This week on We Are T1D, Mike and Jack sit down with the ever-positive Richard Bibby — better known on Instagram as @sunny_cyclist. Richard’s story is full of real talk, big laughs, and proper relatable moments.
We chat about:
🚴♂️ How being diagnosed with Type 1 as an adult flipped his world upside down — and how he’s managed to find his balance again
🎮 Why a new Xbox might just be the ultimate mental health tool
🍽️ The legendary free-course roast dinner that had us all drooling (and his deep love for Italian food)
💪 The ups and downs of weight loss, strength training, and how fitness can help with blood sugar control
👨👩👦👦 The power of the T1D community, and why sharing your story really does make a difference
Richard brings humour, honesty, and a ton of positive energy to this episode — reminding us that life with Type 1 can be tough, but it’s also full of moments worth celebrating. Whether you’re newly diagnosed or 20 years deep, this one will hit home.
💬 Got a T1D story or tip to share?
We’d love to hear from you!
📲 Join our T1D WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ey1GTj2mrfC2etA7cig9lN
📩 Email: wearet1dpodcast@gmail.com
🌍 Website: www.wearet1d.com
📸 Instagram: @t1d_mike, @t1d_jack, and @sunny_cyclist
🎧 New episodes every Sunday
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
On today's episode, we're joinedby someone who brings
positivity, honesty and a whole lot of real talk to the type 1
diabetes in a hole within. We are T1D and hashtag GB doc.
We're joined by Richard, also known on Instagram as the Sunny
Cyclists where hey, ring the bell.
Ding Ding. Get off the fucking mode.
(00:27):
Hey, you got that? And we're buzzing to have him on
the podcast. So let's start.
Welcome to the We Are T1D podcast.
The Real Estate Type 1 Diabetes podcast online hosted by myself,
Mike diagnosed at the age of 10.And myself, Jack diagnosed at
the age of 30. We are just two mates giving you
(00:49):
an insight into life with this chronic condition.
Yes, we are adults and although we try not to swear, it may
happen occasionally. Yeah, as Jack said, we are
adults, but please take what we say as guidance and not medical
advice. No, trust me, we are not
doctors. We are just here to make sure no
(01:11):
type 1 diabetic ever, ever feelsalone.
Hello, Richard. Hey, how you doing?
We're all good. How are you doing?
I'm. I'm.
Good. Actually, life's really good for
me. Layman.
That's good, that's good. That's what we like to hear.
Really good SO so I bought a newXbox that's number one because
(01:32):
I've had the Xbox One for years.We've had it for an age and
there were some games that we were getting it just weren't
working and it was starting to slow down so I had to go series
X, didn't I? So I've upgrade is massively
like the upgrade is is huge justin terms of quality of gameplay.
It doesn't mean you can't put a.Price on your mental health
(01:56):
anyway. No, that makes you happy.
Then just go for it. Yeah, and and also, even though
I'm nearly 50 years old, I'm actually 47 1/2 ish.
Yeah. You're 10 years younger than me,
yeah. I've just.
Hold on. Hold on.
Sorry. I was just bought a car for the
(02:17):
first time so. Oh so yeah, cyclist shouting at
you now? Oh, but yeah, yeah.
So it gets delivered on the 19thof May, and that'll be me on the
right. So you look out.
Oh. Nice.
Nice, Nice. Yeah, Yeah, it's nice as well.
Foxwell Astra 2018. Twenty, 1000 miles on the clock,
(02:41):
which is nothing. Is it for a car that aid?
No, not at all. Crazy.
It's basically new. I've had to have some refresher
lessons because I didn't drive for about 10 years.
Yeah. Anyway, that's all the boring
stuff. I'm good.
How are you? We are fantastic, we are
fantastic, but we are going to jump straight into it, Richard,
(03:03):
because obviously everyone just,we're all eager to talk and
start getting on. So we want to start with the
obvious, which is how was your diagnosis story?
How old was you? What do you remember from most
of that time? Like what's your story?
So mine was very similar to yours, Jack.
I was diagnosed as an adult. I was 38 years old, so a little
(03:28):
bit older than you. And yeah, it just came out of
the blue, really. I I kept going to my daughter
for a few issues. It was the same issue over and
over again. And she said, do you know what?
I'm going to put you in for a blood test to test to see if
you've got diabetes. And I mean, this was a time when
(03:49):
I was like, Nope, I'm healthy. I was starting to discover
exercise. I was, you know, doing like
circuit classes and I was cycling a fair bit.
And I was like, Nope, I'm good. Oh, and I was losing weight as
well. That was the thing I thought.
Yeah, that was one of the real telltales for me.
(04:10):
Yeah, exactly. Yes, exercise is doing me real
good and I'm just, I don't thinkit's diabetes.
So I'm going to overrule the theexpert in this situation.
And so I, I kept going back for the same issues and I said to
her, yeah, OK, I give in, I'll have I'll have the blood test.
(04:32):
And so I written had it done andit so I had the blood test done,
but then I was getting married that that next weekend.
Oh, wow. I didn't actually go back
through the results for a littlewhile.
And so it was, yeah, it was the day after I came back off my
honeymoon. She told me I had diabetes.
(04:53):
Oh, that's timing. Wow.
Well, yeah, exactly. I did say to Sarah, you know,
it's not too late to trade me inbecause I'm faulty.
You know you could get someone. You had the exact same
conversation with my wife when Igot that.
So yeah, shortly after that I shut my pancreas out and I just,
(05:15):
you know, shit it out, having her back ever since.
Thanks, Ashley. Yeah, I had to get that in
there. I was thinking I need to say
that at some point today, absolutely can.
It pass easy. Oh yeah, I had.
(05:35):
I've been eating a lot of prunes.
It's probably why I have high blood sugars.
Only on the Way I See What I'm Doing podcast.
Yeah, can you shout out pancreas?
But yeah, I was, I was very similar to you, like you say you
(05:56):
was very like, no, I'm not losing weight because I'm ill.
It's just I'm training, I'm doing this, I'm eating healthy.
I was exactly the same. And then obviously until it just
you get told you are diabetic and you think, oh fuck me, what
happened there? Yeah, exactly that.
And it was, it was one of those,it's a common story where I got,
(06:21):
so it was initially it was my GP.
She said I think you've got Type2.
So she put me on Metformin, sortof gave me a few rough
guidelines about what to eat andwhat not to eat.
And then she rang me up just as I think, I think I was at work,
I might have been at home, I wassomewhere anyway.
(06:41):
And she said it's been playing on my mind because I don't think
you're the demographic type 2. So I'm going to send you for
some more. So I mean, this is about week
later, no more than a week later.
So it obviously been, it obviously bothered her that she,
she might have made a misdiagnosis.
So, you know, to her credit, she's always been brilliant and
(07:04):
really supportive. And she, so I went up to Dorset
County Hospital, which is in Dorchester.
It's like the next town up from here and they've got a diabetes
centre there. So the, they gave me some blood
tests and I went back for the results and I said, so you know,
the question is, am I type 1, isn't it with an
endocrinologist? And she said, well, I don't
(07:26):
really know, he could be, he might be.
So I think it wasn't. Obviously whatever they saw on
the blood test wasn't clear. So I think I think it might
probably a couple of months after that, I had more blood
test and blah, blah, blah. And she said she gave me the
option because when you develop diabetes as a part as an adult,
(07:48):
it's a slow onset. So Mike, yours would have been
probably quite quick, whereas yours, Jack, was probably quite
slow and drawn out. And you have this honeymoon
period where you hardly need to inject insulin.
And, and at one point in the summer, because I was exercising
a lot, just at the beginning of my honeymoon period, I figured
(08:10):
out that my ratio was 1 to 75. So I had to have like, I had to
eat. So you say for one unit of
insulin. I know for half a unit of
insulin, I had to eat about 30 or 40 grams of carbs, which is
crazy. Wow, absolutely crazy to me
because now I'm on like, well, so when I was here a few weeks
(08:33):
ago, I was on 150 units a day and then I recovered and that
and then I started exercising, started lifting weights and I'm
about, oh, well, daily dose is usually about 70 or 18.
What? Was it you're pretty much cut
down in half? Yeah, yeah.
But I was, I was regularly, evenwhen I was, well, I was
(08:54):
regularly on over 100 units. It was crazy.
Yeah, yeah. That's including your basal,
obviously. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I.
Was just trying to watch mine out loud.
Yeah, so I triggered. It in my head now I'm thinking
what do I usually do? I'm flat.
Yeah, I think I'm about 60-70. Yeah, 60. 70 wide I've got I can
(09:14):
just see what it is on my palm so I can just look at my total
daily dose and then oh. Yeah, of course.
Yeah, yeah. So how do you find being on a
pump? Was you on MDI at first to start
with and then moved on to a pumpafterwards?
Or have you did you go straight for a pump?
No, I hated it. I hated MDI.
(09:35):
So I was diagnosed about, well, 2016.
So pumps were a thing, but they weren't readily available.
And there was, you know, it was all, it was all MDI and finger
pricking. And then slowly technology and
the NHS has moved on and I've got all this access to, you
know, decks from G7 now and the T Slim X2 to give it his full
(09:59):
name. Not sure there's someone out
there will say actually that's not the name this is, but it's
the T Slim. This is the T Slim.
So yeah, that that, you know, I can put different profiles on it
for different days, but I'm on hybrid closed loops.
So it takes the readings and it will predict what your blood
(10:21):
sugars are going to do like overthe next half an hour or so, it
will actually shut your insulin off, so.
If. If things are.
Going to go late. Pretty much the closest to an
actual, sort of like a. Don't say it.
Don't say it. No, you said it.
Just asking. I'm asking a question really.
(10:42):
Interviewers. It's my job.
I just, I, I want to learn. I'm not, I'm, I've never been
experienced with a pump whatsoever.
I don't know what they do. I don't know how they work.
I'm very interested in them. So I've, I have not got a clue.
I just want to get in information of what it actually
is and how it actually works. Yeah, it's, it's nothing like a
(11:05):
pancreas. If you listen to any news
stories or read it on the web, it's all like, it's always like,
oh, you know, this, this new technology is, is the artificial
pancreas. And it's not, it's just simple.
People who don't have diabetes can't understand it in in those
terms. Yeah, of course.
You're still going to get complicated.
Ways of it's just a way of explaining it to people who
(11:26):
don't don't really know, but it's, it's not, it's not a
pancreas because there's still so I had a pancreas that worked
for 38 years and you know, I didn't have to do any
calculations. I didn't have to change my
ratios. I didn't have to worry about my
days or I didn't have to worry about whether I was I'll had I
(11:46):
slept properly, was I hydrated, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
All the bollocks they gave us with diabetes.
And if they gave me a device that all of a sudden took all
that away, I'd say, yeah, fair play, artificial pancreas on
that. You know what I mean?
So you said it can predict whereyou're going, what it tries to,
(12:09):
How accurate is it? So it's I have my G7 sensor
that's from G7 and that uses that, that does the predicting.
And then there's an algorithm onthe pump which will try and keep
you within a certain range. So if you go too high, so you
have. So the algorithm is based on I
(12:34):
mean, I'm not a teaspoon Rep so I wouldn't be able to.
This is my understanding from from using it.
So you have your, you, you program your basal rate.
So you have profiles and each profile you can set your basal
rate, your, your bonus ratio, your correction factor.
(12:57):
But those are the three things that really make it work.
So obviously when when you eat you use your carb ratio all the
time, you have your basal rate going to whatever you've set it.
So at the moment mind sort of 1 1/2 units per hour and that that
(13:20):
varies at different times a day.And then if you go too high then
it uses the correction factor tocalculate how much incident you
need to bring you down. OK.
So it's very. Smart, Very, very clever
technology. It is incredibly, yeah.
(13:40):
Yeah, yeah. Can I just have my outburst?
You're not Say you're drinking alcohol, obviously, because
normal, we're normal people, we can drink alcohol.
Are you sure? You sure you should be drinking
that? You do know the carbs in
alcohol, don't you? You sure you can drink?
(14:02):
Put a pinch of cinnamon in it maybe?
It'll cure you. That's it.
