WHOOP Podcast - A Super Model for Health: How Bambi Northwood-Blyth Uses WHOOP to Stay Grounded

Episode Date: June 5, 2024

On this week’s episode WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance, Principal Scientist Kristen Holmes is joined by Australian-born supermodel Bambi Northwood-Blyth. She has worked with some of the most notable brands in fashion like Balenciaga, Chanel, Armani, Vogue, Elle, and more.  As a young woman living with Type 1 diabetes since the age of 11, Bambi is an outspoken advocate demonstrating how to manage her condition while simultaneously striving for your dreams. Kristen and Bambi discuss getting into modeling (3:25), being consistent in the fashion industry (7:06), the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes (10:32), finding your health baseline (14:26), building in mini moments of relaxation (18:55), staying in a healthy and neutral state (23:43), managing a global travel schedule (31:25), Bambi’s new business venture (37:39), dietary habits for diabetics (39:37), and advocacy for diabetes (44:25). Resources:Bambi's Instagram Follow WHOOPwww.whoop.comTrial WHOOP for FreeInstagramXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will AhmedInstagramXLinkedInFollow Kristen HolmesInstagramLinkedInSupport the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

What's up, folks? Welcome back to the WOOP podcast. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of Woop, and we are on a mission to unlock human performance. We got a great podcast for you today, but first, announcing the all-new Sport Flex band. That's right. This just dropped.

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that out. If you're not a WOOP member, great time to join. You can visit Woop.com. You can sign up for a 30-day free trial if you'd like. You can sign up for a membership. That's Woop. This week's episode, Woop, Global, Head of Human Performance, Principal, Scientists, The Amazing, Kristen Holmes is joined by Australian-born Supermodel, Bambi, Northwood, Blythe. She has worked with some of the most notable brands in fashion, like Balenciaga, Chanel, Armani, Vogue, L, and more, and widely admired for her carefree personality. She's quite the skilled businesswoman having a degree in social entrepreneurship and founding her first company this year. As a young woman living with type 1 diabetes since the age of 11, Bambi is an outspoken advocate demonstrating how to

manage her condition. Kristen and Bambi discussed how Bambi started modeling. The difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, how Bambi uses Woop to maintain her health and manage her diabetes, her chaotic travel schedule and life on the road, recovery and diet tips, and balancing her modeling career with her own business. Reminders if you have a question was answered on the podcast. Email us, podcastooop.com. Call us 508-443-4952. Here are Kristen Holmes and Bambi Northwood Life. Bambi, welcome to the group podcast. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm very excited to be joining me today. You know, I think the world of modeling is kind of unknown to the layperson. It seems like there are a lot of moving parts with travel

and just trying to maintain a level of fitness. And I mean, the energy required for that job seems to be massive. So I'm so excited to chat with you about how you manage all of that on top of it. You have diabetes. So you've got some extra challenges. So I don't know that we've we've ever interviewed anyone who is diabetic. So I think I cannot wait to dig into your data and talk about how you manage it and just behaviors that you adopt consistently that help you be able to maintain, you know, these kind of high performance levels that you seem to to be able to manage so so gracefully so tell me a little bit how did you how did you get into modeling yeah well thank you for a start because you know originally when I got this email to join

the work podcast I was like why me you know I saw you know people like Michael Phelb said and I'm like what could I possibly you know as a model like contribute to this but I do think by listening to the podcast there is a lot of common themes that people in industries, you know, where it is quite demanding or where there's travel or, you know, there's the unknown, but the commonality that we all, obviously, we're a whoop and we're all tracking these metrics for a reason. And, you know, whether that is, you know, you're trying to get the most out of your health or your work or your mental or your physical. And I think, you know, modeling on the surface can look a lot just like a beautiful image. But behind that is a lot of hard work

that goes into it to be able to kind of create that yeah it seems uh just having you know been part of just random photo shoots you know it's like literally to get one shot it's like a hundred photos you know and and it's like you the energy that that you need to mobilize like to be really present i think to get a great shot folks probably don't understand all that kind of goes into it so how do you how do you prepare for a photo shoot to kind of show up as you know the best version of your I have been modeling now for quite a while. I mean, if you want to step back about how I got into modeling. Like I grew up in Australia in Melbourne and I was occasionally modeling throughout high school. And just after I finished high school, it was one of those stories. I was at a music

festival. I was quite a tomboy. I was very sporty as I was growing up. But I remember, you know, I was in like denim shorts, red converse, a vintage t-shirt. And a woman came up to me and was like, you should be a model, come into the agency. You know, like, it was kind of like, okay, whatever, probably won't. But I did. I went into the agency on that Monday, and by the end of that week,

I'd shot a Harper's Bazaar cover, a gratia cover, and done yet three, like, big commercial jobs. And, you know, that, I was like, at the time, I didn't really know that that wasn't a kind of natural progression. Like, that didn't really know. How old were you? I was 18.

