Women’s Blood Sugar 101: What You Need To Know & Do To Find Balance

Today I want to dive into the topic of blood sugar, which is single handedly one of the most important topics around nutrition. We are going to dive into why blood sugar matters for your energy, your hormones, your sleep and your overall long term health. Common real life scenarios that I have seen in the last 10 years that keep people trapped in having blood sugar roller coasters throughout the entire day and simple science backed strategies that you can apply to your life in order to help you stabilize your blood sugar so that you can improve your overall symptoms. I want to start with the fact that I used to go from feeling energized to completely crashing within 30 minutes. Usually it would happen after I ate lunch, but not always right after eating lunch. And at that point I felt this need for a pick me up, whether it was a cup of coffee, because at the time I still drank coffee or a sugar hit or something to just help me get through the afternoon and help me stay stop feeling so incredibly tired. Now I also have narcolepsy, so I have been, you know, working on improving my overall energy levels for the last 20 years. But this was a big mindset shift for me and better understanding the physiology when in 2011 I was interning at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute and still experiencing those energy dips, even though I had made a lot of progress with my overall narcolepsy symptoms. But I was still having this cycle of having these dips after lunch. And I remember going to a talk by one of the integrative medicine doctors that was in the department that I was interning for, Dr. Roxanne Tsukal, who presented to a group of physicians about blood sugar control. And it truly changed my life. Where it connected a lot of dots for me early on, where she said most people are eating foods at their meals that lead to more blood sugar spikes that are then followed by the blood sugar crashes, which is why you're reaching for the coffee or why you're reaching for the sugar when you need that. Pick me up. And the data is very clear that most people are experiencing the blood sugar roller coaster likely multiple times per day without even realizing it. There was one study that was conducted in people that did not have diabetes and they showed that eating cereal in those individuals led to blood sugar spikes in the pre diabetes range greater than a 140 milligram per deciliter increase for about 80% of the people that didn't have diabetes. And I think that sometimes people mistake this idea that I only should care about my blood sugar if I have pre diabetes or type 2 diabetes. And it's simply not the case. Now, we do know that 50% of Americans have abnormal blood sugar levels. They either have Pre diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, or type 1 diabetes. So 50% of the population has, quote, unquote, normal blood sugar. And there's this mistake that, oh, I just have to have diabetes in order to care about it. And most people do not realize that underneath the surface, there are already warning signs that blood sugar may be getting imbalanced. Because we're not. Doctors typically are not testing for a whole spectrum of labs that tell you more about your blood sugar control. And we're not paying attention to the symptoms that are happening, especially after our meals. So these blood sugar swings that people experience on a day to day basis, they can lead to brain fog, to energy crashes, they can lead to intense cravings. If you're a person that feels like intellectually you know what to do in order to support your health, but you have cravings that are working against you, or an intense desire to eat outside of your meals and are constantly hungry, then this may be the case. Not to mention the fact that blood sugar imbalances can accelerate chronic inflammation, hormone imbalances, and worsening symptoms of perimenopause in menopause. This is something that so many people do not understand. The role that blood sugar plays in chronic inflammation. When you're having large blood sugar spikes throughout the day, that is directly increasing your body's production of inflammatory cytokines when it's left unchecked. And it's also exacerbating symptoms, symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. And as you go through these hormonal shifts, you actually become less insulin sensitive, more insulin resistant, which contributes to this vicious cycle of having a difficult time managing blood sugar levels in a way that actually helps you feel good, not to mention preventing disease. And you don't have to be drinking a 2 liter of soda a day in order to experience blood sugar elevations. Because this is another common myth that I see people believe all the time is that you have to be eating food, fast food, or drinking soda, or doing other things that, you know, are, you know, really not optimal choices that will have a very negative effect on your body. For some people, it's foods or meals like having a rice cake with some nut butter or oatmeal, or brown rice mixed with beans just as itself, or a salad with croutons and raisins. All of these could potentially lead to blood sugar spikes. And if you're eating, quote, unquote healthy, but you're still experiencing these spikes because of the imbalances that exist within your meals, then you're going to continue to experience the symptoms and feel frustrated that you're putting effort in but not seeing the results. So this is why I have spent my career really integrating blood sugar control into the core of my nutrition philosophy and all of my nutrition programs, because it's plays such a central role in our overall health and in our energy levels. If you look at the data, There was a 2020 report done by the National Sleep foundation where they found that 72% of people reported feeling tired two to seven hours per week. That is going to have a large impact on mood, your mental acuity, your daily activities. It will also impact your