Thanksgiving edition: Have you ever wondered how to navigate family gatherings, large parties, holidays, etc.? Well, find out my 5-step strategy for navigating Thanksgiving in today's episode.
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Podcast Disclaimer: Nothing that you hear on The Healthy Diabetic Podcast should be considered medical advice or otherwise; please always consult your medical TEAM before making any changes to your diabetes management
Thanksgiving edition: Have you ever wondered how to navigate family gatherings, large parties, holidays, etc.? Well, find out my 5-step strategy for navigating Thanksgiving in today's episode.
Visit My Diabetes Resources
Website: www.simplifyingdiabetes.com
Newsletter
"More Than A1C" - A 10-week 1on1 Coaching Program
The Free 5-Pillars Of Diabetes Success - Give Away
Don't forget to check out Ancient Bliss an herbal supplement company.
Use Discount Code KEN20 for 20% off at check out.
Have a question or comment, send me a DM or email. I'd love to connect and answer any questions you have.
You can find the show on any platform you listen to your podcasts!
Don't forget to click on that subscribe button and leave a 5-star review on any platform you listen to the podcast, so you're notified when new episode drop.
Questions about diabetes, don't hesitate to reach out:
Podcast Disclaimer: Nothing that you hear on The Healthy Diabetic Podcast should be considered medical advice or otherwise; please always consult your medical TEAM before making any changes to your diabetes management
Welcome back to the Healthy Diabetic podcast. I'm your host, coach Ken Kinnis. As always, 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 your diabetes management. Okay, we got that out of the way. I also want to actually remind you to like subscribe to the show. I know everyone listening to this probably knows at least one diabetic that would get a lot of value out of this show. So I really encourage you to share the show with a friend, a family member that is going to get some value out of this. So thank you to everyone that keeps showing up every single week listening to these episodes. I hope that these episodes continue to spark your brain to think differently than maybe what you are thinking about right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's get into today's episode navigating Thanksgiving. How the heck are we supposed to navigate all of this food? I don't know about you, but I love Thanksgiving. I love the relaxation of it. I love the buffet style of it. My family goes up to, we go up to my in-laws and we just have just an incredible time.
Speaker 1:So a little bit about my Thanksgiving. I get to get up on Thanksgiving morning and go play football with my buddies from high school. It's an annual thing. We've literally done it every single year since I was 15 years old and I don't know if I've ever missed a game. So it's like the start of my amazing holiday, as I get to go play football with my friends and we've got a trophy and everything. It's so much fun. And then I have just an incredible day with the girls. It's one day out of the year I don't know what to say one day but it's a day out of the year that I can just relax with the girls At our house. My wife makes this amazing, amazing roast and we just hang out for the day. And it's just incredible because, with the podcast, with the diabetes coaching business, with being a strength coach also on the side like I'm into a lot of stuff I'm getting ready to start hopefully going on speaking gigs here soon. I've got a gig in February with JDRF, if you're in Columbus. It's going to be an incredible event with so many great speakers and I'm honored to be on that circuit. But I'm just doing a lot of stuff. So Thanksgiving, having that time with the girls is just a really cool thing. Then we get up on Friday morning, we drive up to my in-laws, which they live like two hours away from us, from Columbus Ohio up in Sandusky Ohio. We just have a ball up there.
Speaker 1:So how do I navigate Thanksgiving? Because A lot of times, I'm sure with you guys, I'm sure everyone that's listening to this episode right now, I'm sure you have that family. Whether you're going to one family, everyone's coming to you. Whether you're going to multiple thanksgivings, there's a lot of temptation and there's a lot of opportunity for blood sugars to go awry. So how do you deal with this? Well, the first thing I kind of think of this as my really three to four, maybe five step plan. The first thing is you have to have a plan. If you go into Thanksgiving, if you go into heck, even a birthday party, if you go into these situations without a plan, everything's gonna. It's just a recipe for disaster when you don't even have a plan. And when I say you need to have a plan, I also mean by that is knowing that the plan is probably going to not work according to the plan. So being able to adjust to the plan. That's what I say about everything that I do in my life. Diabetes every single day is different outside of having a plan right. So we've got our plan. Whatever our plan is, the next thing is basal rates.
Speaker 1:I hear so much conversation in the diabetes community from other coaches, from endos, from just other parents, other people that are diabetics, and I have different conversations on this topic and I always bring up this thing called basal rates. And the reason I bring this up is because if you are going into a situation like me and it's gonna be like almost like a buffet style, then you need to readjust your basal rates or start thinking about how to readjust your basal rates, and I'm not even telling you that you need to do this yourself. You can even have this conversation with your endos. Send them a my chart message. If you had an appointment already, this is a conversation you probably should have had with them, especially when we talk about when you go to your endo. You should have at least two to three questions already prompted so you can, or you should have two to three questions already thought about that you want to ask your endos, so you can prompt those questions.
