Do You Know with Dr. Dwain Woode

Purpose-Driven Health: How Your Career Shapes Your Metabolism

• Dwain Woode

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Your occupation doesn't just fund your lifestyle—it fundamentally shapes your metabolic health. For the 90,000 hours we spend working during our lifetime, our body's chemistry responds directly to our sense of purpose and alignment. When we drag ourselves to jobs that drain rather than fulfill us, our stress hormones surge, blood sugars spike, and insulin resistance takes root.

While many of us diligently count carbs and monitor glucose levels, we often overlook how powerfully our job satisfaction (or lack thereof) drives our metabolic outcomes. The science is clear: chronic workplace stress triggers a cascade of hormonal disruptions that directly undermine diabetes management. Cortisol—our primary stress hormone—doesn't just make us feel anxious; it actively raises blood sugar, promotes visceral fat accumulation, and sabotages insulin sensitivity.

The transformational framework of rhythm, alignment, and structure offers a revolutionary approach to occupational health. Your rhythm represents your North Star—your core purpose that guides all decisions. Alignment ensures your daily work activities reflect this deeper purpose, while structure creates systems that automate healthy behaviors when motivation inevitably wanes. This framework doesn't necessarily require changing careers; often, job crafting—intentionally reshaping aspects of your current role to better match your strengths and values—can dramatically reduce metabolic stress.

Many listeners may find themselves in transitional jobs or retirement, wondering how this applies to them. The critical question remains: are your current activities aligned with your stated purpose and health goals? Whether employed, between jobs, or retired, alignment between your actions and deeper values directly impacts hormonal balance and metabolic function. Nothing happens to us without our involvement, and we always retain the power to make choices that support rather than undermine our health.

Take the challenge to evaluate your occupational health today. Identify one small shift that enhances purpose in your daily activities and watch how your body responds with improved blood sugars, decreased inflammation, and renewed energy. Your health isn't a luxury—it's your most important job, and you have the power to create alignment that fuels rather than drains your metabolic wellness.

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Speaker 1:

What if your job isn't just about paying the bills? What if the work that you do each day directly impacts your blood sugar, your metabolism, your sleep and even your ability to reverse your diabetes? Tonight, we're diving into the world of occupational health. We're exploring how alignment between your job and your true purpose can be the hidden key to unlocking metabolic health and reversing diabetes. If you've ever felt stressed, if you've ever felt stuck, if you've ever felt burned out or just unsure about your career, about what you're currently doing, and is it really affecting your health, then this episode is for you. Get ready, because tonight we're exploring purpose-driven health, how your work affects your metabolism. If you're new to me, I'm Dr Dwayne Wood. That's Wood with an E the E stands for endocrinology.

Speaker 1:

Here on the channel, I educate, I empower and I encourage you to take charge of your 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. One of the things that we're talking about in our, one of the concepts that we're using in our walk that we're doing, is this idea of, is this idea of keystone principles, and keystone principles are those things that are fundamental to all that we do, and this conversation is a very fundamental conversation, as you'll see, we'll kind of tie it into some other things. So, yeah, so fundamental to what we're doing, fundamental to the conversations that we are having, and that's why the domains of health are very important to us and we've been spending some time kind of walking through this mini series as we've been doing here. So, thank you for that, cornelia, and let's see.

Speaker 1:

So Steve is in the house, y'all. Let's go back and let's say hello. Um, so, theresa saying hi, pam steve. Jennifer steve is saying hello to everybody. Hi, steve from pam cornelia. Hey, steve. Uh, sherry demper, yeah, good evening from brooklyn, new york, in the house, y'all. Oh good, hand clap and some music for you.

Speaker 1:

Sh, sherry, that's my old stomping ground, that's my place right there. Brooklyn. I went to Brooklyn Tech. I went to Andrews Huddy, 256, 269. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all up Empire Boulevard and New York Avenue, spent a lot of time on Nostrand, going up and down at the Junction, kings Plaza, downtown Brooklyn. That's my place. Park Slope, brooklyn, academy of Music. Spent a lot of time in that area with friends. So, hey, sherry, and I used to work at the Dime Savings Bank. I don't know if I've said that to anybody before, but, yeah, that was one of my very first jobs, right next door to cheesecake, right next door to Junior's Cheesecake, okay.

