Nicole Cheak (00:00)
I used to think I was just bad at mornings and I would wake up, I'd skip breakfast, I would come downstairs and just, you know, come down and just pour a big cup of coffee, right? I would make the coffee, it would smell so good and I'd tell myself, okay, yep, I'm gonna make myself breakfast in a little bit and honestly, I was fine in the morning. By 10 a.m. I was good, I like would maybe need another cup of coffee sometimes but I'd feel good, I'd get things checked off my list.
I feel like I had it together for the most part and then by 2 p.m. I would be dragging I'd be like, my gosh, just get me through the afternoon and it was like someone reached over and just dimmed the lights, right? The brain fog would roll in, my brain would slow down. I would have some more caffeine if I could. I didn't love to do it because sometimes it would just make me want to go to sleep and I was doing what I was supposed to be doing and I would just push through because
I didn't know that I had another option, right? It was what other option did I have?
There were kids to pick up, had dinner to figure out, and there was a whole second half of my day that still needed to happen. And by dinner, I was running on fumes and I was just like genuinely done. The question, what's for dinner was like nails on a chalkboard. And by the time I was dinner was over and all the errands and sports had been done, I was done. I would just crash on the couch. And then there's this part that made no sense for years. I couldn't sleep.
I would lay in bed exhausted, but I would be wired and I would just be staring at the ceiling. Sometimes I would wake up and I would just be like awake for no reason, for an hour, just awake. And my mind was like, what's wrong with me? And I thought I was just tired. I thought I was stressed. I thought this is just what getting older felt like. But I was very, very wrong. What I was experiencing really just wasn't a mystery. It had a name.
and once I really started to understand it, I couldn't unsee it, but more importantly, I knew I could actually do something about it. So today we are talking about blood sugar and not in a diabetes conversation kind of way, but in a way that this fits your actual life because I want you to walk away from this episode never having to look at your afternoon crash the same way again. And by the time we're done, you're going to understand why you're alert at
10 a.m. and foggy by two, while you're satisfied after lunch and then maybe you're ravenous like 90 minutes later and why are you waking up at 3 a.m. and you lie there exhausted and completely unable to turn off your brain at night
because these are not separate, unrelated things happening to you. They're actually one story. And it starts with what you ate or didn't eat for breakfast. But before we really get into the mechanics of all of this, I want to tell you something that I think actually truly matters. If you're a mom or a woman in your late 30s and 40s, and you're exhausted in the way that I just described, that specific kind of exhaustion where you're dragging by dinner,
but you can't sleep to sleep at midnight and you're awake at 3 a.m. then you've probably been telling yourself one of a few stories. One that you're just busy and this is just what it means to be a mom in this stage of life. That everyone feels this way too and you just need to push through it or sleep more, stress less, drink more water, all the things. And those stories are not necessarily wrong but they're incomplete because there's actually something biological that's happening in your body
that's making all this worse. And it's been happening every single day, multiple times a day, and nobody told you what it was. So this is what I work with all the time. And it's one of those things where you're in the middle of this, I just can't add one more thing to my plate. And you've got blood sugar instability. And that's one of the most common things that is kind of misunderstood right now. And so a lot of people will come to me thinking that they have
an energy problem, or a sleep problem, or a mood problem, or a weight problem. And yes, they do. They have all those things. But underneath every single one is a blood sugar story that they didn't know that they were focusing on. So that's what we're going to focus on today. So I to give you a very simple explanation of what blood sugar actually is and what it's doing in your body. And it's not one of these things where you need a biology degree. It's something that you
need to understand just in life in general. So every time you eat something, your body breaks it down into glucose, that glucose enters your bloodstream, and your blood sugar rises. Your pancreas responds by releasing insulin, which acts like a key that lets the glucose into your cells to be used as energy. Okay, so blood sugar then comes back down. That is a very normal process. And that is what is supposed to happen. The problem is not
blood sugar rise. Okay, but the problem is actually when the blood sugar rises too steep too fast, what we call a blood sugar spike and when that happens, the insulin rushes in to manage it and then blood sugar can drop quickly and significantly and sometimes below where it even started. Okay, so that drop that crash, that's where all of your symptoms live. So the 2pm fog, the sudden ravenous hunger right after you eat lunch,
the mood shift that just totally comes out of nowhere. Think like that Snickers commercial, right? The hangry Snickers, like where all of a sudden you just hit Snickers and you're satisfied. That's the type of mood shift I'm talking about. And that wired but tired, you know, can't fall asleep feeling at night. Every single one of those things is your body responding to blood sugar. So here's what I want you to hear, okay? This is not a...
