Introduction --- Maybe you clear out all the junk from your cupboards that started to accumulate over the last few weeks and replace it with healthy options. Don't put yourself in a position where you have to choose between going hungry and eating junk. 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 have had a very good week. I know for me it has been a lot of family stuff, some travel. So I'm going back to the 18th century, but we'll talk about that in a second here. The main topic for today is going to be getting back on track. Last week we talked about eating at parties, and sometimes that leads to the need of getting back on track. So that's gonna be today's topic. But first, the, we can review, we had some great. Visiting over Thanksgiving, and that was a lot of fun having the kids in the house and the grandkids in the house. And, we had, most of our folks there for Thanksgiving Day. And also that weekend we did some visiting of our own. We all went down to, Elverson and visited family down there. So that was a great time. a lot of good meals, a lot of family walks. I really enjoyed it. Then on Tuesday morning we took a drive down here to Williamsburg, Virginia, and we're currently staying in the Colonial Williamsburg restored area. I'm actually recording this in a room of the Market Square Tavern. So that has been, interesting getting ready for this. I don't really have a quiet space. Hopefully this, works out. Alright. We are in a tavern after. . Now, this used to be the location of an actual tavern back in the 17 hundreds, but they have turned it into. rooms, for, people to stay in and you register up at the Williamsburg Inn and it's all part of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. So we've been here many times. we actually had our honeymoon here 34 years ago and we drove by today. We saw the place we first stayed at 34 years ago. We like staying down in the, restored area in what they call the colonial houses. This time we did not. Usual. Our usual is called Peter Hayes Kitchen, and it's an outbuilding that used to be the kitchen of a doctor here in Colonial Williamsburg, but they've turned that into a nice, place to stay. It has a downstairs seating area, very small little kitchenette and living room and a fireplace. And then upstairs is, the bedroom and bathroom. So that's usually where we stay. I didn't book it in time, so now we're staying in a room. It's a very nice room. In the tavern, private bath of course. And they have a little tv, little mini fridge, no microwave or anywhere to cook, that's turned out to be. We're down here for the Grand Illumination weekend, and if you are anywhere near the Williamsburg, Virginia area, I would recommend, to participate in their Grand Illumination weekend. It's their Christmas holiday celebration, and there is music programs going on. We've been to several already. it's only Saturday and we're going to stay here till Monday. Tonight we have the Grand Illumination itself, fireworks musical programs. And, not only can you do things that are part of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and in the restored area, but you'd also do things that are, I'm gonna say downtown. Or off campus, if you will. Last night we went to, the local Williamsburg United Methodist Church and had the Messiah, presentation, music, singing, full orchestra, organ, everything, chorus. It was really nice. And, before that we were at the Williamsburg Inn for their tree lighting. ] Thursday night. We were at the Williamsburg Community Tree lighting, which is actually held in the restored area. So anyway, it's just been, it's just been fabulous. And, looking forward to the next couple days, here for our stay yet. Challenge & Win --- So what were my challenging wins for the week? . Mostly it has to do with staying in a tavern for four nights where you can't do any of your own cooking. Oftentimes when we go traveling, we stay in a place that has a, somewhat of a kitchen, at least a microwave. But some places we stay, like a Disney, have a full kitchen, and that's really helpful for when you're trying to eat properly, managing your type two diabetes. This time in our tavern room, we do have a very small, little cube size mini fridge that keeps some drinks cold or maybe a couple of leftovers. I have some protein shakes in there and some cheese as well. But we have no way to cook, so that's been a bit of a challenge. Usually, I'm just gonna say most of my meals, I prepare myself so that I know what I'm eating and I can get, the food that's helpful. So what I did this, week was try and have some helpful snacks here in the room. Like I said, I have cheese, I have some little protein bars, a few protein shakes, some really good mixed nuts, that I enjoy. Have those in the room here. And also when we go out to eat in restaurants, we, check the menu. Ahead of time, and I've done really well, really lucked out with that. Had, a good, chef salad both yesterday and today. completely different salads though, but I'll call them chef salads nonetheless, because they had various meats and cheeses. Yesterday's meal also had a lot of different types of berries along with, some, spring mix. Greens. today's was more traditional, iceberg with ham and Turkey and hard boiled egg and cheese and some vegetables and, to two totally different salads, yet both. Very good. So that was how I overcame that challenge or my win, and that is to have the helpful snacks and to also, check out those menus before I went out, to eat in restaurants. so far, so good. News --- All right. Let's take a