The Simplicity of Wellness Podcast
The Simplicity of Wellness podcast is about learning how to bring your body into balance so that you get leaner, stronger and healthier as you age. Each week I'll share thoughts and ideas that help my clients build the self-awareness, self-confidence and self-reliance to lose weight, shed inches, manage muscle mass and master their mind so that they can stop dieting and enjoy living at their healthy weight with optimal wellness.
The Simplicity of Wellness Podcast
Practical Steps to Boost Your Metabolism
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What if you could transform your metabolism to achieve optimal body balance and overall health? This episode of the Simplicity of Wellness podcast invites you to do just that. Join me, Amy White, as we explore the intricate world of body balance through the lens of metabolic health. Learn what it means to strike a perfect balance between your body's breaking down and building up processes, and understand the implications of metabolic imbalance. We'll examine key concepts like metabolic syndrome and metabolic inflexibility, and how they affect your energy, mood, and body weight. Plus, we'll explore the pivotal role insulin plays in maintaining this balance, and the severe health issues that can arise from insulin resistance.
Ready to take actionable steps toward better metabolic health? This episode offers practical strategies to help you avoid insulin resistance and promote metabolic flexibility. Discover the benefits of eliminating inflammatory foods, reducing constant eating and snacking, and prioritizing consistent, restful sleep. Learn how to build meals that keep you satisfied for hours and establish a sleep schedule that supports your metabolism. If you're eager to reconnect with your body and achieve the comfort and confidence you deserve, this episode is packed with valuable insights and tips. Tune in and start your journey to a healthier you today!
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Welcome to the Simplicity of Wellness podcast. I'm your host, board-certified holistic nutritionist and professional life coach, amy White. The purpose of this podcast is to share information that you can use to become leaner, stronger and healthier by losing weight, shedding inches, maintaining muscle and managing your mind, all while living your normal busy life in this modern, sugar-filled world. Hello simplifiers, today I want to define what I mean when I say a body imbalance. I'll then explain body balance by giving you two primary examples of imbalance, because sometimes and I believe in this case, the easiest way to explain what something is is to show you what it's not. After that, I'll get into what causes this body imbalance and then end the episode with what you can do to regain balance. I do use the term body balance a lot, but I don't think it really means anything unless you can understand what it means for you specifically. Are you in balance or not? That's really the question To me.
Speaker 1:Body balance is metabolic balance, and I know you're now thinking that didn't help me, because now I need to understand what metabolic balance is. So let's start with metabolism balance is. So let's start with metabolism. Metabolism is the combination of actions or processes in your body that break things down and also build things up. Metabolic balance is the balance between these two things the breaking down of the body and the building up of the body. Balance means you're not breaking down so much that you're wasting away or building up so much that you're growing beyond a healthy size and weight. When I talk about body balance, it means being able to live your normal life how you move, eat, sleep, all of the things without having to micromanage any one aspect to maintain good health and a stable weight. For example, being able to eat when you're hungry until you feel full without gaining weight. That would be normal for a healthy body and balance. To people who are metabolically out of balance, eating without a fear of gaining weight seems impossible, like a pipe dream, because their body imbalance causes them to build fat more easily and faster than they can break fat down.
Speaker 1:There are two ways to define metabolic imbalance. The first is metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of five disorders. When these things show up together, metabolic syndrome is typically the diagnosis. The five disorders are high blood sugar, so chronically over 100, large waist circumference 35 inches or greater for a woman, 40 inches or greater for a man. High triglycerides and this is one of your cholesterol markers, so consistently over 100, high blood pressure. Low HDL, which is also a cholesterol marker, so below 75 for women and below 60 for men. If you have metabolic syndrome, you likely know it. Your doctor watches these markers and will make you aware when they are out of balance. I suspect that if you're listening to this podcast, you may have one or two of these markers, but not all of them. Which leads me to the second way you can recognize metabolic imbalance a lack of metabolic flexibility.
Speaker 1:I think metabolic inflexibility is more likely the problem for those of you who aren't actually sick but struggle to manage your daytime energy, mood and body weight. Metabolic flexibility is your body's ability to easily and effectively switch between burning sugars as fuel and burning fat as fuel. When you are metabolically flexible, you can eat a mixed meal of carbs, fats and proteins, or even a carb-heavy meal Think like a giant, huge plate of pasta and your body will work to burn off those carbs, which can also be called sugar fuel first. Once that sugar fuel is eliminated, your body will shift over to fat burning. No energy crisis, no emergency hunger, because when the sugars are gone, your body switches fuel sources and starts burning your stored fat for fuel. As long as you have body fat and you are metabolically flexible, you should not be dealing with energy dips or an emergency sense of hunger that causes brain fog, anxiety and possibly even dizziness. This is what I call hangry. You can't focus on anything else until you eat something. If you are dealing with this, it's a huge red flag. You are not metabolically flexible and therefore not metabolically balanced. Basically, when you are metabolically inflexible, your body doesn't transition out of sugar burning to fat burning. Your body is stuck searching for sugar and when it can't find it, it will freak out because it believes there's no fuel and you're going to die. Your body's number one priority is to keep you alive, so it makes finding food an emergency.
