Do You Know with Dr. Dwain Woode

Harnessing the Power of Habit for Diabetes Victory

• Dwain Woode

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Have you ever been driving to that all-too-familiar convenience store for a snack you promised to quit? I'm Dr. Dwain Woode, and my car knows that route a little too well. But this is about more than just my stories - this podcast is your blueprint to reshape your habits and take control of your diabetes. With a blend of personal anecdotes and the latest research, I'll reveal how you can outsmart the habitual loops of cues, cravings, responses, and rewards that dominate our daily lives.

Navigating the complex dance between our emotions and eating habits takes center stage as we dissect the H.E.A.T. model. It's not just about what we eat; it's about understanding why we reach for that extra pizza when stressed. Together, we'll examine the psychology behind behaviors and how they lead to the habits that can make or break our health goals. From sharing the triumphs of community members like Jennifer, who crushed a 72-hour fast, to the daily struggles we all face, this episode is an invitation to a community where encouragement fuels progress.

Ending on a note of practicality,  I talk about the art of breaking a fast. Whether you're gearing up for your first extended fast or a seasoned pro, you'll leave with actionable insights to optimize your routine and make your next fast a stepping stone to transforming your health. So, slide on those earbuds and join our health revolution - mastering your habits is about much more than managing diabetes; it's about mastering your life.

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Dwain Woode:

So it's three o'clock in the afternoon and you just got out of that meeting and you're rushing home by the end of the day and you get off the highway and just as you make the turn, there is that little convenience store. You know the one, the one that has your favorite drink or your favorite snack, or your favorite something. And, without even thinking about it, you get out of the car, you go into the store, you get your snack, you get your drink, and you're in the car driving home and then you realize, wait a minute, I decided that I wasn't gonna do that today, that I'm not gonna stop at that store. But guess what had happened. Have you ever wondered why it is those things that we wanna do is so sometimes difficult? Why is it that we end up just falling into some of the things that we don't wanna do? And the things that we wanna do are the things that don't happen, and y'all. That's what's called a habit. And so tonight we're gonna spend some time talking about habits. We're gonna talk about those things that, if we master them, can help us in our diabetes journey and in the process of what we're doing. If you're new to me, I'm Dr Dwayne Wood, that's Wood with an E the E stands for endocrinology. Here on the channel, I educate, I empower and I encourage you to take charge of your health, your life, avoid complications and go to the next level. We're creating the life we've always wanted and in this year 2024, our new theme is New Year, new you, new Year, new you. You can sometimes tell the kind of day I've had, actually, if you follow me and I make that right or that left off of the highway and if I go by that store, then the day's been pretty good. But if I stop off, guess what? Yes, it's been one of those days and that's what we're gonna be talking about tonight On our show New Year, new you. Well, what are these habits? How do we master habits to reverse diabetes? I'm talking to adults with type two diabetes. How do we put our diabetes in remission? How do we reverse diabetes? How do we get off of some of those diabetes medications? And that's what we've been doing as we move through the year so far.

Dwain Woode:

Have you heard this story before? I think I've told it before. I'm gonna tell it again. My wife and I we lived in Ohio and I was going through residency and we decided that we were gonna go on this health kick and we were gonna lose weight At least I was gonna lose weight and I started, y'all one of my favorite things Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream. I've said it before and I'll say it again that's the thing, right there. And so I didn't have any Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream for a long time. I mean weeks and months, I think it almost was almost a year.

Dwain Woode:

And then my wife made the mistake of sending me to the grocery store. And I was in the grocery store y'all, and you know how they do, right? They put that stuff right on the end cap. And I was walking by. Let me say I was minding my own business, I wasn't bothering anybody, had gotten all the stuff I was supposed to get. Then I was on the way to the checkout with my cart and just as I walked by, I saw the sign, and the sign said Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream. That's right, get one free.

Dwain Woode:

Now here's my story. I'm sticking to this story, and before I knew it, before I knew it, two of those things had jumped into my cart, they had checked themselves out and had ended up in my car and I'm driving home and then I remembered we were not supposed to be eating Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream. Now you're gonna have to catch up with me and get the rest of that story. Now, why is this important. Well, if you've been hanging around here over the last couple of months, you know where we're heading. All right, our goal is diabetes and remission Diabetes, reversal diabetes medications away. Right, that's where we're heading and we've got some tools that we've learned. We've learned and we've evaluated. Right, we've come up with our why We've decided why we want to do what we're doing. Why do we wanna be healthy?

Dwain Woode:

And many of you are fasting right now. You're doing intermittent fasting, you're working your way up to one 24-hour period, a week of fasting, and y'all guess what? During that 24-hour period, your blood sugar should be so good that you probably don't need medication. And during the fast, we talked about those things that pull us towards eating when we're not hungry, even not during the fast, on a regular basis. Remember our model heat, habits, emotions, access and taste.

