Introduction --- Well, to me, my walking, even though I enjoy it and I think it's great for me, to me that's a little. it is not as impactful as eating foods that are helpful to me. 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've had a great week. I've had a really nice week. , my week started with New Year's and is finishing with Christmas. . Yeah, I know that sounds a little backwards. Uh, let me explain that. So we had New Year's at home and, , we visited, , with our extended family. They all came to the central Pennsylvania region. We had relatives from Connecticut. And various parts of Pennsylvania. , some flew up from Florida. We had a lot of people all together at my sister-in-law's place. I'm guessing there was maybe 40 or 50 people there. , four generations of people and it was a fun time. And of course, , for New Year's Day we always have pork and sauerkraut. , so we had some great roasted pork and a ton of sauerkraut, some mashed potatoes, things like that. So it was a really fun day. , also had some golden almond. I don't know if you're familiar with Hershey's chocolate, , bars called golden almonds, but they are really, , good chocolate bars in my opinion. So we had a nice day and. I also had a great walk that day out on the Lebanon Valley rails, the trails. So that was exciting. . So, , enjoyable New Year's day and then basically, , had three days at home just relaxing with my wife and hanging out and having fires in the fireplace and getting in a nice walk each day and, uh, you know, chilling, watching some tv. and then, , we drove up to Maine on Thursday. We drove to Maine, , spent about seven hours on a drive up, which is really not too bad. I got to watch the news and have my coffee in the morning before we had to leave. And , honestly, the drive up was. Well, I don't know if I can say relaxing, but it was certainly uneventful. , traffic was really good, so I was thankful for that. So we got up here to my youngest daughter's place in Maine, and then the following morning up here, I went to two different airports in two different states and picked up two different. . So we ended up getting three of the kids together here. , and we had our second Christmas, , we exchanged gifts with our Mainers as we called them, and the sisters did their secret Santa with each other, which was fun. So, , I don't know what else. I gotta walk in the snow. , while we were up here in Maine, it's stoned, maybe, I don't know, three inches. , the day after we got here, pretty much. sun up to sun down. And then I think later, even in the night it snowed. So, , I was out there walking in the snow, wanted to get a good walk in, and I had not gotten in a walk the day we drove up here. So I was out there for about an hour walking in the snow. And it's been a fun week so far. , the grandkids up here are active and lively as ever, so that's, uh, added a lot of fun and excitement. Everybody seemed to be happy with Christmas presents and. Folks are working on various projects, a whole lot of knitting. , my one son-in-law does a whole lot of woodworking. , he built himself a little woodworking shop down in the basement, so that's a lot of fun for him. So that's pretty much my week and what I've done, , this past week. . My Numbers --- So looking at my numbers, I have closed my rings six of the seven days this week. I did not, , close the rings the day of the drive up here and I most likely won't close them the day we drive home. But that's fine. I mean, six outta seven is great. You do that repeatedly and it's almost the same thing as doing 'em seven outta seven, , in my. , my workouts have all been long walks and enjoyable long walks. Some out on the trail by my house in Pennsylvania, some around my neighborhood in Pennsylvania. And then I've had several good walks, , since I've been up here today. , One of my daughters and I actually split the walk. We did two walks and, , you know, half hour, 45 minutes each time. And, , it was, it was really nice. , the sun was shining all day today, so it was a good time. , my seven day glucose readings, , have averaged, we're using my CGM across this week. Been an average of 91. So that's, uh, that equates to an A1C of 4.8, which, uh, I don't know. I'm, I'm a little flabbergasted. I'm hoping it's accurate. I changed this CGM here in about two days and we'll see if it changes at all, but you know, it appears to be working fine. , , when I eat, , sweet things, it goes up, and when I don't, it goes down. But yeah, the seven day average has been 91, which even for how we've been doing lately is, um, is really astonishingly good for me. But I'll take it. I'm happy with it and, , we'll see how long that, uh, continues. But yeah, 91 for this week. , my body fat percentage when I stepped on the smart scale, , this week was at 25.5%. , so that