proper signals. And then in the evening, it's really important that that brightness go down because brightness will reduce melatonin. So if we're at night, we have a hundred that same hundred lux of brightness inside, that's so bright for the nighttime. Our body's like, wait, is it is it 9 a.m.? Is it 9 a.m.? I think it's 9 a.m. So now your body, it's like 9 p.m. Your body, you're trying to wind down for bed, but you have lights on, and especially these new modern LED lights are high in blue light, which I just told you raises cortisol. It also raises blood sugar and insulin, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yep. I've heard you talk about before. Okay, so there's so much here. There's I've heard you talk about before, yes, there's blue light that comes from the sun, but one of the things it also does, and this is why the sun is unique, is it's always with red. Isn't that true in terms of the sun? Okay, so so I want to come back to that. And then also I think about my clients like stuck at a conference all day. Like, think about the conferences you and I have attended in the past.

SPEAKER_03

I go outside every second I can.

SPEAKER_01

Right? It's this horrible blue light, it's not combined with red because it's not the sun, so it's completely unnatural. Your body is getting zero signaling in terms of vitamin D, produce pregnantone, produce- So when you were talking about the sun is sending our body signals like do this and do that, you guys, I can't emphasize enough. Like the do this and do that are very important things for your body. I mean, for example, if you want to produce vitamin D, which we know the sun is our primary source of that, you have to be outside getting sun on your skin, on a lot of your skin, during certain hours of the day only. And if you are inside your office all day during that time, you literally aren't producing vitamin D. You can't, because you're missing that window. So, so I this is the first home. So I moved to Nat, you know, I moved to Nashville a little over a year ago, and it's the first home where I have had the dimmer lights, and I'm obsessed. Like, because I use them every night. Like I have such a low, low, it's just nice at night. Or sometimes I'll just do candles, I'll have no light on. But I've I've learned so much from you in terms of going outside in the morning, having that sunlight in your eyes actually clear the melatonin out of your system. Because the sun is actually working for us to get with that circadian rhythm in the earth. So I guess one of the things I just love to ask, because there was so much good juicy info you showed there, is what do you tell clients who are starting out with like, how do I actually make this a thing in my life? Because you and I obviously have the flexibility of working from home. I make it a priority to be outside with the dogs. I have these dogs that I have to walk. I make sure I go out in the morning, I go out certain at least in the evening. So, what would you tell someone? And I'm a big fan of always saying try something for 30 days and just see what a difference it makes. So, what would you tell someone?

SPEAKER_03

Okay, so I want to circle back to the blue light and then tie in the what would I tell someone? So when we're talking about then in the evening, you're talking about dimming lights. So I want to sort of combine everything that you said. Yeah. And so blue light, we just talked about okay, during the day, it's it's high in the sun. And so you're like, okay, I'm on my computer all day. I'm inside. There is that's a very high blue environment. And so during the day, having high blue light inside, it's still an issue because, as you mentioned, Kristen, blue light from the sun is always paired with red and infrared light to help balance it out. So blue light is very growth-oriented, it's raising cortisol, it's raising blood sugar, it's raising insulin. While red light and infrared light is very soothing and healing, it actually lowers our blood sugar, it can it supports our mitochondria. So think about these things as like very stimulating and very calming. And so when they're in the sun, it's always balanced out. But unmatched blue or this artificial blue light that we have in our light bulbs, we've taken all the red and infrared light, not all the red, but all the infrared light out of light bulbs because LED lights are trying to be energy efficient, which is not the same as energetically efficient on this podcast, right? So exactly. So for energy efficiency reasons, they that's why they block all that light in our windows, because they're blocking the heat from coming in, because infrared light, some of it is experienced as heat. So when they take the this light out of our light bulbs, now we have this unopposed blue light from our light bulbs, from our screens, from our computers, from our TVs, from our phones. We're holding it so close to our face, and we're getting sort of a very steady signal. The sun is always changing, but the light inside is always like so. It's like the it's not bright enough to be considered daylight, but it's not dim enough to be safe for nighttime. So it's sort of this like you're in this perpetual twilight state as you're inside. So think about your body being inside all day, like being in the twilight zone. It's like, what am I supposed to be doing right now? So the super.

SPEAKER_01

You said something a minute ago, so important, Danielle, that I just wanted to have you come back to.

SPEAKER_03

Please.

SPEAKER_01

You said blue light, like having and just think about it, you guys. You're on screens all day, you're on the computer, your phones, your iPads, you're working at night in bed. Don't get me started on that, especially if you're not wearing orange glasses. I could I go crazy. But you said that's gonna spike blood sugar. It's gonna you said a bunch of things there. So just say that again because I want people to realize like, it's not just the food you're eating, it's not just your stress. It is literally you are pounding your body with blue light that's affecting all your hormone function, including cortisol, including insulin, which you know, downstream then affect your sex hormones because you're not going with your natural circadian rhythm of the earth. So I just want to emphasize that. Say that again in terms of all the things that are affected.

SPEAKER_03

Blue light at night will raise cortisol, blood sugar, and insulin. Artificial blue light at night is linked with every single chronic health condition you could possibly imagine: obesity, weight gain, insomnia, diabetes, cancer, specifically hormonal cancers like breast cancer and prostate cancer, because it is affecting our hormones, because it is literally driving up cortisol and insulin, which are two of our hormones. So, and then remember it's pushing down, it's blocking melatonin from being released. So we're not getting the repair. So that's why it can, it's unopposed growth. That's what cancer, that's what cancer is, right? So blue light at night is creating unopposed growth stimulation and turning down the repair processes that we need to do. So it's not like you're gonna have zero melatonin at night, but you know who you are, if you're like, God, I'm you know, I'm in bed with my laptop, blue light, working till all hours, and how stimulating is that for other hormones? Our dopamine system, maybe if you're not working, if you're scrolling, same thing. It's that dopamine, right? So even just now going back to sort of things that we can do. Number one, during the day, if you're in a conference, if you're at work, getting taking micro breaks, like take a cigarette break and don't be smoking. Go outside and take a break and just look at the sky. If you can touch, even if you know you have shoes on, you can't be like taking your shoes off, touch something that is growing. Like touch a leaf that is planted into the ground. Touch natural stone that is.

