January 5, 2026 • 49 mins
Episode Highlights With Nagina
- What changes in metabolism during midlife and why a different approach is needed
- Why the body needs more nutrients as we get older
- Switches to turn on in the body so we can burn more fat in midlife
- Why we become more insulin resistant during the midlife years
- Our hormones shift in midlife as women and what these hormone changes do in the body
- Why muscle mass declines at this phase of life and what to do about this
- The real reason restriction doesn’t work and what does work sustainably for women
- One of the most important things we can do to prevent weight gain in midlife is to eat enough food!
- How this ties into thyroid health as well
- What gut changes happen in midlife and how to avoid these
- The real deal about sugar in the body and why it's especially bad during midlife
- Ingredients you can add to your diet that help your blood sugar be more stable
- The best metabolism-boosting foods that help support metabolism
- Why protein is especially important for women in midlife and how much we actually need
- The thermic effect of protein and how to use this to your advantage
- Top carb choices that boost metabolism and why skipping them entirely leads to cravings
- Key nutrients we need and have trouble getting from food in the modern world
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
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a strong cur get more energy and better digestion. Hello
and welcome to the Wellness Mama podcast. I'm Katie from
(02:13):
Walnessmama dot com and this episode is all about how
to boost your metabolism in midlife, especially by adding timing
and pairing food, so not about restriction and some really
helpful key takeaways in this episode. I'm here with the
Guinna Abdullah, who is a weight loss coach for women
in midlife and founder of the top rate of website
(02:33):
masalabody dot com, which I'll link to in the show notes.
She has a degree in molecular and cell biology from
UC Berkeley and is a graduate of NYU. She's helped
thousands of women in midlife to successfully lose weight permanently,
and this episode really goes deep on her expertise related
to metabolism and specifically while we often need more of
(02:55):
certain key things in order to keep our metabolism strong
in midlife and get a lot of incorrect or conflicting
information about this, So lots of key takeaways in this episode,
lots of notes in the show notes without any further weight.
Let's join her now. Gigina welcome. Thank you so much
for being here.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Thanks so much, Katie. I'm so excited for a conversation.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Me too, and we get to chat years ago. I
will link to that episode in the show notes, and
I got to reconnect with you recently and was so
excited to have you back on to tackle a topic
that I think is super relevant to a lot of
people listening, which is the very broad and nuanced topic
of metabolism in midlife. And I know there's a lot
that goes into this, and it seems like also thanks
(03:39):
to probably social media, there's also a lot of like
kind of misconceptions floating around about this and a lot
of like I've seen diets and cleanses and all these
kind of like elaborate things sort of designed to tackle
this topic. I know it's broad and like I said,
we're going to go in a lot of directions, but
can you kind of intro us in a broad way
into the topic and maybe some of these kind of
pillars that people don't really understand when it comes to
(04:02):
the metabolism for midlife women especially, and the things that shift.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yes, absolutely well, you know in midlife is it's a
different things that are different in midlife because we are,
you know, our bodies have changed, and we actually have
to take different approaches to keep our body more lean
and more fit and also more healthy even from a
gut health perspective. So things like restriction and dieting they
actually stop working in midlife. And that's because our body
(04:29):
requires more nutrients. And so when we give our body
the right foods, which we'll talk about in detail today,
we increase our metabolism. And so what that means is
that we burn more calories and burn more fat while
doing the same activities. And a lot of increasing metabolism
during midlife comes purely from nutrition and from eating right,
(04:49):
so it's not coming from exercise. It's coming from getting
your diet aligned and in the right place, and then
our metabolism can increase and we can actually burn more fat.
Now in midlife, a lot of things are changing, so
our metabolism could be naturally decreasing if we don't take
the steps we're going to discuss today. So some of
the things that are happening is that, first of all,
(05:11):
it's natural to become more insulin resistant in midlife. What
that means is that if we are eating things like carbs,
that break down to sugar or just eating sugar. This
includes eating foods that are considered healthy like granola or
dried fruit or even fruit. Our body can't always is
not going to release insulin in the same way as efficiently.
(05:33):
Our body is not reacting to insulin as efficiently. So
what usually happens is when we have a carb or sugar,
insulin is released, and what happens is that it takes
that sugar that is elevating our blood sugar and it
brings it into our body and often stores it as fat. Now,
this is happening more quickly in midlife, so when we're
(05:53):
eating carbs or sugar, we're getting that fat storage much
more quickly. And this is just because of chain that
are happening due to hormonal shifts, due to muscle mass declines,
and so this is one of the key things that
why this is why a lot of women will feel
like they're gaining weight, especially in their belly area, is
because of this insulin resistance that starts happening. But we
(06:14):
can actually combat that simply with natural food. Another thing
that happens is that our hormones are declining, so as
our estrogen is declining, especially, we are more prone to
inflammation that estrogen was protecting us from. So this inflammation
starts to be released, and a lot of times we'll
feel like we're gaining fat in our belly. Some of
it is fat, but it's also inflammation, and so that's
(06:37):
going to require something different than restricting your body from calories,
which will just keep you stuck. And then, finally, another
key area that's changing in a pillar that's important to
understand is that as we're going through midlife and beyond,
we are declining in our muscle mass. And when our
bodies transform from muscle to more fat, muscle burns more calory.
(07:00):
So when you have less muscle on your body, which
is happening naturally unless you take actions to build it,
you're going to be burning less calories. And so when
we have less muscle, our metabolism is slowing. And so
for all of these reasons, restriction of food and dieting
is just going to keep women more stuck and actually
keep women unhealthier than if you learn the right foods
(07:23):
to add, which will increase your metabolism, help you burn
more fat, and also be more sustainable because it's much
easier to feel satiated and feel good and feel energized
rather than tired and restricted, which is really hard to
keep up, you know, for longer than a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I love this and to double click on some I
think really important points you made. I love that you
frame this kind of from the perspective of, like, yes,
these shifts are happening, and the body is always on
our side. So if we're not eating enough, if we're
not getting enough nutrients, it's not ever that the body
is like working against us. It's trying to protect us
because it's getting the signal from us like not enough nutrients,
not enough food, hold onto resources, protect the hormones, do
(08:03):
all the things. So when we learn to speak its language,
we get this amazing data. And I actually just had
a similar conversation with my teenage daughters who are wanting
to gain muscle and get leaner, and the culture tells
them just like eat less food. And I was kind
of having that conversation with them why that long term
is counterproductive, because are you sending safety signals to your body?
