12 minute read
Feeling Frumpy, Fatigued, and Forlorn? Are You Carb Sensitive?
by Kristin Grayce McGary
Are you carrying extra weight, especially around your middle? Do you crave carbohydrates and rarely feel satiated after you eat? Well, you’re not alone, and yet, I’d love for you to feel connected and juicy in a healthy and vibrant body again. I understand the struggles around food. I was a competitive bodybuilder, eating 600 calories a day, training for hours, and then rebounding and gaining 35 extra pounds during a serious illness. I began studying Western medicine and switched to Asian and Functional medicine because I intuitively understood that food was medicine, but it could also be like a poison. Western medicine never mentioned food while Asian medicine dove deeply into the micronutrients as well as the energetic qualities. I began to find ways to feed my body differently as well as my soul.
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Carbohydrates could be like a poison for you. Something called Carbohydrate Sensitivity can possibly explain why you have cravings for sugar, starches,
26 | Good Fat Life chocolate, alcohol, cookies, and ice cream; as well as never really feeling full, even though your belly may be extending. Here’s how it works: Your body makes insulin in response to rising blood sugar levels due to the foods you’ve eaten. The more sugar and starches you eat, the more insulin is needed to shuttle the sugar from your blood into your cells. Sugar floating around in your blood is very toxic and causes organ and nerve damage so your body wants to usher it into your cells to be used as fuel. This fuel source isn’t very economical or efficient (more on this below). If you are sensitive to carbs, then you’re likely insulin resistant, which means your body isn’t able to move the sugar from your blood into your cells, so it begins to accumulate. And this accumulation causes more insulin to be released. The insulin isn’t able to do its important job and your body becomes tired. High levels of insulin lead to weight gain, fatigue, foggy thinking, liver issues, food cravings, inflammation, and unstable moods. It can make releasing excess weight very difficult because most people don’t address the underlying cause: Carb Sensitivity aka Insulin resistance.
At this point your likely thinking about what foods you may have to cut out, what you love to taste, what you reach for when you’re stressed, how will you be able to go out to eat with friends, what will your family say, and how impossible it all seems. I understand because I’ve been working with patients for the past 22 years who’ve struggled with stuffing their feelings with food, had body image issues, and became addicted to high sugar/starch foods in an attempt to soothe deeper pain. My dear mom is an emotional eater so I was raised watching her use food as medicine, but not in a healthy way. She used it for comfort because many other aspects of her life, especially her relationship with my father, caused her great pain. I love my dysfunctional family and I left home at age 17 to stabilize and grow beyond the patterns I was taught. I now teach others how to ask the tough questions, heighten
28 | Good Fat Life their self-awareness and shine their brightest selves. My sweet mom has paid the price for her self-soothing habits with Type 3 diabetes, which is diabetic Alzheimer’s due to the white matter of her brain shrinking (dementia), resulting from many decades of high insulin, high blood sugar, and carbohydrate sensitivity, a fate, of which, I’d love to spare you.
Your body is designed to thrive. I remember sitting in Biology class, learning how the brain requires glucose (sugar) to function, but this is not really true. Your brain functions 25% more optimally on fats than it does on glucose. Carbohydrates turn into glucose and get stored as glycogen in your muscles. Carbohydrates get stored as fat in your body, so eating them does not support releasing weight. This form of energy is very quick burning, it’s great for survival but not great for thriving. Healthy fats, along with abstaining from starchy carbohydrate intake, become long lasting energy. Fats, aka ketone bodies, are a much more efficient form of energy that stabilizes your blood sugar while decreasing insulin, inflammation, and cravings. When your body switches to using fats for fuel, you become a metabolic superhero, burning fats all day long, even when you sleep.
In my practice, Carbohydrate Sensitivity also means emotional sensitivity that hasn’t been fully accepted and honored. This means that you likely feel things deeply, and it may not always feel comfortable. There are often older feelings/emotions buried under the surface that have yet to be expressed. Many people will gain extra tissue as a buffer from the busy, crazy world because they weren’t taught more balanced and healthier strategies for integrating into the world. I love to teach women how to step into their higher selves and live a vibrant life. It’s true that what you eat and how you digest and absorb it are important, but that’s only part of the picture, there’s more. I’ve discovered that most people who are reaching for sweets and carbohydrates are missing a certain kind of “sweetness” in their life, so they turn to food to satisfy a deeper emotional and spiritual craving for sweet connection and love.
Have you ever eaten a meal and then instantly began planning your next meal or your next week of meals? You may be strategizing how to get, what you perceive to be, important needs and desires met. You likely don’t often feel satisfied or even full. There may be a sense of “scarcity” around food, sustenance, and getting or having enough. It’s almost like a food obsession or anxiety. Don’t worry, you’re not crazy, it’s happening to others as well. It’s your brain, sweetie. You have structures in your brain and receptor sites that get very excited when you eat sugar, just like they do when a heroin addict shoots up or smokes. Yes, it may seem like a dramatic comparison, but it’s chemically quite similar.
The reward processing circuitry of your brain gets lit up when you eat sugar and carbohydrates, driving your mind to order your body to repeat the behavior that created the perceived “pleasure.” And cravings and addiction ensue. This cycle can feel maddening!
