How Balancing My Blood Sugar Transformed My Health And Life

Introduction to Blood Sugar Balance 0:00

Welcome. I'm your host, Doctor David Jockers. And today we're talking all about blood sugar balance. One of the most important things when it comes to having great energy, great mental function, keeping inflammation under control and really optimizing our quality of life for longevity. My guess is Meredith Mann. And Meredith is a holistic nutrition coach and certified personal trainer. She runs the Peachy Spoon. That's the name of her website, The Spoon. And she also has well-made Academy online course.

And she's written a great book. It's called the Blood Sugar Balance Cookbook. If you're looking for a great cookbook with full of amazing recipes that help stabilize your blood sugar, check it out. The Blood Sugar Balance Cookbook. We're talking all about blood sugar balance. How you can achieve that for better energy, brain function, keeping inflammation under control, and really optimizing your quality of life today. So without further ado, let's go into the interview. Meredith, great to connect with you here. And again, congratulations on your wonderful cookbook, The Blood Sugar Cookbook.

The recipes look great, blood Sugar Balance Cookbook recipes look great, and such an important topic. Blood sugar stability is so critical for overall health. And let's start with that. Let's talk about why blood sugar balance is so critical and what we're seeing in our society when it comes to people, people eating right through eating food, but but not really achieving blood sugar balance on a regular basis. For me personally, it was life changing for me to stabilize my blood sugar more often.

I just always had blood sugar issues. I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia in 2005 when I was a newlywed, and so I was just having these intense crashes and carb cravings and not really like even self-control of food. Like I just would overeat, feel better, all the carbs. And then that landed me with insulin resistance, even though I was a healthy weight and eating like paleo healthy foods. So for me, I'm super passionate about that balance of nutrients on your plate. It just makes a huge difference inflammation wise. How you feel?

Mood, anxiety, mood. Yeah. Mood swings. It can be cravings. It's a blood sugar is like a step one to me to lower all the things, lower inflammation and just be the healthiest you you can. And so I'm super passionate about it. Yeah absolutely I'm with you on that. I remember, you know, growing up, my mom wouldn't get the cereal that I wanted for breakfast, which was like Froot Loops or, you know, whatever I saw on TV, she would get what she thought was healthy, which was Cheerios or cornflakes or Wheaties or whatever

Meredith's Personal Blood Sugar Journey 2:30

was marketed as being the healthy cereal. And of course, we tried to avoid fat back then, back in the 90s. And so we would have skim milk and banana on it and sometimes orange juice. Right. And we'd have that. And then it was like my blood sugar would just crash 2 or 3 hours later. So I was in school and it was really hard to pay attention because my blood sugar was really low. I had that reactive hypoglycemia. I would be like falling asleep. Brain fog in class couldn't perform, and once I realized how to stabilize my blood sugar, my brain came alive.

And I went from really a struggling student to the top of my class and, you know, revolutionized my health. So we have a similar story from that perspective. Now, obviously, you know, you've had this experience with blood sugar balance. What are you doing on a regular basis to maintain really good blood sugar balance? Well, I have like a general plate structure where if I have I keep carbs and starches in the same category, like even fruit and that kind of stuff, just because the way they affect our blood sugar.

But I try to keep those to an optional one serving per meal. So sometimes I skip it, you know, just focus on protein, healthy fats and non starchy veggies. So if I have a carb starch I try to keep it to one serving. But like I said it's a general structure. So no big deal if it's Thanksgiving and I have a little more or whatever, you know, like it's very freeing and not like food bondage or anything like that, but it really that structure has helped me so much. So it's like really off limits. Like if I want a piece of bread, I can have it.

If I want a muffin or something fun that fits. But I would like skip fruit and I would skip, you know, that kind of thing. So that's kind of my structure that really helps me. Also, I've been I love to intermittent fast some. I've done that for years. I'm trying to think how many years probably since 2017, like when it was newish. But I've been able to sustain that. I don't do it long every day or anything like that. I know you were into fasting, but I feel like that really helped me reverse my insulin resistance to so just lifestyle hacks like that, of course, exercise, walking after meals, that kind of stuff can really help stabilize blood sugar just from of one of glucose monitor for years, just on and off to learn more.

And so, you know, the little short little walk walks after a meal or that kind of stuff makes a huge difference. So I tried it when it's easy and it's not like overthinking and like, oh, I have to walk. I can't sit down after I eat that kind of stuff. I love to do those hacks and just make it part of my lifestyle when it's easy. Yeah. That's great. So you're wearing you born a continuous glucose monitor, a CGM for a period of time. So you're actually getting real time feedback on things that are working for you and things that aren't working.

