Greg Voisen
Well, welcome back to Inside Personal Growth. This is Greg Voisen, the host of Inside Personal Growth. And I have an amazing young man on the other side of the screen. And for those you who are just listening, his name is Ryan Kennedy. And Ryan has a book out called. Well, I'm going to try and get it in for the screen “Beyond Nutrition”, subtitle, “The Ultimate Cookbook for a Healthier & Higher Quality Life, 110 recipes. My wife and I have been using this and I highly recommend it. Secondly, he was referred by a gentleman by the name of Beau Parfit that many of you know i co authored a book called the precipice of life with bow is an exceptional person, and an amazing mountain climber. And his coach is Ryan. And Ryan actually lives in Encinitas, which is where I live for all you listening. Ryan, how're you doing today?

Ryan Kennedy
Hello, Greg, thanks for having me on, brother.

Greg Voisen
Well, it's good for you. It's good having you on and it's also good, that we're gonna get this time to talk to my listeners about it, I'm gonna let him know a bit about you. He's a functional medicine practitioner, traditional naturopath and a board-certified clinical nutritionist who helps people improve their health, through lifestyle and dietary changes. He's passionate about educating his patients to make the proper modifications to the lifestyle to avoid Reave, void and reverse obesity, weight gain, depression, fatigue, digestive issues, hormone imbalances and chronic diseases. Unlike conventional medicine, Ryan doesn't address symptoms, but rather uses natural approaches to support and enhance your body's ability to heal. This is a holistic approach. And Ryan, we're gonna get right into it, because I got a lot of questions to ask you. And I'm sure my listeners are eager to understand more about how you approach this. So let's start off there. You say that there's more to achieving health than just focusing on food? And could you share the core philosophy, and how it shapes your approach, really, to wellness, because there isn't a person out there today that hasn't probably had a wellness app or isn't wearing an Apple Watch and counting their steps and their calories, or they've got a Fitbit or they've got something. But a lot of times that's not working in and of itself. So, I'd love your approach.

Ryan Kennedy
I look at health from a broad holistic lens, Greg. So, in addition to your nutrition, you know, the foods that you're consuming, you have your sleep show, I would argue is even more important than your nutrition. If you had a wave both side by side, really the bedrock to our health, you have movement and exercise, you have your environments, meaning like your lighting, the type of water, you're drinking, the type of air that you're breathing, all sorts of other things that impact our biology, you have stress and stress management, which is, you know, responsible stress is responsible for 80% of hospital visits. I mean, it's a huge, huge problem for our society today. And then you have lab testing, you have habits and routines throughout your day, you have mindset practices, I mean, there's health is really multifactorial. So while nutrition is a big pillar, and what you're putting into your body is huge. It's just one of several pillars that really comprise how you feel how you perform and how long you live.

Greg Voisen
Well, it's really a mind body spirit approach is what you're saying, and I liked the holistic approach you're taking. And as a functional medicine practitioner and your work, that's the approach that you take. And and the difference between the conventional thing is, is many people could go out there and say, Oh, well, you know, I'm pre diabetic. So let's go take some ozempic, which a lot of normal physicians might recommend at this time, or I need weight loss. Why don't you go take go low? What is it that you would do? Let's say somebody came to you, and they had a few i What is your process, I should say, for evaluating somebody once they come to you so that you can determine what to prescribe.

