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What is Your Best T1D Year?
Managing Type 1 Diabetes doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
Each 5-minute episode of Your Best T1D Year is packed with practical strategies, mindset shifts, and a little humor to help you feel more in control and less frustrated by diabetes.
Hosted by Neil Greathouse, this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday podcast delivers quick, relatable episodes that make learning about T1D effortless—so you can build small wins that lead to big changes.
đź“… New episodes drop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
🎧 Subscribe now and start making diabetes management feel easier—one small habit at a time.
Neil:
Hey. Welcome back to your best t one d year ever. This is episode four. Today is February 21. I am Neil Greathouse.
Neil:
You might know me as the b d's on TikTok or Instagram. I don't even I don't even remember what my name is on YouTube, but I'm there too. Listen, if you've got five minutes, then you've got time for this podcast. So So this is definitely short form. But it if you're making coffee, you're driving to work, you are kicking your dog, what it first of all, stop that.
Neil:
Like, stop that. Your dog he's not he's nice. He seems nice. But if you're trying to justify today eating one more Reese's from that Valentine's Day clearance aisle, no judgment. We have all done it.
Neil:
Some of us might be doing it right now. But today, we're talking about something sneaky, and that is how overtreating lows can add up to and and brace yourself for this. I'm gonna say this, you're gonna think I'm lying, but I'm not. Overtreating lows can add up to 20,000 extra calories a year or more without us even realizing it. That is that is staggering, and this is not a guilt trip.
Neil:
Okay? This is just about seeing a pattern that we're headed towards and making it a little bit easier on ourselves. So, the whole, oops, I ate too much in in a low treatment spiral. It happens. Right?
Neil:
We we have all been there. We're low. We panicked. Suddenly, we are inhaling whatever is in front of us. I had a low, one of the worst lows I've ever had.
Neil:
This is years and years and years ago. And I woke up in front of the refrigerator. My wife came down in the morning and I am the refrigerator door is open. I'm laying on the kitchen floor, and there are wrappers everywhere. Somehow, I found in the freezer the worst low snack ever.
Neil:
It we made some, like, peppermint chocolate bark. There was a a ziplock bag of it, like a gallon ziplock bag, and I there's no telling how many pounds of that I ate. It just happens. Right? We eat whatever's in front of us.
Neil:
Now, what starts as a couple of glucose tablets, it it can turn into if we're not careful, it is a juice box. It is two or three bowls of cereal. It is a granola bar or a Snickers or a an o Henry. When was the last time I've never ever said o Henry out of my mouth a long time. And and because we we eat all that stuff because we we're still feeling low.
Neil:
And the next thing you know, we have raided the fridge like we are preparing for hibernation. And if we fast forward thirty minutes, our our blood sugar is up at two fifty. If we're lucky, it might be at 300. We feel awful, and we wonder like, how did I get here? Where am I?
Neil:
I don't know. I don't know how I got here. So here's why this adds up, and then maybe what we could do instead. Now here's the math. This is gonna this this is gonna shock you.
Neil:
But if we overeat or if we over treat our low by just a hundred calories a day, that's 36,500 calories a year. Okay. So let's just simmer down on that. Okay? Simmer down now.
Neil:
Saturday Night Live. Let's say we, on average, we when we have a low, we eat between 500 and a thousand calories. So if we put that at 700 calories once a week, That's a lot. But if I'm being honest, I I can have multiple lows a week. I can have three of them a week.
Neil:
That is 20,000 extra calories. And most of the time, look, we don't need that food. Like, I don't want that food, but I'm just trying to survive. We're out here just trying trying to not pass out, not have a low, not get all shaky and sweaty. So the simple fact the fix is, let's just treat with a glucose tablet or a gel first and then wait.
Neil:
So fast acting first. Right? Glucose tablets, not a meal. We don't we don't need a meal. Right?
Neil:
Set a timer for ten to fifteen minutes before we reach for anything else. And remind ourselves that those lows feel awful, but they don't need to be over corrected. So lows mess with our brains. They make us feel panic, desperate, like we need to eat everything is in sight. But remember, you're not doing a bad job.
Neil:
You're doing a difficult job. Type one diabetes isn't easy. But if this habit has been tough to break through, you're you're not alone. The fact that you're even thinking about this, that's progress. This is not about being perfect.
Neil:
This is about one small habit at a time. So new episodes of this little podcast drop every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. If you haven't hit subscribe yet, what are you waiting for? Don't miss the next one. Tell all your friends about it.
Neil:
I don't know what that means. Paul Revere riding through town. Listen, if you if you want some free tt1d resources, I've got a website. It is your bestt1dyear.com. You can go grab them.
Neil:
You can sign up for the newsletter. I send it out twice a month. It's just got some free resources. It's all free. There is no catch.
Neil:
I'm just trying to give back to this community. And I'll see you in the next episode. Remember, you got this. Okay? Nobody remembers easy.
Neil:
What you're doing is pretty much incredible. And I'm excited to hear about your best t one d year ever.