Welcome Back And Big Update

SPEAKER_04 0:32

All right, well, hey friends. Welcome back to the Uncommon Freedom Show. I'm your host, Kevin Tinter, and today I am being rejoined by my good friend Jody Gelly. Jody, say hi.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Hello, everyone.

SPEAKER_04 0:43

So, for those of you who are listeners, uh, first of all, I want to apologize. It's been about eight months or so, seven months since I launched a new episode. Uh, I this has been a very rapidly changing season of my life, of our family's life, and uh probably need to do an episode just on all that's happened in our life over the last year. Uh, but I just had to hit pause on anything that was non-essential, but kind of left you all hanging because uh I think it was back November, December timeframe. Um, we recorded the podcast. I think the podcast we actually published in December, and it was one of the most impactful episodes that I've ever launched. Um I see people everywhere, uh, and they're like Kevin. That episode was so incredible, I share it with people all the time. And that episode was one we recorded right after I have discovered that I was pre-diabetic. Uh, despite doing all of the things that on paper look good, all of the pop science, pop health, pop fitness, cold plunging, fasting, intermittent fasting, fasted cardio, all of these things that were supposed to be these biohacks uh to help me take my health to the next level are what I was doing. And I was actually in the season where I was was it was the best, most consistent low body fat uh season of my life where I was consistently 10 to 11% body fat. And then I get this, you know, this uh phone call from my naturopath, and she's like, Hey, by the way, one thing, uh, you're pre-diabetic. And that was crazy. So since then, I have been uh testing, experimenting, and learning. Uh the good news is that my A1C is back to normal range, and so stay tuned to the end because we're gonna talk a little bit more about that. But really, the bigger story isn't that I improved my numbers, it's that I really had to completely rethink my philosophy on health. And Jody, you are a huge part of that. And that's why I wanted to have you back on the show. And I think one of the important things for people to understand is this episode is not about another miracle supplement or magic diet, because Jody, would you agree? It doesn't exist, right? Um, but it's really learning that more adversity isn't always better physiology. Uh, this also is about learning to leverage and harness the power of healthy blood sugar and slowing down your insulins, your body's insulin

Fit On Paper Still Prediabetic

SPEAKER_04 3:21

pump, and how that could be the key to unlocking vibrant health and reversing most, if not all, of your metabolic dysfunction. So Jody is an expert in this. Um, Jody, could you real quick remind people about your credentials and your personal story and just why this is something that you're so passionate about?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Sure. But first, I'm gonna call you out. No pre-diabetic. So those who have heard heard me before, there is no pre-diabetic because there's no pre-pregnant. So when you see pre-diabetic on your labs, it just means that your pancreas is already struggling. You're already predisposed to diabetes and you're always gonna need to be self-aware, even you, like the things you've learned. So um, so my name is Jody Gelly. I have um lived and breathed type one diabetes for 48 years. It's a long time. Um, as a result of that, I became a diabetes educator. I'm also a mental health therapist, and I kind of combined my two loves of mind and body and have become a health coach. Um, but my passion really lies in helping people understand blood sugar.

SPEAKER_04 4:26

Yeah. Um and just talk about maybe your journey real quick. Cause I know you went into it a little bit more in the last podcast, but real quick, you're like, what has your personal journey been with learning to manage and just take control of your blood sugar?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

So obviously I'm well educated. I'm a diabetes educator, but I always had about what I thought was 10 extra pounds on me, and it would never come off, no matter what. I mean, I was doing all the right things per medical advice.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Um, but what I wasn't doing is I wasn't eating regularly. I wasn't eating macro balance because those things weren't taught to me. And once I started doing that, and was sort of opposite of what I was being told to do, because carbs were the enemy, but I they're not the enemy. So I was eating those paired properly. I was able to kick off 30 pounds in three months, almost nine years ago. Haven't seen it since. But bigger than that was my insulin requirements as a type one diabetic. My pancreas walked out on the job when I was 10 years old. It's gone, it doesn't work, not like yours. Yours still works, right? You still have a chance. But I was able to decrease my insulin requirements to pediatric doses, eating more than I've ever eaten before. I used to not eat all day long. I fueled on coffee and cramer. Not a good recommendation, but it was one of my ways to control blood sugar because if I didn't eat, I didn't need to dose insulin. But I learned the extreme opposite. And so now I can take my testimony and I'm coaching some of my doctors. They're giving, they're helping me help, they're letting me help their patients. I'm educating that whole world as a result of that.

SPEAKER_04 6:05

Real quick, um, what program did you use to fix your uh your blood sugar issues? Because I because if people are looking for a solution, I want them to be able to figure out like what worked for you.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Interestingly enough, um, the program Optavia, that's been around for about 50 years under a different name, it was Medifast. Um, their program was developed again about 50 years ago and really targeted type 2 diabetics. So it works really well for blood sugar, whether you have diabetes or not. Everything they teach and preach, eating more often, eating macrobalanced,

Jody’s Diabetes Story And Credentials

SPEAKER_00 6:41

and really teaching their clients how to do that in a sustainable, realistic way. I tried that program and I was blown away.

SPEAKER_04 6:50

Yeah. And uh the reality is so Optivia is a program that I used, found 15 years ago to lose 45 pounds.

unknown 6:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

And I also have been a coach for uh most of that time with my wife, and we've helped thousands of people. And what I love about the program is that there is this educational lifestyle component.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

100%.

SPEAKER_04 7:15

And one of the key things, and we're gonna talk about this later, is breakfast every day.

unknown 7:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

And one of the big trends in pop science and fitness is intermittent fasting, fasted cardio, not eating, you know, wake up, have coffee with some heavy cream for breakfast and don't eat until 12 o'clock or one o'clock or two o'clock. Um, and because I was trying to chase that single-digit body fat, and I was, you know, catching all these podcasts and influencers and different things are like, oh, intermittent or intermittent fasting and fasted cardio is the key to burning that last little bit of uh body fat. And I started doing that, and I stopped doing what I used to lose those 45 pounds. I stopped doing what I was teaching my clients. Um, and I just thought that, okay, I'm in this elite category, and so I'm gonna do something different. And what I ultimately learned is I was really actually causing quite a bit of harm by doing that. So the program works, it works for diabetics, it works for non-diabetics. And so really, I would just encourage if you're out there and you've tried everything else, or if you tried a lot of things, if you tried intermittent fasting, you've tried extended fasting, um, reach out to Jody. My wife Becca is also an Optivia coach. Reach if you know someone who's an Optivia coach, reach out to them. Um, my wife, Becca, and I, we tell people like, if you've tried everything else and you're skeptical, we're so confident that our program will work, that we'll give you your money back after 30 days if you actually follow the program. And I've never had anyone follow it and not see results. So it is powerful.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

They teach everything I've learned as a diabetes educator, but they make it easier for their clients and there's mind and body.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

Yeah, it's kind of a solution in a box. Correct. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like the that um the the the all you have to do is cook the meal type, you know, it's the meal kit. All you have to do is actually follow it, follow through. Yeah. Um so can you give our audience real quick a lesson on what low, normal, and high blood sugar means and how it affects us? Because we hear low blow, low blood sugar, high blood sugar, and I don't think we all understand exactly what that means. So can you give us a quick lesson on that?

