The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
We explore thriving as an athlete after 40. Each episode, we’ll dive into tips, hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes and our personal experience. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong, and motivated
The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
What If Your “Type 2” Diagnosis Is Wrong? LADA with Ginger Vieira The Diabetes Nerd
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We sit down with Ginger Vieira "The Diabetes Nerd" to unpack why “Type 2” can be the wrong diabetes label for active adults and how understanding LADA may change what works for you. We leave with concrete tests, training insights, and mindset shifts that make diabetes management feel less like guessing and more like coaching ourselves with better data.
• LADA defined as latent autoimmune diabetes in adults and why it’s type 1
• Adult-onset type 1 facts and why misdiagnosis is common
• C-peptide testing and what it reveals about insulin production
• Autoantibody testing, stages of type 1, and why screening matters
• How to advocate for yourself when appointments are short
• Caffeine and liver glucose release as a cause of “mystery” spikes
• Artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohol concerns plus real-world tradeoffs
• Building a sustainable diet with room for treats and smart insulin timing
• Medication stigma, metformin basics, and what GLP-1 drugs can do
• Overprescribing risks, dose escalation pressure, and insurance incentives
• Why anaerobic exercise and adrenaline can raise blood sugar
• Basal insulin clues and how CGMs can expose patterns
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Masters Mindset Minutes should be your new performance habit every Sunday night
Welcome And What We Cover
SPEAKER_02Welcome to the Masters Athlete Survival Guide, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Catalinus, and along with Scott Fike, we'll dive into training tips, nutrition hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes who defy age books. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong, and motivated. Let's get started. And we're
Meet Ginger Vieira Plus Dog Talk
SPEAKER_02back. Hi Scott. Hi, John. How are you today? Feeling groovy. Excellent, excellent. We have an awesome guest today. We do? Yeah. Yeah, it's self-serving. That's most of the stuff we do. Good point. We have the diabetes nerd, Ginger Vieira. Like internet famous diabetes nerd. I'm diabetic. Yeah, so am I. Well, we'll get into it. Okay. Ginger, hello.
SPEAKER_00Hi guys. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_02Hi, Ginger. Better now that you're here. Uh, Ginger, how about you introduce yourself to our audience, please?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so I'm very diabetic, although that's actually becoming a taboo word. So I'm supposed to say I'm a person living with diabetes. I have type 1 diabetes. I am also very nerdy. Um, but that's because thriving with type 1 diabetes really forces you to learn a lot of deeper science about your body and about all the factors that affect insulin sensitivity and your blood sugar. And I've been doing that for over 20 years through diabetes nerd on YouTube and Instagram and Facebook and books. And uh yeah, that's that's my recap.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. I I I love your content. Oh, and the dogs here. What's the dog likes the content too? No, so Scott has like four giant like polar bear like size dogs. So well, three and one's a puppy. Yeah, I did I did see one of Ginger's shorts was um my husband didn't want a third dog, so here's our third dog. Ginger on the exact same.
SPEAKER_01My wife is a veterinarian, and it was oh our dogs, yeah. We're getting another one. Seriously, yeah. When the when our puppy is full-sized, it will outweigh my wife and myself combined. You know, the the four of them. Yeah, and I'm not a small person.
SPEAKER_00I have to tell you that I brought that dog home. He was eight pounds. He's now 12 pounds, he's not being treated well. He needed some muscle and nice. Uh, but I I got rid of that fella. Um what kind of what kind of man would be um an adorable eight-pound dog? Um I gotta I have a better one now, don't worry. We're not sitting here.
SPEAKER_02A better man or a better dog? Yes.
SPEAKER_00Um all the dogs are always amazing. I did find a better man.
SPEAKER_02Excellent. That's good. That's good, excellent, excellent. So
LADA And Adult-Onset Type 1
SPEAKER_02diabetes. Um, I Oh yes, diabetes. Yeah, you remember that? I uh I found you because I am a career scientist, probably equally as nerdy. Um, I have not found the resources um nor the connections that you have. And thank you for creating your little diabetic nerd definitely like ecosphere. Thank you. After I spent a I don't know, six months trying to get into an endocrinologist, and then he saw me for six minutes. Um I had to take the nerd reins myself. Uh when I reached out to you I think I I think I have Lada. And this this is really what I wanted to focus on because it is super new to me. I've been I thought I've been type two for ten years, and I I solved nothing. Scott is type two and he just eats right and it works. I would eat right, I would exercise, I'd do all the things, low carb, keto, all of it. And never I mean, I I bought uh CGM out of pocket just to kind of gather some data.
SPEAKER_01And well, the running joke with John, yeah, when we would go because John would come to the gym and we'll work out or whatever, and he'll show me his phone, and the running joke was look, new high score. Yeah, and it didn't matter what he did. Exercise made my exercise made my blood sugar go high. Oh, it blew him through the wall. So I mean that was the running joke all the time with John, and it got I could see his frustration sort of mounting with it, but I didn't mean to interrupt, but I mean it gives an idea of sort of where you were heading with some of this.
SPEAKER_02So can you tell me anything, everything, all the things you know about Lada? Because there honestly is not a lot out there. Not a lot out there.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so it's crazy. There's your story is actually becoming so common, but it's still so hard to change the core education in medical scene, right? And your doctor, you know, went to medical school decades ago, probably. So I can tell you, I want to tell you this right from the start, because I was relieved to learn this a few months ago, that they are now educating medical students right now that type 1 diabetes can develop in adulthood. Most doctors believe that type 1 diabetes can only develop in childhood, right? Even though more than 40%, I think at least, um, if not 50%, of cases of type 1 diabetes develop in adults. So the whole that's why we don't call it juvenile diabetes anymore.
SPEAKER_02Oh, is that true? Oh, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it used to be called juvenile.
