The Kick Sugar Coach Podcast
The Kick Sugar Coach Podcast
Mollee Rucker: From Chasing Skinny to Optimizing Health
Molly Rucker's path to health wasn't straightforward. After struggling with obesity as a teenager and disordered eating in her twenties, she found herself "skinny" but far from healthy. This disconnect sparked a deep curiosity about what true wellness actually means beyond appearances.
Working at a health food store became the unexpected turning point in Molly's journey, introducing her to traditional foods and the beginning of her exploration into how genetics, neurochemistry, and physiology influence our well-being. Unlike many health approaches that focus on treating symptoms, Molly advocates for making the body "inhospitable to disease" by understanding our unique biological needs.
Molly's fascination with neurochemistry eventually led her to co-found Keto Brains, a nutraceutical company offering a nootropic formulation that enhances cognitive function without the jitters or crashes associated with caffeine. The product combines alpha-GPC to boost acetylcholine (essential for focus), lion's mane mushroom to promote neuronal health, and L-theanine to create calm alertness—all delivered in a creamy MCT oil base that simultaneously supports ketone production.
Beyond supplements, Molly shares profound insights about emotional regulation, explaining how emotions are essentially chemical reactions that typically run their course within 60 seconds. By creating space to observe these reactions rather than feeding them, we can develop resilience that supports our health goals instead of sabotaging them when challenges arise.
Whether you're struggling with caffeine dependence, looking to optimize your cognitive performance, or simply wanting to understand the connection between your emotional responses and your brain chemistry, this conversation offers practical wisdom from someone who's personally walked the path from illness to vibrant health. Molly's science-based yet deeply personal approach reminds us that the journey toward optimal health starts with understanding our individual biology and honoring what our unique systems need to thrive.
Molly shared a discount code for first-time customers of KetoBrainz during the interview. If you're curious about trying her 4-ingredient nootropic blend, use code KICKSUGAR for 20% off your first order.
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Hello and welcome everybody to an interview today with Molly Rucker. I have specifically gone out of my way to ask Molly to come and be on my podcast for lots of interesting reasons. First of all, she has her own story, her own journey of struggling with disordered eating, of struggling with being overweight, struggling with her health and stumbling into working in a health food store in her 20s, which sort of has placed her in this space of being really fascinated by what it means to reclaim our health, to find health, and she'll share, hopefully, a little bit about her story how she was chasing skinny in her 20s because she was overweight as a kid, she was obese as a teenager and then in her 20s she was chasing skinny and she found skinny, but what she didn't find was health. What she didn't find was peace with, with food. What she didn't find was a connection to her body where she could, she could work with its nuances.
FLORENCE:And so she's been on this absolutely fascinating journey of, you know, being being the end of one of biohacking, of really trying to figure out how can I optimize? I felt so sick and awful as a kid, like how can I feel really freaking great without the stimulants, without getting jacked up on coffee or kombucha or sugar or you know some of the other shortcuts that other people take. And in her journey, she co-founded a nutraceutical company called Keto Brains, and it's really about how we can use supplements very targeted, specific ones that she'll talk a bit more about to support cognitive health, which is a thing that many of us are mindful of wanting to stay sharp, not just now, focused now, but well into our senior years, if not the day we die. So Molly's here to share all her journey with us, all her wisdom, all her passion for her knowledge around how to leverage supplements and lifestyle to feel our best. Welcome, molly.
MOLLEE:Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, it's. You know, we go on different journeys in life and we usually don't know that we're on a journey. We're in the middle. We're in the middle of the difficult part of it. You're just trying to get through it.
MOLLEE:I quote unquote met anorexia, you know, as a 14 year old. So had you know, a nice 10 years of disordered eating before arriving in my early twenties feeling completely wrecked and confused about really like what? What was health? Was it vegan? Was it not eating fat? Was it, you know? Was it not eating fat? Was it, you know? Was it not eating protein? What was the thing? And it was in my early 20s when I landed a job at a health food store. It wasn't the job I was looking for, but it was the job I ended up in, and it was there that, you know, a lovely woman with an angry voice but a huge heart told me about the Weston, a Price Foundation.
