How I Built My Small Business

Dr. Megan Lyons - Stop Burnout Before It Starts: Staying Healthy and Happy

• Season 2 • Episode 4

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Today we have Dr. Megan Lyons on the show to talk about recognizing early symptoms of burnout, ways to optimize your health, and fix the root causes of illness.

Megan is a Harvard graduate with two Master’s degrees, two Board Certifications, and a Doctorate of Clinical Nutrition. She is a passionate health and wellness expert, inspiring others to feel their healthiest and happiest. 

In 2014, Megan pivoted from the management consulting business world to follow her passion for wellness by opening The Lyons' Share Wellness.

Since then, Megan and her team have amassed over 15,000 hours of 1-to-1 nutrition consulting with clients internationally, providing personalized guidance to help individuals achieve their health goals.

Megan is the hosts of a top podcast on health and wellness, “Wellness Your Way with Dr. Megan Lyons,” where she shares insights and tips for living a healthier life, and publishes informational articles on The Lyons’ Share website weekly.

She speaks widely at conferences, corporations, and organizations.

Check-out Megan's free download file, where you can take a short quiz designed to give you a head start at figuring out if your symptoms are suggestive of any common pattern that Megan sees at The Lyons' Share Wellness!



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Anne McGinty:

Welcome to how I Built my Small Business. I'm Anne McGinty, your host, and today we have Dr Megan Lyons on the show to talk about recognizing early symptoms of burnout, ways to optimize your health and looking for the root causes of illness. Megan is a Harvard graduate with two master's degrees, two board certifications and a doctorate of clinical nutrition. In 2014, megan pivoted from the management consulting business world to follow her passion for wellness by opening the Lion's Share Wellness, a functional nutrition practice. Since then, megan and her team have amassed over 15,000 hours of one-to-one nutrition consulting with clients internationally, providing personalized guidance to help individuals feel their healthiest and happiest.

Anne McGinty:

Megan is the host of a top podcast on health and wellness called Wellness your Way, where she shares insights and tips for living a healthier life. She also publishes informational articles on the Lion's Share website weekly. She speaks widely at conferences, corporations and organizations. You can find links to connect with Megan in the episode's description. Before we jump into the interview, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and if you learn something from today's episode, please share it with a friend to help us reach more listeners. Let's get started. Thank you to our listeners for being here today. Megan, I'm thrilled to have you on the show today. Thanks for coming in.

Megan Lyons:

Thank you so much, Anne.

Anne McGinty:

I'm really excited so when and why did you decide to leave business consulting to start a functional nutrition practice?

Megan Lyons:

Yes. So the when is probably somewhere, realistically, in 2010. I didn't end up leaving until 2014. But around 2010, I felt not a crisis moment. I didn't have any like oh my gosh, this is absolutely terrible, I have to go. I just felt like I don't know if this is it, there must be something more for me out there. This is fine, but it's not amazing every day. And so around that time I started brainstorming well, what in the world would I do? And I even got an MBA in that time period, starting in 2010.

Megan Lyons:

And, to be honest, I didn't even take any of the entrepreneurship classes because I totally thought that was not my thing. I was like no way I'm going to start a business. And I had this huge passion for health and wellness, but even then I didn't think of it as a career. I thought I just was missing, that I wanted to be an architect or who knows what, like an engineer or something else. I didn't think of ever starting this business until I started asking my friends and family like what do you think I should do if I did something else? And they were all like duh, you spend all your time going to nutrition conferences, reading nutrition books, helping me with nutrition. They thought it was so obvious. I was just so closed minded and didn't even think about it. But then, once they planted the seed in my head, it just became finding the right time, which is kind of a misnomer there's never a right time but finding the best time and that was January 2014. And haven't looked back since. And haven't looked back since Wow.

Anne McGinty:

So you had to go back to school then.

Megan Lyons:

Yes. So what I did as I was asking around with my family and my friends is I completed my first certification program while I was getting my MBA. Just did that on the side. So I was certified as a holistic nutritionist in order to practice when I first opened. Then, just because I love education and I wanted to go further than being more of a coach, I got a master's in holistic nutrition, a couple of board certifications and a doctorate of clinical nutrition, and hopefully this will be the last education program for at least a couple of years. But I honestly just love school. So who knows what will be next?

Anne McGinty:

And how hard was it for you to start getting clients Once you had all of your certifications, you had your website up and running and you were officially in business.

Megan Lyons:

I would say, once I figured it out, it was not hard. I have been extremely fortunate and have worked hard to have a full client roster and wait lists for maybe eight or nine of the past years, of the past 11 years. But when I first left on January 5th 2014, what I did for literally the very first three weeks was I spent time putting together what I thought was going to be the perfect email. It was going to personal contacts like my parents, friends, my friends, things like that, and I really put so much effort into this email and I honestly thought, oh, this is going to bring me hundreds of clients, like I thought I was going to be at full capacity. I sent that email and, of course people can guess the story I got zero clients out of it. I got a lot of like oh, that's really cute, I'm so glad you're following your passion, but zero clients. And so that was like oh, okay, this is different from what I thought.