SPEAKER_02Right, right. No, that that's amazing. And I I sort of can I self-confirmed it, and I, you know, you have the data in front of you, but I paid no attention. I get an annual physical through work and and they do blood sugar, and I looked and it was fine, it was fine, it was fine. And then like 10 years ago, it started being unfine. And I'm like, I didn't do anything, and you know, I did all the things. I lost, I don't know what I lose, Scott, 80 pounds. Closer to 100. You know, just I I did all the type 2 things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So let's spell out for listeners what LATA means. LATA is an acronym, L-A-D-A, for latent autoimmune diabetes in adults. So it is type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is autoimmune, type 2 diabetes is metabolic. So type 1 diabetes means your immune system is attacking the cells in your pancreas that produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes means there's a dysfunction within your metabolism. And there are people with type 2 diabetes who don't produce enough insulin or they produce insulin. Um, they don't produce sorry, the cells that produce insulin are damaged, so the cells are not like working properly. Um, but it's not your immune system attacking in type 2. So LATA, people think, oh, it's it's a combination of both. No, it is just type 1 diabetes, but it develops really slowly because the attack on your immune system the attack on your pancreas from your immune system when you're an adult is less aggressive compared to the attack when type one develops in children. And so that's why it can look like type two for a decade. And I have heard that story, I'm not telling I'm not even kidding, so many times. Um, I've interviewed these people, so you definitely go to type1strom.org. We have so many lata misdiagnosis stories on there, um, just like yours, to be honest. Yeah, and that's they're really trying to raise awareness of this through type one strong.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00Um, and it's not that's not my website, but I've written a lot of articles for them. Um, and the problem is doctors just do the initial diagnosis and there's no follow-up because there are two tests that would have clarified your diagnosis right away. But if you were overweight, they're just gonna assume, well, makes sense, right? It's got 80 pounds to lose. This is obvious. But what they should, yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02No, I was gonna say, I I wasn't it's been a mystery since the beginning because I I carried it fine, but it that's where I was gonna go, John.
SPEAKER_01You weren't, you know, the typical 300 plus pound guy. Yeah, you know, I mean we've all seen that. Yeah, John. You know, for all of his lack of ego and his humility.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're adorable.
SPEAKER_01John's jacked.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, I mean, yeah, I don't I don't know what you guys look like. Right? It was a mystery.
SPEAKER_01It's a mystery. We'll have to start a YouTube channel. Oh no, we don't.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Whenever he would put up, you know, he called it his his ego picture. There's a picture of him. He's 300 plus pounds and he's throwing a 300 pound weight.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I heard I had although fun fact, Ginger would did powerlifting. Really?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. My best uh my best deadlift was 315.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's awesome. She's not your size.
SPEAKER_01I mean, there aren't a lot of people that are by styles. Good point.
SPEAKER_02I'm uh I'm another large human. Yeah. Ginger, before we go too far, you said something I think is kind of important.
Two Tests That Change Everything
SPEAKER_02You said there's two tests that would have indicated what are those two tests?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so um it's a C peptide test, is the easiest one to get. C peptide is just a blood test. It C peptide indicates how much insulin you're producing. So in a person with type two, C peptide levels would be very high. In a person with type one, C peptide levels are very low because you're not producing insulin. And so it it can immediately clear things up when you lose weight and your blood sugars are still high and you're trying all the things and it doesn't make sense, your doctor should and could um have ordered that. The other one that's a little harder to get, but hopefully they're making it easier, is an auto antibody test. So when you start developing type one, which actually happens years before your blood sugars started rising.
SPEAKER_03Oh, really?
SPEAKER_00Um, probably before you were even five years old, you were in stage one of type one diabetes. And then you just hung out in stage one for decades.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00And stage two is when blood sugars start to rise, and then stage three is when it's obvious and you make a diagnosis. But there are autoantibodies present, and that's autoantibodies are the result of your immune system attacking itself, and so there's several types that they know indicate type 1 diabetes, and they can spot them in your blood, and your doctor can order that test, it's just not a standard thing, and they won't really know how to do it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but the C peptide one, and this is funny. So uh, you know, I was so frustrated, I wasn't solving anything. Uh, I have a benefit through work for a nutritionist. So I worked with her, and we, you know, we set up a diet, and I told her all the things that, you know, when I was thinking type two, and um she was kind of skeptical, and she did a couple things with my diet, and we set up some meals, and she's like, You need the C peptide test. You have to ask your doctor, and I was like, Why? And she told me, and I'm like, Oh, and I looked into it. So C peptides are basically like the the trimmings from the body making insulin, is sort of the way to dumb it down.
SPEAKER_03Um I like that, yeah.
SPEAKER_02The fact that they exist shows that you're making insulin. Yeah, and yeah, I got the test and it was blaringly obvious. And uh I was like, oh, well, that's why I guess you ask like professionals. So again, another reason why I found your content and uh we have you on today.
SPEAKER_00Because I Well, I gotta say, like you could have asked the wrong professional. I mean, that's a nutritionist, right? People respect your endocrinologist far more than they respect the nutritionist, but she's the one that had the intelligence to tell you to do that. And no, I and endocrinologists are really smart people, but my endocrinologist, who I really only use for prescriptions, she sees mostly people with type two, and so she just couldn't believe that my insulin needs were so low. And it's not, it's not uh an accident. I jump rope for a half hour every day and I walk my nose four miles a day. Of course, my insulin needs are low. You know what I mean? I'm a five foot two little woman, but she's so used to seeing larger amounts of insulin. She made me get a C peptide test. So she's like, You must be producing insulin still. I'm like, I've had type one for 27 years.
SPEAKER_02She made you she made you basically prove it to her.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And she knew I had, but and that's the funny thing too, is I used to, um, in freshman year of college, I had not been taking care of myself for a few years and I gained weight, and my insulin needs were three times the amount they are today because I wasn't active and I was eating crap. And so um my C peptide, long story short, came back at less than 0.01.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wow, yeah. So but it but it is funny, and I and I think I I heard you refer to this in something that you put online. Um getting into an endocrinologist for me was such a hassle. They there's I guess there's very few of them, and they are overwhelmed. And I wasn't completely exaggerating when I said I spent spent six minutes with them. Now I was completely prepared because I I suspected this was going to be the problem. So I asked, you know, I asked the important four questions. Um but yeah, just getting to an endocrinologist. But you know, I think something that's gotten, I say on this podcast in a variety of different, you know, cohorts is you have to be your own damn advocate these days.
SPEAKER_00You do, yeah. The endocrinologist is not gonna solve really very much for you. And there there's a serious shortage of endocrinologists because it's not a very appealing path um for a doctor because they spend so much time trying to get reimbursed by health insurance companies and the the conditions they manage are all really high maintenance. People with type one, for example, need a lot of support. Um, and so it's just not a very uh compelling career path for a doctor, and there's not enough of them.
SPEAKER_01Well, that was the thing when probably a year after I was diagnosed, my doctor said to me, He says, Your numbers are good. You know, I was sitting around 5'8, 5'9 for my A1C, and he said to me, We're gonna send you to see an endocrinologist. And I looked at him and I said, Okay, why? He said, Because at the point where things get worse, you need to be established. And it took six months to get in to see one for the first time. And and very similar to John, it was uh I was in and out within, you know, of seeing the actual doctor less than 10 minutes, you know, so maybe a little bit more than time. So the same thing. I went in there with my list of questions, my what am I doing here, what what does this mean, those types of things. But at some point during our conversation today, I I do want to get to this question. Because John and I have talked about this before. Uh the sort of uh individualized nature of diabetes for different people. Because there are certain things that like my uncle is a type two, okay? There are certain things he can eat that does absolutely nothing to his blood sugar. He can eat tomatoes. Does nothing. I take a bite out of a tomato, and it's like somebody jumped pure sugar down my throat.
