Diabetes is so widespread that almost everyone knows someone who is affected by it. Once you get it, it becomes a constant battle with blood sugars. Diabetic coach, speaker, and children’s book author, Amanda Bar shares her personal experience battling with Type 1 Diabetes along with her diabetic service dog, Shugga. She gives out the top three of the seven steps to balancing your sugars that will help you win your battles. Amanda paves the way towards more options you have, proving that if she can do it, then you can too.
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Listen to the podcast here:
Battling Blood Sugars With Amanda Bar
My guest is a diabetic coach, speaker and children’s book author. Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of two, Amanda Bar has known life no other way and is thriving years later. She’s chosen to give back to those that are battling blood sugars like her daily. Years ago, Amanda made a commitment to live a healthy life. She lost 40 pounds and maintained a 6.0 A1c ever since. The additional beauty that came from this transformation was her seven steps to balancing your sugars and lowering your A1cs, and a passion to coach diabetics to live an extraordinary life. She also has a diabetic alert dog named Shugga who alerts her when sugars get too high and too low. Since so many people wanted to know more about how this type of medical service dogs works, Amanda wrote a book called Battling BloodSugars: One Sniff at a Time. Shugga tells the story of how he was trained, works, and takes the reader on what it’s like to be a diabetic alert dog living with a Type 1 diabetic. Our ultimate goal is to inspire and help diabetes and diabetic families to keep living the sweet life.
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Amanda, welcome.
Thank you so much. I’m so honored to be on the show.
I’m impressed with your background. I wanted to learn more about what you’re doing.
We launched the book in 2018 about midway through the year. Since then, we’ve been building programs. What I’ve been doing is connecting with the community and a lot of social media. I know a lot of the families, especially the younger generation, are on social media. I’ve been posting videos, tips, and different ways to inspire diabetics that are living with this and battling these sugars every day and sometimes feeling alone. My passion is to be there for them and let them know, “I’ve had this for 30-plus years. You’re going to be able to do it too. You’re going to be able to live an extraordinary life. Diabetes doesn’t control you. You get to control it.”
I’m going to give you the top three of the seven steps. Number one is to believe in yourself. The thing with diabetes is it’s 24/7 and it doesn’t stop. I call it the diabetic coaster. Some days, it might be chill and easy. Some days, it feels like you’re doing loops, going super high and dropping super low. One of the things that I say about riding this diabetic coaster is one believe in yourself, that you can do this. Everything about diabetes is about managing and maintaining. Believing in yourself gives you that strength to say, “I can do this. I can do the steps.”
The thing with diabetes is it's 24/7 and it doesn't stop. Share on XThe interesting thing about diabetes is that we don’t cause it. It’s hard when you have something, and you get something that you didn’t cause. You didn’t choose it and it wasn’t anything that you had any say about. Coming up with this idea, believing in yourself, clearly for me, in my life gave me the strength to say, “Even though I have it, I can do a lot. I can do anything I want.” One suggestion I have for believing in yourself is to write two to three statements about how you believe in yourself and your ability to take care of yourself. Even if that’s like, “I’m a rock star, I’m a diabetic, battling blood sugar fanatic.” It’s anything that makes you feel good about yourself. Those are the belief statements that you need to remember, like affirmation, to put them on the wall to say, “Yes, I can do it.”
Number two is commitment. One thing I noticed with my diabetes was when I was in my teens, I was struggling with it. I was like, “It doesn’t matter. Why do I have to take care of myself? I’m going to eat whatever I want.” When I got to college and I was living on my own, I was like, “If I don’t take care of myself, who will? If I want to live a long life, I better get committed to my diabetes and committed to living a healthy life. If so, I am going to live a long time.” It was like something transformed in me when I got committed to my own health, not my mom giving me shots and my dad asking if I checked myself. It was my choice then. What I suggest diabetics do is make a list of what you’re committed to in taking care of your blood sugars and that might be, “I’m going to check myself daily. I’m going to make sure I monitor how much I’m eating. I’m going to watch how much I’m taking insulin.” Whatever that commitment might be for them, they have to make that for themselves.
