Anxiety From Blood Sugar, Overeating Protein, Implementing Mind-Body Medicine In Practice, Naturopathy vs Functional Medicine with Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker

This week on The Less Stressed Life Podcast, I am joined by Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker, a traditional Naturopath who specializes in Functional Medicine. In this episode,  we explore the importance of blood sugar regulation, mindset, and lifestyle to help in achieving optimal health. We discuss cultural differences in dining habits, highlighting how community and movement in European countries contribute to better health despite late meal times. Dr. Stacy also covers signs of blood sugar issues, the impact of subconscious thoughts on physical health, and the value of observing and changing thought patterns to support long-term well-being.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• How to understand and manage blood sugar
• The impact of mindset on health and healing
• How aligning eating habits with circadian rhythms can optimize metabolic health
• Are you overeating protein?
• How our thoughts influence our biochemistry

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ABOUT GUEST: 
Dr. Stacy, a traditional Naturopath who specializes in Functional Medicine, holds a Doctorate in Traditional Naturopathy, a Master's of Science in Holistic Nutrition and after 10 years in the wellness industry, has found her passion in functional and alternative medicine. She has combined her love of Ayurveda, Functional Medicine Testing, Naturopathy, Holistic Nutrition and Fitness and has created a one of a kind bio-individualized approach to wellness. This includes looking at the body as one beautiful and synergistic system, which needs to be treated as so, focusing on the mind, body and spirit connecting to achieve the highest form of health imaginable. 

WHERE TO FIND:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.stacy.nd/
Podcast: Vibing Well with Dr. Stacy

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife
Leave a review, submit a questions for the podcast or take one of my quizzes here: ****https://www.christabiegler.com/links

EPISODE SPONSOR:
A special thanks to Jigsaw Health for sponsoring this episode. Get a discount on any of their products. Use the code lessstressed10

I have a few spots left for the farm to table business retreat I’m hosting in a couple months in Bozeman MT--
Where we'll rejuvenate, realign with vision & values, pursue our zone of genius, improve all business relationships (w self, money, coworkers, clients/customers), and plan for less stress in 2025. https://www.lessstressedliferetreats.com/mountainretreat 

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TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: you can't have normal hunger cues if your leptin, your cortisol, your insulin are out of whack. So the goal is to always correct that in the process, 

[00:00:09] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm your host, Christa Biegler, and I'm going to guess we have at least one thing in common that we're both in pursuit of a less stressed life. On this show, I'll be interviewing experts and sharing clinical pearls from my years of practice to support high performing health savvy women in pursuit of abundance and a less stressed life.

[00:00:39] Christa Biegler, RD: One of my beliefs is that we always have options for getting the results we want. So let's see what's out there together.

[00:00:57] Christa Biegler, RD: All right. Today on the less stressed life, I have Dr. Stacey Baker. She holds a doctorate in traditional naturopathy, a master's of science and holistic nutrition. And after 10 years in the wellness industry, she's found her passion in functional and alternative medicine. She's combined her love of RU beta, functional medicine, testing, naturopathy, holistic nutrition and fitness to create a one of a kind bio individualized approach to wellness, which includes looking at the body as one thing.

[00:01:22] Christa Biegler, RD: beautiful synergistic system which needs to be treated as so focusing on the mind, body and spirit connecting to achieve the highest form of health imaginable. I just feel that to my soul. If you're on Instagram, you might know Dr. Stacey, you might not. know her by her voice and the podcast yet, but you might run across, this happens to me all the time, people that you show them something like, I've seen that before.

[00:01:43] Christa Biegler, RD: She has a lot of very shareable statements that she makes online. And so I've enjoyed, I've admired her from afar for a long time. So welcome to the show today, Dr. Stacey. 

[00:01:53] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Thank you so much for that beautiful intro and for having me. I am so excited to chat today. 

[00:01:58] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. So a couple of things Dr. Stacey is really into, I would say both metabolism.

[00:02:04] Christa Biegler, RD: Blood sugar, lifestyle mindset work. And I think this is very beautiful. I was just telling her off record that I'm doing some new experimental coaching with my clients and I'm just addicted to the transformation that can happen in 30 minutes. And it's the most fun I'm doing in practice right now and I'm just, playing with it, exploring it, because I was joking that half the time we're working on nutrition and half the time we're working on the emotions related to it.

[00:02:27] Christa Biegler, RD: When people come in and say, I'm overwhelmed, I'm like, yeah, that actually was already there. Let's resolve the overwhelm before we can address the actual real physiological challenges that you're having. So I'm going to get into all of that. So we're going to cover both of those things.

[00:02:40] Christa Biegler, RD: I think these are just topics that affect every single human being. I do not care who you are, but first your story is always how we live out our lives, right? We're so affected by our story. And I know Dr. Stacey she's also certified as a personal trainer. So I know she's got a bit of a story here before she ended up in naturopathy, maybe.

[00:02:57] Christa Biegler, RD: So tell us a little bit about, I know I've read online, you talking about how you had a lot of symptoms, but of course you had that typical, all my labs were normal. So tell us a little bit, crack open your story. Tell us how we got to where we are now. 

[00:03:11] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes, thank you. So I'll try to do the express version because this has been long withstanding.

[00:03:16] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: For me, my symptoms have been even as old as I can remember with debilitating anxiety, insomnia probably as old as five, just, it's been a long but I think a lot of that was starting from being on overuse of antibiotics because of ear infections because of dairy sensitivities, things we didn't know about right in the mid to late 80s.

[00:03:39] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And I actually grew up in a family of medical doctors. Obviously medicine was the first, all right let's fix this. But as I got older, symptoms got worse, started looking like different things, right? Hormone imbalances, thyroid issues, panic, and anxiety was pretty much a stronghold my whole life.