Speaker 1:

So anyway, pamela saying hi to Sherry and Cornelio saying hi, sherry. Jennifer Nebraska is saying hey, howdy, steve and Sherry. Sherry said thank you for the hand clap, all right, all rightry said thank you for the hand clap, all right, all right. She said I'm close to boys and girls. I know where that is. Yeah, yeah, boys and girls. So we went to let's see if I think about my family. We went to Brooklyn Tech, boys and Girls, sheepshead Bay, erasmus. This is not a high school, but I have some people who went to Lefferts, no, people who went to Clara Barton, westinghouse, grady, anyway, and I can go on and on and on and on. Alright. So Teresa is saying hi, steve and Cherry, so, alright. So now we've looked at the numbers, we see where we are and everybody.

Speaker 1:

Once again, I want you to understand that what we are doing, the benefits that you're seeing, the things that you're having, that are happening in your life, are simply side effects of the process that we're on, the journey that we've been on. Limitless living is not a destination per se, but it is a framework that we're using to improve our dysfunctional metabolism, and so dysfunctional metabolism is the underlying problem that leads to all of the downstream difficulties that we talk about. When we talk about metabolic disease, we talk about high blood pressure, about metabolic disease. We talk about high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, prediabetes, fatty liver, polycystic ovarian syndrome. All of those are built on dysfunctional metabolism and the culprit that underlines all of that is hyperinsulinemia, as we've kind of gone through before. So if you've not done so, make sure you go back and look at our discussion on what disrupts metabolism when we did in the beginning of this series. And so now what we've been doing, based on our Limitless Living Inventory that we designed and we talked about and we implemented, we are looking at the domains of health and we've been walking through those on this mini series that we're currently doing, and we are now talking about our occupational health, how our work and alignment or misalignment in our work can affect the things that we do and how this works right. So let's hop in, let's talk.

Speaker 1:

So most of us, as we work, we spend about a third of our lives working, that's nearly 90,000 hours. And guess what? Those hours can profoundly shape our metabolism, our blood sugar and our ability, as we've been working on, to reverse our diabetes. Time, stress and even job satisfaction can secretly drive your hormones, drive your eating habits, drive your sleep quality and overall, your diabetes management. Yeah, so have you ever felt drained at the end of the day? And I'm not talking about drained as in man, this is just exciting stuff and I'm just spending all my time there. I'm talking about drained where you are just really trying to get through the day because what you're doing doesn't seem to be providing satisfaction. You seem stuck, you seem as though you're kind of going through the motions, kind of like that hamster on the wheel, and so it's not just emotional but it's also physical. And that's not just exhaustion, that's the metabolism reacting to stress, stress from career misalignment, stress from time pressures and all the things that come along with not being aligned in our purpose with the thing that we're doing. So when your job doesn't align with your sense of purpose, it's not simply frustrating, it's physically disruptive.

Speaker 1:

So we talk about those three words. You've heard me say them over and over and over again. I'm saying them again. Right. We're dissatisfied and we are not able to really decrease the friction that goes on in our lives. That causes dissatisfaction, and so chronic dissatisfaction triggers your body's stress response. It floods your system with cortisol, and cortisol isn't just a stress hormone. It directly raises blood sugar, it encourages insulin resistance and it promotes fat storage around your midsection.

Speaker 1:

Often we have people who are put on steroids for whatever reason. They have COPD, they may have bronchitis, they may have some other things going on, and so what happens is they get what's called a cushingoid features, they get fat pad behind their neck, their jaws become big, they have thinning extremities and they have mid-abdominal obesity. It's almost like looking at a Pillsbury Doughboy, the amount of weight that they put on, particularly in the midsection. And we've already said that the visceral fat, not just the abdominal fat, the fat that accumulates on the inside, is disruptive to our metabolism. And so when that happens, then we run into the problem that we see when we talk about our dysfunctional metabolism. And so as we move through that space, let's go ahead and let's do a quick recap of where we've been.

Speaker 1:

So we are in the process of discussing the domains of our health, and we have talked about the limitless living inventory which allows us to look at all these aspects of our life, which we're calling domains, and see are there places where we need to become more aligned? The domains represent the wheel that is taking us through our lives and you'll see that called lots of different things If you Google on the internet, if you read books. They talk about the wheel of life, right. So these are the domains of health, these are the different things that we are looking at and these are the things really that are kind of taking us through life. And when that wheel is symmetrical, when the things are working, when they are doing the things that they're supposed to do, when there is alignment, then that wheel is smooth and we're going through our lives in a smooth fashion, then that wheel is smooth and we're going through our lives in a smooth fashion.

Speaker 1:

But if there is a part of that wheel that is broken, damaged, bent, then what happens is, as we're trying to get through life, then we have kind of this disordered, dysfunctional, rocky transit through our days, through our weeks, through our months and ultimately, through the course of our lives. So if we're going to be successful, if we want to make sure that we are doing what we need to do and make sure that we are putting things in order. We want to look at that wheel and make sure the wheel is well symmetrical, and so we've been walking through, now, the domains of health. We've been walking through each of those and we are tonight talking about our work and our occupational health, and that's why this is coming up in our discussion. So here's the science, here's the science behind the domains.

