Jan. 22, 2026
Stop Getting Meds When You Go To The Doctors, 13 Must Ask Questions - 49
Tired of leaving your annual checkup with a new prescription, vague “eat better” advice, and worsening blood panels?
In Episode 49, discover the 13 must-ask questions to arm yourself for your doctor’s visit. Questions that get real answers on weight loss plans, blood work targets (A1c, cholesterol, blood pressure), realistic timelines, costs, alternatives, and long-term health risks.
Perfect for men in their 40s and 50s carrying extra weight, fearing heart disease, diabetes, or insulin dependency. Learn why even 20 extra pounds spikes your cardiovascular risk, drives up out-of-pocket costs (heart attack bills often hit $20K+), and robs your energy for work and family.
This is not medical advice. It is your playbook to advocate for yourself, avoid the “management trap,” and walk out with a personalized plan.
Plus, grab the free Improve Your Blood Panels Scorecard + 3-Day Metabolic Reset to decode your labs and start fixing them today:
https://thecalltorise.com/improveyourbloodpanels
The 13 Questions to Ask Your Doctor:
1. How do you usually build a weight management plan with patients like me?
2. How much weight should I lose, and what is a realistic timeline?
3. Which weight management options do you recommend for me, and why those specifically?
4. What other options should be on the table, and when would you consider them?
5. How often should we check in to make sure this is working?
6. What will this likely cost, and what is usually covered versus out of pocket?
7. If this plan does not work as expected, what is the next move?
8. Are you willing to partner with me on my weight and metabolic health long term?
9. What can I start doing today, before I leave the office?
10. Are there genetic or ethnicity related factors that change how you look at my risks?
11. How long will it realistically take for me to reach the goals we discussed?
12. Who else should be on my team to help me manage my weight and health?
13. If I lose this weight and keep it off, what specific health benefits should I expect to see?
Want help applying this to your own health, weight, energy, or lab numbers?
Coach Brian Parana offers Health Hot Seat coaching segments for men who want a clear next step with nutrition, fitness, weight loss, blood pressure, cholesterol, A1C, or daily consistency.
Learn more about The Call To Rise, a 100-day coaching program for driven men over 40 who want to lose weight, improve their health, and rebuild confidence:
To connect with Coach Brian:
brian@brianparana.com
Disclaimer: This podcast is for education and coaching support only. It is not medical advice. Always work with your physician before changing medication, treatment, or medical care.
- Most men walk into their yearly physical like they walked into a staff meeting late. They're underprepared, hoping nothing explodes and blows up on them. They walk out with a new prescription, a warning from the doc about their weight. the same vague advice to eat better and move more with no real plan of action to protect their heart, their brains, their health, and their earning years.
- In episode 49, Driven for Health podcast, we're going to talk about how to equip and give you 13 specific questions so you walk into your doctor's office with a plan and walk out knowing exactly what you and your doctor are going to be doing about your weight, your blood panels, your long-term health, diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, and any other chronic illness you may or may not have yet.
- If you're a man in your 40s or 50s, listen up. This is the time where these things sneak up on you. And carrying that extra 20 pounds around your waist is going to cost you a lot more than you wanted to. We know you're busy with work, got family, your your schedule is packed.
- And we just you just don't even want to think about your blood panel from the last time you looked at your blood markers. And why would you want to look at them again? That extra 20 pounds is not just a little soft around your middle. Men our age, it's definitely tied to a higher blood pressure, higher A1C's that's directly related to diabetes.
- I.7 starts to get into that pre-diabetic range and then higher heart rates of heart disease, diabetes, and other of of challenges that are going going to come up these next couple decades. One study found that obese young men had almost 30% higher absolute risk of serious events like type 2 diabetes, a heart attack, stroke, and early death before age 55 when compared with normal weight men.
- And that's why I'm bringing this episode to you so you are in control of your health. Now on the financial side, a single heart attack, just want to news flash here, a single heart attack at a hospital to just stay in the US can easily run you 20k. That's $20,000 or more with insurance. And you're going to pay thousands out of pocket once you add all the deductibles, the co- insurance and the follow-ups and even the amount of time and energy that it costs to go to the doctor's office or any other heart or health issues that come up as a result of that heart attack. Living with
- diabetes can be more than double the annual medical spending compared to someone without it. And insulin alone has historically cost several thousand dollars per year per patient, even though there are recent caps that help some of the people. I remember this one story, the guy's sister had to pay $500 out of pocket for insulin, something a hormone that your body produces to regulate blood sugar levels and keep you healthy and energy stabilized and a lot of other good things.
