#65 - Less Talk, More Action: Why Doing Less Might Be the Answer for Better Blood Sugar

Managing type 2 diabetes can feel like drowning in advice, but the real breakthrough often comes from focusing on a few high-impact habits and actually taking action. We talk through how to cut the noise, spot limiting beliefs, and take small, repeatable actions that support insulin resistance reversal and real momentum toward remission.

We also make an announcement about our show schedule you won’t want to miss. If you have been waiting to take the 1st step towards better blood sugar, this is the episode that will get you moving.

Ready to take control of your health and stop settling for “managed” diabetes?
    Grab your earbuds and listen in.

Brian & Cory
   Diabetes Remission Partners

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On this free call, we’ll help you:

·       Get clear on why your blood sugar is where it is

·       Understand what’s realistic for reducing or eliminating medications

·       See whether a medication exit strategy makes sense for you

Book your Diabetes Medication Exit Strategy Call here:
   https://medfreehealthya1c.com/diabetesfreechat

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Transcript

Remission Starts With A New Frame

SPEAKER_00 0:02

If you have type 2 diabetes and you're tired of being told it's chronic and something you'll just have to manage forever, if your ailment seeds control but your medication that keeps growing or stays the same, then you know deep down you're capable of more than it, you're in the right place. This is the Diabetes Remission Roadmap Podcast for Brian Bitcher and Corey Jenks, two pharmacists who spent over two decades inside healthcare. And we started this show because we got tired of watching capable people stuck getting managed instead of rebuilt. Here's what most people aren't told. Type 2 diabetes isn't just a blood sugar problem, it's a muscle and energy storage problem. When your body loses strength and metabolic flexibility, blood sugar rises. And you can rebuild that. On this show, we break the script to say more meds are inevitable, you're destined to just manage, remission is impossible, and instead we teach you how to build muscle, eat in a way that keeps you full, and regain control of your health again. No extremes, no shame, just practical strategies to help you move toward remission and lead your health again. Let's get to work.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Welcome back to another edition of the Diabetes Remission Roadmap podcast.

Less Talk And More Action

SPEAKER_01 1:02

And Brian, I got a question for you. Do you like Toby Keith and or country music?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Toby Keith. You know what? I've used to. I used to give it to some country concerts, but not so much anymore. Why? Why do you ask?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

I he has a song, and may he rest in peace, by the way. A little less talk, a lot more action. And today we're talking about less talk and taking more action. That's the theme of today's episode.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

I like it. Yeah, I like more action because action is what actually gets things done, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Exactly. So what we're talking about today is if you're listening, if you ever felt like managing your diabetes feels like a full-time job, or a second full-time job, or a third full-time job, or doing meal plans, supplements, complicated exercise regimens. You're listening to podcasts like ours, which is great. You're watching YouTube videos, hopefully our YouTube videos. You're consuming content on Instagram, hopefully ours. You're listening to social media experts, you're checking out glucose monitors, you're reading books, you're doing all kinds of consumption of information. And it feels, help me if I'm wrong here, it could feel like there's a lot of shouting going on. Does that seem right? Shouting, sure. Why shouting? Why not whispering? But it's just a lot of noise, a lot of noise. And when we talk to prospective clients, a lot of what we hear about is they've been listening to something for years. They've been reading something for years, they've gone to different webinars, different seminars, and everyone's selling something different. They're honestly confused and frustrated because they're also listening to their doctor, and their doctor isn't really helping them out. And it's a lot of learning. And in the meantime, what is happening? Their blood sugar's staying high, they're stuck on medications, and they're frustrated, their doctor's frustrated, they don't feel good, and nothing is happening, Brian.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Okay, yeah. Take this fall up in three months, we'll recheck the labs, do some exercising, watch what you eat, watch

When Too Much Advice Paralyzes

SPEAKER_00 2:48

your portions. That's probably the advice what they get.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

And I think sometimes people assume that to get better results requires a lot of effort. You gotta be working really hard, you gotta be white knuckling, you gotta be straining, sweating. But reality, oftentimes better results just comes from better focus, as Brian focuses in on the camera here at me, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Yeah, I agree. You hit the nail on the head. Just focusing in on what the small this always goes back to the big rock, the analogy we talk about. Then the medium rocks, then the little the rocks, but just I think the analogy you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Imagine you have a jar. Okay, and you're trying to have a pile of rocks that are larger, a pile of medium rocks and sand. If you're trying to fit everything in that jar and get the most out of it, you're gonna want to start with the big rocks. Because if you put the sand in first, there's no room to shove those big rocks in there, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

And that's where focus is really important.