(08:23):
Are you sending survival signals to your body and telling
it to hold on to things? And I think that
part you said about the demand for nutrients goes up.
To me, it makes sense like teenagers actually in a
growth spurt would have a similar demand for more nutrients.
But then we maybe don't pay as much attention to
that in midlife when we think about we don't think
of that as kind of almost like it's just as
(08:44):
much of a hormonal shift as puberty, even like a
lot changing And it makes sense to me that our
body would need more nutrients during that time. But let's
go deeper on that topic, because I feel like that
point alone might be a new concept for a lot
of people, listing that we actually need more food and
more nutrients especially.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yes, so it's really important that you know, to really
actually understand that if we're not giving our body nutrients,
our body can't process in the correct way. And one
of the biggest things that's help that's happening for women
in midlife is our gut health is declining. And so
what that means specifically is that when we're feeding ourselves,
there's a lot of foods and also hormones and also
(09:23):
toxins that are not able to be excreted from our gut,
and a lot of it is our liver function also
just other aspects of our gut, and what our gut
is crying out for is more nutrients. And so if
you underfeed your body because maybe you feel like you'll
put on weight, that's a really big reason that a
lot of women are under eating. Well, what's going to
(09:44):
happen is that your gut will start to decline in function,
and it's going to recycle foods, hormones and toxins, and
you're going to get more of that inflammatory feeling and
that inflammatory look. And so the thing is that it
can feel scary to eat more because because we've been
taught our whole lives that we are supposed to eat
less in order to lose weight, in order to be
(10:05):
healthier or look healthier from a losing weight perspective. But
everything is really shifting in midlife, and so there's a
few key things that are important to eat less of.
But when you start eating more of the foods we'll
talk about even more. What will happen is that you'll
have less cravings for sugar. And so more sugar will
(10:26):
cause a lower immune function, it will cause gut disruption.
And so of course we do know that it's important
to bring down sugar in order to increase metabolism in
order to lose weight and be in a healthier place.
But instead of just pulling back from sugar, the better
thing to do is to double down on adding the
right foods that are nutrient rich, and then your body
(10:48):
will feel like it has enough energy and it won't
be crying out for quick energy sources like sugar.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That makes sense to me, and also just seems like
i'much more positive mindset approach from the place of like
positively supporting the body versus restriction, which I feel like
psychologically like we're wired to kind of resist restriction and
resist loss and resist like kind of too much structure
and rules, and I feel like so much of diet
culture is centered around that, like restriction and avoiding and
(11:17):
will power, which only gets us so far, especially if
we're battling the body's like survival cues and things it's
legitimately asking for and in fact, for me, I'm not
fully in like a metopausal araa yet, but I did
have this when I was healing my thyroid was realizing
I had kind of worked myself into this cycle of
restricting more and more and more and more, because the
problem is once you start doing that, you have to
(11:39):
keep doing it more for it to keep working. And
then I was eventually eating so little that my body
was probably getting like complete stress signals all the time,
thinking it was in a famine. And part of my
healing was actually adding much more food and making the
mental shift away from macros and calorie counting and into
how can I maximize the nutrients I'm geting in any
(12:01):
meal that I eat. And so I stopped even like
thinking of calories or even macros other than just making
sure I got enough protein and healthy fats. But I
would say, like, of all the choices available, how can
I choose the most nutrients? And that was such a
more positive reframe to come from and to make choices from,
rather than like restriction.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Absolutely, and now you know you said something. Really you
know so many things that are so important, but one
of the key things that you mentioned is the stress
that you had been putting your body under. And this
is really important to talk about in midlife because we
are not able to handle as much stress as we were.
Our cortisol rises, which is our cortisols are stress hormone
rises much more quickly than it does than it did before.
(12:41):
But the thing is a lot of times we feel
that the only way that we can lower stress is
to lower stress in our lifestyle, but actually there's more
to it, because you know, one of the biggest reasons
I've seen that women in midlife are not losing weight
is actually because they're under eating. And it's not because
they're overeating. It's not because they're eating too many things
or they're not exercising. It's because they're under eating. And
(13:03):
what happens is when we under eat, we put our
body in a stress state. Our body is stressed because
it's not getting enough food, enough nutrients, and so it
has to hold on to the whatever calories we give
it and store it and weight because it doesn't know
when we're getting in our next meal. And so, for example,
like when you had a thyroid issue and you replenished
your body, your body was your thyroid was needing more nutrients.
(13:27):
It was needing that food and that's what actually got
it going and really started the thyroid to function correctly.
And you know, specifically, the thyroid is an area that
many women struggle within midlife because when we're under eating,
our thyroid isn't functioning as well. As it should be,
and that's our metabolism boosting glant. So when it's underperforming,
(13:49):
our metabolism is lower. But it also comes into play
that we're stressing our gut, we're stressing our body when
we're under eating, because we're under eating the nutrients that
our body needs. We're humans, we need food and we
need nutrients. So when we look at it from a
restriction perspective, that actually doesn't come into play anymore when
our body is more more needing of nutrients in this
(14:13):
midlife stage.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I feel like this is of course, like most important
for the things that we've already talked about, of course,
like your gut health, your even bone density and not
losing muscle, like all of these vital bodily functions, and
seemingly also ties into the physical appearance of aging as well,
like if we're not getting basic nutrients, if we're not
getting enough protein and nourishing our body at a basic level,
(14:35):
the skin also ages faster. I don't think that's like
the front line or the most important thing to consider
at all, but I know that is important to a
lot of people, and so I feel like it's also
worth noting that, like not giving the body the nutrients
it needs will also make us look older faster than
we need to.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
That is so true, and you know, it's really important
to know that what we're putting in our bodies is
coming out in our skin and is coming out in
our hair. I know when I got of sugar about
fifteen years ago, and that's where I started adding a
lot of metabolism boosting foods to my diet, and I
naturally wanted less sugar, and so I actually lost forty
(15:11):
pounds in nine months and it's now stayed off for
sixteen years, and it feels it's completely a lifestyle. But
what happened during that process is that people started commenting
that I looked so much younger than I actually was,
and that those comments have continued for all of these years.
