Latest / The Healthy Diabetic / #395.5: 10 Ways to Navigate Halloween With Type 1 Diabetes

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#395.5: 10 Ways to Navigate Halloween With Type 1 Diabetes · The Healthy Diabetic

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is episode number three hundred and ninety-five.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Point five of the Healthy Diabetic Podcast.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Coach Ken Kenniss.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm solo today.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know much about my personal story, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 25 in 2007.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the founder of Simplifying Life of Diabetes, a diabetes health coaching company that bridges the gap between your medical team and the daily complexities that you face every single day with living with this condition.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I truly believe that every single one of us living or caring for someone with type 1 diabetes only has one job.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's to figure out what's going to work for you.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for new perspectives and new ideas on how to live with diabetes, you've come to the right place.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: As always, before we get started, please remember that nothing that you hear on this podcast, we consider medical advice or otherwise, please always consult your medical team before making any changes to your diabetes management.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is gonna be a really quick episode.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I really wanted to just sit down and record this because this is, like I said, this is 395.5.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because 395, which hopefully you've already listened to it, it also just released today.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Me and Graham started the conversation off with Halloween and Candy and what we should be kind of thinking about when we are going trick-or-treating or at that Halloween party with our friends or a co or at work or whatever it is.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we completely didn't talk about anything of it.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: We got completely off on a tangent and talked about something else that was really, really powerful and stuck with that for almost 45 minutes.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't seen that episode, 395, go check that one out.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was a really, really good conversation.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to spoil anything, but uh, yeah, it was a really good conversation.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So Graham had to go, and I really wanted to get this episode, you know, just recorded.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: So those of you who are going trick-or-treating or having Halloween parties that are happening this week and maybe even into next week, are have a little bit of preparation, can be prepared a little bit.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've got basically 10 things that I kind of talk about sometimes with my diabetes clients, my parents that I work with, on how to deal with holidays, how to deal with Halloween, how to deal with Thanksgiving, how to deal with, you know, parties or or work events, whatever it might be.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's really 10 things that I think about all the time when going into a situation that's kind of either out of my control or out or just not in the norm.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go through this.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So number one, obviously the first thing is really have a plan.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta have a plan if you're going to be in a situation with type 1 diabetes that is kind of out of your normal routine, the things that you have put in place every single day that uh you're just thriving on or you're just really good at, right?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: When you throw a wrench into the machine, things are gonna happen.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: So have a try to have a plan for it.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna be a perfect plan, but try to have a plan for it.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of Halloween, right?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think the first thing that you need to understand is setting a limit, right?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a caregiver and you're trying to, you know, do this for, or you're you're trying to plan for your young child and they're going trick-or-treating, have a limit, right?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna eat candy during trick-or-treating?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna eat candy when they get home and they dump it all over the floor and they're picking out what they like and what they don't like?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: When are they actually going to be having the candy or having those sweets and set a lemon on it?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let them just like go, go, go, go, go, because that's gonna be very hard to dose for.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is eat something before you go out.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this is basically talking about trick-or-treating.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, eat something before you go out so you're not hungry, so you're not just stuffing candy throughout all of trick-or-treating, right?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Fill up your belly, try to get those signals sent to your brain saying that you're full, so you're not just continuously eating a bunch of candy and sweets.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, if eating candy throughout trick-or-treating, you know, when you're eating candy throughout trick-or-treating, try to limit your young child or even yourself.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'd have to, I sometimes have to do this to myself, limit yourself or your young child to smaller pieces, not these big, ginormous pieces of candy, very small pieces.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Again, those are easy to dose for.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if for some reason you don't dose correctly for them, right, it's a smaller piece of candy.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not gonna have as big an impact as if they're eating humongous pieces of candy.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Throw those things out, smaller pieces of candy.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Number four is a is a dosing thing.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and I don't have the exact dosing for you.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: You that's something this is something you got to figure out by yourself or with the support of your physician and your provider, but increase your basal rates.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Increase your basal rates.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: What tomorrow for me is trick-or-treating, right?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm recording this on Wednesday.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: This will be released actually tomorrow morning, Thursday morning, but Thursday is my neighborhood's trick-or-treating.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So on Thursday morning, I'm increasing my basil.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm 100% increasing my basil.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm probably gonna take an extra 10 to 15% more basil than I would normally take.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: My total basil and basal insulin dose tomorrow is probably gonna be around 26, maybe 27 units.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna take a little bit in the morning, and then I'm gonna take a little bit more in the evening, probably around 5:30.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever we go out, I'll take my nighttime shot for my basil, but take more than I normally would take.