Episode 33: How Understanding Your Blood Sugar Will Change Your Life, My Blueberry Experiment, and Continuous Glucose Monitors

Have you struggled with sugar cravings or a sweet tooth your entire life? Never feel satisfied? Struggling with low energy? Have a tendency to get hangry if you're not always snacking? Struggling with stubborn weight gain? This is an episode you don't want to miss! 

Understanding your blood sugar is absolutely crucial in order to feel your best physically and mentally. I dive into everything you need to know in this episode including:

• Carbs 101 - What you need to know
• Are you eating too many of the wrong carbs that aren't setting you up for success?
• Signs your blood sugar is going on a roller coaster ride
• What you can do to balance your blood sugar
• Continuous glucose monitor and my blueberry experiment
• Why your healthy meals may be getting in the way of achieving your goals
• How to feel empowered with the knowledge about what works for your unique body
• How your brain is impacted by different sources of carbs and how to feel in control

Connect with me on your favorite social media channel: Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn!
Learn more about how I can help you here!
I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, mental health, or professional advice. I am a certified health and life coach, not a licensed medical or mental health professional. Please consult with a healthcare provider before making any changes to your physical or mental health routines. If you are experiencing a crisis, seek help from a qualified professional or contact emergency services.

Connect with me on your favorite social media channel: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn! 

To learn more about my approach and the programs and free resources available to support you, visit my website: www.lifeboost.today

I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.

Transcript

0:02

Hey life booster. This is Dr. Amelia health coach and veterinarian here to help you Dutch yo-yo dieting people pleasing and perfectionism by breaking the norm and living a life that energizes you from within. We are going to talk about blood sugar today, which has me feeling excited because I love this topic. Why do I love blood sugar? Because it is one of the three life boosts BS, meaning that it is absolutely critical if you want to achieve at sustainable weight, loss, and health, that feels great. That feels effortless. That doesn't require discipline and willpower. It's absolutely critical. If you want to wake up with great energy, you know, if you have a full plate, you are still going to wake up and you're just going to be like, Bringing it, we've got this. If you want to feel confident and good in your body, you have to address your blood sugar. The other reason I love it is that you can make small tweaks that just have a massive impact on the way that you feel when you understand the way that blood sugar has been influencing your energy and your cravings and your weight, you become empowered. Yes. Knowledge is power. When you understand what your body needs, everything just becomes so much easier and you get this clarity and you feel in control of your body. And that is what I am here to help you achieve. So before we dive in let's review my life boost approach or the lb approach, there are three L's and three BS, and you have to address all of these, if you want to achieve. The life boost level three, that is where you have ditched the bandwagon. And you have created a lifestyle that you never have to worry about. Ditching. You never have to worry about getting out off track, falling off the bandwagon because it's a lifestyle that you love and it's doable. And in order to get there, you have to prioritize the three L's. That means you have to love what you're doing and the way it's making you feel it has to fit in with your lifestyle has to be doable. And it has to be long-term. You have to not be waiting for it to be over. And then we balance the three BS. So that's belly gut elf brain within brain. That means your stress, happiness and your mindset, all the thoughts that are leading to your actions and. Blood sugar. So blood sugar is what we're going to focus on today. And we are also going to be talking about one of my absolute favorite tools for clients and that I think everybody should try. It's called a continuous glucose monitor. We're going to dive into that today. So, this is an important episode and you may want to even relisten to it. You may want to take some notes because I'm going to give you a lot of information and I want you to take some time to digest it. Pun intended. I love pens. We're going to talk about what carbs are, why you need to be paying attention to your blood sugar signs that your blood sugar maybe going on a roller coaster ride throughout the day. How to be stabilizing your blood sugar and why everybody needs to be using a continuous glucose monitor at least once a year. Sound good. Awesome. So the major macronutrient that influences your blood sugar are carbohydrates and here's something cool that you may not realize the name carbohydrates is because it is made up of carbon oxygen and hydrogen, get it carb. Oh, hydrate. Cool. Right. And a carbohydrate is made up of sugars. Start to. And fiber and different amounts and carbohydrates come from plants. Now I love plants, right? Number, how I talk about with gut health plants are key to having a great, optimal gut health because our gut microbes digest those especially five. And in order to be aiming for optimal gut health, you want to aim for at least 30 different plants per week. So carbohydrates, we tend to hear so much about low carb diets and, avoiding carbs or carbs are bad. Carbohydrates are amazing. We want