And shortly after that, I was put on hold to walk in a Valenciaga show in Paris, and following that was to work with Chanel. And so it did happen quite quickly, and it wasn't something that was, you know, I thought would become my career. So you've been in deep, essentially, for, you know, since you're 18, and I think to have that kind of longevity, You know, I work with a lot of athletes, right, you know, and who are, you know, trying to reduce illness and injury and, you know, to extend their careers, right? So these are baseball players and football players, basketball players. But I always make the case that, hey, this is not just about athletes, right? Like, you're trying to extend your career too, right? That has, it does have, you know, potentially an endpoint, right? At some point, you know, you might not be able to get these jobs, right? So you're trying to increase your, your long. Jebedee, right? And was there ever a moment in your career where you recognize that maybe behaviors were detracting from your ability to kind of show up and do your best work? Or have you always kind of been on this, you know, kind of straight and narrow path where you've been able to maintain consistency in terms of performance levels?

No, I think there was really a time that it was like, so I went from this 18-year-old girl and I was living with mom and dad and I was at home and I was at school. and my diabetes at that time was kind of really, you know, mom and dad really helped me look after it, you know, we had breakfast, we had lunch, was packed, we had dinner. It was all very, like, life was quite structured. And then I moved to New York when I was 19. I was in a model apartment, so that's, you know, eight girls for around the world, you're in bunk beds.

I was living on Park Avenue and you're running to different jobs every day. And like that whole idea of structure went completely out the window. but at the same time you're kind of you can't be the girl in denim shorts that just has been like discovered you suddenly have to be like a woman that's you know running this international career and I think you know after about seven years things just like the wheel started to fall off and what really I mean got me was a couple of really bad hypoglycemic events which is really low blood sugar and I didn't like I didn't wake up and that the ER had to come and I remember one really particularly and that was in 2019 and I was in Louisiana shooting a cover for Elle

magazine you know which is on the magazine stands and I'm the most smiling happiest girl and I saw that I don't like it nearly made me cry because I was like you know three hours prior to this I was in that hotel room, like I'd been unconscious for six hours. I had three IVs and like four nurses there, like waking me up. And so if I didn't have, you know, someone come and wake me up, I wouldn't really be here. So I was like, this is not sustainable and this is not going to work. And it was kind of like, it was up to me to kind of have the courage to change it because, you know, like, I was like, I don't want this to be my life.

And, like, 99% of all the jobs and travel that I do, I am alone. So, like, it's, I was like, that really scared me. And I was like, this is not how I'm going to live my life. Wow. What was the root of that hypoglycemic event? Was it? It's hard to tell because diabetes is such a moving target. You know, you can do one thing one day and you can do one thing next day

and you can have completely different outcomes. You know, unlike, say, going for a run regularly, you can kind of, you know, like with a whoop, you can track your heart rate and see that a similar kind of activities would have a similar kind of outcome. But I would say it was, you know, a mixture of I flew from New York. There's a bit of a time difference. I got in. I didn't have dinner.

I went to bed. I was jet lagged. Just a confluence of just all the things imaginable that would put you in that scene. That I knew would happen again. And it has happened again. And so what do I do now? like I pack snacks and I really make sure I have dinner and you know I have this Dexcom CGM where I have followers who can follow my blood sugar like there's there's other steps you can

put in place so it doesn't you know try and avoid that happening amazing just for the listeners just describe the difference between type one diabetes and type two diabetes you have type one right juvenile diabetes yeah so I have type one there is two types type one your body completely stops producing insulin and it's not reversible. So once that kind of happens, you then have to inject insulin via a pump or multiple daily injections. And it's really about, I guess, like what I kind of think of it is like it's your pancreas and you're operating it externally. So, you know, we have all these organs in our body that, you know, sometimes we take for granted that do these operations for us and we don't really know they're not.

working until something goes wrong. So you're kind of managing it externally and there's a lot of other factors that can influence it. So it's really like a juggle, I would say. That's like such a scary moment, you know, but I think sometimes I guess we need those moments in order to be motivated, I guess, to change our behavior to put some guardrails in place where we can ensure that, you know, we're protected against it happening again. yeah and so like shortly after that you know then I started getting you know kind of anxiety around going to sleep because I would be scared I would go low and then COVID happened just after that which in a way helped me kind of slow down and I went to Australia for a year and that was a really

good time for me to like I didn't get on a plane for a year which had never happened you know in the past 10 years prior to that so I kind of stopped and it was it was hard at the start to not be moving all the time it was really kind of foreign to you know have to invest in i mean your neighbors because i'd never really had something like that or like you know i actually do a full proper food shop and you know you have the flexibility to make my own meals because i was going to be at home for longer than a week but i did that and at the same time as that i was studying a business degree so I really kind of I just took it was like kind of taking some me time and it was really nice to be

