April 23, 2025 • 58 mins
Diabetes Doesn’t Define You: Mindset, Motivation & the Power to Take Control
In this powerful episode of Man: A Quest to Find Meaning, we dive deep into the emotional and physical journey of living with type 1 diabetes. Our guest, Simon McKee, shares how one journal entry transformed his mindset, leading him from denial and self-destruction to clarity, discipline, and empowerment.
Diagnosed at just three years old, Simon spent decades battling anger, shame, and neglect of his condition. But everything changed when a red flag moment forced him to face reality—and find a new way forward. From struggling with alcohol and avoidance to embracing radical discipline, Simon’s journey reveals how mindset can literally save your life.
We talk about the importance of deep motivation, emotional release, and self-compassion. Simon opens up about how journaling, therapy, and a life-changing consultation with Dr. Bernstein in the US led him to adopt a strict but life-giving lifestyle—proving that healing, and even reversal of damage, is possible.
Whether you’re living with a chronic illness, stuck in a self-sabotaging pattern, or simply feeling overwhelmed, this episode is packed with inspiration, practical mindset tools, and a powerful reminder: You are not your diagnosis—you are your decisions.
🎧 Tune in to hear:
- How to shift from “I can’t” to “What if I can?”
- The surprising link between emotion and physical health
- Why setting intentions and daily rituals are non-negotiables
- How to find your personal “why” to stay consistent
Join us on Man: A Quest to Find Meaning as we explore what it truly means to reclaim your health, identity, and purpose—one mindset shift at a time.
About Simon:
Born in Dublin and based in London since 1997, Simon McKee has lived with Type 1 diabetes for over 50 years — and hasn’t let it hold him back for a moment. A qualified accountant and change management specialist with over two decades in investment banking, Simon is also the founder of Diabetes Take Control, an initiative championing the emotional and psychological side of diabetes management.
Simon’s life reads like a highlight reel of resilience: he’s sailed two legs of an around-the-world yacht race — from Qingdao to San Francisco and then on to Jamaica. He’s trekked to Everest Base Camp, and ventured deep into the Arctic Circle with a team of huskies and a sledge. His passion for challenge and growth fuels his work, whether he’s delivering talks, mentoring others, or climbing literal and figurative mountains.
A keen traveller, rugby fanatic, climber, and active Toastmaster, Simon brings humour, insight, and lived experience to every conversation
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In this week's episode, we talkabout everything, diabetes.
We chat about how healing ispossible and even reversal.
We talk about how mindset iseverything and how one journal
entry changed everything forSimon.
And so much more.
Welcome to Man (00:22):
A Quest to Find Meaning, where we help men
navigate modern life, find theirtrue purpose, and redefine
manhood.
I'm your host, James, and eachweek, inspiring guests share
their journeys of overcomingfear Embracing vulnerability and
finding success.
(00:42):
From experts to everyday heroes.
Get practical advice andpowerful insights.
Struggling with career,relationships or personal
growth?
We've got you covered.
Join us on Man Quest to FindMeaning.
Now, let's dive in.
James (00:59):
I am not defined by my diabetes.
I am not defined by my diabetes.
I am defined by my mindset.
Good morning, Simon.
Tell me more.
Simon (01:13):
Hey.
Strong opening there, James.
Yeah, it's I've been throughquite a journey with my diabetes
and one of the great thingsabout it is that from a very
young age, my mother was amazingin that she was always like,
you're incredibly independent.
You can do anything you want.
You're as good as all the otherkids, and you're gonna live a
(01:35):
great life.
And it got me in a mindset ofyou need to, the diabetes is
there, you've gotta control it,you've gotta look after it, but
it's gonna follow you.
And literally, I have my handsbehind my back as I'm doing
that.
It's gotta follow you and.
If your mindset's right, youwill allow that to happen
because you've gotta control it,you've gotta be on top of it.
(01:56):
But if you allow it to take overyour life, it will, and you'll
become a victim and it becomes amindset that really will not
help you and it won't benefityou at all.
And even in my darkest days, andI've had quite a few, James,
I've really struggled at points,but I've always said, this will
(02:19):
not define me.
It will live with me.
It'll be part of me, but it'snot telling me what to do.
But I need to take precautionsand I need to be aware that I am
a diabetic and that with regardto that, I may need to take
additional steps if I'm doingsomething a little bit crazy.
James (02:36):
Yeah.
Yeah.
This little bit will be editedout, but when you keep shaking
the screen a little bit
Simon (02:44):
Oh, I do I?
James (02:45):
Yeah.
It keeps shaking a little bit.
Simon (02:47):
Oh, that may be me banging on the table.
Okay.
That's it.
Okay.
I see it.
Yeah, I see it.
James (02:52):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's as easy as that.
I can edit this bit out.
Not a problem at all.
It'll, the video might be alittle ju dumb, but it's like
seconds, right?
Yeah.
I think with mindset, if we talkon mindset generally, it's so
important because if you allowwhat happens to you to define,
(03:12):
you, say for example, you wentfor a bad situation or a bad
breakup, a bad job, and youallow that to define you, then
that can have a massive impacton the rest of your life.
Whereas if you shift to changingyour mindset on it and seeing
yourself as the as the maincharacter.
(03:36):
Seeing yourself as the maincharacter, that, that kind of
mindset and suddenly you shiftfrom what people, the people
around you are affecting you toYou define yourself.
Simon (03:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's quite important, likemain character.
That's a good analogy.
Like in that you are the driver,you have choice.
You can decide what you want todo, you can decide how you want
to live, and that is incrediblyimportant that when you're
living with chronic diseaseslike diabetes, it can feel
overwhelming.
You can literally feeloverwhelmed at points and you
(04:09):
almost feel just I can't go on.
And certainly I've had thosemoments, but it's really the
ability to stop and just allowyourself to breathe and say, I
have choice.
I can move forward.
It's not gonna be perfect day onday one, but we'll get there.
And it's tough living withsomething like this because I.
(04:30):
It's there 24 7.
It is constant.
It goes on holidays, it comes tobed with you.
It's there when you wake up inthe morning.
It's there when you're fastasleep.
It's constant.
And with regard to that, youneed to be aware that your
mindset is in the right placebecause if you're not, it really
does get on top of you.
(04:50):
And once you become a victim andyou know why me mindset, it's
very difficult to shift thatnow.
You can shift it.
Absolutely 100%.
And I've been in those dark sortof corners where I've been like,
why the hell have I got this?
Why did I do, why do I deserveit?
But really it's in those momentsthat you really tap into that
(05:11):
resilience.
And diabetics literally, bytheir nature, will have a lot of
resilience because living withthis disease, it's tough.
And even if you know whetheryou're type one or type two.
Type two, you might just have adiet that you've gotta follow,
but that's your regime.
And literally by living with aregime on a consistent continual
basis, it's a struggle.
(05:32):
Now on my side, I do a minimumsix injections a day.
I used to do eight or nine bloodtests a day.
I now have a continuous glucosemonitor.
And living with that at timeshas been a real struggle.
So that mindset and that abilityto tap into those deep
motivations that sort of, why amI here?
(05:52):
What do I want to do?
Why am I getting up?
Know for example a couple ofdays ago I got up and the very
first thing I do is I do, Icheck my blood sugars and then I
do three injections straightaway every day.
I'd been doing that for 15 yearsand a couple of days ago I just
got up and I was like, I don'twanna do this.
(06:13):
Not today.
I just don't wanna do it.
And.
I tapped into those deepmotivations.
And it was like, I wanna live along and healthy life with my
wife.
I can't do that if I don't takethese injections.
I wanna have brilliantconversations with people I've
never met again.
I can't do that if I don't takethese injections.
(06:33):
And these are the motivationsthat sort of get you up on your
feet, get you moving forward andget you in the right mindset.
So I've used that for a longtime.
James (06:44):
That's powerful.
Deep motivations are super key.
So it's nothing like diabetes,but I've had to, I've had a few
teeth out because over the yearsI've, I love eating fruit.
I've got a very sweet tooth andhaving.
The teeth out had made merealize, and I've been told that
(07:05):
I could end up like my nan withfalse teeth.
And it's, it creates a thingimage in your head thinking, I
do not wanna go there when I'm50.
So it's that, that deepmotivation to do something.
But it's finding that deepmotivation, I think is the key
because a lot of people don'thave that deep motivation that
(07:26):
they need in order to accomplishwhat they want to accomplish.
So we have a discussion aboutthat later on, but can you tell
us your story?
How, what, how did you realizeyou it had diabetes and how's
that impacted your life?
Simon (07:45):
So I was, I'm unique in that I was diagnosed with type
one diabetes at the age ofthree.
So my life before diabetes, Ireally have no knowledge of it.
I've got a twin brother.
So there was always a constantcontrast between him and me.
And with regard to that I justalways remember, I remember my
(08:08):
mom calling me in for dinner.
We, myself and my brother andall the kids in the neighborhood
would be out playing and I'dhave to run in and she'd, sit
down in her seat, she'd kneel meacross her knees, pull my pants
down and give me a shot and mybum.
And that went on.
So I, I was injecting my doingmy own injections, probably I
think about eight age, nine or10 or something.
(08:29):
And to be honest, she wasincredible.
She managed, she had, my oldestsister was, she's four years
older than myself and mybrother.
And then I've got a si, ayounger sister who's one and a
half years younger.
So it was like pretty much fourkids and one of them with
diabetes, and she was all overit.
She managed all the meals, she'dweigh everything out.
(08:50):
She'd give me exact proportions.
Everything was measured againstthe intake of the insulin that I
had, and my diabetes wasincredibly well controlled.
And then I started to take itover at the age of sort of 10, I
was doing my own injections.
And then maybe 13, 14, I wasdoing my own meals measuring my
meals out.
And she slowly introduced me andtrained me into the process of
(09:14):
living with diabetes.
And by the age of 20, evenbefore that, probably 15, I was
running it pretty much from,from morning to night.
And I also went to boardingschool in Ireland.
So I again had to control itmyself.
Now I was reasonably okaycompared to my gold standard of
(09:35):
my mother.
I wasn't quite there.
But I wasn't bad.
And as I grew up and went touniversity and then I qualified
became an accountant.
I know.
But I became an accountant and Iinitially did a bit of time in
New York and then went to, orcame to London.
And when I came to London, Iwas, I think it was about 26,
(09:58):
27.
I got a great job at a bank.
I was earning way more moneythan I ever thought, or I knew
what to do with, and I couldsuddenly start going out and
doing all sorts of bits andpieces.
Now this also coincided with, Iused to do it playing awful lot
of judo and rugby, and thatstopped.
(10:19):
Now, I didn't really understandthe implication of this at the
time.
And it's only recently that Ihave got to get a comprehension
around this, but that rugby inthe judo.
They were amazing ventingprocesses that allowed that.
The anger that I was carrying,again, which I was not aware of
living with diabetes and I wasdeeply angry, but it, that
(10:43):
venting and physicality allowedthat venting process to release
all this anger.
But suddenly I got to London andI was no longer playing judo and
I was no longer I shouldn't sayplaying, doing judo and or
playing rugby.
And the obvious thing was let'sgo out and have a few pints.
And it started just a little bitlike that, but then it did start
(11:06):
to get outta control.
And during my late twenties andthirties, I was probably
drinking and I was using that asa coping mechanism.
And it was using it really tohelp me manage my emotional
state.
Now, I certainly wasn't managingthe diabetes at this stage, but
I was using that to manage myemotional state.
(11:27):
And with regard to that, Icontinued in that vein and
really what I was doing, whichis what a lot of diabetics I've
talked to, certainly you got aproblem, stick your head in the
sand, don't do blood tests'causethey're always bad.
You don't wanna do those.
'cause that's just a reminder.
You're outta control.
So you stick your head in thesand and then get yourself a
(11:49):
good coping mechanism, whetherit's overeating, it's drinking,
or whatever else it is.
And I was living like that forquite a while.
And I would go through emotionalturmoil like where I had to go
see the doctor and I was like,oh Christ and is gonna be a
shambles.
And I turned up to the doctorand he'd do these blood tests
called a HBA one C, which is athree month average blood sugar.
(12:13):
And that was the really, thegold standard.
And of course he'd see that andhe'd look at it and he'd go I
get the nod and then it was intothe parental sort of
conversation like, you justcan't continue like this.
If you continue like this iswhat's gonna happen to you.
You're gonna get liver disease,kidney damage, you're gonna get
amputations, blindness.
And I just sit there and Iwanted to eviscerate him
(12:34):
literally.
And I just wanted to get thehell outta there as quick as I
could.
There were little remindersduring the year and then also
your blood tests.
So every time I did a blood testsky high.
Why?
Because it was outta control.
It was outta control.