The third one is a daily win. This one is super fun because in diabetes, my goal is to be in range 75% of the time, which I’ve done for quite a long time. However, the daily win is what helps you in those little increments because if you look at one day, it could look crazy. If you look at 90 days, it looks good on an average basis. If your blood sugars are going up and down in a day over 90 days, they start to even out. “What I’m doing for the long haul is making a difference even if I have one crazy day.” A daily win is, “What can I do every day that would help me with my blood sugars? Maybe I’m going to try not to go below 80 because if I go too low, then I’m going to have to correct, eat, and do these different things.” It’s building in at least one to two maybe even three daily wins that you know you can do, that you can win every day, you can feel good about it. Those are my top three.
I have a grandson with Type 1 diabetes. Those times when I would be watching him, he would come and stay at my house. I remember appreciating how difficult it is to keep it within a range. Setting that goal and meeting it, that’s huge, 75% of the time. To me, that sounds impressive.
You start to see those little wins come through, especially for Type 1. I get excited about a lot of things. Putting up a goal and hitting it in your diabetes is so much fun. Diabetes doesn’t shut off. You’re thinking about it 24/7. If you’re thinking about it and you get wins and you get to celebrate it, now it doesn’t become a drag. It becomes, “How can I do some more cool stuff with it?” “If I got to 75, could I get to 80? Is that possible? What if I even tried for 90? Could I get it?” It makes it fun to see, “What can I do with it? how far can I go?”
I never thought I could run a long distance. For those diabetics out there, families with diabetics, who are worried about exercise and, “How can I do some of that stuff?” Exercise has been my best friend. I didn’t know I’d be able to run a marathon. I wear a device that allows me to monitor my blood sugars and trained with my service dog, Shugga, on running. I was able to run my first marathon a couple of years ago. I thought, “That was good. I did it once. Could I do it twice?” Sure enough, I ran a second marathon a year after. There’s a group called Type One Run. They’re all Type 1 runners. They’re an amazing group, an inspiration for people that are thinking that, “Could I do something that’s beyond what is the norm for a normal person even and have diabetes and do it?” How exciting is that?
That is exciting and so much more positive. Sometimes, when we think of Type 1 diabetes, we think of restrictions, what they can’t eat or what they can’t do. I love this message of, “They can do anything they want.”
You’ve got to monitor manage, and make sure that you have the backups, have a deal of juice or some sugar in a bag. Wherever I go, no matter what, I always have some sugar backup. I always bring an extra supply. You never know when something’s going to fail, or you might need extra insulin. Knowing that if you can plan for it and you can do it, you’re unstoppable then. Now, it’s game on. What do I want to do next? I bring the positive to it because if you’ve got it for your whole entire life, you got to have fun and you got to enjoy it.
My daughter and her husband have done that with their son. He plays football. From when he was diagnosed at four, they’ve reminded him that he can control his attitude about it. It certainly makes a difference. I love your seven steps. I had not heard before of a diabetic alert dog. I was interested. How long have you had one?
I got Shugga for years now. To be honest, I didn’t know the diabetic alert dogs even existed. My husband was looking online and came across it and said, “Have you seen this?” I said, “There are dogs that can let me know if my blood sugar goes out of range? That is so cool. I want one for sure.” We looked all over the United States. There are different training facilities throughout the US. Shugga came from Texas. They have some here in California where I live. It’s finding a good facility that one you can potentially go meet the trainers, go see what they’re doing, I would say be more involved. I was so far away from his training that I wish I would have been closer. He came out great. We still had to work on stuff.
With a service dog, I would say it’s a lifelong commitment for that as well. Diabetes can be its own battle and a service dog is great. He lets me know. He’s literally saved my life a few times where I didn’t feel like I was low. He’s like, “You need to check.” The way Shugga works is everything is based on smell. He can detect by smell if the blood sugar goes too high or too low. What I found out is a high is more of a sweet smell which they say, “When diabetics are diagnosed, it has a sweet smell to the breast and when it’s low, it’s something vinegary.” Through trials and tests, we figured this out. What he does for a high is he’ll call me. When it’s too low, he’ll nose bump. He’ll take his nose and bump it on my hand or my leg or my side and let me know. If I’m not paying attention, he’s going to jump up. That’s another indication that, “Something’s going on. You need to check.” This could be any time, any day, even while driving in the car, I might get a paw on my shoulder. That’s how he knows how to alert in the car, paw across and hit me on the shoulder that I can then check and see where I’m at.
Did you have to drive to Texas to pick him up?
