176: Is Constant Snacking Secretly Slowing Your Performance?

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Many athletes believe snacking is helping their energy.
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Those protein bars, that trail mix, those energy drinks, healthy snacks between meals.
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And in motorsports, that pattern becomes almost automatic.
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Drivers grabbing quick fuel between sessions, crew athletes eating whenever there's a break, and team owners surviving on coffee and convenience foods while managing business stress and travel.
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But what if constantly eating is actually training the metabolism to become less responsive?
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Because what research demonstrates, and what we often see in clinical practice, is that many high performers are unknowingly operating with chronically elevated insulin levels.
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Nothing dramatic at first, just subtle energy crashes, brain fog, mild cravings, difficult fat loss, inconsistent focus, increasing inflammation, and all of this is just enough to lose their edge unnecessarily.
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So let's break that down.
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Hello, I'm Jeffrey Morton.
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If you're like most in NASCAR's top tiers, drivers, crews, owners, or executives, while you're busy chasing podiums, have you fully considered who's taking care of you?
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Right here, you're about to start transforming your mind and body for peak race day performance with high performance health, designed exclusively for the demands of NASCAR.
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As a certified high performance health coach and consulting hypnotist, I've coached elite entrepreneurs and athletes to higher energy, sharper focus, and greater resilience, naturally, safely, and backed by science.
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And right now, I'm bringing that same engineered approach to the best in motorsport.
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Here you'll find no wasted time, just a unique blend of integrative health, mental conditioning, and proven recovery strategies delivered in plain language that you can use right away.
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Imagine a season without burnout, brain fog, or the costly crash of your health.
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Because the truth is, the real race starts within.
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I'm grateful you're here.
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Yes, welcome back to Breaking Boundaries for Champions, the only high performance health podcast for motorsports professionals.
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I'm your host, Jeffrey Mort, your certified high performance health coach from Victory Lane Wellness, where our notebook focuses on naturally fueled high performance health for drivers, for pit crew athletes, and team leaders looking to optimize performance at the root level.
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And if you enjoy these conversations around physiology, recovery, longevity, and performance, be sure to click that subscribe button so you never miss an episode.
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Because today's topic is one of the most massive metabolic misunderstandings in modern health: constant snacking and insulin resistance.
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Now, most people believe eating constantly keeps metabolism high.
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And to a point, that belief makes sense, especially in high-demand environments like motorsports, where energy output is high.
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But if constant eating always improved metabolism, then people grazing all day would have stable energy, effortless fat loss, perfect blood sugar, optimal focus, and that's clearly not what is happening, which raises a better question.
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What happens when insulin never gets a break?
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And just to be clear, this podcast doesn't provide any medical advice.
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It's not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease.
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Blood sugar concerns should always be evaluated with your qualified healthcare provider.
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What research demonstrates, and what we often see clinically, is that insulin sensitivity is heavily influenced by things like meal timing, especially food quality, stress physiology, sleep quality, believe it or not, plays a big one.
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That's one that a lot of people overlook.
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Muscle mass, activity level, and metabolic health.
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And a simple way to understand insulin, insulin is like the crew chief waving glucose, which is blood sugar or um energy fuel, into the cells of the body.
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So every time you eat, and this is especially true with refined carbohydrates, which we don't recommend.
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So when I say carbohydrates, I'm usually talking about uh complex carbohydrates.
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So any anytime you eat something, your blood sugar rises.
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That's natural.
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And then that also causes insulin to rise.
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And in a balanced body, glucose gets delivered into the cells for energy consumption.
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That is normal.
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That is healthy.
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The problem, the problem begins when the signal never stops.
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This is the always fed problem.
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And let's look at a typical race day pattern for either a pit crew member or a driver, you know, an athlete that's uh really exerting that energy during uh a race day or a race weekend.
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You know, they might start off their day with uh coffee with sugar.
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And actually, that presents an entirely different challenge because coffee on an empty stomach, especially caffeinated coffee, will uh spike the um the noreprinephrine and adrenaline, um, the stimulating neurotransmitters is what I was going for there.
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Um so actually the coffee should really be consumed with food or after food.
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And then they might go for a breakfast sandwich, and then maybe a little later on a protein bar, and then have lunch, and then maybe a handful of snacks from that drawer in the hauler.
