Diabetics Doing Bodybuilding with Georgia Thomson

[00:00:00] Rob Howe: Welcome to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast. We're back with new episodes in 2017 telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics across the world. I'm your host, Rob Howe, and if you'd like to get involved with Diabetics Doing Things, all you have to do is shoot me an email or reach out via Instagram. Hey everyone, before we get started, I just wanted to say thank you for listening. We had a great first year of the podcast, but none of it would have been possible without you and your support. I love getting messages, emails, and comments from type 1 diabetics all over the world. It really makes my day. So keep sharing, searching, and commenting, and I'll keep tracking down the people behind the amazing type 1 stories out there. Now, let's get back to the episode. Hello and welcome back to Diabetics Doing Things. More content in 2017 is headed your way. Today I'm with Georgia Thomson from the UK, a type 1 diabetic and fitness coach. Welcome, Georgia.

[00:00:59] Georgia Thomson: Hi. Hi. Good to be here.

[00:01:01] Rob Howe: Yeah, we're excited to have more UK type 1s on our show. We've had a global reach so far. We've done interviews in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and all over the US. So really happy that we can continue to have global perspective on everything.

[00:01:20] Georgia Thomson: Right.

[00:01:22] Rob Howe: So tell us a little bit about yourself.

[00:01:24] Georgia Thomson: Okay. So I'm 26. I was diagnosed when I was nine. At the moment, I currently run a letting agency. And I'm in the process of setting up my own business for diabetics with a friend. I'm a farmer's daughter originally. So I grew up with horses and sheep and cows and things. and yeah, I've been into fitness for about 10 years now and it's just basically changed the way that I manage my diabetes really so I'm just kind of wanting to carry that on and pass it on to other people.

[00:02:08] Rob Howe: Absolutely. Obviously, exercise and fitness is so key and integral to maintaining healthy blood sugars and also just being active and healthy. I want to talk a little bit about when you were diagnosed. You said you were diagnosed when you were nine and that you lived on a farm. So talk about maybe the things that were unique to being a little bit away from the city and in that sort of rural environment as a diagnosis.

[00:02:40] Georgia Thomson: So I guess really it meant – I mean I can't comment on how kids dealt with it in the city. but I think that being on the farm and things, I probably had quite a lot of hypos at the beginning when I was just trying to figure things out. One hypo I had, I remember, I just completely blacked out, and I was actually riding my pony at the time. It wasn't an ideal situation. It wasn't good.

[00:03:07] Rob Howe: I think that may be a first on the show, is having a super low hypo, low blood sugar while riding a pony.

[00:03:15] Georgia Thomson: that's certainly the first one that I've heard yeah yeah it wasn't good it wasn't good um but I don't I to be honest I don't really think um living on a farm made it any any more difficult or any easier when it comes to dealing with the diagnosis um to be honest I've I've kind of always had the attitude that you just got to get on with things so that was how I dealt with it. At nine, you don't really know. You can't really conceptualize it, can you? So I just did it.

[00:03:48] Rob Howe: And that's a big thing that I notice a lot when I talk to people, especially who were diagnosed at a young age, is it sort of forces you to grow up really quickly. And you sort of think about life like an adult at a very young age. And like you said, just sort of get on with it and make, you know, realize that, oh, I have to do these things now just to have, you know, the normal life that I maybe took for granted before, which is really strong. And I think, you know, I talked to a panel of, or sat on a panel for teen diabetics last year at a JDRF event. And I was so surprised that these young, you know, 12, 13 year olds who sounded like full grown adults and were very mature and like how they approached their every day and planning out their meals and exercise and you know talking to their parents about hypos and high blood sugars and um yeah I think it's it's very interesting I was diagnosed when I was 16 so I was a little bit older um yeah but you know I'm just I'm continually surprised and always look up to those young kids

