#201 Chris Ruden from The Titan Games
Scott Benner
You can see Chris on Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's new NBC show 'The Titan Games' beginning on January 3, 2019.….
Chris has a congenital birth defect leaving him with only 2 fingers on his left hand and a shorter left arm. 19 years into battling his physical situation, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Today Chris shares his story and talks about how insulin affects weight, workouts and more.
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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, everyone, welcome to Episode 201 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is the last of Season Four. I first began making this podcast in January of 2015. And I am very proud to have given you a weekly episode, except for a couple here and there every week for four years. While other podcasts are busy doing urine reviews and speaking blah blah blah about whatever the pops in their head because they think they have to put an episode up I am finishing this year strong the way I promised you. We did Anthony Anderson, the star of blackish Brett Christiansen was here from Omni pod to tell us about the new dash PDM coming in the first quarter of 2019. And we also talked a lot about their new artificial pancreas. And its integration with tide pool. I am bringing you the important information here. And just because it's a few days after Christmas and a few days before the New Year does not mean that the Juicebox Podcast brings you some throwaway episode because I promised you one. That's not how I work here. Today you are going to get the answer to a question that most of you at some point have emailed me and asked how is insulin impacting my weight. And I have a guy on here who's going to talk about it in ways I think you're going to appreciate. But first let me thank Dexcom and Omni pod for sponsoring the Juicebox Podcast you can go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box, or my Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box to find out more about the sponsors of this show. There are also links in your show notes at Juicebox podcast.com. Find out more today about the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor and get yourself a free no obligation demo of the world's only tubeless insulin pump the Omni pod go to the links
Unknown Speaker 1:39
check it out.
Scott Benner 1:45
Chris Ruden was born with a shortened arm, a smaller hand that had two fingers. Later in life. He was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes. Today, he helps people just like you. I met Chris when I was speaking in Ohio at the jdrf summit. And as he and I found some free time together and we were chatting, I thought this is the guy Finally I found someone to answer your questions about weight loss and weight gain. And insulin, finally found the right guy to bring him on. You're gonna want to listen to what Chris has to say about health and type one diabetes and the use of insulin. He's got great insight, I think you're gonna love it. Not only that, but in just a few days on January 3, Chris is going to be a contestant on the Titan games with Dwayne The Rock Johnson, like on NBC, you're gonna be able to like flip on the television and go, Hey, that guy that I just heard on the Juicebox Podcast is standing in front of me on my TV, and he is doing amazing things, crazy feats of strength. Do not miss this. People who comes through for you. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And always consult a physician before becoming bold with insulin or making any changes in your health
Chris Ruden 2:59
care plan. My name is Chris Ruden. And I am probably the only seven fingered diabetic record holding power lifter nutritionist and online influencer that you know, and I guarantee that
Scott Benner 3:14
what's the what's the rate limiting factor in there? Chris? What makes you so simple? able to say that do you think
Chris Ruden 3:20
it's probably the gel I use in my hair? Definitely the gel I use Am I I could definitely say not many people I know have a congenital birth defect and type one diabetes and also have four state records and one world record and all the fancy letters behind my name, but I'm gonna go to jail.
Scott Benner 3:39
I met you recently and your hair was on point. So
Chris Ruden 3:41
I appreciate that. That makes me happy. life goals are accomplished. Normally, I'd
Scott Benner 3:52
asked you when you were diagnosed, but I don't think that's the lead question. So you, I don't know exactly how to talk about this. So you know, in terminology, so you'll help me please. But yeah,
Chris Ruden 4:00
that's not a problem. So I mean, when you want to talk about I was born with a disability, no, that does not mean I am technically disabled and not not abled, and just differently abled, if that makes sense. So I was born with two fingers on my left hand and a shorter left arm. And I never I didn't have diabetes growing up, but I grew up with a disability. So I know what it was like to be different, to be looked at to be made fun of to be an outcast, because you weren't physically the same. You know, I didn't realize all the other issues that were going to come into play later in life because of diabetes, but I dealt with that growing up as a kid and it was is really tough, you know, to be in a not nice area. You know, I didn't grow up rich and I was kind of alone because you don't know other people who have disabilities at that time. And Facebook groups weren't a thing. So you know, I grew up kind of alone and Mike Okay, I'm different I am. I'm supposed to be less than I guess because disabled technically is synonymous with We can bargain and useless and all these other names. So I grew up labeled and it was it was definitely
Scott Benner 5:07
let me ask you this when I know it's hard because you're young and it's it's it's asking you to think back really far. But until you leave the house and go to school, do you really think how differently Do you think of yourself? I'm assuming everyone else in the house has two arms the way I'm imagining. So yeah, so I mean, is it that easy? Do you look up and go, I'm not like my mom and dad, or my brothers and sisters. I don't know what your family situation is.
Chris Ruden 5:31
So, for me, it wasn't at home. I thought everything was good. You know, until I started going to I think it was middle school. I went to the same school my entire life. You know, in elementary school, everyone knew me and I there was some issues here and there, like people making fun of me, but like, it wasn't, it wasn't too bad. You know. Now, it wasn't until I went to a new middle school. And I was I never hid my hand whatsoever. You know, I went to New Middle School, the first day, everyone started making fun of me laughing me all this stuff. And I'll never forget, there was this girl named crystal who was just, you know, she was the Braves girl on the glass. And I wanted to go talk to her. So I went up to her in front of the class, and I turn around and everyone's laughing. I'm like, why are you guys laughing? And I turn back around look at Bristol, and she's using the stapler to make fun of my hand. And I showed my hand in my pocket. And for 17 years. I hid my hand from that point.
Scott Benner 6:29
Well, and the staplers ham fisted at best. Like I mean, she could have come up with something better.
Chris Ruden 6:33
But yeah, exactly. These middle school kids, Chris, they're not invented Middle School is by far the worst, though is they might not be invented, but they are ruthless. So any kid going through middle school? I just I feel for them. Yeah, no kidding. And it gets better. It gets better.
Scott Benner 6:50
And of course, you're the same age too. So you can't respond in any meaningful way? Oh, no.
Chris Ruden 6:55
I had no clue. I had no no preconceived notions, or like, no knowledge on how to deal with a scenario like that. You know, and I was always embarrassed to tell my parents what I was going through in school, so they never really knew
Scott Benner 7:07
not. And it's funny. It's as you're saying, and I realized too, like, as you you're walking up to Crystal, which I mean, we're we're very close to just calling this episode crystal socks, but probably not. So. But as you're walking up there, you have no expectation that she's not going to be anything but like human and polite in return and excited to meet a new person, like you're excited to say hi to Absolutely, absolutely. I
Chris Ruden 7:27
had no thought whatsoever. And it wasn't until that point that I was like, wow, I am different. You know, we're kids. We're like, Oh, don't always choose me to be the monster at recess. And then everything starts to come together. Like, wow, that's why this is why everything is happening like it is. And I went from being naive to being guarded. You know,
Scott Benner 7:48
it took away could you had you probably had a perfectly normal and healthy opinion of yourself.
Unknown Speaker 7:53
I did up until that point, right.
Scott Benner 7:55
Yeah. It's very interesting. I know. I'm not. I'm not like, lean, you know what I mean? Like, my body's not lean. I never really have been my whole life. But I don't think of myself as overweight, which is interesting. Because it, I think it's sometimes it stops me from taking better care of myself, because I don't particularly think of myself poorly. But at the same time, I know people see me and it's funny. You and I know each other I'm not like, painting myself is like grossly overweight, just like flowing through door. Yeah.
