70. Why You're Not Losing Fat (And What Actually Works) with Ben Azadi

The average person was eating 17 to 23 times per day. We're not designed to snack and graze all day long. One of the things that I was taught was that when you eat every two to three hours, you know, boost your metabolism and it's good for digestion, balance your blood sugar, not necessarily constant glucose and insulin hits. And that's not really going to be supporting your metabolism. It's actually going to make you more of a sugar burner to rely on food every, every few hours.

So when my health was at its worst, I didn't tell you this but I thought about food all the time and like there's, I ate and I was just thinking about the next meal. So now when I work with my, my clients I can really like oh yeah, I was there. This can pass.

The goal is to lower it and have it within an eating window and no snacking in between those meals.

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The first one would be to live on purpose with your purpose. And I think once you find that that purpose and passion and align yourself to live on purpose with that purpose, you have all the energy in the world. You have all the vitality in the world. I really believe a lot of people who are tired are really just uninspired. They have nothing to look forward to. And when you find that, and it's cool because it's unique to you, it could be being the best author, the best mom, the best, whatever it is. But once you find out what's important to you and live in congruent with that and line up your calendar with that, you'll have all the energy and vitality. I think that's so important in myst, in our health space because we talk about macros and fasting and all the great things, but what about if you're hating your job or hating your relationships? You're going to only go so far. So that would be the first one. And you asked me for three. Huh? Second one would be kind of aligned with that. And it's a supplement that I call vitamin g in chapter 10 of Metabolic Freedom, which is anti inflammatory. It's great for any condition you're dealing with, great for fat loss, it's great for chronically high levels of stress. UC Davis has a study showing that those who take vitamin G have healthier blood pressure levels, healthier blood sugar levels. There was a study published from JAMA Harvard, published in JAMA, that looked at 49,275 nurses. What a study. And it showed the nurses who took vitamin G every day had around a 9% reduction in dying from all cause mortality versus the nurses who didn't, and around a 15% reduction in dying from cardiovascular disease versus the nurses who didn't. Okay, so you're watching this or listening to this and thinking, okay, where can I get vitamin G? Yeah, I'm already on Amazon looking for it. It's vitamin gratitude. It's the feeling of gratitude, not the practice, but the feeling. It's not an intellectual practice gratitude. It's an emotional feeling. And those Are studies on gratitude. When you feel gratitude, it's like strength training for your soul is what I call it. And you get all these amazing benefits. It supports your immune system. It lowers cortisol because it raises oxytocin, our dear friend Mindy's favorite hormone, one of her favorite hormones. So vitamin G is number two. And then number three would be to find that customized approach that works for you. Because you could talk about, like, this supplement or ketosis and fasting, the carnivore diet, but does it apply to you, like, where you actually benefit? I mean, looking at labs will help you kind of identify what works for you, what works against you. When you pay attention to your body and symptoms or lack thereof, you could find an approach that works for you. So the third answer would be finding a customized approach. And that's going to be unique to you.

These are amazing. So believe it or not, even as a nutritionist, everyone wants to start with, like, what you said. The supplements, the food, the diet, the protocol. Everyone wants the best protocol. But I'm a big believer that the power of our thoughts have the most massive impact on our physiology because it drives your choices. And I want to just call it so having purpose, we're all familiar with, but the purpose of having purpose, being intentional with that every day is a game changer because that will literally drive your decisions.

That's right.

Thank you.

Yeah. Well said.

That is beautiful. Okay, so we're obviously going to dive into all the metabolic truths. It is such a hot topic today. It's one that causes a lot of people overwhelm. I think a lot of the women that I work with tend to be pretty stressed out because they're hearing about these fasting marathons that they have to go on, and they just don't know that they can do it. And then they're left with this sense of failure. So let's dive into the meat of it and really address the state of metabolic health today. I know that this is part of your purpose, the rising numbers. Can you just give us a picture of the one, the lens of metabolic. The lens of metabolic health, but also the impact of metabolic health.

Absolutely. Yeah. Here in the United states, we spend $4.6 trillion on healthcare every year, which would be the fourth largest GDP in the world if it was a GDP. And you would think, okay, we spend that much money on healthcare, we should be top five in health. All right. No, we're not top five. What about top 10? Nope. Top 20? No. We're like 37 in the world, yet pharmaceutical companies are richer than ever before, and we are sicker than ever before. And what's really interesting about that amount that we spend every year on healthcare is that one out of every $4 is spent on diabetes, primarily type 2, which, as you know, is it's a metabolic disease that's preventable. And preventable and also reversible. And it's a lot of money we're spending because we're chasing symptoms and we're not getting to the cause of why we have those symptoms. You were sharing a little bit of your story with me before we hit record here. You were having a lot of symptoms in your 20s. And we have been brainwashed to believe that those symptoms are the problem. Like your headache, your migraine, your high resting heart rate. These are all your problems. We need to have a surgery or a medication to mask it. And of course, there's always a time and place for these things. But in general, and most of the time, it's not the symptom that's the issue. It's something underneath. The symptom could be far removed from the actual cause. And in my space and the people that I work with is a lot of obesity, overweight individuals, diabetics, also pcos. And one of the things that I always reframe and I change their paradigm when it comes to being overweight because I used to be obese, is that they don't have a weight problem, I don't have a weight problem. There's no such thing as a weight symptom. And by doing something like cutting calories or following a fad diet, you're treating the symptom of being overweight. But when you focus on the root cause of why you have extra weight, hormones and inflammation, then the weight comes off as a side effect. In other words, we don't lose weight to get healthy, we get healthy to lose weight. Right. So it's a different shift to what we've been taught or the mainstream has taught us, but it's a huge impact here in the United States and across the world, because we are seeing. Harvard is saying by 2030, which is just a few years away, 50% of the entire United States population will be obese, according to their projection, not just overweight, but actually obese. And that is a huge toll because it increases your chances of all these metabolic diseases. And I believe God didn't design us to have all the sickness and the symptoms. We have this inner physician, this innate intelligence within the cells. And the body is not broken. It's just being interfered with. And if we could identify that interference, where is that interference coming from? We work on removing it. Then this inner physician which is within every cell, starts to heal the body and go to work. So that's a paradigm shift though, than.

What we've been taught.

A big one. But I know you preach the message as well.

Yeah. This illusion of fat loss that it's required to take something to come back into balance or to do something extremely challenging to come back into balance. But just the simple reflection that you gave of thinking of our ancestors. Right. Or you know, there was no issues with obesity when we think back to time. Right.

Even in 1930, Mona, it was around 1 to 2% here in the United States. Now it's going to be 50% and they'll say, oh, it's our genetics. But our genetics don't change that fast. Genetics are a small percentage of that equation.

You got it. And it's frightening, right? Like I walk onto my kids school ground and I'm seeing children who are now are obese and to a point where. And you probably feel this and see this, it's becoming normalized. Right. And doctors are now getting even more prescriptive about what to do. So the message really needs to change, the landscape needs to change. And unfortunately it's not coming from the top. And I think that we're a really long way from doing that. So this is why your message is so important.