And I couldn't tell you why Iwas outta control.
And I really didn't want toknow.
Stick your head in the sand,forget about it.
(12:55):
Have another pint.
And that was really where I wasliving and I had a red flag
moment.
So I was getting ready to takepart in two legs of around the
world yacht race.
And I was going from ChinaQingdao across the North Pacific
to San Fran and then San Franvia the Panama Canal to Jamaica.
(13:17):
And as I was preparing, I juststarted just doing a little bit
of personal grooming and Istarted clipping my nails my
fingernails and I picked one ofthem up'cause it just looked a
bit weird and I crushed it intoa powder between my fingers.
And doing that, I instinctivelyknew that's not right.
(13:39):
That is not right.
And I picked up another one andI just snapped it in half.
There was no, it wasn'tmalleable at all as you'd expect
a fingernail to be.
And I knew that was thediabetes.
And I also knew if you don't geton top of this you're goose.
You are as good as gone.
And I was 40.
Now when I went sailing, I.
(14:02):
I, I didn't I talked to my wife,Miriam, who is an amazing
researcher, and I said, listenthe current process that I'm
involved in with regard tomanaging my diabetes doesn't
work.
It just doesn't work.
And this wake up call, I wasreally quite frightened and I
was quite worried and anxiousabout what's coming down the
(14:24):
track next.
And I had no way I couldn't seea way out.
And I needed somebody else.
I needed some help.
And I said this to my wife andas I was crossing the North
Pacific, I got an email and shesaid, I found this doctor in the
United States, this guy calledDr.
Bernstein.
He's in upstate New York.
(14:45):
He is a type one diabetic.
And he has a very maverickapproach to diabetes.
And I booked him in and we weregonna see him for three days
where you're gonna get retrainedand we're there in August and.
I went out to see this guy.
I read his book and it's prettyhardcore.
It's pretty heavy going, andactually I suffer from a bit of
(15:08):
a DHD and trying to absorb someof this message was, yeah, it
was pretty harsh.
So I, I probably wasn't asprepared as he, he would've
liked me to have been, but Iturned up on day one and on
Ruth, I got a sandwich, a bighero sandwich.
So hero sandwiches are likethey're New York's, they're
(15:29):
just, they're just a big sub andthey're great.
And I turned up and he hit mewith all the big ones on day
one, and he said, you'restarting these as of tomorrow
morning.
The first one was instead ofdoing three injections a day, I
was now doing a minimum sixinstead of doing one or two
(15:50):
blood tests every couple ofdays.
Now to give you the equivalentof that's like driving a car
with no steering wheel, right?
You haven't got a chance.
And you wanted me now to doeight a day and then my
carbohydrates were gone.
I was only going to eat proteinand greens, right?
Protein and greens, that's it.
(16:10):
I'm Irish.
I just do meat and potatoes,right?
No potatoes, like my family's inshock.
My parents in shock.
My country is in shock, right?
You just can't do that, right?
And I don't eat vegetables orgreens.
Jesus.
So I had to start eating greens.
And then on top of this, hegoes, I need you to record
(16:31):
everything.
And I use, actually, I justhappen to have one here.
There's a thing I call a gluccograft.
And in here I record everything.
I record when I get up, my bloodsugar, what I insulin.
I took what I had for breakfast.
Everything gets recorded.
Now I came from a shambles.
(16:51):
Literally the only thing that Iwas constant at was my
injections.
That was it.
Everything else was all over theplace.
I hadn't recorded a blood test,I don't know, probably 10 years.
And suddenly this changed.
I was like, I can't do this.
And as he's talking to me, Istarted to think this doctor is
obviously insane.
His regime is insane.
(17:13):
And I said to my wife when hewent to the toilet, I'm outta
here.
And she convinced me to stay.
And it's only day one or daythree, right?
So we're on a train from MAupstate New York, going back
into Grand Central.
And then we were staying with mysister in Brooklyn.
And as we're taking the traindown, I just, all I got, I just
(17:35):
kept saying, I can't do this.
I can't do this, I can't dothis.
I can't do all these injections.
I can't not eat rice, potato,fruits, wheat, I can't do these
blood tests.
I can't record everything.
And.
I just, there, there was nowebsite.
There was just no website.
And my wife, when we got back toBrooklyn, said to me, I want you
(17:57):
to take this journal.
And she gave me a pen and shesaid, I want you to go to that
pub on the corner.
It's a quiet pub.
I want you to get a pint, and Iwant you just to write in the
journal.
And I went, okay.
Now I did it more for the pint.
But I said, okay.
And I took the journal and thepen and I found myself writing.
(18:17):
And what was I writing?
I can't.
And I listed all the stuff thatI just can't do this.
And I must've been writing forabout 20 minutes and my hands
started to cramp up.
And as I sat up and I took asort of a slug outta the pints,
I suddenly found myself going,what if you could, what if you
(18:42):
could do that?
What if you could do thoseinjections?
What if you could do those bloodtests?
And I started to go from thereto visualizing me actually doing
this.
And then I suddenly got to, whatthe hell do you want?
What do you want outta yourlife?
And I said, you're 40 years oldand if you continue in the path
(19:04):
you are on, you're gonna be deadprobably at 50.
And it's gonna be a very slow,insidious decline in your health
and very painful.
Or you can take this road andjust get on with it now.
Just get on with it.
Probably not the best term.
And certainly diabetics do notwant to hear that term.
(19:25):
So I sat and I just thought, andI allowed myself to immerse
myself in this vision, and Ikept saying, what do I want?
And the following morning I gotup and I started this regime.
I've been doing this regimeconsistently for over 15 years
on a consistent and continualbasis.
(19:48):
And the reason I'm doing it isbecause of the change in my
mindset.
And if that hadn't have happenedin that moment, there's no way I
would've been able to followthis.
Because when you talk todoctors, most doctors with the
exception, even not actuallyeven Dr.
Bernstein, he'll just tell you,you wanna control your blood
sugars, you gotta control yourdiet, and you gotta control your
(20:11):
medication.
Simples, there's a huge elementmissing in that.
And that's the mindset, thatemotional state that you bring.
Because if you're not in theright place, no matter how good
it is, you will not follow it.
And I got all sorts of littleticks that motivated me.
I'd do a blood test and likewhen I used to do a blood test I
(20:35):
had no idea what number wasgonna pop up.
I.
Literally I would be, it couldbe I couldn't, I, if you gave
me, if you said to me, I bet youa thousand pounds, you can guess
what that number is within arange of sort of 10%.
I wouldn't have a clue.
It could be 20, it could befive, it could be 16.
(20:59):
I wouldn't have a clue.
But suddenly when I wasfollowing this regime, I do a
blood test and I can actuallysay, I believe I'm gonna be 4.7
around there.
And I was, and that suddenly,Jesus, I'm in control.
I actually, I know what I'mdoing.
I know what makes this numbermove.
I know how to control my health.
(21:19):
And this started to reallyreinforce that change in mindset
and say, you're on the rightpath.
This is the right way to go.
And it started me on quite ajourney, an emotional journey.
Which really it took a while forme to really and truly be
convinced that his method wasright.
But man, he is bang on and thisdoctor, he is now 90 and when I
(21:44):
go over and visit him, he'sstill working.
And when I go over and visithim, he'll get me down on the
floor and he'll pump out 10pushups and he'll have me beside
him.
He's the oldest living diabeticin the United States, and he has
all his limbs, no amputations,no issues.
He's incredible.
And this guy walks the walk andtalks the talk.
He understands.
(22:06):
So he is been brilliant.
This guy's literally saved mylife and I never had a pension
and now I'm wishing god damn, Ishould have had a pension
because I'm gonna live a muchlonger life than I'd
anticipated.
And that's incredible.
And really it's a message todiabetics If you.
Get yourself in the right place.
(22:26):
Look after the diet and take themedication.
You can live an incredible life.
James (22:34):
Thank cues.
It's a, it's an absolutely yeah,incredible journey that you've
been on.
But with regards, if we go backto when you had all the emotions
running around to you, whatparticular emotions did you
feel?
Was it anger, was itfrustration?
Simon (22:54):
Anger.
Anger was ever present.
And there was a little elementof why me, and why do I have to
deal with this?
Just general anger with thisthing.
And that played into all sorts.
So you'd get like a lot of selfhatred, self-doubt, lack of
self-confidence, and theself-loathing, because why don't
(23:14):
you know if you don't care aboutyourself?
Why would anyone else bebothered about you?
If you are not willing to lookafter yourself, why should
anyone else be bothered takingany sort of care with you?
And why?
Why are why are you like this?
Why do you not care?
Look at everyone else.
They're going down the gym,they're doing this, they're
doing that.
And you're sitting on yourbackside.
You're not even managing yourdiabetes.
You don't even know how tocontrol it.
You're worthless.
(23:35):
You're not good enough.
You're not strong enough.
And my God, you get into anemotional spiral.
And this would go on probablyfor about 30 minutes every time
I did a blood test.
And at the end of it, I wasexhausted.
And then you'd go why would youwanna do another blood test?
Just to reconfirm that yourblood sugars are outta control,
(23:56):
but you were living with thoseshadows and they were ever
present all the time.
And you'd use your copingmechanisms really to distance
yourself from these emotions.
You didn't wanna, you didn'twanna register this, it was just
too painful.
It was too hard.
Lots of diabetics I know, likewho I've talked to, go through
(24:17):
the same thing.
And then there's this constant,'cause diabetes is insidious.
It's slowly destroys your cellsand it's, it operates on a
cellular level.
It's not like it's attacking amuscle or something like that.
It ap like it's at a cellularlevel, the lowest level you can
get to in your body.
And it's damaging your systems.
(24:38):
And when it's not just damaging,it's not just damaging your
eyes, it's damaging yourkidneys, it's damaging your
blood vessels, it's damagingyour pancreat pancreas.
It damages everything.
Nothing gets away.
And by the time, unfortunately,you've got a problem, you
probably have lots of problems.
And if you haven't got lots ofproblems, you have a lot of
problems that are going tomanifest very quickly.
James (25:02):
That just shows that if there's people out there who are
perhaps going through thatemotional state at this moment
in time, that there is light atthe end of the tunnel.
And I think that's key.
I think that's key.
Knowing that as people have beenthere and done that and they've
come out the other side and areliving a nice, healthy, long
(25:25):
life,
Simon (25:26):
your like, I can't tell you like my, your body is
incredible.
Your body, the pla plasticityand elasticity as I call it in
your body, is incredible, right?
You can mismanage your diabetesand if you get on top of it, you
decide I'm gonna change and youget on top of it, you can
(25:47):
reverse damage that's alreadybeen done.
Now doctors will tell you thatcan happen, but my doctor in the
US said this can happen and youwill find as I did.
When I used to go for eyechecks, you'll find that they'll
suddenly go, how did thishappen?
You seem better than you were.
But our teachings have told usthat, once you've done damage to
(26:08):
the eye, that's it.
You just, it doesn't reverse,but it does.
And what would happen is I'd gosee it one of the
ophthalmologists, then he'd callhis boss and he'd have a look
and then he'd call his boss.
And then eventually I'd end upwith the head of the department
and they'd go this is verystrange.
How did this happen?
And I go this is because Icontrol my diabetes.
(26:29):
And in controlling it, youchange your body.
And your body is a, anincredible variable.
It's constantly adapting.
And if you feed it the rightntri nutrients and you look
after it with, the insulin thatI have to take, or just the
medication, maybe metformin fortype twos, you can change your
life and you can live anincredibly long and healthy
(26:51):
life.
But don't con yourself if you'renot looking after it.
You will pay a price at somepoint.
And that is because the diseaseis so slow and insidious.
People think they're gettingaway with it.
And really, when Covid kickedin, one of the biggest groups
(27:11):
that were affected were type twodiabetics who got wiped out, and
a lot of'em got wiped outbecause they thought they were
getting away with it.
And suddenly Covid came alongand it just gave them a lot of a
push to knock'em off.
And unfortunately, they, a lotof them passed away.
And yeah, so it's in your head.
You can convince yourself, thisis, I'm all right, I got, maybe
(27:33):
I got a little bit of tinglingin my feet.
That's neuropathy.
Or, I got a little bit of this,or blurred vision.
It'll be all right.
There's, they're the telltalesigns.
This is where you need to startpulling back and saying, what do
I want?
Where am I going with this?
James (27:51):
It's a powerful mindset.
Shift yourself.
You said you've had, so the deepmotivation the resilience, the
the fact that you shifted from Ican't do that to what, if I can.
And I think it's not just peoplewith diabetes here it's anybody,
whether it's man or woman,having that mindset shift from I
(28:16):
can't to, I can changeeverything
Simon (28:20):
massive.