Chris Ruden 8:28
But But I'm not I'm not at the weight that I wish I was right. But I don't I don't see myself that way. But I do know other people. Look at me, and I don't I it's not there. You know what I mean? Like, a lot of time, a lot of times for me, it's a lot of people write this, whether it's good or bad. It's I'm just going to take the emotion out of it. And this purgatory of a life where they don't change, they kind of want more, but they don't change and they don't change because no one said anything. And I don't think that's a problem. Like before crystal. I was in that purgatory life thinking everything was good, you know, but life will skew your opinions of yourself based on what people say and how people act around you. So if they don't, you have no reason to feel any other way except for your confident beliefs in yourself. Now, when people start to say things to you and start to get to you, if you allow it to get to you, you will change and that's usually not in a positive or beneficial way. Kind of like what I went through, you know,
Scott Benner 9:23
so when did you At what age did you start using a prosthetic arm? Is that the right terminology for that?
Chris Ruden 9:29
Yeah, I started using a prosthetic arm last year, just last year. I hid my hand for 17 years until November of last year.
Scott Benner 9:38
And you were bodybuilding prior to that, right?
Chris Ruden 9:41
I was bodybuilding. powerlifting speaking, I was living my life. I played drums, I did martial arts, I danced. I did everything hiding in plain sight. And a lot of people tend to do stuff like that. You know, for most people. It's kind of like a mask. For me. It was literally and figuratively a glove. I wear a glove to hide my Left hand for 17 years from my girlfriend from everyone who knew me, I never took it off ever, ever, ever.
Scott Benner 10:08
Did you avoid touching people with it? Yes,
Chris Ruden 10:11
I pretended like it didn't exist. And I was so confident I had such a strong persona, that most people wouldn't ask me about it because they would feel uncomfortable to come at me. And it was this fake sort of confidence that I fixed all the problems in my life. But that one elephant in the room, and I pretended like it didn't exist,
Scott Benner 10:35
I was gonna say, I mean, there's that where's the bodybuilding initially came from? Are you just trying to perfect the parts of you that, that were, you know, quote, unquote, normal and what everyone expected.
Chris Ruden 10:45
So I've always been that super, super competitive person that wants to like compete with everyone, whether we're walking next to each other, and I'm gonna walk faster than you. And you don't even know we're racing or shift. You know, I that's exactly that's, that's me all the time. I think that's just from being born differently. I'm always like, proving to myself that I can do something. So I everything I've done has been competitive from dancing to drums to all these things. So bodybuilding was the last thing that was like, Oh, you can't do this. Because you need symmetry. You physically don't have symmetry. It's the way you were born so that you can't do this. And to me, that's, that's the biggest challenge. They I can't do something. So I kind of out of spite. I got into bodybuilding and powerlifting
Scott Benner 11:27
Yeah, I mean, I've seen images of you when I assume you were more in a training mode. And for size, and I obviously met you a few weeks ago at the jdrf event in Ohio, and you're incredibly fit, but you know, instructor Bruce? No, no, I'm very handsome man, Chris is what I'm saying. And, and so
Unknown Speaker 11:46
that works for me. Yeah, listen, whatever, right?
Chris Ruden 11:48
I will take it as working is working. Those Instagram pictures aren't lying. That makes me happy.
Scott Benner 11:53
But but it does strike an outsider because it hit me. How did he build himself so symmetrically, when I my assumption was that you're at a deficit on your left side, but you're not. And and so how do you make that work?
Chris Ruden 12:10
I think what's funny is, anytime people, people encounter a problem, like a struggle, whether it is diabetes, or whether it's anything financial friend, something they consider themselves to be at a deficit. And for me, it's not being at a desk, it's being how I've always been, you know, I do the best with what I've got was what I've given. And the biggest resource you have is just being resourceful. So if you see what you have, for me, it was my left arm and I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna need a little bit extra work on my left arm, instead of acting normal, like everyone else, I'm going to do things differently. I'm going to adapt, and I'm going to make the best of what I can. And that's what I've done. And that's what I continue to try and do is always perfect my situation and not perfect. The image of normal or not perfect the image of what everyone else thinks it should be. You know, there's no universal fix to an individual problem. So I think people that's where they messed up, they think they're going for this universal approach that doesn't fit them.
Scott Benner 13:08
You know, it reminds me of is, it's so funny. I think we measure everything out to perfection, especially the stuff we can see. So I as you're talking, I'm thinking of just today, the Phillies traded a player for another player. And involved in this trade was a kid that they had. They drafted really high they had a ton of expectations for any kind of wasn't coming through the way they expected. So as he's going out the door, I'm seeing people comment on what a floppy was, you know, good riddance, thank God, we got rid of them, blah, blah, blah. But, but the truth is, and I have a little bit of perspective on this, so my son plays baseball in college right now. But he started playing baseball when he was four years old. 2004 and 2004. That's the statistics say that in 2004 4 million children began to play baseball in America that year. Last year, when my son went on to college, he and 9500 other people went on to play college baseball of Wow, 4 million. Of those only. I think there are 3000 professional baseball players in the world of that only a handful of hundreds actually play baseball on television. Every night, all summer long. This guy that just got traded, is just a hair's breadth, not as good as those other guys. And people treat them like garbage on the way out the door. not crazy. not religious, but I think that's how we think about things like instead of and my point is, is that wherever along that path, you know, anyone stops being able to move forward. That's still amazing. If you're, if you're a 30 year old guy in a softball league because you love softball. There's nothing wrong with that. But from the outside, we tend to look at that guy and go, Oh, what a loser. He didn't make it to college. That's,
Chris Ruden 15:00
that's the unfortunate part about life today, people see other people's success and they're so engulfed by wanting to get to that when success really is individual, it's defined by you. And if you define it as you need to be, you know, Bill Gates, you're gonna have a hard time feeling successful, feeling happy, you know, but the best way to feel happy and to be successful, I think in my head is gratitude, you know, being grateful for what you actually do have, because there's millions of people who would kill to have what you have. I saw a random fact, you know, if you have clothes, shoes, and a roof over your head, you're doing better than 75% of the world. If you make over $100 a week, you're in the top 8% wealthiest people in the world. That's crazy. You know, and I know from personal experience, you might be there too. You might not consider yourself a wealthy, but to most people you are I say
Scott Benner 15:56
all the time that the the the working poor in America, and even some of the non working poor in America are still some of the more well off financial people in the world.
Chris Ruden 16:07
They 100% are that's not to take away their their struggles. But right. perspective is a crazy thing. And that's why I started to over the last, like, let's say, 10 years, I really tried to change my perspective of I was given less to I was given an opportunity to make the most of what I've got, you know,
Scott Benner 16:27
I'll tell you something that I say a lot. It's about, it's about a one C. So you know, I know that the the general feeling in the in the diabetes community is that you don't share your a one c because it makes people feel bad. And I have my own thoughts. I think some people are out there kind of Hawking their wares. And then they don't want to fall through at the end and say, you know, you know, they like to say do what I do follow me here, you know, maybe pay for my plan of this or whatever. But I don't want to tell you my one c because I don't want you to feel bad. Well, listen, if you want me to follow you along on your idea about how to take care of type one diabetes, I want to see how it works for you. Absolutely. Right, right. And so I share my daughter's a one C in that spirit. In the spirit of I'm saying all these things that we do, you should know how it works out in the end. But But still, it's it can be debilitating to other people. I'm completely aware of that. So I've come to say, and I hope that people really feel this, that looking at someone's a one C or their I don't know their Dexcom graph that seems pretty steady, or you know, somebody who's got a goal of 7130 and stays in it most of the time, you should look at that. And if you don't have that, that should just look hopeful to you. You shouldn't be angry at that person. In my mind, you should look and go, Oh my gosh, that's possible. Let me figure out how that happens. Like how do I do that? Not I can't believe they're having this success. And I'm not immediately angry at them and sad for yourself. It's such a counterproductive way.