[00:04:52] Georgia Thomson: who make those big grown-up decisions right from day one yeah so um I think I don't I don't remember not having diabetes and I personally when somebody says to me and like for example you would like you said you were diagnosed when you were 16 I actually consider myself very lucky to have been diagnosed when I was young because I can't imagine being a teenager and having to completely change my lifestyle to fit in diabetes when you're already going through such a difficult time and growing up and you know figuring out who you are and stuff like that and so I'm actually quite grateful that I was diagnosed when I was young and that I don't remember a different way of living other than

[00:05:32] Rob Howe: with diabetes. You bring up a good point. I think it is a challenge. You know, there's, like you said, there's so many other changes going on and, you know, at, it's, it's hard to find the balance, right? Because on one, on one hand, your childhood sort of gets taken away a little bit from you, but then by that time you're stable and you understand what you have to do by the time you're starting to go through your, you know, puberty changes and as you're sort of becoming an adult which um always have some sort of you know interesting and high stress scenarios sometimes

[00:06:04] Georgia Thomson: yeah yeah exactly um i can i can remember um actually the night i was i went into hospital and the night i was diagnosed i was actually meant to go on a school trip to france and the following day and obviously i didn't go um but i can remember sitting in the hospital and um my nurse the nurse said to me don't worry in a few weeks you'll be an expert on this and I just thought oh no way there's no way I'm gonna know what I'm doing or you know I injected right from the start um I apparently I said to my dad I've seen you inject the cows dad I'm not letting you inject me

[00:06:44] Rob Howe: a little bit of trust had to be built up there that's pretty funny yeah

[00:06:48] Georgia Thomson: um so yeah it's uh yeah I did I did just just deal with it from the start obviously my parents you know being nine had had a lot of influence on it um but you know it's it's funny because when I when I got to sort of I don't know 15 16 maybe um I just started resenting my diabetes I absolutely hated the fact I had it I did everything I could to pretend that I didn't have it um I mean I remember going weeks without doing my blood sugar and my diary would just be completely made up you know and I'd go to the hospital and they say well your diary doesn't match your HbA1c Georgia what's going on and I'm just like oh I don't know I don't know what's going on and just doing anything I could to pretend I didn't have it um you know that that does eventually catch up with you and so yeah I think that you know you you go through rough patches with it and and I think that's that's that's why so I I will I'll openly admit that I've probably only come to terms with my diabetes in the last two three years um and now I fully embrace it and actually have have made an effort to learn everything I can about it, learn everything I can about how training affects diabetes, what's the best way to go about managing it, things like that. And now I live a very normal, healthy life. I broke my hip five months ago, so that hasn't been brilliant. But apart from that,

[00:08:26] Rob Howe: I want to talk about, first of all, how did you break your hip? That sounds super painful, and I'm very sorry to hear that.

[00:08:38] Georgia Thomson: I was on a fitness holiday in Spain and I fell off some monkey bars and yeah, it fractured. But I got up and carried, we were doing an assault course, I got up and carried on and then it broke a week later. So yeah, my fitness has kind of been on the back burner for about five months but I'm just getting back in the gym and now lifting weights again. So it's on the mend, The physio is going well.

[00:09:06] Rob Howe: Good. Well, glad to hear that.

[00:09:08] Georgia Thomson: Thanks.

[00:09:09] Rob Howe: I do want to talk about, for a minute, you said you really only come to terms with accepting your diabetes and being comfortable talking about it in the last two years or so. What changed for you? What made that, propelled that shift?

[00:09:26] Georgia Thomson: um I think that so I when I went to uni um when I was well actually no it started before then but I went traveling after I did my a level so when I was 18 um came I mean that was um a massive achievement for me with diabetes I went away to South America for three months um but when I came home I'd put on a lot of weight and um just was really miserable with myself and eventually started um skipping my insulin so I suffered with diabulimia for about six seven months um and then went to uni and it kind of just continued and within the space of sort of two three years I'd just become this very unwell um person who found everything even just daily activities very difficult and I guess it just came down to really me having a good chat with myself and saying look something something needs to change that you can't you can't carry on like this um and that was it that was it really um there were some some points during well when i when i eventually told my parents about the fact i've been skipping my insulin um the the mum took me to the doctors and the doctor said look i'm surprised your daughter's still alive and i think that you know when you hear that if that doesn't give you the kick up they ask you need to sort your life out then I don't know I don't know what will well and I think that's that's a difficult

