Removing Obstacles to Self-Care with Sarah Janin

Aug 12, 2025

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What stops us from practising good self-care even when we know we should? What can we do about it? We all know that practicing good self-care is important. Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy.

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, Sarah Janin returns to share a story of a time where she inadvertently neglected her self-care which led to some fairly serious consequences. This leads into a great discussion around some of the obstacles around practicing good self-care for us and the people that we may be leading.

Sarah is a certified American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) Rock and Split Board Guide and an assistant AMGA Alpine Guide. Sarah is on the final leg of working towards becoming the first IFMGA certified Mountain Guide who has type 1 diabetes. Based in Boulder Colorado, Sarah currently works as a full-time guide and one of the head guides at the Colorado Mountain School.

Sarah joined Delivering Adventure in Season 2 to share her perspective on the importance of self-care. As a type 1 diabetic who leads an extremely athletic lifestyle, Sarah has a unique perspective on the importance and challenges of self-care.

Always candid, Sarah shares her real-life challenges and learnings. This is a fantastic conversation.

Key Insights

What are some of the obstacles to practicing good self-care and how can we avoid them:

Common Self-Care Obstacles: Cost, pressure to prioritize service to others ahead of safety to us, and embarrassment as we may be holding others up.

Macho Attitude: This is where we or the people we are leading may believe we can handle the consequences of not looking after ourselves

Recognizing Experience as an Obstacle: If we are inexperienced or younger, we may may not appreciate the long-term effects of not practicing good self-care.

Projection Bias: This is where it becomes difficult to predict how we might feel based on how we are feeling in the moment. This can also be a reason why we do not prioritize self-care.

Prioritizing Self-Care: Recognizing that self-care needs to be a necessary part of our day that needs to be prioritized. This is really step one. Being disciplined and holding ourselves accountable can help with this.

Importance of Routine: Following a routine can be extremely beneficial – of note is that one danger sign of neglecting our self-care is when we break from our routine.

Guest Bio

Sarah Janin is a full-time mountain guide at Colorado Mountain School located in Boulder Colorado. She is the only full-time female guide at this time and one of their head guides. Sarah became one of the first certified female splitboard guides in America this March of 2024 making history.

Sarah is on the AMGA track with one more exam to complete this summer. Her goal is to become the 19th certified female American Mountain Guide. Sarah will then have to pass a ski movement test in order to become IFMGA certified which will be her focus this winter.

Sarah has worked as a guide for a decade after getting to experience a few different careers before settling on her true passion. Sarah is also a type 1 insulin dependent diabetic and has been for over 43 years. She will potentially become the first diabetic certified guide this year.