392 Ginger Vieira

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Ginger Viera has lived with type 1 diabetes since 1999 along with other chronic illnesses. Today, she's known in the diabetes community for her brand DiabetesNerd on YouTube and Patreon and her expertise in managing type 1 and type 2 diabetes. She's also a diabetes content specialist producing content for various companies including startups, biotechs, and magazines.

She's authored hundreds of articles and several books including Exercise with Type 1 Diabetes, Pregnancy with type 1 diabetes, dealing with diabetes burnout, and stop overeating during Lowe's.

Her background includes a Bachelor of Science in Professional Writing and Certifications coaching, personal training, and more. Powerlifting and Ashtanga Yoga.

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Deep Wealth Nation, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, you heard the official introduction, but I got a question for you. When it comes to your health, how are you feeling? I'm not talking about going to your five minute annual doctor checkup where you're missing most of the information there. How are you feeling when you wake up?

How are you feeling when you get out of bed? Do you have a spring in your step? Do you have that energy? Do you have that focus? Or do you have brain fog? Are you wanting to take a nap in the middle of the day and you're just lethargic? You don't have energy. [00:03:00] Well, there may be some things going on behind that.

That's why we have a very special guest today. Diabetes nerd, aka Ginger, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. An absolute pleasure to have you with us. Now, there's always a story behind the story, Ginger. So what's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Ginger Vieira: Hi, Jeffrey. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here and talking about this. So I mean, man, if I really, go back to what led me to being here today, it is when I was about 19, 20 years old. I was, well, let's say I was, Yeah, it was 19, 20 years old. I was not taking great care of myself in college.

I had gained weight during the first couple of years. I was drinking not a ton, but when you have type 1 diabetes, it doesn't even matter, right? It was just, I wasn't paying attention to my health.

And I wasn't exercising. I didn't feel good. I felt terrible. And then my A1C was up. I was diagnosed with type 1 at 13.

And, this is about seven years later and my A1C came back the [00:04:00] highest it had ever been. And I was like, whoa. And I spent that summer teaching myself Exercise and nutrition at the most basic level, right? And by the end of that summer, I'd lost 15 pounds. I'd put on some noticeable shoulder muscle and I started working with a personal trainer.

Really gets me to the point where I fell into becoming really passionate about fitness and health, but then also really having to advocate for myself as a fitness enthusiast with type 1 diabetes. actually fell into powerlifting,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow.

Ginger Vieira: and that changed everything.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so, Ginger, just for our listeners who hear in popular media, they hear these terms tossed around, and I'm sure we're going to be talking a lot about that. So what is A1C? What is type 1, type 2 diabetes? What would you want a listener in the Deep Wealth Nation to know about those terms and any other terms that we're going to be talking about today?

Ginger Vieira: So many misconceptions on type 1 versus type 2. The [00:05:00] first thing people always ask is, well, is type 1 the bad kind? Both types are no fun. Yeah, and both types are really challenging and both types deserve compassion and support. So I want to nix that misconception that people with type 2 should be shamed for being lazy and eating lousy food.

They deserve compassion. We never know what it is. Genetics plays a huge role, but we never know what it is that also contributes to someone's decisions around exercise and food as well. And yes, we all need to take responsibility where we can, but we all have challenges, right? So that's my little rant on on supporting people with type two.

I have type one, which is an autoimmune disease, which means my immune system started attacking the cells in my pancreas that produce insulin. And they know now from decades of research that attack actually started before I was probably even five years old, but it's very gradual at first. And the full onset for me was triggered by the flu. And there's people who say, [00:06:00] well, mine was triggered by a vaccine or mine was triggered by a car crash or puberty or going to college. it started long before then, but a stressful event can kind of drive that attack on your pancreas into overdrive.

Jeffrey Feldberg: so you've helped us define type one, type two. Now, another popular myth out there that I'm sure we're going to dispel, but we'll just put it out there first, and we'll go more into what you're doing and what you're seeing, is there's this myth out there that diabetes, once you've got it, you've got it for life.

Can you speak to that, of why, with a certain type, that's not the case, and what likely caused it, and how, in fact,

we can deal with that?

Ginger Vieira: for, it's actually for a certain percentage of people with type 2. It's almost 50 50. They're in type 2 diabetes. Yes, lifestyle habits can play a huge role and can actually put the condition into remission if you apply and then maintain those lifestyle habits. You can get your blood sugars into non diabetic range, [00:07:00] but you have to keep maintaining that, right?

So they call it remission, not. Hearing or Reversing. But there is a significant portion of people with type 2 that experience gradual beta cell dysfunction, which means their cells that produce insulin are gradually breaking down. And there's even auto immunity in 2. So it is more complicated than we realize.