diabetes, pre diabetes conversation, your blood sugar does not have to be in a diabetic or pre diabetic territory for this to be impacting your daily life. Okay, these spikes and crashes happen in otherwise very healthy women all the time. And they happen when you eat a certain way, in a way that most of us are really never taught to eat. And when you hit this like late 30s 40s, they happen more dramatically and more frequently than they did, you know, 10 years ago.
And we're gonna get to why in just a minute. But first I wanna talk you through a specific day because I want you to stop seeing these symptoms as separate problems and start seeing them for what they really are. So let's back up and let's start at 7 a.m. All right, or 6 a.m. or 5 a.m. whatever time you wake up. All right, you wake up, you're tired, you didn't sleep great, maybe you woke up at 3 a.m. and you're like staring at the ceiling like why, or you had to go to the bathroom.
and then you skip breakfast because you're not hungry and there's no time anyway. So you just pour yourself a cup of coffee or maybe you run through Starbucks like I used to do and you head into your morning. Okay. And here's what's happening in your body right now. So you haven't eaten since dinner last night. Your blood sugar is low from the overnight fast, which overnight fasting is actually a good thing because you want your body to get into that rest and daydress phase. But instead of bringing it up with food,
you pour in caffeine, which signals your adrenal glands to release control, which then in turn raises your blood sugar artificially. Okay, so you feel okay, you feel alert, you're like, you've got that sharpness, right? And that's cortisol giving you that temporary favor. And but it's, it's not one of these things that you can just cash in forever. So by 11am, by noon, you eat something, maybe it's like a ⁓ toast piece of toast, a salad with like just
some lettuce and maybe a few veggies and a handful of crackers or maybe some fruit. Something quick because you're busy and it's like, okay, that's not a big deal, right? And maybe you've even told yourself it's a healthy choice. Fruit's good for you, whole grain toast is better than white bread, right? And all of these things might be true in a different context. But here's what these foods have in common. Very little protein, very little fat and carbohydrates that your body breaks down quickly, okay?
So that food hits your bloodstream super fast and your blood sugar spikes. So your body pushes out that insulin to manage it and then your blood sugar drops. And so that's where that crash and that exhaustion at 2 p.m. comes in. And it's not, you know, one of those things that you're necessarily paying attention to. But when your blood sugar drops, your brain is the first thing to feel it. So it's
makes it harder to process things, harder to focus.
the feeling that you are reading the same sentence like two or three times and just like retaining nothing. I know so many times I've been there, I'm like, I'm reading it over and over again, why am I not thinking of, why am I not remembering any of this? And it's not because you're distracted, it's just that you're running on less fuel than your brain actually needs to function clearly. So you pour another coffee, maybe you grab something sweet because you're,
body is genuinely craving a quick hit of glucose to bring your levels back up. And so it's not that your body is necessarily failing you, it's that it's communicating the way that it should, but you you just need to help fast. So listen here, the problem is the quick hit that you give it, okay? So the chocolate that you have stashed at the bottom of your purse, the handful of crackers from the pantry,
you know, maybe that second latte with a little bit of sugar, all of these things cause another spike and then insulin follows again and then another drop is coming. So all of these things continue to work together and now you're really on this roller coaster and the ride does not stop until you decide to get off of it, okay? So that's gonna continue to happen. Four o'clock, you do the same thing and so then dinner and it's often one of your biggest meals of the day but
By now, your body is genuinely running in a deficit and it's asking to be fed, right? So you eat more than you planned or maybe you eat something with heavy carbohydrate dense because that's what the rest of your family wants and you don't have the bandwidth to make two separate things. So your blood sugar spikes again and then your body works hard to manage it and then insulin continues to do its job. All right, so you're done.
