Diabetics Doing Bikini Competitions 3 with Hollie Smith

[00:00:12] Unknown: Sustainable Sustainable Sustainable Sustainable Sustainable Sustainable

[00:00:42] Rob Howe: Hello and welcome to another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. We are telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics from all across the world. And in that same vein, in that thought right there of global, my guest today is from the UK, is Hollie Smith. Welcome to the show.

[00:01:00] Hollie Smith: Thank you very much.

[00:01:01] Rob Howe: And you're calling from London today, so you're a little bit ahead of me here on Dallas time. And I believe it's a holiday today, if I'm not mistaken.

[00:01:10] Hollie Smith: Yeah, you are correct. It's the bank holiday weekend over here in England, and it's really nice. It means no work.

[00:01:16] Rob Howe: Nice. So I appreciate you taking some time out of your vacation to talk to us.

[00:01:21] Hollie Smith: No worries.

[00:01:22] Rob Howe: um so Hollie why don't you give us and our listeners who may not be as familiar with you a little bit of background on your type 1 diagnosis story um and a little bit of background on some of your fitness competitiveness and bodybuilding as well okay so um i was actually

[00:01:40] Hollie Smith: diagnosed uh it'll be five years in october uh five years ago um strangely enough i'm not my the only person in my family who has it my younger sister was diagnosed um when she was about eight years old she's about four years younger than me and we always kind of joked around in the family that it was a good thing that she had it and not me because i was terrified of needles um so that was a bit of a shock when that happened so so she she was diagnosed when she was eight and how old

[00:02:09] Rob Howe: Were you five years ago?

[00:02:11] Hollie Smith: I think I was 17 when I was diagnosed.

[00:02:16] Rob Howe: Oh, great. So that's about the same age that I was, a little bit older than I was. I was diagnosed when I was 16. So, yeah, definitely understand kind of the ins and outs of being, like, already adjusted to your life and then having to add something in. Yeah, it's very difficult. It kind of – it's a bit of a shock at first, obviously,

[00:02:33] Hollie Smith: because it changes quite a lot of, you know, your just daily routine and the way you are, especially at, you know, 17, going out to parties and that sort of things, it's very, very different and you do have to adjust to it. But I like to think that I did it quite well. And because of my diabetes, I'd say I got into fitness. So, you know, I'm kind of grateful in a way that I was diagnosed because I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't been.

[00:03:01] Rob Howe: and so you know as a part of your when you were 17 like you're as your life before uh you know t1d you did you do you have any interest in fitness were you just sort of a casual observer and i think like you said you know going to parties being a being a young kid um seeing your sister around dealing with her type 1 um what made you sort of go down the fitness the

[00:03:25] Hollie Smith: fitness path? I mean, in all honesty, it's quite an embarrassing thing to admit. I was very, very scared of needles. So for me, not eating carbohydrates meant no injections. Obviously, everyone knows you need carbohydrate to function. So whenever I did have some, I would go to the gym. I'd just be one of those people that just went and did my cardio every day, just on the cross trainer for an hour and that kind of was my starting point I enjoyed working out it made me feel good I saw good results from it but obviously not for the right reasons I was losing weight quite quickly but then again you know when I was first diagnosed I'd managed to put it on quite quickly so it kind of balanced itself out a bit but for me the gym was a way of not injecting it was a way of kind of getting away from the diabetes and hiding from it I think but obviously that's now changed and I've learned so much and I now try my hardest to help as many other people as I can to try and get them away from that idea that you can run away from your diabetes you don't need to run away from it you need to face it and understand it and it's you know it's it's nothing that you can't do you can always control it and look after yourself and that's obviously the most

[00:04:47] Rob Howe: important thing well and I think it's an important thing to talk about right because when you're diagnosed, you get the news that there's no cure and that you're going to have to live with this for the rest of your life until or until they develop a cure, right? So, you know, you can get tired, right? You get exhausted or burned out on the idea of diabetes. So finding activities like, you know, either the gym or, you know, some people cooking or whatever the case is to try to escape mentally from, you know, your, your daily life with diabetes. So for you, you know, as you sort of changed the relationship with, you know, from hiding from it to embracing it and using it as a, as a tool to help your diabetes and to help your confidence and be more open, uh, what, what specific things did you change or what was the biggest difference?