Dwain Woode:

And that very first one those habits, are the things that push us in that direction. It's kind of like being on top of a hill and you're standing right on the edge and it is just so easy to go over. And once you get too far, once you lean too far over that hill, guess what? It's natural that we're falling down, that we're rolling down that hill. It's kind of like that boulder. You ever remember those old-time movies, right? Those silent movies, where there's a guy, he's at the bottom and somebody yells yo-ho-ho and the boulder or the snow starts coming down. It's so easy to fall into that. Those are habits.

Dwain Woode:

And how do we master those? How do we get into the mindset of doing what we need to do when these natural things are happening? And so that's what we're spending time talking about tonight. How do we master habits, mastering habits to reverse our diabetes? Because, after all, we are working on decreasing the amount of insulin that our body produces, the amount of insulin that we're taking, the medications that produce insulin in our body. Insulin, after all, makes us hungry. Insulin makes us have high blood pressure and high cholesterol and we put on weight and all those things that we've talked about. But if we have these little triggers that push us in the direction of eating, then all of that can be destroyed. So the first question that we want to ask, of course is y'all.

Dwain Woode:

So what is a habit? So a habit is one of those things that is kind of it's unconscious. They're those small decisions and actions that we repeatedly perform, often unconsciously, that shape our daily lives. These are the things that happen automatically. It's kind of like you drive into work, you can drive to work the same way and you've done it over and over and over. You're going to school, you're going to the grocery store. In fact, today I was on my way from work and I was supposed to stop off at the store on my way home to pick something up and I made the correct turn to go to the store and I just drove right by it because I was so used to heading home and I'd made it so far past the store. I said, well, I'll get that tomorrow. But you drive, you get in the car and you're driving to wherever you're going and you don't even have to think anymore. And you find yourself at that place. You find yourself at the job, you find yourself at the office, you find yourself at the grocery store, you find yourself at mom's house, dad's house, your son's house, your cousin's house, because it's automatic and you don't realize it until you pull into the parking lot.

Dwain Woode:

That is the power of habits, that's the power that they bring to us and the power that they sometimes seem to take from us. Because if they are so automatic that they push us in a direction that we don't want to go, what about if we could harness them so they can push us automatically in the right direction? And that's the beauty, because what we want to do is we want to break those habits that are pushing us in a direction that takes us away from our goal and begin forming those habits that are automatic, y'all that push us in the right direction. Now some people will say and I've heard this argument before if it's a habit, it takes the power away from us. One of our viewers right, jeff, I'm picking on you, jeff. I remember one night we were talking about fasting and Jeff said is it cheating if I fast before I go to see my doctor? And I said, yes, it is, but that's the cheat code. And this y'all is the cheat code right here. The cheat code for making things automatic is the habit If I don't have to think about it, but it's pushing me in a direction I want to go. Thank you for that cheat code. That's what I want. I want to make it so that I almost don't even have to think about it anymore and it has become a natural part of what I do, a natural part of me. So that's a habit.

Dwain Woode:

So what causes habits? I am going to combine a couple of things here. So the habit loop is cravings, our cues, our response to the cue, and then a reward. That is the normal habit loop. But in the atomic habit, the writer comes up with actually a couple of other phases, right. So cues, cravings, responses and rewards. And I want to give props to him because this is not new to me, but it falls right in place with what we want to do.

Dwain Woode:

So what causes a habit? So, at the heart of every habit y'all is a loop or stages that comprise cues, cravings, responses and rewards Cues, cravings, responses and rewards. So the cue is really a trigger and this is what initiates the habit. This is what starts the habit in the first place. It's a piece of information that predicts a reward. So a piece of information that predicts a reward.

Dwain Woode:

This trigger tells your brain to go into automatic mode. You get in the car, for example, to go to work, and you turn the key and almost your brain takes over. You don't remember the turns, you don't remember the stops, you don't remember all of that stuff. But hey, all of a sudden I'm at the office, all of a sudden I'm at the grocery store, I'm at the mailbox or the post office, I'm at church, I'm at my son's house, I'm at my daughter's house. It is automatic.

Dwain Woode:

So once that cue, once that trigger happens, we fall directly into this path, if you will, and it's almost like getting on the top of a slide. You remember those old slides? Yeah, I remember going down. I remember when my son was young, I take him to the top of the slide and when he was a little younger he was afraid to go over. So what we have to do, we got him right on the part where he's just balancing and we just sit him there and we say to him just lean over, because we knew once he leaned over far enough, gravity would then take him straight down. And that's what happens with the trigger. The trigger happens. There's this cue, there's this thing that happens, that says to the brain automatically okay, let's go down the slide.

Dwain Woode:

And recognizing cues, these are crucial Because they are the things that launch us into this habit loop or these phases that we're talking about, that take us Into the habit and take us into the behavior, sometimes derail us if we are not careful, but help us if we harness it. So example of cues so you see the running shoes next to the door. It triggers your thought of going for a run. Now, that's an easy one and that's the one we want. That's the cue we want to build, that's the cue we want to get there. That's the process we want to go to, but often that's not the one right. The cues that we get is hey, it's too a clock, let me have a snack. Or I've told you the story I fly into legwardia or JFK and I don't even have to think anymore. I automatically go pick up a hot dog or piece of pizza, slice of pizza or some Chinese food. It is automatic. Y'all is becoming less automatic, by the way. Okay, I'm working, don't, don't judge me, don't judge me. So those are our cues. So seeing your running shoes go for a run.

