Why You're Craving Sugar and Gaining Weight: The Fiber Fix

Chris Reade (02:33)

Thanks for having me. It's great to be on.

Natalie Tysdal (02:35)

So your story is different from many people I talk to in the healthcare world because your expertise here now on diabetes comes from your own experience, not necessarily your education.

Chris Reade (02:47)

No, and and honestly I mean I did have a lot of help from my doctor, but and we can we can talk a little bit about that, how that happened. but I also had some resistance from the medical establishment as well. So I mean it's kinda kinda both ways.

Natalie Tysdal (03:00)

So you did your research, you learned, but give me your story and how this all came about.

Chris Reade (03:06)

Sure. so of all the things that I thought would change my life, a screwed up insurance renewal is not the one that I thought it would be. But that's how it happened. my insurance agent had switched to a different carrier and couldn't take my policy with him. So he called me up and he said, Hey, look, somebody else is gonna pick up your account. I can't take you with me. I said, Okay, so fun. So about six months later, eight months later, something like that, I noticed I'd never gotten a bill.

And I was like, wait a second, why do I not have a bill? So I called him up and I said, Hey, what happened? And he's Hey, don't you remember I switched companies, I am not your agent anymore. He says, But I'll tell you what, I'll check it for you. So he goes and he checks and he's like, Well, it's a good thing you're not dead because you don't have any life insurance, my friend. And he's like, The guy who picked up your account, yeah, he never actually did anything with your account. so I ended up taking that standard battery of tests that you take before you do a life insurance policy.

twice

within about twelve months of each other. And the first one, my A1C, which is the measure of how high your average blood sugar is, was totally normal. And in the second one, it was completely diabetic. and that scared not even a year, about eleven

Natalie Tysdal (04:18)

How far apart were they again? Wow.

Chris Reade (04:21)

months. ten, eleven months, something like that. And that scared the living heck out me, as you can imagine.

And at first I was like, No, no, no. That you know, I was in full denial mode. This is not that's not true. This is a screw up, blah blah blah. And he's like, you know what? Just go go see a doctor. And like a lot of guys in my age bracket, I hadn't seen a doctor in a very long time. yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Natalie Tysdal (04:45)

so this actually got you into the doctor for a lot of people.

It could have saved your life. Yeah.

Chris Reade (04:50)

Absolutely.

It it it it certainly lengthened it. That's or at least my health span, that's for sure. So anyway, so I go in and like a lot of primary care physicians, I didn't have primary care, so it just kinda signed up randomly. And so I go in and and doctor says she's like, Okay, well look, here's a prescription for metformin and a couple other drugs, and if that doesn't get you get you handled in a few months, we'll we'll ho put you up with some insulin and then we'll keep going from there. And I was like, whoa, whoa, time out. What

I'm not I'm not diabetic. It's just like

Natalie Tysdal (05:21)

Okay, so explain

to people who don't know. first your overall health. Like we generally pretty healthy and then what metformin is, yeah.

Chris Reade (05:27)

I was I was a I I played

sports, I'm a volleyball player. I played sports played three nights a week then. I play four now, but three or four a week, so that's eight to ten hours a week of pretty hardcore exercise. I felt reasonably healthy. I didn't have any symptoms of any sort. I felt as good as I had a year before.

Natalie Tysdal (05:52)

And how

how old were you when this happened and wow.

Chris Reade (05:54)

46, 45, 46, something like that. And

so anyway, so she said this line to me that really knocked me over. She says, This is a progressive, incurable disease. You're gonna have this the rest of your life. And I was

Natalie Tysdal (06:08)

Well

Chris Reade (06:08)

like, wait a second. Like, hold the phone. Like it's you know, so I so I said, Okay. I walked out of there and I had a little heart to heart with myself about how we're gonna approach this.

And I was like, homie is not playing that. Like we are we are gonna find a different answer. And so I did a lot of research, a lot of research. And found myself a different doctor who was willing to actually help me, and she's been a godsend for me ever since. and found a different way to handle that without drugs. And so ten years later, I haven't had my A1C over normal or even low.

Ever

since, about four months, five months after that first visit. by so that was like October by February, my A one C was normal and it has never been anything but normal or low ever since. and that's ten years now. and I haven't done anything really other than differently.

