Maintaining stable blood sugar levels is important for maintaining long-term health and making daily life easier in the short term. With the help of modern continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology, this is easier than ever. But monitoring your blood sugar levels is one thing. Understanding what your blood sugar levels mean, and even better, how to improve them, is something the Hello Inside app can help you with.
Hello Inside is all about empowering you to understand what's going on in your body. With Hello Inside's data analysis and tracking app, you can identify patterns and track your eating, sleeping, and exercise habits. This way, you'll learn to understand why your blood sugar levels are stable some days and you feel good, while on other days you experience numerous spikes and feel low on energy and unfocused.
Not only can Hello Inside help you understand what's going on with your blood sugar, but its recipes, experiments, and coaching programs can help you take control of your health again. Find out exactly which food combinations, at what time of day, and in what order can help you keep your blood sugar stable. This will help you focus better, maintain your weight and keep your menstrual cycle on track, and get your body glowing so you never have to follow a one-size-fits-all diet or exercise plan again. With Hello Inside's help, you'll have all the answers you need to achieve your goals comfortably, healthily, and safely.
How does Hello Inside help me control my blood sugar?
The Hello Inside app takes the information from your CGM sensor and presents it in clear, easy-to-understand graphs and scores. These help you see which foods you should and shouldn't eat to keep your blood sugar levels stable.
Are carbohydrates bad? Can you ever eat cake again? What about things like pasta and rice? Should you avoid them? The truth is, no one can answer these questions for you except you and your body. And that's exactly what Hello Inside can find out for you. Some people find that cakes, sweets, and chocolate bars have little impact on their blood sugar levels, while for others, their blood sugar levels spike immediately after the first bite.
The first few weeks of using Hello Inside will be a journey into the secrets of your body and metabolism. The Hello Inside app gives you instant answers about the impact your habits have on your health—from diet to exercise, from sleep to stress. Once you have a good idea of what's going on in your body, you can start taking steps to make changes and live a healthier, happier, and longer life.
What are the benefits of improving my blood sugar with Hello Inside?
Have you ever had days where you found it difficult to concentrate? Do you sometimes experience severe mood swings or have trouble finding the energy to do anything? All of these things could be related to your blood sugar levels.
Your blood sugar level is an important indicator of your health, so taking steps to keep it stable can not only boost your energy levels but also help prevent more serious diseases like cancer, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases in the long run.
For women, stable blood sugar levels offer even more benefits. Many women suffer from discomforts such as period pain, PMS, and menopausal symptoms (e.g., hot flashes, mood swings, etc.). All of these unpleasant symptoms can be better managed when we nourish our bodies with foods that are best for them.
With the Hello Inside app, you can find out if your blood sugar level is the problem and how you can optimize it to reduce all the annoying symptoms you suffer from.
How do you start your health journey with your Hello Inside app?
As you begin your health journey, your Hello Inside app will guide you every step of the way, no matter your goal. There are a variety of features to help you gain more insights and keep you on track, but we believe that everything should come in its own time to get the most out of your blood glucose monitoring. The beginning of your glucose health journey is best tracked through these 4 phases:
- Furnish
- Observe and listen
- Research and experiment
- Well-being and check-in
For each phase of your journey, we have specific features in the app you can try or tips you can learn from. Below, you'll learn more about how to make the most of them on your trip.
Phase #1: Setup
To get the most out of your Hello Inside app, we recommend wearing a CGM to sync your blood glucose levels and understand what's happening in your body. Your subscription may include a sensor for you to use when you're ready, or you can purchase one to try at any time.
You will need to set up an account and follow the instructions in the app to properly attach and connect your sensor and begin recording your blood glucose data.
The programs
Once you've set up your app, you can explore it at your leisure! We encourage you to take a look at the programs we offer and their lessons. These lessons contain important information about what glucose does in your body and how and why changes lead to changes. Start now with one of the following programs, depending on your health goals:
- Glucose Foundation
- Hello Sugar
- Hello Hormones
Phase #2: Observe and Listen
Phase 2 of your health journey with us is all about monitoring your blood sugar levels and listening to your body! During this phase, you'll apply your CGM. You'll begin to see and learn how your blood sugar reacts to different foods.
The first few weeks of using Hello Inside will be a journey into the secrets of your body and your metabolism.
Tracking events & activities- Meals, snacks and drinks
Manually enter your meals for the day. It's best to also include the specific ingredients of your meal. This will be useful later if you want to make habit changes or experiment.
Once you've logged a meal, you can see how your blood sugar curve develops and changes as your body reacts to the food. After 2.5 hours, your recorded meal will be assigned a score.
