Diabetics Doing Bikini Competitions 2 with Courtney Lillich

[00:00:00] Rob Howe: Welcome back to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast, where we're telling the amazing, untold, wacky, weird, and inspiring stories of type 1 diabetics from across the world. I'm your host, Rob Howe, and I wanted to let you know that we now have over 500 years of living with T1D on the podcast, and we're on track to be over 1,000 by the end of the summer, which is pretty exciting. I also wanted to chat about my new email series, Friday T1D Feels, where I send you a personal note, no fancy graphics or anything like that, about what I've been thinking about in the world of type 1 diabetes during that week. If you're into that, just go to diabeticsdoingthings.com and sign up. I'd also like to take a minute to talk about hashtag coverage to control. JDRF is raising awareness around the fact that most of us don't get to pick the insulin pumps we have, just the ones our insurance will cover. Just imagine if your cell phone was like that. Except this isn't a phone, it's what keeps us alive. So let your voice be heard and tell your insurance company that T1Ds and their doctors should decide what kind of pumps they use, not the companies. I'm looking at you, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield. Let's get this right. Okay, enough chatter. Let's get back to the episode. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. We are telling the amazing stories from type 1 diabetics all over the world. And I'm very excited for my special guest today, Courtney Lillich, calling from California. Courtney, how are you?

[00:01:29] Courtney Lillich: Good, thanks.

[00:01:30] Rob Howe: And I'm really excited we were able to get this on the books relatively quickly as well, which isn't always the case with me. So I'm really, it's been relatively pain-free so far.

[00:01:42] Courtney Lillich: Yeah.

[00:01:43] Rob Howe: And I apologize for stuttering. I'm like loaded up on caffeine this afternoon. I was running errands, very productive today. So it's a Sunday. That's how it goes, isn't it? So Courtney, why don't you give everybody a little bit of a background on you and your sort of T1D journey and how you ultimately ended up being on

[00:02:01] Courtney Lillich: this show? Well, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was about three and right now I'm 34 now. So I don't really know anything else other than having type 1 diabetes. So I've been through the whole journey of ups and downs and insulin, pricking myself. My parents were chasing me around to do injections. And now I'm on an insulin pump, so I have that. And then I've always been active my entire life. I come from a family of seven siblings. So luckily, even though I have the diabetes, I've been able to love working out. And I do bodybuilding under the bikini division. So that's currently what takes up most of my time. I'm also a physical therapist. So I have a lot of – somehow, I don't know if it's because of the diabetes, But somehow I've just kind of gotten into the health, the health occupation, loving working out and doing everything with health related kind of things.

[00:03:15] Rob Howe: It's kind of interesting how that works, right? You just you get introduced to like, you know, taking care of yourself and health and wellness early on. And it sort of sticks.

[00:03:24] Courtney Lillich: Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's just because I was, you know, you all you remember when you get diagnosed that early is going to all your appointments, going to the children's hospital for your appointment. and seeing other people and being introduced to other people in the health field. So I don't know if that has something to do with it.

[00:03:41] Rob Howe: Yeah, I think you get more comfortable, especially, you know, from day one to, you know, day a thousand and beyond. Right. With like being around hospitals and like I used to be very not uncomfortable, but I didn't like being in hospitals. And now I feel like I whether through volunteering or for checkups or whatever the case is, I just feel more like, oh, yeah, this is just a place where all this happens.

[00:04:02] Courtney Lillich: Right. It's kind of just secondhand nature almost, which is sad, but it's what happens.

[00:04:09] Rob Howe: So let's go back a little bit to kind of growing up. And I know we talked a little bit about you having some stories. For parents of young type ones and when you're so, you know, three years old, you really don't do anything on your own at that point. No. What was it like for you and your family? You said you had a lot of siblings. And if you remember those conversations or, you know, as you guys get together and talk about those days, like what are the things that that you remember?

[00:04:39] Courtney Lillich: Well, I remember my my parents chasing me around with the needles because way back then, you know, they didn't have an insulin pump or anything like that. So it was the daily injections and, you know, four or five, six year old ones injections. and I just remember being chased around and trying to hide from them and I'm sure that definitely wasn't easy on them but I'm also a twin so my twin sister didn't have to do this stuff and I you know I wouldn't understand you know why do I have to do this but she doesn't and then you know there's always a there always felt like there's a bazillion siblings around at the same time and I was the only one having to get the injections but I'm sure that was difficult for them but But I remember my mom meeting me, even as far back in kindergarten, meeting me at the flagpole every single day. She'd come to the flagpole at my school and test my blood sugar and then adjust accordingly. I'd always have to have my twin sister in any class I had. We'd always organize it every single grade. Something funny is we had the birth date where you could start kindergarten early or a little bit late. So we started it early, and they wanted me to go forward the grade to graduate from kindergarten, but they wanted to hold back my sister just because she wasn't ready to go. She's going to kill me for saying this.