[00:03:57] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: But now looking back, I realized how much of that was blood sugar. related as a child of the late eighties, early nineties, right? Everything, all we took fat out of everything, added sugar and everything. So that was just another layer of dysfunction for me. And then I think getting to the point where I had breast implant illness, which just was the pervasive like straw that broke the camel's back for me, it was just more than my system could handle.

[00:04:23] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And when I say breast implant illness, I don't think like That was it. Just get the implants. That was not it for me. I didn't get the implants out and everything went away. It was just the suppression of the immune system that they just tipped the needle there and I just couldn't do anything normally at that point.

[00:04:39] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Being a mom of two really young children at that time, which, pregnancies are depleting and it was just, it all came to a head and I was not finding any answers conventionally and just medications, right? Just anti anxieties all these other things. And I just. Birth control for hormone problems, all these things.

[00:04:58] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And they were just, and so I was like, I've gotta figure this out. I had already been like a personal trainer as I was home with my kids. And it was interesting because the clientele that I brought on were people who were like challenges, right? Like the normal calorie macro stuff wasn't working for them. I had a lot of autoimmune clients, a lot of people. And it's just interesting how we're like, we are attracting people. And it's all just like an opportunity for us to grow so we can help them better. It was so much more than just the workouts and the.

[00:05:28] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Dietary recommendations. I formed really close bonds with them. And I even have some of them 15 years later as clients, now, which is really interesting, but they definitely between them and my health issues pushed me to grow and to learn more and to dive into everything I could to figure out like, women and men are all showing signs of dysfunction now, but why are we getting this hit?

[00:05:51] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Right around this like 30 year old mark, for most of us, it's getting younger. And what is happening? Cause a lot of these symptoms all look the same, right? The brain fog, the fatigue, the autoimmune, it's all the same. So what is causing, these issues? And I just went all in. 

[00:06:08] Christa Biegler, RD: I totally understand that.

[00:06:09] Christa Biegler, RD: I think that we're such a mirror of our. I'm always appalled at how often I resonate with my clients. I'm like, are we talking about your health or my health? And so it's not shocking that especially when you care deeply that these people find you and then they're willing to share more because so often we're like, I want to change.

[00:06:28] Christa Biegler, RD: I think it's very common for us to want to change a physical appearance piece of ourselves. There's so many things that you said right there that were related to physical appearance. I work with a lot of skin issues and it's the same thing. It's right. It's a lot of physical appearance. It's the thing that drives us to take action.

[00:06:43] Christa Biegler, RD: And yet there's a lot underneath the hood underneath the paint of the car, right? And so there's a lot there. And so often the others that were maybe helping them or they were coming up empty because the other pieces. underneath the hood. We're just not in synergy. So you were starting a personal training and then when did you decide maybe you were, I don't know your whole schooling background.

[00:07:04] Christa Biegler, RD: When did you just, was there like a catalyst in time? You're like, I have to do more here. So did you go back to school at some point? 

[00:07:09] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes. Yes. As I was working as a trainer and home with my kids at that point, I was back in school working on my master's in nutrition. And that was another layer, but it wasn't enough to move the needle for everybody, and, or me. I totally understand. So yeah, so I'm like, all right, let's just go for it. Let's just, completely go back to school. And, my first majors were psychology and interior design. So I completely, and they all just give me a beautiful spectrum of like, how to view life and everything else, but I just went all in at that point.

[00:07:42] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And then on top of the my doctorate in naturopathy. Then I was like, all right, let's do some functional stuff. So I took a few certifications and functional medicine and yeah, and I'm perpetual student. I'm always trying to take master classes and webinars and all these other things because if there's something I'm excited about.

[00:08:01] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: I want to learn everything I can about it, especially if I feel like it will help me and everybody else I work with. 

[00:08:07] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. So this is going to be a beautiful segue into an area that you love talking about, which is metabolism and blood sugar. But before I go there, you said something interesting, and I love to highlight this because I do get a reasonable amount of questions of people that say, where did you go get certified to do whatever you're doing?

[00:08:24] Christa Biegler, RD: And I was like I went to the school of hard knocks. And actually I got my traditional dietitian. Degree, which comes with a, you have to go to an internship for a year, et cetera. And whatever that, none of that matters. My point in telling them that is that gives me an understanding of the world.

[00:08:40] Christa Biegler, RD: As you said. Cause I think about that and I think about a background in psychology and also visual arts essentially, right? Interior design of course would give you a perspective into what you're doing now. Why wouldn't it? Of course it would, especially with mindset. And your schooling is this foundation and then.

[00:08:55] Christa Biegler, RD: No matter what, you have to go learn more. So I ended up with actually a naturopathic mentor that helped mentor me through a lot of clients early on in my profession. But the reason I'm bringing this up is because people ask, how did you figure this out? have no issue with the question but there's multiple ways to accomplish it.

[00:09:11] Christa Biegler, RD: And you said something interesting. You went to school, you naturopathy, but. You said, I also learned more about functional medicine. What did you feel that was the biggest difference between your doctorate and naturopathy and then additional certifications in functional medicine?

[00:09:26] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: I think I'm a traditionally trained naturopath, which goes very old school.

[00:09:32] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Like we're doing fat, which these are things that are coming back, right? Trends. Fasting and alkaline diet and sunshine and all these different spectrums, all of those things are really great. But remember fasting in context in those times where you go to the woods and you fast for 30 days and you heal your conditions, right?

[00:09:52] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: So it was a matter of how do I modernize and make it. And also one thing I realized was working with clients is seeing is believing. So when you can bring in that functional testing and show them on the lab work, like your body is stressed, your body is toxic. This is what we can support right now.

[00:10:08] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Why we work on these foundational lifestyle things and that's a whole other thing with blood sugar. We have to see it or we don't believe it. I can work with people all day long and I can tell you like. You're having blood sugar spikes. You're having insulin spikes all day long. But until they see it, they will cling tightly to those foods and that lifestyle and the meal timing.

