Shift Work Increases Sugar & Carb Cravings
In this episode, Andi explains the top two reasons why sugar and carb cravings are so prominent in the First Responder world.
What You'll Learn:
➡️More willpower will not help you if your sugar and carb cravings are caused by shift work and the operational stress of the job.
➡️The more bad bacteria that you have, the more sugar and carbs you crave.
➡️Keto and intermittent fasting don't fix the problem
➡️And a lot more!
Are you ready to learn all the tools needed to live a 911 lifestyle that can help you stay strong throughout your entire career? Then Coach Yourself To Be 911 Shift Strong! Sign up for the FREE TRAINING HERE ➡️ https://911lifestyle.com/coachyourselftobe911shiftstrongjoin
If you want to learn more about the 911 Elite Performance Program before joining, Book A Call with Andi here! ➡️https://calendly.com/911lifestyle/25min?month=2022-06
Or connect with Andi Online!
Learn more works of Andi at www.911lifestyle.com
Follow Andi on LinkedIn
Join the free Facebook Community - 911 Shift Ready Podcast
I'm Andy Clark, mom and wife of an officer I've been reversing and preventing
Speaker:burnout and first responders since 2018.
Speaker:Welcome to the 911 Shift Ready podcast where we will dive into sleep, anger,
Speaker:energy, hypervigilance, anxiety, and other burnout symptoms in order
Speaker:to arm you with the knowledge, understanding, and tools beyond exercise
Speaker:and nutrition to be 911 shift ready.
Speaker:So you can thrive not only for the remainder of your career but
Speaker:also at home in your family life.
Speaker:And then bring those tools back to your service.
Speaker:So the compound effect can take place and together we can decrease burnout
Speaker:in the 911 lifestyle community.
Speaker:More willpower is not going to help you if your sugar and carb
Speaker:cravings are caused by shift work and operational stress of the job.
Speaker:Welcome to episode 22 of the 911 Shift Ready Podcast where we are going
Speaker:to talk about shift work and how it increases sugar and carb cravings.
Speaker:Halloween is tomorrow and I used to dread this time of year when my sugar
Speaker:and carb cravings ruled me because it showed me how little willpower I had.
Speaker:It was hard enough eating healthy when the pull to grab a pastry or a chocolate
Speaker:bar or takeout food was so strong even when I had a healthy meal right beside me.
Speaker:But Halloween, it showed me how little willpower I really had.
Speaker:As soon as the box of candy was opened and I ate one, the game was over.
Speaker:There was no amount of willpower that would match the need to have another
Speaker:candy then another and then another.
Speaker:Even candies or chocolate bars that I didn't really care for, I had to have.
Speaker:And in our house.
Speaker:The Switch Witch actually comes the night after candy collection and
Speaker:it switches out the candy for a toy as one of my kids is allergic to
Speaker:a lot of the ingredients in candy.
Speaker:And if the switch, which happens to hide some of this candy in our house in order
Speaker:to come back and get it later because her bag of candy was too heavy to fly
Speaker:and deliver all these gifts to kids.
Speaker:Then I would find myself finding her hiding spots and grabbing more and more
Speaker:candy until my husband would finally take it to work because I couldn't stop.
Speaker:Heck, I'm a personal trainer and a nutrition coach for a large
Speaker:part of my career, 28 years.
Speaker:Eating healthy and exercise, it's always been a huge part of my life.
Speaker:I used to feel like I was a fraud with my lack of willpower.
Speaker:I was ashamed that I taught nutrition and I could not control
Speaker:this need for sugar and carbs.
Speaker:The stories that I hear from first responders are similar to mine.
Speaker:It was like sugar and carbs called my name.
Speaker:And they would say the same, especially in the middle of the day when my
Speaker:energy dropped or before I'd go to bed.
Speaker:If there was junk food in the house, I had no choice but to eat it.
Speaker:I did all the things.
Speaker:I prepped the healthy food, brought fruits and vegetables and protein with
Speaker:me to work, or I had them all readily available in the fridge where I could
Speaker:open the fridge and grabbed them.
