Diabetics Doing Mixed Martial Arts with Anna Hyvarinen

[00:00:07] Rob Howe: Welcome to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast. We've been telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics all across the world since 2015, and we have over a thousand years of living with T1D on the podcast. The interviews range from incredible feats to everyday victories, and we celebrate them all just the same. Thanks for listening, and if you want to get involved even further, just send me an email at rob at diabeticsdoingthings.com. Hey, I'm Stacey Sims, the host of Diabetes Connections, a weekly podcast. Diabetes Connections is the radio news show I always wanted to hear. Conversations not just with inspiring people, because, you know, that's great, but also with newsmakers, a place to ask hard questions and learn what makes companies and groups that we rely on really tick. I started the podcast back in 2015 because I had had enough of my regular radio news job. I was in local radio and TV for 20 years, and I was really ready to do something more meaningful than news weather and traffic on the 10s. My son was diagnosed with type 1 as a toddler 11 years ago. And while I do share personal stories on the show, Diabetes Connections isn't really about us. I am not going to tell you what to eat or how to dose, but I will share incredible stories, everyday stories and news and information that makes a difference in our community. Tune in for a new episode every Tuesday on every podcast app and at diabetes-connections.com. Spend an hour a week with people who get it. Thanks for listening. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. We're telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics from all across the world. uh and my very special guest today i'm gonna do my best to uh to not butcher her name is Anna Hyvarinen yeah correct that's me nice to meet you nice well i like even in the 30 seconds from the time that you explained how to say your name to when i said it uh you know just that anxiety was

[00:02:34] Anna Hyvarinen: taking over that's okay nobody can ever say my my last name correct so it's okay but you said it

[00:02:40] Rob Howe: pretty well that's that's pretty good okay well good i feel good about that because there's nothing worse than starting an hour-long interview with somebody uh and then just getting their name wrong

[00:02:49] Anna Hyvarinen: right off the bat that's okay that's all right uh and for those of you who don't know anna uh

[00:02:54] Rob Howe: you are i guess best known for uh being a mixed martial artist and a brazilian jiu-jitsu athlete yes that's very correct and we were we were talking about uh the first episode of diabetics doing things was followed or chronicled a boxer from Ireland. So, and I think you were the first combat sports athlete since then. And you're from Finland. So both combat sport athletes from overseas. So really excited to get back on the combat sports train and kind of dive in.

[00:03:28] Anna Hyvarinen: Yeah, me too. Let's dive into it.

[00:03:31] Rob Howe: So give us your diagnosis story and kind of tell us how you came to join the type 1 diabetic family.

[00:03:42] Anna Hyvarinen: All right. So I was diagnosed in 1999. I was 11 years old. So I can't remember everything in detail. It's quite a while ago, almost 19 years. but I do remember it was this summer and I had been losing weight really rapidly and very very thirsty very tired all the typical signs and we were in this amusement park with my cousins and I think it was like right after that that my parents and my my cousins were kind of like you know that's not normal you know and we went to the health center there in Helsinki and my blood sugars this is in a I don't know the European units but was like 35 millimoles per liters it was very high and that was pretty clear case so I definitely didn't understand much what diabetes was and what was about to change but the only thing I heard was needles and I was so scared of needles that I think that part freaked me out more than actually having the diabetes that I had to inject myself that was that's the scary part for me so going you know before you know

[00:05:01] Rob Howe: before you were diagnosed obviously you didn't have to encounter needles almost ever just like you know at a checkup or whatever what was the was there a moment where you were like finally over the the needle fear or is it still something that bothers you yeah no no not anymore um but

[00:05:17] Anna Hyvarinen: Yeah, it definitely took me a while. I think I was quite young, so I did kind of understand that I had a diabetes. But at the same time, it took me a couple of years to really kind of understand what it was and take it seriously, I guess. But yeah, I think, what would I say? Maybe even a year. Like, I would inject myself, but it was always like a hassle. Like, oh, my God, like, I have to do it again. And then my mom was like, do you want me to do it? No, I don't. I want to do it myself. stuff so I got I got over it but it took a while because when I was when I was very little I don't know where this came from why I was so afraid of needles but it was like it was almost like a phobia so it was a huge overcoming for me when I got diagnosed it's always interesting because you

