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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

I am in the position very frequently, where newly diagnosed people are looking to me for help or answers or direction, and while they are speaking, it becomes obvious to you that they need encouragement. And I have said before that I think a lot of my job is like, I feel like I'm like a coach that just like, whacks you on the ass as you're running out of the field, and goes, you can do it. Go get them right. That kind of like an idea, but you actually physically have to say something to them at the end of your conversation. And that was hard for me. Like, what do you say? What are your parting words to somebody who's like, Hey, I just got diagnosed with type one diabetes. I'm freaking out. I don't think I'm gonna be able to eat the same anymore. They told me I can't run. I'm a huge runner. I don't understand it. My mom is telling me it's my fault. Like you're having that conversation with somebody, and then at the end there's a pause, and it's the time for Scott to speak, right? Like you're

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:21
supposed to solve it all and give them rainbows and unicorns, right? You

Scott Benner 2:25
can't just go, I wouldn't worry about I think it'll be fine, right? What I've learned to tell people, which I believe, is that diabetes is hard, and I don't want to lie to you, I don't think it ever gets easier, but you can get so good at it that it could feel easy some days and sometimes more than that, like true this hard thing is hard, right? Think of yourself as Bryce Harper. Baseball is incredibly difficult, but when I watch him do it, I go, huh? I bet you I could do that, because he makes it look so easy right now, I'm not saying you have to be an all star to do this. I'm saying that after some time and experience and getting your feet under you, listening to bold beginnings, listening to pro tips, figuring out how insulin works, learning how about timing and amount, and learning how fat and protein impact your food, it could actually feel the way it feels for me now, and I'm not bragging to tell you that like I don't think about diabetes like that anymore, and that I am not burdened by it, right? Like, big picture stuff. I wish my daughter didn't have auto immune issues, and there's stuff that comes along with it, I probably sell my leg to make go away for, like, Do you know what I mean? But like, I'm not burdened by it, and most of the time, and I say this with a lot of deference, and I realize I don't have type one, and I'm just a caregiver. It does feel easy to me most days, but it's because I know what to do when something happened, right? Yeah, your

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:48
example of like a baseball player or a basketball player, just because they look good on the TV when you're watching these professional right? They have practiced, that's right, their sport so much that 99% of the time they're going to catch the catch, they're going to make the shot, they're going to do the thing that they expect to happen, because they've practiced, and they know how it works. And eventually, with diabetes, you will get to that point. Is it going to happen a week from diagnosis? No, and I feel horrible saying that too. Yeah, right. Easy is not a word that belongs in discussion with diabetes. Diabetes is not easy. Yeah, it's not but as you figure out your variables, and they are your variables as you figure them out and grow into, you know, from five to 20 or however, whenever you were diagnosed, you're going to find the things that do work most of the time. It is going to be easier, despite still having to put thought into the picture that. You'd otherwise be like, I really wish I didn't have to think about it. I do too. 36 years I'm still like, man, if the nail in the corner was like, I'll just take that all from you, I'd be like, Sure,

Scott Benner 5:09
years ago, I've done some pretty heavy joking. If you just said to me, like, just kill one person you've never met before, I'd be like, Oh, I could probably do that. It's terrible. I would do anything to get rid of it. I wouldn't hurt another person, but I would do almost anything else to get rid of it. Your example is so spot on. While you were talking, you know, my son's older now. He's going to be 25 Gosh, next month, but in college and his entire life, he played baseball. And I have a video on my I always tell people, don't tell him this if you ever meet him, but like, I have his last college home run video on my desktop. And every once in a while, I pop it up and I watch it, and it's in a bat where he takes a ball and he doesn't swing, and he gets a high, fast ball, and he cuts at it, and he misses it, and then the guy tries to throw him a breaking pitch off the plate, and he just hits it. And they were in a stadium that day. So they were in a professional baseball stadium, and my son hit the ball out of the stadium, like on in right field, right out over the wall, over the grandstand, out of the stadium. It's a minor league park, but it's a full size stadium. If you watch that video, you just think like, wow, that. Look how good that kid is at that but as you're talking, what I recalled, moreover, was three days a week, all summer long, with an instructor by himself on a baseball field, hitting 300 baseballs, 100% 95 degrees outside, humidity. It's not even baseball season anymore, like right now. It's cold and he's doing it now. He's inside, and he's doing it hundreds and hundreds of baseballs and so much, and I'm not kidding you so much failure and despair and wanting to give up and cursing and screaming and crying and throwing things for years and years and years and years and years to hit one fcking home run in college. Yeah, and I guarantee he wouldn't trade it in so