SPEAKER_00So, you know, those types of Scott that you haven't been misdiagnosed?
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh. Oh, it's entirely possible. Well, but like but my numbers, you know, for the last what have I been, like four or five years now, something like that. Have been stable. Have been pretty stable. I mean, they went up because of I put some weight on purposely for some of the the events that I do. So I'm now in the low sixes, but uh it it's the it stays there. Like I've I've added uh whole carbs to my my diet, stuff like that. And it, you know, my number still stays six two. I think the highest I ever got was a six three. So my numbers stay good. I don't, you know, there's no medication involved with me at this point, thank God. But I I do at some point, and I want to get back to the whole type one thing that you and John are dealing with.
SPEAKER_00Well, I want to hit on the medication thing too, because what you just said is such a classic stigma towards medication. Oh, I don't Is your uncle is your uncle on? I know, I know you you might not know, but you said thank God. But that wait, okay, but let's back up. Is your uncle on any medication?
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_00Okay. That's why he can eat tomatoes.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, Jeff.
SPEAKER_02You're welcome.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02But no, I think I I think that if there's any takeaways from listening to me babble at a smart person today, I think that's C peptide test for anybody who's even and if you're going in for blood work, ask for it. Yeah. Just because, because you could be you said that there's like a first phase where you wouldn't even really know, right, Ginger?
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, well, so that's for autoantibodies. So I also, for any adults listening, anyone, regardless of if type one is in your family or not, because 90% of people with type one have no family history. I have screened my children for the auto antibodies of type one three times. Now, three is more than needed. Once would have been sufficient, but one of my kids um was diagnosed with celiac last year, and I had celiac, and it often goes hand in hand with type one because once you have one autoimmune disease, you tend to have another, and so I panicked and I was like, oh my gosh, they must have missed the type one in the previous autoantibody test, we gotta do it again.
Screening Kids And Genetic Risk
SPEAKER_00So that's she's been through it a bunch. But here's you know how it's saying that you have the auto antibodies before age five, right? They now are going to work into all pediatric care over the next couple of years. They're they've been working on this for a while. They're gonna have autoantibody testing become a mainstream part of pediatric care, probably when you're around like five or six. Um, because there are now there's one FDA-approved therapy that can actually delay the need for therapy so it can kind of hold you in stage two before you need insulin. Um, and it works in adults too, it's just a lot harder to convince adults to anything. And it's hard to convince parents to do the screening too, because they think um that well, no one in my family has type one, my kids are fine, but type one rates are increasing dramatically, and so everybody really should be getting screened because you can intervene, and there's all these clinical trials happening too with therapies that can gently you know, it's not major immunosuppression, can gently protect your insulin production and delay the need for daily insulin therapy. And if you can imagine trying to manage daily insulin injections in a five-year-old versus maybe we can delay this till they're 10, right? It's like night and day.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think that's an awesome step forward, both for the testing, making it more of part of the normal protocol, but the ability to delay that, you're right, because you know, working with five-year-olds trying to get them to do anything that they don't like is not great.
SPEAKER_00I mean, a type one diagnosis for really anybody uh under 18, but definitely under 10, is like it's pretty traumatic for the whole family. And it is but I gotta I gotta tell you another way to get some testing done too. So type1strong.org is really owned by t1dscout.com. And t1d Scout has developed a saliva-based genetic test. So you can kind of do this before you take you yourself and your kids down the blood testing, which is more tedious, of course, especially with kids. Um, it's an at-home saliva test, and they have identified genes that indicate you have a high risk for type one or not. And so you can, and you could even take it, Scott and John, both of you could get it too, because it would tell you if you have a high likelihood of type one, and that would mean okay, I really should go get tested for autoantibodies.
SPEAKER_01Wow. And what was that site again, please?
SPEAKER_00T1D, like type 1 diabetes, T1D Scout.com. And this is really new that he's bringing it to market. Um, full disclosure, I I do marketing work for them, but because it's incredible. Um, and I've you know, we've run the test through my kids, and you'll see my kids on their website. But it's a it's the first and only saliva-based genetic testing for type one.
SPEAKER_02That's cool. And you know, I think I don't know if it's just me or maybe it's it more in general, but I think you just broke a myth. I really thought that diabetes had a very strong familial, like, you know, grandpa had it, you have it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I didn't realize that that's not necessarily the case.
SPEAKER_00Right. Like in type two, there's definitely some major genetics that predispose you to obesity and in Resistance. Um, and you know, lifestyle habits can combat those genetics to a certain extent, but um, you know, we know that you guys are fitness goos, um, but it can't always cure, prevents everything. And then in type one, it does surprise me that it's 90% don't have a family history, but what you might not know in your family history are other autoimmune diseases, right? And then the combination of your parents' genetics and grandma might have had type two, but grandma was actually misdiagnosed like John.
SPEAKER_04That's true.
SPEAKER_00And I see that all the time. Um, I hear those stories all the time of people like their their grandparents discovering that they actually had type one, not type two, after their grandchild was diagnosed.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Yeah, and I gotta tell you, I am I'm literally in the transition of I thought I was type two until I don't know, two months ago. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And did you get an official diagnosis?
SPEAKER_02Um, yes. Um he threw me on some, you know, instant insulin as opposed to the the long acting stuff that I was on. Um and I and I saw an immediate effect, except for the fact, do you remember how I said that I wanted to be like your neighbor and we could hang out and like have cool parties?
SPEAKER_00Can you steal my insulin?
SPEAKER_02No, I think I think you're either my best friend or my mortal enemy.
Caffeine And Morning Blood Sugar Spikes
SPEAKER_02Um because I saw content of yours that mentioned a word that I love. Uh caffeine. Oh god.
SPEAKER_01Oh so as I'm looking across the studio and see cases out of the case. I know why.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm caffeine free now.
unknownOh my god.
SPEAKER_00But I'll still talk to you.
