[00:00:01] You are listening to episode number 247 of Better Blood Sugars with Delane, Md. Welcome to Better Blood Sugars with Delane, MD, where you can learn strategies to lower your blood sugars and improve your overall health. I'm your host, Doctor Delane 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.
[00:00:31] Hi there. Welcome to the podcast. I want to thank you for joining me today. I want to thank you for taking a moment for your health, to take care of you, to spend a little time on you, to commit to you today. I think that's important for women to be doing every day, and I feel privileged that you're doing it with me. So today we are going to talk about the guide, possibly the overarching guide we should all be using in our lives to guide our decisions.
[00:01:00] I think that this is more of a principle, a guiding principle. This is not like the food guide or, you know, some specific thing to developing a food plan. You know, you can find my better blood sugars, the 14 days better Blood sugars guide on my website. That's delanemd.com. You can go there and sign up for that 14 day guide. That's gonna give you a very clear plan, a very clear guide to improving your blood sugars, and it will work. But that's not the guide I'm talking about today. I'm talking more about a guiding philosophy, something that extends to far more than your blood sugars or your health. I'm talking about a guiding philosophy that really should reach to all parts of every human being's life. And we're going to talk about what that is and why it's important.
[00:01:49] I've distilled this down into a simple question that was actually shared to me. This weekend, we're going to discuss the science behind that question and why it works, and a straightforward strategy to put this into practice every single day, both morning and evening, so that you can start living the life that you are meant to live, that you want to live, that reaches all the goals and achieves everything that you want to achieve in life. And what more could we ask for with the gift of life? So, this weekend, I went on a girls trip. It was a girls weekend for a.
[00:02:27] A run. It's a 36 hours run. These are. This is. It's called Ragnar. Like Thor Ragnar, but it's Ragnar.
[00:02:36] It's a trail run, and basically it's a relay. You get a group of friends together. There's eight of you, and you guys take turns running all weekend long. Now, it's not just running, it's also camping. So you set up camp, you set up tents, and you have an area, and we all hang out together. When you're not running, we're hanging out together in the camp and the campsite. So I love doing these. My boyfriend and I do these together. He introduced me to them. I'm forever grateful to him for introducing me to Ragnar because I've done a number of these, and every single time they are life changing. And they really are just an amazing experience. I realize not everybody is into going and doing these kind of runs or even like, when I talk about doing 14 ers in Colorado, maybe that doesn't sound like fun to you, but I am it. Again, these experiences are always life changing to me. I enjoy them deeply. And what we're going to talk about today is really born of part of that experience.
[00:03:40] If you want to see what this is about, check out my Instagram, Delaney, MD on Instagram, Delaney, MD on Facebook, check out both of these places. There will be pictures on those platforms of this experience.
[00:03:53] But what we did, there's a group of eight of us women, and we got together and we did this run. I love this group of women. They are so amazing. They are. Some of them I've known for a very long time, and some of them were new friends to me this weekend. Our ages ranged from age 28 to age 67. The interesting thing about that age range is the 28 year old was the granddaughter of the 67 year old that ran this. And what a gift to have set up your life so well. These are life goals, right? Set up your life so well that you are able and fit and healthy enough at age 67 to do a rather intense event, an intense physical endurance event with your granddaughter, who's also fit enough to do it. Just an amazing, an amazing experience. We had two women in their thirties. We had two of us in our forties and two women in their fifties, really a span of ages. In this group of eight women, there were different running abilities. Some of these women were running eight minute miles on the trails, which is pretty quick, and some were running 20 minutes miles on the trail. It just didn't matter. We were there to have time with our girls, to have time in nature, to see the stars, to have a campfire, to go out and push ourselves to, you know, achieve something that we maybe hadn't achieved before, or that just makes us feel like I did something this weekend. I love these experiences.
[00:05:25] So again, there's this running, and then you're sitting at the campfire. You're sitting at the camp. There were bonfires. But we didn't. I mean, we didn't go down to that. You couldn't have a fire in your campsite. So a lot of it was just sitting in the campsite.
