I always say, 'There's no one size fits all,' but with sugar, especially, it truly is an addictive substance. It lights up the same pathways as a drug does. These food products are literally designed to be addictive; there's nothing natural about them and that is part of the problem with trying only to go through intuitive eating because it's very hard to intuitively eat candy because it's not a natural food that our body is prepared to handle...

...Truly when you get into that a routine of healthy eating and then you taste that candy again, it tastes so much sweeter. It tastes so much different than when you were eating it all the time and it was just lighting up your dopamine system type of behavior. So, then you can eat something mindfully in every once in awhile because you can sit there and eat it slowly and enjoy it rather than it be something that your brain is driving you to do. - Kara Collier

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Wellness Force Radio Episode 397

Director of Nutrition at NutriSense, Kara Collier, explains how Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) can help optimize your health as well as personalize your nutrition for a lifetime, how our emotional intelligence impacts our food choices, the connection between stress and glucose levels plus her top tricks and tips to help curb your sugar cravings and binges.

What if we told you it was possible to track what unique foods affect your body's blood sugar in real time?

If you've been struggling with sugar cravings and poor eating habits, NutriSense and their team of dieticians are here to help.

NutriSense

Save $25 on your monthly NutriSense plan with the code 'WELLNESSFORCE'

Monitor Your Glucose Levels With NutriSense

Analyze in real-time how your glucose levels respond to food, exercise, stress, and sleep. CGMs can help you take the guesswork out of understanding your blood glucose levels.

When you join NutriSense, you'll receive a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) that monitors your glucose 24/7. Their program offers expert guidance to help you interpret that data to reach your full health potential.

What does my CGM show?

Your CGM shows your glucose levels. The NutriSense app lets you track your daily activity to see how food, sleep, exercise, and stress impact your glucose.

You can log or import this data, then see the effect on your levels as soon as it happens.

Understand your data with dietitian support The NutriSense CGM program comes with helpful advice from a certified dietitian, free for one full month. These nutrition experts work with you to find your ideal personalized diet, provide accountability, help you decode your data, and show you how to understand what your glucose numbers really mean. Listen To Episode 397 As Kara Collier Uncovers:

[1:30] Achieving Your Optimal Health With NutriSense

• Kara Collier
• NutriSense
• 365 Dr. Paul Saladino
• How do I put on the CGM sensor?
• 103 Robb Wolf
• The origins of her career as a Registered Dietician working in the healthcare system.
• Her frustrations with the healthcare system as she worked with patients in the ICU.
• Why most people she saw in the ICU were people there due to lifestyle struggles and diseases such as diabetes.
• What led her to start NutriSense where she is now the Director of Nutrition with the mission to help people use continuous glucose monitors.
• Why there's no "one size fits all" approach when it comes to health and how NutriSense will help you find out what is optimal for your body.
• The biggest shockers she discovered about the traditional western academic setting for diabetic healthcare.
• Why advising someone with diabetes to eat consistent carbohydrates is not the right approach as it leads to glucose peaks.
• The problem with big pharmaceutical and food brands like Kraft coming into the university setting and advising students studying health what foods to give diabetics.

[11:30] Your Unique Personalized Health Guide with CGM

• How NutriSense's continuous glucose monitoring device provides you with your unique health data to help you focus on your wellness goals.
• Why anyone can use NutriSense to help them learn about their glucose levels to help them make better lifestyle decisions.
• How you will get better glucose data with a CGM device compared to pricking your finger.
• The big health picture you will receive when you use your CGM device to see your body's response to certain foods and beverages consumed at different times of the day.
• 357 Robb Wolf
• Examples of proactively using the data from your CGM device to help guide your wellness journey.
• How NutriSense's approach really takes an honest look at the continuous process that is unique to the individual.
• New findings that Kara has discovered about her own health after using their CGM device including her body's ability to tolerate bananas really well.
• Who is and isn't a good candidate for using the NutriSense CGM device.

[20:30] How Our Emotional Intelligence Impacts Food Choice

• How she walks the line as a registered dietician knowing that many of her patients; food choices are a byproduct of their emotional intelligence.
• The importance of guiding patients to meet with a mental health specialist to help them with deep wounds around food.
• How the data from the CGM device helps people achieve a greater mind and body connection.
• What intuitive eating is and why more people are inclined to do it when they use a CGM device.
• 048 Nir Eyal
• The real value of the data you will receive from using the NutriSense CGM device and how it will help you with changing your behavior.
• Breaking down how our brains are hardwired for immediate gratification but most health habits have delayed gratification.
• Why working out may not be super fun in the moment if you're someone who doesn't go to the gym often but you will see great results in the long term.
• How continuous data from devices like NutriSense and FitBit can help us bridge the gap between immediate gratification and delayed health gratification.
• Why real-time data from a CGM device can be way more motivating internally for positive health change than from an external article or advice from a family member or friend.

[27:30] Positive Behavior Change For Life With NutriSense

• Where NutriSense what's to go next as a company beyond CGM.
• Why they believe that the best behavior change and long-term lasting health benefits come from the right information, expertise, and mindset.
• How their dietician will give you 1-on-1 expertise to help you along your health journey.
• What content they will provide you to help you build a sustainable mindset to help you stick to continuous behavior change over time.
• How she balances technology in her day-to-day life and how she takes break from it on occasion.
• Her mindset shift to see technology as tools to help rather than control her life.
• Common struggles people face in life with feeling like they have to be perfect when it comes to food and being healthy.
• How to be more mindful of the food choices you make so that you don't give into your impulses but instead create balance and build value in your life like eating out with friends.
• What interesting findings Josh discovered about himself after trying the NutriSense CGM device.
• Examples of life transformation their customers have experienced working with them on making sustainable tweaks over time.
• How NutriSense has helped customers catch health issues early on so that they don't spiral into a much bigger problem in the future.