SPEAKER_02No, that makes one of us. But so that's real, caffeine, because honestly, I'm still sort of struggling with the, you know, I'm doing all the new things right, and I'm still not getting anywhere near in range. And caffeine's a thing, huh?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, caffeine tells your liver to release a bunch of things, including uh well, caffeine triggers the release of a bunch of things, including telling your liver to release stored sugar. So that's what gradually led me to quit it altogether because it's just a pain in the back. But lots of people with type one still consume caffeine. You just you have a cup of black coffee, you need insulin for it. And everybody's a little different. Some people can tolerate one cup, but if they have two or three and then they start needing insulin, I can't even drink, I drink decaf in the morning, one cup. If I drink decaf in the afternoon, my blood sugar spikes a hundred points, and it will not come down for hours until that caffeine has worked its way out of my system.
SPEAKER_02You just described me where it, yeah, not knowing, but it uh in my mind I was thinking I was waking up and about an hour later my my blood sugar would spike and it would be up for hours. And I'm like, I you know, I I ate like eggs for breakfast. Come on now. But I think you just I think you've you've dealt a mortal blow to my personality with uh caffeine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, you basically, yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01I'm sorry, time out on the field. Oh what's do me a favor, go over that process again. Caffeine, its impact on the liver causes the liver to release sugar.
SPEAKER_00We know that caffeine gives us energy, right? Yes. And one of the ways it does that is by telling your liver to release a little boost of sugar. And so for people who for people who are struggling to lose weight, even if they don't have diabetes, and I see them, I was a personal trainer for many years. I still coach people here and there. I see them drinking coffee all. Am I allowed to swear on this show?
SPEAKER_02You betcha. I pay a dollar every episode for Scott who says something really fucking stupid.
SPEAKER_01And for the record, Scott is not swearing. No, I know that's why I okay I popped it. But yes, you're more than welcome to.
SPEAKER_00It drives me crazy when I watch people drinking coffee all fucking day. Or then they swap it out for Diet Coke and Red Bull and they think it's harmless because it has zero calories. But you, I don't don't even get me into the artificial sweeteners. That's a whole different rant. But the caffeine is triggering insulin resistance or the need for insulin, and that extra sugar is getting stored as body fat. So if you're trying to lose weight and you're consuming caffeine all day, you're not helping yourself.
SPEAKER_01You just made John cry. I know. Like I said, I'm literally looking across the studio, and there's a case, there's actually two cases of ghost energy drinks sitting there. They're delicious. Wow. Yeah, John doesn't do coffee quite as much.
SPEAKER_02I also have three different coffee makers. I have a Keurig, I have a French press. I oh no.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I mean, you can still love your coffee, John, but you need to start thinking into them.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, it's like anything else. Now that I have the information, I can manage it, right? Because it'll be a choice now, not like a just scratch my head. Um I don't draw dependent idiocy on it. Yeah. I don't want to let it go. And and we're we are built on rants and old people opinions. Um artificial sweeteners?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Artificial Sweeteners And Hidden Tradeoffs
SPEAKER_04Oh okay.
SPEAKER_01Help us out, please, because that is life right now. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Okay. All right. So I get a lot of studies in my inboxes all the time, right? Um, but I used to drink fresca and diet coke a lot. When you have type one, people consider these like your free food. And because back in the day when you were diagnosed with type one, you you had foods you had to count into groups of 15 grams of carbs at a time. That counted as one carb. So you'd be told you could have four carbs at lunch. That meant you know, 15 times four. Um, and then you had free food, which are sugar-free jello and all the diet soda you want, right? Carrots were considered a free food. This is back before fetter insulin was existing. Um, and the people with diabetes clutch their diet soda like like it's their newborn baby.
SPEAKER_01And John is John is smiling at me right now.
SPEAKER_02Okay, because we don't do a video podcast yet, because I it shouldn't be weeping on camera.
SPEAKER_00No, we don't cry. I can't handle that. It's Friday.
SPEAKER_03It's Friday.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so so aspartame, we I mean, I I can't regurgitate all the terms from the studies, but there isn't a single good one. Aspartame is pure poison. That's what you find in most traditional diet sodas. And then we've got the newer ones. Now they're saying xylitol damages the lining of your brain. Um, and and then what's the other? Oh, erythritol. Sorry, erythritol is the one that damages the lining of your brain. Then we've got um, you know, stevia is a plant that's harmless, but nobody uses just stevia because it tastes terrible. It's always mixed with something else. Um, what's the uh Splendor one? Superlose.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Sucralose is linked, they're all linked to dementia, cancer risk, damaging your brain, and insulin resistance.
SPEAKER_01Well, let me jump in for half a second. Like I said before, my wife's a veterinarian and like I chew gum, okay, to to sort of satiate some of the food pangs or whatever. And she'll look at me and say, Does the gum have xylitol in it? And I look at the package and I say, Yeah. She says, either A, stop doing it, or B, make sure the animals can't get near it. Apparently, xylitol, if like even the the smallest amount, if one of the animals that we have in the house gets it, she cannot cure them. They will die very painfully.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. I remember when that came out a couple years ago, xylitol is deadly for dogs.
SPEAKER_01And I apologize for interrupting you. No, that's what when you said xylitol, that's I'm like, oh my god, that's what Gene talks about. My wife is Gene. That's what Gene talks about.
SPEAKER_00You know, so Yeah, and and like um sucralose was invented by accident when they were developing some kind of, don't I can't, don't quote me exactly on this, but it was like they were developing some kind of cancer therapy, and somebody tasted it and realized part of their recipe was sweet. And that is where sucralose, which is Splenda, was derived from. A friend of mine had a friend who worked in, I know this is like um playing telephone, but a friend of a front who worked in the the Splenda manufacturing thing. She asked him, she's like, Come on, how bad is it really? And he said, Well, whatever you do, just don't heat it up because that he was implying that that makes it even worse for you.
SPEAKER_02Like, don't put it in my coffee?
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Oh my gosh, it's just pure chemical shit. And I I had a lot of frustration about this um and resistance in my early 20s. And then when I was preparing for pregnancy, I just thought, all right, I really don't want this shit in my system. My best friend who isn't diabetic was always like, I wish you wouldn't drink that stuff. She's very um um savvy and and very into nutrition and health. And I gave it up for pregnancy. And when I actually had one again, a diet root beer, it tasted so gross because all I tasted was chemicals now that I gotten it out of my taste bud environment.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna jump over top of John here real quick.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because he's crying in the corner.
SPEAKER_01No, he actually both of us I think had the same thought. I love that you're on the show today and everything you're saying, but I think I hate you. Yeah, right? I know.
