Join Dr. Lindsay Ogle, a board certified family medicine and obesity medicine physician, as she explores evidence-based strategies and practical tips to prevent and treat weight and metabolic conditions. Dr. Ogle provides insights on managing diabetes, PCOS, metabolic syndrome, obesity and related conditions through lifestyle optimization, safe medications and personalized care.
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We break down why it can feel like you are fighting yourself when you try to change your health habits, and we show how to use simple planning to make follow-through easier. We explain forebrain vs hindbrain, then turn that insight into a practical nutrition plan that supports metabolic health and self-trust. • forebrain vs hindbrain and why they can clash • the motivational triad: seek pleasure, avoid pain, conserve energy • how modern life triggers threat-scanning and anxiety • why decision fatigue pushes you toward easy food choices • building a nutrition plan instead of a restrictive diet • planning 24 hours ahead or a week ahead based on your life • making reasonable changes and using baby steps • scheduling treats to reduce guilt and rebellion • starting with one planned meal, especially breakfast • prioritizing protein, water, and fiber for steadier hunger • considering a coach, dietitian, therapist, or health professional for support If you found this information helpful, please share with a friend, family member, or colleague. We need to do all we can to combat the dangerous misinformation that is out there. Please subscribe and write a review. This will help others find the podcast so they may also improve their metabolic health.
Welcome to the Modern Metabolic Health Podcast with your host, Dr. Lindsay Ogle, Board Certified Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine Physician. Here we learn how we can treat and prevent modern metabolic conditions such as diabetes, PCOS, fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, and more. We focus on optimizing lifestyle while utilizing safe and effective medical treatments. Please remember that while I am a physician, I am not your physician. Everything discussed here is provided as general medical knowledge and not direct medical advice. Please talk to your doctor about what is best for you.
Do you ever feel like you are fighting against yourself? That you have certain goals that you want to achieve, but you feel like there's something within you that is preventing you from achieving those goals, you are not alone. I have felt that way as well many, many times. And I'm here to tell you that there is a very simple strategy that you can learn today and start implementing in your life to help you successfully achieve those goals that you desire. So the reason that it may feel that you are fighting against yourself and preventing yourself from achieving the goals that you have set is because there are essentially two different brains that you have. And if you've never heard of this concept, then this may sound really surprising, but the truth is you have what we call a forebrain and a hindbrain. And the hind brain is what has been present for many, many centuries, thousands of years. It's also known as your primitive brain. So this is what other animals have that help keep them alive and tells them what to do to survive. The forebrain is what makes humans separate from the other animals. It allows us to strategically plan, to think about long-term consequences, to have that emotional connection with each other, to learn how to operate within our communities. These two brains have sometimes opposing goals. Our hind brain or primitive brain really developed over the premise of the motivational triad. And the motivational triad is to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and conserve energy. This was very important back when we had a more difficult life, a more primitive life. We needed to make sure that we were staying safe in the cave and avoiding danger and conserving our energy because it was very difficult to get the calories that our body needed to survive. Now, in the modern day world, most of us have easy access to highly caloric dense foods, and so we no longer need to preserve our energy. And most of us live in a very safe environment where we don't have to worry about our safety constantly, but that part of our brain is still active, and that's where anxiety can come in. We're always looking for threats, which is great because we want to acknowledge and see those threats when they're coming. But most of the things that we perceive as threats are not actually harmful to our well-being. Those are things like public speaking or turning in a project at work or at school. We actually need to go out of our way to put ourselves into what we perceive as danger and to really continue to reach our modern goals. And that is where our forebrain or prefrontal cortex comes in. This is the part of the brain that we can utilize to overcome the restrictions of our hindbrain. We can think about the future, we can break down big goals into smaller steps and plan them out. This is the part of the brain that I want you to unlock and use to plan your health goals moving forward.
