Learn To Manage Diabetes Through Diet and Exercise, It Can Be Accomplished

Learn To Manage Diabetes Through Diet and Exercise, It Can Be Accomplished with Pim Jansson

Are you a diabetic? Maybe borderline diabetic? We discuss how diet and exercise can help most control their blood glucose. When you have high blood glucose you are playing Russan Roulette with your body. Its no a matter of if you will damage your body, but more how fast and what organs are being damaged first and the worst. Its time to make some changes

About Pim

Pim is a Nutritionist MSc, a Certified Cravings Coach, and the founder of the Smart Diabetics Academy. For over 20 years she has been helping her clients get well with sustainable diet and lifestyle changes. Last year she decided to start focusing on helping type 2 diabetics who are struggling with blood sugar control no matter what they do, and those who cannot seem to be able to stick with a specific diet for any length of time.  

The three pillars of diabetes reversal are: real unprocessed foods that do not spike blood sugar, proper meal timing, and a healthy relationship with food. When the three are combined, magic can happen and diabetes and diabetic complications can be reversed.

These are the easiest ways to get in contact with me:

Email: [email protected] Join the Facebook Group: https://smartdiabeticsacademy.com/facebook Book a Complimentary Coaching Call: https://smartdiabeticsacademy.com/call

www.feedingfatty.com

Full Transcript Below

Learn To Manage Diabetes Through Diet and Exercise, It Can Be Accomplished with Pim Jansson

Sun, 5/16 5:03PM • 1:01:21

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

eat, cravings, people, sugar, blood sugar, diabetics, spike, drink, happen, bit, ice cream, brain, diet, problem, insulin, day, carbs, thought, metformin, water

SPEAKERS

Terry, Pim, Roy Barker

 

Roy Barker  00:02

Hello and welcome to another episode of feeding fatty. This is Roy. This is Terry. So we are chronicling our journey through wellness that includes diet, exercise, mindset, balance, energy, a lot of things that we have delved off into over the last six months having a bunch of great guests on so yeah, part of it is you know, just going through our journey what's up with us but from time to time we do have other professionals in the space on with us and today is no different. Terry, I'm gonna let you introduce Pim.

 

Terry  00:34

Pim Jansson is a Nutritionist MSC, a certified cravings coach and the founder of the Smart Diabetics Academy. For over 20 years she has been helping her clients get well with sustainable diet and lifestyle changes. Last year, she decided to start focusing on helping type two diabetics who are struggling with food, blood sugar control no matter what they do, and those who cannot seem to be able to stick with a specific diet for any length of time. The three pillars of diabetes reversal are real, unprocessed foods that do not spike blood sugar, proper meal timing and a healthy relationship with food. When the three are combined, magic can happen and diabetes and diabetic complications can be reversed. Pam, thank you for coming. Welcome to the show.

 

Pim  01:26

Thank you so much.

 

Roy Barker  01:27

Yeah, I'm thinking, I'm thinking strike three. I'm out. So I'm just gonna step away from the mic.

 

Terry  01:33

We're having one of those days. Yeah.

 

Pim  01:38

Everyone does.

 

Roy Barker  01:39

Yeah. Unfortunately, we string a bunch of hours together.

 

Terry  01:44

Okay, sorry. Couple of weeks.

 

Roy Barker  01:47

Yeah. Oh, yeah. So first off, tell us how you got here. I mean, how did you kind of, you know, find yourself in this space?

 

Pim  01:56

Oh, I think. So. If I can go back, like way back, I think, yeah, I actually been thinking about this, because people keep asking me, I'm like, I don't know, I've always been interested in it. But when I was six years old, I, a new girl moved into the area where I live, and she was type one diabetic. So I think that that's where, you know, when you're aware of a disease that no one else has, because no one else had it. When I was a kid, I'm that Oh, yeah, it was a novelty was like what is that always the sugar sickness. So you start picking up on it there when I was a teenager, people all over the place started popping up with type two diabetes, which wasn't the same, but I didn't really know what the difference was at the time. But when you're aware of something, you kind of, like, if you speak about something, you keep seeing it everywhere. So I think I just started picking it up, because I knew what they'd be this was I knew her what my friend had to do, as she always walked around with this sugar tablets in her pocket, just in case you would pass out that sort of the things. So I think I've always picked up on diabetes. And that has probably sparked my interest with a diet as well. So I was always into diet, and always been interested in diabetics, but a little bit scared of it. Because it's so serious people actually die from that.

 

Roy Barker  03:20

Yeah. And I think some of us that some of us that have been lucky to skate through even though we have it's not that bad. I guess I don't want to maybe we don't respect it enough or have the the proper amount of I don't know, we'll say fear. But we guess respect is it we just don't. You know, it's like, it's okay. We can start tomorrow

 

Terry  03:45

until something happens, right? I mean, what what does it take? Yeah.

 

Pim  03:51

normalize it. Everyone has it? So I'll be okay. Yeah.

 

Terry  03:57

Yeah, there are medications for that, you know,

 

Roy Barker  03:59

and we just watched they were watching something the other day that I mean, it just, you know, when they went through and listed all of the things, you know, it's, I think they're now referring to it as well, I guess they're referring to Alzheimer as type three diabetes, because it's such a precursor for it. But then what, and you can probably name them but loss of sight, loss of limbs. liver, I guess his liver kidney failure. Yeah. I mean, just there's nothing that that's good. Nobody. There's never anybody has never pointed out anything good. That's come from it.

 

Pim  04:40

No, I think I can agree on that. And the problem is that, I mean, blood sugar, obviously, you have blood supply to your whole body. So when you have high blood sugar, it's gonna affect your whole body. Yeah. So it's just like a lottery. But what's going to fail first, unfortunately, yeah, that's very, very sad.

 

Terry  04:59

And it's different. For everybody, I mean, nobody knows.

