Diabetics Doing T1D Community in Canada and Vegan Lifestyle with Abby David

[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 my very special guest, not close to Dallas, but still on this side of the earth, I guess, if we're talking across the world, is Abby David calling from Toronto.

[00:01:07] Abby David: Woo, hello.

[00:01:08] Rob Howe: Hello, welcome to the show.

[00:01:10] Abby David: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:11] Rob Howe: It's my pleasure. Abby, you and I, obviously, like most of my guests, met through Instagram. So let's dive in. How did you end up on the show Diabetics Doing Things? Let's start with the origin story. Let's go way back.

[00:01:28] Abby David: How did I end up on the show? As in like how was I diagnosed and how did I get diabetes?

[00:01:34] Rob Howe: Yeah, pretty much. Other than that, obviously I asked you to be on the show. Yeah, pretty straightforward. That is not complicated.

[00:01:42] Abby David: No. So I was diagnosed when I was 16 years old and I'm 23 now. So I don't know, seven years ago. oh, is that math? That's math. And yeah, I had all the symptoms that everybody usually has, you know, really, really thirsty, losing weight, didn't really think much of it because like, those are also symptoms of a lot of other things. And then just decided to go to the doctor one day. and at first she she made me get an actual blood test just to find out what my blood sugar was she didn't know how to use like a blood sugar meter which is like ridiculous because she was like a general doctor um so she tested my blood sugar and then I had to wait a day to find out what it was and it was like 27 which is I'm not sure what the American version of that is I think maybe like six or 700. Um, and then they were like, okay, yep, you have this. And for some reason I didn't really feel too traumatized right when I, they told me, um, just cause I guess I didn't know a ton about it. Um, so yeah, she told me I had it. We were in her, her doctor's office and then my dad was with me and he was like, is she going to have this for the rest of her life? and then the doctor was like yeah and then he started crying and like he never cries ever so I was like oh my gosh this is really serious so then I started crying and then we went to the hospital and they like did the whole teaching for like two weeks and yeah classic dad response though

[00:03:22] Rob Howe: I know I love parent my I don't know my parents took it like personally almost like they had done

[00:03:30] Abby David: something wrong and I know same with my parents they're like what did I do like did I feed you this or not feed you this when you're younger it was like no like it it's really just it's random

[00:03:40] Rob Howe: so right are you the only person in your family um with type 1 yeah i am it's interesting how many people i talk to that that's the case i think i haven't i haven't done the i haven't run the numbers uh but i would imagine that it's more often than not the people that i talk to anyway uh that they are the only type 1 in their family yeah it is weird how that happens there certainly are exceptions to the rule and I love the stories where a brother or sister gets diagnosed

[00:04:09] Abby David: I know I'm like oh whenever I hear that I'm like oh I wish like yeah I just yeah I just want someone to love me yeah yeah I was a little bit like isolated for a long time like my sister's uh boyfriend at the time had type 1 but she I was living in Vancouver and she was living in Toronto so like he tried to like kind of like give me a little pep talk and like stuff and like help me out but I was also I didn't really want to talk to people about it at the time so yeah uh and and

[00:04:40] Rob Howe: that's a pretty common response right and especially like you know your your sister's

[00:04:44] Abby David: boyfriend it's like you sort of feels forced exactly totally and I found that like forced

[00:04:50] Rob Howe: conversations about diabetes are like the worst kind of the worst yeah the nicest thing was just

[00:04:56] Abby David: like if someone sent me a card and just like you know didn't it didn't like need a response from me it was just like okay if someone like was thinking about me it's like oh that was like

[00:05:07] Rob Howe: really appreciated so yeah well and i think when did that change for you when did you like you

[00:05:14] Abby David: mentioned when you're kind of probably yeah probably once i graduated high school because i got diagnosed in grade 11 and then i was i because i didn't really want people to treat me differently in high school. So I literally did not tell anybody like I would go to the bathroom to like inject my insulin or test my blood sugar. I told like one or two people. And then once I graduated, and I met all these new people in college, it was sort of like, well, now I can just be this person and no one knew me before or anything. I don't know. So yeah, it was college,

[00:05:50] Rob Howe: I guess. And I think that's super important to like, I mean, just the exercise of getting outside your comfort zone anyway. But going away for school, that was something that was very purposeful for me when I was 18, which is not when you make very intentional decisions most of the time. But I wanted to get out and just be away from everything that I was comfortable with and everything that I knew, mostly like not because I didn't want my parents to check in on me, but I also wanted to see other parts of the world and like meet other people. So it's an interesting thing for somebody with type 1, like you said, you know, keeping it kind of on the low and then you go to college, you sort of are growing into yourself in other ways. And then that sort of comes through with diabetes as well.