Ryan Kennedy
It really comes back to looking at their intake forms, you know, their initial health questionnaire, because that gives me a whole background of what their current diet is like what medications they're taking supplements, they're using a full symptom chart of all the things that they're experiencing as far as health challenges, their goals, their, you know, whole different whole gamut of data that I can utilize to start to paint this picture, Greg. And then I start out with functional medicine lab testing, so getting an idea of where their biomarkers are at and I use blood testing, you know, looking at hormones, lipids, metabolic panel, all these different things to assess They're inflammation and all these different markers. And then I also use a variety of other labs in my practice. So I really enjoy organic acids testing, heavy metal minerals, testing toxin panels, there's so much out there in terms of really great data that we can gather. That's non invasive, it's not terribly expensive. And it really provides us this insight of what's going on under the hood, which helps to guide my decisions of what this person should be focusing on. The reality is part of the art of health, Greg is deductive reasoning, right? It's trying to discern, there's 100 Different things this person could do that would help them, right, but I can't throw 100 things at you they want are gonna be like Ryan, I came to you for stress management. Now I'm more stressed out, man, like you're throwing all this stuff at me. And it's hard to digest. I'm overloaded with information. So part of my job is trying to discern what are the top three things that the person in front of me should focus on? At the beginning? What are the real low hanging fruit, what's really going to move the needle and start to build that momentum and start to create that positive change. So that over the course of time, we could sprinkle in new things week in, week out, month in month out, so that over the course of six months over the course of a year, we've transformed these 100 different changes. But it hasn't felt overwhelming because we're sprinkling a man, we're drip feeding these changes in a way that creates long term sustainable change. It doesn't overwhelm them. And it really translates to lifestyle modification more than just a short term program or diet or exercise program. It's really about how can we change the way that you live and you see health and your daily inputs and decisions to get you from point A to point B?

Greg Voisen
Well, it's actually changing habits and you know, it's a thing. Nutritional information is everywhere, it's rampid. On the internet, it's rampid by all kinds of people claiming to help you lose weight to make you stronger to do whatever. And what are some of the most common myths that you encounter out there? That from your vantage point as a functional medicine practitioner? What are really just misinformation that's out on the internet, and address a few of them for us if you would?

Ryan Kennedy
There's a lot of different things. And part of the challenge, Greg is that there's no one size fits all, when it comes to diet, we all have different goals, we have different body types, we have different genetic backgrounds and profiles. So what diet might work for you may not work for the next guy, and vice versa. And we all have different likes and preferences. So just because I put together the optimal nutrition plan on paper, doesn't mean it's something you're going to be able to sustainably implement to long term and still enjoy your life. Right? You want to have balance, you want to have this kind of delicate balance between enjoying your meals, because eating is one of the great pleasures of the human experience, while also feeling good and not clogging up your system and living a long, healthy, vibrant life. And so I think that some of the pervasive myths is that you got to do it this way, or you're doomed to fail. Because there's a lot of things that work and there's in there's, you know, the human body is very adaptable. The other thing is, a lot of diets are really driving at the same outcome. And there's just different paths to get there. And what I mean by that is there's really a few key pillars, few key fundamentals that are all these diets are trying to accomplish, which is one energy balance, you don't want to over consume calories, because that will create weight gain, whether you're following a vegan diet, a carnivore diet, a keto diet, a Mediterranean diet, if you're over consuming calories chronically, you are going to gain weight. It's just the laws of physics, right? And there's a lot of things that determine energy expenditure energy input. But all diets are really pointing to how can we create energy balance? How can we optimize for protein? No one is going to disagree that getting enough protein is essential for not just building muscle, but also proper metabolic function and brain function and a million other things. And then the last thing is enjoyment, sustainability. How can you eat this way, not for the next three months or the next year, but for the next many decades. And that's what really creates a lot of the strife in these diet cultures is people like different stuff. Some people like meat, some people don't. Some people like high fat some people don't some people like carbs, some people don't. So it's really about finding what's going to work well for you. And that's why this is a very challenging landscape to navigate because there's a lot of different people have a lot of different preferences.

Greg Voisen
Well, one of the things that I'm sure my listeners, everybody out there has seen a plethora of videos on is fasting and the the well intentioned fasting to actually help with weight loss because of the number of the time period in between. And or and let's talk about glucose and conduct in conjunction with this one's ability to kind of Ctrl that a one C because they are heavy to reduce it. And I think you know, even you, you do fasting. And I think it's important for people to realize that this is here, it's here to say it isn't just a fad. And it's something that you would HIGHLY advocate is that true

