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Maddie, I'm so excited to see you. I can see I'm so excited to see you too. I'm so excited to see you. I cannot express how excited I am to see you. Thank you. I am so excited to be here. I'm so excited to chat. It has been far too long, but my gosh, I'm just so grateful to have such a wonderful colleague and friend in this space. So thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Those those of you who are listening
on my platform. This is also gonna be released on Maddie's platform. Well Maddie disappeared for a little bit. You know, she's gonna talk a little bit about it and what she's learned in her in this time. But I I just need to say to all of you that are listening, my audience and Maddie's audience, that ever since I first met her years ago and had her on my show years ago and her at her previous episode that I did with her
will also be in the show notes so you can go back and listen to that one as well. But ever since I first met her, I just knew in my heart that she's such a gift to our space in as a coach, as a fellow diabetic, as a friend, as a colleague, like she mentioned. So I'm just I'm so excited that she's back helping people in because we need her in the in the coaching space. We need her as as a fellow diabetic, just spreading her love and spreading her message.
And as a dietitian. So Maddie, I'm so excited for you. I'm so excited that you're back. Thank you. Thank you. Happy tears to start the day. That is the kindest intro I think you could ever give me. Thank you. Yeah, I love it. My goodness. I am so fortunate and and you know, grateful for how how cool it is that I had the opportunity to get to step back, take care of myself, and then to get to come back and take care of others. I love, I love caring for others. But as we know, we cannot pour from an empty cup.
Yep. Absolutely. Abs freaking Lutley. Absolutely. Well, why don't why don't we start here, Maddie? Right? If you feel comfortable enough, why don't why don't you give us the lowdown? Give us the story. Give us what's been going on the last year. Well, you know. What what made you decide from a holistic point of view, like why you felt like you needed to step back a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. So
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What an incredible year it has been for type one type fun in general. My my podcast is the Bad Diabetic Club for anyone listening from your platform because you know there's no such thing as a bad diabetic. We are all awesome. So it's my it's my shaking fist to the universe. But it's it was an incredible year. I started my podcast last year. I got to which is so fun, I got to publish a book, which was crazy. That was actually almost exactly a year ago from when we're recording this.
And I hosted an almost three hundred person conference. I traveled internationally. I'm the dietitian on staff for several of the diabetes camps around the country. And what a privilege all of those things are. I love so much what I do and I love that I get to do it. The the real thing that was actually happening was behind the scenes. I was a little bit actually, let's just be bold. I wasn't a little bit burned out. I was totally entirely
burned out. And that came from both my personal life and from diabetes. And so back in February, I went to Japan for the first time, which was so fun. for anyone who doesn't know, my parents met and married in Japan. It's always had a special place in my heart. Japanese cuisine is my favorite. And so I finally got to explore a place that I felt so near and dear to and it was incredible. But I really think that that trip
as wonderful as it was and as necessary as it was for a part of my life, it was the true start of the burnout. part of the trip I did was personal and part was professional. So of course there was content involved, there was strategy involved and there were things that I wanted to get done for the purpose of benefiting those of us with T1D. But there was also fun. I got to go with one of my dietitian besties. Shout out Sarah if you're listening.
And we had a great time. And of course we ate all the food as we should and as we are allowed to with type one. that's dietitian approved. So in case anyone's not sure on that yet, now you get to know. So it was so fun. And then I have never been more sick in my life. Then immediately after that trip, I was, I mean, I told I slept probably 16 hours a day, several days in a row, was just completely unable to contribute to the world. And then a few days later I hosted that.
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conference and then two weeks later I was the f for the first time I was the solo dietitian at of one of the camps that I work at. And so it was just so many, so many great things. Shout out to the Diabetes Network of Arizona. That is one of the camp camps I get to benefit. And they are incredible. So if you're in Arizona, quite like me, spoiler, but then we would love to make sure that you're a part of the community. And yeah, so all of this happened and
I was actually supposed to try an omnipod. So when I got back from Japan, because I know the algorithm requires a little bit of time and intentionality. And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna try the omnipod. I'll do it once I get back because my tandem is really dialed in. And it was beautiful Chef's Kiss on the trip, which I could totally talk about for a long time there too. But I was supposed to do omnipod and I just everything just kind of like stopped in March. I was like, my gosh, what's happening? March and April, really like I feel like
the fire caught up to me and I wasn't able to keep putting it out with the little cup of water that I was working with. So yeah. So unfortunately that means that a big part of my personal life changed the big some people in my life I had to let go of and and I moved across the country. So I was in Minnesota and now I'm in Arizona. And I think also the I am the most lucky and loved because in all of this in some, you know, some
Heartbreak and finding myself or whatever it may be. Like I was so loved by all of our people, no matter what. And I hope that for him as well. But how cool it is. I don't think everyone gets to go like have that much love and support from unfortunately separating from the person that you love. And I know that there's still a lot of love between the both of us. We're just not aligned for where we're going in our future. And yeah. And that's okay. And again, that's even a a really lucky thing that I'm
getting to say is I have someone who or I was with someone for years who loved and supported me. Yeah. But ultimately we didn't work out for specific details. But the overall picture was pretty cool. But that required me to really take a step back. So I of course took my step back, moved across the country. I'm now closer to family. I'm closer to everyone in my business, like my my
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business buddies, most of the dietitians I'm really close friends with, my my videographer, the gal who helps me with my podcast, shout out Rebecca, you're amazing. Everyone, my podcast assistant, like every everyone that's in my life who helps me do what I do, it kind of was built in Arizona. I just wasn't here yet. Yeah. And so it's been a big part of the goal to be here. And now I'm so grateful to be here. But what I learned is again, like I can't pour from an empty cup. And I I tell people all the time
You have to take care of yourself. You have to do what you need to. Like sometimes we're thriving and sometimes we're in survival. Can you identify that? What does that look like? Who do you need to support you? What does do you need? Anything is valid, but you have to learn that for yourself. And so what I had to learn is okay, although I love what I do dearly, I had to step away from social media for a moment. It was a hard decision. and I know I've kept up here and there. I actually was at the
TCOID one conference this past week. Shout out to them too. That was the most incredible experience. I had a feeling that would help to reignite the fire in my heart. And it did. I was in a room with a bunch of people who also beep and they get it. And it was so fun. And it was just, it was just amazing. And so, anyways, some some of the lessons that I've learned. That's my big lore. That's my life update.
