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MDAE E39 – Josh LaJaunie’s Secrets to Extreme Weight Loss

Article written and reviewed by Cyrus Khambatta, PhD and Robby Barbaro, MPH
Published October 9, 2018
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MDAE E39 – Josh LaJaunie’s Secrets to Extreme Weight Loss

Podcast Transcript

Josh LaJaunie: Once you do that initial “doing phase” in this extreme weight loss story, then you have to figure out, “What am I learning?” And, “What am I doing? Am I winning, or am I losing with these efforts? And how is that helping me grow?” And so, if I'm doing that in a pragmatic way, along the way, I'm letting go of the whey protein, because I've learned different things. I'm letting go of the idea that I need to be doing three sets of 10 and trying to get back to them up, you know, 315 pounds max on bench, or whatever the case was.

And so, doing things, and letting things morph and change based on the results that I was getting, was a beautiful part of the process. I'm still iterating today, you know, that's the flame that burns forever in my mind, and the next step was running, which is what led me to a plant-based diet.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: Welcome to the Mastering Diabetes Audio Experience, where we teach you how to sit in the driver's seat of your diabetes health for the rest of your life. We'll teach you how to reverse insulin resistance, achieve your ideal body weight, gain energy and get your best A1c following more than 85 years of evidence-based research in the Mastering Diabetes Program.

Robby Barbaro: Our program teaches you how to reverse prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, and how to simplify your life with type 1 diabetes by maximizing your insulin sensitivity, using food as medicine.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: We're on a bold mission to reverse insulin resistance in 1 million people. We're glad to have you joining us.

Robby Barbaro: Welcome to the Mastering Diabetes Audio Experience. We're really glad to have you joining us today. Thank you for taking the time. We have a fascinating episode. This one is with Josh LaJaunie, and he's going to tell his story of some seriously extreme weight loss. It's an incredible transformation. And I think it's going to be inspiring for a lot of you out there, who have a goal that seems unreachable. Something, you know, whether it's weight loss, whether it's getting off diabetes medications, whether it's something else, some health goal that just seems impossible. It's just so far out there.

Today's episode is going to be really, really inspiring to show you what is possible. Josh is going to talk about how he got there, his mindset, how he eats, and how he thinks about food. His mental approach is really powerful.

So you're going to hear all that today on the episode. And again, if you're looking for any level of extreme weight loss, this episode is going to be super helpful. So hope you guys enjoy it. Let's get into it.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: All right, Josh, you have an incredible story about, not only weight loss, but extreme weight loss. And I cannot wait to, you know, go into the details of exactly how you were able to lose more than 200 pounds. So let's just start at the top here. Can you give our listeners a little bit of detail here, as to what was the problem that you were trying to solve early in this game, before you transition to a plant-based diet? What was going through your head? What were the emotions you were feeling? How did you know there was a problem that you wanted to actually solve?

Josh LaJaunie: Well, just the exact opposite of extreme weight loss. It was extremely weight gain. That was the very first, I mean, I had been gaining weight my entire life. I had seen it as a football player. I'd seen it as just a big cornbread-fed country boy, which, you know, you just get slapped on the back. You get appreciated it in a different way. In a manly way like, you know, by your elders for being a big, good, strapping boy.

And no one thinks about how unhealthy you’ll be. And everyone is just worried about the big strapping manliness. And so, I grew up in a family that really worshiped being out in the woods, and hunting, and fishing, and football, and beer drinking, and all of that stuff. And my grandfather was the patriarch of the whole deal. And he was the guy that bought the whiskey and the meat, and fired up the pit. And he was the guy, and I wanted to be just like him. You know, and I grew up to be ultimately, at the age of 30 or so, the opposite end of extreme weight loss, it was extreme weight gain.

I got to the point to where it was hard, it was difficult to put on my shoes, it’s difficult to get socks on. You can't fit in a booth. I was hypertensive on like, my last three doctor's visits. So I just stopped going to the doctor, because he was threatening to put me on medication. And every time I went the maximum the scale was 350, and it just said “Clunk!”, it wasn't even close.

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Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: You’ve been heavy your whole life or were you, was there a moment in time where you started just to, you know, exponentially get heavier?

