20. Insulin Resistance and what you can do to REVERSE it.

Brace yourself as we tackle the stealthy nemesis of your metabolism—insulin resistance!

In this episode, we discuss how insulin resistance affects women, particularly as they venture through the tumultuous seas of perimenopause. From the crucial role of insulin in our body's energy economy to the grievous health risks when it's ignored—think heart disease, cancer, and beyond—we're uncovering the truths and misconceptions.

If you're sailing in these waters, you'll gain the knowledge to spot the icebergs of insulin resistance and chart a course to calmer, healthier seas.

On this voyage, we're not leaving our fate to the winds. Discover how wielding the power of lifestyle choices can steer us away from the treacherous cliffs of insulin resistance, even when the current of genetics tries to pull us back.

 I'll share firsthand how a balanced diet, regular exercise, and targeted interventions like addressing sleep apnea can act as a lighthouse, guiding us to the safe harbor of enhanced insulin sensitivity.

You'll learn to read the signs—hunger shifts, weight changes, mood swings—and how these can signal the need to adjust your sails and take action for a healthier journey.

Lastly, we'll  talk sustenance for the soul and body. We'll feast on the wisdom of whole foods, the timing of meals, and the satiating power of protein to fortify our vessels against insulin resistance. Coupled with managing the squalls of stress and embracing behavioral changes, you're set to embark on an empowered passage through menopause.

I'm extending an open invitation: join our community, share your stories, and find strength in the collective wisdom as we navigate these transformative years with confidence and care.

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Join my10:21 Day Weight Loss Boot Camp, to be apart of our vibrant community and kickstart your journey!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello my friends, welcome, welcome. Welcome to my channel. My name is Dr Inaka Yembe. I am a family medicine physician. I'm very, very passionate about helping people lose weight in a healthy way, specifically women in perimenopause, age 35 and above. I'm 56 now. All my life I dealt with obesity. I have learned how to lose the weight. So, in addition to my personal story, I also have a clinic in the hospital where I work with patients who are obese, and I have an online program where I help women lose weight in a healthy and a sustainable manner. But today we will be talking about insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is also known as pre-diabetes. So if you went to the hospital or saw your doctor and you were diagnosed with pre-diabetes, this video is for you. Or if you're overweight, this video is also for you. Why are we talking about insulin resistance? We're going to talk about that. Why is this disease or this condition so important? What?

Speaker 1: 1:13

are the risk factors and what are the signs and symptoms, how you can reverse it, the things that you can do. So, in order to understand insulin resistance, first of all we want to know what insulin is.