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You know, I've seen that drawer in the hauler before, and um, you know, we we need to talk about what's in that drawer.
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And then they might have an energy drink, and then another quick snack again.
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Um, and then maybe by that time it's dinner time, and then they might have dessert, and then they might have a snack uh a little later on or before bed.
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Even when some of those foods seem somewhat healthy, insulin may stay elevated almost continuously.
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And over time, cells can become less responsive to insulin's signal.
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The body compensates by producing even more insulin.
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That is the beginning of what is known as insulin resistance.
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So let's connect this to motorsports performance.
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Why does this matter in motorsports and for athletes?
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Well, because chronically elevated insulin is associated with things like increased inflammation, higher body fat storage, energy crashes, cravings, brain fog, elevated triglycerides, uh, reduced metabolic flexibility.
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And in motorsports that can mean slower decision making, inconsistent focus, reduced endurance, slower recovery, especially between race weekends.
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Nothing catastrophic, but just enough to lose that edge.
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And now this is important.
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This is where we get, you know, this this program here is really focused on the nuance around uh what is out there in mainstream media.
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So meal frequency alone is not the villain twirling its mustache in the corner.
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Context matters here.
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And a high performance athlete eating strategically around intense training, meaning a bio-individualized ratio of protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats, is very different than consistently grazing on ultra-processed foods under chronic stress and poor sleep.
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And not everyone should go long periods without eating.
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That's important too.
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So, you know, who should be cautious, you might be wondering.
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Long gaps between meals may not be appropriate for individuals with uh what's known as reactive hypoglycemia.
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This is high blood sugar, basically, or HPA access dysfunction, adrenal dysregulation, uh, certain medical conditions, history of disordered eating, and extreme training demands.
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So the answer is not everybody should fast.
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The goal is metabolic flexibility, which can be discovered through advanced at-home lab testing.
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The body likes rhythm.
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What we often see work well clinically for many individuals is three to four balanced meals daily.
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Proper protein intake, we'll talk about that in just a moment.
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Balanced fiber intake, we're gonna tie those two together, structured eating windows, and this creates fewer blood sugar spikes.
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But more importantly, periods where insulin can settle back down.
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It's not about the elevation of blood sugar upon eating, it's how um, I don't even want to say quickly, but how long it takes the blood sugar to settle back down and become balanced.
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We don't want that blood sugar to be elevated constantly because the body often performs better with rhythm.
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Kind of like giving the pit crew time to reset the pit box instead of firing lug nuts at them nonstop for 16 straight hours.
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So, one of the biggest problems with blood sugar dysfunction is many people don't even know that it's happening yet.
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And standard yearly blood work often misses the trend early.
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And that's why we evaluate markers like uh hemoglobin A1C.
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So, this is very important.
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And we can do this through our advanced at-home uh lab test, the stress, mood, and metabolism test.
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Actually, it looks just like this, comes to you in the mail.
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Um, a simple, actually, this one's a two-part, one is uh saliva testing, the other is a simple finger prick, a couple of drops of blood on a card.
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And this gives us insight into longer-term blood sugar patterns, about three months, as well as metabolic stress.
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And then uh through our minerals and metals tests, we can also look at oxidizer status, which is based on the ratios of calcium to potassium and sodium and magnesium, which you don't need to know all that, but this indicates a balance of stress and catabolism on the body.
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And then another important test for metabolism is data on uh full thyroid function.
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So the thyroid is the metabolic governor of your body, and the stress mood metabolism test does look at that as well.
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And now, technology has made real-time metabolic feedback easier than ever.
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The CGM technology, this is real-time data, a continuous glucose monitor.
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That's what's known as a CGM.
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This allows you to see exactly how your body responds to foods, to stress, to sleep disruption, to your workouts, to travel fatigue, and even alcohol.
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And one accessible option that we've discussed, uh been using lately in our practice is a Stello CGM.
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I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, but it's the most economical.
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It's one that's recommended or we recommend for people that um, you know, uh don't need a medical device.
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We do have another one called Faya Health that is used for situations where we need a medical grade device, but the stello, great information, and this can provide real-time glucose data for as low as$49.
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That'll cover you for two weeks' worth of data.
