Diet reviews can really help you to decipher if a diet is going to be the right fit for you. In this post, I share my honest opinion and review as a health coach of the Glucose Revolution diet and book.

There can be times when you feel like you are doing all of the right things and not seeing the results fast enough.

I know I like to have a little bit of balance in my life, my diet will never be ‘perfect’ and neither will my body. But I was interested to read this new book and see if a few tweaks to my eating habits could indeed make a difference to my overbearing sweet tooth which always seems to be my Achilles heel.

Have you ever struggled to lose weight? Hold your fat around your midsection? Need to eat every few hours or you get an energy crash, feel dizzy or uncontrollably hangry?

Yes, me too. And this is why the book ‘Glucose Revolution’ by Jessie Inchauspé (note this is an Amazon Affiliate link. I may make a small commission if you decide to buy at no extra cost to you) and her beautiful Instagram account caught my attention.

I certainly notice the times when I am being a little more relaxed with my diet, and how those changes in food choices affect how I feel. I can get really irritable and feel the effects of what we would often describe as having a blood sugar crash.

So I love the idea of simple hacks and strategies that you can implement, that don’t have to mean giving up your entire life to be able to put into place.

Are The Hacks Just More BS Diet Spiel?

Some of her hacks (which we will get into shortly) have experienced a little bit of backlash. One in particular from a popular and very outspoken PT from the UK who loves nothing more than to stir the pot and create a little controversy on his posts.

James Smith the potty mouth Personal Trainer from the UK recently posted on his Instagram account, stating that he would “rather be fat than eat his food in order which is borderline promoting disordered eating”

James is a huge fan of calorie and macro counting with his tag line often being ‘calorie fucking deficit’

And whilst I have always been a fan of his straight-talking no BS attitude, and I agree that a calorie deficit is essential. It’s not always that easy to abide to when your last meal was a bowl of cereal and now 2 hours later you are experiencing a severe sugar dip and if you don’t eat something now you fear you may pass out. Ok, that’s a little dramatic, but I know many people can resonate with this feeling.

Plus I for one hate counting calories, it’s boring AF, there is way more to life!!

I would love to see him being a little more open-minded and maybe consulting the research before bashing someone else’s life work, just because it’s a different approach to his own.

I like to test things out for myself before discarding them, especially when the symptoms of glucose spikes are something that I can personally relate to.

Why Balance Blood Glucose?

Jessie speaks about how balancing your glucose spikes can lead to improving hunger, cravings, fatigue, lessening menopause symptoms, reducing migraines, improving sleep, improving immune function and being especially beneficial for those that are attempting to manage type 2 diabetes.

These are just the short-term benefits she claims from the power of balancing blood glucose levels.

The longer-term benefits include improvements in chronic issues such as acne, eczema, psoriasis, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, cancer, depression, gut problems, heart disease, infertility, PCOS to name a few.

So some pretty big claims are being made about this diet. Though I want to be clear from the get-go.

This is NOT just about using these hacks and experiencing dramatic changes.

A lot of the hacks go hand in hand with a good basis of balanced nutrition, moving your body and adequate sleep. Let’s not ever underestimate the basics of good health practices. The foundations of basic health habits should always be the starting place.

** Whilst we are on the topic of applying the basics first. If you want me to lay out the exact steps of what that looks like you can CLICK HERE and join my FREE Better Body kickstart plan. **

Below I will outline the 10 hacks she uses, but I definitely recommend reading the book to get the full background and the science behind each hack.

