Dr. Dylan Petkus reviews how Mike overcame gut issues, Hashimoto’s, and awful sleep while eating more foods he loves and not having to worry about flare-ups.
00:00
Dylan Petkus, MD
Hey, everyone, it’s me, Dr. Dylan Petkus, here with Optimal Circadian Health and with one of my favorite folks here. This is Mike; although the name says Michael, but we can all just call him Mike. And he is such an awesome story in terms of his transformation, what all he’s gone through, all the cheese he can now eat while we’re still, you know, making sure which cheese and that cheese. But really, more importantly, being able to go from a space of just, like, going in 10,000 different directions. And I’ll let Mike tell the story in terms of where he was before he booked his initial breakthrough call. And we’ll get into a little bit of history there. Not a whole lot, because we’ll sprinkle that in as we go along. But I just want to welcome Mike here.
00:47
Dylan Petkus, MD
Thanks for joining us and being able to share your story of where I’m not sure how many people there are out there like you, probably. I mean, thousands of suffering under the same issues and being able to show them, hey, there’s someone just like you. And this is where they are now. So, Mike, tell know about in terms of the biggest problems you were having before you saw us, maybe watched the masterclass, did the call; what were the biggest struggles you had?
01:19
Mike
Oh, I had numerous struggles. In fact, it was kind of a nightmarish scenario because before I met you guys, I’ve been through numerous people, numerous doctors and so forth, and really got no results. Basically, what was going on was I was diagnosed with Hashemoto’s thyroiditis about four years ago, and after that became a big challenge in my life. So what was going on was I was experiencing not only a lot of the symptoms of Hashimoto’s, which would include problems with hormones and weight loss and weight gain, all that stuff, but also, I was getting these, what they call flare-ups, and they would often send me to the emergency room because they were so extreme. And I ended up with where my blood pressure would go erratically high, and I was getting ectopics and palpitations and all those things.
02:21
Mike
And it would happen just in a period of, it would last for sometimes as long as a month. And the problem was that, well, I’ll explain some of the symptoms that I went through. I was experiencing, like, lower back pain, muscle aches, lot of confusion, a lot of fogginess, brain fog, as a lot of people call it. I was also losing weight. In fact, that was one of the biggest concerns. I lost weight. I went from about 160, and I went down to as low as 119, as a result of that, and also various programs that I’d been through beforehand that kept causing the weight loss I wanted to gain back because 119 was way too light for me and way too light.
03:14
Mike
So what I did also, I was experiencing things like eye pain and hair loss, all the things that come along with Hashimoto’s, but I was also not getting all the things with Hashimoto’s. I was also experiencing symptoms of hyperthyroidism as well. And what the problem, the thing that was so annoying that I experienced, was I was going to multiple doctors. Nobody really knew. I went to the VA doctors, the medical doctors, like, three different ones, and everybody. Every time I’d go into the ER; usually this is a result of my blood pressure going extremely high or waking up in the middle of the night with terrible palpitations, where it was ridiculous, where I’d get a pulse over 120 and stuff like that while I’m sleeping.
04:04
Mike
So at some point, I got to be so afraid of even going to sleep because I expected at a certain point that, okay, I don’t know if tonight I’m going to wake up with palpations or whatever or end up in the ER. I ended up in the ER over 15 times. And the most disheartening thing was when, at the end of all the testing and everything like that, they’d come back to me and they say, you’re fine. I’m like, fine. How do you get fine? I’m here, and it’s like, I don’t come here because I want to be entertained by you people. I come here because I want to get help. So, long story short, I didn’t get any success out of going to the ER.
04:52
Mike
And the only thing that happened was usually afterwards, I’d feel a little bit better, because by then, the flare-up had dissipated or lessened, but I was still experiencing symptoms afterwards, no matter what anyway. And I also had a lot of gut issues, a whole bunch of things that went on. It was just bad. And so I didn’t really have a life at that point. My life consisted of worrying about day to day, what was going to happen or might not happen. So that was kind of what led me up to meeting Dylan and Molly. And there’s a story to that, but I’ll get that into a little while. But anyway, I just wanted to start with that, to let you know where I was at that time. And there’s a lot more to that than that.
05:38
Mike
This is just the tip of the iceberg. I was a mess, and life really was awful at that time. And I dreaded each day, instead of my anticipation of each day, was fear. Every day fear. Fear of what might happen, what may transpire along the way.
