From Panic To Power: Your Guide To Blood Sugar Balance

Natalie Jill 

Thanks so much for having me. I have so much respect for you, Dr. Yates. You helped me when I was having my panic attack around blood sugar dysregulation several months ago. You urgently got me in. Thank you for that.

Beverly Yates, ND

You’re welcome. It was my honor to help you, help a colleague because sometimes we need help too.

Natalie Jill

Absolutely.

Beverly Yates, ND

In this, I’d love it if you gave people just a brief overview of your wonderful background because, I feel, you’re a living legend, so go ahead.

Natalie Jill

Thank you. I’ve never been called a living legend, but I am. Yes, I’m 52 years old, so I want to share that first and foremost. I typically honestly share whatever I’m going through and what I’ve found a solution to. My journey began back when I was 36 years old, I just had my daughter, and I gained a lot of weight. I had hit rock bottom in a lot of different ways. I was going through a divorce financially. I was losing my house. That’s a story for another time. But I was in this bad position, and I figured out how to get myself out of it. Primarily by focusing on changing my mindset and then focusing on my body. How can I improve my health? I noticed that when you improve your health, you improve everything. I happened to share that journey, which drew a lot of women at the time. I helped transform a lot of women back in those days into their bodies. As I evolved with that, I became known as the AB expert at one time, so people would come to me to get that flat belly or the six-pack abs, and I helped a lot of women with that. But as I aged and got older and embraced new challenges, new things—hormonal shifts, blood sugar changes, cortisol changes, metabolism hormones—all the things my injuries caused, I had to figure out how to master them. As I walked in, stepping through that journey also brought my audience along with that and taught specifically. Now, midlife women know how to thrive.

Beverly Yates, ND

Great. I think welcoming people, letting them be a part of your journey, and sharing with them working things that are maybe a question mark—it’s such an inviting way, and it just keeps it real.

Natalie Jill

Yes. I share a lot. I share a lot of what I’m going through. I’ve gotten out of that belief that people don’t want to hear it because they do. Because other women are walking through the stuff, too.

Beverly Yates, ND

Yes. This brings up an important point. There’s no lab test for isolation, loneliness, or feeling like you’re the only one. when we look at issues, diabetes, and other things—there are tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people around the world struggling with this. But yet, what, Natalie? They all feel like they’re the only ones.

Natalie Jill

That’s right. Now, for a big reason, I wanted to say yes to you. I will always say yes to you. Here is what you stand for: What you teach is so critical because blood sugar, dysregulation, and type 2 diabetes are the causes of so much. I see it in my communities; I see it in my own family. I see it happening younger and younger now. When we can learn to offset, prevent, or even reverse that, we can prevent all types of disease.

Beverly Yates, ND

Absolutely. Is it a root-cause issue? It is. It’s primary. With that in mind, let’s dive in. So for our topic, when we’re talking about exercise, mindset, midlife conversations, and nutrition, let’s start first with exercise, and then we’ll move to the other categories because they’re all related here. What is it that you think people get wrong? 

Natalie Jill

There’s a lot there. 

Beverly Yates, ND

There’s a lot. Yes.

Natalie Jill

Let’s start with number one. You can’t exercise about diet. You just can’t unless you are an Olympic athlete and you are training five, six, or seven hours a day at ultimate intensity. You’re not going to exercise about diet. That’s a vicious yo-yo to step into. When you try to do that, you break yourself down for injury. You also create issues with more hunger, and then you’re just trading calories for more hunger. It’s something that needs to be worked into it. There are a lot of components to aging well. There are a lot of components to preventing and reversing diabetes. There are a lot of things that keep you at a healthy weight. It’s not just about exercise. That’s the first thing I want to show that people get wrong. 

The second thing people get wrong is how they exercise. There tends to be this thought process that I have got to do three sets of 12 or I have to do this amount of time. What I want to do is bust up those two things. I’d like to share two words: progression and intensity. What does that mean? Progression means we are continually changing what we’re doing and progressing. We’re working to get stronger and better. That means the same three sets of 12 you did 20 years ago. If you’re wondering why it’s not working, you think it’s your age. It’s not. It’s because you’ve not progressed. We have to challenge ourselves more now. What does that mean? That means if you walk a mile and you’ve walked that mile every day, progression is that you work on walking two miles, or you work on walking faster, or you work on doing it more frequently, or you’re working on some weight-bearing exercise at the gym, can you go a little heavier? Can you go a little faster? Can you go a little longer? But continually progressing is what changes our body. 

