Consider Glucose Monitoring for Weight Management

Welcome to the Well and worthy life podcast. I’m your host, Deanna Pizitz a certified integrative nutrition health coach. This podcast is designed to inspire and motivate you to become a better you through sharing solutions, to your biggest struggles and concerns. In this second half of life, let’s change how we age by focusing on creating a positive mindset that allows us to flourish.

Nourishing our bodies for longevity, optimizing our hormone health for better balance movement that keeps us feeling young and active, and managing our stress to improve our mental health. Things are different now in our second half, and we have to do things differently. Hey guys. Welcome back to another episode of Well and Worthy Life. I’m super excited today to have Heather Davis with me. She is a registered dietician. From Nutrience and you’ve been following me, you know that I love Nutrisystems. I’ve worn a C G M a continuous glucose monitor for off and owned at different times, and I love Nutrisystems and so I’m super excited to have Heather with me today.

So that we can talk about CGMs or continuous glucose monitors and and just that blood sugar and how maybe some things that we can do to lose some weight, especially during the summer. And Heather, I just got back. I was just telling you before we started recording, I just got back from Italy and Prince where I put on not much.

We like a couple of pounds, so not much, but I’m trying to dial it all back in. It’s so worth it. It’s so worth it. That’s right. So Heather, before we get really started, tell us a little bit about your background and how you got hooked up with nutrition. Yeah, absolutely. So I am a registered dietician. I have been working in nutrition for a really long time.

I think it’s been probably, huh, over 15 years now. And I’ve had a very eclectic career. I’ve been involved in some nutrition research. I did some teaching work for a long time and I had a private integrative practice in women’s health specialty and also just in neuroendocrine health. So that’s been my passion and I found Nutrisystem right when they were starting, like a few years ago, and it was really cool.

It was a great opportunity. I was excited to be like just a part of the, the whole blossoming startup. There was a lot of opportunity to contribute ideas and, and really use my imagination to help, you know, support the growth of the company. So I was really excited for that. Yeah, I love that and I love that, you know, startups are a great way to start, you know, to really kind of get in on that ground floor and to really make a difference.

Too, and I’m sure you’ve made a huge difference being with them you know, helping create and, and just, just how they’ve grown so much. I mean, just since I’ve heard about Nutrisystems, it’s grown tremendous amount. How many Rester dieticians do y’all have now? Oh man, it has grown for sure. So when I started a few years ago, I think I was one of maybe eight people.

Mm-hmm. Eight dieticians and then now I think we have around 50. So it’s, wow. It’s pretty incredible lot. The growth has just been booming. But yeah, it’s been, it’s been so cool to just like, not only see the glucose data, because a lot of this is pretty new, just in terms of, Seeing these mass amounts of Non-diabetic, in many cases, glucose data, like most of the research that we have on the CGMs is in the diabetic population.

Mm-hmm. So it’s really cool to kind of see these subtle nuances in, you know, not to say that we don’t work with those with diabetes or pre-diabetes. Mm-hmm. As of course we do, but. Just a lot of people who may not fall into that category but also wanna optimize their health. We get to see the glucose data and we are definitely running a lot of our own little, like behind the scenes data science studies as we collect this information and try to glean some cool insights.

Oh, I love that. I love that. And most of my client, well all of my clients, and I would say most of my listeners are like those women, 40 and above. So would you say you have a lot of those clients as well? Those kind of peri menopausal, menopausal women that are trying to figure out what’s going on all of a sudden with their body?

Oh yeah. No, absolutely. Absolutely. I, I personally work with a lot of them. Our whole dietician team does. I’m in my forties. I actually went through menopause early cuz I was mm-hmm. I went through chemically induced menopause when I was younger, which was a whole crazy scenario. But yeah, so I’ve had a lot of experience just working with that group and, and living through some of those changes as well.

Navigating all of the crazy hormonal rollercoaster experiences we can have. And many faces of that, right? Because it gives shapes and sizes. But yeah, there are some unique concerns definitely for that group. So, but I think it’s such a great group to work with because I think for a lot of women, I. At that point in their lives, they’re really coming back to themselves.

You know, they’ve been mm-hmm. Fundraising kids. They’ve been really investing in their careers for a long time, and now like they’re going through this transition. And I find it’s so much more than just hormones. It’s a whole life shift. Like everything is shifting. Mm-hmm. And so it’s such a powerful time and opportunity to really lean into that and, and, Make some, some powerful transformational shifts in your health.

You know, overall you can do that. So, I totally, totally agree with you. You know, I think that’s the thing. It’s like we finally, we’re finally having time and we, we, we can put ourself first. We’ve learned that, you know, not putting ourself first, it kind of catches up to you in your forties. Oh yeah. And so I love that, that it is making this total shift that it’s not just about, and I say this all the time, you know, Yes, we wanna look good in our clothes.

Of course we do. But it’s really, as we get older, it’s more about how we feel and that energy we have. And you know, it’s funny because until they came out with these glucose monitors, you know, I would hear this thing about your blood sugar dropping and not understand all of that, but those slumps during the day, well, hello.

You know, I would feel things, but I didn’t know what was going on. I had no idea. Maybe it had something to do with what I was eating or maybe stress or lack of sleep or all those things. And now it’s so wonderful cuz we’ve got. These ways, like the, with the CGMs and all the different ways that we can track and analyze all the things, right?