And I dig into this actually in a video That I did with researchers from the Diabetes Research Institute, sharing some of that deeper science of type 2, and why it's never as simple as just Eat better and exercise more for type 2 that many type 2s actually produce less and less insulin over time.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. And can you, let me ask you this, because it seems each year that passes, the more people we speak to, the more people we hear are not feeling well, and some of them are now diabetic. What's causing all of that from what you're seeing, and [00:08:00] this is not a medical show, we are not medical doctors, we are not giving medical advice, always check with your doctor, so it's a data point of one, your viewpoint, my viewpoint, what we're talking about this.

What's your opinion though? What is causing so many people, when we look around, that they're saying, oh yeah, I just got diagnosed with diabetes, what's going on with that?

Ginger Vieira: yeah. Well, I mean so the rates of type 1 and type 2 are increasing so type 1 is actually increasing at a significant rate, and that is really concerning people because that's not about lifestyle habits and it's not even necessarily 90 percent of people with type 1 don't have any family history of the disease, so that alone is very concerning, and there's a lot of theories, but they do not know why the rates of type 1 are increasing, and an important thing to know about type 1 that could apply to many adults listening A significant number of people diagnosed with type 1 to type 2 today actually have type 1 because In healthcare, there's still this [00:09:00] misconception that if you develop diabetes as an adult, it has to be type 2, that you can't develop type 1 unless you're a kid.

And there's actually another type of type 1, it's a subtype, called LADA, Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults. And it can progress so slowly that it looks like type 2 at first. So, if you are listening to this, and you've been diagnosed with type 2, and it doesn't make sense, You're not struggling with obesity.

You're not struggling. You're active. You eat healthy food. You've made changes and it's not helping your blood sugar. Ask your doctor to test you for type 1 autoantibodies because the misdiagnosis rate lately is tremendous. When it comes to type 2, I mean, we know that the rates are increasing because of increased Processed, junky food, more sedentary lifestyles, we're all in front of our computers, we're all in front of our cell phones, kids are exercising less, more time on phones, rates of type 2 in [00:10:00] children is going up it is those lifestyles.

X Factors but then there are genetics that are contributing too, and I don't, I'm not a geneticist, but one can only speculate that perhaps those genes are becoming more pervasive throughout society.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So interesting. And let me ask you this, because in Deep Wealth Nation, go to the show notes, all the links are there for you. So you have, Ginger, you have written a whole number of books. You're a fellow podcast host, which I love. And on your podcast, you do a deep dive on all this, by the way, at Type1T. Go check that out.

And the books that you've written, all in the show notes, What would you want us to know, though? If you could, if you pulled someone off the street and they said, okay, Ginger, I haven't read your books, I haven't listened to your podcast, not really much into this health area. What would you say, what's the core theme from your books and your podcast that you'd want people in the Deep Wealth Nation to know?

Ginger Vieira: Being self employed in entrepreneurship is that when I was [00:11:00] first starting to train in competitive powerlifting 20 years ago, I went to my doctor for help because it really affects your insulin needs and it's complex, right?

There's a lot of exercise physiology and they don't teach you at the doctor's office any of that. And he, I said, Hey, I'm going to compete in six months in a powerlifting meet. And this is before continuous glucose monitors existed and I was, 20 years old. And he laughed at me, so he didn't help me at all, didn't believe that I had any potential in powerlifting, right?

And I left that appointment in tears. I went and studied exercise science myself. I was a writing major. That science did not come naturally to me. And I have built my entire career over the last 20 years based on having to go learn that science myself because the doctor didn't know it, didn't believe in me, and didn't know how to help me.

And I ended up winning and setting about a dozen records at my first powerlifting meet without his help. [00:12:00] And that sprung into my first book, which then sprung into becoming kind of the T1D exercise guru in the community back then when the internet was just getting bubbling and blogs were just Starting so it really was about taking the bull by the horns myself, 

Jeffrey Feldberg: wow. First of all, congratulations for having that courage, listening to your inner voice of what's going on. And hey, yeah, I'm hearing this doctor in a white coat dismiss me, but I'm going to go anyways and really find my own path. And as long as you find your own path, you're very successful at that. So a huge congratulations.

In terms of doing that. And so why don't we do this now, given the journey that you've been on personally. So you've lived this, you're not just talking about this, you've lived this and now you're out there, you're doing the research, you're helping other people. Why don't you walk us down the path of what would be some of the early telltale signs that we're perhaps going down the wrong path with our health and maybe even heading into this area called [00:13:00] diabetes unknowingly, unwittingly, we're thinking we're doing all the right things.

But something's off. 