 

Roy Barker  05:03

Exactly. Yeah, we were we were actually watched a good YouTube video not long ago that was talking about how part of the problem is to is that, again, you may can explain this much better. But it's like the, the, something that gets locked up in our muscles, the I guess the sugar or the the glucose gets trapped in our muscles and it doesn't release and then it kind of builds up like the, you know, it's somewhat toxic. Not only is it bad in its own right, but you know, then when you go work out, and you kind of release some of that, then you can feel like you have toxins and things running through your body too.

 

Pim  05:44

Yeah, I'm not sure about that one. Actually, I know, we spoke about that before. And I was like, yeah, I'm gonna look into that. And then I didn't. But but it's very, very interesting. So I mean, I know why it would be locked up, because insulin is obviously a storage hormone. And what happens in type two diabetics is that before you get a deficiency of insulin, you are chronically high insulin for many, many years. So most type two diabetics probably probably have too much insulin, which means that you want your cells want one to release anything, whether that be glucose, or, or fat. So that's why diabetics often have fat, except for the liver that actually produces glucose, due to low blood sugar and kind of perpetuates the problem. So yeah, things are kind of going wrong. But why that toxic effect is that I'm not really sure. And I'm still gonna look into it.

 

Terry  06:43

When you have a smart diet, smart diabetics Academy, so what do you when when somebody comes to you to talk about their type two diabetes? What? What's the process? What kind of process Do you go through?

 

Pim  06:59

Okay, so most people who come to me then usually have already looked into a low carbohydrate diet, because that's what I'm working with. So I very rarely get someone who's on my standard American diet, just finding me. And then oh, maybe this is good. So what we do is we're kind of looking at what they are eating currently. And we try to tailor that to be a diet that doesn't spike the blood sugar. So the problem I see with many type two diabetics who tried to go low carb is that they misunderstand what a low carb diet is. They think it's just low carb, but also low fat. And that's never gonna end. Well. Yeah, to start. And then I see people, oh, I had a sip of orange juice, or I just had a cracker here. And the thing with those is that, yeah, they might just contain four, five or six grams of carbs. But it's really hard to count how many carbs are in a sip of orange juice, or how you react to a cracker because the wheat cracker that has been processed, can just spike your blood sugar, it's like everything goes out at once with it. And if you had had six grams of carbs from, let's say, a cold, bold potato, you wouldn't have got the same response. So we can't just count the carbs. As you know, I also focus on what sort of foods you're eating. So I don't recommend any diabetics to eat wheat, or sugar, or anything that is a very high glycemic index, those kinds of foods.

 

Roy Barker  08:39

You brought up something as well about the, you know, kind of the combination of what you're eating, but also how much how many carbs you eat, and when you do it, because I know, sometimes when I've talked with people, and you know, this is something I've learned over time is that, you know, my doctor initially said, hey, look, I want you to stay between like 40 and 60. carbs, he wasn't like trying to, you know, put me down to zero, but stay within that range. But what what, you know, you find out over time is that you can't eat 40 carbs for your supper, you can do you know, all of them at one time, because then it's just like throws you way out of whack. You've got to try to spread those out over the day. And I would assume that the probably the more if you need to eat a lot, you eat more first thing in the morning, and that way you could kind of burn them off through the day. Is that correct?

 

Pim  09:37

Yes, to some degree. So I recommend all my clients to not eat more than 10 grams of carbs per main meal. Because that way, you pretty much know what's going to happen with your blood sugar. It's very, very safe. As time goes along and the blood sugar comes down and stabilizes. Then we can start adding more carbs if they want to. It's completely up to them. But What we want to do initially is just get blood sugar stable, sometimes it's stable, but high because your body adjusts, and it has a higher setpoint for your blood sugar. So your body think that maybe 100 120 130 is normal, and it will strive to keep that level for quite some time. But when that stabilizes and goes down, then we can start experimenting with adding a little bit more if we want to, on average, how

 

Roy Barker  10:27

long does that that little hangover there last? Is it like a week or a month? Or?

 

Pim  10:33

I can't tell you because some people literally fix the blood sugar in a week. Other people, it might take two months.

 

Roy Barker  10:42

Okay, so the only reason I asked is, you know, we have tried to eat more plant based. And it's, it's odd, because the one thing I've noticed about trying to be more plant based is very, very consistent, where, you know, when I was doing more what I would term low carb, our protein, I still would have wild spike, not wild, I guess. But you know, I can still have very predictable spikes. And, you know, it's funny because we used to, I could do good, like going to bed, you know, maybe I'd be at 125 110 or whatever. But when I would wake up in the morning, you know, I'd be in 161 at a time in that spike range. But one thing I noticed about this plant basis, whatever I went to bed with, I woke up with that the next morning, it's very strange thing.

 

Pim  11:33

Yeah. Okay.

 

Roy Barker  11:34

So Oh, I'm sorry, I but what I was gonna finish on that was what you were saying is that it was like I moved it to a certain point. And then it couldn't I couldn't get past that. But now it makes sense with what you're saying is that, well, maybe my mind has been at a certain level for so long that my body was trying to produce glucose to keep me up there. So maybe I could have just we should have just kept going a little bit.

 

Pim  12:05

Somewhere, but is your level now?

 

Roy Barker  12:08

Oh, my gosh, I don't even want to. I think I knew it would break the meter.

 

Pim  12:14

Okay, where was it? When you were consistent with the

 

Roy Barker  12:18

last times I was doing it? I was about 160 pretty consistently.

 

Pim  12:23

Okay, so yeah, that's when you were eating more meat with your vegetables, etc.

 

Roy Barker  12:29

Yeah, I was just up and down. I mean, I could be more in the 110s 120s. But then, like I said, in the mornings, I would notice a 161 80 was never much over 180 that would usually be the highest. Yeah. But it would happen in that morning. You know, when I got up and then, you know, as I went through the day, of course, I was able to lower it with movement and just watching what I was eating.

 

Pim  12:58

Yeah, and you're not medicated.

 

Roy Barker  13:02

Yes, I am. But you know, I'm on Metformin. But I just, you know, actually, I actually quit taking it because I just it wasn't, it doesn't help. It wasn't helping any. There was no difference in my blood sugar with or without it. And I had talked to the to my pharmacist about his, uh, you know, I was actually joking with him one day, I'm like, sometimes I think that Metformin was actually spiking my dad gum glucose levels because it just, you know, because I would take it later in the evening. I don't think I was taking it right. I should have been matching it up with my last meal, but I wasn't but you know, it's almost like it was spiking me up overnight. Yeah. Oh. Oh, hello, Pim.