Because, I mean, I, I wear an aura ring too. I like to track my sleep. I like, I know there’s more and more cool stuff coming out all the time. Yeah, it’s, I love what you mentioned though too, about being able to put a name to these feelings that you’ve been having. And I, I think for a lot of people, we might struggle with all kinds of symptoms for a while, like, The fatigue, the afternoon lulls, just brain fog, like irritability, mood, swing stuff.

And sometimes we’re kinda made to feel like it’s in our head. You know? It’s in your head and, right. I hate that. I hate that so much because it’s not, it’s. A very biological thing and glucose is one big piece of the puzzle for a lot of people in that way. So it can be a great tool in the, the overall toolbox of how you assess where these symptoms are coming from and, and, you know, you can go from there to figure out what you can actually do to make those changes so you can feel better.

Yeah. And you know, like you were talking from the very beginning, you know, a lot of People with diabetes, of course, have been wearing the CGMs. And if you’re watching us on YouTube, I’ve got mine on right now. If you’re not, you can just imagine you can just, or you can go to YouTube and look, it’s so easy to put on.

I even did a a, a little when I put it on, not this time, but the last time on Instagram showed people how I put it on. It’s just so easy to put it on. It doesn’t hurt. Even taking it off so easy doesn’t hurt. Everybody’s like, wait, that, does that hurt? Like it doesn’t, yeah. That’s what everyone wants to know.

Yeah. Yeah. It doesn’t hurt at all. But I, the, I think the first reason why I first decided I wanted to see is I, again, I love data and I love seeing like real time. I mean, I kind of knew what foods affected me. But, but it is more than foods. I mean, we have learned, right? I mean, it is lack of sleep and it’s stress and all those things too.

But but I, I still, I wanted to learn more and see for myself and watch it go up and down. And so before we, we. Started recording. We were talking about this thing about, I’m kinda watching it right now cuz I ate a perfect bar and I didn’t eat anything before it. I mean, I just, you know, I ate, I ate an earlier breakfast and then I ate eggs and, and everything so it did not go up at all.

I mean, it kind of went up a little bit cuz it’s all gonna go up a little bit. But it didn’t spike. Hi. But I was watching this and I should check it one more time while we’re sitting here. But yeah. What’s it look like now? Let’s see what it looks like now. Come on. Okay. Oh, it’s going back down, so that’s good.

It had spike up to 1 24, but now it’s going back down. So the purpose, oh yeah. That’s, that’s great. Okay. But let’s talk about this up and down. Okay. That’s right, because I do get a little anxiety. Not seeing going up. I’m like, stop, stop, stop going up. So talk. Let’s talk about that and how you said it shouldn’t be a flat.

Flat. Yeah. So I think one of the things that when people first put a CGM on and they’re tracking that glucose response through the day or after they eat, There can be this initial anxiety where you’re thinking, oh my gosh, I can’t spike over that limit. Right. And that one 40 limit is kind of where we set the threshold for most people.

Mm-hmm. And non-diabetic. So it’s climbing. It’s climbing, and people are like, oh no. Oh no. But what happens? To a lot of people is they start to get anxiety when the glucose is going up, even when it’s nowhere near the one 40. It’s just any little fluctuation, they start to worry about it. Mm-hmm. But I’m here to put your mind at ease because fluctuation in your glucose is.

Totally, totally healthy and normal and we are not striving for a flat line. We really do see some natural fluctuation through the day and that is perfectly fine. So a good way to measure that and, and sort of figure out like, What’s enough or too much, or is there too little fluctuation is really to look at.

There’s a metric in the app that we have the Nutrisystems app that is called Standard Deviation, and it’s just a way of measuring. Something called glycemic variability, which is just your glucose fluctuations. It’s just a fancy term for glucose swings. So we are really aiming for a standard deviation less than 20.

And the thing is, the study is on glycemic variability. Do show that very high swings, like you’re spiking super high, you’re dropping really low. These standard deviation scores over 20. They do carry an increased risk for things like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, fatigue, cravings, all kinds of stuff we don’t want.

Mm-hmm. But now the research is really limited when we talk about. Like the ideal zone. Right? And we don’t have a lot of data yet on what is the, the ideal variability zone. We know we don’t wanna go super, super, super extreme. Mm-hmm. But from my experience, looking at thousands of people’s glucose data over the years and really digging deep with people, On how they’re feeling, which is really what I focus on.

Mm-hmm. What I’ve noticed is that there tends to be a sweet spot where people actually don’t feel great if their glucose is too flat or if they have too little variability. They’re not feeling great either. I have a lot of people I see who feel really bad with the big swings and also with the super minimal variability kind of on both ends of the spectrum.

So it’ll be interesting to see as more of this research comes out over the years, like do we start to see that there is an ideal somewhere in the middle? And that those two extremes are both a problem. Now, what’s really cool about this is that. In science or in nutrition, we have this effect all over the place and we call it like the U-shaped curves.

So in too little or too much of anything, you have the same problem. Mm-hmm. You can look at any type of nutrient, right? Iodine is a great example. Too. Little and too much both cause goiter. Too little vitamin D and too much vitamin D both cause bone mineralization problems. So you see this trend in, in the body and biology where there’s, there’s a an equal.