And it's because sugar also is a drug. It impacts
(15:32):
our skin, it impacts our energy, and it really brings
that out. So there's really no amount of creams that
we could put on our face that could cover up
a bad diet of sugar or other processed foods. And
so really starting with your diet, you're going to see
the effects on your skin. You're going to feel it
in your hair, and of course it's going to show
up in your metabolism increasing and you're releasing that unhealthy fat.
(15:54):
Especially that visceral fat is where it's often stored.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And that's something I see often the building where I
actually record podcasts and where I work, there's a dexa machine,
and that is something we see, of course as a trend.
Is often visceral fat increases for men and women, but
women especially in midlife. Like that's one place within the
body where fat tends to increase disproportionately, and like we
know statistically, visceral fat is much more dangerous than for instance,
(16:19):
fat on our legs or our glutes or places that
we would store it more from like a nutrient reserve perspective,
Like we don't want fat around our organs, and that
is something most women will encounter, like you said, if
we don't do something to be proactive around that, and
you mentioned sugar. I would love to go deeper on
the sugar topic and kind of a deeper explanation on
what it's doing in the body, what we can do
(16:41):
about it, especially I know we like our holiday culture
in the US, and there's just like a whole series
of sugar related holidays. But what are some of the reasons,
especially in midlife, that it would be worth like drastically
reducing it or avoiding sugar altogether.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yes. Absolutely, So the thing about sugar is that when
you have some sugar, it makes you want more sugar. Okay,
so this is really key. And sugar is truly a
drug where it's very addictive. So if we have sugar
in our diet, we're going to want different forms of sugar. Now,
sugar when you eat. When you eat it, your body
actually grows bacteria in your gut that responds, responds to it,
(17:17):
and it starts wanting more of it. So if you're
eating foods that break down to sugar, even if they're
healthy foods or marketed is healthy, but they have hidden
sugars in them, they will cause your gut biome to
grow the bacteria that is feeding off of sugar. But
when you actually transform this and you start feeding your
body foods like vegetables, like protein foods that have fiber
(17:39):
in it as well, then your body actually starts feeding
off of those foods and it starts wanting more of
those healthier foods. And you know, I used to feel
like I was born with sugar cravings. I actually felt
like if I walked into a room and there was
donuts or there was cookies, there was nothing that would
keep me from just straight going straight towards that table.
(18:00):
I'm at a new place now where I just am
okay with it if I want it, but I'm not
craving it and it's not calling my name. And this
isn't because we are born with sugar cravings or we're
not born. It's because we can actually transform our gut
biome with what we're eating. And then the actual process
of losing weight and getting healthier is very easy, and
(18:23):
it's downhill and you're not fighting yourself. You're not creating
this relationship with willpower that doesn't work very well. Instead,
your body's actually craving foods like vegetables instead of sugar.
And that may seem so contrasted and so different, but
that's often what happens, and that's actually what happened to me,
is that my body craves vegetables at every single meal,
(18:44):
and I need it first before I can eat anything else.
But I still enjoy sugar. I'll still enjoy it when
I'm on the weekend. I still like dark chocolate once
in a while, but I'm not thinking about it all
the time. So now, the key thing about sugar. What
happens is when you're eating foods that are high in sugar,
is that your body, your bit quickly breaks it down.
(19:04):
It's a food that is that is broken down. There's
not a lot of other elements to it that causes
a slower digestion. So when your food is broken down
quickly and it transforms into sugar, your blood sugar rises.
This is really important for women in midlife to understand
because when our blood sugar rises, that's when our insulin
(19:25):
is released from our pancreas and brings that blood sugar
down and then stores it as fat. And it's often
happening first in our belly. And so you know when
we are eating foods that are spiking our blood sugar
and then we'll bring its coming down really quickly. You'll
experience this in your energy because you'll have a quick
sugar high and then you'll have a sugar crash and
(19:47):
you'll feel really tired, and you'll also feel more hungry,
which will make you want to eat more calories. And
so it's actually doing a double disservice to our bodies
because it's causing us to be really low energy when
many of us have a lot of things to do,
and we're also hungrier, so we're taking in more calories
than our body really needs. And so really understanding that
(20:09):
we can actually still eat foods that break down to sugar,
but we can eat we compare them and combine them
with other foods that slow down that digestion. That way,
we can still enjoy a lot of the foods that
we love, but we're going to be understanding what foods
to combine them with in order to have an even
energy throughout the day and to prevent that fat storage.
(20:31):
There's also a few ingredients that you can just add
to your diet that are going to cause your blood
sugar to be more stable and more of a straight line.
And so you know this one area of blood sugar,
really understanding it in midlife can completely transform your metabolism
because instead of it just being about calories and calories out,
you're really understanding what your food is made of and
(20:53):
what the impact is to you causing increased fat storage
or preventing that fat storage. And so this is why
it's really important to know. You know where sugar's hiding,
what to combine it with, what to pair it with,
and how to keep your blood sugar even throughout the
day because you can really increase your metabolism from that,
and also.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Your energy levels and how you feel. I feel like
improved drastically when you have stable blood sugar, Like I
remember feeling that shift when I was working on my
thyroid and have kind of being shocks between that and
like getting my coaline levels figured out, Like actually, like, wow,
I have so much energy. I forgot what it felt
like to have this much energy. And you've talked about
a couple of the like metabolism boosting foods, but I
(21:33):
would love to go deeper on these as well, because
I feel like social media, especially kind of has a
lot of strange ideas of the foods to focus on.
And I see it still advice of people getting like
the very like low fat or like processed versions of
high protein foods that have kind of a bunch of
strange ingredients. But from the language of our body, what
actually does our body prefer, especially this time of life.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yes, oh my gosh, thank you for asking that questions.