to be having plants in our diet, but it's just the amount of sugars and starches and fiber that we need to be paying attention. Because there are simple carbohydrates and then there are complex carbohydrates and the difference is how long it takes for your body to break down those carbohydrates into those sugar and starches. And that's what influences your blood sugar. So if you think about just taking in show. Yeah. If you just have a sugar cube compared to, if you are to eat something like broccoli, then instantly that sugar cube is just going to go right into your bloodstream and cause your, and that's going to give you the glucose versus if you were to have broccoli, your body is having to work really hard in order to digest. And there's a lot of fiber and that slows the amount of glucose that is released into your bloodstream at one time. Now the problem is about 95% of Americans. Aren't getting enough fiber in their diet. Now, just imagine when you walk into a grocery store, do you see plants everywhere? No, you see simple carbs everywhere, right? Like there are some veggies and one corner of the grocery store. And, and beyond that, there are boxes and packages everywhere. And if you look at the label, They are all going to be simple carbohydrates. There's going to be sugar, especially added sugar, hidden in everything from salsa and crackers and meats. Things that you would never think of as being sweet are going to have sugar. You are going to see flour and corn and sugar if you look at the food labels at most foods and the grocery store, you're going to find lots of sugars and there multiple, multiple names where you can find sugar, listed like malt syrup, fruit juice, concentrate, dextrose. I encourage you to look up the list of different names there. 50 plus different names for how sugar can show up on a food label. And oftentimes they list sugar under multiple different names, which is tricky. You'll also find refined carbs, so everything. So the majority of the carbs that you have access to in a grocery store are refined and that's what they've been heavily processed. So they have been broken down in a way that has stripped all of the nutrients and fiber out. And the reason that they do that is because they want the food to be shelf stable. When you leave the fiber and those nutrients in the food, it doesn't preserve as well. So if you think about a strawberry, if you freeze a strawberry or. It never looks the same again and very, it kind of like shrivels and it doesn't have the same texture, even if you defrost it. And that's because the fiber has kind of been broken down. So that is why as our society has really valued efficiency and convenience, we have stripped all of the things that our bodies really needed from. Are carbs in order to have to be able to walk into a store where all these, there are all these boxes and bags and everything is just ready to go. And that has ultimately been to our detriment because we are not only harming our blood sugar, but we are really harming our gut health as well. And that is influencing even the way that your brain is. Feeling about food, the way that you're feeling in control. So see how it's all related. It says if I've put some thought into the three BS, So because of this, because of just the normal food that is available in our society and convenience, most people are getting way too many simple carbohydrates in the form of refined, carbs and sugar in the form of simple carbs throughout the day. And it's overwhelming their body and it's really not setting you up for success. So the norm is to wake up and have some coffee and probably there is some sugar and some sweetened creamer. And there for breakfast, you may be having some toaster bagel. You may be being healthy. So you're having some yogurt with some granola and fruit. Maybe you're just grabbing like a banana or fruit to go. You're probably pretty hungry by mid morning. So maybe you grab like a little nutrition bar and then by lunch, you're probably having like a sandwich or a wrap and maybe you have something sweet after that because you have a sweet tooth and it's great to end something on it. Sweetened. In the afternoon, maybe you need another latte or some more caffeine, and there could be some more sugar in that maybe you need a little sweet tree, have a little bit of candy. And then by the end of the day, you are probably starving and you need something quick. So maybe you're turning to something like pasta and then that after dinner snack and start straight and your, maybe you love savory. So you turn to like the chips or maybe ice cream, something sweet or salty and satisfying does after a long stressful day, that's definitely the norm in our society. And that is really overwhelming your body and probably causing so many blood sugar spikes throughout the day. Now, here are some signs that you may be experiencing poor blood sugar regulation. You have low energy, so one cup of coffee in the morning is not enough. Like you are feeling like you need to rely on coffee or something. Sweet. Just to like continue to give you, pick me ups throughout the day. You are trying to lose weight and it's not working like you are trying to make healthy changes, but your weight is being really stubborn. You constantly crave sweets. You may have experienced a sweet tooth for most of your life and you just like always, it's so hard. You have to really white knuckle it. If you are trying to be healthy and avoid those sweets, you may have trouble concentrating. You might have brain fog. You may be hungry soon after eating. So you have meals, but then like a couple hours later, you're starving again. Or you may be the type of person who really needs to just be snacking all the time in order to feel like you're keeping your blood sugar