desire to eat sweet things or foods that are less optimal. Because when you're feeling more tired, when you don't have the energy, that's one of the reasons that you sometimes gravitate more towards those less optimal foods. Only 16% of people reported that they don't feel sleepy at all. And this is the blood sugar roller coaster at play. Now, of course, there can be many other reasons for why a person feels tired throughout the day, but in my clinical experience and working with tens of thousands of women, I will say that blood sugar imbalances are at the center and a core, core contributor to levels of fatigue and drops in energy, drops in mental acuity, drops in overall performance throughout the day. So we're going to get into it. I just want to give one specific example of Melissa, who has done a program of mine called the Blood Sugar Reset that I'm going to talk about today and has used the recipes over and over. And she said, I do not have diabetes, I am not diabetic. But my lipid panel was not where I wanted it to be. My hemoglobin A1C numbers were trending in the wrong direction. And I've been able to, through being more intentional with the structure of my meals and thinking about blood sugar at the forefront of my nutrition approach, I've been able to improve my numbers and really stay on track. She's 52 years old. And so she also has said that on top of improving her overall labs, that it actually has helped with improving the perimenopausal chaos, in her words, that she was experiencing before, which has led to better energy, better focus and better sleep. And Melissa is one of many people who were previously experiencing many symptoms and worsening of labs. But then we're able to Dial in the nutrition approach. The nutrition part has to be central when you're experiencing more inflammation, when you're experiencing more hormonal imbalances. Like, it's not just about jumping to conventional medicine interventions. We have to be integrating nutrition. Okay, so let's start with blood sugar 101. I want to review the basics of blood sugar so that we're all on the same page. So blood sugar, or blood glucose, is the body's primary source of energy. Every cell in your body is designed to produce energy from glucose. And then how efficiently you're able to do that completely depends on your metabolic health and your insulin sensitivity, which is driven by your mitochondria, your gut microbiome, and many other factors underneath the surface. But remember, your body is one interconnected organism. So when we look at the fact that every time that you eat, your blood sugar rises, which triggers the release of insulin to help your cells absorb and use that energy. Now, normally, insulin, which is a hormone that's produced by your pancreas, efficiently moves glucose from your blood into your muscles and your cells so that it could be used for that energy. However, if you flood your body with glucose and tons of sugar and starches in your meals and snacks, then you're going to experience a blood sugar spike, which will be followed by a crash within one to two hours after your blood sugar spike has experienced. Now, this doesn't happen all the time, not every time, but in the majority of cases. Now, I have assessed hundreds and hundreds of people's continuous glucose monitor data to be able to see in real time the blood sugar response that people have after a meal. And while many will go up and then go down one, two hours after, which leads to, again, that, like, energy drop and feeling like you really need something to pick you up. There are instances where we see people have something like, let's say M&MS, and then their blood sugar levels rise, and then they stay elevated for a few hours before they're actually able to come back down. And even when they're elevated, you could still be experiencing some of those symptoms, like fatigue, if you're experiencing ongoing elevations one to two hours after. But this is the most common scenario that I see is that blood sugar levels rise, and then within one to two hours, they start to drop. Typically, what I will say is that exactly at the one hour mark is typically where people will see the highest level of blood sugar. Not all, all the time. Because, of course, there's so much individual variability, and it depends on the meal that you've eaten. But we do see an increase that that highest point one hour after the meal, and then within two hours will be that drop. So you want to think about insulin. Let's go back to insulin. This is the hormone that's produced by the pancreas. I want you to think about insulin, school bus driver, and glucose as the students. So after a meal, the bus is going to pick up the students, which is the glucose, and then deliver the students into the school, which is your cells. And that's where they are ready for learning or they're ready for energy production. If you have an influx of too many students that all need to ride the bus at once, and it's just too many. Like what happens with the blood sugar spike from eating, you know, a meal that's too high in processed carbohydrates or just has too many starches in general, not enough protein, or has too much added sugar. There's a list of different scenarios that can impact this overall situation. The bus will get overwhelmed, and your body then needs to produce more insulin, Calling for extra buses and bus drivers. And after years of eating imbalanced meals and also experiencing high levels of stress and physical inactivity and a variety of compounding factors that impact our overall blood sugar control, your cells will become more resistant to your insulin signals. And as insulin resistance builds, like a school security guard, your insulin receptors and your glute four transporters, they stop recognizing the students and they refuse to let them in. So then you have a buildup of the students and nowhere for them to go, which is when you have more glucose actually in your BL bloodstream. And when you have more glucose in your bloodstream, that's when you