Coach Ken: I want to use diabetes. Diabetes is using me. I want to use diabetes to help others not be in the same position that I was when I was first diagnosed. Welcome back. This is episode number 138 of the Healthy Diabetic Podcast. Before we get started, please remember that nothing that you hear on this podcast should be considered medical advice or otherwise. Please always consult your medical team before making any changes to diabetes management. 

Coach Ken: Okay, special episode today You get to listen to me and if you read the title which I'm sure you did of this episode, i'm sure you're intrigued As much as I was, intrigued as I started to think about this episode and what I actually wanted to talk about and say, and then I came up with this title and I'm super pumped to talk about it. So, before I get into that, if you haven't had a chance to, please make sure that you go on to whatever platform that you're listening to this episode on and subscribe. Subscribe one and two. Make sure you leave a five star review and or written review. I know an Apple podcast. You can leave a written review. I would really like to know how you like the episode, how you liked the episodes that you've listened to so far. It really helps to show garage, you subscribe and leave five star reviews. So thank you for all of it, all of you who have been able to do that, and if you haven't, please do so. Also. I empower you to think of one person living with diabetes or maybe it's someone in the diabetes community, a caregiver, someone that you believe can get a lot of value out of these conversations Today's conversation, previous conversations and I encourage you to share the show with them. 

Coach Ken: On another note, if you kind of feel stuck or you feel like you need some guidance in navigating diabetes and this crazy world that we live in, you have a couple different options. The first is you can continue to listen to this podcast every single week, and I also encourage you to go listen to other diabetic podcasts, because there's a lot of really good podcasts out there that are talking about really cool things and really cool topics. So be curious and keep trying to understand and figure out what works for you. The second thing that you can do is you can sign up for my brand new newsletter. The link to the newsletter and sign up for the newsletter is in the show notes, and the newsletter will be released every other week, the day that the podcast comes out. So every other week you'll get an email in your inbox that's going to have just a bunch of different type of diabetes tips, tricks, my thoughts, programs that I'm running, different things that are going to bring even more value to your week, your day, your month, your life. So make sure that you are subscribing to that email list. 

Coach Ken: And the third thing that you can do is check out my new 10 week coaching program. More than A1C, it is such a really cool program that's going to basically change your whole perspective on diabetes, how you think about diabetes, how you view yourself with diabetes, your relationship with diabetes. We're going to talk about the words that you use describing diabetes and the words you say to yourself, and understand the impact of those words. We'll talk about nutrition. There's an entire fitness program, so a 10 week fitness program designed specifically for you and what your goals are, whether they're aesthetic goals, whether you're an athlete, whether you want to lose weight, whatever your goal is, there's a fitness component that will be created and designed by myself and implemented by myself. So I love how this program has turned out and I have really enjoyed taking people through it, and I hope that you're interested in going through it yourself. So the link to that is also in the show notes. If you have questions about it, don't hesitate to reach out, ask me a question. I love communicating and talking and connecting with new people, so, without further ado, let's get into today's topic. All right, welcome back. 

Coach Ken: So navigating an unhealthy world as a diabetic. What the heck do I mean by this? As I've been thinking about this thought process of how unhealthy our world is. In the US, we have a serious problem with people's overall health, and this isn't just diabetics, this is. A lot of people in the world are becoming very unhealthy for a lot of different reasons, and we could sit here and point out all of the reasons, but I'm not going to bore you guys with all of the reasons. 

Coach Ken: I'm going to talk today about my thoughts about why now, in 2023, it is more important than ever to look at your overall health, and it's extremely difficult to be able to be hyper focused on your overall health, especially if you're uneducated on what that actually means. And when I say uneducated, i don't mean that just because you don't eat leafy greens and fruit and vegetables, you're unhealthy. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is we have so much information, we are inundated with information, good and bad, every second of every day. So how the heck do you kind of peel back the onions of one what aligns with your personal values and aligns with your overall health? Because I think those two things really do go hand in hand your overall values and your personal health. 

Coach Ken: Because some people want to be vegan, some people don't want to be vegan. Some people want to do fasting, some people don't want to do fasting. Some people want to be advocate runners, some people want to be lifters, some people want to focus on their spiritual well-being. All that matters is you take the things that you are doing in your life and be able to craft that into a specific management style to manage your life in a very positive way. Now, how the heck are you going to do that in such an unhealthy environment or unhealthy world where bad food, processed food, things that we don't even know what the heck they are is in our food is at our beck and call? 

Coach Ken: I am 100% sympathetic and maybe empathetic to, you know, third shift workers, because they go to work, they're at work, they get off work and what do they have available. Well, i'll tell you what if you don't pack your food, there's not very many options, and that's part of the problem. We have too many options of bad crap, not just food. Too many options of bad crap. Now you're probably asking yourself because I know I've asked myself this many times why should I be hyper-focused on my overall health when it's so easy not to, when I can make a billion excuses on why not to When I actually feel really good? eating pizza all the time, going out and getting ice cream all the time, drinking alcohol all the time? 