SPEAKER_01

Like literally touch grass on the ground.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And put your hands down on the ground. Yeah. Sit on cement and touch the cement. Certain cement is conductive. Touch a metal pole that's sticking up out of the ground and you're grounded. So that's giving us that electron flow, which is really important, very anti-inflammatory for us. We need like I'm literally sitting outside in the sun with my feet on the earth, touching because this is I practice what I preach, because I feel I can work a whole day and not need extra coffee or be like wake up, you know. I I have constant energy flowing into my body. And so that's really powerful.

SPEAKER_01

Can you say that again, guys? Did you hear that? I have constant energy flowing into my body because she's getting her energy from the earth and the sun and the way we are supposed to get it.

SPEAKER_03

Like, I'm only supposed to get a third of our energy from food. And what happens is most people are getting 100% of their energy from food. So because they're so disconnected from yes, sorry, yes, fake energy. It's just blocking adenosine receptors. But the so if we are trying to get 100% of our energy from food instead of where else we can get it from stepping on the earth or touching the earth with bare skin and sunlight on our skin, we are then going to be over consuming food. And you know, there's obviously effects of that. And so this is Free energy from the ground. And I mean better blood flow because our blood cells, we get we get a negative charge when we step on the earth. I think we forget that we conduct electricity. And I always tell my clients if you forget, just stick your finger in a socket and you'll remember real fast. So don't do that.

SPEAKER_01

Or don't actually do that.

SPEAKER_03

Don't actually do that. But we do. Yeah, we conduct electricity and we know we have to charge our phones. Yes, we don't charge our bodies. So I want you to think about going outside, stepping on the grass, and putting your body in the sun. You will feel that recharged energy. So if you're at a conference all day, if you're out, if you're at work all day, get outside, touch grass, touch a leaf, you know, touch a metal pole, and and get your face in the sun, no sunglasses, please. That's gonna block a really important signal from getting in your eyes. So your body, you're like, oh, okay, I know exactly what time it is. Sunglasses on. Oh, I think it's 5 p.m. And it's like, no, we need the remember, we need the brightness signal. And a lot of this is happening through our eyes. So ideally, if you have glasses on, you want to kind of take those down. And if you have contacts, you do want to look for contacts that allow UV light in and that doesn't block UV light. I think there's some brand called Dailies that does this, not just like the daily contacts, but anyway, so we could go into so many rabbit holes, but just trying to give some really good takeaways here. The other thing would be in the evening, or let's talk about our devices.

SPEAKER_01

So And before you do that, because there's something that I think you and I, it's such a missing piece for so many people. Okay. You and I laugh all the time when we're traveling, because I've seen you talk about this on your stories, and I talk about this on my stories as well. Why am I the only person in the airport with orange glasses on at eight o'clock, nine o'clock at night, or at 5 a.m. in the morning before the sun comes up? Yes. It's crazy to me.

SPEAKER_03

And people don't know it. They don't know it. They don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they don't know. So I just always like try to lead by example in that way. But if you don't bring your orange glasses with you when you're traveling, it's so important.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, Kristen, I also I think you're an Enneagram one-wing two, who's a social and social one. This is a whole thing. We have to talk about this offline, but like I I am that same thing, and we're we're so alike with how we think. And yeah, just being like, how could you not be doing this? It's like, oh, people don't know. So we're gonna give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

SPEAKER_01

This is true. This is why we're getting the information out. This is why we're sharing this podcast because people don't know. That's fair.

SPEAKER_03

For sure. So so let's talk about how we can mitigate some of this dysregulating light through the day and get more natural light. So one of the things that I say to people is become an outdoor creature. I have, I am sitting in a gazebo slash mosquito tent, if you can see if you're watching this on video. I'm sitting in a mosquito tent because and I'm touching the earth and I have the sun right on me because Do you have your kitties by you too?

SPEAKER_01

Please jump in. There's yeah, there's one right here. Yes. Oh, look at okay, good. So you're surrounded by nature. I can like hear the birds chirping. It's amazing. Amazing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and that birds chirping is regulating for a cortisol because birds only chirp when there's no predators. So when w humans hear birds chirping, it actually calms us.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I love that fact so much. That is so fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And so we're getting like I'm getting all this regulation out here and getting so many benefits just by sitting outside working. So it's like I'm doing health things by working outside. So if you work from home at any time, get yourself like prioritize an outdoor workstation. Bring your laptop, get a laptop, like just bring, I don't know, bring your computer outside, work on your phone, something, but become an outdoor creature. Ask yourself, could I be doing this outside? And sometimes the answer is gonna be no, girl. It's snowing. There's a thunderstorm. That's okay. Right. No that you're not the the goal is not 100% of the time. Like we're realistic. But if you ask yourself that question, it will open up like let's say you just came home from work, you're exhausted, you just want to like numb out on your phone. Could I be doing this outside? Yes. Yes, I could, right? Sometimes, yes, I could.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you helped me with just the eating meeting.

SPEAKER_03

Eating my meals. Exactly. Can I eat my meals?

SPEAKER_01

All the time now. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Right. And so we're doing that because it's better for our blood sugar because we have red light shining on us and it lowers our blood sugar response to the meal. So that's that's adding in benefits. That's adding in the positive and helping our body know, like even just taking those little cigarettes slash light breaks, not cigarettes, but light breaks, look just looking at the sky, just looking at the sky, maybe touching some grass every, you know, as often as you can throughout the day, just so your body's like, oh, I get it. It's this time. Oh, I get it, it's this time. That's really powerful. And then when it comes to mitigating the the harms of, you know, the this artificial light and stuff like that, we're not gonna get rid of all of it. That's not the goal. We don't, and we don't have to. Our bodies are resilient, so it doesn't have to be, oh, this girl's telling me I have to live like a pioneer, go live in a tent and get rid of my devices. That's not what I'm telling you. Like we can, we can have the best of both worlds. So we want to add in some good and mitigate some of the issues. So a couple things. Number one is on an iPhone, you can turn your phone screen red by triple clicking one, two, three, the power button when you set this up in color filters and I'm gonna put the instructions under this.

