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Category: Diabetes Advocacy

hello again - diabetes blog

Hello, Again

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Wow, it’s been a long time.

I almost forgot how to sign in and post a new blog on this site.

I have been gone for a while, a long while. I disappeared from Twitter, the blog, the podcast I started last year, Instagram for a while and anything diabetes related.

So, why come back? Why now? And why did I leave?

Leaving was not something that I planned, but I knew it was coming for a while.

I was becoming so drained by all the negativity on every single post that I posted or tweet that I made. If my tweet or post did not align 100% with people’s views, they would just go on a full blown attack on me.

I guess that’s just the society we live in now, unfortunately in my opinion. Everyone’s opinion can be expressed, which is great, but you are not allowed to express an opinion that differs from someone else without being attacked.

And, I just couldn’t deal with it anymore. I couldn’t deal with people that woke up everyday looking for a fight, looking to just be negative and looking to just attack people for every little thing.

You could do 10 things and 9 of them be great, but the 1 that may not be perfect, just gets attacked. And I was sick of it….I am still am, but as I said above, it’s the society we live in now. It is our new reality.

I just needed a break from it.

A Diagnosis Changed it All

Then, in February, our lives changed forever. My daughter was diagnosed with Type 1. At first, it made me want to advocate even more and do even more. And then the double alerts started going off, one for me, one for her. Then she started on a Dexcom and we had two Dexcoms to change.

Then she started on an OmniPod and then we had two OP changes. Next thing you know, it was all day, every day mixed with alerts. Not managing my diabetes to the fullest because I’m too concerned with a 4 year old.

It became overwhelming, very fast.

I had nothing in me to write about the disease. For the first time in a long time, I had a totally different hatred towards this disease.

Add Another Child to the Mix

In the summertime, we welcomed another baby girl into our family.

No Sleep + Two PWDs + Newborn + Buying a House + No Sleep + Anxiety = Total Disaster!

I started to have multiple panic attacks every day. My blood pressure was rising (I had to increase my meds). I was not able to function throughout the day because I would become lightheaded and very foggy for hours straight. I couldn’t concentrate on conversations because I felt like I was just floating.

I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t eating well. I wasn’t managing my own diabetes well. I was constantly worrying about my daughter’s T1D. I was worrying about our newborn. I was worrying about whether our new home would close.

The absolute last thing I needed at that time was to be writing about all of this and then getting attacked by people.

So, I stepped away.

I wanted nothing to do with diabetes other than having to go through the motions of doing what I needed to do to survive each day and keep my daughter alive.

The Message

And then one day I got a message from someone. They told me that they used to read my blog for 7 years when they were first diagnosed. Then, later on they ended up having a kid and my articles about my fears when I first found out my wife was pregnant helped them get through their pregnancy.

Then their child was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as well. And my post last year talking about my daughter’s diagnoses helped them realize that everything is going to be OK.

That message started to drive me again to know that I couldn’t just give up on everything that I have been doing for the last 10-11 years.

And with that long story, I’m back.

So, Hello, Again.

patient device rights featured image

Patient Device Rights

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

It’s unfortunate, but our healthcare is primarily controlled by insurance companies. If the insurance companies are acting nice, then it can be our medical team. What about the rights of the patient?

I live with Type 1 Diabetes. This means that I live with a disease that does not go away. It takes zero breaks. It is working on me 24/7/365, so the only way to combat it is to fight back 24/7/365.

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David Mina– Getting to Know Diabetes_ The Interview Series

David Mina – Getting to Know Diabetes: The Interview Series

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Welcome to the second installment of a new weekly series here on  The Life of a Diabetic called Getting to Know Diabetes: The Interview Series. 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 David Mina. I first came across David from Instagram. He is one of the younger Type 1’s that I started following on Instagram. Please enjoy.

