Inspired with Nika Lawrie

From Soda to Health: Vernon Davis' Incredible Journey of Overcoming Type 2 Diabetes

• Nika Lawrie • Season 2024 • Episode 78

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Ever wondered how a Southern gentleman who loves rich Cajun and Southern cuisine could drastically transform his health? Join me in welcoming Vernon Davis, who shares his incredible journey from indulging in sugary drinks and high-calorie snacks to becoming a beacon of healthy living. Vernon's story is not just about battling type 2 diabetes; it's about overcoming life's challenges through sheer determination and making conscious lifestyle changes.

CONNECT WITH VERNON: https://www.facebook.com/vernonpdavisjr
Get his book: http://www.dfpublishing.org

CONNECT WITH NIKA: https://mtr.bio/nika-lawrie

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*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business, personal, or wellness success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.

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Nika Lawrie:

Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Laurie podcast. Vernon, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you join me today.

Vernon Davis:

Hey, nika, thank you so much for having me?

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, absolutely so. Normally I have these health coaches or doctors or whoever come on and share their tidbits, whatever their expertise is, but from my perspective, there's nobody who's more of an expert than somebody who's actually lived through a life-changing health process. Lived through a life-changing health process, and so I was really, really excited to talk to you about your process in healing your diabetes your type 2 diabetes and learning about your struggles and your triumphs, and so I'm excited to talk about that today, thank you.

Vernon Davis:

Oh yes, Naira, You're welcome.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, so tell me a little bit before I have a ton of questions for you. But before we get into those questions, yeah, so tell me a little bit before I have a ton of questions for you. But before we get into those questions, just kind of tell me a little bit about yourself, kind of your journey to getting type two diabetes, and then just just your own personal backstory, who you are and what you do.

Vernon Davis:

Yes, ma'am, so I'm a Southern from Louisiana, so I really love Cajun and Southern food.

Vernon Davis:

Huge culprit in type 2 diabetes for me? Yeah, I grew up in the Dallas area. However, my parents moved in when we were young. I go back to Louisiana every year. I went to college at Grand Lauderdale State University Four years, earned my bachelor's in education. Then I headed out east to Virginia to start my next chapter of my life, where I met my now wife. We've been happily married for going on three years now. We have a little boy. We both earned our master's degrees from South University here in the Virginia.

Nika Lawrie:

Beach area. That's awesome. Thank you yeah.

Vernon Davis:

Yes, ma'am, and customer service professional looking to transition into a full time, motivational speaking.

Nika Lawrie:

I love that, Love that. So tell me, so you know. When I was doing my research on you and kind of reading through what you'd shared with me, I loved it. You called yourself a former soda drunk and that you really embrace, you know, pizza and icing and ice cream and all those good things. Can you explain what is a soda drunk and why you use that term to describe yourself?

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, so you know I have no familiarity with alcohol. Parents didn't have it in the home. But for movies and television shows showed me is that you know most of those actors, their characters, would go to alcohol kind of as an outlet when things weren't going their way In most cases, sometimes just to kind of wind down, but mostly it was, you know, when bad things took place or frustrating situations came, and so I call myself a former soda drunk because that's what I went to during undesirable situations, stressful times. Soda and juice is what I would just drown myself in and kind of help ease the pain of whatever pain I was going through or frustration I was going through. Really didn't ease anything. It's kind of a temporary relief because the issue was still present because the issue was still present.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, I was like man I. I totally relate to that in the sense that I, using your description, I would have called myself a Starbucks drunk, because same kind of thing my thing was I had a bad day or, you know, stressed out and tired. I was going to go to Starbucks and get that sugary drink and, you know it, it, you know, shortly made me feel great and then reality would kick in again. So I totally relate to you in that sense. It's, it's interesting. It also brings to mind I had a conversation with somebody who is, um, she's a sobriety expert and she, she talks about how people can remove alcohol from their life.

Nika Lawrie:

And one thing she she talked about as a tool was, um, she said, you know it's, it's really the dopamine spike that we're looking for for when we're in those moods, right? So you think about, like you know, you have a long day of work, you're going to pour yourself that drink. In her case it was alcohol, in your case it was sodas, in my case it was picking up the Starbucks, right? So it's that long, stressful day, we're going to go get that drink. And her suggestion was still still pour the drink, but instead fill your cup with water or something. That's a healthier option, and so you still get that kind of dopamine spike, but but it's a less detrimental issue for your body, so I love it, I think a lot of people relate to that, so I love it.

Nika Lawrie:

I think a lot of people relate to that, yeah, so can you tell me, so you know, what was your diet and lifestyle like before your diagnosis? What, what were your kind of go-to things other than soda, obviously?