Natalie Tysdal (07:12)

So let's that's amazing. A

couple of things I want to identify here for anyone listening thinking this doesn't really apply to me. Explain A one C and then does diabetes run in your family? Because for a lot of people they can be pre-diabetic, they can be starting to get there and they don't really know what all of this means and how it can affect them, even if they don't have diabetes in their family.

Chris Reade (07:36)

Right. So I would say I would argue that if we're talking about type two diabetes, so type one diabetes is typically called juvenile diabetes. It's usually onsets in preteen to teen years. It is an autoimmune disease where your white blood cells attack your pancreas and basically kill its ability to f create insulin. That's a different thing. Like that is a whole universe Yeah, you've got to get insulin. There's no

Natalie Tysdal (08:00)

That's where you need sugar. You you you see people who like it. Right.

Chris Reade (08:04)

your body

Like you said,

Natalie Tysdal (08:05)

Right.

Chris Reade (08:05)

it's it's like lupus or some of the odd other autoimmune diseases, like there's or Crohn's disease or something like that. We don't really understand those particularly well. type two is a different story.

Natalie Tysdal (08:14)

But a whole different story from yeah.

Chris Reade (08:17)

I would argue that every single person on this planet has type two in their family. All of us. Because that is a very different set of circumstances. In that particular instance, it's not that your pancreas, your body's like attacking your pancreas. It's just

You've either overused your pancreas or more precisely gotten what's called visceral fat on it. But it just means for most of us, a practical upshot. For most people, I happen to have had a different experience myself. But most people I know, and I'm sure many of your listeners know, have had this visit. Well, Chris, you're overall pretty healthy, but you know, you might want to start cutting down on sweets because your A1C is getting a little up there. And then the next year.

Chris, you remember we talked about like you should cut back on sweets? Well, maybe you really need to do that. Like, most people have a five to seven year progression of that. And the whole time it's like the frog in a in the in the f in the pot scenario. It's never bad enough to where you're like, my God, I must do something right now. But it's progressively getting a little worse each year. That's what

Natalie Tysdal (09:22)

Yeah, yeah.

Chris Reade (09:23)

most people experience. I happen to have not, which is probably what shocked me into action, honestly.

And I think that that and the fact that I am a technologist, so I s do a lot of research and I'm good at finding information really made a difference I think as well.

Natalie Tysdal (09:44)

Do you have any diabetes in your family? Anyone else in your family have the same story?

Chris Reade (09:49)

No,

no. I mean my d my dad had diabetes, but he got diabetes in his seventies, like a lot of I mean so I mean yes, but that's I would say every single person in America, you're talking like thirty percent of the population is type two diabetic. so it's We are a sugar culture. That is cocho.

Natalie Tysdal (10:04)

Well, we are a sugar nation. Like we just we

like things sweet. It's funny, I I recently traveled to Europe and and someone said, you know, they don't crave sugar, like the the it's more of a a a salty area where they like the the flavors of salt and we just like things sweet. We have become accustomed to things our coffee, our s everything being sweet.

Chris Reade (10:27)

yeah. and I

and look, I was a poster child for that most of my life, right? And I thought, and a lot of people make this mistake, I thought I exercise a lot, ergo, I can pretty much eat what I want. And a lot of us make this bad calculus, which is lots of exercise works off food. That just ain't true, unfortunately. I wish it were true. God do I wish it were true, but it's not. and so what I ended up discovering

which people have been researching about and talking about is hardly new news. since the early nineteen seventies there have been clinical studies on this, which is that soluble fiber has the ability to control blood sugar and to reverse type two diabetes. Full stop.

Natalie Tysdal (11:15)

Wow. Okay. So I'm really excited to talk about fiber because

Chris Reade (11:19)

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Tysdal (11:19)

I think this and and I want to talk about GLPs here in a minute with you too. Because

Chris Reade (11:23)

Sure. yeah.

Natalie Tysdal (11:24)

obviously the GLP revolution, so many people taking it, they're feeling full. But we can do that with fiber. So I'm not saying

Chris Reade (11:31)

Yeah. Okay.

Natalie Tysdal (11:33)

there's anything wrong with GLPs. They're doing amazing things for a lot of people, but

Chris Reade (11:38)

Sure.

Natalie Tysdal (11:38)

we could also do this first or we can do it in construction.

Chris Reade (11:41)

Well, and I would say the

thing about GOPs, so for me, for me, the biggest part of that doctor saying to me, This is a progressive incurable disease, you will have the rest of your life, the biggest problem for that for me was freedom. I did not want to have to think about my meds when I left the house. Like I'm going

Natalie Tysdal (12:03)

Sure.

