A Bit of Optimism - How To Eat with Glucose Goddess Jessie Inchauspé

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

It's not just what we eat but how we eat it that counts. Eating the same meal in a different order can dramatically change how we feel!Glucose Goddess is the viral Instagram account of Jessie Inchauspé, who's inspired millions of people to change how they eat. With simple and easy dietary hacks, Jessie teaches people how to prevent glucose spikes -- large influxes of sugar into our bodies that make us tired, stress our organs, and cause us to age.Since adopting her eating habits, my energy has never been better. I was thrilled to talk with Jessie about creating Glucose Goddess and her personal story behind showing people a better way to eat.This...is A Bit of Optimism.For more on Jessie and her work, check out:@glucosegoddessglucosegoddess.com 

Jesse Inchow Spey is the woman behind the glucose goddess, an Instagram sensation with over 4 million followers. So why do so many people care about this little molecule called glucose? Well, glucose is a key energy source for our bodies. But when we eat the wrong things or we eat them in the wrong order, our bodies can experience something called a glucose spike. Get too many of these, it'll make you feel tired, it can age your organs, it can put wrinkles on your skin,

it can affect your health in all kinds of ways. Which is why Jessie teaches people how to manage their glucose levels with simple, easy dietary hacks. And since I've been following her advice, it's helped my health improve dramatically also. But it's her story and how she got into this that's really so inspiring. This is a bit of optimism.

I wanted to have you on our little podcast because my brother-in-law announced at the dinner table that he was going to get a glucose monitor just to try it out. My sister and I were like, all right, we're in. And for 30 days, we did glucose monitoring. And it was absolutely fascinating. And in the course of this, we all became huge fans of yours. How did you start becoming glucose obsessed? It's not a childhood dream. It's a good question you raised because I don't have diabetes. Nobody in my family has diabetes. Usually when you think glucose or blood sugar, you think diabetes, right? And I actually never

thought this would be my career and this would be what I talk about all day. But it came about through my own personal health problems. So when I was 19, I had a very bad accident. I jumped off a waterfall and broke my back, snapped one of my vertebraes. And so you know what it's like to hurt yourself. I had super intense surgery, had lots of screws and metal in my spine now, but physically I was fine pretty quickly just because I was young. But what happened is that I started developing a lot of mental health issues, depression, anxiety, dissociation, panic attacks. I felt like a stranger in my own body. And this lasted for almost a decade. And during that time, I realized at such a young age that if you don't have your

health, you really don't have much. And I wanted to feel better. I wanted to heal my brain and my body. And that's when I started a quest to try to understand myself and understand what I could do. And that first led me to study biochemistry in grad school, then to work in genetics, and nothing helped me feel better until I discovered the world of glucose. And a little bit like you and your family, I randomly put on a glucose monitor as part of this pilot study. And it completely changed everything because I saw that the days where my glucose levels were steady, my mental health was better. And the days where I was in this roller coaster, my dissociation panic attacks were worse. And that's when the gates opened and I became fascinated. It is absolutely fascinating. My results were astonishing.

My whole life, I've had crazy energy spikes. I'm great all morning and I never take a meeting at four o'clock in the afternoon if I can help it because I'm useless. My brain doesn't work. I sit there like a lump on a log. The afternoons are useless for me. And I just thought that's my circadian rhythm. That's just how I am. I'm high in the mornings, I'm low in the afternoons, and I come back in the evenings, right? Then we're doing the glucose monitoring and I'm getting better at understanding how to manage the spikes. And something remarkable happens, which is my energy is steady all day. and something remarkable happens, which is my energy is steady all day.

