For the next three months,
we have one person that's diabetic,
two people that are in the prediabetic range.
And we're gonna talk to a registered dietician
who's gonna show us how to lower our blood sugar levels
so we can be in a healthy range
by eating healthier and changing our lifestyle.
(upbeat music)
Hemoglobin A1C essentially gives you
a two to three month snapshot view
of what blood sugar looks like.
5.7 to 6.4 can be an indicator of pre-diabetes.
Over 6.4 is when technically you would have
a diagnosis of diabetes.
My mom has type 2 diabetes.
On my blood test last year,
was the first time my A1C came out high.
A year later, I got tested again
and I was still at 5.7,
despite having tried to change my diet.
My father got it in his mid to late 50s.
I found out two years ago that I had type 2 diabetes.
I don't have any family history with diabetes.
I just found out that I was prediabetic two weeks ago.
And I'm 28.
(upbeat music)
Diabetes is a chronic lifestyle disease.
And there's also a genetic component,
and the way that you live your life
is actually more indicator than what you have genetically.
We have to look at diet.
I have changed my diet a lot in the past year,
but I'm still eating a lot of sugar.
And I've never thought about cutting down sugar at all.
When I found out two years ago that my A1C was 11.7,
my diet was piss poor.
I would drink beer,
any chocolate that was ready available, I'd have it.
When you're young, you feel invincible.
But it gets harder as you get older.
- [Sarah] We have to look at fitness levels.
- [Michelle] I lift weights four to five times a week,
mostly I'm on a powerlifting program.
- [Kane] I just started working out three months ago.
And now I'm working out almost every day.
- [Zach] My workouts are pretty good.
I'm working out about an hour and a half,
minimum five days a week.
Stress is a huge, huge part of the healthy picture
that I think a lot of times we overlook.
I'm an emotional eater and I get very stressed.
So I'll snack on sugar, especially
in the middle of the day at work.
Everybody works with me knows if I'm having a bad day,
they bring me a cookie.
That's how much stress effects me wanting sugar.
Your diet is a really crucial piece
of how, ultimately, your health is.
And a lot of times what it comes down to
is balancing blood sugar.
(upbeat music)
Michelle, the three things that I would challenge you
to work on are the meal plan that I'll send you.
Also a big piece of this is stress management.
And really step up and say, Okay I can't eat a certain way.
Because stress is a hormonal response.
So that's gonna impact your blood sugar control.
Kane, I looked over your information.
Basically, the one thing that I saw was just an imbalance.
And thinking about approaching each one of your meals
from a macronutrient standpoint.
So complex carbohydrates, protein, fat, and vegetables.
Hitting that at each one of your meals
is something that I think would be really helpful
in creating consistency.
Alright, Zach.
Very similar to what I talked about with Kane.
There is a balance area that we can look at.
And that similar concept of hitting your macros.
And what you guys said about snacking.
I would challenge you,
finding a way to interact with food
that supports your health.
So this meal plan is really going to focus on
eliminating gluten, dairy, and sugar.
Because those are the three main categories
people are typically responding to
in an inflammatory way.
So the end of the three months, ideally,
it would be great if everyone's A1C was at a normal range,
so below 5.6.
(upbeat music)
Today and tomorrow, we have all day off set.
And look at the food spread that I cannot eat.
But there's these weird apples.
And I can't tell if they're decorative or not,
so I'm just gonna eat one.
I'm already prepping my chicken for the week here.
I got my Brussels sprouts, got it lightly olive oiled,
minimal salt like the nutritionist said.
Let's shed more pounds.
Let's lose this diabetes!
I'm putting spinach in my smoothie.
This is so weird.
How am I supposed to eat six cups of veggies a day
when I barely eat zero now?
Generous handful of spinach,
five or six strawberries, ice, protein.
Let's see how this bad boy's gonna taste.
I don't like the consistency of this.
It's a little poopy colored.
Whoa, it just tastes like chocolate and peanut butter.