Speaker 1:

The science says that when people are dissatisfied with their jobs, when they're consistently having disordered thoughts, they show up just because, oh, I got to. When there's not fulfillment there, then they have higher cortisol level. The cortisol level drives higher blood sugars Because, remember, cortisol is the stress hormone that actually gets the energy in the form of sugar. So there are two main stress hormones it's epinephrine and cortisol. And epinephrine prepares the body for stress or prefers the body to function and to respond to stress. You see a tiger and you need to run. The muscles are all geared because the brain has sent the signal to the muscles to move and cortisol now goes out and finds the energy and dumps that energy into the muscles. So move and cortisol now goes out and finds the energy and dumps that energy into the muscles so you can run. So there's the yin and yang. But cortisol is that stress hormone that goes out and finds energy. So whenever you are chronically stressed then you have higher cortisol levels. Higher cortisol levels translates into higher blood sugars.

Speaker 1:

Higher blood sugars require insulin to come out to regulate those blood sugars, because, after all, we don't want blood sugars. We said earlier that a normal blood sugar is anywhere between 100, sorry, 70 to 99. Normal blood sugar is 70 to 99. And we've told our patients that they can have blood sugars between 100 and 120 for security or safety reasons. So that insulin that comes out is going to help to regulate the blood sugar so that it doesn't remain high. And once that insulin is elevated and I want you to get this point because this is a very important point Once the insulin is elevated, that insulin now causes the downstream issues that we see in metabolism.

Speaker 1:

Insulin is not bad because insulin does the job that it's supposed to do in the body, but chronically elevated insulin above normal is where the problem comes in. So when we talk about managing diabetes, often I give the analogy that your blood sugars are elevated up here and your body's ability to manage. It is here, and our goal is remember, one of the pillars of reversing diabetes our goal is to reduce sugar to the point where the body's ability to manage it matches what the glucose level is. If that happens, medications go away. And so here in this instance, having chronic stress that comes from job dissatisfaction causes cortisol. Cortisol causes high blood sugar. High blood sugar requires insulin to come out. We have higher A1Cs, insulin resistance goes up and, of course, the long-term misalignment elevates cortisol chronically and that contributes to metabolic syndrome, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease All of those things along the metabolic spectrum.

Speaker 1:

And then there's time stress, the feeling that you're always running out of time at work, which happens for people who are not aligned with what they're doing. So this persistent sense of urgency activates your fight or flight system, driving insulin resistance and further disrupting hunger hormones. Right, because when we're stressed we also find ourselves eating. Cortisol disrupts ghrelin and leptin, which are the hunger and satiety hormones, and you feel hungry more and more. You feel less satisfied. When you eat, your blood sugars are elevated and insulin comes out that drives cravings. You eat, your blood sugars are elevated and insulin comes out that drives cravings, and the cycle just continues, going on and on and on and that becomes tough to break.

Speaker 1:

The bottom line is that if you are unhappy at work, your metabolism feels it and the metabolism responds with all the things that we talk about. So sometimes people will say, man, I'm just hungry all the time, I'm fatigued all the time I'm putting on all this weight, I just am not comfortable in my body Restless, irritable and discontent. Restless, irritable and discontent. And so if we are not aligned, if we're not satisfied, then that causes those downstream issues for us. So job satisfaction, motivation and metabolic health On the flip side, when we are satisfied, it's like medicine for your metabolism, right? You've heard us talk about food as medicine. How about this Job satisfaction as medicine?

Speaker 1:

When your work aligns with your purpose and with your values, your brain releases feel-good hormones like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and we've talked about oxytocin as that bonding hormone. Dopamine and serotonin are those feel-good hormones and dopamine really is that anticipatory hormone. It's like you are so excited about work and the things you're doing and the fulfillment that you get is you get a burst of dopamine simply by thinking about going to work. Wow, when I have my huddle we do a huddle at my job and I sit around or stand around with my team, I tell them that I want you, in your personal life, to be like in nirvana. I want you to be so excited about your life at home and outside of the job that when you come to work, I simply, at the job, I get the overflow of all the stuff that's happening in your life. Because if I get that overflow, man, that is like the bomb. And so I want my folks to enjoy what they do.