Ma massively.
And it is interesting like I do.
I, as we met with the PSA, theProfessional Speaking
Association I do a lot of talkson diabetes and I talk about
that mindset shift and it'squite, what I find quite
interesting is I'll have peoplewho are attending with friends
who are diabetics and they'llcome up to me afterwards and go,
wow.
(28:40):
That, that strategy that youhave is incredible because, I
could use that to get apromotion in work, or I could
use that to potentially asksomebody out on a date who I've
struggled with, or I'm gonna doa 5K as well as diabetics
grabbing hold of this strategyand go, I'm gonna take this and
I'm gonna move forward with it,and I'm gonna change my mindset.
(29:01):
Because I think as well, likewhen you have somebody who's
gone through it and like I wasin some dark places with the
diabetes, and I have no doubt Iwould've been either dead at 50
or really in very bad healthwith probability of like
amputation and that sort ofstuff.
Very imminent with, maybe acouple of years before I passed.
(29:25):
So with the mindset, you can geton top of the diet, you can get
on top of the the medication.
But you gotta get that right.
And Western Medicine doesn'tlook at that.
There's nowhere I can findanywhere to help me with, that
mindset change.
And really, I wasn't even awareof it.
And I'll put my hand up.
(29:45):
Diabetics are amazing at hidingemotions, right?
We take emotions and we stickthem in a box and stuff them so
far back in the deepest recessesof our mind, and we presume
they'll never reappear.
And sometimes in my workshopsI'll joke and I'll say, in
(30:07):
Ireland we don't have emotions.
They just don't exist.
They're not allowed to exist.
And if you start talkingemotionally, you can get
arrested.
So you just, you don't deal withanything emotional.
And it's funny as I say that.
People all over resonate.
And I've had people all over theglobe saying, it's not just the
(30:27):
Irish, I'm French, I'm Jamaican,I'm African.
So everybody resonates.
'cause there's an element yougotta kinda man up or you gotta
be the the alpha male, alphafemale.
So you just can't, this, justpush it away.
And that is very dangerousbecause you can sit on that and
when you sit on it, you'recausing your body huge amounts
(30:51):
of damage.
And it's almost I'd love to say,I will say go out and get
somebody to talk to, get atherapist, get a counselor.
They're not gonna be diabeticspecialists, but at least talk
to them because you need to getthat stuff out.
And a great example for me withthat was when I went to see this
doctor in the US he said to me,one of the biggest things you're
(31:13):
gonna find is I'm gonna put youon a thyroid medication.
Now in the uk, they would'vesaid to me your thyroid
medication's kind of normal, soyou don't need it.
And what he'd suggested is thatactually the band for measuring
normal range of thyroid isprobably too wide and it should
(31:35):
be narrowed.
And if it is narrowed, diabeticswould fall outside of the normal
range.
So he started me off on T threemedication for thyroid.
And it was like, as soon as Istarted, it was almost like my
brain had hopped into it, hadjumped out of some battered up
fort Escort and jumped into aFerrari.
(31:55):
My mind was so much sharper andmore, much more alert and in
work, the change in work wasphenomenal.
I, I got two promotions veryquickly as a result of this.
I was just so much sharper.
And initially I was I was just,I thought this was amazing.
I.
I suddenly then got incrediblyangry.
(32:17):
How the hell did nobody tell meabout this?
And I got to the point where Iwas like I've been working 20
odd years suboptimally becausenobody told me about this
thyroid medication that I shouldhave been on.
And I got so angry.
I actually had to go see atherapist.
And I talked to, I did a coupleof sessions with her and I
remember she said, why don't yourecord, a message?
(32:42):
Just record just how you feel.
And I recorded this sort of fouror five minute message, and it
was just full of expletives,like full of expletives.
But I eventually gone over it.
But this was a lot of the angerthat was coming out, and this
was only scratching the surface.
I've done a lot more work sincethen on this.
And it's, yeah, this, this stuffis buried so deep down that it's
(33:05):
very easy just to sit on it forthe rest of your life.
James (33:11):
I can absolutely imagine because as a whole, I feel men
especially, not so much, I thinkwomen are a bit more open to
emotions, but I feel men as awhole tend to push a lot of
emotion down.
And for me, myself, there's beentimes where I would push anger
(33:34):
down and I would go outdrinking.
And when I'm drinking, suddenlymy emotion, my anger would come
up.
So I'd be like, come on, let'sget into a fight kind of thing.
And I've had to realize that theway I was dealing with anger was
very unhealthy.
Simon (33:50):
Yeah.
James (33:51):
And this is it.
If you, when you suppress anemotion, it tends to.
It tends to get stuck.
It tends to create illnesses, ittends to batter our own organs.
And I'll give you a perfectsample.
It's this weekend just gone.
(34:12):
I was dancing I said dance, andI was dancing so hard that I
kicked my neck and I got, I'vehad a bad neck last few days.
But what I did during a dancewas that, okay, what is it about
that crep neck that really wantsto be let go of?
(34:35):
And when I basically went intothat that part of my body, it
was anger and rage.
And what I found was thatinitially I had the pain all the
way down my back when I allowmyself.
Because in that, in the aticdance, one thing you can do is
allow yourself to, to fent.
(34:55):
Emotions.
Simon (34:56):
Yeah.
James (34:56):
So you can dance and you can go, ah, kind of thing.
Why are you dancing?
Obviously there's no physicalviolence, but you can allow
yourself to let your voice beheard.
So you can now go ah, orwhatever comes out.
You can cry, you can scream.
Yeah.
It's all part and parcel of thethe dance and the whole concept
(35:17):
around it.
And what I did, and there'squite a few people join me, we
all started shouting.
We started going, ah, as loud aswe could.
And what I found was that thepain went from down there just
to the top of my neck.
And so it's a basically ittaught me that we might have
(35:37):
emotion, stuck emotion in ourbody and it might be affecting
certain organs, but if we canallow ourselves to vent this
emotion in whatever way we seepo see fit, it can allow us to
release.
In a way that starts to heal it.
Simon (35:54):
Yeah.
I like, I totally agree.
Like when you're sitting on alot of emotion, you are sitting
on a ticking time bomb, right?
And it's the same if you're notmanaging your diabetes.
You are sitting on a tickingtime bomb.
At some point it's gonna go off.
And those emotions as well.
I totally agree.
You get ill, you will get ill,because if you can't release
(36:14):
them, they'll start to manifestwithin a certain point and
certain things will start tohappen.
And there, there's a recent sior a study done, which was
reported in the Guardian acouple of weeks ago, that the
incidents of cancer in type twodiabetics is much higher than
everybody else.
And that potentially is maybe asa result of sitting on a lot of
this stuff.
(36:35):
But I can't say with anycertainty by any stretch on
that, but I do a lot of I shouldsay my wife is a practitioner of
a thing called jitsu, which.
Uses flows in the body and ittalks about locks.
You've got 26 locks, I think itis in the body.
And then if these locks areopen, everything flows and
everything's good, and theenergy's good.
(36:55):
But if they're blocked, you'llstart to feel a little bit ill
or maybe a little bit stressedor a little bit this.
And if you dumped, unblock it,after you get that initial sort
of flag, you'll get anotherslightly stronger flag that
might indicate that you'regetting a bit of pain now.
And then if you don't doanything with that, it'll just
start getting bigger and biggeruntil something goes wrong.
(37:17):
So I completely agree with that.
You can't sit on this stuff.
You've gotta let it out.
And screaming is a great way ofdancing.
Absolutely.
Fantastic way to do that.
And it's really like whateverworks it's I do a lot of
climbing and it's funny youmight turn up at a wall or you
might turn up at a crag.
You can feel like there's a lotof emotion.
(37:38):
And if you climb with thatemotion, it comes out, you'll
see it, you will climb likecrap.
And you've gotta actually sitdown and literally let it go.
Just let the me I do meditationquite a bit, and my meditation
might only be five or sixminutes.
That's it.
But I'll do it a couple of timesa day.
And that has a big impact.
And it just lets things out.
(38:00):
It allows me to breathe.
James (38:03):
So over the years, especially since the mindset
shift, how has that shaped youridentity, but not just as a
patient, but maybe withinrelationships, within your
purpose, within work?
Simon (38:19):
Oh first of all, if you talk about relationships, I have
to give my, my, my wife a goldmedal for stick it with me for
20 odd years.
Probably prior to me seeing thatdoctor at the age of 40 I was an
angry individual.
And I drank too much.
And, especially with diabetesespecially with sort of type
ones and type twos can have itas well, where you can get low
blood sugars and in theory youcan collapse so effectively.
(38:42):
Like I, for all intents andpurposes, I might have collapsed
from a low blood sugar, but Ijust look like I'm drunk.
So I'd go out and she has noidea where I am when I'm coming
back, will I come back?
Is she gonna get a call from anambulance?
No idea.
There's a lot of panic for herjust sitting at home with that.
And I would then be almost blasehead in the sand, don't worry
(39:02):
about it, everything's gonna befine.
And I just go out and blowsteam, but I get like absolutely
Maldi drunk.
I'd be.
Eating foods I shouldn't beeating.
I just, I was ticking every boxfor this is an early death and I
probably wasn't a greatindividual.
And there was obviously my wifesaw enough in me to stick with
(39:23):
me.
But certainly when I changed andI started to work with that
doctor in the us Dr.
Bernstein, that's when lifestarted to get an awful lot
better and a lot richer.
And I felt far more empowered asan individual and as a diabetic
and far more responsible forwhat I was doing and the impact
it had on other people and justa much nicer and more loving
(39:46):
individual.
And as a patient prior to thatit was always I go to guy's
hospital and they'd get the hbaone C and then they go, Simon,
this is not good enough.
This is not good enough.
You have to change.
If you don't change, you'll dienext.
Whereas now I go in and I saythings to, I'm like no, that's
wrong and I don't agree with youbecause I have such an in-depth
knowledge of diabetes.
(40:07):
And I can quite frequently findmyself, I went for a 15 minute
meeting and then I might havetwo or three doctors invited
into the meeting to haveconversations and get my view on
various bits and pieces.
So it's kinda it's changed alot.
And it's certainly the NHSI haveto say it's a phenomenal
organization.
And really what it does everyday that it gets up is truly
(40:29):
incredible, and especially withthe diabetics.
But if I could give themunlimited resources I'd I'd love
them to see every patient everythree months.
I'd love them to, to deal withthe emotional side.
To really help diabetics along.
But what they do at the momentis really, truly incredible.
And they deserve full credit forwhat they do.
And yeah, so as a patient, I'mprobably a much nicer guy.
(40:51):
It's much quicker to deal withme'cause they get my hba one C
and they go, wow, that'samazing.
Off you go and we'll see you in12 months.
So on that front, I'm a muchbetter guy and as an individual,
just with my wife and my familyand my friends, I'm just a much
more relaxed guy.
And really the key thing is thatI'm actually at peace with my
(41:15):
diabetes.
And that's, I can't emphasizehow big that is.
But to say that I'm at peace ishuge from where I came from.
So it was almost like I was inthe trenches fighting a war at a
really dirty, bloody battle.
And now I feel like I'm on thebeach relaxed.
I'm not ordering a cocktail asmuch as I'd like to.
(41:38):
I'll just have a glass of water.
James (41:42):
What are the non-negotiables in your daily
life that help me to saygrounded, healthy, and collected
to your body?
Simon (41:50):
So good.
Yeah, very good question.
So one of the things I do is Ihave a sort of ritual I do in
the morning and I get up and Ido a little bit of meditation
and I set intentions.
Now the very first thing I haveto do is check a blood test.
So literally I will grab, I'llgrab my mobile, I have a
continuous glucose monitor, andI'll immediately check what's my
(42:10):
blood sugar which I'm doingright now, just in case.
And it's perfect.
So I'll do that and I do threeinjections now if I'm having a
bit of a moment and I just, youknow what I'm just enough.
I let myself breathe and I'll gooutside.
I've got a, got a balcony here,and I'll stand out in the
(42:31):
balcony and just breathe andjust let myself relax and, look
how grateful you are foreverything you've got, and then
you'll get on it.
But I'll set intentions everyday.
Today's gonna be a good day, andyou're gonna control your
diabetes, you're gonna eat well,and you're gonna take your
injections.
And then with regard to anythingand everything that I do, you'll
(42:52):
always find me with a backpackor a small satchel in there.
I've got my injections, all myinsulin.
I'll have a bottle of Lucasaids, I, and I'll have any
medication that I need.
And then I'll have just anemergency set up just in case
anything goes wrong or anythinghappens or, and you'd be amazed.
You would literally be amazed atsome of the stuff like that.
(43:13):
I've dropped an insulin vialinto the toilet.
