303. The Health Hack ALL Mamas Need to Know: Why Blood Sugar Is the Secret Sauce for Every Mom

Speaker 1  0:11  
Scott Hey, my beautiful mama, and welcome back to the podcast. My name is Scotty.

Scottie Durrett  0:15  
I'm so happy you're here. If you're listening in the car, drive safely. Take a deep breath. Roll those shoulders back. Hey, roll the window down. Let the wind blow in your hair for a second. I know you might be running errands or heading to target, or, you know, on your way to get a kid or something, but you can still take those moments and make them recovery, replenish moments for yourself. Before I dive into today's topic, which is all about some awesome hacks to help you feel freaking amazing. I was visiting my naturopath yesterday, and I just said, straight up, girl, I'm feeling blah. I don't feel good, and I'm doing all the things, I'm sleeping, I'm drinking water, I'm eating enough protein, and something feels deeper than the surface of blahness. And two things she pointed out was one, vitamin D. We are spending a lot of time inside. And I think over time, the sun has been villainized because of the explained link of skin cancer to from the sun, but without sunlight, there is no life. Think about a plan for a second, photosynthesis, right? Let's take it back to high school science for a moment. We're the same way we need sunlight. It's the same impact on our health that we have from a magic plate of nutrition. So my naturopath was like, Girl, you're mal illuminated, right? Not malnourished, you're mal sunshine. And so she said, spend at least an hour outside in the sun, just letting your skin get those rays. And that's one thing that can definitely boost our blondeness. The second thing is taking mental vacations. I know that I'm an energizer bunny, and I'm in the habit of always going, going, going, and I get a lot of my self worth from how productive I am, especially if people notice how productive I am, but it's kind of run me into the ground. And so it's really earmarking some time in your day that is not for any kind of self help or getting things done for people, but more for you and your brain to take a break. And so I'm going to start reading again, not reading self help books, but reading either, you know, trashy mysteries I love a good James Patterson novel, or I love stealing teen, young adult romances from my daughter's bookcase. So just two tips, you know, if you're feeling blah, I'm with you. I get it. Try the vitamin D and try the mental vacation, because you can start those today, and they're free. And because I'm giving it a try too, and I want us to feel better, right? So just think about me as like you're sitting across your kitchen table and you've either got your coffee or your diet coke or your wine, and we're just talking about what's really going on. Because I want you to walk away from these podcast episodes thinking, holy shit, I needed that. She just helped me so much, and I'm gonna go give this shit a try. So because I'm Scotty, I'm your soul sister in the motherhood trenches, as you know, I'm a certified health and life coach. I'm a certified intuitive. I'm on the way to becoming a certified tapper, an EFT and hypnotherapist, so stay tuned, because that's going to rock your world. But honestly, more than anything, I'm just a mom who was burned out sick of feeling like shit all the time. I used to think something was wrong with me. I loved my kids more than anything, but I wasn't loving motherhood, and so I had a lot of shame walking around. And so to get over the shame and the anxiety of that, I just push myself, go, go, go, but I wake up tired. I was already dreading the day, and I was dragging myself through the carpool and the homework battles and the laundry and the sports schedules, and I was feeling resentful as hell all while doing it, and I used to blame everyone and everything around me for how bad I felt I blame my husband's work schedule. I blame the lack of support system I don't have any family nearby. I blamed my age, my hormones, my to do list, the bank account, the fact that I, you know, had three kids instead of two. I mean, it's just like it constantly was a blaming, blaming, right? Sound familiar? And you know, honestly, I'd be in tears at random moments. I would snap at my kids over the small stuff. I would eat whatever I could grab, you know, standing up, and I'd lay it wake at like three in the morning, thinking, why am I like this? Why can't I just be happy? What is wrong with me? But here's the thing, there's nothing wrong. With me, there's nothing wrong with you. It wasn't just stress, and it wasn't just this phase of life that we're in. And it definitely is not that we're broken. You're not broken either, if you can, like, nod along to any of this, it was a little bit deeper, and that's what we're going to talk about today. Because I think a lot of times when we're feeling like shit as busy moms, it kind of comes to the territory we look outside of ourselves for an explanation, right? If you think about yourself pre kids, you're like, I wasn't that tired, I didn't have kids, and now I feel like shit. So it must be the kids, right? There's a lot of factors that could be involved, your environment, your schedule, your mindset, your age, your hormones, a ton of different things, but there's this one thing that I didn't know anything about that was really causing me to feel like shit, and that's what we're gonna dive in today. Blood sugar. Yep, blood sugar. I know this sounds random and not sexy at all, but I'm telling you right now, this has started to change everything for me, and I'm not talking to you in some health coach kind of way. I mean, I'm talking to you about actual, real benefits that I'm noticing. I'm not having meltdowns at two o'clock. I'm not crashing at four o'clock. I'm not craving Cheez Its and coffee and having to live off of a pot of coffee just to get through the damn day. I mean, I love my coffee, but I'm enjoying it. I'm not dependent upon it. I have energy again. I have patience again. I'm sleeping better. I'm starting to feel like myself again. I'm starting to look like myself again in the mirror. And I know we're not supposed to talk about weight gain, and everybody's supposed to be you know, we're supposed to love our bodies however they look, and I'm in total support of that. But