Thank you.

You have a beautiful way of speaking to this too. So when we think about people getting fat loss all wrong, what's something that you wish they understood more of? You know, when you think about fat loss is not just stepping on the scale every day and it's not going on a diet. What do people need to understand when it comes to fat loss?

Yeah. Really important question because a lot of people trying to lose weight, they're trying to burn some fat, which is fine. But the I'm really getting tired of the old calories in versus calories out model. The body is not a calculator or a math equation or a bank account. It's a very complex chemistry lab. And a calorie is not a calorie out. You know, the body could do so many different things with that calorie or calories which will determine whether or not you're going to store fat, burn fat or produce energy. I'll give you an example. There's a study I put in the book because I was talking about these fat loss shifts and failures that you just mentioned. One of them is the calories in versus calories out approach. And I was referencing two studies. One study was from the TV show the Biggest Loser, which we all remember, Right. These obese individuals, they were put on this extreme caloric deficit, extreme exercise, and a lot of them lost weight. And they celebrated them in the final episode.

Miserable the whole time.

Yeah, they were miserable the whole time. Correct. Then there was a study that looked at 14 of them after the show ended, and it showed that 13 out of the 14 gained all the weight back and six of them gained even more weight. And they also measured their hormones. So leptin plummeted, which is. We know their satiety hormone, ghrelin, their hunger hormone was through the roof. And their metabolic rate slowed down because the metabolism will match the calories, the energy coming in over time. So if you're in a chronic deficit, your body's not going to continue to produce the same amount of energy. It'll lower the metabolic rate to deal with that coming in. So you destroy the metabolism and it's not the solution. The body is really sophisticated and smart. It's about the quality of the food we eat, not the quantity. And hopefully that's inspiring to people because you don't have to measure everything, count your calories. You just focus on real, whole food. I know that's kind of thing we say, but it's true. Single ingredient, double ingredient foods and worry about quality, not quantity.

I have to pause this episode to share something that's completely transformed how I feel every single day. And it all starts in my gut. I'm talking about Pendulum's Metabolic Daily, and I'm genuinely obsessed. 88% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. And so much of that comes down to our gut microbiome. If you're constantly battling afternoon energy crashes, sugar cravings, and that's the sluggish feeling after meals, Metabolic Daily can change everything. This isn't your typical probiotic. It contains live Achromansia municiphila. It's an incredible next generation strain that most of us are deficient in. It literally strengthens your gut lining and helps your body metabolize sugars and carbs so much more efficiently. What I love most is how it makes me feel. My energy is sustained throughout the day. I'm not constantly thinking about my next snack, and I actually feel a little bit more full faster. It's like my body finally learned how to work with the food instead of against it. Plus, my digestion has never been better. What sets Pendulum apart is the science. They were founded by PhD scientists and doctors with the Mayo Clinic as their first investor. They're the first company in the US to bring live Akkermansia to market using DNA sequencing in an oxygen free facility. I'm so selective about supplements that I recommend and Metabolic Daily has earned a permanent spot in my routine and recommendation to my clients. Go to pendulumlife.com and use code Mona M O N A for 20% off all Pendulum membership first orders. That's pendulumlife.com with code Mona. Your gut and your energy levels will thank you. Have you heard in your community like the resistance that comes up with this yet? It's almost like an eye roll. It eat whole foods. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, eat just whole foods. Give me 30 days on a whole food diet and watch the magic that happens. Not only the way your pants fit, your sleep, your energy, your mood, your hormones, your bowel movements, like just give me 30 days. You probably. I have to dive into your book, but this is like such a big misconception and I think it's because maybe again this is coming from the top because of the dollars that go into food marketing, right? And even around your world. Like I went through this anti keto movement because I was looking at like keto cups and keto snacks and keto this and it's like, but it's still boxed dead food. Like how is this healthy for us?

It's true, we take like keto's, you know, we can get into. But yeah, keto has been adopted by like big food now. And just because it's keto friendly, it does not make it health friendly.

You got it. We'll get into it in a little bit. But let's really understand like when we think about things that can sabotage your metabolism and things that you see people doing every day, what are some of those things?

One of them is snacking and grazing. And one of the things that I was taught when I was a personal trainer many years ago was that when you eat every two to three hours, you know, boost your metabolism and it's good for digestion, balance your blood sugar. Not necessarily. So we're not designed to snack and graze all day long. It's constant glucose and insulin hits and that's not really going to be supporting your metabolism. It's actually going to make you more of a sugar burner to rely on food every few hours. And there was a study that my colleague Dr. Don Klum published that I referenced in the book. Dr. Don Klum with the C. And he Did a patient population study on hundreds of these patients, on his patients. And what he did is he simply asked them, every time you eat something, put it in a journal and mark it down. So it could be a snack or a full meal. But it was all, every time it was considered, you were eating. So it could be a handful of almonds, it could be a protein shake or a full on meal. And the average person was eating 17 to 23 times per day.

Oh my gosh.

I know. Nonstop, nonstop, pretty much every waking hour. And that's constant glucose and insulin. Glucose and insulin. You're teaching your body to be a sugar burner. And over time it leads to prediabetes and then diabetes cause all those glucose and insulin spikes. So we're not really designed to snack and graze. Now if you have a certain eating window and you snack and graze within that eating window, not a big deal. But when you're doing it throughout your entire waking window, that's when it becomes a problem.

You just made me connect a dot that I haven't ever done before. So when my health was at its worst, I didn't tell you this, but my PCOS was so bad that doctors told me that I would have a hard time having kids in the corporate world. We didn't have time to stop and eat. So we were constantly just grazing up meetings, grazing on the go, grazing in the car. I'm like, ah, this makes a lot of sense now.

Absolutely.

On top of all the caffeine and all that stuff. But there's also like the aspect. You talk about mitochondria a lot. So let's talk about some of the killers and maybe the connection between mitochondrial health and metabolic health.