[00:06:34] Abby David: Yeah, definitely. It's definitely like a coming of age thing.

[00:06:38] Rob Howe: It is. And I think like coming, the idea of coming of age with diabetes, like there is no timeline, right? No.

[00:06:45] Abby David: It kind of just forces you to just deal with everything.

[00:06:49] Rob Howe: Well, and I think especially when you look at kids. And I get to talk to children and teen groups a lot. And I'm always surprised at how grown up the kids are. Because I think you have that moment where you're in charge of your life to a more heightened extent than a normal kid.

[00:07:12] Abby David: Totally. It forces you to just to think like in life or death situations a lot more than anybody like a normal person would have to think about it. So it's like that in itself would just make you so much more mature and like having to make choices every day like based on your at that or like will affect your health, you know, especially when you're really young. Like I can't imagine being like seven years old. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:38] Rob Howe: And I mean, even I was diagnosed at the same age that you were when I was 16. So at that point, you're pretty self-sufficient. I would make that generalization. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You have an idea of how to live, and so you just sort of add an extra step. Do you remember anything in particular that was a challenge to adjust to or something that you were like, oh, well, I do this differently now because I have diabetes? Was there anything like that for you or was it just more of an experimentation? hey we'll do this see how I feel and then keep moving yeah I mean there it was definitely

[00:08:21] Abby David: there there were a lot of things actually like I'm I've been a musician like my whole life so definitely performing was like very nerve-wracking in the beginning and like I guess I didn't I didn't have to change the way I performed, but I had to be so aware of like what was going on. Cause like the last thing I would want is to have a low on stage or anything like that. So I had to be, I had to sort of like get used to performing with diabetes and like being confident enough to do that. Um, and definitely like exercising was so different. It was just like, now I have all these other layers to deal with um yeah basically those are probably the main two but it's interesting

[00:09:10] Rob Howe: yeah um i'm sure there are a lot of parallels between like playing a sport like i did and performing music um you know for people because the anticipation and adrenaline leading up exactly like yeah can always spike my blood sugar still does any sort of like stress cortisol totally uh just sends it straight up uh and then you know exercise is always sort of the yeah i think i get more questions or see more conversations about what to do about exercise than anything else and i've had a lot of really smart much smarter and more learned in the exercise science than i on this podcast and i think like the main thing is just like be easy on yourself and try to develop as good of habits as possible, but that you're also going to, there are going to be days where

[00:10:00] Abby David: it just doesn't make sense. Exactly. Yeah. It's not ever going to be the exact same. And yeah, the same thing for me with performing. Like I'll always like, I want to run a little bit higher, like not super high, but just a little bit. But then so many, so many of the times I just end up going so much higher. I'm like, no, like this wasn't the plan, but because of the adrenaline and everything, it's like just skyrockets.

[00:10:23] Rob Howe: And it's one of those things too. And I've been dealing, it's, I don't know, there's life is so connected and weird. So like for me, lately I've been thinking as I get more stress, because I'm very similar, like I like to be, when I go into some sort of performance mode, I'd like to be around like 140, 150, because then I know if I drop a little bit, I'll be fine. Yeah. And, you know, I have a little bit of room on the high side if I keep going up a bit. So I am comfortable there. I'm confident. I don't have to worry about it. But then you start getting into that like over worrying and overthinking, which causes stress to go up, which negatively affects it. And one thing I've been learning lately, I'm doing this like 30 days of yoga thing on YouTube, which is new for me. I'm not a very mobile person. So this is something that's like a challenge getting out of my comfort zone a little bit. but I don't think I realized until this this sort of challenge that when I get stressed out or things get hard I like hold my breath I like try to like yeah you know wheel my way through them which you know makes causes you to be stressed so it's interesting like looking back wondering oh I wonder if I just relaxed or approached this in a different way maybe I would have had a