Speaker 2: 1:30

Welcome to the Thriving Through Menopause podcast. Dr Inaka Yembe, your host, is dedicated to helping you navigate the transformative journey of menopause and perimenopause, particularly focused on achieving menopausal weight loss and reducing belly fat. As a post-menopausal weight loss and reducing belly fat as a post-menopausal physician herself, who has helped thousands of women experiencing the significant life stage, she understands the unique challenges you face. Listen in as we explore a wide range of topics aimed at supporting you in your health and wellness journey. Hopefully, the practical tips and strategies offered potentially help you adopt an empowering approach towards menopausal weight loss and belly fat reduction. And now here's your host, Dr Inaka Yembe.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Number one insulin is a hormone that's produced in your body in response to carbohydrate consumption. So when you eat food let's say you eat a burger your body has to translate that food into energy so that your cells can use that to thrive and to live. So insulin is the hormone that does that. It tells your cells to open up and take the glucose from the carbohydrate you have consumed, use it as energy. And if that energy is too much for that cell, right this minute, it's packaged into a form called glycogen stored in your liver and your muscles. This is the reason why, when we're not eating, we just don't die, for example, we're still alive because we have storage forms of energy that can be taken and used by the cell All right. Over time, excess or too much becomes a problem. So let's say you ate too many carbohydrates, or you had too many burgers or too many fries, or you were drinking too many Cokes over a long period of time. Then your body cells become overwhelmed, they become overloaded with glucose. So now that extra energy, the glycogen. So let me explain that to you again. You eat carbohydrates. Insulin takes that carbohydrate and transforms it into glucose. If it's too much, it is woven into glycogen storage form of glucose, and kept. If the glycogen storage is full, your body now takes that extra energy that you consume and packages it up into your fat cells energy that you consume and packages it up into your fat cells. The fat cell storage for energy is almost pretty much endless. You can store a lot of energy in fat cells, and this is the reason why we get overweight and we get obese, because we have excessive storage of fat. So overconsumption of sugars will do that to you.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Now, when it comes to insulin resistance, why is it that we become insulin resistant? It's because your cells can only hold so much, and so the extra glucose now spills into your blood and your body tries to compensate by producing too much insulin. And your body tries to compensate by producing too much insulin. Well, the insulin cannot take the glucose into your cells because they are overfull. So glucose spills into your cells, into your blood, and it causes a lot of problems. The way I like to look at it is, for example, if you have an elevator and it tells you the maximum amount of weight that that elevator can hold, it doesn't matter if you keep the door open and try to pack in more people. The elevator still wouldn't work, even if the door is open. This is the same thing that happens with glucose. Even if your cells are working just fine, if you continue to consume too many sugars over time, your body cannot continue to use it because the cells are full.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Glucose spills into the body, into the blood. It's highly inflammatory. It causes a lot of problems. Your body is trying to overcompensate by producing more insulin. That's why it says insulin resistant. You have too much insulin. High levels of insulin cause excessive fat storage and your insulin levels are high and your blood sugar is high. So insulin resistance is also known as pre-diabetes for that reason. So if you went to the doctor and they told you you're pre-diabetic, please pay attention. Why is this disease so important? Because it puts you at risk of major medical complications like heart attacks, strokes, hypertension and even cancer. So so important, so many physiologic abnormalities that come as insulin resistance.

Speaker 2: 6:35

All right.

Speaker 1: 6:36

Insulin resistance is part of a metabolic syndrome. When you go to the doctor, if your blood pressure is high, you have high triglycerides, high cholesterol or low HDL, which is the good cholesterol, or your abdominal gers, your waistline is greater than 35 inches in women or 40 inches in men, or if your blood sugar is high, you have a metabolic syndrome. That is the constellation total. All the symptoms add up together to insulin resistance. Again, there are several diseases that manifest themselves as a result of insulin resistance. So I want you to listen very carefully. If you have PCOS, PCOS is a manifestation of insulin resistance at the level of the ovaries. If you have fatty liver disease, fatty liver disease is a manifestation of insulin resistance at the level of the liver, including type 2 diabetes.

Speaker 1: 7:47

If you have type 2 diabetes, you're very insulin resistant. I see patients all the time they come to my clinic. They say, hey, my diabetes is getting better because my doctor put me on insulin and now my blood sugars are low. No, Once you get on insulin as a type 2 diabetic, things are getting worse for you. We've got to change what we are doing while we're taking insulin. Yes, I agree, priest, Never stop your medicine. But once you get on insulin as a type 2 diabetic. Things are getting worse for you. You've got to change your habits so that you can get off the insulin. Use it, please, only as a temporary measure and not as something to treat you or make you feel better feel better.

Speaker 1: 8:50

The more insulin you require as a type 2 diabetic. The sicker you are not, the better you are. Alzheimer's dementia, for example, that's a manifestation of insulin resistance at the level of the brain. Cardiovascular disease is a manifestation of insulin resistance at the level of the heart. So this disease or this condition, insulin resistance is very, very important. All right let's look at the risk factors. The way I think about risk factors, there are two kinds, some of them.

Speaker 2: 9:18

we cannot help.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Genetics time we cannot help this thing. So genetics, that is the thing that loads the gun. Your lifestyle, however, pulls the trigger. So you've got to change your lifestyle because the gun is already loaded by things that you cannot control. What are the risk factors of insulin resistance? Let's look at the things that load the gun, those ones. You cannot change them. Your age If you are above the age of 45, you are at risk of insulin resistance.