Yeah, you know, the mitochondria are interesting because there's a lot of disagreement in our space right now. Do keto, do carnivore, do plant based. There's a lot of disagreement. But one thing I think all of us in our space, the health space, could agree to is that the mitochondria are very important to support how you get there. That's where we kind of argue and disagree. But the mitochondria, we know that through biology class in high school, it's like the powerhouse of the cell, which is true. It is the, the primary energy source of our body produces energy called ATP, which is the currency of the cell. Energy currency. But it does way more than that. The mitochondria, there's an intelligence to the mitochondria and we actually get all of our mitochondria from our mother, Exclusively from the mom. So depending on the health of your mom is going to depend on the health of your mitochondria when you're born into this world, which is interesting, but there's an intelligence to the mitochondria. They move around, they communicate with other mitochondria and other cells, and it's important to support it. And the best ways. Well, I'll talk about what damages the mitochondria. What damages the mitochondria is going to be anything that causes inflammation at this mitochondrial membrane level and the cell membrane level. So high fructose corn syrup is like mitochondrial poison. And we find that in a lot of packaged, processed, ultra processed foods. So when you just eliminate that and go to the whole foods like you mentioned, you get rid of a lot of the high fructose corn syrup, damaged fats like seed oils, the processed variety, not all seed oils, but the processed variety, damage the mitochondria as well. Glyphosate foods that have glyphosate, all like GMO foods, corn, soy, wheat, even coffee, and in some cases have glyphosate, that's mitochondrial poison. And when that happens, you're kind of depleting this battery within your cells, then it produces less energy. And the less energy you produce, that means it slows down your metabolism and you start to gain weight. It's a mitochondrial issue. Like diabetes is a mitochondrial dysfunction issue. Add adhd. Yeah. And this, what's really interesting, Mona, is that the cells inside of the body that have the most mitochondria are the cells that are most required for survival. Like, for example, the average cell has a few hundred mitochondria. But when we think about the brain, there are regions in the brain that have over a million mitochondria. Well, the brain is really important. To survive, you have to be alert. So you're, you know who's chasing you. You need to run away from, find your prey. So it's really important. Then the eyes are loaded with mitochondria, need to be able to see your predator or run away. The heart is loaded with the mitochondria, the ovaries, the testicles loaded with mitochondria. There's like a hundred thousand mitochondria in a single ovary cell. So to me, that shows that God put mitochondria in the cells that are most required for survival. So that's how important it is to support the mitochondria. So how do you support the mitochondria? Movement is great, moving Your body, strength training, getting in steps. Great for the mitochondria because you create a hormetic stress when you move your body. And that hormetic, it's a positive stress that creates mitochondrial duplication. That's great. Sauna, cold plunge. Great for the mitochondria. Gratitude, Great. Actually, as a matter of fact, gratitude. There's a study that I also put in chapter 10 of the book that looked at caregivers. And as a caregiver, you live a very stressful life. That's a very difficult job, working in a hospice, caring for somebody on their deathbed. And they measured the mitochondrial health of these caregivers. It was called the MHI Mitochondrial Health index. And they measured the mitochondria health in the morning. And what they found is that the caregivers that took vitamin G, so essentially practice felt gratitude at night, had healthier mitochondria the following morning compared to the nurses who didn't. So gratitude supports the mitochondria.

Do we need any more science on this?

I know, right? You know, some people do. The left brainers do. The left brainers do. They're like, they all analytical. They need it. But you're correct. I mean, it's like once you start feeling gratitude, like you notice it, like, it's just an amazing thing. Yeah. And ketosis is great for the mitochondria, too. Fasting is great for the mitochondria. Cold exposure. There's a lot of things we can do. Getting quality sleep. Right. Living on purpose with your purpose. The things we already spoke about. So, yeah, to answer your question, the mitochondria, very important to support.

I think it's so important to. That's beautifully described. Because people, they need to get in touch with something that's so much deeper within them. We can't see our organs. A lot of people aren't doing their blood labs or any type of assessment to check in. I really recommend that people do at least once a year. But they don't understand the concept of mitochondrial dysfunction or how poor energy or fat loss or even cellulite or brain function are all connected, right?

Yes.

And you do something really beautiful by putting a lens of aging on that. Because, you know, when I can get a client to shift from here and now, the number on the scale, the size of the pants, you know, getting in shape for a role or an event to thinking about how do I want to feel when I'm 80, 90, 100 or 110, and the practice that I have with them is to step into Feeling what that feels like, then most people, we resist it because they're like, oh, my God, old. I don't want to get there. But when we can feel a sense of health and optimization at that age, it's almost like experiencing gratitude. Like, wow, that's going to be really amazing. And I'm kind of hovering on this for a second because I've shared with my community. My mom had major surgery, and here I am at a hospital with her, and every single bed on the floor due to fracture, Alzheimer's, dementia, the amount of obese seniors that I saw in one hospital floor. And doctors were just not prepared to take care of so many people who are aging longer, but not aging well longer.

Good point.

And that goes back to mitochondrial health.

Yeah. And you. You just made an important point because life. Extending your lifespan is one thing, but also having the health span is. You want both. What's the point of extending your years when you're miserable or in a. In a bed or in. In a wheelchair? Right. So you're right. We want health span and lifespan, and we could do both. And mitochondria are the key.

You got it. I love that. I used to be a big believer that my metabolism was broken.

Yeah, me too.

It's like, this is it. This is just the way that I'm built.

Yes.

So talk to us about that. Is it a myth?

Yeah, it's not broken. It's being interfered with. Right. And I think the same thing with my metabolism. You know what's interesting about the metabolism? When I was writing the book, I was really digging into the science and the research on the metabolism. I wanted to kind of present the best of the best papers out there when it came to the metabolism. And I found, I think, the best one so far, which is a Duke University study that came out in 2022, and it had 6,600 people in the study, and it was a worldwide study, so it involved the United States and several other countries. And it took these 6,600 people, and it had the age ranges of these individuals were age one, so a baby all the way to age 95, and everybody in between. What a study. Right. And they used the gold standard of measuring the metabolism, which was a urine test, to measure what changes happen, what are the average changes that happen throughout our lifespan. So what it said at the conclusion of the study, that between ages 20 and 60 years old, there are no significant changes in the metabolism.

Come on.

None at all. So when we hear about, I'm 40, my metabolism slowed down. Science is showing that doesn't happen. It's not about speed. It's about efficient or being inefficient. The study also said, okay, once the person reached age 60, we've noticed a 0.7% decline in the metabolism every year after age 60. That might sound like a bad thing, but it said the reason why that happens is because loss of muscle mass. So if you work on building lean muscle, or if you're over 60 and you work on building lean muscle, you could be 95 years old with the same metabolism as when you were 25 years old, which is, I think, super cool.

That's incredible. Yes, but even that reflection, Ben, honestly, that's what people need to hear more of. Because what we're hearing right now in the protein muscle world is the doom and gloom, the posture, the aging faster. But we don't think about it from a metabolism or youth stand of point of view. So that is important. So for listeners who are curious, okay, so they're in this 20 to 60 range, great. Good for them. But they want to tune into maybe like, the micro symptoms that they might be feeling that are significant of their metabolism kind of going downward. What would those be?

Yeah, so there are a few of them. In chapter two, I have this, what I call sugar burner quiz, and it kind of identifies if your metabolism is being interfered with. So number one would be you feel tired after eating meals. If that's happening after all of your meals or most meals, there's some signs that your metabolisms and your digestive system is just not working properly. Uh, number two would actually be skin tags, because skin tags are a result of insulin resistance. And when you have cause, insulin is a grow, it's a growth hormone. It's an energy sensor. It's not a bad hormone. There's no bad hormones. But when it's chronically elevated signals growth. And that growth could create skin tags. And skin tags are usually found around the eyelids, the neck, the armpit area, and the back. Those are signs of a. A metabolism that's being interfered with. The third one would be brown patches on the neck and the armpit area. Also sign of insulin resistance and a metabolism that. That needs some. The fourth one would be that you have more than 20 or 30 pounds of extra weight on your body. That could be a sign, of course, that there's some weight loss resistance, some hormonal things going on. And then the next one would be, if you skip a meal, do you get hangry, hungry and hangry, or you can't Focus. Your energy levels drop. Also a sign of a metabolism that's being interfered with. So if you're answering yes to all of those or a few of those, it's a sign there's some work to do. And the cool thing, as I mentioned, doesn't matter if you're 25 or 95, your body will adapt, your body will heal as long as you remove the interference.