Megan Lyons:

My next step was I marketed to 50 gyms in the Dallas area and I said I am a new nutritionist and I can talk about anything for free to your clients. And instead of getting zero this time, I got one offer for a free presentation and there were about three or four people sitting on mats on the gym floor and I presented my heart out to them, but still I was like, okay, that's not it. I really needed to stop hiding behind, you know, making this one perfect email or creating these perfect client handouts or whatever, and just put myself out there. So the more and more that I figured out how to go speak, that I was blogging in the day, even before really consistent social media although I did some of that too before my podcast I would go speaking to different places, I would go to networking groups, I would just put myself out there.

Megan Lyons:

Once I started doing that, it became more of a constant inflow. But I didn't want to do that at first. I wanted to just craft that perfect email. It sounds like you had to hustle quite a bit. Oh, I really did. I know that the word hustle gets a lot of hate and it can definitely be done in the wrong way, so that's not what I'm suggesting. But I think to start a business of the fashion that I did, I think there is some hustle that's required for it and I think that makes you appreciate, or makes me appreciate, the high times a little bit more yeah.

Anne McGinty:

And touching on what you were saying about hustle being sort of a frowned upon concept sometimes. We know that burnout is a significant challenge among workers and entrepreneurs. What do you think is going on?

Megan Lyons:

I mean, I have definitely been in clinical burnout multiple times in my life, so I'm certainly not immune to it. It's something that I constantly work on and stay vigilant about for myself, and what I think is going on in people myself included and people like me is that we genuinely love working and I genuinely love serving my clients, and I'm so intrinsically motivated that when I set a goal, I will do anything to get that goal. But it's almost like I have blinders and I forget when that goal becomes impractical or when I don't even really care about that goal or when that goal is slowly eroding my health or my relationships or whatever. I just get so laser focused on that goal and, to be honest, in small business, there's just always something to do. I have never, ever in the past 11 years, had a completely blank to-do list where there was nothing I could do. So if we combine that the drive and the passion for your work and the omnipresence of things to do, I think it very easily tips over into burnout.

Anne McGinty:

I know exactly what you're talking about, because I too ran a business for 13 years and I felt like one of those wind up toys that you would just crank up as high as you could go. Only I did that like for such a consecutive number of days and weeks so that my body was buzzing and it needed months actually to kind of calm back down. So, hearing that story, does it make sense to you that I ended up with thyroid disease?

Megan Lyons:

So I I will say yes, but there's a workaround to that or a lead up to that, which is, I never think it's anyone's fault when we have a condition, a medical condition, it's not your fault. In hindsight, given what you know now, would you have done it different. Maybe you were doing the very best you could at that situation, and same thing for myself for other situations that I could say I've created for myself. We were always doing the best.

Megan Lyons:

But what you're describing here is what's commonly called stage two adrenal dysregulation, which is that tired but wired. It's high cortisol. You're what I call running on fumes. You're going, going, going. Your neurotransmitters, your hormones, all this chemical milieu in your body is like pumping out all the energy that you possibly need to get through the day and, like you said, one day of that is fine. We can go through a really stressful day and it's no problem. We all rebound. But when we do that consistently and our cortisol keeps elevating, that very often tips over into a thyroid condition. There's something called the HPAT axis hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal, thyroid axis and you notice adrenal which stimulates cortisol, the stress hormone, and thyroid. Those are right connected to each other. So adrenal issues generally go downstream to thyroid issues.

Anne McGinty:

So, looking back, are there specific signs, like early signs, that I should have been paying more attention to, and how can entrepreneurs in similar situations take proactive steps before reaching that breaking point that I did?

Megan Lyons:

Yeah, the difficult thing is that everyone's tolerance for stress is different. So I very clearly remember in my management consulting job a guy that I worked with. He could work until like 2 am every night and he genuinely wasn't burned out and I was like that's not fair. I want to do that too, but I knew if I did that consistent nights in a row, my body just did not feel the same. So there's no number of hours or number of tasks on your to-do list or anything like that, but some signs and symptoms that our body tells us. Number one I think the most obvious is the inability to let down. So if you go out to dinner with your partner or you go on vacation or something like that and you just can't stop thinking about work, oftentimes you're in that stage two adrenal dysregulation. Your body's just go, go, go, go go and it's making you stay hypervigilant. So that's an interesting sign.

Megan Lyons:

Then we see a lot of things that do start to mimic thyroid issues. So digestive changes either you're feeling gurgly all the time or potentially you're feeling constipated, or more IBS symptoms, maybe hair loss, skin thinning, nail brittleness, appetite changes I always used to describe it as well as I feel like there's someone in my head that's making me be in a bad mood. I don't really want to be in a bad mood, but it's just coming out that way. So mood changes like that insomnia, especially those two to 3 am wake-ups. There'sa natural bump in cortisol. That happens, but it's exacerbated or it's felt worse when we have adrenal dysregulation. So anything that's just kind of like you could brush it off as being normal, but you know deep down inside it's actually not normal. That could be a oh. Menstrual changes as well for people with periods. If those change or the days between cycles become different, any of that could be a clue as well.

