The Path to Food Freedom - Part 3
Reconnect with Your Body
Your body is your best ally
What’s your relationship with your body? Do you feel connected and in sync with your body? Or do you feel out of tune with it?
Getting back into a good relationship with your body can be difficult, especially after years of dieting or if your body has changed. Or, if your body doesn’t quite look the way you’d like to. Or, doesn’t move the way you’d like it to (body pain, etc). Or, if you are dealing with a chronic health issue.
But…your body IS trying really hard. It’s doing everything it can for you to be happy, healthy, and feel great.
Here are a few ways to reconnect and befriend your body again:
1. Find something you love about your body –
My friend and colleague Wendy Goudie teaches bellydance (amongst many talents of hers). During my first class with her she gently encouraged all of us to lift our shirts to show off our gorgeous bellies. She stressed that it’s totally optional and said that most of the dancers who struggle with showing off their bellies in their first few classes begin to miss them as bellydancing burns them off (it’s quite the workout).
Imagine missing your belly? It can happen when we can see its beauty.
What I really loved about her class is how beautiful each dancer was, no matter her shape or size.
Can you think of something you love about your body? Do you have nice toes? Does it house a kind heart? Do you have a bright smile?
If so, how about two? This can provide an inroad into super body love ❤️.
You can meet Wendy in her masterclass “Building Strength” ❤️
2. Stop following anyone who promotes dieting culture – like before/after photos, quick weight loss programs, or any type of dieting -
One of the best things I’ve done for myself recently is that I’ve blocked every diet ad on my social media feed.
I found I was constantly being tempted by these ads and no wonder! They’ve been written by some of the best copywriters in the world to pull you in and convince you to believe what they’re trying to sell. Even my years as a nutritionist didn’t stop me from being tempted by these ads.
I also “snooze” any of my friends who are selling dieting products. My Facebook feed is now all cute animal videos, it’s so much nicer :)
3. Focus on how you’d like to feel instead of how you’d like to look –
Let’s take body size out of the mix for a moment. How do you want to feel? More energetic? Less pain? Healthier blood work numbers (lower cholesterol, blood sugar, etc)?
Focusing on how you’d like to feel is much gentler on your body than trying to force it into a new size. Real, long-term weight loss is a side-effect from getting healthier, it doesn’t alone create good health.
4. Compliment others freely –
One of the ways to silence our judgemental inner critic is to find things to compliment in others. By opening ourselves to being kinder to others, we open up the possibility of being kind to ourselves ❤️
5. Follow body-positive people –
Cutting out the diet ads in my social media feed was incredibly helpful and following body-positive people has been another amazing way that has transformed my social media feed. Here are a few of my favourites:
Facebook –
I Weigh (Jameela Jamil) - https://www.facebook.com/iweigh
Lucia Hawley - https://www.facebook.com/lucia.hawley
Instagram –
I Weigh (Jameela Jamil) - https://www.instagram.com/i_weigh/
TamaraRae Logan - https://www.instagram.com/tamararaelogan/
Healthy with Kelsey - https://www.instagram.com/healthy_with_kelsey/
How have you reconnected with your body? Post it below in the comments if you’d like to share it with us :)
Get Stronger (instead of weight loss focus) –
Side effect: A happier metabolism
One of the kindest things you can do for your body is to shift your focus from weight loss to getting stronger.
I’ve written out more about how this shift in mindset can change your relationship to food here:
https://lisakilgour.com/articles/2020/11/16/losing-weight-vs-building-strength
Let’s dive into this idea a bit more…
We naturally lose muscle as we age…well, we’ll lose muscle with each decade until we work to keep that muscle :). This lost muscle mass is one of the reasons that our metabolism sloooows down as we get older. And, it’s never too late to get stronger.
It builds active tissue
…and building muscle increases your resting metabolism, which means your body uses more energy even when you’re sitting on the couch watching a movie :).
When you build muscle, first your body trades in fat stores for muscle. One pound of muscle takes up less space than one pound of fat, so your body shape begins to change even when the scale doesn’t.
Plus, muscle is active. It needs energy and gobbles up extra glucose in your bloodstream.
Fat isn’t active and it’s a secondary endocrine gland, which means it produces some hormones (leptin, sex hormones, inflammation hormones, fat storage hormones). This can cause hormone imbalances, so building muscle helps reduce these extra and sometimes unnecessary hormones.
Muscles also store extra energy in the form of glucagon…so the more muscle you have the more glucagon storage you have. This is energy that doesn’t need to be stored in your fat cells.
Strength training also:
strengthens your bones
increases mobility and lowers your risk of falling
benefits balances, coordination, and posture
can reduce pain
reduces insulin and leptin resistance (more on that below)
boosts energy and mood
reduces blood pressure
And…you’ll feel powerful. That’s my favourite side effect :)
The importance of rest –
Your muscles don’t get stronger during your workout, they get injured. They get small micro-tears during your workout that signals your body that this muscle needs to be stronger. During your rest day, your muscles heal those tears and strengthen.
This means your rest day is as important as your workout, so don’t skip it! And, if you really overwork your muscle and you feel tired and sore for a few days – keep resting. You’ll be stronger in the long run if you give your muscles the space they need to heal and strengthen.
Low-Calorie Diets and Your Muscles –
Anytime you cut calories or a macronutrient (carbs, fat, etc), your body panics. It gets worried that there’s a famine and so it goes into preservation mode. But, your body has a different idea of what to preserve than you do.
You’ve created this energy deficiency to lose pounds of fat…but your body doesn’t want to lose these energy stores. Instead, it gobbles up your muscles and converts them into glucose. Your muscles go first.