[00:06:02] Rob Howe: know nobody really likes getting shots I mean I think that's a pretty much universal uh fear um and some people obviously have a have a bigger aversion to it than others and I think when when people who don't have diabetes see people giving injections or they are talking about those dreaded, awkward conversations like, well, if I had diabetes, then I, you know, I couldn't, I could do everything, but I couldn't give myself the shots. And it's like, that's such a huge part of it. You know, needles, whether it's a continuous glucose monitor or a pump or a, you know, multiple daily injections, needles are a part of your life and, you know, testing your blood sugar. and it's just it's just interesting to see the development even like yourself where you had like a clear you know true fear version of needles and then eventually sort of wore off yeah and it's

[00:06:50] Anna Hyvarinen: like you kind of don't have an option i mean you're gonna have to get over it and at least at that point um so that's a while ago i can't i don't think pumps were very common at that time uh at least i wasn't even offered it when i was a kid uh and i also have noticed like at least recently that it seems to be a way more common thing here in USA that it still is in Finland. I was actually just visiting home and I was asking, like, what's your, because, you know, I haven't lived in Finland for the last seven years, so I always go and I often go for the checkups there just because our healthcare is free. But, yeah, they say it's more common, but I don't think it's as common as here. There's a lot of people still in injections.

[00:07:37] Rob Howe: Yeah, it's interesting. I think, you know, when I that's something that I always like to ask guests who are from other countries, because I think that people here in the U.S., U.S. and U.K. and Australia are all fairly similar in terms of, you know, what what kind of coverage they get from an insurance perspective or from, you know, the U.K. or Canada, for example, some of the government help that they get. But the you know, the offerings are relatively similar and the thinking is relatively the same. so it's interesting when you go a little bit further out you know Finland I've talked to people in Sweden and they're all on multiple daily injections not exclusively but I think like you said it's more common

[00:08:15] Anna Hyvarinen: yeah more common definitely

[00:08:18] Rob Howe: and for here I think I got put on a pump and I think people now very recently diagnosed people are being offered pumps just because the technology is so good

[00:08:29] Anna Hyvarinen: absolutely yeah I agree

[00:08:30] Rob Howe: with that and so it's interesting you were diagnosed you said like 19 years ago when you were 11. And it's just the difference between in the last 20 years of the ability and care and technology that you have as a type 1. It's pretty dramatic. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I think it really is, you know, today, I believe, and it's not just like a, not just a headline, but it is, if there is such a thing, it is the best time to live with type 1 diabetes today, just because there's so many other options compared to 10, 20 years ago.

[00:09:04] Anna Hyvarinen: Exactly. And it's exactly that technology that has given us so many tools that it's amazing. I actually, myself, I'm still in injections because of the type of sport that I do. It would be very, very difficult for me to have a device attached to me. Yeah.

[00:09:24] Rob Howe: I imagine that somebody would just pull it out. They would try to hurt you, right?

[00:09:28] Anna Hyvarinen: It would be very difficult. I actually, I came across to a wrestler guy. It was through one of those diabetic, I think a Facebook group it was. And I don't know how he managed to do it, but he wrestled with the, actually it wasn't a pump, it was a continuous glucose monitor. But even so, how do you keep it intact? Because wrestling is a contact. And he said he had some crazy tape he was putting on. I don't know how he did it, but I don't know if I would ever be able to keep it intact. That would be.

