What is up and welcome back to Talk Nutrition. Today we are joined by Diego Reyes. What's up Diego? What's up, how you doing? Good man. Haven't seen you in a couple of months. It was nice and sunny last time I saw you. We haven't had that over here. have back in Norway. back in Norway. It's good though. How you been? I've been good, busy, you know the coach life. You don't know what time of year it is. You just kind of always doing it, pushing. Like I said, I was in Florida for a little bit and I was living there, which was a total culture change. And then I was doing work down there actually. And then I actually came back to Minnesota now. And so now I got a home office, everything like that. So it's been pretty nice. I actually have some employees now too. So. That's always nice, you know, getting people to help you out. So that's always nice, you know, making more change and making more impact overall. Cool. So yeah, let's start with you because we have a lot of new listeners also, plus you haven't been on our podcast yet. So first of all, like who are you? Like, what do you do? Yeah, so I'm what you can call, I like to say, I don't say a functional health coach, I say a functional hybrid health coach. So what that means is that I like to take fitness, macros, training, and things like that, and blend it with like functional medicine. And the word now is functional attrition, you should say. But so I like to blend both worlds together, because that's like what the individual needs in today's time. What that means is that kind of more so people are dealing with, you know, not only like just, you know, they don't need to just lose weight, you know, or they just, you know, and what that means is like, if I just give them like a straight caloric deficit and, you know, hardcore training hit, that's not really going to solve the real, you know, root cause of their, of their, why they even gained weight, you know? And so like, there's a lot of other issues. So most people come in, you know, and they're like, Hey, I just want to lose weight. But you know, when they come in and you're looking at their blood sugar levels, you're looking at, you know, either blood work, or anything like that, you can kind of see like there's a lot of just imbalances and dysregulations going on. And so those need to actually be corrected first. Not only that, but you honestly can get make better transformations, you can feel even better once you get those underlying internal processes corrected head on and then you can go into more of the aesthetic goals. 100 % I feel like It's not it's not done right by a lot of people in the space. I feel like because you're right I mean right now we we always have to get more functional because Issues are showing up more and more but what do people usually do it's like I want to lose weight. Okay, cool. Here's a meal plan. Let's go like day one calorie deficit, right? Then there's all the calorie deficit coaches and people online. It's like just a calorie deficit and Yeah, sure. If someone is otherwise healthy and things are actually functioning, yeah, maybe we can do that. But if there's something going on, it's just not the way to go, you know. Yeah, 100%. And so, you know, and people argue about it. And it's just like a sense of like, preparing down the road. Because the thing is, is that when most people get a diet, a weight loss diet from a coach or whatever, they just stick on the diet for the rest of their life. And that's usually a calorie deficit diet. And so what people do is they think they continue to, you know, live the hectic lifestyle they live in and the environment that's just bombarded with all types of toxins and things like that, which we'll get into. Talking about thyroid health. And then all the other things that are in the society we live in today, just straight, always dopamine driven. There's just so much stress everywhere. And what it does is you become maladapted. You just are unresponsive to stimulus you give yourself. And so what that means is like most people, you know, are training really hard, eating calorie deficits, and they're not seeing a change. So what they think is they need a higher coach and then the coach puts them on, you know, like a calorie deficit. Or they might do, you know, there are coaches that will do like a refeed type thing, but they're not paying attention to biomarkers that are of health. What that essentially means is like they're not looking at their blood sugar. They're not looking at their hormone levels. They're not looking at... You know how well their gut health digestion is they're kind of just like okay We're gonna do it refeed real quick and then we're going to you know Go into the deficit, which is fine and all but the thing is is that with me i'm wanting to do everything Okay, and I want to get the body primed I want to get everything optimal on a hormonal level and then on a digestion level and then on obviously, you know metabolic level and then I want to you know, put them into that deficit and you know train them and then you know, give better results because essentially my ROE is higher, which is rate of efficiency. Meaning that I can, that my clients, you know, like female clients can lose weight, get toned at 2200 calories rather than 1200 calories. And by feeding them at that 2200 calories, they have more energy, they're not getting nutrient deficiency, deficiencies, they're, you know, optimal hormonally. So like even like things like that. I love that. I think it's important. And like I said, it's becoming more and more necessary to I've seen it more and more. I mean, we have people in the US as well as over here. And I will say this, like I see most functional issues or at least I'll say this among my clients. I have more American clients who deal with functional issues, but it's showing up here too, you know, and I talked to people and it's like, hey, gut health, right? Guts, the mess, digesting. Also hormones, right? Not being able to lose weight. Having tried all the diets, you know, it's definitely like a worldwide thing I feel like, and we have to go that direction because I mean, we're all stressed, we're all crazy busy, we're all dealing with the toxins, you know, and stress is such a big moment. Yeah, yeah and what going in on top of a stress a lot of the times people think that stress is just a noun and I'd like to reiterate this a lot that stress is just most people think they're just like stress is just like emotional or like relationship I just end a relationship or I'm in a toxic relationship or I have financial stress. Yes, those are all stresses and those can indefinitely 100 % play a role but stresses there's other ones. Okay, when we talk about our toxin accumulation load, that's