SPEAKER_00You know, well, I'm so obnoxious. No, but no, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01We're saying that obviously tongue in cheek because I'm going through my head and I'm thinking to myself, all right, I do a lot of meal prepping stuff like that. I'm I'm very fortunate in the fact that I don't mind eating the same thing day after day after day. It does not bother me. But I look at it and like on the weekend, you know, I might have that high protein, you know, low carb ice cream. Well, it gets its taste from sugar alcohol or, you know, the fake sugars. And I mean, sugar alcohol, some people, it'll run through them, their GI systems. To me, it doesn't. Guilty does bad. Yep, guilty. But it's like I'm thinking of myself. I'm I'm looking, especially because with the the the caffeine. I'm looking at a complete remake. Yep, you know, and that's not a bad thing.
SPEAKER_02No, it's not. And the fun the the funny thing is that uh because I was thinking that and I'm like, you're not saying a thing that we all don't kind of intuit a little bit. Yeah, but the fact that I know you've done your homework, I'm like, shit, she's right.
SPEAKER_00You know, it's not just like you know, this the study I got the most recently was about the sugar alcohols, and we know they're not good for your gut, but it was like it was talking about the lining of your brain.
SPEAKER_01I mean, John, yo, I guess my question to you is can I still have Cheetos? Non-sponsor?
SPEAKER_00And no Cheetos. I mean I listened to it. And well, but speaking of Cheetos, I want to mention that like my diet's not perfect. I
Real Food, Treats, And Sustainability
SPEAKER_00just I refuse to eat any fake shit. So I'd much rather eat um a really delicious homemade or bakery fresh, gluten-free I feel yeah, gluten-free cookie with real sugar than a bunch of fake processed pretend ice cream. So and yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, no, no, I'm sorry. I I I I interrupted you. Please continue because then I want to go to that sort of sugar comment you just made.
SPEAKER_00Right. I mean, sugar's not good for us either, right? We know sugar fuels the growth of cancer if we're gonna, you know, but I don't eat sugar all day.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00I s I save I save my sugar for after dinner, and it's part of what keeps me happy. And I have to tell you, I'm the leanest I've ever been in my life. For the last like 10 years, I've been this weight. Um, and before that, I was so I'm for context, I'm 120 pounds now. When I was powerlifting, I was 158 pounds. I would compete in the 148-pound weight class by dropping water weight before the weigh-ins, you know. So nice John got that.
SPEAKER_02No, we're not doing the John cut a lot of weight and then it's 23,000 calories in an hour. No, we're not.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. I know. It's not good. It's extreme. I don't do it anymore. It's been a long time. I learned a lot, but it it left me with some permanent injuries for sure. Um, and back then I ate really meticulous, but also a lot of fake shit. Fake protein powders and and I don't have anything against protein powders, but I mean most of them do have fake sugar in them. So I there's only one protein powder I will consume, which is and it's hard to even find. It's the Organe Simple that has real sugar in it.
SPEAKER_02Right. Oh, I'm familiar with the brand, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Costco used to sell it, and now they don't, and so I just stopped I stopped consuming it. Um, but it's about balance, right? And then, but you have someone, so I do really want to talk about your your lack of meds as a person of type two. Can we can I rant on that for a second?
SPEAKER_01Let me let me ask you my question first, and then and then we can then we can bury it. Uh then you can bury me. I am John's uh whipping boy quite often, so it does not bother me. Um and I and I know this is gonna sound terrible. I know how ignorant I am on certain things. So yes, rant away and tell me where I need to get better. That does that's that's all good for me. So you talked about the idea of natural sugar, okay? Not not the high fructose garbage, but you know, the the the natural stuff. You talked about the the concept of the fake, the the sugar alcohol, the chemical imbalances of them, stuff like that. So as a diabetic, uh and I know we sort of touched on the individualization of how it's different from person to person to person. How do you uh carry that balance? Is it something that you mentally overcome with the I don't have sugar anymore? Or is it the, you know, here's your your your little treat type of thing? Talk a little bit about that before you metaphorically beat me up, please.
SPEAKER_00A lot of no, I'm not gonna beat you up. I a lot of people, as soon as they're diagnosed with type one or type two, try to go on these really extreme diets and they fail within weeks or months. And because it's not sustainable. And it and I used to, you know, I I worked in the gym, I was around all these different dieting things, I experimented with all of them, and I use the word experiment really purposefully because you learn something from each one, and then I really think you should bail on the extreme diet if it didn't already bail on you, and but take from it what you learned about what works well for you and what doesn't. And that's my one of my favorite Bruce Lee quotes is um take what works and leave the rest. And you know, I learned things from eating really low carb for a couple years. I learned things from um, I even for one week I followed my friend's uh crazy high carb, ultra low fat. And I felt miserable, but I learned some cool things while I was experimenting with that. And you have to create a plan that is sustainable. None of us can eat perfect. Just because you're diagnosed with type one or type two diabetes doesn't mean you become a perfect dieting machine. And an apple, without enough insulin, an apple can spike my blood sugar to 300, just like a Hershey's chocolate bar. And I want to add that like I'll eat some Cheetos, I'll eat a Hershey's chocolate bar. It doesn't always have to be grandma's organic cookies, right? But it's about balance and understanding that you're not gonna be perfect. And I take insulin when I eat. So when I'm making gluten-free cupcakes for my daughter's birthday tomorrow, I am going to have to try to estimate how many carbs I need and then the timing of the insulin to match the rate of digestion for really the buttercream frosting, which takes hours to break down.
SPEAKER_01Um but buttercream frosting is good.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's good, it's worth it. I my A1C and my diabetes is managed. Is it perfect? No, that's not my goal because I'm not a robot, I'm a human being, right? So that's is does that cover it does, and I mean with me my diet is extreme for most people.
SPEAKER_01For me, I have more So is mine, yeah. Yeah, I mean when you get the diagnosis of being diabetic, you learn what you have to do, what you can do, how to sort of manage it. My friends pick on me for it. It doesn't bother me though. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's your personality type.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've added in. You know, we had a nutritionist on what, about a year and a half ago, I think it was, John, something like that. And I've added more carbs into my diet. So it in it it's I'm enjoying it a little more, but I think again, now it's that reorganization, it's pulling caffeine out of it to uh a much greater extent because uh I'm not quite the caffeine whore like John is. I mean, John will and I love picking at him about this. I've seen him drink five, six energy drinks like full cans in a day. We were we were at a competition. That was my one that day. Okay, so you know, so five or six. Live and learn. But I mean like most people, you know, I vacillate in the amount that I might take in in any given day. But if I can take it down to a small thing of green tea, okay, you know, I can get that to to work for me, to get rid of the the sort of fake processed sugars. That's the part that I need to work on. And it's okay now because I mean I I work from home now. I I got a different position at the college, and I work from home, so I'm there to make meals more. You know what I'm saying? So I think that's gonna be an advantage to it. But all right.