start to experience more of this chronic inflammation and other symptoms that take place. So insulin resistance is also accelerated by age. So as you get older, your mitochondria become less functional and have a harder time actually keeping your insulin sensitivity high. In addition to that, as estrogen levels change throughout perimenopause and menopause, then your insulin sensitivity also changes. And I don't even want to isolate it to just menopause and perimenopause, because this also happens postpartum, where women see changes in their blood sugar fluctuations and in their insulin sensitivity. And it also rapidly changes during pregnancy. And of course, gestational diabetes is extremely common in a lot of pregnant women. There's, you know, a lot more nuance that can go into it, because sometimes it truly is just the hormones that are being produced by the placenta that can create more of that insulin resistance. But oftentimes in clients that I've worked with, they're able to improve their blood sugar control and they have to then track their blood sugar levels through nutrition and lifestyle interventions. And that can have a major impact on gestational diabetes. I'll also say that if you are a person, a woman that has or has had gestational diabetes during pregnancy, this puts you at a higher, a greater risk factor for having blood sugar imbalances later on. So that's definitely something to know, Especially given that once you enter perimenopause and you're experiencing fluctuations in your hormones, that also changes your insulin sensitivity and blood sugar levels exacerbate that entire hormonal chaos. And blood sugar elevations and fluctuations exacerbate the hormonal chaos that can happen during perimenopause. And then it also is impacted by menopause, because as you go through menopause, then your insulin sensitivity declines. So this is when we need to really think about how we are fueling our bodies in order to keep blood sugar levels more stable. And that doesn't mean never having a rise in your blood sugar levels. It just means more stable and less unnecessary spikes. This leads to fewer bus drivers or less insulin that has to be secreted, which is less work on the overall body, which helps to decrease inflammation and helps to support your overall cellular health. The other thing that I want to highlight is that when you're experiencing this, you know, lack of insulin sensitivity and more insulin resistance, the glucose, if you are experiencing elevations in your blood sugar levels, the glucose needs to be rerouted elsewhere, which is typically then rerouted to your fat cells or to the liver. So when it sends to the liver, some of it is stored as glycogen, but the excess glucose is converted into free fatty acids and then repackaged as triglycerides, which increases triglyceride levels and also can increase risk of non alcoholic fatty liver disease. In the last 10 years of working as a dietitian, one of the most common things that I see is people who are able to reduce their triglyceride levels very quickly through prioritizing blood sugar control with their meals. Just in our programs, like, it doesn't even take that long. And of course everyone is different, but I'm just reporting on themes and generalizations, is that it does not take very long for people to experience improvements. Drastic improvements in triglyceride levels when they at baseline are very high. So when we think about the issues with what's actually driving this. I discussed the fact that it's typically imbalanced meals. Now, there's more than 40 factors that can impact your overall blood sugar control. But imbalanced meals is a very common driver of blood sugar elevations. So that can be too much starch, too much added sugar, not enough fat, not enough healthy fats, not enough fiber, not enough dietary protein. All of these things can contribute to more of that elevation in blood sugar followed by the crash. And then there's short term symptoms that happen after that experience. The most common short term symptoms will be things like fatigue, brain fog, cravings, hunger shortly after meals, or feeling just really hungry in general even though you've eaten a normal amount. Mood swings are incredibly common, hormone imbalances, as I mentioned, and acceleration of chronic inflammation. We also see insulin resistance and chronically high glucose levels at the root of nearly every chronic disease, every preventable chronic disease, from heart disease to prediabetes to type 2 diabetes, to cancer to autoimmune disease, and even Alzheimer's disease. I was recently giving a presentation on cancer and had seen the fact that the global burden of cancer that's attributable to risk factors from 2010 to 2019. When they looked at the largest global contributors to cancer, they found that the fifth leading cause in both 2010 and 2019 was high fasting plasma glucose. High fasting plasma glucose can be drastically improved through nutrition and lifestyle changes. But the question is how many people are actually getting access to quality sources of education, information and coaching to help them reduce that. But if you think about that being the number five most. I want to actually say this exactly correctly. The number five risk factor for the global burden of cancer in both 2010 and 2019. It's like, wow, we really need to prioritize this in our overall health and do it sooner rather than later, because as you become more insulin resistant, it only becomes harder. So for a person that has pre diabetes, it's much easier to reverse pre diabetes than it is type 2 diabetes. Now, both conditions are reversible and we, I mean, every day help people reverse their pre diabetes. We also drastically improve people's type 2 diabetes. We've had plenty of people who have reversed their type 2 diabetes through my programs and even improvements in type 1 diabetes, not to say, of course, type 1 diabetes is the autoimmune version that people are typically diagnosed with at a younger age. Although I shouldn't make those