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Christel Oerum– Getting to Know Diabetes_ The Interview Series

Christel Oerum – Getting to Know Diabetes: The Interview Series

Chris Stocker

Welcome to the second installment of a new weekly series here on  The Life of a Diabetic called Getting to Know Diabetes: The Interview Series. 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 Christel Oerum. I first came across Christel during a #DSMA weekly chat a couple years ago. I have followed along with things she has been doing in the community and wanted to share her story and passion here. Please enjoy.

Christel Oreum T1D Looks Like Me

1 – Who are you? (Name, where do you live, what do you do for a living, favorite hobby, sports teams, etc.)

My name is Christel Oerum. I grew up in Denmark but now live in Santa Monica, CA with my husband and our dog Zoe. I left corporate America in 2015 and have since been running www.diabetesstrong.com in collaboration with my husband. The website is our main focus, but we also have a Facebook page (Diabetes Strong), a Facebook group (Diabetes Strong Community), Instagram account (diabetesstrong_ig) and Twitter (Diabetes Strong). Aside from my online present I also coach people living with diabetes from around the world and train some locally in Santa Monica.

My big passion here in life is resistance training and being active. So, when I’m not in the gym or working on the website and social media, I enjoy hiking with the family or walking up and down the beach in Santa Monica. After dark a good move or book on the couch is a favorite.

2 – What is your connection to diabetes?

I’ve been living with type 1 diabetes since December 1997.

3 – Give us the elevator pitch version of your diabetes diagnosis.

I was diagnosed at 19 by my PCP. I was suffering most of the common symptoms like extreme thirst, hunger, not gaining weight and I was deadly tired all the time. My family started to worry (I feel asleep at some family gathering) so I saw my doctor. After he lectured me on getting enough sleep and taking care of myself, he decided to measure my blood sugar, and instantly knew I had diabetes. He sent me to a specialist center and here I received excellent care. The nurse I worked with was the first one to tell me NEVER to let my diabetes diagnosis stand in my way. I’ve been on MDI ever since and now also use a CGM.

4 – What made you decide to start sharing your diabetes? (For example, why did you start an IG account, blog, Facebook group, etc.)

Christel headshotAfter moving to Santa Monica, I decide to intensify my workout routines and started to prepare for a bodybuilding competition (I competed in the bikini category). Since I wanted to be serious about my sport, I also needed to know how to optimally manage my diabetes when combined with intensive training. But I couldn’t find any relevant resources online on how to do so. Given I couldn’t find any online resources I started to document what I was doing online and Diabetes Strong was born (back then the site was called TheFitBlog). It quickly became evident that others were benefitting from reading my experiences and since the start in 2015, the website has grown to become the largest health and fitness website for people living with diabetes.

As we built out the website, we also started the social media channels as support. Primarily Facebook, but also to some degree Instagram, has been where the Diabetes Strong community get together and communicate directly. The Facebook group now has 13000 members and I’m so proud to see that people living with all types of diabetes thrive here and support each other daily.

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.)

That we all can live happy active lives with diabetes. With the right knowledge of our bodies and basic understanding of how our medications impact our blood sugar, limiting high and lows, even when exercising is possible. Another important factor is that we don’t have to fight this alone, there is a huge international online community that has your back at any time of day, all you have to do is reach out

6 – What’s in your diabetes bag? (Pump, MDI, meter, syringes, adhesives, CGMs, etc.)

I currently carry a very fancy waterproof pencil case that I got in Hawaii. In it is my fast acting insulin pen (Humalog), my BG meter, strips and lancet device. I also have a pack of 4 glucose tabs, some extra needles and alcohol swaps. Plus a stick of gum

7 – Where do currently get your diabetes news? (Favorite blogs, IG, FB, Twitter accounts, etc.)

2017-08-20 - Christel showing her meter at Gold'sI follow along on Facebook, Instagram and twitter (#diabetes), and get daily research news through ADAs DiabetesPro SmartBrief. I also like Insulin Nation and DiaTribe.

