[00:00:00] You are listening to episode number 300 of Better Blood Sugars with Delaine, Maryland. Welcome to Better Blood Sugars with Delaine, Maryland. 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.
[00:00:28] Hey there. Welcome to the podcast.
[00:00:32] This is episode number 300, and I really feel like there should be something more exciting going on, but I don't really have any, like, super culmination of 300 episodes. I apologize. What I am going to talk about today, though, is decisions. So welcome to the podcast. I'm so glad you're here. I'm glad you're taking some time for you. I'm glad you're taking some time for your health. As always, I feel really privileged that you're spending it with me, even if it's episode number 300. And I really don't have fireworks or jazz hands or anything exciting to go along with that kind of milestones. I want to talk about decisions, how to make decisions that you like and how to stick with them. That's kind of what I want to dive into today.
[00:01:19] Many of us have had the experience of indecision in our life or of making a decision and then reneging on it. I think that's a pretty human experience. And certainly when we struggle to create a result that we want, I think this is a very, very common experience that humans will have of either spinning an indecision or making a decision and going back on it. And what we find is this is really exhausting. And of course, not sticking to your decision is ineffective in creating the results that you want. In terms of your health, not making a decision, not sticking with the decision, keeps you stuck and it keeps you sick. It's a behavior that impacts not only our health, but all other aspects of our life as well. So I want to talk about how to make a decision that you like and how to stick with it. In order for you to reach your goals and your health and in your life in any other way, there are going to be three simple steps. Dive into them. And I'm going to give you some examples before we get started. You know, I always want to give you a warning on medications. If you are taking meds for your type 2 diabetes and you implement the changes that I have made, you are going to need to learn how to adjust those meds. Recognizing these meds were started because of the way you were eating in the past. And if you change the way you eat, you're going to need to change your meds. And if you don't, you're going to get sick. So I need you to to call the medical provider who prescribed those meds to you and I need you to let them know that you're going to be making some dietary changes. I want you to find out from them how they want you to share your blood sugar log with them and then I want you to find out from them how they're going to share medication changes with you. If you don't do this, you can get quite sick. The kind of sick that looks like ER visits, hospitalizations, and possibly even death. That's not why you're making these changes. You're making these changes to have a long, robust life. And so I need you to be really careful, careful if you're medicated and get that line of communication open with your provider so that you can do this safely. If you're not sure what you need to be eating in order to see better blood sugars start to see lower blood sugars start to reverse, those start to need less meds, please go to delanemd.com forward/better. That's B E T T E R. There is a 14 days to better blood sugar guide at that website.
[00:03:46] Try this guide out. It's 14 days of menus. Breakfast, lunch, dinner menus. There's the options for making substitutions or minor changes. Try the 14 day guide out. See what happens to your blood sugars. Women are sending me messages telling me how effective this has been for them and they're seeing better blood sugars in far less than 14 days. Go to that website, delanemd.com better download that 14 day guide and start it as soon as you can. Once you have done this, see what you think. If you can live off of those 14 days of food for the rest of your life, awesome. I want you to run from there and I want you to live the rest of your life healthy. If you're needing some help determining how to do that forever, how to implement those 14 days, those two weeks into the rest of your life, set up a better blood sugars assessment call. This is a 45 minute call where you and I hop on a phone or on a zoom call and we discuss what hangups you have about it, where you need help adjusting it and how to move forward. If for some reason you have not seen great results with the 14 day guide, you have not seen better blood sugars, please set up a zoom call with me for that. Also set up a better blood sugars call for that as well. Because I really want to hear what didn't work for you. Maybe like you followed the 14 day guide and you did what it said and it just didn't change your blood sugars. I want to know that so I can make that guide better for others and also so that I can help you find some ways that you can start changing your health so that you can live a naturally healthy life that's diabetes free. You can set up a better blood sugars assessment call by going to calendly.com delanemdcall so calendly is C-A L E N D L Y.com D E L A N E M D C A L L. You can go to that website, you get access to my calendar and you can just set up a call if you don't want to mess around with that site or if you don't remember, or if you ever need anything, you know, you can always email me delanelainemd.com so today I want to talk about decisions and how to make them and how to be consistent with them so you can get effective changes, effective results. Effective like consistent actions to get effective results.