SPEAKER_01

I know how to do it. I walk clients through it all the time because I have it. And I forget because I go to check in for a flight and they go, Oh, your phone is pink. And I'm like, wait, what? I forget that it's on because I have it on all the time, actually. Same. Yeah. Because I don't want the blue light on. Yeah. So I will put instructions under this about how to do it.

SPEAKER_03

Perfect. So, and then if you have an iPhone, an Android, you can use the Twilight app to get your phone screen read. For computers, my favorite app, and this is not sponsored, is Iris Tech. And I think it's iris tech.co is their T-E-C-H. I think that's their website. And it's basically these two little sliders, so daytime, nighttime. And so for the daytime one, you if you have it all the way to the right, you could see the screen is very white, which is most blue. And then as you turn it down, it goes more yellow, more amber, and then all the way to red. And so when you're inside, just taking out some of that harsh blue, it's not that we can't see any blue light, but it's doing a lot of damage. These like quick wavelengths are doing damage to our skin. Like people talk about wrinkles from the sun. What about wrinkles from blue light? It's a slow burn. It penetrates it penetrates our skin, and everyone's like, oh, I got skin cancer, and instantaneously it's assumed that it's from the sun. It's like, how do you know it's from the sun? Because I think, personally, this is just my theory, not fact, but I think that our ancestors lived with the sun and people were not dropping dead of skin cancer. Oh, I agree. And now I'm holding this fake device a couple inches from my face, or I'm on my computer all day and night and watching TV and being blasted with blue light and the overhead LED lights. I think that's much more damaging than God's light. Yes, just saying. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

So I hear you.

SPEAKER_03

So there's that. And so again, we can take, and then if you're working on your computer at night, you could turn it to completely red. That's what I do.

SPEAKER_01

If I ever have to work at night, I put it on full night. And then sometimes if I want to go over the top, I also have my red light glasses on. And then I'll have to turn the brightness up a little bit just because you can barely see. But it does make a huge difference because then I know I'm not blocking my body's production of melatonin, and I get amazing sleep. Yes, you know, exactly.

SPEAKER_03

It makes a huge difference. It's so powerful. Like sleep is my primary thing that I'm working towards. And being, if any chronic insomniacs here, brightness by day, darkness by night, honoring that bright and darkness signal as go camping for three days, your circadian rhythm will completely reset and you will be able to sleep.

SPEAKER_01

And so I'm glad that you mentioned that because there were a few years ago I went on a trip in Costa Rica. Uh-and I know you've been there as well. And it was the first trip I ever went on where I literally did not bring my computer. I got everything done before, and I slept in the woods, like in the jungle woods for an entire week. I had the highest HRV, the lowest heart rate, the it's like, duh. You know, I didn't have this noise interrupting my own energetic self, my true electricity, for an entire week, and it made a huge difference in my health. And so and then what people do is they're like, oh, I'm not sleeping. Oh, I have to take this prescription drug. I have to take, you know, I'm gonna have to have wine to wind down, which is the worst thing for your sleep. And so uh it really just coming back to the principles of nature is so critical.

SPEAKER_03

For sure. I had one of my clients reverse to give you guys real life examples. Yeah, I had a client who is 40 years old, has had terrible insomnia her entire life. Entire life as far as she could remember it, like from childhood.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

In one week, she put app blockers on her phone, which highly recommend app blockers, y'all, to keep yourself off these apps or working stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Say for another minute what app blockers are. This is to make sure that you don't go on any of your device, you don't spend too much time on your device.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, on like Instagram or your app of choice. Maybe it's your maybe it's your emails, you know. So block the apps that that make you addicted to your devices at that time. And or put, you know, she put app blockers on, let's say at eight o'clock, and then she got outside and saw morning light as soon as she got up. So she wasn't even seeing sunrise yet because she was sleeping past that. In one week, no more chronic insomnia. And I'm telling you, it lasted.

SPEAKER_01

Like oh my god, they have like goosebumps. That is so incredible.

SPEAKER_03

She she's still working with me and she does not have insomnia. But if she goes out of like if she gets loose on the, you know, on her phone too much, not getting outside, boom, it comes back. So it's just, oh, I have to really regulate. And of course, that's not gonna be the only thing that's there's a lot of things that go into sleep, but that is powerful for so many people who have these sort of upside-down lives where where they're living, to use my best friend Molly Eastman's sort of terminology. She talks about how we're spending like all day in casinos. She works, she's a sleep expert who works with uh poker players and they have these upside-down lives where it's like they're bright under these casino lights and slot machines and all this blue light all night long, and there's no windows in there, so your circadian rhythm gets so thrown off. And it's like we're living like that in our modern world.

SPEAKER_01

I love that you said that because my sister's gonna hate me because I'm throwing her under the bus. But every time I go to her house, she and her husband and they have two kids. And granted, the kids are at the prime age where it's like Whitney has dance until nine o'clock some nights, Garrison has hockey until 10. They're moving and grooving like all night, but I walk into the house and I go, I'm in Vegas. Yep, it's Vegas in here, and so now all the five of us laugh about it. And I I come and they have dimmers. I start turning all their dimmers down. I go, guys, we have to have a calm environment. And they're like, no, it's Vegas. We got a party. They like make jokes about it. Yeah. But they they I they're learning and they're like, okay, it is just calming for your central nervous system, and it just prepares you for sleep when you're not blasting your eyes with all this annoying light at nine o'clock at night.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly. So there's then two more things I want to talk about at night. So the light bulbs and the glasses. So, so there are certain a lot of people will say, Oh, I have blue blocking technology in my glasses already, in my reading glasses, or in whatever. My question to you is can you see the color blue when you're wearing those glasses? If the answer is yes, they are not blue blocking glasses.