to be able to stop and kind of learn and and think about how I wanted this next kind of phase of my life to be and so on return to New York after that year it really kind of motivated me to to do that and that's when I started wearing a woup and you know I started I really started to like think of like work and diabetes and life and you know sleep and mental health and physical help all is kind of one thing that I could influence rather than a bit like you know life's just happening to me like yeah how am I going to fix it it's great to hear that and I think for a lot of people COVID was uh you know that that time period we were all kind of locked down you know folks drank a lot and, you know, did struggles, right? Like a lot of folks gained weight. And, you know,

it sounds like you use that time really to figure out, you know, how, what you needed to do to really take care of yourself. And so in that time, I'm wondering, you know, what were some of the kind of non-negotiables that emerged for you, you know, during that time where you were kind of locked down and you were actually able probably to kind of get to a truer baseline, right? When you take out the variables of travel, you take out the variables of just the inconsistent timing of meals and, you know, some of these things that we know move around our health in pretty profound ways, which has been your default. Like that's just been your life, right? So you kind of take that away. Did your health improve, did you see your kind of metrics improve? And I guess if they did

or they didn't, I'm just wondering kind of what were the like big takeaways? I think was, I was in a way kind of addicted to like noise and like stress and chaos and I found the first three months quite hard to not have you know a massive to do list and not have to like you know meet like a hundred new people and that was a bit like I was really I didn't really know what to do and there was a lot of noise in my head so I think I had to like learn how to use that energy in a different way and you know it was like simple things like really long walks and like really like tuning out and listening to music and being okay to like sit still for you know a couple of minutes like it just wasn't something that I was really used to doing like I'm still not great at sitting in front of a

TV like I feel like I have to be doing something but I mean you know introducing yoga was a really great one. Just finding ways, I guess, to let my, like, my mind calm down a bit and not having it always have to be so frantic. And I think in terms of the diabetes side, it was kind of, it got me to be able to be a little bit more proactive rather than, you know, my, my CGM alarm saying I'm low and just being like, oh, what am I going to do? It was like, I'm okay. I've got, I've been a Nana and I've got some dates and I've got some nuts. I'm going to have that instead of just grabbing like a soft drink and then having this erratic spike up and this erratic drop.

Yeah. Yeah. So just being able to be more proactive, I guess, and, and just set yourself up for success. Now that you've kind of adopted some of these healthier ways of coping with diabetes, have you seen your performance levels improve in? any way? I have. I've definitely seen that trying to come back to that idea of like structured eating. And as much as, you know, that can be hard with airports and stuff, it's packing your own snacks and packing like food, like kind of trying to minimize the variables, which happen

when you're out of your home. So, so try and, you know, especially I think for work travel, like vacations are different. But for work travel, try and really, you know, maintain a home routine as much as you can. Packing snacks really helps sleeping when you can and, you know, at regular times, you know, or whether that's doing like laps around an airport terminal just to get some steps in because sometimes I feel like, you know, mentally you feel really drained from traveling, but you haven't really moved your body a lot. And yeah, and that's when I find, you know, you're waking up at 2 a.m. 3 a.m., because your body's kind of, it's weirdly awake. So trying to, you know, use some energy helps as well.

You know, it's interesting. I wanted to just pull on a thread. You mentioned just the idea of being able to quiet your mind and kind of be in force in a position where, you know, you had these moments of downtime and you were, you know, didn't have that like super busy to do list during COVID. You know, I find this with a lot of the high performers I speak to. They are way more comfortable in the noise, way more comfortable in the kind of chaos. And that leads to, a highly activated state, right? And when we're, you know, that's good for short term, right? Mobilization of energy and being able to kind of perform in the moment and be able to respond to the demands of the moment. But when you sustain that over time, that stress that you're mobilizing kind of intermittently, consistently becomes chronic stress. And now we start to build kind of this profile where we have a diminished heart variability, increase in resting heart rate, and we start to adapt to a lower level of functioning. So I love that you have kind of found this ability to quiet your mind and deactivate.

