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Save your seat! Fall Lean for Life starts October 23 →

Katie Vigesaa RD

Online Nutrition Course to Restart Your Metabolism

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Healthier You: Lesson 1

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Why we get sugar cravings

Sugar cravings can be incredibly frustrating and make you feel hopeless. I wanted to take some time to teach you how sugar cravings aren’t a willpower problem, but more of a biochemical problem. What I mean by that is when your body is imbalanced in certain areas whether that be certain hunger hormones, blood sugar, or your digestive system, you might crave sugar in a big way. Instead of blaming yourself and thinking you aren’t strong enough to resist the sugar, why don’t we instead flip the focus onto why those sugar cravings are actually happening.

Blood Sugar Swings + Sugar Cravings

Blood sugar swings are when your blood sugar spikes up, then the body tries to quickly correct with a hormone surge, overcorrects, then causes your blood sugar to drop down too low. When you get this crash, you might feel: anxious all of a sudden, sweaty, shaky, and more than anything, want something to eat and NOW. You don’t have to have any form of diabetes to be experiencing blood sugar swings.

One of the primary reasons this happens is; you have been consuming foods that are quickly turning into sugar in your blood. Did you know that all carbohydrates turn into sugar in the blood? It’s true. For every 4 grams of carbohydrate, we get the equivalent of about 1 teaspoon of sugar in the blood. Most of us haven’t always been eating real food carbohydrates like some sweet potato or fruit, but instead been eating processed carbohydrates and desserts like cereal, chips, pretzels, candy, cookies and other desserts. These types of food have a lot of carbohydrate that really makes our blood sugar go up and quick. Remember, that fast swing up usually means a quick drop down.

Let me give you an example, you start your day swinging through the coffee lane. You order a medium sized sweetened coffee drink and decide on a muffin they have in their baking case. Girlfriend, you are about to experience a blood sugar crash — just give it an hour or 2. An average medium sugar sweetened coffee beverage has 16-18 teaspoons (teaspoons!) of sugar in it. Come on now, would you scoop 16 teaspoons of sugar out of the sugar jar and dump it in your class of water? Or even some black coffee you made at home? Of course not.

Add the muffin with it and you’ve got another 13 teaspoons of sugar. Let’s just call it even and say that’s a 30 teaspoons of sugar breakfast.

Ok, but I see you, you’re sitting there thinking that you don’t go through the coffee lane in the morning, instead you make yourself a breakfast at home. Maybe you pour yourself a 7-grain cereal, top it with some skim milk and pour yourself some 100% juice. Even though that might not contain any high fructose corn syrup or refined white sugar, don’t be deceived: you are still eating a high sugar breakfast. 2 cups of a traditional “high fiber” cereal breaks down to anywhere from 12-25 teaspoons. Yes, you read that right. And don’t tell me you can just stop at ¾ cup of cereal, like most serving sizes. No way is that filling you up. Let’s say you add ½ cup of skim milk and 1 cup of juice on the side. That will breakdown to another 8 teaspoons of sugar. So, your seemingly “healthy” breakfast, might actually be breaking down to 20-45 teaspoons of sugar!

Why does all that discussion matter? Because high sugar eating makes you crave more sugar, hijacks your hunger hormones and can imbalance your good gut bacteria, as we will learn.

Now your brain is asking, “what am I supposed to do about this high sugar eating and the blood sugar swings?” I’ll be telling you all about that tomorrow!

Hunger Hormones + Sugar Cravings

Another reason we are craving sugar is our hunger hormones have gotten all messed up. When our hunger hormones are working effectively, we eat quality food and then feel full and satisfied.

It tends to be a cruel cycle. We crave sugar, we eat sugar, we want more sugar, and this continuous cycle creates a resistance in our cells. Think of your cells being locked or
turning off their ears. When they can’t hear the message that you are full, they keep sending the message that you need to keep eating.

When you start to get the sugar out of your system, the cells can start to communicate effectively again. Tomorrow I’ll let you in on some simple secrets to start feeling satisfied after you eat.

Digestive System + Sugar Cravings

Here’s an interesting one: if your digestion isn’t optimal, you can have sugar cravings. Stick with me here, this might sound strange. Basically, if you don’t have enough good bacteria, or more bad bacteria or yeasts in your digestive system, you could crave sugar.

When you make beer, what do you feed the yeast? Sugar.

In that same vein, when our digestive system is overburdened with bad bacteria or yeast, we might crave sugar.

