Fasting, Keto, Protein and Keeping it Simple – with Ben Azadi

Ben Azadi  0:00  

Mindy, we’re back at it for another podcast. Here we go. Third time, third time doing this format ask us anything, but we’ve done many more interview style podcast. Yeah. And today’s a cool day because we just spoke at Quito calm together. Great. We shared the stage. Yeah. And I got some great feedback. I did. Yeah, I did, too. It’s really funny, because everybody said, Oh, you I can’t believe you guys have never done that. So many people said the same thing. Like they thought we’ve done that for 100 times. I know, first time we actually share the stage at the same time, we’ve shared the stage together. Yeah, this was special. We went over it we kept to our time

Dr. Mindy  0:35  

that we kept our time was the one that I was like, wow, how did we do that? Yeah, but it was. It’s really cool. I think it’s, it’s a perfect example of when you get around people who think very similar. Yeah, it’s like you’re speaking the same language. And so it just flows out of you effortlessly. 

Ben Azadi  0:51  

Exactly. We’re aligned with that. Yeah. The message. The message was overall, like, we have the power. You know, the body is so amazing. It’s built to heal itself. It’s not anything external. And you did a great job explaining that and showing what how fasting plays into that role. Yeah. And yeah, it was brilliant. I lo ved it. 

Dr. Mindy  1:06  

Yeah, I was thinking about that. Like, we should maybe summarize for the people who didn’t who weren’t at Kido. Con, what we talked about, because I think what the again, a lot of it is conversations you and I have had. And I think the best place to start this Ask Me Anything is really around this idea of how how deeply Do you believe in your own healing? Because you and I are like out there on content always like, Okay, here’s what your blood sugar numbers should be, here’s what your ketones is what you want to do, like all the hacks, but the end of the day, none of those hacks will work if you don’t actually believe your body can heal itself. So you said something interesting in the story you shared at the end that I thought was really, really profound, that we’re not discussing enough. It was a study done, where the doctor believed that what I heard was the languaging, the doctor used was empowering. And then the patient believed and the combination of those three things got the best result. Can you can you share that again, because I think that’s something it’s like a synergistic team coming together for a person’s healing has to have the mindset in order. And in place in order for the true belief to happen inside the body. It’s so true. So that’s the word the placebo effect, the word originated. World War Two, the American soldiers were getting bombed. And they were really beat up. I mean, bullet wounds, arms and limbs blown off, and they were entering the medical tent. And there was a doctor Dr. Henry Beecher working that specific medical tent, and they were giving the soldiers morphine, which makes sense, because it would help calm them down, stabilize them, so they didn’t go into shock and die. So it stabilized them enough for them to transfer them to hospital and save these these soldiers lives. But they ran out of morphine at this specific tent. So one of the nurses saw that she didn’t really know what to do, she ended up grabbing the syringe and putting saline solution saltwater. And she told Dr. Beecher, I’m giving you more morphine, you know, give this to the soldier. So he had the belief that he was getting morphine from the nurse. And he transferred that belief to the soldier saying, I’m giving you morphine, you’re gonna feel better in a matter of seconds. And it was just saline solution. And they all survived. You know, they didn’t go into shock. They stabilized them, even though it was not even morphine. Yeah. And that’s where Harvard wanted to study what happened. And that’s where the placebo effect originated. So that’s what my takeaway when I heard that was, it is so important that the healthcare people, your healthcare team has 100% faith that you can heal. So for years, I’ve been saying, we need to put a tribe of people together, like you need to look at like, I did this when my kids were little, I had a very conservative Doctor down to like the energy crystal like we will person. And there was about five people that were on that team of that I would ask if my kids had a problem, I’d be like, What do you think I should do? And then I would take everybody’s opinion into account. And then I would make a decision for myself. But what I think is so interesting about that study, is that what happens if your doctor gives you a diagnosis that you aren’t in alignment with, like, so now, you’re gonna have to come up against healing yourself going against your doctors, own, you know, beliefs, it’s really important. If you choose to do that, you got to totally cut out whatever that doctor said, because you don’t want that in your mind, because that will affect your healing. 100%. And that’s happening all the time. Yeah, you know, you need this drug because your body’s too weak to produce this hormone, right? Or you have cancer. So you have six months to live like this is the opposite. It’s the same effect of how the placebo works, but it’s the opposite of the no SIBO effect. Yeah, so it’s negative version of that with SIBO effect and it’s just as powerful as the placebo effect and doctors do it all the time without realizing what they’re doing there.

Ben Azadi  5:00  

much playing that role of the giving, transferring their negative beliefs to their patients. Yep. And we know the body is built to heal itself. We know people who have had stage four terminal cancer go on to live many, many years from that point of diagnosis. And that takes that takes a strong grit and a strong belief in the human body. Yeah.

Dr. Mindy  5:19  

And it tells me that I always want to make sure whoever’s putting any information into my brain about my health, I want to make sure that they are in 100% alignment with what they’re saying. And even in the in the health influencing world and the way we you know, what, what we see in our space a lot, is definitely people who either have a mixed message, or they have some type of ulterior motive of why they’re expressing the information. And all of that comes into play in our own healing. So I just love that because I felt like, God that’s really, really cool to think about, who is overseeing your health care? And what is their mindset, not just what is your mindset? What is the people around you who are giving you information? What is their mindset, because that’s going to get instilled into you. So true. That’s crazy to me.

