Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You are listening to episode number 282 of Better Blood Sugars with Delaine, Maryland.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Welcome to Better Blood Sugars with Delaine, MD where you can learn strategies to lower your blood sugars and improve your overall health. I'm your host, Dr. Delaine Vaughn. Ladies, if you know you're capable of doing badass things at work and for your family, but you're confused and frustrated with why you can't seem to stop eating the chocolate cake, this podcast is for you. Let's talk.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Hey there and welcome to the podcast. I'm so glad you're taking some time for you and your health. It is the holiday season, and I hope you're seeing this as a gift to yourself. And I think it's important to have those little gifts for us, something that we do for us. And that's what I want to talk about a little bit today, about what a gift this season can be for us and for our health. I know it's very, very, very easy during the holiday season to, to get very overwhelmed with worries, with anxiety, even with a little blueness of the mood or melancholy or depression about our health. And I want to talk about this season and how to use it as a tool to really start to practice skills that you would apply for the rest of the year. And I think this season is a beautiful time to do it because there's truly so much to be grateful for and to look, look for, like, just beauty in the little things that we have during the season. So I want to talk about that today and again, as it applies going forward for the sea, for the new year.
So certainly most women experience an element of anxiety around the holidays, and it may be anxiety about finances and it may be anxiety about did I get the right gift? It may be anxiety about time, like overwhelmed, like, I've got to do all these things. There's not enough time. I certainly feel like I fall prey to that. I think if you're a woman with type 2 diabetes, you also have a lot of anxiety about how you're going to handle holiday parties, how you're going to handle Christmas dinners, how many. How you're going to handle holiday dinners, how you're going to handle special treats during the holiday season. And I want to talk a little bit about anxiety and about even like this melancholy and depression. And then how do we focus on this season and seeing it as the gift that it is and practicing and honing being present in the moment you are in, not in the past or the future.
So when you Are having those experiences of anxiety associated with what you're going to choose for food or even associated with, you know, are my kids going to like their presents? Is my mother in law going to like her present? Am I doing the right thing? Am I overspending? Is there going to be enough money in January to did I, you know, cook the right thing, Whatever it is? Our brain gets very anxious if you're feeling anxiety.
I always describe anxiety as a crust emotion. There's something below it. But anxiety is almost always because you have a focus on the future.
There's a focus on what's about to happen and a strong desire to control what's going to happen. Right. I want to have, I want my kids, I want to control whether my kids enjoy their present. I want to control whether there's going to be enough money. I want to control whether my mother in law is going to like her present. And we get wrapped up in the feeling of anxiety in the decision making. And then even after we make the decision about the present, we buy in the money we spend, we're still wrapped up with that anxiety.
Where we see this with our food is I'm going to this holiday get together and I'm worried I'm not going to be able to control what's happening at that moment, what I do at that moment. And we suffer in that space.
We, that is, it's stealing, like whatever joy we might have with holiday get together, it's stealing that we suffer with that anxiety going forward.
And when we're feeling blue and melancholy and where I see this, where you may be seeing this in your life is, oh my gosh, I'm coming to the end of another year and I still haven't been able to figure out this diabetes thing. I haven't been able to figure out my blood sugars, I haven't been able to figure out my health. I'm never going to get this figured out. That heaviness, that melancholy, that blueness, that depression that sets in when we're feeling that about our health, maybe about our finances, maybe about relationships, like I've not repaired a relationship with somebody I really love and I really want to have that relationship in a good place. And it still hasn't happened. Like whatever it is that's causing that feeling of depression, of blueness, of melancholy, it is almost always because of a focus on something in the past. And this is nothing new. Many people have heard about those anxiety is a focus on the future depression, is that a focus on the past. But that depression and that focus on the past is again, a lack of control, that I can't change what's already happened. You know, we're having a hard time changing the diagnosis of diabetes, and that depression sets in when we feel like we're never going to be able to gain that control.
So what I want to offer to you is being in the present moment, in the here and now, not in the future, not in the past. And what's going on right now, being in this space. Space is one, the only place that we have control.
My. My opportunity to change an experience happens right now. Not in the future and not in the past. They haven't come. I don't even know what the future is going to hold for me. Maybe my car is going to get a flat and I'm not even going to make it to the damn party, Right? Like that's totally possible. I can't control what happens in the future, and I can't change what happens in the past or what has happened in the past. What I actually have agency to make a difference on is what's happen right now. And that's what I want to encourage you to focus on being present in the holidays, recognizing that you have to give your brain permission, space and time to be present. You know, there's a saying that, you know, what is it? The past is history, the future is a mystery. The present's all we have. That's why it's a gift. Or the present moment, it's a gift. That's why we call it the present. It is truly a gift. This is the only place you have control over, and this is the only place you can actually have agency or change on in the moment. So see what is present with you in the moment? What are you feeling in your body? It may be anxiety, but then look outside of your body.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Who are you with?
