Anyone improving their health following the Glucose Goddess hacks?

[Inkpotlover]

I'm putting this in Weight Loss Chat for traffic, because it's not about losing weight. I'm currently reading the GG book and finding it really interesting, because I've recently had blood tests show I might be insulin resistance and pre-pre-diabetic. My symptoms are many, but the worst are chronic energy slumps and needing daytime naps to recalibrate. Suddenly I'm very aware that my health is on its way to be compromised, if it's not already, so I'm looking at ways to improve it, and was wondering if anyone else has followed the GG hacks and felt better for it?

@Breithaupt sounds like you are doing really well. I'll be interested to hear the outcome of the other experiments.

I'm struggling today. It's TOTM and cravings are literally off the charts. Nothing I eat is making me feel satisfied. I just want a truck load of baked goods. 😬😭

Ugh - I know that feeling @Franticbutterfly . Sucks - hope it passes soon.

I've finished my day of testing. It probably wasn't the absolute best day for it, for a variety of reasons but I got there.

I woke early 6.20 am (I'm on holiday and this was approx 1 hour before I've been waking naturally) but I clearly wasn't going back to sleep so I got up. Fitbit told me I had slept for a total of 6 hours.

I decided not to wait for breakfast like I usually do and go ahead and have the three breakfast muffins at 8 am. Then I was to take it easy and fast for the next 4 hours. I decided to go back to bed and watch something on Netflix. Of course, I ended up napping for just over an hour...probably shouldn't have done that hey ho.

Had lunch muffins at 12 pm and did the blood test at 2 pm (first finger was not a bleeder so had to change and that one was the complete opposite!). Tests all ready to be posted now.

I've just eaten again - loads of raw salad veg with some beetroot kimchi, picked red onions, olives and reduced fat salad cream. Followed by some sourdough crackers and almond butter with tomato. I was hungry for all of this!

I think my blood sugar is a bit on the high side - certainly towards the upper healthy and borderline pre-diabetic. Which I suppose isn't massively surprising. Knowledge is power - I can turn that round, I hope! No great spikes though, just generally a bit high.

The two spikes are where I took the two sets of muffins - the lunch ones (high fat, low sugar) seemed to affect me more than the breakfast ones (low fat, high sugar). Who knows though I don't really know what I'm taking about - just guessing!

and now I've had some cherries and just want to keep eating them or something else sweet!

I'm going to go for a walk! We're supposed to be having a family roast chicken dinner later and I just need to stop now!

I don't think your graph looks bad at all. Looks like your blood sugar is pretty stable. Have you had your hba1c done?

Not in the last five years. I think the sensor will be able to estimate it in a couple of days? I’m almost certainly over-thinking it!

Not felt my best today really. I had an ocular migraine this afternoon (approx 3 hrs after lunch muffins & before eating normal food) - only lasted the typical 15-20 mins though.

Had a M&S cornetto 20 mins ago and just now got my lowest reading so far of 4.9 mmol/L. Average is 5.9.

Think I’ll try and have a ‘new normal’ day of eating tomorrow before starting the challenges the next day…

It sounds like you've both had a tricky couple of days. I hope things level out soon!

I'm doing ok. I had yoghurt and nuts while I was waiting for DH to get up yesterday and then halloumi, avocado, grilled mushrooms and tomatoes and a fried egg for brunch.

This morning I had eggs baked inside a pepper, with some veg and goats cheese and pesto yogurt on the side. The variety is keeping me interested at the moment but I probably need to pick some easy recipes and prep the night before as I'm finding my morning is taken up with cooking more than normal so I'm not getting any exercise in, which I also want to do.

I'm starting week 2 in a couple of days, which is the vinegar before meals. I don't like vinegar very much so that one might be a bit of a chore for me!

Those meals sound really tasty @DarthSaver ! Yes, I think it is going to be essential to build a repertoire of go-to recipes and make the prep second nature. I'm definitely still working on this.

Good luck with vinegar week! I think it makes a big difference adding ice to the vinegar water (I have 1 tbsp of ACV in a glass of water with ice, and drink with a glass straw - when I remember...), I haven't got past having it this way and probably won't.

I'm going to do a 'new normal' day of eating today - and use as many of the hacks as I can. Then get on with the ZOE challenges starting tomorrow.

Got my highest sleep score last night on fitbit - because I made it over 8 hrs sleep time. Great when you're on holiday and can sleep until 9 am! I need to get up at 6.30 am when back at work. I've got to stop taking my ipad to bed and get to sleep and stay asleep by sorting out other things too. I'm putting this off though - I like taking my ipad to bed!