And it can be a little bit variable. There's some things that are pretty much the same across the board, right? You mentioned some of those things prioritizing protein, getting healthy fats, fiber can all be really beneficial for stabilizing blood sugar, taking walks after meals, some of these types of things. But then there can be some variability with the way that we process different foods. Like for example, for me, if I drink one cup of coffee, I'm fine. But if I drink a little bit too much caffeine while I'm a slower caffeine metabolism, my blood sugar goes.

All goes crazy, right? So there can be unique things. I know for my wife, honey didn't seem to raise her blood sugar much, but maple sirup did right. And so crazy. You can have some of these kind of unique reactions. And that's the great thing about having instant feedback like that. Yeah. Have you noticed anything for yourself? Yeah for sure. And especially also like if you're under more stress or like you didn't like any kind of body stressor, you know, like didn't sleep well or part of a woman's cycle if you have PMS or something like that, any, any of those kind of stressors, like if I didn't sleep great, I'm way more sensitive.

So I kind of am mindful. I'm more sensitive to carbs. I'll have like a bigger spike from something that usually wouldn't spike me. So I'm trying to be more mindful with that. If I know I'm overdone over tired, I try, you know? And of course, that's when you crave all the carbs for energy, your brain. So it's like a double whammy and harder. But yeah, that real. The wearing the glucose monitor can be very eye opening, even like I do a smoothies a lot for breakfast with add five. It's not just for, you know, I add a lot of fiber and protein all all the help of fats and all that.

It's like a meal smoothie. But one time with my glucose monitor, I just popped a couple strawberries in my mouth while I was making it, and I had more of a spike that day. And it was because the order of the. So having that protein and fiber before the carbs can really it makes a difference for me. That's where I'm a blood sugars individual. But it was cool to see that because I was in a fasted state, and so just popping all those berries in my mouth did make a difference. Blood sugar was for me.

So little things that you can be mindful of to have those protein and fiber first

Daily Habits for Stable Blood Sugar 7:00

before the carbs, little stuff like that that you just wouldn't know without. Your personal feedback can be really cool to see. But yeah, Honey and Maples, I can't do honey or maple sirup like, I mean, it's a I don't do well. My recipes are pretty sugar free. Yeah, yeah, I prefer your type of recipes. I do better on a lower carb diet. Fruit I tend to do well with. But like you said, I. I try to avoid naked carbs. Right. So you know that idea of eating just fruit all by itself? I don't do well with that.

But I can eat it in a sense, like a dessert, right? So if I've had my proteins, kind of what you were saying there, if I've had my protein, had my fiber, then having it as a dessert, having a, you know, a you're the peachy spoon. So peaches are my favorite fruit. So it's like having a peach, having strawberries or something like that as a form of dessert seems to stabilize my blood sugar. Fine. And I do really, really well with that. Yeah, yeah. And I'm real active, so like, having some of the healthy fruit, healthy carbs actually feel better consuming that than if I go real low carb.

Yeah me too. And low carb I start to not. That's where I love low carb and it can be great. It's like a part of your healing journey, like keto like that. But for me to have energy since I'm so active, I do have my carbon most meals with my protein stuff. But yeah, even like because if you're somebody that's, you know, old school dieting, like counting calories or like you said, lower fat, that kind of stuff, like having an apple with like a little bit of cheese or with some nuts or nut butter, that would be way better for blood sugar than just having the 80 calorie apple.

You know, like it said, that's where I think just learning these little tweaks in nutrition science as it's always evolving, you know, and learning as we go, it can make a huge difference. Yeah for sure, because when you have that naked carb, it's immediately getting metabolized for blood glucose going up so fast. Whereas the protein having the protein the fat is going to slow down the release of that glucose. And so it's going to be a little bit more prolonged, but it's going to be slower. And that's better at its healthier more gentle on your body.

And so that's critical there. Yeah. And for me those crashes like I would have the spike in the crash. The crash I would have like these intense afternoon almost Benji episodes with carbs. And I was stuck in that cycle for a long time. And like, you know, diet starts tomorrow mentality and all that. And that's just not really a peaceful relationship with food. It's like I felt convicted about that. So yeah. So balancing on my blood sugar, I feel like that was even helped my relationship with food and just all of that and diets and just getting out of that cycle because I didn't have those severe crashes anymore.

And I have more like willpower ish and self-control when I have a little bit more stable blood sugar in that slower release, for sure. I mean, your overall mood, your temperament, the way you handle stress, all of that is impacted. You know, I always think whenever I hear about domestic violence and road rage and things like that, I think probably 80 to 90% of the time those people are dealing with blood sugar imbalances. That made them a little closer to the to to to being triggered, you know what I mean? Right?

