Welcome to the first installment of a new weekly series here on The Life of a Diabetic. Every Tuesday, I will be featuring an interview with a diabetes advocate and/or “influencer” in the diabetes community. These interviews will ask the same questions to every person.
Today’s interview is with Ali Abdulkareem. I first stumbled upon Ali on Instagram and saw that he set out on a goal to create a daily diabetes VLOG. That was almost a full year ago and he is still going strong. I hope you enjoy his answers and that you connect with him on social media.
1 – Who are you? (Name, where do you live, what do you do for a living, favorite hobby, sports teams, etc.)
Hi! My name is Ali Abdulkareem. I am 22 years old and live in San Diego California and immigrated from Iraq with my family around 1999. I am a part-time job coach for adults of special needs while aspiring full time diabetes content creator through youtube vlogs, instagram content, and my podcast, “the diabetes hustle.” My hobbies are weight training, listening to hip hop and making beats and am an old 22 years old haha, I love watching movies with my loved ones and enjoy my quiet time. I don’t have any favorite food, that’s definitely a touchy subject for any food lover for sure!
2 – What is your connection to diabetes?
My connection to diabetes is feeling the urgency to live as healthy as possible while putting a smile and hopefully extra years for my peers, hey that rhymes! I love showing the community my flaws and insecurities because it reminds everyone that no one has it all figured out. I wanna make living healthy with diabetes the cool thing in todays age.
3 – Give us the elevator pitch version of your diabetes diagnosis.
Elevator pitch. First got diagnosed as type 2, then saw Endo, Endo said ill be cool just insulin, decided to celebrate at Olive Garden (Italian restaurant) with my brother post diagnosis and didn’t think I needed to pick up this new prescription called “Novolog” and “Lantus” just quite yet…..
4 – What made you decide to start sharing your diabetes? (For example, why did you start an IG account, blog, Facebook group, etc.)
I decided to share my life with diabetes because I wanted to make my impact on the world somehow and a year after diagnosis, I felt diabetes content was my route and calling. Started with instagram and youtube content
5 – Obviously there are a lot of facets of diabetes, but what is your number one passion to share about diabetes? (For example, sharing signs and symptoms, mental health, eating disorders, governmental issues, etc.)
My biggest push to everyone reading is LEARN! I cannot stress the importance of how much this disease is intense thus we need to show up in this life with intensity I.e learning about the human body as a whole, learning about yourself and what can unlock your best self to be that better spouse, friend, son and so forth. The beauty of this disease is the uglyness that come with it, and I believe we can turn those hard times into the person we see ourself to aspire to be.
Bonus Question – Which do you recommend?
These books have made a massive impact on my life with diabetes!
2. Think Like a Pancreas: A Practical Guide to Managing Diabetes with Insulin – Gary Scheiner
3. The Diabetic Muscle and Fitness Guide – Phil Graham
5. Diabetes Burnout: What to Do When You Can’t Take It Anymore – Dr. William Polonsky
6 – What’s in your diabetes bag? (Pump, MDI, meter, syringes, adhesives, CGMs, etc.)
My diabetes bag includes my glucometer, lancing device, test strips, medical card id, extra needles, while I still carry my PDM (Omnipod) where I go. Oh! and glucose tabs of course Lol!
7 – Where do currently get your diabetes news? (Favorite blogs, IG, FB, Twitter accounts, etc.)
I get a lot of my diabetes news from Instagram and sometimes Youtube. Some of the best advice I’ve gotten comes from books and YouTube videos while some of my favorite accounts are on Instagram that I adore!
8 – Share three blogs or IG accounts that everyone reading this should be following.
Three accounts everyone should follow.
1. The.Insulin.Type (Leah) she is a big advocate of eating low carb to achieve normal blood sugars with all types of diabetes and to shatter the image of all type 1 diabetics in a sense of management.
2. Happypancreas. (Whitney) One of my closest friends and someone who truly inspires me to go beyond just blood sugar, carbs and insulin. She goes into all aspects of health to break down the pieces of why certain things affect our overall health.
3. Thebetes. (Neil) Probably the most funniest most positive person I know in this space. Lets just say his videos push me to make the funniest most outrageous stuff on earth with diabetes, Lol.
9 – Let’s get real for a minute. What do you struggle with the most when it comes to diabetes? For me, it’s my weight. I can’t ever seem to lose weight. I lose it, then it comes back and being over weight creates stress and anxiety of not being around for my child in the future.
My biggest struggle with diabetes is food. I have been dealing with a major food relationship ever since my diagnosis. Went through and currently, major binge eating. I am currently seeing a therapist and I know this will behind me in the near future.
10 -What is the #1 myth about diabetes that just gets under your skin every time you hear it?
#1 myth about diabetes that’s drives me bananas is, well, its very controversial but, you can eat whatever you want and you just need to figure out dosage and you’ll be fine. I totally hate the stigma about diabetics is that we can’t eat sugar, that drives me nuts but I’m a big believer that putting the right stuff in our bodies and exercising properly will in return make our life with diabetes easier. Why make such a difficult disease that revolves around health even harder?
11 – What is your top diabetes hack? For example, before inserting a new CGM you do XYZ or you use syringes instead of pens because of XYZ.
Best diabetes hack is dipping your meter and test strip in your drinks to make sure they are not pure sugar and actually low carb. Meters will either read “LOW” or something below 20 mg/dL (1.11 mol/mL) ITS WORTH THE STRIP, JUST DIP!
12 – What is one thing you would like someone without diabetes to know about living with diabetes?
One thing for my non-diabetics, It is VERY difficult to achieve normal health, I have to work three times as hard as they do to have somewhat near normal health.
13 – What is your favorite “healthy” food option?
Fav healthy food option, low carb pancakes, YUM!
Now we’re going to do a little this or that.
Cats or dogs? – Dogs all day
Coffee or Tea? – Coffee but tea is healthier haha
Fruits or Veggies? – Veggies bro!
Sweet or Salty? – Sweet
TV Series or Movies? – Movies!
Apple/Mac or Windows? – MAC-PAC!
Ice cream cake or regular cake? – Ice cream cake yo
Pancake or Waffle? – Pancake for sheezy
Book or eBook? – Books
Pineapple on pizza is great or pineapple on pizza is a crime – Pineapple on pizza is basic, Aint no crime, im arab man. Seen more diversity in my microwave…
Take this time to add anything else. Add more to your story, include all links to all of your social media profiles and blogs, VLOGs, websites, etc.
SUBSCRIBE HERE to the diabetes daily hustle! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgPM9FFVTOX5gN_qnVHRNA?
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Catch me hanging here with my Diabuddies!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ali.abdlkareem/
The Diabetes Hustle Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/diabetes-hustle-podcast/id1313087483?mt=2
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