How do you bring that into, so now you're out of COVID, obviously, you're back to kind of your normal crazy schedule, you know, be bopping from one continent to another to all these photo shoots. You've owned your own business, which I want to talk about in a second. Given this kind of crazy schedule, how do you build in these many moments of de-activity? throughout the day. Like, what's your process with that? You know, one of the craziest things with the whoop was the one of the first times I wore it. I, you know, I was running a bit late for work. And I ran into set and I sat down in hair and makeup. And, you know, about an hour in, I on my phone, whoop detected an activity. And it was a 12. You know, I'd hit zone five. And I was sitting in a chair like this. And I'm like, what? Like, and. And,

And I didn't, I'd never realize that like, you know, whether it's meeting a lot of new people or having someone that close in your face and like, I don't know, they're walking into a room like with a bunch of strangers could be so, you know, whether that's anxiety or stress or I don't know what, but like that's on par with me doing a soul cycle class, you know, and I wasn't sitting there sweating. And I wasn't really aware that my heart rate was going that high. But I was like, okay, wow, this, like, I guess work strain is a real thing. Yeah. And I, and I didn't have realized that, you know, and usually I would have left work prior to knowing this, thinking like I have to go and work out. But like, I could hit a 16 or a 17 by being on set

all day and kind of not realizing that I was doing something. So what I've learned from that is in the morning really waking up 30 minutes earlier just to be able to like slow down and not be in this like frantic rush out the door and again I really like I always try and like walk home from work just something to quiet my mind so it doesn't go from a really like a loud crazy environment into such a quiet home you know New York's got busy streets and stuff but something to kind of break it up also that you know get fresh air just something a little bit calming so it's not so such a like a difference from both situations yeah yeah that's such a great strategy and and i think like you know i used that analogy you know when i was i was at princeton for many years

i coached there and i would tell my student athletes i'm like you know instead of between classes like introducing a lot of noise like use that as a time to just focus on your breath do some slow-paced breathing, like just, you know, put down your device, like put in your pot, you know, just like transition, you know, so you can show up to your next thing with the right level of presence, you know, or, you know, if it's, you need to wind down for that next thing, you're able to actually wind down. If you need to wind up, you're able to actually wind up. But I guess it's like not building in these intermittent kind of moments where we kind of deactivate, we're not able to kind of go into our next moment with a level of activation or or deactivation

that's required, right? And so I think people don't realize like how that actually accumulates and how that can really be pretty detrimental when it comes to being able to functionally adapt, right, to the demands of life for a long time, right? Like we're not trying to do this just for a year, right. We're trying to really extend this across an entire lifespan. So I think people forget that. Yeah. Well, I love that you've figured that out and are building it in. It's amazing. So I wanted to look at your data if we can. So, you know, it's really interesting, you know, for me. Obviously, I look at a lot of group data. So I have, you know, a kind of an interesting vantage point. but you know just to see the toll that diabetes takes you know on and you know in combination

potentially with your lifestyle but when we look at you know your data relative to to population averages you know your resting heart rate and hurry variability kind of are in that lower percentile you know and this is like just you know the realities of living with type one diabetes so you know I guess like when you when you think about all right what do i need to do in order to kind of stay neutral what would you say so we talked about kind of the intermittent like breaks building that in making sure you have snacks like are there other kind of behaviors that you lean on that kind of help you make sure that you're you know because you're going to fight like you're going to do a lot of things well in order to kind of maintain a neutral state so what are some of those other things

that you, you know, are thinking about really consciously to kind of keep yourself in that neutral state. I think what I've seen from my work is that like a red recovery will really impact my sugars. So that that's like, you know, when I'm tired, I'll tend to be running higher, like a higher blood glucose level. And that they both kind of play into each other.

Like if I am getting unwell, then my sugars will run higher. If my sugars run higher, it tends to be more of a stress on the body. And I feel more lethargic with a couple of things in my whoop. It might look, I've done hot flashing sleep is a nighttime low. That's just the one thing that I thought that I know I'm not, I'm not menopausal, but I thought that was a good way for me to track

what a night hypo looked like. Amazing. As far as daylight eating. So that's more about when I've had to have like a juice box at 2 a.m. and a banana at 3 a.m. So that's, and I can see that daylight eating does have a really positive impact, but that's more of a reflection of nighttime lows, so not having to eat in the night.

And kind of work backwards. So if I'm going low at 2 a.m., what level should I be comfortable at going to bed at? And so now I've realized, you know, that's about 140. Whereas before I would be going to bed at, say, 90, which is great in the day. but not for, you know, six, seven hours sleep ahead because you're not blood glucose going to drop. Right, right.

So for someone who doesn't have diabetes, for example, like going to bed at 90 is going to be perfectly acceptable. You know, I'm a science advisor to level. So, you know, I kind of am thinking about this world fairly consistently and wore a CGM for like three, over 300 days a couple years ago. And so it collected a lot of, a lot of these insights. And, you know, I think for me, you know, someone's not, doesn't have diabetes. Like I could go to bed with 90 easily, you know, a fasting level of 90. And, and I would soup through the night like a baby, you know. But that's so interesting that for you, that would mean you'd probably wake up.