[00:10:28] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: So seeing is believing. And so that was the main reason why I brought in the functional side of things to yeah, bridge that gap. 

[00:10:36] Christa Biegler, RD: No, I totally understand that. I say a different version of what you're saying, which is you learn the most from your results. So I can't wait till you get your first results because that's then it's I get it.

[00:10:46] Christa Biegler, RD: I understand it. It's the same as seeing is believing. So let's get into blood sugar metabolism because you made a great point earlier about how a lot of things look similar, right? So if our issue, and what's fun for me, and it's a challenge, I liked it. I like a challenge and is I actually think that a lot of people don't even resonate with the words brain fog.

[00:11:04] Christa Biegler, RD: I think they might say, Sure, that's happened to me. If you walk into another room and you forgot what you were doing there, but they wouldn't. Brain fog feels like a weak term for some high achieving people. And they need this love and support, too, of the body. And so I'm always looking for more magnetic words that are like, Oh, yes, that is me.

[00:11:22] Christa Biegler, RD: But regardless, if the conversation is brain fog or trouble focusing at work or getting your stuff done or whatever you want to say or forgetting why you walked into the next room. There's many underlying reasons for that. And I'd love to hear, and blood sugar being one of them, gut dysbiosis and toxic burden being other pieces, right?

[00:11:41] Christa Biegler, RD: Breast implant illness, I'm sure you were extremely fogged, just a guess. And of course, blood sugar is massively impacted by all of those other pieces too. So for me, it's always there's multiple pieces to the puzzle, no matter what, right? What is the thing that's burdening the blood sugar?

[00:11:56] Christa Biegler, RD: But I'd love to hear a little bit about how metabolism and blood sugar work was an epiphany in your own journey because undoubtedly it was otherwise I don't think you would be so connected to it. So like bridge that gap for us and let's get into some sneaky blood sugar stuff.

[00:12:12] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes, so this is something that like everything I've experienced in my life. I always joke and say, I have to learn the hard way, but it's it's the only way, because like you said, you can have all these certificates and titles and letters behind your name, but experience. experience is where you really gain knowledge, right?

[00:12:30] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: So experiencing these things firsthand, learning what helps and what pulls you out of it. And then bringing that in clinically is everything. So for me specifically I had done every protocol under the sun, right? I had tried everything, the lime, I, heavy metals, gut stuff, you name it. I had done it.

[00:12:49] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: But still was 40, 50 pounds overweight, right? And everybody says, Oh, detox the mold. It'll come right. It doesn't work that way. And so , what I found was the more I would try to move my body, the more I would try to dial in on things. I would be even more inflamed. My body was really fighting back and I started wearing a CGM years ago.

[00:13:12] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And this wasn't really trendy at that point. It wasn't really well versed, but I was like my numbers are in range, but looking back now and knowing what I know and collecting data from clients for years and years, I'm like in range, obviously just like conventional lab work is not good enough.

[00:13:30] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: We, you have to get, if you're still inflamed, you're still gaining weight, you have more energy on your body than you should have, right? Then there is a problem. And so then I tightened and I tweaked and I tightened that range to get into a more optimal state and everything just switched like inflammation dropped.

[00:13:49] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: I was losing weight consistently getting to my body, to a healthier place. I wanted to look as good as I felt on the inside. You know what I mean? And a lot of women feel that they're like, I feel like with how I'm eating and how I'm living, I'm doing all the things I'm eating clean. But I still don't look the way I, it doesn't match my lifestyle.

[00:14:09] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And I know that sounds really superficial in a way, but women and men, like there's something to like wanting to look and feel the same equal balance, right? It should reflect what you're doing on your day to day. So when I learn how to correct my own blood sugar and find that place of balance and test, like test, not just blood sugar, but ketones and learn all the nuances of what that means.

[00:14:35] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And Looking at the changes throughout our menstrual cycle and all those things, it became like a fine art, and then I can walk other people through that and just help learn the ins and outs of it. And it was a complete game changer for me, like so many ways, mood, anxiety the cognitive issues, the energy stability, all those things just went away.

[00:14:58] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: How long ago 

[00:14:59] Christa Biegler, RD: did you have that? Experience 

[00:15:03] Christa Biegler, RD: that allows you to then change things. 

[00:15:05] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes. So I would say probably four years ago was my first monitor. 

[00:15:10] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Have you been wearing a CGM ever since? 

[00:15:14] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes. I have one right now. Yeah. 

[00:15:17] Christa Biegler, RD: What would you say? So I think I also enjoy I had a short stint with the CGM and it was actually probably about four years ago and I enjoyed that, I had a kind of a different side of the coin with some colleagues close to me that said that it almost triggered.

[00:15:33] Christa Biegler, RD: some disordered behaviors from their past related to exercising a lot. I think there's a probably a sizable population, college age young women younger or older than that that over exercise, under eating is a huge issue for I know that this is a population that I like love because they're basic hormones, their thyroid adrenals go down the tank and they don't feel as awesome as they could and it doesn't really show up on labs super well, unfortunately, so I I care about this population.

[00:16:04] Christa Biegler, RD: But again, bringing in the mindset piece. What about when people look at it as a mental trigger? 

[00:16:11] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: That is a good question. And while I will say most people are like, yes, I want to know so I can ship things and optimize. You do have the people who you show them and they see the dysfunction and they get mad.

[00:16:25] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: It's rare you more so if somebody is going to invest in one they're going to be all in, but sometimes it can, like you said, people want to perfect it too much. And I tell them, I'm like, look, I did a month at a time. I do a month. I'd work on that for three months. I do it again.

[00:16:43] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Like you got to give your body time. It's not to evoke fear. It's to evoke awareness so that you can know what points in the day need the most support. What, even if you're just focusing on one meal, that needs the most support, if you're spiking the most at dinner, then we got to look at the dinner and the timing, right?