I have perfectly steady energy. I can work all day. I don't have the peaks and valleys like I used to have. And it has been game-changing just from productivity, for one, but also just feeling good. Because when you're tired, everything feels compounded. Your emotions are compounded. Fatigue is a killer. And that afternoon fatigue

is gone. And usually, actually, if we feel crappy in the afternoon, we don't realize that it could be caused by the way we ate at breakfast, right? It's hard to put two and two together, to realize that what you ate six hours ago could be impacting how you feel now. That's not an obvious connection for people to make. And that's the connection that I had to start making. But yeah, as you said, it's when we study our glucose levels, so many things fall into place. Cravings, hunger hormones, energy, your mitochondria function better. You're actually creating this healthy, sustained energy from within your cells. But when you're on a glucose rollercoaster, spike, drop, spike, drop, spike, drop, lots of things can go wrong from mental health for me to hormones, to skin, to inflammation in the brain, et cetera. So it truly is the foundation of living a life in which you feel good in your

body and you can actually go and do the things that you want to be doing. It's also worth noting that I'm not one of those people that like, where's a monitoring device? Where's an aura ring? I mean, I've tried them all. And I think they're all fun, but I'm not numbers obsessed where I'm tweaking my life to, I'm not biohacking. Like none of these things have ever really had long-term impact or value. And this was the one where I was so concerned about spiking my glucose. I actually lost four pounds of weight because I wasn't snacking at night anymore. And the way I used to deal with my energy drops was either with coffee or with sugar. I'd have a chocolate bar in the afternoon to get some energy back, which now I'm learning only made life even worse.

Well, it wasn't actually giving you energy because sugar, we mistake the feeling of sugar for energy, but actually what we feel is dopamine. So when you eat something sweet, like a chocolate or a candy bar or a muffin in the afternoon, you know, you feel a sort of rush in your brain. You go like, whoa, you feel awake. That's dopamine. That's the pleasure molecule in your brain. That is not energy. We're all confused. Yeah. And it lasts, you know you know for several minutes but then on the inside your mitochondria which are actually making energy in your body they get stressed out by a big influx of sugar by a big glucose spike your mitochondria are meant to receive steady levels

of glucose throughout the day in a very balanced way. But when a big spike comes their way, they go on strike. They're like, too much information, cannot deal, need to take a nap. And as a result, they're not making this ATP, this energy effectively for you, and you feel tired. And that leads to chronic fatigue. If you're tired, you keep eating sugar because you think it's going to be good for you, but you're just making the problem worse. So good. So let's take a step back here. What is glucose? Why do glucose spikes? Why are they unhealthy? What's happening inside our bodies? What actually is it all? Okay. So glucose is your body's favorite source of energy. Okay. So every single cell in your body is burning glucose for energy. So if you're a listener listening to us, your brain cells right now are burning glucose

to make sense of what we're saying. If you make a fist with your hand, the muscles in your hand are going to burn glucose to contract. Every part of your body runs on glucose. And the way that we give this very important molecule to our body is by eating, specifically by eating two types of food, starches. So that's bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, oats, tortillas, and sugars. So anything that tastes sweet from chocolate to banana. Starches and sugars turn to glucose in our body. Now,

here's the trick, right? Do you have a plant at home? Simon, do you take care of any plants? Okay. You know that your plant needs some water to live, but if you give your plant too much water, what happens? It dies. Exactly. The human body is the same. Some glucose, fantastic. Too much glucose, problems start happening. And specifically, when during a meal you give too much glucose to your body, that leads to a glucose spike, which simply means just a lot of glucose arriving at once. And these spikes have consequences. Inflammation, which is one of the biggest drivers of disease in the world. And this can show on your skin as acne, rosacea, psoriasis, but also underpins

so many chronic diseases from heart disease to cancer. So first thing is inflammation. Second thing is glycation. Glycation is a fancy word for aging. The more glucose spikes you have, the faster you age. And this shows on your skin as wrinkles, but also on your insides, your organs slowly deteriorate. And then last big problem that happens when you have a glucose spike is that your body rushes in to try to get that glucose level back down. And the way it does that is by releasing a hormone called insulin. Insulin grabs all the excess glucose and puts it away in your liver, in your muscles, and in your fat cells. And that's one of the ways you gain fat on your body. And over time, too much insulin in your body leads to type 2 diabetes. And that's just three of the things

that happen, right? But depending on your medical history, your body, your genetics, you can get a whole range of symptoms from these spikes. For me, it was depersonalization. For somebody else, it could be infertility, right? Glucose spikes are not good for us. And most of us, estimates put it at about 80% of the population. 80% of the population who does not have diabetes are still experiencing these spikes on a daily basis like you. And we suffer the consequences.

