I have recently made the decision to start using mySugr. They were nice enough to send me a free mySugr Bundle. Below is my unboxing of the Bundle, as well as a FREE Giveaway announcement at the end!
To be eligible for the mySugr Bundle giveaway, simply enter below. You can enter up to 6 different ways and have a total of 9 entries into the contest. The TWO winners will be announced on Tuesday August 21 Tuesday August 28.
Entries are open until Monday, August 27 11:59 PM EST
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!
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.
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.
I’m a big guy list guy. I’ve used every kind of list method out there, but one that has always worked for me is pen and paper.
When I make a to-do list, I draw a circle then put the item next to it and once I complete the task, I color in the circle. I don’t know if this method has a name, but it’s what I was taught by one of my early marketing mentors about 15 years ago.
Well, the Power List itself is a concept that I learned from the MFCEO, Andy Frisella, and yes the MF stands for exactly what you think it means.
Andy has a very “get shit done” and “win” mentality that I also share, so his content obviously attracted me.
His concept of The Power List is very simple. Every day, write down 5 things that you must do today in order to achieve your goals or be who you want to become. These are not your daily work tasks for that day like, “email John about vacation time” but things that you know you need to do to become a better you. These 5 items are about winning the day. *See end of post to win a FREE copy!
So, what I do is take my goals for the year and break them down into monthly goals and then what do I need to do every day in order to accomplish those goals.
For example, I want to lose 50 pounds in 2018. I’ve gotten a late start because 8 months in and I’m only down 5. Anyway, in order for me to do that I must:
1. Wake up before 7 am
2. Go for a 30 minute walk
3. Eat less than 75g carbs and/or less than 1,800 calories
My other two current items on my Power List are:
4. Make 2 point of contacts
5. Create one piece of content
Those 5 things, if done every single day, will lead me to my financial goal for 2018, my weight loss goal, my education goal (I listen to audiobooks during walk to help me reach my 25 books completed in 2018 goal).
Now that I have the 5 items for the day, I must accomplish them. If I accomplish all of them, I put a W on that day and I won the day. If I did 4 out of 5 or 4.5 out of 5, then I lost.
I don’t like to lose.
The goal is to win every single day. Every day is a challenge or competition and you must win the day.
If you are able to complete the same task 25 days in a row, you can take it off of your Power List because by then, it will become a habit of daily life.
Here’s an example.
I’ve never been one to floss (my teeth, not the dance). So, I put “Floss” on my Power List. If I didn’t floss that day, I lost the entire day, no matter how much I accomplished. I dont’ like losing.
So, guess what?
I floss every damn day now because it is a habit by now.
I titled this post the Diabetes Power List because there are certain items on my Power List that are diabetes related, but they are also there to help me become a better person.
For example, the 30 minute walk at 6 am every day was initially to help stop my dawn phenomenon and get some exercise in to be healthy, but it’s done so much more. It’s helped with my mindfulness and stress and has helped me accomplish so much more in the day. I wrote about this recently how walking in the morning has helped lower my stress levels.
I know that some of you reading this may be saying to yourself, “life is not a competition, not everything is a competition, it’s ok to lose” and we can just agree to disagree from the beginning.
Life is a competition. If you are not becoming a better person, if you are not becoming better at your job, someone is going to take it from you. If you are not becoming a better parent every day or better spouse every day, then you are losing out on big opportunities.
I live by the 100-0 mentality (also a theme of Andy’s). And that mentality is that I want to crush my competition 100-0 every single time I step on the field.
I’m a big sports guy, so I use sports references a lot.
So, in my daily life, I live with diabetes, I’ve looked at my diabetes in so many different ways over the years. I’ve thought “well I have to live with it, so I will play nice with it” and “ughh, I hate diabetes” and “well I have to embrace it and love it”.
Well, none of those have worked.
I wake up and go to bed seeing diabetes as my competition.
Either I am going to win the day.
Or diabetes is going to win the day.
I plan on winning every day
And a lot of days ahead.
I recently reached out to Tidepool Community Manager, Christopher Snider, and asked a few questions about who Tidepool is and what is on the horizon. Check out the answers below.
(I’ll stick to 140) Tidepool is a nonprofit company focused on delivering great, free software that integrates data from various devices into a single location.
Tidepool started in 2013. Next spring will be our 5-year anniversary after receiving articles of incorporation as “Green Dot Diabetes”
In 2011, Howard Look’s daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Soon after his daughter’s diagnosis, he learned that despite the incredible technology that was available to help manage his daughter’s diabetes, getting the information off of those devices to help understand the data behind the diabetes was incredibly frustrating. Software, where available, had various compatibility issues with different operating systems, user experience was not friendly to people with diabetes or their families, and there was no way to see all of the data in one place. Being a software geek, Howard sought to create the solution he felt the diabetes community deserved.
