The Healthy Diabetic

#371: Is There a Right or Wrong Way to Manage Type 1 Diabetes?

• Coach Ken / Graham Hubbard

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 45:06

Graham asked Ken one question that stopped him in his tracks - is there a right or wrong way to manage Type 1 diabetes? 

The wrong way to manage Type 1 diabetes has nothing to do with your numbers. Nothing to do with your A1C, your TIR, pre-bolusing, carb counting, or CGM numbers. For Ken, the one non-negotiable your mental health. Because if your mental health isn't in alignment with your diabetes, none of the other stuff works the way it should. Fear, resentment, burnout, avoidance - will run your decisions and move you towards distrust in yourself. 

🔑 Key Takeaways

  • Why Ken believes the only wrong way to manage Type 1 diabetes is mental health misalignment
  • How fear, resentment, and burnout quietly destroy your diabetes management from the inside out
  • Why great numbers mean nothing if you can't stand living with this condition
  • The importance of staying connected to your endocrinologist — and what happens when people don't
  • How grounding and barefoot training support nervous system health for diabetics
  • What diabetic socks actually do — and why most people don't use them until it's too late
  • Why inflammation is the root cause of most physical complications in Type 1 diabetes
  • Why constipation and digestive issues have a direct impact on blood sugar and insulin sensitivity

Great numbers without feeling strong in your identity with diabetes isn't success - it's a ticking clock. The moment your relationship with this condition breaks down, everything else follows. Get the mindset right first. Everything else has a way of falling into place.

Additional Resources

If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe and leave a 5-star review — it helps more people living with diabetes discover the podcast.

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.


Hey Diabuddy thank you for listening to show, send me some positive vibes with your favorite part of this episode.

Support the show

SPEAKER_03

Welcome back. This is episode number three hundred and seventy-one of the Healthy Diabetic Podcast. Joining me as always is my diabetes partner in crime, Graham Hubbard. If you don't know much about our story, we were we're two type ones with almost 50 years of lived diabetes experience. We talk about anything and everything diabetes on this show and hope to inspire you to think differently about how you manage this condition. 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. Graham, what's up, man? How are you doing? Welcome back for another episode. I'm excited to talk about this. We were going to talk a little bit about this yesterday and decided to put a pen in it, and we're back today talking about it. So I I'll break I'm not lying.

SPEAKER_01

You start yeah. I'm not like I'm not gonna be like, hey man, here's a question for you.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So okay, so yesterday, yesterday Graham asked me. We were gonna record yesterday, and then we decided not to. He was on a time crunch, I was on a time crunch, so we decided to push it today. And he asked me a very, very interesting question. And I'm excited to talk about this question. I'm excited to to dive into this question. Sometimes he catches me off guard and asks me questions, and I'm like, man, I'm not ready for that question. But I think I'm ready for the question today. So I'm excited about this. So, Graham, ask the question, okay, um, and then we'll dive into this.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, yeah. The catch is to be to let your guard down. To let your guard down with this question. Just have fun with it. Be what's the term? Be critical. Whatever. Be honest. I asked you yesterday, in your opinion, is there a right and a wrong way of handling type 1 diabetes? Or is there something is there something in type 1 diabetes that you believe there is a there is a line, there is a right and a wrong way of doing so.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And again, the idea, the idea being more like just let again, let your guard down, have a conversation. You're not cementing anything we're saying, you're just having a conversation.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah. So there's there's two parts to this, I feel like. As I continue to think about this question throughout the last 24 hours, I feel like there's two parts to this. It could go either way, right? Because some people are doing really well, and they're gonna be like, no, there's not really a wrong way to do it, or no, there's not really a right way to do it. It's just, you know, just like we always say, it's how you manage it, it's how you want to manage it. But at the end of the day, I think there is a wrong way to do it, and it has nothing to do with your numbers. Has nothing to do with your A1C, it has nothing to do with your bolusing, your counting carbs, your exercising, you're getting enough sleep, your hydration. Doesn't have anything to do with that. That's true. There's there's one specific thing that I believe that there's a wrong way to manage type 1 diabetes.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