SPEAKER_01

Interesting. Okay, that's a great tip.

SPEAKER_03

By really good marketing that blocks a very specific frequency of this blue-violet light, which is not the color light that tells our body it's daytime.

SPEAKER_00

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03

So during the day, when the sun is out, if you're exposed to a very blue-lit environment, for example, you're at a conference, you're in your office, you're like you can't change the lighting or the computer's really bright airplane. Yes. During the day, you want to go with there's these lenses that are like a pale yellow lens. And what that's doing, not even a dark yellow lens, that what that pale yellow lens is doing is it's taking that sharp peak of blue and just bringing it down where you can still see blue, but it's balancing it out with the other frequencies so it's not so intense. So that can help a lot of eye strain on the computer, but also you need the blue to stay alert. So if you put orange lenses on during the day, you'll get sleepy. Yes. Because you need that if it's the orange lenses block all the blue and some of the green, but that will make you start to get tired because that will allow melatonin to start rising. Yes. So we don't want to use the oranges for the most part during the day. I use oranges. Anytime the sun is down, orange lenses go on. Now there's also red lenses, which are great if you're in an extremely bright environment. For example, in an airport, at my parents' house, things like that. Yeah. So you want to be have potentially have those, the red ones on, and I do a hat as well to prevent the light from if it's overhead light to going in. But in my house, where I already have very dim lighting, if I put the red ones on, I can't see anything. So I'm like walking into stuff. So of course, safety first. And so then that brings me to the lighting in our homes. Now, a really easy way to just improve so many things about the health of you and your family is to switch all of your light bulbs in your home to from LED bulbs to incandescent bulbs. There's a website called 1000bulbs.com. It's the number 1000bulbs.com. Yep. No affiliation. And you just go to the incandescent section and you can find tons of different sizes of light bulbs. The recessed light bulbs are a little bit of an issue. And these recessed lights that often have, you know, the dim switch. I don't want to burst your bubble, but I'm likely gonna burst your bubble. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So and now if I was so afraid of this, by the way, I'm like she's gonna tell me I'm doing it all wrong.

SPEAKER_03

You're not doing it all wrong, but if in the sake of, you know, as a fellow Enneagram one, where they're improvers, and so it could be potentially better, but it also could be working for you. So it we again, we're not looking for perfection. We're looking for what's workable, what really helps us and is protecting us, and what feels good with your lifestyle. So one of the things that we want to think about when it comes to lighting in the evening is we want to look at what light options did our, let's say, our ancestors have access to. It would have been firelight. Now, where describe fire light. It was low on the ground, right? It was on the ground, most likely, it's still dim, and it's fire toned. So oranges, reds, maybe some yellows, right? It's those warm colors. So what I think we want to do is mimic what the firelight does. So we want dim, low to the ground, and warm colors. So there's almost no blue light in fire. And if you look at it and if you do that, let's say the luxe meter and you measure how bright it is, it's gonna be very, very dim. Very, very dim. So ideally, we want under 10 lux of brightness in the evening. Now, the other thing is making sure the light is low. So one of the first things we can do in the evening that everyone can do is turn off overhead lights. So that's where the light coming in straight in, we have receptors in our eyes for overhead light because that's where the sun is. That is that is capturing blue light. So if the light is a little bit lower, like a table lamp, a little night light, it's a little bit better, okay? And then when it comes to the colors, that's where incandescent really shines. Because most of the the emissions from an incandescent light is gonna be infrared. What's coming out of a fire? Lots of infrared, lots of infrared, right? And so, and then the incandescent light, certainly you can find some really cool incandescent lights, but we would want to lean much warmer and dimmer, so a lower wattage and even dimming those. And, you know, there's still some melatonin repression with your average warm incandescent bulb, but it feels a lot more workable for a family. Let's say, so, you know, there's also the option of getting, I get orange and red incandescent bulbs as well to kind of mimic the fire colors. Now that's even suppressing the blue even more, which is even better. But some people are like, I have little kids, my husband hates this, you know, it's often the husbands who are like not into this.

SPEAKER_01

They're always the problem. Right.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And so thinking about at least some warm, like really nice old-fashioned Edison type bulbs that are dimmable, maybe. I love the brand strainless lighting. They have beautiful lights and they're all dimmable and just getting that nice warm glow. I have like a red and an orange incandescent bulb in my bedroom. And so I have both of those on. And then when it's really, really late, I turn off the orange one. It's just the red one. And you're there's no blue lights and it's super dim. So there's almost few things you can do in that light which will tell you it's time for bed. It's time for bed. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then your body's getting ready for bed. And then listen, guys, then you don't have insomnia, you don't, it's it's so, it's such a simple fix, but it also seems so complicated at the same time because we haven't learned about it at any level of education until now.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah, getting those lights and then having your house in this sort of sort of like sundown mode. And then so it's certain times of the year, we have to wake up for work and it's still dark out for a little while. So we want to maintain ideally that sundown mode as long as we can, and then ideally get the first light in our eyes to be sunrise light. Right.

SPEAKER_01

Instead of having all these bright lights on in our home right when we wake up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So if you have the option to make your own schedule, getting up right before sunrise and getting outside right then. I mean, my cat and I, like one of my cats, wake up right before sunrise every single day. And then it's like, boom, I'm opening my shades, and then a couple minutes later, I get outside and the sun is rising. Like clockwork. I don't need an alarm. I just wake up on my own because my circadian rhythm is so regulated.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's so funny you say that because I have a girlfriend and I tease her about this all the time. We say, You are literally God's favorite because your aura ring data every night is so annoyingly perfect. I hate you. She's like, you know what? I honestly think it is because she's well in perimenopause, menopause. She's in her early 50s. She said, I go to bed every night at 10 and I wake up every morning at six.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And I have trained my body so well. She's like, and I don't mess it up on the weekend, rarely, sometimes she does. But just because she's in that habit and she's so routine. Her sleep her sleep data is like, we love you. She gets rewarded for it. Yeah. So good. Yeah. Yeah. I want to come back to the window thing because you mentioned the window and how when we're inside, even if we're I'm getting this beautiful natural light in here. So what? It doesn't give me actual light. What was the luxe meter? What are you using to measure that? Just in case people are interested in that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I use the My Circadian app, it's called. Uh, I have that app too. Yeah, it's created by my friend Sarah Kleiner. And my dis my code is Danny D-A-N-I-H-H. In case you need a code for that, I don't know if you have a code, Chris.

