WELLTHY Generation Podcast!

71. 7 "Healthy" Habits Messing with your Blood Sugar + Sugar Mama

• Naihomy Jerez • Episode 71

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Blood sugar dysregulation affects everything from energy levels to weight loss efforts, and even our most well-intentioned health habits might be creating insulin resistance without us realizing it.

• Seven common habits that cause blood sugar chaos: smoothie sugar bombs, irregular eating patterns, taking too long to finish meals, constant snacking, late-night eating, poor dessert timing, and underestimating total daily sugar intake
• Understanding insulin resistance as the foundation of many chronic conditions including diabetes, heart disease, PCOS and Alzheimer's
• How insulin works to remove glucose from the bloodstream and why excessive glucose gets converted to stored fat
• Why metabolic flexibility matters and how many people are stuck primarily burning sugar instead of being able to access stored fat
• Practical solutions like limiting fruit in smoothies to half a cup, eating protein-focused breakfasts, finishing meals in one sitting, and having desserts right after balanced meals
• The importance of consuming treats after balanced meals containing protein and fiber to slow down sugar absorption
• How exercise helps utilize stored glucose in muscles, creating space for new energy to be stored appropriately

Join my new 6-week intensive Sugar Mama program starting April 23rd to transform your relationship with sugar. Email me at hola@naihomyjerez.com or book a consultation here to learn more and secure your spot before April 9th.

Thank you so much for listening!


Speaker 1:

What up friends, welcome back to Wealthy Generation. I am so excited for this episode because it is something I see you guys do over and over and over again, and every single example that I have is from a live, actual example, whether it's from me, a loved one, a client, a friend, somebody that has shared with me that they do this and it greatly affects your health and wellness journey, whether that is you're trying to lose weight, you're trying to stay consistent with your blood work results, you're trying to get out of prediabetes, you are trying to feel energized in your body and reduce your brain fog. Any of these things are affected by these seven habits that I'm going to mention that actually mess with can you guess your blood sugar, how much, how your sugar is going up and down and what your body's doing. And when your blood sugar is all over the place and you don't realize that the simplest of habits that you have going on is affecting them, whether it's a healthy habit or not, then it's going to keep on coming up for you.

Speaker 1:

All right, and this episode cannot come at the most perfect time, because I had actually planned this and had the seven tips for you way back like three to four weeks ago. That's how, that's how long ago I did it, okay. So I'm excited to be sharing it with you now, because I also just announced and recently planned my brand new intensive small group program. It is called Sugar Mama, okay, and this program is going to be six weeks long super short and efficient. And I created it because if there was one thing, that one foundational thing that I could share with you and that I work on time and time again with every single one of my clients, no matter what their goal is to feel amazing in their clothes, to get rid of that bloating, to eat food without guilt and joy and hit their wellness goals is understanding how much sugar they're having and how their blood sugar is being affected. So this is exactly in correlation with the tips I'm going to share with you. I'll share more about the program in a little while because I really want to get into these seven habits that might be affecting you.

Speaker 1:

So the number one thing I want to go over is basically, when your blood sugar is going up and down, it creates very strong feelings in your body right Like you might feel like you're crashing, you're craving a lot of sweets, you might get really tired, you can't focus well and it's because, most likely, your blood sugar is going up and down a lot and what that eventually leads to when your body's like I am done with you with this up and down, what that eventually leads to is insulin resistance. I'm sure you've heard the term thrown around here and there, because what your blood sugar should be at a very specific number, right point, balance in your blood. If not, then there's a problem and there are always steps and systems in your body to keep it in balance, to keep it in what's called homeostasis. So when that starts to kind of wear and tear out, especially with blood sugar, that is named insulin resistance. So insulin is the hormone that helps your blood sugar stay within control, within homeostasis. Right, it's this hormone that comes out and takes sugar or glucose, basically out of your bloodstream.