Chris Reade (12:04)

on a business trip tonight. When I leave

I'll grab my toiletry kit just like everybody else does. I throw it in the bag and I take off. I don't really have to think about, my God, did I reveal my prescription? I don't know. how many days am I gonna be done? Right. I don't do that. And the GOPs

Natalie Tysdal (12:18)

Yeah. Yeah. That's rough for a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Reade (12:23)

are like that. It's I they do do amazing things for people, but they are a drug that you are on and you're staying on.

Natalie Tysdal (12:29)

You

and if you go off it, yeah, I've been talking to people who are like, whoa, I started gaining weight when they go off of it. And it's expensive. But can I go

Chris Reade (12:34)

And lots of money. Lots

Natalie Tysdal (12:38)

back to the doctor situation for a minute? So this was 10 years ago. The

Chris Reade (12:40)

Sure. Yep.

Natalie Tysdal (12:42)

doctor you went to who was just somebody you called up because you had to do it. I I I I don't ever like to criticize doctors. They're doing amazing things. But it's amazing to me that you found another doctor who was willing to

say,

Chris Reade (12:55)

Well, like

yeah.

Natalie Tysdal (12:57)

Who but

who was willing to say, let's go this way instead of just taking a drug. And that's where I really promote people is know what you're asking and ask for alternatives and just

Chris Reade (13:09)

Yes.

Natalie Tysdal (13:09)

understand it without taking the first bit of advice the first person, doctor, or whomever gives you. So you found another doctor who was willing to say, Let's try something else before just taking

Chris Reade (13:20)

Yes, and

Natalie Tysdal (13:21)

the drugs.

Chris Reade (13:22)

so I would say a couple of things on that. One, that first primary care doctor, I'll be willing to bet you she saw somewhere between twenty-five and forty patients that day. I mean, that's the normal day regard for primary

Natalie Tysdal (13:32)

Yeah, which is common. It's just they're just cycling people in. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Reade (13:37)

care doctors in America is somewhere between twenty-five and forty patients a day. So and after you've seen the fifteenth of them, that's either pre diabetic or diabetic.

You're like, okay, I got kind of a standard pattern here. Now you may know that there are alternatives, but you're looking at it going, I don't have any way to just say to these people, hey, if you don't want to take the drugs, here's a way to do it, right? And that's typical American medicine. That's the way we do things in this country. And that's the way we've done it

Natalie Tysdal (14:05)

Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah.

Chris Reade (14:07)

more than my lifetime for sure. And that's fine, but if you don't want that option and you you wanna be free and you wanna have another alternative.

Then you've got to do a little research and gotta find a doctor who's willing to actually do that. Now, like I said, I'm a technologist by trade. And so hunting down a doctor who would actually have that discussion with me was relatively easy for me. I don't think it's particularly hard for anybody. All I did was like kind of dial for dollars until I got somebody who's willing to have that discussion. and that was pretty easy because once I had that discussion, I was able to then take the studies that are in my book. I have a whole chapter.

called Studies I Bet My Life On, because I did. And those studies, I I took them to her and I said, okay, what do you think about these? And she was like, this is kind of interesting stuff. Let me read up about this. I haven't touched this stuff in a long time. So she starts reading up. She's like, actually, this is pretty good. So we it was a partnership, you know, where we both say, I said, Look, I want to be free of drugs. I want to be able to walk around like a normal person and do what I always did for the rest earlier parts of my

Natalie Tysdal (15:14)

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Reade (15:15)

life.

And she's like, okay, that's a goal we can get behind. Let's let's see what we can do to get there. now, because I had had such a scare, I was a little more serious about it than probably most people would be willing to be, because I was scared. And I was nervous. I was like, wait a second. It was also, you know, it was my mid-40s. You start thinking, my god.

Natalie Tysdal (15:41)

Yeah, where everything's you're like, wait a minute, I'm I'm actually getting old.

Chris Reade (15:43)

my body's falling apart, man. You know, yeah,

I'm getting old. Like, what the heck? I'm only forty-five, you know?

Natalie Tysdal (15:49)

Yeah.

Chris Reade (15:50)

And and so I I was I was probably a little more motivated as a result, but it didn't honestly, when you read this book, it didn't take a lot of motivation. This is the thing that I was trying to do. All right, so what I did, it's really, really simple. It gets down to

Natalie Tysdal (15:58)

Well, let's so let's talk about what you did. What were those things you so drastically did that made such a big change?