Speaker 1:But I think this is a really important piece that a lot of people don't recognize that they have the ability to do is you can change your basal rates, right. So I think I've got in my Omnipod, I've got six different basal rates set and when I'm on manual mode, and it's every three hours. So when I know I'm going into this situation like Thanksgiving on Saturday, when it's gonna be buffet style all day long, I'm gonna be grazing all day long on protein, fat and carbohydrates, I'm going to change up that basal rate and I'm going to move it to two hours. And right now I have my basal rate set at 0.85. So every three hours I get 0.85 units. I might decrease that to like 0.8 maybe because and I'll just, I'll make the adjustments throughout the day. So that's one thing that I think about when I think about grazing or Thanksgiving is being able to adjust your basals. You might not need to, but it's just something to be thinking about. Do I need to adjust my basals?
Speaker 1:If you've been a diabetic for years? Think back to last year. What was your Thanksgiving? Did you have a plan? Did your blood sugars go all over the place? Did they fluctuate? Think about, if they did fluctuate. Why did they fluctuate? Was it because you didn't have a plan. Was it because you didn't cover enough? Well, what was it? Was it your basal rates? Because, remember, our basal rates are specifically for to keep our blood sugars level. Right, there there's specific. Our basal rate is specifically there to keep our blood sugar even keel. It shouldn't decrease and it shouldn't increase. I should keep us even keel. That's what our basal rates should do. So but the the reality. The situation is. Basal rates are supposed to keep us level. That's all it's supposed to do, because bolus when you correct and you bolus, that's when our blood sugars come back down, either from high blood sugars or from what we're gonna eat. Okay, so, and we'll get to bolus in a second.
Speaker 1:The next thing that I like to do is move, exercise, do something. Don't just get up and do and get into your normal Thanksgiving relaxation. You know, if you're a guy and you're gonna watch football all day, which is awesome, I do that, but I'm not gonna sit in my butt, I'm gonna move around throughout the whole day and I'm going to do a, do intentional Movement, or exercise in the morning. Because when we exercise, what happens? Well, when we exercise, our insulin sensitivity isn't, is increased, and On a day that I'm gonna eat a crap load of food and I'm gonna graze, and I'm gonna eat a lot of carbohydrates. I'm gonna eat a lot of fat. I'm gonna eat a lot of protein. I Want my insulin sensitivity to be heightened as much as possible. So that also means what are you Consuming the day before? Are you eating a high carbohydrate? Are you having a high carbohydrate day, where some of those carbohydrates probably aren't good quality carbohydrates? And now your insulin resistance your insulin resistance is heightened, going into Thanksgiving day. That's something to be thinking about, right. So on Wednesday, maybe even on Tuesday, you should be making sure that you are moving and exercising, trying to heighten your insulin sensitivity For Thursday, for Thanksgiving or for whenever you're going to have your Thanksgiving. My, the the bulk of my Thanksgiving is gonna be on Saturday. So these are things to think about, and the really cool thing about this is this is something that you should be implementing into your daily life, no matter what right. We should be exercising in some fashion every single day low intensity, high intensity, strength training, whatever it is. Doing something every single day that is going to get your insulin sensitivity to rise and continue to be heightened is important. So exercise, got that down.
Speaker 1:Next thing is pre-bolus. How the heck are you supposed to pre-bolus when you're grazing all day, when you're not sure exactly what the carbohydrate ratio really is? So how can you really correct in pre-bolus for these foods? Well, you can do two different things. One you can measure every little thing you consume out and have an exact pre-bolus for those foods. Or you can guess, and when I say guess, that means that you have all the other things working. You've exercised, you've adjusted your basal rates, you have a little bit more insulin going in. You're gonna use probably a little bit more insulin on that day than you normally do. So here's the example of using more insulin because I'm increasing my basal rates. They're increasing the amount of insulin I'm going to take.
Speaker 1:So typically on a day like Thanksgiving for me, or typically on a normal day, I'm taking with basal and balls and corrections. I'm typically getting between 32, 35, maybe 40 on a high day units of insulin a day with balls and basal. On a day like Thanksgiving, I might be getting an extra five units, maybe seven units, because the other thing that I like to do on these days like Thanksgiving, christmas, whatever it is is I set a timer, especially when the eating amazing, amazingness of the eating happens, especially like I like to do, buffet style. My mother-in-law, my wife, they love. We just make food all day long Sweets, cookies, meats, desserts, appetizers, all kinds of stuff. So I'm literally consuming food all day long.
Speaker 1:I will also set a timer for every hour and a half to 32 hours on my phone. Every single time that timer goes off, I'm checking what my blood sugar is on my CGM. If I'm level, I don't have to worry about anything. Am I level? Did I just eat something? And what is my IOBs on board? What does my insulin on board say on my insulin pump? If you don't have an insulin pump, this is a really good opportunity for you to track your IOBs. Okay, it's really easy to do this with a CGM, because I can, or with an insulin pump, because I can literally look right now what is my IOBs on board. So those are the three things are going to determine if I'm going to cover for anything at that hour and a half two hour mark.
