#72 - You KNOW What to Do for Your Blood Sugar. So Why Aren't You Doing It?

Join the Type 2 Remission Room, our online podcast community: https://tinyurl.com/3a4ta86d

You know walking after meals can help your blood sugar.

You know you should prioritize protein, build muscle, sleep better, and make healthier food choices.

So…why is it still so hard to actually DO those things consistently?

Maybe you don't need more information.

Maybe you need to change the story you tell yourself about who you are.

In this episode of the Diabetes Remission Roadmap, Cory sits down with Dr. Kim Foster, former family physician, bestselling author of Redesigning You, TEDx speaker, and expert in identity-based behavior change.

After nearly 20 years in medicine, Dr. Foster noticed something fascinating: she could give the same health advice to two intelligent, motivated patients. One would transform their life. The other would come back months later frustrated that nothing had changed.

What was different?

We dig into why statements like:

"I've always had a sweet tooth."

"I'm not an exercise person."

"I always quit."

"This stuff never works for me."

…aren't just descriptions. They can become instructions for how you behave.

You'll learn why jumping straight from "I'm unhealthy" to "I'm a health nut" usually doesn't work, how to create a believable bridge identity, and why tiny wins become evidence that you're capable of becoming someone different.

We also talk about what happens when the new identity gets tested.

If you keep telling yourself, "I know what I need to do. I just can't seem to stick with it," this episode is for you.

Your past may explain the story you've been telling yourself.

It doesn't have to write the next chapter.

For more with Dr. Foster:

Website: https://drkimfoster.com
YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/kimfosterMD
Instagram: https://instagram.com/drkimfoster
Book: Redesigning You: Change Your Inner Story, Transform Your Health: https://drkimfoster.com/book
TEDx Talk: How To Actually Change Your Habits: https://drkimfoster.com/tedtalk

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

Brian & Cory
  Diabetes Remission Partners

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
👉 Want help mapping out your diabetes medication exit strategy?

If you’re on meds, “in range,” and still know this isn’t the standard you want — this is the next step.

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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
🎓 Watch Our Free Training

The Diabetes Freedom Masterclass shows you how our clients work toward a healthy A1C with fewer — and sometimes no — medications by addressing insulin resistance at the root.
👉 https://medfreehealthya1c.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
📲 Follow Us on Instagram

Daily education, encouragement, and straight talk about meds, muscle, and metabolic health:
 @diabetesremissionpartners

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
📧 Questions or feedback?

Email us anytime:
  brianandcory@diabetesremissionpartners.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
⭐ Love the podcast?
  
  

Leaving a review helps more people find this message and reminds us why this work matters.
👉 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/diabetes-remission-roadmap-reverse-type-2-lower-a1c/id1777467082

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Type 2 Diabetes Can Change

SPEAKER_01 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, and you know deep down you're capable of more than that, you're in the right place. This is the Diabetes or Mr. 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_02 0:59

Welcome

Meet Dr. Kim Foster

SPEAKER_02 1:00

to another edition of the Diabetes Remission Roadmap Podcast. Brian, I normally make a joke about how he's off getting stuck in the snow in Ohio or drowning in the tears of the Cincinnati Reds losing, but he actually had another kid. So he has a newborn that he is, I would say, chasing around, but newborns don't run. Anyway, he's chasing sleep. So I have a wonderful guest today, and we have with us Kim Foster, MD, who's a former family physician, best-selling author of Redesigning You, TEDx speaker, YouTube creator, and an expert in identity-based behavior change. She also golfs. So we're gonna maybe talk a little golf today, too. After nearly 20 years in medicine, she now helps people understand why lasting transformation requires more than just knowing what to do. It requires changing the beliefs, stories, and self-identity driving their behavior. Dr. Foster, thank you for joining us on the Diabetes Remission Broadbatt podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Thank you so much for having me here, Corey. I'm excited for our chat.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Yeah. Let's hop right in because you were your former physician, so 20 years of experience. And after all that time, we and I'm a former practicing pharmacist, Brian's a current practicing pharmacist. We have the technical knowledge. We can tell you what to eat, we can tell you how to move your body. You can go back to listen to our episodes where we talk about what to eat and how to move your body. But it sounds like what you found out and what we found out is that just because we have the information,