So having those data, I think, are just amazing, right? And then be able to correlate that even further to kind of how you wake up from a recovery standpoint. you know, you've kind of got both, both ends, you know, to use that data to understand how to, how to fuel in a way that's going to allow you to sleep through the night. And also to kind of look at the strain that I've had in the day, because the higher the strain usually will kind of indicate how much I will drop, you know, because like I had more exertion, exactly. Yeah, you're burning exertion. Yeah, you're burning more calories throughout the day. So you kind of have to make up for that. You know, if you didn't,

I guess to the extent, how important is it for you to front load? I know kind of the data on, you know, non-diabetic individuals, right, where you want to make sure that you're kind of front-loading a lot of your calories, you know, beginning of the day, you want to get, you know, just we're primed metabolized food, which is the case for you as well. But I think you probably have to make sure that your eating window, I guess, does it go 10 hours, 12 hours? You know, it's hard as a diabetic. I feel like it does move, but the thing that I find there's this thing in the morning called the dawn phenomenon where your body, when it, like everyone's body,

when you're waking up, your body produces hormones such as cortisol and growth hormone, which tells the liver to produce glucose as to help you wake up. And so that, I used to struggle with that because your body, body, my blood sugar would go super high in the morning. And even if I just had like an Americana, like a black coffee, nothing in it, you know, technically no carb, I would continue to rise. And starting the day off high made me really lethargic. So a way I kind of have stopped doing that is it's like I drink AG1 now, which because it's not so much of a stimulant and there is no, there's still no carbohydrate really in it. It's given me like an hour for my body to kind of

wear off that natural kind of high and come back down because I found when I was taking you know a unit or two of insulin for the coffee then I'd drop low and when you start this day off in this kind of erratic zigzag it tends to continue throughout the day so I wouldn't say I front load as much in the morning okay I'd kind of let myself uh like just level out until around like 10, 11, and then, you know, have a really good lunch, have like afternoon tea, really good dinner, and then whatever I need before bed. Okay. But I tell you, yeah, but breakfast time, I struggle a bit with diabetes.

Yeah, that's so interesting. Yeah. I mean, I definitely prefer to have like my first calorie around 10 or so. There is something with just the coffee, for example, I think to your point, like you want allow that cortisol to kind of do its thing and not to interfere with, you know, by layering a stimulant on top of that, like you're interfering with your natural cortisol levels, right? So I think, I think there is something to be said for, for all folks to kind of allow that process to happen, happen naturally. So it's so cool that I think what I love about, you know,

your approach is, you know, it's really been this end of one, just experimentation, right? there isn't like a great playbook for folks with type one diabetes you know what i'm saying like you know you have to you've had to make this up as you go kind of you know and what's good for you is not going to necessarily apply to everyone with type one type one diabetes you know that's why these data are so fabulous of the time you feel crazy and like you know like you know what am i actually like it does this work i don't know and then i think again because diabetes is such a moving target that you'll be like oh my god i've cracked the code i'm genius like you'll have two weeks these amazing sugars and then you'll get you period and it will all go out the window and you're like

oh my god and then it's back and it's just it is such uh just like a dynamic thing that you know you have to have humor with it i think finding the community is helpful but having little go-to things that you know really help you yeah and just just being consistent with those, you know, whatever you define as like your non-negotiables for maintaining energy and focus when you need it and being able to wind down when you need to. What's up, folks, if you are enjoying this podcast or if you care about health, performance, fitness, you may really enjoy getting a whoop. That's right.

You can check out whoop at whoop.com. It measures everything around sleep, recovery, strain, and you can now sign up for, free for 30 days. So you'll literally get the high performance wearable in the mail for free. You get to try it for 30 days, see whether you want to be a member. And that is just at whoop.com. Back to the guests. I want to talk a little bit about travel. You know, like you are like an absolute expert on moving around the globe. So just put into context, like how much when you look at your year. Like, how often are you in your home apartment? Do you even have a home apartment or a house? It doesn't feel like a home. It never does. I mean, yeah, I travel so

much. But I would say, let's say, I mean, I do spend 120 days in the U.S. And then the rest in New York. In the U.S. So I would say probably about, you know, four months in New York. two months somewhere else in the U.S., this is in blocks. And then obviously these trips are broken up into two days, three days, two days, one day, probably about three months in Europe. But yeah, it's a lot, it's a lot of short trips, which I find can be a little bit. It's the short trips, I kind of have got to me now less than when I was younger. So do you feel like as you've kind of aged, it's just, it's kind of,

getting a little bit harder than when you're younger or? Yeah, it's just, I think it's the, it's more about really trying to, you know, pack as rigorously as possible. And like, you know, I call them my potions, but like vitamins that help you and like, you know, say if it's a G1 or, you know, if it's a tea at night. Like I love drinking like a chamomal and mint tea. I don't know what it's like, but like it's something, it's something that just like. It's a ritual.