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Sure. So low blood sugar is too much insulin in the body and not enough energy source, not enough food. And the insulin, if there's too much in the body, is gonna keep lowering the blood sugar. People who don't have diabetes and aren't taking um medication for it, typically will never have a true low blood sugar.

Low Vs High Blood Sugar Basics

SPEAKER_00 9:51

If you have hypoglycemia, you will. So hypoglycemia is when your pancreas, which lets out insulin every time you eat, it lets out too much insulin. So it's like killing a fly with a machete. You needed a fly swatter. But the pancreas overreacts. And so people with hypoglycemia do get true low blood sugar because their pancreas let out too much insulin.

SPEAKER_04 10:17

Is that just a genetic condition, or can people cause hypoglycemia through their lifestyle?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

And it's exactly the same way you control blood sugar when it's high.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

You eat more often, you eat more balanced, and you don't get low blood sugars.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Um, so that's low. And then high blood sugar is not enough insulin to convert the food to energy. So insulin is kind of like a key, and so it opens up the cells to receive the energy to convert it. Okay. And if you don't have enough insulin, then your blood sugar is gonna raise because it can't convert it to energy. And you're gonna have a high blood sugar. When it gets really high, then you end up with what we call ketoacidosis, which is different than ketosis. Okay. Ketosis is fat burn. Ketoacidosis is when your body starts to have to eat its own muscle for energy because it cannot convert what you're eating into energy.

SPEAKER_04 11:20

Wow. Yeah, it's not good. So muscle access. Does that happen? So can like ultra-high blood sugar is what a diabetic would have. Is that correct? Correct. Yeah. Okay. And so they end up with sarcopenia.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Sarcopenia, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:34

Sarcopenia, which is um basically not enough muscle in their body.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

So cannibalization.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

Yeah. Okay. And then you mentioned that at age, I think you said age 10, your um your pancreas stopped working. So basically, your pancreas no longer creates any insulin or just not enough?

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Correct. No, none. So type one or insulin-dependent diabetic means exactly that. I am dependent. My life is dependent on taking external insulin to survive.

SPEAKER_03 12:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

So this is gonna get nerdy, but the cells that make insulin are called eyelets of Langerhan. They were attacked by a flu I had when I was 10. It's an autoimmune, killed off all my eyelets of Langerhan. So my pancreas does not produce any insulin anymore. Zero.

SPEAKER_04 12:23

Okay. And that's what any type one diabetic is dealing with.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

So they have to artificially get correct insulin to be able to convert food to energy. Food to energy. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

And that's where what I said when before um I lost that 30 pounds and I really started eating more regularly, I needed a lot more insulin because my blood sugar was actually running probably higher. And then once I started eating regular, I needed less, but I'll still and I'm on pediatric doses, but I'll still always need insulin the day I die.

SPEAKER_04 12:56

Okay. And then a type two diabetic is typically on the other end of the spectrum as far as the um their blood sugars too high. Or can you explain kind of the difference? Remind me.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

So um there's a lot of terms out there, but it's either insulin dependent, which is what I have, type one, type one, insulin requiring, which is a person whose pancreas is still working, but it's not working enough. And the oral medications and their exercise and their diet isn't taking care of it, so they need to supplement with insulin.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Then there's just a uh type two diabetic that can control it through diet exercise, sometimes an oral agent. It's pancreas poop out. Their pancreas is pooping out, it's not working effectively. It's the same thing that happens with gestational diabetics. Okay. Mamas, okay. They were fine until their pancreas had to take care of that extra weight and that baby. Once they have the baby, they're usually okay. But I can guarantee you they will not be okay for life if they don't make changes because their pancreas is pooping out.

SPEAKER_04 14:10

Okay. So a couple scenarios where you're gonna exhaust your pancreas. If you kind of think of it, it's kind of like a muscle. Right. That at some point it's gonna give out.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 14:18

And so if you're eating a uh standard American diet, a sad diet, yeah, like I used to do. Um, you know, I was I'm coming up on two years of no longer being a sugar addict, um, but I used to eat tons of candy, tons of ice cream, all that crap. I'm pumping all of this energy into my body. The body has to convert that.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

Or I'm I'm pumping all this food, these calories into my body. Body has to convert it into fuel. So my pancreas was having to work really hard.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Oh, yeah. And then when you didn't eat, if you didn't eat for extended period of time, the same thing kind of happens, and we can explain that.

SPEAKER_04 14:51

Yeah. Okay. All right. And then can you also give us a reminder of how carbs, fats, and proteins affect blood sugar?

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Sure. So this is my favorite because they are like a Lego creation that should never be separated. So when people say macros, macros are carbohydrate, protein, fat, right? Those things alone in isolation are not helpful. They need to be combined for blood sugar balance. So the analogy, if you listen to our last podcast, I use it all the time because it works, um, is Winnie the Pooh. So if Eeyore and Tigger

Macros Work Better Together

SPEAKER_00 15:26

went on a walk together, Eeyore is your protein. It metabolizes super duper slow. That's why people who eat just protein and fat diets don't get hungry, and maybe they do lose a little weight, but they're slowing their metabolism way down, Eeyore level. So Eeyore and Tigger are going on a walk. Tiggers are carbohydrates. Carbohydrates absorb super fast. They require quick action, quick insulin. That's gonna store fat. When you pair balanced protein and carbohydrate, tigger and Eeyore hold hands. They're gonna pace each other, but they're still gonna push and pull. So you need the other macro. You need the wise old owl called your fat. He's gonna swoop down, put his big wing on top of both of those crazy loons, pushing and pulling, and he's gonna say, I'm gonna pace you for the long haul. So the carbohydrates um make the protein uh metabolize faster. The protein are brake pads on the carbohydrates, slows them down, and the fat helps your body level your blood sugar for the long haul. So you have a longer duration of stability. They have to be done together.

SPEAKER_04 16:42

Okay. So um that's yeah, it's so good. And it's it's one of those things where um these extreme diets that you know I've seen through the course of my life, you know, like low fat, um, and then obviously Yeah. And then the obviously right now there's a lot of carnivore keto. Um in the long run, they might work like you said, in the short run, but really for long term, uh, if someone does just a keto diet, the the average person, what happens to their metabolism?