05:57
Dylan Petkus, MD
So anyway, that’s a, just the, just a little bit there. Because one thing that there’s many things I love about Mike, but in terms of his story and his progression, because a lot of times we’re out there and people think like, oh, you’re the adrenal fatigue, the sleep people. Yes, there’s sleep in those things. But Mike, okay, Hashimoto, gut issues, not just thyroid, going low, swinging to high, all these other issues and just being in a place of where you are, that person, especially at the VA, it’s just like, oh, there’s so many things going on with you, but we have nothing that we can do.
06:35
Dylan Petkus, MD
And that’s something that people resonate with so much because as we’ll talk about a little bit, just being able to be at a place of where, yes, you have all these issues, but being able to get to the core of it and being able to be in a place of where it all unfolds and being able to address it like that, and that’s what’s so powerful not only about Mike’s story of Hashimoto’s. And it’s not because, like, did something wrong in a former life, it’s because of these core issues and being able know, really be in a space of where you can address that. But more importantly, being able to recognize it’s a lot simpler. Even when you’re having those days of where they are awful, there is nothing but fear.
07:20
Dylan Petkus, MD
And living in a space where those days are a struggle. And if you don’t mind sharing about, like, two months ago or so, when you say one of those awful days, I know you mentioned the ER visits, which are never fun, but just for someone to get a picture of your day-to-day and what those tough moments were for you, because a lot of people live in that space. Would you be able to share? What would that look like for you?
07:51
Mike
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Basically, my day-to-day consisted of not knowing what to do and not knowing how to, you know, how people set out with, okay, I’m going to do this today, I’m going to do that today. I couldn’t do that because there were so many things that were variables regarding my health that I couldn’t plan anything. In fact, I couldn’t even plan a trip longer than, say, 20 miles because I was afraid. Well, what if this happens? What if that happens and I end up in the ER? I couldn’t camp because I love camping. Basically, my whole life was limited. I couldn’t go to places, I couldn’t do things. My friendships kind of,
08:35
Mike
I couldn’t even get together with people for long periods of time because I was always afraid of what might happen, or I might start feeling palpitations, or my blood pressure might go through, and when that happens, I’d feel like my head’s about ready to explode. And all these things that were unpredictable. So, basically, each day, I was living an unpredictable life, not knowing what to expect. And usually, I wasn’t, like, expecting good things. It kept getting worse and worse. So I basically couldn’t make any plans. So that was my day-to-day thing. And so each day was just like, okay, I’m holding on. But the thing is, I didn’t have any answers. That’s what I was looking for. I was looking for solutions to what I was going through. And really, I wasn’t getting any solutions.
09:27
Mike
They would say, oh, take this drug or take that drug, or take this pill, or take that pill. And I’ll tell you more about that in a little bit, I’m sure. But that’s basically what was going on. I was not getting a solution, only a cover up. They’re covering the symptoms instead of dealing with the solution. And medical doctors, I realize most of them are not equipped. They’re not trained to handle the. To get to the root cause. They make money by covering the symptoms, by glossing them over, by making them appear to be gone. And that’s not just the thing I learned in this journey, shall we say, is it’s not just happening with the medical department. It’s also in the nutritional department, too, because they also,
10:21
Mike
many of the things, or all of the things, except for what Dylan and Molly have shared, all of those things have just covered over or hid the know, lessened them to a degree, where it appeared that, oh, I’m getting healed. No more triggers going off. So I ended up getting, thinking, deceived, I should say, at some point that I was getting better, when really, the fact was, it wasn’t healing the engine, shall we say, the inner part of me. It was only dealing with the things that connect to the engine, connecting to our body. And so, naturally, I got really frustrated and very discouraged and disheartened along the way. And I remember breaking down, crying at times in the shower, as I remember wondering, is this all that’s left to life? Because nobody was giving a solution.
11:28
Mike
And so I went through this, and there’s nothing that’s more painful than you wanting an answer, and nobody’s got it. Anyway, that was pretty much how my day to day was, thankfully. And thank God that changed. Anyway.