[00:11:38] Abby David: different result yeah started breathing normally yeah that's something that I've noticed a lot too I started meditating like two months ago and I haven't done it every single day, but I've been trying really hard, like almost every second day, you know, sometimes like every, like every day of the week, but just being aware of my breathing is like, it's been changed so much in my overall relaxation and like way of like living. Cause it's like, wow, I literally like couldn't breathe before. And like, like I would breathe out of my chest or like, I couldn't take deep breaths because it would like make me anxious. And now it's like, I can actually breathe properly. I feel like, and it just like brings me down to such a better level. And it's crazy because I just wasn't aware of it for my entire life.

[00:12:26] Rob Howe: And it sounds so simple, right?

[00:12:28] Abby David: I know, right? Just breathe. But it's like, actually, it's like, you have to work on it.

[00:12:35] Rob Howe: Yeah, I think one of, right now we're coming up on the end of the year. um so if you're listening to this in the future uh it's the end of 2017 right now um thank god right but the um like the idea that anyway sorry i lost my train of thought for a second i'm coming up with lists of things like that i am glad i found in 2017 or my favorite like book or like favorite new discovery or whatever it is. And like my biggest thing I think is probably like mindfulness and meditation practice. I've talked with other people on this, on the podcast as well. I got really into Tim Ferris this year and how many people who are very successful in whatever fields they're in have some sort of mindfulness practice to look inside and be aware of how they're doing things and what's going on. And tying that back to diabetes has been really interesting because you can just notice things like, oh, I'm, you know, I feel like a little bit low right now. Maybe is that affecting my mood? Is that affecting my responses? Do people just think I'm annoyed at them right now? Yeah, totally. And so it's just finding those like, oh, I'm going to step back and observe this moment for a second. And I think can be very helpful for people with type 1 diabetes. I know Lauren Bongiorno, who I'm sure many people know and was on the podcast. Oh, I'm about to, this is about to be a podcast first. I'm about to sneeze. Well, now I jinxed it because I said it.

[00:14:10] Abby David: Oh, damn. Now you have that feeling.

[00:14:13] Rob Howe: Anyway, Lauren did a great episode on Craig Casper's podcast on The Bravest Life with a mindfulness guided meditation uh and it was centered around just being mindful and and breathing but uh in the context of type 1 diabetes which i thought was super helpful that's really cool yeah um i'll include a link to that in the show notes so that people can find it but um yeah very very cool it's very interesting how it's all again life is all connected everything

[00:14:42] Abby David: everything in parallels yeah it's crazy too like how just much effort it all takes like just like just life in general just life in general but also like actually meditating and actually breathing doing yoga like self-care you know especially as a diabetic like making sure you're healthy is like i don't know it can like look really easy on the outside but actually taking the time like every day like to like be proactive in your health it takes so much work but then it does actually pay off so much after you know because I think like these days everybody's really consumed with like social media and like comparing themselves to other people and getting stressed out and like I don't know just general life things and it's like like learning self-care it's like yeah just like say these mantras and like you'll be fine like look at yourself in the mirror and like but it's actually like a work like you have to actually take the time out of every day to breathe and like exercise if you can you know it's crazy yeah it's interesting too uh i was