Speaker 1:

Now, where does it go? Where does it go? It needs to take it out. It needs to be balanced. Where does it go? So it goes usually in two places. Okay, the number one place that it should be going in is your muscles, okay. So insulin usually comes out and it's like knock, knock, knock. Hey, muscle, I need you to open up because I need to put sugar in there, I need to put glucose in there. So muscle opens up and lets glucose in. What happens? Is that over time or usually? No, no, not over time or usually. What happens is that your muscles have a limited capacity to accept sugar in there. So if sugar, if your muscle is full of glucose, it's going to be like, sorry, insulin, there is no more room for glucose in here, so you need to go find somewhere else to store it.

Speaker 1:

Now, insulin is also known as the growth hormone. It helps things grow and it stores things. It doesn't get rid of things. It gets rid of the sugar from your bloodstream, but essentially it stores things. So then it goes to other places to store this extra energy, aka glucose. If it cannot fit in your muscles, so it will go into your belly right and store it there. It'll go into your arms. It tries to store it away from your major organs. Because your body is so smart. It stores it away from your major organs so that it's not having an effect on that, and then you start to see how your body fat starts to build up because it gets converted the glucose. Then, if it's going to get stored outside, around your skin and not in your muscles. It gets converted into fat and then it starts to accumulate.

Speaker 1:

Now, usually what should happen is that there's this in and out of energy going into your muscles. What happens is that your body is supposed to if you move it right and you exercise, it's supposed to use up the glucose energy that is stored in the muscles. It's supposed to use it up and once it's depleted, your muscles itself will take the glucose out of your bloodstream without insulin being in the picture. And this is why, if you hear things like go for a walk after you eat, engage in some activity after you eat Sometimes if you follow me on Instagram, you'll see me doing squats, depending, like after I eat something or I feel like I'm having a sugar rush or something like that Because usually, if your muscles and your systems are in good health, your muscles will go ahead and absorb the glucose out of your bloodstream and it'll get stored in there and then it'll get used up, and all that.

Speaker 1:

Now, usually, your body storing energy and the glucose that's coming in is a survival mechanism, because back in the day there were famines and there were periods, long periods of time, without food, so those stored up. Fat deposits that come through your glucose being stored were usually used up and were life-saving back in the day. But what is usually happens now is that there is food surplus, there is too much food, we're eating too much and usually if we're not moving enough, our body does not have the need to use up the stored energy because you keep giving it energy, so it keeps storing and storing and storing and storing. So you do not want your body to become insulin resistant where insulin comes out and it's like shouting at your muscles open up, I want to store this. And your muscles are like no dude, we're closed, we're at capacity, we cannot feel anything else, and everything else in your body that has insulin receptors also start not to listen.

Speaker 1:

It's like if you're a parent or you hear a noise often enough and your kid is like mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, I'd be tuning that out. I don't even hear it the same way anymore. Or if you live near a train station and you hear a certain noise of the train passing by or the bus passing by, you kind of become accustomed to that noise and you don't realize it and it needs to get louder or more intrusive or your kid's screaming his head off, so that you can kind of recognize it and pay attention. And that's the same thing that happens with insulin in our body and that's where the resistance piece comes in. So we kind of have to retrain the body for it to listen, okay, for it to kind of be reversed if you have the opportunity.

Speaker 1:

Because insulin resistance then turns into chronic health conditions like diabetes, heart disease. It turns into things like Alzheimer's and PCOS and things like that. So we want to be mindful, because glucose and insulin and all that, they are the most pervasive system where it interferes with our brain and with our fertility and with our stress and our gut. It just plays a role in so much because it's so important, right? So we want to make sure that we're protecting our body and we know what supports our blood sugar levels in a way where we're not overexerting our bodies in trying to process the sugar, which in turn we're overexerting insulin, because that is the main thing, the main hormone that helps our body manage the sugar or the blood sugar that comes in.

