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Biohack Your Metabolic Health with Lauren Sambataro - E1
49 Plays1 year ago
Many people struggle to maintain optimal health amidst busy schedules and the demands of modern life. The solution may be simpler than you think through biohacking: taking proactive control of your body's biology through personalized strategies. This episode explores various biohacks to optimize your metabolic health, offering practical insights and methods to improve your energy levels, diet, exercise, and overall daily routines for a more vibrant and balanced life.
Lauren Sambataro is a celebrated functional health coach and corrective exercise specialist who has transformed countless lives through her holistic approach. As the co-host of the popular podcast 'Biohacker Babes', she shares her insights into biohacking and wellness with her community. As a Broadway performer living in New York City, she honed her skills in optimizing physical performance and recovery. Lauren offers bespoke coaching services, combining her experience in functional diagnostic nutrition, strength training, and stress management to create personalized health strategies. Driven by a passion for continuous learning and client empowerment, Lauren's multifaceted techniques in nutrition, exercise, and stress management continue to set new standards in the pursuit of a healthful life.
“For me, it's always trying to zoom out and not just… get stuck in my own loop, which I think is a good lesson for everyone.” - Lauren Sambataro
In this episode you will learn:
- How Lauren practices biohacking through methods like exercise intensity tracking, fasting cycles, and sleep optimization.
- The impact of the virtual lifestyle on social connections, and her strategies for maintaining community and social interactions.
- Lauren’s approach to balancing a hectic schedule with micro-recoveries for managing stress and enhancing overall well-being.
- The importance of metabolic health and how factors like stress, sleep, and environment affect it beyond just diet.
- Insights into her fitness routines, including strength training, zone two endurance workouts, and the use of minimal equipment.
- The significance of continuous learning and maintaining an open, curious mindset as essential components of thriving and living with vitality.
Resources
- If you’re interested in working with Lauren, reach out to her via her website: https://laurensambataro.com/
- Connect with Lauren on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biohacker_babes/
- Listen to Lauren’s podcast, Biohacker Babes: https://thebiohackerbabes.com/podcast/
- Shop all the products Lauren mentions in the episode: https://alively.com/products/laurensambataro
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
https://www.zapods.com
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
https://alively.com/
Recommended
Transcript
The Pitfalls of Over-Exercising
00:00:00
Speaker
work out more, period. just What happens after that? Nobody talked about the diminishing or effects of too much. So I learned that the hard way I crashed and burned because I was following this very cookie cutter model that said like exercise seven days a week, you don't need to rest, you sleep when you're dead. It wasn't working for me. I don't think it works for many people, but it really wasn't working for me.
00:00:24
Speaker
And so I just got really curious. I was like, there's got to be another way that I can feel better than this.
Meet Lauren: Coach and Performer
00:00:34
Speaker
This is the Home of Health Spam Podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices and routines they use to live a lively life.
00:00:48
Speaker
Lauren, you are a coach, you're a podcast host, you're a Broadway performer, you live an incredible life and I'm just really excited to connect with you. I know last time we spoke, we we bonded over our mutual love for Turkish GitOps in paris and Paris and other things, so excited to to go to the next level conversation today.
00:01:09
Speaker
Yeah, thank you so much for hosting. This will be fun. Yeah, yeah. and So for those who might not know you, and like I said, great you you have your your podcast show, that that's kind of one line. You have your coaching that ties to that, but it's still its own thing. You have your your performance and and your show.
00:01:31
Speaker
um What has your journey into prioritizing health been? Has this been something since you were young, you were like, look, this is this is super important and impacts all the rest of my life? Or is it something kind of over time that you came to?
A Health-Conscious Upbringing
00:01:46
Speaker
I would say it's a little bit of both. I grew up in and a household that was already very focused on health, so I kind of didn't know any differently as a child.
00:01:55
Speaker
My dad is a biological dentist and my mom's a holistic hygienist. she worked They work together. They've been in practice for over 40 years, which is wild. but how Wild that they work together and also wild that they like spend their time working in people's mouths. So there was no chance that I was going to take over that business. Okay.
00:02:15
Speaker
But it was very much a part of my childhood. My dad, we call him the ah the OG biohacker. He was biohacking in the late 80s, the early 90s. He always had really interesting tech kind of laying around with just kids. We were like, oh, this is weird stuff. And we're playing with it and not using it to its potential. But I'd had like a PMF mat laying around. He just was always like trying new things. My dad was super curious. So I was really kind of exposed to this at a very young age, unknowingly.
00:02:46
Speaker
and you know As children, we pick up on what what we're ready for to a certain extent. It's a really good point. like the The biohacking side, different people can take it different ways. you know Both my parents were physicians, and so traditionally trained doctors and had one view. and My dad you know later in life tried something different, lost 65 pounds in a year, started running half marathons.
00:03:10
Speaker
and said, I basically had to unlearn all the wrong stuff they taught me in med school when it came to nutrition. And so there's something of these textbooks, they get outdated so quickly, whereas a biohacker, there are certain generic principles, but there are others specific to us.
Personal Training and Health Exploration
00:03:26
Speaker
And so that idea of experimentation and not being locked into one thing forever, I imagine is still serving your parents and and serving you and your sister as well.
00:03:35
Speaker
Yeah, it is interesting because my dad's always been a licensed provider, but um having this biohacker mindset, which is a little bit like toss the rules out and just listen to your own body and try things and see kind of what sticks and lands for you, which is so like antagonistic to the medical perspective.
00:03:53
Speaker
Yeah, so it really was a very interesting blend. So yeah like early exposure, I kind of picked up on some things probably didn't take it seriously enough. I was a kid. But I grew up performing. I was a dancer and in theater from a very young age. And then I decided I want to go to school for dance.