And that is if your mental health is not in alignment. So I don't care what your numbers are. Okay, obviously, I don't want your numbers to be at seven. I would love your numbers to be down near six point A1C. I would love your numbers to be, you know, under 120 for an average blood sugar. That's where, as a coach and as another fellow diabetic that really that really is hyper-focused on trying to be as close to 100 as possible because that's really a healthy number. That's a really a good number. That that's where you're around where your average is. I think my average is anywhere between probably 115 and 130. That's where my averages typically are. So I don't care what the number is. The number one thing for me is your mental health because your mental health is a catalyst to everything else that happens in your life. Your mental health is a catalyst to everything else that happens in your diabetes. As soon as you start feeling like resentful towards diabetes, don't have a good relationship with it, feel like that you constantly looking at the numbers or you constantly having to make decisions day in and day out, it feels like a chore. That is a very, very fast road to diabetes burnout. So for me, if you have great numbers, if you have great numbers and you feel like your numbers are great, your doctor feels like your numbers are great, you know, my thought process of where your numbers are would be great. I don't if if all of your numbers are great, but then you can't stand this disease and you aren't in a good place, you don't have good, you know, your mental health is not in alignment, then I would say that we need to take a step back and figure out what is wrong. Figure out why you feel this way. Because I promise, once you don't feel that way, when you're in alignment with diabetes, nothing else matters. Not the decisions, not the constant attention that you have to put towards it, nothing else will matter. It will all fall in alignment and you will feel amazing about how you are doing and how you are managing everything. And I say that from experience, from someone who was in denial, who was depressed, who had all the emotions for three or four years when I started. And it wasn't until I was open, we've had this conversation before, it wasn't until I was open, it wasn't until I like made the decision and made the choice that I wanted to do something different and actually like be happy with diabetes that everything changed, all my numbers changed. So to answer your original question, is there a good or wrong way? Is there a good way or a wrong way to manage diape 1 diabetes? I think yes there is.

SPEAKER_01

I have a specific thing that I thought about because it's a nightmare if it happens, if you miss your endo chronologist appointments, if you relaxadaisical and you just blew those off, and because if enough time goes by, you won't get your scripts anymore. And I have heard situations of people, like I said, not prioritizing finding an endo, right? Or not prioritizing all the things that come with it. Uh and to me, that's I don't know the laws of how that works, but I think the longest I've ever heard is of that endocrinologist isn't gonna let you go for more than 12 months, right? Without a vision.

SPEAKER_02

So that's I mean, that's pretty standard for credit medical practitioners.

SPEAKER_01

So I've I've I've been in a situation where I don't know, it was in a move from city to city, but I got hung up and I it must have been in DC. I was going in and asking them for samples while one doctor caught up to another.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Um But that I feel like that's different. Sorry, go ahead. What were you saying?

SPEAKER_01

No, I maybe you you don't you're not really acknowledging or saying that have you not really heard of a situation like this happening or have you not been around.

SPEAKER_03

Oh no, it happens all the time. It happens all the time. But my my question to your to your thought process of like it being the worst thing, are you missing because of thing, are you missing your appointment to get a new script out of something that is out of your control or in your control? Because you're not just what you're not wanting to go to your practitioner, whether it's a family practitioner or endocrinologist, because a family practitioner can also write a script for you, you're not going to them just because you're nervous how they're gonna how they're gonna react to your numbers, or you you feel like they you know aren't on board with the way you want to manage things or if you're gonna get poked in private, if you're gonna get poked in private, bro, people don't want to get needles and blood draws and or that, or that, you know, like if that's the case, but if that's the case, then again, that goes back to the mental health piece that you're not in alignment with that with pillar one. It goes directly to that pillar, and you need some you you need some guidance on why why you feel that way, why you're not taking action in your in your diabetes, why is it so hard? Do you not have the information that you need? Do you not feel supported by your loved ones, your friends, or your or your practitioners? Do you feel like you don't understand the nutrition part or the exercise part or even the dosing part? There's so many things that we could go into there. Or so then there's the other side of this, right? So we've got the that's in your control. Then you've got the other side, which you were talking about, where you were you're moving, you're going from city to city, like you're trying to find another endocrinologist, your your scripts run out, and you have and you're just you're in between, right? That's a different story. That's completely different than you not going for a specific reason because of fear, nervousness, anxiety, overwhelm, whatever it might be.

SPEAKER_01

So I would say, I would say make the argument of being yelling in your 20s. And take me, for instance, I was diagnosed when I was eight. So by the time I'm 18 going to college, I've had it for 10 years, I know it pretty well. But then I gotta learn all the lessons that come with college, right? So then fast forward, you're 23, 24, grinding in your career. It slips your brain, it's on a to-do list. You forgot to set up a new endo. Here's what I would say. I would argue that that person, and I think it is a lot of people, I would argue that that person probably hasn't had an eye check in a while. I would argue that that person, that that that person might be delinquent on other doctors that matter. Like you need to be seeing a dentist, you need to be seeing a general practitioner. Not everybody agrees with this, but every time I go to my endo, they recommend vaccines and things like that, you know, annual vaccines. That would be what I would say. And I would think probably, you know, they say to do an annual eye exam. I would say at least there's been a point where two years, two and a half years went by where I didn't I mean, what about you?

