Wellness with Vanda
A women's health podcast where we'll be talking about hormones, mindset, motherhood, & everything in between. The host, Vanda, is a functional medicine nurse coach that helps women overcome hormone imbalance so that they can achieve optimal wellness. In her private practice she specializes in HTMA testing and DUTCH testing. Throughout this podcast she shares tips for boosting energy naturally, improve mood, recover from mom burnout, ways to increase fertility, ways to improve sleep quality, tips for pregnancy, tips for navigating postpartum and the fourth trimester, and more!
Wellness with Vanda
28: So I Failed My Glucose Test....Plus A Sneak Peek At The Wellness With Vanda Club
In this week's episode of the podcast I'm sharing a pregnancy update related to my 1-hour glucose test (spoiler alert--I failed) and how I am moving forward.
Then I'm sharing a sneak peek into the Wellness with Vanda Club that's launching June 24th! In this sneak peek I'm talking through some of the pre-recorded lessons that will be immediately available to you when you join!
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Hey, welcome back to the podcast. So today I want to do two things. I first want to give a little bit of a pregnancy update and then we're going to continue talking about the Wellness with Banda Club over the next couple of weeks. So today what I'm doing is giving you a sneak peek into what some of the lessons are that are already pre-recorded, already loaded into the membership portal that you would have immediate access to if you sign up and join when this launches a little bit later in June. So first up, let's talk pregnancy update.
Speaker 1:I can't remember if I shared with you guys here on the podcast about going for my one hour glucose test. For those of you that might not know, that is a standard routine part of pregnancy. When you get to that like 23 to 25-ish week point in your pregnancy and some people have to test sooner for various reasons, but that's just kind of like a standard time they send you for a one-hour glucose test and what they do is they have you drink this drink. It has a pretty significant amount of sugar in it and in one hour they check your blood sugar and they are looking to see how your body reacts and handles that big load of sugar and they're screening you for gestational diabetes, because some women develop a form of diabetes that's called gestational diabetes throughout their pregnancy and this can really impact both the mom and the baby and like the growth of the baby and also the baby's ability to manage its own blood sugar after birth. So that's why they do it.
Speaker 1:This is my third pregnancy, so I've done this three times now and I have failed my one hour glucose test with my two previous pregnancies. I knew that going into this with Kenley, my first baby, I did have the three hour glucose test and passed it with flying colors, because that is the next step. If you fail your one hour glucose test, they then set you up for a three hour glucose test and not to be negative, but it's not fun. So I chose to not do that with my second pregnancy because here's just a little reminder for you guys coming from you know your friend Vena, that's a nurse. You don't have to do everything they're recommending for you. Guys coming from you know your friend Vanda, that's a nurse. You don't have to do everything they're recommending for you. You have the right to refuse things if you don't want to do it, if it doesn't make sense to you. If you feel like there's an alternate way that makes more sense, now, obviously, discuss these decisions with your providers and come to an informed decision Like don't just refuse things out of being stubborn or being like I don't want to do that, but I chose to not do the three hour glucose test with Hollis, my second pregnancy, because it just didn't make sense to me. It just felt like if there was a question at all about the stability of my blood sugar and what my blood sugar levels were going to be, then it made more sense to me for us to monitor that a little more long-term and in real-life scenarios.
Speaker 1:The glucose load that they give you in these tests is pretty large and it's all by itself. It's the only thing you're getting. There are no other components, there is no fiber, there's no protein, and I knew enough at that point about nutrition to be like well, this is not really like a normal thing that I'm going to encounter in my day-to-day life. If I'm going to have sugar, and a large amount of sugar, it's going to be paired with a meal where there's other components and other contributing factors here, like activity or exercise, movement, the protein, the fiber. So, like I said I just I discussed it with my doctor, I told him my reasoning. He was totally fine you know they can't force you to do things but he was totally fine with me making that decision and just monitoring things for a few weeks. So at that time I did finger sticks, checked my blood sugar, was mindful of like my sugar intake, so like sweet treats and things, but I still like indulged in things when I wanted them and everything was totally fine. And luckily I did know enough about how to support yourself when you're choosing to have, like a sugary treat that's high in sugars, like what to pair with that so that your body can better manage that blood sugar and better respond. And I did an episode honestly in the beginning of the podcast about me wearing a CGM and I talked about some of this stuff. So if that's something that interests you or you want to dig deeper into specifically that topic, go back. It's like one of the first 10-ish episodes, I think maybe the first 15 episodes, I don't know, it's not that far back. So flip back and find the CGM episode because I talk about that stuff there.
