Introduction --- But now they're using different, names or different forms of sugar. They often calls something a syrup. So rice, maple, corn, or evaporated cane syrup. that's sugar. All right, plain and simple. Or if it says it's honey or molasses or agave, that is sugar. Or if you see something called fruit concentrate or fruit nectar. That is sugar. 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 an absolutely fantastic week. The day this comes out, it will have been Easter the day before. So I hope that was good for you. Hope you had a great weekend. Before I get into my week too much, I would like to ask a favor of you. Would you please share this podcast? Maybe share it with someone who you think might get some value out of it. I guess you're listening because you get a little bit of value out of it. So if you can think of someone who might also get some value out of this podcast, I would greatly appreci. If you would take a minute and share the podcast with them, that would help a lot. Week in Review --- So for my week, I have been back out on the trail, my Lebanon Valley rail trail that I like so much from my house. things are starting to turn green. the trees are butting out. I see little, wild onion, type grass coming up. Other plants are blooming, so it is definitely springtime here in Lebanon Valley area of Pennsylvania. And I've been out there every day, this week, and, my stitches are healing nicely, from my little, lipoma surgery area, and that's still a little bit of a bother having to care for that twice a day. I get my stitches out here the day after this podcast comes out. So for me, in real time, that's two days from now, and I am looking forward to that. I think I still have to put some of that aquifer on the stitch area for a few more days, even after the stitches come out. My wife has been lovingly caring for that, area for the last couple weeks, and she says that it's looking really good. I haven't seen it yet, actually, it's on the back of my neck and I, I guess I haven't bothered you to take a picture or anything of it, but she said it's healing nicely. She said the surgeon did a really good job, so she said if I have any scar at all, it'll just probably a little fine. even though I have that on the back of my neck, we put a little bandage on it and that doesn't bother me to get out there and walk. So this week I've been out walking, no pain, no issues with that. We've also been prepping for Easter dinner, which in my timeline is later on today for Ulis. You listening to this, it's already occurred and we have. Couple family coming. not a whole big gang this year, but it'll still be nice. We're having handballs, and that's a Pennsylvania Dutch thing and I think we're having probably mashed potatoes, green beans. I'm honestly not sure what all my wife enjoys putting that together. And so she's been doing 99.99, percent of that. He. She does make a really great dip. it's a dill dip. I think it has, sour cream and I don't know, it might have cream cheese in it, I'm not sure, but it's good. No carbs. And, that helps me. And then she's cut up broccoli and things to put in it, so it'll be good. So that's, coming up later on today after I'm done. My Numbers --- Let's take a look at my numbers for the week. So I have been able to close my rings seven out of seven days, which is nice. Not a requirement, but it certainly is nice. I enjoy getting out there and, getting on my trail. Like I said, my seven day. Glucose readings from my freestyle Libra three Continuous glucose monitor, has averaged 95, so for the past seven days, 24 7, the average has come out to 95 and that equates to a gmi, a glucose management indicator of 5.6. So I'm happy that's below the pre type two diabetes range, certainly below type two diabetes. I will, be very happy with that. My body fat percentage has held constant at 21.3%. This week it was 21.3% last week. And as you know, I'm going down. My goal is to go down to a 17% and that doesn't seem too far away. Now, if I do the math, that's about. I don't know, seven or eight more pounds of fat to lose, so that won't be too far in the distance. I'm thinking. With regards to my macros this week I averaged 55 grams of carbohydrates each day for the past seven days, and I've averaged 155 grams of protein. So I seem to be hitting my macros, pretty. Mounjaro Update --- For my Mounjaro update this week, I have just taken my eighth dose at 7.5 milligrams. That's 16 doses altogether, four at 2.5 milligrams, four at. Five milligrams and now eight at 7.5 milligrams. And when I see my doctor next month, I'm fairly certain and we are not increasing that dose at all. In fact, we might be discussing decreasing the dose down to five milligrams to see how that goes. And the last two doses I have taken at the seven day prescribed. Seemed to have worked really well. If you remember a couple of doses before that, I tried to spread out to 10 days, but then when I did take that subsequent dose, it of hit me a little bit hard, I think because the, medication level in my bloodstream probably had dipped fairly low after 10 days. And then when I hit it