SPEAKER_03

Have you ever liked more than I haven't had an eye exam in four years?

SPEAKER_01

You gotta get on that stuff matters.

SPEAKER_03

So here here's my here's my hardest.

SPEAKER_00

They see things.

SPEAKER_03

They don't see things. They don't necessarily always see things. It's the same thing with your endo. It's your same thing with your dentist. They don't always see things. Now, I'm gonna I'm gonna play devil's advocate here, okay? If you're my age, if you're our age, right, 100% you've lived a especially you, you've lived a long time with this condition. It is very important for you to get annual checkups, whether it's you're going to dentist once a year, whether it's you're going multiple times a year, whether you're going to the eye doctor once a year, 100%. Me in my 20s, only having for two or three years, like and even even I'll say even after the time where I actually figured the condition out, that that early on, I'm probably okay if I'm not going once a year. I'm probably okay. Right? Not saying that someone shouldn't do it. I'm just saying that like it you have to think of it from all of the different perspectives. Just saying, just saying to everybody, oh, you definitely should go do this. You definitely should go get vaccines, you definitely should go to your practitioners, you definitely should always get checkups. No, you don't always have to do that stuff. You don't always have to do that stuff. You need to do the things that are in your control that are going to help you manage your diabetes in the way you want to manage your diabetes. I haven't been to the actual dentist for two and a half years because I refuse to pay for the high premiums of insurance for to go to the dentist, adding it to my plan. I haven't been to the eye doctor in two and a half years because I refuse to pay for the high premiums. Now, saying that, my eye doctor does a really good cash pay model, so I should go see her. 100% I should. I should go see her. But some things, sometimes those things are are like just they're barriers to being able to go do these things. If you're someone that doesn't have insurance, having to go to multiple doctors endo appointments, having to go to multiple dentist appointments, having to go to multiple eye doctor appointments, that that could cause a lot of issues. They could cause a lot of issues with for someone. Hold on, one second. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Sorry, cuz just a second.

SPEAKER_04

What happened? They go off.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, just a second. My bad.

SPEAKER_04

All right, talk. Testing, testing, testing, testing. Cool, cool.

SPEAKER_01

You know, I I without going too deep into my feelings on things, I would say everything that we do is meant to be preventative, right? So like 100%. So I've just always been the belief the more you're going to see like your optometrists, ophthalmologists, whatever you want, you know, they're gonna find things early and give you an idea. But to also play devil's advocate and play jump on your side. I've gone into eye doctors where they're like, what are you they look at me like, what are you doing here, bro? Like, get the hell out. I'm like, you know, I'm just following doctor's orders, doctor's instructions, you know. There there is something. I never get a chance to tell you this. And you might you're gonna hate this because you're gonna have no ch you're gonna have no choice but to live with my opinion. You know what really, really, really works for me with diabetes is knowing that I is knowing that I have all those people to check in with, to check up with, that are looking after me, that have they're educated, that they have the best everything in mind. Whether that's whether that's true or not, uh that's probably like my best piece of armor against diabetes for sure. Yeah, so that's more importantly, more hold on, more importantly, you can always say, well, that attributes to the mental piece. Well, then absolutely. My mental piece is solved, knowing even if they're threatening me and telling me I'm gonna lose a leg and go blind or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_03

So But you have a thick skin and you're okay with that. Someone else might not be. Someone else might not be with like okay with that criticism. Yeah, but And and on top of that, you are also in tuned with your identity with diabetes.

SPEAKER_01

But wait, what would be the reason for not getting an annual eye check and not getting all the like?

SPEAKER_03

Because I don't want to go pay $250? That's one reason. That's minimal, bro. It's not minimal. It's not minimal for some people, dude. It's minimal for you because you have insurance and because you and your wife both work.

SPEAKER_01

But for someone who is a server $250 a year to ensure that you don't have the worst penalty happen to you, I think is minimal.

SPEAKER_03

But you're you're gonna understand, you're gonna know the symptom. Like you're gonna know that, like, okay, my vision is blurry. Okay, go get a freaking eye exam. You're gonna know my sugars are my sugars are off constantly. Go get a freaking eye exam.

