#801 How We Eat: How Jenny Eats

How Jenny Eats

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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 and welcome to episode 801 of the Juicebox Podcast

today, I'm going to add to the how we eat series. Now, so far in this series we've covered vegan, carnivore plant based gluten free low carb, Bernstein FODMAP keto flexitarian intermittent fasting and today, I thought it would be interesting to find out how Jenny eats. Now you know, Jenny, she's from all the management episodes, diabetes, pro tip, defining diabetes, bold beginnings Jenny, it's Jenny. Today I'm going to talk to Jenny about how she eats. I thought you might find it interesting. She is a person with an astonishing amount of control over blood sugar, and I thought it would be valuable for you to hear about. So while you're listening, 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. If you'd like to find the other how we eat episodes, just go to juicebox podcast.com and scroll to the bottom there's a whole cascading list of them there. You can also find them in the private Facebook group in the feature tab. That's Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes, if you don't want an insulin pump, but you want some of that functionality that comes with insulin pumps, you might want the ink pen. Learn more and get started today at ink pen today.com. You may pay as little as $35 for the implant. Listen for more about that in the ad. Today's episode of Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored by Omni pod. The new Omni pod five automated insulin delivery system is here. Go get it at Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox tubeless and automated oh my goodness, what else could you possibly want? Start the recording. Cool and say hello, Jenny. How are you? I'm great. How are you? Good. You look casual today. Like I like cash. Like maybe you have plans this afternoon where you're not going to be working or something like

Unknown Speaker 2:26
that. Um, no

Scott Benner 2:30
relaxed. You're not relaxed today. I don't know you have a certain sound maybe you're happy. It's Friday. I have no idea.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:36
It's Friday. It's Yes. It's it's Friday. It's actually should I was colder today. Our temperature has changed like 40 degrees overnight.

Scott Benner 2:47
Oh my god. Seriously,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:48
yesterday, it was 72 degrees. It was beautiful last night when I got home from taekwondo with my kids. And then I woke up this morning and the thermometer was like 34 degrees. Like, kidding me.

Scott Benner 3:04
You live in a hellscape. It's terrible. I mean, it was like 80 here for a couple of days. And I mean, it's November, and you're like what is happening? But then very quickly, overnight, it's getting cooler and cooler. And it's gonna happen really fast. Yes. Anyway, it's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:20
coming to you. Well, it's spreading. Let us

Scott Benner 3:23
let us let us do this today with the people and then we will go on our way. Oh, freeze your butt off this weekend. And I don't know what I will do. It's supposed to

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:30
be in the 40s this afternoon. So better.

Scott Benner 3:33
That's a Wisconsin answer. Better. I just had, I just had a an organization invite me to come to Montana to speak in March. And I was like March in Montana. I'm not sure about that. I guess. Yeah. Well, I need snow shoes and, and I said, Look, I started saying, Look, I really would like to do it. The event sounds great. I say Can I fly straight in? And they're like, No, you'll probably have to get on like three different planes. I was like, I yeah, I don't know if I'm okay with that. Can we? Virtually. So they weren't sure that the last plane would be a jet. And that's that threw me off for some reason. You get the puddle jumper. Oh, it was like I'm not doing that. I'd love to see Montana, but not that badly. Anyway, Jenny, I thought today would be a great day for you and I to talk about how you eat. We've been talking about this for a number of years. Actually. I always say to Jenny, like at the end of the year, I'll do an episode with you. And we'll talk about how you eat because I have a whole series where people come on and they're like, I'm keto. I'm a flexitarian. Actually, I think I learned the word flexitarian on this podcast, you know, and all that stuff. So today, I just wanted to go I wanted to go through that. Are you comfortable with that?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:47
Yeah. Basket way.

Scott Benner 4:51
So I guess my first thing I should do just for people who may be, you know, come in and out of the podcast and don't know you as well. If at diabetes for let's test my memory, are you up to 33 years now or 3234

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:06
and a half 34. My gosh, Jimmy,

Scott Benner 5:09
and that made you how old when you were diagnosed? I was 1313. All right, we won't do the math 34 plus 13. That's no one's business, but yours. It's 47. But so you've had diabetes, since you were 13 years old, you were diagnosed a very long time ago, we've talked over and over again, about your you know, how your management was when you were coming up. But we don't talk as much about how you've eaten through different segments of your life. So I'm gonna go back all the way to you being 13. And ask, did your mom adjust eating when you were diagnosed? That you know of a long time ago?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:51
No, I and I was old enough to know or recognize the change or the difference, right? Did she change how she cooked? Not really, because, I mean, my mom grew up with four siblings. She was the oldest, they lived on a farm. So she ended up doing a heck of a lot of the cooking. Yeah. So they she always was a cook. I mean, the amount of times that we went out to eat, or even fast food or something were very minimal. So she was used to already cooking, the biggest change, I think, was that I don't think I ever remembered measuring cups outside of making cookies at Christmas and cakes. And you know, where you have to use the measuring tools to obviously get it all right. But man, we got more measuring tool, tools and the bouncy like scale that we put the meat on to weigh the perfect portion. And all of that kind of stuff. My mom did change all of the desserty types of things. I mean, they all became sugar free pudding and sugar free jello, and, you know, that kind of stuff. But she didn't. She didn't make that specific just to me, it was if we're going to have putting it sugar free for everybody. Okay, if we're gonna do this, it's this way for everybody.

Scott Benner 7:16
But your management at that point is two shots a day.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:20
I did two shots a day I did the really old school because there was not what we now have as long acting insulin a 24 hour, we had intermediate which was the cloudy and or NPH. I actually use Lily's, which was called Al or lenti. And so that had to be mixed in the syringe with our insulin or regular insulin wasn't even rapid. And I only dosed it twice a day breakfast. So the regular covered breakfast and then the law, the intermediate acting peaked at lunchtime. So I didn't take insulin at lunch. Okay, I did get a snack in the afternoon as well, which was an uncovered snack, kind of curving the downside shift of that intermediate acting insulin. And then dinnertime I did the regular and the lead day mixed in the same syringe again, and that regular covered dinner. And then I always had to have a bedtime snack because it covered the peak in the intermediate acting overnight. So for

Scott Benner 8:23
people who have a Dexcom now and are operating with you know, I don't know modern insulin, excuse me once with modern insulin, even if they see a peak at dinner and everything goes well, their their their bell curve probably goes over like two or three hours, right? I mean, they might spike up a little bit. But you were basically running two bell curves a day morning. So you were mixing make sure I understand this right because I'm I'm Arden comes into diabetes long after this. You're mixing two different insolence into a syringe, shooting it in the morning. One of them is handling breakfast, and the other one's going to come online in time for lunch. Then you shoot for dinner the same mix, one of them handles dinner but then you have to come around at the end of the bell and eat again to stop yourself from getting a little before bed

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:13
are into the midnight hour. Yeah, because intermediate acting was really like a peak of about five to seven hours. So again, breakfast time I'd eat somewhere between six and 7am. So the regular insulin covered that and then the intermediate acting was peaking by lunchtime at about that same five to six hour mark. So lunch would get covered or that in that intermediate would cover lunch and the same thing for the evening. There is no way to cover in all over over the night basil need because there wasn't anything besides intermediate at that point. So in order to hit the the kind of insulin the way that it needed to at its peak without getting low overnight, I had to have a snack before I went to bed.