a stress on our body. When we continue to under eat, That's the stress in our body. When we continue to overtrain, get no sleep, not be hydrated, that's the stress in our body. Okay, and so now we're thinking about all these other stressors that are coming in. Okay, so it's not just one thing, it's many things. And then we think about inflammation, you know, problems in the gut, like that's all, you know, autoimmune issues. Like these are all stressors, okay, where they're all getting thrown at us. So when we're talking about stress, we're not just talking about one thing, it's many things. percent. So where do you, where would you start someone off? Like let's say they come to you, right? We're dealing with a bunch of different issues like hormones, cut, etc. Like how would you kind of start them off? Yeah. So I usually, like I said before, I do start with a refeed, but the way that I like to refeed the individual, I like to, you know, obviously take in their biomarkers, meaning I like to see what variances do they have, whether it be they're having poor gut health, poor, you know, thyroid health, poor blood sugar regulation. So I like to take all those into account in the intake form. And then from the intake form, I'm able to see what do I need to work on during the refeed process. Okay. And so how I do that is by the way that I'm dieting the individual with all sorts of the macro ratio and the type of food that they're eating to the micro nutrient level to support, you know, any of those issues that they might be having. So I'd like to, you know, if someone's coming in and they're looking to lose weight, I'm still, you mean that's the majority of them, right? But so I'm usually like doing a refeed, but. Like I said, the way that I like to refeed, I like to support the endocrine system, their stress, their adrenals. And by what I mean by support is, obviously give them lifestyle coaching as well, where it's like, this is like some things like, let's try to get more sleep, let's try to get our relationships that are just hurting us, not helping us. And then obviously using specific supplementation, smart supplementation to help with regulating systems in the body. And so by doing that, I'm able to bring the body back into what you'd want to say alignment, meaning that like it's back to optimal functioning. So then I can stress the body more because most people just come in and they're already overstressed, underfed and dealing with so many different issues. And so by me, you know, refeeding them strategically, getting the body back into alignment, getting the stress, helping them manage their stress more efficiently, teaching them, you know, more of the nutritional side of things, you know, I'm able to really make a transformation. And that kind of goes into, it's a little bit different because I do work with a lot of people that understand macronutrients. They understand nutrition on a pretty basic level, but they don't understand nutrition on a functional level. So like they understand like obviously protein is good. They understand carbohydrates. They understand fats. They understand what is totally the alien energy expenditure. Like they know all that. but they just don't know what they should be doing for their functional issue. That's not everyone, but that's the majority of people. So people that come into me, we're more so looking at, I'm looking at results. We're doing results. And so there's other coaches that do lifestyle coaching. And I've had clients come to me, they weren't clients, but they've had people come to me and they're kind of like, yeah, I want this thing, this thing, this thing. And I'm kind of like, yeah, I really don't do that. Even though I could, I just don't. And that's more so, you know, making sure, making sure you got your water in, making sure that you, you are, you know, this is, this is what a macro is. This is what that like, I, those are more like lifestyle people that I suggest to go with other people that I know personally that are coaches that I've coached myself, that I've coached them because they were down functional issues, but they're more lifestyle coaching. Yeah. I think there's a time and place for both. I think it's important to kind of know where the people are at. And like you said, right? Okay, we can always refer out just how someone else who's a lifestyle coach, okay, they would probably refer out to you if there's a functional issue, right? I think it is important because you're talking, you know, macros and understanding things already. I feel like that's necessary to, to be able to stick to something like... I got protocol or anything functional related, right? Yeah, 100%. It's all together. And the reason why it's so confusing out there as the person that's not a coach, which is hard to find nowadays, right? I'm just kidding. Is they don't know, everyone's dogmatic. So everyone has kind of their own way of doing things. And so you see people that are just plant-based or you see people that are just keto, okay, still. You see people that are just like, They're like, like, like you look at like Dr. Pompa, like he's like, it's like he's just detox, you know? And so people like get just put in this like type of like box. And so they're like, all I need is that, is that detox program. Yes. The thing is, is that, yes, you do need to go and detox program. Yes. You do need to go into a training program. And that's what's special about me is that we get them everything. But back to what you're saying, like most people don't like you were saying it all, it's all together. Like everything is together. You should know everything should be together. And so, you know, there's a time and a place to do the liver cleanse, the gut protocol, whatever. And then there's a time and a place to jack up the protein, you know, focus on hypertrophy, building muscle for metabolism, for aesthetic goals. Okay, and then there's a time for, you know, longevity, making sure that blood sugar's okay and all that. And this is the problem, is that nobody... wants to periodize things, meaning they don't want to have times where they do this thing and then they don't want to have times where they do this thing. And it's causing a problem. And even as a coach and to a client, it's really nice to show the client about this because it gives them realistic expectations and it gives them more so like a really solid roadmap idea of what's going to happen inside a program. Dude, it's so important. It like that whole seasonality to nutrition and anything lifestyle, like it has to be there, you know? And I mean, I have a lot of, you know, Crossfitters in the area and it's always like go hard, right? And that's fine. Like you can go hard, but like, here's the thing. I