I Tracked My Blood Sugar For 30 Days, and Here's What Happened...

Alright, my friends, let’s talk abouuuuut…. [drum roll plzzzzz]…. blood sugar! 

As a nurse, blood sugar (or “blood glucose”) is something I am VERY familiar with in my patients, but I understand that it’s not exactly the most commonly-known or ~popular~ topic for those of us who don’t work in medicine or don’t have/know someone with diabetes.

…. Which is a bummer, because blood sugar IS so important in our health. Beyond the more “advanced” symptoms of blood sugar (diabetes, nerve issues, etc.) Blood sugar impacts MANY aspects of our everyday life and health. Our blood glucose has an impact on our…

• mood (ever feel “hangry” when you go too long without eating? yup. that’s blood sugar.),

• it impacts our energy (the infamous “afternoon slump?”. yup. that also can be your blood sugar talking.),

• it impacts the foods we crave (ever have that “I need a dessert now” kind of feeling???),

• it can impact how we store fat and if we have difficulty managing a healthy weight,

• it can impact how well (or how poorly) we sleep,

• it can cause impact our hormones, menstural cycles, PCOS diagnoses, etc.

• …. basically, your glucose levels can impact A LOT.

So, today, I wanted to give you a lil blood sugar 101— what is it, how it effects us, why it matters, how YOU can track it, and some tips for regulating a healthy blood sugar level. (Plus, I share my own personal experience of tracking my blood sugar for 30 days….). If blood sugar is something you often hear about (but don’t really understand) or just something you’re curious about, this post is for you!

First of all, what is blood sugar?

Chances are you’ve heard about blood sugar…. but you may not know exactly what it means and how it affects you. You’re not alone! Chances are, unless you work in medicine or are exposed to diabetes/pre-diabetes, blood sugar probably isn’t in front of your mind.

IN A NUTSHELL: Blood sugar, or glucose, is the main sugar (carbohydrate) found in your blood. It accumulates in your blood based on the food you eat. Blood sugar is SO IMPORTANT as it serves as your body's main source of energy— we need glucose to go about our daily lives. For a [very] simplified visual aid— you can basically picture your blood is “carrying” little bits of sugar (glucose) around the body and hand-delivering them to cells so that they can have energy!

…but there IS such a thing as too much of a good thing. Too much (and too little) sugar in our blood can be hazardous to our health so our body works REALLY hard to regulate the level of sugar floating around and keep it in a “normal” range. For all sugar in our body, the pancreas releases a hormone called insulin to “process” the sugar. In simple terms, insulin is the “gatekeeper” which allows the glucose to leave your blood and enter your cell (thus, lowing your blood sugar as the glucose is no longer in circulation). Insulin and glucose are a fiiiiiine-tuned dance. Our body needs glucose, but not too much. Insulin helps regulate that balancing act!

Your blood sugar level is the amount of sugar/carbs (or glucose) in your blood at any given moment. Depending on what this value is (low, normal, or elevated) impacts how you feel, your energy levels, cravings, symptoms, etc. In the short-term, blood sugar peaks/valleys aren’t often a big deal— but sustained dysregulated blood sugar can create problems in the body. which can have huge impact on your health, especially when it rises or falls quickly or outside of a healthy range. 

• A "normal" blood sugar range is between 70 and 140

• Clinical hypoglycemia (“Low blood sugar”) occurs when blood sugar drops below 55

• Hyperglycemia (“high blood sugar”): Blood sugar is technically elevated at 140 and above. General guidelines suggest 140-199 as pre-diabetic values, and 200+ as a potential diabetic value.

Why, does this matter?

Okay, we covered the basics— blood sugar comes from our food and helps FUEL our body and give us energy. It’s amazing and so important!

…..Buuuuuut blood sugar CAN be out of range quite easily— especially given the fact that the standard American diet (appropriately referred to as “SAD”) is excessive in processed foods, carbs, and sugars— didya know an estimated 74% of packaged foods have added sugars? Even things you wouldn’t think of as “sweet” (examples: pasta sauce, ketchup, salad dressings, breads, etc.) can have A LOT of sugar in them. In excess, blood sugar can “build up” if insulin can’t “keep up” with the amount of sugar. These excessive sugars which can wreak havoc on our blood glucose levels— and subsequently your health. Even if you feel like you “eat healthy” it can be reallllly easy to have unregulated blood sugar simply because of how our food system is set up.

