How to Increase Insulin Sensitivity and Prevent Insulin Resistance

Let’s talk about insulin. Exciting, right? 

Actually it really is. And I’ll explain why!

What is insulin?

Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that helps our cells absorb and use glucose for energy. Our body doesn’t need sugar to get energy.  It needs building blocks in order to break down glucose. You can break down fat, carbs, and protein into glucose.

We get glucose from the foods we eat.

When we eat our blood glucose levels increase. Our pancreas releases insulin in relationship to how much blood glucose we have. Insulin helps our body utilize energy but also works to keep the levels balanced and in a normal range. So our body needs to stay in a certain range and that is what it is always working towards. 

Being sensitive to insulin means when we eat something, our body releases the amount of insulin it needs to get it into the cells, our blood sugar goes back to normal fairly quickly, and then our body is in a state of rest. There isn’t a never ending spiral. Which is good.

What’s not good? Insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance means our body isn’t able to respond to all that insulin that is produced or able to absorb the glucose from the blood. What happens is that the pancreas produces too much insulin and is trying to get the glucose into the cells. In order to keep the blood sugar balanced the pancreas can’t keep up. Extra glucose builds up and our blood sugar goes up.  This wears out the pancreas. This can eventually lead to pre-diabetes and/ or diabetes.

Insulin sensitivity is the opposite. Our body does not need as much insulin to bring down our blood glucose levels. It can lower inflammation. It keeps a better balance with less fluctuation. It takes care of our blood sugar and is more effective. 

There is a huge dietary component to building your insulin sensitivity. 

But there are other causes to insulin resistance such as:

• High levels of inflammation
• Toxin build up
• Parasites
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Stress
• Lack of sleep
• Polycystic ovarian syndrome. (Women only)
• Auto-immunity
• Hormonal cascades
• Genetics

Our bodies are really unique. What works for one person may not work for another. Depending on how many risk factors you have, you might have to go deeper in your fight against insulin resistance. 

Stress and Insulin

We can’t avoid all stress. Not all stress is bad. I have tools to help you address reducing stress in my Healthy Living Tool Box eBook. 

We need to address it, because left unchecked, it can affect our body’s sensitivity to insulin.

But there aren’t necessarily 5 simple ways to live a stress free life. It depends on each of our lives and our current seasons. 

What helps me the most is:

• Making sure my calendar is not too busy. 
• Planning out my week and what it looks like for my work, family, and sleep.
• Spending more time with the Lord and in prayer. 
• Spending less time on scrolling Instagram and being bombarded with things of the world. 
• Reducing technology.
• Focusing on what builds my body.
• Taking a Sunday Sabbath of rest (often a half-day)

Nutrition and Insulin Sensitivity

But stress isn’t all of it. 

We need to work on our nutrition in order to build insulin sensitivity. There really is no way around it. We can still do it while not feeling deprived. There is not a one size fits all diet. The baseline, however, is that you have to decrease your sugar and inflammatory food intake so you can reduce your blood sugar spikes. 

This is especially true if you are more predisposed to insulin resistance or you have something else going in your body. Sometimes the most freeing thing you can do is work hard on following the diet that is going to most serve your physiology right now.  If you are more predisposed to insulin resistance you can’t be as lenient in your diet.

Here are few ideas you can try:

1. Decrease your sugar
2. Read labels like crazy.
3. Do not eat anything with added cane sugar.
4. Reduce unrefined sugar like honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar
5. Choose Stevia or things unsweetened. 

(One resource that you might find helpful is my Just Enjoy Desert eBook .)

6. Go Paleo.
7. Watch your grains. 
8. Look at Keto and eat higher fats and lower carbs.
9. Try Intermittent fasting .

10. Work on your Adrenals. (Which are part of stress)
11. Take supplements (Find them on justenjoyhealth.com)
12. Listen to your body and remember carbs are not all that bad.
13. Move! Your body needs to be moving and helps get sugar into your cells efficiently.

Movement helps our bodies build insulin sensitivity. Try taking a walk after you eat a meal. It will help your body bring glucose into your muscles. Exercise can be a healing tool and it doesn’ t have to be really intense. 

Blood Sugar Information:

• Testing should be done 2 hours after a meal. 
• It will give you the best picture of your body.
• Your target numbers are to be less than 140 or 120.

Fasting Blood Sugar should be tested in the morning after eating the night before.

Your target numbers are to be between 70 and 99. Optimal is 70-90. 100 is considered pre-diabetic.

• Test more than once. 
• Test a few days in a row.

Hemoglobin A1C testing: This is a blood test with labs. This is not an iron test despite the name hemoglobin in the name. Glucose builds up and this test shows the glucose in your blood over time. It is the most accurate view of glucose levels over a period of time, around 3-4 months. Your target: You want to be less than 5.5. Ideally 5.0 and under. 

Helpful Tip: An at home blood glucose meter is available at places like Target or Amazon so you can test yourself.

I hope you found this helpful and simple enough to understand. 

Bonus: If you would like a simple guide to eating gluten free you can find it my audio workshop at meganbirt.com/gfworkshop

Coupon code – GFREE at checkout.

I would love for you to download it today!