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:03
he wouldn't know. And what, what stuck there is, I got this sense once I started really running, is the concept of in the moment, he knew internally that he was going to hit that ball. That was the home run. He knew it was going to happen, the connection. He could feel it. He was like, that was it like, it's this feeling of, I know I'm doing I've put all the pieces together in the right way. This run is 100% the pace, the way the breathing, everything is fitting together. But it's only because you've done it for

Scott Benner 7:39
so long, and if, for some reason, it doesn't work out, you just do it again. You do it right? Yeah, right. Because success isn't going to come quickly, and it might come more difficultly to some people than others. You know, in the end, I you know, the goal is not to always hit a home run. My son became a very good hitter, and it took him years, like, years and years and years to do it during COVID, when we were all hiding in our houses, my son, like, flew across the country and, like, worked in a place that was still up and running, and just they hit a baseball, like, because everybody else stopped playing baseball, he's like, I'm not going to stop playing that's what makes that home run magical. Like, it's not about the home run. Like, I see him four years old and 10 years old and 12 and 15 when he hits it, like, in all the effort and the work he put into it, and the good news is, around diabetes, you're not gonna have to put nearly as much work into diabetes as you are into learning how to hit a fastball. Like, because that's that's hard too. It's not going to take you 15 years to learn your diabetes, no, right? And so to me, like, That's it, like diabetes is hard. I wouldn't take that from anybody. I don't know what it's like to have it. I do know what it's like to help somebody with it. It's hard for me. I can see how hard it is for her, even though I don't imagine I completely understand it. But most days, it's not that hard, and that it comes from doing that work and not just blindly trying, but purposefully trying. I can't tell you how many bad hitting coaches my son had, and what a moment it was when he met a good one. You know what I mean, when he got good tools to practice repetition on anyway, right? Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:19
and or a good connection, I think that actually brings in a good point of maybe the other ones were good, but they weren't personality matches for how he was going to receive the information and the instruction from them the same in diabetes, right? You may find the educator, the clinician that you click with, and that might be after going through 246, of them, yeah, but keep

Scott Benner 9:43
looking right? Well, Jenny, there's a reason. Now, listen, you're Midwestern. Everybody loves you, but, like, it's just, it's just the way I say, Oh, listen, I could probably line up a couple of 50,000 people to, like, show up for me. You know what I mean, who would tell you? Like, great things. I could. Probably find exactly as many people who hate my guts and don't like the way I talk or the way I say things. I know people who like me who don't like me. I'm actually thinking of a person right now who I think genuinely likes me and hates me at the same exact time and around diabetes, right? And I know Pete, your wife, no, no, no, she's we've been married for 30 years, she just doesn't like me most of the time. My point is, is that my message, my tone, my the way I do things like the way I just said, What I said is gonna vibe with some people. And I've seen it recently online. Someone said, You know what I love about Scott? No bullshit with Scott. Just says it in another episode recently, I just thank the ADA for finding their balls on something. That's not a thing most people say out loud, right? But at the same time, I could come off course or abrasive, or I gotta. I got a review the other day. The woman's like, I love this podcast. I wish she'd stop saying Jesus Christ, and God damn so much. I'm not even saying it on purpose, but I grew up in the 70s, and there was a lot of cursing. It's how it comes out of my mouth. Like, I don't even know what to tell you, right? So that's a good point. If you're not vibing with the person you're doing the thing with, stop beating your head against the wall and go find somebody else, right? Yeah, same with this podcast, yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:10
because you're gonna absorb the same information in a way that actually meets your need, and you're gonna use it, then go

Scott Benner 11:18
find what works for you. Pumps, CGM people, you're getting information from doctors, do not stand and beat your head against the wall, like don't. No, listen. I want you to listen to the podcast, but if I'm not right for you, then go find something else that will help you. I mean, stay subscribed and keep downloading the episodes to help and stuff like that. But you don't have to listen.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:36
You know, you can read the transcripts. I mean, they're not always perfect. No,

Scott Benner 11:41
listen, AI is doing a pretty good job making those transcripts. All right. Thank you very much. Sure.

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 bowl 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. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app. Please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong way recording.com and.