Why You’re Not Losing Weight (Even When You’re Doing Everything Right)- Episode 312

If you’re bloated, refluxy, exhausted after meals, stuck in cravings, or frustrated that your metabolism won’t budge—even though you’re fasting, cold plunging, tracking glucose, taking supplements, and stacking every “health hack”—this episode is your reset.

Most people focus on what they eat. Almost no one talks about how they eat. And that missing step can change digestion, metabolism, satiety, and weight loss more than another protocol ever will.

In this episode, I break down the rise in digestive issues and the physiology behind why your body may not be responding to your efforts. You’ll learn how the cephalic phase of digestion—the brain-driven stage that turns on stomach acid, enzymes, bile, motility, and nutrient absorption before the first bite—can make or break your results.

I explore:

• Why rushing, stress, and screens blunt digestion and spike cortisol
• How the same meal can create a totally different glucose response depending on your nervous system
• Why emotional safety and sensory engagement at mealtimes improve metabolism
• How cooking, smelling, and anticipating food “primes” digestion
• The simple pre-meal practice that can reduce bloating, stabilize glucose, and curb cravings in one week

If you want better digestion, smoother glucose curves, more energy after meals, and easier weight loss, this episode shows you the foundational step you’ve been skipping.

Try my simple pre-meal practice for a week and tell me what you notice. If this helps, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick rating and review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Why Digestion Is Overlooked