That solution is Tidepool.
Howard’s experience in software development at Pixar, Amazon, and TiVo were a great foundation for understanding what had to happen. Then it was just a matter of building an initial team of advisors, assembling a Board of Directors, securing financial support through donations and grants from groups like JDRF, the Helmsley Charitable Trust, and private donors.
Founders of GreenDot Diabetes in 2012 were: Saleh Adi, Steve McCanne, Jenise Wong and Aaron Neinstein. Howard joined in March 2013. Then, Howard hired the initial team (Sarah, Ian, Ben, Kent, Brandon, Jamie, Jana, Nico) over the course of the rest of 2013. You can see the current team, advisors, and Board of Directors at tidepool.org/team.
Tidepool is for anyone interested in seeing diabetes data in a new light. Specifically, Tidepool is free for people living with diabetes and their caregivers to see and learn from their CGM, insulin pump, and meter data. Diabetes clinicians, including endocrinologists, nurse practitioners, CDEs, family physicians, and anyone else who helps their patients manage their diabetes. Separately, we provide data management services to researchers looking to conduct a clinical study that requires data from diabetes devices. Lastly, we are making data that has been anonymously donated by our users to the Tidepool Big Data Donation Project available to groups looking to perform analysis and innovation on a large scale.
3. Can you explain what the Tidepool Big Data Donation Project is?The Tidepool Big Data Donation Project is an initiative to propel diabetes research and innovation. Tidepool users are offered the opportunity to opt-in to participate, and in doing so, the data they upload is de-identified and placed in a big data “bucket” that we are able to license to interested parties. When you think about the amount of information coming out of a CGM or insulin pump every 5 minutes, then multiply that by, in some cases, years of continuous data. There’s a lot of potential for some really smart people to use that data to answer big questions and iterate upon innovation and opportunity in digital health, pharmaceutical, and academic settings.
We just launched this project a few months ago, so it’s still too early to say what will come of all this data. But transparency is at the core of what we do as an open source project and as new groups sign up to license data sets, we will keep the Tidepool and broader diabetes community informed.
We recently published the first blog post in an ongoing series that will look at insights we can learn from the donated data. The first one looks at CGM data: https://tidepool.org/lets-talk-about-donated-data/
4. How can people sign up?Anyone looking to start using Tidepool can go to https://tidepool.org/signup to create their free account. Follow the registration instructions, download the Tidepool Uploader (see a list of devices compatible with Tidepool at https://tidepool.org/devices) and you’re on your way to setting your diabetes data free!
The funny thing about this question is all of our work is open to the public. Our code is open source , our Design and In Progress Trello Boards detail what we’re working on, but if you’d like to skip to the good parts, in the next 6 months we’ll be working on (in no particular order):
While this is all happening, we’re also participating in the FDA’s Digital Health Software Pre-certification Pilot program to help create guidance for future digital health applications. Considering the other names on the FDA’s list of participating organizations, it’s quite exciting.
We’ll be sharing everything we learn with the diabetes community along the way (more about that here: https://tidepool.org/tidepool-fda-pre-cert-program-iteration/).
Tidepool was born out of the #WeAreNotWaiting movement. Rather than wait for someone else to develop a software solution to integrate diabetes data in an intuitive interface at no cost to the diabetes community, we are leading the charge. Similarly, we’re humbled by the work being done by the Nightscout, OpenAPS, and Loop communities, and can’t wait to see Bigfoot in the wild.
Seeing the JDRF announce their support for open protocols for automated insulin delivery further cements the tremendous impact that’s being done by some highly motivated members of the diabetes community to move this technology and the entire diabetes industry to a new level of potential.
tidepool.org is the first place to go for more information and sign up for a free account. We’re quite active across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram if you’d like to give us a follow.
Everything we do is in service of the diabetes community. Most of the Tidepool team is either living with, or caring for someone with type 1 diabetes. As far as the DOC is concerned, your fight is our fight.
If you ever have questions or comments, get in touch!
Send us a Tweet, comment, or email. We want to hear from everyone.
The other night during DSMA, there was a question posed that had to do with social good and the big players in the diabetes industry understanding the positives of social good. I mentioned to Bennet that the shift has began for companies to see the ROI of social good. But what is the ROI?
This is something that I have written about before in a couple of my other blogs that I write, but I thought it was a good fit to write about here.
The ROI of social media in general has always been difficult to calculate, especially when it’s not defined at the very beginning what the goal is. Typically, the C-Suiters need to see numbers like this. I spent $10, we made $20 from that $10, that means we made a profit. How can you tell exactly how much money you made by somebody building trust and a relationship with your company? Trust me, I own a business, it’s difficult to see that connection. However, a lot of businesses are able to see that connection, at least are starting to. Read More
You may recall my interview with Kendall Simmons from a couple of months ago. In this interview he spoke about the Swing 4 Diabetes golf tournament. The golf tournament is a large fundraiser for the needs of those living with diabetes. The money from this year’s event will benefit the Diabetes and Nutrition Center of East Alabama Medical Center.
