Kevin: 1:04

Hey friends, today's episode is a big one because what I'm about to share shocked even me. And honestly, it should shock every American. According to recent cardiometabolic research, more than 90% of American adults have some level of metabolic dysfunction. Let that sink in. That means the vast majority of adults are experiencing metabolic problems, and most have no idea what metabolic dysfunction even is, let alone how to identify or address it. And here's the part that really hits home. I became one of them. This might surprise you because on paper, I'm the picture of health. I cut out refined sugar in August of 2024. I went dry from alcohol in January of 2024 and haven't had a drink since. I work with a naturopath who optimizes my supplements based on my blood work. I eat a clean, high-protein diet. I train 90 minutes to two hours a day, six days a week. I have above average muscle mass and ultra-healthy body fat levels. I use a sauna and cold plunge regularly. Every day, for the past almost year, I was burning about 500 calories doing fasted cardio. Plus, I about six months ago started fasting for between 24 and 60 hours per week because I believed there were great, those were great for metabolic health. But every, by every traditional metric, I was doing everything right. And yet I was dealing with brain fog, low energy, mood shifts, and even my doctor couldn't explain it because everything looked perfect until I connected the dots. What I eventually discovered was that some of the very habits that the fitness world encourages, especially aggressive fasting and daily fasted cardio, can actually trigger metabolic stress in certain people. In my case, those habits pushed me into pre-diabetes, despite having an elite training routine and a super clean diet. And when you look at the big picture, this isn't surprising because metabolic dysfunction is driven by all kinds of pressures. Disrupted metabolic processes, altered biomarkers, excess body fat accumulation at the cellular level, even in lean people, increased visceral fat, chronic stress, poor recovery, hormonal imbalance, sleep disruptions, and yes, overly aggressive fasting routines. Even if everything looks good on the outside, things can be falling apart under the surface. And that's why it's so important for healthy, fit people to understand the known risk factors for metabolic dysfunction and type 2 diabetes, and why relying on the eye test or how you feel is not enough. Most people think these are the only risks: being overweight or obese, a sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition, high processed foods, high sugar intake, family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDL or good cholesterol, PCOS, smoking, being 45 or older, a history of gestational diabetes. But here's what most people, including many doctors, miss. These less obvious or hidden risk factors can affect people who even look healthy. High stress or cortisol elevation, overtraining combined with under-eating, chronic fasted training, extended fasting too frequently, low sleep quality or inconsistent sleep, high sympathetic nervous system tone, basically being constantly on edge, low metabolic flexibility, insufficient fueling around workouts, low glycogen availability plus intense exercise, genetics that make you more sensitive to fasting or low carb patterns, lean mass with underlying visceral fat or liver fat, which is not visibly external, which is not externally visible, chronic inflammation even in fit people. These factors can silently impair your insulin sensitivity, your fasting glucose, your stress hormones, your energy metabolism, and your mitochondrial output. What this means is you can be lean, shredded, disciplined, and still be drifting toward insulin resistance without realizing it. And I'm proof of that. And that's why this conversation matters, because if over 90% of adults have metabolic dysfunction, then quote unquote, healthy people need to stop assuming they're fine and start getting labs done before symptoms appear. That's why I brought on today's guest, a fellow coach and diabetes educator who helps people identify and reverse metabolic dysfunction every single day. We're going to break down how this happens, what labs matter the most, and what to do if your results surprise you like mine did. Let's jump in. So today I'm joined by a good friend, uh Jodi Gelly. Jody is a veteran, licensed independent mental health therapist, diabetes coach, certified mental health integrative medicine provider, certified mental health clinical nutrition specialist, and certified independent optivia health coach. Jodi's passion to serve others with an integrative mind and body approach and a strong education and personal experience as a type 1 diabetic for 47 years has led her and has led her on an unquenchable thirst to help clients with metabolic challenges like diabetes, insulin resistance, and hypoglycemia. Jodi's been married for 33 years, has three children and four grandchildren, and she lives on a farm right around the corner from my house, full of rescued animals. Jodi, welcome to the show.

Jodi Ghelli: 6:18

Thanks, Kevin. It's an honor to be here.

