Hey everybody welcome to show this is Darren O'Lean. This is the Darren O'Lean show. Thanks for tuning in. Remember to like and subscribe. This episode, this podcast, it helps us move our mission forward.

My next guest, Dr. Molly Maliff, an MD, a badass, created this book, The Spark Factor. And it's really at the genesis of such a great conversation because she's just a powerhouse. And I love that. There's a strong women that are just kicking ass. It's so awesome.

She has carved this cool functional medicine side of things where you have to take ownership of your health, period, taking ownership, and then you have to test. You have to take that advocacy to see what's going on.

When you're eating, you're just like, hey let's eat a whole variety of food. You're not necessarily tracking all of that. But you want to look at food as a nutrient dense contribution.

Eliminating the toxic inflammatory stuff like ultra processed foods. So leaning on the foods. And yeah, the super foods, the medicinal plants, the medicinal mushrooms. All of these things are such great contributions. So include all of that in your life.

But here's the thing. And Dr. Molly is a big advocate for this because she's worked with everybody from athletes to all these top producers in Silicon Valley. And now she's created all of what she's learned and she's put it in this book. And we dive into that.

And if I could scream from the mountaintops too, right? So I think when this is out, we'll be in our super life program. You have to take responsibility because it is your life.

Your life. You are opening your mouth up to what you're putting into it. You are thinking certain things. You are drinking or not drinking. You are taking drugs or not drugs. You are drinking alcohol or not drinking alcohol.

You are exercising or not exercising. It is us, man. So there's no silver bullet or golden standard. It is everything added up. So you know that you can do all these great things. You can hydrate, drink more water, eat a variety of fiber rich plant foods. We know that that is increasing the microbiota in your system.

It's good for you on every freaking level as well as get good sleep and take care of your mental health in every way possible. Make sure your friendships are solid and you're acting and communicating and coming from your truth.

Right? All of these things and so much more. I'm going off an tangent. I realize, but this has sparked me and gotten me excited. So enjoy this conversation. Get this amazing book, the spark factor, the secret of supercharging energy, becoming resilient and feeling better than ever from this expert, from this doctor who has lived it, shared it and is educating people.

And is working with many people, distilling it all at least in a way that you can start to understand and apply and then take more and more advocacy for your own health. Enjoy this great conversation with Dr. Molly Melliff.

You are listening to the Darren Alene show. I am Darren and it is my life's mission to find and share healthy and sustainable ways of living.

In this podcast, I talk to inspiring people and professionals from around the world to uncover ways that we as humans can improve our lifestyles, strengthen our mindsets and take better care of this beautiful planet we call home.

If you're looking for motivation to take the next steps towards a happier, healthier life, then you're in the right place and I'm stoked that you're here. So let's do this. This is my show, the Darren Alene show.

Thank you for jumping. There's so many amazing topics and expertise that you have that it's like, I have an infinite amount of questions.

I want to just kind of free float because it's so cool what you're doing. And I just grabbed this off your website that quote because it summarizes what I believe to my core as well optimum health is not a destination, but a continuous process of active participation in a goal oriented wellness lifestyle that also ejects us from this one thing fixes everything.

I guess I really want my own self. I'm curious as to how you got into what you're doing aside from the obvious flipped upside down model of health care that we still have in existence.

But what was your path and where were some of the light bulbs that kind of took you down a optimized path of looking at health differently.

I think it really all goes back to medical school when I was basically about to quit. I mean, I was just like, I don't know if this is for me. This system is so screwed up. The education system has all sorts of problems.

One of the biggest problems the medical education is they don't teach you about lifestyle. They don't teach you anything about how to be healthy. And so I was not thriving. All it was doing was studying.

I was doing all nighters. I was drinking cups of espresso. I wasn't exercising enough. I didn't spend enough time with my family and my friends. And I just wasn't balanced at all.

...