Empowering High-Performing Parents to Reverse Insulin Resistance – Interview with Mandeep Singh Gill
- Brainz Magazine
- Dec 4, 2025
- 11 min read
Mandeep Singh Gill is a lifestyle health coach and medical doctor who helps individuals transform their health through simple, sustainable, science-based habits. After completing all his board exams to practice as an MD in both Canada and the United States, he chose a different path when residency didn’t unfold as planned. Instead of seeing this as a setback, he used it as an opportunity to serve people more directly, focusing on lifestyle, education, and long-term empowerment rather than short clinical visits and medication-first approaches.
Today, Dr. Gill leads the Thrive Well Wellness Accelerator, a coaching program designed for high-performing parents and professionals looking to reverse insulin resistance, improve sleep, restore energy, and reclaim control of their health. His approach blends metabolic science, circadian rhythm optimization, nervous-system regulation, and the timeless human-relations principles of Dale Carnegie.
Known for his calm presence and ability to simplify complex health concepts, he coaches with empathy, clarity, and genuine care. Whether working with someone newly diagnosed with diabetes or a burnt-out executive who feels stuck, Dr. Gill’s mission is the same, help people feel strong, clear, and confident again, one habit and one season of life at a time.
Mandeep Singh Gill, Lifestyle Health Coach
Who is Dr. Mandeep Singh Gill? Introduce yourself, your hobbies, your favourites, how you are at home and in business – tell us something interesting about you.
I’m a lifestyle health coach, medical doctor, entrepreneur, and someone who’s always lived at the intersection of science and people. I grew up in Toronto in a very family-centred, multicultural household, one where the kitchen table was a place of stories, debates, and learning. At home, I’m calm, reflective, and family-first. In business, I’m focused, structured, and deeply committed to helping people transform the parts of their lives they’ve ignored for years.
Outside of coaching, I’m constantly working on myself, boxing, the gym, yoga, walking, practicing Spanish, gratitude, and reading. I love anything that sharpens the mind or strengthens the spirit. I’ll nerd out over neuroscience the same way I’ll talk passionately about family traditions, entrepreneurship, or anime like Naruto and One Piece.
Something interesting about me is that I’ve lived two lives. I completed all the board exams to practice as an MD in both Canada and the US, but I walked away from the conventional medical path after multiple residency cycles. I saw limitations in the system, and I refused to watch people get sicker while being told their only option was more medication. That decision was both painful and liberating, and it became the foundation of everything I do today.
What led you to specialise in lifestyle health coaching, and what key gap did you see in the market that you felt compelled to fill?
Healthcare was never the issue, health was. I realized early in my medical journey that most people weren’t suffering from a medication deficiency, they were suffering from lifestyle, stress, sleep, nutrition, environment, and identity issues that the healthcare system isn’t designed to fix.
The gap I saw was simple. People needed a guide, not a prescription. A coach, not a diagnosis. A strategy, not another pamphlet.
I saw parents, especially high-performing professionals, burning out silently, gaining weight slowly, losing energy gradually, and accepting it as “normal.” Newly diagnosed diabetics weren’t being told they could reverse it. People with brain fog were being told it was “just aging.” No one was teaching them how much power they actually had.
So I built my coaching around the very things medicine ignores, sleep, circadian biology, insulin resistance, stress, movement, mental clarity, and daily habits that create lifelong resilience.
How would you describe your signature approach or methodology when working with clients who are struggling with sleep, weight, diabetes, or mental-health concerns?
My methodology blends science with structure and humanity with accountability.
The pillars of my approach include:
Metabolic reset blueprint: blood sugar control, insulin regulation, cravings elimination.
Daily habits of health success: morning sunlight, hydration, journaling, movement, breathwork, tech boundaries, protein-first meals.
Circadian alignment: sleep-wake timing, evening wind-down routines, and environmental cues.
Stress physiology: regulating cortisol with breathwork, cold exposure, morning light, and nervous-system practices.
Identity-based coaching: shifting someone from “I hope I can” to “This is who I am now.”
I bring a tone that mixes Dale Carnegie's human connection, Andrew Huberman's science, David Goggins' grit, Logan Roy's clarity, and my own poetic, grounded approach.
It’s not just lifestyle coaching. It’s leadership coaching for your health.
Can you share a real-life client success story (without naming names) that highlights the transformation you help people achieve?
One of my favorite transformations is a father in his 50s who came to me newly diagnosed with prediabetes, 30 pounds overweight, exhausted, and convinced that medication was his only future.
He told me, “I feel like I’m slowly dying while still trying to show up as a dad.”
Within 12 weeks in Thrive Well:
His fasting glucose normalized
His A1C dropped
He lost weight without dieting
His energy returned
His marriage improved because he was present and engaged
He told me he felt “alive again for the first time in a decade.”
That is the difference between treating numbers and transforming people.
This is why I left medicine for coaching, because I get to watch people reclaim their health, their identity, and their life.
What are the three most common mistakes people make when trying to reclaim their health and vitality, and how do you help them avoid these?
They try to fix everything at once. All-or-nothing mentality destroys long-term results. I teach small, strategic wins that compound, sleep first, protein first, morning sunlight, and daily movement.