look at the news this week, and this first article is called What is the First Line Treatment for Type two Diabetes? Now, this article is talking about metformin, and metformin is almost always the first drug that a doctor will prescribe when someone is diagnosed with type two diabetes. If. lifestyle changes by themselves are not doing enough. Now, this Metformin, drug does a couple of main things. The first thing it does is limit the body's ability to take up glucose from food. So when you eat food and you digest it in your small intestine, metformin. It helps some of that sugar not make it into your bloodstream. So instead of getting all the sugar you're eating, you're only getting a portion of that sugar from your small intestine into your bloodstream, to go into your body and. And, having too much of the blood sugar in the bloodstream is exactly the, diagnosis for type two diabetes. So that's the first thing it does. The second thing it does is also lower the ability of your liver to produce glucose. Now your body can create glucose and it, does not have to necessarily be glucose that you've eaten. your body is actually able to produce glucose, believe it or not, from protein. So sometimes if you have type two diabetes, your doctor might recommend not eating abundant quantities of protein. you obviously still need to get in what you need, but that extra protein I've heard it said, that sometimes 35 to 40 grams of protein in a meal is all that your body can really handle over the course of a couple hours. And the rest of that protein is typically, stored. Either converted into glucose or converted into fat, and stored. But, anyway, that's a. Technical thing that you would wanna talk to your doctor about, but that's why Metformin is usually the first drug of choice. It's typically considered safe. but there are some known side effects, mostly GI side effects, stomach discomfort, sometimes, diarrhea and constipation. I don't know how you can have both, but it says that both are known side effects. You could get a headache or muscle pains. some people, not most, but some people, are prevented from taking metformin if they might have a kidney or liver problems. Severe infection, a recent heart attack. There are some reasons why you couldn't take metformin and your doctor might describe those with you, but it's also important that if you are taking metformin, it says here in this article, you should avoid things like steroids, water pills, some blood pressure medications, some hormone drugs like estrogen. gotta be careful if you're taking other. Diabetic medications. So there are things to look out for. It's not just a free for all with metformin. it's something that you obviously would talk to your doctor, but it is one of the most frequently, initial, medications prescribed. And it is often prescribed in combination within additional medications. as the disease progresses, if metformin and lifestyle changes by themselves, aren't. So recommend that article if you wanna know about, metformin. This next article is called Obesity and Diabetes. What is the relationship now? Not everyone that has, type two diabetes is necessarily. it does, they say often have to do with excess fat, even if it's not making a person technically obese. And, you know, obese is a technical definition having to do with your bmi. And some people say, oh, don't worry about your bmi. you know, there are things that are associated with excess fat, but you can. let's say looking in clothing, totally normal, but you might have a very low muscle mass. You might have, excess abdominal fat. I've heard people call it being skinny fat. So they're saying that there is definitely a, connection, between these two things, the obesity risk, and having type two diabetes. Now I'm not gonna even try and think about what causes the other. They do, Come together quite often. And this is a good article if you want to dive into the, details of it. But they say that the lifestyle changes you make for one actually can help with the other. The low carb eating, the, not even excessively, getting in intentional movement frequently, avoiding processed foods, those types of things we hear about. , they again recommend in this article, not only can help the type two diabetes, but can also help with the obesity itself. This is not part of this article, but there is a lot of information out there lately about new, prescription medications that tackle type two diabetes and obesity, and they're, hormonal therapies, GLP inhibitors and, things like that. And, so there's a lot of information out there, but this article specifically is talking about the relationship between obesity and diabetes. So check that one out, as. . I wanna share this next article, and this is a little interesting article. It's not, a deep article. It's like a quick little read, but it's saying that, well, I'll read the title here. It's saying the surprising reason, leaving the lights on at night. Spikes your diabetes risk. Now no one is that's healthy and active and nutritionally sound is gonna get diabetes cuz they left the light on. But what they're are saying is that leaving the light on because it doesn't give you, full sleep. It might increase your stress. It might raise your cortisol a little bit. Those are things that. in addition to many other things can increase your risk of type two diabetes. Now again, does leaving a light on while you sleep bring on type two diabetes? No, but it does say that there is, A little tie in there, a few little factors that technically yes, it does increase your risks. So