I'm going to, but so obviously, because with alcohol you do get
the overnight hypos. So do you just as you spoke
about profiles, do you just change the profile to lower the
basil or is it because obviouslyit's going to correct a high?
(14:22):
Yeah. And then obviously the alcohol
will kick him eventually, like the downward bit of it.
Sorry, this is how my brain works.
I have to. That's right.
So, yeah. So obviously it's going to
correct the high from the alcohol you're going to get,
which is should do, and then you're going to get that low.
So basically you just need to wake up and eat.
(14:44):
Yeah, I don't know much. The same as every time you eat,
then every time you drink As a diabetic, really you just got to
make sure you have plenty of carbs.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if the 2:00 AM kebab was sort of
counteract the alcohol, you know?
It does if you're on injections,yeah, yeah.
So I'll be honest, I don't really go out and and get very
(15:05):
drunk very often. All right, I'd to be fair, I
can't remember. I think the last time I drank
was Saturday night when I was out with the missus.
We went and watched the film, went to Zizzi's and then I had
two large crannies. So.
Yeah, that's not really going toaffect it that much.
(15:27):
No, and then the time before that.
Don't even remember when it was so So me and alcohol probably.
I'm not the best person to advise on that.
No, no, that was fine. Well, I've I've got one question
sticking out to me on our littlelist here because I couldn't.
It's either an artificial pancreas or saying what was it?
You just mentioned Mike or something.
(15:49):
I'm alcoholic. No.
No, no, no. No, it was something.
No, no, no. It was about when you saying,
oh, can you eat that and can youput a bit of cinnamon in it?
So what? What is the most ridiculous
thing that you have ever been told?
Oh. As a type 1 diabetic, should I
get my pad out ready for the list because I know it's going
to be? I think, well, so when I was
(16:14):
diagnosed, I would have said anyof these things because I was
completely ignorant about what diabetes was and what it did and
how it affected your life. So I think that's worth saying
off the bat because you come into diabetes as an adult with
all these misconceptions. I'll respect that, yes.
You, you could. You could have told me the
(16:34):
diabetes can be cured by with cinnamon, for example, and I
would have believed you because I wouldn't.
Have named I genuinely did the things that I was reading
online. It was good job I had Mike to
sort of like help me along my way when I was so newly
diagnosed because I was, I'm messaging him like, oh, is this
true? Like, is this, is that, is that
going to happen to me or is thislike.
(16:56):
But yeah, like you say, there isjust so many misconceptions
floating around when you're newly diagnosed.
It's. Hard to know what's true and
what's not. Yeah, I, I do kind of, I do
take, I do have to take a breathwhen people say something just
because I, I, I understand wherethey're coming from, which is
complete ignorant, you know, unless you've lived with a
diabetic or so. Anyway, pull that aside.
(17:18):
The stupidest thing that anyone's ever said to me.
I have shared this on on the group before.
And Mike might eat my and Jack, you might even know, might even
remember what it was. So I used to work in a cafe on
the Isle of Portland. And I was in there one day and
this guy came in and he was, youknow, we used to sit and chat
(17:39):
and just just have a coffee and,you know, just, it was just nice
atmosphere in there really, to be honest and about my diagnosis
and all the rest of it. And he says, are I know exactly
how you feel. My Nan's got type 2 diabetes.
I was like, yeah, I haven't got a clue.
(18:01):
Voice words. Voice words, Yeah.
Yeah, it's like, it's like me saying, it's like me saying I
know, I know all about graffiti because, you know, I've, I've
seen what Jack does online. It's like.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, yeah, it's not.
I know what I'm doing with football.
(18:22):
I watched the game last week. To.
Be fair, most people who sit in their armchairs probably would
say that. Yeah.
Yeah. So that, that's the most
ridiculous thing that I've there's anyone that has said to
(18:42):
me. My sister-in-law was, I mean, it
wasn't really a ridiculous thing.
She just sort of was insistent that people who have diabetes
have to be careful. And I, I didn't read no much
about it at the time. So I was just like, no, it's
fine. Yeah.
Of course I'm going. To go on that's.
Probably quite scary to hear though.
I'm. Cared for like some.
(19:04):
Careful and. Careful.
Sorry, I've not been cared for. Sorry, I'm not.
Cared for. It's not that bad, Mike.
I got the toilet paper. But what's what's one thing
about living with Taiwan that you would think people without
(19:26):
it would never understand? Like what is the main thing?
I would probably say even when you think you got it all tied
down, there's always that unpredictable element.
You know, it's like you can haveit all.
Like if I show you my, I mean, range from a couple of weeks
ago, you'd be jealous, you know,And it was, I don't know what it
(19:48):
was. I think it was just an increase
in the weather. So the incident was working
better and I'd started exercising as well.
So but then the following week it's like I didn't really change
much, maybe IA little bit more broccoli or something.
And all of a sudden, you know, the time in range it's still,
it's still very, very good, but it's not the high 90s that it
was the week before. Oh.
(20:10):
Highlight is. It will.
Yeah, it. Will oh, there we go, Bush
what's what, what's your go to blah blah blah blah blah.
That was all the poor boys then.You know what?
Happened there. What would your go to hypotreat
(20:31):
be? So do you use like a glucose
tablet when you go low or would you use like a Luka's Aid or a
sweet Jelly babies and such? Whatever is the hand, really.
Yeah, you're like me. Yeah, I'm trying to lose, I'm
trying to lose my belly at the moment, so I'm being a bit
careful. But I have I have these glucose
(20:53):
gels which honestly tastes like Hairspray but.
Someone mentioned to me gels theother week I've tried I tried a
different it was another brand, I think it was like a Hypogo gel
or something and they they was actually quite good.
Yeah. But other gels I've heard
(21:15):
they're they're not very tasty. Yeah, I mean it.
It performs a function I think. Like, yeah, that's that's the
thing. You're not doing it for the
taste. Are you doing it to stay alive?
Essentially, yeah. Most of the gels are just honey,
aren't they? I don't know.
It's like a, it's just like a very fast acting glucose gel,
isn't it? It's just very because it's
(21:36):
liquid, it's already it is easier to digest and get in your
system. Yeah, yeah, of course.
Yeah, yeah. I think you can rub it on your
gums as well. I've got a feeling.
Yes, yeah, I know, I know. Exactly what is it in a white
tube? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I know exactly what one you're talking about.
I got given that when I was first diagnosed, Michael was
absolutely clueless looking. You're dinosaur.
(22:02):
I think when? You've got mine, dextrose.
I think what I'm trying to said a few pounds at the moment.
It's it's just controllable. A couple of years ago I I just
go with a big bag of squashes and then wonder why my blood
sugars went the other way. Yeah, I was like that.
But these squashes are. So nice.
Yeah, you can't stop anyone. That's it.
(22:24):
Especially that hypo hunger. It's just like, no, I don't
think I've had enough yet. Oh, that's the bottle on a bag.
How did that? That's the numerous amounts of
times that's happened. But that's the thing, before
ACGM you didn't know if you was packing range or not, so you
just carried on eating. Yeah.
Actually, I've never even thought about that till now.
(22:45):
I. Suppose that's why they give you
their guidelines, isn't it? If like take 20 grams and then
test you know 20 minutes breakthrough and then you know
you should be it should be working but.
I'd say I've never even got toldabout carbs when I've first
diagnosed. So that's all new stuff, new
research and to be honest, the man is helping people now.
(23:08):
Yeah. But that's fabulous to find out
the sugar. That's what I got told.
The sugar that was the medicine go down.
Can I just ask about your Instagram gram handle?
Why the sunny cyclist? Honest answer Yeah, I realized
(23:32):
quite early on that some psychologist Dicks I.
Was not expecting that was. Brilliant.
They will. They.
This is true. And you know, you know the Harry
Anschild sketch? Short bloke.
(23:53):
You calling me short? Yeah.
So the scenario was the guy walks into a bar, offers around,
I asked for a round of shorts and short blokes to the blah bar
and takes a person. He's like, you calling me short?
It's a little bit like that withsome cyclists.
It's like if they think of it, if they think of vehicles got
(24:16):
too close to them, then they're going to be Dicks about it.
Yeah, I can see. That sunny cyclist?
Why? Why sunny cyclist?
Because I just thought to myself, you know what?
If I'm going to enter into this world, I'm going to be
different. I'm not going to be a Dick and
that is the honest answer to that handle.
I like that. I love that Ridge.
I love that. There you go.
(24:37):
Wing. Wing mirrors still intact, Yeah.
I might come and find you on my push back.
Jack just likes the lycra, don'tworry.
Now, have you heard the episode about my Peter Pan tarts?
I'm not sure. But have have you ever had a
(25:04):
moment in your life where diabetes has stopped you from
doing something? Or have you always found a way
around it to just carry on and keep smiling?
Yeah, I mean, so like Friday I was in the was it Friday it was,
it was the end of last week. I was in the gym and I've been
struggling to stay in range, struggling not to have a high
(25:26):
pace. Like I'm up at 7:00.
I have my A always in boiled eggs.
Don't ask. Yeah, Yeah.
For breakfast. And then it's just because it's
easy. Really.
Yeah, it's just easy. And then have a little break at
11:00, finish work at 1, and I walked down to the gym.
(25:47):
I've just changed gyms. It's just so lovely in there.
Nice. It's always nice when you start
a new gym as well, especially one that's sort of like an
upgrade from the one before. Yeah, definitely.
The one I was at was it was quite small and to be honest,
like I realized that how self-conscious I felt because it
was so small and because everyone was so crammed in, but
(26:09):
now in the gym. So you feel a bit more confined,
I suppose then, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And because there's less, less equipment, if it's if it's busy,
you got to wait. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what
you're saying. That or how many sets you got
left mate. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, well, there there was I saw a video.
(26:30):
So it was Legend from Gladiatorsworking out with like same
Legend is called Matt, isn't it?I can't remember Giants name,
but they're working out in this game in London Georgium and
they're giving each other these little challenges.
And so Legends challenge to Giant was to ask if he could
(26:53):
jump in to do a set on a, I think it was a leg extension and
just do like 50 reps while this guy's waiting to get back on.
No. Oh good, Just imagine.
And they're not the smallest of guys either, so you're not going
to be telling them to get off anytime soon.
(27:14):
It was that and the full stack challenge.
So you basically just have it onthe heaviest weights on the
machines and they're just Oh yeah, it's so incredibly strong,
right? You can see why they're, you
know, why they are what why theydo what they do.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. To actually just athletes.
That is the only way to put it. Just sheer pure athlete.
Yeah, yeah. So, so I I'd struggled to stay
(27:38):
out of high pay on on that day and I'd used all my gels.
I'd taken like 4 gels. I thought that'd be enough, but
it wasn't like I'd had the four gels.
So I got to the gym and my bloodsugars were OK, started my
session, and then my alarm went off and I was like, yeah.
(27:59):
And then I was searching throughmy back.
I've got nothing. So I had to get it down and get
a Bob Lucasate. And by that time I was just like
completely deflated with it. And I thought, you know what,
I'm just going to walk home. Yeah, yeah.
Do you know what I've I've had that same thing.
I've had that same thing. You've got walked into there
with all intentions, like, like regardless of what's happened
during the day, I'm going to go in here, I'm going to smash it.
(28:21):
It's going to make me feel good.And then within 1020 minutes it
just all goes kaput and you're just deflated.
You're just disheartened and you're just like, fuck this.
I'm just. Don't feel like lifting.
You just don't feel like liftingat that point.
And yeah, say I at that point, Iwas, I just got messed up when I
and that was it was, it was to be fair, it was the lag day.
(28:44):
So that's probably why I wasn't very motivated to.
Oh, so subconsciously, I think your body just went.
Now I'm not doing it. Yeah, yeah.
So yeah. But yeah, it was.
I enjoy it. I enjoy lifting weights and I've
I've found nothing better for myblood sugars apart from
obviously insulin than than lifting weights.
(29:07):
Yeah, it really is amazing the amount like resistance training
and strength training really does for your sort of average
glucose as a whole. Yeah, and your sensitivity as?
Well. Yeah.
But talking about fitness, how is your journey going?
Why actually so I've lost 6 lbs in the last two weeks.
(29:27):
Well done. Looks pretty good.
