#501 Alone in a Room Full of People

Danae talks about the first decade of her type 1 diabetes.

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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 501 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Hey everyone, welcome back. Today we're going to be speaking with Denae. Denae is a young adult living with Type One Diabetes. She's had it for a decade, and she's here to tell us her story. Please remember, while you're listening 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. We're becoming bold with insulin. That was such an unfair introduction to this episode because it goes in a wonderful direction and fills a lot of little gaps in your heart. But I can't give it all away here during the music, right? You have to listen to the episode, which I'm going to call. See, I want to call it alone in a room full of people. alone in a full room, I kind of make it a little alone in a room full of people. Alright, that's what I'm going to call it. It's not catchy, but it fits.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. I want you to go to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box to learn more about the Dexcom CGM getting that information that data that stuff that you can see in real time. It's a game changer. The podcast is also sponsored by the Omni pod, you can get a free no obligation 30 day trial. If you're eligible of the Omni pod dash at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. You could just use a pump for free for a month if you're eligible. That is at least worth checking out. Omnipod comm forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box here's the name.

Denae 2:21
I am Denae. I'm from Boston mass. I'm 24. And I was diagnosed when I was 1410 years. Yeah, it'll be 10 years in May so definitely

Scott Benner 2:37
feel like a big thing or not. Particularly do not count it like that.

Denae 2:41
Um, yeah, I don't know. 10 years is a lot. I haven't really made like a big thing of the diversity I guess. Maybe that's the last few years I have just because it's been more of like a better thing. But I think 10 years will be a big thing for sure.

Scott Benner 3:02
Alright, today what how are you touching?

Denae 3:05
It was my What is it? I air pod case? I'm not touching it anymore. I'm sorry, I have a glass table. That's probably why it makes so much noise. And I don't

Scott Benner 3:18
want you to be sorry. I think it's really common in the first 15 or 20 minutes of the episode. People are jittery. And a lot of people touch things, too. It's it's really interesting, but yours is really loud for some reason. So squeeze your knee or something like that. Getting on my hands now. Did I use sitting on your hands for real? I hear Oh, yeah. Excellent. You know, it's funny the, the way the show starts traditionally where people are like, Hi, my name is Denae and blah, blah, blah. You know, that actually came from the first time I couldn't. Alright, I'm going to admit something now. So it came from the first time I started recording with someone and couldn't remember their name. Oh, really. So that's an artful way to get around not knowing someone's name. I said, Hey, just introduce yourself real quick. I like it. And then it became such a nice way to start the show where someone just comes on says, Hey, I'm Steve. And you know, but like that. I said, I really liked that. But it absolutely came from my own embarrassment and me trying to cover up for myself. So I like it. I like it. And thank thank God, I did that because now six years later, your name? I probably would have gotten wrong if I tried to pronounce it. I don't know why it's so pretty common. You're not you wouldn't be the first one. Now it's a tough one. It's so obvious now that you said it. But looking at it. Like all morning I was like oh my god, I think this is a woman.

Denae 4:48
I've gotten so many different variations. So it wouldn't have been it wouldn't have been the first time. So what made you reach out? Um, so I started out actually listening to your podcasts in January of this year, I have just started a job at Mass General. And I was taking the train in so I kind of wanted to find something to listen to on the train. And I just happen to stumble upon the Juicebox Podcast. And I was like, wow, this is like, the best podcast I've found. And it literally like changed my life, I did not have a good a one. See, I was just not really taking care of myself that well. And then, six months later, my agency went from 13 to seven. And it just completely changed my life. And I just will not listen to anything else ever. So I just wanted to come on and just say thank you for everything that you do. And honestly, like, just come on, and say that and really, it's just like, amazing how just listening to something can just impact somebody's life so much. And somehow, if like, my story could change someone's life as yours did, and so many other people's stories did that would like even just one person like that would be incredible.

Scott Benner 6:25
I agree. It is a very big deal to do something that impacts someone else's health. It feels amazing. So you're going to do that you're going to tell your story, and somebody else is going to find something interesting about it. But let's first come to I just came to a realization so let's talk about this first. I'm always joking about people naming a baby after me as tribute. But why don't I start asking to be named in the in the life insurance? Really this is this is what I should be doing. I just I can't believe I've been wasting this effort on get a getting a baby named Scott. I don't even like my own name. Alright, from now on, if people feel like I'm saved them. I would like to be included in their life insurance policy, or 401k. payouts are anything at all. Really? That's, that's now what I'm going to ask for. You're too young. You'll outlive me by a lot. So maybe you could just give me a baby name Scott one day tonight. Yeah. No, I'm incredibly uncomfortable. And happy at the same time. It's a very, it's a very weird blend of feelings. To have someone say to you, I found your podcast. I thought it was great. change my life. It's hard to know how to respond to that. Yeah, I bet. Yeah. Really? Yes. So I make really bad jokes instead. Although that's a great coping mechanism. Honestly. I got DNA. I grew up a fat kid. I had nothing else. What was I gonna do? You know, I had to be funny. They would have beat my ass if I wasn't funny. I grew up in a I was I grew up in the 70s and the early 80s. You needed to be funny if you weren't athletic, or willing to get high or was gonna go down tonight. You know what I mean? Like you. You're gonna be though, you're not like you watch movies. Now you're like, oh, stuffing people in lockers? What a trade idea that doesn't would happen. It really happened. I wasn't looking for it to be me. But But seriously, congratulations. Tell me again, where your agency was and where it went to in a year, less than a year

Denae 8:22
is six months. Yeah, I was at 13. And it went to seven, but not

Scott Benner 8:27

13. Like just diagnosed like you had diabetes for nine years. And it was 13.

Denae 8:32
Yeah. It's been from it had been anywhere from like nine to 13. And just that this past couple of years, like before the pandemic and everything. My family had gone through a lot of things. And so it was just really hard to keep everything under control. And so I just wasn't really the best at doing the best, you know, and it just ended up being higher than I wanted it to be. And then one day, I kind of just found the podcast and I can't even like freaked myself out into taking care of myself where I was like, if I don't do this, I'm literally going to go blind. And I kind of just like, gave myself the fear factor and was like, Okay, I need to do something about this. And then once I just kept listening, I was like, all these people are doing so well. Like if they can do it, I definitely can do it. Like if anyone can do it. So can I so then I was like, You know what, I have all these tools and all these resources and like I also use the Omni pod and the Dexcom. So I have access to all these things and like it's easy, just do it. So then I just did it.

Scott Benner 9:57
So you're making a lot of points that I'm interested in. First of all, I got to get this out of the way before we start. You're not from Boston, obviously. Are you from the south? I'm not. No, I'm from Boston. You're from Boston with that accent that you have right there. I have an accent. Well, no, you have the lack of an accent. Not that like it would be from a movie where you know, it's on the yard and stuff like that. But I'm just saying like, you really, I thought you were from more like Virginia and had moved up.

Denae 10:27
Oh, so my mom was born and raised in France. And when so I spoke French growing up. So I don't actually have like a Boston accent.

Scott Benner 10:38
You certainly don't. Okay. All right. So that's just to get that out of the way so that I don't spend the entire interview thinking like where's she from? So okay, so you Saudis taught you how to speak English? properly? Do you still speak French at all? Sorry, do you still speak any French? I do? Yes. We're gonna do stuff with that. Okay. Okay. So you, you proved out. And I think a lot of people listening have but a theory that I've had for a long time. So if you've been listening, you know that I wrote a blog for like a decade in the in the diabetes space before I started doing this, and honestly, is you and I are recording this in a couple of weeks. The seventh? I think, yeah, the seventh season of the podcast is going to start in a couple of weeks. And I'm not like, I don't do what those other some of those other podcasts like, you know, they've been around for three years now. Like we're on episode or on season 12. And I'm like, what, you know, like they put out five episodes and call it a season or whatever. When I tell you that this podcast is starting its seventh season, it's starting its seventh year of being at least a weekly show, as well, please. It's not that incredible. Just I sit and talk to people. And then I put it's not that hard. But But I appreciate it. But what my point is, is that the overwhelming theory online, that was during blogging, time I was blogging heavily. And even when I started the podcast was you don't show other people with diabetes, people who are doing well, because that makes them feel bad. Yeah, and I've never agreed with that. I've always thought that aspirational was the way to go, that you look at someone and just think they're not doing better than me. They just they know something. I don't know. Let me find out what that is. And that is what happened to you. Hmm.

Denae 12:27
Yeah, cuz diabetes is a learning curve. Like there's always something else to learn. There's, there's doing it, and then there's knowing something else that somebody else doesn't know exactly. Like, that's what you just said.

Scott Benner 12:39
But you can't do something you don't understand, like I said the other day, and I saw somebody echo it online, that you can't fail at something you have no knowledge of. Exactly. Yeah. And, and so we want to not give. So the prevailing idea was, don't teach them anything. And they'll figure it out. But what they were seeing back was that most people don't figure it out. And I always thought, why don't we just, I mean, listen, first of all, I was lucky at the time to really look at it. And to figure it out, I was a stay at home parent, right? So I could take a long look a hard look, sometimes a micro sometimes a macro and figure things out and come up with ideas. And you know, only learn to talk about them because of the blog. But most people don't even have that time they're off at work, or they're at school. They're just like staying alive. It's like it's a constant. Just tell me about that. Tell me about this first nine years ago, what was your life like?

Denae 13:44
When I first got diagnosed, I was 14. So I had just started high school. Um, and it's funny, I remember other people telling me what it was like for me, but I don't really remember it for myself, which is weird. Because I didn't know I was really feeling bad until I started feeling better. And so I had all the typical signs of it, but not really many people in my family kind of knew what it was they just knew something was wrong. So I had like the extreme thirst, extreme hunger, weight loss, hair loss, everything. And then by the time I was diagnosed, I was 82 pounds. And the doctors were like, We don't even know how you're alive right now. And that I remember that like clear as day like that was probably the one of the most memorable things. And the reason I went into the hospital actually was because I was getting headaches, or the doctor's office Actually, I went to the doctors because I was getting headaches and they were like, oh, we're just gonna like run some tests and stuff. So then we had left and they called They were like, you need to go to the emergency room right now. And we were like, oh, why? And they're like, you have diabetes. It was funny because I never really had like, crazy reactions to things until I kind of understood them. So my first reaction to was, Oh, well, at least it's not cancer. And that was my first reaction to hearing that I had diabetes. So I never really like, was like, Oh, it's not. Like, I didn't understand how bad I was feeling until I felt better. So I was when I was in the hospital,

I started really grasping it, and I was like, Oh, crap, this is really what it is. And they give you like, the diabetes 101 crash course in four days. And you're like, Okay, so here's your new life, have fun, bye. And then they just give you your whole new set of rules for the rest of your life in a matter of hours. And then when you get home, you're like, Okay, so now this is what it is. And that's really what I kind of started setting in, that everything was going to be different. And then

Scott Benner 16:16
I find that to be dangerous. And it's understandable what happens. They obviously they can't tell you the whole world in a couple of days. Yeah, but that, but when you're in that situation, at least, this is how I felt. everything that was said to me felt like a set in stone rule. And this Wow, I agree. Right? Right. Like this is how everything has to be all the time, there was never any body who would pull me aside to Hey, look, this is gonna morph, it's gonna change, you're gonna need to be flexible. Like, you know, I know, we said here, one to this many carbs. But, you know, over time, you'll see that change. All of this is momentary. And if they would have just let me know that I know, like, No, I'm not blaming anyone, I'm saying that if if I would have had that information, I wouldn't have spent so many years trying to make this elusive disease fit a very specific narrative. And that's where the maddening part comes to me. Is is the trying to make it fit exactly the thing that was said to you on day one, when you were for, write it, because I bet you when you were 16, you were a completely different person than you were when you were 14.

Denae 17:27
Yeah, they made it almost like a cookie cutter thing. And I was like, This is not the same as it was, like, I remember specific, like, I would make my lunches for school. And I was like, I need to have 15 pita chips. And this many of this. And that many of that. And I can only have eight ounces of juice and bla bla bla. And I was like, this is probably like, this isn't normal. Like, it was the weirdest thing ever. And then going to school like my friends before, like, when you go to lunch, like, you know, people would share lunch and everything, like people be like, Oh, can I have a chip? And I'm like, No, you can't have one or I'll die. Like, it's just like, so cut in clean and in set in stone, that you have to have everything perfect. And that's just not how you live your life. Because as everyone who has diabetes knows diabetes is far from perfect,

Scott Benner 18:22
isn't it? kind of almost funny to that? You feel like I'm doing everything exactly the way I was taught? Put your a one C was over nine. Yeah. Right. But you probably never put those two things together because you were doing what you were taught.

Denae 18:35
Exactly, yeah. And there's always like, you're trying so hard, and the numbers still are just not adding up. And that led to like a lot of different things down the road for me too, which also led to hire a one season everything. So it just was like a constant struggle and like a battle. So it was just hard all the time.

Scott Benner 19:02
So you guys were basically which one was excuse me, was one of your parents helping you with management or was it just for you to do

Denae 19:11
um, so I have always been a very extremely independent child. And I my parents insisted on helping but I insisted on doing it. A lot of my own, like a lot of my own. My mom was the one that helped more, or I put a lot of the while she was kind of more involved, I guess. She would come to the appointments with me and we would kind of relay the information to my dad. And because he's a teacher, so he was at school a lot and everything. But my mom worked from home most of the time. And

Scott Benner 20:03
well did I was when you say your mom was at the appointments, but when you got home and it was time to have an apple or 15 pita chips or something like that, was she helping you with that? Or were you just on your own?

Denae 20:15
Um, so it's kind of like the appointment high, I guess you go to the appointment and then like the surrounding days of the appointment, my mom would be like, Alright, this is what you have to do this we have to do because she was there and she was in it and bla bla bla,

Scott Benner 20:30
it's, it's like the week after y'all decide to go on a diet together with a bunch of people. Like when you get together with family, you're like, we could go on to do a weight loss challenge, we'll all try to lose 10 pounds. And then by Tuesday, you're like, I'm gonna lose 10 pounds. And then by Saturday, like, I'm just gonna go to a bar.

Denae 20:45
Yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah. Cuz at the end of the day, they don't actually have diabetes. And I do. So I'm like, Okay, fine. Like, I still have to do this, though. Like, you can. Like, you can say that you want to do it, but you don't actually have to do it. Like I actually have to do this. Yeah. So and like, obviously, there's no like bullying or anything of it. But they're much older, like, they have a lot more responsibility and like different responsibility. And like, I actually have it. So it just like is what it is. But I've always been an independent person too. So I never placed any responsibility on them for it either. So I was just like, I can do it. Like, it's me, I can do it. And as a kid, you're like, I'm invincible. I can do it. And I can do anything I want at the same time. So it probably was more than like, I probably bit off more than I could chew.

Scott Benner 21:45
Were you a bit of a pain in the ass? Like, did you like were they trying to help? And you kept them at arm's length?

Denae 21:50
Oh, absolutely. I was so stubborn. Was Yes, I still am Yes. Yeah, I always wanted to do it by myself. And I was like, I could do it. And I can do it by myself. Oh, I was definitely a pain in the ass.

Scott Benner 22:06
I didn't have to take a supplement. Like once a week. It's just a vitamin. And it took me four days to get her to take it. It's just, I must have said, Hey, take that vitamin real quick. Like 5000 times I put it in front of her or anything. You just take that for I don't like to take pills. I'm like, yeah, no one does. Can you just take it, you know, on and on. And at one point. Last night, she comes up, I was editing the show and putting a shop last night. She comes upstairs and she just got done writing something for her AP Lang class. And she's like, Can you read the conclusion with me and see what you think? And I was like, Sure. So we started reading. And as I was reading, I said, Hey, just take that vitamin. And she started laughing. She's like I did. I was like, Are you sure? And she's laughing. I did. I did, I promise. And at this point, she had actually taken it. But had told me she was going to not take it for so many days in a row. that by the time she actually took it. She's cracking up laughing and then she was worried. I didn't believe her because she was laughing. And I understand what you're saying about. Yeah, well, about having somebody tell you to do something that you just don't want to do it. No, no, it's it's completely common response. But the but the issue ends up being Hey, you know what, you freaked me out. But because I just sat here and did the math on the calendar. Not that it was tough math, but you were diagnosed in 2012. Is that right? 2011? That, like you understand that 2011? Like I thought there'd be flying cars in 2011. Like, that's how old I am. Right? Like and you're you were 14 then even just now like, like putting together my head that you're 24 like, flips me out like you like you weren't diagnosed? What do I mean, you're an adult with type one who wasn't diagnosed in the dark ages of type one. And yet you still had an A one c over nine.

Unknown Speaker 24:00
Mm hmm. I want you to

Denae 24:03
know, as much as the technology has changed, it's still feels like so much as like, even just nine years ago, it still feels like there was so much that has changed.

Scott Benner 24:15
But what it's making me think is that everyone listening needs to understand that the technology or the tools or whatever you want to call it where you know how you always hear people say like, this is the best time to be diagnosed with type one. I say that because it's true, right? But it's not true if someone doesn't teach you how to do it.

Unknown Speaker 24:36
Exactly right.

Scott Benner 24:37
And and so because you should not you obviously can do it because you're doing it. Right. Right. And so you lack something for nine years that was there and attainable. And that's sad to me. I also am really excited for you that you found the other side of it. But in a larger way, it makes me worried for everyone else who, you know, you're going to see all these algorithms just existing in the world with pumps and algorithms and glucose monitors. And I, you know, Arden uses one, and I know how well it works. But you just made me realize that it doesn't matter, because most people aren't going to do it. Yeah, if we don't drag them forward into it, and teach them how to do it, so that they can do it on their own. People aren't just gonna pick it up on their own. Yeah. Okay. Well, tell me a little bit about those, those first years, especially as you got into your late teens and early 20s, you are aware that you're a one sees way higher than you want it to be? I assume you're trying? Or were you just not trying at all? What was the vibe?

Denae 25:47
Yeah, so I went through a lot of difficult times growing up in diabetes, because a lot of me didn't really want to have diabetes, I really got it at a time where you don't really know who you are yet. So you're kind of figuring out all of that, and getting it when people are just kind of figuring out who you are. And then all of a sudden, realizing have this thing that makes you different, you're just like, I don't want this because no one else has it. And I think that kind of just really set me apart. And so I just avoided it for a really long time. And I did the bare minimum. And so that definitely contributed to a high and one C for a long time. And the beginning parts of all of the rules and regulations around like no one what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, and like carb counting in the like sliding factors and all of that, or like sliding scales, and all of that contributed to me developing an eating disorder as well. So I had, um, I'm sure you've heard of it before, but dyeable aimia. And that happened for a really long time. And my senior year of high school, actually, I ended up going into treatment for it. Not for very long. And in a terrible place, which does did not know anything about diabetes, which is also one of the things that I want to like advocate for is just know, like going to build awareness around places for in treatments and inpatient treatment centers to build up awareness for diabetes around like places like that, because my experience with that was just so awful, that they just have no education around that. And like, I was told that there was a place that place was for people like myself who have died, who had died, Alenia and then just going in there and realizing that they had absolutely no idea what they were doing, like they had the most bare minimum knowledge of it was like, I was so shocked. And it was just like, crazy to me that they just didn't know what they were doing.

Scott Benner 28:48
Well, when you said that, to make sure not to do it in a bad place. I thought you were about like Sean Boston.

Friends, have you been using injections forever and been dreaming about a pump. But you look at the pumps and you think I don't want all that tubing to be connected to something. I understand that. If you don't want tubing, and you don't want to be connected, but you'd like the freedom that a pump would bring you. Check out the Omni pod on the pod.com forward slash juice box a tubeless insulin pump. Right now eligible folks are being offered a free no obligation 30 day trial of the on the pod dash Oh my free for 30 days, Scott Do tell. Well, there's not much to tell you go to the pod.com Ford slash juice box you find out if you're eligible and then they give you the pump. It's pretty cool. You get to use it for a full month and see what you think. Now, why would you do that? Well, it's summertime. Summertime There's a song called summertime. I don't know how it goes. Anyway, it's an old song. It's really good. You should try it. Not the point. It's summertime, you're going to be outside active running about swimming, jumping, frolicking, what a great time to try out the on the pod, what a great time to cut yourself free of tubing if you're on a tube pump, or having to carry around a bunch of needles or a pen, if you're doing MDI omnipod.com forward slash juice box. My daughter has been wearing it on the pod since she was four years old. She's going to be 17 in a couple of weeks. We love it. And we think you might you know, something else you might love. The Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. Why is that? Scott? I'm talking to myself a lot during these ads today. Well, Scott, I'll tell you why. Now I'm just having a conversation with myself, which really is what this is. But that's not the point. The point is, the Dexcom lets you know what direction your blood sugar's moving, how fast it's moving in that direction. And what the number is, at a glance, literally at a glance, like I pick up my cell phone right now I have an apple, you might have an Android wouldn't matter. I push a button. My daughter's blood sugar's at one and it's stable. What do you think of that? Boom, like that? I'm actually following somebody else right now. Their blood sugar's 120. That's right, you could follow more than one person. As a matter of fact, if you were a Dexcom user, you could allow up to 10 people to follow you. What I know, it's crazy. But it's true. Technology is amazing. It's 2021. And this stuff just keeps getting better and better. The Dexcom is no exception. See, your blood sugar's in real time, their direction, their speed, and where they are. With the Dexcom g six, you can do it for Apple, or iPhone. And by doing it, I mean, you can follow with Apple or iPhone. You can also use it. I mean, Dexcom will give you a receiver if you want, but you can just see the blood sugar on your phone. My daughter can see hers on her iPhone. And she does. It's amazing. It's life changing, seeing what your blood sugar's doing, what direction it's moving in. It helps you make decisions about insulin, better decisions that lead to better outcomes. That's my opinion. But I think you'll find the same dexcom.com forward slash juice box, give yourself a fighting chance. Don't just be throwing darts in the dark. Thinking like oh, I think this is as much in someone as I need or spend the next three hours after a Bolus for a meal go and I hope my blood sugar is not low. I hope my blood sugar is not high. Stop hoping try knowing it makes it a lot easier. Alright guys, there are links to these sponsors. And all the sponsors at Juicebox Podcast comm are right in the show notes of your podcast player, but for now, Omni pod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box support the sponsors support the show.

Where's she going with this? But But I hear I hear what you're saying you need a reputable place that is well versed has a plan you should check on what that plan is before you go in. But again, tough because you don't know what they're supposed to be doing. So how do you check them on whether or not they know they're and it's gonna be references? It's gonna be? Yeah, right. Just this

Denae 33:25
specific center like Yeah, but um, there. It was just I wasn't even in there for a very long, but it was recommended by the hospital that I had been diagnosed that and so I was like, What is the affiliation between these? And how is their connection with them? Like, how much do they keep up with it? Do they supply them with their own doctors? Do they educate them do that? How often is their training like? I was like, all of the stuff that I was thinking about the whole time. And it was just weird to see it from my side as a diabetic and then seeing it also in the perspective of someone who had an eating disorder. So I have both sides. Yeah. And then just kind of putting the two and two together where they only have half of the treatment. Whereas somebody who has more than one thing going on, but I'm just only one side of that. Like what if somebody else had something completely different? And they only do half for treatment?

Scott Benner 34:40
Yeah. I mean, it's listen to healthcare as a business and know that not every business is run. Well, you know what I mean? And it's interesting how how we think about, like, if you have a storefront sign, well then you say you make sandwiches, then they're going to be good sandwiches inside here. Then you go buy one and you're like us terrible. You know, it turns out everybody can't make a great sandwich. But it doesn't stop them for a moment as owning a sandwich shop. Yeah, so you have to do some diligence. But it's also interesting that you're in a bad way to begin with. And once you've made the decision to go for treatment, I would imagine, it's hard to put into your mind, well, now I need to, you know, check on this place and make sure they're gonna do what they say and that they have everything I need. And it's just sounds like a fraught time in your life. And you can understand not being able to do that.

Denae 35:34
That like 1718 years old, that's not like, right, all the questions that you're asking either, too. So those are the questions that came down from other people as well that I had the years after think about,

Scott Benner 35:49
right, right. Yeah. Yeah, I have to ask you, you didn't mention diabelli Mia, in your email, and I heard you, you've struggled to it through this first half an hour, like you wanted to tell me but you you had trouble getting it out a couple of different times. So I want to check, are you okay, that means you said something, I think you weren't sure you were gonna say today. Is that right?

