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?

I hadn't noticed it either @Inkpotlover & @Abra1t , although I do remember the post. I'll report it too.

I started the challenges today. I don't normally eat until late morning, so I decided to eat the challenge food at 9.15 am and then the three hour fast following it takes me to 12.15 pm, which is about when I would eat normally so...it fits in quite easily. I'm interested to see how tomorrow's graph compares to today's...

Wow, that's some spike!

Oh that's interesting @Breithaupt . I used to eat baked porridge for breakfast. I read that some people react really strongly to oats- but some don't! Will be interesting to see how much difference the nuts make...

I'm feeling really full today, I had quite a lot of tofu at breakfast so that could be it. I was not really hungry at lunchtime, I had lots of salad, half a baked potato with butter and cottage cheese but I would have been fine with less and I'm not hungry now, which is unusual for me, I often need a pre dinner snack!

I'm hoping it's not the vinegar making a difference 😅 I had it with hot water, lemon and mint today which was ok. I tried a bit of the yoghurt dressing but it's still very vinegary and I didn't want it at lunch (plus I'd just drank my lemon/mint/vinegar). I'm going to add more yogurt and try again tomorrow.

1. Eat foods in the right order (fibre, then proteins and fats, then starches and sugars)
2. Add a veggie starter to one meal a day
3. Stop counting calories
4. Have a savoury breakfast
5. Eat any type of sugar you like - they're all the same
6. Pick dessert over a sweet snack
7. Have one tablespoon on vinegar a day before the meal that will the highest in glucose
8. After you eat, move
9. If you have to snack, go savoury
10. Put some "clothes" on your carbs (avoid eating starchy or sweet foods on their own - "clothe" them with protein, fat or fibre to slow down glucose absorption. For example, have Greek yogurt with your brownie, or ham with your bread)

I am doing some of these but not others.

Eating veg at the start of the meal - I have a tendency to graze while cooking so I try to have some chopped up veg (radishes raw carrots etc) on hand at this time.

Savoury not sweet snacks - have always done this, but now trying not to have carby snacks.

Clothes on carbs - I am using this as an excuse to load on the butter. Possibly not what she intended

Savoury breakfast - I don’t eat breakfast. Couldn’t deal with savoury first thing so best to have nowt

Stop counting calories - never did

Sweet stuff only after a meal - always did this

ACV - I tried!!! I really did. But found it grim so I stopped. But a salad with vinaigrette also works - and if you eat it at the start of the meal it covers #1, 2 and 7!

After you eat, move - Not doing well with this at dinner time. Need to start eating at the table rather than the sofa

@minipie If you are not able to move after eating you can try soleaus push ups whilst seated. They have been shown to lower blood sugar.
https://stories.uh.edu/2022-soleus-pushup/index.html

I’m not unable! Just lazy! But that’s really interesting about the soleus push up (calf rise basically?) I might try it, also so happens I need to strengthen my ankles so win-win!

@minipie If you can't stomach a savoury breakfast, full fat Greek yoghurt like Fage, seeds and berries should keep your blood sugar flat

I can’t stomach eggs etc first thing so I’ve been having GG suggestion of Greek yogurt, few blueberries and nut butter swirled in, which I wasn’t sure about but is absolutely delicious and keeps me full until lunchtime.

Day 2 results - clear difference between almonds and porridge, as expected.

It’s fascinating to see! Now off to stock up on almonds! 😂

I make almond flour porridge, I'm assuming that's the same. Recipe is 2tbsp almond flour, 2tbsp flaxseed and 150ml almond milk. Optional protein powder (I use chocolate!). Quite tasty surprisingly!

Thought this sounded bizarre so looked at study and participants did SPUs for 270mins .
Think it'd be quicker and easier to go for a walk!

@LakeFlyPie I tested it when I had a cgm and 30 min of them did have a significant impact. It is a useful tip if for example you are stuck at a desk working after lunch or sitting down chatting after a meal out. I had to walk for 2 hours to get the same drop, presumably because the intensity of muscle use is lower when walking.

@Bubbles254 how was it doing it for 30min? It says they're not too tiring but it sounds like it could overwork that small area and be a bit sore to me...

I'm soldiering on with vinegar. Apple Cider vinegar is better than white wine vinegar for me. Tons of lemon and mint in hot water is making it palatable at least. I'll pickle some cauliflower today and give that a go... Definitely feeling less hungry and when I am hungry, I'm not craving sweet things. I'm sure the bigger breakfasts help!

Yoghurt for breakfast with nuts, nut butter and a few blueberries this morning- very nice.

So last night any semblance of healthy eating flew out of the window as we had a fish and chip supper for a family member's birthday BUT I still stuck to green first - mushy peas – protein second (sausage) and carbs last (chips, with lashings of vinegar). I have no idea if it made any difference – there was wine involved too – but today I didn't wake up with monster carb cravings like I normally do after a blow-out takeaway and was straight back on my yoghurt breakfast. It's so yummy, isn't it @DarthSaver! If you'd told me yoghurt and nut butter would work as a combo I'd never have believed it!

@DarthSaver 30 min was fine, I did it whilst working and barely noticed.

@Inkpotlover I tolerate carbs so much better at the end of the day than for breakfast. Planning fish & chips tonight. I have also been finding my sleep suffers it I am low carb for dinner. Does anyone else find this? I barely get any rem or deep sleep if I don't have carbs at dinner.

Good job with the food ordering @Inkpotlover !

I mixed the porridge and nuts together for today's challenge (results in 1.5 hours). I was also talking to a friend (also doing ZOE but further ahead than me) about nuts and she directed me to this podcast:

I'm about to listen to it but she did mention that with whole nuts not all the fat is absorbed by the body (not the case with things like almond flour).

I had a fry up last night which included potato cakes and a slice of bread. I'm not worried about it, I'm aiming for sustainability over perfection (and I'm feeling so hungry because of lifting weights). Don't worry about it too much @Inkpotlover this is a whole life change, one day doesn't ruin it.

Oh I'm not worried – I'm not doing this to lose weight but to feel healthier and to boost my energy, which I can already feel is happening. There's no way I'm going through life not having the occasional blowout! I was just surprised that I didn't feel the effects of such a stodgy meal in the same way I have previously, and I wonder if it was down to eating the food sequentially.

I slept badly, but that might've been the wine!

Day 3 results - I started eating slightly later 9.22 am rather than 9.15 am and unlike the other days I had only just woken up (9am!). Definitely kept me the fullest today but I haven't been up as long so hard to properly compare. Results as expected though.

Preview cuts off ends so if you want to look at it, then will need to click the photo.

I noticed that the calories as not the same for the almonds and porridge (despite the challenge referring to them being the same for day 1 and day 2). I'm sure there must be a reason why they chose 45 g porridge and 42 g of almonds rather than 45g of porridge and 28 g of almonds or 67g of almonds and 42 g of almonds, just not sure what it is...not that it matters, of course. Maybe it is that there is thinking that 30% of the calories (or is it just fat?) isn't absorbed from nuts in their whole form and it has been adjusted for this.

@Breithaupt thanks for the update, really interesting. When I played around with a cgm a few months ago I found that pairing fats with carbs reduced the spike but the area under the curve a1c and time glucose took to drop post meal increased.

Is this your experience? It is hard to tell from the graphs without zooming in

Yes, exactly that!

I've cropped to the detail as best I could...