Scott Benner 9:58
I see and I No, I remember this from our previous conversations your mom was the one thing she was a stickler about is the time you ate. Is that right? Yes. Yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:08
I think the reason that I literally cannot sleep beyond like I will wake up even before my alarm clock goes off at like, six 615. Because it was, that was the time it was breakfast. It was time Jenny had to have her like first dose of insulin because that was a 12 hour window. until dinnertime, when I got my next dose of insulin. Yeah. And they had to be spaced apart enough. So I think the reason I wake up so early. Like, I was just wired that way. Yeah. So So

Scott Benner 10:39
she, she, your mom was looking and saying, If she eats at 6am, than the way this shot works, we'll be good for whatever lunchtime is at school. And then it'll be out of her in time that we can shoot it again for dinner, or dinner. That's why your later snack almost. So were you up late at night as a child?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:58
I wasn't I mean, again, child wise, I was 13. So I was probably going to bed. In fact, I know I wasn't going into bed until maybe like 10 o'clock, and I'd have my snack around like 930 ish.

Scott Benner 11:12
And then after that, carry that off to bed. No one tested you overnight or anything like that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:18
Nobody tested. Oh, no. Oh, my goodness. No, that wasn't even like a thought unless I woke up and didn't feel good. Which did happen. Or for some random reason my mom was up overnight and wanted to check on me. But outside of that, no, there were no checks overnight, it was bedtime. fingerstick wake up in the morning, do it again. And

Scott Benner 11:39
the way you ate during that time was more about almost kind of food pyramid thinking. Like a little bit of this, a little bit of that a little bit of this at certain weights more than anything else.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:50
It was and you know, I think I think there's some practices that do okay with this with kids. And other times I've talked to people and they've said, you know, nobody focused on what my kid needs nutritionally. They just told us that we can eat whatever we want to eat. As long as we cover it with insulin and your blood sugar stays here, then that's fine. Were when I was first educated, the dietitian and educator I worked with looked at what are my nutritional needs based on where I am in life and what my activity level is like. And then they planned out sort of a caloric plan and fit the macronutrients in a certain percentage into that plan. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, I got certain portions of food that got covered with what's called a standard amount of insulin just for the food at that mealtime. I mean, I can still remember like lunch and dinner, I got two starches, two vegetables, a fruit, two to three proteins, one or two fats and a milk. And you did you that was lunch and dinner every single day?

Scott Benner 12:55
And did you have to finish it all every time? Did you have that pressure? Like I need to eat all this or no, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:01
in a way, yes. And you know, being as active as I was, I was probably hungry enough for it all anyway, but I also wasn't, I wasn't nibbling on anything in between, because that just wasn't there wasn't additional insulin, at least not in the first I guess two years after I was diagnosed. And still I until I was taught carb counting, and dosing with insulin to cover a certain amount, then things shifted and became a little bit more flexible in terms of portion.

Scott Benner 13:29
So when that happened when they taught you carb counting? How old were you then do you think? Um,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:35
I was in high school? So probably six to finish, I would estimate.

Scott Benner 13:42
All right, so you did that the one you did the first play for three years or so? Did did having access to the idea of carb counting covering meals for how many carbs at work? Did it change how you ate at all? Or did they just sort of eat the same way?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:59
I don't think that it changed. What my food choices were because I still had certain preferences, obviously. But it gave me more flexibility in terms of how much okay, right? So if I didn't want to eat all of that food at a mealtime now we had wiggle room to play with, you know, I only really want the peas and grilled salmon for dinner. Great. We could adjust for that a little bit better than saying well, you always have to take three units of regular insulin. So you have to eat this much because this is what your insulin is covering.

Scott Benner 14:36
Yes, that was the big shift is that you had more autonomy over the amounts of food and I could drop I don't want to bake potatoes or something like that. Right? Right. Okay. How long do you think you and what insulin I'm sorry, what insulin was that at that time?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:51
That was still regular insulin. Okay. I did not have rapid in getting real excuse me rapid acting insulin. until I was in college.

Scott Benner 15:04
Okay. So so so this first step that you took basically took away the cloudy and you were just counting carbs for and using regular for it. Is that right or no, the first

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:16
step I took was switching from intermediate acting. And if I had to estimate, when did I switch to Lantus? I think it was 1999. Actually, it was right around the time that Lantus came to market. I was switched from using my intermediate acting insulin to Lantus insulin. And then and I had been switched to rapid acting before the change to Lantus. Okay, so I was using intermediate acting the cloudy along with rapid acting.

Scott Benner 15:55
Okay. I don't know, what was

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:57
the first change? Oh,

Scott Benner 15:57
how old are you?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:00
We just said, I'm 47. I

Scott Benner 16:02
know. But why do I think of you as being? I think of you as being so much younger than me? I don't know why that is. But the data is because I've got younger

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:10
kids. Maybe. Maybe that is it. You know, I mean, my husband and I just we did a lot of other things before we had kids. And a lot of people do it the opposite way. They get married, and they're like, let's have kids and we just didn't do it that way.

Scott Benner 16:24
I don't know why, like, if you're telling me the times, and you're like, you know, in 1999 I'm thinking 1999. Kelly was pregnant. Like, Cole, I'm like, This is crazy, but I look at you and I'm like, but she definitely said she was 47. So I'm like I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:38
did. Yes. In fact, 99 is Gosh, 99 is when my husband and I got married. Oh, wow.

Scott Benner 16:45
Okay. Yeah. This is my fault. Forgive i for getting married too early. I'm throwing off the balance of this conversation. Not you. We were still young, we got married. Really? Okay, so you see, you're covering carbs. It doesn't change doesn't change what you're eating. You're still eating. But what I'm what I'm going to call like a very like 1950s through 1980s Like American kind of blend of foods. Just blade some vegetables and starches, some protein chicken beef. Probably all that stuff was happening.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:21
Okay. Yes, absolutely. It was all and you know, growing up in the Midwest. I mean, our starchy things were typically typically potatoes, some noodles, rice occasionally. I wasn't really a big fan of rice as a kid anyway. But I would say more of my like, grainy kind of carby stuff was probably bread. We didn't have cereal was just not something my mom made or purchased. I mean, it was either oatmeal for breakfast or something like toast with peanut butter toast with eggs or you know, something like that for breakfast time. So yeah, I think what really changed was once I went to college, I didn't have to eat what my mom cooked anymore. And I am, I personally am not a meat eater outside of fish, okay, I don't enjoy me. I never did even as a kid. I would, I would have sat at the table for four hours trying to like choke down a burger. That was just not a preference of mine.

Scott Benner 18:35
Did they still give them to you.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:36
Of course. This is what you're eating.

Scott Benner 18:41
I want to gently set for an entire evening, five o'clock, six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, nine o'clock in front of a plate of French cut green beans that I did not want to eat. And the colder they got, the more good. They were. And you know, I'd be like every 15 minutes. I could get one of these. I couldn't do it. And I remember waking up on a Saturday morning after that. And my mom bringing the green paints back to the tea.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:09
Oh, my parents never do that.

