257. Beth’s Story of Reversing Prediabetes in Her Late 60s

What if the secret to weight loss and reversing pre-diabetes lies not just in diet and exercise?

In this episode, Zivli member Beth shares her inspiring journey of losing weight and reversing prediabetes. After countless diets, Beth finally unlocked the keys to success with the Zivli program. Learn how understanding insulin resistance and prioritizing protein helped her conquer cravings and regain control over her health.

After years of trying various diets, Beth finally found success with the Zivli program, where she learned the crucial role of insulin resistance and protein in managing cravings. But it wasn't just about the food—Beth dives into how mindset and a personal faith formula played a pivotal role in her success.

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Resources From This Episode
>> Join Zivli
>> Test Your Insulin at Home
>> Free Low Insulin Food Guide
>> Book a Zivli Discovery Call

Transcript

Morgan (00:00.046)
Hey there and welcome back to the Reshape Your Health podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Morgan Nolte. And in today's episode, you're going to hear from one of our Azalea members, Beth, who was able to finally lose the post -menopause weight and reverse the pre -diabetes that her physician had ignored for a long time. Now you're going to fall in love with her because she just has sweet southern accent that you could just listen to for days and days and days. And she is

a ray of sunshine, a light, a joy, you're going to just feel that energy from her and what a great person she is. I'm so proud of the results that she's been able to experience. And, you know, she just proves that even after age 70, you can get healthy, you can maintain these results. And you don't have to be slowing down as you age, you can keep up with your family on vacations, you can feel energetic and confident.

I know all of this is possible for you and I hope you let Beth be your inspiration. So if you're already an existing Zivli member and you know Beth, like, man, I just hope that this story makes you laugh, inspires you to keep going. If you're on the fence about joining Zivli, I hope this gets you off the fence and gets you motivated and excited to join because enrollment is open September 16th, but only for a few days. And then we get started and I'm so, so.

So looking forward to the September cohort. think it's going to be a very special group of people and I hope to see you on the inside. And if you already know that you're going to join, yay, I cannot wait to meet you in our first new member welcome call. So whether you are already in on the fence or you're going to join, I know that you're going to love this episode with Beth. I think she's such a great representative of the quality and caliber of people that we have inside our membership. So let's hop into that interview.

insulin resistance. Yes, I had never in all of my 1000 diets, never had that word come up. I didn't even really know what it was about until you you taught me and that opened a whole new world for me. When I got my doctor's reports back, you could taught me how to read my labs. I just

Morgan (02:24.014)
took my doctor's word and every year she would say, excellent labs, excellent labs, don't have to do anything. And when I got my reports back, I'm like, I'm prediabetic.

Morgan (02:44.334)
Hey everyone. Welcome back to the reshape your health podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Morgan Nolte. And I'm really excited about today's episode because I get to interview one of our members, Beth, and she's been a member for over a year now. And we're just going to talk about her story. And she's been such a light during office hours and, just a joy to be around. So this is going to be a really fun conversation, Beth, welcome to the show. And thanks for joining us.

Thank you. I have looked forward to this for so long because I just have such respect for you and you've made such a change in my life. So to tell my story. Yeah. Thank you. No, I appreciate it. And this is, these are the, think these are the most important podcast episodes because there's people out there. I'm sitting on the fence. I'm like, do I want to invest in my health, whether it's in Zivli or not? It's like, we want you to make a change. We want you to, to take the action required to live the life that you want to live. And you've done that. And so.

That's what I want to dig into is kind of where did you kind of come across us and what drew you to Zivli and what had you done beforehand to try to lose weight or get healthy? beforehand. Yeah. I grew up on a farm. was the youngest of four children and I had five cousins across the road. And so we spent all of our life outdoors.

Our parents would kick us out at morning and say, don't come back till lunch. So we were so active all of the time. I never had a weight problem as a child because I was so active. But when I got in high school, I began to think that I was fat, fat, bigger, bigger, because I thought everyone else was so thin.

And so even though I wasn't really overweight, I was active in cheerleading, horseback riding, still doing, you know, the swimming kinds of things, I thought in my head, I compared myself to others. There's a lesson there. And I thought that I needed to lose weight. So one of my first memories, I don't know how they did this, but it was a candy.

Morgan (05:00.876)
which I could order through the mail. I must've been in high school. It was caramel colored and it was supposed to suppress your appetite. Did your parents know that you ordered this? They didn't know that. And siblings watching don't, mention this. Yes. But the problem was it was candy and I love sweets and I ate where there was hungry or not. So

That did not work for me. I just ate that candy and paid more money for it. So then when I got into college, because of my love for sweets, I was in heaven because in our dorm, I discovered in the basement were all these candy machines, free access to candy. I didn't eat a lot of candy growing up. We had decadent homemade desserts, but just not candy.

So I gained the freshman 15 plus more. So then I seriously did need to lose weight. I wasn't thin anymore. So I tried grapefruit diet, eat only grapefruit. I tried chicken and green beans. At least that was somewhat healthy, but that's all I ate. All I ate chicken and green beans. Like how long? A year probably. What?