11:56
Dylan Petkus, MD
Thanks for sharing that. Things do get really tough and dire where, yes, we can get lost in my TPO antibodies or to this or I’m stuck in this diet, but at the end of the day, health is really something where so many people either overlook it or they don’t even look at it in the face at all. But it’s really how you’re able to live your life, either in a space of where you can go about things normally or be in a space of absolute despair of not knowing what the next weekend is going to hold, what the next year are there going to be? Are there going to be years after another ten?
12:35
Dylan Petkus, MD
It’s just not knowing where is it going and being at a point of where after so many trips to so many doctors, you’re just almost ready to throw in the towel. And it’s just something that I never want anyone to forget. Yes, health is something, but it’s really how you’re able to live your life. And the great thing about Mike, I mean, having tried so many things, because obviously he’s someone who is a fighter, someone who is going to keep going. He goes to the VA, he’s going to come back ten more times less now.
13:06
Dylan Petkus, MD
But just because you know that you don’t give up and in terms of being able to go through the other solutions or cover ups, because this is another place of where a lot of people have gone through the same things, or maybe right now they’re thinking about doing x, y or z. What are some of those things you’ve tried? Maybe got a little bit, but then back to square one didn’t work at all or even made you worse. What were some of those things that you’ve tried out that did not go as planned?
13:41
Mike
There was a long list because, like you said, I’m a fighter, so I’m going to keep looking and looking until I am determined. I was determined to get answer because I’m like that. That’s how I am in my life. My brother knows it, I know it. We are like, I don’t know, just amazing fighters. We’re going to find answer no matter what we have to do to get it. Anyway. I remember when I first started getting diagnosed, well, when I got diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, and I was starting to go through the crazy symptoms I was going through, ending up in the hospital and so forth. I started, first, of course, with the medical doctors, and then I got to a point reading up and researching, and then I found out they didn’t really know much of anything, unfortunately.
14:32
Mike
And it’s the ones that are doing the typical AMA standard protocols, but all they do is give you Synthroid, and that wasn’t working. It kind of balanced things a little bit. But they only look at one part. They don’t look at the whole system. And that’s what I love about Dylan and Molly. They look at the whole system as opposed to many of the people that I’ve worked with who only are focused on the thyroid and the thyroid, I realized it’s not the issue, it’s the immune system. It’s the engine that’s out of whack and that needs to be taken care of instead. But I went through functional medicine doctors, I went through chiropractors, I went through medical mediums, and all like that. I’m trying to think of all of them. I went through immunology scientists. I thought, wow, that would be great.
15:30
Mike
And again, just covering the symptoms, I didn’t realize that I actually gave them a testimony, too, about three quarters of the way through, because my TPO levels, that’s the antibody levels, had decreased significantly. And I was, like, all excited. So I gave them a testimony. It was too soon a testimony, though, because those antibodies, by the end of their program, went up just where they were before. So it was absolute worthlessness. So I was like, oh, my gosh. The only thing I learned is what not to do. So I’ve also been through a thyroid pharmacist, ARNPs, people doing protocols, all different kinds of protocols. I’ve been through so many, it’s ridiculous. In fact, I don’t think there’s any that I haven’t been through at this point. And so I could tell you one thing. I could tell you what doesn’t work for sure.
16:27
Mike
Up to the point of Dylan and Molly. Oh, I know what doesn’t work, and I don’t think it works for anybody because none of them were addressing the root cause. Now, however, I will say that they all or most of them said that they would address the root cause, but they really didn’t. It was just a sales tactic, shall we say, to get me or anyone else to buy into their program. So that was a very key thing. So obviously through that, I lost a lot of money and trying those things, but I was still determined, so I kept persisting and anyway, that’s what led me up to Dylan. Anyway, I’ll stop there for a moment.
17:14
Dylan Petkus, MD
I want to continue on that vein because some of the more I know you have a super long list. I was looking at it before from your form there in the beginning for the breakthrough call. What about you want to expand a little bit about keeping it to less than three hours in terms of diets and supplements that you went through and again, did not pan out how you want it?
17:39
Mike
That’s amazing because I’ll give you an idea of how determined I was. I even was doing a protocol where it was totally vegan. Now, mind you, I was on meat for a long time. A lot of it going from that to complete vegan and having juice smoothies that were 20oz a day of raw spinach plus other things. So it was crazy. But I was so wanting to get a solution that gives you how much of a determination I had that I was willing to do that. I did that program and other programs exactly as per protocol, and none of them worked. They always showed an appearance of working for a period of time, but then it fell off. And I’ve actually never seen anybody have complete success from those programs.