Dwain Woode:

So in the context of diabetes, a cue could be the time of day, like I just said, like mid-afternoon, when you typically reach for a sugary snack. Hey, it's three o'clock, hey it's my break, hey it's Whatever, and we just reach for it without even thinking. It's an automatic process. So the cue happens and Then the craving. So the craving is the motivational force behind every habit, y'all. Because if, even if you had the cue, even if you saw the cookie, or even if it was two o'clock, or even if it was hey, I'm flying into New York, if there wasn't the craving, if there wasn't the motivation, we would ignore it. So the motivation, the craving, it's not the habit itself that we crave, but we crave the change in our state that it brings to us. So what does it bring to us? What feeling do we get from it?

Dwain Woode:

Then we talk about the heat model. The heat said that we eat because of habit, emotions, access and taste. So that emotion, those emotions, they fall into several categories. And here they are. We find these emotions again, because they're the things that are going to reinforce what we're gonna do. So we got the craving. You saw the cookie, it's two o'clock in the afternoon, I'm at the airport, we went bowling, we went to the movies, I'm hanging around out with my family. That's the cue, but the craving itself is the motivational force that says okay, now let's act on it. And understanding the cravings this is essential because they're the driving force that push us to respond. They're the things that say, hey, yeah, let's go do this. So we don't crave the habit of Eating a chocolate bar, but we crave the feeling of satisfaction and pleasure that the chocolate bar brings, like I could never. Maybe some, maybe some of you are out there I don't, like I don't eat cookie dough, but there are people who eat cookie dough.

Dwain Woode:

My thing is Ben and Jerry's. I was in here when was it? Probably about a year ago, and I was up late because I'd been woken up. I was sleeping. They called me from the hospital. There was a patient in the ER that they needed to ask me about. So I woke up and I was tired. Okay, so I dealt with it. And now I'm up and I was getting ready to walk back into the bedroom and At that time I did have some Ben and Jerry's ice cream in this in the refrigerator, and my brain says to me man, you're tired. Now it should say I'm tired and I should go to bed. Sure, isn't that what it should have said? But guess what it says you're tired, have some ice cream. I'm not quite sure how those two went together, but they did, and I felt better.

Dwain Woode:

Now here's the thing sometimes we we say, oh, when we eat the stuff it doesn't make us feel better. Yes, it does. That's why we do it, and here we're talking specifically about food. But there are other habits that we have that bring us some Relief, some pleasure, something else that's going on. So there I was, I was tired and the ice cream make me, made me calm, and I was able, I was able, to go to sleep. So we don't crave the, we don't crave the chocolate, but we crave the feeling that we get from the chocolate. So we've got the cue, we've got the craving and then y'all, we have the response.

Dwain Woode:

Now the response is the actual thing that you do. It could be a thought or it could be an action. When we're talking here, we're talking about an action that we do, but the thought can lead to other action. An action could be hey, it's three o'clock. Hey, it's two o'clock. Hey, it's the afternoon, hey, it's whatever, and we go get snacks. Or we could think hey, when this is done, when I'm finished watching this movie, we're gonna go to dinner. So we have a thought, an action.

Dwain Woode:

So the response occurs depending on how motivated you are and how much friction there is associated with the behavior. If it's easy to do, then we naturally do. It's kind of like being on that slide, being on the top of the hill, that boulder that's gonna roll right down. If it's an easy process, then we do it. If it's not easy, we don't do it. It's kind of like having an easy button. If it's easy and there's high motivation Remember the motivation is that craving then you're more likely to do it. So the higher the impact, the more likely it is to happen. And then, finally, all the reward.

Dwain Woode:

The reward Is the end goal of every habit. So we don't just have habits just to have habits. The habits bring something to us. The habits bring a benefit to us, even Habits that we call unhealthy habits. Because you would say to yourself and I've said this is myself all this time I know the result of eating the ice cream like I know I'm my blood sugar is gonna be high. I know my weight is gonna go up. So we know those things. But the reward that we get overpowers the knowledge that we have. So that's what's going on. There is this. There is this feedback loop that we have, this that we've developed, that says the thing that I'm getting immediately from doing this behavior far outweighs the detriment that it causes. So the reward is satisfying. It satisfies our craving because, remember, the cravings are the things that push us, and it teaches us which behaviors we should remember, which are the ones that make us feel good.

