Introduction --- with this increase of obesity in kids overweight and obesity, that, they're saying 220,000 people in the US under the age of 20 could have. type two diabetes, , in the future. 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've had a great week. I've had a really good week. It's been a little busy, which is good. Better than boring. So, uh, at the last episode, I was recording up in Maine. We were up in Maine visiting our youngest daughter and family. Grandkids and all that. And , that was our final Christmas. We call that Christmas part three. , we had our first part at home in Pennsylvania and then we had Christmas with other parts of our family in, , Hilton Head, South Carolina. And then finally we ended up in Maine and we had Christmas part three, which was really fun. It was neat seeing the grandkids play, , with their toys. It, , happened to snow while we were up there and, , they made a snowman and it was a lot of fun. Got in some really good walks. Then after, wrapping up our visit there on Tuesday morning, we, , had an eight hour drive. not too eventful. But, , that was part of my challenge for this week and I'll be talking about that later when I talk about my challenge for the week. So then, , we got home on Tuesday and then I had Wednesday, Thursday, Friday at home. We actually got to sleep in our own bed. , we were there for three days and each day I managed to get out and get a great, , trail walk in, and I added in. Other things that we'll talk about in a little bit here, but it was nice being home for three days . , Saw more family. And , then yesterday I got back on board, , Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas, and that's where I am right now recording this episode. , we sailed out of Baltimore yesterday and right now we are in the North Atlantic. We are headed south. It's a little bit of a weather day today. The seas are rocking and rolling a little bit. , I'm alone on this cruise. , my wife is not with. , well, there's 2000 other people here with me, but my wife is not one of them. Unfortunately, she stayed home. She does not like to cruise as often as I do. , she likes to keep it special, but it is, I think, my happy place. So I cruise as much as I can get away with. And, a little rocky today. She would not like that. But, , we're headed south. We're supposed to be out of this by tomorrow, which is great. And, , it's warming up a little bit. It's in the mid thirties at home and it's in the mid fifties here, but it is very windy outside, so it's not, , really pleasant to be outside, , today. So stay inside, , record a, , podcast. That'll work. My Numbers --- So let's look at my numbers for this. this week, , six out of seven days. I did close my rings. You know, I used the Apple Watch and it has its fitness rings for standing hours for movement, and then for exercise. And those three rings are how I track my movement each day. And I did close them six outta seven days. I did not close it the day we had that eight hour drive home. That was my choice. , you know, I could have gotten on the treadmill when I got home or whatever, but I didn't. And , that's. , six outta seven days do that repeatedly. And that's just great With regards to my workouts, , while I was in Maine, , nice long outdoor walks and when I was home, I got in some nice, , long walks on my favorite rails to trails, the Lebanon Valley rails to trails this week. But then I also did add in a day where I did yoga. I did rowing on the concept two, and I also did, , a high interval, , high intense interval training, whatever it is hit stands for. , I did all those three with Apple Fitness Plus, and it's really needed, incorporates the watch so it gets my heart rate and calories and stuff like that. But then I can follow along on the television and I did, , like beginner level stuff, , for the yoga. and the hit, , rowing is one of my favorite, , workouts. There's a guy on there on Apple Fitness Plus called Josh and I tend to do workouts, , with him. He does have a partner that also does rowing workouts. I think she's out on maternity leave right now. But she was rowing right up through, , I think her ninth month, , I think when she recorded her last workout on the Apple Fitness, plus she was only a couple of weeks away from delivering, and I think she's out right now, but she'll get back in there anyway. , not a plug for Apple Fitness plus I of course do not get any money from them. , Well, I don't get any money from anyone, but anyway, , it is a good, , thing to have. Or some people use Peloton, some people use Fitness Blender. That's, you know, totally free that you can find, , free workouts, , on YouTube for sure. And, , My daughter informed me this week that, , Netflix has, , Nike workouts on there. So wherever you get it, maybe you go into a CrossFit gym, maybe you go to Planet Fitness, maybe you go to Zumba or Spin. But wherever you get your workouts, , make sure you get back at it here. Don't let, , the cold weather keep you from that. So for my seven day glucose reading, it's been I gotta say astonishingly good. My average for the past seven days has been 72. , it's the combination of eating things that are helpful, , movement and also, , my medications and, , that equates to an A1C of 4.2, which is in the