[00:06:07] Rob Howe: This is like twin revenge for your life. Yes.

[00:06:11] Courtney Lillich: So my mom, they didn't want to separate us. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no. Her twin needs to be around and be by her. She's diabetic. She needs to have someone around that knows what's going on. or can help her and so I ended up staying back and and we took kindergarten for two years so that was kind of a funny funny story but um the biggest thing that we always joke about from my twin sister and I is we thought when I got diagnosed that my mom would tell us we thought it was my sister's fault because like the day before or something she had bit my arm and made a bite mark in it and then all of a sudden I was in the hospital so it was it's just like a family thing story going on all these years like Gillian it was the one that gave me diabetes because she bit me the day before and we got in a fight over it and so that was kind of a funny

[00:07:07] Rob Howe: thing that's funny like you can always have those like family inside jokes about you know diagnosis days and like downplay those sort of stressful like impact right it's so stressful for the parents

[00:07:18] Courtney Lillich: And I'm sure for my family, I mean, if you ask my mom or my brothers and sisters, they'll remember, like, if my blood sugar was high, they'd have me run up and down the stairs. My mom or dad would sit there and just have me run up and down the stairs to be one of the ways to try to get my blood sugar down. And that's some of the things they remember. or we had this family, this old family van. And if my blood sugar was high, they'd have me running just like back and forth in the van while they were driving. It was just funny stuff like that. Now it's funny.

[00:07:54] Rob Howe: Right. You know, then it's sort of like, and even for them, I'm sure, they're just as stressful or like, oh no, what are we going to do now? Yeah. And especially with the way that technology has come, like early on, there was really, you know, it was insulin injections and a meter that took forever to read or like keto sticks or something to test your blood sugar, right? So for parents then, like that was, you know, that was sort of the best it got, right? You gave yourself a shot and then you had run up and down the stairs and hope that it comes down.

[00:08:26] Courtney Lillich: Well, I can't even imagine how hard it is for parents, like trying to get like a 10-year-old at a birthday party not to eat the cake or as much of the cake because, you know, it's going to affect their blood sugar. Like a 10 year old doesn't care about that. You know, I, uh, I recently was

[00:08:46] Rob Howe: volunteering with JDRF at a children's hospital here in Dallas. And, uh, there was a kid in there who, I guess he was like 16 and we, I go and I volunteer at the end of diabetes one Oh one, which is what the class they give to parents and kids shortly after diagnosis. And there was a family in there where I think the kid was probably going into high school and he had been diagnosed very young as well. So it was sort of a refresher, like as he goes to start doing more things on his own. Uh, but they were telling stories about how, uh, he would, they would make him take the cake home from the birthday party and eat it later because so that he, because he was always running around up and down, like munching on snacks and they were like, yeah, okay, go do that. But, uh, you're gonna have to eat the cake later so he was always like he would see his friend just smashing cake around him and he would always have to keep it later i felt like different rules but

[00:09:39] Courtney Lillich: luckily i you know i had i always bring her like my twin sister again she my parents wouldn't let me go spend the night at people's houses usually unless my twin sister was there like you know i'm sure it wasn't fun for her to go to someone's house that she you know wasn't friends with and And, oh, I got to go because of my sister. But she's taking good care of me. Even in, like, high school, we went, because we both played basketball, we went to this basketball camp. And, you know, basketball camps, you're just going all day long, all day long just up and down the court and burning a lot of energy. And that's intense for a diabetic. And I guess my blood sugar just plummeted in the middle of the night. Like, I wasn't even waking up. and she had to run down this like college dorm room and get a Snickers somewhere and like shove it down my throat and it's like it's those kind of scary things that make you thankful for having that twin sister right next to you for most of your life when sometimes it's like oh why can't I be by myself and but so you always look at the positive kind of things for having all your

[00:10:44] Rob Howe: siblings yeah it's kind of like you know even though she wasn't going through those same things she kind of knew what to look for. It's that like twin intuition. And you bring up a good point about like camp sport camps, especially for kids. Cause, uh, I was a very active and very competitive basketball player, but I was diagnosed when I was 16. So I had a little bit more experience, uh, you know, kind of going and doing those things on my own already. Um, but then, you know, you go all day exercise is one of the sort of unsolvable puzzles for a lot of type ones because you know you either are going through a situation where you're doing like a long endurance type exercise or like a run or you're doing like a high intensity where you know your blood sugar spikes so i mean even even as kids um you know it's super important to try to monitor that and i remember like always when i would get to a camp i would have to like figure out where the gatorade was so that i could keep myself sort of in balance for the rest of the day just in case because even though I didn't have a pump at the time, I was running on like Lantus, I think. So like a long basal, long acting. And that would, you know, after a long day of, you know, running around and playing, like, you know, you sit down at night, crash,