SIGNS OF IMBALANCED BLOOD SUGAR: Dysregulated blood sugar impacts far beyond just our “nutrition”. When blood sugar is not properly managed you can see side effects like pre-diabetes, diabetes, weight fluctuation, sugar cravings, changes in blood pressure, weight loss or gain, difficulty managing weight, nerve damage, jitters, and nervousness—even if you’re not necessarily “at risk” for these things.

Imbalanced blood sugar is proven to have an impact on our mental health (dysregulated blood sugar can trigger anxiety, depression, etc.), your hormone health and menstrual cycles (which in turn impacts SO many other essential parts of our health, ladies!), and your hunger levels (which can cause insatiable cravings—like, “if I don’t have a carb now I will literally freak out” kind of cravings). 

If you’re feeling those symptoms now, it may be worth looking into your blood sugar. What I outlined above could be symptoms of blood sugar that is ricocheting, roller coaster-ing all over the place, and really driving how you feel (even if you may not know it). You may think these symptoms are your normal or baseline, but (oftentimes) it doesn’t have to be that way.

STEADY blood glucose feels calm. You feel nourished without getting ravenous or having intense cravings. You feel at peace, you’re sleeping well, your mood is stable...these can all be outcomes of a stable, normal-range, healthy blood glucose. 

Well, Kate, how do I know what my blood sugar is?

While tracking the exact numbers of your blood glucose may not be necessary, you CAN learn a lot just by looking at some of the symptoms I outlined above & starting to pay attention to the carb/sugar quantity of your meals.

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF: Are you having an intense afternoon slump? Do you feel like you NEED sugar or carbs to wake up and have energy? Do you feel irritable and on edge? Have issues with your weight? Have PCOS? Have an irregular cycle? Those are all signs that your blood sugar could be out of whack and that it may be time to pay closer attention.

If any of these are true, if may be wise to just be aware of these fluctuations and how they correlate with the food you eat.

……But if you’re like me and want something a liiiiiiitle bit more concrete and REALLY digging into the numbers, you could also use a continuous blood glucose monitor to tangibly look at what your blood sugar is doing 24/7. This is a phenommmmenal way to concretely see where your sugars are at and how they impact your health.

Historically, blood glucose monitors have been mainly for diabetics to check their blood sugar and use insulin to bring their blood glucose level to a healthy range. Blood sugar monitors have been GAME CHANGING for diabetics everywhere and I am so grateful for the technology! I don’t mean to be insensitive to diabetics/pre-diabetics AT ALL when I talk about tracking our blood sugar as I know it is far more important to you and not a “choice” like I am talking about in this blog post. But, I also, truly believe MANY of us could benefit from tracking and learning our blood sugar because blood sugar impacts all of us—not just people who are diabetic or pre-diabetic. Having a stable blood sugar can help with weight management, energy, sleep, nutrition quality, mood, sleep quality…. it IS so impactful.

Personally I knew I wanted to track my blood sugar to optimize my nutrition and make sure I was supporting my hormones. I learn towards “low blood sugar” in general, and wanted to be sure that I was properly FUELED for my hormones, future baby makin’, and regulating my cycle! For me, I knew I wanted a continuous blood glucose monitor so I could get ALLLL the data and learn comprehensively on how to best manage my sugars and nourishment.

I looked at a few options for a continuous glucose monitor, and finally picked NutriSense because you get 24/7 insight on your blood sugar while get personalized feedback and 1-on-1 support from a registered dietitian (yes, really). The truth is that blood sugar is a bit complicated (especially if you’re new to it). Having a registered dietician explain your numbers and how you can improve them is SO valuable. If you’ve been around the blog for awhile you know I’m super passionate about having licensed, credentialed professionals give health advice (...and not some random person on the internet who Googled an article).

The 1-on-1 registered dietician support is something I didn’t see with any other blood glucose trackers, and why I picked nutri-sense! This post is NOT sponsored— just my honest opinions, but they were kind enough to share a referral coupon :) So you can save $25 with the code KATE25). I LOVED that while I was tracking my blood sugar, I had a credentialed nutrition professional to guide me and educate along the way. Even though I feel quite knowledgable about blood sugar in general, I still gained a tooooon of insights on my specific body and how it responds to the foods I eat. For me, I treated this like a little science experiment where I could track, see the data, and optimize my nourishment! It was really, really interesting.

