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Fact: T1D community is such an important thing for our overall T1D health.
Hi friends! This post is long overdue.
Way back in July, I presented at Connected in Motion’s Western Slipstream – an adult camp for us T1Ds that is all about community. The topic I explored with my fellow T1Ds was discomforts of eating in uncertain environments.
This was my fourth year presenting at Slipstream. The first was virtual during Covid times; all others have been in person.
Every year I go, I leave with my heart feeling so full. I am inspired, energized, reassured, and invigorated. I always leave with a mindset motivated to create more positive change for our community. And I always leave with a notebook full of new workshop topic ideas to further explore.
You – my T1D peeps – do this 🙂
Slipstream: all about T1D community
I love camp; seriously, I love it.
I went to T1D camp as a kid, from the age of 10-15, and I loved it so much that I became a camp counsellor in my early 20s for three summers at a US camp. When I first discovered Connected in Motion in 2008 or 2009, I begged them to come to BC. At that time they were solely hosting events in Ontario and maybe Alberta. And by the time they finally came to BC, I was a new mom and couldn’t square the time away.
I am so grateful to have that time now.
Connected in Motion is all about building T1D community. And the T1D community is pretty freaking phenomenal!
Connected in Motion was first started in 2008 by a fellow, active T1D, who wanted to provide a place for people like her to connect. From the website, Connected in Motion “creates a culture of support and engagement in diabetes self-management through experiential diabetes education and outdoor adventure pursuits.”
Essentially, it’s T1D camp for adults!
This year we had over 60 type-1s attending the BC Slipstream (and a resident bear: Garry the Bear) representing 726 years of T1D – that’s a whole lot of T1D knowledge!
Topic: Eating in Uncomfortable Environments
When I was asked to present again this year, I had just returned from a quick trip to Paris and had an upcoming work trip to Chicago in the works. I was sorting through the many food-related things that had occurred before, during and after Paris, and was navigating how to manage the solo trip to Chicago – food wise. I had also recently taken on a new role that had me eating dinner away from home once a week, most often at my parents’ or my sister’s.
There was a lot of eating discomforts for me to explore and navigate at this time.
And that’s how this year’s topic – Managing Eating in Uncomfortable Environments – was born 😀
In this workshop we explored:
What comfortable eating looks like.
What uncomfortable eating looks like.
We broke both of those sections down into the whos, whats, whys, and, hows. Why is this comfortable? Why is this uncomfortable? What makes this comfortable? What makes this uncomfortable? And finally we explored strategies for making the uncomfortable more comfortable.
This topic took us down several paths including, the discomforts of travel, work lunches, social gatherings, holiday meals, eating with non-T1Ds, and food specifics like high carb, high fat, high protein meals. It had us questioning whether carb counting was the most optimal strategy or if other strategies, like pre-bolusing and walking after meals, would be just as good or better. It was a formidable exploration that resulted in a large pool of peer-reviewed strategies for others to try.
My new friend Craig, who was diagnosed with T1D just nine months prior to Slipstream, travelled all the way from New Zealand to attend this year’s event. His comment after my session will forever be stamped on my heart: “Your session made coming to Canada worth it.“
To Craig, and all the others who attended and participated in my workshop – you make my efforts worth it!
Slipstream Highlights
Camp life is definitely filled with character. My first night, there was a mouse squishing its way under my door jam, resulting in a very loud shriek by me. The shriek was not loud enough to scare off Garry the resident bear, who a few witnessed exploring the dumpsters in the evening and … taking a dump himself in broad daylight – his poop was proof that plastic bags are not well digested!
My highlights of this year’s Slipstream include:
- Morning yoga on the beach – thank you so much Chelsey for that!
- Hiking to the wetlands, learning all about the lovely ferns by the lovely Maureen, and not feeling self conscious about stopping to treat a low
- Chats around the “campfire”
- And, of course, all the participation and strategizing that occurred in my workshop
Next Katie Bartel RD Workshops:
The next workshop in the ‘Be the Best T1D You Can Be‘ series explores pregnancy with T1D on Nov. 10. For more information or to register, click the link: bit.ly/4lwXo9G. These workshops are all virtual, which means anyone can join. One workshop is $60 or two or more is $50 each. Receipts will be provided. If you have any questions, email me at info@katiebartel.ca.