It's important to understand what our values are , because our values are going to help us make decisions . When we're in the grocery store , when we're sitting at a restaurant , when we're going to a friend or family's party , those values are going to help us make a decision . Welcome back . This is episode number 141 of the Healthy Diabetic Podcast . Before we get started , please remember that nothing that you hear on this podcast should be considered medical advice or otherwise . Please always consult your medical team before making any changes to your diabetes management . Okay , let's rock and roll . We're going to just jump right into this thing . Yeah , we're a solo episode today . I'm excited . I'm excited about this solo episode . I hope you are .
Speaker 1The stats from these solo episodes that I've been doing the last couple weeks are showing that you guys are engaged with it , so I really hope that you're engaged with it . With these solo episodes , i'm having a blast talking to myself . I don't know why When I was doing this show with Graham , i was not . I did not have a blast talking to myself . I felt like it was like an awkward chore , but right now I'm really enjoying talking about these specific topics . I think what I've done . three This is my third or fourth solo episode in the past three weeks , maybe it's four weeks , i don't know , but these are really fun .
Speaker 1These are becoming a lot of fun . I'm excited about them and I really hope that you guys are . Please make sure that if you guys like this episode , if you like the content , if you like the content of the conversations that I'm having with myself , with other people , i really empower you guys and encourage you guys to share the show with somebody that you believe is going to get some value out of this , out of these conversations . That's why I started this podcast , because when I first started this journey , i was lost , alone , scared , i mean , you name it . I wish I had an outlet to listen to a friendly voice , a comforting voice and , at the same time , be educated . That's what this podcast is about and I hope that it's doing that for you . Please remember , share the show with someone and , yeah , i really hope that you guys are enjoying this . Let me know , just let me know . Let me know if you guys are enjoying this or not enjoying this .
Speaker 1If you like these solo episodes , let me know if you have content or topics that you really want to hear me talk about . I'm an open book . If I don't really know much about something , i'll just message you back and say , yeah , that might be out of my scope of practice there , but for the most part , anything goes . If I don't really know something , too , i usually look it up and try to get a little bit more educated myself on it before I make comments about it . But yeah , let me know if you got any topics or anything you want to listen to . All right , nothing to be rambling , let's go . Let's get into this .
Speaker 1Diabetes , food values , what the what the crap does this mean ? Well , to me this means something very interesting because I've been talking a lot over the last two , three weeks with colleagues , with clients , about nutrition and not just nutrition in general , but what's in our food . And if you listen to episode 131 , or no , 121 , sorry , 121 , i think it was about food labels I did a deep dive of my thoughts about food labels . If you're interested in that in my thoughts I'm not going to talk deep about food labels today , just about , like , this concept of food values . But if you want to listen , hear more about food labels , check out episode 121 , because I go super deep into my understanding of food labels and what the hell's in our food , because a lot of times we're being lied to , a lot of times we're not being lied to , so we have to be able to see through the BS , and that's what that episode's about . But anyways , back to this food values . Like I said , i've been really talking to a lot of people over the past couple weeks about food and what's in our food . It's just been on my mind And I don't really know why , and I think about food values and I kind of define this as this thought process of what is your values when you think about food , what do you value ? Do you value quality ? Do you value price ? Do you value quantity ? Because I mean , if you go to like a wholesale place , like Costco or Sam's Club , maybe it's quantity of food for a cheaper price that you value . What is your food values ? That's what this episode is about And I think this is an important topic .
Speaker 1When we talk about food And when I talk about my five pillars because nutrition obviously is part of those five pillars And when we talk about food and we talk about nutrition , it's important to understand what our values are , because our values are going to help us make decisions when we're in the grocery store , when we're sitting at a restaurant , when we're going to a friend or family's party , those values are going to help us make a decision . Are we going to stick with those values when we're going to a party , when we're going to a restaurant , when we're going to go shop for food ? Those values are going to give us that opportunity to make a decision in the moment and be okay with that decision . I can't tell you how many people I talk to that have a specific event coming up or go do something like go on vacation . On vacation , we tend to eat not according to our values , but we have specific things that we are trying to accomplish . In this scenario , we'll talk about a client that I would have . This client is doing really , really well with their nutrition . They're doing really well with their workouts , they're getting sleep , they're doing everything they need to do to get to their goal . Whether it's weight loss , whether it's trying to get ready for a competition or a tryout , whatever it is , they're doing the things they need to do .