Ginger Vieira: Yeah, and let's specify that we're talking about pre diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Type 1, we can, there's clear symptoms of type 1 but if you're listening, you're probably an adult who is concerned about pre diabetes and type 2 diabetes, and it really, when you live with type 1, You have to watch the impact of little things on your blood sugar.

So I know what happens if I drink too much caffeine. I know I'm insulin resistant the rest of the day, like crazy insulin resistant. So by studying that, and this is the same thing in a non diabetic body, but I get to see the evidence, right? So type 1 really drives the same, it can at least if you choose to let it, drives the same lifestyle improvements and habits that we all Really would benefit from making, but we see the evidence of what happens.

To give you a few examples, caffeine [00:14:00] in particular. I know my body can handle one serving of caffeine a day. If I drink more than that, my blood sugar skyrockets a hundred points and it's stuck up there. Until the caffeine has finally worked its way out of my system. And the reason it's doing that, it does the same thing in your body, but without the high blood sugar.

Instead, it's contributing to weight gain and insulin resistance, because caffeine can tell your liver to release glucose. It also stimulates the production of other hormones that cause insulin resistance. And that extra glucose from your liver has got to be stored as body fat. So if you're chugging caffeine all day, even in Diet Coke where it says zero calories, you are contributing to your own insulin resistance.

All right? So that's one example is take more responsibility for what you're drinking just because it's zero calories or it's black coffee or oh, I don't even feel caffeine anymore. Your body feels it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. Yeah. In all the unexpected places, just something so common, so [00:15:00] trivial, and it can have that kind of effect on us. That's

Ginger Vieira: but when I see people who are struggling with their weight I ask them, one of the first things I ask them is, what are you drinking all day? And they are often drinking caffeine all day long. And I guarantee it's contributing to their weight. And also just feeling terrible, there, and there's no way you don't feel it.

It's a stimulant, right? Another one is exercising inconsistently. So I know that if I don't do, I walk my dogs every day and then I do a more vigorous cardio session and then I do a little bit of weights throughout the week and no more power lifting for me, but regular weights. I know that if for some reason I don't do that 30 minutes of cardio, that more vigorous part of the workout, I need twice as much insulin at lunch. So in a non diabetic body, it's the same thing that your body has to produce more insulin to help you manage the food you ate. And the more insulin you need to manage it, the more likely a good portion of [00:16:00] that insulin and the food that's being broken down in the glucose is being stored. as body fat, right?

So the impact exercise has on your insulin sensitivity is immediate, but then it's also long term, right? So the consistency factor is so critical. And when I hear someone say, well, I exercise, I go to spin class Tuesdays and maybe on the weekend well, if you're trying to lose weight or prevent, diabetes or maintain your weight or turn your blood sugars around because your doctor was told you had pre diabetes, twice a week is not enough. It needs to be every day. At the very least, we should all be walking every day. And the problem with, you were asking about the early signs of type 2 and prediabetes, they're not there. It takes years to gradually increase on you to the point of having symptoms. And by then, you have, Diabetes.

So it really comes down to these little habits that make such a [00:17:00] difference. the other obvious one is eat more real food and less processed junk. And it doesn't mean you got to throw all the crackers into the garbage. Like very passionate about an 80 20 diet and I have a free download on my website that you can, it's an eight pager.

It's just a light guide to how you can create your own 80 20, 80%. Whole Foods, 20%, room for something, quote unquote, not so perfect,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. Okay. So, we're hearing exercise, regular, on a daily basis.

Ginger Vieira: every day.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It doesn't have to be crazy, and Ginger, you can tell me if I'm on base or off base. When I did my own deep dive into this area for myself, what came through consistently again and again, you can exercise, but you can exercise at the wrong time.

And exercise as much as timing, or timing is as important as doing the exercise itself. And the advice, and what I tend to follow is, I'll tend to exercise. After I have a meal, [00:18:00] I'll, if I can, do a 15 minute walk, maybe 20 minute walk, sometimes more, sometimes less, but right after the meal, I'm walking and having some kind of a movement.

And this is excluding any other, I do resistance training, that's in and of itself, I'll do that at a different time, but after a meal, I'm going to be taking a walk. So where are you with that? We have a meal, and then walking, is that something that you'd prescribe for the Deep Wealth Nation.

Ginger Vieira: What's most important is that you just figure out how to get it done. And I'll tell you, as a Type 1, I actually Make sure to exercise before I eat, and here's why, and this really is pretty insulin focused, but the same logic can apply to a non diabetic.

If you just ate a meal, mostly what you're burning during that walk is your meal. And that's not a bad thing. As a type one, I have to take insulin for that meal. So when I go on the walk, I've now added this component that is going to eat up the glucose from my meal more quickly, which puts me at risk for low blood sugars.