So managing the glucose spikes is a way of obviously reducing all those things. So now let's get into it. How to manage glucose spikes. So one of the big takeaways I learned from you is the order in which we eat. And so vegetables first, then protein, then starch. A plus. I'm obsessive now. I'm obsessive. And I noticed the difference immediately. I went out to a pasta restaurant with friends. I happened to be wearing my glucose monitor at the time. I know exactly what it's going to do. It's going to spike it like crazy. So I ordered a bunch of side vegetables and I told the waiter to bring it first. So I sat there

and ate a bunch of broccoli first. And then I had a huge pasta meal and I had no spike. It was astonishing. It was amazing to see. That's amazing. And actually, when you think about it, I'm going to explain why this works in a second. But traditionally in Italy, this is what they do. They have antipasti at the beginning of a meal, which is generally grilled vegetables. So we've known this stuff for a long time, but have lost touch. The food order thing. Scientists discovered that if you eat the elements of a meal in a specific order, you could cut the glucose spike by up to 75% of the same exact meal just by changing the order. As you said, and honestly, good job remembering that, veggies first, proteins and fat second, and carbs and sugars last.

Why does this work? Because I'm going to test you now. You ready? Because veggies contain a very good substance called fiber. Yes, exactly. So fiber in the veggies is the key here. Good job, Simon. Very excited that I got that right. When you have a fiber at the beginning of your meal, this is what happens. It has time to reach your upper intestine before anything else. And there, the fiber deploys itself onto the walls of your upper intestine and creates a sort of protective superhero mesh, right? I like to see fiber as a superwoman there to protect you. Once that mesh is in place, if you have pasta afterwards, pasta contains glucose.

Once that mesh is in place, if you have pasta afterwards, pasta contains glucose. Those glucose molecules from the pasta are not going to be able to go through from your upper intestine to your bloodstream as quickly or as much as they would if that fibrous mesh was not there. So you're still getting all the pleasure from the pasta and all the deliciousness, but to your body, it's landing much more softly. Your body's not receiving this big spike in the bloodstream. Rather, that protective fiber shield is slowing down the velocity. And that's why you see a smaller spike when you have the veggie starter.

And it is such an easy thing to do. And I don't know if you've noticed it, but it impacts your energy, your cravings for the rest of the day, how you feel. It's amazing how quickly glucose levels are able to be modulated by what we do and then how quickly we feel the benefits. And one of the reasons I lost weight was, so I went out for dinner and I ordered fish with vegetables and I got onion rings because I like onion rings. But I followed my glucose goddess advice and I had my vegetables first, then I ate my fish. And then I only ended

up eating two onion rings as opposed to six or seven because I was full. So I had the joy of the onion rings without the excessive amount of fat from the fried food. And so it didn't affect me at all, which was great from an energy spike to gaining weight. However, Simon, even if you had had all of the onion rings, even if you didn't change how much you ate, but you just simply changed the order, you would still get a big improvement in your glucose levels and your energy. But yes, one of the great side effects of this is that once you get to the carbs, you know, you don't need as many anymore to get the enjoyment and the satiety because you've had the veggies, proteins and fats before. Why do proteins go second?

So the veggie, I understand, produces this protective mesh. What does the protein do? So the protein has an effect on what's called, okay, it's not a very appetizing word. It's called gastric emptying. So it's the speed at which food moves from your stomach to your upper intestine. So protein slows down gastric emptying. So what you're trying to do is you're trying to stack all the stuff that is going to pass through more slowly into your upper intestine, and then at the end, bring in the pasta or the carbs that are going to be slowed down by the

fiber and proteins and fats that are there before. So interesting. Okay, talk to me about the importance or detriment of water. So I've had people tell me not to drink water before my meal, because it dilutes the digestive enzymes, blah, blah, blah. So am I allowed to drink water before? Can I drink water during? Do I have to wait to drink water? Like, how does water play? You have to completely stop drinking water for the rest of your life. That's not good. So there's one small study that I'm going to mention about the water thing. I'm kidding. So there's one small study that I'm going to mention about the water thing. It appears that if you refrain from drinking water while you're eating, the glucose spike of the meal is going to be smaller. So it's better from a glucose standpoint to drink before and

after the meal. Why is that? The scientists have a few hypotheses, but it's not totally sure. What I think might be happening is that simply when you're not drinking water as you're eating, you're going to be chewing more and just eating more slowly. So the food is going to arrive more slowly into your bloodstream. But you know, the effect is negligible. So I'm a water drinker, I can't stop drinking water while I'm eating. So this is one of the times where I'm like, not for me, you're going to have a much bigger impact by adding a veggie starter, or going for a walk after your meal versus removing the water. And you're French, where does wine fit in? Well, my philosophy is that when you're having alcohol, it's what I call a pleasure decision.