[00:12:03] Courtney Lillich: and then you go low in the night. Right. And that, well, it's so much more pre-planning than, than I guess the non-diabetics, they, they, they're not going to know how much pre-planning and post planning or or mid planning for like a sports activity how much it takes like before I go to the gym because I'm working out about three and a half four hours a day from because I have a competition coming up and I'm working out three and a half four hours a day and it's like I have to constantly like pre-plan like okay I have my sugar tablets okay do I have enough um blood sugar tabs to do to to test myself because I may have to test myself five times within the next hour and a half two hours it's just all this planning but if you don't plan it's it's a lot harder if

[00:12:51] Rob Howe: you don't plan I guess and think it is and I think uh the other day I was sort of this is sort of a hot topic for me because uh I stayed later at work than I was planning on uh but I was planning on going to the gym and playing just some open gym basketball last week and I tested before I left the house and I was like uh 70 so I drank a little bit of juice and I like went up to the gym and so I'm thinking you know I think I'm gonna be okay but I didn't know that uh I don't have a CGM so I didn't know what direction my blood sugar was heading but apparently it was heading down so about five minutes into the first game I could just I felt sluggish and lethargic um and so I had to you know after the game was over I had to go you know treat it go go upstairs to a little like concession stand at the gym and get like a sweet drink and then you know 20 minutes later I was fine but I was like you know what like I had this all planned I only had a short window where I was going to go work out and now it's sort of like ruined. So, uh, that, that is exactly what

[00:13:47] Courtney Lillich: I'm going. Cause I don't have a CGM either. I just don't, I feel like the insulin pump for me, the insulin pump is enough things being attached to me. So it's just, that's exactly what happened to me the other day. And it's like, even if you do the pre-planning, sometimes you, it just doesn't work out. But as far as like my, cause I'm on such a strict diet, it kind of it's kind of it makes it kind of turn into a bad day a little bit because you do all this planning you're on point with your workouts you've done great with your meals your your blood sugars have been pretty good and then it crashes or goes up way high and if you have to eat something you're like oh that wasn't i'm not supposed to eat that today well and and you bring

[00:14:30] Rob Howe: up a great point and i and i want to focus on this um because i think it's really important for or people who are either trying bodybuilding or are really training hard for something, whatever it is, either a race or a competition or to make their high school basketball team or whatever. So as you're training for these competitions, especially in the time frame that you're in right now, it's pretty strict, like you said, what you eat. So in a case of going and having a hypo or going low at the gym or at night or whatever the case may be, how do you how do you balance that with even though you have to eat something like eating

[00:15:09] Courtney Lillich: something that's not going to kind of throw off your plan well i i i have a coach that he's obviously all about i mean i'm not gonna let my i'm i'm not gonna put my health like in that much jeopardy where i'm just not gonna if my if my blood sugar is like 45 and i still have to do another 30 minutes of running obviously i'm gonna get off the treadmill and eat eat some sugar tablets or something right but it's just it's it's more mentally like dang it you know those sugar tablets have a lot of calories in them for a reason because they're full of sugar and it's like oh now I have to do more cardio or I feel like I have to do more cardio even though my coach is like don't worry you're fine it's still the whole like mental aspect of like okay well I'm gonna have to make up for it somewhere else and but I think that's just bodybuilding because if it was like basketball and you get low, yeah, you can just go off and eat, you know, correct for the low that you have and then get right back to playing again. But with the bodybuilding stuff, it's so strict that anything extra that you go off the plan with is hard.

[00:16:19] Rob Howe: Right. So it sort of like compounds the, you know, even if you wouldn't feel bad about correcting the low normally, you know, you're kind of throwing a wrench in your plan. Yes. Because perfectionism is so much of a part of that.

[00:16:33] Courtney Lillich: Yeah. And people are like, why? It's not that big of a deal. I'm like, unless they do that kind of thing. And I'm like, yes, yes, it is.

[00:16:42] Rob Howe: Right.

[00:16:42] Courtney Lillich: But that's why I think maybe that's maybe one of the reasons you don't. I haven't actually met in person like another diabetic that does this kind of thing. So I'm kind of going off. That's why Phil Graham, when he introduced himself on Instagram to me, I was just like, this is amazing. And then I read his book and I'm like getting tips from him on that. And so it was just – it was like a breath of fresh air to finally see other people that do the bodybuilding kind of thing that are diabetics because I just – it's just not common.