- But she's $500 a month times 12. That's $700,200. $7,200 out of pocket because of her health situation, the diabetes. And this is not just about being vanity and having a six-pack or something, but it's really about protecting your time. There's a huge time cost when you get sick like this, and it takes sometimes weeks or months to recover it.
- Depending on how bad the situation was, it affects your family. All of a sudden, you are now identified as someone with diabetes or high blood pressure. You have to take medicine or you have a heart attack and your ability to work and enjoy the next 10 to 20 years of your life may be in jeopardy.
- Now, this podcast is not medical advice. It's just guidance to help you be better prepared with more productive conversations with your doctor that when you go there, you aren't just deer in the headlights or white coat syndrome. That you actually have a real conversation that allows them to actually give you actionable advice and allows you to be able to be well informed and get the recommendations that you need, not just walk out with, say, meds.
- Now, before we get started with the 13 questions, if your last blood panel was confusing more than it was clear, there was a lot more red than green in the images or the colors that were on it. There's simple ways we can fix that. I have a improve your blood panel scorec card.
- It breaks down A1C, cholesterol, blood pressure, and the habits that move each one in simple to understand plain language so you can see exactly where you're at and what the standards are and where you need to get to so you can focus on those tasks before your next appointment. Now, the cool part is I also include a three day metabolic reset.
- It's a short structured nutrition and movement protocol that will help get your blood sugar labels more stabilized, get you feeling a lot more in control with your nutrition. Actually, sciencebacked nutrition applied into this. It's going to cut down your hunger and keep you more in control of cravings and get momentum back in your side.
- So, you can check the show notes for improve your blood panel scorecard and I'll be happy to send that over to you. Now, why the 13 questions? Why do these matter? When you do not ask clear questions, the default visit goes like this. The doctor glances at your numbers, mentions that your weight's up, maybe starts a medication with you or warns you that next time you'll have to go on this medication, and then see you next year.
- Maybe you're in and out in 10 to maybe 15 minutes at the most. It's not an exciting appointment and you don't understand. I remember Jake. We were down about 15 pounds in one month. This was a couple years ago when I worked with Jake. We were crushing it. He was doing so well, but he went to the doctor and it came back with not great blood panels because it'd been a year or two before since he had it last.
- And his numbers were up. Well, the in a panic he comes to me. Oh, I need to change everything that we're doing and all this that and the other. I said, "Hold up. Slow down, brother. Let's have a conversation." So, we got on a phone call and talked. Tell me, lay it out for me what happened here that you're in such panic.
- Obviously, we don't want the blood pan also to be up because that's not good. Well, what happened was he was actually in the on the phone with the front desk person that was just relaying the information and the conversation was less than 60 seconds. That's not helpful. That's not a prescription. That's not education. That's not understanding with what the doctor needs to tell you.
- And he'd already been down 15 pounds in 4 weeks doing what we were doing. I said, "Jake, I'm sorry that your blood panels aren't where they should be right now, but you are actively improving your health, taking very specific measures around your nutrition and your activity to get in better health.
- " And these patterns I see a lot show up with men, and I'm 43 in this age range. The higher the the numbers are, the more at risk you are. And you just don't realize that you do have control of changing your direction in life and the prescription and the pathway that you end up doing if you have better information at your disposal.
- The science is super clear here. Losing just 5 to 10% of your body weight can lead to actually meaningful improvements in blood pressure, blood sugar stability, in managing your triglycerides, getting them to a normal level, getting your HDL up, LDL down, and get back to your ideal body weight.
- Maybe not necessarily what you were in high school, but you know what I mean. If if your belt buckle stretched and you're we'll talk about a size 40 or more, you're in trouble. This is not a good situation for you. Now, for men, that is about 10 to 20 pounds. That that 5 to 10% of your body weight, five to is about 10 to 20 pounds.
- And those changes can translate into significantly less medications, fewer potential emergencies and challenges that come up as a result of having low blood sugar and then passing out and better odds of living an active life when you're 60, 70, and hopefully 80 or more. And your family doesn't have to take care of you or send you off to an old assisted living home.