It's so interesting to know what we know now. Thinking back to maybe when we were suffering, there were so many signs that I was just ignoring. I was the hangry person.

Oh, yeah.

I thought about food all the time. And, like, there's. I ate, and I was just thinking about the next meal. So now when I work with my clients, I can really, like. Oh, yeah, I was there. This can pass. Because you identify so much with those symptoms. Right. And what that feels like.

Yes.

Can you share a little bit about your story and, like, what. What took you into that journey?

Yeah, of course.

I mean, obviously being obese is something that's a big enough driver, but you made the change. What was it?

I did. Yeah. So, you know, for most of my life, as a kid, I was very unhealthy. I was actually obese as a kid and even as a young adult. And I. At age 23, back in 2007, when most people at age 23 that are graduating college, starting their career, maybe building a family, that was not me. I was on the Internet looking for ways to end it. I was depressed, so I was physically obese, mentally obese. I would have taken my life. The only reason I didn't do it is because of my mom. She didn't know I was going through it, but I was thinking about her, and I didn't want to cause the devastation. I love her, and she was like my superhero. She still is. So I didn't want to cause that pain to her, for her. So it stopped me from taking my life, and I. It forced me to figure things out. You know, rock bottom could be a blessing when you get out of it. Right. Because it forces you to figure things out for. So for me, it wasn't even a dietary change at first. It wasn't anything that had to do with nutrition or fitness. It was self development. I started to study Dr. Wayne Dyer. Yes. And he changed my life. He would talk about the word responsibility, and he would use it in a way that I didn't really understand before. I heard the word responsible, obviously, but I didn't get it. And he would say, responsibility is your ability to respond to life, that's your responsibility. So if your ability to respond to life is poor, you're the victim, blaming other people, your genetics, which is what I was doing. Your results are going to be poor, but when you take ownership and responsibility, you're going to get better results. So it helped me just create a different thought around responsibility. And I took ownership and was the first step towards great change. And then I started to get into Bob Proctor's work, talking about the subconscious mind and the paradigm and these habits that are embedded into the subconscious mind, which is on autopilot every single day. So then I started to create these little behavior changes where I started to what I call do a tweak a week. I'm going to build a habit, master that habit, move on to the next one. Then I started moving my body, eating real food, and I went through this nine month transformation. I lost £80 in nine months. Went from being obese to being very physically fit. And yeah, physical six pack great, but mental six pack is what I achieved and that's even more important. And Mona, that was 17 years ago. I've been in the space ever since and I've kept the weight off. Obviously, I'm still pretty lean to this day. And like you said earlier, you could relate to your clients that you work with because you've been through it. A sugar burner. You said you were pcos and I know the issues you were talking about with your heart. For me, it's very similar. I'm working with somebody who's diabetic or metabolically unhealthy. That was my life for a very long time. So those stress things are really blessings because now we could relate to the people that we're working with.

Yeah, I'm always fascinated by the story that people who sit in that chair have. For better or for worse. We had to hit the rock bottom, but it really paved the path for where we are today. It was essential. And that level of empathy that really comes off in your voice and your podcasts and stuff like that too, is really special because it doesn't feel like you're talking at people with another protocol. There's a level of empathy that make people want to be part of what you're doing and listen to you as an educator. So I just wanted to say that.

Thank you.

And you look like someone who is slim your entire life and I want.

I like that all the time.

Yeah, you just look like you've got that build, right?

No, I don't. And I've done My genetics. I don't have the genes for that either. It's my lifestyle.

It's your lifestyle. Yeah. But I wonder, for the listeners who are going to listen to this now and in the future, how many of us, when you think back to when health felt the most challenging, was it more the mental health that was the obstacle behind it? Because it was the exact same for me. It wasn't until my mom, she had a book by Dr. Andrew Weil that showed up. That was like a game changer. And I understood the concept of like an inflamed mind from the foods that I was eating. And that was echoed at the ashram as well. But I love it for people to understand, like maybe, maybe just focus on the quality of your mind before you embark on any type of healing journey so that when you do that practice or eat that food or whatever it is, you just know it's aligned. It's not you just grasping at something to try to make your mind feel better. You're mentally set up to kind of have success to begin with.

I love it. I agree. That's not maybe like that, for sure. Start there. I think 95% of our results come from that. Our thoughts, our mindset, our feelings and actions. You know, that's attitude. Our attitude is our thoughts, feelings and actions. The combination of all of that. So your attitude determines your altitude. Right. I used to hear Zig Ziglar say that all the time. Your attitude is your altitude. Or maybe it was Jim Rohn, one of those guys, but it's true. And your attitude is your thoughts, your feelings and your actions. So we have 60,000 thoughts every day. Have the best conversation ever. Like the most influential person you're going to speak to is yourself. Yeah, Is yourself. Right. So those thoughts that just come in every single. In your environment are determining those thoughts. So when you clean up your environment, you'll have better thoughts as well. It makes it a lot easier.

That really puts a lens on vitamin G and why that's so important to you.

Exactly.

Makes sense now.

Yes.

Okay, you said something really important then. Is that sugar burner phase for people?

Yeah.

So you mentioned the symptoms. How do we make the shift? Is it different for some people than it is for others? Let's start with that. How do you make the shift to being a sugar burner, to a fat burner?

That for. For most people, that is the starting point. Because 93% of Americans are sugar burners. They're metabolically unhealthy. According to the 2022 study, that I put in the book here, it's a high percentage. That means, you know, we're here in beautiful California if we're looking. Let's say there's 100 hikers out here. 93 out of those 100 hikers would be considered metabolically unhealthy. Well, probably a bad example, because if you're hiking, you're probably not unhealthy. But if we look at downtown la, you would see that, you would see that. The airport, I see it everywhere I go. People are not healthy. We weren't designed that way. So they're sugar burners. To answer your question, they're stuck burning sugar and glucose. There's nothing wrong using glucose and sugar as an energy source. Unless you're always using sugar and glucose and you can't tap into body fat. And what determines that is the hormone insulin. And most people are insulin resistant. They have no idea. So I really believe the most important test, blood test, that we can get done for our metabolism is a fasting insulin blood test. And a lot of people don't get that test because they'll get a fasting glucose, which is great, or an A1C, which is the three month average of your glucose. Great. But in fasting, insulin is not being ordered by most conventional doctors. And the reason why I believe that is because there's not a medication to prescrib for a high insulin, only for a high glucose. So why should we order that test? But here's the interesting thing about the insulin piece. When you have high levels of insulin, your blood sugars won't change on average for 6 to 14 years. In other words, you could have insulin resistance for 6 to 14 years and have perfect blood sugar levels because you're not looking at the fasting insulin. So I make the case in chapter two that we want to test fasting insulin seed between three and six, very sensitive. That's where I want to see my levels. And anything above that means you're burning sugar and you're going to. Here's the thing. When you burn sugar, from a longevity anti aging standpoint, when you have high levels of sugar in your bloodstream, it strips nitric oxide. And nitric oxide is a very important molecule that we know opens up our blood vessels, allows us to deliver oxygen, nutrients and blood flow to tissues for healing. When you have high glucose, you strip nitric oxide, which creates vasoconstriction. Now your heart has to pump harder to deliver the same nutrients and oxygen blood flow, which raises your blood pressure. That's the Number one cause of high blood pressure. And high blood pressure is the number one cause for the number one killer heart disease. So you can see how it's tied here. So we don't want to be a sugar burner. We want to be able to burn sugar when we need to, then burn fat and go back and forth. That's what metabolic freedom is.