generalizations because, you know, 33% of teenagers right now have prediabetes. So type 1 diabetes is the autoimmune version, where typically people have extremely low insulin production or none at all, which makes it much more complicated. And it's not to say that, you know, improving blood sugar balancing habits can reverse type 1 diabetes. I'm not saying that at all. But it can very much help to improve your insulin sensitivity. I was actually just recently talking to a woman who has type 1 diabetes who had shared that, you know, when she was diagnosed at a younger age, that the only education that she got in the hospital was around the idea of carb counting and knowing, okay, if I'm eating 30 grams of carbohydrates in this meal, then I want a dose this amount of insulin. And that is the extent of even the diabetes training that I got when I was in my dietetic internship. We're drastically underpreparing dietitians to be able to help patients with type 1 diabetes when it comes to the carbohydrate counting. And a lot of doctors are also, you know, falling under this category where it's just a matter of teaching patients, okay, have 30 grams of carbohydrates and then use this much insulin instead of saying, how can we get ahead of it? How can we swim upstream and improve your overall insulin sensitivity so that you don't need as much insulin? And she said that when she started to incorporate more insulin sensitivity practices and focusing on improving her overall insulin sensitivity and decreasing insulin resistance, that her hemoglobin A1c improved dramatically and her low back pain that she had had for years drastically improved. And this is because elevations in blood sugar are one of the leading causes of chronic inflammation that's happening underneath the surface, which is why then it manifests into a symptom like underlying joint pain or low chronic back pain or more pain around your menstrual cycle. Anything that's involving pain is typically a sign of underlying chronic inflammation that is driven by, in many instances, high blood sugar fluctuations. Okay, I wanna talk about hormones, and I wanna talk about weight and sleep and the role that blood sugar plays in this. So we're gonna continue to dive deep. I want this to be a super valuable epis. You're like, wow, I understand my nutrition so much better and what's potentially underneath the surface of these symptoms and also potentially see some of the issues that maybe some of my friends and family members are having that they can take control and ownership of. Okay. So hormone imbalances can stem from a wide variety of things. And I'm talking specifically in females, Although men, of course, you know, I have worked with many men who have been able to improve their testosterone levels drastically by improving their blood sugar control and eating in a more anti inflammatory diet without any actual testosterone. Prescription hormone imbalances can vary from difficulty getting pregnant to postpartum symptoms, to perimenopausal symptoms, to menopausal symptoms, and then of course, the increased risk of chronic disease that every woman is at after they go through menopause when estrogen levels decline or completely drop off. I was recently with a woman who is in perimenopause who just started hormone replacement therapy for her symptoms that she was still experiencing. About six months ago, she had started a GLP1 because she had gained about 10 pounds and told her doctor that she felt like she was doing everything and that then her doctor had recommended microdosing with a GLP1 and she was able to lose that weight but was still having the symptoms. So she started hormone replacement therapy. And I said to her, have you, you know, when you went to the doctor and you said that you were doing everything, had you been focusing on the blood sug component of your meals? And she said, no, I actually have a continuous glucose monitor, but I haven't put it on yet. And so if I were her dietitian, what I would recommend is actually starting with blood sugar control. Not necessarily that everyone needs to start by wearing a continuous glucose monitor, but start with making sure that your blood sugar levels are very dialed in before jumping to a GLP1 or to HRT. Now, I mean, for some women, jumping to HRT first can actually help because it can improve insulin sensitivity and, you know, other symptoms that go alongside. But my point is, is that I would often recommend trying to focus on blood sugar balancing strategies and habits before jumping to the GLP1 to see if that actually moves the needle enough for you to improve your experience. And I say this with the experience of working with thousands of women who also felt like they had been eating healthy and that there were no other options. And they've tried all the programs and then, you know, just in doing something like the blood sugar reset, are able to lose 10 pounds very quickly. Not necessarily within the program, but 10 pounds in the first, you know, two to three weeks of doing the program. So that's something that I think about often is the fact that, you know, before jumping to the hormone testing and all the other things around hormones, we want to think about blood sugar control, that blood sugar balance equals better hormone balance and better hormone balance equals better blood sugar control. They absolutely go hand in Hand. And this is outside of just perimenopause and menopause. This accounts for women that have pcos, that have endometriosis and other hormonally driven conditions in addition to things like pain around your menstrual cycle. So Leslie is a great example of this. She did the blood sugar reset last spring and she had said, I for my entire life have had crazy irregular cycles. And since starting the blood sugar reset, I am like clockwork on a 28 day cycle in my mid-30s for the first time in my entire life. And in addition to that, I have zero anxiety, I have zero PMS symptoms, I'm sleeping better, and I've been able to add back foods to my diet that used