Dwain Woode:

Now, initially, initially and this is a whole other Gonna have lots of conversation about this so so when you first let's take somebody who's never eaten chocolate, I don't know where we'd find that person, but we can't Somebody who's never eaten chocolate, like they don't already know that chocolate is gonna make them feel good. So so there's not that connection. Yet they don't know that the ice cream is gonna make them feel good. So the first time they eat the ice cream, then they get that burst of Whatever sweetness and they feel good. Cuz cuz, the ice cream, the chocolate, it releases the sugar, and sugar y'all Makes the body feel good. The body likes it. We get that dopamine burst that comes out right, that reward of eating it. It may even cause our cortisol level to go down a little bit. It calms us, and so the next time something happens, the brain says, hey, you remember that stuff that we had. You remember that donut, you remember that crispy cream, you remember that Duncan donut? I'm from New York, so that's why I say Duncan donut. Down here they have crispy cream donuts. Here's the thing I used to work at Baskin Robbins, y'all, when I was, when I was growing up. Yeah, I used to work at Baskin Robbins, right there on the corner of no string and no string and flat bush. That we call it the junction. There was a right. Now there's a. What is there now? I think there's a target there. But yeah, there used to be a Baskin Robbins Duncan donut, and that's where I work.

Dwain Woode:

Talking about cravings, talking about temptation, right, yeah. So the body says, hey, you remember that stuff that we had, let's go get some more of that. And so we get some more of it. And this time we get the same Burst right with fails. Good, it tastes good, we get that sweetness, we get that burst of dopamine. So the next time something happens here's the ears, the insidious part the body doesn't even wait for you to eat the thing, for you to get the dopamine. It pumps some dopamine out in preparation for you to have it. So even even when you're like I'm not gonna have it, I'm not gonna have that, dopamine comes out and it's flooding your system and the body says, we like how that feels, let's go get it. And we get it and we're hooked because it remembers that's what's going on. When we're talking about habits, the body remembers what was there and it says, hey, let's go get that. And because it feels y'all amazing is like man, it's like it's in 3d. I can't believe what just happened. I could. Could you imagine how that made me feel that taste? Hmm, let's get some more.

Dwain Woode:

So what are some examples? We feel calm after an argument and after we eat cookie dough. Now here's one that I feel a lot. It doesn't have to do with food, but it is a reward, and this is my example to show you that it does not have to be food. We talk about food, we're talking here about diabetes, but you get a sense of accomplishment after completing a task, like when I, when I finish, when I finish here tonight, after I finish talking with you guys, and I get off. I get that buzz. And I've said to you before that if you found me after a show, after I've done a live. You can like plug a light bulb into me and the light bulb will probably glow because that's how much energy I have In anticipation of coming on. I get a dopamine burst because I love this, so yeah. So those are some examples of that reward that we get.

Dwain Woode:

So we go through that loop the cue, the craving, the response reward and after a while, y'all it just becomes automatic and we ask ourselves how did this happen? It becomes more and more automatic because each time we have it, each time we go through the process, the body gets better, we get more, we feel better, and every time something happens. Now here's what happens sometimes. So it started out because we wanted to feel better after that meeting. So that was the initial thing, say, that was the cue two o'clock in the afternoon, it's one o'clock in the afternoon, I'm hanging out with some friends, I'm hanging out with whatever the reason was, and so we formed this loop and after a while the body remembers what it felt like to have that thing. So now the body takes you and it makes you use that same process for other stuff. It started out because you were frustrated, it started out because it was afternoon, it started because it's three o'clock, but now you're tired and the body says hey, I wonder if that stuff we had last time can make us feel better when we're tired. Hey, I'm in pain. Hey, I wonder if that stuff we had last time can make me feel good when, now that I'm in pain, I don't want to talk, I don't want to have that conversation, hey, I don't want to face this particular thing that's happening. I wonder if this stuff will calm me down. You see what just happened Not only do we form a habit because now it's automatic, but we took that habit and we extrapolated it across multiple domains and we ask ourselves how did that happen?

Dwain Woode:

And it happened because of that process Q craving, response, reward. So Q's y'all, what are some Q's right? So Q's are those things that trigger right. By identifying the Q's that trigger our routines and the reward we're looking for, we can start to unravel and rebuild our habits in a way that supports our diabetes management. And just like we had the heat model, I want to give you four things Reasons, reasons, so habits, why those habits form. Number one they form because of time, and you've heard me say it over and over here, even tonight it's, I don't know, 730 AM. I eat because it's breakfast time. It's 10 o'clock, so I eat because it's snack time. It's movie night, so I eat because it's movie night. Now here's the thing. You could have just had dinner, you could have been, you could be full, but if you go from the dinner table and say, hey, tonight's gonna be movie night, you go from the dinner table and you go and you sit on the couch, you turn on the TV and we pop in popcorn. Why? Because it's just what we do. Now, let me, let me let me pause and say this what we're talking about here, this is the process of the triggers. These are the things that happen. These are the habits.

Dwain Woode:

We're not saying whether eating popcorn with movies is bad. That's not what we're saying. But I want you to understand what pushes you, what pushes us in the direction of those things, so that we then get to make the decision. Now I'll tell you my son loves popcorn. As a matter of fact, there's this thing that he makes. So he it's a cinnamon checks with popcorn with brown sugar. He loves that for movies. Now, I'll have a handful. I don't have as much as he does, but so I sit there and I have some. Why? Because my son made it. Now we we talk and say, hey, man, I can't, I'm not going to eat all of that, but I have some.