Health Hacks Versus True Basics

Digestive Disorder Stats And Causes

Digestion Begins Before The First Bite

Screens, Stress, And Glucose Spikes

Cooking As Digestive Priming

Why Some People’s Food Feels Heavy

Phases Of Digestion And Nervous System

Joy, Pleasure, And Better Metabolism

A Simple Pre-Meal Practice

Connect, Share, And Closing

Sandy Kruse 0:01

Hi everyone, it's me, Sandy Kruse of Sandy K Nutrition Health and Lifestyle Queen. For years now, I've been bringing to you conversations about wellness from incredible guests from all over the world. Discover a fresh take on healthy living for midlife and beyond. One that embraces balance and reason without letting only science dictate every aspect of our wellness. Join me and my guests as we explore ways that we can age gracefully with in-depth conversations about the thyroid, about hormones, and other alternative wellness options for you and your family. True Wellness nurtures a healthy body, mind, spirit, and soul. And we cover all of these essential aspects to help you live a balanced, joyful life. Be sure to follow my show, rate it, review it, and share it. Always remember, my friends, balanced living works. Hi everyone, welcome to Sandy K Nutrition Health and Lifestyle Queen. Today I'm going to talk to you about something that you rarely hear about. I'm going to talk to you about digestion. And I promise, hang in there. If you've got gut issues, if you've got all sorts of issues and you're trying all these different hacks and biohacks, you might want to hang in and listen to this podcast first, because this might be just that thing that you never thought of. Most of you who follow me, you know I'm a registered holistic nutritionist. And I'm going to get down to the basics, but I promise I'm going to make it interesting for you. Because the fact is, is that many people, okay, I'm a nutritionist. I haven't for although I sometimes forget the basics too, but many of us have forgotten the basics. And we are looking at that shiny new toy to optimize our health and our longevity, but we're not doing the basics. So I'm actually even going to build on what I talked about last week, which is cultivating more joy. And you're going to be really surprised by a lot of this. So most people don't have digestive issues, they have attention issues, they have nervous system issues, they have presence issues. And a lot of it really goes down to how we live. And I was really inspired by recording this podcast and last week's because I've been watching the series Love Story. I'm sure a lot of you are watching it. And I remember the 90s so well. I'm a Gen X woman. I was born in 1970. And so I'm 56. And I remember, like, we did not, we were so much more present. Our attention spans were longer. And so I'm going to actually talk about something as quickly as I can so that you hang in there and listen, because I'm going to give you a practice at the end that I myself have been doing. And I love how it makes me feel. So here we go. We are a culture of hacking our health, but we refuse to do the basics. Whereas before we had no choice. The basics were normal living. We will track our macros, wear glucose monitors, take our probiotics, buy supplements. We will cold plunge. We will get in that sauna. We will do the fasting, which I've talked about how that is certainly not good for everyone. We will detox, we will biohack, we will optimize, we will take peptides, we will stack protocols, we will chase that shiny new toy. But we eat standing up, we eat in the car, we eat while we're scrolling, we eat when we're stressed out, we eat while rushing, or even still, we rush to just put food in our mouth. We eat without chewing, we eat without tasting, and we eat without presence. Those are facts. We're trying to build a mansion on a cracked foundation. You see what I'm saying? About all of those different hacks. It's like, well, wait a second, we need to get to the basics first. So I will say we're trying to out-supplement and out-biohack and out-optimize our way out of basic just regulation, which will help us in a number of different ways. And I'm going to point that out and I'm going to talk about that. So the basics are really the prerequisite. Remember back in in university, you had to have your prerequisites before you could take certain courses. That's exactly what I'm going to talk about today. Okay. And I'm going to give you some fun practices to get back to those 90s, right? So I'm going to talk about why this matters first because the numbers are really staggering. I'm going to look at my research. You know, I always like to give a little bit of science and a little bit of soul. That's who I am. So digestive disorders have exploded in the last 20 or so years. Here's some real stats. The NIH estimates that 60 to 70 million Americans now have a diagnosable digestive disorder, which is one in five adults. That is crazy. A 2021 global study, this was the Lancet, found that 40% of the world's population now experiences functional GI symptoms. IBS has doubled since the 1990s, now affecting 10 to 15% of adults. GERD has increased by 50% in two decades. And yes, of course, I'm not going to say that this isn't a multifactorial reason. Our food, our food sources, how we eat, how we eat, which is what I'm going to talk about. Um, those are major factors. Also, you know, just you know, garbage in, garbage out. That's just the way it goes. So, of course, many people eat ultra-processed foods. I think we did that back in the 90s too, maybe not as much, but we did. It's just that, you know, there's more, maybe more additives, more pesticides, GMOs. GMOs were not a thing in the 90s, and low fiber diets. But here's the part that almost nobody ever talks about. How we eat has changed, I'm gonna argue, maybe even more dramatically than the food sources. Because, like I said, like back in the 70s and 80s, we did have processed foods. Maybe the additives weren't as many, but and you know, GM GMOs and maybe pesticides. However, how we eat has changed massively, and the research shows that it matters just as much as the food that we eat. Before the 2000s, people sat at tables, meals were social, phones didn't exist, and eating was a single task activity. Now, 50 to 70 percent