So getting your blood sugar balanced, I've noticed, been much better for relationships with my kids, with my wife. Just so critical. Yeah. Patients factor all the things. Yeah I think what is it like? I think it's 90% of Non-diabetic have spike. Most people have spikes and crashes every day. I have no idea. So that's where it's like it's not just a diabetic thing anymore. Like this is just regular. Everybody could could really value their life by keeping their blood sugar more stable more often, for sure.

Definitely. And that reactive hypoglycemia actually is extremely dangerous, right. What happens is the brain cells, they need either ketones or glucose to produce fuel. And so if you're not good at, you know, burning fat for fuel and you've got this sort of insulin blood sugar roller coaster, you're not going to get the ketones into the brain. And then when your glucose drops, those neurons actually start to die. They're not able to produce energy. And actually having one medical episode of hypoglycemia and by a medical episode, it means you pass out. Right?

And so you and I probably been in places I remember being at church, I think it was about a year and a half ago, and we're in worship, and all of a sudden a girl drops down like she I mean, she just passes out, right? And it turns out, you know, she's a teenage girl, right? Probably skipped breakfast or didn't eat right, you know, eat processed foods or something like that. Doesn't eat well. And she has hypoglycemia, right. Has a hypoglycemic reaction that actually increased. If you have one medical episode, it actually increases your risk of developing a neurodegenerative condition like Oz Armor's Parkinson's Mantia by 40% later in life.

I didn't even know that. And I fainted on my honeymoon. So that's how I knew I had. So even more important that you're following these blood sugar. Now, I don't say that to say that if you've had that, like in your case, right, that you're going to get this. But it's even more important that we're focusing on stabilizing that. And that will reduce your overall risk if you follow what you're teaching in your book and what you're teaching in your courses, getting that blood sugar stable. But it is so important that we do that because by the time we pass out, there's been so much neuronal damage, actually, literally brain damage where these neurons are dying.

And when a neuron dies, it spills out calcium

CGM Insights and Food Order 12:00

and all these different excitatory electrolytes. Calcium is one of the main excitatory electrolytes, and that spills into the other neurons around it. And it creates something called neuro excitotoxicity, where it's almost like dominoes. One goes down and then you get a whole spill out effect with all these other neurons around it dying. So there's you get this neuronal death process, and that's why it increases the risk long term of developing neurodegeneration. So really important that we stabilize, you know.

Fortunately, if you're able to to listen to this podcast and retain this information, it means you get enough neurons to to do well in life. You just want to prevent losing anymore. That's right. But isn't that that's probably the science behind why I've heard. You know, some are calling Alzheimer's and dementia type three diabetes. You know, because it all starts from that inflammatory spikes and crashes your whole life. And I have dementia and my I mean, my my grandma. Yeah. But all my family, you know, it's very sad.

They might have had blood sugar issues like me too, you know, most likely. Most likely. Yeah. When it comes to any sort of dementia, Alzheimer's, blood sugar imbalances, in a sense, the foundation right for developing something like that. So yeah, really critical that we're doing this now. You mentioned protein getting protein and fiber in the beginning of the meal. Is there a certain amount of protein that you recommend for somebody to look for when they're, you know, actually consuming their meal?

Yeah, I think it can be. I mean, you know, that could vary from person to person. For me personally, personally, I feel my best at 30 to 40, even 30 to 50g per meal. But I like larger meals and I don't snack, so I do like usually most days I do three meals, three larger meals, and that makes me feel my best. So I love that. But of course you know it depend on their kidney health and all of that kind of thing. But yeah, yeah, you're you're like me. And that's really what I teach is typically at least 30g of protein, minimum 30g of protein.

And it's actually better blood sugar for blood sugar stability not to be snacking. So having one real good, you know, satiating meal and then waiting for five hours sometimes, you know, to have that next meal, having 2 to 3 meals a day with high protein, high healthy fats should be great. And that's really what you need. So yeah, I always recommend minimum 30g of protein, you know, and then some people can do high amounts of fat. Like for me, I can eat a high amount of fat and feel great. But then there are a lot of other people that they'll have gut issues.

Maybe they have sluggish bile ducts. They're not producing bile well. And so for some people, they need to watch the amount of fat. And typically your protein foods are also going to have fat with it. Right. And so for some people they might need some leaner pieces of protein. But I've found that most people can do fine on about 15g 15 to 20g of fat in a meal, so getting that as a minimum is usually what I what I try to shoot for. How about you? Yeah, I'm saying 15 to 20, maybe even more. It's funny, my first my break fast meal.

