It’s 2 PM. You feel tired, your brain is fuzzy, and it takes twenty minutes to complete a simple task.
How do you handle the afternoon slump?
Most of us pour another cup of coffee or grab a caffeinated soda to kick our brains and bodies back in gear. Mid-afternoon, we’re most likely to wander into the kitchen and stand in front of the open fridge. Sugary and carby snacks stare at us from the shelves, promising a pick-me-up.
What’s going on here? Why is the afternoon crash such a common experience, and are our bodies telling us something?
The answer lies in understanding your blood sugar—what it is, how it impacts your body and brain, and how to control it. Today, you’ll learn all this, plus simple tricks to balance your blood sugar and beat the afternoon slump, even if you don’t have time to get up from your desk!
What is Blood Sugar?
When you eat food, your body breaks that food down and uses it to meet your physical needs. As you eat, food travels into your stomach where acids and enzymes break it down into smaller pieces. This process releases glucose from the carbohydrates in your food.
Your stomach and small intestines absorb the glucose and then release it into your bloodstream. Your blood sugar level, also known as blood glucose level, is a measurement that shows how much glucose you have in your blood.
Your blood carries sugar throughout your body, delivering it to the cells that need energy. Your body uses the sugar in your blood to operate. Muscle contractions, mechanical work, hormone production, nerve impulse conduction, and cell division all depend on the sugars carried by your blood.
What Does Blood Sugar Have to Do With My Health and Body Fat?
Your body is always looking out for you, working hard to keep your blood sugar levels from rising too high or crashing. Special cells in your pancreas (called beta cells) monitor your blood sugar levels every few seconds!
Despite our body’s attempts to hold down the fort, our habits can harm or help our overall health. Keeping your blood sugar levels steady helps your body live longer without disease and maintain a healthy weight. Rapid spikes and drops, on the other hand, cause issues like fatigue and mood swings in the short term and chronic disease in the long term.
Blood Sugar Imbalance and Weight Gain
When blood sugar levels drop too low, the pancreas releases glucagon, which triggers your liver to convert stored glucose into a usable form and release it into the bloodstream (raising your blood sugar levels slightly). When blood sugar levels increase, your pancreas produces insulin, a hormone that tells your cells to absorb the sugar in your blood for energy or store it as fat.
So, when we eat foods or follow certain habits that flood our bodies with too much sugar, our bodies cope by shoving all the excess sugar out of our bloodstream and into fat cells.
Blood Sugar Imbalance and Diabetes
If we chronically consume large amounts of carbs and sugars (the foods that raise our blood sugar levels), this causes the pancreas to secrete more and more insulin. Over time, our cells become tolerant to insulin and require much more than the normal amount of insulin to bring our blood sugar levels back to normal.
That means, despite our rising insulin levels, our bodies aren’t absorbing the sugar in our bloodstream. Sugar levels increase in the blood, which over time leads to prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes.
Blood Sugar Imbalance and Heart Disease
Over time, high blood sugar levels can damage your blood vessels and nerves that control your heart. High blood sugar can make your heart muscles and blood vessels hard and stiff. It also leads to plaque buildup, narrowing arteries, and reducing blood flow to your heart.
A Simple Trick to Balance Blood Sugar While Sitting
By managing your blood sugar, you maintain steady energy levels, better brain function, and a healthy weight. Stable blood sugar reduces the risk of chronic diseases and improves your overall well-being.
One exercise is so easy, that I can’t keep it to myself! You can lower your blood sugar levels while sitting by simply following the steps below:
How to Do the Soleus Push-Up:
- Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your body relaxed.
- Keep the balls of your feet on the floor while you raise your heels as high as they can go.
- Gently bring your heels back down to the floor.
- Repeat this movement for 5 minutes.
How the Soleus Push-Up Lowers Blood Sugar
Increasing your metabolism helps your body use the sugars in your blood for energy instead of storing the sugars as fat. This exercise targets the soleus muscle in your calf. When done correctly, this simple exercise keeps the muscle activated for hours, boosting your metabolism and significantly lowering your blood sugar levels.
In fact, Marc Hamilton, a professor at the University of Houston, found that people can reduce their blood sugar by about 50% with a single session of these soleus muscle contractions!
Healthy Habits to Balance Your Blood Sugar
Learning about your blood sugar levels can help you live a healthier longer life and lose weight more easily. In addition to soleus push-ups, you can balance your blood sugar by:
- Moving After Meals: A short walk after eating can help lower blood sugar levels by aiding digestion and glucose uptake. You don’t have to walk for miles. Even a 5-minute walk will do the trick!
- Boost Your Build: Strength training is critical for blood sugar control. Increasing your muscle mass enhances insulin sensitivity. Muscles use glucose for energy, so more muscle mass means better glucose uptake and utilization, leading to lower blood sugar levels.
- Stay Hydrated: Drinking water helps maintain blood sugar balance and supports your metabolism! Aim for no less than 60 oz each day.
- Prioritize Sleep: A solid 7-9 hours of sleep each night supports insulin sensitivity and your overall metabolic health.
- Manage Stress: Life is full of stressors. Practices like meditation, yoga, or deep breathing exercises can help manage stress, which impacts our hormones and blood sugar levels. 5 minutes before bed, practice a stress-reducing exercise you like best.
Small Habit for Better Health
Incorporating these habits and exercises into your daily routine can improve your body’s ability to manage blood sugar, dodge chronic diseases, and drop weight more easily.
You can transform your health one small habit at a time. Join LEAN and learn the health and weight loss strategies that work.