Speaker 1:

And you might be listening to this and you're like, oh, I don still have a blood sugar issue. Sometimes we assume that it's just the obvious things like candy and pastries and desserts that affects our blood sugar, but it's so, so, so much more than that, and a lot of you are out here really being healthy and eating healthy foods and developing healthy habits. But the thing is that if we don't know the intricacies of sugar and how it works in the body and how different food groups affect us, you still might be really struggling with your blood sugar. And I see it all the time with my clients. I saw it with a loved one and you really genuinely think you're doing the best thing for yourself, but you can still use some tweaks and this is really important to understand because the seven habits that you might be doing that affects your blood sugar has serious consequences, which is insulin resistance. So I wanted you to understand what that is first, before I'm just saying, oh, this affects your blood sugar, this affects your blood sugar. And then you're like, well, why should I care about my blood sugar? Why is this so important? So I wanted to explain I know it was a little technical about what insulin resistance is and how sugar works in your bloodstream as it's circulating is super important, but you also want to be super respectful of the process. Okay, especially as we get older, as women in perimenopause, sometimes our blood sugar is dysregulated because the rest of our hormones especially our sex hormones, when they start to shift are shifting around and everything else is a little bit out of control. So the more you know how to influence your body and give it messages from the outside in to communicate with your hormones, the better off you are in the long run.

Speaker 1:

Cool, so the first habit that you might be doing, that is, messing with your blood sugar, is creating smoothie sugar bombs. Okay, if you're a smoothie person, I want you to take an audit of every single ingredient that you're putting in there. I saw it with a loved one and I saw it with one of my clients where they were creating sugar bombs in their smoothie because they do not take into account and add up everything that they're adding and putting in there. So it's either a smoothie or a protein shake. They are, for example, number one. Depending on the protein powder that you might have, it might have added sugars in there already. So you want to count that.

Speaker 1:

The second thing that gets added into this fruit, all right. So if you're putting over a cup of fruit in there and I'm talking, not individual, half a cup. Did I say a cup? I meant half a cup. If you're putting more than half a cup in there, it starts to overload the body. I know sometimes, in both cases with my loved one and my client, they were putting a whole banana in there plus other fruits and I was like, oh, you're creating a sugar bomb already. You want to keep it to about half a cup in combination. I have clients that add strawberries and mango and bananas and a whole bunch of other different things and they try and pack it with the fruit and that starts to create a sugar bomb, especially because a lot of the fiber gets broken down in there. And if you would, you would probably not sit down and actually eat all of the fruit that you're packing into a smoothie or a protein shake. So you want to be mindful of each individual ingredient. Protein shake, so you want to be mindful of each individual ingredient. What is added next? A liquid. Sometimes my clients are adding sweetened milk, right, whether it's almond milk, soy milk, and let's not even get into oat milk.

Speaker 1:

Oat milk on its own is a carbohydrate or a sugar that's stripped away from all its fiber and most likely all oat milks have added sugar inside, because, let's be real, it will taste like cardboard and super gross. If you just had blended oats, you have to make it tasty somehow, so they'll add things to their. Imagine oatmeal like just plain oats with water. It doesn't taste good. You add sweeteners to it, you add fruits to it, you add nut butters to it to give it flavor and make it flavorful. So the same thing with oat milk. So now you have sugar from the milk that you choose. You have the fruit, and maybe the protein powder as well has some sugar inside, and now you're like oh, let me add some honey, let me add some agave to this.

Speaker 1:

As you can see, if you take each individual ingredient and you add it up, you might be consuming maybe potentially around 20 plus grams of sugar in this one drink, when the body at its max can handle about 10 grams at a time, safely, okay. So I want you to think about this when you're building a smoothie, how much of these ingredients are you adding? Is there stuff that you can cut out of them and simplify it a little bit more? Can you keep the fruit content to half a cup? That's always the guide that I give my clients. And can you use water instead of a sweetened milk? So all these things matter and they might be holding you back. I had a client who this is the first thing that she would have in the morning and she thought it was holding her down. It was a good meal and, in turn, it was actually having a contributing to weight gain, even though she was training hard at the gym at least twice a week with a personal trainer, very organized, quality training, and she found herself gaining weight instead, and this was one of the things that we corrected immediately, because she depended a lot on these smoothies.

Speaker 1:

Okay, number two habits that are messing with your blood sugar is not eating. Number two habits that are messing with your blood sugar is not eating. Okay. I hear it all the time when clients are like I don't even know why I can't lose weight because I don't even eat that much, and that's one of the issues only having one or two meals a day, especially delaying your meal and not having breakfast, because and then it depends on what you have in your meal because usually it's out of balance, so you get to have this meal and you're throwing off your blood sugar. Not only is your blood sugar low, and now it's rushing like insulin is rushing in to help you deal with.