MOLLEE:So in the long time ago, just getting into, you know, what are traditional foods? How might my genetics impact how I feel? And I say it's a journey because as you add pieces of knowledge as you get older and as you discover what doesn't work. You go on various paths that lead you to different protocols. You know it's I've been through. I've been through back mountain trail running, I've been through CrossFit, I've been a vegan, I've been a vegetarian. You know I've done. I've done all the things and you know, ultimately, over that span of time, I learned to understand that, you know, being healthy for me. Because I'm very curious. I want to understand the neurochemistry behind what is happy, the neurochemistry behind what is sad, the neurochemistry behind you know why do we feel the way we feel? You know when our period is coming versus after our period. So, instead of just I want to feel good. What is health? It becomes a deeper dive into you know, what does my biology and my physiology require to feel good as a human? What nutrition do I require as a human to feel good? So you know, as most of us in this space, I feel like the people in this space. They all find something to get excited about, whether it's their, you know, whether it's you're on your first weight loss journey and you discover keto and you lose weight and you go oh my goodness, what else can I do to feel better? Or, you know, you get a gene test and you see that and you go, oh my goodness, what else can I do to feel better? Or you know, you get a gene test and you see that you have this snip that makes it more difficult for you to process caffeine than your family member. Well, that's a new rabbit hole to go down. So you know, my journey has just made me endlessly curious.
MOLLEE:If I was independently wealthy, I would go back to school for everything. I want a deep understanding of neurochemistry, I want a deep understanding of evolutionary biology, I want a deep understanding of genetics. And in not being in a place where I can do that, I kind of use myself to focus that lens. Okay, I feel X. What do I need to understand about the state of my brain and my biology to understand X? And the more I understand that little bit about me, I now have an insight into what might help you or someone else feel better, feel healthier, depending on your host state.
MOLLEE:I really think health should stop looking for how do we cure diseases and how do we make the host inhospitable to various disease states?
MOLLEE:And to me, that's what this whole N of 1 thing is. You as an individual, you are a host to health or to disease, and it's on you as the individual to really understand how to make you as the host for life. You know, most hospitable to feeling amazing as often as possible, and you know our little company, which is my brother, and I came out of my years in the supplement industry and this product Keto Brarainz Nootropic was really just what I was making in my kitchen, literally opening capsules of the right dose of the right nootropics to bring about just a non-jittery, highly functional, focused state throughout the day. And it was my brother who insisted we turn it into a product. I didn't want anything to do with that part because I've been in that industry for this industry for 20 years and I didn't want to do that. But I'm very fortunate that he convinced me that we should make it a product because it helps a lot of people for a lot of different reasons.
FLORENCE:So let's go back that idea that you've been on this journey of really getting into the weeds around, what we can do to optimize to make the host inhospitable to disease and make the host a place where health thrives, can take hold. What are some of your biohacking or lifestyle or insights that you've discovered over the years?
MOLLEE:So number one for me and I do believe this is for everyone, but there are different flavors of it, as you will I need to use my muscles, I need to move. I personally I've got a torn rotator cuff now and I'm dealing with that. But even with that, you don't stop moving. You alter your movement. I think that the human entity is intended to move and get exhausted and you know hormetic stressors, right, you need things in your life that are hormetic stressors. These are little doses of bad stuff, right.
MOLLEE:Inflammation is bad but it stimulates processes in the body to create healing things. Fasting quote, unquote bad because we don't want to die from no food. But you know, we all know all of the benefits that can potentially come from the fasted state. So for me, I do love intermittent fasting, I do. I don't do it as long as I once did because I'm optimizing for maintaining and building muscle.
MOLLEE:But physical activity number one For me. You know, I am not in a place now where I am afraid of any food. If we are on vacation and my man likes breweries, I will have a beer, but these are not things that are a part of my 90% of the time consumption. So you know, get rid of the processed foods as a basic, get rid of inflammatory foods as a basic. You know, in this space a lot of us are keto. I really think people should have ketones on board at least some of the time. I don't care if you're keto all the time, but I think everyone should get properly fat adapted at least once, so that you have a secondary fuel substrate that can come online when you want or need it.
MOLLEE:So, physical activity not being obsessive about your diet to the point where it becomes a disorder, but being honest with yourself, based on where you're at, about how extreme you need to be with your diet. You know, if, if, if, if you are 400 pounds and need to lose a lot of that weight, we may want to be extreme until we get you to a place where you have found health. If you just want to lose five pounds for one reason or the another or another, you know, find the small changes that you can make to do that. But you want to you, you want to stay mentally sound while doing anything with your diet and mentally sound while doing anything with your physical activity. And I, you know I've I've run the extremes on both ends. You know running mountain marathons, you're putting a. You know putting 80 plus miles a week on your feet. I know the extremes, I know the extremes, I know the benefits and I know the detriments.
