November 21, 2025 • 20 mins
With so many diet trends promising quick fixes, how do you know what really supports blood-sugar balance? In this episode, Coach Jenny Peña, NBC-HWC, breaks down the pros and cons of popular eating styles—from Keto and DASH to Mediterranean and Plant-Based—and explains which ones the American Diabetes Association actually recommends.
You’ll discover why the Balanced Plate (and her signature P-F-F Formula: Protein + Fat + Fiber) remains the gold standard for prediabetes nutrition.
What the ADA’s five evidence-based eating patterns are
The truth about Keto, DASH, Mediterranean, and Plant-Based diets
Why the Balanced Plate is the most sustainable “gold standard” for blood-sugar health
How to personalize your meals if you have kidney disease, fatty liver, or early-stage diabetes
How to apply the P-F-F Formula for stable energy and fewer cravings
📘 Prediabetes Roadmap Guide — Understand your labs and build balanced meals with confidence → https://subscribepage.io/starterguide
🍽️ 5-Day Reset — Your self-paced jump-start to balanced blood sugar and energy → https://subscribepage.io/energy
🌐 Website | 📸 Instagram @coachjenp | 💼 LinkedIn | ▶️ YouTube @coachjenp
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello there, and welcome to episode 49 of the Paths where
the A1C podcast. I am your host Jenny Pena,
National Board Certified Health and Wellness coach, diabetes
Prevention program, lifestyle coach, founder, CEO of Gen.
B Coaching and creator of the A1C reset protocol.
That is my 12 week one-on-one signature coaching program to
(00:22):
help you lower your A1C, preventdiabetes, balance your blood
sugar, regain your energy and curb those ratings.
Now, I am super excited about today's episode because
obviously nutrition is one of those topics that I am very
passionate about and I think that everybody hyper focuses on
it. Now, I'm not saying it in a
(00:43):
criticizing voice, but I know that maybe a lot of people think
that nutrition, it's the only way that they can actually
balance their blood sugar. And while it does play a very
important role, it is not the only thing.
But today we are going to talk about a lot of these different
diets, right? We're going to talk about keto,
(01:03):
Mediterranean, what is this whole thing, what actually
works, what's the science behindit and hopefully you can make a
decision that fits you because Ido believe in bio individuality.
Now I am sure that the first thing that you thought when you
heard you are pre diabetic, you're a diabetic or your family
(01:26):
member. It's like I cannot eat sugar, I
cannot eat carbs and all that. And I want to bring clarity on
those misconceptions. Now, last week I got to talk
about World Diabetes Day, the risks, the awareness, how
important it is just to be aware, right?
To monitor, to check your labs, to understand those lab results,
(01:49):
right, and have an open conversation with your doctor.
But today we're going to shift to clarity and nutrition.
Before we talked about awarenessand all these things.
Now we're going to talk about clarity and nutrition.
Because once you know your risk,the next question is always
going to be what diet actually works?
Like what is one thing that I can do around nutrition that
(02:13):
will help me? And before we dig even deeper,
please, if you haven't, if you are a pre diabetic, if you have
just been diagnosed with diabetes, if you know that you
are at higher risk, grab my freepre diabetes road map guide at
subscribe page dot IO forward slash starter guide And it walks
you through the lab numbers, howto build balanced meals without
(02:35):
the guesswork. Have very simple first steps for
you to start getting bad balancein your blood sugar, regaining
your energy. And it is a guide that I wish I
had when I was diagnosed with pre diabetes.
Now all right, let's make sense out of keto, low carb,
Mediterranean plant based. I mean, I'm not going to be able
(02:56):
to cover all of the diets and all different styles, but I'm
going to try to hit the most popular ones or at least the
ones that most of my clients come and mention.
Now why there was so much diet confusion, If you have ever
googled and I am almost sure that you have best diet for pre
(03:19):
diabetes, diet to lower A1C or diet to reverse type 2 diabetes,
you already know how overwhelming it is.
Keto, paleo, vegan, DASH, Mediterranean, they all have
studies, they all have success stories.
And here's the truth, most plants work for someone.
(03:43):
I know that's not what you were expecting me to say, but the key
isn't the label, it's more in the balance of the plate.
