POD42: When Biohacking Goes Too Far: Trusting Your Body Over Your Wearable
Lindsey Burwell got addicted to health data while trying to conceive, obsessing over glucose monitors and metabolic scans until the numbers became a source of anxiety instead of insight. She argues wearables can replace your actual body's signals, and proposes a two-tier approach: nail sleep, protein, movement, and relationships first, then add optional biohacks like saunas or peptides. Data should inform, not dominate.
Chapters
What's your blood sugar? What's your glucose? What's your heart rate? What's your stress score? How many hours were you in the stress zone? Like, who decided that was freedom? And when did feeling healthy become less important than scoring healthy? That question really changes so much for me, where it's like taking a pause and being like, am I putting all of my worth and value into these scores? Now I'm going to pause and just again put some frameworks here. Yes, data is great. What I'm saying is that we need boundaries. Welcome to The Biohack Method. I am Lindsey Burwell, and every week I break down the science, cut the fluff, and hand high-performing women the real tools like peptides, transdermal patches, quantum energy, and root cause biohacking to actually feel like themselves again. Let's get into it. Today's episode might surprise you because if you followed me for a while, you know I love the metabolic scan. You know I love biohacking. You know I love all the tools. And data. I love innovation, the science, the wearables, the peptides. I love understanding how the body works. I obviously own an Oura Ring. I sleep on an Eight Sleep mattress. I've worn continuous glucose monitors. I've done the DUTCH testing. I've done the GI testing, the hair mineral analysis, micronutrient testing, blood work. Literally, I have done it all. And I'll even tell you, in 2000— gosh, it was probably 2017, 2018. I really went down a rabbit hole of testing. This was a time in my life where I was trying to get pregnant and I was not getting pregnant. And I had a naturopathic doctor and I was really trying to figure out the root of what was causing the infertility. And so I truly did every test known to mankind. And what I found was the more data I got, the more opportunity I had to see that my body was not working perfectly. I don't know one person. That has a perfect score. When you get blood work done, you know, when you do any of these labs, metabolic scan, Dutch test, urine analysis, whatever, there's always gonna be things to fine-tune and work on. And that's just part of the human experience. You know, our world, the world that we live in is so far away from the world we were designed to live in. We are not perfect beings eating the perfect diet, doing the perfect things. And so it is of course gonna put us in a place where things are going to be a little bit imbalanced and things are gonna be off.. And the problem that I had was that I became a little addicted with data. I really became addicted in the sense of I needed the test to tell me what was wrong with my body. But the problem was every time I got the test back, like seeing the things that were wrong and they weren't huge, I wasn't dying. It was like low in this, low in that, low in this, low in that, or this was off, that was off, right? And it just, it really crippled me. It really made me feel like something was off, something was broken. And, and then. I, I felt like there was a need to do an another test and I was putting a lot of my energy into testing. And the funny thing about all of that is now I, I don't see many clients anymore one-on-one. I only have a few private clients that I work with, with labs and the metabolic scan, but I go into it now with like such a boundary. And I even share that with my clients, like, use this as a tool, but don't let it have a chokehold on you. Right? Because I truly have done probably more testing than 99% of people, and I know down that rabbit hole. But today I'm going to tell you why I think we truly have gone too far with the testing. Not because these tools are bad, but because I think somewhere along the way we stopped using the data and started letting the data use us. Truly, we stopped going inward and asking our body what it needed. And like I was telling you, I, I was chasing the perfect human. I wanted the perfect score, and anytime the perfect biomarkers weren't there, I thought I did something wrong. I wanted the perfect the perfect readiness score, the perfect hormones. And again, anytime I wasn't there, I thought I did something wrong. And I will tell you now, like, yes, my, my sleep scores are great. And you know, I just did this whole like longevity age test and my numbers looked good. But I will say there were things still off, right? Like my, my something's going on with my cardiovascular. So I'm gonna look into that eventually cuz that does keep getting flagged for me. But you know, I'm not obsessed with needing to get all the scores all the time. And also like my sleep aid and my Oura Ring is not perfect. I actually will tell you the last 3 nights I have slept so freaking good, literally like a rock, getting the best night of sleep of my life. My Oura Ring is telling me otherwise. It's giving me like an 85 score. And I, I, I had like, I think it was like 2 hours of REM sleep, an hour and a half of deep sleep. I'm like, these are, these are incredible numbers. But then my HRV balance or something was like not perfect. So it like gave. Put— drop me down to 85. And so I say all that to say, you know, the data can be a slippery slope. And sometimes like every new test that would come out or come out for you, it might not put you in true alignment. And that's why we wanna make sure that like every test, you know, with the wearables you're wearing, the next protocol you might be implementing, like you're really creating boundaries with that and not getting it to to a place where you're second-guessing yourself on what's actually going on or how you actually feel. And something I too realized was with all these tests, it wasn't like I was really becoming healthier. With all the tests, I was actually just becoming more dependent on the other person or the test to tell me how I was doing, or the trackable to tell me how I was doing, right? And this is where I'm feeling very polarizing lately and really wanting to like kind of dive into really just the health culture, right? And just how the health culture right now is really making wellness feel like a full-time job. And I actually made a joke about this on my Instagram. I was like, this, it's like a full-time, it's like a full-time job taking care of yourself these days. You know, the world doesn't make it easy just to wake up and be feeling incredible. Like it can really be this full-time job where like every single morning, you know, you're checking your Oura ring. You're checking your HRV. How did you sleep? You are doing all the, the hacks throughout the day. What's your recovery score? What's your sleep score? What calorie— how many calories did you burn in that workout? Was it even a good enough workout? Did you hit 500 calories? The macros? Did you get your 10,000 steps in? Did