How pancakes can lead to a settled spirit

I've been trying to fight off the urge to blog about pancakes, but it won't go away so here goes! If this helps just one of you, it will have been worth it! 

In recent months I've had some episodes of plummeting blood sugar levels, especially in the morning about an hour after breakfast. When this happens I get sweaty, light headed and very panicky. When my blood sugar dips like this, I have anything but a settled spirit!

Thankfully, I discovered that this is something I can fix.

Along with asking my doctor what to do to prevent this, I also told God, "Please show me how to eat."

A couple of weeks later, I found a book from my library called Trim Healthy Mama. I let it sit on the counter for two weeks before I opened it. 

What kind of lifestyle changes will these authors be asking of me?

My lazy flesh is resistant to change. 

It's hard, but in this case, my blood sugar dips and my weight were telling me that some kind of change was necessary. 

I opened the book. From the first page I liked these gals. Real life, average moms living busy lives with busy families. And yet, finding the time to eat well.

The big thing, they said, is to eat foods that don't cause your body to have insulin spikes, which happens when you eat refined sugar. This definitely caught my attention because of my low blood sugar episodes. I already knew that after a blood sugar spike, comes the crash. And then the yuck!

The authors advocate eating good protein sources, good fats and good carbohydrates in moderation. (not really new information here, but it hit me as if for the first time. When the student is ready, the teacher appears!)

For breakfast, I had been eating a fluffy English muffin, with cheese on one half and jam on the other. So good!

But, about an hour afterwards, I felt gross. Light headed, shaky, anxious. The muffin was giving me a blood sugar spike and then a crash. Not good.

Enter, Trim Healthy Pancakes, my new miracle breakfast! (Check out the recipe to these and more low sugar breakfasts here on Pinterest.)

I now have these high protein, low carb pancakes every morning. They feel decadent and like cheating, except that I feel so much better and I'm losing a little weight because of this small switch. (and trying to cut refined sugar out the rest of the day.)

I am feeling much more settled in body and spirit in the mornings because with this added protein and no refined sugar, I'm not having that blood sugar dip an hour after I eat.

Remember, we are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body. All of these parts are integrated to make up the totality of us.

What we put into our bodies affects our souls and spirits. It's taken me a long time to learn this!

If you experience blood sugar highs and lows like I did, take a look at what you are eating and a simple change may be all that's needed. 

Maybe more protein and less sugar is what your body needs to start out the day.

Whatever it might be that your body needs, it's probably telling you in subtle, or not so subtle ways. 

My body was not being subtle in telling me I needed less refined sugar and more protein!

This seems too simplistic, but I've learned that by keeping my blood sugar levels more even throughout the day, it leads to a much desired settled body, soul and spirit.

Thanks for joining me this month with the series How to Have a Settled Spirit. I know it's just skimming the surface, but I hope you've found some encouragement here.

This is the final post in a series called How to Have a Settled Spirit. Here are Parts One, Two and Three!

Blessings to you!

~Anne

Linking up today with Holley Gerth for Coffee for Your Heart and Beth for Three Word Wednesday.