The second thing is intense sitting, and that means what’s intense for you. That doesn’t mean go be Michael Phelps; it doesn’t mean go be a sprinter. It means what’s intense for you, what challenges you, gets your heart rate up, and makes it feel hard. Just doing things where you can have a regular conversation during them is not challenging yourself when you do a workout that challenges you. It’s about 20 minutes, is all you need to go at full intensity for you. Just to give you an example of full intensity, let’s say Dr. Yates. I said, Let’s just go do a chin-up, and maybe you can do one. Maybe you can do—I don’t know—none; maybe someone listening can do ten; maybe someone can do 20. I don’t know. But if someone else can, you can do three. Amazing.

Beverly Yates, ND

Okay, so.

Natalie Jill

Let’s give an example here. listener can do zero, you can do three, and another listener can do 30. Okay. Intensity would mean the person who can do zero is working towards one intensity. For you, it would mean, Can I do that three faster? Can I get to four? Can I get to five? Can I do it twice today? The person who does 30 can do it faster. Can I do more? Can I go? More intensity. It’s what’s intense for you when you focus on those two things: progression and intensity. We tend to change our bodies a lot quicker. Those are the main things that I see wrong. 

One more thing I’ll throw in with exercise that we do wrong is that we’re not functionally training, meaning we’re not using our whole body the way it’s supposed to be used, and that’s how we get injured. Or we start feeling lower back pain. For instance, the majority of women, especially if I were to do an MRI on you now in midlife, would have some type of degeneration in their backs. Why do some of you feel it and others do not? It’s all about functionality. If we don’t fully use our body the way it’s designed, we’re not activating our glutes, and we’re not engaging our core. We’re going to feel it in our lower backs. It’s not about just fixing the pain; it’s about figuring out that functional training.

Beverly Yates, ND

That is a great summary: Thank you so much. That functionality is just such a theme and appears in so many areas of our lives: our health, our relationships, and our wealth. It’s about functional things, identifying where there’s dysfunction, and doing something about it.

Natalie Jill

Absolutely.

Beverly Yates, ND

Now, where is it that people are making mistakes and need to have their attention brought to the world of nutrition concerning exercise? I love that you pointed out that if people go super intense on exercise, they can overdo it, and then they might wind up seriously hungry. having all these other things, they’re going to break and not fix stuff because I think there’s a lot of misconceptions.

Natalie Jill

Okay, so I’m going to break nutrition down in simple terms. It almost sounds too simple for some of you, but my challenge to you is to ask yourself if you’re doing this, because sometimes when I teach this, people say, Well, I knew that, but you’re not doing it. I want to be clear there. I’m going to give you some basic things now because I think they’re critical. I want to share with you that my mom was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 10 years ago, and she was told to be on metformin. We completely reversed her diet to what I’m about to share, and we prolonged her being on metformin for nine years. Nine years. Not until now, at age 77, she’s now going on at four because it keeps elevating slightly, but that’s a big difference to prolong for that long. What I want to share with you works, and the side effect of this is that if you are on metformin or taking insulin, you’ll probably need less insulin. But if you do these things. 

Number one is that you need to unprocess your diet. What does that mean? That means eating real, natural, unprocessed foods that you can define. Now you might think that’s a joke or a meme on social media, and that sounds too basic, but we’re not doing it. Are we eating real foods? What does that mean? Are we eating chicken, fish, or steak? Are we eating seed butter? Not butter. Are we having avocado? Olive oil is our fat. Are we having a lot of leafy greens, a lot of vegetables, and low-glycemic fruits like berries? How are we doing those things? That’s number one. Just by replacing your diet with primarily unprocessed natural foods, you’re going to regulate your body. Your body is meant to eat these foods, that’s number one. 

