First: Book Your Spring Kickstart Laser Health Coaching Session!
Today I’m sharing my top 4 tips for balancing your blood sugar and why that’s important to do, especially when it comes to menopause weight loss. But even if you feel like you don’t have extra weight to lose, this is really important for you too, because being on a blood sugar rollercoaster is not at all good for our metabolic health and can increase the risk of diseases such as diabetes and dementia.
But before we get into all of that, I just want to let you know that I’ve opened up some new one-off laser coaching sessions this spring.
If you’ve been thinking about getting health coaching, but weren’t sure about committing to a full 3-month programme, or even if you’ve only just come across the idea of health coaching and having a personalized, 1-hour laser coaching sessions sounds like something you need right now, then head over to catherineshelton.com/workwithme and scroll down to the bottom of the page to find out more.
Spring is the perfect time of year to give your health a bit of a kickstart. You can receive coaching on anything that’s troubling you right now, whether it’s weight loss, stress, work/life balance, sleep, exercise; whatever it is, we’ll work together so that you can come up with 2 to 3 actionable steps you can put into practice straight away that will get you seeing results quickly. I don’t normally offer one-off coaching like this, and spots are limited, so book your session quickly. You’ll find the link to do so in the show notes below.
Why Do We Need To Balance Our Blood Sugar?
Today we’re talking about Blood Sugar Balancing. Have you heard of that before? What on earth is it and why do we need to do it?
Well, let’s start with why it’s important to have blood sugar balance, especially as we enter perimenopause and beyond.
You probably already know that high blood sugar levels are not great for your health. It increases your risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke, and millions of people are not even aware that they have raised blood sugar. We don’t often find out until it’s too late and we’re diagnosed with diabetes, even though we may have been experiencing symptoms and warning signs up to ten years before. In fact, according to Dr Michael Mosley, the number of people in the UK with prediabetes is around 35%, which is more than triple what it was 10 years ago. It’s estimated that 86 million Americans and 500 million Chinese have prediabetes.
The problem here is insulin. Now you might think of insulin as just something that diabetics need to inject themselves with every now and again, but actually, it’s really important that we all understand the role of insulin in our body.
What Is The Deal With Insulin?
Insulin is an important hormone whose main job is to help bring down high blood sugar levels. When we eat something sugary, insulin is secreted by the pancreas to deal with the extra glucose and shift it into our muscles and our cells where it can be used for energy. But the problem arises when we have too much glucose, or sugar, entering our bloodstream. When insulin has to work overtime on a regular basis, our body becomes less and less sensitive to it. It becomes harder to store the glucose in our cells, and so insulin diverts it into fat storage instead. Insulin is then basically a fat-storage hormone.
The problem is that our bodies are having to produce more insulin than ever before. Why? Because our modern diet is high in sugar and refined carbs in a way it never was before. Added sugars, breakfast cereals, muffins, cakes, biscuits, cookies, pastries, crackers, breads, soft drinks, and even white rice and potatoes – they all raise our blood sugar and make our insulin spike again and again throughout the day. Eventually, we become more and more resistant to insulin and are in danger of health problems such as metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
Our bodies don’t want high levels of blood sugar because it’s damaging to our cells and arteries, but we can all too easily get stuck on a blood sugar roller coaster. A high-sugar snack or meal will spike our insulin, but then later we get a sugar crash and levels dip too low. When we have low blood sugar, we get ‘hangry’ and irritable. It affects our energy and concentration. Cortisol is then released and our bodies crave something sugary to raise our blood sugar back again, and the cycle starts all over. But the more our blood sugar goes up and down, the more fat we store.
But What If I Don’t Need To Lose Weight?
Now, in case you’re thinking that you’re totally fine because you’re not overweight, then you need to know that there’s such as thing as a TOFI – Thin on the Outside, Fat on the Inside. Such people have large amounts of visceral or internal fat that doesn’t necessarily show but is just as dangerous.
For many of us, though, we are aware of the need to lose weight – and I still count myself in this category! As we get older, it becomes increasingly difficult to lose the pounds. What might have worked for us when we were in our 20s and 30s doesn’t seem to be working in our 40s and 50s. And before long we notice the proverbial menopause middle creeping on around our midsection.