Chris Ruden 17:58
I mean, it happens with everything. You know, with diabetes, I see it happen a lot dirt. There are two kinds of people, they're the kind of person that shares their agency, maliciously, to prove something or to have social currency saying I'm better than you. And those are the type of people saying, Hey, this is just my situation, it happens to be this. And this is how I got here, that is a lot better of a way. Same thing with people with their bodies, you know, you could have two guys with ABS, one guy could be super cocky and kind of arrogant. And then the other guy could be like, this is what I did. And this is how I got here. And this is the product, you know, it's it's a different perspective from the person who has that agency or from the person who has the body or that person who has that business, versus the person who sees it. Now, the people who see the ANC or her daughter, people see the ANC, that are really low. And people want to strive to that. It's on them as well to say, Hey, I can't take this as a negative thing. That's that's the way you perceive it. And you control your thoughts and beliefs and reactions, whether you say you want to or not, it's all you. So when you see a number like that you can't you can't go into this negative self doubt. And unless you like you said it should be Hope it should be inspiration to keep going and know that it's possible.
Scott Benner 19:13
First of all, anybody who would do that, for what you called social currency, I'm old enough that I don't even think about that concept. But I you know, social media are very real thing. I definitely understand that. That's true. Those people are just, that's a horror, like, you know, the there should be a special pile for them in hell for somebody who's running around trying to make you feel bad through Instagram or whatever. That that's just odd. But the rest of it, I mean, you have to you have to believe when I tell you that years and years went by, I couldn't get my daughter's a one C to move. And I didn't know what I was doing. And I just kept building these small ideas on top of one other on top of one another with no real direction. And I'm not trying to say wow, I figured it out all by myself. But I sort of did. Like I just kept looking out into the world and thinking Well, you know, simple things. I had trouble with Arden's insulin, and I saw another person who was using a different insulin, I thought, well, let me try that, or someone using a piece of technology. And I thought, let me try that you have to believe as much as I love Dexcom. Going back to the seven plus all those years ago, I didn't know what a CGM was, you know, someone else knew. And I was like, okay, right on. And, and I'll tell you, where I give a little bit of credit to that is that I grew up. I'm an adopted person, but but my, my adopted parents split up when I was 13. And so I kind of grew up through those formative years, you know, they talked about searching for a father kind of a thing, but I didn't do it that way, what I would do is I'd look at the adult men in my life, or that I worked with, and I would identify the things they were amazingly good at. And those, that part of them is what I would mirror. Like, if one guy was a good, you know, a good talker in a group, I'd be like, that's a good skill to have one guy was more thoughtful and quiet. I'm like, that's a good skill to have. And, and I would kind of pick and choose from people, you know, I got to almost build my own dad, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, that sounds sad or not, but like, that's sort of what I was doing. And I did that with diabetes, too. I'm like, let me just take the best ideas, and bring them home here. And we'll, we'll make a plan with them.
Chris Ruden 21:15
That's what that's what life is, though, like that. That's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to find the characteristics that you resonate with, that are going to help you be successful and achieve your ideal of success. You don't have to copy one person, like, no one's gonna listen to this podcast and say, I have to do exactly what you're doing every single minute. No, they're gonna take what benefits them and that's how people operate. That's not a negative thing. That's, that's just what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to see what helps us and helps other people. And that's fine. That's okay.
Scott Benner 21:45
All right, Chris, we fixed the world. Now let's move on. Okay, there's two ways to deal with this. You are listening to this the very end of December very likely, and your insurance is about to reset. You've probably already met your deductible. So now is the time to get moving on your purchases for your diabetes supplies. And if it's too late, if you're listening, you're like, Scott, I can't believe you just said that. It's January 5. I just heard this. I wish I would have thought of it
Unknown Speaker 22:08
two weeks ago. Where
Scott Benner 22:08
were you? That's fine, too. You still have to get prepared and understand what it is you're going to do. When you're ready to jump. You need to be ready to jump. I don't want you to find out. You know two months from now. Oh, I've met my deductible. Now I'll start thinking about whether or not I want it on the pot. Don't do that. Start today. Start right now. stop procrastinating. Are you procrastinating? You are? Aren't you? Stop doing that? right now. I mean, not right this second, you're doing something right now you listen to a podcast. But when the podcast is over, you look in the notes of the podcast, you click on the link, Miami pod.com forward slash juice box. When you get there, you fill out the tiniest bit of information about yourself name, address, phone number, and Omni pod. Such good people, they will send you a free, no obligation demo of the insulin pump that I'm talking about the AMI bot, they send you out the pod, and then you wear it or you stick it on your kid or something like that. And then you have days to live with it. And really think to yourself, Is this what I want? Do I want to be untethered, maybe I want to be like strapped to a tube that goes all through my pants down to a controller. I mean, probably not. But you know what I'm saying, you're gonna get a chance to live with it and really see what you think. And then if you want to move forward, you just tell on the pod. I want to keep going with this. And if you don't, it's no big deal. They're not going to hassle you, Miami pod.com forward slash juicebox. But the links in your show notes. Have a Happy New Year, do this for yourself. Tell people a little bit about what you do for other people. And then I'm going to ask some questions because one of the most frequently asked question through email to me is can you please talk about my issues I have with weight and insulin. And I think you're just going to be the perfect person to talk to about this. But tell tell people a little bit why you might be the right person ask.
Chris Ruden 23:55
When I was diagnosed diabetes, basically decided to switch my career from being a lawyer because I just like to argue with people to actually helping people and I found exercise and nutrition. I got my degree in exercise science and health promotion. And then my business online took off. I just started building my social media and now I work solely from social media. I run the one of the biggest type one only weight loss and body composition challenges called the fitness 81 D challenge. And I do private coaching through social media through phone, email, Skype to help people better their body composition which as a side effect also helps them control their diabetes management. And I work with other people with different conditions. So I am not an endocrinologist, but what I do is help people lose body fat or attain the body or specific performance goal that they want, so that they can just be happier in life because my end goal was better confidence in yourself because that's what I struggled with. And for me better confidence comes from better health better feeling better quality of life in total.
Scott Benner 25:00
And if you and if you need more to believe in Chris's ability to speak to people he apparently taught his parents out of I'm assuming killing him when he decided not to be an attorney. So,
Chris Ruden 25:10
exactly. They're like, do you want to do what? You want to work online? I'm like, oh, that means you're gonna be broke and living in the basement forever. I made it Mom, I made it.
Unknown Speaker 25:19
Talking to you.
Chris Ruden 25:21
Oh, yeah. And now this leads me 100%. Now they 100% Believe me before, there was a phase where it's like, maybe you should go be a janitor. And I'm like, No, I make this work.
Scott Benner 25:30
To me, this is a measure of your genius so that you calm your parents down after that situation is pretty rare. And that's when
Chris Ruden 25:37
I found out I wanted to be a speaker.
Scott Benner 25:40
So okay, so let's start slow. My daughter is diagnosed when she's two years old, she's 17 pounds, obviously gone, losing weight dying in front of us. Four days after insulin, she weighs two and a half pounds more. Now I recognize that it's her body getting back into, you know, a healthy way. But she continues to gain weight. And how is it that insulin helps a person to keep weight on like, what is it about I want to know the real, we're gonna get a little like granular here. So I want to know how that works.
