Diabetics Doing Balance in New Zealand with Samantha Northcott

[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. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. We are telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics from all across the world. And today my very special guest is Samantha Northcott. And Samantha, you're in New Zealand, so it's Friday night for me, Saturday afternoon or like right around lunchtime for you.

[00:01:09] Samantha Northcott: Yep, that's right.

[00:01:10] Rob Howe: Well, I always love these international interviews because it's great that we get to coordinate all the way across the world. But Samantha, welcome to the show.

[00:01:22] Samantha Northcott: Thank you for having me.

[00:01:23] Rob Howe: It is my pleasure. I'm really excited to tell your story and kind of dig into everything that you're doing over in New Zealand. But the best way to get started, I think, is just for us to learn a little bit more about you. Sorry, bless you. Is that a sneeze? A little bit. Yeah, a little bit. It's always fun, little technical difficulties there. um why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself uh your diagnosis story and how you sort

[00:01:50] Samantha Northcott: of joined the type 1 diabetes family yeah cool so um i got diagnosed of late on set so i was diagnosed when i was 24 um it was a long time coming like looking back i probably showed all the signs and symptoms all through my teenage years working up till 24 and no doctors kind of helped me out no one ever suspected anything and then with lots of female hormone problems and everything the doctors finally decided hey maybe we should just check your blood sugar levels it's probably not anything but we'll just do a double check just in case and that was like on a Monday and then on the Friday I got a call from the hospital just being like hey we need you to come into the hospital like now and I was like oh I'm actually just on my way to work like is it all good if I pop in tomorrow like this can't be that urgent and they're like no we need you like now the emergency department's waiting for you get here and I was like okay just kind of like fluffed around in my flat for a wee bit didn't really think much of it and then I get another phone call from the hospital saying don't forget to pack an overnight bag you may be here a while and that's when I kind of started freaking out and thinking what the hell is going on um and so I got to the hospital and it took them about 12 hours to diagnose everything and get me on insulin and get everything going they kind of didn't know what was going on um and then I had a quick 30-minute chat with a diabetes nurse on how to inject everything, and I was kind of sent on my way and had to learn everything all by myself. So that's kind of why I got really involved in the type 1 community, because I didn't know anything. I've got no family history. And yeah, I kind of just needed that support and needed people to tell me kind of what was going on with

[00:03:55] Rob Howe: my body at the time. Wow. And I think it's always interesting when we're talking about late onset diagnosis because you know you get less information I think than in general you get less information than a childhood or juvenile diagnosis. What was that like for you kind of you know when you got diagnosed the rhetoric and the you know how the doctors described everything to you? Did you feel empowered or did you sort of come across that on your own?

[00:04:26] Samantha Northcott: uh it probably took me about eight months to finally like be at one with my diabetes and feel good about it and realize that it's like a blessing at first the doctors didn't tell me anything and all the nurses didn't really speak English the Waikato hospital isn't that great um and yeah I literally just had a half hour chat and they kind of set me on my own and that was all that the doctors said to me.

[00:04:54] Rob Howe: Oh man, yeah. So just like in and out, on with your day.

[00:04:59] Samantha Northcott: Yeah, pretty much. Just set me on my way and let me deal with it.

[00:05:04] Rob Howe: And looking back, would you have had it any other way or would you have maybe rather had a little bit more hand-holding or more information?

[00:05:14] Samantha Northcott: I kind of enjoy that it's been my own journey. I have kind of I still do it all by myself now and I manage it all by myself now so it's just kind of been that way from the get-go so it's been really nice just getting to know my body and learn and not have anyone else's opinions on how to manage type 1 forced upon me

[00:05:35] Rob Howe: yeah and I think you know that's a really um you know I think you have to be a certain type of person to you know be able to take things in stride like that and sort of embrace the journey and is that does that do you think that comes from you know just you and your personality or just some of the other things in your life you know healthy balance and you know maybe even from your family life just being kind of willing to take things in stride and make the best of it

[00:06:02] Samantha Northcott: yeah I think I've always just kind of been like that even as a kid and a teenager it's just kind of just whatever happens kind of happens and you just deal with it and you move on and deal with it in the best way that you can. I got the day that I got diagnosed, the day after, I got accepted into a nutrition and well-being course. So it's kind of gone hand in hand. I've learned a lot about taking on your own journey and about your body and about well-being while I was going through the whole diagnosis process. So it's been really handy.