SPEAKER_00 17:22

So if they're doing like the carnivore diet, okay, that's like the the biggest rage right now. Number one, it's not good for your body. You're gonna end up with fatty liver. Your body cannot process all that fat. So long term, we're seeing a surgence of 40 to 60 year olds with fatty liver. Because forever that generation's been doing South Beach, keto, Atkins, high fat, high protein. Their liver can't process it all. Okay. So that's that's a problem. But you're also way slowing down your metabolism. Good for you. You're not hungry all day, you're not eating all day. There's other consequences to that, but also those clients will come to me for an assessment and say, I don't get it. You know, I do great all week, but it just takes a couple of slices of pizza and a beer and I gain five, 10 pounds. Yeah, because you jacked up your metabolism. Now your metabolism, picture Mrs. Pac-Man game, Mr. Pac-Man game for you. Yeah. Pac-Man game, okay? The balls are your food. If you slow down that Pac-Man, wah wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, he can't really eat anything when it's coming in fast, like your pizza and your beer. So those calories are gonna get stored for a rainy day as belly fat. Period. They work together. They were created to work together. Breast milk is all of those things together.

SPEAKER_04 18:46

Interesting.

unknown 18:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

That's what we feed babies.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

Okay. Okay. And talk about hunger. So you're not hungry because you slow down your metabolism. Um, but hunger is actually built in as this reminder. It's kind of a is is calling it kind of like the fuel gauge in your car, or is that an accurate way of thinking of it?

SPEAKER_00 19:12

I just always try to get people to realize something very simple.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Babies, toddlers and pro athletes eat every two hours. They wake up hungry.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Babies have not been destroyed. We did not destroy their metabolism yet. We're supposed to get hungry every couple hours. We're supposed to eat well enough for energy and then be ready for more. Not this abundance that then now gets stored as fat when we're only supposed to have a slight little underbelly like a deer or a dog, not a big gut.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

So the people who say, Well, I'm not hungry for breakfast, kind of talk about they might think, Well, I'm not hungry, so I don't have to eat till lunchtime. That's a good thing because I'm eating fewer calories. What's actually happening?

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Okay. So what's happening is to wake up, you need a lot of hormones to wake you up from a sleep. Adrenaline, cortisol, all kinds of things. Think about a time you got a phone call at three in the morning and you woke up really fast, right? Your heart's racing, whatever. Even to have a slow slumber wake up, you need hormones to wake you up. We call them wake-up hormones. That's what we call them. The major component of those is your liver

Hunger Signals And Wake-Up Hormones

SPEAKER_00 20:32

letting out glycogen stores, which is sugar, to give you energy, to blink, to scroll on your phone, to brew your coffee, to take a shower, to brush your teeth, to start your car. If you don't eat, where is energy coming from? If it came from fat, uh we'd all be skinny because most people don't eat enough. Right? It doesn't come from fat. You can starve yourself all day. It doesn't come from fat. So that sugar now requires insulin to give you energy, to blink, to scroll, to start your car. That insulin is gonna store belly fat. There's nothing good about it. Zero. It doesn't help at all to not eat.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

And you said something I remember in the last podcast, something along the lines of if all you needed for energy was fat, we wouldn't people and put people in feeding tubes in the hospital.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

That's right. Right.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

You got morbidly obese people in the hospital that are on the feeding tube. So why why aren't they just getting skinny while they're in the hospital? Let's kill two birds with one stone, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:30

That's a new clinical standard. Yeah, they're they're obese, so we're just not going to feed them. Their fat will take care of them.

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

That's not how it works.

SPEAKER_04 21:37

Okay. Okay. So I want to talk about a couple of kind of just mindsets that you helped me work through. And I, you know, I did honestly, I would encourage people. Number one, if you have someone that you know like Jody, or reach out to Jody if you're struggling with this, um, but uh AI has been an incredible tool for me through this journey. Um, and I would really encourage people to leverage it. I know our people have different comfort levels. You know, I've been uploading my labs because it can just do in-depth analysis. Uh, you know, I went back and kind of pulled historical labs and put my body fat you know, in bodies in there and was getting all kinds of you know insight into what was going on. I would upload my you know average glucose from the glucose monitor that we'll talk about in a little bit. Um highly recommend it. So if if you're struggling with your health, uh AI is a great tool. Uh, it doesn't necessarily Provide the accountability that you need, but it is definitely a wonderful tool. But the first thing I really had to address was the hero mentality. One of my biggest mistakes was believing that if something is good, then more must be better. And this is just something that I've struggled with my whole life. I'm like a all-in or all-out guy. If a little is good, more is better. And that frequently works in business, but it really can fail in biology. Um and so I was, you know, doing longer fasts, you know, everyday cold plunging, uh, just doing too much and not understanding uh the impact that that was uh having on my metabolic health. And we're in this cultural environment where it really is celebrated. What just what are you what what are your thoughts on moderation versus that extreme hero mentality, Jody?

SPEAKER_00 24:02

I have a couple of thoughts. Number one is what are you doing extreme? Right? So if you want to be a hero and do extreme, really solid nutrition,

Hero Mentality And Hidden Stress

SPEAKER_00 24:11

then I am standing right behind you. Yeah. Okay. If you're obsessed about making sure you're eating every couple of hours, macro balanced and and you're, you know, watching how you're combining foods, great. But if you're just doing some crazy thing that has no backing, then it it doesn't make a lot of sense. The other part of this is that the body does need rest. And so if you are constantly taxing it out, that's not going to help your metabolic health at all. You need muscle recovery, you need sleep. Things like stress, uh even like muscle stress or a stress of the cold plunge and things like that, that does raise blood sugar. It's one of the reasons I can't cold plunge, because when I do, my blood sugar raises.

SPEAKER_04 24:55

Ah, okay. Yeah. And it was interesting when I was wearing a CGM, uh, I could see and I would even sometimes get alerts uh when I would cold plunge. Um, you know, the alert would start going off high blood sugar.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Same thing with a sauna. You can do that too.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Yeah, and that is correct. That happened to me as well. So uh it is interesting. These things that are therapeutic, they also do introduce stress into the body. And so I think probably one of the key questions to ask yourself, really, for anything, is um, well, or approaches is to start with the end in mind.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 25:29

Like what's the purpose?

SPEAKER_02 25:30

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 25:31

Okay, if you're just trying to be the coolest guy, then you know, cold cold plunging for 10 minutes a day, seven days a week, okay, we're all impressed. But is that good for you? Right. Um, you know, going, you know, only eating four days a week, you know, I was doing these extended fasts. Um, you're hero, you've mastered your hunger and things like that, but have you, right? What's the real benefit of it? So I think that, like you said, it be an extreme when it comes to eating every two and a half to three hours, right? That's right. Um, go all in on that. Go all in on making sure that you're eating macro balanced meals uh every time you eat.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Yep. And and really just checking, right? Like self-check. Why, like you said, why am I doing this? And is what I'm doing really gonna get me there?

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Am I just believing something I've read or heard? Yeah. Or have I really maybe it's an AI thing? Like, have have I really researched it to see what the benefit is and is it gonna meet what I'm seeking to do? I will tell you, Kevin, most of the people I know that do that kind of extreme stuff are creating more damage than good.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

And then they're getting frustrated and then they're coming to me saying, I don't get it. I work out seven days a week and I fast and I do this and I do that, and I still have a gut. Well, because you're not doing what you need to do to get to the goal you want.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

But they don't understand.