Denae 36:07
Oh, I didn't mention at all in the email at first. But I had while since I had time, from when we scheduled the meeting, to think about all the things that I wanted to say. But when I was listening to some of the podcasts, from the beginning, there was a woman who said that she had a lot of struggles. I've It was one of the earlier podcast, I wanted to go back and look at it. I think it was in like in the early two hundreds, I think. But she said that she has struggled with it a lot. And she had suffered from a lot of complications. And that was actually one of the reasons why I was just like, Okay, time to get into action and time to get myself together. And I just think that sharing the struggles will help people who might be too afraid to come out and say things to really, like, realize that they're not alone, because a lot of the people who share their stories in the podcast, were brave enough to come out and say their story. And like, I was one of those people for a really long time to not come out and say anything. And then I saw that there are people out there who are not doing well, like I wasn't doing well. And I'm not alone and other people out there not alone in it does get better. It's

Scott Benner 37:38
your turn to be brave. That's all, you know. Yeah. Oh, that's, it's really nice that you're sharing it. So tell me a little bit about what people should be looking for. So if I'm a parent of someone, or if I'm an adult living with type one, how does diabetes rear its head? Originally? How did it start?

Denae 37:56
Um, a lot of the signs are definitely, um, decrease in, like, renewing prescriptions for sure. And so like, if you notice that there's a lot of, like, if your child is saying like, Oh, yeah, I'm definitely doing what I was supposed to like, I'm doing all the insulin, like, I'm carb counting, I'm doing my assemble a lot. But you're noticing that you're not refilling prescriptions as often as you usually are. That's a huge design. I did that a lot. And another one is you are noticing that the agency is really high every time you go to the endocrinologist, but the meter is always saying a number that doesn't reflect anyone see. There's like definitely number manipulation, where they'll, um, they'll take insulin and then change the date and time on the meter. And then just check their blood sugar over and over again and change the date and time on the meter.

Scott Benner 39:07
That sounds like much work than a

Denae 39:09
lot of work. Trust me. I spent a lot of time doing that. And it was not a lot of fun.

Scott Benner 39:17
Can I ask you? Is it more work keeping your agency where it is now or more work pretending that you have a good day one say

Denae 39:24
Oh, it's so much more work pretending is so much more work. Because you have this constant fear where you're like, someone's gonna find out but like, I need to do like it's it's a constant battle all the time because you're like, it's all psychological. It's in your head and you're like, I have to do this because like, in order for me to be the way that I need to be like, it's, it's not you take me over like you think you're in control, but you're really not. And you're like, I'm trying to tell everybody that this is the way that it is, but it's really not like, and then it catches up to you. And it's just, it just all falls apart. And so honestly, you feel better, you look better, you act better. If you just are in control of your numbers the right way, then if you're controlling the numbers the wrong way,

Scott Benner 40:24
I don't know if you're aware of this or not. But a number of times while we've been talking, you've alluded to or flat out said that the way you are, you didn't know about someone else had to tell you. So when you were diagnosed, you didn't know how you felt someone? Do you don't remember how you felt someone told you how you felt? And even now, what I'm hearing is that is that you're, you're you were never really being yourself, you were being what you thought you were supposed to be or what someone told you were supposed to be. Did you lose a lot in that gap of time? Like, are you able to look back now? And like, I don't, I don't want to be a bummer. But what was there a lot of wasted life in there?

Denae 41:12
Oh, yeah, there's definitely a lot of time that was spent trying to kind of keep up something that wasn't really the way that it was supposed to be, you know, like,

Unknown Speaker 41:26
being

Denae 41:29
being what I thought I was supposed to be, well, not maybe not supposed to be, but like being the way that I thought I wanted to be, was a lot more than it should have been. And it took a lot more than it needed to.

Scott Benner 41:49
So a lot of effort to create appearances. And you're not even necessarily sure that's how you really want it to be to begin with. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it feels convoluted, but it's, it's not really it's, to me, I've said here before, one of the things I hate, I hate a lot of things and you know, wasted time is one of them. I genuinely hate the idea of wasting time, I hate when there are a group of people together. Three people, let's say one person is lying. The other two people know they're lying. But don't say anything to them. And we stand in this circle, having this completely bogus conversation that not one person believes in, but we're doing it for appearances, or we're doing it to set something up or I I'm frustrated by that kind of thinking to begin with, like I'm almost, I'm almost angry at the person who you used to be for like, like doing that with the meter. And yet I know it happens to so many people it is such a common story of fixing the meat or making it look right just so you can go to the doctor just to keep the doctor from yelling at you is that

Denae 43:06
I knew that it was wrong to like I knew that. What I what I was doing was Shouldn't I shouldn't have been doing but there was just like some sort of fear or something surrounded by it, like I had this constant need to be perfect all the time. And the sight of the numbers just being high, was like I just can't even look at it. And like I didn't want to do it. So then every time I saw a high number, I just didn't want to do it and I didn't want to see it. So then I would just avoid it. And I would avoid checking my blood sugar until maybe like a week before. And then I would go back and just read, fabricate all those numbers. And then I would go in, they would check my agency and they'd be like, well, we don't understand what's wrong. And then they'd be like, maybe it's the meter. We'll give you a new one. And I was like, yeah, maybe that's it. And like I just was like, I couldn't really come to terms with myself. And knowing the fact that I just needed to do it and like I knew that I needed to but I just couldn't get myself to

Scott Benner 44:25
know if you so first of all, please understand and I'm sure you do because you were having a nice conversation here and you you're really cool, but I don't I didn't mean like Angry you like, like at you. I meant I'm angry to think that you wasted time. Oh, yeah. Right. And then other people are doing the same thing and not even just with I mean yours is obviously you know it's its own little criminal enterprise with changing the numbers and the dates on things and testing when you know you're low and changing dates, but even what the doctor's office did, like come on, like how many times does the doctor's office need to Seeing a one c that's 11 and a meter that says you're a one see a six, and they know two. So now they know, you know, they're handing you a new meter like, oh, maybe it's this and you're like, yeah, maybe you're literally in the scenario that I painted where everyone's just foolish. And we're acting like it's okay. It's a strange thing, to me really frustrating. Away from diabetes even because I, I so much preferred directness, and, and competency. Because, look, I mean, look what happened to you, you just randomly found a podcast, and you're a onesies. What now? And I think the last time I checked, it was 7.1. Jesus, that's so great. Good for you. That's amazing. And and what's the difference between this whole nine years and a 7.1?

Denae 45:56
The podcast on honestly, just like growing up and realizing that if I want to be the best version of myself, it's just like, you know, what you need to do you have the things that you need in order to do them. So why not just do it? It's easier to do it than to not, it's easier to take the steps than to avoid it. And you'll feel better you know, what it's like to feel better. You've been there before. So just but even

Scott Benner 46:29
then, you couldn't accomplish it though, right? Like, where could you have and you just didn't,

Denae 46:34
I could have and I had done it before I had gotten my agency down before. I had gotten it to a nine before. And that was the best I've ever felt in a really long time. I think it was like, my summer going into sophomore year of college. I had started a new like workout program. And I was going to like this boot camp type workout thing. And I started like a meal plan. And it had changed my numbers a lot. And it was working out really well. And my agency went down just from like changing my diet and exercise routine. And, um, after that, I was like, Oh, I can actually do this. So then I just started doing it. And then I go back to college and everything kind of just like, went a little bit haywire. And I kind of fell back into the the die Dibley mum mentality where, like, the insulin restriction actually helped me lose weight more. And it kind of just the psychological aspect of that kind of crept back in and the numbers just went back up. And it didn't really stick. So. So it's just kind of started back up again.

Scott Benner 48:13
So then for you the podcast was more about the the psychological side of diabetes, not so much about the nuts and bolts. Yeah, how to use insulin side of it.

Denae 48:23
Yeah, yeah. The, the technical aspect of diabetes has always come very straightforward to me, like I've always understood the, you take the insulin, and then you eat the food. And it works like that. Like it's straightforward. mathematics, science, it works like that. It ebbs and flows, like it's straightforward like that. But the mentality, like the psychological aspect behind it has always been the struggle for me. And I know that with a lot of people to like, especially just from listening to a lot of the podcast, and that's always been the hard part.

Scott Benner 49:11
Yeah, you. I hope you understand that. That's not how I think of it even like, I know, the podcast does that for you and for people in your situation. But it's not why I started it. It I really did started, like, in my mind that this podcast is about using insulin, but to you it's not really about that at all. And that's really cool. And fascinating to me that that it and so the aspect of having average people in to talk about their diabetes. That's been the real value for you. Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. I understand. You're helping me. Thank you. You're helping me understand what it does because I'm come from such a I don't have diabetes, obviously. So my my perspective is more I don't even know how to say it. It's, it's less encumbered by the the psychology of having type one, honestly, you know, and, and, and the everything else that comes with having diabetes, but I, I can understand that enough to know what the show needs to be. And having just people on who don't have, you know, you know, blogs and you know, I've been writing about diabetes for 15 years, like, I find it boring to talk to those people, because they have, they have, they've got talking points, and they just, they just, they hit them, they know how to go through them. But if you had me on a podcast, and the podcast is about, you know, making a podcast, if I started telling my story, I would get very cookie cutter too, because I've told it 1000 times, I've had to tell it to every advertiser that you know, is interested in being on the show, like I had to have a conversation last night for an hour with a potential advertiser that likely won't turn into anything. But I still had to do the thing and explain the story and do all that. And so I don't like to have people on who know their story so well, that there's no chance that they'll say something spontaneous and honest, like you did today.

Denae 51:17
Yeah, like it's almost scripted. Right?

Scott Benner 51:19
He comes off very, very, it's nothing against those people. I know a lot of them and they're lovely. And there are times where I think that those people must be so pissed at me. You know, like, I've never invited them on the show, because some of them I really like, but they just, I don't know, they're, they're in a lane and they do a thing. And I want you to like, I'm telling you, you said I've had struggles, you said it three times. Before you basically cop the having Daya Believe me at one point. Yeah. And And that, to me, is so valuable for people listening, because other people who have diabetes emia, who don't tell anybody can understand how you feel. And then they can hear that it worked out well for you. And that you overcame this hurdle. That probably seemed insurmountable. I would imagine. You know, that whole time? Did you really ever think you were going to get over this?

Denae 52:12
I never thought I would, honestly. And I know like, there, it's always good to have a support system for sure. And I did have people that I think we're good support. But in if I'm being honest, I really think that I got through it by myself, like a lot of it I did on my own. And that's not something a lot of people like to admit like, I definitely don't like that. I did that on my own. And it was definitely really hard, like diabetes is hard. Diabetes is hard. And like going through alone is hard. And while I definitely didn't go through it like 100% alone, but you felt when you felt alone? Yeah, definitely. And like, especially like, I don't know, anybody else who has diabetes, like I'm the only person in my family who has it. I don't, I don't have any friends who have it. I've heard of people who, like, I have friends who have friends who have it, but I don't know anybody personally, who has it. And that definitely was like a factor of like feeling alone in it as well. And so, when I found the podcast, I was like, I'm not alone. Like there are people out there who are going through the same thing as I am. And it helped me like kind of flip the switch and be like, I can, like if all these people can do it, like so can I and it just really like, kind of made helped me make that 180 and realize that, like if there's, if there's a way out, then I have to take the steps to do it. Even if I am going to do it by myself like I can, like I can do it. And if there are people out there who feel like they're alone, like, trust me, you're not like, I felt like I was like you are definitely not alone. And it may feel like that in a world of so many people doing so many different things like going through so many different things. But there are people out there going through something just as similar as you are and trust me like, if you can, if you feel like any part of you wants to get through it just cling on to that and you will get through it. Like I did it in a matter of months, which I did not think would ever happen. But I'm here now and I'm doing great. So

Scott Benner 54:54
that's probably you know, matter of months you didn't know it took you 10 years. And yeah, you got one more piece and that kind of took you over the finish line is is, you know, really the way I would think of it, I wouldn't think of it as you found some magic. It's just maybe the podcast was just the last piece that you needed. There are plenty of people who are you have your situation but are in a different portion of their journey, who find the podcast and doesn't come together for them as quickly. And I think that's important to say, too, because sometimes I hear people say, Why don't get it, there was a guy on the podcast that he found the podcast and three months later is a once he was six, and I listened for three months. And that didn't happen to me. And, Michael, it's not gonna happen the same for everybody. Everybody's at the different in a different part of their journey. And you know, this piece is important, I think. But if you're not ready to receive it, it's tough to just put it into practice and expect it to work. I wondered, while you were talking. Is it possible that I can that a person can be supported, meaning they have family around them who you know, would do anything for you? So you're not really alone? In that sense, yet? You still feel alone?

Denae 56:10
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, my, I definitely have my family. My I have a lot of family who's in the medical field too. So they get an understanding of it. And I guess they have like the silent support, I guess, where they're there for me. And they'll support me. But I guess I just didn't really like Well, I guess I wasn't like super aware of it. Or maybe I just didn't really like Think of it like that.

Scott Benner 56:43
Let me ask you a question and see if this strikes a chord with you. And if it doesn't, that's fine. But I use this as an example all the time. So when I started the podcast, I was very clear that I was going to share how we reach the success that my daughter had. And a person, a specific person in the community admonished me about it. They listened to the podcast, reached out without asking if I was interested, in their opinion, to tell me that I was doing the wrong thing. And that I shouldn't be doing what I was doing. I shouldn't be sharing how I manage my daughter. And they told me it was wrong. And I just I was admonished by this person. And it sticks with me to this day because of how wrong they were. But of how how right they thought they were in the moment. So sure that no one should share how they manage their diabetes, because everyone's different. And your diabetes may vary. And I was back there going like no, no, there are simple truths about diabetes that apply to everyone. And if they just understood this piece of it, and this piece of it, etc, etc, then it would they could make sense of it and decide what parts of what works for my daughter would work for them. And but it was it wasn't lazy, I don't think but it was just such a self righteousness that you're doing, you know, being told you're doing the wrong thing. And now I look back. And I think what if I would have listened to that person? Like what if I would have let them scare me away from doing this, like honestly, that that person seven or eight years ago now was attempting to do something that Denae would have left your a one c over 10 for the rest of your life. And and I don't think we we just don't think enough about our actions sometimes or how sure we can be about something. And it may be someone else might have a different idea. And I just heard you saying that you're you just said something. The way I should say this is that you just said something that made me realize that all the people I've ever spoken to who are adults with diabetes, I'm always trying to get them to say what happened so that other people will know. And it's always my thought that they weren't supported by their parents. And I think that management wise, a lot of them weren't. But they can never say it like you have you. They can never say it out loud, because they don't want to denigrate their parents. That's one thing, like a lot of people just don't want to throw somebody under the bus. But also you felt supported by your parents, just not in a way that was going to lead you to outcomes that were better for your health. So yeah, it just occurred to me that you're not protecting them. You honestly feel good about their support. It just wasn't in its entirety. Everything you needed. Is that all fair? Yeah, I think that's pretty fair. Yeah. Okay. You really just, you said something in a way recent, just like I said a couple minutes ago that made me rethink a lot of answers that I've heard on the podcast. It just, it just now is making sense to me. It's not that those people weren't helping them. They weren't doing the things that they that the person type one specifically needed to have better outcomes. So they were being supported, but not in the way that often the podcast ends up supporting them.

Denae 1:00:10
Yeah, like there was, there was support, but maybe not in the way that could have best benefited me.

Scott Benner 1:00:19
So this is what people mean when they say you can be in a room full of people and feel alone.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:24
Yes. Okay. There's like, it's like, You're, you're being helpful, but you're not helping.

Scott Benner 1:00:32
Yes. And, and, and back to my original rambling point, is that I, I'll say to people all the time, like, I think it's important to share what works for us on the podcast, because it's nice to hear you're not alone at three o'clock in the morning when your blood sugar's low. But wouldn't it be nicer to understand how to get your basil set up so that you actually aren't low at three o'clock in the morning? So that so that you don't need that you're not alone? support? Like, it's not that that you're not alone? support isn't really valuable? But in my mind, it was Wouldn't it be better if you didn't need it? As often? And that's the point I tried to make to that person back then. And they just said, No, you're doing the wrong thing. And I think I've never really like had this feeling out loud. But to that person, oh, yeah, there we go. Right. So I knew I knew what I was talking about. But of course, the irony here, of course, today is that person thought they knew what they were talking about. And it's just perspective. Because what they really meant was, if they were to share what they knew, they thought it would be dangerous for other people to hear. And I felt pretty confident that I could deliver the information in a way that would make it digestible and actionable. Yeah, that's all. I actually think this might be one of my greater accomplishments of my life. Just learning how to talk about diabetes in a way that people can understand it. And I seriously like I, I, if I die tomorrow, just say that at my funeral, I'd be completely happy. Scott was a father and a husband. And he tried really hard to help people with type one diabetes, I think I would be that'd be an okay. eulogy for me.

Denae 1:02:19
I think that last sentence should be he did really well. And helping a lot of people in diabetes just cracked my grammar today. What just happened there? You tried, but no, you did. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:02:30
oh, okay. Hey, I don't need this pressure for you today. I never did well in school. And now you're like, you conjugated the wrong word. Well, thank you. Well, that's that. That's even debatable. It worked for you. And it works. For some people. It works for a lot of people, but it probably doesn't work for everybody. And there are a couple of views on the podcast and people hate me. You know what I mean? Like, I get that I'm not everybody's cup of tea and all, that's fine. But I just thought it was worth trying. Like, what was the harm in trying, everybody always acted like there was harm in trying. And I've known people in the past who have had major sway. Like, you know, we talked about, I don't like the word influencer. And I don't, I don't think of myself in that vein. But there are plenty of people now like Instagram is a good example. Like, I'm an influencer. Like, I don't argue like, aren't you just a guy that looks nice in jeans, and it has a good smile? who happens to have diabetes? Does that make you a diabetes influencer? You know, like, I don't I don't understand that. Specifically, I don't understand the idea of wanting to influence somebody either. Like I don't like for me, it's about I have a message. Here it is. I hope it works for you. Yeah, you're talking and some people like to listen, that's really, that's exactly how I think of it. It's just it's up to you to pick it up or put it down. And it doesn't it. I mean, it doesn't not matter to me, but I mean, I'm not hurt if you don't like the podcast, right? Yeah. It's the only thing I can do. I'm not trying to make a thing that I think you'll be preconceived, pre determined to like, I just, this is the thing I have, and you'll, you know, you'll do with it what you want. I'm excited that it helps you. Really, it's

Denae 1:04:16
been it's been a really great help. It's changed a lot for me, so cool.

Scott Benner 1:04:21
I it's really kind of you to share you said your Did you have any other troubles that beyond diabetes aimia that are worth sharing? Um, was that the big impediment?

Denae 1:04:32
Yeah, that's probably the biggest one, but just like, really? Well, I recently got the Omni pod. And well, there's never been really any struggle with the Omni pod. But like, that's probably the best thing that I've gotten. I got it actually the day after my 24th birthday, which was like the best thing that has ever happened in terms of diabetes for me, so that's not a struggle, but that's a good Hey, can

Scott Benner 1:05:01
I ask you Did you get it? by first trying a free no obligation demo? And did you?

Denae 1:05:07
I had one, but I actually never put it on because I already knew that I wanted it. And I try

again. Did I try again? Did you use the link on the pod comm forward slash juice box eat a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod? I did use. Thank you, Jesus, try a little harder. Oh, my gosh. How did you know you wanted the pump. Um, so I actually had wanted it for a while. Back in high school, I asked for it. Because I had been using, I started off with the syringes. And then I moved to the pens and I had been using the pens for a really long time. And then I was like, I really don't want to use these anymore. And so I had spoken to my endocrinologist about it. And they were like, well, your agency is too high for it. And I was like, Oh, that's weird. Okay. So then I was trying to get it down. And then they were like, okay, we'll do like a class on it. And then I just never got around to it. And then once I started hearing the podcast, and how well it worked for people. I had changed endocrinologist. Good for you, because that other one said stupid stuff to you. Like you're a once he's too high for a pump. I never understand that.

Yeah, I was a little bit thrown by that. And she was also the pediatric endocrinologist. But then I had changed. I think, in December, I want to say, um, I had one previously, but I didn't really see her that often because I just was avoiding all of that and didn't really like hospitals. So I didn't go. And so then I changed to one who I now love, he is so smart, super nice. And actually, like cares about what I have to say. And when I told him about your podcast, he was like, I'm gonna listen to it. And so he listens to you actually now, which is pretty cool. And so then I was like, Yeah, I really want to get on the pump. It's gonna help a lot. And he was like, yeah, definitely will. And then I started in August, and that, like, completely changed the a one c two. So it's really good. Good for you. What's your doctor's name? Scott Sperling,

Scott Benner 1:07:47
Scott, thank you for listening. Thank you for being progressive enough to lead and I have a pump. You know, you have something else in common with Omnipod. You're both there in Massachusetts. Yes, we are. I visited last year I gave a I gave a talk to the employees at the the building where some of the offices are and where they actually make the pods. And I got to take a tour of the production facility, which is fascinating, because oh, that's pretty cool. run by robots. And everything is very, very neat. Just very cool. But yeah, you guys have that in common? Yeah, you're right up there in mass, a place where it snows and becomes uninhabitable for human life.

Denae 1:08:31
Yeah. And then it's like warm the next day.

Scott Benner 1:08:34
Well, that's global warming. But but that that harder that is cold weather in, especially in the Boston area right there. It's unholy the way it comes off the water like that and just crushes the area in that cold. It's oh my gosh, I don't know how you live there to me.

Denae 1:08:53
I don't know either. I've been trying to leave for so long. Because of the cold. Yes, I cannot get myself to get out of here. But I've been trying.

Scott Benner 1:09:04
You ever heard Sam fold on the show. Sam used to be a professional baseball player and he's a coach now for the Phillies. He was up for the head coaching job in Boston just recently. And it went to someone else and I sent him a simple text that said too cold there anyway.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:22
Because

Scott Benner 1:09:23
nobody, it's just I don't know how you guys do it. It's fascinating. It's cold here. But Boston is a it's frigid there. Yeah, in the wintertime. Okay, so is there anything that we have not covered that you wish that we would? Um, I think that's all not bad. I thought you were great. I really appreciate you coming on and doing this. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Seriously. This all started with you just wanting to make fun of Kim Kardashian. And

Denae 1:09:50
I know when I saw that I was like, terrible. What a bad influence. Now that's an influencer. I do not agree with he

Scott Benner 1:09:57
sends me a picture of Kim Kardashian checking her ketones, which I guess is something people do that don't have diabetes, I probably around dieting reasons if I'm guessing something about ketosis Yeah. And, and she's, she's like the first paragraph of your emails, like, look at this. horrified, then the rest of it. And I think you were one of those people, you weren't really looking to be on the show as much as did I push you back? Or were you hoping to be on I can't tell. People are so polite when they email sometimes I think I'm not even sure if they want to be on my wife says I'm not good at reading signals from people. But

Denae 1:10:34
I just emailed and I just wanted to thank you for everything that you do on the podcast. And you're like, if you want to come on, you can like, Oh, really? Well, it was not expecting that. Okay, sure.

Scott Benner 1:10:46
About what you said that made me think that it would be a good idea to have you on and look, I was right, just like

Denae 1:10:52
I did mention. I don't know if this was it or not, but I'm planning on going to school to become an endocrinologist actually for to help with type one diabetics. I went to school for nutrition and want to specialize in like nutrition for diabetics and everything so,

Scott Benner 1:11:14
so weight to you, you want to become a doctor, or you want to do nutrition for people with type one, I'm sorry, I misunderstood.

Denae 1:11:21
I want to become a doctor. But I went to school for nutrition. And I'm going to go to back to become a dietitian, and then go to school to become an endocrinologist.

Scott Benner 1:11:36
Good luck with that. That's amazing. I need more doctors on my side. So that's a good idea. As a matter of fact, everyone listening should become an endocrinologist, we can fix this whole thing right now start talking to people differently about their, their diabetes, give them a better chance. That's all that's my marching orders for everybody today. Quit your jobs.

Denae 1:11:55
12 years and I'll be on your show again for endocrinology.

Scott Benner 1:12:00
I'll tell you what, I'll keep it going that long. Just to hear that story. I really well. I just told somebody the other day, they're like, when do you think the podcast is ending? And I was like, never if I can help it. Yeah. That's really great. And I thank you so much for coming on and doing this. I appreciate that. Thank you for having me. Of course. Hold on one second, please. I'm starting the recording back up. I don't usually do this. But wait. So you, you can speak French? So like, could you say I have type one diabetes in French? Jd I bet. Tip one. Do other words like can you say you're listening to the Juicebox Podcast? She could do a podcast. What? Wait, I talked over you do it again. Ta could la podcast Did you but that's so much fun for me for reasons that I can't put into words. You can you have full conversations in French and or does it go away if you don't use it? Yeah, I speak with my mom a lot. Um, it's a little rusty right now, just because I haven't been there in a little while. The last time I went I was in September of 2019. So yeah, so you go back to France. And then it takes a couple of days and then it's back.

