Introduction --- The way I did it was to give myself a treat each day, I think each day most days for sure. Whether it was after dinner, a, a small soft serve cone out in the pool deck, or maybe some of their famous coconut cookies. I even had pizza on evening Hi, and welcome to the solving type two diabetes podcast. I'm Tom. And I'll be your host as I share what I'm doing in my daily life to solve my type two diabetes. Listen in, as I share the food, movement, and tools that I'm using each day. This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. For a full transcript or to follow the solving type two diabetes podcast on social media. Please head over to SolvingType2Diabetes.com for all those links and more now onto the show. My Week in Review --- I hope you had a great week as always. I have had a fun and adventurous week. I've been solo cruising on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas. I left out of Bao, New Jersey on. And it's now Saturday in the evening. I've just finished, uh, my last dinner on board. Uh, not quite my last supper, but it's the last dinner I'll be having on board and it's been a fun and action packed week of, uh, cruising by myself this time. Uh, sometimes I cruise by myself. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to have my wife go with me. She enjoys cruising, but not quite to the frequency that I do so sometimes. Go by myself this week. She's actually having fun with her sisters and siblings, uh, up in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. So she's having a great time. I'm having fun. And tomorrow we get to see each other again, so that'll be great. I've established a fairly good, uh, daily routine here while I'm bored. I try and keep my days, uh, fairly routine. I think I've mentioned before that I travel enough that I can't just go hog wild while I'm traveling because it's, I don't know, almost a third of my time. I'm, I'm somewhere. So I try and keep a fairly regular routine, keep my meals organized, uh, with what I want to eat, things that are helpful to me, and, uh, then I go out after dinner and I enjoy the entertainment during the day. If we're at Port, I try and get on land. If I'm not doing a formal excursion, I'll at least try and get in a good walk. Uh, which is something that I was able to do, uh, pretty much every day. We had a port day, We had three port days this trip. Uh, the first was to, uh, Jet Park. At, at Port Canaveral is where we stopped. But I always head over to Jet Park anytime we're in Port Canaveral because it's on the. It's right where the large ships come in and out, uh, of the, uh, industrial harbor right there at Port Canaveral. Uh, one time I even saw a SpaceX Rocket launch, uh, after dark. It was about, I don't know, eight 30 at night, just turning dark, and that was several months. The next, uh, SpaceX launch that's happening at Port Canaveral will actually be on Monday, uh, the 31st of October. I think I heard maybe that they're pushing it to the 1st of November, so I'm not actually sure. But anyway, it'll either be the day this episode comes out or the following day. Uh, it's getting very routine now, which I think is great. I think it's fabulous that, uh, good old Elon and his, uh, peers. Making space exploration a little more possible. Uh, I'm hoping to be around when we see our first people land on Mars, I think that'll be exciting. If not, hey, my kids will see it. So that's something after Port Canaveral and after my walk out to Jetty Park where I did spend a little time collecting shark's teeth, well, looking for shark's, teeth, I didn't actually collect Denny. Uh, but it's fun looking after that. The next day was, Royal Caribbean's private Island. Perfect day at Coco Key. I think it's pronounced cocoa key, but they say k I think they wanted it to rhyme. Anyway, it was a great day there. I like, uh, the crispy chicken sandwich and mozzarella sticks, so it's a little splurge for me. I go to the snack shack there. I don't eat it in the large, uh, barbecue area. I go to one of the snack shacks and I always get the same thing. They're crispy shack chicken sandwich and uh, it's really good lettuce tomato. And then I get Mora sticks with the marinara sauce. So yeah, like I said, it's a little bit of a splurge. Certainly has plenty of carbs, but I do look forward to that a lot. And I walked around the whole island, got in two or three miles of a walk around the island and then went back on board the ship. So that was a fun outing. And then the following port day was in Nassau. There's something that I've done in Nassau before that I had hoped to do again this trip. Uh, actually there is the Happy Hour CrossFit gym or box, if you call it that in Nassau and I walk down there. It's only maybe, I don't know, a 15, 20 minute walk, uh, to the Happy Hour CrossFit Gym. Then I got there and they were closed. I think that's pretty common. It was midday. Of course, when you're on a cruise ship, you arrive and leave. On the cruise ship schedule, not the local CrossFit schedule. And I was hoping to do what's called a drop in, that's popular in CrossFit. When you're traveling or exploring your areas, you do what's called a drop in. You just check out the, the gym. It's usually 20, 25 