I’d say issue with too little and too much, and we can think of glucose. I think that’s life, right? I mean, I, I mean, yeah. I mean, you know, and our bodies are a lot smarter than we give them credit for, so I love that. I love that you. Liken that to that. So that makes me feel a lot better. Yes. About my little variability may not be a good thing.

You wanna house a little bit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I’m, I’m really good. I don’t really spike up to that one 40, so which really makes me feel good because the only time I will tell you this is funny cuz yesterday I did cryotherapy and it’s. Spiked up really high. Oh yeah. But it was because of the cryotherapy, I’m sure.

Right? Yeah. Those temperature changes can definitely skew the sensor reading a little bit too. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would think so. One of the things though that I have learned too, is and the last time I wore it, so I put this one on, today is Friday. I put it on on. Sunday or Monday, I can’t think of it which day now, but I wore it before I went to Europe, so it was in April.

I had it on before and I was really working on getting my morning average lower, like under a hundred cuz it was, and now it’s back up to over a hundred and that kind of bothers me. So what makes that average morning? Because you want your morning to be. The average to be really under a hundred, correct?

Yeah. So typically we are aiming for that fasting glucose value. The value that you see in the morning after you’ve been without food for at least eight hours to be between 70 and 90. Now some people will say between 70 and 100. Mm-hmm. So what we see when that starts to creep a little bit closer to 100 or a little bit over there are a few things that can be going on.

Mm-hmm. One is if you are doing a very low carb diet in general, Your body does have what we think of as a type of physiological insulin resistance shift. Now it’s not the same as what we could consider classic insulin resistance. Mm-hmm. It’s, it’s an adaptive process. The body sort of shifts into as a part of that lower carb.

Diet. Mm-hmm. So this can raise your fasting glucose a little bit, even though if you were to look at your fasting insulin and things like that, it might be normal. Mm-hmm. Whereas someone with true insulin resistance, their fasting insulin would be pretty high. So there are some important differences, but that can be one cause the other one, Can be how we’re timing our meals in the day.

And I often see people who are starting their meals later in the morning or later in the day. Mm-hmm. And then eating later into the evening. Mm-hmm. That can do it. Mm-hmm. That can definitely, I think that did it for me for a while. Yeah. Now I don’t think that’s it. I may, I mean, I’ve tried to cut down my carbs, so maybe that’s it.

Or maybe, I don’t know. I have some other ideas too, Dean. Okay. Good. Okay. Tell me the other ideas. Okay, so the other, and if I looked at your If I could look at your food log and food data, I’d be able to give you all kinds of, I’m sure, specific advice too. So I think that another thing we commonly see is a stress response.

So if the body is under higher, Amounts of stress, higher stress levels. This can also start to change things like cortisol, which is going to impact glucose. And I often see this cause higher overnight and fasting glucose values for people. But what does that really mean? Like the stress thing? Let’s talk about that.

Yeah, let’s do it. Because we throw that term around, I think. Mm-hmm. Without really defining it very well. Mm-hmm. And so people are like, well, what does it mean? What does it include? So the first thing I always, before saying that too, I wanna say alcohol. If you’re drinking alcohol at night mm-hmm. I can definitely do it.

Right? I’ve seen caffeine do it. Regular intake of caffeine for a. Some people can, that might be it. Cause I’m drinking a coffee. Yes, yes. In fact, yes. One of the things, one of the experiments that I do with a lot of my members who have this, this concern where they’re like, I eat super healthy. I am like doing all the right things and still I have this over 100 fasting glucose.

What the heck? I’m like, let’s do a caffeine experiment. And I treat it all like an experiment. We’re not gonna take caffeine away from, I’m like, I can’t go without it cause I’ll get those major headaches. So. Well, that’s the thing too. People go about it the wrong way because I think a lot of people will cut it out too fast.

They’ll do cold Turkey or they’ll, it’ll be way too abrupt. I always tell people, if you’re going to do a caffeine holiday experiment, taking a break from caffeine, You wanna go really slow, you wanna scale down over at least a week or two. So you’re not just cutting it out. You wanna really gradually scale it down.

And that’s the best way, because when you yank that out, it’s, it’s actually a stressor on the body because you’re taking this very powerful drug that’s been present every day and you’re pulling it out. So the body is kind of like, whoa, what’s going on? And so you need to make that shift gradually.

Mm-hmm. A lot of people who are really plagued by those caffeine withdrawal headaches and things like that, they won’t experience that as much, if at all. Mm-hmm. With that gradual approach. And then I usually tell people from there, take at least two weeks off and then you can really see if you are having an impact on your glucose.

Now what’s cool is that I often see. That two week break, just two weeks make a huge difference for glucose for people. I’ve seen fast glucose come down. I’ve seen overall average glucose come down. I’ve seen overnight glucose come down a lot for people. I’ve, yeah, so, and wow, that caffeine does impact cortisol for some people.

Mm-hmm. So in that case, cortisol and glucose, we know have that one-to-one relationship. And if cortisol’s going up, glucose is gonna follow. And if you are someone who’s having a little bit of a cortisol response to that caffeine, then it could very well be impacting your glucose. So,

That’s very interesting. And I, I can see, you know, too, cuz when I was in, in Europe, everybody has cappuccinos and, you know, oh yeah. And we were drink. I mean, I didn’t normally have afternoon coffee and now I came back and I’m always having afternoon coffee since I’ve been back, so I’m probably drinking ever.