18:36
Mike
Of course, a lot of times I didn’t find out until after the fact. But anyway, did I answer that?
18:43
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yeah, I’ll just plug in. I think Mike sets the record for a person consuming the most flaxseed or whatever that was at one time. Because a lot of times you get caught up in that paradigm of it’s the root cause, but it’s just another superficial thing that someone know, oh, this looks really great on think, you know, this is really going to modulate your. But it doesn’t really allow you to actually make those changes and you’re chasing things. And yes, it may work for some people because even a broken clock is right twice a day, but it’s something of where if you’re not really going to the core of the issues that we’ll dive into a little bit, but you’re chasing things almost as much as you’re chasing your symptoms. You’re just really not getting anywhere.
19:31
Dylan Petkus, MD
Not only for me being very frustrated where I hear people like, oh, I’ve done an x, y, or z and it hasn’t worked. And people go say, I’m going to go try…other people say I’m going to go try x, y or z because that seems like that makes sense. But it’s just like you see people go down the same road all the time. But the other thing, because a lot of people have fail things, get highly skeptical and then go into a state where they don’t take any action. The way, yes, there are going to be failures along the way, but eventually you have eight failures. But when the 9th thing you do is a success, or maybe nintieth for Mike here, that is when ultimately those are all lessons in a way.
20:14
Dylan Petkus, MD
And so in terms of now being able to, you’ve gone through that, and then you must have been on some social media platform, Facebook, Instagram. You saw this ad with some, I’m not sure what we have there. Maybe it was a picture of a cat at the time. But either way, you signed up for the master class, you watched the presentation and even booked the breakthrough call. What was running through your mind at that time of, like, what is going on here? Who are these people? Why are they saying, we don’t need to focus in on what was running through your mind at that time?
20:57
Mike
Well, I will tell you, the way I found out about you was through a very good friend of mine. And she suggested that I look at some of your material because she knew what I was going through. So I did. I actually went on and saw your original masterclass. But afterwards, at that point, I was so close to giving up, and I was super skeptical. And I was like, well, anyway, she encouraged me to go for the one one interview and listen to that. Well, in the meantime, I had watched a couple of videos, but really not much. And then I listened to the one one, and then I was like, okay. And there were things I heard also that you had mentioned. I said, wow, this is really a different approach than what I’m used to. I mean, significantly different.
21:55
Mike
It felt like when you were mentioning, the key thing that got me to you was that you mentioned about getting the engine, dealing with the immune system, dealing with the things, but it didn’t sound like you were doing it in the same manner that someone else was doing. It sounded like there was something unique and special about it. And I was like, okay, you know what? But I will tell you that you were my last stop. If this didn’t work, I was done. I was just going to learn to live with the condition I had, try to make the best of it and stuff like that. So I was done. That was it. That was going to be it. So that’s where I was at the time. And so then when I listened to the message, I was like, wow, okay.
22:46
Mike
It kind of started bringing my hope back again. Okay, maybe now it’s my solution. Maybe all this stuff I’ve gone through was all leading me up to developing persistence because I sure did during that time and leading me up to the program, this program. And so that’s how I came about to know you. If it wasn’t for my friend, I may have never run across you. I don’t know, but I’m so grateful to this day and will be forever grateful for that. So just want to share that awesome.
23:21
Dylan Petkus, MD
Excellent, good friend, whoever she may be. It’s always awesome how people find us either way, being able to have that initial breakthrough session where we talk about, okay, how can we help what’s going on here? Being able to lay those options out for you and then be able to have you with us working on these core issues, one of them being we have our new mitochondria picture. Don’t worry; we’re going to work on the glare later with the glass there but work it out. That’s why we’re specialists on fatigue and mitochondria and not on refractory indexes.
24:00
Dylan Petkus, MD
But anyway, the more important thing, so you being someone who, you’ve gone through the gambit, you’ve gone through the VA more than once, less than a thousand times somewhere in there, and now you’re in the program, you’ve had your welcome call, you’re in the modules, you’re like in a new world. Not so much the specifics of what all you were doing, because it’s an even longer list of details, but in terms of, in your mind, when the gears were turning, you were like, okay, this is a lot of bit different. And what was that shift for you from skeptic to now being like, all right, okay, I think we’re onto something here. What was that like for you?