Chicken and green beans. Yes. but I had special case cereal for breakfast because that was healthy. Okay. Then I tried the tuna fish diet. I ate so much tuna fish that I had to, I started swelling. I had to go get shots for an allergic reaction to tuna fish because that was the other diet. I tried the slim shakes. Then I tried the very, very, very low carb. This was before they called it

keto. And I lost weight like crazy on that one. But I remember my sister and mother and I went shopping. And I sat on a bench because I had no energy to shop. And you know, it's bad when I have no energy to shop. So I let that one go. Then I tried the 900 calorie diet, starve it off. Then I tried the runners diet, run it off. Then I think I've tried the alcohol diet, drink it off.

Morgan (07:23.566)
fruit only food combinations, you name it. I tried it and I did lose weight, but I wrecked my metabolism. And so when I got to a point in my life where I really wanted to lose it and keep it off, then I was desperate because I had tried everything. I was eating what I thought was healthy whole

brain breads, whole wheat pasta, friskets because they're healthy, low fat, everything, all of these things that I thought were healthy, nothing was working. And so it's all great things in my life. The answer came at three in the morning when I got up with pain in my hip and I said, I have got to get some of this weight off because I knew I was

about to have hip surgery, hip replacement surgery. And I knew that for every one pound extra I had, it was six pounds of stress on my hip. So I was determined and I Googled weight loss after 50. I was 67 at the time, but I was, I was being generous. didn't put weight loss after 65. Cause I want to run with the young people. And your name came up.

And one of the first things I discovered about you was how clear you were. And you spoke with research backing up what you said. And you talked about a lifestyle, never a diet, a quick fix event kind of diet, but a lifestyle. And I was drawn into that. One of the first things I got from you was your masterclass on sugar, breaking sugar addiction.

And I studied that like crazy. And then I went into macros and I'd never even heard of a macro. I knew about the low carb thing, but not really. I only knew it from probably Cosmopolitan magazine, which was my authority at the time. That's hilarious. I was just thinking about that. Cosmo was an authority. mean, for me growing up, I was thinking like,

Morgan (09:49.006)
I was curling my eyelashes one day and I was like, where did I even learn to curl? And it probably caused them causing one of my cousin Maggie. So I'm sure he had good information, their dieting information did not work for me. No. So, I was like, she didn't even learn about macros from the chicken and green bean diet. didn't teach her about macros and then what did you learn? So found me on, you know, weight loss over 50 sugar macros. And then where did your story take you?

insulin resistance. Yes, I had never in all of my thousand diets, never had that word come up. I didn't even really know what it was about until you you taught me and that opened a whole new world for me. When I got my doctor's reports back, you could taught me how to read my labs. I just

took my doctor's word and every year she would say, excellent labs, excellent labs, don't have to do anything. And when I got my reports back, I'm like, I'm pre -diabetic. And I have been pre -diabetic for years. had labs that went all the way back to 2006, I think, all of those years. The doctor had never said a word about it. So

That took me down that whole learning path, which has just been life -changing. It really has. I shudder to think if I had not learned from you where I would be today. Yeah. Well, I appreciate it, but all the, all the credit goes to you for learning and taking action. I'm just a middle man, just sharing the sharing the information. All the credit goes to you. So when you learned about insulin resistance,

How did that change things for you? Like what new strategies were available? What new thoughts were you thinking? The one thing that stuck in my mind is one of the first things you taught me was how will this affect my insulin? This food, how will this food affect my insulin? And then you taught us about the importance of protein. I was an on and off again food logger.

Morgan (12:15.086)
I had a love hate relationship with it. I even bribed my son. If you will log foods with me, I'll, don't know what promise I made him, but it didn't last very long. But when I finally started logging my foods in earnest, after I joined your group, I realized that my protein was pitiful. 20 grams a day. Maybe I would eat big, big green salads, you know,

and low fat, everything else, making sure I wasn't getting any of those things all whole wheat kinds of things because they were healthy. So the protein was really the biggest game changer for me because this sweet tooth had been with me forever, for years. And I will never fault my mother for it because I really enjoyed her desserts.

And it's just what we did back then, you know, we'd have a whole ice cream party, homemade ice cream, and that would be the meal, homemade ice cream. It's just the way it was. But I always had that sweet too. And when I started upping my protein to at that point, I was just doing 30 grams per meal, three meals a day. My sweet cravings left. I could not believe it.

because I always, always, always had to have something sweet after a meal, especially. And so I had moved to the healthy things, animal crackers and vanilla wafers. yeah. The low fat ones. In piles, because they were low fat. But that, I couldn't believe the connection between protein and getting rid of my sweet cravings. And the fact too that food tasted so much better.

It just, it blew my mind, you know? And then when I started, one of the first things I did was eliminate added sugar from my cabinets, from my life. And so I went through my cabinets. That was a party. Like, what? This is added sugar. Why? What's the point of that? What's what are some foods that surprised you? Do you remember? it was even in pasta. It was definitely in the cereals. It was in

Morgan (14:39.016)
the spaghetti sauce in tomatoes, just plain canned tomatoes. so many things has it too, you know, like the Oscar Meyer Turkey, they'll put sugar in there. My meat. Yes. I'm just, I'm was blown away by that. So I eliminated all that. I eliminated all the oils. The only thing in my cabinet now is olive oil, avocado oil, and

Coconut are used rarely, but I'll lemonade all of those. And then I started to feel better, but I started to lose weight too, which I'm like, okay, here we go. We're gonna lose our obligatory 10 pounds and then we're gonna gain 20. Cause that was my roller coaster. I had been on that forever. If my trajectory was like lose, gain, lose, gain. I was still going up, up, up. And I could never keep it off.

but it started coming off. And this week I would lose some and then I would lose some more. And I was telling my husband, there is no way, there's no way I can continue to lose weight because I'm eating so much. It was so different from how I ate before. When I finished a meal before my big salad was hungry.