continued, , slow downward trend and I look back, , over the, over 2022 and , you know, my weight's been slowly not. Not, , down all the time, not down always one week to the next. But over the course of a year, it's been down, certainly over the course of the last several months, it's been down and, , it's down again this week. So I'm happy with that. I'll, uh, I'll take that. Macros have been good. I've been averaging, you know, 70, 80 grams of carbohydrates a day, and I've been averaging about 120, 130 grams of protein each. and that's great. I think it's important to keep up the protein and of course to keep my blood sugar in line. One of the things that I find really helps me is, , keeping my carbohydrates relatively low. , I don't really follow any named diet, like I'm not keto or anything else, but I am, you know, fairly low carbohydrates. I think to be keto, I'd, I'd have to keep the. carbs certainly below 50 grams and probably below 20 grams or so to technically be keto. But at 70 to 80 grams of net carbs, that's, uh, carbs, not counting the fiber. , Mounjaro Update --- okay, my Mounjaro update for the week. Here's the Mounjaro update I have just taken yesterday. Now my final, , Mounjaro injection of the 2.5 milligram dose. It comes in a box of four, and so when you get one dose, you have four injections at that dose. So the very starting dose was 2.5 milligrams, and I've now taken all four of those injections. So I'm now, , starting my fourth week, , using Mounjaro. I've already picked up my box of. Five milligram doses. So I have those waiting for me at home in the fridge. And so starting here, a few days after this podcast comes out, I will take my first injection of five milligrams. So, so far, , my glucose has been averaging lower and my carbohydrates, and I've looked back over the last several weeks and my carbohydrates have been staying about the same as where they were in the previous month. But my. average is lower and not dramatically. Instead of a, maybe instead of a 100, it's been in the low nineties, or instead of a one 10, it's been below a hundred, but still it, it has been noticeably lower. Also, one of the things that I do feel. Is my hunger level is way down. I seem to be totally satisfied having just a small plate of food. Now I make sure it's very nutritious food, a lot of protein. , when I eat carbs, there are good complex carbohydrates and, , healthy sources of fat. I'm eating quality food because I think I really am eating less. , and I do feel full longer. I. Feel comfortable now eating a larger volume of food. And I think that that is because, , of the Mounjaro now I don't have proof. I, I, it's hard to say, what do, what can you attribute to the Mounjaro and what is just, all the other things I'm doing. That, honestly is hard to say, but I believe in the past month now that I've been doing these Mounjaro medications, , I think that I, , I feel full longer. I'm satisfied eating a little bit less food. now my weight, my overall weight, and I can show by my body fat percentage that it is. The vast majority of it is fat is down three pounds in the last three weeks. So I'm not having these huge dramatic weight losses that some people experience with Mounjaro. Now, it could be a couple. Number one, I am on the minimal dose. So while I think I am eating less, it's not much less than I was already eating. Also, honestly, I probably only have 20, maybe 25 pounds that I could comfortably lose. , so I'm not obese anymore. I was at one time, at one point, I was. I don't know, 80, 85, 90 pounds more than I am right now. So I've already lost the bulk of all that excess weight. So this Mounjaro is not for me a weight loss treatment. This is for me, a blood sugar control treatment. So it's doing what I want to do and, uh, like I said, what it's doing on its own versus what it's doing in combination with everything else I'm doing. you know, that's, uh, that's hard to tell. But anyway, that's the Mounjaro update for the week next week on to five M. . Challenge & Win --- So for my challenge this week, I think it's more the same of what it's been lately. Our Christmas has been extended. Now here it is, I'm recording this on January 7th. So our Christmas is still going on. , so I am surrounded with, still more. In fact, I think they're making more cookies tonight even So there's plenty of cookies around. There's plenty of snacks, plenty of treat. But I'm not really tempted. I, I don't think I've had anything in the way of a suite since I've been up here in Maine, and I don't know, it's just not, not a big deal for me. So that would have in the past been a tremendous challenge, but I don't know, right now, I think it's going, going along pretty well. So I'll call that my challenge and my win for the week. News --- Let's take a look at the news. , this first