Number two, this is what’s important, especially when it comes to blood sugar. Are you balancing your foods? Are you balancing them? You should be balancing protein, carbs, and fats together. Never, ever just eat starchy carbs alone; for example, you will spike your blood sugar. Just to give you an example, if I’m going to have a bowl of oatmeal and just my bowl of oatmeal, I’m going to add some milk, some low-fat milk. This is it, and then I’m going to put a banana on it. Some of you might think that it’s healthy. You are going to spike your blood sugar like crazy. That is all going to be turned. That’s sugar in your body. It looks like candy. You’re going to spike your blood sugar. 

However, let’s remake that meal. Let’s do a little bit less oatmeal. Let’s add some nut butter to that. Let’s put a tablespoon of nut butter in there. Okay. Let’s change that banana over to some low-glycemic berries. Then let’s add an egg or two. You have now added some protein and some fat to your carbs. You’re going to balance out. You’re not going to have that same spike. Same thing. If you’re going to have that birthday cake, it’s your birthday, and you’re going to celebrate. Can we have it after we’ve had a higher protein, fat, and fibrous meal? Can we add it after? That’s going to change your blood sugar there. That is critical. Not only eating unprocessed natural foods but are we going to balance and eat the combinations of foods that? 

The next thing is modified fasting, giving yourself a longer break between meals. Many of you have heard of intermittent fasting, which means you’re eating all your food within 4 to 6 hours. I don’t know that I necessarily recommend this for diabetics or pre-diabetics. However, giving yourself a longer span between meals gives your body a chance to not have high blood sugars, to not be raising them, and to not create issues. When we eat continuously throughout the day, we’re continually secreting insulin. We’re continually going to be hungry, and we’re not in fat-burning mode. We’re going to continue to have this issue going on. 

I want to add to that if you are saying, Okay, Natalie, I’m doing those things; I’m trying it; I’m wearing a glucose monitor; I know what’s going on. Are you finger-pricking in addition to your glucose monitor? Because those can be vastly off by 20, 30, or 40 points, even so, it’s not true. It’s a guide, but you need something to compare notes to that. Those are some of the of the main things there.

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s great. Again a beautiful summary. Thank you for that. Clear, compelling, and accurate. I think that people sometimes hear what they want to hear. Yes, they have bad sources of information, and they don’t know enough themselves to understand that what that person said may have a nugget, a kernel of truth or accuracy, but it wasn’t the whole picture. It wasn’t relevant to what they needed.

Natalie Jill

Well, take carrots. I hear it all the time. Carrots make me fat. It’s going to make me fat. I can’t eat carrots. I’m a diabetic. Nobody got obese eating carrots. No one became diabetic from a carrot. However, are you eating bags of carrots by themselves without anything else that could spike your blood sugar or something? I guess… But carrots in themselves are not bad for you. It’s just. Are we combining them? Can we have it with some hummus and some olive oil? It makes a big difference in your impact.

Beverly Yates, ND

Absolutely. It’s one of the things I don’t know if it’s a cultural phenomenon just here in the U.S. or maybe it’s in other parts of the world, too, where people will obsess over one or two things. Yes, that’s either the cure or it’s evil. Yes, just out of proportion I don’t know why.

Natalie Jill

Somebody sent me a message the other day. I was sharing what I do, pre-workout, and I happened to mention that was the one time I didn’t. It’s a whole other topic, but it was one time a day that I didn’t eat fat. I’ll have some protein and some simple carbs. Someone said that if you combine protein and fruit, which you should never do, you will eat your own body. I’m, what? Where do people get these things? These are, listen, if something sounds like whack a noodle, it is whack a noodle. Like tea. I believe in simple things that make sense. Doesn’t it make sense that you should eat foods that once grew? Doesn’t it make sense that you should eat unprocessed natural foods that are not made in a factory? Doesn’t it make sense that you would balance protein, carbs, and fats? It makes sense.

Beverly Yates, ND

It makes sense. Sometimes we’ve just got to go with what makes sense. It doesn’t have to be weird or exotic at all.

Natalie Jill

Also, I want to think about fruit for a minute because people have villainized fruit and fruits. Amazing. However, think about just how fruit comes about and how it grows. It grows on a tree, for example; this is, I think, back in big, ancient times for a minute. You’re on a walk, you’re on a hike, and you’re tired, sweating, and hungry. You grab that apple off that tree, and you eat it. It’s to give you that energy, then. It was never meant to be smushed into 20 apples, added to high fructose corn syrup, baked with flour, and turned into a pie. That’s a whole other level of sugar.