Such a great question and you know, the first food
I'm gonna mention is also one of the secret foods
that helps us get off of sugar. Imagine not having
any sugar cravings by adding a certain food instead of
taking foods away. And that's why, you know, really thinking
of this concept of adding foods can change everything, especially
(22:17):
your metabolism, and it can really become a lifestyle instead
of a diet. And so that food, the number one
metabolism boosting food is protein. And you know, we have
heard about protein, but I really want to break down
why this is so important and what amount of protein
we need as well. So the first thing is, you know,
for what protein does is it digests much more slowly,
(22:39):
and so when you're eating protein, it helps to cause
even blood sugar and especially if you're eating a food
that has sugar in it, if you eat it with
a protein, it will slow down that sugar digestion and
it will really really decrease the amount of blood sugar
spikes and as a result, decreasing the amount of fat
storage that you're having. So because protein digest more slowly,
(23:01):
it's really preventing those blood sugar spikes. The other thing
about protein is that it has the concept of thermogenesis,
where it is burning thirty to forty percent more calories
just as you're digesting it, like it takes that much
more calories to digest it. And the thing about protein
is that it's a very steady digestion, so it stays
(23:21):
in your body for longer and so you're not hungrier.
You actually feel less hunger. And this is the number
one food that when I happen to miss the amount
of protein that I know my body needs, I actually
start to feel really sharp sugar cravings. Sometimes in a
few hours. It could be that quick that it transforms.
And that's why it's so important to know the amount
(23:43):
of protein your body needs and to keep it steady
throughout the day, because the moment that you skip it,
you will start having more sugar cravings. And the thing
about sugar cravings is that our body is crying out
for energy in a quick form because it doesn't have
enough energy, and that's why it's crying out for sugar.
But when you actually front load your energy by giving
(24:05):
yourself protein before you get those hunger cravings, your body
will be very satisfied with the energy that it has
and you will no longer crave sugar because your body
has the energy it needed and you already gave it
to it before it was searching for it from a
quick form. So this is really a key concept to understand,
is that not to wait till you're hungry to eat,
(24:27):
but to actually eat protein ahead of time, and you
will watch your sugar cravings literally disappear, and you're going
to watch your blood sugar. For those of you that
wear a continuous glucose monitor, you know, I started adding
protein as I was wearing my continuous glucose monitor and
there was really no other hack. There was no other secret,
there was no other you know, really kind of trendy
(24:50):
food that brought down my blood sugar better than just
adding protein to my diet. And so remember, when you
have your blood sugar that's steady, you will or less
fat and you will burn more fat. And that's why
this protein addition is so important. So those are you know,
those are some key reasons for protein, but let me
tell you about how much and some examples of what
(25:11):
that would be. So for you know, to get started,
it's really important to really make sure you're have enough
protein at breakfast. This is because many women are either
skipping breakfast, usually either doing intermitt and fasting and likely
eating less than your body needs throughout the day, or
you may be just having a quick breakfast like grabbing
(25:33):
something or having some coffee on an empty stomach, which
actually increases our cortisol and causes more fat storage. So
really starting with your breakfast and making sure that you're
getting thirty grams of protein at breakfast is an amazing
way to start, and in fact, my clients, once they
start adding more protein to their breakfast in the form
of thirty grams, they start to see weight loss start
(25:55):
happening right away. In fact, two to four pounds is
normal to lose in one week when you adding the
right amount of protein during the day and making sure
you're having protein throughout the day and kind of taking
out those high sugar foods well. With some examples of
how to get that, because it's very possible to do
it is to do something like, for example, two eggs
as a start, but that's not where you stop because
(26:17):
one egg is only six grams of protein. So if
you're having two eggs and feeling like it is a
lot of protein, it's good that it's more protein, but
you still will feel sugar cravings, or you still will
feel hungry and your metabolism will be slow if you
stop at those two eggs. So a good way to
supplement those twelve grams of protein from the eggs is
(26:38):
to do something like greek yogurt, which often has twenty
grams of protein. You can also put some berries a
cup of berries into that greek yogurt or on the side,
because that also adds fiber, which is another metabolism boosting
food and especially important for women in midlife because it's
helping push food through our gut and it's also keeping
us mouth full and satiated because we can't digest fiber,
(27:03):
but it's a heavier molecule that keeps us full until
it's excreted. So it's really the secret of this protein
and fiber, which is really important. So you can get
fiber from berries and especially low sugar fruit like berries
are amazing to include. Another idea is if you don't
eat dairy or you don't want to have greath yogurt,
is to do two eggs with a half a cup
(27:24):
or a cup of egg whites and then still have
that those berries on the side. And then if you
don't eat eggs and you or your vegan and you
want it to have something quicker. You could also do
a protein what I call a metabolism boosting warning protein smoothie,
and that's where you have a cup of non dairy
milk or water, you add a scoop of protein powder.
(27:46):
You can use any protein powder that you like, whether
it is plant protein, egg, white protein, weigh protein, whatever
your body responds to. And if you don't want to
use protein powder, you can use Greek yogurt is another option.
Add a cup of berry for the fiber, and then
what I call my secret ingredient two tablespoons of flax seeds,
and that gives you the fiber that will keep you
(28:07):
satisfied and really push food out of your gut. And
then if you want to add a little bit of
a flavor, you can add six mint leaves that are
muddled that if you use strawberries as your berry, I
love that smoothie. It's called my strawberry, mint and berry
smoothie and it's so delicious to get your metabolism going
in the morning. So those are some different options, and
you can also try having greek yogurt on your own
(28:29):
without the eggs and just adding some berries, adding a
little bit of nuts to it. Nuts are mainly a fat,
they're really not as much of a protein, which is
a myth that a lot of people have for four nuts,
but adding a little bit of that for a healthy
fat is also very satiating. So that's a really great
way to get started, is to increase your protein at
breakfast and then for lunch and dinner, try to have
(28:52):
thirty grams of protein, which is really easy in the
form of four to five ounces of chicken, salmon, seven
ounces of tofu. You can also have greek yoburt. Really
increase that protein during the day and add in some
veggies on the side for your fiber, and some healthy
carbs are also really important. But those are a few
examples of metabolism boosting foods that really get your fat
(29:15):
burning going.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
That's awesome, and like I said, I have felt the difference,
like when you're not getting enough protein and then you start,
it's like a light bulb turns on in your brain.