[00:05:41] Hollie Smith: i mean it's taken me i mean up until recently really to fully understand diabetes i think the more you understand about it the easier it is to control and manage it i started weight training in my first year of university and instead of you know going and doing my cardio and then my blood sugar levels would drop really low um a couple of hours later so then i'd have to eat more I noticed resistance training actually sort of stabilized my blood sugars the more I went to the gym the better my sugars were and I loved it I enjoyed it I saw a really positive change in my body it was good response to the training that I was doing and I just really really enjoyed it and I think something just kind of clicked at that point and I thought I really enjoy this and it's it's helping me with, with my type 1. Um, so then it just kind of went on from there.

[00:06:37] Rob Howe: Yeah. And, and I want to back up a little bit to, to when you were diagnosed. And I think you mentioned, uh, before we hopped on the interview that, uh, you, you caught your, your diagnosis early. Um, and I, now, now that I know that you have a sister with, with diabetes, did, How much did that play a part in you recognizing the symptoms or your early diagnosis? And how much did you rely on your sister when you were diagnosed to sort of help you get used to life with diabetes?

[00:07:12] Hollie Smith: Well, actually, it was my mom who pointed it out. Obviously, with my younger sister, she was so young when she got it that mom was quite aware of the symptoms. and I just remember being sat down at the dinner table on my fifth or sixth pint of water and just saying it's just not helping and you know everyone sort of joked oh maybe you've got diabetes and then tested myself on my sister's blood monitor and I think the the best part about having diabetes is the relationship between me and my sister has it's developed we've got an even stronger bond now because you know we both understand how each other feels and if even even now I mean she called me when I was at work for the day and she said I'm having a hypo no one understands how it feels it's so frustrating and it's so nice because we can both be there for each other and compare stories and if you're not feeling well you know we'll give the other one a call and just say do you get like this do you feel this and I think it's really nice to have someone there because you always feel like you're supported. Yeah. And that's something, you know,

[00:08:23] Rob Howe: for me, I didn't even know that I was missing out on. Uh, and it's cool to hear stories of people like you and your sister who have, uh, relatives or close friends with type 1, because you can relate to that. And I'm very lucky now that I have a, like such a, I have a really close group of friends, uh, here close to home that I can interact with. And, you know, if somebody is having a bad, a bad day or struggling getting their supplies or insurance, or, you know, they're just feeling like they've got a high blood sugar and nobody, nobody can relate. It's so nice to just be able to talk to those people right away.

[00:08:59] Hollie Smith: Yeah, I completely agree. And I just think as well, everyone, everyone feels the same way. And you kind of forget that because diabetes, it's very easy to feel like you're on your own, And if you're struggling, if you're having a low blood sugar or you're struggling to control your levels, it's very easy to feel isolated and worried that you're just not doing a good enough job. And I recently actually went on a course that's run here in the UK. I'm not sure if you have it in the US, but it's called DAFNE. And it stands for Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating. And it was just done at my local hospital. And there was a small group of us, six people. I was the youngest one there. some of them had been diagnosed 20 years ago and we were all sat down in a room and forced to talk about our diabetes which at first sort of everyone was a bit nervous about but being able to relate to each other I think it's just very very nice to have someone there who understands what you're going through and sharing experiences can help you because you have similar things happen to each other. And I just think it's, it's such a positive thing to have a community of people. And that's why, you know, I really want to help as many people as I can. Yeah. And I want to talk a

[00:10:18] Rob Howe: little bit about Daphne, because I saw some of your posts about it. And as we were trying to schedule this interview, I think we had a couple weeks go by and I was really glad that you had that you had done that you had taken that class because I wanted to hear a little bit what you talked about so I love that the way that they started it was to have everybody talk about it sort of forced into being more open because I think once the first person did it I imagine

[00:10:47] Hollie Smith: everybody else was it was much easier yeah everyone sort of relaxed a bit but also like