They think it’s willpower. It’s not willpower, it’s biology. Cravings, fatigue, and mood swings are often insulin, sleep, and cortisol problems. We fix the physiology, and their “discipline” improves automatically.
They try to do it alone. Most people know what to do, they just lack structure, clarity, accountability, and emotional support. I give them a blueprint, community, and coaching that pulls them forward instead of pushing them harshly.
When a new client comes to you, what is the first thing you ask or look at, and why is that so important to lasting change?
The first thing I ask is, “How is your sleep?”
Sleep is the foundation for everything, insulin, cortisol, appetite, cravings, mood, focus, and recovery. You cannot reverse diabetes, lose weight, or balance hormones without improving sleep and circadian rhythm.
Then I look at lifestyle patterns, morning routines, eating windows, stress triggers, relationships, and their real-life schedule. People don’t need a perfect plan, they need a plan that fits their life.
In your experience, how are mindset and lifestyle linked, and how do you integrate both in your coaching?
Mindset determines consistency, and lifestyle determines biology. You need both.
If someone believes they’re “too old,” “too far gone,” or “too busy,” no habit will stick. If someone sleeps poorly, eats chaotically, and lives in constant stress, no mindset shift will survive.
My coaching integrates both by:
Rewiring beliefs (“You’re not behind. You’re right on time.”)
Teaching nervous-system mastery (breathwork, morning light, cold exposure).
Building identity (“I’m someone who takes care of my health daily.”)
It’s not motivation, it’s transformation.
What sets you apart from other health or lifestyle coaches out there? Why should someone choose you to guide them?
Three things:
I bring medical knowledge without the medical tunnel vision. I understand the science of insulin, sleep, metabolism, and hormones, and I also understand where the healthcare system falls short.
I coach the whole human, not just their habits. My background in Dale Carnegie leadership, neuroscience, metabolic science, and communication allows me to connect deeply and coach effectively.
I’ve lived the journey myself. My pivot from medicine to entrepreneurship wasn’t easy. It required self-belief, resilience, and rebuilding. I know what it feels like to reinvent yourself, and I teach people how to do the same in their health. Clients work with me because they want more than weight loss. They want identity shifts, renewed energy, confidence, presence, and longevity.
For someone reading this who knows they need help but hasn’t taken action yet, what is your call-to-action? What should they do next, and what can they expect?
Don’t wait for the perfect moment, you create the perfect moment by taking the first step.
Reach out to me. Book a call. Ask a question. Start the conversation. You don’t have to overhaul your life. You just need to begin.
Inside Thrive Well, you can expect:
structure
coaching
support
community
accountability
metabolic education
emotional transformation
And most importantly, you can expect to feel like yourself again.
Looking ahead, what is your vision for your work, and how do you hope to impact the lives of more clients in the next 3 to 5 years?
My mission is to help millions reverse metabolic dysfunction and rebuild health through lifestyle and education, not medication dependence.
In the next 3–5 years, I will:
Expand Thrive Well internationally
Grow my Executive Metabolic Edge™ brand
Publish books and long-form content
Build corporate wellness programs
Grow my podcast, Beyond Myself
Deliver large-scale workshops and keynotes
Create digital tools for daily lifestyle transformation
My vision is simple. To build a world where reversing diabetes, obesity, and burnout is normal, and where lifestyle is the first medicine.
Your journey from medicine to coaching is unconventional. What was the defining moment that made you pivot?
There wasn’t one moment, there were a hundred small ones that built into a realization I could no longer ignore.
For years, I chased the traditional medical pathway, MCATs, USMLEs, Canadian exams, multiple residency cycles. I did everything right on paper. But every cycle ended with the same gut-wrenching outcome, “We regret to inform you…” After the fourth unmatched cycle in the U.S. and one in Canada, something inside me shifted. The defining moment wasn’t failure, it was clarity.
I realized I wasn’t meant to be part of a system that patches symptoms instead of fixing root causes. I wasn’t meant to spend 15 minutes with patients and call it care. I wasn’t meant to wait for permission to serve in a way I knew mattered.
The truth is, I didn’t walk away from medicine. I walked toward impact.
Lifestyle health coaching became the path where my medical training, love for people, curiosity for human behavior, and obsession with metabolic science finally aligned. It allowed me to deliver the kind of transformation I always wanted to deliver as a doctor, but never could within the system.
How did your experiences not matching into residency shape your philosophy as a coach and a leader?
Not matching humbled me. It cracked my ego open, exposed every insecurity, and forced me to rebuild my identity from the ground up.
But that journey also forged three things in me:
Compassion When someone comes to me feeling defeated, ashamed, or overwhelmed, I don’t coach them from theory, I coach them from lived experience. I know what it feels like to question your worth, your direction, and your future.
Resilience, I rebuilt my entire career when the world told me I couldn’t. That experience taught me that setbacks are not barriers, they’re invitations to pivot.
Identity Work Losing the dream of residency forced me to ask, “Who am I without the white coat?” Today, I help clients ask and answer the exact same question about their health.
Those failed cycles didn’t break me. They built the version of me who leads with empathy, teaches with clarity, and coaches with conviction.