Vernon Davis:

Uh, yeah, I would go to that and get my hands on. Uh, if I'm in Walmart, kroger's, any grocery store, I'm going straight to the snack aisle, going to the candy aisle looking for things that are quick, pre-packaged, that I can open up in the checkout line and in my vehicle on my way home. I will go to the frozen food aisle as well to get hot pockets and frozen burgers as well, and then, if I felt like cooking, I would get different items to prepare at home that made a high calorie, very good tasting but not good for me. Meals like baked macaroni and cheese is something I enjoyed making, but I was always good at learning frommothers and my sister as well or different beef and chicken recipes. You know a lot of a lot of pastas is what I would put in my. You know a part of my meals when I would cook, and occasionally I'd get a mixed salad or something like that to have a little bit of green on the plate, but for the most part it was meat and a starch to go with it.

Nika Lawrie:

It's that Southern cooking. It's just so tasty it's hard to escape. I totally get it. So what about your activity levels? Were you kind of sedentary? Were you active but just not eating? Well, what did that look like?

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, different times in my life I was, you know, very active, and there are times where I thought I was active and I wasn't. So middle school and high school, for example, I was pretty active. I was fortunate to be a part of the sports teams in middle school and high school, not so fortunate in college. Skill level just wasn't there and so, you know, I replaced that time with socializing and consuming foods was really centered around socializing on the Grambling Campus. And then, about two years after going to college, I realized I was extremely overweight.

Vernon Davis:

Looking at a photo from the summer of 2010,. Fall of 2010,. I started this health kick for all the wrong reasons, and you know they would get my weight down. And so I was active very frequently from the fall of 2010 up through the winter of 2012, when I graduated, and then when I moved out east to Virginia, I thought I was going to be able to keep all of that up, but I was met with, you know, just a new, new, new situation. No friend, I thought it would be a little bit easier to make friends when I first got here. I thought it would be a little bit easier to make friends when I first got here. Um, I thought it'd be a lot easier, uh, to, you know, find my way around and get around, but I didn't have a vehicle and so, you know, when I was able to secure a ride somewhere, it was to a grocery store, and you know I knew I was going to be in my room. Uh, you know, very, very often, and so you know, I purchased food to be able to, you know, kind of help me pass the time and quickly picked up that weight.

Vernon Davis:

And as I started making friends, my, you know, my eating was just outside of the room at different restaurants or other people's homes, going back to that, socializing around food, and, you know, picked up the weight and I tried to try to lose weight again but wasn't successful because I didn't change my, my diet, and so the weighting, the excuse, and so the exercise that I was engaging in, it wasn't helpful, it didn't do anything because I didn't do that extra piece of watching what I ate and being mindful of it.

Vernon Davis:

And then it got to a point to where I got a new job coming out of my master's program, a traveling manager position, and that kept me very busy. I was always on the go, but it wasn't the kind of busy where, you know, getting my heart rate up and burning calories. It was just a busy moving from here to there, kind of on edge, you know, trying to make sure we service the clients that we have for the company that I was with and you know I thought that was enough for me to at least justify eating out each and every day while on the road, thinking I was. It was kind of a balancing act and it really wasn't packed on more weight, packed on more pounds. And you know, once I got out of that job I got, I got a desk job at another company and you know that desk job allowed me to have snacks on my desk and so I ate, ate consistently, and didn't, didn't think about working out at all.

Nika Lawrie:

It's so hard. I mean, I think your your story in the sense not to say that you're not, you know, really unique and individual in your own sense, but it's such a common story. So many of us struggle with something similar to that. You know, it's like we're busy on the go and we need those quick foods to just fuel us up, as we're, you know, running from space to space or project to project. You know, or it's, we're sitting at the desk all day long and we're, you know, bored with the work we're doing or bored with whatever. And so food is this brief. You know, the dopamine spike, again, like that brings that little bit of joy to us. And and then, on top of that, I think you know it's been driven into us incorrectly that you can exercise your way out of these issues.

Nika Lawrie:

And yes, well, you know physical activity is important, it's important to move your body. The reality is, it's it's the food that we're putting into our body and it's the way we're like detoxing all of this stuff too. A big part of the movement is about, you know, getting all those toxins that we've eaten from the different products for eating and getting them out of our system. And so, you know it's, it's. It's unfortunate that this is the way we we've been taught and then so many people struggle with it, similar to you. So you kind of led us to. You know what you think probably led to you getting type two diabetes. But can you talk about, like, how did you actually get the diagnosis? Did something occur? Did you start to feel sick? Like what actually led you to that point?

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, the short answer is my wife. She really encouraged me to go to the doctor on many different occasions and I just didn't want to go. Right after we were wedded, in 2019, I went to a doctor. I found a primary care physician in my network and met him. It's kind of an introductory session and then we scheduled some time for me to come back and get some blood work done. So this was the fall of 2019. That follow up appointment for the blood work was in December and you know, again, I only went because my wife wanted me to go, and when?

