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,