[00:10:54] Rob Howe: you said, uh, 20, somebody had been diagnosed 20 years ago. So like the level of education and the level of knowledge and the questions that they have today, you know, with 20 years of experience, like it's so good to get that refresher. So what did you, what, what made you, or what did you get the most out of the DAFNE experience? What was your big takeaway? I think for me, um, I've always

[00:11:17] Hollie Smith: been terrified of eating out. I can never get my insulin right when I'm eating out because I just don't know how to to look at a meal and say this is this amount of carbohydrate and therefore i'm going to inject this um i learned how to look at food and roughly work it out we've got um they give you a small book which is kind of like the Carbs & Cals app i don't know if that's something you're familiar with um but and it'll tell you sort of how much carbohydrate is in your food and then you can work out roughly how much insulin you need and I think as well something that I didn't even think about is that you might have different ratios for each of your meals so for example my blood sugar levels always rise in the morning so I have to take a larger dose of breakfast than I do at dinner time so I mean just small things that have helped so much in the weeks after that and we're actually going back um in a in a few weeks time to go back with the same people and have a catch-up with them and see how we're all getting on and we also had to fill out a diary where you would write all of your blood sugar levels in them and every day we talk about what we'd eaten how much insulin we've given um and it was amazing to kind of see the results that once you started tracking everything how everyone's blood sugar levels have really improved over the

[00:12:40] Rob Howe: week, which was fascinating. And that is fascinating, right? Because it's, it's all every I heard this quote a few months ago that I really liked called and you are what you measure. And it was just talking about like journaling and keeping track of how you feel when you eat certain things, or when you get a certain amount of sleep, or you take a vitamin or whatever the case is. And, uh, and I thought about it for diabetes because every day is different, right? Um, and I think we're going to talk about this a little bit more with your fitness preparation as well. But if you could eat the same thing for lunch every day and get a different, need a different dose or have a different reading because of your activity or because of your stress or because of whatever it is. And so writing down those things as well as like what you actually put in your body and how much insulin that you give for it and what your blood sugar was like there's so much other things involved and I think that's what's so complicated about type 1 diabetes because you could do everything right on paper but it's not always the same yeah that's so right I

[00:13:51] Hollie Smith: mean even things like the weather I've noticed this weekend over here in England has been really really hot and my blood sugar levels have been on the low side this weekend and it's it's you know the smallest things can change it and that's why you just have to take into account so many different factors but once you are aware of them you can obviously adjust accordingly and i mean as you say it is very different for when i'm preparing for a competition um but now just kind of going back into the swing of things and eating normally and exercising regularly when I'm not exercising, I notice a huge difference in my levels as well. So it just,

[00:14:32] Rob Howe: it really does depend. Yeah. And I think I went on vacation, I guess about a year and a half ago, a longer vacation, it was like a resort. So there was food all the time and like, you know, drinks and I wasn't very active, but it was very hot. And my blood sugar was just like the whole time was either, it was hot outside and I was walking. And so I'd feel myself coming down, but then there would be sugar and everything. So I'd feel myself coming up and it was just like this extra extra piece because if if every day like if your routine gets off um you know

[00:15:02] Hollie Smith: every day can be such a battle yeah i mean for me i find that the the best way to kind of manage my diabetes is by having a routine i've um i've recently injured myself unfortunately so i i'm not training as much as i would like to but because of that i've noticed that my blood sugar levels are not as stable as they were say you know three four weeks ago when i was training

[00:15:25] Rob Howe: as much as I'd like to be. So let's, let's talk about routine for a minute, because I think what was some of the feedback, and I brought this up to you a little bit earlier, some of the feedback from our listeners, especially as it relates to fitness discussions are, how can we get more tactical? How can we get to the, you know, really into the weeds of like the how to, how you approach either training for a competition or just training in general. so let's just talk about your ideal routine um and what that looks like as you're sort of uh just just your day-to-day training and then we'll go and talk about the routine