if you're looking in the mirror and you're like, This doesn't look like me, I'm working my ass off, but my ass isn't actually coming off. I want you to, first of all, not have any shame in that. I think it's okay for us to have high standards about how we look and feel in all areas of our life, right? But it's we have to also get below the surface and understand all the puzzle pieces that contribute to how we are looking and feeling and showing up for our life, right? So no shame in any of that, because today, I want to tell you what has helped me start to feel like myself again, and I want to share why blood sugar might also be the missing piece in your life. It's very, very helpful. So let me ask you a couple questions. Have you ever had a moment where your kids ask you for something totally reasonable, like help with their homework and after school snack, and you snap at them like they just stepped on your big toe. Or maybe they want dinner, and you would rather do anything on the planet than stand up and make them dinner, because one you're fucking exhausted and you have no energy, so you just tell them to eat cereal or order DoorDash again, no shame in the DoorDash. Okay, love a good bowl of cereal. Or, let's, have you ever been totally fine going about your day, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, you're starving, shaking, craving sugar, about to lose it on anyone. This is when the hangry goes from like zero to 10 in a minute. And maybe you've eaten, this was my problem, eaten something that you thought was, quote, healthy, only to crash 90 minutes later and need caffeine, sugar or silence to survive. Girl, that's your blood sugar. That's your blood sugar. It's we're not just emotional, we're not just tired moms and we're not someone who can't feel better even in this stage of our life. We are physiological beings walking around in a constant state of glucose chaos, I guess, glucose imbalance, with a lack of knowledge that it's even happening. And the worst part, no one's talking about it. In fact, people are just sharing these magic buttons. If you drink this, everything will be solved. If you take this boom, it'll be solved. If you take this shot, everything will be solved. And look, I'm not shaming anybody's decisions. What works best for you, but I always want us to go deeper and to educate ourselves even further, right? So if you're choosing to take some supplements or get a shot to help you lose weight and to get energy amazing, but understand your unique body at the same time, understand what your body needs in terms of blood sugar management and the amount of protein, fat and carbs it needs in order to thrive, because it's someday we're going to have to top stop taking the magic pills and the magic shots, and we want to have all the information in our toolbox to help us make the best decisions for ourselves. And understanding how to manage your blood sugar, understanding your. Unique, beautiful body and how to nourish it is going to give you an advantage in the many, many decades in the rest of your life, right? But no one is telling moms right now that the reason we're crashing, snapping, crying, craving, gaining weight, bloating, we can't sleep, we can't focus, is because our blood sugar is spiking and crashing all damn day. It's like the freaking a credit coaster at Disney. That's what our blood sugar is doing. So let me break it down simply, Mama style. I learned this when I was certified as a health and life coach. I don't practice health coaching, but I can share some of the basics, and then I'm gonna stay tuned and hit subscribe, because I'm gonna have two to three different experts coming on the podcast to go even deeper, to give you an even better understanding, even better tools. So just get ready, this is literally going to be these episodes, if you let them, can literally change and save your life. So blood sugar, your blood sugar, is the amount of glucose sugar in your blood. Your body runs on it. It's an energy source. We need it. It's very, very important. But when you spike it too high, like after having a glass of orange juice and a bagel, your body goes, Oh, crap, that's too much sugar, and it releases a bunch of insulin to mop it up. Then your blood sugar crashes, and you crash with it, and that crash, that's the part where you go from calm mom to rage monster, or from focus to foggy, or from energized to completely drained. And we just keep repeating the cycle, more coffee, more carbs, more emotional whiplash, right? But the good news is this is fixable, and it's actually pretty simple. You don't need to cut out all carbs. Our body needs carbs. It's a beautiful energy source that happens really, really quickly. So I mean, carbs are a good thing. In fact, if you're talking to an expert in the field, they will absolutely talk to you about your macros, protein, fat and carbs. They will not talk to you about cutting