The Habit Healers

Your blood pressure spikes every single morning, and a standard doctor’s visit can miss it completely. That morning blood pressure surge is when heart attacks and strokes cluster most, yet most people never know theirs is dangerously high because office readings look fine by mid-morning.

In this episode, I explain why high blood pressure in the morning is so commonly overlooked, and what researchers call masked morning hypertension. We talk about why the hour you wake up predicts cardiovascular risk better than the clock, what a non-dipping pattern and undiagnosed sleep apnea have to do with it, and how to actually see your own surge with simple at-home blood pressure monitoring. Then I walk you through nine evidence-based habits to lower blood pressure naturally, most of which you can start this week without a prescription. This is lifestyle medicine the way I practice it: grounded in the research, but translated into what you can do tomorrow morning.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

* Why the morning blood pressure surge raises heart attack and stroke risk, and how to measure yours

* How masked morning hypertension hides from normal office readings

* The link between non-dipping blood pressure, sleep apnea, and overnight pressure

* How a potassium salt substitute, beetroot juice, and ground flaxseed lower blood pressure naturally

* Simple morning habits like slow breathing and isometric holds that calm the surge

* When your morning numbers are a red flag worth bringing to your doctor

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/why-do-more-heart-attacks-happenCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

If you’re tired but can’t sleep, or you fall asleep fine and still wake up exhausted, the problem may not be your bedtime at all. In this episode I walk you through why better sleep actually starts in the morning, and a simple four-part protocol to reset your circadian rhythm from both ends of the day.

Most sleep advice obsesses over the hour before bed, but the research points somewhere most people never look: the first thirty minutes after you wake up. I explain how morning sunlight sets your internal clock through the suprachiasmatic nucleus, why it controls when melatonin shows up fourteen hours later, and how skipping it leaves you groggy in the morning and wired at night. From there I break down the three evening levers that protect that progress, including a caffeine cutoff that’s likely hours earlier than you think, why eating too close to bed quietly disrupts your metabolism while you sleep, and a five-minute pen-and-paper habit shown to help people fall asleep faster. This is lifestyle medicine you can start this week, one small habit at a time.

What you’ll learn:

* Why morning light exposure is the most powerful signal for healthy sleep

* How your circadian rhythm controls melatonin, cortisol, and when you feel sleepy

* The evidence-based caffeine cutoff for falling asleep faster

* How late-night eating affects blood sugar and sleep quality

* A simple wind-down routine and to-do list trick that quiets a racing mind

* The full Sunrise 8-3-1 protocol, you can build one step at a time

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/what-if-your-insomnia-starts-at-sunriseCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

Is your smartwatch actually accurate? Your Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit, Oura Ring, or Whoop band tracks up to fourteen health numbers, but it never tells you which ones come from a real measurement and which ones are an algorithm’s best guess. In this episode, I break down exactly which wearable health metrics you can trust and which ones to ignore.

Here’s what I want you to know. The most famous fitness number of all, VO2 max, is built on a misunderstanding. The longevity studies everyone quotes never actually measured it. I’ll walk you through what the research really found, why your resting heart rate and step count are the numbers worth watching, and why your sleep stages, stress score, blood oxygen, and recovery readiness carry far more noise than the marketing admits. We’ll also talk about orthosomnia, false AFib alerts, and the moment a fitness tracker stops helping your health and starts hurting it.

Then I’ll give you a five-minute way to estimate your real cardiorespiratory fitness at home, no lab required.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

* Why smartwatch VO2 max accuracy is weaker than you think, and what the longevity studies actually measured

* Which two wearable health metrics have the strongest link to how long you’ll live

* How to read your heart rate variability and recovery score without letting them run your life

* Why the 10,000 step goal has no scientific basis, and the step count that actually matters

* A simple at-home test to estimate your cardiorespiratory fitness in five minutes

* The red flags that mean you should stop looking at your watch and call your doctor

Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/how-smart-is-your-smartwatch-really

I’m writing this from Bend, Oregon, where we parked our RV for the start of a summer road trip. Chef Martin Oswald is across the Atlantic, where Europe has been baking in early summer heat. And that’s how we ended up here, making Vietnamese summer rolls on a Wednesday morning with viewers from all over the world watching us fumble through German vocabulary and debate the correct pronunciation of “schnitzel.”