Kevin: 6:20

Oh, I'm so excited to have this conversation. Well, actually, I wish we didn't have to have this conversation, but as Optavia coaches, we have a saying, right? The obstacle is the way. And if we go through something challenging, what I believe is we have an obligation to steward it, uh, to learn from it and to help others, you know, learn from our mistakes. So it was about three weeks ago, I had a follow-up phone consultation with my naturopath. And we went through a whole litany of blood work and finished the things with there's one thing I'm concerned about. You're pre-diabetic. And it was actually the second time in probably the last 12 to 18 months that we had that conversation. But for someone who's healthy like me, the first time you see it, you're like, well, this could be an anomaly. So we, you know, retested six months later, my blood sugar was normal, and then retested again, and then I got the results three weeks ago. And it was a shock to me because I just read all of the health changes that I've made. I mean, the last two years of my life have probably been the healthiest. And uh basically my naturopath, no knock on her. I mean, I can't imagine being a doctor of any type because there's just so much information out there. It's impossible for them uh to be experts in everything. But she really didn't have an answer for me. And I hung up the phone and I said, Well, I know Jody. And if there's one person I know that really is an expert in this area, I mean, we've relied on you many times to do trainings. Uh, it's something that I know you're passionate about. I sent you a message that said, Hey, I just found this out. Can we hop on a call? And you were super gracious. Um, we had a good conversation and I learned a lot. So thanks so much for being here because um I don't just want to learn how I can improve. I really want to tap into your expertise so we can help. Like we just heard it, 90%. And what really stuck out to me is that we know that roughly 70% or 75% of Americans are overweight or obese. So we can look around at our friends and our family and our neighbors, and we can say, okay, those, you know, three out of four are the people who are at risk. But what struck me is that if roughly 30% of Americans are quote unquote healthy, that means that two out of three quote unquote healthy Americans are also dealing with these issues. And I was one of them. Yeah. And so I'm really passionate to help people learn and to also realize that just because you saw some ripped, you know, fitness uh influencer uh on an Instagram reel or you listen to their podcast, it doesn't mean that there aren't consequences to what they're coaching you. And yes, there might be some benefits. You might actually burn some calories, but are you doing it the best way possible? So let's go. What do you have to say?

Jodi Ghelli: 9:05

Well, I want to start with you said um sometimes by the time the labs show a result, it's kind of too late. And one of my favorite sayings is there is no pre-diabetic. It's like saying I'm pre-pregnant because the line is faint. It's been there, and you are proof of that. It was showing your pancreas was pooping out, but the lab standard was showing it was okay.

Kevin: 9:33

Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 9:33

But it takes a long time sometimes for those tests to show that there's a problem. Pre-diabetic sometimes gives us a false belief that we're fine. We're fine, we're under the radar, but we're not. You're not pre-pregnant, you're not pre-diabetic, you are you're you have a pancreas poop out situation, is the way I like to say it. And most people don't understand that. Yeah, it's so good. You know, the interesting thing is I've been working with this naturopath for now three or four years. You know, my wife started working with her uh several years before I did, and she's like, hey, you gotta go, gotta go. And finally I decided to. And my biggest complaint for that entire time has been my energy hasn't been great.

Kevin: 10:15

Right. Um, I wake up and I don't feel well rested. Yeah. And I'm just like, for everything that I'm doing, I feel like I should be feeling a lot better. And you know, so I've done the testosterone replacement therapy, and I'm one of those people who, you know, my testosterone numbers were extremely low the first time I had them tested about four or five years ago. Insanely low. Um, and now, you know, there's I think there's a lot to debate when it comes to testosterone, but my numbers are quote unquote great, but I haven't noticed a significant, actually, really any noticeable change in my energy level and um and how good I feel when I wake up. Um one of the other changes I made this year is I actually started getting up at 5 a.m. And for me to do that, because I'm not naturally a morning person, I realized I need to go to bed early. So my new bedtime is nine o'clock. I I I'm a night owl by nature, and I'm getting eight hours of sleep. So I should be waking up feeling well rested, ready to attack the day. And honestly, um, I haven't been. So that was another thing that, you know, there's, I think right now, another one of the trends is oh, if you're a guy and your energy isn't good, just go get testosterone. And that might not be the only issue that you're dealing with. So let's start by talking about the importance of fueling your body with food first thing in the morning and throughout the day. Because this is one of the mistakes I started making about a year ago is doing fasted cardio to quote unquote burn some more fat in the morning. So I would wake up, do my routine, burn about 500 calories, cardio, walking, um, and then I probably wouldn't have a breakfast until, you know, I'm waking up at five. I'm not eating until nine or ten o'clock. So let's talk about that.