00:04:10
Speaker
My parents were amazing. They were like, anything you want to do, pursue your dreams, which is funny because now I think like, why didn't I go to med school? Why didn't they push me to do that? But they were just so loving and supportive. They're like, no, of course you have to pursue your passion. And so my way into this was ah figuring out how to take care of my body better because I started to get injuries and my yeah my um energy was really diminished at times from a lot of rehearsals and performances and then working multiple jobs because as a dancer in New York, not ah the most lucrative business right out of college. um So I found my way into personal training. That was my like first step in. Loved it. Loved working one-on-one with people. I was like, this is magical to me. I love the one-on-one connection helping people. That felt really aligned.
00:04:57
Speaker
yeah And then what I discovered over time is, oh my gosh, there's so much more to health. Like I can only take people so far just through the physical realm. And my own health journey was always maybe like one step ahead. It's like, okay, I'm starting to notice it. Like sleep is really important. Starting to notice that nutrition is really important. Starting to know notice that recovery, which was not talked about back then, this is like early 2000s where it was still just like work out more, period. like just What happens after that? Nobody talked about the, you know, the diminishing or effects of too much. So I learned that the hard way I crashed and burned. And then it was like, Oh, wait, what are all those things that my dad taught me? Let's go back to that kind of curious mindset that experimentation because I was following this very cookie cutter model that said like,
00:05:44
Speaker
Exercise seven days a week. You don't need to rest. You sleep when you're dead. And then it wasn't working for me. I don't think it works for many people, but it really wasn't working for me. And so I just got really curious. I was like, there's got to be another way that I can feel better than this.
Dietary Experiments: Vegetarian to Meat Eater
00:06:00
Speaker
I was a vegetarian for seven years, which just sounds so crazy when I think about it now. But that was kind of a trendy thing at the time when I was living in New York, everyone was doing it. and Honestly, I think my first true biohack in my body was eating meat again, okay going against the grain of what everyone else is doing. And I was like, wait, I have no energy. I'm sick all the time. I'm injured. I'm not sleeping well. And the second that I ate meat again, I was like, I came back to life. I was like, whoa, wait, this is cool. I can like make a different choice and feel something different.
00:06:36
Speaker
And it sounds strange to call eating meat a biohack, but in a way that was like my way back into experimentation and going like, oh, there's a there's another way. Like I can feel different. Yeah, I think that's a really good point on what hack can mean, right? Cause you have, you're surrounded in a community that has this one clear way of thinking and say, okay, this works, this works, this works. saying And saying, I don't know, I'm going to try something different and see what that does for me.
00:07:05
Speaker
And I imagine in that time, you know, I came up late 90s, early 2000s as an athlete, and it was just grind, grind, grind, right? This idea of recovery. Why would you need sleep? Why would you need anything? that yeah Just get up early and go to practice. yeah yeah We were supposed to have one of out of every seven days off, but my coach was like, not you. You don't need it. You just keep going. And it had an impact, right? And if if I had thought then to go more against the grain and say, hey, let me just try something a little different. Let me see who knows what that would look like. I'm curious, having gone through that, you know, one of the things I know you're you're pretty advanced and you you coach people on and have a lot of insight on is is metabolic health kind of overall. and And I'd love to dig more into that. Before we get to that, you came up and went to school as a performer. You still perform. What does your fitness routine look like now?
Dynamic Fitness and Listening to the Body
00:08:00
Speaker
Oh my gosh, changes daily. But for me, like I naturally like to move pretty often and frequently. That just feels good, not just to my physical body, but my brain. My brain operates better. I have better energy, focus. I feel like I'm one more present human when I'm moving.
00:08:16
Speaker
frequently, um I definitely have dialed back the intensity of my workouts from what they used to be. So I really prioritize heavy strength training, but I would say I don't go super long. I also don't go that often. I do some sort of movement every single day. But as far as like heavy strength training, I probably do that three, maybe four days a week.
00:08:37
Speaker
I'm really trying to do like the low level zone two endurance, which is hard, I think, for a lot of athletes or people that naturally like to move. It's it's hard to dial down that intensity and do less. yeah um And for me, mo I have to do a ton of mobility. So I'm naturally very flexible as um a dancer, but it has led me to be more hypotonic. So I have to really do like the strength through range of motion.
00:09:02
Speaker
which really takes care of my body. So a lot of isometrics and activating my muscles, but not over training them, but making sure I'm like working through a wide range of motion. So I don't know. It's like this unique little puzzle. I don't have a set schedule. I've always been very anti, like put it on the calendar, which I wouldn't always say to my clients. It kind of depends on their personality, what they're dealing with. But for me, I'm like, I wake up in the morning. I'm like, what feels right today? yeah And that's always just felt really intuitive to me. I'm like, okay.
00:09:30
Speaker
this body part hasn't been worked in three days. I'm really like craving, activating this and moving today. And I just kind of go with that flow, which is a strange answer. But that's been a huge part of my biohacking journey is like really getting in touch with what my body is telling me. And if that communication is clear, the action becomes very clear and easy.
00:09:51
Speaker
I mean, that's a really important point, I think, in that, I mean, as a dancer, as someone who, you live in your body, I think, in a way that most people don't. I'm not sure that would work for me. It's hard for me to listen to my body, because if I feel more tired, I'm like, oh, that's just my brain being lazy. I need to push harder. And so I'm not sure I'm as good at reading the signals or adapting to them. And I imagine there are all sorts of,
00:10:20
Speaker
shades of gray in between that, but it sounds like you really can get that craving. No. Yeah. So many shades of gray, but yeah I mean, it goes both ways for me. Like it can also work to my detriment where I'm so in my body that I end up kind of overthinking things and over analyzing things. Like I want my body to be so symmetrical and like assessing my gait. I'm like, Oh my God, this muscle's not firing. And it's some great way we just have to let our body kind of be the way that it naturally wants to be.