[00:05:38] These women are just. It's just an amazing group of women. Lots of different backgrounds, lots of different personalities. But one of the women, she's full of energy. She was quite vital, really charismatic, really spirited. And one of the other ladies asked her, where did you get your spirit? Where did this come from? Where does this vitality, this charisma that you have? Where did this come from? And her answer was so, so brilliant. Her answer was, when I was young, I asked myself, what would the 80 year old version of me want to do? And ever since then, whenever I come to a fork in a road, I asked that question. And that's what guides my decision. I just started doing those things, and she said, and it's led me on so many adventures.
[00:06:25] And I thought about that question that she answered the question with. Right. Like, it was so powerful and nearly knocked me over because there's so much information in this specific self question, this question to ourselves. The 80 year old version of you, she knows your values.
[00:06:45] The 80 year old version of you knows what's important to you.
[00:06:49] The 80 year old version of you is also at a point point in life where she knows the value of time.
[00:06:56] She knows that there's not another, may not be another opportunity. So she no longer lets frivolous worries keep her from having an experience. Right? She no longer lets fear based excuses keep her from doing something.
[00:07:14] She knows the true value of things. She knows that there is no better time, like right now, when the opportunity is in front of you to do something.
[00:07:23] She is the version of you that wants to seize every experience that's important to her because she knows it may not come back around.
[00:07:32] The 80 year old version of you is the baller inside of you that doesn't let trivial concerns keep you from getting the big thing that you want in life, keep you from doing the big things with your life that you want to be doing. She knows life is a gift. She knows today is a gift, and she wants you to take advantage of it, not for some soft, you know, instant gratification thing that's meaningless. She wants you to take the big, big things that life presents to you, and she wants you to take it by the horns, and she wants you to get it done. So I love that question, and I think we should all be using that question to guide our daily decisions. And I'm not, not kidding about that. Like, everything from do I take this job or that job, what would the 80 year old version of me want me to do? I think that that's an important question. But also, should I eat the salad, or should I go ahead and just give in and have the strawberry shortcake? The 80 year old version of you also knows the answer to that question. And I think that allowing her to have input is going to guide you so strongly to the things that are important to you that at the end of your life, you're going to be able to look back and say, yep, all of these decisions, they made a difference, even the little ones, and they led to what I have now. So why this question works. I want to talk about the science behind that, because this science is fascinating.
[00:09:05] Some of this I've known, but I've learned recently more of it and kind of a deeper level of it. And it's just fascinating. The brain, you know, the brain is just a fascinating thing. So there is a part of your brain, it's called the reticular activating system, the R RAS. This is a part of your brain that all of your experiences are passed through. And what I mean by that, all of your senses, your sight, your hearing, your taste, your feeling, and your smell, all of the nerves that carry those senses are passed through the reticular activating system, the RAS. The RAS. And it interprets all of those experiences. The RAS tries to reconcile these experiences, these sensory experiences, with all of the other things that brain knows, with the thoughts in your brain. The RAS has connections to all parts of your brain, to the frontal cortex, which is like your thought source, your executive functioning component component of the brain, but also your motor cortex that runs your arms, your legs, your fingers, everything. It's also going to your visual center, your visual cortex, and your auditory cortex. It's going to every different part of your brain that interprets these sensations, but also that drive actions. Okay, so this, the RAS is kind of this big reconciler of all the information, the information coming in and the information going out of the brain. So it's not just that it's getting information. This is a two way street, right? It's getting information from your nervous system. It's also sending information to your brain. Your brain is able your thought, your prefrontal cortex, is able to send information to the RAS, as well as your wrath sends information to the prefrontal cortex. And this happens both ways in the visual cortex and the auditory cortex and the motor cortex. This happens both ways in all of those different areas of the brain, okay? So there's input and output going into and out of the ras. Okay? I'm going to make a joke here because I think it's funny, and you're going to, you're going to hear it, because whenever I've heard people talk about your ass, what I hear is your ass, but what they're really talking about is your ras. So recognize, this is going to sound funny. Just chuckle every time I say your ass. Your thoughts about the world come from the prefrontal cortex. Your ass is what reconciles that information, okay? The information that's coming in is reconciled with the thoughts that you already have. In addition, your prefrontal cortex sends information to the ras for your ras to be able to start looking for the information that the thoughts are directing. Okay? So you get to direct your thoughts, and then your.
[00:12:03] Now I'm just saying, your ass, your wrath, will interpret all of the senses that are coming through your sensory system. Your visual, your hearing, your taste, your touch, all your smell, all of the different senses.