out carbs completely, because we don't need to live on protein shakes and lettuce. We can't. We don't want to live just on filet and zucchini, and you don't need to do two hours of workouts and literally never enjoy sitting down to have a glass of wine, a coffee, a latte or a meal. Again, you just need to understand your body, and that starts with choosing foods and habits that keep your blood sugar stable and for your unique body, like most things in life, feeding ourselves, it's not a one size fits all. So this is the thing that nobody is talking about in school or in our OB office or the mom blogs or the Tiktok trends. Gosh, if I could go and get my hands on elementary school curriculum, I would add a whole semester on nutrition and blood sugar balance, not just one week talking about the magic plate. And I would also have a whole semester on how to do your own freaking taxes and understanding mortgages and understanding refinancing, oh, and how to change a tire. I just think there are some math, massive things that we should come out of school already knowing. But I'm telling you all about this now because I'm learning and I'm always going to gather information and then share with you. So here's what happened when I started understanding my unique body and balancing my blood sugar. I stopped being hangry. My anxiety went down. I have more energy throughout my day. My Belly Bloat disappeared, which was delightful. I stopped waking up at three o'clock in the morning. I didn't snap at my kids as much, and I feel stronger, I feel happier, and that's what I want you like I know that's what you want, and that's what I want you to know is possible for you. You can wake up and feel good even with toddlers, even with four kids at home, even if you're a single mom, even if you're a working out of the house mom, you don't have to feel like shit in order to have the life of your dreams. In fact, this equation is the life of your dreams is going to happen a lot faster and a lot quicker if you feel good, right? And this whole I guess I'm just someone who can't change bullshit. I guess I'm just someone who can't sleep through the night or lose weight or not crave sugar, and my parents gave me these genes, bullshit, bullshit. You absolutely can make changes if you want to feel better, and if you want to stop living for the weekends or living for the next vacation or wishing the days away for your kids to get older so you feel better, and you want to start showing up, loving the way that you feel, then balancing your blood sugar. It can absolutely help you do that. So what is balancing your blood sugar look like as a regular, busy as shit, mom and I'm gonna tell you it looks like starting your day. A with protein and fat and carbs, instead of just a coffee and a granola bar. So one of the things about carbs, and I'm going to have an expert come and talk about this, but carbs are not the evil unless we're over carving and we don't have something else to balance it out. So if you want to think about the magic plate, it's not just about the colors on the plate that our body needs. It's a balance of the macro nutrients that our body needs. You can have carbs just balance it out with the right amount of protein and fat and no more skipping breakfast, unless you have consulted your doctor, who is literally drawing your blood and helping you manage your blood sugar. And that's been advised, because what happens is, when we starve our blood, when we starve ourselves, it really spikes our blood sugar. It also, over time, slows down our metabolism. But if we get too hungry, then we overload at the next meal, and we put way too many items in our body that our body can't use. So even if you're eating 1000 carrots, if you're eating more carrots than your body has used for, guess what, those carrots will be stored as fat. Okay, so it's not that there's any good or bad food, it's balance. If you get the right balance of food, you can eat whatever the fuck you want. Enjoy that slice of pizza. Enjoy it all as long as you understand your balance and what your body really needs at each meal in order to fuel right. It looks like, you know, it's just like talking about, say, you get up in the morning and you want to have some granola and,

I'm trying to think, I don't I'm not a granola person. I don't like sweets. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a salty girl. But if you want granola and coffee, add some cottage cheese, add some Greek yogurt, so as long as there's some fat and some protein, oh yeah, if you want like blueberries, granola and cottage cheese, beautiful breakfast. But again, you want to start to pay attention to how you feel after eat meat after each meal, and to see if you're crashing or not. Right? It's just you don't want to eat naked carbs. Does that mean skipping carbs? No, we need carbs for energy, but it's understanding the difference in how much your body needs in each meal, not just the full day, but like how much your body really needs for each meal. And one thing that's really helped a lot too. It looks like walking 10 minutes after your meals, even if it's just around the house, versus just laying going straight to bed or laying on the sofa. It looks like starting your day with water before you reach for caffeine. And it's also, and this is probably the biggest thing, it's noticing how the food actually makes you feel right. It's noticing 90 minutes after you eat, wow, I'm really focused. I'm able to get all my stuff done. Or do you feel like you need to take a nap? Are you energized? Are you wiped out? These are simple shifts. It's not perfection, it's just more