Why Advice Does Not Translate

SPEAKER_02 2:20

people still struggle to make healthy changes last. So, what have you learned about that in your experience?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yeah, that's a perfect place to start because yes, that's exactly the problem that I noticed after 20 years as a family doctor. And I had just thousands and thousands of interactions like this where I would share all this information and give advice. And I liked to educate people and teach people about what was going on with them and what they could do to improve their own health and well-being. And I thought I was doing a pretty decent job of it. So this was like intelligent, capable, motivated people with a lot at stake, often quite significant health things, whatever it was, and sometimes life and death kinds of things at stake. And they would really be very often looking like they were motivated and wanted to actually make those changes. They'd walk out of my office and then months later they would come back, and nothing had really changed. And I just got super curious about this. What is the missing piece here? And what are we not addressing? Also at the same time, there were some people who actually would. They would take the same information that I was giving everybody and they would go away and then they would come back, and all kinds of things had changed, right? This is the minority for sure, but I could see that it was possible. It's not like it's an impossibility. So what was the difference there? Like why I would could it same me, same circumstances often, and same information. And then some people would be able to make the change, but most of us really struggle to make those changes last. Or they would maybe make a few tweaks, a few changes temporarily, and then they would come back and then I fell off the wagon, I didn't, it didn't stick, and they're frustrated, and I'm frustrated. And that that cycle just went around and around for a very long time until I really started to piece together what the difference was.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Yeah, and I think we've seen that a lot. You talk about capable, intelligent people. They they run businesses, they are the CEO of their family, basically. And everything that they have in their life is writing on their health. And you need to do this one thing to change or two things to change. And they're like, Yeah, I got it. I read the books, I'm I listened to you, I'm listening to this great diabetes podcast, I got it. And then nothing changes. And it it's like this cycle of try, fail, shame, self-blame. And but there, as you say, there are those that have made the change. And what's the difference in them versus the the majority

Identity Statements Drive Daily Choices

SPEAKER_02 5:05

that come back a few months later and nothing has changed?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Yeah. The thing is that somebody may very well know, for example, that taking a walk after dinner is going to help them feel better, or that modifying having more protein or something is gonna make is going to improve their metabolic wellness or whatever it is that we're talking about, they know it. But if those behaviors are inconsistent with who they actually believe themselves to be, then they could maybe, you can maybe force yourself to do something that doesn't feel like something that you would do. You can maybe force that for a little while. You can kind of grit your teeth, white knuckle it for a bit. But ultimately, our brains just do not like that inconsistency, that friction. Every time that you're choosing salad over what you really want to eat, it's going to require willpower and overpowering who you believe yourself to be. And that runs out. And that is not a sustainable practice. The people, though, who are able to make those changes or those choices that are going to support their health and well-being, those people I noticed had a very different way of talking about themselves, of thinking about themselves, about what they're capable of. Sometimes it was just that they saw themselves as somebody who prioritized their health and well-being. And that was just like a non-negotiable thing. I had, I remember this one guy who's 70 years old and he was a skier, and he was very healthy, like big, strong, healthy guy who had, and I got super fascinated about that because I'm looking at the 70-year-old in my office who looks really strong and healthy. And I'm contrasting that to all the 60, 70, 50 year olds who 40 year olds, right? Yes, exactly, who do not look this healthy. And I was like, what? What was the difference there? What was it that put him on that trajectory? Because of course, in those later decades, that's when your choices really start to show and people can just see it. And so he was he had a knee problem and he was on the wait list for surgery. So he was frustrated because it meant that he, the if the wait went much longer, he was gonna miss his ski season. But the way that he talked about himself, he's like, I'm a skier, I am an active guy. I need I'm somebody who needs to move. And then we talked a little bit about his other lifestyle choices. And he's I'm not a processed foods guy, I've always taken care of myself. So these statements that he was making weren't just descriptions of the stuff that he did or didn't do, they were identity statements. I'm a kind of guy who needs to move, that kind of stuff. And so for him, doing those, like being healthy, being active, being outdoors, making good food choices, those weren't things that he was trying to force himself to do. It's just who he considered himself to be. And then contrast that with so many other people who I saw who, when I started to talk to them about things that they could change, like often if we got the cholesterol level that was kind of too high and we needed to start, I started talking to them about food that they could eat and not eat because they always want to know. They always ask this. And but then I'd sense some resistance. Like this one guy, he was like, I'd talk, I was talking to him about different foods, and he's like, My wife eats that stuff, or I'm really, I'm not gonna turn into one of those health nuts, right? I'm not, I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy. These are all identity statements. So for me, it wasn't about lentils. He didn't have a problem with lentils, he had a problem with doing things that made him be somebody who he didn't really kind of want to be. He had a negative connotation around what it meant to be a health nut, and he didn't want to be one of those guys. And so that little, just even that resistance, every single day, every single time you come down to making choices about what you're gonna eat, whether you're gonna move, whether you're gonna watch another episode on Netflix, like whatever choice it is gonna get run through that filter of who you believe yourself to be and who you don't believe yourself to be, or what's

