Any of these sound like you? Well if so never fear, simply read on down and combine these interventions with Metabolic Enhance to get yourself back on track.
1. Frequent hunger, and/or when you become hungry it is an intense situation. This can be linked to mood change and cannot be held off as you can become shaky or light headed if you don’t eat.
- Stable blood sugar levels will allow us to easily go 3-4 hours between meals without feeling hungry. If you can’t do this, get ‘hangry’ as opposed to just hungry, this indicates a sudden drop in blood sugar levels. And usually means you spiked earlier.
- Elevated stress hormones, insufficient protein, fat and fibre in meals, poor sleep quality, and hormonal changes will all cause this to happen more often.
2. Increased anxiety, irritability, low mood, brain fog, and tendency to have a short fuse.
- The brain is a sugar loving organ. When levels of blood glucose go up and down brain function is impacted with neurotransmitters including serotonin and dopamine being affected. This leads to mood swings, irritability, anxiety and depression. We can also lose focus, feel dizzy, shaky, have palpitations, and start to sweat. All of which will worsen mood symptoms further.
3. Inability to lose weight, especially fat around the middle.
- Fluctuations in blood sugar are stressful for the body and so will cause the release of stress hormones.
- When these are present we also produce more insulin which puts energy into storage. Firstly as glycogen in muscle and liver cells, but when those are full it becomes fat.
- High insulin also prevents fat from being an available fuel source which is why central weight gain is a very clear sign of this process being the culprit.
4. Fatigue and energy fluctuations.
- Spiking and dipping blood sugar means spiking and dipping energy. The mid-afternoon slump is a classic indicator that blood sugar and adrenaline are crashing after an improperly balanced start to the day.
- The more this happens the worse the body gets at supporting itself, and the more intense the spikes and dips become. The first things you do and eat every morning dictate your blood sugar pattern for the whole day.
5. Disrupted sleep with frequent waking.
- If blood sugar has been unstable during the day it will mirror this at night. Frequent waking is a common sign of a sudden dip in blood sugar whilst you are asleep. This causes adrenaline to be released to liberate stored energy and we wake up.
- This makes the issue worse as being tired then dysregulates this system more the next day.
- Menopausal sleep issues can be massively improved by addressing this.
6. Sweet and salty cravings.
- Sweet cravings cause us to naturally eat more simple carbohydrates, simple carbohydrates then spike blood sugar which results in a crash and we crave sweets again.
- If there is a long term issue then sweet cravings also show we aren’t absorbing all of our nutrition so we want easy access energy (sugar) to top up.
- Because stress hormones will go on this rollercoaster too we can crave salt as well as sodium is required to make adrenaline.
THE 3 STAGE SOLUTION TO STABLE BLOOD SUGAR
Stage 1: The Morning
- Before you look at a screen, look at the sky for 5-10 minutes.
- Avoid stimulants before breakfast. Stick to 1 caffeinated drink with or just after food.
- No fruit in the morning, have a whole piece of tart fruit after lunch if you want.
- Make your breakfast savoury & ensure it contains at least 35g protein.
Stage 2: Meal Times
- 5-10 mins before meals, drink 2 teaspoons of raw vinegar mixed into 250ml water. (NB if you have a history of gastritis, reflux or peptic ulcers avoid this step)
- Eat 1 handful of vegetables as your 1st bite of every meal. This could be a leafy salad, the vegetable part of your meal, or a carrot/celery stick.
- Eat without technology, not on the run, and at a steady pace (a meal should take at least 15-30 minutes to eat!)
- Eat in the order of vegetables, protein, fat, and then carbohydrates.
Stage 3: Movement
When addressing blood sugar, adapting our activity is incredibly important and is often the bit that people get wrong assuming that more is always better.
Intense exercise will always raise sugars and insulin, increase hunger, and make fat an inaccessible fuel source.
Energy dips and stubborn belly fat? This is what’s happening.
Steady, consistent activity does the opposite. Think of your muscles as sugar sponges, get them to work for you. Walk more, lift weights, run and spin less.
- Use your muscles/prioritise working them with weighted exercise. They are your simmering engines, keeping them moving means you have space to put energy when you eat and they’ll help you burn fat.
- Make sure to move for at least 10 minutes after meals. Walk, do calf raises, carry something heavy upstairs. It doesn’t matter.