So for today's example, I'm going to talk about creating a nutrition plan. I am intentional when I use the term nutrition plan rather than diet. Diet automatically comes with the connotation of being restrictive and difficult. A nutrition plan is something that you yourself helps create and plan for your future self so that you can get the nutrition, the nutrients that you need to be successful in that next day as well as for your future health. Creating nutrition plans ahead of time is very powerful. We talked about using that forebrain over your hindbrain to make better, healthier decisions. But it also takes away the stress of making decisions at that time. We make thousands of decisions every single day. What are we gonna wear? What time are we gonna leave for work? What are we gonna make for breakfast? Are we going to walk or lift weights today? What are we gonna watch on TV? What do we want to listen to in the car? How are we gonna answer this email? Are we gonna answer this phone number that we don't know that pops up on the screen? There are constant, constant decisions to be made throughout the day. And as you may have noticed, towards the end of the day, you are wiped. You do not want to make another decision. So that is why a lot of times, by the end of the day, we're not making the healthiest decisions for ourselves, the most nutritious food decisions. We're going for whatever is easiest and most pleasurable, what takes the least amount of energy to make. This is why meal prepping can be so helpful because it's already done. You don't have to think about it. You just pull it out of the refrigerator, warm it up, and there you go. But if you don't like to meal prep, you can do the same thing with planning what you're gonna eat ahead of time. I recommend planning at least 24 hours in advance. So some people like to do this each day, plan for the day ahead, or you can do it a full week in advance. Neither one is right or wrong or better than the other. It's whatever works best for you and your schedule. When creating a nutrition plan, I highly recommend that you create a plan that is reasonable for yourself and where you're at at this time. I do not think it is reasonable to go from that having frozen TV dinners to having a cooked from scratch dinner every evening of the week. There are baby steps along the way that can help get you to that goal if that's what you desire, but it is unreasonable to think that the very next day you're going to be able to kind of make a 180 and make that change. I also want you to plan in some treats along the way. A nutrition plan is not about deprivation, it's about making the healthy decisions ahead of time. And you know yourself best. If you are somebody who typically enjoys a sweet treat after dinner, then plan for that and plan for a portion that is appropriate for you, or plan for a healthier alternative to that sweet treat that you would still enjoy. If you are constantly restricting yourself, you're gonna want to rebel against those decisions that you've made. If you are constantly rebelling over your previous decisions, then that is going to erode your relationship with yourself. When you are making decisions that you plan to and are willing to and are happy to abide by the next day or throughout the rest of the week, then you're going to look back on your previous self and be thankful that she or he really had your best interest in mind. And you're gonna follow through with that plan, and that builds self-confidence and self-esteem. And so it's not only improving your health, but you're improving your relationship with your with yourself, which is so powerful and amazing, and that is truly what I want for you. Also, when you're building those treats in for yourself, you are going to be able to fully enjoy them without guilt or without wondering whether that was the right thing to do. Compared to if you are constantly restricting yourself and trying to avoid those sweet treats, and then you eventually give in as we all do and would, and then typically when that happens, when you give in, it's very easy to beat yourself up or put yourself down for that decision. But if your past self had made that decision and wanted you to have that treat, then you can enjoy it with no regret, with no regrets and no guilt.
I also recommend that you start small with this. So it can be overwhelming to even plan 24 hours of meals and snacks. Start with one meal a day. That can be as simple as breakfast. And I think breakfast is a great way to start because that's early in the day. We haven't made as many decisions yet, so it is easier for us to follow through with the decision that we made the prior day. Focus on getting enough protein during this time, drinking enough water, maybe even getting some fiber in there, and that is going to help stabilize your hunger throughout the rest of the day and set you up for success. I would love to hear if you've tried any of these tips, what has worked for you, where you've been struggling. I would love to troubleshoot that with you. I also highly recommend considering working with a coach, dietitian, therapist, or other health professional that can help walk you through these steps because it can be a big change, but it is one that is so worth doing. And over time, when you've built in these routines and you find what works best for you, you may not need to always plan ahead of time. But if you find yourself kind of getting in a rut or you're not maintaining your health goals, then this is a great skill to have to return to to kind of get back on track and just remember that this is something that you are deciding for yourself, for your health, and this is not against yourself, this is not punishment. This is marrying the forebrain and the hindbrain together so that you can ultimately reach your health goals and can help build a better relationship with yourself. I hope you learned a lot here. This is a strategy that I really, really love to teach my patients, and it's something that I've implemented for myself in many different ways, and I found to be extremely powerful. Thank you for listening and loving how you can improve your metabolic health in this modern world. If you found this information helpful, please share with a friend, family member, or colleague. We need to do all we can to combat the dangerous misinformation that is out there. Please subscribe and write a review. This will help others find the podcast so they may also improve their metabolic health. I look forward to our conversation next week.