[00:17:00] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: But some people do feel threatened because if you think about changing your food requires daily intention and commitment, and a lot of people want to check out because we're so over, over consumed with everything else, right? We just want to eat the same thing every day. Just tell me what to eat.

[00:17:16] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: I'm just going to, and it becomes lost, right? Intuitive eating becomes lost. We're not eating cyclically, to support hormones and things like that. And so it just, Some people do feel threatened, or like you said, it triggers this disorder like orthorexia situation and usually at that point, I just, alright, we got our month of data, let's just work with what we got, let's come off of it, cause it, it can be hard to stay on it and try to perfect it while you're, why you have it?

[00:17:46] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, I think it lends itself to so much conversation on mindset, which we'll get to in a moment. And these are the beautiful things that you learn when you get to have community conversations with an individual person. And I would almost say there's a lot of discrepancy around the term intuitive eating.

[00:18:02] Christa Biegler, RD: It's almost let me back up to blood sugar. It would be easy for someone to check out right now while we're talking about blood sugar, because it's easy for people to not think that they have a blood sugar issue. Signs that I had blood sugar issues were that I would not leave home without snacks in my bag.

[00:18:18] Christa Biegler, RD: That was it, right? Like I would get hangry if I didn't get to eat. And I'm not saying that's necessarily like terrible, right? These are hunger cues to an extent also. But my mother had, I'm like the fifth of six children and my mom had gestational diabetes with the last two of us as she was in more advanced maternal age.

[00:18:39] Christa Biegler, RD: So I would imagine that kind of carried on, I don't know, these were pieces I put together because I also at one time was like, I don't have a blood sugar problem, right? And so it's very easy for us to not think we have an issue around something because you don't know what you don't know.

[00:18:54] Christa Biegler, RD: And then there's such that subclinical thing where it's not really falling into those. And yet blood sugar is such an easy thing for us to look at probably almost arguably one of the least expensive things we could do. You brought up intuitive eating, like intuitive, and I would say like intuitive eating can't even exist when you have issues with overeating or unconscious eating.

[00:19:16] Christa Biegler, RD: I think there's like a whole like disassociation and I had this is why I used to say Don't put me in front of the food. I will just start eating it and this is dissociation, right? It was like I was just disconnect like it was interesting. I you know, it's so good for us all to look at our relationship.

[00:19:32] Christa Biegler, RD: I always said like I didn't ever have a disordered eating relationship would be what I would say, but in general if you've sat me in front of food, I would just want to eat it when I was a kid. I was a picky eater then I loved food and then I'm like, Don't sit me by it. I'll just eat it. But that's really, it's so funny to let go through the layers of our onion.

[00:19:48] Christa Biegler, RD: And so I bring that up because I'm not the only one listening who's experienced that, right? Because you can accidentally really scream blood sugar when you behave like that, right? When you behave like that. So there's so much to behavior. 

[00:20:00] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes. And that's just societal, right? Like you're going to hang out with somebody, you're going to go out to eat.

[00:20:08] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Usually it's going to be after sunset, right? When you're most insulin resistant. And so literally or everybody's having their family dinner when everybody's home late on the day and wondering why they can't get in the fat burn overnight when they have their biggest meal of the day, later than dinner ever should.

[00:20:23] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: So it really is. It is unlearning. Unconditioning and you can't have normal hunger cues if your leptin, your cortisol, your insulin are out of whack. Yeah. So the goal is to always correct that in the process, 

[00:20:39] Christa Biegler, RD: you brought up another term about changing people's food, as someone who's trained as a dietician and my early functional medicine explorations were with manipulating food and food sensitivities.

[00:20:52] Christa Biegler, RD: I've like fully. 180 that whole experience, right? Where I'm actually not avoiding food unnecessarily, but it was very popular to do for over a decade. And we still stick with it. And it's still usually people's, usually food manipulation is still going to be, and I'm not saying it's, I know that's a huge piece of blood sugar stuff but it brings up a lot for people because sometimes people have gotten restrictive.

[00:21:12] Christa Biegler, RD: It's usually the first stop someone has had. And I have a little bit of a policy or a mantra that I try not to change someone's diet unless it's their idea. Because if it's my idea, they don't really want that. And I will tell you, I've had a ton of dietitians as clients very resistant to changing diets.

[00:21:27] Christa Biegler, RD: And I like, there's no judgment there. It's hilarious. It's no problem. No judgment. It is simply and there's a lot of stuff there on why that is right. Like everyone's I shouldn't have to do X, Y, Z, but I try not to change something like that unless it's their idea because we have so many emotions wrapped up into that.

[00:21:43] Christa Biegler, RD: So I bring that up because this is a wonderful safe space to like unpack interesting things and hopefully bringing these things up, bring something up for someone listening if they need it. Okay. You brought up a term. You said, after sun we're often eating our meals, our largest meal after sunset when we're more insulin resistant, let's talk about that more because I know you love circadian biology.

[00:22:05] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes. Okay. Okay. So what I find to be one of the biggest impingements on someone's metabolism is that it's all about their meal timing. So we're skipping meals in the intermittent fasting trend, which I'm all about some fasting, but let's be targeted. Let's be smart. Let's be protective of hormones, right?

[00:22:25] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And let's make sure that other things are checked off before we go there. That's how I approach things. You can't jump straight for somebody who's like shaky in between meals, have to eat every two to three hours. You can't pull them into a 24 hour fast. Like it's not going to happen. You have to stabilize blood sugar.

[00:22:40] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yeah. You have to, yeah. It's going to throw lots of electrolyte imbalances. It's going to be terrible. And they're going to hate you and probably never talk to you again. So I try to at least bring awareness into, all right, we got to stop skipping breakfast. We've got to give the proper signaling in the morning for breakfast to help, pad that cortisol response so that the body feels safe and fed.

[00:23:04] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: So that is so important, getting your sunshine. Before you even eat your meal, eat before you have your coffee, right? Don't do anything that's unnaturally going to skew that cortisol response in the morning. And then our cortisol is highest mid morning to noon ish. That's when our digestive capacity is at its largest.