optimal range. , the charts I have, don't even go below four. , so I think right now my blood sugar is about as good as it can physically get. Maybe I need to, look into my medications and maybe I don't need as many medications anymore as I have been taking. It's something to definitely discuss with my doctor. In fact, I think I'm gonna make an appointment. My next scheduled appointment isn't until May, but I think I will make an appointment just to, , discuss medications with. And see what she recommends. I have been known to do some self experimentation and I never recommend anyone change their medications without their doctor's approval. However, I do do some self experimentation once in a while. And I might, , I might just give that a shot. I might cut back. Maybe I'll cut back on the Metformin and see how that goes. I measure my blood sugar reading continuously, so I'll know instantly. Certainly, metformin has a half-life of about half a day. So for all of it to get outta your system, it really takes about four days. And, , I'll certainly keep an eye on it if I do an experiment and I'll let you know, I'll keep you posted on that. My body fat percentage for the week, , is down to 24 point. I know that on, a lot of charts and scales of body fat percentage below 25% is no longer considered obese. So that's good. , you know, I've talked about in the past how I eventually am looking towards a body fat percentage of 17, 18%. And, if I lose, I don't know, one percentage point a month, , right now that equates to about two pounds. And, , that doesn't seem extreme. But if I do that, uh one percentage point a month, I only have like seven, eight months to go to get down to that 17, 18%. So, that's, my macros. , each day this week I have only, , averaged 44 grams of carbohydrates. I have averaged 116 grams of protein and, a whole bunch of fat. , but, , the macros with my carbohydrates, I have not. Really been trying to get that low. , it's just, that's all I'm eating and, , I think that swings into my Mounjaro update. Mounjaro Update --- So let me, , give you my Mounjaro update here. This week I did take my first injection of the five milligram dose. Now if you've been following along, You'll know that I have had four injections, one per week of the 2.5 milligram dose, and that was my first month, and this is my first time now at the five milligram dose. That's typically what it does. It steps up two and a half. Then a month at five, then a month at seven and a half, then a month at 10, and you can go higher. You can go to 12 and a half or 15. I don't know how far I'll go. I don't even know if I'll go beyond five that I'm currently now taking. , still no adverse side effects, , at all. A lot of people say they experience. Nausea or, GI issues. But I honestly haven't experienced any of that at all. Now I'm still, even though I'm only on the five milligram dose, so we'll see. Maybe if I go higher, I might get some side effects. I think if I did, I would back down. , my blood sugar again, as I just said, is in very good control and that is why I'm taking the Mounjaro, , is for the blood sugar. I know if you're on TikTok or wherever, it's now popular to take Mounjaro for weight loss, which is cool. That's fine. Doctors are allowed, totally allowed to prescribe it for weight loss even though the FDA approved it, , for type two diabetes. Blood sugar control, , is called prescribing off. which is totally authorized. I think it's just recommended that the doctor say to the patient, Hey, look, this is not what it was originally intended for, but it does have very good efficacy against, , obesity. , I think a lot of doctors are prescribing it simply for weight loss. So in that area, I did lose six pounds of, , body weight and according to my, , smart scale that was mostly body fat, I did lose six pounds during the first month. Now may maybe you'll say, oh, well, heck, I can lose six pounds without Mounjaro. Well, don't forget, that's not why I'm taking it. It's like a side effect, and I think it's because I do sense that it is dramatically controlling my appetite. I. Wow, especially the last couple weeks. I just don't get really hungry. , I've never had this sensation before. I'm usually hungry quite a bit. , now it does help when I eat very low carb, that also tends to curb my hunger. So is it a combination of the Mounjaro and eating low carb and, and all that is controlling my hunger? I really can't say, but I just got done eating lunch here, , up in the buffet. and, they had a assortment of about, I don't, I'm gonna say 200 different foods to choose from. Some of them would be very helpful to me , and others would be, , totally not helpful, but a really, really yummy, , treat. I had a pork chop. I ate a pork chop. , I didn't know that I really wanted to take the last bite or two. This is different. This is a different feeling. , so it's something I'll have to get used to see if it continues. But I will keep you updated, , for sure. So that's my Mounjaro update, , for the week. Challenge & Win --- Now my challenge and win. So, my challenge, and I alluded to this earlier, my c. Was my long drive home. Now driving 8, 9, 10 hours is not that unusual for us. I will say that, , typically in the past, , we would stop and get fast food. , get snacks from