you get your 130 grams of protein? Are you drinking half your body weight in water? What's your blood sugar? What's your glucose? What's your heart rate? What's your stress score? How much, how many hours were you in the stress zone? Like, who decided that was freedom? And when did feeling healthy become less important than scoring healthy, right? That question really changes so much for me, where it's like taking a pause and being like, am I putting all of my worth and value into these scores? Now I'm gonna pause and just again put some frameworks here. Yes, data is great. What I'm saying is that we need boundaries, and I'm telling you this from a place of just like new promptings that I'm noticing. And just, you know, in the history of being in this industry, when I'm noticing the shift in and telling you full transparency, like I'm still wearing my Oura Ring, but I'll, I'll tell you, like in the last few weeks, I just don't care. I don't care what it has to say. I care how I feel, you know? And there's days I don't even check it. I actually like have put boundaries where I'm like, do I need to know how good I slept? Or can I just ask my body, Lindsey, how good did you sleep last night? I feel great. I have a I have all the energy I need to get through this day. And so really just creating the mindset of we— it's amazing to have the data, but don't let the data rule you. Because ultimately dropping in and going inward and asking your body, like, how do you feel? Is one of the most powerful things that you can do today. Have the data, use it for maybe even just a little trial period to get some frameworks. To dial some things in, but don't forget the inner wisdom and the inner knowing that you have about your body. It's so powerful. And sometimes the world is so loud, and when we can quiet down the world a little bit and go inward and ask ourselves, that's where we can get the most clarity, the most downloads, the most knowing about what our body needs and where it might be imbalanced than any tool could. And not to mention, like, these tools were created for the average person. Like, we are all so different. These tests are also based on the average test scores within a certain range that someone decided, right? But we are also, also different. Also not to mention with lab work, when you're getting lab work done, by the way, like that is a snapshot in time. Your hormones, your blood is changing, not just all day long in a 24-hour period, but all month long. So you could be getting lab works done in the morning, in the midday, and at night, and it can look completely different. You could have had a really stressful conversation. And that could have spiked something on your blood work. And so getting a bigger picture of you, I do like the metabolic scan for that sense, but getting a bigger picture of you is gonna be more powerful than just a snapshot in time and just knowing this is literally just a snapshot in time and to not put all your weight on it. So, you know, yes, I love biohacking. I'm not demonizing it. Clearly I love biohacking. I love all the tools. What I'm saying is having the boundaries. I still believe in the tools. I still believe in the labs. I still believe. Getting data is helpful. The problem is when information becomes an identity, and data should really support intuition, not replace intuition. That is so powerful. Nothing should replace your intuition and not to be outsourcing your wisdom because somewhere along the lines, we just stopped asking ourselves, like, how do I actually feel? And instead, what does my watch say? What does Instagram say? What does my Oura Ring say? What does my coach say? What do my labs say? We have outsourced wisdom in so many areas of our life, but your body has been communicating with you your entire life. You just stopped listening to it. Most of us have. And sometimes it just takes a moment to pause and remember, like, I need to start getting back into alignment. So my new framework that I'm really dialing into right now is my wellness philosophy is different and it's changed. It's all about the foundations. Okay. The sleep, the protein, the movement, the strength training. Yes. The hydration into the cells, the sunlight, the relationships, the conversations, the connections, the stress, the purpose. Like those are my foundations. Then I'll take it to level 2, the biohacks, right? Obviously I love the peptides. I love the sauna. I love the cold plunge. I love the red light. I love the transdermal patches. You know, I love me some vitamin patches. Yes, I do love labs, but not that much. I love the wearables. You know, I'm not getting every test known to mankind. I maybe do one a year, to be honest. And so the most important thing though I do every day is now I ask my body, what do you need today? Do you need more movement? Maybe less movement. Do you need more stillness? Do you need more food, more carbs, more proteins? Are you needing connection or maybe some more boundaries? Org recovery. You can have all the biomarkers in the world, but if you've lost your connection to yourself, you're missing the whole point, truly. And so that's just, just been something on my heart lately. And I'll leave you with this, like the goal again was never to be like the world's most optimized, perfect human, cuz it's actually unachievable. The goal is to become the most connected version of yourself And science can show you what's happening. Only your body can tell you what it means. And that's the future of biohacking that I want to be a part of. So if this struck a chord for you and you're feeling this, you're like, I like the Oura, I like the watch, but I feel like it has me on a chokehold. Or maybe you're like, you know what, I'm done taking all the tests. I've gotten so many great answers before, but like, you're ready to start going inward. I want you to take a moment today and like really just spend some time into like dropping into your body, getting to a place where it can be a little bit quiet and asking your body, what does it need? How does it feel? And maybe the answers don't come right away, but you just prompting that question is going to unlock so much more conversation and connection and communication to you and your body, your brain, the whole system. And that's really the first step. So I'm going to be talking more about this because it is just like a raging fire inside me right now, like really dismantling and polarizing this part of the wellness industry. So stay tuned for more of that. But if you love this episode, I would love if you left a comment if this resonates with you. If you are like in the same boat as me, I would love to know. Cause I'm like, let's go to lunch. Let's talk about this because I need a friend to like really dig more into this. But I love that you're here. I so appreciate you just being in my life, being connected into this universe and being on this evolution of expansion. Truly. All right. Take care. Have an amazing day. That's it for today's episode of The Biohack Method. If this lit something up in you, share it. Tag me @lindseyburwellwellness. And drop a review. It genuinely helps the show reach more women who really need it. I'll see you next time.