Chris Ruden 26:14
So it basic lock and key mechanism. Insulin allows nutrients to be transported and stored. So without insulin, you the nutrients can't be optimally transported and stored. So if you think about it, someone could be consuming, you know, an extra 500 1000 2000 calories a day. Without enough insulin, then the body's not storing. So you see increase urination, you see increased sweating all these things to try and get rid of all this stuff. And insulin allows those nutrients to be stored. So a lot of people in my mind falsely blame insulin for causing weight gain, when in reality where you can cause is comes from calories, it comes from excess amount of calories. Now those calories weren't able to be stored without insulin. Now, when insulin is introduced, all those calories do catch up to you. Now, if insulin directly caused weight gain, like immediately 100% of the world would be severely morbidly obese, because we all have insulin in our body. So insulin itself is not the primary culprit, the primary culprit is excess caloric consumption, insulin just helps open the door. If that make sense.
Scott Benner 27:25
It does. And, oh, hold on a second, I like to let that just like soak in for a second because that is just really valuable information. It is the thought of people. Most people in the in the wild, who you know, I started using insulin, and I gained weight. Oh, absolutely.
Chris Ruden 27:46
It's called a slippery slope fallacy. Basically, if I stuck a pencil in my back pocket, and I went in root cause and I went and robbed a bank. Does that mean pencils? Cause robbery? No, no, it's the same thing because you introduced insulin and you gain weight does not mean correlation does not mean causation. You know, so we have to understand that before that insulin was introduced, you were probably over consuming Not to mention your your decreased appetite or decrease the you know, feeling of fullness. So you kept eating, kept eating kept eating as a response to your body. And now that insulin was introduced, those things are stored. So you got to understand now when we get to insulin resistance, it's a little bit different, a little bit different mechanisms, and then there's other hormones at play. But in a basic sense, once you kind of stabilize how much insulin you're consuming, dining you're taking, you have to figure out how much you're eating, how much you're eating, how many calories you're consuming, and people skip that they think diabetes management is and all life is more than diabetes management life includes diabetes management, but you also have to manage your life.
Scott Benner 28:54
Okay, so it's such a simple answer to what feels like a bigger question. It's so interesting that then people see that I started taking insulin, I gained weight, so I'll leave my blood sugar higher, and they start manipulating their weight by not using enough insulin. And then you're just in a spiral,
Chris Ruden 29:10
you know, you go now this is where we have to address this because I know someone's going to message you and say, Well, how do you explain this when I stopped eating carbs? And I use less insulin? I lost weight, right? You hear that all the time? Well, guess what? carbs are made up of four calories per gram. When you stop eating carbs, you stop eating calories, you eat less calories and you lose weight. Also, you use less insulin. So you see that whole slippery slope fallacy comes in again, people associate carbohydrates with weight gain, when in reality, it could be a part of weight gain, but total caloric consumption is what contributes to weight change.
Scott Benner 29:49
And so it's interesting that it really is it's sort of it feels insulting if you've ever struggled to lose weight for someone to say like it's all about calories,
Chris Ruden 29:58
but it really is, but that calories. The unfortunate part is now I'm going to go through just some quick diets. We talked about keto diet, a lot of people like oh, I do the keto diet works well. keto diet is very hard to over consume food because it's very restricting. When you go out to eat, you can't have a burger, or you have to have a burger without the bun. And you have to limit certain foods, you're going to limit carbohydrate consumption. So one of the three main nutrients, proteins, carbs and fats is now eliminated, you can't have carbs. So when you take one third of the way of your food consumption, of course, you're going to have one third less calories or less, you know, so it at a base level, it does come down to caloric consumption. Now, there are specifics, it doesn't just stop there, that's not the easiest answer, like Oh, just eat less, and you're fine. There are other things, you have to have proper nutrition and proper fuel, you have to have the right amount of protein, the right amount of fat, depending on how many carbs you have. There is a science to this stuff. And what's funny to me is that if your car broke down, you wouldn't try and fix it yourself. Because for me, I'd probably hit it with a hammer and duct tape. I have no clue how to fix a car. If you were had need brain surgery, you wouldn't try and operate on yourself. You know, but when people come to dieting, they think they can do it themselves. They think they know how to do it. Well my cousin's friend's brother, sister did it with less carbs in this. So I'm gonna do that. There is a specific way to do it to make you not want to pull your hair out, I promise.
Scott Benner 31:18
You know, what I did, about a month and a half ago just wasn't really on a whim, I just was looking for like a like a jumpstart like something to drive. So I did that. But I think now as I look back on a kind of a crazy thing, but I did this, um, this baked potato like, like fast basically. And it's probably something you've heard of, and I don't know that I should have done it or didn't do it. But basically, for 10 days, I eat nothing but baked potatoes. There was no salt on them, though. But there was nothing on them was the potato, you bake the potato, you eat the potato, you could eat as many potatoes as you wanted during the day. And I saw I went out bought a big bag of potatoes. And I'm like, let me try this. And I did it for 10 days, in 10 days, I lost 17 pounds. More kind of importantly, what I learned was, I was never as hungry as I thought I was. That was really the interesting part. Because you'd start with like, Oh, I'm hungry, eat this whole potato. But then by the third or fourth day, I wasn't eating a potato every two hours or every four hours, I had like two of them a day. And I was completely Yeah, you limited total consumption. And you limited variety, you limited the processed foods that can increase something called hyper palatability basically, making you want to eat more food, you limited all the crap,
Chris Ruden 32:33
you know,
Scott Benner 32:34
I wasn't hungry at all. And what I learned about butter and salt was I don't like baked potatoes, I like butter and salt.
Chris Ruden 32:41
That's it. And that's the difference.
Scott Benner 32:45
Potato was like a delivery system for the budget
Chris Ruden 32:47
was that's, that is the best way I've ever heard that put ever in my life. Honestly, when I think about baked potato, like sour cream, butter, baked potatoes, literally the delivery system, even with like bread and butter at a restaurant is like how much butter Can I fit on this little piece of bread,
Scott Benner 33:04
because without the potato, you just look like a monster eating. So
Chris Ruden 33:07
you do and you obviously you would never want to judge yourself like that. But you know, that's what you truly want. You just want to drop that bread and stick that finger right in the butter and just go go in. But we can't do that as civilized people. So
Scott Benner 33:19
it taught me a great deal, like those couple of days that the weight was neither here nor there. I just didn't want to have as much of a double chin when I was standing up on that stage. But But you know, but I did, I was trying to learn sort of a greater thing about my about myself and about the idea of eating. And then I look to see what's in a baked potato, you know, which is just a route. And it's a basic thing. But it had enough vitamins and nutrients and everything to very well keep me going for 10 days, like I was not at a deficit. Now that I'm using a word that's in my head today. But I was not in a deficit for for calories for for vitamins for
Chris Ruden 33:55
anything I was doing really. And that's the benefit when you can find a way to be in a caloric deficit because you want to lose weight, but not you know, risk malnutrition, then then you're on a good path. You know, I hate to bring this up, but I just have to there was a Kansas State nutrition professor who did a study where he ate Twinkies and protein shakes for I believe 60 days, I think he lost something like 15 to 20 pounds. And he improved his metabolic profile, his cholesterol and all that all the balance between he found a balance now he wanted to say this is not healthy. This is not what you should do. This is not a long term approach. This is not a good thing. I just wanted to show that when you calorically control for higher protein diets, and you're in a calorie deficit, you can still change make changes to your body composition. Now we want to do it the healthy way too. So we take that concept, we add healthy foods. We add a healthy balance of life, you know, you should be able to adhere to it. It shouldn't make you miserable and it should produce results if it hits those three goals. You're very successful.
Scott Benner 34:57
No kidding. I did not. I never felt better. I really am. I say this throughout my life, I always feel like a person who I'm at odds with my body in food. Like, I'm not a I'm not a big food person, like, there's no meal that you could say to me, hey, let's go out tonight and get this. And I'd be out of my mind. Like, yeah, let me play in my whole day around eating this food, like I don't get excited about food like that. And I, my bigger problem is because of that, I don't really eat very much. And I think that when that happens, my body's like, Yo, this guy is starving to death. Like we have to hold on to every ounce of fat he has, because we're on a desert island somewhere. He hasn't eaten anything in a day.