Your body's energy goes up drastically, And I feel like
this also of course ties into what we talked about
at the beginning of like focusing on the nutrient consumption
and like protein being a big part of that with
all the amino acids that we need for literally everything
(29:37):
that happens within the body. Are there any other key
nutrients that women are especially like prone to not getting
enough of in midlife?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yes, there are. Thank you so much for asking. So,
you know, I mentioned the fiber that's really key. But
another thing I really want to really share more of.
You know, it's really important that we each have all
of the macronutrients so we don't need to take out
we don't need to take out carbs. Our body needs
these foods. And though even though you may have found
success in terms of weight loss previously in life where
(30:08):
maybe you're low carb and you found that you lost weight,
this actually stops working in mid life, and so eating
healthy carbs are really important. And so healthy carbs are
carbs that have complex fiber in them, so they're not
just the typical complex carbs, but they actually have added
fiber in them. They're supercarbs or what I call slimming carbs,
(30:30):
because when you eat more of these, they help push
food out and you're also replenishing your body, especially you're syroid,
so healthy carbs are foods like sweet potatoes, beans, lentiles.
Also you can use ezekio bread or a sprouted grain bread.
And if you enjoy rice, instead of rice, I recommend
(30:51):
having what I call slimming grains, which are alternatives to rice.
So they are foods that they're not as high in
spiking your blood sugar. And these are foods like kinwa, millet, buckwheat,
and furrow. So if you still like grains, these are
really great alternatives. And when you add your protein and
have that first, you'll find that you won't be as
(31:12):
hungry for the grains. So have a little bit less
than you may have been eating otherwise, but still make
sure you're getting it at least one to two times
a day. And it's really important for you to do this. Now.
When I see women skipping carbs, what I see it's
very interesting, but it's a direct correlation to later that
evening they start having late night cravings that are uncontrollable
(31:36):
cravings for things like ice cream, peanut butter, chocolate. And
you know, it feels very frustrating because you may have
been healthy all day and then you're getting these uncontrollable cravings.
But I've seen this and traced it directly back to
not having enough carbs, especially at lunch. And so when
you add in the right amount of carbs and the
right quality of carbs like the ones I just mentioned,
(31:57):
your body will be more satisfied throughout the day. The
other macronutrient I want to mention that's really important as
well is healthy fats. And you know, healthy fats are
something that maybe we feel like we in the past,
you know, we felt like, oh, low fat was good.
The thing is, I agree, and I believe in moderate fat.
(32:18):
I've seen that have the best metabolism boosting effect for women.
And healthy fats also slow digestion, so they help you
so that your body is not increasing blood sugar and
they keep you full for longer. Now, the important, really
important thing about healthy fats is increasing what's called our
omega three fats. This is really important for women in
(32:40):
midlife because omega three fats and having the right balance
of them is going to decrease swelling and decrease inflammation.
And what's really important and helpful to know is that
you know there's these other fats called omega sixes that
are often found in processed foods. If you are eating
processed food and it has fat in it, it's going
to be an omega six fat. They're also found in
(33:02):
vegetable oils, soybean oils, a lot of restaurant food that's unhealthy,
and it's also found in healthy foods as well. But
there's a balance that we're supposed to have for a healthy,
lean body, and that balance is two to one omega
sixes to omega three, so two times the omega six
is to omega threes, and some people even say one
(33:24):
to one. But what's really interesting and really surprising is
that the typical American diet that balance is sixteen to one,
sixteen omega sixes to one omega three. And when you
are this off balance, that is what creates swelling and inflammation.
And so we really want to take a lot of
(33:45):
effort to make sure we're getting enough omega threes in
our diet because when you get that balance more correct
to the two to one that I mentioned, you will
notice your inflammation is going to decrease so quickly. I mean,
it's not about calorie cutting. This is really about getting
the right nutrients. And these ones are specific omega threes
and the way that we can get omega threes is
(34:05):
foods like salmon, foods like sardines. But the number one
food that you can add to get the most omega
threes is to use flaxseed oil in your day. And
flaxseed oil has three times as much omega threes as
salmon does. And so if you were to do something
like use two tea spoons of flaxseed oil and put
it over your food so that it doesn't have to
(34:28):
heat up. You doing this plus adding you know, foods
like salmon's other healthy using foods like avocados, that's going
to really help you decrease that inflammation. And so you know,
I put this together in something called the fat burning
food Framework, which kind of to make it really easy
to visualize is this isn't very complicated. It's really about
(34:49):
if you look at your plate, having about fifty percent
of it be protein, fifty percent of it be vegetables,
so that you're getting your protein in your fiber at
lunch and sometimes at dinner, have about a fourth of
your plate be healthy carbs, and then add the three
servings of healthy fats a day. Those are often in
the proteins we're eating so things like salmon has enough
(35:12):
healthy fats, beef chicken thighs tofu. So when you're eating
a fatty protein, that will be where you get your
healthy fats. Or you can always add a half an
avocado or two tablespoons of nuts or nut butter. And
an easy way to think about getting the right amount
of fat is fat three times a day. And so
you know, the number two reason I found that women
(35:35):
in midlife are not losing weight is because they are
mistakenly eating too much fat. So it's really important to
know the balance because fat is very caloric. So if
you mistakenly eat too much because a lot of women
maybe eating nuts or maybe eating a healthy nut butter
and feeling like it's a healthy food to eat, but
not realizing that it adds up very very quickly. So
(35:58):
if there's one food to really understand the portions for
it is any healthy fats that you're eating, and try
to have fat three times a day, and that will
really help you lean you know, get into that leaner place.
But try to have those fats be those omega three
fats as well.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
That makes sense, and that like fats are used in
hormone production, so we don't want to avoid them entirely,
like you said, but it's about threading that needle because
they also like they're very clerically done so our body
won't burn our own fat if we're getting too much.