Ryan Kennedy
is true. I mean, there's a lot of different types of fasting. But humans have been doing some type of fasting for millennia, since the dawn of time. There's never been a culture throughout human evolution that is eaten food from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep 365 days a year. I mean, they just didn't have access. This was not by choice. You know, early hunter gatherers didn't fast because it was a fad, they fast because they didn't have food around. And so we've evolved to really thrive with having periods of a window between meals. And so this concept of what's called intermittent fasting is just compressing your eating window. Again, not eating around the clock, having some time in the morning, when you wake up before your first meal and having some time between your last meal and going to bed. Now, when it comes to intermittent fasting, Greg, I think most people aren't doing it sub optimally. And what I mean by that is they're backloading, they're eating window. So they're skipping breakfast, and they're fasting all day until 12, or one or 2pm. And then what they end up doing is they get home from work, they get, you know, their dinner ready. And then they end up eating dinner at seven, maybe even 8pm. Maybe they snack after dinner, and then they go to sleep shortly thereafter. Now, this is not optimizing the benefits of this compressed eating window. Humans are really designed to eat during the day. And this comes back to our circadian rhythm, our 24 hour biological clock, and all of our hormones and our gut bacteria in our digestive system. It's all primed for food during the day when the sun is out. And so I like to have people frontload, their intermittent fasting, where you focus on eating an early dinner, and having most of that fasting window take place between dinner, and go into sleep. And that way you optimize these benefits of cell rejuvenation and detox and gut repair and all these different things overnight while you're sleeping. Because when you try and do it in the morning, this you know you fast through the morning, this is when our body needs calories. That's when most of us are most people are very metabolically active. And the first half of the day they're exercising, they're working hard with their brain function with their career or their business. They're, they're moving and grooving right. And so that's when you need calories. And if you deprive your body of calories during that time, it tends to jack up your stress hormones, cortisol and norepinephrine. And that's not always a good thing, especially when done chronically. So my preferred eating window personally, is I'll have quote unquote, breakfast, sometime around nine, maybe 10am. And then I'll eat an early dinner at around three or 4pm. That's our price sounds crazy, because for most people, most cultures eating a 3pm dinner, it sounds absurd. But I will tell you what you feel fantastic. You have a nice long window between your last meal go into bed. And what ends up happening, if you eat very close before you go to sleep is your body's consuming all these energy all these calories, right before you have almost no energy expenditure, your frickin sleeping. And so what ends up happening is you store a lot of those calories as body fat, it disrupts your sleep quality, because your body's diverting resources towards breaking down that late night meal, instead of focusing on recovery and rejuvenation and repair. And then it ultimately creates this vicious cycle because then the next morning, you wake up, you don't feel as rested because you didn't sleep as well, because you went to bed with a full stomach, and all these other things. And so what I really like to focus on is the opposite. And by eating early, go into bed for five, even six hours after you've finished your last bite of food. You create the environments actually burn fat while you're sleeping, and your body gets optimal rest. And you feel amazing the next morning, and all these different things work better. And so it's really counterintuitive with how our schedules are, are structured for most people. Most people listening to this may not have the luxury of eating an early dinner like that, because they work till five or 6pm. Or maybe their kids and their their spouse aren't eating till six or 7pm. And they want to eat as a family. And I get that. And I don't encourage anyone to do it. I do encourage people to do what works for them. And so maybe that's eating an hour earlier, and you go take your dinner time from 7:30pm to 6:30pm. And that would be a huge win. And that's what I do with a lot of people I work with and that's what works for them if they aren't able to be much earlier than six o'clock. But the whole premise behind fasting is just having time where you're not ingesting food to allow this body your body to have this repair process take place. Now that's intermittent fasting. The next level to this is multi day fasting. And there's a whole variety of different things, everything from strict water fasting or all you're drinking his water to modified fasting, like Valter Longo is a is a scientist who came up with this whole fasting mimicking diet approach where you're consuming very low calories for four or five days at a time, which mimics a lot of the benefits of water fasting, but it's much safer in terms of keeping your electrolytes balanced. And maybe it's a lot easier to quite frankly, I developed my own modified fasting techniques for this. And there's a plethora of benefits for that as well. And so the whole world of fasting is is very interesting. And people see it as a fad, but it's spot as old as things get, man. So what are you seeing forever?