bucks, uh, to do that. And I was hoping to do that. I had been there before. And, uh, well this time they were closed, at least. It's nice to see they were still in business. They survived the pandemic, and, uh, they're still, it looks like fresh paint everywhere on the outside. So I think they're thriving, uh, which is great. I'd like to see them stay in business, uh, for personal reasons. Uh, I think just about every cruise to The Bahamas that I take stops in Nassau. So I hope to see them again. It's time for a new T-shirt, if nothing else. So those are the three port days and this week on Oasis of the Seas, the evening entertainment has been outstanding. Of course, they have the Broadway show Cats, which I think some people like I've seen it. I'm not a big fan, but that's just my personal opinion. But they had some fabulous comedians, great singers. Um, the song and Dance, uh, people on board are absolutely talented. They have what's called an aqua show, and that's something that I really think, uh, look that up. Uh, Oasis Class, Aqua Show. This one was called Aqua 80, and in the back part of the. In the aft they have this theater and it's like stadium seating theater, and there's a pool in the middle, but it's so much more than a pool. Uh, they have water. Sprays and fountains. The floor of the pool actually comes up to the surface level and adjust in between so that they can dance, they can perform acrobatics, they have slack liners, they have all kinds of stuff in this Aqua eighties show that is really, really fabulous. So I've, I thoroughly enjoyed that show and I've seen a few others on Oasis class ships with Royal Caribbean before, and this one did not disappoint at all. It was really. Additionally, believe it or not, on this ship, they have an ice skating rink. So there was an ice show, and I really enjoy the ice shows. I sit right down on the first row. I always get there early. I sit right in the middle of the rink, right in the first row, and it is as close as you can get to the ice without getting in their way, I guess. But I really enjoy those ice shows and how they do that on a moving. Is, um, and it's amazing every time. So I thoroughly enjoyed that. So the evening entertainment throughout the week has been really topnotch. So that's pretty much my daily routine. You know, I get up, go down to the diamond lounge, I have coffee, I like my espresso coffee, so that's good there. And then I, you know, either read or do something in the mornings. After lunch, I try and get off the ship for a little while. Unless we're sailing, then, you know, you don't wanna get off the ship. And then in the evenings I have, uh, you know, my selection of some really, really good entertainment. So it's been a good week at cruising. I'm looking forward to getting home. I'll be off the ship probably by seven 30 tomorrow morning. I just have one small bag, I'll take that off myself. And the parking is right outside the ship, so easy peasy Lemon squeezey. I'll be on my way. My Numbers --- All right, let's look at my numbers for the week. Uh, we're looking at my rings. I did close my rings. My apple watch rings again. There's three rings. One is for standing hours. I have to stand for at least a few minutes for each of 12 hours, and then my activity. Or movement ring, I have to burn at least 600 calories through active movement. And then my exercise ring, I have to get at least 30 minutes a day where I'm intentionally, uh, exercising with an elevated heart rate. So those are the rings that I strive to close each day, and I have closed those for each day this week. And I'm always happy when I do. As far as my workouts go, I'm gonna be talking about movement this week and I tried to mix it up. I was conscious of the fact that I'm gonna be talking about this. So I did mix it up a little bit this week. I got in some, what I called on the watch, uh, cross training, which was, uh, some work in the gym. I also got time in on the. And then of course got my outdoor walks in when I was in port and when I was not in port, I got indoor walks in and if it was nice and warm outside, I got them on the open deck. But today since we're headed back north, in fact right now we are east of Atlantic City, New Jersey by about 25. And today, because it's down to about 60 outside and very windy, it's about 29, uh, knots. I'm not exactly sure what 29 knots is compared to miles per hour, but it is very windy. So the cooler temperature and the, uh, wind, uh, push me inside to the gym today on the treadmill. And, uh, I set it at a very high incline and I was quickly able to get my workout in on the treadmills. Today, I think I used about an 8% incline. Now it was what I'm gonna call a rolling incline because outside the seas are rolling at about 12 feet, and that on an incline in the gym facing. It seemed like 90 degrees out from the way the waves were rolling, uh, made for a very interesting workout in the treadmill. I actually had to hold on with one hand and I, uh, I got through it about 45 minutes, and it was exciting to say the least. So those are the workouts, uh, for the week. And then if you look at the seven day glucometer reading, you know, I do wear that 24 7, uh, glucose monitor. And my average daily, uh, glucose