Ben Azadi  6:09  

Yeah. And it’s so true, you want to protect that environment. So I love that you do that with your family and their doctors from like, the most traditional to the most out there. You get all the data, and then you kind of synthesize, you know what makes sense, and you apply. And I think that’s what we should do with our health and all the information out there. And I love what you said today. And then we’ll get into the first question. But I love what you shared today at the end of the talk where you talked about, okay, there’s a lot of things we share with you. There’s a lot of things other speakers are sharing with you take three things from this lecture and apply it like right away. Yeah, and I love that you said that because it’s true information alone does not change anybody’s life. We are drowning in information and starving for actual wisdom and truth. But it’s the application of the right information over a period of time that’s gonna change their lives. I love that. You said that. Yeah,

Dr. Mindy  6:52  

talk. Yeah, I don’t know if you’ve ever I mean, even after a podcast like this, or when you’ve been like at a conference, there’s so much information, you feel so empowered, and then you get home Monday, and like, everything falls apart. And that’s why I’ve I just learned to just pull a few things and focus on those, master those. And then you can go back to your notes, you know, 90 days later, and then master something else. Yeah, but we have to chunk health down otherwise, it just is too big of a task to take on.

Ben Azadi  7:17  

Yeah, I love that. Because you’re just gonna be okay, where do I start? Like 73 things to do. But where do you start? That’s right. So you master a couple of things, then you have that stack. So I love that. So Alright, you ready for the question? Ready? Okay, I’ll throw one out you here. This is actually relevant to what we’re talking about. So it’s a question about kin, being in a chronically stressed condition or state cause cancer inside of the body. Oh, you start there.

Dr. Mindy  7:41  

Oh, so the answer to that is an absolutely yes. But it’s not just cancer. It is chronic disease. So I can tell you that I’m I’m, I feel like I’m coming full circle with my my understanding about the priorities that the body needs in order to heal. And I say full circle, because I would say about 10 or 15 years ago, I felt like stress was like really at the high. Like everybody’s going to handle their stress if they want their body to heal. But then in the biohacking world, we have all these cool things like fast you can get ketones, you can hop into hyperbaric oxygen, you can do red light, like all these hacks that work so well, that they almost bypass stress, like the the stressful effects of a high pressured life. But I’d say I’ve come full circle, because I feel like now, no, you can’t get yourself completely well, if you’re not managing stress, that has to be a part of everybody’s healing plan. And if you’re not careful about your stress levels, you can build disease worse than if you’re eating the bad oils. The poor, the poor, was thinking about it. But yeah, I think stress has to be managed, and everybody’s toolset needs to be a little different. Yeah. What do you what are your thoughts?

Ben Azadi  9:03  

I agree with you 100%. Because if you think about it, we talked about it today. 60,000 thoughts per day. And if every single one of those thoughts are stressful thoughts, fearful thoughts, hateful thoughts, that’s worse than the seed oils, because you’re taking a hit every time you have a thought. Yep. And we think about stress, it’s really our ability to adapt to the stress. So you teach fasting and we know fasting is a stress but a powerful stress that could get your body stronger. So I don’t know if it’s really about eliminating stress as it is as adapting to the stress or looking at it differently. When we get when we could see things as on the way versus in the way and we become grateful for the most challenging moments in our life. That’s when we start to become victorious. But I do believe stress can can’t call can’t cause cancer, because all of these conditions and I remember when I interviewed Dr. Aaron Lee Conneely I said I know cancer is multifactorial, we could all agree to that. There’s so many different things heavy metals, seed oils, sugar spikes. Yeah. But if there was one thing that you would say is the leading cause that would, you know, fill that stress bucket and trigger bad cancer genes? Out of all the things out there? What would that one thing be? And she said, trapped emotions. And that’s exactly what’s happening with stress. Wow. And trapped emotions. Fascinating talk about what we can do with Yeah,

Dr. Mindy  10:16  

yeah. So and the thing I just want to say one thing on Erin Keneally, when I interviewed her, she said, the fastest growing age group for cancer right now is the younger generation. And she feels like it’s largely because of the emotional traumas that they’re going through. And not to mention the physical and the chemical. So interesting that she would know she got this huge interview with

Ben Azadi  10:40  

integrative and the last three years Yeah, think about what happened. Yeah.

Dr. Mindy  10:43  

So here’s something I’ve learned with fasting not only in myself, but watching like our Academy members. And just you know, everybody on socials is that, the more you fast more, you’re getting rid of these senescence cells. So the senescence cells are aging cells or zombie cells or disease forming cells. But if you look at actually at the root of what these senescence cells are, they’ve got trapped emotions in them. And if you look at Bruce Lipton’s work, we know that the outer membrane is where those thought patterns live. So I’ve been thinking a lot lately about can you use fasting to get rid of these senescence cells that not only help you slow the aging process down, but actually help you long term change your thought patterns? And I’ve come to the conclusion that I strongly feel like the answer is yes. Now, here’s the caveat, I don’t think you can just take a person with a negative mindset, and put them through a bunch of fasts, and all of a sudden, they turn into a positive mindset person, I don’t believe that that can happen. But if you take a person that’s really working on their mindset, they’re really trying to change their thought patterns. And you teach that person how to have a fasting, build a fasting lifestyle, which with each fast, especially the longer fast, they go in, when you get the dumping of those zombie cells, you’re getting the dumping of the old thought patterns, and now you’re thinking the new thought patterns. And over time, the brain changes much quicker. So I actually think it’s a tool that fits into a whole mindset program. We can’t just throw a fast at it and think that our posit or brain is going to become positive.

