Before I move into the Time Whispering in the next blog, I want to wrap up a few loose ends on this tangled web that I started to weave regarding weight loss and metabolism that I opened up last month.
I have nothing specific to offer as advice for weight loss. There are no tricks. There is no easy way. In fact I think there are as many “ways” as there are people. There are a couple of things that I have discovered on my own that are not very clear in the books I’ve read on the subject.
The Role of Insulin
I’ve read a few books on the glycemic index and all that. Still not sure what it is. The books all try to explain what’s going on with insulin and blood glucose and fat storage. I get lost. And I aced all my anatomy and biology courses.
Very simply, insulin tells your body to store fat. Without insulin, you burn all your energy and excrete the excess glucose in urine. Of course, excess glucose in your blood is horrible because your capillaries retain water and burst and you go blind, for example. No exaggeration. Insulin regulation is vital.
Not everyone’s pancreas is created equal, however. The pancreas releases insulin by measuring the glucose in the blood. Beautiful. But my pancreas just releases too much insulin. Many people are like me. We eat; we crash. It happened to me at least once a week for a while. An hour after I ate, I would be sitting there with a 55 blood glucose. This means that I was storing my 300-calorie lunch as fat. Yes, I could diet and gain weight.
So, I’m screwed right? Wrong.
The Role of the Mind
As I said, the pancreas measures the glucose levels in the blood. That’s how it knows when to release insulin. However, in societies where there are regular meal times, the pancreas starts releasing insulin fifteen minutes before a meal. How can it do this if the blood glucose has not increased yet? Because the brain is also an endocrine gland. What do I mean? I mean the brain can tell the pancreas to release insulin.
Almost any stimulus can become associated with insulin release. You eat; you release insulin. You feel hungry; you release insulin. You look at the clock; you release insulin.
My point is that abstract thought can govern your endocrine function. This is not true for everyone. I’m only saying it works for me. I suspect it works for everyone who is basically healthy. Abstract thought can govern endocrine function.
I have discovered, for example, that I will stop crashing if my body stops expecting food. Some diets tell us to eat five times each day. I tried that. There was no joy in it. I was never hungry any more. And it trained my body to expect food more often which made my pancreas secrete insulin more often. That was the last thing my endocrine system needed.
Based on my weight, height, and age, my Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) requires about 2100 calories a day. I don’t really know why this is. But I do know that I can get through a day on 1000 or 1500 calories without discomfort. I have been doing it regularly. I’ve also been losing weight.
What about going into starvation mode? Honestly, I don’t know what that is. I do two things when I’m hungry. First, I do Thought Stopping. There is a link to Thought Stopping in the Toolbox on my navigation menu. Next, I do brief exercises. I may drop and do five or ten pushups or I may grab a pair of dumbbells and do five or ten curls in each arm. I may do core exercises, too, like crunches or something.
Thought Stopping and brief exercise do two things. The Thought Stopping tells your mind to stop telling the pancreas that a meal is coming. IT AIN’T COMIN’! Effective Thought Stopping must be harsh and firm. The exercise then tells the body to get out of starvation mode. In other words, it tells the body to wake up and burn some energy. Unless you are emaciated, we all have some fat reserve to burn. We just have to find the right way to light the fire under it.
Okay. Now, I’m going to get sued for telling people to starve themselves to unconsciousness. No. I’m saying this worked for me. I’m also saying that any weight loss program that I’ve tried does not work quite right until I tailor it to my mind/body needs. And that’s my point. Don’t expect some diet prescription to work unless you are willing to explore how to make it fit your needs.
Next entry: Time Whispering.