[00:06:12] If I think back to when I was struggling with making these changes 10 years ago, I was definitely struggling. I had about 15 extra pounds on my body that I really wanted to get rid of and I really seemed every year to be losing that battle. Every year I would come down to the end of the year, start the next spring, and I'd have these lingering few extra pounds like that just came on from the year before. So every year it was just compounding by 2 or 3 pounds and it was really culminating in like 15 pounds on my body that I really wanted to get rid of. I had had my diagnosis of gestational diabetes about 10 years prior to that. I was a practicing physician and I knew my risks. I knew what was kind of coming down the pike for me. I really wanted to be assured of my health and I knew that getting at least that 10 pounds off of my body was going to be part of that assurity. I don't think I realized at the time that the ten pounds were actually the issue. The ten pounds for me really represented being out of control in my eating, not eating in a way that I knew was probably the way I needed to be eating.
[00:07:21] During training, I had made it a habit of using treats, chocolates, candies, goodies to get me through the day. So if I was on call and up all night, I had to get up in the middle of the night for an admit. I'd go by the cafeteria and I'd grab a chocolate chip cookie. And please understand, these are not normal sized chocolate chip cookies. They were size of my face. They were like 6 inches in diameter chocolate chip cookies. And I would eat that before on my way to go see the patient. It was like a wake me up of sorts, right? And if it was in the middle of the afternoon and I was in the clinic and I was seeing patients, you know, and my schedule was busy, I'd hit the candy drawer. Starting about 3:00 in the afternoon, every 30 minutes or so, I'd hit the candy drawer for a little bit of candy, a little bit of candy just to keep me going. And yes, we had a fully stocked drawer full of candy in the office in my residency program. And it was always full. The nurses kept it full. They were so sweet to us. And they kept it full of all of our favorite candies. So it was always there. 3:00 in the afternoon, I would be just every 30 minutes hitting that drawer, hitting that drawer, having a little more, having a little more. I created these habits with the belief in the back of my head that once I got out of residency, life was going to be easier and then I could change the habits. Then when life was easier, that turned out to be a joke that was not real for me. I finished my residency in my late 30s. I was late going to med school. And so I was quite a bit older than about 10 years older than the rest of my classmates. But by my mid-40s, after residency was over, it had become quite clear that it was not actually easier to stop eating chocolate after residency training. After I was out of training, it wasn't any easier to change my habits just because I was no longer in training.
[00:09:10] In fact, this particular habit was never going to be easy to change, no matter what part of my life I was in.
[00:09:19] And I found this after residency, like, it could be a working day, it could be a day off, it could be a day with my kids, it could be a day when I was alone, it could be day on vacation, it could be whatever day. It just didn't matter. It was really a habit that I found very, very difficult to kick. I knew if I wanted to avoid that lingering in the back of my head, there was this conversion of my gestational diabetes to type 2 diabetes. If I wanted to avoid that conversion, that was lingering as a risk in the back of my head, I needed to change those eating habits. This treat business, this thing that I was doing with the food, this habit I'd created, was going to really need to change. It seemed very clear what needed to be done. And in my brain I was like, just make the decision and do it. So I would. I would decide, and maybe that decision would last for a bit, maybe a day, maybe a week, maybe a week and a half. But then I would cave. I would renege on that decision, and I would start in on a bag of M&M's. And then in the heat of that Eminem, you know, business, in the heat of the moment, the Eminem decision seemed so sound. It seemed I seemed really resolved in giving up the idea that I was going to stop eating those things. And I didn't need the health goals I'd set for myself. I didn't need the health goals that I really wanted. Interestingly, within a few hours, I would feel defeated, I would feel frustrated, I would be super disappointed in myself. And there, I mean, it was the cycle I would go through over and over and over again. I'd feel frustrated. And each time that I felt frustrated, I would erode my ability to believe I could ever do it differently. But eventually I'd gain that belief again and I'd decide again to cut the food out, to cut these little snacks out, and I'd do it for a week, maybe, maybe two weeks. And then I would cave, and then I would eat the things, and then I would feel defeated and frustrated and disappointed in my. Myself. And this cycle just kept perpetuating. And it really, it. The cycle really made me feel mentally unstable. Like, what is wrong with me? Why am I not. Why am I not able to make a decision and stick with it?