24:46
Mike
It was, I remember it too, you know, really? I remember it about the first week when I was starting, and I was like, first thing I’ll note is that I was like, I can do this. Considering some of the other things I went through, this was a piece of cake compared to what I went through. And I was also enjoying it. I was like, wow, this is fun. This is cool. And what kind of got me on realizing the things that you were sharing were on track was because of previous things that I’ve learned before and also in my past, in my early years and stuff, things I’ve gradually understood. And so I started to tie two and two together, and I’m like, okay, yeah, I see where he’s going with this. I see what he’s doing okay.
25:38
Mike
And I didn’t understand all the details, and I also didn’t understand how much of an impact the things that you know and have shared would make a difference in my health. And I’m sure other people’s health because it is significant, the things that you shared, because you can have realized you can be eating all the right things, doing everything right. And if they don’t have the things that you know and are doing those, their health can still be a disaster. And when I saw that, I was like, okay, you are really, truly hitting at the root cause. The body is going to make changes appropriately as a result of it in the right way. Not just covering things, not just hiding symptoms, oh, you don’t have this anymore. You don’t have that anymore. And then two weeks later, they’re back. It’s not like that.
26:36
Mike
I realized that you were offering a permanent solution, not just a temporary solution. That actually occurred to me over time because initially, obviously, I was still dealing with fears and skepticism and all like that. And, of course, in the first week, not everything changed overnight. I realized that it was going to take time, which is good, and that’s okay. I was going to be patient. I was going to let it work out because, again, this was my last stop. So what have I got to take time and give it time? Hey, might as well. But what I was so happy about was I was noticing changes, significant changes, and I was like, and each week they were just better and better. And I was like, wow. And I’ve taken some steps back, too, because my body’s adjusting, making all these.
27:27
Mike
I knew it was going through some changes, I could tell, but at the same time, I was excited about it. And it motivated me even more to persist, to go on to the next step, and to continue listening to the things that you were bringing out.
27:44
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yeah, awesome.
27:45
Mike
Yeah.
27:45
Dylan Petkus, MD
And in terms of when you were going through that, not only the information, having support with you, especially in the context of going through this for years, what were those immediate, amazing results that you were having that you’re like, oh, hey, things are going to be different, things are going to better. What were those for you?
28:06
Mike
Well, I will say, as strange as it may sound, it’s nice not to get up four times a night to have to go to the bathroom. Okay. Because that’s what was happening. It was constant, and it was disrupting my sleep all the time. Something was off. And I had tests. Oh, my gosh, so many tests were done on blood analysis to try to find out nobody came up with anything. So I was like, oh, my gosh, I got to keep getting up four times a night. So the first thing I noticed was that I was waking up less at night to go to the bathroom. And eventually, it became only one time night, which still is that even that sometimes it’s gone for the whole night without even waking up.
28:47
Mike
And I’m like, oh, it’s so nice to be able to get a full night’s sleep, or even a partial night’s sleep, more than what I used to get because getting up every couple of hours is crazy. This is rough. There was that. And then I noticed also that there were a lot of things that went on, but mainly, I think that was the initial one. There was also. Well, there was a big one, which wasn’t the initial week that happened, but it was my weight, which I don’t know if you want me to share that yet. I don’t know what. Okay. One of the big things that I was so afraid of when I first started this program, I did not want to lose more weight again. I went from 160 down to 119.
29:34
Mike
And the past people that I worked with in a program said, oh, we’re going to make sure your weight, it’ll get up. Well, it went from 129 when I first met them to 119, so it was going the opposite. But with Dylan, with working with Dylan, the thing I’m so overjoyed about, I know some people say, oh, I’d love to lose weight. Well, my issue with losing weight is about exactly the same as if you’re struggling for years to lose weight. That’s my struggle to gain weight because I wanted to gain weight and I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. So the beauty is now it’s about, I guess, ten to twelve weeks after the start of the program, I’ve gained back. I’m now up to an average of about 132. So I gained, what is that?