Like literally, I wasn't on thetoilet, but I was to the side of
the toilet, hit a shelf.
Bounced off a radiator, hit theseat, and then went into the
bowl and you're like, really?
What are the chances?
So you always have two, and thenif you've only got the one that
you're down, then you alwaysleave it at home.
So there's a process.
(43:33):
You become incrediblyresourceful and very resilient,
but it's always make sure I'vegot that satchel, make sure it's
got all the ticks.
So I need the ade, I need this,I need that.
And set the intentions.
Setting the intentions is agreat way to start the day.
And it just means you're in apositive mindset and away you go
James (43:53):
other,'cause obviously that's about different ways in
which you can create theroutines.
What are the non-negotiablesyou've had to do for the last 15
years?
Simon (44:06):
So really it's so the diet I'm on is incredibly
strict.
So I stick to it.
Quite frequently if you'd inviteme around for dinner, just
suggestion, just throwing thatout there, James.
But if you did invite me aroundfor dinner, I'm more than likely
gonna bring my own dinner or I'mgonna tell you this is what I'm
gonna do and I'll bring aweighing scales'cause I need to
weigh it out if I'm eating yourstuff.
(44:27):
So the non-negotiables arereally the rules that I need to
live by as a diabetic.
Now there's, as I said, there's,our diabetics are quite
resourceful, so we can if wehave to change the rules a
little bit so maybe I don't havelunch or maybe I don't have
lunch at one, I have it at four,then I won't have dinner.
It is flexible, but within thatyou've gotta stick rigidly to
(44:49):
the rules.
So if I have lunch, it'sbasically 2 1 3 cups of green
veg, 171 grams of protein, fiveunits of insulin.
That's the number.
Now, if I can't get 171 grams, Iknow that, for every 28.3 grams
less, I take half a unit, lessinsulin.
(45:10):
Alternatively, it's a bit more.
So you've gotta stick with theserules and you cannot bend them.
And I know that sounds likereally rigid, but the thing is,
you, if you start, and again,it's like, it's that little cous
track, it's you start going tothe gym in January and you start
off, you do really well.
You get up in the morning andyou go to the gym and then the
following kind of morning you doit, and then the third morning
(45:32):
then, and then I'll just sleep alittle bit longer and then and
then suddenly it's gone.
And you've gotta be verycognitive of that with the
diabetes as well, because it'svery easy to slip.
And if you allow new synapsis inyour brain to connect where you
say, eh, it's okay, don't worryabout that, you can get away
with that.
You'd be fine.
(45:53):
You start to train your mind tosay, you can get a little more
relaxed and a little bit easy, alittle easier with this.
So it might, non-negotiables isyou stick like a rock to this.
Sometimes you just can't, you'vegotta bend in certain ways and
that's all right.
But that's the outlier.
What you do on a given day, youfocus and you just continue with
(46:14):
that.
And to the extent, like I usedto generally bring my work or
bring my food into work, whichI, prior to that I'd never done.
I'd always just got a gone outand got a sandwich or a burger
or went whatever the hell.
And I brought it in rigidly.
And then what I did was I foundout restaurants that worked for
me.
So if they were a beef, if theydid burgers and I knew it was a
(46:36):
six ounce burger, which is 171grams, perfect, I'll have that
burger, no bun, no tomato, noonion, and some cold saw on the
side.
And they charged me the sameprice, which is fine, I don't
mind.
But that works.
So it ticks the boxes sorigidly, you have to follow
that.
And they are non-negotiables.
James (46:56):
So for somebody who's perhaps.
On this path of becoming a bitmore rigid with their
non-negotiables.
Obviously when you are trying todo something like that, it's
hard work and it requires a lotof focus and motivation.
For those people who perhapshaven't quite got the motivation
(47:17):
yet, what do you say to them?
Simon (47:21):
So regarding the motivation this is where like
these are the sort of guys Iwant on my workshops.
And really, I talk about likethe, I mentioned the HB A1C,
which is a blood test and mystrategy is called the A1C,
which is derivative of that.
And it, the first key steparound that is a for awaken.
And that again, is where you'retrying to tap into those deep
motivations.
(47:42):
And it's like really?
What do you care?
What's your driver?
What do you love in life?
Let's get into that.
And it doesn't matter what itis, but certainly like when I
started that process when I wasin New York, and I continued for
probably a week or two afterthat.
But it was like I was coming upwith stuff like, I wanna sail
across the Atlantic.
I wanna climb a mountain.
(48:02):
I want to have brilliantconversations with brilliant
people who, I may not becauseI'm dead or I wanna be able to
do, I wanna walk across the uk.
I want to really have abrilliant and enriching and
vibrant life with my wife.
I wanna spend as much time withmy kids.
And when you start to tap thesedeep motivations, you'll start
(48:24):
to get, this is why they wannalook after this.
James (48:28):
And
Simon (48:28):
that's what they've gotta write down because they, in
doing that exercise, you createthe foundation.
And that foundation needs to bestrong because inevitably storms
will come in.
You're gonna get tested.
And that's just life.
Life happens.
And if you have a strongfoundation, when those problems
(48:50):
occur, you will be able to standstrong and face them front.
And I almost would, during the,in the workshops, we'd talk
about, I want you to write astatement after you've written
down all of these things.
This is why you wanna look afterit.
Get me one big, clear statement,and I want you to stick it on
your wardrobe.
I want it on the front door.
(49:10):
I want it on the mirror.
I want it in your kitchen.
And I want you to look at it andremind yourself, this is why
you're doing this.
And very quickly what you tendto find is it becomes just part
of you.
You just do this.
And it's, it becomes effectivelywhen it gets to that point.
That's your non-negotiable.
(49:32):
And then, we talk about A1C andthen one I.
A little bit of poetic license.
I'm Irish, we have a lot ofpoets, so a little poetic
license.
So the one is for identify andthen that, in that area that
we're looking for, identifywhat's stopping you and you'll
find all sorts.
It's diabetics of all sorts ofblocks.
(49:52):
And one of them for me was,blood tests.
I used to hate doing them'causethey were always cramp.
They were always cramp.
And then I get myself into thisemotional turmoil, like
self-loathing, self hate, lackof self-confidence, self-doubt.
You're not good enough, you'renot strong enough, you're not
use, you don't care.
Nobody else is gonna care.
Why should they be bothered ifyou are not?
(50:13):
And I'd just be exhausted and Isaid I need to tease that story.
And that took me a couple ofhours to literally to be able to
verbalize that to you inliterally a couple of seconds
that took hours and hours towrite that out.
It probably took me a couple ofdays to be honest.
But as I got that down, Isuddenly was like, I need to
change that story.
(50:35):
And in doing that, I now say Ido blood tests because they
provide me with information thatallows me to take control,
correct a reaction control sothat I can live a long and
healthy life.
How much more empowering is thatstatement compared to the other
one?
And these are the sort of thingsthat we work with.
And then, the final piece ofthat puzzle is see for choose.
(50:57):
Choose your language, look athow you talk to yourself about
your diabetes.
If you're constantly sayingthings that are sowing seeds of
negativity and self-doubt,they'll manifest.
But there's studies on this.
Joe Dispenza does hugeconferences on literally, if you
think poorly, it'll manifest inyour body.
(51:17):
So if you're going like, I justcan't control my blood sugars,
trust me, you won't be able tocontrol your blood sugars.
I'll never get on top of this.
That'll happen too.
But if you start saying sort ofstuff like, I do these blood
tests because it gives meinformation that allows me to
take corrective action ifrequired.
(51:38):
These are positive things.
So it's also looking at how youspeak to yourself internally and
externally, how you speak withpeople, and also to yourself.
I'm a bit of a rambler.
I think it's an Irish thing.
You just talk to the wife isslowly getting used to it over
20 years.
But also how people talk to youas a diabetic, because you've
(51:59):
gotta, you're subconscious,you've gotta, you've gotta
manage that like with twoliterally guards at the front of
it.
Because when people say thingslike, oh my God, it's so hard.
I don't know how you do it.
Your subconscious just hears,it's hard.
If people are saying to you, ohI could never do that.
(52:20):
You're amazing.
It'll pick up.
I could never do that.
You've gotta be incrediblycareful with what people are
saying to you.
And I used to get a lot ofpeople who would say to me, when
I started this regime with mydoctor, and they go, are you
still on that crazy diet?
And I was like, I probably don'treally want to be hearing that
(52:41):
all the time.
So what I started saying topeople is that's the lifestyle I
embrace now.
And people would just stopstraight away and they go, oh,
okay.
And what I used to find was, orstill find to today is these
people would come back to meabout a week or two later and
they'd go, tell me about thatdiet and how does it work and
(53:03):
what do you do?
And as a result of that, theengagement between the two of us
would be much more positive andthey really want to hear and
listen about it.
And you'd say, I.
Diabetes is tough, but you knowwhat, it's completely
manageable.
And I use language that empowersme rather than sows seeds of
negativity and self-doubt.
James (53:24):
Yeah.
That's strong.
That's, it's one of them thingsthat if you hear too much of it,
it can have such a negativeimpact on yourself.
So I feel it's key is the wordsthat we use and the words that
other people use.
And I suppose sometimes as well,if you are around somebody who
always is using negativity thatdoesn't alarm yourself, then
(53:46):
maybe it's time to split ways.
Simon (53:50):
Move on.
Don't there's, you get one life,you get one vessel.
Your body, there's nonegotiation on that.
It's I, listen, I love yourbuddy, but I gotta move on.
And I, I remember I didsomething similar to this where
I was in I'd been in London andI'd had this huge crew of
friends and I decided I wasgoing to, it was gonna on my
(54:13):
bucket list.
I wanted to travel around theworld, and I went on my own.
And I intentionally went to myown because then other words,
there was no dependency onanyone.
And I took all my diabetic stuffwith me and I set off and off I
went.
And this was prior now to memeeting that doctor in the us.
And what I started to realize isI hadn't had a lot of time with
(54:37):
just me and I started to reflecton all sorts of parts of my life
and where I was going and mycontrol was okay at the time.
So it probably didn't reallyrequire me to focus as much as I
certainly in a couple of yearsafter that I needed to.
And I started to look though atall of the people around me.
I had this huge crew of peopleI'd go out drinking with and
(54:59):
booing and go to parties andrestaurants and pretty much just
with the intention of gettingdrunk every time we met.
And I looked at all of these andI looked at how they interacted
with me and the language theyused of the diabetes.
And I decided I needed to getrid of all of these people.
As you were saying, time tosplit ways.
(55:19):
And I wrote an email to everyone of these people.
So it was about a, I dunno, itwas close to 200.
And I just said, I wish you allthe best in life.
There's no, there's no anger oranything like that, but there
can't hang around with youanymore.
I just need to move on.
Because their influence washaving a very negative effect on
my life, as in it was drinkingtoo much, some drugs in there as
(55:43):
well.
Just the language the behavior,the manner.
And then the way we, they wouldtalk to me around my diabetes
and stuff.
I just thought I don't needthis.
And I got rid of all of them,with the exception of one guy
who just kept knocking on thedoor.
And I remember I met him for apint in the Aries, and straight
away he started telling me allhis problems.
(56:04):
And then he started talkingabout God damn you and your
diabetes, that stuff.
It's, geez, I don't know how youdo it.
And I remember I had half a pintand then I said, listen, I gotta
go.
And I left him and I never sawhim again.
And that was the best thing Iever did.
And that bit of advice, you weresaying smart ways.
Absolutely.
As a diabetic, you've got enoughon your plate.
(56:25):
And if you've got some bringinga load of negativity, get'em
outta there
James (56:31):
so that people who want to know more about yourself And
do you have any contact details?
And what do you actually teachpeople?
Simon (56:40):
What do you
James (56:40):
offer?
Simon (56:41):
You contact me.
I'm building my website at themoment.
I'm running a little bit behindschedule.
I put my hands up, so I'mbuilding my website at the
moment, but you can contact meon Simon diabetes take
control.com, and I can sharethat link with you as well.
If you wanna, you can put it upon the screen.
Yeah.
And then I can also give a QRcode if anyone wants to contact
(57:02):
me on LinkedIn and just tell meyou're reaching out, you're
interested in diabetes, andyou'd like to know more about
the workshop.
Absolutely.
And then the workshop itself, wedeal with an awful lot of stuff
in there.
The workshop itself will be twomornings and there are five
broad brush strokes, a forawaken.
I, one for identify what'sstopping you c for choose your
(57:25):
language.
And we do an awful lot in thesesections.
So we probably cover the firsttwo.
We probably be covered in thefirst morning, and then the
second morning would be thefinal three.
And then the fourth one ismeasure and control.
Which is a huge part thatdiabetics really don't do.