without going into too many details, but some things that I've learned is that number one, when it comes to the people in your life, you have to choose people as best as you can. You have to choose people who will be supportive of and helpful with your diabetes. Just because I'm a professional diabetic, that doesn't mean I don't need support. And that definitely doesn't mean that I'm perfect. So having people in my life who will get me a free snack if I'm low or who will, you know, check in on my blood sugars, who will ask about things, that is one of the
biggest lessons I've learned from this year is I need people who are as gung-ho, maybe not as gung ho as me, because I don't know, I do this for my everyday professional personal life, but someone who is like I got you with in and I have no hesitation or no lack of trust there. So that is something that we if you can find those people. It can be a significant other. It can be friends. It can be family that have those people. Thing number two that I learned is your
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ideal path and your and then your reality don't have to match up. I really, y'all, I wanted to come to you and be like, here is everything I've learned personally from my experience with the omnipod. Here's a 30 day analysis and the data and the documentation. And guess what? The omnipod sitting in the bottom of that drawer there. I haven't done anything with it yet. Why? Because I simply could not even imagine with my life feeling like it was on fire. I couldn't add one more thing to the mix. And diabetes is something that I've gotten down to a science at this point. And I just
Didn't want to add one more thing. Now I will be trying it eventually for myself. I mean, I I help train people on it and I help people learn the algorithms and stuff. So I feel like I'm cheating in a way. I kind of already know what I'm doing. But again, you know, the personal day to day is different. So but now in Arizona, there's a whole lot of swimming that happens in my life. So I think that that could really change the game. So that's a big one that I've learned. Maybe big lesson number two. and then lesson number three is it doesn't have
To make sense to anyone else, it has to make sense to you. And so for me, stepping back from posting online did not make sense, right? I was launching courses and running a group, and I've still run my group. I've still worked with my one on ones behind the scenes, but I haven't been a face in this space for a while, a voice for advocacy and for people, which I love to do. But and that didn't make sense to a lot of people, and it didn't have to because it's what I needed.
And not to brag, I have finally gotten my sleep back on track. I go to sleep when I intend to. I wake up when I intend to for the most part. That was really difficult for a while. I go to the gym most days of the week. I get my steps every day. I I do yoga now too. That's a good mindfulness practice. I go to therapy. I have a group therapy. I journal. I meditate. I do all these things.
that and and no one has to do any of that, but that's what is helping me and that's what matters to me. Maybe another one, humble brag. I'm feeding myself again very well. I'm a dietitian and it was still difficult, right? So I have all the knowledge I could possibly need and it was still difficult. But I'm finally back to a place where I feel healthy and feeling physically healthy has made a world of a difference for feeling emotionally and mentally healthy and then having the space and time to come back to myself.
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And to come back to all of this. It's just the coolest privilege. I I could talk about it all day long. Obviously, I've talked so much already, but that is a little bit about what's been happening this past year. Wow. That's a lot. I mean. The first is the amazing awareness to recognize that there was something that needed to change, whatever that might have been, right?
there is at least that and a lot of people can't say that. A lot of people would continue to be in that state that you were in with all these fires going off and having this little cup of water trying to put all these fires out is not gonna work. Right. So I I think that's the first thing that I'm I'm so happy that you were able to find that awareness and find find that to be able to take a step back. And I think all of us can take from that. I think the second piece
Is that you had this had this thought process of you had the awareness, you had this thought process, and then you took the plunge, I would say, to distance yourself from people that weren't aligned in your life. That is probably I feel like, because I've had to do that in my personal life too, and in my professional life. I feel like that's one of the hardest things to do, especially when it's someone so close to your heart or multiple people.
close to your heart. So I would say that that would be the second thing that I took away. That's like, wow, like to have the inclination to be able to do that. And it's like, man, I I feel that. When you were talking about that, I was like, man, I can feel that. Yeah. Thank you. So yeah, that's awesome, girl. I'm I'm glad that you were able to get through all that you got through all of it and you're back and you feel rejuvenated, you know. That's awesome.