That's good, but it's. Very good.
Because I well, it's the beginning of it, though in it's
every. Whenever you start to lose
weight, it's always the first. It's always that initial shock
of your body, doesn't it? And it just absolutely drops
off. So, but because because I
(29:48):
trained as a personal trainer, Idecided to take a share of the
measurements. So I've like, it's weird because
my hips have gone down slightly,I've gained muscle on my arms,
my neck has gone down a little bit, but my belly is a bit that
I actually want to get rid of. It's been exactly the same.
Do you know, I've found, honestly, I've trained for years
(30:10):
and years and I've tried diets, I've tried all these
supplements, I've tried different training regimes.
And the only thing I can my arms.
I can grow my shoulders, I can grow my back, my whole upper
body or my legs. I can go big within a couple of
weeks. It can get there.
But the only thing is my love handles do not go anywhere and
(30:31):
they haven't done for about 15 years.
Mountain climbers, Jack. Mountain climbers.
Yeah, mate. Honestly it's it's always the
last bit to shift. Yeah, I think the science of it
is you just got to lose. You just got to.
It's not about losing weight, isit?
It's about losing fat. Yeah.
Exactly that, yeah. Because you can, you can build
(30:53):
muscle and potentially, you know, if somebody built enough
muscle, they could be heavier than when they started to lose
all the fat because. Muscles.
Oh yeah, exactly, of course. So yeah, it's, it's all right.
It's going well. I feel, I feel fine.
The Doms weren't that bad. There's always that first couple
of weeks in it where you're justwalking around like John Wayne
(31:13):
after your leg days. But you know, the Doms haven't
been all that bad. And in a way, I quite enjoy that
pain because it tells me that I'm doing the right thing.
Yeah, it's a different sort of pain, isn't it?
Like it's it's a rewarding pain.Yeah, yeah.
(31:36):
Well, I remember my first, the first time I did bicep, so I had
this pain just in the top of my sort of the bottom of my bicep
just before my elbow and then itwent down below my elbow to
there. I'm not sure whether it was
because, you know, you get like the one P The one is I think
they call it an easy bar. It has already.
It's like it's not straight it. I sort of like goes up and then
(31:59):
out. So you've got the different, you
can sort of hold it in different, like your wrists are
in different positions. Yeah, so I think it was, I think
the way I was holding it, my arms were too wide because when
I tried it, I only bought them in a like an inch or so, but it
felt a lot better after that. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, but yeah, fitness is goingwell.
(32:22):
Yeah, that's good. I, as I say, you've already
mentioned it obviously works wonders with diabetes levels and
sensitivity, Yeah. I've always done, I've always
done like cardio. So last year I did 100 mile bike
ride. Oh, wow.
But that was that was the resultof many 70 mile bike rides and
(32:43):
50 mile bike rides. You know what I mean?
I had a whole summer while I wasjust out on my bike all the
time. Yeah.
And I still didn't shift anyway.So I stayed the same way when I
started training and when I finished and over over the
winter and Christmas, I just, I just crept up and up and up and
went upstairs 16 stone and I waslike, right, that's it.
That's my red flag. So rather than.
(33:04):
How will you know like winter's like the the beefing upstage for
everyone? Yeah, so everyone.
Everyone pokes up and eats comfort food during the winter,
and then in the summer everyone shreds it off and the process
starts again. I.
Really do pack it away though. So, yeah.
So this year I decided to do something different.
I've always been, you know, out on my bike, running, long walks,
(33:28):
swimming, all of that. So I've decided to forgo all of
that and I'm just focusing on building on the gym.
I'll probably do like some spin,the cardio, but other than that,
that's it's no, no long, hard year.
And the thing that I'm finding is I don't get ravenous when I
get home from the gym, but I call, I'll just have like an
(33:51):
omelette or something and maybe a banana carbs.
But if I go out on a say, 50 mile bike ride and come home and
there's obviously a deficit there, even if I've been
munching on flapjack the entire way, I'm still I'm still hungry.
Yeah, want to replenish that energy?
I suppose you are, but you are burning.
(34:12):
What? What?
Obviously, I don't know as such,but even though you're doing a
similar sort of like timed workout, I'll say like even like
an hour bike ride as opposed to an hour in the gym here in quite
heavy ways. You're going to be burning more
fuel on the bike surely, which is obviously why your body is
sort of hungrier. Say I'm just going to try and
(34:34):
find it on Strava. When I did my 100 miles, my
feet, so it was around the New Forest.
It was really, it was really lovely.
Enjoyed that day so much. I think.
Yeah. It's really flat as well, so you
go fast. You can just keep up the effort
the entire time. Here you go.
(34:54):
That's good. Say yeah, good time 100 I miles
it down as a fail because I didn't actually complete the
course. There was 100 mile bike ride.
I rode 170 kilometers, was about106 miles, but I didn't actually
do the I didn't actually do the course.
So Strava reckons I 404,000 sorry 330 calorie in that day.
(35:21):
Wow. So you know that.
Yeah, that's a, that's a hell ofa lot of calories.
And you think if you're weights training the average you're only
going to be burning a few 100? Wow, so it's so the idea of
weight training is that you build muscle, which I forget the
exact numbers now. So a pound of muscle, we use
more calories than a pound of fat.
(35:42):
So if you're packing on the muscle and losing the fat, your
muscles are going to be you're just by living, just by
existing, you're using more calories than you know.
If you did nothing all day you you'd burn more calories as as a
muscley person and you would as a fatty person.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, that's, that's my,
(36:05):
that's my aim really. And I've, I've cut out the junk.
Like I say, I don't get the the strong cravings like I used to
for chocolate and crisps. Oh, so the cravings are gone as
well. That's good.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I was just going to say. So what's all sort of like
average day-to-day meals? Like what would you eat during
the day and what's your sort of average?
Not really different from what Iwas eating before.
(36:26):
I've just, I've just cut a lot out.
I mean, I'm eating more fruit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I haven't really adjusted myportion sizes, not yet.
I will do it at some point because there will come a point
when my weight loss flows down and I need to address it there.
But I'm just trying not to stress about it.
(36:46):
You know, it's like, it's a journey, isn't it?
And a journeys are there to be. Exactly.
Yeah, it's. Not smooth.
It's not smooth. No journey is smooth.
No, never is. So yeah, different, different
approach to it all this year andthen let's see what happens.
Yeah, best of luck to your heart, but it goes very well.
Yeah, I'll keep you updated. Yeah, definitely, because I'm.
(37:08):
But I've, I've, I, I say it to Mike every single week.
I need to go back to the gym. I need to go back to the gym.
I say every single week. But there's always now they've
actually shut the car park and Idon't have a car at the moment,
so my van does not fit anywhere for me to go to the gym.
It just. Straight you to cycle.
Yeah, but I thought I don't needto go.
(37:29):
What's the point? I've cycled there, I've done my
exercises. If you're digging holes in
lifting friends face around, you're you know you're using all
that muscle anyway and you you're working in a different
way. Yeah, exactly, exactly that.
Yeah, my job does help me a hellof a lot to be honest.
(37:51):
I used to be in better shape than Jack.
Let's face it mate, the only diet that done me any wonders
and made me really strip fat waswhen I got ketones.
That was the only thing that really made me lose weight.
It's a good fat burner. I do name somebody who tried the
(38:11):
keto diet and he ended up in hospital with DKA.
Taiwan diabetic. Yeah, Taiwan diabetic.
He was he was quite young. I think he must have been like
1920 a time and he he was in hospital with it.
Yeah, do you know, because that was actually something I only I
only recently learned, I think it was only a couple of months
ago that I actually really like it sunk in and it was the it's
(38:35):
not high blood sugars that actually cause ketones, it's
lack of insulin in your body. And I never knew that.
That's why when I first got diagnosed, I was hitting like 11
twelves and I'm I'm checking my ketones because I was panicking
like, oh, I'm going to end up back in hospital but and
obviously. I just check every so often when
I go for a piss just out of border.
(38:59):
But I was in, I'd I'd done AI think it was last week one day,
I think I went about 1314 hours without eating and my levels
were absolutely just all day, just sort of hovering above sort
of like between 6:00 and 7:00. Absolutely perfect and something
(39:19):
just clicked in my head all of asudden like shit, I better chip
my ketones. I haven't actually had any
insulin in my system all day. So I was like I had 0.3 ketones,
which is absolutely it's normal.So I was fine.
But as I say, that's that's whatjust made me click in my head
that little well you. Would have had your basil,
wouldn't you? Your basil would have been.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I still have obviously have my
(39:40):
basil. Yeah, yeah.
So that, that obviously that's, that's, that's that was why I
was sort of staying away from food.
I was trying to test my basil. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Basal testings. Yeah, I was really struggling
with my time ranges of my levelsa few weeks ago.
So it was like I had to do a basal rate test just to see
where I was sitting at. Obviously it's that perfect.
(40:02):
So that ruled out that and I knew straight away it had
nothing to do with my insulin. It's obviously other things.
Please can I give a shout out? What?
What the ash? No, I need one shout out.
Who's shouting out? Please.
Who? No, they're supposed to.
It says really nice stuff. I'm done.
Shout out to Stephen Fitzgibbons.
(40:27):
Thank you. Said it nicely.
Read that out. Read that out.
No. Actually if I could be shit in
his kidneys out in a minute thenmine is pancreas.
I take over, not twist. OK.
Bye, guys. Bye, Ashley.
(40:47):
Well, yeah, not as I was saying.Yeah, this happens every
recording by the way. Yeah, I was.
I was just talking about how like my time in ranges were a
bit shit last week and nothing was really working and it was
stressing me out and I have really was going through a bit
of a burnout. Have you ever been through a
sort of burnout as such, and if you have, how do you handle it?
(41:12):
I'm going to say not really. Sometimes if I get to or say
when I, I have to put my own cannulism or cannulas in
obviously for my problem. Sometimes if I get tried two or
three painful ones, I just get really fed up with it.
And I just, I think, you know what, I'm going to leave this
one in because four days isn't that much longer than three.
(41:33):
It was fine. So that's not diabetes, that's
not burnout, is it? That's not saying, you know
what, I'm just going to see whathappens if I don't have my
insulin or I just can't go over with it anymore.
They no, I don't think I've experienced that real mental
fatigue that you get with burnout.
That's good. I think.
I think because I went. On to this.
(41:54):
Yeah. That's a good thing.
That's a good thing. Yeah.
So I was on MDI for about two years.
I think if I'd stayed on MDI then quite possibly I would have
done. But I, I jumped on the pump the
second that they offered the teaming because I was I, I came
into diabetes with a fear of needles, of all things.
(42:16):
Oh, really? Yeah, so I.
We've spoke about that on our podcast previously, actually on
like how how much of a hard thing that must be for someone
that had that and has to actually overcome that fear just
to simply carry on their day-to-day life.
Especially as an adult because fears are harder to overcome
when you're older. Yeah, definitely.
(42:36):
I always found that I, I don't know, I still do with my palm
cannula sometimes like I've got really sensitive spots on my
tummy. So if I hit a nerve, I really
know about it. But my fear and needles, for
example, say when I was 2425, I had tested the cancer.
(43:02):
And so when they told me that, because I'd obviously found a
lump and gone to the doctors andgot it checked and yeah, they
were like, they were like, yeah,that's, that's that.
So they sent me for a blood testjust to confirm it.
I remember sat in the waiting room being more scared of this
(43:22):
blood test than I was of this thing that could potentially
kill me. You know, it is because it was
more immediate. But you know, that was.
So obviously you can imagine having femur for cancer, you get
a lot of needles. So I that wasn't what caused the
fear, but I suppose I was a little bit more open to the idea
(43:44):
of injections by that point, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've had this fear of needles
all my life. And then, you know, I ended up
with two conditions which require me to have regular blood
tests and scans where they're injections and all sorts of
stuff, and then having to injectmy own insulin.
I think that was that. That was.
(44:04):
Yeah. I mean, people, people always
say, won't they? Oh, I really I, I don't know if
I could, but you know, the honest answer to that is do or
die. Do.
You know, it's it is funny how often I heard that when I first
got diagnosed with, Oh, I don't know how you do that.
Like, well, I don't know how I do it either, but I have to.