Scott Benner 19:11
I was like, Oh God, I'm never gonna eat again. Because like these green beans and and I think I just went into like full on like, I don't know how old I was a tantrum. Probably. I'm thinking I was just probably child abuse, you know, but as far as like a young, young teen, I was like crying. I was like, I can't eat these like you have no idea. I have such trouble with how some things feel in my mouth. Like I'm just not okay with how some things feel. So I wouldn't even know how they tasted like I couldn't get past the part where it's like It's touching. And so, but that's interesting that you didn't particularly like red meat.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:52
And as you say like a texture thing. I mean other other textures really. They don't bother me so much and fat I have textures that I really actually prefer in food. But maybe that was it. I mean, even just like thinking about eating meat, and I don't know why fish is so different. Maybe there's a moisture to fish or it's just a very it's definitely different, right? I've never had a problem with fish. But other meats I just saw I got to college

Scott Benner 20:21
last night. Oh, no, no, no, I'm dying to know because I now have some context for what it means to send a person with type one to college and it's not terrific. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:29
yeah, for one, I learned that mom's home cooking with all of the measurement and the skill that my mom put into what literally went on my plate was very different once I was choosing things in the cafeteria.

Scott Benner 20:47
Freezy did you start like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:49
I don't, I wouldn't say I went crazy. Because I was conscious of what I needed to do. Again, I had no CGM. I had no pomp. I went to college on MDI, and, and finger sticks, essentially, while I was doing a heck of a lot more finger sticks. To get more information, I still really kind of had to stick with what I knew about what my experience with food at home did to my blood sugar. And so I use that in terms of figuring out what to choose from the school cafeteria. I often in fact, by the end of my freshman year, I realized that the salad bar was probably my best friend. Okay. Because it was the easiest place to find things that were good in terms of what I saw happening in my blood sugar. And actually tasted like food.

Scott Benner 21:44
Type raise everyone, everyone who now is looking $14,000 a year in the face for room, board and food at a college. It's like great. So my son my son's senior year. He's he just he called us one day. He's like, I'm so sorry, I can't do this anymore. Can I start buying food outside of the cafeteria, but we had to pay for the food. Like you couldn't regardless. Yeah, you couldn't not pay for it. So I'm like, okay, like you don't even like you know, there's a few 1000 more dollars. I'm like, sure. Yeah, go ahead. He's like that. It's horrible. He's like, it's absolutely terrible. So when we took Oregon to college, and the cafeteria was so much nicer Arden's college than it was at Kohl's. We were so excited, like, Oh, she's gonna get real food. But the truth is, it's like she's eating at a cut rate restaurant. As far as blood sugars go every day. You know how people say like, oh, it's tough to go to a restaurant because you need so much more insulin for this food. Three times a day. That's the situation Arden has been in, like so much. So Jenny, that she contacted me a month ago and said, I'm gonna run out of insulin. And she's only there for a quarter. It was it was 10 weeks. And I sent her enough insulin to be like, plus to be off to be fine. Yeah. And she's like that we got to do something, I'm gonna run out of insulin. And I was like, okay. So I called the doctor. And I'm like, you know, I think this is what's going on. But how long did it take you to adjust to bolusing for that food? Because for the first five weeks Arden was there, I would get a lot of text that said, I'm working on it. I'm trying, you know what I mean? Like, and I'm like, No, I know. You are like I could see, you know, because isn't it interesting Nightscout. Like I can see she's Bolus thing. I can see what's happening and everything like that. But she was not having a lot of luck in the beginning. It took her a number of weeks to figure it out. She's finally starting to get it in her like last three weeks of this 10 weeks. And she's doing a good job now. But it took her a month and a half to learn how to Bolus for that food.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:52
It's definitely adjustment. I mean, while they're not, by any means the healthy choice, I figured out, or at least I think I did, you know, again, only having finger sticks. I figured out french fries, like at school. So when we would go and you know, food is one of those things that becomes very visibly a social piece of your life in college. If it wasn't in high school. It it definitely is there in college, and especially with the later evenings and like whatever else you're doing. Like who wants to eat carrot sticks when you're sitting around with your friends like studying, right? And so I guess those were some of the things in terms of I wouldn't have gotten that at home as much as I probably ate them at school. But the other things just ended up I figured out they they just weren't even worth it.

Scott Benner 24:47
I just I'm I think I'm watching art and follow the same path to work. There have been a couple of times that I'm like, Look, if you just tell me what you ate, I can help you adjust this and she's like, I don't want to tell you what I ate I'm okay. And I'm telling you, french fries are at the core of that. She's like, you know, you get there late at night all the food's not there anymore, but there's always french fries. Yeah, you know, and then I think you're right. Like, it's the end of a day they get around. They're her roommates, and they sit there and they've got friends. They're chatting and talking about boys and girls and whatever else. Yeah, and, and they're eating french fries. So. Alright, so you. I mean, you obviously made it through and you ate a pretty classic college cuisine. When do you become the Jenny I see before you before. When you become a woman who just says quinoa? Like it's just nothing like like it's a thing we all know about.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:50
It's a yummy grain for those of you who don't know. Although I think it's pretty mainstream at this point.

Scott Benner 25:57
I'm not saying that I'm saying that you say keen, while the way other people say chicken nuggets. Just flows. So do you get Do you meet your husband? Do you do like what shifts your eating style?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:13
I think? Well, certainly learning to cook for two. And be aware of another person's desires and like preferences in food makes a difference overall to especially when you're trying to follow a budget. I mean, my husband and I did not live together before we were married. So again, it's a, although we knew each other, you know, enough, obviously. Clearly, I wish together for a long time before we actually got married. But in terms of cooking for two people, again, that does shift some things, I think the biggest thing that I learned is that men can eat a heck of a lot of food. So when I'd sit down, I'm like eating, you know, the portion that I had gotten used to eating. I was like, I you're still hungry. Seriously, like what I don't understand, like, where are you putting all this food, you know, so from a visual or just a perspective of of, like my own management, that's something to kind of overcome is seeing what somebody else can eat compared to what you know, is works for you, as well as for your blood sugar control, and that kind of stuff. So I think in terms of what you what you see today, in what I choose, and what I talk about eating is definitely been like an evolution, right, right over our marriage in life with kids and all of that kind of stuff. And I think, while for a good portion of years before we had kids, I had made a lot of the changes that I currently, you know, still use in terms of food, I think it became even more important for me to improve. For the majority of the time once we had kids.

Scott Benner 28:07
Why do you think has to start thinking like, I want to teach these kids how to eat? Well?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:12
Yeah, yeah, really. And because, again, with all of the knowledge that I have, about what is in food, and not meaning bad stuff, but like, what's the value in food? Food is fuel, it's like putting gas in a car, right? So if you put in quality stuff, you're gonna get quality health out of it. Well, you know, yeah,

Scott Benner 28:38
so we'll mention that here. Because so when you're in college, what is it you're learning to do? Survive what you do for a living after?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:48
All right? And that, that, I guess, that's another big difference. You know, I went to college, knowing where I was going, I had a very clear, I thought it was a clear career path. I was going to go to school to be a dietitian. And then I knew that I wanted to move on and become a diabetes educator. And, you know, the road there, kind of windy and whatever happens, but I learned all those things along the way in college too. Whereas other tracks, I would have never been exposed to the information about nutrition and food and what it does in the body and human biology and physiology. I mean, all those things I would have never known about.