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I know that there's insulin for the candy that I potentially or probably will eat during trick-or-treating, or even maybe even the next day, whatever it might be.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna increase my basils, increase your basils if you think that is something that would be appropriate for your situation.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Again, talk to your provider about that.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Be as close.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is a really important one.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, be as close to target as possible when you're going out.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if you need to give yourself a little bit of insulin to give yourself a buffer, do that.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I'm taking myself as the example, right?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna be as close to 100 as possible before we go out.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: If there's insulin on board, fine.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: If there's not insulin on board by the time we go out, I might take a little bit.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I might take a unit just to get something going because I know I'm gonna get some candy as my kids are going door to door.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be like, oh, what do you got there?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, let me have one of those.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, what do you got there?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let me have one of those.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna take a little bit to get a little bit of insulin going, right?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that gives me one, the permission, and two, I don't have to worry about it.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to think about it.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Of, okay, well, I'm about to eat this piece of candy.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's 15 grams.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me take insulin.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now I gotta wait till this too for this thing to start working.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let me wait my 10, 15 minutes.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now I can eat my candy.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna be proactive and try to give myself a little bit of a bit of a buffer with a little bit of insulin.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not a lot, just a little bit.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is something that you can talk to with your provider if you don't want to make that decision on your own.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Number six is do not restrict.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest things that the research shows, especially for something like trick-or-treating, is when kids feel like you're they're being restricted from one, having fun with going and picking out candy, but also eating that candy, it turns into like a mental health issue.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't want that.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like we don't want the kid, you we don't want your young kid to feel like they can't, you know, do something, which is why we come up with a plan, which is why we're trying to give ourselves a little bit of buffer, a little bit of a buffer.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure that you're not restricting.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have the maybe the plan is we're gonna trick-or-treat, we're gonna come back, we're gonna pick out some pieces that we want to eat, we're gonna dose for those pieces.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's a plan.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's not being restrictive.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: But saying, like, hey, we're we're not gonna eat candy uh during trick-or-treating, we're we're just gonna get the candy and then we'll figure out things later, that that that could be a kind of a restrictive process.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Could be, might not be, but it could be.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So don't restrict.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then number seven, after trick or treat, decide as a family, what you want, what do you want to keep?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: How many pieces do you want to keep?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: How many pieces do you want to keep and then get rid of the rest?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: So number seven is really about understanding that no, you probably shouldn't engorge yourself for the next week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, and a bunch of candy because you went trick-or-treating, right?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: As again, that's that is something that you decide as the individual and you decide as the family.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know for me with my girls, we'll go through trick-or-treating.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: They might have a couple pieces during trick-or-treating.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I know I will.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get home, put everything on the floor, we'll allow them to take out maybe 10, 15 pieces of that of that candy, and then we're getting rid of the rest.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not just a diabetes thing for me, but that's also a family thing that we do.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So my kids aren't just eating candy for the next month because we don't allow them to eat a bunch of that stuff because it's not healthy for you.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just number seven.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Number eight is you have lots of low treatment, don't be fearful.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Have fun, have a good time because you have an entire bag of candy.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's all low treatment.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Number nine, I don't necessarily like this one, but I always put it in there because people still do it is count your carbs, right?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're eating a couple pieces here and there, or if you've got all the candy out at the end of the night and you know you need a dose for that, let's try to be as accurate as possible with counting those carbs.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Number 10, and the last one, one of the most important ones, okay.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Use what you learned this year to help your situation next year, to allow you maybe to eat one more extra piece next year, to allow you to maybe put something else in your management style, your management system for this specific situation next year, right?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because remember, everything about diabetes is about experimentation, right?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: So the things that maybe happen this year that you're like, oh man, we shouldn't have done that, or maybe that wasn't the right decision.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's a learning experience for next year.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure that you're practice or you're you're you're experimenting and being able to put into practice next year what you've learned from this year.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that is my 10 things that you can do for yourself, or if you're a caregiver, to maybe help with trick-or-treating this year so we don't have tons of fluctuations in in blood sugars, and we can stay really close to our target before and after trick-or-treating.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this was helpful, guys.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, thank you so much for listening.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's again, really short one.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're barely 12 minutes into this.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening, and I will see you next time.