think about this all the time. It's like, people are trying to follow, like, let's say like athlete, like top athlete kind of programming. And that's cool. But also that top athlete that you're following. has an off season, preseason, end season, right? It's not go, go, go all the time. about all the tools they have in their hands with the recovery modalities, with all of that. And that's all we see. That's the clients we see. We're seeing people that, you know, they're waking up in the morning, they're not hydrated at all, and they're going straight to the gym sweating. They're just stressing the body out more. And then they come back, you know, they're rushing to get the kids up or whatever. And then they're, you know, just headed off to the work day, pounding coffee without hydrating again. And then they're just kind of like, you know, going throughout their day, they're overstressing and then, you know, just, and then they go home and they binge and then they don't like themselves because they don't look good and they train hard. And now they're super confused and frustrated and it's an endless cycle. Then their endocrinologist wants to put them on more medicine. So yeah. It's a difference that we have to see. That we cannot train like the athlete who has those resources, who has the massage therapist, who can sleep 10 hours or whatever it is. This is the stuff you don't see, right? And then we have normal people, let's call it, right? Like you and me, like we work, right? And our clients, right? You have jobs, you have kids, you're busy, you're running around, you're under-eating, you're overtraining. you're probably not sleeping enough. Like it's such a difference. And that's why I think it's also difficult, right? Because people want to do the hard workouts and they're like, hey, I'm doing something good for my fitness. Yet we're actually just overstressing the body, right? Yeah, and it's just that everyone wants to get, it's like, it's like nothing's working. So they're going to try the more extreme thing to do. So now they're not just, you know, now they're just not doing the AM workout. They're doing a PM workout or they're not just doing the AM workout. Now they're integrating a keto type diet or it's not that now keto type diet is not working. So now they're doing fasting and it's just like, it's, it's a state of more. And then I think that's what society is. It's always more and it's always grind time. And I find myself doing that as well. And I see other coaches that are very vulnerable with that as well. They're like, I keep trying to push even though I'm a coach. I keep trying to push myself and everyone needs rest. 100 % and I'm guilty of this too man. Like right now I'm full transparency a little tired. I've been working a lot like there's a lot of things in the background kind of like, you know that we're working on which is super exciting. But yeah, it's it's easy to fall into that and I still catch myself do it too. So it's like I'm also not saying this from a point of like, well, you should know better. It's like no it makes sense that we kind of like go for that stuff. But yeah, dude, like we need to slow down because otherwise like we're gonna either get sick. We're gonna get You know, injured, burned out. Yeah, and that's kind of, you know, and what we're talking about seems very generic, but to be honest, this is the root of the problems I'm seeing, we're seeing, you're seeing, and the whole world is seeing today with, you know, all sorts of thyroid problems, all sorts of hormonal imbalance, all sorts of gut problems. Like, what we're, what Johan and I are talking about, like we just explained for the past 10, 15 minutes. is the root cause of why you're dealing with these problems. And it's not like you woke up one day and you didn't just wake up with hypothyroid. You didn't just wake up with estrogen dominance, hormonal imbalance. But obviously there's genetic predepositions, 100%. But your body adapts to the environment that you're in. So it's called environmental adaption. Your body suit it. you know, adapts the environment you live in, which is the chaotic lifestyle that you are living on your day -to -day basis. So like, what we're talking about is actually the core of why you are struggling with this problem. And you know, and that's why we need to do these other things first before we can even try to make you, you know, look good in a bikini or look good, you know, in the mirror and stuff like that. And that's hard too, because like you just said, people come to us for the most part to lose fat. That's usually the main goal or at least a big part of it. And then hearing, shit, well, actually I got to eat enough. I got to eat more. That's hard sometimes, you know, I got to train less sometimes, you know, I got to sleep more. It's like, no, I want to start the fat loss phase. It's difficult. Yeah, it's like, it's like, they, it, it, it, it, I see it a lot with, you know, I don't know. I have a lot of clients tell that are, you know, they were like, I wouldn't, they're, some of them ex competitors, but they're like, they, they just can't have a day off of training. It's like, that's how I destress. It's actually not how you destress. It's like, actually you have an emotional issue that you just don't want to work on. And like, that's hard for some people, you know? And I don't call myself a psychiatrist or anything or a therapist, but it's just a cover up on what's really going on. So you just stress yourself. And you think that working out more, working out every day is actually a stressor, but it's actually de -stressor, but it's actually is stressing you. I think we need to be able to have those conversations, you know, like we need to be able to just have that chat and be like, Hey, you know, like doing it every single day is also not healthy. Right. And the fact that we cannot take the day off, that's also a red flag that there is something to that. Right. it's, yeah, I mean, I've had plenty of people come to me, like train seven times a week, right. Do cross it like four days and then three days of like long distance running. I'm like, We got to rest because this is like, he cannot keep going. And then they come to me like 1200 calories and like 40 grams of protein, you know, and no fiber. So it's like, this needs to be fixed first before we can even consider like a fat loss phase, like in maybe two months, if that, you know. bizarre. It's bizarre because it's like, you know, when you start really painting it out loud and you help the client understand, it's kind of like a no brainer. It becomes for them where it's like, this is why I didn't feel well. I'm, you know, I'm not, you know, eating enough food. I'm overstressing. I'm overtraining. And, you