And then life happens and something comes up in terms of those values are now going to be challenged . I'm going on vacation . My values are now about to be challenged . Do I want to drink a bunch of beer ? Do I want to eat all of this processed food ? Or in terms of like , maybe I'm at a really nice hotel or whatever it is , or island , whatever you're doing in terms of your vacation , and those values are now challenged , based off of what you have access to . Are you going to stick with those values Or you're just going to give a little pushback on those values ? The values allow you to make that decision and feel comfortable with that decision . So when you get home and you ate like crap on vacation , you don't kick yourself in the ass for it , because I've seen it so many times .
Speaker 1I have this specific conversation with clients that I work with when they're going to be in those situations . Here in Columbus we've got a big PGA tournament that happens every single year , the Mirfield tournament And that is just party central for everybody for the whole entire week . People's values are challenged , people that have worked their butts off for the whole entire year . Those values are challenged . Football season I have a state football . Oh my God . This is another time of season that people's values are challenged , both on the athlete and young kids sides and the adult sides are , values are challenged .
Speaker 1So it's important to identify what your values are so you can make a decision Are you going to stick with your values or are you going to push back on your values ? Whichever decision , which one of those you make , it's okay . And then the last thing I wanted to just leave you with this concept of your food values is it's always going to evolve and change , just like as a diabetic , regardless of when you actually are diagnosed with diabetes , whether it's at a very young age , whether it's in your teen years , your adult years , your what I like to call post kid years , it doesn't matter . Because , as a diabetic , our management style , the way we deal with diabetes , that changes and evolves over time . And that's why I created the five pillars And that's why I coach people on how to build their own five pillars and identify what is going to work for them . Because your life evolves as you get older , get more experienced and become more wiser . Because your life evolves as you become older , as you become more experienced and as you become wiser .
Speaker 1Okay , so now that we've talked about food values and I've kind of clarified my position on food values and how I define it , let me talk about my personal food values , how I think about food , what things conversations I'm having with myself when I think about food . And as I'm talking about this , i want to preface this That I believe that there's kind of three buckets that we really fill when we talk about food values , and that's the quality of the food that we're consuming , the price and your own personal experiences . So , looking at those three categories quality , price and my own personal experiences . Quality , because I think the first thing that we need to do is rank these first One to three . What is the most important , because that kind of shapes part of your values . That allows you to get started . Mine is quality all the way , and if you've listened to this show long enough , you've heard me talk about food . You know this Quality all the way .
I would much rather spend more money on good quality food now than run into problems , especially as a diabetic , when I'm 50 , 60 , 70 , 80 years old . I don't want to have to be paying a crap load more money in medical bills because I got stuff going on , and the great thing about the food that we eat is it's in our control . So much about diabetes is out of our control So much of it . There's what 40 plus things that affect blood sugars And a lot of those 40-somethings are out of our control , like the weather . We don't have freaking control of the weather , but we do have control over something like sleep . We do have control over something like food .
Speaker 1So for me , the quality of the food that I'm consuming means everything . The next part would be 100% my experiences . And for me , price is the last thing . I think price is important to me . It obviously is very important to me . I can't afford to go out and buy , you know , a $50 steak as much as I would love to at a steakhouse , but I can still go to something like a Whole Foods , i can go to a Costco , i can go to even something like Kroger's and spend a little bit more money for good quality food . That's how I think about these three categories Quality first , my experience second , and then price last . And again , it doesn't mean that price isn't important , it's just how I would rank these three categories . Cool , i already talked a little bit about quality . It's everything to me , it is my God . It's everything to me When I am eating good quality food .