Yeah. And again, it's taking these little rituals on the go with you. So it's just because you're leaving your home environment. It doesn't mean everything else has to go. So yeah, definitely like taking like vitamins and things like that, taking teas, packing snacks, trying to limit the variables that will come in. And, you know, just simple things like I know always the second I get off the plane, the last thing I want to do is walk or stretch or get outside.

but it's like before I even let myself go in a hotel room, it's just like, put the sneakers on, get out the door. And that really, really helps. It's kind of like, it's like when I was studying, it was kind of this two minute theory. Just like, all you have to do is two minutes. Just do it, two minutes, two minutes. Just do it for two minutes. Just do it for two minutes. Like, I'm like, you can do anything for two minutes. And it's kind of the same thing when I get in from a flight. It's just like, go for two minutes. And you never turn around. And I'll see my blood sugar level. level start, the arrow start to drop. And it's, it's just, you know, whether that's a 20 minute thing, but it really just does help. I think, you know, even just breathing, just to get

outside. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's lots of science behind that, for sure. You know, when we, when we think, yeah. So, yeah, one of the areas that I study quite a bit is just everything related to kind of circadian rhythms and it's kind of our circadian physiologies, community behaviors. And yeah, I mean, getting outdoors just generally. I think that the minimum is 67 minutes that we've seen in the research in terms of like being kind of the minimum dose, effective dose for like really having an impact on mental physical health resilience. At a minimum, we want to make sure that we're kind of getting outside at the front end of the day and the back end of the day in the middle of the day if we can. But as it relates to circadian rhythm,

we can move our circadian rhythms around, you know, or help, I guess, establish our circadian rhythms by getting outside prior to 10 a.m. And then watching the sunset, you know, whenever that is, those, you know, just the, the way the light is in the sky, kind of low on the horizon, can entrain our circadian rhythms and make it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. Okay. Yeah. So there's lots of lots of really just robust science around, um, around circadian rhythms. rhythms. Okay. That's great that you've adopted that. I always go to Australia in the first two weeks of January and I'm like I land and I'm green for two weeks and I'm like there's something I don't know about Australia. I know I definitely spend a lot more time outdoors there but I'm like how does this happen? There's no it is yeah and maybe that's the circadian rhythm

because you do tend to you know be outside for the sunrise you do tend to see the sunset like there's a lot less things. Like, is that? That's exactly right. Yeah. I mean, there's definitely a, you know, we're, we have not evolved to spend all of our time indoors, right? Like that's, you know, it's, you know, just even the frequencies of the light, right?

Like, you know, we, blue light, right, is we're not, we have not adapted to just see blue light. We're always seeing blue in the context of red and orange, right? So a lot of the things that we're exposed to daily are not what we've evolved or, you know, adapted to yet. So as a result, it definitely impacts our mental and physical health resilience. I mean, that's probably the one thing that I really totally have no, a totally out of, like, whack is my circadian rhythm. Tell us a little bit about your business. so like in that COVID period just prior to that I enrolled in university I had originally when I was 18 being enrolled in university and modeling had taken off so I deferred and I went back and I

enrolled online in a business degree at college and then I did a major in social entrepreneurship and throughout some of those last units it was kind of coming up with your own business and at the time it was like when I was focusing on my health and my diabetes and I was like thinking about these things that I really needed for me to kind of go and I was making snacks that you know I could bring on the go and you know with me when I travel and so from that I started a company for snack food for type one diabetes it hasn't yet launched but we have the products and they're ready and we have I've got a few diabetics testing them out but it's exciting because it's something that really I personally just wanted and I couldn't

really find like there was you know there's a million products on the market but there was like always something about one thing or a little bit of one thing or I could only have half of it to be kind of one serve of carbohydrate so it was about making these things that I could have on the go with me and I've been bringing them around and you know enjoying them and helping my level just stay steady it's incredible do you kind of identify as like a vegan or a vegetarian or you know do you have like a way of eating that you or do you just eat all different types of foods i don't have dairy i find dairy kind of tends to make me a bit i don't know a bit bit tired bit uh like boggy brain but i i'd say

more of like a Mediterranean diet i think again growing up in australia you are surrounded by a lot of, like, fresh produce and kind of, like, beans and grains and things like that. So, yeah, I mean, really, like, I would say I tend to eat a lot of vegetables. Yeah, a lot of low GI carbs. So, you know, things like get rice, quinoa, lentils. I kind of like, I tend to enjoy, like, fresh food. Just, I just naturally do it. And I don't know whether that's from growing up with diet.