Yeah. Cause you said you noticed it was improving and then it’s kind of gotten a little bit worse again. Yeah. So now, yes. So that, I bet that has a lot to do with it now, now I bet. So, yeah. So lemme ask you this though, as women go through perimenopause and menopause

does it happen that they can become more insulin resistant and their, their averages do rise? Oh, yes. Yes. And one of the reasons for this is, It’s, I wouldn’t say that it’s, it’s something that we just have to accept, but one of the things that can happen is estrogen is really it, it contributes a lot to our insulin sensitivity and as estrogen levels start to decline through that transition, It can start to shift how we respond to insulin and glucose.

So it just may mean that there are some dietary and lifestyle tweaks that you can do. You know, you don’t have to mm-hmm. Just accept, oh, I’m less insulin sensitive now. Oh, well. Mm-hmm. I mean, it’s really about, instead of just sort of saying, oh, well, I’m just gonna accept this is my life now, or I’m gonna have this extra wait, or I’m gonna, whatever it is, it’s, it’s about, Adapting your diet, adapting your lifestyle in a way where you’re doing some things different.

Now it’s, it may not be what you did in your twenties or thirties, but it’s, it’s going to help you at this point, and it’s going to work for you. At this point, you just kind of have to figure out what that is, which is like a nutrition. That’s why we make sure to pair you with a dietician like we’re not.

We don’t wanna just give you a CGM and be like, see you later. That we want, and I think that really love someone to like actually work with you on this because it’s so customized and I could give you general advice and general ideas for experiments, but if I can really see you one-on-one and start to understand all of your history and your data and like we can really build something customized and personalized together.

And that’s one of the things that I do do love about Nutrisystems, about having your own per, you know, that somebody, and it’s so easy to communicate through the app and all of that. So I think that that does set y’all apart. And I think what you said, you know, everything, everybody is so different. So you know what works for one person may not work for another person, but.

But let’s go back to some of those lifestyle things, some things that people can do especially as they’re entering perimenopause and menopause and they’ve got that extra weight on, right? I mean, cause yes, like that I think is the most frustrating for some of my clients. They’ve got this extra weight and it just doesn’t seem to budge.

Because things have shifted and they, they’ll go to their doctor and their doctor’s just like, Oh, well. That’s just the way life is now. I’m like, now, yeah. Get used to it. You’re like, yeah, no. Yeah, exactly. No, no, no, no. But what are some of the things that we can do? Yeah. Well, I think one of the things that I often see for a lot of women in that period of their lives, When they start to feel the weight change, come on.

And they’re gaining weight and they’re just like not used to gaining weight from the things that they’re doing, cuz it seemed to be fine in the past, right? They start over restricting. Now this is a recipe for disaster and I’m gonna explain this. So what a lot of women will do. Is they’ll start over restricting, they’ll overs, restrict calories, and that includes protein, which is a really important one.

You don’t want to restrict and or overs restrict, right? So they’ll start overs, restricting calories, macronutrients, and then they’re going to start. Experiencing even worse cravings. It may seem better at first as they kind of go for some sort of extreme fad diet approach. They might have a honeymoon effect for a week or two or a month, but eventually they’re gonna feel more fatigued, they’re going to feel more cravings, and then they’re going to get into this restrictive and binge cycle.

Mm-hmm. Where you overs restrict and then you just cave into your cravings once a week or more. And you’re not going to lose weight. You’re not going to feel your best in this place because your whole metabolism is just being wrecked by what you’re doing. So what you have to do instead is get out of this overs restrictive mentality and you have to nourish your body with the nutrients it needs.

You have to eat enough protein. Yeah. You’re awesome at it. I know you are. I know. I’m like, yes, yes, yes. I mean, I talk about this all the time. You know, it’s so. It’s, it’s so hard for people to understand that, you know? Yeah. And protein is like, especially as we age. Yes. I, I listened to, I was just listening to another podcast today and.

You know, as we age, it’s even more important. And it’s funny because we’re eating less than ever as we get older. So, yeah, so I No, that’s, you hit it on the head, like that’s exactly what I see as well. It’s this like, you’re eating less, you’re restricting more and more and more. And I work with so many women who I look at their protein intake when we first start working together, and.

I am, I’m just like, oh my God, how are you functioning? Are you ok? Like, how are operating? And they’re like, I’m living on caffeine. Right? Cause they’re tired. Mm-hmm. And, and you see this whole vicious cycle. Mm-hmm. So the first thing I would say is work with someone who can help you assess your nutritional balance and make sure you are getting those nutrients that you need.

And more calories doesn’t necessarily mean. More weight gain, we have to break out of that mentality. Calories in, calories out is not everything about weight loss. And I actually was working with someone not long ago. I love this example because she was so terrified of increasing her nutrient intake. She was really low in protein and some other critical nutrients, like some healthy fats and things like that.

And she was terrified of increasing because even though she was in this really stubborn weight loss plateau, she had lost some weight a few months back and, but she hit this plateau, right? So she was like, But I, I can’t go back there. Right. Even though I’m not continuing to, I don’t wanna regress. And I was like, don’t worry, it’s gonna be okay.

So like we worked through that. She finally started eating a bit more protein. We got her up closer to where we thought she needed to be, and she was losing weight. She broke through her weight loss plateau and she was like messaging me every day. She’s like, how I don’t understand. I’m eating more and I’m losing weight.