Speaker 1And it's so funny that this is coming up right now because I posted a video on TikTok . If you haven't seen it yet , it's on my Instagram page and my TikTok page . I posted a video basically explaining . There was a really good post by the Food Babe If you haven't seen that account on Instagram , it's amazing . Lots of really good nutritional stuff . But she posted something on her account , on her feed of it was two pictures . It was a picture of organic and it showed you . It listed all these things that an organic label has with green check marks , And then it posted non-GMO And it had all these things that are actually in non-GMO products When it actually has the non-GMO verified products , and all these things were in red . I don't have the photo in front of me , but you should go look at it . And I posted this and I put it on TikTok and went freaking viral . I did not expect that And of course , you're getting all of these different comments Really really good comments , not so good comments .
Speaker 1But then there was someone that Made a comment that just stuck out to me . I was like baffled by this person's comment . This person this person was talking about That . When you make a comment or when you post a video , you should back it up with scientific evidence . And The reason he was saying this , or this person was saying this , was because I Created another video based off of some things that I saw in the comments of people saying , you know , like organic's not real or whatever . And I basically made another video that said Regardless if you think organic is real or not real , you can't make the argument that when you eat processed food , compared to organic food or compared to good , healthy , quality , good , healthy and good quality food , that you don't feel better .
Speaker 1And if you , if you did that for seven to fourteen days of your constantly eating processed food , you will feel amazing . And so this guy that was that was telling me to back everything up with science , was saying that because he said that he didn't understand what feeling meant , what I'm , what I meant by feeling . And I was just baffled by this , because When we are eating good quality food I know I just said this , but when you're eating good quality food , you cannot tell me That you don't feel better than when you're not eating processed food . Now you might make the argument that you're . If you're eating good quality food and processed food , okay , i don't really feel any different , but you didn't get rid of the processed food and you didn't let your digestive tract heal itself from the processed food . You didn't let your your digestive tract and your gut actually be healed From all the inflammation that processed food makes our digestive tract go through . So you can't make that argument . I Don't think someone can make that argument .
Speaker 1So I just thought that was interesting , as I'm like talking about the quality of the food and how important , how important it is to me and , again , it's important to me . It might not be important to you or as important to you as it is to me , and that's okay . I'm not here to judge anyone . I'm just telling you what my personal Food values are and you have to figure out what your values are . So , quality I'm not gonna keep going because you guys know where I stand on the quality of food , my personal experiences . I think this is a big bucket , especially for me , because I also deem the quality of the food I'm eating Based off of my experiences of eating that food in the past . Here's my example I Have not , i have not kept it a secret on the show that I love pizza and That if it was up to me , i would eat pizza two or three times a week , but I know that's not the right decision .
Speaker 1It goes against my values . When I when I eat pizza , i have a hard pushback on my food values , but I still do it sometimes . So When I eat pizza , there's this . There's a specific experience that I have Depending on the quality of the pizza . Big chain pizza , most big chain pizzas I don't feel the greatest . If I'm going to something like harvest , where if you're in a part of the world and you're listening to this and you don't have access So you don't know what harvest pizza it is , it's a more healthier I don't want to say organic , but it's a more healthier Pizza joint . Basically , they have other things to really good salads , you know all kinds of stuff , but it's a piece of joint , it's a restaurant and they have amazing pizza Just incredible . When I eat that pizza , oh my god , i feel great . I don't feel the bloating . I don't feel like I'm in digestive distress the next morning . I'm not on the toilet for a super long time Right , if I'm on the toilet at all . So this is what I mean by my personal experiences . Your personal experiences are going to dictate what you think the quality of your food might be .