[00:15:54] Rob Howe: having this discussion with my girlfriend the other day about how easy it is to get in like the like we look at our we live in our own little pods right our social media pod where everybody's healthy everybody's meditating everybody's super fashionable everybody's like a celebrity and and then you think because i had a conversation with another on another episode um which hasn't released yet but a guy a guy was a traveling nurse and he was saying that he purposefully goes to rural areas because their people aren't health conscious like they don't They don't know and they don't care to know about their own like health, personal care. So he sees it as an opportunity to introduce them to at least like the base level of care, because all of us city folk with our social media and our Instagram influencers and our, you know, squad goals, like we all we all want to you know, we all have this lifestyle that we're aspiring to this sort of health wellness. and I think for me especially like there's a lot of people who really care about taking and treating their diabetes and I start to take a step back sometimes and say okay well if I'm diagnosed on day one I don't a I don't know about all these people and b I mean maybe not even interested in it right now because you know I'm just learning how to test my blood sugar and maybe like you your doctor took a day to get their blood sugar back yeah you know maybe they're in the similar type of scenario. And I think, um, I'm trying to, I try to be mindful of that. Um, there's 40,000 new type ones in the U S every year. Um, is that it? Wow. I thought there'd be more than that. It seems like there would be right. Um, I thought you were going to say a day. Oh man. Yeah. That would be insane. Uh, that would be insane. No, no, just, just a year. And I think, you know, that doesn't include Canada or the UK or Ireland, Australia, India, any of the other big countries with larger type 1 populations. I actually don't even know how many there are in the world. I can't find an accurate statistic on it. It's kind of weird. Weird. But I think it's just partially because, like, we don't have as much data on, like, health data in places like India, for example. Totally. Where there are a billion people. Exactly. Anyway, we digress. So, you know, I try to make sure that, hey, there's a base level of information and care that needs to come out. and mostly that, hey, if you're health conscious, like check this box and keep reading or turn the page. And if not, like maybe you should be or what else is going on in your life and what other things could you be thinking about?

[00:18:37] Abby David: Yeah, or just like, yeah, if you're not, then just like take your time and small steps.

[00:18:45] Rob Howe: Yeah. And I think, you know, especially because the food education, I think we're at like an all time high, but we're still like, I think it's probably the 80, 20 rule, right? Like you think you would think by Instagram and everything that everybody would know about food and and its impact on your body and health and everything else. But then you take a step back and you realize that's only a drop in the ocean. And there's so many more people who have learned one thing or another throughout their lives that may or may not be correct or may, you know, be based on just like marketing messaging.

[00:19:20] Abby David: you know yeah even myself sometimes it's hard to decipher like what is true what's false on the internet you know when you're trying to learn about new things and new foods and like how they'll benefit your body like and then I can't imagine because I've like been pretty into food for a while I can sort of like tell you know but if you're just starting out it's there's a lot of

[00:19:43] Rob Howe: traps. That's for sure. Well, and, and give me, give me an example, like, especially as it relates to like food or learning how your body reacts to something. What's, what's something that you had to kind of take a step back and, and break down a little bit for yourself? I think just, so I've

[00:20:02] Abby David: had like a pretty intense like food journey um I I was following the classic ADA or CDA diet of like eat a lot whatever eat what I want cover the insulin hashtag like diabetics can eat whatever they want and I was doing that and it really was not working for me and I didn't understand why because I was counting my carbs and I was putting in insulin for everything. And it was just like, it was strange because I just didn't understand. I was following what the doctors told me. I was still having really high blood sugars all the time. And I wasn't at a place in my life where I was happy with my health. And I felt like diabetes was really taking control of my life because even though I was trying to still live the same and like eat whatever I want and you know just live my life I couldn't because I was high and low all the time so then I had I like went on this other diet where I ate like very like very minimal carbs and lots of high fat dairy lots of meat, like things that are zero in carbs. And I was like convinced that that was like the way I was going to eat for the rest of my life because my blood sugar was amazing. And it was like, great. But then after about a year of doing that, I started noticing other side effects happening in my body. And I also started getting more interested in animal rights and environmental problems and stuff like that. So that was like one thing where I was so convinced that it was great and it was working for me for so long and I was going to do it for the rest of my life. And then all of a sudden, like it changed. And so, yeah, then I had to change my diet again. And now I I'm at a place where I'm really happy with my diet and my blood sugar. It's taken a really long time, and obviously there's terrible days still, and there always will be. I know that's going to be a part of my life forever, but it's very much so less part of my life, if that makes any sense.

[00:22:24] Rob Howe: What did you land on? What was your formula?

[00:22:28] Abby David: So I basically, I'm vegan now and I still sort of eat low carb, but I'm very flexible. And I'm mindful of the amount of fat that I eat. And basically, it's very, it's just been like so much easier to count, I don't know, like estimate carbs for what I'm eating and put in the correct amount of insulin. And then if I do have a high, I don't have like any insulin resistance compared to what I used to have. So it just comes down like so much faster. And yeah, that's how I've been living for the past two years. And it's been great.

