Diabetes: Dealing with the negative

“Unless you puke, faint, or die, keep going!”

If you recognize this quote then you must know who Jillian Michaels is. If not, I will give you a quick breakdown of who this amazing woman is:

She is best known for her role as a Personal Trainer on the reality TV show “The Biggest Loser”. She has written many books, has done tons of workout DVD’s, trained a lot of celebrities to look awesome, just released a fitness class called “BodyShred” to Goodlife Fitness Clubs, and is currently on tour giving motivational talks on her “Maximize Your Life Tour”. She’s just an awesome, down to earth, realistic, kick-ass person. She can be a hard ass, but if you follow her at all, you know she’s just a genuine person trying to help other people. Not just with exercise, but with health and life in general.
And I suppose this is where my story starts… like me, my mom loves Jillian Michaels. Any magazine she is on, we buy it… any TV show she’s on, we tape it. So, I got my mom and I tickets for Mother’s Day to go see Jillian speak in Hamilton. During the show, we were up pretty close and I couldn’t believe how inspiring she was. Talking about everything from food contents, to fitness, to health in general, and more importantly, enjoying your life and making the most of it. This last part included getting rid of the negativity and shit people in your life.

Now how does this relate to Diabetes? Well, me being obsessed with my diabetes like I am, the negativity part really hit home with me. If you’re diabetic and reading this, you know how much negativity and scepticism we have to fend off… all… of… the… time. And not just from other people, but from ourselves! If we didn’t ignore the negative that goes through our own minds, and replace it with a more positive or logical thought, we would all be passed out from Diabetic Ketoacidosis, because being negative and giving up on Diabetes isn’t an option for us. It won’t fix the problem, it will only make it worse. And we always have to pick other people up from their negative comments and look past it, or encourage more positivity.

I previously wrote a blog article about some seriously negative stuff that had gone on with my Diabetes involving a friend and other things. You can check it out here: Diabetic or Has Diabetes? The speech that Jillian Michaels made, really had me realize that as a Diabetic I can’t let that kind of crap bring me down. And as harsh as this sounds, you have to wipe bad crap out of your life, including the people who just make you miserable half the time you are with them.

It can feel good to do a spring cleaning in life. Instead of the negative, I try to turn to inspiring people. Like Jillian Michaels, or another friend of mine who is a fitness instructor at Goodlife who I met a while ago doing one of her classes, or Connected in Motion. My friend from Goodlife works as a dietician at a Diabetes clinic, and every fitness class I do with her I know she’s on the lookout for me and my Diabetes. As strange as this sounds, I can almost see it on her face, and I know what she’s thinking. And I gotta tell ya, this gives me such a feeling of reassurance and confidence that someone else in the room is looking out for me, but at the same time knows I can handle it and have it under control. And not only that, commends me on the fact that I am so active with Diabetes. And, she gives me little tidbits of advice related to diet and diabetes, and fitness and diabetes. And then there’s Connected in Motion, that also gives that feeling of reassurance and comfort, with a side of encouragement. I’ve met some pretty wicked people who climb mountains, tour the Yukon, race an Ironman and Triathlons’n’shit. Cool, positive people.

So, LATER in the show, my mom and I decide to upgrade to VIP passes. What did that get us? Well, it got us a close and personal Q&A with Jillian Michaels and some 30 other people in the room. 2 rows away
from her looking up at her talk was AWESOME. And then….my name got picked to stand up and ask her a question and talk to her.

I almost shit myself.

I got up, and she looked at me and said hi.

Again, almost shit myself.

I asked Jillian if she had ever trained or worked with a Type 1 Diabetic.

Yikes. I struck a sticky spot. But I didn’t even think that would be a tricky question. Understandably, for liability reasons, she couldn’t say much to that and apologized. To be honest, I didn’t word it right. I was more so looking for experiences she has had with it, and not for ADVICE, especially medical. And in the diabetes community we all know that’s a sensitive topic, to give advice on it in case the person comes back at you. Regardless, it again brought me back to realizing that diabetes IS such a sensitive topic, and I really wish it wasn’t.

Moral of the story, the woman is absolutely right about making the most of your life through the people you surround yourself with and the things you do. And this definitely relates to Diabetes because if we didn’t use the people and tools we are offered to help us, life would be a lot harder and a lot more miserable. I know I wouldn’t be as happy as I am if I hadn’t met people from Connected in Motion or the other awesome people in my life. Here’s a quote from her book “Unlimited” to end off:

“Be brave and be patient. Have faith in yourself; trust in the significance of your life and the purpose of your passion. You are strong enough to sit in the space between spaces and allow divine inspiration to shed some light. When you put positive energy and productive effort into the world it will come back to you. Occasionally in ways you might not immediately understand and on a time frame you didn’t expect. Look. Listen. Learn. Stay open. Your destiny is awaiting you.”
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