Speaker A: Do you struggle with your diabetes devices? Do you put off changing your pump site or putting on a new CGM sensor because you worry about how painful it will be or how much time it'll take or just the experience of wearing the device in general? If this is the case, you're not alone. But you also know that this fear or this hesitation also can impact your diabetes management and consequences quintely your quality of life. If your blood sugars are high because you're not wearing a CGM, it makes it harder to do things. It makes it harder to be active. It makes it harder to be present in the moment. And that's what you want in your life with type one diabetes. Welcome to Live Free with T 1d podcast brought to you by the Diabetes Psychologists. This is the only podcast where we teach you to build your type one diabetes stress management plan. Like a sailboat, you are the captain. Your diabetes management is the hall. Your mindset is the sales. Your behavior is the rudder, and your support team is the crew. When you build your sailboat correctly, you will have smooth sailing in your life type of diabetes. I'm your host, Dr. Mark Heyman. And in this episode of The Podcast, I Coach Christina. Christina had a bad experience with her CGM in the past, and now she hesitates to put on a new one even when she knows that she should. In this episode, we focus on the rudder and the sales of Christina diabetes risk management plan. We help her change her mindset around changing her CGM sensor and help her see that context matters. What was helpful before is not helpful now. We also challenge her to make changes to her behavior right here, right now, so she can start a new habit and put the old habit to rest. If you worry about putting on new pump sites, new CGM sites, or diabetes device in general, this episode is for you. Christina, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm excited to have you on the podcast.
Speaker B: Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker A: So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your life with type one diabetes when we were diagnosed, and what has life been like since your diagnosis?
Speaker B: Yeah, so hello, everybody. Yes. My name is Christina Martin. I was diagnosed with type one diabetes when I was 13 years old. It was definitely I know a lot of people can relate that it was a very scary experience, challenging experience, confusing. And it is the reason why I eventually started what we now know as the nonprofit Type Zero Foundation. And Type Zero supports the entire family system, helps provide that everyday support that I know I and my family would have really benefited from when I was diagnosed. And with type zero? Yes. There is also American Ninja Warrior, which is a part of my journey that I am so proud I got to be a part of. And I just love being able to help people individually and on a population scale through public speaking, to overcome their biggest challenges, welcome them, hug them, and live their best life with diabetes.
Speaker A: That's amazing. I would love to hear your story is pretty incredible. You're a professional dancer, you are the founder of Type Zero, and you are also a veteran of American India Warrior. And I want you to just spend a couple of minutes telling our listeners about your experience on American Endorrier, because I've watched it and it is intense.
Speaker B: Yeah, it's a lot crazier when you're actually there, too. So, for me, I have always grown up as a dancer, and being active is something I love. And so several years back, I decided that I wanted to apply for the show. I saw there was an application process, and when I applied, I didn't think I would get the opportunity. I just wanted to see and find out. I'm like, what's the worst that can happen? And obviously I'm really glad I did, because I was chosen, which was really cool. And the best part of the show for me wasn't like, competing itself was great, and running the obstacles was great, and it's very intense with all the lights and everything. But the best part for me was actually right before when I was on the platform, right before competing. Yeah. Because after they introduced me and they brought me on, they said, we're going to have you just kind of wave at everyone and we'll tell you when the countdown is to start the course. And after a couple of minutes and seeing that this was continuing and everyone's just excited, I decided to hold my insulin pump up to the crowd and to the camera. And that, to me, was my favorite part because it was the first time in my life that I really stood there being proud with diabetes. So it was a really cool experience.
Speaker A: Wow. And can we find the episode somewhere? Is it on YouTube or is it on the Internet somewhere?
Speaker B: So the thing with this show is that they actually get thousands of applications. They select 100 people, which I got to be one of the hundred, and then they only show maybe ten in the episodes. Gladly, you cannot find my episode. However, if you do go to YouTube and you search Christina Martin, an American Ninja Warrior, lots of stuff will come up, and there are certain clips that you can probably find out there.
Speaker A: Awesome. But we're here to talk about a challenge that you have been having in your life with diabetes. And what the challenge that you're having, I know, is not an uncommon one, but I want to spend some time today coaching you on how you can work around this challenge and how you can face this challenge head on. And really find even more success in life with type of diabetes than you already have right now. So why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about the challenge that you want from coaching on?
Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. And I want to also preface this by saying that I think when we see people that we consider to be successful, a lot of times we think that they have it all together. But diabetes is very it's been a difficult journey for me, as it has for a lot of people. And so for me, my challenge is one that started a few years back. I do wear an insulin pump and a CGM, so the continuous glucose monitor and I used to be on a pump where the system for putting the CGM on was to me, it was difficult. It came with pain pretty much every time I put the CGM on. And I also was still learning how to kind of find confidence in managing my diabetes. So what started to happen is that when the CGM would expire after the seven days, I would take a long time to put another one on. Like a month would pass sometimes before the next CGM went on. And so now today, like a few years later, I've been able to do a pretty decent job overcoming it. I have a different pump and a different CGM, which has been mentally just a great reset for me. And the pain part is completely gone. That's not an issue, but I still have a difficult time eliminating that space. So right now I'm at a week, there's like a week in between when the next one goes on, but for some reason it's just been this weird quirk that I've never fully been able to get past.
Speaker A: How is this challenge impacting your life, your diabetes management, your relationships best with your doctor and other parts of your life? If you are able to make this challenge disappear and you're able to wear a CGM almost all the time, how would Christian's life be better?
Speaker B: Well, I've been able to show myself that it's great to have it on because my sugars are more manageable and I know what they're doing all the time. So when the CGM is not on, I don't know, and I feel more blind. So I do understand that life is better with it on. My sugars are in a better place. And what happens now is I'll go to the doctor, I'll go in for an appointment and the doctor just kind of looks at me sideways like, really Christina, you're still having this issue and I definitely haven't fully opened up about the difficulties that it stemmed from.
Speaker A: Okay, yeah, I think that this is a challenge that a lot of folks have. I remember when I first started using a CGM many years ago, probably twelve years ago or so. I had a bad experience too. It wasn't pain, but it was the fact that the CGM just wasn't accurate. And so I stopped using it. And then it took me a long, long time to be convinced to start using a CGM again, because I was like, why am I wasting my time? Why am I putting this thing on my body and causing more anxiety with numbers that just don't make any sense? I think a lot of people can really appreciate both the pain, but also just the wonder about, is this correct? And as we know, technology has gotten so much better over the past ten years and even two years. It's incredible. But those memories, those painful memories, no pun intended, still do exist.
Speaker B: Yeah. And that's true. What you brought up, that was something else that I forgot too, that yeah. The numbers were not always accurate, and then it would malfunction sometimes. That was another thing is if I finally had the courage to put it on just for it to malfunction, like, two or three days later, all of those things led to it being a challenging process.
Speaker A: Yeah. So what I want to focus on with you today are two things. The first is your mindset, and the second is your behavior. So we're talking about the diabetes management sailboat. We have the sales as well as the rudder. And first, the mindset. So when your CGM expires and you know that you should, quote, unquote, put a new one on, are you aware of any thoughts that go through your mind about, I should be doing it, but I'm not going to. If I do it, this will happen, or how many have that experience?
Speaker B: So I really actually appreciate you asking that, because I don't think I realized until now that there are thoughts I have pretty much every time where I start, I get a little upset that it's expiring. And then I think about the work, the time that I'm going to have to spend putting a new one on, that for sure, I think happens every time.
Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. So the time you're upset that you have to actually have an invasive procedure done, it's minimally invasive, but you're still sticking something into your body, and that's not always pleasant, and you associate that with the pain that was happening before.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: What you remind me of when you're talking about this is a trauma response. And trauma take on all kinds of different faces, and some of them are more traumatic than others. And I don't want to overblow what we're talking about here, but what happens when we experience trauma is when there's something that's really painful or something painful emotionally or physically or whatever it is, we try to avoid it. But then when we're in a different context than we were before, that same fear travels with us.
Speaker C: I talk to people with type one diabetes every day, and every day is clear to me that people at T 1D need a plan. They need a plan to follow to manage the emotional burden of losing with diabetes. Without a plan to man distress, life with diabetes is overwhelming. You feel like you're drinking out of a fire hose, and you have no idea how to feel steady on your feet and find the peace of mind you're looking for. You feel like diabetes takes away your freedom to live a normal life. A plan to manage the emotional burden of T 1D is very simple. There are five frameworks you need to know. And if you know these five frameworks, you have a plan for how to deal with any stress diabetes throws your way. With this plan, you'll be clear about what you're doing right now and what you need to do next. That's exactly what you get when you join LiveFree With T. Free With T coach you to manage the stress of type one diabetes. Like a sailboat, you are the captain. The whole of the boat is your diabetes knowledge and management. The sales are your mindset. The rudder is your behavior, and your.
