About me
When I tried a CGM for the first time, I was shocked to see that I was pre-diabetic.
And mortified, because as a Nutritional Therapist that should not be the case, right?
This shows the power of a CGM:
knowing what is healthy food and
what is healthy food for YOUR body,
can be 2 different things.
As for many others, my path into nutrition started with the need to help a loved one with chronic health issues. Little did I know that is would also come to my rescue in my late 40s, when peri-menopause hit me like a truck. Like many women in this phase of their lives, I had no idea what was going on, because the chronic stress in our lives often muddles the water. Thankfully, once I realised I was in peri-menopause, which are the years running up to the point that your period stops completely, I could apply all the knowledge I had learned.
This led me to initially specialise in helping women live their best lives during (peri) Menopause, because I realised how hard this phase can be for women without support. Having experienced first hand how powerful nutritional and lifestyle changes can be to "feel human again", made me want to share this knowledge with other women. I was seeing women 1:1 in my clinic and blood sugar control was always one of the first things that needed addressing, because it has such a knock-on effect on many hormones and how we feel. Unbalanced glucose levels also get in the way of loosing weight and create cravings, which are both things we can do without.
How it all started
Realising the importance of balancing blood glucose levels led me to try my first Continuous Glucose Monitor and it changed everything. The reason I tried it was to see if it could help my clients, but what I found, was that I was actually pre-diabetic myself.
Surprised and mortified
I was surprised, because I thought I was eating well and having a healthy lifestyle, with regular exercise, relaxation and enough sleep. Furthermore I was not overweight and knew what to look out for, because my lovely mum was diagnosed with pre-diabetes at the age of 80 (which thankfully we managed to reverse with dietary changes at the time). And none of my blood tests over the year (fasting or Hb 1Ac, which is a 3 month average glucose level) ever reached the threshold of pre-diabetes. So I was surprised and then I was mortified, because I thought this did not really reflect well on my skills as a Nutritional Therapist, or did it?
The power of CGMs
I have learned a lot since then and believe that having had this experience made me a better practitioner and enables me to help people prevent and reverse pre-diabetes, just like I did for myself with the help of wearing a CGM and finding out what worked best for MY body. And it showed that "not having any symptoms" is not equivalent to optimum health. I wish I had tried a CGM a few years earlier, because it would have been easier to get my averages down and my spikes/crashes under control, but I am very grateful for finding this powerful tool.
If you are interested in learning more about using a CGM, get my Free CGM starter guide or book a Free 15 minute discovery call with me.
On a personal level I love painting and enjoy playing tennis (but still won't be able to make you a tennis pro, sorry).
I have 2 lovely daughters and 3 wonderful cats.