since I was, you know, 11 years old, and that is something that, like, has kind of changed your taste words, you know, or whether that's just something I always preferred. Yeah, that's interesting. For folks with type 1 diabetes, have you found, like, a particular diet is, like, better for type 1 diabetes, or is it just really highly individualized? I would say, well, what does, like, I tend to think, like, sources and dressings can often be really deceiving. So, I mean, you really can have everything,

but, like, generally, like, things that are more, I guess, like, from a restaurant point of view, like, I would find, like, Thai or Vietnamese food could really spike me. And I wouldn't really know why when it was, like, you know, vegetables and just, like, rice noodles or something like that. But a lot of the time it was the sources. so that was something that kind of got me or like salad dressings could have like a lot of honey or sugar in them to kind of yeah source has been one that I've definitely seen especially like

through CGM data that um can really have an impact but otherwise I mean trying to keep things as clean as possible or as close to their natural state as they were yeah amazing yeah do you notice like when you when you cook or juice food does that have an impact on your blood sugar levels like juice juicing yes like because i think you're taking the fiber out and you know the more water you take out of something the higher the sugar content is going to be um so like say if i steam a sweet potato versus roast it if i steam it it's like very minimal impact on my blood sugar versus when you roasted your like or any roast vegetable like you kind of like I'm not a scientist by the way so I don't really know but I find like if I was to roast a tomato versus having it you know chopped up in a

salad it's going to have a different effect on my blood sugar but I think that is just because you're removing a lot of the water content yeah yeah yeah yeah that makes sense and it's similar like I think about my body in the same sense when I go to the sauna and I love going to saunas but like when you go to the sauna you're sweating out a lot of the water in your body so i think of like my sugar level like it's you know like cordial do you have cordial so it's like kind of like my sugar level is like syrup so if i'm sweating out a lot of the water it's going to become a higher a higher sugar level and you need to keep like replenishing yourself so you can lower that level right right do you use an electrolyte i do yeah i i've been i've been having them and i really like them

I mean, yeah, I try and have a lot of water before. I try and, I do like kind of like a yoga flow in the sauna to try and combat the high because I do, yeah, I tend to go high and then drop quite quickly after. That's interesting. Do you do any cold plunging? I, like, I do, but I don't tend to love it. I think I run a bit colder. And so it sometimes tends to be a little bit too much.

um you know and then after i just tend to be quite cold all day uh i do love like an ocean swim i you know i enjoy it but i wouldn't go out of my way to cold plunge i'd have a cold shower plunging yeah i'd do a swaned 50 times over before a plunge yeah yeah i know cold plunge could be yeah it's a little bit of a shock to the system but i will say if you You do adapt, and I think it does make you more resilient to colder temperatures if you engage. But it's funny, whenever I talk to Australians, you're like, cold plunge, no. Like I'm saying that, it has such an amazing impact for, say, a three-minute activity on blood glucose levels. I, like, if I was to go in at, let's just say, 120, and I'll just

go in there for three minutes, I'll can be down to 60. I mean, if you, want something, and that's the same with the ocean, if you want something to, like, really drop your blood sugar quickly, and, you know, that's just your body burning the sugar, that it is a really incredible way at leveling out. Yeah. I mean, I think there's something so calming about the ocean, just anecdotally to your point, like, I have no idea, like mechanistically what might be happening. But, you know, I think from the standpoint of just being in nature, again, I think to your original point, you know, when you get to Australia and you get now you're all of a sudden you're outside more and you're in nature, I think it has a profound fact, you know, on our on our physical well-being and, you know, our overall state of mind. And so, you know, I wouldn't, I'm not surprised that that's reflected in and your blood sugar, you know. Yeah. Yeah, that's really interesting. I need to just congratulate you on, and, you know, for all the advocacy work that you've done and raising awareness around type 1,000. diabetes and, you know, it's, it's, uh, yeah, it's, you know, just the, I think can easily take for

granted, you know, the folks who are, you know, not having to deal with that every single time. I mean, this is like something you have to deal literally every single day and you will and, and, you know, for the rest of your life. Like it's, it's, um, so, you know, what, what, what would you say are you kind of most proud of in terms of the advocacy work that you've done in, in the space? I think when I think about it growing up I remember being in the hospital and you know I remember firstly the doctor saying to me this is a this is a manageable condition not a life sentence and you can continue a normal healthy life and at the time I was you know 11 and all I wanted to

is play netball and he was like we'll have you back on the netball court by next Saturday and you know and in that week I was in the hospital but there was there was this was like kind of pre-google pre-social media they had a doll that was called like Tricia and she apparently had diabetes but that was really all and you know there was like a couple of people in the world that had diabetes but it wasn't there was no one that I knew there was no one my family knew there was no one at school. There was no one that I could in any way, shape or form relate to and go back to school and carry these syringes and feel at all normal. So I think probably the proudest thing would be being able to kind of show this condition for what it is. And say last year I went to the