[00:11:37] So this cycle, the cycling, would lead to prolonged periods of resistance to starting packages, at trying to be healthy. And then it would also lead to me talking myself out of believing it was possible or that, like this way of just making a decision to not eat the M&Ms. I would start to say things like, this isn't healthy. I must not be doing it right. All of these phrases would come to my mind. I would spend days or maybe even weeks looking for another way. If I found another way, I'd do it for a while. But then I renege on that decision. If I didn't find another way, I'd go Back to what I'd done in the past. Either way, the outcome was no different. Successful for a period of time, time followed by a crash into a bag of M&Ms. Or pineapple and Jerry's.
[00:12:24] For me, that indecision was really exhausting. One, it was wasting my time, My time, I mean, like I spent probably a decade wasting my time in that cycle. It was mentally draining and it really was blocking me. It was keeping me from the things that I dreamed of, the health that I dreamed of. The cycle of deciding to change and then reneging on that decision led to those additional few pounds each year and led me closer every year to being full fledged type 2 diabetes. It also of course, led me to finally investigating the help that I actually needed. I tried a couple different ways. It wasn't supplements, it wasn't meds, it wasn't a new diet program, it wasn't a new exercise program. Although I tried supplements and diets and exercise, I tried all of those.
[00:13:12] What really led me was to the results that I was looking for was coaching. That really brought bred in me, that nurtured in me an increase in awareness.
[00:13:23] What I realized is that through the years of practicing this awareness is that decisions are not a thing. They're not a noun, they're not a one and done thing. They are not made and then walked away from. And that's really what I thought decisions were like. I'm going to make a decision, I'm not going to eat the M&Ms. Life's going to be good. Decisions are instead, they are a practice, it's an action. Decisions are an action. It's a verb, not a noun. They are not discrete things that occur in one single moment and then last forever. They follow you through for the rest of your life because you made that decision in that one moment. Decisions that you make and then renege on are not actually decisions. They're probably more considerations. Decisions are something that you do. They're an action, they're a verb. You take every single day of your life. Today I want to talk about how we start doing that and how we do it differently to really reach the goals that we're looking for. The cycle of making decisions and reneging on it is exhausting. It wastes not only time, it also wastes opportunity. An opportunity that may never come back around. It's mentally draining. It keeps you from your hopes, your dreams and your goals. So the basic steps that I like to teach for decisions is three steps. One, you get information and you clarify your options.
[00:14:40] Two, you Consider your options. You consider how they align with your goals, with your values, with your integrity, with who you are authentically, who the authentic you is. That's step two. And then the third step is you make a decision and you make it again and again and again and every single day for your life until you get the results that you're looking for.
[00:15:05] So if you look at non food issues, certainly non food issues, if you've ever been married, you made a decision and you made it over and over again. If you've ever completed any kind of professional training or educational program, hell, high school counts. We all know the days in high school that we didn't want to go and we would go. Sometimes we were forced to go. But let's be honest, if we didn't want to go, we didn't have to go. We made a decision to go. Either it was a decision to go to school and get our education or was a decision not to upset our parents. Either way, there was a decision there. If you've ever raised kids, you've made a decision to continue doing the hard work, even on the days that it's hard. If you've ever committed to any kind of group committee like a church or PTA or something like that, you have done this decision component in an action, not a noun. If you have ever held down a job again, you got up every day and you went, you made a decision to go. It wasn't that you always wanted to go. So you're already doing decisions in this way, in this effective way. And you know it's effective because you've gotten the results that you wanted.
[00:16:12] So if you take changing jobs, right, if you take this as a decision that you go through these three steps to process, you're going to have a job. Maybe you have a job right now and you like it well enough, it's working well enough. But you hear about another job. So the job you have is option one. The job you've heard about is option two. You apply for it and you get offered the position. And now you're working on making a decision between the original position and the new position.
[00:16:40] You have a goal, and that goal is earning money so that you can pay your bills.
[00:16:45] Both of these options will offer a way for you to reach your goal. So you just. The first thing is you, you know, you identify your options and you clarify them.
[00:16:56] Part of that is, I've got two jobs. But part of that identification and that clarification is getting more information, where will I work in this new job? What are the hours? What's the pay? What's the job description? This is all a process of gaining information, of gleaning information and clarif the options that you have. These are the, this is the information that you're going to use to make the decision once you have that information. And sometimes you have to set a limit on how much time you're going to spend looking for that information.