[00:06:36] Rob Howe: Yeah, what a kind of silver lining to that moment. You'll always have your diagnosis day and then right off the bat some good news to go along with some sometimes bad news.

[00:06:47] Samantha Northcott: Exactly. It's like a blessing in disguise.

[00:06:50] Rob Howe: Right. So how did you take your type 1 diagnosis and then also your nutrition courses and your training? I imagine those went hand in hand, right? You were able to throw yourself into one

[00:07:04] Samantha Northcott: and then also the other. Yeah, the course starts off, you do a basic like physiology and anatomy on the body. So they go through everything and how everything in the body works. So while I was doing that, I was learning all about my own pancreas and things that happen in the pancreas that can affect my blood sugars and not affect my blood sugars. So everything really just went

[00:07:27] Rob Howe: hand in hand with each other. And, you know, as a new diabetic, right, you know, how beneficial was that to you to sort of realize how everything works kind of right off the bat?

[00:07:40] Samantha Northcott: It was so beneficial. I get so many people that I know with type 1 wishing that they kind of had the basic anatomy knowledge that I have to help themselves as well. Like, I know exactly what's going on in my body and I know exactly what hormones affecting what at the time that I'm going low or at the time that I'm going high. And it's just such handy extra knowledge to kind of

[00:08:02] Rob Howe: know what's going on. Well, and I think, you know, when I look back on my diagnosis, my mom is not a licensed nutritionist, but she owned a Curves franchise that was here in the US is like a women's workout center for 12 years. So like her knowledge of, you know, what foods do to you and what exercise, the impact of exercise on your body. And so like a basic nutrition and anatomy physiology like helped me tremendously. And I think, you know, the more knowledge you have, it's easier to make those decisions. So do you remember anything specifically like during your time like at school or in the program that, you know, really clicked for you and really made a big impact in your type 1?

[00:08:48] Samantha Northcott: um probably a lot is stress and our stress hormones i used to do a lot of exercise 24 7 and would lift heavy weights and work out two to three times a day thinking that that's kind of what would help lower my blood sugar levels and that is what would be good for me and then in the course i learned all about the stress hormones and how exercise affects those hormones and how then those hormones then create high blood sugar levels and then we get low blood sugar levels later once those hormones start to drop and I really started to try out with non-stressful exercise a lot of yoga a lot of pilates and that kind of thing and I just noticed a whole switch within my diabetes and it was so crazy well and I think that's something that a lot of people

[00:09:35] Rob Howe: talk about and there's a lot more awareness around it now. So what did you do? Because I think a lot of people have questions about exercise quite a bit because either whether it's going low during an exercise or a workout or going high and the effects of stress and cortisol on your blood sugars. For me personally, when I played basketball, I was very stressed about game time for a lot of different reasons. And so I had to change the way I approached going to and preparing for my games because my blood sugar would go, like on a fasting blood sugar, would go from like 80 to over 400. And so, you know, and obviously like you feel really terrible when you have that type of stress and that type of blood sugar. So what did you learn? And then now how did that affect, and how did that change the way that you, you know, approached exercise?