- 13 questions you're about to hear designed to pull that kind of specific actionable guidance out of your doctor instead of just leaving it on the table inside that room. Use this episode as a script in a sense. You can literally pause, write down each question, and then bring them to your next appointment. Here we go.
- Number one of 13. How do you usually build a weight management plan with patients like me? You're asking this to see whether your doctor thinks in terms of real structured approaches that fit your everyday life or just quick fixes or is it a pill or a shot? Now, these days, you want to hear how they consider your weight history, your current labs, your medications, your daily schedule, how much stress you're under, as how they go about designing a plan and not just a simple instruction to cut carbs out and here's a packet pamphlet for you to eat
- these foods and not eat those. You can say, "Give me my age. Given my age, current weight, my labs, how do you usually build a weight management plan for men like me? What are the main pieces you focus on in the first three to six months? Very simple question that you could have and write these literally write these down so you have them as a cheat sheet in a sense and then you actually show your doctor that you are advocating for your own health as well.
- what you are listening for. Do they mention specific lab targets like A1C, blood pressure, triglycerides, LDLs, and not just the scale? Do they talk about nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress in an integrated way that impacts your day-to-day life and even the people around you? Do they explain how they will measure progress beyond come back next year in quotations? Is that all they're going to say? Hey, we'll see you the numbers are getting high, but we'll see you next year. Not to worry. Like, I don't know
- about you, but that doesn't sound like quite the best way to go about leaving the office with that level of uncertainty there. This helps you decide if this is your doctor can actually help you with long-term and be your partner in crime around your weight and metabolic health and not just an emergency contact that you show up or if you need to find another plan and approach.
- I have worked with a lot of people over a long time that have helped them manage these situations in their everyday life. Question number two, how much weight should I lose? And what is a realistic timeline? You're asking this to turn that I need to lose weight into a clear target and timeline. shows that again losing about 5 to 10% could be 10 to 20 pounds is going to significantly improve blood pressure's triglycerides HDL cholesterol your total cholesterol and further benefits around just being healthier and having more
- energy here's what you can say gave me given my weight my heights my waist size my labs how much weight do you recommend I lose to lower the risk of these health and heart diseases and what feels like a realistic timeline for me. This puts you in the driver's seat to be able to get actual feedback.
- Now, in my experience and opinion, doing one to two pounds a week is sustainable, maintainable. Three is amazing. Four or more pounds lost. We're overreaching. We're doing something that we should not be doing to reach a given result. So ask for a specific number range like 15 to 25 pounds in the next 6 to 12 months tied to how you would like me to be able to manage my A1C and blood pressure and cholesterol specifically throughout that time.
- Uh clear checkpoints what should be done different at three months at six months and even at the next annual lab. So you actually have a road map of what expectations should and could look like for that amount of time. This gives you some actual effort to put rubber to the road and get you to track and have a very clear understanding what you're doing and not just be vague and ultimately a frustrating goal to reach.
- Question number three, which weight management option do you recommend for me and why those specifically? We want to get clear here. We want to have have a very clear understanding of what the heck we're doing and not just throw out whatever the main thing is that the big pharma drug rep came around and was pushing and trying to sell them.
- You're asking this because you want multiple tools to understand lifestyle plan. Is there coaching? Is there nutrition? Is there behavior therapy? Different medications that some have a lot of side effects side effects and others don't. Uh are there procedures and what's the right mix based on the biology of your body and your lifestyle? is trying to lose weight and getting gastric bypass I don't think is a great option.
- I've had plenty of clients that have struggled with long-term weight management as a result and they actually are way more food obsessed in a sense they have to think about food so much more because they can't fit more than a cup or two of food in their belly and they have to eat more frequently throughout the day so that they actually get enough vitamins the minerals in there and adequate amount of protein.
- Obesity behaves like chronic condition and usually responds best in combinations of nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, those core four things we talk about all the time on this podcast. And sometimes medication may be a lever to pull if it makes sense and you are very aware of the time, the duration, the dosage, the impact that it's going to have to consider if that's an idea for you.
- And then ultimately your big risk. If you have a lot more risk of disease, then yeah, that's going to be a big problem. Now you can say like this based on my history, my family risk and these labs that you gave me, what option do you recommend for me right now? And why choose those instead of other options? This gets your doctor to be able to give you a lot better, more in-depth conversation.