[00:10:00] Rob Howe: Yeah, it's interesting. I I've only recently gotten a continuous glucose monitor. I don't know what took me so long. I think I just thought it was going to be too expensive. And I, you know, anyway, it's not, but, uh, so I have one now and I play basketball. So I, I wore it on my arm the other day to play basketball for the first time and was just shocked that at the end of the game, like nothing happened to it. Uh, which was cool. It was, it was nice to be able to like look at the numbers after a game. Uh, but yeah, in a, in a sense, I'm a very physical player. So I thought that, you know, know it would be bumped or like get knocked off or something but yeah just like the it's it's so cool it's almost worth the risk uh of it getting pulled out but it's interesting yeah if i was a wrestler or a mixed martial artist i would definitely not have one yeah i mean maybe maybe

[00:10:46] Anna Hyvarinen: i'll try that i think the pump maybe not but the continuous close morning may be worth a try you know and i think it would definitely help me um because the nature of the sport you know it's very aggressive and um when we have like hard sparring sessions and stuff my blood sugars tend to to rise because of the cortisol because of the adrenaline and something's very hard to catch in time you know i try to check my sugar during the sessions and you know take a little bit of insulin and stuff but if i had that continuous glucose monitor it would definitely help me um with the sport having said that i would just stay intact um i would probably have to take it off for certain

[00:11:25] Rob Howe: sessions though. Sure. Well, it's interesting that you bring that up because, uh, the, the cortisol and the spiking of blood sugar, because a lot of the questions that we get from people on the podcast, uh, or listeners of the podcast is around preparing for exercise. So, uh, for those, for those who don't know, and I think, um, I'm a little bit more familiar with combat sports with friends who are, who have been mixed martial artists and also working, um, in the boxing world for a little while. I think people as a general rule don't understand how much preparation goes into a single fight. Just, just to get to any time where the lights are on and everyone's looking at you and you're fighting. Um, there's so much work and so much conditioning and so much training. Um, what does that do for your blood sugar? And I think, you know, take us through your, your preparation and how you not only prepare as an athlete, but also as a diabetic.

[00:12:19] Anna Hyvarinen: yeah so definitely it takes a lot of planning and a lot of discipline and a lot of monitoring um so since i don't have a continuous glucose monitor i need to you know when i'm preparing i find like because the training gets very intense and very hard that's when my blood sugar starts to fluctuate a little bit more or like get a little higher so i need to monitor even more so i i always probably go to close to at least 10 times a day that i check uh some is less some is more depends but um i have a very tight schedule so when i'm in the preparations whether it's for a for a fight or a tournament um so i have a set training schedule what i eat i meal prep my stuff it's very everything is very calculated and also for combat sports we need to make weight so there's often the weight loss process going on as well so monitoring what I eat from my diabetes monitoring what I eat so that I lose weight that I still recover that I still have enough energy to train so a lot goes into it so I um I always check morning you know before I train during training after training before I eat again so there's a there's a lot of checkups and um very um how should I say depends on the day so sometimes some weeks can go much easier usually when I start to get quite tired uh that's when my blood sugars I can see that they are like continuously high and that's me I need to pull pull back a little bit because um yeah I've been in those those points I've probably over trained a little bit and I just can't get my blood sugars come down because my body's too tired so that's when I need to rest scale down for how many ever days I need to do that to get my sugars back in check because if I keep going like that then that's gonna do me worse having so high blood sugars and keeping with that training regimen so it's a lot of like you need to know your body and what's going on also outside of the training camp that might add to your stress yeah I think that's one of the more

[00:14:29] Rob Howe: important things about being a type 1 diabetic, but also an athlete. Uh, and that's one of a big philosophy that I, um, that I rely on for my own training, listening to your body and just like, if you really need to sleep, like your body's telling you, you're sending a message. So, you know, obviously like there are times where, you know, overtraining becomes an issue, especially for a fighter. I think like, you know, you're, you're going very, very, very hard for a long period of time and like because there's no quote-unquote season seasonality like there are with some other sports uh you know how do you how do you try to you know make sure that you're tapering off accordingly or you know the right way um and making sure you're not biting off more