Speaker A: Crew is your support system.
Speaker C: If you build the five parts of your subtle correctly, you'll be sailing smoothly with type one diabetes. All of that is part of the plan that's available to you when you join Live Free with Und. Plus, as part of Live Free with Und, I host a live coaching event every month where you get access to me and have the opportunity to ask me questions and even get personalized coaching. To join LiveFree with Q and D, go to www.thediabetesychologist.com. LiveFree with T 1d that's www.thediabetesychologist.com. LiveFree with T 1d Join other people with type one diabetes just like you, who have a plan to find peace of mind and freedom in their lives with type one diabetes.
Speaker A: I remember many years ago it was before I was working in diabetes, I worked with working with veterans who had PTSD. And I remember very clearly this one person that I worked with who had been in Iraq. Literally, he had just come back from Iraq, and he was really nervous to leave his house. And I asked him, I said, if you were to walk down the street in La Jolla, which is a very nice part of San Diego, what are the chances that you're going to get shot at? Because he was worried that there was going to be a sniper that could shoot at him. And he looked at me with a straight face and was dead serious. He said, 80%. Wow. This man was not psychotic. He was not crazy at all. But what had happened for him was he was taken the context of being in Baghdad at that time in 2007, 2008, where if you're in an American military uniform, the chance and you're walking down the street, the chance of you being shot at are pretty high to home to San Diego. While the content that we're talking about here is very different. The context is actually very similar because we had to show him that the context of being at home in San Diego was very different than being in a war zone. And I think that for you, being able to really, not only intellectually but emotionally, be able to make that conversion from the days five years ago or whenever it was where the CGM was painful, the CGM was not accurate. Your fear and your hesitation there were reasonable. Fast forward to today, the pain is not there and the accuracy is infinitely better. So the context is very different, but you're still seeing the context in the same way.
Speaker B: Wow.
Speaker A: How do we get you to move from that context of five years ago? I think it's five years ago or so now in a way that can be really not only you understand it in your head, but you really believe it. Any ideas?
Speaker B: That's already very interesting to think about. And I would say the one thing that comes to my mind would be catching myself, calling myself out. That's something that I've done in the past. When it came to thoughts that didn't align with what's happening was just me being conscious and saying, all right, when it happens, of going to call myself out and say that's not actually how I feel or how I should feel. That kind of thing. That's the one thing I can think.
Speaker A: Of, and I think that you can do it take a step further is that next time you change your CGM, whether you take it a long break or not, actually write down what the experience was like, how long did it take? I think sometimes we have an inflated view about how long it takes to change a CGM sensor. It's not certainly not a two second process, but it's also not a ten minute process. It takes five minutes to open it up, put it on, scan it, and then maybe another five minutes. Throw it trash because there's a lot of trash involved, but it's not this long drawn out process. It's actually fairly quick. The same thing with pump sites. But really time yourself and see how long it takes and what the time commitment really is, and also what's the experience, what is it like to put it on your body and what is the pain level like. And as a reminder, and actually keep a journal of that every time you do it, to be able to see and remind yourself that the context now is not what it was five years ago.
Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah, I was going to say that. I'm going to do that.
Speaker A: The other thing I would suggest is make a commitment to yourself, and you can bring in accountability partners as well here, and friends, family members, significant others to help you to stick to this. But make a commitment to yourself that next time you have to change your site next time your sensor expires to change it right away, because part of the context is cognitive, the way you think about it, but a big part of it is behavioral. You've gotten in the habit of taking breaks, and so when the sensor expires, your mind automatically goes to, I can't do it right now. I got to take at least a week off in order to give myself some sort of debriefing emotional processing time here. Instead, I want you to lead with action, and I want you to commit to once you've taken once, take it off, put a new one on. And what's going to happen is my hope is, first of all, with the journaling, you'll see what the experience is like, and also you'll develop a new habit because the old habit was helpful before, keeping you safe, keeping you from being in pain and worrying about your numbers to now the habit you have is not helpful. We can all think about the habits that we've had in the past that were helpful at the time but are not helpful now. For example, my daughter, who's four years old, goes to bed at 730. That's her habit, and that's a good one, because I need some time off after she goes to bed. But when she's 13, going to bed at 730 is probably not going to be a helpful habit for her or anybody else. So it served her and us well now, but in ten years, it's not going to. And the same thing is true for the way that you've been talking about your CGM and taking that break, and what would happen if you just decided to not take a break this time, at least one time, and start a new habit of just changing the sensor right away. How could that change the way that you behave around your CGM?