Speaker 1:

We have some folks that we've told before hey, we love that you're here, but is this where you need to be? And not that they were doing poorly, but we knew that there were other things that they wanted to do in their lives. So go do that. We're excited that you're here. Come out. They not only improve your mood, but they directly enhance insulin sensitivity, metabolic function and your body's ability to regulate sugars. Imagine, imagine this you wake up energized, looking forward to the day ahead because you find fulfillment in your work. You're naturally more motivated to care about yourself. You eat better, you show up better, you carry yourselves better, you move better. You're able to stick consistently to your diabetes management plan, to your health plan. We're doing a 100-day walk to consistency and health in the morning. You're more able to do that when you are satisfied.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm going to make a plug here. Right, because I said that we're talking specifically here about occupational health. But when we look at those domains, when we talk about the limitless living inventory, we draw them and we talk about them in isolation, as though there's this little compartment over here, over there and over there. But the truth is that they all interact, they cross into each other. Your personal relationship crosses into your occupational health. Your social health crosses into your physical health. Your physical health crosses into your emotional health and they all are intertwined health and they all are intertwined.

Speaker 1:

When I transition to work that fully aligned with my values and purpose, like what I'm doing here, and I've said to you guys, when I get off air, when I leave this space, when I hit the button, the show turns off. You can take a plug and plug it into me and it would light. Why? Because this is my alignment, what I do, love doing it, and so if I can regulate all of my domains, can you imagine what that's like? So career satisfaction isn't a luxury Because we say oh yeah, this is what I'm doing. It is what it is, it's not a luxury. Oh yeah, this is what I'm doing. It is what it is. It's not a luxury. It is an essential part of your metabolic health.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk a little bit about burnout and diabetes management. So let's move into specifically blood sugars, because burnout isn't just about feeling tired, it's a metabolic crisis. Burnout means emotional exhaustion, a sense of detachment from your work and feeling ineffective. You're doing the things you're going and I just feel like it's I don't know. From a metabolic standpoint, burnout consistently elevates cortisol level, it weakens insulin sensitivity, it raises inflammation and can even trigger autoimmune responses. And can even trigger autoimmune responses when you feel chronic stress. Then we have the inflammation, we have the abdominal obesity, we have the cortisol level, and we've said that those things themselves decrease your immune system.

Speaker 1:

You get sicker, you get more sicker. Often it's like why am I always sick? Why am I always catching a cold? Why am I having all these other things happening? It is because there's misalignment. So burnout shows up for lots of people in different ways. But here's some ideas. You skip your glucose checks or you skip taking your insulin because you're overwhelmed. I can't think of just another. If another person says anything to me about blood sugar, I'm just going to lose it. If I have to think one more time about the things that I'm eating, If I have to look at my menu, if I've got to go look at my carbs, if I've got to talk, if another person tells me that I need to exercise, I'm just going to have it.

Speaker 1:

You start eating emotionally because you're unable, you don't have the capacity in your personal space, in your social space, in your relational space, in your mental space those are all the domains, by the way. You don't have capacity anymore to handle those things because you're putting all of your energy into just getting through the day at the job, and so your brain doesn't want to make any more decisions. We've talked about exhaustion and decision fatigue, and so the natural thing to do is to take the easiest route. So if I see it and I see it, and I think it's going to help me be comforted I don't have to make a decision. I'm going to have it. So you're driving down the highway and you see the sign that says whatever the sign says, and okay, there goes the car and you show up at your house with 18 Cadbury chocolate bars. I'm not sure who that happened to, but I'm just saying Right, you start eating emotionally Comfort foods that have high sugar, high fat. Right, they're not nutrient dense, they're very calorie dense. Exercise feels like it's impossible because you're drained, you're, I can't move another muscle.

Speaker 1:

In other words, burnout severely undermines your ability to manage diabetes effectively and that leads directly to poor glucose control and increased diabetes-related complications. So can you recognize some of these Red flags? These are red flags. You feel chronically fatigued and detached at work. Mm-hmm. Yeah, how about that? Your diabetes care habits slip because you're too exhausted. I can't think about it anymore. I can't check my blood sugar, I don't even want to put on a monitor, I just want to eat and go to sleep. I'm not taking any insulin, I'm not taking any medication. I can't do anything else. You notice worsening blood sugars, despite your best intentions. You're doing all the things that you've been told. You've cut back on the food, but something just doesn't seem right and most people will double down on the food. I'm decreasing my food when it's not a food issue, it's the fact that you are chronically stressed. So the bottom line there is that burnout at work isn't just emotional. It directly interferes with your diabetes care? Yep, yep, it does.

Speaker 1:

So what are some practical steps for aligning your work and your health? Some practical steps. So what can you do? How does that work? Is it possible to manage it? So, get a pencil, get a pen, let's write it down. Here we go.