Ben Azadi  12:27  

I agree. No, I love that so fascinating. And so wonderful. And I agree with you, you know, it makes sense to me.

Dr. Mindy  12:33  

We don’t talk about it enough with fasting. I don’t even think we talk about the spiritual part of fasting enough.

Ben Azadi  12:38  

Yeah, that’s true. And it’s in every religion out there. Absolutely. The only thing they agree, right.

Dr. Mindy  12:42  

It’s the only thing right? Yeah. You know, somebody asked me the other day they, they said, Are you getting many arrows at you from all the preaching of fasting that I’ve been doing? And I thought, No, I’m not. And I realized that I think that it’s twofold. One is fasting is one of those things that it has so much science right now. It’s like, it’s hard to refute it. But the second thing is everybody who’s successfully built a fasting lifestyle feels the difference. So there’s nothing to to push up against. It’s like sleep. No, you don’t see people walking around going, Ah, these sleep experts don’t know what they’re talking about. You don’t need to sleep. That’s not what they’re saying. They’re just saying, Hey, we all need to sleep. We’re still trying to understand how much and how much deep and how much RAM. So it’s, it’s really interesting, when you start to think about it, I just the more I study it, the more I’m like, Why aren’t why isn’t everybody fasting? Because it needs to be fasting

Ben Azadi  13:40  

100%? Well, you’re on a mission to make trying to make that. Exactly. You want to do the next question or me or

Dr. Mindy  13:46  

you do it because I don’t have it. So you’re gonna have to be

Ben Azadi  13:50  

I have the screenshot from my Instagram, but I

Dr. Mindy  13:53  

have a list too. So if you can answer this one, you answer it first.

Ben Azadi  13:57  

Alright, so the question is, how do I control appetite and cravings during fasting? Not just the hunger but a really strong desire to eat food. So this person is experiencing a lot of cravings. during fasting.

Dr. Mindy  14:11  

I’ll start Yeah, yeah. I’m curious to see what you say. Yeah,

Ben Azadi  14:15  

they’re just not fat adapted yet. Sounds like right, because we know that when we when they go into a fasted state, and glucose drops in their brain, the brain could panic because the ketones are not there. And then it’ll send signals to the body to go get some carbs, and Let’s fulfill that desire to get glucose back in the brain, right? So they might be doing a little bit too much fasting too soon. They might want to scale back that fasting muscle, maybe add a little bit to more healthy fats do some variation of low carb, it doesn’t have to be keto, but get the body from a familiar with burning fatty acids. And then when you go into that fasted state again, maybe those ketones can now get produced by the liver and then it will tell the brain like you’re okay. These are ketones were here for a reason. The livers Gotcha. You got body fat. Yeah. So I think that could be one thing and then maybe an electrolyte loss could be happening as well. And that’s too You’re single go get food because you are low and electrolytes, those were the two things that I would identify

Dr. Mindy  15:04  

what would you do you use fasting, I like to use fasting like as you can pulse into a ketogenic state and then pulse out, and then pulse it and pulse out. And if you if you do that each time you go into this ketogenic state, it’s healing something. So if you get into there and all of a sudden your cravings go up, my my thought pattern is, Okay, hang there, as long as you can hang there, and then dip back into food, and then go back again. And each time you go back, it gets easier and easier, much like the gym. You know, the first time you go to the gym and you haven’t been in a while, it feels horrible. But the each time you keep going back and pursuing that it gets easier and easier. I feel like that’s the same thing with cravings. Yeah,

Ben Azadi  15:49  

I love that approach too. Yeah, for sure. It’s it’s like a muscle like it’s just a muscle. So it’s keto. Right? So is getting fat adapted. It’s a muscle fasting is a muscle. And I love what you said in the past. There’s no such thing as a failed fast. Yeah, it’s like people think I’ve only fasted 14 hours and I’m such a failure. And the truth of the matter is nobody’s a failure. First of all, there’s no human that is a failure. But there’s a victory in that maybe you could share a little bit more about how every fast has its benefits.