It's not a health decision. Alcohol is not good for our health. Now we know that. The best amount of alcohol for your health is zero. But if you're having alcohol or if you're having like your favorite cake or whatever, it's your birthday, I don't know, have the alcohol that you like best. Don't try to optimize your alcohol consumption for your health. It's a pleasure decision. It's okay to make some decisions for that purpose. If you really want to know which alcohols are best for your health, well, wine actually is one of the best ones. So any color, sparkling or not. And then hard alcohols, tequila, vodka, gin with some soda, water, and lime. The worst, and again, I'm using air quotes here, the worst alcohols for your glucose levels are beer and cocktails. But if you're going to have

a drink, like if you love margaritas, have a margarita. See what I mean? Sure, sure. Okay. Now the big one that really upset me when I started to learn about your work was oatmeal. I'm so sorry. Because oatmeal, I've always been told was healthy. Well, so oats are a grain, right? And grains are full of starch. So if you absolutely love oats and you want to have them in the morning, there's a few things you can do. You can add what I call adding clothing to our carbs. So if you had just naked oats by themselves, the glucose would create a glucose spike very quickly. But if you add clothing, so protein, fat, or fiber, you're going to slow down

the speed of arrival of those glucose molecules and reduce the spike. So an easy thing in your oats meal could be adding some protein powder, adding a few scoops of nut butter, for example, some seeds. But it raises the question about the order in which we eat. So like, you know, pizza, I should be eating the cheese and then the bread. Well, you should. Yes, of course, eating the cheese and then the bread. Well, yes, of course, you could technically. Same thing goes for a lasagna or a sandwich, right? You could separate out all the different parts of your meal.

I could have the lettuce, then the turkey, and then the bread. Yeah, but that's crazy. So don't do that. What you can do in those cases when you have a mixed meal is just add a plate of veggies before you have that mixed dish. So you're going to get the benefits of the fiber without deconstructing your sandwich, right? There's some instances where some hacks are easier to apply than others. We have to be flexible. We have to adapt. So when I eat vegetables, how long does that lining in the upper intestine last? So, for example, can I eat vegetables at home when I'm heading out for dinner where I know there won't be vegetables, like I'm going to a barbecue or

something? Yeah, about 90 minutes. There has been no studies precisely measuring the length, but from what I can gather from how digestion works, it's about 90 minutes. And that's also what I've observed. And actually, I have a lot of readers who do that. For example, it reminds me of the story of this wonderful Mexican man, Gustavo, and he was a bit embarrassed that he was doing the hacks. So he would have a big head of broccoli at home before going to the steakhouse with his friends and nobody would know that he had the fiber lining in his intestine. It's cute. You speak with such passion about something that most people aren't passionate about. Where does that come from?

What is the passion? The passion is behavior change. I am passionate, obsessed with making behavior change easy for people. Easy, sexy, fun. I don't know why. I just really want to help people take that first step to implementing change in their life. That's really my passion. And that's why I developed this concept of the hacks. And that's why I talk about fiber as a superwoman. And I give names and genders to the molecules because I want to help people take that first step. So I think I'm just really good at helping people become motivated and see that they can start with easy solutions. Do you see what I mean? And I could apply that to lots of different spaces as well. I also appreciate the reality of it.

