He Was Told to Manage Diabetes With Pills and Went Looking for Another Answer
Six prescriptions in, Cliff Beach went looking for a way out rather than a way to cope. He left that doctor and hired his own nutritionist. This is his account of the five months that followed, told to Coach Brian Parana on episode 41.
Cliff Beach went in for a physical and came out with a type 2 diabetes diagnosis, plus high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The plan he was handed was more medication. He left that doctor, hired a nutritionist himself, and lost about 50 pounds in five months. Listen to Episode 41 for the whole conversation.
Cliff Beach Is a Guest Here, Not a Client
Worth saying plainly before anything else. Cliff Beach came on the Driven For Health podcast as a guest. He did this work on his own, with a nutritionist he found and hired himself, and he has never been coached by Brian. What follows is his account of what he did and what happened to him.
Cliff is a musician and entertainer who also works in corporate digital marketing. He writes at sidehustleflow.net and has published Side Hustle and Flow and Shape Up.
The Hollywood Shuffle
Cliff's own name for the life that got him there is the Hollywood Shuffle.
He describes it as wearing many hats to make ends meet. The price of everything climbs and wages do not follow, so you take on more work and more roles. He is clear that it happens anywhere and not only in Los Angeles.
His warning about it is worth reading twice. "you're not a robot. You're a human being. You have to power down at some point or your body will scream and yell at you at some point when it was whispering at first for you to pay attention."
The habits stacked from there. Late nights, because the gigs run late. Eating whatever was around, because he was up when nothing good was open. He also names heavy drinking, and his line for it is that you get paid in alcohol.
Brian widens it for men who never picked up an instrument. The office lunch meeting where you eat whatever is on the table. The after-work round because work is buying. Screens all day and no sunlight. Brian's point is that the industry changes and the pattern does not.
Nothing Falls Apart All At Once
Cliff puts the start of the decline in his 30s. He felt it and did what a lot of men do, which is yo-yo. He had good months. He hired a trainer and a nutritionist. He ran South Beach and P90X.
By his mid-30s he had fatty liver and was told to avoid fatty foods, so he cut out fried food. He had not been in for a physical in a couple of years.
His image for that whole stretch is boiling a frog. Nothing happens all at once, so the hour less of sleep and the few ounces less of water never register while they are happening.
The Physical That Changed the Plan
About six years ago Cliff went in for a physical.
He was around 220 to 225 pounds at 5 foot 8, the heaviest he had been. His own description of how he felt: "I tell people my check liver light was on." He puts his A1c at 7 at that point. He came out with type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and a plan to manage all three with pills.
Brian stops the conversation there to put weight on that A1c. Seven sits at the low end of type 2 diabetes. Low end or not, it carries the diagnosis. He says he has seen men come in as high as 15.
His other marker on the episode is morning blood sugar. He calls 110 the normal range, and says readings that sit consistently above 200 in the morning mean you need help now.
For the full set of ranges on blood pressure and A1c and cholesterol, Brian walks through all of them on Episode 40.
Six Pills and the Line in the Sand
The pills are where Cliff stopped going along with it.
He started on three. Metformin brought more with it. He got to five, then a sixth, and that sixth one caused a reaction in him.
He describes it as the interaction problem printed on medication labels, the same category as the warning not to eat grapefruit on certain prescriptions.
His read on the pattern comes from a children's book. If you give a mouse a cookie. One pill creates the need for another. When he raised it, he was told it was the progression of the disease rather than the medication. He did not believe that.
What bothered him most was the framing. He was being taught to live with it instead of get out of it. In his own words, he was not getting the advice that would let him reverse anything.
Two more details. He still keeps the empty pill bottles so he can look at them. And his insurance had covered nutritional counseling the whole time, and nobody ever referred him. He looked up an in-network nutritionist himself.
His conclusion is short. You have to become your own advocate, because the doctor is never going to be the one living in your body.
What Cliff Did Instead
He set the target before he had a plan. Lose 50 pounds in five months. Then he found the nutritionist and built the plan around the target.
Here is what he named on the episode.
An eating window. Cliff used intermittent fasting. His practical point is that it gave him a time of day when he ate and a time when he did not. Brian's note on it is that the exact window matters less than having a boundary you hold.