One of my most popular books is [00:19:00] Exercise with Type 1 Diabetes. It's so challenging for people who take insulin because Insulin drives your blood sugar down, exercise drives your blood sugar down, and then you're trying to juggle, well, what would I take for that meal, in terms of the insulin dose, now I'm going to add exercise to it, how do I reduce the dose, and not end up flat on the pavement, a mile into my jog, when I exercise before I eat, I don't have a dose of rapid acting insulin in my system because it's been four hours since my last meal.

So I've basically nearly eliminated my risk of going low, going hypoglycemic during my exercise. And it's, in large part, because I have my, long acting insulin dose, I know I'm getting deep in diabetes weeds here, but my long acting insulin dose dialed down I have it fine tuned, so that's step one for anyone listening who takes insulin, and I teach you that in my book but then I also [00:20:00] am burning more fat for fuel instead of glucose, because I don't have food.

or a dose of rapid acting insulin on board. So exercising before you eat for a non diabetic is actually a strategy that bodybuilders use to burn fat, and they have for decades. And it's because you're burning more fat for fuel when you don't have a belly full of calories. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. So, what I'm also hearing is, depending on where you are in the health spectrum, so if you have diabetes, and in your case, it's, okay, I'm going to exercise before I have a meal, because this is how my body is, for someone who doesn't have diabetes, then it sounds like there's some more flexibility in terms of what's there.

So exercise is key. The timing of the exercise is absolutely key. You referred to it earlier, it just seems like a pandemic is out there. I'm going to use the term, a food desert. And when you hear the word food desert, it sounds like there's no food. You're going to be starving. It's actually the opposite.

And I know as an example, when I'm [00:21:00] traveling, there's lots of food. There are restaurants and shops on every corner, but it's a food desert because it's highly processed food. Not healthy, all kinds of ingredients in there. Don't get me going on the seed oils and the canola oil, sunflower oil, all those other kinds of oils that are in there that aren't so good.

All kinds of sugar and processed sugar and the fructose, glucose in there. The list goes on and on that there really isn't what I would call healthy food. So for Deep Wealth Nation, what is healthy eating exactly, Ginger? What does that mean? Because sometimes we can control what we eat, sometimes we can't, but having that education, knowing what we eat.

Let me look for this, or let me have this, or hey, I'm going to stay away from that, even if I have to fast for a short while because I'm better off without it. What is healthy eating in your

Ginger Vieira: Well, speaking of fasting, I'm a huge fan of intermittent fasting. I practice intermittent fasting basically six days a week, at least, sometimes seven. Um, I do the, 16 8 fast, so I, I don't start eating till 2 p. m. most days, [00:22:00] 1 or 2 p. m. But you know, again, on travel, I pack my apple and almonds. When I travel I don't like the excuse of, well, all there was available was McDonald's.

Well, you can skip a meal. You won't pass out from not eating a junky lunch. But you can if we let go of this idea that every meal has to be hot and melted, you can make a very healthy pile of calories. If you're in that food desert, for whatever reason, stop making excuses. you can go to any restaurant nearly. I mean, I don't know about McDonald's, I choose to just not eat at McDonald's, right? It makes me feel disgusting. But you can turn any Meal at a restaurant into a healthier meal by asking them to swap this, swap that.

I'd rather, save my more indulgent calories for the bun on the burger and not have the french fries. And I know, I feel terrible when I eat french fries. Am I tempted? Absolutely. Do I give in occasionally? [00:23:00] Sure. But most of the time, I swap out the fries for salad. And that simple switch makes such a difference.

Especially if you're someone who's going out to restaurants a lot. That's, it's gonna add up. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. And so really, what I'm hearing you say and what I'm hearing you not say, and again, you can say Jeffrey, on base, off base. So healthy eating, it's ideally, if it has a label on it, it's probably processed. So it would be whole foods where it's fruits. Vegetables, organic if possible, and when it comes to the proteins, if that's something that you choose, the proteins, again, if it's going to be beef, I would say grass fed beef without all the antibiotics and the hormones, if you can, and just minimally processed and how it's cooked and the kinds of ingredients that are put 

Ginger Vieira: Yeah, more real food. More real food. And you don't have to go nuts about it. We have so many extreme diet regimens in this country.

It's all or nothing, if this if a little [00:24:00] bit of ranch salad dressing helps the salad go down I'm not gonna tell you not to eat ranch salad dressing I think that we really need to be there's so much extremism about Nutrition to the point where it makes it very hard for people who are trying to step towards a healthier relationship with food.

It makes them feel like, oh, they've got to be perfect. And that's going to make them not want to start in the first place or give up too quickly if it's too rigid. I really believe in this kind of flexible, realistic approach where there is room for the not so perfect things. You don't have to be obsessed with every detail.