[00:11:03] Rob Howe: conversation to have right uh to you know to tell your parents and and say hey you know I really haven't been taking care of myself um but now um you know I'm really ready to do so um how did they

[00:11:15] Georgia Thomson: respond what was their reaction um first of all anger um they couldn't believe that I'd been so stupid and you know realistically I couldn't believe I'd been so stupid either but then I think that um you know once once they'd gotten over the anger they were just incredibly worried and wanted to do everything they could to make me well again um and you know i would i wouldn't have been able to to to overcome it without without the help of my family and and actually i didn't tell my mum and dad directly i actually told my sister um and bless her she i said i remember i will never forget i'll never forgive myself because i said i told my sister what was happening and I said to her don't tell mum and dad and I cannot believe I ever said that to her and blessed to her credit she told she was living about an hour and a half away from me at the time and she told her employer um and he told my mum and dad um yeah so it was it was difficult it was really difficult and I told you know it all came out the one week I went to see the doctor that night said that things were going to change and a week later I was still doing I was still doing it it was it had gotten to a point where I felt or in my head I was injecting fat I wasn't injecting insulin I was just injecting fat um so the psychological aspect of it took it took a massive amount of effort and perseverance I guess to to get it right in my head again um But yeah, I got there eventually.

[00:12:51] Rob Howe: Yeah, and I think that's something that we don't talk enough about in terms of diabetes being a lifelong journey, right? So it's not one day. It's not one test. It's not one injection. It's every day over a long period of time. I mean, even like you said, hemoglobin A1C is a three-month average, and that's the small snapshot. So, you know, you look at it as a sort of very big perspective and, you know, how every day influences that and like the habits that you build obviously, you know, play into a part of that.

[00:13:28] Georgia Thomson: massively I think that you know you can't you can't take a day off from managing your diabetes but I think that I think that the best way to go about it is if you just form habits and eventually it becomes a routine and then you don't really notice like if you said to me now how does diabetes impact your everyday life and I'd really have to think about how it does because test my blood sugar and factoring in what carbs i'm eating what i'm doing in the next two hours whether i'm going to go and train or not or whether um you know i can afford to to not give myself some insulin because i'm going to go and do something energetic you know stuff like that it's just it's just normal for me now and i think that that comes just with a bit of consistency um and willpower, but it is worth the effort. It's your health at the end of the day.

[00:14:27] Rob Howe: It is, right? And if you don't have that, the saying goes, what do you have, right? Exactly. So you talked about habits. So you're at that moment, your parents now have found out, you go to the doctor, and like you said, a week later, you're still sort of in the same place. What habits did you start to take on that took you from where you were at that place to where you are today as Georgia the Fit Diabetic?

[00:14:57] Georgia Thomson: So to start with, it was just small steps. I mean, even as small as just testing my blood sugar. I hadn't tested my blood sugar probably for about, I don't know, five, six months. So just doing that was a massive step for me. But with something like that, it's because it's so overwhelming, you have to start small. It's like with getting over anything, isn't it? You take small baby steps and eventually it leads into the bigger picture of recovering from whatever you've been through. But yeah, so I started off small and then eventually it was just making healthy choices in terms of what I was eating. um going to the gym um and I think that the the key to it all was just consistency um so consistently checking my blood sugar consistently taking my insulin um but you you need the support around you to do that um you know it wasn't it wasn't a straightforward recovery it was ups and downs but I think that um I'm the kind of person that when I've got something in my head and I want to do it, it's, it's a hundred percent, 110% or, or nothing at all. Um, and so once I had my head focused on, on getting better and, and actually, um, doing something with my life, that, that was it. Um, that's what I was going to do. So, and, and now that's sort of led

