#68 - Member Story: Committing to a glucose monitor for one year (Natalie Vanderpump & Ben Grynol)

Obesity and chronic disease are fallouts from the lack of real human connection. Underneath biomarkers like glucose and physical aspects like mitochondrial dysfunctions are the root causes of disease: hijacked reward pathways, chronic stress due to constant threat mode, and the global human disconnect. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl In this discussion between Levels’ advisor Dr. Molly Maloof and our co-founder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Casey Means, they talk about: The most important measurable biomarker How we’re designed to live in groups The cycle of constant stress through threat signaling vs. high-reward pathways The big problem of global human disconnection How love and oxytocin helps to make us stronger, share resources, and create bonds Addiction and the power of the pause How to increase physical and emotional adaptation Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health (12:13) - Adapting and self-managing in the face of adversity (16:03) - The most important biomarker (23:05) - Moving your body to create energy (24:18) - Adapting beyond genetics (26:29) - Hijacking reward pathways (36:40) - Getting off the grid (43:22) - Take care of your mitochondria (45:57) - The holy grail of chronic disease (51:35) - Felt connection (59:11) - How deprivation is a pathway to happiness (1:06:03) - The power of the pause (1:23:11) - Letting go of control (01:41:37) - Cooking your skin Watch the conversation on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=XVSYGx9Fkns Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1 Connect with Molly on Instagram: https://instagram.com/drmolly.co Connect with Molly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mollymaloofmd

29 Apr 20221h 55min

Levels Founder and President, Josh Clemente, chatted with our Operations Specialist, Jesse Lavine, and friend of Levels, Chris Truglio, about their experiences and challenges living with Type 1 Diabetes and how Levels' efforts to educate the general public on metabolic health could positively impact the Type 1 Diabetes community in the future. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health (04:21) - Diagnosed with Type 1 (07:41) - Treating food like medicine (14:01) - A CGM is a game-changer (15:28) - Planning for contingencies (21:20) - Maximizing the time you feel good (22:53) - Living a healthier lifestyle (28:24) - Type 1 has no warning signs (39:34) - Self-forgiveness is important (43:08) - You need health insurance (58:07) - Relating to others is empowering Watch the Video – https://youtu.be/I1mOv9oOXmY Transcripts and Show Notes

28 Apr 20221h 10min

Levels Head of Growth, Ben Grynol, chatted with our Principal Designer, Brett Redinger, about the topics of behavior change, habit formation and how it all relates to an app's entire design. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health (04:09) - Design for building habits (12:53) - Bring joy into design (16:05) - Build and hold onto people’s trust (21:24) - Look at things from the persona’s point of view (23:55) - Extrinsic and intrinsic triggers (28:27) - Motivation is hard to hack (29:57) - Investment is a big part of habits (34:41) - Guidance not control (38:21) - Create accountability up front (42:36) - The reward has to be greater than the cognitive load Transcripts and Show Notes

26 Apr 202245min

To create a movement with philanthropy, you need to find voices and advocates to be successful. We explore the cross-section of where philanthropy, health, and wellness meet with philanthropist Esther Dyson, founder of the nonprofit Wellville, in this episode with Dr. Lauren Kelley-Chew. Esther shifted her investments from healthcare in order to bring more of her attention to the health and wellness space and CGMs. Look for multiple new shows per week on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations about metabolic health and how the Levels startup team builds a wellness movement from the ground up in the health and wellness tech industry. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health 🎙 What Esther Dyson & Dr. Lauren Kelley-Chew discuss: (02:30) - Invest in health, not healthcare (05:06) - Build back better (10:03) - Enable small communities to get funding (15:10) - Take time to prioritize (26:31) - Change your perspective on luck (35:08) - Invest to learn (37:55) - Speculating doesn’t solve anything (45:10) - Build for the future (47:29) - Measure success like a net promoter score (52:13) - Teach children about their metabolism Transcript & Show notes 🔗 Helpful links: Watch the conversation: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0Krj19eb6PY Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1 📲 Connect: Connect with Dr. Lauren Kelley-Chew on Instagram: https://instagram.com/DrKelleyChew Connect with Esther Dyson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/edyson

