I’ve grown up witnessing continuous innovation in health technology, experiencing the advancement in diabetes treatment from disposable insulin syringes to tubeless pod therapy.

Yet I’ve always questioned the absence of solutions addressing conditions at the root, despite there being multiple treatments in the ecosystem.

It wasn’t until I was 14 that I decided to pursue my curiosity and view myself as someone who could make a positive difference in this space, despite the advantages I was already granted. These would include my physical proximity to health technologies for over a decade, my own experiences as a patient, and the knowledge I could attain, alongside the skillsets I could develop just by having access to devices that connected to the Internet.

In spite of that, I spent a lot of the latter half of my childhood feeling like I was missing out. Without being able to drink Kool-Aid and eat Doritos as I pleased, I viewed my quality of life as inferior in comparison to my peers.

I found it really difficult to accept “everything is good in moderation” when the faces of kids around me would light up with each bite of a cosmic brownie. Naturally, as I grew up, my experiences granted me wisdom; how I acted upon it varied.

Eventually, when I was around 10 years old, I determined that I didn’t want a health condition to define me. Initially, it was much easier to selectively pretend it didn’t exist and continue to go about my life.

In school, when I wasn’t actively thinking about it, I thought I had reached the furthest extent of productivity, healthy friendships, and contention. If I didn’t bring up my health condition, no one around me would. So, soon enough, it disappeared almost entirely from my mental space when I wanted it to.

As I matured, I grew to care more and more about what I was putting in my body, so I chose healthy foods, but my meal times remained pretty inconsistent, and I prioritized checking my blood sugar the required 4 times a day, less and less.

Overall, I don’t recall doing much outside of the absolute non-negotiables. Outside of intense environments like school, where I was enrolled in the IB Middle Years Programme, I would make more of an effort to fulfill the requirements and follow the recommendations for a young type 1 diabetic.

However, this adapted lifestyle inevitably wasn’t sustainable.

I still remember my nurse saying “Diabetes is a constant. You can’t choose when you have it and when you don’t.”

I’m extremely thankful that my pediatric medical team would make every effort on their end to make taking care of my health easier. They would introduce new devices I could use, notably the FreeStyle Libre CGM, and discuss different routines I could experiment with, like having an early dinner when I didn’t have the appetite for lunch at school.

Nevertheless, at the end of the day, improving my health came down to me and my intrinsic motivation. As long as I could live what I thought was a fulfilling and stable life at the time, I could be okay settling for a condition that was mediocrely maintained.

During the months leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, I felt an increasing amount of exhaustion and fatigue as I worked through my first semester of grade 9 alongside several extracurricular commitments.

In March 2020, when the pandemic came about, my most significant shift in priorities was self-development in every angle.

With the additional leisure time, I could no longer make any excuses for neglecting my health. Before this period, the friction at the beginning of any task or resolution led me to fixate on the discomfort of changing my habits despite the rewarding benefits that would come.

This is why it was a lot easier to take additional units of insulin each time my glucose levels were above target rather than prioritizing healthier eating habits and more [consistent] physical activity to prevent the spike in the first place.

My habit changes started with doing 10-20 minutes of aerobic exercise a day, which eventually progressed into a minimum of 45 minutes of high-intensity activity daily. As I became aware of the enhanced concentration from the release of endorphins and increased energy levels due to reduced hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia episodes, I craved more.

My willpower to optimize my health and wellness grew exponentially when I was intrinsically motivated and valued each habit instead of perceiving them as obligations.

My new routine became so intertwined with my thriving state that it pulled me into a mental state primed to perform. Through lifestyle changes, I reduced my hemoglobin A1C by 3% and maintained it in a normal range for the first time.

For several years, I hadn’t realized that what was actually good for my long-term health wasn’t a punishment or a limitation on freedom. Instead, it was the catalyst for me to find my passion for building proactive rather than reactive solutions that serve as preventative interventions.

In order to leverage the lifelong adventure I am undertaking with my health to execute my ambitions, I had to eliminate the dissonance that existed at any layer.

I can admit that it’s pretty hypocritical to want others to make informed decisions regarding their health if I choose to be responsible for maintaining my condition only when it’s convenient for me.

Turn your wounds into wisdom.