Scott Benner 29:31
Yeah, but it's still even though you learned it in college, it becomes a slower transition as an adult, right, you just start applying what you know, as you go. And correct. And so now

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:42
well, and to put one more point to that in terms of saying, you know, I think it became more important to me and to really do that after we had kids was because I know what kids aren't taught in school, especially where I really think that needs to begin in terms of overall healthy lifestyle. Some of that information in science alone could easily be taught in terms of this is why you eat an apple, or these are the main food groups and then expanding kind of every year so that children grow into well rounded lifestyle

Scott Benner 30:21
and health consumers really

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:23
consumer. Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 30:27
So, so you're trying to it's interesting, isn't it? Like most of the people I talked to on this podcast, when they make big life leaps? It's almost always for somebody else. Almost always, they almost always say, Well, you know, I was getting by with my agency in the 80s. But I got married, and I started thinking, like, I want to be healthy for our relationship, or I'm gonna have kids, so I gotta lower my UNC or, like, that kind of stuff. Right? It's interesting.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:53
And I think something there too, in terms of asked, you know, well, we ended up bigger shift to like what I'm doing now kind of happen, it actually happened right before we were planning to, like, try to have kids, I started to see a naturopathic doctor. And which they're amazing. If you find the right person, I mean, the amount of time that they spend with you, and the really in depth that they look at your life and kind of everything that works together. It's, it's really amazing. But just some of the things that I brought to the table in terms of concerns. I mean, besides type one diabetes, I also have rheumatoid arthritis, which is really well managed. And but some of the things that I learned from this practitioner changed some of the ways and some of the things that I ended up, including in my diet, okay, because we did some allergy testing, and we did some sensitivity, you know, evaluation and kind of, like, how do you feel when you eat this food, like a gut health kind of analysis and all that sort of stuff? So I did, I made some really good transitions from that into kind of where I currently am and I've stuck with, you know, 99% of those shifts and changes do you think

Scott Benner 32:05
because your your, I mean, I think of your diabetes, as well managed throughout your life, for whatever the management style was at the time, right, your your returns, your agencies, and that kind of stuff fit in a healthy a healthy level for whatever the management was at the time. So how much of your eating is about the RA? Is is like are there things you're trying to avoid for that?

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Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:09
The biggest thing, honestly, that I I find affects how I manage it. And when I know I've had more than what I can kind of tolerate is cow's milk dairy.

Scott Benner 37:25
Okay, that's,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:26
that's the biggest thing. I mean, I went through all of the different like, sort of you you take foods out of your diet, you evaluate you add some things back to see how you react to some things. I mean, many times RAs are also very sensitive to what are called the nightshade vegetables, things like peppers and tomatoes and eggplant and that kind of stuff. And I ate a heck of a lot of tomatoes. And I see no difference whatsoever. When I did my food kind of elimination sort of plan. The biggest shift was definitely around dairy specifically, again, cow's milk based, because I can do like the cheeses that I will buy or either sheep's milk or goat's milk again. I don't eat them every day. They don't bother me if and when I do eat them. But I can tell like, if we go out for pizza. There's like real cheese on the pizza. I mean, even though I don't eat the whole pizza, I can tell the next day that I'm stiff. Okay. I can tell in my joints quickly that I've had dairy.

Scott Benner 38:30
Yeah, that's really interesting. So so so Okay, so let's let's go into the homestretch with, let's kind of go through one of your weeks and really find out how you eat so Okay, let's just start today because you've, you've woken up today already what you have for breakfast.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 38:46
So I had raspberries from my mom, my mom's garden. So they were frozen raspberries. Obviously. It's freezing outside right now. There are no raspberries left on the bushes.

Scott Benner 38:59
I want to be clear, you met your mom pick the raspberries earlier froze them and you ate them that they froze overnight with the temperature.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:06
Correct? Yes, absolutely. So frozen raspberries. And then I had a it's a sheep's milk yogurt with it. And then there is a really awesome grain free granola that I like it's made by nature's path. And that's literally what it's called is grain free granola. So I mix that all together and I had that this morning. I mean other breakfasts are typically like old fashioned oats, a small amount and then I use things like chia and hemp seed and ground flax, some coconut oil and cinnamon. spoonful of like nut butter in it, mix it all together.

Scott Benner 39:47
How many carbs do you think your average breakfast is?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:51
Yeah, I can absolutely tell you so for my breakfast I had this morning. I count 18 grams for it. For my typical oatmeal Well, I count 26 grams for that.

Scott Benner 40:03
Okay, do you see spikes?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:07
Not unless I have a bad site. Or sometimes when I know it's a couple of days before I get my site, my period, I'm more prone to potentially having more of a rise up after the oatmeal. It doesn't typically happen with the the granola and the berries. So,

Scott Benner 40:32
yeah. Do you ever get up in the morning on a Saturday and go crazy? Do you ever make a stack of pancakes or french toast or bacon or something like that?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:42
I I wouldn't have bacon, but I get what you mean. Yeah, we we do pancakes. But again, the pancakes that I make are tend to do much lower carb, lower glycemic pancake. And my kids don't. They don't complain about them. They eat them. So does my husband. So I'm like, Well, I'm gonna cook them the way that I cook them because they're good for me. And so clearly, they're good for them too. I mean, I usually use like an almond flour and a coconut flour. I've got a couple of good recipes that I follow. I might put some pumpkin puree in them or some of what's the lily brand like the low sugar like mini chocolate chips kind of in maple syrup. I just don't I don't even eat. I don't eat honey. real maple syrup. I figure why. And that's just my choice. You know? Do you like your maple syrup, have it but I usually use the Lecanto maple syrup, which works really nice and it doesn't affect my blood sugar. So I have to say,

Scott Benner 41:47
I don't love maple syrup either. If I'm not we use like a low carb syrup on the house. I think we use Karis most of the time.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:56
Yeah, that's a that's a common one. Yeah.

Scott Benner 41:58
And, but if I, I'm, I'm perfectly happy with it. Like, it doesn't bother me at all. If I'm gonna go crazy with syrup, which might happen once or twice a year, I want like, I don't know, I want something that could also be like motor oil or something like that. Like, when you're when you're eating it, you're like, This isn't even a natural flavor at all. Like I'm in a diner where we're all going to die. When was the? And even at that, it's like, wow, it's a lot. I can't really do a lot of that. And I'm saying, We haven't made a ton of adjustments to I mean, you know, I guess I'll do an episode one day about how I eat. But I grew up very badly around food. Like nobody understood food around me. And my wife and I took us years to our 20s to like even make sense of like, fire we I still joke my wife is like, I shouldn't say this here. But my wife like is like, the sheets like she's homeless. And she's happy about it. Like, like, we have, like we have 10 cents in the bank is how she eats and that's when she's happiest. But she grew up broke. And eating that way. And I don't know, it just it's what occurs to her, you know. But anyway, my question and the reason I brought that up is your kids have your palate, do you think you taught it to them? Or do you think that it was theirs all along? And you just met them there?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 43:23
That's a really as a good question, because I I don't know, I think some of it might have transitioned from what I ate while I was pregnant. Because, you know, broccoli for a really good example. Broccoli is both of my kids will always eat broccoli, they will eat it steamed, they will eat it raw, they will always eat broccoli out of any of the vegetables. And I think it's because whether this is true or not, I think it's because it was one of the few vegetables in both pregnancies in my first trimester that I could actually stomach. Okay. And I eat a lot of steamed broccoli with Dijon mustard. That's what that very well for me. Why I know that's very bizarre, but that's what worked. And as soon as they introduced it, you know, once they started doing like table foods and that kind of stuff. They had no complaints. It didn't come out of their mouth. So maybe some of it is but I think some of its learned Yeah,