Speaker 1:

Number one you want to evaluate your career alignment. Ask yourself does my current job align with my core values and purpose, the things that I'm doing? Does it really align with what I'm doing? Do I feel fulfilled by the tasks that I'm performing? And hold on a second Does it align? Do I feel like I'm fulfilled in the task I'm doing, the things I'm doing on a daily basis? Now let me pause and let me drop this in here.

Speaker 1:

There are times when we are going to have to do some things that do not directly align with what we say we want, and when we say directly align, I guess. Let me change that, because that's not really true, because if you are doing a job right now, that is not going to be the ultimate job that you do and you are simply doing that because you have got to make money to be able to do the things you want to do, then guess what that job aligns with what you're going to do. But often we do one of two things. We are in a job that is really not the position that we want because of whatever the reason, we are going through a transition in our lives. We need finances.

Speaker 1:

Right now We've taken on a second job to help out, whatever it is, because that time is helping us to move and to pivot and to go in a different direction. And that's temporary and we demonize that position. We say, oh man, this is no, it is part of the process, it is part of the journey, it is part of alignment, because it is helping you go to the place you want to go. So that's one Either we are there and it's a transitional space, but we demonize it and we don't appreciate it, or two, we stay in the transition space too long. Ah, ah, ah, you're not supposed to be there. Until now, it was supposed to be a stepping stone, it was supposed to be a jumping off point, but you stayed there too long and now it feels like it's the wrong place. And now it is the wrong place because you shouldn't be there. It was a temporary place, it was a temporary spot.

Speaker 1:

So the other question is. Does this role positively or negatively impact or affect my diabetes care, my metabolism, the things that I'm doing? And if that's the case, we got to work on moving. Limitless living says that we're not staying here, we're not allowing anything to prevent us from doing what we need to do for our health. Okay, that's number one. Allowing anything to prevent us from doing what we need to do for our health? Okay, that's number one. Number one we want to evaluate our career alignment. Number two what we want to do is we want to set firm boundaries at work. So, commit to protecting your time, protecting your mindset.

Speaker 1:

Be mindful in what you do. If you have breaks, use the breaks for a break. Be mindful when you're eating at lunch. Be mindful when you're eating at work. Be mindful when you walk by somebody's desk and you grab the candy or grab the cookie or whatever it is. Why are you doing that? What's the boundary Schedule? Short breaks, if you can, specifically for breathing, for exercises, to reduce your cortisol level. One of the things that I tell people in the office is take some time twice a day, and it doesn't have to be long. Five minutes here, five minutes there, and the goal for that five minutes is simply to woosah. So you're setting those boundaries at work. Create a clear shut down routine at the end of the day, end of your work, to protect your evening for restorative activities like exercise, meal prep, relaxation, hanging out with the family.

Speaker 1:

I and I have to be honest, the last couple weeks I've not been doing this. When I'm coming home, there is a spot on the highway where I say, okay, this is my place, that I'm leaving, work here and I'm now moving into what my evening is going to be, and that's the rocket. As I'm coming on. For those of you who are here in Huntsville, when I pass the rocket, that's my place where I say, okay, right now I'm changing, I'm changing my thought process. I'm changing my thought process from being whatever I'm doing that day and I'm now thinking, okay, it's nighttime and what do I need to do as I get into this part of my day? Yeah, and then manage your work-related metabolic stress.

Speaker 1:

Try intentionally doing micro breaks and that's what I was just talking about Every hour, every half hour, whatever it is, whatever you are allowed to do at your job, stretch, breathe. Sometimes I'll leave the patient clinical area and I'll just walk back to my wife's office and sometimes I walk in and she's doing something and she says, hey, what do you need? I don't need anything, I just needed to get away for a moment and I walk, and I walk back. Now there are times when I get back there and one of my team has to come get me. It is what it is right. So tell the truth, shame the devil, but I needed a moment. So, even small breaks dramatically reduce your cortisol level and stabilize blood sugars, and then identify tasks that consistently drain you and brainstorm how to delete, delegate, automate, restructure, whatever it is.

Speaker 1:

One of the key things that I tell students who are rotating with me is find people around you that do things better than you do. You to do things better than you do. If you're the smartest person in the room, then there's a problem. You need a different room. That's the first. We're actually coming to that next week as we get to our next domain. But here's the idea.

Speaker 1:

Here I think I'm pretty smart. Actually, I think I'm a brilliant person. I'm a bit biased, and you probably think you're a brilliant person too, but I know that there are people that are in my office that do some stuff way better than I do, and so I may come up with the idea, but I'll give it to them. I say, okay, you now, now you go, so I don't even think about it anymore. I say, okay, this is what you do, and I let them do what they are good at, because that's why I have them around me. I am a better person because I don't think I have to do everything. I let people do what they're good at.