I was never satisfied. And now with that big amount of protein, some really good greens, very few low carbs, I was never hungry. And the weight just kept coming up, just kept coming up. So that was such an eye opening experience because it did not come back on. Right. And I'm telling you, it is the

first time in my life, my weight has stayed off. Now I've been stable for a year. That's probably 20 pounds, which I know to most people that's like, well, that's not very much. If you need to lose 10 pounds, you know how hard that is. last 10 are so, hard to lose. So the fact that it stayed off all of that time is just remarkable, remarkable.

Morgan (17:03.83)
And I was full, enjoying food. So then that changed the foods that I chose. I started to make sure that if I'm going to eat this meat, I'm going to make sure it's grass fed, doesn't have any antibiotics or growth hormones. So I found a farmer that delivers and the eggs are the same and his chicken is the same. So once a month I get food that tastes delicious.

that I know we are safe eating. So I changed that. And then you told me the low fat thing was not getting it. I could not believe how many times I had turned down something because it had fat in it. And it just blows my mind how the information can be so wrong. But once I changed to

high fat yogurt, full whole milk, butter even, those healthy fats. I was never hungry. I was satisfied all the time. So it just made such a difference. And for the first time I thought, this is a lifestyle I can stay with. This is not a diet I'm going to get sick of and fall off the wagon.

This is a lot things, right? When you're having chicken and green beans all the time, you are going to get sick of it. And I'm shocked. Like that's so impressive. You could do that for a year, but absolutely. I was most unhealthy, skinny person probably. Right. And that's it. That's a really good point there because what nutrients weren't you getting when you were just having the chicken and green beans, you're probably not getting a lot of nutrients. so clearly it was at that point in my life that I saw my first dermatologist.

or, issues with my face. it just, but I didn't know, know, we're listening to Cosmo here. So was listening to Cosmo. my, so that's wonderful. And that's the same experience that I had when I was transitioning to this low insulin lifestyle too, is like, Holy cow, I am way overeating carbohydrates, even the quote unquote healthy ones. I was doing a lot of toast. I was doing a lot of fruit.

Morgan (19:31.662)
I'm not saying we can't ever have that, but like, what are we eating the majority of the time? Right. So I'm kind of curious, what was your husband's perspective throughout this journey where you're like, huh, it's going to come back on. Like, how did, how did he react or support you in this? He is the most supportive. We've been married 42 years and he joined me in this journey.

I think he looked on from the sidelines for a while because he just wanted to make sure this wasn't that tuna fish diet again. Because he was not going there. But he grew up in the Midwest, so carbs, bread was his staff of life. So that's been really hard for him to eliminate that. we had a Bible study group at our house last night, a bunch of kids, and I made sandwiches for them.

but I rolled our ham and cheese up. I said, do you want this instead of the bread? You can have either one. He said, no, I'll take that. So he's actually lost weight on it too. He looks fantastic. And he's joined the journey with me, which is so helpful. You can do it alone if no one else in your house is on board, because you're doing it for yourself. You're doing it to...

for your health and longevity. So it can be done, but it's so much easier with support. And that's really one of the things that drew me to your group, which is funny because I am not a group person. I will tell you, my husband tells the story about when we were going with a group of Cub Scouts who were all lined up going down the interstate, one car after the other, and I couldn't stand it.

I just broke line and went because I am not a group person. So when you said that you had a zivli group, I'm like, I don't do tribes. don't know. But that has been a life changer too. Your office hours, even if I'm not there in person, I can listen later on. I always, always, always learn something from that. Someone challenges me. I take notes like,

Morgan (21:55.798)
Yeah, that's truth that she just spoke. It's just been so, so helpful. So it's, it's, you can do it on your own, but it's so much easier with a group. Yeah. And I think, I mean, the research shows that like, we would not have a community at all. If the research didn't show that that was beneficial. I am not a group person, Beth, I don't know if you knew that. well, there you go. Like, I am so introverted.

I, I, I usually get anxious in group settings and then start to eat out of anxiety. I'm getting better, but I'm like, okay, if I really want to help people, if I really want to do what the evidence says, I have to create a community. I have to create a place that is emotionally safe because thankfully you've been married for 42 years to a supportive spouse. But some people doing this, like their family's not on board or they don't have to support them. And, and so I just.

Followed the research and office hours was created and I it's one of my favorite parts of the week. So I have definitely, definitely become a group person, in that regard, but I just, I thought it was kind of funny when you said I'm not a group person. like, I'm not either. Funny how the thing about it to me is, it just.