Speaker B: Wow. Yeah. Just talking about this alone is very helpful because it's allowing me to kind of be like, all right, Christina, what are we doing? Why are we doing this? Being able to create this new habit is going to be huge because I also will feel like I'm not disappointing myself, disappointing my doctor, that I'm able to take it one step further and managing my diabetes better.
Speaker A: Yeah. And I want you to think about it kind of even from a bigger point of view than disappointing yourself for your doctor, because in the end, I don't really care what your doctor thinks. I don't. And I care how you think and how you feel about yourself. But what's more important to me is a step further, is if you wear a CGM during that seven days when you usually don't, how will life be better during those seven days? What will you be able to do? How will you be able to dance and exercise more confidently or at all? Because now you know your numbers, but you have this seven day period of lost blood sugars. I mean, I know that you're probably in decent control, but you have the lost or blinded time. How could life be better for you? And from there, then you can be proud of the things that you were able to accomplish and the confidence that you had and the worry that you didn't have. I think that while impressing our doctors is helpful, in the end, you're not doing this for your doctor. You're doing it for you. And not only for how you feel, but also how you're able to show up in the world for your family, for Type Zero, for yourself.
Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. That's true. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Thank you.
Speaker A: And then going to the doctor and having him give you round of applause is an added bonus. It's roasting on the cake, but I don't want to be the main dish.
Speaker B: That's true. I work with a lot of diabetics and I do hear that a lot. It can be very easy sometimes, I think, to confuse it and be like, oh, my goal is this. But it's really what the doctor has told you and you start to feel this pressure. But it's not about them, it's about you. And you're the one that has to live with what you're doing.
Speaker A: Absolutely. So bring it back to yourself and how it's going to improve your life. I think you'll have a lot more success because you're not going to see your doctor for another couple of months or every three or four months, but every day you're living with yourself and you're showing up with the world. And we want you to be able to show up with the world the best way possible. And not wanting to see GM, well, we did it for many years. I certainly did. In my life with diabetes. I don't want to go back to that time.
Speaker B: Yeah, life is better with it.
Speaker A: So the biggest takeaways for you today from this podcast that I hope you can take away is one journal about your experience, actually. What it's like to put that CGM on. Is it painful? How much time does it take? Keep track of the data and so you can really kind of go back to that and look at it. And then, second of all, start a new habit. The habit that you had before was helpful for a good for a good reason, but the context is different now and the habit you need to start now is very different. And the only way to start is to start. So give it a try and see how that works.
Speaker B: I am going to do both of these things and I really appreciate you giving me that insight. It's awesome. It's been very helpful.
Speaker A: And before I get it, I christine, I want to make sure that you have the opportunity to talk a little bit about Type Zero and the work that you guys are doing and how people can find out more about the Type Zero Foundation.
Speaker B: Thank you so much. So if you are in central Florida specifically, we do monthly events. We do have some hybrid events. So if you are outside of Florida, you can also join us for a hybrid event when we have one coming up, but they're once a month and you can find out about them. You can attend or you can donate towards our events to keep them low cost for our families by going to Type Zerofoundation.org. And that's completely spelled out. And, yeah, you can find out more about us on our website if you ever want to volunteer with us or whatever it is you want to help us with all through that website, awesome.
Speaker A: And we'll make sure that we have that information in the show notes as well.
Speaker B: Awesome. Thank you so much.
Speaker A: You're welcome. Well, Christina, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope this is helpful and look forward to hearing about your progress moving forward.
Speaker B: Sounds great. Thank you.
Speaker A: At the end of every episode, I.
Speaker C: Give you a plan of action.
Speaker A: These are the main takeaways you can put into action today to help you manage the stress of type one diabetes. And today's plan of action is journal your experience. If there's something in your diabetes management plan that you're putting off because you think it'll be too much to handle, whether it's too painful, too time consuming, too overwhelming, next time you do it, write down the facts. Write down how much time it took, how painful it was, and what your emotional experience was. That way, you get out of your head and base your decision making on real data and not what you're imagining the experience will be like based on your past experience.
Speaker C: It thanks so much for joining me on the Live Free with T 1D podcast, where I teach you how to build your diabetes management plan like a sailboat so you could have smooth sailing in your life with type one diabetes.
Speaker A: And I'll see you back here next.
Speaker C: Week, same time, same place. Bye for now.
