Bravest Podcast

Sid Sharma grew up in India with a strong connection to family, academics, and how athletics provided him with a sense of team. In fact, his influences in sports ran pretty deep. His mom played basketball in college and his father was a competitive swimmer. Sid was actually a cricket player all the way through university, and it was on the field of play where Sid started to learn some deep life lessons.

Fast forward to 2013, Sid was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, and short while later, with type 1 diabetes. He ultimately entered the world of T1D with a positive mental attitude and the mind of an engineer. He systematically figured out how to eat, dose and manage his diabetes. We talk quite a bit about that mindset throughout today's episode.

We discuss the importance of controlling the controllable, minimizing the daily decision-making process, and setting ourselves up for success with diabetes without beating ourselves up every day.

We also talk about Sid's re-entry into the world of athletics, where we discuss motivation, his life-changing journey with Beyond Type 1's Bike Beyond team which took him across the US last summer. We finish up with some insight on how he is starting to train for his next big bicycle race. Sid is a humble guy and has some really impactful thoughts he shares about life and training for big physical challenges throughout our conversation.

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For most of us who lived in NYC on September 11, 2001 a serious cloud of anxiety, questioning, and mental turmoil lingered for many years following those unimaginable events. Today's guest believes the events of that day had, not only an emotional impact, but truly impacted her on a cellular level which set her body up for a breakdown that she could never have expected.

Rachel Zinman is a child of the world who has lived in Australia for much of her adult life. She is a yogi, a meditation teacher, an Ayurveda practitioner and someone who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as an adult. Rachel and I were able to link up during her recent trip to the States on the east coast leg of her tour promoting her new book which is called "Yoga for Diabetes'.

Our conversation covers a huge amount of ground with topics ranging from how Ayurveda relates to maintaining blood sugar control, all the way through through yoga and breathing techniques. I had an great time sitting down with Rachel and I learned so much from her in the short time we spent together. I know you'll get a lot from this conversation as well.

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Jiggy Yoon has been through a lot in life. A budding motivational speaker, Jiggy didn't always have the positive mental attitude she demonstrates today. Born in South Korea, Jiggy immigrated to the US with her family when she was a little girl. In our conversation, she walks us through the challenges she faced as a child, a fire that left her homeless and bouncing from shelter to shelter, her battle with depression that resulted in attempts to take her own life, and she also talks about opening up about her sexuality to her conservative family. Throughout the conversation, Jiggy shares details about the constant conflict she found herself in with her mom. She also talks about forgiveness, and how their relationship was mended just before her mom succumbed to her battle with cancer. This is a conversation about vulnerability and mental health, and how to utilize your story as power to make an impact on the world.

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Lauren Bongiorno joins me today for this special bonus episode to help us all kick start a new year of health, wellness and creating a mindset that will help us all consistently get after what we desire in life. Lauren was on episode 007 of the podcast where we went deep into her story. But as a quick overview, Lauren is a health coach and a yogi who has thrived with type 1 diabetes since childhood. On today's show, Lauren shares her top 5 keys to unlock the best version of ourselves in 2018, and we also talk about her upcoming book "The Diabetic Health Journal'.

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On the show today we have Natalie Balmain.

Natalie is based over in the UK and she's an actress, a voice over artist, and she works in community health as well. Earlier this year she added the title Founder and CEO to her credits.

A couple of years ago Natalie had an idea to create clothing that was not only fashionable, but also functional, for women who are living with diabetes. Her company is named Type 1 Clothing and Natalie has been recognized by the BBC and people like Chelsea Clinton, for her practical, yet remarkable, contribution to the world.

In our conversation, Natalie and I get into her hard-headed personality traits and how this served her in her pursuit of her art and making an impact. We talk about losing her mom at a very young age. We discuss her battle with depression after being diagnosed at the age of 20, and how, over several years, she worked her way out of a very dark place.

Natalie then shares her inspiration and creative process for her expanding line of clothing geared toward those living with type 1 diabetes.

