November 11, 2025 • 32 mins
I'm Bridget Walton, a Women's Hormone Coach helping ambitious women ages 25-40 naturally restore hormone balance, fix irregular periods, feel confident in their fertility, and resolve gut health issues without restrictive dieting.
If you struggle with missing periods, PCOS symptoms, bloating, or unpredictable cycles, this women's health podcast will teach you how to support your hormones through strategic nutrition and lifestyle changes that actually fit your busy life.
On I'm Hormonal, you'll discover natural solutions for period problems, learn how gut health impacts your hormones, and get practical hormone balance tips from a functional nutrition perspective - no more guessing what your body needs.
👉 Get Kim's free Restaurant Playbook
👉 Connect with her @nutritionwithkim
👉 Listen to the Corporate Wellness Edit Podcast (Apple)
👉 Listen to the Corporate Wellness Edit Podcast (Spotify)
Today we talk about weight loss with Certified Nutrition Coach, Kim Ritter. She shares insights about how the corporate women she works with see results without overhauling their lives. Hormones are one part of the weight loss equation, and the other part is about habits, goal setting, and knowing where to start--all of which we get into in this episode.
👉 Feel like you've tried everything for your hormones? Grab my free guide at imhormonal.com/guide
👉 Have some questions? Not sure if we're a good fit yet? Book a free 15-minute chat at imhormonal.com/start
👉 DM us on Instagram @im_hormonal - we want to hear your biggest takeaway
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
You already know that what is going on with your
hormones is going to be havingan impact on your weight, weight
loss, weight retention.
That might even be why you cameto listen to I'm Hormonal in the
first place.
And we normally cover this sideof the conversation from the
perspective of hormone balance,but there's a whole other side
of the coin to cover, which iswhy on today's episode of I'm
(00:23):
Hormonal, you're going to hear aconversation between myself and
Kim Ritter, who is a certifiednutrition coach, to talk about
just this weight loss.
Welcome to the I'm HormonalPodcast.
My name is Bridget Walton.
I'm a women's hormone coachhelping busy, ambitious women
through personalized coachingand science-fact solutions.
Whether you are working with meone-on-one or you're listening
(00:45):
here, my goal is the same tohelp you stop guessing about
your hormone health and startseeing real progress.
So let's get into it.
Alrighty.
Thank you so much for listening.
If you have just found thepodcast for the first time, I
want to say a special welcomeand shout out to you.
I'm so glad that you found me.
(01:07):
Thank you to all of you who havealready subscribed and rated or
reviewed the podcast.
And a special thank you to thoseof you who have shared it with a
friend.
As I mentioned a moment ago,you're going to hear a
conversation today that I hadwith Kim.
I will introduce her in just asecond.
But we know that, well, hormonesare going to influence how your
(01:30):
body retains weight or losesweight.
You already know that what'sgoing on with your stress or
your blood sugar will have a biginfluence.
But what if you're not so surewhat's going on?
Or what if you want to justlearn about how you can look at
this equation from the otherside?
Then this episode is for you, myfriend.
(01:52):
So Kim is a certified nutritioncoach.
She's also a corporate wellnessexpert and the founder of Work
Life Thrive, which is a programthat's designed to help
high-achieving corporate womenlose weight, uh build better
habits, feel more energized intheir everyday lives, but
without having to give up all ofthe parts of their life that
(02:13):
they love, which might includelike wine or take out or other
social things, right?
Kim spent a lot of time incorporate before switching over
and launching her coachingbusiness.
And so she also has thatexperience working in really
high pressure sales roles thatleave you feeling a little bit
(02:35):
burnt out or exhausted or stuckin this all or nothing kind of
health cycle.
Does that sound familiar at all?
She's a former marathon runner.
Um, she used to really rely onlike nonstop cardio, um, but
that wasn't really sustainable.
So what she focuses on now arethe mindset shifts, the
(02:56):
nutrition changes, the habitsthat will work for your real
life.
Now, she helps otherhigh-performing women to do just
the same thing, especially forthose of you who might feel like
your job is your entirepersonality and are tired of
feeling like you have to choosebetween your career and your
health.
(03:16):
If you've listened to thepodcast for a little bit, you
know that my background has somegreat overlap with Kim's.
I also used to work in corporatesales and was on the go.
And that will do a bamboozle toyour health.
So we will get started with theconversation here in just a
second.
Make sure that you connect withKim by checking out the links in
(03:37):
the show notes or checking outher podcast, which is called the
Corporate Wellness Edit Podcaston Apple or Spotify.
So here we go.
I will see you on the otherside.
Enjoy.
You are the perfect person tohave this conversation with
about weight loss and weightretention weight management,
because of course, on thepodcast here I talk about weight
(03:58):
retention as it relates tohormones, but there's still this
like whole other equation on theother side of the conversation
for hormones.
So I'm really excited to haveyou here.
And thanks for being on I'mhormonal.
SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
I'm so excited to be here.
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01 (04:12):
Yeah.
Would you go ahead and introduceyourself for any listeners who
are just meeting you for thefirst time?
SPEAKER_00 (04:19):
Yes.
Okay.
Where to begin?
My name is Kim Ritter.
I am a women's nutrition andhealth coach.
I live in the Washington, DCarea with my husband and my dog.
And before I got into healthcoaching, maybe like a lot of
you, I was in the corporateworld.
(04:41):
Um, I worked in tech sales.
My last role before Itransitioned into full-time
health coaching was at AmazonWeb Services.
So I definitely lived that likehustle culture, wake up, look at
my phone, go to work, skipmeals, just everything that we
(05:02):
now preach to not do.
But I kind of got to a point inmy own journey where I was just
like, I don't want to feel thisway anymore.
I felt terrible.
I did gain a lot of weight.
I had like the corporate 20, iswhat I called it.
Just like went from being acollege athlete to sitting at a
desk for eight hours a day andcommuting.
(05:22):
So about a year before mywedding, that was really my, my
kind of like, this needs to stopmoment.
And I learned about nutritionfor the first time in my life
and started actually like eatingto fuel my body, eating more
actually, even though I waslosing weight, I was actually
eating more, or that's a wholeseparate thing.
(05:45):
Maybe I wasn't, but we, youknow, I it it seemed as though I
was eating more.
Yeah.
Um, definitely eating better anduh, you know, lifting weights
and and all the things.
So I from like my heaviestweight to my current weight,
I've maintained a 30-poundweight loss and did it in such a
healthy way.
And that's really what inspiredme to get into helping other
(06:07):
corporate women with weight lossbecause I really truly thought
my whole life that I had to eatas little as possible, work out
like crazy, and doing it in away, losing weight in a way that
was so healthy and sustainableand sustainable in that I've
kept the weight off for allthese years.
I was like, I have to teach thisto other people because it was
just so transformative for me.
SPEAKER_01 (06:29):
I lived a similar corporate life for a handful of
years.
I definitely know what you meanwhen it's like, okay, we're
going from meeting to meeting.
Or I don't know if you traveledfor work a lot.
Maybe we can talk about some ofthose nuances and like being out
of your normal routine and yournormal bubble and like, where do
I eat?
What do I go to?
So I'm sure we'll get into allof that.
But I also want to like co-signwhat you said about eating more
(06:50):
or like needing to eat more orthinking that we just need to
eat less because yeah,hopefully, I mean, we're doing
our best to rewrite themessaging around that.