And this is that h this gluccograft that I use to control my
(57:48):
diabetes because one of the keythings you gotta do is, they've
got all these funky sort of datasets that you can record your
blood sugars and stuff likethat.
But nobody looks at them andthey don't really provide you
with the information.
And, it's like running abusiness.
There are very importantmeasurements that you gotta take
in running a business.
And if you're not doing that, itis more likely you're gonna
(58:09):
collapse.
It's the same with the diabetes.
You've got to record this stuff.
So I do a whole section ofmeasure and record, and then
I'll just talk about the earthmoon and the stars.
It's get up there, get out, getactive, get moving.
And I've done a lot of stuff.
I've been, sledding with dogs inthe Arctic for three weeks.
I've been out in the Himalayasdoing Mount Everest.
I haven't climbed Mount Everest,should I say sorry, doing
(58:30):
Everest Base camp.
I'm doing some climbing.
I've sailed across the NorPacific, and you can do anything
as a diabetic.
Your life is as rich aseverybody else's, and if you
come at it with the rightmindset, the world's your
oyster.
Go grab it.
James (58:44):
Yeah.
Thank you very much, Simon.
Simon (58:47):
Yeah, my pleasure.
In this week's episode, we talkabout everything, diabetes.
We chat about how healing ispossible and even reversal.
We talk about how mindset iseverything and how one journal
entry changed everything forSimon.
And so much more.
Welcome to Man (00:22):
A Quest to Find Meaning, where we help men
navigate modern life, find theirtrue purpose, and redefine
manhood.
I'm your host, James, and eachweek, inspiring guests share
their journeys of overcomingfear Embracing vulnerability and
finding success.
(00:42):
From experts to everyday heroes.
Get practical advice andpowerful insights.
Struggling with career,relationships or personal
growth?
We've got you covered.
Join us on Man Quest to FindMeaning.
Now, let's dive in.
James (00:59):
I am not defined by my diabetes.
I am not defined by my diabetes.
I am defined by my mindset.
Good morning, Simon.
Tell me more.
Simon (01:13):
Hey.
Strong opening there, James.
Yeah, it's I've been throughquite a journey with my diabetes
and one of the great thingsabout it is that from a very
young age, my mother was amazingin that she was always like,
you're incredibly independent.
You can do anything you want.
You're as good as all the otherkids, and you're gonna live a
(01:35):
great life.
And it got me in a mindset ofyou need to, the diabetes is
there, you've gotta control it,you've gotta look after it, but
it's gonna follow you.
And literally, I have my handsbehind my back as I'm doing
that.
It's gotta follow you and.
If your mindset's right, youwill allow that to happen
because you've gotta control it,you've gotta be on top of it.
(01:56):
But if you allow it to take overyour life, it will, and you'll
become a victim and it becomes amindset that really will not
help you and it won't benefityou at all.
And even in my darkest days, andI've had quite a few, James,
I've really struggled at points,but I've always said, this will
(02:19):
not define me.
It will live with me.
It'll be part of me, but it'snot telling me what to do.
But I need to take precautionsand I need to be aware that I am
a diabetic and that with regardto that, I may need to take
additional steps if I'm doingsomething a little bit crazy.
James (02:36):
Yeah.
Yeah.
This little bit will be editedout, but when you keep shaking
the screen a little bit
Simon (02:44):
Oh, I do I?
James (02:45):
Yeah.
It keeps shaking a little bit.
Simon (02:47):
Oh, that may be me banging on the table.
Okay.
That's it.
Okay.
I see it.
Yeah, I see it.
James (02:52):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's as easy as that.
I can edit this bit out.
Not a problem at all.
It'll, the video might be alittle ju dumb, but it's like
seconds, right?
Yeah.
I think with mindset, if we talkon mindset generally, it's so
important because if you allowwhat happens to you to define,
(03:12):
you, say for example, you wentfor a bad situation or a bad
breakup, a bad job, and youallow that to define you, then
that can have a massive impacton the rest of your life.
Whereas if you shift to changingyour mindset on it and seeing
yourself as the as the maincharacter.
(03:36):
Seeing yourself as the maincharacter, that, that kind of
mindset and suddenly you shiftfrom what people, the people
around you are affecting you toYou define yourself.
Simon (03:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's quite important, likemain character.
That's a good analogy.
Like in that you are the driver,you have choice.
You can decide what you want todo, you can decide how you want
to live, and that is incrediblyimportant that when you're
living with chronic diseaseslike diabetes, it can feel
overwhelming.
You can literally feeloverwhelmed at points and you
(04:09):
almost feel just I can't go on.
And certainly I've had thosemoments, but it's really the
ability to stop and just allowyourself to breathe and say, I
have choice.
I can move forward.
It's not gonna be perfect day onday one, but we'll get there.
And it's tough living withsomething like this because I.
(04:30):
It's there 24 7.
It is constant.
It goes on holidays, it comes tobed with you.
It's there when you wake up inthe morning.
It's there when you're fastasleep.
It's constant.
And with regard to that, youneed to be aware that your
mindset is in the right placebecause if you're not, it really
does get on top of you.
(04:50):
And once you become a victim andyou know why me mindset, it's
very difficult to shift thatnow.
You can shift it.
Absolutely 100%.
And I've been in those dark sortof corners where I've been like,
why the hell have I got this?
Why did I do, why do I deserveit?
But really it's in those momentsthat you really tap into that
(05:11):
resilience.
And diabetics literally, bytheir nature, will have a lot of
resilience because living withthis disease, it's tough.
And even if you know whetheryou're type one or type two.
Type two, you might just have adiet that you've gotta follow,
but that's your regime.
And literally by living with aregime on a consistent continual
basis, it's a struggle.
(05:32):
Now on my side, I do a minimumsix injections a day.
I used to do eight or nine bloodtests a day.
I now have a continuous glucosemonitor.
And living with that at timeshas been a real struggle.
So that mindset and that abilityto tap into those deep
motivations that sort of, why amI here?
(05:52):
What do I want to do?
Why am I getting up?
Know for example a couple ofdays ago I got up and the very
first thing I do is I do, Icheck my blood sugars and then I
do three injections straightaway every day.
I'd been doing that for 15 yearsand a couple of days ago I just
got up and I was like, I don'twanna do this.
(06:13):
Not today.
I just don't wanna do it.
And.
I tapped into those deepmotivations.
And it was like, I wanna live along and healthy life with my
wife.
I can't do that if I don't takethese injections.
I wanna have brilliantconversations with people I've
never met again.
I can't do that if I don't takethese injections.
(06:33):
And these are the motivationsthat sort of get you up on your
feet, get you moving forward andget you in the right mindset.
So I've used that for a longtime.
James (06:44):
That's powerful.
Deep motivations are super key.
So it's nothing like diabetes,but I've had to, I've had a few
teeth out because over the yearsI've, I love eating fruit.
I've got a very sweet tooth andhaving.
The teeth out had made merealize, and I've been told that
(07:05):
I could end up like my nan withfalse teeth.
And it's, it creates a thingimage in your head thinking, I
do not wanna go there when I'm50.
So it's that, that deepmotivation to do something.
But it's finding that deepmotivation, I think is the key
because a lot of people don'thave that deep motivation that
(07:26):
they need in order to accomplishwhat they want to accomplish.
So we have a discussion aboutthat later on, but can you tell
us your story?
How, what, how did you realizeyou it had diabetes and how's
that impacted your life?
Simon (07:45):
So I was, I'm unique in that I was diagnosed with type
one diabetes at the age ofthree.
So my life before diabetes, Ireally have no knowledge of it.
I've got a twin brother.
So there was always a constantcontrast between him and me.
And with regard to that I justalways remember, I remember my
(08:08):
mom calling me in for dinner.
We, myself and my brother andall the kids in the neighborhood
would be out playing and I'dhave to run in and she'd, sit
down in her seat, she'd kneel meacross her knees, pull my pants
down and give me a shot and mybum.
And that went on.
So I, I was injecting my doingmy own injections, probably I
think about eight age, nine or10 or something.
(08:29):
And to be honest, she wasincredible.
She managed, she had, my oldestsister was, she's four years
older than myself and mybrother.
And then I've got a si, ayounger sister who's one and a
half years younger.
So it was like pretty much fourkids and one of them with
diabetes, and she was all overit.
She managed all the meals, she'dweigh everything out.
(08:50):
She'd give me exact proportions.
Everything was measured againstthe intake of the insulin that I
had, and my diabetes wasincredibly well controlled.
And then I started to take itover at the age of sort of 10, I
was doing my own injections.
And then maybe 13, 14, I wasdoing my own meals measuring my
meals out.
And she slowly introduced me andtrained me into the process of
(09:14):
living with diabetes.
And by the age of 20, evenbefore that, probably 15, I was
running it pretty much from,from morning to night.
And I also went to boardingschool in Ireland.
So I again had to control itmyself.
Now I was reasonably okaycompared to my gold standard of
(09:35):
my mother.
I wasn't quite there.
But I wasn't bad.
And as I grew up and went touniversity and then I qualified
became an accountant.
I know.
But I became an accountant and Iinitially did a bit of time in
New York and then went to, orcame to London.
And when I came to London, Iwas, I think it was about 26,
(09:58):
27.
I got a great job at a bank.
I was earning way more moneythan I ever thought, or I knew
what to do with, and I couldsuddenly start going out and
doing all sorts of bits andpieces.
Now this also coincided with, Iused to do it playing awful lot
of judo and rugby, and thatstopped.
(10:19):
Now, I didn't really understandthe implication of this at the
time.
And it's only recently that Ihave got to get a comprehension
around this, but that rugby inthe judo.
They were amazing ventingprocesses that allowed that.
The anger that I was carrying,again, which I was not aware of
living with diabetes and I wasdeeply angry, but it, that
(10:43):
venting and physicality allowedthat venting process to release
all this anger.
But suddenly I got to London andI was no longer playing judo and
I was no longer I shouldn't sayplaying, doing judo and or
playing rugby.
And the obvious thing was let'sgo out and have a few pints.
And it started just a little bitlike that, but then it did start
(11:06):
to get outta control.
And during my late twenties andthirties, I was probably
drinking and I was using that asa coping mechanism.
And it was using it really tohelp me manage my emotional
state.
Now, I certainly wasn't managingthe diabetes at this stage, but
I was using that to manage myemotional state.
(11:27):
And with regard to that, Icontinued in that vein and
really what I was doing, whichis what a lot of diabetics I've
talked to, certainly you got aproblem, stick your head in the
sand, don't do blood tests'causethey're always bad.
You don't wanna do those.
'cause that's just a reminder.
You're outta control.
So you stick your head in thesand and then get yourself a
(11:49):
good coping mechanism, whetherit's overeating, it's drinking,
or whatever else it is.
And I was living like that forquite a while.
And I would go through emotionalturmoil like where I had to go
see the doctor and I was like,oh Christ and is gonna be a
shambles.
And I turned up to the doctorand he'd do these blood tests
called a HBA one C, which is athree month average blood sugar.
(12:13):
And that was the really, thegold standard.
And of course he'd see that andhe'd look at it and he'd go I
get the nod and then it was intothe parental sort of
conversation like, you justcan't continue like this.
If you continue like this iswhat's gonna happen to you.
You're gonna get liver disease,kidney damage, you're gonna get
amputations, blindness.
And I just sit there and Iwanted to eviscerate him
(12:34):
literally.
And I just wanted to get thehell outta there as quick as I
could.
There were little remindersduring the year and then also
your blood tests.
So every time I did a blood testsky high.
Why?
Because it was outta control.
It was outta control.
And I couldn't tell you why Iwas outta control.
And I really didn't want toknow.
Stick your head in the sand,forget about it.
(12:55):
Have another pint.
And that was really where I wasliving and I had a red flag
moment.
So I was getting ready to takepart in two legs of around the
world yacht race.
And I was going from ChinaQingdao across the North Pacific
to San Fran and then San Franvia the Panama Canal to Jamaica.
(13:17):
And as I was preparing, I juststarted just doing a little bit
of personal grooming and Istarted clipping my nails my
fingernails and I picked one ofthem up'cause it just looked a
bit weird and I crushed it intoa powder between my fingers.
And doing that, I instinctivelyknew that's not right.
(13:39):
That is not right.
And I picked up another one andI just snapped it in half.
There was no, it wasn'tmalleable at all as you'd expect
a fingernail to be.
And I knew that was thediabetes.
And I also knew if you don't geton top of this you're goose.
You are as good as gone.
And I was 40.
Now when I went sailing, I.
(14:02):
I, I didn't I talked to my wife,Miriam, who is an amazing
researcher, and I said, listenthe current process that I'm
involved in with regard tomanaging my diabetes doesn't
work.