Josh LaJaunie: Right, I was a big guy. I was always a tall guy, but I was slender when I was young. My brother was big, ever since I can remember, us both being small kids, my brother was always a big kid, I was more a lanky kid. And when I got older, you know, 10, 12 years old, when I started wanting to be bigger, when I was starting to want to play football, and do those types of things. And I got big in a hurry. Yeah, fat in a hurry.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: So what was the highest weight that you ever experienced? It was over 350, or did you actually know the real number here?

Josh LaJaunie: Yeah, no. The highest number I ever saw on a scale is 397. That was after I had seen like, about 30 days of going to the gym, and really watching what I ate, and really, you know, started tracking my steps on campus because I'm walking around.

And so, subsequent months, I know I had lost 20-ish pounds in a 30 day period. But after 30 days of the current scale, just said, error. My wife got me a scale, and it finally read a number, and the number was 397. And I know that I probably lost 20 pounds by them already. I have been going really hard, man. I was working. I was up at four in the morning. I was at the gym at 4:30 with my buddy Jeff every day, I was on fire. It was like, it was it felt right. It felt good to do. It felt like, it felt difficult, but it felt smart to be doing something about body, for kind of a grownup reason this time. For the first time it was like, “What about girls?” And “What about, you know, football”, or looking any sort of a way. It was completely different driven this time. Thank goodness.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: Okay, so explain to us then. When you finally hit your highest weight, you said 397, right?

Josh LaJaunie: Correct. Yes.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: What were you experiencing emotionally? Because a lot of times what I've heard from people who tend to be, you know, gaining weight over time, is that there's almost like a disconnect. It's like, you're gaining weight, and you know it and you can feel it, but somehow emotionally, you remain detached from it. And then as a result of that, you don't change, you don't, you know, try and seek ways to lose weight. Did you know at that time, were you experiencing emotional pain?

Josh LaJaunie: Of course. Yes, absolutely. I mean, I would say that in almost any extreme weight gain scenario, there's a lot of emotional baggage that must be dealt with before you can really create the extreme weight loss scenario. And there's a reason that the word extreme is being used there, because this is something that is extremely difficult to address and deal with. But it's very important. It was a big part of what was driving me to the food domain, which was the whirlwind of stressors in my life, that I was just using them and processing them in a dysfunctional way.

I still have those same stressors today, but I had to learn how to deal with that. That takes therapy, that takes everyone's own path to deal with it, right? And running has been huge for me in that process. It’s very cathartic. I'm listening to a Podcast right now that’s blowing my mind, about ultra-running. It’s crazy. But it really, it has just been an amazing thing. And I feel my run getting deeper and deeper and deeper in this life, the more I use my physical body, you know?

Robby Barbaro: This is great! So, tell us, what did you do? What was your process to lose all this weight?

Josh LaJaunie: The very first thing to do in this extreme weight loss story was, I just set my alarm and got up, you know. That was step one, is to actually get up. And it helps because, I knew I was going to have a friend, I've been friends with since kindergarten, at the gym at 4:30 waiting on me, in the morning. Right?

So, is making that sort of first communal connection, because community is huge, and as I'm looking back on my story now, and I'm seeing that the role community has played along the way, that was my very first taste of that, was having someone to get up with me and go and just take that first step. Whatever it is. If it's ballet, if it’s freaking Taekwondo. Whatever the thing is, you think you want to try, do it. That's step one.

Robby Barbaro: That's beautiful. Okay, so you did that. And…

Josh LaJaunie: And it led me to other things, right? Because then you stall out. It's like this breathing thing that happens, right? In that, things work, and then things slow down, and stop working. And then you gotta do some changes, and get things to start moving and working again. So things start to change along the way, once you do that initial “doing phase” in this extreme weight loss story, then you have to figure out, “What am I learning?”, and “What am I doing? Am I winning or am I losing with these efforts? And how is that helping me grow?” And so, if I'm doing that in a pragmatic way, along the way, I'm letting go of the whey protein, because I've learned different things. I'm letting go of the idea that I need to be doing three sets of 10 and trying to get back to them up, you know, 315 pounds max on bench, or whatever the case was.

So, doing things, and letting things morph and change based on the results that I was getting was a beautiful step in the process. It was a beautiful part of the process. I'm still iterating today, you know, that's the flame that burns forever in my mind. And the next step was running, which is what led me to a plant-based diet.