The Cost Of Staying Loyal

SPEAKER_00 9:10

possible or not possible for you.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Yeah, it's really hard. I think I go right to a story from Brian, the the absent co-host of this show. Absent co-host who remember he was working in the ER and this he was talking to someone with blood sugar problems, and she says, I have a sandwich every day. What if you just didn't have as much breach? Like, oh, I'm just a sandwich girl. You just identify with this thing. And then if you want to become someone else, it's almost like you're breaking up this old version of yourself. It's almost like you're betraying who you were. Like, I I have a donuts for breakfast, it's just what I do. But it gets to the breaking point of this is harming you, it's slowly killing you. And but we're so tied to that identity. We're it's like the devil you know, I think, right? You you are afraid of who you might become.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Well, we tend to be very loyal to who we have, the identities that we have, because often those identities have given us a something, right? They don't just come out of thin air, they often we accumulate them through all kinds of sources, like as we're growing up and things that people tell us about who we are and who we aren't, and all of those pieces. But then we actually become quite loyal to them because sometimes this specific identity is going to give you belonging. Sometimes it's gonna give you a feeling of safety. There are definitely benefits that even negative or non-supportive identities, there are benefits that we can get from those. And so we hang on to that stuff because the unknown is very scary for our brains. Our minds do not like to just launch into the unknown, especially an unknown about something so deeply personal as who we actually believe we are. So there's a lot of reasons why we hang on to and we're loyal to old identities that maybe were adaptive and helped us at some point in life, but certainly when it comes to needing to make some changes for your health to actually extend your life and improve your quality of life, then the those new identities, we do need to find ways to let them go, but it is not easy. It's definitely not easy.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Yeah, I think you you might be a personal example of this. You are a physician, that's a huge identity. You spent years training for this, 20 years in practice, and now you're an author and you're going on podcasts and you're speaking as someone who's done a very similar transition. That is a very hard thing to give up. You were Dr. Foster, you're still Dr. Foster, but but you're not practicing Dr. Foster. You're writing, you have this wonderful book, you have this framework we're gonna go over in in a moment. And but that identity keeps us safe. I'm Corey the pharmacist. I obviously that's what you're gonna do forever. You start this job, and now this isn't aligned with who I think I want to be. And so breaking from that identity is not easy.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Oh, yes, it's very hard. Yeah, especially in my case for sure, and in your case too, I think an identity that like that that gives you so much professional validation and societal validation and status, and it just

Building Proof With Small Wins

SPEAKER_00 12:00

makes sense. Everybody's quite happy when you are staying as this one particular identity and and role in the world. And so, yeah, to make that kind of a change is challenging. It was very challenging for me. Was it challenging for you? You so you left clinical pharmacy.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