with a 7.5 milligram dose. I seem to have, GI issues, things like that, but no issues this week, no issues last week, and having great a1c. So that's, my goal, that's why I'm doing this. Between the Mounjaro, the Fara, the, eating, I'm doing, my movement, it seems to be keeping my A1C really in a super healthy range. So I'm happy with that. Weight loss is a side effect of the Mounjaro because you simply don't eat a whole lot. in fact, if you remember, I'm on a plan right now to try and increase my eating just a little bit. To slow my weight loss because I want to level out. once I do get down to that 17% body fat percentage, I do want to, bring the weight loss to an end, which is something I look forward to. But in the last 15 weeks, my body fat percentage has gone down from 26.5%, in mid-December to 21.3%. These last two. Challenge and Win --- Now for my challenge and win this week, I'm gonna claim another autopilot week, and I described an autopilot week a couple episodes ago, and that's where things are just clicking. I am eating what I want to eat. I'm moving the way I want to move, and I don't really have to think about it. All that. Now I do plan with My Fitness Pal. I do plan out what I'm gonna eat. I always try and schedule in my movement to give myself at least an hour out in the trail or an hour in my local neighborhood. In fact, today I'm pressed for time a little bit. So I think I'll be walking out in my local neighborhood. It saves me that 20 minute drive out to the trail and 20 minute drive home. But that's the goal in Autopilot Week. So I'm calling that a win. It's not much of a challenge, but it certainly is a. News --- Let's take a look at the news. Now. This first article is, very interesting. It's, talking about a little bit of, technology here, a little bit of advanced, medicine. It says, blood test detects warning signs of type two diabetes. Now, You're familiar with the blood test. You get to check your A1C level. You're familiar with a finger stick to get a instantaneous glucose level, but this is talking about a predictive test. This is talking about a test that they can give you before you're showing any signs or symptoms of elevated blood sugar before your A1C would look abnormal. But what they're saying is that when they test for, DNA methylation, It's a chemical change in your blood showing various activities of genes that's linked to diabetes and whether or not they're increasing or decreasing. So this is a blood test that you can get. It's a genetic test of sorts. It checks your, enzymes and your DNA chemical changes, in the blood. But they say that it's very predict. Now, I don't know the whole sinus about it, but they're saying it's very predictive as an indicator, an early warning sign, if you will, of people, who might likely get type two diabetes or in the process of developing type two diabetes. And they're saying that by knowing ahead of. That those people can take steps, to prevent it or to, blunt the impact of, of that happening. So that's very exciting. A new blood test that can, predict your chance of getting, type two diabetes within the next decade. So that's a good one. The next one here is talking about, knowing if, you're eating added sugars. It says, unsure if a food has added sugars. Look for these ingredients on the label. Now, they often, nowadays, when they're manufacturing edible substances, that we call food. Not everything we eat is actually what I call food, but, a lot of these manufactured product. They try and hide the sugar, quite frankly. They give it different names. for example, anything that's ending in os o s E, those are the ones we're more familiar with. Or if it actually has sugar in the name brown sugar, cane sugar. But when you see fructose sucrose, dextrose maltose, right away, hey, just call it. But now they're using different, names or different forms of sugar. They often calls something a syrup. So rice, maple, corn, or evaporated cane syrup. that's sugar. All right, plain and simple. Or if it says it's honey or molasses or agave, that is sugar. Or if you see something called fruit concentrate or fruit nectar. That is sugar. So everything it seems has sugar in it. And we will be talking more about that when I talk about my food substitutions, later on this next article, which is also, very, I'm gonna call it good advice. it might not be a game changer, but it, I think it's certainly good advice. It. Diabetes experts recommend simple 55 5 rule to improve blood sugar levels. Now, what this is saying, and I'm just gonna sum this up, it's very just a basic thought. It's that after 55 minutes of being sedentary, and that could be watching tv, it could be working at your desk. Basically, if you're sitting and you're not moving, get up for five minutes, basically every hour and just move a little. Maybe if you're working at work, you can take a walk, to a coworker's desk or you can go to the, little snack area or coffee area maybe and maybe don't get a snack necessarily every hour. But, maybe get a glass of water or something. Just walk a little bit. But whatever it is they're saying every. Move a little bit for