SPEAKER_01

They can handle, they can, they can jump in these days and handle the cataracts. They can they can Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And if you get if you have somewhat of a cataract, like the technology that's available is awesome. Right? I'm not and I'm not I'm not trying to advocate to not go see your ophthalmologist. I'm not trying to advocate to not go see your endo. All I'm saying is all of those pieces are just tools. And you have just like insulin, just like inhaled insulin, just like CGMs, just like glucose monitor, they're all tools. And you have to decide what tools you're going to use. For me, the as soon as, as soon as I stopped seeing my doctor as the person that was going to have all the answers of how to keep my blood sugars in range and keep my blood sugars stable all the time, as soon as I stopped seeing that person to be able to do that, my whole entire world changed. My whole entire world. You mean because he was because they don't that they're not with you 24-7, Graham. They're not the the eye doctor, the the foot doctor, the family practitioner, the endo. They're not with you all the time. You are. So why should you rely on them instead of relying on yourself? That's when the distrust happens in your management because you're doing something that they told you to do that doesn't actually work for your life. Or maybe you don't understand how to do it, or because they're just giving you bad information. That's happened before. They're just up ticking down ticking insulin as an example, when that might not be even the problem. Right? So we need to as a diabetes community, as a as a freaking community in general, we need to stop relying on them to have all the answers and use them as a resource because that's what they are. They're not they're not here to solve the problem. They're here to help us understand the problem. That's exactly what they do. That's exactly what your endo does. My blood sugars are high, I have fluctuating blood sugars, I'm dosing, I'm pre-bulsing, I'm taking enough insulin based off of my car insulin to carb ratio, I'm taking enough insulin based off of my correction factor, I'm exercising every day, I'm sleeping, I'm getting enough, I'm hydrating, but my blood sugars are still over the place. What's going on? That's completely different than going into the endocrinology's office and they're saying, Oh, well, your trend, your CGM data says that you're constantly high at 12 p.m. Well, no shit, because I freaking eat breakfast at 10. Or you're constantly low at 3 p.m. Well, no shit, because I ate breakfast, I took insulin, and then I went and exercised. And all they're going to do is uptick, down, tick insulin when it's not an insulin problem. It's how you're strategically taking the insulin, or not pre-bolishing, or eating shitty food, or you know, taking insulin right before you exercise, and now you got all this insulin on board, right? There's so many factors. They're not looking at all the factors, they're looking at two factors. What does the number say? What are the what does the line say? And how much insulin are you giving? Give a little bit of less insulin. It's not a freaking insulin problem. So for me, that's how I think about it. I I love my endo, I love my eye doctor, I will use them until I absolutely can never can I can't use them anymore. But they don't control my decisions. I'm not relying on them to solve a problem. I have to solve the problem. I have to understand the problem, maybe with their help, and then I take action on what I'm going to do. That's how you manage diabetes. That's how you manage life.

SPEAKER_01

You know, I you know, yeah. It was simply, you know, it was just a question.

SPEAKER_03

So uh I love the question. It's a fabulous question. Because people think people say that shit all the time. Like, like, I'm a bad diabetic. No, you're not a freaking bad diabetic. You just haven't been sure, you haven't been given the resources. You haven't been guided to the right to make the right decisions. You haven't been guided through why are you having so much anxiety when you're when you make a decision? Why do you not trust your decisions? You haven't been guided through that because that no one does that. Unless you're going to see a psychologist, specifically for diabetes, which they don't really exist, I can think of one off the top of my head. One specific person that I know. I know a lot of people, right? That specifically specializes in psychology and diabetes. I actually know two people.

SPEAKER_01

This is not to like change the subject, but this is pretty funny because 20 years ago, if you would have asked everybody and their mother, what would the answer have been?

SPEAKER_03

What is there good or wrong way?

SPEAKER_01

No, what is some what is something what is something that people are doing wrong with their diabetes?

SPEAKER_03

If you would have asked 20 years ago?

SPEAKER_01

The answer was checking, checking nope should be.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, before CGM.

SPEAKER_01

Easy. Easy. Like the kids that weren't taking care of it, you know, is maybe once a day. But think about that, right?