[00:16:02] Hollie Smith: for like a competition prep okay so i mean usually for me this is just obviously how it has works for me um i will have regular breakfast and i'll have quite a big lunch mainly my lunches are kind of where I have my main carbohydrates for the day and then before I go to the gym depending on what my blood sugar level is I tend to either have like a cereal bar or a protein shake and that will just keep my levels up nicely for when I go and train so I always make sure that I just have something just to obviously the worst thing is training and having a low blood sugar there's absolutely nothing worse and for me i just like to make sure that even if it's just got 10 grams of carbs in it just something that i can have before training don't inject for it and that will just keep your levels stable throughout training what i have found with weights training so resistance training is that it does push up your blood sugar levels so if you've gone to the gym and you're 6.8 when you come back from the gym you're going to be between 9 and 13 that's sort of usually what happens to me um obviously if you're adding cardio workout in there afterwards your levels are going to come down anyway from the weights training but if you're adding cardio they're going to drop down even lower so if you come back from the gym remember to have something like a banana or um i like to blend in a banana with a protein shake and have that as kind of like a smoothie before i go to bed i don't tend to eat an evening meal as such because it works better for my training because I work full time in the day. For me, that's just how I found it the most effective on managing blood sugar levels. And I want to focus on a couple of things

[00:17:52] Rob Howe: that you said. Number one, like this is what works for you. And I think that's what's most important, right? You find a routine, you find what works for you based on what you do.

[00:18:04] Hollie Smith: exactly yeah everyone's different so what works for someone is not necessarily going to work for someone else but by all means give it a try and just monitor yourself closely if you're changing your routine especially when it comes to exercising you have to be extra cautious with diabetes because you don't want to end up having a low blood sugar you know for me I find that it almost defeats the purpose of training because if your levels aren't in the right place all of the the things that are going to happen in your body, you know, protein synthesis, it's not going to take place effectively. And therefore, if you're not seeing results at the gym, because your levels are always dropping low after the gym or during the gym, that's why you're not going to be seeing the results is because you need to keep your levels stable and steady in order to allow all the sort of hormones to work effectively in your body.

[00:18:54] Rob Howe: So for you, how do you, as you're, and you talked about your routine, what are some things that you keep in your in your gym bag to help prevent lows during during the gym because not only is it like scientifically like you mentioned in terms of protein synthesis like defeating to your workout but for me i find it mentally if i have a low in the middle of my workout i find it hard to go treat it and then come back and feel the same rhythm and motivation so it really you know for me it it really is inconvenience my entire workout knocks everything

[00:19:25] Hollie Smith: out of whack yeah no I completely agree I mean for me if I'm having a hyper in the middle of a workout that's it I go home and I leave it because I just know you're going to feel rubbish because you're going to be in a bad mood you're not going to be doing as well as you were before honestly for me personally I just need to go home and just I have to accept that I'm not going to be training that night i mean it hasn't happened for a long time with me luckily um but obviously if you are having a hyper during a workout you need to treat it you need to sort it out um and something that i always keep with me in my gym bag the little cartons of orange juice you can get they're just little 200 mil cartons and cereal bars and that's enough to get your levels back up so you can just go home. I would never continue training after a hypo because obviously your body's going to be distressed anyway. I honestly personally don't see the point. Yeah. And I think again, like you,

[00:20:26] Rob Howe: you got to know yourself and know your body. Uh, yeah, everyone's different. So just in terms of, you know, approaching those things, I think you, you focused on, or you brought up something that inspired something that I had read a little while ago, in that same sort of like journaling, tracking, data collection type exercise. It's like when you ask yourself a question about why you're having a problem. So for this example, we'd say like, why am I having hypos at the gym? And you said, you know, you haven't had them in a while and you said it was lucky, but I think it's probably because of the way you're approaching it and the way that you're thinking it through. So if you're saying, and I think a common one is people like, oh, well, I don't get enough sleep. So they go back and they look at it's like oh well They they went out the night before and maybe were drinking and they were out late So they didn't get good quality sleep But the next day they drank a bunch of coffee to try to wake up And so they weren't able to you know They weren't tired at night when they should have been so you go back and you say okay well what behaviors are making me have these results so What behaviors did you change in your approach to make sure that you wouldn't have hypos at the gym? And I think you you touch on it a little bit in terms of like your evening meal But how did you, you know, was there a lot of testing and trial and error with that process?