Nika Lawrie:

December came, it's always the wife yeah.

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, man, god bless her, man, I wouldn't be here without her. Yeah yeah, when December came, I found an excuse to cancel my appointment. I believe my job was offering overtime on this one day that I was scheduled to go, and so I signed up for that overtime and, you know, cancel my appointment and said I'd reschedule at a later date. And it was just so such a relief for me because I didn't want to go to the doctor, I didn't want to know, uh, you know, the status of my health. Um, because, uh, deep down, I didn't want to make any changes and I knew change was going to be, um, pushed onto me, um, in a, in a, in a nice way.

Vernon Davis:

Uh, if I would have went and got this blood work done at the time, granted, I didn't feel bad. Um, I didn't feel bad and actually start feeling bad until after I contracted the type A flu, about a month and a half later. So this was the end of January of 2020. Got the type A flu, got that out of my system, and then, next thing, I know I'm working from home, which was, you know, which is great. I was excited about not having to drive to work and everything that work from home allows Right having a job on the work and everything that work from home allows Right. Well, what it also allowed was access to the pantry and the refrigerator all day.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah.

Vernon Davis:

No more carrying a lunch pail trying to figure out am I going to put this in today or this in today. I had access to it, all Right, and I snacked so much and I was home alone. My wife still had to go in to her job site for her job at the time and, yeah, I know I picked up a number of pounds. I couldn't tell you how many because I didn't weigh myself prior to, but throughout, from January to July, July is when I was diagnosed.

Vernon Davis:

So from January to July I started experiencing symptoms. I had no explanation for the tingling in my fingers and my toes, the numbness in my left leg my left eye was, you know, the vision was becoming very blurry at random times and I had no explanation for it Crazy headaches, side pain which I later found out was a stage one kidney disease. My sleep pattern was already off and, you know, at this time my sleep pattern was just becoming worse and worse Now, with getting up through the night to consistently urinate, like every hour on the hour, sometimes every hour and a half. And it wasn't until we went to Michigan in the middle of July for one of my best friend's weddings. We drove, I was on a 12 hour drive. That's when I really realized, okay, something is wrong with me and I was a little disturbed, you know, really not sure why. So I was pulling over on the side of the interstate to relieve myself because I felt like my bladder was going to burst and I didn't have that issue, you know, months prior because I was working from home. So the bathroom was, you know, very, very closed. But on this drive, you know, I couldn't make it, you know, to the next exit to go to a gas station, to go to a restaurant or a truck stop or even a hotel that allowed for visitors to come in, just to use the restroom. I couldn't make it.

Vernon Davis:

And so, yeah, I got comfortable with urinating outside the highway. And, you know, I did that to Michigan and back, and even while we were in Michigan, I urinated in public a few times, um, you know, just because I couldn't hold it. And my wife, you know, she was really on me about going to see, going to see a doctor, and so, um, you know, I had an appointment set up, uh, for the uh week after we came back from Michigan and once, you know it, the doctor counseled on me the day before. I was too excited, I mean, I was ecstatic, I was like, yes, I don't want to know what's going on with me, because my mindset was there can't be a problem with me if I don't know that there's a problem with me. But my wife, she wasn't excited. My wife, she wasn't, you know, she wasn't, she wasn't ecstatic about it like I was, and she kind of left it open, ended and telling me that I needed to find somewhere to go.

Nika Lawrie:

And so I went to a clinic the next morning. And you are, I know. On the video version of this recording we can see you're a young guy Like this is. You know this is not. You know you're not in your late 60s struggling with this kind of thing. So do you mind asking how old are you?

Vernon Davis:

Oh yeah, I don't mind. Yeah, I just turned 32 on the 25th.

Nika Lawrie:

See a baby and you're struggling with this, you know, I mean it's. I just goes to show like this can happen to anybody at any time. It's. It's such a prevalent issue that people aren't aware of and you know. To go to what you're saying, I think people sit in this kind of ignorance of bliss. You know, if I don't know, then I don't have to face it and there's nothing wrong with me, even even though, when you're not knowledgeable in the sense of, like knowing your numbers and knowing what's really going on inside your body, like all you're doing is pushing, you know, pushing the issue down the field kind of thing, you're still going to have to deal with it at some point.

Vernon Davis:

That's correct.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, so what was it like when you, when you did find out that you had type two diabetes? How did you feel when you?

Vernon Davis:

when you did find out that you had type two diabetes, how did you feel? Oh yeah, I was devastated. Now I must express Nika, right before I went into this clinic, I did stop by a convenience store to purchase five drinks. Oh yeah, I needed to have something with me, easily accessible. I didn't want to have to go anywhere after I left this place because I just knew that there was going to be some bad news shared. They know what it was going to be. I knew there was going to be some bad news, so I purchased two 32 ounce fruit punch fountain drinks, two 32 ounce sodas fountain drinks as well, and then a slush, a slush drink, and I set them all in the passenger seat of my vehicle, nice and neat, just ready for me.

