#1476 Small Sips: Avoid Hot Takes
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Avoid knee-jerk reactions—wait for trends before making diabetes management decisions.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to the sips series.
These foundational strategies were nominated by listeners. They told me, these are the ideas in the podcast that truly made a difference for them. So I distilled them down into short, actionable insights. There's not going to be any fluff or complex jargon, just practical, real world diabetes management that you can start applying today. And I know your time is valuable, so we're keeping these short. Another small sip will come out once a week for the foreseeable future. If you like what you hear, check out the Pro Tip series or the bold beginning series for more. Those series are available in the menu at Juicebox podcast.com and you can find complete lists of all of the series in the featured tab on the private Facebook group. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. The questions you have, I guarantee you there's answers to them in the Juicebox Podcast, and it's all free. You
okay, so this next one says, respond to the information you're seeing not what you thought. And I know that's not quite English, right? So, oh, I think I shared at some point that I've spoken to so many people, and you have too, so you'll be able to speak to this. I've spoken to so many people who come to me saying, like I have trouble, like I need help. And before the podcast was this big, I mean, I took a lot of private phone calls from a lot of people and tried to help them, right? Sure. And what I started to learn and notice over and over again is that these people were so lost that the things that they would think to tell you, or the explanations they would give about what was happening was so off the mark. They were so lost they didn't even know what their story was, and then they would, they would say, like, I know this is because of my I don't know carb ratio, like, they were so certain. And I'd be like, I don't even know how you could make that leap your basal so far off. Like, I don't even know how it could possibly be that. And so that, what I realized was they're chasing ghosts, is the way I used to put it. Like there's things that they think they're seeing, and they chase after them, and they make all their decisions based on this, but that thing's not really there, or it's not what it appears to be to them, right? That makes and
Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:52
I think it does, and I think it also leads to, again, the piece with our technology we have today is we do have information overload with it. As great as it is, it's a load of information. I think it can be very easy if you have not had enough good education or listened to some of the pro tips or, you know, even just the beginning kind of concepts of things, if you're really all over the place and so scattered, you may be throwing out a an adjustment, and kind of pulling it out of a box, yeah, let's try this this time, right? But it leads to eventual burnout, because you get to the point then where, well, I've thrown everything at this that I think I should and really it boils down to something is probably off in your setting or in your timing based on your knowledge of how insulin works. There are two pieces there that really you should go back to if, in fact, it's so all over the place that you are just lost and just fatigued from battling it. Yeah,
Scott Benner 4:01
yeah. And if you're making well intended actions, if you're performing well intended actions that are emanating from bad information, then you're putting in all the effort and the hope and getting probably not just the opposite of what you're hoping for, but it's probably making it worse a lot of times. And then I don't know if I am good at explaining this in words, but you're trying to balance something in your in your hand, and you know, the wind starts blowing and but you don't know it's the wind. And so then you lean, because you're like, Oh no, it's me, and it's a Nope, it's not you, it's the wind. And now you're leaning, and it's the wind. And now you didn't realize. But when you lean now, the sun's in your eyes, and these things keep, like, piling up on top of each other, and these snowballs, it really does. And then before you know it, if I said, you take one of these problems away now to fix it, you think I don't know we're so far down this path at this point, like, I don't know which way is up, right, right? Yeah, that's what I mean. Like, respond to what's happening. Happening, not what you think is happening. Like, because people, I mean, look, we all have, like, a relative or a friend or something, and every time something comes up, they react, and the reactions always wrong. It's like, always wrong. You're just like, how do they get it wrong? Every time right? You're in that situation now you don't realize it, yeah, because you know, tons of variables, etc.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:22
I think again, it boils down to really understanding your own kind of day to day, and also how insulin works, yep. Because otherwise, in all of those variables, the wind, the sun, the leaning the oh my gosh, now the rock is rolling down the hill at me, right? What's that noise? What's the noise? Right? You know, should I put my sunglasses on? Is that the right fix? It's like all the things you throw in when really, if you just sometimes you have to step back and you have to instead of being reactive. I think that's one of the hardest things to see within diabetes is we tend to be too reactive, instead of looking over time at your data and finding a way to be proactive, to address, gosh, this is a trend. Or, you know what today is just, I call them bad diabetes hair days, where you're like, I don't know. I don't know.
Scott Benner 6:20
You know what it is. I just realized how this, how to say this. Don't have hot takes about your diabetes. Yeah, right, yeah. Just step back, take some time, absorb what's happening. Maybe it's gonna go wrong for a little while, or something like that. But you need enough data that when you're making a decision, it's reasonable, and then make one decision and then see what happens. Don't make five, because if you you turn five knobs and something works, like, I mean, I don't even know which was right here, like, and it's
Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:47
and I think that this is valuable, especially for the newly diagnosed. I think everybody Yes, but I think especially for the newly diagnosed, who may be in that, what we call the honeymoon kind of time period, you are going to have weird looking things happen, because, one, you're in a learning stage. You're trying to be as safe as possible, but also to maintain blood sugars that you know are healthy, whether it's for you or your child or the person you're caring for, whatever, right? But there are going to be things that you may do one day, and three days later, it doesn't exactly work
Scott Benner 7:25
quite there's 1000 things. You got all the plates up in the air, and you're like, I think I've got, I think I've got, it's all balanced. And then suddenly the kid, or your your pancreas, is like, no, I'll help today. Like, no. Like, please, no, don't do that. And you don't know that's what's happening when it's happening. And so, oh, the living through the honeymoon thing. When I look back on it now, I so didn't understand what was happening, and nobody talked about it with me. It was maddening, yeah, like, genuinely maddening, you know. So anyway, I don't even remember
Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:54
that. And I was old enough, you know, to potentially have memory. I have no recollection of that time period whatsoever at this point. Jenny,
Scott Benner 8:09
it's been a while now, and
Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:11
I don't even think my mom would remember, though, quite honestly, and she has no like memory loss or anything, you know, but I don't think she would even remember that, nor I don't even think that she'd remember. It was called honeymoon.
Scott Benner 8:24
Oh, nobody called it that. No. And I only, I only have a memory of it because I am personally friendly with my child's pediatrician, and I called him, and I it was, it was a memorable phone call. So like, I started it off by saying, I know I'm wrong. Just tell me to shut up and get off the phone. But is it possible Arden doesn't have diabetes because I haven't given her insulin in two days, and it was so upsetting, you know, by then. Anyway, thank you. This was good. I appreciate this. Of course.
Are you starting to see patterns, but you can't quite make sense of them. You're like, Oh, if I Bolus here, this happens, but I don't know what to do. Should I put in a little less, a little more? If you're starting to have those thoughts, if you're starting to think this isn't going the way the doctor said it would, I think I see something here, but I can't be sure. Once you're having those thoughts, you're ready for the diabetes Pro Tip series from the Juicebox Podcast. It begins at Episode 1000 you can also find it at Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu, and you can find a list in the private Facebook group. Just check right under the featured tab at the top, it'll show you lists of a ton of stuff, including the Pro Tip series, which runs from episode 1000 to 1025 if you or a loved one was just diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're looking for some fresh perspective, the bold beginning series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to start. That series is with myself and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a CD CES, a registered dietitian and a. Type one for over 35 years, and in the bowl beginnings series, Jenny and I are going to answer the questions that most people have after a type one diabetes diagnosis. The series begins at episode 698, in your podcast player. Or you can go to Juicebox podcast.com and click on bold beginnings in the menu. I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed, you're following in your audio app. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. You.
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