30:24
Mike
A little over eleven pounds or so since the program. And all I did was make shifts that Dylan had recommended. And I can’t tell you how happy I am about that because I’m not disappearing anymore. And I didn’t want to anyway. And I know there’s other. I’m trying to think back. There was one other thing that really, I guess I’m trying to think of the main one, that energy levels. That was. What’s that?
31:02
Dylan Petkus, MD
Energy levels?
31:04
Mike
Yes. Thank you. Yeah. See, I’m so used to having great energy right now. Thank you very much. That I completely, I’m used to it now it’s a part of my life now. My energy was horrible. To give you an idea, when I’d cut a salad or just chop it up, my arms felt drained. I felt tired after just cutting a salad up. Okay. That’s one of the main things that I saw initially in the first week, I remember saying, noticing that when I was chopping the salad, I’m not tired right now. I feel energized. I feel good. Well, that has progressed like crazy. That’s why it’s almost hard to even remember back then where I was to now. It’s just such a dramatic change that I’ve had. And my energy levels now are amazing.
32:00
Mike
During this time of the program, I actually was able to build a trail. I have a nature trail on my property, and I ended up taking out easily about anywhere from 70 to 80 trash barrels full of yard trash during that time. I would have never been able to do that before. Believe me, that’s a lot. Even the garbage guys got upset, but that’s all right. That was a good thing. But anyway, my energy levels now are significant. And what I noticed was sustained energy. Not just immediate, quick energy, it was sustained, long-lasting, even so much that after I did all that work during the day, at night, I was like, man, I still feel really good. It was a balanced energy, it was a clean energy.
32:49
Mike
It wasn’t like this up and down and, oh, I have it for a moment and got to utilize it while I can get it type of energy because in another ten minutes, it’s going to be gone. It was just sustained, and I loved it, and I love it now. And it continues with me, and I know it’s going to continue. And I’m almost 59 now and I really feel like 29. My energy levels may be even better than 29. My energy levels are significant. My clarity of thinking is so much better. I don’t have the fogginess or any of those things like I used to have anyway. Those are just the tip of the iceberg.
33:30
Dylan Petkus, MD
And then what about gut eating, more foods, and being less restrictive? How did that shift for you?
33:38
Mike
That’s the funnest part of all. I used to be so afraid of eating food. I didn’t know if I ate an apple or what if it had some beets or something, what it was going to do to me sometimes. I remember one time I had just no joke, a teaspoon of beet juice, and my heart went into palpitations. It went up over almost 130 beats a minute, just like that. Within about a minute. It was crazy. I’m like, what the heck? Because I didn’t think beets would do it. That’s just a sample. It wasn’t just beets; it was other things, too. So I never knew what I could eat. I didn’t know what was going to affect my gut. All these things. Everything was out of whack with me on that.
34:27
Mike
And there’s nothing worse than, “What am I going to eat today?” Or what can I eat today? Or if I drink a glass of water, even so much as it would affect me at times, it would sometimes throw my BP out. It was weird. And I never got answers to what those were. So what is the joy now is I look forward to eating. And my friends can tell you I look really forward to eating now. I don’t have to be paranoid like I was before, and I enjoy eating. Believe me, I eat a pretty good amount of food for a little guy like me. I eat, and I love to eat, and that was a joy of mine for a long time, and it still is now. So, thankfully.
35:13
Dylan Petkus, MD
Awesome. Excellent. And the thing I wanted to ask you about as well, because obviously, I’ve been through other people’s programs, that’d be weird. But in terms of being able to go from a space of being, if you’re not sure what to do, and then being with us, in terms of being able to be supportive throughout that entire process because we had some fun together, what was the best part of that for you?
35:36
Mike
Well, I absolutely had a lot of fun. I love the support. It was great. And what I love about you guys is that you make people feel so relaxed. You make people feel so you’re not here and they’re here. It’s like you’re on the same level. It’s as if you’re, well, not as if you’re a coach. You’re side by side. We’re here to help you. We’re here to guide you along. You’re not there, like talking at people; you’re conversing with them. And that made me feel really comfortable and realize, hey, this is a totally different approach. You’re a real person. You’re not talking, even though you have degrees and all like that. You’re not talking like you have degrees. You’re talking just on the same level. And like, hey, I’ve got those issues, or I had those issues as well.