Vernon Davis:

When I came back out, and, you know, once I heard that I had well, what I grew up knowing as the sugars, I was devastated. I had to ask the doctor if he could repeat himself, because you know, surely that could not have been what he said. And you know I was. I was upset. You know I was confused as well because, again, you know, I was 30 and a half at that time and so you know, twice, my age is, you know when I would have expected to have to even deal with something like that. And yeah to to have gotten it at 30, you know it was. It was tough to hear so frustrated, upset, confused, sad. You know all those emotions and more is just what I was feeling.

Nika Lawrie:

Absolutely. I mean, I, man, I just feel for you in that sense. What a like heartbreaking moment to just feel that fear, the fear of your life and your health and your future. I mean, it's a big deal. So, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm compassionate for you. In that sense, I'm also excited that you decided to make changes. So can we get into a little bit of what that looked like?

Vernon Davis:

Yeah. So, sitting in the clinic waiting for the doctor to to come back, he had something else for me and I started looking up type two diabetes and something else for me. And I started looking up type two diabetes and, you know, quickly scammed the internet. I concluded that it was my fault that I was in this position, and so, you know, holding on to that, while trying to hold on to tears, I was then met again by the doctor. He handed me a prescription for a particular medication and told me to take that daily and to scale back a little bit on what it was I was already consuming, just in general Right, and in my mind I'm thinking well, what I've been consuming is what got me here, scaling back some.

Vernon Davis:

I don't, I don't think I have the power to do that. And so, you know, I said thank you and I got out of the door as fast as I could so I could cry. I didn't want to cry inside of the clinic. So I'm in my vehicle, I'm crying, I grab one of the fruit punches, I take a sip and then I throw them all away. And for me, that was the first step to getting better is letting go of something that I felt like I couldn't live without, because it was putting me in a position where I wouldn't be living much longer. So got rid of those drinks, love that.

Nika Lawrie:

Can we just celebrate that for a minute, that you just did that?

Vernon Davis:

I know it's silly, but that's a huge thing, that's a huge.

Nika Lawrie:

I mean it's like a, it's like a security blanket to let go of. It's hard to let go of that stuff.

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, you're right and you know to. You know to think of my mindset then. What even made me stop and get it on the way? You know it. Really just emphasize as I reflect on the story, really to emphasize on you know how much of a security blanket sugary drinks and food was for me, or juice anymore Haven't had any since that day Um, but you know, there are times I probably express a little bit more uh, where you know food can still, you know I can still seek food for uh, for comfort, you know, in certain situations, um, but yeah, got rid of those.

Vernon Davis:

Uh call my wife, uh call my parents just to let them know what was going on and uh immediately called uh, two gentlemen that ended up becoming my accountability partners in this fight, because my mindset coming out of that clinic was you know, I want to get rid of this, but naturally I don't want to take medications because I saw the side effects, also searching the internet. They don't want to deal with the side effects. They actually appear to be a lot worse for, in my opinion, than the disease itself, and so I said, hey, you know I want to try this. Naturally, you know I need your help. I called an herbalist, a good friend of mine by the name of Breon, who had just, you know, went on his own health journey and learned about the power of natural herbs and sea vegetables. And so we talked. He gave me some homework and called up my good friend, tony Lee, who was a personal trainer. I had trained with him in the past but everything I had done with him it yielded no results because of my poor diet. And so, you know, to be able to go work with him again now with a different mindset, really out of desperation was, you know, looking back on, it was really big.

Vernon Davis:

You know he was very graceful in, you know, assisting me and teaching me along the way, and so, you know, partner with them and did a lot of self-education on my end. You know, assisting me and teaching me along the way, and so, you know, partnered with them and did a lot of self-education on my end. You know just learning about. You know how to move my body and why it's important. You know the power of natural herbs and seed vegetables, as well as the power of fruits and vegetables.

Vernon Davis:

You know when, looking at you know what's going to be best for me to consume in efforts to not only heal my body but still be able to sustain. You know, each and every day, when I go to work and functioning at home, you know, as well as looking at foods to avoid and stay away from and why, and so did a lot of self-education, a lot of research and, you know, put together a regimen that was very challenging to stick to. But you know, if I was going to do it or I wasn't going to be here much longer and if I was here, my quality of life is going to be very poor. So I again had this sense of desperation and, you know, got to the regimen and, you know, just took it a day at a time.

Nika Lawrie:

I love that.

Nika Lawrie:

I mean I commend you for taking charge of your own health and really to deciding to do your own research, opposed to just.

