Blood sugar balance and body goals
Blood sugar imbalances make it damn near impossible to feel energetic and connected to your body, not to mention, fit into your jeans. If you have body goals but have been feeling stuck, let's take a look at your blood sugar balance!
Blood Sugar and Body Goals
Blood sugar and body goals might not seem like they are related, but there are no isolated systems in the body! When one system is taxed, it can impact multiple areas of function. This is the case with imbalanced blood sugar and metabolism.
Blood sugar levels are not static, but when they vary too widely, the body can go into a stress state. When blood sugar spikes, so does insulin. Insulin is a key hormone involved in fat storage and when insulin levels are elevated, it impairs the body’s ability to burn fat for energy. When blood sugar drops dramatically, cortisol is released. Elevated cortisol levels can increase your appetite, cause insulin resistance, and slow your metabolism.
In summary, imbalanced blood sugars = high levels of insulin and cortisol. The body is stressed and slows down metabolism. More balanced blood sugar = business as usual for insulin and cortisol and metabolism can function as intended!
What Causes Imbalanced Blood Sugar?
There are a number of biological and environmental factors that can impact your blood sugar balance. Here are a few of the most common I see in my practice:
Chronic Stress and Burnout
Stress puts your body into a state of fight-or-flight, which causes cortisol to increase in the body. This prompts your body to store glucose in case it needs to be ready to respond to an emergency. If you state in a chronic state of stress, it causes an imbalance in blood sugar levels.
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
Insulin resistance is a frequently occurring feature in women with PCOS, meaning their bodies can make insulin but not use it effectively. To make up for it, the pancreas makes more insulin and the build up over time eventually results in blood sugar levels going up.
Skipping Breakfast
Skipping breakfast and subsisting on coffee until noon is not going to help you achieve your body goals. What it is going to do is keep your blood sugar too low all morning. It doesn’t just stop there though. By the time lunch rolls around, you will be moody AF, have zero energy, and unable to think straight. So you end up eating too much, too fast, which results in a spike from low to high blood sugar. Then comes the afternoon sugar craving that is followed by a crash.
How to Balance Blood Sugar
Before you go thinking that you have to go keto or carb free to balance blood sugar for your body goals, I want you to know: Managing blood sugar and repairing your metabolism involves way more than your carb intake, girlfriend.
You don’t need to cut out carbs to have more energy and feel confident in your body. In fact, going keto can actually wreak havoc on your system and your hormones (and your happiness). But! You DO need to learn how to listen to your body, eat to nourish, and practice self care in a way that helps you process stress and heal inflammation to manage blood sugars.
Healing starts with you cutting out the noise so that you can be in the driver seat when it comes to feeling empowered in your health and nutrition practices. We have to take a more holistic approach. Rather than focusing on just cutting out carbs, lean into:
Understanding your body’s unique energy and nutrient needs in order to run on all cylinders.
Focusing on increasing muscle mass rather weight loss.
Learning how to process your stressors to manage chronic inflammation in the body.
Improving your sleep hygiene.
Honing in on the quality of your carb intake.
Changing your relationship with your body and food.
Reaching your Body Goals
Everyone is entitled to feel good in their body, but often times trying to achieve fat loss while in a chronic state of burnout, will only further inflame your body.
That is why one of the first things I work on with my clients is stabilizing the nervous system with blood sugar balancing, adequate nutrition and energy needs, reducing inflammation and diving deeper into sleep, movement and lifestyle habits.
After we’ve stabilized we can get into body goals. I use a combination of mindful eating with balanced plate, creating energy and macro awareness with tracking. Once we’ve created awareness by collecting data, we set some flexible parameters by creating a gentle deficit based on bmr + activity and stress factors. We look at fine tuning macro intake based on individual needs, hormone states, and activity. These parameters have a range because life is dynamic!
We focus on consistency rather than perfection. We look at progress outside the scale because it’s never linear!
If you’re someone who’s tried all the things - intermittent fasting, vegan, restricted intake, keto, whole 30, I got news for you. YOU’RE DOING TOO MUCH. And you’re only adding more inflammation to the fire.
If trying to reach your body goals only leads you to feel frustrated, more stressed, and completely exhausted, let’s chat. My books are open for new clients! I’m ready to help you help yourself!