Speaker 1I know from experience that when I used to eat Taco Bell because I love tacos when I was young yes , i was that kid that ate Taco Bell all the time that that meat is not good quality And I felt like shit after eating Taco Bell but I kept doing it because I didn't understand . I didn't define or clarify what my food values were . I didn't understand nutrition . But when I didn't . Now that I don't eat processed food , i don't eat go-to fast food restaurants when I do occasionally . Right , if I go to Wendy's , i like spicy chicken sandwiches . Sometimes if it's super late at night I'm getting home from the gym , i have in the past gone to Wendy's because it's the only thing that's open and got a spicy chicken sandwich The next morning . I feel like crap . And well , it's chicken , it's chicken . The quality of the chicken is not at the . It's not as high as I usually eat , and I think that's the other thing too . And again , this is me not saying that this is true . This is just how I feel about it .
Speaker 1The quality of meats compared to like a burger , compared to chicken , whatever it is , the quality of that meat means everything . If you get a piece of chicken from the store , or a chicken breast or whatever it is from the store and it's not organic . Yes , it might not be 100% organic per se from the store , but organic if it has an organic certified label . Compared to non-organic , the quality of that chicken is definitely different . Now , you might not feel it , but if you are sensitive to chicken , if you have a light sensitivity to chicken , you might feel it . You might , absolutely 100% , 100% , you might .
Speaker 1When I stopped eating dairy and went to coconut and cashew milk man that everything changed So that the quality of what we're eating and our personal experiences with these foods that we're eating can tell us the story , can start paying the picture of what our food values could be and what we want them to be . If you're just someone that you know , you're like , yeah , well , i don't really care about the quality Cool , awesome , 100% . Put the quality at three . Maybe your number one is price and then your experiences and then the quality . That's totally fine , there's nothing wrong with that . I'm just telling you my personal experience . So those three components , i think , are important . They're important to me and they're how I have been able to define and clarify for myself what my food values are .
Speaker 1Now I want to give you one more example here , because it's on my mind And I talk about it a little bit in the newsletter that's coming out today . But and hopefully , if you're on the newsletter , you already got it . You already got that newsletter , but it's just kind of breaking down how I think about food when I shop in the grocery store . And I talked a little bit about this in the food labels , episode 121 , but I'm going to give you another deep dive here . So when I go to the grocery store and this is part of how my food values have taken shape and why I… believe so hardily in what my food values are When I go to the grocery store , i look at food labels like crazy , way more than I used to . I mean , we're talking , i'm like crazy obsessed with food labels because now that I recognize and I understand what's in these labels and I recognize and I understand when and can see through all the BS when there's ingredients in there that they're trying to hide , i can see that stuff now , or at least I can start understanding what the story you know the story that the food label is telling me . So this is how I kind of
break it down .
Speaker 1I have a step-by-step process . When I look at the food label and in order for that food to get into my shopping cart , it has to go , it has to get past my BS meter , as I like to call it . I call it my BS meter . Right ? Is this food gonna pass my BS meter ? And there's a bunch of standards . So the first thing that I look at and I've talked about this before , but the first thing I look at is the ingredients and the quality of what the ingredients are . Right . So if there's more than five or seven ingredients , it does not pass my BS meter . I walk away . I walk away , unless it's for a specific recipe that my wife is asking me to get .
Speaker 1Obviously , the next thing I'm looking at is the quality of the ingredients . Right , so , if I identify , does this thing have less than five to seven ingredients ? And then I'm looking at the quality , which means that does this have a bunch of gums ? Does it have multi-dextion ? Does it have cane sugar ? Does it have extra fillers and extra added preservatives ? Does it have natural flavors ? Does it have artificial flavors ? I'm trying to identify what is in this product . I used to tell people that if it looks like a science experiment . It probably is a science experiment Experiment . Wow , can't talk . And you'll identify that too . Going through that , i will identify that , going through that first stage of five to seven ingredients , because I'll recognize is it a science experiment ? So if it's been able to do both of those things , cool , it's going to the next stage of the BS meter .
