[00:00:00] Speaker A: You are listening to episode number 233 of the reversing diabetes with Delane M. D podcast.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Welcome to reversing diabetes with Delane, MD, where women who are confused and worried about their type two diabetes come to learn strategies to fix it. I'm your host, Dr. Delane Vaughn. Ladies, if you know you are capable of doing badass things at work and for your family, but you're frustrated with why you can't seem to stop eating the chocolate cake, this podcast is for you.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Let's talk. Hey there. Welcome to the podcast. I'm glad you're here, glad you're taking some time for you and for your health today. Thank you for joining me. It's cold here in Kansas. I look like I'm bundled because I am bundled. The high right now is about five degrees for the entire day. It's going to be five whole degrees today, fahrenheit. So if you're in Celsius regions, do that conversion. But I think it's something like negative 20 or, I don't know, maybe it's 15 or, I don't know, negative 15, negative 20, what's the difference? It's cold. It is really cold. I hope that you are staying warm and you don't mind sitting with me while I'm bundled in multiple layers today. So last week during the podcast, we discussed the basics of fixing your type two diabetes, the what to dos. So if you're just joining this podcast and you've never listened to an episode before, last week, January 7, I think, is when it was released, maybe January eigth, it was the basics, how to do this, what you need to do to reverse your type two diabetes. Go and check that out. But today we are halfway through the month of January, and most people understand that somewhere in January they start to realize that motivation wanes and it goes away. And suddenly it's not so exciting, and they don't want to do the thing. And this is where the resolution or the commitment or the intention to do things differently this year, this is where we see those things fall apart. And so today's podcast, we are going to talk about what to do when motivation wanes, why it wanes, how we can stop that from happening.
So if it's not happened to you yet, that's awesome. It probably will. So let's get a plan together so you don't have to find yourself not creating what you want for your health because quote unquote, motivation waned or motivation went away or I can't find the motivation to do it. Anymore. All of these are stories we tell ourselves, and they usually keep us from getting the results that they want. This is why 2024 is probably maybe having the same resolution or resolve or intention to change your health as 2023 and 2022 and 2021, maybe even 2020, depending on how long you've been struggling with this. This is why you continue to struggle with it, because inevitably, invariably, your motivation is going to wane. And then what do you do? Okay, that's what we're going to talk about today. There was a webinar on this, so if you don't already subscribe to the delanemd YouTube channel, go and do that. This podcast recording right now is being live broadcast there so you can get a hold of this podcast information. It usually gets released on Sunday evening or Monday morning. You can get a hold of it as soon as it's done. Sometimes, like today, I'm recording the same day that I will release it, but sometimes I record it ahead of time. But you'll get access to that. Also. There are all the webinars that I do for women who want this help. It's all there for free. There's tons of information there on the YouTube channel. Go and seek it out and find it. It's the delanemd YouTube channel.
All right, before we get started again, if you're new to this podcast, you may not be aware of this. If you're a returning listener, you know that I say this all the time. Please be careful. If you have been medicated for your type two diabetes, the diet changes that I recommend in these podcast episodes may cause you to have low blood sugars. If you have been medicated for your type two diabetes, recognize you were medicated because your blood sugars were representative of a way you ate in the past. If you change the way that you eat, your blood sugars will change. Those medications will likely need to change also. So you need to get a line of communication open with your provider who's prescribed these medications to you, and ask them how do they want you to share your blood sugar readings with them. And you need to find out how they're going to share with you what they want you to do differently with your medications. If you do not do this, you can end up quite sick, the kind of sick that looks like an ER visit, a hospitalization, and in worst case scenario, death. So it's really, really important for you and your well being that you make sure you are contacting your provider and you get some clear guidance on what to do with your medications. All right.