[36:00] Creating Realistic Health Goals For Yourself

• Why continuous glucose monitoring is not just for diabetics and can truly change a person's life.
• Exploring what makes people want to use a CGM device and stick to using it.
• The different levels for behavior change and why some people just aren't ready for it.
• How to create realistic health goals for yourself with small changes over times for a ripple effect.
• What About Bob? Trailer
• Why it can be really hard for some people to eat healthy because of the habits they have learned growing up.
• Unpacking how much glucose can drive one's willpower, behavior, mental health, and emotions.
• 312 Kevin Kelly
• Closing the gap between technology and human connection with devices like NutriSense's CGM.
• How people can rise up and use this time with COVID-19 to really take control of their health.
• What you can do to really customize your NutriSense experience for what works best for you and your goals.

[46:00] The Connection Stress & Glucose Levels

• Deep dive into how stress can actually impact our glucose levels.
• Why it's so helpful to go back to the big picture goal and your 'why' when struggling to find motivation.
• How to find greater motivation for your health goals beyond just getting ready for bikini season.
• The fact that metabolism is driven by so many different processes and how CGM comes into play.
• Breaking down how metabolism works and how it is fueled by different systems and pathways that it can take.
• The spectrum between metabolic health and metabolic dysfunction and how breakdowns happen the closer we get to dysfunction with more and more pressure.

[50:30] How To End Your Sugar Addiction

• Her tips to stop sugar cravings and binges plus how CGM plays a role with it.
• Why sugar detoxes are so much more beneficial than having a little bit every today to wean it off if you have a sugar addiction.
• How junk food is literally designed to be addictive and there is nothing natural about it.
• Why we can't intuitively eat something like candy because it's not a natural food that our body is prepared to handle.
• The importance of taking control of your environment but not having candy and junk food in the house or nearby you all the time.
• How our taste buds change when we stop eating artificial foods and what you will notice after taking a break from them.
• Why eating less sugar improves your food awareness and intuitive eating habits which leads to greater health in the long end.
• How NutriSense CGM users utilize the device to address both the microbiome and behavior elements.
• The power in taking control of your sugar cravings by switch something artificial for something natural that's good for you and tastes better.
• How to get started with eating less sugar by just focusing on it for 3 days and then reflect on the changes you see with your health.
• breathwork.io
• M21 Wellness Guide
• Wellness Force Community

Power Quotes From The Show

How CGMs Enhance Intuitive Eating "Food and eating are emotional for most people; it's not just something that we do to purely nourish ourselves. Interestingly a lot of times the data itself from the NutriSense CGM device helps connect people to that mind - body connection on their health journey. There is a lot of research on this for data in general but specifically CGMs enhance people to eat more intuitively because then it enhances our introspective sensitivity which is just a fancy way of saying how we feel our body signals. So, a lot of people will leave this program and they will tell us that their unexpected benefit is that they can now have a better connection to their body." - Kara Collier Building Sticky Habits With NutriSense "The behavior component of using a CGM device is being able to make the connection of what's actually happening when you're reaching for that snack. A lot of people think it's just a small amount of food and it's not really doing that much but it might be having a ripple effect that lasts 6 hours. That's a huge chunk of your day. So, it's building that awareness of what's truly going on the inside and then also allowing you the ability to make some substitutions, try something different the next day, and see how things differ. It really brings the control back to the person because they can easily see what a substitution or what a switch might actually do for their body. It's that immediate gratification that builds sticky habits that are intrinsically motivating." - Kara Collier How Stress Impacts Your Glucose Levels "In an acute stress moment you'll have a huge glucose spike just like you ate a donut. We see this when people are having a fight with someone when they got in a traffic jam and they're mad and they're yelling at the car in front of them. When they're giving a presentation and they're nervous and stressed. We'll see that glucose spike just like you ate something sugary which is amazing. That's another mind-body connection that helps you realize the impact of stress on the body and for some people that might be every single morning on their commute to work. And it's not just this isolated, random, stressful event. So when you can make that connection that this is what's really happening on the inside and it might be more impactful than you might have believed it was, that is huge. It helps you connect with how you're feeling and how you're dealing with the events that are thrown at you and what's really going on." - Kara Collier

Links From Today's Show

• Kara Collier
• LMNT
• 365 Dr. Paul Saladino
• 357 Robb Wolf
• 048 Nir Eyal
• 312 Kevin Kelly
• How do I put on the CGM sensor?
• Leave Wellness Force a review on iTunes
• breathwork.io
• M21 Wellness Guide
• Wellness Force Community
• NutriSense
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

About Kara Collier

Director of Nutrition at NutriSense, Kara Collier is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), Licensed Dietitian/Nutritionist (LDN), and Certified Nutrition Support Clinician (CNSC) who specializes in glucose control and metabolism. She graduated from Purdue University and previously worked at Memphis VA Medical Center, as a clinical dietitian at Providence Hospital, and in a management role at Nutritionix.

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