Become A Health Coach Certification Pillar 1: Nutrition, Health & Wellness Week 2 1
Six W s Question #2: WHAT To Eat, Part One 2
Learning Objectives: Discover what to eat so you can help your clients and yourself! get rid of cravings, lose weight, gain energy and more for good. 3
Food {re}defined Discover a new definition of food Food = anything that fuels or nourishes Food is much more than just what you eat (which is why there are 6 W questions, not just one) What To Eat is a BIG question for so many of your clients (and maybe for you, too) We ll break it out into this week s lesson AND next week s Then we ll pull it all together in a simple way that makes sense 4
Food {re}defined What To Eat is such a big question because it s often what your clients will want to know first. Why? Because they think this is what will solve all their health problems, which is sometimes true, but not always true. Why? Remember knowledge does not equal behavior change. 5
Food {re}defined You become extremely effective as a health coach when you can share knowledge about WHAT TO EAT in a way that helps your clients TAKE ACTION, STAY MOTIVATED and FOLLOW THROUGH. That s why, in this lesson, we ll show you: What to eat. How to help yourself and your client discover the perfect diet for you. Essential Nutrition - style, which means we re doing to distill down to the knowledge that you and your clients can actually use. 6
4 Different Ways People Experience Stress Biological/Chemical in the processes of the body Mental/Emotional in the thoughts, beliefs and feelings Spiritual in our sense of connection Structural in our bones and muscles 7
When we talk about what to eat, we want to focus on biological/chemical stress in the body, because that is directly impacted by food and food choices. 8
If the number one needle mover in your clients health is reducing stress and/or learning how to cope better with stress, then it follows that we as health coaches must discover what our client s top stressor is biologically and chemically, so we can help our client reduce it. 9
What s A Needle Mover? A needle mover is the most effective LEVER that will shift a situation to a noticeable degree. It s said that the phrase is a reference to the old analog Vu meter used in audio recording. Vu stood for Volume Units. When recording, some audio sources were not even loud enough to make the needle move off the bottom in other words it was too faint to be much use to record. Saying that something is moving the needle means that it is enough to register to make the difference to the user. 10
What s A Needle Mover? When it comes to biological and chemical stress in the body, what we re looking for is a BIG needle mover a single stress reducer that is enough to register and make a HUGE difference for your clients and for you. This is why, in your BHC orientation, we shared that to be a masterful health coach, you don't need to study years of complicated nutrition science. All you need to understand is the main needle mover of health for almost everyone. 11
A Needle Mover That Can Help Clients: Lose weight Gain energy Stress less Resolve digestive issues Heal adrenal fatigue Overcome binge eating & emotional eating Cure cravings Balance hormones Stop chronic dieting Fall in love with their bodies & be comfortable in their skin Greatly improve their quality of life Look and feel younger Have better sex Experience that deep happiness and satisfaction 12
That needle mover for us is to learn how to BALANCE BLOOD SUGAR. What does it mean to balance blood sugar? 13
First, What is Sugar? A sweet crystalline substance obtained from various plants, especially sugar cane and sugar beet, consisting of sucrose, and used as a sweetener in food and drink 14
Unlike the Olden Days, today, sugar dominates our food supply. It s in crackers, bread, cakes, soda, ketchup, juice salad dressing, gum and even toothpaste. It s kind of everywhere. 15
Names For Sugar On Food Labels 16
Sugar Best known is white table sugar, or sucrose. This is the refined sugar of the sugarcane or sugar beet plant. They strip the cane or beet plant of all the fiber, vitamins and minerals. The processing of sugar from the cane or beet plant removes all the healthy stuff we want. Add to that the fact that more than half 54% of sugar sold in America comes from sugar beets that are genetically modified. In fact, genetically modified sugar beets account for 90% of the crop. 17
Sugar It s also been said that sugarcane plants in Louisiana, Florida and other parts of the world are sprayed with herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in RoundUp) before harvest to speed up the ripening process and increase its sweetness. Sugar production leaves you with a beet plant or cane plant that s been turned into a white powder that s either genetically modified or covered in unsafe herbicides. What happens when you put this white powder in your body? Because it doesn t have any of that good stuff in it, your body has to pull on its own reserves of vitamins and minerals to break down the sugar. 18
Sugar Another way of saying that is that consumption of refined sugar is like drawing on a savings account. If continued withdrawals are made faster than new funds are put in, what happens to the reserves? They get depleted, and this can lead to all kinds of health problems that we ll discuss in a moment. Sucrose is just one form of sugar. Sugar is also the basis of carbohydrates. 19