00:10:44
Speaker
Of course, then when pain or sensations come up or injury, then we have to hold up the mirror and go what's going on here. But we also know that pain is not purely just musculoskeletal, right? It could be just like a brain pattern that has been conditioned. And your body has just chosen that pain pathway when you have a stressor, whether it's emotional or environmental. so for me, it's always trying to zoom out and not just kind of get stuck in my own loop, which I think is a good lesson for everyone. And it is immensely difficult. Like it's a constant practice of like, okay, pause, wait, let me zoom out. Let me step outside of my body, get another perspective. And sometimes that requires like bringing someone else in like another expert or a friend or family member, like help me out here. What am I not seeing? Because
00:11:28
Speaker
You know, we like look through the same two eyeballs every single day and it's difficult at times when we come up against new challenges. For sure. So when you're doing the weight training, do you do that at home? Do you have a local gym you go to? How do you get the strength side in?
Zone Two Training: Benefits and Challenges
00:11:45
Speaker
Oh, that's a good question. I like to do a lot at home. Um, I definitely work harder at the gym. So I do have a gym membership. I kind of alternate but between going to a CrossFit style. It's not actual CrossFit, but they do CrossFit like workouts, which I really like. And then just my own free gym time. Cause I do like to do like heavy squats and deadlifts and in chest press, but, um, it's a little bit like in the flow. Yeah. yeah yeah and How about your zone two? so i mean That is one of those I just recently came across. but the The minimum dosage, if you're really trying to work on it, it's like four hours a week. and What that zone two is, as you said, for an athlete, it's really hard to dial it back to that zone two. It feels like you're not using the time as effectively. Well, I could just push this. I could go. I could do this. And it's done. so yeah How do you do that?
00:12:36
Speaker
Um, I mean, I feel like the easiest way for me to control it is to get on a treadmill, but I also have this like, I'm so against being on treadmills for some reason. I feel like it, it's a little bit tricky for the brain to be not moving here, like stationary. The brain thinks you're forward moving, but you're actually just walking underneath of yourself. It's a strange thing.
00:12:56
Speaker
but That's the best way to control the variables. right like I can see the time, I can watch my heart rate, I can change the speed if I need to. What I really like to do is run outside, but I feel like that's kind of weather-dependent. Right now, i am I'm performing again. It's a short-term thing, but dancing is always actually a really great zone too. and I feel like I can really control, to a certain extent, the intensity and my breathing pace. so And that gives me the extended duration that we want, right? It's like the zone two duration is way longer than we want it to be. Like you mentioned, like four hours a week, that's a lot. Like if you're truly getting into endurance, 20 minutes is not going to cut it. so Right.
00:13:36
Speaker
I don't know, it's challenging, but I'm always trying to do different things. Like, I love hiking. Ideally, I would hike twice a week every week. That doesn't happen yeah in an ideal world, which I'm always moving towards. And I realize we may have just kind of glossed over this, and not everybody maybe is aware. But zone two, can you define how you define and and measure your zone two?
00:13:57
Speaker
Um, you know, we could be super scientific about it. We could calculate max heart rate and then do just the percentage. So they're in that zone where you're technically fat burning. You're not breathing too difficult. We could do the talk tests where it's like, if you can hold a conversation, you're not gasping for air and you can sustain that intensity for at least 45 minutes. Then we're in a good range. So, um, yeah, when I'm on the treadmill that generally is running at a much, much slower pace than I want to go. No, like when I run outside, I'm like, as fast as you can on the treadmill, it honestly ends up being like a 5.5 mile per hour, which feels ridiculously slow. I can sustain that for a long period of time.
00:14:41
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I've heard such wild ranges on it, on definitely the talk test, where you can talk, but you're breathing heavy. like People can tell that you're on it. you know and the The far extreme, you're measuring your lactic acid and and trying to see yeah how much you're producing. and that's True Zone 2, I think very few people want to do blood tests in the middle of the workout constantly to make sure they're in. Not everyone's going to be Peter Attia sitting on a bag measuring every day. That's what I like to talk to. I'm like for that the average person, that's just such an easy yeah range that everyone can kind of understand. Yeah.
00:15:15
Speaker
So you do a pretty wide variety of things between the dance and the running and the CrossFit workouts. Do you have any go-to equipment you use or or gear that you wear, shoes, anything that you say, hey, look, these are great across or I have more specialized depending on what I'm doing? No, not really. I love kettlebells. And yeah we talked about Turkish get-ups, so that involves yeah a kettlebell. I've done a lot of kettlebell conditioning just because I feel like We're activating so many more muscles than we are in just traditional functional lifting. um No, I would say I keep it pretty simple, like a squat rack with a barbell, kettlebells. I always have resistance bands around so I can do good activations.
00:15:55
Speaker
especially if I'm traveling, that's like the one thing that make it in my bag because everything gets turned off when you're in a sedentary position for too long. So usually like throw that thing on and just kind of do some lateral walks around the room. Um, no, nothing specializes for as shoes. I love working out barefoot. Like I really am like not a shoe person. Yeah. I would walk barefoot outside all the time if I could. And I do like in the backyard, but, um, I live in New York, so I can't do that.
00:16:22
Speaker
Unless you're, what's his Newman, the founder of WeWork, right? He was walking around the city barefoot. Oh, gosh, he was. Yeah, literally, these pictures on the streets of New York, you know, just walking around barefoot in this multi-multi-billionaire. To each his own. Like, my dog sleeps in my bed, and he walks around the streets of New York, so there's all kinds of bacteria, I suppose, but I wouldn't put my barefoot on the streets.
00:16:48
Speaker
ah yeah well Speaking of all sorts of bacteria, I'm curious, you know you talked about it started just fitness, conditioning, training training, training, and then learning more about nutrition. How do you think about nutrition now? You you had the vegetarian phase, you put meat back in. how How do you think about that today?
Circadian Timing and Fasting Critique
00:17:04
Speaker
Hmm. I'm really focused on circadian timing and this fast feeding cycle. I think most of us eat too often. Um, and very consistently actually. ah So consistency is a weird thing. I'm always trying to get clients to be more consistent. But when it comes to diet, like once we've nailed the consistency around, like I'm eating real whole foods, I have like my general meal timing. Then we have to insert like this little bit of cycling because we want it continue to change the stimulus. That's how our bodies respond to stress and adapt and get stronger and more metabolically fit. So I do like to insert like very strategic fast feeding cycles where according to my menstrual cycle, because I'm a cycling female, I'll do some longer fast when it's appropriate for my hormones. And I'm very much into continuous glucose monitoring so I can really see what's happening from an energy perspective in my bloodstream.