Speaker 1: 9:49

If you have a family history of diabetes, of hypertension, of heart disease, you are at risk. Can't change that. Certain ethnic groups, like African-Americans, latinos, native Americans we can't change that. You are at higher risk. Certain medications which you may not be able to help because you need those for your condition, so glucocorticoids like prednisone. They do put you at risk. If you're taking antipsychotics, if you're taking HIV medicines, those, yes, can put you at risk of insulin resistance. You can't help those things. You've got to be on those medicines. Certain hormonal disorders that you were born with, like lipodystrophic syndromes or Cushing's disease now, you cannot change those. Now if you're a female in menopause, like me the only we our estrogen level is down, down, down. We cannot help it. Women in menopause are more insulin resistant, can't change those.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Like I said, life loads the gun. You don't need to pull the trigger with your habits. You can change your habits so that gun stays loaded and it will just be over there, quiet, and not cause you problems. What are the things that you can change? Risk factors for insulin resistance that are under your control? Number one your weight. If you're overweight, consider taking some measures, which we'll discuss here.

Speaker 1: 11:17

Consider taking some measures to change your weight. It would help reverse insulin resistance. Number two your lifestyle. If you're sedentary a sedentary person, you don't move around a lot, you just want to sit down all the time. If you're sedentary, that puts you at higher risk of insulin resistance. If you have PCOS and I'm going to tell you, I have women in my clinic who tell me they have PCOS, so they can't help different things yes, you can reverse that with your lifestyle. Also, If you have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition where, when you go to sleep, your upper airway closes up so you don't breathe. It causes too many problems. I'm a full-time emergency room physician and I have a part-time weight loss clinic.

Speaker 1: 12:05

So I see the consequences of sleep apnea in the emergency room all the time. You stop breathing when you're sleeping. You stop breathing too many times, air exchange doesn't happen, your carbon dioxide levels are too high and you come in with a depressed mentation. We have got to breathe for you. These people are insulin resistant. The number one, two and three treatment for obstructive sleep apnea is weight reduction. You are in control of that.

Speaker 1: 12:37

If you have fatty liver disease, if this was, let's say, let's say, in the seventies or in the 80s, even we used to say back then fatty liver disease is by alcoholics. But nowadays, alcoholics In today's life, we see fatty liver disease in children. The youngest child that came into my emergency room with a true heart attack was 18 years old 18, a teenager with a true heart attack because of lifestyle mostly. So these risk factors are under your control. Do not pull the trigger on genetics, because genetics all it does is just load that gun.

Speaker 1: 13:16

Now, what are the signs and the symptoms of insulin resistance? Most of us don't really know. Why is that? Because the majority of people have no symptoms. You go to the hospital, you get a blood test done and then they tell you your blood sugar is high. Please pay attention to these things. You can take action now and really, if you take action, you can reverse your insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes within 3, 6 months, 12 months, depending on how bad it is and depending on what you do. But anyway, what are some signs? Like I said, number one elevated blood sugar, if you were fasting longer than eight hours and your blood sugar is greater than a hundred milligrams per deciliter, you're probably insulin resistant.

Speaker 1: 14:06

If you're not fasting or you had a blood sugar load and two hours later your blood sugar is still greater than 140 milligrams a deciliter, chances are you are insulin resistant. Other things like you check your blood pressure.

Speaker 1: 14:21

That one you can check. Go to Walmart, go anywhere. They have free blood pressure machines. If it is greater than 130 over 80, you may be insulin resistant. What do you do? You sit down. Check your blood pressure is high. Okay, wait a few. I would say at least five minutes, rest, relax. Check it again. If it's still high, go to the doctor, because you may be insulin resistant and if you don't take action, this disease will progress.

Speaker 1: 14:49

When you start to have symptoms, things may have gone too far. Also, if you have a blood cholesterol check and your triglycerides are greater than 150 milligrams per deciliter or your good cholesterol in men is less than 40 milligrams per deciliter or in women, less than 50, then you are probably insulin resistant. Other signs or symptoms that we may have are things like hunger. It is now difficult to lose weight. All the things you did in the past don't work anymore. You may be insulin resistant If you notice that your waistline is growing and please make it a habit of measuring your waistline a simple tape measure. Have that on hand at home. These things cost a dollar. Have it at home because you can even check your own self at home, women, if your waistline is greater than 35 inches. Men, if your waistline is greater than 40 inches, chances are you are insulin resistant. Other things like fatigue, brain fog, mood swings yes, those of us in menopause, we have all the above. Well, we may also be insulin resistant.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Go to the doctor, get your physical at least once a year, or more often, depending on your situation. Other signs that you may notice the back of your neck. The skin gets dark. It gets velvety under your arms, your groin area. That's called acanthosis nigricans. That's a sign of insulin resistance or pre-diabetes. Take action, get checked. Other things like skin tags those may pop up from nowhere. Get checked. It may be insulin resistance.

