Insulin. Unless we have diabetes, we don’t really think much about it day to day, but it actually plays an important role in weight loss, weights gain (especially around the mid-section), and all this buzz around losing weight with diabetic medications like Ozempic.
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas. Its main job is to escort glucose in the blood stream to cells for immediate energy. Then, insulin takes extra glucose to muscles, the liver, and, yes, fat cells for storage. In an ideal world, we would eat the perfect amount of carbohydrates to create just enough glucose to energize the cells and have some to store away in the muscles and liver. Ideally.
Yet, for those of us who have unbuttoned pants after sitting down because they have become too tight know, this isn’t an ideal world. For many of us, our days might involve a lot of sitting and not much physical activity, let alone actual on-purpose type exercise, at least on a regular basis. We try, but other priorities of life have our attention, or maybe we have been limited by pain or injury, or we simply don’t have the energy to exercise.
We also do our best when it comes to eating, but wish food didn’t have to be so confusing; and why is it we seem to gain 5 pounds by just saying the words ice and cream together?? We would love to lose weight and some of the latest popular diets have worked for a little while, like keto, but they aren’t realistic or effective long term. Besides, isn’t there a natural, healthy way to eat to lose or maintain weight permanently? I don’t remember my grandma counting calories or worrying about her carb intake.
So, here we are. While I completely understand the frustration, I want you to know there is a natural, healthy way to eat, and exercise too, to lose and maintain weight. It starts with our very own insulin. Regulating how much and how often insulin is released into the bloodstream, and then helping it do its job when it is released, can go a long way in balancing our metabolism.
Eating and drinking sugary junk foods is probably the quickest way to increase glucose in the blood stream (notice I didn’t say carb filled potatoes or oatmeal, more on that later). High levels of glucose are toxic to the body, so a large amount of insulin is released to quickly clear it from the blood stream and transport it into the cells.
Since insulin does its job so well, we often feel a sugar crash afterwards, and this lack of energy has us reaching for more, you guessed it, sugar- setting off the same chain of events except this time, since we haven’t been physically active, the cells don’t need it for immediate energy. After the first massive sugar hit, there is no more storage space available in the liver, or in those muscles that we don't exercise regularly. The cells around the mid-section, however, are more than happy to take all the extra glucose and store it away as fat (there is a limit to even their welcome, however, which leads to insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes).
So, our lifestyle of sitting too much, not being physically active, and not understanding how to eat food in the right amounts or at the right times, leads us here. The good news is we can do something about it- even if we are also dealing with the hormonal effects of menopause (peri and post too) and stress.
This is why I created the Strong! Women Club, a place for us to go to unwind with online chair yoga and stretching classes plus special programs focusing on the most effective ways to build muscle, improve balance, eat healthy, and more. I personally invite you to join the Strong! Women Club beginning October 3rd, and try it for free during the month of October (no strings attached).
Strong! Women believe weight loss should be a side effect of a healthy lifestyle, desire to experience new adventures with all the strength and stamina to get there- plus they have enough life experience to be skeptical of the latest diet or exercise fad. Are you a Strong! Woman? Join us!