[00:15:13] Anna Hyvarinen: than you can chew yeah like you said with fighting it's uh it's difficult there's definitely no seasons and there is never unless you sign with an organization who can give you um fights more regular you might have an idea okay i fight now and then again in three months but um a lot of fighters are not necessarily signed to just one organization so you might fight in another one next month and then somewhere else the next so it is very stressful um you never really know when exactly you will be fighting next there's so many factors going to it like finding the fight finding you an opponent and then there's always the high risk of somebody getting injured and pulling out of the fight too so um if i have a let's say eight to six weeks that's usually an ideal preparation time and i can get ready and after that it's it's you know i can take a little break sometimes um the fights can get get you a little bit more closer to each other and then you know it's really difficult with the fighting world I would say like right now I just fought um five six weeks ago uh and I knew I wouldn't be fighting probably until December so I knew I can take a little break um I took a week off and then I just eased back into training just training once a day um maybe five days out of the week just just light and then as of a week ago i started to get back into like a little bit harder training

[00:16:54] Rob Howe: i love how for a fighter that taking it easy is training once a day five days a week

[00:17:01] Anna Hyvarinen: i know it sounds good but i mean i wasn't training like hard it was like a couple of lifting sessions a few rounds it's just yeah so i mean a normal person it's definitely a lot But for a fighter who trains full-time, it's usually two sessions a day. Okay.

[00:17:17] Rob Howe: Yeah, I just want to make sure to give our listeners some more context around how – and I don't mean to overhype it, but I want to paint a picture of how difficult it is to train just from a discipline perspective and how much work goes into it. because for me, I was working as a marketing team member of the U.S. 2012 Olympic team, and their average day was they would run seven miles, they would do a strength and conditioning workout afterwards, and then they'd have two hours of boxing work or sparring in the afternoon, and that was like their general, that was like a regular day. And that much work is just, you know, it's astounding. For a regular human, I'd need to sleep for a week after something like that.

[00:18:06] Anna Hyvarinen: Yeah. Yeah, I've got to remember. So this is not just some regular person exercising. So anybody who's training whatever sport, you know, professionally, it's a lot of training. So it's usually twice a day. So this is definitely not like that the regular person should aim for, you know. If you train four days out of the week, that's very, very well, you know. So don't need to aim for these kind of amounts of training. Um, but as a fighter, similar to boxing for sure, MMA, jujitsu, whatever. So, um, when I'm on preparations, it is usually, um, at least four days out of the week, I have a double session and then maybe Wednesday and Saturday, I have a morning session only that usually gives me like Monday, Tuesday will be very hard. Then Wednesday night I have off. so then Thursday, Friday I can go harder again and then I have just morning on Saturday and then I recover over the weekend. And when I'm not in preparations, then it's not necessarily twice a day, every day, or I might have a few days that I do twice, but the intensity is a lot lower. So they're more like skill work and just maintaining the fitness. But when the preparations are on, the sessions get a lot hotter. And I train here at American Top Team headquarters which is a professional MMA team so they have a very organized training schedule for the professionals which is really nice and we have a plenty of like hard sessions to choose from and it because it's kind of as a team sport but at the same time it's an individual sport so everybody is in preparations at different times and everybody's schedule is kind of a little different all the time but um what would i say like a regular fight camp would be maybe one hour drills in the morning monday one and a half hours of wrestling after that and then at nighttime you would maybe have a striking session skill work tuesday is always a heart sparring morning then at nighttime um maybe some mma drills conditioning wednesday same thing maybe wrestling striking then thursday is always a sparring in morning again and nighttime whatever everybody has scheduled and then usually grappling in the morning on friday conditioning at night sparring again on saturday so it alternates a little bit what whoever is working what and then yeah it's a lot of preparation for sure

[00:20:45] Rob Howe: so and i think like you know but as we go into like that's the training aspect so that's one And you brought up a good point earlier about weight and making weight. Another thing that I think people sort of take for granted as watchers of the sport. So walk me through, first of all, just like a general, give me like a general idea what making weight is like. Then talk about what making weight is like for someone with type 1 diabetes. and then sort of how you approach and think about making the weight aspect of the sport.