[00:21:44] Hollie Smith: Yeah, completely. I mean, the last kind of three years for me have been trial and error with training and finding out what works best for me. I think learning to manage your sugar levels is just so important. you've got to know your body and know you know if you're feeling too tired and you didn't get a good night's sleep don't go and push yourself in the gym because you can injure yourself there's so many reasons why you should just go home and go to bed but if you learn to take a step back look at your sugars I think writing them down and seeing if you can establish a pattern so if you're going low at the same point every day you know why are you going low what is it you need to change maybe a little bit less insulin at lunchtime or you know things like that just testing it out to see what works best for you and unfortunately you will have hypos you will have highs but the more you do it and the more you think to yourself why and what can i do to change that it's that management that will help you in the long term and help you establish exactly what you need to do in order to maintain your levels and have, you know, an effective workout in the gym or even an effective sort of diet if that's what you're doing. But for me, it's kind of my lifestyle. So I have learned through trial and error what works for me. And I've finally found a good balance.

[00:23:16] Rob Howe: Well, and I think that's super important to talk about, too, is the balance. And then being comfortable and confident in the decision of what works for you. Because like you said, you're going to have hypos. You're going to have highs. I guess you guys call them hypers or no, just highs?

[00:23:34] Hollie Smith: Either, but I just call them highs.

[00:23:36] Rob Howe: Okay, because, well, in the U.S., it's like it's more for us to call them lows. But in the U.K., you guys are very proper and you call them hypos, which is great. But, you know, just understanding that you're going to have those mistakes and being gentle with yourself in the conversation. is just being and saying, I'm trying to do this, or I'm trying to prepare for a competition, or I'm trying to live an active lifestyle, or I'm trying to stick to this meal plan, or I'm trying to get better sleep, or whatever you're trying to do. Setting that intention and then being okay with learning on the fly, like testing and just understanding the data collection and the process and the journey. And that's part of it, you know, that nobody gets it right on day one and there's no such thing as a perfect diabetic.

[00:24:21] Hollie Smith: no not at all and I mean I still get things wrong you know by by no means have I perfected it but looking back I have improved so much and my understanding of diabetes has improved which I also think is why I've been able to kind of manipulate my lifestyle to to make it work with diabetes you know it is not a bad disease to have it's totally manageable you just need to figure out how you're going to do it and it will take time as you said you know it's not going to happen overnight and small baby steps is kind of the way forward you need to accept you're going to get it right and you're going to get it wrong and it's frustrating yes I totally know where you're coming from you know with getting frustrated with it but it's all part of the process and you will get there that's you know the most important thing you need to remember is that you will get there eventually but you're just going to have to go a little bit right and a little bit wrong on the way

[00:25:18] Rob Howe: there. Couldn't agree more. I think that's really, and that's just a really powerful sentiment and, and, uh, and message that I think a lot of people agree with, but sometimes you just need to be

[00:25:29] Hollie Smith: reminded of. Yeah. It's so easy to be hard on yourself. You know, it's frustrating when you're trying hard and you're not seeing results that, that I think for me, when I was, uh, preparing for my competition, you know, trying so hard, not seeing anything, blood sugar levels, a mess, and you just feel so frustrated but you know you will learn from it and you will progress because you now know that that didn't work and what is it you can now do to make it work

[00:26:05] Rob Howe: did i lose you oh yeah can you hear me okay got you good all right i was making sure that you weren't gone. No, no, I'm still here. Okay. So let's talk, let's talk a little bit about, um, your journey with fitness and, and competitions, because I want to know, you mentioned that diabetes inspired you to, uh, to pursue it. So kind of walk me through how that happened. Uh, and then let's talk about, you know, preparing for competition and the different things that you do both in the gym and with your diabetes? Okay, so I think for me, I mean,