Anne McGinty:

So what are people supposed to do if they work in such high stress environments where they are faced with a higher level of stress more often than less often?

Megan Lyons:

Yeah, so the body is designed to deal with stress. There's something called hormetic stress, which I think of it like if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. So the goal of hormetic stress like think about going for a run that's a hormetic stressor. It is stressful for the body, it feels hard in the moment, but it's actually making you stronger, as long as you recover. Well, if you went out and you tried to run 300 miles all at once, well, you're either going to really injure yourself or who knows something worse, so that's not a good stress. The good stress is when you run and then you recover and then you build up your fitness. Same thing with stress.

Megan Lyons:

If we can learn to recover, we can withstand higher stress states more so, the things that are getting popular these days are like breathing exercises, which are a phenomenal way to tap into your parasympathetic nervous system, which is that rest and digest side that teaches your body. Even in the state of stress, I can relax. I can find that letdown. Or meditation another amazing tool getting outside for five to 10 minutes it doesn't have to be crazy. Going for a short walk, snuggling a dog or a cat or a kid, like any of these things that just cause that, that momentary letdown. The more and more we can incorporate these during the day I'm talking like three, four or five times a day optimally then we can withstand the high stress Without that recovery, though it doesn't work so well and usually ends in some adrenal dysregulation.

Anne McGinty:

So what happens if somebody is just not recovering well? So what are they supposed to do if they were capable of handling a higher level of stress and then it became so chronic that they suffered and they became sort of like quick fuses, yeah, like quick to stress?

Megan Lyons:

Yep, I see this very often in times of change, so, like perimenopause, that's a big time of change, because your sex hormones are changing. That will make changes in cortisol feel more dramatic, or even a change Like someone changes jobs or has a baby or something like that some big change. Then people are starting to say my resilience just feels like it fell off a cliff. I don't have the same resilience, and then I say to them it sounds like a joke, but I'm actually quite serious. You can handle this in two to three months. If you just cancel everything, if we send you to a beach in Bali and you quit your job and you don't have family obligations and you really hardcore, meditate and eat healthy food, like totally, your body can recover.

Megan Lyons:

Most people will not do that, myself included. That's not how I healed from burnout. I did actually have one client one time who I said that kind of flippantly, and she was like, oh yeah, I'll totally quit my job, like let's go. And she did it and she did all of the things, and she recovered faster than I've ever seen anyone recover. Most people, though, will not take that approach. We'll need to do a more gradual where, okay, I can do three, two minute breathing exercises. I can take that adaptogen. I can make some changes to my diet. I can alter my exercise routine. Maybe even I can prioritize sleep hygiene a little more. I can do these little things. It will still work but honestly it will take longer if we go the gradual approach.

Anne McGinty:

And take longer. Let's say that somebody again. They've been working for 10 years. They've finally reached this point of burnout. Their stress management is just so low they can't tolerate stress at all. If it took them 10 years to get sick, how long should they expect that it would take them to fully recover?

Megan Lyons:

Yeah, I wish I could give you a number. I'll give you a couple of guidance points, though. I was my own first patient. It took me two years to recover. So I lost my period for 12 months. I had lower hormones than post-menopausal women. I was like a whole adrenal thyroid sex hormone, absolute mess, and it took me two years to recover. Now, that was before I knew anything about health. That was what started me on this journey. So we're talking 20 years ago that this was happening. Knowing what I know now, could I have guided myself through it a lot quicker? Yes, so I see the average person in the situation that you're describing. That comes to me. We're probably looking at four to six months to feel completely back to normal. It is a gradual process, but will they feel somewhat better after two to three weeks? Yes, it's just that, like you said, it took 10 years to get into this position. It takes quite a while to fully rebound.

Anne McGinty:

I think that the potential for the body to self-heal if you support it in the ways that it needs to be is pretty incredible. So we keep on talking about adrenal health. It sounds like with cortisol being pumped from there, it's kind of the cause of potentially burnout and more illnesses. How can people preventatively support their adrenal health? I know you mentioned adaptogens. Is there anything else?

Megan Lyons:

into the trap of demonizing cortisol. Cortisol is amazing. We would all be dead if we had zero cortisol. So thank goodness for cortisol and the excess of cortisol without the ability to let down. That's what's causing the problem. So hopefully cortisol doesn't hate me after this.

Megan Lyons:

Adaptogens, which you mentioned, are such powerful herbs. I call adaptogens magic balancers because they are not like a drug. A drug automatically lowers a level or raises a level of something. That's its target. An adaptogen balances the level, so if someone's high in something, it will lower it, if someone's low in something, it will raise it, which is really cool. And there are very few pharmaceuticals that can do that. But adaptogens are often mushrooms or herbs. People might've heard of ashwagandha, which is an adaptogen, or holy basil, or reishi or cordyceps. There are all kinds of different adaptogens for different functions and different purposes, and those even as a preventative before you get to total burnout. But ooh, I feel like my body's under a lot of stress and adaptogen can help build your resilience to that.