Nika Lawrie:

You know I think you know I say this a lot in a lot of my episodes when I talk to other experts.

Nika Lawrie:

I think there's a wonderful place for the American Medical Association or the organization as a whole, right, like they do some really amazing, wonderful work in different places, but when it comes to, you know, chronic diseases, especially something like diabetes, they aren't necessarily the best option.

Nika Lawrie:

They're going to give you, you know, insulin or some type of medication to help manage the disease. They do very little education on food and diet and lifestyle and toxins and they kind of just send the patient on the way with the bandaid and say good luck, you know, do your best, and this person is then stuck with this disease, which is also leading to other diseases like dementia and all kinds of other. You know there's heart disease, issues that relate to diabetes, there's a whole host of things, and to be just thrown out there to the wolves without any guidance I think is irresponsible a lot of times. And so my point is that I really, really commend you for deciding to take charge of your own health and really starting to educate yourself in how you can do things differently. It's such a it's a great, inspirational story.

Vernon Davis:

Oh, thank you.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean I want you to be proud of that, and that's. I don't mean to be patronizing at all, I just think it's really important because I see so many people just take what the doctor says as a hundred percent truth, fact, that's it. There's no wiggle room, and then they just go on with their day and then they continue to struggle, and that breaks my heart because there's so many other things that people can do.

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, you know, and it's sad, anika I think that as children or from childhood rather we're conditioned to believe that if a professional tells you to do something, you do it Instead of hey, you know, professionals give advice in whatever field they're in, and not saying that their advice isn't warranted because it is, they have the credentials to back it up. But, at the end of the day, the decisions that we, that we allow to affect our lives at least for me, it had to be a decision that I was comfortable with. And if a recommendation came from Dr So-and-so, I applied it and it didn't work. All they're going to tell me is man, you know, we gave it a try. Well, let's try this.

Vernon Davis:

And so it's going to be this continuous cycle until we find something that was beneficial, whereas on my end, I'm going to be frustrated, I'm going to be bitter, I'm going to want to switch medical professionals what have you? And so, to cut all of that out, I decided, hey, let me take what they say, but let me go back and do my own research and figure out a healthy medium that's going to be beneficial for me, to at least try when, at the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, whether it goes bad or it works out, and say, hey, this is a decision that you made, vernon. You got to live with the results, you got to live with the consequences, or whatever those consequences may have been got to live with the, with the consequences or whatever those consequences may have been.

Nika Lawrie:

Absolutely, I mean. I think that's so true. I think you can marry both worlds in the sense of your own research and your own education, your own, you know, guidance in that sense, and then, using the tools and the information that the, the experts you know, the, the physicians or whomever, is providing you to, and figuring out how to marry those, to best support your own health journey. Yeah, so, if you don't mind me asking, I want to ask when you were first diagnosed, do you remember what your A1C number was, what level you were?

Vernon Davis:

at yes, so the highest that they could measure was 15.5. And so mine was greater than 15.5. So they didn't have an exact number for me. They just said it was off the charts in a very, very negative way. My blood glucose level, however, was 476, whereas the normal range is 70 to 105. And so I was off the charts. Well, I was high on the charts in a negative way, as it relates to that as well.

Nika Lawrie:

Man, those are some scary numbers.

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, they actually asked me to take myself to the emergency room once I left, but I said no, I didn't want any more bad news.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, One bad news a day is enough sometimes.

Vernon Davis:

That's it. That's it.

Nika Lawrie:

I'm glad that you were okay and you were able to start to reverse that. Do you mind I know we're going to get into a little bit more of what you really did to kind of change your diet and lifestyle, but do you mind me asking where you're at now? My understanding is that you've reversed your type 2 diabetes completely.

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, oh yes, ma'am, so on. So three months after my diagnosis, my A1C level was measured at 7.4. So it was a 50% decrease, which is great. And then my last checkup, which was in November, I was down to a 5.9. So it's the doctor, you know, ecstatic. I was ecstatic. My goal was to just get under six and then strive to strive to maintain. And so, you know, really excited on. On the same day, my blood glucose level came back at a 79. So a 397 point decrease from our original diagnosis, which I was very ecstatic about as well.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, man, that is phenomenal, Congratulations.

Vernon Davis:

Oh, thank you.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, absolutely so. Tell me, you know, as you started to go down this healing journey, you obviously changed your diet significantly. Can you talk about, like you know, the struggles that come with that? How did you overcome the cravings, Maybe, the the um, the issues with staying motivated or like the setbacks that you kind of ran into? How'd you overcome those?