What is it like for women incorporate that makes it seem so
difficult to lose weight or justlike have a firm grasp on what's
(07:10):
happening and supporting ourhealth?
SPEAKER_00 (07:14):
Yeah, it's such a good question.
And it's a conversation I havewith clients all the time.
Like I work with a lot of women,and I know you do too, who are
doing an amazing job in theircareer.
They're highly successful.
They were probably an A plusstudent.
They've always been a highachiever, and working hard is
not the problem.
(07:34):
And so I think that while all ofthose are great qualities, they
don't necessarily transitionwell into health and wellness.
It's impossible to be perfectall the time.
You're gonna go on a work tripand you're gonna be at a client
dinner, and you're gonnaprobably just have to order
something on the menu and doyour best.
(07:55):
And I find that a lot of women,they beat themselves up so much,
like that the perfectionism thathas helped them excel in their
career is actually the thingthat is detrimental on their
weight loss journey because ifthey can't be perfect, they're
like, I'm failing.
And the reality is like youreally only need to be like 80%
(08:19):
compliant.
You know, I've I very muchembody like the healthy-ish
lifestyle where I eat healthymost of the time, but am I gonna
go out for Mexican food tomorrownight?
Yes, I am, and I'm gonna enjoyit.
And uh and I'm not gonna feelguilty or beat myself up about
it, but I I definitely used to.
Um, and I know that a lot ofother high achieving women do
(08:42):
that, where they they're theyalmost like self-sabotage if
they can't be perfect, eventhough it's we're holding
ourselves to an impossiblestandard.
SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
Yeah, I know the feeling of being like, cool, I'm
doing all the things that I needto this week.
This is perfect.
But then if you fall off trackfor one day, it's like, I'll
screw it.
We may as well go big if we'regonna like go outside of the
norms.
What would you recommend towomen who have that
perfectionist mindset?
Like, how do you talk about thatwith your clients?
(09:11):
And what do you see that worksreally well for them to
transition from thatperfectionist mindset to
something that like betterserves them?
SPEAKER_00 (09:19):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
I think something that's reallybeen helpful for a lot of the
women that I work with is justgetting in the habit of looking
at your week as a whole andlooking at your weekly averages
instead of that day-to-day.
So, for example, like a bigmetric that I use in my coaching
(09:40):
is daily steps.
So let's say you have a daywhere for whatever reason, like
your steps were kind of low thatday.
You were pretty sedentary, youwere busy at work instead of
feeling like you failed andthen, you know, having that all
or nothing mindset and saying,like, screw it, I might as well
just start over Monday.
If you just look at your weeklyaverage, like, okay, I was a
(10:02):
little bit low on steps today,but I'm gonna be fine tomorrow.
And then again, like it's theaverage.
So it doesn't really matter ifyou have a day where your
calories aren't great or youmissed a workout, like you can
just hop right back in the nextday.
So instead of having that all ornothing mentality, you're just
kind of looking at your week asa whole.
(10:23):
And if you can check a couple ofthe boxes, it's like having that
1% better mindset.
Like I don't need to be perfect.
I just need to be like onepercent better.
And that is usually good enough.
SPEAKER_01 (10:34):
I love the 1% better mindset.
Also, just the like taking astep back, zooming out to see
what's going on, what's like thereality of it outside of this
micro situation.
And something that I talk abouttoo, or that I talk about with
my clients, is thinking aboutwhat is the overall goal, right?
So, same, same, you know,different way to say the same
(10:54):
thing, but who is the personthat you want to become?
Like, what are the things thatshe does or needs to do?
Because reframing, you know, thesame task or the same goal, but
reframing it through thisdifferent lens can make it quite
a bit easier to achieve.
SPEAKER_00 (11:11):
Totally 100% agree.
SPEAKER_01 (11:13):
Are there specifics that you do like to focus on
when you work with clients orwhere do you kind of start?
And actually, let me even setthe context a little bit more
for this.
So if there's a listener who islike, yeah, I think that my
inability to lose weight likemight be based in hormone
imbalance, it might not.
I don't know.
(11:33):
I'm trying to troubleshoot, butlike, what are good practices
that she can put in place thatcan serve her like now and you
know, throughout the rest of herher kind of life.
So, well, that sounded dramatic,but you know what I mean.
What are the what are someplaces to start?
And what are the other thingsthat people miss a lot of the
time that we should callattention to?
SPEAKER_00 (11:53):
Yeah, well, not dramatic at all because these
kinds of transformations I thinkcan be life-changing.
So like I said, my coaching isvery data-driven.
Um, one thing that I always havenew clients do is just spend one
week tracking their food.
Um, I do not believe that weneed to be obsessed with
(12:16):
tracking our food forever.
Um, but the data doesn't lie.
And so a lot of the time, justseven days of tracking our food
can give us so much information.
So, like, for example, when Idid this many years ago, I
realized that I was undereatingso much during the week that by
(12:37):
the time I got to Friday, I wasso hungry and I would just like
binge eat all weekend, the workweek dieter, if you will.
And so a lot of the time there'swomen that think like, oh, I eat
so healthy, I barely eatanything.
And, you know, one of twoscenarios kind of come out of
this exercise.
It's like number one, yourealize that you might be wildly
(13:00):
underestimating oroverestimating your intake.
And I wish I had the statisticoff the top of my head, but
there's some statistic aboutlike, you know, X percentage of
people overestimate theircalorie intake by like a crazy
amount.
Um so, you know, usually one oftwo things happen again.
It's like you think you'reeating really healthy, but
(13:21):
healthy foods can still bereally calorie dense.
And if you're, you know, eatinghealthy but in a caloric
surplus, you're gonna be gainingweight.
Or maybe you are under-eatingand you do need to actually,
like what I did, which was justeat more during the week.
So I'm not going into theweekend starving.
But either way, doing thatexercise is it gives you a sense
(13:42):
of direction.
It just tells you, okay, like Ido need to eat a little bit
more, or I could maybe skip thethird margarita or whatever it
is.
So again, I I don't use foodtracking as something that we
need to be obsessed with or doforever.
But just like one week of foodtracking can really tell you a
lot of information about whyyou're feeling the way you're
(14:04):
feeling, and not even just withweight loss, but a lot of my
clients will be like, wow, mycarbs are so low, I had no idea.
And this is why I am crashing at3 p.m.
or why I'm exhausted all thetime.
So sometimes it's even justthings like that, too.
SPEAKER_01 (14:23):
I would love to dive into that a little bit more,
like just what you ended up onwith carbs being really low and
crashing, because interestingly,a lot of the times when I'm
talking about carb intake andlike sustainable energy
throughout the day, well, weneed a little bit more carbs,
but maybe a right timing.
So let's dig into that a littlebit more.
What are the do you havespecific recommendations for I
(14:43):
guess the mix between fat,protein, and carbs?
Or, you know, like what do youeat for breakfast or for lunch?
Like what works for you or whatworks for most of your clients
when it comes to weight loss,but also feeling good throughout
the day?
SPEAKER_00 (14:59):
Yeah.
So when I'm putting togetherlike a nutrition plan for a
client who wants to lose weight,the biggest thing is being in a
calorie deficit.
That being said, we know thatnot all calories are created
equal.
Could you technically, you couldtechnically lose weight eating
in a calorie deficit and eatingall McDonald's, but you're
probably not gonna feel verygood, right?
(15:21):
Yeah.