[00:17:28] Some decisions we would spend months. I mean, like, we get into this, like, decision paralysis, right? Like, we're going to keep gaining information so that we don't have to make a decision because we're afraid we're going to make the wrong decision, right? So you have to kind of give yourself some limitations. Like, I'm going to gain information about this for X number of hours, days, weeks, and then I'm going to make a decision recognizing that at some point there's no new information to gain. And I think that that's something really important to remember. There's only so much information to gain about a decision.
[00:18:02] And once you've g. You're not seeing any new information come to light at that point, then you just need to make the decision. So the next step of it is to take all of those pieces of information, you know, take all of the, you know, specifics about it, and then you're going to start to look at less tangible aspects of the decision.
[00:18:25] Some people will make pros and cons lists, and I think that that's great and it's helpful, but realizing, like, it's not tangible, right? Like, this is not something you can grab a pro list and a cons list is different for the humans that are looking at it, right? One person's pros and cons are another person's, you know, irrelevant aspects.
[00:18:45] So this is going to be unique to you. And this is where your values and your authenticity and sometimes your integrity will come into play.
[00:18:53] Your values are not only in the goal of earning money, right? So you want to earn money and be able to pay your bills. Like, we could all be drug dealers and earning money, but typically some of our values block that, right?
[00:19:08] So things like workplace environment, things like the balance between work life and home life, the ability to have some flex in your scheduling might be important to you and might not be important to other people. You may have other obligations in your life that are important to you, and you don't want your job, this place that you're working at, to suck all of that up. These aspects are pros and cons based on your Values, your integrity, your authenticity, and all of these things go into making the decision. Some people, it's really to think important to think about what does this company stand for? How does what it stands for, how does the company's values align with my personal values?
[00:19:53] Does it authentically represent who I am? And if that's important to you or not?
[00:19:59] So all of this gets taken in consideration. You're going to see the benefits of each job and the downsides. Like you're going to see this job does this and this job, you know, job A does this, job B does this, job A does this poorly, job B does that poorly or well, but job A does this well and job B does this other thing poorly. You're going to have a list of pros and cons for each job.
[00:20:23] So if you're not seeing the pros and cons for a job, right, then the issue is not, this is what I call, this is not a decision per se. If there's like just a job, you're like, yes, this is the job. There's no question I'm going to take it.
[00:20:39] That is not a decision. That's a no brainer situation.
[00:20:43] These moves in life are easy. They require minimal brain input because answering the question is so easy. So if you're not seeing pros and cons, don't waste your time developing that. Make your decision, make your move, jump and go. Of course, this is not what happens with our health, right? Like, it's not like, gosh, do I eat, you know, eating the chocolate or not eating the chocolate? There's no concern. No, there are pros and cons with that. And that's usually an equal list, right? The pros and cons for chocolate are very similar in number to the pros and cons of not eating the chocolate. And that's why it makes it a hard decision. These are the decisions, not just health, but again, the same thing with a job, right? Like the pros and cons of staying at your current job may be a very similar list to the pros and cons of going to a new job. And that's why the decision is so challenging.
[00:21:38] The questions we get stuck on require a decision, right? These, you know, options that we're trying to choose between. That's hard. It requires a decision.
[00:21:48] And this decision really requires you to consider each option and recognize that there are going to be things that you like about each option and things you don't like about each option. There's going to be good and bad, not good or bad. And seeing that both are going to exist is really key. Because if you're just waiting for it all to be bad or all to be good, you're not going to get there, you're not going to get to a decision and you're going to constantly be rethinking your decision.
[00:22:17] We really want, all of us want the no brainer situation, but those are not decisions, they're non decisions. Because the option like the choice was really obvious.
[00:22:30] So the decisions we go back and forth on are the ones that we have two options that have an equal amount of pros and cons. You see both the good and the bad. And it makes it really hard to decide which is the right one.
[00:22:43] And frequently it's possible we want both equally. So you may want both jobs equally as much for a variety of, maybe for different reasons, but the actual degree of wanting a job may be the same for both of them. And now you have to make a decision.
[00:23:00] When you're considering that job, you make a decision and for the most part you stick to it. Right? That's how it works. That's the third part about it. You make a decision and you stick to it.
[00:23:12] And the reason you stick to it is because there's not an option of going back and forth. You can try to go back and forth between decisions. Reneging on a decision in a job, maybe an employer would tolerate that for once or twice, but after a while it's not going to go on. The employer is going to get another person that's more committed to the job and suddenly one of your options is going to go away.