Sleep may not sound like it has anything to do with this but it does - being tired just about messes everything up!

I ended up starting the challenges today after all...

Here's your blood sugar challenge plan for ZOE 102, which you'll be starting next week:
Day 1: Eat 1 cup (240 g) cooked oats (~45 g before cooking), prepared with water.
Day 2: Eat 1.5 oz (42 g) almonds.
Day 3: Eat 1 cup (240 g) cooked oats (~45 g before cooking), prepared with water + 1.5 oz (42 g) almonds.
Day 4: Eat 1 cup (240 g) cooked oats (~45 g before cooking), prepared with water, followed by 30 minutes of light physical activity.
Day 5: Eat 1.5 oz (42 g) almonds, wait for 10 minutes, then eat 1 cup (240 g) cooked oats (~45 g before cooking), prepared with water.

Had the oats at 1.35 pm (yes, quite late due to getting up late, normal delay of breakfast and then realising I had no oats!).

Can't find any info on how long I should wait until I can eat again though! I'm hungry now...

Also, I think I am doing this wrong and I should be just logging what I eat normally for the next three days instead and then doing the challenges next week.

Basically I'm messing it up a bit and I'm not really in the right frame of mind! 😂

Good luck @Breithaupt I'm sure whatever you do will be fine, but it does sound as if you might be overthinking it a bit? I hope you worked out something nice to eat anyway 😊

I had leftover baked eggs inside pepper this morning and it was a bit less appealing reheated! They're also a bit slippery and hard to eat in a rush as the egg doesn't 'stick' to the pepper and I dropped them down my front. Toast is easier!

I've been listening to odd episodes of the Zoe podcast. There's one with the glucose Goddess and one on ultra processed food, which was really interesting and has made me think about cutting down on that.

My energy levels have been ok yesterday, which is good. I had lots of protein so I wonder if it's related? Fingers crossed for today

Sorry the eggs didn't go that well this morning @DarthSaver ! Yeah, toast & cereal etc is definitely easier!

I'm tempted to go and get a big bag of watermelon candy kittens or something and eat the whole lot in one go (something I would do every few weeks) to see what happens! I just don't want to eat them though, so I'll leave the in my past. I'm going to imagine in my head this big massive spike up that stays up and then drops really low making me feel rubbish instead.

It was super frustrating trying to enter my hello fresh meal last night (variety of issues). I had to do a big estimate in the end. My son is very into having hello fresh (we usually have the calorie smart 600 kcal options) - we have a meal 4x a week and rarely repeat one so this will be an ongoing issue. Hopefully it was just a glitchy evening.

I didn't get any spikes as big as the muffin spikes yesterday. Highest was after the plain porridge (challenge mistake).

I am definitely over-thinking it! I'm going to make myself focus on other things more today and let this just tick along.

Have a good day everyone!

@Breithaupt Yikes, that sounds very prescriptive and diet-like to me!

Are you still doing the GG hacks like ACV? If so, maybe you need to stop and return to a normal pattern of eating to get accurate readings?

Or maybe your blood sugar levels weren't actually that bad in the first place?

Sorry, mean to add @Breithaupt – have you actually had your bloods done first?

Hi @Inkpotlover - no I didn't get bloods done first. My levels seem to be generally lower now. I'm due to have one of those 5 year health checks with the NHS (you get offered over age 40) so I could just get that done. Anyway, I don't think there is anything obvious now to worry about.

After the porridge I went back to 'new normal' eating and have been doing that since, as I was supposed to be eating normally for these 3 days. Today is day 3. So I've been having my Hello fresh meals etc for dinner. This is so that they can rate my meals based on my test results (that I've already done and sent off) - I'm the only one looking at the CGM now I think. It is optional to log the meals like this - I can just see how my eating scores when I get back test results back and they then feature on the app.

Do you mean the challenges seem overly prescriptive and diet like? Yes - they definitely are - but only for breakfast (unless you choose one of the other challenges after the initial five day one). They are optional though. I think I'll do this porridge/almond one (I chose the carb and fat source) though but have breakfast earlier (at a 'normal' time).

I'm still doing the hacks - some more consistent that others. Veggie starters are consistent but there might be a fairly big gap between this and the main meal; food ordering not so much other than I will have plenty of veg first and the sweet thing is definitely last. All snacks are savoury but I'm not really snacking between meals anyway. I usually have a piece of fruit after lunch and after dinner something more pudding like - e.g fruit/greek yogurt/nuts and/or a cornetto etc. ACV - I keep forgetting (haven't had it for two days); moving after meals - I've only done it to a reduced extent recently but definitely want to pick that one up again properly.