- You you do want to know these things like do they think lifestyle changes alone are likely to be enough at your current weight and lab results right now or are you already considering medication or do you actually need a referral to someone else? How each option is expected to move specific markers, right? You want to make sure that you know which one's tied to which and how this action will help improve your A1C or your blood pressure, triglycerides and such and not just the scale.
- This question helps you understand the why behind the plan. This is so important to anyone and everyone I ever work with is why are you doing the things that you're doing so that you can be successful and make a lot of progress. Question four, what other options should be on the table and when would you consider them? This gives you a gigantic big picture of what's happening.
- You're asking this to avoid getting stuck in a single lane approach that may not deliver. A lot of people say with the GOP ones, they might go with Zmpic when they maybe should have been zetbound first. And of course, it's you and your doctor to discuss that, but I have had a lot of clients that have been in that situation.
- They're not ultimately happy about the experience that they had with the unfortunate lack results. Even though people think taking GOP1 automatically guarantees weight loss, I have had multiple people struggle with weight loss when they are on their GOPs. This is a big problem. Now, we want to make sure outside of just staying in a single lane approach that you understand what maybe strengths and weaknesses are of the plan and what the impact is going to be potentially a year or five years later using this route and this pathway, this
- tool in this approach. Okay, that's that's really big because we don't we want to make sure things don't go bad. And often times people don't see the bigger picture or what happens from big longitudinal studies of something. And sometimes we just don't have that study available. Now, here's what you could say.
- If this plan is not enough, what other options would you consider for me down the line? And what would you need me to change in my body weight or my labs before you could recommend them? Right. What this it spells out literally what's not enough mean in real actionable numbers. For example, if my A1C does not drop by a certain amount in a certain time or if my blood pressure stays above a certain range for a certain time.
- You need to know that stuff so that you can make better decisions on what you're actually doing. Now whether they would add or change medications in the process or refer you out to professional with your nutrition or exercise and all and find a more supportive structure that helps you maintain the results and hit the thresholds that you're working towards.
- This actually builds a road map in your [laughter] head. If I have plan A and it isn't working by a certain time, then with certain specific results as the byproduct, then you already know what plan B and plan C might look like for you. Now, we have plan uh question number five. How often should we check in to make sure it's actually working? You're asking this because long gaps between visits are where weight actually creeps in and labs actually get worse.
- We don't want that. Regular scheduled check-ins create a pace and a rhythm and opportunities for you to make sure you stay on track and you take adjustments appropriately and not just wait months on end before you take another pivot. One of the coaching I always do, I have a lot of touch points, a lot of actionable things that I'm always doing with my clients to have a pulse on what's happening.
- So, they know that we're in this to win this together and they have that support, that accountability, that direction, and they're not just wandering around hoping and praying that something changes. Uh years ago I had a guy he lost 30 pounds in 100 days and he unfortunately had his diabetes up and he was over 300 lb and he stopped doing the things we were doing and he didn't lose any more weight the next month.
- That's not necessarily going to help his blood panels improve. He got put on medication and that certainly helps it and that's what medication's for. It's a triage. It'll help the situation change right now, but for his big picture health, he needed to lose another 50 plus pounds. Put him in a literally better state, not have to worry about his his medic taking medications for a long time. So, here's what you say.
- Given the plan we just discussed, how often do you want to see me? And uh have your team review my weight, my blood pressure, my lab so we can keep adjusting if things so that things don't get worse. Now, you really want to clarify how often they want in-person visits at the doctor versus telealth or nurse visits because you might assume that you're going to go see the doctor, but that's not actually the case.
- you might have seen the nurse practitioner and it I find that those gaps and expectations create frustration for a lot of people. I've experienced it on my end too. I've had other different programs or things I've done and there's been a gap of the instruction to the application and it's creates friction.
- You're like, "Wait a minute. This is not what I thought I was getting and it was explained to me like this and this is how I understood it." And then you're upset. Here's another thing you want to clarify. Whether they want you checking in at home with your blood pressure, morning weights, having say a a continuous glucose meter on in an app, sending it to my chart or something like that and how to report this information.
- This allows you to stay in check with what's going on and keep the information there. So, a good answer might sound like, "Yeah, let's check on your labs in three months. We'll see you in person twice a year. Have my nurse and the care team check in with you by phone or partial partially in between.
