My (unplanned) summer wellness transformation

Tactical entry points and data are sexy

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Last week I chatted with

Liz Gumbinner

about one of my favorite topics: small life edits to create big, positive change. To frame up the conversation, I shared my perspective that general wellness advice such as “eat better” and “exercise” is grounded in good intentions, but is too vague and broad for overwhelmed, busy people to get their arms around. One of my superpowers—which is why I host a podcast called Edit Your Life—is identifying tactical entry points to vague, broad advice. It was so great to do just this with Liz in five key lifestyle domains. Give the conversation a listen!

And speaking of tactical wellness advice, I wanted to share about some transformative change that has happened for me in the past couple of months.

To back up, as some of you may know, on July 1 of last year I liberated myself with a professional leap into uncertainty. The past year has been amazing and included plenty of awkward growth as I have figured out a new pace, rhythm, and level of responsibility as the sole person to secure my business pipeline (compared to being part of an agency where someone else did the selling). I started 2024 wrestling with my fear of scarcity and uncertain about my consulting pipeline, and then to my great surprise and delight, by mid-May I hit my booked consulting business target for the year. And then the very next day, I signed another fantastic project, bringing me to 140% of my year target, assuming I choose to not book any other consulting projects this year. Right this second, due to a couple of contract extensions, I’m now at 148%. From a financial perspective, I am having my best business year ever. Thank you, liberation and leap into uncertainty.

Now, while this situation is great for business and things like paying for college, life is not—and should not be—just about work. And for me, when work gets busy, other areas of my life can get out of balance. This spring I found myself at times scattered and spinning and blah in other domains of life. I did not plan that this would be the summer of anchoring into my wellness, but in piecemeal fashion, out of necessity—read, sometimes desperation—I found myself digging in to identify tactics to support my end-of-day transitions, functional fitness, and planning and routine building to mitigate cognitive chaos. 

The tactics have been so effective! And then, to complete this unexpected wellness transformation, enter ZOE.

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Full disclosure: I am consulting with ZOE on their expansion into the U.S. (their HQ is in the United Kingdom) and they set me up with testing and membership so I could fully understand what was involved. However, sharing about them personally is NOT part of my job description. I’m sharing because I am a mega nerd who loves thinking about and sharing science and data and tactical steps to achieve transformation. And I also love food and began to struggle in a big way with inflammatory food responses in my 40s. The above referral link to ZOE will give you $35 off if you want to give it a spin.

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Today I want to share the full picture of my ZOE experience because it has been remarkable and unexpected and OMG THE DATA SIDE IS SO SEXY! I also developed my own little challenge once I got my results, which is where the epic transformation revealed itself. Let’s dig in.

ZOE’s Testing

I shared all about the testing in this Instagram highlight if you want to learn more, but in a nutshell I did the ZOE test kit in mid-May. It involved: 

• Wearing a glucose monitor for two weeks (which I found completely fascinating and I was actually a little sad when it was time to take it off; I started wearing it Friday, May 17)

• Eating standardized test cookies for breakfast and lunch one day (I did this on Saturday, May 18)

• Procuring a blood sample following the test cookies (Saturday, May 18)

• Collecting a poop sample (Sunday, May 19)

• Logging my nutrition in the ZOE app for 3 days; the point is to not adjust what you are consuming at all so they can get a read on your habits (May 19-21)

None of this was difficult or painful. For Mega Nerd Christine, it was actually kind of fun.

My ZOE Results

After sending my test material back to the lab, it took about a month to receive my results. I found the results to be representative of the multidimensional human that I am LOL. Here is the topline summary; the May 16 date reflects the date I scanned my test kit barcode. The score range is 0-100. 

I was most curious about my poor results. My poor blood sugar control score means that I am more prone to large blood sugar spikes (and potential dips) because my body is less able to handle blood sugar after eating certain carb-rich foods. This lined up with my own informal observations when I started to deal with inflammatory food responses several years back.

The poor diet assessment I found more surprising. I am someone who genuinely loves vegetables, lives on salads in the summer, and only drinks alcohol and eats dessert occasionally. Savory snacks are my main vice.