 

Terry  14:09

So and that was on the plant based right. What's that now? Oh,

 

Pim  14:15

connection there.

 

Terry  14:16

We we lost you when you were starting to talk about Metamucil Orman and then that was it.

 

Pim  14:22

Okay. So let me start that again. Sorry about that. No, you're fine. My internet is a little bit rough. Sometimes we moved out to the countryside very recently. So I'm still learning what is going on here? Yeah.

 

Roy Barker  14:35

Oh my God, we can give me an Amen. Oh my god.

 

Pim  14:40

So Metformin is actually one of those drugs that should be able to deal with the high morning blood sugars. You might have heard about something called the dawn phenomenon, which is the home morning blood sugar. So what is happening is that you have a lot of hormones that obviously they have a circadian rhythm. So They will increase at certain times of the day or decrease, excuse me, and one of them is cortisol. And you will get some a little bit of adrenaline and those kind of things in the early morning to help you raise your blood sugar so that you wake up in the morning and you have energy to do whatever you need to do. The problem in diabetics is that they don't produce or they don't respond to the insulin that should counteract this to keep it at a normal level. So that's why you get this spike in the morning. If you were kind of 160 consistently with the plant based diet, you probably wouldn't notice it, because it's still it's already up. So that's probably why you see the swings when you go from a lower carb up to, you know, up to 160. But if that is kind of your max, and it then goes down, I would say that it's actually better if you can stay at 110 for the rest of the day. So for me should be able to help with that if you take Metformin in the evening, because what it does, it's what it has three functions, basically. So one of the functions is that it prevents the liver from No, it doesn't prevent, it kind of minimizes the amount of glucose the liver produces and secretes. So that's one of them. And the second one is it makes you more insulin sensitive. And then obviously, most, a lot of people taking Metformin get some sort of gastrointestinal problems. And that's because it doesn't reabsorb the sugar. So like literally goes through. And when you eat too much of it, it draws in a lot of fluid into your intestines. And that's why you might get a little bit upset at me. So I'm surprised that it didn't help you at all with the hi morning blood sugar as it really should have. But what you can try to do is shifting the time of your last meal and eat earlier so that you fasted for longer. For some people, if that doesn't help, you can try to maybe eat a little bit of protein right before bed like just some people take a tablespoon of peanut butter. Personally, I would probably go from less carbs in the protein and just, you know, half an acre or whatever, if you can do that.

 

Roy Barker  17:19

Yeah, yeah, I've tried that, actually, to no avail as well. The other thing I was going to tell you that we were doing with the plant based as well was the intermittent fasting. So we would eat dinner, you know, like about six or seven. And then we weren't eating anything again until noon the next day. So it was to me, I think that fasting was good because I'm an I'm a night eater, and that is my problem spot. Is that nine or 10 o'clock at night, you know, I want to Well, I'll need anything, you know, we go up to go to Taco place, we can go to ice cream, we can get a candy bar, we could do popcorn and watch. Popcorn is my thing. So you know. And that to me, it's just a habit. That was a bad habit that I fell into. And then you know, now I kind of want that. And so what we've been trying to do say, I'm wanting that, I think because I feel like I need the energy. I feel like my body's running down. And so instead of just listening, it's like, Listen, go to bed, it's time to go to bed and get some sleep not get started

 

Terry  18:29

do more stuff. He would get into bed and just start off all of these ideas. And I'm just like, Ah

 

Pim  18:41

that's fairly common. The nightie thing so yeah, it's probably I don't know if you're doing it right now, but that's probably something that you want to cut out.

 

Roy Barker  18:53

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Pim  18:55

Yeah, go on.

 

Roy Barker  18:56

No, I just gonna say that's one thing I think that the fasting helped with is just being on that regiment because I'm not, you know, there are those people that can buy the skinny cow ice creams and they can eat one of those little bitty sandwiches and life can be good for them and I'm not that way if I eat one of those on end six of them because they're just that good and they're small. So you know, I'm not the kind of person that can do a little bit I'm always better just total restriction and not having it

 

Pim  19:31

Yeah, so yeah, I'm the same. And I've struggled with this for most of my life. You know, been working as you know, diet advice, a personal trainer, that sort of thing and giving other people advice and I could never really manage my own diet what I managed the food part really well. But sugar is my downfall. So anything would sugar would just go for it and I would need it after every dinner I had etc. so upset hear you. But there are ways of dealing with it if you are prepared to deal with,

 

Terry  20:08

you have to seal off dinner with dessert. That's,

 

Roy Barker  20:11

yeah, that's a funny thing. Because as a as a, as a younger person, I wasn't that way. It's only, you know, maybe the last five or 10 years, that it's like, okay, when we eat something, we need to follow it up with something sweet. I mean, like to the point of, I'd leave the house and go, you know, drive 15 minutes up the road to go get a candy bar or whatever. Yeah,

 

Pim  20:38

I've done that. I know what it's like. It's not good news. But in that case, it sounds to me like, because I can remember, like, one of my first memories was from when I was like, six years old or something, and climbing to find the cookies that my mom had hidden in the cupboard, because she knew I would eat them if I knew that they were there. So I just have a few so that she wouldn't notice. And I think I got away with it. But she's never said anything, are you. So in your case, it might just actually be that it's a really bad habit that you've gotten used to, and that you can actually easier than most of my clients and myself reverse that kind of thought process and your behavior and make it something different. If you want it,

 

Terry  21:27

how do you? How do you do that.