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If you want a little bit longer, it would be about double that because the sensors last about two weeks and they're about$49 per sensor.
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And honestly, some people are shocked when they realize that their healthy snack is creating blood sugar roller coasters similar to an all-star race at Dover.
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So instead of constantly feeding the system, the goal becomes improving metabolic flexibility and insulin sensitivity.
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So that means balanced meals.
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These are your macros.
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When I say a balanced meal, making sure that you have the right amount of protein, the right amount of um carbohydrates.
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So in this case, it would be vegetables, and then you know, two to three tablespoons of a healthy fat, like maybe avocado or olive oil, on the plate.
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That would be a balanced meal for uh ideally for lunch and for dinner, for you know, a balanced meal for breakfast, uh, a breakfast smoothie is what we recommend.
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Great way to um actually get back about 30% of your energy in the morning.
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Uh, we also look at proper protein and fiber.
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So we use the 30, 10, 3 rule.
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So about 30 grams of protein per meal, that would bring you up to um about 90 grams per day.
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You know, if you're an athlete, you're training hard, pit crew athletes, drivers, you probably want to want to go a little closer to 100, 120 grams of protein.
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You don't want to overdo the protein now.
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Uh the 10 represents 10 grams of fiber per meal, so that's important.
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You're aiming for about 30 grams of fiber per day.
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And then uh the three would be, you know, three balanced meals per day.
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So that's the 30, 10, 3 rule.
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Strength training is important as well.
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Three to five times per week.
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You do want recovery built into your training program.
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You do not want to train for seven days a week.
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Sleep optimization.
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You know, most people we recommend seven to nine hours of sleep uh each night.
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For athletes, we increase that.
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So about eight to ten hours.
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You know, Olympian athletes, they might sleep for 12 hours per day when they're training.
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Stress reduction, find an anchor twice a day.
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Uh, maybe that's some breath work, uh, maybe that's some meditation, maybe that's a hypnosis audio.
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Stress reduction is super important.
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Improved meal rhythm.
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This is three and a half to four hours between meals.
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This is very, very important.
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And that means no snacking in between those meals.
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Um, you know, there's a time and a place for that snack, and that might be uh pre-workout or something like that.
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Reduce processed foods, reduce sugar, and reduce or eliminate alcohol.
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Very important for blood sugar regulation.
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And then, of course, toxin removal.
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Toxin removal, toxin removal.
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There are so many toxic exposures, environmental exposures uh at the shop, at the track, um, and that's very important.
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What do we recommend?
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Quarterly functional medicine detoxes.
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Uh, that could be a 7, 14, or 21-day functional medicine detox.
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You don't have to do the extended one every quarter, but at least once a year.
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Um, and once a year doing a heavy metal detox and a parasite uh detoxification protocol annually.
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Those are very, very important, especially in the racing industry.
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The heavy metal detox, uh, super important.
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And then movement after meals, very important to balance that blood sugar.
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The best way to rebalance blood sugar after a meal is a 10-minute walk.
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If you do a little longer, that's fantastic.
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You're getting your steps in.
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If you can't walk, it's raining, you you know, maybe can't go outside, no, there's no place to walk.
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Do 20 squats.
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That would be a great replacement after the meal, uh, a replacement for walking to be able to help balance your blood sugar a little quicker.
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Because insulin resistance is often not about one meal, it's about the accumulated pattern.
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And that driver or crew member feeling exhausted mid-afternoon or craving sugar or needing caffeine just to maintain focus, gaining body fat despite training, that may not be a motivation issue.
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It may be a metabolic signaling dysfunction.
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So the white flag is out.
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Final lap here on breaking boundaries today.
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Constant snacking doesn't always improve energy.
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Sometimes it slowly trains the body to become less responsive metabolically.
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And in motorsports, the edge doesn't come from constantly feeding the system, the edge comes from creating a metabolism that responds efficiently under pressure.
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It's all about balance, my friends.
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If you're serious about optimizing performance at the root level, you can apply to work with Victorylane Wellness at victory lanewellness.com.
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Programs are built for drivers, pit crew athletes, and team owners committed to precision, resilience, metabolic performance, and long-term vitality.
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And every enrollment supports race for a reason, providing advanced functional testing for chronically ill children through racing related charities.
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We will see you in Victory Lane.
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Bye bye.