SPEAKER_03

So it's like, and and then and then we want to put a label on that person that's not checking multiple, you know, the 12 to 16 sometimes a day that we've been that we've talked about on this show, that if you're on, you know, f daily finger sticks and not a CGM, that you should be testing that many times a day. Right? But but think about that person that's not doing that. Are they not doing it because they don't want to? Or are they doing it because they don't know any different? Because they haven't actually been given the information on like, okay, here's the times that I want you to check. And here are the times that you check that could be that could be like outliers throughout the day, right? So you have like, you know, maybe five to seven times throughout the Day you probably should be checking every single time, every single day. Fasting right before meal, an hour before or after a meal, two hours before after a meal, and then right before bed. Right? So you you think about that stuff and then you add in the other ones, like, oh, I feel low, let me check my blood sugar. I feel high, let me check my blood sugar. I was high an hour ago and had to do a correction. So let me check my blood sugar again an hour later, whatever it is. Like so and that's that's why I love CGM because it takes those decisions, it takes it takes that worry off of your plate for most people. Right? So it it's yeah, I don't know. I just went off a tangent, but no, it's okay.

SPEAKER_01

Let's reset it by going in a slightly different direction. I have a question for you. I have a uh metaphorical, not wait, wait, metaphor, what's uh not metaphorical, when it's not real? What do you call it? Hypothetical hypothetical? A hypothetical metaphorical. Okay, and again, clear your brain, clear your brain, you're not married, you're not married, no Kelly.

SPEAKER_04

This is gonna be hard.

SPEAKER_01

If you were dating somebody, okay, and you were not and you were not proud of your type 1 diabetes. How long could you go dating somebody without telling them that you're dating?

SPEAKER_03

Oh man, I I can tell this story by experience, brother. Months. Months. Months. It's hard, tricky, but months.

SPEAKER_01

I think don't you think don't you think it's impossible now with CGMs and things?

SPEAKER_03

It might be it might be impossible. It probably is very it probably is very, very challenging, we'll say that, now with CGMs, if someone's wearing a CGM. But if you don't have a CGM, if you're just on shots, right, it wouldn't really be that hard. And and I guess the other aspect to that is like if you if you're doing the things correctly, right? If you're taking enough insulin, if you know how to like carb count and pre-bolis and do all the things, like you probably could do it for a little while.

SPEAKER_00

You think you could do it forever?

SPEAKER_03

No. Hell no, you couldn't do it forever. No way you could do it forever.

SPEAKER_01

Could you do it forever if you had a re uh an ex like a reason why you were taking injections?

SPEAKER_03

I mean, maybe you could get away.

SPEAKER_01

If you just said the injections like were for allergies. Could you do it for allergies?

SPEAKER_03

I was I was gonna make a real like a real scenario. You might be able to get away with it if you're on GLP1.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I'm just taking my GLP1 medication. You mean like now today with things like that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, I swear I'm not sure. I foresee, I I don't think it I I don't know, man. The more I think about it, I think it'd be really hard.

SPEAKER_01

What about somebody that's never seen anything medical?

SPEAKER_03

They just know not like they just know nothing about like But then you then you get into you get into the other aspect that's that's not good when you're trying to build a a foundational relationship with someone, which is trust. Right? So basically if you're if you're hiding it, like we all probably have done before, if you're hiding it from this individual, they're going to find out something eventually, right? So they don't find out about diabetes, they're gonna find out about something. So that means you're gonna be lying to them. So now your relationship is starting to have a foundation on lies.

SPEAKER_01

What if you did tell them and they're just like, oh, okay, and they just like didn't, they're just as most people do.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, I was gonna say most people do. I can't really think in my head of anybody I've ever talked to that I've hid it from someone they had a relationship with, and that person wasn't like, oh my gosh, why don't you tell me? That's been crazy. I want to learn more about it, I want to be here for you. Like, come on. That just doesn't really happen very often. I I mean I can't imagine it even really happens at all. Yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01

Um and I you know, I wonder, I don't know. I think, man, I think someone could come into your life and not notice anything odd.

SPEAKER_03

They could, 100%.

SPEAKER_01

But eventually, like that's why I said a couple months. What about a roommate? What about a roommate? What about a roommate? You could totally hide it from a roommate. And you're going into your bedroom for yeah, you think forever?

SPEAKER_04

You could totally hide it from a roommate.

SPEAKER_01

Forever. That's crazy to see that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03

I don't know about forever. I don't know about forever. A year, a year, a year, a one-year lease. I mean, dude, I mean, you could. If you really wanted to, you could. You really wanted to, you could. Now, it also depends on how close you are with this roommate, right? If you're not going out to parties, if you're not going out to like restaurants, if you're not going out and and like if you guys aren't boys or gals, like that would be harder because you'd run into the same situations that you'd run into in a relationship, right? In a relationship, you're going out to eat, you're you're going and hanging out places, like, you know, you're probably intimate with this person. Like, so it's it's harder to do that.

