Mt.Taylor Functional Medicine,Nutrition &Muscle

06/02/2026

🥩💪 A Protein Shake I Actually Use (And No, I’m Not Paid to Say This)

📢 Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with this company. I do not receive commissions, kickbacks, free products, sponsorships, or compensation of any kind. I simply get asked frequently what protein powder I use, and after more than 20 years of trying different products, this one stands out.

🦷 Most of the time, I prefer to CHEW my food. Digestion begins in the mouth. Mastication stimulates saliva production, activates digestive enzymes, and signals the digestive tract to prepare for nutrient absorption. Whole foods remain my first choice whenever possible.

🥩🍳 That said, 2–3 times per month, when I need a quick option, I will use a protein shake.

What caught my attention about this particular shake is its ingredient profile:

✅ Grass-fed beef protein
✅ Grass-fed whey protein
✅ Egg protein
✅ Beef liver
✅ Beef kidney
✅ Beef heart

🔬 From a nutrient-density perspective, it is one of the most complete protein products I have personally found. It provides a diverse amino acid profile while also incorporating organ meats, which naturally contain vitamins, minerals, peptides, and cofactors that many people no longer consume regularly.

📚 As someone who reads ingredient labels for a living, I can tell you there are a lot of protein powders on the market filled with artificial sweeteners, fillers, gums, dyes, and ingredients that contribute very little nutritional value.

🌱 Is it for everyone? No.

If you follow a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, this likely won’t be your first choice. However, for those seeking a nutrient-dense, animal-based protein option, it may be worth exploring.

🍽️ My recommendation remains the same as it has always been:

🥩 Food first.
🦷 Chew your meals.
💪 Build muscle.
🔥 Support metabolic health.
🏃 Stay active.
🧠 Fuel your body with quality nutrition.

The shake is simply a tool—not the foundation.

There are thousands of protein powders on the market. Very few would make it into my kitchen.

🥩💪 This one did.

— Dr. Mashelle Baker
Mt. Taylor Functional Medicine
🧪 “We test. We don’t guess.”

06/01/2026

My next newsletter "June 2026 " is coming Wednesday. Subscribe to get it and stay in the loop on everything I'm creating.

At MT Taylor Functional Medicine, we believe health is more than just not being sick—it’s about energy, strength, digestion, sleep, hormones, movement, and building a body that supports you through every season of life. Subscribe for monthly wellness education, functional medicine insights, prac...

05/27/2026

High blood pressure is not always a “heart problem.”
Most of the time, it’s a metabolic problem first. 🩸

Your arteries were designed to relax.
They have an internal pathway called the eNOS pathway that helps produce nitric oxide — the molecule that tells blood vessels to open, soften, and relax.

But when insulin resistance develops, that signaling cascade begins to break down. ⚠️

The scary part?
The body often shuts OFF the relaxation signal while leaving the constriction signal fully active.

The result?
⬆️ Tightened blood vessels
⬆️ Rising blood pressure
⬆️ Increased vascular stress

Even when the heart itself is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.

If you recognize these symptoms, your insulin signaling cascade may already be compromised:

⚡ Energy crashes 1–2 hours after meals
⚖️ Stubborn weight that will not move
🩺 Blood pressure creeping up despite “eating healthy”
😴 Fatigue that sleep never fixes
🧠 Brain fog
🍩 Constant cravings

Make no mistake:
These are not simply “normal aging.”

This is often metabolic dysfunction happening silently for YEARS before disease is diagnosed.

Functional medicine asks a different question:
WHY are the vessels constricted in the first place?

At Mt. Taylor Functional Medicine, we look upstream:
🧪 Insulin resistance
🩸 Inflammation
🥗 Nutrition status
💪 Muscle mass & glucose disposal
😴 Sleep & stress physiology
🦠 Gut health
🚶 Movement patterns & lifestyle

Because the body does not randomly malfunction.
The symptoms are signals. 🔥

📍 Mt. Taylor Functional Medicine
🌐 MtTaylorFunctionalMedicine.com
📞 580-743-6577:)

05/26/2026

Sometimes the problem isn’t that the body is “deficient.”
Sometimes the body is overloaded, inflamed, under-muscled, under-slept, under-nourished, overstressed… and stuck in a cycle. 🔁

One medication leads to another.
Then another.
Then another to manage the side effects of the first one.