Beverly Yates, ND

Do you mean to say that back in the day, thousands, thousands of years ago, people didn’t have a handy oven? Well, for sure. Sugar and butter to make a pie? 

Natalie Jill

Yes, exactly. 

Beverly Yates, ND

While they were trying to survive it.

Natalie Jill

It’s when people take an apple. An apple is great for you, but in what context and how are you eating it? There were many things I wanted before you recorded this session, one of which was an apple. I had them on my counter. I was like, I want an apple. I wanted it with pumpkin spices. That’s what I wanted. But I had a tablespoon of peanut butter with it because, as I know, that’s going to work better in my body than just having the apple.

Beverly Yates, ND

Absolutely. Just keeping it simple. Even if you travel, friends, take those nut butter with your seed butter. No problem. It could be the seed butter, and there’s plenty of it available. Read the labels.

Natalie Jill

Yes. So many things.

Beverly Yates, ND

There are those with No added sugars now. Always a win. Okay, great. Thank you for shouting that out. Okay, so as we’re looking at this, talking about exercise, all about nutrition, let us get to the core of why I think we’re many of us because, look, we’re all humans where we struggle, which is around mindset.

Natalie Jill

Yes.

Beverly Yates, ND

Why are people get wrong about mindset? 

Natalie Jill

Okay. My favorite topic. First of all, don’t tune out because we lose that mindset. That’s the first thing you do wrong because people go, It’s not in my head. I have the mindset. This is the most important thing. When women come to my programs, the number one thing, that I make them do is, this is not optional work with me, we spent two weeks on this. This is mission-critical. This is a foundation. Let me explain it this way. If we were to build our dream house on sand, what would happen to the house?

Beverly Yates, ND

It would collapse.

Natalie Jill

It would collapse. The sooner there is a storm or whatever, it’s not going to last. When we make a foundation, put the concrete in, and build it right, the house could last forever—one or two years. Okay. What I teach is, state, plate, and weight. The state is your mindset. The plate is your food and weight is what we talked about with the workouts. 

Your mindset is the most critical piece. It is the foundation. What does that look like? I’m going to give you some simple breakdowns here. Number one, what are you deciding? Because we are making decisions every day, all day, about what our future is. What is your decision? Is this your decision, Nothing works for me. I’m too old. I was just diagnosed with diabetes. Everything’s falling apart. Nothing’s going to. I shouldn’t even bother. Is that your decision? Is this your decision, Everything’s hard. Everything is just a thing. Everything’s hard. My body is changing. Or is it your decision? Hey, this is my age. This is who I am. I’m going to be in the best possible shape in my life. Are you deciding? I’m going to figure this out. Just a quick story about this. 

The reason I reached out to Dr. Yates months ago was that I had crazy blood sugar dysregulation. I thought this made no sense. My decision could have been that my doctor said, Go on, metformin. Okay, I’ll go on metformin. But my decision was not that. I decide that I’m fully knowledgeable. I understand food, and I understand exercise. There’s no way I’m a Type 2 diabetic. There’s just something that’s not right. I went on a mission because I decided that was not my reality. I talked to Dr. Yates. I talked to her, and what I didn’t have. I had a gut biome issue that is now resolved, and that was creating my blood sugar dysregulation. 

I share that because if I had decided just to accept the other thing, I’d be in a very different space now. Okay, so are we deciding that we’re living in possibility? Are we deciding we’re living with a problem? Are we deciding we’re going to look for solutions? Are we going to decide whether to enroll despite the circumstances and obstacles? Number one, what are you deciding? Deciding comes first, all day long: deciding what to eat, deciding to listen to this entirety, deciding how you’re going to spend your time, deciding if you’re going to move your body. Deciding—that’s number one. 

The next thing is being clear in your vision of what you want for yourself. What’s a vision? A vision is not all the things you don’t want. A vision is what you want to create for yourself. Maybe you’re listening to this, and your vision is that you don’t want to get Type 2 diabetes from the rest of your family. You’ve been saying that, but what do you want? Well, you want to be healthy. You want to thrive into your 70s, your 80s, and beyond. You want to be fit. You want to be—what is that? What is your vision? 