[00:23:23] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And most people are, have their tiny little, I'm going to have some cheese and crackers, like a little salad. And that's when we should be having the bulk of our nutrition is during lunch to help once again, pad that cortisol response. And then we, if we really prioritize that dinner would naturally be lighter as cortisol drops off because when cortisol drops off, we are also as melatonin is taking the scene, we are becoming more insulin resistant when melatonin starts to take place around sunset.

[00:23:52] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: If we are eating at that time, melatonin can't do the cellular detoxification that needs to happen. All of those metabolic processes that need to happen, hormonal processes. And so when we are filling our tank, so to speak that late in the day, We're shunting all of those other regulatory things that need to happen.

[00:24:13] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And it's all seems to me so simple, even though I used to be that one that would snack while watching TV at 10 o'clock at night. So I can't say I've always been perfect, but it's learning to eat more in rhythm of your body, circadian and melatonin rhythm so that you can optimize and get the absolute best insulin response you can.

[00:24:32] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And that's one way I usually help. support. It's just shifting the meals and eating more at certain times of the day to support that. 

[00:24:42] Christa Biegler, RD: I want to talk about, I think that I bring this up early in my one on one programming with clients. And sometimes Perfectionist questions come in. What if this and this, and I was like, hey, this is more stressful.

[00:24:57] Christa Biegler, RD: Circumventing the success that could be had. So if you do not like it, you do not have to do this thing. That's up to you. That's individually up to each individual person. But I will offer, and this is like a fun caveat. It was, I spent a couple weeks in Europe last year. And I was on the lookout for, what is it that is healthier?

[00:25:15] Christa Biegler, RD: And I will say I feel like it varies by country very much. So I spent a lot of time in Spain and I think Spanish culture, which flows down and Portuguese that flows into South America, where I've spent some time. Honestly, the bulk of my overseas travel has been in these handful of countries there's very late dining.

[00:25:31] Christa Biegler, RD: And so I'd love to talk about if you have any feelings, cause I think this is funny. I'm like, they do not sleep. They drink all the time. They smoke. They look good. And so I think it's comical and I have my reasons like my reasons are that they are very happy and that they're dancing a lot. Quite truly.

[00:25:49] Christa Biegler, RD: I think if you're dancing after you're eating. You've fixed probably your blood sugar problem from eating like that. About the European dinner time of 9 or 10 p. m., which is very normal? 

[00:25:59] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes. I think that you're right about community. I think it's the state they're eating in, right?

[00:26:05] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: They are enjoying, they're not stress eating while they're driving. They're kids that car line, like just choking food down. It is the state that we eat in. It is the community, the movement, right? All of those things matter in the food supply, the amount of toxicity, right? They may not have as many things in their environment as we have in the United States that are making them more insulin resistant, right?

[00:26:31] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: They might be getting more sunlight during the day, right? They may not, have all of the blue light like we have here as much, so it's really like environmentally different. We have so many just things working against us. Plus the hustle culture, which they don't also have there either. So it's just a lot of things compiling.

[00:26:52] Christa Biegler, RD: I would say I pretty much echo that. That's my observation. I'm like, they're just having more fun than us as far as I can tell. Generally, as a culture, that's as far as that is what I could tell. Yes. All right. So we covered your story, some sneaky blood sugar stuff you mentioned things that improved for you.

[00:27:11] Christa Biegler, RD: Again, just to highlight, because I think it's good to just highlight sneaky things that might mean maybe you need to tend to your blood sugar, which is actually a lovely, less complicated intervention, potentially, anxiety, brain fog, shakiness. What else would you add to the potentially very long list?

[00:27:29] Christa Biegler, RD: If you're urinating a lot when you're drinking water, maybe you're not actually hydrating that much. Or, in other words, getting the fluid and nutrients into the cell. Electrolytes are minerals that help fluid and nutrients get into the cell. I recommend all of my clients start by drinking electrolytes when we begin our work together, so to improve energy.

[00:27:49] Christa Biegler, RD: And then we get even more strategic with our electrolyte recommendations as test results come in. Now, generally electrolytes are potassium, sodium, and chloride. One of my favorite electrolyte products is pickleball cocktail from jigsaw health, because it's one of the only products you can get with an adequate dose of potassium to meet my recommendations, which is critical for blood sugar, which everyone should care about hormone health.

[00:28:12] Christa Biegler, RD: And digestion, huge thing for relapsing digestive issues. Jigsaw health is also maker of the famous adrenal cocktail made popular by the pro metabolic corner of the internet and root cause protocol, as well as a multi mineral electrolyte for recovery called electrolyte supreme. You can get a discount on all of jigsaw's amazing products, including pickleball, electrolyte, supreme, and adrenal cocktail at jigsawhealth.

[00:28:36] Christa Biegler, RD: com with the code less stressed 10. That's three S's less stressed. Ten.

[00:28:42] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, panic. When you think of those hypo situations, right? The depersonalization on a really heavy level, which is another level of brain fog, right? Where you really you just it's a cognitive issue at that point, vision issues. But even, I even think Recurring symptoms, right?

[00:29:03] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Like a suppressed immune system and inability to heal. All of those things are a sign that there is a stressor happening biochemically every single day in your body. And a lot of energy is going into to fixing that blood sugar up and down rollercoaster, that's not going to all these other areas in the body.

[00:29:21] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: So hormone imbalances, all those things. 

[00:29:23] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. 

[00:29:24] Christa Biegler, RD: Cool. Very good. 

[00:29:25] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay. You have a statement and you have many statements that you make online that are like, sexy sound bites, which is great. This is like 

[00:29:32] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: straight into the point. 

[00:29:33] Christa Biegler, RD: Good for you. I love it. That's fantastic. I share many of your things.

