Introduction --- those are quite good. but I didn't go over. I was able to stop after a few where as in the past, I could often eat dozens and dozens of cookies over the course of a few days, and I made maybe had a total of six this week and is that the Mounjaro, helping me curb that appetite? 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. I hope you're having a great week. I'm having a super fun week this week, and, it's between Christmas and New Year's, so if you celebrate, Christmas and I hope it was great for you, My Week in Review --- with my weekend review. We had Christmas Day with family at our house and it was great. We had, also, some time spent over at, my wife's mother's house and we saw lots of, siblings and spouses and a few of the nieces there. So that was a really great time. Our kids were not there, for Christmas day, but we did see some of our kids, the day after and this week. The day after Christmas, we did a 13 hour drive to Hilton Head. Now it was supposed to be a 10 hour drive, but I guess everybody had the exact same idea to go south on I 95 because our 10 hour drive turned into a 13 hour drive and it was quite a day. we did finally get here and we were the last ones to check in. We're staying at, Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort, and we've been here for five days, between Christmas and New Year's, and it's been a little chilly, not as cold as home in Pennsylvania. But, the highs have ranged from the low fifties to the mid sixties, and each day it has warmed up a little bit. And today it's about 65 out there. if you've ever been to the Hilton Head, South Carolina area, it's called the Low Country and I really enjoy it. we, had some good home cooking this week. We traveled once again with our crockpot and ate all of our. except for the first night, we cooked right here in the room and this is a two bedroom villa. it is a nice big kitchen, the living room area, and then two separate bedrooms, and then one of my daughters and her significant other. We're right next door in a studio. we could have, fit everybody into this one place, but it would've meant folks staying in the living room on the sofas and whatnot. So we didn't do that, but we got a couple of rooms and it fit everybody nicely. There's seven of us down here, for the five days, and we've been having a lot of fun. playing a lot of board games and, my wife likes that and putting together puzzles. I got in a lot of nice long walks. one of my daughters is also a walker and she and I took, several nice long walks this week. my younger daughter, was out experimenting with some of the local restaurants and they did some touristy things. And anyway, everybody had a really great time and I did do some snacking. I'll call it my Christmas cheer. I had a little bit of that this week, so it was good. I had a few Christmas cookies and things like that, and it was really, a fun week here, for five days at, Hilton Head, so that I found that very enjoyable. Now, tomorrow we do head back North. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and it's gonna be probably another long drive, Apple Maps says it's gonna be 10 hours, but who knows? I guess it won't be faster than 10 hours, that's for sure. But hopefully it's not another 13 hours. We'll see. We'll see how that goes. My Numbers --- So with regards to my numbers this week, I have been able to close my rings five of seven days. I did not close my ring on Christmas day and I did not close my rings, the day after when we had the 13 hour drive. But while I've been down here, it's been very easy to get the rings closed each. And so five outta seven days for that. My workouts, between Christmas and New Year's have been exclusively long walks, averaging, I don't know, 10, 12,000 steps each day. doing intentional walking of about four, four and a half miles each day, plus other miscellaneous walking. So that's been my workouts really for this. Which I, you know, you know, I like that. my seven day glucose reading, I have averaged 100, that equates to an A1C of 5.0, which is below the pre-diabetes range. I'm always happy to have that. I did step on the scale, I think it was the morning of Christmas Eve and my body fat percentage was 25.6. And I just look back, over the past couple of months and two months ago it was 27.2 and now it's 25.6. that's not. Rapid weight loss, I wouldn't say, but a body fat percentage drop from 27.2 to 25, 0.6 is about one and a half percent, and that equates to about three pounds of fat loss in the last couple of months. hey, I'll call that, a win, with regards to my macro. Each of the last seven days, on average, I've had 75 grams of carbs, and that has varied, pretty wildly. some days have been over a hundred grams, some days less than 50. But on average, across the past week, it's averaged 75 grams of carbs a day. And my protein's been 115 grams, per day. So that's good. So keeping up the protein, trying to, limit the carbohydrates a. And it's working out for me, which I like. Mounjaro Update --- For the Mounjaro update this week, I just took, today as a matter of fact, injection number three. Now, you know, I'm on the starter dose. I'm on the 2.5 milligram. Dose of Mounjaro, and this is my third of four injections at that 2.5 milligram dose. And then, as a matter of fact, on Monday here, a couple days, I'm gonna call in for a refill and get the January supply, and that should be at the five milligram dosage. But so far no bad side effects. I honestly can't tell if it's doing anything yet. it does take a while to build. I could say maybe it's helping with hunger a little bit. it is maybe helping with insulin sensitivity a little bit. I have noticed