So um, you know, the the threemacros are protein, carbs, and
fats.
So that is what all of our foodsare made up of.
Protein is like the first thingthat I look at and just making
sure that there's a proteinsource in every meal.
I don't know if if this has beenthe case with your clients, but
I would say most women areunder-eating protein.
SPEAKER_01 (15:44):
Yeah.
I think under eating likeprobably all of the things, but
yeah, I would also start withlooking at protein and say,
okay, once we get this staplein, then kind of add on from
there.
SPEAKER_00 (15:54):
Yeah, definitely.
And so that's it's like caloriesis kind of first, protein is
like the second thing I look at.
And then carbs and fat, likehonestly, I think for the
general population, as long aswe're getting a balance of both
in our diets, that's typicallyfine.
And I think that this is wheremacro tracking sounds like so
intimidating for people becausethey're like, oh my gosh, I have
(16:15):
to like be so meticulous.
And in reality, like most of myclients can lose weight just
tracking calories and protein.
And again, like we'll look atcarbs for like, you know, things
like energy.
If energy feels really low, thenyes, we've got to bring carbs up
a little bit.
And uh, and I think that that isalso common across the board
(16:35):
because diet culture, like we'rejust so used to buying like the
low calorie bread, the low carbthis, the low carb that.
And it's it's like funny.
I'll laugh with clientssometimes because they're like,
I need to get my carbs up andit's so hard and I don't know
how.
I'm like, well, you could startby not buying low carb bread.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:56):
It is definitely a challenge when it comes to
processed foods.
They make life so convenient, orespecially coming back to like
listeners who are workingcorporate who are traveling a
lot.
Processed foods or pre-packagedfoods are so handy.
But also in many cases, havethose carbs, whether or not you
(17:18):
need more or less of them.
Where am I going with thisthough?
Are there any foods processed orotherwise that you see people
like, oh, I'd love to includethis one thing because this is
like my healthy something.
And you say, Oh, actually, maybelet's have a conversation about
that to say, well, is it reallyhealthy?
You know, a common misconceptionabout what's a health food or
(17:41):
what isn't.
SPEAKER_00 (17:42):
Yeah, I think the the biggest one that I see is
like smoothies and acai bowls,which I mean, they're delicious,
right?
Like there's not nothing feelscooler than like going into a
cute little store and gettingyour like big acai bowl.
And honestly, a lot of the timethey do have, you know,
(18:02):
nutrient-dense foods included inthem.
So that's great.
But this is where I think eatinghealthy does not always equal
weight loss because thatsmoothie bowl that you think, oh
my gosh, I'm being so healthyright now, I am the health
queen, that could have like athousand calories.
And in fact, salads are alsoanother one.
(18:24):
And I went to sweet green lastweek because their fall menu was
ending.
Do you have sweet green whereyou live?
SPEAKER_01 (18:30):
We do, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (18:30):
Okay.
Love sweet green.
But the salad that I wanted, andI did still get, it was like 900
calories.
And that's that's fine.
You know, like I fit it into myday, I made it work, it was
delicious.
I loved it.
But for somebody who's trying tolose weight, it is wild
sometimes how restaurants, thesalad sometimes has more carbs
(18:53):
and fats and calories than likeeven the burger.
So again, this is where it'slike healthy food doesn't always
equal low calorie.
And we do we always need to findlike the low calorie option?
No.
Sometimes we need more calories,as you know, you've probably
experienced with clients too.
But you know, we do, we do thinklike healthy food, I should be
(19:18):
losing weight, and that's justtotally not the case.
SPEAKER_01 (19:20):
Yeah, it is a good punctuation for this topic of
how complex wellness is orcomplex health is, because
what's healthy, you know, quoteunquote healthy for me, might be
different for you and differentfor everybody.
So we have to, you know,fortunately or unfortunately,
think a little bit morecritically about what's gonna
work for us.
And that'll take some legwork tofigure out.
(19:41):
But that's a good point.
SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
It's not very cool.
Even like I've been talking onInstagram a lot recently about
recipes.
Um, I think recipes areincredibly helpful in terms of
like inspiration or just likegetting ideas.
But honestly, sometimes I'mhesitant to share, like, this is
exactly what I'm eating, becauseyou know, I'm five foot seven
(20:04):
and I'm trying to build muscle.
And so my portion sizes and whatI'm eating are gonna look
totally different from somebodywho's let's say like five foot
two and trying to lose weight.
So sometimes even that, I'mlike, everything is so nuanced.
And my clients probably hatethis, but so often my answer for
(20:25):
things is like, well, itdepends.
And there's not always astraight answer for a lot of
things with health and wellness.
SPEAKER_01 (20:31):
Totally.
On the note of not having astraight answer for anything,
let's try to be specific aboutlike a protein goal, at least.
Like for somebody who says, I'venever thought about how much
protein is in anything.
I've never really thought thatmuch about how much protein I
need, although I know it's goodfor me.
You know, where should theystart?
Or is it maybe not even lookingat a certain number of grams?
(20:53):
It's like have protein the sizeof your palm or whatever the
rule of thumb is in each meal.
So what are your what do youfind works well for gals out
there?
SPEAKER_00 (21:03):
So a good so I can get specific on this one.
Um a good rule of thumb when Iam calculating macros for
clients in general, 0.8 to onegram per pound of body weight is
a good place to be.
So if you weigh 150 pounds, likea good top end would be 150
grams of protein.
(21:23):
Um, is there, of course, somenuance to this as well?
Yes.
Um, I typically don't recommendfor women to go over like 165
grams of protein in a day.
SPEAKER_01 (21:34):
Why is that?
SPEAKER_00 (21:36):
Um, I mean, it just gets to a point where it's like
almost like way too hard to eatthat much protein.
So that's just, you know, a goodremote.
SPEAKER_01 (21:46):
Yeah, just to be realistic, basically, like for
real life.
SPEAKER_00 (21:50):
Yeah.
Um, and sometimes I see likecrazy protein numbers on
Instagram.
I'm like, oh my gosh, how areyou eating 170 grams of protein
and then 120 carbs?
I'm like, what do your mealslook like?
That's just crazy.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:07):
I, and this is I guess on a personal note,
because I've been doing aCandida diet for the last few
weeks.
So very low carbs, very highprotein.
But I'm like, um, yeah, it'scrazy.
Like I ran out of collagen theother day.
I can't do any protein powders.
But I and I'm like, shoot, yeah,I really need this four
tablespoons of collagen isreally seeming to make a big
(22:30):
difference in my day forwhatever that's worth.
That's on my mind, collagenscoops in my coffee in the
morning.
The delight of my day lately.
SPEAKER_00 (22:37):
That's so funny.
SPEAKER_01 (22:39):
What are some like maybe top two myths about weight
loss that you wish you couldjust erase from the earth?
Like, what are the commonmisconceptions that women come
to you with that we haven'ttalked about yet?
There's so many.
SPEAKER_00 (22:52):
Which what do I want to go with?
Um I think we kind of weretalking about this a little bit
at the beginning, but I think alot of the time women think that
they just should eat so little.
And in fact, when I deliverclient nutrition plans,
sometimes I will get pushback oflike, oh, there's no way that I
(23:13):
can 1800 calories.
Kim, that's crazy.
Here's kind of like the hardtruth with that is if you're
gaining weight, you are eatingmore than that.
You know what I mean?
