Chris Hawley lifts up his t-shirt to reveal a device about the size of kinder surprise capsule patched to the side of his rib cage.
The continuous glucose monitor contains a filament that penetrates his skin and every five minutes sends a reading of his blood sugar levels to his iPhone.
The device, he says, has been "a bit of a help, but by no means has it made anything easy."
Hawley is 35 years old. Three years ago, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and since then, he has been learning how to live with chronic disease.
"It's just a constant interruption to my life," says Hawley, who takes insulin an average of five times a day. He must constantly check his blood sugar levels and always have snacks on hand.
"It's been a big life change for me."
It is a sunny and hot Wednesday afternoon and Hawley is sitting on a wooden CrossFit box inside the nondescript Hay River garage.
Hawley has converted the interior into a boutique personal training facility.
"This was a lifelong dream for me," he said of his brand new studio, called Invoke Fitness.
Hawley has been something of a gym rat since he was 15 years old, so it came as a shock when he learned he had diabetes.
"I've always been into fitness, I've always lived a healthy life, I've never had any bad habits," he said.
People with Type 1 diabetes produce little to no insulin.
According to Diabetes Canada, unlike Type 2, which can sometimes be managed through a change in diet and physical activity, Type 1 is always treated with insulin and careful meal planning.
If Hawley's blood sugar is not within an optimal range, he could experience lethargy, headaches, nausea or more serious problems that could send him to the hospital.
Only around 10 per cent of people with diabetes have Type 1, and most develop the condition in childhood or adolescence.
To be diagnosed in adulthood, as Hawley was, is very rare.
Hawley, a personal outcome support worker who cares for people with disabilities, was diagnosed shortly before he started building his gym.
"I was pretty sick when I was doing this stuff," he said, gesturing to the brightly-lit space with padded floors, racks of free weights and top-of-the-line equipment.
"But I was damned if it was going to stop me."
Hawley is determined not to let the chronic disease block him from living the life he wants.
So it is perhaps unsurprising that this August, Hawley will embark on a nine-day, 56-km guided trek through the Kootenay Rockies in British Columbia.
What sets this trip apart however, is that all 12 hikers and the two guides have Type 1 diabetes.
The multi-day hike is an initiative of Connected in Motion, a non-profit organization that brings people with Type 1 diabetes together over outdoor activities.
The Kootenay trek is an opportunity for 14 people with the rarer form of diabetes to connect and focus on their physical and mental strength.
"I'm really excited about meeting other people in the same position as me and learning from them and developing lifelong friendships with people that have the same issues that I do," said Hawley.
Hawley said he is raising funds as part of the trip, 100 per cent of which go to Connected in Motion and enables the charity to put on future outdoor events for people with Type 1 diabetes.
For Hawley, an irritating aspect of life with Type 1 diabetes is confronting people's misconceptions.
"They assume that I lived an unhealthy life or something like that, which is sort of insulting to me given the way that I've lived," he said.
In Hay River, Hawley does not have much in the way of peer support. He said there is only a small handful of people in town with diabetes.
"That's why (the trek) is so exciting to me right now," he said.
Hawley does not have multi-day hiking experience.
He flew down to Edmonton specifically to load up on gear for the mountainous trail, which will have the hikers gain and lose more than 2,000 metres in elevation.
But Hawley isn't fazed.
In a sense, he has been training for this trip for 20 years.