[00:23:12] Rob Howe: Well, and I think, you know, you got to have balance, right? Totally. With anything, but especially with, you know, diabetes related. Because you're going to have those days where you're like, I'm so done with eating super low carb. Exactly.

[00:23:27] Abby David: ultra high vegetables or I basically yeah I basically don't restrict myself like ever but I do like okay I guess that's not true I don't eat really high carb foods but like say I want a cinnamon bun I'll just find an alternative that will satisfy me in the same way because for me I'm not really like super attached to specifically certain foods like a cinnamon bun from my favorite bakery like I could just make myself a cinnamon bun and I would probably be just as satisfied so I just do that for everything and then it just it works out so I don't feel like oh I have to have like two days where I can just eat as many carbs as I want I just day-to-day life I just oh if I want that and say I am craving something like crazy high carb obviously I'll eat it but it

[00:24:18] Rob Howe: doesn't really happen as often as it used to. Right. Well, and I think, you know, I always knew, I think from the time I was probably like 21, I always knew that at some point I would have to make a dietary choice for my diabetes for the rest of my life. That's, you know, in some capacity, I try to look at everything in like that 80, 20, like Pareto analysis where, you know, 80% of the time I eat foods that I want within that are within a, you know, certain cleanliness, right? Right. Yeah, I've, I've done like eight whole 30s. I love the way I feel in a whole 30. It's great, but I can't sustain it for more than 30 days. It's just like unrealistic. Right. Well, otherwise, I'll just say I lack the discipline, I guess, to continue to do it

[00:25:08] Abby David: because true i don't even really know what whole 30 entails just mean just means like eating whole

[00:25:14] Rob Howe: foods for 30 days uh sort of it's just like no sugar added no dairy no legumes i did an episode with oh wow one of the first episodes and actually the most downloaded episode of all time is with the whole 30 founder melissa hartwig whoa and she's like i think episode seven i would say of this podcast, which was really awesome. And we talked about, um, she asked me a lot of questions about that other type ones have, and you know, she's been a super big supporter and a huge advocate for, for me and for the podcast. But, um, basically no sugar added, no dairy, no legumes, um, no preservatives, nothing that comes out of a box pretty much no rice, uh, for like 30 days. Wow. So yeah, it does get a little bit paleo-ish, although it's not as high fat. There's no cheese. So it's kind of a mixture of a lot of vegetables, a lot of good oils. And man, yeah, at 30 days of that, yeah, your blood sugars are better. The amount of insulin that you take is lower. It's just one of those things. It's like, okay, where's the balance? Yeah, exactly. What can you make for the rest of your life versus what's your whole life versus your whole 30? or, you know, insert other crazy kind of crash diet program.

[00:26:33] Abby David: Yeah, which is totally what I was doing with the, like, really, really low-carb thing. Like, it was great. My blood sugar was great. But then it was, like, I started feeling like shit and, like – or, sorry, crap.

[00:26:49] Rob Howe: You can curse on this podcast, but I imagine, like, your parents will probably listen to this, so.

[00:26:54] Abby David: Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. I wasn't sure. I was like, oh, no. Um, yeah, it really, the, the really, really low carb was very much so not sustainable. And I'm, I'm like surprised that some people actually can sustain it. Cause like, that's very intense. Like, wow. Well, yeah. And I think it just takes,