MOLLEE:But find something that works for you where you're challenging your body, eliminate the consumables that we know are potentially causing harm and making you an environment that is rich in inflammation, which disease states love. You know. To me, those are the two big levers and the one thing I would say in this community and by this community, I just mean you know it's a big community, people who want to feel better, and it's a broad spectrum. But I do sauna every day, I do ice bath every day. I've got red light therapy. None of that matters until you do the two big things.
MOLLEE:To me, the two big things where's your physical activity on the regular? What are you doing with your diet? Get those kind of dialed in. Then, I think, is when you decide to spend the time and the money on on the uh, the frosting on the cake, right, sauna and ice bath. If your diet is shit and you're not moving, there could be some benefits, but it's not the first place I would go.
MOLLEE:I would really encourage people to start with um, cleaning up their diet. Um, I love to see people. I love to see people go keto and get rid of the carbohydrates, but, depending on who I'm talking to, we're going to go into that harder or softer, depending on how ready they are. And something that is not as tangible but I think is more important than anything else we, especially in today's society I don't know how to say this in the right way so emotion isn't bad, but I think we should understand what we're feeling, and understand when it is real, and understand when it is low blood sugar, and understand when it is your period is coming for a good reason. Maybe your pet died.
MOLLEE:I think that we're in this society where we're too often just dictated by our emotions and we're not stopping to understand the underlying spark that caused you to feel a certain way. And I think that that's important, because if we don't know that, then say we've decided we're going to go run two miles every day, but we wake up and we don't feel good out of the blue. Well, oh no, I don't feel good. Let's go ahead and spin out Now. We didn't go for our run Now.
MOLLEE:Maybe we don't eat right that day, so I think getting to know your own emotional state and learning to respond go. Oh, that's odd. There's no reason to feel bad today. I wonder what's going on. What did I do yesterday? Did I not feed myself well yesterday? Maybe I didn't sleep enough? I think that we don't give enough, we don't honor how powerful that is in our lives, especially when we're trying to make big changes. So, basically, you know, check in with yourself, check in with your emotions and check in with your brain and make sure that what you're feeling is is attached to something real and not like an emotional remnant from a day or a month or a year ago, because if we don't do that, it's really difficult to stay on track with our goals in life, whatever they are.
FLORENCE:And as we start to make these changes, many of us start to hit these walls, this resistance, this inner conflict. It's too hard, it's too much, I'm too tired, it's not right, the science right, all this fear and doubt and resistance comes up. But as we start to make these changes, I know that in my world and in my own life, as I put the food down, my stuff comes up and if I don't know how to meet that stuff, like how to just like today, let me give you an example. No, I'm gonna actually go back to last week, because I was going to use an example. My, my husband came home. He'd gone for coffee with somebody and it went just a little sideways and he came home and you know that feeling of someone had said something like oh well, you know, when you did that, that was kind of not thoughtful and it felt so bad in his body. But you know it happens. There's time. It was not ill intent, everything's fine. But let me use an example from my own life.
FLORENCE:So last week or was it the week before, I think it was a week before I accidentally shared a document that was deeply private, deeply, deeply private, and I thought I was sharing it with a colleague through a platform, but I accidentally shared it, molly, with everyone on my platform. Oh, like anyone who's ever attended a summit, all of my summit speakers, everyone like, and it was funny because I looked at it and I thought why is there 25 unique views? And there were many, many, many more views, but 25 unique views on that, I'm like. I only shared it with my friend Beth and I was like what happened, right, and so I, I, you know, and the, the, the, the, all the emotion that's in the system and it wouldn't go. It was not a quick like oh, it's not a video of me kicking a dog. I didn't rob an old lady and take her, I didn't do anything bad. It was these affirmation I hit affirmations I had written four years ago, um, and they were just private, they were just. Some of them were cheesy, some of them were like just, I was a beginner and I'm like, but I was just showing my friend like, oh, I wrote these four years ago, but you know, this is kind of how you can do them anyways, so I'm just embarrassed.
FLORENCE:And it was days and days of just making space for it, almost turning the dial up on it like ah, I can feel this in my system. I feel really embarrassed. I wish that hadn't happened. I didn't know who the people were, so it was a total mystery.