[00:21:24] Anna Hyvarinen: So for MMA, people tend to cut a little bit more weight than I would say for maybe boxing or Thai boxing, partly because the weight class is a little bit different. In boxing, there's more weight classes than in MMA. So in MMA, they go every 10 pounds. So for women, it would be 115, 125, 135, 145. So in general, weight cutting, I mean, ideally, if you have a six to eight weeks preparation, you can make weight fine. It's when it comes to more problematic is if you get a short notice fight, which a lot of fighters have to take in their career. You know, you can have like a few weeks notice. And then most of the time they make a catch weight at that time. But in general, you need to be very disciplined with your diet. You need to start early because you're not going to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time. So fighters usually try to get to a pretty low fat percentage, as low as they can. And then the rest remaining, it's really up to a fighter what they like, probably somewhere between I would say five to ten pounds are then cut from water right before the weighing so that usually starts like some people cut a little bit of water during the fight week and then the major cut is like um during the the weighing day so if weighing is at Friday night they'll start in the morning um and like I said this is you know a personal preference some people cut more weight than others um i personally don't like to cut a lot of weight because of my diabetes um so i'm a little bit in between i feel like i could probably cut a little bit more but so far i haven't attempted and i've been doing just fine so my weight because it's very easy so i am I diet down. I'm pretty lean all year round. So when I diet down, I go maybe down about six pounds, five, six pounds with diet, and then a couple of pounds, like maybe four pounds with water. And that's a pretty easy one for me to do.

[00:23:40] Rob Howe: Okay. So I think that's sort of the general idea and thoughts behind cutting weight. So now as a type 1, for you but also somebody else, what are the things that you have to think about that you have to prepare for that you have to be aware of throughout a weight cut?

[00:24:01] Anna Hyvarinen: well for me definitely you know there's always the risk that my sugars can drop low and i'm gonna have to you know have have something have a little sugar have something and so far i haven't had any problems um also because i don't cut that much weight like if i need to have a little bit sugar here and there it's not going to kill my wake up but i have some friends who do some so intense weight cuts that you know that little bit of carbs can put them back a little bit so for me it's like anything else any other day i just need to be really on top of my blood sugars um what i eat and just pay extra attention during the day that i'm gonna stop my weight cutting so So this is more the day off, the weigh-ins. And like I just did five weeks ago, I just made sure I had a little bit of honey there. So if my sugar happens to drop, I can just put a little bit of honey in my mouth and that would be fine. But yeah, that's pretty much it. I don't know if there are other diabetics out there doing martial arts. I would be very curious to know how they do it.

[00:25:12] Rob Howe: yeah I think obviously since our show is going to be centered around that hopefully that some others will see it and we'll be able to have those conversations

[00:25:22] Anna Hyvarinen: if anybody come out please connect I would love to yeah so it's more for me just to make sure that my sugars don't crash during the weight cut so you know when I'm eating less carbs when I am you know before the weight cut starts I'm not eating I'm not drinking anything so just being aware of that is maybe the major so I'm gonna usually check my sugar and just make sure it's rather a little high higher there because I'm not gonna be eating

[00:25:52] Rob Howe: or drinking it yeah um quick one more quick question on this and then we'll kind of move forward um how did you decide on honey as your as the way to treat your lows while you were training

[00:26:05] Anna Hyvarinen: honey this is more for the weight cutting process um i just like it because obviously you know if you put it in your gums or in your mouth it's gonna get absorbed really fast and honey is just pure sugar it's not gonna you know i don't really have to eat anything but it could be also something else it's just i can't like when i'm losing water right from my body can't drink anything I could probably eat some little bit of candy also, but I like honey. My preference.

[00:26:36] Rob Howe: Yeah, and I think that's more what I'm getting at, right? Because you can just put it in your mouth. You don't necessarily have to eat it to get the absorption. Exactly. Okay. Just an important distinction for people maybe not as familiar with cutting weight. Really interesting. Okay, so now you've made weight. You've trained. Take us through the day of the competition. You talked about that your blood sugar spikes, that you get that cortisol, that stress, that adrenaline. What do you do on the day of competition to make sure that you're right and ready to perform at your best?