Why might you have imbalanced gut bacteria? Lots of reasons!! Rounds of antibiotics, antifungals, even acid blocking medications can disrupt the gut flora. Eating a lot of sugar and processed food definitely imbalances the digestive system. Our healthy bacteria love real food, whereas a lot of processed foods and sugar allow bad bacteria and yeast to overpopulate. Do you have high levels of stress in your life? We know that stress can disrupt our gut functions.

All in all, let’s move you towards having a healthy digestive system. That will help you just naturally so “no” to all the sugar! Know one big step towards a healthier digestive system? Eating real food! And staying away from processed foods and sugars.

In closing . . .

When you start to get your body balanced out, those strong sugar cravings start to dissipate. You won’t have to rely on forcing yourself to stay away from the sugar. You just won’t be naturally drawn to it! How freeing!

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Healthier You Lessons

  • Welcome! Lesson 1
  • Lesson 3
  • Printable Resources
  • Information Guide
  • Quick Meal & Restaurant Guide

Healthier You Recipes

Cobb Salad

Creamy Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake

Egg Roll in a Bowl

Jalapeño Chicken Bacon Popper Bake

Keto Coffee

Kitchen Sink Eggs

Mexican Meatloaf

Simple Coleslaw

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Chili

Sweet Potato Beef Bowl with Creamy Lime Sauce

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Instagram Inspiration

We can’t change the past, but we can start NOW t We can’t change the past, but we can start NOW to impact our future. 

The body is designed to heal - if you’re needing to drop some weight and inflammation, improve your gut health, and figure out what’s the best nutrition approach for you, have you considered 1:1 nutrition coaching? 

I’m taking on ✌️new clients in October! If you’re ready to improve your health by the end of the year, let’s go! Link for the Discovery Call in my bio
BUZZWORD INCOMING 👇⬇️ *gut health* Taking BUZZWORD INCOMING 👇⬇️
*gut health* 
Taking care of your GUT HEALTH should be foundational for all other areas of health. It’s layer number 1. 

You want weight loss? Sustainable weight loss that you keep off considers the gut 

You want less inflammation? A “leaky gut” literally spills toxins and flips inflammation ON.

So maybe GUT HEALTH isn’t a sexy topic (like hi, do you almost 💩 your pants sometimes? Does your gas smell really bad?!) but what’s going on in your gut impacts literally everything else! 

Want to get a starting step today to a better gut? Check out the free gut health lesson in my profile! 
https://katievigesaa.com/better-gut-health/

And p.s. I like things that make me laugh, and this lady in the meme made me giggle 😂
RENEW YOUR MIND! Over the course of my nutrition c RENEW YOUR MIND!
Over the course of my nutrition career, I’ve coached or taught thousands of women. 

MINDSET is the make it or break it. 

If you’re telling yourself
“I’ve gotta do this perfect or it won’t work” ➡️ you’ll just burn out and give up

“Nothing I ever do works for me” ➡️ you’re trying to self protect from past “failures” so you’re giving up before you even start

“This is too hard” ➡️ you’re right. Change is super hard. Stop focusing on how hard it is, shift your thoughts to how you’ll reap the reward of your diligence. 

Work on your mindset if you want change in your health. You could have the best nutrition plan sitting in front if you talk yourself out of it, nothing will change. I believe in you! God believes in you! Now you need to believe in you, too.
Yes you can! Flip the script How do you view your Yes you can! Flip the script
How do you view your ability to change your health? Reach your goals? 

If you’re stuck in defeat mode it may sound like..
“I’ll never lose the weight”
“XYZ runs in the family”
“This is just the way it is”

Challenge that negative narrative - it’s keeping you stuck. 

“I can keep moving forward, even after setbacks”
“I bet I can find a coach to help me”
“One decision doesn’t determine my destiny”

I often consider what God says. His word says we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The enemy of our lives wants us to stay stuck and frustrated. God wants the best for us, and renewing our minds is part of the process. Flip the script.
There are direct links to things like blood sugar, There are direct links to things like blood sugar, chronic inflammation, and metabolism and your gut health. This is no small thing.

Take blood sugars. Everybody seems to be talking about blood sugar balance, and for good reason! But did you know that inflammation stemming from the gut can actually create insulin resistance in the cell? That means you try to manage your diet, but still have poor blood sugar control. 

If you want to go down the nutritional rabbit hole, look up papers connecting TNF-alpha, gut permeability, and insulin resistance! 

Did you know your gut could impact blood sugars?! Send me a YES or NO below ⬇️ ⬇️ and make sure you click the link in my profile for a free BEAT the BLOAT training!
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Individual Nutrition Consultation 2


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Introduce Yourself! 3

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