Dwain Woode:

And this is where sometimes we can become derailed. And you've heard me say, when I was in Jamaica last month, in well, two months ago, you will remember that I was I was doing a fast, I was doing one of my 72 hour fasts, and while we were there we ran into some friends and we went to their house and my friend I was sitting down talking to him and his wife, and well, his wife got up, she made some juice and she handed me a glass and guess what? I was in the middle of a fast. I drank it. So so, in your process, I want you to make sure that your management of your disease is fitting into your life so you're not sitting at the corner eating rice, cakes and celery. There's nothing wrong with those when everybody's sitting at the table enjoying fellowship. Because sometimes that process of sitting it in the table can derail us because it makes us isolated.

Dwain Woode:

You show up at somebody's house hey, I can't eat in your food because I'm fasting. Well, first of all, don't tell anybody you're fasting. You don't have to. You can sit and have a conversation and say, okay, thank you, whatever. Don't make it a thing. Don't make the way you eat a thing. Make sure people you know the people you know are fine with your family. Make sure your family's with you. Right, and that's it. Just just go about your business on a natural, normal basis, right? You don't have to advertise to the world that that's, this is what you're doing. So it's 730. I'm going to eat because it's breakfast. It's late night. I'm going to have a snack, right. So these time based triggers can often lead us to go down that habit process without actually being hungry.

Dwain Woode:

The next thing, thing next read, next treasure trigger for habits is location and context. Our environment is full of cues that can trigger us. At my office, we have the pharmaceutical reps who come in, we have people who come by, patients who bring stuff to the office, right. And if I'm not careful, I walk by the break room and there's a you know, some pie sitting there. You know, maybe they brought some cookies during the holidays. So there's, there are the cues that are there even here in my office. I've had to take, I've had to take the nuts out of here I don't have any. Well, actually there's some right there, but I had to take the cashews and almonds out because if they're sitting here, guess what, y'all, I'm eating it. Yeah, I know you're saying, oh, dr Wood, if you were stronger, if you were like, yeah, you wouldn't eat it. No, I'm going to eat it because it's right here. So I take it away from me and that's going to come in the next lecture we're going to talk about how do we, how do we fix some of this stuff?

Dwain Woode:

The next thing is what was the preceding action? What was the thing that happened before the thing you did? The sequence of events sometimes pushes us in a direction that could be a trigger. And here, once again, there's that emotion part that comes from our heat model A stressful meeting leads you to snack. So if every time you come out of your meeting you're grabbing something to eat or grabbing something to drink, guess what? It's the meeting that's called that, that's preceding it, that's causing the habit, that has caused the habit, because your brain says to you hey, we just left the meeting, we know we're not hungry, but this stuff that we did last time was so good, let's do it again because it's going to help us out.

Dwain Woode:

And then other people, people around you have an amazing ability to affect your behavior. They impact what we do Family, friends, colleagues. I told you, guys, I don't go down to the cafeteria at the hospital anymore, not for lunch. I may stop by, you know, see if anybody's in there later, but I don't. I don't go down at lunchtime because it's a social environment. We're sitting around with my colleagues. You know these guys and gals that you know I kick it with and we eat. So while you're talking, sometimes you're not even mine, you're not even you don't have the president of the mind, because it is a fellowship time and you were just grabbing. And you know, dwayne, try this, let's do this. Other people have an ability to affect us. So how do we break? How do we break? How do we break habits and form new ones? So, breaking old habits and forming new ones, it's not easy. What did I say y'all? It is not easy, but it can be done. It is definitely possible with the right approach.

Dwain Woode:

Whether it's planning your meals, incorporating exercise into your daily routine which we'll be talking about, exercising We've not addressed that yet or improving your medication adherence, small changes can lead to big results. There is a book, the compound effect Dan Hardy, I believe, is who wrote the book, and he talks about how small changes can lead to big results. Often we think that, oh, you know, that bag of chips that I ate, that's not going to mean anything. Oh, that piece of cookie or those nuts that I ate, they're not going to mean anything. But guess what? Y'all they add up and they can cause us lots of issues down the road.

Dwain Woode:

Because, remember, every time we put something in our mouths that have carbs, then our blood sugar spike. When the blood sugar spikes, then the insulin spikes. If our body makes insulin, or if our body's not making enough insulin, then we've got to treat it by taking more insulin from outside to bring the blood sugar down. Or we have medications that we've taken, pills or other non-insulin shots that are producing insulin in our body, and the reason we've got to produce the insulin is because the blood sugar went up, the blood sugar spiked. So these habits that we have of snacking, going to food, then those habits cause the rise in blood sugars, leading to the insulin.

Dwain Woode:

And remember, we are not so much concerned about blood sugar here, we're concerned about the insulin. If we manage the insulin y'all, the blood sugar themselves will take. The blood sugar will take care of itself. Now, for those of you who are new to us, that's a new concept for you, because we've been concentrating. All you've been told is concentrating on sugar. Now, sugar is important. The blood sugar is important, so don't get me wrong, because it is the blood sugar that causes the damage. But the incident, or the thing that's causing the resulting blood sugar to be high, is the fact that the insulin is not functioning properly, and the insulin is not functioning properly for lots of different reasons. So, breaking the habit. We want to make sure that we're putting some things in place to begin breaking that. And so these are the triggers, right One, two, three, four that we just went through. So time, how do we fix that one? How do we fix that one?