SPEAKER_01

Hear this. Hear this. I think there are so many actionable things that you do during the day that you're just bound to slip of just saying, like, yeah, let me just grab my and look, let me just get let me quickly like it was hypothetical.

SPEAKER_03

But it's hypothetical, it's hypothetical in thinking that you want to hide it from this person. Not if you could. Yeah, I wouldn't. Yeah, you said it you said everybody.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know that that's true. I don't know that I've ever I do I do know something, actually. Man, I shouldn't even say this. These days, if they ask, I don't even pretty s I like you know, if it's like to do something like I don't know, of risk, like I don't even disclose it. It's not their you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_03

That's a you that's I mean, not that that's a you thing, that's your decision, right? Yeah. If someone catches me in the act of taking a shot, if someone catches me in the act of taking a shot, checking my CGM, like what changing my CGM, changing whatever pump, whatever it is, you better believe I'm gonna tell them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, again, I know we're just like we're spit, you know, we're spitballing. I know. But again, we're at the same time, I do fa I do realize this as I talk to you. I do fail from only seeing things my way often because you know, to go back, you know, I mean I do. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. I live in a bubble too. I live in a bubble. No, and it is fun to spitball about random things like that that you probably hadn't thought of, but that a lot of people probably do think of, you know. I remember going to diabetes camp, and that was always the big thing when pumps first came out. Where were girls gonna put them? And you know, they would always talk about like putting it in their like cleavage or hiding it in there, this or that. Um, those days are gone away. You really can't, right?

SPEAKER_03

With all the No, it will never go away because we will always be insecure, especially if you're just starting.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, no, no, no. I mean, when you had a line, when you had like a line running to it, it was maybe easier to kind of like put in your pant pocket, or you know, now that people have like the pods, I was thinking it's but not everyone's on the pod though.

SPEAKER_03

That's a thing. There's still tons, I mean, there's still four, right? One, two, three, four. No, I know. I know. Yeah, no, five. There's still there's five pumps out right now with tubes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And only one without a tube.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03

So not not everyone is on the omnipod. A lot of people are on the omnipod, but not everyone.

SPEAKER_01

Can you put put a can you put like a CGM or one of those pods like on your breast? Yeah. That's not like too meaty or anything like that.

SPEAKER_04

No, it's tissue. I mean, people do it all the time.

SPEAKER_03

At least it's it had I can't I can't say people do it all the time. I'm just saying that on Instagram, it seems like a lot of females do that. We'll just say that.

SPEAKER_00

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03

On social media, it seems like literally like under the beamer. On the breast tissue.