of meals are eaten with a screen. Many meals are eaten in cars at desks or standing. Chewing has decreased by 30 to 40 percent, and chewing is a like it's how digestion begins, which I'll get into. The fact of uh that's that phase, it's called the cephalic, cephalic phase, and it's bypassed entirely. So that's the phase where you just like look at your food and the salivary glands start to work, and your digestive juices start to work. You haven't even eaten yet. People don't realize that digestion starts here, and then stress levels are higher than ever. And we didn't just change our food, but we've changed our entire relationship with eating, and our digestive systems are collapsing under the weight of that shift. So you can eat the cleanest food in the world, but if you eat it in a dysregulated, distracted state, your body cannot digest it properly. Now let's get into the physiology. And you know, I had uh, I think it was lunch with my parents last week, and I sat in their kitchen and there were no TVs, no phones. We sat, we talked, and I'm like, all right, this is it. Like they still do this. My parents are going to be 89 and 80 this year. So in nutrition school, we learned something foundational. This is that phase I was talking about. Digestion starts in your brain, not in your stomach. So that's a really important thing where you just need to grasp that. It starts with the brain because you're seeing your food, or you're even before that preparing your food, which I am going to get into that as well. So this is called the cephalic phase or cephalic phase of digestion, and it's one of the most researched digestive phenomena. This is real research, you guys. So this is in the Journal of Nutrition, psychological reviews, and the vagal control of gastric function, Pavlov's Nobel Prize, that's winning research. So up to 20 to 30 percent of digestive secretions are triggered before that first bite. This includes your hydrochloric acid, the acid in your stomach, pepsinogen, pancreatic enzymes, and bile acids. So these are all important to break down your food. All of that begins before you even take your first bite. So when you pause before a meal, prayer, gratitude, intention, take a deep breath, you're not even being spiritual. You're actually being biological. And that used to be the norm before. So you're turning on your stomach acid, digestive enzymes, bioflow, gut motility, nutrient absorption pathways just by that pause. This is why people who rush into meals or eat while they're stressed experience bloating, reflux, heaviness, constipation, uh, diarrhea, cravings, fatigue after eating, gas, their body bypassed that entire cephalic phase. Let's get into what scrolling does while you're eating. Because this is a big thing. So your iPhone is not neutral, and your laptop is not neutral. Every single notification, every headline, every comparison, every email is a micro stress. Okay, we have numerous micro stresses, but I'm gonna give you a really good example after. So distracted eating reduces chewing and it increases the intake of the food. This is um from appetite. There's some real research here. British Journal of Nutrition screens reduce satiety. You know, if you feel like you have that bottomless pit, that was me. I'm like, oh my god, I'm bypassing something I learned in college. And and then I'm like, something just clued in with me saying, Oh my gosh, this is it, Sandy. You got to talk about this. So the Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology says that that stress reduces your stomach acid. And then also gastroenterology clinics, cortisol disrupts your digestion. So remember, I was saying, like all those little micro stresses, you're not focusing on the food. Your body is dealing with the stress constantly that you're getting in with your devices. Cortisol, so cortisol, that's the stress hormone, it spikes your glucose as well. And then stress reduces that insulin sensitivity, which is often reduced as we age anyway. And everyone's like, oh my god, my glucose is in, you know, whatever trouble. But they're but they're scrolling. Listen, I I'm I'm learning, I'm not learning, I'm relearning as well with you. So if you're scrolling while eating, your body is not digesting, digesting, it is surviving. Your glucose monitor isn't just measuring your food, it's measuring your nervous system. And you could eat the exact same meal in two different states and get two completely different glucose curves, and it's not about the carbs, it's about the chaos. And you don't often hear these glucose experts talk about this. I'm sure they do, I'm sure they know about it, but you know, the fact of the matter is that this is real research. And, you know, I'm gonna give you a little example here. So if you're in the wild, I'm gonna talk about animals. We are humans, I know, but I'm gonna talk about animals. When they are in a really stressed out state, they cannot stop to, you know, have a Cheeto. You know what I'm saying? When they're stressed out, they deal with the stress and the stress only. They're not thinking about eating, they're not eating, they're not doing anything but dealing with the stress. And we as humans, although granted, we are humans, we're trying to do it all, but our bodies are telling us that we cannot. Okay. And the research supports that. Let's talk about cooking. Cooking as somatic, you know, everyone's talking about somatic therapy, cooking as somatic priming for the meal. This is why I'm always like, People, if you can, not if you can, you can cook every day. You can cook simple meals if you're a really busy individual, but make it a priority. So cooking is not just a chore, it's somatic priming. So olfactory stimulation increases digestive secretions. And then there's the priming, which increases the enzyme output. So this is actual real research here. So when you cook, you smell the food, you see the food, you touch the food, you taste as you go, and you anticipate the meal. And all of that activates that cephalic phase. This is why food you cook yourself often will sit better. Your body trusts what you prepare. And then, in addition to that, I don't know if you've noticed, but whenever you cook the meal, if you're really present, no phones, no laptop, you're