[00:10:33] Samantha Northcott: I always wondered because I'd go to the gym and I would all of a sudden be really high and I'd be like what is going on like I'm exercise is supposed to bring your blood sugar down like what is happening and I always struggled because I never wanted to go to the gym always felt so terrible at the gym and never wanted to do anything when I exercise and then I read somewhere that yoga was supposed to be really good and I was like oh yeah that makes sense and then I started learning more about cortisol stress hormones and thought oh maybe I'll give this a try and it was the first exercise class that I'd been to where my blood sugars did not change they just stayed stable the whole time and I was like this is this has got to be a good thing and from then on I've just continued with yoga and pilates and throughout every single class I go to my blood sugars just

[00:11:26] Rob Howe: stay exactly the same. Wow. So, so like really right away, you were able to see the difference.

[00:11:33] Samantha Northcott: Yeah. Right away from that first class, I was just converted.

[00:11:37] Rob Howe: So I think that a lot of people look, you know, they're looking for that balance of, you know, especially exercise because it's hard enough, especially here in the U S I'm not sure in New Zealand, but in the U S it's pretty well known that we're not all in the best shape physically. We don't, we're not very active. Um, and you know, at least as a general rule. So, you know, there's a lot of things preventing you, a lot of obstacles to overcome just to get to the gym, even if you don't have diabetes, whether that's work or it's happy hour or fast food or whatever, or just motivation. Um, and then on the, um, on the other end, you have your diabetes and your blood sugar, starting blood sugar, blood sugar throughout the workout and at the end. And so what would you recommend for people who, you know, have had not much success in terms of, you know, approaching their workouts? What kind of advice or what kind of plan would you put them on to try to achieve a little bit more success with their workouts?

[00:12:41] Samantha Northcott: It's really just trial and error. It was so individual, but like those low intensive exercises, just like going for a walk or yoga or Pilates or just those really nice low intensive exercises tend to be the ones that don't increase our stress hormones enough to create a high blood sugar level or any kind of problems with our blood sugars during exercise. so it's just about finding the exercise that you really enjoy doing whether it's taking a walk with friends or going for a walk with your dog or every morning pulling up that youtube yoga video and just doing some low intensive exercise that isn't going to cause a lot of stress on the body and isn't going to cause a lot of stress in your mind because you know you should be doing this you

[00:13:29] Rob Howe: just don't enjoy it right i mean and that's the thing is stress on the body is one thing and, you know, that mental sort of fatigue from, you know, from trying to achieve a, you know, a positive result from a workout and then getting done and being high, not feeling good and having to overcorrect and then swinging low. It's very difficult. So, you know, you kind of run into that mental fatigue. So, yeah, that's cool. I want to make sure that, you know, there's as much information out there about the success that people with type 1 have with exercise that is a little bit more balanced so you're talking about the yoga less stress maybe less um less impact less weight but that's still manageable and then you know positive obviously on their blood sugars

[00:14:20] Samantha Northcott: yeah definitely it's just about finding that really nice balance between going for a nice walk and getting your heart rate up just enough to get the benefits from exercise without having to sit there afterwards and feel terrible because you have already all of a sudden had this low and you're smashing back all these lollies and kind of defeated the whole purpose of working out it's really just about finding the exercise that you really enjoy doing and you wake up and you're like yeah I can't wait to go for a walk but yeah I can't wait to go to that Pilates class today

[00:14:54] Rob Howe: absolutely so for you um you know after you know your diagnosis a few years ago uh you know you're going through the nutrition program um what other changes did you uh discover along the way sort of outside of exercise in terms of maybe diet or um you know any other choices that you that you kind of learned as you were going through that journey i really discovered

[00:15:21] Samantha Northcott: low carb eating right off the back of my diagnosis I was always interested in diet and nutrition that's why I was trying to get into the course um and I was reading a book called what the fat which is all about a high fat low carbohydrate diet and then I got diagnosed and I was sitting there thinking about my blood sugars and thinking what impacted them and it just clicked that I've got a problem metabolizing carbohydrates so why would I eat a lot of carbohydrates when I can't use them efficiently and then I started reading more and more into it and I started looking more into it and I saw a low-carb dietician and she kind of set me on the right path of low-carb eating and how would how that's really going to affect my blood sugar levels over a long time. But it definitely was a huge struggle. They don't really promote low carb eating over here. I don't know if they do in the States. But I had many, many dietitians tell me that I was going to create a lot more problems on my body just eating low carb than I would my