Speaker 1:

So identify those things that constantly drain you I don't like. There are certain things I don't like doing. I don't want to do it, I don't care to do it, I know how to do it, but this, hey, you like that, boom there you go, you have it and I pass it on. So I tell my students when they come through find people who do things better than you and the things that you don't want to do. If they like to do it, boom done. And then I'm not taking it back, I'm not criticizing it. Sometimes there are people they find the things we give them to do they do it much better than we would have ever thought about it. And then, finally, job crafting. Job crafting.

Speaker 1:

So enhance the purpose in your current role, find meaningful aspects within your existing role and expand on them. Meaningful aspects within your existing role and expand on them. One of the series I did a couple of years ago on the show and you want to go back and watch that it was a series on people who were in their current space, thriving where they are, and one of the consistent messages that came out of those conversations was this what I'm doing now was not what I started out to do. What I'm doing now is perhaps a far cry than I ever planned to do, but while I was wherever I was, I learned the skills that I needed there. And look at me Now the things I'm using are a lot of the things I learned on the job that I was not thinking much about.

Speaker 1:

So, wherever you are, even if this is not the space you're going to be in, find meaningful things there, expand it. Talk to your manager, talk to your team About modifying responsibilities that better map your strengths and your passions. People in my office they can tell what I'm passionate about and you guys see me here. When something comes to my mind that hits me, I'm excited about it. So find those things in your space, even small adjustments Like mentoring somebody else. I love to teach, and you know what makes my days go better when I have students around me, because it is the thing that gives me passion. So, mentoring somebody else, taking on a meaningful project, something that you see, that would be great. Talk to your supervisors hey, can we do this?

Speaker 1:

One of the best things that I did recently was and I told you, I went camping, and so I am one of the counselors for the very first group that comes into our and this is part of Pathfinders. For those of you who may be familiar with it, it's kind of like Boy Scouts, cub Scouts. So I am the counselor, I'm the very first counselor that they get when they come into the program. And so over the years, right, I've thought about the fact that when we go to these big camps and I think I mentioned last year we went to a camp that has almost 60,000 or 70,000 people I'm talking about massive camps, I'm talking about tent camps we're not talking about in the cabins. This is actually you pitch a tent, you put the stakes down, put the tarp down and all that stuff. And so I have been in my mind thinking, hey, it would be nice to take just my group, because we usually go as a club. And so I approached our director and I said, hey'd like to take, take our group camping, and he's a man, that's a great idea. And so over the course of this year that's, we've been working on this camp and it was phenomenal. I loved it. It was something that was different. The kids loved it. People were saying, oh man, I'm glad that you were out here. Oh, look at those. They people came to visit us because it was just a group and we were camping right here, right nearby us, because we have a lot of space on our campus, and so we pitched the tents right there.

Speaker 1:

So is there something that you see in your space, in your area, on your job, that could be done better, something that speaks to you? So create it there. You don't necessarily need a new job. You need to intentionally align your current role with your health goals, deeply focused. Deeply focused on what this is, one of the things. That is a pillar of Limitless Living, and you've heard me say it, but I've not connected it this way for you. But let's connect it now.

Speaker 1:

In our limitless living framework, we frequently discuss three fundamental elements that are critical to reversing diabetes and achieving metabolic health, that is, decrease insulin, suppress the appetite and reduce sugar. We've talked about those, but limitless living says that those are specific things to those areas. If we come above and we start to look at our different domains of health, in order for us to be successful, what we have to have is rhythm, alignment and structure. Rhythm, alignment and structure, and rhythm is the basic tenure of your life. What is the purpose, what is the goal, what is the ultimate reason that you're here? That's the rhythm of my life. What is the thing? What is the thing when I think about myself, when people think about me, what is it that comes to their mind? What comes to my mind? What's the rhythm of my life? What's the direction of my life? What's my North Star statement? Rhythm Alignment is are the things I'm doing on a day-to-day basis taking me in the direction of what I say? My rhythm is.

Speaker 1:

That's what we're going to be talking about here in just a minute, a little bit more deeply. And then, in order for that all to happen, we've got to have structure. So the reason for what we do, the reason for what I do, is to provide structure for people, because there's a lot of stuff that you know, you've heard it, we all have been told it, but we don't have a way, we don't have a structure, we don't have a way to start. Some people don't do things because they just don't know how to start, how to do it, what it should look like. It's a rhythm, alignment and structure. So, if you are going to be consistent I want you to hear this, if you don't hear anything else that I say if you're going to be successful in your health, if you're going to be successful physical health, mental health, emotional health, social health, spiritual health, occupational health, which we were talking about today If you're going to be, if you're going to be successful in any of the domains which are really the crux of your life, you have to have structure, you have to have a way to keep that going.