Denae 1:13:20
Yeah, kind of refreshes after like a day or so. But I try to keep up with it as much as I can. I watch a lot of French shows. So just to like kind of keep up. And I speak with my mom. When I can.

Scott Benner 1:13:38
That's excellent. Yeah, I definitely would not want to lose that skill. I took French for three years in high school. And no, no French whatsoever. So myself, I believe at one point I could count the eight. Eight wasn't for me. those last two numbers. That's a 10 wait isn't enough. Nine. Yes. Cat sang? What is that? Five? Oh. This is 10 ds. Yeah, I was terrible. Like, whatever. My brain did not work that way. I literally sat through three years of French class and I couldn't speak three words of French. My brain just like, trust me the fact that I teach anybody anything is it's kind of ridiculous. grammar that will get you Oh, please. I never even got far enough into it to understand that part of it. It just does not it just I couldn't pick it up it to me math and French were the same thing. I just, I don't I don't understand things that don't. I don't know. I can't even put into words for you why I don't understand it. But I can't understand algebra. And I could not learn to speak another language. So I feel I can talk about Pre-Bolus thing though. So all right. All right. Yeah, that's the easy stuff. Right? Yeah. Just understanding when to put this in and how long to wait and when to do this, that I get the rest of it. Not so much. Okay, I can't be too long. I'm sorry. I will. I appreciate this. Thank you again. Thank you. Bye. Hey, what's the name not amazing. Today everybody round of applause. You should be clapping to it. Thanks so much to Dexcom, makers of the G six continuous glucose monitor. And the pod makers of the Omni pod dash tubeless insulin pump for sponsoring this episode. Go to Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box and dexcom.com forward slash juice box to find out more about these amazing products and to support the Juicebox Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget there's a new show every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to Episode 501 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Hey everyone, welcome back. Today we're going to be speaking with DNA. DNA is a young adult living with Type One Diabetes. She's had it for a decade, and she's here to tell us her story. Please remember, while you're listening 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. We're becoming bold with insulin. That was such an unfair introduction to this episode because it goes in a wonderful direction and fills a lot of little gaps in your heart. But I can't give it all away here during the music, right? You have to listen to the episode, which I'm going to call. See, I want to call it alone in a room full of people. alone in a full room, I kind of make it a little alone in a room full of people. Alright, that's what I'm going to call it. It's not catchy, but it fits.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. I want you to go to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box to learn more about the Dexcom CGM getting that information that data that stuff that you can see in real time. It's a game changer. The podcast is also sponsored by the Omni pod, you can get a free no obligation 30 day trial. If you're eligible of the Omni pod dash at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. You could just use a pump for free for a month if you're eligible. That is at least worth checking out. Omnipod comm forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box here's the name.

Denae 2:21
I am Denae. I'm from Boston mass. I'm 24. And I was diagnosed when I was 1410 years. Yeah, it'll be 10 years in May so definitely

Scott Benner 2:37
feel like a big thing or not. Particularly do not count it like that.

Denae 2:41
Um, yeah, I don't know. 10 years is a lot. I haven't really made like a big thing of the diversity I guess. Maybe that's the last few years I have just because it's been more of like a better thing. But I think 10 years will be a big thing for sure.

Scott Benner 3:02
Alright, today what how are you touching?

Denae 3:05
It was my What is it? I air pod case? I'm not touching it anymore. I'm sorry, I have a glass table. That's probably why it makes so much noise. And I don't

Scott Benner 3:18
want you to be sorry. I think it's really common in the first 15 or 20 minutes of the episode. People are jittery. And a lot of people touch things, too. It's it's really interesting, but yours is really loud for some reason. So squeeze your knee or something like that. Getting on my hands now. Did I use sitting on your hands for real? I hear Oh, yeah. Excellent. You know, it's funny the, the way the show starts traditionally where people are like, Hi, my name is Denae and blah, blah, blah. You know, that actually came from the first time I couldn't. Alright, I'm going to admit something now. So it came from the first time I started recording with someone and couldn't remember their name. Oh, really. So that's an artful way to get around not knowing someone's name. I said, Hey, just introduce yourself real quick. I like it. And then it became such a nice way to start the show where someone just comes on says, Hey, I'm Steve. And you know, but like that. I said, I really liked that. But it absolutely came from my own embarrassment and me trying to cover up for myself. So I like it. I like it. And thank thank God, I did that because now six years later, your name? I probably would have gotten wrong if I tried to pronounce it. I don't know why it's so pretty common. You're not you wouldn't be the first one. Now it's a tough one. It's so obvious now that you said it. But looking at it. Like all morning I was like oh my god, I think this is a woman.

Denae 4:48
I've gotten so many different variations. So it wouldn't have been it wouldn't have been the first time. So what made you reach out? Um, so I started out actually listening to your podcasts in January of this year, I have just started a job at Mass General. And I was taking the train in so I kind of wanted to find something to listen to on the train. And I just happen to stumble upon the Juicebox Podcast. And I was like, wow, this is like, the best podcast I've found. And it literally like changed my life, I did not have a good a one. See, I was just not really taking care of myself that well. And then, six months later, my agency went from 13 to seven. And it just completely changed my life. And I just will not listen to anything else ever. So I just wanted to come on and just say thank you for everything that you do. And honestly, like, just come on, and say that and really, it's just like, amazing how just listening to something can just impact somebody's life so much. And somehow, if like, my story could change someone's life as yours did, and so many other people's stories did that would like even just one person like that would be incredible.

Scott Benner 6:25
I agree. It is a very big deal to do something that impacts someone else's health. It feels amazing. So you're going to do that you're going to tell your story, and somebody else is going to find something interesting about it. But let's first come to I just came to a realization so let's talk about this first. I'm always joking about people naming a baby after me as tribute. But why don't I start asking to be named in the in the life insurance? Really this is this is what I should be doing. I just I can't believe I've been wasting this effort on get a getting a baby named Scott. I don't even like my own name. Alright, from now on, if people feel like I'm saved them. I would like to be included in their life insurance policy, or 401k. payouts are anything at all. Really? That's, that's now what I'm going to ask for. You're too young. You'll outlive me by a lot. So maybe you could just give me a baby name Scott one day tonight. Yeah. No, I'm incredibly uncomfortable. And happy at the same time. It's a very, it's a very weird blend of feelings. To have someone say to you, I found your podcast. I thought it was great. change my life. It's hard to know how to respond to that. Yeah, I bet. Yeah. Really? Yes. So I make really bad jokes instead. Although that's a great coping mechanism. Honestly. I got DNA. I grew up a fat kid. I had nothing else. What was I gonna do? You know, I had to be funny. They would have beat my ass if I wasn't funny. I grew up in a I was I grew up in the 70s and the early 80s. You needed to be funny if you weren't athletic, or willing to get high or was gonna go down tonight. You know what I mean? Like you. You're gonna be though, you're not like you watch movies. Now you're like, oh, stuffing people in lockers? What a trade idea that doesn't would happen. It really happened. I wasn't looking for it to be me. But But seriously, congratulations. Tell me again, where your agency was and where it went to in a year, less than a year

Denae 8:22
is six months. Yeah, I was at 13. And it went to seven, but not

Scott Benner 8:27

13. Like just diagnosed like you had diabetes for nine years. And it was 13.

Denae 8:32
Yeah. It's been from it had been anywhere from like nine to 13. And just that this past couple of years, like before the pandemic and everything. My family had gone through a lot of things. And so it was just really hard to keep everything under control. And so I just wasn't really the best at doing the best, you know, and it just ended up being higher than I wanted it to be. And then one day, I kind of just found the podcast and I can't even like freaked myself out into taking care of myself where I was like, if I don't do this, I'm literally going to go blind. And I kind of just like, gave myself the fear factor and was like, Okay, I need to do something about this. And then once I just kept listening, I was like, all these people are doing so well. Like if they can do it, I definitely can do it. Like if anyone can do it. So can I so then I was like, You know what, I have all these tools and all these resources and like I also use the Omni pod and the Dexcom. So I have access to all these things and like it's easy, just do it. So then I just did it.

Scott Benner 9:57
So you're making a lot of points that I'm interested in. First of all, I got to get this out of the way before we start. You're not from Boston, obviously. Are you from the south? I'm not. No, I'm from Boston. You're from Boston with that accent that you have right there. I have an accent. Well, no, you have the lack of an accent. Not that like it would be from a movie where you know, it's on the yard and stuff like that. But I'm just saying like, you really, I thought you were from more like Virginia and had moved up.

Denae 10:27
Oh, so my mom was born and raised in France. And when so I spoke French growing up. So I don't actually have like a Boston accent.

Scott Benner 10:38
You certainly don't. Okay. All right. So that's just to get that out of the way so that I don't spend the entire interview thinking like where's she from? So okay, so you Saudis taught you how to speak English? properly? Do you still speak French at all? Sorry, do you still speak any French? I do? Yes. We're gonna do stuff with that. Okay. Okay. So you, you proved out. And I think a lot of people listening have but a theory that I've had for a long time. So if you've been listening, you know that I wrote a blog for like a decade in the in the diabetes space before I started doing this, and honestly, is you and I are recording this in a couple of weeks. The seventh? I think, yeah, the seventh season of the podcast is going to start in a couple of weeks. And I'm not like, I don't do what those other some of those other podcasts like, you know, they've been around for three years now. Like we're on episode or on season 12. And I'm like, what, you know, like they put out five episodes and call it a season or whatever. When I tell you that this podcast is starting its seventh season, it's starting its seventh year of being at least a weekly show, as well, please. It's not that incredible. Just I sit and talk to people. And then I put it's not that hard. But But I appreciate it. But what my point is, is that the overwhelming theory online, that was during blogging, time I was blogging heavily. And even when I started the podcast was you don't show other people with diabetes, people who are doing well, because that makes them feel bad. Yeah, and I've never agreed with that. I've always thought that aspirational was the way to go, that you look at someone and just think they're not doing better than me. They just they know something. I don't know. Let me find out what that is. And that is what happened to you. Hmm.

Denae 12:27
Yeah, cuz diabetes is a learning curve. Like there's always something else to learn. There's, there's doing it, and then there's knowing something else that somebody else doesn't know exactly. Like, that's what you just said.

Scott Benner 12:39
But you can't do something you don't understand, like I said the other day, and I saw somebody echo it online, that you can't fail at something you have no knowledge of. Exactly. Yeah. And, and so we want to not give. So the prevailing idea was, don't teach them anything. And they'll figure it out. But what they were seeing back was that most people don't figure it out. And I always thought, why don't we just, I mean, listen, first of all, I was lucky at the time to really look at it. And to figure it out, I was a stay at home parent, right? So I could take a long look a hard look, sometimes a micro sometimes a macro and figure things out and come up with ideas. And you know, only learn to talk about them because of the blog. But most people don't even have that time they're off at work, or they're at school. They're just like staying alive. It's like it's a constant. Just tell me about that. Tell me about this first nine years ago, what was your life like?

Denae 13:44
When I first got diagnosed, I was 14. So I had just started high school. Um, and it's funny, I remember other people telling me what it was like for me, but I don't really remember it for myself, which is weird. Because I didn't know I was really feeling bad until I started feeling better. And so I had all the typical signs of it, but not really many people in my family kind of knew what it was they just knew something was wrong. So I had like the extreme thirst, extreme hunger, weight loss, hair loss, everything. And then by the time I was diagnosed, I was 82 pounds. And the doctors were like, We don't even know how you're alive right now. And that I remember that like clear as day like that was probably the one of the most memorable things. And the reason I went into the hospital actually was because I was getting headaches, or the doctor's office Actually, I went to the doctors because I was getting headaches and they were like, oh, we're just gonna like run some tests and stuff. So then we had left and they called They were like, you need to go to the emergency room right now. And we were like, oh, why? And they're like, you have diabetes. It was funny because I never really had like, crazy reactions to things until I kind of understood them. So my first reaction to was, Oh, well, at least it's not cancer. And that was my first reaction to hearing that I had diabetes. So I never really like, was like, Oh, it's not. Like, I didn't understand how bad I was feeling until I felt better. So I was when I was in the hospital,

I started really grasping it, and I was like, Oh, crap, this is really what it is. And they give you like, the diabetes 101 crash course in four days. And you're like, Okay, so here's your new life, have fun, bye. And then they just give you your whole new set of rules for the rest of your life in a matter of hours. And then when you get home, you're like, Okay, so now this is what it is. And that's really what I kind of started setting in, that everything was going to be different. And then

Scott Benner 16:16
I find that to be dangerous. And it's understandable what happens. They obviously they can't tell you the whole world in a couple of days. Yeah, but that, but when you're in that situation, at least, this is how I felt. everything that was said to me felt like a set in stone rule. And this Wow, I agree. Right? Right. Like this is how everything has to be all the time, there was never any body who would pull me aside to Hey, look, this is gonna morph, it's gonna change, you're gonna need to be flexible. Like, you know, I know, we said here, one to this many carbs. But, you know, over time, you'll see that change. All of this is momentary. And if they would have just let me know that I know, like, No, I'm not blaming anyone, I'm saying that if if I would have had that information, I wouldn't have spent so many years trying to make this elusive disease fit a very specific narrative. And that's where the maddening part comes to me. Is is the trying to make it fit exactly the thing that was said to you on day one, when you were for, write it, because I bet you when you were 16, you were a completely different person than you were when you were 14.

Denae 17:27
Yeah, they made it almost like a cookie cutter thing. And I was like, This is not the same as it was, like, I remember specific, like, I would make my lunches for school. And I was like, I need to have 15 pita chips. And this many of this. And that many of that. And I can only have eight ounces of juice and bla bla bla. And I was like, this is probably like, this isn't normal. Like, it was the weirdest thing ever. And then going to school like my friends before, like, when you go to lunch, like, you know, people would share lunch and everything, like people be like, Oh, can I have a chip? And I'm like, No, you can't have one or I'll die. Like, it's just like, so cut in clean and in set in stone, that you have to have everything perfect. And that's just not how you live your life. Because as everyone who has diabetes knows diabetes is far from perfect,

Scott Benner 18:22
isn't it? kind of almost funny to that? You feel like I'm doing everything exactly the way I was taught? Put your a one C was over nine. Yeah. Right. But you probably never put those two things together because you were doing what you were taught.

Denae 18:35
Exactly, yeah. And there's always like, you're trying so hard, and the numbers still are just not adding up. And that led to like a lot of different things down the road for me too, which also led to hire a one season everything. So it just was like a constant struggle and like a battle. So it was just hard all the time.

Scott Benner 19:02
So you guys were basically which one was excuse me, was one of your parents helping you with management or was it just for you to do

Denae 19:11
um, so I have always been a very extremely independent child. And I my parents insisted on helping but I insisted on doing it. A lot of my own, like a lot of my own. My mom was the one that helped more, or I put a lot of the while she was kind of more involved, I guess. She would come to the appointments with me and we would kind of relay the information to my dad. And because he's a teacher, so he was at school a lot and everything. But my mom worked from home most of the time. And

Scott Benner 20:03
well did I was when you say your mom was at the appointments, but when you got home and it was time to have an apple or 15 pita chips or something like that, was she helping you with that? Or were you just on your own?

Denae 20:15
Um, so it's kind of like the appointment high, I guess you go to the appointment and then like the surrounding days of the appointment, my mom would be like, Alright, this is what you have to do this we have to do because she was there and she was in it and bla bla bla,

Scott Benner 20:30
it's, it's like the week after y'all decide to go on a diet together with a bunch of people. Like when you get together with family, you're like, we could go on to do a weight loss challenge, we'll all try to lose 10 pounds. And then by Tuesday, you're like, I'm gonna lose 10 pounds. And then by Saturday, like, I'm just gonna go to a bar.

Denae 20:45
Yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah. Cuz at the end of the day, they don't actually have diabetes. And I do. So I'm like, Okay, fine. Like, I still have to do this, though. Like, you can. Like, you can say that you want to do it, but you don't actually have to do it. Like I actually have to do this. Yeah. So and like, obviously, there's no like bullying or anything of it. But they're much older, like, they have a lot more responsibility and like different responsibility. And like, I actually have it. So it just like is what it is. But I've always been an independent person too. So I never placed any responsibility on them for it either. So I was just like, I can do it. Like, it's me, I can do it. And as a kid, you're like, I'm invincible. I can do it. And I can do anything I want at the same time. So it probably was more than like, I probably bit off more than I could chew.

Scott Benner 21:45
Were you a bit of a pain in the ass? Like, did you like were they trying to help? And you kept them at arm's length?

Denae 21:50
Oh, absolutely. I was so stubborn. Was Yes, I still am Yes. Yeah, I always wanted to do it by myself. And I was like, I could do it. And I can do it by myself. Oh, I was definitely a pain in the ass.

Scott Benner 22:06
I didn't have to take a supplement. Like once a week. It's just a vitamin. And it took me four days to get her to take it. It's just, I must have said, Hey, take that vitamin real quick. Like 5000 times I put it in front of her or anything. You just take that for I don't like to take pills. I'm like, yeah, no one does. Can you just take it, you know, on and on. And at one point. Last night, she comes up, I was editing the show and putting a shop last night. She comes upstairs and she just got done writing something for her AP Lang class. And she's like, Can you read the conclusion with me and see what you think? And I was like, Sure. So we started reading. And as I was reading, I said, Hey, just take that vitamin. And she started laughing. She's like I did. I was like, Are you sure? And she's laughing. I did. I did, I promise. And at this point, she had actually taken it. But had told me she was going to not take it for so many days in a row. that by the time she actually took it. She's cracking up laughing and then she was worried. I didn't believe her because she was laughing. And I understand what you're saying about. Yeah, well, about having somebody tell you to do something that you just don't want to do it. No, no, it's it's completely common response. But the but the issue ends up being Hey, you know what, you freaked me out. But because I just sat here and did the math on the calendar. Not that it was tough math, but you were diagnosed in 2012. Is that right? 2011? That, like you understand that 2011? Like I thought there'd be flying cars in 2011. Like, that's how old I am. Right? Like and you're you were 14 then even just now like, like putting together my head that you're 24 like, flips me out like you like you weren't diagnosed? What do I mean, you're an adult with type one who wasn't diagnosed in the dark ages of type one. And yet you still had an A one c over nine.

Unknown Speaker 24:00
Mm hmm. I want you to

Denae 24:03
know, as much as the technology has changed, it's still feels like so much as like, even just nine years ago, it still feels like there was so much that has changed.

Scott Benner 24:15
But what it's making me think is that everyone listening needs to understand that the technology or the tools or whatever you want to call it where you know how you always hear people say like, this is the best time to be diagnosed with type one. I say that because it's true, right? But it's not true if someone doesn't teach you how to do it.

Unknown Speaker 24:36
Exactly right.

Scott Benner 24:37
And and so because you should not you obviously can do it because you're doing it. Right. Right. And so you lack something for nine years that was there and attainable. And that's sad to me. I also am really excited for you that you found the other side of it. But in a larger way, it makes me worried for everyone else who, you know, you're going to see all these algorithms just existing in the world with pumps and algorithms and glucose monitors. And I, you know, Arden uses one, and I know how well it works. But you just made me realize that it doesn't matter, because most people aren't going to do it. Yeah, if we don't drag them forward into it, and teach them how to do it, so that they can do it on their own. People aren't just gonna pick it up on their own. Yeah. Okay. Well, tell me a little bit about those, those first years, especially as you got into your late teens and early 20s, you are aware that you're a one sees way higher than you want it to be? I assume you're trying? Or were you just not trying at all? What was the vibe?

Denae 25:47
Yeah, so I went through a lot of difficult times growing up in diabetes, because a lot of me didn't really want to have diabetes, I really got it at a time where you don't really know who you are yet. So you're kind of figuring out all of that, and getting it when people are just kind of figuring out who you are. And then all of a sudden, realizing have this thing that makes you different, you're just like, I don't want this because no one else has it. And I think that kind of just really set me apart. And so I just avoided it for a really long time. And I did the bare minimum. And so that definitely contributed to a high and one C for a long time. And the beginning parts of all of the rules and regulations around like no one what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, and like carb counting in the like sliding factors and all of that, or like sliding scales, and all of that contributed to me developing an eating disorder as well. So I had, um, I'm sure you've heard of it before, but dyeable aimia. And that happened for a really long time. And my senior year of high school, actually, I ended up going into treatment for it. Not for very long. And in a terrible place, which does did not know anything about diabetes, which is also one of the things that I want to like advocate for is just know, like going to build awareness around places for in treatments and inpatient treatment centers to build up awareness for diabetes around like places like that, because my experience with that was just so awful, that they just have no education around that. And like, I was told that there was a place that place was for people like myself who have died, who had died, Alenia and then just going in there and realizing that they had absolutely no idea what they were doing, like they had the most bare minimum knowledge of it was like, I was so shocked. And it was just like, crazy to me that they just didn't know what they were doing.

Scott Benner 28:48
Well, when you said that, to make sure not to do it in a bad place. I thought you were about like Sean Boston.

Friends, have you been using injections forever and been dreaming about a pump. But you look at the pumps and you think I don't want all that tubing to be connected to something. I understand that. If you don't want tubing, and you don't want to be connected, but you'd like the freedom that a pump would bring you. Check out the Omni pod on the pod.com forward slash juice box a tubeless insulin pump. Right now eligible folks are being offered a free no obligation 30 day trial of the on the pod dash Oh my free for 30 days, Scott Do tell. Well, there's not much to tell you go to the pod.com Ford slash juice box you find out if you're eligible and then they give you the pump. It's pretty cool. You get to use it for a full month and see what you think. Now, why would you do that? Well, it's summertime. Summertime There's a song called summertime. I don't know how it goes. Anyway, it's an old song. It's really good. You should try it. Not the point. It's summertime, you're going to be outside active running about swimming, jumping, frolicking, what a great time to try out the on the pod, what a great time to cut yourself free of tubing if you're on a tube pump, or having to carry around a bunch of needles or a pen, if you're doing MDI omnipod.com forward slash juice box. My daughter has been wearing it on the pod since she was four years old. She's going to be 17 in a couple of weeks. We love it. And we think you might you know, something else you might love. The Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. Why is that? Scott? I'm talking to myself a lot during these ads today. Well, Scott, I'll tell you why. Now I'm just having a conversation with myself, which really is what this is. But that's not the point. The point is, the Dexcom lets you know what direction your blood sugar's moving, how fast it's moving in that direction. And what the number is, at a glance, literally at a glance, like I pick up my cell phone right now I have an apple, you might have an Android wouldn't matter. I push a button. My daughter's blood sugar's at one and it's stable. What do you think of that? Boom, like that? I'm actually following somebody else right now. Their blood sugar's 120. That's right, you could follow more than one person. As a matter of fact, if you were a Dexcom user, you could allow up to 10 people to follow you. What I know, it's crazy. But it's true. Technology is amazing. It's 2021. And this stuff just keeps getting better and better. The Dexcom is no exception. See, your blood sugar's in real time, their direction, their speed, and where they are. With the Dexcom g six, you can do it for Apple, or iPhone. And by doing it, I mean, you can follow with Apple or iPhone. You can also use it. I mean, Dexcom will give you a receiver if you want, but you can just see the blood sugar on your phone. My daughter can see hers on her iPhone. And she does. It's amazing. It's life changing, seeing what your blood sugar's doing, what direction it's moving in. It helps you make decisions about insulin, better decisions that lead to better outcomes. That's my opinion. But I think you'll find the same dexcom.com forward slash juice box, give yourself a fighting chance. Don't just be throwing darts in the dark. Thinking like oh, I think this is as much in someone as I need or spend the next three hours after a Bolus for a meal go and I hope my blood sugar is not low. I hope my blood sugar is not high. Stop hoping try knowing it makes it a lot easier. Alright guys, there are links to these sponsors. And all the sponsors at Juicebox Podcast comm are right in the show notes of your podcast player, but for now, Omni pod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box support the sponsors support the show.

Where's she going with this? But But I hear I hear what you're saying you need a reputable place that is well versed has a plan you should check on what that plan is before you go in. But again, tough because you don't know what they're supposed to be doing. So how do you check them on whether or not they know they're and it's gonna be references? It's gonna be? Yeah, right. Just this

Denae 33:25
specific center like Yeah, but um, there. It was just I wasn't even in there for a very long, but it was recommended by the hospital that I had been diagnosed that and so I was like, What is the affiliation between these? And how is their connection with them? Like, how much do they keep up with it? Do they supply them with their own doctors? Do they educate them do that? How often is their training like? I was like, all of the stuff that I was thinking about the whole time. And it was just weird to see it from my side as a diabetic and then seeing it also in the perspective of someone who had an eating disorder. So I have both sides. Yeah. And then just kind of putting the two and two together where they only have half of the treatment. Whereas somebody who has more than one thing going on, but I'm just only one side of that. Like what if somebody else had something completely different? And they only do half for treatment?

