How To Boost Your Energy Levels
Are you reaching for the coffee or sweets at 2pm and feel like you can’t stay away after lunch?
While it might be a common theme to crash after lunch and slam multiple coffees to stay productive after 2 or 3pm, it’s not normal. This is your body signaling to you that you are dealing with blood sugar regulation issues.
Here’s what you need to know about blood sugar and why it’s so important to support healthy blood sugar levels.
What is blood sugar?
Blood sugar, also known as glucose, is energy for every cell in the body. Blood sugar regulates energy production, tissue integrity of every organ, hormone balance, brain health, memory, mood, and stress - just to name a few.
There is always glucose in the blood, sometimes more and sometimes less depending on what you’ve eaten, how much stress you are under, and how well you slept.
Stable blood sugar looks like a soft wave, fluctuating smoothly up and down throughout the day giving stable energy. Unstable blood sugar (aka blood sugar dysregulation) looks and feels like a roller coaster with insane highs and quick drops. Sometimes this may look like high energy and mood around meals, followed by energy and mood crashes a few hours later.
Symptoms of blood sugar dysregulation
Energy and mood aren’t the only markers of blood sugar concerns. Here are some other common signs of blood sugar dysregulation:
Increased sugar cravings
Weight gain
Increase hunger
Fatigue
Low energy in the morning and between meals
Irritability, anxiety
Feeling shaky between meals
Headaches
Memory issues
Rapid heartbeat
Brain fog
Difficulty sleeping
Hormone imbalances including thyroid
Inflammation
As you can see, stable blood sugar is kind of important for overall health! It impacts every system and even affects our productivity.
Why blood sugar regulation matters
Blood sugar spikes and crashes signal a range of hormone effects in the body, which ultimately result in some unsavory effects.
When blood glucose levels spike, a distress signal is relayed to the body. Insulin, our hormone designs to reduce blood sugar levels, is released into the bloodstream to encourage to shuttling of sugar to cells throughout the body. However, insulin often over does it when blood sugar levels are high to ensure it’s able to bring us back down into a healthy range. The result is too much insulin and a blood sugar crash, where our blood glucose falls below ideal levels.
When blood glucose levels fall low, our body has a natural safety mechanism in place where cortisol is released to bring us back into stable blood sugar levels. Cortisol is commonly referred to as our stress hormone and is released by the adrenal glands.
But what happens when this happens with every meal of the day when this system was initially designed for emergency-only situation?
Our cells become resistant to insulin, commonly known as insulin resistance, and cells begin to stop being receptive to this hormone and block out sugar from being absorbed for energy. This is especially true when sugar levels are regularly high due to the diet. As a result, these sugars need to find a new home and are often converted into fat is adipose tissue (fat cells) for storage.
When blood sugar falls below stable levels and cortisol comes to the rescue, it can put stress on the relatively small adrenal glands to produce more and more cortisol. When this happens multiple times per day for long periods of time, the adrenal glands can suffer and become unable to keep up with demands resulting in adrenal insufficiency and low cortisol levels to fill many of the other roles it plays in the body, such as sleep-wake homeostasis and stress management.
So how can we boost energy levels and support healthy blood sugar levels?
Blood sugar regulation is a lifestyle. It is impacted by our diet and daily habits. Here are our favorite things to focus on to improve blood sugar regulation and support your body’s natural ability to do so.
Step one: Implement a nutrient dense diet
A nutrient-dense diet focuses on foods from the Earth, while simultaneously reducing your intake of sugar and simple carbohydrates.
Simple carbohydrates are things like bread, crackers, cookies, anything processed that comes out of a box or bag. These types of carbohydrates are so quickly digested, and as a result spike our blood sugar dramatically.
Focus on having meals with a source of protein, fat, and complex carbohydrates (fiber). Real animal proteins, quality fat (ghee, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil), and all the green vegetables or sweet potatoes with the skin on are nature’s simple and well-balanced meals. #allthenutrients
Step 2: Reduce stress levels
This one is so important. We have so much stress in our lives these days that is both external and internal. Stress can look like emails, work stress, psychological stress, physical stress from injuries, stress from lack of sleep, stress from lack of nutrients, anticipatory stress, or perceived stress.
As you can see this isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a hefty one. When the body received a stress signal, it increases epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol (all three of our stress hormones).
These hormones triggle glucose to be released into the bloodstream. If we are constantly stressed, we are constantly signaling the body to release more blood sugar than necessary, which promotes both insulin resistance and inflammation.
The key is to manage the stress in our life to the best of our ability, and we have tools for that:
Take 3-5 slow deep breaths every hour. This helps get oxygen to cells and takes us out of a stressed state into a calm state. This is especially important to do before meals!
Perform a brain dump. Get every thought out on to paper to make space in your mind for peace.
Take a calm, slow walk. This is amazing for blood sugar regulation and helps us calm down. Your body will thank you for getting outside, moving slowly and being away from technology.
Pet animals or ask a friend for a hug. Happy hormones are released during these activities that have been proven to calm the nervous system.
Step 3: Promote healthy sleep habits
One of the most underrated ways to regulate blood sugar is to sleep. During sleep, our body repairs muscles and tissues, removes toxins, conserves energy, and maintains balance for healthy hormones.
Studies have shown that even a few nights of less than 6 hours of sleep can lead to a higher caloric intake the next day usually consisting of sugar and simple carbohydrates (which spike blood sugar significantly and quickly), blood sugar dysregulation, and metabolic dysregulation.
The less sleep we get, the more stressed the body is and the more we produce those stress hormones, leading to another cascade of inflammation and blood sugar disruption. Here are some easy tips for improving your overall sleep hygiene:
Tonight (and every night) aim for 7-9 hour of sleep. Prioritizing hours to sleep is one of the best things you can do for your health on a daily basis.
Make your bedroom dark and cool. Studies show that even the smallest amount of light from electronic devices can trigger the release of cortisol and keep you awake for hours. This includes your phone!
Turn off electronics an hour or two before bed and get some Sleepy Time tea for a good bedtime routine. Having a routine around bedtime signals your body into understanding it’s time to wind down and release more melatonin to allow you to relax and get to sleep quickly.
Improving blood sugar dysregulation can be healed through your nutrition, but also requires some lifestyle changes for maximum benefits. These changes in building your meals, along with stress management and getting quality sleep are the most effective ways for improving energy levels, productivity crashes, and even body composition.
Which thing will you implement today for blood sugar regulation?