LONG STORY SHORT: Knowing your blood sugar, truly learning it, and seeing trends can be eye-opening and SOOOOO impactful for health.

This is a peak of my personal tracking through nutrisense! So the “sensor” sends data to my phone app so I can see 24/7 what my levels are :) You enter your food, work outs, how you feel, etc. and your dietician will correlate that with what your blood sugar is doing and provide tips! (get $25 off nutrisense and 1-on-1 dietician here!)

So how does a blood glucose monitor work?

Many people check blood sugar by doing a small blood prick on their finger multiple times throughout the day. However, with a continuous glucose monitor that constant finger poking isn’t necessary! I can only speak from my personal experience using the NutriSense monitor, which is a small sensor that you put on the back of your arm and wear all day and it tracks your blood sugar 24/7.

From when you wake up, to when you eat your meals, through your workday, when you work out, and even through the middle of the night when you sleep, it’s constantly looking at what your blood glucose levels are doing. This data can show you if there’s spikes, peaks, valleys, or irregularities, and it will also show you if it’s steady and in a healthy range. And while you may not have all that knowledge, a registered dietitian is reviewing your chart and telling you ways to optimize your blood sugar every step of the way. Getting something like this to more closely monitor your blood sugar is definitely a choice and an investment, but I truly believe you can gain soooooo much insight out of this. 

Personally, I actually felt like my blood glucose levels were in a good place, but it was more like a science experiment for me. I wanted to see what foods made it jump up or what my workouts did. I wanted to feel better and know more about what my body was doing—if I hit an afternoon slump or woke up in the middle of the night, was that my blood sugar? I wanted to know. 

Here you can SEE that tanking of blood sugar with my work out (the “blue dot”). When I started, I mentioned to the dietician that I had been feeling rather weak and low energy in my workouts lately and THIS is what my blood sugar showed. no wonder I was feeling fatigued and lacking stamina! my bod was running through fuel immediately! She helped me problem solve and learn how to better fuel before work outs for MY body.

my personal experience tracking my blood sugar:

So approaching it with the curiosity of a science experiment is what I did, and I found it so, so helpful. I wore it for a month and after looking at the data I was able to see that on the days I chose more carb-heavy foods early in the day, I was on a blood sugar rollercoaster for the remainder of the day—even though I was within “normal” limits I could feel the symptoms of my glucose jumping around (headaches, lethargy, less energy, more cravings, trouble sleeping, needing more caffeine, etc.).

The days when I ate more intentionally, my glucose was steady and subsequently, I felt steady. 

And every single step of the way I was getting feedback from a registered dietitian! THIS is what sets nutrisense apart. Blood sugar can be confusing and having an expert walk you through it and give you tangible tips is gaaame changing. She would review my data and look at my peak glucose value. Overall I was in a healthy range, but there were a few key areas to that emerged. For example, my blood sugar was TANKING with my runs (even if I ate carbs pre-workout). She add me experiment by having protein and carbs before my work out and made suuuuuch a difference. My blood sugar stayed more stable during my runs and subsequently I felt more fueled and energized on my runs. Another insight was on an “abnormal” day when Adam and I were on vacation— I ate foods that I normally wouldn’t from a gas station on the road trip, and when I tell you my blood sugar SKY-ROCKETED. It was soooo wild to see how just one snack that was more processed and carb-heavy had suuuch an immediate impact on my sugars (and explained the brain fog, mild headache, and bloat i experienced after). Just seeing that really grounded me in how important choosing snacks that honor my blood sugar have an impact on how i feel.

Basically, the dietician looked at my daily data and sent me feedback, encouraged healthy things I was doing, offered optimizing hacks (for example, the protein tip before workouts), etc. She looked at my fasting glucose, my after-meal glucose, my glycemic variability (which is swings in glucose), and gave me tangible things I could do to improve in those areas. Even though I *am* a medical professional and am quite knowledgeable on blood sugar, I still learned a LOT on how to optimize my blood sugar for me. It was honestly such a cool experience. 

track YOUR blood sugar

Be able to see how the foods you eat affect your body, track your blood sugar 24/7, and get 1-on-1 support from a dietician. Save $25 here with the code KATE25 !

why does this matter?