Speaker 1:

This meal If it's balanced and appropriately is going to create a spike higher than you want it to. So in the morning usually your cortisol is high and then your blood sugar comes up as well, because cortisol going up means your body needs energy. So your sugar goes up and then insulin is like whoa, whoa, what's going on here? And they all come into the mix. So you want to create safety in your body in the morning, right? You want to remind your body that you're okay. So having something protein heavy to eat in the morning low sugar we're not having pastries, we're not having sweetened coffee, we're not having any of that Something protein heavy in the morning can help your blood sugar regulate for the day.

Speaker 1:

If you start yourself off with a sugar rollercoaster early in the morning, it's going to be extremely difficult to find balance again, okay, and this is why you now have cravings and you feel like you're snacking all the time and you don't necessarily ever feel full, no matter what you're eating. So essentially, you want to eat in the morning and you don't want to have so much space between meals, because then it just regulates your blood sugar again, and this is general advice. Okay, it depends on how much you're moving, it depends on what your goals are, but usually if you're not eating enough too, then it creates this sense of okay, let me store all this energy because we don't have food coming in. And I know that is contradictory to what I said before with you know, in the past we would store energy to use it and all that, which is true, still right. Like our bodies go through something called metabolic flexibility, where it will tap into your fat stores for energy and then you give it food. But guess what? A lot of y'all are not metabolically flexible. It only knows how to burn sugar. Okay, because we've trained it that way. So if your body only learns how to burn sugar, then it will store the energy and it doesn't know that it needs to go in there to get the energy when you don't eat. So if you're only eating a few meals a day and you're not, or like one to two, and your body's not metabolically flexible, then it'll store, store, store and it will never use that extra stored energy. I hope this is making sense.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I had a loved one that they would have the sugar bomb smoothie in the morning and then they wouldn't eat again till very, very, very late in the day. But then their number one complaint was I always have a sweet tooth, I always want something sweet. And they have bars and bars and bars of ice cream in the freezer, and chocolates and this and that. Nothing wrong with that. But that is a clear sign of blood sugar dysregulation, because you're putting your body through a sugar rollercoaster in the morning. You're spending way too much time without eating something balanced to help curve that rollercoaster, kind of derail it a little bit and bring it to a stop. And then you're engaging in eating more sweets, so adding fuel to the fire, and you're like oh, but I'm not even eating that much, we're not even counting the little small treats and what that means. Okay, because we're not even aware of what we're setting ourselves up for All right.

Speaker 1:

Number three is you take forever to finish a meal. You pick at your meal and it's two hours later and you're still not done with your breakfast and your lunch. Why is this a problem and messing with your blood sugar health? Because it means that your body is consistently digesting food. It does not get a break. And what does your body do? Every single time that you digest food, your blood sugar goes up and insulin goes up. Okay, so if you finish your meal in a timely manner, you're mindful of what you're eating, you're present with your food, or at least you finish it all at once, then you stop eating and your body starts digesting. Your blood sugar should rise and fall within two hours.

Speaker 1:

But if you and it completes that cycle, but if you're picking at your food, picking at your food, picking at your food, then that to our digestion cycle, where your sugar goes up and down, doesn't really finish and it goes on and on and on and on. So what happens with that? It messes with your metabolic flexibility, where your body processes the sugar and then it goes and burns a little bit of fat and insulin is always in the picture. So it's always storing, storing, storing, storing. And when insulin is always in the picture, so it's always storing, storing, storing, storing. And when insulin is always in the picture too, it's a cause for inflammation, all right. So you want it to complete its cycles. You don't want to continuously feed your body where you're like just picking, picking, picking and it's taking hours to finish.