When people come to me for fat loss, they love to tell me how they don’t want to be fat. No. What’s your vision, Natalie? I want to be a size eight. I want to feel confident. I want to feel strong. I want to play with my grandkids. What is your vision? Get clear on your vision, and then operate from that space. You see, most people operate from their current circumstances, and they think their vision is so far away. I say no. Get grounded in what your future vision is and start taking the actions that that future version of yourself would take. That makes all of the difference. Your decision and vision come way before your action. If you get those two things nailed, then everything else is easy.

Beverly Yates, ND

Amen. I agree with you 100%. I think that has more power than it gets credit for. I think because it’s such an internal conversation, there’s no product to sell anybody; it’s a belief system. Yes. Then it anchors habits. Then, when you talk to us about the mindset, what are the other pieces that underpin this that people will have success with, and what are the speed bumps, triggers, or difficulties they might run into that are false flags?

Natalie Jill

Yes. Absolutely. Just to add to that, there’s something I call fat, and fat for me is falsely assumed truths. It’s not just fat on our bodies. That’s false assumed truths. I believe most people struggling with a diagnosis or struggling with their bodies are holding onto a false assumed truth. That’s when you’re holding onto a belief; it’s not factual. Let me give you an example. A false assumed truth is that you have a higher A1C. Therefore, you are diabetic right now. Therefore, you are going to be overweight, and you need to be on metformin for the rest of your life. 

Is that true or is that false assumed truth? It’s a false assumed truth because part of it’s factual. Now your A1C is high. You might be overweight, but the rest of it is a story. The rest of it is not subjective. You could change the rest of it. Now, if you believe this is doomsday, this zit, this is where I am, then you start living in that, and that becomes your reality. But if you decide, no, this is just something I’ve been told now. But I can reverse this. I can change it. You can create a new reality.

Beverly Yates, ND

Absolutely. It can make such a difference. It’s one of the things that’s always been so exciting to me about working with people who have Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes is that it is changeable; it is reversible

Natalie Jill

Absolutely.

Beverly Yates, ND

Has remission, regression, all of the RE words.

Natalie Jill

Yes. Or at least very much prolonged, like my mom. You can prolong it.

Beverly Yates, ND

You can prolong it. Do you feel? I’m certain. I’m sure you feel a certain weight. We put the question out there when you run into people, and we thank you so much for stepping up and helping your mom. I’m glad your mom listened to you because sometimes the experience we have is that we reach out to help people who change their diapers. They don’t hear. 

Natalie Jill

She doesn’t hear me on everything, but on that one she did.

Beverly Yates, ND

That was good. Mother and daughter are in a rich relationship.

Natalie Jill

Yes. 

Beverly Yates, ND

In that journey, do you find that people sometimes stumble over the whole idea of taking that personal responsibility for things, even when life is behind them?

Natalie Jill

100%. Yes, this is a big problem. Listen, if we stay in the blame game, we’re never going to change. The first thing to accept; it’s no one else’s fault. Period. End of story. It doesn’t matter what happened. Who said what? What you’ve been told? It doesn’t matter. None of that. It doesn’t matter, your genetics. It doesn’t matter what you did. It doesn’t matter that your husband makes you a cake every night. It doesn’t matter that your friends like to drink and eat sugar all the time; none of that matters. What matters is, what are you going to do about it. Who are you? What are you deciding? Where’s your role in this? What are you going to do about it? Personal responsibility is everything. It’s everything. If you don’t decide to own it and change yourself, then no one else is going to care as much as you possibly do in life. If you don’t care, why would somebody else care about changing you?

Beverly Yates, ND

Absolutely. Then, I think another piece to this other aspect is when you go to seek help from medical and health professionals and they don’t take you seriously and they want to leave you trapped in managing a disease rather than caring for the health, because those are different mindsets there.

Natalie Jill

My experience was horrible going to that. Before I had that call with you, I went to an endocrinologist. I might have told you this. I went to an endocrinologist for 5 minutes. any of my background, I know who I was. He didn’t care. He looked at my chart, and said, You need metformin. What? 5 minutes and I didn’t.