Speaker:But when the cravings hit, it was like I had these blinders on and I
Speaker:didn't even see that healthy food that was literally right in front of me.
Speaker:I had to have the sugar of the carbs.
Speaker:When my husband buys chips, he puts them on the top of the fridge and
Speaker:I could be upstairs working and hear those chips calling my name.
Speaker:When I'd come down for lunch, I'd grab them instead of one of the
Speaker:healthy meals that I'd prepped and I'd inhale them an entire bag to myself.
Speaker:There was the odd occasion where I had more than a bag in one sitting.
Speaker:Like a bag.
Speaker:I'm talking these big bags of chips.
Speaker:I'd have more than one in one sitting.
Speaker:Chocolate bars.
Speaker:I'd go to the store or buy a multi-pack and I would inhale three bars at
Speaker:once and I'm saying inhale because I'm not even sure I chewed them.
Speaker:I would remember opening the package and then I'd look down
Speaker:and the chocolate bars were gone.
Speaker:Often if I was with my husband or with a friend, sometimes if I had a
Speaker:chocolate bar, I would have the whole thing gone and they'd have eaten
Speaker:maybe one or two squares or bites.
Speaker:A box of cookies, bread, pasta, pastries, if they were around, I had to have them.
Speaker:No matter how full I was after a meal, I needed to have dessert.
Speaker:Sometimes seconds, no matter how, how full I was.
Speaker:How gross I was feeling.
Speaker:Halloween and Easter, though it really seemed to be the worst.
Speaker:I was okay until I had one candy.
Speaker:After that, the game was on and no amount of willpower ever won until I
Speaker:truly felt sick and I couldn't stop.
Speaker:Not all of the responders that I work with crave as bad as I did.
Speaker:And I'll explain why some of us craved to that degree and some of us can
Speaker:maybe have a little bit of willpower.
Speaker:You would think that all you needed is willpower and knowledge of healthy eating
Speaker:in order to stop sugar and carb cravings.
Speaker:That to stop sugar and carb cravings, you just have to make better choices, right?
Speaker:I'm not sure that I would've believed that someone wouldn't have enough
Speaker:willpower to avoid sugar and carb cravings and eat healthy until
Speaker:I, myself, who studied nutrition.
Speaker:Who loves eating huge salads and healthy meals, didn't have enough willpower
Speaker:to withstand sugar and carb cravings.
Speaker:Even with all of the nutrition tricks that I have up my sleeves,
Speaker:I still couldn't stop them.
Speaker:Through my 28 year training career and since 2018 working with first
Speaker:responders, there have been some clients who have had sugar and carb cravings
Speaker:who never learned how to eat healthy.
Speaker:And once I taught them, they did make better choices and the cravings went away.
Speaker:But those are far and few between.
Speaker:Often the issue isn't not knowing how to eat healthy or
Speaker:not having enough willpower.
Speaker:I was about to ask you guys, how many people do you know that you would
Speaker:describe as healthy and are always trying to eat healthy and work out
Speaker:regularly and still struggle to say no to carbs and sugar but then I
Speaker:remembered that when I was experienced the cravings, I hid them from everyone.
Speaker:So you wouldn't even know if somebody else is feeling this way.
Speaker:It was embarrassing.
Speaker:I taught nutrition.
Speaker:Fitness and health was my life.
Speaker:Only my husband knew that I couldn't stop once I started
Speaker:eating chocolate candy or chips.
Speaker:Once I did let it slip with a friend when she pulled out a container of
Speaker:chocolate and I kept grabbing more until I saw her eyes bawled out
Speaker:because of how many I had eaten.
Speaker:But often I could resist enough until I was alone and I'd eat all that
Speaker:I brought or I had in the house.
Speaker:I know many responders who after dinner or before bed, they rummaged through
Speaker:the cupboards for crackers, chips, cookies, candy, anything, carbs or sugar.
Speaker:Even after they've had a big meal and they knew that they shouldn't be hangry.
Speaker:Or on shift, they're grabbing fast food all of the time because
Speaker:that's what's calling their.
Speaker:Has there ever been a time where you told yourself that you were not going
Speaker:to eat carbs or sugar and as the day went on, no amount of willpower
Speaker:was able to stop you from eating it?