Scott Benner 34:40
Yeah. I mean, it's listen to healthcare as a business and know that not every business is run. Well, you know what I mean? And it's interesting how how we think about, like, if you have a storefront sign, well then you say you make sandwiches, then they're going to be good sandwiches inside here. Then you go buy one and you're like us terrible. You know, it turns out everybody can't make a great sandwich. But it doesn't stop them for a moment as owning a sandwich shop. Yeah, so you have to do some diligence. But it's also interesting that you're in a bad way to begin with. And once you've made the decision to go for treatment, I would imagine, it's hard to put into your mind, well, now I need to, you know, check on this place and make sure they're gonna do what they say and that they have everything I need. And it's just sounds like a fraught time in your life. And you can understand not being able to do that.

Denae 35:34
That like 1718 years old, that's not like, right, all the questions that you're asking either, too. So those are the questions that came down from other people as well that I had the years after think about,

Scott Benner 35:49
right, right. Yeah. Yeah, I have to ask you, you didn't mention diabelli Mia, in your email, and I heard you, you've struggled to it through this first half an hour, like you wanted to tell me but you you had trouble getting it out a couple of different times. So I want to check, are you okay, that means you said something, I think you weren't sure you were gonna say today. Is that right?

Denae 36:07
Oh, I didn't mention at all in the email at first. But I had while since I had time, from when we scheduled the meeting, to think about all the things that I wanted to say. But when I was listening to some of the podcasts, from the beginning, there was a woman who said that she had a lot of struggles. I've It was one of the earlier podcast, I wanted to go back and look at it. I think it was in like in the early two hundreds, I think. But she said that she has struggled with it a lot. And she had suffered from a lot of complications. And that was actually one of the reasons why I was just like, Okay, time to get into action and time to get myself together. And I just think that sharing the struggles will help people who might be too afraid to come out and say things to really, like, realize that they're not alone, because a lot of the people who share their stories in the podcast, were brave enough to come out and say their story. And like, I was one of those people for a really long time to not come out and say anything. And then I saw that there are people out there who are not doing well, like I wasn't doing well. And I'm not alone and other people out there not alone in it does get better. It's

Scott Benner 37:38
your turn to be brave. That's all, you know. Yeah. Oh, that's, it's really nice that you're sharing it. So tell me a little bit about what people should be looking for. So if I'm a parent of someone, or if I'm an adult living with type one, how does diabetes rear its head? Originally? How did it start?

Denae 37:56
Um, a lot of the signs are definitely, um, decrease in, like, renewing prescriptions for sure. And so like, if you notice that there's a lot of, like, if your child is saying like, Oh, yeah, I'm definitely doing what I was supposed to like, I'm doing all the insulin, like, I'm carb counting, I'm doing my assemble a lot. But you're noticing that you're not refilling prescriptions as often as you usually are. That's a huge design. I did that a lot. And another one is you are noticing that the agency is really high every time you go to the endocrinologist, but the meter is always saying a number that doesn't reflect anyone see. There's like definitely number manipulation, where they'll, um, they'll take insulin and then change the date and time on the meter. And then just check their blood sugar over and over again and change the date and time on the meter.

Scott Benner 39:07
That sounds like much work than a

Denae 39:09
lot of work. Trust me. I spent a lot of time doing that. And it was not a lot of fun.

Scott Benner 39:17
Can I ask you? Is it more work keeping your agency where it is now or more work pretending that you have a good day one say

Denae 39:24
Oh, it's so much more work pretending is so much more work. Because you have this constant fear where you're like, someone's gonna find out but like, I need to do like it's it's a constant battle all the time because you're like, it's all psychological. It's in your head and you're like, I have to do this because like, in order for me to be the way that I need to be like, it's, it's not you take me over like you think you're in control, but you're really not. And you're like, I'm trying to tell everybody that this is the way that it is, but it's really not like, and then it catches up to you. And it's just, it just all falls apart. And so honestly, you feel better, you look better, you act better. If you just are in control of your numbers the right way, then if you're controlling the numbers the wrong way,

Scott Benner 40:24
I don't know if you're aware of this or not. But a number of times while we've been talking, you've alluded to or flat out said that the way you are, you didn't know about someone else had to tell you. So when you were diagnosed, you didn't know how you felt someone? Do you don't remember how you felt someone told you how you felt? And even now, what I'm hearing is that is that you're, you're you were never really being yourself, you were being what you thought you were supposed to be or what someone told you were supposed to be. Did you lose a lot in that gap of time? Like, are you able to look back now? And like, I don't, I don't want to be a bummer. But what was there a lot of wasted life in there?

Denae 41:12
Oh, yeah, there's definitely a lot of time that was spent trying to kind of keep up something that wasn't really the way that it was supposed to be, you know, like,

Unknown Speaker 41:26
being

Denae 41:29
being what I thought I was supposed to be, well, not maybe not supposed to be, but like being the way that I thought I wanted to be, was a lot more than it should have been. And it took a lot more than it needed to.

Scott Benner 41:49
So a lot of effort to create appearances. And you're not even necessarily sure that's how you really want it to be to begin with. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it feels convoluted, but it's, it's not really it's, to me, I've said here before, one of the things I hate, I hate a lot of things and you know, wasted time is one of them. I genuinely hate the idea of wasting time, I hate when there are a group of people together. Three people, let's say one person is lying. The other two people know they're lying. But don't say anything to them. And we stand in this circle, having this completely bogus conversation that not one person believes in, but we're doing it for appearances, or we're doing it to set something up or I I'm frustrated by that kind of thinking to begin with, like I'm almost, I'm almost angry at the person who you used to be for like, like doing that with the meter. And yet I know it happens to so many people it is such a common story of fixing the meat or making it look right just so you can go to the doctor just to keep the doctor from yelling at you is that

Denae 43:06
I knew that it was wrong to like I knew that. What I what I was doing was Shouldn't I shouldn't have been doing but there was just like some sort of fear or something surrounded by it, like I had this constant need to be perfect all the time. And the sight of the numbers just being high, was like I just can't even look at it. And like I didn't want to do it. So then every time I saw a high number, I just didn't want to do it and I didn't want to see it. So then I would just avoid it. And I would avoid checking my blood sugar until maybe like a week before. And then I would go back and just read, fabricate all those numbers. And then I would go in, they would check my agency and they'd be like, well, we don't understand what's wrong. And then they'd be like, maybe it's the meter. We'll give you a new one. And I was like, yeah, maybe that's it. And like I just was like, I couldn't really come to terms with myself. And knowing the fact that I just needed to do it and like I knew that I needed to but I just couldn't get myself to

Scott Benner 44:25
know if you so first of all, please understand and I'm sure you do because you were having a nice conversation here and you you're really cool, but I don't I didn't mean like Angry you like, like at you. I meant I'm angry to think that you wasted time. Oh, yeah. Right. And then other people are doing the same thing and not even just with I mean yours is obviously you know it's its own little criminal enterprise with changing the numbers and the dates on things and testing when you know you're low and changing dates, but even what the doctor's office did, like come on, like how many times does the doctor's office need to Seeing a one c that's 11 and a meter that says you're a one see a six, and they know two. So now they know, you know, they're handing you a new meter like, oh, maybe it's this and you're like, yeah, maybe you're literally in the scenario that I painted where everyone's just foolish. And we're acting like it's okay. It's a strange thing, to me really frustrating. Away from diabetes even because I, I so much preferred directness, and, and competency. Because, look, I mean, look what happened to you, you just randomly found a podcast, and you're a onesies. What now? And I think the last time I checked, it was 7.1. Jesus, that's so great. Good for you. That's amazing. And and what's the difference between this whole nine years and a 7.1?

Denae 45:56
The podcast on honestly, just like growing up and realizing that if I want to be the best version of myself, it's just like, you know, what you need to do you have the things that you need in order to do them. So why not just do it? It's easier to do it than to not, it's easier to take the steps than to avoid it. And you'll feel better you know, what it's like to feel better. You've been there before. So just but even

Scott Benner 46:29
then, you couldn't accomplish it though, right? Like, where could you have and you just didn't,

Denae 46:34
I could have and I had done it before I had gotten my agency down before. I had gotten it to a nine before. And that was the best I've ever felt in a really long time. I think it was like, my summer going into sophomore year of college. I had started a new like workout program. And I was going to like this boot camp type workout thing. And I started like a meal plan. And it had changed my numbers a lot. And it was working out really well. And my agency went down just from like changing my diet and exercise routine. And, um, after that, I was like, Oh, I can actually do this. So then I just started doing it. And then I go back to college and everything kind of just like, went a little bit haywire. And I kind of fell back into the the die Dibley mum mentality where, like, the insulin restriction actually helped me lose weight more. And it kind of just the psychological aspect of that kind of crept back in and the numbers just went back up. And it didn't really stick. So. So it's just kind of started back up again.

Scott Benner 48:13
So then for you the podcast was more about the the psychological side of diabetes, not so much about the nuts and bolts. Yeah, how to use insulin side of it.

Denae 48:23
Yeah, yeah. The, the technical aspect of diabetes has always come very straightforward to me, like I've always understood the, you take the insulin, and then you eat the food. And it works like that. Like it's straightforward. mathematics, science, it works like that. It ebbs and flows, like it's straightforward like that. But the mentality, like the psychological aspect behind it has always been the struggle for me. And I know that with a lot of people to like, especially just from listening to a lot of the podcast, and that's always been the hard part.

Scott Benner 49:11
Yeah, you. I hope you understand that. That's not how I think of it even like, I know, the podcast does that for you and for people in your situation. But it's not why I started it. It I really did started, like, in my mind that this podcast is about using insulin, but to you it's not really about that at all. And that's really cool. And fascinating to me that that it and so the aspect of having average people in to talk about their diabetes. That's been the real value for you. Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. I understand. You're helping me. Thank you. You're helping me understand what it does because I'm come from such a I don't have diabetes, obviously. So my my perspective is more I don't even know how to say it. It's, it's less encumbered by the the psychology of having type one, honestly, you know, and, and, and the everything else that comes with having diabetes, but I, I can understand that enough to know what the show needs to be. And having just people on who don't have, you know, you know, blogs and you know, I've been writing about diabetes for 15 years, like, I find it boring to talk to those people, because they have, they have, they've got talking points, and they just, they just, they hit them, they know how to go through them. But if you had me on a podcast, and the podcast is about, you know, making a podcast, if I started telling my story, I would get very cookie cutter too, because I've told it 1000 times, I've had to tell it to every advertiser that you know, is interested in being on the show, like I had to have a conversation last night for an hour with a potential advertiser that likely won't turn into anything. But I still had to do the thing and explain the story and do all that. And so I don't like to have people on who know their story so well, that there's no chance that they'll say something spontaneous and honest, like you did today.

Denae 51:17
Yeah, like it's almost scripted. Right?

Scott Benner 51:19
He comes off very, very, it's nothing against those people. I know a lot of them and they're lovely. And there are times where I think that those people must be so pissed at me. You know, like, I've never invited them on the show, because some of them I really like, but they just, I don't know, they're, they're in a lane and they do a thing. And I want you to like, I'm telling you, you said I've had struggles, you said it three times. Before you basically cop the having Daya Believe me at one point. Yeah. And And that, to me, is so valuable for people listening, because other people who have diabetes emia, who don't tell anybody can understand how you feel. And then they can hear that it worked out well for you. And that you overcame this hurdle. That probably seemed insurmountable. I would imagine. You know, that whole time? Did you really ever think you were going to get over this?

Denae 52:12
I never thought I would, honestly. And I know like, there, it's always good to have a support system for sure. And I did have people that I think we're good support. But in if I'm being honest, I really think that I got through it by myself, like a lot of it I did on my own. And that's not something a lot of people like to admit like, I definitely don't like that. I did that on my own. And it was definitely really hard, like diabetes is hard. Diabetes is hard. And like going through alone is hard. And while I definitely didn't go through it like 100% alone, but you felt when you felt alone? Yeah, definitely. And like, especially like, I don't know, anybody else who has diabetes, like I'm the only person in my family who has it. I don't, I don't have any friends who have it. I've heard of people who, like, I have friends who have friends who have it, but I don't know anybody personally, who has it. And that definitely was like a factor of like feeling alone in it as well. And so, when I found the podcast, I was like, I'm not alone. Like there are people out there who are going through the same thing as I am. And it helped me like kind of flip the switch and be like, I can, like if all these people can do it, like so can I and it just really like, kind of made helped me make that 180 and realize that, like if there's, if there's a way out, then I have to take the steps to do it. Even if I am going to do it by myself like I can, like I can do it. And if there are people out there who feel like they're alone, like, trust me, you're not like, I felt like I was like you are definitely not alone. And it may feel like that in a world of so many people doing so many different things like going through so many different things. But there are people out there going through something just as similar as you are and trust me like, if you can, if you feel like any part of you wants to get through it just cling on to that and you will get through it. Like I did it in a matter of months, which I did not think would ever happen. But I'm here now and I'm doing great. So

Scott Benner 54:54
that's probably you know, matter of months you didn't know it took you 10 years. And yeah, you got one more piece and that kind of took you over the finish line is is, you know, really the way I would think of it, I wouldn't think of it as you found some magic. It's just maybe the podcast was just the last piece that you needed. There are plenty of people who are you have your situation but are in a different portion of their journey, who find the podcast and doesn't come together for them as quickly. And I think that's important to say, too, because sometimes I hear people say, Why don't get it, there was a guy on the podcast that he found the podcast and three months later is a once he was six, and I listened for three months. And that didn't happen to me. And, Michael, it's not gonna happen the same for everybody. Everybody's at the different in a different part of their journey. And you know, this piece is important, I think. But if you're not ready to receive it, it's tough to just put it into practice and expect it to work. I wondered, while you were talking. Is it possible that I can that a person can be supported, meaning they have family around them who you know, would do anything for you? So you're not really alone? In that sense, yet? You still feel alone?

Denae 56:10
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, my, I definitely have my family. My I have a lot of family who's in the medical field too. So they get an understanding of it. And I guess they have like the silent support, I guess, where they're there for me. And they'll support me. But I guess I just didn't really like Well, I guess I wasn't like super aware of it. Or maybe I just didn't really like Think of it like that.

Scott Benner 56:43
Let me ask you a question and see if this strikes a chord with you. And if it doesn't, that's fine. But I use this as an example all the time. So when I started the podcast, I was very clear that I was going to share how we reach the success that my daughter had. And a person, a specific person in the community admonished me about it. They listened to the podcast, reached out without asking if I was interested, in their opinion, to tell me that I was doing the wrong thing. And that I shouldn't be doing what I was doing. I shouldn't be sharing how I manage my daughter. And they told me it was wrong. And I just I was admonished by this person. And it sticks with me to this day because of how wrong they were. But of how how right they thought they were in the moment. So sure that no one should share how they manage their diabetes, because everyone's different. And your diabetes may vary. And I was back there going like no, no, there are simple truths about diabetes that apply to everyone. And if they just understood this piece of it, and this piece of it, etc, etc, then it would they could make sense of it and decide what parts of what works for my daughter would work for them. And but it was it wasn't lazy, I don't think but it was just such a self righteousness that you're doing, you know, being told you're doing the wrong thing. And now I look back. And I think what if I would have listened to that person? Like what if I would have let them scare me away from doing this, like honestly, that that person seven or eight years ago now was attempting to do something that Denae would have left your a one c over 10 for the rest of your life. And and I don't think we we just don't think enough about our actions sometimes or how sure we can be about something. And it may be someone else might have a different idea. And I just heard you saying that you're you just said something. The way I should say this is that you just said something that made me realize that all the people I've ever spoken to who are adults with diabetes, I'm always trying to get them to say what happened so that other people will know. And it's always my thought that they weren't supported by their parents. And I think that management wise, a lot of them weren't. But they can never say it like you have you. They can never say it out loud, because they don't want to denigrate their parents. That's one thing, like a lot of people just don't want to throw somebody under the bus. But also you felt supported by your parents, just not in a way that was going to lead you to outcomes that were better for your health. So yeah, it just occurred to me that you're not protecting them. You honestly feel good about their support. It just wasn't in its entirety. Everything you needed. Is that all fair? Yeah, I think that's pretty fair. Yeah. Okay. You really just, you said something in a way recent, just like I said a couple minutes ago that made me rethink a lot of answers that I've heard on the podcast. It just, it just now is making sense to me. It's not that those people weren't helping them. They weren't doing the things that they that the person type one specifically needed to have better outcomes. So they were being supported, but not in the way that often the podcast ends up supporting them.

Denae 1:00:10
Yeah, like there was, there was support, but maybe not in the way that could have best benefited me.

Scott Benner 1:00:19
So this is what people mean when they say you can be in a room full of people and feel alone.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:24
Yes. Okay. There's like, it's like, You're, you're being helpful, but you're not helping.

Scott Benner 1:00:32
Yes. And, and, and back to my original rambling point, is that I, I'll say to people all the time, like, I think it's important to share what works for us on the podcast, because it's nice to hear you're not alone at three o'clock in the morning when your blood sugar's low. But wouldn't it be nicer to understand how to get your basil set up so that you actually aren't low at three o'clock in the morning? So that so that you don't need that you're not alone? support? Like, it's not that that you're not alone? support isn't really valuable? But in my mind, it was Wouldn't it be better if you didn't need it? As often? And that's the point I tried to make to that person back then. And they just said, No, you're doing the wrong thing. And I think I've never really like had this feeling out loud. But to that person, oh, yeah, there we go. Right. So I knew I knew what I was talking about. But of course, the irony here, of course, today is that person thought they knew what they were talking about. And it's just perspective. Because what they really meant was, if they were to share what they knew, they thought it would be dangerous for other people to hear. And I felt pretty confident that I could deliver the information in a way that would make it digestible and actionable. Yeah, that's all. I actually think this might be one of my greater accomplishments of my life. Just learning how to talk about diabetes in a way that people can understand it. And I seriously like I, I, if I die tomorrow, just say that at my funeral, I'd be completely happy. Scott was a father and a husband. And he tried really hard to help people with type one diabetes, I think I would be that'd be an okay. eulogy for me.

Denae 1:02:19
I think that last sentence should be he did really well. And helping a lot of people in diabetes just cracked my grammar today. What just happened there? You tried, but no, you did. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:02:30
oh, okay. Hey, I don't need this pressure for you today. I never did well in school. And now you're like, you conjugated the wrong word. Well, thank you. Well, that's that. That's even debatable. It worked for you. And it works. For some people. It works for a lot of people, but it probably doesn't work for everybody. And there are a couple of views on the podcast and people hate me. You know what I mean? Like, I get that I'm not everybody's cup of tea and all, that's fine. But I just thought it was worth trying. Like, what was the harm in trying, everybody always acted like there was harm in trying. And I've known people in the past who have had major sway. Like, you know, we talked about, I don't like the word influencer. And I don't, I don't think of myself in that vein. But there are plenty of people now like Instagram is a good example. Like, I'm an influencer. Like, I don't argue like, aren't you just a guy that looks nice in jeans, and it has a good smile? who happens to have diabetes? Does that make you a diabetes influencer? You know, like, I don't I don't understand that. Specifically, I don't understand the idea of wanting to influence somebody either. Like I don't like for me, it's about I have a message. Here it is. I hope it works for you. Yeah, you're talking and some people like to listen, that's really, that's exactly how I think of it. It's just it's up to you to pick it up or put it down. And it doesn't it. I mean, it doesn't not matter to me, but I mean, I'm not hurt if you don't like the podcast, right? Yeah. It's the only thing I can do. I'm not trying to make a thing that I think you'll be preconceived, pre determined to like, I just, this is the thing I have, and you'll, you know, you'll do with it what you want. I'm excited that it helps you. Really, it's

Denae 1:04:16
been it's been a really great help. It's changed a lot for me, so cool.

Scott Benner 1:04:21
I it's really kind of you to share you said your Did you have any other troubles that beyond diabetes aimia that are worth sharing? Um, was that the big impediment?

Denae 1:04:32
Yeah, that's probably the biggest one, but just like, really? Well, I recently got the Omni pod. And well, there's never been really any struggle with the Omni pod. But like, that's probably the best thing that I've gotten. I got it actually the day after my 24th birthday, which was like the best thing that has ever happened in terms of diabetes for me, so that's not a struggle, but that's a good Hey, can

Scott Benner 1:05:01
I ask you Did you get it? by first trying a free no obligation demo? And did you?

Denae 1:05:07
I had one, but I actually never put it on because I already knew that I wanted it. And I try

again. Did I try again? Did you use the link on the pod comm forward slash juice box eat a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod? I did use. Thank you, Jesus, try a little harder. Oh, my gosh. How did you know you wanted the pump. Um, so I actually had wanted it for a while. Back in high school, I asked for it. Because I had been using, I started off with the syringes. And then I moved to the pens and I had been using the pens for a really long time. And then I was like, I really don't want to use these anymore. And so I had spoken to my endocrinologist about it. And they were like, well, your agency is too high for it. And I was like, Oh, that's weird. Okay. So then I was trying to get it down. And then they were like, okay, we'll do like a class on it. And then I just never got around to it. And then once I started hearing the podcast, and how well it worked for people. I had changed endocrinologist. Good for you, because that other one said stupid stuff to you. Like you're a once he's too high for a pump. I never understand that.

Yeah, I was a little bit thrown by that. And she was also the pediatric endocrinologist. But then I had changed. I think, in December, I want to say, um, I had one previously, but I didn't really see her that often because I just was avoiding all of that and didn't really like hospitals. So I didn't go. And so then I changed to one who I now love, he is so smart, super nice. And actually, like cares about what I have to say. And when I told him about your podcast, he was like, I'm gonna listen to it. And so he listens to you actually now, which is pretty cool. And so then I was like, Yeah, I really want to get on the pump. It's gonna help a lot. And he was like, yeah, definitely will. And then I started in August, and that, like, completely changed the a one c two. So it's really good. Good for you. What's your doctor's name? Scott Sperling,

Scott Benner 1:07:47
Scott, thank you for listening. Thank you for being progressive enough to lead and I have a pump. You know, you have something else in common with Omnipod. You're both there in Massachusetts. Yes, we are. I visited last year I gave a I gave a talk to the employees at the the building where some of the offices are and where they actually make the pods. And I got to take a tour of the production facility, which is fascinating, because oh, that's pretty cool. run by robots. And everything is very, very neat. Just very cool. But yeah, you guys have that in common? Yeah, you're right up there in mass, a place where it snows and becomes uninhabitable for human life.

Denae 1:08:31
Yeah. And then it's like warm the next day.

Scott Benner 1:08:34
Well, that's global warming. But but that that harder that is cold weather in, especially in the Boston area right there. It's unholy the way it comes off the water like that and just crushes the area in that cold. It's oh my gosh, I don't know how you live there to me.

Denae 1:08:53
I don't know either. I've been trying to leave for so long. Because of the cold. Yes, I cannot get myself to get out of here. But I've been trying.

Scott Benner 1:09:04
You ever heard Sam fold on the show. Sam used to be a professional baseball player and he's a coach now for the Phillies. He was up for the head coaching job in Boston just recently. And it went to someone else and I sent him a simple text that said too cold there anyway.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:22
Because

Scott Benner 1:09:23
nobody, it's just I don't know how you guys do it. It's fascinating. It's cold here. But Boston is a it's frigid there. Yeah, in the wintertime. Okay, so is there anything that we have not covered that you wish that we would? Um, I think that's all not bad. I thought you were great. I really appreciate you coming on and doing this. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Seriously. This all started with you just wanting to make fun of Kim Kardashian. And

Denae 1:09:50
I know when I saw that I was like, terrible. What a bad influence. Now that's an influencer. I do not agree with he

Scott Benner 1:09:57
sends me a picture of Kim Kardashian checking her ketones, which I guess is something people do that don't have diabetes, I probably around dieting reasons if I'm guessing something about ketosis Yeah. And, and she's, she's like the first paragraph of your emails, like, look at this. horrified, then the rest of it. And I think you were one of those people, you weren't really looking to be on the show as much as did I push you back? Or were you hoping to be on I can't tell. People are so polite when they email sometimes I think I'm not even sure if they want to be on my wife says I'm not good at reading signals from people. But

Denae 1:10:34
I just emailed and I just wanted to thank you for everything that you do on the podcast. And you're like, if you want to come on, you can like, Oh, really? Well, it was not expecting that. Okay, sure.

Scott Benner 1:10:46
About what you said that made me think that it would be a good idea to have you on and look, I was right, just like

Denae 1:10:52
I did mention. I don't know if this was it or not, but I'm planning on going to school to become an endocrinologist actually for to help with type one diabetics. I went to school for nutrition and want to specialize in like nutrition for diabetics and everything so,

Scott Benner 1:11:14
so weight to you, you want to become a doctor, or you want to do nutrition for people with type one, I'm sorry, I misunderstood.