anyway, this is a quick little read here. It's in, best Life online. so I'll include that article because it's a little light and, I don't know if you wanna call it click ba or what, but I just thought it was cute. people saying, oh, don't leave a light on cuz it'll give you type two diabetes. that's not true. What is true is that there is, raise stress, raise cortisol. Yes, that does contribute a little bit. Anyway, let's move on the final article here. is very, in depth. it's one of these articles that I call sciencey. but if you're really interested in the science and really wanna understand, say for example, with this article, what's going on in your pancreas, if you have type two diabetes, then this is the article for you. This one's entitled, understanding the Differences Between Healthy and Type Two Diabetes Affected Pancrea. Eyelets. and the eyelets are mini organs and they're inside the pancreas and they make and release the insulin and a lot of other, peptide based hormones and that help control your glucose levels. Now I am not gonna try and read through this article to you. It is very technical, very in. Uh, it links to the actual study and here, let me just read the title of the study to give you an idea. D, amino Acids and classical neurotransmitters in healthy and Type two diabetes affected human pancreatic eyelets of langer hands, and that was published in Metabolites 2020. So I'll let you read that one that you know is a lot different from the article on leaving the light on. This one is very in depth, and scientific and if you're into that, it's an incredibly good read. I have read it. I actually referred to the study itself and it is very interesting if you really wanna know what's going on inside your pancreas and why your cells are acting differently if you have the type two. Or causing you to have the Type two diabetes. So those are four, news articles. I went through those fairly quickly cuz we have a lot on today's show. But, the links for these articles will always be in the show notes. You can, go to the show notes, you can go to the. SolvingType2Diabetes.com either way, and you'll be able to have all these links to these news articles so that you can read them in total, for yourself. I'm just trying to, hit on them a little bit. Getting Back on Track --- All right, so let's talk about the main topic today, and that is getting back on track. Now, what do I mean by that? Oftentimes if people have a plan of eating, they have goals. They might, be interested in their movement, what they eat, how much they eat, like we are. I think if you listen to this podcast regularly, you might be into that. So when you're following your plan and everything's just going well, things are smoothly, proceeding along, you have your foods that you like to eat, you get in your movement, that you like to do. Well, that's what I call being on track. You're progressing forward like a train on the tracks towards your goal, towards your destination. And, that destination might be a healthier lifestyle. It might be, to avoid, this disease from progressing. It could be, a longer life, whatever your various goals. staying on track is the way to get to that destination. Just imagine a train if it jumped the track. it's not gonna get to it's next stop. that's being off track. So if you're off track, if you're currently not eating in ways that you think are helpful to you or you're currently not moving in ways that makes your body feel good and helps with your, overall fitness levels. Then you're off track. And if that's not comfortable for you, if that's not what you want, then you might want to get back on track. So when I'm talking about this today, I think I needed to distinguish between two different types of getting off track. Now are you getting back on track from, oh, I don't know, a single day where, eh, you really didn't pay attention to what you ate, you ate, whatever came along. Maybe you ate a whole lot of it. so it's just a blip, or maybe you didn't get a few days with your intentional movement, it could be eating, could be movement, could be both or, is this getting back on track for maybe weeks or months of inattention where something happened, took you off track, you got distracted, and here it is, you find yourself weeks or months from the last time you really paid attention to doing things that are helpful to you. Maybe you noticed, your clothes are fitting a little. Tighter. maybe you tried to run up a flight of stairs and you realize you're breathing a lot heavier than you used to. It could be various signs that you get, but getting back on track, I think from weeks or months might take a little bit more work from getting back on track from maybe a single day or two of overindulgence and laying on the. If it's the ladder where it's just a single day or laying on the couch, maybe you just need to look in the mirror, go to the bathroom mirror, look in the mirror and say, Hey, look, today's a brand new day today. I'm gonna do what I did a couple of days ago, and I'm gonna eat healthy. I'm gonna eat properly, and I'm going to. just snap out of it and go back to what I was doing. Maybe that's a little bit easier if it's only been a day or so, and I think that's why they say, get back on track as soon as possible. You don't want your off track activities to become habits. You don't want that overindulgence or that inattention to become the. but let's say it has, let's say that, it's been a few weeks. Let's say that maybe it's a couple months, maybe your belt doesn't quite go in that same, belt hole that