August 4, 2026 • 24 mins
🎮 What if Type 1 Diabetes has an easy mode... but no one ever taught you how to unlock it?
Most people start on hard mode—guessing carbs, chasing highs and lows, and feeling frustrated.
The good news? It doesn't have to stay that way.
In this video, I share 4 simple "cheat codes" to help you take control of your blood sugars and stop letting diabetes control you.
>> ENJOY!
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Welcome to the Pardon My Pancreas podcast!! This show is all about REAL life with type 1 diabetes, understanding fluctuations, and how to stabilize your blood sugar for good. Your host is Matt Vande Vegte is a certified personal trainer, nutritionist, and type 1 diabetic whose biggest goal in life is to help people with diabetes around the world live their lives fearlessly. Looking for an online health coaching program to help you live your best life? Go to https://www.ftfwarrior.com to learn more about his program for diabetics only that is focused on helping you reach your goals while living a happier and healthier life. Join the Tribe today!
This podcast is sponsored by FTF Warrior - An online health and fitness coaching company for type 1 diabetics dedicated to helping them master their blood sugars through any activity, exercise, or meal!
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Disclaimer: While we share our experiences with diabetes, nothing we discuss should be taken as medical advice. Please consult your doctor or medical professional for your health and diabetes management.
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SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Did you know that type 1 diabetes has an easy
mode?
And the challenging part is thatno doctor is ever going to tell
you that it exists.
They give you the hard mode andpretend it's easy mode.
Oh, just take insulin for yourcarbs, and if you go low, eat
some sugar.
See, it's framed as easy mode,but truthfully, that's the
hardest mode there is.
And see, I just beat a videogame and it was absolutely
(00:23):
thrilling.
But something caught me offguard at the end.
See, after the credits rolled, Iwatched the final cutscene, and
right as the screen goes dark,it throws the exact same menu at
me that it did on day one with alittle asterisk.
Easy, normal, hard.
See, it gave me the option toplay again with all those powers
that I'd earned along the way inthe video game.
But here's what's interesting (00:44):
I never pick easy up front.
It's not because I'm I'm tooproud, but because if I beat the
game on easy, some part of medoesn't feel like it counts.
You know, like it doesn't feelearned.
And I also don't pick hard onday one, though, because I have
no idea what I'm walking into orhow good I'm actually going to
be at it.
I don't know if it's going to beenjoyable to play it on hard
mode and just get stuck on everylevel.
(01:06):
So I pick normal, right?
And hard mode, that's the rewardif the game was so good that it
deems a replay.
See, in my opinion, I don't youdon't touch hard until you've
already proven you can finishthe thing on normal, right?
Once you've got the confidenceand you know the mechanics, then
hard mode is just a victory lapwith the difficulty turned up.
So it's like a chance to hone inyour skills and show them off,
(01:29):
right?
So easy first to learn thecontrols if you need to, like if
this is your first video gameever, or diabetes, if it's your
first run through, right, andyour endo appointment.
Normal to prove it actuallycounts, and then it's enjoyable
but challenging, and then hardonce you've earned it.
And it's nearly every video gameI've ever played.
Now, see, type one diabetes runsthe exact same three modes easy,
(01:52):
normal, hard, except it's builtcompletely backwards.
And once I tell you how, you'renot gonna be able to unsee it.
See, I'm gonna walk you throughexactly where you probably are
right now when it comes todiabetes management and where
you're stuck, what's actuallywaiting for you on the other
side.
I'm gonna prove it to you withthe one thing our clients bring
(02:13):
up more than anything else.
Then I'm gonna hand you fourcheat codes, so to speak, you
can start using today.
Whether you've mastered a singlething with this diabetes disease
or not, so stick around for thewhole thing because the cheat
codes at the end are honestlythe part most people go back and
rewatch, but also the part mostpeople miss when they're first
(02:33):
diagnosed.
SPEAKER_00 (02:35):
Keep going and keep up the fight.
SPEAKER_01 (02:39):
Let's talk about where most of us start with this
disease, which is hard mode.
Sometimes that's literally dayone, your diagnosis day.
Sometimes it's five years inwhere it kind of switches on
you, right?
Ten years in because nobody everhanded you the manual in the
first place.
But you know the pattern thatI'm talking about, where you
guess at a carb count becausethe labels are confusing, uh, or
(03:00):
you're eating out and there isno label, right?
You dose based on what youguess, and then two hours later
you're either climbing orcrashing.
So you correct, you retreat.
Sometimes you overcorrect orover-treat because you panic,
and panic math is not good math.
And now you're chasing a lowwith juice or glucose tabs, and
that sends you right back up,and the whole cycle starts over.
(03:20):
We call it roller coaster bloodsugars, right?
That's not a discipline problemor you being careless with your
health.
That's what happens to literallyanyone who has never taught the
mechanics of their own body,which most people aren't,
because most people don't havethe medical background that I
do, right?
Nobody sat down and explainedyour actual insulin to carb
ratio in the context of anactive day versus a stressful
(03:44):
day.
Nobody walked you through howyour specific insulin behaves
once it's inside you, insulinpharmacokinetics, when it starts
working, when it peaks, in otherwords, when it's most effective,
how long it's still active andstill capable of dropping you
hours after you think it's done.
So you white knuckle it, yousurvive the day.
(04:04):
And a lot of people stay stuckright there for years because
hard mode is the default settingthe moment you get diagnosed.
See, type one diabetes is crazycomplicated.
Seriously.
And really, anyone gets up, uhgets the education they need up
front or ever.
(04:25):
I mean, think about howbackwards that is compared to
literally every other skillyou've ever learned, right?
You don't start driving a stickshift in a race.
You know, I mean, I learned howto drive on a stick shift, but
it wasn't a race, it was out inthe mountains in my uncle's
pickup truck.
I was driving through riverbeds,you know.
But you practice first, you takethe easy route where there is no
(04:45):
there's no stakes.