My first meal. I feel like that sets the tone for the day, for my hunger and cravings. I actually do more fat at that meal than any of the other ones, like I can really low fat lunch, focus on protein, veggies, maybe and that makes me feel my best if I do a higher fat, like if I did a higher fat of each meal, I just, I feel heavy and I just, I don't feel as good. But it's funny because that's where it's like the science is always evolving because, you know, it used to be I was still with even when I would see 1 to 1 clients, they would, you know, their doctor or whoever would say, oh, I thought you're supposed to, you know, eat every two hours to stabilize your blood sugar.

And that's where it's like getting out of that cycle. It can take some time because your body is going to scream for those carbs, like you said, because you're not used to like using fat for energy and that kind of stuff. But like, it is so freeing to shut off hunger for 4 or 5 hours after a meal and not have to think about food. Yeah, that's true. You always think about what I get to eat next, but it was because I wasn't ever eating enough. You know? I didn't know that I was playing nourishment catch up all day because my breakfast didn't have enough protein in it.

So I love a high protein, high fiber recipes, but all I try to make them easy. It's funny, I've written two cookbooks and I don't like to cook, so they are easy recipes, but they are happy and make me feel my best for sure. Yeah, I think that's what people are looking for is recipes that don't take you an hour in the kitchen, you know, but instead they're fairly easy,

Protein, Fat, and Meal Structure 16:00

fairly straightforward ingredients that they can find, you know, a typical grocery store and actually work and get you healthy. And you're doing a great job with that. And so, you know, one of the most popular drugs on the market now are these semaglutide peptide medications, right. You have things like we go. And what we found actually is that eating that amount of protein, eating high protein actually has this sort of similar effect where it activates this hormone GLP one glucagon like peptide, one that gets into the brain and stimulates satiety.

Right. And so that's really why people are taking these medications, are getting injections like $1,000 a month or whatever to get these injections. So they don't have the feelings, the hunger and the craving feelings. But what's interesting is that following the template, like you talk about in your book here, getting that protein actually has a similar effect. Activating GLP one naturally. Right. And so this is something that people can be doing to stop cravings, to help with fat burning, and to feel better on a regular basis.

Oh for sure. Yeah. Swapping to an upgrade teen was yeah, it was like life changing for me with my hunger and all of that. So protein. And then also, you know, I think the high fiber sometimes can help too. I love that psyllium put that in my smoothies every morning. But I feel like that the protein, the fiber, I mean all the all the things are important. But yeah, if you're not eating a protein and you just start there and start doing high protein meals, it will make you feel so much better. I just like it's amazing.

And then you can just conquer your day and be your best self and not not feel good all the time. You know you got it. You got it. Absolutely. Now you have three teenagers. And so I know the moms out there are wondering, how do you get your teenagers to eat? Well, what do you have any tricks with that. Yeah. So yeah, I mean that's where my recipes are pretty family friendly. They're picky. I always like to say I did not do the best when they were young. I gave them nuggets that way too young of an age.

They were nugget kids, you know, like, I. I didn't always give them what I could. Sure. So I've created these kids that are that can be picky, but they are getting so much better in age. So I'd say, you know, don't stress and they'll outgrow it. But they like to. They all are in sports and they want to be healthy. So like my boys after football, do I make them a smoothie with my protein powder. And and they like the high protein and all that. So they don't always love broccoli and that kind of stuff still.

But they do. Yeah. They they're into it. So I'm glad they what I could. Yeah. Yeah. That's what worked for me. I was an athlete growing up. And my mom actually, she was studying to become a natural path while I was a teenager. And so back in the 90s, it was like the diet that she thought was the best at that time. She teaches what we teach now, but the diet, she thought, was right at that time. It was a macrobiotic diet, which was like really bland. It was like Lima beans, you know, tofu and, you know, steamed kale with no spice, you know, no salt or anything.

And so I rebelled as a as a teenager. I was like, this is I'm not gonna eat like this. But the way my mom communicated with me actually incentivized me to eat these kinds of foods because my brother had acne. And so she would say, well, that's because he's eating all the sugar. He's eating these bad fats. All this process chocolate. I'm like, oh, really? Fried foods, French fries. I'm like, oh, I'm going to avoid that if that causes acne. And then I would ask, I'm like, why do I have to eat this kale or whatever it was?

And she would say, well, that's going to give you more energy. So you're going to be better. You're going to be I was a baseball player. You're going to be able to perform better. You're going to be able to recover better after you pitch. And so anything I could do to, to to be better, I was like, oh, really? Give me more, you know, I'll eat more. You know, I'll down some more. And so I think if you understand what motivates a teenager or a child, then that's going to really help. And teenagers usually have more motivation than young kids.