that in the past week or so, maybe my carbohydrate intake has been a little higher than normal, yet the, blood glucose readings have been about what I've been expecting. it could be that I. A little more sensitive to insulin. it's honestly too early to tell. I don't want to, attribute any great benefits to this Mounjaro yet. It's not that I'm skeptical, but I wanna really see some difference. before I'm gonna, confirm to you that it's, making anything, different with me. I think maybe cuz I'm on the starter dose again. I think it's too soon to tell, but I will definitely keep you posted. I wanna give you a Mounjaro update, each week. I know that medications in the news a lot and I know a lot of folks are interested in. So I will, I'll keep you posted. Challenge & Win --- my challenge and win this week, Christmas cheer. Now, when I say Christmas cheer, I mean, uh, the sweets and the treats that we often associate with Christmas time or with other holidays. perhaps you don't celebrate Christmas. but, if you do, I think you know what I'm talking about. There's usually cookies, cakes, pies, candy, that type of. maybe a little bit more available than it normally would. So I did have some, this week I had some, cookies and I honestly don't know who made them, but they were brought along here for this trip and they were, , they looked like they had the white chocolate in them, but they had pieces of fruit, pieces of, I think maybe apricot and things like that in them, which was different. It was really unique. so I had a few of those and they were quite good. so I gotta find out from my wife where those came from because those are quite good. but I didn't go over. I was able to stop after a few where as in the past, I could often eat dozens and dozens of cookies over the course of a few days, and I made maybe had a total of six this week. and is that the Mounjaro, helping me curb that appetite? I honestly don't know. Is it just. My own head or is it a combination? that's a question that I'm unable to answer, but that's been my challenge is making sure that even though there's extra Christmas cookies and treats and sweets, literally, Just hanging around here, just available 24 7 that I really have not, bothered getting into them too heavily. So I'll call that a win. News --- Let's take a look at the news. I have a few news articles, for you this week. The first one is a. Fairly straightforward news article here. The title is How is Type two Diabetes Diagnosed, and I think maybe we have talked about this in the past, but the gold standard that I like to call it is the A1C test. And the A1C test measures your average blood sugar. For the past two and a half to three months, it's based on the half-life of hemoglobin cells in your blood and the The hemoglobin, is what carries the oxygen. It's a protein. It carries the oxygen and sugar grabs on to that molecule, but a high amount of the sugar coated hemoglobin can put you at risk, and that is in fact the definition of pre-diabetes and diabetes, depending on the level of. And so when you are diagnosed with, type two diabetes, it's primarily done with the A1C test. Now, it could also be done with an oral glucose tolerance test. That's where they have you drink, generally 75 grams of sugar in a glucose, solution. And then they measure your blood sugar, up to two hours afterwards. And if it's, less than a hundred. Then, they say that's normal. If it's up to 199, they say that's pre-diabetes. And of course if it's over 200 after the two hours, then that's, a diagnosis of type two, diabetes. Another thing is the fasting blood glucose. But the problem with that is if they use that test, that's just a point in time. That's literally at the moment they draw that blood. what was the blood sugar reading? And I know for a fact that my blood sugar can vary without eating anything, like between 5:00 AM and 9:00 AM. my blood sugar can raise or lower 20, 30, 40 points. so I don't. Trust too much that, one single point in time fasting blood glucose. it's something to keep an eye on. If yours is high, then maybe that calls for the A1C test, but one high reading all by itself, generally speaking, doesn't really, make such a huge difference. This next article says, it's entitled here, xantham Gum Based Fluid Thickener can help decrease blood glucose levels. Now, this is not a tremendous surprise. oftentimes this Xantham Gum is in, soups. Or, things like that. It's, it's a clear, it's a fiber is what it is. It's fiber, it's a soluble fiber. it's a thickener of fluids. And, I don't know if you've ever dealt with, Chia seeds, but if you put chia seeds in water, they developed this thick, gel and, it's just a fiber. But they found that folks who eat foods with this, xantham gum thickener, often have a lower blood sugar level after. and just like most other fibers will do, it slows the, digestion of your food, therefore you don't get that huge spike. And, some of that soluble fiber actually can take things like cholesterol and take it out of your, system and you can just pass it without, it going into your blood system. so this is just, it just slows the digestion of your food and, it can. Help you by avoiding those big spikes. Now, it does not prevent, the blood sugar from actually getting into your system. It just slows it and makes it less dramatic. So it spreads it out over time. So that's an interesting article. Here's one that I thought was a little fun. it's called, what's it like dating someone with type two diabetes Now, thankfully I've been out of the dating game for 34 years, so I don't have to, worry about that but I thought this was interesting. It says it's a guide for navigating the condition in