I Am Well

Wellness Wednesdays - Why Blood Sugar Matters More Than Calories?

• Episode 60

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In this episode of the I Am Well podcast, host Jemma dives deep into the transformative power of blood sugar management over traditional calorie counting. Discover why balancing blood sugar levels is crucial for sustainable health and weight management, and how it can empower you to take control of your wellness journey. Jemma debunks common myths, shares practical tips, and highlights the importance of understanding your body's unique responses to food. Whether you're new to this concept or looking to refine your approach, this episode is packed with insights to help you live your best life.

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[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to I Am Well podcast. I'm your host, Gemma, a nutritionist and a hormonal fasting coach, passionate about self development through a holistic lens. But my biggest mission is to help empower women and get them to reconnect and trust their bodies again. So if you're a woman who just wants to better herself and live her best life, You're listening to the right podcast, so let's get to it.

Welcome, welcome, welcome back to wellness Wednesdays. Thank you for listening again. Today we are talking on blood sugar balancing, and I feel like this is, going to be a thing of the future. I mean, heaps more people are focusing on their blood sugar levels nowadays, but there's still a lot of controversy around it.

There's still a lot of. That's ridiculous. That doesn't work. Only people who are diabetics [00:01:00] should be checking their blood sugar levels. Yadda, yadda, yadda. But I am here to break down the stigma around it and The whole reason I'm so obsessed with it is because it gives you the power. It gives you the power to understand your body in a different way and how it is really, how it handles foods.

Cause everyone's different. Everyone's blood sugars levels go up and down differently depending on the foods they're eating, depending on the stress that's going on, day to day life, their environment, everything. So this is why I love this way so much more than calorie counting. Calorie counting, it worked for a time there, but most people like end up putting the weight back on that they end up losing after they do a method like this.

 Also calorie counting doesn't tell you the quality of the food that you're eating. It's just focused on literally the number, the calories that you're having. So yeah, we're going to get straight into [00:02:00] this today. Just wanted to remind you all that I do have. Balance that group program. You literally have one last week to sign up.

Otherwise I'm taking on two clients in Feb. If you want to work with me one to one, look the link in the show notes below, and I can really help get you started and make sure that you actually see results this year. You actually get to where you want to be, because we're focusing on everything in a holistic picture.

We're focusing on your nutrition, your lifestyle. That's the thing with. Doctors and dietitians and practitioners out there, they can only do so much with the time that they have. You can't expect a doctor to get to the root cause in 15 minutes that they have with you. That's where I come in. So I'll work with those practitioners alongside them and make sure that we're focusing on you, what's going on with your life and how to create a lifestyle that's centered around your hormones, that works for you and make sure you actually get results this year.[00:03:00] 

So anyway, let's go back to the topic of maintaining blood sugar levels and why this matters so much for so long. I feel like we've all been conditioned to think everything to do with losing weight and health is calories in. So how much you're eating and then how much you're burning and. We've got to like, I literally just did the episode from Mindset Mondays.

If you listen to that, we were literally talking about understanding what hasn't worked in the past for you, learning from that and changing the strategy so that you can grow. And this is how I feel about calorie counting. It's not. It's really working as well as it did in the past and it was working for a time there and it is amazing for so long, but it's not sustainable.

And especially because the food that we have nowadays jam packed with so many, so much crap in there. Like there's so much ultra processed [00:04:00] foods that counting calories can only tell us so much. It doesn't tell you the quality of the food. And, I literally have a statistic here from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, where they say only 5 percent of people who lose weight through calorie restrictions, maintain it for five years or longer.

So 5%. Like, so if you're one of the 5%, good on you, because that you are part of a small percentage of people that actually use calorie restriction and that it's actually working for them. Unfortunately, 95 percent of people are struggling and this is why it's, it's fall short. This is why it's not working.

So let's start by breaking down the limitations of calorie counting first and, understand like the general idea of energy intake and. What it's not accounting for. So first off, as I said, food quality. So for an, for example, a hundred calorie [00:05:00] servings of almonds fuels your body so much different than a hundred calorie serving of candy.

So that in itself, people will know that you have, and when we think about this in blood sugar levels, blood sugar ways, you have the almonds, Your blood sugar is going to be very very stable from that and you're going to have a slow burn of energy It's just sustainable. No, you're not gonna get that instant hit that people are looking for like what candy is gonna make you You know, I've got candy here.

I guess if you're in Australia lollies but So yeah, it's not gonna have the same effect as what like lollies would do You know, you're going to obviously have something like that. And it's just full of sugar and instantly you're going to feel so much more energy, but it's the after effect, you know, an hour, two hours after you're going to have a huge crash.