It's just. It's just that it's the simplest
(44:26):
answer. Or or I, I.
Could I could never do that. It's like do or die, yeah.
Yeah, I could never do that. Well, living is a pretty big
motivator. Yeah, yeah.
So, so yeah, I I think to answeryour question, if I stayed on
MDI, then possibly I would have experienced that, but because of
(44:48):
all this technology that we have.
Yeah. I think I've, I've managed to
see what I'll do is I'll go through like intense periods
where I'm focused on my diabetes, but it's only for like
a week or so. That's usually when my, when my
ratios have changed and I need to find out, you know, what's
going on And I'll just leave it,it's set up and then I'll just
(45:12):
wait for something else to go wrong and then I'll go through
the same thing again. So it's, it's not constantly
that, although I'm still making decisions every day, but then
really the only decision I'm making at the moment because of
my clothes lit up is how many carbs, how much carbs am I
eating? Sometimes I override the pump
and I'll, I'll put some more insulin because I don't say if
(45:34):
I'm too high, then you're not assensitive to insulin.
So. Wait so you can rage bolus with
a pump? Yeah.
That's mad. You can raise bolus.
So something something that I learned the other day when I was
when I went to get to start my loop.
So we have ravaged bolus. We have was it oh, carb
(45:56):
ghosting? That was it.
What's that? That ain't telling your pump
that you've had carbs when you actually haven't.
So it'll give you more incident.Oh, OK.
It's. Like a cheap range.
Yeah, yeah, basically. Yeah.
I've never heard of that. Never heard of it.
Silly pump, I should know I'm joking.
(46:17):
It's crazy to think like how like, the technology helps us in
so many ways, but then there's always ways that people will
find it's human corruption. That's what it is.
It's human corruption. The pump will relieve the birds
and it won't it won't get rid ofit completely.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
(46:38):
Well, that that was as I say, I don't know if you heard the
episode the other week when I was mentioning a pump at work
and someone was like, oh, just get a pump.
It solves all the problems. You don't get you, you find you
just eat and crack on. It's easy like.
Were they diabetic? Really isn't.
Were they diabetic? Of course they weren't.
We need to come up with a name for these people, don't we
dickheads these. People don't suit them.
(47:03):
No, it's too kind. It's.
Too kind. It's like you've got 4 kit
wankers, haven't you? For cyclists, you've got all the
gear. It's obvious that they haven't
like done enough cycling to knowwhat they're talking about.
All the gear. My idea you've you've got these
people who think they know everything about diabetes or
(47:24):
they may not even think that they know everything about it.
They just kind of open their mouths and stuff falls out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I, I, to be honest, I can
hold my hands up and I've probably done exactly the same
thing four or five years ago before I was even diagnosed.
Yeah, he used to bully me all the time.
I just it was it was hard times.We've got a couple more little
(47:51):
questions to go through. There's one that keeps staring
out on me and I like asking it to quite a few people.
Is who inspired you out of like just in even like the T1D
community or or anywhere? Who inspires me?
Or anyone you sort of follow that you look up to or.
Yeah, I'll tell you what, he really inspired me recently with
(48:12):
his Betty Munger when he did hisIronman triathlon.
So Betty Munger is is the racingdriver he had.
He had a massive crash, lost both of his legs just above the
below the knee. So I think a few years ago, I
might be completely wrong but I think it was something like
(48:34):
might have been a cycle ride or he climbed the mountain.
I know there's 2 completely different things but I can't
remember what it was you got. So it was all for Sport Relief.
So he got challenged list this year to do or last year to do an
Iron Man Triassum. He actually came down to
Weymouth. I didn't meet him as such, but I
(48:57):
was sort of in the same paddock as him.
I thought, well, look, David andI was like, well, no, you're
absolutely mongered, you know, Do you know what I mean?
It's like. Oh wow, wow, it's actually him.
Yeah. So he, so he came down to
Weymouth for basically a practice event.
So we have 1/2 Iron Man here every year, takes over the
(49:18):
entire town. And he obviously did that, but
he then went on to do Kona and which is like the Iron Man World
Championships, that's where theyhave the finals.
And he obviously qualified for that and got a place and he set
a world record for double amputee.
(49:40):
I think it was doing that and hetook a tremendous amount of time
off of it. It was, it wasn't like minutes
or seconds, It was hours that hetook off of this record time.
Oh wow, so he smashed it? Yeah, but I just think, you
know, I know there's probably not many comparisons that you
can draw with physical disabilities like he's got.
(50:02):
And but the determination, when you see him training, it's like
there were points in his training where he was, he was
not hit in his milestones. I mean, bear in mind he had like
professional coaches and they were saying this is where you
need to be. And he just, I don't know, he
just found another level sort ofin the run up to the Iron Man
(50:24):
and then actually whilst doing it and he absolutely smashed it.
And if anyone's got reasons to, you know, just sort of sit on
the sofa and sulk about life, it'd be somebody who's had a
very unfortunate accident, you know, lost two of their limbs.
(50:45):
And and yet he just, you know, since that time, he's obviously
taken time to recover, but you know, he's on, he does like some
of the Formula One coverage on, on Channel 4.
You know, he's done several documentaries and then he, he
did this. And I just think, you know, you
know, whatever life throws at you, there's always, there's
(51:07):
always ways that you can live your life that are meaningful.
Yeah, that's a very nice quote actually.
I like that. That is inspiring.
That is. That actually is inspiring,
yeah. That and some of the people in
in the WhatsApp group, I think they're, they're absolutely
legends. Just some of the stuff they some
of the stuff they share on. That WhatsApp community was
(51:29):
something that me and Mike just started.
Just it was, wasn't it Between me and you.
It was just like we just start agroup it seems probably going
to. I'll bet there'll probably be
about 3 or 4. People, I didn't expect as many
as there is. There's like 50-60 odd people in
there and it is, it's so helpful.
Like sometimes it is quiet, but then all of a sudden it just
erupts and everyone's back on. It's just so nice to have that
(51:52):
available. Yeah, that first few weeks I'd
sort of, I'd be at work and I'd pick up my phone.
There'd be 100 messages on the group, you know what I mean?
It's. Exactly the same.
I've got my phone down for a fewhours and then.
Look up. I'm like, wow, but I can't
believe like as I say, me and Mike only started it just
because we've we just thought that a few people would join and
(52:13):
with if I'm looking like you say, notifications, it's just
going Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy.
And people will probably find friends and message privately,
which is my main thing for it aswell, because obviously I've got
Jack and to have someone like that, it's really nice.
Yeah, I mean, you probably find better than Jack, but.
(52:36):
We will leave the link in the description for all the
listeners if you do want to jointhe community, but as you just
heard it, Richard is one of the members of our community and it
honestly is fantastic. If you ever need any help, I
guarantee at least one person onthere will be able to come up
with some sort of advice. But just don't mention stock
trading and we're all right. Yeah.
(53:02):
You don't want to join your Ponzi scheme.
But. We we have got one final
question just before we wrap everything up Richard and this
is what we ask every single one of our guests.
It is my idea because I'm such afoodie and it is what is if you
could eat or choose anything in the world, throw diabetes out of
(53:26):
the mix for a while and what would be your go to free course
meal? Anything you want.
Wow. So that's a tough one, isn't it?
And it's like anything. It could even be 3 mains if you
wanted by the way, tight enough to be.
OK OK so let me think I I reallylove.
(53:48):
So every weekend we every Sundaywe have roast dinner.
I see most Sundays, 99% of Sundays we have a roast dinner.
Yeah. So if I was to take that to the
extreme, I'd have like, have youguys ever been to Blacklock in
London? It's a restaurant.
No. No, I think I've heard of it,
but I've never been there. Yeah, I you should try this one.
(54:09):
So they do a roast dinner and it's like, it's not a plate,
it's plates. So we always order, I think.
It's like a meal. It's like a shared meal for two
and they bring out a huge bowl of veg and then you've got a
plate of like slices of lamb andthen some pork and then some
(54:32):
beef and then bit chicken and massive roast.
Your sorry roast Yorkshire puddings.
Yeah, just the gravy is just to die for stuff that you know, all
of it. I'm out of slow work right now.
I'm starving. Yeah, just that, that, yeah,
(54:56):
that that is like where every time we go to London now we go,
we go in there, we'll we'll put that for the last night we were
there. What area was that in?
Oh, Soho. So there's one in Soho.
Oh, many sort of go down into a basement and I, I don't know, I
don't know what used to be maybea sex dungeon or something, but.
(55:16):
That sounds about right for Sohoto.
Me. Oh, I know what he says.
Used to be a regular. I didn't know about a starter,
but if I was to choose a second main, probably something.
Probably something Italian, probably a really nice pizza or
some of some kind. Oh, now it's.
(55:39):
Is it tomorrow or a BBQ base? Oh.
Half and half. OK.
I like it. I like it.
I mean, if we're having our ultimate meals, then you know.
What I mean, whatever you want, whatever you want, no judgement.
Yeah, so we had a sticky pig from from ZS on Saturday night.
(56:03):
That's really nice. It's just this, yes.
I mean, it's huge. It's probably about 20 inches
long, but it's on an Italian base.
It's very thin. And they they do like half one
thing and then half the other. But on 1/2 you've got like bits
of crack thing and and then the next you've got, I don't know
what it was. It was some kind of bacon or
(56:23):
something that they've done. Yeah, Sticky Pig, if you ever go
to. I had to pick the chillies off
because ever since I coated and I've not been able to handle
spices at all. There's something about it.
I'm I'm writing all of this down, by the way.
Sticky pigs and probably for dessert, for dessert, because I
think my we started these when Iwas a kid and it was, it was one
(56:46):
of my favourites. And still it is just a really
nice trifle, like Jelly and and sponge on the bottom and then
you got like fruits and then custard and then cream and then
sprinkles and whatever else you want on there.
MIAs, that's not really nice. It's a very good choice.
Yeah, yeah, brilliant. Right, Blacklock is definitely
(57:07):
worth trying out. If he's not been there you
should do his double date and you go to blacklocking and say
hey and tell me. Definitely.
As I say, I've got I've got all the info written down, it is on
my list. And as I say, even better that
it's in Soho because the place Igo graffiti in is literally 5
minutes from Soho, so it's spot on for me.
(57:28):
Well, is it painting it bizarrely, is it or something
like that, Yeah. Yeah.
It's a place where you go for a league, League Cali.
Isn't it? League St.
That's next street. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's, yeah.
I love it down there. Slap my, slap my my happy place.
(57:49):
It's where I just go and reset. Yeah, I really like the one that
you the the graffiti that you shared with like the London
skyline. Yeah, do not.
I was so happy with that and I planned that and sketched it.
It took me hours to sketch. And I can.
Tell that I just went down thereit was.
Really, really good. Thank you, thank you.
But the the the only downside ofthat is where it where it is in
(58:12):
Leak Street, I spend probably the equivalent of about 3 to 4
hours sketching it in my pad, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours doing the
actual piece. And it stood there for about an
hour and a half and it was gone.Someone else has gone straight.
Over it, at least you've got to understand.
(58:33):
That's what it's all about. You've got your memories, you've
done your bit, you've you've got, you've got your pictures
and that's it. Just go out now it's someone
else's. So what about when you do we
RT1DT shirts because I know you keep saying you're going.
We really need to we. Really do the words, do the
words we RT 1D with like the skyline of London or something
(58:54):
like that and like you did with that, with that.
Graffiti that, that can actuallybe pretty cool as well.
I like that. Don't worry, a tie dye will be
back soon. Tie dye.
I think it's already creeping inin it.
It probably is retro, isn't it? Yeah.
But yeah, that I'm going to say that about wraps it up through
this week. Everyone before we because we
(59:15):
could talk for hours. Honestly, it's been a great
episode. It's been such a such a pleasure
having you on Richard. I really appreciate.
The pleasure for being here, it's.
Been nice to just listen. Maybe we'll do a Part 2 Monday.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, 100 percent, 100%.
I'm well up for that. I'm well up for that.
Yeah. So yeah, we've learned a lot
about you. And yeah, we really, really
(59:36):
thank you for coming on. Yeah, about.