Chris Ruden 35:37
I mean, that's definitely a concept. There's something called adaptive thermogenesis. Basically, your body adapts to a lower calorie amount, a lower calorie input, and it can start getting rid of tissues that cause too much work kind of like muscle. So when people start eating too little, and they lose lean muscle mass, they retain body fat, and it just changes the composition of from what they want it to be to what they really don't want it to be. So we got to be careful with not eating enough as well as eating too much. And that's just like blood sugar management, not too high, not too low.
Scott Benner 36:07
So So is what's the, when you think about people and their calories around diabetes is their is their biggest stumbling block that they're always chasing lows with food.
Chris Ruden 36:20
So I have a few things. I just finished up a challenge with 114 people. And it was awesome to see. But the biggest compliment I got for this challenge was I tracked my food to check my calories. And I realized I was boasting for the wrong amount of carbs. I realized I was boasting for things I didn't know. You know, people were boasting for a banana that they assumed was 15 grams of carbs, but it was actually 45 grams of carbs because there's a large banana. Now, some people like to carb count, some people don't. And that's okay, whatever you prefer whatever works for you. But the realization of what you're doing and paying attention to trends is the biggest benefit to you know, diabetes management when it comes to tracking calories. So as a side benefit for people who are constantly going low, and treating with carbs, which makes them eat more calories, which kind of furthers them from their body composition goals, I have people create a low carb reserved. So if they're allowed at 100 200 however many grams of carbs you have for the day, let's say it's 100. I tell them to pretend like they only have 80 or 75. That way those 20 or 25 grams of carbs are a low carbohydrate reserve, when you go low, you eat your carbs to obviously fix your blood sugar, but now you're not going above your caloric limit. Because you planned in advance for that emergency scenario.
Scott Benner 37:43
That's it, it's just all about even if so even if you're to I'm gonna make that simpler for people to listen to. Even if you're eating well and healthy all day long. You're not taking in too many carbs, too many calories too many this that, but you get low once twice, three times drink a juice box, have some candy, you know, a squirt of frosting, whatever it is you're doing. That's there you go over top of your calories. Yeah, right and, and you're not going to not only you're not going to lose weight, you're going to gain weight.
Chris Ruden 38:10
So in certain scenarios, say you were to have an extra 50 grams of carbs a day from low treatments, that's an extra 200 calories, you know, that's almost a half a pound a week that you could be either gaining or losing less than a half a time than you originally wanted to. The average count of fat takes 3500 calories to gain a pound. So when we talk about that 250 a day for seven days, that's almost half a pound of fat.
Scott Benner 38:36
And it really and there's no way to quantify when you get into the eat the kitchen phase,
Chris Ruden 38:41
you Oh no, that's done. Oh yeah. When I destroy that box that many weeks like that is over. You know, when you realize you just had 300 grams of carbs in 15 minutes and you're like, Well, tonight is gonna suck. You know,
Scott Benner 38:53
I just I just want the real thing that everyone listening right now knows you're a fit person because like you're crazy. Go to I can't believe I'm eating. This is mini wheats.
Chris Ruden 39:03
Oh, no. Oh, trust me. I love doughnuts, too, but frosted mini wheats are the best cereal ever in my head.
Unknown Speaker 39:08
I love broccoli. Anyway,
Chris Ruden 39:09
they're also the most carb dense cereal too is crazy.
Scott Benner 39:12
But so I mean, my my thought is if you're already struggling with your weight, then I might I do agree with Chris there's a reason Chris is on the podcast because Chris stood next to me and was saying things we were on a panel together and I'm like, this guy is smart. And I agree with him, which always makes me think people are smart because you agree with him. But no, but you were talking about calories and and i and i thought that's really smart. And if for me, or for anyone else who's not at their goal weight, I am eating more calories in a day than I I believe that I am. You know, like I might be thinking I'm doing okay, but the truth is, I know what I'm doing okay, because when I'm doing okay, my body composition goes to where I expect it to be. And when I'm when I'm not when I'm eating more than I even think I am. I'm obviously my weight. stays the same or it goes up. But I ever in the course of those days and weeks do I think, oh, I've over eaten this this week, but I have it happens. It happens all the time. And I see people automatically they they over assume their fitness level. So I asked people Oh, on a scale of one to 10, how fit Are you on a scale of one to five, I
Chris Ruden 40:19
figure, I go to the gym five days a week for an hour, I'm super fit. Well, guess what, that's five hours out of 168 hours. I'm terrible at math. But I know that fraction is not good. You know, not saying that you need to do more. But I'm saying that you got to realize where you stand. If you only go to the gym five hours a week, and you've sit down at a job, you have to consider yourself that you're not as active as someone who works doubles as a waitress or a construction worker doing 12 hours on their feet, go go go, those people are very active. People assume going to the gym means you're active. And unfortunately, just because you're in a library doesn't mean you're studying. Just because you're in a gym doesn't mean you're fit, you know, we got to we got to know the reality and not say you need to do more or less. We just have to start with transparency and realness. You know,
Scott Benner 41:06
yeah, I have a couple things in my life that keep me straight about that one, my Apple Watch, which tells me I'm not nearly as burning as many calories, I think, although, because of what I do, because I'm basically a stay at home parent, I am on my feet 12 hours a day. And I'm telling you, I think that saves me some weeks
Chris Ruden 41:23
that's going to be a lot more than someone who works at a desk job, you know, nine to five, nine to nine does not saying that those people need to quit their jobs when you're saying they have to understand that they're going to require less total calories than someone who works as a construction worker. Yeah,
Scott Benner 41:37
no, absolutely. And it's even having active children like athletic children, which is such I was talking with somebody the other day, my Arden's in the middle of having her shoulder rehab, because she just her shoulder kind of got out of place. So she's not playing softball right now. And I was standing there and watching her do this thing. And this woman asked me this, this, the therapist asked me if I had any other kids. And we started talking. And I said, You know, I gotten to this point where I was explaining to her, I'm like, there are times that I watch my children do things and I think, how are they my kids, you know what I mean? Like I get so I but I
Unknown Speaker 42:11
have
Scott Benner 42:12
that perspective, like you could take my son right now I don't know where he's at. He could go out, run three miles, go play baseball for four hours, lift weights, throw a ball from here to God knows where. And he'd be tired when it was over. But he would accomplish all of it. And if I tried to do a small fraction of what he did, it probably killed me.
Unknown Speaker 42:32
And,
Scott Benner 42:33
you know, and and so having them in my life gives me that prop that that perspective that you just spoke about. It doesn't sometimes help me do more about it. But at least I know where I stand, which I think is what you were saying and what I think is important, too, like, I'm not over estimating myself, because it is very easy to sit around 40 years old. And think, you know, and I was 18. I used to do this and you still sort of think of yourself that way. Absolutely. It's interesting, you know, that's very true. Christmas is over and the stress of the holiday is gone. There's nothing left to think about except all the bills you can't pay because of Christmas night. Well, I guess the stress never ends when you're an adult. But wouldn't it be nice to make it a little less? Here's one way you could do that could get yourself a dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor so that you know what direction your blood sugars moving in and how fast it's going. You already know what direction your savings accounts moving in and how fast it's going that direction. And that's not fun to know. But this thing about your blood sugar. This is different. This is actually great to understand. Arden's not with me right now you know what our blood sugar is 106 she's out with my wife, Kelly. They're having lunch together. I bet you Arden had a waffle because I know the restaurant they went to 106 my wife is using the information coming back from the Dexcom to tell ardens on the pod how to give her the insulin, extend the boluses bazel rate stuff like that, those decisions they get made with the data that comes back from Dexcom. All you have to do is go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box or click on one of the links that I've provided for you and you'll be well on your way to having a waffle in the middle of the day with a 106 blood sugar. And if you're the caregiver of a person with Type One Diabetes, as you just heard, I can see Arden's blood sugar remotely. That's a feature that Dexcom calls, share and follow that's available for Android or iPhone. It's absolutely amazing. In the end, I just think it's time I believe that the way diabetes technology is moving, you want to have a Dexcom g six moving forward without discounting any of the amazing things that Dexcom does today. If you go back one episode, and listen to my conversation with Omni pod about artificial pancreas, you're going to know for sure you want a dexcom g six right now. I want to exercise more but I have type one diabetes, but when I exercise my blood sugar gets low christoper I can't do that, because all I'm going to do then is eat more calories. Obviously, your whole plan sucks. And so how do we get? How do
Unknown Speaker 45:06
we get around?