SPEAKER_01

No, I don't, but I only have the free version, but I do want to upgrade it, so I will do that. I will use your code. Say your code again because we'll put it under the video.

SPEAKER_03

Danny H H. D-A-N-I-H-H. Yeah. And so if you upgrade right now, she's actually having a sale. I don't know if this will come out in time, but for you, Chris, she's having a sale, a lifetime discount for like$99 or something. And when you pay for it, you get unlimited uses of the Lux meter. So yeah, it's really cool to see your environment. And the other thing I want to say about the dimming, the bulbs. Yeah. So this is something that you can do, and I want you to, I want everyone to think about doing this. Go into your camera on your phone and put it on hold on. You want to put it on slow-mo, and then you want to turn it. Like you're going to take a video and put it on slow-mo, and then you want to turn the frame rate at the top to 240.

SPEAKER_01

Instead of FPS, mine is defaulted at 120.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, you want to turn it to to exactly. You want to turn it to 240, and then you're going to take a video of any light. Now, what you're going to see is that because our electricity is called what's called alternating current, all lights are going to have a little sort of gentle flicker. Sort of think about like a candle. You know, like a little gentle flicker. Now you're going to look at an LED light bulb. Not every single one, but most of them. And especially as you dim them, what happens is that they actually have a strobe effect. These lights are turning on and off hundreds of times per second. And so in order to dim them, they're just strobing more.

SPEAKER_01

So you're like in a club in your own home when you're using those lights.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So you can Film your light and see what it does. Yeah. So you'll have to tell me. And you you might say, oh, it's it's fine. It doesn't do that. Sure. Like there might be that possibility. Some lights might not do that. But often that's how you're getting it.

SPEAKER_01

So you're saying when I do the video, what I'll see is like a if it's that strobe.

SPEAKER_03

I I go into stores, lights outside of gas stations, lights outside of the grocery store, lights inside of the grocery store. I did this all over the place. I was like, oh, this is unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01

We're all in Vegas and we had no idea.

SPEAKER_03

We are all in a club in Vegas.

SPEAKER_01

The worst kind of light, yes.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And so, I mean, think about like you go into stores. A lot of people, a lot of my clients are like, oh, I feel horrible in stores. And it could be because of that lighting. So you could wear the yellow glasses all day long, but if you're in a strobe light, it's very stress-inducing for a human body. Think about kiddos with, you know, neurodivergence and autism, ADHD, like what these lights must be doing to these kids. And they have lots of videos, like time-lapse videos of kids under fluorescent lights that also have a strobing effect and very unnatural waveform versus they change out the lights and the kids are sitting, paying attention, listening. I mean, it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

That is unbelievable. I mean, I think so many parents listening to this are gonna feel like they're getting so much value, especially for their kids, Danny. I just I hope so. I appreciate it so much. I want to make sure that we turn a little bit to talk about hypoglycemia. Perfect and something that I'm aware of called reactive hypoglycemia. And I know that you really, because it's all blood sugar related, you specialize in this so much. So could you give us sort of like the sixth grader explanation of what is hypoglycemia and then more specifically what's reactive hypoglycemia?

SPEAKER_03

Sure. So hypoglycemia is when our blood sugar goes too low. So our body likes to have a little amount of sugar in our blood, just about a teaspoon, and that's gonna sit in this range, let's say, in an average healthy person between 60 and about 110, 120. And so that's sort of the Goldilocks zone. The body doesn't like it too high, doesn't like it too low. And so when it starts to go low, most likely people have felt what it feels like. Where when our blood sugar starts to go too low, the brain is like, oh crap, we're running out of energy. And so it's gonna send signals of that, or just from the brain not having a lot of energy, we're gonna experience brain symptoms. And so this could look like feeling dizzy, lightheaded, having brain fogs, difficulty concentrating, feeling weak, feeling tired. And those are sort of like when we're we're like, oh, I'm I'm fading. I'm fading. So it's like that fading feeling. But then oftentimes we get the body has so many checks and balances to put our blood sugar back up because if it goes too low, we will literally die. So it has so many things to get our blood sugar up. There's so many counter-regulatory hormones and all that stuff. So the average person does not need to be like, oh my God, I'm gonna die because of my blood sugar. So please do not think this.