Beverly Yates, ND

Yes, I’m glad we were able to work together because, Yes. For so many reasons. Yes. That wasn’t the right answer.

Natalie Jill

By the way, I don’t want to. I brought up metformin a lot, and it’s, I don’t want to. I don’t want to make those bad things because I understand that it is sometimes necessary for people, but it’s about how much are we taking responsibility, doing what we can naturally, and adding conventional medicine as we need it, versus just jumping to it and using it as an excuse to the crutch?

Beverly Yates, ND

Yes, and completely ignoring or never supporting people’s lifestyles. One of the things I think is so interesting about medications, whether it’s metformin or others, is that, in my opinion, when it comes to type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, it’s buying you time to straighten out the lifestyle side, the mindset side, and the nutrition side. It’s not a replacement for those things.

Natalie Jill

Absolutely.

Beverly Yates, ND

Positioned as if it were the thing.

Natalie Jill

Even things like berberine, natural things that people take. I’m all for it, but it’s not a license to just go eat gummy bears.

Beverly Yates, ND

I’m glad you said that because people sometimes just trade the pharmaceutical thing for something.

Natalie Jill

Yes, I just take a bunch of berberine. But honestly, my gummy bears don’t.

Beverly Yates, ND

Yes, It’s just, again, a mindset thing. What goes on between our ears is so powerful.

Natalie Jill

Also blood sugar. Going a little high is not a big deal. If you think about what? What we’re using it for. If you need that energy, you need that. But that’s not how some people get into the nitty-gritty; I can never, ever do that. It’s okay if you’re timing things right, by the way. One more thing we didn’t mention with exercise is that just walking after a meal is going to drastically lower your blood sugar, too.

Beverly Yates, ND

It’s a cultural habit in certain parts of the world. Those tend to be places that have better blood sugar situations. Fewer in the way of the incidence of diabetes. But the whole thing internationally for diabetes is running completely amuck now with control everywhere. This is a moment in time where we have got to figure this one out. Otherwise, we’re going to ruin human history going forward, and our kids will be the ones who suffer because people are getting younger and younger with these problems that used to happen if you were in your 60s and 70s.

Natalie Jill

Now that we’re seeing kids with this.

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s as long as that doesn’t ever happen. You and I are so on the same page with this. Okay. Now we’ve talked about exercise, we’ve talked about mindset, and we’ve talked about nutrition. For those of you who are going to purchase the premium package, this conversation will continue. For those of you who are not purchasing the premium package, we’re going to hit pause, say bye for now, and hope that you do decide to purchase a premium package here for the summit.

Natalie Jill

This is an example of a decision here. How much do you want to take your health to the next level? Decide just to do it.

Beverly Yates, ND

Exactly. Okay. Next question now. As we’ve talked about, those three things are why people sometimes don’t understand or perhaps get the wrong income for these things. This is a powerful trio here. We’re talking about mindset. You’re taking the action, and the nutrition fuels the activity.

Natalie Jill

Great questions. It’s like a tripod if you think about it; nothing is going to stand up without all three legs. You need the three; you need the triangle here. None of this works by itself. You cannot just mindset yourself, and take action. You cannot just work out. You’ve got to have the nutrition piece, and you certainly can’t do the nutrition and the workouts without believing it’s possible for yourself. You’re going to. That’s when I hear people say, Nothing works for me. I’ve tried everything. That’s the problem. They have tried probably not everything because you haven’t tried everything, but you’ve tried a lot. The reason it’s not working is that, as you haven’t shifted your mindset, you have to believe it’s possible. You have to do all three. It’s not an option. It’s not negotiable. All three are critical.

Beverly Yates, ND

Yes, all three are critical. I think about my family’s health history on both sides, my mother’s side and my father’s side. My father’s side has rampant Type 2 diabetes and other kinds of diabetes, including type 1 pre-diabetes. The genetic hand is such that I have to be ever mindful, and I look at my mom’s side with heart disease, cancer, and problems with obesity, and I’m just, I have that metabolic trifecta, don’t I? 