Scott Benner 45:08
How do people work out without getting low?
Chris Ruden 45:11
Well, that that concept is also like saying, Hey, I can't eat because when I eat my blood sugar goes up. So I'm just not going to eat ever. You know that the concept is understanding what happens when you do x. So you can figure out why, you know, you have to understand what happens. So with certain types of exercise, like cardio, like some sports, you're going to have a lower blood, your influence sensitivity is going to increase and your sugar is going to drop with certain exercises or types of intensity, like sprinting, like lifting heavy weights, like power lifting for me, my blood sugar increases temporarily and then drops later. So you have to understand your trends before you can make any sort of preparation to fix it. Once you understand what happens, say, Oh, I'm exercising, I'm going low. Now I'm eating and now I'm gaining weight. So exercise that no, we need to figure out what's going on, why are you going low? Do you need to adjust your basis, I adjust my basis for my workouts, I set Temp Basal is you know, so I have less insulin on board when I'm working out if I usually go low, or I adjust with moving my carbohydrates for the day around my workout. So I can make sure my blood sugar is good. There are a lot of things that you can move around to adjust for that. But you have to be willing to think outside the box and not be overly frustrated with something that's it's life that happens ups and downs are normal with diabetes with life with anything. So don't get frustrated and quit say, Okay, how can I fix this? What am I doing? If you're high, you know, you need more insulin, if you're low, you know, you need less. And so I'm like, that's our base. It's kind of oversimplifying it, but at the base level of what I need to do, Chris, this
Scott Benner 46:47
podcast is all about over simplifying that. And so it's funny because what you just said, the people who listen to this show just heard you say that. And if they're not thinking that they know what I'm going to say right now then Shame on you go listen to more episodes. But what I'm gonna say right now is that I tell people all the time, and you sat next to me while I said it, most of managing insulin is about timing and amount. And that while you're learning that timing and amount, you have to go through what I call, like, it's just the, it's the non Math Math of like, insulin, which is I did this, this happened next time, I'd like this to happen. So I will increase decrease sooner or later, my insulin, whatever it ends up being. It's just, that's how you learn you. Try it, something happens. You go Okay, not quite what I was shooting for, what what I think would move this in the better direction for myself, I'll try it next.
Chris Ruden 47:39
There's nothing perfect on paper, you know, like, you can say, Okay, my insulin sensitivity is this. My, you know, my target is this. From a day to day, we know diabetes changes, we know there are differences, your sensitivity is different almost all throughout the day, every day. So there's a percentage that we know. And then there's a percentage that we don't know. So we have to be on our toes and understand how to correct in real time. And not just Oh, but according to my plan, I have to do this. You have to see where you're currently at where you've been and where you're trying to go and make those adjustments, not what your plan says, you know, so to speak, you have the plan in place, but you also have to think live, you know, in time, absolutely. More
Scott Benner 48:22
More often than not, when I hear from somebody who's a newer diagnosed person or somebody who's really struggling, what they asked for is they want a number, like, tell me the number just please tell me the number tell me how many carbs do you tell me 100%? Right. And I'm just like, it's I'm sorry to say that to you. But you have to figure that out. Like I don't know.
Chris Ruden 48:39
We don't have those answers. We don't have those numbers.
Scott Benner 48:42
And to prove that yesterday Arden's in the middle of a crazy Grossberg if I told you she is three quarters of an inch taller today than she was six weeks ago. I am not lying to. And so she is she gets on kicks. She comes home from high school, two o'clock in the afternoon, and she wants something bizarre to eat. Last year, it was nachos and case. Oh, that was it everyday she come home and she's like, I'm gonna have nachos and cheese. And I'm like, okay, so I had to figure out how to Bolus for that this year. And this might be a regional thing. But this year, it's pork roll sandwiches on hamburger buns. And so I don't know if anyone knows what that is or not, but it's basically it's meat that you probably shouldn't eat that is pig derived. And you fry it in a pan and she wants it just on a white roll. Right? So she comes home she's like, I'm gonna have pork roll today. Now we're leaving for her therapy in 45 minutes. So I'm quickly making this for she decides to have two of them. Her I've got her blood sugar already moving in the right way because I kind of know this is gonna happen. So we've been bumping stuff around an hour before as she was leaving school. Here she is in the kitchen, Chris 70 diagonal down and she's about to eat this stuff. I'm like I have I'm amazing. And so I put in this incredibly extended bolus kind of situation where I give her nothing up front, the rest over and over and hour. And she's in therapy, physical therapy now an hour later, doing all her exercises, her blood sugar is at one and is not moving. Well, I went in to pick her up, and I actually I looked at her and I was like, Did you see the balls for the pork sandwiches and she didn't she's doing something else. I'm like, I killed it. I was like, it was like, Brown was a masterpiece. Yeah. And so we get home, talk to my wife for a couple minutes, I start making dinner. And the next thing I know, I hear beep, beep. And her now she's over 120. And I'm like, Oh, just a little bump, and I bump it a little bit. And the next day, I know she's 130 and 40 and 50 and 60 and 80. And I don't know how the heck she got there.
Chris Ruden 50:38
I don't know. I mean that. So I have a I have a very relevant story similar to that to until that people understand also, just because I'm into a fitness thing doesn't mean I don't enjoy myself. I was speaking at a jdrf summit this past weekend, and I was with my girlfriend, we somehow found our way to this place that makes funnel cakes, and chocolate cake and powdered sugar happened to be my favorite thing along with donuts. So we had some funnel cake and I Pre-Bolus for this thing I said Temp Basal. I did all this stuff. It was set. In the middle of night I woke up in fear. I was like, in my head. I was like I'm gonna be so high to zoom. We ridiculous. I woke up at 93. And I was 93 the entire night. And I was like I killed that I nailed it. The next day, we went to Korean barbecue. And my sugars were through the roof. And I was like, this is just meat. What is going on? Why is my sugar doing this? And I figured out the sauces the different types of meat protein can have an effect on blood sugar. But it goes to show you like there there are going to be those perfect time there's going to be those times where you mess up. I don't take them personally, I just learned from them and adjust and move on the next time you hit that Korean barbecue, you'll do a better Oh, I know. I'll be ready. I'll be ready.
Scott Benner 51:49
That's exactly how I think that's what this whole podcast is about. It's why I was excited to have you on to talk about this one aspect of it that I don't know a lot about. And because I thought it's so interesting. We've been talking for 40 minutes now, you have talked about things that people struggle with throughout a lifetime and spoken about them. They I don't want to say they're simple, but they are much more simple than anyone imagines. I'm telling you, the people right now are going if what this guy is saying is true. This is not as complex as I was imagining in my head.
