Podcast
Your Best T1D Year
Hosted by Neil Greathouse · EN
Managing Type 1 Diabetes doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
Each 5-minute episode of Your Best T1D Year is packed with practical strategies, mindset shifts, and a little humor to help you feel more in control and less frustrated by diabetes.
Hosted by Neil Greathouse, this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday podcast delivers quick, relatable episodes that make learning about T1D effortless - so you can build small wins that lead to big changes.
📅 New episodes drop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
🎧 Subscribe now and start making diabetes management feel easier - one small habit at a time.
68episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Study That Proves Pre-Bolusing Works | 15 Minutes, 50 Points | T1D
1w ago00:06:25Tap to summarizeToday Neil stops saying "trust me" and starts saying "here's the study." A trial published in Diabetes Care found that dosing rapid insulin 15 minutes before a meal dropped the blood sugar peak to about 167, versus about 221 when dosing at the meal. That's a 50-point lower peak, from timing alone. Same dose, same food.Then the twist that keeps you from getting weird about it: a second study in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics found 20 minutes early won at the one and two-hour marks, but 30 minutes early did NOT beat 15. There's a sweet spot, usually 15 to 20 minutes for most people on regular rapid insulin, and your exact number is yours to find. This is the proof that this one small change is worth it.In this episode:The Diabetes Care study: 15 minutes early cut the peak by about 50 pointsWhy earlier isn't automatically better (the sweet spot explained)The 15-to-20-minute window most people land inHow to start hunting for your own personal pre-bolus timingThis Week's Challenge: Get honest about your natural timing right now. When you sit down, are you dosing early, late, or mid-chew? Find your starting line.Helpful resources and newsletter: https://yourbestt1dyear.comConnect with Neil: TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@the.betes Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebetes Facebook: https://facebook.com/neilgreathouse LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/neil-greathouse-a607b912 Website: https://yourbestt1dyear.comBooks on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time: https://a.co/d/6UHooWJ Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories: https://a.co/d/dfIlyI1
Transcribe →Why Food Beats Insulin to the Finish Line | Pre-Bolus Science, T1D
1w ago00:05:08Tap to summarizeHalf the planet is watching the World Cup, so Neil explains the mechanism of the post-meal spike in soccer terms. Your food is the striker, already past the defense. Your insulin is the defender who got subbed in late and is still jogging back. That mismatch is the entire reason you spike.This is the "how it works" episode. Regular rapid-acting insulin takes about 15 minutes to start, peaks around an hour, and lasts three to four hours. Your dinner carbs hit your bloodstream almost immediately. Dose them at the same time and the food scores before the insulin is even in the game. The fix is simply to put your insulin in first, so they arrive together and your CGM line stays flat and boring, which in type 1 is the dream.In this episode:How fast rapid-acting insulin actually works vs. how fast carbs hitThe pharmacokinetics of insulin timing, in plain EnglishWhy a "flat and boring" CGM is the whole goalHow pre-bolusing matches your insulin to your foodThis Week's Challenge: Keep watching the gap between your dose and your first bite at dinner, and now you know what it means. Every minute your insulin is behind, the food is on a breakaway.Helpful resources and newsletterConnect with Neil: TikTok | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | WebsiteBooks on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time | Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories
Transcribe →Pre-Bolus with @bolusandbiceps | Amanda Mueller