We flew out to Texas and went down to the facility. We trained for a weekend and went through the process of how to work with the service dogs, how to walk properly. I had to learn how to walk with a dog that heeled at your side, how to interact with him, how he works, and how to work with him if he starts to not work. He’s a dog so you have to continually work on the set training and making sure he’s alert whenever things are out of range. We spent a weekend and then we packed him up. Our first big trip was flying him back home. That’s when the adventure started.
It sounds like a big expense. Are alert dogs expensive?
They’re expensive. I wish insurance would cover them, but they do have a lot of different devices out on the market that the insurance does cover. They think the dogs are additional. If you want to have a dog then they can definitely help with your diabetic management, but it’s not a necessity. Insurance doesn’t cover it. We had to come out of pocket. We paid around $10,000. I’ve seen them as much as $25,000, but they go on average for about $15,000. It’s what I’ve seen.
The interesting thing about diabetes is that we don't cause it. Share on XThis sounds like a good opening for a non-profit.
When we picked our dog up, there was a diabetic family that had a baby. The baby was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. They got a dog because the baby had no way of indicating, “I don’t feel good.” They got a dog to help them alert. I saw even somebody that had diabetes longer than I and I’ve had it over 30 years. This gentleman probably had it for maybe 40 years. He said, “I live on my own. I would like to have additional help because I don’t have anybody else around. Whenever I’m out and about, this would be great to have in my diabetic management.”
You could see the spectrum of a baby to kids to people in their high school ages. It’s hard in the high school range and college because you’re always on the go and there are a lot of people. It takes a lot to keep the dog focused and to keep people from always interacting with the dog. The person that wants to get one in the family, that wants to get a diabetic alert dog. I would say, “Definitely do your homework. Make sure this is going to be a good fit and you’re ready for everything that comes with having a medical alert dog.”
It is no exaggeration that these dogs can save your life. We’re getting enough information out to the general public that service dogs are not to be petted. They’re on the job.
He’s so cute. He’s so adorable. Every service dog is extra cute for some reason. People look at me and obviously, I have a patch on his vest that says, “Not all disabilities are visible.” I’m a pretty girl. There’s a stigma that you’ve got to look like you’re disabled to have a service dog. I think this is one thing about diabetes that’s beautiful, is nobody would know I have diabetes unless I told them or unless I was wearing something. To have a service dog, we put ourselves out there, “I’ve got something going on, but people don’t think I do because I don’t look like it.” There are other disabilities that are out there that are not visible. There’s an education that needs to happen and the community in general that people know that disabilities don’t need to be visible for you to have a service dog to help you out.
It’s not surprising to me that you’re also a speaker and a coach. How do people contact you?
There’s one link that allows you to schedule a time to talk with me. If you’d like to learn more about the coaching program, what we offer, what we’re doing, definitely go there. If you want to check out our website, it’s BattlingBloodSugars.com. If you want to follow us on Instagram, we’re @BattlingBloodSugars. Get connected with us. If I can answer any questions, be a connection, so you know you’re not alone, that I’ve had diabetes for a long time. I would love to be able to share and connect with those out there.
Thank you so much, Amanda. This is valuable information.
Thank you so much. Keep living the sweet life.
Important Links:
- Battling BloodSugars: One Sniff at a Time
- Amanda Bar
- Type One Run
- BattlingBloodSugars.com
- @BattlingBloodSugars – Instagram
About Amanda Bar
Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of 2, Amanda Bar has known life no other way and is thriving 30+ years later. She has chosen to give back to those who are battling blood sugars, like her, daily. 15 years ago, Amanda made a commitment to live a healthy life. She lost 40 lbs and maintained a 6.0 A1C ever since. The additional beauty that came from this transformation was her “7 Steps to Balancing your Sugars and Lowering your A1Cs” and a passion to coach diabetics to live an extraordinary life.
She also has a Diabetic Alert Dog named Shugga who alerts her when sugars get too high or too low. Since so many people wanted to know more about how these types of Medical Service Dogs worked, Amanda wrote a book called, “Battling BloodSugars, One Sniff at a Time.” Shugga tells the story of how he was trained, works and takes the reader on what its like to be a Diabetic Alert Dog living with a Type 1 Diabetic. Her ultimate goal is to inspire and help Diabetics and Diabetic families to “Keep Living the Sweet Life”.
Contact Amanda for more information. Visit her website. Connect with her on Instagram and Facebook.