8 – Share three blogs or IG accounts that everyone reading this should be following.

Instagram @DiabeticsDoingThings
Instagram @t1dchick
Instagram @diabetesstrong_ig 😊

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.

I’m an all or nothing personality which can be taxing and make me slightly neurotic at times. It does mean that I sometimes go deep into the rabbit hole when it comes to my training, nutrition and diabetes management and it can take over my life to the point where it’s hurting my relationships. I constantly have to pull back a little and work on finding balance

10 -What is the #1 myth about diabetes that just gets under your skin every time you hear it?

That there is such a thing as a “diabetes diet”, that we can never eat carbs and that everyone should treat their diabetes in the same way

 

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.

I’m on MDI (multiple daily injections) and discovering the RapidCalc app has been a gamechanger. It’s basically a pump bolus calculator in app form. It does all the dosing calculations for you and keeps track of IOB. GAMECHANGER!!

Christel Biceps

12 – What is one thing you would like someone without diabetes to know about living with diabetes?

How much work it requires. We tend to just deal with it, and it’s often too much too explain, so many don’t realize that it’s not just taking a few insulin shots. That it can be mentally taxing and for some it become too much to deal with at time. Not because they are lazy but because it can be overwhelming and never goes away

13 – What is your favorite “healthy” food option?

The biggest crunchiest salad I can find with a good full fat dressing, cheese, tortilla strips and freshly cooked turkey. It’s filling, and all the different textures makes it a joy to eat

Now we’re going to do a little this or that.

Cats or dogs? Always been cats but now I have a dog
Coffee or Tea? Tea
Fruits or Veggies? Veggies
Sweet or Salty? Sweet all the way
TV Series or Movies? Why do I have to choose?
Apple/Mac or Windows? Windows
Ice cream cake or regular cake? Regular cake
Pancake or Waffle? Pancakes
Book or eBook? Book
Pineapple on pizza is great or pineapple on pizza is a crime? Definitely crime, big crime

Like what you read? Then sign up for The Life of a Diabetic newsletter to get all the week’s posts delivered directly to your email every Saturday morning.

Ali Abdulkareem – Getting to Know Diabetes_ The Interview Series

Ali Abdulkareem – Getting to Know Diabetes: The Interview Series

Chris Stocker

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.

ali type 1 diabetes

 

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!

1. Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars – Dr. Bernstein

2. Think Like a Pancreas: A Practical Guide to Managing Diabetes with Insulin – Gary Scheiner

3. The Diabetic Muscle and Fitness Guide – Phil Graham

4. Dealing with Diabetes Burnout: How to Recharge and Get Back on Track When You Feel Frustrated and Overwhelmed Living with Diabetes – Ginger Vieira

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!

ali diabetes daily hustle

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

Like what you read? Then sign up for The Life of a Diabetic newsletter to get all the week’s posts delivered directly to your email every Saturday morning.

dear diabetes awareness month

I Write This Post Every November 1

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

Here I am, writing the same post I write every year on November 1. No, it’s not wishing myself a happy birthday.

Unfortunately, it is writing about how much I used to love National Diabetes Awareness Month and how much I hate it now.

Why do I hate it?

Because PR people and marketers have ruined it.

Yes, I am a professional marketer by trade. I own a digital marketing company, so I totally understand people doing what their clients ask them to do.

But, damn, be better at your job.

Year after year I write about all the PR pitches that I get and how bad they are. They tell me how I’m going to die early because of these 100 reasons and then ask me if I’d like to interview an expert about it.

I live with type 1 diabetes.

Every.

Single.

Day.

Of.

My.

Life.

I am a freaking expert!

I love all of the awareness campaigns that are brought up during the month of November, but we really do need to capitalize on this opportunity to reach people OUTSIDE of the diabetes community.

I’ve seen some pretty aggressive marketing and campaigns from Beyond Type 1 with Dexcom and Panera and Real Good Foods, so I hope these help spread awareness outside of the current diabetes community.