Jodi Ghelli: 13:12

So my question to to you would be how did you feel while when you were not eating?

Kevin: 13:18

I honestly not good. Okay. And I told people I like I hated fasting.

Jodi Ghelli: 13:22

Okay.

Kevin: 13:23

I did it because, you know, I thought I was microdosing adversity, and I thought it had a bunch of health benefits because there's a lot of talk about there right now about uh fast. I mean, even Charlie Kirk was like, oh, you should fast regularly, you should do a um a five-day fast every three months or something like that. Um, and it so it's it's it's very trendy.

Jodi Ghelli: 13:45

It is trendy, and it's but I didn't feel good. Yep. And there's some spiritual things that that go with that, but from a metabolic standpoint, what I want people to understand and what I was sharing with you is that in order to wake up in the morning, you need energy in order to open your eyes and get up and get your coffee, take a shower, scroll Facebook, whatever you do requires energy. And if energy could come just from fat, we'd all be skinny. Because you just talked about all these people that fast. Are they thin? No, not necessarily, right? So, where does that energy come from? I am an unapologetic Christian. I'll tell you, I believe in God, and so God is brilliant. He created a safety net for us when we were cavemen and cavewomen, and we got up and we had to run and go find our food. How did we do it? Our liver is a super organ, it produces, stores, and releases glucose to give us energy. Pure glycogen. So when you wake up in the morning, your liver and your cortisols and all those hormones that are sugar are letting out a ton of that quote unquote energy. That glucose will continue to be dumped into your system until it doesn't have to anymore because you have eaten something. Pure glycogen stores have to be converted to energy through insulin. Insulin creates belly fat. So by eating right away in the morning, you are getting the right energy. Your body is not having to tank out your liver reserves, and you're not store. And if you eat properly, macro balance in the morning, you're not requiring a lot of insulin the way you did for glycogen stores. Now you're not storing unnecessary belly fat. For you, waking up and working out like the beast that you were doing, do you know how much sugar your body was letting out? You were stressing out your body at no end. And no wonder why you were quote unquote pre-diabetic because your insulin needs were so high. And if you, I don't know if you had a middle belly area at all, but if you did, that would be why.

Kevin: 16:02

Well, I would say that for my diet and for my activity level, and for being under 11%, like very close to 10%, pretty much all the time, sometimes dipping down into the nines, still like don't have the six-pack that I would expect to have. And you kind of helped me identify, well, it's because my body's been pumping out a ton of insulin, which causes that gut fat to stick around. That's right. So I'm I'm really excited over the next, you know, three to six plus months as I go back to, and the irony is that I'm going back to what helped me lose weight 14 and a half years ago. And one of the mistakes that I think a lot of us, especially, you know, you you think you can outsmart nature and you think you get to this point where um the rules that and the practices that helped you get healthy to begin with no longer apply. And that's kind of where I was at. I was like, well, I'm this, you know, I'm in this elite optimization phase, right? I'm fine-tuning. And so the things that I used to do no longer apply. And what I learned is actually if they do. They do. So that's that's very helpful. Um, so talk about the importance of balanced blood sugar and how macros work together.

Jodi Ghelli: 17:11

This is my favorite topic. I love explaining this to people. So um, macros are really important for insulin resistance, insulin sensitivity. Again, if you're looking to lose weight or cut fat, you want to decrease the amount of insulin you're using. You want to to create that effect. So um I always talk about an analogy, um, and I use Winnie the Pooh because most people understand Winnie the Pooh. So I want you to imagine that um Eeyore is your protein.

Kevin: 17:42

Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 17:42

So macros, number one, are protein, carbohydrate, and fat. That's your macros. Many people don't know that. That's macros. Okay. So Eeyore is the protein. Tigger is your carbohydrates, and protein, like Eeyore, is really, really slow. It takes forever to metabolize. That's why people who do steak and bacon diets, pure carnivore, will lose weight because they reduce the amount of calories they eat only because they stay full longer. Now, they're also not eating carbs, so they're not requiring a lot a lot of insulin. So there's that. But it slows it down. So the minute they go and have their pizza and beer on a Saturday, they could easily put on five pounds of pure fat. That food will not be metabolized quickly and will be converted into fat stores.