to hurt my stomach. So this is another example where women that are at every age can benefit from really dialing in blood sugar control. And the sooner that you do it, the better because if you get ahead of it, it can absolutely impact the experience that you have going through pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause and menopause. Another person, Heidi, had shared that she did her first blood sugar reset two years ago. And it was so beautiful because she said, I reset my body to such a healthy place after doing the blood sugar reset that I got pregnant after a couple of years of being unsuccessful. And obviously it's hard not to think that this was extremely helpful to her body. Now, of course there's many factors, but blood sugar imbalances do play a role in levels of infertility. And then she shared, Heidi shared that at 14 months postpartum last spring, she joined the blood sugar reset for the second time because she wanted to help her body get back to feeling healthier and that the recipes help her feel so much more energized, that she loves them, that she really enjoys preparing them. I love this example because of it showing the spectrum, the hormonal spectrum that we're on and how much blood sugar can be the anchor for us. Regardless of where you're at on your hormone journey, whether that's pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, or menopause, okay. When it comes to weight, when you become insulin resistant, you are generating more insulin in order to get that sugar into the cells. Most people don't account for the fact that insulin is a pro inflammatory fat storing hormone. So even if you're e eating in a caloric deficit, which is necessary for improving your body composition, eating in a slight caloric deficit is, is what I recommend if you are experiencing blood sugar fluctuations throughout the Entire day, it's going to sabotage all of your efforts. One, it can lead to more difficulty letting go of that body fat specifically since insulin is a pro inflammatory fat storing hormone. But also because when you're experiencing those blood sugar rises and you have that insulin resistance, then it can lead to more of the cravings and the impulse to eat things that are then making it more difficult for you to lose weight. So it's a very vicious cycle. But insulin resistance is a driver of weight gain, especially around the abdominal area. So if you're struggling with your weight, there could be a chance that insulin resistance is a contributor. And when your mitochondria detect high insulin levels, like I said, they shut off fatty acid oxidation. And then because insulin stimulates fat storage, it can lead to weight gain around specifically that abdominal area where there could be more visceral fat accumulation. Now, in addition to hormones and weight, I also want to talk about sleep because you know, there's so many recommendations around sleep to say like make sure you're getting at least seven hours of sleep in order to improve your overall health. And sleep is foundational for our overall health. But if you are experiencing changes in your hormones that are making it impossible for you to sleep through the night, then you want to think about your blood sugar stability and things that you can do to improve it. Blood sugar instability absolutely causes nighttime wake ups and poor quality sleep. There was one large epidemiological study that found that eating ultra processed foods that spike blood sugar was significantly associated with chronic insomnia. And this is also supported by my clients data where I've been using Aura and other wearable devices in my practice for many, many years. And I have seen in my client's sleep data that eating high glycemic meals, especially when I'm looking at someone that has a continuous glucose monitor and has a wearable device, you can see directly that eating high glycemic meals throughout the day leads to worsened sleep scores in their sleep data. Now the opposite is also true. So a diet that supports blood sugar balance is associated with improved sleep outcomes. And there was a systematic review that showed that greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet is associated with adequate sleep duration and several indicators of better sleep quality. They found that this is also why people report significant improvements in sleep quality and duration. And, and oftentimes this can happen within just one week for people that go through our nutrition programs is that by like day three, day four, people will start to write into the Facebook group or write emails to us. I'm experiencing much Better quality sleep. And actually Katie, who was in the last round of the blood sugar reset, she uploaded her oura ring data. And so like being able to track this data is so valuable to me in many ways, sometimes even more than looking at the research studies because it's like this is the real life data that's you know, of course bio individual for each person. So Katie had said, I've been wearing my Aura ring 247 for over a year and my sleep score even on the best night has never been above an 85. But after just day one of the blood sugar reset, my sleep score was a 90. And then she screenshotted her sleep score where she had a 90 as optimal. She had a total sleep of 7 hours and 35 minutes. She had a 92% sleep efficiency, optimal restfulness. She spent 23% of her sleep in REM sleep and 19% of her sleep in deep sleep. Which we want to look at, you know, those percentages to see not only are you sleeping for enough time, but are you getting that deep restorative sleep that you know, helps to with cleaning out your brain and helping you function better and improving your cognitive function and so many other factors that sleep helps us with. So she got a high amount of REM sleep and deep sleep which factors into the algorithm that then gives her a 90 on her overall sleep score. So this was incredible to be able to see like in real time. You can improve your sleep data by stabilizing blood sugar levels