Greg Voisen
What are your thoughts on how fasting can positively affect? You know, there's this whole school out there about continuous glucose monitoring for a lot of people that are dealing with blood sugar issues, they're trying to control that, and they're trying to control it without medication. The other thing is the insulin. So when you fast, and you basically don't eat past four o'clock, and then not until 9am, again, are you actually able to kind of reset the your system so that you would have better production of the insulin and the glucose uptake?

Ryan Kennedy
I don't know if I use the word reset. But it certainly helps improve insulin sensitivity, because part of the challenge with people that have issues around blood sugar regulation is that they're getting these constant spikes and blood glucose and this constant secretion of insulin from their pancreas. And that desensitizes the cells, and it wears out your pancreas, and it creates this metabolic syndrome. And so by having periods of time you're not eating, it gives your body time to stabilize that blood sugar, not have to release copious amounts of insulin and improve this scenario, big time. And you know, from for the most part, fasting is one tool as part of many to accomplish this. The other thing I like to do with people that have high a one C or high fasting insulin is I like to just improve their nutrition. So eating less refined carbohydrates, less sugar, less starch, less refined grains, as well as less Omega six fats. Everyone looks at sugar as the big villain for this high, a one CD and this metabolic syndrome, and it is certainly fuel for the fire. But the other contributing factors high linoleic acid, which is found in vegetable oils, fried foods, even nuts and seeds, and pork and foods that people wouldn't think, spike your blood sugar, but can actually create that problem for a lot of folks, if they're eating too many Omega sixes, so like to improve their diet. And then there's also some very good herbs and supplements that can help with blood sugar regulation. So Berberine is one that's been shown to outperform Metformin, the diabetes drug in clinical trials, there's also bitter melon extract and email so that stray nutrients like Chromium, all of which help to stabilize your blood sugar. So one of my favorite products for this, Greg is a supplement called Biogen nema. That's a combination of a lot of these herbs and nutrients, I'm referring to that I've seen work wonders in helping people manage their blood sugar and their glycemic variability, support their pancreas, and ultimately reduce a reverse this, you know, pre diabetes or type two diabetes state they've gotten themselves into. Wow,

Greg Voisen
you gave some great suggestions there. And I think for our listeners, it's a good one, especially anybody who is having challenges with it. Where do you sit with relation to continuous glucose monitoring? You think it is great. You think that actually having one on to actually see what's happening during the day to your glucose? is valuable? Is it something that you would wear for a long time? Or is it something that you would say, Hey, I just put it on to get things organized before? Or do you see a lot of people wearing them for a long time?

Ryan Kennedy
Well, the truth is, with anything, what gets measured gets managed. And so by having that data and those analytics of seeing what foods are doing to your blood sugar, and having that real time feedback loop, saying, hey, when I ate this green bean casserole for dinner, my blood sugar went through the roof or when I write rice, my blood sugar spikes, but when I ate potatoes, my blood sugar is totally fine. If I have this particular protein bar, blood sugar is through the roof and it stays elevated for hours, fight this other brain, a protein bar, totally stable blood sugar. That type of feedback loop is fantastic for helping people fine tune their nutrition, see what their body's responding to. Because similarly to what I can describe with the different dietary approaches, Greg, different foods will despite the whole glycemic index, which is kind of set parameters that people can read up online. Different foods will impact your blood sugar differently. The mind a guy named Rob Wolfe wrote about this in his book wired to eat now by a decade ago, where he took two groups and he measured their blood sugar response between eating a banana and eating a chocolate chip cookie. Now most people would think that chocolate chip cookie jacks up everyone's blood sugar, way more than the banana. But that wasn't actually the case. When he found is that depending on the person, some people had some bigger blood sugar spike from the banana, and then the cookie, which is crazy when you mean you think about it. And so what it goes to say is that continuous glucose monitors can be a very useful tool, I don't find people need to wear them indefinitely, they aren't the most convenient thing, you know, because you got to prick your arm and stick it on there and put it somewhere on your body. And then you have to replace it every two weeks. And they're not exactly the cheapest things if you're paying out of pocket for them. And so I think that within a month or two, you can gather enough data in a feedback loops to know what you should be eating versus avoiding and see what impacting your blood sugar, what's not. And that's really useful. Same thing with tracking your sleep, I'm wearing what's called an ordering. This helps me to know what is impacting my REM sleep cycles, my deep sleep cycles, my my latency, my wakeups. So I can manipulate different factors. I could try this form of magnesium before bed or take this type of Lion's Mane mushroom. And rather than just saying, Well, I think it worked, I slept pretty good. I keep using it, I can actually see the data, I can say, hey, when I took this particular amino acid called five HTP, which is great for deep sleep, my deep sleep boost 50% from my normal my normal values. Clearly it's helping or maybe I take something else. And I'm like, Hey, why don't I take this L theanine? My sleep is exactly the same with or without it. I don't think I'm going to keep spending my money on L theanine, you know, so there's a lot of cool ways that we can actually track these biometrics to help guide our decisions of what we should be focusing our time and energy and resources on versus what's not really moving the needle?