Kevin: 18:32

If I can interrupt real quick. So when people say this diet killed my metabolism, if they're doing something like a pure carnivore diet, there's actually some truth to that.

Jodi Ghelli: 18:42

100%.

Kevin: 18:43

Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 18:43

100%. Because the protein takes forever to metabolize. And then when you eat something that requires quick metabolism, your carbohydrates, your sugars, your alcohols, it won't picture Mrs. Pac-Man game or Mr. Pac-Man game, it won't get those balls fast enough. Okay. Whatever it doesn't get to use for energy, it stores for a rainy day.

Kevin: 19:02

Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 19:03

As fat. Carbohydrates are tigger. They metabolize super fast. They require a lot of insulin. They raise blood sugar, and a carbohydrate's a carbohydrate. Doesn't matter if you're eating a bunch of broccoli or sugar, they all require insulin to convert to energy. So when you put your macros together in the right way, your protein and your carbohydrate are equally balanced. It's like Eeyore and Tigger trying to go for a walk and they're holding hands. But there's still going to be a little push and pull because Eeyore is going to be slow and Tigger is going to be fast. And they're, they're kind of like pushing and pulling each other as they're trying to go on this walk. So then the wise old owl, who is your fat, your healthy fats, swoops down, puts his big wing on top of their hand and says, Y'all driving me crazy. We need to pace where we're never going to cross the finish line. So when you balance your carbohydrate and protein in equal amounts and have the right amount of frosting called healthy fat, you will stabilize your blood sugar for the long haul. Fat keeps you stable. Protein slows down the carbohydrate, less insulin, carbohydrate slows up the metabolism and protein. And we have a perfect situation where our liver doesn't have to play games and we're not storing a whole bunch of fat.

Kevin: 20:18

So a fat-free diet is also not good for you. Because you don't have that balancing effect.

Jodi Ghelli: 20:25

100%.

Kevin: 20:26

Okay. So we want to be, you talk about carbs and protein balanced. Like are literally, if I have 10 grams of protein, do I want 10 grams of carbs or what kind of balanced 10 to 12 or 12 to 14?

Jodi Ghelli: 20:41

So if you go to a store and you look at a commercial protein bar and it has 42 grams of protein and five grams of carbohydrate, and you think, bam, this is perfect. It's not perfect. It's not perfect. There's too much protein.

Kevin: 20:57

Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 20:58

So you need to, those need to be a little bit more balanced.

Kevin: 21:00

Okay. So for me, one of the because I travel a fair amount, one of the ways that I get a high protein to my diet when I'm traveling, because it's difficult to do, is I'll bring beef jerky. Pretty much pure protein, almost no fat, and zero carbs, because I get the sugar-free kind. I need to find some healthy carbs to have along with that as a general rule.

Jodi Ghelli: 21:22

Correct. Otherwise you're tanking out your metabolism. You're slowing it down. Interesting. You're fine, and then you go and have, even if it's a big healthy jasmine rice bowl, your body needs to convert that to energy through insulin, and it's going to the metabolism that you've created is too slow, and that's going to store us fat.

Kevin: 21:43

Wow. Wow. So my I'm thinking of my Uncle Jack who used to say, moderation in everything. And I mean, I have this, I'm I'm a guy of extremes, you know, I tend to go all in. And so, you know, it's like, oh, if 24 hours of fasting is good, I'm gonna do 48 or 60. And and then the wisdom of Uncle Jack, moderation is everything. It's like, don't go just, you know, pure carbs is obviously bad for you. Pure pure protein, you need to have all three macros that God gave us. Um, what is the rough ratio of fat that we want to have in our diet? Uh to help balance out the carbs and the protein.

Jodi Ghelli: 22:18

Like 30% overall is fine. Yeah. So if we looked at a at an ideal protein bar, it might have you don't mean the ideal brand.

Kevin: 22:27

I do not mean ideal brand.