So talk to us about the people who you've supported from shifting from sugar burner to fat burner. From my understanding, there's like an aha moment where it's like, oh, I don't need carbohydrates, sugars or starches anymore. I feel okay. I'm not going to eat for another two hours. There's a sense of calm that comes over you because your body can utilize its fat, right?

Yes, yes.

Do you see it taking longer for women than it is for men?

It can, it can sometimes. So on average about 7, 10 days for most, both men and women, they'll start to shift into fat burning. And there's a 30 day plan on here that kind of guides them through that for the first week. But there's some personalities, men and women, that like the whole cold turkey approach. Like, I'm going to take my, I'm going to go to zero carbs. I'm not a fan of that. Now, men typically, I've seen men do that more than women. Women are different, of course. You have different fluctuations in hormones and there's going to be different. Men typically have faster results. They could be a little bit more aggressive. And that's why when a man and a woman who are married do the same plan, it's usually the man who gets faster results on average. Not all the time, but on average. I'm sure you've seen that too. Yeah. That's why we don't want to compare to our partner or anybody else. We're really comparing against ourselves and what we did yesterday. And we're just trying to beat yesterday. That's the goal. But the goal is to shift from sugar burning to fat burning in seven to 10 days. And you do that simply by lowering your carbohydrate intake. Slowly, gradually lower your carbohydrates and at the same time increase your protein and fats. And then you eliminate snacks in between meals. You have your three meals a day as a good starting point and you start to keep your electrolytes and minerals up. Because as you lower insulin, you shed extra water weight, you lose electrolytes. So you keep that up so you don't get Any symptoms. And then by day 7 or day 10, you should be in fat burning mode. Now, for both men and women, now, there's always exceptions there, but for both men and women, we've seen them shift into fat burning mode. And I've taken a few, about 10,000 people through this protocol, men and women, and that's kind of the data that I've seen.

Oh, beautiful. Okay. So again, just thinking for our listeners, they're going to get your book, they're going to look at this protocol mentally. They're going to prepare for what it's going to take. You mentioned scaling back on carbohydrates. Can you just for the sake of having it, the types of carbohydrates that you love.

Yeah. Single ingredient carbs are the best. Right. You mentioned whole foods. And the example, that's a perfect example, I think that could relate to people, is when we go to supermarket, the grocery store, and we look at a carbohydrate that's a whole food like a potato, and we look at the ingredients list of a potato, it says potato because that's what you see. Right? Avocado. You see avocado.

No less needed.

No less needed. Exactly. When you go to the inner aisle and buy the potato chip, you see a whole bunch of ingredients. So that's a processed version of the potato. So single ingredient carbohydrates is what we want to look for. Potatoes, fruit, even white rice that can be considered minimally processed, but it's still not a processed, ultra processed packaged food. Now that's a good starting point to switch from processed carbs to whole food carbs. Depending on where you're at in this spectrum of insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction, you might need to remove most of your carbohydrates, even whole food carbs, in the beginning. So you could really lower insulin and shift into fat burning mode. And that's why it's different for everyone. So if you want to get into ketosis, and that's just the byproduct of burning fat, then most people, men and women, need to be under 50 total grams of carbs per day. But if your goal is not ketosis, but just lower insulin and do more low carb, you could have up to 150 grams of carbs per day. The average American is having 300 grams of carbs per day. So the goal is to lower it and have it within an eating window and no snacking in between those meals.

I'm not a huge fan of doing macros and stuff like that. However, when it comes to looking at grams of sugar and grams of carbohydrates that you're having every day, it's like pretty wow factor for people to really acknowledge the amount of carbs that they're taking in every day when their level of activity and output doesn't really match the level of carbs that they're taking in. So for that place alone, I think it's worthwhile just looking into again, do the investigation for yourself so that you know. Because once you have the information of what you're consuming, you'll be able to fine tune your diet yourself and understand like the amount of protein and fat that actually feels good for you.

Well said. And you're not doing it forever. Like you just said, it's just to fine tune and get a handle over it. That's it.

Yeah. And what about. I've heard you talk about food combining before.

Yeah.

So can you talk about that and the benefits as you're leading into this and then we'll get to ketosis after?

Yeah, for sure. So, yeah. There's some cool things you can do if you're having like a mixed meal of protein, fat and carbohydrates. Well, in general, we don't want to have a high carbohydrate meal with a higher fat meal that that will cause, you know, some inflammation. So if you're going to do a higher carb meal, having it with protein is better than having it with fat. Fat. But there's some things you can do in terms of food combining that will help to mitigate that blood sugar spike from the meal. It's called postprandial glucose. Right. So if you're going to have, let's say protein and fat and carbs, then you want to have the protein and fat first and the carbohydrates after because it's going to slow digestion and it's going to blunt that, mitigate that glucose response versus having the carbs before. So what does that look like on your plate? So if you had, let's say like a piece of steak with butter on top and then you had like a sweet potato or rice, you would eat the steak and the butter first. Then the sweet potato or the rice, you would have whatever carb source is last. If you choose to have that combination of meals, the fiber, if it depends on the carb source too, because like broccoli is not that high in carbs. But if it's a higher carb source, like rice, sweet potato, french fries, hopefully it's not then you want to have that towards the end, you're going to see a better post prandial glucose response.

And I imagine you are recommending a continuous glucose monitor for people in your audience. Yeah, yeah.

Are you a fan of those as well or what are your thoughts?

Really big fan. I actually, when I start working with someone I love for them to throw one on for three months. Let's just take a glimpse so that you can understand how your body's metabolizing carbs, especially for a lot of the starches that you're recommending. Like, I've even worked with people who, they can have a, a white potato and their spike is like minimal, but they'll have a sweet potato or potato, purple potato, and it's like five chocolate bars. It's wild. So then they know they need to walk and do other modalities to, to bring that down. But it's just information about your metabolism.