Speaker:If so, many responders and someone who is a nutrition coach that loves
Speaker:to eat healthy, can't gather the willpower to stop eating carbs and
Speaker:sugar, then is willpower the solution?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:It can't be if a responder who is really all about health, if a nutrition
Speaker:coach can't gather the willpower to stop the carbon sugar cravings
Speaker:then is it willpower that's needed?
Speaker:There's actually many different reasons that you could crave carbs and sugar which
Speaker:is one reason why it's so tough to get rid of them as it's not this one stop fix.
Speaker:There's different reasons that this could happening today.
Speaker:In this episode, we're going to dive into two top reasons that a
Speaker:responder would crave carbs and sugar.
Speaker:The first reason that a responder craves carbs and sugar actually affects almost
Speaker:every responder because of how much you tax your stress system on the job.
Speaker:Now this may not cause as large of sugar cravings as I've described earlier, you
Speaker:may be able to resist sugar and carbs if this is the only reason that you
Speaker:are having the sugar and carb cravings.
Speaker:And because many of you can actually resist those sugar and carb cravings
Speaker:when they appear, you may not realize that a bigger problem is brewing.
Speaker:And when you miss the signs, it can spiral into you becoming hangry from blood sugar
Speaker:lows, which is not good for you when you are on a call and you need to be calm
Speaker:or you're at home with your family and you don't need to be moody or you know
Speaker:you want to be calm and happy with them.
Speaker:It can also start causing you to wake up in your sleep and also gain weight
Speaker:around your middle even if you are at a stage of being able to resist the carb
Speaker:and sugar cravings when they pop up.
Speaker:So every time that your stress system kicks in, not only are stress
Speaker:hormones released but glucose hormone is released as well in order to
Speaker:give you energy to fight or to flee.
Speaker:And your body has to clean it up over time.
Speaker:They clean up this glucose and over for every single stress that's occuring.
Speaker:This happens so often that your body starts getting
Speaker:depleted in glucose storage.
Speaker:Your brain knows as well that sugar and carbs are the fastest fuel source.
Speaker:So when you are depleted in those glucose stores, when your body tells you that
Speaker:you need more fuel, your brain says, "Hey, go grab more sugar and carbs
Speaker:cause they rush into your body fast and we will solve this problem quickly."
Speaker:So that's the start of these sugar and carb cravings.
Speaker:But here's the kicker.
Speaker:That glucose that's being sent out is not often used because the stress that caused
Speaker:the stress response may not have required fuel to actually fight or to flee.
Speaker:It may not have needed that physical exertion from you.
Speaker:And if a call is cleared before you get there, or it requires more talking
Speaker:than anything physical on your side.
Speaker:If the stress is an admin stress, so it's more of an mental, emotional stress, email
Speaker:stressors coming in, financial, personal stressors, relationship stressors then
Speaker:you often don't need fuel or the stress as you didn't physically exert yourself.
Speaker:The thing is that your body doesn't know that.
Speaker:Your body can't tell the difference between a stress that you're
Speaker:going to need the glucose for and a stress that you're not.
Speaker:So it just keeps sending out glucose for every stress response.
Speaker:Even for anxiety and panic attacks.
Speaker:Every anxiety and panic attack your body's sending out that
Speaker:glucose and then it cleans up the glucose if you didn't need it.
Speaker:Over time, your brain wonders why you keep cleaning it up and it decides
Speaker:to store some of this glucose in your belly, just in case is a backup.
Speaker:So it stores these glucose in belly fat, so it starts creating
Speaker:more and more belly flat.
Speaker:But it still decides not to use that stored glucose in your belly fat as gut
Speaker:saving it for when you really need it.
Speaker:And it continues to rely on your body's natural glucose, which is
Speaker:becoming tired and losing its ability to last as long to fuel your body.
Speaker:So these sugar and carb cravings start increasing more because your natural
Speaker:glucose storages keep decreasing more.
Speaker:And you really should have enough glucose storage for eight hours of sleep.