I think this is where like thattracking component comes in
because it's like if you'regaining weight, you are you are
eating more than that, but youjust might not know it because
(23:33):
you know, you're ordering thesalad that's a thousand calories
and don't know.
And, you know, a lot of thetime, again, like it's not our
fault.
It's just we have not beentaught.
Like we we've been taught saladequals healthy.
So we order that and not, youknow, don't really look at the
calories.
So I would say um, you know,going back to eating as little
(23:56):
as possible, it's really not thebest way to do it because you
don't want to drop weight asquickly as possible.
Usually, like a half pound toone and a half pounds a week is
a good healthy rate of weightloss because the faster it comes
off, it's usually like thefaster it comes back on.
(24:17):
So when I'm creating a caloriedeficit for a client, it's
usually just like a few hundredcalories less so that like their
hormones are still supported andthey feel as good as they
possibly can without like, youknow, eating the calorie
requirements of like a toddler.
You know what I mean?
Totally.
SPEAKER_01 (24:35):
Yeah.
I had a couple questions reallyquick.
One, do you make specific mealplans for your clients and like
with, hey, this is what youshould have for breakfast, or do
you can teach them to figurethat out?
And then I was also curious howyou talk about stress and blood
sugar stability with yourclients, because at least that's
something right from my hormoneside of things that can be very
(24:58):
impactful on what's going onwith weight.
So curious how you incorporatethat into the conversation as
well.
SPEAKER_00 (25:04):
Totally.
Yeah.
So I think do I like hand over ameal plan and say, eat this?
I don't because I think that oneof the best ways to stay
consistent and lose weight iseating food that you enjoy.
So, you know, of course, if myclient's like, yeah, I enjoy a
Pop Tart for breakfast, well,maybe we're gonna we're gonna
tweak that.
(25:25):
Yeah.
But in general, you know, a lotof the times it's like, okay, I
eat two eggs.
I'm like, okay, that's great.
Like, can we add some Greekyogurt?
Can we add uh like a carb tothat?
You know, so I'm basically liketaking food that they enjoy and
then teaching them like how tomake it more of a complete meal,
more of a balanced meal with alot of emphasis on like eating
(25:47):
foods that you enjoy.
Because if you're just forcingyourself to eat like diet food,
you're gonna come, you're gonnahave a day, maybe when you're
stressed where you're like, Idon't want this.
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01 (25:57):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
And makes more sense, like teachthem, teach a client to fish,
you know, instead of giving themthe fish kind of thing, maybe a
little bit too literal of a ofan IDM there.
But yeah.
And then talk to me about stressand blood sugar stabilization or
blood sugar regulation.
SPEAKER_00 (26:13):
Yeah.
I I mean, stress, especially forcorporate women, is huge.
I think work is one of thebiggest stressors among my
clients.
So we, we, we definitely see alot of like stress impacting
weight loss.
So the big thing that I willtalk with clients about is
having like a stress managementpractice in their toolbox.
(26:36):
The goal is not like just don'tbe stressed.
Cause I mean, if somebody saidthat to me, I'd be like, shut
up.
You're like, thank you so muchfor that thought.
I never thought of that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll just not be stressed.
I sometimes like that's theadvice on Instagram.
I'm like, really?
Like, it's not helpful.
But I think um, you know, someof the biggest things that can
(26:56):
help with stress management arelike walking, meditating, yoga,
reading.
And there was a study aboutthis.
There was five of them.
Oh, creative hobbies is theother one.
So, like knitting or even Iconsider cooking a creative
hobby.
SPEAKER_01 (27:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:13):
So, I mean, I find it very relaxing to like, you
know, put my phone away and likeactually cook a nice meal.
So with uh with stressmanagement, I think it's just
like recognizing when you'restressed and then being able to
say, like, okay, I'm gonna carveout like 10 or 15 minutes to go
(27:34):
for a walk or read a book beforeI go to bed just to try to like
calm myself a little bit.
Um and then in terms of likeblood sugar regulation, I think
with um with macro tracking, itI don't want to say it's like
easy.
It's not easy, but you canpretty much see when you're
(27:55):
tracking your food like forevery meal, like are you having
protein with a carb or are youjust eating like naked carbs?
So like if you if you're eatinglike I don't know, a bagel, like
throw some throw a proteinsource with it, throw Greek
yogurt in there.
So a lot of the times it's justlike how can we take the carbs
(28:16):
that you're eating and then pairit with a protein so that you're
not having that like big bloodsugar spike?
SPEAKER_01 (28:22):
Perfect.
What is something coming back tothe topic of mindset that you
think is really instrumental?
I kind of want to end on thisnote because it's like, even if
a listener has all of thesetools, right?
They know like how many grams ofprotein or how many this or how
many that.
But if their mindset maybe isn'tlooking at the whole situation
(28:44):
through the right lens, well,that can be a pretty solid
showstopper.
So on that note, what would youencourage listeners out there to
keep in mind and maybeprioritize on that note?
SPEAKER_00 (28:57):
Yeah.
Um, I'm glad you asked that.
I was thinking about thisrandomly earlier today.
But um, I think that you'reright, like people can have the
perfect like plan andsupplements and macros, but like
if their mindset around food isstill not right, then it's like
what not I don't want to saywhat's the point, but it's it is
(29:19):
going to kind of impacteverything.
So I think a big thing I workthrough with with clients is
like just kind of like givingyourself permission to eat and
not like I was talking with aclient earlier who she's like,
you know, I really wanted, youknow, this meal the other day,
but I like talked myself intothe salad.
I'm like, you are allowed toeat.
(29:40):
And I think sometimes, like, Idon't know, I mean, I do know
why diet culture, but it's likewe just sometimes need
permission to eat.
Like, food is not here to tomake us gain weight, like food
is here to keep us alive.
And I think sometimes like weneed that reminder.
And I would say the other thing.
Too is just like knowing thatlike foods are there's no good
(30:04):
foods and bad foods.
Like, yes, there's foods thatare more nutrient dense, there's
foods that are better for yourbody, there's foods that are
gonna make you feel good.
And yes, of course, we shouldprioritize those, but like
everything's gonna be okay ifyou eat a cookie.
Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (30:20):
So on that note, then I'll say thanks for joining
us today.
I know this has been reallyhelpful.
Like, good reminders for me,good reminders for listeners who
just haven't thought about whatgoes into all these different
components of like nourishingyourself and yeah, nourishing
yourself using food as a toolinstead of like it's your enemy
(30:42):
is gonna help really get youwhere you want to go.
How can listeners connect withyou?
Talk about your podcast andanything else you want them to
check in with?
SPEAKER_00 (30:51):
Yeah.
So I'm on Instagram at nutritionwith Kim.
I also have a podcast called theCorporate Wellness Edit, and
Bridget's gonna be on my podcasttoo.
So you guys come listen to heron my podcast.
And I also have a freerestaurant guide.
Um, we didn't really talk aboutthis at all, but restaurants
(31:13):
tend to be something that isvery stressful for people who
are on a weight loss journey.
So I put together a guide withhealthy restaurant options and
even like a decision tree of,you know, should I get the
healthy option or like when isit okay to just eat?
And you know, a reminder of it'sokay to just go out and eat
(31:33):
sometime.
So I will share that with youtoo, so you can share it with
the episode.
SPEAKER_01 (31:39):
Thank you again, Kim, for joining us.
I hope that you all loved thisconversation.