I’m like, I know. You know, and I think that that is, so I, I did a, I think it was Facebook a while, a while back, I said something on, I did Facebook Live or something, and I said something about not this calories in, calories out is not the way to go. Or some, you know, something like that. And somebody said on the comments, You obviously didn’t go to science class or something, and I was like, you just don’t understand the, the science that has been.

You know, we were taught, I’m 57, almost 58. We were taught calories in calories out. If you wanna lose weight, the only way to do it is to reduce your calories. And that is not always the case anymore. Yeah. And certainly you don’t want ’em to go too low no matter what I mean, it’s just, you’ve got to nourish your body so that your body can function and do what it’s meant to do.

And I think that. So many women are just so scared. And then they do go on these, the these bad quick fix. Yes, I gotta, I gotta do something. And we are all looking for that quick fix and. It’s just, I mean, let’s, you’re gonna jump from quick fix to quick fix for the rest of your life, and you’re not going to feel like any of those approaches is sustainable.

You know, can you, whatever you’re doing right now, can you see yourself doing that for the rest of your life? And for most people who are on one of these fad diets or crash diets, The answer is no. Like they can’t see themselves doing that forever, and they know at some point they’re gonna hit a wall and they’re gonna fall off the wagon and they’re gonna go back to the way they were eating that was also not working for them, and they’re gonna regain whatever weight they lost and start the whole thing again.

Yeah. And sometimes they regain even more weight. Yes. Because they’ve messed up the, you know, I mean, I’ve seen that a million times. Me too. So, okay. So let’s talk about these weight loss drugs that are out there. Yeah. Now, I know you just wrote a, a blog post for Nutrisystems about it. So tell me your thoughts on that and what you found out.

Yeah, so the GLP one agonist these fancy names, right? For these drugs like Ozempic or Wogo V. And really what they’re doing is they’re altering how your body, well, let’s start with this. They were initially drugs to treat diabetes. Mm-hmm. And so they were supposed to, Help the body produce more insulin, and it was going to help stabilize glucose levels and lower glucose levels for diabetic.

Now, what they noticed were. Some weight loss effects from this. And so they made another drug called Wogo V cuz Ozempic was the one that was for diabetics and mm-hmm. Then Wogo V was your weight loss, but they’re actually the same drug. They’re just different doses of the same drug. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, WOGO now is like very difficult to get.

So people are using Ozempic off-label for weight loss. Mm-hmm. But here’s the catch. Yes. You may lose some weight. However, you’re probably going to gain that weight back when you stop that drug. And being on these drugs long term have some very concerning side effects, and you may even notice these side effects right away.

Digestive side effects, GI side effects are some of the top concerns people have, and they can be pretty severe for some people enough to where they can’t take the drug because it’s just completely messing up their gut. Mm-hmm. Now the other thing is if you do have a history of like pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer in the family, or medullary, thyroid cancer, things like that, You can’t take these drugs.

Doctors typically won’t prescribe them for people who have those histories because they can increase your risk for those things. Mm-hmm. Now all this seems like kinda scary, right? You’re like, mm-hmm. This really? Yeah. The other thing is that a lot of the, so the manufacturers of the drugs and the studies done the clinical trials, they all say these drugs are best used in conjunction with lifestyle and dietary changes, period.

Mm-hmm. So it’s really one of those things where you’re going to need to make the lifestyle and dietary changes even when you’re on the drug to see the full effect of the drug. And if you ever wanna go off of these drugs, Let’s say you want to reduce your risk of some of those side effects. Mm-hmm. You don’t wanna be on them forever making those dietary lifestyle changes, you’re gonna have to do it so that you don’t regain all the weight that you lost on those drugs.

So, right. It’s, it’s kind of like one way or another you’re headed for dietary lifestyle. Changes the drug for some people. They are saying like, typically from the clinical trials for weight loss, they were only recommending it for people over a certain B M I A, certain obese B M I. So they’re not just wanting, you know, if you have five, 10 pounds you wanna lose, chances are you’re not going to get a prescription for this drug.

But yeah, you wanna think long term, right? You wanna think what’s the long game on this? And it’s something if you and your doctor discuss and you decide that between the two of you, you wanna try it even, even if you, even if, right? Mm-hmm. You still have to address the dietary lifestyle changes. It doesn’t let you off the hook for that.

Right. Right. And you know, it’s funny cuz I see this a lot and I, I think one of, I, there’s a few things that bother me about it. So so one of it, it. You know, people still think it’s a quick fix and it’s really not a quick fix. I actually have a friend who’s been on it well over a year now, and she did lose some weight and she looks fabulous.

I am concerned about her long term now. She, she already really had a lot of the things in place as far as she ate healthy. She exercised, she just. I think it was, in fact, I’ve told her before, I think it was more like she was leptin resistant, like she couldn’t understand when she was full. So this is helping her understand that.

But what I’m not sure of is after she goes off it will that. Will she go back to being leptin resistant and not realizing when she’s full? Again, I just, I don’t know about that. And the other thing that really bothers me about it is every time I have a client, I don’t care. I mean, and if they’re probably 20 pounds, maybe even 10 pounds overweight and no, at least 20 pounds overweight, the doctors that are are telling them, here you, here we have this weight loss drug.