You know, a lot of biohacking and a lot of people who are out there preaching health, it's difficult. It's obsessive. It requires a lot of discipline. And yours requires some discipline, not much, but you're very reasonable, which is if you want to have chocolate cake, have chocolate cake. It's fine because we're managing the spikes. We're not obsessive about them. And I just appreciate the very sort of French way of

approaching this. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, diets don't work. Diet culture has destroyed women's psychological health for decades. I grew up in France where every single cover of the magazine was like how to lose 15 pounds in two days. But I never talk about weight loss these days because it's not about weight loss. It's about feeling good and thriving and going after what you want to go after in your dreams. But yeah, you asked the why question, which of course makes sense. And it's because of my own health journey. And now I became so passionate about helping people make that change. I'm the one'm the, I'm the one in the friend group who sends the motivational videos to my friends and like forces them,

helps them to make change and have realizations and take that step. Like I, that's just my energy. It's like, you can do it. Even one cherry tomato, one baby carrot before your next meal as your first veggie starter is already amazing. Be proud of yourself. Start anywhere. That's what I love. Is there someone you've helped that really, or that you've given advice to that stands out? Like someone who, like, if I ask you, like, you say you have a passion of helping people change behavior. Is there someone that stands out as like, this exemplifies what I'm trying to do in the world? For my second book, I recruited 4 4 000 people on instagram to go through this four-week method with the four most important hacks and three women in that study were able to get pregnant

after being told that they were not going to be able to do it naturally by using the glucose hacks because glucose levels and fertility and sex hormones are so linked. And for me, I was like, wow, like that impact on these women's lives is beyond anything I could have ever imagined or hoped for. So I don't know why that sticks with me. But then, you know, I have the great honor and privilege to receive messages every day from people who've used my work to reverse diabetes, to help their grandmother who has Parkinson's, to get their energy back, to get their period diabetes, to help their grandmother who has Parkinson's, to get their energy back, to get their period back, to get their acne to die down in their face so they can go outside without feeling self-conscious. You know, it's like there's a

whole community of people using this stuff. So no, not one person stands out. Well, I would say, I think I stand out because I was the first person that I helped. And now I feel amazing. You know, now I can spend a week by myself in an Airbnb across the world for work. Whereas 10 years ago, I could not spend an hour alone because I was having panic attacks about just being alone. So I would say, yeah, my own journey was the most powerful one. And now just all of my readers, it's just amazing. Tell me an early specific happy childhood memory playing in the waves on the beach in the south of france with my dad i was born in the southwest of france on the atlantic coast in biarritz so we were at the beach and we were in

the waves my dad was holding me and he was teaching me how to do le bouchon which means like when you go up the wave and down the wave go up the wave and down the wave and up the wave and down the wave. And I don't know, I just remember that being so joyful. I've always been scared of water. And I think for me, it was the first time maybe where I felt safe in that space. And then I broke my back jumping off into the water. You know, water and we have a history. So I think that was my earliest memory of feeling safe in the water. What I love about that story is that's very much how you describe who you are, which is you're the friend who's sending the motivational videos and things to everybody.

And I guess the waves, it's the, I'm going to use a big word, the vicissitudes. It's just the ups and downs of life. If you stand still, you're going to get hit. You're going to think everything's fine until the next big wave comes and you get salt water in the face. And you had someone show you how to manage the ups and downs of the waves. That's very true. And now you in turn are doing that. You are holding us and you are showing us how to manage the ups and downs of life. And you're teaching us these skills. And then we just like you no longer need your dad.

We learn these skills ourselves. And you are basically become your father. You're guiding us through the up your friend, whether it's professionally through folks like us who are devotees to your work, or just your friends through I bet you're the one they go to when they're having troubles in their relationships. You're the ones they come, you're the one they come to for advice when they, when they want to change career or they're having problems at work or problems with their friends. Like you're the one holding somebody through the ups and downs. Yeah. I love holding space for people, but you know, I don't want it to sound

like I have everything figured out. I have, you know, I cry all the time. I have emotional ups and downs. I have a great therapist and great friends who also hold me right. I'm not this like perfect being, but I do love holding space for people and helping them, especially go through the difficult, the dips, right? Because if you're able to really metabolize the difficult feelings and really get into them, then you're able to come back up. The worst is when you get stuck at the bottom because you're not able to

feel the stuff fully. So you never get to the next stage. So I'm good at helping people really be in their feelings. If you come to me and you're crying, I'm not going to tell you don't cry. I'm going to be like, yeah, that's fucking sad. And just stay with you until you're done crying. And by the way, the way a why works is the thing that you give to the world is also the thing you need the most. And that's the relationship of a why. That's beautiful. So, you know, I like how you caveat, I don't have it all figured out. I would imagine you didn't.

