#ToolsofType1s - 030 - Ben Tzeel

[00:00:01] Rob Howe: Tools of Type 1s, we are back. My good friend Ben Tzeel, silent T, as those of you who really know Ben will know him. He and I had this conversation at the end of 2018. He is an awesome resource for medical and health issues related to and sometimes outside of type 1 diabetes. He has all of his necessary certifications. He's an RD, he has a CSCS, and above all, he is type 1 diabetic. His Instagram profile says, the online dietician who helps you finally lose weight and get your blood sugars in line. He's done an awesome series that he's calling Your Diabetes Insider that he started to do about six months ago. I've really enjoyed a lot of those. Ben's a super smart guy. This conversation was, I remember coming away from it, like being very inspired and also just encouraged and also enjoyable. So this is a little bit different Tools of Type 1's conversation. We actually did this one over the phone. So I asked the same questions, but I also dig in a little bit to some of Ben's points. So it's more of a traditional diabetics doing things podcast. This is episode 30 on Tools of Type Ones and I'd love for you guys to enjoy a great conversation with Ben Tzeel. And Ben, I'm super sorry for not posting this sooner. I was talking with Chris Ruden a couple weeks ago and I was like, ha dude, I haven't posted Ben's podcast and it's been almost a year. And he just rolled his eyes and was just like, just apologize. So this is me taking his advice, doing that. Talk to you soon, my friend. And enjoy. All right, Ben Tzeel, you are up. introduce yourself. Who are you? Where are you from? Where you live? How long you've had type 1? And you know, what's your connection is to the diabetes community? What is going on?

[00:01:36] Ben Tzeel: I am Ben Tzeel from Tampa, Florida, and I am a registered dietitian, certified strength and conditioning specialist. And I've had diabetes for shit. I don't know if I'm allowed to swear. That's okay. Let it go. Let it rip. You're fine. 19 years in this game. And I just try to be a super advocate on Facebook and Instagram, trying to educate the people, trying to drop knowledge every day, and trying to change and transform the lives of people living with Type 1.

[00:02:07] Rob Howe: And what's your Instagram for people who got to this just from their podcast app?

[00:02:13] Ben Tzeel: My Instagram is at manoftzeel, and zeel is spelled T-Z-E-E-L.

[00:02:22] Rob Howe: Boom. All right. What is your tool of type 1s? So what's the one thing that a person living with diabetes could learn from you or your experience? And this will also be the title of your episode. So talk about your tool.

[00:02:38] Ben Tzeel: I mean, are we talking more of just a specific mindset or are we talking about an actual, this is the tip?

[00:02:46] Rob Howe: It can be a mindset. It can be an actual tip. It could be a joke. It can be whatever it is that you want.

[00:02:53] Ben Tzeel: I'm thinking it's a mindset. I think the biggest thing is having that open mindset and being able to say, you know what, maybe my number sucks today. It doesn't mean it's going to suck tomorrow. Maybe this situation happened that wasn't optimal and I took too much insulin or I had too many carbs or the fat extended over six hours. Now my blood sugar has been high and you're not a failure. None of it makes you a failure. If you mess up, it's okay. I think the biggest thing is recognizing you acknowledge what's going on, you respond to it, and then you move on with life because diabetes is not something that should be always at the forefront. It should be something that's in the periphery, kind of just like hanging out in the background, not the focus of every single thing you're doing.

[00:03:33] Rob Howe: Killed it. Love it. Okay. What is the simplest thing you've done that has helped you with the management of your diabetes? And where did you learn it or who showed it to you? How did you come across it?

[00:03:47] Ben Tzeel: I would say the simplest thing that has helped me would be getting a Dexcom. Even though I know some people have super insurance battles trying to get one, by far, just adding that extra little sensor, it has been a life changer. And my CDE actually about, wow, five years ago was the one who said, hey, you might want to try out this device. And I was a little hesitant at first. So I tried one a few years beforehand, didn't really love it. And it has been a life changer knowing the trends knowing what's going on all the time it has been

[00:04:22] Rob Howe: a life change like i feel lost about it killer totally agree cgm is like it was game absolutely changed um okay what failures or apparent failures with t1d have made you better at living the rest of your life or made you well more rounded as a person so this can be a series of events or again kind of back to a mindset and learning, you know, talking about not getting hung up too much on the number, whatever you want that to be. Failures or apparent failures? So I would say, I mean,