If you have not already done so and you're not sure about what to do with the diet, like I don't know, what do I change? Go and download the 14 days to better blood sugar workbook. Okay, I'm going to give you the website, but this is a 14 day guide. I mean, it's literally three meals a day set out for what you need to eat in order for you to lower your blood sugars. At the end of those 14 days, you will have lower blood sugars. This is a very powerful guide. Okay? So go and download this. You can find it at HTTPs that's site S-I-T-E delanend that's delanemd.com betterbloodsugars okay, again httpsite delanemd.com betterbloodsugars that will get you to that guide. It will get you also on my mailing list. So the next time that I have a webinar coming up, which there is another one coming up at the end of the month, you're going to get access to all of that information. You're going to get a heads up to it. You'll get the link to sign into the zoom call for all of those webinars. All of the things that I do are shared on my email list. So you'll get signed up for my email list, get all of the help that you need to make 2024 the last new year's that you're saying I'm going to fix my diabetes this year. You'll get it fixed.
You can also find that same information that you get on my mailing list, typically on my instagram and my Facebook account. And you can always find me at delanemd. And don't forget everybody, if you have questions about anything that I share in this podcast, anything in that blood sugar log, anything in my email, anything at all, please email me.
[email protected] I'm happy to help with anything. I'm happy to answer any questions. And I respond to all of those emails. If for some reason you have emailed me and I haven't responded to you, please forward it again. Please find it. Hit forward, say bumping this and I will get to you. Okay? It's not intentional that I've overlooked it. It's just sometimes I get busy with things and those kinds of things get overlooked. So don't let that happen. I want you to advocate for your health and part of that is bumping that email. So send it to me again. Lastly, I have an ask if you have found this podcast helpful. If you find the techniques that I teach in these podcast episodes helpful, please like and rate and review this podcast on your podcast player. The more ratings and reviews that this podcast gets, the more people see this podcast. Recognize that insulin resistance, the root cause of type two diabetes, affects nine out of ten Americans. That means that a lot of Americans out there need to hear that. You do not have to live sick for the rest of your life. You do not have to live medicated for the rest of your life. You do not have to live tied to the american healthcare system for the rest of your life. You do not have to live with the consequences of type two diabetes for the rest of your life. You do not have to be sick for the rest of your life. There is a way to fix this and for you to take control of your health. It and everybody needs to hear it, and it is my mission to say it. So if you could like and review this podcast so more people can hear it, that would be great. That is my ask of you. Please and thank you. And if you don't have, for some reason, if you're not listening, if you're listening on my website, that's awesome. I love that. Go ahead and share it on social media. Share it on your Facebook account, share it on your Instagram account, share it on your Twitter account, whatever it is, share it on your accounts so that other people, people can get the same information.
All right, motivation. Let's talk about it. Why do we lose motivation?
To answer that question, we kind of have to figure out what causes motivation. And then when we think about that, what is motivation? So if you look up the definition of motivation, motivation means to have a motive for doing something, or it means to stimulate someone's interest or enthusiasm to do something.
So if we look at this like the first of the year, the second of the year, and you have that 14 days to butter blood sugar guide in your hand, and you're looking at it and you're like, I'm starting this tomorrow. Let's go. And your thoughts start to swim with man. I'm going to finally do it. I'm going to finally figure this out. I can't wait to see lower blood sugars. I can't wait to have the calm and the peace that comes with lower blood sugars. I can't wait to lose weight. This is so important to me. I'm going to finally be able to ensure that I'm going to live a long time with my loved ones and my family. I'm going to get to hang out with my grands and be there a long time with them. I'm going to be able to show up at my kids events and not be winded or not feel like I'm so out of shape and sick that I can't enjoy whatever's going on. There's going to be vacations with my loved ones, and I'm going to have fun with them, and I'm going to do all the things that they do. I'm going to finally put diabetes behind me. By the middle of the year, it's going to be gone. I'm going to follow this and I'm going to figure it out. No more meds for me. I'm not going to have to hit the pharmacy again. I'm not going to have to go to the doctor's office and get blood drawn. I'm going to show up to my next doctor's appointment. I'm going to prove them wrong.
