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Lesson #4: Hormonal Reset #3 – Leptin

HORMONAL RESET - LEPTIN

LEPTIN reset 

The Leptin reset…
Leptin is in charge of your hunger. 
This reset is all about limiting fructose intake. 
The food you ingest will determine whether Leptin will give the signal telling your body that you are satisfied. 
 
Leptin is the gatekeeper of your fat. Made in your fat cells, leptin regulates your feeling of satiety and your lean body mass. When you eat, leptin is produced in and released from your fat cells and then travels in the blood to your brain, where under normal circumstances it tells your hypothalamus (the part of your brain in charge of appetite) that you’re full and can stop eating. But when your metabolism is broken and leptin isn’t working properly, the wires between the gut and the brain are crossed. If you are overweight, rather than responding to higher levels of leptin by having your brain say “Enough,” you find that the feeling of satiety doesn’t happen. The best way to bring your leptin under control, so that it regulates appetite and fat storage the way nature intended, is to cut back on fructose and eat more clean proteins—and the benefit is that you burn more fat and feel full when consuming appropriate food quantities.
 
Now that the first 2 hormonal resets of going meatless and sugar free are complete, you’re ready for number 3 which you will restrict your use of fructose—the form of sugar that gives fruits, honey, sports drinks, and most sodas their sweet taste. 
The good news is that when you put these three resets together, you’ve got the winning combination to get the three most important metabolic hormones activated to support you: estrogen, insulin, and leptin.
 
Why limit fructose? When you eat small amounts of fructose and your blood sugar is normal, you’ll be ok. But if you eat too much, your liver can’t process the fructose fast enough for the body to use it as fuel so instead, your body starts converting the fructose into fats, sending them off into the bloodstream as triglycerides, and depositing them as fat in the liver and elsewhere in your body. Other issues with fructose overload include insulin resistance, leptin resistance, and cognitive decline.
 
Take this self-assessment to see if you might be eating too much fructose and having a problem with leptin, an important hormone that regulates your body fat. Do you have or have you experienced in the past six months . . .
 
    – A strong, sometimes insatiable appetite?
 
    – Binge eating, especially after five P.M.? Eating after seven P.M. or within three hours of going to bed?
 
    – A tendency to skip breakfast or wait an hour or longer after rising in the morning to eat?
 
    – A love of drinking fruit juices or sodas, more than one serving per day?
 
– Excess weight or obesity 
 
    – Menopausal weight gain, especially at your waist?
 
    – Increased fat in the skin covering your triceps muscles, sometimes known as “tuck shop arms”?
 
 – Profuse sweating patterns compared with ten or twenty years ago?
 
 – Fatigue after exercise and difficulty recovering completely?
 
    – Joint problems—painful joints, joint destruction, bursitis, arthritis—or your doctor has suggested knee, hip, or shoulder surgery?
 
If you have 4 or more of these symptoms it is more than likely you are experiencing Leptin resistance. 
 
 
Here’s a major problem as I see it: vegetables are the best medicine when it comes to healing hormone imbalances that cause lowered metabolic function. 
When experts tell individuals to eat seven to nine servings of fresh fruits and vegetables each day, the main source people will choose is eating more fruit—and feel frustrated why they cannot lose any weight.
 
SOME FRUITLESS RULES TO STICK BY. DO THESE EACH DAY FOE THE NEXT WEEK. 
– LONGER IF YOU PREFER. 
 
  To get leptin back working favourably for you, follow these rules:
 
  1.  Start your day with protein. Eat protein within thirty minutes of waking up, which reduces cravings for fructose and other sugars. Over the course of the day, consume the amount of protein you require (according to your nutritional guide)
 
  2.  Eat your 250gm of low-fructose veggies. Veggies contain lots of fiber and good antioxidants but can also contain fructose. Consume 250gm of vegetables per day, or about two cups of vegetables at lunch and at dinner. 
Choose vegetables that contain less than 1 gram of fructose per 200-calorie serving, such as artichokes, sauerkraut, spinach, alfalfa sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and peas to name a few. 
Because of the fiber content, vegetables that contain less than 5 grams of fructose (including sweet potatoes, zucchini, broccoli, squash, and carrots) can also be consumed, as long as you keep your total fructose each day to less than 20 grams.
 
  3.  Forgo alcohol. Your favorite alcohol mix is likely loaded with fructose. Then there’s the liver issue. With leptin and the liver so delicately entwined, I implore you to be kind to your liver by eliminating alcohol till your body has been reset. This will ensure you achieve the result you want. 
 
4. Eat good fats. Most people, in order to heal their metabolism, need more healthy fat in their diet for optimal health. Good sources include coconut and coconut oil, avocados, olives, nuts, and fish oil
 
5. Avoid nightshade fruits and vegetables. Some people respond to nightshade fruits and vegetables with increased inflammation. Nightshades contain a chemical named solanine, which may interfere with enzymes in your muscles, leading to pain and stiffness, and cause digestive problems For the week, remove all nightshades, including potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers.
 
Are you taking your fish oil? One of the best remedy’s for Insulin and Leptin resistance is taking a dose of omega 3 each day (1-1.6gm of DHA derived from fish oil)
 
Remember, with each reset, we get closer to figuring out which hormones are standing in the way between you and effortless weight loss. Please pay attention to the messages from your body, and record them in your journal. The details will later prove invaluable as you lose body fat and keep it off.