Thank you. I do. I'm so grateful. And I think part of it too is I don't I don't pretend to have a perfect anything. I believe that life itself is imperfection, which is the best part about it. But posting online for a while, I mean, I've always felt very aligned with my work and what I do. And I didn't realize all of the feelings I had about what was going on in my personal life. And so it was this weird, interesting mind shift where I just had this awareness that I
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sometimes wish I didn't have, but I was like, okay, these things are not cool with me. Cool. And then I felt like I couldn't post for a while, actually, because I was like, well, if I show up, that feels fake. That feels fake. That feels ingenu disingenuous. And I just didn't want to be that. But now what I'm realizing is that number one, in case you didn't already know, social media, oftentimes there's a lot of fake with it. Not that we want that and not that we try to make that happen, but it is a reality. So for example,
Oftentimes I'll tell you about these awesome client success stories that I have because you need to know that you can succeed with diabetes. But also, I don't know, that person I saw for a little bit, some days of the week, some months out of the year, that's not every single person every single day, and it's not me either. And so just knowing that okay, what we see online is not always 100% of the reality is key. But what I've also learned is
just because we are intentional about posting about one thing, that doesn't mean we have to not post to something else isn't happening or going well, right? Like my my personal life is not really a big part of my platform. Yeah. It is diabetes focused. And there's some aspects of diabetes that were really involved in my personal life, but I guess I've learned that I can still show up and it's okay to also not speak to certain aspects. So there's always a balance to find and I think that balance is
dependent on each individual. So thank you for for bringing those things up. And I know that we literally last time that we talked, we talked about one of the key factors we talked about was sustainability. And we talked about burnout a little bit. We we mentioned it because it's so essential. We talked about like the 180 decisions and how that actually boils down. That's actually something I wanted to ask you if you were willing to bring back up because I think about that conversation all the time. Something that you said
If I can paraphrase, I want you to take it away. But you said from the 180 decisions statistic from what is it, sta Stanford Medicine? Mm-hmm. They said that on average someone with type one makes 180 decisions related to their health as compared to someone who is a relatively healthy counterpart. And we kind of fact checked that. And so I don't know. I want you to speak to that a little bit more. But what do you think the reality is? I think the reality is that that is a bunch of
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When you really get down to it, it's a bunch of BS. I think it's a but it's a BS number. Not because it never happened or people didn't say that in surveys and in and the research and the studies. But I what I think about is like when I first found out about that three years ago, we've talked about this so many times. We talked about this one last time we talked. When I found out about that three or four years ago, it gave me massive anxiety. Mm-hmm.
Because I wasn't making 180 decisions a day. No freaking way. Even even three or four years ago when I when I didn't have the same control that I have today, I wasn't making 180 decisions. So I fact checked it myself. I just did two or three days of like tracking every single diabetes related decision that I made. And I was at like maybe thirty to forty decisions.
Actual diabetes decisions. And and when when I like thought about that, I was like, wow, man, that makes so much more sense. I feel way better. I don't feel like that I was doing something wrong now because I wasn't making 180 decisions or even upward of a hundred decisions. That's I mean, it's just it's crazy to think about that number and what it actually represents. And going back and thinking about your day and even the consistency of your days.
Like maybe I might be close to fifty or sixty if I'm con if I'm going on a plane or if I'm traveling to another state or like something that's out of the realm of consistency in my day or out of the realm of my routine, my normal routines, gonna make more decisions for sure. What do I gotta pack? I gotta pack this in my bag, I gotta take this, I gotta like I gotta make sure that all my insulin is in my carry-on and not in my not not in in the bag that I'm have to put underneath the plane. Like
Of course I'm gonna make more decisions, but n routinely what I do consistently every single day, it's it's only between thirty and forty. Actual diabetes decisions. Yeah. And if I if I may, I think I I think I agree that I don't make a hundred and eighty decisions in a day, but maybe on some of my worst days, maybe some of my initial days, I made a lot more decisions. And so just number one.
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We want to validate that like if you're not making that many decisions, that's okay. If you're making more than that many decisions, that's also okay. But ultimately asking where that's coming from might be key. Now, for example, if you make three decisions in a day related to diabetes, maybe that's that you take insulin for breakfast, choose to take insulin for once, choose to take insulin for dinner. Okay, cool. Maybe that's okay. Or maybe there's a few other things we could do to really, really benefit ourselves. Maybe not.
And that's okay. If you are though, if you identify with that statistic of the 180 plus decisions per day, I challenge you to maybe run the experiment just like Coach Ken did and see where do those decisions come from. Because a lot of the times I find the people that I work with, I've worked with hundreds of T1Ds and the people that make the most decisions, sometimes there's more fear or lack of confidence.
Lack of knowledge, lack of understanding. And if that feels like the reason why you're making those decisions, then I just want to advocate for you right now to get in the room with people that will help. Whether that's your doctor, someone like one of us, or who knows, maybe it's a friend, a diabody that's like, yeah, this is how I do that. And then instead of making the 10 decisions about it, you know that you make the one or two and you've been able to streamline things a little bit more.
I you said two words in there I think that are very important to bring to light, and that's fear and confidence. Right? Fear makes us do crazy stuff. It makes us do crazy things. And not only does it make us do crazy things, it warps our perception of what is actually going on. Yeah. So, you know, like you dealing with a bunch of people that that really have issues with fear.
