today I'm going to talk about how we use continuous glucose monitors
Vesna:to track your metabolic health.
Vesna:In the previous episode, I talked about why metabolic health is important,
Vesna:particularly for a woman in business and in leadership for having that high
Vesna:performance energy, your metabolism online to maintain your health
Vesna:and muscle mass as you get older.
Vesna:In this episode, I want to talk about how we use these devices
Vesna:to track metabolic health and to make changes and customizations
Vesna:to people's dietary and lifestyle plans and the things that we see.
Vesna:So this little device is known as a continuous glucose monitor
Vesna:and basically it goes on the arm.
Vesna:There's a little fiber underneath that sits just under the skin and
Vesna:it tracks your glucose levels 24 7.
Vesna:So it does this even while you're sleeping.
Vesna:And the reason why this is really important is that anything that you eat,
Vesna:anything that you do is going to respond because your glucose levels are going to
Vesna:respond to those foods and activities.
Vesna:Now, basically, you use your phone, there's an app on
Vesna:the phone which we swipe.
Vesna:but now we have continuous, so it's doing it 24 7.
Vesna:And we get the data through our system and we have a look at our clients.
Vesna:What they're eating, how is it responding, how their body's responding
Vesna:or their glucose levels are responding.
Vesna:How long their glucose levels stay high.
Vesna:For How quickly they come down, how low they go, if they drop overnight,
Vesna:what activities they're doing, if they're in a meeting at work and they're
Vesna:getting very stressed or What are the different things in their day that are
Vesna:actually impacting their glucose levels?
Vesna:And it's a real eye opener, because I can tell you that we've had clients that
Vesna:cannot believe that their glucose levels are spiking when they're in a particular
Vesna:meeting, or they're with a client, or they're doing a particular part of
Vesna:their work in their business, and they didn't realize how much their stress was
Vesna:actually increasing their glucose levels.
Vesna:So what we want to see with this is hopefully some, you know, slow,
Vesna:steady rises and just curves, right?
Vesna:And slow, the glucose levels coming down very slowly and kind of staying balanced
Vesna:and just those kind of very steady curves.
Vesna:We don't want to see spikes and drops, spikes and drops, because that means
Vesna:you're going to feel exhausted.
Vesna:It's really going to affect your mental health and mental performance
Vesna:and give you a lot of cravings.
Vesna:And it's going to make you more prone to weight gain, in particular, belly fat.
Vesna:So The benefits that we see with the glucose monitor is number
Vesna:one, how your body responds to food and to carbohydrates.
Vesna:Everyone is different.
Vesna:typical foods, the sugars and the carbs and the pastas and the breads and things
Vesna:like that, which are going to have the same reaction relatively with each person.
Vesna:But there are foods which will react differently.
Vesna:to different people, right?
Vesna:So there may be something that I can eat that has no impact on my glucose
Vesna:levels, but may do for you, right?
Vesna:And it's a really important tool to be really able to customize
Vesna:somebody's plan based on how their body's responding to that food.
Vesna:It also shows the impact of alcohol.
Vesna:Alcohol is a really big sleep disruptor.
Vesna:We can also look at how sleep is affected with a glucose monitor.
Vesna:Because it is checking the glucose overnight, right?
Vesna:When we drink alcohol, the body's prioritizing alcohol metabolism rather
Vesna:than maintaining healthy glucose levels, and therefore the glucose levels will
Vesna:drop overnight, and we see that picture overnight in the glucose, uh, tracking.
Vesna:So we can really see with our clients, and show them, how it's
Vesna:impacting their metabolic health, how it's impacting them physically.
Vesna:So it's easier to make decisions that maybe once felt hard, such as giving up
Vesna:alcohol or making changes to their diet.
Vesna:So basically if it goes up too high, an alarm will go off.
Vesna:We have that set so the alarm doesn't make a loud noise,
Vesna:but it goes off in the system.
Vesna:It can beep to really, give you the attention that you need to show you,
Vesna:Hey, your glucose levels are rising too high or they're dropping too low so
Vesna:another thing that we see with clients, obviously I specialize in exhaustion,
Vesna:burnout, fatigue, chronic stress.
Vesna:It's not uncommon to see low glucose levels.
Vesna:So going from this, you know, higher To then low and in that low phase feeling,
Vesna:you know, that could happen overnight or it could happen during the day.
Vesna:They feel tired.
Vesna:Their mood is very low.
Vesna:It may even later on trigger an anxiety attack.
Vesna:So it's very common to see these dips in the glucose levels that affect
Vesna:clients and their energy levels.
Vesna:The second thing that it really benefits is making the dietary changes, right?
Vesna:So if we can see that this particular food is not working for you, it's
Vesna:still causing a glucose spike, we are going to remove it, right?
Vesna:So we're going to really make customizations to your carbohydrate
Vesna:content, how much carbohydrates you can have, depending on how
Vesna:your body's responding to that.
Vesna:So it's really very unique for each person.
Vesna:We're really looking at the sleep cycle.
Vesna:Is it being disrupted due to low glucose and making changes
Vesna:to improve that as well?