And it's because what's happening is you [00:06:00] eat the sugar. And your body gets this huge glucose spike. So you think of it's like skyrocketing up. And what your body's doing is it's trying to find places to quickly put that, that glucose, that sugar. So it's going all over the shop, like going, Oh my God, we've got to, we've got to put this somewhere.

So it tries to store it in the cells. And you know, you've got to have your, your pancreas working cause it's got to produce the insulin to then take that and put it into the cells and your body's working overtime to store it or, or use it up. There is a, I will go into that because there is a different way.

Like if you're exercising that you can use it quickly, but if you're not exercising or anything and you're just having it and it's just, it's just your body's then working overtime to put it somewhere. So the one that happens is your body's then exhausted from that. Whereas if you eat like a handful of almonds.

Obviously, it's not a whole lot of sugar, so it's only a little bit of glucose, glucose. It's only a little bit that gets turned into glucose [00:07:00] that then that insulin will go out and have to store it. So it's not working over time. Now I will quickly mention with exercise, this, some people, you know, you might see athletes running marathons and they're going to have a quick glucose intake.

I think they have like even like glucose syrups and stuff like that. That's a different story because they're. Working out. So they're using that energy that's getting put into your body straight away. So it's not going to get stored. So your body's not as exhausted. It's not working overtime to store it.

Not that I'm saying like, the best thing that you should be doing when you exercise is eating straight sugar. It's a different story. And these are all like the blood sugar hacks that you can do to help make sure that your blood sugar levels don't skyrocket. Because as soon as they skyrocket, what goes up must come down.

And you're going to feel that energy depletion either an hour or two hours after. And that's when you know that, that food just didn't do your body service. So with [00:08:00] blood sugar response as well, calories don't measure how food impacts your glucose levels. Your blood glucose monitor will though. And that's where the power comes into play.

 Also making sure like you're full, fuller for longer and creating like that, that hormonal impact calories can't tell you that, but your blood sugar levels can. So certain foods that you're, that keep you full for longer and have less impact on hunger relating hormones, they're going to, they're going to be foods that are going to keep your blood sugar levels more stable, whereas like if you're having a trigger from foods.

And you get that burst of energy. And then that depletion later, they're going to be foods that obviously didn't do your service to your blood sugar levels, but calories won't tell you that. So studies show that blood sugar spikes and [00:09:00] crashes are directly linked to increased cravings and energy dips. That's from Harvard health. So I'm not making this up people.

So what happens when your blood sugar is out of balance? Okay. So what happens here is it can set off a chain reaction throughout the whole body. You know, it will affect your energy. We talked about that. So you'll have those energy crashes, but it can also affect weight gain. Having high blood prep, blood sugar levels, more so having high blood sugar levels consistently can lead to insulin resistance.

And I'm sure you've probably heard of insulin resistance before, but if you don't. If you don't fully know what insulin resistance actually is, it's where So as we were talking about with that sugar, that right, that put your body into overdrive and your pancreas, you know, develop, produces insulin to then store the glucose into your cells.

So what happens over time, if you're constantly putting this [00:10:00] sugar in all the time, so you're having sugar like every two hours, you puts your body into overdrive and it's getting exhausted that eventually the, your cells literally just ignore the insulin. So the insulin comes knocking on the door, on the cell doors and saying, Come on, we're trying to store in all this glucose.

Let us in, let us in. I've got the glucose here. Let it in your cells are like on another planet and then literally not responding anymore. So what happens is the insulin's like, okay, crap, I've got to figure out where to put this now and the places that are all store. Is fat so great? What way to just store it is store it as fat.

And if you're storing places as fat, just remember that that is amazing for your health because your body's doing the right thing because otherwise it'll get into your organs and that causes massive inflammation damage to your body and your health. So it's great that it stores it as fat, [00:11:00] but that's what leads to the weight gain, obviously.

So this is why we, it's so important to make sure you're maintaining steady blood sugar levels. consistently. And I've seen videos and things out there where people are saying, this is ridiculous. Like it's natural for our blood sugar levels to rise and fall like that is a normal human response. Yeah. To a point, but it depends on what you're always consistently putting into your body.

And. Sometimes people will, you know, they'll say things like, it's simple, just eat whole foods, just cut out sugar. It's simple. But the thing is sugar is addictive people. It's addictive. And sometimes when you just put on a glucose monitor and you see what that sugar is consistently doing to your levels over and over again, you understand the science behind it.