article, , is called For the Love of Carbs, so this article. It's entitled in this section here called the Science of Weight Loss. But anyway, it has to do with some, , here they say blood sugar friendly options. So carbs, and I'm sort of to blame for this as well. I give carbs a bad rap sometime. But I think what this article tries to say and what I believe is important is that not all carbs are the same. They make in this article, and I do too, a big distinction between highly processed foods. , they give examples here such as white bread, chips, cookies, cakes, , sugary sodas, things like that. They say those are actually harmful. Those actually can. For most people spike your blood sugar, and if you have type two diabetes, you know that's something you're trying to avoid. That's one of your main focuses to avoid. However, there's other carbs like they give examples here, barley, unsweetened, plain yogurt, berries, lentils, squash, things like that, that actually while they are. Almost exclusively carbs, or at least certainly the vast majority of those foods are made up of carbohydrates. They're paired with fiber and protein and things that. , to me, in my experience, almost eliminate any type of spike that I would get in my blood sugar if I ate the same number of, , highly processed carbs as occur in these foods. I think I've said before here, , I can have a big bowl of chili or things like that and not get any kind of blood sugar spike at all, even though they're mostly carbohydrates. So this is a good article here, and again, it's called For the Love of Carbs. The second article is called The Sleep Solution. Now I'm a big, , proponent of getting a good night's sleep, and they're saying here that sometimes if folks are struggling with weight loss, it can come because they're not getting good sleep. Now we know that when you're stress. That stress hormones can actually. Make your blood sugar spike because it, , adversely affects your insulin secretion. Another hormone, just like your stress hormones like cortisol, , are hormones and they interfere with each other and they can actually keep your blood sugar levels high. Well, they're saying the same thing can happen with a lack of sleep. Now, something else that I've noticed, and again, this is. With me personally, , is that when I stay up later at night, that's when I would attempt to snack and sometimes eat mindlessly. So it's almost like a double whammy, getting to bed on time or getting to bed a little early. Eliminates that chance of that late night, , grazing. Some people call it, so I think it's a double, a double benefit here of getting good sleep is, is the sleep itself is good for you, having your body rested, but then also. If you go to bed a little earlier, well that's maybe a half an hour or an hour, you wouldn't be out in the kitchen snacking. So they give some tips here on what to do to get a better night's sleep. And they say hydrate early in the day. Of course we don't wanna be drinking a gallon of water, , an hour or two before we go to bed, but they say hydrate early in the day. And then also you'll need to actually drink a little bit less right before you go to bed if you've hydrated early. The second thing is to limit caffeine after. Now, I just did a, , post today about coffee and drinking coffee and tea, but I do switch to herbal tea later in the day. Tea that does not contain caffeine, so they say limit that after lunch. The third thing they say is to eat a high fiber, , diet, because they say this, sometimes your blood sugar dropping at. Can cause disrupted sleep, but high fiber, less processed foods can actually keep your blood sugar as we know, more stable and therefore you don't get those wild swings. , they say get moving. Get sunlight, , during the day, and that prepares your body better for sleep at night. They're also recommending, now, some people might not like this, but they're also recommending to not have alcohol in the evenings if you've been having it. Hard time sleeping because alcohol is a sedative and it actually does help you fall asleep faster. However, as that alcohol is processed in the liver and it gets through your system, it actually can make your sleep disrupted. So yeah, fall asleep faster, but alcohol does not actually help you sleep better according to these folks. Anyway, so that's the second. The third one here is called How to Work Out at Home in just a few square feet of space. So this is good. They're telling us here we do not need this huge home gym. They're saying that if you can stand up, stretch out your arms, left and right and then turn in a 360 degree circle and you don't hit anything with your arms, then you actually have enough, , area to work out. So basically you need an area about equal to your height, , left and right and front and back, and if you