Before Insulin Resistance
Before Insulin Resistance
-What other resistance have we engineered?
What I’m listening to…
Well, I've been known to write a few songs
Lovin' and leavin' and gettin' too stoned
Bottle and a pistol by my side
The devil's always along for the ride
We ride down
To the creek by the water
I've been baptized by the preacher's daughter
Lucky for me now he never caught us though
Oh, we ride
To the bar by the levee
'85 jacked up square body Chevy
Blanket in the back for when it gets hot and heavy, oh
Thank you for listening to my message.
We’re honored to have superstar Jennifer Bambrick as our guest writer this week. Jennifer holds multiple certifications as a health and nutrition coach, with a focus on healing through ancestral eating, along with Level 1 CrossFit certification. You will most likely find her in the kitchen cooking or out on the trails with her Weimaraner, Otto when not working with clients.
Before Insulin Resistance
Before our cells become resistant to insulin, it is theorized they become resistant to a hormone called leptin first. Leptin is an important hormone in hunger signals, letting us know when we are full, plays a role in energy balance, as well as insulin signaling. The main role of leptin is to tell the brain how much fat is stored in our cells. Our brain wants to know how long it can survive without food and leptin tells the brain how much stored energy in the form of fat is in our cells. Like insulin, we can become resistant to leptin. This resistance is considered to be a main contributing biological factor to obesity.
Leptin is produced in our fat, adipose, cells. The larger and more fat cells we have, the more leptin is produced. We can produce more fat cells but never eliminate them. When we lose weight, our fat cells shrink and then produce less leptin. Our fat cells are an organ unto themselves. This is an emerging area of study, adipose tissue. Fascinating what we are learning.
If leptin cannot enter the brain cells, which can be for many reasons not fully understood, some thoughts include high triglycerides, free fatty acids in the blood, inflammation, excessive amount of visceral fat producing high levels of leptin, our brain is not interacting with the hormone because it cannot hear it or it is not entering the brain. Whatever the reason, the brain is not hearing the signal from leptin about the amount of fat in our cells and decides we are starving. We could be carrying 50-100 pounds of extra weight, stored energy, but our brain is not being told there is this amount of stored energy. Your brain sends signals for hunger and down regulates your energy levels in order to conserve energy convinced you are starving. This is biology kiddos, good luck out willing not eating.
When our cells become resistant to leptin, hunger begins to run rampant. You are hungry all the time. Insulin signaling is impacted. You eat more, especially carbs because these are quick energy and the starving brain is in a panic that it doesn’t have enough glucose, energy, to survive. The brain wants energy and it wants it know. Sugary, carb laden foods will calm the starving brain. These cause more insulin to be produced to manage the extra sugar, which further impairs leptin and overworks the pancreas. The extra glucose is converted into triglycerides and stored on the body as visceral fat. All this causes more inflammation throughout the body. The more triglycerides flowing through the blood stream and inflammation, the less leptin makes it into the brain. And you are hungry again. The viscous cycle of continuing to gain weight, exhaustion, brain fog, metabolic struggles continues.
What can we do to reverse leptin resistance and impact insulin resistance and our overall metabolic health? The great thing, these are all interconnected, working on one helps them all. There are a few things we need to do to target leptin:
*Within an hour of waking, get out in the morning sun and walk, strive for 10-15 minutes. When it is not freezing freaken cold, it is currently snowing and very cold where I live, ground yourself by being barefoot on the earth, have your hands in the dirt. Being connected to the earth through grounding sends powerful signals for health and healing to our bodies.
*Eat breakfast within an hour of waking. To reverse leptin resistance eating an animal protein forward breakfast with ample amounts of fat and salt is crucial, bonus for eating outside. We want the body and brain to know there is sufficient nutrients, amino acids especially, first thing. Leptin is involved in hunger signals, letting us know we are full and balancing energy levels. Leptin aids in not triggering a hunger response when we don’t need food. By having a protein forward meal first thing in the morning we are providing the brain the amino acids it needs to be happy and more stable, not triggering a hunger response for amino acids. This gives our bodies time to calm down, distress, and hormones begin to properly function, in time.
*Cold exposure is theorized to help with leptin resistance. You can be outside in the cold, barefoot, doing cold plunges, cold showers, wash your face in cold water. Be attentive to your cold exposure, begin slowly and work your way up, always be safe with cold.
*Sleep. Proper sleep is vital for overall health. It doesn’t matter the condition, health problem, imbalance, without enough, high quality sleep our bodies will not thrive let alone recover. Have the courage to put yourself to bed.
*Reduce overall carbohydrate intake, eat animal based.
*Lectins which are found in wheat, peanuts, beans and other foods, could potentially cause, contribute to leptin resistance. Either avoid these foods while you are striving to reverse your resistance or go for properly prepared options, soaking, fermenting and pressure cooking. These processes naturally decrease the amount of lectins and other harmful parts of these foods.
This is going to take time to fully see the results. Your health did not decline overnight. It has happened over years. As your body begins to be nourished and heal, your symptoms will begin subsiding.
In gratitude and kindness
Don’t miss this week’s podcast, I Am Texas Slim - EP 17: WAWTAR- Back to the roots of health with Texas Slim
In this episode, Texas Slim joins WAWTAR to talk about food intelligence and the state of American health (spoiler alert: it's not great). What happened to our healthy foods? How can we get back to quality, high-energy proteins that aren't full of filler? And what does this look like for our communities and neighbors?
Featuring Texas Low & Slow from Texas Slim’s Cuts
Our newsletter subscribers can get 10% off at Clara and Fritz Tallow Shop, a family-owned shop specializing in providing clean, simple skin care.
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Thank you and God Bless you all. 🤝
-Slim
Get to work folks. This is a call to action.
No More Excuses🤝