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What if you could head into the holiday season feeling energized, nourished, and confident in your nutrition instead of waiting until January to start over?

Brigid sits down with one of BeingBrigid’s functional registered dietitians, Christina Palmasano, to talk about the fall Blood Sugar Reset and the nutrition strategies that can help women create more consistency around their health.

With more than 31,000 people having participated in previous rounds of the Blood Sugar Reset, Brigid and Christina share what makes this seven-day experience different from a traditional diet or restrictive reset. They discuss blood sugar balance, insulin resistance, protein, fiber, whole-food carbohydrates, plant diversity, inflammation, meal planning, and how to create a structure that still allows for flexibility.

Most importantly, this conversation is about more than seven days of eating differently. It’s about learning how to use food as medicine and developing habits that can support your health long after the reset ends.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode:

• Why fall is such a powerful time to create structure and consistency around your health
• What insulin resistance is and how it can relate to fatigue, cravings, hunger, and irritability
• Why eating “healthy” isn’t always the same as eating in a blood-sugar-balanced way
• The key nutrition benchmarks used to build the Blood Sugar Reset meal plan
• Why protein, fiber, whole-food carbohydrates, healthy fats, and plant diversity all matter
• How blood sugar changes may influence how you feel before you see changes in traditional lab markers
• What to do if you experience headaches, lightheadedness, or fatigue during a nutrition reset
• How to prepare for the Blood Sugar Reset before the 7-day program begins
• How to customize recipes for your preferences, family, activity level, and carbohydrate needs
• The protein powders, kitchen equipment, and bulk grocery items that can make meal prep easier
• Why structure and flexibility can be more sustainable than restriction and all-or-nothing dieting

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction to the Blood Sugar Reset 
• 02:03 Why Fall is an Ideal Time for the Reset
• 03:40 Understanding Insulin Resistance and Its Symptoms
• 05:49 How the Reset Differs from Other Nutrition Programs
• 07:42 The Role of Flexibility and Structure in Meal Planning
• 08:46 Expected Benefits and Early Signs of Success
• 12:49 Key Benchmarks in Blood Sugar Balancing
• 14:39 The Power of Phytonutrients and Plant Diversity
• 16:10 Joining the Blood Sugar Reset and Next Steps
• 22:15 Recommended Protein Powders and Kitchen Equipment
• 26:56 Grocery Shopping Tips and Ingredient Swaps
• 36:47 Adjusting Carbohydrates for Individual Needs
• 40:16 Transformational Results and Success Stories
• 41:48 Supporting Long-Term Habits and Lifestyle Change
• 43:17 Closing Remarks and Community Encouragement

Why Fall Is a Great Time to Focus on Blood Sugar

Fall can be an ideal time to bring more structure and consistency into your nutrition. After a summer filled with travel, vacations, social events, and a less predictable routine, returning to a meal plan can help create stability before the holiday season begins.

Rather than waiting until January 1st to recover from months of holiday treats and disrupted routines, the goal of the fall Blood Sugar Reset is to help you establish supportive habits ahead of time. The seasonal menu also makes this approach enjoyable, incorporating fall flavors like pumpkin, apple, cinnamon, and butternut squash.

What Is Insulin Resistance?

Insulin plays an important role in helping the body move glucose from the bloodstream into cells where it can be used. As Christina explains, when the body is repeatedly exposed to large amounts of sugar and needs to produce more insulin over time, the body can become less sensitive to insulin. This is known as insulin resistance.

The conversation explores how insulin resistance can be associated with symptoms including fatigue, hunger, cravings, and irritability, and why supporting blood sugar balance can be an important component of a broader approach to women’s health and metabolic health.

Brigid also discusses how many women reach their 30s and 40s and notice that nutrition strategies that once worked no longer seem to have the same effect. Rather than assuming you’re doing something wrong, it may be an opportunity to look at how your overall nutrition approach needs to evolve.

Why Healthy Food Isn’t Always the Same as Blood-Sugar-Balanced Food

One of the key distinctions discussed in this episode is the difference between simply choosing healthy foods and creating balanced meals. For example, a bowl of oatmeal and fruit can contain nutritious whole-food carbohydrates. But the Blood Sugar Reset approach pairs those carbohydrates with protein, healthy fats, and fiber to create a more balanced meal.

The goal isn’t to eliminate carbohydrates. It’s to understand how different foods work together within a meal and across the day. For women focused on improving energy, managing cravings, supporting hormone health, or improving their overall relationship with food, this balanced approach can be more useful than simply creating a list of foods to eat or avoid.

The Nutrition Framework Behind the Blood Sugar Reset

The Blood Sugar Reset meal plans are designed around several nutrition benchmarks.

Each day includes 100+ grams of protein, which is emphasized as an important priority for women. The plan also provides 30+ grams of fiber per day and incorporates 30+ different plants throughout the week.

The meals include whole-food carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, and a wide variety of plants.

That plant diversity is particularly important to the philosophy behind the program. Beyond protein and fiber, Bridget discusses phytonutrients and polyphenols and their role in supporting the gut microbiome and the body’s production of short-chain fatty acids.

This is part of the broader functional nutrition approach of looking beyond calories alone and considering the quality, diversity, and combination of foods.

