JOYFUL DIABETIC

Contact Us

Will Ryan on 01 Dec 2008

9 Responses to “Contact Us”

1. Michael Aron on 03 Dec 2008 at 11:24 PM #

   Will:
   Great web site. I’ll be sure to check it regularly. I love the doctor’s comment about the ideal weight.

   Michael Aron

2. debbie kliff on 05 Oct 2009 at 10:26 AM #

   Will,
   Hi. My name is Debbie Kliff. My husband is David Kliff, publisher of Diabetes Investor, a national newsletter covering the business of diabetes. David is a Type 1 diabetic that wears a omnipod pump and is dedicated his life to the business of diabetes.

   For years David covered diabetes, he always came back to in fact – ranted about the lack of simple user friendly diabetes education. He complained that everything involving diabetes was presented in a negative format. He decided to do something about it. Together we created a user friendly education site that had only positive reinforcement. We use rewards as our incentive to learn and take control of your diabetes health and wellness.

   After running a successful beta test site for nearly a year we are about to launch our national site, healthyoutcomes.com. HealthyOutcomes.com is a completely free website that is interactive, fun and helps diabetes patients in a positive format. We have had amazing reviews from AADE, ADA, Animas, LifeScan, Medtronics, CanAm, Bayer, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Home Diagnostics, Amylin, Lilly, Sanofi-Aventis and many, many more. The reason I have chosen to contact you is because I sincerly believe after going throw your site you have great handle of diabetes. I am looking forward to hearing what you think about healthyoutcomes.com.
   Debbie Kliff

   Debk@healthyoutcomes.com

3. Amy Flick on 09 Feb 2010 at 5:54 PM #

   Will,

   I spoke with you earlier today when I was at work at Medtronic and you called for some assistance with your pump settings. It was great talking to you – your positive attitude really came across on the phone!

   I don’t have time to read all of your site right now but what I have read so far is awesome. I have had Type 1 diabetes for 41 years and have found some things to be thankful for – like having to watch what I eat so I do not eat chocolate all day and weigh 200 lbs.

   I am co-chairing a group of Type 1 Adults through JDRF and wish you lived here so you could come be a guest speaker! We are just starting this group and I am planning on telling everyone who is at the meeting next week about your great attitude and about your awesome blog!

   Thanks for calling in today so I could have the pleasure of speaking to you and finding out about this great new resource.

   Take care and keep up the great work!

4. Will Ryan on 09 Feb 2010 at 7:14 PM #

   Thanks for your reply, Amy. I deeply appreciate your endorsement of my blog site and also appreciate that you were willing to add to it.

5. Pat Sellers on 16 May 2010 at 4:48 PM #

   Will, Finally Diabetespowershow.com had a new segment and it was you! Very interesting! I download their podcasts and listen to them as I walk or if I can’t sleep. Charlie Cherry offered to have me on their podcast, but I ended up changing jobs and moving after he offered and I have emailed him again, but he has not responded – a surprise since they had not put up a podcast for a while.

   I had suggested that they use some people who are not healthcare professionals to speak on their podcast almost two years ago when I was first diagnosed with type II diabetes. I am totally in line with you – people who need to learn to live with diabetes do not need health professionals ONLY telling them what to do or not do. They need emotional support or advice from those who have struggled to manage their diabetes and can tell how they did it – ordinary people living with diabetes and managing it!

   I decided that I had grandchildren to live for and was not going to let diabetes define who I was – I was going to control it. It was not going to control me! My mother’s older sister was type I and died missing fingers and toes and blind at 58. My mother’s mother was also diabetic and died at 60. I was actually furious at my doctor for not being more serious about me being pre-diabetic a few times over the previous to diabnosis 6 or 7 years. She just said “look up a diabetic diet and try it for my health”. She never said when you cross that magic number you are diabetic for life and your whole life will change. I have written 7 chapters of a book I am working on about becoming diabetic. My preface uses the movie phrase, “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take this anymore”. I would love to help others who are prediabetic understand the ramifications, so I am never shy about explaining that I am diabetic and share my diabetic diet with anyone who saw me lose weight or finds out I did and wants to lose weight. I tell them they don’t want my condition, but that the diet is the healthiest way to live your life – but it must be a lifestyle change!!