Chris Reade (16:05)

this is such this is the basics of it. I make sure that before

Or there's part of every single meal that I have that it begins with a form of soluble fat.

Natalie Tysdal (16:17)

Okay. And and what are those things for someone who's thinking, What is fiber?

Chris Reade (16:19)

So those are broccoli,

Russell sprouts, chickpeas, oatmeal, lentils, beans of every variety, cooked carrots. I mean, it's all over the place. I mean, the and I have a whole chapter on recipes and stuff like that and how to read nutrition labels and all this kind of stuff. But soluble fiber in a restaurant or in your grocery store is actually really easy to find. It's everywhere. There isn't a restaurant. In fact, one of the things I do on Instagram is I go to restaurants in my neighborhood.

And I sit down and I look at the menu and I just go, okay, soluble fiber. Bing, bing, bing, bing. These items. Eat these items first. And then and also in reasonable quantities, right? So people ask me, like, how much are we talking about here? In my experience, somewhere between 10 and 15 grams a day, which is enough to pretty much knock out because what happens when you eat soluble fiber, right? So and let's get in I think it's important to mention.

Like corn and whole wheat and lettuce and stuff like that that are are natural fibers, like whole fibers, this is not what we're talking about. That stuff is great for your guts, great for digestion, it's lovely for you, but it's not gonna do a darn thing for your sugar. Whereas soluble fiber, which are the like you said, your broccoli, your Brussels sprouts, your chickpeas, your beans, your oatmeals, your all of that stuff, lentils, all that stuff, those things slow your digestion down. And what people discovered in the seventies is if you have a fiber load

In your body, when you ingest sugar in some other form, either naturally in a food or added to that food, it slows it down. And so that that spikes never actually happen. And those spikes are what hurts your guts. That's what hurts your internal organs and gives you the damage of type 2 diabetes. So since you never have the spikiness, you never actually have to get the big hits of insulin that caused your pancreas to go bananas. And so by slowing your digestion down.

It basically absorbs the sugar, even though that's the wrong word, it's it's the easy way to think about it. so as a result, if you start every meal with soluble fiber, then even if there is sugar a small amount, right? I mean, I would say added sugar is is the enemy no matter what. but as long as you're not going bananas afterwards, you're usually pretty okay. The other thing that happens, which if you think about the foods I just mentioned.

They are also foods that make you feel really full. That's kind

Natalie Tysdal (18:47)

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Chris Reade (18:49)

of because your digestion is slowed and your gut says to your brain, I'm full. I've

got a lot to work with here. And as

Natalie Tysdal (18:55)

Yeah. Right.

Chris Reade (18:57)

a result, you don't feel as hungry. It kind of mimics what the GLP drugs do. The GLP drugs send that signal to your brain without your gut being involved. Soluble fiber

Natalie Tysdal (19:02)

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Chris Reade (19:06)

fills your gut up and your gut goes, Hey, I got a lot going on here. Chill out with the food. And that's why you feel full. Your brain says, I'm full.

I've eaten a lot. Even though you haven't really eaten a ton, you feel like you have eaten a ton and as a result you eat less, which is why over time, like you said, in that same one year period after getting this initial test to a year later, not even a year later, probably six, nine months later, I dropped twenty five pounds. That I've kept off

Natalie Tysdal (19:37)

Wow. So

Chris Reade (19:38)

all these years.

Natalie Tysdal (19:39)

a couple of things that come to mind, you know, we're we're so it's funny in different decades how we have different fads of what to eat, what not to eat, you know, the high fat, the high right now it's it was like

Chris Reade (19:50)

yeah, when I was a kid, high fat was bad, bad, bad.

Natalie Tysdal (19:53)

no fat. Well, we obviously need fats.

No, yeah, it's just terrible.

Chris Reade (19:54)

No eggs. Eggs are the devil.

Natalie Tysdal (19:58)

I'm just wondering when we look back, will we look back and say the high protein, which is you know so many, especially for women

Chris Reade (20:05)

yeah.

Natalie Tysdal (20:05)

beyond 40.

It's eat your protein first. Wake up in the morning, eat protein first thing. And we know protein's good for us. That's good.

Chris Reade (20:14)

Yes.

Natalie Tysdal (20:15)

But what's your take on that versus having some Yeah.