At any rate, I was happy that I had some crap scores because, YAY, ROOM FOR GROWTH! The point of the ZOE program is to help you understand how different foods interact with your biology to help you learn to make food choices that serve your body. So, for any given food you can see your personalized ZOE score and the recommended label regarding consumption (0-24 = “once in a while”; 25-49 = “enjoy in moderation”; 50-74 = “enjoy regularly”; 75-100 = “enjoy freely”) and how that food impacts your blood sugar, blood fat, and gut health. There is additional information you can see per food item but I didn’t want to overwhelm myself so I focused primarily on the ZOE score. 

Now, let’s get to the implementation and how I felt afterwards.

Self-Imposed Challenge: 21 Days of Tracking

Implementation of the ZOE results ideally includes tracking your food intake, and they recommended tracking for 6 weeks. I was already not wild about this part of the process based on my previous use many years ago of My Fitness Pal—whose calorie-focused nature I felt encouraged restriction, which I wanted nothing to do with. Also, given what else I had going on in life, six weeks felt like I would be setting myself up for failure. So I decided to see if I could track for three weeks, which would not only land me in the zone of the (not empirically tested as far as I know) “21 days to build a habit” idea, and also time well with summer travel and visitors, when I was concerned that tracking would get in the way of time spent with people.

What I Learned

1. Tracking wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be

Because ZOE’s tracking is about personalized food quality via the 0-100 ZOE food scores, there wasn’t the shaming feel of calorie-based trackers. In fact, especially since I was focused on high ZOE score foods, I was continually prompted to “enjoy freely” whenever I added foods with a score of 75+. Also, the app has a barcode scanner and the ability to import recipes via web links, photos (e.g., cookbook recipes), and by generating recipe approximations via AI. I used all of these tools to make logging my meals easier.

2. Chasing high scores was fun

Though I initially set out thinking I would try to focus on foods and daily scores of 50+ I quickly found myself focused on learning which foods scored 75-100 (“enjoy freely”) because if I had the tools to figure out the best foods for my biology that I could also enjoy freely, why wouldn’t I just do that? In my month composite view, look at the improvement in my weekly scores! Note that the first “week” only represents the preliminary 3 days of test tracking—which was actually May 19-21 but I think the June 16-22 date reflects when my biological test data triangulated with the app to create my unique food scores. It was also fascinating to learn about the additive nature of foods and how to build more well rounded meals for myself. 

3. Yay for plant diversity

One of the most fun things about the app is using it as a tool to get out of my own grocery shopping + cooking ruts. The target is to eat 30+ different plants per week, which is based on science around the impact of plant diversity on the gut microbiome. I totally leveled up my shopping adding different fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and herbs. I also hopped on the almond butter train and am loving it. I mean, look at this happy plant diversity improvement! Added bonus? I have talked about the 30 plants a week concept with my kids and it resonated. The other day when Vi was eating peas and corn at dinner, she said, “Hey, two more plants going in!” And just last night, I heard her telling Jon about the 30 plants a week recommendation, inspired by the fact that he had tossed lentils into the rice cooker along with the brown rice.

4. The evidence doesn’t lie for ultra-processed foods

One major way I improved my ZOE scores was reducing ultra-processed foods, much of which previously involved bored potato chip snacking in the late afternoon when I was struggling with my energy levels. Once I got rolling and felt the impact of cutting back on ultra-processed foods, it wasn’t hard for me to stick with. Also, once I was eating a wider array of plants and balancing my fiber and protein, I found I wasn’t hungry for or craving between-meal snacks, which has never happened to me before. The goal was to have less than 15% of energy intake come from ultra-processed foods. Here’s what my trajectory looked like.

5. My protein game is really different now

My ZOE protein target was 69-124 g per day and it’s notable that in that 3-day test window I ate a ton of chicken and steak because we had guests the first day I was tracking and we did a massive grilling situation, and then I ate a lot of leftovers over the next few days. The most notable thing during my 21 days of tracking is that I cut out red meat (which I only usually had once every week or two otherwise) because red meat does not score well for me and only had maybe two servings of chicken (which has a midrange score). Instead, I focused on fish and plant-based proteins in those 3 weeks and it was just fine. In fact, it was more than fine because I love fish and plant-proteins (especially beans, nuts, tofu, seeds) so why not just get my protein that way for the most part since I love those foods and they score well for my biology?