Speaker 1:So anyway, going into this third pregnancy knowing that I was going to have to do this glucose test again. I didn't go into it very optimistically, honestly, because I was like I failed it the two other times. What's probably going to be different this time? I'm sure I will fail it. However, I did do a few things different this time One from the direction of my doctor and then two just some things I did on my own. So the biggest difference was with my first two pregnancies, they had advised me to fast before that one hour glucose test and I had both of them in the morning time. So that didn't mean I was like short-term fasting. I had been fasting since I had dinner the night before, so it was like a 14, 15, 16 hour fast by the time I got there to drink this heavily sugar loaded drink and have this one hour test with, again, no other components on board. So I was very excited this time that she was like no, you can totally eat breakfast. Like you know, be mindful of what you're eating. And I was.
Speaker 1:I got up that morning. I made a smoothie that was packed with protein and had over 30 grams of protein. I even increased the normal amount of fiber that I put in my smoothies. I did two tablespoons of chia seeds instead of just one, so that got me quite a bit of fiber. And then the instruction was really like one hour before you come to take the test, just drink water. Like don't eat anything in that time period.
Speaker 1:I also did gosh, sorry guys, excuse me. I also did like some movement that morning to like help my body. Even with you know, like anytime you eat something you're going to raise your blood sugar, like that is just going to happen. You can't, there's no way around that. It's physiologically what's supposed to happen in your body. But I wanted I knew even from my smoothie, because it had some fruit and things in it it would raise my blood sugar and I wanted the carbs that were in that meal, in that smoothie, to have an assignment. I think you guys have probably heard me talking about that before to give your carbs an assignment, give your sugar an assignment.
Speaker 1:So I did a little bit of movement that morning and then I also talked with my OB about using the fresh test instead of the drink that they have there at the office. If you've not heard of the fresh test, it's an alternative to the drink that they provide to you. Every facility, I'm sure, is different in like where they source the drink that they get, but a lot of them have a ton of ingredients, dyes, like just icky things in them, and the Fresh Test is like organic very few ingredients. It's a clean product. It's not expensive I think it was like 25 bucks for me to order it online and it tasted amazing. It tasted like something that I would just like normally drink in my day to day. It was like a lemonade. This is very good. I highly recommend it if your OB will allow it.
Speaker 1:Some facilities and offices don't allow it because it's not what their hospital provides, and if you come up against that objection from them, I would just encourage you to like talk to them about it a little more. The Fresh Test website has some like materials that you can even print and take into your OB office because it might just be something they're saying no to because they don't know about it. My OB was very receptive and she has like continued several appointments now to talk to me about it and has actually taken it to the other doctors that are there in the office, because there's multiple, and they have changed their policy now and are openly allowing patients to choose that option if they want to buy it for themselves and bring it in, openly allowing patients to choose that option if they want to buy it for themselves and bring it in. So she really like took that and educated the other doctors in the office about this. You know, because the fresh test is kind of newer, people are still learning about it and she spread, you know, that education with them. So I was, I was really excited about that as well, but anyway, so I did those few things differently.
Speaker 1:I looked at my supplements really intentionally for what I was going to take. The day before and the morning of I took kind of like an extra dose of my magnesium glycinate because that magnesium glycinate helps get insulin into the cells. I made sure that I took my prenatal before I went for my appointment, like I took it when I drank my smoothie because sometimes I take it in the morning, sometimes I take it at lunch. But I wanted to have that on board as well because of some of the ingredients that it has in it that could help support getting insulin into the cells. So went to the appointment, drank my drink. Like I said, it tasted fabulous and it I was supposed to have my blood drawn at exactly 11 o'clock and the tech comes in and she is like eight minutes early and I'm like, um, I think that I have like a few minutes left before I'm supposed to get my blood drawn.
Speaker 1:Like I think it's like eight minutes earlier. So is that going to make a difference? A text like, nah, no big deal Won't make a difference, it's going to be fine. I should have just like, especially knowing my own history and knowing that I had failed twice in the past, I should have been like I'm sorry, I'm really not trying to make this difficult for you, but can you please just come back right at 11, when this is due, and draw it then. But I didn't because, especially because I'm a nurse, I don't like to come off and make a big deal about something when it's like I will if I need to. I'm not scared to, but I try to not do it unless it's like something super duper important or really like impactful or life-threatening or I don't know. I just don't want to be perceived Like I'm trying to tell someone how to do their job because I'm a nurse, because it's not, because at that point it's not my place, like I'm the patient, I'm not the nurse in that scenario. However, in hindsight, I wish that I had just asked like hey, could you come back right at 11? Because I got my results and I failed the test by one point. The cutoff is 130 for my doctor and it might be different for your doctor and my result was one 31 and I'm like, okay, so those eight minutes probably would have made a difference, um, in this scenario. So I was irritated about that.