Start With Big Rocks And Coaching

SPEAKER_01 3:39

And I'm just gonna take a brief pause here, Brian, and just call this out because I we get this a lot from people who listen to the show who write in with questions, who write in with frustrations, that if you feel like you are struggling to focus on what's important, if you are struggling to pull the right levers to move the right rocks, if you feel alone in between doctors' appointments, we offer coaching, don't we?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yeah, yeah. You can see if it would be a good fit.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

So, Brian, how would someone be who's interested in working with us get a hold of us?

SPEAKER_00 4:08

You can click the link in the show notes or go to diabetesfreechat.com and just uh you can pick out a time to just get on a free assessment call with us. That's what we call it a medication exit strategy call because we really want to get everyone to remission if possible, but we'll be honest with about that with the assessment.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

So if you're struggling, if you want some help, reach out to us. But in the meantime, we're getting back to Toby Keith there. All this noise, not enough action. And I think what we see with the clients who do work with us is they come to us with a lot of information. People are informed and sometimes overinformed and then often taking lots of action, but is it the right action? I can think of one client who was zooming and exercising, had been to multiple nutritionists, and within a couple weeks of focus with us, like specific sort of tweaks to exercise, specific tweaks to diet, there was a 30-point drop in post-meal blood sugar, just

Right Action Beats More Effort

SPEAKER_01 5:00

like that.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah, and also not just doing a lot of the wrong thing, not just doing a lot of things, but also chasing different holes, like chasing different rabbit holes for looking for the root cause while ignoring some of the bigger things to focus on, like just pure energy toxicity, looking for what do you call it, like the thing you just the scapegoat for your diabetes, like the root cause of diabetes. But when it comes down to it, like 90 plus percent, it comes to insulin resistance. And if you just focus on the things that reverse energy toxicity, you will likely improve your blood sugar.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

So simple things, right? Yeah, a short walk after meals, two strength sessions a week, better sleep, eating protein first in your meals, helping with your stress. These are simple things, they're not always easy, and we agree that sometimes trying to manage stress in a stressful life or getting up to walk after a meal if it's hot outside or cold outside is not always easy. But they are simple and when repeated regularly, that's what gets results is taking the right action instead of just waiting and waiting to do

Insulin Resistance And Simple Levers

SPEAKER_01 6:10

what you think you should do or waiting till conditions are perfect.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah. Can I share an example of how I think the conversations, coaching can help this because we often think the surface level thing, what we need to do? I need I know I need to walk more, but the coaching and the questions comes into unwrapping the layers that's preventing you from walking more. Maybe it's not actually anything to do with walking. Maybe it's just the schedule or the environment or something, your shoes are just in the wrong place. Or in terms of packing your lunch for work, maybe it's not just it's not just making the food, but it's actually going to the grocery store and knowing what to get and having that clarity around the shopping that then increases your confidence level of actually doing it. We have these things like, okay, I know I need to pack my own food, I know I need the protein. You need to chip away the layers of that and find what is truly underlying and what's the what's the first domino to knock down, so to speak, that then results in you actually doing the thing that you know you need to do. And oftentimes it's hidden under something else, something you're not really looking at, something you're not really thinking about, but it's in these conversations that you realize, okay, I just need to write down a plan. First, I need to just write down what I'm gonna go to the grocery with and get. And then I need to identify, pick a time to actually go to the grocery shop, and then talk through some of my hesitancies and my resistance to actually shopping, to cooking, some of the limiting beliefs that I have. And I'm recalling a conversation with a specific client that we had to really give this example of how okay, I don't have time to cook. I don't have time to prep much. Meal prep in the mind of this client was like had to be one day when we just break that down, break that belief down to no, it could just be five minutes of getting something ready in the morning. And if you look at it, you you break something down from a an hour plus endeavor. I don't even meal prep really. We don't even really meal prep. I just I would just do prep of something in the morning