Young kids more all about pleasure. But teenagers, there are some things they want to feel attractive. They want to perform well, you know, things like that. And so if you could speak to that, I think that's really, really helpful when it comes to helping kids eat healthier. Yes. And I feel like, man, well, they're 14, 16 and 18. And just it's just now way easier because I did my middle one. He used to. And I've always been like a I mean, we'll I'll buy some junky or stuff sometimes. I just didn't want them to like sneak food at a friend's house.

I'm very passionate about, like your relationship with food said, no, we don't always have Doritos, but I would buy them every once in a while just because I don't want them to be scared of food or, you know, just really love all that balance. I try to do my best on that, but I still had my middle one every time I did laundry. It would be all these candy wrappers, like he would have candy in his room and all that. But you know, he grew out of it. But I just it can be tricky with that kind of stuff when they're, you know, ten, 11, 12, you know, little kids sneaking, you know, not the healthiest stuff. And they just have to learn.

They'll even, you know, eat the junk and maybe they'll get sick. I get a tummy ache and they'll. True. And then if you get if you link it. Exactly. Yeah. So cause and effect for most kids, they don't really realize that the processed foods they're eating are impacting their ability to pay attention in school. They're, you know, their their immune system, things like that. And so having that cause and effect, I think can be really helpful. And then the other big thing that I found is helpful is butter.

So like with vegetables like broccoli or whatever it is, it's like

Raising Healthy Teens and Family Nutrition 21:00

getting a little more butter in there, maybe some garlic salt, stuff like that. It's like if you get enough butter on it, they usually really like it. Yeah. Butter makes everything better. Yeah. Exactly. And then smoothies. They love smoothies. Yeah. Manju. Manju loves movies. And I actually created my own protein powder recently. I love meat and eggs, but not enough to eat it twice a day. So I have a smoothie every single day. And I wanted one that was really tested for all the heavy metals and molds and all that.

Since I care about my community, but my family, we all eat a protein powder every day. So anyway. So yeah, so I'm excited about that. But yeah, I love a smoothie. You can snake all sorts of stuff in there. All the veggies they can't taste. That's right. Now do you talk nutrition with them? I know I have four young kids. My kids are I have twin boys that are almost nine and a six year old daughter and a three year old daughter. And other than the three year old, even even she can kind of tell you like they know more about nutrition probably than, you know, a lot of adults.

Like they'll say, okay, I got to eat my protein, right? And so they are, they always know, like no dessert until the protein, until you've eaten your protein. And so they'll know what protein foods are they. You know, they can identify protein foods. They can identify, you know, all the different things and so healthy fats. And so I'll quiz them from time to time. And so they kind of have some working knowledge. You know what I mean? I love that because they don't learn in school. You're not going to learn that.

Or if you learn anything in food pyramid that's, you know, not our favorite. Oh yeah, for sure. For sure I love that. But yeah mine the biggest protein they always are asking about how much proteins in this. You know they love the protein and they know they need it. And it does make them feel better. You know, if they'll skip breakfast or my daughter's 14. But it's trendy to just grab an energy drink and not eat breakfast. You know, that's what they're doing. They're walking into school, they're doing.

And I'm like, well, how are you feeling all day? With that, she's realized her protein oatmeal with peanut butter on top makes her feel way better all day long. It's it's even like her afternoon. She was, like, hungry in the afternoon. And I was like, it's because you're eating breakfast and you're eating caffeine for bright, you know? Yeah. So they're all figuring it out as they go. But yeah, they they know the protein does make you feel better. I love it. Yeah. That's great. Now going back to your book, what are some of your favorite recipes in that in your Blood Sugar Balance book I'm excited about I really like the Powerball chapter.

That's great for someone that likes to meal prep, which not isn't me. Like I'm not a meal prepper. If you like meal prep, you can have the perfect containers in your fridge with that. But I love to make them as like a dinner, like build your own bowl. There's like the buffalo chicken, there's a burger bowl, all those, and you can do whatever toppings you like. And then of course the smoothies and once recipes. But also some of the dinners are super easy. The taco casseroles been really popular. And, you know, it's really family friendly.

And then there's a broccoli and rice casserole, but there's only like one. I think there's only one to be a half of. I think there's a half a cup of rice in the whole thing. It's all collie rice, but the kids don't notice because there's a little bit of the regular rice. So. Right, right. I love sneaking veggies and everything, but those have been some really popular favorites. Yeah, that sounds good. And then you're usually doing smoothies on a regular basis. What's one of the things? What are some of the recipes you like to put or you like to use for your smoothies?