[00:27:16] Rob Howe: you know, I'm really proud of people with diabetes. They're very disciplined. Um, because it takes a lot of discipline to manage this disease 24 seven. There's a lot 100%. And a lot of just like gentleness to yourself, like because you're not going to get it right all the time. Uh-huh. But, you know, on the other side is like when you're eating some sort of very healthy, like 1% of 1% healthy diet, you have to say no to a lot of things, especially in our culture. And that's really important, but it's very difficult. and saying it time after time after time, like if you're not drinking or if you're not, you know, you're not eating carbs and, you know, you have an office birthday cake party or somebody brings donuts in the morning and they take it very personally. And we have this aversion, or at least I do, to where, you know, you don't want to disappoint people. So you just say yes to avoid it. Right. Um, and, and I think specifically in Western culture and American culture, like we, especially with food, we make it really hard on ourselves to stick with something that's that strict, uh, no matter how good it is for you. So, um, you know, I, I love to experiment. I like to try things and see how my body reacts. I'm taking a ton of different supplements right now in, uh, in search of, you know, better, even just 1% better insulin absorption or, you know, being able to use a little bit less insulin or having better numbers. And I'm glad that there are other people out there doing that too. But I'm also glad that I have a good enough relationship with food and with my diabetes. And I'm very fortunate to have that where I can say, you know what, I'm going to just take it easier today like I did today. and I had La Madeline for lunch and I had delicious tomato basil soup with like a sandwich. So there you go. Exactly. And I was happy because of it. And my blood sugar has been fine. So yeah, everything. Yeah, everything in moderation. Yeah, I think everybody's really on their own

[00:29:19] Abby David: journey with health and especially with type 1 diabetes and just finding the best way for them and like little things they can do. And that's why like, as bad as social media is, it's also like totally amazing for like meeting other people like I don't know anyone that has type 1 diabetes in my life basically I don't think no I don't know anybody like that I could just physically go talk to like in Toronto so yeah having social media to see that there's other people around like like me that are also into health that have type 1 diabetes is like very cool yeah I mean it's

[00:29:59] Rob Howe: been one of my favorite discoveries the last two years like i didn't know it existed yeah and i think there's a whole community yeah and it is one of like there's a lot of negativity on social media and rightfully so that people talk about it but i really do believe uh the type 1 community they are under like there's just not enough press about it like it is really one of the diamonds in the rough um yeah there are you know about 40 000 people i estimate that that have type 1 and they talk about it and they connect with other people and they're just like you they don't know anybody in their regular life that has it or it's very minimal and then they you know get online and all of a sudden they're not alone anymore and they can talk to any number of different people

[00:30:44] Abby David: who are just like them totally yeah it's quite amazing um you were talking about you know everybody

[00:30:50] Rob Howe: being on their own journey, how, you know, I don't often ask, I guess, this type of question, but because of that, it makes it kind of difficult to, I'm trying to figure out a way to word this. Like, for example, it's hard to say, hey, oh, if you're having a, if you had a bad, a high blood sugar, for example, or maybe a bad day and somebody from the outside who doesn't really have it looks at that and says, oh, like, well, well, what happened? And there's really no great explanation, right? Sometimes there are more questions than answers. Um, how do you, you know, how do you deal with that in your own life when you find those, those times where there's more questions than there are answers?

[00:31:38] Abby David: Yeah. I mean, I generally will answer stuff like that as, uh, I kind of just say, you know like diabetes is about mainly a balancing act and there are so many different factors that affects it and then I'll say like you know stress food exercise hormones whatever and I'll just say and you know like some days are harder than others and some days my blood sugar will be higher or lower than others and that's my short answer and then usually that satisfies them but yeah it could be really hard like I have been at work before and like someone will see something on my arm and say oh what's that and then it's like oh it's for type 1 diabetes monitors my blood sugar whatever or it's my pump um and they're like oh you can cure yourself it's like no I can't it's like yeah I saw this doctor on the internet like I swear you can cure yourself and it's like it's so hard sometimes to just be like I really can't but I I just have to be honestly like if I know that I can't if it's a very brief interaction and they're not they're they're um point of views are not going to get changed at all I just kind of have to like blow it off and shrug it off my shoulders and just say like okay great and walk away because it's just not worth it sometimes but most of the time i'll explain to them you know what's going on well and

[00:33:12] Rob Howe: you bring up a good point though uh the internet and uh like especially when and no no disrespect or offense to any medical device companies but whenever you roll out a new product that's super innovative you do a big pr tour with it and publications like business insider and you know journal or whatever do a you know pick it up and and so whether it's the quote-unquote artificial pancreas when medtronic released their 670g closed loop system uh people are like whoa there's a there's a artificial pancreas system out there that's going to cure type 1 diabetes

[00:33:51] Abby David: and then you know all and then your family sends you like 10 emails it's like how many links how