Yeah, one last verse, one last. Verse for me is if you're a
cyclist, Debbie a Dick. Here we go.
What a way to end it everyone. From the Sunny Cyclist,
everyone. Yeah.
So, yeah, big round of applause to Richard.
Thank you so much for coming on and we will see you back again
(01:00:00):
same time, same place next week and.
Link for the community will be in the description of the
episode, so make sure you go andclick that link everyone and
join us up if you want to get involved.
And as I say, keep liking, keep sharing, keep supporting and
stay being amazing. See you later.
Do you know what? I've been so good.
(01:00:24):
You have, you've been really well behaved, Michael.
I know it's. Good.
I'm proud of myself.
On today's episode, we're joinedby someone who brings
positivity, honesty and a whole lot of real talk to the type 1
diabetes in a hole within. We are T1D and hashtag GB doc.
We're joined by Richard, also known on Instagram as the Sunny
Cyclists where hey, ring the bell.
Ding Ding. Get off the fucking mode.
(00:27):
Hey, you got that? And we're buzzing to have him on
the podcast. So let's start.
Welcome to the We Are T1D podcast.
The Real Estate Type 1 Diabetes podcast online hosted by myself,
Mike diagnosed at the age of 10.And myself, Jack diagnosed at
the age of 30. We are just two mates giving you
(00:49):
an insight into life with this chronic condition.
Yes, we are adults and although we try not to swear, it may
happen occasionally. Yeah, as Jack said, we are
adults, but please take what we say as guidance and not medical
advice. No, trust me, we are not
doctors. We are just here to make sure no
(01:11):
type 1 diabetic ever, ever feelsalone.
Hello, Richard. Hey, how you doing?
We're all good. How are you doing?
I'm. I'm.
Good. Actually, life's really good for
me. Layman.
That's good, that's good. That's what we like to hear.
Really good SO so I bought a newXbox that's number one because
(01:32):
I've had the Xbox One for years.We've had it for an age and
there were some games that we were getting it just weren't
working and it was starting to slow down so I had to go series
X, didn't I? So I've upgrade is massively
like the upgrade is is huge justin terms of quality of gameplay.
It doesn't mean you can't put a.Price on your mental health
(01:56):
anyway. No, that makes you happy.
Then just go for it. Yeah, and and also, even though
I'm nearly 50 years old, I'm actually 47 1/2 ish.
Yeah. You're 10 years younger than me,
yeah. I've just.
Hold on. Hold on.
Sorry. I was just bought a car for the
(02:17):
first time so. Oh so yeah, cyclist shouting at
you now? Oh, but yeah, yeah.
So it gets delivered on the 19thof May, and that'll be me on the
right. So you look out.
Oh. Nice.
Nice, Nice. Yeah, Yeah, it's nice as well.
Foxwell Astra 2018. Twenty, 1000 miles on the clock,
(02:41):
which is nothing. Is it for a car that aid?
No, not at all. Crazy.
It's basically new. I've had to have some refresher
lessons because I didn't drive for about 10 years.
Yeah. Anyway, that's all the boring
stuff. I'm good.
How are you? We are fantastic, we are
fantastic, but we are going to jump straight into it, Richard,
(03:03):
because obviously everyone just,we're all eager to talk and
start getting on. So we want to start with the
obvious, which is how was your diagnosis story?
How old was you? What do you remember from most
of that time? Like what's your story?
So mine was very similar to yours, Jack.
I was diagnosed as an adult. I was 38 years old, so a little
(03:28):
bit older than you. And yeah, it just came out of
the blue, really. I I kept going to my daughter
for a few issues. It was the same issue over and
over again. And she said, do you know what?
I'm going to put you in for a blood test to test to see if
you've got diabetes. And I mean, this was a time when
(03:49):
I was like, Nope, I'm healthy. I was starting to discover
exercise. I was, you know, doing like
circuit classes and I was cycling a fair bit.
And I was like, Nope, I'm good. Oh, and I was losing weight as
well. That was the thing I thought.
Yeah, that was one of the real telltales for me.
(04:10):
Yeah, exactly. Yes, exercise is doing me real
good and I'm just, I don't thinkit's diabetes.
So I'm going to overrule the theexpert in this situation.
And so I, I kept going back for the same issues and I said to
her, yeah, OK, I give in, I'll have I'll have the blood test.
(04:32):
And so I written had it done andit so I had the blood test done,
but then I was getting married that that next weekend.
Oh, wow. I didn't actually go back
through the results for a littlewhile.
And so it was, yeah, it was the day after I came back off my
honeymoon. She told me I had diabetes.
(04:53):
Oh, that's timing. Wow.
Well, yeah, exactly. I did say to Sarah, you know,
it's not too late to trade me inbecause I'm faulty.
You know you could get someone. You had the exact same
conversation with my wife when Igot that.
So yeah, shortly after that I shut my pancreas out and I just,
(05:15):
you know, shit it out, having her back ever since.
Thanks, Ashley. Yeah, I had to get that in
there. I was thinking I need to say
that at some point today, absolutely can.
It pass easy. Oh yeah, I had.
(05:35):
I've been eating a lot of prunes.
It's probably why I have high blood sugars.
Only on the Way I See What I'm Doing podcast.
Yeah, can you shout out pancreas?
But yeah, I was, I was very similar to you, like you say you
(05:56):
was very like, no, I'm not losing weight because I'm ill.
It's just I'm training, I'm doing this, I'm eating healthy.
I was exactly the same. And then obviously until it just
you get told you are diabetic and you think, oh fuck me, what
happened there? Yeah, exactly that.
And it was, it was one of those,it's a common story where I got,
(06:21):
so it was initially it was my GP.
She said I think you've got Type2.
So she put me on Metformin, sortof gave me a few rough
guidelines about what to eat andwhat not to eat.
And then she rang me up just as I think, I think I was at work,
I might have been at home, I wassomewhere anyway.
(06:41):
And she said it's been playing on my mind because I don't think
you're the demographic type 2. So I'm going to send you for
some more. So I mean, this is about week
later, no more than a week later.
So it obviously been, it obviously bothered her that she,
she might have made a misdiagnosis.
So, you know, to her credit, she's always been brilliant and
(07:04):
really supportive. And she, so I went up to Dorset
County Hospital, which is in Dorchester.
It's like the next town up from here and they've got a diabetes
centre there. So the, they gave me some blood
tests and I went back for the results and I said, so you know,
the question is, am I type 1, isn't it with an
endocrinologist? And she said, well, I don't
(07:26):
really know, he could be, he might be.
So I think it wasn't. Obviously whatever they saw on
the blood test wasn't clear. So I think I think it might
probably a couple of months after that, I had more blood
test and blah, blah, blah. And she said she gave me the
option because when you develop diabetes as a part as an adult,
(07:48):
it's a slow onset. So Mike, yours would have been
probably quite quick, whereas yours, Jack, was probably quite
slow and drawn out. And you have this honeymoon
period where you hardly need to inject insulin.
And, and at one point in the summer, because I was exercising
a lot, just at the beginning of my honeymoon period, I figured
(08:10):
out that my ratio was 1 to 75. So I had to have like, I had to
eat. So you say for one unit of
insulin. I know for half a unit of
insulin, I had to eat about 30 or 40 grams of carbs, which is
crazy. Wow, absolutely crazy to me
because now I'm on like, well, so when I was here a few weeks
(08:33):
ago, I was on 150 units a day and then I recovered and that
and then I started exercising, started lifting weights and I'm
about, oh, well, daily dose is usually about 70 or 18.
What? Was it you're pretty much cut
down in half? Yeah, yeah.
But I was, I was regularly, evenwhen I was, well, I was
(08:54):
regularly on over 100 units. It was crazy.
Yeah, yeah. That's including your basal,
obviously. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I.
Was just trying to watch mine out loud.
Yeah, so I triggered. It in my head now I'm thinking
what do I usually do? I'm flat.
Yeah, I think I'm about 60-70. Yeah, 60. 70 wide I've got I can
(09:14):
just see what it is on my palm so I can just look at my total
daily dose and then oh. Yeah, of course.
Yeah, yeah. So how do you find being on a
pump? Was you on MDI at first to start
with and then moved on to a pumpafterwards?
Or have you did you go straight for a pump?
No, I hated it. I hated MDI.
(09:35):
So I was diagnosed about, well, 2016.
So pumps were a thing, but they weren't readily available.
And there was, you know, it was all, it was all MDI and finger
pricking. And then slowly technology and
the NHS has moved on and I've got all this access to, you
know, decks from G7 now and the T Slim X2 to give it his full
(09:59):
name. Not sure there's someone out
there will say actually that's not the name this is, but it's
the T Slim. This is the T Slim.
So yeah, that that, you know, I can put different profiles on it
for different days, but I'm on hybrid closed loops.
So it takes the readings and it will predict what your blood
(10:21):
sugars are going to do like overthe next half an hour or so, it
will actually shut your insulin off, so.
If. If things are.
Going to go late. Pretty much the closest to an
actual, sort of like a. Don't say it.
Don't say it. No, you said it.
Just asking. I'm asking a question really.
(10:42):
Interviewers. It's my job.
I just, I, I want to learn. I'm not, I'm, I've never been
experienced with a pump whatsoever.
I don't know what they do. I don't know how they work.
I'm very interested in them. So I've, I have not got a clue.
I just want to get in information of what it actually
is and how it actually works. Yeah, it's, it's nothing like a
(11:05):
pancreas. If you listen to any news
stories or read it on the web, it's all like, it's always like,
oh, you know, this, this new technology is, is the artificial
pancreas. And it's not, it's just simple.
People who don't have diabetes can't understand it in in those
terms. Yeah, of course.
You're still going to get complicated.
Ways of it's just a way of explaining it to people who
(11:26):
don't don't really know, but it's, it's not, it's not a
pancreas because there's still so I had a pancreas that worked
for 38 years and you know, I didn't have to do any
calculations. I didn't have to change my
ratios. I didn't have to worry about my
days or I didn't have to worry about whether I was I'll had I
(11:46):
slept properly, was I hydrated, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
All the bollocks they gave us with diabetes.
And if they gave me a device that all of a sudden took all
that away, I'd say, yeah, fair play, artificial pancreas on
that. You know what I mean?
So you said it can predict whereyou're going, what it tries to,
(12:09):
How accurate is it? So it's I have my G7 sensor
that's from G7 and that uses that, that does the predicting.
And then there's an algorithm onthe pump which will try and keep
you within a certain range. So if you go too high, so you
have. So the algorithm is based on I
(12:34):
mean, I'm not a teaspoon Rep so I wouldn't be able to.
This is my understanding from from using it.
So you have your, you, you program your basal rate.
So you have profiles and each profile you can set your basal
rate, your, your bonus ratio, your correction factor.
(12:57):
But those are the three things that really make it work.
So obviously when when you eat you use your carb ratio all the
time, you have your basal rate going to whatever you've set it.
So at the moment mind sort of 1 1/2 units per hour and that that
(13:20):
varies at different times a day.And then if you go too high then
it uses the correction factor tocalculate how much incident you
need to bring you down. OK.
So it's very. Smart, Very, very clever
technology. It is incredibly, yeah.
(13:40):
Yeah, yeah. Can I just have my outburst?
You're not Say you're drinking alcohol, obviously, because
normal, we're normal people, we can drink alcohol.
Are you sure? You sure you should be drinking
that? You do know the carbs in
alcohol, don't you? You sure you can drink?
(14:02):
Put a pinch of cinnamon in it maybe?
It'll cure you. That's it.
I'm going to, but so obviously, because with alcohol you do get
the overnight hypos. So do you just as you spoke
about profiles, do you just change the profile to lower the
basil or is it because obviouslyit's going to correct a high?
(14:22):
Yeah. And then obviously the alcohol
will kick him eventually, like the downward bit of it.
Sorry, this is how my brain works.
I have to. That's right.
So, yeah. So obviously it's going to
correct the high from the alcohol you're going to get,
which is should do, and then you're going to get that low.
So basically you just need to wake up and eat.
(14:44):
Yeah, I don't know much. The same as every time you eat,
then every time you drink As a diabetic, really you just got to
make sure you have plenty of carbs.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if the 2:00 AM kebab was sort of
counteract the alcohol, you know?