in a safe spot, and you're not starting to get kind of shaky or hangry, right. That, that. Uncontrollable anger when you get hungry and your LDL, that cholesterol maybe even increasing. So those are some signs that maybe you do need to be addressing your blood sugar. So why should you care for one thing, if you are experiencing any of those signs that I just listed and you would like to not be experiencing those then blood sugar is definitely a place where you are going to experience a dramatic improvement in the way you feel. If you start to help to make changes so that your blood sugar as much. Throughout the day, because what is happening right now is your blood sugar is probably going on a roller coaster ride. So you're eating and it's really having a big spike and then it's crashing. And that crash is when you can start to feel kind of shaky. You can have a low energy and you can be really craving food because your body is like, ah, we need. We need more energy. The other thing that's going on within your body. It is when you are just constantly having too much glucose. So instead of having the complex carbs or balancing that with protein and healthy fats, when you get a nice, slow release of glucose into your bloodstream, which is what your body was designed for, or a, like a nature, you aren't just getting typically Those simple carbohydrates. It's in the form of plants. When you're getting that immediate dose of glucose, that's overwhelming your cells, and that can start to damage yourselves and lead to disease. And that can start to lead to aging and disease. Which of course we don't know. The other thing that happens is that when you take in glucose, your body releases a hormone called insulin, and that helps to regulate the amount of glucose or sugar that you have in your bloodstream. It's a super important hormone because the main source of energy in your body is gluten. When insulin is released, it either tells your body to use the glucose or to store it. Now, your body has only three places where it stores glucose. It's either in your muscles, your liver or fat. Now your muscles and your liver have limited storage space, right? So if you are constantly getting glucose throughout the day, those storage spaces are at capacity they're full, but your fat cells, those are the. Those are the cells that can just always expand. And so that's where it's going to be going. So when you are taking in glucose in the form of carbs and your body is releasing insulin, it is putting your body into fat storage mode. And if your body is constantly releasing insulin throughout the day. So if you're constantly feeling like you're needing to snack and you're turning to more of these simple carbs, they things. If even if you are really trying to be decreasing, the amount of calories that you're having, your body is staying in fat storage mode, you know, it can't be burning. Fat, if you are continuing to have insulin in your body. So that's why it can be really frustrating if you're really counting calories. And you're trying to be good, even though you're hungry. It's because your hormones aren't cooperating with you. You need to bring down a and be stabilizing your blood sugar. So your insulin is down so that your body wants to be going into fat burning. The other frustrating thing that happens is that when insulin increases, it increases your hunger hormone, ghrelin. That makes you feel really hungry. So, not only are you in fat storage mode, you want more food and it decreases this tidy hormone leptin that makes it so hard for you to feel in control. So do you see how this life boost be? The blood sugar is also affecting your brain. It's making it so hard for you to feel in control because the food you're eating it's making you feel like you're hungry and that's so confusing. It's confusing to your body too, because it's getting all of this energy, but it's not getting the nutrients that it needs and it's not getting the fiber that it expects. And that is hurting your health because your gut microbes are starving. They're not getting the fiber that they want. And instead you. Feeding the bad gut microbes that are contributing to inflammation in your body because they are the ones that like sugar. So it's all connected. Now, if you're listening to this and you're like, Hmm, maybe my blood sugar is going for a roller coaster ride throughout the day though. I have good news for you. This is something that you have a lot of control over, and you can start making changes today that are going to have a dramatic impact on the way that you feel in your body, the way that you feel energy wise and helping you to feel finally in control. Now it can be really simple, basically eat more real whole foods. The more plants that you are eating. The more, you are going to be getting a nice dose of fiber with your carbohydrates, and that's going to help you to nourish the good gut microbes that you want. And it's going to help to help you to feel satisfied. It's going to help your blood sugar to be more stable because you're getting all that fiber. The other thing is to really be prioritizing balanced. So making sure that your meals have a really great dose of plants and then protein and healthy fats. When you have those, the fiber and the protein and the healthy fats, that's also going to help to slow that breakdown of glucose. So it's going to cause much less of a spike for. And I encourage you to listen to episode 27, if you haven't. I also share some little tweaks that make a big difference, but sometimes you can be trying to make healthy changes and It can be very individual in the way that your body is responding to different carbohydrates. And that can be frustrating if you feel like you are making healthy changes. If you're eating more complex carbohydrates