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 1Okay , 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 1So 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 1So 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 1I 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 1But 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 1If 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 1The 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 1Next 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 1So 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 1I 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 1Right , 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 .
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 1Okay , 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 1The 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 1We 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 1Do 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 1I 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 1It'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 .