[00:12:17] The ras will interpret those based on what the, uh, the prefrontal cortex or these other cortexes from the higher parts of the brain are telling the ras that it needs to pay attention to. And think about this. You see this all the time. Like, if you're like, did I just sell smell smoke? Suddenly your brain starts to really look for smells of smoke, okay? Neuroscientists have referred to this as directing your thoughts, this this act of directing your thoughts as setting the setting of your wrasse, okay? So an example that I've heard neuro scientists use about this is when they're talking about cars. So if you have a car that you like, a specific car that you like, just think are really great, your brain, your visual cortex, will set your wrasse to look for that car. So I'm a jeep. I'm a jeep person. I like my jeeps.
[00:13:15] I've had plenty. My brother drives them. It's like a jeep thing. In our family, we like jeeps and jeep people. They're called jeep els. They're borderline obnoxious. I'm so sorry about that. It is what it is. We have the ducks and the wave and all of this craziness, right? For me, driving down the road and for many peoples, because we have our little jeep wave, right, we. Our brain, our thoughts, right. Our prefrontal cortex and our thoughts about jeeps tells our wrasse to look for jeeps and our rest does we see all the jeeps? If you're not into jeeps, you probably don't see the jeeps the way we see jeeps, but we see all the jeeps. That's what we have set our wrasse to look for. Okay? Now, if you like corvettes, I don't see all the corvettes. They are not what my prefrontal cortex has set my wrasse to look at. But if you like corvettes, you're not seeing the jeeps, you're seeing the corvettes. And it's because you've set your ass to look for that. You've literally set the visual input from your eye to pass through a filter at the base of your brain that has overemphasized the importance of corvettes. And in my case, overemphasized the importance of jeeps, or emphasized it more than the importance of other things. Okay, so this is what we mean by setting the ras, okay? So, asking yourself what you want in life sets your ass. This question about the 80 year old version of you, what does she want? That allows you to have a high level guiding principle to set your wrasse, to look for what you want to achieve in life.
[00:15:00] If your brain is constantly set on how hard it is not to eat the Oreos or the junk food, your wrasse will set it up, will show you will filter your incoming sensory input to only see how it's hard to not eat it. It's all that's available. There's nothing else. I might get hungry. All of those thoughts are filterings of your ass. It's filtering the situation. You find yourself, you are sensing that situation. And because you've set your ass to look at how hard it is, all you're seeing is how hard it is. You filter out everything else, just like I filter out all the corvettes for jeeps only. Okay? If your ras, or if you have the thought about how hard it is to eat healthy, your brain is going to set you up to see that. Your ras is going to set you up to see that. So, if you ask the 80 year old version of you about this scenario, what in this scenario is, you know, how I'm going to, you know, create what I want? What is the 80 year old version of me in this scenario want me to do?
[00:16:11] If you ask yourself that question, the 80 year old version of me sees that we are in a room full of donuts, but the 80 year old version of me wants me to be healthy.
[00:16:20] If you just have that scenario set up in your brain, you automatically set your wrasse to make that so it's so powerful. This is why this is such a powerful question.
[00:16:35] It sets you up for the things that are really important to you, and it sets your brain to start looking for the opportunities to make that thing that's really important to you happen. Okay, so how to do this? Strategies to do this right. Set a list of things that you want in your life. Seriously. Like, sit down today and give yourself permission to set ten things that, by the time you're 80, the 80 year old version of you is going to want you to have accomplished ten things.
[00:17:05] And then set your brain to start looking for it. Right. Each day, start thinking about these things, and start each day looking at those things, on how to create it, and end each day thinking about, what did you do today to move you in that direction?
[00:17:23] Sometimes this will cause you, like, I think of something I want. So if I wanted a Corvette, I would have thoughts like, okay, I want a Corvette. And maybe that's not important to you, and I totally get this. This is just an example you can have thoughts of, like, okay, yes, I see myself wanting the Corvette. I want the Corvette. That's important to me for whatever reason.
[00:17:47] Frequently. That will lead then to future thoughts, like, right after the I want the Corvette, you start seeing all the reasons you don't have the Corvette. But I can't afford it. It's too expensive. It's not a family car. Whatever it is, you start seeing all of the things about why you don't have it yet. That is not the way to do this, because now what you're actually thinking is not having it.