Dr. Mindy  16:14  

Yeah, yeah, cuz it cuz you’re putting your it’s, it’s just like every sleep has its benefits. You’re, you’re you’re putting yourself in a healing state, you can’t fail when you put yourself in a healing state. So let’s say the healing state you wanted to put yourself in was a 72 hour fast and you only went 24 hours. Okay, you still put yourself in a positive state. So don’t get mad at yourself. Just go. Okay, next time, I’d like to see if I can do that a little different. And I think that’s really why why the artifacting is really important to understand. You’re not supposed to fast like You’re like everybody else, you’re supposed to find your rhythm with it. The other thing I want to say on the craving thing that I think is really interesting is that when it I would want to know what type of craving this person’s having. So if they’re having a sugar craving, when they go into the fasted state, that would tell me adrenals because the adrenals are saying hey, we need glucose, we’re or even the thyroid might be saying, hey, we need more food, we need more carbs. And so it would be a mirror to understand what you need to support. If that was the case. So let’s say it was the adrenals you would then want to make sure you’re adding more good fat in more protein. So you’re stabilizing your blood sugar when you’re in your eating window when you’re in that sugar burner state. If if you have a thyroid problem, you might need to eat more calories. Definitely that’s one place I find calories come into play is in the eating window. You got to get at least 1200 to 1500 calories in an eating window to support healthy thyroid function. Got a feast, so you got to feast. And then the third one is is if it’s a sugar craving, then that’s Candida and the body’s trying to kill off Candida. So you need to get yourself into more 24 hour fasts where you can repair the microbiome, you also are going to want to look at what are you eating when you’re eating? Are you eating too many carbs? Too much alcohol, too much sugar. So I think that type of craving can tell you which angle you’re going to go to great

Ben Azadi  18:17  

point. Yeah, I covered all the bases there. I love it. Okay, next question. Interesting one, it’s okay to twofold here. Yep. I’m going to add to the question, but is it dangerous to be taking vitamins and supplements over the years? They’re concerned specifically about those plastic casings, but I will add to that question, say, Is it bad to take the same supplements over and over and over at the same time, right?

Dr. Mindy  18:38  

Well, let me I’m gonna flip it and ask you a question on this. How many supplements do you have at home? Do you have like a room of supplements, you have a counter of supplements

Ben Azadi  18:49  

like the Vitamin Shoppe?

Dr. Mindy  18:52  

That’s right. Okay. And so this is why I asked like, if you came into my house, you would see that I have one corner of my kitchen just packed with supplements. And then I’ve got cupboards in other areas of supplements. So the question would be like, Well, why do I have that? Why do you look like a vitamin shop? And that’s because I’m always posting supplements. Yeah. So I always ask myself, Am I eating well rounded? Am I eating diverse? So am I eating clean? And if I am, I don’t do as many supplements. But I actually end up leaning into supplements a lot more when life got really busy. I’m traveling a lot. And in that moment that I have to ask myself like, Okay, what is it that I’m trying to accomplish with this supplement? So I’ll give you example of this is we’ve been a week that we’ve been traveling, so we’ll be home and we’re on a 10 day trip right now. So I bags of different supplements. Well, I strategically picked the supplements for this trip and they were built around energy was it was a big one. I’m trying to master sleep right now. So a little more of my sleep. And then I have a couple of detoxifiers because I’m binders because I knew that I would be out in the world traveling. And then I’ve been I have an Oregon I’ve been working on, I always have like one area, and I’ve been working on my liver. So I brought some liver supplements to just keep that keep myself going. So it was very, very targeted. Now I’m gonna go home, and I’m not going to need all of those, it’s gonna change, it’s gonna change. So I think this idea that you take a supplement and you just take it over and over again, at some point a or if you’re not going to make it you’re you’re losing your money because it’s not effective. And B, we lose sight of the fact that our body heals. It’s not the supplement that heals you’re you’re just fueling the body so the body can heal. It’s not the supplement doing the heal.

Ben Azadi  20:45  

Yeah, well, I love the answer. And it loses its effectiveness over time, too. It’s like, the body begins to adapt to it. Yeah, so maybe in the beginning, it felt good. And then after three months, it’s like you’re not getting any effectiveness anymore. I do the same thing with you when I’m traveling. I’ll take my little kit. So it’s immune health, it’s sleep. Something that I do take steadily is magnesium. Oh, yeah. But I’ll rotate, you know, from three and eight to glycinate to mallet so I’ll rotate the type of magnesium but that’s something I’m on all the time, right. Other than that, everything else I take a break from and I use Sunday. Usually as a day that I take a break from all supplements. I just give myself a little bit of a reset on Sundays just to kind of like my liver doesn’t have to pre process anything. But yeah, if you go to my kitchen, you my pantry, same thing like the Vitamin Shoppe, right? I have friends that come over and they’re like, you use all this I’m like, some of it. I’ll rotate here. Sometimes I just like make, you know, go rent with random things. But I do have a game plan like you right? Sometimes I’m focusing on adrenals. Sometimes it’s sleep. When I’m very active. I’ll take more creatine and I’ll focus more on protein. I’m not very active. I won’t take that. So supplements should be rotated. You know, before. I’m going to ask you this question. The four supplements that when I ask people, What are you taking? It’s usually vitamin D. Yep. But like a synthetic without the other fat soluble vitamins? Yeah. Fish oil. Yep. A probiotic. And synthetic multivitamin. Does that line up with you?

Dr. Mindy  22:09  

Is that what I’m taking? Oh, no, no, no. No, I don’t take my time.

Ben Azadi  22:13  

When I when I ask people what supplements are like my students? It’s usually those top four.