Chris Ruden 52:21
It really it is not. It's frustrating. Yes, it's eye opening. There's a lot of different things. Now, I don't claim to be a guru or anything like that. I just pay attention to my clients, I want to know how I can help them best. And if it caught it makes me disprove my own theories. That's fine. But at the end of the day, science is what science is. And when we have science backing anecdotal data, and I see the hundreds of type one diabetic clients that I've had transformed their bodies by simply tracking their macronutrients their main nutrients and hitting certain targets that I set for them, I see that it works. I know I'm going to continue doing this for my clients because it's, it's helping them. So you can have a million people line up and say no, that's bad. Insulin is bad. carbs are bad. You can tell me all these things. But at the end of the day, do you know why you're saying that or you're just perpetuating myths and not understanding your trends. There are ways to have a normal life and eat normally and eat the foods you like and still be within your body composition goals and within your diabetes management goals. Okay, so
Scott Benner 53:26
now I have some questions about stuff that a little less Diabetes Center.
Unknown Speaker 53:30
Cool. No worries.
Scott Benner 53:31
So I have is interesting. I've walked up at some point. You were in the lobby somewhere when I was with you a few weeks ago and you were putting like you had taken your your arm off and we're doing something with it and putting on much like I would have expected someone to like readjust a slipper.
Unknown Speaker 53:49
Like Yeah.
Scott Benner 53:52
Like you weren't thinking about it, you were literally you didn't look like you were thinking about it was just something you were doing. And so as you took it off, I recognize that you're you know, now you've described your hand more, you know, in detail for us having basically two fingers on a shorter arm smaller hand. Do you hold the prosthetic with the with your hand or does the prosthetic fit to your arm in a way that that's not necessary. I'm dying to understand how you how it's on you so firmly that you're able to like hang from a bar with it.
Chris Ruden 54:24
So the there's some interesting stuff about this prosthetic it's not common for people with everybody disabilities to have a prospect like mine. Some people do, but it's called a myoelectric prosthetic it picks up muscle signals off from the forum to move the hand and there's it's lined with a very high quality silicone that sticks to the skin and it's actually comfortable and it stays on very well until the basically vacuum seal is broken and then I can take the arm off. I like to take my arm on and off for certain things that are easier to do without arm or used to do with Be on. And when I lift really heavy when I started dead lifting up into the six hundreds, I can't use that arm because that's $150,000 arm that will break. So that is only rated for lower weights. So when I lift I have to do other adaptations with other implements. But for that that's my daily use hands. I can grab cups, grab plates grab different things that most people take for granted. I've never had the, you know, opportunity to do so it's cool for me. And yeah, I mean, the hand just it really helps me kind of live with both hands.
Scott Benner 55:33
So all right, that's stunning. Have you ever left a place we're driving away got five minutes away, and I left my arm.
Chris Ruden 55:41
And I 1,000% have and I usually leave it at the gym. It's ridiculous. For one, it's the best way to make sure no one steals my equipment because I just attached the arm to a bar Mike, hang it and people call I know who's there? You know. But I actually at the front desk of my gym. I was like, Hey, can you guys hold this? I don't want to carry this around and their face was just mortified. They were just like, okay, yeah, I'll climb all the time. I figured
Scott Benner 56:07
it was such a part of your life. Like it's like my cell phone. Like I just like I'm halfway up the street.
Chris Ruden 56:13
It's new to me. It's only the past a year. So I mean, I still forget things. I still forget that I have it on sometimes. And I it it's fun. You know, I've had some pretty traumatic accidents where I was jump roping in the hand flies off holding the jump rope. And there's been some very interesting times with this prosthetic, but it's nothing but a learning curve. And it's a lot of fun. It's amazing.
Scott Benner 56:34
It really is how did you how did you come upon it? Did you just did you get popular enough that a company that made it kind of came to you and said hey, we have this or do Did you? Is it something you were out in the world looking for.
Chris Ruden 56:45
So going back to you know, I hit my hand for 17 years. And I always wanted to do you know bodybuilding competition. Eventually, I've been doing powerlifting where I have to lift really heavy weights and broke all those records. I said that if I ever got a prosthetic on, that would be the moment that I take my glove off, that was more of like a fantasy type thing I never thought it would actually happen. I ended up going to this company who a buddy of mine who's also an amputee, he is a prosthetist there and works on prosthetics. She was like, we can do this, we can do this. So it took a year, I had carpal tunnel, my right hand, my non affected limb, just from overuse. So we're only using one hand. Over a year, I finally got approved for a prosthetic. And that was the moment the deciding moment. But I wanted to take my glove off. And it was terrifying. But I did it. And I actually recorded it and posted it on YouTube. The videos went viral, I got like over 3 million views went to the top page of Reddit, Washington Post all these things started picking me up. And I realized that the thing I've been hiding the thing that I've been most embarrassed about, that when I finally embraced it, it made me more successful. It made my mission a lot more successful. And it made the people I helped so much more involved. So that was a great moment, you know, for me, but that was really the deciding factor, almost the act of taking the glove off was better than getting the prosthetic.
Unknown Speaker 58:07
That's crazy.
Scott Benner 58:09
I have a couple more things when I asked about so I want to get to in a second. I get on a television show soon. I want to get to that and make sure we talk Yes. But I have a question for you about me. So you're in a an interesting situation to answer a question for me. Was it weird sitting with someone who doesn't have Type One Diabetes talking about it? And that person is talking about it? Not like they do but but the way I did was that strange for you? know, I think that's how people should be I think people should be so immersed in what they're interested in what's relevant to them, that they should be how you are and what you're doing with all that you're
Chris Ruden 58:47
doing in the community. So I The bad thing is I don't expect it anymore because of how many people don't do it, but it's nice to see. So being able to sit next to you and talk about that. I love seeing your perspective and understanding the simplicity of how to treat diabetes when I see people online all the time. Like oh my god, I'm 400 I don't know what to do. And in my head I'm screaming like take insulin What are you doing? Like I just pressed my fingers to my forehead you know that thing? Like when you're in traffic and like what are you doing? Like that's my that's my face. I don't understand why people don't do that. You know, and I it's my job to do so when I heard you talking I'm like wow, that's that's pretty relevant. And I appreciate it.
Scott Benner 59:29
I just was like I always wondered if you're a person who has diabetes like is it like can it be angering to sit next to a person is like I don't have
Chris Ruden 59:37
it but here's how I can it can be it's only angry when the person doesn't get it when the person pretends not to understand both. The second you open your mouth you understand okay he gets it cool. People can figure that out really quickly. It's just like a doctor. You know if you have a doctor who really gets it my pa I go to a PA sometimes in for diabetes stuff and she goes to every meeting. She goes to every conference, she is so into it, she doesn't have diabetes. But she is explained things to me in ways that no one has taken the time to do so. So regardless of what people have, you know, yeah, listen to what they have to say, because knowledge is not, you know, disease dependent.
Scott Benner 1:00:16
I think that one of the, I think that one of the things that I have to offer is that because I don't have diabetes, but because I am so immersed in it, that I can be a bit this passionate about it when I talk about it. And I think that sometimes that's valuable for people because the emotions can take over and you can get, you know, a swell in your heart or in your head or be so upset that it's hard to think and I can, I can be disconnected from that, like, I can get emotional about what I see my daughter's life being. But when I talk about the nuts and bolts of diabetes, I'm able to step away from it, because I don't have it, I've often thought if it was me, and I had it, I bet you I wouldn't be good at explaining it to other people,
Chris Ruden 1:00:57
I see a lot of people let the emotion get to them. And that's kind of what I try and teach people mentality rises separating emotion from the real story. The real story is your sugar went high, the real story is not you're gonna die, you're gonna die, you're gonna die. You know, you have to be able to separate that emotion. So the fact that you can present that, you know, viewpoint, I think it's it's really valuable to people who are so just engulfed by the emotion that comes with diabetes.