reading for this week was one 16, so across the seven days it averaged out to one 16, and that would equate to an A1C of about five point. Now I'm very happy with an A1C of 5.4. I have said that my long term goals are to maintain, uh, 24 7 blood sugar readings, an average between one 15 and one 20. So this week it was one 16. Very, very happy about that and uh, I actually see my doctor. I think it's in about two weeks for a, uh, A1C test in her office. And so I'd be, be very interested to see what that reading turns out to be since mine has been in the mid 5.5, uh, you know, 5.6 range, uh, for several months now. So it'll be interesting to test out this monitor against her lab work and see how closely they compare. Now as far as my body fat percentage goes, I have on the chart here, uh, 27.2, but that is about a week old. The last time I was on the scale was right before the cruise, so we'll get a check. Uh, tomorrow. Well, actually Monday morning will be the next time I'm gonna be stepping on the scale. So for next week's episode, we'll have a fresh body fat percentage. Looking at my macros, you see that I have been increasing my carbs. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was doing an experiment because my A1C was actually pretty low. Not bad, low but lower than it had to be. So I'm fiddling with the carbs a little bit and I have increased them a little bit. But if you look, uh, there's still only 21%. My total intake, so most folks would call that still low. I have been averaging about 90 grams of 90, 95 grams of carbohydrates per day. On average this week and previously I had been looking at about 60 grams of carbohydrates, but still my a1c, my average daily blood glucose with my movement and generally proper eating has, uh, still stayed great for this week. So it looks like getting up towards that 90 carb, uh, per day is still working out really well. My Challenge and Win --- So my challenge and win for the. Well, obviously I am on a cruise ship and one of the things that cruise ships are known for is to have food everywhere all the time. They do have restaurants here on board that among all the restaurants, they are open 24 hours. There is some place to get food 24 hours a day. Now you can't eat 20. Well, you can, but you should need to. I should. Food 24 hours a day. So that's a challenge. It's available. It's literally an elevator ride down and a walk down the corridor. And there's restaurants selling pizzas. They have cakes and they have cookies any time of the day or night. I don't think they even close, period. But what I try and do when I'm on a cruise ship is to limit my eating to meal time. So breakfast, lunch, and. I have a good, enjoyable meal. I get foods that I make sure I actually want, not just that fit my numbers. So as we just saw, my carbs have been up a little bit for this week, but not up so much and not up in an outta control fashion where my blood sugar readings were high this week. My blood sugar readings were spot on, and I'm grateful for that. The belt wasn't any tighter by the end of this cruise than it was the beginning. So that's a good sign. The way I did it was to give myself a treat each day, I think each day most days for sure. Whether it was after dinner, a, a small soft serve cone out in the pool deck, or maybe some of their famous coconut cookies. Um, I even had pizza on evening, so I do that, so I don't. Uh, like I'm going without, um, like I can fit in with what everyone else is doing, but yet I do keep it in check. I keep it under control. My thinking is, and I think my experience has shown this, that for me, if I try to completely deny myself, not have any of that at all, then eventually I wear down and I break this. I'm satisfied. I had something relatively sweet and or yummy I'll say, and uh, it feels like I was s splurging even though I kept it small. So I try and turn that challenge into a small win. I think it's worked this week. News --- Okay, so let's take a look at the news this week. The first article that I saw was, Interesting to me in, because it talks about something that I do. So the article is entitled, Is Continuous Glucose Monitoring, the New Weight Loss Hack. It says that obviously it's primary role of a CGM or continuous glucose monitor is in diabetes or prediabetes management because you know the monitor. Is tracking your blood sugar levels and blood sugar levels are a key concern for people who are diagnosed with diabetes. For any type of diabetes, blood sugar control is key. Now it's also they find out a good thing to use if you're trying to have weight loss. Now they're talking about. Who do not have a diagnosis of diabetes, but perhaps are overweight and many people are turning to wearing this cgm. So the question is why? What can a CGM do to help you lose weight? Well, it has to do with information. It has to do with improving those things that you measure. Now, glucose and insulin levels can definitely affect your weight. If you have high glucose levels, even if you have not been diagnosed, that's gonna create high insulin levels and then insulin. One of the many wonderful things it does is help you to store your glucose, but also help you to store fat. So it's hard for someone with high glucose and high