The good news is that you don’t have to be a slave to those cravings. In my first book Holistic Keto for Gut Health; A Program for Resetting Your Metabolism, I dedicate an entire chapter to sugar and how to work with those pesky cravings, followed by another chapter on contemplative journaling exercises that upgrade your self-awareness around food, habits, and cultural influences. I believe that you have the ability to thrive, it’s your birthright, so where to begin? The first step is to catch yourself in an old pattern or behavior. It may be around food (reaching for snacks when you’re stressed, or ice cream after a break-up) or something more benign like taking the elevator instead of the stairs or avoiding a social situation. Once you’ve caught yourself in an old pattern, that may no longer be serving you, press the Pause button. Stop, take 5 deep breaths, expanding your diaphragm and low belly on the inhale and relaxing them on the exhale. Then ask these questions: Which part of me created this habit? How old is she/he/it? What need was she/he/ it trying to get met? Does it serve my adult self, and how or how not? What would my highest self say and do in this moment? Can you help the younger version of yourself get that need met in a healthier way? Can you now shift your physical body, turn around, jump up and down, walk in the opposite direction; with the intention of doing something differently. When you move your body in a new way, you are shaking up the old pattern and integrating something new. When I work with people doing deep transformation (which can be done with ease and joy), I often have them physically change their environment and their habits such as moving furniture and brushing their teeth with their non-dominant hand. When these things are done with a strong intention, then you begin to integrate beautiful change and growth into your life and you find a sense of freedom and joy that you’ve never felt before.
Fueling your body, mind, and spirit with real nourishment requires your care and attention. I call these “acts of self-love”. Rather than playing the reward/punish or guilt/shame games, heighten your awareness and begin to celebrate life with healthy choices that truly feed your body, mind, and soul. I believe in you, keep shining your brightest!
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GIVING = RECEIVING
by Sherri Richards
– Alexander McCall Smith, Love Over Scotland
We have all heard the phrase, “It is better to give vs. receive.” For many people, this is a deeply seated core belief.
What if that statement is not entirely true? AND what if that belief is keeping you from having the money and abundance you want?
Consider this, part of giving means that someone has to receive.
If everyone were on the giving end, who would be doing all of the receiving that allows everyone to feel so darn good?
This belief earned a dear friend of mine the title of being a “Blessing Suck”! She was devastated. She is a very kind and giving person. She never thought about the receiving end of the exchange.
My friend (call her Sue) was going through cancer treatment. When people came to help her and her family get through this challenging time, she was
30 | Good Fat Life dismissive. Even though she was not in a position to care for herself, let alone her family.
Sue believed that it was better to give than to receive. This deeply rooted belief prevented Sue from showing her gratitude for the support, which in turn blocked the giver the opportunity to feel good about their gift! Deep down, Sue was NOT comfortable with her ability to receive. Thus, she was a blessing, suck!
Sue is not alone.
Many people, especially women, are brilliant at giving and giving and fall apart when someone wants to give back. They will find some way NOT to receive the gifts people want to give them, be it a compliment, material item, even a hug!
Think about how you would respond in the following scenarios:
Someone pays you a compliment. Do you say, “Thank you,” and mean it, or do you lower your eyes and mumble something like “this dress is so old.” In essence, you are telling the person giving the compliment that they don’t know what they are talking about, because they obviously got it wrong when they said something complimentary to you.
Someone gives you a gift you really want. Do you light up and say, “OH MY GOSH, I can’t believe you just gave me what I have wanted forever?” Or do you close down and say, “OH NO, I couldn’t possibly accept this’? It’s too much! Take it back! While slamming the door to the joy of the giver?
Before you answer, remember this:
Taking and receiving are NOT the same thing. There is a HUGE difference between the two. A “taker” takes with no sense of gratitude. They often have a sense of entitlement, i.e., the giver owes them that which they are taking.
Self-Worth is the difference between a taker and a healthy receiver. A taker takes because she has an agenda and does not have the confidence that there will be enough for her. She comes from a place of scarcity. The receiver joyfully accepts the gift, understanding that she is worthy of receiving and is abundantly confident that there is plenty for everyone! She also knows that giving is not a transaction that requires her to reciprocate. It may however, inspire her to share the joyful experience she had with others in many different ways.
What does this have to do with money? Everything. Money is a form of receiving. It has been said, “How we do anything is how we do Everything.” While there is some confusion over where this quote originated, the message is crystal clear. If you have trouble accepting a simple compliment, how good are you at receiving other “blessings,” including money? The evidence of this belief can show up in many ways. Are you charging your clients your worth for your goods and services? Are you receiving the value you provide? If you work for someone else, are you paid what you’re worth?
Even though I have a master’s in finance, I used to think I didn’t need to pay personal attention to my retirement funds or the stock market, and I certainly did not need a financial advisor. Why? Because my belief was, I wasn’t worthy of receiving those extra funds to invest. In retrospect, I too was a “blessing suck”! I was the first to give. I loved giving! But I would run and hide to avoid having to receive. I am not kidding. The examples I could give. Some of them still bring tears to my eyes. Even a simple compliment could send me spinning. This change in belief has not been easy. I continue to work on it every day. I had to realign my core beliefs. Since shifting from, “it is better to give than receive,” to “receiving = giving,” I feel and appreciate the joy and abundance that are in my life in a much deeper way.
Try this practice for the next week; Every time someone gives you something, a compliment, meal, gift, referral, even a smile, notice how you feel.
Do you step into the gift and graciously say thank you, feeling the joy, or do you duck to avoid it in some way?
Notice where and when you feel the pleasure or discomfort in your body with no judgment.
Be curious.
I promise when you align your beliefs as I am, your life will change.