The image below highlights some of the data she shares on her Instagram account and her own personal Continuous Glucose Monitoring readings after applying each of the different hacks.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jessie Inchauspé (@glucosegoddess)

The 10 Hacks

1. Eat foods in the right order. Eat your veggies first, followed by protein, then carbs last. — It’s shown that the fibre in your vegetables lines the stomach and makes the digestion of the whole meal slow down. The result leads to a lower glucose spike and leaves you feeling fuller, but also not getting the glucose crash after eating.
2. Add a green starter to all of your meals — Similar to having your veggies first, if you can take it a step further and start with a green salad before meals.
3. Stop counting calories — I don’t think we need a full explanation of this as I know it’s something that people don’t want to have to spend their entire lives counting calories, and I am all for this. This is more about looking at the quality of your food and eating more whole foods and not having to count anything. Remember the basics of healthy nutrition.
4. Flatten Your Breakfast Curve — This means going savoury for breakfast instead of sweet. Prioritising protein, extra points for adding in fibre and some fats in there too. This type of breakfast allows you to start the day on a steady glucose ride instead of a spike first thing in the morning.
5. Have any type of sugar they are all the same — Whether it’s table sugar or natural sugars like honey or agave, they all affect the body the same. So if you want some then just have it, don’t try and get fancy about it. They all spike your glucose levels in the same way.
6. Pick a dessert over a sweet snack — If you find yourself having a sweet craving, try delaying it and just have it after your meal. I love this one as it means you can still have your cake and eat it, just after your main meal.
7. Reach for vinegar before you eat — This is having a teaspoon of vinegar (any type though many find apple cider vinegar is often the most palatable) in a tall glass with water before meals. Vinegar before meals has been shown to flatten the glucose spike.
8. After you eat move — I have been implementing this a lot more and it makes good sense for aiding digestion as much as it does about flattening the glucose curve. It could be getting up and going for a 10-minute walk, doing a short workout, but it could also be getting up to do the dishes, or putting the washing away. I have been using this as my inspiration to have an added bonus in attempting to keep my house a little bit tidier.
9. If you have to snack, go savoury — Though we want to aim to move away from snacking and focus on filling up and eating enough at our main meals, so choose big filling meals over lots of small ones. But if you really need to eat something then choose savoury over sweet foods first.
10. Put some clothes on your carbs — This hack is for real-life eating when you are on the go and aren’t necessarily sitting down to eat a full meal. This means if you are going to have carbs, then eat them with fats, protein or fibre, those are your clothes as they slow down the glucose spike and how quickly the glucose gets absorbed into the body.

So there you have a brief outline of the 10 hacks, with most of which feel pretty subtle adjustments for those that are already making a conscious effort to work on their health and nutrition.

They all seem pretty doable, right??

This is what I like most about this approach is that most of these can be applied pretty easily.

My Thoughts

Whilst I love how Jessie lays down the science in simplistic terms in this book and gives lots of practical examples and tips from her Glucose Goddess community.

I LOVE that she shows how our glucose spikes not only affect our bodies but also our minds, and highlights why your insatiable cravings are not your fault.

There were a few things within the book that didn’t always sit quite right with me.

The first one (and it is a small sticking point) is that she still has the vocabulary that labels foods or eating practices as ‘good v’s bad’. This is always something that I am very conscious of when talking with clients.

Food is food, it’s not good or bad.

It’s just that some foods will help you move towards your weight loss goals better than others.

I feel we need to keep on moving away from demonising foods and labelling them as being in one corner of the other. This labelling only leads to the overriding guilt that comes after eating something that may be labelled as bad.

Though I think she does a really good job of talking about balance with eating and not having to completely restrict all foods, I found that right at the end as she was sharing her cheat sheets, some of the practices within there could be viewed as being toxic practices or starting to bring up some questionable behaviours.

For instance, going and doing 30 squats after you have eaten something to help flatten your glucose curve. Just feels like it could bring up really negative images of young girls working out after every time they eat.

Going for a walk or just more general movement, I feel this not only helps flatten the curve, but gives you more headspace whilst also feeling like it aids digestion too. This will always be my preferred method of movement, or even something as simple as doing some tidying up. You know, something practical than just randomly busting out 30 squats!

Starting Point

A Little Background On Where I Was Starting From first

I’m a health coach, I have been helping women get in shape and lose weight for the whole of my working life, some 18+ years.