I recommend that everyone do this at least once, even just for one month. This is your body! This is where you live every single day. Why not take the time to learn it and feel your best?

Blood sugar is always going to be an important factor because we need glucose to live, so why wouldn’t you optimize it? Why not take one month to study, learn, work with a dietician and find balance that works for you? It’s a one-time thing that impacts so much—your health, nutrition, weight, hormones, stress, sleep... Blood glucose is truly so foundational. I had such an incredible experience, annnnnnnnnd NutriSense was kind enough to offer $25 off the cost of the sensor and 1-on-1 dietician support (click here for the coupon code!) if you want to give it a try! This post is NOT sponsored— but I really appreciate Nutrisense sharing a coupon. Thank you, NS!

If you’re feeling in a place of not feeling satisfied with your health, frustrated with your progress, difficulty losing weight, constantly facing “cravings”, feeling like crap, sluggish all the time, if your period is out of whack...I think this could be a very cool place to start. Blood sugar is FOUNDATIONAL to our health and many of us don’t realize ours are out of whack.

Or if you’re more like me and you’re feeling in a good place with your health, but just want to optimize how you fuel, I STILL found sooo much value from this and learned a lot. And it was so cool to study my body. Highly recommend!

How to support healthy blood sugar levels in general

Now whether you get the sensor or not, there are still ways for you to optimize your blood sugar levels. Blood sugar can be impacted by SO many things, such as your diet, sleep, stress levels, mealtimes, and exercise—and YOU have the power to make small changes in your nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress management to help regulate yours. Here’s a quick and simple list of ways you can do so:

• When you’re eating carbs, make sure to balance them with sources of protein, fiber, and healthy fat. This stabilizes blood sugar by slowing the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream, making it more constant and avoiding those peaks and valleys. (for example, if you were going to have an apple— instead of an apple with peanut butter. the protein and healthy fat will create a more “complete” snack that gradually releases the sugar from the apple instead of a blood sugar spike!)

• Incorporate healthy fat to your diet—coconut oil, MCT oil, olive oil, avocado oil, nuts and seeds, avocados, and grass fed butter all help manage blood glucose levels. (healthy fats help sloooow the absorption of carbs for a more steady release to the blood stream)

• Enrich your diet with high fiber foods like fresh veggies, beans, peas, nuts and seeds (like chia or flax seeds!), apples, and sweet potatoes.

• Incorporate other ingredients that have been proven in studies to have blood sugar stabilizing effects like apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, green tea, herbal teas, and fresh herbs and spices.

• Limit sugar. Allllllllll types of sugars (even “healthy” ones!) have an impact on blood glucose levels, but there ARE ones that have better glycemic index. So you’ll want to satisfy your sweet tooth with things like raw honey and fruit more than white cane sugar or refined sugar. Those will raise blood sugar a lot quicker than more organic sources.

• Exercise is HUUUUUUUGE for managing blood sugar. Even a 10 minute walk or 20 quick squats after a meal helps blood sugar because the glucose is being shuttled in and being used by cells right away and not just hanging out in the blood. So whether it’s a daily workout or just doing a minute of movement after every meal, it can greatly impact your blood sugar.

• Manage stress and get good sleep. Chronic stress raises cortisol, which wreaks havoc on blood sugar levels. Reducing stress is a major factor of blood sugar control (plus, more stress = worse sleep = a cycle that’s hard to get out of!). 

• This was just a quick and basic list, but if you want more detail on these things I recommend getting the NutriSense tracker and working with your personal dietician to interpret the best methods for YOU to stabilize your blood sugar (psssst, snag $50 off here!). Enjoy!

in a nutshell…

Blood sugar is something that is relevant to your body twenty-four hours a day, 7 days a week… but yet, we often don’t even pay it a second thought. However, LEARNING your blood sugar and seeing how it impacts your mood, energy, cravings, weight, sleep quality, hormones can be GAME CHANGING. Proper blood sugar is one thing that impacts soooo much. I had such a great experience tracking my blood sugar for 30 days, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to learn their bod better!

…but, wait! there’s more!