[00:06:45] Speaker A: Who are the ones doing life with you? Even with all of their imperfections, they've chosen you.
Whatever reason they may have, who cares? They're there. They're with you. If you have a roof over your head, if you're safe, if you have a phone to listen to this podcast on, if you have clean drinking water, recognize you're doing better than most of the world.
Like, in this moment, we have all of this that we need and that, like, all of these carers are taking care of. If you have air in your lungs, you have everything that you need to move forward and to take your next step. You have enough health. If you have air in your lungs right now, you have enough health still in your experience, in your the, in your grasp, in the palm of your hand to start working with, to start going forward with your health.
This season, in all the busyness and the chaos and the opportunity for worry going forward and, you know, depression of what's the past or, you know, you know, worry of the past. Even this season, the holiday season is a perfect opportunity to really practice being present in the moment that we have.
So I want to challenge you to stop worrying, stop being anxious about the money, about the presence, about the food, about the work that you need to do, about the chaos of what's going on about January coming, about your New Year's resolutions. Today's not the day for that. I want you today to set that aside. I also want you to stop ruminating on decisions you've made in 2024, conversations with people that you've had in the past that make you feel crappy. You don't need to focus on those.
Your past, A1Cs, your past, fasting, blood sugars, whatever your food choices have been in the past that have brought you to that. Let's stop ruminating on those. Let's stop ruminating on missed chances from 2024 and 2023 and 2022. Let's just stop doing that. Instead, I want to challenge you to be present right now in this moment.
See what blessings are here and happening for you in this moment. Don't worry about the food at the party. Look around and see what's happening for you right now in this moment. If we can define the joy in this moment, we don't need to be so tied to what's going to happen in the future because we have joy right now.
If we can find the joy in this moment, we don't need to change the past because we've still managed to find joy in the moment right now.
Look for the joy that is available to you right now. The joy, the pleasantness, the peace, whatever it is that you can find right now in your hand, look at, at where that's happening. Instead of the anxiety of the holiday and the dinner party, focus on what's happening right now. What good is in your experience right now to be felt in this moment? I want you to set your mind to finding that when we ask our brain these sorts of questions, right when you ask your brain, oh my gosh, what's going to go bad at that party? What kind of food is going to be there that I'm not going to be able to resist? Your brain will look to Answer that question. It's a dumpy question. You're only going to find dumpy answers to when you set your brain to what went wrong in that conversation with my loved one, your brain is then set to find answers to that dumpy question. And those dumpy questions will be answered with dumpy answers. They will feel badly. Set your brain to look for what is beautiful, what is good, what is in front of you right now that is joyful. Because then your brain will look for those things, it will find those answers, and those are going to be much, much more meaningful answers, and they're going to feel better. And then when you're feeling joyful and you're feeling peace and you're feeling beauty in the present moment, you don't need to look to holiday cookies to make the moment beautiful. It's already there for you.
That is my challenge for you on this holiday. I'm not talking about insulin resistance today. I'm not talking about exercise. I'm not talking about cell function. I'm talking about you finding joy in the moment in the holiday this season.
This will come out on December 23, just in time for Christmas. If you celebrate other holidays, I hope that you find some help in this as well. And I can hope that you can look for that joy and that peace for your holiday season as well. I celebrate Christmas. Our holiday kind of revolves around that, or winter revolves on that. So that's where my focus is.
[00:11:49] Speaker C: I hope that you can extrapolate this to other holidays. My Christmas wish for you is that you might be able to find joy in the season. That is what I have for you.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: If you've been medicated for your diabetes.
[00:12:00] Speaker C: You have been medicated for the way you eat in the past. If you change the way you eat in the past, you're going to need to change the way you eat in.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: The future or you're going to need to change your meds for the going future. So you need to call your doctor.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: And get a lot of communication about.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: How you're going to share blood sugars.
[00:12:14] Speaker C: With them and how they're going to tell you what meds they want you to change. That's in order to keep you safe. You can get very, very sick if you change your food and don't change the meds, and they don't want that for you, and you don't want that for you.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: So please call your doctor, let them.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Know what you're doing. They don't want the communication open so you can be healthy and safe during those changes. If you have any questions, you can always find me at Delaney. I'm happy to answer anything. I'm happy to set you up. Blood Sugars assessment call. I'm happy to get you the 14 days to better Blood Sugars guide. I hope you have a great holiday season. I will be back next week. Bye.
