I wanted to take a few minutes and share a personal story about blood sugar. This is a story about me and I feel like it may help others to hear it. About a year ago, I ordered labs and looked at my fasting glucose, hemoglobin A1c and fasting insulin. If you have been following me, you know that’s how I like to evaluate a person’s blood sugar handling. I noticed that my fasting glucose was higher than I like (mid 90’s) and my A1c was just notch higher than I recommend. So, I want to be in alignment with what I counsel my clients to do, so I went on a journey to lower it.
I bought a finger stick glucose meter. I began to record data. I ate lower in carbs (although I tended not to be super high in the first place), I exercised more. All of the things I was supposed to be doing. And, it kept going up. So high in fact, that it got into the prediabetic range (morning glucose over 100). I doubled down. I fasted more. Ate less carbs. Still no change.
I was frustrated. I was frustrated like I see my clients when they come to me and tell me they feel like they are doing the right things and not getting answers. It doesn’t make sense. I decided I would figure it out. I knew I wasn’t insulin resistant because my insulin was really low on my blood work. That means that I am not creating a large demand for insulin from what I was eating. I calculated my HOMA-IR score and it was ideal. So, why was my blood sugar going up? I put on a continuous glucose meter to get to the bottom of things. That was much easier than pricking my finger 10 times per day 🙂
My husband is very skilled in the area of exercise physiology and we talked. He told me that I was chronically over-trained. I knew he was right, but I didn’t like that answer. I have spent years running. Running marathons, triathlons, ultramarathons, etc. And, I never recover. I don’t like to sit still, so I don’t. And, my body is paying the price. The very thing that should provide stress relief (exercise) is causing my body stress. As stress hormones increase, blood sugar goes up. I could go 16 hours with no food and still have a blood sugar of 110. It went up every time I worked out. The harder I worked out, the higher it would go. I ran a hard run and I was 17 hours fasted with a blood glucose of 156.
I finally took my husband’s advice. I took a week and I did no formal exercise. I stretched a few times and walked a leisurely mile a couple of times, but my heart rate never really went up and it was very easy. And guess what? My blood sugar dropped like a rock. It took about 4 days, but it was in the low 80’s in the morning. I would eat, and it would go up a little, and then right back under 100. Just like it was supposed to be doing. I was suprised, and happy.
And then, about 2 weeks into this experiment, I decided to run some really hard intervals. My blood sugar went straight back up and stayed there for days. Back to the recovery. I’m about 3 days in to the second wave of recovery and my glucose is coming down again. I am going to have to keep plugging away until I find the amount and type of exercise that supports my health without beating me up.
I share this story not because I think there are tons of people running around over-trained. I know they are out there and I want them to hear the value in recovery, but most people are actually on the other side of the spectrum and need more exercise in their lives. The reason I shared this is to show the importance of listening to your inner voice that says “Something isn’t right” and finding a Functional Health practitioner that will listen and help YOU figure out what your issue is. Maybe it’s overtraining, but most likely it’s not… You will need to turn over different rocks in your journey to figuring out the root cause of your issues. I want you to do that. I want to see you have all of the health you deserve, so you can live out your God given destiny.
If you have any questions or want to reach out to find out if there is something you can do to help you on your health journey, please feel free to use this link to connect. Myself and my team are here to help!
To your health,
Dr. Jeni