 

Pim  21:30

So I use a few things. So one of the things that you want to do so you have, I usually talk about the reptilian brain, which is like the lower brain or the brain that just reacts on instinct, and that is the one that wants you to eat. It's the one that is on autopilot. So when you teach it something, whatever it is, it will learn that and you won't have to think about it. And that's why all those six mini ice creams disappear without you thinking about it. Because you have learned that that is a really good thing for you, it gives you a huge reward in the reward center in your brain. It just lights up like a Christmas tree. And life is joyous and fun. Everything is great until after you finish them. And the same thing, when you brush your teeth, you don't really think about it, because that's also program. So we need to take control with the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that is doing all the planning or the logical stuff. So if you say that, I want to stop doing this behavior, and I'm going to do it this way, then you need to let your prefrontal cortex be in control because as soon as it is engaged, the other part is going to take over. And it's just going to be like, Oh, we've got six ice creams, here, I'm gonna eat them all. And you just go and do it. No problem. Same thing, when you go shopping, you're so used to going to the shopping aisle where you find that special chocolate or that freezer with ice cream or whatever it might be. So you need to make a conscious decision to start with. But then when you get the craving. So I don't know if you heard about the habit loop. So it's literally you get something triggering you whatever that is. So it might be going to the shopping mall or the supermarket or it might be having dinner. So I can relate to this one. Yeah, I know you can as well. So having dinner, for example, would have been my trigger. As soon as I had dinner, that would create a thought in my head, like, Oh, where's my dessert? Now I need something sweet or something like that. Along those lines. There's nothing dramatic or strange about it. And then because I have that thought, I think, no, I need to go and get something sweet, because that's what I was thinking. So we need to kind of interrupt this habit loop somewhere. And the trigger is always going to be there. Because you can't stop eating dinner, you're going to have to eat. So what you need to do is when you notice that you have this thought I need something, that's where you need to interrupt in this case. So what I choose to do is observing what's happening. So the best thing, I don't have it here, but I usually show when I have a diary where I just write down this is what I was thinking, this is how it feels in my body. So for me, it's usually I start salivating. Some people get like attention in the whole body almost shaking was, like fascinating to me. And they might get like tension in the solar plexus or something like that. And then you kind of observing it from the outside rather than being emotionally involved in the whole process, which means that it's really easy for you to just, when you write it down, it's like it's just words, and it's almost like it's not about you anymore. But when you do that you can kind of look at the craving and like what is that it's kind of a non event. Yeah, it's just there. It's It's nothing and I don't need to do anything. So I choose to do nothing because that's very easy to easy to do. It's the most practical thing to do. Some people might choose to respond to it differently, they might get and drink a glass of water, walk around the block, do some push ups, whatever it is, as a response to these thoughts and these physical signs that they get. And that way, interrupt it and start doing something else.

 

Roy Barker  25:16

You just replace it with something else.

 

Pim  25:18

Exactly. So in my case, I want to replace it with doing nothing because I don't want to respond to my cravings. And the cravings will still be there, but I will. It's like, they just kind of fly by like this. And I see them but I don't react to them anymore. So I know that they're there. Yeah, but I'm not reacting to them anymore.

 

Roy Barker  25:36

So you know, it's funny you say that about the reptilian the reptilian brain because it's, it's, it's hard for people to understand unless they have this feeling. But sometimes it's almost like, you know, you get the snack, you eat it. And then after a while, you're like, Oh, I just had a snack. And why did I go do that? And, you know, when we when we first started fasting, it was kind of a funny thing. We were sitting here doing some stuff one night, I actually got up went to the kitchen, and I opened up this bag, and it was a good snack. Actually, it was a we call those dried chickpeas. Yeah, as some dried chickpeas. But you know, I had my hand open them had my hand in the bag, and pulled out a handful before it snapped, like, Hey, I'm fasting. I'm not supposed to be eating. I was able to put them back. But, you know, it was just, I think it's just it. But it demonstrates what an unconscious act that truly was. There was no thought in it. It was just like I was programmed. And didn't give it any thought to walk over there and find something to eat.

 

Pim  26:47

Yeah, and then you should actually take a step back from there. What triggered you to do that?

 

Roy Barker  26:52

Yeah, it was just boredom. Yeah, yeah. Because we kind of talked about it after that, you know, we were sitting around, I was doing something I just needed a break, I needed a reason to get up and walk away. And, you know, that's what I've used that for, you know, I think for all these years, it's a break. Or if something's getting difficult, sometimes you need to step away and think about it for a moment. So go get snack, and

 

Pim  27:18

and that's the thing, I never thought that I was an emotional eater. So for me, I looked at people emotional eating, that was people that they were eating when they were upset, or, you know, sad or being bullied or whatever. But that's not me. But I'm eating when I want to procrastinate. And when I'm bored, yeah, those are my two emotional triggers. And when I kind of realized that those are emotions of od, I'm actually an emotional eater, and I didn't know

 

Terry  27:49

you're paying with the rest of it.

 

Roy Barker  27:52

It's hard, because I feel like I'm all of those. Because if it's happy, sad, won't be a celebration, hey, let's run up to the Mexican food restaurant and get something to eat or

 

Terry  28:03

while you're fascinating,

 

Roy Barker  28:05

yeah. Or if you had a bad day, if I go, let's go get some. So yeah, but it's the other thing. It's, it hasn't helped me a whole lot. But a couple things I've realized about myself though, is that going out to eat is a celebration. And you know, the last time we went out we had Mexican food we we set out on the patio and we ate we left and we felt bad. And I was just telling Terry that I only wanted to go up there for the celebration to sit out on the patio to get some fresh air for us to talk to be away from the house. And you know, I said we what we need to do is learn to be able to go and do that and just make healthier choices. While we're there. I mean, they those people have, you know, grilled chicken, they have taco salad, I mean, there's all sorts of healthy choices. You don't have to eat all the chips and tortillas that they bring you but you know again, it's like when you get there it's like when you get there it's the habit the habit takes over. And so you know I told her next time we do that we're really gonna have to think hard on the front end before we get there like this is what we're ordering. We're telling them no chips, we're ordering some chicken or you know, salad lettuce, whatever he to me, but just be very, I guess, planned. And not only planned, but just kind of diligent of sticking to it.