Yeah, so I love a smoothie or my colleague bowls, which is like a warm version of this movie. So it's like I make oatmeal with breast cauliflower and there's no oats in it. And so either one of those is what I have every single day. But I always add, I do add the facility. I sometimes I'll do chia flax. But I love the psyllium huskies. It's all that fiber without any fat. And I like to add my fat and peanut butter. I'd rather add my fat in a fun, flavorful way because I love peanut butter. It's my thing.

So anyway, so yeah, I said, I add, if I do fruit, it's usually about a third of a cup or like that fist size if the recipe has fruit. But I have like Snickers rested. Let's see, they have a lot of sugar cookie. I mean, any kind of flavor you'd want because I don't want the same thing every day, for I have so many smoothie recipes. So they're all right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're all the same balance about 30 to 40g of protein and a lot of them like 20g of fiber. And then they have that 10 to 20g of fat.

So they're all that great balance. But I just love how you can put them even in a Yeti and bring it with you like it's good at room temperature for five hours. So it's kind of like a tool. If I'm going to be at the ballpark all day, I'll make a smoothie to have later when I break my fast. Or we, me and my husband even. We bring protein and husk in like little baggies when we travel, and we can just throw that in. You can, you know, make it work. Yeah. The interesting thing about smoothies are they can be one of the healthiest things you consume, or one of the unhealthiest things you can consume.

I remember growing up, one of my part time jobs when I was in college was working at a Smoothie King, and the average like the most typical drink, I think it's called the Angel food is there is their best seller. It's got over 70g of sugar in it, right? It's just massively processed sugar. And you have to like, like none of their drinks. I haven't been in there in a long time, but from what I remember, none of their drinks really have more than ten grams of protein. Unless you like request the add on.

You got to pay like an extra dollar or two to get it up to the certain level and you got to actually ask them. Keep out the added sugar, right? Like you have to like request it like the typical ones, like turn it on a sugar or something. It's like, oh yeah.

Favorite Recipes and Smoothie Strategies 26:00

Yeah. Exactly. And so it's just a blood sugar roller coaster right there. My favorite smoothie I always put avocado. I love the kind of pudding texture. So that's got the healthy fats got fiber in there I like avocado in there. I get raw grass fed milk from our local farmer. So that's my favorite. I've used coconut milk in the past as well, but I really love the raw grass fed milk. I'll use a combination. I'll use way protein, which is really the best as far as branched chain amino acids for helping build muscle.

But then I also will put in a little bit of a bone broth or collagen protein, which kind of balances out the amino acids got glycine, hydroxy proline and proline in there, which is really good for skin, hair, nails. So I've got that in there. I put creatine in my my shakes, which is great for energy, brain function, muscle, muscle building, muscle strength and performance. And let's see for gut health, sometimes I'll put in something called Mega IgG, which is which is actually immunoglobulins, which actually really, really great for for gut health.

So I'll do that from time to time. And then I use frozen berries. Right. So I like frozen just kind of a group of berries blackberries blueberries raspberries that I get organic from from the grocery store in the freezer section. Right. So I'll put some of that in there. Blend that up. And it tastes great. So yeah avocado makes some real creamy. Oh yeah I love to like add a bunch of real food you know. And there's even like yellow squash and zucchini. Like you can chop those up in through them in the freezer.

You can't taste those at all. Really? You put those in a smoothie. Wow. Yeah. Do you want more of, like, a smoothie bowl of fiber? Okay. With a spoon? Yeah. That's fun. But yeah, I love college. Is so good for getting your health. Like I always have that the add on like an optional adrift college. And if you want, you know. Right. But I need to try that gut health. I've never heard of that. What you were talking about. I need to try that. Oh, yeah. I'm, you know, globulin. Yeah, yeah. Bovine serum immunoglobulins.

It actually really good for, you know, for anybody that's dealing with gut issues. One of the best supplements I've found to to really help people get well fast is. Yeah, there's a company, Microbiome Labs Mega IgG. And we saw it on my Doctor Jocker's store as well. So whenever I'm dealing with somebody with gut issues, I use that. And I have a history of irritable bowel. So if I'm stressed things like that I'll get some gut issues. So I kind of use it more proactively. Right. Put a scoop it in my shakes.

And it's actually like a really great natural binder for bad bacteria, pathogens, things like that and help strengthen the gut. You know, you have your mucosa in your on your gut lining, which is where 80% of your immune system is right, and it helps nourish the overall mucosa. And so it's really good from that perspective. But in general, smoothies are great for the gut, as long as they're blood sugar stabilizing smoothies because they take mechanical stress. The has already done the digestion.