FLORENCE:I couldn't go back and say, uh, oops, yeah, I just had to let it move through the system and yet not let it hijack me, not spin out. No, it's huge, not shut me down, it was just, I can hold space for this. And eventually it's almost like I just burnt off and it cleared and now I think about it and there's no charge. But if we don't know when we, when we're putting our substances down and we're starting to get healthier and our body feel we're more present to it and our stuff starts coming up, like you're saying, like that is. That's a piece of the puzzle that for many of us, if we don't know what we're doing, we're going to go back to the cupboard, we're going to go back to the too much sugar, late nights, binge watching tv scrolling, sex shopping, wherever, whatever our thing is.
MOLLEE:Yes, and it is. It's just, um, we it's not a part of the educational system in in the western world to? I mean, really it's. It's. It's a it's a bit of a stoic practice, but it is rooted in neurobiology. I remember, you know, I accidentally kind of came to all of this on my, on my own, just in this, this notion of not wanting to be whipped around by my own biology and emotions, and then like, oh, that's, that's a little bit like stoicism.
MOLLEE:And then, years ago, there is a woman whose name I'm not going to remember, but she wrote a book called my Stroke of Insight and she was, yeah. So she, this amazing woman. She was a neurologist, I believe, like she was a brain researcher, who had a stroke and realized she was having a stroke. While she had a stroke, and it was a good eight years for her to re, she had to relearn how to walk, she was crawling, she she didn't know what foods were. She like literally started over and she did this amazing.
MOLLEE:I read her book, but she also did an amazing TED talk and one of the things she talks about and she had to do this with herself during her recovery so that she wasn't emotion of sadness or anger or guilt or whatever. When that emotion comes on, if you can hang out for a good 60 seconds, the chemicals that are that emotion they run their course through the body and you can take a breath. But what we tend to do is go, ooh, shame, let me. Let me, let me feed that emotion and then the, the, that little, that set of neurochemicals that we call shame now grows because we just gave it, we gave it life and we gave it attention. Instead of, just, what you described is feel it, allow yourself time to feel it, let it run its course and then it doesn't have power anymore.
MOLLEE:And what she described is that in the beginning, when she was so frustrated with herself and her mom was like reteaching her the difference between what a peanut butter and jelly and an egg salad sandwich was she said, okay, fine, brain, I am going to schedule a pity party. So she scheduled a pity party for herself and her brain for one hour in the morning and one hour at night, and so she she allowed herself a period of time to for her brain to just, you know, go for it, tell me how horrible I am, tell me this, tell me that she let those emotions run their course for one hour in the morning and one hour at night, and um, and I highly recommend any I should re, I should rewatch it, re-listen to it, cause I'm sure I got the details wrong, but it's so powerful and you know, you think about something like that. She literally, I think I believe she was in her mid to late thirties when it happened and she started again as an infant and and she knew enough to know, like she didn't forget, that she was a neuroscientist, like all that was still in there, but her nothing else worked, her body didn't work anymore, her words didn't work anymore. But anyway, that's just a. That's a a very extreme example, but I kind of think of man. If someone can do it in that circumstance, we can certainly do it when we've we've done a thing that's harmed no one, but we've we feel really bad about it, you know, um, but I again, that's just. I think that's part of that, like caring for the host, being able to move through life without being harmed by like every little thing that we feel, to move through life without being harmed by like every little thing that we feel. I do think is important because you have to connect that then to.
MOLLEE:You know it's not easy to want to work out an hour every morning at 4am. You need your brain in order to follow through on that right and when you're first making dietary changes, that it is not. None of this is easy, so don't don't let yourself think it's easy, especially in the beginning. It gets easy, but in the beginning you need to conjure up enough effort and passion and desire to feel better in a day, a month, a year, 10 years and you know. Back to what you said in the beginning. You know I've been a biohacker since I was, you know, a teenager trying to figure out how to lose weight. I didn't start taking supplements for my heart in my early 20s because I had a problem. I was already clear. I know how I want to feel when I'm 80 and 90. We do what we do now to make sure we feel good tomorrow and next week and however many years from now, and that's an effortful process. So checking in with your brain makes it easier to put forth the effort on the hard things.
FLORENCE:Right and how? How much neurophysiological resilience helps us just hold space for, for the stuff that happens in our days and the emotions that that that that move through our system. So actually I really want to talk about your amazing product. So it's Keto Brains. You put four particular supplements together. Tell us about those ingredients, why you put them together and what they can do for us.
