Changing Your Thoughts on Weight Loss Part 2

A friend of mine & I were recently chatting & we were discussing the "detoxification" program I offer my patients. I was telling her how it cleanses the body & removes many harmful toxins that we are bombarded with every day. I happen to LOVE this program, because it truly shows people "how" to eat. Anyone can go on a diet to lose weight & most gain the weight back because they haven't learned life skills on how to eat. This program goes above & beyond that. A side effect of eating healthy is that many of my patients lose weight while on this program. My friend had an interesting response when I was discussing how we should be eating; she said, "Well I'm reactive hypoglycemic, so I can't eat breakfast or eat that often." It got me thinking about how confused people really are about what their bodies are doing.

My friend & I'm sure many others out there like her believe that hypoglycemia is a disease/disorder that they are afflicted with like cancer. But this isn't the case. Hypoglycemia is a process that occurs in your body when blood sugar levels do not remain steady, but dip down too low at certain times. A natural trigger then goes off to signal that the body needs more glucose. From there the body responds with a hormone called "glucagon" from the pancreas which will elevate blood sugar levels. My friend has been led to believe that she has "no control" over this disorder when nothing could be further from the truth. She has complete control over this & it starts with what she's putting into her body.

Simply eating carbohydrates, which is what most people eat,  leads to a progression of blood sugar problems which can escalate into insulin resistance. This means that the cells are less responsive to insulin & are less able to get glucose into the cell (which needs it to create energy). Eventually this leads to weight gain, especially in the abdomen & torso.

Things you can do:

• start each day with a breakfast that includes a protein & a fat, along with a non-refined carbohydrate
• eat every 2 hours
• decrease coffee/cola consumption

Remember this is a naturally occurring process in the body. It's vital to maintain steady blood sugar levels & you do have control over this.

~Dr. Terri