The app also tracks three additional things that I was already in good shape on: 1) fiber (the target was 30+ g and my scores ranged from 33-45 g), 2) lower quality fats (the target was 15% or less of energy intake and my scores ranged from 2-10%), and 3) eating window (the target was eating in an 8-12 hour window and my scores ranged from 7 hours, 2 minutes to 11 hours, 46 minutes).

6. You can still enjoy treats but learning your edges is important

Now, you might be wondering whether all I ate was sticks and dirt. During the 21-day tracking period I did primarily focus on foods that I love that are very clean and I also enjoyed a couple of glasses of red wine, some excellent truffle fries, a Vermont creemee, and this epic no-bake cheesecake. The key was balance across the day and also learning about my own edges. Notably, red wine and the truffle fries sat okay with me, but two other learnings crystallized:

• As much as I love baking and sweet treats, I need to be careful with desserts. As was made evident by the cheesecake—and my comparative response to just having about a few bites versus a full serving a couple of days later—high doses of sugar, especially in combination with carbs, are just brutal on my system. I’m just accepting that reality now and will be moderate in this domain. It’s also not a totally cut and dry thing with sweets because the Vermont creemee sat fine with me, so I’m learning my edges on this.

• My response to gluten is another area I need to respect. My dad’s memorial lunch happened during my 21-day tracking period and the naengmyon noodles were the only gluten I consumed in this three-week stretch and my digestive system ground to a freaking halt in protest following. The discomfort I experienced over the next several days was just not worth it and next time I am just going to be the person who enjoys all of the naengmyon egg and vegetable toppings but not the noodles!

🎉 The Transformative News: How I Felt 🎉

These metrics are damned sexy and by the end of these 21 days of tracking and learning how to eat, my mind was BLOWN. Here are the reasons why, with the caveat that I realize that the introduction of 30-minute weekday walks the week before I started my 21-day tracking is also a major positive—that said, I have had stretches of my life where I have trained for half marathons and struggled with all of the below things. By the end of this 21-day period:

• My energy is in a completely different place; notably, no more afternoon energy crashes! I literally have always assumed that afternoon crashes are just part of life. Turns out, if you are someone with poor blood sugar control, eating foods that don’t trigger spikes (and dips) is a game changer.

• I don’t own a scale for intentional reasons so I have no idea about weight change, but my general state of feeling bloated and blah is gone. And because of the reduced bloating, much to my surprise I was able to fit into my favorite pair of white summer denim shorts that I was soon to dispatch of assuming they would never fit again!

• My joints feel fantastic, which I imagine is the combined impact of reduction of inflammatory foods + increasing strength and flexibility through my walks. I was most regularly reminded of my creaks and aches whenever I needed to go down a set of stairs, and it was always worst first thing in the morning—sometimes so much so that I was hobbling a bit or holding both the wall and rail for additional stability. Now? No problems at all on the stairs.

• Last week I got my period for the first time since starting this nutritional recalibration and not only did I not experience the extreme bloating that usually occurs, I also did not feel like utter crap, need to take Motrin, or produce a murderous level of blood on day two of my period, as has been the case for, like, a decade. I mean, WHAT?!?!

• My eyes and skin no longer feel and look tired and inflamed. And hey, I received the ultimate compliment when Laurel—my 19-year-old, skincare loving teen—said, "Wow mom, your skin is looking dewy!"

In a nutshell, thanks to ZOE, at age 50, I finally understand how to eat to serve this glorious temple; notably, in a way that is all about joy and variety and exploration and not about restriction and calorie counting, which I think we can all agree sucks ass.

What Now?

I have been itching to share about all of this for a couple of weeks but first I wanted to wait until I got to the end of my 21-day self-imposed tracking period, and then I was curious to see if I could stick the landing, as it were. After the 21 days were over and I wasn’t tracking regularly, would I immediately go face down into a bag of chips?

The short answer is NO. It has not been hard to keep eating ZOE-style because now I know what feels good and I know it is possible to feel good while still enjoying lots of different foods + the occasional treat. It’s been transformative and fun and I’m going to keep using the app to source recipes and check my ZOE scores for new foods and recipes I want to try. I’m really grateful for this unexpected summer wellness boon. Last week, I said to my kids, “I feel the healthiest I have ever been, in a whole person way.”

Being 50 has been freaking fabulous.

Here’s a fantastic ZOE-esque smoothie bowl that Laurel made me!