SPEAKER_04 26:49

We touched on stress. And so can you talk about how stress affects blood sugar? Because we're live probably in the most stressed era of history. Yeah. Between just politics, environment, wars, economy, electronics, political division, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Everything.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

Um, talk about the effects of stress on the body.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

It's really simple. Stress is a response to fear, pretty much. When we were cavemen and cavemen, right? We would have a stress response and we would have a fight or flight response. We were either going to flee or we were going to run for our lives. In our society now, we don't we're not running from a bear. Right. Right. And so, what does your body do with all that adrenaline, all those cortisols, all those um epinephrines, all all that stuff that's going through your body raises blood sugar. If you were running for your life, you'd burn it off. But you're not running for your life. Maybe you're kicking the dog when you walk in the door, maybe you're slamming a door, but you're not burning it off. I will tell you, Kevin, from me, um, because I wear uh obviously a continuous glucose monitor every day forever, I can be in a stressful situation, a stressful meeting, and I will watch my blood sugar go from a normal and I'm talking I don't have insulin production, right? Normal to like 300.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

And then come back down. Now it's not food, so I can't treat it. I can't dose insulin for it because it's gonna be gone as fast as it came. It's not gonna give me a sp a a long-lasting high.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

So stressful meetings, stressful sir circumstances, I can watch that happen because my body is doing what it was pre made to do. It's giving me the sugar I need to run from the damn bear. But it's not a damn bear. It's me and my son having an argument or something, right? It's different. So it has no place to go.

SPEAKER_04 28:51

Oh, that's really interesting. So uh insulin helps us control blood sugar when it comes to food.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

That's right. And internal.

SPEAKER_04 29:01

Yes, but it's not gonna control blood sugar when it's related to psychological stress.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Um, for someone not diabetic, their pancreas should start letting out a little bit of insulin. Okay. But I don't have that ability. Got it. So mine just spikes and will stay there and then plum it down real fast.

SPEAKER_04 29:20

Okay. And I think one of the things for people to understand is that every stressor fills the same bucket. Correct. And in today's world, we're, like you said, number one, we're not as active as we used to be. And so a lot of ways that people de-stress, and I'm using air quotes because they're actually not de-stressing, it's just kind of what they've uh conditioned themselves to think. And I used to do this, like stress, eat candy.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 29:46

Um, and what that's actually doing is making things worse.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 29:49

Um, you know, we veg out, sit down on the couch, watch TV, you know, you're not burning calories, you're not getting that endorphin release. Um it's funny, our our daughter's at a uh kids drunk camp this week, and she came home Monday or Tuesday, she's like, So, Dad, what are those? She's like, I'm feeling really good this week. What are those things that get released when you exercise? I said, endorphins? She's yeah, endorphins, like I'm just really happy this week. So, anyways, it was just cute to see her starting to understand the positive effects of physical activity. But all of these stressors, whether it's work stress, relationship stress, poor sleep, um, your strength training, you might be killing yourself in the gym, but that is a stress. Caffeine, travel, cold plunging, yeah, all of these stressors are filling the same bucket. And so when you're doing everything, you're hitting a sauna, doing the cold plunge, doing a super hard workout, and you think you're a hero because you're only getting five hours of sleep, and you're you're fasting, those are all stressors.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Right. There's all that's all sugars that are constantly going into that body. But I also, because I'm a mental health therapist, the other part of all of that, Kevin, and you talked about it, is behavioral. So when we're under a lot of stress, we eat. You went for sugar, probably because sugar is a sedative. You raise your blood sugar, it's gonna sedate you. Right? So we we're stressed, so we're we're not sleeping well. We're stressed, so we're missing the gym. We're stressed, so we're eating a bag of Doritos. We're stressed, we're just sitting on the couch. It biologically, it's very impactful. But then the behaviors that come from that make the biology even more compromised because we're eating and drinking and not sleeping, right? So we're adding more to our um metabolic dysfunction.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

I remember the soothing feeling that I would get from eating candy.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

100%.

SPEAKER_04 31:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Because it sedates. Yeah. The same thing for people who don't eat all day and they're not hungry, and then they come home and they don't have an off switch. It's because their body has been in fight or flight mode all day, letting out in uh sugars all day to give them energy, thinking they must be running from a bear. Why else would you not eat all day? They finally get into their quote unquote cave, if we're talking caveman language, yep, and their body is going to call them to eat and eat and eat. If they were sitting in their cave, they've been eating all the berries and the nuts and the deer they just caught.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

To prepare them for the run the next day. So they're storing fat, but cavemen burned it off all day. Right.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Got it. Okay. Uh let's talk about the power of breakfast. Explain why a macromalanced breakfast is so important, Jody.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

Okay. Um kind of I think I I spoke to this a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 32:39

We did touch on it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

Yeah, a little bit. Um again, when you wake up, you need energy. Period. So if you don't eat, your liver, it's a superhero organ, it

Why Breakfast Changes Everything

SPEAKER_00 32:51

does a lot of beautiful things, but it produces, stores, and releases glycogen sugars when you need it for energy. It's it will save you if you're not eating. Meh, kind of save you. Yeah. So um, by eating macro balanced within 30 minutes of waking up, you are shutting off that liver function. So now you've given your body what it needs to do everything it has to do, and the liver isn't letting out that pure sugar. That pure sugar, again, will convert to belly fat, which is what most people complain about. Insulin causes belly fat. If that's your main area you're struggling with, I will guarantee you, me and you need to have a conversation. It's blood sugar. Okay. So by eating not a crispy cream donut, not a Pop Tart, those that's just gonna be more sugar, more insulin, right? By eating macro balanced, your liver can shut off and you need less insulin.

SPEAKER_04 33:48

Yeah, okay. And I know this was one of the like when I called you, um, you're like, Kevin, I know you're fasting. Stop fasting. And then um you figured out I was not just fasting, but skipping breakfast and doing fasted cardio, and you're like, start having breakfast. Like it was so it was one of these kind of, I don't know, embarrassing moments. You're like, what an idiot. Like, why did I think I could cheat the system? Like I I lost weight eating breakfast first thing in the morning. I teach my clients to do it, and why in the world did I think I was an exception? Um, but I remember this is probably one of the biggest changes that uh helped me feel better is eating breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up and then doing my workout after that. I just felt so much better. Yeah, like it it is drastic change in how I felt.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Yep. And so all of that, you know, all of that stuff that you are hearing about fasting cardio giving you a better workout and burning more fat, and it it's not you found out it wasn't true, right? You found that out firsthand.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

And breakfast, when I say that to people, sometimes it scares them. We're not talking about uh a Denny's pancake double double or whatever. I haven't been to Denny's, I don't know what they call them, but right, we're talking slam. There you go. But we're talking about maybe, maybe it's a protein shake that has good macros, right? Maybe it's because a lot of people don't like a lot of food in their belly before working out. I don't either. But a really solid protein shake, that works, right? We don't have to like breakfast, doesn't have to be huge, but you need to get something in your body to stop that liver from letting out sugar and to give your body the energy it needs to work out. If you don't have enough energy, meaning calories, to work out and they're not good macros, then your liver, again, is gonna give you more sugar for that workout. So now you've waited to eat. Your liver probably let out enough sugar that you could have eaten a couple of boxes of movie theater candy. And now you're asking your body to work out with no energy except the sugar it's willing to give you because it thinks you're dumb. So it's gonna let out more sugar, right? And now that more sugar is like more of those boxes of candy. It it doesn't make any sense. Like we need to feed our bodies properly, not too much, not too little.