I had I had an incredible, incredible client, but he had fear, so much fear of going low that he couldn't leave his house. And and like literally for our whole entire work together, we were we were working through putting up boundaries and getting through the actual reasons of why this is actually happening and coming up. And I think the really cool thing that I found with him.
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was it wasn't his fear of going low per se. It was his lack of confidence of making decisions outside of his normal, you know, bubble, which was his house. So it it's it's an interesting thing to think about when we think about fear, when we think about decisions, sometimes the decisions, the amount of decisions that we think we're making isn't really the reality. And that's what I really found.
when I did that experiment with myself. I didn't think it was gonna I thought it was gonna be more than 30 or 40 decisions that I was making. But it really wasn't because I was telling myself a specific story that I I believed was rooted on all this reality. I gotta do this, I gotta do this. Actually no, that's kind of the same exact decision. Or actually I don't even need to think about that. Or I'm not even thinking about like so
I I I think it I'm glad that you brought that up, Maddie, because fear just it makes us do crazy stuff. It does. It does. And if I were working with someone similar who was maybe so scared to leave the house, there's actually an individual I am working with and we had a one-on-one chat this week and essentially what they were saying is that they were scared of trying this certain food item.
It is a really cool, awesome location. It's local to the area, so I won't give the specifics, but essentially they wanted to try this item that they'd never had before. And of course, there's some carbs and fat and protein involved, which I fully support, but they're used to their normal foods. They're used to one or two units of insulin, twenty or thirty carbs. Nothing super out there. And so we set a challenge of this week. We're gonna go have that thing.
We're gonna go have that food item. And then they're gonna come back and we're gonna figure out how it went. And I told this person, I said, Whatever happens, you are educated. I mean, there's so many bits of information that we can all learn from our day-to-days. But this person, we've been working together for a while. So it's like, okay, on your baseline, worst case scenario, you're pretty fine. You're gonna be okay. You might go a little high, you might go a little low. We'll be able to figure that out. Let's see what happens. So
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Once this person comes back and says, hey, this is how this went, no matter what happens, no matter if that blood sugar worked how we wanted it to or not, great. We've learned. We've learned what happened and now, and they don't they they'll they'll not learn this soon. But it's actually something I'm gonna message them with this weekend. But once I hear back about what happened, we're gonna go do it again. But we're gonna do one thing, one thing a little different.
to improve whatever happens. And then maybe we'll get to do it again. Seat dietitian approval. You get to have all the fun foods, right? because you have to know how they work, right? Because we can't avoid life or ideally we shouldn't. And not that we should should on ourselves or shouldn't on ourselves. I hope I enunciated well for that one. But doing our best with what it is that you actually want to do is key. And if you're not sure, start with where you are sure and then make one small difference, make one small change, make one small
improvement or step towards where you ideally want go. Yeah. I love that. And yeah. I think for I think for both of us, one of the you know, you brought this up too is like the one of the things that I think can really tear down walls with people's fear is is their feeling of feeling safe and secure. Mm-hmm. And how can you build those boundaries around being so you know safe and secure. And I just I love doing that with people.
It's like take all the fear and you can start ripping down these all these walls because they've never felt safe before, because they've never known how to feel safe. Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, something else that I think that we've chatted about before that might be a good way of connecting this conversation is with our blood sugars, right? I think our blood sugars are something that we can feel a little bit more significantly because of that typical in-range that we
have worked with over years. Like for example, from the story I told, someone might have heard, she put her diabetes on the back burner because things were going wacky. Why? Because I know what that baseline is for myself. I could stop thinking about diabetes too focused on other things, which is a wild statement. You could never convince early diagnosed Maddie that that was going to be a thing. But it's a a very cool privilege that I have because I've done the work and and learned the knowledge and
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experimented and forced myself to have sometimes a delusional level of confidence that I could figure it out. So so last time if I'm if I'm recalling correct, you had said something that like when your blood sugar is high, you feel it. You really feel it because your blood sugar is usually so well in range. I think it was in the w upper 100s still, is that right? The You talking about lows or highs? Highs. I don't feel highs. I only feel lows. Okay. Okay.
So I think maybe you were saying that your norm is that your your upper norm is a certain level. My thought for us to connect this story with this specific food example though is like no matter what happens, I know that individual has enough education to safely get through it, even if they go super high or even if they go low. Hopefully it doesn't happen, but they'll figure it out, they'll be okay. And we'll get to talk about it. And so for someone who maybe is nervous
About that. my gosh, I can't imagine going to 200s. I just can't eat that. Or my gosh, what if that causes me to go low? I can't do that. What I would say is, well, one step at a time, and we get there over time. Like I've had people who are comfortable with 30 carbs in a sitting max. And we practice having 31. And then next week we practice having 32. And then the next week after that, what am I gonna say? We practice having 33.
Thirty-three, there it is, exactly. One step at a time. And sure, maybe it feels slow, but over a year, three hundred and sixty-five days, that could be a very different story. What would your thought be for someone who's finding themselves in that position or feeling that fear or worry? I feel like what's what has worked really well for the people that I've been working with, the the fear of taking insulin or even on the flip side, the fear of not eating too many carbs because they don't want to go high.
On both of that those thought processes, I kind of separate the blood sugar. I want to separate the the blood sugar in your range versus your target. And when we s when I when we separate that, it it allows people to realize like, okay, well, I'm not necessarily always needing to bolus or consume or treat or whatever based off of getting my blood sugar up.