the gas station. Now, luckily, I, I haven't drank, , sugared soda in forever, I mean decades. So I don't have a lot of coke, , habit to break while I'm driving. I do get, sugar free. , my go-to is typically, , Mountain Dew Code red zero. , I like the caffeine, I like the, , sweetness, the non-nutritive sweetness. , so I do have that. That could be a danger. You're in the car, you're bored, you gotta stop anyway, maybe at a rest stop or at a gas station. And they have all those vending machines there. And all these gas stations have cooked order food or snacky food or whatever. And so that can be a, a real danger on some of these long drives. So what I do is I, , try and prepare myself as best I can. I try and pack helpful food and drink. So that could mean maybe getting a couple of soda bottles already, getting some water already. And, and believe me, I do drink water. , my sodas are more of a treat nowadays and I typically, I don't have any soda at home, but it's when I'm out and about, I might get. , so I packed, , for this drive. I packed, , protein shakes and I like them. , they're the Walmart, , equate brand protein shakes. , I think they're good. They're chocolatey and, I don't mind 'em at all. And so I packed those. , that's how I got through avoiding, eating other snacks or fast food. My wife actually has started packing her lunch as well when we go in these long drives. So, I'm not even tempted by going into a fast food restaurant. So I think that this type of challenge of a long drive can be overcome by, , planning ahead a little bit and, , packing your own things that you know are helpful to you. News --- Let's look at the news. This week I found some stuff. Unfortunately, this first article is a little, I'm gonna say it's sad. The title is, Number of kids with type two diabetes may jump 700% in the next three decades. Now, that's a prediction. It doesn't have to be fact, but they're saying that they're seeing the, , people with a healthy weight range, , in kindergarten is dramatically rising. As it is throughout elementary school and high school, but they're predicting that with this increase of obesity in kids overweight and obesity, that, they're saying 220,000 people in the US under the age of 20 could have. type two diabetes, , in the future. And that's really shocking when you think that right now the CDC says being over 45 is a risk factor, but we're talking about kids younger than 20, kindergarten through high school. And, and to me that's just shocking. They say it's because. Obesity, they say that, kids with, they have a lot of screen time before bed and that disrupts their sleep and they're snacking a lot and for the most part, they're really not moving a whole lot. They're laying around their face and their iPad or whatever, and they have a bag of Doritos next to. That's not every kid. Your kid might be out there running and playing soccer and all that kind of good stuff and only eating, meat and veg and whatever. But unfortunately that's not typical. Most of the kids have the, the face in an iPad laying on the couch eating Doritos, and that is how they spend their, free time, , when they're not in school. This is shocking and alarming. , I was obese when I was a kid, and lemme tell you, it's, it's not a way, , to grow up. And luckily, I guess you could say I was not diagnosed with type two diabetes until much later in life. Right around the time I turned 50. But nowadays they're saying that seven times the number of kids under the age of 20, , could have type two diabetes within the next 30 years. And they go on, they detail it out here a little bit. They say that nowadays even, , for black kids, and, I don't know why this is, it could be maybe a little less access to healthcare or whatever, but almost one in 10 black children were obese by the time they started fifth grade. And that's today. So you. . Anyway. That's just sad. , let's move on. There's certainly something to consider. Read the article here If you have kids or you're interested in this topic and, it doesn't have to be that way. We, we can, , do things now, eating, modeling, good eating, modeling, movement, and let's face it, parents, you're the ones primarily who buy the food. , . I don't know. I think we can do something about it. This next article here now is, , along the same lines, it's entitled, new Guidelines for Treating Childhood Obesity Include Surgery and Weight Loss Drugs for the First Time. So the American Academy of Pediatrics has released new guidelines for their, medical professionals on treating childhood obesity. And, it has always been proper eating. Movement if, if there's been a kid who's been overweight, that's what a doctor would say. But, as an adult I know that it's sometimes very difficult that, to have movement and just eating to completely take care of your type two diabetes or, if you, these here it's talking about obesity, but as we know in the. Previous article that often leads to type two diabetes. So now they have the option, , for kids as young as 12 and, , to use these, , obesity reducing medications or, , bariatric surgery. So now that's down to the age of 12 because more and more of our kids, like we said in the last article, are becoming obese and , they're having a harder time of it. But some of the