[00:17:16] Rob Howe: It's not. And I think that feeling, not necessarily associated with bodybuilding, but like the feeling of being alone or that there's nobody else out there like you is common sometimes. And I think as we go through and myself, I always talk about since I started being more open and more involved in the diabetic community, like my actual like health numbers, like my A1C has improved. And really, like, I haven't changed my lifestyle that much. And so it's very interesting just, like, knowing that there are other people out there that are testing their blood sugars six, seven times a day and making corrections. And, like, that it's okay if you have a high after a workout. Like, when I talk to people about, like, trying to plan for workouts and it not going well, like, I identify with that so much. just because, you know, I always beat myself up to try it because I like my teammates or, you know, my, my anybody that I was working out with, like doesn't have diabetes. So they could, they could handle like a crazy day of conditioning or a really long practice. But sometimes like if I wasn't totally prepared for every little thing that was coming up, I would have to go sit out for 15 minutes and drink a Gatorade or give myself some insulin and run around a little bit. And, you know, that's just, I don't know. It was really hard for me when I thought that I was by myself.

[00:18:40] Courtney Lillich: Yeah, it's very, you know, I feel, yeah, exactly. You just feel so alone. Like, no one understands. You can't really talk to someone that's not going through it about it. And it's more frustrating, I guess, sometimes where, like, why am I doing this? but I'm like I play since I used to play basketball I'm just competitive like that's just I need something to look forward to a competition of some kind like I I do boxing I do um the mud the Spartan mud run things too I just need something to look forward to a goal because I'm all about the goals that I'm working towards so sometimes it's just frustrating when there's no one else that knows what you're going through or you feel like there's no one else that knows.

[00:19:27] Rob Howe: Well, and I think you hit on a couple of really good points. Like I talked to a lot of diabetics, which is great and fantastic. So many of us are type A. I don't know if it comes from like managing your own health and like numbers and really striving for, you know, that really great number. But, you know, there's so much of it. And I think it's frustrating because like this is the one thing that we can't win. you know there's no like yes there's no finish line right so it's just like so that is so funny

[00:19:57] Courtney Lillich: you said that because this morning i was thinking that exact thing i'm like i am totally type a like i have everything planned out down to like the minute like i have no i don't have a lot of extra time with all the training lately but it's like people know i get anxious if things don't go my way as far as like time, time management. If something changes in my plan, I like lose it. So it's very type A kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That actually reminded me you were talking,

[00:20:29] Rob Howe: uh, I had a coach, I guess it was after my freshman year of college. I like went to college with all these expectations that I was going to like do really well. And I had a like pretty rough year, my first year. And so I went and was training at this place. And at the end of this like long summer of a lot of training and like I had really improved a whole lot and my confidence was really high uh the head guy the program in my like exit interview was like okay what are you gonna do when something doesn't go according to your plan and I was like 19 years old so I was like oh I'm just gonna keep working harder keep working harder blah blah and and I meant that but at the same time like that that's what I think diabetes having diabetes has taught me the most is that you can plan ahead all you want and feel like you're super prepared, but you know, something weird could happen. Like, you know, you might be leaning up against a chair and your pump just, you know, bolus, you know, a bunch of insulin into you, you know, or come disconnected. I've been seeing a lot of like broke or, uh, bent cannulas on people's like insertion sites on pumps on Instagram recently. And like, you know, all of the highs that come along with that and it's just like this thing that you cannot control even though you like take all the right steps like sometimes there's still these crazy variables yeah i always feel like

[00:21:47] Courtney Lillich: like if i if i travel people are like well do you bring a carry-on i'm like yeah the one thing i have on my carry-on is extra diabetes supplies because i i could care less if i lose all my clothing and all my makeup and shoes and all that stuff as long as i have my diabetes stuff it's you know it's it's gonna be safer for me but yeah when i get when i get really low in the body fat towards my closer to my competition it's like i never know i can never plan on there's certain days where the the insulin pump will work just great and then it'll work for the right amount of time and then there's some days where it's like it's only been in for a day and all of a sudden my blood sugar shoot up and as soon as I change the site it's different so I could never plan you know where what works the best and what doesn't so as far as the bodybuilding stuff goes it's it's I'm totally learning every single day what how I can try to do better more of the rhythm and schedule as far as diabetes and the intense training I've also learned something new about like how blood sugars go up or down depending on what type of exercise. Like I never knew about that five years ago. I didn't know about that, but since I've been doing more research and trying to figure out, you know, some days I'll do a ton of cardio. Some days I'll do really high, you know, the HIIT training, the high intensity training, or some days it's just regular lifting weights. I mean, it just depends. And then, but then that also affects your blood sugar. And I'm like, okay, great for me. That's just something extra. Right. Yeah. Um, how, how do you respond

[00:23:32] Rob Howe: to the different types of exercise? Cause I know some people are different. Um, so as you're, you know, looking out and breaking out your regimen and workouts for the week, and you're talking about either doing cardio or weights or high intensity intervals, you know, what do you, how do you prepare for those individual things as a type 1? Well, as far as the,