insulin levels to lose. So what people who are trying to lose weight can do is they wear the cgm, you know, like I do, and perhaps you do, and they use it to monitor their blood sugar. Obviously it's the only thing a CGM will tell you, and they then change what they're eating or change how they're eating, or when they're eating, or how much they're eating. To reduce those blood sugar levels, to avoid the high spikes and the wild ranges, and to keep things more under control. And they're finding that when they do that, by changing their eating habits based on what shows up on the cgm, they're actually able to aid in their weight loss efforts. So for some people, this can be a tool. Because, Let, let's think about it. It's the reason why people with diabetes wear it. They wear, I wear the CGM as a tool to help me learn more about how what I eat is affecting me. Um, just like this week I had just mentioned about how, when I had a small snack, not throughout the day, but once, once a day, a small snack or. I found that this week because of everything else I was doing, it really did not negatively impact my blood glucose readings. I mean, I think my numbers this week are pretty much exactly, or within one or two points of exactly where they were last week. So that's helpful information. So anyway, the article just says that people, even without diabetes, uh, can use this in an. To aid in their weight loss efforts. The second article is called Digital and group-Based Lifestyle Counseling to Prevent Type two diabetes. Found to be effective. Well, this is very good. Again, you improve what it is you measure. So this is a Finn study. They had 3000 Finn. With an elevated risk for type two diabetes. So they were not yet diagnosed with type two diabetes, but they were found to be at an increased risk of getting it. That could be because they were overweight or have other things that, uh, maybe they're pre-diabetic sell into the criteria of being at a higher risk. So what they did was develop an app, and the app has a lifestyle library and it has over 400 habits that are suitable for inclusion in everyday life. And the more, all of a sudden the people use this app, the more they started to incorporate these healthy, uh, habits. And the goal. Was to have these people improve their, or reduce their abdominal obesity and insulin resistance. And they found that after a one year study, that's exactly what happened to the people and significantly more to the people who had the app than the people who did not have the app. So they were doing behavioral modifications through this app and the people who use the app. Lowered their risk of developing type two diabetes. So basically getting support, whether it's in a group, whether it's uh, in an app or a combination thereof, they showed that it was helpful in people, uh, reducing their, uh, risk of type two diabetes, which I think is a great thing. Hey, whatever, whatever helps, uh, I think is, is wonderful. So that's a great article. The final article. And as usual, all these links will be in the show notes over at solving type two diabetes.com. Every episode has the show notes, and every episode also has a full transcript you can read if you want, every single word that's spoken on this podcast. So this last article is called How seven People with Diabetes Manage Their Blood Sugar And their bottom line is that it often takes an individualized approach. One size does not fit all. There are some commonalities that they did find, however, and they go on to describe those commonalities and they are, they start off with, Pay close attention to food and medication effects. So be cognizant of what you're eating, how it affects you, how it affects your blood sugar. Uh, for example, you can do that again with a cgm. It all seems to come back to the CGM as being a wonderful tool. And then also look at your medication effects and how they, uh, affect your, uh, blood sugar and, you know, make sure you have an open conversation with your doctor about your medications and the effects they're. Again, the second thing they mention is consider a continuous glucose monitor. They have found that using a CGM versus manual finger pricks or just going about how you're feeling and using that as your guide is not at all accurate. And two, using the finger stick method several times a day. I mean, if you really, really want a good reading, This CGM does it every 15 minutes and I don't feel a thing now. I used to for a little while anyway, check my blood sugar manually and I said, Oh, I'm gonna do this, you know, after every meal when I get up, before I go to bed, all that kind of stuff. And it, and I hated it. Um, maybe you don't mind, but I absolutely hated it. This CGM was glorious when I first started wearing it, and so they say consider using a C cgm. The next thing is to establish a routine that is your food, your sleep, stress management, your work, exercise, medication. Get into a routine. Get a daily regimen that's reliable yet when you need to modifiable. So things like getting some of your own personal favorite stress management practices. You know, do you, do you do yoga? Do you walk in the woods? Do you just rest and focus on your breathing for a few minutes each