I don't know if you are able to bounce ideas, suggestions, problems off of someone that's just so much more helpful than me trying to figure things out. But it's still an inner journey, you know? And I think whether you have that support or not, you have to know that you matter, you know? That your life and how you

The quality of your life matters. And if you have to do this all on your own, then of course you have the civilly support, you know, so you're not on your own, but do it, do it for yourself. Yeah. I wanted to ask you, we're going to get into mindset. Cause I know that that's one of my favorite topics. We talk about it all the time in office hours. we teach about it in the program. We talked a lot about insulin resistance already, which is a cornerstone of our method.

Morgan (24:17.998)
But I think where a lot of people miss the boat is this mindset piece. But before we get there, I wanted to talk with you about like, how has your life changed now being able to lose 20 pounds and keep it off. And you did get your hip surgery and, and you sent me a picture of you on a bunch of stairs, like just smiling. So cute. Like you are now. So how has the quality of your life improved? and you said you're 69 now. Is that right? Yes. Anyone watching on YouTube is like jaw just dropped because

Rocking the pink looking fantastic. Thank you. 69 at all. But how has life changed? It's the water. I was just gonna say grabbing mine too. Morgan teaches you that too. Drink the water. One of the parts of my personal faith formula, my why in that personal faith formula is so that I can enter my next decade, which is closer and closer at my best.

physical, emotional and spiritual self. And so that is happening. I am so much stronger than I used to be because you really emphasize strength training and I'm learning as a, you know, a place for my glucose to go, the muscles or what I need. I've concentrated on that a lot. In fact, when I was at the garden center the other day, the sweet little girl behind the counter said,

Do you want me to carry this out? This is really, really heavy. And I said, no, I think I can do it. So I picked it up and I'm like, this isn't heavy at all. that's amazing. Yeah, it was just, it was amazing to have that strength. We had to load something really big in the back of the car and this little kid was helping me and I was able to push better than he was. So in that respect, it was

It's life changing. When I had my hip replacement surgery, I knew I wanted to go into it strong, but I didn't realize how important that would be until I actually had the surgery. And those first few weeks, you depend on your arms to lift you up because your hips are not cooperating and you don't have that strength. And just to shift around in bed was really, really important to have that upper body strength.

Morgan (26:45.358)
I thank God for you so many nights when I was moving during those, especially those two weeks. But my recovery was so much quicker because I was stronger. really hurt all the time before, but I told my husband, I can't do this exercise because that hurts, but I can find something I can do. And so that's what I would do. I would discover things that, that doesn't hurt. I can do that one.

I can do that one. So I was diligent in getting ready for that surgery. And then two and a half months after surgery, I was able to climb, I don't know, 200 steps. I don't know how many steps that was, but not just climb them, but run up like Rocky. You know, my gosh. Yeah. I w we were in California where my daughter and her husband live. And, they would say, let's try bike ride. It's just a little bitty one.

And it was nothing but hills and a long, long course to them. It was nothing. But to me, I'm like, my God, they're going to kill me. But I was able to do that. I was able to take the heights through the redwoods, which my son was with us. And he took a picture. said two and a half months after hip surgery. Look at mom go. Yeah. So that just. I was just so grateful, so grateful that I had at three in the morning.

run into this because that never would have happened. You know, I didn't ever want my children planning things that let's plan something that mom's going to be able to do. No, that makes me feel old. I don't want that. I want to be able to do things. Well, not rock climb, but I bet you could not the crazy things that they do. But most of the things they do, I want to be able to do too. So that was my why.

And, you know, making those changes has just re -energized me. I know now that I can go into my seventies, my best physical, emotional and spiritual self, because those other two parts, the emotional and spiritual, very big part of this journey too. They all three work together. They do totally. And it's like, I just keep going back to the chicken and green beans one. It's like, you weren't focusing on your emotional or your spiritual health.

Morgan (29:10.766)
You're just focused on eating chicken and green beans. And they were out of a can. Yeah, I do like those ones, though. I think the camera's 29 cents back then. So it may have been a budget issue to. So let me ask you this, you've sent me a couple of personal faith formulas. I think one is one of yours is actually the example in the course of a really well written personal faith formula, which is so cool. And

And you talked about your why, you know, going into your next decade is like the best, you know, best version of yourself physically, spiritually, emotionally, what other mindset resources or tips or things did you learn from the program that you, you continue to implement on a regular basis? First of all, I had never heard of a personal faith formula. Never. I had written a goal.

maybe want to weigh 120 pounds by this day. And then didn't make that didn't make that so I was goal oriented, but I had no idea about the systems you put in place. And so my personal faith formula really became my system so that I could achieve that goal, which I had never thought about it like that. And I had never had success before. So there must be something to it. So

What I learned in writing my personal faith formula is that words matter and I had to make it personal. The words that might work for someone else wouldn't work for me. In fact, one of the first lines was, I challenged myself to do something or I demand of myself.

Yeah, and you said something you changed it to a more allowing or I joyfully yes. Remember that I gift to myself that because I said if that word demand is in there, I'm going to be like, yeah, well, I'll show you. So I knew that that was going to be a stop in place for me. But I give to myself this that's like, how, how cool is that you get to open this gift every morning. And it

Morgan (31:30.986)
At first I read that formula, personal faith formula every morning and every evening just to make sure that it would get in my head. But then as the words became more and more me, I discovered, you've got to be more honest with yourself than you're being. And talk me through that. That's interesting. Putting down things that you say you're going to do and

like, strength training three times a week at this hour of this day and blah, blah, blah. And so at this hour of this day, if I had a doctor's appointment, well, can't strength train because my personal faith formula says at this hour of this day, I'm going to do this. So I had to honestly sit down and say, all right, what is the obstacle you're facing here? Why are you resisting this strength training? Why are you wiggling out of it?