Dr. Mindy  22:18  

For sure. And I would say if all of those I’m happy, they’re doing vitamin D. Yeah, that’s true. Like, you know, that’s because you can either get it from the sun or you get it from fish and or you got to supplement so. So yes, those are the most common, although I think I’ve beat the probiotic into the ground that very few people take probiotics. Like the greatest thing you can do for your gut is go into a longer fast and then break that fast with poly phenol prebiotic. So yeah, so I think it’s I again, I always, I really, truly honor that supplements or supplements, yeah, to my healthy diet. So when I’m out traveling, yeah, the diets a little funky. It’s not as easy. So I’m going to lean more into the supplements. Once I get home, I can have all I got all my biohacking equipment at home, I got all my favorite foods, so I don’t lean into them as much. So I think there needs to be flexibility with that. And why don’t we don’t have that enough? Yeah. Yeah. The other thing I used to do, I don’t know if you ever do this is, and this is something fun for people to look at, is when I would coach people, I would put them through some very specific supplement protocols. And then we would hit this point where they were doing well, like their, their health was in an amazing place. So instead of going and having them buy more supplements, I would say take a picture of all your supplements and let me come up with a protocol. And then we would just take like, let’s say they had 12 supplements at home, I’d say okay, these three you’re going to do this month, and then the next month, I’d be like, okay, just so you keep using those supplements, as part

Ben Azadi  23:53  

of supplement, like ebb and flow to a lot we believe in like food rotation, even supplement rotation. Yeah, fast feast rotations, right. Like that’s the

Dr. Mindy  24:03  

no supplements hot cold. If you think about it, everything. It’s actually it’s a version of metabolic switching. Yes, it is. It’s like I’m in on the supplements. No, now I’m out. And then I go back in and then I go back out. And the problem if you’re listening to this is that you, you may feel like you don’t know where to go to. But the upside of this is that you get to have fun and experiment with all of this stuff. And I’m curious what your thoughts are on this. strongly feel when you take a supplement, you should feel a change. And if you don’t, it’s not working for you, even if the change is adverse.

Ben Azadi  24:41  

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, if somebody has somebody starting a new supplement, and they don’t feel anything, that’s a red flag. You should feel either a benefit or a drawback to your point. Yeah. And if somebody has a lot of cellular inflammation, it doesn’t matter how many supplements they take, right Mindy? It’s like if those supplements are not getting into the cell, right? They’re not going to get well. So that goes back to like the foundation’s right. If you’re not fixing your cells, these supplements have no role, they have no place. Unless you’re looking at the fundamentals right, they’re there to supplement the fundamentals to your point, because if you have too much inflammation doesn’t matter. If we’re spending 700 bucks on supplements like I did when I was five, six years ago, maybe I had eight silver fillings in a moldy home spending 500 bucks a month on supplements, I didn’t feel a damn thing. Because I had too much inflammation and it wasn’t till I dropped that, then I started to benefit from the supplements.

Dr. Mindy  25:31  

So are there certain supplements that you’re like, I definitely need to take these on a regular basis. Are there any that you that you do consistently

Ben Azadi  25:38  

magnesium, like I mentioned, so some form of magnesium? When I have my what I call keto flex days, higher carb days. Yeah, I like taking something that helps with the postprandial glucose, so like apple cider vinegar.

Dr. Mindy  25:48  

afterwards?

Ben Azadi  25:50  

I’ll do before before Yeah, I’ll do the apple cider vinegar before like a die hydro Berberian. If I’m going to do a very high carb, okay. Not all the time, though. Sometimes I’ll just eat the carbs. I’ve got health is a big, it’s in there. And then something that’s going to support the membranes whether it’s like, you know, I don’t want to mention too many products. But you know, the supplements out there that support membrane health, plant based omega or some sort of healthy fat? Yeah. What about you?

Dr. Mindy  26:12  

Yeah, so I’m trying to I’m working on bringing my vitamin D up. So I’m doing vitamin D every day. I do ion biome to Miami.

Unknown Speaker  26:19  

Yeah, right.

Dr. Mindy  26:22  

Maybe that’s the problem. California has had so much right now. Right? Yeah, maybe that’s it, I need to walk around in my tank top. Over I’ll work on that next year. But then I on biome, for sure. And then I would say the other one that I’m really working playing with are both minerals and aminos. And the reason that I’m playing with those two is that they’re precursors to not only make hormones, but they’re precursors to make neurotransmitters. And you’ve heard me talk a little bit about this. My my new passion of of research is understanding that as women lose our sex hormones, those are precursors for dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and glutamate, and even acetylcholine, which is important for cognition. So if I’ve already lost as a 53 year old woman, I’ve already lost these precursors, these hormones are going down. And I want to keep my moods up. So I need to be able to keep these neurotransmitters at their best, then I better make sure I keep my aminos and my mineral salts. And so I’ve really dove into those two as as nutrients for me right now. I’ve got a mate, if you came into my kitchen right now, most of the supplements I’m working with are high in aminos. Or they’re high in minerals. I love it and just playing with that, because I don’t want to lose my neurotransmitters.

Ben Azadi  27:40  

Yeah, plus, I mean, the minerals are so important for building lean muscle and rice. Most people, not just women, but I’ve seen people in my group that don’t get enough protein, or necrotic. protein deficiency. Yeah, so just covering the bases with those aminos is a good idea.

Dr. Mindy  27:54  

Do you? Do you get a pound a gram of protein per pound of body weight and you every day?

Ben Azadi  27:59  

No, I don’t. Is that like, Are you saying that like facetiously

Dr. Mindy  28:03  

that’s posted? That’s like the formula for protein is actually a pound to a pound and a half a gram to a gram and a half of protein for every pound of body weight that you want to be.