Jodi Ghelli: 22:29

I mean like the perfect commercial brand. Um, maybe 12 or 13 carbs, maybe 13 or 14 protein, and maybe two or three grams of healthy fat. Just kind of frost that over a little bit.

Kevin: 22:40

Okay, but as a general rule, roughly 30% of your diet should be fat, um, and then at least 35% for protein, 35 for carbs. If you're eating that on a daily basis, but also meal by meal, then you're gonna have the best uh insulin response. Correct. Okay. Correct. Okay, that's really good. Um, talk about the role of the liver as our protector when we are too dumb to eat.

Jodi Ghelli: 23:05

Yep. So I kind of mentioned that before. The liver is this incredible organ that has a bunch of different functions, and people most people think it just processes fat, which is the what most people believe. That's why we get fatty liver. But it also produces, stores, and releases pure glycogen stores whenever we need energy. So I joke with people sometimes and I say, if you didn't need to eat and you could just survive that way, then there wouldn't be a feeding tube in a hospital setting. It doesn't matter if that person is overweight, they still have a feeding tube.

Kevin: 23:43

Interesting. Yeah. Right. They should be able to just burn through all their fat, right?

Jodi Ghelli: 23:46

Oh, they're they're obese. Maybe if they get some weight off during this coma, they'll be fine. No, that's not how it works. You have to have that, or your liver will just keep dumping all that sugar in and it reinforces the effect.

Kevin: 23:59

So basically, the fasting culture is abusing the liver.

Jodi Ghelli: 24:05

100%.

Kevin: 24:05

We're saying, hey, you don't need to eat. God gave us that liver to like an emergency happens, or you know, a hundred plus years ago, there's a famine, or we ate our last meal last night. We're gonna go hunting, or we have to harvest, but we need some energy to be able to do that. That's what the liver's for. What a lot of us are doing is taxing our liver.

Jodi Ghelli: 24:28

100%.

Kevin: 24:28

Um, to because we're not fueling our body properly. Correct.

Jodi Ghelli: 24:32

And the liver can do it. But what happens, this is another interesting fact, is that a lot of people, especially if they've got hypoglycemia, which is the way I explain hypoglycemia, is it's the way your body responds to sugar and carbs is like trying to kill a mosquito with a machete. It just overdoes, it just overdoes the amount of insulin it needs for that food that's trying to convert to energy. If you have hypoglycemia, you already get a lot of low blood sugars. Your liver is already always trying to save your life by letting out sugar to bring your blood sugar back up. But as at a certain point, your your glycogen stores start to deplete and you will have a harder time recovering. You will start to feel more lightheaded, you'll feel more weak, you'll feel more tired. So those are some things to be watching out for too if you're fasting a lot.

Kevin: 25:25

Okay. Um, can you talk about the difference between hypo and hyperglycemia? Because they're two different things, right?

Jodi Ghelli: 25:33

Hypo is low. So hypo, low is the way I remember, low blood sugar. That's the body responds to sugars and carbs that need to be converted to energy with overkill. It's there is no moderation. It overreacts, it it sends out way too much insulin. Every time they eat a sugar or carb, they get a low blood sugar because their body let out too much insulin.

Kevin: 25:56

Okay. So the low blood sugar is a for hypog hypoglycemics is actually a cause of the the pancreas pushing out too much insulin.

Jodi Ghelli: 26:04

Correct.

Kevin: 26:05

Okay. So um so it's actually has more to do with insulin than it does blood sugar, or the low blood sugar is caused by too much insulin. Correct. Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 26:15

Yep. Just like the high just like the the hyperglycemia or diabetes is caused by not enough insulin. So high blood sugar, low blood sugar.

Kevin: 26:25

Okay. If someone has either one of those, can they heal themselves of it? Can they recover from it? And if so, how do they do that?

Jodi Ghelli: 26:34

That's a loaded question. And the simple answer is it depends, but yes. So type 1 diabetes, when the pancreas just the they're called eyelets of Langerhan. They're the cells that make insulin. They are attacked by some kind of viral reaction and they're killed. And there's no coming back from that. That's what I've had for 47 years. So I can do a lot to live a normal life, but my body will never produce its own insulin. Okay. But type 2 or pancreas poop out sort of ones, like the prediabetes, yeah, they absolutely can. By starting to eat more macro balanced, by eating more often, by reducing the amount their body needs to let out insulin, not by fasting, because we know that there's another effect there, not by doing just keto, because there's another effect there, but they absolutely can reverse their diabetes or prediabetes. Okay. Hypoglycemia, you can't reverse that, but you can control it by just learning to eat more often, more macro balanced, small but mighty meals all day long, reduce the amount of insulin required, and then you don't have a problem.