It also seems to not if we're getting too little,
because that's another of those stress signals. This episode is
(36:36):
brought to you by by Optimizers, and I love this company,
and specifically today I want to talk about one of
the favorite things that they make, which is called mass Times.
So let's be real. We all kind of start this
part of the year saying we're going to eat cleaner,
train harder, feel lighter. But it's not just what we
eat and what we do, it's what we absorb, and
if our digestion is sluggish, the body just can't keep up.
(36:59):
And this is why I mass symes all year, but
especially this time of year, because it's a simple digestive
ritual that's made a huge difference for me. It's loaded
with eighteen enzymes, including four times more proteins than top competitors,
to help us break down dietary protein, carbs and fats efficiently.
And I've shared before done a whole episode on enzymes
and how this was really really impactful for me personally.
(37:22):
But this means that we get better nutrent and absorption,
less bloating, and more real energy from the food we're
already eating. I'm also a big fan of nutrient loading
and really maximizing that in our food too, and enzymes
help us get the maximal benefit from this. It's this
hard working yet smooth enzyme blend and it's been a
favorite of mine for years and a customer favorite for
over twenty years. It's a ritual that your stomach will
(37:44):
thank you for. Anecdotally, I feel like I really don't
get sick now that I have made these a regular
part of my routine. A lot of people find they
don't have postmeal food hangovers or blowed after taking these.
Just clean energy to crush goals all year long. For
a limited time, you can save up to twenty six
percent off of their products and bundles during the New
(38:06):
Year New U sale by using my code Wellness Mama
fifteen at checkout, and select bundles are on sale for
up to forty five percent off, so you can get
a massive discount there. Visit bioptimizers dot com, slash Wellness
Mama and use the code Wellness Mama fifteen at checkout
to get the best deal on mass SIMES and all
bioptimizers products. That's BO P T I, M I Z
(38:28):
E R S dot com, slash Wellness Mama and the
code Wellness Mama fifteen. So start twenty twenty six with
a stronger get more energy and better digestion. What about
from I know this is like a different sort of category,
and I prefer when possible to get everything from food anyway,
But I know for my own experimentation, like I have
(38:50):
felt better when I got my mineral levels in the
right range, both through food and I do supplement some
of those. I avoided eggs for a long time because
I was intolerant before I fix my guys, and I
was very very deficient and cooling personally because I hadn't
eaten eggs in like a decade at that point, and
so fixing a few kind of key deficiency for me
was a really big game changer. Are there any things,
(39:12):
either through food or through supplements, that women in midlife
commonly need more often that we're just not getting enough anymore?
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Yes, there are some things, definitely, and it's you know,
it's really important to know which of these things are
really important. Because there's so much conversation and so many
supplements out there, it can feel really overwhelming, and a
lot of times we're looking at supplements as the magic
bullet to increasing our metabolism. We're fixing the problem. So
you know, the number one thing to do to increase
(39:39):
your metabolism is to eat the right foods in the
way that I just shared, because that will completely shift
your metabolism. But we do need some support of certain
foods that are really hard, certain ingredients in minerals and
vitamins that our body can't actually get can't make as
much of anymore, And so I'm going to name a
few of the most key ones are really important. So
(40:01):
number one, magnesium. Having about two hundred milligrams of magnesium
is very helpful. A lot of women in midlife are
deficient in this, and it's also going to help you
with sleep, which is something that many of us notice
that we don't get as well. So having magnesium is important.
You can get it over the counter, and magnesium glycon
it is the one that I recommend, but other magnesiums
(40:23):
can also work, so that's really important. Vitamin D is
extremely important and ideally we should be between fifty and
eighty in our blood work. Now, if you are not
taking a vitamin D supplement, then you do have those numbers.
That's great, but it's one of the rare vitamins that
we will actually get enough of. So this is the
(40:46):
reason vitamin D is so important is it is a
precursor to our hormones. So the hormones that we're still making,
we want to be able to make them in the
right amount. It's also important for our bone health, and
so if you're not getting in a vitamin D, you
are going to see some things that are going to
decline more quickly, So that's really important. The other thing
that is also helpful is adding creatine to your diet
(41:08):
and what creatine does, and I want to dispel a
myss you know while I'm talking about this about creatine,
but creatine is very important for us to increase our joints,
really help us be able to lift heavier for those
of us that are lifting weights, and it just really
gives us a lot of support that as we age,
will help us in terms of our joint movement. Now,
(41:29):
creatine you only need to add five grams a day.
You can add this into your water, you could add
this into anything that you're having, And there is a
myth that it will help you. That what creatine does
is it creates water retention, and so a lot of
women are afraid to start using it, but it actually
would only do that if you were to bulk up
with it and add twenty grams a day in the
(41:51):
very beginning, which some people like to do so that
they quickly get the effects of creatine. But if you
just start off by adding five grams a day, you're
not going to see that water tension and you're going
to be able to really get that joint support that'll
be important. So those are a few that are really important.
I also recommend definitely getting your thyroid checked in a
complete panel, Katie. I know you're very familiar with that
(42:13):
as you've done so much work and just done amazing
had amazing progress with it too, But really getting your
T three levels checked, your T four, your reverse T three,
and then also of course TSH but not stopping at TSH.