 

Pim  29:38

Yeah, and that's something that before I'd started working with diabetics, I was working with food addicts and emotional eaters, so we using a lot is planning so if I have massive cravings today for something, I never allow myself to get into those cravings. But what I can do is plan to have it tomorrow when tomorrow comes A First of all, I've trained my brain to let my own prefrontal cortex be in control, which is a really good thing, because a lot of the time, we don't really want to do that because it's uncomfortable. And then when tomorrow comes, I might not really want that thing anymore. Yeah, in the beginning, I would eat it just because I had said that I could eat it, whether I wanted it or not. But at some point, you can realize, we do a lot of, you know, being present when you're eating actually tasting it, how far, how much can you eat of that food before it actually doesn't taste good anymore. Because this thought, for me is about three, four bites. It tastes really good. And then it just tastes like sugary and it doesn't have that appeal anymore. And at that point, you really should stop there. So when you do that, you can kind of get away from it. But as a diabetic, you might also have to include what sort of food choices you should we make? Because you can't just say yes, tomorrow, I'm gonna have three tubs of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, because that's terrible for your blood sugar. Yeah, so you in your case, you can still obviously do that.

 

Roy Barker  31:08

Well, so that's easy. That's easy for me. I can say no, Ben and Jerry's because we have Blue Bell. So.

 

Pim  31:17

So I don't know blue about

 

Roy Barker  31:21

it's, it's like, very creamy. It's if you had that you wouldn't, he would shun Ben and Jerry's from now on. So

 

Pim  31:30

I don't even want to try it.

 

Roy Barker  31:33

But well, so it brings up an interesting point, because I feel, and I let Terry, you know, sometimes we think of ourselves different than what we really are. But I feel like I'm pretty resolved. In most areas, make a decision stick with it. I don't feel that wishy washy about stuff. But it's like with food. I cannot get that. Just that resolve, because it's funny, you know, you say you will put it off? Well, I will probably have an internal argument, one, put it off till tomorrow, when we could just run up there and get it today. And I will sit there and talk myself in you know, may try to put up a quick defense, but then not just like run over it and be like, whatever, we're gonna go do it. It just it it's kind of you know, it's a little bit aggravating. And it's a little bit embarrassing, because it's like, why can't I have just a tiny, tiny bit of self control when it comes to food like that.

 

Pim  32:37

So that's your lower brain is always going to put up a fight. I mean, even when you're done this for a very long time, occasionally, it will just you will have that nagging here now, maybe you should just do that, and maybe a little bit,

 

Terry  32:51

the angel and the devil.

 

Pim  32:52

Yes, absolutely. So that's always going to happen because you have this pathway in your brain. And it's always going to be there, we can't erase it, the only thing we can do is create a new pathway in the brain where you react differently. And the more times you're doing it, the stronger that pathway is going to be. So the more likely you're going to do that on autopilot. But as soon as you want to, if you've really, you know, if you're really upset, or whatever it is strong emotions that you want to escape from, you are going to want to just revert back to the strong pathway that has been threaded for many, many years. And that's where you need to not focus so much on I can't have this because when you tell yourself, I can't have this, you just I want it. So instead, like try to focus on, I want to be in control. And if what you doing the only thing you're committing to, is to always plan 24 hours ahead. That is your commitment. Your commitment is not not eating the food and commitments only to do that. And if you can get that program into your brain that I am going to be in control, I can have whatever I want. But I'm committed to always planning 24 hours ahead, and you can follow that you're going to be pretty safe. Okay.

 

Terry  34:20

That may be exactly what we need to do. Because sometimes it's just like off the cuff, you know,

 

Pim  34:25

yeah. And I'm going to tell you, I have found so many times, most of my clients have failed so many times and I had a client recently, just because you said it and we plan she was going to go on holiday. She's like, yeah, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna have one meal with the suit and blah, blah, blah. And then the day after we spoke Is that why should I wait? And she just went off rails. I didn't hear from her for two weeks. She just been eating badly for two weeks. And there's something this happened to a lot of People and it's not that you're weak or anything, it's just that the lower brain is taking over. And you don't know how to handle that. And we need to make those mistakes, I think along the road, you need to fall off the wagon a certain amount of times before you get there. Because that pathway is not strong enough yet, the only thing you need to focus on is that for every single time you make the right choice, and you can allow the craving to be there and not just push it down, that would be stronger. And you will be one step closer to not reacting the wrong way, if you like, unlike saying the wrong way, but the way that you

 

Roy Barker  35:36

will prefer no more healthy in a more healthy manner. Yeah,

 

Pim  35:39

exactly. So we need to celebrate the wins every time you can allow the craving, you can see it fly by, like, that's a win, that's one step closer, are you gonna have to do that many, many times. And along that way, of course, you do not fail every now and then.

 

Roy Barker  35:58

So what about the importance of both water and exercise in this because I don't notice it as much lately, but used to I would notice, if I got out took a little walk after dinner or after I ate, you know, I could tend to drive my, my sugar down, it would be better. Now sometimes. After reading this the other day, sometimes Now I understand why there may actually be a little bit of a spike, you know, after that if I push too hard. And if it depends, like if it's just a walk, it'll usually go down. But you know, maybe going to the gym, I might actually drive it up just a little bit, but talk about the importance of both water and exercise.

 

Pim  36:40

Okay, let's start with the exercise. So what you have observed is absolutely true. So when you're walking, you're not using a lot of energy. So your body's not going to see that as some sort of stress. So you're just going to use up the sugar that is in your blood, which is brilliant. If you have a problem controlling your blood sugar after eating, you can just go for a walk and it will go down quicker. The more intense exercise is a stress on the body and your body perceives that as we need energy, we need a lot of it now. So we labor will start releasing a lot of sugar to make up for what you're going to use. So this is completely normal. It happens in everyone, obviously, again, as a type two diabetic is going to be hard if you're not exercising as hard and what as long, it's going to be hard to kind of go down to baseline quickly. Maybe for some people it does, but not for everyone. So what you can do is if you go for a hard workout is that you've just added with like 20 minutes walking or something so that you don't stop pure exercise just then go lay on the sofa. Okay. Yeah, you want a bit of a cooldown period to just clear the blood, and that's going to go there. So this is not dangerous spiking, I wouldn't say because what you do is your muscles are also using a lot of sugar, which is great because then they have the capacity to suck it up from your blood and help you stabilize your blood sugar long term. So both intense and low intensity exercise both are important and can be used so I wouldn't say like Don't be scared of going for intense exercise. Just make sure that if it stays up for more than a couple of hours, you probably have a problem. But if it goes down again, you're probably fine. Okay, so I didn't know how long it stays up for you when you do.