That's why I believe and I advocate for balance because it
is way more sustainable long term.
Now that is why I teach my PFF formula and if you have been
(04:08):
listening to me for a while, youshould be familiar with it is
instead of best friend forever is PFF that stands for protein,
fiber, and fat at every meal. If you don't do anything else,
the one thing that I would love for you to do is to have
protein, fiber, and fat at everymeal.
(04:30):
It's the foundation for steady blood sugar.
It's the foundation for having hunger that is satisfied and for
lasting energy. If you are not feeling energy,
if you're feeling hungry all thetime, I can assure you, if you
analyze your plate, you're goingto notice that one of those
(04:51):
elements is probably missing. It is not balanced.
Now let's go on a quick tour of some popular diets.
Right keto, Keto is like one of those that I am not against it.
I feel that a lot of these recipes may be a good point for
(05:12):
these individuals that have a specific guideline on carbs.
Especially if you are a diabeticand you're working with a
dietitian or you're working withan endocrinologist, they may
actually give you a very specific guideline in terms of
carb intake, protein intake and all that.
That should be with a dietitian or an endocrinologist and keto
(05:34):
does provide a lot of these recipes that are almost like a
swap that will still give you the recipes and the meals that
you like with a lower carb content.
That's pretty much the benefit of keto.
Now here are some pros. Rapid carb cut.
There is surely a short term glucose improvement because it
(05:58):
is reducing the carb intake drastically.
Now here are some cons and I have had some clients that they
were successful losing weight and balancing and then the
moment that they incorporated a few more carbs everything
started bouncing back. It's very hard to maintain tends
(06:22):
to raise the LDL levels right? Like your cholesterol and fat
levels in your blood. And it tends to be low in fiber
because it hyper focuses on fatsand protein.
And fiber is actually on a lot of foods that have carbs.
Beans are rich in fiber, but they also have carbs.
(06:47):
Whole grains, they are carbs andyet they're one of the main
sources of fiber. Yes, you can get fiber from
leafy greens, you can get fiber from fruits, you can get fiber
from these things, but those arethe sources of fiber.
So if you take those out, there is not much of A fiber intake.
So those are one of the cons. So keto can be a tool as I said,
(07:10):
but I personally feel that long term health needs plants, it
needs some complex carbs and it needs flexibility.
So it's a very, very hard to sustain.
Now if you go into the ultra lowcarb Atkins style, again, you
(07:33):
have lower post milk spikes, butthen there are other extremes.
Again, you may have fatigue because the brain needs carbs.
Carbs are that quick source of energy.
So when you're cutting that out,a lot of shifts need to happen
for your body to produce that energy.
(07:55):
And then there may be a rebound in cravings.
So it's one of those that again,it was very famous a few years
ago and now you don't hear it much again.
If you can't see yourself eatingthis way next year, then that's
a good way of assessing. It's not your plan.
(08:18):
I always tell my clients for everything that they eat, I I
can come up with. We troubleshoot, we talk about
what are some options for breakfast, What are some options
for lunch or dinner? And I always tell them, if you
cannot see yourself eating this and enjoying it, let's explore
(08:39):
something else. But whatever you eat should be
things that you enjoy. Now let's talk about the
Mediterranean diet. If there's one diet that has
been the most research really backed up, there's tons of data
is the Mediterranean diet and what is it about?
(09:01):
Mainly fish, clean oils like olive oil and nuts, lots of
vegetables, right? It's very good in terms of that
and it's great for heart and metabolic health.
So that's why a lot of doctors endorse it.
Again, a lot of science behind it, but there could be portion
(09:28):
pitfalls if carbs dominate. If you're not able of balancing
that and making sure that carbs don't sort of take over your
plate, it can be a dangerous thing.
So it works best if you are verybalanced, right?
(09:49):
Olive oil, fish, veggies, complex carbs.
Now the plant based, vegetarian,vegan.
I know many and have worked witha few clients.
Sometimes it's the religious reasons, sometimes it is just
for a sense of not hurting animals.
Everybody has a different approach as to why they want to
(10:11):
embrace plant based. The pros is that you're going to
get lots of fiber, you're going to get lots of antioxidants and
vegetarian diet that helps lowering inflammation.