Those are really important to understand if you may have
hypothyroidism or you may have hashimotives. By getting your antibodies
(42:34):
checked and really just taking action on doing it, sometimes
on your own or sometimes with the help of a
thyroid specialist, even if you're not getting that direction from
your regular physician in some cases. And then one other
area that is you know your personal preference to replenish
with is you know our hormones and our body will
(42:55):
not make the hormones that decline in midlife, and so
our estrogen is declining. But it's not just estrogen, and
it's estrogen declines at different rates for different women, but
it could be happening, you know, likely in your early forties,
around forty three is as kind of a magic age
where a lot of women start experiencing some changes and
(43:16):
they don't just they don't feel like themselves anymore. But
the other areas that you know, estrogen is very is
very known to be a horm on that declines. But
one that I find is so important to understand is
testosterone and knowing the effect of testosterone and getting your
testosterone levels checked because that can really cause a decline
(43:36):
in testosterone, which happens in midlife as well. If you
have a large decline in it will cause a brain fog,
will cause low energy, it will cause viera libido if
it goes down too low, and you also won't be
able to build muscle. So if you're working out, you'll
be able to build that muscle that increases your metabolism
and then of course progesterone. So I really advise women
(43:57):
to get a full blood panel of their omones as
well of their full thyroid, as well as just their
regular metabolic markers, and really get this more frequently in
midlife so that you are understanding what's changing and what
you can do about it. But you know, the supplements
that many women can take is you know, are those
ones that I mentioned magnesium, creatine and vitamin D and
(44:20):
those will be very helpful.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
I love that, and I will say anecdotally just because
anytime I get a chance to talk about the importance
of sunshine and natural light, I feel like that's another
area that controversially but in my opinion, we kind of
unfairly misunderstood or are demonized. So I'm one of the
people that do to genetics and VDR receptors. I was
taking vitamin D forever and it did nothing, And it
wasn't until I got sunshine, adequate sunshine that my level
(44:45):
started increasing, so I don't convert well from oral vitamin
D supplements and one other hack there I learned I
can put vitamin D supplements on my skin and absorb
them slightly better. But I know there is a subset
of the population that is kind of like odd like
I am when it comes to that. But I always
say like, there is a time and a place I
think for healthy sun exposure, and for me, vitamin D
was one of those categories, and my levels now eighty six. Naturally,
(45:07):
I don't take any supplements anymore. So I've seen firsthand
at work, and I just always love the chance to
step on the soapbox about the sunshine as well. I
also know this topic is so deep and nuanced, and
that you do a lot of one on one work
with people and even workshops to help women really understand
and apply this to them. Can you talk about your workshop,
(45:28):
and of course I'll link to it in the show
notes as well.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Oh, yes, absolutely well. I host a workshop called the
five Day Metabolism Boost for midlife Women, and during this workshop,
I tell you all of the next steps of everything
that I've shared today. Day one is the four part
metabolism Boosting Morning routine where I share four steps to
jump start your morning and really get your metabolism going,
and it's very easy to take action on these things.
(45:53):
I also have a full day where I talk about
how to get off sugar without feeling tired or restricted,
and I share verypific food combinations and food timings that
will increase your metabolism. And then I also share the
four part fat burning food framework in detail, and I
show you what foods you can add to your breakfast, lunch,
and dinner and how to combine them and in what portions.
(46:16):
So my next workshop, I'm so excited, is starting next
week on January twelfth, so we will include the show notes.
I invite you it is complementary. It's five days. We
also do have replays if you're not able to come live,
and if you are watching this episode after that, I
have one coming up very soon after, and so you
can just click the link as well and you'll be
directed to that date. But we are going to show
(46:38):
you a very easy five step process to increase your
metabolism using delicious foods and by adding the right foods
that get your metabolism fired up amazing. Well.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
I will link to that as well as to your
website and so many other resources that you have available
in the show notes. I am sure this has been
inspiring and educational for so long many people listening, and
highly recommend all of the resources you have available, and
like the in depth guides on all of these things.
If you guys are interested. She goes so much deeper
on all of these I'll put all those links in
the show notes at wellness Maama dot com. Is there
(47:12):
anything else that we did not touch on that you
feel like as a vital pillar of this, or that
you would point women into looking deeper into.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
One other thing that you'll you know that you're going
to share. The link for which I think will be
really helpful for women is my sweet Spice cheat sheet.
And this is going to be a cheat sheet that
talks about one spice to add and it's a sweet spice,
and you likely already have it in your kitchen cabinet,
and so this really is helpful in the first steps
of getting off of sugar and knowing what to add
(47:40):
it to. And I also have a fat burning fire
tea that uses this sweet spice in it that you
can use at night to get your metabolism going and
help you sleep better. So you know, really coming from
the place of what foods to add, what ingredients to add,
is going to increase your metabolism further. And so really
just doubting on understanding that and moving away from the
(48:02):
restriction way of thinking is really going to help you
transform your lifestyle. And that's what this can be a lifestyle.
And this is what in mid life we really it's
our time to put ourselves first. If we don't put
ourselves first, things are going to change in a way
that we don't want them to. But if we take
this extra effort and really look at what we can
(48:23):
add and how we can make it enjoyable, it can
actually be so pleasant and so much fun to create
this healthy lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Amazing. Well, this has been such a fun conversation. Well,
like I said, put all those links in the show notes,
I took a lot of notes while you were talking
as well, So all of those in the show notes
at onnesswama dot com as well as ways to find
and go deeper with you. But for today, thank you
so much for your time. I know I learned a lot.
This was such a fun conversation to have I'm so
grateful for your time. Thank you, thank you, and thank
(48:53):
you as always for listening and sharing your most valuable resources,
your time, your energy, and your attention with us today.
We're both so grateful that you did and I hope
that you will join me again on the next episode
with the Wellness Mama podcast. If you're enjoying these interviews,
would you please take two minutes to leave a rating
or review on iTunes for me. Doing this helps more
(49:15):
people to find the podcast, which means even more moms
and families can benefit from the information. I really appreciate
your time and thanks as always for listening.
Welcome to My Body's podcast. This episode is brought to
you by by Optimizers, and I love this company, and
specifically today when I talk about one of the favorite
things that they make, which is called mass Symes. So
let's be real. We all kind of start this part
of the year saying we're going to eat cleaner, train harder,
feel lighter. But it's not just what we eat and
(00:23):
what we do, it's what we absorb, and if our
digestion is sluggish, the body just can't keep up. And
this is why I love mass Symes all year, but
especially this time of year, because it's a simple digestive
ritual that's made a huge difference for me. It's loaded
with eighteen enzymes, including four times more proteins than top competitors,
to help us break down dietary protein, carbs and fats efficiently.
(00:45):
And I've shared before, done a whole episode on enzymes
and how this was really really impactful for me personally.
But this means that we get better nutrent and absorption,
less bloating, and more real energy from the food we're
already eating. I'm also a big fan of nutrient loading
and really maximizing that in our food too, and enzymes
help us get the maximum benefit from this. It's this
(01:05):
hard working yet smooth enzyme blend and it's been a
favorite of mine for years and a customer favorite for
over twenty years. It's a ritual that your stomach will
thank you for. Anecdotally, I feel like I really don't
get sick now that I have made these a regular
part of my routine. A lot of people find they
don't have postmeal food hangovers or bloat after taking these.