Yeah. And that’s what I don’t like. , maybe if, if you’ve got a hundred pounds to lose and, or maybe if you know it’s that, or gastric bypass or something like that, maybe this, and I can’t say if I, if I were 30 pounds overweight or 20 pounds overweight, maybe I would be wanting to do this too.

I mean, you know, it’s, But I will say that I just feel like that we’ve got to make these changes that are sustainable and this isn’t going to be sustainable if we have to stay on the drug. And that’s one of the things I’ve read about it, that you have to stay on the drug. Yes. Yep. They’re saying stay on it, but at the same time, we don’t have a lot of good long-term clinical dates.

Who knows? Yeah. What this is gonna do to you over that same period of long-term. So, And this is something that even some endocrinologists and professionals in the field have been criticizing about these drugs too, is like they’re not addressing the underlying metabolic imbalances that might be present.

And they’re basically hooking you for life on this thing that we don’t have enough data fully to understand what you’re really signing up for over the long term. So it could come with risks that you’re not even aware of right now. And I think that’s, that can be a big concern. Yeah, I think, I think you’re right.

And I mean, you know, there’s so many people talking about it right now, but you know, the other thing is I think that, you know, a lot of times people overeat out of emotions and so we have to learn to deal with our emotions. And I do know that this drug helps you like not really. Enjoy eating or you just don’t even like it works.

Yeah. You use your appetite. Yeah. You’re just like outside of just, yeah. So, so you’re not really dealing with the issue then, right. Yeah. And I think that’s a great point. I think that unfortunately we have to deal with our issues, laugh issues. They’re gonna come back at you sooner or later, I promise.

Don’t do it. Tell you. Yeah. It’ll it’ll come back you. Exactly. It’ll, I mean, and the thing is too, I just, I feel like people get so burnt out and exhausted with the process of, Troubleshooting a weight loss journey because there are so many barriers and there are so many times you do this trial and error dance.

And it can be mentally draining where you are just like, you feel like maybe you’ve tried everything at some point and you’re just ready to throw in a towel and fine. I, I’ve done all the hard work. I’ve done all the calorie counting and this and that, and now I’m gonna take this drug. But it really can be easier.

And I think the big missing piece for so many people is, Understanding that you need a customized approach. You don’t really need to be following a lot of generic dietary advice, because I always think of that advice as wide net advice if you’re fishing. Mm-hmm. And you cast a wide net, right? You’re gonna capture all kinds of stuff.

Probably some stuff you didn’t need to catch. Mm-hmm. And some of it you. Might have wanted to catch, but some of it you might not have wanted to. And with a generic diet and generic diet advice, it’s the same way you’re going to cast a wide net. You’re gonna catch some things that might work and some things that aren’t appropriate for you and aren’t going to work.

So that’s when you really need a customized approach. And I have worked with thousands of people over the years who’ve come to me and sworn they’ve tried everything. And then what we built together, they were like, yeah, we’ve, I’ve never tried this before. I was like, see, you didn’t try everything, but mm-hmm.

It was because the things they tried. We’re all sort of the generic fad things and they’ve never really been able to partner with someone who could help them customize, you know what I mean? I’m sure you see this with your clients. Yeah, and I mean, you know, I can give people advice and different things, but I don’t see their data when you can see their data, real time data.

You know, how they react to food and how, you know, and not lack of sleep and the, the, how that affects their body and all of those things. Yeah. The caffeine, right? You can, you can really make a difference. And when our glu glucose, let’s explain to this, and I’m not really good at this, so I know you will be, but when our glucose spikes up and stays up, what happens?

Yeah. So what’s going on there? Especially if you’re spiking like over one 40, where we kind of have that threshold. Mm-hmm. And you’re staying there for a while because ideally we want your glucose to return back to baseline within about three hours. And there are some reasons why it may not. If it does stay elevated for quite a while, then your body is just exposed to these higher levels of glucose now.

Let’s extend that for days or weeks or months or years. That’s going to change a lot about how your body works. And one of the big things that can happen is your overall inflammation level in the body begins to go up. High blood sugar levels are. Risk factors for all kinds of diseases and conditions associated with inflammation, but that glucose in the blood binds to certain proteins in the body and can act as a kind of on, on the, on the same line as like a free radical or a, an oxidative type of damage to the body.

So that can accelerate aging, it can accelerate tissue breakdown. It can. Cause things like kidney disease, damage to your eyes, there are all sorts of things that can happen, heart damage. So it’s, it’s a serious risk factor. And let’s not forget, these are hormones too that are being affected. And hormones never act in isolation.

So when your glucose is going up and staying up, your insulin is going up and staying up. All of these things are going to, at some point, have an impact on other hormones, sex hormones, thyroid, cortisol. And it’s very easy to start seeing some other hormonal imbalances appear. Mm-hmm. As a result of that too, and kind of two-way street going on.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so, so when y’all start working with somebody, you have ’em do different experiments to try to do different things. And I, I, I love balling your Instagram because you know, y’all will do different experiments on there about Yeah. Eating things. Eating naked carbs and how a naked carb, if you, if y’all don’t know what a naked carb is, it’s a carb without anything with it and it’ll spike up.

But if you eat protein with it, it won’t spike as much. Right. It kinda levels out. It can be a huge difference. Yeah. Between the naked carb and like eating your protein first, or we think of like meal sequencing where you have that protein first before your carb. Huge difference. Mm-hmm. People. Mm-hmm.