Natalie Jill

You could have gone down that whole story. You’re a perfect example of: Is this going to be my story? Is this going to be who I am, or am I going to change it? Am I going to learn about it? I’m going to fix it. One thing that you do so well, and I believe I do this too, is that by teaching others, we solidify it for ourselves. It keeps us accountable.

Beverly Yates, ND

Absolutely. For me, it’s been a delight to be able to figure out the pieces of the puzzle and help others put the pieces together because sometimes we get these unusual reactions. You tease at the beginning something about bile, individual responses to food, and how sometimes there might be one or two foods you think of as healthy. You then maybe aren’t, and you use a glucometer, or you use a CGM, a continuous glucose monitor, or you might use to strip a little bit of blood. Yes, a fingerstick. A glucometer to figure out if you’re having an unusual reaction to an otherwise healthy food, because there are people who have unusual reactions to things like cauliflower, etc.

Natalie Jill

Or sweet potatoes. For me, they completely skyrocketed, and for some people, they didn’t. Yes.

Beverly Yates, ND

Okay. For you with sweet potatoes, with the sweet potatoes, with the skin on a sweet potato, skin off.

Natalie Jill

I don’t think I observed if there was a difference either. I don’t know that I tried that, but that’s a good choice. but I stopped wearing the monitor after I figured out what was going on with my situation for a while. Because that monitor can get a little nutty, it can make you a little nutty if you’re doing it all the time. But yes, you’re correct. Some people do not react to certain foods, and for some people, it will trigger others. 

Another thing I want to bring up too is that just because you think you’re eating healthy, you could be making your blood sugar worse. For example, you could be gluten-free. I happen to be a celiac, so I am gluten-free. I have to be. A lot of people just choose to be gluten-free or have a gluten intolerance. But typically, gluten-free processed foods are higher on the glycemic index. You want to do your thinking; you’re having rice noodles, and you’re going to do something healthier for yourself. You’re going to spike your blood sugar even more.

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s true. I’m glad you brought that up. Sometimes people will do one thing that they perceive as being healthy when it might not be the right move for them. They test on guesses. However, we’re doing the testing.

Natalie Jill

Also, I wanted to share. I was on the airplane not too long ago, and I was sitting in first class when I watched them bring the diabetic meal to somebody next to me. I just want to share that it was on this diabetic meal. Okay. It was yogurt with sugar, fruit yogurt with lots of sugar in it, a fake one, a Yoplait, or something. It was a bowl of oatmeal. It was a banana, and it was a piece of toast. Now, how is that diabetic-friendly? I just want to share that. This is so important to educate yourself because you can’t just trust the airplane attendant. You can’t just trust the chef at the restaurant. You can’t just trust your friend who’s making it. You’ve got to understand food and how you’re balancing it and making sense of it for yourself.

Beverly Yates, ND

Yes. Thank you for pointing that out. Last year, before one of my beloved aunts died from complications of type 2 diabetes, I visited her in the hospital, and the diabetic meal that they brought her was peaches. peaches and cream here with skin in on them. Yes. you’re bathed in is high for that fructose.

Natalie Jill

Yes.

Beverly Yates, ND

They brought her the oatmeal. Yes. They didn’t have nuts, seeds, or anything.

Natalie Jill

No. It’s completely the opposite of a diabetic meal.

Beverly Yates, ND

Yes. Two pieces of just plain white bread. 

Natalie Jill

Then what should you be having breakfast? Let’s talk about it. Okay, I’ll give you a few examples. You could have eggs with some avocado and some strawberries. That is a perfectly low-glycemic, amazingly diabetic-friendly meal. You’d be amazed at how you’re focusing your energy for the day having that. You could make a smoothie, or you could use low-glycemic fruit berries. You could add in a big scoop of nut butter. You can add some vegetables to that, and you can also add a natural protein powder. That would be amazing. You could have turkey bacon, and you could have some avocado with that and some low-glycemic fruit. There are a lot of things you can do that are not going to spike that blood sugar. You’re going to feel very different all day.

Beverly Yates, ND

Absolutely. Things that’ll burn even in your stream and also leave your brain feeling great. For some people, I find they are tuned into things around cravings and hunger pangs. Can you talk to us about that?