Every week, Martin and I go live so he can teach me (and all of you) how to cook food that actually supports your health. I keep expecting the lessons to slow down after nine months and more than 200 recipes. They don’t.

Today’s lesson started with a confession from Martin. The summer rolls you order at restaurants? They’re probably not as healthy as you think. Most of the interior is rice noodles, which have almost no fiber or minerals and virtually nothing in the way of vitamins. The shrimp sitting on top is a small gesture on a big pile of starch. The rice paper wrapper itself is just rice flour and tapioca, a vehicle with no real nutritional contribution. So what you end up eating is a pretty package filled mostly with empty carbohydrates.

Martin’s approach was to throw all of that out and start over. Keep the rice paper, because it’s neutral and holds everything together. But replace every filler ingredient with something that actually feeds your body.

Get the summer roll recipes here.

The Setup Matters More Than You Think

Before Martin touched a single piece of rice paper, he spent time on his work surface. He wiped it down and emphasized working on a smooth surface rather than wood. Every single ingredient was already prepped and organized in front of him. Mise en place. I knew that one, and I was a little proud of myself.

His point was practical. Once the rice paper is wet, you have a very small window before it gets too soft to work with. If you’re scrambling to julienne a carrot while your wrapper dissolves on the countertop, you’ve lost. Everything gets prepped first. No exceptions.

For the rice paper, Martin used warm water in a shallow container and rotated each sheet through by hand rather than dropping it in. The rotation keeps the paper from sticking to itself, and the warm water softens it faster than cold. He pulled it out while it was still slightly firm, because the rice paper continues to absorb water on the countertop. Over-soaking means tearing.

Roll One, The Simple Classic

The first roll Martin built was the most approachable. He laid a soft green lettuce leaf edge to edge across the rice paper, then layered in shredded lettuce and cucumber alongside firm tofu that he’d pan-cooked with turmeric for an anti-inflammatory boost.

The mint is where he got particular. Four or five leaves, but spread across the entire surface so that every single bite contains mint. Not piled in the center where one bite gets all the flavor and the rest gets nothing. Martin was emphatic about this. Mint has the strongest flavor in the whole roll, and distributing it evenly is what separates a good summer roll from a great one.

Then came the rolling technique. Start from the bottom edge and roll over the fillings once, then fold both sides inward like a burrito before finishing the roll. Martin’s advice was to commit. Don’t rush, because the paper tears. But don’t hesitate either, because the paper sticks to itself and you can’t undo it. One confident motion with the sides tucked in, and you’re done.

Roll Two, The Gentle Version

This is the one that really caught my attention. Martin brought up something from Austrian cooking tradition called Schonkost, which translates roughly to “gentle food.” It’s a way of preparing meals for people who are recovering from illness or dealing with digestive issues, especially those finding that raw vegetables don’t agree with them the way they used to.

He took the same summer roll format and filled it entirely with cooked, soft ingredients. Carrots boiled until tender, soft celery root, tofu, cooked soybeans, and spinach, all of it easy on the digestive system but still packed with nutrients. He topped the visible layer with black sesame seeds and cooked soybeans, which looked beautiful through the translucent rice paper.

I thought this was such a smart adaptation. We hear from people in our community all the time who want to eat more vegetables but struggle with raw produce. They feel left out of the fresh-food conversation because their gut simply won’t cooperate. Martin’s cooked version gives them a way in.

Roll Three, The Open Canvas

By the third roll, Martin was in full creative mode, layering asparagus alongside mushrooms and carrots with a bed of spinach underneath. He made the case that once you understand the technique, the rice paper becomes a completely neutral vehicle for whatever flavor profile you want.