Greg Voisen
Well, you're you're much an advocate for the aura ring, you're wearing it obviously, personally, yourself. And I think there are other devices out there as well. But I don't think they do near the job that the or ring does, because you know, it's like, Hey, I have my Apple watch, I can see this the sleep, but I can't see to the degree that you are, and then actually getting the recommended supplements to improve that. Because what happens is, you mentioned it right at the beginning of this podcast, that stress was a major concern, lack of sleep, actually in correlation to that creates that additional stress factor, right. So the two kind of go core they correlate with one another. What are you just mentioned a few supplements that people can take to improve sleep? I know for a long time melatonin was recommended to help people with with sleep. What is the one and I know it's different for everybody. But what are the two or three supplements that you really see being used mostly for sleep helping people with deeper sleep.

Ryan Kennedy
I would say lifestyle modification is the number one thing people should focus on. You know, if you're not getting morning sun upon waking and getting outside, when the sun is at a low solar angle, you're not powering down devices before bed, keeping your room cool, keeping room dark, doing a lot of the basic fundamentals, you could buy all the supplements under the sun, they're only going to help you so much, right? That's more of the icing on the cake. So I encourage people to really focus on eating an early dinner, not viewing screens right before bed and bright whites trying to adopt the lifestyle practices first. And then when they do turn to supplements. A few of my top picks that I've seen work best in clinical practice. One is called GABA to calming amino acid that can really help to quiet down racing mind and racing thoughts help you fall asleep or stay asleep and improve your sleep quality, very inexpensive, get some form of GABA on Amazon. I like a brand called Thorn. And that is something that I see work with a lot of people very well, especially the entrepreneurs and type a driven individuals I work with that have just a lot going on in their heads. They're thinking about business ideas and projects and all sorts of deadlines. And that stuff can keep you up at night can also cause you to wake up at one or 2am and your mind is racing and you can't fall back asleep. So GABA can really help with that. The next on the list would be magnesium, I find magnesium being our body's master mineral really helps with stress regulation. It's hard to get enough of it through our diets alone. And it has a multitude of other benefits beyond helping with sleep. Sure, it's great for recovery. Sure, it's both for sleep quality, but it's also helpful for million other things. And so that's why it's also at the top of my list. I like a brand called Mother Earth labs that makes magnesium that contains all seven bioactive forms. So it has magnesium glycinate, magnesium, malate, magnesium citrate, all these really good different forms of magnesium that work kind of differently from each other. And then it has a couple of cofactors that help with absorption like humic and fulvic acid and zinc and a couple other things. So that's one of my top picks as far as to have great sleep supplements. From there. There's a number of other things that can help and I can rattle off 10 options, but

Greg Voisen
well, they can come and they can go to your website and we're going to put link to your website to get in touch with you for console. You certainly can do that. And I think one of the things that I know I came to your house with Bo, we pushed some weights for a while, we got in the sauna, we took a shower, we got out of a sauna, and we got back in there. And that is the sense of kind of a detox to a degree. In other words, you go in, that's on a detox, a lot of people will, as you call it, they'll actually do detox diets. Where do you said as a functional medicine practitioner on the complete detox diet, and well, let's just talk it. We haven't even gotten into meditation, and yoga and all the other things that would be great for people to do. But speak with us if you would about where you would be with the things that people can detox that are good for them.