Natalie Jill

Yes. Okay.

Beverly Yates, ND

Fuze on this.

Natalie Jill

This is so if I were to get up today and instead of having what I just described for breakfast, I’m going to go make pancakes because I want pain. They’re gluten-free, and I’m going to have them. I’m going to be forever hungry for the rest of the day. Why? Because I’m eating a high-carb, high-sugar meal, I’m spiking more insulin, and I’m going to create this up-and-down crash. My body is going to constantly try to get back to the state of correction. The more you’re eating those high-carb, high-starchy meals, the more you’re going to have cravings because of this insulin spike. 

Now, this is where the low-carb keto trend came from. It’s okay; let’s get rid of it. It’s not so much low-carb or keto that’s working for you there. Somebody might argue that it is. To me, it’s more that you’re balancing the proteins, carbs, and fats—the types of carbs. You’re not having these high-starchy, high-glycemic carbs. For the most part, most people, not everyone, have cravings that come from that spike. Okay, what else causes cravings? Well, hormonal changes. Hormonal changes will create this. If you are not in perimenopause or menopause, then you have your cycle. You’ll notice an upswing in cravings before your body starts craving those extra calories. It wants those things for a reason. However, it’s dangerous just to keep to a craving because it’s a way to continue the cycle. You’ll keep wanting more and more.

 Another reason you can have cravings. Poor gut health. Now, people might roll their eyes at something like parasites, but 40% of people have parasites. They don’t know about that. That was the cause of my blood sugar, by the way, and those thrive off of sugar. Parasites will win. They will. They want to live. They don’t want to kill you. They want you to live. They will hijack your brain, and they will tell you to eat sugar. I’m telling you, I thought that was whack-a-noodle. Until I experienced it. It will tell you to eat sugar. That’s what happens there. Bad bacteria will crave sugar to survive. You’ve got yeast in your system. You’ve got to kill that stuff off. You’re not having those cravings. Those are the main reasons for cravings.

Beverly Yates, ND

Okay, super. Thank you for pointing that out. It’s interesting when, when we are inhabited by other organisms, they hijack our systems.

Natalie Jill

That’s right.

Beverly Yates, ND

To save it in their direction so that they can live at your expense.

Natalie Jill

That’s right.

Beverly Yates, ND

As we look towards wrapping this up, Natalie, what are some take-home take-away things you want people to remember when they’re looking to have better blood sugar control? To take responsibility for their outcomes, make sure their health professional team is helping them be well and not sick. All of that. What’s your advice?

Natalie Jill

I’d say, number one, make a decision now that you want to take this on. Talk with yourself. Is this important to you? Because that decision is where we have to lay our everything next, start mapping out your vision for this. Who’s on your team? Who’s on your team? I don’t personally choose to go to a general Western medicine doctor just because they take my insurance. By the way, insurance should never dictate your treatment. I understand it’s important. We want you as insurance. I understand not everyone’s in a position, but I just want to challenge you to think a little bit differently there. 

The cost of poor health is going to way outweigh paying out of pocket for a few great practitioners in your pocket. Have your Western medicine insurance cover doctors for some things, and make sure you are working with somebody like Dr. Yates, who is going to be out of pocket for a reason. They’re going to take more time with you. They’ve got the knowledge, they’re going to hole in to customize for you, but that’s super important. Make it part of your vision that you want those people on your team. 

The next thing is when it comes to actions; that’s after decisions and vision. But don’t take a hard look at your diet. Are you eating unprocessed natural foods? Are you combining things? Are you doing everything that you can, and are you getting real with yourself through your workouts? Are you progressing? Do you have intensity? Have a talk with yourself about that. I find that most people think that life’s not working for them. They’re not doing all these things. They just aren’t.

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s the truth of it, You have to find the combination that is going to work for you. While some of these things may sound simple, I challenge you. They’re not necessarily easy now. They will fail 100% of the time. 

Natalie Jill

Yes. You got it.

Beverly Yates, ND

Great. Thank you so much for sharing your insight and wisdom, your journey, and how you inspire and help many people reach for that. much better quality of life and getting that zest and joy back, because I believe we’re all meant to be well, and we just have to figure out how to do that.

Natalie Jill

Thank you.