He ran through some of the combinations he’s experimented with over the years. Black bean tempeh made an appearance. So did avocado with cilantro and corn for a Mexican-inspired version, and radicchio paired with mushrooms and sweet basil for people dealing with fatty liver, since bitter greens support liver function. He’s also done rolls with quinoa, forbidden rice, brown rice, and just about every kind of bean you can think of. He even mentioned barbecue tofu.

The idea that stuck with me was how different this is from the way most people think about summer rolls. We tend to treat them as a fixed recipe with shrimp and rice noodles and mint and nothing else. Martin sees the wrapper as a blank canvas, no flavor of its own, ready to become whatever cuisine you feel like eating that night.

Two Sauces, and the Reason Behind Them

Martin made two dipping sauces, and the reason he served both together was something I hadn’t thought about before. In his restaurant days, they noticed customers enjoyed summer rolls more when they could alternate between a rich sauce and a clean one. The peanut sauce delivers that creamy, satisfying depth. Then you switch to the tamari sauce, which is lighter and sharper, and your palate resets. Back to peanut, and it tastes brand new again. He called it avoiding flavor fatigue, and once he explained it, I realized I’ve experienced this at every good restaurant without ever knowing why.

The peanut sauce came together quickly. Grated ginger, grated garlic, peanut butter, lime juice and zest, rice vinegar, a bit of sriracha for heat, and water to thin it out. Martin’s one caution was about consistency. European peanut butters tend to be softer and oilier, so his recipe might need more liquid if you’re using a thicker American-style brand. The fix is just adding water until you reach a smooth, dippable texture. He also noted that lime zest contains pectin and adds both flavor and body, so don’t skip it.

On the garlic, Martin offered a practical tip. Raw garlic in a sauce like this will turn within about three days and throw off the whole flavor. So either use the sauce quickly, or cook the garlic first to extend the life of the batch.

The tamari sauce was even simpler. Tamari (which Martin pointed out is the gluten-free option, since regular soy sauce often contains wheat), lime juice, rice vinegar, a touch of maple syrup, and water. Tamari is extremely salty on its own, so the water isn’t optional. It’s what makes the sauce balanced rather than overwhelming.

Martin served both sauces in small, narrow containers rather than flat plates. The narrower vessel lets you dip the roll deeper, coating more surface area per dip. Small detail, big difference.

The Little Tricks That Add Up

A few other things from today that I want to make sure land in writing, because they’re the kind of professional kitchen knowledge that makes home cooking so much easier.

When your limes dry out and get hard (and they always do if you forget about them for a week), soak them in water for 24 hours. They rehydrate and give you far more juice than you’d expect. Before cutting any lime, roll it firmly against the counter with your body weight pressing down. That breaks up the internal membranes and loosens the juice so squeezing takes half the effort.

When you cut finished summer rolls, wet the knife first. A dry knife sticks to the rice paper and tears the whole thing apart. A damp knife slides through cleanly. Martin wet his blade between every cut.

For storing rolls ahead of time, lay them in a container and cover with a damp cloth napkin. Not a paper towel, which sticks and shreds. A fabric napkin, lightly moistened, keeps the rice paper from drying out. One viewer mentioned wrapping each roll individually in parchment paper for packed lunches, and Martin thought that was a great idea.

And the mango trick. If you want to make your summer rolls look like something from a restaurant menu, dice a bit of fresh mango and place it on top of the fillings before your final roll. It shows through the translucent rice paper and makes the whole thing look almost too pretty to eat.

Looking for a community to support you on your health journey?

If you’re looking for a community that supports you in healing insulin resistance one tiny habit at a time, come join us in The Habit Healers Community on Skool. Members get access to my Insulin Resistance Reversal Roadmap course, Chef Martin’s Healing Kitchen with his ever-expanding recipe vault full of sauces and adaptations like the ones you saw today, and a live 90-minute session with me every Tuesday at 4 PM PT. I’ll drop the link here so you can check it out.