00:17:59
Speaker
When you say longer fast, can you define that? For me, it's a longer fast is 24 hours. so okay okay so for day yeah yeah So longer than your like the the popular intermittent fasting, which I'm really not a ah huge fan of the intermittent fasting. I see that go wrong quite a lot. I mean, the the reality is everything is intermittent fasting. It's just the question of the window. Right. Yeah. But the 16-8 has just become so popularized. And I think um To that extent, what happens when I see with a lot of my clients, they come in and they're like, oh yeah, I'm fasting in the morning. I don't eat until lunchtime. And the bulk of their calories end up being later in the day, particularly like after the sun goes down, which is not aligned with our circadian rhythm. like Our glucose metabolism runs on the clock, just like every other organ and system in our body. And we're really fighting nature if we're eating most of our calories in the evening. And I find that just happens
00:18:55
Speaker
really frequently when someone's following that intermittent fasting because they've been told, oh, I can skip breakfast. That's easy. I get into my work day. You know, I have all these stressors. I'm running around. I'm not even thinking about food. yeah We're like missing out on this amazing circadian window where you're really metabolically powerful. And so I like to push things as early as possible. And if I do a fast, I'm going to try to eat as early as possible so that I'm definitely not eating one after the sun goes down. Yes, ideally, none of us are eating overnight, ideally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's some of those sleep drugs or Ambien or something where people would be sleepwalking and eating, not realizing and eating in their sleep.
00:19:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's the intermittent fasting. I think to your point, it actually could work if the schedule was shifted. yeah The problem is, societally, where do we meet up with people for drinks? When do we go out to dinner? If you think about the fifth pillar of that social connection, you lose one to get the other. And so you're probably familiar with Brian Johnson and his whole blueprint, right? He doesn't eat after 11am.
00:20:01
Speaker
And he sleeps amazing as a result, but it's a pretty lonely existence because he's missing that whole side of life and and social interaction. so Yeah, he doesn't socialize. He doesn't even sleep in a bed with anybody. He sleeps alone. But he's taking an example. It's an extreme one. But I think it's interesting to watch him and see what is possible if we shift. And that you know the average person is not going to do that. I'm not even going to do that. I do think there is this compromise for social capital where we know that If you look at the blue zones, the people with the highest longevity are engaging in these social interactions and they are drinking. you know They're drinking wine and maybe the circadian timing isn't amazing, but I think there has to be a compromise somewhere else. right like You can't be eating late, drinking late, and eating processed foods and disrupting your sleep and adding all these stressors. We have to be really mindful of our own stress bucket. and so It really is a personalized conversation.
00:20:57
Speaker
And it is that more comprehensive definition of health. right it Health is not just nutrition and fitness, but social connection. your purpose all All of that really comes into play and you know feeds into metabolic health as well, which we're good to. So on the nutrition side, you mentioned a CGM. Do you use a company like Levels or anything? Or do you just have a doctor that's given you a prescription for it?
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah. So I started out working with levels. So I started their nutrition program, um which is no longer existent on the app because it's become so consumer friendly and people have become quite educated around it. But yeah, I work with levels. I have connections with all of the CGM companies. And now I just tell my clients like,
00:21:37
Speaker
path of least resistance, wherever you want to get your entry point, let's just get one on and see. And the first step is always watching behaviors like try not to change too many things, just observe like you really want to get that baseline like what's going on in the body. And I think it's usually surprising for most people, it's not usually food driven, I would say at least for people to come to me.
00:21:59
Speaker
We're looking at looking at standard American diet, like the average American. Yes, we've got to fix our food inputs and the quality of the food yeah for like our general health enthusiasts, people that are doing good things. And, you know, we generally put them in the category of healthy.
00:22:15
Speaker
We have to look at all these other things that are affecting our metabolic health, like our sleep and stress, mindset, our beliefs, our sleep, yeah our environment, our air, our water, the timing of our food.
Personalized Diet via CGM
00:22:27
Speaker
Are we eating while we're stressed? Are we dehydrated? There's like a million things we have to kind of check off the list. And yeah, it's just really interesting that it's not always food based.
00:22:38
Speaker
And the order of what you eat, right? If you're having protein before something. So starting a meal with a bunch of white bread may not be as as going the other way. Or eating hours before you work out versus consuming that stuff after you work out where you're replenishing glycogen supplies, stuff like that. I mean, it all comes into play.
00:22:58
Speaker
Yeah, and you can see that how your own body receives that. So um that's an interesting one, like around workouts, we can really see what your individual needs are for timing. Because depending on the type of exercise, if you're doing really high intensity, um for so for a lot of people, you'll see this big glucose rise because your body is releasing glucose, you're not necessarily calling insulin. And so it's not ah a bad rise, but it is a stressor to your system.
00:23:24
Speaker
And so taking advantage of that like post-workout like anabolic window when everyone tells you like, you gotta get the nutrients in. I actually believe we want to kind of find that that sweet spot range when your body temperature has cooled, your heart rate has come down, you've come back into parasympathetic and that usually is matched with your glucose then recovering back down to baseline. So I can see in clients exactly when that happens so we can figure out exactly when you should be pulling nutrients in.
00:23:50
Speaker
And then we can kind of toggle the macronutrients, exactly what percentage, depending on on the body that it's coming into. But yeah, I just think to see Jim such a fabulous window into your physiology to really to really personalize your diet.
00:24:05
Speaker
For sure. Now, I imagine you're very whole foods oriented being animals and plants. Yeah. But are are there any supplements, any things you kind of fold in to your nutrition plan just to make sure you're taking the right boxes? I'll take all the things.