- " That gives us some built-in support, some structure instead of just monitoring it for, you know, six to 12 months at a time. That's not great. Question number six, what will this likely cost and what is actually covered by insurance versus out of pocket? Hot diggity. If something gets coded wrong, you're in for another zero on your insurance bill, not the doctor bill. Not fun.
- So, going into this and having a clear understanding of the costs of this will be huge. And again, that expectation will be met with the course of action that you and your doctor agree on. You don't want to come out there and say, "Hey, that one visit for 10 minutes was $84352." Yikes. That is not how you want to end the that that visit, especially if you may have thought that you wouldn't had to pay that at all.
- Anyways, now there is a cost of doing nothing in this and heart disease treatment cost the US around hundred billion dollars per year. I don't even know how to fathom that number. It just doesn't even make sense in my head. But a single heart attack hospitalization can bring patients bill into the thousands even after insurance.
- So, I just want to stress that if your health goes unchecked for a long time, there's a significant time, money, and energy cost that goes against you like a slap in the face and a punch in the gut. So, here's what you can say. Can we walk through the likely cost of this plan including visits, absations, referrals, and what is usually covered by insurance versus what I am expected to pay there.
- You'll be in line with what your doctor says or thinks about you and you'll get a better honest open opinion back. You want to have that honest feedback loop there and that overview of this for the lab frequency and the cost range. Approximate out-of-pocket cost from medications that you didn't even think about and that they might be considering.
- I remember my wife, she just had a coughing fit with allergies and she went to the to the to the pharmacy. There you go. know that word that said she went to the pharmacy that place and it was a $500 bill for an inhaler. She's like I can't this is crazy. I can get an inhaler somewhere else for $10 to $15. Why was this prescribed to me? and she was a sticker shock and met with unmet expectations and she wasn't really happy about the financial difference between staying ahead of your problems and now and figuring out verse what happens after a
- chronic illness event comes is going to be very cost prohibitive. Now, when you see health as an investment that prevents both medical and financial emergency, it becomes easier to commit to things like coaches and programs and personal trainers and consistently caring for yourself.
- And that's what the call to rise program is about. 100 day fat loss challenge help you lose weight, get in better shape with nutrition, fitness. There's pillars around your identity of who you are, uh, food that you eat, the movement and exercise that you do, the way that you think, and doing in a supportive environment that gets you supercharged to be held at a high level of accountability and supported every step of the way.
- That's what the call to rises. And I'm been doing this for 23 years. I feel like I'm pretty darn good at it. All right, question seven. We're getting to past that halfway point now. If this plan does not work as expected, what is the next move? Super important there. You're asking this to make sure your doctor expects to adjust and not just label you as non-compliant.
- You definitely don't want a non-compliant tagline into your folder at the office. in good chronic care not working is a signal to modify the plan. Not a reason to give up and just slap a label on you like well you're a type two diabetic. Type two diabetes can be reversed and you don't have to be identified as a type two diabetic. Okay.
- You can say here's the thing what you say is if after a set period my weight and labs are not improving the way you expect what will we change first? How will we decide whether to adjust nutrition, movement, medications, and referrals? This puts you in the driver's seat and asks them for a specific time frame evaluating those plans of 3 to 6 months and objective markers like how much each of those blood panels should go down in that certain time in the target range to get back to being healthy. This will give you and put you
- in charge of your care and gives you serious purposeful experiments to be able to run and operate on because all this is a science experience anyways. Meaning a scientific approach is what I use. Um the scientific method we're going to test, we're going to observe. We're going to retest to make sure that we get it right.
- Question eight. Are you willing to partner with me on my weight and metabolic health long term? Getting a doctor on your side is so important. You're asking this because you want and need to know if the doctor is in alignment and sees that your weight loss, your lab work improving is a partnership or you're just a box to get checked, a check to cash in a sense.
- Men stick with plans longer when they feel that they have that connection with their doctor and that the doctor is with them on improving their health and not just taking their money and passing it along. And the health care system, which is sad but true, that it's not the best system that it could be and the costs and insurance and all these liabilities and things are a big challenge and there should be some form of reform to help with that.
- Now, my form of reform is actual coaching with people. I am not a lobbyist or anything like that to to do big picture reform, but you get my gist. I'm here to advocate for you, my client, to be their best self. Here's what you say. I am ready to address this seriously and take as much advantage as I can of the exercise and the nutrition and the protocol that we do.