[00:23:34] Why this happens is because employers know they have a bottom line, they have a goal they're trying to achieve. And indecision is ineffective.
[00:23:45] And they're not going to have that decision. As an action drives outcomes, indecision as an action is ineffective for outcomes. It works against the long term goals of an organization or of a human being, of an individual. Going back and forth does not work. And this is why reneging on work decisions is not commonly seen in practice. And this is why reneging on your health decisions don't create the results that you want in a work decision. You make the decision and you live by the decision. And this means that every morning, and this is step three, right, you make a decision and you live by it. Every morning when you get up, you make the decision again, even when you don't want to, even if you question like, God, I don't think I made the right decision, you still make the decision that you made. When you get up and you want to go back to the old job and the comfort of the old job, you don't. You go to the new job. You get ready for work. You get in your car, you go to work. Work. These are the decisions that you keep making every day and that you commit to not going back and forth because that's not an option. Like, going back and forth is not an option. And the reason it's not an option is because it's not effective and employers won't have for it.
[00:25:04] To achieve your goal, a paycheck, you make a decision and you stick with it even on the days that you don't want to. So when you're thinking about your type 2 diabetes and you're thinking about your health and how you want to live healthy, it's the same process. You have a decision about being healthy or not being healthy. You have a decision about lowering your blood sugars or not lowering your blood sugars.
[00:25:30] Sometimes you're going to have decisions within that, right? Like, I'm going to lower my blood sugars with medications or I'm going to lower my blood sugars and lifestyle choices, lifestyle changes. So clarify those options. I'm going to use as an example lifestyle modifications versus medications. But you can use whatever example you want because this is usually what I hear when I look at working with clients. This is the thing. They're like, I am on the fence about whether going on the medications that my doctor has recommended or whether I need to keep pushing with lifestyle changes. So first, clarify the options that you have available to you. Doing it with lifestyle changes versus doing it with meds. And sometimes maybe it's like there's a couple of different coaching programs or lifestyle modification programs, and maybe you're making a decision between those. Either way, step one of this process is getting clear on that decision. What are you deciding between? We're going to talk about deciding between meds or deciding between lifestyle modifications. So if you evaluate your decision right, like, I have to make a decision between choice A, going on meds or choice B, going on life or making lifestyle changes. And you have to then take those decisions and view them in the light of your values, your integrity, and your authenticity. People I work with are typically not really interested in taking meds. They're skeptical of them. They see the bad sides side of meds. They don't want to spend their money on meds. They don't want the side effects of the meds. They don't want to see their doctor Every few months. They don't want to fill a prescription of the pharmacy every few months. They may not like the way they feel on the meds, or they simply don't think the meds are actually going to create health. I'm in that boat for a lot of things as far as, like, I don't like the way I feel on meds. I don't want to see my doctor all those times, and I don't feel like getting on meds while I do something unhealthy to my body. I'm in that boat.
[00:27:22] This is the quote, unquote bad that they see on that decision when they look at the option of going on meds. This is the bad that they see with that option.
[00:27:34] But the other thing that they see is they don't have to really focus so heavily on exercise and dietary changes. That's the good they see with that option. The other decision is making the lifestyle modifications.
[00:27:47] They look at the option for making lifestyle modifications and they realize that they don't like to sweat. They don't like to cook. They don't like to count macros. They don't like not eating the food that they've always eaten and enjoyed. They don't like preparing food. They don't like to carry their lunch to work. They don't like to look at menus before they go to restaurants. They don't like feeling like they're imposing on friends and family when you go out to eat with them. They feel like it's hard. They feel like it's restrictive. That's the quote, unquote bad they see with the lifestyle options.
[00:28:16] Likely you've had some of this go through your head, but recognize the good that they see with those lifestyle options as they don't have to do all those things with the meds. Right? I don't have to be on the meds. It's not expensive. I don't have to feel cruddy on the meds. There's good and bad with both of these options.
[00:28:33] And again, it's likely. This is very common. Typically, most people who come to me have had this in their head at some point. You can see both sides, the good and the bad of each decision.
[00:28:44] You're going to use your values and your integrity and your authenticity in combination with clear information about each option to make a decision between the two. I can't tell you what that decision is for you. Even if you decide to go on the Mets, this holds true, right? Like, this is the same. The next step is going to be the same.