[00:16:34] Rob Howe: you down the path where that's brought you to today. Um, so tell us a little bit about what you're doing today for, you know, as the Fit Diabetic, which you guys can follow her on Instagram at the Fit Diabetic. Talk about, you know, the journey of educating type 1 diabetics on fitness, because the question that I get a lot or I hear a lot, you know, in community discussions is that exercise is the most challenging part of managing their day-to-day diabetes, because their blood sugars vary, their energy levels go up and down. And, you know, like you said, they find it hard to maintain those baby steps going forward and finding that they put a lot of work in and maybe don't see the results immediately. Talk about the conversations that you have with other diabetics and kind of what you're doing to help them out.

[00:17:25] Georgia Thomson: Okay. so um i think that when it yeah it is difficult to to manage your sugars around exercise of course it is but what i find is that so much of of managing diabetes you're managing your diabetes is unfortunately a lot of trial and error you've just got to do something and if it doesn't work you know it doesn't work then you do something different the next time um and eventually you get to know your body you get to know what works best for you um like and it changes so i i used to um i've been on an insulin pump now for four and a half years and i used to put a temporary basal on to go and train um and that worked two years ago but it doesn't work anymore i go too high so now i just leave a normal basal on but that's just something that that you evolve with as you go forward. And so I think that a lot of the conversations I've had with people about training with diabetes is that they're scared of training or they're scared of doing anything physical in case they have a hypo. And or they find it difficult to lose weight with diabetes. And, you know, I've been there. I know that it's tricky. but I think that the answer is actually quite simple if you if you're if your diet is is on point um and you you're moving a little bit every day then then you you'll you'll lose weight um you've just got to like I said keep consistent with checking your blood sugars make sure make make sure your blood sugars are what they're meant to be so you're not taking on a lot of insulin to to correct your blood sugars and bring it down to a normal level um you know if if you can handle low a lower carb diet and a higher fat diet as a diabetic then go for it equally if that gives you hypos which i tend to find does as i get into so i've only been back training for about four or five weeks now but from my experience last year when I when I was um back fully training properly um was that after sort of seven seven seven eight weeks um I was having way more hypos on a low carb diet and so I just had to change it I just had to up my carbs um it's a lot of it is experience but a lot of it is just listening to your body and just going with it and you can't expect results overnight you've got to stay consistent with it I know I keep saying the word consistent but it is it is the key to so many things um and yeah you just gotta you've just gotta be patient and trust the process and learn as you go um and not be afraid I know that you know that like I used to love skiing and I stopped skiing for a long time because I was terrified of having a hypo on the slopes but you can be prepared for that um and you know you diabetes does give you signs that something is happening um and you can you can react to it so it's yeah so it is a little bit

[00:20:50] Rob Howe: of bravery but um just stick with it well and i think so much of first of all continue to say consistency as much as you want because that is it's the key to like you said so many things and And I think that as a culture, we're so used to instant gratification because we have everything at our fingertips. And the reality is that difficult things take time and consistency. And we don't give ourselves enough props for incremental progress, just for moving just an inch forward.

[00:21:26] Georgia Thomson: Yeah, exactly.

[00:21:27] Rob Howe: And I think with diabetes specifically, you know, so often, like you said, either whether you're going skiing or you're going to the gym, it's often just one extra step that you have to take to get ready. And just even if it's just spending five minutes thinking about, OK, well, the last few times I went, this is what happened or giving an extra test or putting an extra putting a Gatorade or something in your gym bag so that you can treat a hypo, whatever the case may be. Exactly.

[00:21:55] Georgia Thomson: I mean, I used to test halfway through my workout so I could figure out what my sugars were doing during my session. And yeah, it means that you have to stop halfway through and take five minutes out. But what's five minutes? You know, that's just something I needed to do to gain a better understanding of what my sugars were doing and how to best deal with them.