Ryan Kennedy
The first thing I'd suggest when it comes to nutrition is looking at not bringing more toxins into your body. Okay, so eating a bunch of glyphosate ridden grains, you know, conventional wheat sprayed with all sorts of pesticide residue, this is just going to create more problems. Same thing with a lot of processed food and industrial seed oils, all these foods that we know we should avoid. Well, you could be having your celery juice in the morning eating a high protein diet, which is really helpful for phase one and phase two, liver detox, doing a lot of the right things as far as what you're consuming, but what most people should be focused on is not adding more, but what is the problem I need to reduce? What are the things that I should eliminate, that are causing me to slow down my progress that are really like making this an uphill battle? You mentioned sauna, which is the most well studied way of detoxification. And that's, you know, really well documented that we preferentially excrete toxins to our skin to our sweat over other pathways of detoxification. Another thing is our bowel movements. A lot of people have mild or moderate constipation, where they're only having a bowel movement every two or three days, that's a big problem. That's how you eliminate a lot of waste. So you need to make sure that your digestive system is working properly, and your gut bacteria and microbiome or are not, you don't have imbalances that are causing your digestive system to clog up. Because that's a huge issue for a lot of folks. And then environments, you know, making sure you don't have any mold or mycotoxin exposure, making sure you're drinking filtered or purified water. Same thing with air right in your home and your environments, you know, live right next to a freeway or have, you know a bunch of building materials from a brand new renovation that are just outgassing from vinyl laminate flooring, and all these different construction materials that contain all these toxins, you know, that are really pernicious to our health. So that's another big component to this. Sleep is very helpful getting adequate sleep because we detoxify a lot as we're sleeping. So and then I can't leave water off the list. You know, hydration is imperative. I really liked the saying that nature solution to pollution is dilution, right? We need to hydrate we needed to drink enough water to flush everything through. And then there's

Greg Voisen
so many people are dehydrated, if you actually did a blood test on him, it would it would be there. Now the the foods that you have in beyond nutrition, these 110 My wife and I have been using your cookbook regularly now. And actually, she's been cooking out of it. And one I want to thank you for that book again. What are some of the, you know, a lot of people that are out there on the go, they gotta make things quick. You have all these companies now that are sending box food to them to go do what they've got to do. As you said they're entrepreneurs, they got tiempo, south, things to do for you. What's a typical day like in the nutrition out of things that's in your cookbook, that are are things that people can make relatively quickly, are very highly high in nutrition, and can actually help them keep maintain a healthy lifestyle and the balance that you talked about?

Ryan Kennedy
Start with breakfast. I think having a smoothie protein smoothie for breakfast is incredible. Because it's very easy on your digestive system. It doesn't bog down your energy and mental focus, you know, you get all these great nutrition in less than five minutes to prepare. So I like to use a base of frozen organic blueberries, you could use other fruits if you'd like. I like to add in some peeled cucumber or some some raw baby carrots or some vegetable sources. I don't I'm not a big fan of bunch of spinach and kale and leafy greens because of the oxalate load and some of the anti nutrients and those foods and then putting a good quality protein powder whether it's a grass fed whey or plant based or collagen protein, lots of options you can incorporate all liquify with little coconut milk. Sometimes I'll add a little cod liver oil or MCT oil if you want some extra fats, maybe half an avocado and that will create an awesome breakfast that you can up In one of those insulated thermoses, those water bottles, Greg, and just sit on it throughout the morning, you know, and you get this slow bleed in nutrition doesn't overwhelm your gut. The reason a lot of people like skipping breakfast is because when they eat normal breakfast foods, which are really just desserts like pancakes and muffins and all this nonsense, they feel like trash an hour or two later. And it makes sense. You're jacking up your blood sugar, and you're putting all this inflammatory crap into your body. So they skip breakfast entirely. They're like, Oh, my gosh, I feel better. You know, I don't have all this, you know, junk food going into my system? What do you know? Well, I would say what would be an even notch up than that is getting a nutritious breakfast that's easy to digest and contains a lot of the micronutrients and amino acids that your brain and body needs.

