The Sugar Roller Coaster

I am a foodie, I have loved to eat since l was born. I have always had a big appetite. After having children I noticed a change in my weight and it wasn’t less. I tried a shake type diet and lost weight and I promptly gained it back and more. I was working out 4-5 days a week but it didn’t make the dent that I wanted. I blame kid food! I don’t have to tell you what that is; basically it is what I call SAD food. High carb foods basically designed to be gobbled down fast, so fast that you sometimes don’t realize how much sugar you are really eating!

SAD = Standard American Diet = Highly processed high glycemic meals are abundantly all around to feed our sugar cravings.

It wasn’t until I went on a Low Sugar Cleanse followed by a transition to a low glycemic lifestyle; I became free from my sugar cravings.

Anyone have Cravings, anyone?
The rise and fall of your Blood sugar and how it effects your body

There has been a lot of information about how to best lose weight over the last 30-40 years, the diet industry is booming, but as a culture we are still gaining weight out of control! What is going on?

In Physical Therapy school I learned that burning more calories than you take-in is how you lose weight (i.e. Calories IN < Calories OUT). While that simple equation is true, the details behind how your body processes calories makes the situation not so simple.

Now I am reading all this information on keeping our blood sugar under control — in a narrow range- can actually help us be healthier and release fat! Low glycemic eating is about more than just weight loss. It has been shown to lower blood cholesterol and decrease need for medication in type II diabetes. And best of all, Low Glycemic eating is about new, yummy, and better food choices and combinations

Let me give you a little Physiology lesson to give you some background on why low glycemic eating is so healthy.

There are 2 important hormones in the regulation of our blood sugar levels.

1. Insulin  is released when blood sugar rises to lower the blood sugar- allowing the cells to take in sugar to be used as fuel (in your muscles) or stored as fat in your fat cells.

2. Glucagon  is released when insulin is low. It raises blood sugar by releasing sugar from the liver and fat from your fat cells through lypolosis.

Insulin lowers blood sugar, and Glucagon raises it. Your blood sugar range should be narrow, between 70-120mg/dL a 50 point range.

Where it all goes wrong is in our SAD Standard American Diet. So what is on the menu for the upcoming Holiday? The 4th of July….. anyone? Corn on the cob, potato salad, macaroni salad, pizza, fried chicken…. And for dessert there is some gooey, sticky something or a light and fluffy something. This menu is sure to spike your blood sugar and drop it just as fast to leave you in a semi coma before the end of the afternoon.

This is a SAD state of affairs. We spike our sugar first thing in the morning, cereal and milk, our blood sugar spikes, insulin is released and by mid morning it is diving, we feel sluggish, and need a little pick me up, and reach for the first thing we come across. Or perhaps we have the will of steel and make it to lunch and our body is screaming “I am starving!” At this point we can’t make our best choices. We choose the low fat pasta over the salad, spike again, insulin release….. we get these big swings up and down of our blood sugar and our body keeps thinking we need more and more insulin. Over time our bodies become resistant to our own insulin as our bodies make more. Insulin resistance progresses to what is known as syndrome X or metabolic syndrome, which includes other risk factors such as high blood pressure and triglycerides LDL, low HDL, and potentially type 2 Diabetes.

Our metabolic regulation system is now spinning out of control. This causes inflammation and swelling of our capillaries further reducing our metabolism at the cellular level.

Insulin which is spiking because of the SAD diet. And remember Glucagon, the fat releasing hormone which raises blood sugar? Its being suppressed because there is too much insulin. This unhealthy struggle stores sugar as fat particularly around the midline. This is why there is so much buzz about waist circumference. Increased waist circumference is an early indicator of this pre-diabetic state. Dr Strand has researched links between this state of increased glycemic stress which is oxidative stress as a causative factor in most of the degenerative diseases that plague us today. Dr Strand did Clinical Trials with people not going hungry, improved health parameters, all slowly gradually = released fat

So the choices you make ahead of time are most important. Set yourself up for success. For me a low sugar high fiber cleanse was essential  to address the sugar addiction. Especially at the beginning of my lifestyle change, because I felt powerless over it. I feel a cleanse is a great tool, and I revisit it from time to time to reset my system when I get off track.

Basically it takes 5 days to reset your sugars but 12 weeks to retrain habits. I did a great sugar busters boot camp with the support of Dr Deb and Dr Karen Wolfe. I used a low glycemic shake 3 x daily with 2 low glycemic snack bars in between. For lunch and dinner I added some veggies or a salad with a vinaigrette dressing (healthy fat) followed by the shake for dessert. I really felt great and it totally curbed my sugar cravings. I gradually added in low glycemic meals but I still supplement with shakes when my schedule gets busy. I noticed I my belly fat gradually releasing. My clothes felt better and I did not feel deprived. That was the key for me. I ate a variety of delicious food without feeling deprived in any way. The other important thing that Dr Strand recommends is high quality vitamins to improve insulin sensitivity and decrease combat oxidative stress. Moderate exercise such as a Brisk walk 30 min per day which also improves insulin resistance.

Ready to get started yourself?

I’ll be hosting a 4 WEEK SUGAR BUSTING CHALLENGE starting October 7. Registration ends September 26. Contact me at info@michellewald.com for details.

Here are some of my favorite books on Sugar Busting: 

Dr Deb Kern and Dr Karen Wolfe “Create the body your Soul Desires.”

Lucy Beale and Joan Clark-Warner “The Complete Idiot’s Guide Glycemic Index Cookbook”

Dr Ray Strand:

“Healthy for Life”

“What your Doctor doesn’t know about Nutritional Medicine (may be killing you).”

“Bionutrition”

Helpful Websites:

http://www.lowglycemicdiet.com/breakfastgi.html low glycemic food listing low to high sorted by category

www.glycemicindex.com

http://drdebkern.com/category/food Free health podcasts for 5 weeks to Reset your sugar cravings and learn more about the low glycemic lifestyle.( it is embedded in her blog)

www.Drkarenwolfe.usana.com More health info and Usana Associate

http://www.owningpink.com/ Cool website by another supercool doctor thinking outside the box about getting our mojo going.

www.raystrand.com Nutritional Medicine Specialist

http://www.livewellintl.com/ Dr Ray Strand talks about Reset and low glycemic eating.