36:31
Mike
Let me help you with them here. I’ll be on your side. And you were. You were on my side the whole time, and it was with everybody. And it’s like answered all the questions and all that stuff and offered an amazing support program, an educational program, not just one where it was just going to be like some of my past programs, where they’re sitting on the shelf in my closet, but where I can utilize those programs on a day to day basis as long as I want. And one thing that really sets you guys apart is your modules, which are absolutely awesome. They are forever. You don’t take them down like other people have had, where they have a program, but then you can’t go to them anymore.
37:20
Mike
All of a sudden, it’s like, okay, the program is over, and you can’t access those very important things that you need, apparently. But I know they didn’t at that time because they didn’t work anyway. But yours, you leave it open. So I could always reference them back and go back to them because there’s a lot of information you give which is amazing, and it may not be applicable to that very moment, but over time there may be a time where, okay, I’m going to make a change here or change there, and you can go back to it and say, okay, that’s what Dylan said. So that’s what I love. And the resources that you give are amazing, the PDFs and everything like that.
37:57
Mike
And also the question and answers that you have where we could go two times a week to was so nice because you allowed us, you were so giving, shall we say, because you answered everybody’s question and then some. And I know I had a lot of questions because I’ve been through a lot and a lot of past things that I’ve learned that were completely incorrect, and you straightened them out, but you were there, and you took time to answer the questions even so much as, hey, does that make sense? It was a converse, not a talk act. So that was a wonderful thing. And you also had a Facebook group, the private Facebook group was amazing.
38:45
Mike
And I really enjoyed and actually honestly miss talking with him, hearing other people that were in the group, because were all part of a goal together, a mission together to get our health back, to get it restored. And it was nice hearing other people going through the same thing I was going through or similar things so that I could relate to other people and so that they could relate to me. So we each helped each other and helped each other grow. It was a community thing, so weren’t alone. I never felt alone when I was working with you. I felt encouraged. I felt supported, even if I wasn’t on the Internet or wasn’t talking to you. I still felt that strength from, hey, I have people I can go to.
39:31
Dylan Petkus, MD
So that was a big, it’s always fun to be supporting people like you with the Q and A’s, the emails, where it’s like back and forth a lot. I really love being able to because so much of it is like, yes, you can have a plan, but it’s like when you want to go sailing, you can have a plan, but when a hurricane, you got to kind of be able to adjust the sales easily there. So that’s what we’re always helping people with. And in terms of the really bigger picture here, where you’ve gone from trying things and literally being on the phone, you booked that free breakthrough call, and you’re probably at a point like, okay, well, we’ll see what this is. If I do, it’s my last shot.
40:10
Dylan Petkus, MD
And now being able to have the trash guys not looking forward to going around because you don’t know how much you’re going to clean out or being able to walk on that nature trail or go out kayaking and being able to know your health is now more in your hands than the VA. Nothing against them, but we’ll just leave that discussion to the side for a long time. But you being able to be in a space of where instead of despair and fear now being able to have hope here, of where. What is that like for you now? To be able to make plans on the weekend, stick to them, be able to be there, be fully present. What is that like for you now?
40:57
Mike
It’s beyond words. It’s overjoying because now I remember halfway through, I was able to go on a kayak run again because I really didn’t have the energy or the stamina or whatever to do it. And I was also getting tremendous pain as I was going through it to be able to go and enjoy a kayak run that I was like, wow, I never even had a problem. It was gone. It’s like, this is awesome. And I had the energy to be able to kayak for 4 miles in standing water without a problem. And so it’s offered an enormous amount of new beginnings or beginnings that I had before that I could reintroduce again now I could travel. Now I don’t have a problem traveling. I don’t even think now about what might happen or anything like that. So the fears have gone by.
42:04
Mike
So that’s awesome. And I don’t have to constantly micromanage every little detail of my health, which is what I was doing. I had to be ever so careful. I was monitoring my blood pressure every day, actually. Really, to be honest, I wasn’t doing it every day. I was doing it every couple of hours sometimes, and my pulse and all like that. And always focusing on me, and I don’t like focusing always on me. I like to put my focus on other people, and I really love to help other people. And because I put so much focus on myself, I lost touch even with opening up and helping other people and being able to reach out to them because I was so concerned about myself.