Greg Voisen
So that's what Ryan does it nine o'clock. Now, let's say nine o'clock because you have a regular exercise routine, which is pretty strenuous to most people. What do you eat lunch at noon? Do you have something at one o'clock? And then do you eat again at four o'clock? And if you do, what are you eating at one o'clock in between your workout?

Ryan Kennedy
Yeah, I really like seafood. I find fishing and it's easier proteins to break down and like a steak or you know, heavy meat source. So I'll either do some mahimahi like it'll make up some CDJ. For the week and a half that sometimes I'll do like a salmon salad or I'll get this wild caught canned salmon, mash it up with a fork and add in some mustards and pickles, but a bit of primal kitchen male, just like you would a tuna salad, but salmon just being lowered and heavy metals and a healthier seafood source than tuna. Sometimes I'll do Canis sardines, sometimes it will skip lunch, especially if I have a busy day. And I'll work all the way through dinner and you don't feel totally fine. So it kind of depends, like you said, Greg on how much activity I'm doing that morning, what my schedule is like, but I would say most days, I do have a lunch. And that would be pretty typical choice for me would be something protein, high protein, seafood, seafood based and pretty low in carbohydrates, again, to keep my blood sugar stable. And then dinner is where I like to carb load. That's where I'll replenish most of my carbohydrates for the day. And this allows you to have good stable blood sugar, good focus, good mental clarity throughout the day. And then with dinner is where I'll have some low inflammatory carbs. That could be some sweet potatoes or regular potatoes. That could be some white rice. That could be some organic corn tortillas, making like some some tacos of some sort, a whole variety of different options that I think are really clean sources of carbs. And that's where I'll also incorporate heavier protein. So I might have some grass fed meat, whether it be bison or ground beef or lamb. I might do some chicken or some poultry, you know, do some turkey, we really depends on the day. But that's kind of what I'm thinking through as far as like the typical flow for what I'm eating.

Greg Voisen
It's a good, it's always good to know from the source itself that, you know, this is how I do it. And I think a lot of people do that. I want to remind my listeners that you can go to Ryan Kennedy health.com Brian Kennedy health.com. And he and I were just talking about sleep, he has his own podcast show. And he recently did podcast 122. With guest Molly Eastman. There you can learn more about the art of mastering the art of sleep. That's one of Ryan's recent podcasts. But he's got a whole plethora of podcasts on longevity and performance and maximizing your health. And do subscribe to it. I'm going to say to all of my listeners, go to the Ryan Kennedy show. There. There's 122 podcasts so far. He's got a long way to catch up with me. But he's getting there. So, Ryan, finally, because they know from a standpoint of time, we're kind of running out of it. But how would you help tell people in general to I don't want to say look at their diet and their nutrition and their lifestyle. And then after they've kind of read your book or gone to your website. What is it that you do this are a form they're out there, they can get lab testing from you, they can get the book, but they really would sign up as a client to use your services, correct. I mean,

Ryan Kennedy
if they want to, you definitely don't need to it just depends on what degree of support people are looking for. So I'd say the majority of students and patients I work with go into my men's program, or my women's program, which is contains 10 comprehensive master classes and protocols and downloads and kind of learn at your own pace situation. And then I have office hours every week. group coaching calls are people come in and ask questions and bring their lab results and get feedback and all sorts of good stuff. And so that's where I work with a lot of people some more of a group community capacity. And then I do see patients one on one, you know and offer private consulting but a lot of people to your point great or can educate themselves with podcast books, all sorts of other free material that org.

Greg Voisen
And that program met men's and our women's health optimization program, give my listeners an idea of what it is to get involved in that program and the cost to them.