with whole foods, balanced meals and mindful eating that allow then for you to have better levels of daytime energy and maximized nighttime recovery and then the next day more control over the foods that you're putting into your mouth. Because research has shown that when you take sleep deprived people and you put them into a situation where they have unlimited control around food compared to people who got a quality night's sleep, that the sleep deprived people will eat more calories, significantly more calories, and they're much more likely to go for the high glycemic, glycemic foods because they need that pick me up in order to feel better. And they don't truly need that, but you know, that's the natural gravitation. So if we can improve our, our nighttime sleep, we can improve our overall energy and then we can improve the choices that we're making on a day to day basis that has this domino effect leading into these long term behavior changes. So we're talking about the fact that blood sugar impacts our hormones, it impacts our weights and it also impacts our sleep and our sleep sleep quality. Now it's one thing to know the benefits and then it's another thing to actually implement it on a day to day consistent basis. So when we look at different real life scenarios, I want to talk about some common barriers that I see in clients that are trying to improve their overall health or their diet, but then they have specific experiences that seem to sabotage them. So one could be the break room temptation. And I know many of you have experienced this where you're trying to eat really healthy, but you walk into the office and you see in the break room a box of warm donuts that are calling your name and you end up grabbing one, which makes you really want to have another one where you're like, oh, that tasted really good. You have an incredible rush of energy and feeling great because of that initial short term response to eating the sugar. But then by mid morning, you're sluggish, you're feeling like your concentration is shot, you're really foggy. And then you're reaching for another snack to keep you going, or you're getting another cup of coffee to keep you going. And that initial blood sugar spike feels good, but it leads to that surge in insulin that leads to that rapid blood sugar increase that then cues the rapid blood sugar drop that happens about two hours after eating that. And then that's where you're in the situation of needing that pick me up, up. And I also want to draw to the fact that it impacts all the food choices then that you make for the rest of the day. So it's not just about eating the donut in that one instance, it's about eating the donut that leads to these physiological changes that cause our body to work harder. It's not that the body's incapable of working harder, but it causes the body to work harder and then leads to more of that desire to eat those sweet treats. Okay, here's the second very common example. The stay at home parents snack trap, which I experience often on the weekends, even though I work during the weekday. But this is an ongoing temptation for parents where you're taking care of your kids, you're trying to get them fed, you're doing the laundry, you're getting the house in order, you're doing all the things and you may not take the time to sit down for a real meal. And so instead you're just, just, you know, snacking or grazing on your kids. Leftovers, you're having some crackers here and there, you're having maybe a Few bites of a granola bar or you're having a protein bar for a meal without ever sitting down to have a balanced meal, that's gonna help to keep you feel more stable. So what this does is it leads to more of that blood sugar increase and potentially even just blood sugar fluctuations throughout the entire day. And this is where then you're feeling by mid morning you're starving, you're jittery, you're dreaming of a carb heavy lunch or dinner. And that is when willpower then is thrown out the window because you're physiologically setting yourself up for less optimal decision making. And that skipped meal sends you then into a place of not feeling like you're in control and then experiencing more of those energy crashes and cravings that are then leading you to consume more sugar, potentially more caffeine, potentially, and other choices that you know aren't going to necessarily contribute to you feeling your best while you're with your kids. The last scenario is the rushed morning routine. Now the rushed morning routine is when you grab a coffee and a protein bar or maybe you just grab a coffee because that's all that you have time for and you're rushing out the door, you're rushing to meetings or to run errands or to school drop off and breakfast is the complete afterthought. And then by mid morning you're again, you're starving, you're jittery, you're thinking again about those carb heavy breakfast or lunches and you have no willpower in place. So that skipped meal sends you into less optimal choices throughout the rest of the day where you could have had more control later on had you started the day with a more balanced meal. And I will tell you that for me, prepping breakfast is a huge game changer. Prepping breakfast the night before or the weekend before with a number of different things that we have recipes for like blood sugar balance, Chia seed puddings, or even blood sugar balance overnight oats, or things that you can just like open the container of and eat in the morning can set your entire day on a completely different track. Now we've talked about why blood sugar matters so much, where three different scenarios can come in that lead to more of that blood sugar temptation. And now I want to talk about the path to balanced blood sugar. Learning to eat whole real foods and balance my blood sugar completely changed my life. It, it changed my life in so many ways, but specifically my energy and my brain fog and my ability to think clearly, it has exponentially improved after years and years of making these