[00:29:38] Christa Biegler, RD: There was one of them that you stated that I want to highlight before we move to mindset work, which is eating more doesn't balance blood sugar or make you more metabolically resilient or anything you want to say to that. 

[00:29:51] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes. And especially coming from my years as a personal trainer, we were taught to eat protein every two to three hours to be more metabolic.

[00:30:02] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Now you've got to think about the context of that, right? Where they're trying to stimulate mTOR protein synthesis, but they're also combining that style of eating with a very The usually working out a couple of times a day, right? Your strength training a couple of times a day, trying to give your body more protein, but I can't tell you how many X bodybuilders I work with because of eating so often and eat overeating protein, which anything we can't use for protein synthesis gets transmuted and changes into glucose and it's processed in the same way as the body would process sugar.

[00:30:38] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: We have to be intentional about pulling in also trained your body, right? To, okay, I've got to have this snack. It makes, it trains you to be less metabolic and hangry in between meals because now you've conditioned yourself. You've conditioned yourself to be a sugar burner at that part. And you can't get into fat adaptation if you're constantly feeding your body.

[00:30:59] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And that's really the nuance there is we have to give our body time in between meals for blood sugar and insulin to drop enough that we can burn. fat in between. 

[00:31:09] Christa Biegler, RD: Okay. So I know blood sugar is a passion of yours because it's very, been very life changing. It's such an, it's an easy, it's really not there's a bit of exploration, learning, adjusting, right?

[00:31:22] Christa Biegler, RD: But it's this kind of art. It's like you, you brought it up earlier. It's understanding the rhythms of your body, which I think is this beautiful thing that is actually the underpinning of, as I grow and transition, that's just the recurrent theme. Like we have these rhythms in nature, in our body, et cetera.

[00:31:39] Christa Biegler, RD: And when we ignore those, Our body, so quote unquote, fights back, but I know another area that you love is mindset work. And I think you even have a, I don't remember what your program is called. Something about, is it about change? I cannot remember what it is. 

[00:31:57] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes. 

[00:31:58] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes. Creating change. Yeah. The first time I've in doing something that's not out of the spectrum of this work, but it's not functional medicine by any means, but it's something that's missing for a lot of people. 

[00:32:09] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. So there's a lot of ways to do this. I feel that I went through, I'm on a three to four year experimentation of all kinds of nervous system modalities.

[00:32:19] Christa Biegler, RD: And I think I've landed for now, which is exciting because I, I was, I felt like I kissed a lot of frogs. I was like, that was fine. That was fine. And then I settled on, these were the things that were really transformational for me. Why don't I support my clients with these things? So I'm having a lot of fun with that.

[00:32:34] Christa Biegler, RD: And I'd love to hear how, Mindset work became a foundational, it's duh, but not duh. And I think I really want to hear it from a perspective of one from the client to see that there are people that are it's a unicorn thing, a beautiful, wonderful unicorn thing where it's like all being integrated in there.

[00:32:51] Christa Biegler, RD: And I also want for the practitioner who is listening to see, oh, there's opportunities for us to do these things. And it's a little bit of an uncoupling as a clinician because. To be honest, I don't really feel like I learned that in school either. And it wasn't my inclination. Whereas you have a foundation of psychology.

[00:33:07] Christa Biegler, RD: So maybe it was always a little bit there, like the interest in humans. And I would say I love assessing how humans tick also, but tell us about. Mindset work change the, what are some of the reasons that you felt really called to this and how this is unfolding more so in your practice?

[00:33:26] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yes. So yeah, it has been a part of my life for such a long time. I think a lot of that was because I was like the one in, I, I have, I'm from a family of eight, like you are. And I was like, why am I the only one out of all this whole family? I'm like, I'm going to like change. Yes. I'm rearranging my bedroom all the time.

[00:33:44] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: I'm changing degrees and jobs and all these things. And I just love it. And I embrace it. And I think every little thing I've learned has, given me a beautiful perspective of the world, but I have people in my family who are working the same job. They've been working for 40 years, no matter what, they will not change a thing.

[00:34:00] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Won't change their home, and I'm like, okay. But I also see how that is affecting their happiness. And I feel like I've, I'm very happy because I make a lot of change and shifts. So thinking from the, from a practitioner point of view is I look at it as how our thoughts actually influence our biochemistry, right?

[00:34:20] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: They're creating the same hormone neuropeptides, all of these things are right. And so we can't change our biochemistry, right? If we are. Keeping the same thoughts, habits, and actions that are promoting more of the same, right? So we have to start, and a lot of people aren't aware of what thoughts are driving them, right?

[00:34:41] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: That we're just running on this program, and it might even be a program that was passed down to us that we are just constantly running off of, and Like we've talked earlier, a lot of this healing journey is a lot of unconditioning and a lot of unlearning. And so when you can help someone be aware of their thought patterns, and a lot of people can't do that until they start to do some mindset work where you're just drowning out the noise, right?

[00:35:06] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: You're giving the mind time to settle so you can see what program you're actually running off of. And then from there, start to. Bring awareness into how that's driving your actions and behavior. And when you can stop and question, then you can start to think, okay this habit more in relationship to my past self or the future I'm trying to create?

[00:35:28] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And how can I create something new if I'm doing everything I used to do and just adding in some vitamins, right? It doesn't work. And I can't tell you how much of this working with clients, I see them I don't tell them to change their jobs or their relationships or move, but those are things that naturally happen as they start to heal their body and they start to get their cognition and their intuition back that they are making these big changes and it's all for the better.

[00:35:57] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: But sometimes we're it's stuck in that state of fog that we just, we're stuck. We're just living by default, right? We're just going through the motions of life. We're not truly living. And I've been there and it's a sucky place to be right. But as you heal your body, you get your blood sugar stable, you get your body to a place of homeostasis, then you can go deeper into some of that work.