day? Whatever works for you. Maybe food preparation in advance. Can help you plan out what you're eating and also reduce stress around meals and trying to figure out what you're going to eat. They recommend keeping a consistent exercise schedule, and I've heard before the best time to exercise is when you do it for me, middle of the afternoon. Seems to be my favorite time. I don't like doing it in the morning, and that's just me. Some people say do it early and you won't forget or do it early, and it won't get overcome by events. But for me, and I have the luxury of being able to exercise when I want, I like doing it early afternoon. I don't, uh, like rushing into things. I also don't like. Late in the evening because I find that, uh, helps me from getting a good night's sleep and, uh, keeps me, uh, from going to sleep when I want. So for me, middle of the afternoon is the perfect time. And then finally they say work with a care team. So your doctor, your coaches, the people that you rely on, make sure that you partner with. And don't feel like you're the only one. Don't feel like you're all alone and you have to come up with all the answers yourself. That's just not the case, whether they're medical professionals or fitness coaches or nutritionists or dieticians, work with experts that are available, but I do think that there's a lot of resources available. That can help answer some of your questions. So those are the three articles that I found this week that I thought were very interesting. So let's move on. My Movement --- Okay, so the main topic for this week is my movement. What do I do for movement in solving my type two diabetes? Well, if you watch my Instagram stories each day, or you look at these workouts that a list here in the podcast, you know that I talk about. And I record my walks, whether they be outside walks, which are my favorite. Often hiking on a rail trail. I love that. Or indoor walks when I have to. But walking and a little bit of running, that forms the core of my movement. Now, there are a million studies just praising walking. It's something that almost everyone can do. Some people can only do it for a short distance. Some people can do it for longer distance. But walking has very well known health benefits. It's great. Now my running well, I do a little bit, Maybe I should do a little bit more. I do have, uh, races and I use that word very liberally. I do have events coming up at Walt Disney World next week. It's the Wine and Dine half marathon. And I'll be participating in the 5k, the 10 K and the half marathon 5K and 10 K. I do those all the time, so that's not a problem. Now, I'll be honest, I have not trained for this half marathon anywhere close to how I would typically train in years past for a half marathon. It has been, I think, four years since I've participated in a half. Maybe three. I'm thinking maybe 2019 was my last 2018 for sure. So we're gonna see how I do with my pretty lacking training for this upcoming half marathon. The half marathon is in eight days. So the training that has occurred is the training that will. And we will see how it goes. But I'm gonna get in there. I'm gonna participate. And Disney is pretty gentle. If you don't complete the course, they don't kick you out of Walt Disney World. They do make you get on a little bus and they do take you back to the finish line in a bus. But, um, hey, I'm gonna participate. I'm gonna do my best In two episodes, you will hear about how I did so look forward. Now walking and a little bit of running is not my only form of movement. About 2017, my daughter introduced me to CrossFit. She started talking about this thing, CrossFit. And that's what a lot of people who do CrossFit do. They talk about CrossFit. It's not like fight Club, I guess. You're allowed to talk about it. In fact, I think they encourage you to talk about it. So I had to find out what it was. I went into my local gym, they call it a box, and it was run by, uh, this guy never met him before. Name was Jason, and he had this gym called CrossFit Merit. So I went in. With my Disney run t-shirt on and my oak thick sold Hoka running shoes. And I think inside he was chuckling, but he didn't say anything to me and I asked him what it was, what it was about, and he talked about this constantly varied functional movement in a relatively high intensity. And I gotta be honest, it scared the crap outta me, but it also intrigued me a little bit. So he said, Hey, look, we had this introductory four session program, I think they called it an on ramp. So I agreed to do that, and I went out and of course, did a little bit of research, walked back in the next day for my first session, wearing the proper shoes. I actually liked the Nike, uh, Metcons. Uh, I like those better than the Reebok nanos. If you're in a CrossFit, you know what I'm talking. Anyway, did this fundamentals class and it completely kicked my butt. I was sore afterwards, but it was doing things that I could do. It was not, you know, climbing up a 30 foot rope. I can't do that. It wasn't sticking hundreds of pounds over my head. I can't do that. It was doing things. It was the same movements, but yet scaled and modified in the way that I could handle. I have learned a tremendous amount