MOLLEE:Yes. So Keto Brains Nootropic creamer is a marrying of two things. You know, like many of us, when I went keto. You know amazing Ketones are amazing. I want all the ketones.
MOLLEE:So, as many of us do, we discover the C8 MCT oil and it's lovely and messy and at some point we potentially are moving over to a C8 MCT powder. So the base of this product is eight full grams of your C8 MCT, and your C8 MCT is caprylic acid. This is a medium chain triglyceride from coconut oil that does the best job of stimulating your liver's production of ketone bodies and it's creamy. So it's lovely because it makes whatever you add keto grains to even better. And then coconut milk powder because it's lovely and it adds to the taste, and I don't want to ruin anyone's morning beverage or smoothie or tea or whatever they're going to add this to. So we have this base. So it's like the delivery system for a highly functional nootropic stack, system for a highly functional nootropic stack. So many people don't know what a nootropic is. They have no idea where to start. They don't know what a nootropic is supposed to do. So I have put together three key nutraceuticals to bring about focus, to increase acetylcholine and to put you into a clear and focused state, not a jittery amped up. I've had an energy drink state. So those three nootropics, or those three ingredients, the first one is alpha-GPC. So alpha-GPC is alpha-glycerophosphocholine. This is a form of choline that does the best job of crossing the blood-brain barrier to stimulate the neuromodulator of focus for mammals, which is called acetylcholine. We do not have focus, as any mammal, without acetylcholine, and if your choline is low or if, like me and a large majority of the population, you have any of the MTHFR or COMT or PEMT SNPs that make it difficult for your body to utilize choline, you're running at subpar all the time because you don't have enough of this acetylcholine. So we have a full 300 milligrams of acetylcholine per serving and again, this is increasing focus by directly increasing acetylcholine levels in the brain. So we've got that.
MOLLEE:We have a full 500 milligrams of organic lion's mane mushroom. So lion's mane mushroom, uh, among other things, increases two proteins in the brain NGF, which is nerve growth factor, and BDNF, brain derived neurotrophic factor, and these are proteins responsible for healing neurons. Healing, I mean really anywhere in your body where you have nerve cells, which is your whole body. The lion's mane is going to help, but for this specific purpose we're healing and nourishing neurons. And this is a really interesting ingredient because, again, genetically some people have higher levels of BDNF just out the gate and some people have lower levels. So what I find with lion's mane is that people who have not had a lot of heavy physical activity, which can also increase BDNF, or who are genetically just predisposed to not producing enough, they actually feel lion's mane. People with optimal levels don't feel it, but it doesn't mean it's not doing the thing. It is still ensuring that we are protecting and nourishing our neurons throughout a lifetime.
MOLLEE:And then we have 250 milligrams of L-theanine. L-theanine I like to call a hug for the brain. L-theanine crosses the blood-brain barrier to help us make more of our own GABA and to help put us in more of an alpha brainwave state. So when we are anxious and uncomfortable, we are in a beta brainwave state and it feels like that. When we are calm and focused and doing something that we love, it could be archery, it could be writing, it could be running. There's that alpha brainwave state and L-theanine kind of helps put us there.
MOLLEE:So this combination of ingredients again is not intended to jack up dopamine. It's not intended to make you feel like you've taken five scoops of pre-workout. It's intended for you to feel clear and focused throughout the day. And what we find when we have customers who will take it and they'll reach out and be worried because it hits them in a drug-like way and what that tells me is that they were very suboptimal in their choline. So basically, if you're really low choline and for the first time in your life, in your 20s, 30s, 40s, you're getting enough acetylcholine, your brain is on in a way that you're so not accustomed to that it feels drug-like. Then we have people who they go through a bag and they didn't think they felt anything. And then they reach out because they look back at their month and they realize that that was one of the best months that they'd had because they were able to effortlessly move through everything that was in front of them. So back to this biological individuality and all of us coming from a different place genetically and also just from a historical perspective, within our own lives.
MOLLEE:The product works for everyone. How it's going to hit each individual is going to be different, based on their current state. But we are optimizing choline to optimize acetylcholine for focus. We are optimizing production of NGF and BDNF to ensure that our neurons have enough of that protein to help them heal. And then we have our L-theanine, which theanine plus caffeine. All by itself, there's a host of amazing studies on how those two molecules work together. But you add that theanine in there with those other ingredients and you have this just wonderful, delicious, easy to use nootropic stack where you're not taking handfuls of pills every day.