Coach Ken: We all know what is healthy and what is not healthy. We don't a lot of times, especially adults, maybe not this might not be as prevalent to young kids because they haven't lived long enough But especially adults, when we get into our adulthood, we don't make changes in our life until something happens, whether it's catastrophic, whether it's a specific illness, whether we get diagnosed with diabetes or we get diagnosed with a second autoimmune disease or we get diagnosed with cancer. Maybe we're a smoker or we drink a lot of alcohol and something happens. We tend not to make decisions for our personal well-being and our personal health until something bad happens. And that's sad to me because, from someone that, especially at a time in my life when I was first diagnosed and dealing with depression, dealing with denial, being in these different spaces of negativity all my life, all my life, i look back sometimes and I think to myself man, if I just had someone to tell me back then that there's a different way of thinking of living and being, my life would have been so much better. I might not have taken years off of my life when I first got diagnosed and I was battling with blood sugar riddle coasters. 

Coach Ken: Now what are some things that can happen. Once we start understanding what an overall good, healthy lifestyle looks like, feels like, sounds like and maybe is, we're going to obviously feel better. That's a given. You live a healthier lifestyle and, whatever way that is, you're gonna feel better. You're gonna live longer. You have a lower risk of being diagnosed with another autoimmune disease or chronic illness. We talked about that. You'll lower your health costs because you don't have to spend as much time going to the hospital or going to see doctors, going to doctor's visits, because you're healthier. You don't need to go to that stuff. You feel more fulfilled in life. I love that one And you know this thought process of being fulfilled in life. 

Coach Ken: I never knew what that really was until probably 10 years ago, maybe a little bit longer, and it was really meeting someone very special in my life Yes, my wife. That showed me that living a fulfilled life was very possible. And then it probably took 10 years to actually get to a place where I really feel fulfilled. I'll tell you what doing this podcast, being in the diabetes space now, being a diabetes coach, talking to all of you every single week. Whole, my God, am I fulfilled? whole, my goodness, am I fulfilled? I've been fulfilled my entire coaching career, but not like I am now, and I have all of you to thank for that. So, thank you. So We will definitely feel more fulfilled when we're living a better lifestyle on overall, healthier lifestyle. We're gonna feel more confident. My gosh, that Confidence is something that so many people lack. It's unbelievable that the people that I meet day by day, that I feel I Just feel like they're super confident, and then you really peel back the onions and you're like, oh my gosh, this person is not really that confident in their skin. They don't really know who they are and, again, that was me for a very, very, very Long time we can hold and forge new, meaningful relationships. 

Coach Ken: Being able to build Healthy relationships with other human beings is so important and unfortunately, we are starting to go down this route with technology, which I think technology is a really good thing, and I also think it's it's I think it's a blessing and a curse. I'm sure a lot of you think that too, especially if you have kids, and I think this. Building Relationships and not having so much face-to-face Time with people because we're, as teenagers and adults, business people are constantly on these devices trying to communicate with people. Instead of Back in the day, before the internet, we were driving to people, we were trying to get on the phone to find out where someone is so we can go meet up with them, whatever it was, and you know. So building relationships, i believe, is very important for overall health, and Obviously, the list goes on. 

Coach Ken: I wanted to like kind of touch on these, these Points, because these are the points that I feel, for me, are super valuable. Now, how do I take all of these things, all these things are gonna bring that are going to bring so much value to my life, create a space where I'm super healthy, i trust myself, i'm confident with myself, all these things. How do we navigate All of that and accomplish all of that in a world that's so unhealthy, especially as a diabetic? the first thing that needs to happen is you need to Give yourself permission to say Something needs to change in my life, something needs to improve in my life, regardless if you are living in a negative space in life and diabetes or a positive space in life and diabetes And this is what I mean by that. 

Coach Ken: Last year I thought that I was in a really good place health wise. I was eating really good foods, exercising, focusing on my mental stability, you know, talking to you guys every single week, which That's a lot of mental stability to to my week. And It wasn't until I took a food sensitivity test, just to experiment and just to do a check-in, that I realized that I really wasn't that healthy and real quick. As a side note, if you're curious about that food sensitivity test and what I found in that food sensitivity test, i actually did an episode on the results, episode 72, with Kelly Schmidt. The title is food sensitivities. You can go back and check that out and and really hear about the craziness of what was in that food sensitivity Or what came up in that in that test. So I did that test and got some crazy results back and started being very curious about what was going on. You know why was my digestive system being put in such distress by eating avocados and spinach and kale? You know, two of those products being very high fibrous and the other one being very, very healthy fats. You know. So I wasn't eating bad quality food. It was more of what was the other foods combined with the good quality foods that was putting myself into stress. 