Speaker 1: 16:34

Other symptoms include poor sleep, increased urination, hunger. For men, you start to have erectile dysfunction. Maybe your blood sugar is high. You wouldn't know unless you check it. You get frequent infections. You get a wound that doesn't heal. You start having blurry vision. You start having even bowel problems. Don't just diagnose yourself with irritable bowel syndrome. Go to the doctor and get checked. Insulin resistance is a serious problem now. In fact, the World Health Organization, the latest statistics, show that over 25% of the population in the world is insulin resistant. What that means is we are all at risk of developing major medical complications which you can prevent by just changing a few things. So let's talk about how to reverse it Like I said depending on your individual situation.

Speaker 1: 17:35

You can reverse insulin resistance in three to six months, for some people up to 12 months. But take action, because the time goes fast. Now, what can you do? Number one number one, of course. We talked about insulin resistance. How it comes about, it depends on your nutrition. So, if you want to change, one thing is going to be change your nutrition, change what you eat and how. What are the things that we want to change?

Speaker 1: 18:06

Number one refined foods, foods that are processed. What is the meaning of processed? It simply means the manufacturer takes food from its natural state. They take out most of the time, take out all the good things, like the fiber and things like that, and then they add things to make them more palatable and to be able to last longer. So they add too much preservatives, all kinds of sugars, all kinds of fats and sodium that you don't want in your system. Remember, too much added sugar is going to overload your cells, cause your insulin to be high and cause you to store too much fat. So you want to think about staying away from refined foods.

Speaker 1: 18:57

Some of these refined foods look healthy. We think they are healthy, but they are not. Fruit juice, granola, yogurt with fruit on the bottom, oats with flavor and fruit, healthy cereals like Orban with strawberries those kinds of things run away. What do you need to be eating? We need to be eating foods that are in their natural state as possible. So from the ground to your kitchen is taking the shortest route. So things like fruit whole fruits, fruit whole fruits, vegetables, poultry, seafood, meats that are unprocessed. Don't go to the deli section and buy sausage because it's processed.

Speaker 1: 19:45

Added fat, salt, sugar, all kinds of things. Instead, go to the meat section. Get you some ground meat or ground turkey. Make it on sausage patties. It's only got one ingredient. Look at your labels. Look at your labels. That would help you. Go to the freezer section. Go to where it says veggie tables and get just spinach, green beans. Those are one ingredients. Or get the frozen fruit, strawberries or mixed berries. Don't get the parfait, because it's got about 10 different things. We don't want those in the system.

Speaker 1: 20:19

They will cause you to be insulin resistant. Number two the way you eat. If you can do intermittent fasting I have several videos here on my page on intermittent fasting or on my YouTube channel. The longer you stay without eating, stretching out those hours between meals, that would help lower the insulin levels. Now your cells can release the glucose. The amount of glucose in your body will drop and so will your insulin level. You will find out that it's easier for you to lose weight and you can reverse insulin resistance. So intermittent fasting helps.

Speaker 1: 20:57

The other thing that we need to do is to stop the snacking. Snacks do not help you. I have this all the time In my clinic. Women come in and this happened to me also when I was over 300 pounds, I used to tell myself I only eat one meal a day, just one meal, and I work out every day. Why am I still 300 pounds? Couldn't understand it for the life of me. What was I doing in real life? I was not eating breakfast. I'll get to work and so many little things go into my mouth that I don't consider as food. And then I come in the evening and I have my one big meal after working out and then I go to sleep, wake up next morning and do the same thing over and over. That kind of behavior is going to backfire and do nothing for your weight. In fact, it's going to make it worse.