I left so as we recorded this in September of 2026. I left practice in October of 2025, and I had cut back to part-time in 2022, and I had written a book a couple of years before that, and had been doing speaking before that. So it's been like a seven or eight years slow, gradual backing out of practicing pharmacy. So I I speak to you, if you're listening, you're like, I don't identify as a healthy person. Making that switch on a dime is not easy. And as you say, it's your comfort, it's your comfort. And even if it's that an uncomfortable comfort, like it's there and it's it might not be serving you and where you need to go.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yeah, exactly. Yes, it's often very comfortable. It's what we know, and our brains like to just continue to our primitive brain that is very interested in survival, actually, only interested in survival. That's what it wants us to keep doing, the same thing, because that is associated with our survival. So don't change things because we can't be sure that we're gonna survive here. But it's also that we have for a particular identity, we've also gathered a whole lot of proof for that. So our higher brain is like, yeah, clearly that's who I am because I have done that over and over again. So that is who I am, because we've gathered all of this evidence. And so, really, that's one of the key things is that you need to start to gather proof for a different way of being. It's not just, it's not enough to just say, okay, now I'm gonna become like this healthy person. That because your brain is like, really based on what? I have no evidence for that you are capable of doing that. And even it's not even necessarily healthy versus not healthy. It can also be things like nothing ever lasts. I always end up quitting, I'm a bit of a quitter, things don't stick, I get bored of things easily, or whatever. Those are also identity statements. Because then every time that you fall, don't follow through on something or fall off the wagon or whatever it is that you're gonna call it, then your brain logs that as further evidence. See, I never can stick with things. And then that just goes into the proof bank of, yeah, okay, I'm a quitter. And then you just continue to operate from that because it's then it's not just a description of how you function, it becomes an instruction manual. So you then are like, okay, I'm a quitter, so I'm gonna try this new thing, but let's face it, I'm probably gonna quit, right? That is operating, and you might not even be consciously aware of it, but it's definitely operating in the background.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Yeah, I'm gonna use my pharmacy background and call these the scripts short for prescription, but a lot of these scripts are handed to you from others, from your parents, from school, and then from yourself, as you say, and you gather this evidence. And in the world of blood sugar and type 2 diabetes, you've gathered this evidence, you've gone to the doctor, they've given you advice, it hasn't stuck. And oftentimes you have 15 minutes with a patient, 20 minutes. Our listeners will talk about their seven-minute visits where they didn't feel heard. And so you're giving someone a fire hose of information and things to do. And again, you talked at the beginning of the show, like I could give all the information. And so oftentimes we're given all this information, but if we're not identifying as someone who is this quote unquote healthy person or metabolically fit person, it's too much. And so you're quickly going to accumulate evidence of quitting failure. We see it all the time with blood sugars. Like, it can take blood sugar is a lagging indicator. Like there are so many signs that you're improving your health. And we just had this happen with a couple of clients, like their fasting sugar. It took three months for them to see the fasting sugar improve. And ordinarily they would have quit. But we're coaching them and saying, hey, here's the evidence that you are getting better. Your waist is tighter, your strength is up, your energy is up, it's coming. And then we have other people in the program who've been in the program for six months who say, trust them, it's good, it's gonna happen. But unless you have that evidence and proof from others or reinforcement, as you say, you're just gonna reinforce your previous beliefs and identities about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yeah, that's it. Totally. That's awesome that you actively seek out proof that they're on the right track, right? Because then their brains can log that and be like, okay, yeah, actually, this is worthwhile continuing. Because if it feels like what's the point, it's not making any difference, then it's actually a rational thing to just give up on something. If it's not actually doing anything, why are you putting yourself through discomfort or inconvenience? So, yeah, actively seeking out the proof that this is actually starting to shift things and this, and so much more important, this is something that you can actually do. And it doesn't matter that you haven't been able to do it before. People often cite that as though it means that's their destiny. Oh, I've never been able, nothing has ever worked for me before. I've never been able to do this before. Those, I hear those things so often. And yes, okay, we're not denying that was the situation before, but that your past is not your prophecy. It doesn't mean that you can't make a shift. You've just been maybe trying to change this thing through a bunch of different same ways, the same kind of approach, forcing yourself to do stuff that you don't like, forcing yourself to do stuff that doesn't feel like someone like you would do that. So then what happens when you start to don't work at the behavior level, at the action level, but actually work from the identity level? Who do I want to be? And what does somebody like that do? How what choices does somebody like that make? And then just do that, even in a small way, and then that gets logged as proof. Notice that. Say, make that mean, okay, actually that was proof that I could do this thing that previously I didn't think I could do, and now I can. Okay. Or now I not now I can necessarily, because that might be too big of a leap, but now I've done one thing, and then you do that again and again. You start proving a new story to yourself.

Join The Type 2 Remission Room

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Quick thing before we keep going. We just launched a free community called the Type 2 remission room, and we want you in it. It's the place where you can ask us questions directly, catch live podcast recordings before they drop, and get early access to episodes before anyone else hears about them. We built this show to give you the truth your doctor doesn't have time for. The community is where that conversation continues. Link is in the description. It's free. Come join us.

unknown 18:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Stacking those little wins. That's a huge, yeah, huge thing that we love to talk about here. So speaking of identity, right? You are now an author. And in your new book, Redesigning You, which I will now be ordering as soon as we're off this recording. I can't wait to read it. Of course. Yeah, it's you're and also, folks, we're gonna link to her TEDx talk. Definitely worth a watch as well. So but in your book, you

Recognize Your Current Inner Story

SPEAKER_02 18:50

go through a three-step framework called Recognize, Redesign, and Ritualize. So can you explain what that is, why it's important, and what people might be able to get from that?