Jeffrey Feldberg: okay, terrific. So we've established whole foods or foods that have fewer ingredients, the better. The more processing, the less healthy for us. We've established of exercising, also listening to your body. How do you feel? And sometimes the food that we eat, we may not feel it for a day, two days, even three days later, as crazy as that sounds, but really going within, how do we feel?[00:25:00]

But let me ask you this, for someone who's listening, someone in Deep Wealth Nation, they just came back from the doctor, and the doctor has shared either they're pre diabetic or they are in fact diabetic. This is something new for them. What should they be doing? What advice, what expert advice would you be giving them of, okay, this is now day one, what can they do to hopefully get them back to a better state of health?

Ginger Vieira: Yeah so the first thing I would recommend is just make sure your doctor confirms that it's actually type 2 and not type 1. Demand if you have reason to question a type 2 diagnosis, if it doesn't make sense for you based on your activity and your already healthy lifestyle habits, Demand extra testing.

But if it is pretty obvious that it's a type two or pre diabetes diagnosis, start walking every day. Walking is such a great workout and we underestimate it so much because of the extreme CrossFit workouts and the half marathons and the Ironmans in this country, right? And, it's [00:26:00] walking is such a great thing for diabetes and weight loss because it puts your heart rate in that fat burning zone.

So people think, oh, a workout's only worthwhile if I'm jogging five miles or I'm, my chest is pounding, right? When your heart rate is 140 zone, you're burning more fat for fuel. So it's not going to ramp up your appetite like CrossFit would. And you will get a boost in your insulin sensitivity for the rest of that day.

And then you walk again tomorrow, you're gonna get that boost again. And then you start dropping weight after doing that for even just a week or two, bit by bit. And Then you get another boost from weight loss, from losing a few pounds. It takes five pounds to start seeing a difference. If you were measuring your own insulin doses, which you wouldn't be in this case, but I'm telling you five pounds makes a difference, right?

So start walking and then just look at one meal. One part of your day where you could start thinking, all right, can I make some different choices here? It [00:27:00] does not need to be, you'll notice my theme is that we don't need to do this obsessive, perfect, 100 percent switch on everything because I've spent 20 years now supporting people in trying to improve their own diabetes health and type 1 and type 2 and the thing that I see the most Is that people feel so pressured to do everything perfectly right away.

And that is very exhausting and defeating and hard to sustain. So I've really come to a place where I'm just always trying to encourage people to do that bit by bit, self improvement

Jeffrey Feldberg: So I'm hearing done is better than perfect, at least get out there. And Ginger, what's interesting is it sounds like walking is a superpower that I've heard you say walk. And doesn't cost anything. It helps us. It puts us back into a better state. And it's so interesting because we just take walking for granted.

And here you're saying actually no walking can be very healthy. Just know what to do and when to do it. Okay? So we're gonna be doing all that. And so for deep both [00:28:00] Nation, let's put a pause in things and ginger, between you and me. We're probably down to no listeners at this point. We lost them with all these different health tips and fasting and food and everything else, but maybe for that half a listener or the one listener that's still there.

Why are we talking about this? Let's begin to put this into focus here. You've heard us say before in the Deep Wealth Podcast that business is personal because what's going on with us personally is going to spill over onto the business side. If we're not feeling well, if we are just In pain, or we don't have that clarity, the business growth is going to really suffer, or if we're making the deal of a lifetime and we don't have that clarity, we don't have the energy to see it through, guess what?

We're not going to get the best deal. We're likely going to get any deal, if any deal at all. And so what we're talking about here with Ginger are, I'm going to say simple steps, not to confuse simple with simplicity, but proven simple steps, not complicated, that you can do right now. It's an investment of your time.

It doesn't cost you anything else to do with everything that we've spoken about so far. Go for a walk, exercise [00:29:00] regularly, be very selective of the kinds of foods that you're putting into your body. The food is information for the body and the type of food that we put in. Tells the body what to do or not to do in this case.

And hopefully we can steer ourselves back to a better position of health. So with that said, Ginger, have I missed anything in what we've been talking about so far? Would you be on base or off base with what I just shared?

Ginger Vieira: No, I think you nailed it. And it really, as well as how, this may be a moot point for your audience, but if you are trying to, combine. Self improvement in your health while building your business. It also comes down to being really honest with yourself, right? You need to be honest with yourself and how your business is going and what you need, what you can't do yourself, what you need to hire out, right?

What's worth your time, what isn't. Improving your health also starts with being really honest with yourself. Stop making excuses. Stop saying, I don't have time to exercise. I bet you [00:30:00] probably have some time you could switch from the TV or scrolling on your phone to exercising, listen to your show on AirPods while you're exercising, put the treadmill in the living room.