A lot of people when they're struggling with like high
inflammation levels and there are certain markers with your
labs that will actually show that by increasing vegetables
(10:33):
that actually lowers your inflammation.
Now, some of the cons is that itdoes need protein planning
protein sources from plants can be a challenge for you to hit
certain markers. So it can actually be a bit
challenging when if you're trying to manage glucose and
(10:53):
blood sugar spikes, right? So plants plant based is
fantastic as long as there is protein based and not just carb
based. Because I even had a personal
friend and she kept saying I am a vegetarian, but I am the
unhealthiest vegetarian ever because everything she was
eating was fried. A lot of the things that she was
(11:16):
incorporating was processed. And that tells you that maybe
even if you embrace a certain diet style, it doesn't
necessarily assume that you're following a healthy balance.
Now, the DASH diet. DASH diet is endorsed by the
American Diabetes Association. And it's great when you're
(11:37):
having blood pressure and you need kidney support.
I'm going to call that a challenge.
You have to wash sodium and carbpairing quickly on the American
Diabetes Association. If you do your research or you
ask chat TPC, they will say thatthere are five evidence based
(11:57):
eating patterns that they support for diabetes prevention
and diabetes management. They are Mediterranean, DASH,
vegetarian or vegan, low carb and low fat balance plants.
These are the different ones. Now they're all have to be
tailored based on your specific needs.
(12:21):
There are some individuals that they may have diabetes or pre
diabetes, but they may have other conditions.
If you're having issues with your kidney function, your diet
is going to have to change a bit.
If you're having fatty liver disease, your diet may need to
change. If you're having high levels of
cholesterol and the triglycerides, your diet may
(12:43):
need to change a little bit. So you see how may have a style,
but there has to be a bit of flexibility so that you can
address your individual needs. That's what I love my one-on-one
coaching program because I go through what does this person
need? What are the fruits, vegetables,
(13:04):
protein sources that they enjoy?What is important to them?
And that seems to work to find aplan that they don't need to
necessarily overhaul their entire diet routine, but they
will know how to tweak their diet and their plate using the
things that they enjoy. Now the AD as take away overall
(13:29):
is simple right? Like this.
They endorse these five diets and it depends on your personal
situation, but the gold standard, and that is what I
teach is to balance the balance plate, which is the diabetes
plate method. And I'm going to go through it
(13:50):
quickly. So it's not like a single magic
diet that but that you can use as an anchor is more about the
diabetes plate method. It's also known as the balance
plate. And what is that?
That you look at your plate and half of your plate should be non
(14:11):
starchy vegetables. That should be your goal.
Broccoli, leafy greens, Peppers,onions, eggplant, cucumbers,
Brussels sprouts, green beans. Now that Thanksgiving is
approaching, have your plate should be that.
(14:34):
Let's think about Thanksgiving in the US.
The typical what would be those green vegetables?
Most places they will have some Brussels sprouts, they will have
some green beans. I'm sure that you're going to
have some side salad with with many different vegetables there.
They're all non starchy vegetables.
Half your plate should be that. Now 1/4 of your plate should be
(14:59):
protein. What are some sources of
protein? Chicken, fish, eggs, tofu,
Turkey is actually an amazing source of protein.
Make sure your plate has that protein in there, that you have
that half of the non starchy vegetables and then a quarter
(15:21):
protein in there. Then the other quarter of your
plate, right half a plate, non starchy vegetables, 1/4 of a
plate, your protein, the other quarter should be smart carbs.
I do not advocate to go on an extreme diet unless you're
having a specific guideline fromyour dietitian, from your
(15:44):
endocrinologist that they're really advocating and believe
that for your needs you need to go on an extreme low carb diet.
And what are these smart carbs? Beans, quinoa, fruits, sweet
potatoes, lots of squashes, all these things are amazing sources
(16:06):
of carbs. Carbs that have some fiber and
high in nutrients. And then you just add a little
bit of healthy fat. What is that?
Some avocados, handful of nuts, olive oil, avocado oil.
All of these are great. This is the gold standard for
(16:27):
blood sugar balance because again, it naturally embodies
what I was mentioning before, protein, fiber and fat.
If you think about that and frame every single meal like
that, you are going to see changes, guaranteed.