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, uh, having my accountability partners I was paramount for me. Uh, in Breon and Tony, my wife was with me every day, every step of the way. I was from home, so very, very helpful. You know, I saw the cravings, the cravings for soda and juice. I just had to push through those because I was determined not to consume them ever again Up to date. And I haven't, and so I would just indulge myself in water. Haven't, and so I would just, you know, indulge myself in water. You know, every time I felt the urge of, you know, wanting a high C or a Faygo peach, or peach knee high, or something like that, you know, I just, you know, grab my water jug and just drink on it until I felt full Gum helped out as well, having something in my mouth to chew on that was very, very helpful for me as well with the fighting the cravings to chew on.

Vernon Davis:

That was very, very helpful for me as well with the fighting the cravings and mint leaves. A lot of people aren't familiar, at least around here in Virginia beach, with the power of mint leaves. Mint leaves are natural stimulant and so I actually started using those years ago to replace energy drinks in my life, and then I found that they helped curve my appetite and fight cravings when I felt them, and so, you know, pop a leaf or two and chew on it, or pinch it and drop it in my water and shake it up and chew my water. So I mean it helped out a ton as it relates to the cravings. There are some other things that I, you know, I ended up learning to do, not because anyone told me, but just something that worked for me with shifting my mindset, which I do document in my book, so I wouldn't I can't tell those I have to direct people to the book for more mindset, shift practices, practices, and you know it was very, very beneficial for me in, you know, fighting food cravings or aiding me when consuming some of the meals that you know I didn't care for initially, you know, to feel, still feel satisfied, to still feel like, hey man, I got a great tasty meal in front of me. You know, with this mindset shift and you know I was able to learn over time that the meals that I make for myself because they do have flavor and they are good, and it's not just about them tasting good but them allowing me to feel good after I consumed them, not feeling lethargic, not feeling like I can't continue working, not feeling like I have to cancel something that I have planned. That's very important, because you know I can't continue working, not feeling like I have to cancel something that I have planned. That's very important, because you know I can hardly move or stomach is aching, or even my head is hurting, things like that, and so so that helped out as well. Just, you know practices to shift my mindset towards food and really saying I have to use this as fuel, not as a hindrance for me for the rest of my day.

Vernon Davis:

Some of the setbacks I experienced were emotional primarily.

Vernon Davis:

If I woke up and something didn't go my way, I got emotional about it and I wanted to go and grab my wife's leftovers in the refrigerator and eat it while she was gone, or I'd run up to the store and grab a bag of chips just to have something to munch on that tastes good. I mean, there were times, nika, where I may have been frustrated by something that was going on at work, and it's something so minor, but because of what I was already experiencing as far as getting up at 4.35 o'clock in the morning to work out, you know, probably not having gotten as much sleep as I wanted or, you know, probably didn't get to relax the way that I had desired the night before leading up to today's workout. You know I'm already emotional. You know I've given in to the cravings and used the popular delivery app to order a burger and fries. That I know I didn't Matter of fact, it was two burgers and fries. That I know I didn't matter of fact, it was two burgers and fries that I know I didn't need.

Vernon Davis:

But I remember getting it, eating it right here at my desk and, you know, crying the whole time, knowing that I wasn't supposed to have it Finished, what I could, through the rest of the way, call my accountability partner or sent text messages and let them know what happened, what's going through my mind. And they were so encouraging. They didn't beat me up. They said hey, you know, setbacks are a part of this journey. You know this is a marathon, not a sprint. You know we're just going to pick it back up, uh, you know, this afternoon or this evening with your next meal, uh, and then we're going to be working out again tomorrow and we're just taking a day at a time.

Nika Lawrie:

Um man, I was just going to say I love that. Think so often people will, you know, especially I mean I hate, I hate quote, unquote diets, because people get on the diets and think it's going to, you know, fix their body for a month of eating differently and then they go back to reality and you know they face the same issues. But anyways, I digress there. My point is I love that you say you know set part backs are part of the game, because it's okay to slip up, like we're human, like that's natural, it's going to happen. The key is to pick back up the next meal, right, don't let that completely derail. You like, oh, I failed at this, I suck, you know, I, why am I even bothering? It's like, no, you just pick up the next time and you keep going and and it's also okay. You know what I mean.

Nika Lawrie:

I'm a big proponent for eating as clean as possible and avoiding processed foods and all of those things. But it's also okay to occasionally have something right, like you don't have to deprive yourself of everything all the time. There was a doctor I interviewed a couple weeks ago and she said one of my favorite things to me. She's like it's okay to have those fun things. Just understand that Wednesday isn't a reason to celebrate, you know. It kind of puts it in your perspective like pick your time and place for those things. Yeah, yeah, talk to me a little bit. So you mentioned some really fantastic tips about you know, like the gum and the mint leaves and stuff like that. But you said you worked with your friend who is an herbalist. How did kind of supplements and herbs play a role in in your transition?