know, I'm doing all these types of diets. I mean, all this type of different foods. And it's, you know, And so it really opens up their eyes to understand like, okay, this is why I don't feel well. Yeah. And that's something that's where coaching comes in, I feel like. Right? That's where we need that coach because otherwise we're going to do more and then it's going to be, I don't know, 75 hard and then it's going to be the next thing. And we're just adding more and more. It's like, no, we actually need someone of a seasonal approach to kind of fix these issues. So let's actually dive a little bit more into like hypothyroidism and just in general, thyroid issues. Because I see you talk about it a lot. which I think is great. And I think it sounds very advanced, but you'll see too, to listen to it, right? So a lot of very basic like lifestyle habits and nutrition, like it all plays into that. But how did you kind of get so passionate about talking about thyroid? Yeah, so I mean I got educated on thyroid from different mentors and stuff like that and you know it it just I always wanted to I always like to do things that you know enhances the body and it's you know my results and people's you know sense of vitality and so I really found out that it had to do a lot with thyroid because really thyroid you know specifically the hormone that you have which is t3 speaks to every cell in the body. It's almost like the master of your metabolism, but it's also like regulating, you know, your whole metabolic rate. You know, and it plays a role into the mitochondria and things like that. So what I found out was that, you know, everyone's dealing with a thyroid issue. And like, you know, and the thing is, I'm like primarily women, you know, and the thing is, is that, what's going on right now is that the reason so the thing is is like Okay, you're eating this caloric deficit or you know You're doing all these things and yet you're not losing weight and then later on they tell you the person they tell the coach like the coach is like Looking at their last resort. They're like, what do I need to do? What do I need to do? And they're like, yeah I'm on like 100 milligrams of level of peroxide or 100 micrograms of synthroid and you're like and they're like they're not even sure what that even means, but really that's like a problem because that means that they have a poor metabolism, they have poor thyroid health. And really the thyroid affects so many systems within the body that when you're dealing with one, more talk about functional approach, when you're dealing with a problem like a hormonal imbalance, your thyroid's involved. When you're dealing with a gut problem, your thyroid's involved. And so people are just always like, disease begins in the gut, which is absolutely correct. but thyroid plays a pivotal role throughout the whole body, even blood sugar regulation. And so I found out that if I prioritize thyroid health first, I'm able to help with resetting the metabolic function, helping to reset the rest of the hormones, like your sex hormones, like testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, androgens as well. and I'm able to help correct the liver and correct the gut. And the thing is that the thyroid's not the issue, unless it's Hashimoto's. Usually the thyroid is just the back up of it all. It is just, I like to give this scenario. When you are dealing with a thyroid issue, let's say you've been diagnosed with hypothyroid, it's almost like a check engine light went on in your car. And so when you have a check engine light, going off on your car, it doesn't say exactly what's going on. It just has a check engine light. That's the same as with the thyroid issue, unless it's Hashimoto's. Autoimmune. And so what that means is that it might be your oil, it might be your spark plugs, it might be your ignition, whatever it may be. And so what that means is that, relating back to thyroid, it's not just, it's not your thyroid that's the problem. It's just the backup of everything. So what that means is that it's either like a stress problem, an infection problem, a gut problem, inflammation problem, toxin problem, malnutrition, nutrient deficient problem. Like it could be many things. And so, you know, if I work on, you know, all these other things that are surrounding the thyroid and then prioritize a little bit of thyroid support, you know, you can indefinitely, you know, you know, help the metabolism turn back on. And what about Hashimoto's? So when people... so here's the thing, hypothyroidism is not a disease unless it's Hashimoto's. So like I just talked about, your thyroid reacts, just like all the other hormones, it reacts in the environment. So what we're talking about, if you're overstressing, under -eating, dealing with a lot of toxins, all of that, your thyroid will take a hit. You do not have a disease at that point. The lifestyle you live puts you in hypothyroid. Now, the thing is that you could have a disease, which is Hashimoto's. What happens now is that the immune system starts attacking the thyroid gland. And you know, if left untreated, which unfortunately, sad, you know, most of the times it does, it really just destroys the thyroid and so it becomes nothing. And then you will have to be on thyroid medication the rest of your life, which I know coaches that are thyroid coaches that do that because they actually are on thyroid medication because their thyroid is fried. And so, you know, and so, a lot of the, this is a big sign is that majority of people are taking thyroid medication, but still not getting better. And that is a tall tale sign that there is possibly an autoimmune issue like Hashimoto's. And actually when I was talking to another guy, it was actually a doctor, he was mentioning that 90 % of hypothyroidism you know, patients that go into his clinic are actually Hashimoto's. And this actually goes into what you were talking about, is that the reason why they're not doing this is because they're just testing TSH and just testing T4. And the reason that this is a problem is because they're not getting the entire picture. Most people are going to the Western medicine, the primary care doctor, they're doing regular blood work and in that is just a TSH and T4. And that's not the entire picture of the thyroid. Okay, your thyroid has antibodies, And there's so much other things like reverse T4, the T3, there's TRH and things like that that all involve, but primarily focusing on TGA, antibodies, that's a sign if elevated that you might have Hashimoto's. I think it's a frustrating one when it comes to just, just seeing TSH, but then also having that person being on thyroid medication. I just had a talk with someone like two days ago. She's like, okay, so