Denae 1:11:21
I want to become a doctor. But I went to school for nutrition. And I'm going to go to back to become a dietitian, and then go to school to become an endocrinologist.

Scott Benner 1:11:36
Good luck with that. That's amazing. I need more doctors on my side. So that's a good idea. As a matter of fact, everyone listening should become an endocrinologist, we can fix this whole thing right now start talking to people differently about their, their diabetes, give them a better chance. That's all that's my marching orders for everybody today. Quit your jobs.

Denae 1:11:55
12 years and I'll be on your show again for endocrinology.

Scott Benner 1:12:00
I'll tell you what, I'll keep it going that long. Just to hear that story. I really well. I just told somebody the other day, they're like, when do you think the podcast is ending? And I was like, never if I can help it. Yeah. That's really great. And I thank you so much for coming on and doing this. I appreciate that. Thank you for having me. Of course. Hold on one second, please. I'm starting the recording back up. I don't usually do this. But wait. So you, you can speak French? So like, could you say I have type one diabetes in French? Jd I bet. Tip one. Do other words like can you say you're listening to the Juicebox Podcast? She could do a podcast. What? Wait, I talked over you do it again. Ta could la podcast Did you but that's so much fun for me for reasons that I can't put into words. You can you have full conversations in French and or does it go away if you don't use it? Yeah, I speak with my mom a lot. Um, it's a little rusty right now, just because I haven't been there in a little while. The last time I went I was in September of 2019. So yeah, so you go back to France. And then it takes a couple of days and then it's back.

Denae 1:13:20
Yeah, kind of refreshes after like a day or so. But I try to keep up with it as much as I can. I watch a lot of French shows. So just to like kind of keep up. And I speak with my mom. When I can.

Scott Benner 1:13:38
That's excellent. Yeah, I definitely would not want to lose that skill. I took French for three years in high school. And no, no French whatsoever. So myself, I believe at one point I could count the eight. Eight wasn't for me. those last two numbers. That's a 10 wait isn't enough. Nine. Yes. Cat sang? What is that? Five? Oh. This is 10 ds. Yeah, I was terrible. Like, whatever. My brain did not work that way. I literally sat through three years of French class and I couldn't speak three words of French. My brain just like, trust me the fact that I teach anybody anything is it's kind of ridiculous. grammar that will get you Oh, please. I never even got far enough into it to understand that part of it. It just does not it just I couldn't pick it up it to me math and French were the same thing. I just, I don't I don't understand things that don't. I don't know. I can't even put into words for you why I don't understand it. But I can't understand algebra. And I could not learn to speak another language. So I feel I can talk about Pre-Bolus thing though. So all right. All right. Yeah, that's the easy stuff. Right? Yeah. Just understanding when to put this in and how long to wait and when to do this, that I get the rest of it. Not so much. Okay, I can't be too long. I'm sorry. I will. I appreciate this. Thank you again. Thank you. Bye. Hey, what's the name not amazing. Today everybody round of applause. You should be clapping to it. Thanks so much to Dexcom, makers of the G six continuous glucose monitor. And the pod makers of the Omni pod dash tubeless insulin pump for sponsoring this episode. Go to Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box and dexcom.com forward slash juice box to find out more about these amazing products and to support the Juicebox Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget there's a new show every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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#500 Five Hundred Episodes

Scott considers 500 episodes.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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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, it's me, Scott. And I'm sitting here by myself today, getting ready to record, Episode 500 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Hey, everybody, today's show is going to be a little different. It'll be a little shorter, and it'll be just me. But I'm here to celebrate Yay, 500 episodes of the Juicebox Podcast. I think more than celebrate. I'd like to talk a little bit about how this all started. What I've seen happen, changes and improvements and where I think the podcast is going to go. 500 is a fairly significant number for a podcast, and I'm proud of it, even though right now it's later at night and I'm a little tired. So, you know, just imagine me like, I don't know, talking really excited about it. But I'm just gonna kind of mellow out here and chat with you guys for a little bit. I don't usually do this, but for posterity sake. Today is Wednesday, June 23 2001. And I am Scott Benner. This is my podcast. Just in case we talked about anything medical in here. Let me just tell you quickly that I ran music Hold on.

Nothing you here on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. or becoming bold with insulin. I guess we should start at the beginning. Sometime in August of 2006. Our freshly minted two year old daughter Arden was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes. On August 16 2007, very late one night, I decided to start writing a blog about type one. I called it Arden's day. And I wrote this. I can't sleep I haven't really been able to for about a year now. On August 22. Arden will be a type one diabetic for one year, I'm going to try and relate to all of you what Arden's disease is, how it affects her and how it affects our family. My goal is to give you a glimpse into our life, so that you can better understand type one diabetes, my hope is that the understanding will result in your advocacy. Starting now I'll be updating this site as much as needed. To bring you into all of this as completely as possible. I'll be taking pictures and video as much as possible. I think diabetes is one of those things you need to feel to understand an explanation doesn't just do it justice. It's a much more visceral experience than you may think.

This picture above is from just now at 3am. Arden just called me from her bed. She wanted to lay down with us. I checked her blood glucose. It was good. Well, not really good. Hi, I actually about 120 to 150 points higher than a non diabetics would be. But at 3am it's good for our purposes. Don't worry, this will all start making sense to you soon. That's it. That's what I wrote. I asked people to share the link with everyone that they knew. And then I went to bed, I call that entry decided to share. And that was 14 years ago.

Unknown Speaker 3:43
And today,

Scott Benner 3:44
in June, we are just about 15 years since Arden was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes. Back then I thought I thought I was doing something like different. You know, I later found out that there was a couple of other diabetes blogs Back then, I think two or three that I can think of that I'm aware of proceeded me on the internet, but I was right there in the beginning of something that now people call the diabetes online community. Pretty cool actually just did this thing because I thought people didn't understand type one very well. And I wanted them to understand it better. I thought this blog would do that. kind of strange thought I think as I look back on it now, but it seemed like the only thing to do. You know, I wasn't a doctor. I didn't know anything special that would help with Type One Diabetes. All I could think was maybe I'd share something and someone would see it. It would change their interpretation of type one. Back then I was thinking about it as advocacy though. wanted somebody to help. I wrote on that blog. A lot for years. And it's slowly grew in popularity. At one point got a million and a half views one year, I think it was about my best year. And from what I heard from people who paid attention to stuff like that, he was one of the most popular type one diabetes, blogs, diabetes blogs, actually in the world. But I never really knew what that meant. Nor did I really care. I just kept trying to write things that I thought people would would understand something that would stick with them. Something that was real. Before long, all these other blogs started popping up. First, there were hundreds and, and there were 1000s. There were so many diabetes blogs. They used to do this thing called diabetes blog week, where there'd be these writing prompts, and everybody would write to the prompts. And one time I did it, and then I started reading other people's posts, and they were also similar. Even mine were fairly similar. And I just thought, well, this is a waste of time, like, why am I doing a thing that everyone else is doing? This is this could be gotten anywhere? Like, why am I doing it? I'm just another voice in a sea of voices. I don't even have diabetes, like, I'll let these other people do it. I stopped. But uh, but not long after I missed it. I really enjoyed writing on the blog. I think it was the first time that I became aware that the blog was helping me. and by extension, it was helping harden. I was working out, you know, the kind of crappy stuff that happens when you're raising a small child with diabetes. In writing, I was finding community in the form of other people who would read it. And come on and say like, how that happens to us, you know, like it felt like sameness was important. But after a while, even that felt like it wasn't enough. And we'd struggled for so long. With a one season the mid to high eights, and spiking blood sugars and crashing blood sugars and art and had a couple of seizures. We just, we didn't know what we were doing, you know. But one day I started to piece it together, I decided to step back from it stop kind of wallowing in diabetes and try to look at it with fresh eyes. And I use the blog for that as writing so I needed something to write about. And you probably heard me say before, but I told Arden's nurse practitioner, I asked her, you know, if I gave you a magic wand, and you can only change one thing about how people see type one diabetes, what would you do? And she said, I'd make them not be afraid of insulin. So I started writing about that. If you were reading it, it probably felt like I was telling you not to be afraid of insulin. But the truth is that back then, I was talking myself out of being afraid of insulin. And it worked. I stopped being afraid. I started using the blog as a conduit for experiences, management experiences. Instead of just like diabetes, the sad and I hate this and you know, all that stuff. Like that was just anybody could have said that, you know, I started getting kind of angry that nobody was trying to make it better. They were just trying to make it okay. which I think has real value. Don't get me wrong. But I guess I just wanted more from it.

So I started figuring things out. If you listen to the show, or if you've been through the pro tip series, you know, how I think about managing diabetes, but I started figuring those things out little by little and writing about them as I had them rock solid in my head. Like once I had an idea down. I knew it would work. I would just boil it down to its simplest form, like its its least common denominator idea so that it would work for as many people as possible, and then I would share it in writing. I did that for forever 789 1011 1213. About eight years into it. The Internet started shift as it does and the way people use it would change and change again. People just stop reading quite as much. And I started a podcast. I call it the Juicebox Podcast, because there were just so many juice boxes around the house. I put up the first episode on January 28 2015. Now what made me think of a podcast, I was on a on a TV show, because I had written a book and the host the hostess told me I was really good at talking to people It stuck with me for a couple of years. But mostly, mostly I chose a podcast because I didn't know what else to do just seemed like the next avenue to reach people that was viable. And I guess to give the situation some fair credit, I used to talk to a lot of people on the phone about their diabetes, one on one, talk to mothers and adults. And, you know, whoever found their way to me, and I do my best to point them in the right direction. But more and more as those phone calls went on, I would think I bet you people would like to listen in on this. This is interesting. I get I we said some things here today that might have been heartwarming or helpful. And so I started a podcast, Episode, zero, it's just a microphone tests like a placeholder. I was working on something to explain the podcast when I got this opportunity to interview this guy named Adam lasher. And he was on American Idol, and he had type one. And that was my first episode was an interview with this guy from American Idol. And then I always think of the podcast is starting after that in Episode Two. But there it was, beginning of 2015. I had a diabetes podcast. As a matter of fact, I had the only diabetes podcast. And just jump right in, started telling the stories of the things that I learned. And I hear a lot of you say that episode three and Episode Four, are really meaningful to you. I was talking to guys about night Scout, I didn't even know what night scout was, you know, it's kind of crazy. By the time I get to Episode 11, and I don't even remember what Episode 11 is about. If I can be completely honest with you, I'd have to go back and listen to it. But I called it bold with insulin. And years later, I started seeing people online talking about being bold with insulin. I thought one day like, that's gotta be me, right? Like, that's not a coincidence or that's not a colloquialism. People don't say that. I've never heard anyone say that before. It's just the title of an episode. And you guys know, I, the way I put titles on these episodes, like, I just added them. And as I'm going through, I look for words that I'm like, Oh, that's interesting. It's not some crazy, well thought out process. But anyway, I just started to see people referring back to the show. In those first years, it's crazy. But like this month, we'll have more downloads or streams. I know if I say download, some of you get confused, but listens, people will listen to this show more this month than they did in the first two years of the podcast combined. This month, we'll have more downloads in 2015 and 2016. combined. That just blows my mind. When people write to me to say that they listened to Episode 11, and it changed their life, or that the podcast has brought them some sort of clarity or happiness or health.

I mean, it's just crazy. I don't mean to keep saying that. But I can't believe I'm sitting here right now telling you that this is the 500th episode of the Juicebox Podcast. But but the process that I was going through writing the blog, like having experience, hashing it out, getting it, getting it just right to share.

Unknown Speaker 14:08
And then

Scott Benner 14:10
that process, expanding my knowledge of diabetes. And then having that process expand my knowledge of diabetes, which which directly helps my daughter and my family. It just kept happening. And it doubles over itself after a while like, just think about it. I talk about Type One Diabetes with a different person, three or four days a week. Like you guys don't hear as many as I record every week. So I get to keep having these conversations and these aha moments and figuring things out and fine tuning How to say things and fine tuning how to think about things and having access to conversations with You know, people from different companies knowing about technology and where it's going and like, I know stuff you guys don't know that I'm not allowed to say. There's some cool stuff happening. And I don't just know, it's not like I know and you don't know. And yeah, I'm thinking right now in 2021, about how to talk to you about diabetes in 2022. and beyond. This has just become my profession. It's become a calling. Sometimes I see it as an art.

And it keeps helping my daughter, my family, and hopefully you. I genuinely love making this podcast. Trying to decide, I'm looking here for you. When's the first time Jenny Smith comes on the podcast? No, before I tell you that, it had some pretty impactful conversations in the first like 20 or 30 episodes. Back then, though, 30 episodes was like six months of the podcast, whereas now, I think I put 12 a week a month. Play it had some fairly impactful conversations, right. Some moms would come on and just talk about how things were. But then Henry's mom came on and she had a real problem with it. He's have allergies. And that's when I became very aware of that. Megan's mom talked about celiac disease, and I became more aware of it. Someone came on to talk about, you know, how much anxiety they had around traveling. And I began to realize that that's a real concern for people. When they're more newly diagnosed. We'll Harvard's mom came on and talked about losing her son while he was in college. I think that's when I was hooked on hearing people's conversations for real. Linda Hallberg comes on, and she's just so honest about her son's life. And I thought, people have stories that that other people need to hear. And sometimes I do like, you know, interviews with, you know, racecar drivers that have diabetes, and sometimes they'd be great. And sometimes they wouldn't. But like I had Chris Freeman on, he has type one, he was an Olympian. And, like, there's something about Chris's attitude about diabetes that I really enjoy. Like, there's kind of a no nonsense, take care of yourself feeling from Chris. And I thought, that's cool. I like that. You kind of take little pieces of people as you go, right. Dexcom came on for the first time in 2015, to talk about that. The G five approval, and I think you guys probably just heard, I'm not sure when this will go up, but a day or so ago. Right about a about g7. If it didn't go up, it'll be up very soon. The next really impactful Episode 29. It's just a moment, moment in that conversation with a mother of a child with type one, where she came to the realization that she had gotten comfortable with 200 blood sugars. And we talked about how she got to it the first time how the doctor had set this range. And the first time she left the range, it didn't feel like she went that far. So it wasn't really that big of a deal. And then it kept stretching and expanding. Oh, it's just one to one. It's just 140 it's just 150. You know, the range was to 180. And it's not a big deal if I go to 200. And suddenly, she just realized that one day 200 was the norm and she she had a moment. I could hear her have a moment. And that kind of stuff. It's a it's organic, can't make it up and somebody just jumping on the podcast and telling you it doesn't have the same impact. As someone realizing it in the moment. It doesn't have the same impact as when Episode 33 when a mother realized that she resents diabetes, when we have a kid on who's a teenager who's just really legit good at talking about their life, and you realize that wow, there's some hope here like kids could figure this out. I had a woman on who was 60 and recently diagnosed I didn't know that could happen. And then Jenny comes on. Jenny, Jenny Smith, I meet her for the first time in November of 2015. I have no idea who she is. She's the person It comes on the show. But she likes stuck with me, you know? Then I started catching a little a little good feeling going I could start getting people on. I had Victor Garber on I think in the first week of 2016. Like that guy was in Titanic like, you know Victor Garber, like alias, Titanic. And I'm saying, the man is legit. He's an actor. His Type One Diabetes he's on when we start talking about getting off the roller coaster and Sam fold came on for the first time and I think Sam has been on like two or three times since then.

podcast started getting a little juice. So people from the jdrf would show up or Bigfoot biomedical wanted to talk about their new pump they were working on. And then Terry came on. Remember, Terry lives on a boat? What a great conversation that was.

I'll never forget when Joan told me that she was raising her daughter son, and that he had type one diabetes. Such a real conversation. And from there, it just built and built you could start to see in the episode 62 unfounded diabetes fear. That was the first time I talked about fear on the podcast. And it was the probably fourth or fifth time that specific ideas about management would come up in episodes. And I started sort of like, in my mind, going like, well, we mentioned something here. That's important. There's this thing here. That's important. There's these management ideas. I think if you put them in this order, they lead to good blood sugars. And they did. I just kept doing the podcast and doing the podcast and having this feeling like I should have Jenny back on. I love talking to Jenny. I love the way Jenny thought about type one diabetes. So I had her back. Forget where what episode I can't remember in the 100 somewhere. Meanwhile, we're talking to all these people who live in with type one. And the fabric of the show is starting to really tighten up and be become something.

Episode 100 I revisited bold with insulin, like I listened to it and talked over it not really over it. But I would I kind of added some commentary to it. Episode 102, a girl came on who was kidnapped in her own car and escaped by using her insulin pump out of the trunk. Crazy. You never hear anybody talk about that. Like no one ever says to me, Hey, you remember the episode where the girl came on. And she was carjacked and thrown in her own trunk. Like I'm amazed every day when somebody doesn't write me about this crazy, crazy, crazy story. So Jenny comes back on in 2017. And we just kind of talked about a one CS episode, said 105. And I just I couldn't shake her from that I was like this, this person has to come back on the show. I keep making the show. Keep making the show for years 2017 2018. And one day, I'm like I am going to I'm going to put all the the ideas from the show together. And I realized that once you start getting into the 100 150 200 episodes of the podcast, yes, I believe if you listen straight through from the beginning, you'll be really good at managing type one just kind of happens. But what about the people who can't make it through all the episodes? I have to put together some like tips, right? So I reached out to Jenny and I said I'm going to make these pro tips. like would you do that? And she was down so we started making a list about what to do. And I'm clicking through all my episodes while I'm talking to you right now and I'm seeing episodes about his he said 149 is he had a car accident she almost died when she had a low blood sugar. So Amazing. Amazing conversation. Really strong young girl. They started interjecting more of my kind of like living concepts like there's an episode called worry is a waste of imagination, which is something I say in my personal life. And I start talking about complications. More people are coming on and talking about their complications. And I'm trying to build this narrative where you can listen to this show and get a full complete understanding of what it's like. like to live with type one. And from so many different perspectives that you are likely to find one that speaks to you.

We're on episode 160, I do an episode called diabetes. Fast forward, it was the first time I realized that listening to the show could get you through the process of not understanding diabetes more quickly. It's a big deal to me that you don't have to live for years and struggle for years to get ideas together. That makes sense. Anyway, Jenny comes on at 220. And we start doing the pro tip episodes. And I'm incredibly proud of them. And Jenny's a treasure. And then we started doing defining diabetes. And every once in a while, we take questions from the audience. And I try to mix it up, you know. So that it's not the same thing over and over again, every day, every week, every month. But Jenny's a constant, I'll have Jenny on this show for as long as she will do it. Because she adds a she has a perspective that, that I think plays well against mine, I think it's good for you to listen to. Anyway, if you're still listening, the podcast is important to me. I believe it does a public good. And I'm proud of how it's coalesced. And what I've learned while I'm putting these episodes together and how last week informs this week, which informs next month, which informs how I think about next year and beyond and different ways to help you the people who are listening or entertain you, the people who are listening, or give you a sense of community, or purpose. I don't want you to feel like you're less than or burdened. And when I know that some of you do feel that way. It's heartbreaking. And I know that everyone can't be everyone can't be in the same place, right. And there are going to be some people who are, are so sure that the way things used to be or the way their health is today is the way it's always going to be. But I don't think that's true. I think you could all have this thing, this stability, and comfort and health. I think it's within reach. And this podcast is my best attempt to get it to you. It is really the best thing I can think of. I'm doing it the best way that I can. I think it's possible that if you just listen through, you'll kind of come out the other side with a different perspective, you might come as close to the perspective that I have as you possibly could. Because I'm going to tell you that talking to all of these people having these conversations is it's a gift. It has significantly improved me as a person. It has significantly improved my ability to think about things and see other people's perspectives. Makes me feel hopeful.

Unknown Speaker 28:41
Happy,

Scott Benner 28:43
surrounded. I think it could do that for you too. I know there's hundreds of episodes and nobody has that kind of time. But I think you do. I think you have that kind of time. If that's where you're going to get at the end. If you're going to get to contentment, and health, then I don't see how you don't have time for here to help yourself. So anyway, the podcast is ad supported. First advertiser ever was on the pod. I decided today decided today I decided on Saturday A few days ago, excuse me, that whenever this podcast should end, the last person who's going to be a guest on the podcast is going to be the person who worked it on the pod who said yes to buying ads on the podcast. She's not even add on the pot anymore. I don't think I've ever said her name on here. But I asked her if she would be the last guest whenever that is I don't think it's gonna be for quite some time. But I think she's gonna do it. And on that day we're going to talk about, about taking a chance about putting the idea of helping people first. That'll leap that a blind faith, about just hearing something in someone's voice and believing in them. And I don't know when you'll get that one. I hope it's not till Episode 2000 I think I could do this for 1500 more episodes. But one day, you're gonna hear from Natalie. And Natalie is the whole reason that the podcast exists. Because making a podcast is a full time job. Especially when you put out three episodes a week. There was more that goes into the show than I could ever explain to you or that you could imagine. It is late at night here on a Wednesday. I've been working on the show since 930. This morning. I've recorded an episode, I've edited three of them. I've put down live ads. I've done the computer work of book to show that we're going to record next week about an idea about living that I think applies to diabetes. And I don't know if anybody will, will even think that right away when you say it. But when you see an episode called cost, sunk fallacy, like don't skip it, just because you're like, I don't know what that means. Don't skip that one. Okay. Don't Don't skip any of them. This is all very purposeful.

Anyway, yeah. sunk cost fallacy. What do you hear about that? super interesting. But Natalie takes a takes a flyer on the right, a little leap of faith. And she says that the money the very little bit of money that Omnipod used to pay me to write on their blog many years ago. I don't have to write on their blog anymore. She'll buy ads on a podcast, a podcast that has no one listening to it. And I told her this almost word for word.

Unknown Speaker 32:17
I said,

Scott Benner 32:19
I'm going to make a podcast about type one diabetes. Its only goal is going to be to help people. And I would like it if you could help me help them. That was it. And she said, Yes. like crazy. Nobody was listening back then. I think that back then 1300 people, I think downloaded the show the first month, 1300 I'm gonna be honest with you, a lot more than 1300 people download the show every day now. But back then, that's what it was. And she got behind it. And because she was behind it, with a little bit of money, I could turn to my wife and say, Hey, this time I'm spending making this podcast like, Look, we have a little bit of money from it, maybe one day, there'll be a little more money from it, like, give me a chance to build it up. I think Dexcom was next. And then from there. I started getting my choice. Like I could ask people to be advertisers. I didn't have to wait for somebody to come to me. And the, the show had real kind of gravitas by then and people wanted to be involved in it. And when that happens, when it funds itself better when it pays my bills better, I'm able to put more time and resources into it. And you guys come along and you're so supportive. You guys started a buy me a coffee page recently, because people just wanted to send a little bit of money, a couple dollars a month was amazing. I never would have expected that. I'm recording this right now on a brand new dedicated computer. My computer was having trouble doing all the things I needed to do plus being the place where a podcast was recorded and I use the money. You guys when you guys go to T one d exchange.org forward slash juicebox and fill out their survey, I get some money every time one of you completes that survey. And I use that money to buy this computer and the monitor that it's on and all kinds of stuff here there's a light so that when we do stuff live, I can see you better. You can see me better, a clearer camera. That's all just to talk to you. I don't use that stuff. If I'm not conversing with the audience in some way. But it came from you It came from your support on the podcast comes back every year because of your support. So Dexcom and G Volk and contour touched by type one touch by type one you organization that that gave me a place to speak in person for the very first time. And then based on what I did there, that day, I got more and more speaking events. And that made me better at this. Every time I do something, I get better at this stuff, every experience builds on to another experience. It's all because of you guys. Because of Natalie, and because of Katie Kirk, who said, I was good at talking to people and because of so many things, so many things that, again, just sort of like are woven into the fabric of what the podcast is. I never thought I would get to 200 episodes, let alone 300, let alone 400. an hour five. And I mean, let's be honest, another 100 is what? Geez, 100 episodes divided by three races. 30, some weeks, right? It's gonna be 600. Before you know what I started this year, or this 2021 I thought gonna hit 3 million downloads in April ish around there. And probably get the 4 million around Christmas, I was my thought. That's how it looked like it was going to me. And now I'm thinking we might get to 4 million September. And that's because you guys share the show with each other. Like, I've never bought an ad, I don't know how to I wouldn't even know how to do that, to be honest. even know where you would do that. I don't have the money to do that. There's a lot of reasons there's no ads, but mostly it's because they're not necessary because you guys just listen to the show and share it with someone else. To it's an incredible kindness. For me, for this tapestry that we're weaving together for my daughter's health. You know, sometimes I just think of the show as a podcast, time capsule, like just this thing that I'm leaving behind for my daughter,

a place where I can take all the conversations that have made me a good dad, and all the conversations that have made me good to taking care of diabetes. All the things that I've learned that make her healthier, help her live her days easier. And I just think there's no way to tell it all to her. I can't get it all into her head. I can leave this thing behind. And maybe this will help. Maybe it'll help you. Maybe in my old age, I'll listen back to it. Maybe my children will get to know me better when I'm gone one day because of this. Or the world or know how much it meant to me that they were healthier than than they are today. Just a little bit right. Just get a little a little better.