And then what's happening to your metabolic health, to your hormone health, because this can infect infertility, right? Or [00:12:00] your fertility can lead to infertility. Then that just gives you so much more knowledge and empowers you to go, shit, I want to make a change here. I don't want this to happen to my body.

I don't want my body to fail. So that's why understanding blood sugar levels, I feel like gives you a whole new outlook on your health. And the best of all, you get the tools, you get to decide, you get to see what the foods are doing for you. Not, you don't have to go to a doctor and get tested and then wait for the doctor to tell you, you have the power.

So that's why I love this and I honestly don't understand why people get so upset about it because it's just another tool like if You don't like it. You don't have to do it, right? But it's okay if someone else wants to do it because they're taking the power of their health into their own hands like calm down I know there's another thing.

I actually want to debunk and people are saying but More people that are doing this are creating more stress on their health because everything they're [00:13:00] seeing, they're going, Oh my God, I just ate a banana and it skyrocketed my levels. Oh my God, I can't have banana. And they're all out of sorts and all out of whack and it's creating stress, which also gives rise to your blood sugar levels.

Okay, like, I feel like then That, that argument there is people trying to find something, they're trying to find something wrong. But you could say that about anything. You could say that about telling someone, all you have to do is eat whole foods and eat a healthy diet, you know, do the 80 20 rule. Yes, but that can still stress a person out.

So you can say that about anything and what it comes down to is going back to someone's mindset, going back to their subconscious blocks, understand those thoughts that are coming up and healing that part. So that's another sort of work. And we can go through that too. It's such a cop out to just blame it on, Checking your blood sugar levels and being like, no, that just creates more stress on a person.

No, anything create, create more stress on a person. That's your choice at the end. So that's [00:14:00] a mindset thing. That's not a blood sugar levels thing. So I just wanted to debunk that for a little bit, but also what can the third thing that can happen when your blood sugar levels are out of balance is it can create inflammation within the whole body inflammation in yourselves and.

This can be such a root cause in so many chronic conditions, stuff like diabetes, autoimmune diseases, hormonal imbalances. If you. I'm not having a regular cycle, it could literally be due to being insulin resistant and you're not even realizing that. And you think that you're eating healthy, you're doing the 80 20 rule, but you're not understanding that some things are skyrocketing your blood sugar levels and there's just certain things that you can add in little tools and stuff that you can tweak it.

You know, if you're having say a bowl of rice and you're just having rice and You're like, Oh, I'll just chuck in some chicken. So rice and chicken. So you're having protein and you're having carbohydrates, things that you can do to make sure that the blood sugars levels don't skyrocket. [00:15:00] Cause this could be a healthy meal to you.

Rice and chicken. Easy, healthy, quick. Well, you want to add in some fiber. You could add in some vegetables because that will help slow down that and, not create such a huge spike. You might want to add in some nuts and stuff as fat, add in avocado as fat that will also help make sure that your blood sugar levels don't skyrocket before you.

You could have that. You could have glass of water and put in a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. That's also been proven to lower the blood sugar level response. You could go for a walk straight after because as we said, exercise will help make sure we're using up that energy. So then eat up. And then as you then go out for a five, 10 minute walk, there are things that you can do. And it's just about. It's not about creating stress in your life and making, you know, you freak out about whether you're doing the right or wrong thing. It's about giving you knowledge [00:16:00] and giving you that power to make changes in your life that are going to impact your health in so many abundantly wonderful ways.

 You know, there's a study done from the Journal of American Medical Association Association, and they say like chronic blood sugar spikes are associated associated with a 30 percent increased risk of developing heart disease and heart disease is massive at the moment. So these are just little things that we can do.

And I, as I said, I don't see why you wouldn't give it a shot, especially when we're in like we're all about the I am well podcast is literally all about preventative care here. Okay, don't wait to get diagnosed with something and then try and fix it. So I believe blood sugar level, blood sugar regulation is going to be a thing of the future and we're going to stop focusing on calorie counting as much. You know, as I said, it affects your energy. It affects your mood, your hormonal health, your weight management. [00:17:00] So, and there's all these little tools that you can do tips and tricks and the hacks and stuff like apple cider vinegar is such an easy one to implement.

And I know a lot of people say, yeah, but it tastes disgusting. There are so many things that you can do. I know some people put like mix it with like a sparkling water, like you could have sparkling water, apple cider vinegar. And I think people do like mint, or ginger, that can help make it taste so much better.

There's definitely all these different drinks out there that you can try that make it taste better. Or you can really dilute it. You know, you can have such a huge glass of. water makes you drink more and then add some apple cider vinegar and you barely taste it because you've diluted it so much.