Meal ratings range from 1 to 10 (10 being the best rating) and give you a clear indication of how the food you just ate affected your blood sugar levels. A low score means your body had difficulty balancing your blood sugar levels. A higher score indicates that the meal you ate required less control of your blood sugar levels, which is a good thing.
- activity
Diet isn't the only thing that affects your blood sugar levels. Exercise and physical activity can also have a significant impact. Exercise after a meal can lower blood sugar levels, while intense exercise can spike them. Unlike the reaction to a meal, a short-term spike in blood sugar is a good thing. You can tell your Hello Inside app if a spike in blood sugar is due to physical exertion by recording it in the app using the exercise log.
You can also connect your Hello Inside app to Apple Health so your activities are automatically synced. Adding your activities helps calculate your score.
- Mood
Last but not least, don't forget to enter your mood. How did you feel today? You might also want to add a stressful meeting to your log and observe what it does to your blood sugar. Whether it's good or bad, record it! This is an important part of your health journey to reflect on and see what improvements you've made or if there are specific things you'd like to work on.
Scores
During this phase, it is important to pay attention to the meal and daily values provided by the Hello Inside app when logging your meals and ingredients.
Daily values range from 1 to 100, but a value of 80 or higher is considered a high daily value. This is a quick statistic that lets you see how good all the foods you ate that day were for you.
Individually recorded meals, snacks, and drinks also receive an individual score between 1 and 10. These scores can help you determine more precisely which foods you should avoid or continue to eat in the future.
Phase #3: Discover and Experiment
Now the fun really begins! In Phase 3, you can try and experiment with different foods. After checking your blood sugar levels and observing how your body reacts to certain foods in Phase 2, it's time to make a few small changes.
Here are some of the features of the Hello Inside app that you should try or check out during this phase:
Experiments
Pancakes vs. waffles. Regular pasta vs. whole wheat. You can find some of our most popular experiments under the "Coaching" category in your Hello Inside app, or you can create your own! Changing just one ingredient in your favorite meal can make a big difference in your blood sugar levels.
When experimenting, it's important to try testing your desired ingredients with the same routine. This will give you more accurate results and help you see which foods your body responds better to and what makes you feel best in the long run.
Expert tips
With so much new information, you might feel a little lost about where to start. That's normal, and that's why we're here to help. Based on the previously recorded foods, you'll see some expert opinions and tips. These clues will tell you what to do next time you eat those foods. Review the suggestions and see if these changes help you.
Recipes
Looking for glucose-friendly recipes to try? We have just the thing for you. In the app, you'll find delicious and easy-to-prepare recipes.
Phase #4: Well-being and Check-in
You can be very proud of yourself! You've made it to the final phase—wellness and check-in.
Statistics and weekly reports
On the "Stats" page of your Hello Inside app, you'll find all the data and averages of your glucose curve. Here you can see the following statistics:
- Average daily value
- Average score for meals
- Average blood sugar
- Number of spikes
To give you an even better overview of your health when measuring with a CGM, you'll receive a weekly report of the last 7 days in your email inbox. Here, we'll provide you with more detailed information about your values from the past 7 days.
After 14 days of monitoring your blood sugar, we recommend you take a look at these two pages, not only to see where you can improve, but also to reflect on all the positive changes you've made!
Keep a diary:
Perhaps you've added your mood, energy, social interactions, or mental state during your daily journaling. Have you noticed any patterns yet? See if you feel different on certain days. Reflecting is an important part of your health journey.
What happens after these four phases? What happens next?
After completing your 14-day tracking phase with a sensor and going through all the phases mentioned above, you've probably already discovered some hacks and started incorporating new habits into your lifestyle. Now it's time to cement them.
With each round of tracking with a CGM, your sense of how your body responds to certain foods or activities will improve. You'll also be able to sense whether a portion of food was good for you or not, even without the direct sensor data. You can make assumptions and maybe even create a list of things you want to test and review during your next tracking period. These could include different habits, lifestyle factors, seasonal foods, sleep habits, exercise routines, and much more. With the next sensor, you can also check if your blood glucose levels have improved since the last time you wore the sensor and after you made your initial lifestyle changes.
After just a few weeks, you may notice further improvements or changes, such as better weight control. And in the long run, you may reduce your risk of chronic diseases, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and other conditions.
If you don't want to wait for your next sensor to arrive or want to test more, you can always purchase an additional CGM sensor. (Link) If you have a Hello Inside membership, you can even get the sensor at a discounted price.
You are not alone on this journey
Starting a new adventure can sometimes be scary or confusing, but we're here for you! Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions, comments, or concerns. You can do so directly through your Hello Inside app. Simply go to your profile page and search for "Contact Support." Or simply send an email to ask@helloinside.com. Our experts and support team will be happy to help.