[00:26:43] Hollie Smith: everyone always says, why did you get into this? How did you get into this? And as a diabetic, when you were first diagnosed, you always have people saying you can't do this and you can't do this because you're diabetic. And I just want to prove you wrong if you say that to me. I don't believe that because you're diabetic you can't do something and I remember actually it's through social media that I wanted to compete you know seeing these girls on stage confident looking incredible and I just thought you know I'd love to have that body confidence but with the diabetes my weight fluctuating up and down not being able to control it it was mentally very difficult to ever picture myself on stage in a bikini in front of loads of people um so I just thought I you know I'd love to see what I can do I'd love to see how far I can push myself and prove everyone wrong that just because you have diabetes you can't go to the gym for too long or you can't eat this and actually you can I think it's just a lack of understanding of you know of the processes but once you are able to understand things you can show people that actually you can do it and that's kind of my main reason for competing is that i just wanted to

[00:28:07] Rob Howe: prove people wrong yeah yeah so let's let's talk about you know after you after you overcame you know in your in your mind and worked out the the confidence piece and challenged yourself to do these competitions what was the routine like how did that change how did you um how did you approach that high level of fitness for you to you know get your ultimate goal

[00:28:35] Hollie Smith: okay so obviously uh competing there's two main components to it it's the food you're eating and your training um my training intensity always steps up so i i always train hard but when you're on prep you're doing a lot of cardio as well obviously again depending on on your body and how well it reacts to that sort of thing I personally was doing an hour of cardio every day of my prep which is it's not particularly enjoyable because I was doing that after my resistance training so it was a lot of time in the gym but you know that's that was my goal and that's what I wanted to do so you've got to put in the work there that obviously plays a huge part on your blood sugar levels because you're training intensely and then you're going and doing cardio workout so I personally would do low intensity cardio rather than HIIT you've got to be careful with either one of them because they push down your blood sugar levels eventually hit it will spike up your blood sugar levels first because you're stressing your body so you just need to be mindful of that so when I was on prep what I would try and do is save the carbohydrates that I would eat in the day to have after my workout or before my workout to stop me from having a low blood sugar in the night and I'd always have to make sure that we were you know I was calorie restricted i had to make sure that if i was going to have a hyper in the night i could eat the necessary things within my calorie requirements so that's always quite difficult to try and manage as well i think the food side of things just cutting your calories anyway is hard but the one thing i did notice is that my blood sugar levels have never been so good in my whole life because you are constantly counting everything weighing out everything so you get your injections on point you can manage it really really well in prep which was something that you know was a bonus to me it was it was an added extra that i enjoyed because when you get your blood sugar levels right i don't know about you but i was personally very happy and proud oh man i'm very proud and i feel so much

[00:30:57] Rob Howe: better whenever my blood sugar levels are up i are or are in line and then maybe you go for your checkup at the doctor and you have like a good a1c number it feels really good yeah and that's

[00:31:10] Hollie Smith: sort of how I feel when I was on prep because I managed to maintain that quite well it only was when I was on the last sort of four weeks up to my competition that I start to really struggle I mean obviously being being diabetic you get tired very easily and that's another frustrating thing that I find is that when people say they're tired and you just think well actually you've got no idea because you're not balancing all of this as well um but that's when it starts to get hard and that's where if you have a hypo and you have to eat over your calories it's very frustrating and mentally draining because you've tried so hard to get it right and that's the one thing that kind of i think they won't tell you about competing and diabetes but you know i want to give my honest opinion and that's where i always find it very very hard mentally sitting there having to eat the food that you've worked so hard to not eat and just having to do it because of the

[00:32:06] Rob Howe: diabetes. Right. And that's always been a question that I've had because the last few weeks of prep before a, you know, bodybuilding or fitness competition are tough anyway, especially from a diet perspective. But what would you do in a, in a situation where you have a hypo, like maybe you wake up in the middle of the night and you've thought you thought you prepped a court or the right way and you just have you have a hypo and you need to get 50 grams of carbs in you what what do you what's your typical treatment during that phase of the prep i mean obviously you can never

[00:32:43] Hollie Smith: jeopardize your health so there have been times where it's been so frustrating to do but i've had to sit there and eat for my own my own sake really so i always i mean my go-to hypo treatment is the little orange juices as i said earlier they've got 20 grams of carbs in them and then just kind of you know a bigger protein bar or carbohydrate bar cereal bar something that will have 20 to 30 grams of carbohydrates in it that is enough to to get your levels up effectively and to make you feel okay what i personally did you know not necessarily that i had to do but i think mentally for my own sake, the following day, I would just do an extra 15 minutes of cardio just to burn off that little bit extra that I had to eat, you know, depending on the calories that I had taken.