Ben Azadi  28:15  

Yeah, right. So that’s what I tell my students, so one gram of protein per pound of your ideal body weight. So I’m on my ideal body weight just at 180 pounds. So I don’t get that every day. But I’m okay with that. Because it’s okay to be in a protein deficiency and get more autonomy, you know, that’s right. So, but I tell my students, most days, you want to aim to get that. But if you’re not, if you’re having trouble, because you feel like it’s just too much protein, some people don’t have enough stomach acid, it sits in their gut, right? Make sure you’re taking some essential aminos to fill in those gaps. And so you get there, but what do you what do you

Dr. Mindy  28:44  

Yeah, I mean, it’s a dilemma, because I will tell you again, as a 53 year old woman, I’m really working on muscle and increasing muscle, you know, as you move through menopause, and that switch of production of sex hormones goes to the adrenal glands. If the adrenal glands are overworking which mine were in my 40s, I’m, again back to the mindfulness comment, then all of a sudden, the adrenals will start to break muscle down to get the nutrients they need to get those amino acids. So a big thing I noticed throughout most of my 40s is how hard it was to build muscle, and how hard it will add how much I’ve lost muscle. And yet I was doing keto. I was fasting. I was I was paleo for a long time, was doing all the right things. So what I’ve been doing now is really going in with protein cycling, so not every day, but I tried to do 30 grams of protein and then a couple hours later, I’ll do another 30 grams, another 30 grams. I’ll do that maybe three to four days a week. And then I’m doing a ton of aminos trying to keep that muscle up. And and it’s working. I feel like I’m back at 53 gaining muscle again. But it took that a little bit of effort and I’m Really protein forward right now a lot of protein forward,

Ben Azadi  30:04  

animal animal based animal based. The difference between that and plant that Yeah, yeah, I love that Me too. I’m really big on it too. And it is a dilemma because, yeah, there’s fasting of course there’s time for autophagy. But that certain situation and age, it’s important to get those protein ratio. Yeah. So I’m with you on that. It’s

Dr. Mindy  30:20  

very intentional eating. Yes. Like, if you ever tried like, I’m curious on that your 180 gram day. Are you like? Are you working hard to get that? Yeah,

Ben Azadi  30:29  

yeah. Yeah, steaks, eggs, protein shakes, beef sticks, like whenever I can do to get there. And if I fall short, then I’ll take the aminos to fill in the gap there.

Dr. Mindy  30:39  

That’s exactly. And so then the other piece of research that I saw was that somewhere between 30 grams of protein and 90 grams of protein is where you is the sweet spot for turning that protein into pure amino acids. Yeah. But then once we go over 90, it actually you’re you risk turning into glucose. Oh, interesting. And so if you’re trying to stay lean and not gain weight, you you need the 30 grams to trigger the amino acid receptor site in muscles. But you don’t want to go over 90, because you don’t want it to turn to glucose, and then it’s going to impede your weight loss.

Ben Azadi  31:14  

When you say over 90, is that in a single meal? One meal? Okay, got it. Yeah, that makes sense. That’s hard to do for for most people, right. I mean, I could probably do, I don’t

Dr. Mindy  31:23  

know, I’d be interested to find out what, I don’t know, a big steak. So again, this is where I find it hard for people. Yeah, like a 16

Ben Azadi  31:29  

ounce how much protein is Yeah, I would venture to guess it’s like, let’s look it up right now.

Dr. Mindy  31:33  

Because here’s, here’s my thought, if you’re gonna go 180 grams of protein in a day, and you’re fasting Windows only eight hours, and you want to combine that with protein cycling, there’s going to be one of those meals, you’re gonna butt up against the possibility that you over you went too much protein, and now it’s turned to glucose. So that’s where it’s come up in questions is in that regard?

Ben Azadi  32:00  

Yeah. Well, I was trying to pull up my chronometer, but I’m not logged in. But let me see if I can pull it up

Dr. Mindy  32:04  

here. So this is where as you’re pulling this up, I’ll tell you a couple of hacks that I’ve done. Is this is where I like dry jerkies and dried potatoes. Yeah, recall, like, because it’s you’re taking a steak that has been condensed, it’s easier to get in. So then if so for me, the weight I want to be is 130. So if I have a shorter eating window, and I need to get 130 grams of protein in, but I don’t want to take one meal and dip it over into this 90 grams, then, you know, some beef jerky or turkey jerky. Yeah. fills in the gaps better than even a protein powder does. Yeah, because

Ben Azadi  32:41  

at least you’re chewing on it. Yeah, the protein powders are already kind of masticated free. That’s right. That’s right, which is a big difference. Yeah. Okay, so I’m putting in 16 ounces of a ribeye. And that’s something give me that’s gonna give me

Dr. Mindy Pelz  32:55  

my favorite steak, by the way, me too.

Ben Azadi  32:59  

121 grams of protein. So interesting.

Dr. Mindy  33:02  

1616,

Ben Azadi  33:04  

which is a big steak. Yeah, I could do it, though. But it’s going over that 90 gram threshold, that will be converted to glucose gluconeogenesis. So that’s something to consider there. And I’m sure that’s different based off of different, like, human sizes.