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Yeah, so this is when we're talking about trying to redesign your identity, your inner blueprint, the story that you're telling yourself. So the first, of course, is recognize. And this is so important because so many people just don't even realize that the story that they have about themselves is just that. It's just a story because we say these things as though we're just reporting neutral facts, like our eye colour. I've always had a sweet tooth. That's just a story, right? But you're reporting it as though it's your height or your eye color. So the key really is catching those identity statements. That's the first thing, is really recognize that you do, you are carrying some stories about yourself wherever they came from, however, you brought them forward into your present day. And then once you are aware, then you actually have a fighting chance of rewriting that story because the story that's been written once, it's not how you weren't born like that, right? So you can absolutely rewrite that. So that's the first step is recognize. The second step is redesign. So this is when you get to choose a new identity for yourself, like a new, much more empowering. Because now you can see how the identity story that you had before was really creating a rule book for yourself. It was creating boundaries for yourself that didn't need to exist, but it did because you were giving yourself an instruction manual. So now you get to choose something more empowering. But what I generally caution people to do is not to make a huge leap from I'm I have a I'm I have a sweet tooth. Let's go back to that, to I never have any sugar ever, or something like I'm a person

Redesign With A Bridge Identity

SPEAKER_00 20:40

who total who avoids zero is at zero sugar, right? It's just too extreme. And so what I usually empower people to do is to choose a bridge identity. So this is something that is just it's a stretch, it's one step off of where you were, but it gives you an opportunity to prove a new way of being to yourself. So you're choosing just something that's partway there. And this is whether we're talking about health or career or relationships, or really it's whatever you're trying to step into. But so that's redesign. And then ritualize is the most important part because this isn't just a thought exercise. We're not just standing in front of a mirror and just citing affirmation, I'm perfectly healthy now, or that is not going to do the job. Because again, that goes up your brain, then checks the file. Interesting, based on what? Like, I just have no evidence for that. So we need to actually put it into action. And that is where what we were just talking about is gathering proof for yourself. So set yourself one objective. I'm someone who is learning to enjoy moving. I'm someone who enjoys going for a 10 minute walk after eating or something like that, right? So you just choose a stretch but a doable, bridged identity, and then one action that is going to prove to yourself that is who you can be, do that and Then consciously log that as proof. Okay, yeah, actually, I did do that. I did keep that promise to myself. Okay. And then do that again. And that's the ritualized part is you just have to keep on going back to proving yourself, like you said, small wins, proving a new way of being, because you are having to fight that whole years, maybe decades of evidence that your mind has gathered about the person that you have been up to this point. And so you now need to start gathering proof for the kind of person that you can become going forward.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Yeah. Well, thank thank you for sharing that. And I think something you said struck me is there's these this idea that there's these limits that we put on ourselves, this sort of unwritten script or walls around that we put around ourselves that limit this limit stories we tell ourselves. And so it's just it's just so hard to see people go through that and not change. So I think your steps are going to be

Ritualize Actions That Create Evidence

SPEAKER_02 22:55

really helpful for people. And the one thing that is is coming to me is that it takes a concerted conscious effort to want to change. Am I right?

SPEAKER_00 23:02

It does. Yes, definitely. Yeah. It's not just an overnight project.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Yeah. And I think this is where we, Brian and I talked a lot about to change, to want to change your blood sugar habits, your exercise, your eating habits, the pain of your status quo has to be so great that you're willing to go through the pain of change. And not that your three-step process is painful necessarily, but it's external energy that you need to expend to do. And I think it's energy well spent. And anyone who's gone through the other side of that will say, Yeah, it was hard. But now on the other side of it, I see I am now this new person. And this episode last week with our client Kelly, she really did not want to work out in the morning. And she never saw herself as someone that worked out in the morning. And now she's like, you know what? I do it and I look forward to it. I'm more energetic the rest of the day. But it took months. It took months of slow steps and building. And so we also live in a world where we want to have an instant change, instant success. And it's just there's just no magic bullet for that.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Yeah, absolutely. That's so important. It's just is getting into reality about that. Cause yes, you're right. We are inundated with images of the before and after the like magic transformation that that happened and seemingly overnight. And so when we don't get that, then it can feel like okay, there's no point this, or I'm never going to be able to do this, or whatever. Again, more stories that we tell ourselves about what we can and can't do. So, yes, acknowledging that going into this, it's not going to be an overnight thing, but it can be fun. It can absolutely be fun. Like your client that you had on the podcast, and now she loves it. And how great is that? That sounds really fun and pleasurable. So yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