[00:16:31] Rob Howe: diabetes ever would. You know, it's interesting because, you know, here in the US, when you're diagnosed, you are, you know, they give you the plan based on like the American, quote unquote, American diet, which is a high calorie, high carbohydrate diet. So it's not, it's not that low carb is not popular here in the US, because I think it is in terms of when people are focusing on nutrition. But I think the focus on nutrition is what is low here in the US. And that's something that it's hard for me sometimes. I have to remember that because I'm very focused on my nutrition. I have a high awareness of things that are good for me, things that are bad for me, things that are out there that I can take that, you know, are going to be beneficial to my physical body as well as my diabetes. But there's a lot of people out there who aren't concerned with those things and who aren't really even concerned with health in general. So, you know, it's very interesting because I used to feel very passionately about, you know, we don't give people the right information when they're diagnosed. And I've talked to some parents who feel the same way, and they immediately put their kids on a very low carb, high fat, high vegetable protein style diet after they were diagnosed because they were like, well, this makes the most sense in terms of, you know, minimizing the big spikes from, you know, from blood sugars. So, you know, they think, hey, you know, this is the stuff that we should be teaching. But one thing I see on the side of the doctors is like, it's that's one thing. And yes, that is good. And yes, you know, that is certainly a way that you can minimize some of those spikes. But if someone has no knowledge of a proper, healthy, balanced diet, it's not sustainable for them to just immediately jump into something like that. So, you know, giving them that base level information, I definitely understand where that comes from although I'm very much like you I eat a higher fat lower carb diet and that has worked really well for me over the last couple years.

[00:18:35] Samantha Northcott: Yeah we're so the same over here we just don't give the tools to anyone diagnosed with type 1 on things that can help them and it's very just based on that food pyramid that we need to be eating lots of breads lots of grains and then we create all these extra problems and people just don't know where to start to look for the right information or how to start. And that's really the knowledge that they need is just how to start looking into nutrition ways to help them. And that nutrition can actually help them because that's another big thing that we don't really

[00:19:10] Rob Howe: promote that much over here. And, you know, I think it's very, it sounds like New Zealand and the US are very similar in terms of, you know, the way that the food pyramid is promoted to people and like the general knowledge that's given. You know, people I think are still concerned with like fat-free foods instead of, you know, looking at sugar and, you know, calories and, you know, versus quality of food and things like that. It's very interesting. It's just another awareness thing. And I think with diabetes, it's the same way. You know, we only give people, or people can only make decisions according to the information that they have. and you know we just don't necessarily arm them with uh the best information right off the bat across the board now there are certainly exceptions to that rule um but i think you know the for me the easiest meal plan to manage in terms of diabetes has been the low carb high fat high vegetable diet so yeah definitely um give us a so give us like a uh an overview of like what you would eat like what's a normal day of your like diet look like um a normal day for breakfast i

[00:20:21] Samantha Northcott: normally have some form of eggs whether it's in an omelet um or an omelet with a bunch of spinach and green veggies it's always eggs and some kind of green vegetable um it's really my go-to because it gets me through the morning. About mid-morning, I have all my supplements and my vitamin C water to try and get all those base nutrients in me. And then lunch is generally leftovers from the day before because I just don't have time or motivation to cook lunch. I find lunch the most boring meal of the day. So I normally have leftovers for lunch. And then dinner really is just veggies and meat. It's really all it is. Lots and lots of green veggies, lots of different color, lots of foods that are in season so that I'm getting the right nutrients that I need for the right time of year that it is nice and fresh. And yeah, it really is just lots and lots of

[00:21:24] Rob Howe: veggies and meat for every meal. And, you know, is that sort of the, you know, for somebody who is asking, you know, how they get started, is that sort of where you would point them?