Megan Lyons:

Really prioritizing sleep quality is very important and you'll notice I always say sleep hygiene, sleep quality, because it's usually unrealistic for most people to spend 9 to 10 hours in bed every single night. So really getting that quality is important, but then also, of course, I'm going to go to diet. So our adrenals are some of the biggest consumers of micronutrients, which are macronutrients our protein, fat and carbs. Those are important too. We'll get there, but micronutrients are vitamins and minerals and all these other things that we need. In smaller quantities and without a plethora of those coming in through an abundance of vegetables, fruits, other whole foods, your adrenals really suffer, and most of us, when we're in that stressed out phase, what do we do? We turn to more caffeine. We have coffee for breakfast and then maybe we have like a candy bar for lunch or something like that, and then another coffee after that. We're getting tons of stimulants. We're not getting a ton of nutrition. So we really need to focus on getting in those micronutrients.

Megan Lyons:

And then the macronutrients are also important. In fact, all three of them are important for adrenals. We think protein probably first, because without adequate protein we're not able to recover from exercise stressors, but also from mental, emotional stressors. Fat is very important for any hormone, so we need that good quality, healthy fat. But then carbs we forget about. We are very quick to demonize carbs. Adrenals need carbs to heal, though Do we need a giant pasta dinner and three donuts every night? Absolutely not, but we may need some parsnips, some rice, some whole grains, potatoes, something like that, or at minimum we need some vegetables and some fruits. Going fully no carb is not great if you're in a state of adrenal dysregulation.

Anne McGinty:

That's interesting to me because I think that I also demonize carbs. Yeah, just thinking that, oh, it'll convert to a sugar and then it's just going to dysregulate my whole system. So what is the point of the carbs for adrenals?

Megan Lyons:

Yeah, so oftentimes I see people with adrenal dysregulation having that two to 3 AM wake up. That I mentioned before. And what's happening here? There is this natural bump in cortisol.

Megan Lyons:

But people with adrenal dysregulation their body's in a state of panic. They're very jumpy, I guess, when their blood sugar goes outside of the normal range. If you don't have a lot of carbs during the day and then your blood sugar is drifting low as you sleep, it boom, shoots right back up because it's in a panic. It's like, oh my gosh, the blood sugar is getting low. Let's secrete a bunch of adrenaline to get that blood pumping, to get glycogen out of the muscles into the bloodstream. That raises back up your blood sugar. So it's out of panic. But now you have adrenaline going and you have your mind racing and it's very difficult to get back to sleep. So actually having a small portion of whole food carbohydrates at night which is even for people who don't vilify carbs they're definitely like, oh, not carbs at night but having some of those carbohydrates at night can help the body not feel panicked, not feel like the blood sugar is going to get so low that I have to turn out this adrenaline.

Anne McGinty:

That is so fascinating. I'm going to have a conversation with my husband later today. So fascinating. I'm going to have a conversation with my husband later today. Amazing, this has become a topic that I guess maybe we were just lacking in a little bit of information. So, going back a little bit to the adaptogens, because we're starting to see this everywhere in the grocery store now, and our drinks and different supplements, herbs how much do we really need in our diet and for how long to really start showing impact?

Megan Lyons:

I will be the first to say that we cannot out supplement a poor quality diet, lifestyle, anything like that. So I totally wish adaptogens were the one and only fix. I have never seen anyone in 11 years of practice not change their diet and lifestyle but take an adaptogen and completely heal. I don't think it's possible, unfortunately. That would be much easier. It might make my job easier too, but that said, if you're going to do what you can, you can't be perfect where you're a human, but you can make a little bit of perfect where you're a human, but you can make a little bit of change in your diet and lifestyle.

Megan Lyons:

Then the question of how much adaptogens or what quantity of adaptogens should you take. It's pretty individual. It's very rare to overdose on adaptogens. Your body's really smart.

Megan Lyons:

I'm not suggesting anyone go out and swallow a whole bottle, but you don't need to be as precise as you do with some medications. So, depending on which herb we're starting with, I'll usually just go with whatever dosage is on the bottle to start out. It's hard to give a number of milligrams because it depends on the herb, it depends on the concentration. So you'll see on the back 95% concentrate or something like that. But I'll just start with one dosage.

Megan Lyons:

As long as you're getting a good, reputable brand, you can trust that dosage for most people and then I'll do some experiments so I'll say, okay, you feel a little better with that, but not too much better or not enough better. So let's try one and a half doses the next week and see how that goes. And sometimes it actually goes the other way. I just had someone earlier today actually, who I gave an adaptogen blend for calming and I know she really needs it based on her testing and her symptoms and she took the full dosage, which was three capsules, and she was like, oh, that was uncomfortable, like I felt too calm. That was not a normal feeling for her. Even though physiologically it was normal, it was just like too much for her to handle emotionally. So we're going to go back down to one capsule and then we'll ease her up into three capsules.