Kevin: 27:46

If you eat lower sugar, your body doesn't need as much insulin. Correct. Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 27:50

Sugars and carbs. So carbs, every I always like to tell my my clients a carb is a carb. So here's an interesting fact for me as a type one diabetic. If I eat a banana by itself, my blood sugar will go so high, so fast, that it's ridiculous. If I eat a Snickers bar, my blood sugar will go high, but it'll take a long time. Because the fat slowed it in the city.

Kevin: 28:15

In the Snickers bar, interesting.

Jodi Ghelli: 28:17

Yep. So that's why I'm talking about that fat slows it down. But a carb is a carb.

Kevin: 28:24

From the the metabolic standpoint, what are it you may not know the answer to this, but if someone eats a higher fat diet than that 30%, what are the risk factors or what are the consequences of that?

Jodi Ghelli: 28:38

Fatty liver.

Kevin: 28:39

Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 28:40

Because your body can't process all that fat. Again, you're taxing out the liver. So fatty liver, there's there's non-alcoholic fatty liver and cirrhosis, which is alcoholic fatty liver.

Kevin: 28:51

Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 28:52

Same exact thing because one of the things the liver does that we know is it processes fat. So if there's too much fat in the diet, you get non-alcoholic fatty liver. It can be deadly. It's not a good thing. Cirrhosis of the liver is the same exact thing, but it's caused by alcohol. Because when you drink alcohol, your liver aborts all missions other than getting rid of that alcohol. So all the fat you eat is stored in the liver.

Kevin: 29:20

So you can eat theoretically a healthy diet, but if you're consuming alcohol, especially at excessive levels, then even if you're at that 30% ratio or even less than that, you're potentially it's like it's impacting you like you're eating significantly more fat than you're actually eating. Wow. Wow. Incredible.

Jodi Ghelli: 29:45

It's the same disease caused by two different things. One is too much consumption of fat. One is my liver couldn't do anything with the fat because it aborted mission to get rid of the alcohol. Same thing.

Kevin: 29:55

Man, so interesting. So interesting. Okay. So talk about when is fasting okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 30:01

Fasting is okay when we sleep. That's how we were created. So it's okay to fast, you know. Actually, what I tell people is like sun down to sunrise. Like, you know, it doesn't sleep as kind of so you don't have to eat till you're awake if you stay up till 11 o'clock at night because you're awake. But when the sun goes down, we we probably should be fasting.

Kevin: 30:25

So a lot of people talk about stopping their eating around eight o'clock. That's a good rule of thumb.

Jodi Ghelli: 30:29

Yeah. Or seven or six, yeah, whatever. But as long as as long as it's kind of like around your sleeping time. While you're sleeping, we're supposed to be fasting. Yeah, and it's up, you're supposed to be eating every couple of hours.

Kevin: 30:42

And I don't know if it's true, but I've always heard that like anecdotally, we call it breakfast because you break the fast.

Jodi Ghelli: 30:47

You got it.

Kevin: 30:47

So uh the point is yes, you're fasting every day, but you know, from roughly after dinner to when you wake up and then hopefully have a meal, a healthy meal first thing in the morning. Correct. Okay. Um what is is daily fasting beyond you know, going to bed and waking up? Is that is there is there a regular application for that, or is the reality is we're all designed the same, and anyone who's kind of violating these principles of sundown to sunup fasting, like there's going to be consequences.

Jodi Ghelli: 31:24

Yeah. I I would ask you, why would you fast?

Kevin: 31:27

Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 31:27

What's what's the point? I will tell you, um, my cross is also my gift to the people I talk to because I wear a continuous glucose monitor. I have a pancreas that does not let out any insulin whatsoever. And every time I have to fast for my fasting blood work, which is every three months for 47 years, I've had to do that. I will wake up with a great blood sugar. And this just happened, and I have some screenshots of it, and I I posted it on Facebook. I woke up at a, I think it was like a 76, which is an unheard of wonderful blood sugar for a type one diabetic.