Let me repeat that so that the rational voice in your head can understand why dieting hasn’t worked. If your body is worried that there’s a famine happening, it will preserve your important fat stores and sacrifice your muscle.
This is why the undieting method is to feed your body and encourage it to trade the inactive & hormone-producing tissue (fat) with active tissue (muscle). Your body is VERY happy to do that, especially it’s being fed enough food to fuel that active tissue.
We tend to think of protein as the most important food for building muscles, but carbohydrates are just as important because your body needs to know that there’s enough energy to keep your new active (and hungry) tissue fed. Starchy veggies, like root veggies and squash, are particularly good at growing new muscle :)
Jump to our masterclass Building Strength with Wendy Goudie to get started ❤️
Hunger and Energy Hormones – Insulin, Leptin, & GHrelin
One of the many reasons why the calories in/calories out math equation doesn’t ever work (never ever ever ever) is because of two hormones – insulin and leptin
Insulin
This very important hormone helps glucose get into your cells for energy. It’s secreted by the pancreas every time you eat, and some research is finding that it’s also secreted when you even think about eating.
It finds an insulin receptor on a cell and opens it up so the perfect amount of glucose can enter the cell.
In the world before high-fructose corn syrup, refined sugar, and refined flour, we always had a slow and steady drip of glucose into our bloodstream, so this process always worked perfectly.
But, after decades of a moderate diet of refined sugar/flour, some of you are dealing with insulin resistance. This means that some of your insulin receptors are broken and can’t open up the cells for glucose. This leaves higher levels of glucose in the bloodstream and hungry cells that are looking for glucose.
They keep sending their “I’m hungry!” signal to the brain so you stay hungry even though your blood glucose is a-okay. You eat more to satisfy your hunger, your pancreas pumps out more insulin, but the glucose can’t get into those hungry, hungry cells.
High insulin and high glucose can trigger inflammation, raise cholesterol levels, and you’ll feel hungry and tired all the time. It’s a vicious cycle.
Symptoms of Insulin Resistance are:
High fasting glucose (above 6)
High HgA1c (a blood sugar test, above 5.5 shows some insulin resistance)
High fasting triglycerides
Blood pressure over 130/80 in women
Waist circumference over 35” in women, 40” in men
Skin tags (usually around the neck or chest)
Insulin Resistance is caused by:
Chromium deficiency (an important trace mineral that’s removed when flours and sugars are refined)
Chronic high blood sugar
Refined sugar/flour in the diet (especially sugary drinks)
High stress
Family history of Insulin Resistance and Type II Diabetes (it can make you more susceptible)
The opposite of insulin resistance is insulin sensitivity. This means that those broken insulin receptor sites on your cells are fixed so your body can move all of the glucose in your bloodstream into your cells.
Creating better insulin sensitivity goes hand-in-hand with better leptin sensitivity…so let’s dive into leptin.
Leptin & GHrelin (Hunger hormones)
There are two hunger hormones that dance together - leptin and ghrelin.
Ghrelin is produced by your stomach. If you haven't eaten in awhile, the stomach produces ghrelin to let you know that your body wants food. After you've eaten, ghrelin is lower and you feel satisfied.
Leptin is produced by your fat cells and also manages your appetite. If you have lots of fat cells then your body produces lots of leptin and that keeps you feeling more satisfied and less hungry. If your extra energy storage is low, then the low levels of leptin keeps you famished. You're hungry all the time.
This beautiful dance is one of the ways your body stays in balance...but, our modern lifestyle can create leptin and ghrelin resistance .
Leptin and Ghrelin Resistance means that your body is less sensitive to these hormones! The main symptom is feeling hungry after eating, when low ghrelin should keep you feeling satisfied. Or you might feel hungry all the time even though your body's storage (aka fat cells) are quite full and you've got tons of leptin in your bloodstream.
In a nutshell - leptin and ghrelin resistance can cause weight gain and makes it really hard to lose weight because your brain thinks you're starving.
Your brain didn't get the signal that all is well, your belly is full and you've got some extra energy in storage in case of a famine.
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR GHRELIN AND LEPTIN SENSITIVITY:
1.Believe the meal you're eating is satisfying -
I had trouble getting my head around this one, but there's a study to back it up. If you believe that the meal you're about to eat is enough food, then your ghrelin levels will decrease more than if you believe it's a "diet" or "low cal" meal. It's another example of your body hating deprivation .
Here's the study: https://www.npr.org/.../mind-over-milkshake-how-your...
2. Prioritize your sleep -
Sleep plays a big role in your hunger hormones. Do your best to get to sleep at a reasonable time each night and if you're struggling with sleep (you're not alone in that!), spend some time experimenting with different options until you find something that helps you sleep. Check out the Sleep Masterclass or send me a message if you'd like some sleep support
3. Get out and move -
Exercise is a great way to increase your hunger hormone sensitivity. If sleep eludes you, go for a walk or get some movement each day. It'll help your hormone sensitivity and might help you sleep as well.
4. Avoid high-fructose corn syrup -
Frequently labeled "glucose/fructose" and is found in most commercial sweetened beverages. This little manufactured sugar is really hard on our cells and can increase leptin, ghrelin, and insulin resistance. Having a bit of high fructose corn syrup occasionally (like around the holidays) isn't a big deal, just avoid it as a regular thing .
You may want to pause here
I mentioned this at the end of Part 2 and it warrants a mention here as well. This is a good time to pause and be patient.
Or…feel free to read through Part 4 now to see if there’s anything you’d like to try, or just close this masterclass for now. Focusing on building strength and eating nutrient-dense food is a powerful way to find balance in your body. Part 4 is the advance practice :)
Got any questions or comments? Comment below, jump to our private Facebook Group, or the Ask Lisa page :)