Speaker 1:Then I had this test at this point, like two weeks ago, and my doctor told me the day that I had the appointment. She's like, if you don't hear from us, you passed. You will only hear from us if you fail. I'm like, okay, cool, days went by. It's been almost two weeks. I hadn't heard a word from them and I was like, okay, it's like there's, she's just kind of given this like a grace period or a grace I don't know what I'm trying to say anyway and she's going to call this a pass. No, tuesday morning they call and they're like hey, a doctor wanted us to give you a call and let you know that you've you've failed your glucose test and you need to get the three hour.
Speaker 1:Super irritated, super irritated that it's been two weeks and they've not contacted me because that's just, I'm sorry, but that's unexcusable in my mind. For someone's lab results, it's like if it's so important, then shouldn't somebody be a little more on top of this? Anyway, that's a whole like that. That's a whole rant. I could get on and be an entire podcast episode, but that irritated me. I was just irritated with would be an entire podcast episode, but, um, that irritated me. I was just irritated with my body. Like I'm just irritated that I failed anyway.
Speaker 1:Um, and I had already talked to my doctor because I anticipated that I was going to fail this test. I told her I was like I don't think I'm going to pass this. I haven't passed it with my two other pregnancies. I don't think I'll pass it this time. So I was like here's how I would like to move forward if I fail. And I told her that with my last pregnancy, you know, I opted to monitor blood sugar instead and I said I would really like to do that again. However, if you're willing, I would like for you to write me a prescription for a CGM. I understand my insurance is not going to pay for it.
Speaker 1:Also, a gripe for a different day, because I think that's boring. If somebody is like has gestational diabetes or is being worked up for gestational diabetes, I think that should be covered by insurance. However, I was like I already know what the cash price is at my pharmacy and I'm willing to pay that to not have to do all the finger sticks. And I felt like it was a better way to monitor things to have the continuous glucose monitor. And she's like, yeah, that's totally fine with me, we'll do that. So the tech that called me I reminded her of that. I'm like my doctor and I've already had this conversation. If you'll just remind her she could send the prescription for the CGM, I'd super appreciate it. Whatever. Well, I already had a CGM here at the house from the last time that I had worn a CGM and I just had not used the last supply that I had.
Speaker 1:So I got that out, put it on Wednesday morning and have been monitoring my blood sugar ever since and things have been going pretty well so far. Um, wednesday was a little wonky, like my sugar. When I initially put it on. It was much higher than I thought it would be, but I slept like I didn't sleep like crap. Hollis slept like crap the night before, which led to me sleeping like crap and um, I think that had a lot to do with why my numbers were so like all over the place that day, and also sometimes it takes a little bit for your CGM to like calibrate. So sometimes that first day things will look a little wonky, or those first several hours will look a little wonky and it's not like a super true representation of what's going on. So yesterday and today things have looked much better. I did a much better job this morning.
Speaker 1:I struggle the most at breakfast to do something that's really balanced when I'm either not cooking a breakfast or I'm not doing a smoothie for breakfast. And it is summertime, so typically smoothies sound really good to me in the mornings, but they just haven't lately. So I knew that I didn't want that, and yesterday morning I didn't have time to cook something. So I was just trying to like come up with something I could pretty much like grab and go, and when you're doing that it makes it a little harder to get something that has enough protein and enough fiber to balance things out. But today I got up and I cooked myself some breakfast and my blood sugar has been super steady so far this morning. Just for reference, I'm recording this on Friday morning before you're going to hear it on Tuesday.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, I talked to my Instagram stories yesterday a little bit about this and about, like, my mindset around it and the drama that's been going on in my brain since they called me and told me that I failed because it's aggravating, it's annoying, it makes me feel annoyed with my. I failed because it's aggravating, it's annoying, it makes me feel annoyed with my body and there's like two sides of our brain, right Like there's the side of our brain that's very rational and knows like facts and then there's like the emotional side of our brain that has emotions and anxiety and just feels the feelings. So the rational side of my brain knows that, like I'm not doing anything wrong. I can't help that my body has reacted in this way and that, especially when it comes to pregnancy related blood sugars and gestational diabetes. There are times when it just happens to women that are like super duper healthy, that normally don't have any problems. It just happens in pregnancy and there's not like a clear reason why and there's also nothing you can do about it. It just is what it is and you have to monitor things and treat things as needed and the logical side of me and treat things as needed and the logical side of me, logical side of my brain 100% knows that the emotional side of my brain is annoyed with my body, is annoyed that I am someone that is intentional with my choices, my supplements, my nutrition, my movement, and I'm not perfect by any means, but I do know that I give it more thought and more effort than a lot of people do, and some of those people don't have any problems with their blood sugar and it's like it's just one of those things where it's like it's annoying to me that I put effort into this and I'm still having this struggle and I shared it on my Instagram stories because, you know, there's probably not like the majority of people that are in my Instagram community that are in this stage of pregnancy with me, that that specifically applies to. But that mindset struggle applies to so many things. It's like that happens with weight loss. It applies when you're working on your minerals and trying to replenish these levels and it's like it's just not coming up, but you're doing all the right things. There's so many things in life where it's like we're doing the most, we are doing all the right things and we're still not making progress.