[00:36:18] Christa Biegler, RD: I think this is so valuable because I want to point out that your smile was like the biggest and most vibrant when you were talking about that. 

[00:36:28] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: I love it. Yeah. 

[00:36:30] Christa Biegler, RD: Which is so funny. So funny because there's a lot of light bulbs going off for me as you were talking about that. I'm going to reiterate something you said.

[00:36:35] Christa Biegler, RD: We can't change our biochemistry if we just keep the same thought patterns, actions, behaviors, etc. And I have this client I love right now. She's amazing. But I remember she said to me, I'm getting this. Validation. She's doing a lot of testing before she came to me, which is fine. That's almost a phase two, right?

[00:36:54] Christa Biegler, RD: It's like you weren't getting testing to validate it. So now you're doing a lot of testing, right? Almost that, that could be another stage past the food manipulation thing that people often do. I'm seeing this I'm getting a lot of messages that my body's under stress. I don't know if I fully agree with it, but I cannot ignore that I'm getting these resounding messages.

[00:37:12] Christa Biegler, RD: And she said, I want to feel better, but I do not want to become a new person. I thought that was an interesting statement. I don't have judgment around it. I just thought how fascinating. And here's the beautiful thing. There's a beautiful piece to it is she sees, I don't have to become like, I don't have to quit my job, move to an Island and all these things.

[00:37:32] Christa Biegler, RD: Because when you change your thoughts, like your life actually gets better and shifts. And you did a beautiful job stating and summarizing some of this stuff. that I am exploring with my clients because it was so transformational to me and created basically my favorite version of my practice in my life as a currently stance, right?

[00:37:48] Christa Biegler, RD: By doing some of that thought management. And I'm very deeply in that working and it's just, I'm happiest in that place. And the reason it came up, it has become vital for my clients is that. I will test minerals and it's very validating. It'll show them subclinical issues. But my issue is I would tell them, I'm like these particular mineral shifts are not like, you're not going to see a change in this until you like have a change right here in your heart.

[00:38:14] Christa Biegler, RD: And I can tell you that. But it doesn't really you don't understand it. And now I can take 30 minutes and take you through tell me about how you feel about this situation and this situation. We can just sit with that for a second. I'm like, do you see how that is different? And it's oh, now I understand how the change in my heart has to happen.

[00:38:28] Christa Biegler, RD: Literally, it's so cool. And I'm thankful for all the frogs I kissed to get to that point where it's oh, it was just right here the whole time, actually. What else? It's actually very simple and very easy. It's just a simple framework of observing your thoughts and patterns and even just from this conversation Stacey and I don't have something proprietary necessarily, right?

[00:38:46] Christa Biegler, RD: Around that. So just get curious first about your thoughts. And I would say the main piece that I see here in you, you stated so beautifully is that we often think that our beliefs and our thoughts are facts and they're not facts. So often they're not facts, like just observe your thoughts about something.

[00:39:04] Christa Biegler, RD: If your thought about Oh, that person's health must be nice for them. Their health is easy. And I'm like, Ooh, that is not a fact. That is your thoughts about the situation. And that's where it's beautiful to have someone else there to help you like illuminate that. And the reality is this feels really good and also can feel like a touch uncomfortable too when you first start to observe your own thoughts.

[00:39:22] Christa Biegler, RD: So I'll just mention that also. 

[00:39:25] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yeah. And I think just one more tidbit on that. Remember that our subconscious is desperately seeking to validate our right now. 

[00:39:33] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. 

[00:39:34] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: So if our thoughts are thoughts of the past and thoughts of worry and fear and all of these things, our subconscious is going to find things to reaffirm that every single day.

[00:39:43] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: So you have to think. Bigger than you are now. And that's hard for a lot of people, right? Kids do that. They use their imagination all the time. Kids are so happy, but we can only see right now. And we're just creating more of the same if that's where we're stuck. So it's if you want your subconscious to work with you on this.

[00:40:03] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: You have to start thinking that this is even a possibility because if you are staying in that victim role which no judgment, I've been there too, but you have to start to assess like, why am I holding on to this? Am I meeting a basic human need? Am I finding love and connection with my spouse because I'm in this victim state, or maybe, people are calling me and I'm terrified to lose that if I get better because I have this connection with this sickness, it's bringing me some, so you really have to like assess and validate, but you can only do that if you actually start to practice awareness.

[00:40:38] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. It's so honestly, it's just so fun. It's so fun to be able to see that, Oh, everything I have is a choice. That's all. Everything I have is a choice. It is alarming. And actually, just to give you a very real example, it's so funny I think we all need this, no matter what. There's no one who doesn't need to observe their thoughts and what their beliefs are.

[00:41:04] Christa Biegler, RD: But just My daughter was texting me yesterday about something in her relationship and I was like, okay, and there's a difference would you like me to hold space for this? Would you like me to just listen? Would you like to vent? Or would you like some coaching around it?

[00:41:15] Christa Biegler, RD: And she's I don't think I need coaching. But as she's continuing to talk about it, I was like yes, you are like your subconscious is looking to avoid pain. How normal, how absolutely normal that you're experiencing that your subconscious does not want pain. Unfortunately, that is not how life works.

[00:41:32] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: We're predicting the worst 

[00:41:34] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: case scenario and that is a survival mechanism, but when you understand that I used to even be triggered by my emails, like just by the, just like the first few words in an email, I'd be like in fight or flight, like looking at that as a threat. And it's just you have to bring yourself down and remember that is a threat.

[00:41:53] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Human behavior to avoid pain and conserve energy, and we don't want to get kicked out of the tribe. So we're always going to predict the worst possible thing that could happen, because if we survive that we're going to make it, 

[00:42:04] Christa Biegler, RD: I think another place that shows up for. both clients and clinicians is there's almost this like very sexy, there's a very sexy movement for people after doing one on one to leave one on one.