[00:23:52] Courtney Lillich: like the sprints and the high intensity stuff i've noticed this is just what i've noticed i mean again there's always those days that just don't follow any kind of structure um if it's like more of a high intensity stuff plyos and sprints and what else do we do boxing when i do high intensity boxing classes um it tends to it tends to go up afterwards or or it starts to incline you know i've change my insulin pump so that it adjusts to that a little bit giving me more or less for the basal but um yeah so the high intensity stuff I've noticed kind of shoots me up but then if it's just regular cardio like you know 40 50 minutes of cardio just regular amount it'll take like three or four hours later and then all of a sudden my blood sugar will go down and I'm like oh okay well the normal cardio lowers it the high intensity stuff shoots it up so well and and i think the

[00:24:53] Rob Howe: you know because i'm the same way so um a lot of it has to do with like stress right because it's stress on your body and like a shock to your body which is what i love about high intensity workouts like it's you get in you get in you get it done like you're tired you really feel like you've done something and then like i start to feel that like i don't know that weird tingle in the back of my mouth almost. I'm like, uh-oh, my blood sugar is high. And it almost ruins it. So it's like a weird, you know, I was telling somebody the other day, I woke up really early in the morning, I got a great workout in. And then immediately after, I had this crazy roller coaster of blood sugars for the next hour and a half. And I felt like, man, this day already feels ruined, even though I got this great workout. And then you're exhausted because it's like,

[00:25:39] Courtney Lillich: Like not exhausted from the workout, but you're exhausted from your body going through the up and down roller coaster of the high. At least that's how I feel.

[00:25:47] Rob Howe: Oh, I'm the same way. And I think like there's all that research when people talk about diet, about, you know, lowering your glycemic index and eating, you know, more fat, like the slow carb, whole 30, paleo type diets where, you know, you don't want those big spikes in your blood sugar because that doesn't promote like, you know, good energy for the full day. And I'm like, wow, like no wonder I'm so exhausted every time I have a big spike.

[00:26:11] Courtney Lillich: Yeah, I'm trying to there's certain days with my workouts because there's some work days that I have 10 hour work days. So that means I'm in the gym at like 4 a.m. from 4 a.m. to like 630 a.m. for the first part. Then I go to work for 10 hours. But then in the middle of my lunch, I finish my cardio. so it's so it's a really long day but i'm trying to work with my endocrinologist right now to figure out what i have to do because on those really long days where i work out really early in the morning no matter what kind of workout it is the second i get home my blood sugar just starts spiking for the next hour hour and a half two hours no matter even if i take the right amount of insulin so it's just it just depends on the day too like how much work i have or how little work I have or it's just yeah so it's definitely like I'm I'm always always always trying to learn and like my my fingers up my poor little fingers man I I must test like 10 times a day during the training stuff when things are so like crazy so yeah and I think it's it's just one of those

[00:27:20] Rob Howe: sort of realities that we have to just get comfortable with as type ones especially people who are trying to do kind of live outside the boundaries of like what normal people would consider, you know, to be fit or, and really trying to, to take ourselves to that next level and really push ourselves because there's just that extra piece. And I talk a lot about being a type 1 is a lot of like being a boy scout. Like you just got to be prepared for anything that comes and you got to add that extra step. But it's even more in focus when you're, when

[00:27:50] Courtney Lillich: you're kind of pushing yourself to that limit. Yeah. Cause yeah, that's, that's the whole point, taking your body out of the comfort zone. To make changes to your body, you have to be out of the comfort zone. None of this can be easy all the time. That also means it's not going to be easy for the diabetes.

[00:28:06] Rob Howe: Exactly. In that same kind of vein, I know specifically there's a few difficulties that type 1s have with, and these may not be 100% true, but I want to ask you about them. So number one, I think people talk about insulin as like a bodybuilding tool. So like, you know, as a quote unquote, like steroid, like protein, right? So do you experience it? Like because you're on insulin, are you able to, does that help your mass gaining or anything? Or what's your, been your experience?

[00:28:41] Courtney Lillich: Um, I don't, well, I don't, I'm going to say no, because like my, again, my twin sister, she is I'm more I gain muscle pretty easy and if like the rest of my family didn't and it was just me that looked all muscly I might say yeah maybe the insulin has a little bit to do with it but my twin sister she works out and she has plenty of muscle too but she doesn't have the you know she doesn't have the diabetes so I I'm gonna go with no and especially because I do the the bikini division so i have to look it's a softer look as well it's not um it's not like the the physique where it's just humongous muscles on women it's it's more of a softer look what i do so yeah i know i've actually read read articles on that too and i've always kind of wondered but i don't really have i am gonna go with the no i don't think insulin