MOLLEE:We have people who dry scoop the product into their mouth. We have people who add it to their protein as a pre-workout. People add it to their smoothies. If they're smoothie people, people will cook with it. I've made keto frosting with it or carnivore marshmallows and then I'll sprinkle it on top. So you can get really creative about how you take it. The majority of people are adding it to a morning tea or a morning coffee or an adult hot chocolate, but the intention is to have a highly effective product with clinically efficacious doses of the nootropics that's easy for the average person to use, because most people aren't weirdos like me. They're not going to open 12 different capsules of just the right stuff and mix it in with their morning beverage. So this is intended to be a way to allow everyone to experience that without the fuss and the mess.
FLORENCE:And there's so many people I'm thinking'm, I'm, I'm thinking in in my own coaching practice and I'm thinking about even the Emirates. Right, there's so many coaching practices in the food addiction, sugar addiction, uh, eating disordered space where they they. They suggest that people give up caffeine just to see how they do. Is it stimulating dopamine? Is it just another addictive substance that's blocking or slowing down the healing of a brain from addiction? And so when people start to, there are people like I can't function without my, I can't function without my coffee, or, you know, I need two pots just to get through the day, kind of thing. So to what extent could this product help them pare back or potentially even eliminate so?
MOLLEE:absolutely so in that case. So the problem with uh, well, the problem. So there's the, there's the, the morning ritual and the psychological aspect of that tasty morning beverage. That is sometimes like I don't even know if I care if my coffee is caffeinated, to be honest with you. But it's that morning ritual because I happen to have the genetics where I process it really fast, so it's just um. But for others, you know, we, we have folks who really want their morning coffee and for one reason or another, they either have chosen not to have it or they cannot have it. Um, they'll do a decaf cup of coffee with the keto brains in it.
MOLLEE:Because the thing is, caffeine is the most used or abused nootropic out there, if you will, because so many people drink coffee. But I don't want to call it exactly a one-trick pony, but it's kind of a one-trick pony. We're not directly increasing the ability to focus by increasing acetylcholine. We're not working on the neurotransmitters that we really need for proper focus. So if it is a matter of the person believes, or for them, the caffeine truly is the thing that is able to get them going, this would be a far better combination of ingredients to be taking for that purpose. And it can. Again, you can be added to anything. I've even got a friend who just she puts it in warm water with a little cinnamon and a little stevia and then it tastes like a lovely it's a lovely, tasty beverage, but functionally, yes, because if you're using coffee because coffee is the thing that allows me to have the energy to get through the day the ingredients and keto brains are going to do that in a far more functional way, in a way where there's no crash, in a way where you're actually nourishing and healing your brain, such that all of these other things that you're trying to tackle are actually easier. And and there's not the, there's not the. Okay, I know that I'm going to have that caffeine lull, you know, an hour later, so I need to have another cup of coffee ready to go. So this is more actually nourishing, actually healing, true focus, not just that quick, keep the adenosine receptors open, so I think I'm more alert for longer.
MOLLEE:So this could be used instead of coffee. It could be used in a non-caffeinated beverage, just so that you have. If you're like me, like I'm up 3.34 in the morning and I'm going all day long and there's something about just 10 minutes to myself with a hot, tasty beverage. I don't even know at this point if anything. I don't know if anything needs to be in it, but that is a really important thing. So for the individuals who need that morning ritual, you know, find a coffee alternative or, you know, find something without caffeine so you have the ritual part of it. But the Keto Brains is going to be so much more functional than just that old cup of coffee and I'm a coffee lover.
MOLLEE:So you know that's hard for me to say out of my mouth, but, but absolutely, because really what we're looking for, I think what we're all looking for as humans, through lifestyle, through diet, through diet and lifestyle changes and through the rituals that we have each of us employed throughout the day, we're looking to just feel good throughout the day. We want the energy and clarity to feel like all right. This is my to-do list. I've gotten through it. Not only have I gotten through it, I feel good about the work that I put into it.
MOLLEE:To the best of our ability, we're aiming to create a state of our own individual body where you're confident you can tackle whatever your life is, whether it's running around after kids or going to work or building a business or whatever it is.
MOLLEE:That's the thing we have.