five minutes. Now you can use a standing desk. Maybe you alternate between sitting and standing. throughout the day, but this is similar to what my Apple Watch does. It will, nudge my wrist just a little bit if I haven't moved yet, during an hour. because of my Apple Watch, I try and get at least 12 hours every day. Where I move part of that hour. And, if I look back over my stats, I think I'm average about 14 hours a day where I'm moving a few minutes, up walking around, whatever, a few minutes out of each and every hour. Some hours I'm moving almost the entire hour, but others I might just be moving a few minutes. So this article says, five minutes out of every hour it's, calls it the 55 5 rule. And, that's what they're recommending. So now on this last. It says a fasting diet reduces risk markers of type two diabetes. Now, I certainly can't recommend a fasting diet. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I just can't make that recommendation because I am not a health or nutrition professional. But the article here is saying that they've done a study over, 18 months and that. They have statistically shown that people who only eat, it's four to six hours a day. So during a 24 hour period, they choose a particular four or six hour period. And they're saying here, that morning actually gives a better result so eating in the morning, eating sometime, before noon for, taking a four hour window and then not eating the rest of the day. Now that's pretty amazing. anyway, it links to this whole, study. the name of the study is Long. It says Intermittent fasting plus early time restricted eating versus calorie restriction and standard care in adults at risk of type two. A randomized controlled trial that, came out in Nature Medicine, this year. So they linked to the whole, study. You can look at the whole study. There's some graphs here, but it's pretty interesting to hear that they claim that, the odds of someone getting type two diabetes, in a randomized controlled trial is definitely reduced. when they only eat a few hours during the day and it's in the morning. So I thought that was interesting. Check that out. You know the link for that article and all the articles, they're always in the show notes and you can get that in your podcast player. There should be a link right there to get to the show notes. And if not, head over to the website SolvingType2Diabetes.com and you'll always find all the show notes and links to all the article. Food Substitutions --- All right, let's talk about food substitutions. So like I said, we're getting ready to have a little family dinner here today, and maybe you are as well. You certainly eat every day. So these might be interesting. Now you're gonna find that some of the things that I substitute for, you might not want to, but that's fine. I'm just sharing what works for me, when I'm solving my type two diabetes. But for. You might not need to make substitutions. You might make totally different substitutions. That's between you. And if you have a nutritionist or a registered dietician, or your doctor, you go, you all figure out what works best for you. Now, for me, the issue is mostly carbohydrates. And I think that's true for a lot of folks with type two diabetes or pre-diabetes. it's the carbohydrates, mostly added sugars. In processed foods. That's where I found that I had the biggest issue. Those are the things that would spike my blood sugar. The worst was these added sugars in processed foods. So that news article we talked about a little bit earlier, we talked about how to spot. Added sugars, you're not always gonna see the word sugar. Now, most food labels do show a line for added sugars in the nutrition facts, and if it has anything more than one gram per serving, I usually completely shy away from it. that's just my rule. A lot of things have 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 grams of added sugar per serving. And as you know, it's very easy to eat more than one serving. So I go for zero or maybe one gram of added sugar, and I'm also looking for ways to increase my protein. I often do that with supplementation of maybe a protein shake or something like that. Now again, what I'm talking about here is not an eating prescription, for you. I'm just sharing what I think works for me. So let's start early in the morning. My first substitution is with my coffee. I do not use any of those, commercially available flavored creamers. those tend to have a ton of added sugar. So keep a look out for that. I use heavy cream. I use maybe a tablespoon of heavy cream in my cup of coffee. And even if I have, two or three cups of coffee, in the day, which I often do, and as a matter of fact, a, oh, I'm having some coffee right now. I'll have those two or three tablespoons of heavy. But there's no carbs in that whatsoever. Now I do like a little sweetness in my coffee and I use Splenda. I put a one packet of Splenda in my coffee, and I notice that some of the diet sodas, if I get a Coke zero or a mountain Dew Zero, those have sp Splenda in them as well. And I also get, what I have here is called I, it's not called this, but