Crushing the Sugar Roller Coaster: Regain Control of Your Energy and Gut Health
Jul 01, 2023
Welcome! If you're here, it means you've clicked on this blog because poor sugar handling showed up as a top concern in your Symptom Burden Assessment. Don't worry, you're not alone. Many people struggle with the effects of sugar on their gut health and energy levels. So, let's dive in and explore how sugar handling plays a lead role in your overall well-being.
What is Sugar Handling?
Sugar handling, or the body's ability to regulate and process sugar, is responsible for maintaining stable blood sugar levels and providing a consistent source of energy. When sugar handling goes awry, it can lead to a range of symptoms and imbalances that affect your daily life. Understanding these symptoms will help you identify if poor sugar handling is at the root of your concerns.
Symptoms that Speak Your Language
This is one of the top categories that come form nearly every single client. These everyday symptoms might feel all too familiar for you too if you're dealing with poor sugar handling:
- Ever find yourself tossing and turning in bed, unable to stay asleep for long?
- Cravings... oh, the cravings! It's like sugar has cast a spell on you, and you can't resist its sweet temptations. Donuts, chocolate bars, you name it!
- Have you experienced those moments of losing control around food? Binges and uncontrolled eating episodes that leave you feeling guilty and powerless.
- Afternoons can be tough. The energy crashes hit hard, and suddenly you're daydreaming about that extra shot of espresso or a sugary pick-me-up just to make it through.
- Let's not forget the shakiness, irritability, and those nasty headaches that come knocking if you skip a meal or even delay it for a little while.
- And then there's the infamous "hangry" state –– always hungry and easily triggered by the tiniest things.
Relatable??? These symptoms used to dominate my life too, creating a constant battle with food and my cravings. It felt like sugar had cast a spell on me, and I couldn't resist its allure. I tried various strategies, even resorting to eating with chopsticks as a form of portion control, but it felt like an endless cycle of restriction and guilt. Afternoons were the toughest, as the energy crashes hit hard, leaving me daydreaming about sugary pick-me-ups or an extra shot of espresso just to keep me going
If any of these symptoms resonate with you, trust me, you're not alone. Poor sugar handling can wreak havoc on your daily life, affecting your mood, energy levels, and overall well-being.
The Ripple Effect: How Poor Sugar Handling Influences Your Well-Being:
The effects of poor sugar handling extend beyond the realm of cravings and energy crashes. It can have a profound impact on various systems in your body leading to a range of symptoms. Let's take a closer look at how this connection plays out:
- Kidneys: Your kidneys work tirelessly to filter waste and maintain proper electrolyte balance. When sugar handling is compromised, it can put extra stress on these vital organs, affecting their optimal functioning. I almost always see kidney stress in my diabetic and insulin resistance clients.
- Adrenals: Your adrenal glands play a crucial role in managing stress and regulating blood sugar levels. When sugar handling is impaired, it can place excessive stress on your adrenals, leading to fatigue, crashes and imbalances in cortisol, your stress hormone.
- Thyroid: Basically when sugar handling is out of control the rest of your body will feel it, and often this can manifest as sluggishness or weight gain, as your hormones strive to to self correct.
- Female Hormones: Hormonal imbalances can be linked to poor sugar handling. Fluctuations in blood sugar levels can disrupt the delicate balance of estrogen, progesterone, and other hormones, leading to irregular menstrual cycles, PMS symptoms, and more.
- Immune System: Sugar imbalances can compromise your immune system, making you more susceptible to infections, slower wound healing, and overall reduced immune function.
Understanding the connection between poor sugar handling and these bodily systems helps us see the bigger picture of how addressing sugar handling issues can have far-reaching benefits for your overall health and well-being. That's why this is one of the very first things I address with my clients. But to be the most effective and target in my approach, I have to uncover why?
But Why Tho? Unveiling the Culprits of Poor Sugar Handling:
To understand why our sugar handling goes out of whack, we need to take a closer look at the potential factors behind it. It's not just about the amount of sugar we consume, but also how our bodies handle and regulate it. Here are some key causes and their connections to disrupted glucose regulation:
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Intake: Excessive sugar intake, especially from refined sources, can overwhelm your body's ability to process and regulate glucose levels, leading to imbalances.
- Low protein diet: Protein plays a role in stabilizing blood sugar levels and promoting satiety, reducing the likelihood of blood sugar spikes and crashes. This is the most common one I see.
- Frequent meals/snacking: Consuming meals and snacks too frequently without allowing sufficient breaks between them can lead to constant influxes of glucose into the bloodstream, challenging the body's ability to regulate sugar effectively.
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Liver: The health of your liver plays a significant role in sugar handling. If your liver is congested or fatty, it may struggle to effectively metabolize and regulate glucose.
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Production: Dysregulation in insulin, the hormone responsible for regulating blood sugar levels, can lead to excessive glucose production by the liver, contributing to poor sugar handling.
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Insulin resistance: When your cells become resistant to the effects of insulin, glucose uptake is impaired, resulting in elevated blood sugar levels. Insulin resistance is commonly associated with poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and obesity.
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Inflammation and infection: Chronic inflammation in the body can interfere with insulin signaling and impair glucose metabolism, contributing to poor sugar handling. Or the body may be using glucose as energy while trying to fight an active infection.