You know, you don't startplaying guitar with a solo on
stage.
You build competence first, lowstakes environments, then the
difficulty ramps up as yourskills do.
See, diabetes flips thatentirely.
It's not fair.
It's it's on day one.
You know, you're like a baby inthe diabetes world.
(05:05):
See, if nobody ever teaches youthe mechanics, the difficulty
doesn't start low and build, itstarts maxed out, and it stays
maxed out until you get theeducation that nobody gave you
on day one.
And this is exactly what we seewith our private clients time
and time again when they firststart with us.
Foundational pieces that balancetheir blood sugars and make it
(05:28):
so much easier that are missing.
And I'll even cover a few ofthose in this video that I'm
pretty sure are going to helpyou out quite a bit.
And I want to paint a couplemore pictures here, too, because
I think people hear hard modeand picture something abstract
instead of picturing theiractual Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday.
You know, hard mode is standingin the kitchen at 11 o'clock at
(05:51):
night, staring at a number thatwon't come down, frustrated,
trying to remember if youalready corrected an hour ago or
if this is a fresh high that youshould take care of now.
Hard mode is a birthday partywhere everyone else gets to just
eat cake and you're doing mathin your head while also trying
to look like you're not doingmath in your head so you can be
(06:13):
present.
Hard mode is waking up at threeo'clock in the morning to an
alarm, drinking juice, halfasleep, and and lying there
wondering if you're gonna crashagain in 20 minutes or if you
just overcorrect it into arebound high.
That's gonna wreck your morning.
See, none of that is a characterflaw.
You're missing an organ that'sfully functional or should be
(06:35):
fully functional.
That's just what the diseaselooks like before you've been
taught the mechanics behind it,right?
And metabolism is a complicatedthing as well.
And I want to be really clearabout that because a lot of
people internalize this hardmode as evidence that they're
bad at managing their diabetes.
You're not bad at it, unlessyou're actively choosing to be
bad at it, right?
If you're just saying no, I'mnot gonna take care of myself.
(06:58):
You were handed a hard mode thatyou never chose, right?
With none of the tools youneeded to make it easier.
And you've been doing your bestwith what you had.
That's not failure.
It's just hard mode with nopractice or no manual.
See, in every video game, easyis where you start and hard is
(07:20):
what you've earned.
In diabetes, hard is where youstart, and easy is what you've
earned.
Say that back to yourself if youneed to.
That single flip is kind of thewhole point of this video.
It's inverted, right?
See, easy mode in type 1diabetes is not lower stakes.
It's not caring less or lettingthings slide because you're
(07:41):
tired of trying.
Easy mode is what's waiting foryou on the other side of
actually learning the game.
It's the graduation point, notthe starting point.
I want to be specific herebecause vague inspiration
doesn't change anybody's bloodsugar, right?
Easy mode looks like knowingyour insulin to carb ratio
specifically and your correctionfactor well enough that dosing
(08:03):
stops being a guess and startsbeing math that you can actually
trust, right?
Or a blood sugar formula as anexample, right?
And of course, insulin to carbratios and correction factors
are just a slice of the pie.
But that's a good startingpoint.
Having specificity behind it.
And again, something you cantrust and be certain with.
It looks like understanding thepharmacokinetics of your
(08:24):
specific insulin, like when itactually kicks in, when it peaks
or is most effective, how longthe tail runs, so you're not
layering dose on top of dose andcreating a crash that you didn't
see coming.
It looks like knowing your ownpatterns closely enough that you
can predict a swing before ithappens instead of reacting to
it after the fact.
(08:46):
It's controlling your bloodsugars so that they don't
control you.
That's the entire differencebetween surviving this disease
and thriving with it.
See, surviving is reactive.
You're always one step behindthe number on your CGM, whereas
thriving is working with yourbody instead of constantly
(09:06):
fighting against it.
It's the same disease, butcompletely different experience
living with it.
And I'll say this from havinglived on both sides of that line
myself.
The early years I spentguessing.
It felt like the years that I Ican't even tell you how
frustrated what I was dealingwith what felt like an
impossible uncertainty puzzlethat just made up its own rules
(09:29):
day to day.
You see, I've spent yearsworking on my own formulas,
understanding things, divinginto the science, treating
myself as a guinea pig so thatyou don't have to.
Same diagnosis on both sidesbetween beginning and now.
Completely different game.
That's not a coincidence.
It's not because diabetes goteasier, it's because I finally
learned how it actually works.
(09:52):
And here's the part that shouldgive you you some hope if you're
still deep in hard mode withdiabetes right now.
Nobody's born into easy mode.
Well, maybe the honeymoon stage,they might argue that it's
easier, right?
But honestly, I've had a lot oftype one clients that actually
found the honeymoon phase harderthan what came after because the
pancreas was still trying tohelp, but they never knew how
(10:13):
much help they were gonna get.
You know what I mean?
It's like, is it gonna help withthis meal?
Nope, I went high until you getout out of the pancreatic
function, and now it's just youand it feels a lot more smooth,
uh at the very least, morecertain because you know that
the insulin you gave is the onlyinsulin in circulation, right?
But every single person knowsthat that stage of life, they've
(10:35):
been there, right?
Every single person who's livingthere right now started exactly
where you're standing.
The gap between where you areand where they are isn't talent,
it's not luck, it's a specificlearnable knowledge about your
own body that either somebodytaught you or nobody did yet.
(10:56):
Now, before the deep ratio work,before the pattern recognition,
before any of the more advancedstuff we teach, the first real
shift almost every singleprivate client that we take on
reports is pre-bolishing ordialing in their basal insulin.
Both are very important, butvery different.
So, I mean, it really can besimple as timing the insulin
(11:16):
ahead of the meal instead ofduring or after it.
That one change alone tends topull people out of the reactive
spiral faster than almostanything else in the entire
curriculum, right?