I call it this, I call it spritz, but it's just a water enhancer and I get the cheap Walmart brand. it comes in a two or three ounce little bottle. And I think that has SP Splenda in it as well. I've even seen sweet baby pickles, that have sp Splenda in them instead of sugar. Because if you don't know this, when you get a sweet pickle, not a kosher pickle, a sweet baby pickle or a sweet pickle, chips, butter, pickle chips, those often have added sugar. So when I eat those, which is really rarely, but when I do, I get the jar that has, the, Splenda instead of the. Now you can find, sugar in absolutely everything. ketchup for example, I will substitute mayonnaise or a mustard. I'll have mayonnaise or mustard on a hamburger or on a hotdog instead of ketchup. And even a little bit of mayo with fries sometimes. I like that. spicy Chipotle mayonnaise because none of that has sugar in it, like the ketchup. When it comes to baked goods, there's two that I really go to. one is called a 6 47 bread. And, there's various people who make that now. It used to be just 6 47, but now you can find store brand, that's similar. But basically, six stands for, the number of net carbohydrates. Four stands for 40 calories, in a slice, and I think. I think that stands for the grams of protein, or I'm not sure. Maybe it's the grams of fiber. Anyway, 6 47. A couple of slices of that with a sandwich, has almost no impact whatsoever on my blood sugar. So I substitute that bread for regular bread. I also substitute it for, if I'm having, everybody's having breakfast sandwiches with biscuits, I will make egg and bacon and cheese on two pieces of toast made with that 6 47 just as. The other thing I do are my wraps, my tortilla wraps. I use carb balance. It's carb balance. I think it's made by mission brand. I'm not sure you'll find it. Carb balance. I have yet to find a grocery store that doesn't carry them, and they only have, maybe four or five net grams of carbohydrates. They're full of fiber, absolutely full of fiber, like the 6 47 bread as well, and I think being full of fiber. As well as having few net carbs and net carbs, by the way, are the total carbohydrates, minus fiber, and, those things I use. So I'll make a bacon egg and cheese wrap as well. Maybe stick some salsa in there. make a burrito wrap with those. And again, I'm getting good protein, good fats, very nice, hot, yummy breakfast, very few carbohydrates. When it comes to sweets, and man, I like sweets. I'm not one of these guys. Oh, I don't eat sweets. Yeah, that's bull. I love sweets. So when I want a sweet for a snack, usually in the evening I'll have, I'm really hooked on these things now. They're both manufactured by Quest and I started with Quest, and again, no sponsorship, it's just stuff I buy for myself. I started with their protein bars. They have about 21 grams of protein and three or four net carbs. But then I switched over to these, I still get those, but for a sweet, I now enjoy these Quest peanut butter cups. And if they don't carry 'em in your local grocery store or Walmart or wherever, quite frankly, you can get 'em right on. Quest, peanut butter cups, very low carbohydrate, at most, maybe one gram of added sugar, one at most. It's either one or zero. And, they're fairly high fat, which I don't mind at all. And they have about, 10 grams of protein in them as well. So for a snack, that's a nice little bump in protein. But they taste really good. They taste more like they're made with a dark chocolate. But the peanut butter taste is strong. The chocolate taste is strong. And so I really like them. And then the other thing, now, I've just started these recently, I'd say in the last month, coconut caramel bars. and they market them as a candy bar, even though they only have three or four grams of net carbohydrates. And they also have about 10 grams of protein. But, oh my word, they are good. If you like coconut and if you like caramel, I think they have little bits of almonds in them as well. But they are absolutely delicious and I'll have that at night for a snack. And folks, today, they're gonna be having their Easter candy and whatnot. If I am tempted, I'll go get one of my coconut caramel bars and just love it. It's really great. You might have treats and snacks that you like as well. Feel free to, write in and let me know what those are, or any of these other food substitutions that you make or you've thought of. Feel free to write in and share it. And I will, mention on the podcast next week. So when I'm cooking other things or honestly when my wife is cooking other things, some of the things we've done is to adjust the ratio. Meat to starches. So if you take your typical, let's say beef stew for example, and we really enjoy beef stew. My wife makes a great beef stew, one of the things we've done is cut the amount of potato in half and double the amount of meat. So it's still beef stew. And if you didn't tell someone about it, they might not even. It, but taking a traditional recipe, it's mostly potatoes and things like that. it's cheaper, it makes it go further, but to reduce those carbohydrates, I double the