Kevin: 32:04

Okay.

Jodi Ghelli: 32:05

I wake up at five in the morning, well, 4 30 in the morning because I live in a farm.

Kevin: 32:08

Yeah.

Jodi Ghelli: 32:09

My fasting blood work wasn't until 8 30. I got up, I was fasting, I was drinking my water, I was doing my barn chores, and I watched my blood sugar creep up and up and up and up. And when I went for my blood, my fasting blood work, my blood sugar was 132 and I hadn't eaten a morsel of food.

Kevin: 32:28

Because your liver is doing what it's supposed to do without the balancing effect of a pancreas pumping out insulin.

Jodi Ghelli: 32:35

Correct.

Kevin: 32:36

Wow. Wow.

Jodi Ghelli: 32:37

Just because I can see it and my blood sugar, my pancreas, my my insulin wasn't really covering it, right? It was it was evident to me.

Kevin: 32:47

Man, amazing. Amazing. Okay, so let's talk about why those who don't eat enough to support the exercise that they're doing or those with insulin resistance have stubborn belly fat. Because I think everyone wants to get rid of that belly fat. And a lot of people think by not eating they're going to do that.

Jodi Ghelli: 33:04

Yep. And it's always fun for me because my most favorite clients are the gym rats who finally wave the white flag. They go, okay, okay, I've been doing everything. Like you, right? Yeah. And I can't get rid of this gut. Um, so just like you, it's it's they were they're sabotaging themselves because they are letting out all those glycogen stores to give them energy to work out, those glycogen stores have to be converted to energy. That's why people think you need sugar, right? I need to eat carbs, I need to eat sugar for energy. Yeah. But if you don't, your body will take over for you. And then because they're working out so hard, their glycogen stores are increasing. They're letting it out more and more. Like for me, when I just told you that story about my fasting blood sugar, I was out in my barn throwing bales of hay and doing all kinds of things. And my body was letting out more and more sugar to give me that energy. All of that energy requires insulin, all that sugar requires insulin. That insulin, insulin is a hormone that stores belly fat. Period. That's where it will store your fat. So if you're not eating, your body's gonna let out all that sugar, you're gonna require insulin. The insulin's gonna store belly fat no matter how hard you work out. If you eat properly for that workout, and I'm not talking about a Denny's double-double or whatever they have, right? You eat normal, you eat healthy, then you stop your liver from having to save the day like a superhero. That food you eat, if it's macro balanced, equal carb protein, a little bit of healthy fat, will require very little insulin to convert to energy, but you will have the energy you need. And now you're not storing fat because you didn't need as much insulin to convert it to energy.

Kevin: 34:58

Wow. Wow. Okay. Um share your personal experience because I think this is obviously what gives you the credibility. Um, but you know, you've had type 1 diabetes for over 47 years. Uh I know you obviously, like most diabetics, work very closely with a doctor. And from what I recall, you your blood sugar has not been stable for a long time until you found our program. Is that correct?

Jodi Ghelli: 35:25

Kind of. Okay. So um, yes, I was diagnosed uh type 1 diabetic at the age of 10, little itty bitty, skinny little girl. It wasn't chunky, didn't cause it, didn't eat a lot of sugar. I had a massive virus. It was Thanksgiving of when I was 10 years old, and that virus um killed my pancreas cells. And so I stopped making insulin at 10 years old. Um care 47 years ago was very different. They didn't have what they have now. They didn't know anything about carb to insulin ratios. They didn't know about macros. They I was testing my urine to know what my blood sugar was, and it was four hours old because I hadn't peed in four hours. Like I was taking beef and pork insulin. Things were very different. Um, but my parents were great, and they had we I lived in Boston. I went to a great Jocelyn diabetes center, which is world renowned. Um, but I always wanted to be healthier and I was always very curious about what I could do different. And so that led to a uh a desire to be a nurse. And I went to nursing school, and then I was like, nah, I kind of want to work with people's brains. So how can I do both? So then I did medical, social work. Um, and this is where I was like, eh, kind of on my control, because my entire life, Kevin, my doctors always said, Wow, you're doing great. Wow, your blood sugars are great. And I would say, but there's a lot of variation in them, and I'm 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 pounds overweight. At one point I was 90 pounds heavier than I am today.