(16:48):
You are going to change, Your energy levels are going to go
up, you're not going to feel as much cravings is going to
change. Now if you already have
diabetes, and I mentioned that before, if you already have
diabetes, kidney disease, fatty liver disease, there are other
complications that can come fromblood sugar.
Please check with your doctor and your dietitian.
(17:10):
They may adjust those goals depending on your labs,
depending on your medication. But if you're in the pre
diabetic range or in a very early stage of type 2, this
plate method is the best generalguideline to start with.
It's simple, it's flexible because you can incorporate the
(17:31):
things that you actually enjoy and it is sustainable.
Now how do you put this into practice?
I will say try building 1 balance plate each day of the
week. Try to build one.
Pick breakfast, pick lunch, pickdinner.
You don't need maps, you don't need macro math.
(17:52):
You don't need to start using all these apps to track your
calories. Do it visually.
Notice how your energy and cravings change when you do
that. And again, if you need some
structure grab my pre diabetes road map guide.
I am explaining that in detail. Subscribe page dot IO for slash
starter guide or join my 5 day reset the sugar fix reset that
(18:17):
is self-paced. It's a series of emails with
tools, specific steps to follow for five specific days for the
entire month of November. I am actually offering it for
$19.00. And then see how those balance
plates fit into your real life meals.
And you can do exactly the same thing when you're at a
(18:39):
restaurant. Now, next week and the week
after, I am going to be on vacation.
But you're going to get a treat.It doesn't mean that you're not
going to get an episode, but I have two amazing guests for the
next two weeks. Next week we're going beyond the
plate and we're going into mindset and one topic that I was
(19:03):
even very puzzled about, and I'mglad that I got this
hypnotherapist to come and talk about how hypnotherapy can help
you when it comes to habit formation, managing cravings,
and finally helping you balance your blood sugar.
So following week, which is actually my birthday on December
(19:25):
5th, I have this amazing gentleman that lost incredible
amount of weight. But that's not it.
It's more about how has he has been able to sustain it and now
how his experience has catapulted him into helping
other young men and women to focus on their health, focus on
(19:49):
their leadership skills and pourback into the community, which
is amazing. So stay tuned.
Don't miss those two amazing episodes.
Thank you so much for listening to the Path to Better UNC
podcast. If today's episode gave you
clarity, please share with someone, send me a message.
I'm on Instagram, I have my e-mail.
(20:11):
All of my information is in the show notes and if there is any
topic that you may want for me to include, please share.
I am Kojini and my goal is to bring awareness and to help
everyone that I can fight this battle against diabetes and
regain their energy, their focusand their health.
(20:35):
One strategy at a time. Have an amazing weekend.
Bye.
Hello there, and welcome to episode 49 of the Paths where
the A1C podcast. I am your host Jenny Pena,
National Board Certified Health and Wellness coach, diabetes
Prevention program, lifestyle coach, founder, CEO of Gen.
B Coaching and creator of the A1C reset protocol.
That is my 12 week one-on-one signature coaching program to
(00:22):
help you lower your A1C, preventdiabetes, balance your blood
sugar, regain your energy and curb those ratings.
Now, I am super excited about today's episode because
obviously nutrition is one of those topics that I am very
passionate about and I think that everybody hyper focuses on
it. Now, I'm not saying it in a
(00:43):
criticizing voice, but I know that maybe a lot of people think
that nutrition, it's the only way that they can actually
balance their blood sugar. And while it does play a very
important role, it is not the only thing.
But today we are going to talk about a lot of these different
diets, right? We're going to talk about keto,
(01:03):
Mediterranean, what is this whole thing, what actually
works, what's the science behindit and hopefully you can make a
decision that fits you because Ido believe in bio individuality.
Now I am sure that the first thing that you thought when you
heard you are pre diabetic, you're a diabetic or your family
(01:26):
member. It's like I cannot eat sugar, I
cannot eat carbs and all that. And I want to bring clarity on
those misconceptions. Now, last week I got to talk
about World Diabetes Day, the risks, the awareness, how
important it is just to be aware, right?
To monitor, to check your labs, to understand those lab results,
(01:49):
right, and have an open conversation with your doctor.