Peel Back Resistance And Make It Easy

SPEAKER_00 8:10

to to prepare for the day. And long story short, Corey, is it just comes down to breaking this up into actionable things when like that will help you then reveal how it's actually going to be possible to do the thing that we're talking about here.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Yeah, and it's I was talking to my friend here in town, and he has one kid and I have three, and he's like, Oh my gosh, how do you do anything with three kids? We're talking about staying in shape. He's pushing 40, I'm pushing 40. And an example for my own life is tomorrow will be Saturday morning, and I will be going for an hour-long ruck. And tonight I will put my shoes and my 45-pound ruck by the door because in the morning I don't want to be lugging that through the house with a sleeping family. That's one example of putting your like taking a small step to make it possible to do this bigger thing in the morning when I know that I will not want to do that. And I, if you're like if you're out there and you're like, I haven't taken any action, I'm gonna give you a real-life example of myself not taking action on something, Brian. Do you can I share that?

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah, let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

So I've been wanting to find a new hobby, and that hobby is going to be relacing baseball gloves because I have a broken glove that I was gonna give to someone to fix, and I was like, no, I'm gonna learn how to do this myself. I need to do something with my own hands. And it has been three, probably two to three months of me deciding to do this and still not having done it. I have all of the gear, I've watched videos, and last week I finally washed the gloves that I'm gonna fix. So it was like, oh, I actually can do this with my and I kept making excuses. I don't have time, I have kids, whatever. And by the time we record our next episode, I better have fixed my catchers, Mitt Brian, is what I'm saying. This is a wake-up call to myself to just start taking action because I'm doing all these things that aren't getting me closer to the goal line. I don't need to watch more videos. I need to just start getting my hands dirty, do it, make some mistakes, and adjust. And that's really what life is. And I think we have a lot of fear of making mistakes. And I'm gonna news for you. It's learning, it's not mistakes.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yeah. Growth mindset uh is you inject the growth mindset into mistakes and it just and you also, again, protect your self-worth from make making mistakes because our ego wants to say we can't make mistakes, we can't. But no, if you know inherently your self-worth is there, it's fine, it's independent of your performance, which aka comes from mistakes, then you're good. Just start doing it. But that's a great example, Corey. Thank you for sharing the great example of resistance that you're experiencing.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Oh my gosh, yeah. And it's it's my ego. I'm like, I've had years of success as a pharmacist as doing many things, and this is gonna be like a challenge. I'm not very good visually, spatially. And so to do something with my hands is just not as I'm not as handy, or and that's why I want to do it. So hopefully if you're a listener, call me out, send us a message and ask for a picture of my fixed baseball club.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

I'll ask you for it. Yeah, I think the biggest takeaway here for people, for listeners, is that you really just start to start peeling back the onion and getting real, like getting honest with yourself of what is it that I so we talk about the big things like eating protein, satiating meals, working out, strength training, moving. What are some of the resistances you have in your life to some of those things? And then start to chip away and take action at those resistances and then make it easier for yourself to actually do the thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Because I and I'm I might be off because you are the savant coach with the mindset and language here, but I think sometimes it can feel like I think asking, like, what are you doing right now that isn't actually helping? Are you chasing perfection? Are you trying a ton of supplements? Are you obsessing over every fasting blood sugar you have? Because maybe it's time to stop doing those things. And really, if a lot of the people we talk to feel overwhelmed. And sometimes,

