We are excited to share a guest post by Dr. Casey Means, the author of the new book Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health Dr. Means delves into the importance of optimal metabolic health and offers practical tips to enhance your energy and overall well-being. In this post, she highlights five actionable strategies to cultivate Good Energy and unlock your body's full potential. Read on to discover how you can start feeling more vibrant and energized today!

Having "Good Energy" is the core underlying physiological function that, more than any other process in your body, determines your predilection to great mental and physical health or to poor health and disease. What is Good Energy? It's optimal metabolic health.

And Good Energy is so much more than that. It's a radical re-imagination of the limitless potential within each of us as a miraculous human being on this planet. You see, within each of our cells is the machinery to transform the energy stored in food into energy that our human cells can use to power our thoughts, our feelings, our actions, and our lives. Metabolism is our lifeforce.

Unfortunately, 93% of Americans suffer from "Bad Energy," also known as metabolic dysfunction. These numbers sound high until you realize how many levers of modern society are stacked against our mitochondria and metabolism: too much sugar, too much stress, too much sitting, too much pollution, too many pills, too many pesticides, too many screens, too little sleep, too little micronutrients, and too much artificial light. These trends - with trillions of dollars behind them pushing them into every aspect of our lives - are causing epidemic levels of mitochondrial dysfunction and underpowered cells and sick, inflamed bodies.

What would it feel like to have your body functioning optimally, for your body to just be at ease enjoying this human experience, your mind to be working clearly and creatively, and to feel that your life is established on a steady and strong source of inner power? Imagine a powerful life force from within that allows you to take on each day with pleasure, energy, gratitude, and joy.

Having Good Energy means both looking and feeling good inside and out, all stemming from unleashing the metabolic potential inside each of our cells that allows for cellular energy production to work well. When our cells are powered properly, we feel it: energy, vitality, good mood, fewer symptoms. When you hold the keys to having Good Energy, you feel electric, and you can avoid chronic metabolic diseases, and age well. The solution to prevent and reverse chronic conditions and feel incredible every day is under our control. And it's simpler than we've been led to believe.

My new book, Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health is the clear and accessible roadmap for achieving GOOD ENERGY, and it transcends all dietary dogma or rigid health ideologies. It's based on understanding your OWN body and trusting the signals that it can tell you through symptoms, wearable data, and biomarker testing. Your body has all the answers to guide you to the healthiest life, you just need to learn how to listen.

The book shares 25 of the most important habits to cultivate Good Energy, and I'll share 5 of them here today:

• Eliminate the holy trinity - refined added sugars, refined grains, and refined industrial seed oils - from your diet. These foods are destructive to our cells, and are found in almost every processed food on the grocery store shelves. If you commit to shunning these from your lives (one of the best decisions you can make), you will naturally gravitate towards more unprocessed food. Read all labels for "added sugars" or seed oils (like vegetable oil, canola oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, grapeseed oil), and use alternatives that are far more naturally produced like organic olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, butter, or ghee. In my book you'll find a comprehensive list of what to avoid, and suggested alternative products.
• Add more fiber, probiotics, and omega-3s into your diet. Aim for 50g of fiber per day, three servings of probiotic-rich foods, and at least 2,000 milligrams a day of omega-3 fats. These foods provide the cell what they need to thrive. My favorite fiber sources are basil seeds, chia seeds, avocado, and black beans. My favorite probiotic sources are organic kvass, grass-fed greek yogurt, and sauerkraut. My favorite omega-3 sources are wild-caught Alaskan salmon, sardines, flax seeds, and basil seeds.
• Move more throughout the day. Instead of thinking about exercise as a thing you do for one hour a day to check off the to-do-list, move throughout the day by building in short walking breaks, doing air squats in between meetings, scheduling hikes with friends instead of drinks or meals, or even getting a walking pad below your desk. This helps with glucose regulation, body-weight control, maintaining stable energy, and so much more. Our cells function best when our bodies are in motion.
• Stick to a defined eating window: Aim to eat within an approximately ten-hour window each day and aim to abstain from food for about 14 hours. This is far from a health fad or wellness tip - it's a common sense strategy for giving your body time to rest without the constant burden of digestion, secreting hormones to respond to food, and managing glucose loads. Most Americans now eat over the course of 15 hours and have up to 11 "eating events" per day. That's a lot of burden for the body! Taking a break from food during that 14 hour window helps our bodies practice - and over time, improve - the process of switching between burning glucose (after meals) and burning fat for energy (when you're not eating). By restricting our eating window, we promote metabolic flexibility, and this reduces cravings and feelings of being "hangry."
• Use clean personal care and home - care products: Overhaul the products used in your home and on your body to minimize your daily toxin exposure. Every time you run out of something, replace it with an unscented, non-toxic, eco-friendly alternative. Every chemical we put in or on our body needs to be managed, processed, and detoxified by our cells, which diverts our resources towards defense instead of thriving. There are over 80,000 synthetic chemicals that have entered our food, water, and air in the last 100 years, many of which directly harm our cells. Part of being healthy today is protecting yourself from them!

These 5 strategies are just a few things that can radically unlock the potential in each of our cells, and change our lives. Practicing simple Good Energy habits is an act of rebellion.

By engaging with these simple habits, you can thrive and minimize your risk for so many of the conditions related to suboptimal cellular energy production spanning depression, obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, infertility, and so many more.

Order Good Energy for the full set of habits, including a comprehensive 4 week plan, to help you take control of your health and feel incredible, now and in the future.

Sending you tons of 🌟Good Energy🌟,

Dr. Casey Means

Additional Resources

If you'd like to hear more from Dr. Casey Means, check out her conversation with Genova on The Lab Report podcast and sign up for her newsletter at caseymeans.com.

Looking for a better understand of your metabolic function? The Comprehensive Nutritional Test from Genova Connect offers insights into 125 biomarkers related to your metabolic health and overall wellness.