sitting there in conversation, you often won't eat as much as if you know you go and grab a McDonald's meal. Why you shouldn't eat everyone's food? You know, I'm always gonna talk about you know, spirit and soul. So this is more about neurosception and interoception. So a lot of a lot of women feel this but rarely articulate it. But I'm gonna articulate it. I talked about that with the lion, stressed out, and then there's interoception and emotional context. So if someone dislikes you, envies you, judges you, drains you, stresses you, you don't feel comfortable with them, but you just kind of you're that go-along person, your body does not feel safe receiving from them, and your digestion will not be optimal. And this is why you can eat the same meal cooked by somebody who loves you and it feels nourishing, and then you know, maybe you're at somebody's house and that maybe they're jealous of you, or you know, you have that kind of a 10, more of a 10. Uh, I'm gonna say it's not a very it's a tense relationship, and then that food can feel heavy, so your body's not confused, your body's really wise. I say that all the time. Our bodies always know. I don't eat everyone's food because not everyone has good energy towards me, and my body can feel that. Eating is receiving, and you cannot receive from everyone. I had to put that in there because you you hear about this, but there's some there's some, I don't know how concrete the research is, but it's there. So let's talk about the different phases. I just want to get a little bit more detailed with that. So there's the cephalic phase, the brain anticipates the food. I've talked about that, the oral phase, which is chewing, and the salivary enzymes. You've got the enzymes in your saliva, the gastric phase, that's the stomach acid and the pepsin, the intestinal phase, which is the pancreatic enzymes and the bile, then there's the large intestine fermentation and elimination, and then you overlay the nervous system. So then when you're in the parasympathetic state, your digestion is on. When you're in the sympathetic state, your digestion is off. Back to that whole lion. Eating distracted keeps you in that sympathetic state. So if you're eating in fight or flight all the time, you're trying to dig to digest while you have the brakes on. So stress in the glycemic response is really important. This research is from Diabetes Care JCEM Psychoneuroendocronology, and it shows that stress increases glucose. Many of us already know this. Stress reduces insulin sensitivity, stress increases post-meal glucose spikes. So before you go and cut the carbs and cut all these things out of your diet, I want you to sit down before you eat your meal and think what state am I in right now as I'm about to eat this meal? Because your glucose monitor is reading your nervous system, not just your macros. So joy, joy, pleasure, and digestion. This is this is the one piece. That kind of connects to last week's episode. Pleasure increases the vagal tone, it improves digestion, it increases nutrient absorption, it reduces cravings, and it stabilizes the glucose. So joy is not dessert. Joy is part of the meal. Joy is metabolic. And when you enjoy your food, parasympathetic tone increases, digestion improves, satisfaction increases, cravings decrease, glucose stabilizes, and joy literally changes how your body processes a meal. So that was a nice short and sweet podcast. And now I'm going to give you my practice. I want you to try this. Okay. I want you to first of all, do not preach to anyone else at your table. Because I realized that the second I try and say, put your phones down to everybody in my house, guess what happens? My stress goes up because nobody listens. I have adults in my house. I can't tell them what to do. It's different if you have younger children. You can say, you know, put the phones away. You can have these rules. However, with all adults, all it's going to do is cause stress. So I say nothing. But I put my phone off the table and I put it on. Do not disturb. Not just the silence so that you can hear the buzzing. Do not disturb. My laptop is closed and away. I, even if the TV's on, I don't sit and watch TV ever while I eat. Never have. And what I want you to do is before you eat, I don't care if you're religious or not religious, say, set an intention, say a prayer, do whatever feels good, take a few deep breaths, be thankful and grateful for the food that you're about to eat. And you can say this out loud, you can keep this internal. Be grateful, but also be thankful in advance that this food is going to nourish yourselves. It's going to help you age better. It's going to help your body do what you need your body to do. So do that. Pause, breathe, then eat, and watch this. Because this is what I've noticed my doing this for about a week is that because I have purposely put my phone away, everybody at my table were not looking at their phone because I was conversing with them. And so my influence was very positive on the conversations at the table and everyone else who was there. And if someone didn't choose to talk, you know what I do? I look outside the window. I find it very pleasing. I look at the birds, whatever. And then when I'm done eating, I kind of pause for a second to see how I feel. Am I satiated? Am I full? And and kind of quietly say thank you for that meal. And that's that. I would love for you to try this, and I would love to hear how this works for you. And by the way, you can reach me anytime, Sandy at sandyknutrition.ca. I've been here for a long time, over six years and over 1.4 million downloads. You can follow me anywhere on any podcast platform on my social media, Sandy Knutrition everywhere. And also, if you could share this with a friend, that would be very useful. And rate and review. And I thank you, thank you, thank you so much for being here. Have a great week. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to share it with someone you know might benefit. And always remember when you rate, review, subscribe, you help to support my content and help me to keep going and bring these conversations to you each and every week. Join me next week for a new topic, new guest, new exciting conversations to help you live your best life.