have that, then you have enough space to work out. Now, what they recommend here for home equipment to work out in is, first of all, just your. , jumping jacks, sit-ups, pushups, that types of thing is fabulous, , if you're working out at home. But if you want some equipment, they say here, , the trx , suspension system, there are things that there're straps with handles that you can put into the ceiling or in a doorway or things like that. And you can do pulling and pushing. And upper body, lower body, tx, , is actually a very, , well-rounded. Piece of equipment, but they also say, , yoga mats for doing yoga. Maybe a few small sets of dumbbells, , stretching bands, things like that, , are all you really need for a great, , home workout. And none of those things take up a really large space. If you say are, let's say you're six feet tall. That's how tall I am. Let's say you're six feet tall, you only need a space six feet front to back and six feet left to right. So if you're mathematicians, you'll know that's 36 square feet is really what you need to safely exercise at home. So I thought that was a helpful, , article. . The last article here is a little bit more medical. It says, gut bacteria may play a role in diabetes. So again, here they link to the actual full scientific studies, but they believe that they have found that certain bacteria in your, , GI system, in your gut, if you will, , Some of these bacteria can make you very insulin sensitive and keep your blood sugar very well in control. But they found when some of those bacteria are missing, that's when people have a harder time with blood sugar control. Now, according to this study, , a big difference of why some people who can eat the same thing as another person and exercise the same amount as another person might. A completely different blood sugar profile. Could it be a genetic reason why you have or do not have some of those bacteria, do you have a, , gut, a GI system that is, , friendly to those bacteria or not? They don't know the why, but they do know that people with, and I'm not gonna try and pronounce these names of these different bacterias. You can look it up here in the article, and it does, , link, , to the actual study. It was done at Wake Forest Baptist Health System in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And so you can see that and see all the names of these various bacteria, but they have a direct correlation. They said, , among all these participants, those who had, , , these bacteria present, , had better glucose control than those who did not. So, again, I, I think it's very interesting, but it's, it's a little sciencey, so you're gonna wanna read that one, , if you are really interested in that, cuz I don't think we can actually change the bacteria. , but it's interesting to know. How Walking Impacts My Blood Sugar --- Okay, this week's topic, like I said on the last episode, is how walking. Impacts my blood sugar levels. Now, I've been pondering this because I have seen that when I do my long walks, sometimes I see a dramatic response in my blood sugar levels at that particular time. Other times I've seen no change at all. . And I think this is interesting, , because we say, , you want to eat healthy and you want to get in good movement, you want to eat those things that are helping you and also move your body. And that combination can really, those are called your lifestyle, , changes. And those things can impact your type two diabetes. And I believe that, but what amount does it do? How much does it really affect? . So while I have noticed that working out or even my walks can affect my blood sugar level, it's not, I'm gonna say the big lever. I was actually having a discussion about this, , with one of my daughters, , during our walk today. And I said, how do I describe that? And somehow we came up upon the big lever and the little. It like if you are into, , weightlifting or maybe CrossFit or strength training, you probably know what a squat is. A squat is the motion you make when you sit down in the toilet without using your arms. , if you just are standing and then you seat yourself down into a chair without bracing yourself with your arms, and then you stand back up without using your arms, that's a squat. , so that moves major muscles, that moves big levers in your body and it's, it really is effective strength training. You compare that to a, I don't know, a bicep curl. Well, that's a very small lever. Literally your arm is smaller than your leg, but also the muscles involved are much smaller too. So if you're just trying to get strong by doing bicep curl, Well, you'll strengthen a little muscle and it'll make it a little bit bigger, stronger, but you're not really affecting your overall health. But you do squats, especially weighted squats. You are affecting