it did before. Maybe you're starting to back that off a little bit. what do you do about that? I think that, and I don't think I need to stress it, but I'm gonna repeat it. I am. A psychologist. I am not a therapist. I am not, an expert in, habits or things like that. There are fabulous people out there that can really help with this. I'm just gonna tell you what sort of works for me. maybe that'll be helpful. Maybe it'll be interesting if nothing else. So I think it depends on your personality type. Now, I'm guessing that personality types can come on a spectrum. Some folks like myself are all or nothing. Either they exercise intentionally every day, or they somehow skip it every day. They go, I go into these, I don't know, phases where, oh, I don't think about exercise. I don't prioritize exercise. And sometimes that can string into several days long. Or you could be of the personality type, and this is not me who think, oh, all things in moderat. , and that's great. My wife is like that. she can have, I don't know, sugary foods in the house, treats lots of breads, things like that, and just have normal, small portions. Every once in a while she can have, let's say, I don't know, a bag of Halloween candy or Christmas cookies or whatever in the. and have one portion every few days and be so totally fine with it. A bag of Halloween candy could sit in the house, I think for two or three months with her and probably not be empty. Whereas for me, I have to completely abstain if I get into the Halloween candy, I will and have before, eat the whole entire bag. . or if we have Christmas cookies, let's say we're coming into Christmas season now it's December. I've actually asked my wife to put off making Christmas cookies to as late as possible because I will get into them, and they'll be gone. Before Christmas, she used to put Christmas cookies in the. Make them starting after Thanksgiving and then make various types of Christmas cookies and put them in the freezer. And I, I would avoid them for four or five days or whatever, but one day I would know they're in there and then I would just go eat the crap out of them, so to speak. And that's my personality type. So getting back on track. , you might have to break it up in phases. You might have to, work on your movement, get that back into a habit again, then work on your eating. And even with your eating, you might have to break that up And first thing you might stop is the sweets. and then you might tackle certain processed foods that have crept back in. maybe instead of, digging into that peanut butter jar with a very large spoon, you can have a small dish of mixed nuts, things like that. But I think this business of getting back on. more so if it's been for a longer period of time. I think really depends on who you are and how you can deal with these things that get in your way. For me, the best course of action is to clear the house out. Just get rid of all those sweets and things like that. And sometimes I can't do that. I don't live alone, so I have to be fair in that regard. But, so that's the best thing for me. Often eating in restaurants is helpful because, like I say, I can look at the menu. And I did not hesitate to get a wonderful salad yesterday for lunch and today for lunch. And, that actually is a helpful thing as well, making sure you have the right snacks. Maybe you clear out all the junk from your cupboards that started to accumulate over the last few weeks and replace it with healthy options. Don't put yourself in a position where you have to choose between going hungry and eating junk. that can be helpful. So I'd be very interested in hearing from you. Most of us with type two diabetes are at least a little bit overweight, and most folks who are overweight have from time to time in their lives, tried to get rid of that excess fat. So I'd be very interested in hearing from you. What are your ideas, what are your suggestions? Are you the type of personality who can have something in the house, it won't knock you off track and you just touch it once in a very rare time? Or are you like me who tend to go overboard, who tend to eat excessively of those things that are ultra processed and full of sugar and things like that and, you how do you, deal with getting back on. I hope this was somewhat helpful, to this topic to share. I don't have any great answers. I think having great answers requires, more training and education that I have. I do suggest, though, that you seek out, some of that help if you struggle with this, issue of not being able to consistently look out for yourself and eat properly and, move with in. I know coaches for this exist if you're a lady, woman, a female, there's a community out there and I'm not associated with them and or nor am I sponsored by them, but I happen to know that they do a lot of great work. It's called Fit Me. F I T M e and they have a fit me community on Facebook. there's a Coffee Talk podcast from the leader and founder of the Fit Me Community. And, you can look up, her name is Christie Campbell, and if you can look her up, and she's, Puts out a podcast. It's a live stream she does on Facebook almost every single day. And then she also puts that into a podcast. So there is help out there available and I suggest, that you look into it. Another great place, and I'll move on from here after this, but another great place is a gym that also has a nutrition program. And I notice that a lot of the CrossFit gyms that I've, been part of or visited also offer a nutrition program. I know CrossFit Hershey, ironically in