How to Improve your Metabolic Health

For a lot of my patients it’s been a while since they’ve felt a sense of peace and calm in their life and a sense of peace and calm with food and energy.  Many are struggling with food sensitivities, fatigue, digestive issues, brain fog, weight gain, joint pain, skin breakouts and the Blood Sugar/Insulin/Cortisol roller coaster.

They feel constant hunger, yo yo energy levels, wait too long to eat because they are busy and have mood and food cravings that make them feel like victims of their eating schedules.

SIGNS OF DYSREGULATED BLOOD SUGAR METABOLISM

Do you

• Feel like they have to always have a snack on hand
• Your energy levels are inconsistent throughout the day
• You suffer from brain fog and slow recall
• You feel overwhelmed and have too many tasks on your to do list.
• Have more fat around the middle than you would like. (The missing waist)
• Lean on coffee and sugar for energy more than they should
• Suffer from anxiety and or depression all in the same day
• Wait till you are shaky before you eat… I am talking to you guys who do IF and wait too long to eat and break the fast with fruit!
• Your Digestion is off. Constipation or Diarrhea
• You have skin issues
• Nod off at 4.00pm and need a pick me up.
• Feel irritated with a co worker or with your kids
• Need a snack before bed

If you have some of these same  challenges and also struggle with your relationship with food, then know that you’re not alone. There are certain aspects of our modern lifestyles — like high-sugar foods, alcohol, long workdays, lack of exercise, and our snacking culture — that can mess with our hunger signals and our common sense about what to eat, when, and how much.

Let’s also add in the high stress, too much screen time and burnout from the past few years into the mix and we have a recipe for dysregulated Blood Sugar and Insulin Resistance.  It is a cycle that can be hard to break.

This increasingly common struggle with Mood/Skin/Hormones and Food that I am seeing in my  natural functional medicine clinic is one of the reasons I decided to write this blog.

Metabolic Mayhem

Do you ever feel hungry and irritable if you go a few hours without eating? Or feel like you need consistent hits of sugar, caffeine, and carbs to get you through the day? These are some not-so-subtle signs that your metabolism has become inflexible, which means it’s lost some of its ability to maintain consistent energy levels regardless of the type of food you’re eating.

Constant Stress from your lifestyle and mindset choices causes inflammation, which causes an increase in bacteria in the GI tract and those guys want sugar… Remember also that there is a GUT-BRAIN axis… got brain fog? Look at the Gut connection. Sugar also temporarily calms us down…I know you can all relate to that, which is why we should always consider our feelings and emotions when we deal with our relationship with food. On a side note:  Sugar feeds bacteria, yeast and viruses!!

What does Metabolic Mayhem Mean?

Think of it like this: Your body is a fire, and sugar is kindling. Sugar as fuel provides short, effective bursts of flames to get the fire started, but it’s quick to burn out and you have to constantly replenish it to keep the fire going. In contrast, fat is like a log of firewood. You can put a log in the fire and know that for hours you’ll have a slow and steady fire burning. When your body is desperate for sugar because it can’t rely on burning fat for fuel, you’ll be “hangry” every few hours, no matter how much you eat.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that by making a few key lifestyle changes, you can help restore metabolic flexibility, which means you can keep your fire burning strong and steady so you have consistent energy throughout the day.

Metabolic Flexibility — The Key to Food Freedom and Blood Sugar Stability

As we already learned, metabolic flexibility is your body’s ability to supply your brain and body with energy using either glucose or fat for fuel. When you’re metabolically flexible, you’ll be able to draw on these two fuel sources at will and it will give you a sense of freedom over food. Why? Because it will help you fend off fatigue, brain fog, cravings, crankiness, and blood sugar dips that you experience when you are metabolically inflexible.

So, how do you become more metabolically flexible and balance blood sugar?

1. Support Stress: My favorite is Ashwaganda Forte, Drenamin or Adrenal Complex. Read: Everyone needs Stress Support!!!
2. Reduce Stress: If you are not clear what that is for you, then start a journal and look for patterns, make changes and please get support if needed.
3. Slowly increase good fats into the diet ( Olive oil, Coconut, Ghee, Avocado, Nuts and Seeds etc). I say slowly because you need a healthy Gall Bladder/ Liver to digest fats. You might need AF Betafood, Enzycore or Choline to help support the digestion of Fats.
4. Increase clean proteins: Let me know if you would like a copy of my Ultimate Protein handout. Email or text will work.
5. Increase Minerals and Fiber. (Read Lots of Veggies… like aim for 10 servings a day and include a variety) doing this will also support your Microbiome and improve GI  and Immune function.
6. Exercise helps burn excess glucose, builds muscle and you get a dopamine high
7. Add digestive support like Zypan, Enzymix Pro and Enyzcore to help you digest the increase in Fat, Protein and Fiber intake and add Trace Minerals B12 for added mineral support while you get on your new program.
8. Sleep: this is big: Without sleep the body can not repair and rejuvenate. Lack of sleep also can kick off the crazy carb – sugar – coffee cycle making it hard to kick the habit. (Shutdown the Tech at least 30 minutes or more before bed)
9. Hydrate: for most it is at least 80 ozs of clean filtered water a day. Next time you think you are hungry, check in and see if what you need is to hydrate.
10. Once you have integrated  steps 1-9, increase your fasting zone. Start with 12 hours.

SUPPORT YOUR BODY WITH QUALITY PRODUCTS

To Purchase the supplements I mentioned go to your account or go here and set up a new patient account.

A More Flexible Metabolism : Time Restricted Eating or Intermittent Fasting

The easiest way to start exploring intermittent fasting is you simply extend the time between dinner and breakfast the next day. You don’t focus on eating less or counting calories — you simply shorten your daily eating window to give your metabolism and gut health a longer break overnight. This — combined with eating fewer simple carbs and more protein and fat — can help your metabolism reset and recharge to be more adaptable. I have to say that the quality of what you eat matters. It should be whole foods, found in nature and not packaged, processed foods with a bunch of chemicals in it.

If you follow the above then you have taken major steps to support your metabolism and hormones so that hunger signals and cravings FINALLY feel under control. And that,  allows you to start finding peace of mind with food and changing the relationship you have with it.

It can take a while to create new habits and have more energy, lose weight, improve your skin and feel like you are more stable emotionally.

Be kind to yourself and if you need support or are doing all the things I mentioned and still struggling then I am available in clinic in Cedar Park/Leander   I have a mission to help as many people as I can be healthy.

Lastly, most conventional labs do not measure Insulin, A1C, C- peptide or LDH until they see high glucose numbers and by then the damage is already in process. Our Standard Comprehensive Lab Panel looks at all of these markers and many more to determine your metabolic health. We also look at optimal ranges so you can see where you have opportunities for proactive shifts before things become a problem. Yeah!  Here is the even better news.  I offer Diagnostic Labs at my cost if you become a patient.

It is the perfect time as we get ready for Spring to hit the renew and refresh button.  Good health is our most important asset!!

Have a healthy week and be mindful this week of the changes to our circadian clock.

Dr Pia