Hi Charlotte! Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m a Board-Certified Nutrition Specialist and owner of Thrive East, a virtual nutrition practice. At Thrive East, I work one-on-one with clients of all ages and offer group classes and programming. I also teach yoga and love spending time outside.
So, you’re already knowledgeable about health and nutrition — what drew you to the Nutrisense CGM Program specifically?
I was having hypoglycemic symptoms that didn’t match up with bloodwork. I also wanted to understand better how I respond to certain foods and lifestyle factors. I used the CGM for four weeks and learned so much about myself!
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We'd love to know more about what you learned.
The biggest takeaway from my health journey has been to listen to your own body. Feelings and experiences are incredibly valid and the most essential information when making health choices.
Nowadays, there’s so much noise on social media, television, and the internet that it's hard to know what is best. At the end of the day, the best thing we can do is to trust our gut.
The most surprising takeaway was my morning coffee habit. I learned that black coffee on an empty stomach was tanking my blood sugar first thing, causing more cravings throughout the day.
Through experimentation, I learned that having breakfast first or adding fatty creamer like coconut milk or half and half kept my levels in range.
Exercise, sleep, and stress all affect your blood glucose, too—what are some of the things you learned about these things while wearing the monitor?
I also saw the incredible impact of exercise! In this experiment, I first ate a personal pizza and continued working at my desk. My glucose went way out of range. The next day I ate the same pizza but went for a 30-minute walk after, and my levels stayed in range!
Another important realization I had with my CGM was the impact of stress. Any meal I ate while rushed, standing up, or working on something else, resulted in a high glucose response compared to those same meals consumed at rest. I now make a real effort to slow down around mealtime and focus on the food.
So, you were learning about your body, about your exercise, sleep, the foods you eat… did it help with accountability to maintain all those great lifestyle tweaks?
I think using a CGM provides more than accountability; it’s information! These data points and experiments help us learn about our bio-individuality, which helps us make more informed decisions in the future.
I’m looking forward to continuing my health journey with the Nutrisense CGM Program. There are many more experiments I want to try, like the impact of vinegar consumption before a meal and the order in which foods at a meal are consumed.