At some point, we have to stop asking:
“Which medication do I add next?”
…and start asking:
👉 WHY is the body struggling in the first place?

At Mt. Taylor Functional Medicine, we look deeper:
🩺 Gut health
🩸 Inflammation
🧠 Stress & nervous system function
💪 Muscle mass & metabolism
🥗 Nutrition deficiencies
😴 Sleep quality
🧪 Functional lab testing
🚶 Lifestyle & environment

The goal is not to “cover symptoms.”
The goal is to create a body that functions better. 🌿

That may include:
✔️ Better nutrition
✔️ Resistance training
✔️ Sleep optimization
✔️ Nervous system regulation
✔️ Root-cause lab work
✔️ Movement instead of more sitting
✔️ Personalized protocols

Because feeling better should not require a growing list of prescriptions forever. 🔥

Your body is always communicating.
The symptoms are not the enemy.
They are the message. ✨

📍 Mt. Taylor Functional Medicine
🌐 MtTaylorFunctionalMedicine.com
📞 580-743-6577

05/25/2026

Resistance training is a whole lot cheaper than an old folks’ home 💪🏽👵🏽

I lift weights because I’d rather build muscle now than lose independence later.
Muscle helps you get off the floor, carry groceries, travel, garden, play with grandkids, and keep living life on your terms. 🏋🏽‍♀️✨

And respectfully… I’m not interested in bedsores, walkers, or needing help to stand up.
I’m interested in strong bones, strong legs, strong lungs, and a strong future. 🔥

Aging is coming either way.
You can train for it… or not. 💯

— Dr. Baker | Mt. Taylor Functional Medicine

05/25/2026

🚨 Your body was designed to MOVE. 🚨

One of the biggest things I see after injuries, surgeries, pulled muscles, or sprains is people following OLD science for too long. For years, people were taught the RICE method:
❄️ Rest
❄️ Ice
🩹 Compression
⬆️ Elevation

But newer recovery science has shifted toward movement-based healing approaches like the MEAT protocol:
🏃 Movement
💪 Exercise
🩹 Analgesics
🛠️ Treatment

Why? Because the body adapts to what you do with it.

When you stop moving completely, muscles weaken. Joints stiffen. Circulation slows down. Balance declines. Energy crashes. Recovery often takes LONGER.

That doesn’t mean go deadlift the day after surgery 😅 — it means appropriate movement matters. Walking. Mobility. Gentle resistance. Blood flow. Rebuilding function. Re-teaching the body how to work again.

This is why you’ll often see people who recover well getting up, walking, doing therapy, and gradually rebuilding strength instead of living on the couch for months.

Movement is medicine.
Muscle is metabolic insurance.
And the body LOVES a reason to heal. 🔥

So if you’re injured, recovering, or rebuilding:
➡️ Don’t surrender your body to the couch.
➡️ Don’t let fear steal your function.
➡️ Move what you CAN move.
➡️ Build from where you ARE.

Your future mobility depends on what you do TODAY. 💪🧠

05/24/2026

Stop asking:
“Why is my cholesterol high?” ❌

Start asking:
“What signal is telling my liver to produce more cholesterol?” 🔬

Your liver makes about 80% of your cholesterol. Diet contributes roughly 20%.

Cholesterol is not automatically the villain. Chronic inflammation is the real issue. 🚨

When the body is inflamed, the arterial walls become damaged. The liver responds by producing more cholesterol as a repair mechanism. In an inflamed environment, that cholesterol can oxidize and contribute to plaque buildup.

The problem is not simply cholesterol itself.
The problem is inflammation + oxidation + dysfunction.

An inflamed gut can drive cholesterol higher every single day. 🦠

When the gut lining becomes compromised, bacteria, toxins, and inflammatory compounds can leak into the bloodstream. The liver then works overtime to manage that inflammatory burden.