People come in all the time to Nutrisystems. They put on a cgm, they eat their favorite fruit or their favorite dessert, and they spike like crazy and they go, oh, I can’t eat that. And I’m like, no, no, no, no, no. You maybe can’t eat that. It’s just about how you parrot with other things. Eat some protein first.

Reduce the amount. Go for a little walk afterwards. Boom. Your glucose could be great. Right. So it’s all about finding these ways to work with the whole system. And you may find that you actually are less restrictive with your diet than you came in with. So you might find the other side of it less restrictive.

Yeah. And that freedom. I, before we were talking too, I was talking about the glucose goddess. I love her. She just released a new book out and and I love her Instagram too cuz she shows you these things and she has these different hacks. You, you can do. Vinegar is one of them. Yeah. Drinking you know, either she says any kind of vinegar except not balsamic vinegar obviously, but you know, before a meal or before your.

Sweet or whatever, your dessert or something like that. But like you said, and then, you know, going for a walk, a 10 minute walk after your meal, it brings in, I’ve done that before and it’s, which is already such a great habit anyway. Exactly. Right. Exactly. It’ss already, it helps you clear your head, especially if you’ve been stressed out at work and really focusing and you eat and you just like, take 10 minutes to go and clear your head and go for a walk like, Frank.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there’s just so many things. So one of the things that the sequencing how to eat, one of the things that she had said, and I was reading her book last summer, her first book, and she was talking about how when you’re at dinner, They bring the bread, the first thing, right?

They bring, they always bring that bread chips, right? If you’re eating chips, the bread chips. And and so she’s like, it’s not like you can’t have the bread because then I was, I used to think, oh, I can’t have the bread, darn it. I love the bread. You can’t have, it’s not that you can’t have the bread, just.

Eat like you’re a salad or a green, you know, some kind of veggie first in your protein, and then you can have the bread. So we were actually on vacation in Cayman Islands, and so I’d be with my husband and of course they’d bring the bread and he’d be eating that bread just quickly. I’m like, I’d like take my piece of bread and put it over my plate.

So I would have it for later. But then I would eat my salad, a little bit of my protein, and yes, I would eat the bread, but a lot of times, I would, I would be like, I didn’t want the bread as much, but when when you tell me I can’t have something, it makes me want it so much more. Oh yeah. Then now it’s all of a sudden the only thing you’re thinking about.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. And I also think if you’re someone too who sits down at a restaurant, and cuz this is when we get our delicious bread. Our bread first, right. When we’re out to eat. Yeah. And you’re someone who’s like ravenous by the time you sit down to eat, that is a warning sign too, because I think what you’re talking about, which is so great, is like a little bit of delayed gratification, right?

You’ve got your bread, but don’t eat it right away. Let’s wait. Let’s have these other things. But if you sit down and you’re like, I’m so hungry, I’ve gotta eat something, I’m just like starving. You didn’t eat enough earlier. You didn’t get enough protein. You waited too long maybe to eat, so to set yourself up for success with those meals later in the day.

It also depends on how you’re eating earlier, how you’re timing and spacing your meals so that, yeah, you’re hungry, but you’re not so starving and ravenous that like. If you don’t eat that bread right now, you’re gonna pass out. So, you know, and that makes a good point, because I’ve heard so many people say, oh, we’re going out to dinner tonight, so I’m just not gonna eat anything all day today.

I’m like, but what? Like, I know not me. I wanna, I do not want to go hungry somewhere, anywhere. Yes. Because that is not everything. Yeah, exactly. You make really, and you make very poor decisions. Right, right. It’s like I always tell my clients, you gotta plan ahead. Don’t, yes. Don’t be making poor decisions.

Well, Heather, you and I could talk forever and ever about everything. I love this conversation, but let’s tell everybody about how they can find Nutrisystems. They can find it online, and you, you can go through and tell ’em all the things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you all are interested in coming to see what Nutrisystems is all about, what you get to do is with our program, you get a CGM like Dan is wearing and you’re able to track your glucose.

You also get paired with a personal dietician like me. There are so many of us there who are really awesome and we We are super experienced in looking at glucose data. We have a lot of dieticians specializing in every kind of area from sports nutrition to weight loss to you name it. So we have really someone for everyone, and we do our best to try to pair people up with a dietician who’s a good fit for them.

Mm-hmm. So when you come in, you kind of fill out a little health questionnaire online and you share some information with us about yourself and your history. And we use that to not only determine You know, make sure that you’re, you’re cool and, and down with the program, but also that we find the right dietician for you, and then you get a free month of working with us.

So, unlike a lot of other CGM companies, we give you that free month of complimentary dietician support because we really feel like it’s so, so important that you have this starting off. We’re here to answer your questions. We’re here to. Just set you up and if you wanna continue working with us past the month, you totally can.

But for just an extra $100 a month, you have that dietician support that carries on. Now the cool thing is in private practice, if I’m working with someone for just one hour, one session, you’re spending over a hundred bucks. Oh, I’m sure. Yes. Yeah. So if you’re getting. A dietician, personal dietician for a whole month, and you’re able to talk to them every day, ask them questions all the time, and you have this ongoing conversation throughout the month, you are getting a steal for $100.