Chris Reade (20:17)

So I have friends of mine

who have done the whole I'm sure all of your listeners do too, but I have some, you know, who have gone a little a little further down the road in the paleo Atkins world than most people. And frankly, that works. For me, I am a low willpower guy. If you present me with sweets, I'm gonna eat Right. Right.

Natalie Tysdal (20:39)

It's tough. And so many people are, yeah.

Chris Reade (20:41)

I I I needed something that I could eat at every restaurant. I didn't

I don't have the willpower to be the person who's like, I'm not ordering anything because there's no full protein, you know, in this menu, right? I I just just not that person. And I don't have a ton of willpower. And I also was thinking long term, I was only forty-five. I was like, average age in my family, I got another forty years going here. So I'm gonna do this for another forty years. I didn't think I could eat nothing but chicken, beef, and fish for the next forty years. I just didn't think I had the

willpower to sustain something like that. With the soluble fiber routine, to be honest with you, I don't even notice it anymore. Like I just it's just the foods that I eat. I don't even really think about it. Like in a restaurant, I just automatically do it and I don't even try. I a good way to say this is the the woman who's the head of sales of my company, when my book came out, she said to me, she's like, she read it and she's like, I must have had a hundred meals with you.

And I have never noticed once that you were sounds like I noticed you ate healthy, but I didn't realize you were doing anything different than anybody else. And I was like, Well, Valerie that's

Natalie Tysdal (21:51)

Was nothing extreme, which

is I think what makes a diet so hard is you're limiting something. Nobody wants to just feel limited. Right. I am

Chris Reade (21:57)

I'm against that word. Yeah. I don't I don't buy it. Yeah, I don't believe in it.

Natalie Tysdal (22:01)

too, right. But if you can follow something that is like I have all categories of food and I don't really limit things, I just I balance things. And you know, when we do anything to an extreme, at least for me, it's I feel like it's such an extreme. I want that thing even more.

Chris Reade (22:18)

Well, and everybody loves them, right? An extreme answer. Like in America, we like either give me a pill or give me an extreme answer. Like

Natalie Tysdal (22:23)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Reade (22:27)

that the Americans aren't great at this, like, how about just have a rational approach to food,

right? In my

Natalie Tysdal (22:32)

Yeah.

Chris Reade (22:33)

case, that rational approach to food is soluble fiber at every meal, which is a not really particularly extreme because to be honest, you're eating it all the time anyway. So give me an example.

Natalie Tysdal (22:43)

It you just have to be

intentional about it. So so give me give me a typical day. Then and now, is it the same as it was when you when you started all this?

Chris Reade (22:48)

Yeah, so if that's the face. So let's no, it's very different. So

pre onset of of having this diabetes test, my normal breakfast would have been a bagel. bagel, leg, and cheese. I grew up in New York, and so bag, leg, and cheese is kind of a typical breakfast for me. and that bagel is basically nothing but sugar. love bagels, but they're basically nothing but sugar.

Then for lunch, I'd probably have pizza and maybe a Coke to go with my pizza, right? Not outside the bounds of normal American behavior, but not good for you either. Right? This morning, I started with the oatmeal blueberry casserole that is in my book. I have it pretty much every day with yogurt on top. Freaking delicious. Better than the big leg and cheese, to be honest with you. and

Packed with soluble fiber. Great for you. for lunch today, I'll probably go. I may, well, let's just say I go to have sushi. Let's say I have sushi lunch, right? I could have lunch here at the house, but let's just say I have sushi lunch. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna order a thing of edamame for myself, and then I'm gonna order a roll and a piece of sushi. That's almost certainly what I'll if I go sushi lunch, that's probably what I'm

Natalie Tysdal (24:11)

So th

so it's got some fish with protein and rice, like a roll.

Chris Reade (24:14)

Right. But US those rolls, they got

white rice, and white rice is the devil, right? That's like no

Natalie Tysdal (24:19)

Right.

Chris Reade (24:20)

good for you. But if you throw down a bowl of edamame ahead of time, well, two things are gonna happen. One, the hit the sugar hit from the white rice is gonna get taken over time and is gonna not spike you out. Right? That's one thing that's good. That's what soluble fiber does. The second thing is if you eat an entire bowl of edamame, you know what you're not gonna do? Order another roll. Because

Natalie Tysdal (24:42)

That's true. Yeah.