Sugar Remember carbohydrates are a macronutrient whose primary function is to provide energy for the body, especially the brain and the nervous system. There are 3 kinds of carbohydrates: 1. Simple 2. Complex 3. Fiber Each has a very different effect on the body 20
For this discussion, let s focus specifically on simple and complex carbohydrates. 21
Simple Carbohydrates Simple chemical structure, therefore are digested and absorbed quickly. They provide a quick burst of energy, followed by a crash. Examples of simple carbohydrates are Lactose, Fructose and Maltose. These sugars break down very quickly in the body. 22
Complex Carbohydrates Long, complex chains of glucose molecules. Takes the body some time to break them down, so they are like a slow burn, compared to a simple carbohydrate, which is like a flash fire. Some examples of complex carbohydrates are whole grains (such as millet, quinoa, brown rice), and beans, legumes, veggies. When complex carbs are processed or refined, they deplete our bodies own reserves of vitamins and minerals to break them down. 23
Complex Carbohydrates An example is turning whole wheat into a bagel. The wheat has to go through a refining process that strips the wheat of fiber and nutrients and turns it into flour. The bagel is no longer a complex carb now it s a REFINED, or SIMPLE carb When you eat the bagel your body breaks it down really fast and it enters the bloodstream in a rush, causing a sudden increase in blood sugar. This shoots up your blood sugar, like to the top of a roller coaster. 24
Blood Sugar Roller Coaster At the top of this roller coaster, your brain is alerted. Your brain uses about 50% of your blood sugar at any given time, so any drastic rise or fall in your blood sugar levels cause your brain flip out. So when you re blood sugar spikes up, your brain and your body aren t happy to your body THIS IS AN EMERGENCY SITUATION So what does your body do? Your pancreas secretes the hormone insulin to bring your blood sugar back down 25
Blood Sugar Roller Coaster Here s the problem: We have spent a lifetime eating bagels, crackers, white bread, and all of these processed carbohydrates this is the stuff most of us grew up on, right? So our body had gotten really used to doing its job too well. When it sends the insulin out, it doesn t just bring your blood sugar back down into balance, it often sends out too much, and we dip way down. And there you have your blood sugar crash that shaky, spaced out, uncomfortable feeling. 26
Blood Sugar Roller Coaster So you ve had a blood sugar crash now what does your body crave? MORE SUGAR! And what happens to our blood sugar when we eat the sugar again? It goes up, up, up back to the top of that roller coaster. The up and down cycle continues. This is one of the reasons we start eating sugar and we quite literally can t stop. 27
Blood Sugar Roller Coaster Your body is actually trying to find balance. So, the sugar craving is your body s way of saying it needs something specific to restore this balance. The easiest and most convenient food is sugar 28
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Remember our discussion of biological and chemical stress on the body from last week s lesson? And all the negative effects that stress has on the body? 30
The Blood Sugar Roller Coaster causes enormous biological and chemical stress on the body, initiating the stress response on a regular basis, systematically destroying good health. 31
Physical Complications Of Sugar: Weakened immune system: destroys germ killing ability of white blood cells for up to five hours after digestion, chronic infections can result. Cardiovascular Disease Type II Diabetes: insulin receptors no longer respond to the insulin produced in the pancreas and cells are less able to get energy from the food we eat. Hypoglycemia: fatigue, lack of concentration, mood swings, shaking, sweating Depression: messes with serotonin levels 32
Physical Complications Of Sugar: Increased cancer risk: A major European study has found that women with high blood sugar levels are at an increased risk of developing cancers of the pancreas, skin, womb, and urinary tract. High blood sugar was also linked to breast cancer for women under 49. Weight Gain: if brain, muscle and blood receptors are full, insulin stores excess blood sugar as fat. 33
After insulin takes excess sugar out of the bloodstream, it has three places it can place that sugar: Your Brain Your Blood Cells Your Muscles 34
Now if all those receptors are full, where does that excess sugar go? Yep, right on the hips. That excess sugar is stored as FAT. 35
Now here s yet another not-so-thrilling part of the sugar story 36
When your body is producing insulin to bring you down from the sugar high, it can t produce the hormone glucagon. Glucagon is very important especially if you are trying to shed excess weight. The function of glucagon is to take the fat out of storage to be burned. 37
Recap! If you are eating sugar regularly, you re on a biochemical and emotional roller coaster that is putting your body into a continual stress response state, where weight gain, low energy, moodiness, poor health and advanced disease are almost inevitable. 38
Here s the good news Balancing blood sugar for yourself and your clients is a MAJOR NEEDLE MOVER in reducing biological/chemical stress that will help solve all kinds of health problems and will have your clients falling in love with you and becoming raving fans. Balancing blood sugar is fairly simple to do once you know how! 39
Ready to learn? YEAH you are! 40
Leave a comment and Tell us what surprised you most about this lesson! 41