JDRF Children's Conference and to show these kids that you can live this healthy, healthy, life it is a bit harder and you do need to be extremely organized and things like that but you can do these things you know it's not this imaginary doll anymore like there is kind of a face behind the condition or trying to really like show them that yeah you can do it i love it it's amazing what do you know when you think about i mean you've got this incredible platform you know where you can reach lots of folks, like, what do you find yourself, like, are there are there things that you just wish people new that, you know, you find yourself kind of frustrated about or? Yes, but then again, like, on the other side, I'm like, I wouldn't know anything about type

one diabetes if I wasn't a type one diabetes. So there's two sides of it, but I think that it is so all-consuming. And, you know, it's a full-time job on top of a full-time job. And it's like with a job, you leave the office. And once you leave the office, you don't think about it until, you know, 8 a.m. the next day. It's on the case. It's like you never leave the office and it never leaves you alone.

And it's every single thing that you do is going to have an impact on the next thing. So it's, and if you try and ignore it, it's only going to come back worse. So it's really about. kind of trying to stay on top of it and and often those times are when you kind of feel the worse and you really just it's really hard to stay on top so I think that it is such a full-time condition and you kind of I mean yeah it's really all construing like anybody you know someone ask them questions or be informed or you know like I just know sometimes like my friends that will say things like oh but she can't have sugar she's diabetic but

Like, then they'll be like, oh, she's eating, she's crazy. Like, it is a really, it does change as a condition and like, you do need different things at different times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard. That is like such a great analogy to put it into perspective for someone who's not living with time of diabetes. You know, it's a, it's literally a 24-7 job. And yeah, it comes with huge responsibilities. I didn't, I didn't realize that you had been, um, you're diagnosed when you're 11 gosh it's like so young you know it is young in a way I'm weirdly kind of think it's helped to become so ingrained in my life like I have a lot of friends that are tight ones now and I we do find that like you know under 18 if you've like it's kind of it's growing up into like your kind of rituals like you wake up you brush your teeth you have an injection check your blood sugar that it whereas like you know when you're older and you've maybe left that structured environment, it can be harder to kind of incorporate

into life since you have had a life before. Yeah. So, I mean, that's one positive, I guess. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, well, I think the community surely is grateful to kind of have your voice out there. And, you know, I'm sure there's lots of little girls and boys, you know, who look up to you and are, you know, so grateful that you, that, you know, inspired, I suppose, to know that hey, life goes on and, and you can figure it out, you know. Yeah. So, I mean, it's definitely teamwork as well. And there's a good, there's an amazing community out there.

And it's like teamwork. And you, like, I think now with wearing things like a CGM, because when I was growing up, it was a finger pricker and you'd keep that in your school bag. And it was syringes and they'd be in a medical bag. so you never really I mean it's like a whoop like it's it's a wearable thing so you can really like spot someone on the street now and sometimes people will come up and it'll be like you diabetic and I'm diabetic and you'll start talking and this has happened actually with my whoop I've been on set and you know you don't know why do you wear a wop and I'm like what's your HRV and it kind of

creates this instant kind of language and it's funny out those things like you know all of a sudden it's like you're speaking a different language. Yeah, totally. Yeah, it's kind of like a nice filter, you know? Like you're like, ah, that person like cares about their health, you know? You know? You know? Yeah.

Well, gosh, this has been, it's been super fun to chat with you. And I love following your career. And we're so grateful that you're on the platform and using these data to kind of navigate, you know, a lot of the challenges that you face. And so, yeah, just super, super. super happy. You were able to share your wisdom and insights with our community. So thank you for today. Thank you for having me on. And hopefully I'm going to hit that HRV up. I know, I know, Monday. I know. I've had an 80. I mean, I had an 80 once. And I don't know if that that was a

just artifact. I'm hoping it wasn't. Is it that mean I can get there, but we'll see. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I know. I mean, the travel will continue to be your biggest. hurdle I think the circadian misalignment you know that comes to travel is is going to is just such a it's hard to overcome but you're doing great so well thank you so much for having me today yeah thanks for thanks for joining thank you to babby for joining the show a reminder the all new sport flex band has arrived that's at whoop.com it's our new silicone band it's a pretty awesome waterproof dirtproof sweatproof stain proof, everything proof. If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, please leave a rating or review. Please subscribe to the Whoop podcast. You can check us out on social at Whoop at Will Ahmed

at Kristen underscore Holmes 2126. Have a question. Was he answered on the podcast? Email us, podcastWoop.com. Call us 5084434349.2. If you're thinking about joining WOOC, you can now try whoop for free for 30 days. That's at Woop.com. And that's a wrap. Thank you all for listening. week on the WOOP podcast. As always, stay healthy and stay in the green.