I had my TSH tested again and we're going to change the dose. So I was like, Hey, do you have any other markers like send it over for review? And I had a look, there's like not a single other marker to be found, like not even T4. So for a listener too, because I know these are a lot of different difficult, different words and you know, it's like TSH is kind of like the signal between the brain and the actual thyroid gland, which then has to create like T4, which then needs to be converted hopefully to T3, but it can also go to reverse T3. So you can imagine if we only have TSH and it's only the brain kind of telling the thyroid what to do, but we have no idea what's... actually happening from that moment we actually don't know we actually don't know what's happening Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. And the thing is, is that like you, you ask someone, everyone knows someone with hypothyroid. They like, everyone knows. Like if you're like, if you talk to one of your clients right now, that's a female, or if I talk to one of my like they, they will list at least one or two people that have hypothyroid. So, you know, it's, it's, it's a big thing. And what's the unfortunate, the unfortunate thing is that these women are coming to me, they're, you're in tears. They're like, I'm, my hair is falling out. My lips are so dry. my nails are coming off and I'm taking thyroid medication and I still don't feel well. And so this is the other side of things. Is that, yes, 90 % of people with hypothyroidism might have an autoimmune issue, Hashimoto's. But on the other side of the thing, thyroid hormone, replacement isn't going to fix the root cause of a poor thyroid function if it's hypothyroid because the conversion of thyroid hormone like Johan was saying from you know the thyroid gallant the brain TSH to the thyroid okay that conversion there okay yes that happens in the thyroid gland a majority of it okay and it goes into T4 but that T4 into T3 conversion Doesn't just happen in the thyroid gland. It happens in other areas as well like the gut the liver Tissue like peripheral tissue. Okay heart and so what happens is that? It's it's the conversion is hindered and So because the because the individual is dealing with a gut dysbiosis like being with a gut problem or they're dealing with You know high inflammation or they're dealing with poor liver detox or toxic overload? So what's happening is that the individual is taking levothyroxine or synthroid, but that conversion of T4 and T3 is not happening because it doesn't just happen in the thyroid gland. And that's why the medicine is faulty because it's not even converting. And so the reason why they're like, okay, I just need to give you more, well, no. And then there's something called thyroid desensitization where the body's not even responsive to thyroid hormone anymore, which is a whole topic in itself, but you know, Hopefully I'm trying to make this very digestible for the listener. When you are taking the hormone like levothorax or synthroid, it has to convert into the active form because that is primarily a T4 hormone. But that activation of it from T4 and T3 doesn't just happen in the thyroid gland. It happens in other tissues as well. Yeah. And then you might get reverse T3, which is actually not what we want. Like that's kind of like slowing down metabolism. Yeah, 100 % because then a majority of it will just go to reverse T3. And back again, no one's even testing that. The primary is not testing that. Okay. And this actually gets me into a different topic. I'm not trying to sidetrack, but I see a lot of people in, you know, they're going to their functional medicine doctor. They're going to, you know, the alternative holistic center. And all that the individual is giving them is selenium, zinc. Tyrosine or something like that, which will help if you are deficient in that. But will not fix the root cause of your thyroid issues because you are not correcting the other receptor sites of hormone getting transferred. So what that means is that the individual is not feeling well on selenium, zinc, tyrosine. Okay, they're not feeling well still because the other conversion spots of that T4 and T3 are hindered still. And this is the thing going back to the beginning when we're talking about dogmatic, is that the alternative care doctor, physician or whatever, is just doing either a parasite cleanse or just doing a thyroid protocol. But the thing with, the smarter thing to do is to actually blend them together because they all work together. And it doesn't make sense when you think about it as a functional approach. You don't just isolate different organ systems and you don't just isolate systems in the body, you make it work together. So when someone's doing a parasite cleanse or whatever, a gut detox, they're not focusing on other systems because I don't know why, truthfully, but it needs to be done. Because if you just give someone zinc and selenium and tyrosine, yes, that could help a little bit, but it's not going to fix the root cause because if they're dealing with some type of, you know, like SIBO, leaky gut or anything like that, that's also hindering the conversion of thyroid hormone. So no matter how much zinc, selenium you take or whatever, you're still not correcting the root cause. No, I think there's kind of two things to that because I mean, we see the same with diets. We see the same with exercise. It's like, hey, I'm a bodybuilder and everything else sucks. I'm a CrossFitter and everything else sucks. It's like the thing that I do is the thing. And we know this with diets. It's the same. You know, we have vegan, carnivore. I mean, so many camps. So that's one factor, I guess. The other one, I was thinking about this recently, and you know this as well, for people like you and me, we create content. We speak to a certain person that we want to help. And we also know, because we're kind of like doing courses in this kind of stuff, it's like, okay, so if we speak to a very specific person that we can help, we can connect with them, right? And that's how we, of course, also get connected with clients. I think this can actually be an issue because now people go online and then like you said, hey, they go to the person who's only talked about fasting, only talked about gut, only talking about thyroid. So it's like they hear this one thing which may have some truth to it or probably a lot, but it's not the full story. And that makes it very difficult, which is why I think I have this like love hate relationship with social media. It's like, Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, it's like, you don't know, and this is where majority of people are. They're at analysis paralysis. They're looking