You learned something, you gotto see the side of the weight
loss conversation from a wholenew perspective that we don't
usually examine here on the I'mHormona podcast.
If you have any questions,connect with Kim on Instagram at
nutritionwithkim.
(32:00):
Check out the links in the shownotes.
Just a quick reminder thateverything I share with you here
on the podcast is foreducational purposes only and
not meant to be a replacementfor medical advice or diagnosis.
Now, if what we covered todayresonated with you, or if you
feel like you have triedeverything for your hormones,
but you are still stuck, Icreated a free guide
(32:23):
specifically for you.
And you can head toimhormonal.com slash guide to
grab it, or find me on Instagramat I'm underscore hormonal.
All right, that's it for today.
I will see you on the next one.
You already know that what is going on with your
hormones is going to be havingan impact on your weight, weight
loss, weight retention.
That might even be why you cameto listen to I'm Hormonal in the
first place.
And we normally cover this sideof the conversation from the
perspective of hormone balance,but there's a whole other side
of the coin to cover, which iswhy on today's episode of I'm
(00:23):
Hormonal, you're going to hear aconversation between myself and
Kim Ritter, who is a certifiednutrition coach, to talk about
just this weight loss.
Welcome to the I'm HormonalPodcast.
My name is Bridget Walton.
I'm a women's hormone coachhelping busy, ambitious women
through personalized coachingand science-fact solutions.
Whether you are working with meone-on-one or you're listening
(00:45):
here, my goal is the same tohelp you stop guessing about
your hormone health and startseeing real progress.
So let's get into it.
Alrighty.
Thank you so much for listening.
If you have just found thepodcast for the first time, I
want to say a special welcomeand shout out to you.
I'm so glad that you found me.
(01:07):
Thank you to all of you who havealready subscribed and rated or
reviewed the podcast.
And a special thank you to thoseof you who have shared it with a
friend.
As I mentioned a moment ago,you're going to hear a
conversation today that I hadwith Kim.
I will introduce her in just asecond.
But we know that, well, hormonesare going to influence how your
(01:30):
body retains weight or losesweight.
You already know that what'sgoing on with your stress or
your blood sugar will have a biginfluence.
But what if you're not so surewhat's going on?
Or what if you want to justlearn about how you can look at
this equation from the otherside?
Then this episode is for you, myfriend.
(01:52):
So Kim is a certified nutritioncoach.
She's also a corporate wellnessexpert and the founder of Work
Life Thrive, which is a programthat's designed to help
high-achieving corporate womenlose weight, uh build better
habits, feel more energized intheir everyday lives, but
without having to give up all ofthe parts of their life that
(02:13):
they love, which might includelike wine or take out or other
social things, right?
Kim spent a lot of time incorporate before switching over
and launching her coachingbusiness.
And so she also has thatexperience working in really
high pressure sales roles thatleave you feeling a little bit
(02:35):
burnt out or exhausted or stuckin this all or nothing kind of
health cycle.
Does that sound familiar at all?
She's a former marathon runner.
Um, she used to really rely onlike nonstop cardio, um, but
that wasn't really sustainable.
So what she focuses on now arethe mindset shifts, the
(02:56):
nutrition changes, the habitsthat will work for your real
life.
Now, she helps otherhigh-performing women to do just
the same thing, especially forthose of you who might feel like
your job is your entirepersonality and are tired of
feeling like you have to choosebetween your career and your
health.
(03:16):
If you've listened to thepodcast for a little bit, you
know that my background has somegreat overlap with Kim's.
I also used to work in corporatesales and was on the go.
And that will do a bamboozle toyour health.
So we will get started with theconversation here in just a
second.
Make sure that you connect withKim by checking out the links in
(03:37):
the show notes or checking outher podcast, which is called the
Corporate Wellness Edit Podcaston Apple or Spotify.
So here we go.
I will see you on the otherside.
Enjoy.
You are the perfect person tohave this conversation with
about weight loss and weightretention weight management,
because of course, on thepodcast here I talk about weight
(03:58):
retention as it relates tohormones, but there's still this
like whole other equation on theother side of the conversation
for hormones.
So I'm really excited to haveyou here.
And thanks for being on I'mhormonal.
SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
I'm so excited to be here.
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01 (04:12):
Yeah.
Would you go ahead and introduceyourself for any listeners who
are just meeting you for thefirst time?
SPEAKER_00 (04:19):
Yes.
Okay.
Where to begin?
My name is Kim Ritter.
I am a women's nutrition andhealth coach.
I live in the Washington, DCarea with my husband and my dog.
And before I got into healthcoaching, maybe like a lot of
you, I was in the corporateworld.
(04:41):
Um, I worked in tech sales.
My last role before Itransitioned into full-time
health coaching was at AmazonWeb Services.
So I definitely lived that likehustle culture, wake up, look at
my phone, go to work, skipmeals, just everything that we
(05:02):
now preach to not do.
But I kind of got to a point inmy own journey where I was just
like, I don't want to feel thisway anymore.
I felt terrible.
I did gain a lot of weight.
I had like the corporate 20, iswhat I called it.
Just like went from being acollege athlete to sitting at a
desk for eight hours a day andcommuting.
(05:22):
So about a year before mywedding, that was really my, my
kind of like, this needs to stopmoment.
And I learned about nutritionfor the first time in my life
and started actually like eatingto fuel my body, eating more
actually, even though I waslosing weight, I was actually
eating more, or that's a wholeseparate thing.
(05:45):
Maybe I wasn't, but we, youknow, I it it seemed as though I
was eating more.
Yeah.
Um, definitely eating better anduh, you know, lifting weights
and and all the things.
So I from like my heaviestweight to my current weight,
I've maintained a 30-poundweight loss and did it in such a
healthy way.
And that's really what inspiredme to get into helping other
(06:07):
corporate women with weight lossbecause I really truly thought
my whole life that I had to eatas little as possible, work out
like crazy, and doing it in away, losing weight in a way that
was so healthy and sustainableand sustainable in that I've
kept the weight off for allthese years.
I was like, I have to teach thisto other people because it was
just so transformative for me.
SPEAKER_01 (06:29):
I lived a similar corporate life for a handful of
years.
I definitely know what you meanwhen it's like, okay, we're
going from meeting to meeting.
Or I don't know if you traveledfor work a lot.
Maybe we can talk about some ofthose nuances and like being out
of your normal routine and yournormal bubble and like, where do
I eat?
What do I go to?
So I'm sure we'll get into allof that.
But I also want to like co-signwhat you said about eating more
(06:50):
or like needing to eat more orthinking that we just need to
eat less because yeah,hopefully, I mean, we're doing
our best to rewrite themessaging around that.
What is it like for women incorporate that makes it seem so
difficult to lose weight or justlike have a firm grasp on what's
(07:10):
happening and supporting ourhealth?
SPEAKER_00 (07:14):
Yeah, it's such a good question.
And it's a conversation I havewith clients all the time.
Like I work with a lot of women,and I know you do too, who are
doing an amazing job in theircareer.
They're highly successful.
They were probably an A plusstudent.
They've always been a highachiever, and working hard is
not the problem.
(07:34):
And so I think that while all ofthose are great qualities, they
don't necessarily transitionwell into health and wellness.
It's impossible to be perfectall the time.
You're gonna go on a work tripand you're gonna be at a client
dinner, and you're gonnaprobably just have to order
something on the menu and doyour best.