   I read everything I could about diabetes and decided to follow the diabetic diet given to me by my diabetic dietitian. I set up a spreadsheet and never missed writing down every morsel of food I put in my mouth, my exercise, and my stress or mood for the day along with my BG. I needed to lose some weight and ended up through my diligence to the diet, carb counting, and exercise losing 60 pounds in a little over 9 months. I have kept it off for over a year now. I walk 3-5 miles a day and still count carbs, although I do let myself have some special meals every so often. But most days I am thankful that I do not tire of eating mostly the same things. I east at least 2 r 3 servings of both fresh fruit and veggies everyday. My main evening meal is carefully prepared from Diabetic Living recipes or my own recipes with careful counts of carbs, proteins, calories, sugar, and fiber. I also make my favorite recipes, then portion them out into small containers, so when it is time to eat, I just microwave my exact portion and add a salad and usually a few triscuits (good fiber!).

   My doctor also said just check you BG 3 times a week. No one can tell what affects their BG from 3 readings a week. I take my BG 3-4 times a day and am currently doing the 2 hour test from an article in the last Diabetic Living magazine. I take my BG, eat, then take my BG again 2 hours after my first bite to see what foods raise my BG the most. I am a researcher and statistician in real life and a past math teacher, so it comes naturally to me to research everything I do and see if I can control for one thing at a time to determine what makes my BG change the most. I hit the exercise if I cannot explain a spike from what I eat – since it is most likely stress if food cannot explain a spike.

   I really want to finish my book and have a friend who is a two time breast cancer survivor who now has diabetes as well, who wants to help me finish it. She thinks there is a definite connection between her cancer and her diabetes.

   Thanks so much for mentioning your blog. I don’t always have a lot of time to follow everything I would like to, but sure loved your time on diabetespowershow! I can’t believe that you are also 70! When I read the beginning of your blog – you said you had a heart procedure just this past week. I hope you are doing well and will have to check your blog every so often to see how you are doing!

   I also want to check into the conversation mapping you mentioned! Hope to comment every so often and check on you and what you write! Pat Sellers (psellers@purdue.edu)

6. Nicky Saldeba on 01 Apr 2011 at 2:46 PM #

   Thanks so much Will!! Very inspiring site and information. We need more of these types of positive feeds for our diabetic community. As positivity and joyfulness is all medicinal and healing too. Keep your chin up when the down moments come as we pray for you to continue being a positive spirit as you have done for us. Your attitude is definitely the right one we totally agree. Thank you. God bless you. Nicky (Nottingham, UK)

7. Will Ryan on 02 Apr 2011 at 12:53 PM #

   Your comments are inspiring to me, Nicky. Appreciation and encouagement keep me going. Thanks a bunch.

8. Patricia Taylor on 23 Jun 2011 at 5:52 PM #

   Hello there,

   I am not a joyful diabetic. i may be joyful but I am a person with diabetes. Do not call me a disease! I am so tired of telling people not to label me ‘diabetic’. I am many things including a person with diabetes. How dare you be so cruel and insensitive. Do you call people with cancer, cancerous. If not, I’d suggest the next time you call someone diabetic, you call the next person with cancer, cancerous. Sounds no worse than diabetic. No, I am not impressed with this website.

9. Will Ryan on 24 Jun 2011 at 1:49 PM #

   Thanks for your feedback, Patricia. I used to be very sensitive to the name, diabetic until I decided that the name has no meaning other than what I assign to it. My title, The Joyful Diabetic is a registered trademark and is thus protected. You’re the first person who’s objected to it. You say you’re a grateful person and that sounds good to me. Nearly all of the feedback I’ve received has been positive as many have read and commented on my posts. If you can be OK with my title, maybe you’d like to comment on one of more of my posts.

   BTW, those with cancer regularly refer to themselves as “cancer survivors.”

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