Limiting Beliefs And Growth Mindset

SPEAKER_01 11:40

and when people get into our program, like where it starts, it's very basic and simple. And I'm and this is a change I had to make because I'm used to 15-minute appointments every three months where you got to throw out the kitchen sink at someone. But sometimes, like, if you're feeling overwhelmed, you don't need to add something else, you need to do less, but do it consistently. Am I right here? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

And yeah, thanks for bringing back the mindset piece because I think that is important. You mentioned how your friend asked, How are you even doing this with three kids? Like, it sees that's a great example of a limiting belief. In his mind, like it's not gonna be possible because he's got this doubt, this limiting belief that it's impossible to stay in shape with even one kid. And those limiting beliefs then turn into excuses and just things that will just inside your head, you're not even realizing you're saying to yourself that you put up these walls and barriers that make it even harder, versus you you can break these limiting beliefs by asking the question, which we both really like, how might I do this? And then you just go from there. It's a very open-ended question, it's a very positive framing possibility question. So, how might I consistently work out twice a week? And then just go from boom. That's you're gonna be listing out all the things you need to do to actually make that happen.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Right. And Brian and I, we are actually gonna take our own advice because we know that more isn't always better. And so, what we're gonna be doing going forward is we're gonna focus on doing two podcast episodes a month instead of four, along with our monthly Rapid Fire Friday. So we're gonna continue putting out videos on social answering questions we hear often. We'll put out those Friday episodes. We'll also be doing, I'll be putting up two YouTube videos a month instead of the one every Monday. So it'll be the first and third Wednesday, you'll hear the pod. And second, fourth, Monday, you're gonna see the YouTube video. And the last Friday of the month, we'll do the Rapid Fire Friday because we'd rather bring you fewer episodes that are thoughtful, practical, worth your time, and give you more time to put things into action because we don't want more noise. You need information that you can take action on and time to take action on that information.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

And I that's actually some feedback I've got I've gotten from some listeners is oh my gosh, there's something coming out every week. I can hardly keep up. And we don't want you to hardly keep up, we want you to thrive. So

Less Content So You Can Act

SPEAKER_01 13:55

less but more. So we want to hear one thing you're gonna start taking action on after this episode. Are you gonna put your shoes by the door? Are you going to make a grocery list? Send us a message, send us an email, send us a DM. We want to hear about it. And we'll share about it, we'll share it. And because we think it's that important to really focus down and do what's important. So any parting words of wisdom, Brian?

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Talk out loud so you can hear your limiting beliefs. Talk to someone about this. Honestly, the conversation, even if people do not like I either way, the conversation alone of talking with people in assessment calls reveals so many limiting beliefs that everybody walks away with clarity. Wow, I didn't realize I was telling myself this. And the truth about any kind of transformation, if you want to be the type of person that does not rely on medication anymore for diabetes, then you need to transform, you need to do something out of your comfort zone. The person you are right now has gotten you to the place you're at. You need to start becoming stepping out of that person, out of that shell, and becoming a bigger version of yourself if you want to achieve a result that you have not previously achieved before. And I think a lot of that does come down to, again, stepping out of your comfort zone and just having a conversation with that reveals so much truth and clarity about yourself and your situation.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

So we'll be back, not as often. As we were saying at the top of the episode, if you're interested in finding some clarity and

Your One Action Plus Closing

SPEAKER_01 15:20

would like to book a medication exit strategy call, let us know. Send us a message, check the link in the bio or in the show description. But until next time, you know what to do. Keep it simple and do what works.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

If this episode gave you clarity or hope, share it with one friend who's been stuck in the diabetes trap. That's how this mission grows. One person, one family, one story at a time. And if you haven't yet, leave me a quick review helps more people find the show and realize they're not stuck with meds forever. It takes less than a minute and it means the world to us. Thanks for being here and thanks for being part of this movement toward freedom. Thanks for listening to the Diabetes Remission Roadmap. The ideas discussed here are for general informational purposes only and do not constitute medical or nutritional advice. We are pharmacists, but we're not your personal health care providers. Always consult your own physician or qualified clinician before changing medications, exercise routines, or nutrition plans. Results vary, and what works for one person may not work for another.