All of these thoughts are what stimulate enthusiasm, excitement, energy, motivation. These are the thoughts that stimulate it. It's nothing about my 14 day book, my 14 day workbook. It's nothing about that that's in hand that is causing motivation. It's the things that you believe about it, okay? And when you believe these thoughts, you're like, I'm finally going to do it. And you're feeling enthusiastic and excited and energized and motivated. And then you do it. Like, Monday, I'm putting these foods together. Hell, yeah, I'm doing it. You went to the grocery store on Sunday, you bought all the foods, you put them together, you packed them, you put them in the fridge. You're ready to go for Monday, and you ate those things, and you prep the foods for the next day, and you eat the foods and you're checking your sugars and you watch them come down.
So what changes? Because again, it's not my planar. It's not the 14 day workbook that changes.
What changes?
The thoughts that you have change.
So the thoughts tend to change to, I like burgers better.
I don't want to do this anymore. This is so hard. It takes so long. I have to do so much prepping. Why can't it be easier?
Or one of the main four horsemen of this, right? Like, this is so boring. I wish this is more exciting. I need something more fun, exciting to eat. I can't eat like this for the rest of my life.
When we have these thoughts, it feels hard, it feels boring. It creates desire in our body when we're like, burgers and pizza taste way better than chicken and salad. Again, when we think, I can't eat like this for the rest of my life, we feel pressure to change and do something different. And that something different that you're going to do is not going to be broccoli and carrots instead of chicken and salad. That something different you're going to do is going to be pizza and candy and chips and fries and burgers and sodas. It's going to be the stuff that led to you being sick in the first place.
Okay, this is thought work.
That is what I coach women with. That's what I do when I'm coaching them. Ladies, you don't need to hear from me not to eat burgers and fries and pizza and cake. You already know that.
What you need to figure out is why do I continue to choose those things, even though I know they would make me sick? And the reason right now that women have waning motivation is because they're bored. It's so hard, takes so much time. I don't even like this food. I like something else better. That's why you continue to eat foods that make you sick, even though you know they make you sick.
This is thought work.
When we have these thoughts, they lead to nonexcitement, non motivation. And when we're feeling that way, we tend to eat the foods that make us sick. So I would even offer, like taking this a step farther, that it's not the boredom that makes you eat that food.
It's when we rely on the feeling of being excited and being enthusiastic and being energized and being motivated. When we have to have those feelings to drive us to eat healthy. When those feelings wane, when they go away, you will not continue to do it. This is kind of at the crux of the matter.
When you wait to have those feelings or when the action of eating healthy is reliant, when that action requires you to feel enthusiastic, energized, motivated or excited. You have to have those feelings before you're going to eat healthy.
Feelings come and go. It's the truth of all the feelings, the good and the bad. The feeling of boredom about chicken and salad is also going to fade at some point.
Let's be honest. The chicken and salad you ate on January 2 was no more exciting than the chicken and salad you eat on January twelveth. The difference is you are excited to eat it on January 2, and on January twelveth, you're bored.
They will come and they will go. Period. End of sentence. Your feelings will come and go. They are fickle little creatures. They are fickle little experiences, and we cannot rely on them to drive actions. If we wait for the feeling of motivation, of enthusiasm, of energized, of excited, we wait for that to happen before we're going to eat the chicken and salad, then we're never going to do that consistently. Because always somewhere along the way, you're going to feel excited about cake and ice cream and chips. You're going to feel motivated to have those foods. You're going to feel excited about the possibility of having an ice cream sundae. You're going to feel energized about the idea of going out for pizza with your family.
That's the reality of it. If you wait for those feelings to drive your actions, the action you are going to get is going to be inconsistent at best and sometimes consistently bad at worst. Okay? You cannot wait for those feelings to feel motivated to eat chicken and salad. You cannot wait for that feeling in order to create that action. Okay? You have to make a decision, and this is how you do it. This is how you overcome the waning of motivation. You make a decision and you commit, and you do it. Even when you don't feel energized, excited, enthusiastic, or motivated, you do it anyway.
You make a decision and you do it. We cannot wait or rely on serendipitous feelings of motivation to eat salad in order for us to do the action of eating a salad. Okay. January 2, your thought model. Right, we have thought model. If you've never heard me talk about this, I feel like I've talked about this quite a bit on the podcast. So you can find old podcasts where I talk about what the thought model is. Also go to that consistency. It was the consistency in 2024, that webinar. Also, I explained the thought model. But the thought model is made up of five components. You have circumstances. You have thoughts about those circumstances. Those thoughts drive our feelings. Those feelings drive our actions, and the actions give us our results. Okay? The 14 day guide that you have in your hand, that is a circumstance. Everybody can look at your hand and say, yes, there it is.