SPEAKER_00I think people also need to anticipate their taste buds. Like, so when I removed Splenda from my coffee in preparation for pregnancy, coffee tasted disgusting for about a month, and I drank it anyway, and then at a certain point my taste buds like you know, shifted or whatever taste buds do, and they were and it started tasting good, and now sweet coffee tastes really gross to me. And so if you're used to something being so sweet, then black coffee or even seltzer is gonna taste really bitter. But if you give your taste buds a few weeks, they do reset and you start to taste things properly again.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Scott, I I'm waiting for her to like totally like slam down cut.
SPEAKER_01That's what I
Medication Stigma Plus GLP-1 Reality
SPEAKER_01was just saying. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm ready, I'm sitting in the chair, I've I've got my hands, you know, gripping the armrests. Okay. Beat me up.
SPEAKER_00So it's very um society has taught us that needing medicine for type 2 diabetes is a failure. In reality, um, the first drug that most people are prescribed with type 2 is metformin. And just shout out for anybody listening, make sure you get extended release and you start on a low dose. It does for some people cause tremendous diarrhea. For some people, no problem, but you should be on the extended release version. That helps, it's not a failure. It helps your pancreas work better, it helps you produce insulin better, it also tells your liver to make less sugar all day. I take metformin as a type one to tell my liver to produce less sugar all day. Um, because people with type one also overproduce sugar from the liver.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00But that's a whole different thing. We should we should do another episode on that. But so um you're so as a type two, metformin is helping your body become more sensitive to the insulin you do make. It's helping you produce insulin better and reducing the amount of sugar your body naturally produces. But then drugs like the GLP1s that really have a stigma for cheating and you know, it's the Ozempic and Lagobi and um Manjaro, those drugs also do an amazing thing. They also help preserve and protect your natural insulin production as a person with type two.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00And I'm gonna turn that on I'm gonna turn that on John too. There are studies, you can find these easily. There are studies on putting people who are newly diagnosed or in um who are LADA and not even on insulin yet, who go on Ozempic and other GLP1 medicines, and it preserves and protects insulin production in type one also.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, before John gets into that, because he has his Manjaro story. Yeah. Okay. It's funny because I I made the comment and it was a comment of ignorance, and I know that. And I I kind of knew that before you started. But you're right, there is this stigma out there that oh, you can't do it, you're on meds. Why can't you? And I get that. Um and I guess that is the ignorance of a lot of people. Including myself in that statement. Um Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You can't help it. Yeah, we all it's yeah.
SPEAKER_01But it's funny because I've said to my doctor, What do I need to do? And he says, just keep doing what you're doing. Your numbers are in a good place. We're not gonna put you on anything.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that you know there's a term for that, and I'm I'm gonna shame your doctor here. It's called clinical inertia, meaning they're not doing anything more for you, even though your A1C is now in the sixes.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_00So I would shame that doctor right to his face and say, What the heck? But what's funny clearly his body needs help. Go ahead, sorry.
SPEAKER_01No, no, no, no, I interrupted you. But what's funny is after this year's nationals, which is two weeks from tomorrow, I'm going back down to the weight where everything was in the five eights, five nine, five seven to five nine, because I I've put on probably thousand. I just wanted to I just wanted to contribute probably about twenty-five-thirty pounds purposely because in you know, in strong man, I don't have a weight class because of my age. And it's mass is moved by acts, you know.
SPEAKER_00I get it.
SPEAKER_01So I mean once, and again, once that's done, ask John. The ability for us to go and go and go in the gym is there. So the weight will be shedded quickly. So I I don't know. I mean, my doctor doesn't know that, but in terms of what I'm doing with my weight. But I I want to see where my numbers sort of fall when I'm back down in that 275 range.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I mean, there's no like there's no way that won't make a difference. That will definitely, yeah. Do you ever use a CGM?
SPEAKER_01I do not. I have never. Uh, I check my numbers. You know, I haven't I used to check them daily. I don't anymore.
SPEAKER_02I can give you one. I have uh 26. I have um I don't I don't know if you're aware of these, Ginger, but uh Amazon put out the Stilo. It's like uh the Stello, yeah. Estelo, it's like Dexcom Lite. Yeah, it's basically for biohackers, not insulin-dependent humans.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, it's also for type twos who can't get um good coverage.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I bought it just because I was paying for the Dexcom out of pocket and this was a cheaper thing. Um I have a couple of those, Scott. I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_00Um you remember what that cost per center?
SPEAKER_02Uh it was I think it's 50 or 60 bucks. I think it's like I think it's like 99 for two is how they sell them.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah, because I the I think the Libre 3 Plus is more accurate than Dexcom. And um, so I would you only need one, Scott. Just put one on for two weeks and just learn from it, and then it will, you know, after you're done with your your national.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And you'll see what your blood sugar is really doing versus what your A1C is.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01So let's talk about John's Manjaro story.
SPEAKER_02No, let's not, because my Manjaro story's wrong-ish.
SPEAKER_00So well, can I guess that they put you on way too much? Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_02That's what I was gonna say. They treated me like they were doing type two and I was overweight. And they took me up, you know, up to I think it was up too quick. And I stuck and I started to lose like muscle mass. You look emaciated. And I was like, you know, as much as I don't know about stuff, I know that muscle mass, you know, I'm 58 right now. Muscle mass is a thing when you get older, and I don't, I'm very precious about it. So I went off precious, but in in my research for this episode, like I see that there's emerging um research that there's like low dose, like never stepping up, like staying at you know, whatever the lower dose is, is is actually been is theoretically beneficial for type one.
SPEAKER_00For sure. So I've been microdosing, um, I'm down to 0.15 because I hack and I'm I'm not doing it for weight loss. I'm the same weight as when I started. Right. But this is the other thing about all the other hormones um that is gonna open a like 50-minute can of worm. Um but type 1s don't regulate five other hormones properly because the cells that produce insulin are dead, so they're not talking to the other cells that regulate those other hormones, and GLP1 drugs help your body compensate for the lack of those other proper hormone levels. And so that's why microdosing a GLP1 as a type one is so impactful. And one of my friends who's a nurse practitioner, Annie has type one, he says that even in his patients who are obese with type one, that they still tend to need a microdose. And a lot of type twos are also overprescribed and they're sick and they're they can't eat anything and they feel terrible.