Scott Benner 44:25
I don't want to make you feel sad. But Kelly was pregnant with call and she had a very her palate while she was pregnant with Cole was very clean and healthy. And Cole is it's more like a boy. You know what I mean? But with Arden Kelly a crap like a lot of like for some of it and art and eats very, very well. Like like art and art is the one who's like, well, I'll sit and eat carrots or I'll do this right. You

Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:52
know, like, do you think some of that though for Arden is relative to such an early diagnosis.

Scott Benner 44:57
But I will gently I didn't Oh, like the the person who you're talking to now is not the person who grabbed that two year old baby was like diabetes, okay? Like, I mean, we were, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 45:08
I was theater carrot.

Scott Benner 45:10
We didn't go that way, like I spent two years going like why can't I figure out how to Bolus for cereal, you know, like, like, like what you see online people are just like, I didn't adjust at all. And it didn't occur to me at first. Because like I said, we didn't grow up well around food that some of these foods were better than others or whatever. I mean, I know now and excuse me, we made you know, adjustments. My first big adjustment as a parent was not buying frozen chicken nuggets. That was the that was my first lightbulb moment. I thought like if I'm gonna give these kids chicken nuggets, why the Hold on I go get some chicken and bread in the oven and give it to them. Right and, and I did that, like if it wasn't easy, because by then they knew what um, like a nugget was from McDonald's or from a frozen bag and it was cut like a dinosaur or something like that. So at first they're like, this isn't chicken. I was like, oh, god, look what I've done to you. You know what I mean? Like, like, you don't think chicken is chicken. You think whatever that crap is this chicken. Okay, so, alright, so you will have a splurge. But your sport stays more in a clean lane.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:20
For the most part, yes. And a splurge really, like we're talking about breakfast foods. And again, we don't we don't eat out very often. But there's this place here. It's called short stack. It is if I'm gonna get pancakes out that are not by any means. anywhere close to being low carb or low glycemic or anything at all. I mean, it's it's served with like this sweet mascarpone sort of like yumminess on the side with strawberries. They're probably the healthiest thing on this plane. But they're super they're they're like these Oat. They're oat pumpkin. Pancakes. Sweet potato pancakes. They are. They are the best pancake I have ever had. Honestly. In fact, after my my second son was born, the next morning they came in and they asked they're like, Well, what do you want? I'm like, oh, no, my husband's gone out. And he's

Scott Benner 47:21
so the guys bringing it in? Yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:26
So, you know, splurge? Absolutely. I will.

Scott Benner 47:30
But, but but I like you telling the story because you splurge on pancakes. You're not at IHOP you're not like Yeah, right. Jenny made a face that you guys can see that said Oh god, no. So okay, so

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:44
for people who are like I have I just Yeah, I wouldn't choose it.

Scott Benner 47:48
So So lunch today, what are you going to do?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:51
So lunch today is typically vegetables. I mean, I usually have some type of raw vegetables, cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and cabbage chopped up hummus. This time of the year I really like sauerkraut. Usually an apple or again some berries.

Scott Benner 48:20
What do you think? Carbs? I mean, I can try guessing.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:25
Yeah, my vegetables in the portion that I eat I count 10 grams for my portion of vegetables raw vegetable, they have about a cup and a half ish of raw vegetables. And the hummus I know because the labels right on the container with 11 grams of carb. And then my apple I weigh it because the apples we have are still from the orchard and we picked and so I mean the Apple could be really teeny tiny or could be like the ginormous huge. You could like softball sides, right? So I weigh it. But on on average my lunch is with the with the apple, probably somewhere between 28 and 35 grams of carb. Okay.

Scott Benner 49:12
Yeah. You don't consider yourself low carb at all right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 49:15
I don't know. No, in fact, I'm not. I am not worried about I don't aim for a certain amount under carb amount to certainly eat. I also am not, you know, the opposite end high high carb either. I would say I'm more consistently my daily intake is probably somewhere between 80 grams, 7580 grams on the low end to maybe 110 to 120 grams on the high end. That's crazy.

Scott Benner 49:49
I mean, that's a lot more than than then I was imagining how long it's like. Yeah, sorry. That was more than I was imagining. So you got So close, I have a word written down here. As I started today, I'm like, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna see if Jenny says this word, right? You have not said it yet, but you got so close, I'm gonna go, I'll tell you what the end. Okay, I got so close, it's still might happen. So we'll say, okay, so middle of the day, your is kind of your lighter meal

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:21
of middle of the day tends to be my lighter meal. Now that's on a week, day, weekends, especially Sundays will tend to be a little bit heavier probably on lunch. Mainly because, and I again, it's not necessarily a conscious effort, I just know from experience what I can get away with at certain times, right? So my weekday is tend to be you like lower impact type of meal mid day, because I'm most often while I have a desk treadmill, which is awesome. It's still real low pace. And otherwise, I'm just sitting or standing here. And some by mid day, even though I exercise in the morning, and still been sitting or standing around. Right and so I also I usually have a couple of hours of work to still do after my lunch. So I tend to do something that I know is going to be easier.

Scott Benner 51:22
So it's it's fair to say that you match where some people would match a meet with a wine you're matching a meal with your activity level.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:32
Yes, exactly. Like for Sunday's then these are usually my long run days. I go for a long run in the morning. And so the whole rest of the day I can kind of quote unquote get away with a little bit more because I've got just a much heightened much more heightened sensitive. kind of stay.

Scott Benner 51:54
Okay, all right. So what's for dinner tonight?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:59
Oh, you know dinner tonight. I haven't planned yet.

Scott Benner 52:02
That's dinner last night. I'll make it easier for

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:05
ya. So dinner last night was a corn squash and like a mixed green vegetable kind of salad. I made a Caesar dressing to go on top of it. And then we had salmon.

Scott Benner 52:18
Okay. And the kids boom. Or you have young boys. Acorns their acorn squash cut in half in the oven. Little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. That's that idea for that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:29
Yeah, my boys like them. I do it with a little bit of like more savory seasoning on like a sage and kind of like a mixed season. My husband I like it that way. My boys really like it with cinnamon and a little bit of coconut oil on because it gives it a little bit of its a sweeter kind of flavor to it. So they like it that way but yeah, they they love they love the acorn squash the delicata my littlest. He really loves spaghetti squash. He thinks it's so fun that when you scrape it out that it looks like new Italy.