Speaker 1:So I was just kind of sharing about my mindset and how I'm really having to, like coach myself and remind myself that this is really not a big deal. I like to wear a CGM anyway. So I'm trying to flip my mindset and look at this as like a cool experiment that we're doing over the next month or so, maybe longer, maybe until the baby's born in August. It just depends on how my levels are and that it's an opportunity for me to learn more about my body and how my body reacts to certain foods and scenarios and exercises and make it something that I'm not annoyed, that I'm having to do because my initial reaction was to be annoyed and you know, that's just, that's just life. It's just it happens.
Speaker 1:Okay, I probably talked about that a little bit longer than I really anticipated that I would, but it's kind of a big story and hopefully it's helpful for some of you that are either like pregnant now and are getting ready to go through this or are going to be pregnant in the future and we'll go through this, because gestational diabetes in pregnancy or borderline or failing that one hour test it's a really common thing. So anyway, all right, I want to jump into the Wellness with Vena Club. So if you missed last week's episode, I introduced full out for the first time what the Wellness with Vena Club is. You've probably like over the past few weeks and months, you may have heard me mention it here and there but not really known like what it was, and that was because I hadn't really like fully talked about it yet and told what it is.
Speaker 1:But I'm starting a membership at the end of June. It's going to launch on June 24th. It will be available for enrollment and the reason that I'm doing this is because there is these educational modules that I make available to my VIP clients that are doing like testing with me for their hormones and their minerals, and I have seen how impactful just learning those foundational pieces have been and can be for people even without the testing, and I know that cost is a big barrier to people being able to do the testing. Well, it's like I can give you the knowledge. I can teach you about your body, I can teach you about your hormones and about minerals and you can implement like new habits and even some supplements that like are pretty like standard for everybody and you could still see really great results and start feeling a lot better than what you do right now.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to incorporate this into a membership, because there are several modules so I didn't want it to be like overwhelming to someone that felt like they had to listen to all of them like right away or immediately or within a certain time frame. I wanted to also have a way to be able to offer support along with it, because that is one of the things that I've really been hearing a lot lately from my clients and even just people that are considering working with me, especially with testing, but just kind of in any capacity, that they're really looking for someone that also provides support. It's great to get the knowledge and have like these pre-recorded lessons that you can listen to and learn from, but you're inevitably going to have questions and you want a way to be able to ask those questions and for me personally, when I'm looking at like a program or enrolling to work with a practitioner or like some of these things that I do for my business or courses and things, if I'm purchasing something from someone, I want to know that I'm going to be connected to them. I don't have a problem with people that like have teams that work with them or have like teams of dietitians, teams of practitioners, teams of experts. But typically when I decide to buy something from someone, I want them Like that's who I have felt connected to, that's who I have felt like relatable to, that's who I want to talk to. So that's another reason why, like, I wanted to offer that inside this membership so that you guys have access to me to ask me things, because if you're buying something from me, probably I'm who you're going to want to ask. When you have a question, come up. And I've built in some other things like weekly check-ins to kind of like keep you on track. And we're going to do some fun things. In the last episode that'll come out I believe it's on June 18th, it's like the Tuesday before the club goes live and you'll be able to enroll I'm going to talk about some of the fun things that I have planned, because there's like going to be this list of stuff that's included off the bat, like you're going to get it, but then there are going to be pop-up trainings and guest experts and challenges and like just fun things that are happening each month in the membership to kind of help those people that like okay, I've been in the membership for a little bit, I've gotten through these like foundational modules, but now I want to learn more, or I want to hone in a little more on this specific topic, or I need help with this area.