And you're having fun golfing now. So tell me a little bit more about you said I've heard that you have picked up the habit of golf, which I this is actually a really good sort of self-reflection for myself because I've been swinging a golf club since I was about seven years old and plateaued at age 18 of being a pretty mediocre golfer. And my kids have gotten into golf. I have

Golf And The Beginner Identity

SPEAKER_02 24:55

a six, eight, and three-year-old. The three-year-old hasn't swung the club yet, but played a lot this summer with my two boys and was just bad. I'm like, I'm playing every week, and I'm just bad, and I've always had this story. I'm not a very I'm just not good. I just I'm never gonna get over the hump. And instead, I started, I got this little swing trainer, was doing like literally three minutes a day of doing the swing trainer, the orange whip. I don't have commissions on this for golf products. But by the end of the summer, I had shot my best night hole score in years with them. Awesome. On swinging the club better. And so it was just this identity ship. I will go outside for two, like two minutes, one minute, three minutes, and do make this change. Tell me, how's your game then these days?

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Yeah, that's a great question. I love it. So it this is not, I have not been playing golf since I was seven. This is something that I came to much later in life. Really, just in the last year or so have gotten serious about it. And when I say serious, I mean obsessed.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

As you can, I'm sure you can relate to this. And it's just the most fascinating lab for personal development that I have ever encountered because I am constantly coming up against challenges to my identity, my ego, all the things. To be a beginner at something that is so visible and public, like you are swinging a golf club in front of other people. You cannot get away from that, right? And so it's, and in the beginning, it's really bad. But, and so who am who do you need to be in order to go out there as an adult? Because adults, we like to be good at stuff. I like to be competent at things that I do, especially things that other people see me do. So, who do I need to be to just go out there and learn and have fun and embrace it without needing to be good yet? Because of course, the getting good comes if you can get past that discomfort. That's that, and it's just been amazing. Like the progression that I've had in the last year of taking lessons and showing up by myself at the driving range and going out on the course and playing with strangers and playing by myself and playing with people I know and finding new golf friends and working on my swing and watching YouTube videos obsessively with swing breakdowns and all of those pieces. And yeah, I'm definitely getting better and my handicap is coming down, and that's really fun. But I definitely had to push through that initial stuff of and also, am I even a golfer? Do I even belong in this place? That's a whole other conversation because of course it's very male-dominated sport traditionally, and getting over all of that stuff was definitely an identity journey. But now I've noticed, just to bring this back to identity, is that my identity as a golfer is so much more stable than it was before. I was even thinking about a tournament, like just a fun scramble tournament that I played a couple several months ago. I hit a bad shot or I hit a few bad shots, and I was like, oh God, and I couldn't stop imposter syndrome stuff from coming. What are you doing? You don't belong out here, all that stuff. And then I did another scramble tournament just a couple weeks ago. And yes, of course I hit bad shots again, but I was able to laugh it off and it didn't rattle my sense of you're still a golfer, and because golfers hit bad shots all the time. So there is that is actually part of being a golfer. So I feel like that identity stabilization phase, which is something that I talk about in my work too, is starting to come in for me with golf. And I think it's just so important because in the beginning,

When Lapses Shake A New Self

SPEAKER_00 28:20

when you're trying to adopt a new identity for yourself, it is very, it's fragile and contradictory evidence is gonna rattle that foundation. But as you become more and more stable in it, then even though if you have an identity, I'm a runner, and then you go out and you miss a run because it's a super busy week or the weather is horrendous, or whatever it is, that doesn't mean you don't make it mean that you're not a runner anymore. You just had a week that you didn't go out or something. But somebody who's got who's just starting and they have a fragile identity of a runner, they miss a week and they're like, oh, see, I knew that this was never gonna work again. I've tried before, and this these kinds of things never stick. So you really have to be careful what you are making it mean after you have a lapse or a break or whatever in whatever it is that you're trying to change.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Yeah, and I think yeah, one golf will definitely draw out all of the most negative self-talk you can ever give yourself and questioning why are you here, what am I doing? I've spent how much on this stupid sport. And then there's the then there's the one shot at the end of your 18. You're like, oh, I'm coming back. It drew me back in.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