2w ago01:02:30Tap to summarizeEverybody with type 1 diabetes knows they should pre-bolus. Almost nobody actually does it. In this episode, Amanda Mueller (@bolusandbiceps), certified personal trainer and T1D coach, breaks down why insulin timing is not a willpower problem... and how to fix it one meal at a time.Amanda was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 24 after landing in the ICU with DKA and a blood sugar over 1,000. She spent years checked out from her diabetes before strength training brought her back. Now she coaches women with T1D on exercise, insulin timing, and the hormone-blood sugar connection almost nobody talks about.We cover pre-bolus timing, fear of hypoglycemia, exercising after insulin, closed-loop pumps and why the algorithm doesn't save you at mealtime, and what to do when the food shows up late.Part of The Head Start pre-bolus challenge.What We CoverGetting diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as an adult (and why it hits different at 24)The DKA story: phantom baked-goods smell, the ICU, and a blood sugar over 1,000Diabetes burnout and the years Amanda disassociated from her T1DHow strength training rewired her relationship with the diseaseWhy she coaches women with T1D specifically (hormones, cycles, and insulin)Pre-bolusing 101: what it is and why timing beats mathThe research: dosing 15 minutes early can cut post-meal spikes by about 50 pointsFear of going low: the real reason your bolus is latePre-bolusing before exercise without crashing mid-workoutStrength training vs. cardio and what each does to blood sugarClosed-loop pumps (Tandem Mobi): why you still need to pre-bolus on an algorithmWhat to do when the restaurant food runs late (hint: it's not failing, it's adapting)About Amanda MuellerAmanda Mueller is an ISSA Certified Personal Trainer, Corrective Exercise Specialist, and Nutrition Coach living with type 1 diabetes since her diagnosis at age 24. Through Bolus & Biceps, she coaches women with T1D on strength training, insulin timing, and blood sugar management around exercise and hormones.Follow Amanda // Instagram: @bolusandbicepsHelpful resources and newsletter: https://yourbestt1dyear.comConnect with Neil: TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@the.betes Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebetes Facebook: https://facebook.com/neilgreathouse LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/neil-greathouse-a607b912 Website: https://yourbestt1dyear.comBooks on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time: https://a.co/d/6UHooWJ Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories: https://a.co/d/dfIlyI1
Transcribe →The Simple Fix for Post-Meal Spikes in Type 1 Diabetes
2w ago00:05:19Tap to summarizeSHOW NOTES: We’ve spent a week and a half in the problem, the spike, the loop, the fear. Today the sun comes out. Neil turns the corner to the fix, and it’s almost annoyingly simple: your food is fast and your insulin is slow, and when they start at the same time, the food wins the first hour. The fix isn’t more insulin or better carb counting. It’s timing.You give the insulin a small head start so it’s awake by the time the food arrives. Same dose, same dinner, different clock. That’s the whole name of the challenge, The Head Start. Neil keeps the science for next week and instead leaves you with hope: the early low you’ve been afraid of is a timing-and-preparation problem, and those can be solved.In this episode:The one-sentence reason you spike after mealsWhy the fix is timing, not more insulin or new gearWhat “The Head Start” actually means for your dinnerWhy the fear of the early low is a solvable problemThis Week’s Challenge: Notice the GAP. How long between when you dose and your first actual bite at dinner? For a lot of us, it’s zero. Just clock it.Helpful resources and newsletterConnect with Neil: TikTok | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | WebsiteBooks on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time | Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories
Transcribe →Every Reason You Don't Pre-Bolus (and why they're all valid)
2w ago00:05:38Tap to summarizeSHOW NOTES: Here’s the quiet part said out loud: the reason you don’t pre-bolus is not that you’re lazy or that you don’t care. It’s that it scares you. Neil names the specific fear at the center of the whole challenge, the fear of going low before the food arrives, and tells you the truth, 34 years in, it still scares him too.This is the episode nobody put in the pamphlet. The pamphlet says “pre-bolus 15 minutes before your meal” and leaves you alone with the little spike of panic when the arrow turns down and the food isn’t ready. Neil validates that fear completely, because it’s not a character flaw, it’s your survival brain doing its job. And then he promises what’s coming: not pretending the fear away, but out-preparing it.In this episode:The fear of hypoglycemia and why it stops us from pre-bolusingWhy that fear is normal, rational, and not a personal weaknessWhat the pamphlets never tell you about insulin timingHow we’re going to face the fear instead of ignoring itThis Week’s Challenge: The next few times you decide NOT to pre-bolus, catch yourself and notice what you’re feeling. Fear? Forgetting? No time? Just get honest about it.Helpful resources and newsletterConnect with Neil: TikTok | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | WebsiteBooks on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time | Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories
Transcribe →Fear of Going Low: The Real Reason You Don't Pre-Bolus
3w ago00:05:32Tap to summarizeSHOW NOTES: Here’s the quiet part said out loud: the reason you don’t pre-bolus is not that you’re lazy or that you don’t care. It’s that it scares you. Neil names the specific fear at the center of the whole challenge, the fear of going low before the food arrives, and tells you the truth, 34 years in, it still scares him too.This is the episode nobody put in the pamphlet. The pamphlet says “pre-bolus 15 minutes before your meal” and leaves you alone with the little spike of panic when the arrow turns down and the food isn’t ready. Neil validates that fear completely, because it’s not a character flaw, it’s your survival brain doing its job. And then he promises what’s coming: not pretending the fear away, but out-preparing it.In this episode:The fear of hypoglycemia and why it stops us from pre-bolusingWhy that fear is normal, rational, and not a personal weaknessWhat the pamphlets never tell you about insulin timingHow we’re going to face the fear instead of ignoring itThis Week’s Challenge: The next few times you decide NOT to pre-bolus, catch yourself and notice what you’re feeling. Fear? Forgetting? No time? Just get honest about it.Helpful resources and newsletterConnect with Neil: TikTok | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | WebsiteBooks on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time | Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories
Transcribe →The After-Dinner Blood Sugar Spike, Explained | T1D Pre-Bolus Challenge
3w ago00:05:22Tap to summarizeSHOW NOTES: You counted the carbs. You took the right dose. Two hours later you’re 240, and you have no idea why. If that number breaks your heart a little, this episode is for you. Neil sits in the problem of the post-meal spike, the one that feels like a personal failing but almost never is.This is the roller coaster every person with type 1 diabetes knows: spike, correct, drift low, snack, climb again, and it’s 9pm and you’re stacking insulin and snacks in the dark. Neil makes the case that this whole loop usually traces back to one thing, the food got a head start and your insulin spent the first hour catching up. It’s not your discipline. It’s your timing. And timing is the most fixable variable in type 1.In this episode:Why the after-dinner spike feels like your fault but usually isn’tThe correction-and-crash loop that wrecks your eveningWhy the timing of your dinner bolus is the most fixable variable in T1DWhat this challenge is really trying to give you backThis Week’s Challenge: Keep noticing your blood sugar two hours after dinner. Peek at your number right before you eat, too. Two snapshots. Change nothing yet.Helpful resources and newsletterConnect with Neil: TikTok | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | WebsiteBooks on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time | Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories
Transcribe →Why You Don't Pre-Bolus (you know you should)
3w ago00:06:06Tap to summarizeSHOW NOTES: You already know you should pre-bolus. Your endocrinologist has told you. Every diabetes educator has told you. And you still dose with your first bite, same as the rest of us. Neil Greathouse, who has lived with type 1 diabetes since 1992, kicks off The Head Start, an eight-week challenge all about pre-bolusing your insulin, by admitting he doesn't do it perfectly either.Here is the reframe that changes everything: pre-bolusing is not a knowledge problem. Almost nobody with type 1 needs it explained. It's a fear problem, a forgetting problem, and a "the food came late one time" problem. Over the next eight weeks, we fix it gently, using dinner as our meal, with about 1,500 people doing this challenge worldwide.In this episode:Why pre-bolusing is the most-ignored advice in type 1 diabetesThe real reason we don't do it, and why it isn't disciplineThe one stat that proves you're not the only one (more than 1 in 4 meals gets a late or missed bolus)Why we're building the whole challenge around dinnerThis Week's Challenge: Change nothing. Just notice your blood sugar two hours after dinner. We're taking a "before" picture before we change a thing.Helpful resources and newsletter: https://yourbestt1dyear.com Connect with Neil: TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@the.betes Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebetes Facebook: https://facebook.com/neilgreathouse LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/neil-greathouse-a607b912 Website: https://yourbestt1dyear.com Books on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time: https://a.co/d/6UHooWJ Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories: https://a.co/d/dfIlyI1