Dwain Woode:

We monitor our daily routines and we note the times when we are engaging in certain behaviors. In this case, we're talking about food and ask ourselves am I doing this because I need to or because it's just the time? Am I doing this because I have to, because I need to, or is it just time? So the first thing we've got to do is you've got to be aware, right? Okay, these are the groups of things that cause the habit. My time, right, the location, and we'll go through the other two others in a minute. But what's going on, this thing that I'm doing? And notice, I'm not telling you to stop doing it.

Dwain Woode:

So in my office, and sometimes my patients or people that I'm talking to, they'll look at me kind of inquisitively because I'll say to them I'm not telling you to stop eating cookies, I'm not telling you to stop eating ice cream. And they're like what do you mean? I said, what I'm asking you is to find out why you ate the ice cream. Because it's because the ice cream did what it's supposed to do. Right, what do you think the purpose of ice cream is? The purpose of ice cream is to taste good. Purpose of ice cream is to raise your blood sugar. That is the. That's what it was designed to do. So the ice cream did its job. The question is why did you eat the ice cream?

Dwain Woode:

So often we try to take food away from people without finding out why they went to the food. Because if we figure out why they went to the food and we fix that problem, guess what? We wouldn't have to worry about ice cream or cookies or cake or candy or donuts, right? Am I doing this because I need to or because it's just that time of day? Right? Remember time is one of the things that push us to eat. Number two location the environment that we're in. I told you that I had to change my environment.

Dwain Woode:

My wife is a big helper in this. Sometimes I get annoyed I have to say it because you know we'll have people over. You know we'll have, I mean, cake or juice or whatever it is, and if I go out to the store I come back and it's all gone, y'all Right, it's like this the secret police came in and they package it all up and they took it away. Like she'll send all the stuff with people. Like I'll go drop somebody home who you know who may not have had a ride, and I'll come back and all the juice is gone. I'm like you couldn't have at least saved me, like one. But you know what she knows, she knows me, and so that's her way to help me. Honey, thank you, even though sometimes I'm not always happy. So what are those things that?

Dwain Woode:

So we want to minimize the cues in our environment during fasting. One of the things that I don't do. I try not to do. I did it last week actually. I think it didn't do me well, so I was fasting. I was probably two days, 48 hours in, and I didn't bring, because I told you I use unsweetened tea, so I didn't bring any to the office. And so I went down to the cafeteria to get some at lunchtime Not the physician lounge, because I think I don't go there but I went to the main cafeteria in the hospital and I walked down there and as I got off the elevator and started heading towards the cafeteria, guess what hit me? That's right, the smells right, those cues, all right. And then, so that's, that's, that's so.

Dwain Woode:

Clean your area. So, number one figure out why you did it. Is it just time? And we need to change? Change that process. We need to break that process. Number two is it the area Right? Clean our area. Number three what was the thing that happened right prior to this particular habit, this particular thing that I do? Trace it back from the unhealthy thing you did and find the proceeding action and then, once you do that, you want to create a new, healthier chain. Right? So when you come out of the meeting. Don't go in the direction of the vending machine. Sometimes we plan is like, okay, I'm going to keep these Skittles in my desk so I can have some after the meeting. Well, you've just planned to reinforce that habit. Make a different plan.

Dwain Woode:

Don't just fall off the slide and then people evaluate the people that are around you. Evaluate the people that are around you. Do you find yourself, every time you're with these particular folks, that you eat? Every time you're with this group? You do this right, whatever the habit. Right here we're talking about food and diabetes, but this can be applied to everything.

Dwain Woode:

And what you want to do is you want to start joining communities. Hey, shameless plug. You want to join communities where the people that are in the community are doing the things that you want to do. Now, you may not be able to change what's going on at home or the people that are in your immediate circle. Create a bigger circle so that the things you do are now normalized.

Dwain Woode:

How many of you have done something that you really weren't like gung ho about doing, but you did it because the group that you were in were with did it? Now, I'm not talking about crazy bad stuff, right. I'm talking about it, right, but even that, right, you did it because you were in the group. That's the power of community y'all. So surround yourself with people that are doing the things that you want to do, and if you do that, then you can manage the habits, manage the triggers, manage the things that are going on. So that's the plan, that's how we overcome, that's how we beat the trigger, that's how we get through, that's how we modify, that's how we get habits to help us reverse our diabetes. Because the things that we do, every little bit counts. And as we go through the process of what causes a habit, we got to hit these things the cues, the cravings, the responses and the rewards. And we've got to begin dealing with the triggers, those things that make those habits automatic, things we do because of time, because of location, our content, context, what preceded bringing us into this situation, this habit that we're in, and then the people that we are around.

Dwain Woode:

All right, let's see who's. We got some folks out there and let's hop over and let's see if we got some questions, got some comments. I saw a lot of folks come in. I heard those. Let's see, let's see Jeff. We said hi, cheri from New York.