Robby Barbaro: So, tell us about that. How did you come to the plant-based diet?

Josh LaJaunie: The plant-based diet came because I wanted to be a better runner. And I was learning. I had lost about 100 pounds, but I was still extremely overweight, struggling with food, didn't really feel like I understood what was going on. I had lost weight, despite of my food habits, not because of them. And so, I read “Born to Run”. I learned about Scott Jurek. I totally went that route, read his book, when sort of went down that rabbit hole. And it kind of was like, “Dang! OK”

I read Rich Roll’s books. And so, I just kind of went in, for the athletic thing first. I was like, “If it works for them, I think it would maybe help me get this rest of the weight off of my body, maybe I can…”, it was just a thing, the next thing to try for me. And I did it and, you know, Forks Over Knives happened, all of the other things. I start self-educating, and things really changed for me, the rest of the weight completely flew off.

But not only did the weight come off. It wasn't just extremely loss. But it was extremely athletic gain. In this process, my growth curve was like vertical. I was exploding. I was running longer, and farther and faster. I was getting stronger, my PRs were falling like dominoes. It was just an amazing feeling for me.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: So, one of the things that I've heard from people who find themselves being overweight, is that it's actually challenging to move their body, right? And so, it's easier to start eating a particular way so that you lose weight, and then after you've lost a sufficient amount of weight, then you can actually start to move your body. Because otherwise your joints hurt, and you're carrying excess 20, 30, 40, 100 pounds. And it's actually very challenging for your skeleton to move all that excess mass. So, at what weight did you start running? Because I'd imagine that if you were in the three hundreds, that would have been challenging, right?

Josh LaJaunie: I was 380.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: And you were running at 380 pounds?

Josh LaJaunie: But Cyrus, I was doing what I call a jiggle job, bro. You know, it might have been a 16, 30 pace. That was my running. I was very mindful of how big I was. I was very mindful of the fact I didn't want to hurt myself, I knew what I was in. Plus, if I tried to go much faster than that, I was flapping too much. It was very embarrassing. Lots of bouncing, lots of noises. So, it was just simple, it might take me an hour to go three miles.

But I wasn't doing that. I was doing one mile as fast as I could, which would have been like 15, 16 minutes in the very beginning.

Robby Barbaro: Okay. So, this is fascinating. So your level of patience, and seeing the bigger picture, I think it's something a lot of people listening to this can benefit from. They’re living with type 2 diabetes, they’re overweight, they feel like the journey of getting off medications, getting to the ideal weight in our Online Course. It's just so overwhelming. It's daunting. So, how did you do that? How did you take it one step at a time?

Josh LaJaunie: I think honestly, it has something to do with my respect for Mother Nature. I grew up in Sportsman's Paradise, here in Louisiana. We grew up on the bay, in the woods, at the camp. And when it became clear to me… I’m going to get emotional.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: It's all good.

Josh LaJaunie: When it became clear to me that nature wanted me to be healthy. And there was a very specific way, that just releases you to those desires. It was really easy to stay on track, especially when you see all the pain and stuff in your life. Like, I remember all the caskets, I've stood on and cried over. And how many of those were early deaths due to heart disease, early deaths due to cancer, early deaths due to complications from diabetes, right?

And so, when you see, when you make that connection, I don't know how to give someone that secret sauce, I don't know other than share information, that's what I’m trying to do every day. But when you make that connection there, who gives a damn how good a Big Mac tastes at that point, who cares? That's not the point.

Robby Barbaro: It's really valuable.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: So, give me some insight here. I think one of the things that can be so daunting for people, and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know if you also feel the same way, is that, you know, you look at the scale and think to yourself, “Okay, I'm 397, I'm 380. My ideal body weight is probably somewhere in the hundreds” You know, “It's like 160 or 140”, right?

That's a big change, right? We're not talking 20 pounds of weight loss. We're talking extreme weight loss. More than 100 pounds, 200 pounds. So, I think the very number itself, the magnitude of that change that has to occur, even though it can happen over time, can become frustrating. It can become, it can be like a roadblock. You say to yourself like, “Oh, man, there's no way I can do this”.