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or bringing my blood sugar down when when you're doing a correction, sometimes you don't know if it's enough. Sometimes you don't know if it if it is enough or not enough. So when we're able for me, when we're able to isolate what the comfortability is in the moment in terms of w if it if it was a perfect storm and you could pick the blood sugar that you feel the most comfortable with, you feel the best at, you feel like amazing.
What is that number? And that's where we start at. Right. So every single decision that we're making, whether it's from a low perspective or from a high perspective, we're trying to come back to that target. And you're gonna be in range because that target isn't 200. That target's not 60. That target is usually somewhere in between 100 and 130. And it just it I feel like it builds the confidence. When I just did it with a client the other day.
and I'm just I'm so proud of this person because she was in the same boat, right? She's in the same boat of not wanting to eat as many eat the foods that she wants to eat. And now she has the confidence to eat those foods with no issues. Because we're you know, as coaches, we're not just coaching the person about how to get to the solution or how to get to the solution, we're also coaching them about
What are the little things that you need to do along the way to get to the solution? Right? She wasn't pre bolusing. She wasn't doing all the little things. But now that these now that the now that the people are doing the little things, it this the the the world is your oyster. Now we can make the decision and get to walk away from it and feel confident about that decision no matter the result. And you you mentioned that and I I
I've always loved that perspective of you because it aligns so much with my perspective of make a decision and then feel confident about that decision. Feel confident and trust your decision so you can walk away from it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that again brings up the power of making sure that you have the right community. I think it might have been in like a a re a reference to my book, but in the subtitle is part of it says Fire Your Doctor. I don't actually mean fire your doctor, but if you don't like who you work with, find someone you do.
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I love that reel by the way. Thank you. Yes, I know. I know. I I I got so much hate for that one. But I will just say Did you really? Hold on. my gosh. You did? You got hate for that? Come on. Yeah, absolutely. Anything that's gonna be polarizing is going to give us hate, but I didn't take that any of that.
Everyone with type one was so on board it wasn't even funny. the people that were giving the hate were the people that don't understand. Or they're like, okay. Like one of the comments was like, you're so confident. Why don't you just go cure your own type one? I was like, You clearly have no knowledge of what's going on here. Okay, like I I wish you well. I hope you never understand or empathize with this. But if you ever do, come back and we'll laugh together. Okay. But yeah, there was a lot. everyone with type one was like, these some of these comments are the most ridiculous and
So validation across the board, but I don't mean to actually just fire your doctor. That's some wacko talk. You need your prescriptions. You need support. You need people who are in your circle. But if you go to one of those providers, or maybe it's a dietitian who is like, you're terrible at eating all the things. Stop doing that. Do things differently. You saw bye. See you in a few months. Whoa, no. my gosh. Go see someone else. And that's what I mean. It's find your people, right? Because making those empowered and confident decisions.
If you don't feel like you're there yet, you've got to find the people. Like they say that you're you're the most similar to the top five people you hang out with. Well, who knows? Maybe you're most similar in your decisions to the top five people that you learn from. Or you're so similar to your endocrinologist. Yeah, yeah. And and I have some people who come to me where I'm like, listen, I'm not trying to step on your endocrinologist's toe beans, but we gotta figure out if this is.
legit for you or not. Cause if they're saying, hey, you can't have this, don't do that. Let's stop this. This isn't right. Da da da. I just actually, when I was at the the conference, I was with someone who said, well, you know, can you take a look at my settings? I was like, I can take a look and I can tell you, you know, some of the the frameworks and the theories. It's out of my scope to tell you specifically what to do. But she told me she was like, yeah, so I went to my endo, my settings are really dialed in, but they said that all my settings are wrong and they need to change it to this.
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And so I was like, okay, well, what happened? And they were like, I I changed my settings. I was like, okay. So basically all of her settings are just standardized now. And so I was like, okay, well, how is it working? And she was like, Well, usually when when I wake up and throughout my day, whether I'm eating or not, whatever, I'm usually like one hundred to one thirty. It's like, okay, how are we now? And she was like, I'm stuck at two hundred all day. I rage bolus twice already. And I was like, Okay.
Again, I can't tell you what to do, but I'm hearing you and it sounds like you're frustrated. And she's like, Yes, this is so stupid. I don't understand why they did this. I was like, Okay, so what's like what's your game plan? And they were like, Well, I see them again in three months. And I was like, Okay, it's been a week. Or not even a week. Yeah. I was like, So you're gonna feel this way for months? And she was like, You know what? No, I'm an adult.
I can make the shades. So she went back to her settings and I was like, Cool. By the way, go get yourself a little Dexcom clarity report. Save that for evidence to show that, hey, this didn't work and here's why. And I was like, if you really, really, really are like so worried or terrified, give yourself a few days of data. But like day three was already happening. She's like, I'm over it. It's like great, make that change if that's what you want. And she needed my permission. She just needed someone to hear her and be like, Yeah, that is a little bit wacko. I wouldn't like that either.
And then she was like, yeah, I don't like this and changed it. So again, find people who you align with and hopefully also hopefully those people that you align with have really wonderful education and information, science based, evidence based, but sometimes we're off the cuff too. I I man, I mean, Maddie, there's so much stuff to dive into right there, but a million things. I always I s I I guess I still don't understand living with diabetes for twenty years.