But there’s good news! Adopting these 4 steps to Balance your Blood Sugar will make a difference, and start you on the journey back towards a healthy weight and a healthy body once more.
And there’s more good news – you don’t have to count calories or feel hungry doing it. It might take some time to lean into new habits and practices, but the results will definitely be worth it.
When we learn to balance our blood sugar, we get off the crazy roller coaster and our blood sugar levels return to within a normal range of fluctuation. When we do that, we have no more fat storage highs and lows and we can actually start to burn fat instead.
The 4 Simple Steps To Balance Your Blood Sugar
So let’s take a look at the 4 steps. To help you remember them, they all start with an E. I know! You’re welcome 😊
1. Eat protein with every meal and snack.
The first step is to eat protein with every meal and snack. Protein fills you up and keeps you satiated for longer, as do healthy fats such as avocados, nuts, seeds and olive oil. When we eat protein before or with carbohydrates, it slows the release of the sugar from the carbohydrate into our bloodstream, and helps to keep those insulin spikes at bay. Healthy proteins can also include plant-based proteins, such as tofu, beans, nuts and seeds.
2. Eliminate (or significantly reduce) refined sugars and carbohydrates
Ok, so we’ve already talked about how these are what spike our insulin levels. Think white sugars, white flours, white potatoes, white rice. Those are the main things to start to let go of. Be aware of foods that are labelled brown or whole-grain, as they can also have added sugar and create insulin spikes too. Instead, opt for slow-releasing complex carbohydrates, such as vegetables, legumes and whole grains. You might be wondering about fruit. Well, fruit juice is not a great option because the fibre has been removed and so the sugar goes straight into your bloodstream. But, on the other hand, fruit is really good for you. So always have whole fruit. But with that said, some fruit is more sugary than others. The best fruits to opt for are berries, apples and pears.
Calculating the Glycemic Load
If you want to go a step further, you can look up something called the Glycemic Load of the food that you’re eating. This will tell you the impact that that particular food will have on your blood sugar levels. Glycemic Load is calculated as the Glycemic index of the food multiplied by the amount of carbs in the portion you’re eating, divided by 100.
You can find lots of information about this online. Generally it’s a good idea to avoid foods with a GL of more than 20.
If you’re really interested in learning about what spikes your blood sugar, you can look into getting a Continuous Glucose Monitor, or CGM. This monitors your blood glucose levels continuously throughout the day, so you can get immediate feedback about the effects of what you’re eating on your blood sugar levels.
Different foods spike blood sugar in different ways for different people. For some, grapes might be an issue. For others, it might be sweet potatoes. As I often say, we’re all different, so it’s really important you experiment and learn what works best for your body. I myself will be experimenting with a CGM this May, so I’ll report back on that!
3. Exercise regularly but not too much
So the first two steps have been about diet. By focusing on the food you’re eating you can significantly reduce the number of insulin spikes throughout the day. But exercise is also another great way to keep your blood sugar levels balanced.
Why? Well, for one thing, exercise burns up the glucose that is already available in your muscles, making room for more glucose to be stored there before it needs to be stored as fat. Exercise, especially the kind that focuses on strength and resistance training, can build your muscles too, which means there’s more room for glucose storage there.
There are two types of exercise to focus on:
1. Active Exercise
The first is generally keeping more active throughout the day. This includes standing more, and not just sitting at a desk all day. Walking wherever possible. Taking the stairs instead of the escalator. Try into a habit of being more active generally. For some people, it’s helpful to keep an eye on their step count and try to aim for a certain number of steps each day.
2. Intentional Exercise
Secondly, there’s intentional exercise, such as brisk walking, running, swimming, cycling, strength training, pilates, or taking a class. Aim to do this kind of exercise at least 3 times a week if possible.
There is a caveat though – don’t overdo it on the endurance exercise. You see, exercise in itself is a stressor on the body. A good stressor, but a stressor nonetheless. What that means is that, like for other stressful situations, it will encourage your body to raise your cortisol levels. Increased cortisol levels over a long period of time can also encourage your body to store fat rather than release it.