Speaker 1Next thing I'm going to look at is macronutrients in serving size , because those two things are going to be important for me personally as diabetic , right ? So I'm looking at carbohydrate ratios , i'm looking at what the serving size is so I can understand exactly what the carbohydrate ratio actually is , because it might just say it might say 15 grams of carbs , but it also might be two servings , so actually it's 30 grams of carbs . And then I want to identify is there added sugars ? And I also will identify some of that stuff like an added sugar looking at the food label , right ? Because if there's added flavors basically natural flavors , artificial flavors that's where that will come , that's where that will show up as extra sugar . So I want to identify that . And then I'm going to identify the protein serving size and the fat serving size , because that's also important , especially if it has all three macronutrients . Obviously some products don't have all three macronutrients .
Speaker 1And then the last thing I'm going to look at is the calories of this product , and I don't really care . I don't really care about what the calories are , because I'm not someone that needs to worry or would like to worry about calories , because calories , calories , calories . And if I make it all the way to the calories , if this product makes it all the way through the BS meter to the calories , those are pretty darn good calories . They're pretty darn good calories . I don't have to worry about that . I don't have to worry about excess calories , because it made it through , all the way through Ken's BS meter . So that's how I really identify food . And if I'm going to consume this food , if I'm going to buy this food from the grocery store , that's how I identify it .
Speaker 1Now let's flip the script for a second . How do I identify food at a restaurant ? Because this is the big challenge . I know everyone's thinking it , because when we go to a restaurant , let's fast food . Hope you're not going to a bunch of fast food restaurants , but if you are , it also applies . If you're going to a bunch of restaurants , how the heck do you know what they're using . Here's the big secret to this You don't know . Unfortunately , we don't know . Let's talk about this . I had a conversation with a client this morning actually One of my clients this morning about this Chipotle . This is a good fast food restaurant that people really really like Chipotle . I really really like Chipotle . I get Chipotle maybe once a week , a couple times every couple weeks . Chipotle's not a bad restaurant . Now you can do some damage in terms of bad damage to your system eating different things at Chipotle , but for the most part Chipotle's really good . You can make some good decisions at Chipotle . Here's the interesting thing and I don't know the answer to this and I might have to try to figure this out What type of oil ?
Speaker 1Because oil is the other thing that I didn't talk about . When identifying a food label , when I look at it , i really look at what oils are in foods , because if it has vegetable oil , if it has canola oil , it has palm oil , any type of seed oil . I'm running , i'm not walking away , i'm running . So most restaurants they'll use vegetable oil or canola oil . Why ? Because it's cheap . That's cheap to buy , it's cheap to get in bulk . Why would they not do that .
Speaker 1So when you're going to a restaurant a sit-down restaurant let's go to a sit-down restaurant now You're going to a sit-down restaurant , i guarantee , and I used to work in a restaurant . I used to work in the restaurant industry before . I was a strength coach and personal trainer and a diabetes coach . We used canola oil and vegetable oil , and vegetable oil is one of the most highly inflammatory products on the shelves right now . It's unbelievable How inflammatory vegetable oil is .
Speaker 1And if you don't believe me , go buy a steak , go buy some chicken , go buy some food . Pour a bunch of vegetable oil on it . See what happens . Do you spend some time in the toilet next day ? And maybe you don't , maybe you're not affected really by vegetable oil , but it still doesn't mean that it's not inflaming your system . So I think that is one thing that's very challenging when we're talking about restaurants , because we don't know what they're actually Putting into the food .
Speaker 1Going back to the Chipotle example , chipotle went their chicken that was pasteurized . At least that's how they're marketing it . Their Mac , their marketing their chicken , is Pasteurized chicken . How , i don't know if I necessarily believe that , but that's how they're marketing it . So I really like Chipotle , so I'm choosing to believe it . But what type of oil do they use on their chicken ? What type of oil do they use on their rice ? What type of oil do they use on their steak ? Because the you see it , when you walk into Chipotle , they're using one speak civic oil , just spraying it everywhere , all over the place when they're making the rice , all over the place when they're , you know , putting it on the on the meats . What type of oil is it ? I bet it's not avocado oil . Don't quote me on that , but I bet it's not avocado oil .