Scott Benner 53:04
Do you guys need any pasta?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 53:06
Yeah, we do. And the pasta that we typically eat is like the bonza type of pasta, the lentil or the chickpea type of pasta. The one that I really like, because it's the lowest impact is the Explore Asia brand. It's made either black bean or edamame a or I think they've got a green bean one. But I mean a really good like cup cup and a half cooked portion. It comes out once you kind of reduce it by the fiber amount. It's only like 10 or 11 grams of carb for a really big plate of pasta. So I will often do something like that on a weekday type of dinner where I'll give my kids the bonza Prost pasta, which got some good protein quality to it. I'll do the other one and just good marinara and a salad on the side. It's really nice complete meal.

Scott Benner 53:58
Okay, yeah, I was gonna say cuz you don't do any cream sauces, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:02
I don't do any cream sauces unless I make them myself more from like a vegan kind of approach. Like if I have a really good recipe that's got like a cashew nut, you sort of soak it in blended and puree it and make it into like a creamy kind of sauce. It's very tasty. You wouldn't couldn't imagine there's no dairy in it. But

Scott Benner 54:21
as you're talking, I'm thinking I am going to get notes where people say Jenny should write a cookbook with all of her recipes in it.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:28
I have been asked that. So why don't you put all the things that you eat together into this really nice cookbook and as like, if somebody could just keep notes for me? Sure.

Scott Benner 54:40
Let me ask you a question. If we're driving the Jenny families in the car, we're going to another state we're visiting people whatever we pull over on the side of the road everyone's hungry. Do you bring food with you? Or are you in a gas station going I guess I can eat this ring thing.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:58
I know I have to credit my Mom with this, whether it's made my life busier or not, I am definitely the parent that will pack. They pack things that I know, not only snackable depending on how long the trip is, but also if we're going to be on the road over a meal time. Because usually one I know that by the time you end up stopping someplace, you're usually over hungry. Yeah. Right. And then you're more likely going to make the Ring ding choice than something else. And so I packed I packed not only from my only my benefit in terms of driving and the sedentary nature and what that does to blood sugar. I know what the foods that I've packed do for me. And I can also we don't actually have to stop. I mean, not as much as

Scott Benner 55:55
we used to get a bathroom. That sounds like a great, that'd be fabulous. Yeah. It sounds like it would be fabulous. right until you realize that one of the people in the car was going number two while you were driving. Thank you. Maybe this isn't fabulous.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 56:09
Not a good idea.

Scott Benner 56:10
You have a couple more minutes or do you have to go? Oh, of course. Yes. Okay, so, snacks. I mean, I've we've said on here before it's funny. We kind of said when Arden was looking for different ice cream. You You pointed her towards oat milk ice cream, but she she loves now. Which is fascinating because before she tried, she didn't love real sweet stuff. Like if you know Arden she's Arden's not about like real sugary stuff. So she was like using the lenti at some point, like a brand and she's like, this is still too much. Like she's not the kind of kid who's gonna eat like Ben and Jerry's. You know, she might have a spoonful of it, but she's not going to go crazy. But when she when you told her about the oat milk ice cream, like that was a big deal for her. Oh, yeah, she loved it. So when you're snacking, this is kind of the lane you're in. I'm imagining. So I want you to just kind of throw out a few snacky things that you have around the house for yourself.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 57:07
nuts, nuts. That sound weird nuts.

Scott Benner 57:12
Nuts in your mouth. Jenny is your business.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 57:16
Yes, no, I like mix nuts. I think they're, they're great. Boiled eggs are really awesome. Some of the mug like sort of the mug cake or mug muffin kinds of recipes are pretty good. Actually found one the other day that's really super yummy. It's like a, it's like pumpkin pie in a mug without the crossed. Okay,

Scott Benner 57:38
it is brand thing or you made it yourself.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 57:41
Oh, you make it yourself. It's like pumpkin pumpkin puree, like out of a can not up not the pie stuff, the stuff without sugar added to it. And it's an egg, some baking powder, some vanilla extract, and a no sugar sweetener of your choice. Like I just use the vanilla stevia to sweeten it. A pinch of salt. And I think that's it and then you literally like mix it all up in the mug and you put it in the microwave for three minutes. It is it's so yummy. It's like it all the carb that's in there is the portion of pumpkin pie that you put in comes to eight grams of carb.

Scott Benner 58:19
All right, I'm gonna ask you to send me that when I'm gonna try that. I want to try. Okay, good for ya. Because, like, for instance, if we've just got past Halloween here, there's no bowl of candy corn in your house. Is that right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 58:34
There's no bowl of candy corn, there's no bowl of candy. We just don't. Not from my perspective, because I I'm an adult decisionwise I can choose or not choose right. But I just don't think it's necessary to have that as a potential option. I mean, if you really want to go into also why we don't have any Halloween candy despite it not being very long ago and our kids having come home with like four buckets full of of Halloween candy. Our children got to pick five pieces that were chocolate. Not the like sugar, you know, sugar stuff. I mean, not that the chocolate doesn't have sugar but and then I paid them to give me their candy, which they were all excited. I was like these are your options. You're not eating all this candy. That's just how it is. It's going out of the house but if you willingly give us then I will pay you each this amount of money and you can use it as you like for something you want. Where did the candy go? Oh, the candy went. My husband plays soccer. So he took it to the soccer field for one of his games and he just left it there. Okay. We brought like the Rubbermaid just like plastic things and we put it in a couple of them and we left them on the tables there and they're adults, they can make a choice right

Scott Benner 1:00:00
sec. Okay, so a lot of this really is then about options in front of you. Yes, like you, there's no way for you to have a bad day, I'm making quotes and put my fingers in your house. Like you can't you couldn't get up today and just be like, I'm gonna go find some sugary candy that doesn't exist in the house. I'm gonna like, that stuff's just not there. Right? I could

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:23
choose to over eat some of the things that are here. Absolutely. I mean, if I chose to eight, chose to eat, you know, eight apples in a row. Clearly that bad day

Scott Benner 1:00:34
impact. So let me ask you this question. If I picked you up, and took you to someone else's life, where today you got up in the morning, and had a bowl of cereal, and at lunch, you had a sandwich on bread, and there were potato chips with it. And it dinner? I don't know what you have like that. Could you Bolus for all that for your body? Do you think?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:55
Having enough experience? I could? Yes. Yeah. I mean, I could, I could figure it out. Obviously, just having hindsight from having stuff like that in the past. I mean, we've had, you know, family gatherings and whatnot, which I haven't obviously put all of the work into all of the food that comes to something like that. So I do have to make choices. And certainly will I indulge? Absolutely. At certain points in time? I don't make it regular though, right. It's like, what's in our house and what I choose to eat, and what I choose to kind of prepare and what not for our family is like 80 to 90% of that is its fuel, it's what should be going in to my body. And I can tell a difference in how I feel, depending on what I eat not only blood sugar wise, just in general, you know?