It happens.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

That's all you need is that one perfect shot, and you are completely in trouble. It's over for you because you will never be able to not want to chase that again.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Yeah, but when you talk about the fragile identity as you start something new, bringing this back here with our listeners. We had another client that there was their sugar was high and they said, Screw it, I'm gonna have pancakes, and then like their sugar went higher. It's like okay. And you have to explain, even people without blood, like type two diabetes have high blood sugar sometimes. Like, there's yes, there's things that go up, and there's other things happening that can shatter that identity. And as you say, at the beginning of that identity change, it's the most fragile. You walking onto a golf course having very little experience swinging a club, what am I doing? It is impossible. Like, what am I doing here? Like, yeah, I when I've spoken on stage, even I've written a couple books too. Like, if you're a first-time author, you're like, I'm an author, I'm an author, I'm an author, I'm an author, I'm an author, I'm an author. I've sold how many copies? Am I an author? So it's it's hard to believe it. But I think as you say, if you go through your process and follow it, you become what you want to become and who you want to be and develop that identity. And so Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so

Find The Real Block With Curiosity

SPEAKER_02 30:30

I have one more question for you. And so if someone, one of our listeners knows exactly what they need to do for their health, but they keep not doing it, what would you want them to understand about themselves?

SPEAKER_00 30:42

So I would really get quiet and really honest with yourself about what is the block? Why, where is the friction coming from? Each time that they go to have that choice about whether they're going to do this thing or not do this thing. When you have that choice in front of you, what are you telling yourself about your ability to do it or whether that's appropriate, or whether you want to, or whether people like you do it, or whether everyone in your family has never done this kind of thing before. So what makes you think you can do this? Or honestly, we can only guess at stuff. It's up to an individual to really be able to sit down and think, okay, what where's the friction here? Where am I stopping myself because I want to stay loyal to an old way of being or an old way of doing things, or an old way of even thinking about myself, what my self-concept is. And that's the piece to stay to pay attention to is like what is the operating system underneath everything? And because usually the clues are in there. And so that that's really the first step. And it's it sounds like okay, it's sort of capped and obvious kind of thing, but it's not. And because we really get so there's the cognitive fusion means that we hear the stuff that's in our own head as though it's truth, as though it's fact, because it's in our own heads and it's in our own voice. And so we you have to really work at getting at separating yourself from those beliefs and those stories. And the key is non-judgmental. So we're not beating ourselves up for having had these stories. We're not making ourselves wrong for believing these things, because that's not going to help either. So beating yourself up is never gonna help you to make those changes. So instead, you're just approaching it with curiosity, like a scientist. You're just like, interesting, that happened again. I wonder what that was about. Like, where did that come from? And so, just with curiosity, just asking yourself, okay, where's the block there? Where's that coming from? Does that always have to be true? Asking yourself those kinds of questions are gonna give you the insight that you that is has been foggy up until now.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yeah, that's great advice. Yeah, it's data, it's just data. It's hard, our emotions are entwined with it. But if you can treat it as data, as you say, get curious, we're gonna be able to get to the root of it and get to the change that we want. Thank you so much. This was a pleasure. I know that I'm leaving here with a plan to work on some identity shifts on and off the golf course. For our listeners, I'm gonna link to you have a website, you're you're prevalent on YouTube, Instagram, your book, Redesigning You, Change Your Inner Story, Transform Your Health, is available. And I'll link to that as well as your TEDx talk. Any other places you want people to go find you? I think that's the list.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

That's those are all the things, Corey. Hit the highlights, so that's good. Yeah. Right on.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

I know that this is gonna help a lot of our listeners start to shift their identity into where you want to be. Dr. Foster, thank you so much for your time. And until next episode, keep it simple and do what works.

Closing Requests And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 33:42

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, leaving 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.

Medical Disclaimer

SPEAKER_01 34:04

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.