Speaker 1: 21:49

Snacking because the things you snack, most of them, are convenient foods. Most of them are just foods that make our blood sugars go up and they make you more insulin resistant. So let's move away from snacking and just eat meals. In fact, the CDC says if what you're consuming is greater than 240 calories, it's not a snack, it's actually a meal. So some of us are just eating meals, meals, meals. Let's say you had a granola bar, your granola bar maybe 180 calories, and then you drank a small Coke that was 100 calories, yeah, and then. So now that's 280. No, it's not a snack, it's a meal.

Speaker 1: 22:30

So some of us are consuming, like myself. When I actually started tracking my calories, I was consuming about 1,200 calories in snacks. I thought I was not eating, but I truly was. So, to reverse insulin resistance, one of the biggest things that you can do to help yourself is to stop all these little snacks. All right. Another thing that can really help you is to increase fiber. Why is that? Fiber is satiating, keeps you full longer and it helps improve your digestion. It would also help you with insulin resistance. Now this one here.

Speaker 1: 23:10

If you've been on my channel, listening to my advice, I always talk about proteins. If you're a female in menopause, please, please, please, listen to me. You want to prioritize proteins. If you're trying to lose weight, prioritize proteins. How much protein should you consume? One gram of protein per pound of your ideal body weight. How do I know my ideal body weight? I go to a BMI chart. All of these things just give me an estimate, but we've got to start somewhere. Go to an online BMI chart. Look at your ideal body weight. It's going to give you a range from this number of pounds to this number of pounds. Pick one. That's a good place to start that number of pounds that you see on there as your ideal body weight. Take that and multiply it by one. So I am 5'8 and 3'4. 5'8 and 3'4. Don't take away my 3'4. 5'8 and 3'4. My ideal body weight is 155 pounds. This morning I weighed 158 pounds. So no, I want to consume 155 grams of protein today. How?

Speaker 2: 24:26

does that?

Speaker 1: 24:26

really translate in real life. For breakfast this morning I had two eggs, four ounces of egg whites. That gives me 24 grams of protein. I had a slice of Ezekiel bread that added five grams of protein. So that's 29 grams of protein for my breakfast. This is good, and then I'm going to come for lunch. I do want to consume at least 30 to 35 grams of protein, and then I need to push that protein consumption, especially in my meals In the beginning of the day. I want to push that to at least 40 grams of protein per meal. So I know that my next meal I'm going to consume a lot more protein. I want to have at least 45 grams of protein in that next meal. So what am I going to have? I'm going to have cauliflower rice, which I have some egg whites in there also, and I'm going to have my turkey scramble with vegetables to give myself 45 grams of protein Throughout the day. At the end of the day, I want to be able to consume 155 grams of protein per day every day, as best as I can.

Speaker 1: 25:39

Now, I'm not Jesus Christ, I am not perfect, by no means. So I try as best as possible. So long as I'm 80% accurate, I'm good. I'm not shooting for 100% Perfection never happens. Once you start looking to be exactly accurate, you start to get in trouble. So just get to the things as best as possible. Prioritize proteins.

Speaker 1: 26:05

Proteins keep you full longer. They are thermogenic, meaning that they burn. Your body burns more calories when they are trying to break down their proteins. They will reduce your cravings. Proteins reduce your cravings and help you overall reduce your total calorie consumption, especially if you're like me, who has these cravings out of this world In the evening. Consume more proteins during the day. That would help you All. Right. The next one. I always get backlash on this one Reduce or stop the alcohol on a daily basis.

Speaker 1: 26:44

That's going to make you more insulin resistant. Why is that? Because insulin resistance causes damage to the liver. Your body stores fat in the liver. You get fatty liver, especially when you're a female in menopause. If you consume alcohol on a daily basis, you're causing more damage to your liver and making systems so much worse. So limit your alcohol consumption. See how I did not say completely go to zero, because may not exist that way for some people, but just don't drink the alcohol on a daily basis and especially, do not. Do not. Do not consume excessive amounts of alcohol. Makes you more insulin resistant.