The rest of it's likefine-tuning and like, oh,
prediction, I can I did exactthat was amazing.
I did what I wanted to do, andeverything's stay controlled.
But prebolus and basal insulin,oh my gosh, it lays the
(11:37):
foundation.
You know, it's the mechanism.
You're finally working with thetiming of the drug instead of
fighting against it.
Because insulin doesn't workinstantly.
We know this, but food alsodoesn't always hit your
bloodstream instantly either.
And when those two timelines arelined up on purpose, based on a
number of factors likemacronutrients or the type of
food, right?
Your activity level that day,trend of blood sugar, insulin on
(12:00):
board, et cetera, instead ofcolliding by accident, then the
chaos drops immediately, oftenwithin days, right?
Now, there's a second thing thatshows up almost as often, and
it's related.
Once people start pre-bolistingcorrectly, they start noticing
their own patterns for the firsttime.
Because the chaos that used todrown everything else out and
(12:21):
just feel impossible or um likeit didn't have meaning, it was
just random chaos.
When the chaos that used todrown everything else out
finally quiets down, that's whenthe real pattern recognition
starts.
Not because we handed them somecomplicated new system, but
because the timing of theinsulin correctly removed enough
of that chaotic noise that theactual signal became visible
(12:44):
where you're like, oh, my bloodsugar went up an hour and a half
later, I didn't know thathappened before because before
it was just one giant spike, youknow, and now it's like stable,
stable, stable rise.
Oh, what was that?
Oh, it's protein converting toglucose at a rate of 50%.
It's like, oh, wait a second.
There's meaning behind my bloodsugars.
You can't spot your own patternswhen you're putting out a fire
(13:05):
every 60 to 90 minutes.
But once the fires slow down,the patterns are usually right
there, waiting to be noticed.
It's testing in isolation at itscore, right?
And you don't need to havegraduated diabetes to easy mode
to start borrowing pieces of itright now.
So think of uh, I'll give youfour.
We'll call them cheat codes, allright?
(13:26):
Since we're on the video gametopic, you can be stuck mid-hard
mode, still figuring out thewhole thing with diabetes, and
these still work for you today.
So cheat code one, pre-bolus,obviously.
Get the insulin in a head of thefood instead of after it.
This is the one I already toldyou about.
And I'm putting it first for areason.
Timing beats guessing everytime.
(13:48):
The exact number of minutes,though, does depend on your
insulin type and your ownpatterns, as well as a few other
things, like the type of food,which is exactly the kind of
thing your care team or yourtype one coach, if we're working
together, can help you with todial in.
But the principle holdsregardless of your specific
timing.
Insulin typically needs a headstart on most food.
I say most food because ifyou're eating like steak only,
(14:10):
you know, like that's just fatand protein.
You don't probably need apre-bolus for that one.
I'm gonna just stop talkingabout this because it's
bordering on medical advice, andthis is not medical advice, but
I hope you're starting to getit.
Yeah, think about this stuff.
Context matters, right?
But as far as generic rules go,generally speaking, the
pre-bolus, game changer.
(14:30):
If you take nothing else fromthis episode, start here.
Now, cheat code number two moveyour body.
All right.
Exercise tends to improveinsulin sensitivity better than
anything else I've seen.
And that doesn't mean you needto go run a marathon tomorrow.
Okay.
I've done Iron Man races, and Istill tell people this doesn't
need to be extreme.
(14:51):
Consistency matters more thanintensity here.
So a daily walk moves the needlemore than an occasional brutal
workout followed by two weeks ofnothing.
Okay, especially because it'sgoing to shift your insulin
sensitivity in both directionsand it's going to feel more
chaotic, believe it or not.
And if you're worried about lowsduring activity, that's a real
and valid concern, which isexactly why this is a
(15:12):
conversation to have with yourcare team or with your coach.
Again, if you're working with myteam of experts and myself about
timing your movement aroundinsulin or adjusting it
proactively so that you can staystable.
Like uh I recently went on a20-mile bike ride, stayed
between 90 and 110 the wholetime, and had 70 grams of carbs.
It was delicious and super fun.
(15:33):
Got to actually enjoy the viewwhen you're not worried about
blood sugars.
All right.
Uh, so again, get that dialedin.
It's not a reason to skipmovement altogether.
It's going through the hardstuff so that you can get to
easy mode.
Right.
Now, cheat code number three: regulate your nervous system. (15:45):
undefined
Stress, poor sleep, bad dietarychoices.
That's not really in the nervoussystem.
We'll get to that one next,probably.
But stress and poor sleep,right?
They both tend to drive insulinresistance up.
And it's not a soft, likefeel-good wellness tip.
Like, oh, take care of yourselfand mindfulness.
(16:07):
You can't ignore this stuff.
This is a direct lever on yourblood sugar.
If your sleep is a mess and yourstress is through the roof, your
numbers will often reflect it,no matter how perfect your
ratios are.
All right.
You can have the math exactlyright and still get fought by a
cortisol spike at three o'clockin the morning.
This is why some of what we workwith our clients isn't insulin
(16:27):
dosing at all.
It's helping the nervous systemand lifestyle habits as well.
Stop running in the fight orflight around the clock mode,
right?
Now, okay, cheat code numberfour.
Let's get to it.
Watch the inflammation.
So, dietary choices, I mentionedI could add that to this one
too.
But yes, dietary choices,generally, inflammation from all
sorts of stuff comes into play.
(16:48):
Your dietary choices are quietlysetting the baseline for your
insulin resistance every singleday.
Processed foods, high fat, junkfood, dessert, lots of sugar,
lots of caffeine, all this stuffcan mess you up.
Some in uh moderate amounts,sure, I had chocolate.
I'll be super honest with you.
I ate four different types ofchocolate for lunch today.
(17:10):
Chocolate peanut butter cup,chocolate ice cream.
I don't know what's going on.
I don't usually eat this muchchocolate, but for the last week
or so, I've been just chowingdown chocolate.