 

Roy Barker  38:37

Yeah, no, no, I'm not that crazy. You know, I'm not when I get on the way it's it's not like you know,

 

Terry  38:44

he is crazy.

 

Roy Barker  38:47

You know, it's just not like that intense but I can just tell the difference between the walking and you know, doing some weightlifting but what I think now that you mentioned that maybe what I should do is split my walking easily I walk to warm up and then do the weight lift and then go home. So maybe now just split it walk a little bit before do the weights and then walk a little bit after and that might help.

 

Pim  39:10

Yeah, I think that sounds like a good plan. With regards to the water, I'm not so I mean, being dehydrated is obviously not a good thing. If you are struggling with a lot of high blood sugar, you're probably going to be more thirsty because you want to dilute all your fluids so that the concentration of sugar isn't as high and obviously then you're gonna weed out and etc. But I when I was studying for my degree in nutrition, we had a kidney specialist and he was them. He was telling us that we are actually over drinking and we should start listening more to our bodies when we are thirsty. Interesting. Ah. So I think For some people, that signal doesn't necessarily work correctly. And that might be a problem. But forcing water down when you're not thirsty, and if you, if that just leads to you having to go weird out straight away, you're probably over drinking. So listen to your body, and also see how it reacts when you're drinking, so that you kind of get a balanced because when you go to, you know, when you just flush it out, you're going to get rid of a lot of electrolytes and other things that might eventually give you a headache or whatever. So, yeah, okay. Yeah. I think,

 

Roy Barker  40:40

yeah, that's funny, because, you know, I guess here the mandate is, like, my eight glasses a day. So it'd be like, I think four bottles of water, you know, is about what they say the recommended intake is, but I have seen, and we just saw something the other day that they were talking about percent of body weight. And of course, you know, for somebody like myself, that's heavy, or the amount of water that, you know, they were suggesting was just

 

Terry  41:15

was crazy. No way it would be drinking up to sundown. I

 

Roy Barker  41:19

mean, it would be like, I don't know, I sit down, I figured it out. But it's like 10 or 12 bottles of water one day, and I was like, wow. Yeah, I mean, that's you could almost drown yourself drinking that much.

 

Pim  41:29

Yeah, I mean, thinking that much, it's actually not great for you. And as I said, you could get salted deficient, which could lead to cramps and other problems in your body that you don't necessarily want to deal with. And that's, I'm the opposite to you. And that's why I actually remember that this kidney doctor was saying this. Because if I drink, let's say, how many ounces would that be? Three to four per day is kind of my normal, unless it's really hot outside. And that's it. And I have been like that my whole life. And I told you about my diabetic friend we used to spend, because she moved after a few years, and she moved out to the countryside. So I used to be there for a few weeks every summer. And her parents phone, my parents to ask if I never drank anything, because they were really worried about me. And that was, you know, 35 years ago, or whatever. And I still don't have any problems with my kidneys. So I'm doing fine. And I've never been a big drinker. But I'm trying to listen to my body. But if you're someone who's always like drinking soda, and everything has to be flavored, you probably want to try and get off of that and learn to drink water.

 

Roy Barker  42:44

Yeah, and that's me, I just, I don't like the water. It's not my first choice. because like you said, I'd rather have you know, coffee in the morning, and then maybe a soda. And I've even tried the, you know, the flavor packets, and that works for a little bit. But then it's like, again, back to the soda. It's almost like a treat, especially if I'm not eating sugar. That's like the one little treat I get, and then No, he drink one in the afternoon today. And then next, you know, by the end of next week, it's like now I'm drinking three in the afternoon. But the one good thing is we she does buy those, like a half a bottle of Coke. So it's not like the big tall 16 or 20 ounce or which it's good for somebody like me because there was a time. This has been years ago, maybe 1010 years ago or so. I can't even tell you how many because I'd have two or three of those big 44 ounce drinks from the local drive in I might have two or three of those during the day and then have four or five cokes you know out of the refrigerator at home it's It was crazy Oh my gosh. But I just saw you know and I got in the habit of always having to have a drink in my hand either at home if I'm in the car especially if I'm in the car I've got to have something to you know drink and I just need to make that switch to need to make it and stay on water it's just hard I can do good for a while and then you know I kind of start falling off of it because I just don't like it that much.

 

Pim  44:20

So what about if you only have water in your car? That's gonna be good but

 

Roy Barker  44:25

no that's what I've that's what I've done before is just said look, no, you know, no more soda pops or anything like that. You just have to have waters the only choice and it's, it works. It's just disappointing.

 

Pim  44:41

Yeah, and that's where you can work on the cravings and just allowing them to be there like this. No big deal. Actually, why do I need that? But if you feel like I you just kind of slowly want to wean off. You could just maybe decide that if I'm going to drink a can of soda I need to before I'm allowed to do that I need to drink the equivalent amount of water. Yeah. So you drink the water first and then you get your soda?

 

Roy Barker  45:05

Yeah, yeah, I like that. Definitely need to do that and do that with coffee in the morning, too. You know, I, I'm, I'm just all over the place, I'll get in a good run, and you know, like, get up and drink a bottle of water. First thing in the morning, before we have the coffee. And then, you know, I think we'd actually tried that for a while was to, you know, have a cup of coffee and then have a bottle of water have half a bottle in between. So just but again, this is the bigger, you know, issue with me is the consistency because I can do that for a day or two, maybe even a week or two. It's the week, you know, it's the week six 810 12. You know, those those, that's what I just seem to struggle with so much. I mean, when I it's not like I can just fall off the wagon. I mean, I fall off and get run over by the thing.

