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Blood sugar ups and downs are real.
Earlier this month I talked to a group of IT Consultants about improving and sustaining personal health while living a corporate lifestyle. I get it. It’s a tough environment to be in control of your food and wellness choices. I spent 16 years in the consulting world and that come with being responsible for meeting client demands while at the same time maintaining my own energy levels and health.
My guess is that if you work in a professional setting, eat a Standard American Diet and spend copious amounts of time behind your computer, you’ve got blood sugar control issues. Maybe you skip breakfast in the morning because you’re just not hungry, instead opting for the Starbucks drive-thru. Possibly you get really hungry at 10am (some people call it hangry because there might even be a crazy mood swing involved) and throw a yogurt and cup of coffee down. It could be that you start yawning at 3pm and head to the nearest candy basket, vending machine or coffee pot. Then, finally you’re headed home and exhausted, but at 10pm you get a second wind and stay up until midnight, catching up on DVR shows. These are all blood sugar control issues.
Because most of us eat a lot of refined carbohydrates and only a little protein, fat and unrefined carbohydrates, our bodies are in constant carb overload. These carbs are, to our energy levels, like kindling is to a fire. Kindling is great for getting the fire going, but you have to have logs to sustain it. Think of carbs like the kindling for your energy level – quick to get going but dies out fast. You need fats and proteins (the logs) to keep energy going long-term.
When we eat high carbohydrate meals (think breads, pastas and ), our cute, little pancreas does a really good job (actually too good of a job) of secreting insulin to transport and store the glucose in those carbs.
Here’s how it works: We eat a bowl of cereal and feel pretty good. The feeling of fullness and energy lasts for maybe one to three hours. During this time, our body is digesting the cereal. Once the cereal is broken down and glucose has surged into our bloodstream without fat or protein to slow it down, our pancreas’ alarm sounds. “There’s too much glucose in the blood! Pancreas, give me some insulin. Get this glucose out of our blood now!” The pancreas loads our bloodstream with insulin, and we feel hungry, cranky and tired as it takes up the glucose into storage. So we feel the need to eat again, usually a high glycemic food, and the same thing happens all over again.
This is the blood sugar roller coaster that happens when eating a Standard Amercian Diet. Carb in, blood sugar up, insulin secreted, blood sugar down, energy crash, mood swing, yawn, repeat!
Let’s define some of these terms:
How do we avoid this blood sugar roller coaster? Stop making your pancreas work so hard. Eat a diet balanced between unrefined carbs, fats and proteins. Make sure you eat fat and protein at every meal to slow down the insulin effect of carbohydrates. Avoid processed foods which are mostly high, refined carbohydrates. Make fruits and vegetables the only carbohydrates that you eat.
Sure, Jenny, sounds great. What about the kids that need to be fed, clothed and sent off to school at the crack of dawn? And then there’s this little issue of not having a personal chef at my beck and call each morning to make all this nourishing, amazing food. In between laundry loads, buying a gift for Johnny’s friend’s birthday party this weekend and getting Sally and Sue to their eighth dance lesson for the week, I’m sure I can find a few hours to buy groceries, prepare meals and clean up the kitchen. No problem.
Here’s what I told the IT consultants this month:
“There is no silver bullet. There is no get rich quick scheme, no magic healthy pills or shots and definitely no one else can do it for you. If there was some easy way to make health happen without lifting a finger, we wouldn’t see escalating chronic diseases, a diabetes epidemic and obesity on the rise. But, you can do it. You just have to get focused, strategic and intentional.”
Stop listening to the advertising executives. Don’t believe the claims of “Made with Whole Grain,” “Great Source of Calcium”, “Natural” and “Made with Real Fruit”. The fact is that all of these and most of the nutrients these claims are built upon are not even bio-available to your body.
Understand here and now that the only way to improve your health is to take charge of your health. Be intentional about your food choices. If you’re eating foods with ingredients that (A) you can’t pronounce and (B) you can’t buy in a grocery store, you’re not taking charge of your health.
Also, understand that the effects of the diet you have today probably won’t impact you tomorrow. You are setting the stage for your later years and for your kids’ futures. It can take a long time for the build-up of bad habits to start showing themselves as health problems.
Water is life-giving and oh-so-necessary. Approximately 75% of the population is chronically dehydrated. Read this to understand its importance and calculate how much you should drink every day.
Refer back to the “Get Your Head on Straight” section. Eat real food, made in nature, that you can pronounce, with few ingredients and that is perishable.
If you don’t have time to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, get strategic. Batch cook on a Sunday. Use your slow cooker. Buy pre-cut and pre-seasoned groceries from a reputable grocer. Use the grocery store’s concierge services to shop and bag it for you. Make double batches and freeze one for another week. Eat leftovers for breakfast and lunch – who said breakfast had to be breakfast food?
In this era of manufactured food, drive-thru fast food on every corner and our go-go-go lifestyles, we can’t afford to sacrifice our health due to misplaced priorities, lack of knowledge and lack of motivation. The knowledge is out there to be gained. The proper food sources are there to be purchased. Cookbooks and recipes abound. If push comes to shove, you can hire the whole thing out as well.
We have no excuses. We all have to eat. Why not choose to eat for health and vitality instead of speed and disease?
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