SPEAKER_02So that was you for a while. Yeah, when oh when they took when they took me up, um, yeah, first of all, you know, uh the side effects are the side effects, but the one side effect of like shutting down your GI tract, like yeah, it it didn't shut down completely, but it got to the point that I'm like, there's a noticeable effect. You were I mean, you were not mentally in a good place during that time. No, it I felt horrible. Uh I I was emaciated's rough when you're I still weighed 230 something, but well, emaciated before you yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00But it's really terrible. I blame the insurance companies. They're the ones saying we are well, sorry, the pharma companies.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Have there there are insurance companies that will deny you coverage if you don't keep going up in your dose. Oh really? So yeah.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_00Which is really shitty, right? And that's some kind of that's some kind of relationship between big pharma and the insurance companies where they want people to use more and more and more.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's boss.
SPEAKER_00And that's why they keep pushing these high doses, and because in their studies, people at the highest doses lost 30% of their weight, so that's what they've now prescribed, even though most people feel terrible on that high dose.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I feel horrible. Horrible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this is where you you have to question your doctor, unfortunately, but you don't have to tell them necessarily. So my doctor, my doctor understands me, they know I have the pen and that I don't do anything they tell me to do the way they want me to do it. You know what I mean? But if you have a doctor that's like or your insurance company, like just keep collecting the medicine, but take the dose that you know feels right for you. I actually stick a syringe into my Ozempic pen. Oh. Now I am not a doctor or a pharmacist, so if you're listening, I don't know what kind of pen you have or what kind of syringes you have, so don't copy this. Talk to somebody in real life. But I draw out 15 units because that's 0.15. So that's the dose I want. In an insulin syringe, 15 units equals the 0.15 dose. Because the pen will only give me 0.25 as the lowest dose, and I just don't want that much.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I probably should have led with this, but neither ginger or I or Scott are doctors. So talk to your doctor Bottles. Oh, yeah, Scott's not a doctor. He's not a real doctor. Not a real doctor. We're just a bunch of people with shitty pancreases, though. Pancreae? What's the plural? Pancreas.
SPEAKER_03Pancreas.
SPEAKER_02I like pancreas. I like pancreas. I think that's pretty hot. Cool. Um all right. So clearly, and I'm gonna I'm gonna pause here for a minute to say that we're gonna have to do a follow-up episode because I think we're because I know your old six hormone thing too, and I you're right, that deserves time because I think that that's another one of those things that you've I and I don't know how you learned it. Kudos to you. But it's one of those things I've not heard very many other places, and it's not really out there, and it completely makes sense because the body's a closed system and everything affects everything.
SPEAKER_01Well, and as a master athlete, I mean we're talking people 40 and above. Yeah, hormones, you know, and the lack of reduction. It's a big thing.
SPEAKER_02All right, but I so we'll have to do this again.
Why Hard Exercise Raises Glucose
SPEAKER_02But what I do want to at least touch on right now because I saw one of your episodes with someone, and you say you were both an athlete and a personal trainer. And I just this is just me being that's all about me. Exercise.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Exercise makes my blood sugar go up. Why? Why?
SPEAKER_00Why I'd like to know what type of exercise you're doing.
SPEAKER_02It's strongman training, it's uh running, because I'm trying to run a 5k because I'm an idiot and I committed to weird things, and it's probably six, eight hours of pickleball a week.
SPEAKER_00And all right so even pickleball drives it up?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Because I, you know, I I I pretend that I'm Jimmy Connors and I probably play a lot harder than the 80-year-olds that are crushing me, but I'm running around more.
SPEAKER_00Wait, can I ask you a question? Do you drink a uh energy drink before?
SPEAKER_02No, no, because I did think of that. Okay. I did.
SPEAKER_00I just wanted to clear out that.
SPEAKER_02My mind went there, so it wasn't just you. No. There certainly are times that that happens, but it's not always. But the exercise equals increased blood sugar is absolutely pretty consistent for me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Okay. So um there's a one I just want to put out there that there's a foundational issue that you are gradually um producing less and less insulin, right? And you're new to taking insulin.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I would assume that your doses are kind of, and this is true for everyone. It's not, you know, but need to be fine-tuned a little bit because you're probably not getting enough background insulin.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's fixed. I I I know that people calculate and and have pumps and stuff that do that for them. Uh, I'm just on a fixed dose now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but I'm on long acting too. And so uh I have a book called Exercise with Type 1 Diabetes. It's a hundred pages. I also have a free five-day email course that explains this science that we're gonna go over in a pending.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, but uh so right now I take 12 units of lanthos a day. If I were to start seeing that even walking my dog's uh blood sugar is going up between meals uh when I don't have an obvious impact from food, you know, or it's been hours since I ate, that would tell me that my long acting, my background in torn dose needs to go up a bit. So I would guess, because you said you're a little frustrated with your blood sugars lately, and again, this is about questioning the doctor and not questioning, but also not waiting for them to fix it for you the next time you see them. I would guess that you need a 10 to 20 percent boost in your long acting in tornado. There's also this whole cool thing that anaerobic exercise versus aerobic. I know your listeners are famous people, but anaerobic is weight, definitely strong man renting depending on the intensity of your 5k, like if you're really pushing hard, that can put you into an anaerobic state instead of aerobic. And it really isn't about what your heart rate is doing and how long your heart rate is doing that for. So if you're I have a friend with type two who's not on influence and she was her blood sugar was spiking like 70 points every time she went for a job. And I said, Well, how hard are you pushing? She's pushing really hard. And I I wanted to see an experiment what would happen if she lightened up on the intensity of her rum, and she lightened up to a more comfortable jogging page and her blood sugar didn't fight because she wasn't pushing herself into an anaerobic state. So when we're when we're doing strongman, lifting weights, craft fit and competitive things like um pickleball, the that triggers adrenaline, which does tell your liver to release storage sugar so that anything adrenaline related competition day, you know, but just basic anaerobic exercise, your body is producing lactic acid and converting that lactic acid into glucose and back to your recycle it back to your cell. Come on, nice.
SPEAKER_01Nice. Come on.
SPEAKER_00So I used to before my powerlifting training session, I used to need a unit of insulin on an empty stomach just to cover the deadlifting and the squatting.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's funny because that's where I was thinking of heading, but I mean, now through this conversation, I've got some steps to deal with. First one is oh my god, I'm gonna say this out loud is getting rid of caffeine in my diet.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02You and we both.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02The headache we're gonna have over the next couple of days.
SPEAKER_00I know, but then you have to go to zero, but just reduce it a smidge.