Because there's so many hacks now. And, you know, the problem with this stuff is it can be overwhelming. And the people who are espousing it, when you're a hammer, every problem is a nail. And, you know, everybody thinks everything is cured by their thing, you know, which, of course, is nonsense. I'm sort of skeptical when somebody thinks that their thing is the solution to all the world's ills and all your body's problems, which, of course, is just not true. And I appreciate that your attitude is more moderated, you know. And I will caveat the glucose thing, Simon, because glucose levels are just one window through which to approach better health, right?

When you manage your glucose levels, a lot of other things fall into place. You eat more fiber. You eat fewer processed foods. You eat less sugar. You move more. You know, all of these things that we know as common sense, things that everybody should do. But then you need to layer other stuff on. So when I was in my journey, yeah, glucose was the first thing I fixed. But then I also started

working out and doing exercise I loved. I figured out my sleep routine. I got a therapist. I did EMDR. You know, glucose is not the answer. But again, because my objective here is actually to just help you make the first step. It's about behavior change. These hacks, to me, are the best place to start. If you're lost, overwhelmed, sick, and you're like, this is overwhelming, start with my glucose hacks. You're going to get on the saddle and then everything's going to become easier. Yeah. And this is not the finding the discipline to take a cold plunge every morning, though we know the benefits of that. I mean, it is not difficult to eat the food that you can order any meal you want. Just eat it in the right order. Order the vegetable, the side of spinach before they eat the hamburger or something. And you can still have the fries,

just have them at the end instead of at the beginning. The thing that I appreciate is it's a very, very easy thing to do. And as you said, it's sort of a gateway hack, if anything. Totally. It's gateway behavior change so that you don't feel like you're a failure and you can never stick with anything. These hacks are not a diet. You can adopt them for life and you're going to feel really good about yourself. And they're super easy. And again, you want to start the virtuous cycle. That's the key here. It's getting you in a state where then you can go on to bigger and better things. These are the first place to start. What's next for you? I mean, your career is an accident. You set out to help yourself. It's my favorite entrepreneur story, which is the best entrepreneurs find a solution to a problem

they struggled with. And it turns out that it works for other people and they end up building a business around it. What's the saying? Your best customer is who you used to be. Oh, I like that. Yeah. I mean, it's been a crazy five years since I started the Instagram account.

Now there's books and I have an amazing team and we have Anti-Spike, we have the Recipe Club, all this stuff. So this year for me, 2024, is a year where I'm trying to make space in my brain so I can think about the next big project, which might be a book. Who knows? And I just launched a big YouTube show, which I loved because I'm obsessed with visuals also.

I'm obsessed with fashion and just the aesthetic of things. So I launched a series of 18 episodes where I talk about glucose stuff in fabulous outfits. And it's been amazing. But I'm thinking about the next project. There's going to be's been amazing. But I'm, you know, I'm thinking about the next project. There's going to be lots more to come. I'm still young. I want to do this for many more years. So it's just chapter one, baby. Well, Jesse, I'm a fan of chapter one. You're an absolute delight. Your passion shines through because you were the first guinea pig. It's where the passion comes from.

Totally. So, so, so great to meet you. Really a pleasure. You as well. And can I say something? I loved your book. And so I was so honored when we got the email saying you wanted me on your show. I was like, oh my God, the Simon from Start With Why?

Like, yeah, of course I'll be on this podcast. So I'm a fan too. So we're just amongst fans here. Oh, I love this. Well, I mean, by the way, can I offer unsolicited advice for the long-term future? Yeah. When I discovered the Start With Why, it was very similar to your story, which is I went through darkness. I was an entrepreneur who, I had success in the sense

that my business survived for three years, but I lost my passion for it. And the loss of passion was a dark place for me, because I'm supposed to be happy, you go lucky. And the discovery of the why became profound for me, because I realized that what was missing in my life, which is I knew what I did, and I knew how I did it, but I didn't know why. And like you, I turned myself into the guinea pig for my own work, not for any other reason, but out of absolute curiosity, because it seemed to have an impact. I want to see how far that impact would go. And I always kept looking for things I hadn't done to see if it would work. And it just kept working. It's much like yours.