Speaker 1: 27:25

Causes your pancreas to be damaged, actually causes heart damage brain damage, all kinds of things, and then the very next thing to do is limit smoking. When I was a student taking exams, we were always told if smoking is an answer, it's the correct one, because smoking causes so many many problems. The best thing for that one for you to do is get away from it, not only does it cause problems with the overall system.

Speaker 1: 27:55

it actually causes problems with putting you at risk of heart attacks, strokes, cancer, all kinds of problems. Please, please, please. And this is the reason why, as systems, we have so many resources now to help you quit smoking, because that's the one that I want you to quit completely. Lastly, to reverse insulin resistance, we've got to be consistent. It's not enough to do something today and expect it to work. Remember how I said it takes 3, 6 months, 12 months for some people. Yes, ma'am. So this is the reason why you want to do the things that you can do consistently.

Speaker 1: 28:36

Once you make a change, we don't expect the body to just pop into shape right now. You expect it to take time. The things are simple. Because they are simple doesn't mean that they are easy. There's a difference between simple and easy. To make a change is simple, but it's not easy to stick with it long term. You have to be consistent for a long time.

Speaker 1: 28:58

So let's again take a quick look at the things we can do to reverse insulin resistance. Just to make it very simple, I've broken that down into four pillars. Number one nutrition. We just talked about that Nutrition.

Speaker 1: 29:14

Another thing that I didn't talk about when it comes to nutrition is hydration. Drink the water, drink the water. In fact, I need to do a video about water and hydration because I struggle. My struggle is real. No shame here, I struggle with drinking water. So, number one when I wake up in the morning, I start drinking. I don't like the water, but I just start drinking. It helps me to start early. Number two I carry the water jug with me. Again, I don't like the water, but I mean the straw is just here. I just sip on it as often as I can. So take the water with you. Studies do show that people who are dehydrated. Number one you get hungry more often. It feels like you're hungry, but you truly may be just dehydrated, and it is more difficult to lose weight if you are behind on hydration. So that ties nutrition. The second most important pillar of weight loss and reversing insulin resistance is your movement.

Speaker 1: 30:15

Movement there's also. I'm going to break that down into four kinds of movement. Number one we have cardiovascular movements. I did that this morning in my bootcamp group. We actually walked with weights. The best of both worlds. You're walking, increase your heart rate. That's going to help you burn calories. Number two kind of movement is so cardiovascular. You have walking. I say walking is really the first thing for most people. You can walk, you can walk anywhere. Most of my walking I do right here at home, right back here in this space.

Speaker 1: 30:52

Put on some music turn it up have fun with it, or put on your earbuds, walk to the beach. You can walk, especially each time you eat in the evening. Go for a short walk before you come back and rest.

Speaker 1: 31:05

That's going to help you, Muscles are a good landing pad for glucose that you just consumed. I did not say that you can eat anything and burn it off in exercise. No, what I said was muscle is a good landing pad for glucose. So when you eat, go for a walk. If you take a lunch break at work in the afternoon, eat your lunch 30 minutes.

Speaker 2: 31:26

The last 30 minutes.

Speaker 1: 31:27

Go for a walk with friends. No, you don't need to walk that fast, Just walk, move the muscles.

Speaker 1: 31:33

It would help you so cardiovascular exercise walking, dancing, biking, cycling, whatever you want. The best exercise is the one you like that you can be consistent with long-term. Don't copy other people and do whatever they're doing if you don't like it, because chances are you will not be doing it for 10 years. I've been doing my exercise for 14 years Wonderful. I've been on my journey since 2010. Everything that I do I enjoy. Not that I want to do it all the time, I'm just saying when I do it, I enjoy it. That's how come I can do this for 14 years.

Speaker 1: 32:11

The second kind of exercise that's really important is strengthening exercises. Now, when I was younger, I thought picking up dumbbells or barbells or those kinds of things were for men. Now, if you're a female, especially those of you in menopause listen to me. When we are women 35 years and above, after 35 years we start to lose muscle because estrogen declines. It just makes it so hard for us to lose the weight. So you could be doing the same things that you were doing at the age of 20 and you're gaining weight now. Why is that? Because your muscle mass is declining. Best thing you can do for yourself is pick up some weights. No, you don't need to pick up 30, 40, 60 pounds. Today I walked with two pounds and five pound dumbbells. Yes, I am a bodybuilder, so obviously when I go to the gym I'm going to be pushing the weights.