Dwain Woode:

Yes, teresa, I guess you were laughing at my story. Was that the story about the Ben and Jerry's? I'm assuming? And hey, key, key's here. Key Washington said we are a work in progress. Yes, we are, yes. Key says yes, I live an hour from Vermont and in the 90s and got hooked on Ben and Jerry. Really, key, yes, yes, yes, isn't this something else? Okay, okay, see, I'm starting to salivate.

Dwain Woode:

Jennifer says our neighbor has a dairy. They sell their own products. I buy buttercream, plain yogurt, sometimes the ice cream too. They had a hot chocolate flavor for Christmas, hot cocoa flavor for Christmas. I sent my husband most times. Now, see, yeah, yeah, yeah, I sometimes don't go right, okay, teresa, said Jennifer talking about access. That's right, she has it right next door to her, right? Teresa said you are so real and we appreciate that.

Dwain Woode:

Teresa, it is interesting that I was sharing with someone just recently and I think we have said it even here that one of the best things that I ever did was to begin, was getting comfortable enough to begin sharing my story. You know why? Because when I don't share my, when I didn't share my story, it was so easy, right, and then you guys made it identify. It's so easy to hide, yep, but what community does, right, what community does is community not only supports you when things are rough, but community calls you to go to be better. So my my guys, who I went, went away with you know, we're sitting around talking and I was sharing some stuff with them and so. So what you would also need is community that will be real with you. So I was sharing something with them and I was, you know, I was, I was expecting them to like, come down on my side, ba-ba-ba-ba, and they're like no man, look, listen, you know, right, and I was like, wait a minute, that's not really what I want to hear, right? Sometimes you have that, those people, and that happens when people are real, when people are, when people feel comfortable enough To say, hey, this is what's going on and that's why I love where we are. I love this community that we're building, because we get to say to each other, hey, look, this is where we are, this is where we're heading, and to say this is where I'm failing or this is where I'm not doing so well, and so I love that. So thank you for that, teresa, appreciate that, all right?

Dwain Woode:

Well, let's take a look at some numbers, right? So I've been, I've been talking the whole time. Where, where? Before I do that, let me ask you guys some questions, right? Questions number one Are there some Places here that you saw yourself, right? What triggers you? What triggers you in your habits? Is it time, is it location or context? Is it your environment, right? Is it Some event that happens, some some routine thing that happens? Or is it the fact that you are around people who may not be at your place yet, right? Some people? People move at different paces, right? So, phase one two, three or four when do you think you are? You know, drop it in, drop it in the chat, right, drop it in the comments. One, two, three or four, all right.

Dwain Woode:

So, as we do that, let's hop over because I want to take a look at my blood sugars. If you guys remember, we ended our fast back on Friday, friday evening, and here is what my Libre is saying my blood sugar is right now let's fix this right here 96. My Dexcom is saying that my blood sugar is 117, and remember, there's that difference between the two, and it seems like the desk Dexcom tends to be about 15 points or more above the Libre right, which is why I have these two meters that we're going to use here in just a minute to show what our blood sugars are. Right, theresa says hiding is easy. I saw myself in Timing and certain events. Yeah, yep, I mean, change this so we get your comment there really quickly. Yeah, yeah, so we have to identify where we, what are the things that we personally Need to work on.

Dwain Woode:

All right, so let's take a look at some of these numbers. Let's see this grab, and I've, like I told you guys, I, you, I have a Contour meter and I have a contour meter because this is the one that we currently use in the office. We've used things like one touch vario in the past, but this is where we are. And then this guy says 107. So, right now, the contour right is the higher. Well, it's between what was the Dexcom? Yes, the Dexcom is 119, so the contour is actually between the two right.

Dwain Woode:

Right, so that's that, and let's go ahead and let's see what my ketones are. Remember, we ended the fast back on Friday, I think. I checked it this morning and it was point five, so I'm gonna see what it is now. All right, point four. So let's talk a little bit about ketones again.

Dwain Woode:

Maybe ketones are the things that we want to happen. Ketones are the things that we want Because it's that, that point that our body switches from burning Carbohydrates and it starts burning ketones. Well, obviously, all right. So ketones if your ketones are point less than point five, that means you're not in ketosis, which is which I am not right now. Point five to about one. Point five is therapeutic, nutritional ketosis and above that is Therapeutic ketosis. So during my fasts, I am usually between Well, higher than point five. Definitely that first day, maybe I'm point five to one, point two, and then, as we get into day two and day three, then we get higher. It is at 24 hours where the body stops burning Glycogen and starts burning fat. So right now, our goal, if you remember, is 24 hours once a week of Fasting, and we'll come back. We'll talk about that here in just a minute.

Dwain Woode:

All right, if you are out there, go ahead. If you have questions, pop those in. This is a great place for us to do our thought of the day. But I see, let's see. Teresa says Okay, so that's the one that she said earlier. I see myself in Timing in certain events. Yeah, so if you're, if you're there, go ahead and drop that in the comments, because we'd love to know when you see yourself. And if you are fasting, or if you've been fasting, drop in the comments how far you've been able to go. Right, have you been able to do the 24 hours? Are you at 18 hours? Are you at some other, some other number, because we'd love to hear and see when you are and to celebrate you, by the way. Right, so we want to celebrate. Celebrate where you have been. All right, all right, everybody. Wow, ah, and we've made it to the end of another show. Let's see. Jennifer says Actually, jennifer, let's do it this way.