choices to the extent that my doctors will say, like, it's crazy how functional you are. And because of having narcolepsy, now, of course, I do take medication for narcolepsy. I take a very low dose, much lower than the initial dose that I was prescribed. And I've gone on and off of it based on different phases of being postpartum and breastfeeding and things of that nature, which I never would have had the ability to do had I not focused so much on my nutrition and functional medicine and supplements and all the testing that I've done. But blood sugar has played an enormous role. And the second that I have more of a blood sugar provoking meal, I feel it. And multiple days of having blood sugar provoking meals, we'll call them, I feel it even more. So this breaking free from the blood sugar roller coaster, it doesn't mean eliminating all carbohydrates, it doesn't mean giving up all of your favorite foods, and it doesn't mean obsessively restricting your diet. What it really means is thinking strategically about building your plate, making swaps that support your overall health, and then restoring your body's natural ability to use glucose efficiently. Because we want you to have good metabolic control. We want you to have optimal metabolic health, especially as you age, because it becomes harder and harder. So after helping people improve their blood sugar levels using nutrition and lifestyle interventions for the last 10 years, I want to share the most significant ways that I would recommend starting with improving your overall energy and avoiding those crashes. Number one, eating whole real foods has to be a part of the strategy. Foods that are in their whole food form, they take longer for your body to break down and digest, which leads to slower blood sugar release. So just one example is almonds versus almond crackers. And I'm not advocating for not eating almond crackers, but almond crackers will spike your blood sugar levels more than just the almonds themselves because they're in that more processed packaged form that leads to a change in your blood sugar response. So this again, I'm not saying don't eat almond crackers. Just the more that you can eat whole foods in there real food form, the better it typically is for your overall blood sugar control. Number two, prioritizing protein. Protein plays a huge role. Aiming for a minimum of 30 grams of protein per meal to help to keep your blood sugar levels steady throughout the day and to fuel your muscles, which help to soak up the glucose from your bloodstream. Number three, eating fiber rich foods. Fiber is absolutely essential. So in the blood sugar reset and in my nutrition programs, we focus so much on incorporating enough fiber because this is the key for supporting slower glucose absorption. So it takes longer for your body to actually break down the food and for it to be absorbed into your bloodstream. It keeps you full for longer. It plays an enormous role in supporting your satiety, hormones, hormones and your overall hormone balance entirely. So when we think about fiber, we want to incorporate more of it because of what it does in the short term, but also what it does in the long term for preventing all these chronic diseases. Number four, eating three balanced meals a day and avoiding grazing. So consistency is key here in skipping meals or eating a lot of imbalanced meals, or going long periods of time without eating to then overeating a lot at the end of the day or when you're stressed at night because you haven't fueled yourself enough throughout the day, you put your kids to bed and all you want to do is like eat the rest of your pantry. It's because you probably have not helped to support stable blood sugar levels throughout the entire day, which is the fastest ticket to less steady blood sugar levels and a higher likelihood of grazing, overeating, stress, eating and feeling out of control when it comes to the foods that you're in front of. Number five, move your body after meals. Moving your body is absolutely critical for supporting your overall blood sugar control. And I have seen in my continuous glucose monitor data over the years because I've been, you know, on and off wearing a blood sugar monitor for many years to be able to, one, support, you know, better understand my body, Especially throughout different shifts of pregnancy and postpartum and, but then also in even just recipe development and time and time again, I'm always amazed by how much even a short 10 to 15 minute walk can do for helping your body use your glucose more efficiently. You can see it directly on a glucose monitor, not that you need to be wearing one in order to understand everything that's happening. But it's just like my takeaway that I'm always amazed by how much movement really supports towards utilizing that glucose and getting it into the muscle. If you feel like there is opportunity for you to dial in your blood sugar control, improve how you're feeling, to dial in your habits and to really understand what it looks like to follow a meal plan that supports blood sugar balance, I would love, love, love to support you in doing that and helping you get off the blood sugar roller coaster. So we have the, the fall 2025 blood sugar reset that I would love to invite you to in order to help you improve your cravings, your mood swings and your energy. These are the three most common symptom improvements that we see people experience in doing the blood sugar Reset. I have been running the blood Sugar reset with my team of registered dietitians for the last four years. This upcoming fall will be our ninth round. We've had more than 25,000 women go through this program, so we have really been able to learn a ton to dial in our strategy to make incredible meal plans because there's new meal plans every single time. But to incorporate these core nutrition principles in a way that you don't have to think about it, you don't have to think about what's for dinner. You don't have to think about, are you getting enough fiber? You don't