I don't understand why it's still a thing for an endocrinologist, a primary care pizza physician, heck, a coach, whoever it is, to not listen. And then the problem, the ultimate problem, because time is the ultimate problem with them. They don't have enough time with you. Yeah. Yeah. But really the ultimate problem comes down to after time is follow up. Because
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She's not the only person we've ever heard say, Well, I'm going to see my doctor in three months. What? So you want to feel like crap for three months? I mean, I I just I guess I don't I don't understand it. And it's because people don't realize there's another solution. Which is yeah, it it hurts me to my core. Yeah. Absolutely. There's always an option.
And if you believe that that that alone as a belief will take you pretty far. Yeah. Man. Ski I get chills every time someone talks about the the lack of listening, the lack of compassion and empathy. Like I know. As a practitioner, as a as a as a health practitioner, whoever it is, I don't care who it is, even if it's me, like the fact that if if I can't meet someone with compassion and empathy, what what are we doing? What what are we doing?
Yes, we all deserve kindness and human decency. And if you don't feel that you're getting those things from your provider, I'm not telling you what to do, but there's your sign. And you have the power, you have the choice, you have the option to make those changes. And hopefully there's someone else in your network that you can work with. And if not, then we we've set our boundaries, keep those conversations minimal, get what you need done, and find those people that you do align with. Yeah. See, Matty, you're nicer than me. You are nicer than me.
Well, you say it how it is. What are what are your thoughts? I I if I was in that situation, this is this is literally what I was thinking when you were telling this story. It if this person asked me to look at her data, I'm looking at her data, like obviously both me and Maddie, it's out of our school of practice to tell this person what to do. One hundred percent. It is out of our school of practice. Okay. But I'm gonna look at her data and I'm like, well, this is what I think might be going on, but here's what you need to do.
You need to go to your endo, i.e. tomorrow, and tell him or her these specific things. Basil looks like it's it might be off. Like the insulin carbonation might be off. Whatever it might be. Like, here's the things that I want you to tell this person. Don't just send them data because they're gonna look at the what do you it looks fine. What'd you eat on this day at this time? Yeah. No, like here's what I want you to tell him or her.
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'Cause I can't tell you what to do, but here's some ideas. Right? Yeah. Like I just spew things out. I'm just so man. And then I gotta f I gotta make sure I always follow it. I can't tell you what to do, so it's out of my school of practice. So don't sue me. Yeah, I know, right? and actually, since we're on this topic, just in case anyone needs to hear it, get a pen and paper ready or type on your phone or something, but
If you feel that you're not being heard by your provider, if you've asked for something or you've noticed something that isn't working or is or whatever it may be, I especially for like people who get denied for just like a simple blood work panel or something like that, my favorite tool to make sure you have into your toolbox is to say, Hey, thank you for letting me know whatever they may say. Maybe they denied your request or said, Nope, this is how it should be. Ask them, say, and this is what you should write down. Please note in my medical chart exactly what you've said.
along with your clinical reasoning. That way, number one, it's written down. Number two, if you're getting denied for something and it's just like a insurance may or not cover it or it's not really recommended. But if you want it, you could usually the tune will change there a little bit. And then number two, you are protected because if there's evidence of what happened and something has gone wrong, then you can connect the dots backwards. So just a self protection mechanism.
Please note in my chart and give your clinical reasoning. Clinical reasoning, I guess, is optional, but I like to make them explain things if they're gonna put it in the system. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Because it's there's always a paper trail of s of whatever it is, right? Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Absolutely. Absolutely. And again, like part of why I do what I do is because I believe that
us having to advocate for ourselves so hard like that, it just shouldn't be the norm still. It shouldn't be a thing. It's wild to me as well that there is there's a lot of that that happens. And so that's why I provide a lot of my resources online for free. They take them, take them, use them to your advantage. If your provider's not helping you, this is the least I could possibly do.
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And I know that you are also a wonderful resource in this space. So actually maybe, especially for those listening from my side of things, why don't you give us a good update on what's been happening for you and what's coming up at least in the next few months or through the rest of 2026? What can you do to be an advocate and a resource for folks you don't already know? And where can they find some more info on that? I love it. I think that I think the first thing from me is that
When we're when we're thinking about advocating for yourself, okay, you the first thing I think is like the trust. Like you you have to believe and trust in you, not necessarily in all of your decisions, because if you're, you know, struggling with emotions, if you're struggling with your blood sugars, if you're, you know, you have challenges throughout the day, you're not going to completely trust in your decisions. But what I what I would
really want to empower everyone to do is know that they are they are heard not just from me and Maddie but from our whole entire community. The diabetes community is insane. Like I don't know if I've ever met one other type one diabetic where if I have been vulnerable, that I haven't had tons and tons of people say, my gosh, are you okay? Or hey have you thought about this? Or hey have you thought about this? Right. So
I I think that that is one thing that every person needs to understand is like let's we have to learn to trust in ourselves again. and be secure in and who we are. Not who we are with diabetes. It's something that's a completely different conversation, but who we are who we are inside. And when we can start to believe and understand that, I think all the flood doors can be opened. I think that if you need
even more support, right? It it's it's a little bit more that you need. I think that there's two big resources that you need to do. First is you need to make sure that you're listening to Maddie's podcast. And then the second is you need to be making sure that you're listening to the Healthy Diabetic Podcast. Those are the first two things that you need to do because there's so much information. But then in all seriousness, I think podcasting for me has been such an incredible tool.