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, so natural herbs and sea vegetables were very paramount in this journey. I learned about sea moss and bladderwrack to see vegetables that I had never heard of, but I was in a state of desperation so I was willing to try anything that was considered natural, so that I didn't have to mess with any medication, and found a lot of great information on sea moss and bladderwrack and I was able to incorporate that into my daily regimen. Um burdock root, um was another uh natural herb that I was able to uh incorporate. Uh elderberry, uh spirulina, um was another. Um dandelion root, um was another as well. When I, when I think about, uh, you know, cleaning, cleansing my blood and um, you know, really helping to heal my organs, they were all amazing for me. They taste horrible, but they were all amazing for me and, you know, still consume a good number of them to this day.

Nika Lawrie:

And I love that you you know that is speaking my language, talking about cleansing your blood, and you know so many of those are great tools to remove toxins from your body, and I think a lot of people don't understand there's a direct link between our toxin exposure and the toxins that are stored in our liver specifically, but all over our body, and and diabetes. Having type two diabetes. It's not just you know, it's not just sugar and carbs that everybody thinks about. It is specifically these toxins also, and using some of these natural remedies to help detox your body a little bit and get your system flowing and working and functioning properly helps your insulin receptors function better, and so then you're able to actually process the sugars that are coming into your body and I mean it's a whole cycle that happens, and so I love that you were able to use those to help you. I think that's probably a big reason why you've been so successful and so quickly too yeah, I believe so as well.

Vernon Davis:

Yes, ma'am.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, talk to me about fruits and vegetables. Did you start to? You know? I mean I I love the, the cheese and and ham hot pockets. Those were my favorite as a kid. I haven't had them in years, but I'm assuming that you replaced the hot pockets with something a little bit more nutrient. Can you talk to me about fruits and vegetables and how you incorporated those?

Vernon Davis:

Oh yeah, so, um.

Vernon Davis:

So I was already big on Granny Smith apples, really enjoyed those, but Granny Smith apples alone wasn't going to cut it, and so I started doing different research on you know what, what were the best fruits and vegetables for me to consume?

Vernon Davis:

And so, you know, I settled on cherries, settled on blackberries and blueberries, I settled on strawberries and a few others, and you know, it was really just a matter of, you know, cleaning them, cutting them up and sitting down and consuming them. You know, wasn't trying to be pretty with it, sometimes I would throw them in a salad, but it was really just trying to figure out how to get them in my mouth and down the hatch, you know, not necessarily as quick as possible, but as painless as possible. And you know it was very huge for me. At one point I was just doing fruit and vegetable smoothies to get my fruit intake in, and then I and that was also to get my natural herbs in as well, because I refused to just shake those up in water because they were just so nasty. But yeah, then I transitioned, you can make them taste better yes, it is um.

Vernon Davis:

and then I transitioned to um juicing. My herbalist uh, you know, introduced me to juicing uh, really introduced me to the uh, to the uh facts about juicing uh, because I was familiar with it. It was just something I said I would never do um. But, as, uh you know, sometimes it takes hearing it from a certain person Right, and so, you know, hearing it from him, you know I already trusted him and you know he had failed me, you know, up until that point. And so I looked into it and I was thoroughly surprised, and so I started juicing fruits and vegetables, fresh fruits and vegetables. And, you know, I realized that a juiced vegetables are disgusting and no amount of fruit can make it taste better, and so I nixed the fruits only, did vegetables to juice so that I could enjoy the taste of the fruit after downing that eight to 12 ounces of a vegetable juice. And so that's a part of my regimen as well.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, yeah, I think you know it's. It's hard to find that that level of what tastes good and what doesn't. I think the important thing to know is that over time, your taste buds do change too.

Nika Lawrie:

Once you start consuming, you know, natural foods, you don't crave as much sugar and things taste sweeter, you know, like the berries, for instance, you can start eating those, opposed to craving for a donut, because they're so sweet and just vibrant and tastes fantastic, and so I think that's important. I love that you included juicing in that sense too, because you know a lot of people struggle with just eating enough greens right Like getting the salad down, and you desperately need that fiber to help all your systems function, help your microbiome work, help your you know, your body detox and again um process the fructose that you're getting from those fruits and stuff too. And so using the the um smoothies is is at least a great tool to begin with. So start getting that fiber in your body.

Vernon Davis:

Yes, ma'am.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, I love it. So tell me. We've kind of walked through your story but for anyone that's maybe listening, that can really relate to you. Maybe they're earlier on in the path, maybe they have type two diabetes. They haven't started down the health journey yet. What advice do you have for them? What tips do you have or encouragement?

Vernon Davis:

Yeah, the biggest thing, don't keep it to yourself. You have to have others involved in your life if you're going to tackle this. That's whether you use the medication or you don't. Either way, you need to have others involved.