Speaker 1So these are the things that we have to think about , and This is why I think it's very important for you , as the consumer , to identify What your food values are . Do you care ? Do you do you care or do you not care ? I hope it's the latter . I hope you care , because the food that is coming out and the way they're able to market food nowadays , it's , it's bad , it's real bad , and if you're paying attention to that , you know it's bad , it's really bad . So Please , please , please , please , make sure that you are One thinking and creating and identifying what your food values are .
Speaker 1But to educating yourself , educate yourself on what , what is in the foods that you currently consume and eat on a regular basis . Next time you go to the grocery store , just flip up , flip over the food label and try to identify the things that are there . Do you know what they are ? Because if it has more than 10 Ingredients in the food , it's probably a science experiment . It probably has tons of chemicals in it . It probably has tons of dyes in it all of the things that have colors to the food . That's called food dye . It's also very highly inflammatory in our systems . So we need to also understand that we're buying things for our children and buying things for ourselves , like We don't need dyes , we don't need different seed oils , we don't need all these wheat products . You know we don't need all these things that have gum in the word . Those are called fillers and preservatives . So Make sure you're understanding these things and educate yourself about it , because it really is important .
Speaker 1I Want every single one of you to be here on this planet for as long as you possibly can . That's what I want for myself , so I want for my family and that's what I want for all of you guys , and that's why I talk about this stuff , because it's super interesting to me , because it's part of my values . So , yeah , please make sure that you're paying attention to this stuff . Alright , as we close for today , i want to leave you with a couple things .
Speaker 1One , my More than a 1c program is going on right now . It's a 10 week coaching program . It is it is incredible I love taking people through it and it dives into a lot of the stuff that we're talking about today . We are talking about a lot of nutrition stuff . We're talking a lot about your relationship with food , and The first thing , the very first thing we're focusing on is your five pillars . I'm helping you to identify that and I'm helping you to identify what your relationship with diabetes and yourself is , because if , if we don't start there , then it doesn't matter about anything else . So we're identifying those things and just by identifying those two things and and also preface this that , as we're trying to build your pillars , we're also talking about other things . There's ten different lessons in this ten week program , and the other really cool thing that I'm offering with this program is a Fitness component . So you're basically going to get ten weeks of coaching with me with fitness right . So you're going to get all the diabetes coaching . You're going to get all the nutrition coaching and you're going to get a fitness plan for ten weeks . It's an incredible program .
Speaker 1If you're interested , please click on the link in the show notes that says more than a 1c . You can also schedule just a strategy call just to hear more about it . Or if you have a question about something . My goodness , i love when people reach out to me and just chat . Let's get on zoom . Let's get on a phone call , dm me , whatever and ask me a question . Let's talk about what's going on I'd love to hear about . I hear about what's going on in your life If you also want to come on the show .
Speaker 1I'm always interested in bringing people on the show . I always love bringing people on the show and I don't think , of all the people that I've reached out To me to come on the show and all the people , people I have reached out to to come on the show , not one single person of it has I have I ever been in a position where I felt like I Needed it to say no . I've never said no to someone wanting to come on the show and share their story and share their journey . All The stories that we tell each other , all the stories that you hear on this podcast , all the stories you hear on other podcasts , all the stories that you hear from your friends , your family members , your doctors , your medical team . Those stories give us power to figure out what works for us , and that's our only job as diabetics . Our only job is to figure out what works for us . So if you figured out what works for you , i applaud you . If you haven't figured out what works for you , please connect with me and I will help you , because that's what I'm here for .
Speaker 1Thank you so much for listening . Make sure that you Subscribe to the show so you're notified when I drop new episodes every single week . If you're on Apple podcast , please leave a written review . Please leave a five star review . It really helps the show grow . I Really want to keep doing this forever . I just love talking to Myself . I love talking to you guys . I love talking to other guests . It's just . This is what I'm meant to do . So thank you so much for listening and I will see you guys next time . You .