I'm pretty sure I must be losing weight slowly. I weighed myself on the 1st August and I won't do it again until around 1st Sep though - so I'll have to wait.

How are you getting on?

Jumping in to say hello
I read the GG book early this year and felt loads better. Then recently just too many sweet cravings I think exacerbated by starting hrt. Really need to sort myself out again as I was feeling so much better.

You can download Jessie's app app.fline.ai which is much better for drawing graphs. It imports data from the freestyle libre but much easier to read. I'd screen shot the graphs though as it is a bit bug-y and lost all my data at one point. You still add food details manually

Yes, I meant the challenges feel prescriptive and diet-like, but if you can opt in or out that's good. The reason I asked about bloods too is that low glucose levels come with their own risk, so if yours are actually normal and you're intent on lowering them it's worth a chat with your GP and getting your levels checked.

I'm doing fine. I have bags more energy and I'm sleeping longer and deeper, which is then having a positive effect the next day that I'm not craving sweet stuff for energy. I'm only snacking occasionally between meals and then it's just a small piece of cheese or something else savoury. I've forgotten half the hacks already but I am sticking to the savoury breakfast of Greek yogurt, few blueberries and nut butter which I've come to love. Then I'm having green salad or a bowl of steamed spinach before lunch and dinner.

The only issue I'm having is a soreness right where my stomach meets my oesophagus, which I suspect is from the APV. I have to be careful with my digestion – I have NCGS – especially as two grandparents had oesophageal cancer and another one died from stomach cancer and I've found some studies which show ACV can inflame and even burn the oesophagus so for now I'm steering clear and will only have it very occasionally, if I know I'm going to have a carb-loaded meal.

Not APV, ACV! Have no idea what APV is!

In case anyone's interested, here's one of the cautionary reports I found about ACV. It's not saying don't drink it, just be careful.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/523668-can-apple-cider-vinegar-damage-the-stomach-or-esophagus/

Hello @PosiePerkinPootleFlump! I'm on HRT too and while the benefits are immense, the weight gain and cravings are definitely its downside! Thanks for the info about the app, I didn't realise Jessie had one.

I found the cgm so useful (I just bought one, didn't do Zoe) was working out what makes a difference for me.
Sadly for me the biggest difference isn't the order of food or acv. It's what I eat.
Rice really spikes my blood sugar. So even if I have a salad and acv first, sushi for lunch is awful - a spike of 11ish for a medium box. Oats similarly crap. The only thing that really flattens it is exercise.
Some things are easier to change than others. I used to have Greek yog, berries, oats and seeds for breakfast. I've added extra chia and skip the oats and no spike.
But there isn't a way to eat risotto and not have a spike apart from following it with at least an hours walk. Although I discovered that Pearl barley risotto is a much lower spike so if I combine that with veggies I'm much better

If you are struggling with glucose spikes, have a look at The Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet by Dr Mark Hyman.

No need to do the diet if you don't want to, but the book includes a lot of easy low carb, sugar-free recipes. Also lots of advice on long-term healthy eating.

It's very similar to the Glucose Goddess/Glucose Revolution. In fact, he endorses her and her hacks on his website.

Hi @PosiePerkinPootleFlump ! I had no idea that Jessie had an app - very interested to hear that it links to the libre with better graphs! Thank you!

The ACV really doesn't sound like a great idea then @Inkpotlover . I don't think I'm going to bother with it - I'm nearly out of this bottle (I had it in previously) and I don't think I'm going to replace it. Everything else is a keeper though (well apart from eating the food on one plate in exact order - that's not going to happen, other than eating at least some of the veg first).

I wouldn't know what my glucose levels were at all if I wasn't doing ZOE. I'm just eating healthier in general with a view to feeling much better (including losing weight) and having more energy/being less tired. I doubt what I'm doing would lower my glucose levels to too low. I'm really not worried - I was just thinking 'out loud' before really.

I really need to move my mind on to other projects too now this one is ticking along nicely...like getting a housework routine properly sorted and getting those DIY jobs done! Well after I've checked out this app...😆

Not saying you should stop ACV @Breithaupt ! If it's working for you and not giving you any issues, I'd keep taking it. I wish I could as it's clearly a good appetite suppressant.

Do we think the Stevia in this is ok at the beginning of the meal? I would love it to be as I'm really struggling with the taste rn..

Ooh - it's just occurred to me that eating fresh pickles before/with the meal like lots of other cultures do would probably give you your tablespoon per day?