Josh LaJaunie: If you let it be simple enough, it's fractal. It is just very easy things repeated over, and over, and over. It's less a huge change and more like a cascade of tiny ones. You know, it's just about a consciousness just shifting just a bit. And if we can encourage people to do that through community, I think that's how we instill that sort of mindset in folks, but yeah, I think that's a huge one to get over.

Robby Barbaro: During your extreme weight loss journey, did you set small goals? Was that a part of your journey?

Josh LaJaunie: Of course I did. Yes, I set goals that I found attainable for me, given where I was at that moment in time. Not strategically, but because that's what I was felt safe doing. In the very early stages, I was worried about getting back to playing weight, for me, which was 295 pounds. No, that was step one.

And so back then, I wanted to be like a big, ripped, buff. I was thinking maybe bodybuilder, I have some bodybuilder friends, you know, I was thinking maybe that'd be a cool story, going from being a fat lineman to lean, dry, shredded bodybuilder, that's where I was thinking I was heading to, when I started going back to the gym.

But just like I learned about in my buddies Podcasts, that I love, this is a great quote from one of his guests is, don't be so sure about what you want, that you wouldn't take something better. And my life has just been that very thing multiplied by a million times throughout my entire life, in this cascade of very, very small changes that have really changed the color of my life in a way that I would have never expected.

Robby Barbaro: That's beautiful. I mean, maybe we can talk about some of these changes, I mean, know you've recently been on the cover of Runner’s World, you've been on TV, tell us what's going on for you?

Josh LaJaunie: Yeah, we talked about extreme weight loss, but it's also extreme lifestyle change as well, because, I mean, you talk about being a guy from Chackbay Louisiana, which is a little dot in the middle of swamp, outside of the town, and no one heard of, either called Thibodaux, you know, and you find yourself in a giant building in Manhattan, talking to Michael Strahan in Times Square. That's pretty extreme too, you know what I mean?

It has just, because I'm on fire for life, that's all. Like, it's has never been like a strategy to be like, “Hey, man, let me see. If I could get on GMA”, you know what I’m saying? It's just living out loud, turning an outward facing approach, to a lot of the knowledge of gain for myself and my life, you know. It has taken me, not just in an extreme weight loss scenario, but an extreme lifestyle change scenario, extreme consciousness shift scenario. Extreme in the sense of how I see the world, my empathy towards others, my empathy towards other species. Everything about me, has metamorphosed, and I feel like in a positive way, through becoming healthier.

It's not just about getting off of medication, and being a smaller number on the scale. It's about being a better, more authentic being. And it's really fascinating to me to be part of that, and to have both of those experiences in one mind, I think is really valuable for me.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: Finish the story here for a second, because you went from being almost 400 pounds to, you know, doing a 17 minutes mile, and just getting your body moving, to less than 200 pounds, and, what's your current weight right now?

Josh LaJaunie: About 195.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: Perfect. So you're 195. So you've lost 200 pounds in this process. But not only that, not only were you able to lose 200 pounds, you're now an Ultra Marathon Runner. Headed an Ultra Marathon Runner that people fear when they hit the course.

Josh LaJaunie: Not many.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: I fear you! I mean, how did you… I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that you were accomplishing many things at one time. But you got to a point where you're not you're not just jogging, man, I mean, like you're a serious Runner.

Josh LaJaunie: Running and growing, man. Going back to that nature thing inside of me, right? I'm just letting something grow. It's not like I tried to be a thing saying, “Whoo! I love this, this feels really amazing. Look at the people it has brought me close to. Wow, they're awesome too. Wow, we're going to do a full marathon. Wow!” You know, like, I'm getting interviewed by Rich Roll, and then all of these other people I'm friends with, and giving me tips and pointers, “Have you tried these socks? Have you try these shoes?” And like, it just grows if you fertilize it with the right community, man.

It took a certain community to grow a 420 pound body, out of you know, what I was, right. It took a community to get there. And it takes a certain community to create a different outcome. It doesn't mean we have to turn our backs, it just means that we have to recognize we're going to need help in this process. But community is how I got from running my very first mile, to running a 100 mile race with a crew of 10 people, and managing all of my needs and changing my socks and patting me on my back when I start crying, because it feels like the world is coming apart at mile 86, or whatever, right? That's how I got there, just very organic growth, that was grown and fertilized with intention, and community, and consistency.

Robby Barbaro: This is so beautiful. Such an amazing story, it's so inspiring. I heard both your Rich Roll episodes, it just never gets old hearing your story.