That 14 day guide is what it is. On January 2, your thought was like, yes, finally, I've got the help I need. On January twelveth, the only thing that is different about that guide is your thought is, I am so bored of this. It's the only thing different. Okay? On January 2, that thought that you had led to some excitement and some enthusiasm, and your action was that you went to the store you bought the food, you prepped it, you ate it, and your result was, yes, I'm finally doing it.
The difference on January Twelveth was, your thought was, I'm bored with this. Your feeling was, I'm bored with this. And then from that place, you looked for something that you were enthusiastic about, and that was chocolate cake.
And that's where waiting for enthusiasm or motivation or excitement to drive your action of eating is going to get you inconsistent results. Because sometimes you're not going to be enthusiastic or energized or excited or motivated to eat the chicken and the salad, and you're going to do it anyway. These are what we call decisions ahead of time. I make a decision, and no matter what my feeling is in the moment, bored or enthusiastic, bored or motivated, hard or excited, no matter what the feeling is in the moment, decisions ahead of time means you do the thing you decided on, even when you're not feeling excited about it, you do the thing you decided on regardless of how you feel in the moment. That's a decision ahead of time. And this, ladies, is how you combat motivation waning, okay? It is a skill that you practice. You practice it over and over and over, and eventually it gets easier and it becomes second nature and it doesn't feel so hard. And you don't have to wait for motivation to serendipitously show up on your doorstep so that you can get the results you want. This is how you create long lasting changes. This is how you create long lasting health. A decision ahead of time, ladies, you're already doing this in 100 other areas of your life. If you've never heard me talk about the example with my son when he had asthma. Both my twins had asthma.
One had it when she was much younger and she needed me there to give her breathing treatments. The other one really struggled with it when he was older, and he was probably eight or nine, and he would have his inhaler at his bedside.
There was always an inhaler at his bedside. And I can remember hearing him in the middle of the night, coughing and knowing, like, God, I should get up. I was so exhausted. Of course I was tired. It was the middle of the night. It was in my sleeping time. And I remember thinking, I should get up and go and help him. I knew that's what I should do. But I did not feel motivated, excited, energized, enthusiastic, any of those words. I didn't feel any of those things in the moment to get up and go and help him with that inhaler. And I can remember laying there being like, man, I hope he figures this out. And then eventually there would be so many coughs, and then I'd just bite the bullet and get up and go take care of him, right?
We do this all the time. I was not feeling motivated when I got up and I went to my son's bedside. And I love my babies deeply, deeply. I love my babies. And even then, sometimes we just don't feel motivated to do that. Ladies, you do it every day. You go to work. It's not like every day you're waking up like, I'm so excited. This is going to be the best thing ever. It's five degrees outside. It's Monday. It's dark outside. Let's do this. Nobody ever, I mean, we don't say that every day. And us going to work is not dependent on whether we feel motivated in the moment to do it. We just do it because it's a decision we made ahead of time. Period, end of sentence. That's what keeps us doing that. When you send your electricity bill or your water bill off to the water company, you're not like, yes, $74. I love paying that to the water company. It's so much fun. It's a decision you made ahead of time. And chances are really good. You planned financially to make that decision ahead of time. That's another step. Right? And we talk about this all the time, about how making plans is what helps us to create the results that we want. And the reason that it is is because it's a decision ahead of time.
Ladies, this is what has to happen in order for you to create long lasting health results. And this is what you do when your motivation wanes. You start to make those decisions ahead of time, and you trust in that decision, and you execute the plan that you made for yourself. And then you see your blood sugars continue to drop. This is the way we do it. All right. If you have any questions, reach out to me.
[email protected]. I'm happy to answer any questions. Until then, though, keep listening, keep avoiding the foods that make you sick, and keep making the choices for your vitality and your longevity and your health. I'll be back next week. Bye.