Unknown Speaker 38:07
A little easier. But mostly this is this is for you Arden. I didn't know another way to tell you all this stuff.

Scott Benner 38:20
I think everybody else benefits from it. And that's amazing. But it's just really for you. So yeah, that was a bummer. We're nice depends on how you think about I guess 500 episodes, their sponsors, please support them. I guess if you want to buy me a cup of coffee you can on buy me a coffee. Calm? Is that what it is? I don't even know. But mostly Please listen. Subscribe in a podcast app, please. They're all free. There's tons of podcast apps. If you don't know where to find one, go to Juicebox Podcast comm to scroll down a little bit right there, you'll see listen on Apple, podcasts, Spotify, Google amazon music Pandora, there's ways to subscribe through Android phones that will take you to other Android apps. You can ask Amazon Alexa to play the show, you can ask Siri to play the show. There's a million ways to listen. But the best way for me is if you're inside of an app on your phone or on your computer and you've subscribed, that's a big deal to the show. It's a big deal when you leave a good rating, and a well thought out, review wherever you listen. But mostly it's just amazing. If you download listen and share, share, share, share, please share the show with somebody else. All the other stuff you could forget about. Don't buy me a cup of coffee Don't. Don't blah, blah, blah. Don't just share the show with other people. I know that's difficult because where do you find other people with diabetes? Part of the great thing about the show is that it gives you a community that you You can't find anywhere else. But tell your doctor if you're having a great success and your doctors like, how would you do this? Like, I used to joke earlier in the years of the show, like, don't tell anybody you heard on the podcast, they'll think you're crazy. But I don't think that anymore. If your doctor asks you how you figure this out, be like, you know what? It's not. But there's a man who talks to me through my phone. He told me how to Pre-Bolus Crazy, right? Because then the doctor might listen. And they might tell someone else. Because I'm 50 years old. And I won't be able to do this forever. And I want to reach as many people as I can. I want as many people as possible to know that their blood sugar's don't have to bounce up and down. That that doesn't have to be their life, that they aren't alone. And all the other stuff that comes from this thing that I made, that I'm very proud of. Okay. Well, there's no ads on the podcast this week. But please remember to support Dexcom the Contour Next One blood glucose meter on the pod T one D exchange Evo glucagon touched by type one, I think trial that's coming on soon. But we haven't written anything down yet. So I don't have links yet for that. And all the other sponsors, if you have a need for one of these things, all I'm asking is, you click my link, when you check it out, you don't have to buy it, you know. And if you don't ever want to click on it don't, it's fine. But if you have the need, there's links on Juicebox Podcast comm when you go through them, the company's know you came through the podcast. And that we'll have them consider making a podcast ad by for the following year, like that's it right to the exchange, I get a little money every time you finish, you fill out the survey. But for the other stuff. There's no like, every time someone clicks, I make $1 or something like that. It's just, you know, if they see value coming from the podcast, they'll keep or keep buying ads on the podcast, I can't be any more honest than that or any more clear. When the podcast gets ads, it gives me time to work on the podcast and some of the things that I'm working on. I get a little nervous to say out loud, because sometimes people like my ideas a lot and use them for themselves. But some of this stuff, they can't, they can't get in front of me on one of them that I'm excited about that probably won't happen for months and months and months. But it's happening right now somewhere. Because I'm having the diet, the defining diabetes episodes animated, like the little ones that explained like this is the Bolus and there's a short conversation between me and Jenny and having them animated so that you guys can share them more easily with people. And even maybe with children. Jenny and I are going to do a series about questions that kids ask. We're doing a series about variables that impact blood sugar's This is going to go on for years. I love making this podcast. It really is.

It really is a side of my family and my children, it's it really is the great joy of my adult life.

I love making this podcast I love what it does for people gives me a sense of comfort and calm to know that you're all doing so well. Or that you have the chance to do well. And I'm just trying to do my part, you know, to try to make the world a little bit better place this one little this one little small space. So when you hear me cavalierly say support the sponsors and support the show after an ad or, you know, click on my link or stuff like I know that stuff is irritating. Or it can be I try so hard to make it entertaining for years so that it's not but it's all very necessary. Because of this goes away. I go away, this podcast goes away and that I'm just a really chatty cashier at Walmart and there's no more podcast. I have bills and children at home and college to pay for and you know, a car payment and I buy food and stuff like that too. So I know that you all understand that I just come from a generation where it feels very strange to ask you and so that it makes me feel a little odd. But anyway, support the sponsors. I guess I shouldn't be I guess I shouldn't be the word I'm looking for embarrassed by this but you go to buy me coffee by me coffee.com forward slash juice box, you can leave me a couple bucks, or you can become a member, which would make like a could make a small amount or any amount you want, really every month. And that money is just going to come here, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna pay my bills with it. I'm going to send my kids to college. I'm going to pay an animator, I'm going to buy computers. That's what I'll do with your money. If you send it to me, I'll really appreciate it. And I will do it to keep and I will use it to keep myself afloat so that I can keep making this podcast for as long as you want to hear this podcast. Anyway, 500 episodes is absolutely bonkers. 4 million downloads almost that's nuts. I don't really talk about the backroom stuff about the podcast too often. But podcast is right about the 96th percentile of all podcasts on Apple. That doesn't mean anything to most of you. But it does to me as podcast, even though it's a niche podcast, it is heard by a lot of people. And it's just pretty cool. All right. I love you guys. And to all of you kids that Listen, I'm sorry that I curse. Just know that if you weren't listening, it would curse so much more. I love cursing. Alright, everybody, thanks so much for supporting the show, for downloading it subscribing, sharing, however it is that you put yourself behind it. Oh, also, I should say, the the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, really, really, I that's a great group. If you're interested in talking about management with other people. I'm super proud of that. Give me another minute. When I was younger, back when I was younger, back when I was writing that blog is what I should have said, I used to pitch to people whenever they were like we want to work with you, I'd like we should build a

Unknown Speaker 47:06
base

Scott Benner 47:07
for all the blogs, I wanted there to be. I don't know, like a repository where they all were at. I kept thinking of it that way, you know, and then you realize it, everybody's writing and they all would want, you know, some money or something. It was untenable. You couldn't do it like how do you but but I thought there should be a place online where all the best blogs were curated. And that just never worked out. It was a good idea, by the way people should listen to me. But that's not the point. The point is that didn't work out. What I've come to realize is that the Facebook group is that except it's interactive. Right? Instead of asking a blogger to write something every day someone writes something when it's really meaningful to them. And then other people come in and support that, or add to it. I think it I think it actually even though it's on Facebook, and I know some people like like Facebook, I'm not a big Facebook person myself, but this group, over 12,000 people now 12,000 people with type one diabetes. It's curated conversation about type one. And it's curated by the people who have something to say not by one person who says, you know, let's put in that question, and this one, I don't even moderate it at all. I just let people talk. Sometimes they fight I'm like, people stop fighting. And that's like the end of my moderation. I just I like people to be adults. I like them to work through their ideas, have their thoughts. Let people agree or disagree with them. It's a wonderful spot. If you're on Facebook, I would really look. It's something else. I'm proud of it. It's an odd thing to say because in my heart of hearts, I wish I wasn't on Facebook. I don't even I don't want to be on Facebook. But but it's it's I don't think of it as Facebook. It's a place. Right? Like I guess if I could make my own place online, I would. But um, but even that that's what the podcast is. To me. The podcast is curated ideas about diabetes. And instead of different bloggers coming in every day and writing, I get different humans coming in different people living with diabetes to come in. And they tell their their most passionate stories. Right. So the podcast is almost like a blog, you can hear, etc. Anyway, it's all part of the fabric I was talking about before. So I didn't mean to go backwards there. I just wanted to joke with the kids about cursing and then I was gonna go but then I brought that up. And now I'm really out here. At the beginning when I said this was going to be short, like none of you believe that right? I didn't even believe it. As I was saying I was like this will just be short, and I was like I'm gonna start talking. I'm gonna hit a vibe. And anyway, I love talking. I hope you love listening. If you didn't, we don't really have a podcast. I'll be back soon with another episode of the Juicebox Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Happy 500th episode. I'll see you 2000

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#499 How We Eat: Flexitarian

Sarah is an adult living with type 1 diabetes and she eats a Flexitarian diet.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

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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 499 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is with Sara Sara has type one diabetes, and she has a very specific way of eating. And so today's episode is another in the how we eat series.

Sara is here to talk about a flexitarian diet, who don't want to say that that's what I thought too, but it's the thing flexitarian at some point, I just realized that people eat in all different ways, and that they should all be recognized, and we should talk about them because if you have type one diabetes, it doesn't matter if you're a vegan, carnivore, or somewhere in between, you need to know how to use your insulin. And it's helpful to hear other people living similar lives. Very proud of the Halloween series, and I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please remember while you're listening 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. We're becoming bold with insulin.

Today is the eighth in the Halloween series. Go look for the other seven.

This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries g vo hypo Penn. Find out more at GE Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. If you're interested in finding a community, people who are helping people with type one diabetes, look no farther than touched by type one.org touched by type one.org find them on Facebook, Instagram, or right there on their website. And if you're looking for an incredible meter, a blood glucose meter to put on the Mount Rushmore of blood glucose meters, you are looking for the Contour Next One. Find out more about it at Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox

Sarah 2:29
My name is Sarah. I've been a type one diabetic for about 15 months now. I was diagnosed when I was 29 it was a complete shock because I don't have any other like end or endocrine issues in my family or anything. I live in Texas. And yeah, I'm talking to you about the flexitarian diet today.

Scott Benner 2:50
Yes, you did something I didn't expect. There's the noise. What just happened? What was that? Whatever that was?

Sarah 2:57
It might be it might be my sweatshirt, but I can hold the wire out so it won't touch cool again. Yeah,

Scott Benner 3:03
I was gonna say you could actually what I was gonna say I'm not gonna say because it's inappropriate.

Unknown Speaker 3:08
Okay, we're just talking about the take my shirt. It was gonna be

Scott Benner 3:12
just do the podcast topless, and then there won't be problems like this. Yeah, yeah. Or keep your sweatshirt on. Just please let the wire not touch the thing. Okay, so you did something I didn't expect when I reached out and said, I want to know how everyone eats right? I'm like, I'm gonna do this. How we eat episodes. And no matter how you eat, like, thrown at me, you threw something at me I had never heard of before. Oh, what was it? Whatever. I don't know what flexitarian means. Oh, so when you were so I must you were probably like always so excited to get a flexitarian on I was like, What the hell is that? You definitely have to come on the podcast. But you eat you also eat intermittent too. Are those the same things? No, they're different. Alright, let's go. For context, are you MDI, you pumping? Do you have a CGM? Oh,

Sarah 4:03
I have a Dexcom and the G six and then I'm on Omni pod.

Scott Benner 4:08
You have the best stuff.

Sarah 4:10
Yeah. It's really though and that's what I got, like from the get go. So it's it was pretty smooth transition, you know, after diagnosis, so yeah, it was nice, not having to like jump around and go from MDI, to pump to whatever it was just really nice. My doctor was like, Yeah, I think you'll really like this based on your lifestyle. So yeah, he just

Scott Benner 4:34
kicked it off. And he's been right about that it's working for

Sarah 4:38
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm pretty active and so not having a tube has been really great.

Scott Benner 4:47
I just want to get this out of the way before we start you are transplant you have to be right you weren't born in Texas where Yeah, I was Why do you sound like you're like in New Hampshire or something like that? Or what? Why are you so why? Are you so waspy? When you're talking? What's going on? Sir? Would you go to school? What happened?

Sarah 5:04
Well, I from I'm from the DFW area, which isn't known necessarily for always having like swaying and their voice, but it does come out with certain words. So when I say Jaguar, like, most people say that's when they can hear it, or when I say y'all, of course, but when I was younger, like the word Jaguar was always just Jaguar. Why then when I got older, I met people from from like, the Midwest or the East Coast, and they were like, no, it's Jaguar. And I was like, I don't know what that is. But this animal is a Jaguar.

Scott Benner 5:37
I don't think it's Jaguar. That's First of all, but secondly, why do you find yourself saying Jaguar so much?

Sarah 5:44
There were there was a school in our town. their mascot was the Jaguars. And so to say jaguars? Like, I just was pretty normal because it'd be like, Oh, yeah, it's the Jaguars versus like the Tigers or something. But I didn't. It wasn't like an everyday occurrence. I guess the way made it sound?

Scott Benner 6:01
Well, yeah, you've just had it 1000 times now. So I'm wondering, maybe just oh, I just that was a fascinating poll for words. And by the way, I've been googling furiously trying to figure out where DFW has been a means the Dallas Fort Worth area, I wanted to come. Don't worry, I was just, I'm sure everyone else is like it. We all knew that. But you didn't. Okay, so you don't? And that didn't mean like 20? I just meant like, You don't? Is Texas just becoming a very diverse place?

Sarah 6:28
I would think so. Because the last like, couple years, a lot of companies have moved into Texas because it's a little bit cheaper living however, still a lot of like, really great, like economy and like resources here. So a lot of people from a lot of different areas, like in the US and outside of the US moved in like I think I heard recently that Texas has I think in the last five years has grown or the the Dallas Fort Worth area alone has grown by like a million people. Just because all these companies are moving. And so it's becoming pretty diverse. But I don't think it has been until the probably past decade. Interesting.

Scott Benner 7:09
I hear that there's tax reasons to live there as well. But I don't know.

Sarah 7:12
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's like we don't i don't know for sure. But there's like, we just have to pay federal taxes. We don't have like a ton of state taxes. So that's kind of nice. Well, I'm

Scott Benner 7:20
on my way. I mean, if I can say Jaguar any way I want and not pay taxes, this is the place for me. I'm thinking, yeah, it sounds like it perfect place. They won't want me there. It's okay. What the hell is flexitarian?

Sarah 7:36
Yeah, good question. So I actually had to explain this to my endocrinologist as well. And we were talking about, you know, some of my blood work numbers, and I was like, I, and this is a couple months back, and I was like, I really want to try my diet before we do medication. This was for cholesterol. And so I was like, how about I try the flexitarian diet? And I'll just see how that goes. And my doctor was like, What is that? So it's a newer term. And it's like, it's like vegan light. Or like, vegetarian light is like an easy way to put it or like mini mini vegetarian, I don't know. But the best way to explain it, I think, is that he, you know, fruits and veggies, whole grains, legumes, you know, but mainly getting your protein from other sources than animals. But still being flexible enough to where it's like, you can have eggs, you know, beef, chicken, but that not being like your main focus of protein or the main focus of your diet. So it's kind of like flipping the standard American diet, which is typically like, focusing on meats and animal products. And then you know, smothering your vegetables and in fats and oils, it's like trying to it's like switching it's like, Okay, what, what do we want to fill our plate with as far as like, lagoons and vegetables go and then if you want to, you can add in an animal product.

Scott Benner 9:08
Okay, so you're not against eating animals. Right. Okay. And so you're basically see it's funny you said a standard American diet, which is kind of flipped. I think a standard American diet is more like cupcakes from a convenience store. Sandwich. Anything else is really fast and in a pack I think of when people say American diet, I think of packaged foods, like the packaged ramen or anything, anything that I made that doesn't, doesn't cause you to need to start with basic ingredients and build something is to me what a more American diet is, like Joking aside like I that's how I think of it is. Somebody has taken food, you're hoping and mixed it with edible chemicals and put it in a bag for you so that when you eat it you go This tastes like a tortilla chip. Even though it might not be that sort of an idea, but Okay, so how did you eat prior to so I'm assuming you saw a cholesterol thing and that's what set this all off.

Sarah 10:10
Yeah, so before I eat, I guess like, I don't know, I think I we had me at most meals. I ate eggs all the time. I love eggs. That will be the last thing I give up if I happen to go like, full vegan, but we'll see. But anyway, and can we add me and all our meals chicken? Beef Turkey. Yeah. And it was that all our meals it was just like regular you know, whether it's like in pasta or a casserole or whatever it was, but still pretty healthy. Like I really enjoy vegetables. So but yeah, so that's how I ate before now. It's just less animal products, mainly less less meats. And yeah, I did. I did start on it because my cholesterol was high. Like when I was first diagnosed. I couldn't tell you the exact number but it was really high and my doctor was like we really need to focus on that. Also, you know, my ANC was like 14

Scott Benner 11:16
because the diagnosis

Sarah 11:18
right at diagnose Yeah, it went to 14 my cholesterol I want to say it was in like the three hundreds or something like that like something really, really high. So they went ahead and put me on a Staten mn livalo. And I was like, you know, I have always believed I guess, too, that you should eat your food, like it's medicine or you'll end up eating your medicine, like it's food. And so yeah, I was like, let me see what I can do with my diet to help this I don't have to rely on medicine for this anymore. And so I started eating flexitarian and my doctor was like, whatever you've done, like you have made, you know immense progress. And so I'm still on a stat and for now because I'm still on the higher range side I guess. But she my doctors just like I love it. Keep doing what you're doing. You know, if you want to play around with your diet somewhere you can but she says that she's seen really great results from it.

Scott Benner 12:18
Well, I have to be honest with you. I just spent a really embarrassing amount of time figuring out how to spell a GM

Sarah 12:28
it is kind of a funny word. Like is it two O's Is it like a you like what is it? Yeah,

Scott Benner 12:33
okay, I'm gonna get a little embarrassed, you know, after I said it, I was like, Oh, I should have said that because it you know, in the first minute, I was like, What am I doing wrong here? And then like in minute four sites like no one should be listening to me. can't figure out and I'm not gonna tell anyone how to spell it. Because for those of you who don't know, you have to figure it out the way I just Yeah, they shouldn't have to go through the same trials. Yeah, yeah, you need this too. But a lagoon is a plant in the family fabric going let's just not say that or the fruit or seed of such a plant. The seed is also called a pulse lagoons are grown agriculturally primarily for human consumption for livestock forage and silage, which I don't know what that is. And is a soil enhancing green manure and they were eating this on purpose. Like what's an example of a lagoon?

Sarah 13:24
I'm I'm pretty sure that lentil or I'm not really sure. I used to have a list whenever I first got it, you know, whenever I was first looking into it, but now it's like, well, I don't need to know specifically what a lagoon is. Because now I know, like all the things I can eat. So like, yeah, it's I keen wa and lentils, a lot of chickpeas, but I don't know if, if those are all necessarily No,

Scott Benner 13:51
you're doing it. You're doing it green. See, I might not have been able to spell lagoon but I didn't know how to spell example and put it next to legroom. So now I'm all set. green pea soybean lentil chick pea, pigeon Pea, which Yeah, I know that sounds like pigeons. But that's fine. mung bean. Asian pig pigeon wings. All right. Oh, I have never had some of those things. A peanut. A peanut? Oh, yeah. All right. See, we're learning here. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what these episodes are about, because I don't know what a cow pee is. But I know what a black eyed pea is. I know what a cow pie is. While you're from Texas. Yeah, of course you did. And you know, now that I've seen this black eyed Pea, it begs the question, What happened to that poor Fergie person? Yeah, it looked like she got hit by three different trucks. One round I saw Yeah, what happened? But anyway, that's way off the subject. Unless Fergie is a flexitarian. And then, in fact, I'd like to speak and then we need to get in contact with her. Yeah, I gotta be honest with you. If she's a flexitarian. I think you should switch your diet. So so you're so you're basically it's funny, you're in the 70s version of a doctor looking at you and going Hey, can you cut out meat eat more vegetables please?

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Oh, I guess I don't know anything about the seven well the 70s is when nobody called anything anything. Like everything has a name now like like because of branding and you know the internet Everything needs a name because it has to be it has to be categorized so that we can Google it. Like you can't Google Could you please cut out a lot of meat in your diet please and come up with this he had for call it something so it's a it's a flexitarian diet.

Unknown Speaker 18:20
Yeah. Which is better.

Scott Benner 18:21
I've lived through the 70s this is better in case you're wondering. Oh good. Okay. Yeah. The music was it really hit or miss although now it's just bad. Alright, maybe it's mostly bad. What is with the music? You're just old enough to hate it? I would imagine right right now.

Sarah 18:38
Yeah, yeah. So it's like the stuff on the radio. It's like, like, I know, I can't like yeah, the radio certain to irritate me. But that's only been past like couple years. No

Scott Benner 18:49
question. Yeah. Do you have Sirius Satellite Radio by any chance? I don't. Okay, so there's this woman on Sirius Satellite Radio. She's an announcer and I believe her name is Jenna Marbles. But it might not be. Every time I hear her speak. I have an impulse to find where she is. Go there. And beggar never to speak out loud against that anyone can hear her voice makes me upset. I don't know. It's It's terrible. And I'm sure she's a lovely person. Or you know what? Maybe she's not. I have no idea. I'm just saying that. When she speaks i right now I'm imagining people listening to me going you know what, I have a similar relationship with you. I just really liked the content. But I saw I live through you but I just jennamarbles person she's like, Hi, I'm Jenna Marbles. Oh my god. Send off Stop, please send then she starts talking about nothing. It's it's the worst kind of filler anyway.

Sarah 19:41
Oh, I think I think if it's the same person she started out on YouTube and so I think I know who you're referring to. Even though I don't have a serious

Scott Benner 19:50
it's her name really horrible. Right now we're googling her name can't be jenna marbles. Jen. Oh, Jenna Nicole more right. Just be Jenna Moray. Oh or best Not the same as not the same woman. I was thinking when she talks it makes me feel like there are marbles hitting me in the forehead. So that's why that's how you made that. Yeah. Imagine if this led to a war between me and Jenna Marbles. Wouldn't that be crazy? Oh my gosh. Anyway, Jenna, I don't know how you eat, but come on in the podcast, tell people about it. Okay, so you're so you had a higher cholesterol? It did bring it down, but not all the way. So do you think maybe some of your cholesterol issue is genetic?

Sarah 20:31
Um, yeah, my does run as far back as my just my grandparents is all we know. Which is probably makes sense, since we don't really have like, you know, the medical technology past them. But yeah, they had high cholesterol. My mom's cholesterol isn't necessarily super high. And there's my dad's but you know, they're just being monitored right now, you know, as they go on for their appointments. But yeah, so it's, I think it is partially, excuse me, partially genetics. And then of course, partially just being a diabetic.

Scott Benner 21:01
Did you hear? Did you hear the guy that came on and talked about the carnivore diet? Because

Sarah 21:08
I didn't listen to him? I don't think was that no, Matt was

Scott Benner 21:15
Matt was Matt was plant based it, try it. His name's Paul Saladino. And the only reason I'm saying that not because I want you to eat meat, nothing but meat. But because at some point in there, he spoke about what he believes is a misunderstanding of cholesterol, with doctors. And I don't know, I can't remember off the top my head to tell you about it. And so if you heard it, it might be valuable for you. I'm not sure I don't even know if he's right. I'm just saying, that's kind of the cool thing about these how we eat episodes, is that everyone comes on and tells an absolutely delightful story about their eating style. And then someone else comes on talks about a completely different eating style. Like it's literally a mirror image of the last one. And like, this is amazing. And I'm like so. So I think that I think the key is to eat how your body. Yeah,

Sarah 22:05
enjoys. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And I can Yeah. And so whenever I was first diagnosed, my primary care physician was the one that was like, hey, let's get your bloodwork done for this. And she said, and you're gonna go on a diet that's similar to keto, but it's, it's essentially it's low carb, but generally explain it after that, just that's all she said about it. And so I, I was like, okay, so I guess I'm low carb. And I was eating a ton of like meats and fats and things like that, and I just felt so bad on it. And so that's whenever it was like the, the, I think, the first endocrinologist appointment, whenever they are going through everything with me, and they're looking at my blood panels. That's when I was like, I'm going to try something different. You know, I'm gonna try flexitarian. And then so I completely agree with you. I know there's some people that feel great on a really low carb diet, or you know, the keto diet, or something like that. So I definitely agree with you that it's just like, whatever you feel best on and whatever, like your body, like performs the best on you know, or you feel good and all that and like, is everything check it out. Okay,

Scott Benner 23:20
right, right. I feel better with with more like more beef, protein, chicken, turkey, that kind of thing in my diet, a little fewer carbs. But I can't do it for more than about three or four weeks. And then something happens where I'm just like, oh, should I have like a piece of bread? You know? Right? Shouldn't be something else. Couldn't there be one piece of toast with these eggs once in a while, like not every day and I'm not saying every day I'm saying that once in a while I mixed them back through. But the real key for so let me ask you before I move forward. You feel the best this way and this is sustainable for you.