Um, a chocolate quinoa cookiething.
I pretended it's healthy becauseit's got quinoa in it.
That's actually really good.
Um, and then some chocolatecereal that was like I it's a
protein cereal, so I pretendedthat was healthy too.
(17:32):
But you know, that's I wouldn'tconsider that moderation, but do
as I say, not as I do, right?
I'm just kidding.
I typically live by the rules.
That said, you don't need tooverhaul your entire diet
overnight, and you don't need tochase some perfect restrictive
plan either.
Right?
That's actually the opposite ofwhat easy mode looks like.
As you can tell, I had fourdifferent types of chocolate in
(17:53):
a single sit-down meal, right?
You need to start noticing whichfoods tend to work against you
and which ones tend to work withyou and build from there one
honest observation at a time.
Now, none of these four requireyou to have already mastered
your diabetes.
They just they shrink hard modewhile you're building toward
(18:14):
easy mode.
And that's the whole point of acheat code.
It doesn't finish the game foryou, but it makes the level in
front of you a lot less brutalwhile you're still learning and
getting the practice in,figuring things out, right?
And if one cheat code um, well,if especially at the first one,
if cheat code one hit you thehardest just now, that's
probably the tell.
(18:35):
Pre-bolishing sounds simpleuntil you actually try to time
it against your specificinsulin, your specific meals,
your specific patterns.
Uh, you know, pre-bolishing, oh,10 or 15 minutes is very
different than when I tell you18 minutes for me.
I'm like, what do you mean 18?
Well, 20 and it's gonna startgoing down more than I would
like.
15 and it's gonna spike a littlebit.
(18:56):
So if I want my blood sugars tostay perfectly level, 18
minutes.
Now, how do I know that?
Well, blood sugar formulas iswhat we work on with our
clients, our private type oneclients is specificity, it's
precision.
You control your diabetes sothat it doesn't control you.
Once your blood sugars aremastered, you can turn around
(19:17):
and have freedom.
That's why my book is called TheBlood Sugar Freedom Formula,
right?
Everything is about controllingdiabetes, not as the end cause,
but like so I can go live mylife, so I can have more quality
of life and peace of mind andactually enjoy it again while
being healthy.
It's exactly what people startwith inside of our free training
as well.
(19:37):
Like we walk through the timing,the ratios, and the mechanics
behind all four of these cheatcodes in a lot more depth than I
can fit into one episode.
In fact, you can find a freetraining as well as my number
one bestseller book.
Again, it's called the BloodSugar Freedom Formula.
I'll put those in thedescription for you guys, both
the free video training and thebook.
I'll put it in the descriptionof this episode.
(19:58):
All right, so check that out.
I'll also say this if you're thekind of person who wants the
full framework, not just thehighlights and what that's what
the book walks through, start tofinish.
Like it's a quick read.
It really doesn't take that muchtime.
It's 10 chapters.
All right.
Same ideas, just with the roomto actually build them out
properly, but you got toimplement.
(20:19):
Promise me you're gonna actuallyuse what you learn, not just
think it's a cool book.
All right.
Cool.
Now, let's bring this back towhere we started.
You beat the game and it handsyou the same menu: easy, hard,
normal.
In every game you've everplayed, easy is a starting line,
and hard is the reward you earnafter you've built the real
skill and confidence.
(20:39):
Diabetes flips that hard is thestarting line, whether you asked
for it or not.
And then easy is the rewardwaiting for you on the other
side of actually learning aboutyour body, leaning into the
diagnosis, trying to understandit, not just pretending it
doesn't exist or justcomplaining about it and saying,
Oh, diabetes sucks.
(20:59):
Whoa, it's me.
I don't deserve this.
Doesn't matter.
It's here and it's not goinganywhere.
And until you decide to takeaction against it, you're gonna
continue suffering needlessly.
Okay.
And you might not be in a goodspace to hear that right now.
That's okay.
If somebody had told me that inthe first five years of being
diagnosed, I would have neverspoken to them again because I
(21:22):
was not ready to hear that.
But once I made that shift, thatacceptance, that diabetes is not
going anywhere, and it's up tome and only me to do something
about it, you can actually takeaction and make progress.
Easy is the reward of waiting onthe other side for you, of
(21:45):
actually learning your own body.
So again, not lowering thestakes, not caring less.
The exact opposite.
Easy mode is what competencelooks like once you've put in
the work.
See, people often think that mydiabetes is just easier than
theirs when they hear about myIron Man races or that I'm
raising a family and building abusiness.
(22:05):
I eating and doing nearlywhatever I want, all while
having an A1C at 5.7 and havingover seven consecutive years
above 90% time and range.
Notice I said seven.
You know, I've been diagnosed alot longer than seven years.
It's not easier, it's easy modeas a direct result of the hard
(22:27):
work that I put in before thoseseven years.
The same thing we do for andwith our private T1D clients.
And you don't have to wait untilyou've mastered everything, or
even until you've been approvedto work with us, to start moving
toward it.
Pre-ball this, move your body,exercise, regulate your nervous
system, take care of yourself,watch for inflammation.
(22:49):
Four cheat codes available toyou today.
No matter where you're startingfrom, improvements can be made.
You don't have to wait foranybody else.
It's up to you to take actionand do something about this.
And if you find that you'reextra motivated right now, run
with it.
Motivation is fleeting.
You will lose the motivationuntil you decide that this is
(23:13):
just who you are now.
You're gonna be the kind ofperson that takes care of your
health because if you don't, noone else is doing it for you.
And you will suffer in the longterm.
And I can tell you this becauseI've seen a lot of people over
the years that wish they hadstarted earlier.
SPEAKER_00 (23:29):
Don't be that person.
Do something now before it's toolate.
SPEAKER_01 (23:36):
And none of these cheat codes require you to
already be at easy mode.
That's the entire point of acheat code.
It works on the level thatyou're stuck on.