new relationships. So it's written for both people, both a person with the type two diabetes and then also the person they're dating. And it reminds, The person with a type two diabetes that the person they're dating might be completely unfamiliar with. Some of the things you do to be helpful to yourself, like when you're planning a date or you're just planning on going out, I often recommend look at the menu before you go, have a light appetizer, like a salad. maybe your main dishes are mostly meat and veg, that type of. and, for someone you're dating, they might not be aware of this. They might not know, some of those things you try and look out for. Also, maybe you incorporate exercise or movement into your dates. go to skating, go, dancing, go, I don't know, walk in the park, whatever it is. But, talking about these things with, the person you're with, can help, make it less awkward if so, they understand your goals and what it is you're trying to do. And also for the person that's dating someone with type two diabetes, having this information ahead of time will give them, something to, go by a guideline. So I thought it was a good. we don't talk much about dating here on this podcast, but I thought this article was a little fun and also, maybe of value to you. The last one here is a, very sciencey, article, long title. It says Trends and disparities in glycemic control and severe hyperglycemia among US adults with diabetes using. Now this is, mainly for type one diabetics, but it points out something I think is very interesting. This is a study and they've taken this data from 1988 to 2020, so it goes across 32 years. And what they're finding in this, study, and this was published in Jam. And, under original investigation, diabetes and Endocrinology, what they have found is that even though 32 years have passed the numbers of people who are able to keep their blood sugar levels controlled, in other words, keep the level below seven point. which is for someone with diabetes, they say that it's then under control if it's below 7.0. It's remained unchanged for 32 years. Since 1988. The rates at which diabetics are able to keep their blood sugar under control hasn't changed. In fact. For some people, Mexican Americans are singled out here. It's become even more difficult over the last 32 years for Mexican Americans to keep their blood sugar under control. Now that could be access to healthcare. they don't go into the why. They just point out what the facts are. And even though, we have all types of new ways. getting insulin, insulin delivery systems, insulin formulations, various types of supplemental, medications. The fact of the matter is folks are not any more successful than they were 32 years ago. In fact, less than 30% of people with diabetes, even though they're taking insulin, are able to keep it under seven point. So I just thought that was fascinating. it's a fairly, in-depth study. they talk about, a lot of information here. They have a ton of graphs and, you can read, links to the full. A story on gemma network.com and of course I'll have those links all in the show notes, and you can get the show notes and links to these newest articles, in your podcast app. Or you can head over right over to, the website SolvingType2Diabetes.com and all the links to the articles for every episode are there. So I encourage you to check those out. . I thought those were four interesting, news articles and, I thought I wanted to share those with you. Motivation vs Determination --- Okay. The main topic for this week, now I'm really excited about this. The main topic for this week is determination versus motivation. A lot of people maybe don't know the difference, and I think when you find out the difference or when you think about the difference, it might shed some light on sometimes why we are successful in our plans and our goals and sometimes maybe why we are not, why we stumble. So let's talk about it here for a minute. What is determination and motivat. Well, let's look at motivation. You might, follow, an influencer on social media. You might, watch a documentary on fat loss. you might listen to podcasts like you're listening to this podcast now. And those things might give you motivation. Motivation is an emotional response where you feel energized, you feel excited. it's almost passionate love at first sight, That's a great feeling. so is motivation. Motivation is when you think, Hey, I can do this. They did it. I can. Look at that, supermodel with those abs, oh, I can get abs, she got abs. I can get abs. or oh, look at the CrossFit games. if they can put 300 pounds up over their head time after time, I can lift weights too. Let's go lift weights. So that's motivation. it's what I'm gonna call. An emotional response, kicking the pants, a feel good, those types of things. Excitement, energy, and that's all great. motivation is great. Motivation sometimes is the kickstart, that we might need. But to think about motivation, it's sometimes very short lived. or it can waiver or come and go, or, oh, I don't feel motivated. I don't feel like it anymore. that's the problem because motivation is a feeling it, it can leave us. It can leave us when things get tough. So relying on motivation means you're relying on a feeling that you might not always. The circumstances could change. you're not following that influencer anymore, or you realize that influencer had round after round of, cosmetic surgery to look that way or that, they really don't drink that, super power beverage. they just advertise with it. Or, you can lose your motivation for a number of reasons. Maybe the things just gets tough, you're motivated to go to the