[00:04:57] Ben Tzeel: I wouldn't even call a bad A1C a failure if it's more of just a lifestyle, but I would say kind of getting a little bit of a wake-up call in my first semester of college, like there's no one dictating how much food I need to have, when I need to have the food, what's going on, and you start to pick up some habits. And I wouldn't even say it's necessarily specifically type 1, but type 1 ends up being the thing that ends up getting whacked the most when you're off in school, you're trying to do a million different things at the same time, you're not prioritizing correctly. And then suddenly you're realizing I'm not, my diabetes is kind of out of control. My A1C has gone up. I'm not performing to my best all the time, whether classroom, sports, whatever it may have been. And I think that was my big, it seemed like a failure. I came home, I remember my A1C was, god I don't know it was probably up to nine I had been just at seven a few months beforehand I was thinking wow something really needs to change or this could spiral out of control and I mean I was able then to just use it to rein in and really just move forward and realize that hey I need to put some sort of emphasis on this but I also want to figure out a way to optimize it so I don't have

[00:06:04] Rob Howe: to have it run my life. Killed it. Okay. Uh, this one is a little bit of a clickbaity one. Uh, what unusual or absurd opinion or approach, or maybe unpopular approach or opinion regarding your diabetes do you have? If you don't have one, that's okay. Uh, maybe you can talk about,

[00:06:27] Ben Tzeel: you know, have everybody's different. So I don't know if I would even call it an unusual or absurd opinion but I love when people try to come to me or just in general and they say oh you know nutrition you're a dietician you should be able to say that eating no carbs or eating low carbs is the only way to go and I will just look at them and say no it's really dependent on what you want to do and how your body operates and how your body runs and what makes you feel the best and they're like nope low carbs the only way to do it only way to get good blood sugars I'm like you might have fewer glucose excursions but that doesn't mean it's the only way there's more than one way to get to the finish line in this case and people just get so hung up on that and it drives me crazy i just want to sometimes just like oh i want to push the mute button on them just let them yap and yap and i don't have to listen to them just tune them out because they're so if you they're so i don't know how else to describe it they're just they're so passionate about it and I love their passion, but stop trying to proselytize me into your low carb camp or whoever else and just say, Hey, this works great for me. Maybe it's something to consider. And if it doesn't work for you, that's okay. It doesn't make you a bad person.

[00:07:41] Rob Howe: Just drives me crazy. Oh, love it. Totally agree as well. Okay. Let's get to know Ben Z a little bit. What's your favorite thing? What gets you to smile or laugh almost every time? Are we talking diabetes or everything? I'm just talking about Ben Tzeel. What's your favorite thing to do? Give us a little bit of your personality, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:08:02] Ben Tzeel: Oh, man. Well, some of you may have known me in a previous life, but I love rap music, and I had a little music career of my own. And it went pretty spectacularly, and I realized that I wanted to do a little bit more for the diabetes world and kind of transition. But sometimes just seeing how the rap games change, it's definitely been entertaining. sometimes I laugh because the people are just absolutely atrocious but I think just it's been a big part of my personality the whole performance aspect has always been really intriguing and I think maybe that's why Instagram has just become so fun for me for lack of a better term and I think I mean I'm a huge sports nut I'm sure y'all kind of figured that out I rep Minnesota Vikings sadly unfortunately and Minnesota Twins but hey we all make bad decisions in life right and um i don't know i feel like oh i love to lift of course if you couldn't figure that out and tell but i just i like to think i'm a pretty i'm a pretty simple person but i just i like to lift i like to eat i like to listen to rap and i like to sometimes write rap and perform rap and i will not be rapping on this podcast but maybe in a future episode

[00:09:14] Rob Howe: well and i heard i want i want to stop you there as well because i heard you have a a rap name there like you do have an act of your stage name what is that just in case you know

[00:09:24] Ben Tzeel: in the future people want to see your performances well um my rap name is silent t i will say there is now an imposter starting to parade around who's trying to also be silent t but unfortunately for this imposter i have the copyright so they're not gonna win if they end up blowing up. Um, but yeah, you can check it out. I've got some stuff out there. My music video no longer is on the interwebs and I will just let, leave that off to your imagination. Uh, you kind

[00:09:56] Rob Howe: of, uh, you kind of addressed this already, but what bad advice regarding diabetes do you see or

[00:10:01] Ben Tzeel: hear that you'd like to address? Bad advice? Um, outside of the whole low carb thing and me thinking it's the only way that you can do it is I think just people saying, Oh, you can't do this and actually listening to it if someone's like oh I was told that I can't do fill in the blank well that's up to you if you don't want to do it if you don't want it bad enough you don't have to and I mean that goes for everybody in life in general but for diabetes I feel like we get it the most like you can't eat that or even I was thinking I was saying on Instagram earlier you go to Thanksgiving or you go to a holiday or you're at a family gathering and you have your ignorant friend or your ignorant relative who's like oh well I don't think you can eat this because cake and sugar gave you diabetes. And it's like, and people actually sometimes are dumb enough to believe it. And that just makes me cringe every single time. I just think, why, what is the point? What is the purpose? Like, if you want something, you'll figure out a way to get it. And I think that people with diabetes sometimes forget that. And they fall into this, they get put into a box by their endo or whoever first dietitian is that sees them. They think, well, I'm stuck eating 50 carbs or 60 carbs a meal for the rest of my life. And that's it. And they don't, they don't want to get outside the box. I feel like people need to just take that leap out of the comfort zone sometimes and just not think so hard and just do it and see what happens.