Speaker 2: 33:04

But anyway not everybody's a bodybuilder.

Speaker 1: 33:07

You just need to do some exercises to target your muscles Resistance exercises, that's what they're called. If you can do compound movements, they work even better. Push-ups what else? Squats those are tough on the knees, though. Pick up your weights. Do some bicep curls, triceps Look those up. Go to my YouTube channel. I have some exercises on there. The next kinds of exercises that I call stress relieving exercises. Why is that? Because stress will also cause you to store abdominal fat and put you at risk of insulin resistance. Why? Stress causes increase in a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is a fat storage hormone. You will notice if you're a family menopause. You store more weight now in the midsection because your estrogen is low, and low estrogen causes a redistribution of fat storage, so you store more fat in the belly area. If you are stressed, it just makes things worse. So stress relieving exercises help drive down that cortisol level and reverse insulin resistance. Do the yoga, do the meditation, do the stretching, listen to the music, whatever it is to. De-stress is going to help you Very very important.

Speaker 1: 34:33

The next kind of exercise that we don't think about is called NEAT non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Don't be sedentary. We talked about that, as one of the most modifiable risk factors for insulin resistance is just being an active person. Example instead of sitting on the couch after work. I know you're tired, I know it, I know it. I work 48 hours straight and, yes, boy, I am tired when I get home. But if you come home and just sit on the couch and spend two hours watching TV and just resting, we're not moving.

Speaker 1: 35:10

Be an active person. Wake up, do some laundry, move your couch, reorganize the living room, Be active throughout the day. Back in my days I used to go to the gym for one hour and I am done. I forget there's 23 more hours and eight of those hours are maybe asleep, so I'm truly left with maybe just 10 hours. You want to be moving. Fidgeting helps Move your legs. Stand up. If you're somebody who has to answer the phone all day, just move. Get creative with it. I'm that person who's driving on the street like a mad person listening to my music. Why? Because I'm moving my body. Move your body throughout the day. Do you know that you can burn an equal amount of calories by benefiting from non-exercise activity thermogenesis? You can burn as many calories as you did during that one hour workout.

Speaker 2: 36:11

So you marry the two together.

Speaker 1: 36:12

That's great. That's the best of both worlds. Be active, exercise, and also be active when you're not exercising. All right, the next thing I'll talk about the third pillar. So I've talked about nutrition, I've talked about movement.

Speaker 1: 36:28

The very next one is sleep. Of course, you hear about sleep all the time when somebody is talking about you wanting to be healthy and reversing insulin resistance. Sleep is so important. Quality sleep, seven to nine hours per day. Remember, don't come back at me. I said it does not need to be a hundred percent perfect. No, you may not sleep that many hours every single day, but you want to shoot for good quality sleep. Why? Because your hunger and your satiety hormones are balanced while you're sleeping Leptin and ghrelin. So if you don't sleep enough, your ghrelin level is too high. Studies do show that people who don't sleep enough tend to be more overweight. Night shift workers like myself, we do tend to be more overweight. So in order to balance out those hormones and reduce your cravings, you want to have good quality sleep. Yeah, I need to come here and do a sleep video. We talked about that during my online bootcamp program.

Speaker 1: 37:33

All right, the very fourth pillar, fourth thing to do to help reverse insulin resistance is managing stress. Stress is a big one. Stress increases cortisol levels. Again, cortisol is a stress hormone. A little bit of stress is great because it helps protect us. You know, if a gun fires, you run fast because of adrenaline cortisol. That system kicks in and protects you.

Speaker 1: 38:01

But chronic stress, that's the one that's the problem. Your body has cortisol receptors throughout in your blood vessels, in your heart, in your whole body, your brain, your cells, and so if you're stressed out All the time, chances are your heart rate goes up, you retain fluid, you start to have heart palpitations, you start to have elevated blood pressure, you have headaches, dizziness, swelling, all kinds of symptoms because of increased cortisol. You also have increase in belly fat storage. So you've got to be so careful about stress.