That's what I do. I'll have a big glass of water and put lots of ice in there, chuck an apple cider vinegar, and then drink that. You can drink it before the meal. That will definitely help you lower that blood sugar level response. But even if you have it after it is still also going to work. Just as long as you're having it after like at least [00:18:00] within the 20 to 30 minute gap But I don't do that all the time.

I don't I'm not saying like every morning I have apple cider vinegar some people do and that's great I just do it when like I just know something's gonna give me a huge sugar spike because I've tested my levels before and I'll Know what will and what won't so say I really want at night A piece of cake or something like that.

We've just celebrated someone's birthday and we have leftover cake and we want, I really want a piece of cake and I just wanna enjoy it. Well, what I'll do is I'll have some apple cider vinegar and then water, and then I'll eat the cake. And then I know that that night I'm still gonna have a good enough sleep.

'cause especially when you're eating before sleep, like you, you wanna make sure that you're not eating when it's dark. But you know, we're all human. We wanna celebrate. Well, if you want to eat when it's dark, that's just a tool that you can implement to make sure that your blood sugar levels aren't skyrocketing so that you are getting a good enough sleep.

So your body's not going into overdrive at night, trying to store all [00:19:00] this glucose. And then you wake up really tired in the morning because that can have a huge effect on your health as well. In the end. It's a part of everything as well. It's all a mindset game and it's just about shifting your focus.

So if you've been stuck in, in this calorie counting mindset, start making shifts that you can, you can do and start thinking about it differently. And it might feel a bit overwhelming at first because you might be always used to this calorie, calorie counting way. And. You might like to take thing, you, you might like to have that control.

It could be in control thing for you. So counting calories is a way of controlling. What you're eating, but instead of counting calories, maybe start counting your macros. Start using like a food diary and track your meals throughout the day and track how they're making you feel. As I said, like I always love tracking, tracking your symptoms of everything.

So maybe get a food diary. There are so many food [00:20:00] diaries, journals out there that you can just download. You can literally get it from Amazon, like whatever, and just start tracking what you're eating and how it's making you feel, especially an hour or two hours after. Cause that will give you such a huge insight.

Try using a glucose monitor. I highly recommend glucose monitors. You can get ones where you prick the finger, but you can also get continuous glucose monitors. I actually work with a company called Vively. So with clients that come into my world, I'll recommend they go on Vively and then I actually get their results sent to me so I can then see in real time what's actually going on and help.

Make sure that they understand it too. And it's great because it's a whole diary and one you can put in your exercise, the meals that you're eating, how you're feeling that day. Cause obviously stress has a big play in this too, as we've talked about before. And it gives you an amazing health insight, to your overall health.

And then also just practice. It helps you practice mindful eating as well, making, doing these things and making sure [00:21:00] you understand what's, what food is having an effect on your. Blood sugar levels will also then help you understand about portion sizes, understand about eating slowly, understanding about enjoying your meal, taking time to just eat the meal.

It, it, it opens up a way of getting you to intuitively eat without you even realizing that's what you're doing.

So research shows that adding protein to your breakfast can reduce blood sugar spikes by 30%. That was done by the University of Sydney. So that's another, you know, a little hack in the mornings to have some, make sure you're having protein in anything that you're having in your breakfast. Make sure you're covering it also with fat, uh, with fiber that can also have an amazing effect on how you start your day and how you start your day is then so important for the rest of your day.

Your energy levels will matter from how you start your morning in that day. So to wrap it all up, maintaining [00:22:00] blood sugar levels. It is literally a game changer and I am obsessed with this. While counting calories may still have its place in some scenarios. And I'm not saying it's the worst thing to do.

I, you know, as I said, like things might work for you differently than it does for me. You might be a part of that 5%, you know, that is still getting amazing results from it. But if you're a part of the 95%, this is something else you can try. And I highly recommend you do. When you practice stabilizing your blood sugar, you're setting yourself up for a better, like, overall well being, overall experience, overall health.

Like, you get, you're feeling empowered. You're like, yes, I've got the power myself. I can take things into my own hands now. Understand all the foods that they're doing and what's working for me and what's not. So, thank you for tuning in if you found this helpful. insightful or helpful, please let me know, send me a message on Instagram.

I'm always in my DMS there. [00:23:00] Otherwise leave me a rating, a review. It means more to me than you'll ever know. Otherwise I will chat to you all in the next episode. So have a great day guys. Thank you so much for listening and you all mean so much to me.