[00:11:16] Rob Howe: Love it. What priority are you focusing on in your own life currently? Can be diabetes related or not?

[00:11:24] Ben Tzeel: Um, I mean, I guess mine is diabetes related. It's just my priority. My number one thing is trying to help as many people in this world as possible. I mean, the number I put on it is 100,000, but 100,000 people reached that I am able to help who are living with diabetes, both type 1, type 2, in terms of getting them to have better blood sugar control, but also doing that through nutrition and through exercise, by far number one.

[00:11:51] Rob Howe: Love it. I love that you put a specific number on it, too. That's super important. absolutely it's the only way to do it uh who is someone that you look up to and what have they taught you how do you apply that to your life well i look up to rob howe because he's about

[00:12:06] Ben Tzeel: seven feet tall and um but beyond that i mean obviously you're somebody who i've seen absolutely just crush it in the online space and so it's someone i'm like dang like his content's always so good I got to get to that level but um I don't this is such a tough question outside of even just the joke and aside like who do I look up to in this world um I mean I guess it may not even be diabetes related but there are just certain people in the business world I mean one of them I really admires Craig Ballantyne may or may not have heard of him but he he coaches a lot of people but he also just has developed this whole persona in terms of efficiency and he's so damn efficient every single day he's able to knock stuff out he's able to crush it all the time and he just like nothing stops him no matter what like your computer goes to shit like mine did the other day or you're he's delayed on a flight whatever it is he always knows how to maximize the time and maximize what he's doing and have the most amount of output and also deliver amazing quality product service every time. And I think that is somebody who I just think about. I'm like, dang, like I would love to be like that. And of course, I mean, I'd like to be like LeBron or someone like of that nature in terms of upper, upper echelon, but that's a separate conversation.

[00:13:32] Rob Howe: Love it. Great answer. And thanks. I look, I look up to you as well. Even though it's a joke, I appreciate it. It was, it was for real. I do. Yeah. Well, thank you, man. Let's see. What are you most hopeful for? This can be diabetes related or not. I think you may have touched on it a little bit, you know, with your priority, but it could be different.

[00:13:55] Ben Tzeel: I mean, obviously, I want to I want to help those hundred thousand people. But I also in terms of hope, I wouldn't even call that a hope, because if I'm saying that's a hope, that means that I'm just kind of like kind of like maybe luck will get me there. Maybe not like it doesn't mean it's going to happen like this is going to happen. But irrespective of that, that aside, I'm hopeful that they actually find a cure in the next 10 years, or at least even if bionic pancreas comes out, that it like is fantastic and doesn't have all sorts of different typical bugs or whatever kinds of malfunctions that sometimes occur in the first few years of a brand new product to market. it because I feel like at this point they keep saying, Oh, there'll be a cure in 10 years. There will be a cure in 10 years. And I mean, I've been hearing it for 19 years now. And it is, it's kind of like that carrot, the metaphorical carrot that they're holding outside. You're trying to grab it and trying to reach farther and farther and you never get it. That's kind

[00:14:45] Rob Howe: of what it feels like. So I'd love to see a cure. Yeah. Retweet. Uh, what advice, uh, what advice would you give someone who has type 1 and is trying to pursue a career in your line of work?

[00:15:01] Ben Tzeel: Oh boy, as a dietician, don't, first of all, know that everything they're going to teach you is probably wrong. And you're going to have to correct after every single bullet point on every single slide. But I think mostly just having an open, having an open mind and having the willingness to think outside the box. because again, I mean, every hospital I've been at, every, every place I have been at, I have had to educate all the other dietitians on how diabetes actually works instead of what they perceive it to work. And then having thought about how I was educated in school for it, it makes perfect sense because you're taught one thing and one thing only, and there's no other way to do it. And it makes me cringe. So if you're trying to be a dietitian, think outside the box, apply your life experience and realize your life experience may not work for everyone, but also just recognize that again, like low carb might work. High card might work. Medium carb might work. There's more than one way to do it. Love it. Uh, all right. What's the one

[00:16:04] Rob Howe: facet or trait that you think makes you, you what's a, what sets you apart besides obviously

[00:16:10] Ben Tzeel: your rap career? Oh my God. I feel like I should have you answer this question. Um, I don't know. I think I've got this charisma and I don't know how else to describe it. I mean, maybe it came from the music career and kind of passed over into this stuff but there's just something where I just someone wants to describe it as zest for life and I just I want to do everything and I want to do it to the fullest and just I just I don't know I just love living life like that because then you're experiencing everything and you're trying not to let any certain negativity get in the way and life just becomes so much more fun and vivid and exciting so So it may not make me uniquely me, but I definitely have some sort of character charisma that people seem to be drawn to. So I'm just going to be unapologetically me.