SPEAKER_04 36:15

So it's kind of like a car needs fuel to be able to run.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Right.

SPEAKER_04 36:20

Our bodies were designed where that if the fuel tank's empty, there's this miracle organ that can create it, but it's also we're tapping into that miracle organ as Americans in modern day you know society with the standard or sad American American diet, the sad diet, that it's not the right things. And so we're tapping into that organ way more than we are designed to be able to do.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

And that's putting a lot more stress on your pancreas. When you talk about pancreas poop out and becoming, quote unquote, not a pre-diabetic, right? That go those glycogen stores are pure sugar. It requires a lot of insulin to convert to energy. My protein shake does not. That's why I had, even though I was super smart, diabetes educator, all the things, that's why I had extra weight on me when I wasn't eating.

SPEAKER_04 37:16

Okay. Ding ding ding, light bulb moment here.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

So people, when you get into fat burn, you're burning through your glycogen stores. Correct. And what you just said, like this is a major aha moment for me, and hopefully other people who have yo-yo dieted.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 37:35

You're going in and out of fat burn.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

100%.

SPEAKER_04 37:38

You're pumping out a ton of insulin to get through those glycogen stores. Then you're in fat burn for a couple days, then you go out again. You replenish those glycogen stores, and then to get back into fat burn, you have to burn through those glycogen stores again, which forces your body to pump out a ton of insulin again.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

And that's where if we if we can go back to kind of what Opta Via teaches and preaches, you can get into fat burn without using all those glycogen stores. Because you're eating within two to three hours, shutting off that liver, giving your body just enough food that it has a little bit of energy to quiet that liver. It's not enough on

Fasting Cycles And Pancreas Burnout

SPEAKER_00 38:21

purpose, it needs to go eat a little glycogen or fat, and then you feed it again. Not enough on purpose, it uses it, it goes sucks on some fat for energy, some glycogen, and it comes back. So that first week can be a little bit of a heavier weight loss because you're kind of double dipping.

SPEAKER_04 38:41

Yeah. And for people who are doing consistent fasting, like I remember some ultra health podcast I listened to, and this guy's like, you should fast for at least 36 hours every week. Like, I don't, you know, I I stopped eating Sunday night and don't eat again until Tuesday morning or something like that. And he was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What you're doing every single week is you're burning through those glycogen glycogen stores, and your insul your pancreas is having to pump out insulin. And you're doing this week after week after week after week. And because I was doing that, that is what ended up driving up my A1C, right? Is why I ended up what the world calls pre-diabetic. Right. But I was starting to exhaust my pancreas because of that.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

Right.

SPEAKER_04 39:26

Like it's amazing. I mean, you and I have had a lot of conversations. I've been coaching this program for 15 years, and like this was just a light bulb. So to all the yo-yo dieters who you're doing keto, but you're not sticking with it, you're in a lot of ways, it's even worse because you're you're you're gonna wear out your pancreas much quicker.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

100%. And remember, you're slowing down your metabolism.

SPEAKER_04 39:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 39:50

So, okay, I'm using all the sugar for energy, my pancreas is working on overhaul. I'm probably cannibalizing some muscle and not just fat because I'm not giving myself enough food. And then I decide Friday, Saturday, Sunday don't matter. And now my metabolism is so slow that I'm not gonna metabolize that food fast enough. I'm gonna store extra fat.

SPEAKER_04 40:12

Yep. So you're your weight might stay the same. It might go up, but what you're actually seeing is your body composition is changing the wrong direction.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

Correct. Yep. And that's that's a good point. Like everyone should use a body comp scale.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Because I have a client right now that wants to do things kind of her own way, and her weight went down, but her body fat didn't change, and she actually and she lost some muscle mass.

SPEAKER_04 40:42

Well, this situation. I lost 45 pounds uh 15 years ago. I weighed this morning, I weighed about four pounds less than I did when I started my weight loss journey. Of it. But my body fat this morning was 12.9%. Yep. I've gone up a little bit because my strength training routine has gone down to at most one day a week because I'm training for this 550-mile bike ride that I'm doing in about 10 days uh with my son. Um, and so it's totally changed things. I'm even a ton more carbs because I have to fuel my body for it.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

But good carbs.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

Yes, yes. But although on the according to least uh chat GPT, when I'm on the ride, it's not good carbs. It's like quick, quick, quick. So um, but it's it's you're looking at what fuel does my body need.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 41:22

And then you're giving it what it needs when it needs it. Correct. Um, but I don't eat the things I eat on the ride, I don't eat when I get home. Correct. Um, it totally changes. My point is that people really need to stop worrying about weight and they really need to start focusing on body composition.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

And your body composition will tell you. It will definitely tell you.

SPEAKER_04 41:43

Yeah. Well, if you start to hear a little tap in the background, friends, uh, we've got a handyman at the house above us. And uh, even though we're in a sound insulated room, it's not perfect. So hopefully it's not showing up. But uh okay, so we talked about um did we talk about what the body does during a fast?

SPEAKER_03 42:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 42:02

Okay. Um, and then let's real quick, Jody, can you talk about what happens to the body and especially blood sugar when you work out while fasting? I think we kind of touched on this, but just hit it specifically.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

Yeah, so um we did touch on it. Basically, you need this is what people don't understand. You need energy to do anything. You need more energy to work hard, like working out. If you don't eat, where is that energy coming from? Where's it coming from?

SPEAKER_04 42:33

Your liver has to produce it right.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

But people are like, huh. They look at me funny. Yeah. Well, my fat. I'm like, well, how's it working for you? You told me that you fast all the time and you only are unhappy because you've got a big gut. How's it working for you? Yeah. Why is it not eating that fat? Tell me.

SPEAKER_04 42:50

People think I'm hungry, so now my body's burning fat. But no. If if it was, you'd be 10% body fat.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

We would have a lot of thin people in America if fasting or not eating all day was the key to success. It's the complete opposite.

SPEAKER_04 43:10

So, how do you get your body to burn fat?

SPEAKER_00 43:14

By doing that tango I kind of mentioned before. So you want to shut off that glycogen from the liver. How do we do that? We eat more often and you want to kind of decrease insulin production because insulin stores fat, right? How do we decrease insulin production? We eat small but mighty macro balanced tigger, yeor, otherwise all down.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

And ideally low glycemic foods.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Low glycemic foods, right? So you um sorry, the question was again, tell me.

SPEAKER_04 43:49

Um talking about uh fasting, what happens to the body, especially blood sugar, when you work out while fasting.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

Yep. So we kind of talked about that one. So um you're or no, how do you burn fat?

