Zoe Nutrition Testing

[Wombat27A]

Not sure this is the right place for this...

Anyone else doing the Zoe Nutrition Testing?

My results were poor, so now I'm tackling my diet. I thought it was pretty good but it's clear it needs a major overhaul. So much information but finding it good.🙂

Oh bum sorry!

@MassiveSalad22 I am sure somewhere I've seen them say a spike is more than 1.5 units. But also that we all spike and it's to be expected, it's more the recovery which is important.

There is more about the muffins as you get to day 5/6 (today for me) and how they used the blood test data.

Yet again my morning reading was high but overall my line is almost flat. I had a small dip yesterday pm which coincided with me being hungry then I had a banana and it was back to my normal line within 20 mins. It's kinda boring!

The one thing I'm curious about is impact of sleep - peri menopause means I don't sleep amazingly, rarely more than 6 hours and I often wake at 3/4 with my heart racing as my cortisol peaks. When I look at my overnight glucose numbers they are at their lowest around 3 (and just about within normal fasting range).

I am dreading my results now tbh. I can sort of feel it tickling against my health anxiety (which has been really well controlled for a couple of years) and making it seem to big a mountain to climb.

@BarryKentPoet I think I have one left if you pm me

See if this one works: Zoe referral link

Thank you, got it now! Excited to start doing the tests.

How has everyone been today?

I have found something to make me spike - pasta! I had pasta salad for dinner yesterday and leftovers for lunch today and up I went. Stirfry with noodles for dinner and all fine. So less pasta for me!

Not a bad day but lots of spikes for me. Biscuits at the kids’ prize giving which (predictably) we’re not good. Then quiche, new potatoes and salad for lunch gave me a massive spike. I discovered though that my breakfast smoothie is ok so good news.
@lugeforlife do you think wholemeal pasta would be better?

My breakfast smoothie did cause a spike - I'd thought having peanut butter in would help but nope. I'm trying a Huel shake today and then smoothie with avocado on Friday.

Yesterday was very spiky compared to the day before when I largely ate the same things, I think there's a lot in the food ordering for me but I guess patience is in order for the report. I'm not very patient!

That's very interesting @lugeforlife is that going to mean a big adjustment for you?

It's fascinating, especially seeing on this thread how we are all different.

I’m still not clear what counts as a spike or steady glucose but have asked via chat.

Day 5 for me today, have chosen my first blood glucose challenge which am dreading actually! THREE slices of plain toast!! I thought the days of choking down dry carbs were over with the muffins 😄 but will hopefully be enlightening. Three is a big portion right??? If I find out people are regularly eating 3 slices of toast for breakfast and walking around size 8 whereas I’m eating nothing usually, and a size 18, I will cry 😄

I’m doing toast + almond butter, which is something I eat every now and then, but I only have one slice and it’s very dry so have some sliced banana and chia seeds on top. So I wonder how 3 slices of toast and almond butter compare to one slice plus banana.

Morning all

It was wholemeal pasta so I found that interesting. It's reasonably uncommon for me to have pasta tbh so no huge loss to keep it as occasional treat if I need to. I'm more a rice/noodle/bread girl.

The smoothie responses are interesting. I assume it's because of the breakdown of the fibre?

I am so glad you said that @MassiveSalad22 ! I never have 3 slices of toast!!!! I have gone for bagel and cheese for mine and start tomorrow.

What is everyone seeing from an exercise pov? I had mostly been in bed (lovely Covid) but dh made me go for a gentle walk yesterday. He is over a foot taller than me and his gentle walks are like a light jog. I did see a significant impact on the monitor though and this mornings reading is lower than it ever has been......

Hmm yes they do say if you’re going to have fruit, have it whole because of the fibre.

bagel might be easier to eat than 3 slices bread. I might swap. I thought rice or couscous etc would be too but we just always have loads of bread in because of the kids so easiest from that perspectives.

I went for a walk before bed 2 nights ago (9pm) and woke up to my lowest reading yet (3.something, in the red). Last night had a Nando’s (salad and pitta) and woke up at 5.something 😄 definitely want to do an evening walk all through the summer, I have a standing appointment every night to do so but DH away so couldn’t last night or tonight (3 kids under 7). I LOVE exercise just so hard to fit it in at the moment.

And well done for getting out @lugeforlife !

5.5 upon waking today, bowl bran flakes at 7ish, 5.3 mmol now 2 hours later. So I guess that counts as a good breakfast? I feel a bit like there hasn’t been much explanation yet. I guess that’s what the results and tests are for but 5 days into the monitor and i still don’t know what I’m looking for yet 😄 I’m conscious it only lasts 2 weeks and I have perhaps wasted 5 days being clueless!

I’m glad if that is a good breakfast because I need fibre to help with my fatty liver but am always paranoid about the carbs.