00:24:23
Speaker
i i'll I'll take, um so I get sent a lot of things to like in full transparency. So I'm always experimenting with new things. I'm just like, I'll be the guinea pig. Like I'll see how I feel. And if it sticks and I feel amazing, then it'll stay. But I would say the things that have remained consistent as far as like, you're talking about supplementation. That's kind of like in the food spectrum. Yeah. I mean, any kind of supplementation. Yeah. Certainly like the vitamin Ds or proteins or anything like that. But any pathogens, anything that you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. curious about
00:24:55
Speaker
Yeah, so i use I do a lot of lab testing to figure out what I need to supplement.
Lab Tests and Supplement Strategy
00:25:00
Speaker
My end goal is to not need to take supplements. I think like in some ways it's temporary, but and our food supply is are only getting worse and worse. So to be a realistic, I'm probably going to take a multivitamin for the rest of my life to cover my bases. And then all of the extras just are kind of depending on what's going on in my lab work and then what my goals are. But I would say like as far as food supplementation, like I definitely always have aminos,
00:25:25
Speaker
creatine, I love colostrum for the gut immune function and also for workout recovery. Yeah, I do some collagen heptides. I love organ meat supplementation. And for me personally, like I've been dealing with a ah bit of an ah anemia issue. So I'm trying to be really consistent with my organ meat supplementation and vitamin C to get my my iron.
00:25:48
Speaker
source up Yeah, I guess to answer your question, like I look at labs to see really what the need is and then we can kind of figure out dosages from there because the wide world of supplementation is just really vast and complex. It's like, where how on earth do we know where to start for ourselves? But for most people, I feel like let's start with a multivitamin. Let's look at your labs and see what the needs are and then we can go from there.
00:26:13
Speaker
Well, and those don't regret ones like like creatine, right? Everybody could probably benefit from throwing this in. Do you supplement protein or do you get enough just through your diet that you're comfortable there? Through like a protein powder? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Do you have a a go-to? You know, because people have different flavor profiles and what they mix it with. Do you have a go-to there? I'm personally not a big fan of the plant proteins. Yeah. They blend very differently.
00:26:40
Speaker
They blend differently. I would say a lot of them just have like such a long list of ingredients. I think plants are very vulnerable to chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals. And I just I don't really love the taste of them. The protein powder I'm using right now is Puri. P-U-O-R-I. It stands for pure origin. They have like really rigorous lab testing. The creator lives in Denmark. So it's a European company and um really, really pure ingredients.
00:27:09
Speaker
I can be a little bit sensitive to whey, but that is kind of my my preferred choice of protein, especially around a workout. yeah um But with this one, I have no sensitivity. like Sometimes I just either get like a little bit of a histamine reaction or Just don't quite feel right with some way proteins but in an ideal world where you'll be my number one and so purees and a really great source of that i love the protein i love bone broth protein. I like to rotate i think that rotating nutrients is probably the best way because again like we need to change the stimulus we want.
00:27:44
Speaker
as much nutrient diversity for our gut as possible. So I try not to get stuff stuck on one thing for too long. I run out. I'm like, what else? What else is in the arsenal that's clean? I can trust the sourcing. Let's do that for a little while.
00:27:57
Speaker
That is definitely a lesson I can take from you variety because I kind of find something and and then I just go on autopilot and just say, okay, this works. I'm going to keep doing it. Even my workout regimen for three years, I've been doing the same 12-week cycle, so probably could mix it up a little better. But you're doing it. you know like I hear I get that all the time with clients. like I'm a creature of habit. I'm like, well, that's great. like Consistency is the number one thing. and If we're going to take it to the next level of optimization, then we want to kind of play with the ah variables. But for most people, the challenge is just doing it and doing it consistently. So what's your edge and what's your challenge and your goals? Yeah, that's a very, very good point. Lower that bar at times too. So we touched on early on kind of sleep and recovery were non-existent. When and how did that change for you? Was it as you started getting injuries, it sounded like?
00:28:48
Speaker
So I switched from vegetarian to carnivore, not carnivore, but eating an omnivorous diet, eating every eating all the things ah early on in my dance career because I had no energy getting injured all the time. So then I started eating meat again. but then I want to say maybe eight years after that, I went through an entire year of my life where I was sick nonstop. I had like a terrible stomach flu for probably two weeks. I got strep throat three times. I had bronchitis. I had laryngitis, multiple colds. like My immune system just could not recover.
00:29:26
Speaker
And that was just such a wake up moment for me. I was like, I'm doing way too much. Like my body should be able to recover. Our bodies have natural healing abilities. And that's always really been my philosophy. If we give our body the right inputs and we give it the recovery, it should be able to take care of these things naturally. But I was just not able to reset to my baseline. So that year was like a wake up learn. We got to do some things differently. So I reset. I pulled back from one of the jobs that I was working at the time.
00:29:55
Speaker
And I started studying. I i um took this course, the functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner course, FDN. So I learned all about lab testing. And that was really the first foray into looking at my unique physiology to figure out what my needs were. But it took me going through this period of burnout, like my HBA axis,
00:30:14
Speaker
was in the trash. we We called it adrenal fatigue at the time. And then I had all these immune challenges. So I was like, reset button. Let me start testing labs. Let me actually start sleeping. And then I was exposed to data, like figuring out what the body is actually telling us objectively because I was relying subjectively. And I think subjectively over time, we just kind of get tunnel vision. We get stuck in our own loop and we normalize certain things, right?
00:30:40
Speaker
A lot of us have heard that. It's like it's common, but it's not normal. But when you're stuck in that loop, you're like, this is normal. I don't know any differently. Yeah. I mean, that point of you had a baseline and it took going way below baseline to realize it's an issue. But I think this is where health versus health care that's just treating sickness. Right. When you go way below baseline, I was saying, hey, wherever I am today, I wonder what more optimize would be you know there may be people listening like oh i haven't hit that point you say yeah but how much better could you feel if if you woke up everyday feeling you don't even know i had a friend all of a sudden he learned he had a gluten intolerance.