[00:29:40] Rob Howe: yeah and i think it's one of those things where you know as people who are not diabetic try to experiment with things like insulin or like you know wearing cgms like i've been uh reading a lot about these like silicon valley guys that like are trying to be super super healthy and they all wear dexcoms and like they're yeah they're they're not even diabetic so they're like trying to keep their like the the standard deviation or the variance of their blood sugar like super super tight so they track it like all day long well i've never i haven't heard of that yet wow yeah it's kind of it's kind of crazy i was like wow like these guys really want to put this on them all day every day

[00:30:17] Courtney Lillich: to track all this fine good for them and i'm like the last thing i want to put on is my insulin pump

[00:30:23] Rob Howe: and they're like putting one on there yeah and what you mentioned earlier about not having a cgm is very similar to me i think i felt like especially when i was looking at a cgm i tested one out like five or six years ago and the technology wasn't that great back then but um i was like man i think one thing on my body is enough but yeah every single time i see a doctor

[00:30:45] Courtney Lillich: or if i see a new endocrinologist they always they always mention it oh do you want a cgm let's try cgm out and i'm like no no i just don't just you know it as a as a female it's like i already have to have this insulin pump hanging off of me you know how hard it is to wear a dress with an insulin

[00:31:04] Rob Howe: pump yeah actually uh i saw some somebody posted about some products today it's like a garter belt or like a garter on your leg or something that you can tuck your pump in i've tried it well actually

[00:31:16] Courtney Lillich: i tried that when i first got diagnosed or not diagnosed i tried it when i first got the insulin pump like 10 10 something years ago i'm like oh this little garter belt thing i can you know use

[00:31:27] Rob Howe: that it wouldn't even stay on my leg so yeah I feel like it's so tough and I and I know there's a lot of like really great type 1 uh female influencers who like they tuck them in their bra or they have like all these little hacks tips and tricks for like yeah um yeah I do the whole bra

[00:31:46] Courtney Lillich: trick too but um but actually my you know my family always oh did you see this new thing that they're working on and they're supposed to be doing this and this and research blah blah blah blah blah and I'm like all right all right whatever I'm like send me the link I'll look at it um I guess the Apple company is coming out with possibly having the iWatch read monitor like a

[00:32:06] Rob Howe: CGM kind of a thing yeah I've read that too of course like everybody sends me that link just like friends are like hey have you seen this yeah and I was like because I have I am obsessed

[00:32:17] Courtney Lillich: with my my iWatch or my Apple watch for workout stuff so I was like that would be awesome like I'd be interested in that.

[00:32:24] Rob Howe: Yeah, and I was always curious too of how it would work without having some insertion, but I'm open to it. If Apple says it works, it probably does, so I'm pretty excited about it.

[00:32:34] Courtney Lillich: Or at least by the second or third version.

[00:32:36] Rob Howe: Yeah, absolutely. You brought up a good point about just having one thing on you as it relates to fitness competitions as well because scar tissue is certainly an issue, especially with insulin pumps, and you know you have had type 1 for a long time so you know how do you how do you combat like scar tissue or you know you switch up your sites pretty regularly what what does that look like

[00:33:01] Courtney Lillich: yeah so every like you know like three three to four days um I'll switch the sites so it's you know the basic ones the stomach the hip and the thighs for me anyways so that's six different places but and I rotate them all but even with me rotating them all and you know switching as often as I do I'm starting to get like some scar tissue on one of my thighs and then when I get down to such low body weight because I get down to like eight nine percent you know it's more visible to me I don't it's not visible to anybody else but it's visible to me but then I've noticed The one thing I have problems with is my lower abdomen. It's where women carry more of their body fat. So mine kind of sticks around just a tiny, tiny bit. Again, no one thinks it's fat. But it's a little bit of scar tissue where I put my insulin pump over the past million years. And so what I've learned to do is when it gets closer to competition, I'll stop putting the insulin pump on my abdomen because then it seems to work plus the insulin pump works better if I stick to my thighs and my hips where I kind of maintain more of the body fat towards the end of my when I get closer to my competition because the abs just pop out and you just you really don't have any body fat there anymore so it doesn't like circulate the insulin as well either. So that's what I found. So I kind of stay away from using it towards the closer I get to a show and then I go right back to it afterwards. But yeah, I am starting to get like some scar tissue and some people have told me they stopped using the

[00:34:48] Rob Howe: insulin pump because they start forming scar tissue. Yeah. I've, I interviewed, um, a woman who's a bikini competitor, uh, and she uses pens, um, so that she can kind of, I think vary up where she injects as she gets closer to competition, because like you said, you can, you can switch up locations and it'll kind of reduce that inflammation. But you know, like you said, we, we have no, we use it for a long time. So it's going to build up some sort of scar tissue.