Food as Medicine Without Restriction

A major theme throughout the conversation is nourishment over restriction. The Blood Sugar Reset isn’t presented as a rigid list of foods that are permanently “good” or “bad.” Instead, participants receive structure while also having support for real-life situations.

What happens if you eat at a restaurant? What if you have a glass of wine? What if you don’t like one of the ingredients? What if you have a family with different preferences?

The goal is to have strategies for navigating those situations rather than feeling like one deviation means you’ve failed. That combination of structure and flexibility is an important part of creating consistency.

How Quickly Might You Notice Changes?

Everyone responds differently, but Christina shares that increased energy, fewer cravings, and improvements in mood are some of the common experiences reported by participants. Some women notice changes within the first few days, while others need more time to adjust.

The episode also discusses using data from continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) and wearable devices as another form of feedback. Participants have shared changes in their glucose patterns as well as wearable metrics such as sleep and heart rate variability. The larger lesson is that the scale isn’t the only measure of progress. Energy, mood, sleep, cravings, performance, and how you feel throughout the day can all provide useful feedback.

What If You Don’t Feel Great at First?

Brigid and Christina also address something that can happen during a significant change in nutrition: some people may experience headaches, lightheadedness, or fatigue during the first few days.

Rather than simply pushing through feeling terrible, the Blood Sugar Reset community provides support and recommendations based on what someone is experiencing. Christina also discusses how individual carbohydrate needs can vary, particularly for people who are highly active, pregnant, or breastfeeding. This is one reason the program isn’t designed as a one-size-fits-all approach.

How to Prepare for the Blood Sugar Reset

One of the biggest recommendations in the episode is don’t wait until day one to begin preparing. Once participants join, they receive access to the program portal, meal plans, shopping lists, instructional resources, and the community. Christina recommends:

1. Logging into the portal and getting familiar with it.
2. Watching the how-to video.
3. Adjusting recipe serving sizes and reviewing the shopping list.
4. Reviewing the specialty ingredients list.
5. Joining the Facebook community when it opens.
6. Trying approximately three recipes before the official seven-day reset begins.

Trying recipes in advance gives you the opportunity to become familiar with the ingredients, grocery shopping, cooking process, and flavors before the seven-day program begins.

Protein Powder: One of the Most Common Questions

Protein powder is one of the most frequently asked-about ingredients in the Blood Sugar Reset because the type of protein powder can change the flavor and texture of the smoothies.

The team tests the recipes with specific protein powders, including Be Well by Kelly grass-fed beef isolate and Just Ingredients protein powders.

Christina explains that while plant-based protein powders can absolutely be used, some may create a grittier or chalkier texture in the smoothies.

The smoothies are intentionally incorporated into the meal plan because they offer a convenient way to combine multiple nutrient-dense ingredients in one meal, and many participants find that having a smoothie at lunch can support their afternoon energy.

Making the Reset Work for Your Family

Healthy eating doesn’t happen in a vacuum, especially when you’re feeding a family.

Christina shares how she adapts recipes for her own family by preparing individual ingredients separately when needed. Instead of forcing everyone to eat the exact same combination of ingredients, she may prepare protein, vegetables, and other components separately so family members can build meals according to their preferences. This is another example of how structure doesn’t have to mean rigidity.

Making Blood Sugar-Friendly Nutrition More Affordable

Protein sources such as eggs, organic chicken breast, ground turkey, tofu, and wild-caught fish can be purchased from wholesale clubs. Frozen vegetables, strawberries, edamame, nuts, seeds, nut butters, canned pumpkin, broth, olive oil, avocado oil, and other staples can also be purchased in larger quantities. Buying staples in bulk can help lower the cost per serving, particularly for ingredients you’ll continue using after the seven-day reset.

Swaps, Dietary Preferences & Carbohydrate Needs

The Blood Sugar Reset is gluten-free and approximately 90% dairy-free, with substitutions available for those who want to make the plan fully dairy-free. It’s also possible to follow the program as a vegetarian, although a vegan version would require significantly more modifications.

The team also provides a swaps resource for replacing ingredients while maintaining the overall nutritional structure of the meals. For example, one protein can generally be exchanged for another protein, and one non-starchy vegetable can be replaced with another non-starchy vegetable.

There is also a carbohydrate guide for individuals with higher energy or carbohydrate needs. This can be particularly relevant for people who are highly active, pregnant, or breastfeeding.

The goal is to add enough whole-food carbohydrates to support individual needs without losing the overall balance of the meal.

Using a Seven-Day Reset as a Long-Term Catalyst

The Blood Sugar Reset is designed to be more than a seven-day challenge. Brigid shares stories of women who have continued building on the habits they established through the program, including improvements in energy, brain fog, sleep, and other aspects of how they feel. The philosophy is rooted in consistency and accountability, rather than trying to white-knuckle your way through another restrictive diet.

When you have a plan, a supportive community, nutrition education, and flexibility built into the process, the hope is that you aren’t simply following a meal plan for seven days—you are learning a new way to approach nutrition. Because ultimately, the goal isn’t to be “perfect” for one week.

It’s to understand your body, use food as medicine, and develop sustainable habits that support your health through the fall, the holidays, and into the years ahead.

Resources & Links:

+ Watch the full episode on YouTube

+ Sign up for the Fall Blood Sugar Reset 

+ Join The Being Collective

+ Brigid’s Website

+ Brigid’s Instagram