SPEAKER_04 44:02

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

I was like, I think I answered that one. Okay, so burn fat. So you're eating right away, you're shutting off that liver, so it's not letting out uh sugar, so you're not needing extra insulin. Insulin stores fat. A. B, you eat macrobalances, small but mighty, not more than your body needs, but not less. The goal for fat burn is that you're shutting off that liver, you're reducing the amount of insulin by eating more macro balanced, low glycemic index. Like we're gonna do a calorie deficit, obviously. And the calorie deficit is we do a tango. Food, not enough. That's what you want. You want that body to eat your fat. That's what you told me. It's gonna go down and eat your fat for energy. Right before it would cannibalize your muscle, you need to feed your body again. Food, fat, food, fat, food, fat, food, fat. Now the liver never has to work to protect you. You're not eating so much that you require a ton of insulin. Your body is required to eat some fat for energy because you intentionally didn't give it enough. And you have a beautiful fat burn.

SPEAKER_04 45:11

So the key is there's a difference between weight loss and fat loss.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 45:15

You can you you you can create weight loss with major fasting.

SPEAKER_00 45:20

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 45:21

But it's not necessarily fat loss.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

Correct. And I bet you anything, most of those people are gonna see muscle wasting.

SPEAKER_04 45:28

Yeah. And then the key here is I asked you, well, should I ever fast? And you said yes, dust to done.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

That's it. Break fast.

SPEAKER_04 45:35

Yep. Yep. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

You're fast.

SPEAKER_04 45:38

The word says it all, right? Okay, let's talk about the fact carbs in if if y'all looked at mainstream media, pop science, pop fitness, carbs are the enemy. Are carbs the enemy?

SPEAKER_00 45:50

No, we need them. We need carbs to survive for brain function, for metabolic function, for everything. A carb isn't all not all carbs are created equal. They're all gonna require insulin, but a Snickers bar and a sweet potato are both carbohydrates. They're different. But you have to have carbohydrates. Remember, I talked about carbohydrates speed up, remember Tigger and Eeyore. Carbohydrates are Tigger. He's gonna speed up the metabolism of your protein. You eat just protein, you're gonna have a very sluggish metabolism. Plus, your body, your muscles, your brain, they all require carbs. Low glycemic carbs simply mean they require less insulin to convert to energy. That's a goal. I don't care if you want to lose weight, burn fat, or not. The less insulin you use, the better off you're gonna be. So they're very important. You need a moderate amount of carbohydrate every meal.

SPEAKER_04 46:53

Yeah. And that was one of the other things I was doing is I was pairing very high protein, low carb. I that wasn't necessarily keto or carnivore, but it was definitely way imbalanced.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 47:06

And you got me, you know, having a macro balanced breakfast, and then I was starting to incorporate more carbohydrates. Um, and it is amazing, once again, how much better I felt. Just much more mental clarity, much more energy. It was a game changer.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

And you didn't gain weight.

SPEAKER_04 47:23

No.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

Woo, right?

SPEAKER_04 47:25

Yeah, it really just felt much, much better. So um, let's talk about the power of recovery. Yeah. Because uh people like, oh, I sleep four hours a day, you know, I'm

Recovery, Sleep, And Stable Glucose

SPEAKER_04 47:36

a hero, or you know, whatever it is. Like the truth is women need, I think, seven plus men really need eight to nine hours of sleep. Um, I've been uh, you know, my bedtime has become nine o'clock for the most part. Uh and I'm getting seven to eight hours of sleep almost all the time. And I was definitely probably in the five to six hour range, but talk about recovery isn't just sleep. Sleep is a huge part of recovery, but recovery really is part of training. Can you talk about that and how that plays into blood sugar and insulin and everything?

SPEAKER_00 48:10

Yeah. And and it's two-pronged, Kevin. I don't think you were sleeping well before, partly because of the way you were eating.

SPEAKER_04 48:17

Correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:18

So when we're not eating well and when our blood sugar is not stable, we're gonna have insomnia. We're gonna have, if you're a woman, you're gonna have more hot flashes, you're gonna have broken sleep. Like stable blood sugar does a ton. And so when you made those changes, you probably got a you probably got tired earlier and you probably got a a more a more deeper sleep because of that stable blood sugar.

SPEAKER_04 48:45

Interesting. Yeah, I'm by 8:30, I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 48:48

Yeah, because your body isn't dealing with all that extra sugar, whether it was from extra stress that you were putting on it with all your cold plunging and it's not dealing with all the extra sugar from you fasting. Like you have a stable, solid metabolic health. That's the way you're supposed to sleep, and it will it will follow through. And the first things our clients tell us is I'm finally sleeping good. Why? Because we stabilize their blood sugar. That's why. But the opposite side of that is that you need to rest to settle all of that metabolic function, right? When you are sleeping, your body is in a in a kind of a hibernation state. Your pancreas is quiet, everything's good, everything's recovering, you're not letting out a ton of sugar. If you're up till one or two in the morning or 11 or 12, maybe you're munching. That's probably making it worse. And then on top of that, your body is needing to, even if you're a faster and it's middle one of your fast, your your your body's letting out too much adrenaline during that time.

SPEAKER_04 49:53

I remember trying to sleep when I was doing up to like I was doing a minimum of a 36-hour fast up to a 60-hour fast every week. Yeah, and you won't sleep. And my sleep was horrible.

SPEAKER_00 50:07

Yeah. Because again, you have to. I mean, I'm an apologetic, Christian. Okay. I'm just gonna say that out loud, but it's how we were created. We weren't created to fast. So if you're fasting, that means you're a caveman running for his life still. So you need all that adrenaline to keep going. Your brain's not gonna shut off, your body's not gonna shut off, your blood pressure's not gonna shut off, your pancreas isn't gonna shut off. We're supposed to sleep. The same thing with rest, like you talked about the hero thing, like a little bit is good, then more must be better. You're never giving your body a break. We shouldn't be cold plunging every day. If you want to cold plunge and there's a reason to do it, why why just ask yourself, why am I doing it every day? Right? Working out harder isn't necessarily the answer. So the body needs recovery. The only way it's gonna keep going is to put stress on it. And that's what is stress? Stress is all that sugar, those hormones, the adrenaline.

SPEAKER_04 51:06

That's so good. So good. Um, we've kind of talked about this, but uh um we'll just touch on it again. Cold plunging, it it is a physiological stressor. Uh, it's like lifting weights or interval training, the right dose at the right time can be beneficial. So at this point, I'm only cold plunging one, maybe two days a week. Yeah, um, and there was a season where I was doing it every single day, and then I was doing three to four days a week. Um, so it was a massive shift. But when I was kind of plugging everything into chat GPT, um, it was one of these things where like I'd talk about my fasting, and then um I would talk about this and that, and then I was like, oh, by the way, I was also doing this. I was like, Oh, you know, like chat's getting more information, but like, holy smokes! Like you basically what chat told me is Kevin, your body was living in a non-stop fight or flight condition for a year.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 52:00

No wonder you, you know, your A1C was elevated. Um, but can you talk about how cortisol impacts blood sugar? We we kind of touched on this as well, but just real quick, specifically for those who are considering cold plunging or doing maybe it every single day, help them understand how the the cortisol that is probably going to get released from cold plunging is going to impact their blood sugar.