Chris Reade (24:43)

Because you're going to be full. Right? You that's the that's where the like losing weight thing comes in is without even trying, your cholesterol gets better, your weight gets better, all these things get better because those foods do kind of what the GOP one drugs do. It slows your digestion down and

Natalie Tysdal (24:59)

It slows down digestion.

Chris Reade (25:00)

tells your brain you're full, so you're like, okay, well I and I never leave and that was one of the things, like I don't call it a diet. I have never in the ten years I've been doing this watched a portion.

And then like, golly Chris, you better take it easy because if you eat with soluble fibro stuff first, you're automatically gonna portion control because you're gonna be full, you're not gonna wanna eat.

Natalie Tysdal (25:22)

Yeah. So if you were eating at home, what would you make for lunch?

Chris Reade (25:25)

so if we're eating at home,

so in my profession, because like I said, I'm a technology person by by trade, we say ease of use equals use. You will do whatever it is that is the easiest thing for you to do. That's true in technology and it happens to be true in food. Right?

Natalie Tysdal (25:40)

That's that's life. Yeah.

Chris Reade (25:43)

So in my house right now is and it's also my book, is chickpea casserole, chickpea feta and tomato casserole that we make. It's like in this big dish. And

Throw that down. And the reason that that's in my kitchen all the time, and we remake it whenever we run out, or we'll have the chia puddings or any of those sorts of things, is the fastest, easiest thing you could possibly eat in my house is also the healthiest. And therefore, with 45 seconds and the microwave, I've got a lunch that is really good for me, will be very filling, and tastes great. And because it's the easiest thing, it's also the thing I'm gonna do because I'm lazy.

Natalie Tysdal (26:21)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris Reade (26:22)

And

I'm gonna do the simplest, easiest thing because that's what I'm like. And I think most people are lazy like that.

Natalie Tysdal (26:26)

Yeah. It's

so true. It's it's the fast food diet or in my family it's silly. We call it the grocery store diet. As long as we go to the grocery store and buy the right things, we actually end up eating really well. But it's when you don't

Chris Reade (26:38)

Right. Absolutely.

Natalie Tysdal (26:39)

have it on hand and you just start grabbing whatever's at the front of the refrigerator.

Chris Reade (26:42)

Well that's why, like we said, we we

have these things that that tend to last about a week, right? They're they're big enough to where they're about a week. Like my wife will make like these little chocolate chia pudding things that are free and freaking tastic and super good for you. That's in the book too.

Natalie Tysdal (26:54)

I need that. Is that in the book? Okay, go ahead.

Chris Reade (26:58)

and e she just puts them in these old jam jars. And so even if I'm leaving, like the fastest snack I could grab in my house is to go in the fridge, grab one of the chia puddings and a these little like plastic spoons we get from Yogurt Land that we just keep.

And I take one of the so if I keep if I bring it home, great. If not, it's not a big deal. But anyway, I just take those two things with me. I can eat that in the car or wherever I'm going. And it's really good for me and is filling and is not gonna jump my sugar. And so like those sorts of strategies are I think really key is recognizing my own fallibility as a person. Like I will it's why as an example, well, there's a lot of things I could talk about with that, but basically

I don't I trust myself to be weak and easily led. So the simplest things and the easiest things

Natalie Tysdal (27:46)

Yeah. Yeah. You just have to know yourself. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Reade (27:49)

that I can do that do not require me to think too much are the things that I have on hand and are the go-tos in restaurants and stuff, so that I don't have to think, or if I do think, that's what I say it's kind of gotten into the background now to where I could eat a hundred meals with a colleague.

And she'll never even notice that I was doing anything different from anybody else because I forget. It's just what I'm gonna eat. You know what I'm saying? It's just habit.

Natalie Tysdal (28:14)

It's just it's your habit. Yeah. So

Chris Reade (28:17)

And and there's a whole chapter I have on on habit stacking and what's called temptation bundling,

Natalie Tysdal (28:21)

Mm. Yes.

Chris Reade (28:23)

which are two techniques that I use a lot in my life, for a lot of different things. Cause I'm also I kind of got short attention span theater and in going on in my head, and I'm lazy. So these

Strategies

kind of help me get where I want to go without me having to try too hard because I'm not really good at that. So, for example, last year there was a study that I love that just blew me away. I didn't believe it, and then there's been follow-ups that proved it, which is if you have a meal and then immediately afterwards you do as little as five minutes of low intensity exercise, aka walking, it will lower your blood sugar load from that meal by 25%. And I'm like

What? How can that be? But the truth is, two

Natalie Tysdal (29:07)

Wow. Five minutes. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Reade (29:10)

hours of volleyball isn't as good for me as five minutes of walking after a meal. That's like blows my brain

Natalie Tysdal (29:18)

Wow.