SPEAKER_01

That's cool. I had never thought about that. That's actually really, really cool. There are any any other exam I you know, you thought about this for 24 hours. Your answer was mental health. Is there anything else that kind of grinds your gears about what about that? What grinds your gears about diet? What grinds your gears about diabetes as a whole? Like, is it people's opinions? Is it people's questions? Is it is it misunderstanding? Is it I think the biggest thing something you're seeing in your career? Go ahead. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I I think the biggest thing right now that's grinding that grinds my gears is there's two things. The first is people not asking for help when it's clear that someone needs guidance and someone needs some help. And that's okay. We all need help at some point. Psych like psychologists, mental health practitioners are becoming more and more popular. And the sad thing for me is something that we live with every single day that has a very big impact on how we think, how we act, and how we make decisions is holding a lot of us back from living our life. And I say that not from the coach's perspective, but from someone who actually lived it for almost four years, hiding it, doing all the things. Man, it would have been great if I had the understanding or the awareness and was open to going down and sitting with someone about my challenges and the things that I was going through mentally living with the condition. And that's why it is pillar number one for me. That's why it is the first thing that I talk to every single client about. Uh, I just finishing up with someone, this lady right now, obviously won't say her name for privacy purposes, but I'm finishing up with this lady right now who has a lot of identity stuff going on with her diabetes. And now that she's dating again and has gone through most of the program, and we've spent a lot of time talking about her identity and what diabetes actually means to her, now her her blood sugars and her numbers are better than they ever have been. And it's and it's and it's not because we spent so much time on bullishing and strategies behind bullishing. It's just it's just explaining things in a way that's not medical, that this individual can understand, and also being able to put her in a position where she can trust herself again. She now has trust in everything she's doing. Everything. Yeah, she's gonna make mistakes. I still make mistakes all the time. But the difference is how you respond to the mistakes. That's the difference. So for me, that that's the to answer your original question, what really ticks me off, or what really like gets under my skin is that piece that we we don't have this, we don't have self-awareness enough that we need support and we need help with our mental health. I love it so much because the brain is such a powerful, a powerful thing that controls everything. Your own perspective, your own views, how you view everything, your relationships, your decision-making processes, it it literally is everything. And then on the flip side of that, the other thing that ticks me off is the fact that we think that one specific person, be a practitioner, can save us from not having lows, can save us from not having really hard time with dealing with the condition, can save us from highs, can help us with exercise and diabetes, can do all these things for us when one, they don't even live with diabetes, and two, they're going based off of what they've learned in medical school, which is how to deal with medications, not how to deal with all the other factors and variables and things that you have to deal with every single day and the decisions and the constant worry and all that stuff. They haven't they were never taught how to do that stuff. Again, we need them. Never tell anybody that we don't need them. We need them. I need my endocrinologist just as much as everyone else. But they're a tool, and I've decided with his support what part of my management he's going to fulfill. We've we've I've literally had a conversation with him about that. What part of my management is he going to fulfill? And 80%, about 80%, is him writing me scripts. So now I have this the stuff that I need, the things that I need to make real decisions. I don't have to, I don't have to worry about, oh, I don't, I don't have enough insulin this month. I gotta, I better save some. I'm not gonna go eat this cake that I want to eat, or this pizza that I want to eat, or I'm not gonna go take my girls from ice cream and have some ice cream because I I gotta save some of this insulin, right? So he's he is providing a very specific and valuable service to me. And then the other thing he does is he he lets me bounce ideas off of him. Coaching ideas, things that's happening in medicine, things he asks me questions all the time about how I'm using a Fresa so he can relay that information to other people. So I've I've defined what I want that relationship to be. And because I've defined what that relationship, what I want that relationship to be, we are in a symbot symbiotic, we have a very symbiotic relationship. It's not him telling me what to do, it's us deciding together what I'm going to do. And that's what that relationship should be. And the faster you understand that, the faster you can start healing because he's not gonna help me heal. He wouldn't, he he doesn't he's not trained to do that. You have to find someone that can help you heal.

SPEAKER_01

What are you thinking about diabetic socks? What you're heard of diabetic socks?

SPEAKER_02

Diabetic No, I haven't heard of diabetic socks. What is this?

SPEAKER_01

Bro, how do you not know about diabetic socks, man? Look up diabetic socks. Have you heard of diabetic socks? They are meant, I believe what they are meant to do. I think they are to tigh, I think they tighten. They are like uh, you know, elastic with a lot of give, so they're meant to like really give up, you know. Again, I apologize to everybody. I I see words in the air, but I cannot grasp them today.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Is this for type 2 diabetes or is this for diabetes?

SPEAKER_01

Maybe it is for you don't you really don't know about hold on.

SPEAKER_03

So I I I know about like compression type socks, compression that you can that you can wear to but the but here's the problem with this. This is my personal opinion. Here's the problem with this. You're not supposed to restrict blood flow. When you compress the tissue like that, you're restricting blood flow, which also isn't very good for isn't good for your tissues getting the blood that it needs, all these things. It's oxy, oxygen, all the things. Right? So when you're restricting this stuff, it's not good for you. Just like if you're wearing socks that are restrictive. Like I don't ever wear socks and shoes unless I absolutely have to. Like the all the clients at my gym call me coach toes because I'm constantly in flip-flops. Constantly. I'm in flip-flops, coaching. When I have to train an athlete class, I'm throwing off my flip-flops and I'm training in bare feet. Because your feet are not supposed to be restricted. You need to get grounding, you need to get the the electrical signals from the ground. Go outside and get in the grass and sit stand and sit in the grass.

SPEAKER_01

What about what about moisture? Are you worried about moisture and your feet being too wet? Because I know that's another major issue that people have. I'm not because I have that here in Florida, bro. It's essentially what you said. Right now, I have to be wearing sandals or Crocs or whatever. But I come back from the gym, I come into my office, I've been wearing socks. Now that we're talking about it, I can feel, I can like feel that they're wet.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know, and if you were somebody without good circulation, that could really fuck you up, you know?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So I was reading, it says, but that's why they say like if you're wearing shoes all the time, you need to constantly wear, like constantly changing out your socks.

