I was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes at age 13. I remember constantly urinating and wetting the bed happened all too often. One day in particular, I was having severe flu like symptoms. I felt like my chest was caving in and it became extremely hard to breathe. In a panic, my family rushed me to the E.R where they took my urine sample and knew immediately what was wrong. After that, it was long four days in the hospital.

The silver lining to being diagnosed with type I diabetes?

I shed the extra pounds (quick), and I wasn't the fat kid anymore. It seemed as though I immediately had more friends and an increase of confidence. But despite the physical payoff and confidence boost, I still struggled with the fact I was diabetic, I was embarrassed of it. I still wasn't normal like everyone else. I remember I used to hide my shots and blood glucose meter from friends, I didn't want to draw attention or try to explain it. This carried on into my teenage years when I would go on dates in high school and give myself shots under the table hoping my date wouldn't notice.

Now being in high school, parents left me on my own to take care of my diabetes and by doing so it taught me a lot of responsibility and independence. I had to learn to be fully in control of my diet and blood sugar. With losing the weight, and trying to understand diabetes more, I became a lot more focused on my overall health. My fitness journey really started in high school during a weights class taught by football coach Wooten. Because we had an oversized class it seemed like Wooten made the exercises a lot harder hoping some classmates would drop out, but I never did. It was a level of crossfit before crossfit was even a thing. Even though I would struggle to get out of bed the days following his class, I fell in love with weight lifting because I was good at it.

After high school I moved out of my parents home, started going to the local gyms, and began meeting other diabetics. My eyes started opening more and more at all of the major health issues diabetics can have if they do not take care of themselves. I had been diabetic for 5 years when I learned that actual limbs could be lost. Growing up, I thought I took good care of myself. I was working out and kept a pretty good eye on my diet but this was a big reality check, it scared the hell out of me. From then on I decided to always put my health at the top of my priorities list. I was going to put even more effort into taking taking control of my life. I went through a lot of trial and error with different pumps, insulins, and diets before I found what was right for me.