Speaker:But as that starts to diminish your brain, every time that your brain perceives
Speaker:that you are low in glucose, it deems that it's this an emergency state.
Speaker:It deems that you are low in fuel and this is an absolute emergency and it
Speaker:starts waking you up in your sleep.
Speaker:So the glucose you should have for eight hours of sleep only lasts
Speaker:you now six hours and you wake up.
Speaker:And then it becomes five and then four if we don't stop the problem.
Speaker:So we have some guys that we work with that get two hours at a time
Speaker:before their body is starting to wake them up because it feels it's having
Speaker:this glucose storage and it's an emergency and it needs to wake them up.
Speaker:And from what you've learned about sleep deprivation, you now
Speaker:understand how much they must be struggling to stay calm, focus, make
Speaker:critical decisions day after day.
Speaker:If we think of this kind of like a kid who's had too much candy, that sugar
Speaker:rushes into them, the glucose and this kid has to get the sugar out of their system
Speaker:somehow, so they become hyperactive.
Speaker:But once the sugar's out of their body, their body is exhausted and it needs
Speaker:more energy for fuel as it just used it.
Speaker:So the kid actually wants more sugar.
Speaker:This kid starts craving sugar so you can continue giving this child
Speaker:sugar, which becomes a vicious cycle.
Speaker:Though with a kid, you can stop feeding them the candy and stop feeding them
Speaker:that glucose source and give them healthier food options, and then
Speaker:eventually they start balancing out.
Speaker:They're not as hyperactive and they don't need that sugar again.
Speaker:They stopped that sugar rollercoaster.
Speaker:But when it's your stress system that's sending out the glucose or that candy
Speaker:over and over again, then we need to focus on controlling that switch that
Speaker:switches you out of a stress state and back into a resting state when the call
Speaker:is cleared and it's safe to do so that you stop sending out glucose as often.
Speaker:So you stop technically giving the kid candy, giving your body candy.
Speaker:The less that you are in that stress state, the more that you can switch out
Speaker:of it, the less time you're in it, the less your body is sending out glucose.
Speaker:And if you don't control that switch that turns on and off your stress
Speaker:system into your resting system as you need then you are spending more
Speaker:and more time in that stress state.
Speaker:You're sending out more glucose stores and your body starts storing more
Speaker:of that in your belly fat, and it also starts then throwing off your
Speaker:glucose hormone more, decreasing your ability to have those good sleeps.
Speaker:Waking you up after six hours, five hours, four, so you can't actually even on a
Speaker:day off sleep for eight hours straight.
Speaker:It's increasing your sleep deprivation, increasing your sugar and carb cravings.
Speaker:And from there you're opening yourself up to a slew of health issues.
Speaker:Now we dive more into this switch that turns on and off
Speaker:your stress resting state.
Speaker:We actually give you some strategies for that in episode three, How To
Speaker:Stop Snoring On Any Shift Schedule.
Speaker:And episode eight, Yelling At Your Kid Does Not Mean Something Is Wrong With You.
Speaker:So you can go back to those if you want to dive into that a little bit more.
Speaker:But let's say you control the switch that turns on and off
Speaker:your stress and resting system.
Speaker:Keeping you out of a stress state as often reducing your need for glucose.
Speaker:And you start implementing other strategies that I know we teach on
Speaker:a 911 Elite Performance Program that support your glucose hormone and we
Speaker:get it back to working optimally.
Speaker:But let's just say that you still have those sugar and carb cravings.
Speaker:You may make the mistake of thinking that you still have struggles with your
Speaker:blood sugars even if you don't have the symptoms of overtaxed glucose hormones.
Speaker:You aren't waking up mid sleep anymore and you may not be as hangry as often
Speaker:but you still crave sugars and carbs.
Speaker:They may have never gone away at all.
Speaker:You may also be experiencing fatigue, so absolute exhaustion.
Speaker:You might be experiencing bumpy white lesions.
Speaker:You might get like white on your tongue, that white coating on your
Speaker:tongue where you could have redness or pain in your mouth and throat.
Speaker:You may get urinary tracted infections, digestive issues, gas
Speaker:that can clear a room, bloating, indigestion, upset, stomach, diarrhea,
Speaker:constipation, or IBS symptoms.