[00:33:38] Rob Howe: Right. And I think that that was going to be my follow up question is like, what effect does a, you know, an extra 30 carbs and a couple of grams of protein in the middle of the night? What effect does that have on your competition prep? Like, could that be the difference in a successful prep and unsuccessful?

[00:33:58] Hollie Smith: No, not at all. I think it's just harder mentally to do that because you've been working so hard. Actually, in the grand scheme of things, I think it's so small. I mean, I've had days where I was on my last prep. My calories were very, very low, and I couldn't stop eating. thing and I had days where I ate double the amount of calories I should have done because my body needed it and that was nothing to do with my diabetes but it's just it's more mentally that it kind of affects you that you're eating those calories but with the diabetes you know your health is the most important thing and if you're having a hyper you can't just sit there and not eat anything because you're on competition prep you're doing prep for for fun for enjoyment you want to enjoy being on stage and if you've had to eat 50 grams of carbs the night before your show you've had to do it and it's just something that you're just going to have to accept that as I said you know there's going to be ups and downs and that unfortunately is something that you will come across but it's so important that you do look after yourself because health is more

[00:35:08] Rob Howe: important than your show yeah and I also think you know when you get to that show moment this is I don't know this myself because I'm not a competitor, but you mentioned earlier when people say they're tired, you're like, oh, well, if only you had to worry about all the stuff that I'm thinking about all the time. And I think same thing in any sort of athletic or physical competition is like just making it to the finish line is a victory. And I think too many times as type 1 diabetics, we don't give ourselves credit for doing a really difficult thing. And, you know, compared to, you know, all the other competitors, I had, I had to think about all this stuff too. Um, and, you know, add 15 minutes of cardio because I had a hypo in the night and I drank some orange juice because I'm committed to this, but I'm also committed to being healthy and making sure that I'm looking out for myself. So like, I think celebrating those, just getting to the finish line is, is a huge, a huge, huge moment that, but sometimes it would be easy to just skip over.

[00:36:10] Hollie Smith: Yeah, definitely. And I've found that everyone who I've competed with, when they find out that you're a type 1 diabetic, they're kind of 10 times more impressed because everyone feels, you know, everyone's done the prep, everyone knows how hard it is. But then when people kind of understand that you've actually had all of that added extra to do as well, you know, you just feel so proud that you've got to that point and you look back at what you have achieved and you know so what if you've had one night where you've had a hypo and had to eat too much it happens it's life you've just got to move on you can't get upset about those sort of things if it keeps happening think about why it's still happening obviously your insulin needs adjusting you know there's all these things you can do to kind of work out why it's happening and prevent it from happening again it's not the end of the world and I think people do get quite hung up on it. I know I personally did, I think. But as I said, it's more mentally that it will affect you rather than physically. In that same vein, do you think that a lot of the,

[00:37:17] Rob Howe: it's hard to get away from, obviously there are physical obstacles to overcome with type 1 diabetes. Like there's almost one extra step to everything. But I think, do you believe like that that most of the struggles that type 1 diabetics deal with on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis come from the mental side, just from being exhausted, from just being overwhelmed, feeling like they're alone?

[00:37:46] Hollie Smith: I mean, it is draining. Definitely, there's no doubt about that. But you've got to remember that everyone's in the same boat. And if you're struggling, talk to someone. You know, people are more than willing to even just listen. Although, you know, if you've got a friend who's not got diabetes, they'll be there. They'll be willing to listen. And it can be exhausting, but also you've got to celebrate the small victories. If you've got fantastic blood sugars one day, you know, it's such a good feeling that you've actually got it right. But I do understand where you are coming from, and I totally agree. I think there is always one extra step, but it's something that you need to adjust to because nothing's going to change the fact that you've now got diabetes or that you've had it for however long. You've got to kind of make the best of what you've got and just work harder to get on top of it.