and you're still not getting the results that you want. And that's where continuous glucose monitors are an absolutely magical tool. Absolutely everybody should be using a continuous glucose monitor at least once a year. It really should be becoming just part of the annual blood work that we have done, especially for prediabetics. So a continuous glucose monitor is a little wearable device that stays on for a certain amount of time. I really liked the freestyle Libra rays, because they're quite inexpensive and they're easy to get at any pharmacy. And they last for two weeks. And what it allows you to do is to see what your blood sugar is doing throughout the day. It gives you a continuous curve, so that through 24 hours for two weeks, you are able to see in real time what your blood sugar is doing without having to prick your finger or to get. All you have to do is there's an app on your phone and you just hold your phone up to the sensor, the freestyle Libra, it goes on your arm and you're able to immediately see what your blood sugar is. That is so powerful because you are able to see. Hmm. I wonder what this meal, how this meal influenced my blood sugar. You just scan and you can immediately see what it's doing. You can see what your blood sugar is doing throughout the night, while you're sleeping. And any time you're starting to feel hungry or light headed, you're able to check in and see what your blood sugar is doing. The fact that when someone is told they are pre-diabetic. They are just told to eat healthy and they are not prescribed a continuous glucose monitor. Blows my mind it's like waiting until your house is on fire. And then going out to, to buy a smoke alarm and fire extinguisher. It makes absolutely no sense when we have a tool that is inexpensive and easy to use. And instead of just being told to eat healthy and having absolutely no idea what that actually means for your body, you would be empowered with this tool that shows you what your blood sugar is doing. So you can start to learn what food works best for you. So, if you have ever been told that you are, pre-diabetic absolutely ask your physician for a prescription and let them know that you want to learn about your body, but even if you don't have pre-diabetes, the majority of Americans are again not having great blood sugar control, and this is a really powerful tool so that you can learn about your body. Because, unless you are seeing the numbers, it's very hard to predict how your body is responding. So there are general rules of thumb. You know, if you are eating more complex carbohydrates and more plants, then your blood sugar is going to be better than if you're having a ton of added sugar and having balanced meals is definitely going to help you to have more balanced blood sugar compared to if you're just having like a bagel for breakfast, that type of. However everybody's body responds differently. So for one person, a sweet potato may cause minimal blood sugar spike for another person that may cause a huge. A lot of the pastas. So I see a lot of people trying to make healthy changes. So you're swapping like the normal pasta for maybe like chick pea or lentil pasta. But for some people that may still be causing a really big spike for you. And another big one is fruit. I get asked all the time, like, what's the deal with fruit? You know? Like, is that okay? Because those are natural sugars. It depends the answer most of the time for if you should or shouldn't eat a food, it depends on how your body is responding, because if you are constantly having fruit throughout the day, Eve. And you're thinking that you're making healthy changes. It may actually be making it really hard for you to be achieving your goals, maybe making it. So you're not feeling satisfied and it may be really affecting your energy levels. And it's hard to know unless you're actually looking at the numbers. So I'm going to give you an example. I love blueberries, blueberries. I like to call them brain berries because they are amazing for brain health. They also are lower in sugar. So berries in general tend to be some of the better fruits because they are lower in sugar and they have a pretty good dose of five. Raspberries would be the best in terms of like fiber and sugar content, but blueberries are awesome. And they're so great for brain health. Now, the other day I did an experiment and it is a great example of how you could be feeling like you are doing all the right things. And yet you may not be getting the results that you want. And yet. When, you know what your numbers are doing, you can make some little changes so that you may even still be able to enjoy the food that you really like. You just, are empowered with the knowledge about when and how to enjoy that food. So I had a big bull. Like slightly defrosted, frozen blueberries. And with it, I had some tahini try that combination. Blueberries and tahini is delicious. I had to Haney some ground flax seed cinnamon, and then I added maybe two tablespoons of a homemade granola that I. Now a lot of granola tends to have a ton of added sugar. And that's one reason why I like to make it at home. I don't actually make it very often, but for whatever reason, I was really craving it. So I used some sprouted rolled oats, and then I added in some coconut chips, some nuts, and I didn't want it To have a lot of sugar. So I used unsweetened applesauce and I'd also had some olive oil in it. And then I put in maybe one tablespoon of honey and the entire recipe so that it was very low in added sugar. And even just the general sugar content. It was very low and I put maybe two tablespoons. Now that bowl of blueberries. So we have natural fruit that generally is lower in sugar. Although a big bullet blueberries still has some sugar in it. There