You don't have to stay stuckguessing on hard mode.
That was never the deal.
And it's definitely not the handyou were supposed to be dealt
for the rest of your life.
Check the description below thisepisode.
There's a link to the freetraining and a link to the book,
(23:57):
the Blood Sugar Freedom Formula.
Both are built to get you offhard mode faster and closer to
actually living this thing oneasy mode.
We are renegades, we thinkdifferently, we do differently,
we don't guess our way throughthis disease.
We learn the formula and we playto win.
SPEAKER_00 (24:17):
I hope you enjoyed this one.
Go take action.
You deserve it.
We'll see you in the next one.
Keep up the fight.
Did you know that type 1 diabetes has an easy
mode?
And the challenging part is thatno doctor is ever going to tell
you that it exists.
They give you the hard mode andpretend it's easy mode.
Oh, just take insulin for yourcarbs, and if you go low, eat
some sugar.
See, it's framed as easy mode,but truthfully, that's the
hardest mode there is.
And see, I just beat a videogame and it was absolutely
(00:23):
thrilling.
But something caught me offguard at the end.
See, after the credits rolled, Iwatched the final cutscene, and
right as the screen goes dark,it throws the exact same menu at
me that it did on day one with alittle asterisk.
Easy, normal, hard.
See, it gave me the option toplay again with all those powers
that I'd earned along the way inthe video game.
But here's what's interesting (00:44):
I never pick easy up front.
It's not because I'm I'm tooproud, but because if I beat the
game on easy, some part of medoesn't feel like it counts.
You know, like it doesn't feelearned.
And I also don't pick hard onday one, though, because I have
no idea what I'm walking into orhow good I'm actually going to
be at it.
I don't know if it's going to beenjoyable to play it on hard
mode and just get stuck on everylevel.
(01:06):
So I pick normal, right?
And hard mode, that's the rewardif the game was so good that it
deems a replay.
See, in my opinion, I don't youdon't touch hard until you've
already proven you can finishthe thing on normal, right?
Once you've got the confidenceand you know the mechanics, then
hard mode is just a victory lapwith the difficulty turned up.
So it's like a chance to hone inyour skills and show them off,
(01:29):
right?
So easy first to learn thecontrols if you need to, like if
this is your first video gameever, or diabetes, if it's your
first run through, right, andyour endo appointment.
Normal to prove it actuallycounts, and then it's enjoyable
but challenging, and then hardonce you've earned it.
And it's nearly every video gameI've ever played.
Now, see, type one diabetes runsthe exact same three modes easy,
(01:52):
normal, hard, except it's builtcompletely backwards.
And once I tell you how, you'renot gonna be able to unsee it.
See, I'm gonna walk you throughexactly where you probably are
right now when it comes todiabetes management and where
you're stuck, what's actuallywaiting for you on the other
side.
I'm gonna prove it to you withthe one thing our clients bring
(02:13):
up more than anything else.
Then I'm gonna hand you fourcheat codes, so to speak, you
can start using today.
Whether you've mastered a singlething with this diabetes disease
or not, so stick around for thewhole thing because the cheat
codes at the end are honestlythe part most people go back and
rewatch, but also the part mostpeople miss when they're first
(02:33):
diagnosed.
SPEAKER_00 (02:35):
Keep going and keep up the fight.
SPEAKER_01 (02:39):
Let's talk about where most of us start with this
disease, which is hard mode.
Sometimes that's literally dayone, your diagnosis day.
Sometimes it's five years inwhere it kind of switches on
you, right?
Ten years in because nobody everhanded you the manual in the
first place.
But you know the pattern thatI'm talking about, where you
guess at a carb count becausethe labels are confusing, uh, or
(03:00):
you're eating out and there isno label, right?
You dose based on what youguess, and then two hours later
you're either climbing orcrashing.
So you correct, you retreat.
Sometimes you overcorrect orover-treat because you panic,
and panic math is not good math.
And now you're chasing a lowwith juice or glucose tabs, and
that sends you right back up,and the whole cycle starts over.
(03:20):
We call it roller coaster bloodsugars, right?
That's not a discipline problemor you being careless with your
health.
That's what happens to literallyanyone who has never taught the
mechanics of their own body,which most people aren't,
because most people don't havethe medical background that I
do, right?
Nobody sat down and explainedyour actual insulin to carb
ratio in the context of anactive day versus a stressful
(03:44):
day.
Nobody walked you through howyour specific insulin behaves
once it's inside you, insulinpharmacokinetics, when it starts
working, when it peaks, in otherwords, when it's most effective,
how long it's still active andstill capable of dropping you
hours after you think it's done.
So you white knuckle it, yousurvive the day.
(04:04):
And a lot of people stay stuckright there for years because
hard mode is the default settingthe moment you get diagnosed.
See, type one diabetes is crazycomplicated.
Seriously.
And really, anyone gets up, uhgets the education they need up
front or ever.
(04:25):
I mean, think about howbackwards that is compared to
literally every other skillyou've ever learned, right?
You don't start driving a stickshift in a race.
You know, I mean, I learned howto drive on a stick shift, but
it wasn't a race, it was out inthe mountains in my uncle's
pickup truck.
I was driving through riverbeds,you know.
But you practice first, you takethe easy route where there is no
(04:45):
there's no stakes.
You know, you don't startplaying guitar with a solo on
stage.
You build competence first, lowstakes environments, then the
difficulty ramps up as yourskills do.
See, diabetes flips thatentirely.
It's not fair.
It's it's on day one.
You know, you're like a baby inthe diabetes world.
(05:05):
See, if nobody ever teaches youthe mechanics, the difficulty
doesn't start low and build, itstarts maxed out, and it stays
maxed out until you get theeducation that nobody gave you
on day one.
And this is exactly what we seewith our private clients time
and time again when they firststart with us.
Foundational pieces that balancetheir blood sugars and make it
(05:28):
so much easier that are missing.