[00:22:22] Rob Howe: Well, and I think it's something that a lot of diabetics maybe are afraid to ask and they don't know who to turn to for those types of questions because your average personal trainer at a local gym may not be familiar with how to train a type 1 diabetic person or how to help them prepare for a session. um just just real quick get what are your give us like three you know three things from from georgia the fit diabetic that you would recommend for a type 1 who maybe is starting their fitness journey or um you know is learning a little bit more about how their body responds to working out

[00:23:00] Georgia Thomson: um so i would say to start with take it slow don't don't jump in at the deep end um if you are a non-diabetic and just starting off on a fitness journey then yeah great you can because your body regulates itself but as a diabetic you can't um so so take it slow um start off with maybe just doing half an hour of you know of exercise for the first month um and see how you go from there um i would also say that um diet is is massively important if you're if you're starting off in fitness um whether it's to gain muscle whether it's to lose fat whether it's to maintain whatever you're doing um you need to get your diet right and with diet and clean eating i'm a big believer in clean eating i don't really eat that much processed foods um unless it's a protein bar um comes better sugar control because you know they just go hand in hand um so yeah i would definitely suggest that that you look at your diet first and foremost um and you know like i said before don't expect miracles overnight um you are gonna fail but you know you've just got to get up and try again try something new and keep going because the results will be worth it and I think that like I always feel quite sad I think is the right word I'm not sure if sad's the right word but when I hear diabetics saying to me I don't do this because of my diabetes um yeah it's um it makes me want to say no that's not that's not true you can do it you can do it um and that's kind of what i want to to kind of relay to people is that as a diabetic you can do whatever you want to do you can be whatever you want to be just because you have diabetes doesn't put a restriction on your life um yeah it makes it maybe a tiny bit more difficult But, you know, I went trekking in the Patagonia National Park for 10 days and they had to helicopter in glucose tablets for me because I was having so many hypos and I'd just run out of sugar. I didn't have anything left. And that was, you know, that was challenging. But if you have the willpower, I guess, and the commitment to do it, then you can. um diabetes doesn't have to hold you back you can do it a hundred percent agree um and i think you

[00:25:53] Rob Howe: know that's a big part of what we're trying to do with diabetics doing things is just to tell those stories and um you know somebody somebody may hear that and it may resonate with them for the first time so um you know really glad and really powerful words there all right i want to shift gears a little bit and ask some uh some just quick questions for you and uh and just kind to do some rapid fire answers. So you've got your gym bag, right? You're going to the gym. What are some things that are in your gym bag as a type 1 diabetic that are always there

[00:26:23] Georgia Thomson: that are a little bit different? Glucose tablets. Glucose tablets are a mess. And always my blood testing kit. And also when I go to the gym, I've also got a spare insulin set change in case, just in case I knock it out or something. So, yeah.

[00:26:45] Rob Howe: All right. We've already heard your hypo story on a pony and now also in the Patagonia Mountains. Do you have any other crazy hypo or low or high blood sugar stories?

[00:26:57] Georgia Thomson: Yeah. So I actually went skiing to Canada back in 2009. and after a day and a half of skiing I went into DKA and woke up three days later in a hospital in the ICU unit in Calgary and I was skiing in Banff so I'd been ambulanced over to Calgary because they didn't have an intensive care unit in Banff hospital and I'd just been in a coma for three days. Um, so that's probably the worst, um, high blood sugar I've ever had. I mean, there are, there are times where I've gone a bit loopy and people can't understand what I'm saying or what I'm doing, but yeah, that's definitely the worst high I've ever had. Yeah. I suppose

[00:27:42] Rob Howe: anytime you're, uh, you end up in Banff, I guess, or, you know, get taken out of there. That's always a tough scenario. Let's talk about being a diabetic in terms of how is the discipline with testing your blood sugar and giving yourself insulin and watching what you eat, counting your carbs, how has that made you better in other areas of your life?