doctors are very optimistic and they say not to skip the movement and proper eating, but when you add. To that, the medications or, or if needed, the surgery. , the kids can actually have a real chance of having a normal weight, not just a lower obesity amount, but actually can get down to a normal weight, which would, I think, set them up well to having a normal weight as an adult. So that's the second article here. The next one is not about kids, it's for all of us and it's. Why ultra processed foods are so bad for you and these ultra processed foods. Think of, , Doritos or Lucky Charms or things like that. These things that. Taste really, really good. They usually have the perfect amount of sugar and salt and crunchiness, and sometimes they involve that orange powder that gets all over your fingers. A bag of cheese curls has usually absolutely nothing. , that's helpful to you. It is simply. Sugar and fat, and it's combined in such a way, and it's produced in such a way that they literally just sort of melt in your mouth. So this is why they're dangerous but it's not that like, say take a single serving and the number of calories or grams of fat or whatever in a single serving would be bad. It's just that it's hard to eat just a single serving. They are designed to have you, , I call it inhaling an entire bag, and that's what it, , that's what makes it so, , dangerous and difficult to avoid. but they're saying that these ultra processed foods go a long way, , to helping create obesity. , that these, , especially again, here we are in the, the younger kids, but it's for everybody. But sitting around with your hand and a bag of Doritos. While, it's downright enjoyable, honestly, but it's not helpful and it, it can actually be, , very dangerous. Now, , of course not everybody agrees and some people say, oh, it's just, just do moderation. But for a lot of us, for me, for example, moderation is very difficult. , when I get something I really, really like, I go for it. And, I have to keep it out of the house, , to. . So anyway, good article. Give it a read. Maybe you can learn something about ultra processed food and they also have tips on, alternate type snacks that you might have around that. It could be a lot more helpful to you. This final article is called Addressing Sedentary Lifestyle with Type two Diabetes. Now, in addition to. Overeating. Another big, , factor is, , the sedentary lifestyle. And they say that that combination, , really can lead to obesity, which we know leads to or can easily lead to type two diabetes. So what is considered a sedentary lifestyle? Well, it's usually involving, , laying. Or sitting for long periods of time who don't move, , with regular intervals. And it is, , defined as, getting less than 150 minutes of actual exercise. That could be brisk walking, , bicycling, , dancing, stair climbing, rowing, whatever you want it to be. , strength training, , but getting less than 150 a minutes. of real exercise per week. And, , not getting that is the definition of being sedentary. Another thing, and this is not in this article, but it's a, a study I heard about, , of all places on the Today Show, this past week. They're saying that just getting up and moving, just a casual slow walk, maybe around your house, around your office, just for five minutes. Every half hour, let's say you're sitting at your office, , at your desk every half hour, just stand up and maybe walk down the hall and walk back, , up to five minutes. Not, doesn't have to be long, but by doing that every, every half hour, you dramatically reduce the risks of prolonged sitting. And they're, you've heard the line that sitting is the new smoking. So, , those people who care about their health have gotten rid of the smoking already. And now the next thing we're going for, I guess is the sitting. So it doesn't take a lot, but just a little bit of movement. And that's why I like the apple, , watch with the apple fitness because you have to get up and move. I don't know how many minutes it is, but every hour. , you have to get up and move, and I have mindset for 12 hours. So I have to have movement, , for a little bit, at least for each of 12 hours every day to close that ring. So anyway, it's how I do it. So those are the news articles. , for this week, as always, the, , links to those articles are in the show notes, so you can probably see them. In your podcast player. , they're also over at the website SolvingType2Diabetes.com and for each episode, , you can get the news link articles and you can get the full transcript of every episode right over at that website SolvingType2Diabetes.com Where are your New Year's Resolutions? --- the main topic for this week, we're finally to the main topic. The main topic for this week. Where are your New Year's resolutions? I was curious about this. It is, , now the middle of January today. I'm recording this on January 15th. So you've had now two weeks to live with your New Year's resolutions. I don't know if you make New Year's resolutions. , I typically don't. I think a lot of people do. , but a lot of the common resolutions, in fact, I think they, they have a list of them. I don't know how they get this, I guess people answer a survey, but a lot of the common resolutions tend to revolve around, oh, I want to