Eh, I'm not hating on it.
I could do this for breakfast.
Michelle just pointed out that this bun has gluten in it.
I made a mistake.
And also that beer has gluten,
which I didn't realize as well.
So after talking to Michelle,
I stopped by Trader Joe's and bought myself
a bag of spinach, blueberries, bananas,
chocolate whey protein, mushrooms,
ground turkey, eggs for stir fry.
One of the more frustrating things about having diabetes.
Cuts and broken bones or torn ligaments, stuff like that,
it takes awhile to heal.
I got a pretty big cut on my leg.
It doesn't hurt.
It just doesn't scar properly.
- [Kane] So a trick that I found
is putting lemon in everything.
Squeezed a whole lemon in my leftovers.
Doing this video that last three months,
really is a lifestyle change.
I'm still in the mode of like,
let me get through this and then I'll eat bad food,
but I need to reevaluate that.
I've been good all week.
I ate really clean.
I ate really healthy.
This morning, my friends are in town visiting.
So I'm taking them to a place that has
bottomless mimosas and bottomless waffles.
(upbeat music)
80/20 is a really good rule to follow.
So 80% of the time, you're following
this healthy eating pattern.
And then there's 20% where you're like going to a wedding
or going out after work,
and you might have a drink.
I indulged this weekend.
There was a wedding, but you gotta get back on track.
Tonight I took the time and I did a lot of meal prep.
I'm gonna see what my blood sugars are right now.
Prick my finger, squeeze some blood out.
Put it on this little tab.
77, this is actually pretty good.
When I first got diagnosed with diabetes,
I would get 275, so this is a vast improvement.
- [Michelle] They served pie and ice cream
for dessert last night, but they gave me two plums.
But I'm gonna tell you, I'm about it eat a lobster roll.
After a day of tuna fishing,
but I think I've earned a lobster roll.
I got my first gluten-free sandwich,
which I usually avoid at all costs.
So Sarah's here with us, looking at our snacks.
The KIND bars that have five grams of sugar or less.
So a little bit of sugar's okay.
Yeah, you wanna try and keep it low.
I bought a carrot juice at Trader Joe's.
It's not bad to drink occasionally,
but I would say go for the whole fruit.
Okay, I'll eat a carrot.
I'll eat a carrot.
Took the gluten-free option and it still has cheese.
I think I actually prefer eating on the diet
than eating whatever this is.
It's the end of the day today.
All I have is leftovers from three different meals
put into a pot and it does not look good.
I even had a dream last night that I found
really delicious chocolate chip cookies.
And then I woke up and it wasn't real.
(sighs)
It's 7 P.M. on Friday and I'm finally leaving the office.
A meeting happened today where I got so frustrated,
I almost started to cry.
I really have to figure out,
A, relaxation techniques and B, are my hormones just crazy?
I just got off the phone with Michelle
and we reviewed her adrenal tests.
So I wanted to see what her cortisol levels
were doing throughout the day.
They were actually pretty elevated
consistently throughout the day.
This could be a reason why
her blood sugar is not coming down.
- [Zach] So all last week I was really good.
I ate super healthy, so yesterday I decided
to have a bit of a cheat day,
which turned into a huge cheat day.
I went to the LA County Fair.
I had an ICEE, blooming onion,
jumbo corn dog, barbecue brisket with french fries.
To top it off I had chocolate covered ice cream.
I'm gonna, like I normally do, take my blood sugar.
132, that's definitely high.
The few two weeks has been a struggle.
Especially last week.
I was super stressed.
I'm sure that raised my blood sugar levels.
At night, I ate my feelings
and had a large pizza with cheese.
It came to a point where my thought process was like,
are these things that I'm eating
actually gonna effect my number at the end of this?
Like, I don't know.
I went hard.
Ate a lot of food that I shouldn't have.
And I'm just pissed.
I shouldn't have done it.
At the same time, I was like,
I wish I could've just done it.