SPEAKER_01

Totally. Like I was thinking, my grandfather was a type one diabetic. And so when his got too low, we had to shoot him. Obviously, we do its orange juice. It's like the most sugary thing you can do. But it was because his body didn't have those mechanisms to be able to help produce and process the insulin. So yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah, so type one diabetics don't have that counterregulatory system for the most part, but average people will. So what happens is often as the blood sugar is going down, most often this is an issue of the body not being able to burn stored energy. We have stored energy, stored sugar in the form of glycogen in our liver, and we have glycogen in our muscles, and we have body fat that's stored energy. And so, what we a healthy body is able to do is between meals, if the blood sugar is going down, just take a little sugar from the liver and just and top you right off. That's a normal process, right? But when that doesn't happen because there's hormonal dysregulation or for other reasons, what happens is the adrenals then have to come in, the blood sugar is going low, and the adrenals come in and pump you with stress hormones like adrenaline, epinephrine, norepinephrine, to create new glucose. They often do this by breaking down muscle tissue. So you break down muscle muscle tissue, create new glucose, then you get a sharp rise of your glucose, so your blood sugar is back up, so you're saved, but you're also feeling a lot of sympathetic nervous system symptoms. So you're feeling that fight or flight. So now you might feel anxious, you might get shaky, you might feel irritable, you might feel hangry, you may feel sweats, heart palpitations, headaches. So all of those symptoms and more nausea, intense and urgent hunger, intense sugar cravings, these are very common symptoms that our body is lacking fuel. And as you can see, it's very hard on our adrenals to keep doing this. That's a very expensive process for the body to pump us with all these stress hormones. So eventually there's just so much sort of adrenal dysregulation, HPA access dysregulation, and we just become very depleted. So a lot of my clients experience hypoglycemia after years or even a lifetime of chronic stress. And so this often shows up as like chronic under-eating, calorie restriction, overworking out, overcutting carbs, cutting calories, yo-yo dieting, excessive fasting, ketoing and low carbon for too long. So all of those things are driving down these hormones that tell us that, hey, we're nourished, food is available. Yes. And so we're a lot of times people are trying to like restrict and and almost punish themselves and do the right thing, and that's very draining on the body. And then eventually, often that's very related to the cortisol levels. And if cortisol stays too low, we just can't keep that blood sugar in that healthy range. It just kind of keeps dropping. And so a reactive hypoglycemia is where after someone eats a meal, their blood sugar goes up any amount, but then goes too low. And so it goes down too far. And so sometimes we see that having to do with too much insulin release at a meal. Sometimes it's there's insulin resistance, but not always. So there's so many drivers to hypoglycemia and so many different patterns. But often for my clients, it shows up if a meal is delayed or missed, like back when I had hypoglycemia, it would be like someone I'd hear someone say, I think I forgot to eat lunch. I'm like, are you kidding me? Like I would never forget to eat, like never, because I this and and I was a person who was always grazing throughout the day, little little bits of something, or just kind of like topping myself off, even coffee. People do this with coffee. You know, they have cream or a little sugar in their coffee, and they just take a little sip throughout the day. They might extend it all day and not realize that not only is it giving them the caffeine, but it's also sort of topping up their glucose load and their stress hormones. And so that's keeping their blood sugar up. And so I was also like the hangry girl and I used to eat before I went out to eat. I eat I ate before I left the house anytime because I didn't realize it, but I was very afraid to feel hungry because my hunger felt terrible. Well, because of the hyperlastemia you could have.

SPEAKER_01

Right. You just weren't metabolically flexible at the time and now you are, which is amazing. Because you could fast for a long time if you needed to. You don't have to. You can go different times of food. One of the things you said that I just want to emphasize because I talk about this with clients all the time, is we cannot, like, is it underestimate or overestimate? Overestimate the connection between cortisol and insulin. As I say this all the time. Cortisol is literally driving insulin. Insulin is driving cortisol. So it is the interesting thing about the hypoglycemia state is although yes, it's food related, there's such a stress component and it's affecting your stress so much. And then both of those things have downstream effect on all of your sex hormones. And so I always say it's so important to work from a top down, like get the foundations, you've got to come back to the foundations of nutritional therapy all the time. Because it truly does resolve all this other stuff that you might be chasing, because it's some weird symptom that you can't. Why am I tired all the time at this time? Or why am I, whatever the symptom may be? And it could come back just to something as simple as we need to get your insulin regulated and it'll reduce your stress.

SPEAKER_03

For sure. And I I also see a very common sign of blood sugar issues where you're not metabolically flexible because our body will start to, if it runs out of that sh liver sugar, glycogen, overnight, which is totally normal, the body will switch to burning fat. But when we have high insulin levels, the body struggles to use the glycogen and it and it is not sort of allowed to burn the body fat because the insulin's saying store fat. Don't burn it right now, store it. So it's it's blocking you from that. And so what happens is we'll see wake ups overnight because then the blood sugar will dip and you'll get a rise in your glucose, and then you're awake. And so even if you were to test your blood sugar, you're like, oh, it's a hundred. It's it's actually kind of high right now. That's because you already got that that elevation from the adrenals pumping you with stress hormones, and that's what wakes you up. That's why you feel shaky or or anxious when you wake up. That's why your heart's pounding, or that's why you just can't fall back asleep, or that's why you need to eat in the middle of the night. So it's not the only cause of overnight wakeups, but it's a very, very common one is having these sort of hypoglycemic tendencies. And when I look at hypoglycemia, the first the most overwhelming pattern I see with my clients is that they are burning the candle from both ends. Doesn't that sound like a bunch of lawyers? Yes, actually, I had a I had I had a consultation with a client of mine who was in law school when I first saw her and now she's a lawyer. And I had like, so this is very top of mind. We talked about, you know, she's overworking. Sometimes she's working till two in the morning. She's like, so would it be better for me to work on the weekends instead of working late nights? I'm like, yes, 100% protect your sleep at all costs. Yeah. Is that the number one thing? So if you have flexibility, work on the weekends outside at your house, you know, work outside on the weekends, have it be chill, have it be like, okay, this is a chill session. Maybe put on some music in the background, like get a nice fun like seltzer water with a little lemon in it. Like make it fun, make it relaxing and have a new relationship with working and be and have a very strong boundary. Of course, there's going to be exceptions. But on the regular, you know, like set those boundaries at night. I do not work past this time because it is too dysregulating. And like, yeah, so anyway, yeah, it's so funny that I was talking to her this week.