was a lot of fiber in it from the blueberries and also the flax seeds. And so the coconut chips, coconut is another source. There were a lot of healthy fats because I add the ground flax seed and the tahini and the nuts and the coconut chips. And I had this bull as like an afternoon snack. So it wasn't right after a meal. I had it on my own when I looked at the, what my blood sugar did. You may think that it would have caused kind of a rolling hill, so you would have expected it like to slowly increase, but all the fiber and healthy fats helped it to be slower. That's not what happened. My blood sugar spiked up quickly and then it started to crash. That's hard to predict unless you're looking at the numbers. This is an example of how you may be telling yourself that you are making really healthy changes, but that may not be what is actually happening within your body. Now, I still was getting a really great dose of plants and that was good for my gut health and general. But this is important for me to know, because if I want to have really good stable energy, say that after noon, I needed to be having a call with a client or if I was at work and I needed to be really on it with my patients. And I wanted to have really good energy and good focus throughout the day, then that is probably not the snack that I should turn to. Even though they were my brain berries. Right. Even though I'm like, this is such a great, awesome nourishing meal. Now I really want you to take a minute think about your breakfast. Do you tend to have fruit? Do you tend to turn to yogurt with some granola or some cereal and fruit? That may be causing a big spike and then a crash really thinking about how is your focus throughout the day? How is your hunger? Does that really help you to feel satisfied? Right? Until lunch, that may be a place to be making some adjustments. This is where. Brain and mindset comes into because it can be so frustrating when you're saying to yourself, I'm making these healthy changes, but are they really, you know, are you trying to tell yourself that the granola is a healthy food? Are you telling yourself that all that fruit is healthy, even though you're really needing it because you're always craving sugar, really looking at. How your thoughts may not be setting you up for success, or maybe trying to help you help to convince you that you're making nourishing changes, maybe making you feel frustrated when in reality, maybe those aren't the, the right options for you. Another thing to be aware of is oats. Tends to cause a pretty big spike in blood sugar and a lot of, and that's really frustrating because a lot of people think of oatmeal as a really healthy breakfast. And a lot of the times you're told that oats are great for your cholesterol, but if you are having huge blood sugar spikes, that's actually. Not going to be beneficial for your LDL. And so that sucks. If you're having this oatmeal, maybe you don't even love the oatmeal, but you're having it because you're trying to be good and it could be causing a big spike in. Crash, especially because a lot of the times, even like the rolled oats or certainly the instant oats, that's definitely becoming more processed. So more of the simple carbohydrate and that is turning into glucose in your body. So even though it was this low sugar, seemingly like Uber healthy granola, and it wasn't even a lot. That is probably, that was probably really contributing to that blood sugar spike. So, I love that because I had my continuous glucose monitor. I am able to experiment, right. This was nothing to beat myself up about. It was an awesome learning opportunity. And in general in life, I really encourage you always to just act like a restart. I want you to always think about things as data points, they're not good or bad, it's an opportunity to learn and to move forward. So the next day. I wanted to see how making some tweaks could influence my blood sugar. So right after a really, really delicious lunch, I highly recommend it. It was a bowl of cauliflower, rice and kale. I had both of those were just frozen. So just put them in the microwave and then. I chopped up some celery and some artistry, chicken, and then I poured some noble made Buffalo sauce. It was so good. Just like a yummy Buffalo chicken bowl. It was really good and really satisfying. I actually, wasn't very hungry after, but I wanted to do this experiment. So I took one for the team and I had a bowl of blueberries too. So this time with my blueberries, I had the blueberries to Heaney ground flax seed and cinnamon. All of those were the same, but this time I just put plain old coconut chips on, I didn't put any of the granola. So the two things that were different. Or that I had it immediately after a really nourishing meal. I had lots of veggies and protein first, and I wasn't having the rolled oats or the granola on the blueberries. It was still really, really delicious. And then after eating that, I went for a walk for about an hour. That time I experienced a minimal blood sugar spike. The, there was no spike, really. There was like a slight hill and that was it. Isn't that cool. So just by making a few changes just by learning, maybe that granola, isn't a great option for. Or maybe when I want to have blueberries, it's best to have it right after a meal. You know, if I'm wanting something a little bit sweet, I should do that. Or if I want to have something sweeter like blueberries. That can be a great time to go for a walk after. And again, I encourage you to listen to episode 27, where we really talk about some of those little tweaks that can help. They order that you're eating your food really can impact your blood sugar and going for a walk or using your muscles. Remember, muscles are. Places that you store glucose and you can