Nine o'clock hits, you sit down, your body's like, okay, I just need to slow down. I know I should sleep. I'm absolutely exhausted, but you can't. All right, and so because of all the blood sugar fluctuations throughout the day, that has kept your cortisol elevated or dysregulated, okay? And when you have dysregulated cortisol, it's exactly what keeps your brain switched on when your body just wants to switch off. And I have been there more times than I can count.
where I am just laying in bed and I'm, I want to go to sleep. am just mentally and physically exhausted, but I can't fall asleep. And that happens. And you just lay there and you're like, Oh my gosh, I just want to fall asleep. So then you start scrolling your phone because it gives your brain something to do. And you finally fall asleep sometime after 11, 12, whatever. Right. And then this is why you wake up at 3 a.m. because your blood sugar drops overnight because you didn't eat in a way that supports
stable overnight levels. So then your body releases a small cortisol surge to bring it back up, which is what wakes you up for no apparent reason and you have to pee. You don't wake up because you have to pee. You wake up because you have the cortisol spike and then you're like, Oh, I guess I have to go to the bathroom. So that's what happens when you're not eating in a way that is going to support your blood sugar.
And so I want you to notice nothing that I described is very dramatic, okay? Nobody, didn't really like necessarily skipped meals all the time or you were, you know, you were having coffee, you had some healthy fruit, you had a granola bar, right? You had a family dinner, maybe you had a salad. But when you are in this late 30s, early 40s, mid 40s, right? You're running, you're starting to really fluctuate your hormones and a stress load that never fully kind of.
let's go. And so you're also then telling yourself a very specific story. And so so nothing's really wrong with you. But you just need to kind of understand how all of this goes. And so I want to pause here for a second, because I know some of you are doing the math right now in your head, and you're like, okay, maybe that's what's actually happening to me. And so if you want a place to start, that's going to give you a map of kind of what to eat.
I put together five days to finally know what to eat and perimenopause and it's in the show notes and it's going to be a great starting point for things that make sense for your actual body and life. So go grab that after the episode. It's not complicated and it's going to be spread out over five days and gives you very concrete action steps to take. So I want to talk a little about why this hits harder now in your late 30s, early 40s than it did maybe say 10 years ago.
Because I know some of you are probably thinking, I used to skip breakfast all the time and I was totally fine. It never impacted me like this. Why is it different now? And you're not imagining it. Okay, so here's the reason. Estrogen, beyond all of its reproductive functions, plays a direct role in how your body responds to insulin. So when estrogen is present in doing the things it's supposed to do, your cells are way more sensitive.
to insulin signal. So insulin is working efficiently, blood sugar rises and falls, and all of these things are working together. Estrogen was quietly acting as like that buffer, and it was moderating your blood sugar in a way that you really never had to think about before, because it was just working. But when your estrogen begins to fluctuate and decline later in life, that buffer weakens and your insulin
insulin sensitivity actually decreases. So your cells often become less responsive. And so that same coffee only morning that felt manageable at 35 truly hits differently when you hit that phase where your body just starts fluctuating. And so you're not doing anything different than you used to. Your body is just responding differently to what you're doing. And all of that matters now. So chronically elevated insulin is
being produced in larger amounts than your body needs because your cells have become resistant to its signal. one of the primary drivers of midsection bat storage and perimenopause. And this is why the belly that appeared in your early 30s is resistant to the approaches that used to work. Okay.