Annville, Pennsylvania. Not Hershey, Pennsylvania, but it's CrossFit Hershey. They have a great nutrition program, CrossFit Merit if you're in Southern Maryland. they're in Prince Frederick, Maryland, and they have a great nutrition program as well. I think most of the CrossFit gyms have a really good nutrition program that could be helpful. Anyway, that was about getting back on track. Hope you found that. . Questions --- So now it's time for your questions and I am all kinds of excited. We actually have a question and Krista wrote in, she went, to the website. She went over to solving type two diabetes.com. She clicked on feedback and she sent in her questions. So I'm gonna read her question here out to her, and I told her I'd be answering this on this episode. So here we go. Hi Tom. I'm just starting to monitor my glucose with a cgm. Now she uses Dexcom, she says here in parenthesis as a tool to be more healthy, enjoying listening to your journey via the podcasts, and haven't quite finished them all yet. Maybe by now you have, she sent this in a few weeks ago. Your format has great tips. Do you have a favorite cookbook you use? Also, what are good first reads to learn more about how my body is metabolizing foods. I love the biology of how a body works. So anything like that would be helpful. Thanks again for the program. thank you Krista, very much for sending that in. I appreciate that. I encourage other folks to send in questions as well, so let's tackle. First thing Krista, you asked about was cookbook. I don't have any cookbooks. my wife has some old cookbooks. I think I saw Betty Crocker laying around and maybe some others. But what do I really use to get ideas, for my eating? I have three. None of them are in book format, but I'd be happy to share them with you. And links to these resources will be in the show notes as well. So the first is, I found it on Facebook of All Things, and it's. Clean Food Crush. Now, this is a recipe site and this person, it's a, she's very active on Facebook. She's on Instagram. And I'll send you a link to her website and then I think you can find her social media links from there. But Clean Food Crush, has wonderful recipes. I ideas. I've tried a couple. I like looking at the pictures she posts and, it's a very, robust website. so tons of recipes. She calls it clean eating, made easy and fun, simple real food recipes. So I'm gonna recommend that I've personally, relied on that. The next that I have used is called Low carb Yum. Now, I think you folks know that I do eat, mostly low carbohydrate because I find that's incredibly helpful for my, blood sugar. And this, website, low carb yum, also can be found on, Facebook, Instagram, but it's called Healthy Low Carb and Keto Recipes. Low carb. Yum. I don't follow the Keto diet, but I do find, by definition that their recipes are very low carbohydrates. I do tend to, eat some of those. The last one here is, That low carb life. also, I'll send you the link to the website in the show notes. it's called that low carb life, easy low carb and keto friendly recipes. I think keto is a buzzword now. So I think a lot of people like to call, keto in their titles and draw traffic. But I've tried all three of. They all three have very good, recipes, breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts. Now, keep in mind that a lot of the desserts might have in, artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohol. I have yet to find a, quote unquote low carb dessert that didn't have something, artificial in it because let's. What makes things sweet usually is sugar and I try and stay away from that. So with regards to cookbooks, not real books, but three websites, I think that you'll find very helpful. The second part of your question talked about the biology of type two diabetes, metabolizing foods, things like that. So I think what you're asking about is the pathophysiology. It's the physiology of disease. physiology is basically how the body works. So pathophysiology is how the body works with disease. Now I have three resources here. These, again, will be in the show notes. I'm not going to. Talk about them in depth because they are deep. I think anyone could pretty much read them and get a good information, but I'm just gonna list them here. The first one is for actually from Oxford University. , and it's called Type two Diabetes Melitis, update on diagnosis, pathophysiology and treatment. So that's a good resource. The next one is pathophysiology of Type two Diabetes, melitis, and the final one. And that's from nih. And the final one, that I wanna share. Is also called Type two Diabetes Melitis, and it's from Medscape. Now, in the Medscape, you get a small preview, but you have to sign up. If you wanna read all the full articles, it's free. but you can sign up for that. So I hope that answers your questions. Again. Thanks very much Christopher, sending those questions in and I encourage anyone else to send in the questions. You can just send me an email at tom@solvingtype2diabetes.com or you can do like Krista did. You can head over to the website SolvingType2Diabetes.com and click on. What's Next --- Okay, so what's up next? Next week we're gonna be talking about why I track my macros. I guess we understand that low carb might be healthy for me, but why do I track all my macros? and we're gonna talk about that and maybe share the benefits of why I find, good about tracking my macros. So that'll be next. 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 SolvingType2Diabetes.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.