Coach Ken: And this example is what I'm talking about, about overall health. We think that we're eating good, but things can always be improved. Our educational process and our evolution could be improved, and that's the key message. And the next part of this is being able to control what you can control. We focus so much on the things that we can't control that we get so tied down with that That it becomes part of our identity like worrying so much about things that we can't control. If we can get to a place where we're hyper focused on the things that we can control compared to what we can't control, we are in such a much better place And, of course, we can add on all of the other things that are going to positively improve our life that we have 100% control over, like exercising every single day in some fashion, whether it's walking, strength training, running, biking, swimming, whatever it is, hiking, whatever you want to do. Getting more sleep is super important. You hear me talk about that all the time And doing things for yourself. God, i wish I did more of that. I wish I took time for myself instead of giving my time to everyone else, but that's just part of who I am And I'm working on that, and if that's something that you need to work on, I highly recommend you really being hyper focused on trying to do things throughout the week for yourself and not necessary for other people Ask for help. 

Coach Ken: I think this is something that we 100% have control over that we're afraid to do. We're all afraid to ask for help. I think the next piece of this puzzle is being truthful with yourself and asking yourself what do you really want? What do you really want from life? What do you really want from diabetes? Do you want to live and thrive with diabetes? Do you want to just exist as a diabetic? Do you want to influence and empower other people to live their fullest lives. What is it that you really want as a diabetic? I think that is an important, important question to ask, and I don't even think there's ever been a time that anybody has ever really asked me that. It's funny because I've asked myself that question and the question has evolved over time And I believe, now that I'm in this really passionate space of coaching, i want to use diabetes. 

Coach Ken: Diabetes is using me. I want to use diabetes to help others not be in the same position that I was when I was first diagnosed. I was in a dark place. I didn't have a lot of support. You guys know this If you've followed this show for any period of time. I've talked about it a thousand times. I'm positioning myself. I want to position myself to help everyone, especially newly diagnosed people, families, individuals, whatever it is. So it's really important to make sure that we are asking ourselves that question. 

Coach Ken: Ask yourself the question that no one else is going to ask you. The last two things that I want to ask you, i'm going to leave you with, is advocate for yourself. We've talked about that a lot. You hear that from every single person that's communicating and really talking about their life and sharing their experiences with diabetes. We have to advocate for ourselves, both in the medical system, in life, with our friends, our family members. It doesn't matter who it is. You have to advocate for yourself. 

Coach Ken: The last thing that I'm going to leave you guys with, the last thing that is going to help you get to a space where you can thrive with diabetes, instead of living in this very unhealthy world of diabetes, is give yourself grace and allow yourself to make mistakes. It's okay if you mess up, if it's okay. It's okay if you miscalculate a bolus. It's okay if you miscalculate a pre-bolus. It's okay if you go to 300. It's okay if you go to 50. Those are too dangerous extremes, but it's okay, because I know that you have a plan in place for both of those scenarios, lows and highs, to keep yourself safe. So stop beating yourself up about a mistake. Mistakes should be welcomed. Every time you make a mistake, you have information in front of you to avoid that mistake the next time that it happens. So these are the reasons. 

Coach Ken: I believe that it is so crucial for us as diabetics, and really us as human beings, to take our health seriously now If you are someone that maybe isn't taking their health or isn't taking their diabetes very seriously right now. I encourage you to ask yourself why you're not doing that and see what you come up with. I know for myself that when I looked back at my journey with diabetes because I do this a lot I just look back. I look back at where I've come from. I've looked back at the goods and the bads. When I look back, i constantly am almost irritated with myself for acting the way I did at the beginning. But in that irritation I also had to take a deep breath and take a step back and say, like you didn't know any better. I didn't know any better. I didn't know any better. I was uneducated. I didn't know any better. 

Coach Ken: And you just listening to this podcast, listening to this episode, listening to other podcasts, listening and paying attention to what people are talking about, sharing or watching other people's experiences unfold on social media you're putting yourself in a powerful position because you have the ability to not be in the same position I was. No one wants to feel alone or powerless. You want to be understood, you want to be heard And I think that in today's day and age, that all is so possible with what's going on right now with technology, social media And I know I said earlier, technology is a blessing and a curse because I think it is But it's also something very beautiful that's allowing us to stay connected in a way that we never have been able to be connected before, and I love that about what's going on right now in our community. Thank you so much for listening. This was a pleasure talking about this. I hope you got some value out of this. I hope this made you think a little bit. I hope that it's sparking your curiosity in your own management style And I hope that you take some of these things that I'm talking about and apply them to your management style, your life, because I really think a lot of these things I'm talking about right now can have a lasting impact on your life, because I know they have had a lasting impact on my life. 

Coach Ken: Thank you so much for listening. It's been an absolute pleasure. Make sure that you go on and subscribe to the email list the newsletter that's getting ready to be released here soon. Please make sure you go on and do that. I'm excited to continue to connect. I'm so excited to continue to provide value for you guys. Let me know what you guys think about this episode, send me a DM, ask me questions. My door is always open to all of you. Thank you so much. I will see everyone next time.