gym. You, hey, January 1st. In fact, when this episode comes out, it's gonna be the day after New Year's. Let's get motivated to do something. Yeah. But most folks, by the end of January, middle of February, they don't feel it anymore. So what do you do instead? Well, that I think is where determination comes in. Determination is having a. Determination is prioritizing. Determination is figuring out what makes it doable for you and then doing it. I have a plan. I am determined to prioritize activity, movement, proper eating, helpful eating in my. , I'm gonna put it ahead of, I don't know, television. doom, scrolling, whatever. I'm gonna put it ahead because it's important. It's relying on your own internal, prioritization and planning versus an external. So when you're determined to do something, you might have heard the phrase Come hell or high water. It's giving it a very high priority, having a plan and sticking to it, especially when it comes to eating or movement. That takes time. It takes work. It takes. Only through determination that is having a plan, keeping it simple, but sticking to it regardless of how you feel, regardless of if you're tired or not, regardless of what's happening around you. This is important to me and therefore I'm going to do it. Now. Some of the things I might recommend are to keep it simple. to maybe only tackle a few things at a time. don't try and be perfect. Let's say, I don't know, your goal is to eat, vegetables on a regular basis. And right now, quite frankly, you hardly ever eat a vegetable at all. if you find a piece of lettuce in your sandwich, you call that a vegetable. okay, but let's say you have a plan. You have a goal for whatever your personal reasons. I would like to eat vegetables every. super. Maybe you start out by saying, okay, past week I didn't have any vegetables. This week I will eat vegetables three times, and then no matter what happens, you eat vegetables three times. keep it simple. Make it something that you can be successful at. Build this plan in steps that often is helpful. , does it matter if you're feeling motivated? Let's say your plan is to participate in like group exercise. You wanna go to a gym, right? You want to go to, I don't know, orange Theory or, spin. I guess they still have spin classes or Zumba. hear people still do Zumba, whatever it is. Let's say you wanna participate in a group exercise. Okay? Figure out which sessions you're gonna go. , put it on your calendar. Make sure there's nothing else that encroaches on that particular time. Set it like it's appointment, and then you do that. And it doesn't matter how you feel. It doesn't matter what your mood is or how your day at work went. You are determined to make this happen, and therefore you're not relying on motivation. You're not relying on how you. And that'll often get you successful. And the neat thing about that is when you are determined to do something and you string those events together, it can become a habit. All right? Cuz in the end, that's really what you want. You want your healthy lifestyle. You want those things that are part of your plan to become a habit. All right? Start small. Take things one step at a time and use that determined plan to build habits. Now, hopefully this is making a little bit of sense. Go back, rewind, listen again, but by not relying on motivation, knowing that your motivation will disappear. Okay? If you wanna use Motiva motivation to sign up for your Zumba classes, that's fine. Do. , but then use determination to keep going. Don't get a gym membership and then let it sit in a drawer. Be motivated, take action, but then use determination and a plan to keep going. All right. I'm no genius here. I'm no therapist, I'm no, psychological expert. I'm just letting you know what I think has been working for. , I try tend to be, I tend to be a nuts and bolts kind of guy, I think with a plan, and I keep it simple and it helps me be successful as anyway. I've talked now about that for a little while, so that's, that was a topic for today, determination versus motivation, and I hope you found that. Questions --- please, if you have questions, please ask me questions. Y'all know there's two ways to send in questions. You can write me an email directly tom@SolvingType2Diabetes.com, or head over to the website SolvingType2Diabetes.com and click on feedback. And there you can send your feedback, ask a question, send him whatever you like, and I'll get an email and I will respond to you as a matter of fact. We have two questions this week, and I'm so excited. two folks, took time out of their day and sent in the questions. So let me do the first one here, and the first question is from Sarah jy. I hope I'm pronouncing that properly. Serge, S E R G E y. Cer. Jy. And he said here. Hello Tom. Great podcast. Well thanks. Really soothing and informative. My question is, have you felt unwell prior to the diagnosis in particular after eating carb-heavy meals or overall? Well, thanks. I appreciate your question and thanks for the kind. okay. When I was first diagnosed, this was several years ago, and honestly, I don't remember exactly how I was feeling. I do know that back at that time I was so probably. , I don't know, 60, 70 pounds heavier than I am right now. So I was morbidly obese and, when I got my diagnosis of type two diabetes, and in the interim years I have lost, quite a bit. I am, no longer obese. I'm still overweight, but we're working on that. Right? so how did I feel? I know that, I used to get tired quite. Did not have a lot of energy or stamina, even though I was much younger than I am now. so I can imagine feeling unwell quite often. I know that I did eat so much often US