Speaker 1:I wanted a way to also to be able to continue supporting that and building on that. So that is coming. Like I said, june 24th is launch date for that. What I want to do today I want to take you through the first three modules and tell you the lessons that are inside each module to give you an idea of, like, what you're getting access to when you join the membership. So it starts off with a start here module, because I've kind of like introduced you to this membership and tell you what to expect.
Speaker 1:I'm going to introduce you to something called the MSQ. This is a symptom questionnaire and tracker that you can do each month and it's a super powerful tool. I have my VIP clients do this so that you can see what is changing from month to month from a high overview, because when you're in it, you don't really realize the changes that have like occurred over the past month, because you're living in your body every day and these changes are sometimes very subtle and happen, you know, over a period of time and it's like you just slowly felt better and you you might have symptoms that kind of like go away or change or decrease, and you don't even remember that they were such a problem a month ago. So that's a really powerful tool that you would have access to. And then I have a bonus lesson in the very beginning that I offered Gosh. I don't know, maybe a year ago, maybe even longer ago than that, that was like it's called set up your week for success. It's like a guide to how to approach each of your weeks, like what things you can do to set yourself up for success throughout the week to align with your goals. So that's the start here module.
Speaker 1:Then we move into the properly fuel your body module. This is where we're going to talk nutrition. There is a lesson on how to build a healthy plate, so like what components and how much of each you want to see on your plate. There's a lesson on calories, because that is always a super duper common question about like how many calories do I need? Do I even need to worry about it? Should I track my calories. If I'm going to track, how should I track them? And I kind of get into all of that. Then there's a lesson on snacks, because that's also a super common question that I get Like should I be snacking throughout the day? If I am, what types of snacks should I be having? How do I put a snack together If I am hungry? What should I do if I feel the need to snack all the time?
Speaker 1:And then, with each of these, like content modules, these learning modules, I've put together a workbook and it's really where I have taken notes for you of the most important things that I said in each of the individual lessons, because I designed the lessons in a way that they can be listened to on the go. There's no PowerPoint slides. You don't have to watch me on video. I wanted them to be kind of just like this podcast, where you could play it and just listen, because I know that we're all so busy and that was really important. So then, moving on, we'll talk about the Mind your Own Mind module. There's so many things in here. This is a big module because mindset is super, duper important. It's not just mindset, it's stress management is really more so what it is. So I talk about 2NN, which you guys have probably heard me mention before. About 2NN, which you guys have probably heard me mention before, there's a lesson on speaking kindly to yourself, the promises that we make to ourselves, glass versus plastic balls, journaling, visualization, and then there is also a workbook that goes along with that.
Speaker 1:And then the last module that I want to touch on today we'll do some of the others next week is the Find Joy in Movement module. So this is where we talk about exercise. So there is a lesson on neat movement workout basics. I talk about somatic exercise. I give you some resources. There is a module workbook that goes along with this lesson. And then there is a bonus that I did a while back where I'm talking about cycle syncing, your workouts and kind of how that works and what type of workouts you should be doing at what points in your cycle, based on where you are in your cycle. So we'll pick up next week with the next module and I'll go through the rest of them, because there are like three to four more modules, but I know this episode is getting long and I don't want to continue to keep you guys, so I'm gonna leave you with that for this week.
Speaker 1:Again, as a reminder, the Wellness with Vanda Club is going to launch on June 24th.
Speaker 1:There will be a special offer, a special deal for the first 20 people that join and some really exciting bonuses that I'm going to throw in there that week for anybody that jumps in and joins the club with me right off the bat.
Speaker 1:If you want to make sure that you get those emails you see the promo for that you get in there right away so that you can snag it at like the lowest price and stuff make sure you're on my email list, because that's where it's going to be announced first. I'll also promote it on, you know, like my Instagram and stuff, but email list is always like the place to be, so it's always linked in the show notes, a way that you can join my email list. So if you've not done that yet, jump on there. I don't overload you ridiculously with emails or anything. I typically send an email on Tuesday mornings always, and then sometimes there's a couple, one or two more emails throughout the week, but some weeks it's just that Tuesday email. So it's not like I'm hitting your inbox every single day, cause that would be that'd be annoying. All right, so I hope you guys have a good week and I will talk to you next week.