[00:16:57] Rob Howe: I love it. And that's true, dude. You got like a lust for life, man. Energy is contagious.

[00:17:03] Ben Tzeel: Oh, nice.

[00:17:05] Rob Howe: Blowing up, dude.

[00:17:07] Ben Tzeel: Wednesday night. I can't help it. I can't help. The ladies love me.

[00:17:11] Rob Howe: All right. Plug yourself. What are you up to? Where can we find you online? Like, what are you working on? This is your chance to kind of give people a peek behind the scenes.

[00:17:21] Ben Tzeel: Oh, boy. So, again, Instagram is manofzeel. So, M-A-N-O-F-T-Z-E-E-L. That is the platform I am on by far the most. I've got a typically, every weekday, I've got a different story going on with some sort of tip or some sort of advice related to diabetes, trying to provide as much value as I can to the community. um i currently am accepting i'm not supposed to announce this till black friday so i think it probably won't get released till later anyway but i am accepting five more clients which is big news because i originally had capped the number i was at but i realized you know what i need to help some more people and that would be for one-on-one coaching working with me diabetes nutrition exercise, everything, lifestyle, accountability. It is fantastic. And you will absolutely dominate and crush whatever goal you are trying to achieve. Outside of that, I mean, my Facebook's not very interesting. So I would just mainly roll with Instagram. But also I do write articles occasionally. I'm the fitness editor for Diabetes Strong. And I've written for like Insulin Nation and Beyond Type 1. So you may catch an article here and there for that. And I'm just trying to be around and experience everything. So I'll be, if anybody's interested, I'll be out in LA sometime in the end of January. So holla at me. And yeah, I'm just trying to connect as many people and do the diabetes world as give them as much as I possibly can.

[00:18:58] Rob Howe: Love it. and yeah obviously dude five more clients like you're you really are going for that hundred thousand you're going to be stretching yourself pretty thin are you ready for it oh i'm ready i'm

[00:19:10] Ben Tzeel: i don't think if i was going to stretch myself then i wouldn't be able to give a hundred percent to everybody and if i'm if i'm not able to give a hundred percent then i don't want to i don't want to half-ass anything so you are going to get everything that you need from my end love it

[00:19:27] Rob Howe: um okay bonus question sure people ask me and i'm sure they ask you all the time like how did you get started how'd you get plugged into the type 1 community um you know what if i want to start a blog or what if i am a nutritionist and need to reach people with diabetes or whatever locally online social media hashtags going to events uh this is your chance to just kind of give people an idea of how you got started? So that's actually a great question. So sometimes

[00:19:57] Ben Tzeel: I look back and I'm like, how did this all happen? Like this all seemed like an accident. Cause I honestly only started this whole diabetes route. I mean, I started less than a year and a half ago, which is kind of insane. Like I'd been volunteering at Children with Diabetes, which is a national conference in Orlando, highly recommend, but I've been volunteering there for years. So like I knew a bunch of people in the diabetes world, but in the online space, I had nothing. And so that was something where I started putting out content. And again, I had no idea what I was doing. I think the biggest thing is just starting. So I mean, you start, you say, okay, hey, I want to reach more people with diabetes, put out something with value, put out something where people can gather tips, they can get information. But they can also, they also then will eventually start to see you in a different light, like, oh, like, this is the dude for diabetes and nutrition, like, that's been like, that is the guy. And if I want to get shredded, or if I want to get super strong, like that is the dude I want to talk to. And so I feel like really just consistently, consistent effort, just getting started. So let me back up the order, just get started with it, putting out stuff consistently that is quality stuff. People will have no choice but to start flocking to you. I mean, it's the same in music. It's really the same in everything. If you are good and you're putting out good quality stuff, you will attract what you are looking for.

[00:21:18] Rob Howe: Ka-ching! Just major key drop alert. That was so killer. That was awesome, dude.

[00:21:25] Ben Tzeel: Like drop. That's how I found you. I mean, that's how I'm...

[00:21:34] Rob Howe: Thank you for listening to the Tools of Type 1's podcast on diabetics doing things. I'm Rob Howe, and every Tuesday and Thursday in 2019, we are posting the next Tools of Type 1 episode. So follow us on Instagram, hashtag Tools of Type 1s, or just on Diabetics Doing Things. We will post those regularly every Tuesday, every Thursday. My favorite type 1s are answering the questions I want to know the answers to. And hopefully you'll learn a few things as well. If you like this episode, be sure to review us on iTunes. And if you didn't like it, go ahead and let me know that too. I want to know. All the feedback is good to me. Thanks again for your time. I value that more than anything you could possibly give me. Thanks so much. Bye-bye.