It does if you're on injections,yeah, yeah.
So I'll be honest, I don't really go out and and get very
(15:05):
drunk very often. All right, I'd to be fair, I
can't remember. I think the last time I drank
was Saturday night when I was out with the missus.
We went and watched the film, went to Zizzi's and then I had
two large crannies. So.
Yeah, that's not really going toaffect it that much.
(15:27):
No, and then the time before that.
Don't even remember when it was so So me and alcohol probably.
I'm not the best person to advise on that.
No, no, that was fine. Well, I've I've got one question
sticking out to me on our littlelist here because I couldn't.
It's either an artificial pancreas or saying what was it?
You just mentioned Mike or something.
(15:49):
I'm alcoholic. No.
No, no, no. No, it was something.
No, no, no. It was about when you saying,
oh, can you eat that and can youput a bit of cinnamon in it?
So what? What is the most ridiculous
thing that you have ever been told?
Oh. As a type 1 diabetic, should I
get my pad out ready for the list because I know it's going
to be? I think, well, so when I was
(16:14):
diagnosed, I would have said anyof these things because I was
completely ignorant about what diabetes was and what it did and
how it affected your life. So I think that's worth saying
off the bat because you come into diabetes as an adult with
all these misconceptions. I'll respect that, yes.
You, you could. You could have told me the
(16:34):
diabetes can be cured by with cinnamon, for example, and I
would have believed you because I wouldn't.
Have named I genuinely did the things that I was reading
online. It was good job I had Mike to
sort of like help me along my way when I was so newly
diagnosed because I was, I'm messaging him like, oh, is this
true? Like, is this, is that, is that
going to happen to me or is thislike.
(16:56):
But yeah, like you say, there isjust so many misconceptions
floating around when you're newly diagnosed.
It's. Hard to know what's true and
what's not. Yeah, I, I do kind of, I do
take, I do have to take a breathwhen people say something just
because I, I, I understand wherethey're coming from, which is
complete ignorant, you know, unless you've lived with a
diabetic or so. Anyway, pull that aside.
(17:18):
The stupidest thing that anyone's ever said to me.
I have shared this on on the group before.
And Mike might eat my and Jack, you might even know, might even
remember what it was. So I used to work in a cafe on
the Isle of Portland. And I was in there one day and
this guy came in and he was, youknow, we used to sit and chat
(17:39):
and just just have a coffee and,you know, just, it was just nice
atmosphere in there really, to be honest and about my diagnosis
and all the rest of it. And he says, are I know exactly
how you feel. My Nan's got type 2 diabetes.
I was like, yeah, I haven't got a clue.
(18:01):
Voice words. Voice words, Yeah.
Yeah, it's like, it's like me saying, it's like me saying I
know, I know all about graffiti because, you know, I've, I've
seen what Jack does online. It's like.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, yeah, it's not.
I know what I'm doing with football.
(18:22):
I watched the game last week. To.
Be fair, most people who sit in their armchairs probably would
say that. Yeah.
Yeah. So that, that's the most
ridiculous thing that I've there's anyone that has said to
(18:42):
me. My sister-in-law was, I mean, it
wasn't really a ridiculous thing.
She just sort of was insistent that people who have diabetes
have to be careful. And I, I didn't read no much
about it at the time. So I was just like, no, it's
fine. Yeah.
Of course I'm going. To go on that's.
Probably quite scary to hear though.
I'm. Cared for like some.
(19:04):
Careful and. Careful.
Sorry, I've not been cared for. Sorry, I'm not.
Cared for. It's not that bad, Mike.
I got the toilet paper. But what's what's one thing
about living with Taiwan that you would think people without
(19:26):
it would never understand? Like what is the main thing?
I would probably say even when you think you got it all tied
down, there's always that unpredictable element.
You know, it's like you can haveit all.
Like if I show you my, I mean, range from a couple of weeks
ago, you'd be jealous, you know,And it was, I don't know what it
(19:48):
was. I think it was just an increase
in the weather. So the incident was working
better and I'd started exercising as well.
So but then the following week it's like I didn't really change
much, maybe IA little bit more broccoli or something.
And all of a sudden, you know, the time in range it's still,
it's still very, very good, but it's not the high 90s that it
was the week before. Oh.
(20:10):
Highlight is. It will.
Yeah, it. Will oh, there we go, Bush
what's what, what's your go to blah blah blah blah blah.
That was all the poor boys then.You know what?
Happened there. What would your go to hypotreat
(20:31):
be? So do you use like a glucose
tablet when you go low or would you use like a Luka's Aid or a
sweet Jelly babies and such? Whatever is the hand, really.
Yeah, you're like me. Yeah, I'm trying to lose, I'm
trying to lose my belly at the moment, so I'm being a bit
careful. But I have I have these glucose
(20:53):
gels which honestly tastes like Hairspray but.
Someone mentioned to me gels theother week I've tried I tried a
different it was another brand, I think it was like a Hypogo gel
or something and they they was actually quite good.
Yeah. But other gels I've heard
(21:15):
they're they're not very tasty. Yeah, I mean it.
It performs a function I think. Like, yeah, that's that's the
thing. You're not doing it for the
taste. Are you doing it to stay alive?
Essentially, yeah. Most of the gels are just honey,
aren't they? I don't know.
It's like a, it's just like a very fast acting glucose gel,
isn't it? It's just very because it's
(21:36):
liquid, it's already it is easier to digest and get in your
system. Yeah, yeah, of course.
Yeah, yeah. I think you can rub it on your
gums as well. I've got a feeling.
Yes, yeah, I know, I know. Exactly what is it in a white
tube? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I know exactly what one you're talking about.
I got given that when I was first diagnosed, Michael was
absolutely clueless looking. You're dinosaur.
(22:02):
I think when? You've got mine, dextrose.
I think what I'm trying to said a few pounds at the moment.
It's it's just controllable. A couple of years ago I I just
go with a big bag of squashes and then wonder why my blood
sugars went the other way. Yeah, I was like that.
But these squashes are. So nice.
Yeah, you can't stop anyone. That's it.
(22:24):
Especially that hypo hunger. It's just like, no, I don't
think I've had enough yet. Oh, that's the bottle on a bag.
How did that? That's the numerous amounts of
times that's happened. But that's the thing, before
ACGM you didn't know if you was packing range or not, so you
just carried on eating. Yeah.
Actually, I've never even thought about that till now.
(22:45):
I. Suppose that's why they give you
their guidelines, isn't it? If like take 20 grams and then
test you know 20 minutes breakthrough and then you know
you should be it should be working but.
I'd say I've never even got toldabout carbs when I've first
diagnosed. So that's all new stuff, new
research and to be honest, the man is helping people now.
(23:08):
Yeah. But that's fabulous to find out
the sugar. That's what I got told.
The sugar that was the medicine go down.
Can I just ask about your Instagram gram handle?
Why the sunny cyclist? Honest answer Yeah, I realized
(23:32):
quite early on that some psychologist Dicks I.
Was not expecting that was. Brilliant.
They will. They.
This is true. And you know, you know the Harry
Anschild sketch? Short bloke.
(23:53):
You calling me short? Yeah.
So the scenario was the guy walks into a bar, offers around,
I asked for a round of shorts and short blokes to the blah bar
and takes a person. He's like, you calling me short?
It's a little bit like that withsome cyclists.
It's like if they think of it, if they think of vehicles got
(24:16):
too close to them, then they're going to be Dicks about it.
Yeah, I can see. That sunny cyclist?
Why? Why sunny cyclist?
Because I just thought to myself, you know what?
If I'm going to enter into this world, I'm going to be
different. I'm not going to be a Dick and
that is the honest answer to that handle.
I like that. I love that Ridge.
I love that. There you go.
(24:37):
Wing. Wing mirrors still intact, Yeah.
I might come and find you on my push back.
Jack just likes the lycra, don'tworry.
Now, have you heard the episode about my Peter Pan tarts?
I'm not sure. But have have you ever had a
(25:04):
moment in your life where diabetes has stopped you from
doing something? Or have you always found a way
around it to just carry on and keep smiling?
Yeah, I mean, so like Friday I was in the was it Friday it was,
it was the end of last week. I was in the gym and I've been
struggling to stay in range, struggling not to have a high
(25:26):
pace. Like I'm up at 7:00.
I have my A always in boiled eggs.
Don't ask. Yeah, Yeah.
For breakfast. And then it's just because it's
easy. Really.
Yeah, it's just easy. And then have a little break at
11:00, finish work at 1, and I walked down to the gym.
(25:47):
I've just changed gyms. It's just so lovely in there.
Nice. It's always nice when you start
a new gym as well, especially one that's sort of like an
upgrade from the one before. Yeah, definitely.
The one I was at was it was quite small and to be honest,
like I realized that how self-conscious I felt because it
was so small and because everyone was so crammed in, but
(26:09):
now in the gym. So you feel a bit more confined,
I suppose then, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And because there's less, less equipment, if it's if it's busy,
you got to wait. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what
you're saying. That or how many sets you got
left mate. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, well, there there was I saw a video.
(26:30):
So it was Legend from Gladiatorsworking out with like same
Legend is called Matt, isn't it?I can't remember Giants name,
but they're working out in this game in London Georgium and
they're giving each other these little challenges.
And so Legends challenge to Giant was to ask if he could
(26:53):
jump in to do a set on a, I think it was a leg extension and
just do like 50 reps while this guy's waiting to get back on.
No. Oh good, Just imagine.
And they're not the smallest of guys either, so you're not going
to be telling them to get off anytime soon.
(27:14):
It was that and the full stack challenge.
So you basically just have it onthe heaviest weights on the
machines and they're just Oh yeah, it's so incredibly strong,
right? You can see why they're, you
know, why they are what why theydo what they do.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. To actually just athletes.
That is the only way to put it. Just sheer pure athlete.
Yeah, yeah. So, so I I'd struggled to stay
(27:38):
out of high pay on on that day and I'd used all my gels.
I'd taken like 4 gels. I thought that'd be enough, but
it wasn't like I'd had the four gels.
So I got to the gym and my bloodsugars were OK, started my
session, and then my alarm went off and I was like, yeah.
(27:59):
And then I was searching throughmy back.
I've got nothing. So I had to get it down and get
a Bob Lucasate. And by that time I was just like
completely deflated with it. And I thought, you know what,
I'm just going to walk home. Yeah, yeah.
Do you know what I've I've had that same thing.
I've had that same thing. You've got walked into there
with all intentions, like, like regardless of what's happened
during the day, I'm going to go in here, I'm going to smash it.
(28:21):
It's going to make me feel good.And then within 1020 minutes it
just all goes kaput and you're just deflated.
You're just disheartened and you're just like, fuck this.
I'm just. Don't feel like lifting.
You just don't feel like liftingat that point.
And yeah, say I at that point, Iwas, I just got messed up when I
and that was it was, it was to be fair, it was the lag day.
(28:44):
So that's probably why I wasn't very motivated to.
Oh, so subconsciously, I think your body just went.
Now I'm not doing it. Yeah, yeah.
So yeah. But yeah, it was.
I enjoy it. I enjoy lifting weights and I've
I've found nothing better for myblood sugars apart from
obviously insulin than than lifting weights.
(29:07):
Yeah, it really is amazing the amount like resistance training
and strength training really does for your sort of average
glucose as a whole. Yeah, and your sensitivity as?
Well. Yeah.
But talking about fitness, how is your journey going?
Why actually so I've lost 6 lbs in the last two weeks.
(29:27):
Well done. Looks pretty good.
That's good, but it's. Very good.
Because I well, it's the beginning of it, though in it's
every. Whenever you start to lose
weight, it's always the first. It's always that initial shock
of your body, doesn't it? And it just absolutely drops
off. So, but because because I
(29:48):
trained as a personal trainer, Idecided to take a share of the
measurements. So I've like, it's weird because
my hips have gone down slightly,I've gained muscle on my arms,
my neck has gone down a little bit, but my belly is a bit that
I actually want to get rid of. It's been exactly the same.
Do you know, I've found, honestly, I've trained for years
(30:10):
and years and I've tried diets, I've tried all these
supplements, I've tried different training regimes.