Speaker:You may have skin or nail fungus.
Speaker:You may have joint pain along with these sugar cravings.
Speaker:So what do you do?
Speaker:That's when we start looking at your gut and your bacteria.
Speaker:Stress can really affect your gut.
Speaker:When you are switching continually into that stress system then your
Speaker:digestion shuts off because when you are in that fight, you don't
Speaker:need to stop and have a meal.
Speaker:So your digestive system slows down.
Speaker:And when your digestive system slows down, your stomach acid slowed down.
Speaker:Then that starts causing some bacteria from your large intestine
Speaker:to start creeping into your small intestine and things take over.
Speaker:Let's think of it like there is a war in your gut.
Speaker:And so we have two armies that are fighting.
Speaker:We have good bacteria on one side and bad bacteria on the other side.
Speaker:Now, stomach acid helps keep good bacteria alive.
Speaker:They keep the bad bacteria at bay.
Speaker:So let's say that maybe that's like a specialized weapon that the bad bacteria
Speaker:knows that it needs to stay away from.
Speaker:And that specialized weapon makes our good bacteria army stronger.
Speaker:When we're stressed and the gut slows down our digestion,
Speaker:the stomach acid slows down.
Speaker:Those defenses go down and it weakens our good bacteria and the bad bacteria
Speaker:start infiltrating the small intestine where these good bacteria were living.
Speaker:They feed off the sugar.
Speaker:So they start creeping in from the outer forces, from the large
Speaker:intestine into your small intestine.
Speaker:And the thing is that these bad bacteria, they feed off of sugar.
Speaker:The more bad bacteria that you have, the more sugar you crave.
Speaker:And as they get stronger and as they start building larger armies and
Speaker:multiplying and they start spreading throughout your body, you start craving
Speaker:more and more sugar and carbs to start fueling them and feeding them.
Speaker:There are tons of different bacteria, so it's really important for you to
Speaker:know what weapons and strategies are needed to fight each type of bacteria.
Speaker:As they all have different weaknesses that can bring them down.
Speaker:So there's different strategies required from each.
Speaker:If you use the wrong weapon to fight a bacteria army then
Speaker:they will continue to invade.
Speaker:And the symptoms of an invasion of bad bacteria is the fatigue, like we said.
Speaker:So sugar and carb cravings, also fatigue and absolute exhaustion.
Speaker:That white coating on your mouth.
Speaker:You may have bumpy lesions, redness, pain in your mouth or throat, urinary tract
Speaker:infections, digestive issues, gas that can clear a room, bloating, indigestion,
Speaker:upset stomach, diarrhea, constipation, IBS, skin or nail fungus, and joint pain.
Speaker:These are all going to increase along with those sugar and carb cravings in order to
Speaker:continue growing and feeding this army.
Speaker:And that's where we need to do the proper recon.
Speaker:It's really important for your success in this fight.
Speaker:If you don't do the proper recon then you may be using the wrong weapons, the
Speaker:wrong strategy in order to be able to take the bad bacteria down depending
Speaker:on which bad bacteria you're fighting.
Speaker:So my sugar and carb cravings were so bad because I had both
Speaker:of these struggles going on.
Speaker:I had my stress system kicking in, throwing everything off and I had tons of
Speaker:bad bacteria taking over different kinds.
Speaker:So I needed different strategies to fight different ones.
Speaker:I made the mistake of first tackling the bacteria.
Speaker:I made some headway.
Speaker:Somebody had told me all about gut stuff and I went to go and do it.
Speaker:But because my stress system was always kicking in, I would make some headway
Speaker:with killing some of this bacteria.
Speaker:But because my stress system kept kicking in, my stomach acids kept
Speaker:slowing down that my good bacteria couldn't fight back as much.
Speaker:And eventually the good bacteria would be overtaken by the bad bacteria again.
Speaker:So I'd make two steps forward, one back.
Speaker:Sometimes two back over time.
Speaker:It was frustrating.
Speaker:I learned the hard way to gain control over the stress and resting switch first
Speaker:and then to tackle my gut bacteria.