So it takes mechanical stress off the gut, which makes it easier for your body to process and digest. And that's great for helping the gut to kind of heal and rebuild. I've also had people say, wait, you know what? Smoothies. Not blood, blood sugar friendly because you're blending. It's like, no, we're not juicing. We're not getting rid of the fiber. Blending doesn't get rid of the fiber. It's still the whole fruit, you know. So I love a smoothie. Yeah. So if you got the protein, the fat and the fiber, then it's going to be blood sugar stabilizing.

Of course, you could go to Smoothie King and get, you know, a blood sugar roller coaster smoothie. You don't want to do that. No there's not yeah, there's I'm very wary about going out to those places or even the sea bowls and all of that. I'm like, you have to do an add on a protein, and it still is. Probably just ten grams of collagen is all they add. So like the amount of sugar. And then they put honey and sugar granola. And I would just way rather have a piece of chocolate cake like way way.

Right, right. It's going to be more enjoyable. Yeah yeah yeah absolutely. And then you know a lot of times you'll buy a protein powder and it will say mix this with like eight ounces of water. Right. And it's just put the powder in the water. Yeah. And that's really not the best approach. I mean you certainly get some protein there but you really want it as a meal. Yeah. You could on the go if you just need to get some routine. But that's not I mean that feels like bodybuilder ish too. Like I don't want to shake your bottle and just mix my protein with water.

And there's so many protein powders out there, but there's so many with weird ingredients and, you know, the gums and lectins and all those can be gut disruptors. And so that's why, yeah, a high quality protein powder could be a huge difference to without anything artificial or sugar alcohols and all the things that are sneaking in there now these days. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. A lot of times, yeah, people will get I mean, the old bodybuilder days was like they would be sucking down these protein powders and they would have so much gas.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you want to get something with minimal fillers, right. And and natural sweetening agents. That's key. Low sugar of course. Right. So that's key that you want. And again way protein is best for muscle building. Right. So like post-workout kind of thing getting that way. Protein in there. Collagen you can add in as well because we don't eat much. Clagett is kind of like the the cartilage types of animal products. You know, back in the old days, they would eat, you know, if you got a chicken wing, you would eat the joint to get, you know,

Protein Powders, Collagen, and Gut Health 31:00

the not not that they were thinking about the collagen, they were just thinking about calories. And it was just kind of part of part of the custom nowadays, it's like we throw those parts out. We don't make we don't really use the bones and the tenderness regions. And so we're kind of deficient in a sense, in some of the amino acids that are abundant in those areas. And that's where collagen or bone broth protein can come in and be helpful. And of course, you got like the gelatin, this stuff like leftover soup.

And then you cook the bones and it makes that gelatin stuff at the top. I always try to eat that. I try to just, yeah, reheat it back in and eat it, because I think that's the only time I'd get collagen from anything. Yeah, it's really good. I mean, bone broth, making your own bone broth is a it takes time. But it's a great strategy because inside the bones, whether it's chicken or cow, you get the bones. That's where the bone marrow is. I mean, that's where it produces your red blood cells, your white blood cells.

It's like liquid gold in there. And then even the cartilage that's kind of holding the muscles, right? It's called the tendon, which is part that holds the muscle that's got all of that college and protein in there. And so you got to boil it in a sense to to really free it up, make it easier on your digestive system. Yeah. But that can be really beneficial for, for your overall health college and supplements to the powder. That's what I use in my cookie recipe. So it makes perfect chewy cookie. It doesn't work in like the baked goods way proteins better.

But it's funny because all my all my cookies are have collagen. Because it does. It makes this like yeah, a chewy great texture. But that makes sense with the gelatin. Yeah. So it's it's that type of yeah. Yeah. Because it's broken down. It's not as creamy like the way protein has more of a kind of a creamy actually. The way protein tastes really good in smoothies got kind of a creaminess to it whereas the college in doesn't. So you're saying it works better with these kind of baked goods. Yes. Yeah. Of travel and aired it for years.

I know what works. But yeah there's collagen. Cookies are great. They work great. But yeah, I love a grass fed way. That's why that's the one I picked. That's the best, I think, for muscle recovery and all the in aging. And people can find your protein at the peachy the peachy spoon com they can find it there. And you also have a well-made Academy online course. Tell us a little bit about that. I do so I started out when I started my Instagram, I started seeing clients 1 to 1, and I just got a little overwhelmed with I couldn't keep up well, and I'm a little bit of introvert, so it was just like a lot for me to do more than like five a week.