Here’s to hopefully a great National Diabetes Awareness Month.

what dsma means to me -featured image

What DSMA Means To Me

Chris Stocker

For those that may not know what DSMA stands for, it is Diabetes Social Media Advocacy. This was something that was created just over 8 years ago at this point by Cherise Shockley. For those of you who do not know who Cherise is, she is the most caring and authentic person you will ever meet. Those that doubt that are just idiots and people who wake up every day looking to be negative.

DSMA Weekly Twitter Chat

DSMA grew into a weekly Twitter chat, every Wednesday at 9pm EST. In 8 years, I don’t know if there’s been a week that’s been missed or not. Today, the chat is still here and is still going strong, if not stronger than ever.

DSMA also became just a hashtag to use outside of the Twitter chat hours. It was used to help connect people. If someone had a question or needed help with something, they simply put the hashtag in their tweet and before you know it, that person had more answers than they could even respond to.

DSMA has been so critical in the way that I manage my diabetes. I have met thousands of people online and hundreds of people in person because of DSMA. It has helped me see different perspectives, different management styles and has allowed me to take part in conversations that I wouldn’t normally take part in out in the real world.

Friendships and Connections

DSMA has created lifelong friendships that I will forever cherish. It’s also allowed me to see some people that I would wish to never speak to ever again.

DSMA has been such a critical part of my life for the last 8 years that I really don’t know where I’d be without it. The connections that are made during DSMA are unbelievable. I’ve been able to take management styles from people that have complete opposite views of me in every other aspect of life, but, they have a unique management tidbit that may have helped me out.

Now, as in anything with life, there’s going to be people who wake up every morning looking for a way to knock people down. I will never understand these people, but Twitter has created an opportunity for people to do this much easier. Every tweet or hashtag usage is just negative. That’s how you know that DSMA is making a real impact. These negative people wouldn’t be wasting their time trying to knock DSMA down if it wasn’t such an amazing thing.

Give It a Shot

DSMA has completely changed my life for the better and I think it can for you as well. So, join tonight by going to Twitter with any device or app you want to use and follow along with the hashtag #dsma

Even if you just lurk and read all the responses, that is fine, but it will be worth your while.

Also, don’t forget that you have 5 different ways, and you can enter with all 5 different ways to win a FREE copy of Mike Lawson’s Open Up Your Bag: a diabetes picture book.

Open Up Your Bag: A Diabetes Picture Book

Open Up Your Bag_ A Diabetes Picture Book Review and Giveaway -featured image

Open Up Your Bag: A Diabetes Picture Book Review and Giveaway

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

There is a new diabetes book making its way around the world and I feel proud to call this person a friend. I’ve known Mike on the interwebs for probably close to 10 years at this point. I’ve only met him a hand full of times in person, but every time that I have, he has been one of the nicest, sincere people that I’ve met.

Mike just so happens to be an incredible doodler. And if doodler isn’t a word, then it is now because that’s what Mike does.

I’ve seen his doodles be used by an entire company as their avatars.

Mike has created the book Open Up Your Diabetes Bag: a diabetes picture book.

This book is filled with Mike’s doodles to help kids learn and understand their diabetes management a little better. You can also head to Mike’s website, DiabetesDoodles.com and download activities so your children can color his doodles!open up your bag diabetes book doodles

The book contains concepts of opening your meter bag, testing your blood sugar, taking your insulin and more. This book is intended for kids and that’s just what I used it for.

I read this book with my daughter multiple times and there’s a page in the book where one of the doodles is taking a shot with an insulin pen and my daughter laughed and said, “daddy that silly penguin is taking a shot like you.”

That comment right there made the minimal investment worth it.

The book is super small so I can’t give too much of a review other than that I back this book up and I highly recommend it for not only a child with diabetes but any parent who has diabetes and wants to explain diabetes management to their child.

via GIPHY

FREE GIVEAWAY ALERT

I’ve asked Mike if I could do a giveaway here and he said absolutely. So, guess what, that’s exactly what we are going to do!