[00:29:05] When you don't make a clear decision and you haven't thought through it like this, your brain wants to go back and make the decision over again. Make the decision over again, make the decision over again. When there's both good and bad with each option, your brain is going to want to make the decision over again. Make the decision over again, make the decision over again. Every time the decision that you made feels bad, like, that's when the second guessing comes in. Oh, it's really hard to do this. Eating homemade food all the time, or it's really hard to eat out with my friends. Clearly I made the decision wrong. Let's go and reevaluate it. Recognizing that there's good and bad helps you that when you're feeling the bad side of the decision that you made, to trust in the decision that you've made, you've already done the mental gymnastics to come to this decision. There's no need to rethink it. Your job now is step three. You make the decision and you do it every day. You get up, you go exercise, you, food plan, you count your macros, you avoid the foods that you've always eaten before because they made you sick. You prep your food, you carry it to work, you look at menus, you speak up when you're going out to eat with your friends. You do the hard things. You lean into that feeling of being restricted.
[00:30:21] Maybe you learn that it's not really as bad as you thought it would be, but you make the decision every day. Even on the days that you're like, maybe I made the wrong decision, maybe I should have made the other decision. You still do the thing and you show up and you do it the same way you would with the work. Because a decision as an action drives effective results, where indecision drives ineffective results. And recognize you do the same thing with the medications.
[00:30:48] If you work through this decision, decision process and you come to the conclusion that you want to be on meds, that's totally fine. There is nothing wrong with that. We are graced to live in an age where there is meds, and it is a very valid decision to go on meds. However, there will be days where you don't want to go to the doctor, you don't want to spend the money on the medications, you don't want to go to the pharmacy, you feel nauseous on the medications, you don't like taking them. You wonder if you could have done it without the medicine. There's going to be all of the good and the bad with the meds as well.
[00:31:22] And when it comes to that, you've made a decision. You've done the mental gymnastics and you have made a decision. You don't need to repeat the mental gymnastics, you don't need to go back to them. You've made the decision and now you do it every day, just like you had the job.
[00:31:38] Going on and off the meds is ineffective. Indecision is always ineffective. Make a decision and stick with it. That is the bottom line. You stick with the decision and you don't feel like you need to reconsider it. You do it even when you don't want to. And this is what gets you effective results.
[00:32:00] I know that for me, where I really struggled was not in the making of the decision. Like I knew in my soul of souls, not being medicated was always going to be the right answer.
[00:32:12] My decision fatigue, my back and forth, my cycle was in the moment, making the decision about whether to put the food in my mouth or not. It was the tension of the day, the frustration and the overwhelm that accumulated around 3 o'clock in the afternoon for me that really I struggled with.
[00:32:33] Once I was able to develop some awareness, I realized that those feelings, that overwhelm and that frustration actually started way earlier than 3:00. That those feelings started to drive me towards the candy drawer and to raiding the candy drawer way before 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It started earlier in the day and I would make a decision about hitting the candy drawer a hundred times before I actually did it. That was exhausting.
[00:33:01] Interestingly, it is not the way I made decisions about other aspects of my life. I didn't take hours vacillating between going to work and not going to work each day. I just went to work.
[00:33:14] As a parent, I didn't take hours vacillating between whether I was going to do my job as a parent, get my kids to school, help them with the work, get them to their doctor's appointments, make them dinner, do the laundry. It was like, oh, I should do it, I shouldn't do it, I should have do it, I shouldn't do it. I didn't make those decisions a hundred times. I just made the decision and I did it. It was one and done, but the candy drawer for me was different. I vacillated back and forth trying to talk myself into it, trying to talk myself out of it, and it was exhausting.
[00:33:44] Think of if you were in a relationship with any other human being on this planet and you spent four hours between 9 and 1 or between, you know, 11am and 3pm jerking them around about decisions. On again, off again, on again, off again, on again, off again. If you spent that time at the grocery store trying to decide whether to buy Windex, the manager would kick you out and likely call the police because clearly you were mentally unstable. If you did it with your best friend over something, they would lose their marbles. And if you did this in a romantic relationship, that's called toxic. Like, nobody would be in that. You would never do this with another human.