up their symptoms on Google. you know, doing a Google diagnostic and then they're like, okay, well, yeah, I'm really cold at night. I'm always cold, I'm swelling. I have, you know, my hair's falling out. I must have a thyroid issue. But on the other side of things, they're like, man, I'm always bloated, I'm constipated. And so they look up those symptoms and they're like, I got IBS. And then they're like this, they're like, but, and then they're, you know, they have these constant migraines and headaches and they're like, I got a blood sugar issue. So now they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And so what they feel like, you know, they don't know what to do. So what they do is they'll go to their, you know, doctor, some of them. And they're kind of like, yeah, I got all these issues. And then the doctor's going to either like, you know, put them on thyroid medicine. They're going to put them on, you know, metformin, you know, woman on birth control or whatever. All right. And that's just obviously a mask, which we know of, but you know, they're just, they get in this state of like, they have all these symptoms. but they don't know how to pinpoint it correctly. But in like what Johan and I are saying, it's everything, it's everything. And when we mean everything, it's the lifestyle you're living. You know, we can stay here all day and talk about like the big words and everything, but it's like what we said, it's at the center of it, it's the lifestyle you're living. Okay, if you're eating, you know, I know, the standard American diet, and if you're, you know, not, if you're overstressing, you're overtraining, like, no, yes, you will have a gut, you will have all these functional issues, quotations, like, Sure, you can label them as functional issues. And that's like another thing I get mad about is that like the way that I have to market myself is saying that I'm all functional and stuff. When a majority of the time it's simple lifestyle adjustments, it's simple changing up nutrition, it's simple like get more sleep, it's simple like perhaps maybe try out this supplementation to help with your adrenals. And like it's not that we're just some type of doctor, physician. It's like, okay, this is how we have to actually tell you how. why this is like, what's going on? Like, yes, you have a thyroid issue, but no wonder why you have a thyroid issue. You, you, you, or like some, and it's hard too, because sometimes it's like people just overeat and people like don't track their food and they just overeat and they're like, I have, I have a thyroid issue. You know, we can't forget that. Like I have majority of people where it's like, no, you don't have, you don't have any of these. You just, you just don't, you just, you know, eat like an asshole. And so it's like, You like it's so like I see that all the time too and so there's it is just like you know and then everyone's just confused and then most of them are just kind of like You it's like no you don't got a hormone imbalance. You just don't get enough sleep at night You know and so and like it's like all this stuff is all these little lifestyle things matter and They they play into the big picture of like all these like functional issues, but even going back like They'll try to say that the reason why you deal with XYZ symptoms, like you deal with fatigue, weight loss resistance or whatever, might be your thyroid, might be your hormones, which it could be, but sometimes it's just you don't eat enough, you're under sleep, and every time you do eat, you don't eat very good food that's filled with nutrition. And so the result of that is, yes, you can lose weight because you're overeating calories. Yes, you have gut problems because you're eating a lot of food allergens like... gluten, wheat, a lot of soy and things like that. So, but if you just like avoid that food, you correct your diet, you can get a little bit more sleep. You can, you know, correct those issues without trying to say that you're dealing with SIBO or trying to say that you're dealing with hypothyroid. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's also like... Sorry, I caught a cold last week. My voice is rough sometimes. Sorry. It sounds very complex and the words sound very complicated, like thyroid and all these kind of things, hormones, but exactly. It's actually all basic stuff. And this, to your point, we're not doctors. We know about this stuff. We should know, because here's the thing. If people just get their symptoms treated, they get 15 minutes maybe with a doctor, you know what I mean? So I do also get it. It's like they cannot give help beyond that necessarily. They cannot be there to have the conversation weekly to, you know, to follow up. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. But this is the thing though, you can't people don't I hate it but like you can't get mad at your doctor because he's just doing his job and It's not a job to babysit you people cut like and like I kind of get upset a little bit about it And you know, it's not that you know, it might sound like Diego's the enemy big pharma doctor But it's like, it's not, yeah, the thing is that the doctor is doing his job. He's got a job just like you got a job. He's got food on the table, he's got to work. So what he does is he specializes in pharmaceutical and procedural approaches to wellness. That is what allopathic medicine does. That is how they do things, okay? So it's just like, you going to go, you know, it's like asking for a wax at a hairstylist. That's not what they do. They're not there to fix your problem like from the root cause, which is a lifestyle. Okay. So what I mean by that is like, they're not there to tell you to, you know, make sure you're sleeping every night. They're not there to make sure you're getting enough water in. They're not there to make sure you're actually eating a good diet. They're not there to do that. They're there to treat the symptom that you have with a pharmaceutical drug or a procedure. That's what their job is for. And so you blaming the doctor because your doctor is not listening to you or whatever. Like sure, it can be frustrating at times, you know, like it could be, but you know, majority of the time, if you just, you know, correct your lifestyle, correct different things and you know, you can, you know, correct your issue. Now I'm going to have people get mad at me because they're like functional lab tests and everything, but you know, majority of cases, come on, we're talking about 80 % of Americans here. You know, majority of America's over here where they just need to correct their lifestyle, eat a better diet, get more sleep, maybe get. better exercise and switch their exercise up, they can indefinitely