be healthier this year. Oh, I wanna lose weight this year. And those are more frequent than not. Some of the more common re. And I've got a big problem with that to say on January 1st that, oh, I wanna be healthier this year. Well, okay, yeah, that's, that's a good, aspiration. But that does very, very little to actually get you there. It's, what are you gonna do with that resolution? , pastor once told me, , you need to put feet on your prayers. Just asking for something to happen, , is great. And I don't want anyone getting at me on religion on this, but, do doing something about it, , setting yourself up so that it can possibly happen. , hey, why not give, , give a hand and, do some action to get towards those thing you want. Another way of looking at it is to say a goal or a resolution without an actual plan is really just a. So I think that's the problem that I have with these, , new Year's resolutions is that people get highly excited and motivated about it, but. After a couple weeks. Let me ask you, how are your New Year's resolutions going so far? If they're still in full steam, well that's great. That's better than most people. , a couple weeks from now, three or four weeks from now, most people have forgotten about their New Year's resolutions. Quite frankly, I find for me that if I break it down into active steps, for example, let's just say. , my resolution for this year would be, and I'm just gonna make something up. I wanna lose, I don't know, 20 pounds in 2023. , that's not my resolution. I could just said I don't have resolutions, but if it were well, Just saying that, oh, 20 pounds, oh heck, I probably only need to worry about that in October and I'll lose 20 pounds. Sure, yeah. , I don't need to do anything about it now. And then a couple of months passes by and, oh my, I've gained five pounds. I actually haven't lost anything. So I find for me, if I have a target that I'm trying to. , I almost forget about that target. I determine what steps can I do on a daily basis that if carried out would put me at that target. So the thing is, , I said lose weight. . Well, the ways I know to help with that are eating healthy food, eating real food, eating food in a certain quantity of a certain type, and then getting some movement in. I talked about before how movement really is not the big lever in weight loss or in , glucose control, but it certainly does help. It's great to have more muscle, , because the muscle is actually where you burn a lot of the blood sugar. So I like to break it down into active steps. What can I do today that if done repeatedly, would take me to that target, to that goal, to that re. . So what do I do on a daily basis, , to keep me where I want to be? And, and take me even a little bit further. You know, I, I use My Fitness Pal to track what I eat. I use Apple Fitness to track my movement. I wear a CGM and monitor my blood sugar. I do those things on a daily basis. And if I do those things, if I stay at my daily target for eating and movement and blood sugar control, then I will end up where I want to be. Now, a lot of where I want to be is where I am, so it's, , maintaining that. But, I still have some things to do with regards to, body fat percentage. I wanna lose more of that, get that lower. So I am moving it in that direction. But I don't think about the long term. I don't think about the big picture. I think. What I can do today. So where are my New Year's resolutions? Hey, I'm only worrying about today. Questions --- All right, so your questions, we had, , some feedback in from, , Steve this week. It's not actually a question, it's more of a comment. So let me read that to you. This is from Steve. It goes, hi Tom. Just wanted to say I'm really enjoying your podcast. I'm 37 from Yorkshire, England. I received a diagnosis of type two diabetes just before Christmas after blood tests for something else entirely. , I'm just starting this journey and I appreciate having your experiences to listen along to, I started at the beginning of the series, so it might take me a few weeks to catch up. Cheers, Steve. Well, thanks Steve. It was absolutely a great hearing from you, , over in England. I don't know how your weather compares to ours, but I hope you're having a great day and, , or you're able to get. , and it's a very nice hearing from you. I appreciate those, , those kind words and, hey, feel free to share this with, , with other folks and they, they might, enjoy it and maybe, hopefully get something out of it as well, like Steve has. So good to hear from you, Steve, and cheers right back at you. What's Next? --- So what's next? , for next week on the, , episode next week, I'd like to talk about using accountability in solving type two diabetes, and I have shared before that the reason I do this podcast, in addition to hopefully, helping some folks like you, I, , I did it for my own accountability. That's why I get on here every week. That's why I post on Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and TikTok. Every single day is for accountability. I find that by sharing this with everybody, I am more motivated to, , stay on track. So let's talk about accountability, how you might use accountability in solving your type two diabetes. 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.