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To hear other people's perspective, right? Before I even got to actually get on zoom on Zoom or interview Maddie, like I was listening to her talk on Instagram. I was listening to her podcast. I was listening to things that she was saying. I was taking and absorbing things that she was saying. And the same goes for all kinds of the other people that are in our space that are really pushing to advocate, not just as coaches, but also just here's my story.
We can learn so much from other people. It's it's absolutely insane. So I I think for me that that that's the place that you that you should start. If you're really having challenges, that's the place that you start. And then the secondary to that is if you feel like that you want more support and you want to get out of the status that you're in, you reach out to one of us. Because that that because we are here to help.
Because we love it, we love the work, and because most importantly, we both have gone through the same thing that you're going through right now. Yeah. Diabetes is tough, but so are you, and you're never alone. Never. Once I figured that out, my gosh, everything changed. I know. That's actually why I I I have a lot of feelings about social media, generally speaking, but one of the reasons I love it is because
For the first few years of diagnosis, other than meeting one or two people, I genuinely thought I was the only diabetic on this planet. And I knew that wasn't true, but it just felt so lonely and so isolating to not have a diabetic or to not have someone who got it. And being in a community, like I'm a like I said, I'm a professional diabetic and working in this space. I know people with diabetes, for those who feel strongly about language on time with diabetic, personally. I'm yep.
That's me. That's cool. But the first time I went to diabetes camp, I was working, right? I was a a medical provider at camp. But it was my first time at camp ever. And driving up, I remember I was like, my gosh, like that girl has a Dexcom. That guy has my insulin pump. That's an omnipod. my gosh. And and one of my closest, closest friends took me to camp. And she was like, She's watching this happen in the car. She's like, That's you. And I was like, That's me.
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These people are me. I cried immediately, obviously getting to camp because I love to wear my heart on my sleeve and it was so beautiful. I was like, I'm not alone. And that whole week was amazing. Some girl was having a low, didn't know her, hadn't ever even heard her name and her pump went off. And she was like, I need a snack. And I like, here's a fruit snack. And she was like, Thanks. She trusted me, she ate it, and she kept walking. And I was like, Okay, this is really fun. And anyways, it changed the game for me. And I'm a professional in this space.
So if you haven't already found any type of community, find community. And if you don't know how, find us will help you find community. I get requests all the time of, hey, do you know of an event like this or a group like that or whatever it may be? I've helped people connect in the Carolinas. I've never lived there. I've helped people connect in Texas. I'm a provider there, but I'm I don't live there and help people find their people. And it has been so such an honor and a privilege to get to see
the change that happens within and it is related to diabetes, but I think it's so much greater than that. Mm-hmm. There's three core principles that my my company is based off of. And I and I know I've heard you talk about all three of these. And I think they're so important because it's it's what we all are searching for. Education, community and accountability. And once you are able to find that that piece, where are you getting your education from?
And it can be from your doctor, but it also has to be other places because they're not gonna be able to educate you in the and the way of living with it twenty four seven outside of that those four walls, outside of that doctor's office. They just don't have the time, resources, and and the capacity to do it. So I think that the education piece is a really important piece. But the community piece is is the center of like what Maddie's talking about. It is the centerpiece of everything. If you don't have community but your blood sugars are amazing, that's
it's gonna come hit you in the face eventually because you're gonna feel so alone. And and then everyone wants to feel accountable. Everyone needs accountability. And whatever that might be for you, whether it's an emotional emotionally, whether it's physically, whether it's with food, w whether it's with your blood sugars, what whatever it is, accountability is so important to be able to have what Maddie talked about at the very, very, very beginning of this S episode, which is sustainability. Yeah. Yeah.
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We cannot pour from an empty cup. And if you can have someone help you fill it, cool. But you have to make sure you know what you need, what works for you and what doesn't. And it takes time, it ebbs and flows and it may change. And it's okay to have these seasons where we have to go ghost and do our own thing. It's okay to have those seasons. but ultimately doing what you need to do, whatever that looks like for you is gonna be key. And we hope that that includes really great education.
We hope that incru it includes an incredible community. And of course we hope that you feel like you've got this at the end of the day. You've got this. And if you don't though, that you're well supported. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I can't bel I can't believe the level of support that we have nowadays. Yeah. Yeah. It's so cool. The technology, the community, people like us, our doctors, like it it's
These conferences, like I mean, it's just it's insane. It's it's insane. It's insane. I I always love I always love the saying. Like I wish I said it first. It's never been a better time to be a diabetic. Yeah. To have type one diabetes. It's never been a better time. If you have type one diabetes, this is the time to have it. Yeah. It's yeah.