Anne McGinty:

That's super interesting and I also have had that experience myself with just trying different adaptogens and feeling like, hmm, that one like doesn't sit right, or maybe I'm not drinking enough water afterwards to fully get it down into my stomach, or something. But this is a wealth of knowledge. It's so interesting. And again, we know that entrepreneurs really struggle with chronic stress. I think that the percentage is over 80% or something like that. So if someone came to you who was maybe one of these typical entrepreneurs who is just stretched so thin, wearing a thousand different hats and feeling like they couldn't shut it off, what are the first steps that you would suggest to them to reverse the damage and to start rebuilding their health?

Megan Lyons:

Well, I have this button right here on my desk and I pretend it's a magic button. And I ask them if you could press the magic button and then tomorrow you have unlimited resources financial, whatever else and you can't do anything productive. You can't work, you can't take care of the kids, you can't wash the laundry, nothing productive. What would you do? And they look at me like this is so dumb. And then they answer, and based on their answer, I know what they need. So, on one extreme, someone might say I want to go to, like, the coolest amusement park or a concert in Paris and I want to wear all this fancy clothes and have 29 of my friends and, like have a crazy night. Or the other person might say all I want is to go sit on a beach and read a book and not talk to anyone.

Megan Lyons:

And those two people need something very different. We can get into a state of adrenal dysregulation, basically based on boredom and overwork and lack of stimulation. And so that first person they need stimulation, they need excitement, they need change in their life. That second person, they need solace, they need rest, they need more internal reflection time, and so, while I can't make any of their dreams happen, like the beach and or the concert in Paris or whatever. What we can do is take some clues from that and start building in little things during the day. So for the second person, can they read for 10 minutes per day? Almost everyone and I work with extremely busy people almost everyone can find 10 minutes a day if they really prioritize it. For that first person, can they call a friend once a week and just schedule some kind of meal out or walk in the park or something like that. It's starting small with what they know, their gut instinct tells them they need, and then building that into a lifestyle and going further.

Anne McGinty:

And the gut instinct hearing you mention that people say increasingly more so now that health starts in the gut. We know this right. So what recommendations do you have for digestive health, especially for people with very busy schedules?

Megan Lyons:

Yes, Well, I'll take the busy one in a second and give you some easier tips, but the first thing I'll say is, the more we can shift to whole food, the better. Our guts are very confused these days because they're having to process so many chemical things that we're not used to, that human DNA and functioning still does not recognize, and we're getting this hyperpalatable food that's low in fiber, which sounds like it would be easier on digestion, but the microbiome, which are the good bacteria in your gut, they need fiber to thrive. So if you think about your average Cheeto or you name your processed food, it has a lot of chemicals that we're not used to, it doesn't have a lot of those micronutrients and it does not have almost any fiber, which are food for the good bacteria. So the health and the robustness of our gut has dwindled because of that process and packaged food. So we're in 2025. I'm under no pretense that someone out there is going to eat zero packaged food for the rest of their life. I certainly don't do that. What I do try to do is get most of my food from whole food, the food that we have to chew, and I can't tell you how many people say to me, oh no, a salad, a salad. I don't have time to eat food during the day and I'm like, well, that's actually part of the problem. The food that we can just swallow without chewing, that's not really great for our gut. So we really do need to focus on whole food and then some of the things that are maybe quicker.

Megan Lyons:

A probiotic is one of the standard go-tos for gut health. There are some people who do worse on a probiotic, so certainly if you've had a kombucha and you find yourself very burpy, something like that, it could be a sign of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Probiotic might not be for you, but in general, because of our over-sanitization and lack of fermented foods, many people do do better on a probiotic. So that could be some place to start giving yourself breaks between meals. I personally would love to have zero meals and just literally snack like a hundred percent of the day, but that's not good for our gut. So actually getting that. We have something called the migrating motor complex, which only moves after a period of not having food. So getting a couple hours between incidences of eating during the day, and then even something as simple as staying hydrated Many busy people don't remember to drink water and constipation. I mean I'm not exaggerating when I say 50% of the constipation cases that I see in my office can be fixed by just drinking water. So that's something so huge for gut health.

Anne McGinty:

Yeah, dehydration, as you were saying that, I was thinking back to the number of days where I know my body has been sitting there going drink some water. Drink some water, yeah, and I just ignore it. Yeah, I'm like, no, I'm busy right now, but, yes, we need to prioritize hydration. Knowing is one and then actually being compliant with what we're supposed to do is another. What do you do about kids who lean towards donuts and treats and Takis and artificially colored slushies and they just gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble up and they say, mom, it's not a big deal, it doesn't matter, I run a ton and I play a lot of sports. Are they right, or are they?

Megan Lyons:

wrong From a weight perspective. They're often right. Many kids, their metabolism is so fast that they can have the hyper palatable processed foods and not gain weight. But weight is very much not the whole picture of health. So we're starting to learn more and more things Like.