And one of the huge profound shifts I made in my life was I stopped talking about what I did. And I started talking about what I believed. And I'm the same idiot the day before as I was the day after. The difference was I wasn't talking about the manner in which I was bringing my cause to life. I started by talking about the cause itself. And one of the results is it gave me flexibility. Because if I hadn't done that, even if I launched Start With Why, I'd be the why guy only. And I've been able to write other books about other subjects and do other things, but it's all contained within my cause, which is to inspire people to do the things that inspire them. And I've been able to articulate a vision, a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired, feel safe wherever they

are, and end the day fulfilled by the work that they do. And I think the same is true for you, which is glucose, you tripped over it. It's not the passion. It's a mechanism that you found to deliver the passion. And had it been something else, then you'd be talking about that other thing. But the thing that would be consistent is the holding space and holding people through the ups and downs so that they can learn and manage it themselves. And it's very much about teaching people self-reliance. That's good. And so right now it's all glucose related, but in 10 years, you'll exhaust all the glucose stuff. But the thing that will always remain true and honest is the cause that inspired the obsession with glucose in the first place. Completely agree. And I think the place I'm going to go with this is taking that passion and that cause and the framework of how to help people

actually do stuff. And I love the term you used self-reliance. I really want to go into the nervous system regulation and mental health space because I love talking about glucose, but I'm even more passionate about mental health. And I haven't even explored how to get into that yet. Right. And it's always been in the back of my mind that glucose was chapter one and that I was going to get to different parts of life and the human experience with that same framework and that same cause. And you said it so well. So thank you. And I think my special sauce is turning complicated stuff into easy steps, being really human in the way I deliver things. So it's not a difficult diet that you can fail at. Using visuals. I'm really good with visuals. I'm a very visual person. I

think in another life, I would have been a graphic designer. And so how can I find a visual way to represent your nervous system state? Because with glucose, it's easy because we have glucose cells. And that's why it's so viral and people get it instantly. I could remove the words from my graphs and people would still get the message. That's how universal it is. But I haven't figured out what that visual is for mental health and nervous system yet. But it's a big quest of mine. Well, I wish you nothing but Godspeed on your journey because I think the work that you do is profound.

And I think more importantly than your work is you. As I said before, you care a lot. Some of the people who are putting out, you know, biohacking techniques, they're obsessive and they're doing it themselves. What I love about you is you're more relatable than some of the other people putting out their stuff who are so obsessive about their own work. We can't live to their standard, but I can actually live to your standard. Like you make it very achievable. And the fact that you're healthy and happy again, after going through some really bad stuff,

makes it much more attainable to somebody like me, who's not obsessive about some of these things. Yeah. And you know, I don't always do the hacks. Sometimes it's Sunday morning and I want a five pound chocolate and orange juice. And heck, like if that's what I want, I have it right. I, to me, the hacks are things like brush your teeth, drink enough water, wear sunscreen. If you forget to drink enough water one day, are you going to like feel really guilty and ashamed? Of course not.

You're just going to drink more water the next day. That's the level at which I want to be operating, sort of a public health, good practices, common sense level. I've just been able to bring it back in a society and in an age where we're so disconnected from these common sense practices that from an ancestral perspective we've known for centuries are good for us. If you want to hear more of Jessie's work, check her out on Instagram, YouTube, all the other places, Glucose Goddess, read her books, everything she does, stay tuned, because I think we're only seeing the beginning. As you said, this is just chapter one. Thank you, Simon. You're awesome.

If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please subscribe wherever you like to listen to podcasts. And if you'd like even more optimism, check out my website, simonsenic.com, for classes, videos, and more. Until then, take care of yourself, take care of each other. A Bit of Optimism is a production of The Optimism Company. It's produced and edited by Lindsay Garbinius, David Jha, and Devin Johnson. Our executive producers are Henrietta Conrad and Greg Rudershan.