A simple hack to get away with sugar for Halloween
If you are anything like me, then you have a sweet tooth that needs attention every so often. I tend to get a little out of hand when it comes to indulging around the holidays, halloween but especially Christmas. Below is a simple hack you can do to get away with eating a little bit of sugar when you know you shouldn’t. Skip to the last paragraph to skip all of the science stuff about what sugar does to increase body fat.
How does sugar make us fat
Sugar is horrible for our waist line when consumed in excess. I think everyone should know this by now, but how exactly does sugar do this? Sugar equals glucose in the body, and your muscles and liver store the glucose to be used throughout the day. If your glucose levels are depleted and you eat carbohydrates or sugar then the muscle and liver store it to be used for some other time. However, if your glucose stores are already full in your muscles and liver then the carbohydrates or sugar gets stored as body fat, to be used as energy some other time. Humans are amazing at storing energy, thankfully and unfortunately. In order to store the sugar in the muscles, liver and as fat we need a hormone called insulin. Insulin levels increase in the bloodstream when blood sugar levels increase, it’s like a little Roomba in our bloodstream cleaning up sugar. However, we do not always need insulin to clean up sugar in the bloodstream, during exercise your muscles are craving for sugar to be used as energy. So during exercise your body utilizes sugar that is in your bloodstream and does not need insulin to take it there. The muscles kind of just suck it up and use it to power you through your bout of exercise, pretty cool huh!!! Exercise seems like a simple fix for everything.
The Simple Hack
Now that you know how sugar works in the body, you can use the information to be able to get away with eating some extra candy. All you have to do is exercise!!! Wow, is it really that simple...yep lol. If you really want to eat some candy corn (love these for some reason), bust out a set of 50 reverse lunges. When you walk across the room to sneak some of your kids halloween candy, don’t just walk, do walking lunges or high knees to get there. Not only will the simple short duration exercise help utilize the sugar that enters your bloodstream but it will also not make you SO stressed about eating it! I feel that sometimes, we are way too hard on ourselves, to the point that we become obsessed and stressed about everything we put in our mouths. Doing a set of 30 burpees then going ham on some candy is exactly what I need to feel better about indulging in some candy. The next time you reach for some Halloween candy or Christmas cookies, I hope you think of this article and knock out a set of 50 squats or lunges! Have a great one and have a happy Halloween!!!