And I'll even cover a few ofthose in this video that I'm
pretty sure are going to helpyou out quite a bit.
And I want to paint a couplemore pictures here, too, because
I think people hear hard modeand picture something abstract
instead of picturing theiractual Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday.
You know, hard mode is standingin the kitchen at 11 o'clock at
(05:51):
night, staring at a number thatwon't come down, frustrated,
trying to remember if youalready corrected an hour ago or
if this is a fresh high that youshould take care of now.
Hard mode is a birthday partywhere everyone else gets to just
eat cake and you're doing mathin your head while also trying
to look like you're not doingmath in your head so you can be
(06:13):
present.
Hard mode is waking up at threeo'clock in the morning to an
alarm, drinking juice, halfasleep, and and lying there
wondering if you're gonna crashagain in 20 minutes or if you
just overcorrect it into arebound high.
That's gonna wreck your morning.
See, none of that is a characterflaw.
You're missing an organ that'sfully functional or should be
(06:35):
fully functional.
That's just what the diseaselooks like before you've been
taught the mechanics behind it,right?
And metabolism is a complicatedthing as well.
And I want to be really clearabout that because a lot of
people internalize this hardmode as evidence that they're
bad at managing their diabetes.
You're not bad at it, unlessyou're actively choosing to be
bad at it, right?
If you're just saying no, I'mnot gonna take care of myself.
(06:58):
You were handed a hard mode thatyou never chose, right?
With none of the tools youneeded to make it easier.
And you've been doing your bestwith what you had.
That's not failure.
It's just hard mode with nopractice or no manual.
See, in every video game, easyis where you start and hard is
(07:20):
what you've earned.
In diabetes, hard is where youstart, and easy is what you've
earned.
Say that back to yourself if youneed to.
That single flip is kind of thewhole point of this video.
It's inverted, right?
See, easy mode in type 1diabetes is not lower stakes.
It's not caring less or lettingthings slide because you're
(07:41):
tired of trying.
Easy mode is what's waiting foryou on the other side of
actually learning the game.
It's the graduation point, notthe starting point.
I want to be specific herebecause vague inspiration
doesn't change anybody's bloodsugar, right?
Easy mode looks like knowingyour insulin to carb ratio
specifically and your correctionfactor well enough that dosing
(08:03):
stops being a guess and startsbeing math that you can actually
trust, right?
Or a blood sugar formula as anexample, right?
And of course, insulin to carbratios and correction factors
are just a slice of the pie.
But that's a good startingpoint.
Having specificity behind it.
And again, something you cantrust and be certain with.
It looks like understanding thepharmacokinetics of your
(08:24):
specific insulin, like when itactually kicks in, when it peaks
or is most effective, how longthe tail runs, so you're not
layering dose on top of dose andcreating a crash that you didn't
see coming.
It looks like knowing your ownpatterns closely enough that you
can predict a swing before ithappens instead of reacting to
it after the fact.
(08:46):
It's controlling your bloodsugars so that they don't
control you.
That's the entire differencebetween surviving this disease
and thriving with it.
See, surviving is reactive.
You're always one step behindthe number on your CGM, whereas
thriving is working with yourbody instead of constantly
(09:06):
fighting against it.
It's the same disease, butcompletely different experience
living with it.
And I'll say this from havinglived on both sides of that line
myself.
The early years I spentguessing.
It felt like the years that I Ican't even tell you how
frustrated what I was dealingwith what felt like an
impossible uncertainty puzzlethat just made up its own rules
(09:29):
day to day.
You see, I've spent yearsworking on my own formulas,
understanding things, divinginto the science, treating
myself as a guinea pig so thatyou don't have to.
Same diagnosis on both sidesbetween beginning and now.
Completely different game.
That's not a coincidence.
It's not because diabetes goteasier, it's because I finally
learned how it actually works.
(09:52):
And here's the part that shouldgive you you some hope if you're
still deep in hard mode withdiabetes right now.
Nobody's born into easy mode.
Well, maybe the honeymoon stage,they might argue that it's
easier, right?
But honestly, I've had a lot oftype one clients that actually
found the honeymoon phase harderthan what came after because the
pancreas was still trying tohelp, but they never knew how
(10:13):
much help they were gonna get.
You know what I mean?
It's like, is it gonna help withthis meal?
Nope, I went high until you getout out of the pancreatic
function, and now it's just youand it feels a lot more smooth,
uh at the very least, morecertain because you know that
the insulin you gave is the onlyinsulin in circulation, right?
But every single person knowsthat that stage of life, they've
(10:35):
been there, right?
Every single person who's livingthere right now started exactly
where you're standing.
The gap between where you areand where they are isn't talent,
it's not luck, it's a specificlearnable knowledge about your
own body that either somebodytaught you or nobody did yet.
(10:56):
Now, before the deep ratio work,before the pattern recognition,
before any of the more advancedstuff we teach, the first real
shift almost every singleprivate client that we take on
reports is pre-bolishing ordialing in their basal insulin.
Both are very important, butvery different.
So, I mean, it really can besimple as timing the insulin
(11:16):
ahead of the meal instead ofduring or after it.
That one change alone tends topull people out of the reactive
spiral faster than almostanything else in the entire
curriculum, right?
The rest of it's likefine-tuning and like, oh,
prediction, I can I did exactthat was amazing.
I did what I wanted to do, andeverything's stay controlled.
But prebolus and basal insulin,oh my gosh, it lays the
(11:37):
foundation.
You know, it's the mechanism.
You're finally working with thetiming of the drug instead of
fighting against it.
Because insulin doesn't workinstantly.
We know this, but food alsodoesn't always hit your
bloodstream instantly either.
And when those two timelines arelined up on purpose, based on a
number of factors likemacronutrients or the type of
food, right?
Your activity level that day,trend of blood sugar, insulin on
(12:00):
board, et cetera, instead ofcolliding by accident, then the
chaos drops immediately, oftenwithin days, right?
