Reclaim Your Rise: Type 1 Diabetes with Lauren Bongiorno
Lauren Bongiorno is a Nationally Board Certified Health Coach and the founder and CEO of Risely Health. Featured on the TODAY show and other media outlets, Risely helps people and families impacted by Type 1 Diabetes take ownership over their health so they can transform their life with more freedom and confidence. Lauren has lived with type 1 diabetes since she was 7 years old and has experienced firsthand that when health transforms, so does everything else - our relationships, our time, our career, our families, and, most importantly, ourselves. Each week she will bring you lessons from her own personal diabetes experience, strategies that are key to understanding your body’s patterns, and guests who will speak to everything from advances in technology to all things hormones, exercise, relationships, and mindset. All of this so that over time, you TOO can reclaim your rise.
Reclaim Your Rise: Type 1 Diabetes with Lauren Bongiorno
233. "My Insulin Pump Broke in Slovenia for 9 Days": Kate Makinson on Travel, Perimenopause & 33 Years with T1D
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Kate Makinson has lived with Type 1 diabetes since 7th grade and has spent the last 33 years building a life of absolute adventure. She’s a PE teacher, runner, mountain biker, and someone who has always found a way to figure it out, whether that meant finishing a half marathon with a failing CGM or managing nine days in Europe after her insulin pump broke with nothing but short-acting insulin.
After 12 years away from the diabetes community, raising two kids and focusing on her career, things started changing. When perimenopause hit, the symptoms looked so much like long-term diabetes complications that Kate convinced herself that was exactly what they were. That fear, after three decades of managing T1D with confidence, sent her looking for a T1D community she’d never thought she needed. She found it in Risely's group coaching program, where her average blood sugar dropped from 171 to 155, her time in range climbed from 61% to 75%, and her A1C improved from 7.5 to 6.9. But more than the numbers, Kate walked away with a mindset she hadn't had in years: that no matter what diabetes throws at you, you've got this.
WHAT WE COVER:
- The specific habit that helped drop her average blood sugar from 171 to 155 and bring her time in range from 61% to 75%
- What it was like to spend nine days in Europe after her insulin pump broke with nothing but short-acting insulin, and how she managed to keep adventuring anyway
- How a failing CGM in the first mile of a half marathon forced her to run 13 miles on instinct, gels, and sheer determination
- Why perimenopause symptoms convinced her she had long-term diabetes complications
- What brought her to Risely coaching after 33 years of managing T1D largely on her own, and why she says it was the support she didn't know she needed
- Her best travel tips for flying, international trips, and staying prepared without letting diabetes overthink the adventure
WHAT’S NEXT:
📱 The Risely App is here! Get support for the 180+ decisions you make every day, so you can build confidence with T1D without your life revolving around it.
🧠 Discover Your T1D Archetype! Take the free quiz to understand the pattern behind how you think, respond, and make decisions with T1D.
💻Apply for coaching and talk to our team so you can reclaim the life you deserve with T1D.
📧Join thousands of T1Ds reading our newsletter every Tuesday: T1D tips and encouragement, straight to your inbox.
Stay connected with us:
Email us at: hello@riseyhealth.com
IG: @lauren_bongiorno | @riselyhealth
TikTok: @lauren_bongiorno | @riselyhealth
YT: Reclaim Your Rise
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