[00:35:16] Courtney Lillich: Yeah. It just, I wouldn't know. I've used, I've been on the insulin pump for so long that I'm like

[00:35:22] Rob Howe: nervous not to be on it. Oh yeah. I was thinking about, uh, like potentially getting off the other the day, like what that would take mentally for me. I was like, no way. This is way, this is a comfort zone. I don't feel like leaving. This is, this is right. Cause you have that baseline and

[00:35:36] Courtney Lillich: then the bowl is, and it's like, it, you know, it's like your second brain. It just like, you just type in numbers and it does it for you. And I'm like, eh, I don't, I don't remind you things.

[00:35:47] Rob Howe: And I'm like, I don't know about that. Yeah. I'm like, I can't handle that. Right. I can't break up with my insulin pump yet. Yeah. I'm, I'm there with you. I, it's, it's, I resisted it so much. when I was younger because I was like, oh, well, this is not cool. This is not sexy. Like nobody's going to think this is awesome. And then like the first week I had it, I was like, whoa, why did I wait so long for this? This is awesome.

[00:36:08] Courtney Lillich: Yeah, it took my doctors a while to finally convince me to do it. And I was like, oh, fine, let's do it. But, yeah, people are always like, you have a pager still? They still make pagers? And I'm like, no, it is not a pager.

[00:36:21] Rob Howe: Yeah, but it does look like one. And also this is just the, this is something I rant about frequently is like, I have this great iPhone, right. Um, that I can log onto the internet on a plane and get my email or get on Instagram, like 30,000 feet above sea level. And my, I'm like $10,000 insulin pump still has a Game Boy screen.

[00:36:44] Courtney Lillich: Yes. That's what I was telling someone. I'm like, cause I, cause they asked me that one of my patients at work, they asked me, why is it so, why is it so big? Like, why does it look like an old school pager? And I pulled out the little vial of insulin. I'm like, this is what it's covering. Like, this is the only thing I need out of this thing. And yeah, like they, and I use the iPhone too, for example, I'm like, you know how, I mean, the little chip that's in the iPhone, why can't they make a little chip and just the vial? And it could be like the size of a pen.

[00:37:14] Rob Howe: Like you're preaching to the choir here. Um, so sort of in that same vein, like, you know, there's so much technology. out there there's like new pumps like artificial pancreas kind of like closed loop systems coming out I really do believe it's the best time to be a type 1 if there ever was such a thing what are you what are you hopeful for you know now and in the next few years as it relates to sort of your type 1

[00:37:43] Courtney Lillich: as far as like technology

[00:37:44] Rob Howe: technology or anything really just in general research you know causes whatever the case is

[00:37:53] Courtney Lillich: I kind of I kind of rant about it all the time I just I hope like to my own patients that have like type 2 diabetes and I I really really really try to educate them like well first of all the difference between type 1 and type 2 but I want people to not take it for granted like don't just be like oh I have type 2 it's no big deal like I'll just take a pill or something and I and I I use myself as an example. I don't get that choice. I got this when I was so young. And so I try to educate people or my patients to try to be healthier. And I just want everybody to just try to stay away from at least the type 2 diabetes. I know we're talking about the type 1. But it's just being type 2. It always puts me on a soapbox when I ask someone. I'm like, why do you have type 2 diabetes? And then they just can't really tell me why. But I just hope people become more educated about it. And I know there's plenty of research going on, but it's one of the top killers, right? Yeah, absolutely it is.

[00:39:00] Rob Howe: And I think it's also one of the fastest growing, I think.

[00:39:04] Courtney Lillich: Yeah. And so I wish it would be up higher as far as what people are concerned with when it comes to like funding and research and again I know people are doing a great job at doing the research but I feel like I mean like obviously cancer and you know diabetes I feel needs to be up there a little bit higher because it's such a high fatality rate with that but I'm really excited I don't really get too excited when like we were talking about earlier when my family like send me some links or my friends tell me about stuff that they heard about that sounded really cool and promising i'm like oh that's great that's great i'll wait till it comes out and see how it goes but like things like i hope in the future with all this technology like the things like the apple watch if it could read my blood sugar and you know connect to my insulin pump somehow like that kind of stuff that's what would excite me for the future yeah and i think

[00:39:59] Rob Howe: it's really i was i was talking with about this with one of my uh type 1 friends the other day in a non-podcast function, the burnout you can get from people sending you stuff, like cure burnout is what she called it. And she's like, people have been telling me there's going to be a cure for 30 years. And she's like, it's not that I don't want to hear it anymore, but I have to temper how excited I get about it because I'll see something cool and then they'll talk about it a lot. And then a year or two later, it won't even happen.

[00:40:31] Courtney Lillich: Yeah, that's how I feel. Yeah, I'll get the link. and they'll be like, well, you don't sound too excited. And I'm like, well, I mean, when it gets further in the process, just let me know.

[00:40:44] Rob Howe: Right, or like send me one. Like I'll gladly take one, right?

[00:40:47] Courtney Lillich: Yeah, I think the last thing I heard my sister told me about was there's an injection, like I don't know if you know anything about this, there's some kind of injection now that they're hoping to do and then you get it like every six months and that's all you have to do.