MOLLEE:So we have teenagers to 90 year olds using our product because everyone's looking to feel good now and to at this point there's a lot of like the teenagers we have using our product Like they started it because they saw all their friends going to Starbucks getting these giant sugary beverages and they came from a family that knew better and they found our product and we're like, hey, can we use this?
MOLLEE:Because everyone's going to Starbucks, everyone's looking to optimize and feel better, because life is. We have 250,000 year old biology that has not changed, but the pace at which the lives we live has picked up and changed is insane. So we need, in my opinion, we need tools and we need rituals ritual of feeding ourselves well, the ritual of movement, the ritual of supplements that help us. We need things to help us stay on top of just the way life is right now. It's overwhelming, even when you're working on not being overwhelmed. But absolutely yes, in lieu of caffeine, you could use KetoBrainz and get a lot more out of your day than you would with just your straight cup of coffee.
FLORENCE:And yeah, and together they're supercharged. So I have a couple of questions. The alpha GPC also impacts dopamine, so is that a good supplement for people who have low dopamine?
MOLLEE:So it's an excellent question. It impacts dopamine, but in a very small way. So it's not. Um, I specifically left out ingredients like L-tyrosine and mucuma and other nootropics that tickle dopamine. Because if you're already a high dopamine person, like myself, I feel like I'm on a drug if I take too much tyrosine or I take too much of these heavy hitting dopamine supplements. So what I like about acetylcholine and theanine both actually I call it so there's I think of it as tickling your dopamine receptors instead of punching them.
MOLLEE:So if you know you're low dopamine, either from a test or you just you lack that motivation that we know is associated with dopamine and you've already gotten your hormones checked and you're not low testosterone and you're not low estrogen and like you're just low dopamine, this is absolutely going to help, but in a functional tickling sort of fashion.
MOLLEE:So personally, I always have a bottle of L-tyrosine plain L-tyrosine at my house because there's just some days where I'm like, yeah, I think I'm a little lower dopamine today than I'd like to be, I can't get to CrossFit to make my own dopamine, whatever the situation, but I don't like to dose a heavy hit of a dopamine increaser when I don't have to. So the alpha-GPC and the theanine. Both have functions where you're going to get more out of the dopamine you have, or we're going to tickle the dopamine receptors, but it's not going to be, like, you know, adderall or cocaine. We're not, we're not punching that receptor and again, there are times where it's really helpful to do that and there are people who are really low dopamine where I would add something else, but it's not the thing I would like. People will use ketograins one to three times a day and I didn't want to overwhelm further the dopamine receptors because we have so much of that with, just you know, our screens and phones already.
FLORENCE:Yes, and so you can use like any time of day, so you would take this product before bed or after dinner, yeah, so I did not make it for that.
MOLLEE:But oddly we've had a number of people reach out saying that they get better sleep when they're taking keto brands. Part of that, I believe, is that if your neurotransmitters are more in order throughout the day, you're taking less stress and less nervous system overwhelm to bed with you. You had a more functional day, your neurotransmitters were more in order, so you're just better prepared for proper sleep. But alpha GPC actually, well, two things. Theanine.
MOLLEE:Theanine is in many sleep formulas. Theanine in and of itself does not make you sleepy for most of the population, but if you are someone whose brain just can't stop spinning and you need it to be more in line, theanine is great for that. So you can take theanine. If you are someone who's in a very kind of strung out nervous system state, you've got a lot going on in your life. You're doing everything you can to manage the stress, but your cortisol is still not where it's at, and I've been there. I've taken 200 milligrams of theanine every few hours all day, like if necessary. You can do that. Coupled with melatonin or other sleep substances. It can be great before bed. So theanine can absolutely help people with better sleep.
MOLLEE:But there was actually also a study on alpha-GPC and people getting better deep sleep with alpha-GPC. It's not the primary thing alpha-GPC is known for, but I did read a study that've had only one person say that they had a hard time sleeping after they took it, um at night, but it was the first time they'd ever taken the product. It was actually um a coach from my gym and he took it before jujitsu and he just said like his brain wanted to stay up and do things. So what that tells me number one and I was able to have a great discussion with him about it is again if keto grains feels incredibly strong to you, that to me, that tells me that you were in a state of suboptimal choline. If you are one of those with suboptimal choline, we are optimizing your choline levels. So if the first time you take it, that one scoop just feels amazing all day and you couldn't imagine taking that at night. After a few months, once you're optimized, you're going to be like 99% of the population and you're going to be able to take it in the morning and then you can have a you know, a lunchtime scoop if you've got a bunch more that you need to get through and you know I'm sure you experienced this.