There's so much technology, there's so much support, there's so much education going on. And they've been saying that a cure is right around the corner for years. They've said that since the eighties, let's be real. But I do believe they're working towards it. And I don't know if we'll have truly a cure really soon, but I do believe that the wild leaps that we will have in technology, education, research, innovation, medication is going to make diabetes even more manageable.
emotionally and physically than ever before. And that is changing quickly all the time. Mm-hmm. It's funny that you bring up a cure. Selfish plug. Today's episode on my show, today's episode on the podcast was what does a cure actually mean? Can you actually cure type one diabetes? Me and my co-host Graham talked in depth about it, about a cure
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What does it actually mean? And can you actually really cure type 1 diabetes? Yeah. They spoke about it at the conference too. So it was something I let go of for a while, but something that I often get asked about being in this space. And I don't think we want to give too many spoils. You all will have to listen to that episode on Coach Ken's site because I know that that conversation is an incredible one. And again, another shout out to TCOID for having some really great information as it relates to that.
They brought on a speaker from Breakthrough T one D, T one D breakthrough. Is that what it's called now? The formerly JDRF. Yeah, thank you. Breakthrough T one D. Formerly JDRF. And it was a a wonderful conversation that reinstilled a realistic level of hope and comfort in me that I didn't I didn't mean to seek that out at the conference, but I received it, which felt like a really beautiful gift. I love it. I love that.
I love it too. So again, plug to go check out that other episode. And I just did an episode this week on type two, which was actually a very interesting combo. And there's just so much happening that we don't know because all of our clinical, traditional, the the the basic clinical, clinically accepted practices are a bit outdated. And that is still what the textbook says, but that's not necessarily what
our most recent science is saying. So I have a great amount of hope and faith and I'm excited to get to continue to pour into this space. But I've always said it, I hope I lose my job one day. I really do. I I want to be jobless if it means that we get to not have to be be this type of support for people. If people get to once one day move away from the world of T one. That'd be a a bittersweet thing, I think.
Yeah. But then but then Maddie, you just pivot and you just continue to help people with T one D. absolutely. yeah. my god, we need a not a need a dietitian girl. Come on. my god. yeah, you know, true. Actually the other thing I do I do type one diabetes, that is my that is my bread and butter, extra bread for the carbs, but I also do weight loss. But more specifically, instead of saying weight loss, what I actually like to say is I do metabolic rehabilitation through and body recomposition.
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Yeah, 'cause so many of us have been failed by the weight loss industry and there's a lot of science that is left out. And so that's another thing I do and I I love to get to do that, but obviously T one D is where my heart lies. and I'm probably biased because it's also where my pancreas lies. You know what we should do at some point is have a conversation, bring Maddie back on the show, bring me back on her show and
Have a conversation about the hottest topic right now, GLP one. my gosh. Yes. We could talk about that all day long. I was wondering if we would bring it up at any point. Yeah. I was going to, but we're I don't know what your time frame is right now, you know. So I know it. I know it. There's actually a lot of really interesting information out there. I think the maybe we'll have to do another episode, but maybe the the key thing that I'll leave off on is that nutrition.
is a huge aspect of the GLP one journey. So if you're not if you are considering or on that journey and you don't already have someone that that is supporting you nutritionally, then make sure that you find those people to be able to support you. because it is it there's a there's a whole world of information to consider there. And you got someone right here, guys. I don't know what's I don't know what else to say. You got someone right here. I love it. I can help
Here's our plug. Maha ha, you're stuck with us, everyone. This combination's never going away. I love it. We we literally have you covered on every aspect of your diabetes management with the two of us. All of them. We literally do. We literally do. We have every single aspect of anything you're possi possibly probably dealing with. We have we got it covered. We got it covered. Yes, unless unless you need me to write your prescription. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we can't do that. We can't do that. Sorry about that.
But we can say, hey, ask for this. Yeah, we can say ask for this. Yeah. And find you some cool people. We know we we know a guy who knows a guy. So, you know, we always do. We know some guys. We know some guys. I I yes, we do. And some gal shout out. This has been so fun, Coach Cut. I can't thank you enough. And then for those who l are listening here, it is such a privilege to have you as a part of our journey. So I know we are here, we're supporters in this space. We get to support people. We get to educate people. We get to help.
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people and that is what we love. I know we both love that very dearly. Yeah. But I also just want to take a second to say thank you for those of you who are here. We can't do what we do without you. And I this just fills my cup. It really does. Being away from the space, I didn't realize how much I missed it. Coming back, I didn't realize how much of my sparkle I would feel again. I feel like like I've got sparkle back in my life. That's that's for me is like my my lifeline, right? And so so thank you. As much as we love
To get to help you, you all also get to help us. I love it. Yeah, absolutely love it. It's been it's been such a treat. And I'm gonna say it again. I'm so excited you're back. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited you're back. Everybody, I was gonna do it, but I can't find the button. So we all need to give a quick round of applause for Maddie. I I could I I've got the button here somewhere, but I couldn't find it. I couldn't find it here in the in the plant.
That's It's just like the the the applause, the applause sound effect, you know, just there you go. Right there, right there, right there, right there. Well, thank you. button or not, I appreciate it dearly. That's funny. man. Yeah, everybody, thank you so much for listening. This will definitely will this will come out on the Healthy Diabetic podcast, and it will also come out on Maddie's show as well. So you can find it on both platforms. you get that means you know what that actually means, everybody? That means you get to listen to it twice.
Yes, exactly. Listen to it twice. Yes. Double the fun. Double the fun. So all right. Maddie, thank you so much for doing this as always. Thank you. everybody, thank you so much for listening, and we will see you guys next time.