We uncover the stressors associated with running a start-up, and how Natalie supports herself to ensure she is taking care of her physical and mental well-being.

This is an interesting conversation on persistence and a desire to demonstrate to the world that anything is possible if we tap into our creativity and express it in a manner that is true to our own personal style and nature.

Natalie is a unique person who is not only using her platform of fashion to help raise awareness, but she's also contributing funds from the profits of her company to support type 1 diabetes research around the world.

On the show today we have a gentleman known by the single name of Appleton. Now if you're not familiar with his work, or who he is, Appleton is a photographer, a painter, and a street artist who, like many creative minds, uses his life experiences as motivation for much of his art. As the youngest of four brothers, Appleton grew up in Northern New Jersey, and was raised by his mom, in a single-parent household. At the age of 6, he suddenly fell into a coma and spent a number of days in the hospital falling in and out of consciousness. It was in the hospital that he was handed the diagnoses of type 1 diabetes. What he uncovers in our conversation, is that his parents actually lost their daughter (Appleton's sister) when she was just 7 years old after she fell into a coma. Unfortunately, she was an undiagnosed type 1. Appleton points to the fact that there were no family pictures taken during those early years, and he believes that this void in the documentation of his childhood led him to start take pictures of anything and everything. He explains that this void served as a catalyst for him to start documenting his life. In fact, he has saved every vial of insulin and many of the syringes he has used, since childhood. That's over 40 years of vials. We then dive deeper into the mind of an artist. Appleton talks about his inspiration, the evolution of his work, and who and what influences him. We talk about how his craft informs the way he views the world around him. At the tail end of our conversation, Appleton shares his personal thoughts on the global ecosystem of diabetes. This is a very direct conversation on how he believes the state of diabetes has not changed much in the 40 years since he was diagnosed. He is firm in his belief that, while technology is wonderful and helps those affected manage diabetes better, he is focused on why a cure is such an elusive thing. He gets pretty deep in his thoughts of cure versus maintenance and why, he believes, we're not seeing that cure for type 1.

Sebastien Sasseville grew up in a small town in Quebec Canada. From an early age, he was raised with a solid work ethic. This key characteristic was developed through the day to day work on his family's farm that Sebastien was responsible for. In our conversation, Sebastien explained that those early experiences taught him that anything is possible, but nothing comes easy. It wasn't until he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 22, that he started to truly understand his potential. Sebastien initially ignored his symptoms, although he knew he was type 1 without the lab tests. A few years earlier his younger brother was diagnosed with type 1, so Sebastien had intimate knowledge of the disease. As a result of his diagnosis, Sebastien quickly started to view his new reality as an opportunity to live a better life. He saw type 1 as a deep motivator and a source of energy, which gave him purpose. In 2008, that purpose led him to realize a childhood dream, and took him to the peak of Mt. Everest. In 2012, that purpose empowered him to run The Sahara Race, a 5 day, multi-stage, self-sustaining, 250K race across the desert. And in 2014, he used his purpose and platform to spread more awareness about diabetes by running across Canada in 9 months. Sebastien is also a six time Ironman competitor. This is where I had a lightbulb moment with Sebastien. While all of those journeys are quite amazing, it's not about the achievements. Its not about the task of summiting Everest, or running across the Sahara, or even running across the North American continent. It's simply about what they mean. In this conversation, we talk about the importance of patience, and we talk about the importance of preparation, and the details of training and the actual expeditions. But the key message to pull is Sebastien's message of motivation, of commitment, and the benefits of hard work so we can make our impact on this planet in some way. Ultimately, it's not about the enormity of the challenges each of us takes on necessarily, but it is about what they mean to us, and how those challenges support our mission.