Exercise is the key one for me for flattening my glucose spikes. I haven’t stated my Zoe tests yet but wore a CGM a few months ago out of interest after learning about glucose spikes from The Glucose Goddess. I was at a festival while wearing it, so eating crap but walking loads and my curve was virtually flat. Whereas in my normal life, despite eating a very healthy diet, I’d get spikes all the time - I’m guessing cos I have a very sedentary job. It’s all really interesting…

@MassiveSalad22 I think we need to be a bit patient tbh. Lovely Wombat said her monitor looked all green then her results had a lot more commentary.

So dont look at it as wasted - you've followed the plan so far and we have the glucose challenges coming up which will give more data to the whole picture. I am working on the premise that eating my usual stuff is mega helpful.

Tomorrow/Saturday I am deliberately planning some shit. My thinking is I need to see how bad these are for me. So pizza and garlic bread for dinner tomorrow (dd1 will be stoked!), I don't drink much but a couple of gins over the weekend, most importantly some puddings as I am a shocker for sweet stuff.

Whilst I have kept blood sugar levels fairly flat if a bit high in the morning, I know I've made some better choices this week - fruit and cream/yoghurt as snacks instead of ice cream or cake, a fair bit of veg etc. it's been really but the reality is I eat crap too much so I need to see the consequences of that to help my mindset.

I have been thinking about getting another glucose monitor but me and dh had a good chat yesterday and depending on my results, I may get one in 3 months time to measure success.

That's a good point about the fibre and smoothies.

I'm also going down the bagel route - I can definitely manage that without anything else- the other options not do much.

I exercise most days so it's been weird avoiding it for day 3 and 4 - I tend to exercise in the morning. I did a class last night and didn't get much of a peak from dinner. I didn't have a good comparator though. Out tonight so can't repeat.

Is there somewhere to log exercise that I've missed? I saw an option on the libre app but don't recall Zoe telling us to do it. Have huge brain fog so could easily have missed it!

I wouldn't say it had a lot more detail, more I'd been all happy it was in the zone as far as I could see from the graphs and then the report said my sugar control was poor.

Still, it's given me a kick up the proverbial and I'm feeling a lot better with a revised diet.

I do think you need to be patient, the coaching post-report is a whole process and I'm finding it very interesting. It's also fairly simple, so not overwhelming.

I went bagels. I thought it would easiest.

I had a MaccyDs and all sorts of other rubbish whilst I had the monitor in!

@chutneypig as far as I know there’s nowhere to log exercise. I haven’t even logged any meals in the Zoe app yet, just made notes on my libre app.

@lugeforlife i shall be patient… really good idea about purposefully eating things to see their spike. I’ll do that too. I shan’t feel bad about the Brie and cranberry sarnie I just had 😄 I’m really aiming to be able to eat anything and in order to do that I just need to know how I react and mitigate accordingly. Knowledge is power!!

@Wombat27A that’s great to hear!! Glad you’re feeling better too. Appreciate you paving the way and reporting back. Our leader! 😄

More, slightly confused!

And yes, I have a DH who can eat mounds of bread and is constantly losing weight. He came back after a work trip where he reckoned he ate in excess of 3k calories a day and was 3kg lighter! I keep threatening divorce.

Actually, if you're apt to pile on weight, don't go too mad on the "tests". :-)

You are right Wombat, not to go overboard with lard . But I am a dreadful person for kidding myself that it is reasonable to include shitty food without consequences. I need to see something which shows me that isn't the case. So I'm going to have my normal 'it's ok it's the weekend' weekend.

I think that's why I was a bit 😳🙄 when I got my report. It was sort of proof I can't slip with my diet, I just don't have that headroom. Tho sometimes it takes a 10kg weight gain to believe it. 😕

The scoring makes food choices easier. I always thought rice was a good choice for me, I'm probably better eating chips!

Soooooo interested in the Blood Fat business. I never even realised that was a thing! I’ve been paranoid about my blood sugars for years but wow I should have been worrying about the fats too. So glad I signed up to this!!

@MassiveSalad22

I'm pretty excited about finding out results on blood sugar, blood fat and well microbes. I'm also enjoying this thread as a source of fellow 'geeks' to chat to about the experience.

Fingers crossed I did the tests correctly, it must be on my mind as I keep dreaming my results arrive and just say I messed up the tests and they can't help.

On the other hand I'm finding myself perhaps taking the 'quizzes' in the app, where every so often they do a recap a bit disappointing. The answer is always 'all of the above'. Takes my right back to primary school where I always had my hand up because I knew I knew the answer and was v disappointed when teacher gave someone else a chance.

Looking back, I guess I'm lucky the others didn't strangle me, of the teacher too for that matter. 😃