It just doesn't work.
And this wake up call, I wasreally quite frightened and I
was quite worried and anxiousabout what's coming down the
(14:24):
track next.
And I had no way I couldn't seea way out.
And I needed somebody else.
I needed some help.
And I said this to my wife andas I was crossing the North
Pacific, I got an email and shesaid, I found this doctor in the
United States, this guy calledDr.
Bernstein.
He's in upstate New York.
(14:45):
He is a type one diabetic.
And he has a very maverickapproach to diabetes.
And I booked him in and we weregonna see him for three days
where you're gonna get retrainedand we're there in August and.
I went out to see this guy.
I read his book and it's prettyhardcore.
It's pretty heavy going, andactually I suffer from a bit of
(15:08):
a DHD and trying to absorb someof this message was, yeah, it
was pretty harsh.
So I, I probably wasn't asprepared as he, he would've
liked me to have been, but Iturned up on day one and on
Ruth, I got a sandwich, a bighero sandwich.
So hero sandwiches are likethey're New York's, they're
(15:29):
just, they're just a big sub andthey're great.
And I turned up and he hit mewith all the big ones on day
one, and he said, you'restarting these as of tomorrow
morning.
The first one was instead ofdoing three injections a day, I
was now doing a minimum sixinstead of doing one or two
(15:50):
blood tests every couple ofdays.
Now to give you the equivalentof that's like driving a car
with no steering wheel, right?
You haven't got a chance.
And you wanted me now to doeight a day and then my
carbohydrates were gone.
I was only going to eat proteinand greens, right?
Protein and greens, that's it.
(16:10):
I'm Irish.
I just do meat and potatoes,right?
No potatoes, like my family's inshock.
My parents in shock.
My country is in shock, right?
You just can't do that, right?
And I don't eat vegetables orgreens.
Jesus.
So I had to start eating greens.
And then on top of this, hegoes, I need you to record
(16:31):
everything.
And I use, actually, I justhappen to have one here.
There's a thing I call a gluccograft.
And in here I record everything.
I record when I get up, my bloodsugar, what I insulin.
I took what I had for breakfast.
Everything gets recorded.
Now I came from a shambles.
(16:51):
Literally the only thing that Iwas constant at was my
injections.
That was it.
Everything else was all over theplace.
I hadn't recorded a blood test,I don't know, probably 10 years.
And suddenly this changed.
I was like, I can't do this.
And as he's talking to me, Istarted to think this doctor is
obviously insane.
His regime is insane.
(17:13):
And I said to my wife when hewent to the toilet, I'm outta
here.
And she convinced me to stay.
And it's only day one or daythree, right?
So we're on a train from MAupstate New York, going back
into Grand Central.
And then we were staying with mysister in Brooklyn.
And as we're taking the traindown, I just, all I got, I just
(17:35):
kept saying, I can't do this.
I can't do this, I can't dothis.
I can't do all these injections.
I can't not eat rice, potato,fruits, wheat, I can't do these
blood tests.
I can't record everything.
And.
I just, there, there was nowebsite.
There was just no website.
And my wife, when we got back toBrooklyn, said to me, I want you
(17:57):
to take this journal.
And she gave me a pen and shesaid, I want you to go to that
pub on the corner.
It's a quiet pub.
I want you to get a pint, and Iwant you just to write in the
journal.
And I went, okay.
Now I did it more for the pint.
But I said, okay.
And I took the journal and thepen and I found myself writing.
(18:17):
And what was I writing?
I can't.
And I listed all the stuff thatI just can't do this.
And I must've been writing forabout 20 minutes and my hands
started to cramp up.
And as I sat up and I took asort of a slug outta the pints,
I suddenly found myself going,what if you could, what if you
(18:42):
could do that?
What if you could do thoseinjections?
What if you could do those bloodtests?
And I started to go from thereto visualizing me actually doing
this.
And then I suddenly got to, whatthe hell do you want?
What do you want outta yourlife?
And I said, you're 40 years oldand if you continue in the path
(19:04):
you are on, you're gonna be deadprobably at 50.
And it's gonna be a very slow,insidious decline in your health
and very painful.
Or you can take this road andjust get on with it now.
Just get on with it.
Probably not the best term.
And certainly diabetics do notwant to hear that term.
(19:25):
So I sat and I just thought, andI allowed myself to immerse
myself in this vision, and Ikept saying, what do I want?
And the following morning I gotup and I started this regime.
I've been doing this regimeconsistently for over 15 years
on a consistent and continualbasis.
(19:48):
And the reason I'm doing it isbecause of the change in my
mindset.
And if that hadn't have happenedin that moment, there's no way I
would've been able to followthis.
Because when you talk todoctors, most doctors with the
exception, even not actuallyeven Dr.
Bernstein, he'll just tell you,you wanna control your blood
sugars, you gotta control yourdiet, and you gotta control your
(20:11):
medication.
Simples, there's a huge elementmissing in that.
And that's the mindset, thatemotional state that you bring.
Because if you're not in theright place, no matter how good
it is, you will not follow it.
And I got all sorts of littleticks that motivated me.
I'd do a blood test and likewhen I used to do a blood test I
(20:35):
had no idea what number wasgonna pop up.
I.
Literally I would be, it couldbe I couldn't, I, if you gave
me, if you said to me, I bet youa thousand pounds, you can guess
what that number is within arange of sort of 10%.
I wouldn't have a clue.
It could be 20, it could befive, it could be 16.
(20:59):
I wouldn't have a clue.
But suddenly when I wasfollowing this regime, I do a
blood test and I can actuallysay, I believe I'm gonna be 4.7
around there.
And I was, and that suddenly,Jesus, I'm in control.
I actually, I know what I'mdoing.
I know what makes this numbermove.
I know how to control my health.
(21:19):
And this started to reallyreinforce that change in mindset
and say, you're on the rightpath.
This is the right way to go.
And it started me on quite ajourney, an emotional journey.
Which really it took a while forme to really and truly be
convinced that his method wasright.
But man, he is bang on and thisdoctor, he is now 90 and when I
(21:44):
go over and visit him, he'sstill working.
And when I go over and visithim, he'll get me down on the
floor and he'll pump out 10pushups and he'll have me beside
him.
He's the oldest living diabeticin the United States, and he has
all his limbs, no amputations,no issues.
He's incredible.
And this guy walks the walk andtalks the talk.
He understands.
(22:06):
So he is been brilliant.
This guy's literally saved mylife and I never had a pension
and now I'm wishing god damn, Ishould have had a pension
because I'm gonna live a muchlonger life than I'd
anticipated.
And that's incredible.
And really it's a message todiabetics If you.
Get yourself in the right place.
(22:26):
Look after the diet and take themedication.
You can live an incredible life.
James (22:34):
Thank cues.
It's a, it's an absolutely yeah,incredible journey that you've
been on.
But with regards, if we go backto when you had all the emotions
running around to you, whatparticular emotions did you
feel?
Was it anger, was itfrustration?
Simon (22:54):
Anger.
Anger was ever present.
And there was a little elementof why me, and why do I have to
deal with this?
Just general anger with thisthing.
And that played into all sorts.
So you'd get like a lot of selfhatred, self-doubt, lack of
self-confidence, and theself-loathing, because why don't
(23:14):
you know if you don't care aboutyourself?
Why would anyone else bebothered about you?
If you are not willing to lookafter yourself, why should
anyone else be bothered takingany sort of care with you?
And why?
Why are why are you like this?
Why do you not care?
Look at everyone else.
They're going down the gym,they're doing this, they're
doing that.
And you're sitting on yourbackside.
You're not even managing yourdiabetes.
You don't even know how tocontrol it.
You're worthless.
(23:35):
You're not good enough.
You're not strong enough.
And my God, you get into anemotional spiral.
And this would go on probablyfor about 30 minutes every time
I did a blood test.
And at the end of it, I wasexhausted.
And then you'd go why would youwanna do another blood test?
Just to reconfirm that yourblood sugars are outta control,
(23:56):
but you were living with thoseshadows and they were ever
present all the time.
And you'd use your copingmechanisms really to distance
yourself from these emotions.
You didn't wanna, you didn'twanna register this, it was just
too painful.
It was too hard.
Lots of diabetics I know, likewho I've talked to, go through
(24:17):
the same thing.
And then there's this constant,'cause diabetes is insidious.
It's slowly destroys your cellsand it's, it operates on a
cellular level.
It's not like it's attacking amuscle or something like that.
It ap like it's at a cellularlevel, the lowest level you can
get to in your body.
And it's damaging your systems.
(24:38):
And when it's not just damaging,it's not just damaging your
eyes, it's damaging yourkidneys, it's damaging your
blood vessels, it's damagingyour pancreat pancreas.
It damages everything.
Nothing gets away.
And by the time, unfortunately,you've got a problem, you
probably have lots of problems.
And if you haven't got lots ofproblems, you have a lot of
problems that are going tomanifest very quickly.
James (25:02):
That just shows that if there's people out there who are
perhaps going through thatemotional state at this moment
in time, that there is light atthe end of the tunnel.
And I think that's key.
I think that's key.
Knowing that as people have beenthere and done that and they've
come out the other side and areliving a nice, healthy, long
(25:25):
life,
Simon (25:26):
your like, I can't tell you like my, your body is
incredible.
Your body, the pla plasticityand elasticity as I call it in
your body, is incredible, right?
You can mismanage your diabetesand if you get on top of it, you
decide I'm gonna change and youget on top of it, you can
(25:47):
reverse damage that's alreadybeen done.
Now doctors will tell you thatcan happen, but my doctor in the
US said this can happen and youwill find as I did.
When I used to go for eyechecks, you'll find that they'll
suddenly go, how did thishappen?
You seem better than you were.
But our teachings have told usthat, once you've done damage to
(26:08):
the eye, that's it.
You just, it doesn't reverse,but it does.
And what would happen is I'd gosee it one of the
ophthalmologists, then he'd callhis boss and he'd have a look
and then he'd call his boss.
And then eventually I'd end upwith the head of the department
and they'd go this is verystrange.
How did this happen?
And I go this is because Icontrol my diabetes.
(26:29):
And in controlling it, youchange your body.
And your body is a, anincredible variable.
It's constantly adapting.
And if you feed it the rightntri nutrients and you look
after it with, the insulin thatI have to take, or just the
medication, maybe metformin fortype twos, you can change your
life and you can live anincredibly long and healthy
(26:51):
life.
But don't con yourself if you'renot looking after it.
You will pay a price at somepoint.
And that is because the diseaseis so slow and insidious.
People think they're gettingaway with it.
And really, when Covid kickedin, one of the biggest groups
(27:11):
that were affected were type twodiabetics who got wiped out, and
a lot of'em got wiped outbecause they thought they were
getting away with it.
And suddenly Covid came alongand it just gave them a lot of a
push to knock'em off.
And unfortunately, they, a lotof them passed away.
And yeah, so it's in your head.
You can convince yourself, thisis, I'm all right, I got, maybe
(27:33):
I got a little bit of tinglingin my feet.
That's neuropathy.
Or, I got a little bit of this,or blurred vision.
It'll be all right.
There's, they're the telltalesigns.
This is where you need to startpulling back and saying, what do
I want?
Where am I going with this?
James (27:51):
It's a powerful mindset.
Shift yourself.
You said you've had, so the deepmotivation the resilience, the
the fact that you shifted from Ican't do that to what, if I can.
And I think it's not just peoplewith diabetes here it's anybody,
whether it's man or woman,having that mindset shift from I
(28:16):
can't to, I can changeeverything
Simon (28:20):
massive.
Ma massively.
And it is interesting like I do.
I, as we met with the PSA, theProfessional Speaking
Association I do a lot of talkson diabetes and I talk about
that mindset shift and it'squite, what I find quite
interesting is I'll have peoplewho are attending with friends
who are diabetics and they'llcome up to me afterwards and go,
wow.
(28:40):
That, that strategy that youhave is incredible because, I
could use that to get apromotion in work, or I could
use that to potentially asksomebody out on a date who I've
struggled with, or I'm gonna doa 5K as well as diabetics
grabbing hold of this strategyand go, I'm gonna take this and
I'm gonna move forward with it,and I'm gonna change my mindset.
(29:01):
Because I think as well, likewhen you have somebody who's
gone through it and like I wasin some dark places with the
diabetes, and I have no doubt Iwould've been either dead at 50
or really in very bad healthwith probability of like
amputation and that sort ofstuff.
Very imminent with, maybe acouple of years before I passed.
(29:25):
So with the mindset, you can geton top of the diet, you can get
on top of the the medication.
But you gotta get that right.
And Western Medicine doesn'tlook at that.
There's nowhere I can findanywhere to help me with, that
mindset change.