 

Pim  46:01

I know a few people like that. So then you have to ask yourself, what is happening when you're falling off? Like, why does that happen?

 

Roy Barker  46:12

Yeah, you know,

 

Terry  46:13

dress,

 

Roy Barker  46:14

yeah, probably that build up of just stuff. And, you know, that's, to be honest, I guess we're gonna be honest here. We'll put it all out there, even though we're kind of over on time, but it's, you know, I have been searching for, you know, what is going on? Because I can tell you, I could write a book on how to do this stuff. I know how to do it. I don't know how to do it, right. But I just don't. Or we do it good for a week, you know, I think we can easily make what, two, three weeks, we'll do very well. And then stop. I mean, it's and it's not always bad stuff. I mean, like, you know, at the end of the year, we were doing good. Really good. And then Terry was gone for about two or three weeks, it just kind of upset the rhythm of things. So it was easier for me to, you know, swing by the hamburger place and get a hamburger because I don't cook. So anyway, it just kind of upset the rhythm, you know, then I fall off and it's not her fault. Please don't take it that I'm

 

Terry  47:19

never leaving.

 

Roy Barker  47:22

I'm not blaming her. I'm just saying it's a it's an upset and the pattern, the rhythm. And then. And then I don't know, I think other thing, other times it's been that things just seem to build up. It's almost like, maybe the not having the stuff is what builds up that pressure to where you just have to go like get something to eat, you know?

 

Terry  47:44

Yeah. And I'll try to, you know, not bring, not bring home, anything snacky you know, just Whole Foods, especially with us trying to do this plant based diet. Just try not to try not to and of course, one of the first things that I'm asked when I come home, got anything snacky

 

Roy Barker  48:07

you know, I go up or unload the groceries or I can look through the

 

Terry  48:12

truth comes out. And Daddy, we're being chivalrous.

 

Roy Barker  48:19

I want to see want to see what, what goodies. Yes. It's

 

Pim  48:27

sorry. No, no, no. But that's probably because you're using willpower to not do it. So what I was saying that when we suppressing your cravings with willpower, they're going to come back with a vengeance. And that happens to everyone. So if you imagine like trying to, if you had like a beach ball or something, you're trying to push it on the water, if you let go of that, it's just going to explode and come back up. And that is exactly what is happening. When you're like, No, I'm not gonna have I'm not gonna have that I'm not allowed to have that. I'm not not not not. But instead actually do the thing that I told you. What, what, what's the trigger? What was I thinking? And how does that feel in my body if you write that down. So I like having two commitments that one of them is to plan 24 hours ahead. And the other one is to always write down everything that with regards to your cravings. And me included and pretty much all my clients have a resistance to writing it down. We do it three times. And then we think I can do that in my head and then never works. Now, you really need to actually have pen and paper write it down so that you can look at it for some reason it works. But if you try to do it in your head, it's like whatever. And it doesn't really work.

 

Roy Barker  49:42

Well now be good time for me to start that because, you know, journaling is the same way, you know, over the years I have fits and starts with doing it and this time, you know, I think it's been three months pretty much Yeah, you've been really good. I've been consistent at least getting a page down. So now I'm not be the time to to try that again.

 

Terry  50:02

And while you're I mean, we've been incorporated meditation and to some everything that we've been doing over I don't know how long a month month, five weeks

 

Pim  50:13

looks good. But the thing is that it doesn't need to take you long it takes a minute. You just write down. This is what happens. I ate dinner. I was thinking I need to have something. I felt salivation in my jaw. Five seconds later, the craving was gone. Let's say it doesn't have to be complicated. It's super simple. You just need to get it.

 

Roy Barker  50:41

Right it mine's gonna be had dinner. And why can't I talk? tyrian to go into the ice cream. Cheese.

 

Terry  50:50

Do you think we need to go down and get some ice cream or chocolate bar? Do you need a chocolate bar? I'll go get you one.

 

Roy Barker  50:59

Good, good. It was, I guess was it Friday night? Thursday or Friday night. I was just like, dead. And I was like, let's get an ice cream. And she's like, let's just think about that for a little bit. And she never said no. But she finally pushed me off until it's like once bedtime now it's like

 

Pim  51:19

well done. Yeah.

 

Terry  51:21

I'm not always like that. Because I can cave with. With the best mom, you know?

 

Pim  51:27

I'm sure most people do. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Roy Barker  51:31

Well, we're gonna try that we're gonna, we're gonna plan. And I like that. Nothing. We're gonna play in 24 hours. So it's not that we can't have something. It's just if we really want it. It'll be on tomorrow's menu. Yeah, and write down those feelings that are around when those cravings really pop up.

 

Pim  51:50

Yeah. Awesome.

 

Roy Barker  51:53

That's a great idea. All right, I can commit to that. I can commit. Good.

 

Terry  51:57

Thank you.

 

Pim  52:00

I love helping people with this. It's so simple. And still we have so much resistance actually doing it. So it's not easy to achieve. But it's really simple to do. Yeah.

 

Roy Barker  52:10

What do you have any other any other tips you want to leave on? No, we're way long. But do you have any other tips you want to leave us with? Before we get out of here

 

Pim  52:18

might just if you are struggling with you know, emotional eating or any thing of that kind, the first step is always to be aware of what's going on. So start kind of being honest with yourself about what's going on in your head, and try to find those thoughts. Because sometimes we don't even we're not even aware that we have them. And they never fancy. It's just like, I want chocolate. So what's that? Yeah, we don't know why we happen. We just happen. It's our brain is just trying to get us into it. So start there. And then take the next step from there.

 

Roy Barker  52:53

Okay, good advice. So do you have a Is there a tool or a habit that you use in your daily life, it could be professional or personal, it's just something that you do that adds a lot of value to your day.

 

Pim  53:09

My best tool is what I just taught you actually, that adds a lot of value. Because when you can, when you're not emotionally engaging in those cravings, you, you have a different focus, and you get so much more energy and you get so much more done, because you can focus on what you're doing, rather than thinking about food. 24 seven. So that's actually my best tip. I've tried, you know, with morning journaling, breathing exercises, all those kind of things that might help. But in the end of the day, if I have food cravings and thinking about food all day long, I'm so inefficient.

