Kathie's Coaching Podcast

41 - Ways2Well Update

May 17, 2022 Kathie Owen
Kathie's Coaching Podcast
41 - Ways2Well Update
Show Notes Transcript

In today’s episode we discuss:

  • Nutrition guidelines for hormone balance
  • My nutrition ah-ha moment from @sarah.hughes239
  • This post in particular: https://www.instagram.com/p/CcD04R-DSn1/
  • Caffeine and it’s issues with blood sugar
  • Sleep
  • Metformin, ZMA-C, Glucose Support, Krill Oil, Digestive Enzymes, Iron supplementation
  • Recovery from workouts
  • How hormone imbalance can affect so much
  • How your diet and nutrition come into play

Links mentioned in the episode:

You're listening to the Stop the Mind Screw Podcast. I'm your host, Kathie Owen Certified Fitness Trainer, and Life Coach since 2002 transforming lives and magic fashion. On this podcast, we talk about fitness, health, wellness, healthy habits, healthy lifestyle, and of course, Reality Transurfing.

Today we are talking about an update to my status on what happened when I went through the blood work with ways to well, and what I learned let's get into that episode.

So I started my new regimen about four weeks ago and on. 10 days after I started my regimen, I got a big aha moment. And that was the fact that I had been drinking monster drinks. I hate to admit this, but I was drinking two of them a day and it was not healthy at all.

 And I can just about guarantee you that, that attributed to everything that was going wrong. Or at least most of it in my blood work, but I feel so much better. I'm back to myself, I'm back to my workouts. And that's what we're going to talk about today because there's so many little pieces that come together that I think can benefit a lot of my listeners, especially my friends that follow this that are in their fifties, or even in their thirties, going through menopause and having these struggles.

So the reason I realized that the monster drinks were a big contributing factor was one of my friends on Instagram posted this. Her name is@sarah.hughes239, and she talks a lot about nutrition. And her information is so awesome. And I'm going to have a link to her post in the episode and especially the one that I'm going to read right here.

So blood sugar spikes are something I was having problems with and I've always kind of struggled with blood sugar because I'm hypoglycemic.  This means my blood sugar spikes really easily because I've been in fitness all these years and I've always worked out. And so when I do, it's like I got to eat and I got to get my blood sugar back to normal.

And also when my, with my ways to, well, we found out that my blood sugar was spiking and I was becoming insulin resistant, just like a diabetic. No, I'm not diabetic, but I was just like it. And it was hormonal diabetes. If that makes any kind of sense to you, but blood sugar spikes are not only problematic for diabetics but can become an issue for anyone if they happen consistently, especially with poor health.

So she goes on to say, I want to highlight the importance of this topic for menopausal women who are at a higher risk of becoming insulin resistant with aging. That was me, obviously the main culprits, other than genetics for developing diabetes. An unhealthy lifestyle, sedentary lifestyle, and unhealthy nutrition habits.

We can all benefit from what she's going to say in this post. All right, please listen, cause it's really important.

Then she goes on to say, there are other culprits that we don't usually associate with spikes in blood sugar. These are caffeine. Some studies have shown that coffee and caffeinated drinks can cause insulin resistance and increase blood glucose levels.

This was my issue. This was my main issue because those drinks are loaded with caffeine. I have a high tolerance for caffeine because of my fitness and because I've been drinking pre-workouts and things like that. But my caffeine levels were off the charts after drinking two of those things.

Losing sleep even just one night of poor sleep has been shown to make your body use insulin less efficiently. Skipping breakfast and going without that morning meal can decrease your blood sugar levels initially, but blood sugar spikes after both lunch and time of day blood sugar levels can be harder to control.

The later it gets dehydration, less water in your body means your blood sugar is more concentrated.
 
Stress when under stress the body prepares itself by ensuring that enough sugar or energy is readily available in some insulin levels fall. Glucagon and epinephrine. AKA adrenaline levels rise and more glucose is released from the liver. At the same time, growth, hormone and cortisol levels rise, which causes body tissues, muscles, and fat to be less sensitive to insulin.

As a result, more glucose is available in the blood. 

So, what do we do to control our overall blood sugar levels? In terms of nutrition, avoid high sugary foods and increase consumption of high fiber foods, such as vegetables, and lugemes. And whole grains exercises. 

The key to keeping a healthy cardiovascular system - think about the more blood flows in our body. Being like a natural detox system, moving any circulating sugar to the muscles that need the energy to work, then just as important managing stress, getting good quality sleep and drinking water. She says I hope this information helps, man. Th this just blew my mind because I knew this, this is what's crazy.

I knew this, but I didn't pay attention. But anyway, so I quit my monster drinks. Totally. And I was found to be insulin resistant, and I know that's why. I can't wait to get my next blood work test to find out. But what happened was they put me on medication. So one of the first things I was put on was zinc magnesium B6, and it's called ZMA-C

So it has the combination of those elements and I was lacking them and that's what was causing me to be so frigging sore after I worked out that I couldn't work out for like three or four days. And my body is used to those types of workouts. And I can already tell you that it has made a huge difference because now I'm recovering a lot quicker. So the Zinc then magnesium and the B6 help your body and muscles recover quicker from a workout. 

They put me on Metformin. So Metformin is also a, um, something that's given for diabetics to control their blood sugar. They have done studies on the medication and they have found that it helps with cancer prevention, cancer help.

Um, now of course these studies are all new and they still need more proof to it, but I really, for me, See this being a great benefit. I'm also on glucose support just to help me balance out my blood sugar, which I can tell you has been a tremendous difference. My cholesterol was very high and one of those things is genetic because my cholesterol does run high in my family. So that's one thing that I wanted to control. 

So she put me on Neptune Krill Oil, which is a new kind of fish oil that comes from crustacean fish that like shellfish and, um, shrimp. And it's, it's a red pill. So think about it. It comes from the. Fish like lobster and things like that. So if you're allergic to that, you can't be taking this, but it does help balance your cholesterol and helps. Um, also helps with a lot of other different things as well. 

They put me on digestive enzymes because my, um, the digestive system was inflamed and I was having, um, some kind of issues with, uh, processing insulin, like I said, so that of course is going through. Helped me with that. 

And again, I go back to those monster drinks.

I know those things were just making my body work harder than it needed to by making my pancreas work harder, which is where the insulin would come from. And so we'll just see once I get the blood work, but I can already tell you, I feel great. 

Also, my iron levels were low, so my energy was low. I was by the end of every day, even if I didn't work out, I was so tired.

I couldn't wait to get to bed. It actually hurt. I was so tired. So that affected, I believe was from my low iron levels. And so I have increased that. I can definitely tell a huge difference again. 

I want you to know that in a nutshell, Effective for everybody. This helps all of us because our blood sugar levels are really important and there's something to pay attention to and just keep aware of.

Honestly, I believe that if I had just quit the monster drinks like I was supposed to or done like I was, I don't think all of these things would have been coming into play.
 
My hormone levels. On the other hand, probably. Yes. They would have been low just because of my age and that just happens in life, but there are ways, and I have found on, on Sarah's, um, Instagram, that there are foods you can eat to help you improve your hormone levels.

So you don't always have to get on hormone therapy. Although I will say it does. All right. That's my episode for today. I hope you liked it. I hope you got some benefit from it. If you know someone who can benefit from listening to this, please share it with them. And until next time I'll see you next time.

Peace out and Namaste.