7 min. Read

Hey you Gorgeous Curvy Women!  

Hormones and Weight Gain. I know that losing weight isn’t easy…but I found hormones had a direct effect on my weight gain, metabolism, stress, and mood swings.  Diet after diet failed, strenuous exercise programs failed, health products helped some, but didn’t solve my problem.  When I learned how my hormones were effecting my body and how to lose weight my health journey turned around.     

If you are:

  • a woman that is tired and stressed out  
  • need a plan not centered on exercise
  • feel controlled by your emotions
  • struggle with losing weight
  • constantly overeating even when you don’t want to
  • have a sweet tooth that wont quit
  • want to figure out what is stopping you and holding you back from having a body you feel confident in…

Then this article is for you! 

I get it!  I have struggled with losing weight most of my life!  

As a tired stressed out mom, I have spent years dieting and doing all the right things at least to the best of my ability. 

I have tried so many diets.  Counting calories, Weight Watchers, Lowish Carb, Keto, Whole 30, Paleo, Clean Eating, The Venus Diet… I’m sure even more than that. 

The journey through all of those taught me so much about my body.  I could tell some things weren’t effective, and other worked great.

It was terribly frustrating to never see long term progress. 

So as I became a health coach I learned more about my hormones, my habits, and looking at my weight loss and health as a complete mind, body and soul approach which is what I blog about here. 

All the key things I have learned that have helped me. 

Even with habit change and clean eating, I still found the last 50 pounds hard to shed.

Angela Naumann

The Curvy Woman's Health Coach

Here is the thing…

Even with habit change and clean eating, I still found the last 50 pounds hard to shed.  I hit a nice plateau after my 30+ pound weight loss. 

That is when I started looking at my hormones and the effect they had on my body because I was already doing all the right things.

Most of the time I…

  • Eat organic veggies, beans and grains (if the budget that week allows)
  • Eat Grass Fed Beef (This is an always for us.  We prioritize this.)
  • I honor my hunger.  I rarely eat when I am not hungry. This took time, but with body awareness I have learned this.
  • I honor my fullness.  Practicing 20 minute meals helped me to stop overeating.  (Get my guide on the 20 minute meal here, with my freebie, “How to Lose Weight When Nothing Else Works”)
  • I was doing yoga and moving my body and most days getting 10K steps.
  • I was meditating, visualizing, praying and getting self care time in.  Well as much as I could being a mom of two boys that works full time and blogs on the side.  But I really tried.  I could tell my stress level was significantly lower.  I was happier and not as moody. 
  • I was drinking my water.  I even reduced my coffee and replaced it with warm lemon water in the mornings to start off.  I would still have coffee, but first warm lemon water to nourish my body at the start of the day.

I felt like I was doing it all.  What else could I do?  That’s when I started learning about hormones and weight gain, specifically about insulin resistance with Dr. Fung’s The Obesity Code.

It was like reading about myself. 

Here is what I found!

Insulin Resistance

Insulin Resistance is when your body can’t respond properly to the insulin it makes. It loses its sensitivity to it.  Over time, this sends up your blood sugar levels. That can even set you up for type 2 diabetes.  My grandmother suffered with that, and I do not want to find myself on that path.

Common Symptoms of Insulin Resistance:

  1. You crave sweets, breads, pasta, and pastries….a lot!
  2. Eating sweets doesn’t relieve your sugar cravings and even increases them.
  3. You become irritable and “hangry” if you miss a meal.
  4. You find yourself needing caffeine to get through the day.
  5. You become lightheaded if you miss a meal.
  6. Eating makes you exhausted and in need of a nap.
  7. It’s difficult for you to lose weight.
  8. You feel weak, shaky, or jittery pretty frequently.
  9. You get agitated, easily upset, or nervous, out of proportion to the reason for these feelings.
  10. Brain Fog, Your memory is not what it used to be/
  11. Your vision is blurry.
  12. Your waist measurement is equal to or larger than your hip measurements.
  13. You have an atypically low sex drive.
  14. You’re always thirsty.
  15. You’re moody and a witch with those you love.

Here’s the Problem

You have spent a lifetime eating a lot of high-sugar, processed products. 

Sister, I get it.  I grew up in the 80s and 90s and that what was what my single mom had to feed me.  It was cheap, popular, and honestly exactly what “diet of the day” was all about.  Remember the low fat craze?  It was just a diet that removed the healthy fat from food and replaced it with sugars and carbs which we now know cause weight gain.

So if your like me then your body has gotten really used to letting insulin have a free for all in your body.  Insulin isn’t bad.  God gave it an important part of caring for our body, but sometimes it gets out of control or just stops working optimally.  

When insulin is sent out, it doesn’t just bring your blood sugar back down into balance, there’s often too much insulin secreted, and our blood sugar dips way down. Sister, that’s the blood sugar crash you feel after the sugar high – that is the moody, shaky, spaced out, uncomfortable feelin that you get after the high..

You crash and now what does your body want?  It needs balance so it will begin to crave MORE SUGAR! When we give in and eat the sugar again it just goes back up, putting us on the top of that roller coaster once again.  Then the  up and down cycle continues and this is when weight loss will stop.