Protein, fiber and whole foods. He moved toward cooking his own food instead of eating out.
10,000 steps a day. He hit a million steps. Some days ran to 35,000. He takes calls while walking and says he gets better ideas doing it. He has walked as long as 12 hours in a day.
Water and sleep. He had been sleeping 5 hours a night. His line on sleep debt is that you cannot repay it on the weekend.
Tracking, every single day. Cliff has tracked everything he eats in a calorie deficit for almost 900 days straight. He went down to 1,500 calories and says he did not starve. His framing is that tracking teaches you to budget rather than to restrict.
No alcohol. He connected drinking to diabetes and the liver, and he stopped. He says the hard part was the beginning and being the odd man out at a gig. It is not hard now.
An hour in the morning. Tai Chi and Qigong and breathwork and acupuncture. He wakes at 8 and starts his day at 9, with that hour carved out for himself.
One more thing he is clear about. He did not do all of these at once. He got sober first, then worked on food, then on fitness. His own read is that stacking them together would have sunk him.
Brian's Read on What Cliff Found
Brian names the pattern underneath all of it. He calls it MFP. Movement, food choice and portion control.
His point is that Cliff did not find a secret. He found those three things in an organized package with a person holding him to them.
Brian brings in a man he coached named Bill to make the same point from the other side. Bill ran a business in finance and managed a lot of money, so his day was built around screens and markets. He was sedentary enough that the fix had to be a block of time in the evening. He walked or hiked or biked for 90 straight minutes. Nothing hard, and nothing that needed a gym. Bill was in his 60s when the change stuck.
Brian's version of Cliff's million steps is a challenge he runs with men. 10,000 steps a day across 100 days comes out to a million steps. Most men do not believe they can move that much until they plan for it.
And the line he repeats from Episode 30: "what we do in two weeks, we do in two months, we do in two years."
What Changed for Cliff After the Weight Came Off
Energy and stamina came first. He could sing longer and walk without getting winded.
Other people noticed next. He looked younger, which for a working musician changes what rooms he can work in. He can play alongside people in their 20s without reading as the old man in the band.
His head cleared after that. He describes better ideas and more capacity to listen, and puts it down to the bandwidth he used to spend on feeling tired going somewhere else.
At work nobody had to be told. People saw the weight come off and started asking him what he did. His career moved with it. He expanded his work in music and in corporate digital marketing, has been a house band leader on TV, and has worked in radio. Brian's introduction to the episode names a Vice President title in digital marketing and an award-winning book.
What He Tells a Man Holding Bad Blood Work
Cliff's framing is that you pick your hard. Being overweight is hard and getting lean is hard, and either way you are choosing one of them. His line on it: "life doesn't get any easier. You just have to get better."
Then the practical part.
Get a professional instead of a search engine. Cliff's comparison is a car you need running, where you handle the air filter yourself and leave the rest to someone who does it for a living.
Accountability works because you have to sit across from somebody. In his words he did not want to face that person and admit he had not done it.
Keep the changes small and sequential. His view is that habits build into a snowball, and that trying to do everything at once is how people fail.
He also listens to how people talk. Cliff says he can tell from the words whether someone will follow through. When somebody says they will see him sometime, he does not bother scheduling it. His read is that there is a trap door built into the sentence.
Brian's word for the same thing is waffling. You move back and forth, feel good about having taken action, then coast, and nothing changes.
Where a Coach Stops and a Doctor Starts
This is the part to be careful with.
Cliff's results belong to Cliff. He states the weight, the timeline and where his A1c sat before he started. The episode does not include a follow-up lab panel, so there is no number here for where he landed afterward.
Coach Brian Parana is a coach and not a doctor. He has a degree in Exercise Science and 23 plus years of coaching behind him, and that is a different job than diagnosing a condition or writing a prescription. On the episode he says a chronic condition like type 2 diabetes can be reversed, and in the same breath he sends men to a professional rather than to the internet.
Nothing in this post is medical advice, and nothing here says your labs will move the way Cliff's weight did. Cliff worked with a nutritionist he hired. Any change to a prescription is a conversation with the doctor who wrote it, not something to handle on your own.