Scott Benner 1:01:46
I'm guessing on to the in between meals, you're not overly hungry, right? No, no. Okay, I'm not weird carved desires and stuff like that, because you haven't been eating that stuff to begin with that kind of sugary stuff that wires your brain to say, like, go get more

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:02:02
true. I mean, at times when I do want something like chocolate again, I do more like real dark chocolate is absolutely like my favorite. So but I don't eat again, it might be here, but I'm not eating the whole entire bar or 20 pieces of it. I just don't need that. And the one little piece that I do eat might have, for me, you know, something like three or four grams of carb. I don't even have to Bolus for that. I mean, it is what it is. Somebody else may have to obviously cover and considerate, but

Scott Benner 1:02:35
sound work that way. So two more questions for you. My first one is that through your life, you haven't, I'm assuming had to worry much about your weight, like your body style stayed fairly consistent.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:02:47
It has, I would say that the time period that I probably gained the most, which is not odd, I'm quite sure you can guess it was in college. I mean, it just was right. My activity level change even though as we're walking around campus and playing like rec volleyball, it still was just very different. I think that this shift in your sleep schedule, and I'm sure the french fries didn't help me.

Scott Benner 1:03:14
Tries just tape them right on your thighs, don't even yourself. But I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:03:18
think outside of that, no. And that's certainly while I work to stay healthy. I haven't thankfully been somebody who has struggled with weight, right? And whether it's because I've just paid attention to what my body wants, and I feed it. And I do good things with what I'm feeding it. I also learned pretty early on because of because the manner of instruction that I started with when I was first diagnosed was very tied to portion. Yeah, it was this amount is this much. This is why you need it. And again, today, not a lot of portion is really taught outside of just how many grams of carbs in the portion, right?

Scott Benner 1:04:04
I can't tell you like I clearly don't eat as well as you do. But how often I see things people are eating. And I think it's like how do you eat all that? Like, I don't understand how you can like, like, physically the amount, even with liquids. One of the reasons I don't think I drink is because when I see somebody drink three or four beers and like, I couldn't drink three or four cups of water like that, like how are you doing that? You know, I'm impressed by it. Honestly, I'm like, how do you get that in? I can't do it. So yeah, so my last question to you is, obviously with what you do for a living. You're helping people who eat in all varied ways. Even though you and I don't really ever talk about it. I assume we're like minded and as much as that I just want people to know how to use the insulin for what they're eating. Like I'm not I'm I'm not here telling anybody how to eat like I know. I don't imagine that's the thing you could do for A for a stranger through a podcast one way or the other. So. So then, do you feel like, like, are you almost like a video game character with your, your understanding of diabetes like these are like, I'm imagining a spinning dial on you and I hit D and the dial pops up. And I spin it around to like high carb, low carb, vegetarian, like, and you're like, Oh, I know how to think like this. Do you think of it that way? Like, when you get a person on the phone, you don't I'm saying?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:30
Yeah, no, that's absolutely, because I think I've worked with so many different fueling plans, if you will, right. And it's great that you bring in, you know, we're not really about talking, you should always be eating this one way, the idea is really just navigating management. And that's how I approach any new person that I work with, right? You have these options, this is likely to potentially be a little bit easier if we swip swap do this versus this or a little bit more of this a little bit less of that kind of thing. But everybody has an eating style. And it's my job to help you. If that's really what you want to keep doing great, then we need to figure out how to navigate that and make sure you know your glucose is staying where you want it to stay and your insulin is well managed or your other meds are well managed. So that's, I guess that's an interesting like, spin the dial and it comes up this person wants to be vegan. So then my brain sort of Yes, absolutely. It sort of navigates into like my vegan train of thought like, what, what do I have to consider? Where are you getting your nutrients from? Are you getting enough of these vitamins and whatnot? Absolutely.

Scott Benner 1:06:39
I mean, I think that a lot of my skill comes from the fact that we mix and match so many different kinds of food styles at the same time. Like Like, that's where my that's when I see a food I'm like, well, that's a slow impacting carbon. That's a quick impact the I think that's why I'm good at Chinese food and things like that, because I don't look at it as I don't know I don't look at general, the general chicken and think Oh, general chicken, I think sauce. Deep fried breading you you're breaking it down. Yeah, in my mind. I break it down into different thoughts. So it's, I mean, in my mind, if you're eating generals chicken as an example, you're eating four different things. 3d, you're eating protein breading fat, and sugar. Like that's, that's how it seems to me. I don't think of it as chicken. I know that if you put like rice on top of it, I think okay, well, if this is white rice, it's one thing if it's fried rice, it's different. You know, like, I don't know, like, it just that just makes sense to me. But if Arden ate more like you, like say Arden just came out of the womb, like I'm gonna say the word that you didn't say, Jenny, I'm so let down. You didn't say this word. Oh, that was a quinoa.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:07:50
Do you want me to say quinoa? I

Scott Benner 1:07:52
was just say kimchi.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:07:54
Kimchi. Oh my gosh, I love kimchi. I can't show you when I commented about sauerkraut before I'm

Scott Benner 1:08:02
that's I haven't written right here. So I wrote down kimchi when we started. And when you said sauerkraut, I wrote down sauerkraut. She got so close.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:08:11
Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, we have. It's funny because we've got friends around the corner from us. That are our little boys are the same age and are in school together. And they make kimchi and it's it's so good. Like, so so good. My mom who makes sauerkraut, which is probably the reason that we've got a lot of it right now because we just

Scott Benner 1:08:32
that sounds good. I love sauerkraut. I've never had kimchi. Although I was in a store the other day, I saw a jar. And I thought if I didn't know, Jenny, it would look to me like somebody threw a handful of grass and weeds in this jar. But instead I know what.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:08:48
Oh, good. I'm so glad that I provided some education.

Scott Benner 1:08:50
Well, not only that, you know, I'll tell you this before I let you go. I saw someone online the other day, who said I had a banana but it was overripe. So I had to Bolus more for it. And I thought she knows that from the podcast. And she knows that from Jenny. And I was very proud of that. Like I really was I was like oh, this is wonderful. So that's super awesome. I appreciate you sharing with us with all this how you eat this is gonna go into the how we eat category.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:09:18
Fantastic. I'm sure there are things that I don't even know if I missed saying anything. I don't know. I

Scott Benner 1:09:23
mean, no, but I think the important thing about the conversation is it's a vibe, right like here's what I didn't hear you say I didn't hear you telling me that you eat anything deep fried. I didn't hear you very rare. Yeah right. I didn't hear you tell me that you have processed sugar. I didn't hear like you know that kind of stuff like that's the you know, I didn't hear you telling me I eat like this unless I ended up you know at the store and then all bets are off or something like that. You know you I heard you tell me how you eat when you get away from your house. I heard you told me that you don't go to a lot of restaurants. See, that's how I mean, this is how you eat. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't fit into a category. You're not low carb, you're not flexitarian you're not, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:10:10
I don't write i, this is like Jenny's fuel plan. follow you, right? I don't fall into a category. I mean, if we go out to eat, we've we've picked some places that both Nathan and I have decided are just, they're really good options. You know, I mean, there's a place here that it's a really good like, salad place that's got really good quality, super awesome stuff that you can that our boys even love. Like they love to make their build their own salad from the options. And so those are more the places that we will often go.