It is, it's great. It's a great thing to, to. I, I recommend it as well. I think it's a great tool. It's one of my favorite tools that you can use that and you know, oura ring or whatever's tracking like heart rate variability, sleep steps and all that. I like those as well. But with the continuous glucose monitor, you're right because it's so different for everyone. I was just sharing with Darshan that when I first put on a continuous glucose monitor back in, I think 2018, 2019, and I was eating coconut whipped cream, I didn't think it was an issue for me, but it jacked up my glucose to 160 milligrams per deciliters. This is a problem. So I didn't eat the coconut whipped cream, but who would have thought, right? It shows you how food impacts your blood sugar, stress, sleep, exercise, and then you don't wear forever. To your point, you know, a couple months, three months, you said then you have enough data and you now understand what your lifestyle is doing to positively impact your glucose. Or is it actually creating a glucose mess? It's a great tool.

That's so true. Yeah. Even looking at your fasting glucose first thing in the morning is going to give you so much insight right. To your metabolism. Okay, so people are now they're engaged, they're eating more whole foods. They're just getting, keeping an eye on their carb, they're focusing on food combining and stuff like that. They go back to the doctor, they check their fasting insulin. Do you notice that for some people, if it's not within that beautiful 3 to 6 range that it can also go low over time and that also be a sign of dysfunction or inflammation in the body.

Yeah. What a great question. You know, I've seen that mostly in those who do chronic ketosis, carnivore fasting. It's like a different. You've seen it too? Yeah. Different version of insulin resistance. The different type of insulin resistance. Not common if you're a sugar burner, but more of those in my keto carnivore fasting space, if you're chronically doing that, you're going to notice chronically low levels of insulin, and that's not a good thing. I would order a C peptide and see how your pancreas is doing at producing insulin. But that's also a bad thing, too.

Exactly. Thank you. Yeah. I looked at an athlete of mine at his labs this morning and I thought, perfect timing. I'm talking to you today.

Really? Yes.

Yes.

It was low. Chronically low.

It was chronically low.

Yeah.

Yeah. So how often do you think people should look at their fasting insulin?

At least once a year.

Yeah.

As like a. Just general protocol. And there's some things you want to. I'm glad you brought back to the fasting insulin piece because there were some things I didn't finish about that I mentioned. Doctors don't order it because they won't prescribe a medication. But the other problem is that the reference range that comes back is between 3 and 28 on that insulin. So when you have a 21. I know, it's crazy. If it comes back as 21, 17, 11, it won't be flagged by the lab, but that is insulin resistance. I want to be clear. If you're over 10, you've got insulin resistance. Even if your doctor says it's fine, or even if the lab doesn't flag it, know that that is insulin resistance. And you could see that your blood sugars are perfect even with the insulin resistance. And your A1C is perfect until it's not. You have children? I don't. But what will happen if you screamed at your children? Go clean your room. They'll listen. The first time you scream at them every day for years, they stop listening. Same thing with the insulin. You produce it once from a high carbohydrate, hydrate meal. Okay. Your cells listen and you get the job done. But you keep screaming at your cells, they stop listening, and it happens six to 14 years later where you become deaf to the screams. So every once a year is important. If you have insulin resistance and you know it. Then every three to six months, if you have tested it, elevated every three to six months to make sure you're getting into that three to six range. It's a transient marker, so don't put all of your value into one marker. You want to see what it looks like over time and you want to be about 12 to 14 hours fasted. Take the test, get the result. Mine's always 3.2, 3.4. I'm always around the 3 range and I like that. I feel really good there. So yeah, every. Every once a year, but at least if you. Once a year, at least. But if you're overweight, if you have some metabolic dysfunction, every three to six months is what I would recommend.

I love that you hovered on that because most people don't ask or if they're within range, they're like, oh, see in ear, right? It's like the worst response that I get from a doctor. See any ear I know when it's like, no, you're doing this for prevention, right? We get this one vessel, get as much information as you possibly can. Find a doctor that will like really support you. And what's this on your arm that you're wearing?

These are phototherapy patches. And people think they're a CGM because they kind of look like it, but they're not. They're phototherapy patches. The company's called Lifewave and what it does, it takes your own body heat, which we're naturally emitting heat, and it delivers back to you in low dose phototherapy. And then they infuse amino acids and sugars in the patch. It's non transdermal, so it's not going into your body. But you put it on acupuncture pressure points and then it signals a certain response. So these two are called the energy patches. And it helps with beta oxidation, helps the mitochondria burn fat, which is important. I have one behind my neck that helps with stimulates copper peptide and then stem cells. So it helps your body reduce stem cells. And I have them all over my body, but my dog's all patched up too. And I was really skeptical about these patches in the beginning. And then they have 92 clinical studies. And then I decided I'm going to just buy all them and test them out. And I noticed a different. That was about a year and a half ago. So I use it. A lot of my clients use it, my dog uses it. And yeah, it's pretty cool. Even if part of it is Placebo. I still don't negate the placebo. It's such a powerful thing. So whatever I do to make me feel better, I'll continue doing.

There are these patches on his arms and we mentioned cgm. I'm like, is this a new updated cm?

That would be cool, right? Like peel it off cgm. I can't wait until they have. I know. They're launching these continuous ketone monitors, which is cool. I cannot wait if there is ever going to be a time where they do this. But a continuous insulin monitor.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, that would be amazing, huh?

Yeah.

I don't know if they can do that, but that would be awesome.

My niece has type 1 diabetes also, so anything. The faster we can bring the science, the better.

Was she born with it or did she get it later in life? Okay, that's most common.

Yeah, exactly. She's a rock star. Okay, let's continue with this healing side of things. So one something that I acknowledge all the time is just like the wisdom that comes with fasting. Right. So can you break down fasting whether it's time restricted eating or shorter fasting windows also in. How do we choose?

Yeah, you know, it's. Fasting is nature's reset button. It's such a great way to remove the interference and just let your cells heal. Let the innate intelligence go to work. I like to get the person more metabolically flexible before I do much fasting. So that could mean keto or not, but it means you first increase protein and fat and lower your carbs. Whether that's really lowering your carbs or just lowering them like 50%. But I like to get them familiar with burning fat and being more metabolically flexible before I do too much fasting, which could be about seven to 10 days, not a big deal. And then the fasting is like a muscle. Mindy does a great job explaining this, of course, but fasting is like a muscle. And the thing about fasting, I always compare it to a chainsaw. If we used a chainsaw, we would have to read the user manual to understand how it works. And then we get some great results. But if we just skip the user manual and just started wielding that chainsaw, we could hurt ourselves. Right? Fasting is like that chainsaw. You got to read the user manual, like understand how to do it. Men do it differently than women. And you don't just go right into a 24 hour fast or a 36 hour fast, if you've never done a 12 hour fast. Right. So we do 12 hours. And then 14 hours, you kind of start building up that window, see how you feel. You could check glucose and ketones if you want, but how do you feel during that fast? You should feel more energized, more focused. Better. If you don't, you still have to kind of maybe reduce the fasting window and kind of build it back up. I like early time restricted feeding, to answer your question, and I wasn't always like that. I used to say breakfast is the dumbest meal of the day. You know, skip it. And. But actually, it's better for us to eat when the sun is up.