Megan Lyons:

Recently we're getting a lot of press coverage about red 40 and other food colorings connected to things like ADHD, hyperactivity, neurodivergence, even down the long, long road, neurodegenerative conditions. So that's just one example, but then there are many others in package and processed food. So do I think kids should never have any of that? No, because those kids turn into the ones that then when they go to their friends' homes, they dive into the pantry and they overdo it there and they often can get some emotional relationship with food. That's not the healthiest. So I don't believe in overt restriction and, just like I said to you with the thyroid condition, I do not believe in blaming for health conditions. But what I do know for sure is that taste buds adapt to what they are given more frequently. So kids who are not given vegetables, fruits, other whole foods they're correct in saying that it tastes bad for them because their taste buds haven't adjusted.

Megan Lyons:

Just like me, in college I drank six Diet Cokes per day. I thought it was delicious, I know yes, your face tells it all Clearly. I did not know about health then, once I started learning about health and cut that out. That was, however, 20 plus years ago. Diet Coke honestly tastes disgusting to me. Now I don't want to drink it. My taste buds changed based on what they were given, and kids do the same. Our taste buds can change in as quick as 10 days, depending on the research.

Megan Lyons:

So when we are only offering our kids hyper palatable foods, they'll only want that. The answer, then, is to bring it it in in a way that's not punishment. You don't say you have to eat this food because it's healthy, blah, blah, blah but just offer it more and more and more. And it is so frustrating I know I've seen it over and over and over where the parent produces or creates this delicious broccoli and the kid doesn't eat it. That's very frustrating, but we need repeated exposure and their taste buds will change.

Megan Lyons:

I have, uh and again, no, no shame to anyone in my family or anyone else, but I have, across my spectrum of nieces and nephews, those who are very picky based on what they were given as kids and those who I mean like. Literally yesterday my sister, my youngest sister, sent me a picture of my niece, who's one and a half, and she refused her waffle for breakfast. She only wanted a cucumber. So there's this picture of her just chomping on a whole cucumber. That's what she has been given and she really does appreciate that taste more that is amazing.

Anne McGinty:

Yeah, I also have noticed what you're saying though I'd never looked into the research with it that when my daughter eats more sweets regularly, she starts craving them so much that we have to cut her off cold turkey to reset. Yep, okay, kids have a really high metabolic rate, but adults don't match that. So I think the stat is something like 88% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy.

Megan Lyons:

Yes.

Anne McGinty:

What do we need to know about this? Why does that matter?

Megan Lyons:

Yeah, it really matters a lot, because metabolic health is connected to all the scary chronic conditions that we think about, from Alzheimer's to cancer, to type 2 diabetes and on and on and on. Five specific things it's if you have adequate HDL, which is the quote good cholesterol, low enough triglycerides, low enough fasting blood sugar, low enough blood pressure and then a healthy waist circumference. So these are just many leading indicators of this might be a problem in the future, but basically what it means is our body's not processing food the way we want it. Our blood sugar is dysregulated. We're starting to have things that could turn into liver dysfunction or blood sugar dysregulation, insulin resistance, things like that, and this is totally reversible.

Megan Lyons:

Any of those things that I mentioned, even when it gets so far as fatty liver, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. These are all reversible. But it does take changing our diets and same thing just shifting gently away from some of that processed food to more whole food. Thinking about those macronutrients the protein, fat and carbs and really representing each of them in each meal. That's the first step. Carbs and really representing each of them in each meal that's the first step.

Anne McGinty:

Inflammation is also just another one of those buzzwords right now and is a telltale sign right of chronic illness potentially. How can we pay attention to that, how can we notice it, what should we be looking for and how can we proactively reduce it?

Megan Lyons:

Yes, most people have had the experience of acute inflammation, which is I sprained my ankle, for example, and that ankle gets hot and puffy and swollen and that's great. It's my immune system and repair system going to that tissue and fixing the damage. That's a good, helpful process. The problem is when inflammation becomes systemic. Now it's not just our ankle but our body thinks it has to fix the whole thing. So then we start getting symptoms like a puffier face, puffier or sore, achy hands or feet, maybe skin issues, brain fog, fatigue, digestive issues like IBS-like symptoms, alternating constipation, diarrhea, bloating, something like that. It just feels off and oftentimes if I ask people, do you think you feel inflamed? Even if they don't really know the technical definition, they can tell me yes or no and they're generally right. So what do we do to prevent this? I have a very simple handout in my practice which I'll describe to you and people will get it. It's inflammatory foods in one column and anti-inflammatory foods in the other column, and all we need to do is shift the balance gradually like a seesaw. We don't have to take out the inflammatory foods altogether. We do probably need to add in some more anti-inflammatory foods, but it's not about perfection, it's just realizing your seesaw is tipped a little to one side. Let's tip it gently to the other side.

Megan Lyons:

So inflammatory foods are the ultra processed foods that we've talked about alcohol, added sugar, fried food, gluten and dairy are both on a spectrum. So some people gluten causes a lot of inflammation, like if you have celiac disease you should definitely not have any gluten. Most people are somewhere in the middle where they might not know it or think gluten really affects them anyway, but it actually does create a little inflammation. Same thing with dairy. And then there are some rare people who are actually genuinely fine with both of those. But those are on a spectrum. And then with exercise, over or under exercise, both create inflammation and our dear friend, stress creates inflammation. So that's all on the inflammatory column.

