What is Biofeedback?: Part Two

Everyone deserves to feel their best — mentally, physically and emotionally. 

This won’t happen if you aren’t listening to and acting on your biofeedback. It’s pertinent for your day-to-day life as well as longevity. Not only do you have to want this for yourself, but you have to choose to make the appropriate changes.

Last week’s article addressed some of the areas in which we receive biofeedback. The following post explores others: blood glucose, hunger levels, energy levels and menstruation. Let’s get into it. 

Blood Glucose

Your blood glucose is a good indicator of how well (or not well) your stomach is processing food. Keeping your blood glucose as low as possible is ideal. If consistently high, it could be a sign of a stress response.

When stress is high, cortisol is high. The body will start to produce more and more insulin to combat this. Insulin then needs something to cling to so it can mobilize.

Glucose is insulin’s partner. So when one’s blood sugar is high, the body is producing more glucose. Prolonged, high amounts of glucose can lead to heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

Proactively handling stress is a more healthy plan than to rely on the body to itself. 

Pay attention to how your body processes certain foods. How do you feel 90 minutes after a meal? Do you feel calm or jittery? How’s your mental clarity? What’s your training output like? 

These are all things to consider. 

Ways to balance blood sugar include: eating at least 30 grams of protein at breakfast, eating more fiber, drinking enough water and prioritizing sleep.

Hunger Levels

Reflect on your days and weeks. Are you always hungry? Maybe you never are. 

Whether you’ve ever considered it or not, this is feedback. Take a moment to assess or make a plan to be more attentive. The first step in any process is awareness.

If you are hungry + tired, groggy and struggle with physical activity, you probably need to eat more food. You’re body is signaling it needs fuel. More protein and whole foods will provide just that along with satiety.

If you’re never hungry, you could be stuck in fight or flight mode. Activities that manage stress and engage the parasympathetic nervous system can help restore hunger levels. These are things like deep breathing, dancing and yoga. 

You can always make a change to improve how you feel. 

Energy Levels

Energy is very similar to hunger levels. Do you typically have high or low energy? There are similar questions to ask yourself here – Are you:

• In a deficit or a surplus?

• Optimizing your diet?

• Prioritizing sleep?

• Managing stress?

• Utilizing rest days and recovery? 

When you aren’t taking care of yourself and these aspects, your energy will reflect that. Eating foods that make you feel sluggish, overextending yourself and sleeping five hours a night will leave you struggling. More to come on the topic of energy (hint, hint: look out for next week’s post).

Menstruation 

A woman’s menstrual cycle can provide a huge glimpse into what’s happening with their reproductive health. 

Things to note and questions to ask here are:

• Do you have a monthly period? Is it a regular length?

• How is your libido?

• Do you have PMS symptoms? What are they? What’s the intensity?

It is not normal to have debilitating PMS symptoms. A change in lifestyle and diet can help diminish them. Regulating hormones and engaging your parasympathetic nervous system on a regular basis can do wonders.

Takeaways

There are so so many ways that the body shares feedback. The areas listed here and in part one are not an exclusive list. The point was to bring awareness to some of the ways the body speaks to you. 

Consider what caught your interest. Maybe you experiment with going to bed earlier or drinking more water to see what changes for you. Your constant fatigue may disappear or you might start to see physical changes. 

Once a change becomes a habit, implement another. Take it slow. You don’t have to change everything at once.