You have experienced this before. How does it feel? Great in the moment you take the sugar in, but crappy when it wears of. Crappy when your jeans won’t button or that extra bit rolls over the top of your pants.

If the story ended there it wouldn’t be so bad, but  after the hormone insulin is sent out to take excess sugar out of the bloodstream, it has three places it can take that sugar:

  1. Your brain
  2. Your blood cells
  3. Your muscles

Now if all those three receptors are full from your diet of sugar and simple carbs, where does that excess sugar go?  Yep, right on the hips and belly to be stored as FAT.

Beside storing more fat on our bodies this can also lead to these 4 major issues:

  • Low glucagon production (Its the hormone that takes fat out of storage to be burned)
  • Increased Cortisol (stress hormone)
  • Leptin and Ghrelin becomes less effective.  These are the hunger hormones.  They control when we are full and when we are hungry.  
  • Quality Sleep is harder to get.  If you’re not sleeping you can’t lose weight.

Why it Matters

 

Why is this critically important? Because understanding how insulin resistance effects you will help you figure out  what to do about it.

Imagine insulin as your friendly neighborhood mailman.  After each meal he delivers your mail.  When your muscles, brain and blood cells are healthy and not overloaded from years of overeating sugar and refined carbs, then the insulin “mail” gets routinely delivered.  

But what happens when the mail box is full from years and years of the modern diet (sugar and processed carbs) out cells become resistant to storing the insulin.  The cells or mail box is already completely stuffed full of the glucose that is produced form too much insulin.  So when the mail box is full the insulin is then shipped of to the fat cells that are happy to have it.  Hello muffin top!!! 

The knee jerk response for most of us after learning this is to avoid all carbs and sugar.  Yes, that can help with weight loss.  It can be a sticky balance to find what is right for your body.  That’s where working with a health coach can help.  I do exactly that for my clients.  Help them figure out what their body needs.  

Generally, I would suggest to start with detoxing from the sugar and carbs for a while.  If you are obese like I was, then I would also experiment with some intermittent fasting.  This will really help lower the insulin levels and use up the fat stores. 

For a more detail plan and help with a figuring out what would work for your body when nothing else seems to be working.  Join my Uncovering Weight Loss Resistance Online Master Class.  It is an go at your own pace training that will help you go through a 30 day detox, and set you up for a kick start on your total transformation.  It’s the ideal set up for someone that doesn’t have a one on one coach to help them through the process.   

Want to uncover what is stopping you and holding You Back from having the body you want.

Click here and learn about my 30 Day Uncovering Weight Loss Resistance  Online Training!

 

It's Your Time!!!

It’s your time my friend, It’s time to be bold and take control back on your life and your health. Join my kick sugar to the curb online training.  At your own pace you can unpack those crazy sugar cravings, discover the benefits of reducing sugar for our body, and how develop a plan to say bye-bye sugar!

What you will learn…

This FREE 1 hour master class will have three main parts to help you kick sugar to the curb.

Challenges

We cover the challenges to removing sugar and why we just always crave it.

Solutions

Get 7 solutions to break the sugar habit.

Next Steps

I lay out multiple next steps to help you move forward with your health goals.

Learn more here!!

Share this blog post with your friends and family. Let’s help other women break from from that tired overwhelmed feeling, so they can start confidently looking in the mirror and loving the woman smiling back.  

Angela Naumann 

The Curvy Woman’s Health Coach

About Me

Hi!!   I am Angela Naumann, the Curvy Woman’s Health Coach.   I have lived my life as a plus size woman, and I understand the journey and struggles that comes from yo-yo dieting and binge eating.  I know how it feels to have jeans that won’t button, and shirts that gape at the belly.  I know the internal battle that comes with feeling confident in yourself when you feel out of control with your body.  I have felt that way for 20 years of my life.

But I found plus size weight loss is possible for me.  I knew I longed for a few key things in my life.  I wanted to not constantly think about food.  I wanted to look in the mirror and feel confident, sexy and love the vision smiling back.

What people are saying….

“I’m nearing the end of my 12 week program, and although I was hesitant to open up and dig deep, I’m glad I did this! Angela has helped me peel back the layers to discover what’s been holding me back in progressing in my health journey. My mindset has done a complete 180! I don’t let food control my life, and it no longer hinders other areas outside of my health. I feel confident in making healthy choices, and that hasn’t always been the case. I’m beyond thankful for Angela and the encouragement she has given me. Putting all of her practices in place have truly helped me transform my health, and I’m thrilled for a healthier and happier me!”

Kelsey

Entrepreneur and Mom

“I was hesitant to start “another program” for fear of yet another failure.  I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly Angela was able to help me change that mindset. It means so much to have someone like her by my side because she can actually relate to so many of my struggles. Her passion for helping others was immediately evident and put me at ease speaking openly. She helped me to dig deep and get to the root of so many struggles, some I wasn’t even aware of. I especially liked that she tailored our sessions to my personal needs and goals.  I’ve learned so much about myself in the last 12 weeks that will serve me greatly for years to come. Thanks to Angela I no longer feel powerless.”

Cydney

Working mom of 3

Online Coaching Resources

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This 1 hour Master Class is going to start you in the direction of better health!  Up until now sugar has been controlling us, now it’s time to let go and take that control back.

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