Managing life with type 1 diabetes

My name is Chris and I am a lot of things. I am a father. I am a husband. I am an Entrepreneur, CEO. I am a person living with diabetes. I am a MiniMed Ambassador. I am also a lot of other things including, Philadelphia Eagles fan, Uncle, Brother, Son, Friend. And like everyone else I only have 24 hours in a day. So, the question arises…..how do I manage everything? 

Unfortunately, these aspects of my life are all intermingled and a lot of the time, one will affect the other. For example, a late night working on a client proposal may affect my blood sugar levels the next day, which then affect how my body feels which could then affect my conversations with my wife or clients. One thing ties into the next. 

Managing all aspects of my life must be done together. So, here are a few ways that I balance my health, life and work.

Healthy Start

One of the first things that I need to do in order to balance everything is start my day with a healthy, fresh start. That begins with getting a good night’s sleep and then eating breakfast every morning. I try to eat breakfast with my wife and daughter to get family time in before heading off to work. This also provides my brain the food and energy it needs to properly work throughout the day. And, when I eat breakfast (usually 3 eggs with cheese) it helps to level out my blood glucose levels until lunch time.  
 

Turn the Phone Off

Smart phones have completely changed our lives. Access to the internet, emails and social media has become so simple that we are all within an arm’s reach of a phone at all times. I use a phone, tablet, and desktop throughout the day while I am working, so when it is dinner time, all the technology gets turned off for at least an hour so that we can have family time. This helps relieve any stress that may have occurred during the day. It’s also a time to allow my blood glucose levels to calm down a bit from the stresses that arise from being an entrepreneur.

Diabetes Technologies Turned On

Although I like to turn my phone and tablet off for a bit, keeping diabetes technology on is a must. With all of the tasks that are on the checklist every day, knowing I don’t have to worry about my diabetes, takes a ton of pressure off my shoulders. I can just let my insulin pump and CGM do what they do and alert me when something is wrong, which thankfully gives me one less thing to worry about.
 

Know What Really Matters

Health, Wealth and Family. Everything in my life can pretty much be put into one of these three pillars. Is there a specific order in which matters more? Absolutely. 

Health - without my health or being around, the other two items don’t matter. In order to love my wife and daughter and friends and family or spend my money… I need to be alive. 
 

Family is next, and then wealth. 

For me, it is important to know what really matters. I know that I need to put my health before a business meeting. If I need to correct a blood sugar or change an infusion set, then that is what is going to come first. 

At the end of the day, there is a lot to balance in everyday life, which others who don’t live with diabetes may not understand. Diabetes throws a lot of curve-balls at you. Just about as many as entrepreneurship and fatherhood does. The main thing to always keep in mind is to take a deep breath, figure out what is most important and go with that.