[00:18:10] You're not thinking about having it. Like, you're like, yeah, I want a Corvette. But then you're like, it's too expensive. It's not a family car. It's not a economical car. It doesn't have great gas mileage. Whatever it is, you're thinking about all the reasons that you don't have it. That is not the way to do this exercise, okay? And one way to move yourself out of that, that's scarcity, is what that really comes down to, is we've created, like, a thing I want, and then the reasons I don't have it, that's scarcity. Instead, add gratitude. Start this practice out with gratitude. What do you want I want a corvette.
[00:18:44] I am grateful. I have a job that allows me to pay my bills right now so that I can save up money and reach that goal. Okay? Start with gratitude. The way this looks with maybe your health and your blood sugars, maybe the thing that you want, the 80 year old version of you, is like, listen, sis, I'm 80 now. My joints aren't what they used to be when we were 40 and 50. And, girl, I need you to start taking better care of me today so that when we are 80, that we can do amazing things still. We can be active with our family. We don't have dementia. We can, you know, still have a vital social life. We need to start doing things today at age 40, 50, or even 60 or 70, so that at age 80, we can have those things that are important to us. All right? So that's what's important to you. I want better blood sugars. I want better health.
[00:19:41] Your brain is going to be like, yeah, but we ate that chocolate cake, and that chocolate cake is going to make our blood sugars worse. And we did an exercise, and we did it. Da da da da. But it did it. Your brain is going to go immediately to all the reasons that it's not happened today.
[00:19:55] Stop. Hold the phone.
[00:19:58] I want you instead to start that practice with gratitude.
[00:20:03] I am grateful today for all of the things that I did for my health. I ate five different vegetables. I high quality protein. I got out into nature and did ten minutes of walking. I got a good night of sleep. I managed my stress. Today, your brain is going to want to go to all the things that don't work. I want you to start with being grateful for all the things that you did do.
[00:20:28] And then I want you to start envisioning like, I want health. The 80 year old version of me. She wants this health, better blood sugars. These are the things I've done today, and I can continue doing those things tomorrow.
[00:20:43] Start utilizing that practice to create these things that you want in your life, these things that are important to you.
[00:20:51] The wrasse of the brain is the reason that asking this question about your 80 year old self is so powerful. It's going to set your brain to finding the solution. It should start with gratitude. If you find that you're getting into that scarcity brain, pause.
[00:21:11] Go through all of the things that you have done and that you're grateful for.
[00:21:16] I mean, even if it's like maybe you didn't do anything, but maybe your a one c was 8.5. Ladies, it could be 13.5. Okay, it could be 13.5. And if your a one c is 13.5, if your blood sugars are 350, you can be grateful today that you're not actively having some negative consequence of that.
[00:21:36] And there is always a worse consequence. It's one thing that medicine has taught me. There is always something worse. Believe me. If you have the mental ability to sit there and desire better health, that is something to be grateful for, because there are people out there who are so sick that they don't even have that.
[00:21:56] Find something to be grateful for and start your setting, your reticular activating system, to finding better ways to continue that. But start it from a place of gratitude from where you're at right now. Okay.
[00:22:12] This is why this is such a powerful question. And it did. Again, it struck me, I'm grateful for the ladies that I was out with this weekend. I'm grateful for ragnar weekends in general. Every time I've had one, I come from it and I'm so rejuvenated. And I'm just so grateful for that. So this question, though, was really, really powerful, and I wanted to share it with everybody. And I hope that you start implementing this. Certainly. If you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me. You can always find
[email protected]. Dot I'm happy to answer any questions. If you have any suggestions, I'm happy to entertain any of those. But for now, I want you to keep listening. I want you to keep avoiding foods that are making you sick. I want you to keep making choices for your vitality and your longevity. I want you to remember, if you are on medication, to be very careful making the food changes that I recommend in this podcast. You've been medicated for the way that you've eaten in the past, and if you change the way you eat, you're going to need to change your medication. So you need to get on the phone with your doctor, get a clear line of communication open with them so that you can know how they want you to share your blood sugar logs with them and how they intend to share with you medication changes. Get on the phone with that. Be very careful as you make these changes. I will be back next week and I will talk to you then. Bye.