Chris Reade (29:19)

up. But it's true if they've checked it over and over and over again, and it's definitely true. And if you look at the cultures in your blue zone, what do you see? People walk in after meals. And so what I did

Natalie Tysdal (29:29)

Yeah. Yeah, after each meal.

Chris Reade (29:32)

yeah, so we have dogs. I have to walk the dog anyway.

So every night, tonight after dinner, instead of waiting until we go to bed to walk the dogs, what I now do is I finish dinner and I go walk the dog. And because of that, that's a little

Natalie Tysdal (29:42)

Yeah, five ten minute walk. It's just a

Chris Reade (29:45)

walk around the block. And when I come back, my blood sugar load is lower because what has happened, what appears to happen from the studies is when you immediately exercise after a meal, it sends a signal to your brain that says, Don't store this sugar, get rid of it.

Use it, you get rid of it, whatever. And as a result, you don't store it. And that's why the hit isn't as big, is your body's like your brain's going, wait a second, we're actually going to exercise now. So I'm going to use this glucose instead of storing it, right? And so that signal is what keeps blood sugar from popping. But if you look at like very traditional cultures who do this, like if you've ever been to Italy, go at, you know, after a meal in Italy, what do you see these people doing? They're all walking around the street.

Natalie Tysdal (30:31)

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Reade (30:32)

You know,

in their culture they are like, it's for digestion, but it also happens to do great things for your blood sugar. So like these little habits I find are what if what has managed to keep me on the straight narrow ten years without feeling like I'm trying hard, it's the little habits. It's making it part

Natalie Tysdal (30:48)

Yeah.

Chris Reade (30:49)

of my life.

Natalie Tysdal (30:49)

Right. To where it's not a rule, it's just part of your life.

So finish out the rest of your day. What what are you eating after lunch?

Chris Reade (30:57)

Okay,

so as we go throughout the rest of the day, you know, probably, you know, we're empty nesters now, so six, seven o'clock, somewhere in there, we're gonna have some dinner. I would imagine we'll probably one of two things will happen. We'll either either we're what do we got there? I think we have lasagna right now. So you know, because

Natalie Tysdal (31:23)

So that's okay,

the carbs, all of that, that I mean you've balanced it out enough.

Chris Reade (31:26)

Well, so we're gonna have so

we'll we'll do roasted broccoli. You do like a a little bit of olive oil and a little sea salt on the broccoli and throw it in the broiler for about twenty

Natalie Tysdal (31:36)

Love that. Yep.

Chris Reade (31:37)

five, thirty minutes and it's fan freaking tastic. Anyway, I'm gonna start with a whole big old bowl of broccoli and then I'm gonna have a piece of lasagna. and the broccoli's gonna slow down that lasagna hit.

Natalie Tysdal (31:49)

Yep. Yep.

Chris Reade (31:50)

and so and that's it. And and to be honest with you, losing

Added sugar, like learning to drink, like this is my coffee cup from this morning. Learning to not put sugar in this and to change like when I go out with my friends, if I go out partying and drinking, like switching from ginger ale to club soda, like just switching all of these like high sugar for low sugar or no sugar things. The effect of that is if you put sugar in my coffee cup now, I'm like, ooh, it's not even that I'm trying

Natalie Tysdal (32:21)

Too much. Yeah.

Chris Reade (32:22)

to avoid it. I actively don't like it.

It tastes heavy and

Natalie Tysdal (32:25)

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Reade (32:27)

not in a good way. Like and look, I live in New Orleans. I live in a town that has an entire season called kingcake. A whole season of 40 days of king cake, where every single place I go will have kincake in it. And I will fail miserably at at avoiding it at some points. But I don't have any added sugar. And even if I have some king cake, it's so sugary. I'm

Natalie Tysdal (32:51)

Yeah.