And the only thing I can my arms.
I can grow my shoulders, I can grow my back, my whole upper
body or my legs. I can go big within a couple of
weeks. It can get there.
But the only thing is my love handles do not go anywhere and
(30:31):
they haven't done for about 15 years.
Mountain climbers, Jack. Mountain climbers.
Yeah, mate. Honestly it's it's always the
last bit to shift. Yeah, I think the science of it
is you just got to lose. You just got to.
It's not about losing weight, isit?
It's about losing fat. Yeah.
Exactly that, yeah. Because you can, you can build
(30:53):
muscle and potentially, you know, if somebody built enough
muscle, they could be heavier than when they started to lose
all the fat because. Muscles.
Oh yeah, exactly, of course. So yeah, it's, it's all right.
It's going well. I feel, I feel fine.
The Doms weren't that bad. There's always that first couple
of weeks in it where you're justwalking around like John Wayne
(31:13):
after your leg days. But you know, the Doms haven't
been all that bad. And in a way, I quite enjoy that
pain because it tells me that I'm doing the right thing.
Yeah, it's a different sort of pain, isn't it?
Like it's it's a rewarding pain.Yeah, yeah.
(31:36):
Well, I remember my first, the first time I did bicep, so I had
this pain just in the top of my sort of the bottom of my bicep
just before my elbow and then itwent down below my elbow to
there. I'm not sure whether it was
because, you know, you get like the one P The one is I think
they call it an easy bar. It has already.
It's like it's not straight it. I sort of like goes up and then
(31:59):
out. So you've got the different, you
can sort of hold it in different, like your wrists are
in different positions. Yeah, so I think it was, I think
the way I was holding it, my arms were too wide because when
I tried it, I only bought them in a like an inch or so, but it
felt a lot better after that. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, but yeah, fitness is goingwell.
(32:22):
Yeah, that's good. I, as I say, you've already
mentioned it obviously works wonders with diabetes levels and
sensitivity, Yeah. I've always done, I've always
done like cardio. So last year I did 100 mile bike
ride. Oh, wow.
But that was that was the resultof many 70 mile bike rides and
(32:43):
50 mile bike rides. You know what I mean?
I had a whole summer while I wasjust out on my bike all the
time. Yeah.
And I still didn't shift anyway.So I stayed the same way when I
started training and when I finished and over over the
winter and Christmas, I just, I just crept up and up and up and
went upstairs 16 stone and I waslike, right, that's it.
That's my red flag. So rather than.
(33:04):
How will you know like winter's like the the beefing upstage for
everyone? Yeah, so everyone.
Everyone pokes up and eats comfort food during the winter,
and then in the summer everyone shreds it off and the process
starts again. I.
Really do pack it away though. So, yeah.
So this year I decided to do something different.
I've always been, you know, out on my bike, running, long walks,
(33:28):
swimming, all of that. So I've decided to forgo all of
that and I'm just focusing on building on the gym.
I'll probably do like some spin,the cardio, but other than that,
that's it's no, no long, hard year.
And the thing that I'm finding is I don't get ravenous when I
get home from the gym, but I call, I'll just have like an
(33:51):
omelette or something and maybe a banana carbs.
But if I go out on a say, 50 mile bike ride and come home and
there's obviously a deficit there, even if I've been
munching on flapjack the entire way, I'm still I'm still hungry.
Yeah, want to replenish that energy?
I suppose you are, but you are burning.
(34:12):
What? What?
Obviously, I don't know as such,but even though you're doing a
similar sort of like timed workout, I'll say like even like
an hour bike ride as opposed to an hour in the gym here in quite
heavy ways. You're going to be burning more
fuel on the bike surely, which is obviously why your body is
sort of hungrier. Say I'm just going to try and
(34:34):
find it on Strava. When I did my 100 miles, my
feet, so it was around the New Forest.
It was really, it was really lovely.
Enjoyed that day so much. I think.
Yeah. It's really flat as well, so you
go fast. You can just keep up the effort
the entire time. Here you go.
(34:54):
That's good. Say yeah, good time 100 I miles
it down as a fail because I didn't actually complete the
course. There was 100 mile bike ride.
I rode 170 kilometers, was about106 miles, but I didn't actually
do the I didn't actually do the course.
So Strava reckons I 404,000 sorry 330 calorie in that day.
(35:21):
Wow. So you know that.
Yeah, that's a, that's a hell ofa lot of calories.
And you think if you're weights training the average you're only
going to be burning a few 100? Wow, so it's so the idea of
weight training is that you build muscle, which I forget the
exact numbers now. So a pound of muscle, we use
more calories than a pound of fat.
(35:42):
So if you're packing on the muscle and losing the fat, your
muscles are going to be you're just by living, just by
existing, you're using more calories than you know.
If you did nothing all day you you'd burn more calories as as a
muscley person and you would as a fatty person.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, that's, that's my,
(36:05):
that's my aim really. And I've, I've cut out the junk.
Like I say, I don't get the the strong cravings like I used to
for chocolate and crisps. Oh, so the cravings are gone as
well. That's good.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I was just going to say. So what's all sort of like
average day-to-day meals? Like what would you eat during
the day and what's your sort of average?
Not really different from what Iwas eating before.
(36:26):
I've just, I've just cut a lot out.
I mean, I'm eating more fruit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I haven't really adjusted myportion sizes, not yet.
I will do it at some point because there will come a point
when my weight loss flows down and I need to address it there.
But I'm just trying not to stress about it.
(36:46):
You know, it's like, it's a journey, isn't it?
And a journeys are there to be. Exactly.
Yeah, it's. Not smooth.
It's not smooth. No journey is smooth.
No, never is. So yeah, different, different
approach to it all this year andthen let's see what happens.
Yeah, best of luck to your heart, but it goes very well.
Yeah, I'll keep you updated. Yeah, definitely, because I'm.
(37:08):
But I've, I've, I, I say it to Mike every single week.
I need to go back to the gym. I need to go back to the gym.
I say every single week. But there's always now they've
actually shut the car park and Idon't have a car at the moment,
so my van does not fit anywhere for me to go to the gym.
It just. Straight you to cycle.
Yeah, but I thought I don't needto go.
(37:29):
What's the point? I've cycled there, I've done my
exercises. If you're digging holes in
lifting friends face around, you're you know you're using all
that muscle anyway and you you're working in a different
way. Yeah, exactly, exactly that.
Yeah, my job does help me a hellof a lot to be honest.
(37:51):
I used to be in better shape than Jack.
Let's face it mate, the only diet that done me any wonders
and made me really strip fat waswhen I got ketones.
That was the only thing that really made me lose weight.
It's a good fat burner. I do name somebody who tried the
(38:11):
keto diet and he ended up in hospital with DKA.
Taiwan diabetic. Yeah, Taiwan diabetic.
He was he was quite young. I think he must have been like
1920 a time and he he was in hospital with it.
Yeah, do you know, because that was actually something I only I
only recently learned, I think it was only a couple of months
ago that I actually really like it sunk in and it was the it's
(38:35):
not high blood sugars that actually cause ketones, it's
lack of insulin in your body. And I never knew that.
That's why when I first got diagnosed, I was hitting like 11
twelves and I'm I'm checking my ketones because I was panicking
like, oh, I'm going to end up back in hospital but and
obviously. I just check every so often when
I go for a piss just out of border.
(38:59):
But I was in, I'd I'd done AI think it was last week one day,
I think I went about 1314 hours without eating and my levels
were absolutely just all day, just sort of hovering above sort
of like between 6:00 and 7:00. Absolutely perfect and something
(39:19):
just clicked in my head all of asudden like shit, I better chip
my ketones. I haven't actually had any
insulin in my system all day. So I was like I had 0.3 ketones,
which is absolutely it's normal.So I was fine.
But as I say, that's that's whatjust made me click in my head
that little well you. Would have had your basil,
wouldn't you? Your basil would have been.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I still have obviously have my
(39:40):
basil. Yeah, yeah.
So that, that obviously that's, that's, that's that was why I
was sort of staying away from food.
I was trying to test my basil. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Basal testings. Yeah, I was really struggling
with my time ranges of my levelsa few weeks ago.
So it was like I had to do a basal rate test just to see
where I was sitting at. Obviously it's that perfect.
(40:02):
So that ruled out that and I knew straight away it had
nothing to do with my insulin. It's obviously other things.
Please can I give a shout out? What?
What the ash? No, I need one shout out.
Who's shouting out? Please.
Who? No, they're supposed to.
It says really nice stuff. I'm done.
Shout out to Stephen Fitzgibbons.
(40:27):
Thank you. Said it nicely.
Read that out. Read that out.
No. Actually if I could be shit in
his kidneys out in a minute thenmine is pancreas.
I take over, not twist. OK.
Bye, guys. Bye, Ashley.
(40:47):
Well, yeah, not as I was saying.Yeah, this happens every
recording by the way. Yeah, I was.
I was just talking about how like my time in ranges were a
bit shit last week and nothing was really working and it was
stressing me out and I have really was going through a bit
of a burnout. Have you ever been through a
sort of burnout as such, and if you have, how do you handle it?
(41:12):
I'm going to say not really. Sometimes if I get to or say
when I, I have to put my own cannulism or cannulas in
obviously for my problem. Sometimes if I get tried two or
three painful ones, I just get really fed up with it.
And I just, I think, you know what, I'm going to leave this
one in because four days isn't that much longer than three.
(41:33):
It was fine. So that's not diabetes, that's
not burnout, is it? That's not saying, you know
what, I'm just going to see whathappens if I don't have my
insulin or I just can't go over with it anymore.
They no, I don't think I've experienced that real mental
fatigue that you get with burnout.
That's good. I think.
I think because I went. On to this.
(41:54):
Yeah. That's a good thing.
That's a good thing. Yeah.
So I was on MDI for about two years.
I think if I'd stayed on MDI then quite possibly I would have
done. But I, I jumped on the pump the
second that they offered the teaming because I was I, I came
into diabetes with a fear of needles, of all things.
(42:16):
Oh, really? Yeah, so I.
We've spoke about that on our podcast previously, actually on
like how how much of a hard thing that must be for someone
that had that and has to actually overcome that fear just
to simply carry on their day-to-day life.
Especially as an adult because fears are harder to overcome
when you're older. Yeah, definitely.
(42:36):
I always found that I, I don't know, I still do with my palm
cannula sometimes like I've got really sensitive spots on my
tummy. So if I hit a nerve, I really
know about it. But my fear and needles, for
example, say when I was 2425, I had tested the cancer.
(43:02):
And so when they told me that, because I'd obviously found a
lump and gone to the doctors andgot it checked and yeah, they
were like, they were like, yeah,that's, that's that.
So they sent me for a blood testjust to confirm it.
I remember sat in the waiting room being more scared of this
(43:22):
blood test than I was of this thing that could potentially
kill me. You know, it is because it was
more immediate. But you know, that was.
So obviously you can imagine having femur for cancer, you get
a lot of needles. So I that wasn't what caused the
fear, but I suppose I was a little bit more open to the idea
(43:44):
of injections by that point, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've had this fear of needles
all my life. And then, you know, I ended up
with two conditions which require me to have regular blood
tests and scans where they're injections and all sorts of
stuff, and then having to injectmy own insulin.
I think that was that. That was.
(44:04):
Yeah. I mean, people, people always
say, won't they? Oh, I really I, I don't know if
I could, but you know, the honest answer to that is do or
die. Do.
You know, it's it is funny how often I heard that when I first
got diagnosed with, Oh, I don't know how you do that.
Like, well, I don't know how I do it either, but I have to.
It's just. It's just that it's the simplest
(44:26):
answer. Or or I, I.
Could I could never do that. It's like do or die, yeah.
Yeah, I could never do that. Well, living is a pretty big
motivator. Yeah, yeah.
So, so yeah, I I think to answeryour question, if I stayed on
MDI, then possibly I would have experienced that, but because of
(44:48):
all this technology that we have.