SPEAKER_01

Real quick, a couple key features of diabetic socks, seamless or non-irritating toes to prevent blisters, extra cushioning, moisture wicking, non-binding or elastic-free tops. I mean, the last the list goes on and on. Like it says diabetic socks are particularly beneficial for individuals with peripheral neuropathy, poor circulation, a history of foot ulcers or swollen feet. That's the other thing. People get really, really swollen feet. You ever seen someone with like super swollen ankles or swollen feet? It happens to people on airplanes or if you if you have high amounts of inflammation.

SPEAKER_03

High amount of inflammation. High amounts of inflammation. Weather and some of these other things might be a byproduct of the floor. A lot of salt, right? It's be it's because of high amounts of inflammation. That is the primary factor. It is not because of salt. It's not because of you're on an airplane and you don't have good airflow. It's because you have a lot of inflammation. That other stuff might might uh make the make it worse.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Right? But it's not because of that stuff. It's because you have a high level of inflammation for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_01

What about someone that's not diabetic that that suffers from really things like that? Like, what is is that just high amount of inflammation?

SPEAKER_03

As it and what's causing a bad poor diet, like and what's causing that it could be poor diet, it could be sanitary lifestyle, I mean, it could be not getting enough sleep, it could be high stress. I mean, all you got to think about all of the things that dramatically increase your cortisol levels, which is our stress hormone. Right? When cortisol levels increase because of whatever it is, okay, you've got inflammatory response. And that's not the only way you get inflammatory response, but that's one of the like the stress piece.

SPEAKER_01

What if you were constipated all the time all the time? Would that really fuck up your diabetes?

SPEAKER_03

That's a digestive problem. It 100% will fuck up your diabetes. In what direct Because you are highly inflamed. You have a inflammation.

SPEAKER_00

Same thing. Okay. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You have a lot of inflammation. And inflammate people don't realize how how much of an impact on a negative aspect to our overall health having a high amount of inflammation has on our body.

SPEAKER_01

You know, it's funny. I said the number one thing that is my way of handling diabetes is knowing that I have people in my pocket. But the number two, but the number two thing is is kind of exactly what we're talking about. No matter what, diabetes is going to remind me to do the good the things that I need to be, you know, like the the same reason why we went out to lunch that are the story I always tell about us is like at least it's reminding me to do the right thing. You know what I'm saying? You know, I it's it's I'm proud of that in some weird back backdoor way. At least I was at least when the devil rained down on me, at least he gave me something that reminds me to keep myself out.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I have to cut this 10 minutes short.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you're good. You're good.

SPEAKER_03

We we uh we we talked for a good I mean this was a good episode. Thank you for bringing this question to the table. Everybody, if you're still listening, I know you are because this was a this was a great episode. Thank you for listening. I really hope that this conversation today was valuable. Um, as a reminder, the new newsletter just dropped, so it's gonna come out every week the day on Friday, the day that the second episode of the podcast typically comes out. We didn't actually release an episode today, but we will have two episodes still come out on Friday. Um, I've got an unreal fabulous episode that I did in the studio in person with a really good friend of mine from the gym. Her name's Kat Brown. She is the owner and CEO of Lux and Lemons, which is a meal preparation service. And we talked about meal preparation services. We talked about the the future of it. We talked, I mean, it it's a freaking fabulous episode. If you're a busy individual, I'm telling you, if you're a busy individual, you gotta listen to this episode. It will be out Friday, hopefully, as soon as I get as soon as I get all of the links for it so I can edit it. It will be out on Friday, along with uh this episode is gonna come out on Friday as well. So we're excited, I'm excited about where the podcast is going. There's a lot of good information that Graham and I have in our tool belts that we're gonna keep pushing out. So again, if you haven't seen the newsletter, if you're not subscribed to the newsletter, there's gonna be information coming out every single week that is about the podcast, is about other things that are going on in coaching and in other things that are going on in diabetes. So if you want to subscribe to the newsletter, it's free. There's a link in the show notes that you can subscribe to the newsletter. If you are feeling stuck and having running into challenges managing your diabetes, my door is always open. Coaching might just be the thing that can help with your management, help with your blood sugars, keep you stable, and just make you feel amazing and trust every single decision and love yourself again. So there's a link in the show notes as well, either more than A1C, or you can just schedule a free call. I don't care. Doesn't matter. I want to connect with you anyway. If you want to come on the podcast with me and Graham and you want to share your story with us, oh my God, please do so. Email us or you can uh touch base with me on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, whatever you want. Thank you so much, everybody, for um listening, and we will see you guys next time.

Head Shot

Coach Ken Kniss

Host