I wish I could've just done it guilt-free,
not having to worry about what my blood sugars are,
not having to worry about feeling like shit.
Exhausted, tired, lethargic,
to the point of passing out.
I'm just disappointed in myself, I think,
for just giving in to temptation,
eating all this food that I shouldn't have eaten.
I'm in such a bad mood.
Haven't wanted to do anything.
The diet's mostly fine, but I'm so hungry all the time.
I don't know if it's 'cause of the diet
or just 'cause I'm a grumpy, bad person.
I also feel really scared that after all this,
I'm gonna test my blood sugar it's gonna be the same.
(upbeat music)
I know what you're all thinking.
How could I eat the same thing day in and day out?
You've seen it, I've cheated.
But I just can't help it, guys.
I love me some Brussels sprouts.
So I've always struggled with portion control.
What's been really helping me for this
is Sarah gave us a chart.
Any plate of food that I get,
I'm supposed to save half of that for vegetables.
And a quarter as protein.
And the other quarter as fat and carbs.
And that's been really simple for me
to remember and keep track of.
Sarah suggested I find activities that reduce stress.
I have a knitting project that's been sitting in a drawer.
So I have picked it back up.
By the time we finish the diet,
I'll be done, this shawl.
Just came back from a week
of vacation in Puerto Vallarta.
It was super fun,
but I eat so badly.
I had a lot of drinks
and the drinks had a lot of sugar.
I basically didn't do any of my diet.
Because the A1C is an average of the last three months,
I hope one week doesn't just destroy the whole thing.
Today's Monday and my 40th birthday is on Saturday.
There's gonna be a lot of cheating this week
because I'm only turning 40 once
while I'm on a diet.
- [Zach] I just tried going to the gym
'cause yesterday I hurt my ankle.
It's a little swollen, but I figured
I could maybe just bike on it.
I have my doctor's appointment tomorrow.
We'll see what she says.
I hope it's nothing serious.
- [Michelle] My friend ended up taking me
to dinner for my birthday.
They ordered a bunch of cheese and olives and bread.
So I tasted one tiny piece of cheese.
They ordered molten chocolate cake for dessert
that we all shared.
It was the most amazing thing I've tasted in a long time.
But I ate four bites of it.
So I feel like I'm practicing what my life
will be like post- this video.
(calm, down tempo music)
- [Kane] So it's morning to get my bloodwork
done for the A1C.
I've tried to eat healthier and been working out.
So I'm hoping that that makes up
for the few weeks of patchiness.
So I just got my results back and mine is 5.4.
Super excited.
And I can't wait to talk to the dietician about it.
I got a call from my doctor's office today.
They have my test results and my heart sank immediately.
Like, oh it's gonna be bad.
And they were like, yeah your B12's a little low.
And I was like, but what about my A1C?
And they were like, Oh that's 5.2, that's fine.
5.2, I dropped from 5.7.
I owe Kane and Buzzfeed such a debt of gratitude
because I was freaking out that I was gonna be diabetic.
Just got my blood test results back.
And I'm no longer diabetic.
It went from a 7.6 to a 5.3.
I'm shaking a bit.
I'm trying not to cry because this is just something
that I just really wanted to fucking take.
Obviously I'm still not out of the clear.
I mean it could definitely come back if my diet changed.
But knowing that I no longer have to take my meds,
I'm just relieved.
Change doesn't have to be all or nothing.
None of the people that went through this program
did this 100%.
There were times where they struggled.
There were times where they were traveling.
And it was about how do you get back up after you fall down?
Go for small changes.
Celebrate your wins.
Know that little things you do
add up to have a bigger impact.
The way you eat, your lifestyle,
it's all so important.
Nutrition rules, nutrition wins,
and yeah, hell yeah.
So the diet's over and somebody gave me some candy
to celebrate my birthday.
And I can eat it now, but it's going right in the trash.
Sorry, friend.
(upbeat music)