Yeah. I think I've, I've managed to
see what I'll do is I'll go through like intense periods
where I'm focused on my diabetes, but it's only for like
a week or so. That's usually when my, when my
ratios have changed and I need to find out, you know, what's
going on And I'll just leave it,it's set up and then I'll just
(45:12):
wait for something else to go wrong and then I'll go through
the same thing again. So it's, it's not constantly
that, although I'm still making decisions every day, but then
really the only decision I'm making at the moment because of
my clothes lit up is how many carbs, how much carbs am I
eating? Sometimes I override the pump
and I'll, I'll put some more insulin because I don't say if
(45:34):
I'm too high, then you're not assensitive to insulin.
So. Wait so you can rage bolus with
a pump? Yeah.
That's mad. You can raise bolus.
So something something that I learned the other day when I was
when I went to get to start my loop.
So we have ravaged bolus. We have was it oh, carb
(45:56):
ghosting? That was it.
What's that? That ain't telling your pump
that you've had carbs when you actually haven't.
So it'll give you more incident.Oh, OK.
It's. Like a cheap range.
Yeah, yeah, basically. Yeah.
I've never heard of that. Never heard of it.
Silly pump, I should know I'm joking.
(46:17):
It's crazy to think like how like, the technology helps us in
so many ways, but then there's always ways that people will
find it's human corruption. That's what it is.
It's human corruption. The pump will relieve the birds
and it won't it won't get rid ofit completely.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
(46:38):
Well, that that was as I say, I don't know if you heard the
episode the other week when I was mentioning a pump at work
and someone was like, oh, just get a pump.
It solves all the problems. You don't get you, you find you
just eat and crack on. It's easy like.
Were they diabetic? Really isn't.
Were they diabetic? Of course they weren't.
We need to come up with a name for these people, don't we
dickheads these. People don't suit them.
(47:03):
No, it's too kind. It's.
Too kind. It's like you've got 4 kit
wankers, haven't you? For cyclists, you've got all the
gear. It's obvious that they haven't
like done enough cycling to knowwhat they're talking about.
All the gear. My idea you've you've got these
people who think they know everything about diabetes or
(47:24):
they may not even think that they know everything about it.
They just kind of open their mouths and stuff falls out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I, I, to be honest, I can
hold my hands up and I've probably done exactly the same
thing four or five years ago before I was even diagnosed.
Yeah, he used to bully me all the time.
I just it was it was hard times.We've got a couple more little
(47:51):
questions to go through. There's one that keeps staring
out on me and I like asking it to quite a few people.
Is who inspired you out of like just in even like the T1D
community or or anywhere? Who inspires me?
Or anyone you sort of follow that you look up to or.
Yeah, I'll tell you what, he really inspired me recently with
(48:12):
his Betty Munger when he did hisIronman triathlon.
So Betty Munger is is the racingdriver he had.
He had a massive crash, lost both of his legs just above the
below the knee. So I think a few years ago, I
might be completely wrong but I think it was something like
(48:34):
might have been a cycle ride or he climbed the mountain.
I know there's 2 completely different things but I can't
remember what it was you got. So it was all for Sport Relief.
So he got challenged list this year to do or last year to do an
Iron Man Triassum. He actually came down to
Weymouth. I didn't meet him as such, but I
(48:57):
was sort of in the same paddock as him.
I thought, well, look, David andI was like, well, no, you're
absolutely mongered, you know, Do you know what I mean?
It's like. Oh wow, wow, it's actually him.
Yeah. So he, so he came down to
Weymouth for basically a practice event.
So we have 1/2 Iron Man here every year, takes over the
(49:18):
entire town. And he obviously did that, but
he then went on to do Kona and which is like the Iron Man World
Championships, that's where theyhave the finals.
And he obviously qualified for that and got a place and he set
a world record for double amputee.
(49:40):
I think it was doing that and hetook a tremendous amount of time
off of it. It was, it wasn't like minutes
or seconds, It was hours that hetook off of this record time.
Oh wow, so he smashed it? Yeah, but I just think, you
know, I know there's probably not many comparisons that you
can draw with physical disabilities like he's got.
(50:02):
And but the determination, when you see him training, it's like
there were points in his training where he was, he was
not hit in his milestones. I mean, bear in mind he had like
professional coaches and they were saying this is where you
need to be. And he just, I don't know, he
just found another level sort ofin the run up to the Iron Man
(50:24):
and then actually whilst doing it and he absolutely smashed it.
And if anyone's got reasons to, you know, just sort of sit on
the sofa and sulk about life, it'd be somebody who's had a
very unfortunate accident, you know, lost two of their limbs.
(50:45):
And and yet he just, you know, since that time, he's obviously
taken time to recover, but you know, he's on, he does like some
of the Formula One coverage on, on Channel 4.
You know, he's done several documentaries and then he, he
did this. And I just think, you know, you
know, whatever life throws at you, there's always, there's
(51:07):
always ways that you can live your life that are meaningful.
Yeah, that's a very nice quote actually.
I like that. That is inspiring.
That is. That actually is inspiring,
yeah. That and some of the people in
in the WhatsApp group, I think they're, they're absolutely
legends. Just some of the stuff they some
of the stuff they share on. That WhatsApp community was
(51:29):
something that me and Mike just started.
Just it was, wasn't it Between me and you.
It was just like we just start agroup it seems probably going
to. I'll bet there'll probably be
about 3 or 4. People, I didn't expect as many
as there is. There's like 50-60 odd people in
there and it is, it's so helpful.
Like sometimes it is quiet, but then all of a sudden it just
erupts and everyone's back on. It's just so nice to have that
(51:52):
available. Yeah, that first few weeks I'd
sort of, I'd be at work and I'd pick up my phone.
There'd be 100 messages on the group, you know what I mean?
It's. Exactly the same.
I've got my phone down for a fewhours and then.
Look up. I'm like, wow, but I can't
believe like as I say, me and Mike only started it just
because we've we just thought that a few people would join and
(52:13):
with if I'm looking like you say, notifications, it's just
going Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy.
And people will probably find friends and message privately,
which is my main thing for it aswell, because obviously I've got
Jack and to have someone like that, it's really nice.
Yeah, I mean, you probably find better than Jack, but.
(52:36):
We will leave the link in the description for all the
listeners if you do want to jointhe community, but as you just
heard it, Richard is one of the members of our community and it
honestly is fantastic. If you ever need any help, I
guarantee at least one person onthere will be able to come up
with some sort of advice. But just don't mention stock
trading and we're all right. Yeah.
(53:02):
You don't want to join your Ponzi scheme.
But. We we have got one final
question just before we wrap everything up Richard and this
is what we ask every single one of our guests.
It is my idea because I'm such afoodie and it is what is if you
could eat or choose anything in the world, throw diabetes out of
(53:26):
the mix for a while and what would be your go to free course
meal? Anything you want.
Wow. So that's a tough one, isn't it?
And it's like anything. It could even be 3 mains if you
wanted by the way, tight enough to be.
OK OK so let me think I I reallylove.
(53:48):
So every weekend we every Sundaywe have roast dinner.
I see most Sundays, 99% of Sundays we have a roast dinner.
Yeah. So if I was to take that to the
extreme, I'd have like, have youguys ever been to Blacklock in
London? It's a restaurant.
No. No, I think I've heard of it,
but I've never been there. Yeah, I you should try this one.
(54:09):
So they do a roast dinner and it's like, it's not a plate,
it's plates. So we always order, I think.
It's like a meal. It's like a shared meal for two
and they bring out a huge bowl of veg and then you've got a
plate of like slices of lamb andthen some pork and then some
(54:32):
beef and then bit chicken and massive roast.
Your sorry roast Yorkshire puddings.
Yeah, just the gravy is just to die for stuff that you know, all
of it. I'm out of slow work right now.
I'm starving. Yeah, just that, that, yeah,
(54:56):
that that is like where every time we go to London now we go,
we go in there, we'll we'll put that for the last night we were
there. What area was that in?
Oh, Soho. So there's one in Soho.
Oh, many sort of go down into a basement and I, I don't know, I
don't know what used to be maybea sex dungeon or something, but.
(55:16):
That sounds about right for Sohoto.
Me. Oh, I know what he says.
Used to be a regular. I didn't know about a starter,
but if I was to choose a second main, probably something.
Probably something Italian, probably a really nice pizza or
some of some kind. Oh, now it's.
(55:39):
Is it tomorrow or a BBQ base? Oh.
Half and half. OK.
I like it. I like it.
I mean, if we're having our ultimate meals, then you know.
What I mean, whatever you want, whatever you want, no judgement.
Yeah, so we had a sticky pig from from ZS on Saturday night.
(56:03):
That's really nice. It's just this, yes.
I mean, it's huge. It's probably about 20 inches
long, but it's on an Italian base.
It's very thin. And they they do like half one
thing and then half the other. But on 1/2 you've got like bits
of crack thing and and then the next you've got, I don't know
what it was. It was some kind of bacon or
(56:23):
something that they've done. Yeah, Sticky Pig, if you ever go
to. I had to pick the chillies off
because ever since I coated and I've not been able to handle
spices at all. There's something about it.
I'm I'm writing all of this down, by the way.
Sticky pigs and probably for dessert, for dessert, because I
think my we started these when Iwas a kid and it was, it was one
(56:46):
of my favourites. And still it is just a really
nice trifle, like Jelly and and sponge on the bottom and then
you got like fruits and then custard and then cream and then
sprinkles and whatever else you want on there.
MIAs, that's not really nice. It's a very good choice.
Yeah, yeah, brilliant. Right, Blacklock is definitely
(57:07):
worth trying out. If he's not been there you
should do his double date and you go to blacklocking and say
hey and tell me. Definitely.
As I say, I've got I've got all the info written down, it is on
my list. And as I say, even better that
it's in Soho because the place Igo graffiti in is literally 5
minutes from Soho, so it's spot on for me.
(57:28):
Well, is it painting it bizarrely, is it or something
like that, Yeah. Yeah.
It's a place where you go for a league, League Cali.
Isn't it? League St.
That's next street. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's, yeah.
I love it down there. Slap my, slap my my happy place.
(57:49):
It's where I just go and reset. Yeah, I really like the one that
you the the graffiti that you shared with like the London
skyline. Yeah, do not.
I was so happy with that and I planned that and sketched it.
It took me hours to sketch. And I can.
Tell that I just went down thereit was.
Really, really good. Thank you, thank you.
But the the the only downside ofthat is where it where it is in
(58:12):
Leak Street, I spend probably the equivalent of about 3 to 4
hours sketching it in my pad, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours doing the
actual piece. And it stood there for about an
hour and a half and it was gone.Someone else has gone straight.
Over it, at least you've got to understand.
(58:33):
That's what it's all about. You've got your memories, you've
done your bit, you've you've got, you've got your pictures
and that's it. Just go out now it's someone
else's. So what about when you do we
RT1DT shirts because I know you keep saying you're going.
We really need to we. Really do the words, do the
words we RT 1D with like the skyline of London or something
(58:54):
like that and like you did with that, with that.
Graffiti that, that can actuallybe pretty cool as well.
I like that. Don't worry, a tie dye will be
back soon. Tie dye.
I think it's already creeping inin it.
It probably is retro, isn't it? Yeah.
But yeah, that I'm going to say that about wraps it up through
this week. Everyone before we because we
(59:15):
could talk for hours. Honestly, it's been a great
episode. It's been such a such a pleasure
having you on Richard. I really appreciate.
The pleasure for being here, it's.
Been nice to just listen. Maybe we'll do a Part 2 Monday.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, 100 percent, 100%.
I'm well up for that. I'm well up for that.
Yeah. So yeah, we've learned a lot
about you. And yeah, we really, really
(59:36):
thank you for coming on. Yeah, about.
Yeah, one last verse, one last. Verse for me is if you're a
cyclist, Debbie a Dick. Here we go.
What a way to end it everyone. From the Sunny Cyclist,
everyone. Yeah.
So, yeah, big round of applause to Richard.
Thank you so much for coming on and we will see you back again
(01:00:00):
same time, same place next week and.
Link for the community will be in the description of the
episode, so make sure you go andclick that link everyone and
join us up if you want to get involved.
And as I say, keep liking, keep sharing, keep supporting and
stay being amazing. See you later.
Do you know what? I've been so good.
(01:00:24):
You have, you've been really well behaved, Michael.
I know it's. Good.
I'm proud of myself.
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