42:48
Mike
And so now it’s given me the opportunity to open up to others again and also to do so many of the things that I had previously put aside because of the effects of Hashimoto’s and immune system problems; what is it called? Immune disorders or whatever. And now I can do so many more things and have done so many. I’m pushing myself sometimes. I have to be careful because I sometimes push myself to that limit, but I’d rather do that than not have my limit. Being, like, in a box and not being able to do anything. So now I can do so many things, and it’s all as a result of the things that you taught. And so I’m so grateful for that, and I know there’s so much more that I don’t even know about.
43:41
Mike
Again, I didn’t finish all the modules, and I’m finishing them now, but that’s great because there’s more to learn. So anyway, that’s it.
43:51
Dylan Petkus, MD
Awesome. Excellent. Yeah, we’re really grateful to be a part of this journey. I think when I called you after you enrolled, I was like, hey, welcome home. This is, like, the last stop. I think I may have told you it’s the last stop as well. I didn’t even think of that. But just being able to welcome people in and know, yes, you’ve had a long journey. You’ve gone through a lot, not only trying to fix this but living in the space of not knowing this is all there is but being able to now be in a space of where, okay, this is getting better. Are these positive changes sticking around? Is this what’s going on?
44:29
Dylan Petkus, MD
And then being able to be in a space of where in two months, two and a half months, however long it’s been, being able to have a completely different trajectory of, like, all right, well, this winter, we’re going to have these plans rolling around and being able to take advantage of life in front of you. So it’s been really great to see you expand into that and also, obviously, eat more cheese because that’s the main outcome we have for everyone. I’m just kidding. But not everyone can always have that. People with different dietary sensitivities. But being able to have what that really represents is more freedom. More freedom in your life, from what you eat to what you can plan and how you can really be living. And that’s what this is all about.
45:08
Dylan Petkus, MD
And where it starts is being able to be at a point of where you’re just like Mike, you’re going to keep going. You want to be able to have this life and move out of fear and into a place of where you’re loving, what you’re doing, who you’re doing with, and having an awesome time at the same time. So if that’s where you want to be, then where you need to start is with one of our free breakthrough sessions. And essentially what we do is you get on there, you pick a time on the calendar, and you speak with someone from our team, 45, 60 minutes. We see really three big things, kind of what’s going on with your health, what’s worked, what hasn’t worked for you, what your goals are, because it’s just like a GPS trip.
45:49
Dylan Petkus, MD
We got to know where you are and then where you want to go and then figure out those next best steps for you. And if we know you can be just like Mike this, Mike, not Michael Jordan, even better. But being able to be in that position where we know we can help, we will show you what that looks like with us. And if not, we will steer you to somewhere else. Because we only want to be able to see people who we know that we can get them to that next level and that their core issues are what we’re experts in and can help you with and be able to have some fun along the way. So if that’s what you guys want, then go to optimalcircadianhealth.com/talk. You’ll go there. There will be a calendar.
46:31
Dylan Petkus, MD
You pick a time that works best for you fill out a form, we give you a call, and the rest is pretty much history. And you could even be here on this video with me as well. But that’s not the main reason you should do it. The main reason you should do it is because, honestly if you’re sick and tired of going through life like this and knowing that there’s so much more available to you once you’re able to have an expert help you navigate these waters, these murky waters of your health. And that’s what Mike did. That’s why Mike’s here. But obviously, it’s not just because of us. It’s because Mike showed up. Mike showed up big time. He was asking the questions. He was front row and center in the Zoom room.
47:11
Dylan Petkus, MD
You were always the first person to be logged in there and going through the modules, working things out and being able to have that plan, putting into action, finding those little areas where there are more improvements, asking more, and being able to be at a level of where you go from the survival mode to a place of where now you can thrive and continuing to see how you can build up from there. So it’s been an absolute honor to be part of this journey with you. Mike and I welcome everyone watching here to begin that journey here today. So you can go to optimalcircadianhealth.com/talk. Pick a time, fill out the form, and we’ll give you a call there. So we’ll close out for now. Thank you so much, Mike, for joining us. It’s been an absolute pleasure.
47:52
Dylan Petkus, MD
And for now, we’ll say goodbye and wish everyone a wonderful day after you book your call, of course. All right, bye, everyone. Hey, everyone; this is Dr. Dylan Petkus here. Make sure you subscribe and then click the button to book a call. If it’s not there, just go to optimalcircadianhealth.com/talk. Thanks.