meat, which gives me a little bit more protein and cut the potatoes in half and it works out just great. We do that in other recipes as. Or if something is meant to be served over rice, I'll have less. It's not really a substitution, it's just a strategy. I'll just have less rice and more of the meat and vegetable mix, whatever that might be. Now, I talked earlier about ketchup. ketchup's not the only condiment or sauce or a side that, people stick a whole lot of sugar in, like marinara sauce, spaghetti sauce or barbecue sauce. All those things are typically just packed, with sugar, barbecue sauce, if it's homemade, that usually is made with brown. So I always go, when I'm buying in the store, if I need to get spaghetti sauce or barbecue sauce, I will go to that section and then look left or right. And nowadays you can usually find a sugar free or very low added sugar. spaghetti sauce, barbecue sauce. I've got some sugar free, barbecue sauce in the cupboard right now. As a matter of fact, I gotta use that. I haven't opened that yet, you might have to experiment a little bit to find one that you like. I found ones that I like and obviously I don't use a lot of spaghetti sauce unless it's with meatballs. I won't sit there and eat a pile of pasta. Maybe if spaghetti is served as a side I'll have that, just not a whole bowl of spaghetti, cuz I would be defeating the purpose of having a sugar-free sauce if I'm eating a big pile of carbohydrates. Anyway. So for protein shakes and protein bars, they're not always created equal. Some of these things that are called protein bars or muscle bars, or I don't know, some of the different brand names, but they're actually packed with just as much carbohydrate as they are with. Protein. Now I've sought out and found that these Quest protein bars, and again, even with Quest, there's different, lines within the Quest protein bars, some of which, have more carbohydrates in it than I want. But I go for the ones that have zero or maybe one gram of sugar, added low carbohydrate, net carbs overall, usually come with a good amount of fiber. And then with a protein bar, I try and get at least 20 grams of protein. Same thing with shakes. I've found, protein shakes that have quite a bit of sugar and some are even called, carb or hydrate balance or, some of these nutrition shakes they. ensure, I think, but some of their lines also have quite a bit of carbohydrates and often quite a bit of added sugar. Now they do have protein. That's true, but you really gotta read that label. The shakes, I have only have, one gram of sugar and that comes from the milk. And it's, there's a lot of whey and some milk gets in there. but whey is protein from. So Hill only has one gram of sugar. It has 30 grams of protein. So to me, that's a good ratio. But I guess the bottom line is always read the label when you're shopping. Look left or right to find an alternative. Just don't go for the name brand. You're always used to look left or right on that shelf and see if there's a version made, maybe by the same manufacturer that has a whole lot fewer carbohydrates and less. Questions --- Okay. So for your questions this week, well, heck, we don't have any questions and, I encourage you to as send in questions, send in feedback on the podcast. Let me know that you are listening. I hope you're listening. Is anybody out there, let me know. go over to the website SolvingType2Diabetes.com and click on feedback. It's really easy to do if you're looking on your phone. click on the menu and then that'll bring up feedback as one of the options. Another thing you could do is just send me an. My email address is tom@SolvingType2Diabetes.com send me an email, give me a question, gimme some feedback, let me know what food substitutions you make, something you've found that, you wanna share, and I'll be happy to put that right on the podcast. The other thing I would like to ask, and I asked at the beginning, I'm gonna ask again now. You've been listening for 30 minutes, maybe you forgot, but if you could please share this podcast. I'm spending a little bit of time, several hours each week putting this together. And quite frankly, and I'll be honest, I would do it even if you were the only person listening, I would still do it because it does help me too. But being the kind of person I am, if we can get it out to more people, heck, I think that'd be great. So feel free to share the podcast What's Next? --- for next week. You know, I've been using this new. Model of the, continuous glucose monitor, the Freestyle Libre three. I've been using it now for about a month, and I want to give you an in-depth look at this new model. It is, Abbott's most recent, CGM in their line. They had the original 14 day, then they had the Libre two, and now this year in 2020, this past year it's less than a year old. They came out with a Libre three and there are some differe. There's some things I like, some things maybe I don't like quite as much, but I wanna share that with you and look in depth on this continuous glucose monitor, this Freestyle Libre three. 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.