I see it every day. The macros are perfect yet you’re still struggling with high levels of blood sugar or frequent crashes.

It’s time to finally take a hard look at how much time you are spending in a stressed state.

Acute stressors, even rushing around getting ready to leave the house, can lead to a spike in blood sugar that’s visible on a CGM.

But I’m not as concerned about those short periods of stress, like exercise, because that’s what our body was built for.

What our body was NOT built for was the chronic stress that we experience in our modern, fast-paced lifestyle.

Chronic stress raises glucose over time, can contribute to insulin resistance, hormone imbalances, gut issues and literally soooo many other issues.

Chronic stress depletes the adrenals which are a major organ of blood sugar regulation.

Even though most of our stress isn’t going anywhere, we do have some control.

It’s soo important to get our bodies out of a stressed state and...

Most of us spend too much time in a stressed, sympathetic state!

It’s ok to be in that state some of the time but when we are chronically in that state, many imbalances and health issues can arise.

In a parasympathetic state we rest and digest, obviously, but we also experience repair of tissues, balancing of hormones & blood sugar, as well as detoxification.

When we are in a chronic stressed state, our livers will produce glucose, our adrenals will continue to stimulate the production of stress hormones, and these things can lead to insulin resistance, hormone imbalances, lack of healing and detox, and digestive/gut issues.

Stress is not going anywhere but we can purposefully take our body out of a stressed state with many different tools.

Some of my favorites are:
•breath-work
•meditation
•epsom salt baths
•acupuncture or acupressure
•EFT / tapping
•time in nature / grounding
•receiving massage
•chiropractic care
•singing / chanting /...

These are the numbers I use in my practice. These are not the numbers you’ll see in your doctor’s office.

Doctors often test for this on a standard blood panel but don’t interpret it in a helpful way. For example, when my blood sugar was 60 and I was super dizzy and lightheaded, no one said anything to me about it.

Luckily, you can (and should) test your glucose at home. Fasting glucose can be taken in the morning upon rising with a blood glucose meter like the Keto Mojo or my favorite, the FORA6.

Sometimes CGMs can be off up to +/- 20mg/dL so I recommend still checking with a finger prick meter even if you use a CGM.

Some people have higher fasting glucose levels in the morning because of the Dawn Phenomenon. This might indicate you have more work to do on your blood sugar, and that your liver might need some love.

This is not the only criteria for diagnosis for diabetes or prediabetes and I’m certainly not diagnosing you over Instagram.

However, this is still a...

Our blood sugar controls how we feel every second of the day so it’s something REALLY important to get right if you want to feel great!

Our blood sugar also has HUGE impacts on our long term health as well!

Blood sugar affects every cell, organ, and process in our bodies so it has far reaching effects on every aspect of our health.

And this is why the symptoms of blood sugar issues are so broad!

If your blood sugar isn’t working for you, it’s working against you and can lead to so many unwanted side effects like the ones listed in the graphic (and SO many more!!)

I couldn’t figure out why I had such a hard time losing weight when I ate paleo.

On the daily I would have foods & snacks like these and not surprisingly, at this time I also had insulin resistance and PCOS.

I was eating wayyyyy too much sugar and too many carbs for my body. EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE “HEALTHY” CARBS.

None of these foods have added sugars or refined sugars but they all have a shitload of natural sugars or starches.

Plantain chips: refined and dehydrated a bit so the starch hits you quicker and spikes you more than with just a regular plantain which already has a ton of carbs!

Coconut water: super sugary with no fiber to slow down the absorption

Kombucha: On average they have about 16g of fruit sugar per bottle! Want probiotics without the sugar? Try sauerkraut instead

Larabars: Dried fruits and some nuts and the ones I got often had chocolate chips because, chocolate. A sugar bomb since dried fruit spikes your sugar way more than regular fruit since...

If you miss a meal and experience these symptoms, or if you have to snack before the next meal because of these, chances are you’re experiencing some blood sugar dysregulation.

Our bodies were designed to go long periods without food because they’re supposed to be able to just burn stored fuel (glycogen and then body fat) when food is not around.

Our high carb diets, consumption of processed foods, constant snacking, damaged fat consumption (vegetable oils), messed up guts, and tired adrenals can all contribute to the development of these blood sugar issues.

Does this sound like you??

Did you know that the order in which you eat your food can have a huge impact on how the foods affect your blood sugar?!

First off, thanks for @glucosegoddess for the graphs on slide 2!

So here’s how it works:

1 You start with vegetables (if you’re eating them). Of course these should be the low-carb, non-starchy veggies like these: The point of eating them first is that the fiber in the vegetables actually slow the absorption of the carbs and sugar in the foods.

So definitely choose salad over bread for starting a meal. Cooked veggies work too and are recommended over raw if your digestion/gut can’t handle raw veggies well.

2 Next, eat your protein and fats . Again, this will help to slow and even reduce some of the absorption of the carbs.

3 Finally, have your carbs. Ideally, if you’re having carbs, they will be whole food carbs like these: .

Check out the graphs on slide 2 to see the impact of the order of the foods.

Please note: this hack is not going...

It’s time to break up with your morning oatmeal!! Even though it’s a “complex carb” it still raises the blood sugar for HOURS!!

We want to avoid spiking the blood sugar in this way because it’s inflammatory and raises insulin levels. This can lead to excess hunger, cravings, headaches and lots of other symptoms of blood sugar dysregulation.

In the graph on the left, I had oatmeal with cashew butter, full fat Greek yogurt, coconut, bee pollen and raspberries. All of those toppings are low carb and some contain healthy fats.

The presence of those fats was not enough to prevent a spike.

With the chia seed pudding on the other hand, I still had some fat-filled or low carb toppings like raw cacao, pecans, cacao nibs and a few wild blueberries.

The difference is very clear: absolutely NO spike in my blood sugar at all from the chia seed pudding!!

Important notes: neither chia seed pudding nor oatmeal contains a sufficient amount of protein to be a complete,...

Hypoglycemia is tricky to treat! The “poor eating habits” such as consuming vegetable oils, processed carbs and snacking is the low hanging fruit. They need to be removed from the diet (though the person may still need to eat more frequently at first).

But what people often miss is how much the gut, adrenals and nutrient deficiencies play a role!

Once again, diet is only a piece of the puzzle (albeit a very large piece) but we always need to look “under the hood” at how the body is functioning.

I hope if you’re struggling this gives you hope because there are more areas to explore!!

Insulin is a hormone that tells the body to store sugar as fat. High insulin levels in the blood lead to Insulin Resistance.

When we are in a state of fat storage we can’t be in a state of fat burning.

Insulin resistance can easily make you feel like you have a slow metabolism because it causes weight loss resistance.

This was something I suffered with for years starting in 2013. I successfully reversed my Insulin Resistance and PCOS so I could finally get back to a healthy weight.