MOLLEE:But you know we all work globally now so we've got crazy time zones. So you find yourself needing to do a podcast at 10 pm. You can do a scoop at 10 pm, do your podcast and you're going to be fine sleeping. So there's always outliers, but for the most part I don't. I haven't like again one person in four years who, yeah, and I he probably I have to. I should check in with him because he's been using the product for about a year now. So I doubt he's still experiencing that. But it was interesting to hear. It's always interesting to hear what someone's individual responses, especially when it's kind of outside of what's expected.
FLORENCE:Got it Okay and I won't keep you too much longer. I just have one more question about lion's mane. I'm baffled that a mushroom impact. How does a mushroom impact two proteins in the brain? Like? What does it do to those proteins?
MOLLEE:Yeah, so it, it upregulates the production of them. So BDNF and NGF again. So these are proteins that have a function for neurons body-wide, and there are many activities that we can do outside of supplementation that can increase BDNF. So endurance exercise has been shown to increase BDNF, has been shown to increase BDNF. I believe sauna has been shown to increase BDNF. So the way I look at it. So, starting here, our own brains are the best pharmaceutical manufacturers that we know, right. So any supplement or drug or activity that we can do that creates one of these chemicals, like acetylcholine or dopamine. These are, if you will, our own little. Our brain makes these drugs in response to life and then we have receptors, so we make the drugs and we have receptors for the drugs. So, evolutionarily, there are activities that humans do that naturally increase dopamine, acetylcholine, bdnf and GF. And then there are things we can ingest that will stimulate the production of these chemicals that the brain can also make and that we already have receptors for. So it just so happens and I'm going to totally butcher, it's a word that I can't say correctly. It starts with an E, but basically there's a chemical in the lion's mane and that chemical I wish I could say it starts with an E, but anyway, that's stimulating our own production of those proteins. And that's similar, you know, similar to you know heat shock proteins as a, as a super basic.
MOLLEE:You go in the sauna. How on earth could being in 210 degrees be good for me? It, because it's not cause if I stay there I'll die, but just enough of it. The right dose stimulates heat shock proteins which stimulate all these other downstream healing benefits. It's the same with cold, my 32 degree ice bath. I can't stay in there very long, I'll die. But the right dose of that stimulates things within my body, in my physiology and within my brain that are good for me.
MOLLEE:Turmeric oddly, everyone thinks turmeric's just good. Turmeric works via hormesis In a similar way, and this is where it gets confusing. Cigarette smoke stimulates the same thing in the liver that turmeric does. We're stimulating a downstream healing response when we take turmeric. It's not just take turmeric, turmeric good, it's take turmeric. Turmeric stimulates the liver to go ah, and that ah stimulates really positive things for the body. And so we have a funny idea of what's good and what's bad and it's really more about the nuance of the entire thing. And sorry to go on a tangent, but with lion's mane we there's an ingredient in lion's mane that's stimulating the, stimulating the brain's own production of those proteins.
FLORENCE:Amazing, so interesting. All right, well, I cannot get off this interview fast enough to order my husband a bottle. He has never tried it. I have had others try it and I think that he is just. Yeah, he's ready for this because he's trying to lower his caffeine and he's not sleeping deep. He has an aura ring. He's not for this because he's trying to. He's trying to lower his caffeine and he's not sleeping deep, or a ring. He's not getting a lot of deep sleep. His mind spins at night. Yep, I can't, I actually. And he does really well with caffeine. He does well with L-theanine. He just does not put the stuff together.
MOLLEE:So anyways.
FLORENCE:I understand on your website you have like is there a first time trier, a discount code or something like that for people?
MOLLEE:Well, so you can still use the kick sugar, the kick sugar code. So the kick sugar, the kick sugar summit code, which is just kick sugar, will get you 20% off your first order on the site. And yeah, no, we still have that set up. So you're welcome to use that code if you want to give it a try.
FLORENCE:Awesome. I love it. Thank you for this product. Thank you for your time. Is there any final words you'd like to say before we wrap up today?
MOLLEE:I just thank you for having me, thank you for doing what you're doing to bring tools, to bring actionable tools to a community of people who are really genuinely trying to feel good, because that's um, I, I, I. We need more of that, so thank you.
FLORENCE:Thanks everybody for tuning in today. See you soon.