Josh LaJaunie: I’m honored to hear that from you.

Robby Barbaro: Give our audience some practical tips about your dietary habits. What have you done? What do you eat?

Josh LaJaunie: Of course. And it gets all the pub because it's an extreme story, extreme weight loss story, extreme everything. Extreme diet change, all these things, right. But at the end of the day, the extreme part of it, ironically, is the simplicity. That's what drives it so far away from what we're doing wrong, as a society, as people trying to chase health. And I love what Dr. Esselstyn said, I heard him speak once that and he said, there's a certain dignity in simplicity. And he ended his talk with that.

And it really sunk and resonated with me, and it's like, “Oh, yeah”. Because one of my things is, always when I post something, the first thing, and I don't say anything to anyone, but the first thing that someone's almost always going to do is “Oh, you know what would be good on that?” And it might be completely okay, and plant-based, and perfect. But it's about the enhancement itself, right.

And so that's how I morphed. That's where my food lives today, I want it to be 80%, 90% of all of my food to be very recognizable, as a potato, as a carrot, as a piece of broccoli, as beans, as a grain. And so, that's how I eat most of the time. And oils, liquid fats, and all those things, I don't mess with. It's real simple to me.

I think the more we brainwash ourselves into how simple it can be, then we brainwash ourselves into how complicated it’s, and how we got to completely take everything out the kitchen. We need a special vegetable stove, and your special vegetable sink. Hey, we don't, it's really, really, really, really simple. And the more we can surrender to that simplicity, the more likely we will be able to realize our own extreme weight loss story.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: You know, it's actually, I just had a little epiphany as you're explaining that, too. Because to a certain extent, there is nothing extreme about what you did, right? There's nothing extreme about it, because the lifestyle that you were living before was extreme, you can easily look at it that way, right? You're eating extreme amounts of total calories, you're eating extremely large amounts of fat, extremely large amounts of protein, you're eating extremely large amounts of carbohydrate. Alcohol.

And what you now are embracing is a complete simplicity, the polar opposite of that mentality where you're like, “I'm just going to eat one food. A carrot. And I'm going to enjoy the crap out of this carrot, because it's good. I'm not trying to disguise this carrot as being something else. I'm not trying to turn it into a hot dog. I'm not trying to make it look like a hamburger. I'm just going to eat it, and have it look like a carrot, and tastes like a carrot, and be a carrot. And that's cool”, right?

And so, that's actually… It's so fundamental, because I think in this world of nutrition and diet, people are constantly looking for more recipes, different alternative approaches, a new diet, a new way of serving a dish, something that's thicker, and heavier, and resemble something that they used to get emotional enjoyment from before. And in reality that can become extreme. But if you're doing it all the time, you don't recognize it as being extreme.

Josh LaJaunie: Yes. You re-normalize, you know. That's why I love Doug Liles model with The Pleasure Trap stuff, right? Because you get a certain, you get a broccolis amount of pleasure from a broccoli. And then, we do all these things where we enhance it. And we coat it in olive oil, and we top it with butter and garlic, you know, roasted garlic or whatever. And put cheese on it. And we make it amazing. And then that, we re-normalize around this very amazing thing.

And then when we watch Forks Over Knives, and we figure out, “Oh, man! That's not really healthy at all”. And we go back to the regular broccoli. We no longer get a regular amount of pleasure from that broccoli. It's like a subpar amount of pleasure now, because we've affected it so heavily with this really far from center amount of hyper palatability, we were able to achieve in today's modern day and age with fats, and sugars, all these things, you know, and whatever, you know what I mean.

And so, things that should, broccoli isn't supposed to be a cupcake, but it's medicine, it is really good for you. Trust me. Let's try to create some adaptation, some sort of neural adaptation on purpose for preferring broccoli. It can be done. But it's worth the effort, because that is where health lives, right. And it's just like, at a certain point in my mind, just succumbing to gravity, and letting gravity hold me to the earth, whether I like or not, which I do by the way.