Dr. Mindy  33:17  

That’s the only thing I so I need to go back and find the original study and see if I can tell what the what the you know, was it men? Was it women? You know, a lot of times we don’t know, what was the size of these individuals? That’s what I’m curious. Yeah. But the study showed that protein cycling every anywhere between 30 to 90 grams of protein every two to three hours is the best way to stimulate mTOR. But once you go over 90 grams, you’re now going to have extra glucose that’s going to be turned into sugar. Yeah. So you got that’s the sweet spot. But it needs to be dosed out every couple hours to get the best muscle building effect,

Ben Azadi  33:50  

like the bodybuilders, right? every two to three hours, but very much long term. Not good, but short term. Really? That’s right. That’s right. All right. Last, what’s the last thing you want to talk about?

Dr. Mindy  33:59  

Let’s talk about one of the things we talked about today. And this is something that’s been really burning on my heart, because I feel like I always want to make the information you and I put out there easy to apply. And so I realized recently that a lot of times when we quote these studies, when we look at the biohacking world, we’ve overcomplicated that now so just that we could turn around and say, oh my god, the the conventional healthcare system is so complicated, but now we’re complicating the natural health care system and the biohacking world. And so I’ve come to this belief that we have to come back to simplicity. Let me give an example. If you want to get into ketosis, your best way to get into ketosis is start fasting food, eat food. Yeah, just start fasting like that way. You don’t have to count macros. You don’t have to think of you don’t have to go get all the prepackaged keto food. I’m not saying that that’s bad. It’s just a little more complicated. So let’s just start compressing your eating window and leaving longer time for fasting and see if you can get into ketosis. And then with that, how about instead of counting macros can we just say, I’m just going to switch to nature’s carbs. And I feel like if we could come back to those simple explanations for what you and I teach, now we can really get the whole world to do it. But the minute you’ve got to have some special, you know, even MCT, MCT oil, or some special, you know, supplement or some special keto product to get into ketosis, we’ve now made it as complicated as the healthcare system is when they say, here’s here’s a, an antibiotic that will help fight bacteria. And it’s still taking the power away from the body. Yeah. So what are your thoughts on that?

Ben Azadi  35:44  

It’s a fair point. You know, I love the slide you showed today about an apple and then all the processed food. It’s like, I just want a damn apple. I just

Dr. Mindy  35:51  

want an apple. And now the Apple has a label on what the code is on the Apple to be able to understand if it’s right for me,

Ben Azadi  35:59  

times have changed. It’s crazy. I’ve been thinking about the Keto thing for a while. The question that Dr. Pump actually asked me last month was the first time I ever was asked this question with keto, you said, you think keto is hurting more people than helping them? And I had to stop and think about it. Maybe three years ago, I would have had a different answer. But I told them, actually, I think it is hurting more people than it is helping them because of the confusion because of people, you know, getting bad information, staying in it too long, or whatever it is all the things that we teach not to do. Yeah, but it’s not that complicated. It’s a metabolic process. It’s not about this supplement, or that diet or this macro. Now that can help. And if somebody wants to go down that route, we can teach them that way. But your point to the masses is just like it’s it’s not complicated. There’s nothing new about keto, right, it’s just nuanced. And people are making it more nuanced, but it’s simply a metabolic process, right? And hey, if you want to get into ketosis, go and do a 16 hour fast, and you’ll probably get there right? And you don’t have to spend any money. You don’t have to spend money, maybe just take some solar electrolytes or whatever, but just salt, salt water. So I agree with you, you know, we’re making it complicated. And it’s not what we want to do if somebody is going from a very complicated sick care system, and they come into our world. We want to make it approachable. I want to make an easel easy for them to do it. And practicals to where I’m looking for, like usable, usable is the thing we’re creating,

Unknown Speaker  37:20  

because if it’s gonna make it easy, it’s got to be easel. I love that world.

Dr. Mindy  37:27  

But but we overcomplicate everything. And this is, you know, this is again, the thing about the biohacking space that I’ve been thinking a lot about is like, now we have to have red light, because we’re not getting seen sunrise and sunset. And now we have to get in cold plunges and saunas, because we walk into a room and we put the temperature at the comfort the comfort level for ourselves. And now we have to have all these like strategies to be able to just fall asleep, and we got to track it. So we can know if we’re in deep sleep, or we’re in REM sleep, so

Speaker 3  37:57  

we can know if our day should be good or not. That’s right. We get up the next morning. And we’re like, okay,

Dr. Mindy  38:02  

wearable, tell me what my day should be like, how should I exercise. And as much as I love all these things, and they’re so necessary in this modern world, I fear that that is now getting too complicated. And now and too expensive. And now we are going to take the average person and we’re gonna make it so now the ketogenic lifestyle is become something they can’t touch. And that’s why I love what you and I did today is because I feel like we brought it back to simplicity.

Ben Azadi  38:29  

Yeah, so it was wonderful. Cool. It was it was beautiful Monday, I loved it. I enjoyed it. And the mission that you have to educate people on fasting, this ancient healing strategy, again, nothing new about it. Everybody’s done it forever. And it’s free, you save money. And the reality of it, some people can’t afford cannot afford a some supplements, they cannot afford organic grass fed, but when they start practicing fasting, you save money. And you mentioned you save time, you’re right. So you could apply some of that to buy healthier food and just do the best you can with your resources. So it’s such a powerful tool.