It just, it all comes down to being honest with yourself And really, you can't do much if you're not being genuine with yourself.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so interesting. And Ginger, speaking of interesting, I'd love your thoughts on this. People in Deep Wealth community, they go away on vacation. They happen to go to Europe. They're away for a week, two weeks, sometimes more. They come back and they share with us. I don't know what it is, I ate the same foods, maybe even, quote unquote, the worst foods that I thought, all the carbs, the breads, the pizza, but I didn't feel bad, and I actually lost weight, and I didn't really do anything different.

So what's going on from where you sit today with the food system here, let's call it in North America, compared to, let's say, Europe and other places?

Ginger Vieira: I mean, we, so I have celiac, which [00:31:00] means I have an autoimmune disease that makes me unable to tolerate gluten. And I've heard from so many people who a gluten allergy that they can handle gluten in Europe, glutinous foods, the pasta, et cetera. And we know that in this country, we pack not only all kinds of weird.

So, we have named chemicals in our food that are not even legal in Europe, but we also pack more gluten into our glutinous products because it makes them cheaper, lighter, stretchier, fluffier, that's a big part of it. It's just the quality of the food that you're getting in Europe. I mean, the list of things that are banned.

The amount of food in Europe that we're allowed to put in food here today in the U. S. is really ridiculous when we like to say that we're the best country in the world, right? It's I'm not so sure what's going on with the food there. And then, of course, when you're on vacation, you're not stressed out, you're not sitting in front of your computer the whole time, and you're probably walking more.

And I'm going to toot that walking horn again. [00:32:00] You burn body fat when you're walking.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. So interesting in terms of what you're saying. And again, there's no conspiracy theories here. It's been shown that the ingredients that we have here in the U. S., it's cheaper. It makes the foods last longer. It's not good for our bodies, but it's good for the bottom line, for the profits of these mega food companies.

And that's part of what we're up against, which is why some people, they just never feel hungry. I just ate a whole meal, but I still feel hungry. It's what's in the food or what's not in the food in this case. So in many ways, there's so many things that are set up against us. But let me ask you this, and again, you can say Jeffrey, on base or off base, whether as a person who is headed towards type 2 diabetes, has type 2, or is newly diagnosed with type 2, or someone who doesn't have any of that and is just saying, Ginger, I just want to be healthy.

I don't want to go down that path, or if possible, I want to reverse the type 2 and go back to the way that it was. What would be a typical day in the life? What would that look like? And right now we've been talking about strategies that you've shared that don't cost [00:33:00] anything. If you want to go into strategies that, okay, it's a little bit of money, but it's your health and our health is our first wealth and it's an investment, not a cost.

Please share some of that with us as well. 

Ginger Vieira: I mean, if you can, I would start your day with at least a 15 to 30 minute walk, if possible. And then, if you're eating breakfast, and again, I'm a big fan of fasting, which means skipping breakfast but just choose cereal is terrible for your blood sugar. There's no product in the cereal box.

And I don't care how beautiful they made the box, Type Ones will tell you, it takes like a half cup of cereal to demand 10 units of insulin. It's crazy. It's just so processed. So just like, I would dare you to try eating some vegetables and a big salad with eggs and sausage on the side if you need, your turkey sausage or whatever, but get your, try to make your breakfast low carb, high fat, high protein, because when you're doing that in high fiber.

You're not setting yourself up for this big spike in your blood sugar in the morning. And ask yourself, how do [00:34:00] you feel after you eat breakfast? I know if I eat a bowl of oatmeal, which is nutritious and whole food, I want to take a nap by noon. I don't feel good. So, you could argue, well, oatmeal is healthy.

Yeah, it is, right? But how do you feel after you eat something? I know also that if I eat a hot meal at lunch, It kind of weighs me down and zaps some of my energy. So I don't eat hot food at lunch, right? And so it's, I'm not telling you exactly what to eat, but more ask yourself how you feel right now based on what you are eating, because that's step one.

And then it comes back down to, it's not that you can't have a sandwich bread with meat and veggies, but what would happen if you swapped out the bread and put in a ton of spinach and romaine lettuce instead, right? And still make sure your salad has calories on it to help you feel like you got what you needed.

Don't do the rabbit salad. if you're going to take out the bread, you [00:35:00] need fat and protein. on your salad. So don't get into that trap of trying to go low carb and low fat and, low everything. And choose the simple fruit and nuts, fruit and fats, veggies and hummus. Like it can be so simple and we like to make it so complicated.

So, there's a lot to do in this country, but it doesn't have to be this big to do every time you sit down and eat. And to lose weight, there has to be some deprivation somewhere. There has to be, right? To maintain your weight, there has to be a little bit of deprivation for most of us, unless you're lucky to have a body type that stays really lean.

