Unlock The Mindset: How ‘Diabetes Decoded’ Dropped Cholesterol By 57 Points

Joanna's Diabetes Decoded Success 0:00

Hi, everyone. I'm delighted you're here. Let me share with you the story of Joanna. Joanna worked with the online program Diabetes Decoded and got great benefit from it. In fact, for her, it really made a very critical difference. It was one of those things where she was doing the right thing at the right time. And in this case, you know, from Joanna's report, it was the diabetes decoded. It was vital to her and a life saver. That's a direct quote. And that she found that her cholesterol also plummeted.

It dropped by 57 points and went from 196 to 138. So she felt that she was much healthier and in her case, her blood sugar turned out to be very sensitive to her stress levels into to her sleep. She had shared some of these results with her siblings and, you know, got the family huddled together to figure out what were some ongoing strategies. This also meant, interestingly enough, for Joanna and I share this here because I know people can learn from these things that the word no had to become a complete sentence.

I also find that that's often the case with people with diabetes, that they are the person who is the rock in their family, in their community and in their workplace. And they are the ones who are the go to person and people lean on them and sometimes lean on them just too much. And as a result, it means that they in particular

Mindset, Boundaries, and Self-Care 1:23

are going to be vulnerable and unable to do what they need to for themselves without saying no and setting really good boundaries. So in the course of going through the work, doing the online Diabetes Decoded program, she discovered some really important things. One was that it was practical and straightforward. It was actionable. There's nothing extreme or crazy. There are no fads. It was science based and it was based in the real world. You know, it was developed over the course of my 30 plus year clinical career, working with real people, with real challenges.

And in that, she found that the shifts that she needed to make was to prioritize her sleep and to make sure that she had a plan for when she was stressed. So that way she wouldn't do her go to sugary sweet snacks or really savory, high umami and high calorie foods that were just trouble for blood sugar, as we all know. Is likely to spike in response to those. Right. So right now, she's also told other members of the family that she's no longer cooking certain foods for them if something is not healthy for her, that she traditionally made the family, it's off the list.

She is not doing it. Put her foot down about that. And so that's one of the ways in which things in her world have shifted. And so setting that intention and having the mindset was key. And it's one of the reasons why that program starts with mindset. So when we look at the five aspects of the Yates Protocol, right, nutrition, stress relief, sleep, meal, timing, exercise with resistance training, we always underneath all of that, we have mindset because if you don't have that on your mind, in your heart to prioritize your own self-care, it is not going to happen for free has been my experience.

There's almost always something else tugging at people

Exercise, CGM Insights, and Hydration 3:04

that's an interfering factor. So you want to get out in front of that and hit it off wherever possible. So one of the things that was important for her to understand was the role of movement. And it could be movement throughout the day or it could be exercised, but that the more she could engage the larger muscles of her body, these active working muscles, these are blood sugar sponges. And she started to use a CGM continuous glucose monitor. You could see the difference real time that it made with her blood sugar, which really encouraged her.

She came to understand that when she did more vigorous exercise, there was going to be a rise in her blood sugar, and that's normal. Why is that normal? Because when you are actively working, you're moving your muscles, right? They require what fuel? The fuel for them is blood sugar. It's glucose. So these active working muscles, they're sponges for glucose. Your body mobilizes your blood sugar in order to nourish, to feed your active working muscles so that they can do the things that you intend.

Once your exercise comes to an end, then a healthy timeframe for a reset is going to be about 30 minutes to an hour. So after you exercise, your blood sugar will rise in response to the exercise while you're exercising and just immediately after. And then with 30 minutes to an hour, it should be set and come back to that healthy level. So these were some of the key insights for her. She found that in this case, the more she took charge, the better off she was going to be. And she wasn't always so sure about it.

But she went forward with good faith. Did all of the sessions use the handouts and got that clarity and information right. One of the key insights she shared and I share it here because I'm surprised at how much people are told this was the importance of staying hydrated and drinking water or maybe herbal tea or things that aren't flavored. No Added sugars, please. You know, our bodies love and crave water, our kidneys, love water, our heart and our circulatory system needs that hydration. And the more direct that water is, i.e., are unchanged and altered, the better off you're going to be.

So with this, you know, for Joanna, she found that these were the keys to what she needed to learn and to know, and that without that CGM, she would have had no idea of when she was having blood sugar spikes.

Health Progress and Closing Encouragement 5:14

It turned out it was quite common for her. She'd get on the rollercoaster blood sugar spike up and she'd come crashing down. So the CGM, she could see where her spikes were or the peaks as well as the valleys. And then over time she was able to smooth that out and stay in that healthy Green Zone that you'll see anytime you look on a CGM app. She also noticed that her moods evened out. To me, that wasn't surprising, but this was providing insight to her because she hadn't before had the opportunity to connect those dots.

So I hope that overview sketch gives you an idea of some of the things you can benefit from. So as you listen to your episodes today, you think about the other episodes you've seen on the summit over the course of the week. I hope the picture is starting to come together for you around the things you can do to be a healthier self. Right. So with this in mind, she continues to make progress on her health goals. Her A1C continues her down, and she's now on track for a healthy, active, energetic, I would say vigorous life and freedom from the long term complications and consequences of type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes.

I am so glad. I'm delighted that you're here at the summit. I hope you find encouragement, inspiration and insights that help you on your health journey. Thank you for joining us. Take great care of yourselves.