But today we're going to shift to clarity and nutrition.
Before we talked about awarenessand all these things.
Now we're going to talk about clarity and nutrition.
Because once you know your risk,the next question is always
going to be what diet actually works?
Like what is one thing that I can do around nutrition that
(02:13):
will help me? And before we dig even deeper,
please, if you haven't, if you are a pre diabetic, if you have
just been diagnosed with diabetes, if you know that you
are at higher risk, grab my freepre diabetes road map guide at
subscribe page dot IO forward slash starter guide And it walks
you through the lab numbers, howto build balanced meals without
(02:35):
the guesswork. Have very simple first steps for
you to start getting bad balancein your blood sugar, regaining
your energy. And it is a guide that I wish I
had when I was diagnosed with pre diabetes.
Now all right, let's make sense out of keto, low carb,
Mediterranean plant based. I mean, I'm not going to be able
(02:56):
to cover all of the diets and all different styles, but I'm
going to try to hit the most popular ones or at least the
ones that most of my clients come and mention.
Now why there was so much diet confusion, If you have ever
googled and I am almost sure that you have best diet for pre
(03:19):
diabetes, diet to lower A1C or diet to reverse type 2 diabetes,
you already know how overwhelming it is.
Keto, paleo, vegan, DASH, Mediterranean, they all have
studies, they all have success stories.
And here's the truth, most plants work for someone.
(03:43):
I know that's not what you were expecting me to say, but the key
isn't the label, it's more in the balance of the plate.
That's why I believe and I advocate for balance because it
is way more sustainable long term.
Now that is why I teach my PFF formula and if you have been
(04:08):
listening to me for a while, youshould be familiar with it is
instead of best friend forever is PFF that stands for protein,
fiber, and fat at every meal. If you don't do anything else,
the one thing that I would love for you to do is to have
protein, fiber, and fat at everymeal.
(04:30):
It's the foundation for steady blood sugar.
It's the foundation for having hunger that is satisfied and for
lasting energy. If you are not feeling energy,
if you're feeling hungry all thetime, I can assure you, if you
analyze your plate, you're goingto notice that one of those
(04:51):
elements is probably missing. It is not balanced.
Now let's go on a quick tour of some popular diets.
Right keto, Keto is like one of those that I am not against it.
I feel that a lot of these recipes may be a good point for
(05:12):
these individuals that have a specific guideline on carbs.
Especially if you are a diabeticand you're working with a
dietitian or you're working withan endocrinologist, they may
actually give you a very specific guideline in terms of
carb intake, protein intake and all that.
That should be with a dietitian or an endocrinologist and keto
(05:34):
does provide a lot of these recipes that are almost like a
swap that will still give you the recipes and the meals that
you like with a lower carb content.
That's pretty much the benefit of keto.
Now here are some pros. Rapid carb cut.
There is surely a short term glucose improvement because it
(05:58):
is reducing the carb intake drastically.
Now here are some cons and I have had some clients that they
were successful losing weight and balancing and then the
moment that they incorporated a few more carbs everything
started bouncing back. It's very hard to maintain tends
(06:22):
to raise the LDL levels right? Like your cholesterol and fat
levels in your blood. And it tends to be low in fiber
because it hyper focuses on fatsand protein.
And fiber is actually on a lot of foods that have carbs.
Beans are rich in fiber, but they also have carbs.
(06:47):
Whole grains, they are carbs andyet they're one of the main
sources of fiber. Yes, you can get fiber from
leafy greens, you can get fiber from fruits, you can get fiber
from these things, but those arethe sources of fiber.
So if you take those out, there is not much of A fiber intake.
So those are one of the cons. So keto can be a tool as I said,
(07:10):
but I personally feel that long term health needs plants, it
needs some complex carbs and it needs flexibility.
So it's a very, very hard to sustain.
Now if you go into the ultra lowcarb Atkins style, again, you
(07:33):
have lower post milk spikes, butthen there are other extremes.
Again, you may have fatigue because the brain needs carbs.
Carbs are that quick source of energy.
So when you're cutting that out,a lot of shifts need to happen
for your body to produce that energy.
(07:55):
And then there may be a rebound in cravings.