Speaker 1: 38:43

Some of the stress you can control by yourself by just doing some stress relieving exercises, meditation, yoga, relaxation techniques. Some of the stress you cannot really help on your own. If your stress is too much and you're not able to lower it by yourself, please seek help. There's nothing wrong with seeking help for stress. At a certain point in my life I've said this over and over I was so stressed I went to the doctor for some help and I got registered with a counselor. I was lucky enough I wasn't put on medicine, but if I needed the medicine and it was recommended by my counselor or my doctor, I would have taken it because I needed that help at that time.

Speaker 1: 39:28

Luckily, I went through my counseling session and I learned some coping techniques that I use today to help me with stress. So, please, stress is so important. In my emergency room, I see the end result of some stressful situations that may not have been addressed and I'm telling you, life comes at us in all kinds of ways and sometimes we can't cope with them. I'm going to tell you some medical emergencies though. If you feel like your stress and depression is too much and you feel worthless, please treat that as a true heart attack. Very important, I tell people feeling suicidal or thinking about hurting yourself or thinking about not being here is equivalent to having a heart attack or your appendix ruptured. Now Don't sit on it and expect it will go away. Please come to the emergency room. We're here to help you. That situation that's now mental or psychological, that is not your fault, that you have no control over, and that's where you go to the doctor or call 911. We will come out to your home and bring you to where. We're not here to judge you. We are here to find ways to help you. So those are like serious, serious emerging consequences of stress, Get help, please. Or if you have a family member who is suicidal that you know of. Get them help. And no, you don't have to be in the same home. You call 911 and say my friend over there in California or in Arizona is thinking about hurting herself. She told me today the emergency system will go out there and get that person. Okay.

Speaker 1: 41:19

So behavioral change all these things we can do to reverse insulin resistance the biggest and most important way to reverse insulin resistance is to change your behavior. You want to uncover your why. You want to think about why do I want to reverse it? Yes, because I want to do better for myself. It's not about I want to be here for the grandkids. It's more about I want to feel better for myself. When I was 300 pounds, my biggest thing as a traveling physician back then was to not have to sit in the airplane and nudge the person close to me or ask for an extension, because that always just killed me. Do this for yourself, because you are worthwhile. One of the biggest things that also helped me was to create a vision my future healthy self.

Speaker 1: 42:16

Think about yourself in the future. What is the reality that you want to become?

Speaker 1: 42:23

Because when you get a healthy body, how are you going to treat it? That is why we don't need to do drastic things now, because when you lose the weight with drastic systems, we don't want to know what to do once we've lost it. Then we're just here thinking I don't know what to do and easily fall back into our bad habits. No, we want to learn as we go along and imagine your future healthy self, your future healthy body. If I gave you your body at your ideal body weight and you looked and you felt exactly just as perfect as can be, how will you treat your body? That's what you need to be doing now. So I hope all the information that I've given you in this video helps you. If it did go to my YouTube channel, because this video will be saved on there as well Share it with somebody who needs the help and wait for my next bootcamp this one, the weight loss program that I have online. This one started Monday. Registration for the next one is going to open up soon. Come and be with us in our online program Very helpful private Facebook group and I have a meal prep live.

Speaker 1: 43:40

Once a week I show my ladies what I'm eating, how I make it, how I put it together in no time. All right, ladies, everyone, you have a fantastic day. Thank you. Thank you for the love. If you have any questions or if you have any topics when it comes to weight loss and menopause and perimenopause Any questions come back here to my page or direct message me and ask me questions, thank you. Thank you, everyone, and have a fantastic day.

Speaker 2: 44:11

Bye, bye. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Thriving Through Menopause. We hope you found valuable insights and practical advice to support your journey. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast, share it and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Remember, menopause doesn't have to be a challenge. It can be an opportunity for growth, renewal and self-care. Connect with us on social media, where we share additional resources, tips and advice to help you along your path. Once again, thanks for listening in and we hope you'll join us again on the next episode of Thriving Through Menopause. Until then,