SPEAKER_00 52:21

So cortisol is your sugars, right? That's what it, that's what it is. A cortisol is a sugar. So you're releasing

Cold Plunge, Cortisol, And Moderation

SPEAKER_00 52:27

a ton of sugar. Again, we go back to simple. Um, insulin needs to convert that to energy. Um, it will raise your blood sugar. Put that on top of maybe fasting or after a really heavy fasted cardio workout. What does that system, what are you putting that system through, right? So, and I know you had said that you actually saw your blood sugar go up on the cold plunge, right? Um yeah, it I mean small doses, you're not diabetic, you're not dealing with prediabetes, whatever, probably fine for like you're doing, but how much is how much and why? That's why I always ask people, why why that much? What are you trying to achieve? Well, I heard it burns more fat. Well, let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_04 53:11

Once again, I've been cold plunging for uh I don't know, three, four years. It didn't by itself, it did not move the dial at all. And I'm not knocking it, but once again, like like you said, if if being hungry burned fat, then why is everyone overweight? Right. If cold plunging got rid of all, you know, brown fat or you know, all the stuff that they say, like if you think that's gonna be your magic pill, folks, I got news for you. It is not.

SPEAKER_00 53:36

No, yeah, no, the foundation of health is nutrition. If you're building a house, you have to have a solid foundation. Coal plunging, exercising, sauna, that's the countertops and the chandeliers. You try to put the chandeliers and the countertops up and you don't have a strong foundation, what's gonna happen?

SPEAKER_04 53:55

Gonna fall down. Of course.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

That's your health. So that's why I try to get people to understand. Like these things, be discerning about them, make sure you're being moderate. Rest is as important, both in a in a in a sleep kind of way, but also just in resting your body and your muscle groups and all the things as eating.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:16

Right. We've got to, we've got to kind of put the whole picture together, but you can't do it without solid foundation of nutrition.

SPEAKER_04 54:22

And it's one of the other things I implemented is like I do not work out seven days a week. I frequently like I would be like, oh, get in an extra workout and a cold plunge. Like, I don't work out on Sundays.

SPEAKER_02 54:33

Good.

SPEAKER_04 54:34

Unless I missed uh a different day, you know, earlier in the week. But like I have at least one full day off.

unknown 54:39

Good.

SPEAKER_04 54:40

Um, and at this point, cold plunges, like I definitely enjoy them when I've done some really long rides in the heat.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

Right, because they're anti-inflammatory.

SPEAKER_04 54:49

It really helps my body come down after I've been biking, you know, 60 miles and 105 degrees in Arizona sunshine. So um, but once again, it's a purpose.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

Right. And and the outcome is what you're looking to achieve.

SPEAKER_04 55:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 55:03

It's anti-inflammatory, it really helps with the recovery at that point. Recovery, heat, all the things, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:08

Um, let's talk about data that can come from a continuous glucose monitor.

SPEAKER_02 55:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 55:14

One of the first recommendations you had for me was Kevin, go get a prescription for CGM. Can you talk about what it does and what the benefit is of even someone who isn't a diabetic or struggling with pancreas poop out? Yeah, why might they want one?

SPEAKER_00 55:27

Yeah. I love that you use pancreas poop out. Um, it's good. It's good. I'm learning, you're learning. Um so continuous glucose monitor, it what it's doing is reading your interstatial fluid. It's not testing your your blood, obviously, right? Um, and I have mixed feelings about people jumping on the bandwagon of using them because without

CGM Data Without The Panic

SPEAKER_00 55:52

good direction, me and you were consulting a lot about what do those numbers mean and what adjustments should we make based on those numbers, right? We were doing a lot of that work together. They're not created for people who don't have diabetes.

SPEAKER_03 56:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

And so their goal range isn't necessarily right for someone without diabetes. But having said all that, just be cautious and make sure you're talking to someone about the data you're getting. Um, they are so good because they give you real time understanding of how your actions, behaviors, habits are impacting your blood sugar. You saw that, right? You saw that you had a certain breakfast and I was like, Kevin, that has way too much fruit in it. We got to cut that down, right? I remember that specifically. And or pair it with more protein or whatever we had to do to get those macros better. So in real time, you weren't just believing me, you were seeing it, yeah, which helped. Um, my one caution on them is that people without medication requiring diabetes can have way lower blood sugars than that graph will say is okay.

SPEAKER_03 56:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:59

And that does not mean you're hypoglycemic.

SPEAKER_03 57:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 57:02

A non-diabetic's blood sugar can go down past 50. But you're not taking any fake medication. Your body will bring it right back up. Right? It's it's okay. So a lot of times my clients will wear them and say, Oh, I I think I'm hypoglycemic. No, you're not. Right? You're not. It's okay. Like you, your body's actually functioning the way. But it's it's good real time information. Like that's that um example I gave you about stress.

SPEAKER_02 57:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:28

I always knew as a diabetes educator that stress releases cortisols and all these hormones, right? That raise blood sugar, but I never saw it spike like that until I was wearing a CGM. And I was like, holy moly.

SPEAKER_04 57:44

Yeah, it it's very insightful. Like I said, being in a sauna, I would get alerts. Um, being in a cold plunge, I would get alerts. Early on, before I had completely gotten very intentional about getting breakfast right away, it was almost like if you looked at my daily graph, you could say, look at a spike in the morning and say, Oh, that's when Kevin literally got out of bed. Yeah. Like it was almost instantaneous. I get out of bed and my blood sugar would spike.

SPEAKER_00 58:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 58:14

Um, and then I just made it, got very intentional about you know getting that macrobalance breakfast.

SPEAKER_00 58:19

Was that proof to you when I said to you and when I teach and preach, in order to wake up, your body has to let out a lot of sugar to give you energy. Some of us let out more than others. It's called feet on the ground syndrome or Dawn phenomenon. That's kind of the clinical terms. You wake up with a ton of adrenaline, sir, military ex-police officer, retired police officer, right? So your spike was even more significant, but it was more proof that you needed to shut that liver off. And you're not that happens to everybody. It may not have been as big of a spike, but it happens to everybody. So when they see that, they now have more buy-in that, oh yeah. And then as soon as you ate, it flatlined.