Speaker 1:The one thing metabolic syndrome and a lack of metabolic flexibility have in common is the hormone insulin. An ongoing and cumulative problem with insulin results in what's called insulin resistance. But there are two sides to the insulin resistance coin and you have to have both sides to have true insulin resistance. One side is a lack of insulin sensitivity on a cellular level. All cells in your body have an insulin receptor, basically a little door on the cell. That's only for insulin In a healthy, balanced body. Insulin will knock on that door and the cell will open and let the insulin in. Some cells can become less sensitive to insulin so they keep that door shut and locked, no matter how hard insulin knocks. This is an insulin signaling problem and the result will be higher levels of circulating insulin because the body is pumping out more insulin to try and get the cell to open the door. This can also lead to cellular inflammation, which I will get to in a minute. The other side of the insulin resistance coin is too much insulin circulating through your body all of the time, chronic high insulin in your bloodstream. To have true insulin resistance, you will have an insulin signaling problem on a cellular level and too much or high levels of insulin circulating through your bloodstream at all times.
Speaker 1:Long-term insulin resistance matters because it's a root cause of type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, alzheimer's disease, high blood pressure and infertility, issues which show up in men as erectile dysfunction and in women as PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome. The three primary drivers of insulin resistance are chronic inflammation. This isn't acute inflammation from an angry, infected wound or a twisted ankle. It's inflammation on a cellular level. It's not something you can see Chronically elevated levels of insulin circulating through your body is number two, and then number three is chronic high stress due to the release of cortisol or epinephrine, which is also known as adrenaline. Each of these issues can cause full-blown insulin resistance independently of the others, meaning you don't have to have all three to have insulin resistance. I realize that is a very grim picture. So now let's talk about the good stuff what you can do to manage your insulin, avoid or at the very least reverse insulin resistance and promote metabolic flexibility.
Speaker 1:First, chronic inflammation. One of the biggest causes of chronic cellular inflammation is eating foods that don't work for your body. Food your body is intolerant to, not allergic, intolerant, meaning these foods don't work with your body. These are not foods that will send you to the ER. They are foods that, if you take the time to really notice, don't make you feel good. This can show up as gas, bloating, heartburn, skin issues, constipation, diarrhea, headaches, migraines, depression and other common but not normal symptoms. You may find this interesting. Food intolerances can go away. Long-term chronic gut inflammation causes what's called leaky gut. Leaky gut will induce food intolerance, which then worsens inflammation. So it's a vicious cycle.
Speaker 1:Remember a minute ago I mentioned that an insulin signaling problem. So when cells become insensitive to insulin also causes cellular inflammation. Reducing inflammation throughout your body will improve insulin sensitivity, which in turn will reduce circulating insulin. When a cell is not responding to insulin, the body will pump out more insulin in an attempt to get the cell to let the insulin in. When the cell responds properly, less insulin is needed. As inflammation calms down. Food intolerances can also calm down. Calms down food intolerances can also calm down.
Speaker 1:Addressing insulin signaling problems on a cellular level is kind of a bigger deal. So what you can do to start eliminating inflammation in your body is to eliminate the most common inflammatory foods, all gluten-containing grains. But if you really want to feel change quickly, I would say eliminate all grains, even those that are gluten free. Remove legumes, sugar in all its forms, soy and ultra processed foods Now shellfish, dairy and eggs can also be a problem for many people. But start by eliminating all the grains, the legumes, the high sugar foods and the ultra processed foods. Let me be clear An insulin signaling problem cells not responding to insulin is not the biggest cause of chronically high levels of circulating insulin. It does contribute, but the biggest cause of chronically high insulin is eating all the time. So the second thing you want to address is chronically high levels of insulin in your body.
Speaker 1:Most people tend to eat mixed meals, a combination of carbs, proteins and fats. Any meal that includes carbs will cause the body to release insulin. In a healthy, metabolically balanced body, this is not a problem. It's exactly what is supposed to happen. Insulin increases in response to food, does its job, clears the sugars out of the bloodstream and then retreats back to a healthy, low baseline level.