Which is why, in my case, when I was training for the London marathon last year, averaging between 20 and 30 miles of running a week, my weight actually stayed the same (annoyingly!). Now, as you know, I love long-distance running, and if you also really enjoy a form of endurance exercise, then I’m not saying you should stop doing it. Exercise should be for enjoyment and for mental health. But just be aware that it might not be helping with the weight loss. You’ll have to focus on diet and strength training for that.
4. Embody peacefulness
Finally, the 4th step is to Embody Peacefulness
We’re looking at things that raise blood sugar levels, and being stressed out is certainly one of those. When we’re stressed, our adrenal glands produce extra adrenaline and cortisol.
When we have elevated levels of the stress hormone adrenaline, the body is encouraged to release extra glucose into our bloodstream to give us the energy it thinks we need to run or fight the threat. Only, usually, nowadays, we don’t actually need that extra glucose.
As for cortisol, that also encourages the body to store fat. Why? Well, historically, if we had high cortisol levels over a prolonged period of time then it meant that we were facing a famine. Since food was scarce, the body adapted by slowing down our metabolism and storing fat for the winter ahead.
Today, thankfully, very few of us have to face a famine situation. Instead, the things that raise our cortisol levels tend to be things like stresses at work, too many emails, financial worries, difficult relationships, traffic jams, concerns about a loved one, and so on. But our body doesn’t know the difference between these kinds of perceived threats and the kinds of threats we might have faced hundreds of years ago, and it responds in the same way as it always has done.
So, since our stress hormones increase blood sugar levels, it makes sense to do whatever we can to minimise our stress. We might not be able to get rid of all the stresses in our life, but we can change our perception of them and make space in our day or our week to do practices to help encourage peacefulness and relaxation.
Ideas to help embody peacefulness
Working on your mindset is key, so journalling, praying and meditation, talking things through with trusted friends, that’s so important.
Other things you can do to embody peacefulness include things like rest and relaxation, walking outside in nature, deep breathing techniques, ensuring adequate sleep, reading a good book, doing a hobby that brings you joy, candles, essential oils, massages, and so on. Find what works for you, and be sure to schedule those into your diary just the same as you would for a work meeting.
Summary
OK, so those are the 4 steps. Just to recap:
- Eat protein with every meal and snack
- Eliminate (or significantly reduce) refined sugars and carbohydrates
- Exercise regularly but not too much
- Embody peacefulness
Let me know how you get on with those by emailing me at hello@catherineshelton.com, or why not come over and join our FB group at the Healthier Life Through Menopause Community?
And don’t forget to book your Spring Kickstart Laser Coaching Session at catherineshelton.com/workwithme – I can’t wait to get you started on making this your year for a healthier, happier you!
That’s it for now, I’ll catch you next time.
Episode Show Notes
Book your Spring Kickstart Laser Coaching Session here
Grab your FREE Menopause Weight Loss Guide.
Come and hang out with me on Facebook and Instagram
Join our Healthier Life Through Menopause Community Facebook Group and get daily tips, recipes, challenges, encouragement and more!
Want to find out more about my health coaching programmes? Head over here.
Interested in getting some private, one-on-one health coaching? Jump on a free Discovery Call to find out more, no strings attached.
If you’d like to give my feedback and suggestions for future episodes, I’d love to hear from you. Email me at hello@catherineshelton.com
If you’re generally not feeling your best and would like to make some changes, there are a lot of simple steps you can take by modifying your diet and lifestyle which can have a hugely beneficial effect on your overall health and energy levels, as well as help ease your symptoms. If you’re interested to find out more, jump on a free, 30-minute discovery call with me, I’d love to hear from you.
Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only and does not replace advice given by your primary care provider. Please see your doctor if you’re considering making substantial changes to your diet and lifestyle.
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GRAB YOUR FREE MENOPAUSE WEIGHT LOSS GUIDE!
Are you finding the pounds are gradually creeping on? Are you frustrated because the usual trick of ‘eat less, move more’ just isn’t working anymore?
In this guide, I explain why women often gain weight in perimenopause, and I give you 3 simple tips so you can start to turn that around right away!
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