How sweet it is indeed to give oneself up to toothsome confections that sometimes, resistance is futile. How do we partake of them, let’s not count the ways because there are so many accompaniments to give in to sweet temptations.
But too much of a good thing, especially sweets, compromises our pancreas, the organ that produces insulin, the hormone that moves sugar from our blood into our cells. Diabetes happens when our pancreas makes little (Type 2) or no insulin (Type 1) at all.
I was nearing 220 pounds when diagnosed with T2 diabetes in my mid 30s. I initially thought that my life will be permanently changed, that I won’t and can’t be doing things the way I want. There were so many ‘ifs’ that time as the children were still toddlers. I was afraid, worried, but later on learned to deal with it thru diet and lots of exercise.
A US-based professional cycling team is the world’s first competing with all its riders having Type 1 diabetes. In 2005, Phil Southerland, who was diagnosed with T1 diabetes at seven months old, and Joe Eldridge founded Team Type 1 as an inspiration to people with diabetes and “an opportunity to compete at the sport’s highest levels”. The following year, they assembled eight cyclists with T1 diabetes to ride the 3,000-mile Race Across America to raise diabetes awareness. They won the event in 2007, 2009 and 2010 which attracted endurance athletes with diabetes.
With their successes in the amateur races, the team turned professional in 2008 as Team Type 1 for two years. Sanofi, a French pharma company partnered with them and was known as Team Type 1 – Sanofi until Novo Nordisk, a healthcare company based in Denmark that specializes in diabetes care came in 2013 and is now known as Team Novo Nordisk.
Southerland’s love for cycling and his mission to inspire, empower and educate people affected by diabetes led to a world-class racing program of athlete-ambassadors proving that with the right attitude, the disease can be managed and they had become instruments of empowerment for diabetics.
Because it has attracted endurance athletes with T1 diabetes, aside from the pro cycling team, Team Novo Nordisk has in its program a women’s team that has an international mix of riders of all levels competing in criterium, road and track events.
Competing in mountain bike events like downhill, cross country, endurance as well as cyclocross around the US is the Team Novo Nordisk Mountain Bike/Cyclocross Team. Marathoners, ultra-runners and triathletes of TNN compete in France’s Long Course Championships and the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.
Ranging in ages from 30 to 70, TNN T2 Team all have Type 2 diabetes and do cycling and running to stay healthy and active, along with the correct diet and diabetes management.
Cycling since he was 12, Southerland credits the bike for keeping him alive and though retried from pro cycling, still regularly rides his bike. He also does deep-water scuba diving and alpine skiing. He has written a book, “Not Dead Yet”, which recounts his battle with diabetes to becoming a pro cyclist and his mission to give people with the disease inspiration and hope.