also be using glucose. So if you're having a higher amount of glucose in your body, those muscles can be using that up and it's going to cause less of a blood sugar spike. The other thing that's happening is that the blood sugar is getting released much slower because I already had in my stomach, all of that fiber and protein. So when somebody asks me like, can I have fruit? Is fruit good? I know it has sugar, but it's natural. It really depends on what your goals are, how you're feeling and how your unique body is responding to it. You can have whatever you want. It just depends on the way that you want to feel. With a continuous glucose monitor, you're able to see which fruits work best for you. There's a really good chance that things like bananas, pineapple, mangos, grapes, those are really high in sugar and R and E especially now our society has been. Breeding fruit to become higher and higher in sugar. So if you were to compare a banana now to compare, to like what it was in the fifties, it's a completely different plant basically, and it is much higher in sugar. So those are very likely causing big spikes for you. But even experimenting with, an apple or a Kiwi or berries? Some of the ones that do have a nice dose of fiber with them and have the potential to be causing more stable blood sugar. Is an apple, is an afternoon snack, a good option for you, or maybe you should be having that along with some peanut butter or some healthy fats, or maybe there's another way that you could have enjoy that fruit that is going to help to give you more stable energy with a continuous glucose monitor, you are able to play around and see what works for you. Now, one point that I really want to emphasize is that this does not mean that you should always avoid any food that is going to cause a blood sugar spike cry. This is never about perfection. The goal is not that you will never have a blood sugar spike and you'll always have a perfectly stable blood sugar throughout the day. This is about you feeling in control and empowered with the knowledge about what works for your body. This is to make sure that you are not feeling out of control because you aren't even realizing that your blood sugar is going for a roller coaster ride throughout the day. Right. The fact that those blueberries caused a spike and no crash and my blood sugar, isn't a big deal throughout the day. My blood sugar is in a healthy range and my body was perfectly capable of responding to that increase in glucose. And then by taking it. And I did actually end up later that day because it had been an early morning and a short workout. I just wanted it to move my body a little bit. And so I did a little bit of a strength workout and my body, those muscles quickly took in that blood sugar. And then it was stable afterwards. It's totally okay. Because my body is not constantly in a state where there's too much glucose and my body is not constantly having insulin. My body is perfectly capable of managing the glucose that I have and appropriately storing it when I need it and burning and finding that balance. So depending on what your goals are, that's really going to influence the foods that you want to be eating and how often you are going to be okay with your blood sugar spiking. So, depending on the way that you want to feel in your body, if you're experiencing sugar cravings, just what your health status is, those are all going to impact what you choose to eat. In life boost level three. Here's what I want for you. I want you to walk into a break room and to see donuts and candy, and for you to genuinely not want it the majority of the time, you want it to be very easy for you to. I feel like you aren't missing out at all. You just genuinely don't want a lot of the quote unquote temptations that you're seeing. You don't have a temptation to cheat. There is no cheating. You have the freedom to have what you want, because you are empowered with the knowledge of what works best for your body. And you know, that, that food isn't really worth it like semi stale donuts or the packaged cookies? That you could get absolutely any time that you wanted them, you know, that those aren't going to make you feel good. Like you want to have good energy throughout the day. You don't want to be feeling bloated. You don't want to be hungry soon after, and you don't want to have sugar cravings for like the next five days. So that mediocre packaged cookie isn't worth it. However, There are times when there going to be like a really amazing homemade cake, there could be like this special treat that you only have available like certain times of year, like traditions, when you know that maybe that is going to feed your sweet tooth a little bit, or maybe it'll impact your energy level. But you're okay with that, because that also is going to bring you a lot of joy, you know, are you with the family? And you're all making homemade cookies and just like those warm, epic cookies right out of the oven. Is that really bring you joy? Does that make your heart happy? Is that something that you're really going to saver? So looking at the entire experience of that food, Deciding is that something that you want, do you want that joy? Are you okay with the way that it's going to make you feel after? And you're even empowered, like maybe your family is going to enjoy some of those cookies and then maybe you want to like, go play outside for a little while and move your muscles and walk and that'll help to decrease the blood sugar cravings. Or maybe you are going to have a nice nourishing lunch before you have those cookies. It's just being. Empowered with the knowledge about what works well for you. The problem starts to happen when you don't even realize that your blood sugar's going for a roller coaster ride throughout