Speaker 1:The less carbs you eat, the less insulin is released. I'm not saying stop eating carbs. For many people, that's an extreme and unnecessary option. How you want to manage your carbs is dependent on where you are currently falling on the spectrum of health. If you want to understand where you might be on that spectrum, go back to my previous podcast episode, assessing your Health A Simple At-Home Test and more. For many, eating low carb is an easy way to manage insulin levels and a great place to start, but for most, not necessarily something you need to do for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1:The amount of carbs you eat and how often you eat them will depend on a lot of things, including your age, activity level, health status and how long you've been living out of balance and overweight For most people. As your body moves into balance, you should be able to enjoy a level of food freedom that includes all foods, even some indulgent carbs. Back to the idea of eating all the time. Most people do eat all the time. Every couple of hours they may have mixed meals, but the snacks in between those meals are often all carbs Crackers, pretzels, chips, ice cream, cookies, candy and those high sugar fancy coffee drinks. Eating all the time never allows your insulin to drop down to a pre-food state. If you're eating every two to three hours, you shoot your insulin back up before it's had time to come back down to its pre-food baseline, before it's had time to come back down to its pre-food baseline. This is causing you to have chronic high levels of insulin circulating through your body all the time.
Speaker 1:Insulin blocks your ability to burn body fat. When insulin is high, fat storage is turned on. This is a big problem when it comes to regaining metabolic flexibility. You're never in fat burn mode, so your body settles in to using only one fuel sugar. The good news is this is also the easiest fix. Stop snacking. Build meals that are protein heavy with low sugar carbs to fill out your plate. Skip the starchy, high sugar carbs, Things like rice, potatoes and pasta. Stick with high fiber, low sugar vegetables. These are typically the vegetables that grow above ground.
Speaker 1:The third thing I mentioned in reference to a cause of insulin resistance is high stress or high levels of the stress hormones, cortisol and or norepinephrine adrenaline. The biggest increase of cortisol comes from a lack of sleep. The best thing you can do to manage stress is prioritize sleep. Set a bedtime. Go to bed every night at the same time. Set a wake time. Wake up and get out of bed every night at the same time. Set a wake time. Wake up and get out of bed every day at the same time. This includes the weekends. Create a bedtime routine that relaxes your body. Turn off electronics and TV one to three hours before you plan to go to bed and if that seems impossible, then get blue light blocking glasses and wear those after the sun goes down and, while you're using electronics, shoot for seven hours or more of restful sleep. If you're not sleeping and don't know what to do, reach out to a sleep coach. I can recommend someone if you don't have someone in mind.
Speaker 1:My Hangry to Healthy coaching program is all about creating body balance by managing your metabolic hormones, including insulin, so that you can restore metabolic flexibility and ditch the restrictive dieting. You learn how to avoid the most common inflammatory foods without the panic of not knowing what to eat. This is where you start, so that you can set your body up to be able to handle all foods without gaining weight. You learn to build meals that keep you full for four, five or more hours so your body can have a healthy insulin response that settles back to baseline and kicks up fat burning before you eat again. As your metabolic flexibility returns, you will notice that your energy is back, your cravings are gone and your hunger has calmed down. You see the change in your body physically your clothes get looser as you shed fat and lose inches. You sleep better and you notice that the things that used to set you off and make you stressed don't seem to matter as much. My Hangry to Healthy program is for you if you're tired of trying to do it alone, if you're ready to make consistent progress instead of the stop-start cycle. Hangry to Healthy is open to new clients now. You are invited to join before July 31st. Click the Hangry to Healthy link below to go to the program page. Once there, take a look at what previous clients have said, review the program outline, read the FAQs and money back guarantee, and then, at the bottom of the page, click the join button so you can get started immediately.
Speaker 1:So, to wrap up today's episode, the three things that you want to address to avoid insulin resistance and hopefully bring your insulin levels back to a healthy place, so that you do have metabolic flexibility is eliminate inflammatory foods or any foods that you know just don't work for your body. Stop eating all the time, quit the snacking and build meals that keep you full and feeling satisfied for a minimum of four hours. And then, finally, prioritize your sleep. Do what you need to do so that you are falling asleep at the same time every night, getting at least seven hours of restful sleep and then waking up at the same time every morning. Okay, I will be back next week with a new episode.
Speaker 1:Do you like the idea of eating for the body you want? Is there a piece of you that's eager to learn how to become leaner, stronger and healthier without having to overhaul your entire life? If this is you, then you're in luck, because this is what I do. I can help you reconnect and work with your body so that you can enjoy the body comfort and confidence you deserve, eating foods you love. Click the free consult link in the show notes. Let's talk about where you are, what you want and how you can get there.
