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Summary
On episode 389 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Dr. Nicki Steinberger, the creator of the holistic lifestyle practices approach to reversing type 2 diabetes, whose focus on health psychology helps everyday people take back their health and reclaim their joy, vitality, and plenty.
Dr. Nicki argues that the old story about type 2 diabetes, that it is a life sentence that only gets worse, is the number one myth about the condition. She lays out 16 holistic lifestyle practices, built around food, movement, mindset, and morning rituals, that people can add one or two at a time until they stack into a full routine.
The conversation covers a continuum from “chaos of symptoms” all the way to what she calls optimal health, along with practical food swaps (cutting fast converting carbs and rancid seed oils), and why joy and mindset are just as central to reversing this disease as the food changes are.
Links
- https://drnickisteinberger.com/blast
Key Takeaways
- Type 2 diabetes can be reversed, not just managed. The old myth was that a diagnosis meant an inevitable decline into worse health and eventually death. Reversal is possible through holistic lifestyle changes, a message Dr. Nicki’s book directly challenges.
- There’s a continuum from chaos of symptoms to optimal health. Beyond simply reversing a diagnosis lies “optimal health,” a body, mind, and spirit state each person defines for themselves, not just running marathons or hitting a number on a scale.
- Success with the 16 holistic lifestyle practices is cumulative, not all or nothing. Start with one or two, like hydration, and let habits stack from there rather than trying to adopt all 16 practices at once.
- Morning rituals stack multiple health habits into one time block. Hydrating with water and lemon or apple cider vinegar, meditating, walking, journaling, and affirmations can all be “stacked” into roughly an hour each morning.
- Fast converting carbs and industrial seed oils are two of the biggest dietary culprits. Grain flours and sugar, plus oils like canola, corn, soy, and safflower, spike insulin and cause inflammation. Even “olive oil” at restaurants is often cut with cheaper, inflammatory oils.
- Pairing carbohydrates with fiber, fat, or protein slows the blood sugar spike. Steamed vegetables served with a starchy food, for example, blunt the insulin response compared with eating the carbohydrate alone.
- Raw vegetables and limited fruit (mainly berries) support blood sugar control. The living enzymes, fiber, and micronutrients in raw vegetables matter regardless of what food plan you follow, while fruit sugar should generally be limited to low glycemic berries.
- Joy and mindset are not optional extras, they are core to reversing disease. Sustainable joy is found in the present moment through practices like affirmations and meditation, and mindset determines whether cravings and old habits control you or you control them.
- Dr. Nicki’s three strategies to get and stay well: mindset first, understanding that you crave what you feed yourself, not the other way around; daily affirmations to rewrite old mental loops; and committing to a program or routine, whether self-created or with support.
“We crave what we feed ourselves, not the other way around.”
Dr. Nicki Steinberger
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