Denise is a woman on a wellness mission. She joined Kari for episode 212 of The Well Podcast. As a health coach with many certifications, Denise has been working tirelessly for a long time to help people in her personal life and beyond.

Welcome to The Well Denise, tell us how you got started living a more non-toxic living health coaching lifestyle

Denise: At the start of my story, I was married and my husband at the time was going to Iraq. I started having a lot of panic attacks. At first they thought it was something adrenal or cancer, I had several scares initially. My daughter was about 4 years old at the time, and her preschool was noticing something in her too, they thought either ADHD or blood sugar. We did a lot of testing for her with regards to medical things, but they just left us leaning towards ADHD and mentioned medicine.

Something in my mom gut didn’t feel like that was it. I was talking to other preschool moms and they mentioned a doctor who practiced traditional Chinese medicine. So I took my daughter there and they mentioned blood tests, which we had already had done, but they said no these are different blood tests. They were going to prick her finger and magnify it on a screen. When they analyzed her sample, her blood cells were all corrugated and the doctor commented, “That’s excess sugar”.

That’s when I learned that excess sugar is in so many foods that we think are safe.

When we fixed her sugars, she seemed more normal.

Kari: Give us the basics of what you get from the continuous glucose monitor you wear?

Denise: It’s not a needle that’s measuring your blood. it actually goes between your fat cells and measures the sugar in your interstitial fluid - which tells you sugar is not just in your blood, it’s all over your body.

Anytime insulin is up, your fat burning turns off.
The more we flatten out the insulin curve, the more we can address the fat burning.

I’ve always had healthy fasting blood sugars so we’re told once a year, at best, that we’re fine. Even if you have healthy fasting blood sugar levels, you’re more than just one moment in a day.

My CGM was going off at night because my sugar was so low. I’m not a diabetic but I was spiking and crashing diabetic highs and lows. And overtime, this can raise your blood sugar levels through a compounding effect.

“Your body will respond with messages, but most of the time we don’t know how to listen to them.”

Often we’re told so often that “it’s normal” to have all these reactions: being hangry, needing an afternoon pick me up, etc. but it doesn’t have to be.

Kari: Exactly, I thought I was doing everything right and my body was turning on me. But then I started eating differently with fiber and protein and I realized I had been traumatizing my body. You might be thinking you’re doing all the things right, but consider that you may be shaming yourself and judging yourself and maybe not doing everything right but instead you’re working against yourself. I’m so excited for your program and to send women to it! Could you tell us a little about it?

Denise: The CGM blood monitor isn’t required for this course, which is called “Happy Mind, Healthy You”.

So much of marketing is the way we’re sold things..

“It’s not your fault its the faulty program that we download from culture, but it is your responsibility to fix it”

So with my program, I teach people how you’re supposed to feel and then we go into the core of the program which is the underpinning mindset of why you choose to make these choices for your health. This program is a 30 day program done over 6 weeks for 30 minutes a day. It’s Monday through Friday, and weekends are off if you need to catch up.