At the same time, gut inflammation can impair bile flow — and bile is one of the major ways the body clears cholesterol. When bile flow slows down, cholesterol can accumulate.

That same gut dysfunction causing:
▪️ bloating
▪️ food reactions
▪️ fatigue
▪️ constipation
▪️ brain fog

…may also be contributing to your cholesterol patterns.

And one of the biggest overlooked drivers of elevated cholesterol? Your thyroid. 🧠

Low T3 function can reduce the receptors responsible for clearing LDL cholesterol from circulation.

Add inflammatory processed oils and chronic oxidative stress into the mix, and the body becomes even more inflamed.

Functional medicine asks different questions:
✔️ Why is the body inflamed?
✔️ Why is the liver compensating?
✔️ Why is cholesterol clearance impaired?
✔️ What systems are out of balance?

Don’t just chase numbers.
Investigate the environment creating the numbers. 🔥


L

05/21/2026

Do you struggle with seasonal allergies, food sensitivities, eczema, rosacea, headaches, sinus congestion, skin flare-ups, or even rashes from the sun? 🌿🤧☀️

What if the problem isn’t just “allergy season”?
What if the problem starts in the gut? 🦠

I often find that people don’t have a “Claritin-D deficiency.”
They have a gut imbalance. 👀

When certain bacteria are overgrown or undergrown, the immune system can become overstimulated. Add in sluggish detoxification pathways, inflammation, poor digestion, nutrient deficiencies, and an irritated gut lining — and the body can begin reacting through the skin, sinuses, immune system, and digestive tract.

Your gut and immune system are deeply connected. 🧬

Functional gut testing can help uncover:
✔️ Bacterial imbalances
✔️ Gut inflammation
✔️ Food sensitivities
✔️ Detoxification issues
✔️ Leaky gut patterns
✔️ Nutrient deficiencies

Instead of only masking symptoms, it may be time to investigate the root cause. 🌱

📍MT Taylor Functional Medicine
📞 580-743-6577

05/20/2026

What people don’t want to hear is this… 👇

Muscle is not built in 30 days.
Not from a detox.
Not from an ab challenge.
Not from a “reset.” 🚫

It takes YEARS of consistency, resistance training, recovery, movement, nutrition, and repetition. 🏋️‍♀️🧬

When I started my journey, I truly thought I’d have a fit body within a year if I stayed consistent. The truth? I’ve been on this path for 9 years, and the last 3 years have been extremely disciplined and consistent.

Trips? I still exercised. ✈️
Airport days? I still walked. 👟
Busy days? I still moved my body.

Because health is built through standards, not motivation. 📈

And here’s the part no one talks about… this lifestyle can feel lonely sometimes. Your circle changes. You stop aligning with quick-fix mindsets and start aligning with people focused on longevity, strength, discipline, and metabolic health. 🧠🔥

That’s why I have full respect for people with muscle, low inflammation, healthy body composition, and visible strength. I know exactly what it took to build that. 👏

Muscle is metabolic insurance.
Muscle supports the brain, bones, hormones, glucose control, and longevity. 🦴🫀🧠

Stop chasing shortcuts.
Start building a body that supports you for decade

💪

I have one opening left, for transition training! 580-743-6577. In person or online through Telehealth;)

05/20/2026

Disease doesn’t usually happen overnight. 👀
The body is always communicating through symptoms, labs, hormones, minerals, stress signals, sleep, inflammation, gut health, and energy levels.

Sometimes it’s not just about what’s “high.”
Sometimes it’s about what’s too LOW to support the body properly. ⚖️

Low nutrients.
Low hormones.
Low minerals.
High stress hormones.
High blood sugar.
High inflammation.

Your body is constantly trying to adapt and survive. 💚

This is why at Mt. Taylor Functional Medicine, we look deeper than symptoms alone. We look at labs, lifestyle, environment, stress, nutrition, sleep, movement, and root causes to help support the body as a whole. 🩺✨

The goal isn’t to guess.
The goal is to understand what the body is trying to say. 🌿