Ryan Kennedy
So as far as the programs go, you can read up all the details on the website, you know, and it's, it's like I said, it's 10 masterclasses really the the What the Why and how geared towards simplicity and instant implementation. I have a weekly call office hours where I answer people's questions check in on accountability, I have a community layer for additional accountability and to support relationship building. And it really covers the ADHD of health, you know, dive into fundamental principles and mindset to kick it off, and then go into mastering your routines with your morning and evening practices and sleep and energy optimization. Dive into the fasting and meal timing and optimal hydration stuff we touched on today. Nutrition mastery, movement and exercise diving into fitness protocols and weight training and interval training and all these different workout routines. I do deep dive into hormones, stress management's supplementation, environments and detoxification and then all sorts of stuff on biohacking longevity advanced lifestyle practices, so they can go learn all about it there. And as far as the costs and

Greg Voisen
and are they are they pre recorded and then you do the coaching sessions. Is it like a synchronistic? synchronistic? Is everything a synchronistic? Meaning it's already been pre recorded, and then they come into a class to talk to you or is everything synchronistic

Ryan Kennedy
everything's pre recorded, ready for them to view they can go at their own pace. And then they come every week and you know, get customized coaching and feedback and answer any questions and all that on those live calls. Well,

Greg Voisen
they also you also have lab testing there. So people can check out that I definitely would encourage them to get a copy of this book. Anything you want to leave the listeners with with relation to diet, nutrition exercise, the mind body spirit connection that we are helping them make and your functional medicine practice and how you might be able to assist them if they're having a challenge in one area of their life.

Ryan Kennedy
Appreciate asking Greg and having me on the show today. Man, I think people the main key domino people can focus on is really figuring out what's holding them back. Like you said, it's not access to information ever, you know, we have more information at our fingertips than ever before. Yeah. And, you know, what I've discovered through my work of what holds people back in terms of making effective long term changes, whether it's weight loss, muscle gain, improving their, you know, digestion or sleep, their energy, whatever it is, the real reason is a combination. One is lacking detailed guidance, it's one thing to come on here is a more protein and, you know, reduce your calories and, you know, make these simple changes. But that's very different, Greg than saying, Here's a detailed protocol, here's the exact step by step playbook, of what I'm going to be eating, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, how much of it, what ingredients to buy, what recipes to prepare, how to do this in a time efficient manner, what meal prep services are going to be best for systematizing. And automating this process. Due to it's completely different. So I think the detailed guidance is a big component to that. The accountability is also huge, we lie to ourselves with alarming regularity. And for most people, they say they're going to do something, they don't do it. And then the process repeats, and they lose faith in their own words in themselves. And so by having someone to keep you accountable, external to yourself makes a world of difference when it comes to behavior change. And then last thing is the mindset, the identity. Most people think they struggle with their habits and their routines because they're too busy or too tired or a million other reasons. But the real reason is that they don't identify with a healthy person, they don't identify as someone that makes these choices and does these actions day in and day out. And there's a lot of self sabotage and other things that come into play with the mental and emotional baggage we carry around with us. And so one of the techniques I developed for this is a Holotropic breathwork modality that really helps to flip the script really helps to dive into the subconscious and rework some of these patterns and rewrite some of these narratives that we tell ourselves. That's amazing for behavior change. And so those are really some key components that I think people should explore is not just reading more books, listening to more podcasts all that's great and informing yourself and staying educated, amazing place to start. But if you've been educating yourself for months or years, and you're still in the same place, you're not taking action and actually making material change in your life. I encourage you to explore these other avenues that I think can really help people tap in and make the necessary changes they need. I

Greg Voisen
think you just pointed out in the last three minutes, some of the things that are really preventing people from doing it, and one of the things I would say is getting in touch with that subconscious mind knowing how you've reprogrammed it. And your somatic breathing techniques are really, really positive way for people to do that. Ryan, I think if Bo Parfitt recommends you, somebody who can climb all the highest seven summits in the world, that everybody else out there, including myself, should get a board with Ryan. Ryan, I just want to thank you for being on the show. spending a few minutes with our listeners and giving them some guidance, some tips and go out and get a copy of this book. This is kind of a this could be your intro into it, Beyond nutrition Ryan's cookbook. Thanks so much for being on Inside Personal Growth. Namaste to you. Appreciate it so much.