the day, you don't realize that you're having massive spikes and you're constantly having insulin released in your body when you're constantly getting glucose, because that's just, what's normal in our society and the food that you're eating. That's when your body stops being able to. To regulate your blood sugar very well, or it stops being able to deal with all of that glucose. It's just so overwhelmed. And that's when you can start having things like insulin resistance, your body is just like constantly releasing insulin and your cells start to be like, ma like we just, we're getting this all the time. We're not going to be as sensitive and not going to be dealing with an storing or burning the glucose. Like we should be. That's when it starts to become a problem. So know that the aim is not perfection, it's just knowledge so that your body is in a nice, healthy place so it's dealing with glucose appropriately. Your body was designed to do that. And you just want to make sure that you're supporting. The other thing to be aware of is that the spike that those blueberries caused really like in the whole, like compared to some other things, like probably if I had had a slice of cake, it wasn't crazy. So. Levels health is a really great resource. That's a website. They do a lot with continuous glucose monitors and they have some general recommendations. There aren't any published guidelines yet because the world hasn't caught on to just how important continuous glucose monitors are. And so there isn't a ton of published research in terms of. What is optimal for a healthy individual. It tends to be more, the numbers tend to be more focused on, diabetic versus non-diabetic. But in general, what it seems is that aiming for blood sugar, like around 70 to 110 throughout most of the day is optimal. And ideally within the. You don't want more than 30 MIG per deciliter spike in blood sugar. That's, what's optimal with the blueberries. My blood sugar went from 76 to 121. So just a little bit over like the recommended, optimal range. If you're looking at the typical requirements, it's more like one 40. And so there was, that was like a 45 point spike and depth. And if you were to see what the curve was, it was a pretty rapid increase and then a decrease instead of like a nice gradual one. So the message is not that blueberry is you should never eat that or you should avoid fruit or, you know, never have oats, that type of thing. It's always important to look at the whole picture and why are eating certain things? It's just about being empowered with the knowledge of what works for your body, so that you feel in control and you get to decide when it's worth it to have a blood sugar spike and a crash, or when you want stable energy. If I wanted to, if I have important meetings or have a big day and I need epic energy, then I can fuel my body accordingly in a way that is nourishing and delicious. Okay. I am not here to tell you what you can and can't eat. I am here to help you to feel empowered and to help you to learn how to listen to your body by starting to eat the food that helps your brain to feel more in control. That comes down to balance and eating plants and to understand, and to start listening to your body and to watch for signs, it means paying attention to your energy and your cravings and your weight. And if you're not liking the way that you're feeling starting to pay attention to the way the food you eat is making you feel throughout the day, not just when it's hitting your taste buds. When you were eating more balanced foods, more real whole foods that is helping to balance your hormones, and that helps your brain and it helps you to start feeling more in control. Because so much of the food when you're walking into that grocery store and you're seeing all those colors and all those packaged food, the companies are designing those even so that it achieves the list point, right? They are engineering food to check all the boxes to make your brain super happy. And when you're having a lot of sugar in your diet, what that does is it makes the part of your brain, the amygdala that is very impulsive. It's kind of like the kid just like feel something and immediately. It makes the amygdala much more active compared to the prefrontal cortex. Think of the prefrontal cortex as the adult. That is what allows you to feel in control. You're able to think about scenarios and then make a decision of whether that's really what you want so that you can kind of think of that as the willpower, right. That is when you're able to think, Hm, I do really want this cake, but I really hate the way that that is going to make me feel. I don't want to have sugar cravings for the next five days. I would rather have this other nourishing option that also makes my taste buds happy, but is going to help me to feel more in control. Your prefrontal cortex is the one that can tell you that and the way that you can get your prefrontal cortex to be feeling more in control. Again, compared to your impulsive amygdala is just simply by eating more real whole foods, paying attention to the amount of added sugar in your diet and decreasing that. It's amazing. I know you may hear me saying you don't need discipline or willpower in order to be living a really healthy lifestyle and to be achieving weight loss. That feels good. You may be thinking no, like that'll never be me. I will always be having sugar cravings or I'll always just have to be white, knuckling it around sweets and cake. That's not true. You can absolutely feel in control. You can ditch those sugar cravings. You can make great choices and you can feel empowered and confident. It's just about balancing these three. The more you are learning about what your body needs. The more you are balancing your blood