You can enter this giveaway with multiple different actions. The more you do, the more entries you get.

Please see below for the details. The winner will be announced next Tuesday, August 14.

 

Open Up Your Bag: A Diabetes Picture Book

Why I Will Advocate My Way, Not Yours

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

In the diabetes community there is a lot of uproar over how you are supposed to advocate, what you are supposed to advocate for and who you are supposed to do it with. Now, I might be mistaken, but don’t I have the right to advocate my own way, about what I want to and with who I want to? I will always advocate my way, because it’s what works for me. I can’t advocate a way someone else wants me to or about someone else’s passion because then I don’t have any passion behind that advocating.

Advocating for something requires passion. Without passion, your advocacy efforts will die out very quickly.

Also, I strongly believe that in order to find a common ground or to get something from someone you must work with them. Attacking people, or companies, is not going to work. It just won’t.

You may not agree with me, and that is fine, it’s an opinion. Opinions aren’t facts, so they can both potentially be right.

So, if that requires me to work with an organization or company to find a solution, then guess what? I’m going to do that.

And guess what else? If you don’t like it, I don’t really care.

You advocate your way.

I will advocate my way.

Build the Tallest Building

They say that there’s two ways to have the biggest building in town.

1. You can just work hard and outwork everyone to build the biggest building in town.

2. You can knock down the current biggest building in town.

Now, I will choose option 1 every single time. I will never try to advance myself or my advocacy efforts by tearing down someone else’s efforts. And to add to that, I can’t stand people who choose option number 2. Put in the work, do more, and support others who are in the fight together (whether you think they are or not).

There are just a lot of negative people out there. Twitter has made it much easier for these people to be even more negative. Wake up complaining, complain all day, go to bed complaining, yet do nothing.

Those are the people who choose number 2 above.

Start working towards accomplishing number 1.

And that’s that.

Bottom line is this. We all have different passions. We may share the same end goal, but approach it differently.

There are people who advocate for the same end goal as me, and I may not agree with how they go about it, but I will still support it, because I know that there are some aspects of their advocacy that are actually helping push the ball forward. I also feel that there are things done that roll the ball back 10 feet for every 1 foot they gain, but that’s how they decide to do it.

Instead of spending time (wasting time) arguing with others how they are advocating, use that same time to push your advocacy effortsforward.

Insert something about bees and honey and vinegar here. I would never want to attract bees, so it makes no sense to me, but you know what I’m saying.

Spreading Diabetes Awareness with Vlog, Podcast, and Gifts

Chris Stocker

Today marks the start of another year or Diabetes Awareness Month. The last few years I have not done much during the month of November, because there is so much publicity around this month, that I used it as a break and let others do their thing. Well, I’ve decided to get back into this year.

And go all in.

Vlogging Every Day

First, I will be vlogging every single day in the month of November to bring as much awareness as possible to this disease and what it’s actually like living with it on a daily basis. So, if you are not subscribed yet, please go and subscribe over on YouTube.

 

Podcasting 5 Days a Week

That’s right, along with the vlogging, I will be launching a podcast starting today. This podcast will be 5 minutes, for 5 days a week. Mon-Fri and will launch at approximately 6 PM each weekday. Topics will be based around diabetes but also a focus on my life with diabetes which includes being a father, husband and entrepreneur.

 

because Diabetes

My wife started an Etsy shop earlier this year making custom wine glasses, coffee mugs, whiskey glasses, tumblers, etc. So I thought it would be a great idea to make something for the diabetes community. That’s where these “because Diabetes” glasses come in. Sometimes you just need a glass of wine, whiskey or coffee, simply because Diabetes.

50% of all profits from these glasses will be donated to 1 of 3 diabetes advocacy and insulin causes.

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