And those are just morning meditation kinds of what's really going on here, Beth. And then I would rewrite it to fit my circumstances and my truth, really. That's when it really started to take hold. And you say this all the time and I notice it now. I read it out loud and some days I read it and I ponder it, you know,

hang on a word like I'll underline things in it, fully commit. What does that mean? Fully commit to take the action or I my thoughts are controllable. What does that mean that you can control your thoughts? So some days I'll just stop and I'll pause on on words like that. And then sometimes I just read it.

You know, just read it and my mind's probably not even there with it, but I am reading it. And, but during the day, something will happen. I'm like, where'd that thought come from? that's in my personal faith formula. Like one of the crazy ones in this April version I have is I will finish eating by six 59 PM, not seven, because I know myself. I'll find some wiggle room. And so

Morgan (33:55.246)
As soon as I read that, I'm like, hmm, okay, so I need to plan what we're having for dinner tonight, what needs to be thought so that by 659, we're done with dinner, you know, and those just little things like that, but also things like a gift to myself or I commit to daily action. If you say that enough that you commit to daily action towards your goal, then

Before you know it, you're going to feel a tug when you don't do daily action. You'll be like, what's wrong? I'm not being congruent. Is that the word? Exactly. I'm not congruent with my what I've said I'm doing. So it's pretty amazing how that works. So I would suggest when you're writing your personal faith formula.

Be careful what words you use because they will come back over and over and over. They do. And it's okay to change it. Yeah, it has. And you've changed yours. I don't know about you, but I changed mine whenever I feel it's time, like whenever I'm reading it and I don't connect with it as strongly anymore. Or if I'm finding that there's a challenge in my life that my current personal faith formula doesn't address.

That's always when I go back and update it. And I've probably encouraged you and I know others in office hours, you know, if someone's struggling with emotional eating, or if they're struggling with staying up late, or if they're struggling with negative self -talk, I'm like, okay, are you doing your first, your personal faith formula? And if you are, is that a specific challenge addressed in it? And if it's not, let's do that. And I think you've done such a beautiful job of evolving yours over time. Is that how you kind of decide? You taught me that.

And things ebb and flow in your life. Stresses come and stresses go. But if you let those stresses take hold, for me, it's back in the cookie jar. Or overindulging in even protein. It's emotional eating. And so you've taught me to recognize those things. And it's OK to scribble in the margins.

Morgan (36:13.079)
To do that, you don't have to have the perfect piece of paper here, but you do have to have something that you identify with. And whatever season you're in, I think it's important that it speaks to you, that those affirmations really kind of drive what you're doing during the day. One of my favorite ones is I recommit my attention and passion.

that word recommit because I had been reading this for, I don't know, a year, morning and night for a year. And I was got to the point where I was just like, la la la la la la, you know, just reading it. But then I got stuck in a plateau. I'm like, hmm, what am I doing different? I'm just blowing through my personal faith for me. Some days I read it, some days I don't.

Let me get serious about that. And that's when I put back in there. I'm recommitting my energy toward this. Just that word made all the difference daily action and recommitting for me made all the difference, but that's because I wasn't afraid to write in the margins to redo it. Yeah. Do you have pictures on there too? think I do this. This picture here is, we took a family trip.

to Hawaii, the whole family got to go, which was great. But this is the first picture. I had been in Zivli long enough to lose significant weight. This is the first picture I allowed to be taken of myself and Sean. So that that was my motivation. And then I learned this from one of our members, Cynthia. She put pictures in hers and then part of my personal faith formula.

Part of my why is I want to be able to keep up with my children and hike in the mountains and be energetic and go into my next decade, you know, the best possible. part of it says I want to look bad ass too. I put a picture in here. This is one of the times I thought I looked bad ass. I had on pink stiletto, so I was. Where was that picture taken?

Morgan (38:38.446)
Yeah, this was at actually, funny enough, it was at a chef's competition. A chef? Yeah, yeah. you watching someone? I was watching. My bonus son was cooking. And so we went to watch him, you know, but this is when I really felt like I had it together. And then this is Ernestine. She's like 80, what 82 or three in this picture.

And she is a bodybuilder that has such a fantastic story. So she's my inspiration. So I get to look at these every morning, just a way to be grateful and a way to look forward and a way to be motivated by Ernestine. If she can do it at 80 something, I can do it.

Totally. And I think your attitude is so beautiful too, because you don't do it as a form of comparison. It's not like, I'm not there yet. Or comparing your, your body now to what it used to be. It's just the feeling. I think that's a really important distinction for people who have comparison struggles. one thing that I think is really important is focusing on your gains and not just like your gap of, you know,

how far I have to go or how much weight I have to lose, but really getting good at gratitude and being thankful for your gains. And I think that's one of your superpowers is to always look like, look at life through that lens. And, what really made a difference too, because I'm a scale person. let's talk about that. And I know how you, you say the scale can be the scale should not have power over your

mood for the day. But I have records back forever. I have always weighed myself because I was always afraid if I just keep it real. If I weighed myself and then I waited a month in my head, I've lost all this weight. And then when I get on the scale, if I hadn't lost, it would be more devastating.

