What To Do When You Still Over-treat Lows
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The episode, word for word
Tomorrow is a weirdly special day for two reasons.
First, it's my Diaversary, 34 years since I got diagnosed with type 1. Second, it's also the one-year anniversary of this podcast. Last year on my Diaversary, this whole thing kicked off. Week 1. Episode 1. "Let's see if this helps anyone."
Here we are at Week 52, and we're talking about one of the most emotionally loaded sentences in T1D: "I deserve this."
"I deserve this brownie."
"I deserve this slice of red velvet cake with an inch of cream cheese frosting."
Today, the cake is not on trial. The part we're going after is the script that says, "I only get to have this when I'm in survival mode."
I'm Neil Greathouse, and this is Your Best T1D Year.
Welcome to Friday of Week 6 in the Low Blood Sugar Challenge.
If Diaversaries feel complicated for you, totally get it. For me, it's become an origin story day. It's not "Yay, diabetes," it's "This is the day everything changed... and somehow, the day that led to knowing so many of you." That connection is what makes this worth it. That's what fuels this podcast.
Monday, we talked about guilt. Wednesday, we split "what you crave" from "what you medically need" when you're low. Today, we're rewriting the sentence, "I deserve this," so it doesn't always come attached to a blood sugar of 58.
If you're just jumping in, you can still use this. You don't need six weeks of perfect graphs to change one sentence in your head.
From the moment you're diagnosed, your relationship with food gets weird.
You're counting every gram of carb, every crumb, every sip.
People around you start labeling foods as "good" and "bad," and, bonus, you as "good" and "bad" depending on what you eat.
You get hit with "eat less," "don't be too strict," "no sugar," "but don't diet too hard," all at the same time.
Over time, that pressure tends to turn into one of a few patterns:
Strict during the day, then eating "off-limits" food at night when nobody's watching.
Avoiding certain foods for days or weeks, then going all-in on them for days.
Using lows as the perfect loophole: "I'm low, so now I finally get to eat the thing I've been telling myself I'm not allowed to have."
Lows become the "hall pass" for pizza, doughnuts, or gas-station pastries that have been on the internal no-fly list. It feels like a reward, but your body pays for it twice.
When "I deserve this" always shows up during lows, you're not just getting a treat, you're feeding a vicious cycle.
If you run the calorie math:
A conservative low-binge can easily land around 500 extra calories. Many real-life episodes push closer to 1,000.
A pound of body fat is roughly 3,500 calories, so:
500 extra calories once a week ≈ 26,000 calories per year about 7 pounds of gain.
1,000 extra calories twice a week ≈ 52,000 calories per year about 14, 15 pounds.
1,500 extra calories three times a week ≈ 78,000 calories per year roughly 20, 22 pounds.
Now stack that on top of life with T1D:
Around 60 percent of people with type 1 are overweight, partly because of the extra insulin and extra liver glucose they're already dealing with.
Binge-style eating episodes and big rebounds are linked in the literature to higher A1C, higher BMI, and more diabetes distress over time.
So when your brain says, "I deserve three slices of frosted supermarket sheet cake because I'm 55," the numbers are quietly saying, "You're giving that low a long tail, in your weight, in your A1C, in your risk, and in how exhausted you feel."
And then there's the shame tax:
People describe more guilt, more "I blew it," and less confidence every time a low turns into a binge.
That shame doesn't just live in that moment; it leaks into the next decisions, the next day, the next doctor appointment.
So the cost of "I deserve this because I'm low" is not just the snack. It's the cycle.
This is where we flip the script.
Old script: "I deserve this because my CGM is screaming at me."
New script: "I deserve to enjoy this when I'm not in survival mode."
Here's how that looks in real life.
Step 1: Keep lows strictly medical.
We've already set this as the challenge rule:
Low = Glucose Tabs, glucose gel, or Glow Glucose Gummies.
Measured amount, usually 8, 15 grams for most people, timer on, wait.
No cake. No pizza. No "bonus" snacks tagged on top. Glucose is medicine; everything else is food.
Step 2: Schedule the stuff you like.
Pick one thing you've been secretly using lows to justify:
Maybe it's a slice of carrot cake.
Maybe it's a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles.
Maybe it's those glazed doughnuts from the grocery store bakery.
Now give it a new job:
"On Saturday night, when I'm in range, I'm having a slice of that cake with a bolus and a fork, at a table, on purpose."
Same food, different timing. It goes from "panic reward" to "planned celebration."
And honestly, that's how a Diaversary works for a lot of us too. The date itself is hard; what you attach to it is where the power is. You can mark it as "the worst day ever," or as "the day the origin story starts and I meet my people." Both can be true, but only one keeps you moving.
Step 3: Ditch the morality language.
Instead of "I was bad, I ate pancakes," use questions that don't attack your character:
"Was that easy to manage or hard to manage?"
"Do I like how I feel after that?"
You're not a better person because you ate salad. You're not a worse person because you ate frosted cereal. You're a person making choices, and some are easier on your diabetes than others.
Think of your food choices like personal guidelines, not laws: flexible bumpers that help you feel good most of the time, without turning food into a moral exam.
Think about that Ted Lasso moment where he tells the team, "I think you might be so afraid of losing, you've forgotten what it's like to win."
That's a lot of us with food.
So afraid of highs. So afraid of judgment. So tangled up in "good" and "bad" that we've forgotten what it's like to sit down, be in range, bolus, and actually enjoy something without guilt or panic.
Rebuilding this isn't about winning every meal. It's about remembering you're allowed to like food and manage your diabetes like a pro at the same time.
Here's your question for this weekend:
"What is one food I want to stop using as low treatment... and start enjoying on purpose again?"
Is it cinnamon rolls?
Is it your favorite ice cream?
Is it that specific cereal you always inhale at midnight?
Pick one. Next time you're low, give yourself glucose instead, and save that food for a moment when you can actually taste it.
If this is your first episode, welcome to Week 6 of the Low Blood Sugar Challenge.
We're not just changing what you do when you're low. We're changing how you think about yourself, your food, and your patterns.
Go to yourbestt1dyear.com.
Sign up, you'll get one short weekly email, no spam, just one tool and one bit of encouragement.
This week's focus: lows get glucose; food you love gets its own moment, in range, on purpose.
You'll earn a digital badge at the end because adults deserve stickers for doing this kind of work. And yes, this is the same experiment running over here too, 34 years in, and still learning.
If untangling all this, the guilt, the lows, the food, feels like too much to do solo, that's where Blue Circle Health fits.
Blue Circle Health is a free virtual care program for adults with type 1. You get real endocrinologists, diabetes educators, social workers, and tech support for CGMs, insulin changes, mental health, and insurance headaches. They've already helped hundreds of people improve time-in-range and reduce diabetes distress.
They're now in 23 states plus Washington DC, including newer additions like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. This isn't a gimmick. It's actually free. There is no catch. Go to bluecirclehealth.org, see if your state is on the list, and sign up for free.
Type 1 diabetes is relentless, but managing it doesn't have to be. New episodes drop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
If nobody's said this to you lately: you're part of the reason this podcast exists. The stories, the messages, the "me too" moments, that's the good part of this origin story for me. 34 years in, one year of this show, and it still comes down to this: we're figuring it out together.
You're taking back food from the panic moments and giving it a better place in your life. That's a big deal. You're building something stronger than you realize. Keep going.
// Year 34 Day 1 #YourBestT1DYear
Week 53
Feb 16 - 158
This is the script as read on the mic, lightly tidied for reading. Education, not medical advice. Talk to your care team before you change anything about your insulin.