[00:21:37] Samantha Northcott: Yeah, yeah. A lot of, I feel even people without diabetes generally eat a lot more processed and carbohydrate driven foods than what we need to, whether you are a carb or a protein kind of metabolizer. and I just feel like people need to decrease the emphasis on how much carbs they're having and if they have rice with their curry or have rice with their stir fry and just put the emphasis on having lots of green veggies lots of fresh veggies that are in season lots of different color and variety

[00:22:13] Rob Howe: in their meals yeah and I think I had a I had an interview with a chef who's actually a type 2 diabetic he was the first type 2 that I had on the podcast uh chef Robert Lewis and he talks about you know the different colors that you can if you can see more than three colors in your dish you're probably doing a good job um if everything's the same color you might need to throw some stuff in there um it's just a simple rule are there any other simple rules that you use uh during the day

[00:22:40] Samantha Northcott: to kind of help you stay in line yeah definitely the color rule lots of especially lots of green and I use my palms a lot for measuring. I am terrible at physically going out there and thinking, oh, I need one cup of this and I only need one cup of this. I can't be bothered measuring. So I generally use my palms for every meal. So you want one palm size of protein with your meal. You want one palm size of complex carbohydrates with your meal, which that's your brown rice, your sweet potato, your buckwheat. and then you want two palm sizes of vegetables. So it's kind of an easy way to just look at your plate and be like, oh, yeah, that's about a palm size. That's going to be the right amount for my body.

[00:23:29] Rob Howe: Yeah, I think the simpler the rules that we can keep, the better off we're going to be, especially for people who are trying to get started, right? Yeah. And also just, you know, recognizing that everybody's got to start somewhere.

[00:23:42] Samantha Northcott: Yeah, we do all have to start somewhere and just starting the basics, just increasing those green veggies, increasing water intake is just going to make such a big difference on someone's blood sugar levels and someone's well-being that they're just going to continue and continue on that path.

[00:23:59] Rob Howe: And that's something that's important as well for diabetes. And I know you're relatively early on in your journey as well. This is a lifelong disease, right? And it's a chronic illness that doesn't have a cure. I think that we're in the best time that there's ever been to live with type 1. And I know a lot of people agree, whether it's technology or community or a combination of the two. How do you find balance in terms of, you know, keeping your mind healthy and strong with that sort of battling the burnout? Or do you ever run into any hurdles where you just, you know, people make the jokes like, I just can't diabetes today. I just don't want to be

[00:24:39] Samantha Northcott: a diabetic today yeah I definitely still struggle with them all the time I had a little burnout last week where I just couldn't and I was just having lows all night long I just couldn't just didn't want to anymore and I just couldn't be bothered um and I just kind of reflect on my life and I learned a really good visualization kind of technique where you kind of sit back Like close your eyes and you think if I continue doing what I'm doing, whether it's if I continue eating a lot of sugar or eating a bad diet, what am I going to look like in two months? What am I going to look like in 10 years? And then what am I going to look like in 20 years? And it kind of you sit there and you look at yourself in 20 years and you kind of think, oh, well, I could have lost a limb. I might not have my eyesight anymore. and then you do it again with, oh, what do I look like in two months if I did change my diet and keep focusing on managing my blood sugars and then what I look like in 10 years and then what do I look like in 20 years when I've been really balanced diet, really focused on my blood sugar levels and you kind of see the difference on how it is if you don't manage them very well or if you do manage them very well.

[00:25:57] Rob Howe: Well, you know, it's tough because I think the same thing. You know, I want to know, I get encouraged when I see people who have been living with type 1 for a long time by like more than 40 years. I met a guy a couple of weeks back who had been living with type 1 for 57 years. Wow. And he looked great. And I thought, you know, in that moment, I was like, well, you know, 57 years ago, even 30 years ago, 20 years ago, he didn't have the same technology that we have today to take care of himself. And, you know, he still looks great. So I felt really encouraged by that. Just knowing, hey, how far technology's come. I'm not sure how you treat your diabetes. Do you use pens or injections or a pump?