25 Apr 202254min

Levels Head of Growth, Ben Grynol, chatted with Co-Founder and CEO, Sam Corcos, and Head of Operations, Michael 'Miz' Mizrahi, about how we all scale our time at Levels to be effective team members. We achieve this with Executive Assistants (EAs) from a company called, Athena. They dived into how we delegate and outsource tasks to Athena and why they are an important part of our company. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health (06:47) - Reluctance to delegate (08:52) - Make time for bigger work (13:32) - Have automation and delegation (15:29) - De-risk delegation (16:55) - Document everything (22:49) - Hire support staff early (24:12) - Add in accountability (30:01) - Divide process work and critical thinking work (50:38) - See what they can take off your plate (54:37) - Audit communications Transcripts and Show Notes

22 Apr 20221h 2min

The history of the Big Food and Big Sugar industries still affect our metabolic health today. Learn more in this conversation between Dr. Robert Lustig and Ben Grynol. Look for multiple new shows per week on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations about metabolic health and how the Levels startup team builds a wellness movement from the ground up in the health and wellness tech industry. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health 🎙 What Dr. Robert Lustig & Ben Grynol discuss: (09:24) - Create the consensus (17:17) - Exonerate sugar as the cause of heart disease (22:31) - Use shoddy science (23:35) - Buy off scientists and critics (24:50) - Weakening government oversight (26:53) - Fight back against regulated advertising (35:20) - Go all in on corn (40:40) - Sugar should be a condiment (43:04) - Increase food industry profits (48:27) - The public needs to demand better Transcripts & Show Notes  🔗 LINKS: Watch the conversation: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2-qq2Tzl5nM Subscribe here on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1 📲 CONNECT: Connect with Robert Lustig, MD, MSL on Instagram: https://instagram.com/robertlustigmd Connect with Robert on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobertLustigMD Connect with Robert on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/robert-lustig-8904245

21 Apr 202250min

Levels Head of Growth, Ben Grynol, chatted with Editorial Director, Mike Haney, to provide us with a TLDR of the Levels blog article, "Why have dietary guidelines been so wrong, and how do they still need to change?"  Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health (04:35) - Updated guidelines every five years (06:40) - People are confused about nutrition (09:10) - Guidelines are directional at best (15:09) - The guidelines lag behind science (17:18) - Beware of industry influences (22:13) - More data will bring better guidelines (24:02) - Even flawed, they still matter (25:05) - Still too much sugar (29:22) - Look at guidance overlaps and tweak them for yourself (32:50) - Your diet should be aspirational Transcripts & Show Notes Watch the Video – https://youtu.be/EsaYeXNdgXs Read the Article – https://www.levelshealth.com/blog  Listen to "How to read a nutrition paper"  59% of people saying conflicting food and nutrition information makes them doubt their choices.  Joe Biden should declare a food and nutrition war  A simple guide to reading—and understanding—nutrition studies

20 Apr 202233min

Levels Head of Growth, Ben Grynol, and Levels Editorial Director, Mike Haney, chatted with Growth Advisor and SEO Strategic Consultant, Eli Schwartz. They discussed the idea of SEO as a strategic growth lever and what are the most efficient and inefficient ways of using it. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health Watch the video – https://youtu.be/UqW-9YsaUpg (07:04) - Prioritize content by user need (10:46) - Don’t overcomplicate SEO (12:33) - Fit SEO into the funnel (17:12) - Focus on search intent (20:41) - Think beyond Google (23:42) - Don’t chase the algorithm (26:55) - SEO isn’t always a great growth lever (29:10) - Put SEO in product, not marketing (31:48) - Engineering-driven SEO is more scalable (42:14) - Don’t do SEO first Transcripts & Show Notes

19 Apr 202257min