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Adrenals: Your adrenal glands, responsible for producing stress hormones, also influence sugar regulation. Chronic stress and adrenal dysfunction can disrupt insulin sensitivity and impair glucose metabolism.
Understanding these interconnected causes can help us address the underlying issues contributing to poor sugar handling. By targeting these factors through dietary and lifestyle interventions, we can improve glucose regulation and promote better overall health. Ready to take control of your sugar metabolism? Let's explore practical solutions to optimize your sugar handling and reclaim your well-being.
Your Path to Lasting Relief: Taking the Next Steps
Imagine waking up feeling refreshed and energized, ready to tackle the day ahead. Food cravings no longer dictate your every move; instead, you have a newfound sense of control and freedom around food. You no longer find yourself reaching for sugary treats to satisfy those insatiable cravings. Your mind is clear, your emotions balanced, and you're no longer a slave to the rollercoaster of blood sugar spikes and crashes.
Throughout the day, your energy remains stable and consistent. Afternoons no longer bring a wave of exhaustion and the desperate need for a sugar or caffeine fix. You sail through the day with a sustained level of vitality, focus, and productivity. Your mood is lifted, and irritability and headaches are a thing of the past. Instead, you experience a sense of calm and mental clarity, allowing you to approach your kiddos, work, responsibilities, with ease and grace.
This is the vision I have for you, and it's absolutely achievable.
Let's explore the practical steps you can take to reclaim your sugar handling and experience lasting relief:
Quality Sleep:
Prioritize getting enough restorative sleep each night. Adequate sleep helps regulate hormones, including those involved in sugar handling, and promotes overall balance in your body. 7-9 hours minimum! So often a poor night of sleep results in poor food choices, and the dominos fall from there.
Move Your Body:
Incorporate daily physical activity into your routine, even if it's as simple as taking a walk. Regular exercise supports healthy blood sugar regulation, enhances insulin sensitivity, and boosts your overall energy levels. I recommend a 10-15 minute walk after every meal.
Upgrade Your Coffee Game:
King coffee is the perfect blend of organic, mold-free coffee and the extraordinary power of reishi spores (80X stronger than regular varieties). Reishi spores are a game-changer when it comes to balancing blood sugar levels, promoting pathogen cleanup, supporting detoxification, regulating hormones, reducing stress and anxiety, and enhancing overall brain function.
I have personally been enjoying 2-4 cups daily for nearly 3 years, and it has become an essential part of my routine. And I love that it's such an effortless swap in my daily routine that can make a remarkable difference in how I feel and perform throughout the day. Amazing liver support tool!
High-Protein Breakfast Within the Hour:
Start your day off right by enjoying a balanced breakfast within an hour of waking up. This helps stabilize your blood sugar levels, reduce cravings, and set a positive tone for the rest of the day. Aim for 40-50g of protein for breakfast.
Optimize Nutrition with Animal-Based Foods:
Embrace the power of animal-based nutrition by prioritizing protein-rich foods in your meals. Aim for a minimum of 30 grams of protein from animal sources per meal. Protein helps stabilize blood sugar levels, promotes satiety, and provides essential nutrients for optimal energy production. Discover more about the benefits of animal-based nutrition in my comprehensive Healthy Belly Nutrition course. Game Changer!
Foundations Protocol:
Your Starting Point for a Healthy Reset!
At the heart of our approach lies the recognition that supporting foundational aspects of your health is the first step towards achieving optimal well-being. So much of blood sugar issues, cravings, feeling hangry, irritability and fatigued can be improved 80-100% with the dietary and lifestyle choices suggested above. We also believe that addressing key elements like liver and gallbladder function, regular bowel movements (2-3x/day), efficient digestion, optimal nutrient status, and effective toxin removal can lay a solid groundwork for overall health.
Think of our Foundations Protocol as a cleansing, purifying, and resetting experience—a spring cleaning for your system. By prioritizing these essential aspects, we create the ideal conditions for your body to thrive and naturally restore balance. Whether you seek to boost energy levels, promote glowing skin, or address chronic health concerns, this protocol is designed to serve as your starting point towards holistic well-being. Add our Foundations Protocol to Healthy Belly Nutrition and you have a fool proof wining combo!
Dive Deeper with Me:
Work directly with me for a comprehensive approach. Together, we'll dive deeper into your specific concerns, conduct functional lab testing if needed, address gut health issues, create personalized protocols, design customized meal plans, and provide ongoing guidance and support. With our collaboration, you'll not only address SI symptoms but also tackle the underlying root causes for lasting health and vitality. See our services here.
The path to improved sugar handling begins with small, intentional steps. By implementing these strategies and embracing the support available to you, you'll be on your way to a healthier, more balanced relationship with sugar and a brighter future ahead.
Remember, this information is for educational purposes only and doesn't replace personalized medical advice. It's always best to consult with a qualified healthcare professional for a thorough evaluation and individualized guidance based on your specific needs.
Here's what some of my one-on-one clients have to say about these exact strategies and tips I'm sharing here:
Don’t have your own Symptom Burden Assessment yet? Grab yours HERE and gain exclusive access to my in-depth symptom assessment, unveiling the areas where your body needs the utmost support.