from CrossFit. I actually took what's called a level one. It's meant for beginner coaches, but a participant can take it as well. It's a weekend, and I actually did that and I learned a lot. I've read a lot and I've particip. I was a member of CrossFit Merit for well, up until the pandemic and then like all Gyms, Merit had to close. But they did this great thing in that they offered an online program, uh, put up a daily YouTube. It was wonderful. And I did that. And then we moved, so, Since we moved to Pennsylvania, I've honestly been struggling to fit in a little bit, uh, at a local CrossFit gym. I'm frankly not home. Enough now that I'm retired, uh, to fit in and, and become part of the family. I call CrossFit Jim, my family. That's certainly how it felt at CrossFit Merit. Now I have gotten a punch card pass, uh, at CrossFit Hershey, and they have been very pleasant and inviting The few times I've been there, I just need to be at home more and give it a shot. But the neat thing about CrossFit is you can do it. You can literally do it with no equipment whatsoever. You can do it on a cruise ship, you can do it out of a small home gym. You can do it in a park with a sandbag. Heck, you don't even need the sandbag. It's fabulous. CrossFit Journal Article --- Now what I wanna do is I wanna turn to an article online from CrossFit. It was actually written in 2000. By the founder and CEO at the time of CrossFit. His name is Greg Glassman. People call him Coach Glassman, and it was really his ideas that put CrossFit together and coined a lot of the methodology and, and science behind, uh, what CrossFit is. I'm gonna turn to that article and we will take a look at what it says. So this journal article is available as a pdf@crossfit.com online library, and I will absolutely link to this journal article in the show notes, and I strongly encourage you to read this article. And there's others that are great as well. But this article was written back in 2002, so it's 20 years old. And it was again, written by Coach Glassman, and it's called What is Fitness? And Fitness as defined by CrossFit is summed up in a hundred words. They have this thing here called World Class Fitness in 100 words, and I'm gonna go ahead and read these. There's more depth, obviously in the article. But I'm gonna be skimming it over here because we could spend a few hours talking about all the principles that are in this one article. So World Class Fitness. In 100 words, it says, Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise, but not body fat. Practice and train major lift. Deadlift, clean squat presses, clean and jerk and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics, pull ups, dips rope, climb, pushups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holes, bike runs, swim row, et cetera. Hard and fast, five or six days per week. Mix these elements. As many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense, regularly learn and play new sports. Okay, so if I did that right, that was 100 words. You can go back and count. So this says a tremendous amount in a hundred words. The first part is a prescription on what you should. Now I do make one change in that it says no sugar, and it has been explained in subsequent years. That means no added sugar. That does not talk about the sugar that occurs in an apple that does talk about no sugar. That's added, for example, in a Snickers bar, and keep intake to levels that will support exercise, but not body fat. Again, that means, but not excessive body fat. Every human needs body fat to live. You can't function your brain without body fat. It turns out, but not excessive amounts. In here, it talks about presses to handstand, pure wets flips, splits. I've never done any of that. The great thing about CrossFit is it is scale. So while maybe I don't do a press to a handstand yet, I do do the same pressing motion, let's say, uh, Ben over with my feet still on the ground or, or partially Ben on over maybe pressing up awful box or doing a pushup, that type of thing. So don't be intimidated by. You know, major lifts, deadlift, clean squat presses, Well deadlift, that's the same thing as basically picking a bag of groceries up off the ground. Uh, a clean would be bringing the groceries up to your chest. A squat would be maybe holding that bag of groceries and squatting down to pick up your keys that you dropped on the sidewalk so you don't have to. What they show in these big body building, uh, displays or stuff like that, it's every person can do CrossFit. It doesn't vary by the type of thing they need to do. It varies by the amount, the weight, the number of repetition. The duration, that type of thing. That's what we vary, not the listen to me, I say we, um, . Trust me, I'm just a doer. I'm not a teacher. Um, but it's, it's, it's a whole lot packed into those 100 words. So I would greatly encourage you, uh, to read the, the article. I'm just really skimming over. The next thing here is this wellness continuum on the one side sickness. And then it arcs up to wellness and then it continues to go down the other side to fitness. Just about everything you can measure, whether it's blood, blood pressure, body fat, um, triglycerides flexibility, muscle mass can be