But that’s not the point. It's about, do I want to be, do I want to hang on to the earth or not. I am just surrendering to gravity, if I want health, health is my gravity, I must surrender to my biological needs to achieve health. And the science is there, the data is there, all the red arrows are pointing in one direction. So, I'm gonna go with that. And it's turning out pretty good. I'm okay.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: So great. This is such a cool, it's a good philosophical and sort of emotional way to think about things in a completely different light. How much time did it take you to go from 397 pounds to 195? Are we talking six months? A year? Two year? Five years?

Josh LaJaunie: The first hundred pounds took me a while, because I floated around, I got down to 300, and then I slid back up to 320. And then I was still doing a lot of meat stuff, and paleo, I was going more, and more, and more carbs free, almost carnivores types. I was struggling in that first hundred pounds. But all told to get all of the weight off, I was down around 200 pounds by 2014, early 2014. So three-ish years.

Cyrus Khambatta PhD: Three-ish years, okay. You know, we've been using the term “extreme weight loss” over, and over, and over, and over again, because the number is so large, you lost 200 pounds, right? Most people, that's a big deal, right?

But in reality, you know, truth be told, I don't really, really like the term “extreme weight loss”, because it kind of conjures up this idea of like, “Oh, not only can I lose a large amount of weight, but I can do it quick”, right? And that's when people run into problems. Is there, you know, you watch TV programs, like The Biggest Loser. And it's like, “All right, in this eight week period, we're going to try and lose 75 pounds”, right? And, you know, you do it in relatively unnatural ways, using, you know, poor nutrition habits, and over exercising to a point of pure exhaustion. And then when you finally hit this target, you get a stamp, you get a badge that says, “Hey, good job! You did a great job! See you later”, and then what's going to happen after that, you end up yo-yo-ing right back up to the way that you started at, or beyond.

So this whole idea here is that like, you know, your story of extreme weight loss, is actually like we've talked about, it's not necessarily that extreme. The number is a large number. But in reality, the steps that you took to get there were totally moderate, totally reasonable. And if you just let this whole system play out over the course of time, then you make time become your friend, and all of a sudden, you're a transformed being from the inside out.

Josh LaJaunie: Yes, let it be an outcome. Let it be an outcome of a healthy lifestyle, rather than people think of their extreme weight loss as necessary input to their future health. No, you can start fixing those biometrics, you can start fixing that health very quickly, long before you’ve experienced extreme weight loss. We can start reversing the type 2 diabetes, we can start getting you off of a lot of the cardiovascular meds, and things that you don't want the side effects of. We can start really chipping away at really correcting your health before you ever experienced extreme weight loss.

So, don't let extreme weight loss being the ultimate prize, let it be an outcome. It's not an input to your health, long term, it's an outcome, right? So, let it be that, learn more and more, keep following guys like Cyrus, Robby, and understanding about Mastering Diabetes. Understand all of the information, every question you have, go to nutritionfacts.org. Use it like you plant-based Google, man. Ask the questions, figure this stuff out, get good answers. And let it be a life for you. To not only help yourself, but to help and radiate that knowledge without being a pain in the butt to the people around you, who you care about the most, you know. Because this is, we can change the world literally. Things can really be a lot different. And it's just like right there. It's so close.

Robby Barbaro: That’s so great! Let nutritionfacts.org be your plant-based Google.

Josh LaJaunie: Someone said that on Instagram, and I stole it from I have no idea who originally said it. But I loved it.

Robby Barbaro: That's so good. That's so good. So, where can people find out more about you, what you're up to? Tell us, tell us everything.

Josh LaJaunie: Sure. Find me, my name on social media. Josh LaJaunie. Just Google me, I have a website joshlajaunie.com. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all that stuff. And also you can find what I'm working on with Howard and my other partners, at wellstarthealth.com. Check that out. It's a really fun platform that we've been working on, trying to get an app by the end of the year. It's going to be an amazing thing, and an amazing tool to help other people, you know, just sort of educate themselves, so we can set this long burn of fire, like set it ablaze and just sort of let it organically happen. I’m really passionate about being able to affect that and the population, with people.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: That's great. So, thank you so much for your time today, Josh. You’re a wealth of knowledge, you're a wealth of personal experience. And you know, Robby and I like to lead by experience as well, you know, we live with Type 1 Diabetes, we've had it for a combined total of 30 years. And we're trying to teach people that reversing insulin resistance, and getting full control over your blood glucose, and getting off the oral diabetes medication, and even insulin, not only is it possible, it's possible with microscopic, tiny, little dietary changes, and tiny lifestyle changes that all snowball into a much larger thing that we call lifestyle change.

