My Top Tips On Eating For Healthy Skin
As some of you might know, I have been on a bit of a journey with my diet and blood sugar. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with my daughter, Josie (I will discuss this more in this blog). While it honestly shook me at the time, it’s been a bit of a blessing of sorts, because it’s made me completely re-evaluate my relationship with diet and fitness. In this blog, I am going to discuss my personal experiment with CGM and my top tips I have gathered through it. This is also a perfect time for me to mention this is not medical advice. This is solely discussing my experiences and the changes that have helped me! There is a lot of controversy about CGMs amongst non-diabetics and my stance is they are another another tool in our toolbelt that should be used sparingly and with the data comes responsibility. They are not meant to be a toy, to make you over-obsess about every spike (glucose fluctuations are a normal part of our physiology), and should be used prudently.
Skin & Blood Sugar
Now I know what you might be wondering, how is blood sugar playing a part in “healthy skin.” Elevated blood sugar levels can speed up the aging process of the skin through a mechanism called glycation. In this process, sugar molecules bind to proteins like collagen and elastin—two structural components that keep our skin firm. When these proteins become glycated, they lose their flexibility and strength, leading to the breakdown of skin’s elasticity, which in turn accelerates wrinkle formation, sagging, and dullness. So believe me when I say managing blood sugar plays a huge part when trying to achieve “glowing skin.”
My CGM Experiment
As I mentioned, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes 3 years ago. Being diagnosed while pregnant was a wake-up call for me—not just for my baby’s health, but for my own long-term health and skin wellness. Since then, I’ve really put an effort into educating myself on blood sugar and putting my learnings into action. Side note: for anybody on this journey, I HIGHLY recommend reading Glucose Goddess, Real Food For Fertility (the author, Lily Nichols, was on my podcast recently and she is literally life changing), and Good Energy.
With that being said, I wanted to deepen this understanding and just take note of how my body is responding to food and movement. This is ultimately why I decided to partake in a little personal experiment with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM).
I want to emphasize that I will only be doing this experiment for a short time. While I absolutely want a better understanding of my glucose levels throughout the day, I don’t want to become obsessive with it. I firmly believe that food is a beautiful part of life and I never want to become restrictive with it! This is solely to help me go about my day-to-day with a little more awareness on my body’s response and prevent future health complications.
What is a CGM?
A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is a small, wearable device that tracks glucose levels in real-time, offering valuable insights into how your body reacts to food, exercise, stress, and other factors throughout the day. By monitoring glucose continuously, as opposed to just checking fasting glucose levels or performing occasional blood sugar checks, a CGM provides a much more detailed picture of your metabolic health.
CGMs are traditionally used by people with diabetes to help manage their condition, and in most cases, they require a prescription from a doctor or a diabetes diagnosis to be covered by insurance. However, more recently, devices like the one I use from Levels Health have made CGMs available to anyone interested in tracking their metabolic health—whether or not they have diabetes. It’s absolutely an investment, but I personally find it worthwhile to understand how my diet and lifestyle choices impact my blood sugar.
The device works by inserting a tiny sensor just under the skin, typically on the back of your arm (it honestly didn’t hurt at all)! This sensor measures the glucose in your interstitial fluid (the fluid between your cells) and sends the data to an app on your phone. You can see, in real-time, how a meal, snack, or workout impacts your blood sugar. Again, this is why I like using it for a short time! I don’t want to become obsessive with the numbers by using it non-stop and normal fluctuations are expected and are a normal response to food. The point is to keep myself accountable by checking in on how balanced my diet is overall.
My Results So Far
I have been partaking in this experiment for a couple of weeks now, so I am going to give you all a little briefing on my results/takeaways so far. I want to divide this by the non surprising results that just affirmed what was expected, and then the results that really surprised me!
Non-Surprising Results: Certain foods were almost guaranteed to spike my blood sugar. Foods high in refined carbohydrates and sugar, like pasta, ice cream, and desserts, led to pretty rapid increases in my glucose levels. I also noticed that if I ate something a little on the starchy side and then sat down for the rest of the night, my spike was especially high.
Surprising Results: What really shocked me was how even some seemingly “healthy foods” spiked my blood sugar unexpectedly. For instance, when I would get a smoothie that had even a small amount of banana or mango in it, I had a shockingly high spike. This is even if my smoothie included avocados and spinach, so I found that incredibly telling. I also love a GoMacro bar for a quick snack or a little treat after a meal. Even when paired with a high-fat and protein meal, these bars still led to higher-than-expected glucose levels. On the positive end of things, I thought coffee was going to cause a much higher spike than it did! I usually do a half-caf in the morning with some full fat dairy, and my body seems to respond well to it!
Tips for Managing Glucose Spikes & Overall Skin Health
After a few weeks of tracking, I’ve picked up several tips and habits that help me keep my blood sugar more stable. Again, not medical advice, just what seems to work for me! Here’s what has made the biggest difference for me:
Post-Meal Walks: One of the most surprising and effective habits I adopted was walking after meals. I noticed that a walk after a meal—especially a meal higher in sugar or carbs—made a significant impact on my blood sugar levels. For instance, after eating a bowl of ice cream, I hopped on my walking pad, and instead of seeing a dramatic spike, my blood sugar remained more stable. This is not to say you can eat whatever you want as long as you go for a walk. It’s just that when you occasionally indulge (or even on non-indulgent meals), a post-meal walk can make a huge impact! Plus, I just found this so helpful for my mental health and really encouraged me to increase my daily steps overall.
Food Order Matters For Me: Another effective strategy I learned is that the order in which you eat your food can significantly affect your blood sugar response (I actually talk about this in my podcast episode with Dr. Maria Marlowe). If I’m planning to eat something starchy like pasta or bread, I now make sure to start with a fiber-rich food, like a salad or vegetable dish. For instance, when I had pasta for dinner the other night, I ate a fiber-rich salad first, followed by the pasta, and finished the meal with a light walk. My blood sugar barely spiked!
How Fitness Plays A Part
While we already discussed how impactful walking can play a part in blood sugar levels, I do want to touch on how I have adopted other forms of fitness to help with my glucose levels. I have completely shifted my fitness focus to building muscle. From a health perspective, by building lean muscle mass, you increase your body’s ability to process glucose, even when you’re at rest. The more muscle you have, the better your body is at using glucose for energy, reducing the likelihood of insulin resistance. Beyond that, it’s made me look and feel so much stronger (my energy levels have improved a ton too)!
If you listened to my Fall Routine podcast episode, you would know that I have been a huge advocate for at-home workouts recently. I have been doing Evlo Fitness and Madeline Moves on repeat. They focus on form and alignment, which I love!! I’ve noticed that programming is HUGE. Just getting in a good sweat without any thought behind which muscle groups I was working wasn’t serving me (more on this coming soon). Aside from that, I have mainly just been using my walking pad (maybe the greatest purchase I have ever made) and walking outside when it’s not 95 degrees in Miami. This has been the combo that has made me look and feel my best!
If you are like me and constantly looking for ways to improve your skin & health, I hope you found this blog helpful! Also, if you are wanting a little more detail, make sure to listen to my recent podcast episode on “How I Eat For Healthy Skin.” If you want an update on my CGM experiment when I am done, let me know and I am happy to do a little recap!
Hungry for more? Check out my Comprehensive Skincare Guide in the Skinthusiast Shop!
**Disclaimer: This post does not constitute medical advice. Please speak to your Dermatology provider before adding any at home procedures or products into your routine!
***This post contains affiliate links.***