Speaker 1:

And with that is number four, which is picking and snacking on food. So you're like, oh, I don't even eat that much. I have this little snack here, I have this little snack there, I eat one or two bites of this, I eat one or two bites of that, but it falls into the same category where you're never actually satisfying your body. You're never actually giving it the amount of nutrition in the right forms that it needs and you're just picking at things, having snacks here and there which are probably high in sugar, zero nutrition inside, so zero vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber, hydration, none of that. So it counts for nothing. So you're snacking on things, probably, that your body can't even use. It's just kind of like trash your body needs to pick up after and insulin needs to come out for no good reason to clean this up. And it's things like pretzels and potato chips and let's see what else, like cookies, maybe Oreos, things like that, where it's just like this is giving you nothing.

Speaker 1:

So you think that you're going to satisfy your hunger, you think that you're going to, you know, quiet down those cues from your body, but in essence, you're making it worse by just taking little snacks here and there. Any snack that comes in a hundred calorie snack pack is probably not a good idea, and the a hundred calories mean absolutely nothing. It can might as well be trash right, because there's nothing else in there. So you're giving your body a hundred calories of what Of nothing. There's no protein, no fiber, no vitamins, no minerals in there. It's just literally stuff that needs to be cleaned and that's putting your body to work again for no reason. Imagine you just like work on a big project that you think is important and then everything gets thrown out because it doesn't even matter and you're like what the fuck? Like I spent so much time cleaning this up, or like building this project and you're just going to throw it in the trash. That's exactly what happens when you're eating things like that in your body.

Speaker 1:

All right, number four or number five sorry is you're eating too late, and this usually happens because you're not feeding yourself well throughout the day and you eat really late at night because now your body's going to like bitch. You didn't feed me all day. Now I'm starving, I am tired. You put me through hell and back, like we did a lot today and now I need to replenish. So I'm going to tell you that we need to eat and I'm going to tell you that we need all the sweets. Okay, I'm going to. I'm going to make sure you know these things because your body has needs that you are not meeting, especially throughout the day.

Speaker 1:

Now what happens? Your body is even less insulin sensitive at night because you're not supposed to be eating that much at night anyway, right, is more resilient during the day, and now your body's working so hard digesting all this food and is so close to bedtime, so then that also ruins your sleep. Your body's hard at work digesting. You're eating really close to bedtime. You're probably eating your dinner and then having a snack and then having a dessert, and all of that is too much for your body to handle late at night, especially before bed, when your body is supposed to be winding down to rest. Okay, so eating too late will also put your body through it and not make it any better for things like insulin resistance. I have a client who this is a lot of what we work on together because she eats really well, like she's made a lot of changes to her food, but she eats so late at night that is still affecting her wellness right and progress sometimes. So making sure that you are eating more efficiently throughout the day can really diminish this need for snacks and treats and needing desserts later at night.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and also, again, paying attention to the balance of your plate. Number six is waiting too long to have something sweet. Like I always tell my clients if you know you're going to need that dessert because we're working on becoming metabolically flexible again, or you go out to eat and you want to have dessert or whatever it is, don't wait too long after your meal to have the dessert, because we spoke about your body starting digestion right. Dessert because we spoke about your body starting digestion right. So you start digestion and then you're in the middle of it and you're introduced just pure sugar when you have the dessert or something sweet, let's say an hour or two after you ate. So I just say and I love to do this too like if I know I want to have ice cream or whatever kind of dessert, I try and have it right after a nice balanced meal. Because now the dessert is coming behind at least for me is coming behind protein, fiber, like a nice balance of foods on my plate vitamins, minerals so all of that starts to get digested and your dessert comes behind that, so it's not just flying through your, your digestive system and your blood sugar. It slows down significantly. Okay. So I always say, if you're going to have dessert, also be mindful of how much you're having. Just book, end it at the end of a nice balanced meal, because they'll have less of an effect on you. And again, this is generally speaking, to really know for sure for yourself, you will have to like test your blood sugar or get a continuous glucose monitor. But in general, these tools or habits are effective in general, okay.

Speaker 1:

And then number seven is not realizing how much sugar and added sugar you're having throughout the day. It's not just about that one meal. I also like to take into consideration what does your entire day look like? Did you have a sugar bomb smoothie? Did you have a few snacks throughout the day? What did your lunch look like? What did your dinner look like? Because I like to see how much sugar you had throughout the day, because that means if it's in excess, it's reflective of how hard your body has been working.