Now, there's a second thing thatshows up almost as often, and
it's related.
Once people start pre-bolistingcorrectly, they start noticing
their own patterns for the firsttime.
Because the chaos that used todrown everything else out and
(12:21):
just feel impossible or um likeit didn't have meaning, it was
just random chaos.
When the chaos that used todrown everything else out
finally quiets down, that's whenthe real pattern recognition
starts.
Not because we handed them somecomplicated new system, but
because the timing of theinsulin correctly removed enough
of that chaotic noise that theactual signal became visible
(12:44):
where you're like, oh, my bloodsugar went up an hour and a half
later, I didn't know thathappened before because before
it was just one giant spike, youknow, and now it's like stable,
stable, stable rise.
Oh, what was that?
Oh, it's protein converting toglucose at a rate of 50%.
It's like, oh, wait a second.
There's meaning behind my bloodsugars.
You can't spot your own patternswhen you're putting out a fire
(13:05):
every 60 to 90 minutes.
But once the fires slow down,the patterns are usually right
there, waiting to be noticed.
It's testing in isolation at itscore, right?
And you don't need to havegraduated diabetes to easy mode
to start borrowing pieces of itright now.
So think of uh, I'll give youfour.
We'll call them cheat codes, allright?
(13:26):
Since we're on the video gametopic, you can be stuck mid-hard
mode, still figuring out thewhole thing with diabetes, and
these still work for you today.
So cheat code one, pre-bolus,obviously.
Get the insulin in a head of thefood instead of after it.
This is the one I already toldyou about.
And I'm putting it first for areason.
Timing beats guessing everytime.
(13:48):
The exact number of minutes,though, does depend on your
insulin type and your ownpatterns, as well as a few other
things, like the type of food,which is exactly the kind of
thing your care team or yourtype one coach, if we're working
together, can help you with todial in.
But the principle holdsregardless of your specific
timing.
Insulin typically needs a headstart on most food.
I say most food because ifyou're eating like steak only,
(14:10):
you know, like that's just fatand protein.
You don't probably need apre-bolus for that one.
I'm gonna just stop talkingabout this because it's
bordering on medical advice, andthis is not medical advice, but
I hope you're starting to getit.
Yeah, think about this stuff.
Context matters, right?
But as far as generic rules go,generally speaking, the
pre-bolus, game changer.
(14:30):
If you take nothing else fromthis episode, start here.
Now, cheat code number two moveyour body.
All right.
Exercise tends to improveinsulin sensitivity better than
anything else I've seen.
And that doesn't mean you needto go run a marathon tomorrow.
Okay.
I've done Iron Man races, and Istill tell people this doesn't
need to be extreme.
(14:51):
Consistency matters more thanintensity here.
So a daily walk moves the needlemore than an occasional brutal
workout followed by two weeks ofnothing.
Okay, especially because it'sgoing to shift your insulin
sensitivity in both directionsand it's going to feel more
chaotic, believe it or not.
And if you're worried about lowsduring activity, that's a real
and valid concern, which isexactly why this is a
(15:12):
conversation to have with yourcare team or with your coach.
Again, if you're working with myteam of experts and myself about
timing your movement aroundinsulin or adjusting it
proactively so that you can staystable.
Like uh I recently went on a20-mile bike ride, stayed
between 90 and 110 the wholetime, and had 70 grams of carbs.
It was delicious and super fun.
(15:33):
Got to actually enjoy the viewwhen you're not worried about
blood sugars.
All right.
Uh, so again, get that dialedin.
It's not a reason to skipmovement altogether.
It's going through the hardstuff so that you can get to
easy mode.
Right.
Now, cheat code number three: regulate your nervous system. (15:45):
undefined
Stress, poor sleep, bad dietarychoices.
That's not really in the nervoussystem.
We'll get to that one next,probably.
But stress and poor sleep,right?
They both tend to drive insulinresistance up.
And it's not a soft, likefeel-good wellness tip.
Like, oh, take care of yourselfand mindfulness.
(16:07):
You can't ignore this stuff.
This is a direct lever on yourblood sugar.
If your sleep is a mess and yourstress is through the roof, your
numbers will often reflect it,no matter how perfect your
ratios are.
All right.
You can have the math exactlyright and still get fought by a
cortisol spike at three o'clockin the morning.
This is why some of what we workwith our clients isn't insulin
(16:27):
dosing at all.
It's helping the nervous systemand lifestyle habits as well.
Stop running in the fight orflight around the clock mode,
right?
Now, okay, cheat code numberfour.
Let's get to it.
Watch the inflammation.
So, dietary choices, I mentionedI could add that to this one
too.
But yes, dietary choices,generally, inflammation from all
sorts of stuff comes into play.
(16:48):
Your dietary choices are quietlysetting the baseline for your
insulin resistance every singleday.
Processed foods, high fat, junkfood, dessert, lots of sugar,
lots of caffeine, all this stuffcan mess you up.
Some in uh moderate amounts,sure, I had chocolate.
I'll be super honest with you.
I ate four different types ofchocolate for lunch today.
(17:10):
Chocolate peanut butter cup,chocolate ice cream.
I don't know what's going on.
I don't usually eat this muchchocolate, but for the last week
or so, I've been just chowingdown chocolate.
Um, a chocolate quinoa cookiething.
I pretended it's healthy becauseit's got quinoa in it.
That's actually really good.
Um, and then some chocolatecereal that was like I it's a
protein cereal, so I pretendedthat was healthy too.
(17:32):
But you know, that's I wouldn'tconsider that moderation, but do
as I say, not as I do, right?
I'm just kidding.
I typically live by the rules.
That said, you don't need tooverhaul your entire diet
overnight, and you don't need tochase some perfect restrictive
plan either.
Right?
That's actually the opposite ofwhat easy mode looks like.
As you can tell, I had fourdifferent types of chocolate in
(17:53):
a single sit-down meal, right?