(07:55):
And I find that a lot of women,they beat themselves up so much,
like that the perfectionism thathas helped them excel in their
career is actually the thingthat is detrimental on their
weight loss journey because ifthey can't be perfect, they're
like, I'm failing.
And the reality is like youreally only need to be like 80%
(08:19):
compliant.
You know, I've I very muchembody like the healthy-ish
lifestyle where I eat healthymost of the time, but am I gonna
go out for Mexican food tomorrownight?
Yes, I am, and I'm gonna enjoyit.
And uh and I'm not gonna feelguilty or beat myself up about
it, but I I definitely used to.
Um, and I know that a lot ofother high achieving women do
(08:42):
that, where they they're theyalmost like self-sabotage if
they can't be perfect, eventhough it's we're holding
ourselves to an impossiblestandard.
SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
Yeah, I know the feeling of being like, cool, I'm
doing all the things that I needto this week.
This is perfect.
But then if you fall off trackfor one day, it's like, I'll
screw it.
We may as well go big if we'regonna like go outside of the
norms.
What would you recommend towomen who have that
perfectionist mindset?
Like, how do you talk about thatwith your clients?
(09:11):
And what do you see that worksreally well for them to
transition from thatperfectionist mindset to
something that like betterserves them?
SPEAKER_00 (09:19):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
I think something that's reallybeen helpful for a lot of the
women that I work with is justgetting in the habit of looking
at your week as a whole andlooking at your weekly averages
instead of that day-to-day.
So, for example, like a bigmetric that I use in my coaching
(09:40):
is daily steps.
So let's say you have a daywhere for whatever reason, like
your steps were kind of low thatday.
You were pretty sedentary, youwere busy at work instead of
feeling like you failed andthen, you know, having that all
or nothing mindset and saying,like, screw it, I might as well
just start over Monday.
If you just look at your weeklyaverage, like, okay, I was a
(10:02):
little bit low on steps today,but I'm gonna be fine tomorrow.
And then again, like it's theaverage.
So it doesn't really matter ifyou have a day where your
calories aren't great or youmissed a workout, like you can
just hop right back in the nextday.
So instead of having that all ornothing mentality, you're just
kind of looking at your week asa whole.
(10:23):
And if you can check a couple ofthe boxes, it's like having that
1% better mindset.
Like I don't need to be perfect.
I just need to be like onepercent better.
And that is usually good enough.
SPEAKER_01 (10:34):
I love the 1% better mindset.
Also, just the like taking astep back, zooming out to see
what's going on, what's like thereality of it outside of this
micro situation.
And something that I talk abouttoo, or that I talk about with
my clients, is thinking aboutwhat is the overall goal, right?
So, same, same, you know,different way to say the same
(10:54):
thing, but who is the personthat you want to become?
Like, what are the things thatshe does or needs to do?
Because reframing, you know, thesame task or the same goal, but
reframing it through thisdifferent lens can make it quite
a bit easier to achieve.
SPEAKER_00 (11:11):
Totally 100% agree.
SPEAKER_01 (11:13):
Are there specifics that you do like to focus on
when you work with clients orwhere do you kind of start?
And actually, let me even setthe context a little bit more
for this.
So if there's a listener who islike, yeah, I think that my
inability to lose weight likemight be based in hormone
imbalance, it might not.
I don't know.
(11:33):
I'm trying to troubleshoot, butlike, what are good practices
that she can put in place thatcan serve her like now and you
know, throughout the rest of herher kind of life.
So, well, that sounded dramatic,but you know what I mean.
What are the what are someplaces to start?
And what are the other thingsthat people miss a lot of the
time that we should callattention to?
SPEAKER_00 (11:53):
Yeah, well, not dramatic at all because these
kinds of transformations I thinkcan be life-changing.
So like I said, my coaching isvery data-driven.
Um, one thing that I always havenew clients do is just spend one
week tracking their food.
Um, I do not believe that weneed to be obsessed with
(12:16):
tracking our food forever.
Um, but the data doesn't lie.
And so a lot of the time, justseven days of tracking our food
can give us so much information.
So, like, for example, when Idid this many years ago, I
realized that I was undereatingso much during the week that by
(12:37):
the time I got to Friday, I wasso hungry and I would just like
binge eat all weekend, the workweek dieter, if you will.
And so a lot of the time there'swomen that think like, oh, I eat
so healthy, I barely eatanything.
And, you know, one of twoscenarios kind of come out of
this exercise.
It's like number one, yourealize that you might be wildly
(13:00):
underestimating oroverestimating your intake.
And I wish I had the statisticoff the top of my head, but
there's some statistic aboutlike, you know, X percentage of
people overestimate theircalorie intake by like a crazy
amount.
Um so, you know, usually one oftwo things happen again.
It's like you think you'reeating really healthy, but
(13:21):
healthy foods can still bereally calorie dense.
And if you're, you know, eatinghealthy but in a caloric
surplus, you're gonna be gainingweight.
Or maybe you are under-eatingand you do need to actually,
like what I did, which was justeat more during the week.
So I'm not going into theweekend starving.
But either way, doing thatexercise is it gives you a sense
(13:42):
of direction.
It just tells you, okay, like Ido need to eat a little bit
more, or I could maybe skip thethird margarita or whatever it
is.
So again, I I don't use foodtracking as something that we
need to be obsessed with or doforever.
But just like one week of foodtracking can really tell you a
lot of information about whyyou're feeling the way you're
(14:04):
feeling, and not even just withweight loss, but a lot of my
clients will be like, wow, mycarbs are so low, I had no idea.
And this is why I am crashing at3 p.m.
or why I'm exhausted all thetime.
So sometimes it's even justthings like that, too.
SPEAKER_01 (14:23):
I would love to dive into that a little bit more,
like just what you ended up onwith carbs being really low and
crashing, because interestingly,a lot of the times when I'm
talking about carb intake andlike sustainable energy
throughout the day, well, weneed a little bit more carbs,
but maybe a right timing.
So let's dig into that a littlebit more.
What are the do you havespecific recommendations for I
(14:43):
guess the mix between fat,protein, and carbs?
Or, you know, like what do youeat for breakfast or for lunch?
Like what works for you or whatworks for most of your clients
when it comes to weight loss,but also feeling good throughout
the day?
SPEAKER_00 (14:59):
Yeah.
So when I'm putting togetherlike a nutrition plan for a
client who wants to lose weight,the biggest thing is being in a
calorie deficit.
That being said, we know thatnot all calories are created
equal.
Could you technically, you couldtechnically lose weight eating
in a calorie deficit and eatingall McDonald's, but you're
probably not gonna feel verygood, right?
(15:21):
Yeah.
So um, you know, the the threemacros are protein, carbs, and
fats.
So that is what all of our foodsare made up of.
Protein is like the first thingthat I look at and just making
sure that there's a proteinsource in every meal.
I don't know if if this has beenthe case with your clients, but
I would say most women areunder-eating protein.
SPEAKER_01 (15:44):
Yeah.
I think under eating likeprobably all of the things, but
yeah, I would also start withlooking at protein and say,
okay, once we get this staplein, then kind of add on from
there.
SPEAKER_00 (15:54):
Yeah, definitely.
And so that's it's like caloriesis kind of first, protein is
like the second thing I look at.
And then carbs and fat, likehonestly, I think for the
general population, as long aswe're getting a balance of both
in our diets, that's typicallyfine.