sugar. The more you are helping with your gut health, new to feel more satisfied and not experiencing these weird signs like brain fog or headaches or embarrassing GI signs, the more your brain is going to feel really good. Even your mood. The food that you were eating impacts your mood so much. If you are experiencing constant stress and anxiety and low energy, this is why we need to really be balancing all three. It's just, it's magical, right? How that's all come together. And when you're making those changes, as long as you're balancing the three L's, as long as you're making sure that the, those swaps that you're eating are things that you love and you love the way it's making you feel as long as you're making sure that it fits into your lifestyle. So, you know, a huge part of all of this is convenience and you're busy, right? The good news is they're super convenient, easy food. You know, I was saying that lunch that I had with the cauliflowers and the kale and the celery and the rotisserie chicken and the sauce that was so fast and easy to make. It was so delicious. And that is something that absolutely I can keep up. Long-term. Right. As long as you are following the life boost approach, your life is going to change in amazing ways. And you are going to be able to achieve life boost level three in your wellness journey. It's when you. Started making healthy changes. So you ditched level one, which is all do it tomorrow when you're just putting off healthy changes and you have made it pass level two, the bandwagon, when things feel hard and you're having to rely on discipline and willpower and you make it to level three life boost where you are just living your healthy lifestyle, feeling amazing, feeling in control and loving the results that you are. That is what I am here to help you to achieve. And continuous glucose monitors are amazing tool for that. So please don't hesitate to reach out. If you have questions about continuous glucose monitors, I am constantly sharing more examples of continuous glucose monitors and my curves and meals and how that's influencing my blood sugar on Instagram. So I have. So CGM, you can go on there. And I show like how I put my freestyle library on, and lots of different examples of how my stress and sleep and food impact my blood sugar. Now, if you're listening to this and you're just really excited to start balancing your blood sugar and feeling epically amazing and in control, and finally getting the results that you want. Let's talk about how to make that happen. so I'm sure you have some questions and everybody is so individual. So I would love to talk to you about your unique circumstances, history, challenges, and goals, to really help to set you up for success and to help you figure out what the right next step is for you. Schedule a complimentary one hour walk and talk. So we are going to talk on the phone while we both go for a walk, which means that you are literally and figuratively going to be taking the first steps in your wellness journey while we problem solve. And we are going to talk about. How you can start to be stabilizing your blood sugar based on the form that you fill out beforehand so that I know what you're eating or how your stress level is like, what are your challenges are? And we will talk about what you can start doing and we'll figure out what next step feels best for you. We've talked about how important the lb the life boost approach is. And so that is absolutely why you should get my free life boost troubleshoot guide. That guide will walk you through. It's going to be seven days of simple things so that we can start seeing which of the bees and which of the ELs need to be prioritized in order for you to start getting the results that you want. And then I have group and one-on-one program options. So if you are ready to just finally feel in control and to get the results and to truly change your life. You know, you just want to wake up and just have that feeling of loving, who you see in the mirror, having energy for your crazy life, feeling in control, comfortable in your body. I'm here for you to help to make that happen. I will help you understand exactly what your body needs in order to finally get results so that you can ditch yo-yo dieting forever along the journey. We're also going to be making sure that people pleasing and perfectionism aren't getting in the way of your health, happiness, and success. So reach out to me. If you want to learn more, we can definitely start with a walk and talk and talk about all of the options. And finally. Everybody needs a continuous glucose monitor. Our world needs to have more stable blood sugar. Increasingly people are just not very nice. Have you experienced that? People just don't have the empathy that they used to. And a huge reason for that is that we just don't feel good. The majority of Americans are sick, overweight or unhappy. And that is because of simple things like not getting the right amount of fiber and not having stable blood sugar, because we are living in a society where the normal. Is to not be eating the food that sets our body up for success. So please help me to spread the word help to make continuous glucose monitors and stable blood sugar. The norm, we need to start by breaking the norm, but I want more and more people having this little spot that I have on my arm. We want to make these continuous glucose monitors popular is such an amazing tool and it's available to all of us. So please share this podcast with anybody who you think could benefit. You may want to relisten to this, to take some notes, make sure you get all this information so you can start making healthy changes. And I am excited for you to start feeling your absolute best. Cheers to your inevitable health, happiness, and success.