This article is a companion to today’s live cooking session. Hit play on the video above to watch Martin build every roll and both sauces in real time.

What if the biggest driver of skin aging isn’t sun or genetics, but your blood sugar? In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’ll show you how to boost collagen naturally and rebuild your skin from the inside, no expensive serums or collagen supplements required.

Here’s something I find most people have never heard. A chemical process called glycation, the same reaction that browns a steak, slowly stiffens the collagen in your skin over decades, and it’s driven by your blood sugar. In one study, researchers could estimate people’s age from their faces, and higher blood glucose tracked with looking older. The truth is, most skin care targets the surface, while the actual sagging and wrinkles happen one layer deeper, in the dermis, where what you eat and how you move matter most.

In this episode, I walk you through the five inputs that shape skin quality from the metabolic level. We’ll talk about why both aerobic and strength training improve skin structure, how stabilizing blood sugar slows glycation, why vitamin C and protein feed your body’s own collagen factory, how carotenoid-rich foods can visibly shift your skin tone in about six weeks, and why deep sleep is when your collagen actually gets rebuilt. I’ll also walk through what the collagen supplement research really shows once you look past the marketing.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

* Why blood sugar and glycation drive wrinkles and sagging from the inside

* How exercise improves skin structure through muscle-to-skin signaling

* The collagen-boosting foods that supply vitamin C and protein for skin

* How carotenoid-rich vegetables can shift your skin tone in six weeks

* Why deep sleep is when your body rebuilds collagen

* What the evidence really says about whether collagen supplements work

Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/the-wrinkle-cause-that-has-nothing

If you’ve tried every sleep tip on the internet and you still wake up at 3 a.m. or drag through your afternoons, the problem probably isn’t your bedroom. It’s everything you’re doing during the day. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and on this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I walk you through seven research-backed sleep habits, one for each day of the week, that build better sleep hours before you ever lie down.

Most sleep advice targets the last thirty minutes of your day. But your melatonin production, your circadian rhythm, your core body temperature, and your nervous system are all being shaped by what you eat at breakfast, when you exercise, how you handle your post-dinner blood sugar, and what you do in the ninety minutes before bed. I’ll explain the science in plain language and give you a simple, one-habit-per-day plan you can start tomorrow. No supplements. No apps. No expensive gadgets. Just a full-day system that helps your body do what it already knows how to do.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

* Why eating 20 to 30 grams of protein at breakfast directly influences how much melatonin your brain makes at night

* The two daily windows when exercise shifts your circadian rhythm earlier, and one window that does the opposite

* How a 10-minute walk after dinner protects your sleep by lowering your evening blood sugar spike

* Why a hot bath 90 minutes before bed helps you fall asleep faster (the mechanism is the opposite of what most people think)

* A simple breathing technique that activates the vagus nerve and shifts your nervous system into rest mode

* The 5-minute to-do list trick that helps you fall asleep 9 minutes faster

Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/seven-unusual-sleep-habits-youve

What if better sleep has nothing to do with your bedroom? In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’ll show you how to sleep better naturally by building a full-day sleep system, no supplements, no apps, no expensive gadgets required.

Here’s the truth I share with my patients all the time: if you’ve struggled with sleep for years, your sense of “normal” has quietly drifted. You’ve adjusted to five and a half hours, the 3am wake-up, the afternoon caffeine. And when you try the usual sleep tips, they fall flat, because almost all of them target the bedroom, when your sleep is actually built at breakfast, in the afternoon sun, and in the bath ninety minutes before bed.