Thank you.

Yes. Especially for women, too. Yeah. So having break. Because we're more insulin sensitive in the morning than we are later in the day at night.

And food is information for energy.

Yes.

Yes. We don't need more energy when we go to bed.

That's correct. Yeah. We need the opposite. We need. Don't give energy. We need to start detoxifying and going through autophagy.

Thank you for saying that.

Yeah. Yeah.

Let's bring breakfast back.

Let's bring breakfast back. Let's make breakfast. I don't know. Sexy again. Whatever the term is. Yeah. Because what happens is when you eat too close to bed, it's a disaster for men, women, all body types, health history, I don't care. Every human that eats too close to bed, you're giving yourself energy, and then you're not using the energy, and it's a mess. And melatonin, which is in chapter 11. I talk about melatonin not as a sleep agent, but as an antioxidant for the mitochondria. Melatonin has an inverted relationship with glucose and insulin, meaning when you eat before bed, you spike glucose and insulin and you deplete melatonin so it'll interrupt your sleep and also all the benefits you get from melatonin. Melatonin is the mitochondria's most important antioxidant. It's incredible. For you, it's more than just a hormone, an antioxidant for sleep. It's just so incredible. So, yeah. You don't want to eat too close to bed. Give yourself at least three hours of fasting before bed. I usually do five hours of fasting before bed. And I feel really great.

I'm the same. I'm with you.

You too. Yeah. Those late dinners are not so tonight we have a dinner.

We're gonna struggle tonight.

Yeah.

Well, let's force everyone to go for a walk after.

Okay.

We'll be fine.

I'm with you. Yeah.

You and I will be out doing heels.

I'm down. Let's go.

All right. So thank you. Yeah. Breakfast is so key. It's information. And just from when I. When my health came back into balance, I was just like focusing on just my biggest meal in the middle of the day. That's just what made me feel great.

Great.

Something that I'm thinking of when you went through that weight loss is your lymphatic system. Was your body prepared to unleash all that weight? Because I'm thinking of listeners who are like, okay, you know, I tried fasting before, but I felt like shit. And the first time that I ever did a three day water fast, it's like all the toxins were just unleashed and they had nowhere to go.

Yeah.

So I was the person in this big group that I was gaining weight. I couldn't sleep, I felt uncomfortable, I felt shaky the whole time. But my lymphatic system was a hot mess.

Yeah, yeah, no, that's important because your body stores toxins in your fat cells, right? So when you start burning fat, you start dumping those toxins. You can burn fat, but you can't burn these toxins. Then you auto intoxicate and you get those symptoms like you just mentioned. Yeah, I've seen that a lot. Thankfully, I was fairly young when I went through that, 23 years old. So I didn't have as many toxins as most people at that age. And I was exercising a lot, which helped with the lymphatic system. I was doing a lot of basketball and cycling. Yeah, Sweating. So that helped a lot. So I didn't have that issue. But I see a lot with people. And the lymphatic system, like you mentioned, is very, very important. So the body's like drainage system, gutter system, and a lot of people have stagnant lymph. I remember I have an infrared sauna, which is great. And I was doing an Instagram story from there, like a couple months ago, and I asked the question, how many of you sweat and how often do you sweat? I just did like an Instagram story poll, and there was a good percentage of people who said, I never sweat. And that's an issue. I know it's easy for me to say that living in Miami sweat in the winter, but you could find ways to sweat. And the lymphatic system is important. We talk about armpits as a way to measure if your lymphatic system is working or not. And there's armpits and there's arm puffs. So if you look at your armpit and you see it puffy, that's a sign your lymphatic system is clogged up. You want a pit, not a puff. And a lot of people have stagnant lymph and they don't feel great. So it is important. And you can move your body. There's dry brushing, there's rebounding. There's many things you can do for the lymphatic system.

I love that we have it on that because that could deter someone completely from fasting.

I'm doing all these things right. I'm losing weight, but I feel awful.

But I feel awful.

You could slow it down. You could take binders, focus on sleep and the glymphatic system too. So there's things you can do but don't give up. That's the point you're trying to make here.

You got it. So let's take people through, especially how this kind of ties into your journey. For people who now have tried time restricted eating, they're maybe eating one or two meals a day and feeling fantastic. They're eating fewer carbs, they're moving their bodies. The two things that we need to assess, talk about is one, the vegans also, how to make them happy. And even for the vegans, shifting into keto, for those that want to experiment with it, what's the safest way to do it to start?

Okay, yeah, so ketosis. So the way that I view keto is not as a diet, more of a metabolic process.

I feel like there's therapeutic ketosis and then there's like Instagram buzzworthy TikTok ketosis.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right.

I was like 100% messing everything up.

Yeah, I know. That's the problem with it. It's so popular that it's been. It's like muddled. What's the word? Muddied water or whatever the term is. Just like it's taken over by big food and big pharma and that's the problem. So when we think about ketosis, ketosis is a metabolic process. There's nothing new about keto. It's just nuanced or new to some people. But it's been around for as long as our humans have existed. It's a metabolic process. When you're in ketosis, it simply means you're burning stored fat for energy. You're burning body fat, your love handles, all the things you want to burn. And insulin is the key that allows you to do that. So when you restrict your carbohydrates, we just establish you lower insulin and then you start burning body fat. Your body fat is then sent to your liver and your liver uses that for fuel. Then the liver produces ketones, which then fuels the brain. And that's where you feel good. And ketones are anti inflammatory. It up regulates glutathione within the cells. When you start to get into ketosis, it stimulates the mitochondria to reproduce. You could actually get about 400% more energy when you're using ketones as an energy source versus sugar. Well, that's pretty cool.

That's pretty cool.

But the thing is, it's also a stress to the body, like fasting. Ketosis is a stress to the body, just like fasting. And you use it, but you use it cyclically if you choose to use it. And women do it differently than men as well. So you don't stay in it. And how do you get there? You simply just restrict carbohydrates. You can do it through fasting. I don't recommend doing that. I don't recommend fasting to get into ketosis. I recommend low carb or keto to get into fasting. Kind of the opposite way. But you don't want to do this dirty keto approach that you mentioned on Instagram TikTok where you're just going to McDonald's without the bun and you're calling it keto. You want to eat quality fats, quality protein. You want to lower your carbohydrates to 50 grams total per day. If you're tracking that from non starchy green leafy vegetables, things of that variety. And what it does for the body is incredible. It supports the cells that have the most mitochondria, as we mentioned earlier. So the brain, you get just clarity. I'm fasted today because I just accidentally, I just didn't have time in my schedule to eat. So I'm in ketosis right now. So it helps with like mental clarity, helps with anybody struggling with brain fog. Really, really important for those who have pcos, diabetes, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, very important for those individuals. But it's a tool. It's not the only tool in the shed. You use it cyclically. And this is. I'm in the keto space, my company's keto camp. But I don't recommend long term ketosis.

Thank you.

I recommend using it responsibly.