Dwain Woode:

Jennifer says started fasting last November, had done several 24 hour fast, 248 hour fast last week, completed 72 hour fast with you. She said that she felt fine Let me go back to her note until she started refeeding. Then, whoo, that was difficult. So, jennifer, what? What aspect of refeeding did you find difficult? Was there something? Did you start out slow?

Dwain Woode:

As a matter of fact, why don't you pop in the in the chat and let us know what it was that you ate when you first, when you broke your fast? All right, what did you eat. When you broke your fast, she said. She said I broke my fast in the eating evening. I ate late protein snack.

Dwain Woode:

The next morning I was hungry, very hungry, ah, okay, so, so, okay, so I think let me let me address a couple of things there, jennifer, and so for everyone, and, and when we're breaking the fast, as Jennifer has seen us do, we want to start slow, okay, one of the things that I propose is that we start fasting in the evening, right that, so that you are sleeping for a big part, particularly if you're doing is just the 24 hour, so that you are sleeping for a big part of the fast. Okay, so, if you start in the morning, then you've got a whole, you know, you got the whole day ahead of you, and then another 12 hours, and so forth. If you start in the evening, by the time you wake up in the morning, then you have already gone eight hours or nine hours Into the fast, which is a great thing. One of the drawbacks of ending the fast in the evening, however, is that we don't want to Eat a lot at night, right, so we tend not to do that. However, if you're coming off of a fast particular 72 hour fast and we break the fast at night and we don't eat that Food that we ate, even though, for instance, jennifer, you ate protein. That protein still stimulates some insulin Right, and the protein gets your body moving. So the body says, hey, there's some food in there, and it now comes back to try to begin digesting that food. And the spike in insulin makes us hungry. And if we don't add, if we don't put enough food in there, then by the time you go to sleep and wake up the next morning you're gonna be famished, okay. So that's one thing to be careful of. And I Think I ended there. Was it six o'clock? I ended my fast? Yeah, yeah, so it's six. So I. So I I have gone now to into starting the fast at six and ending the fast around six o'clock. That way I still have.

Dwain Woode:

Traditionally, when I do my regular non fasting days, I try not to eat after six, eight o'clock. On fasting days on, when I'm breaking the fast, I do eat after that because I want to get enough in. So I break the fast with like bone broth and you guys may have seen me break it with nuts and beans and Then I wait about an hour, hour and a half, and then I have another meal that has more stuff, and then I go to sleep. Right, I don't eat another one, but enough food. So that, because now the body wants food, because you've given it some, and it can make you very famished, jennifer. But but, jennifer, I'm so excited, I'm, I'm elated that you Did, we're able to fast with us and you completed the 72 hour fast, so I love that.

Dwain Woode:

For those of you who are have not done a 72 hour fast, I'm gonna give you some information here in a minute about what we want you to do and where we are. So Last time we were here, I told you we were, I was going to Do a zoom, and that zoom let me get in here, and so this is a zoom meeting where you can sign up, sign in, we can actually talk to each other and, like I said, seven o'clock on next Thursday, the 14th, we're gonna go, we're gonna have the, the, we'll have the zoom, we can come in, you guys will talk, we're gonna broadcast Me on the on the channel, but you'll be able to talk to me in the zoom, okay, and then we'll go from there. All right, so to my asks, right? So these is what we do every, every week. When we come on, the first ask is for you to go ahead and join us in the challenges, Right?

Dwain Woode:

So we've asked that you work your way up to fasting for one 24-hour period once a week. Remember, we're decreasing the amount of insulin in our body and that has Ramifications for so many, so many different things. Remember, it's not just For those of you out there in diabetes. We're putting your diabetes in remission, we are reversing diabetes, but also it helps to solve lots of other issues. And number one fasting for 24 hours once a week, wherever you find yourself right now, go ahead and start where you are. So if you have not done 24 hours, that's okay, let's work on. If you're at eight, go to ten. If you're at ten, go to twelve. If you're twelve, go to fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, twenty-two and then twenty-four, right? So once a week, that's what we're moving. We're looking for Progress, not perfection.

Dwain Woode:

Number two come back, join the community, right? The community is better, the community is enhanced, the community grows. When you're here, right, we get to in, we get to encourage each other. Well, when comes to encourage in a minute, we get to encourage each other, we get to build each other, we get to see where each other are and we get to learn together. And then, finally, there are so many people out there that you know people that have diabetes and you can help them by sharing this link. Invite them here, let them know what we're doing here on the channel. I love coming on. I'm so excited to be here with you. This is dr Dwayne wood. That's wood with an e the e stands for endocrinology. Here on the channel, I educate, I empower and I encourage you to take charge of your health, take charge of your life, avoid Complications and go to the next level, creating the life you always wanted. And for this year y'all new year, new year you.

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