So for me, I know that one of the best ways to lose my postpartum pregnancy weight and maintain my current weight is through intermittent fasting. And I get my day's worth of calories later in the day. But by fasting for the first chunk of the day, I'm burning more body fat and really kind of putting myself into a fat burning zone until 1 p.

m. by not consuming calories. So [00:36:00] deprivation, you gotta think, if you're full all day, it's not, you're not gonna lose weight.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. And when it comes to intermittent fasting, that may be a new term for Deep Pultination. The saying fasting, intermittent fasting, it sounds scary. What is it? The analogy that I'll give you Deep Pultination is this. Imagine it has rained outside and is really muddy. And Everyone is now walking inside, it could be your home, it could be your office building, and the floors are just filled with mud and dirt, and the cleaning crew comes out, and they start mopping, they start cleaning, but people are still walking around, and the floors are always dirty, and they're never clean.

Well, that would be equivalent to how most people live. They are eating from the moment they wake up, to the moment they go to bed. They're giving the body no break. And just when they stop eating, the body's getting, okay, great, I'm going to digest all these foods. Boom, we start eating again. Now imagine a scenario, it rains outside, it's really mucky, people have walked through, but we now close the doors are locked, nobody can go into the home or [00:37:00] building, the cleaning crew comes around, the floors are immaculate, they're spotless, it's clean, it's sanitized, everything is set to go.

That's what we're doing when we fast, we're ideally having maybe two meals, no more than three meals. There's time between those meals, but once you stop fasting, let's say after dinner, until your first meal of the day, whenever that is for you, the next day, you're not eating, and you're not snacking, and you're not adding to all of that confusion.

So that's what intermittent fasting is. And Ginger, one quick question before we start going to wrap up mode. I know offline, you were sharing how you have a continuous glucose monitor and people may have heard of a CGM or a continuous glucose monitor, not quite sure what that is, so what is a CGM and whether you have diabetes or you don't have diabetes, there may be a use for that.

So why don't you share with Deep Wealth Nation, what's that all about?

Ginger Vieira: a CGM is a Continuous Glucose Monitor, and I've actually been sticking them on a few of my non diabetic friends, and one of them, so it [00:38:00] measures the amount of glucose in your interstitial fluid, which eventually works its way into your bloodstream. So it's measuring your blood sugar, for simplicity's sake, and I would definitely recommend, if anyone is worried about prediabetes and needs some motivation to make habit changes,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Huh. 

Ginger Vieira: Check out Dexcom's new over the counter Stello CGM, it is intended for non diabetics, it would cost you a little less than 100 for one month, and you really don't need to do it forever, you would see how your blood sugars are doing in that one month with two CGMs, with two sensors, forgive me.

So I've. I stuck a CGM on my best friend who's very active and a vegan and we documented that in a YouTube video at Diabetes Nerd. it's my most popular video on Diabetes Nerd because it's just really fun to see what's happening in that non diabetic body, but people were frustrated that she's too healthy, right?

So I haven't we haven't finished it yet. But yeah. I put [00:39:00] one on a friend who is at that pre diabetic level, and two people actually, two men, and one of them has reduced the size of his Mountain Dew that he drinks every day because he's seeing what it does to his blood sugar. And there's a lot more work he could make, but you know, not everybody's ready for that.

So just that alone he was watching his blood sugar go from 80 to 200 every day. because of his daily Mountain Dew and seeing the evidence motivated him to turn it around. My other friend was seeing just this general kind of running a little high and never waking up below 120 and that's definitely pre diabetes, right?

Your blood sugar should be below 100 in a non diabetic. So that information motivated him to start taking his And he took his health and fitness more seriously, and he's now talking to his doctor about it, and it just took two weeks, one sensor lasts about two weeks I definitely recommend, if you want some real insight into how your body is [00:40:00] managing with insulin resistance and that coffee all day or whatever you're eating and drinking, Stelo, S T E L O, it just got approved this year, it is the only CGM that you can just.

Kind of walk up and buy but you'd probably go to their website right now. I doubt they're in stores yet.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay, so Deep Wealth Nation, what you're hearing is there's a device called a Continuous Glucose Monitor and it's like putting a, really, it's a sensor that goes on your arm. And it's measuring your levels in the body. And so what you've heard in terms of some of the numbers here, Ginger, you've been throwing around 80, 200, 300, a hundred, but generally speaking, what would be a healthy range in terms of

Ginger Vieira: In a non diabetic your blood sugar should be below 100 when you wake up and be before meals and after eating it shouldn't really go over 140. you ate something like, Black Forest cake or any type of real dessert then yeah, you might see it go up a teeny bit. [00:41:00] And generally your body should be able to handle that if your overall health is intact and your sensitivity to insulin.