You need to start noticing whichfoods tend to work against you
and which ones tend to work withyou and build from there one
honest observation at a time.
Now, none of these four requireyou to have already mastered
your diabetes.
They just they shrink hard modewhile you're building toward
(18:14):
easy mode.
And that's the whole point of acheat code.
It doesn't finish the game foryou, but it makes the level in
front of you a lot less brutalwhile you're still learning and
getting the practice in,figuring things out, right?
And if one cheat code um, well,if especially at the first one,
if cheat code one hit you thehardest just now, that's
probably the tell.
(18:35):
Pre-bolishing sounds simpleuntil you actually try to time
it against your specificinsulin, your specific meals,
your specific patterns.
Uh, you know, pre-bolishing, oh,10 or 15 minutes is very
different than when I tell you18 minutes for me.
I'm like, what do you mean 18?
Well, 20 and it's gonna startgoing down more than I would
like.
15 and it's gonna spike a littlebit.
(18:56):
So if I want my blood sugars tostay perfectly level, 18
minutes.
Now, how do I know that?
Well, blood sugar formulas iswhat we work on with our
clients, our private type oneclients is specificity, it's
precision.
You control your diabetes sothat it doesn't control you.
Once your blood sugars aremastered, you can turn around
(19:17):
and have freedom.
That's why my book is called TheBlood Sugar Freedom Formula,
right?
Everything is about controllingdiabetes, not as the end cause,
but like so I can go live mylife, so I can have more quality
of life and peace of mind andactually enjoy it again while
being healthy.
It's exactly what people startwith inside of our free training
as well.
(19:37):
Like we walk through the timing,the ratios, and the mechanics
behind all four of these cheatcodes in a lot more depth than I
can fit into one episode.
In fact, you can find a freetraining as well as my number
one bestseller book.
Again, it's called the BloodSugar Freedom Formula.
I'll put those in thedescription for you guys, both
the free video training and thebook.
I'll put it in the descriptionof this episode.
(19:58):
All right, so check that out.
I'll also say this if you're thekind of person who wants the
full framework, not just thehighlights and what that's what
the book walks through, start tofinish.
Like it's a quick read.
It really doesn't take that muchtime.
It's 10 chapters.
All right.
Same ideas, just with the roomto actually build them out
properly, but you got toimplement.
(20:19):
Promise me you're gonna actuallyuse what you learn, not just
think it's a cool book.
All right.
Cool.
Now, let's bring this back towhere we started.
You beat the game and it handsyou the same menu: easy, hard,
normal.
In every game you've everplayed, easy is a starting line,
and hard is the reward you earnafter you've built the real
skill and confidence.
(20:39):
Diabetes flips that hard is thestarting line, whether you asked
for it or not.
And then easy is the rewardwaiting for you on the other
side of actually learning aboutyour body, leaning into the
diagnosis, trying to understandit, not just pretending it
doesn't exist or justcomplaining about it and saying,
Oh, diabetes sucks.
(20:59):
Whoa, it's me.
I don't deserve this.
Doesn't matter.
It's here and it's not goinganywhere.
And until you decide to takeaction against it, you're gonna
continue suffering needlessly.
Okay.
And you might not be in a goodspace to hear that right now.
That's okay.
If somebody had told me that inthe first five years of being
diagnosed, I would have neverspoken to them again because I
(21:22):
was not ready to hear that.
But once I made that shift, thatacceptance, that diabetes is not
going anywhere, and it's up tome and only me to do something
about it, you can actually takeaction and make progress.
Easy is the reward of waiting onthe other side for you, of
(21:45):
actually learning your own body.
So again, not lowering thestakes, not caring less.
The exact opposite.
Easy mode is what competencelooks like once you've put in
the work.
See, people often think that mydiabetes is just easier than
theirs when they hear about myIron Man races or that I'm
raising a family and building abusiness.
(22:05):
I eating and doing nearlywhatever I want, all while
having an A1C at 5.7 and havingover seven consecutive years
above 90% time and range.
Notice I said seven.
You know, I've been diagnosed alot longer than seven years.
It's not easier, it's easy modeas a direct result of the hard
(22:27):
work that I put in before thoseseven years.
The same thing we do for andwith our private T1D clients.
And you don't have to wait untilyou've mastered everything, or
even until you've been approvedto work with us, to start moving
toward it.
Pre-ball this, move your body,exercise, regulate your nervous
system, take care of yourself,watch for inflammation.
(22:49):
Four cheat codes available toyou today.
No matter where you're startingfrom, improvements can be made.
You don't have to wait foranybody else.
It's up to you to take actionand do something about this.
And if you find that you'reextra motivated right now, run
with it.
Motivation is fleeting.
You will lose the motivationuntil you decide that this is
(23:13):
just who you are now.
You're gonna be the kind ofperson that takes care of your
health because if you don't, noone else is doing it for you.
And you will suffer in the longterm.
And I can tell you this becauseI've seen a lot of people over
the years that wish they hadstarted earlier.
SPEAKER_00 (23:29):
Don't be that person.
Do something now before it's toolate.
SPEAKER_01 (23:36):
And none of these cheat codes require you to
already be at easy mode.
That's the entire point of acheat code.
It works on the level thatyou're stuck on.
You don't have to stay stuckguessing on hard mode.
That was never the deal.
And it's definitely not the handyou were supposed to be dealt
for the rest of your life.
Check the description below thisepisode.
There's a link to the freetraining and a link to the book,
(23:57):
the Blood Sugar Freedom Formula.
Both are built to get you offhard mode faster and closer to
actually living this thing oneasy mode.
We are renegades, we thinkdifferently, we do differently,
we don't guess our way throughthis disease.
We learn the formula and we playto win.
SPEAKER_00 (24:17):
I hope you enjoyed this one.
Go take action.
You deserve it.
We'll see you in the next one.
Keep up the fight.
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