To Much Good?

I've recently had to ask myself the question, "Can I eat too much good food?" I moved back in with my parents about 5 months ago (don't judge me!) to pursue starting my own business. My parents eat extremely healthy. They eat gluten, dairy, and mostly sugar free--very little GMO (genetically modified organisms) food. My dad is allergic to rice and my mom is allergic to corn... So as you can imagine, we don't have many carbs in the house.  With that being said, I thought that when I moved home I would lose weight just because my diet would be extremely clean... well, that hasn't been the case.

I will be honest. I am a recovering food addict. I love food. I love eating. I always have.

When I moved home I started training to compete in Olympic Lifting tournaments. One thing about this type of lifting is that is can make for some bulkier muscles. I continued to see myself getting stronger and I justified a lot of my eating with the thought that I needed it. I was lifting heavy weights and building muscle.  I also justified my ever increasing numbers on the scale based on the idea that muscle weighs more than fat. But let's be honest, I didn't gain 10 pounds of muscle...

During a recent trip to Florida I had the opportunity to play in a beach volleyball tournament--so much fun. I was very inspired/challenged by the girls at the beach. These girls were ripped. My innate competitiveness welled up within me, "Ah, hello! Hope! You could totally look like that. What are you doing! Stop being so lazy!"

When I arrived home from my trip I made a decision, I knew my over eating problems had to do with two things--too much sugar consumption and little self-control. Surprisingly, these two things go hand-in-hand.

I realized I need to stop eating sugar..... WHAT!?

Let's get technical for a minute. Everyone has heard the terms blood sugar and insulin before. Our blood sugar (the level of sugar in our blood) goes up and down throughout the day and is regulated by our insulin. Insulin is released to make sure our blood sugar does not get too high--causing all types of health problems. The relationship between your blood sugar and insulin is sensitive. Let me introduce insulin resistance to you--this happens when you continually eat foods that spike your blood sugar (soda, donuts, candy, bread, etc.). When you eat these foods you actually down regulate your blood sugar receptors (they become desensitized)--making your body produce excess insulin. Here is the problem, insulin is your main fat storing hormone.  When your body produces too much of any hormone it stores in your fat, because there is no use for it. Ever looked in the mirror and noticed your love handles or that you might have some excess upper back fat? Yep, that is the favorite place for your excess insulin to dwell.

So, now you might be wondering how I'm going to tie this all together--well get ready. :) Have you ever heard of dopamine? I am not referring to the drug dope... Dopamine is your bodies pleasure drug. When you eat sugar this chemical is released in your brain making the dopamine receptor light up. The problem we face is that almost all the foods you see in your local grocery store are loaded with sugar, artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, the list goes on... Just like a flashlight, if you keep it on all the time--the light will eventually fade. This happens to our dopamine receptors. We constantly eat sugar which is lighting up our dopamine receptors and eventually they become down regulated--or desensitized. We lose the feeling of pleasure from eating one brownie so we feel like we need to eat another to get the same feeling of satisfaction we used to get from just one.

This is how food addiction happens. We are eventually eating ourselves silly--trying to get that feeling of satisfaction leaving us overweight or obese.

I hope you were able to understand that. I am working on finding the balance of being technical, but also communicating in a way that everyone can understand.

So back to my issue. I need to cut out sugar and eat less.

The first couple days I did this I was pretty miserable. I woke up dreaming of delicious, sugary foods and all I wanted to eat was ice cream and a box of chocolates (yep, I'm a woman).  The first couple days I had headaches, I felt dizzy, and really just wanted to eat food--even though I wasn't hungry. I drank lots of water, took my vitamins and tried not to be crabby knowing that it would eventually pass. Praise God it did! After a week without sugar I am shocked by the change in me. One, I found myself eating a lot less because I wasn't craving food--food that wasn't even full of sugar. Second, I stopped craving sweets and my dizziness went away.  I'll be honest, when I went into Caribou and saw the chocolate covered espresso beans, they still called my name, but I looked away and resisted!

I know for many people, cutting out all sugar would be taking a HUGE step. Maybe picking just one thing to eliminate would be a big step for you, and that's what counts. Taking one step after another, toward optimal health.

WOW! That was a long post. Thanks for hanging in there with me and I hope you learned a little something that will help steer you in the right direction!

Hope
xoxo