found on this spectrum. Uh, blood pressure, if you're over in the sickness side, it's very high or very low. The wellness side, well, that might be your typical one 20 over. Your fitness side might be one 10 over 70 or 100 over 65. You know, who knows? Uh, I'm happy to be in the wellness section of that. But basically everything that we measure as far as health can be plotted on this continuum. And the goal is to move away from the sickness side, get to the wellness side, and then continue on to the fitness side, which is a super. Then they have something, and I think this is um, a key component of CrossFit. They have 10 different physical skills that make up general physical performance. It's not just one modality. In other words, it's not just my walking or running. There has to. Uh, strength infects flexibility and power as, as in there I have to add some speed and coordination agility. So lemme go through these real quick. The basics are the cardiovascular respiratory endurance, and that's basically your ability to take in oxygen, process it burning the cells, and get oxygen from the outside of the body down into each of your cells where it can be. Stamina is then taking that and fuel and producing energy. So stamina is the ability to produce energy and continue to do it. That's stamina. You know, you hear about running out of gas, you hear about marathoners hitting the wall. Well, that's stamina. The need, they don't. Get out of breath so much. It's just that they have run out of energy. And so it's the ability to continue the cardiovascular energy production and, uh, that is stamina. The next one is strength, and that's very simply the ability of muscles to apply force. So again, increasing the strength, you have flexibility. Maximum range, a proper range of motion at any given joint is flex. Power is applying force quickly. So it's not just that you are strong, but that, but you can, uh, move that weight or, or, uh, press up into a handstand with power, uh, quickly. And then speed. And that's the ability to, uh, quickly repeat. Like, uh, say if you're running, uh, running quicker, or if you are cycling a barb, Anyway, those are some of the 10 general physical skills. So this article goes on for about eight pages here, but you finally come to the hierarchy of development and basically it's a pyramid, and at the bottom of that pyramid, the base. Is nutrition. So the nutrition eating the right thing and the proper quantities is the base of this pyramid. Then comes a metabolic conditioning. They call that building your engine, getting that stamina, getting your cardiovascular system in shape, being able to do, uh, the long slow distance. Being able to, uh, get your engine to continue to put out over long periods of time. That's metabolic Condit. Then on top of that, they add the gymnastics, and then on top of the gymnastics they have weight lifting and throwing. And I find this sort of funny. So often when you go to a CrossFit gym, the first thing people see are the barbells. But before the barbells comes, the lunchbox and the conditioning on the rower or running or on the bike, uh, those types of things. And you eventually get to the weight lifting, but it's not. The first thing, it's not the key thing, uh, to your fitness. And then finally, just sport. And really, if you do all the other things, nutrition, metabo, conditioning, gymnastics, weightlifting, and throwing, then the sport is fun. The sport is the thing that you train to be able to do. Questions --- We are at the part of the episode where we discuss your question. Now we don't have any questions this week. I will, , now start my begging for you. Yes. You to send in a question. I invite you to go to SolvingType2Diabetes.com click on feedback and send in a question. I'd like to know what you're thinking. Send in a. Tell me what you think is good. Tell me what you think needs some improvement. I'd like to hear that as well. What's Next --- For next week, we're gonna be talking about my medications. As you know, I'm not a doctor. I don't even play one on tv. I'll be talking about my own experience with my medications, what I've been prescribed, how it affects. And also talk about some other medications that are in the news nowadays that seem to be incredibly encouraging for people with diabetes and also for people who are looking to lose weight. So I'll be delving into the news a little bit regarding other medications besides the two that I have been prescribed. Thanks! --- Well, that wraps up another episode of the solving type two diabetes podcast. I hope you found it valuable. Please follow and leave a five star review, as it helps other people find the podcast. By subscribing you ensure you won't miss the next episode. You can always get a full transcript of the episode at solvingtypetwodiabetes.com there you also find the links to leave feedback and links to follow on social media. I'm very interested in hearing from you with comments and suggestions. Thanks very much for listening. Please remember that everything I share is just from my own personal experience and should not be taken as medical or health advice. Please consult your own medical professionals. This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only.