And this is why you may see more fat storage in this area as you hit 40. you know, because the approaches that used to work, they just don't anymore. And your insulin is just working differently. And insulin is what tells your body to store fat. So this is why that...
blood sugar conversation is not just a weight loss conversation in isolation, okay? It actually is about an everything conversation, energy, mood, sleep, cravings, the 3am wake up, all of it has blood sugar running through it. And we didn't really understand this 10 years ago either. It's one of the things that's continuing to come out. There's more science, more research, all these things coming out around it. And so it's actually one of the things that
I talk a lot about in the collective because it is so important for your life. And so in perimenopause, your blood sugar,
So one more thing kind of before we move on is that that wired and tired feeling that you have, the laying there exhausted, unable to turn off is also kind of a cortisol story, okay? And we talked about cortisol and how it's supposed to follow a natural rhythm high in the morning to get you moving and then it's supposed to gradually taper through the day. But when you've spent your day on a blood sugar roller coaster, your cortisol has been...
called into action repeatedly. And this is something that used to happen with me all the time. And really before I started digging into this and I saw a doctor, I would wake up at 3 a.m. regularly. And I was just like, I don't understand what's going on. And I really had to focus on getting protein early in the day. When I did that, my sleep actually became better. It was much more restorative and I finally slept well.
And now I can tell a difference on days when I actually feel myself for the purposes of making sure that I feel good versus the days I'm like running around because I'm never going to pretend that I'm perfect. But what I will say is that, you know, there are days like I can now see the patterns, right? I can see when I don't feel good when I haven't fueled my body for the day or when I've maybe relied on sugar in ways that I probably shouldn't. So what exactly do you do?
And I want to be a little bit direct here because there is a lot of noise around all of this and I don't really want to add to it. And I'm not going to tell you a list of like all the things that you need to do and overhaul. Right. I don't that's not how life works. And it's not what your body or you or your mind or anything needs right now. So the one place that it matters more than any other. If you do nothing else, this will begin to shift.
Okay, so when you eat in the first one to two hours of the morning, that is going to set your blood sugar tone for the entire day. All right, and so that's kind of what I just mentioned, really focusing on getting my protein in the morning. So if you're starting your day only with coffee or coffee and something light, like a muffin or a waffle, right, and no protein, then you're boarding that roller coaster at 7 a.m. The cortisol spike from the caffeine followed by no real food to actually fuel your cells.
followed eventually by something that hits your bloodstream fast and then everything else comes after. Okay, so every subsequent meal and snack is just another loop on that ride. And when you start your morning with protein and healthy fats and fiber before, you know, any additional carbohydrates, then you're doing something completely different, right? Protein is going to slow your gastric emptying, which means the glucose
from whatever you're eating enters the bloodstream more gradually. In fact, it's the same thing. So you don't get that big spike, you get the steady gradual rise and a steady gradual fall. And your blood sugar stays in a much better range to where you can manage all of this and you're not hitting that Snickers hangry commercial later. And you stay off the roller coaster. And...
I want to talk a little bit about what that looks like in a real morning because I know I'm a mom of three boys and we are running around and there's mornings that like, like, my gosh, I don't know how I'm going to get everybody out of the house much less feed myself. So I'm not asking you to eat a full breakfast before your kids are awake or prep anything, you know, elaborate than they before. Sometimes it helps. I'm not going to lie and say that sometimes I don't.
because I do sometimes because it is helpful, but sometimes it just might look like a few scrambled eggs and some cottage cheese and berries, okay? Or maybe it's a Greek yogurt bowl with full fat Greek yogurt and a handful of nuts. Sometimes it looks like a protein shake, guys. Like, I get it. Sometimes you just need a quick early morning.
something and this is actually where I started. I was one of those people who would never eat breakfast and so I just started with a protein shake and it was one of the things where my doctor was like, Nikki, you've got to start getting protein in early and I couldn't eat and so I was like, okay, I'm just gonna have a protein shake and I will link my favorite protein powder in the comment or in the show notes because it is one of those things that did definitely change.