SPEAKER_03You don't understand. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02There's no smidge with John. No, I need a bigger smidge than most people need a smidge. John needs a bucket. Yeah, I do. But okay.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, I go down from 20 cans to four cans.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, the here's the reality. I I've been a career scientist, so I get it. And I I don't like trying to change too many variables at once. So caffeine is definitely gonna be step one. Um I like the idea of basal insulin because that speaks to me with just, you know, if the baseline is high, you know, regardless of what I'm doing, the baseline is high. You know, whether it spikes or dips, it's the baseline is high. So I I like that concept as well. Um I uh oh so uh we're definitely doing this again because I still have a bajillion.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's a lot of questions here.
SPEAKER_02But I do want to give a shout out.
Books, Where To Find Ginger, Closing
SPEAKER_02I mean, you're prolific on on the interwebs. Um, you've written a couple books. There's one book that I can't seem to find that I kind of want to, I I definitely want to buy, but it just I saw a short of yours just thumbing through it. And it it looks like it's almost like a tip a day.
SPEAKER_00It's like Oh, yeah, we're publishing it next week.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it's not out yet. That would be why you guys buy because I live in the future before. I can't all right. So I'm getting first in line there. Because you know, sometimes, you know, it's I'm sure you could sit down at the beach and read it, you know, in in one sitting, but it the reality is that there are those days that it would just be nice to be able to grab something and open thumb to a random page and be like, Oh yeah, that that yeah, that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And you know, it's not just tips like because I've had a publishing company once try to get me to do diabetes tips where it's like eat more fiber, you know, and but it's really also explaining diabetes science, like why some exercise raises your blood sugar, but we break it down so that you know you're not reading a whole chapter every day and it's easy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like what what is what is your background? 'Cause I mean you're not a medical professional, right? I mean you don't you're not even dancing too.
SPEAKER_00I got pushed into having to learn this, honestly, because when I was nineteen and I was going from not taking care of myself to trying to compete in powerlifting. I I joined a gym to just try to lose weight and I was walking and I started doing yoga and I started getting pretty strong. And this girl said, You should talk to my boyfriend about powerlifting because my bench press was uh I'd gotten up to using a a plate on each side pretty quickly.
SPEAKER_03Nice, right?
SPEAKER_00And and that stands out in the gym, right? When a girl is doing that. Um and so I started training in powerlifting, and I didn't understand. This is 20 years ago, I did not understand why it was spiking my blood sugar so much, why I was so sensitive to insulin hours later, and my blood sugars were all over the place. And CGMs did not exist, you know, Libre and Dexon, that wasn't a thing. And I went to the endocrinologist, my first appointment ever with an adult endocrinologist, and I asked him for help. I said, I'm gonna be competing in six months at my first powerlifting meet. Can you help me? And he laughed at me.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00He literally just laughed at me because I looked like a chubby little girl. I looked like a chubby little girl, and he thought it was whatever. And so I started reading my friend's exercise physiology textbook from who was in med school, and six months later I set like 10 records in my first paralyzing meet.
SPEAKER_01I really hope you sent it up. Yeah, I hope you send it up.
SPEAKER_00There was a newspaper article about it, and a nurse practitioner there definitely put it on the boat before honestly. He cared so little about me, I doubt he even remembered who I was.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, probably, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00But so that is it was really um total revenge and being pissed that led me to start learning about exercise science in a way that I'm I went to school for journalism, but I just discovered that I really like um explaining that complicated stuff because I don't like frilly, fluffy, extra.
SPEAKER_02No, you're uh here, we've never met. This is the first conversation we've ever had, and I I need to say these things out loud. You're a really great science explainer. You you're you tend there's zero fluff in the things you do talk about, and you're not and you're not in that echo chamber which is frustrating as hell to someone looking for information because so many people are saying pretty much the exact same things, and I feel like that they just are you know they're solidifying the stereotypes, they're doing a disservice to the people that really it's not a one-size-fits-all anything, right? No, we've had that conversation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's I I I I echo on both intended and not intended with what John just said. One of the things, because I'm in education, is I look for people to work with that they can explain it to everybody. And that's what I've loved about this conversation. You could easily, I am sure, you know, speak the language, but the ability to talk to people, I love that that's what we've gotten out of this because some of the things you've said, John and I are looking at each other like, oh shit.
SPEAKER_02I know right, you know, these episodes where I just like, oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, the changes that we have to start instituting for ourselves, you know, some of the podcast is to help everybody. I mean, you know, it's there there's that sort of lack out there, and we try to bring people in that can help masters athletes. Some of it is very self-serving for John Matthew for me. It's there's things that we've learned that we've sort of changed in in what we do. And I love the fact that you have been able to say it to us to the point where it's like, you know, Scott, you're just being an asshole. Knock it off. Listen to me when I say that. No, I don't. But I don't like you, John. Oh, that's true.
SPEAKER_02That's fair. Well, Jinger.
SPEAKER_00You know, also I just gotta add that the the medical system, um what what am I thinking of? They underestimate how much patients are capable of learning and how much science we do need to learn if they were to explain it in plain language. And that really affects diabetes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but I but I get that. I mean, I sit in waiting rooms and you see those people that are clearly the woe is me, I need a pill.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, so yeah, it's we're we're it's not universally accepted.
SPEAKER_00No, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, Ginger, I appreciate your time. We appreciate your time. Most definitely. We're definitely gonna do this again. I think Scott and I may find ourselves transitioning to video, so maybe we'll do a video chat.
SPEAKER_01Wait a minute. That's the first time you've said that out loud.
SPEAKER_02That's because I got a I got a studio pillow. Like cool lights all over them. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Uh Ginger, before I let you go, uh tell us where we can find you on all the interwebs and your socials and whatnot. Yeah, and please highlight the name of the forthcoming book.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So um diabetesnerd.com, diabetes nerd on YouTube, diabetes nerd on Instagram, the the new book. Oh my gosh, can I even remember it? It's every day. It's called Every Day with Diabetes. 365 tips for living with type one and type two.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm excited for the book. And if you don't have diabetes and you're listening, but there's someone in your life, buy it for them. Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_01Because it's such a weird disease that yeah, it's it's a mystery even when you have it. Yep. So, I mean, the more information you can get from people like Ginger or from books and and whatnot, get the hell out. Get the hell.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Ginger. I'll give you back the rest of your day to uh go eat some healthy snacks without uh fake sugars and bullshit sugar.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Once again, guys, great to meet you.
SPEAKER_02I am John and I'm still Scott. Thanks, everybody. Bye bye. Bye. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post it on your social media, or leave a review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram at Masters Athlete Survival Guide. Thanks again. Now get off our lawn, you damn kids.