Scott Benner 1:01:25
I appreciate your perspective on that. And I absolutely hope no one thought that I was like, Hey, here's a good opportunity for Chris to say something nice about me. Because I really just I want to I want to
Chris Ruden 1:01:34
know, I mean, it's true, because I've listened to other speakers who don't have diabetes, and I'm like, Oh my god, can this guy just stop talking? Because it's like, you can tell he read it from a book. That's the difference?
Scott Benner 1:01:45
Well, I've been putting this together for a long time, very slowly, like building a, building a house of blocks very, very slowly. And and seeing that, you know, not being afraid of insulin was really important in honing that idea. And then seeing that I can't be emotional about I can't sit there thinking, Oh, my God, I'm killing her all the time like that. Just you're not going to get Yeah, yeah. When the when when you know, the blood sugar starts jumping up out of nowhere, and you don't expect it. You can't just be like banging your head against the wall and going, I can't Why did this happen? I just gotta go, okay, happen. Stay fluid, I'll handle it. But these things were thought of very slowly over the years. And then I threw away the parts that didn't matter. And I think that's why sometimes when I talk about it, and I make it sound so simplified, it can throw some people off. But I'm telling you, I have I've distilled it down to the very, the very important pieces then from there, like you said, you take from that what works for you. And then you start building on what you think of the important pieces and how it fits in your life anyway.
So you're going to be on television. And and not just like on TV, but you're going to be on TV doing something that your amazing app, I'm assuming and you're going to be with the rock. So please explain to me how that happened first, and then where we can see yes.
Chris Ruden 1:03:08
So I am officially on the Titan games hosted and produced by the rock Dwayne The Rock Johnson on NBC. And that comes out January 3. So basically, it's a very intense event. A modification from American Ninja Warrior completely different in the sense of its head dead and the obstacles are insane. absolutely insane. I can't say much about it, because it hasn't come out yet. But I can't say I'm one of the competitors. There was over 10,000 applicants. And they ended up taking I believe 64 people and I was one of those 64 people so I'm very fortunate to be on that show. And I'm super excited for everyone to see it.
Scott Benner 1:03:51
Is this a process where you can compete when and stay on the show longer?
Chris Ruden 1:03:58
I cannot just bowled the process
Unknown Speaker 1:04:01
yet.
Chris Ruden 1:04:02
But January 3, we'll have everything and it is it is so intense. I can't I can't like stress that enough. It is
Scott Benner 1:04:12
frenzy running, jumping, swinging climb. I
Chris Ruden 1:04:14
can't like anything you can't even fathom. Like even if I said what some of the stuff is like you just wouldn't be like what? Okay, I couldn't even draw it for you. So what I can say is that the rock put a lot of effort into this show. And he originally was thought to be like American gladiators, but they veered off a little bit from that. And it's just you can't you can't describe it. You really can't describe how big is he just ginormous. Yeah. And I'll just stand there going. Yeah, yeah, this is this is the rock. This is crazy. It's so good.
Scott Benner 1:04:53
It's so funny that he comes up again because Derek feller telic feeler had a stark say his name Yeah, he was he's been on the podcast a couple of times. And he is a massive human being right? Like, oh my God really huge and has type one. He's like six, seven, I think,
Unknown Speaker 1:05:11
Wow,
Scott Benner 1:05:12
he told me, you have to go back in the episode to find it. But he told me that if you google his height, I'm doing it now. All right, if you google his height, it's he shorter. He reports himself shorter than he is. He reports himself at six, five, because at his actual height, he just thought that he was too tall to be an actor. So he, you know, he lied about being who lies about being shorter. No one. Yeah, that's crazy, right. But he said, he B's if you let's go back and watch the episode. He's a huge fan of like action movies, and he wants to be in them. And he is actually having success with it. But he said he met the rock one time and he said the rock looked at him and said, hey, you're
Unknown Speaker 1:05:52
big. And said, awesome. That's a compliment.
Scott Benner 1:05:55
So I thought, I need to understand how big the rock is. If he looked at Derek and thought, yeah, look at you. You're a mountain. slouch? Yeah. So that's, that's really cool.
Chris Ruden 1:06:04
I can promise you He did not say that, to me.
Scott Benner 1:06:09
Made me feel tall, which I appreciate it.
Chris Ruden 1:06:11
No problem. No problem. I got you. I just told everyone that way. You know,
Scott Benner 1:06:14
Chris is like I'm a life coach for your height issues, even
Chris Ruden 1:06:17
locally, you know,
Scott Benner 1:06:18
lo fi I could stand next to you and make you feel taller.
Chris Ruden 1:06:21
Hey, everyone is shorter than me when they're doing push ups in front of me. So it's fine.
Scott Benner 1:06:24
I guarantee that. I guess you know, I want to wrap up and and let people know how to find you. So
Chris Ruden 1:06:31
you said you're mainly on Instagram. Is that right? Yeah, mainly on Instagram, and YouTube. Those are my two things, just self that Chris ruden. And I also have a website, Chris are calm. I'm launching a subscription based exercise and nutrition type program that's a lot more affordable. And I wanted to reach more people. So I found a way to drop the price significantly, so that people could work with me on a daily basis. And that's my goal for 2019.
Scott Benner 1:06:59
So you're so you're trying to create a business model where you can help so many people that you can keep all their prices low? And you can still Yes,
Chris Ruden 1:07:07
yes. So I mean, I was at a point where I was charging close to $1,000, for 12 weeks of work. And now I'm at a point where I can create a business model that's less than $20 a month. So that my goal is to help more and more people. I've already had hundreds of people, you know, with their transformations, both physically and mentally. But I need to do my job and my job in the world is to help more people at that level, whether they're dealing with diabetes or any other issue. That's my job. And I'm going to do it, how do you help them? Do
Scott Benner 1:07:36
you speak to them directly? Or is it
Chris Ruden 1:07:38
though I do I constant texting. So from texting to Skype calls to just nutritional changing the regimen, to scheduling them in my private app for different workouts, there's so many different levels that people need. So it's a custom process. And with this subscription that I'm doing, it's going to be a community, which I found has helped so many people with that type one challenge that I run the fit, meaty one day challenge, just seeing people interact in the private Facebook groups and supporting each other, because they all know the struggle of having diabetes, on top of the guidance that I give them, you know, it's nothing can replace that. And it's awesome to see.
Scott Benner 1:08:16
And if you had to leave people with one thought it would be it's about calories, right?
Chris Ruden 1:08:22
My thought would be understand you have to you have to understand how much you're consuming when it comes to blood sugar management, or body composition or fat loss goals. You have to understand how much you are consuming at this point. Once you have that point, then you can make changes. If you see that you're consuming too much you can make changes. If you see that you're not consuming enough, you can make changes. But if you don't know how much you're consuming, you cannot make changes.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:50
Perfect, Chris,
Scott Benner 1:08:51
thank you very much for doing this. I really appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:56
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Scott Benner 1:09:00
Find out more about Chris on instagram youtube at Chris Rutan calm and of course on the Titan games, January 3 on NBC. I'll put links in the show notes to all of that ended the year thanks to Dexcom and Omni pod for continuing to sponsor the Juicebox Podcast there again will be sponsors for the entirety of 2019. And we have a couple more supporters coming on as well that just can't quite talk about yet. I want to sincerely thank all of you for the ratings and reviews that you've left on iTunes, for the support you've shown through hashtags like bold with insulin for sharing the show the way you do it continues to grow every month because of you really, really appreciate the affection that you give back to the podcast and I hope you understand how much affection I have for all of you. Let me just wish everyone the happiest of New Year's. I am so excited for 2019 you should be as well. We are going to do amazing things together. Continue to be bold. I'll talk to you soon.
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