Speaker 1:

Motivation is great, because some of you, when you leave here, when you finish listening to me and people talk to you hey, I just love that. That really spoke to me and I'm glad it spoke to you. But motivation is fleeting. Tomorrow. When you wake up and something comes to your mind, or some obstacle is there, or some bad feelings, or some hurt happens, motivation goes away. What is the thing that you're putting in place right now that's going to help you automate that process, so that, even if you wake up in the morning and you don't feel like going walking, you're going to walk anyway. What do you have in place so that, even if you don't feel like putting down that donut or taking the insulin or checking your blood sugar or saving money, if that's what you're working on, whatever it is what do you have in place that automates that problem? What's the structure that's going to keep it going long term, because motivation is not enough.

Speaker 1:

Rhythm. What's the tenure of your life? Alignment? Are the things you're doing consistent with where you say you want to go, and do you have something in place to keep it going long term? So let's zero in on the alignment, because it's especially vital when we are discussing occupational health.

Speaker 1:

Alignment means that your daily actions at work resonate deeply with your personal purpose. It resonates with your core values and with your personal purpose. It resonates with your core values and with your health goals. When your work is aligned, everything you do feels intentional, meaningful and authentic when you're aligned. But what happens when alignment is off? When alignment is off, metabolic health suffers. When your occupation is misaligned with your deep purpose. There is a constant internal friction. Every task feels like you're pushing a boulder uphill. You have to work harder, your stress response escalates, your metabolism suffers Because there's not alignment. It's like me trying to go to New York, which is where my family is, but heading to California. I'm going somewhere, but it's not aligned. I'm moving, but it's not the right direction. There's activity, but there is not purposeful and there is not success-driven or oriented activity. I may get somewhere, but not where I'm trying to go.

Speaker 1:

One of the funniest things to me is these movies where you got two people in a canoe and one is they're supposed to be pulling right, pull. And if you remember, in a Korean canoe you got two oars and you're pulling, or more than two oars and you're all pulling together. And when you're doing that, right, you're going in a particular direction. But can you imagine what happens if the people on one side are pulling this way and the people on the other side are pulling that way? Right, it's like this, right. And what happens to that boat, that canoe? It's just going like this, that canoe, it's just going like this. In science, we learned in physics that there are vectors, there are forces that are going at any particular time on a particular object Physics and so there can be a force going in this direction which is supposed to push an object going this way. But if you have an opposite force and they're pushing against each other on the same place, on the same piece of material, guess what? That material is now stuck in space, and so are the things that you're doing aligned so that all of the forces are taking you in the direction that you want to go.

Speaker 1:

Misalignment triggers chronic stress, consequently elevated cortisol levels. Chronic cortisol disrupts glucose metabolism and it encourages insulin resistance. When your work doesn't resonate with you, it's harder to stay motivated to manage your diabetes, harder to stay motivated to check your blood sugars, harder to stay motivated to plan your meals, harder to stay motivated to exercise regularly. It becomes a burden rather than a priority. We're talking about misalignment. And then there's the emotional eating. So lack of alignment frequently leads to emotional buffering, because we're restless, we're irritable and we're discontent. And overeating or overindulgent in sugary, high-carb foods temporarily causes an escape from work, dissatisfaction.

Speaker 1:

The transformational power of alignment comes though. When a work aligns with the purpose and true direction, the amazing transformation that happens is that our metabolism becomes balanced Because all of a sudden, alignment lowers our cortisol level. Notice, we haven't done a single thing yet. We haven't walked, we haven't started eating better, we haven't walked, we haven't started eating better, we haven't taken medication, we haven't checked our blood sugar. But simply having alignment lowers our cortisol level, and reducing that cortisol level decreases sugar, decreases insulin, decreases inflammation and that directly improves our blood work and our blood sugar control. When we're aligned, our energy is up and it energizes us and it motivates us, and that natural enhancement allows us to be willing to engage consistently with our health. Better nutrition, better exercise, boom. And then we're more resilient.

Speaker 1:

So when we are misaligned, we have what's called a fixed mindset. We often see things in the negative. We think that all we can do is what we see. We think that what we have is permanent, that we cannot advance beyond this, that we can't move from here, our blood sugars can't improve, I can't reverse my diabetes, I can't lose weight, my blood pressure is always going to be like this, I'm always going to have chronic, progressive worsening of my kidneys. But when we become resilient, when we change our mindset, when we're aligned, now we have a growth mindset that says, hey, limitless living, by the way, is a growth mindset process. It says that I can change and nothing is going to prevent me from doing what I need to do to be successful. It creates psychological resilience. It makes stress at work less dramatic and less damaging.