Morgan (40:51.224)
than if weekly I see you have a loss, you have a loss, you have a loss. I'd know along the way than to know it once. So anyway, when I started strength training, I knew that muscles aren't going to weigh more, but I was still on my scale, expecting it to go down, expecting it to go down, and it was going up. I got so mad at that scale. I took it and I put it in the attic.

Yes. Because I know myself if I put it on the shelf where I weigh in my closet, I would pull it back down. Yeah. So stuck it in the attic and then I got in my car and I went shopping and I tried on clothes. I had been a 14. I'm a four now. I tried on four and they fit. I'm like, okay, the scale doesn't count. clothes count because I kept thinking.

Well, they're just making clothes bigger now. I'm not a four. Surely I'm not a small. Because I was always the one thumbing to the back of the right for the extra large shirt. And I pretty much skipped all the way back down to small. The scale had to go in the attic because it was making me, it was really changing my whole attitude about the day.

Yeah. Is it working? I knew it wouldn't work, which is so crazy because I've been in it a year and a half and it's worked perfectly. Yes. I was wondering too, about blood numbers. So you've lost and kept off 20 pounds. You went from a 14 to a four. You're like super strong, stronger than the boy trying to help you load your car. what are your blood numbers like now? You know, that is a source of, regret.

I think in my life that I didn't get a handle on this sooner because it's very hard. My A1C is coming down, but so much slower than I thought it would. But I'm wearing a continuous glucose monitor now and I've had it. I've, you know, I keep saying, I'm not going to do that anymore, but then I've, I've wanted fine tune things. I've learned so much from that.

Morgan (43:13.998)
that my glucose numbers are going down. was, I don't know, think fasting glucose was 115 at one point. Everything's fine. See you in a year. And now I'm in the nineties. So I'm making progress. My A1C is slow to move. We just, you know, I have to have that talk with myself. You're following the plan, stick with it. You know, it might need tweaks here and there, but

We can do this, just, and that's another thing I'm just so grateful for. If I hadn't learned about prediabetes, where would I be? My numbers would be out the roof, but I've learned how to eat protein first. You can have carbs, but the right carbs last, but you better take 10 minute walk after that. And I've learned how stress.

I never really thought this how stress affects my glucose. It's just a simple thing. I saw a snake one day. I'm like, and my glucose went up. I'm like, stress really does affect or if I'm rushing to get somewhere, you know, and I left my keys. It will cause it to go up. So I'm learning mindfulness and Beth, you got to breathe. I've learned how to take

four breaths in and hold for four and four breaths out. Just so much I would not have known if I hadn't gone into this program with you. It just has opened up so many different avenues. My new personal faith formula for April, because I'm a short term girl, it says I will start the day with God, my maker, in spite of

all of these interruptions and things that are pulling for my attention, sigh before screams, basically. so that centered me. That quiet time, which I wasn't doing that. I had let that go. That is, okay, brought me back. And then I do my gratitudes. And some days I'm like, what do I have to be grateful for?

Morgan (45:39.084)
I have a wonderful life, but I just said flowers and birds and found me yesterday. I'm still grateful for it. So when I start writing my gratitude, the floodgates open. It is amazing how you need more paper because more and more things come that you're grateful for. And then I put down my wins and those are, you know, you have to

You know, you're not taught to pat yourself on the back, but those wins are important. It's important to see what you're doing is making a difference. So I write those down and then I read my personal faith formula out loud and I try to concentrate on it too. So just those, the way I start my morning has shifted and it really has made a difference in the rest of my day too. Totally.

Yeah, we just did, office hours today. We coached someone over and, hire a one C and that's like the only number she's lost way. She's kept it off. She's like, I just, can't get it to come down and it's like 5 .9. And so, but she had just moved. she was experiencing more stress. She wasn't sleeping as well. And I said, yeah, I know your nutrition styled in.

I know you're doing most of the carb hacks that we talk about. I think it's your stress and your sleep. And I feel like a lot of, you know, weight loss programs focus so much on the food. might focus on exercise, but I love that we can have that conversation of like sleep and stress management and mindfulness. talked a lot about mindfulness today. Yeah. This is critical. you taught me how to sleep. So what was your experience with sleep?

My spiritual sleep was not good really no no no no Tell me your sleep story here well Part of my sleep story has to do with my evening wine. Yeah, had a glass or

Morgan (48:00.75)
two of wine, the Haitian I guess, I was rejecting what should have been rejecting. So from, you know, all of that time, it was not good. But I gave that up. I joined the group. Hold on, we cut out again, the internet cut out again, but that's okay. It was a great starting place because you were like the wine. And then you can start talking from the wine again and

Yeah, I think I was like, okay, so so tell me about your sleep story. And then you can start there again, maybe. Okay. let me clap again. So we know clearly where to go.