For more information please visit – http://www.swingfordiabetesauburn.com/
I am not able to attend this outing, but I love golf and I love helping those with diabetes and I know you all do. If you’re in the area, please contact them to find out what you can do to help. Volunteers are always needed for events like this.
When I received an excerpt copy of Kids First, Diabetes Second, the very first thing that stood out to me was the cover. The cover includes art from Karen Graffeo that she created as part of Diabetes Art Day in 2011. This cover will grab your attention right away.
The book is broken down into very simple, easy to read chapters.
The first chapter introduces you to who Leighann is and gives a detailed description of Q’s diagnosis day. For those that have gone through a diagnosis, either your own or a family member or child, then you probably experienced many of the same feelings and emotions that are described in this book. I couldn’t help but think about some of the same thoughts and reactions to situations described in the book that I had felt on the day I was diagnosed almost 10 years ago. Read More
Community. What does it mean to you? If you all haven’t seen the video yet that has been quickly making it’s way around the intrawebs, then here’s a link to it, along with the full video at the end of the post. The video explains itself, but let me give a quick explanation. Somebody in the diabetes community had an issue with something. Doing what any real community would do, people stepped up. Would you expect anything different from somebody that created the You Can Do This Project? Or awesome video editing from a person that puts her dedication to the diabetes community into the videos that she helps product? Read More
About two years ago, I went into one of the Dunkin Donuts by my house and had a diabetes experience that sticks with me today. *Side note, I say “one of” the Dunkin Donuts because in south Florida you cannot trip and fall without landing in a DD. Anyway, when I went in there, my pump beeped so I pulled it out to hit the ACT button to get it to stop beeping. The cashier said, “is that an insulin pump?” I said, “sure is”. We began to have a short conversation while I was waiting for my bagel. Basically she told me that she was recently diagnosed with type 2 and that her doctor wants to put her on insulin, but she doesn’t want to give herself shots because she was too afraid. I told her that she can’t be afraid and just have to conquer her fears to save her life.
Fast forward to today. I have gone to that DD 100 times in the years since that occurrence happened, and I don’t think she remembered me. Until we had another diabetes experience this morning. I started to take my insulin while I was in line, trying to do that 15 minutes before meal time stuff. Unfortunately, I got the annoying beep, not the ‘doot-do-doo’ beep that goes off when you have a low reservoir, but the loud, obnoxious no delivery beep. So, I pulled the pump out to get the beeping to stop, and she noticed it again! What are the chances of that?!?
Long story short, she has lost 20 pounds and doctor took her off insulin and she is now on a once a day pill and strict diet. She quit smoking and hasn’t eaten fast food in over a year. You don’t always get a lot of time to talk to cashiers at DD in the morning time, but when I do get a chance, this is what I love to hear. Wish I could say the same to her, except I was ordering a large iced coffee, sausage and cheese english muffin, hash browns, and of course the Cupid Special heart shaped donut for Amanda. At least I know she’s not part of the diabetes police.
Well, have a great Valentine’s Day. Help boost the economy today!
This is going to be my second Friends for Life conference. But, it is going to feel like the first. The reason is because the first Friends for Life that I attended was about three years ago, but I had gone as a vendor. I was able to attend a lot of different sessions and interact with a lot of other PWD’s anyway. I was blown away by how amazing this event truly is. So, now that I am going this year not as a vendor, but just someone with diabetes, I can’t wait. I am also bringing my girlfriend Amanda. This is going to be the first time that she is traveling with me for a diabetes related event. She has gone to local JDRF walks and events, but never travelled to anything with this many people. I am excited for her to meet all the wonderful people that I know and speak to, but also want her to talk to some of the spouses of PWD’s.
When I first heard about Children with Diabetes and Friends for Life I thought that it was a gathering for younger kids and more like a summer camp for kids. After I attended and saw how many older people there were and how much interaction there was, it was amazing. It’s also great to be there and try and talk to the young ones and let them know that they can’t be discouraged because they have diabetes, because they can still do things that they want to do.
So, this is me telling you, that you should attend Friends for Life. I will mention one small negative about the event, is that it is during the July 4th holiday. I typically do picnics and beach on July 4th, but this year I am going to celebrate it in Disney and see how that goes. However, the first opening keynote is not until the morning of July 5th, so you can still be there for all of the sessions and be home for July 4th if that is a concern.
Please follow the links and get registered today! Children with Diabetes – Friends for Life 2012
Have a happy Blue Friday.