Speaker 1:

Okay, your blood sugar going up and down, up and down, up and down consistently with high sugar items or refined carbohydrates throughout the day. So sometimes my client don't realize where they're like oh, I just had this one thing, I just had that one thing, I just had that one thing, I just had this. And then, because I have a food journal for them, we see like as a sum, we start breaking it down how much it is altogether and it's like, oh crap, it's actually a lot in one day. So you take that day and then, let's say, you're doing this throughout the week and throughout the month. So it's putting your body on the struggle bus, all right, and your blood sugar going up and down is one of those things that makes it really hard for your body to do anything else. And when it becomes insulin resistant because it's the first line of defense again against controlling your blood sugar, then it makes it really hard for your body to heal, for your body to lose weight, because its systems are not working effectively.

Speaker 1:

All right, what you want to happen most of the time is for you to use up the energy that is stored up in your muscles through movement, right? This is why exercise is so important, so that your muscles are continuously using the energy and trying to replace it. By replacing it. It's scooping up the glucose out of your bloodstream and then then not eating in a way where your body has to store so much energy. So it replenishes what it's lost in the muscles and then, if it has excess energy, it has to store that. So if you're eating smartly, in a way where that doesn't need to be stored as much, then you're already winning, because then your body doesn't have so much excess stored of energy. And then you also want to protect your metabolic flexibility, where, if you have not eaten in a while, your body knows that it can go into your stores to use up that energy. You see how it's all flowing together.

Speaker 1:

So, with that said, this is what we are going to be going through in Sugar Mama. I hope you see what the importance of knowing how you're eating, knowing where your sugar is and how you feel in your body is so freaking important, because it's really the foundation for any health goal you want, is really the foundation for if you want to lose weight. One of the things that holds on to a lot of weight is blood sugar dysregulation. Right, because your body is just focusing on keeping you alive and it cannot focus on doing anything else. So again, sugar Mama is an intimate, intensive group program where I'm going to help you identify the hidden sugars in your food, and the obvious ones too, and stop the sneaky blood sugar crashes that make you tired because that's something that it does make you and bloated and hangry and snacky and all these other things. We're going to audit your sugar intake and how it's affecting you personally, and then we're going to learn how to enjoy them. Right. We're going to learn how to enjoy them without it affecting how you feel so much your mood included. That's another thing that it affects without restrictions, because there's always a way to eat what you love where it's also protective of your body.

Speaker 1:

All right, this is just going to be six weeks long. We're going to start in April 23rd 2025, and it's going to run through May 28th 2025. The calls are going to be Wednesdays at 6.30 PM Eastern time, 3.30 PM Pacific time. You will have the replays for all sessions so you can go ahead and revisit them. We're going to have a group chat for support, coaching and accountability. There's going to be max eight participants so that we can all have equal opportunities of growth and coaching with time, and there is going to be an attendance policy.

Speaker 1:

It's going to be a super short program, so if you miss more than two calls, you will be exited from the program and if you cannot make it, just notify me. Right? The investment is $355 and it's non-refundable, right? So this program is really for you If you really want to take control over your sugar cravings, especially at night, or feeling like you're always need a snack or you're never getting full. You want to really feel energized and healthy in your body and you don't want to be concerned with things like PCOS and bloating, fatigue, prediabetes.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So, by the end of the program, you are going to know how to identify hidden and obvious sugars in your food and on your plate. You're going to understand how sugar affects you, your body, your energy levels, because everybody experiences it differently. So it's good to know how it feels for you. And you're going to learn how to enjoy your sweets and your meals without feeling like you're on a struggle bus or without feeling guilty about what you're eating, because you're going to know exactly what that is.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I want to invite you to join sugar mama. The last day to join is April 9th and if you want to join, I invite you to send me a message, either through Instagram, or you can email me the information is in the show notes or feel free to book a consultation call and that link is in the show notes as well and we can talk about the program and if it's a right fit for you and what you can expect. So I cannot wait to see you in Sugar Mama. I hope that these seven habits have brought some light into, and perspective into, some things that you might be doing that might be affecting your health goals, and if you want support in an intimate group, I invite you to inquire and to join Sugar Mama. Okay, I hope to see you there. Bye.