- And are you willing to work with me over the next year and make sure that we are more in the the managing this stuff and improving the situation so that I get to a healthy lifestyle that I don't have to worry about this anymore. What you're listening in for is a willingness to schedule regular follow-ups, to openly review the progress, to talk to you on the phone or in the office, not in five minute increments or something.
- And the tone at which they respond will tell you the truth of the matter and not just checking your chart. So you have a much better understanding of what you're doing and why you're doing it all. If you do not feel like your doctor's on your side, this is a good sign to look for other options, okay? You can change doctors, okay? Find another in network doctor that will help you manage your health situations and keep you on track.
- Question nine, what can I start doing today before I leave the office? Right, we want to take action immediately. That's super important. You're asking this because you want to make sure that you're not walking out of the office with just a short-term goal, but you actually need a long term.
- And there's no actual immediate action besides, hey, I'm just going to go to the to the pharmacy and get my pills and go on my way. Now, certainly we want to do simple changes modifying your nutrition to cut out the things that were causing you to get in an unhealthy situation. in anyways, which is super important. Improving your sleep and getting back to regular activity will help do a big number on you in a really positive way.
- Here's what you say before I walk out. What are three specific changes you want me to make this week with my food, my movement, or sleep based on my labs and my busy schedule? Remember, you have to account for your schedule because that's going to help dictate what you are capable of actually doing.
- What you want to do is make sure you ask them to keep it very specific. Switch all sugary drinks to water or zerocalorie options. Go and walk around your meals to make sure that we can improve digestion and manage blood sugar levels better. And aim for a consistent bedtime. That'll help you from hopefully not waking up a bunch.
- If you wake up a ton and you're peeing all the time, you might be diabetic more than you think. All right. You can then plug that into something like my 3-day metabolic reset that comes with the improve your blood panel scorecard. All right. It's going to give you very specific things to do with your nutrition in terms of portion timing, what to eat.
- There'll be recipes. There'll be all sorts of things to make it simple and easy for you to take action straight out the gate. And you can find that in show notes. Question 10. Are there genetic or ethnic or cultural related factors that change how you look at my risks? That's important because different cultural backgrounds can have higher risks to things than others.
- So, super important to know. You want to ask this because of family history. It's a big thing. It's a real thing. If you have a family history of a certain disease, it could be likely that you are next in line. Now I believe there's a lot more in we have nature and nurture. Nature is the is family history.
- Nurture is the environment of which you put yourself in in the foods that you eat on a regular basis. Let's not joke and kid yourself. If you're stuffing Twinkies in your mouth and yeah, you're going to be diabetic or increase the likeliness that you will. we should say it that way because you're eating highly ultrarocessed foods that taste really good and you want to eat a lot of them.
- That's a big problem and that's going to cause a significant ramp up of risk of getting a disease like this. Now, some groups see diabetes and cardiovascular complications uh at lower BMIs. That's important to know. You don't have to be 20, 50, 80 pounds overweight to be diabetic or have high cholesterol.
- A lot of it depends on the food you put in your mouth outside of genetic factors. Okay? And you just want to make sure your doctor's aware of those things. Here's something you can say. Given my family history and background, are there any genetic or ethical related risks that I should be aware of and change? And how do we think about my weight, blood sugar and cholesterol targets in this manner? You ask, well, why are you asking this? because you want to know and need to know earlier and if you need more frequent screenings for these risk of
- diabetes, heart disease, say you have a issues with prostate. Well, you might want to get that checked earlier than the typical 45ish colonoscopy type deal. I'm 43. Guess what? It's coming. Excited? Not really. Okay. [laughter] You might need to know that. And your weight and your waistline targets should be more specific, especially if they do have some genetic risk factors for you.
- This helps you tailor a plan that actually works around you and your genetic bag makeup rather than just an average patient walking in off the street. All right, we're getting into the home stretch here. Question 11. How long will it realistically take for me to reach the goals we discussed? You really want to know this.
- Align your expectations. We talked about expectations a couple of times now. And the physiological realistic process that you are going to have to go through to have sustained weight loss, to have your labs change in a 3 to six time frame, to make sure that it continues to go down and stay down. And you don't you stop too early.