00:31:22
Speaker
And he was like, wow I so now basically hung over every single day. I'm so much better. I'm so much more mentally sharp. But he just had no idea because it was it was normal for him. It was what every day felt like. And it was only when he went and changed something that he felt that different. And That's what I wish for more people that they don't have to have that trough to realize, wait, there there is a peak that isn't necessarily like the the Michael Phelps peak performer peak, but there is this level I can live and feel better than I am today that I can unlock.
00:31:59
Speaker
Yeah, I think the ceiling can always be higher for all of us. And I think that's what Brian Johnson is showing us. But like your buy in is up to you. You get to choose what you want this existence and life experience to be. For some people, it's they're not willing to do that extra mile. They'd rather just take the easier route and just be OK with feeling suboptimal. And I would say it does either take like a big period of burnout or a low point or a big pain point getting sick or injured to realize so Or it could be access and exposure to education where you just understand like, oh, there is a potentially a better way. I could remove processed foods. I could go off of gluten for a period of time and just see, just see if I feel better. I feel like there's it's really actually trending this experimentation. I hear more and more people outside of kind of the health sphere of people are like, yeah, I just all of a sudden woke up and I was like, there's there might be there might be a way I could feel a little bit better.
00:32:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And so now, you know, what does your sleep
Consistent Sleep Amidst a Busy Schedule
00:33:04
Speaker
routine look like? I mean, it sleeps has to be super important for everything you do. yeah yeah What does that routine look like? what What is your sleep hygiene like? I would say it's just I try to be as consistent as possible. So it's interesting because I'm performing right now. So I'm just like thrown back into this terrible circadian rhythm. but The schedule is awful, like working until 11 p.m. I'm indoors a lot of the day and then under these bright lights until very late at night. So I have to be very, very mindful about my daytime light exposure, making sure I'm getting adequate movement, like really setting up sleep from the moment that I wake up.
00:33:41
Speaker
Yeah. And then kind of surrendering to the rest because it's one of those things like the more you know, the more you kind of like placebo effect to get in your head about how sleep is going to be so terrible after working late. So I'm like, yeah, so I'm like doing the right things. But then to a certain extent, I'm like, okay, I just surrender. I'm going to be up a little bit later. I'm still going to wind down as soon as I can. I'm a little more amped up when I get home. So it is harder for me to fall asleep. But I know that I feel best when I go to bed at 10 30, which is not exceedingly early, but it's also ah you know, earlier than a lot of other performers go to bed. And I just try to maintain that consistency, whether I'm performing or traveling, like if I can just come back to that baseline, just have that grounding. I find there's less variation and less like
00:34:29
Speaker
slipping into sleep deprivation for a long period of time. But my ideal, so when I'm home, I like to eat dinner as early as possible. And then it's like once I've had dinner and I go for a walk, it's like start turning everything down, yeah everything like the lights turned down, the exposures get turned down um and just start moving more slowly, I would say.
00:34:51
Speaker
Do you use any supplements either consistently or just on those times where you're like, look, I'm i'm a little too amped, you know, even if it's like a chamomile sleepy time tea or something, you know, anything to help take it down?
00:35:02
Speaker
Oh, yeah. When I'm performing, I'm like, let's just pull out all the stops because it's not worth it to me to lose sleep. Yeah, I would love to be a sleep purist. I'm definitely working towards that. But I also have a toolbox of things that I can pull out if and when I kind of have my consistent sleep nutrients, like I'm a huge fan of magnesium. I love glycine. I respond really well to GABA. So those are kind of like my all the time baseline nutrients.
00:35:29
Speaker
yeah But when I need that extra little support, I'll definitely do a sleepy time tea. I'll do, I love CBD with a very low, I'll do a full spectrum. So like a trace amount of THC, but like a much higher amount of CBD really helps me in those moments. And how do you take that? Is that a gummy or how do you? ah Sometimes a gummy, but I prefer the liquid. I just feel like I get absorbed a little bit better, but you know, I'll take a gummy from time to time. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:58
Speaker
And then for the sleep itself, I mean, do you have, are you someone that you've tested out mattresses? You're like, oh God, I have the one that I like or the sheets or whatever it is. Cause that sleep environment is super important. How do you think about that? Yeah. Oh gosh. This is such an interesting thing about biohacking. You're like biohacking your environment and you can't travel. Like you can't go anywhere.
00:36:17
Speaker
ah I interviewed someone who's like, yeah, you know, I had one of those cooling pads. And the problem was, it was so good that when I traveled, it just totally junked my sleep. So I had to get rid of it because I got too accustomed to it being so good. I'm a little on the fence now. So I have an eight sleep, which I absolutely love. Like it was a game changer for my deep sleep. Like I get three hours and 15 minutes of deep sleep.
00:36:39
Speaker
Whoa. yeah my youth Out of like an eight hour sleep night, three hours and 15 of deep? forty percent yeah It's Yeah, it's kind of wild. That's amazing. um But it is interesting because I get so bothered when I travel. If I'm in a hotel and you know I try to crank the AC as much as possible in a hotel, but a lot of them have those blocks where you can't turn it down super low. New York's the worst at that. If it's not yeah the right time of year, they have no AC on. So I'm cranking up the windows to try to get the cold air in. And then it's super loud because you're in New York City. oh I know. I know. New York is not great for sleep. But um yeah, I'm really on the fence about it. I'm like, i maybe I wean myself off this amazing piece of tech because I don't want the consistency or my baseline to be too shifted if I'm in another environment. And I do travel a lot.
00:37:28
Speaker
so um I used to prefer saying an airbnbs when i travel but now i like my bio hacking i'm like hotels are are actually better soundproofing a little bit better if the blackout curtains. Ideally we have an ac that's gonna work really well we're in airbnb there's just like too many variables are unaccounted for yeah.