And I think that this is wheremacro tracking sounds like so
intimidating for people becausethey're like, oh my gosh, I have
(16:15):
to like be so meticulous.
And in reality, like most of myclients can lose weight just
tracking calories and protein.
And again, like we'll look atcarbs for like, you know, things
like energy.
If energy feels really low, thenyes, we've got to bring carbs up
a little bit.
And uh, and I think that that isalso common across the board
(16:35):
because diet culture, like we'rejust so used to buying like the
low calorie bread, the low carbthis, the low carb that.
And it's it's like funny.
I'll laugh with clientssometimes because they're like,
I need to get my carbs up andit's so hard and I don't know
how.
I'm like, well, you could startby not buying low carb bread.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:56):
It is definitely a challenge when it comes to
processed foods.
They make life so convenient, orespecially coming back to like
listeners who are workingcorporate who are traveling a
lot.
Processed foods or pre-packagedfoods are so handy.
But also in many cases, havethose carbs, whether or not you
(17:18):
need more or less of them.
Where am I going with thisthough?
Are there any foods processed orotherwise that you see people
like, oh, I'd love to includethis one thing because this is
like my healthy something.
And you say, Oh, actually, maybelet's have a conversation about
that to say, well, is it reallyhealthy?
You know, a common misconceptionabout what's a health food or
(17:41):
what isn't.
SPEAKER_00 (17:42):
Yeah, I think the the biggest one that I see is
like smoothies and acai bowls,which I mean, they're delicious,
right?
Like there's not nothing feelscooler than like going into a
cute little store and gettingyour like big acai bowl.
And honestly, a lot of the timethey do have, you know,
(18:02):
nutrient-dense foods included inthem.
So that's great.
But this is where I think eatinghealthy does not always equal
weight loss because thatsmoothie bowl that you think, oh
my gosh, I'm being so healthyright now, I am the health
queen, that could have like athousand calories.
And in fact, salads are alsoanother one.
(18:24):
And I went to sweet green lastweek because their fall menu was
ending.
Do you have sweet green whereyou live?
SPEAKER_01 (18:30):
We do, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (18:30):
Okay.
Love sweet green.
But the salad that I wanted, andI did still get, it was like 900
calories.
And that's that's fine.
You know, like I fit it into myday, I made it work, it was
delicious.
I loved it.
But for somebody who's trying tolose weight, it is wild
sometimes how restaurants, thesalad sometimes has more carbs
(18:53):
and fats and calories than likeeven the burger.
So again, this is where it'slike healthy food doesn't always
equal low calorie.
And we do we always need to findlike the low calorie option?
No.
Sometimes we need more calories,as you know, you've probably
experienced with clients too.
But you know, we do, we do thinklike healthy food, I should be
(19:18):
losing weight, and that's justtotally not the case.
SPEAKER_01 (19:20):
Yeah, it is a good punctuation for this topic of
how complex wellness is orcomplex health is, because
what's healthy, you know, quoteunquote healthy for me, might be
different for you and differentfor everybody.
So we have to, you know,fortunately or unfortunately,
think a little bit morecritically about what's gonna
work for us.
And that'll take some legwork tofigure out.
(19:41):
But that's a good point.
SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
It's not very cool.
Even like I've been talking onInstagram a lot recently about
recipes.
Um, I think recipes areincredibly helpful in terms of
like inspiration or just likegetting ideas.
But honestly, sometimes I'mhesitant to share, like, this is
exactly what I'm eating, becauseyou know, I'm five foot seven
(20:04):
and I'm trying to build muscle.
And so my portion sizes and whatI'm eating are gonna look
totally different from somebodywho's let's say like five foot
two and trying to lose weight.
So sometimes even that, I'mlike, everything is so nuanced.
And my clients probably hatethis, but so often my answer for
(20:25):
things is like, well, itdepends.
And there's not always astraight answer for a lot of
things with health and wellness.
SPEAKER_01 (20:31):
Totally.
On the note of not having astraight answer for anything,
let's try to be specific aboutlike a protein goal, at least.
Like for somebody who says, I'venever thought about how much
protein is in anything.
I've never really thought thatmuch about how much protein I
need, although I know it's goodfor me.
You know, where should theystart?
Or is it maybe not even lookingat a certain number of grams?
(20:53):
It's like have protein the sizeof your palm or whatever the
rule of thumb is in each meal.
So what are your what do youfind works well for gals out
there?
SPEAKER_00 (21:03):
So a good so I can get specific on this one.
Um a good rule of thumb when Iam calculating macros for
clients in general, 0.8 to onegram per pound of body weight is
a good place to be.
So if you weigh 150 pounds, likea good top end would be 150
grams of protein.
(21:23):
Um, is there, of course, somenuance to this as well?
Yes.
Um, I typically don't recommendfor women to go over like 165
grams of protein in a day.
SPEAKER_01 (21:34):
Why is that?
SPEAKER_00 (21:36):
Um, I mean, it just gets to a point where it's like
almost like way too hard to eatthat much protein.
So that's just, you know, a goodremote.
SPEAKER_01 (21:46):
Yeah, just to be realistic, basically, like for
real life.
SPEAKER_00 (21:50):
Yeah.
Um, and sometimes I see likecrazy protein numbers on
Instagram.
I'm like, oh my gosh, how areyou eating 170 grams of protein
and then 120 carbs?
I'm like, what do your mealslook like?
That's just crazy.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:07):
I, and this is I guess on a personal note,
because I've been doing aCandida diet for the last few
weeks.
So very low carbs, very highprotein.
But I'm like, um, yeah, it'scrazy.
Like I ran out of collagen theother day.
I can't do any protein powders.
But I and I'm like, shoot, yeah,I really need this four
tablespoons of collagen isreally seeming to make a big
(22:30):
difference in my day forwhatever that's worth.
That's on my mind, collagenscoops in my coffee in the
morning.
The delight of my day lately.
SPEAKER_00 (22:37):
That's so funny.
SPEAKER_01 (22:39):
What are some like maybe top two myths about weight
loss that you wish you couldjust erase from the earth?
Like, what are the commonmisconceptions that women come
to you with that we haven'ttalked about yet?
There's so many.
SPEAKER_00 (22:52):
Which what do I want to go with?
Um I think we kind of weretalking about this a little bit
at the beginning, but I think alot of the time women think that
they just should eat so little.
And in fact, when I deliverclient nutrition plans,
sometimes I will get pushback oflike, oh, there's no way that I
(23:13):
can 1800 calories.
Kim, that's crazy.
Here's kind of like the hardtruth with that is if you're
gaining weight, you are eatingmore than that.
You know what I mean?
I think this is where like thattracking component comes in
because it's like if you'regaining weight, you are you are
eating more than that, but youjust might not know it because
(23:33):
you know, you're ordering thesalad that's a thousand calories
and don't know.
And, you know, a lot of thetime, again, like it's not our
fault.
It's just we have not beentaught.
Like we we've been taught saladequals healthy.
So we order that and not, youknow, don't really look at the
calories.
So I would say um, you know,going back to eating as little
(23:56):
as possible, it's really not thebest way to do it because you
don't want to drop weight asquickly as possible.
Usually, like a half pound toone and a half pounds a week is
a good healthy rate of weightloss because the faster it comes
off, it's usually like thefaster it comes back on.