[00:42:16] Christa Biegler, RD: And really, I think that you have to address your feelings and thoughts around that before you do that, because otherwise it will follow you into the next phase. Like you're going to be triggered by the email or whatever. Maybe it's already there regardless, because I think our main stressors come from our relationship with ourselves and our relationship with others.

[00:42:31] Christa Biegler, RD: So anything you're triggered by in a relationship with any person is fair game to work on. In my opinion. And I know we're like a slight kindred spirit here because when, before we even hit record, you said, I love to be live with my people, right? I love to be able to interact with them. I'm like, Oh, I totally get it.

[00:42:47] Christa Biegler, RD: I love real connection with people. And anytime someone tries to sell me a version, that's not a real connection. I was like, I just see that this is very inefficient actually. If I could just get face to face with this person, we could get to the root of the cause. It's like 

[00:43:00] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: literally, yeah.

[00:43:01] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Or you're just 

[00:43:02] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: con, you're contributing more to the overload of information and not application of it. You know what I mean? 

[00:43:08] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. 

[00:43:08] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: And not to say I take a lot of those programs and I've always gotten tidbits, but would they be more, and even your brain is gonna get more out of even a webinar or anything like that if you are actively.

[00:43:20] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yeah. I just feel like saying things and writing notes, you're going to get 50 percent more out of it. If it is wise. You know what I mean? So for me, it's a no brainer. 

[00:43:27] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. So many like little new one. I think like life. Often. Like a lot of it is in the nuance and there's ways to do everything. So it's not necessarily knocking anything.

[00:43:38] Christa Biegler, RD: It's simply. It's simply, it just reminds me of, when you're interacting with humans and people send you a message and I have this quick question, I was like, I think we better talk about this. We better have a conversation. We'll get to the real. Tell me what's really happening because this question is like very dancing around the topic right now.

[00:43:55] Christa Biegler, RD: And I do not believe that this is the real question. Let's get underneath the question. And so I feel like that is actually so common. And I think that's one reason I'm so drawn to like having real connections with individuals. So I agree. Super fun. Okay, let's highlight we can't change our biochemistry with, we keep the you will just be stuck.

[00:44:13] Christa Biegler, RD: And when I finally realized there were so many layers of me realizing that for clients, it can look like you being reliant on a particular clinician, honestly. That's how it felt for me, because I was like, Oh, I'm disempowering this person by allowing them to be here forever. That was a weird shift that I like realized a couple of years ago.

[00:44:31] Christa Biegler, RD: And I was like, Ooh, yeah, you're in better service. If you go work on your nervous system now that's actually the real thing we're here right now. That's like the piece of the overwhelm. And if anything else, I feel like we all have all of these same as the more I get to coach with clients, the more I'm like, overwhelm comes up all the time and that's okay.

[00:44:48] Christa Biegler, RD: It's no problem. It's a super normal human experience. It's just let's unpack it. No problem. Let's like look at what that actually means. So anyway. Yeah, I love it. Talk all day about that stuff. Blood sugar stuff, it's more than diabetes. It's more than passing your glucose test during pregnancy, which by the way, I did not pass either.

[00:45:05] Christa Biegler, RD: So no wonder I had blood sugar stuff. I always failed the first one, but here's your sign Krista. 

[00:45:10] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yeah. 

[00:45:10] Christa Biegler, RD: And then talking about we talked about insulin resistance. We touched on very briefly circadian biology, which has been a topic here and there all over. Definitely I love that.

[00:45:19] Christa Biegler, RD: I feel, I don't know if you feel, I feel like some of these beautiful, simple concepts are really taking kind of the, our online world a little bit by storm in a wonderful way. And I don't know if I said this on recording, but I said it before we hit recording. I'm resistant to adding anything else to practice that costs my clients more money at this point, right?

[00:45:36] Christa Biegler, RD: Because it used to be that our clients came to us. Because they weren't getting answers at the doctor, but unfortunately now sometimes, and this is like no shade thrown at anyone. I find that I'm going through a lot of stuff where maybe they've actually done some version of functional medicine or whitewashed functional medicine as I like sometimes like to call it.

[00:45:53] Christa Biegler, RD: And they still aren't quite there. That's no problem. No problem. There's so many options. Don't worry. It just takes a little bit more. I always feel like I want to make sure I'm going through that stuff really beautifully for them because I don't want them to get lost between the cracks anymore.

[00:46:07] Christa Biegler, RD: Dr. Stacey. What comes to mind if you want people, we talked about lots of topics. It was great. I loved it. What comes to mind if you have a message that you want to share with listeners cause people always want what can I do with this? What's an application one or two points, whatever, like is the sentiment that you want to leave people with?

[00:46:29] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yeah, that's such a good question. I think that. We always have to be thinking the body is designed to heal itself, right? And so the goal should always, it is always hidden in the day to day. What is kicking you out of that state, right? What is keeping you what's in your environment?

[00:46:50] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Being internally driven. There's something that's kicking you out of that state, but never think for any reason that your symptoms are your body working against you. It's your body trying to heal. And so how can you support that? Remember that the body always worked better with flow over force.

[00:47:07] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: So how can you lean into that more so that the body can heal itself? 

[00:47:12] Christa Biegler, RD: Beautiful. Where can people find you online? 

[00:47:15] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Yeah, so I spend most of my time on Instagram. I don't have time to do any other social at this point. I will be doing YouTube here soon. But yeah Instagram and my podcast are where I spend most of my time and energy.

[00:47:27] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: So yeah. 

[00:47:28] Christa Biegler, RD: And you're at DrStacyND, I think. 

[00:47:31] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: At. Dr. Stacy Andy. Huh. Yeah. And then I have group. By wellness. And then I do the group things I just launched late last year. So lots of different ways to catch me. 

[00:47:42] Christa Biegler, RD: Perfect. I am so thankful for our time together today. 

[00:47:45] Christa Biegler, RD: Thank you. for coming on today.

[00:47:47] Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker: Thanks for having me.