Speaker 1:

So how do we do this? Number one we want to clarify our purpose. What is your North Star statement? Where are you going? What are you doing? Why are you at that job? What do you truly care about? What is it so? You want to clarify the purpose. Does my work reflect the values that I say I have, and do they reflect that on a daily basis? Number two adjust your current role. Identify small tasks within your job that do align with your values. Talk to your managers. Hey, can I switch roles? Can I pick up this? Can I do that? Can I adjust this? Whatever it is, be proactive.

Speaker 1:

One of the ideas that comes to me sometimes is that all of us, if you walked into your house right now, or you walked outside and you saw water just pouring into your house, like some pipe had broken while you were away, you would call, maybe, a plumber, or find somebody to go, turn off the main right and you call a plumber. And if the plumber said to you, hey, I can't come until next week, you know what we would do We'd pick up the phone again and we'd call a different plumber. And if that plumber said I can't come till tomorrow, we'd pick up the phone again and we'd call a different plumber. And if that plumber said I can't come till tomorrow, we'd pick up the phone and we'd call another plumber and we'd keep calling until we got somebody who would come right now, within the next hour, like emergency, like now come. But we spend days, weeks, months, years in places that we should have left long ago Doing things we should not currently be doing. And I want you pillar number two that we're learning tonight about limitless living.

Speaker 1:

Pillar number two says that nothing that happens to me is happening to me without me directly being involved. Let me unpack that a little bit. I often hear people say that happened to me, that happened to me. There are things that are going to happen that are outside of your control. You're going to walk outside, it's going to rain. Out of your control. You're going to be going down the road and your tire is going to get flat on the car. Outside of your control. You're going to be going to work and you're going to be late because there's an accident outside of your control. You're going to be going to work and you're going to be late Because there's an accident Outside of my control. Yes, but what I'm talking about Are those things that we have control about.

Speaker 1:

Over that we either Take a second hand to and just let it happen, or, by not making a decision, we've made a decision. When it comes to our health, for sure. When it comes to our relationships, for sure. When it comes to our finances, definitely. When it comes to our job and our occupation and our career, yep, well, that's what they said at the job. That's what we're going to do at the job. That's what I was told. This is what happened. No, no, no, no, no. Now, if you have done all you can and it still happens, another story Because it's now out of your control. But we're no longer just allowing things to happen to us, because we can make decisions that put us on the path to success.

Speaker 1:

Limitless living, limitless living, that's the power of rhythm, alignment and structure, and it is the power of limitless living. It's one of the pillars of limitless living. It's one of the pillars of limitless living, and so I want you to start something real quickly. I want you to start each day by reminding yourself of your larger purpose and I want you to write it. I want you to write it now. Get a piece of paper, write it down. I am here because I value blank. What is the blank? And that blank should be something that is in your North Star statement the purpose. What are you doing?

Speaker 1:

End each day by acknowledging that the alignment that you said you had is what happened today. That requires you to make sure that you're doing, saying, behaving, creating the spaces where that happens, when there's alignment and a lot of you have said well, you know what. I don't have to worry about that because I've retired, I'm sitting at the house and my question to you is is what you're doing aligned with what you say your purpose is? Is what you're doing aligned with what you say your purpose is? Is being at the house and not exercising aligned with your health? Is not moving aligned with what you say you want to have in terms of your health?

Speaker 1:

Alignment is not optional. It's the heartbeat of occupational and metabolic wellness. When your professional life aligns with your purpose, when your retirement aligns with your purpose, your metabolic health improves naturally. This intentional alignment can transform your ability to reverse diabetes and achieve lasting health. So your occupational health isn't just a paycheck. It's one of the pillars of your metabolic health. It's one of the pillars of your metabolic health. It's one of the domains. When your work aligns with your deeper purpose, your hormones stabilize, your motivation skyrockets and reversing diabetes becomes much more easy to do.

Speaker 1:

So this week, I challenge you to evaluate your occupational health. Evaluate your retirement retirement. Identify one small shift that you can make immediately to enhance your purpose at work, at home, in retirement. That will reduce your metabolic stress and set you on the path for success. Remember, your health isn't a luxury. Set you on the path for success. Remember, your health isn't a luxury. It's your most important job and you have the power to shape your work life in ways that fuel rather than drain your metabolic health and diabetes management. As always, we encourage you to educate, empower, encourage, because I believe you can live a truly limitless life. We encourage you to educate, empower, encourage Because I believe you can live a truly limitless life and, after all, that's what we're doing here. 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. Thank you,

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Dwain Woode

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