SPEAKER_01

It's so interesting because I do think that there's so many people that are just like, but that's the only time that I have me time that I can get stuff done. Yeah. They they have this program around, I just have to. And I try to remind people as gently as I can that you are actually creating your entire reality. You are doing that at night to yourself because you're allowing it, because you are not setting boundaries that take care of you first because you're taking care of you're taking care of everyone else before you take care of yourself. Excuse me. And long term, you're the one who pays the price. Right. You know, this is what's going to affect your health long term. Like the chronic illness that develops from years and years of operating that way, that's the thing that I find so sad for people. Because then they wake up and have whatever it is, autoimmune diseases, cancers, whatever the thing is, and it all could have been prevented.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And so I think that if we look at it, if we frame it in the way of, okay, I feel like I need this me time, like I don't have time to do things, like I just want to relax, I would say, sure. Like I I get that, like valid that you want to feel that way. And I'm sure there's also a part of you that wants to like fall asleep, feel rested, and wake up feeling like energized. I think there's that part of you too. So if we could not say, like, oh, I'm not getting me time, and it's like, oh, I have to be disciplined, I have to do this thing. Let's turn to for me, this feels helpful. Like, what do I get by choosing this other thing? Like, oh, I get to go to bed early, oh, I get to just relax in my sheets and take some slow deep breaths and feel how relaxed my body can get and feel how cozy my bed is and lay in this bed and then fall asleep and I wake up and I feel a little better. Now, the thing is that if you are used to that high stress lifestyle at night and going to bed late, you're gonna put yourself in bed early and be like, I'm just tossing and turning, so I might as well be up and doing all these things.

SPEAKER_01

So remember, your body That's because, by the way, your body is addicted to the chemicals of stress. It literally gets this is something that Joe Dispenza talks about when I go to the retreats, which I love, but it's true. You you start to become wired for the thing that you've created over and over and over. So your body gets addicted to it. Yeah. So literally, if you try to break away from that pattern, you have no idea how to do it and you feel like nothing's working until you just go back to your pattern because it truly is an addiction, which is wild.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So one thing that could be helpful for that is looking at okay, what time do I typically go to bed? And just putting maybe some sort of alarm on your phone, the app blockers, and just moving this, shifting this slightly earlier, slightly earlier by 10 minutes, five minutes a day until you're putting yourself in bed, let's say at 10 o'clock or 10 30, you know, where you're putting yourself in bed and you can fall asleep. And then you get up and you see the sun, and this the whole system will start to slowly regulate. Do not have this as a I have to do this by tomorrow or I have to do this by the end of the week. Give yourself this runway. Okay, this month, as you mentioned, like this month, I'm committing to like diet cleaning up my evening routine, and I'm gonna do that by putting this alarm on. We have to put it in reality. We can't just say we're gonna do these things, put it in your calendar, put an alarm on your phone, like set yourself up so it's not based on your willpower. Because guess what? Tomorrow you're gonna be like, forget this. So set yourself up for success and look at focus on what I will be gaining. I'm gonna feel so much more rested. I'm gonna have so much more patience with my kids and my husband. I'm gonna perform better at work. I'm gonna feel more joy in my life. I'm gonna be setting myself up for more health. I'm not gonna be so dependent on coffee and things to energize me. I'm just naturally gonna feel better. I'm gonna be in a better mood. All that is possible. All of that is so possible for you. And so instead of looking to like, oh, I want this me time, let's look honestly, let's get in reality. What is this me time? What does it come with? Yes, you get to go on your phone. Yes, you maybe get to relax with a glass of wine. Yes, you feel maybe pleasure and relax for an hour. And it also is coming with sleep deprivation, needing coffee, being cranky, blah, blah, blah. Like, write down truly what that is coming with. Because you say you want this piece, but it comes with this. So do you want all that? Like, do like so, just getting in reality can help us see like, oh, I don't want all those things and I can't separate them out. They come together. Like if you write them on one piece of paper, that's what you come with. Or I have to put myself in bed earlier. I have to get honest and you know, gentle parent myself with my bedtime. Gentle parent yourself. And like, and it also comes with this possible list of all these benefits. So then you get to choose. You get to say, how do I want my life to look? I oh, I do want this. I do want to feel more ease and more energy and all that.

SPEAKER_01

So because you are creating it, you truly are creating your reality. So like you get to decide. It's not, oh, but it's these clients that are stressing me out. I have all this work to do. It's like, no, you're actually allowing all of that. And a 30-day experiment, like we talked about, could be so beneficial for this because when you listed all the things, more joy, more energy, I'm nicer to everyone in my life. I actually something I enjoy my job more. Like I actually have the energy to get up and serve in the morning because it's all hormonal and neurotransmitter related. All of it. Like it all affects how you move throughout the world, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. So having your and and having, you know, the nature be your anchor and have the sun be dictating. Ideally, I always say we want to be on the sun schedule, not our work schedule, not our kids' sports schedule. Like we want to be on the sun schedule. So you're just going to, you can't even imagine all the unbelievable downstream effects of everything in your body working better.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I will just talk. I will just tell you, and I mean this very seriously, I want you to know how much you've impacted me just in terms of looking at my circadian app and understanding when I get vitamin D and when I should be in the sun. If I get done with the meeting at four now because the UVA is done here at about 447, I make sure I take a second walk with the dogs at the time or a third walk at that point, so that I get more vitamin D. And just being just noticing these rhythms more is making such a big impact in my sleep. It's just been so cool. I love it.

SPEAKER_03

Yay, that's amazing. Yeah, it's so regulating for everything, so calming. And I think that we are so freaking stressed out. And our bodies were not designed to live in the modern world of 2026. We were designed to be out in nature. And so it's so like you want to think about okay, a lot of people have issues with stress, right? And that can drive hypoglycemic symptoms and it can drive burnout. It could, whatever you want to, you know, sort of what your flavor of this overexertion is. Well, let's talk about what is going to nourish the body, send signals of safety so our body's not in this cell danger response in a protective state where it can, where it can thrive, where it can feel vitality, where we can have resilience. That's what my clients end up lacking. When we drive ourselves into the ground, no resilience. Yes. And so everything is just taking them out. Literally, my clients can't go out in the sun, experience the heat because they crash. They can't drive, they can't watch their kids, they can't hold a job. So it gets real intense when we're just burning ourselves out. So what can take stress off our systems, right? So I talked about with light, we're gonna add in the positive light and mitigate some of those things. So it's sort of the same the same thinking is that we're gonna do things that are gonna add to our cup by stepping on the ground, by getting in the sun, by getting outside, and by experiencing joy, fun, play, connection, ease, peace, rest, all of those things are a direct antidote to that high stress lifestyle that we have.