[00:41:00] Rob Howe: Yeah. There's a couple of things that JDRF talks about a lot. Like one is encapsulation, which is like they put a little like pod in your in your body and it gives you like enough insulin for like six to 24 months or something. Yeah. Like that kind of. Which would be great, right?

[00:41:18] Courtney Lillich: Yeah.

[00:41:19] Rob Howe: And then there's also like smart insulin where you like give yourself one injection a day and then like it circulates through your blood sugar and releases as needed. and so it's like one injection a day which is like not so bad um really monitor too much yeah and it like does all the monitoring by itself i don't know it's pretty cool that i mean i'm encouraged by the technology um do i think like they're you know we're going to get really close to a to living with a cure you know it's going to be very you know minimal adjustment in the future i think in the next 10 to 15 years which makes me happy for people who are going to be diagnosed knows with it. Um, and then also, you know, talking to people like, even like you, like how far we've come in the last 30 years, 50 years where really, you know, less than a hundred years ago, people just got type 1 and died. So, um, I don't know. I'm encouraged by it. At the same time, there's like so many other things that start with what you talked about at the beginning, like just taking your health a little bit more seriously and like giving yourself the best chance. yeah speaking of uh speaking of talking to people about type 1 this is a question i always ask at the end of uh sort of podcast interviews as we kind of like wrap up um say like and i got to set the setting so like you're in an airport there's like 30 seconds before they're going to close the gate at your at the you know to your flight you got to be on it you can't miss it but you run into somebody who was either recently diagnosed or is struggling with their type 1 uh what's

[00:42:50] Courtney Lillich: the one thing that you say to that person that it really really sucks but the only body you get and you have to take care of it no matter what it's the only one you get you can't return it

[00:43:05] Rob Howe: that's true because like it's interesting and i even like put this in an email that i sent out the other day is like most there's a there's a variance of answers to that question and most of them are the same. But I love that yours is like grounded in reality. It's like, yeah, this sucks. Like, let's not sugarcoat it. Um, and like, I, you know, if we're all being honest, we wish we

[00:43:25] Courtney Lillich: didn't have it. Right. But yeah, no one wants it, but you got to deal with it. Yeah. And I think

[00:43:31] Rob Howe: like, there's so many steps and like resources and like ways that you can do that. Like over time, what I like about my own sort of like walk with diabetes is that I feel like I'm getting better at it as time goes on, which makes me encouraged. Like if I'm, if I'm here today, maybe 10 years from now, I can be even better at it. So it's sort of a long, like a long game. Yeah. I'm always

[00:43:54] Courtney Lillich: trying to, I'm always learning the ins and outs of it. And I've had it for 30 plus years. So just, I mean, you could always, you always, of course the whole, you know, don't give up. It's okay. You're going to be fine. Yeah. That's all true. But you know, you gotta take care of yourself. Otherwise, you know, you just got to take care of yourself. Yeah. I mean, that's,

[00:44:16] Rob Howe: it's what it all comes down to, right? Yeah. Um, well, Courtney, uh, thank you so much for taking the time to, uh, to come on and chat today. I really loved our conversation. Um, I think we have a lot of same viewpoints and a lot in common and that was super refreshing. Yeah. Thank you so much. This was fun. So if, uh, some of our listeners wanted to like contact you or follow you on social media uh where can they do that um on instagram i'm at

[00:44:44] Courtney Lillich: cornut 34 don't it's i know it's a crazy name um c-o-r-n-u-t-3-4 i feel like there's a backstory to that well actually basketball in high it's from like high school i used to eat a lot of those like old school corn nut things got it so that was my nickname and then my basketball number was 34 so I've always just I've always just kept it yeah that was that's the funny thing like my

[00:45:13] Rob Howe: my RobHowe21 handle like 21 was my basketball number and like my gmail is even like my first gmail is like RobHowe21 and I was in like this beta group because one of my friends got me in like one of the first like 10,000 gmails or something I totally could have had just like rob how like i totally could have just had rob how on instagram but i wait but i put 21 on there because i was like yeah this will matter my whole life yeah that's like now nowadays i'm like oh

[00:45:40] Courtney Lillich: i wish i would have just changed it back but not too lazy to do that so yep now i'm now now i'm

[00:45:46] Rob Howe: too deep in the game I gotta keep it at RobHowe21 so great well yeah perfect yeah we will corner It's easy. Well, great. Thanks again so much for coming on and looking forward to it. You'll have to let us know how your competition goes.

[00:46:03] Courtney Lillich: Yes, end of July in Vegas. I'm excited.

[00:46:06] Rob Howe: Well, we'll definitely kind of include that, like a follow-up with when we publish this in the show notes. Great. Thank you so much. 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.