[00:27:13] Anna Hyvarinen: Okay, so here is a major key. It's a control of the mind because…

[00:27:19] Rob Howe: Wait, major key alert. We got to say that one more time. I just want to make sure that we get it.

[00:27:22] Anna Hyvarinen: Yeah, control of the mind on the day off. because it doesn't matter what the sport, you know, everybody gets nervous, especially fighting. There's no fighter who doesn't get nervous. Everybody gets nervous, more or less. So I'm sure all of you diabetics, if you ever had been nervous about anything, you know, you know, your blood sugars can kind of start rising. So this is what I need to be the most aware of. And I have competed in jujitsu and all fights before. I've had some occasions that it was horrible like i couldn't i couldn't control my my nerves at all i was too nervous and my blood sugars just wouldn't come down they were like way too high and i'm sure that sabotaged my performance so i worked a lot with my mind to keep as calm as i can i've done a lot of meditation or breathing techniques and this past fight i was able to keep my blood sugars really well in control so proud of myself so that's definitely so after the weight cut is very important you hydrate and you eat really well um depending how much you've had to lose weight and during the day i make sure i eat something that's going to be easily digested that's going to give me the energy i make sure that i eat probably for me four hours before i'm gonna fight and then just have something a little bit um throughout the night before i go um definitely checking the sugars every maybe 30 minutes before my my performance and i don't like to go under the cage too low there is more more more likely the sugars are gonna be high during the fight but and i can handle that if it ever drops slow i would need to stop the fight right there so I don't want that to happen I'm not really worried about it because I know my body I know that in those situations I don't go low but you never know you know if if I overshoot the insulin right before the fight and it just crashes then that will be it so I don't want that to happen so making really sure that the sugar stays in control breathing staying as calm as I can as long as I

[00:29:36] Rob Howe: can yeah it's interesting the more competitors athletes that I talk to the more I hear that and And that was very similar to me. If I went too high, that would affect my performance, and I could always tell if I was too high. But in a basketball game, I can sub myself out and give myself some insulin and come back in. For a fight, it's different. You're in there for a lot of time and you can't get out. So I think a lot of people approach it that way. It's better to be a little bit high and go in. And, you know, I found that I always played the best basketball. I was able to focus my mind on the competition rather than my own health when I was around the 150 to 175 range.

[00:30:23] Anna Hyvarinen: Yeah.

[00:30:25] Rob Howe: And, like, that wasn't too high for me to be affected by it. But also I knew that I wasn't going to crash low in that amount of time.

[00:30:33] Anna Hyvarinen: Yeah.

[00:30:35] Rob Howe: so um when you're in there obviously like and you prepare that way you do so just so that you don't have any other anything to worry about in your mind except for the task in front of you right

[00:30:47] Anna Hyvarinen: exactly you're gonna be very very focused and as i i like i like to not you know there's people get in the zone in their own way so you need to know what's your zone so my zone i like to be very calm poised confident but controlled and i don't like to think a lot i like to just be as blank as i can when i'm going in there and uh how do you how do you create that environment for

[00:31:13] Rob Howe: yourself as you're going into those types of performances that's a practice so i have a mental

[00:31:19] Anna Hyvarinen: like toughness routine that i do and you need to you need to be doing that always like always before training it needs to be like part of your daily routine um because you need to learn how to get in the zone you need to practice being in the zone you can't just expect to all of a sudden be in the zone when you need to so i think that's definitely helped me to get into the zone and kind of get to know myself and know how do i perform the best some people like to get very hyped up you know some people like to talk a lot relax like it depends I'm very quiet I don't like to talk a lot before my performance so definitely knowing yourself and you need to do this during the practice process not right when you

[00:32:06] Rob Howe: need to go and perform right sort of one of those things like and I talk about this a lot like 2017 quick fix culture there's really no quick fix to learning how to get in the zone no just takes a lot of time and practice and repetition

[00:32:20] Anna Hyvarinen: For sure.

