Summary

You could be doing everything "right" and still riding a blood sugar roller coaster, with cravings, crashes, and mood swings driven by stress and not just what you eat, but how you pair your macros together. In this episode, I sit down with Kayla Girgen, RD, a functional dietitian, certified personal trainer, and founder of Nutrition with Kayla, for a full blood sugar masterclass. 

Kayla breaks down what a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) actually measures, why insulin resistance works like ‘sticky keys in a lock,’ and how to read your own data without a science degree. Kayle and I look at my own CGM history, to dig into how to read monitors and why you should keep your blood glucose levels looking like rolling hills vs peaks and valleys. The conversation also pivots to rucking—the simple, weighted-walk practice Kayla calls her "nature's Prozac", where Kayla breaks down the real benefits and exactly how to start with gear you already own. 

Takeaways

• Kayla's path to becoming a dietitian — chasing conflicting nutrition advice for 15 years, then her first CGM changing everything

• What a CGM measures and why insulin resistance happens — the "sticky lock" analogy for insulin resistance

• How to actually read your CGM data — rolling hills vs. mountain peaks, the 70–140 target range, and why post-meal dips matter as much as spikes

• Building a blood-sugar-friendly plate — half protein, half "slow carbs," and fat as your buffer

• Erin and Kayla review Erin's real CGM data live — reading meal patterns, overnight lows, and a hot-yoga pre-workout spike

• Client story: Lana — fatigue and 20 lbs she couldn't shake even after starting HRT, resolved largely through meal timing and composition

• How stress spikes blood sugar — the cortisol/insulin connection, and a client whose blood sugar spiked higher in one meeting than from any food that day

• Rucking 101 — what it is, how it differs from a weighted vest, and how Kayla got into it during the pandemic as an alternative to being prescribed Prozac

• Closing thoughts on sleep — the piece they didn't get to and why it matters as much as nutrition

Chapters

1:39 Kayla's 15-year journey from conflicting nutrition advice to becoming a dietitian

4:06 What is a CGM and how does insulin actually work?

7:51 What is insulin resistance, really?

11:42 How do you read blood sugar spikes and dips on a CGM?

17:32 How should you build breakfast to avoid a mid-morning crash?

20:12 Does black coffee on an empty stomach spike your blood sugar or cortisol?

21:24 What does a "blood sugar friendly" plate actually look like?

24:12 Why doesn't ice cream spike blood sugar as much as you'd expect?

26:27 Client story: how Lana fixed chronic fatigue and stalled weight loss that HRT alone couldn't touch

35:17 Erin and Kayla review Erin's real CGM data live

48:23 How does stress alone spike your blood sugar more than food does?

50:23 What is physically happening in your body during a stress-driven blood sugar spike?

54:27 What is rucking, and how is it different from a weighted vest?

58:18 How Kayla got into rucking as an alternative to Prozac during the pandemic

1:00:11 Can you ruck around the house while doing chores?

1:02:12 The one topic they wish they'd had more time for: sleep

Resources

CONNECT WITH KAYLA

Instagram profile | @kaylagirgenrd

Website | kaylagirgen.com

Free CGM guide: https://go.kaylagirgenrd.com/cgm-guide 

Ruck Fit on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4hhG0pl

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