Speaker:Only then did the sugar and carb cravings disappear.
Speaker:Now, there's one mistake that we do see often that does initially curb the
Speaker:curb and sugar cravings but over time they do come back with a vengeance, and
Speaker:that's keto or intermittent fasting.
Speaker:The mistakes that people make is thinking that the great feeling when they start
Speaker:keto or intermittent and fasting is the solution that they've hit the jackpot.
Speaker:"Oh my God, I feel so much better.
Speaker:I'm not craving sugar and carbs.
Speaker:The fatigue has gone away.
Speaker:I feel amazing."
Speaker:And this absolutely does happen because you're not feeding the army anymore.
Speaker:But that doesn't mean that the bad bacteria has gone away.
Speaker:These bad bacteria are amazing at hibernating when they are low in
Speaker:their fuel source, when they're low in sugar and carbs, when
Speaker:you're not feeding them that fuel.
Speaker:But when you start back up with any carbs or any sugar, that bad
Speaker:bacteria wakes up with a vengeance and screams for carbs and sugar.
Speaker:So those carb cravings come back even worse.
Speaker:The exhaustion hits you hard and fast.
Speaker:Gut issues come roaring back.
Speaker:Everything comes coming back.
Speaker:So sometimes what they'll say is, "Hey, test out keto by going off
Speaker:of it again and see how you feel."
Speaker:And you do feel like crap but it's not because you fixed a problem.
Speaker:It's because these bad bacteria have come out of hibernation is all.
Speaker:They haven't gone away.
Speaker:Nothing's fixed.
Speaker:So keto doesn't fix the problem, it just makes it less noticeable.
Speaker:And you go from feeling good to feeling like that rundown responder again once
Speaker:you go off keto or that no carb diet.
Speaker:So let's recap what we talked about today as far as those sugar and carb cravings.
Speaker:So when Halloween is now, if you have been struggling to not dive into the candy,
Speaker:if those sugar and carbs are calling your name even outside halloween, you're
Speaker:looking through the cupboards at night looking for cookies or candy or carbs or
Speaker:needing that fast food even if you brought yourself a healthy meal, there's a reason.
Speaker:Two of the main reasons that we do see sugar and carb cravings in responders
Speaker:are because those glucose storages get messed up from being sent out with
Speaker:every stress response, which starts causing carb and sugar cravings, waking
Speaker:mid sleep, and that hangry feeling.
Speaker:Now bad bacteria overgrowth from long term stress shutting down your
Speaker:digestive system is another reason why you can crave those sugar and carbs.
Speaker:The bad bacteria feed off the sugar and carbs, so the more of
Speaker:the bad bacteria there are, the more sugar and carbs you crave.
Speaker:Now in our 911 Elite Performance Program, one of the modules that we do
Speaker:teach breaks down the steps to start controlling the switch, to turn on and
Speaker:off your stress and resting system.
Speaker:So that's one piece of the puzzle of supporting your stress system and getting
Speaker:you from that rundown responder into that resilient tactical athlete status.
Speaker:The doors to 911 Elite Performance Program did just close.
Speaker:They closed last week I only open them a couple of times a year
Speaker:so that I can really focus on coaching those in the program.
Speaker:We will open the doors again the end of January, beginning of February in 2023.
Speaker:Only those that are on our wait list though will know when the doors open so
Speaker:that we don't spam everybody on our email list that isn't ready for our program.
Speaker:So if you're not on the wait list, go to 911ShiftReady.com and click on
Speaker:the Work with Us page and you'll see our wait list, sign up for it there.
Speaker:If you would like to get started now, we do have some
Speaker:free trainings on our website.
Speaker:Also that's 911ShiftReady.com.
Speaker:Download them today and get started and I will see you in the next episode.
Speaker:I hope you have found value in today's episode.
Speaker:Don't forget to like, and share this episode so it's shown to more first
Speaker:responders and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss future episodes.
Speaker:Go to our website, 911ShiftReady.com if you would like to work with us,
Speaker:learn more about our 911 Lifestyle Program, gain access to our free
Speaker:training, join our mailing list or find our social media channels.