[00:32:22] Rob Howe: How do you apply those same types of principles? How does that daily practice affect your life with type 1? Does it help? Do you find that they're symbiotic of each other, that one affects the other, or that they're more separate?

[00:32:41] Anna Hyvarinen: Do you mean my sport?

[00:32:43] Rob Howe: Yeah, your sport and your sort of mindfulness practice, your getting in the zone, approaching. uh the reason i ask being that you know there are unexpected things that happen as a as a diabetic right you can eat the same thing do the same workout and have a completely different blood sugar reaction oh yeah how does your mindfulness you know affect and going in go into your walk

[00:33:08] Anna Hyvarinen: with diabetes well when i started doing that mental work like really religiously it was about a year ago i found this um kind of like a mental coach and i've been working with him ever since and i just i always knew how important my mind is with training and just everything but i wasn't really consistent with my practice and then um the meditation and breathing really changed everything for me in my life in general i feel like you're much more able to handle the stress or something that happens very suddenly versus if you if you're not ever stopping and calming down and centering yourself so I found that to be crucial for my sport I have dramatically improved my performance but it's definitely helped me to manage my life and my stress and my diabetes is a lot better. And I find that if I meditate every morning, my blood sugars are way better because my stress response is better. So that's a huge thing.

[00:34:18] Rob Howe: What kind of meditation do you do in the mornings?

[00:34:22] Anna Hyvarinen: I like to use this app called Headspace.

[00:34:25] Rob Howe: Okay, great. Yeah, I use Headspace as well.

[00:34:27] Anna Hyvarinen: Yeah, I love it. It's really cool. I'm sure at some point I could probably start developing my own routine but so far I've really enjoyed that app and how did you get

[00:34:39] Rob Howe: introduced to that and was it a part of your training or just overall looking for a mental health mental preparation balance I think I found headspace just

[00:34:50] Anna Hyvarinen: by accident I can't I've been using it for a while now I guess it was because I knew I should be meditating I've read about it so much and I'm like I just need to create the habit out of it and I felt like I I needed that guided meditation at the time like I I was new to meditating and I needed I needed somebody to guide me through it and that's how I started looking for you know an app or something that's how I found it and I meditate in the morning like I I'm sure a lot of people who meditate do also and I have my little spot where I go, I have the time that I go, and then I do my meditation there. Yeah, I discovered Headspace.

[00:35:34] Rob Howe: A friend recommended it this year. It's one of the best discoveries I think I've found of this year for myself. I think I always knew I was a person that could benefit from meditation, but without the guided aspect, I never really knew what to do. So I would get discouraged and give it up after a while so headspace has been uh really cool and instrumental in that in that process yeah absolutely i agree same for me cool so um anna what what are you looking forward to um the next few you know months years what are you what are you working towards what are you hopeful for not only as a competitor but as a as a diabetic

[00:36:19] Anna Hyvarinen: um well as a competitor i'm gonna say first i am hoping i can schedule one more fight for this year so hopefully for december um i also have a brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament coming up in couple of you know maybe four weeks so those are like the couple of things that i'm focused on in my training As for everything else, I just finished a one-year health coach training program. So I am just, actually today is the ceremony, so I'm going to be a health coach.

[00:36:52] Rob Howe: Oh, congratulations.

[00:36:54] Anna Hyvarinen: Thank you. So I'm going to be starting my own little health and nutrition coaching business very, very soon. so this is a project for the end of the year and for next year and the years to become and then with diabetes I mean I'm following a lot the research what's going on and I really I'm hoping for a cure I know that it's been coming for a long time and I believe it will come in our lifetime like I'm sure it will so I'm just very curious what they are doing in the research field. And, yeah, just staying hopeful. And hopefully one day when I retire from fighting, which is probably within the five years' time, I would say, if there's no cure by that time, I'm probably going to transfer to the pump and get all the benefits from the new stuff.