[00:28:12] Georgia Thomson: um in well yeah i don't really think you can put um i don't really think you can measure how how how much it has improved every other area of my life because it it's i think it all goes hand in hand i don't think you can say because i'm eating clean and counting my carbs and and everything my diabetes is is under good control and I don't think you can say the other way around either it just all comes together um so you know it's and I'm but equally I'm not saying that to have good diabetes you control you have to to diet and and and go to the gym as much as like I love training I love going to the gym and I quite happily go five six days a week but I appreciate that I'm that's not really the norm um but equally I think that for somebody who's living with diabetes um just in a normal you know normal day-to-day life then um counting carbs and and looking at what you eat um is just going to be hugely beneficial and and you know it sounds it sounds um like a bit of a hassle or maybe a bit a bit boring having to count your carbs and everything but that's why you use things like my fitness pal like they're so easy to use and they're just the carbs are all there for me i haven't got i haven't really got to count anything i just input what i'm eating um so yeah you know just with like with any other person there's little um little things to help you along the way that make it a lot easier

[00:29:51] Rob Howe: definitely and i think uh you know now today especially there's so many resources available um and you know just all we have to do is use them yeah yeah um let's i would also say that

[00:30:03] Georgia Thomson: sorry i would also say that one of one of my biggest resources and i think that um probably people don't use it as much as they should is actually my my doctor my diabetes doctor she's and and my dietician they're fantastic and whenever i've got a problem that i can't really figure out um i'll give them a ring i'll tell them what i've tried and they'll either give me a suggestion over the phone or i'll make an appointment to go and see them and i appreciate it's different in america because obviously i get all of my health care for free um but but yeah i think way to way to rub it in sorry um i think that quite often um especially when i had bad control of my diabetes my doctor was the last person i wanted to see because i thought oh you know i haven't done very well and i know what i'm doing wrong but actually that was probably the most important time when i should have been knocking on her door and saying look i need help. But yeah, I think it's a resource that's massively underused and underestimated. So yeah, people should use the help that they've got out there.

[00:31:20] Rob Howe: All right, last question. If you were going to give one piece of advice, or you could say one thing to someone who was struggling the way that you sort of struggle with accepting your diabetes, or was recently diagnosed, what would you tell them?

[00:31:39] Georgia Thomson: I'm going to say it again. I'm going to say be consistent. Be consistent. Yeah, be consistent with testing your blood sugars. Be consistent with giving the correct carb doses, correcting your blood sugars if they're too high. and also I think that you I mean there are days when I've just thought you know I can't do this anymore I just I just can't and everyone's going to have them but that's when you need to pull in your resources from your friends and family I mean I'm very very lucky that my friends and family are are incredibly supportive and accepting and do you know what they don't necessarily understand my diabetes they don't necessarily understand what I go through on a day-to-day basis but they are there to talk to when I need someone to talk to about it um and I think that you do need especially when you're when you're first diagnosed you need the support you can't go you can't do it on your own um so that that's what i would say you've just you've just got to you've got to develop perseverance and resilience with it um and you can't really do that without the support of your friends and family um so yeah that's what i would say

[00:33:10] Rob Howe: no thank you and i think uh you know really powerful words and um i think i'm sure hopefully they'll be able to, someone will be listening and they'll resonate with them really hard and really strong. I hope so. All right. Well, thank you so much for, uh, for coming on the show today and telling your story. Um, it's really great to meet you and, um, you know, finally kind of have a real conversation. Um, where can our listeners connect with you online if they have more questions

[00:33:39] Georgia Thomson: or just want to follow you on your journey? Um, well, firstly, thank you very much for having me. I really enjoyed it so yeah I'm on Instagram thefitdiabetic there's no E in the because there was already a fit diabetic but I'm also on Facebook or Twitter as well so yeah

[00:34:02] Rob Howe: fantastic thank you so much Georgia and we will talk to you again soon

[00:34:06] Georgia Thomson: thank you thanks a lot

[00:34:08] Rob Howe: thanks for listening to Diabetics Doing Things subscribe to our newsletter for weekly emails and behind the scenes content. And if you or someone you know has an amazing story to share, send an email to rob at diabeticsdoingthings.com.