SPEAKER_01

I have actually two more questions for you that I just want to make sure that I don't forget to ask you. One is a little bit selfish because it has to do with me opening the gym and the light that's gonna be at the gym. And I'm thinking about the, you know, I'm gonna be there from six. Now, granted, we have huge windows on one whole side. So there's natural light, natural light, quote unquote, coming in. But I've been thinking about I probably need to get some of those yellowish orange, not orange, but maybe like a light yellow, maybe to be wearing if I'm there at certain hours. So I've got to think through that. So I just want to talk about that for one. And number two, I've heard you talk about this before, and I had a pair of these in the past and I got rid of them because to be honest, I slept in dog boob. So I just I tried to clean them, couldn't clean them, doesn't matter. They were grounding shoes. So I want to talk about grounding shoes and what ones you wear or recommend. I've looked at, I used to have the Bahey or B-A-H-E. Yes, I have Bahe. Okay. Yeah. So I had those, but then I've also seen there's like Earthrunner sandals, that's another brand. So talk about that, and then I just want to ask selfishly the light in the gym and how I navigate that.

SPEAKER_03

Sure. So I love the Bahe grounding shoes. They do also have sandals. And I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01

If you have a code for those, we'll put those underneath if you have a code.

SPEAKER_03

Sure, I'll send you that link, Chris. Okay. So the the Bahe shoes, they have they have grounding shoes, they have regular workout sneakers, and they have the sandals. And I've tested some of their sneakers, and I am grounded with them. And I also buy grounding socks. So I just went on Amazon and I looked for conductive socks, and it has some like silver thread in it or something like that. So just just Google it. You'll find some for the socks. And then in terms of the light for the oh, also the Earthrunners, I heard they're a good brand. I personally cannot wear sandals that are so that do not have any support because my feet, I I'm like it hurts my feet. So, but I see tons of other people wearing them, so also a good brand.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And when it comes to lighting for the gym, I think you could have a real step up if you do, like if you could offer circadian lighting for your gym. But I think, yeah, like Trust me, I have thought of that.

SPEAKER_01

I yeah, yeah. Okay, that that's more of a long-term. Long-term goal.

SPEAKER_03

Love it. So the yeah, getting some yellow lens glasses. My personal favorite brand is Viva Rays. I also like that they have a three-in-one glasses. Some people don't like those, they sort of have a lens that kind of just snaps on and magnetizes to them so you can kind of change them out. I love that for traveling. So I'll wear my yellow base pair, and then it's like, oh, I need orange, or like, oh, I'll put the red ones on, and you just kind of snap them on, which is really convenient. They also have prescription lenses from Beaver Rays, which is great. But I personally love and they have really stylish ones as well. So I have Like these aviators that are orange, and I wear them out at night. You know, my friend, my friend Molly and I, we live here in Austin, and the two of us are if we're out past you know sundown, the two of us will have our orange lens beaver rays on. I love it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and that's how I feel about my bomb charge because they're aviators, and I think they actually look super cute. Like I really like that.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly. Yes, exactly. So very cute. So that'll be a great brand to use as well.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, and just so I understand, so it would be kind of orange. I just want to make sure I get the and obviously no after sundown or before sunup. It's orange, but then it's yellow to block what I'm really going for is blocking the L E D, blocking that insane blue light. That's why you want the yellow in daytime.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, the yellow in daytime will sort of harmonize the blue light. It's sort of taking it down so it's not this giant spike. It's it's leveling it out. So we're still getting some blue, but it's not so intense. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

That's helpful. That's helpful. Yeah, you got it. Do you have any programs or anything coming up that you want to share? I know you always have Letch of your Mastery going on, but you have some other programs. So share whatever you'd love to. I'd love to promote that for you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. So I have free resources on my website. I have like a grounding guide, and I have a favorite products area, so you can check those things out. I do have I have a program. I'll I might be changing the name of it. It's called Get That D. It's about how to get natural vitamin D from the sun while protecting your skin and all that, and some of the misinformation about vitamin D and sunscreens and how to navigate all of that. So I can certainly give you the link for that program. And my upcoming program about hypoglycemia and all this low blood sugar stuff. I'm changing my podcast yet again to stop the drops. And I'm gonna have a YouTube channel and that's also gonna be my upcoming program. So I really want to serve this underserved hypoglycemia sort of population because a lot of people talk about high blood sugar and how to get that down and like berberine and apple cider vinegar and walks after meals and working out and cutting carbs and all these things, and that doesn't work for my hypoglycemics because it's it's a strategy to make your blood sugar go lower, so so it's not gonna work. And even like even GLP1s, some people get some help, but most people can't take a GLP one. So they have no options, and these people are really hurting, and so it's really on my heart to serve this community. And I've certainly gotten that message from God many, many times. Like, I gave this to you. I gave this to you, is has been the message, and it's just okay, received. Like this is my message to carry into the world because I have helped thousands of people who have very complicated cases of blood sugar dysregulation actually heal and thrive and be able to work again. And, you know, they're like one of my clients, she's like, I took up horseback riding, and the other one's like, I took a plane off the island I live on for the first time in three years. And people are getting to not have to carry snacks with them and downsize their purse because they don't need to bring like full meals and you know, get off medications. I had a client wean off of five bipolar medications because that was her symptom of hypoglycemia.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god, and so she was prescribed all that stuff, and it was really wow, dude. That's so amazing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so it's it's just it is truly a gift to be able to work with work with and learn from these individuals. And yeah, so I really want to serve them and create different options for people to get support.

SPEAKER_01

Amazing, amazing. Well, it was lovely having you. Thank you. You're a fountain of information. I'm so grateful. I'm so glad to be friends with you. It was so much love.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and we'll make sure we'll make sure we put all those links. So I want to get all that stuff from you after this.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And thank you for being a guest on the Energetically Efficient Show. I absolutely loved it.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, thank you, Chris. Of course. Bye bye.