[00:37:53] Rob Howe: Yeah, I'm hopeful for a cure too. I really do believe that, like we talked about earlier, it is the best time to live with type 1. And part of that means that there is better technology, like the pumps that you were talking about, and continuous glucose monitors, and better meters, and better technology, and better research. But also, I think a big part of it is the community, and that's a thing that I've only recently discovered. you know, you mentioned earlier that you didn't really talk about your diabetes much. I was very the same, very much the same way. And it's interesting how, you know, some different like life paths open up when you do that. And I now know so many people because just of saying, hey, I have type 1 diabetes and I want to try to spread the stories of the other people who have it. And also just getting to meet these different people. So it's kind of interesting, like the, I would love nothing more than from all of my type 1 diabetes friends to be people who used to have type 1 diabetes. But until that happens, I think it's a good time to be around.

[00:39:04] Anna Hyvarinen: Absolutely. I love the idea of your podcast and the community. I 100% agree. And like I said, I used to be kind of a loner with my diabetes. I didn't know anybody who had it. And I guess I was so used to just dealing with myself. I didn't really ever reach out to anywhere and it's only only recently mainly through like online communities and stuff but I've realized that there's um a lot going on and I think it's really really cool and I've been much more involved and and would love to be I mean my dream would be able to you know represent the type 1 diabetes community one day when I when I get to UFC and you know bring the awareness that's what I would like to do so hopefully that will happen

[00:39:49] Rob Howe: and and i i really do hope it does too um and i think that's you know what we're all secretly hoping for kind of behind the scenes um my another thing and it's i think it's a good transition now uh something that i always ask all my guests um is uh and i gotta paint the context for you you're obviously somebody that's that's traveled you you're in an airport and they're about to close the gate um you have 30 seconds before they close the gate to your flight and you can't miss the flight uh and you know for you maybe that's there's like a there's like a wedding or something back in finland and you got to make the flight there's no more flights you can get uh and then you encounter someone who's either been recently diagnosed or uh is struggling with with diabetes what's the one thing that you tell them i would tell them that don't ever let diabetes

[00:40:41] Anna Hyvarinen: define you don't ever let it define you you need to to have the courage have the courage to to do whatever you want to do in life whether you know whatever you're going through I think that's for me I've always been very courageous with my diabetes I've never let it stop me from doing anything it doesn't mean I didn't you know, prepare, take care, but I never let it be a reason that I couldn't do something. So that's what I would say.

[00:41:20] Rob Howe: No, and I totally agree. I think, you know, it can be really easy to fall into that trap of only just being a diabetic or defining yourself that way, putting yourself in that bubble.

[00:41:31] Anna Hyvarinen: And a lot of people, I think, they become a little bit of victims. Oh, poor me, I have this diabetes and and yes it's unfortunate but like we just discussed like it is not that bad to live with diabetes in today's world like there are a lot of other diseases that are way worse than diabetes like you could have dealt been dealt with a lot worse cards than you have like i'm not happy i have diabetes but i'm also happy that i don't have something much worse than this like it could it could always be worse um so i don't like to think of myself as victim i've never have um and i never let it let it define me or what i can do um so i i would just wanna if i ever met anybody like that i would want to encourage them to to never give up and keep going

[00:42:24] Rob Howe: well yeah and i think those no matter how much we may hear those things like hearing it from the right person at the right time can make a huge difference so great so Anna thank you so much for coming on the show I really appreciate it it was great to meet you for our followers and listeners who want to connect with you online what's the best place to find you

[00:42:45] Anna Hyvarinen: well first of all thank you for having me it was my pleasure if you want to connect with me you can find me from Instagram with my name that's Anna A-N-N-A my last name H-Y-V-A-R-I-N-E-N Facebook is Anna J and also my last name H-Y-V-A-R-I-N-E-N and through Instagram if you go to my profile you can also send me an email from there

[00:43:14] Rob Howe: Great and we will include all your links in the show notes for those who are spellingly challenged or intimidated by typing your last name into the URL bar we'll absolutely do that but again thank you so much for coming on it was really great to meet you and look forward to uh you're gonna have to tell us about uh if you get another fight this year so we can oh i will oh yeah absolutely yeah that'll be great so good luck in your training and uh we will talk again soon