Vernon Davis:

I found in life in general, when I go at something alone especially if it's something that's undesirable, right, something that I know is going to be challenging for me If I do it alone, I fail. Not saying that you will. I'm saying that in my experience. I've failed, and so I didn't want to take a chance when it came to type two diabetes for myself. And so, you know, enlisting accountability partners is very helpful, and I do attribute my success a lot to them, the progress that I've experienced, and so I would encourage others that you know type two diabetic, pre-diabetic or looking to you know increase their level of health overall. Include others. It doesn't have to be family members if you don't want to. It doesn't have to be colleagues if you don't want to, but include others, whoever those others are that you trust. In addition to that, learn about water. Learn about water. Do your research on the water that you drink primarily and determine if that's the best water for you or not. Those are two huge things that I would recommend.

Nika Lawrie:

I love the water too. It's so important and there's so many things going on with our water that we're not even aware of, so I'm glad you brought that up too. Oh yeah, yeah. So, vernon, you wrote a book about your journey. Can you talk a little bit about your book and where can people find it and what kind of resource it?

Vernon Davis:

is yes, so Uncomfortable Peace. That's my book detailing my journey from prior to diagnosis journey from prior to diagnosis, being diagnosed, and then up to November of 2021, since that's when it was completed and it just gives great information as to my mindset, the way things were prior to diagnosis, what I indulged myself in, my attitude towards just health in general, and then the changes that I made once receiving that shock of news, and how I've been able to sustain it thus far. I also have a pretty significant setback due to a life event towards the end of the book and I even talk about how I was able to push past that and get to the numbers that I have currently. So it's a great resource. It does have some statistics in there.

Vernon Davis:

Nothing in there is considered medical advice. It's just you know my journey and what I did to better my situation, and you know I do encourage others. If you find anything useful for yourself you want to implement, you know, please consult a medical physician at least to get the advice you know from a professional on. You know what is or isn't beneficial for you and as you do your own research, you couple those two together. You make a decision. But it is located on Amazon. Uncomfortable Peace. If you do a Google search, it'll be the first option that appears, so very fortunate for that. But we also have signed copies on our company website. We also have signed copies on our company website d as in David fpublishingorg.

Nika Lawrie:

Perfect. I'll link to all that in the show notes to just make it as easy as possible. And I was going to ask you how can listeners connect with you Aside from the book? You mentioned the website, but are there social platforms? Where can they connect with you?

Vernon Davis:

Yes, ma'am. So I'm very active on Facebook. You can do a search for Vernon P Davis Jr. You can do that same search on Instagram, where I'm active as well. So those are the main two platforms.

Nika Lawrie:

Perfect Vernon. Thank you so much. This has been phenomenal. I have a couple quick fire questions for you before we wrap up today, but before I get to this, I just want to once again commend you for the work that you've done. This incredible journey of healing your body and now being an inspiration and motivating other people to heal their body. I just I love it and I'm so excited for you. So thank you.

Vernon Davis:

You're welcome and thank you, Nika. It's definitely a pleasure to be on your show.

Nika Lawrie:

Absolutely All right. You ready for the quickfire questions?

Vernon Davis:

I'm ready.

Nika Lawrie:

Okay, the first one, and you can mention your book again if it's that one, but you can give a different one too. But what is the most impactful book, podcast or documentary you've experienced and why?

Vernon Davis:

The most impactful was actually Forks Over Knives. They gave a lot of great information about food and you know there's a study that one of the doctors talks about in there. That was very paramount in my and putting together my regimen and being able to have a level of comfort with the regimen that I was going to be implementing. So Forks Over Knives probably thus far the greatest documentary, the most impactful documentary in my life.

Nika Lawrie:

It is so good it is one of the best ones out there, for sure. I love that. Yeah, all right. Next question for you what is the best toxin free or eco-friendly living tip you have?

Vernon Davis:

Get outside and get some fresh air. Yes, get outside and get some fresh air, even with us. You know still being in the midst of this pandemic. You know being confined to our homes in most cases. At least open up a window and sit by it. Get some fresh air? Yeah, absolutely, and it's such a simple, free thing to do, get some fresh air?

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, absolutely, and it's such a simple, free thing to do, but it's so valuable for our health, absolutely, all right, vernon, very last question for you today what does living consciously mean to you?

Vernon Davis:

Living consciously, self-awareness, being knowledgeable what's going on with me whether I want to hear it or not, and self-education, so you know, being conscious of what's out there that can be beneficial for me in all facets of life.

Nika Lawrie:

Absolutely, man. It's so important. I think you know we just like blaze through life so often and it's important for us to just kind of slow down and be aware of ourselves and what we're doing. Yeah, yes indeed. Well, Vernon, thank you so much for coming on the show today. I really appreciate it.

Vernon Davis:

Oh, yes, ma'am. Thank you so much for having me, Anika.

Nika Lawrie:

Thank you.

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