00:37:48
Speaker
So to answer your question, I love my eight sleep. Um, I use red light. I put red light bulbs everywhere. Like my light next to my net is red. Yeah. And the bathroom, I have like the plugins and I always travel with those so that I don't have to flick on a light in the middle of the night.
00:38:05
Speaker
So big fan of the red lights, sleeping as cold as possible, which is so crazy to me because when I was younger, it was like, how many blankets can I get on the bed? Like bundled up. And now I'm like, I don't want any of that, like cold or bust. That's it. Yeah. And then it's just like doing down regulating things like I used to be so anti watching TV, but.
00:38:25
Speaker
I'm like, it helps me sleep a little bit to just kind of unwind and enjoy some entertainment. And the TV's like very far away from my bed. So I'm not getting like a, the distance is it's not too exposed, but. um But I think that's a good message that is your whole point with the biohacking of don't treat these things as religions, right? They can be starting points as a hypothesis of, oh, this seems to work for people. Let me see if it works for me. Let me see what works better for me.
00:38:55
Speaker
And then you can solve, and maybe you're 80% the same as a lot of people, but that extra 20% may make all the difference and make it more accessible and consistent for you, like you said. yeah So you you mentioned you know the CGM, you're tracking your glucose. you You have the eight sleep that's tracking your sleep. Do you do any other kind of tracking? Do you have other trackers that do anything? Yeah, I wear an Oura ring. I've been a consistent user for, I think it's been six years now, so I have a lot of data.
00:39:22
Speaker
And are the aura and the age sleep pretty consistent in the readings they're giving you? You know what? I don't often look at the age sleep data. I know I'm missing out on a whole feature that I'm potentially paying for, but my dog sleeps in my bed. And I noticed very early on that the dog was disrupting the metrics where it would be like, Oh, you're awake a million times a night. I'm like, no, I'm not. It's my dog. Yeah.
00:39:43
Speaker
So I actually don't even look at that, but I have checked in from time to time. I would say, surprisingly, the HRV tends to align pretty well, which I'm surprised about. But like in general, they trend pretty similarly. Yeah, that's neat.
00:40:00
Speaker
We talked about when you were talking about the metabolic health and tracking on the CGM and the things that can impact
Stress Management and Micro-Recoveries
00:40:07
Speaker
that. One of the things you mentioned was stress and how stress can impact how you react to food or how your whole system reacts. What are the things with everything you're doing and and right now i'm performing in a show, what are the things you do to manage that stress and manage your mindset through all this?
00:40:25
Speaker
Ooh, the mindset piece. I would say number one for me, and this is totally my edge. This is something I constantly have to work towards. Like I'm an over-scheduler. Like I love to just fit as much as I can into a day. And I know that, I know from my Oura Ring sleep data, HRV data, and also from my CGM that if I don't create like micro-recoverys all day long, I'm just living in sympathetic.
00:40:51
Speaker
Um, and so then if we bring food into the equation, I'm in sympathetic and I eat, it's not about the food. It's that my body is already in a stress response. So I will have like much higher glucose than I should. So for me, that's always my challenge is like, can I slow down a little bit? Lunchtime tends to be the hardest for me. And I think for a lot of people it's like,
00:41:13
Speaker
I don't have time to stop my work and sit down and eat lunch and watch the birds. How many things can I do while I like guzzle this food down? so um But I've seen with the CGM that's like such a crucial opportunity to either like have elevated glucose for the rest of the day or to like fully recover and get that little bio break that we all deserve. and and and Theoretically, like we all understand that we're going to perform better and have better brain function. After that, if we can actually slow down, it's just like, can we actually make it happen? yeah so That's something that I'm always practicing, like really trying to work in little bits of recovery and downtime so that I can slow down and I can get back into that pure sympathetic because that's where our healing happens.
00:41:58
Speaker
and And what do those look like? You know, they're they're different exercises to simulate the vagus nerve, their breathing patterns. You can do like the 470 breath. What are your kind of go-tos to get those little resets throughout the day?
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah. Well, one, it's not multitasking while I eat. I'm like, I'm either going to talk to a person or I try to eat outside if it's nice, because if I'm eating outside, I have like beautiful scenery to look at and I'm less likely to be like on a device, my phone or my computer. So I would say like, I choose the environment that is conducive to slowing down. But, um, I have a gratitude practice before I eat. Like I grew up Catholic, so it was always like, okay, I say grace, and I went through a period where I was like, I'm not saying grace before I eat. Now, it is so essential to me to have a moment of gratitude where I'm just like, I'm very thankful that I get to sit here and enjoy this meal. I'm grateful I get to eat organic whole foods. That's very lucky. And having that moment of gratitude just, I think, is a huge reset to the whole nervous system. We're just like,
00:42:59
Speaker
if I thought myself just reset just as you were saying that I was like, oh, yeah. Yeah. And then it it really sets the tone for the meal because then I remember to breathe. I remember that, like, yeah, I can put my fork down between bites. I can yeah enjoy myself. I think if we rush into a meal, then you're setting the tone. You're probably going to just fly through that meal. You're not going to chew your food. And this is something I'm working on with clients all the time, like chewing your food is so critical because our digestion starts there. Actually, we can argue our digestion starts in our eyes. And so if we're rushing into our meal, our brain doesn't even have a chance to realize that nutrition is coming in. So you're not going to digest well, you're not going to feel satiated. And so what happens later is, well, you're hungry an hour or later.
00:43:48
Speaker
Because your brain was like, wait, what what happened? i I wasn't even here for this. yeah You're going to eat faster. so So you're not going to digest well. You're not going to absorb your nutrients. It just creates this whole cascade of effects. So for me, the practice is like, let's just have gratitude for a moment.
Community as a Health Pillar
00:44:03
Speaker
And it naturally will slow me down and bring me into the present. And then I don't multitask. I chew my food. I get my nutrition. like it's It feels a lot better. like The food tastes better when you do that, I think.