- That's the biggest issue. More often than not, people don't do it long enough and it costs them big. All right? It's not working. They think that it's not working when it actually is. Okay? We have to pay attention to that. Here's something you can say. Looking at my current numbers and the plan we discussed, what would you see as a healthy rate of progress for my weight, A1C, blood pressure, or cholesterol in the next 3, 6, 12 months? Literally, get them to spell it out for you.
- At this time frequency, it's going to look like this. And you want to make sure that you're clear about what the pounds are going to look like per month, what the labs could look like if you follow everything as precisely as prescribed. and understand what victories are going to be. Successes and potential failures and challenges that show up.
- It's a reminder that this is a goal, just not about weight loss or getting your total cholesterol down. That you going to live a life that you want to live that's exciting and energetic and at a healthy body weight and you can do things with it because you have energy. You're not worried about dying earlier because that's the ultimate thing here is death.
- Question 12. What else should be on my team to help me manage my weight and health? Remember, they're part of your team. And I've been on teams of other people. They have the doctor, they got their personal trainer, and I'm say the health coach, nutrition coach. So, thread it together. Okay.
- Now, you're asking this because you're trying to manage all of this by yourself. But if you have people around, you want them working together in a collaborative manner so that they actually get results. Now, a solid team might be someone that deals with your nutrition, with the exercise, with a mental health therapist, with a coach that provides a structure that fits your life. That's a big takeaway here.
- People got to make it fit your life. Now, you want to make sure that you add to this is that hey, first is are there people that you can refer me to that you trust as professionals in this field? It's a good one because then you can get a structured plan and coaching that'll work for you the best way. Now, when your doctor and your coaching program and your team all come together and they're moving in alignment, you feel good. You going to make progress.
- But if you see there's there's challenges or restrictions or confrontations or or whatnot, then you know, okay, I need to think of something else here too. Question 13. If you lose this weight, what specific health benefits should I expect to see? Going back to the very beginning, what is that 10 or 20% 15% in your body weight and how's it going to improve? You're asking this to connect dots here.
- Okay? So, if I put all this effort in, what happens on the other end? Something you can say is if I lose the amount of weight you're recommending me to and keep it off, what should I expect with my blood panels? How are they going to improve? And if they've been a doctor for a long time, they'll have you a general idea of what and how that would work for them and for you. All right.
- At this point, it'll give you fewer medications and lower your risk and lower dose. Lower your chance of a heart attack, a stroke, or needing insulin or anything else that goes with chronic illness. More energy to work, to travel with your family and loved ones, to be present with them every day. That's the opportunity here.
- It's more than just money or you going to the doctor. You living a life is what we're after. When you hear your doctor say it out loud, if you lose 20 pounds and keep it off, I would expect your risk of of X and Y to drop Z amount. If your last checkup felt rushed, you didn't feel like you had enough time, you didn't ask the right questions, you were unclear on what question to ask, and you walked out with medicine or just even lack of clarity or Okay, great.
- He said, "We'll just watch it for now, then we'll check in on it later." That's doesn't feel good to me, and I hope that doesn't feel good to you. I hope that these 13 questions are a good turning point in your conversation to bring to your appointment. Literally, write them down and take them with you, and I'll leave them in the show notes for you to do.
- Now, to make this practical, again, I've got a really easy way to do that. It's the improve your blood panel scorecard. You can find the link in the show notes. It'll give you exact specifically of what blood panels are, what, what they mean, the ranges and all and a simple, easy to understand.
- And then also have a protocol, the metabolic reset for you to take a three days and start to create some momentum around nutrition, around movement, around hydration, all those core four things can you sleep in to be ultimately long-term successful. I want you to be healthy. You want to be healthy. Your family wants you to be healthy.
- Your doctor even wants you to be healthy. Okay? At the take of all this is nobody wants you to be sick or ill. And I hope that this episode gives you clarity in what it is. Over and out until our next one, Big 50. It's going to be Drake, a testimony of a guy who had raging high blood pressure and cholesterol at age 29. Man, this guy was a walking heart attack at 270 lbs.
- We were able to get him down to 180, 190 lbs by the time we were done. The life story and the changes that happened for this guy are incredible and amazing. I can't wait for you to listen in. Catch you in the next one. And I'll probably be releasing it the next day, too, just to get it going. Have a wonderful night.
- And offager.