have to think about like, am I getting enough protein? The meals are all planned for you, so all you have to do is the prep work, show up for the lives to better understand the education and show up for the coaching support within the community, which is honestly not even a chore. It feels so incredibly amazing to have a supportive community of other women who are on this journey with you, trying to better understand how to improve their symptoms, how to improve their labs, how to improve their overall health. And we would love for you to be a part of the magic of the blood sugar reset. So let me just tell you exactly what the blood sugar reset includes. Foods. It's a seven day program where you have a blood sugar balanced meal plan for the entire seven days that we have created for you. It's dietitian crafted where we're focusing on the core of blood sugar balancing principles without going really low carb. So we have a moderate amount of carbohydrates. We're like not low carb, but we're not high carb in any way at all with delicious meals. So these recipes, we have the recipes that are blood sugar balance recipes that are incorporated into the meal plan. And you don't get a new recipe for every single meal. That's not the point. It's not realistic for you to be making a new recipe every single meal. But we've strategically tried to save you time by saying, okay, you're gonna have this dinner for Monday night and Wednesday night and you're gonna prep this dinner on Sunday and here's the prep instructions and it's gonna take you this amount of time. So included in that we have the seven day blood sugar balance meal plan. The detailed shopping list and your meal prep instructions. So we say like, like okay, on Sunday or on Saturday, whenever you're meal prepping, this is exactly what you're gonna do for the meal prep to save you the two hours. Throughout the week, we have live daily coaching with myself and my team of dietitians. Incredible support from my team of registered dietitians where they're answering all the questions in the Facebook group. We have private group support in that Facebook group and then science backed strategies to help you really build these sustainable habits. It is our biggest program of the year because we welcome thousands of people and I would love for you to participate. It is not hard. You don't have to be an expert chef. You don't have to have tons of culinary experience. You don't have to have 10 hours to cook in the kitchen. Our meals we make are family friendly. So we have so many people that write into the Facebook group how shocked they are that their 14 month old loves the breakfast. Or we make different recipes every single time. But we get so many incredible messages from people that are shocked that their kids or their spouse are loving participating, which is, you know, a really important part of the overall process. Like it's not just about your health, but it's about how your healthy habits are impacting the people that you love most so that you can help them be as healthy as possible. So if you would like to join us or find out more about the blood sugar reset, it's only 24.99. You can go to thebloodsugarreset.com again, that's www.thebloodsugareset.com and I would love to see you there. Just a few wins that I wanted to share even from a few prior participants from the blood sugar reset that joined us in our last round. Janelle said, I used to have afternoon crashes every day before the blood sugar reset. Now I have solid sustained energy all day, unless of course I'm eating a less optimal food or I go way too long without eating. So I really noticed the difference. I spent years trying to balance hormones without having this baseline knowledge of blood sugar. And then we have Heather who said, I'm feeling very refreshed. I have more energy than I have had in a very long time. Often people will report that they start like vacuuming their house or like cleaning things that they hadn't cleaned in a very long time because all of a sudden they have this burst of energy to just do chores that have been pushed off for a very long time. Kristin said I went from needing an afternoon nap every day to now being able to wake up from 5am until 9pm without naps, which is life changing. We have so many more examples of people who have reversed their prediabetes, who have drastically improved their perimenopause or their postpartum symptoms, they have improved their cognitive function, they have improved their cholesterol and lipid panels. We get messages every single day from the blood sugar reset community of the improvements that they see because it's, it's not just about the seven days. The seven days serves as a catalyst to change your habits, to change your life so that you're able to continue this long term. So I would love for you to join us again. You can get more information at www.thebloodsugarreset.com and we would love for you to join us. If this episode benefited you. For better understanding your blood sugar, please also share it with a family member or friend. I want to thank you guys for all of the ratings and reviews that you have submitted. It was incredible. The first week of the podcast launch when we were number one in the nutrition category in the United states and number 32 in all health and fitness podcasts in the United States on Apple, I never experienced that to happen. I literally never once in my mind thought that we would even be in the top 100. It wasn't even a goal of mine. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your messages. I have read every single rating and review, I have read every single comment that has been submitted. And I can't tell you how much it means to me and how much I love learning about what you're taking away from the podcast, the value that you're getting. So please, even if you want to just email us@supportbeingbridget.com, keep that feedback coming so that we can cater this show to exactly what helps you optimize your health. Thanks for being here and I'll see you next week.