 

Roy Barker  53:47

Yeah, you know, I think the breathing you bring up too, because we just talked to somebody the other day, this was more about stress management. But that's another thing I think it might be a good thing to try is when you really have those cravings, just to step back and take a you know, two or three deep breaths before you write it down. Because that's something I'm finding with them. The more I get into meditation, it's that breathing in the control of that it just for me, personally, it's very grounding, and kind of read centers made to get, I guess, to get my mind right and start thinking about, you know, the way I need to be thinking and not be all emotional or crazy about stuff. So

 

Pim  54:29

yeah, it allows you to take a step back and use your rational part of the brain to actually engage. So that's awesome. Our reptilian brain must be huge. Not really. Like programs everything and then

 

Roy Barker  54:46

place it on repeat. It must outrank my other party. I don't know. I'll have to get it under control. All right, you can tell everybody you know Who do you like to work? With How can you help them? And then of course, how can they reach out and get a hold of you?

 

Pim  55:05

Okay, so typically, I'm actually working with people who wants to be on a low carb diet, but this struggle to stay on track because of cravings. And usually they've been doing this for years before they come to me, because we are optimists. And we think that we can do it when we're going to crack it the next time, the next, etc. But that doesn't happen. So I work with both type two diabetics now, and people who are not type two, so I'm actually working with both. But if you're a type two diabetic, we always start with the diet and start with that. And then we move on to, you know, working on the mindset or the the mind work to rewire your brain so that you don't respond to the cravings that way. And that's, that's what I see that's, that's where everyone fails, no matter what diet you're on, you will fail if you are an emotional eater, if you're a food addict, and if you respond to these cravings, and that's 90% of the population. So if you have ever thought failed a diet you are going to have to work on, if you want to change your diet. If you happen to eat the way you do, then God bless you. And I hope that you're doing well with what you're eating. And so yeah, um, any sort of food addiction, I don't work with people who have like binge eating disorders, and that's kind of psychological thing on more, I'm a coach. So I'm working with people who want to change. And even you might think that you can't do it. Like me, I never thought I can do it. But I'm actually in control. Now. I'm not 100% sugar free myself, yet. I'm still working on my mindset a bit to get there. But I have come such a long way. And it's so rewarding to be with help others and some of my clients, I think they're much better than me. But there you go. So yeah. If you want to kind of discuss with me whether you want my help, or just want to ask something, and whether I can help you with like a specific condition, or whatever it is, is probably best if you want to book in for a free call with me. And you can do that at smart diabetics academy.com/call. And if you just have a small question for me, you can send me an email at [email protected], or I also have a Facebook group for diabetics. I'm gonna admit I'm not super active. I'm there. I'm there every week, I do answer every question. But I might not check in every day and the group is still kind of small. But if you want to come in there, you want to ask questions, I will answer them. So you can find me there as well. And that smart diabetics academy.com/Facebook, super simple.

 

Terry  57:51

It's hard to keep up with all that. Social media media.

 

Pim  57:55

Yeah, I prefer to speak to people because if I have five minutes with someone, I can help you more than I can help someone one, you know, during an hour trying to make it in text on Facebook or something. It's, it's, it's a very, very weird way of communicating. When you're working, especially when you're working with emotions, you need to kind of speak to someone and see their reaction and kind of throw that ball back and forth a bit. So

 

Roy Barker  58:22

it's not that I like that approach to I'm like you I'd rather talk and Well, most issues, pick up the phone, get it done, like, back and forth. Yeah, yeah.

 

Pim  58:32

It's so much more efficient. So even if you don't, I mean, I really do want to help like everyone. So even if you think I may maybe not help pay for a coach or whatever, if you still think, you know, I might be able to help you in 10 minutes book, a call is fine. Okay, it doesn't matter. You don't, you're not signing up for anything. It's just, if I can talk to you for 10 minutes and make a difference. I'm happy. And I have had clients like that. Even a guy he came back after six months. And he said, You know how we talked before. And I couldn't get a handle on this. After we spoke, I haven't touched sugar or bread at all. And I don't know what happened during those 14 minutes that we spoke, something clicked and he just he could just do it on its own. And in that case, you wouldn't even have needed me. And I know that he couldn't hire me at a time because he was about to lose his job. But then he came back and he just said, Hey, do you have paper? I'm gonna give you $50 Okay, thank you. Sometimes you just eat, you know, all you need is half an hour. And that can actually change your life or you don't need a coach ongoingly so

 

Roy Barker  59:41

that's another great example of paying it forward and just put it out there and it comes back to you. So yeah, I appreciate that.

 

Pim  59:48

Very much. Awesome. I mean, I appreciate his $150 coming into my account, sure, but even more so just that he got back to me and he let me know that actually This conversation that we had, it changed my life. And that's like, I get goosebumps all over my arms when I hear like, Oh my god, I did it. Yeah, without doing much. He just needed that little switch in his brain. And that's so awesome.

 

Terry  1:00:14

Well, that was a lot. Yeah, that was a lot.

 

Roy Barker  1:00:16

Yeah. All right. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day. And we'll be sure to include all the websites and everything in the show notes. But yeah, y'all reach out to him. If you need some help, we're going to take her advice. She's a good role model for us. So we're gonna try the journaling and the scheduling, and see what kind of a difference we do it.

 

Terry  1:00:39

We will report back. Yep.

 

Pim  1:00:41

Thank you so much. I'm pleased to report back and reach out if you need any more support or help in that regard. And I'll be happy to talk if we're so appreciative. We really appreciate it.

 

Roy Barker  1:00:52

Yeah. Thanks. Well, that's gonna do it for another episode of Feeding Fatty Of course, I am Roy. You can find us at www.feedingfatty.com. We're on all the major podcast platforms as well as all the major social media platforms. video of this interview will go up on our YouTube channel when we release it as well. So until next time, take care of yourself and take care of those around you

 

www.smartdiabeticsacademy.com

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