That was just overwhelmed with it. So I decided to create an online course, which just me on video, and it's just all the things that's even like it was great that I worked with people Wonder one because then I saw everybody's pain point. So I have like different modules for like if you're pregnant in nursing, this is how we tweak our light structure for more nourishment. If you're in a pause, PCOS for men, just little tweaks, but it's the basics of like, is fasting good in the, you know, the season of life you're in?

You know how to like have that confidence of like, okay, I've had this many hormone stressors going on in my life. How long should I pass today? I just want to empower people and give them all the science so that they can feel like they know what they're doing and not like, I'm going to do a hit class today because it's Tuesday and that's what my diet says. Like, well, did you sleep good last night? Like, how can we tweak our exercise, our fasting, all of our any hormone stressors, all that stuff, our plate?

How can we tweak that just to be the healthiest US, you know, to be in age well, and just on our body and all of that. So that's what Well Made Academy is. It's just in its lifetime access. And then I have like a little community app where people, you know, ask questions, are we talk or talk about products we like or whatever. But it's been great. Yeah. Yeah that's great. Sounds like a great community. And you're working with a wide variety of different individuals that have unique goals. Yeah, because it does I mean, our nutrition are not lifestyle hacks, but, you know, like fasting and all and all those kind of things need to tweak.

Sometimes we can't just do the same thing always. So I like to empower people so that they have that knowledge of like they know what they're doing for sure. Now, you mentioned intermittent fasting earlier. How do you like to practice intermittent fasting?

Well Made Academy and Intermittent Fasting 35:00

So most days I have breakfast at Anderton and I have an early dinner that that works for me most. Mostly I like to eat. I always say like ten, two and six. That's like an issue of my meals that makes me feel my best. But like, for example, this morning I got up at five. The last two days I've gotten up really early and I'm starving at 730. So I just went ahead and ate and I'll just do like an earlier dinner, but it's it's unreal flexible. Like I'll even just do 12 hours some days. But in 12 to 18 it's kind of my happy place.

I found even if I do a 24 hour one, I just can't. I'm like, I'd hate my hunger the next day like I hate and feeling like I can't play catch up. So for me and how active I am, I do like a 12 to 18 hour fast most days. Yeah that's great. I always recommend at least a 12 hour overnight. Fast gives you a chance to kind of heal and reset. Right. And then yeah, if you can push it up to the 14 as a minimum and then you can push it up 16 to 18, even just two days a week, 1 or 2 days a week can be really beneficial for blood sugar stability or healing your gut, getting some autophagy, things like that, just becoming a better fat burner in general and stimulating more mitochondria.

Right. That's what we want. The healthier mitochondria, healthier we're going to be. That's right. And I just feel like I think what gets confusing in our world is when people are doing like a certain diet where you have to fast certain days. I really think it's great to be intuitive with it. If you're not hungry, don't eat, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know if you're white knuckle. No, I agree, I agree. Like go ahead and eat like, you know, I think with fasting, I think one of the big mistakes people have like an all or none type mentality, it's like I either have to do this every day or I'm not.

I'm just going to, you know, throw it out. Yeah. And rather than using it as a tool. Yeah. That's how it's been sustainable for me is that I'm not like not allowed to eat till 12 every day. Like I couldn't do that. But to me it's really easy. Some days if we have a lot of like sports in the evening, like I'll just go ahead and dinner at 4 or 5 and be done and go to bed on time. And, and then I'm getting along fast and I'm having breakfast at 8 a.m.. You know what I mean? Like, so around your day schedule, almost just kind of decide what you want to do and follow through with yourself.

But it's yeah, it's sustainable if you're. Well, that's that's great. Meredith, you're doing great work, guys. You can find her at the PeacheySpoon.com. It's an interesting name. Are you do you do you just love peaches like me? I do, and I'm in Alabama, so I thought I sounded southern and happy. I didn't want it to sound. I figured you were in Georgia, right? No. I'm not. That's the first. My husband said he's like, wait, we're not in Georgia? But that was just nobody had it on Instagram yet. I started my Instagram.

I was like, it sounds happy spoon related, but it doesn't sound like a diet or anything crazy. So I just went with it. Yeah, interesting. Catchy name. So you can find her at the PeachySpoon.com and she's got her Well Made Academy online course. Find her on Instagram as well. And then your blood Sugar Balance cookbook you can find on Amazon and of course on your on your website as well. Any last words inspiration here for our audience? I don't think so. Thanks for having me. I'm so I was glad. Real great to meet you and chat.

And yeah, I hope everybody enjoys this episode. I think they will. All right. Thanks so much, Meredith. God bless you and we'll see you soon. Okay. Sounds good.