[00:34:23] So going back to the basics in the candy drawer for me, but maybe your struggle is still in the afternoon with snacking. The question was to eat the snack or not. These were really my options. My brain would want to get picky if I was just like, don't hit the candy drawer or not. My brain would be like, well, what about the vending machine? My brain would make all sorts of caveats. So I just had to get it real basic to eat the snack or not eat the snack.
[00:34:49] These were my clear options, my values, my integrity, and my authenticity. Over time, I have nurtured thoughts that drive me to treat my body well.
[00:35:02] I have beliefs about my life. I have my beliefs about my body being a gift. And these are nurtured. I would say that 10 years ago, I didn't even look at it this way. It took time to grow this.
[00:35:14] But I have beliefs about who I am. And one of the big ones that I practiced for probably 18 months by setting an alarm on my phone that would go off every day around 3:00. To say this, I am no longer the kind of woman who uses food and eats food in a way that hurts. Hurts me. That kept me from eating food that I believed was unhealthy for my cells. It also kept me from overeating food to where I was so uncomfortable that I felt physically ill from the amount of food I ate. That belief very much served me. Yeah, my brain, still around 3:00 in the afternoon, still offers me all sorts of fun things to eat. These thoughts are very well practiced in my brain.
[00:35:55] My body isn't fueled by that food. I'm no longer the kind of woman that eats foods in a way that hurts my body.
[00:36:03] I want to provide my cells with beneficial energy, nurturing energy, not toxic energy. And I have beliefs about M&Ms. That that's like toxic energy. It's bad for my mitochondria. Whether they're true or not, it doesn't matter. And I'M not interested in splitting hairs with anybody about that. That is a belief that serves me.
[00:36:26] So when I look at my integrity, my values, my authenticity, and I look at the decision about hitting the snack drawer or not hitting the snack jar, it's a no brainer. I don't do it.
[00:36:36] And the decision is made. I make it every day. I decide every day. Again, my brain wall from the same shit. And I decide again, this is the thing that I'm doing. It is an action. I do. Not a noun. It is a verb, not a noun. I've practiced using them as an action of something that I. Not a thing that I think about or I talk about.
[00:36:59] So today in the afternoon, when snacking occurs, yes, sometimes I will still snack, but it's not on chocolate and M&Ms. Today it was oatmeal and barley with honey and butter and raisins. Now, the oatmeal and barley were four tablespoons total. The raisins were one tablespoon. The honey was one tablespoon. The butter was one tablespoon.
[00:37:24] I don't do this because M and Ms. Aren't appealing anymore. I don't do this because chocolate isn't appealing anymore. It is.
[00:37:32] I don't do it because it's easier to bake this oatmeal barley concoction than it is to grab a candy bar. It's not easier to do it. I don't do this because I like to clean the dish that it does. I don't.
[00:37:46] I choose that concoction of oatmeal and barley and raisins and honey and butter in the afternoon because I'm the kind of woman that no longer hurts my body with food. And I don't believe that food hurts my body. That's why I do it. I do it because I want to feed my cells non toxic foods. I do it because, in the immortal words of Jack Dawson on Titanic, I figure life's a gift and I do not intend on wasting it. Indecision steals many years from many people who wind up wishing that they would just have had the ability to stick with it. Don't be one of them. Decide what you want to do. Make a decision. Use that decision as an action that you do every single day.
[00:38:29] This is the kind of stuff that coaching nurtures. You don't need to know chocolate cake's an issue. You know, it's a problem.
[00:38:36] Learning about what you think about chocolate cake and changing the things that you think about chocolate cake, that is coaching work and that is what is different about people who are able to change their health long term? This help is available to you, so don't hesitate to reach out. Like reach out to me. Send me a message. Send me an email. You can find
[email protected] Certainly if you have any questions, you can always find me there as well. I have an ask if you are finding benefit from this podcast, please rate and review the podcast on your podcast player. The more ratings and reviews this podcast gets, the more it gets presented to new people. When you recognize 9 out of 10Americans have insulin resistance, prediabetes or diabetes, you understand that everybody needs to hear that they don't need to be tied to the healthcare system, that there is another way to be healthy. That's what this podcast is dedicated to. Share it with your friends through social media. Give ratings and reviews on your podcast player that helps the podcast players present it to more people because they need to hear this. Lastly, I want you to keep listening. I want you to keep avoiding the foods that are making you sick and keep making choices for your health, your vitality and your longevity. I'll talk to you next week.