fix their problems. But blaming the doctor at the end of the day is not how you should do that. Right. And I see that a little bit too. There's also frustration from like coaches and you know, it's like, well, they're just treating the symptom. And I do agree. Like I don't think that is the approach, but again, they only get to 15 minutes. They're trying to do the best as well. In most cases, I will say, right. When it comes to the pill, for example, it's a very just bandaid, just quick approach. I will say that it's like, you got acne pill. you got this pill, you know. But okay, that's a different story. My point being, this is where the health coach comes in because we need to have this knowledge so we can always translate that to the client and hey, explain, hey, by the way, these thyroid things, like this is what impacts that, right? The conversion and helping you understand because someone going to get labs done and only getting TSH, they don't know that that's not enough. Yeah. Yeah. But bringing it back to lifestyle, that's where I think there needs to be somewhat of a collaboration between the two, right? To where, hey, people come in, they got certain issues. Okay, hey, let's try to figure this out. Let me connect you with a health coach so that you can get the follow -up to that ultimately, hopefully, right? Be able to do on your own again, potentially without medication. But that would be a dream, you know? So that's a long -term kind of plan, but. obviously when you have, people are gonna hear what I say and they're gonna be like, wow, Diego. And like I said, the thing is that, like what Johan was just saying, the standard of testing in conventional medicine is a little bit, I wouldn't say outdated, but not getting the entire picture, I should say, respectfully. So, you know, you say your labs are normal, but they're not because they're not just, you know, getting a deeper look at it. And because, because, because that's not what they're there to do. They're there to, you know, follow the same things that they need to be doing, which is like standard blood tests and just going off of that. They're not there to get a comprehensive look. And so like, it's like in society today, it's like amazing. how there's coaches that do this, like what we do. Like it's actually wild because back then that wasn't even there. Like, can you imagine like, it's like you've got like, it's like you've got all these issues and you have someone that you can hire for them to actually like run this blood work, help you with your lifestyle, coach you, you know, mentor you, teach you. Like, it's like, wow, you get all these things and it's like a full 180 shift. And like people forget that like, The doctor job is not that, but this is what a coach is for. And as the coaching industry grows and grows and grows, the more and more you can utilize and leverage coaching to make transformations with your health. Not just the fitness, not just with the way you look, but with your health. 100%. I think, I mean, I actually started saying health coaching instead of nutrition coaching for our team because it's way more than just the food. You know what I mean? And I see this, I'll speak to Norway, but I see this everywhere. It's like 99 % of the companies and coaches. It's like, it's the meal plan apps with a bit of a chat function maybe. And that's cool. That's fine. But it's like, That's almost it. It's like, okay, you get training and you get food and maybe there's some general recommendations, but like we really need sometimes to have like a team effort between the client and the coach, like figuring shit out, to actually have conversations, to actually dig a little deeper because it's like a meal plan is not going to do it, right? It can work, but it's not enough for most people. Yeah, 100%. And you know, and then we, I mean, so I have clients that just want that. They're just like, yeah, give me this. I don't really care about whatever. And then I have, you know, majority clients that are like, they really like, cause like with my coaching, I like to have, you know, weekly, I take time and I have like weekly meetings with like, I have group meetings with my clients and we're going, we're going over various topics, you know, and we're getting to like, why was this symptom even, why were you struggling with this symptom? and what causes you to deal with this symptom. So like, I talk about, let's say, leaky gut, or I talk about hypothyroidism, or things like that, and just talk about how our lifestyle affects these functions in our body. And so that's a crucial part. That's the educational part, telling the client this is why this happens, or this happened, and just, giving them the guidance of them to avoid it and change their lifestyle to correct it. Because just a meal plan and just some training isn't going to make a full transformation. It can for some, just having that discipline to follow in something and just integrating it. But having someone that brings the human connection like a coach, that will bring everlasting transformation. 100 % and not just dieting all the time like you got to build some muscle you got to do maintenance You know, you got to do those kind of things to you actually get a bit of rest also because that like do you do you get a lot of people come to you kind of like under sleeping Over stressing like just the number one thing that needs to happen is just like hey, let's fix your like day to day first Calm down. Calm down. And so like, man, you got me going now. It's just like, and like all these people now are like, I'm like, I'm in fight or flight. I'm doing like, I needed an adrenal cocktail or something like that. I don't know if you ever see that, but like, it's like, they're like, I need all these different things. Then it's like, no, you just need to slow down. Take some breaths. Okay. Set some boundaries. Stop saying yes. And just, and just eat a little bit more food. I guess easier said than done, but you know you That is the reason why you don't feel well. Okay? And yes, it's easier said than done. And that's exactly what a coach is there for, to help with this side of things. It's the mental, it's the emotional side of things, okay? Like I tell these people all the time, I tell my clients, I tell everyone on social media, I'm like, I can give you the best program, you can give them the best program, you can give them everything correct, you can give them whatever. And... If they don't mentally or emotionally get it corrected or if they don't change, none of that would even matter. That's just nothing. And so that's a crucial part with a coach is that they're giving you that perseverance. They're giving you that motivation. They're giving you that self -talk and