the way that I think about getting protein. Now, do I have that every morning now? No, but it's shifted over the last few years, right? So it's one of the things that has helped me get to where I am now. And look, I know it's not gonna change for you overnight, okay? But it is one of the things that you need to focus on and 25 to 30 grams at least in your first meal.
is the number that research is consistently pointing to for meaningful blood sugar stabilization and satiety. Okay, most women are not getting that. Most women are getting maybe 10, 15 grams thinking that they're getting enough, but they're really not. So it's really closer to 25 or 30 grams.
And I just said it, I don't eat perfectly every day. Okay, and it's not something that's gonna happen tomorrow for the rest of your life, starting tomorrow morning. Okay, it's not about perfection, but this is about doing this enough days in a row that your body starts to feel the difference and starts to believe that that difference is real. Because when you do it consistently, you know, the 2 p.m. fog lifts, maybe not on day one, it takes a few days for your body to really start to adjust to that roller coaster pattern.
and for it to settle down. But by, you know, day four or day five, eating protein in the morning, you're going to notice that that 2pm feels much different. You're going to feel better. It's going to be more manageable. Okay. And then that ravenous feeling after lunch is going to settle. And then, you know, your mood is going to shift in the afternoon, the late afternoon, and that wired night feeling begins to calm because you got off the roller coaster earlier in the day. And eventually,
that 3am wake up will become less frequent or stop altogether. And I can tell you, like I said at the beginning, the days that I know that I don't eat well, I still wake up in the middle of the night. I'm like, ⁓ guess that's my cortisol because I didn't manage my blood sugar good enough today. So it's just changing a mind shift of how you're eating. So let me pull all this together for you because there's a couple things I want you to take away from the episode versus this.
The symptoms you're experiencing, afternoon fog, the mood shift, the hunger, the wired at night, 3am wake up, those are not separate problems.
They are a blood sugar story. And once you can see them that way, you have a completely different relationship with your own body. And you really stop wondering like what's wrong with you and you start to understand why and what is happening to you. The second thing is that when you hit, you know, that 35 to 40 age range, it changes the stakes, the same habits that felt manageable at 35 hit differently now because estrogen was quietly buffering your insulin sensitivity.
and now that estrogen is fluctuating, okay? And that buffer weakens. you're not, you feel...
so you're not more sensitive or less resilient. It's just everything is shifting. And the third thing, and the thing I want you to do tomorrow is eat something real before your cup of coffee, okay? 25 to 30 grams of protein, eggs, Greek yogurt, protein shake, whatever works for you in your kitchen that you have. Just remember that two eggs are only 12 grams of protein, so two eggs alone are not gonna be enough.
two eggs with some sausage or two eggs with some Greek yogurt or cottage cheese, that's much better. So find a way to just get started, just one thing and start there. if you're ready to get started, you know that you want to make a change, then got grabbed the five days to finally know what to eat and perimenopause because
It is built for your real life. It's going to help you feel more confident in your choices. And the link is in the show notes. And I want to bring this back to where we started. I used to sit on my couch in the evenings and just wonder why I was so exhausted. I really hadn't done anything that hard. And I used to lie awake in the middle of the night, wired and tired and super frustrated.
And the answer wasn't that I needed more sleep or less stress. The answer was my morning and it started with the coffee I was drinking instead of eating. It started with my blood sugar roller coaster every single morning. And once I understood that, couldn't unlearn it. And so now I want you to know that too. So if this episode was useful to you, I would love for you to share it with a friend who's lying awake at night wondering why, you know,
If this episode was useful to you, would love for you to share it with a friend who's lying awake tonight wondering the same things that you were wondering before you pressed play. So the show notes have the link to the free five days to finally know what to eat in Peri-Mentapaz and it all starts tomorrow. So take care of yourself and I will talk to you soon.