Chris Reade (32:52)

Barely I'm gonna struggle to get through more than a couple of bites of it no matter what. And so that's where like that conditioning also changes your mind. Like you change, you get out of this addiction that you don't even realize you're in until you get rid of the sugar. And then you're like, like if somebody handed me, like I like I'm a bourbon person myself. So if you somebody handed me bourbon and ginger ale, which I drank for years, I've had somebody did that to me recently. I was like, my god, what is wrong with this drink?

And I I was like, no thanks, right? Because it's so like ginger ale is basically Coca-Cola, you know, s from a sugar standpoint. And it's just so heavy that I don't even want it anymore. So that's one of the

Natalie Tysdal (33:35)

Yeah.

Chris Reade (33:36)

other things that helps with this is it seems like you're never gonna, you know, at free like, my god, I couldn't possibly kick you know, baked goods. I love baked goods. Like that's my big weakness, like baked goods, cakes, muffins, all that kind of stuff.

I'll hit the oatmeal ahead of time and then have a blueberry muffin, it's fine. You know

Natalie Tysdal (33:58)

So every

once in a while you'll have dessert, a special occasion, a special thing, but it's just

Chris Reade (34:02)

yeah. I'm not skipping birthday

cake. I'm not gonna miss kingcake season. It's just and this is the part that's not sexy for Americans. Americans want us an extreme answer. I just don't have as much. I have a little bit of cake. No. Yeah, it's not even

Natalie Tysdal (34:16)

Yeah. And it's not part of your routine. It's not every day. Yeah.

Chris Reade (34:20)

close to every day. And when I do have it, I have a little bit, and then I forgive myself for it. Because that's the other thing. If you have this thing in your head.

I must not have any sugar. You're gonna give up. You're just gonna give up. That's just gonna happen. Because nobody that I know, or very few, like I said, I have a couple of friends who are really extreme in the paleo thing, and God bless them, they have more willpower than I will ever have. But for the vast majority of us, if you say I'm just gonna like be super yeah, maybe a year, two years,

Natalie Tysdal (34:55)

It makes you want it even more.

Chris Reade (34:57)

maybe, maybe, forty, no way. And

That's

where I was like, forgiveness is super important. You know. And the other thing, and there's a lot of other stuff that goes with that, right? Which is meditation, a good night's sleep, you know, and I don't meditate as much as I would like to, and I'm I'm a transcendental meditation guy, some pe mindfulness, whatever, it it doesn't seem to matter. Just chilling your brain out in some material way helps your blood sugar. And that's very, very, very studied. It doesn't seem to matter.

What form meditation? So I guess it's like exercise. It the best one is the one you'll actually do. And for me, being you know, sort of brain person, transcendental meditation worked for me because instead of trying to quiet your mind, you're filling it with a noise, basically. And that appeals to how I work. But lots of other people are different. but forgiveness, meditation, and and getting a decent night's sleep, shockingly important.

Natalie Tysdal (36:00)

Yeah, yeah.

Chris Reade (36:01)

to every aspect of a health, but definitely for sugar control. 'Cause

Natalie Tysdal (36:04)

Yeah.

Chris Reade (36:04)

the more keyed up you are, the more sugar is is gonna gonna be

Natalie Tysdal (36:07)

So true. Yeah.

Chris Reade (36:09)

circulating.

Natalie Tysdal (36:10)

Well, I I I don't want to end without hearing about where people can find the book and and how it specifically helps.

Chris Reade (36:20)

Sure. So I would say if you are a person who's getting those little discussions with the doctor, hey Chris, maybe you might want to start cutting down on sugar a little bit. Your A1C's getting a little up, your cholesterol's a little high, you know, may this is a book that will help you control your life. It's a book about freedom, really, and control. and you can find it online, beatingdiabetes.us.

And that is also my Instagram handle, LinkedIn handle, Twitter handle, and all of that, beating diabetes US. it's available both digitally on for like Kindles and Nooks and stuff like that, as well as obviously physically.

Natalie Tysdal (36:58)

Well, you've given us so many tips here just in this short amount of time that I know I'll use right away. I mean, just simply eating more fiber, knowing what good soluble fiber is. I'll have more information in the show notes for anyone who wants your book and to follow you. But Chris, I really appreciate your time. And sometimes those little things that happen in our lives can really make a difference. And so sorry to say, but

That ex expiration of your life insurance policy sure helped a lot of people.

Chris Reade (37:29)

Saved my life, honestly.

Natalie Tysdal (37:31)

Yeah, many others who are learning from you. Thanks again.

Chris Reade (37:34)

Thank you. Thanks for having me.