Vesna:And also dietary changes for insulin resistance, because if somebody comes
Vesna:with insulin resistance, they have all the markers, they've had the testing,
Vesna:then we really want to monitor.
Vesna:We really want to make sure that we're not getting the glucose
Vesna:spikes and that the glucose levels aren't staying high for too long.
Vesna:Right?
Vesna:And we also don't want the sudden dip.
Vesna:So it's a really great way, again, of really customizing, personalizing
Vesna:based on your glucose levels.
Vesna:The third thing that really makes a difference is compliance.
Vesna:Right?
Vesna:Because you can actually get instant feedback on what you've eaten.
Vesna:So, I remember once, my partner bought me one of those big sausages.
Vesna:Actually, he had it.
Vesna:I took a couple of sips out of it and I'd never had bubble tea before.
Vesna:This is a while back and my alarm went off very quickly, right?
Vesna:My sugar levels were the highest they've ever been based on just
Vesna:drinking a little bit of bubble tea because of the sugar content, right?
Vesna:And it was such an eye opener for me because I could never
Vesna:drink bubble tea again, right?
Vesna:Because I already, I knew what it was doing to my body.
Vesna:So That compliance of that instant feedback of what you consume is, is
Vesna:really registering and you're getting an alarm going off to show you, Hey, this
Vesna:isn't right for your glucose levels.
Vesna:This is not working for your metabolic health.
Vesna:So it really helps to break habits.
Vesna:I find with clients that maybe have had, Habits of, you know, sugar,
Vesna:carbohydrates, alcohol, that have been really hard for them to break.
Vesna:But seeing the instant result that it has on the body has made it very easy for
Vesna:them to change because the other thing that it helps is with mindful eating.
Vesna:So normally we are quite disconnected when we are eating, right?
Vesna:We're so not in tune with our body.
Vesna:We're mindlessly eating.
Vesna:We're busy, we're working, we're on the computer, we're on our devices
Vesna:or we're busy, whatever it is, and.
Vesna:Um, we're not mindful of what we're eating and this device allows
Vesna:you to be more mindful right?
Vesna:Because once you see the result that it changes in your body, it's very hard to
Vesna:repeat the same behavior knowing because you're not blind to it anymore, right?
Vesna:You know that it's doing that.
Vesna:Even if the device is off, you know the result.
Vesna:Like for me, I could never drink a bubble tea again, right?
Vesna:I know what it's doing to my body.
Vesna:And so it has this ability to break long term habits more easily because
Vesna:of this compliance, because of this instant feedback, because of this mindful
Vesna:eating state that you get into, because you're again reconnected to the body,
Vesna:thanks to this small little device.
Vesna:And the other benefit, the fifth benefit that we see is the monitoring, right?
Vesna:So, we get clients in my program, in my peak revival program, we get
Vesna:them to, to use this device, we get the data, and we review that data.
Vesna:And we look at how they're tracking, how they're going.
Vesna:So nothing can be hidden.
Vesna:It's a little bit big brother, I'll admit, but it just works a treat knowing
Vesna:that if you know that somebody is there to watch and monitor and see where
Vesna:you've slipped up and that's okay.
Vesna:And then we can coach people around what happened here.
Vesna:And we can coach around that area about was it a stressful event,
Vesna:what caused this, was it something in the diet that triggered cravings
Vesna:and they just felt like they were powerless against having some sugar.
Vesna:And it really allows us to work with them to smooth out some of those bad habits.
Vesna:And them knowing that they're getting the eyeballs on their data, makes
Vesna:it harder to go off plan as well.
Vesna:So the monitoring, like I said, it is a bit tricky.
Vesna:big brother, but it does very, works very, very well to guide people through
Vesna:the process and them knowing that they're getting the attention and that somebody is
Vesna:looking, I better stick to the plan that by the time the device comes off, you've
Vesna:already set up these new habits, right?
Vesna:You don't need someone overseeing everything that you're doing because
Vesna:you've already broken old habits.
Vesna:and installed new habits.
Vesna:So that is a way that we use this continuous glucose monitor.
Vesna:There are different varieties out there on the market.
Vesna:We use the freestyle one.
Vesna:Okay.
Vesna:Because we get the data through our system.
Vesna:We like the data customized.
Vesna:We really like to be quite detailed with what we look at, but there are other ones
Vesna:that you can just do it on your phone.
Vesna:Look at the data on your phone and it will give you everything
Vesna:in kind of like a snapshot.
Vesna:But like I said, we go a little bit deeper into the data to have a look
Vesna:at what that client needs best.
Vesna:So we love it.
Vesna:It's a great tool.
Vesna:It changes, you know, old habits and behaviors.
Vesna:It breaks unhealthy habits.
Vesna:It sets up better healthy habits, and it's a really great way to get people
Vesna:back into their bodies, reconnected with what they're eating and the
Vesna:impact that it has on their body.
Vesna:And improving metabolic health, improving energy, improving mental power and
Vesna:focus, improving mental health, right?
Vesna:And making sure that your body is lean and you have muscle mass as you get older
Vesna:to prevent the age related muscle loss.