In this episode, I walk you through seven simple, science-backed habits, one for each day of the week. We’ll talk about how morning protein feeds your body’s melatonin production, why the timing of your workout shifts your circadian rhythm, how an after-dinner walk steadies your blood sugar for deeper sleep, and why a hot bath and a pair of socks work with your core body temperature to help you fall asleep faster. By next weekend, you’ll have a complete sleep routine in place.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

* How a protein-rich breakfast sets the ceiling on tonight’s melatonin

* Why morning sunlight and exercise timing reset your circadian rhythm

* How an after-dinner walk lowers blood sugar and protects your sleep

* Why a hot bath before bed helps you fall asleep faster

* Two simple breathing techniques that calm your nervous system at night

* The five-minute to-do list trick that quiets a racing mind

Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/seven-unusual-sleep-habits-youve

Your fasting glucose is normal, so why is your A1c going up? If that question has ever left you confused, this episode is for you. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and on The Habit Healers Podcast I explain why a single morning blood draw can miss the most important window in your metabolic health: the hours after you eat.

We start with a surprising idea borrowed from engineering, a 1949 mathematical proof about how often you need to measure something to actually see it, and I show you why fasting glucose samples your body thousands of times too slowly. Those after-meal spikes, called postprandial glucose, are where the early warning signs of insulin resistance and prediabetes quietly show up first, often years before your fasting number ever moves. Even people with completely normal labs can spend three or more hours a day with blood sugar above 140. Then I walk you through the fuller picture you’re allowed to ask your doctor for, and nine practical habits that start where the science is strongest: the quality of the food on your plate.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

* Why normal fasting glucose with a rising A1c is so common, and what it really means

* How postprandial glucose spikes drive most of your blood sugar problem early on

* Which tests to ask for, including fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, and a continuous glucose monitor

* What “time in range” is and why it tells you more than years of fasting draws

* How a whole food, plant-based diet improves insulin sensitivity at the cellular level

* Simple habits like meal sequencing, post-meal walks, fiber, sleep, and stress resets

Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/what-does-it-mean-when-your-fasting

Why does grip strength predict how long you’ll live better than your blood pressure does? In this episode, I dig into the science of muscle power, grip strength, and longevity, and why the strength that keeps you independent as you age is not the kind you build with slow, heavy lifting.

Most of us assume that staying strong is about how much we can lift. But here’s the part most people miss: as we age, power declines faster than raw strength, often twice as fast, and power is what catches you when you stumble, gets you up off the floor, and lets you step off a curb without thinking. I walk you through what the research actually shows, including a study of more than a hundred thousand adults linking grip strength to all-cause mortality, and a six-month trial in previously inactive older adults that moved nearly every marker of aging in the right direction.

Then I get practical. I explain why a single kettlebell is one of the best home tools for building functional strength, power, and balance in a few square feet, and I lay out exactly how to start.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

* Why muscle power, not just strength, is the key to aging well and staying independent

* How grip strength works as a signal for whole-body muscle health and longevity

* What kettlebell training did for grip strength, walking distance, and balance in adults aged 59 to 79

* Why twelve minutes of swings can build both strength and explosive power

* How to choose your first kettlebell and progress safely without getting hurt

* A simple ten-minute, three-day-a-week beginner routine to start this week

Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/the-single-piece-of-iron-that-trains

What’s your heart’s GPA? The American Heart Association built a cardiovascular health score called Life’s Essential 8, and the average American adult is pulling a D+. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I walk you through the eight measures that determine your heart health, why a single composite score is more useful than any one lab value, and how to figure out which habit to change first.

The Life’s Essential 8 framework scores you from 0 to 100 across four health behaviors (diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, and sleep) and four health factors (BMI, blood lipids, blood glucose, and blood pressure). I break down what each component measures, the exact scoring thresholds the AHA uses, and the research showing why people with high cardiovascular health live longer, age slower biologically, and lower their risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia, and diabetes. Then I give you the one-metric strategy I recommend to my patients instead of trying to overhaul everything at once.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

* How to calculate your own cardiovascular health score using Life’s Essential 8

* Why non-HDL cholesterol and sleep duration matter more than most people realize

* The connection between Life’s Essential 8 scores, biological age, and life expectancy

* How to use the AHA’s free My Life Check tool to assess your heart health

* Which single habit to change first if your score is lowCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/aboutDr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/whats-your-hearts-gpaA