Scott Benner 1:10:47
I didn't hear a lot, a lot, a lot of white flour. Like that sounds like something you don't get.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:10:53
I don't know. In fact, I think the last time I had white flour was probably sourdough bread this past summer that we had when we were we had gone to see Nathan's dad and his stepmother, and she made some good homemade sourdough. And I was like, Can I have a piece of that? Yeah, that sounds no good. I'd like that. Yes, that sounds

Scott Benner 1:11:17
good. Yeah, I listen, I made chocolate chip cookies the other day that are just kind of sitting downstairs. And I realized that as a, as a younger person, if somebody would have made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, I probably would have eaten lunch every time I walked past that. And I don't feel like that anymore. And I don't know if that's because I'm older, or if it's because I don't eat as much of that to begin with anymore. And so I'm not drawn to it the way I was like, There's part of me that thinks that I didn't have a chance. I woke up on Monday morning, I ate a bowl of sugary cereal. And that drove my desire throughout the day. Nobody made a meal to send with me somewhere. So even as an at 19 or 20 year old out of, you know, out of high school and on my way to work, I'd stop it like a store and grab, by the way what I could afford, which was never quality either. You know, like so there's, and then you're sort of, I don't know, like, it's like you're trapped in a in a hurricane that at that point that you just kind of can't break out of the walls of anymore. Like this is the world like my body desires this sugar, and flour, because this is what I can afford to eat. Even if I get afford more because when I got older and we could afford more, I didn't know what to do. Right? You don't I mean, I wasn't like, oh, we have some money now. I'll go buy good things. I didn't know what good things were versus bad things. No one even thought about it that that? Yeah. So I don't know. It was interesting to hear your path through all this. Your parents or your body style ish?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:12:53
Um, my dad was more. He was more the exercise. person in our house. Definitely. I mean, he's the one that got me interested in biking. My mom, now older is a little issues heavier than she was growing up. But yeah, I mean, in terms of body size, I don't have tall parents. And I didn't have extremely big parents by any means.

Scott Benner 1:13:27
It was my situation where I, when I'm with my children, people don't think they're my kids. Like we were able to do the thing that you were worried about, to some degree, like we were able to take our kids and like lift them out of the swamp that we grew up in, and kind of throw them up on the shore. And we're like, I mean, they still eat things that I wish they didn't eat. And I and I know that's because we eat those things like or that they brought around the house when they were younger before we wrapped our head around completely, you know, but for the most part, I mean, on any baseball field, or softball field I've ever been on, when people come up to you and they're meeting you and they're like, is that your kid? People always like point to the I don't know how to say this. Like the fattest kid on the team know if that's your kid there. And I'm like, I'm like no, my son's that. Gizelle and centerfield. And then they're like, Oh, I know your wife slept with the mailman. I understand that Kelly said all the time, people would come up to her at a softball game and point to the catcher and say is that your daughter? And Kelly be like, No, that's my skinny girl at third base. Are you there? Yeah. And so like that, but you match like if you stood with your family you guys all look at the reason I'm bringing

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:14:43
we would look much more visibly, I guess facially much more similar than body type like my I got the short jeans in the family. I did. I mean my brother's like six to

Scott Benner 1:14:57
I'd love to like, Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:14:59
I'm like, you know Five, three, I didn't get the tall jeans.

Scott Benner 1:15:03
I just think that what I'm hearing from your story is that your mother was willing to cook and do a good job of that, and your father was active. And you kind of took those two things and blended them together. And I'm gonna guess that you ended up in nutrition or health care, which I think of being a nutritionist as healthcare, because you had diabetes, right? Like you probably grew up with people taking care of you that you I mean, I hear it all the time. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:15:30
I did it became an interest after after I realized what a what I thought was a really good job that my dietitian, especially diabetes educator, like, I never felt like I couldn't do something. After I was diagnosed, like I never I've never had this. Well, God, I like this has just been so horrible my whole entire life. I mean, would I give it away? If somebody was like, Here? Take this pill and you don't have to? I'd be like, Sure. Give me the pill. Tomorrow or, you know what a ring the I don't think it's like a doughnut, right?

Scott Benner 1:16:12
It's, I don't know what it is. It's chocolate with chocolate cake with like white cream and chocolate icing around the outside. Okay, there

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:16:18
you go. Yes. I'm assuming you would take a bite.

Scott Benner 1:16:21
You'd go. Oh my God, that's insane. And then you would never eat. I'm at the point. Now, by the way, were processed foods. Tastes plasticky to me. Yeah. But when I was growing up, I didn't know the difference between them. Sure. I thought that was sweet. And now I'm like, This isn't good. You know? Or if you get if you took me to McDonald's, for example, I understand what a McDonald's cheeseburger tastes like. But I don't match that in my I haven't had a McDonald's cheeseburger in a really long time. But if I had one, like, I know what I think it tastes like right now in my head. But if you asked me what a McDonald's cheeseburger tastes like, I would tell you that it tastes like a McDonald's cheeseburger. Not like that, like a cheeseburger. Yeah. So I didn't have that. I didn't have those measurements in my head when I was younger. I thought that's what a cheeseburger was. Sure, yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:17:10
There was always a like, I can probably count on two hands. The number of times as a kid we went to like McDonald's or Hardee's was like card theme. You know, but I don't even think that I've ever had a McDonald's cheeseburger. Because I didn't I didn't like I always chose the fish was the fillet of fish. It's called fillet

Scott Benner 1:17:31
o fish, I believe fillet o fish, Diego. I would tell you that I haven't had one in years, except once. And it was like six months ago. And Arden and I were out late. She had a bit of blood sugar. That wouldn't like it just wouldn't break. And when we finally got it to break, and she had missed dinner, and everything was gone. And it was like midnight. And I was like Arden. Like we are going Yeah. And so we sat like, like to giddy children in the dry like outside the drive thru like EDA. God, this is terrible. And it was, but it was really good. And it was terrible at the same time. And so I don't know, it was just something. All right, I appreciate you doing this with me very much. Thanks for asking. Everything you need to know about Jenny was just in the inflection and her voice when I said thanks for doing this with me. And she said of course. Thanks for asking. That's who Jenny is. She's delightful. Let's thank Jenny of course and remind you that she works at integrated diabetes.com. If you'd like to hire her, you can also want to thank Omni pod makers of the Omni pod dash and the Omni pod five and remind you to go to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box Do not delay go now. Find out if you're eligible for that free 30 day supply of the Omni pod dash. I'd also like to thank my other sponsor in pen from Medtronic diabetes and remind you to head over to Impend today.com Ford slash juice box alright everybody, that's it. I am time shot. I gotta be honest with you. I haven't felt well in weeks. And this took a lot out of me. But I'm happy happy happy that you're here with me. And I will not die I promise. Even though it is trying to kill me. First the COVID then I got rid of the COVID then bronchitis then I got rid of the bronchitis. Now, I don't even know what this is. This just seems cruel at this point. But uh, I will not be I will not be thwarted. I am a little woozy. And I'm hot. But I won't I will not be third party. Sorry. I will not be the word. I will make this podcast. It will I will not be stopped. I want to feel better so badly and get this. I'm not nearly as sick as my wife. That poor girl. She's told me Stover, you know what I mean? Like, she's beat up. It's crazy. As soon as I feel better, and I mean, as soon as I feel better, I got to start doing the setups because I need somebody to take care of these kids. And you don't I mean, it's not looking good. You guys can hear the sarcasm, right? I mean, she's really sick, but I don't think she's gonna pass. But seriously, really, really sick. If you've been ill with all this. You have my you have my compassion. All right, everybody. Here I go watch this. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. I got it when I need it.

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