Morgan (48:41.744)
my sleep story. It was not good. Part of the reason was because I had a nightly habit of a glass of wine and that glass of wine I thought was my friend, but it woke me up every night at two, three o 'clock in the morning with excruciating leg cramps. so oddly enough, I joined a group of ladies and

I was able to just let that friend go for, you know, I haven't had it in several years now. So my sleep improved somewhat after that, but never that great. And then I started learning the sleep, how important it was. And so one of the main things you taught me was to wear the blue light blocker glasses.

which of course I fought against. They're so sexy. Yes. So cute. They are so cute. But they make such a difference because I track my sleep with my Fitbit. When I wear the glasses, there's a part of the Fitbit tells you restless sleep. It tells the quality of your sleep and whether you're restless or not. When I wear the glasses, I have this

perfect little hammock that you're supposed to have. When I don't wear the glasses, you can tell I never really fall into that nice restless sleep because my mind is saying, it's daylight, it's daylight. Let's keep going. Let's party. So I'll learn that with the glasses. But then I came up with an excuse because we have a TV out in another room. I'm like, man, I forgot my glasses. Well, I won't wear them tonight. I forgot my glasses.

But that's where honesty comes back in. I had to have a meeting with myself and say, seriously, you know what they do for your sleep. Why are you not doing this? So I ordered another pair. Good for you. Simple solution. Put it by the other TV. So now I have no excuse. So I do that. I try to have the same bedtime every night or near that same bedtime.

Morgan (51:02.178)
keep my room very, very cold. I wear a mask because that just helps me not see the clock and whatever, little lights are shining. But then when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do laying in bed is this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. And I will start my day like that. Sometimes I don't, sometimes all of this, ne ne ne ne ne, starts coming in. like,

Whoa, wait a minute. So I start over with that verse. Then I go outside, drink my lemon juice and apple cider vinegar and start the day greeting the day outside because I think that first light of the day is important. You taught me that. now my sleep is good. It's refreshing. I rarely, I do wake up because I'm drinking so much water. But I sleep well.

which is the first time in years and years and years that that has happened. So that's a wonderful byproduct of it all. I am so glad to hear that. I, it's kind of fun. I always loved doing these interviews because I hear bits and pieces of people's story through office hours, or like if you post in the community or if you send an email, but I'd never get the chance to hear it, like, you know, start to now. And I love it because I'm remembering of all these times, all these stories and, it makes me so proud of you.

That you have taken action on all this. because a lot of people know what to do, at least in part, and then they still won't take action. And so I wanted to talk with you about your attitude towards taking action. before that, I loved that verse that you shared, and I'm going to try to do that. I know I don't remember which star Wars character says.

you know, try not to do or do not, don't know. And I will do that, that verse, because that's a beautiful way to start the day. what a nice father taught me that he every day would come into the kitchen and he would say that. And so that's a wonderful legacy from him. It connects me with him, but it also starts my day off right. Because I, my life is filled with blessings, you know, it.

Morgan (53:19.188)
It really, really is. And to enter the day in a grumpy mood is just not right. Right. And I think even if someone's day, like even if someone doesn't feel like their life is filled with blessings, the grumpy mood still doesn't help you and gratitude and positivity, not, not to dismiss anyone's circumstances, but I feel like it always makes the day better. So what do you have?

lady that was doing my nails is one of the most positive people I've ever met. Yesterday, she spilled a whole cup of coffee on the floor and she's like, it's okay, it's easy to clean up, I can do this. She said, it's so much easier to, if I think something's going to be hard to do, it's hard to do. But I think it's going to be easy to do. Look how easy that was. It's true. And I think it's so important. And I don't know about you, but I'm

I'm really intentional with my kids about this. Like that's something that still eats at me as if my son is whining. I don't know about you, but I'm just like, let's be grateful. And so I'm trying to incorporate meditative practices and gratitude practices. And, like before prayer time at night, you know, we do this little quiet meditation and, then Dawson makes us raise our hands to say, to say what we're grateful for, cause that's what they do a daycare.

Little things like Leah will be like, I, she's like almost three. I'm grateful for Jesus and Santa, you know, love it. I'm thankful for, the fireplace. then I think Leah said one at daycare once, I know we're getting off topic, but this is just too funny to not share with you. And no one knew what she said half the time. No one does, but Dawson's pretty good at interpreting what she says.

And he thought that she said something about like, I'm grateful that baby, or pretend baby, was able to change her own diaper or something. You know, the things that little three and, you know, five year olds think are grateful are hilarious. But it starts with us, doesn't it? You know, it with us and then the impact that you know, you're able to have on your community and your family and me too. That just goes back to mom.

Morgan (55:39.416)
personal faith formula, says my thoughts are controllable. And second half, and they're my responsibility to control. They're not my husband's. He's not in charge of making my day beautiful. Although he does that, that's not his responsibility. It's mine to choose and to make sure my thoughts are lined up with my makers. I think it's great to as a reminder throughout the day, like, I don't know about you, but I can always

to feel that tug on my heart towards negativity, like if my kids are whining and then I remind myself something that's in my personal faith formula is nothing affects me negatively. I fortify my frequency. And so I have to like have that, that emotional boundary between my whiny child and me and my, my personal power to address that situation. Cause if I, if I'm negative back to them, that's certainly not going to help the situation.