care about a carb-heavy meal. I know that I have eaten a whole lot in the past to where I would feel sick. we just wanna go sit somewhere and. allow myself to quietly digest everything. so yes, I could imagine, that I did feel unwell, fairly frequently. So I hope that helps. I know that, That I don't have those feelings anymore. I rarely ever eat, to where I'm stuffed, once in a while, but not to the extreme even then. so I feel much, much better, and I do not want to go back to that way of feeling. So again, cer jy. Thanks for your question. The second question here we have is from Kathy. Kathy wrote in. Now this is a little long. Let me read through this real quick for you folks. Hi Tom. I'm enjoying your podcast very much. Have listened to the first four as a lover of cruises, although still too covid adverse to resume trips. I enjoyed hearing how you cope with all the food and fun on board and commend you for keeping your blood glucose numbers on track. Well, thanks. I have a question about your use of a cgm, continuous glucose monitor. What are the cons of using. Now that you are at a pre non-diabetic a1c, at least here as of the fourth episode, do you plan to stop using it when you get to a certain point? I was diagnosed with type two in July 22. This is Kathy speaking. My A1C was 6.8 at diagnosis. Not horrible, but I'm motivated to lower it. I am currently not on medication on a low carb diet and exercising regular. I test my blood most days before and two hours after meals to gauge how I feel. My numbers have been pretty good and my A1C is now down to 6.0. that's great. Kathy. I feel a CGM might give much better data in real time, perhaps allowing me to increase my carbs and eliminate the frequent finger sticks and timers, but I worry that it would be overkill because my A1C is not that. And especially since the only instruction I got from my family position was to test twice a day, assuming I would have to pay for a CGM out of pocket. Do you find any other downsides to the use of a cgm? Again, that's continuous glucose monitor. How long have you used one? Do you plan to continue to use one even after you have met your a1c? Congrats on the podcast. You're providing real help to real people. that was very nice, Kathy. Thank you very much for those kind words. I appreciate that. And, that's my goal is to try and help some folks as I go along this journey myself. So congratulations to you on getting your, average A1C from a 6.8 down to a 6.0. That's fabulous. Now for your questions, what are the cons of using a continuous glucose? Other than the price, I really don't know of a con. again, I get mine through a company called Nutrien. I found him on Instagram of all places, and I do pay out of pocket. it's $199 every month, and the CGM itself lasts two weeks. So I get a box of two, every four weeks. no, I don't know of. Con against using one other than that price. and no, I don't think I'm going to stop using it. I have been using it now for about 18 months and it's the tool that I use to know if my plan's being successful. I honestly couldn't stand the finger sticks, and I used to do that. I did that for a little while. my doctor never even told me to. I just did that on my own and now I'm doing the CGM on my own because it's this data that I get from the CGM that helps me know if the foods are being helpful, the movement's being helpful, everything. And the other medications if they're being helpful. The CGM is the only way I would know on a day-to-day, hour to hour basis. And, I get a reading every 15 minutes, so I know. Within an hour or two after eating something, what was its effect? Ooh, I'm not gonna have that again. Or, Hey, there was no effect at all. That's what I was surprised, like by eating mixed nuts, which I really enjoy as a snack. There's no impact at all. That's how I figured out that eating chili and with a lot of beans, even though there's a lot of carbs in beans because of the fiber and whatever else, there was no impact at all. but eating, one piece of white bread and whoop, there it goes right up. So it's by knowing those things on a regular, hour. daily basis. That really encouraged me to continue to use the cgm. So now it is 200 bucks a month and yes, finger sticks are a lot less than 200 bucks a month. In fact, with most insurance, they're practically free, But to me, having that convenience. I'll give up something else, in order to have that. So if you're able to handle the cost, no, I don't know of a single thing wrong with using a continuous glucose monitor. So I hope that was helpful, Kathy. And if you have questions, again, feel free to ask, if you have questions on today's topic. If you would like to hear, me talk about something else on a different podcast episode. Let me know, send it in. I'd be happy to, answer those on the air and also send back cer, jy and Kathy some information privately as well. But generally speaking, I'll, answer the questions here on the podcast in a generic manner. What's Next? --- Okay, so what's next? as you know, I do a whole lot of. . And as you know, I track the data from that walking, the, the time spent, the calories burned. I share that every day on my, Instagram and stories and Facebook, on the Facebook page. And, also I wear this CGM that we just talked about, so, I know how this walking that I do impacts my blood sugar levels, whether it's a short walk, a very long walk, a slow walk, a fast walk, hills, no hills. I actually see the impact of that walking on my blood sugar levels. So that's what I'd like to talk to you about. Next week I'm gonna talk about how walking impacts my blood sugar levels. 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.