So it's one of those that again,it was very famous a few years
ago and now you don't hear it much again.
If you can't see yourself eatingthis way next year, then that's
a good way of assessing. It's not your plan.
(08:18):
I always tell my clients for everything that they eat, I I
can come up with. We troubleshoot, we talk about
what are some options for breakfast, What are some options
for lunch or dinner? And I always tell them, if you
cannot see yourself eating this and enjoying it, let's explore
(08:39):
something else. But whatever you eat should be
things that you enjoy. Now let's talk about the
Mediterranean diet. If there's one diet that has
been the most research really backed up, there's tons of data
is the Mediterranean diet and what is it about?
(09:01):
Mainly fish, clean oils like olive oil and nuts, lots of
vegetables, right? It's very good in terms of that
and it's great for heart and metabolic health.
So that's why a lot of doctors endorse it.
Again, a lot of science behind it, but there could be portion
(09:28):
pitfalls if carbs dominate. If you're not able of balancing
that and making sure that carbs don't sort of take over your
plate, it can be a dangerous thing.
So it works best if you are verybalanced, right?
(09:49):
Olive oil, fish, veggies, complex carbs.
Now the plant based, vegetarian,vegan.
I know many and have worked witha few clients.
Sometimes it's the religious reasons, sometimes it is just
for a sense of not hurting animals.
Everybody has a different approach as to why they want to
(10:11):
embrace plant based. The pros is that you're going to
get lots of fiber, you're going to get lots of antioxidants and
vegetarian diet that helps lowering inflammation.
A lot of people when they're struggling with like high
inflammation levels and there are certain markers with your
labs that will actually show that by increasing vegetables
(10:33):
that actually lowers your inflammation.
Now, some of the cons is that itdoes need protein planning
protein sources from plants can be a challenge for you to hit
certain markers. So it can actually be a bit
challenging when if you're trying to manage glucose and
(10:53):
blood sugar spikes, right? So plants plant based is
fantastic as long as there is protein based and not just carb
based. Because I even had a personal
friend and she kept saying I am a vegetarian, but I am the
unhealthiest vegetarian ever because everything she was
eating was fried. A lot of the things that she was
(11:16):
incorporating was processed. And that tells you that maybe
even if you embrace a certain diet style, it doesn't
necessarily assume that you're following a healthy balance.
Now, the DASH diet. DASH diet is endorsed by the
American Diabetes Association. And it's great when you're
(11:37):
having blood pressure and you need kidney support.
I'm going to call that a challenge.
You have to wash sodium and carbpairing quickly on the American
Diabetes Association. If you do your research or you
ask chat TPC, they will say thatthere are five evidence based
(11:57):
eating patterns that they support for diabetes prevention
and diabetes management. They are Mediterranean, DASH,
vegetarian or vegan, low carb and low fat balance plants.
These are the different ones. Now they're all have to be
tailored based on your specific needs.
(12:21):
There are some individuals that they may have diabetes or pre
diabetes, but they may have other conditions.
If you're having issues with your kidney function, your diet
is going to have to change a bit.
If you're having fatty liver disease, your diet may need to
change. If you're having high levels of
cholesterol and the triglycerides, your diet may
(12:43):
need to change a little bit. So you see how may have a style,
but there has to be a bit of flexibility so that you can
address your individual needs. That's what I love my one-on-one
coaching program because I go through what does this person
need? What are the fruits, vegetables,
(13:04):
protein sources that they enjoy?What is important to them?
And that seems to work to find aplan that they don't need to
necessarily overhaul their entire diet routine, but they
will know how to tweak their diet and their plate using the
things that they enjoy. Now the AD as take away overall
(13:29):
is simple right? Like this.
They endorse these five diets and it depends on your personal
situation, but the gold standard, and that is what I
teach is to balance the balance plate, which is the diabetes
plate method. And I'm going to go through it
(13:50):
quickly. So it's not like a single magic
diet that but that you can use as an anchor is more about the
diabetes plate method. It's also known as the balance
plate. And what is that?
That you look at your plate and half of your plate should be non
(14:11):
starchy vegetables. That should be your goal.
Broccoli, leafy greens, Peppers,onions, eggplant, cucumbers,
Brussels sprouts, green beans. Now that Thanksgiving is
approaching, have your plate should be that.