What do most doctors get wrong about diabetes and obesity, and how does your approach differ?
Most doctors see diabetes and obesity as numbers to manage, not systems to understand.
The traditional model says:
eat less
move more
take this medication
come back in 6 months
But diabetes and obesity are not calorie problems, they’re hormone, stress, sleep, circadian, and lifestyle problems.
What doctors often miss is that:
insulin resistance begins 10–15 years before the diagnosis
poor sleep raises blood sugar as much as a poor diet
cortisol spikes mimic diabetes
circadian misalignment disrupts metabolism
processed foods hijack brain chemistry
My approach is different because I focus on:
fixing insulin resistance
reversing metabolic dysfunction
stabilizing blood sugar
regulating cortisol
rebuilding sleep architecture
strengthening circadian rhythm
healing the relationship with food
Medications can save lives, but lifestyle restores them. My goal is not to manage disease, it’s to help people outgrow it.
How do you personalize protocols for clients with different backgrounds, ages, and cultural food traditions?
You cannot heal people if you don’t respect where they come from.
As a South Asian coach, I understand cultural foods, family dynamics, fasting traditions, religious practices, and how deeply emotional food can be in immigrant households.
I personalize protocols by focusing on principles, not perfection:
A South Asian client can still enjoy roti, just pair it with protein and eat veggies first.
A Latin client can still enjoy rice and beans, just shift the portion timing.
A professional who travels can still stay metabolically healthy, just anchor a morning routine and hydration pattern.
A busy parent can still cook cultural meals, just adjust oils, protein ratios, and snacking habits.
Health isn’t about restriction. It’s about re-engineering habits to fit your cultural identity, not erase it.
What is the biggest mindset shift your most successful clients make?
The shift from “I need motivation” to “This is who I am now.”
When clients stop seeing habits as chores and start seeing them as identity, everything changes.
They go from, “I’m trying to eat healthy” to “I’m someone who prioritizes my health.”
From, “I’m working on my sleep” to “I’m someone who protects my sleep.”
Identity is the root of consistency, and consistency is the root of transformation. Once that switch flips, results are inevitable.
Why do you believe lifestyle-based coaching is the future of healthcare?
Because we’re in a global metabolic crisis, and medication cannot fix a lifestyle problem.
The future of healthcare is not in more prescriptions. It’s in:
sleep coaching
circadian alignment
nutrition education
stress management
community accountability
identity shifts
metabolic optimization
personalized habit-building
People don’t just need doctors. People need guides, coaches who walk with them, not just diagnose them.
Lifestyle coaching is the bridge between modern science and human behavior. It’s the missing link medicine has overlooked for decades.
You’re involved with Dale Carnegie, Unicity, and your own program. How do these worlds complement each other?
Dale Carnegie sharpened my communication, leadership, and emotional intelligence. Unicity deepened my metabolic science and gave me powerful tools like Balance and Unimate that enhance what I teach. Thrive Well is where everything I’ve learned merges into a structured, life-changing system.
Together, these three worlds allow me to deliver transformation in a way few coaches can:
Medical knowledge (MD)
Human psychology (Dale Carnegie)
Metabolic science (Unicity)
Lifestyle systems (Thrive Well)
Leadership & communication (Carnegie)
Habit change frameworks (my Daily Habits system)
It’s a trifecta that elevates both the science and the humanity behind my coaching.
What has entrepreneurship taught you that medicine never could?
Entrepreneurship taught me ownership.
In medicine, you follow a path. In entrepreneurship, you build one.
Entrepreneurship taught me:
how to lead
how to communicate
how to take risks
how to fail forward
how to serve without limits
how to build a brand
how to trust myself
how to create opportunity instead of waiting for it
It taught me that impact doesn’t require a hospital, impact requires courage, clarity, and service.
Entrepreneurship didn’t just change my career. It changed my character.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to transition careers but feels afraid to start over?
The fear is normal. The regret is permanent.
Starting over isn’t failure, it’s alignment. If your heart keeps whispering “there’s more for you,” listen.
Three things I’d tell them:
Your past wasn’t wasted, it prepared you. Every skill, every failure, every lesson becomes part of your new path.
You don’t need the full plan, just the next step. Clarity comes from action, not overthinking.
Reinvention is a skill. And once you learn it, no industry shift or setback will ever scare you again.
Your life doesn’t change when you find the perfect opportunity. It changes when you decide you’re worthy of more.
Where do you see the future of metabolic health going in the next decade?
We are entering the decade of metabolic awakening.
Over the next 10 years, I predict we will see:
insulin resistance recognized as the root of most chronic illnesses
continuous glucose monitoring becoming mainstream
personalized nutrition based on metabolic responses
sleep and circadian rhythm becoming medical priorities
lifestyle coaching integrated into corporate and medical settings
metabolic health education becoming essential for parents and kids
GLP-1 drugs being used more strategically, alongside lifestyle, not instead of it
a global movement toward reversing disease instead of “managing” it
The future is proactive, not reactive. Personalized, not generalized. Root-cause, not symptom-based.
And I intend to be part of the generation that drives that shift.
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