[00:26:46] Samantha Northcott: I use injections, actually.

[00:26:48] Rob Howe: Cool. So, yeah, like, you know, there's multiple ways for us to treat. I'm about to get a new pump here, hopefully, in the next couple of weeks. fingers crossed, with like the closed loop, hybrid closed loop system from Medtronic. So, you know, it's going to be able to read my CGM is going to be able to read my blood sugars and make decisions for me. And I feel like that's going to be so, you know, we were talking about mental stress earlier. That's going to be so, you know, relieving from some of that, I think. And I think, you know, as we get into more conversations and more, or I guess as we continue that dialogue with like healthcare providers and device manufacturers of what we want and what we're looking for. They really are listening and they're coming up with really great stuff for us. And so, you know, I think that in 50 years, 60 years, hopefully there'll be a cure. But if not, I feel like living with type 1 won't be as big of a burden as it is today or as it's been

[00:27:44] Samantha Northcott: in the last, you know, 50 years. Yeah, definitely. I can't wait to see like, even in just the two years that I've been diagnosed, there's been so many different changes already and so many new little devices to come out to help manage it. It's so awesome to see that in 50 years, if I do give my children type 1, that they're going to have such an easier kind of way to be able to deal with it. And just taking the technology is just going to take a lot of that mental stress off them.

[00:28:14] Rob Howe: And, you know, you talked about, you bring up a good point. like if you know your children you know your future children have type 1 um what do you what are you most hopeful for with your life from type 1 what are you looking for when you think about the future and you think about you know like you mentioned 10 years 20 years 30 years down the line what do you what makes you excited what are you looking forward to i'm really just looking forward

[00:28:38] Samantha Northcott: to using all of my nutrition knowledge and helping others with type 1 to be able to have a real balanced lifestyle and not look at diabetes as a burden rather than look at diabetes as a strong way that we can just live with it and empower ourselves with it it's such a it's got such a negative aura about it whether it's type 1 or type 2 the general community just think about it as such a negative thing whereas if we are able to switch that and just think positively

[00:29:10] Rob Howe: about it, we can just change so much. Yeah. And I think the, you know, there's been a lot of, a lot of progress, I think, in the, you know, the general conversation around diabetes in general. And I think social media is a big part of that. I kind of joked that it's the T1D renaissance that we're living in this like era where it's all of a sudden for the first time, cool to have type 1 and really cool to embrace, you know, the things about you that make you unique. And, you know, I just think in the next 10 years, because of companies like, and organizations like Beyond Type 1, and all the people associated with it, and with JDRF, and, you know, even the ADA to some point, like, they're getting better at talking about living with type 1 diabetes, and living with diabetes in general. And I think, you know, sometimes it's easy to bristle up as a type 1 diabetic, and like, have, feel negatively towards type 2s, but, you know, they're in this as well and they don't mean any harm by it. And, you know, a lot of it, I was reading an article this week, a guy in the NFL and the National Football League has type 2 diabetes and he's in great shape. So for me, I was like, you know, it's easy for us to say, oh, well, you're not taking care of yourself if you have type 2, but that's not always the case. And, you know, which I found really fascinating. So, you know, the more awareness and that's the interesting thing about diabetes as well is, you know, you can have as much awareness. I feel like I know a lot about both and I can still learn something new every day.