Where To Start If This Sounds Like Your Last Lab Report
If a blood panel is what brought you here, start with the free Improve Your Blood Panels Scorecard. It covers A1c, fasting glucose, triglycerides, blood pressure and waist measurement in plain English. It also names the habits that move each one. Get it at Improve Your Blood Panels Scorecard.
If you want the plan and the accountability handled for you, The Call To Rise is Coach Brian's 100 day program for driven men who want their body at the level their work is already at. It runs on three moves. Find the real reason your fat loss stopped. Build your food and your training around a 47-year-old body instead of a 27-year-old one. Then run it for 100 days alongside other men working on the same problem.
Inside it you get an individualized meal plan, an individualized training plan, weekly round table calls with the group, 1:1 calls with Brian, and a client site with every resource in one place. The average man who works with Coach Brian for the full 100 days loses 20 or more pounds. The guarantee is one sentence. Lose 20 or more pounds in the 100 days, or Brian keeps working with you until you do. Apply at thecalltorise.com.
Where To Find Cliff Beach
Cliff writes at sidehustleflow.net. His books are Side Hustle and Flow and Shape Up, and Shape Up is the one that covers the health story in this episode. At the time of recording he had The Daily Grind coming in February, built as 365 short daily prompts.
Cross-episode links
- Episode 40 has the blood pressure and A1c and cholesterol ranges with sources attached.
- Episode 5 is the calories episode Brian points listeners to during this conversation.
- Episode 6 covers protein and carbs and fats, the second episode he names here.
- Episode 11 is the lifestyle episode he names third.
- Episode 30 is where the two weeks line comes from.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Driven For Health episode 41 about?
Episode 41 is Coach Brian Parana's conversation with guest Cliff Beach. Cliff went in for a physical about six years ago and came out with type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. He was around 220 to 225 pounds at 5 foot 8 and puts his A1c at 7 at the time. He left that doctor, hired a nutritionist himself, and lost about 50 pounds in five months.
Who is Cliff Beach?
Cliff Beach is a musician and entertainer who also works in corporate digital marketing. He is a guest on the Driven For Health podcast rather than one of Coach Brian's clients. He writes at sidehustleflow.net and has published Side Hustle and Flow and Shape Up, with The Daily Grind set to follow in February.
What is the Hollywood Shuffle?
The Hollywood Shuffle is Cliff Beach's term for the grind of wearing many hats to make ends meet. The price of everything climbs faster than wages, so you take on more work and more roles until there is no room left to power down. He says it happens in any city and any industry, and the late nights and poor food and drinking ride along with it.
How much weight did Cliff Beach lose and how long did it take?
About 50 pounds in five months. He set that target before he had a plan, then found a nutritionist and built the plan around it. He started at around 220 to 225 pounds at 5 foot 8, which he says was the heaviest he had been.
What did Cliff Beach change to lose 50 pounds?
He used an eating window, moved toward protein and fiber and whole foods, and cooked at home instead of eating out. He walked 10,000 steps a day and reached a million steps. He tracked everything he ate in a calorie deficit for almost 900 days straight. He also stopped drinking, fixed his sleep, and added Tai Chi and breathwork in the morning.
Can type 2 diabetes be reversed?
On this episode Coach Brian Parana says a chronic condition like type 2 diabetes can be reversed, and Cliff Beach set out to do exactly that rather than manage it with medication indefinitely. Brian is a coach and not a doctor, and nothing in this episode is medical advice or a promise about anyone else's labs. Cliff worked with a nutritionist he hired, and any change to a prescription belongs in a conversation with the doctor who wrote it.
What should you do if your doctor tells you to manage it with medication?
Cliff Beach's answer is to become your own advocate. He found out that his insurance had covered nutritional counseling the whole time and that nobody had referred him, so he looked up an in-network nutritionist himself. Keep taking what you are prescribed, ask your doctor for a referral if one is available, and bring the question of an actual plan to that appointment.
What is The Call To Rise?
The Call To Rise is Coach Brian Parana's 100 day program for driven men who want their body at the level their work is already at. It includes an individualized meal plan, an individualized training plan, weekly round table calls, 1:1 calls with Brian, and a client site with every resource in one place. The average man who works with Coach Brian for the full 100 days loses 20 or more pounds, and the guarantee is that you lose 20 or more pounds in the 100 days or Brian keeps working with you until you do.