major muscle groups throughout your body and, and you're making a big change. Okay, so what does this have to do with walking? Get back to walking Tom. Well, to me, my walking, even though I enjoy it and I think it's great for me, to me that's a little. it is not as impactful as eating foods that are helpful to me. The diet side, if you will, and by diet I mean the things you eat, not a named commercial diet, but the, the eating side, I'll say to me is a much bigger lever when it comes to controlling my blood sugar and therefore helping my type two diabetes, , improve. I always like to say, and I honestly don't know where this comes from, but you can't outrun a Twinkie. In other words, a Twinkie, and I don't know what it is. Is it a couple hundred calories? 300 calories? I don't know, but it's pure junk. Anyway, you can eat one of those little suckers in maybe 30 seconds and a few minutes later you want another one. I don't know how long it's been since I've had a Twinkie, but there's these little cakes. and you can just eat literally one after another. Well, to walk away the blood sugar spike that you get from eating a, or I at least get from eating a Twinkie would take me an hour of fairly vigorous walking. Well, if I have two Twinkies, well now I have to devote two hours of walking to try and. it's much more effective. It's a much bigger lever to not have the twinki in the first place. I keep my walks for my overall general health, for my overall wellness, both mental and physical. That's why I like getting out there and walking for an hour outside fresh air. You know, sometimes it's cold, sometimes it's hot, sometimes it's just right, but I don't. to make these big changes in my blood sugar levels. Now, it does have that effect, but it's a little effect if it's more intense, if there's a lot of hills, let's say it's actual hiking. Well that has a bigger effect, obviously, and I think one of the reasons is walking is a fairly low impact, low intensity form of exercise. So inside the cells, that's actually burning the logs, that's actually burning the fat inside the cells. If I wanna empty. Muscle cells of the glycogen of the sugar, then that takes more high intensity, , maybe high intensity interval training or maybe running, or at least very intense hiking, , to really burn up all that sugar in my muscles, which then if I'm insulin sensitive, will draw more sugar from the blood to refill those muscle. So yeah, if I'm getting out there and I'm really, really hoofing it, yes, that's gonna use up a good amount of sugar, but normally my walks are, I will say, moderate. So you know, it doesn't really have that much of a spike. So I guess what I'm trying to share here is that it's much easier and much more effective to control your blood sugar levels through what you eat. Partnered with your medications and other things than it is to simply try and walk away your blood sugar. Now walking is moderate intensity. , there are other high intensity things you can do if you're, if you wanna more aggressively attack your blood sugar. But for me, I find that walking is not the big lever my eating. Is really the big lever. So just remember you can't outrun a Twinkie. Or maybe I should say you can't outwalk a Twinkie. Questions --- Okay, so we have two questions. . This is really cool. I like it when we get questions in, and the first question here is from Katie. So Katie wrote in and she said, what's a piece of advice you would go back and give yourself in your twenties or thirties? Keep in mind I turned 60 this year, like in regards to health raising healthy families, et cetera. Wow. Okay. Well, , if I could go back 30 or 40 years and tell myself a piece of advice, I'm trying to think of how my mind was 30 or 40 years ago. With regards to nutrition and health, I would say I wish I knew that a calorie was not just a calorie. That it's not just simply about eating a certain number of calories. Per day. And it's not just about what your body weighs. , you have these very complex systems in your body and it's more important, I believe, what you eat than it is how many calories you eat, for example. If I eat, let's say 2000 calories a day, and they're mostly carbohydrates, well, I'm not gonna build very much muscle with that, and my blood sugar is gonna be very, very high. But if I eat those same 2000 calories, but it's a very good portion of protein, some healthy fats and some carbohydrate well, I'm actually gonna be able to lose fat doing that. I'm gonna have protein for muscles and my blood sugar's gonna be just fine. So I wish, I think when I was 20 or 30 I knew that it's not just weight management that I should be concerned with. It's health management. So thanks Katie. I hope that answered your question. , that was a very good question. It made me think a little bit. This next