[00:33:57] Rob Howe: many links do you get and you get a little bit of burnout there because yeah it's not necessarily a solution it's good yeah you're excited about it but you know people I don't think realize it's not like a new iPhone even though I really think it should be you should just be able to buy the new thing but yeah you know you you don't have it's not that simple and you know you you're stuck in a warranty or maybe your insurance doesn't cover it and so it just often causes more harm than good

[00:34:26] Abby David: unintensibly but it's tough totally or like there's the one person in a somewhere that got some transplant or some inside cell transplant and oh like it's it's soon you're gonna get a cure soon and then everyone always says like I swear in five years like in five years it's gonna happen or in two years it's like right you know what like I'm just gonna live my life like and not think that or like not care too much about what's coming next like because I am happy and you know like you just got to be happy with where you're at obviously the new technology is cool but like that's just like an upgrade like it's like okay great like you know eventually maybe you can switch to that but it's not like I don't know it's not like oh my god like get your hopes

[00:35:14] Rob Howe: up every time. Right. It's exhausting. And I think that too, like about cure messaging. I think we're all pro cure, right? We all want the cure to eventually. But we're not, you know, it's hard to hang on every breath about it. And, you know, I've been on a big kick lately, especially with my other type 1 blogger friends, like, hey, don't forget to go out and like be a person and live your life. Like, not everything has to be a diabetes experiment. Because if that becomes, you know, it can consume you at an unhealthy level and burnout is definitely possible. So, you know, we were talking about breathing earlier, go outside and like, let the sun hit you in the, on your face and, you know, run around and be grateful for that. Um, and not worry necessarily where you're in the, in the 100 to 200 range, your blood sugar falls after a meal for a day or so, you know? And so, um, sometimes that's easier said than done, but, um, I look forward to those moments where, hey, we're not all worried about the next piece of technology or refilling our next prescription or what our insurance is going to cover at our new job. But we're able to at least say, hey, I can manage this. I have a better relationship with my diabetes than I had yesterday.

[00:36:30] Abby David: And that's all I can hope for. Totally. It's literally such a day by day experience and just, you know learning and growing and living your life and yeah then like I find I have like certain moments every couple months where I'm like wow like I feel a lot better than I did before like I can do this now or and then it's like it feels good that's just it's good yeah it is um in other

[00:36:56] Rob Howe: in other kind of good news um I guess that's a terrible transition into this question but But give me some point. I tried. I tried. I asked this question sort of towards the end of every conversation I have. Uh-huh. And, you know, as someone who I imagine has been in an airport once or twice, you understand how gates work. So they're going to close the door to your gate in like 30 seconds. But you run into somebody with type 1 diabetes and you can't miss your flight. What's the one thing that you tell that person in that 30 seconds?

[00:37:33] Abby David: someone, just another person that has diabetes, like me?

[00:37:37] Rob Howe: Who has been recently diagnosed or maybe is struggling.

[00:37:40] Abby David: Okay. More difficult. I'd probably say 30 seconds. This is going to be really hard at first, and you will always have ups and downs, but it does get better and you are your own best doctor and if you're having problems take it upon yourself to research and invest in your own health. That's what I would say.

[00:38:18] Rob Howe: Oh, I love it. That's great.

[00:38:22] Abby David: Because that's what I've learned is just like being your own caretaker and like try it like relying on yourself instead of always calling a doctor like i need to change my basal rates or i need to do this is like just it gives you a lot more freedom and enables you

[00:38:40] Rob Howe: to live your life a lot easier it does and i think like taking ownership um uh-huh is a huge piece of it you know um and but at the same time don't over own don't over own your diabetes because you don't have to do it by yourself, right? We have this great community. So yeah, finding a balance. Yeah, totally. Well, Abby, thank you so much for making the time to come and chat tonight. Really refreshing, easy conversation. If anybody wants to follow you or get in touch with you on social media, what's the best way to do that?

[00:39:19] Abby David: So my Instagram is Abby J. David, and I also have a blog called Betting on Sugar. so you can check me out at either of those places awesome is that betting on sugar.com

[00:39:31] Rob Howe: dot com yeah awesome um well like i said i will include links to everything in the show notes and it was a pleasure to have you on the show thank you so much thanks for having me