Sarah 24:02
Yes, yes. And I like have been talking to different people about their experiences being a vegetarian and being vegan and I know I'm on here to talk about being flexitarian but I have been considering you know, just seeing what happens if I do a full vegetarian or full vegan to see what that does one for you know, my cholesterol and then to just for my body and how it feels but yes, I do feel really great on the flexitarian diet. Yeah, it's it's much better than that low carb that I did for like two months at the beginning and it's definitely better than like, I definitely still feel better even before I was diagnosed. Yeah, I feel like I have a lot of energy. I don't rely on food. It's kind of like get me through the day, if that makes sense. Like I don't rely on like a high just need like, you know, like a sugary something to help help sustain my energy. Or you know, things like that. It's like I am eating to fuel my body. And my body's like, thank you. This is excellent. We love it.

Scott Benner 25:08
Two questions when you tried low carb, was it very greasy food? Because I wouldn't be good with a lot of grease? That would

Sarah 25:16
know. Yeah, it wasn't greasy foods, it was mainly just like more more me essentially more meat and more fat. And I left it up to my husband to try and help me with that, because I was really overwhelmed in the beginning. And so he was like, yeah, let me like, this is definitely something I can help you with. And like, take off your plate. No pun intended, but I guess kind of. Right. And, and so he you know, was kind of in charge of like groceries and our meal planning and stuff like that for a little while until I was like, You know what, I want to try this out. And I want to do more research. And I'll take over, you know, like groceries and just kind of being like the the main leader, I guess, for for that for our diets. And yeah, so it wasn't greasy foods, it was just more more animal products, essentially more fats and meats.

Scott Benner 26:12
Is he eating with you now? Or is he just is he doing his thing? And you're doing yours? And because flexitarian so close to just normal eating with different amounts, like, does it just work?

Unknown Speaker 26:25
Yeah, yeah, it's

Sarah 26:26
actually it's kind of funny when we were. So we've been married for two years now. And we dated for about a year before getting married. And so when we were dating, he looked at salads. And he was like, that's rabbit food. And he just like didn't eat salads. But now like, he'll pack a salad for lunch. And he's like, super pumped about it. And he'll be like, whenever we're making a grocery list, he's like, Can we get the salad supplies, you know. And so he's like, super pumped about it. And so he basically does eat with me, we make some meals that are essentially they're vegetarian because they don't have any animal products. Or any meat specifically, they might have cheese, but they don't have any meats in it. But we'll make meat separately so he can add it in. So pasta is a really good example. We'll make a pasta and then we'll make whatever meat he wants to add to the pasta separately. And so whenever he like packs it for lunch, or for eating it for dinner, he just adds in whatever he wants. But the meal is like a complete meal without it. So we do eat together, essentially. But whenever he feels like adding some meat and he does so and it's really it's really easy. It's not a big hassle or anything. And he's been really great about you know, whenever I'm like, okay, I want to consider this or I want to think about this or I want to try this new recipe. He's like, Yeah, let's do it. His I guess idea is like whatever's good for you is probably good for me. As far as like, strictly health goes, like

Scott Benner 27:58
five seconds if he didn't just look at me and go Hey, man, happy wife. happy life. I eat the sound. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 28:02
me alone.

Scott Benner 28:03
I don't like salad. But what am I gonna do?

Sarah 28:07
Yeah, he's and he's, he's awesome. He's just like, whatever, like, makes you feel best. And yeah, he's he's super great about it all and just really has an open mind about it. Which I'm really glad for it. Because if it was the same guy that I was dating that was like a cell, it's a rabbit food I need, you know, steak and potatoes every day. Like it would probably be a little bit harder to like, you know, do to dine together. But

Scott Benner 28:31
it's interesting, isn't it? when we when we put food together in a classic way, they're always foods that on their own would be okay, but together, like cause each other probably like steak and potatoes. Who wouldn't want a baked potato with the steak? Every Yeah, right? Everyone wants this. But, you know, if you could just have the steak without the potato, it'd be a different like, physical, like health experience, the way your body would process the steak, the addition of the potato and, and conversely, I once because I like messing around with different things just to see I once did something called a big potato fast. If not for just to find out. And it was fascinating. Like I lost like, I think 10 or 12 pounds in like five or six days and I only ate baked potatoes for like a week.

Sarah 29:15
Oh my gosh, it sounds it sounds delicious. But also like exhausting.

Scott Benner 29:21
day four, I just didn't eat on day four. day four. I was like, I don't want to bake potato and you couldn't put anything on it. You couldn't put salt or pepper. It was like it was a Oh, so I know that. It's like it was like it was almost like an experiment that taught me that I don't love big potatoes. I love salt and pepper and butter. All this stuff that comes on it Yeah, but you see what you look like a weirdo if you just take the butter and then you salt and pepper on it and melt it and drink it and people talk so you know as they should cuz that is weird. It's scotch drinking salted butter again. You know so the potato really is the delivery system for the for those items. And it did teach me to about being full, because you could eat as much as you wanted, but you didn't, I didn't end up eating very much like after like the third or fourth day when the hunger disappeared. I was like, well, I'll just have a half a potato here. Like, I don't need the whole thing, you know. And then before I knew it, I was just like, That's fascinating. And I think I could have done it forever. I got to that, like, do you know the Jetsons? Are you too young for this? You know that? No, I know. You know, when the Jetsons sit down for dinner and the the, the computer spits out this little like bean and they cut it in half once and eat it and get up. Yes, that's what eating turned into on the baked potato diet. It was just a sustenance program. It had nothing to do with flavor or anything. I felt fine. My energy was great. I wish I would have had a CGM. I would have liked to check my blood sugar. But even that, yeah, I felt great. So

Sarah 30:50
well, you know, I've heard that we like we can survive on a diet of potatoes only but you also then just have to make sure you have a dairy source. And then you've gotten all of your like vitamins and minerals and everything that you need. There's protein, fat and carbs in that and we can just like exist off of that,

Scott Benner 31:09
sir. Not to be contrary to you. But I got this idea from magician.

Unknown Speaker 31:15
magician, from a magician.

Scott Benner 31:17
You know, Penn and Teller. Oh, yeah. I got this from a pen. And he was like 150 pounds doing it so and he said that the potatoes have everything you need. So I was like, I'm listening to him. He's a famous. Yeah, I'm gonna die one day, you guys are just gonna come on. And you're gonna be like, wow, the podcast feels produced by someone else all the sudden, because I've left my wife instructions. Give this folder to an editor. And these are all the episodes that will be left if I ever dropped dead. Please produce them all and put them out. And one day Kelly Oh, come on. Should be like, I don't know how this thing works Scotty potatoes for two weeks and he died. died because some magician told him Yeah, yeah. It's an amazing magician. So anyway, yeah. So he's probably really great adventure of other things. Yeah. Well stands to reason. Right? Yeah. Come on. Don't Don't question my thought process. You're sorry, you're gonna poke? Well, anyway, I just I mentioned I'm so I'm just incredibly interested about how people eat. So people who are going to have heard me say it on the podcast before. But as COVID-19 approached, I was 100% certain I was going to gain weight. And I went to an intermittent fasting schedule. And because I wanted to, like really test it, I didn't just go to an intermittent fasting schedule. I ate whatever I wanted inside of that window. Oh, wow, just to see how it would work. And I was losing weight. So eventually, I stopped eating like a lunatic inside the window. I was just like, hmm, let me see what this does. It was sort of doing that. And losing weight, no lie over a couple of weeks, probably close to 15 pounds, just by eating, I was eating. I started with noon to eight. But it was hard to get to noon slice flip flop to 11 to seven. And I did it most of the way through the pandemic. And I'm talking to you right now in November. And I my weight stayed incredibly stable. I could eat a lot or nothing. It didn't seem to matter. I could have whatever didn't literally whatever. And my weight didn't move. I felt terrific. And then about a week ago, I'm lying two weeks ago, I started having weird muscle pains, like aches and pains. Like I'd sit like on my leg for a minute and stand up and my leg would be stiff. And like all this weird stuff. And I was like what is this and it lasted for like a week. And just as it started to like go away. I'm like, I don't know what that was, but like, I'm gonna be 50 next year, Sarah, so I was sort of like, I'm just probably old, you know, and, and, and we're all trapped in our house and like I'm moving around at the speed of light or anything like that. And I and I thought that's what that is. But then I got a head cold. And I'm wondering if the muscle aches weren't the beginning of a cold. So then the head cold held on to me like I don't get sick, Sarah it's like, like four things going for me that are related to my body. And two of them are my hair and my eyes. So there's not a lot going right for me with the body that I've been given. And but one thing is I get sick. It doesn't matter how sick I get. I go to sleep I wake up I am not sick anymore. That is a rule of my life. It's just how it goes. Well I get this little head cold. And I feel this like, like a node you know, like on the on your neck when like the the white blood cells kind of like ramp up in your Yeah, there's like a bump. Yeah, I get this giant note on my neck. Now I'm in bed. I'm like my wife when we touch that touch that and she's like, what are we doing? I'm like, No, my neck here, touch this, touch this. And I said that's a node, right? And she's like, yeah, I'm like, Am I dying? Is that neck cancer? I was gonna cancer right away. I was like, Earlier in the week, I said Do I have leg cancer, my legs getting stiff. She's like, I don't even think like cancer is a thing. And I was like, Alright, I was just checking. So this big node had this horrible head cold. I'm just all like flipping. I'm like, Well, what I'll do is go to sleep and wake up and my cold will be gone. And I went to sleep and woke up the next day, and I slid my head cold, and I got kind of woozy. And I had to lay around for like three days, which I don't think I've done since I was a kid. Like, I started feeling bad about it. Like it was it was so long. And now I'm fine. It was my only symptom was my head was like woozy. And I was lethargic. Like, I just I was a little low on energy. But yeah, within this time, I stopped eating on my schedule. And Sarah, can I curse? I'll bleep it out later. Yeah, absolutely. I gained six pounds, six pounds, just not. Right, just not being on my schedule. My gosh, that's all that's really surprising.

If I told you, my body's a disaster, like, I start to retain water, like a pregnant lady at the drop of a hat, like whenever I do, like, any food that you would think of as enjoyable will is trying to kill me constantly. My whole life but but but seriously, six pounds in ended up being like five and a half days of being ill. And I was hungry. So I leaned into it. I was like, well, as long as I'm hungry, I'm gonna eat. But I got out of my schedule. And just like that, six pounds of back. Oh, my gosh. So tell me about you eating on the on this kind of intermittent fasting schedule. What led you to that?

Sarah 36:39
Sure. So I when I was first diagnosed, I did a lot of research. Because I am someone that like if there's something that I'm like, nervous about or afraid of typically, like the more information I have, I feel better about which I think is most people, but I don't know if most people realize that they just need more information. And I know that for some people, it's probably more overwhelming. But anyway, so I went into research mode and learned as much as I could. And I'm still learning, of course. But something that I read about was how intermittent fasting lead to better insulin sensitivity. And so I was like, yeah, I'm gonna try that out, just to see what happens. And there are a couple of things that happened when I was trying it out. So first, I didn't jump into, like an eight hour eating window. I started slow. I was like, Okay, let's see if I can do 12 hours, and then 11, and then 10 hours for the for the eating window. And that was I think that was really great. Because if I would have tried to jump in, I just I don't think I would have done well, I would have given up. But um, anyway, so I do think that I have experienced more insolence sensitivity. But then also, I realized that like, it kind of makes my day a little bit easier. Because it's one less like, essentially, you're you're not eating, you know, in the morning time, that's mine, I do about 11 to seven for when I eat when I but it's like one less meal to have to worry about doing insulin for. And so essentially, it's like it gives me some extra time in the day where I'm not, you know, making all these calculations in my head and trying to think about it. And my blood sugar's more stable. And I really like that as well. You know, so instead of trying to do insulin management for food, you know, for 10 to 12 hours a day, it's really more like seven or eight hours. And so like it I feel better like mentally with that it. It almost feels like I get a break. Diabetes. I do have Yeah, it's like a break from diabetes. Like for breakfast time, essentially. Yeah. And then insolence and sensitivity. Yeah.

Scott Benner 38:56
Well, I realized that Arden is not particularly a breakfast person. on most days, more on the weekend than the weekdays. And I it took me a long time to realize but she was basically fasting to. Yes, right. She'd go to sleep, but I don't know, whenever and but she hadn't eaten past like 10pm, probably. And then she'd get up in the morning and not eat until lunchtime. So she was basically eating like 12 and 12 or, you know, 14 and 10 or something like that. She was kind of on that schedule. And you're 100% right, obviously not eating in the morning makes managing insulin easier. It's just sure it is and for reasons. I guess in in a person who's not aware of their insulin needs, you know, you don't realize the benefit you're getting in that that lower insulin resistance and creating more stable low blood sugars for more hours of the day.

Unknown Speaker 39:53
Yeah, I

Scott Benner 39:54
think it's fantastic. I have to tell you all the different ways I've tried to eat Eating on that schedule, I think is the most valuable and definitely the thing that I'd want to stick with the most. Yeah, I don't have any real like, I'm gonna eat more vegetables now many more meat now. None of that none of that's like, Really? I mean, I have to be honest. Like, I'm more like your husband like I'm not Yeah, I don't love vegetables very much. I blame my mother who's still alive and hopefully she'll hear this and, and hear how giving me a 49 cent can of green beans and then letting them get cold and then asking me to eat them was probably not the greatest way to make me. vegetables. You know what I mean? Yeah, but, um, but I don't like them. I hate the texture. I hate the memories. I hate the I remember gagging on like, cold green beans when I was a kid and just being like, Please don't make me eat this. Like I just yeah, I need a therapist to eat a vegetable. I think not a Yeah, not a good. Oh,

Sarah 40:49
yeah. And we get so much of our tastes like growing up, like as an adult, like most of our like, tastes and preferences do come from when we're younger. Like you said, from the memories and just, you know, like, if you remember vegetables being cold and like slimy or mushy, then like, of course, you know, that's all your brain is going to associate it with. Even if it is like warm and crisp. Like, you're just not going to taste that you're always going to taste the cold. Yeah,

Scott Benner 41:14
no, I've done my best to learn how to cook them for everyone else. But it's even difficult because when I eat them, I'm just like, Oh, no, sounds terrible. It's not I know, people love that. I know, it's not, don't get me wrong. But I just I've been traumatized point is, is that I don't I don't have an affinity towards any real style of eating with the exception of eating in a certain timeframe that I've just found to be really a spectacular idea. And unlike you who did it in a healthy way you can ease into it. I did a 36 hour water fast and went right into intermittent fasting schedule.

Sarah 41:51
Oh my gosh. So you were like you were like, if I'm gonna get wet. Might as well jump in. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 41:58
And I just was like, okay, like, I got up one morning thinking I'll do I'm going to start the intermittent thing today. And I got to noon. And I was like, hmm, I'm not really hungry yet. I wonder if I could do a whole 24 hours, I'll just do water today. And then like, kind of like, flush my system out and start over again. Because I mean, I don't want anybody who hasn't eliminated carbs just to try it. For me, about 12 hours are so into it, your body just like it's almost like somebody flips a switch. And it's like, you have no carbohydrates left in you at all. And your kidneys just start to work and work and work. And before you know it like you know, we're talking about stuff that I feel bad, but like you're passing like clear urine, and you're just like, wow, like I am the start getting clear eyed, you're potty because I'm assuming your body's not breaking down food anymore. It's not busy with other stuff. So right, you kind of have that, like, you get that little euphoric feeling that comes from you know, starving. And then, and then I just was like, I got to the evening and I was like, Alright, well, all I got to do now is make it till I close my eyes. And then I'll get up in the morning and start this this fast. So I think I ended up going about 36 hours. And then I started the fast and then I started the intermittent fasting at noon. I've met a lot of people who do it. Since then I've met a type two, who significantly reduced their medication needs by doing it. I've met people who do it for like, like Uber seriously. And they, you know, you look at them, and they just they're like a piece of like, they look like a bunch of muscle wrapped in skin, you know, and they're like I intermittent fast. And I'm like, I do too. And they're probably like me, do you because I can't see the muscles that are wrapped into your skin. And I was like No, they're under there. Don't worry. Or they're they're there. Look, I can move my hand up in there. They're still there. But But no, seriously, like so you're doing intermittent fasting with a mostly veggie vegetarian lifestyle, a little bit of like protein from meat and chicken, beef and stuff like that. What is the outcome for you? Like how are your blood sugars? How are your a one sees? How do you find it helping you?

Sarah 44:11
Sure. So my blood sugar's are pretty, pretty steady. I typically stay between 80 and 160. And, you know, the times that I do go up to around 160 it's not very long, I come back down pretty pretty soon within maybe like 20 or 30 minutes without having to, you know, give more insulin. My agency I just had, I just went I think like two or three weeks ago, my agency was 5.7. And my doctor was like, that's so great. We just want to keep you under a 6.5 and I was like, in my head. I was like, Oh my gosh, like that. That would be high for me like I just but I know that that's like how some people live and I know that the The doctors have to kind of like, be careful about the advice that they give, so that you know, you don't sue them later. But I told her I was like, just so you know, like, my personal agency goal is always under a six. But essentially, like, I'm trying to even work my way down from a five, seven, you know, just slowly to like a five, five and just as close to five as I can get. But yeah, so within 15 months I my agency went from, I'm pretty sure the blood tests that they ran for within a Wednesday and a couple other things that they were checking, I'm pretty sure that they just said 14 plus. So it's possible I was higher than 14, but I just say 14. But yeah, so over the last 15 months, I went from a 14 to I hit six, and then a five, eight and a 570. And so I've just kind of been around five, seven, the past, I guess, like six months or so. So yeah, and so everything's great, except for the cholesterol. I'm just trying to get that down. I'm on like the lowest dosage of this Staton, which is the cholesterol medication, I'm on the Rebollo, I'm on the lowest dose that they can give. And so we're just trying to wean me off of that. But like I said, I was like, please let me try a diet first. So that, you know, we don't have to keep taking this. And I'd rather you know, make those changes now, while I'm more open to it. And also, I think just the earlier you make healthier changes, the easier it is, versus like, when you get older, it's probably harder, you're less willing. Yeah, so if you're let's go ahead and try and see what we're doing. So just like you, you know, saying like, oh, let me try a potato fast or not eating it at all for like a day and a half. Like, I'm like, let's see what happens if I eat like this. Or if I do this, so I have enjoyed, you know, more stable blood sugars. They're pretty predictable. And being able to, like eat the foods that I enjoy, like, I still have, you know, like chocolate and candy and whatever, of course, but yeah, so I just really enjoy the flexible part of the flexitarian diet as well.

Scott Benner 47:13
What do you do for exercise? Because you I've, I've stalked you while we're talking and you've seen lean, and reasonably fit. So I was wondering, like, thanks. Yeah, meet me.

Unknown Speaker 47:25
But yeah, so

Sarah 47:26
I do a couple different things. And it kind of changes sometimes I go through like phases of what I'm doing. But essentially, I'm always doing some type of cardio. Sometimes it's more of like a lower intensity, like steady, like if you go for a walk like a mile Walker. Or sometimes it's a hit or a high intensity interval training, mixed with weights. Typically, that's what I try to maintain. I do some rock climbing sometimes. I haven't since the pandemic because everywhere is just you know, shut down. Yeah. But I do jujitsu as well. regularly. I go about two or three times a week. So that's mainly what I do. I used to ride my bike a lot as well. But someone saw my bike over the pandemic, and I've just been really bummed about that.

Unknown Speaker 48:20
Someone stole your bicycle. Yeah, someone stole my bike. syrus pike back, what are you doing? Where did you leave?

Sarah 48:27
What? Okay, we're in an apartment complex. And we both had bikes. And my husband and I and we had him locked up with those like industrial strength you locks sort of pretty thick. On a patio, on the first floor, and they weren't really easily seen, because they're lower than the patio. But I guess someone must have just been like going around looking for those types of things. And they must have like, ready with like, you know, industrial strength like bolt cutters or something. And we just like woke up and they were gone one morning and yeah, it was pretty sad day. I was like getting ready to go for a bike ride and

Scott Benner 49:09
I could have this bike cost you about $400 unbelievable. You're a young person that's not easy to find $400 or am I right?

Sarah 49:19
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don't know so that's kind of a bummer but where you're where like you know what, we will just save some money we'll get new bikes those bikes were a couple years old anyway.

Scott Benner 49:33
Yeah, there's no silver lining so it's like your bike. Yeah. Looking for the silver lining of having your bicycle stolen. We get to have new bikes. Yeah, it helps you not murder somebody you know learning how to hold your anger in. Oh my gosh, it's Texas. They could have like stolen it. They probably were like gunned up and everything. You're lucky didn't catch them.

Sarah 49:59
Oh my gosh, probably Yeah, like I wrote has a gun like, I Miss Congeniality. Yeah. And the I forget there's one lady that's like it's Texas. Everyone has a gun. My florist has again. Well, I used to work for a florist. She was a good friend and she did have a gun. Yeah, everyone has a gun.

Scott Benner 50:20
I just had an image of Yosemite Sam shooting your lock off your bike, just so you know, popped into my head. And I realized that's probably insulting, but that's exactly how I thought about it. I was like, oh, guy probably just came up and shot the lock and took her bike. I imagined him riding your bike away. Like it was a horse. There's a lot going on in my mind. It's a new ha, Yeah, something like that.

Unknown Speaker 50:39
Meanwhile, you know, probably Yeah. Probably. gangster just came collecting bikes, selling them for money.

Sarah 50:48
Yeah. So and it's just like, what a time to do it. Especially like during the pandemic, when it's like, Man, that is like the last thing like anybody needs. But do you

Scott Benner 50:56
think the guy that stole your mind? And let's be honest, it was a guy. Let's let's do you think the guy that stole your bike, at any point thought to themselves? I feel bad about this because people really do need more exercise during the pandemic.

Sarah 51:09
No, he definitely didn't. He was like a bike. It's locked up. But I think that means it's mine. I think

Scott Benner 51:16
I think he thought I'm gonna sell this bike and buy weed. I think that's what he was. Yeah, yeah, most definitely. I'm sorry, that sucks.

Sarah 51:24
Okay, I still have other outlets for exercise. Like I said, so yeah, jujitsu. And then cardio and weightlifting are like my main forms of exercise at this point. Can

Scott Benner 51:34
you do jujitsu right now with restrictions or no?

Sarah 51:37
Yeah, so our gym, you have to like, register for the classes. And you're just basically saying this is the only class or two, you're only allowed to come to two, I think each week that I'm going to come to we do face coverings, and you have the option of keeping like the same Bahrain partner so that we're not like mixing each week, like who's with who or whatever. So I feel pretty safe with those guidelines and restrictions that they've put up. But yeah, it's still they're still open. That's a good idea.

Scott Benner 52:13
I have to be honest, I was baffled that I got a head cold. I was like, How did this happen? By the way, listen to me talk about it. I had a head cold. I complained about it. Like I was like trapped under a car. My wife is like What's wrong? Like I am ill leave me alone. And my, I can't, I can hear them talking about me. I just want the sofa watching my new favorite TV show. justified with Timothy Olyphant. And which I'm almost done with it. I'm going to need a new favorite TV shows. And anyway, that's not the point. I'm laying on the sofa. And I can hear them talking about me in the in the kitchen. And Arden's like, he never gets sick. So he's not used to it. And they started mocking me and I was like, I can't hear you why it hurts. And it just, you know, I am really a baby about it. I'm not gonna lie and and not being sick very often makes it I have no, like, I have no tolerance build up for being able to minute, my turn my head and I feel like a little off balance. I'm like, that's it. It's over. Sit right down. Just leave me here. I'm fine. Although I have to tell you, I did an interview. I'm gonna I'm gonna stamp this is for people in here with Sean. And Sean. And I got on to record. And I started by saying, Man, I don't feel good. I was like, just you know, like, I'm a little loopy here like this is this closest it's gonna come to you hear me drunk or high? Because I'm like a little spacey. And yeah, I can't wait to go back and edit that show. Because for the life of me, I do not know what I said during that time. I mean, I was really like, kind of out of it. I was like, Oh, I wonder how this will go. But we'll see. So So what would you tell people? If you had to take one, would you? Like if I gave you the you know, unreasonable choice of you can only be a flexitarian or eat on an intermittent schedule, which would you take?