Right. If people could learn that what a difference this world would be. Right. Yeah. It's like, it's a matter of living from the outside in or the inside out and right. And emphasis on, you know, as within, so without living from the inside out. And so what you you've done such a beautiful job at that. I feel like all in all, you've done such a lovely job learning and implementing and your attitude has been excellent. Do you have any tips?

for people that might be listening who know at least in part what to do, but they're struggling to follow through for themselves. Yeah. think the one thing that I was counting on that never ended up working long -term for me was motivation. let's talk about that. Motivation got me to Google, weight loss after 50.

I was motivated to do that, but the consistency that takes over when you don't feel like doing something. And the more I learn, I don't even have to be motivated to exercise. I just have to show up. I have to be consistent. And I will even tell myself just, you know, James clear says, make it obvious. the first thing in order to be consistent, I will put on my workout gear.

Morgan (58:01.474)
first thing in the morning. So it's obvious I am ready for workout. If I stay in my cozy robe, then time passes and oops, I have an appointment, can't work out today. So staying consistent rather than being motivated has been the key. to also just

Morgan (58:26.638)
It's hard to put into words, to honor yourself, to know that if you're struggling and on the fence and if you're like me and you have tried everything, at some point you just start to be beat down. And I remember thinking, and I would tell my friends, you better be the way you want to be before you turn 50, because after that, it's impossible.

You are going to, it will be a struggle and you will never lose it. So be what you want to be when you turn to, I ran into one of my friends the other day. said, I'm 48. I've got two years. I went, wait, I have another plan. And actually you can do it. So, you know, don't give up. Don't, you've done the same thing I've done probably is tried every trick in the book and maybe had some success with them. And so,

about halfway through this Zivli program, you'll be like, the scale is stuck. Maybe this isn't going to work. Stay consistent. Stay consistent with it. Be consistent with your personal faith formula first and foremost. If you do nothing else, do that because it is just an affirmation to yourself that you matter and that your words have power. I don't think that we realize

how much power we have in ourselves to change the trajectory of our lives. So stay with that personal faith formula and then show up. Put your shoes on and show up for five minutes, a five minute walk. I guarantee you turn into 10, you know, but just be consistent whether you feel like it or not, whether the weather's good or not. Just, just do five minutes.

And be consistent with that. Be consistent with, your health food choices that you make. You don't have to weigh and measure everything I do because I can be delusional and I'm like, yeah, I had a ton of protein. I had 20 grams or something. Yeah. From a restrictive standpoint, you're doing it to be sure you eat enough. Right. Right. To make sure that

Morgan (01:00:48.974)
I'm not deluding myself that I've actually eaten nutritious things today. Or, those don't count. I won't log those. So for me, logging had to be consistent with that in order to get a handle on things. Be consistent with, if you are part of Zivli, of being part of this group and showing up either through office hours or through listening to it and taking notes and gleaning things from it.

Be consistent in your quiet time with yourself where you give yourself a break. You have tried everything, but just not the right thing. So give yourself some grace. On those days when you feel like having the chocolate cake and ice cream, go for it, but don't feel guilty after. Enjoy every moment of it and then move on. Just consistently love yourself.

right. Consistent of yourself. Yeah. And just give yourself this gift. We rarely give ourselves gifts. Sometimes I buy myself flowers, but just because I deserve it. know, I had a little snow globe I was putting up for Christmas and I had written on the bottom. Beth bought this snow globe for Beth because it made her happy.

So give this gift to yourself, this gift of time and of Morgan's knowledge and research. And I guess on that vein, know that you can trust what she is saying. And there is an epidemic out there of infobesity. So much information.

And I was soaking it in from all of these different places. And this one's eat carbs, don't eat carbs, don't exercise, exercise, do this, do that, cardio, calories in, calories out, all of those kinds of things. So I had to let all that go and just trust Dr. Nolte. And it really was a...

Morgan (01:03:06.86)
wise choice because clearly it's paid off. Yeah. And it's, think it would so beautiful that anyone listening or watching can tell is you're so authentic about it. And you're so happy. And like, that's the point, right? The point is to be happy and healthy, not just like sick and thin, you know, so so grateful for your story. I'm so grateful for your participation in our program and your willingness to share your experience on the podcast.

is there anything else, any other like, you know, gems of wisdom that you wanted to leave us with today? James clear, you've taught us about atomic habits. He's one of the first books I read from you among others. He's talking about your system and your goals. And he says, if your systems are in place, then you don't have to wait to achieve that goal to be happy.

You can be happy every time you follow your system. I'm like, that's like every hour of the day I get to be happy. Because I'm actually following my system to reach this goal. You know, I love that. And I try to hold that in my thoughts too. That's what I would leave you with. really, there is a way to have joy, you know, and it doesn't have to be, I meant that.

perfect weight I always wanted to be. You don't have to wait that long to have joy. If you do the thing, if you put the shoes on and you take a five minute walk, you can have joy that, hey, I did toward my goal. I did daily action toward my goal. Yay. Yay me. Well, I could talk to you for a long time, I'm sure, but we'll wrap it up here. And I just want to do again, express my gratitude.

All the credit goes to you for taking all of that wonderful action. And I hope that you inspired someone today to either join civilly or just start on their own and really recommit each and every day to their health. thank you. Thank you. Such a pleasure. I've so enjoyed talking with you. You too. Bye. Bye bye.