(14:34):
Let's think about Thanksgiving in the US.
The typical what would be those green vegetables?
Most places they will have some Brussels sprouts, they will have
some green beans. I'm sure that you're going to
have some side salad with with many different vegetables there.
They're all non starchy vegetables.
Half your plate should be that. Now 1/4 of your plate should be
(14:59):
protein. What are some sources of
protein? Chicken, fish, eggs, tofu,
Turkey is actually an amazing source of protein.
Make sure your plate has that protein in there, that you have
that half of the non starchy vegetables and then a quarter
(15:21):
protein in there. Then the other quarter of your
plate, right half a plate, non starchy vegetables, 1/4 of a
plate, your protein, the other quarter should be smart carbs.
I do not advocate to go on an extreme diet unless you're
having a specific guideline fromyour dietitian, from your
(15:44):
endocrinologist that they're really advocating and believe
that for your needs you need to go on an extreme low carb diet.
And what are these smart carbs? Beans, quinoa, fruits, sweet
potatoes, lots of squashes, all these things are amazing sources
(16:06):
of carbs. Carbs that have some fiber and
high in nutrients. And then you just add a little
bit of healthy fat. What is that?
Some avocados, handful of nuts, olive oil, avocado oil.
All of these are great. This is the gold standard for
(16:27):
blood sugar balance because again, it naturally embodies
what I was mentioning before, protein, fiber and fat.
If you think about that and frame every single meal like
that, you are going to see changes, guaranteed.
(16:48):
You are going to change, Your energy levels are going to go
up, you're not going to feel as much cravings is going to
change. Now if you already have
diabetes, and I mentioned that before, if you already have
diabetes, kidney disease, fatty liver disease, there are other
complications that can come fromblood sugar.
Please check with your doctor and your dietitian.
(17:10):
They may adjust those goals depending on your labs,
depending on your medication. But if you're in the pre
diabetic range or in a very early stage of type 2, this
plate method is the best generalguideline to start with.
It's simple, it's flexible because you can incorporate the
(17:31):
things that you actually enjoy and it is sustainable.
Now how do you put this into practice?
I will say try building 1 balance plate each day of the
week. Try to build one.
Pick breakfast, pick lunch, pickdinner.
You don't need maps, you don't need macro math.
(17:52):
You don't need to start using all these apps to track your
calories. Do it visually.
Notice how your energy and cravings change when you do
that. And again, if you need some
structure grab my pre diabetes road map guide.
I am explaining that in detail. Subscribe page dot IO for slash
starter guide or join my 5 day reset the sugar fix reset that
(18:17):
is self-paced. It's a series of emails with
tools, specific steps to follow for five specific days for the
entire month of November. I am actually offering it for
$19.00. And then see how those balance
plates fit into your real life meals.
And you can do exactly the same thing when you're at a
(18:39):
restaurant. Now, next week and the week
after, I am going to be on vacation.
But you're going to get a treat.It doesn't mean that you're not
going to get an episode, but I have two amazing guests for the
next two weeks. Next week we're going beyond the
plate and we're going into mindset and one topic that I was
(19:03):
even very puzzled about, and I'mglad that I got this
hypnotherapist to come and talk about how hypnotherapy can help
you when it comes to habit formation, managing cravings,
and finally helping you balance your blood sugar.
So following week, which is actually my birthday on December
(19:25):
5th, I have this amazing gentleman that lost incredible
amount of weight. But that's not it.
It's more about how has he has been able to sustain it and now
how his experience has catapulted him into helping
other young men and women to focus on their health, focus on
(19:49):
their leadership skills and pourback into the community, which
is amazing. So stay tuned.
Don't miss those two amazing episodes.
Thank you so much for listening to the Path to Better UNC
podcast. If today's episode gave you
clarity, please share with someone, send me a message.
I'm on Instagram, I have my e-mail.
(20:11):
All of my information is in the show notes and if there is any
topic that you may want for me to include, please share.
I am Kojini and my goal is to bring awareness and to help
everyone that I can fight this battle against diabetes and
regain their energy, their focusand their health.
(20:35):
One strategy at a time. Have an amazing weekend.
Bye.
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