[00:38:43] Rob Howe: And it is hard, you know, and I think that's where, you know, we've got to just be more honest with ourselves. It's like, yeah, this is difficult. And I think you said this earlier, and I totally agree, that of all the chronic diseases out there, chronic illnesses, I can manage type 1 diabetes. So I'm grateful that I have that opportunity because I know there's a lot of people who get chronic illnesses that are very, very, very difficult to live with day to day. But just shifting your attitude, changing your perspective, just knowing that you can do it can make such a huge difference.

[00:39:14] Hollie Smith: Yeah. I mean, when I was first diagnosed, it did feel like the end of the world. I had no idea what I was doing. And I just thought, how am I ever going to be able to manage this? And actually, you know, there is so much support out there, whether it's friends, family, doctors, hospitals. You know, there's always someone willing to help. And as you said, I really do think it's it's all about mentality. you can turn something that's you know not so great to have into something to show exactly what you can do and and that's that's where I think fitness has played a huge role in my life because I honestly think that that was the key factor and kind of the turning point in my life that I saw actually I can do this and it's going to be okay that's so inspiring and I think um

[00:40:09] Rob Howe: Hopefully we'll encourage people who are listening to chase that dream, whatever that is, to put that up and set that goal to accomplish whatever they want to do and build that plan and chase their dream.

[00:40:26] Hollie Smith: Yeah, I hope so. I mean, it's always nice to have someone there. And that's kind of what I want to be like for anyone who wants to talk or wants some advice, whether it's fitness, diet or health related. You know, I never had that when I was first diagnosed. I felt very alone and I felt it was very hard to kind of deal with by yourself. but the more and more people who I speak to who have got a good understanding of it you know have shown me that actually it's it's not difficult and the more people that you can help and share that kind of same feeling with I think it helps you to realize that it's going to be okay

[00:41:13] Rob Howe: and for for our listeners who want to find you on social media or reach out to you and ask you questions whether fitness or diet or health related or just you know in general

[00:41:22] Hollie Smith: where can they find you online um instagram is my main my main page um and my instagram is Hollie underscore Louisee on the end of it um and i think i've got an email address on my instagram as well so if you want to dm me or even just email me please do because i'd love to help as many people as I can. And I will respond to you, I promise.

[00:41:51] Rob Howe: Yeah. And we'll include a link to your, to your profile in the show notes. I do want to ask you one question. I feel like I, you know, we've gotten a lot of really good answers from you already today. So thank you for, for really diving into the tactics of, of how you prepare for competitions and, and, and fitness. But here's, here's the question that I always ask. So if you're in an airport and you're about to get on a flight and you're at your gate and they're going to shut the door to the gate in 30 seconds and you can't miss the flight, like this is a must, you got to get on the plane and you run into someone with type 1 diabetes who has either been recently diagnosed or has been struggling with their type 1, what's the one

[00:42:31] Hollie Smith: thing that you tell them in that 30 seconds? Everything's going to be okay and test yourself whenever you feel not okay because honestly testing helps so much and can always help you know where you're feeling and you know you just want to tell them that it's not the end of the world and everything will be okay and it's manageable and there is such a big community of people out there who will support and and be there to talk to

[00:43:06] Rob Howe: that's great yeah i totally agree i think you know reaching out and making that connection and asking and um knowing that there are people out there like you who are available to chat uh i am in the same boat i love talking to people about what they're going through just answering questions um it's you know the it's one of the best things about you know this podcast has brought me is just interactions with uh my other fellow type ones around the world so um i totally agree

[00:43:32] Hollie Smith: with that. Well, thank you so much for having me on. It's been an absolute pleasure. Oh,

[00:43:39] Rob Howe: it's been great. And I'm so glad we were able to do it. You know, we've, we've overcame a lot of obstacles to get this thing done. So I'm really excited to, to get it published and get it out there. Thank you so much for, for taking the.