[00:30:43] Samantha Northcott: Yeah, there's always, always new stuff to be learning, new technology that's coming out, new information that's coming out. It's such an evolving disease that we're never going to be just stuck with living with it. We're always going to be able to get new knowledge and new

[00:30:59] Rob Howe: technology and new ways to deal with it. So, you know, in that, in that kind of, in that same vein, I asked this question to all my guests on the podcast. So if you listen through them all the way to the end, you'll know what the question this is. But let's, for example, let's kind of put this context together. So imagine that you're in an airport and they're about to, uh, you have 30 seconds before they close the door to your gate. So, um, this flight is super important and you can't miss it. Whatever's on the other end is super important. So, uh, but you run into somebody who has either been struggling with their type 1 or has only, has been recently diagnosed. Um, what's the one thing that you tell them in that 30 seconds? That everything's going to be all right. Yeah. Um, and for you, uh, what, what did that,

[00:31:52] Samantha Northcott: what did it mean to hear that uh early on um it kind of meant everything like i didn't know anyone in my life that had type 1 i didn't know anyone that had friends or family with type 1 like everyone kind of surrounding me didn't know anything about it and didn't really know how to deal with me or what to say to me or everyone just told me like oh you poor thing you poor thing you poor thing and it just made me get really down and depressed about it that everyone is like you poor thing my cousin unfortunately got diagnosed with breast cancer around the same time that I got diagnosed and she was feeling more sorry for me than she was for herself and I just couldn't get my head around it like she has cancer like I can deal with diabetes as I can take injections like she was going through this massive change and she was feeling sorry for me and it wasn't until I luckily enough got to meet Ruby McGill from Wellington for lunch one day her and her daughter and she just told me everything is going to be all right like you'll be fine you'll deal with it there's going to be ups and downs but you'll be fine And it was after that that I kind of finally felt okay with it and finally realized that it was actually all just going to be okay.

[00:33:17] Rob Howe: That's so cool. I interviewed Ruby, I guess, a couple weeks ago now. And we didn't have a great connection on the podcast in terms of like the internet kind of was spotty where she was. But she is just an incredible person. I'm so fortunate to have met her. And I think she might have tagged you in my Instagram post. And that's how this meeting or this interview made it happen.

[00:33:41] Samantha Northcott: Yeah, she's very good at getting me involved more in the type 1 community and getting me out there. And she's always tagging me in new things to do. And when she tagged me in your podcast post, I was like, oh, there's nothing for me to talk about. Like, I don't do anything exciting with my life. She's like, just do it like you do. Like, don't be stupid.

[00:34:00] Rob Howe: Yeah. And I think, you know, people initially, that's a response that I get relatively regularly. People say, oh, well, you know, I don't feel like I'm living that exciting or I'm doing anything that extraordinary. but that's important to celebrate just like the daily wins, just like getting up and making it to work, getting on a regular exercise schedule, dropping the kids off at school, whatever the victory is. I think those stories are important for people to hear as well because not everybody can run a marathon or not everybody wants to maybe, or not everybody climbs Mount Everest, not everybody jumps out of a plane. But, you know, we all live day to day with type 1 and a day where you wake up, you have a good day with your blood sugar, a good relationship with yourself and your body and your type 1, that's a good day. That's a day worth celebrating.

[00:34:52] Samantha Northcott: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Everyone, no matter what, even if they are just a stay-at-home mom or this amazing person, everyone's got their challenges and everyone overcomes it daily. And I always write down in my little journal, today was a really good blood sugar day and you know that's a really good achievement for the day.

[00:35:12] Rob Howe: Yes, it is. It's definitely worth celebrating. So worth celebrating. Well, Samantha, thank you so much for coming on the show and for being flexible with your schedule today on your Saturday. It was great to meet you and talk to you, and it was super awesome to hear your story.

[00:35:32] Samantha Northcott: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It was such a fun chat.

[00:35:36] Rob Howe: for uh for our listeners who want to find you on social media and maybe chat you up what's uh

[00:35:43] Samantha Northcott: what's the best place to do that um probably instagram they can find me on findbalance.nz on instagram um and they can just write me a message anytime any day i just love to help other people and share with them any kind of tips that i have or them to share with me any tips that they

[00:36:03] Rob Howe: have since I'm never can know it all well I will definitely tag you in the show notes and include all your relevant links and so people can get in touch with you awesome thank you so much no thank you and we will be in touch very soon I'm sure

[00:36:23] Samantha Northcott: awesome have a good Friday night