(24:17):
So when I'm creating a caloriedeficit for a client, it's
usually just like a few hundredcalories less so that like their
hormones are still supported andthey feel as good as they
possibly can without like, youknow, eating the calorie
requirements of like a toddler.
You know what I mean?
Totally.
SPEAKER_01 (24:35):
Yeah.
I had a couple questions reallyquick.
One, do you make specific mealplans for your clients and like
with, hey, this is what youshould have for breakfast, or do
you can teach them to figurethat out?
And then I was also curious howyou talk about stress and blood
sugar stability with yourclients, because at least that's
something right from my hormoneside of things that can be very
(24:58):
impactful on what's going onwith weight.
So curious how you incorporatethat into the conversation as
well.
SPEAKER_00 (25:04):
Totally.
Yeah.
So I think do I like hand over ameal plan and say, eat this?
I don't because I think that oneof the best ways to stay
consistent and lose weight iseating food that you enjoy.
So, you know, of course, if myclient's like, yeah, I enjoy a
Pop Tart for breakfast, well,maybe we're gonna we're gonna
tweak that.
(25:25):
Yeah.
But in general, you know, a lotof the times it's like, okay, I
eat two eggs.
I'm like, okay, that's great.
Like, can we add some Greekyogurt?
Can we add uh like a carb tothat?
You know, so I'm basically liketaking food that they enjoy and
then teaching them like how tomake it more of a complete meal,
more of a balanced meal with alot of emphasis on like eating
(25:47):
foods that you enjoy.
Because if you're just forcingyourself to eat like diet food,
you're gonna come, you're gonnahave a day, maybe when you're
stressed where you're like, Idon't want this.
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01 (25:57):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
And makes more sense, like teachthem, teach a client to fish,
you know, instead of giving themthe fish kind of thing, maybe a
little bit too literal of a ofan IDM there.
But yeah.
And then talk to me about stressand blood sugar stabilization or
blood sugar regulation.
SPEAKER_00 (26:13):
Yeah.
I I mean, stress, especially forcorporate women, is huge.
I think work is one of thebiggest stressors among my
clients.
So we, we, we definitely see alot of like stress impacting
weight loss.
So the big thing that I willtalk with clients about is
having like a stress managementpractice in their toolbox.
(26:36):
The goal is not like just don'tbe stressed.
Cause I mean, if somebody saidthat to me, I'd be like, shut
up.
You're like, thank you so muchfor that thought.
I never thought of that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll just not be stressed.
I sometimes like that's theadvice on Instagram.
I'm like, really?
Like, it's not helpful.
But I think um, you know, someof the biggest things that can
(26:56):
help with stress management arelike walking, meditating, yoga,
reading.
And there was a study aboutthis.
There was five of them.
Oh, creative hobbies is theother one.
So, like knitting or even Iconsider cooking a creative
hobby.
SPEAKER_01 (27:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:13):
So, I mean, I find it very relaxing to like, you
know, put my phone away and likeactually cook a nice meal.
So with uh with stressmanagement, I think it's just
like recognizing when you'restressed and then being able to
say, like, okay, I'm gonna carveout like 10 or 15 minutes to go
(27:34):
for a walk or read a book beforeI go to bed just to try to like
calm myself a little bit.
Um and then in terms of likeblood sugar regulation, I think
with um with macro tracking, itI don't want to say it's like
easy.
It's not easy, but you canpretty much see when you're
(27:55):
tracking your food like forevery meal, like are you having
protein with a carb or are youjust eating like naked carbs?
So like if you if you're eatinglike I don't know, a bagel, like
throw some throw a proteinsource with it, throw Greek
yogurt in there.
So a lot of the times it's justlike how can we take the carbs
(28:16):
that you're eating and then pairit with a protein so that you're
not having that like big bloodsugar spike?
SPEAKER_01 (28:22):
Perfect.
What is something coming back tothe topic of mindset that you
think is really instrumental?
I kind of want to end on thisnote because it's like, even if
a listener has all of thesetools, right?
They know like how many grams ofprotein or how many this or how
many that.
But if their mindset maybe isn'tlooking at the whole situation
(28:44):
through the right lens, well,that can be a pretty solid
showstopper.
So on that note, what would youencourage listeners out there to
keep in mind and maybeprioritize on that note?
SPEAKER_00 (28:57):
Yeah.
Um, I'm glad you asked that.
I was thinking about thisrandomly earlier today.
But um, I think that you'reright, like people can have the
perfect like plan andsupplements and macros, but like
if their mindset around food isstill not right, then it's like
what not I don't want to saywhat's the point, but it's it is
(29:19):
going to kind of impacteverything.
So I think a big thing I workthrough with with clients is
like just kind of like givingyourself permission to eat and
not like I was talking with aclient earlier who she's like,
you know, I really wanted, youknow, this meal the other day,
but I like talked myself intothe salad.
I'm like, you are allowed toeat.
(29:40):
And I think sometimes, like, Idon't know, I mean, I do know
why diet culture, but it's likewe just sometimes need
permission to eat.
Like, food is not here to tomake us gain weight, like food
is here to keep us alive.
And I think sometimes like weneed that reminder.
And I would say the other thing.
Too is just like knowing thatlike foods are there's no good
(30:04):
foods and bad foods.
Like, yes, there's foods thatare more nutrient dense, there's
foods that are better for yourbody, there's foods that are
gonna make you feel good.
And yes, of course, we shouldprioritize those, but like
everything's gonna be okay ifyou eat a cookie.
Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (30:20):
So on that note, then I'll say thanks for joining
us today.
I know this has been reallyhelpful.
Like, good reminders for me,good reminders for listeners who
just haven't thought about whatgoes into all these different
components of like nourishingyourself and yeah, nourishing
yourself using food as a toolinstead of like it's your enemy
(30:42):
is gonna help really get youwhere you want to go.
How can listeners connect withyou?
Talk about your podcast andanything else you want them to
check in with?
SPEAKER_00 (30:51):
Yeah.
So I'm on Instagram at nutritionwith Kim.
I also have a podcast called theCorporate Wellness Edit, and
Bridget's gonna be on my podcasttoo.
So you guys come listen to heron my podcast.
And I also have a freerestaurant guide.
Um, we didn't really talk aboutthis at all, but restaurants
(31:13):
tend to be something that isvery stressful for people who
are on a weight loss journey.
So I put together a guide withhealthy restaurant options and
even like a decision tree of,you know, should I get the
healthy option or like when isit okay to just eat?
And you know, a reminder of it'sokay to just go out and eat
(31:33):
sometime.
So I will share that with youtoo, so you can share it with
the episode.
SPEAKER_01 (31:39):
Thank you again, Kim, for joining us.
I hope that you all loved thisconversation.
You learned something, you gotto see the side of the weight
loss conversation from a wholenew perspective that we don't
usually examine here on the I'mHormona podcast.
If you have any questions,connect with Kim on Instagram at
nutritionwithkim.
(32:00):
Check out the links in the shownotes.
Just a quick reminder thateverything I share with you here
on the podcast is foreducational purposes only and
not meant to be a replacementfor medical advice or diagnosis.
Now, if what we covered todayresonated with you, or if you
feel like you have triedeverything for your hormones,
but you are still stuck, Icreated a free guide
(32:23):
specifically for you.
And you can head toimhormonal.com slash guide to
grab it, or find me on Instagramat I'm underscore hormonal.
All right, that's it for today.
I will see you on the next one.
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