And most likely what you'll see is the carrot isn't going to do much probably to anybody, but most likely what you'll see is, is my body handling my diet well, my lifestyle habits well, or is it generally struggling? The man who drank the Mountain Dew and he spiked, he wasn't eating anything else the rest of the day.

So that's why his blood sugar was okay the rest of the day, he wasn't eating at all. But I do want to add, too, people will say, well, doesn't that go in with a needle? There is a quick little prick, the needle pulls right out in a split second, but I want to tell you, children wear these things all day, every day, for years of their life at Type 1 Diabetes.

So if they can handle it, you can suck it up and handle it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: There you go. And going back to the point, Ginger, of how all of our bodies are different, you use the example of an oatmeal. So some people may have oatmeal, and yes, it just spikes, and it's like [00:42:00] that hockey stick curve, it's just going way out into the stratosphere. Other people may have it, and nothing's going on.

So everyone's different. We can't assume just because it works or doesn't work for one person doesn't mean it's going to necessarily work or not work for us. And Deep Wealth Nation, think about that. Continuous glucose monitor, just to try yourself out, see what's going on. But let me ask you this, Ginger, we could go into so many different directions.

We are bumping up against time. Is there a question that I didn't ask or a topic we didn't cover, or even a message that you'd like to get out to the Deep Wealth Nation?

Ginger Vieira: I think really that, bit by bit, the little habits that help a person living with diabetes help anyone who doesn't have diabetes also.

So stop worrying about your friends that ought to go do this or that because they have diabetes and you're scolding them when you're out to dinner or whatever, you know, we, we, we receive type ones and type twos, get a lot of shame and scolding and lecturing from practical strangers.

Focus on your own habits because. You don't have to do it perfectly, but all the same things that you're doing affect your blood [00:43:00] sugar and your insulin resistance, too, regardless of your weight right now. And I teach a lot of that on Diabetes Nerd on YouTube, and I'm launching a Patreon channel that'll probably be out by the time this episode is out, Diabetes Nerd, where you're gonna get constant advice and exclusive content that teaches how to improve your overall health and insulin sensitivity.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. So important, Deep Wealth Nation, in terms of what we're talking about. And hold that thought because we're going to circle back of how you're going to be able to get in touch and ask questions or go through some of the programs with Ginger. But Ginger, before we do that, we're going to go into wrap up mode, which is a tradition here in the Deep Wealth Podcast.

It's my privilege. It's my honor. I have the same question that I ask every single guest. It's a fun question. Let me set this up for you. All right. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time. So Ginger, the fun part is tomorrow morning, you look outside your window.

Wow. You see the DeLorean car. It's sitting there. It's curbside. The door is open. It's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do, and you're now going to [00:44:00] go to any point of your life. Ginger, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be, what would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom?

Or, hey, Ginger, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like?

Ginger Vieira: I think I would go back to my early twenties and try to help myself understand that, because what I know today, not necessarily about diabetes, but about my own ability to, Make something big without having to work for someone else. I think I would go back and tell that younger version of myself hey, you can do this.

Just because people treat you like a five foot two girl doesn't mean, and I've always had to kind of prove to someone, hey, and you're a man, so you won't even get this. But when you have a bright smile and you're short and you're happy, people underestimate you. And I think I would tell myself earlier, don't let that deter you, and continue to prove them [00:45:00] wrong and push back, and I do push back always, but I think I would have more confidence going forward in what I have to offer.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. Okay. And so if you had to say that to your younger self in a sentence, what do you

think that would One sentence? Don't hold back.

Don't hold

Ginger Vieira: back. Go be you.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Go BU, don't hold back. It's terrific advice and it's really so applicable for all of us. Hey, just be you. Everyone else is busy being themselves. Just be you. Don't hold back.

I absolutely love that. And so Ginger, somebody has a question. They want to work with you. They want to learn more. Perhaps have a family member, friend, colleague who they want to help and they want to educate themselves as well. Where would be the best place online for someone to find you?

Ginger Vieira: GingerVieira. com, you'll find everything on there. I have a newsletter, podcast, diabetes nerd YouTube channel, tons of articles that you can access for free. I've written over a thousand articles at this point that are organized by topic on my website, related to diabetes and insulin and [00:46:00] type 1, type 2, pregnancy, everything.

And, yeah.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Deep Wealth Nation, it does not get any easier. Go to the show notes. It's a point and click. While you're there, check out the podcast, Type1T. You can check out all of the books that Ginger has done and her programs. It doesn't get any easier than that. Well, it's official. Congratulations, Ginger. This is a wrap.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much. So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

Are you ready for it? 

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God bless.