Megan Lyons:

Then the anti-inflammatory column. We think about antioxidants. Oxidative stress is not exactly the same as inflammation, but it's basically the same for our purposes. So antioxidant rich foods are those dark colored vegetables and fruits. People have heard oh, berries have antioxidants. That's right, they're darkly colored vegetables and fruits. Other ones might be broccoli or Brussels sprouts or kale or spinach or anything that's that deep color in its flesh. Also, healthy fats can be anti-inflammatory, being adequately hydrated, some herbs like turmeric, ginger these are anti-inflammatory and then stress relief, sleep, meditation, all that good stuff. So again, not about totally staying in one column, but just shifting the balance gradually to get a little more to that anti-inflammatory side.

Megan Lyons:

And this document is downloadable where On your website just shifting the balance gradually to get a little more to that anti-inflammatory side. And this document is downloadable where on your website. It's technically just for my clients, but I'm happy to send it if we. I'll find some way to get it to you. If you want to put it in the show notes for anyone listening, yeah that sounds great.

Anne McGinty:

And, circling back just a little bit more to your practice, it sounds like you've had a full roster of clients for eight or nine years. What are you hoping to achieve? What are you trying to do with the practice? Do you want to grow? Do you want to sustain? Just get your message out there. Are you writing a book Like? What are you hoping for?

Megan Lyons:

Oh, it's such a great question and and as we're coming up on the end of the year, this is always when I focus most on goal setting, so I will have a better answer for you, hopefully in a couple of weeks, but I'll tell you my current answer. We have a team of four right now, so still a small practice. I don't ever anticipate having 200 functional nutritionists on my team. That's not the kind of business that I'm going for. I do anticipate expanding that a little bit more broadly, so maybe doubling or tripling that size, and that's only been in the last couple of years that I've hired anyone outside.

Megan Lyons:

Well, I always had some help with other things, like the newsletter and social media and stuff, but never actually doing the nutrition work. So I do see some expansion there. I definitely see more expansion for myself in terms of speaking at conferences and things like that, and then I did write a book in 2016. It's still fine information, it's not wrong, but I just have evolved so much since then, so there definitely needs to be another book somewhere on my horizon. That sounds amazing.

Anne McGinty:

And the growth. Can you give us a little peekaboo into your mind? What is the motivator for you wanting to double or triple the size of your business?

Megan Lyons:

I know that there are so many amazing practitioners out there who have so much to share and just don't want to start a business for whatever reason, or don't have the business acumen. And I know even stronger that there are so many people out there who need real help. They've been gaslit by practitioners or they're confused by all the conflicting information and I know, based on our success rate with other clients, that we can help and somehow in me that overachiever is like. If I know that there are people who need help and I know I can enable them to get help, I just can't rest until their help. So will I ever help everyone in the world? Absolutely not. But I know I can help a lot more people than I am right now and that's what motivates me.

Anne McGinty:

How do you handle the juggle as a business owner, knowing that you need to produce a level of cashflow in order to make increasing the size of your team sustainable?

Megan Lyons:

Yeah, I mean I actually don't have a ton, uh, like I have an office. But frankly I have a really good deal on my office because I've been there for so many years and I have tons of software, like you know client management systems and podcasting and all that kind of stuff. But aside from that I really don't have that many expenditures. So cashflow has never been an issue for us, thankfully, because we just have so many clients coming in. It's a rotating cycle. I know I'm able to pay my people and pay myself. It's worked out pretty well.

Anne McGinty:

And increasing your brick and mortar location? Is this something that would need to happen?

Megan Lyons:

No, so I don't see that happening. I'm not necessarily opposed to it, but if we take me back to I think I first got my office in 2015. So a year in everyone wanted to be in the office. My client base was primarily Dallas. It was very rare that I would do telehealth, and now I'm not exaggerating when I say 92 plus percent is virtual. So I'm really only in the office for the rare people who want to have touch bases. But most of what we do, even some physical exam stuff, can be done virtually. My nutrition team is not all in Dallas. We operate very virtually. So I mean, who knows what the future will bring? But at least in the next couple of years I think our one office is fine. Who knows what the future will bring? But at least in the next couple of years I think our one office is fine.

Anne McGinty:

That's amazing, the low overhead and also all the remote workers that you were able to establish that team, that's a whole, nother conversation. So from your entrepreneurial journey, just wrapping up here, what key lessons have you learned that could serve as valuable advice for anyone who is aspiring to become an entrepreneur?

Megan Lyons:

Get faster at failing. This is not new advice. I'm sure people have heard it, but I really spent that whole first six months being slow at failing Some of the examples I told you and many others as well, and one of my greatest strengths now is, if something doesn't work, I know when to move on. I also know when to not give up If I know in my gut like something's going to work. I just got it wrong the first time.