question comes from, , , and I'm gonna read this question here. It's a little bit longer. Hi Tom. Thanks for answering my last question. So Kathy wrote in before I remember Kathy. Okay? Yes, yes. Hi Kathy. Anyway. Hi Tom. Thanks for answering my last question. , I have a suggestion for an upcoming podcast. Okay, here we go. Sickness and diabetes, I mean, common illnesses, colds, flu, stomach bugs. Do common illnesses generally affect your blood glucose levels or diabetes management? Hmm. If so, in what way? Assuming your blood glucose levels fluctuate from the norm during sickness, are there any hacks to use to help? What might cause you to contact a doctor when you are suffering from a common illness and have type two diabetes? Keep up the good work. Congratulations on your awesome progress. Well, thanks very much, Kathy. Thanks for the kind words. Thanks for the. All right, so I had to do some investigation and I came across, uh, an article exactly on this topic, and I'll include this in the show notes, and it's called High Blood Sugar When Sick Causes and What to Do. So it turns out that yes, just like other forms of stress having type two diabetes, Can actually make it worse because when your body produces these stress triggers, , including a release of hormones to try and fight the sickness, that actually raises blood glucose levels. So it, it is true they are related, that you typically will have, , worse blood sugar control if you have a. Common illness, , it says here, almost any sickness or injury can actually cause your blood sugar levels, , to go up. , it makes less, , insulin, , which we all know is what helps us manage our, our blood sugar levels, and it is making these other hormone. That, are used to help, , send signals and treat your body, , when it's sick. So, according to this article, and again, I'm just reading here, I'm not a doctor. In fact, Kathy, you asked. , when should we contact our doctor? That's a discussion for you and your doctor. I really shouldn't, and, have no reason to get into trying to tell you when to contact your doctor. But what this article does say is, do not change or stop taking your medication. Continue to take it as directed. , also eat as you normally would. , do not change your eating if you can, , when you have a cold or something like that. It does say to check your blood sugar regularly. And luckily I think more and more people are actually wearing the continuous glucose monitors like I am. , so checking your blood sugar is, , very simple. And also do consult with your healthcare and follow their instructions. So, yeah, I didn't honestly know this before, , Kathy sent in this question and. She caught me at a good time. I, she sent it in today as a matter of fact. So I quick, , looked this up before I, , recorded this episode. So, Kathy, thanks for that question. , you can, according to this, expect your blood sugar to be raised, , when you have an illness. But that might be something you wanna talk to your, , doctor with preemptively ahead of time and say, Hey Doc, I heard according to this, , article here anyway, that my blood sugar probably will go up if I get sick this winter. , or , anytime. . But, , is there something special you recommend that I do? And, , they may or may not have additional guidance for you, but, , again, thank you Kathy. That's an outstanding question. I learned something myself here I did not know before, so I appreciate that. Now, hey, if you wanna be like Katie and Kathy and send in a question or maybe some feedback on the podcast, there's two good ways to. , the first is just send me an email directly. My email is tom@SolvingType2Diabetes.com and just send a standard email. You ask a question, send in feedback, whatever your comments be happy to get 'em. The second way is to go over to our website. SolvingType2Diabetes.com and click on feedback. And I think it looks here from the email format. That's both what Kathy and Katie did. They went over to the website and clicked on feedback. So that's a great way to send it in as well. And I'd be happy to get your, , questions answered. What's Next? --- Okay. What's coming up next? Well, for next week, I would like to know. Where are your New Year's resolutions? I know with a lot of folks it's very popular to make New Year's, , resolutions. , it is still the first week of January if you've made them. By the time this next episode comes out, it'll be the second week of January. You'll have been living with your New Year's resolutions for about two weeks. I'd be curious into knowing. How's it going? , I'm gonna talk about New Year's resolutions a bit. I think I might have a little bit, , of an unpopular take on New Year's resolutions, but I'd like to share it and, , talk to you about that next week. 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.