I love that you said that. I worked with someone who is a male who had like Tremendous success with keto. So obviously he lost all this weight, was feeling really good, he became addicted. He was on it for a really long time, though. By the time I saw him, he also was having a bowel movement maybe every four days, if he was lucky. And then I just thought, okay, so think about the number of animals that you're eating every day. From the pork to the chicken to the turkey bacon to the burgers, to the steak to the chicken. It's like the. By that four day mark, how many animals were just like, putrefying in your body? Right. And so we really need to just. I love that you said that it should be something that is therapeutic because there's a really healthy way to do it.

Yes.

And if that's a tool for metabolic freedom, then I think it's worth experimenting with.

Yeah. Thank you. It is. You know, and everybody's so different, so the length that you stand is different than somebody else, but it's really powerful when done right. It's really powerful.

Yeah. And would you say, like, if you were to put a lens of ancient wisdom on that, have you found it? You know, like, you know, we all come from so many different cultures and backgrounds and stuff like that. We know that there's some cultures that do a lot better with higher fat versus others with higher carbs. Historically, we think about ancient cultures who would thrive on grains and veggies and stuff like that. Right. But we live in a different world today.

We do. And. And I also know that doesn't matter where your ancestors are from. And the culture is they always didn't have food available, so they always fasted. And when you fast, you enter ketosis. So that's why I know that our ancestors all did keto whether it was intentional or not. Because the grains, even if they ate a lot of grains, it wasn't year round. If it was fruit, it wasn't year round. So it's when there was no food available, they had to fast, whether it was a day, days or weeks. And when you fast, you get into ketosis, so they all use it as a tool to stay alive as well.

Well, thank you for putting such a therapeutic lens on this.

You're welcome.

Yeah.

There's a lot of confusion around.

That's why I was glancing through your book. You have so much content in here that's around so much more than just the food that you eat. How your thoughts influence fat loss.

That's my favorite chapter, chapter 10.

It's the first thing I open. I put this.

I love that you did? That's my favorite chapter.

Tell me about that.

Yeah, my. I'm writing my. My next book and it's all about chapter 10. It's called mental Freedom. That'll be all in a couple years, but I got inspired to expand that. There's a story that I start the chapter off with to illustrate how powerful our minds are, our thoughts are. And I'll share. It's a quick story just so I could illustrate to your audience how powerful the thoughts are. So there's a true story from the 1960s. It was in the newspaper. Bob Proctor shared this with me, and it was about a railroad employee who worked inside of a train. And he worked inside of the refrigerator cart inside of this train. And one night he was working late and he didn't look at the clock. He realized all of his co workers left. And he said, all right, I gotta get out of here, too. So he tried to exit that refrigerator cart and it was locked. His coworkers locked him in. They didn't know he was still working. And it was cold. And he knew that nobody was going to be around until the next morning. So his thoughts started to get the best of him, as it naturally would. Right. So he started to kind of panic and freak out. He didn't know what to do. So he ended up writing on the wall and kind of documenting his journey throughout the night. The newspapers caught this on, on camera the next day. So around midnight, he wrote the words, I'm stuck. It's midnight. Nobody's going to come for hours. I don't know how I'm going to survive. 2:00am he wrote the words, I'm freezing, cannot keep myself warm. Temperature keeps dropping. 4am he wrote the words, I am shivering to death. I'm not going to survive. 7am rolls around, his co workers clock in, they open up that refrigerator cart, and they look on the floor and they see the guy died. Hypothermia. He froze to death. But here's the interesting thing about the story, Mona. When they investigated the temperature apparatus in that refrigerator cart, it had been malfunctioning for weeks and never dropped below 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Oh, my gosh. His mind.

His mind literally created his demise to freeze to death.

And he died.

Death.

Unreal.

So if your thoughts can do that, do you think it could heal you as well? 100%. So that's the nocebo effect, right? The placebo effect is where we use it for us. And Dr. Bruce Lipton has shown through his incredible work that your thoughts are frequency that have the ability to communicate with your DNA nucleus. How cool is that? And if it's a hateful thought, angry thought, resentful thought, bitter thought, signal that is being sent to your DNA is to produce inflammatory proteins damaging your DNA, shortening your lifespan with a single thought. But if it's a healthy thought, loving thought, grateful thought, abundant thought. Now the signal is to create anti inflammatory proteins to protect your DNA with a single thought. So my favorite biohack in the world is understanding that you have 60,000 thoughts a day. According to psychiatrists and studies, that means you have 60,000 opportunities to put your body in an anti inflammatory healing state every single day.

You just gave me so much inspiration.

I love it.

Yeah, no, mind your thoughts. Right. It's such a simple practice that we drift from. And I think when we even think about mastering our mornings or our evenings, it's the first thing to go, right? We'll always try to get something done without recognizing that power. I can't wait to have you back on to really amplify that. And I hope that everyone listening one first go and get your book, Metabolic Freedom, the 30 Day Guide. And I believe that you get something when you sign up.

Yes. Thank you, Mona. Yeah. We're giving away a free course on the metabolism. 12 lessons that I built out with some interviews, exclusive interviews in the course with Dr. Jason Fung, Megan Ramo, Cynthia Thurlow and Dr. Daniel Pompa. And all that's free if you go to metabolicfreedombook.com amazing.

Where can people find you? You've got an incredible podcast.

Yeah. Which you're gonna come on?

Which I'm gonna come on?

Yeah. Benazadi.com is my website and it has my podcast, which is the Metabolic Freedom podcast, the socials and everything. So. Benazadi.com Beautiful.

Just imagine the power of your body to heal if you set the stage with its inputs and then the power of your mind. Last few questions for some rapid fire. Are you cool?

I'm cool. Let's go.

Cool. Let's do it. What's one way that people are making healing and health too complicated?

Focusing on the minors instead of the majors. I love biohacking and all these different supplements and gadgets and all that, but those are additions to doing the fundamentals. So instead of doing the sauna and the cold plunger, hey, why don't you work on your sleep and eat real food first and add the other stuff? Because it's not gonna work if you focus on those minors versus the majors.

I Love it. What's your favorite ancient healing remedy?

It's gotta be gratitude. It's gotta be. But here's the thing with the gratitude, it's the feeling of it. Gratitude is not a practice. Gratitude is a feeling. So the feeling of gratitude, the universal law states whatever you feed energy to expand. So in other words, what you appreciate, appreciates and what you think about and think about, you bring about in your life. And that is an ancient wisdom right there.

I love that. And I love that you didn't just say fasting because that could have been easy for you. If you had to think about something about modern medicine that's really exciting you, what would it be?

I love all the technology that's coming out in terms of like there's going to be continuous ketone monitor, different monitors, things we can measure. The lab, the lab testing is getting more sophisticated as well. And then AI integrating AI into all that, it's interesting. It's kind of a double edged sword, but it's really exciting as well.

Very cool. So many good nuggets today. Thank you so much. Can't wait to have you back. And I'll see you tonight.

Yes, thank you Mona. It's been an absolute honor. Thank you.