Yeah, I agree. It’s amazing. It really, really is. And. So we, but we offer it complimentary, free that first month with your, with any of your CGM subscriptions for whatever you sign up for three months, six months, or 12 month plan. And so you always get that month free, but, We also have, if you’re not quite sure yet, should I sign up?

Should I not? We have a really great blog site if you want to stop in there and read some of our articles and just learn a little bit more about the different topics that we’re experienced in, that we’re versed in helping you with. And we have more information about our dieticians on our website. We have also a free weight loss ebook.

And it’s gonna be in the show notes that they can click on to get that. Yeah, it’s totally free. You can download it and it talks a lot about what Dan and I were touching on today, just some of these more balanced approaches to weight loss. It’s a great kind of get your foot in the door. And then from there you can start to understand the importance of having that one-on-one support as well.

So, but we work with a lot of people who come to us for weight loss and, and it’s, it’s something that we, we take your glucose data, but we also go beyond glucose. So there are people who come in and your glucose may look perfect, you may have perfect glucose and not be losing weight, but don’t worry if that’s the case.

There are other things that we can help you with that are still part of the puzzle. So I always say it like this, you have. You have the big picture of metabolic health and glucose is a part of that, right? It’s not. The whole thing. Glucose is only a apart. It’s like the planet of metabolic health.

Glucose is a continent on that planet. Oh, I love that. Glucose is continent. And when we think about weight, we think about that whole planet of metabolic health because your metabolic health governs your weight. So if you are struggling with some of these other continents on the planet, Beyond glucose, we help you look at those as well.

So we’re really, we really think of ourselves more as a metabolic health company and less of a CGM company per se, because mm-hmm. We use CGMs and they’re a great tool to have, but we don’t stop there. We always go beyond in deeper than just the glucose data as well. So that’s just to say if you come on board and you’re like, I don’t understand why glucose is perfect, why am I not losing weight?

There are reasons. Mm-hmm. And we definitely help you discover them. So wow. Yeah. I love that. I, I didn’t even know that about y’all. And I love that because it is, it’s, it’s there, there’s this bigger picture. There’s not just a one thing, there’s so many different pieces to the puzzle and we’re all so different.

That’s why I try to tell people there’s like, not. A one size fits all. That’s why you can’t just go on these bad diets or even listen to these health coaches that say, you’ve gotta do this, this, this, and this, and then you’ll lose weight. I’m like, that is not true, because we are all different. We experience life different.

Our bodies are different. Just everything is different. There’s just not one. One size fits all. Yeah, yeah. No one should be giving you. Really specific and confident advice unless they understand your personal medical history and they understand your personal context because. That’s really the most important thing.

I mean, it’s, I always tell people to kind of illustrate this point too, when I was in private practice and I was doing like a lot of really advanced meal planning for people, thousands of people, I never saw two meal plans exactly the same. I we would never build two meal plans exactly the same, over thousands of people, and it was such a good.

Lesson and reminder, even for me as a dietician to see in practice, like just how unique we all are and devil’s in those details. So sometimes something subtle may change or you might need to tweak something that sets you apart from. Someone else, and that can make all the difference for you. So don’t feel defeated, don’t feel completely, you know, ready to throw in the towel on your weight loss journey or whatever health struggles you’re going through, because chances are there are some details that you’ve missed and they don’t have to be Big, awful, troublesome things, you know?

Mm-hmm. They can be small, workable things that you just have to be able to see, so. Right. And sometimes you can’t see ’em when you’re, so, yeah. You just like, you’re in it. Yeah. It’s hard to see it. So so I love that. Well, Heather, thank you again so much. And you guys, y’all can in the show notes, You’ll be able to get that ebook.

I also have a code that you can get $25 off. But I would highly, obviously, highly recommend Nutrisystems. And I love working with the company. I love finding out what works. So now, now I gotta work on getting off. Caffeine, get another. Yeah. I’m gonna, we gotta follow up on this. I’m so interested to see what you, ok.

I know after we talked, I’m like that’s what it is. Because my caffeine increased tremendously while I was overseas and I haven’t gone back. I’ve just like continued it. So I, I bet you that’s what it is. But I was just looking at that this morning, so I was like, Gosh darn it. This thing is up elevated.

I, well, you know what? You know what too, just to speak to that as well. I think a lot of people expect that if they’re looking at their glucose data and they drink some coffee and they don’t see a spike, they’re like, It’s not affecting caffeine, isn’t affecting my glucose, or if they don’t see some kind of dramatic glucose change right after.

But I always tell people, you can’t just look at right after because the systemic effects of caffeine linger in the body and even though you metabolize it and the caffeine compound itself is excreted mm-hmm. You still have the cascade of hormonal changes and other ha other changes happening in your body after.

Consuming those compounds that can linger and that can build up and that can lead to other things over time. So you really have to take that break. As an experiment to see, is this really affecting me? But I always tell people, don’t worry. It doesn’t have to happen fast, scale down slowly. Oh, I am. I’m gonna take it very slow cuz when I have gone off of caffeine, it’s been very horrible.

Yeah. Oh yeah. It can be absolutely awful if you yank that out, even in just a few days. You’ve gotta take like or two to go down. No, I’m gonna take a couple of weeks to kinda wean myself off. So yeah, get it down. Like just little bit less, you know, everything. Exactly, exactly. Well, Heather, thank you again so much for joining me here today on the Well and Worthy Life Podcast.

Oh, Deanna, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

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