Transcribe →While You Were Sleeping Challenge Finale
4w ago00:06:17Tap to summarizeSHOW NOTES:Eight weeks ago, Neil asked you to do one thing: write down how many hours you slept last night. That was the whole challenge. That was where it started. One number. And here we are.This is the finale of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge -- 24 episodes, 8 weeks, and the most thorough look at sleep and type 1 diabetes that Your Best T1D Year has ever done. Neil closes with the full arc: from mystery blood sugars and 3am wake-ups, to the 21% insulin sensitivity finding, to the dawn phenomenon, the sleep-blood sugar feedback loop, cortisol, Fear of Hypoglycemia, sleep stages, alarm calibration, pre-sleep routines, and the one habit that ties all of it together. Then he makes the case that should change how you think about sleep permanently.Sleep is not a passive rest state for people with type 1 diabetes. It is a metabolic tool. And now you have it.In this episode:The full While You Were Sleeping Challenge recap -- all 8 weeks, all the mechanismsWhy sleep is a metabolic variable, not just a wellness recommendation, for T1D peopleWhat "managing T1D while you sleep" actually means biologicallyThe one thing to carry forward from all 24 episodesWhat's coming next for Your Best T1D YearFinal Challenge: Share one thing you learned in the last eight weeks. Tag @thebetes on Instagram, or tell one person -- someone with T1D, or who loves someone with T1D. One ripple.Helpful resources and newsletter: https://yourbestt1dyear.comConnect with Neil: TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@the.betes Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebetes Facebook: https://facebook.com/neilgreathouse LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/neil-greathouse-a607b912 Website: https://yourbestt1dyear.comBooks on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time: https://a.co/d/6UHooWJ Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories: https://a.co/d/dfIlyI1
Transcribe →The One Sleep Habit That Improves T1D Time in Range
Jun 2200:06:11Tap to summarizeSHOW NOTES:Eight weeks. Twenty-four episodes. The dawn phenomenon, cortisol, alarm fatigue, sleep stages, Fear of Hypoglycemia, CGM as a proactive tool. If Neil had to give you one thing to keep from all of it -- just one habit -- here it is: go to bed at the same time every night.This is not a joke, and it's not oversimplified. It's the finding from the 2023 T1D sleep study with 76 participants that Neil has been referencing throughout this challenge. Bedtime consistency was the dominant sleep variable associated with time in range -- not total hours, not sleep efficiency, not how many times you woke up. Consistent bedtime. Every extra hour of bedtime variability was associated with roughly 10% less time in range. And the effect runs both directions: more consistency, better glucose outcomes.We're in Week 8 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. Three days from the finish line.In this episode:Why consistent bedtime is the single most impactful sleep habit for T1D time in rangeWhat the 2023 research actually says -- and why it's the clearest finding in the whole challengeWhy your body doesn't know it's Saturday (and what that costs you weekly)The Jerry Seinfeld productivity method applied to your bedtimeHow to pick your time, commit to the 60-minute window, and start the streakThis Week's Challenge: Pick your bedtime. Say it out loud. Write it down. Commit to it through the end of the challenge -- including this weekend.Helpful resources and newsletter: https://yourbestt1dyear.comConnect with Neil: TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@the.betes Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebetes Facebook: https://facebook.com/neilgreathouse LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/neil-greathouse-a607b912 Website: https://yourbestt1dyear.comBooks on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time: https://a.co/d/6UHooWJ Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories: https://a.co/d/dfIlyI1
Transcribe →