SPEAKER_04 58:56

Yeah. And the other thing that was just really interesting and educational is seeing how you, you know, a higher sugar or higher starch meal would cause my blood sugar to go up. Um, one of the other big changes I made, you know, with your coaching um is getting much more intentional about the dust of dawn fast. So basically, I don't, it is extremely rare that I eat after dinner.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:22

Um, and I certainly don't eat just carbs. Like back when I, you know, a year ago, even if I was not going for candy, you know, get those munchies at eight o'clock at night and I'd go grab some dried mango. Yeah. But what I learned is, man, that's spiking the blood sugar, you know, an hour or two before I go to bed. Yeah. And so going to a macro balanced but very low starch dinner made a huge difference for me. And then I just don't eat after dinner. So pretty much I have dinner. I try to have dinner by six o'clock. You know, sometimes I eat a little bit later. Um, but you know, am I sometimes hungry? Eight, nine o'clock, yeah. But I'm just like, I'm I'm doing the fast that I used to do for three days. Good. I do every day.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:08

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:09

You know, after dinner.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:10

And as I got more cautious with that, I could see that my blood sugar stayed lower. The other thing is uh a 10-minute walk.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:19

Like after especially after dinner.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:21

It's amazing. You can see, and that's why the CGM is helpful, is you can see you eat, even if you eat a healthy meal, your blood sugar does want to push up a little bit. You go for a walk and bam, that controls it. Yeah, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

Yep. Um and you just brought up another point. The other thing, if anybody in the audience is considering a CGM, I talked about the don't freak out about the lows. Make sure you're consulting with someone who understands, talk to your doctor. But also, people don't understand that for even someone with a fully functioning pancreas, after a high carb meal, their blood sugar could spike to 160, 165. What matters is that it comes back down and quickly.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:59

And quickly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I'll just recap for people. I went from basically intermittent fasting. I would wake up every morning and not eat anything till typically close to noon. Um, I would do burn 500 calories worth of cardio and then also do lift. So, and then finally eat at noon. Um, and this is all after I had eliminated processed sugar from my diet, um, because it's been almost two years. So I was doing this when I was thought I was, you know, being super healthy. And

Simple Daily Habits That Work

SPEAKER_04 1:01:37

uh, and so now it's wake up, have um, you know, my my breakfast, especially while I'm training on the bike, is um between 400 and 800 calories. Um, but it's macro balanced, and I'm eating very consistently every two and a half to three hours. So I'm eating six times a day. I am only cold plunging once, maybe twice a week, and I'm very intentional about that macro balanced meal at every meal, and especially at dinner time, trying to go more for vegetables than starches and things like that. Don't eat after dinner. So I'm fasting, but I'm fasting every day from basically after dinner till breakfast. Uh and the differences and just how I feel, uh, you know, um per my CGM, my A1C is now normal. Um, I haven't actually had blood work. I went in for blood work and all they were doing was a mail panel. So I thought I was getting the blood work done as well. But according to my CGM, my A1C should be good next time I get that tested. Um overall, like when you look at my graph, it's very consistent. There's no major spikes, and the numbers are good. And so, Jody, I'm super grateful for all your help with that. Uh, my energy is so much better. I just feel better. And I'm sleeping so much better. Like I wake up feeling rested. And I was, I mean, I've done ozone and all these different strategies, you know, through my natural path, not knocking her or anything like that. But that stuff, like you talked about it, it really boils down to nutrition. That is the key. Um, I sleep if I wake up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I'm not up for a long time. I wake up, go to the bathroom, and I'm back asleep. And I'm just sleeping so much better, probably than I have as far back as I can remember. Um, and it's just I I feel so much better.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:31

So have you seen a difference in your mood, mood tolerance?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:35

Um you know, that would be a question probably for my wife. Uh I, you know, at the same time, um acquired a business and I'm just in this unique season of life. So here's what I can say is that I can't imagine how my body would be responding to all this additional stress that I have in my life right now if I was still adding all this artificial stress through fasting and really starving my body and cold plunging too much.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:06

Yeah, not going to bed on time. And most of the people and the reason I ask is most people tell me once they start partnering with me that one of the first things they notice is their mood tolerance is better. I'm not as snappy at the kids. I'm a little bit more patient with my husband, right? So these things have a trickle-down effect. They really do. Um, but I'm grateful you leaned into me.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:26

Yeah. Bottom line is I feel much better. So um, you know, for do you have any parting thoughts for the audience that listened to this one, maybe the other one, um, and maybe they're still questioning is insulin and blood sugar really the solution for me?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:47

Well, my parting thoughts would be if you're looking for a solution and what you're doing, like you, Kevin, were doing super smart, super educated, 12-year coaching, whatever you were doing, it's not working. Why don't you consider trying something that has some medical backing? Everything we've talked about in both of these podcasts were taught to me when I was 10 years old. So, not unlike you, Kevin. I knew this stuff, but I thought I knew better. So start with your foundation. You can't build a house of health on a poor foundation. If you're not eating well, you're not gonna have the right variables. And so my parting thoughts were it's science-based. We're not just talking about the next best thing. We're talking about the way we were created. We're talking about science that's been around for a very long time, even when we spoke about Optivia. And um, I didn't mention that this this time, but last time I think I did. When I was a little girl, there used to be a magazine called Diabetes Forecast. This is back in the day when there were magazines delivered to your home. And the very last page had a children's page, and I was 10, 11, 12, however old I was. And I would go to that and then I would close the magazine. On the back of it was a medifast ad. And it was chocolate shakes and chocolate bars, in my opinion. And I always I never asked an adult, but I always was curious, like, why would they do that to me? I can't eat those things. They knew what they knew a long time ago because this isn't about a program. This isn't about a fad. This is about solid biological health and it it works.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:29

How could people get more information and follow you uh if they're interested?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:34

So they can follow me. Facebook's probably the best place. Jody Deppert, D E P P P E R T Gelly on Facebook is probably the best place. They can also email me. My email is J, and then it's Gelly, G-H-E-L-L-I at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:48

And it's Jody with an I.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:50

Jody with an I, yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:51

All right, folks. So appreciate you being here, Jody. Thank you so much. Um, I had more epiphanies today talking to you, and it's just I don't know, thick skull, or it's just I I think part of it is that we're going against the stream. Uh and this is so kind of countercultural to even

Final Takeaways And How To Reach Jody

SPEAKER_04 1:07:11

a lot of things that medical professionals are sharing. It's certainly countercultural to a lot of the diet fads that are out there and fitness fads that are out there. So um it's it's important that we get this message out and and really help people understand that actually the solution they're looking for is very simple. And it's kind of just turning the key to turn off their insulin pump.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:35

And they will probably see drastic changes. Probably it's I think it's probably the biggest leverage point in anyone's health.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:42

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:42

Is this right here? So, and friends, as we sign off here, I just want to encourage you. It really, the goal of this isn't to prove about how tough you are. We need to shift our mentality from that. Really, the goal is to build a body that's capable of serving your family, your work, and your purpose for decades. I want to be tough. I do microdose adversity because I don't want to be a soft, wissy American. But we also have to understand that if you all you do is be tough, tough, tough, you're you're destroying your body. And discipline is still essential, but wisdom tells us that where that discipline should be applied. And I want to challenge people, maybe shift some of your discipline from cold plunging every day to eating healthier.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:24

Amen. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:25

And sometimes the strongest decision isn't pushing harder. Sometimes it's actually just recovering better. So until next time, stay healthy and thanks for listening to the show.