Sarah 54:04
Oh, wow. Um, I guess it kind of depends on what their goals would be. Because if their goal is for insulin sensitivity, I might suggest intermittently fasting. If their goal is maybe like, easier to manage blood sugars when they eat, I would definitely suggest flexitarian Yeah, so it just depends on what their goals would be. But for me, if I could only keep one, I would keep intermittently fasting.

Scott Benner 54:31
Yeah, that's interesting. You said that I'm trying very hard for someone to come on who understands intermittent fasting on a more technical level. But yeah, I've been reaching to people and I'm not having a lot of luck. It's interesting how some people who are like I'm an expert in this, like, can you come on to talk about that man, like, well, I guess you're not an expert, because you're not an expert isn't you're afraid to say it out loud. Like, you know, yeah. So I'm still working on that. Because like whether you want to eat carnivore or not, I liked having Paul on because Paul's like, he's all in on it like he's gonna tell you like he's, you know, absolutely all in on eating a carnivore diet and so let him talk about it from that perspective and, and you know, people who are interested in it can hear about it and people who aren't, and then it can go I didn't know somebody else ate like that. And you know, it's something else. You're so you're eating like pasta and bread and things like that. Probably not a lot of bread though. Right?

Sarah 55:25
Right. So I tend to stay away from starches. So not a lot of potatoes or rice or just like white breads or like white pastas. And we do like the the alternatives that are made from like plants, I guess, like there's the chickpea pasta, and they now make a chick pea like rice and stuff like that. And like whole grain bread and things like that. But But yeah, a lot of I mean, it's essentially it's a lot of carbs. Either way.

Scott Benner 55:54
Yeah, I have to tell you, if you I say sometimes, like if you forced me to, like yell out everything, I could tell the person in five seconds about diabetes that I would say like get your basil right, learn to Pre-Bolus figure out the glycemic index. And then you know that that's how I would break down the very basics of managing insulin. I have to say, I think the very basics of eating, if you gave me one second to scream out, I yell don't eat processed foods.

Sarah 56:18
Yeah, I think that's very key like and that's for anybody, like whether you're a diabetic or not, is really key. Yeah,

Scott Benner 56:25
I think that in the end, that's the like, I know how I eat now. I've gotten my body isn't in as good of a place as I can get it through eating. And through the management of the time I eat. My last hurdle is exercise, honestly. And I need to add more exercise. But I've been suffering with plantar fasciitis for so long. And I just finally got it to clear up in a way that's meaningful, and like the last three or four months, so I'm excited again, again, but I have flat feet, and I couldn't figure it out. And I finally found an insert that that holds my arch up and made the plantar fasciitis go away. So I'm super excited, because every time I would get rid of it through stretching and resting, I'd be like, oh, cool, that I go out and do something. And I'd take two hard steps. And I'm like, and it's back again. six more months, I'll stretch it out again. And then two more steps. Like I'm not gonna add exercise like that. Yeah, but that really is like, for me, I think the difference between me right now and me 20 pounds, toner, and lighter is just exercise at this point. I don't eat. I really eat nothing. I'm down to nothing. Just Just potatoes. Right? Well, no, I haven't had that in a long time. Now. Like, you know, I when Paul was coming on, I was like, I'm just gonna eat meat to see how that goes. He yelled at me a little bit. He's like, that's not the way to start. Just trying to get some background information. But I remembered really liking that. So I stuck. I stuck with that for a while. And then like I said, and now I got sick. And you know, I I was I was at the mercy of like, whatever I could grab before I wandered back to the sofa and collapsed again. Yeah, you know, so, but I'm gonna I figure Thanksgivings in two days. So I'll wake up Friday morning. You know, I'm back on my back on the on the intermittent part of the diet. Now, I figured Friday morning, I'll just roll closer to more proteins and stuff like that for a few days. And then I'm assuming those couple pounds should probably drop right off. And then I'm going to start exercising like I just I don't know what I'm even going to drag my son in the basement and be like, Just show me for things that because he's my son looks like you play softball in college, by the way. No, I played in high school high school. Okay. Because my son's like a, you know, it looks like an underwear model. Like he's just, it's embarrassing. When I'm saying I saw I know people are like, I heard Scott was adopted, but maybe the kid is too, you know, anything like each other. And, and I know he can help me, so I'm just gonna put it on him. That seems fair, right?

Sarah 59:01
Yeah, yeah. And the start start small and like whatever you can do, like, Yeah, what are in like, something that like I had to learn was like, don't do exercise just because you think you have to find exercise that like you enjoy doing and that's like the best way to be able to keep up with it. So there might be an exercise I like works well, like if your foot does start to hurt more. I don't know.

Scott Benner 59:25
Yeah, but I have to find a way. Yeah. Maybe I can use yours. The one I took from you. Oh, okay. I see. That'd be a lot of effort to make a bad joke on a podcast to fly to Texas to steal someone's bike. Oh my gosh, yeah. No, I wouldn't say well, that would be very worthwhile. Let me ask you. I know we're getting up on time. But I have a question for you. So I found you because I was in the private Facebook group. And I was like, hey, how do people eat and you were there? What were you there doing? Like, well, how come you found the podcast and the group and everything.

Sarah 59:56
So I okay. So I'm going to kind of go into like my diagnosis story just a little bit because I actually found you guys before I was officially diagnosed. And before like, I really kind of knew what was going on. So I was becoming an EMT over the summer, and we were practicing, like using glucometers. Because that's something you have to do. Like if someone's acting kind of funny, or if they've, like lost consciousness, it's just like, you always check their blood sugar, or they checked mine. And it was like one evening class and my blood sugar came at, like 520. And they tested it again, because they were like, Oh, the glucometer just needs to be calibrated. And I checked it again. And it was like 515. And my instructor was like, Oh, you should probably go see your doctor. And I immediately just, like, jumped into research mode. And Juicebox Podcast was like, one of the, like, first one or two things I had found. And I couldn't even tell you how it was either through a Google search, or, or Reddit or something like that.

Scott Benner 1:01:05
Sorry, what I said, my SEO is tight as the kids would say, my so yeah, yeah.

Sarah 1:01:11
Search Engine Optimization. Yeah, got it. And so I found you guys. And I first I found, you know, the blog and the podcast. And then then I joined the Facebook group. And that was all before I was like, officially diagnosed. Well, yeah. And then and so whenever, like, I went to my endocrinologist, and they were explaining everything. And they were like, this is how you do this. I kind of had in the back of my mind, okay, but this is how I want to do it. Or this, I'm gonna try to do you know, because they didn't really talk about, you know, Pre-Bolus scene, they were like, yeah, just right before you eat, like, maybe like five or 10 minutes, you want to give yourself insulin. And then they gave me like an insulin to carb ratio. But I didn't really follow that. And then yeah, so that's how I found you. It's just like a search. And that's how I was like in the Facebook group, and I go to it every once in a while just to see if there's like, anyone that I can maybe help or I posted a question in there a couple weeks ago. I think it's just a great community.

Scott Benner 1:02:14
They're amazing group of people. Honestly, I'm yeah, I'm beyond stunned and just happy about it. I'm also kind of thrilled that you found the podcast before anything and knew enough to be like, yeah, I'm gonna listen to that, but not that. And you know, coming from your doctor, and it was it a nice, easy start for you because of finding it sooner.

Sarah 1:02:34
Yeah, actually. Especially since I got the Dexcom and Omni pod, it was like really great, being able to listen to how you use it. So I was like, Okay, I know what I'm going to do. And it was really nice hearing people talk about like, how insulin isn't scary. So it was just like, just have some, you know, apple juice or whatever around in case you go low while you are trying to figure things out. And so it was it seemed pretty seamless. I mean, as it could be. Obviously, it was a shock. And it was tough, and you know, very frustrating and annoying and just all sorts of emotions at first, but because like I already had an idea probably I had like a two week Head Start. Yeah, it just felt like I kind of knew, like I had a direction versus like getting everything all at once and being like, I have no idea what's going on.

Scott Benner 1:03:32
Wow, that's really cool. I've that you're the first person that found it basically, before having diabetes, a little bit of unity, although I realize you had it, but you'd before you really dove into it. I've heard people finding it on day one. Which is which is very cool. And and they've got a similar story to yours. But I like that you were just aware and moving before. Before even. Wow, I don't know. That's very cool. I'm kind of excited to know that. That's that that happened to you.

Sarah 1:04:04
Yeah. And I think it's because like the way that I found out like I think if I like my doctor really surprised that I'd never gone into decay and like had to be hospitalized. But I think the way I found out was also really helpful so it was like in class and then I took two weeks for me to be able to get an appointment with my doctor. So like in those two weeks, like I just was in, like heavy research mode, just like okay, I wouldn't I need to know everything. I wouldn't know how to best manage this. I want to know like what it means for like, now and in the future and just like oh my gosh, like I probably spent like hours and hours each day just like looking into everything. And then once I found you Juicebox Podcast and the Facebook group and everything. I was just like reading over like everyone's suggestions and like what kind of problems they had run into and things like that and like listening to all the podcasts. You know, I was going to the pro Tips and everything so Oh, yeah, I was just like a really? I mean, just a really great time, you know, things considered.

Scott Benner 1:05:07
I made me very happy. Not the part of it you haven't diabetes, but the rest of Sure. I'm sorry that you that happened. Did you ever become an EMT or a medic? What were you trying to do again?

Sarah 1:05:17
Yeah, so Okay, I was a teacher for two years. And I, my doctor and I are pretty sure that I had had diabetes for two years. I was undiagnosed, or, you know, before I was diagnosed, and so I just felt crappy while teaching. And I was like, man, maybe this just like, isn't for me, like, maybe this is just my body saying, teaching isn't for us. And so I was like, you know, I'm pretty interested in medical things and helping people and I have a brother in law, that's a firefighter paramedic, and he was like, you should look into this. And so I went through an EMT course over the summer, it was very accelerated. And then, you know, I found out while we were going through, like our finals, and like our testing and all that, and that I had diabetes, and I was like, Okay, I cannot be doing this EMT gig and figuring out diabetes all at once. It just felt like that was the wrong move to make for me. And so while I am a licensed CMT, I'm a teacher and everything feels much better. I'm just like, oh, okay, teaching wasn't really bad. It was just because I had like, an diagnosed type one diabetes, and that's why I felt so bad. But teaching itself is like pretty okay,

Scott Benner 1:06:34
I'm blown away that that was your, your example. Because my I had a secondary question for you, which was going to be Hey, did you ever become an EMT? And can you tell me how the transition was from having diabetes to untreated to having insulin on board? Can you tell me how your body felt differently after you had insulin, but then you just ended up doing it without me asking. That's a thank you. I like it, you can intuitively understand what the next question is going to be. And so it really was a night and day difference between how you felt after you got the insulin and prior?

Sarah 1:07:06
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So I don't I'm like you, I'm very similar to you, or as I don't get sick that often. But in the two years, from, you know, the probable onset of type one diabetes, I was getting, I don't know, I don't even know what you'd call it. I don't even go to the doctor that often. But it was just like a bunch of nose, throat head stuff. But it was way more intense. Then when I'd had it before, you know, the probable onset. I just, it took me a lot longer to recover from it. And then it kind of lingered. And then just my day to day, I was just exhausted. And I just really assumed it was teaching Middle School. Because

Scott Benner 1:07:51
it sounds exhausting. Yeah. So had you not decided to try to be an EMT, you might just like fallen into DK eventually.

Sarah 1:07:59
Most likely, yeah, that's my thought. Because Because my agency was so high and you know, randomly testing one night it was 520 like I am because I were, you know, probably two years without being managed by insulin. Like I'm pretty certain like within the next couple of months, I probably would have gone into DK and that's how I would have found out I

Scott Benner 1:08:22
wonder how they chose you. How many people were there when they were like, hey, let's test their blood sugar.

Sarah 1:08:29
So we were actually in groups, they had glucometers. They had a glucometer for each group of like three or four people and we just had to take turns. So

Scott Benner 1:08:39
I was like, wow, that's Yeah, I wasn't sure if that was divine intervention where they were like, and there's 40 people in here, we're gonna check Sarah's blood sugar. until everybody got their blood sugar check at some point. Did you hear the episode 387 somebody call nine one where the paramedic ginger came on and talked about being a paramedic and what it's like to roll up on calls around type one diabetes?

Sarah 1:09:02
No, No, I haven't. I honestly fallen behind because with teaching and I've had Oh,

Scott Benner 1:09:07
whoa, slow down. Don't be making excuses for why you're not listening to the podcast. If you start to get divorced, or those kids can't learn as much or whatever has to happen. That's not my problem.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:18
Okay, you're right. You're so right. I apologize. I'm sorry. Do you see me saying and I didn't feel good. So you didn't get a podcast this week? No, I was sick and I made a podcast. And now you want to tell me you're busy? What the hell? I'm so sorry. Right. I please. I apologize for my disrespect.

Scott Benner 1:09:35
Well, let me speak honestly to everyone listening all you ungrateful mother. Like what do you I am making this podcast for you listen to it. And at the very least, at the very least you subscribe in your app and you continue to download new shows and tell people that I cannot be mistreated like this.

Sarah 1:09:52
You cannot and you just can't do it on your own. Like we have all of us we are like your your minions trying to push the podcast on people and listen to As many times as possible, so right?

Scott Benner 1:10:03
Not a good word. Let's call us partners. Okay? We're partners. Think of me as the partner that gets the money from the ad sales. And you're the partner who, you know, helps me charge more for the ads by getting more people listen to the podcast, like that's your part in this. I give you the diabetes information. And in turn, you helped me make the Sarah This is not hard to understand. I really sorry, I'm thinking about putting your episode out now.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:29
Oh, no as a punishment

Unknown Speaker 1:10:30
until you wasted your time. You're, like at least 20 episodes behind. I know. I'm just kidding.

Scott Benner 1:10:39
I put out so many of these that I'd be stunned. If you listen to all of them. I'd be like, Well, you've heard of every one of these. Sarah, you have to find like, like a life?

Sarah 1:10:50
I have not I have Honestly, I haven't had a life since school started. It's been rough. We are doing a hybrid. So I'm teaching online and in person. So it's like I have two full time jobs. It has been insane. Can I take

Scott Benner 1:11:01
a couple extra minutes for me before we say goodbye? Can you tell me about that? Yeah, absolute train wreck, it's going well, somewhere in the middle,

Sarah 1:11:09
somewhere in the middle. So it started to feel better, probably like, beginning of November. So today's November 24. And it started feel better. But then our school had four new positive cases and the health department forces to go online. And like for everyone to go online. And that has kind of been a bit of a mess. Because the students there were students that I had in person that had no idea what to do once they got online, even though like I have set aside time and showed them, like it just doesn't make sense for them to like, store that in their memory because they're like, whatever I'm in person, and I don't need to worry about, you know, going online and learning online. So it's been a little bit of a mess, connecting with everyone. And there's kind of some uncertainty as far as like when we'll come back are supposed to come back Monday after Thanksgiving. But that could change depending on what the health department wants, and you know, what our school decides and all that. But yeah, it's been pretty stressful for everyone, you know, students, teachers, administration, parents, you know, families as a whole, it's just been, it's just stressful for everyone,

Scott Benner 1:12:16
the process of teaching kids virtually, is it worse than in person? Better? no different, just different for you. So it feels odd, like, what's your finding?

Sarah 1:12:29
Yeah, I think it's worse for the students. I think school has a lot of benefits besides just, you know, an education, I think they actually learn a lot of different things. And I think being in person is the best form of them learning as far as you know, learning like math and science. But you know, they're also learning other things like social skill, and just you know, how to live life and how to interact with their peers, as well as adults. And so being online for the student. I just, I don't think that's very beneficial. At least not at this age, I teach 10th and 11th grade now, yeah. And I just think at this age, there's some students that might do fine. But the majority of my students, I can tell a difference, and just their learning and the way that they're interacting, you know, because I've had a lot of the students before, and other classes and, you know, to compare them in person to online, it's just night and day. And then it's also kind of, it's also kind of weird as the teacher to try and figure that out. It's like, how do I teach this lesson without being able to, like, get them to do hands on things, which is like, the best way to do it? You know, for the majority of students, it's like hands on. Because Sure, it's like, okay, I can have you go and watch this video, and then answer some questions about it, or write a paper about it. But I, there's just not absorbing anything, you know, because they're on a screen all day. And so to have them have an assignment that's on a screen, or to watch a lesson on a screen, it's just, it's a lot of screen time, and they just kind of like zone out their brain. I don't know what it is. And it's to no fault of their own. It's just you know, how humans work, but their brain just starts to like, lose that. I don't know that the reality of like that they're at home, and they're supposed to be at school, but it's just like, there's a connection that's not being made there.

Scott Benner 1:14:30
Is your expectation lower for them? Like is the schools in general lower? Like, I know, nobody would admit that out loud, probably, but is, you know, like, is the amount of stuff we're trying to pack into someone's brain lesser than it was prior?

Sarah 1:14:47
I think it depends on where you go. And then like for what school district and then even then what school you're in for my school. Essentially, the feel that I'm getting is that the expectation for teachers are the same however, the expectation for students has been lowered. And I'm definitely on board with, you know, lowering expectations because we have no idea what the students home lifes are like, you know, for some students, it's like their worst nightmare to be at home. And then to try to learn from home. Yeah, so, my, my personal as a teacher, my personal expectations for students, I've lowered them a lot. And I also teach history. So it's also kind of like, history comes last. It's not, it's not like one of the essential skills you need to have or central knowledge you need to have at this age level. So, yeah, there are some other teachers though, who, in my school, their expectations have not changed at all. They're about the same. And then I can see that that's been kind of rough on students. So just like I said, kind of depends.

Scott Benner 1:15:52
Yeah, Arden, put a table in her room. She's like, I need somewhere to sit. So we got her like a small table and a chair. And on most days, she sits up and she's like, but still like, you look at her. She's in her pajamas. And her hair's like going in six ways, and she doesn't care. And yet she looks like today station feel while she laid in bed and went to school today. Like at noon, we were like erh just one more class, then I'm going to get a shower. And we're like, okay, yeah. But she's doing like, her grades are really good. My son hates it. My son's in his junior year of college. And he's like, he's like, if they want us to do this again next semester. I'm not doing it. Yeah, he said, He's gonna take a gap if it happens again.

Sarah 1:16:31
Yeah, I totally understand that. I totally get that. Like, there's for to some students, it's like, whatever I can do this I can, I can be online and to the majority of students. So it's just such a, it's such a difference. And it's just not helpful. And they just kind of turn into like zombies almost like, it just, yeah, their brains aren't actually functioning on the learning level that they need to, because there's just that just enough of a difference like being at home than in person. Here's

Scott Benner 1:16:59
the good that I can imagine coming from this, then I'm gonna let you go. Because this is my long shot bet. Okay. And everybody falls into their phone. Right? We've been doing it now for a decade or so. There's an entire generation of kids who, you know, don't know a life they What is that? They say? Like, you're always within arm's reach of your phone or something like that. Like, you know, people have their face their phones. I'm thinking that if this pandemic goes on long enough, we are going to successfully rewire a generation of children, not the one to look at a screen. Maybe, maybe maybe it's like, you know, when when your parents caught you smoking a cigarette, and they may just smoke the whole pack. See it gets sick. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I'm thinking this might be that for screentime.

Sarah 1:17:45
Yeah, I mean, that's a good thought. And maybe not. Yeah, I could see that happening. I could see that happening. Just Yeah, kids just being like sick of the screen, and then finally returning to play like outside do something.

Scott Benner 1:17:57
Yeah. Yeah. Like go have sex like regular kids. And like, yeah, they don't even know each other. Like, they're, like, 11th 12th grade. They're in college, like, Oh, no, I don't have friends. I'm like, friends. What about girls? What are you people doing? You know, have you? Are you aware that now there are text chains going around during your class that you're not involved in with the class? Do you know the kids talk that way to each other? Do you know they're probably talking about you while you're doing your thing? Like, are you aware of all that? Or you don't have kids? You don't know about that part? I guess? Hmm.

Sarah 1:18:31
Well, I don't have kids myself, but I am aware like I yeah, I'm aware that they talk about me. They talked about other students they like yeah, our school has a really strict no cell phone policy. But I know that it still happens. Like if their cell phones are out or whatever, even if it's like in their pocket. And you can see the outline in their pocket, where we take their phones up, and they have to pay $20 to get it back at the end of the day. And then it increases like $5 each time. But it still happens. Like they hide the phone. Somehow they take it to the bathroom or you know, in the hallway and passing periods. Like I yeah, I know that that happens. Because it distracts and it's like, it's like the other day. I saw it in real time. So we had an advisory and my advisory students, I'm like, yeah, take out your phone. I'm fine with that. Like, you know, whatever. As long as it's school appropriate. Don't forget you're on the school Wi Fi. So you, you know the school can see everything you're doing. And I saw it happen in real time. Someone walked into advisory and they were like, Hey, did you hear what so and so said to this teacher? And everyone in the class was like, no, what did she say? And they were like she said this and this and then I had the student that said something to the teacher. I had her later in the day, and she just seemed like different from how she normally was from her normal personality and I I was like, Hey, what's going on today? You seem just, you know, like, a little down or just like little different and you have a good weekend. And she was like, No, I just like, I don't know, some people were talking about me and they're texting about me. And I know that I watched that happen, like in my class. And I was just like, That's insane. And I definitely was like, maybe like even an advisory. Like, I shouldn't allow them to have phones out for reasons like that. Because like, yeah, that that. I mean, now that girl now that students like distracted for the rest of the day. Yeah. And she's just Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:20:31
they're getting good at it. They're like, multitaskers. Like, it's it's really incredible. They're having multiple, like, the level the conversations about different topics at the same time on different like, devices.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:44
Yes, fascinating.

Scott Benner 1:20:45
They are at it. It's, it's crazy. Yeah, you should see some of the ways they they've like figured out how to cheat on tests and help each other with homework. And these kids are really good at using this technology.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:57
I think really, I

Scott Benner 1:20:58
think, I think schools teaching kids a lot of things. They don't think they're teaching them. Right. Yeah. They're bad kids. They're gonna be amazing adults. Yeah. Well, I think at the end here, we figured out who stole your bike, some kids phone to you talk,

Sarah 1:21:13
probably from the others, like, Alright, we can easily find out where she lives.

Scott Benner 1:21:17
I know where she's at. Let's take her bike. Yeah. Yes, we solved it. Yeah, I think we did just go figure out which kid you took the most money off of for the cellphones. He's got your bike? Yeah. Well, I really appreciate you doing this. And, and seriously, I'm, I love this series of people talking about how they eat and just have a nice conversation. So I'm, I'm thrilled the podcast found you and that has been valuable for you. And, and in turn, I'm, I'm very grateful for you coming on and sharing this part of your life with us. Thank you so much.

Sarah 1:21:47
Oh, of course, I'm so grateful for the podcast, like, as I just explained, like, I it was an integral part in, you know, learning management. And I think because of that, like, it has just been that much easier. You know, that much less stressful, especially when it comes to insulin, because I think a lot of people are just so nervous about using it, and just kind of like the dangers of it, which are very valid and real concerns. However, we don't necessarily have to live with blood sugars that are super high, you know, we can we can make small changes and be healthy. And, you know, just finding the podcast was just like such a blessing to be able, you know, to transition so smoothly, you know, from from diagnosis just right into it. So I'm really thankful for you, Scott, and just, you know, the blog and the podcast and everything. It's become like, it's so great. And the community on Facebook, I think is like also one of the best resources out there. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I hope flexitarian diet makes sense for some people to try out. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:22:50
it's definitely worth looking into. And Google calls it semi vegetarian, which made me laugh. a vegetarian, okay. Oh, you were so sweet. Just now it's not me from making a stupid joke, because I was just gonna be like, so I saved your life. Sara, is that right? Is it can you just say those words, please. So we have a clip for the trailer. But no, no, it's fine. No, but seriously, you were just that was really kind. I appreciate it. You made me made me a little, you know, I'm not I didn't cry or anything like that. But it was it was really touching. I I'm just thrilled that anybody's finds value in any of the stuff that I've got set up so but to know that you basically slung right from not having diabetes to having Type One Diabetes without experiencing any weird social, psychological or physical blips is very gratifying to hear. So I appreciate you sharing that with me. Thank you. Of course, of course. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, g Vogue glucagon, find out more about chivo hypo Penn at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juice box. you spell that GVOKEGL Uc ag o n.com. forward slash juice box. Warm handing out thank yous and propers Sara, thank you so much for coming on the show. And Contour Next One blood glucose meter. You're not a person but I appreciate you too. Contour Next One comm forward slash juice box. And of course don't forget touched by type one.org. Also on Facebook and Instagram. Thank you so much for listening. If you're enjoying the podcast, please share it with someone. Leave a great rating and review where you listen or subscribe in a podcast app. These are the things that help the show the most. Thank you so much for listening for supporting the show. I'll be back soon with another episode.

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