And really, I wasn't even awareof it.
And I'll put my hand up.
(29:45):
Diabetics are amazing at hidingemotions, right?
We take emotions and we stickthem in a box and stuff them so
far back in the deepest recessesof our mind, and we presume
they'll never reappear.
And sometimes in my workshopsI'll joke and I'll say, in
(30:07):
Ireland we don't have emotions.
They just don't exist.
They're not allowed to exist.
And if you start talkingemotionally, you can get
arrested.
So you just, you don't deal withanything emotional.
And it's funny as I say that.
People all over resonate.
And I've had people all over theglobe saying, it's not just the
(30:27):
Irish, I'm French, I'm Jamaican,I'm African.
So everybody resonates.
'cause there's an element yougotta kinda man up or you gotta
be the the alpha male, alphafemale.
So you just can't, this, justpush it away.
And that is very dangerousbecause you can sit on that and
when you sit on it, you'recausing your body huge amounts
(30:51):
of damage.
And it's almost I'd love to say,I will say go out and get
somebody to talk to, get atherapist, get a counselor.
They're not gonna be diabeticspecialists, but at least talk
to them because you need to getthat stuff out.
And a great example for me withthat was when I went to see this
doctor in the US he said to me,one of the biggest things you're
(31:13):
gonna find is I'm gonna put youon a thyroid medication.
Now in the uk, they would'vesaid to me your thyroid
medication's kind of normal, soyou don't need it.
And what he'd suggested is thatactually the band for measuring
normal range of thyroid isprobably too wide and it should
(31:35):
be narrowed.
And if it is narrowed, diabeticswould fall outside of the normal
range.
So he started me off on T threemedication for thyroid.
And it was like, as soon as Istarted, it was almost like my
brain had hopped into it, hadjumped out of some battered up
fort Escort and jumped into aFerrari.
(31:55):
My mind was so much sharper andmore, much more alert and in
work, the change in work wasphenomenal.
I, I got two promotions veryquickly as a result of this.
I was just so much sharper.
And initially I was I was just,I thought this was amazing.
I.
I suddenly then got incrediblyangry.
(32:17):
How the hell did nobody tell meabout this?
And I got to the point where Iwas like I've been working 20
odd years suboptimally becausenobody told me about this
thyroid medication that I shouldhave been on.
And I got so angry.
I actually had to go see atherapist.
And I talked to, I did a coupleof sessions with her and I
remember she said, why don't yourecord, a message?
(32:42):
Just record just how you feel.
And I recorded this sort of fouror five minute message, and it
was just full of expletives,like full of expletives.
But I eventually gone over it.
But this was a lot of the angerthat was coming out, and this
was only scratching the surface.
I've done a lot more work sincethen on this.
And it's, yeah, this, this stuffis buried so deep down that it's
(33:05):
very easy just to sit on it forthe rest of your life.
James (33:11):
I can absolutely imagine because as a whole, I feel men
especially, not so much, I thinkwomen are a bit more open to
emotions, but I feel men as awhole tend to push a lot of
emotion down.
And for me, myself, there's beentimes where I would push anger
(33:34):
down and I would go outdrinking.
And when I'm drinking, suddenlymy emotion, my anger would come
up.
So I'd be like, come on, let'sget into a fight kind of thing.
And I've had to realize that theway I was dealing with anger was
very unhealthy.
Simon (33:50):
Yeah.
James (33:51):
And this is it.
If you, when you suppress anemotion, it tends to.
It tends to get stuck.
It tends to create illnesses, ittends to batter our own organs.
And I'll give you a perfectsample.
It's this weekend just gone.
(34:12):
I was dancing I said dance, andI was dancing so hard that I
kicked my neck and I got, I'vehad a bad neck last few days.
But what I did during a dancewas that, okay, what is it about
that crep neck that really wantsto be let go of?
(34:35):
And when I basically went intothat that part of my body, it
was anger and rage.
And what I found was thatinitially I had the pain all the
way down my back when I allowmyself.
Because in that, in the aticdance, one thing you can do is
allow yourself to, to fent.
(34:55):
Emotions.
Simon (34:56):
Yeah.
James (34:56):
So you can dance and you can go, ah, kind of thing.
Why are you dancing?
Obviously there's no physicalviolence, but you can allow
yourself to let your voice beheard.
So you can now go ah, orwhatever comes out.
You can cry, you can scream.
Yeah.
It's all part and parcel of thethe dance and the whole concept
(35:17):
around it.
And what I did, and there'squite a few people join me, we
all started shouting.
We started going, ah, as loud aswe could.
And what I found was that thepain went from down there just
to the top of my neck.
And so it's a basically ittaught me that we might have
(35:37):
emotion, stuck emotion in ourbody and it might be affecting
certain organs, but if we canallow ourselves to vent this
emotion in whatever way we seepo see fit, it can allow us to
release.
In a way that starts to heal it.
Simon (35:54):
Yeah.
I like, I totally agree.
Like when you're sitting on alot of emotion, you are sitting
on a ticking time bomb, right?
And it's the same if you're notmanaging your diabetes.
You are sitting on a tickingtime bomb.
At some point it's gonna go off.
And those emotions as well.
I totally agree.
You get ill, you will get ill,because if you can't release
(36:14):
them, they'll start to manifestwithin a certain point and
certain things will start tohappen.
And there, there's a recent sior a study done, which was
reported in the Guardian acouple of weeks ago, that the
incidents of cancer in type twodiabetics is much higher than
everybody else.
And that potentially is maybe asa result of sitting on a lot of
this stuff.
(36:35):
But I can't say with anycertainty by any stretch on
that, but I do a lot of I shouldsay my wife is a practitioner of
a thing called jitsu, which.
Uses flows in the body and ittalks about locks.
You've got 26 locks, I think itis in the body.
And then if these locks areopen, everything flows and
everything's good, and theenergy's good.
(36:55):
But if they're blocked, you'llstart to feel a little bit ill
or maybe a little bit stressedor a little bit this.
And if you dumped, unblock it,after you get that initial sort
of flag, you'll get anotherslightly stronger flag that
might indicate that you'regetting a bit of pain now.
And then if you don't doanything with that, it'll just
start getting bigger and biggeruntil something goes wrong.
(37:17):
So I completely agree with that.
You can't sit on this stuff.
You've gotta let it out.
And screaming is a great way ofdancing.
Absolutely.
Fantastic way to do that.
And it's really like whateverworks it's I do a lot of
climbing and it's funny youmight turn up at a wall or you
might turn up at a crag.
You can feel like there's a lotof emotion.
(37:38):
And if you climb with thatemotion, it comes out, you'll
see it, you will climb likecrap.
And you've gotta actually sitdown and literally let it go.
Just let the me I do meditationquite a bit, and my meditation
might only be five or sixminutes.
That's it.
But I'll do it a couple of timesa day.
And that has a big impact.
And it just lets things out.
(38:00):
It allows me to breathe.
James (38:03):
So over the years, especially since the mindset
shift, how has that shaped youridentity, but not just as a
patient, but maybe withinrelationships, within your
purpose, within work?
Simon (38:19):
Oh first of all, if you talk about relationships, I have
to give my, my, my wife a goldmedal for stick it with me for
20 odd years.
Probably prior to me seeing thatdoctor at the age of 40 I was an
angry individual.
And I drank too much.
And, especially with diabetesespecially with sort of type
ones and type twos can have itas well, where you can get low
blood sugars and in theory youcan collapse so effectively.
(38:42):
Like I, for all intents andpurposes, I might have collapsed
from a low blood sugar, but Ijust look like I'm drunk.
So I'd go out and she has noidea where I am when I'm coming
back, will I come back?
Is she gonna get a call from anambulance?
No idea.
There's a lot of panic for herjust sitting at home with that.
And I would then be almost blasehead in the sand, don't worry
(39:02):
about it, everything's gonna befine.
And I just go out and blowsteam, but I get like absolutely
Maldi drunk.
I'd be.
Eating foods I shouldn't beeating.
I just, I was ticking every boxfor this is an early death and I
probably wasn't a greatindividual.
And there was obviously my wifesaw enough in me to stick with
(39:23):
me.
But certainly when I changed andI started to work with that
doctor in the us Dr.
Bernstein, that's when lifestarted to get an awful lot
better and a lot richer.
And I felt far more empowered asan individual and as a diabetic
and far more responsible forwhat I was doing and the impact
it had on other people and justa much nicer and more loving
(39:46):
individual.
And as a patient prior to thatit was always I go to guy's
hospital and they'd get the hbaone C and then they go, Simon,
this is not good enough.
This is not good enough.
You have to change.
If you don't change, you'll dienext.
Whereas now I go in and I saythings to, I'm like no, that's
wrong and I don't agree with youbecause I have such an in-depth
knowledge of diabetes.
(40:07):
And I can quite frequently findmyself, I went for a 15 minute
meeting and then I might havetwo or three doctors invited
into the meeting to haveconversations and get my view on
various bits and pieces.
So it's kinda it's changed alot.
And it's certainly the NHSI haveto say it's a phenomenal
organization.
And really what it does everyday that it gets up is truly
(40:29):
incredible, and especially withthe diabetics.
But if I could give themunlimited resources I'd I'd love
them to see every patient everythree months.
I'd love them to, to deal withthe emotional side.
To really help diabetics along.
But what they do at the momentis really, truly incredible.
And they deserve full credit forwhat they do.
And yeah, so as a patient, I'mprobably a much nicer guy.
(40:51):
It's much quicker to deal withme'cause they get my hba one C
and they go, wow, that'samazing.
Off you go and we'll see you in12 months.
So on that front, I'm a muchbetter guy and as an individual,
just with my wife and my familyand my friends, I'm just a much
more relaxed guy.
And really the key thing is thatI'm actually at peace with my
(41:15):
diabetes.
And that's, I can't emphasizehow big that is.
But to say that I'm at peace ishuge from where I came from.
So it was almost like I was inthe trenches fighting a war at a
really dirty, bloody battle.
And now I feel like I'm on thebeach relaxed.
I'm not ordering a cocktail asmuch as I'd like to.
(41:38):
I'll just have a glass of water.
James (41:42):
What are the non-negotiables in your daily
life that help me to saygrounded, healthy, and collected
to your body?
Simon (41:50):
So good.
Yeah, very good question.
So one of the things I do is Ihave a sort of ritual I do in
the morning and I get up and Ido a little bit of meditation
and I set intentions.
Now the very first thing I haveto do is check a blood test.
So literally I will grab, I'llgrab my mobile, I have a
continuous glucose monitor, andI'll immediately check what's my
(42:10):
blood sugar which I'm doingright now, just in case.
And it's perfect.
So I'll do that and I do threeinjections now if I'm having a
bit of a moment and I just, youknow what I'm just enough.
I let myself breathe and I'll gooutside.
I've got a, got a balcony here,and I'll stand out in the
(42:31):
balcony and just breathe andjust let myself relax and, look
how grateful you are foreverything you've got, and then
you'll get on it.
But I'll set intentions everyday.
Today's gonna be a good day, andyou're gonna control your
diabetes, you're gonna eat well,and you're gonna take your
injections.
And then with regard to anythingand everything that I do, you'll
(42:52):
always find me with a backpackor a small satchel in there.
I've got my injections, all myinsulin.
I'll have a bottle of Lucasaids, I, and I'll have any
medication that I need.
And then I'll have just anemergency set up just in case
anything goes wrong or anythinghappens or, and you'd be amazed.
You would literally be amazed atsome of the stuff like that.
(43:13):
I've dropped an insulin vialinto the toilet.
Like literally, I wasn't on thetoilet, but I was to the side of
the toilet, hit a shelf.
Bounced off a radiator, hit theseat, and then went into the
bowl and you're like, really?
What are the chances?
So you always have two, and thenif you've only got the one that
you're down, then you alwaysleave it at home.
So there's a process.
(43:33):
You become incrediblyresourceful and very resilient,
but it's always make sure I'vegot that satchel, make sure it's
got all the ticks.
So I need the ade, I need this,I need that.
And set the intentions.
Setting the intentions is agreat way to start the day.
And it just means you're in apositive mindset and away you go
James (43:53):
other,'cause obviously that's about different ways in
which you can create theroutines.
What are the non-negotiablesyou've had to do for the last 15
years?
Simon (44:06):
So really it's so the diet I'm on is incredibly
strict.
So I stick to it.
Quite frequently if you'd inviteme around for dinner, just
suggestion, just throwing thatout there, James.
But if you did invite me aroundfor dinner, I'm more than likely
gonna bring my own dinner or I'mgonna tell you this is what I'm
gonna do and I'll bring aweighing scales'cause I need to
weigh it out if I'm eating yourstuff.