I have tried many different diets across the years, many of those being what I can now see as being pretty toxic health and fitness practices.

I’m now more concerned with living a healthy happy life that also feels balanced and doesn’t have to consume my every thought or decision when it comes to the foods that I eat.

Balance is a keyword I choose to live by and also finding that sweet spot between body confidence at any size and also prioritising health and longevity. Ultimately feeling good in my body above all else.

At the age of 39, I’m now also navigating the changes that are happening to my peri-menopausal body.

I exercise regularly, sleep well and walk a lot daily. I eat a healthy balanced diet 75% of the time. Yeah I know I could probably get leaner if I notched that up to 80%, but I am just in a time in my life where I really don’t want that big of a restriction or rules.

I like to eat the foods that I love, live without feeling guilty around food and drink alcohol as and when it pleases me.

Over the last few years, I have been steadily gaining weight, though I have always held body fat around my midsection as an apple shape, the old mum tum has been continuing to increase on the tape measure.

I’m not overly concerned with losing a lot of weight, it’s more about me being able to maintain where I’m at and continuing to feel fit, healthy and full of energy and life.

Following The Diet

Following this diet was really not about making significant changes to my habits. As I said in the intro, Jessie claims that you don’t have to give up anything if you follow the hacks.

So it was to follow as many of the hacks as I could, at the times when it felt easy to apply them. Again this is a method she promotes within the book.

So I have not been ‘perfect’ in following the hacks at every meal.

The Results

It’s been a little over a month since I have been working on following the steps of this diet and I have not lost any weight.

BUT….

I’m taking this as a huge win.

Why?

Well because as I stated above, I have been steadily gaining weight previously due to hormonal imbalances that are likely taking place in my body, without having changed much in my training or eating habits.

In fact, as it’s currently summer time I have probably been even more relaxed with my eating and have still managed to maintain my weight over the last few weeks.

I’m finding that I am getting far fewer cravings and less fluctuation in weight that is usually caused by fluid retention either after overindulgence on some foods or alcohol.

Likes & Dislikes

Most of the hacks are pretty straightforward though I do have to admit, I’m getting a bit bored of eating my foods in order. There are many times I just want to enjoy the meal as a whole. But this is a pretty easy one when you stick with it, and I do notice that my post-meal sweet cravings are nowhere near as intense, so it’s something that I’m mindful about continuing with as and where I can.

I really haven’t done the whole green salad starter. I just don’t have the time or inclination to want to make another meal. But I have been just having something like a raw carrot with hummus (this is one tip she gives in the book to try out).

I really love being intentional about getting up and moving after meals and it’s something I want to keep on going with and I think this is my favourite hack.

I find it helps with my sweet cravings, and also it’s supporting me to keep my house a little tidier too as my post-meal movement tends to be something thrilling like doing another load of washing or my least favourite task of actually putting washing away. Please tell me it’s not just me that completely loathes that task??

I have a few times delayed my evening dog walk to after dinner, but I can only see that happening in the lighter summer evenings.

Conclusion

Diets and nutrition will never be a one size fits all approach.

You should always approach any new diet with caution, ask questions and be kind with yourself when approaching weight loss.

I am someone that has struggled with peri-menopausal weight gain and likely with my sweet tooth I am pretty certain that I have way too much glucose in my system. I found that this diet really had some significant benefits in helping me to curb what has been a pretty consistent weight gain.

So yes I’ll be loosely continuing to follow the steps, but also keep in mind that if the goal is weight loss then these hacks should be combined with eating a healthy balanced diet and a calorie deficit.

This post was all about reviewing the Glucose Revolution diet and hope you may have found it helpful on whether this may be the right diet for you.

Need more support in discovering a weight loss programme that is right for you? One that you can actually stick to without having to give up your whole life. Join us in the Better Body Coaching! CLICK HERE or the image below to find out more.