things like that. They're giving you that everything to help you push past for the win, push for the win and persevere through whatever struggles you're going through. And so yeah, that's a crucial part of coaching. And that's what really makes it different from nursing, from doctors, from physicians. That's like the biggest thing is that human connection. And that's what coaching brings. Yeah. Yeah. And again, I think it'll be necessary in the near future to have that connection even, or almost like a link between the doctor and the client, or maybe even some type of collaboration, you know, where people can maybe have a network because it's needed. It's necessary. Hey, we got to send people to doctor sometimes and doctors need to be able to send patients for follow -up, right? To maybe a coach or practitioner or whatever. who can actually invest that time with him. It's so important. And I hope that's gonna happen in the future. That's kind of like one of my goals. Yeah, exactly. And well, like even me, like I have connections to clinics that can, the person, like I have clients that can talk to doctors. Okay. And normally it's for just like a prescription or something like that. Not like just to check up. Usually that's not how it works with that yet. but, it, it, it's crucial cause see, the thing is, is like, Every like just we're looking at we're looking at allopathic men of Western medicine abroad. Everyone's in their own bubble. It's like that you have your endocrinologist, you have your gastroenterologist, you know, you have your your cardiologist and everyone's just in their bubble and that's and that's you know how they do things and you know, like that's not how the body works. Your body works together. Okay. And so what happens is that they still get stuck in their ways. So they think that the doctor, you know, everyone's just biting nips. You know, I'm sure you have clients that go to their doctor and they're like, Hey, my health coach wants to pull this. And they're like, why would we do that? You don't need to. I know exactly, exactly. And everyone and all health coaches understand they all know this. All right. And like, it's like, cause people are just fighting each other. And that's like, what we're trying to talk about here is like, It needs to be like a connection. It needs to be, you know, everyone needs to work together. You need to have your doctor talking to, you need to have your doctor talking to your health coach. You need your doctor and talk to your personal trainer that you have at the gym. Okay, because everything is related and that's not what's going on. And a matter of fact, it's like we're having more and more nutritionist coaches, coaches, but yet we're getting sicker, sicker and sicker. And so like, it's just wild when we think about it. And so. Yeah, and it's just like everyone just staying stuck in their own ways. I think we got some work to do. Okay. What do we do? It's - it's - Dude. You're good. No, I was going to say it's a powerful thing, coaching. And I think people don't really understand the role that mentorships play in today's society. Having someone that knows exactly what's going on with you or can bring you to where you want to go is one of the most advantage, the best advantage that you could have. You have someone that not only can help you transform the way that you look, which is what you want, But he can also give you the thing that you need, which is the internal health transformation, the internal mind transformation. And so when people are kind of like, why would I need a coach? It's like, well, look at all these things and look at the people that succeed and look at the communities that coaches have with other individuals like clients. And so it's just, when you look at it like that, it's just like a no brainer to not have a coach. And even when we look at other successful individuals, we see that they have mentors, they have coaches, they have community. And so it's no wonder why they do as well, because they want to succeed. And so, yeah. I mean, I know I need it for sure. You know, like I need that accountability and I like it as well, especially mentorship. I got both like, you know, mentorship and coaching. And it's like, I'll always invest in that, you know, and I know that the people I've mentored under, like they do the same thing, right. And those people, I mean, I literally like the other podcasts I recorded today, like we talked about the same thing. It's like that, that's like one of those key points. It's a coaching, the mentorship. But like I said, man, like, I do really feel like we got some work to do in terms of like trying to kind of slow this down, you know, like, because it's not looking any better like anytime soon, really. Yeah, statistically speaking, I'm sure you know, eight out of 10 Americans by 2030 have some form of lifestyle disease. And so, it's not slowing down. Yeah, let's, let's hope for better times. Let's, let's at least help one person at a time that we can impact, you know, but dude, this was a great chat. I think we've learned a lot. We touched on a lot of good things. Thyroid coaching. Definitely. I mean, that's, that's huge. And, again, to kind of recap, I mean, it's at the end of the day, like long story short, it's like the basic lifestyle things that we kind of know we should be doing and taking care of. Like that's the actual. secret to your results, you know what I mean? And slowing down, it's so important. And that's like the biggest takeaway is that don't let someone like with these big words like TRH reverse T3 RT3 like don't let that like confuse you with what actually matters getting the sleep, you know Emotionally checking yourself getting good nutrition in getting hydration in Getting good movement in getting sunlight. Don't let that be neglected because all those things are kind of at the core of of how you can optimize those other things or to correct those other things, like meaning thyroid issues or gut problems and things like that. Dude, 100%. Let's wrap it up with that. I want to be respectful of your time as well. Where can people find you? Yeah, so I'm mostly active on Instagram. My Instagram is Diego. Reyes underscore 04. I also I actually just released a podcast today, your complete vitality life podcast. It's on the pie at the moment. And then I have a YouTube deal. So for so but mainly find me on Instagram, Diego dot Reyes underscore 04. You can find me there. Most active on there and Yeah. Awesome dude. I'll make sure to link that. Thanks again for your time and to our listener. Of course, as always, if you love this episode, make sure to share a quick screenshot on your stories, drop us a quick rating and then we'll talk to you very soon. Thanks dude. See ya.