(44:27):
So the non-negotiables arereally the rules that I need to
live by as a diabetic.
Now there's, as I said, there's,our diabetics are quite
resourceful, so we can if wehave to change the rules a
little bit so maybe I don't havelunch or maybe I don't have
lunch at one, I have it at four,then I won't have dinner.
It is flexible, but within thatyou've gotta stick rigidly to
(44:49):
the rules.
So if I have lunch, it'sbasically 2 1 3 cups of green
veg, 171 grams of protein, fiveunits of insulin.
That's the number.
Now, if I can't get 171 grams, Iknow that, for every 28.3 grams
less, I take half a unit, lessinsulin.
(45:10):
Alternatively, it's a bit more.
So you've gotta stick with theserules and you cannot bend them.
And I know that sounds likereally rigid, but the thing is,
you, if you start, and again,it's like, it's that little cous
track, it's you start going tothe gym in January and you start
off, you do really well.
You get up in the morning andyou go to the gym and then the
following kind of morning you doit, and then the third morning
(45:32):
then, and then I'll just sleep alittle bit longer and then and
then suddenly it's gone.
And you've gotta be verycognitive of that with the
diabetes as well, because it'svery easy to slip.
And if you allow new synapsis inyour brain to connect where you
say, eh, it's okay, don't worryabout that, you can get away
with that.
You'd be fine.
(45:53):
You start to train your mind tosay, you can get a little more
relaxed and a little bit easy, alittle easier with this.
So it might, non-negotiables isyou stick like a rock to this.
Sometimes you just can't, you'vegotta bend in certain ways and
that's all right.
But that's the outlier.
What you do on a given day, youfocus and you just continue with
(46:14):
that.
And to the extent, like I usedto generally bring my work or
bring my food into work, whichI, prior to that I'd never done.
I'd always just got a gone outand got a sandwich or a burger
or went whatever the hell.
And I brought it in rigidly.
And then what I did was I foundout restaurants that worked for
me.
So if they were a beef, if theydid burgers and I knew it was a
(46:36):
six ounce burger, which is 171grams, perfect, I'll have that
burger, no bun, no tomato, noonion, and some cold saw on the
side.
And they charged me the sameprice, which is fine, I don't
mind.
But that works.
So it ticks the boxes sorigidly, you have to follow
that.
And they are non-negotiables.
James (46:56):
So for somebody who's perhaps.
On this path of becoming a bitmore rigid with their
non-negotiables.
Obviously when you are trying todo something like that, it's
hard work and it requires a lotof focus and motivation.
For those people who perhapshaven't quite got the motivation
(47:17):
yet, what do you say to them?
Simon (47:21):
So regarding the motivation this is where like
these are the sort of guys Iwant on my workshops.
And really, I talk about likethe, I mentioned the HB A1C,
which is a blood test and mystrategy is called the A1C,
which is derivative of that.
And it, the first key steparound that is a for awaken.
And that again, is where you'retrying to tap into those deep
motivations.
(47:42):
And it's like really?
What do you care?
What's your driver?
What do you love in life?
Let's get into that.
And it doesn't matter what itis, but certainly like when I
started that process when I wasin New York, and I continued for
probably a week or two afterthat.
But it was like I was coming upwith stuff like, I wanna sail
across the Atlantic.
I wanna climb a mountain.
(48:02):
I want to have brilliantconversations with brilliant
people who, I may not becauseI'm dead or I wanna be able to
do, I wanna walk across the uk.
I want to really have abrilliant and enriching and
vibrant life with my wife.
I wanna spend as much time withmy kids.
And when you start to tap thesedeep motivations, you'll start
(48:24):
to get, this is why they wannalook after this.
James (48:28):
And
Simon (48:28):
that's what they've gotta write down because they, in
doing that exercise, you createthe foundation.
And that foundation needs to bestrong because inevitably storms
will come in.
You're gonna get tested.
And that's just life.
Life happens.
And if you have a strongfoundation, when those problems
(48:50):
occur, you will be able to standstrong and face them front.
And I almost would, during the,in the workshops, we'd talk
about, I want you to write astatement after you've written
down all of these things.
This is why you wanna look afterit.
Get me one big, clear statement,and I want you to stick it on
your wardrobe.
I want it on the front door.
(49:10):
I want it on the mirror.
I want it in your kitchen.
And I want you to look at it andremind yourself, this is why
you're doing this.
And very quickly what you tendto find is it becomes just part
of you.
You just do this.
And it's, it becomes effectivelywhen it gets to that point.
That's your non-negotiable.
(49:32):
And then, we talk about A1C andthen one I.
A little bit of poetic license.
I'm Irish, we have a lot ofpoets, so a little poetic
license.
So the one is for identify andthen that, in that area that
we're looking for, identifywhat's stopping you and you'll
find all sorts.
It's diabetics of all sorts ofblocks.
(49:52):
And one of them for me was,blood tests.
I used to hate doing them'causethey were always cramp.
They were always cramp.
And then I get myself into thisemotional turmoil, like
self-loathing, self hate, lackof self-confidence, self-doubt.
You're not good enough, you'renot strong enough, you're not
use, you don't care.
Nobody else is gonna care.
Why should they be bothered ifyou are not?
(50:13):
And I'd just be exhausted and Isaid I need to tease that story.
And that took me a couple ofhours to literally to be able to
verbalize that to you inliterally a couple of seconds
that took hours and hours towrite that out.
It probably took me a couple ofdays to be honest.
But as I got that down, Isuddenly was like, I need to
change that story.
(50:35):
And in doing that, I now say Ido blood tests because they
provide me with information thatallows me to take control,
correct a reaction control sothat I can live a long and
healthy life.
How much more empowering is thatstatement compared to the other
one?
And these are the sort of thingsthat we work with.
And then, the final piece ofthat puzzle is see for choose.
(50:57):
Choose your language, look athow you talk to yourself about
your diabetes.
If you're constantly sayingthings that are sowing seeds of
negativity and self-doubt,they'll manifest.
But there's studies on this.
Joe Dispenza does hugeconferences on literally, if you
think poorly, it'll manifest inyour body.
(51:17):
So if you're going like, I justcan't control my blood sugars,
trust me, you won't be able tocontrol your blood sugars.
I'll never get on top of this.
That'll happen too.
But if you start saying sort ofstuff like, I do these blood
tests because it gives meinformation that allows me to
take corrective action ifrequired.
(51:38):
These are positive things.
So it's also looking at how youspeak to yourself internally and
externally, how you speak withpeople, and also to yourself.
I'm a bit of a rambler.
I think it's an Irish thing.
You just talk to the wife isslowly getting used to it over
20 years.
But also how people talk to youas a diabetic, because you've
(51:59):
gotta, you're subconscious,you've gotta, you've gotta
manage that like with twoliterally guards at the front of
it.
Because when people say thingslike, oh my God, it's so hard.
I don't know how you do it.
Your subconscious just hears,it's hard.
If people are saying to you, ohI could never do that.
(52:20):
You're amazing.
It'll pick up.
I could never do that.
You've gotta be incrediblycareful with what people are
saying to you.
And I used to get a lot ofpeople who would say to me, when
I started this regime with mydoctor, and they go, are you
still on that crazy diet?
And I was like, I probably don'treally want to be hearing that
(52:41):
all the time.
So what I started saying topeople is that's the lifestyle I
embrace now.
And people would just stopstraight away and they go, oh,
okay.
And what I used to find was, orstill find to today is these
people would come back to meabout a week or two later and
they'd go, tell me about thatdiet and how does it work and
(53:03):
what do you do?
And as a result of that, theengagement between the two of us
would be much more positive andthey really want to hear and
listen about it.
And you'd say, I.
Diabetes is tough, but you knowwhat, it's completely
manageable.
And I use language that empowersme rather than sows seeds of
negativity and self-doubt.
James (53:24):
Yeah.
That's strong.
That's, it's one of them thingsthat if you hear too much of it,
it can have such a negativeimpact on yourself.
So I feel it's key is the wordsthat we use and the words that
other people use.
And I suppose sometimes as well,if you are around somebody who
always is using negativity thatdoesn't alarm yourself, then
(53:46):
maybe it's time to split ways.
Simon (53:50):
Move on.
Don't there's, you get one life,you get one vessel.
Your body, there's nonegotiation on that.
It's I, listen, I love yourbuddy, but I gotta move on.
And I, I remember I didsomething similar to this where
I was in I'd been in London andI'd had this huge crew of
friends and I decided I wasgoing to, it was gonna on my
(54:13):
bucket list.
I wanted to travel around theworld, and I went on my own.
And I intentionally went to myown because then other words,
there was no dependency onanyone.
And I took all my diabetic stuffwith me and I set off and off I
went.
And this was prior now to memeeting that doctor in the us.
And what I started to realize isI hadn't had a lot of time with
(54:37):
just me and I started to reflecton all sorts of parts of my life
and where I was going and mycontrol was okay at the time.
So it probably didn't reallyrequire me to focus as much as I
certainly in a couple of yearsafter that I needed to.
And I started to look though atall of the people around me.
I had this huge crew of peopleI'd go out drinking with and
(54:59):
booing and go to parties andrestaurants and pretty much just
with the intention of gettingdrunk every time we met.
And I looked at all of these andI looked at how they interacted
with me and the language theyused of the diabetes.
And I decided I needed to getrid of all of these people.
As you were saying, time tosplit ways.
(55:19):
And I wrote an email to everyone of these people.
So it was about a, I dunno, itwas close to 200.
And I just said, I wish you allthe best in life.
There's no, there's no anger oranything like that, but there
can't hang around with youanymore.
I just need to move on.
Because their influence washaving a very negative effect on
my life, as in it was drinkingtoo much, some drugs in there as
(55:43):
well.
Just the language the behavior,the manner.
And then the way we, they wouldtalk to me around my diabetes
and stuff.
I just thought I don't needthis.
And I got rid of all of them,with the exception of one guy
who just kept knocking on thedoor.
And I remember I met him for apint in the Aries, and straight
away he started telling me allhis problems.
(56:04):
And then he started talkingabout God damn you and your
diabetes, that stuff.
It's, geez, I don't know how youdo it.
And I remember I had half a pintand then I said, listen, I gotta
go.
And I left him and I never sawhim again.
And that was the best thing Iever did.
And that bit of advice, you weresaying smart ways.
Absolutely.
As a diabetic, you've got enoughon your plate.
(56:25):
And if you've got some bringinga load of negativity, get'em
outta there
James (56:31):
so that people who want to know more about yourself And
do you have any contact details?
And what do you actually teachpeople?
Simon (56:40):
What do you
James (56:40):
offer?
Simon (56:41):
You contact me.
I'm building my website at themoment.
I'm running a little bit behindschedule.
I put my hands up, so I'mbuilding my website at the
moment, but you can contact meon Simon diabetes take
control.com, and I can sharethat link with you as well.
If you wanna, you can put it upon the screen.
Yeah.
And then I can also give a QRcode if anyone wants to contact
(57:02):
me on LinkedIn and just tell meyou're reaching out, you're
interested in diabetes, andyou'd like to know more about
the workshop.
Absolutely.
And then the workshop itself, wedeal with an awful lot of stuff
in there.
The workshop itself will be twomornings and there are five
broad brush strokes, a forawaken.
I, one for identify what'sstopping you c for choose your
(57:25):
language.
And we do an awful lot in thesesections.
So we probably cover the firsttwo.
We probably be covered in thefirst morning, and then the
second morning would be thefinal three.
And then the fourth one ismeasure and control.
Which is a huge part thatdiabetics really don't do.
And this is that h this gluccograft that I use to control my
(57:48):
diabetes because one of the keythings you gotta do is, they've
got all these funky sort of datasets that you can record your
blood sugars and stuff likethat.
But nobody looks at them andthey don't really provide you
with the information.
And, it's like running abusiness.
There are very importantmeasurements that you gotta take
in running a business.
And if you're not doing that, itis more likely you're gonna
(58:09):
collapse.
It's the same with the diabetes.
You've got to record this stuff.
So I do a whole section ofmeasure and record, and then
I'll just talk about the earthmoon and the stars.
It's get up there, get out, getactive, get moving.
And I've done a lot of stuff.
I've been, sledding with dogs inthe Arctic for three weeks.
I've been out in the Himalayasdoing Mount Everest.
I haven't climbed Mount Everest,should I say sorry, doing
(58:30):
Everest Base camp.
I'm doing some climbing.
I've sailed across the NorPacific, and you can do anything
as a diabetic.
Your life is as rich aseverybody else's, and if you
come at it with the rightmindset, the world's your
oyster.
Go grab it.
James (58:44):
Yeah.
Thank you very much, Simon.
Simon (58:47):
Yeah, my pleasure.
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