Speaker 1:Right, if my blood sugars are kind of elevated a little bit and I don't really have that much insulin on board, maybe I just ate, maybe I just grazed and grabbed a cookie, or maybe I just grazed and grabbed a sandwich or something has a little bit of carbs and maybe I know that I probably didn't cover enough. I'm going to give myself a little nudge and I'm gonna be a little aggressive with it, because what I don't want is I don't want to go through this day that I enjoy so much and this could be any day that we're talking about here. I for me, thanksgiving is a day that I just I let loose, not bad food, but good quality food, because, again, if we think about food values, that's part of my values. If you've been listening to this show for long enough, you've heard me talk about food values. Part of my values is quality of the foods that I consume. So, all the different, whether it's a cookie or Whether it's a sandwich or whether it's a brisket, whatever it is the quality of the food that I'm consuming is is very high. I'm not eating crap. So that these things are important things to think about when we are talking about.
Speaker 1:How are we going to navigate Thanksgiving Right? So we've got a plan. We're looking at adjusting basal rates, we're exercising in the morning to heighten our insulin sensitivity and also making sure that our insulin sensitivity is nice and and High on Tuesday and third or Tuesday and Wednesday. So I'm getting some type of exercises as as well on Tuesdays and Thursday Are on Tuesday and Wednesday. If I'm not doing anything on those days, normally I'm trying to make sure I'm going for a long walk, I'm trying to go do go to the gym, I'm trying to do something, exercise wise movement, and then we've got pre-bolus.
Speaker 1:Okay, what is our pre-bolus? I didn't really talk about this in depth, but Trying to make sure that I can pre-bolus as much as possible. In my case it's very hard because I'm doing the buffet style, so there's not a lot of pre-bolus going on. So what I like to, what I do instead of this pre-bolus, is I set that timer. That's what I look at for my pre-bolus, right? My pre-bolus is my timer, right? Okay, so it really it's not even a pre-bolus, it's more of like what is my correction? I need to kind of need to correct. So if I need to correct, I'm gonna correct. How much do I correct? Well, that all depends on how much Iob's I have on board and what the heck I'm gonna eat. If I've eaten something or whatever it is, then I might correct. If not, I don't need to correct. What does the CGM look like? I might need to correct. So we've got those things.
Speaker 1:The very last thing. This is how you are going to really be able to navigate Thanksgiving, and that is After you've got the plan together and all these things in place. Have this on like this is part of the plan. This is what I'm going to do. I Relax and enjoy myself. The number one thing is to relax and enjoy yourself. I Really want to. I want you to keep that in mind as you go through Thanksgiving, and maybe this year is not your year, maybe this year gets messed up, but every but next year you're gonna know what you did wrong this year. If you didn't have a very good Thanksgiving last year, just think back, try to think back. What did I do? What happened? Because it's it's something that I Believe.
Speaker 1:We shouldn't have to restrict ourselves just because our blood sugars might go crazy. Oh no, oh no, oh no, our blood sugars might go crazy. Who cares? Who cares? I mean, I care, I'm sure you care too, but following this, these guidelines, and you have to follow all these guidelines the number one thing is have a plan. If you just if you just listen to this episode and that's what you get out of it, 100%, I'm good. Go on with a plan.
Speaker 1:Do not go into Thanksgiving or any situation that's like this where you're gonna consume a decent amount of food or consume more food than you usually consume on a daily basis. Don't go into that situation without a plan. I'm not gonna go into that situation. Don't go into that situation without a plan. Don't don't do it because you, nine times out of ten you probably will come out of that situation and be like out, dang it, yep, messed that one up, totally messed that one up, but that's okay. Then you just move on, take step forward and you learn from what you did and you just keep going. So I hope this helps. I hope this kind of gives you some insight on, maybe, how to think about Thanksgiving, christmas, other times, maybe that you might go to a friend's house, go to a birthday party if you're a young kid, go, you know, do whatever, go out to dinner in an unusual way.
Speaker 1:I don't know this situation or this conversation that we're having can really work for any situation that is outside of your norm, because I think that is an important piece to think about. I don't do this every single day, this is not part of my norm, but this is part of my strategy on how I deal with my blood sugars. That's it. Don't restrict yourself and, at the end of the day, just relax and enjoy yourself. Enjoy the company, enjoy the family time, enjoy the friends, enjoy the environment. If you're a guy or a female, enjoy the football, enjoy the sports, enjoy the outside time. Wherever you are in the world, just enjoy it. Enjoy that day, because it's a fabulous day and it's another great opportunity, great day to learn and craft your own management style, because that's what this is all about, and I'm going to leave you with this. One last thing, because I think this goes with this conversation Remember, your only job as a diabetic is to figure out what works for you, not for your sister, not for your brother, not for your mom, not for your friend down the street, not for me, not for anybody else that you talk to or listen to on social media.
Speaker 1:It's for you, that's it. That is the only, your only job, and you do that by building your and crafting your own management style, which is what I coach people and help people to do. So, if you haven't figured out diabetes. My door is always open and heck. If you want to come on the podcast, tell your story. We can talk about your story. I can coach you on an episode. That should be really cool. Coach someone on an episode just like talk about their diabetes and then just like help them and coach them Well, why don't you have me thought about this? You thought about that would be really cool. So if you want to do that, reach out to me. But yeah, your only job as a diabetic is to figure out what works for you. So hope this helps and I hope every single one of you who are listening to this episode right now has a fabulous Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for listening. I will see everyone next time.