00:44:16
Speaker
Yeah, you can see it because you're it's literally mindfulness. You're being mindful of the food you're consuming versus mindless. And then yeah if you're mindless, everything kind of blends in and it's stuff in your mouth that's going through and you're just cycling through. You're not you're not really there. You're somewhere else. So you're not appreciating that food. yeah You touch on something. and We don't have to go as deep on it if you don't want, but being raised Catholic.
00:44:42
Speaker
And we've gone through a period where people, whether it's religions, churches have less attendance or it's social organizations. And I don't think it's an accident that we ended up in this kind of lonely and loneliness epidemic.
00:44:57
Speaker
as a result of this loss of social connection, whether it's around a belief system, but it's this idea of social connection. And I imagine being a performer, every show, you have this family because you're spending so much time together, you're getting and then when you come off a show, you're not performing, you're missing that and you have your clients and certainly you're working with, but how do you think about that? right you You had this community around your church at one point, you have your community around shows. It's such a critical part of overall health. Is this something you craft your life around or how do you think about that? I try to.
00:45:35
Speaker
I try to, I would say that's another edge of mine. Like I can be such a workhorse and I am naturally introverted and umm I'm a cancer, so I'm a homebody. Like I can very easily be like, I don't need people, I'm fine. But I know that I feel so much better when I'm in community. It's interesting because I was performing right up until the pandemic. And when the pandemic hit and I stopped performing and this is when I largely was like on Zoom, 100% virtual coaching.
00:46:03
Speaker
I was like, oh, all of my community was at work. My socialization was at work. And I was kind of lucky that it was all bundled in that. But I had this moment of like, where are my friends? Like my community was just ripped away from me. And um Yeah, I think for someone like me that is very motivated to work, like I enjoy working, I really have to work hard to carve out that time to be social. Yeah. And I think it's always a balance. But yeah, like, I think it's undeniable the way that we feel when we are interacting, even if you are introverts, sometimes that's hard for people. Because I feel that and I have clients that are like,
00:46:43
Speaker
I don't want to interact. It brings up social anxiety. It doesn't feel good. It's just not my nature, but this is how our ancestors were. This is how we're designed to be in community, like sharing electrons and sharing energy and inspiring others and communing and laughing. How often do you sit there and laugh by yourself? We know laughter alone is its own medicine. I can't make myself laugh. I mean, I do.
00:47:08
Speaker
Like when I trip, I laugh and that's kind of been my practice. Like I used to be really hard on myself. But now when I like bump into a wall, I'm like, that's hilarious. So I guess I do laugh a little bit, but how much more do we laugh and smile when we're in community? So just for that alone, like the opportunity and the exposure to have those different range of emotions. And then also when we're sad to like be held and have that support, yeah it's just infinitely harder when you're alone.
00:47:36
Speaker
And so you realize that when it got taken away, how have you sense outside of now performing again, been able to get that interspersed in your days and weeks? That's a good question. It's been tough the last couple of years, like being virtual. Yeah, I haven't had. um I haven't had as much regular social time, so I'm moving out of New York and my goal for my next living space is to be in a community where I can easily walk and access people.
00:48:10
Speaker
Yeah, more readily. Right now, it's been a lot of family time actually. So I did trade some friend social time for I'm with my family all the time now. So I'm kind of in a different phase and we get along and we can hang out socially. Yeah, so it's a little bit of a trade right now. But I don't know if I have a good answer to your question because it's always difficult for me. It's always like I have to be very conscious about making this happen.
00:48:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, a lot of times ah they put the social connection with the purpose, right? You need something driving, whether it's that social interaction and your purpose, right? We've profiled a lot of what you personally do in this, but you're taking a lot of these lessons and learnings and sharing them with your clients and you have this this broader purpose with the engagement with what you're doing there. Can you say a little bit more about your work there and what drives you there?
Educating with Joy and Simplicity
00:48:59
Speaker
Wow, that's a big question. I don't know.
00:49:03
Speaker
I don't know. I've just always been naturally driven to like, i I love educating people. It's like when I learn something, I get lit up inside. I'm like, I got to share this. How many people can I can I share this with? Because if it excites me and motivates me, I'm like, I know what's going to excite other people. And so really just having even one on one conversations with clients about just these little light bulb moments where they can just access a little bit more joy than gives me joy. And I really live for that. I live for like these client wins where we're like, Oh my God, it's so much more simple than I was making it out to be. I think health for a lot of people feel stressful. It sounds stressful, but like in actuality, what I'm trying to do is create more ease.
00:49:45
Speaker
And that's always been a big motivation for me to be a biohacker. I do it so I can get out of my own way, like resolve my own shit and like be in the world so I can live my dream and my purpose. Because if we're all living our purpose and we're like this beautiful, comprehensive ecosystem that's contributing, right? yeah So that's what I'm trying to help people do is get out of their own way so they can be their best self. And so I like, I really live for those little micro joys where they're like,
00:50:14
Speaker
can breathe a little bit more. You just created like a little bit more ease in my day. Yeah, that's amazing. And we'll certainly put all this in the show notes, but for someone who may be interested in working with you, I don't know if you're taking clients now, but how would they be able to contact you and and schedule that?
00:50:30
Speaker
Yeah, you can find my website. It's laurinsampatero.com. And I have kind of a brief overview of my services and you can schedule a free discovery call. I always start with a call because it's nice to chat with people and yeah just understand the motivations and make sure we're a good fit. But yeah, online. And then I have a podcast, Biohacker Babes podcast. So I feed a lot of the education through the podcast as well. But if you're interested in coaching, website's the best place.
00:50:57
Speaker
Fantastic. it It was wonderful to catch up. you know What I love about this conversation is you pointed out it it is a moving target for you. That's a whole concept of the biohacker. Let me keep learning. It's this open, curious mindset that has gotten you to where you are and will take you to where you're going. So thank you so much for sharing all that today. Thank you. Thank you for holding space for this conversation. It's lovely.
00:51:22
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Health Span podcast. And remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other healthspan role models on thelively.com. Enjoy a lively day.