intention. And over time, it'll change your body, it'll change your brain, it'll change your life. And this is how we reclaim ourselves. This is how we go first. I always talk about you go first if we learn how to nourish and appreciate our unique, beautiful bodies we can raise our kids. Who knows what it means to feel good in their bodies too? Look, there's so many quick fixes out there that might help people get instant energy and lose weight initially, but blood sugar balance that's going to help you live well a long time, and one day, you will likely have to go off of those magic pills. So you want to know what your body needs to maintain the energy, the maintenance weight and the lifestyle that will serve you and your life the best long term sustainability when you learn how to balance your blood sugar, it's going to help you feel calm and clear and grounded and powerful. It's going to help your hormones regulate. So if you're in perimenopause, this is incredibly important. It's going to help your nervous system chill the hell out. I mean, honestly, if you don't have time to meditate, it's you wouldn't have to if you know how to feed yourself. It kind of takes care of everything else in your wellness management, right? And then you finally stop thinking about food all day. It starts to become something that's just the non issue. It's not really something that you're going to be dreading. And then food starts to take off those labels of being good and bad. It's just the food that makes sense for your body. And this is not a trend. This is your biology. And Mama, when you feel good, you parent better, you work better, you love better, and you show up for your life, and it becomes something you actually enjoy, not something that you're trying to just get through. Motherhood is hard enough as it is, and it's so much harder when we feel like shit, so let's help ourselves. Not feel like shit. So this whole motherhood thing becomes less difficult, and let me leave you with this. You're not lazy, you're not broken, you might just be a little out of balance, and that is easily fixable. You don't need to overhaul your whole life. You don't need a 10 step wellness plan, you don't need to go on a retreat. You don't need to become a different person. You just need one choice at a time that honors your body, and you can start doing that today. So with your next meal, with your next sip of water, with With your next breath, just remember that you're allowed to feel good. You deserve to feel good, and so start to think about those things with a different viewpoint. Feeding yourself isn't just about getting through the meal, it's about helping you become stronger so that you can tackle life in the way that you feel so pride, so much pride and so much love with right and your blood sugar, it might just be the secret to helping you get there. And you don't have to do this alone. There are a lot of women out there learning how to listen to their bodies, how to balance their energy, how to finally feel good again. I am one of them, and you get to be one of them too. So I don't want you to hide from this. I don't want you to pretend it's not an issue. I want you to get curious. I want you to stop blaming your parents, your metabolism or the grocery store. That might be safe, but it's not going to set you free. You know, actually, there's this story. Where did I hear this? I think I listened to it in a movie. So there's this really famous maze in Scotland, you know, one of those huge mazes which you can walk through, and it's very, very intricate and difficult, and people get lost in there all the time, especially people who aren't from that village. So throughout the maze, they have placed like little bells that you can ring in case you get lost on your way and you can't find your way back. And it they say that people are ringing those bells all the time, but they said there was this one man who got lost, and he ended up spending two nights in the maze, two nights in the maze in Scotland, I can guarantee you, even if it was summer, it was probably not 78 degrees and sunny when he was in there, but I unders. You know, I understand those moments where we believe I can get through this. I don't need people's help, but sometimes we can ring the bell and we can ask for help. And right now, if your energy and your body and your brain fog is not where you want it to be, and you're in feeling blah and not feeling as good as you want to ring the bell, because when you ring the bell, you're going to get support, and when you get support, you're going to get one step closer to that dream life that you're working so hard you're not supposed to figure everything out on your own, even as an Adult, even as a mom, so ring the bell. I will actually two of the people that I'm working with, they're going to be guests on the podcast, but I will, if you're interested in the people that I'm working with and you want to know a little bit better how to manage your blood sugar, go ahead and send me a DM. I will drop my Instagram in the show notes below, and I will help you get started on that path right. And then, if you have any moms in your community that have been talking about their lack of energy or feeling really blah, please share this episode with them, because the more we share, the more we heal and we make the world a better place for all of our kids. You've got this managing your blood sugar is hands down one of the best hacks for us moms to feel our best and achieve everything we want in our life. That's how we're going to get through this together. I love you, I see you, and I've got you. Let's go. You.