On this episode, we talk with Chris Pickering. Some of you might be familiar with the work Chris is doing with his new non-profit called The Betes Bros, and on this episode we cover his upbringing in rural Oklahoma and his unique family history with type 1. Chris and I then get into his dance with severe depression. In our conversation, Chris reveals how the highs and lows of diabetes started to impact his internal and external world. He describes how he simply started to give up, little by little each day, to the point where it was hard for him to simply motivate himself to get out of bed. It got so dark, that Chris took steps to quietly take his own life. Thankfully, his attempt was not successful. This is a conversation about the importance of community, it's about finding our worth in the lowest of moments, and its about how one man's emotional journey has guided him to carve a path to service. Just a heads up, we go to some pretty dark places in this conversation, but this is real stuff. There are a number of studies in the peer-reviewed literature clearly demonstrating the increased incidence of depression in those living with diabetes. I personally believe these honest conversations and personal accounts are critical to share with the world.

This episode was recorded on World Diabetes Day, which is a day of global awareness launched by the International Diabetes Federation. I could not think of a more appropriate guest to interview that day than the one and only, Roddy Riddle.

Roddy was a competitive cyclist for Scotland and competed in the Commonwealth Games. He was ultimately diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 40. Roddy then took that new reality and set out to inspire the world by competing in some of the toughest foot races around.

In 2013, Roddy competed in the Marathon des Sables, which is a 250K race across the Sahara desert.

In 2016, he decided to go to the other extreme and competed in the 6633 Arctic Ultra, which is a 560K ultra marathon.

Unfortunately, Roddy was unable to complete that race, and he describes that in detail during our conversation, but he was determined to come back the following year and take care of unfinished business.

Earlier this year, Roddy not only completed the 6633 Arctic Ultra, he managed to finish the race in second place. He accomplished all of this while proving to the world that anything is possible with type 1 diabetes, or any other challenges we might face.

We dive in deep to talk about the challenges Roddy encountered during each race, how he maintained a positive mindset despite those challenges (including episodes of some insane hallucinations during the 6633 Arctic races), and what he's hoping the world will gain from his story.

Roddy is one of those rare individuals who has been on my short list of people I was hoping to interview for the show. This is a special look into the mind of a tremendous athlete, but equally as important, a tremendous human being simply working hard to make a positive impact on the rest of the world.

On today's show we have Karen Bone and Morgan Hodge.

Growing up in Western Canada, Karen was part of a super active family. She was a dancer and outdoors enthusiast, but when type 1 diabetes entered into her life as a young adult, she had a new challenge to deal with. While Karen was super strict with her health and making sure she was militant in keeping her health in check, she hid her type 1 diagnosis from the world. It wasn't until a trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa that Karen truly accepted her reality and felt comfortable being public with that diagnosis.

We talk quite a bit about Karen's hike up Mt Kilimanjaro with a team of other type 1s, and that segment we discuss preparation, the challenges associated with a week long hike up and down the tallest mountain in Africa, and the challenges she faced with insulin dosing and fluctuating blood sugars in the changing conditions Kilimanjaro is known for.

We then move on to discuss Karen's climb up the Tour de Mont Blanc, which is in the French, Italian and Swiss Alps. It was during that trek that she faced significant mental challenges including how to deal with dramatic temperature swings and difficult climbing conditions including narrow ice ridges, and her fear of being swept down the mountain by a river formed of melting snowpack.

Our conversation then shifts to Karen's husband, Morgan, who is a kinesiologist and coach. Because of Karen's day to day with type 1, Morgan has taken a keen interest in how different modes of training require varied preparation. Morgan, being a self-proclaimed 'geek' when it comes to stuff like this, shares what he has learned about Karen and type 1 when it comes to steady state training, high intensity interval training, and resistance training.

This is a unique look at how one type 1 athlete and her scientist husband have started to make sense of what can be a pretty fuzzy area for many of us with type 1.

We do get a bit deep in science at times, but if you're an athlete or if you're training for something, I think this offers us a great look into different types of training and a number of the variables we should all be considering to optimize our training.

This is a conversation of taking on challenge and expanding the boundaries of our comfort zone. It's also a discussion on the importance of monitoring our bodies and recognizing patterns during training so we can take on those challenges.