Kevin: 37:04

Wow.

Jodi Ghelli: 37:05

90 pounds. So I would complain. I was a runner. And I used to say, I'm a fat runner who never eats. I'm a fat runner who never eats. What is going on? How can this even be?

Kevin: 37:15

Running without eating earned calories and fat.

Jodi Ghelli: 37:18

100%.

Kevin: 37:18

You shouldn't have been overweight.

Jodi Ghelli: 37:19

No, and I used to think people must have thought I was a classic eater. So what the medical world told me, and God loved them, because by their standards, it was as good as it gets. And by their standards, I was probably the per best patient with diabetes they had seen all day. But it wasn't it wasn't good enough. But I didn't know what else to do. I was trying. Um, and then I found Optavia, to be quite honest with you. And everything I knew aligned with their teachings. And it all made sense because what they were sharing was what I learned when I was an anty bitty 10-year-old little girl. And so, like you, I was reminded of the things I once knew and aligned with all of my diabetes education and what I was teaching others. So once I got to a space where decisions weren't so hard and they were very goof-proof with Optaviya, because they are little mini meals I didn't have to think about. They were already macro balanced. They already had carb to protein ratios that I needed.

Kevin: 38:22

And a little bit of healthy fat.

Jodi Ghelli: 38:23

And healthy fat and taught me to eat every two to three hours again. And my blood sugars went rock solid. And I am now on pediatric doses of insulin because I don't need a lot of insulin. So my cross again is your gift. If I don't have to inject it, guess what? Your pancreas isn't letting it out either.

Kevin: 38:46

Okay. Got it. Got it. Um, all right, friends. This conversation was a big one. And I hope it opened your eyes the way my own journey opened mine. Metabolic dysfunction is affecting more than 90% of American adults. Most people have no symptoms, or if they do, they don't really realize why they're happening. And even those of us who consider ourselves disciplined, fit, and health-focused are not immune. If my story does anything, I hope it encourages you to stop guessing and start testing. Get your labs done. Look under the hood, your future self will thank you. If today's episode resonated with you, share it with someone you love because when we understand our metabolism, we don't just live longer, we live better. Thanks for listening. This is the Uncommon Freedom Show, and we'll see you next time. Before we leave, though, I want to offer some action steps. Here's what I want everyone to do this week or if nothing else, before the end of the year. Number one, get your fasting labs done. Fasting glucose, A1C, fasting insulin, a lipid panel, CRP, ALT slash AST, and your triglyceride to HDL ratio. These numbers tell the real story. The next thing is to audit your habits. Don't just ask, am I healthy? Ask, are my habits supporting metabolic flexibility or stressing it? Number three, prioritize sleep and recovery. Under recovery can mimic insulin resistance. This is such a problem in our culture where people wear uh a lack of sleep or the quote unquote ability to get by and little sleep as a badge of honor. It is not good for you. Uh, number four is to fuel your workouts properly, especially if you've been trained, uh training fasted by default, which so many people of us are doing. Share your results with someone qualified, a coach, a nutritionist, or your naturopath or doctor. Do not navigate this alone. And share this episode with someone who trains hard but feels tired. They might be right where you were. Jody, if people want to learn more, uh, I know you post about this all the time on social media. How can they follow you on social media?

Jodi Ghelli: 40:52

They can just find me at Jody Debert, D-E-P-P-E-R-T, Gelly on Facebook or Jody, Coach Jody Gelly on Instagram.

Kevin: 41:01

Awesome. Jody, thank you so much for your time. Uh, I really appreciate the phone call that you uh had with me a couple weeks ago, and I really appreciate you coming over uh to just share this expertise. I mean, I've listened to you train on this uh a bunch of times. I'm gonna listen to this podcast multiple times. I learned so much today, and I'm gonna continue to absorb and digest what you what you shared and really just remember that there are no shortcuts. Honestly, there's not a lot of hacks that work. And when it comes to nutrition, really moderation is key. And uh we just we we want people to thrive. And uh you've given us a lot of tools to be able to do that. Thank you so much.

Jodi Ghelli: 41:42

Thank you for the honor, Kevin.

Kevin: 41:44

Thanks, friends.