Megan Lyons:

Cool, well, pivot, try something new, but fail quickly has been really, really helpful for me. And then another one that's maybe a little bit trite or oversaid, but it's helped me so much is to keep a folder, physical or digital, of the successes, because there are hard days, and none of my clients ever have meant to be mean. I am confident, but people don't appreciate you some days. Some days they're very demanding, some days you lose a client, some days whatever, and it always helps me to have that record of wow. I've helped so many thousands of people just to turn back to and lift up my spirits.

Megan Lyons:

On that note, the last thing I'll say is we've got to have some way to take care of ourselves. So for me, the number one thing that has changed my health and my business is my morning routine. I do literally 100% of days I do my morning routine. Sometimes it's more elaborate, sometimes it's less elaborate. But I don't feel like myself, I don't feel really well able to serve my clients well if I don't do that. So for someone else listening, it might be evening routine or golf once a week or whatever it is for them. Find that way that really feels like restoring yourself.

Anne McGinty:

Your morning routine. Can you give us a peek?

Megan Lyons:

Sure, so I have an acronym called wake up and go. It stands for water, first thing before coffee. Affirmations which, for me, are just reading my goals. I don't do some of like the more hokey affirmations, although that's cool if you like it. Knowledge is K I read for just a few pages. E is for exercise, so I love exercising in the morning. If someone doesn't like exercising in the morning, just like a minute of walking around stretching, jumping jacks, something. U is for unwind, for me that's meditation. It could be journaling, prayer, anything else that slows you down. P is positivity Listen to a positive quote or positive song. G is for gratitude, three things you're grateful for. And then last one, o, one goal for the day. Because, just like me, I'm sure the audience listening has a thousand things on their to-do list and we tend to focus on the ones we don't get done at the end of the day. Setting one main goal for the day helps us be laser focused and then feel accomplished when we get to the end of the day.

Anne McGinty:

I really love that. I actually was just imagining it on a poster that just sits there, where you see it, first thing as a reminder for yourself, but also, in my circumstance, my kids too. That's really beautiful, really amazing that you figured that out. So for a final question if you could go back and talk with yourself when you were in your early twenties, what life wisdom would you give yourself?

Megan Lyons:

Trust yourself, try to take the bigger picture. Each day doesn't have to feel like you changed the world, but as the days add up, you are changing the world and that's all I've ever wanted to do is make a difference. I didn't do that every single day, but I have done that over the years and I believe everyone listening has done the same. So try to zoom out, trust yourself, keep on going because it's working. That's what I would say to myself.

Anne McGinty:

That's amazing, megan. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing all of your knowledge and insights with us, and your story too.

Megan Lyons:

Thank you so much. It's been such a blast.

Anne McGinty:

Today's key takeaways. If you're starting a new business, your network can provide initial momentum and support, but it won't be enough to fully sustain your business. You need strategies beyond your immediate circle. Offer free presentations, speak at events, join community gatherings and networking groups. Put yourself out there. Visibility is everything when building trust and awareness. Passion and drive are fantastic, but too much hyperfocus can lead to burnout.

Anne McGinty:

Know your stress limits and watch for early signs of overdoing it. For example, are you tired but wired? This could be staged to adrenal dysregulation or high cortisol levels. Common signs could be that you can't relax or stop thinking about work, even in personal time. Digestive changes, hair loss, skin thinning, brittle nails, appetite and mood shifts and insomnia. This is different from hormetic stress, which is the good type of stress. If you allow for recovery. To build stress resilience, consider these preventative measures Breathing exercises to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, meditation and mindfulness practices. Adaptogens like ashwagandha, holy basil, reishi and cordyceps to balance stress hormones. Prioritize quality sleep and have a balanced diet with the right macronutrients proteins, fats, carbs and micronutrients, vitamins and minerals.

Anne McGinty:

If you're wondering about burnout, you can ask yourself this reflection question If you had unlimited resources but couldn't be productive, what would you do Think about your answer. It could reveal what's missing in your life and where you need balance In regards to health and metabolism. Your weight is just one small piece of your overall health. Chronic inflammation can lead to visible and invisible symptoms puffy face, skin issues, brain fog, fatigue and digestive problems or chronic illness. Gradually shift toward anti-inflammatory habits for lasting benefits. Allow two to four hours between meals for a healthy migrating motor complex. Stay hydrated it's foundational for everything. And remember taste buds. Adapt within 10 days. Repeated exposure to healthy foods will shift your cravings over time.

Anne McGinty:

I'll include a link to Megan's worksheet in the show notes. When it comes to mindset for growth, fail faster. Recognize when to pivot and when to persevere, but also celebrate successes. Keep a folder of wins to boost your spirits on tough days. Consider a morning, evening or weekly routine to recharge. Try Megan's wake up and go approach water affirmations, knowledge, exercise, meditation, positivity, gratitude and one goal Finally trust yourself. Zoom out when things get overwhelming, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Keep going and remember that every step forward, no matter how small, matters. That's it for today. I release episodes once a week, so come back and check it out. Have a great day.

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Anne McGinty

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