Dr. Mindy  39:03  

It’s an incredible tool. Yeah. Okay, I have to ask you a question that I’ve been asked. I asked all my guests on my podcast, even though I know this will go back out or this will go out on both of our podcasts. But I’m cute. I don’t think I’ve asked you this. I have a

Ben Azadi  39:15  

question for you, too. Oh.

Dr. Mindy  39:18  

Okay, so what’s your Do you have a daily self love practice, that you just give back to yourself and nurture yourself? And if there was one superpower you had that you bring to the world? What do you think it is?

Ben Azadi  39:29  

I love those two questions. I love them. So daily self love. Absolutely every single day. So it happens in many forms. Number one, first thing I do in my nightstand. I have a pad and I’ll write down gratitude and that’s a form of self love, but grateful about things about myself like my health, my healthy brain. My healthy vision, like I have good vision. So I’ll acknowledge the things that I love about myself and my health. And then when I’m walking my dog every morning getting morning sunlight, not red light, but sunlight. I do that for me. Shouldn’t I love myself, I’m healthy. I’m healing and I do it for about 20 minutes throughout the whole walk. And it’s funny because I walked with my fiance, but we don’t talk to each other. We’re both doing these affirmations together in our heads and walking the dog sometimes just start a conversation on like, I’m doing my affirmation. Affirmation so and then I have it sprinkled throughout the day where you know, I’ll take some breaks and go to my rooftop, watch the sunset, relax and you know, read books. So that’s my variation of self love. And then the second question was superpower,

Dr. Mindy  40:29  

right? Yeah. superpower,

Ben Azadi  40:30  

it would be the ability to absorb information. And how do I want to record this the ability to get through like books rapidly and really comprehend and absorb the information so I can apply it quicker?

Dr. Mindy  40:45  

Oh, you are? That is definitely a superpower. I’ve seen you do that? No, no, the way you soak up information, then turn around and you’re able to say it in a very simple way.

Ben Azadi  40:53  

Thank you. Mindy is impressed. I want that like type 200. Right. Amazing. I want to ask you the same question. Same to and then I have another final question for you. Okay, self love, and super

Dr. Mindy  41:03  

well. So myself love. I’ve totally changed my whole morning practice. Now I actually get up and I spend two hours doing a variety of things. I have my hyperbaric oxygen I get in. I do breath work. Now I have a really cool app I’ve been using called other ships. I’ve interviewed him. Amazing. Love that app. So I do that. I spent 20 minutes thinking of all the things that I’m grateful for. And then I have a posse of people that are like my, my, you know, my people that lift me up. And yeah, and so I box them in the morning, I we send messages back and forth. And it’s just, it’s just beautiful. So that’s how I start my day very slow and intentional and giving back to myself. You know, I think I think my superpower is very much like yours. I think I had a learning disability as a child. I couldn’t take in information the way that I wanted to, I felt like the dumbest person in the class. And so I realized that I came up with some strategies to be able to pull information in and remember it and then be able to make it simple as it’s coming out. So like I hear people with fastonic A girl tell me, oh my god, it’s so easy to read. And I went, I interpret that as your Lin learning disability that you’ve had your whole life is now actually turning into a superpower. And that’s something I took me to 53 to really acknowledge Wow,

Ben Azadi  42:25  

that’s amazing. You do a really good job at that. Yeah, storytelling analogies breaking down the science because it’s it can be so complicated for people. So you, you cut through all that for you do a really great job at that. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. Last question is about vitamin G. So my audience knows the vitamin G is all about gratitude. What are you grateful for right now? Mindy, what’s your vitamin G?

Dr. Mindy  42:46  

Okay, well, in today in this? So yeah, the first thing I would tell you is we have a whole new lifestyle that my husband and I are living. You know, we’re empty nesters where, you know, I don’t have the clinic anymore. And we’re traveling all over the world doing things like here we are, you know, in Austin having working technically or working. I’m so grateful for this life. I’m, I love this. Like I have moments where I’m like, I You couldn’t have told me five years ago that life could be this good. I had no idea. It could be this good. When I was dreaming, I did not know this moment will be as sweet as it is. And that I’m just really grateful for that.

Ben Azadi  43:27  

That’s amazing. And it’s so well deserved. And it’s just the beginning. Yeah, it really is the best it’s coming. This is I always say 100% left to go. It’s like day one. Today is day one. And it’s been beautiful to watch you grow and shine. You inspire me all the time, Wendy. Thank you. I love it. So for those listening on my podcast, the Keto camp podcast, go subscribe to the resetter podcast. She’s got an amazing podcast and listen to it all the time. And your YouTube channel, which is Dr. Mindy Pelz. And we also have a recenter podcasts on YouTube as well. So we’ll put all that down below. So everybody go check out. Our audience loves Mindy,

Dr. Mindy  44:02  

thank you and vice versa. I when I was doing my book signing yesterday, so many people came up and they’re like, I’m a Keto camper. I’m a Keto camper. So I do think we are our information is very synergistic. So go follow the Keto camp podcast as well. And as always, Ben, I’m so grateful for you so grateful for you. Vitamin D I love and I love just doing this whole experience with you. So thank you for the amazing spirit that you are thank you maybe

Ben Azadi  44:26  

All right, that’s a wrap. That was great. So easy Mindy.

Dr. Mindy Pelz  44:29  

Okay, look at that.