And I think you're preaching that exact same story. And your personal experience is so powerful, so powerful. And it's transforming. I mean, I can't even tell you the number of people that have told me to talk to you. That have told me about your story. Before you told me your story, I had heard your story probably 25 times from other people. Because you're transforming people's lives.

And if I haven't done so already, thank you for what you do. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into it. Thank you for your determination, your passion and your desire to communicate this and help other people. It's really, really impressive. And I thank you for the bottom my heart.

Josh LaJaunie: You know, same to you. I really appreciate you guys creating something like, something I would never take the time or effort, or have the wherewithal to be able to create a platform like guys like you, and Rich, and all these other people, and these wonderful platforms to let us see like a C average student from Chackbay, get on and talk about things like intramyocellular lipids, and let him get big vocabulary words out, right. So, it's because you guys that a regular guy like myself, has a place to talk about his experience. It's very valuable. And the road goes both ways, I really appreciate what you guys do. So, thanks!

Robby Barbaro: Keep doing your thing, man. Keep doing it. It’s great.

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD: We hope you enjoyed this episode, and can apply some of these principles to your personal life. Now, we have an Online Group Coaching Program that has helped thousands of people living with all forms of diabetes, reverse insulin resistance, drop their A1c, lose weight, and gain tons of energy. And also reduce their need for oral medication and insulin using, their food as medicine.

We like to call ourselves the world's most robust, and ridiculously affordable, Online Coaching Program for people with diabetes. And we've helped people living with type 1 diabetes, type 1.5 diabetes, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes living all around the world.

Now we provide you with three tools that are specifically designed to put you in the driver's seat of your diabetes health. The first is an Online Course that gives you step by step instructions on how to change your diet. Starting with breakfast, then lunch, then dinner.

We teach you exactly which foods to increase, which foods to limit, and which foods to avoid entirely. The course is designed with you in mind. We provide you with relevant information, and we do our best to reduce overwhelm, because we know just how confusing the internet can be these days, when searching for simple ways to improve your blood glucose control.

The second tool is even better than the first. We provide you with access to our online community, with thousands of people that are going through this process with you. You'll be able to interact with our team of coaches, including Kylie Buckner, a Registered Nurse who is brilliant. She also happens to be my wife, and is one of the most kind and compassionate human beings that I've ever met. Adam Sud. He reversed type 2 diabetes. He lost more than 160 pounds and he de-addicted himself from both food and prescription medication at the same time.

You'll also get to interact with Mark Ramirez, who lost more than 50 pounds, reversed type 2 diabetes, and is a certified Food For Life Instructor, through the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. You'll also get the ability to interact with both Robby and myself in the online community. And we guarantee that we’ll answer your question within 24 hours to help you solve problems in real time.

The third tool is a twice monthly Q&A video conference, where you can ask our team of coaches any question that you have about your personal program, and meet others that are going through this process with you. Now, we're proud to say that our coaching program is very popular, and because of that, we've instituted a waiting list to join. The reason we created the waiting list in the first place is because we have more than 2000 active members in our program and want to provide excellent service to our existing members. You can still join the program, but in order to do so you have to put yourself on the waiting list and you'll be notified of when we open next. When we do, we'll send you a personal invitation to join.

To join the waiting list simply go to www.masteringdiabetes.org and click on Coaching in the navigation bar at the top of the screen, or click the link below in the show notes. We can't wait to help you transform your diabetes health from the inside out. We hope to see you on the inside.

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About the author 

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD and Robby Barbaro, MPH

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD, and Robby Barbaro, MPH are the coauthors of the New York Times bestselling book Mastering Diabetes: The Revolutionary Method to Reverse Insulin Resistance Permanently in Type 1, Type 1.5, Type 2, Prediabetes, and Gestational Diabetes. They are the cofounders of Mastering Diabetes, a coaching platform that teaches people how to reverse insulin resistance via low-fat, plant-based, whole-food nutrition. Cyrus has been living with type 1 diabetes since 2002, and has an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from UC Berkeley. Robby was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2000, and has been living a plant-based lifestyle since 2006. He worked at Forks Over Knives for 6 years, and earned a Master’s in Public Health in 2019.