Just clean energy to crush goals all year long. For
(01:29):
a limited time, you can save up to twenty six
percent off of their products and bundles during the New Year,
New U sale by using my code Wellness Mama fifteen
at checkout, and select bundles are on sale for up
to forty five percent off, so you can get a
massive discount there. Visit Bioptimizers dot com slash Mallness Mama
and use the code Wellness Mama fifteen at checkout to
(01:51):
get the best deal on mass SIMES and all Bioptimizers products.
So that's b Io p T I, M I Z
e r s dot com, slash ones Mama and the
code Wellness Mama fifteen. So start twenty twenty six with
a strong cur get more energy and better digestion. Hello
and welcome to the Wellness Mama podcast. I'm Katie from
(02:13):
Walnessmama dot com and this episode is all about how
to boost your metabolism in midlife, especially by adding timing
and pairing food, so not about restriction and some really
helpful key takeaways in this episode. I'm here with the
Guinna Abdullah, who is a weight loss coach for women
in midlife and founder of the top rate of website
(02:33):
masalabody dot com, which I'll link to in the show notes.
She has a degree in molecular and cell biology from
UC Berkeley and is a graduate of NYU. She's helped
thousands of women in midlife to successfully lose weight permanently,
and this episode really goes deep on her expertise related
to metabolism and specifically while we often need more of
(02:55):
certain key things in order to keep our metabolism strong
in midlife and get a lot of incorrect or conflicting
information about this, So lots of key takeaways in this episode,
lots of notes in the show notes without any further weight.
Let's join her now. Gigina welcome. Thank you so much
for being here.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Thanks so much, Katie. I'm so excited for a conversation.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Me too, and we get to chat years ago. I
will link to that episode in the show notes, and
I got to reconnect with you recently and was so
excited to have you back on to tackle a topic
that I think is super relevant to a lot of
people listening, which is the very broad and nuanced topic
of metabolism in midlife. And I know there's a lot
that goes into this, and it seems like also thanks
(03:39):
to probably social media, there's also a lot of like
kind of misconceptions floating around about this and a lot
of like I've seen diets and cleanses and all these
kind of like elaborate things sort of designed to tackle
this topic. I know it's broad and like I said,
we're going to go in a lot of directions, but
can you kind of intro us in a broad way
into the topic and maybe some of these kind of
pillars that people don't really understand when it comes to
(04:02):
the metabolism for midlife women especially, and the things that shift.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yes, absolutely well, you know in midlife is it's a
different things that are different in midlife because we are,
you know, our bodies have changed, and we actually have
to take different approaches to keep our body more lean
and more fit and also more healthy even from a
gut health perspective. So things like restriction and dieting they
actually stop working in midlife. And that's because our body
(04:29):
requires more nutrients. And so when we give our body
the right foods, which we'll talk about in detail today,
we increase our metabolism. And so what that means is
that we burn more calories and burn more fat while
doing the same activities. And a lot of increasing metabolism
during midlife comes purely from nutrition and from eating right,
(04:49):
so it's not coming from exercise. It's coming from getting
your diet aligned and in the right place, and then
our metabolism can increase and we can actually burn more fat.
Now in midlife, a lot of things are changing, so
our metabolism could be naturally decreasing if we don't take
the steps we're going to discuss today. So some of
the things that are happening is that, first of all,
(05:11):
it's natural to become more insulin resistant in midlife. What
that means is that if we are eating things like carbs,
that break down to sugar or just eating sugar. This
includes eating foods that are considered healthy like granola or
dried fruit or even fruit. Our body can't always is
not going to release insulin in the same way as efficiently.
(05:33):
Our body is not reacting to insulin as efficiently. So
what usually happens is when we have a carb or sugar,
insulin is released, and what happens is that it takes
that sugar that is elevating our blood sugar and it
brings it into our body and often stores it as fat. Now,
this is happening more quickly in midlife, so when we're
(05:53):
eating carbs or sugar, we're getting that fat storage much
more quickly. And this is just because of chain that
are happening due to hormonal shifts, due to muscle mass declines,
and so this is one of the key things that
why this is why a lot of women will feel
like they're gaining weight, especially in their belly area, is
because of this insulin resistance that starts happening. But we
(06:14):
can actually combat that simply with natural food. Another thing
that happens is that our hormones are declining, so as
our estrogen is declining, especially, we are more prone to
inflammation that estrogen was protecting us from. So this inflammation
starts to be released, and a lot of times we'll
feel like we're gaining fat in our belly. Some of
it is fat, but it's also inflammation, and so that's
(06:37):
going to require something different than restricting your body from calories,
which will just keep you stuck. And then, finally, another
key area that's changing in a pillar that's important to
understand is that as we're going through midlife and beyond,
we are declining in our muscle mass. And when our
bodies transform from muscle to more fat, muscle burns more calory.
(07:00):
So when you have less muscle on your body, which
is happening naturally unless you take actions to build it,
you're going to be burning less calories. And so when
we have less muscle, our metabolism is slowing. And so
for all of these reasons, restriction of food and dieting
is just going to keep women more stuck and actually
keep women unhealthier than if you learn the right foods
(07:23):
to add, which will increase your metabolism, help you burn
more fat, and also be more sustainable because it's much
easier to feel satiated and feel good and feel energized
rather than tired and restricted, which is really hard to
keep up, you know, for longer than a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I love this and to double click on some I
think really important points you made. I love that you
frame this kind of from the perspective of, like, yes,
these shifts are happening, and the body is always on
our side. So if we're not eating enough, if we're
not getting enough nutrients, it's not ever that the body
is like working against us. It's trying to protect us
because it's getting the signal from us like not enough nutrients,
not enough food, hold onto resources, protect the hormones, do
(08:03):
all the things. So when we learn to speak its language,
we get this amazing data. And I actually just had
a similar conversation with my teenage daughters who are wanting
to gain muscle and get leaner, and the culture tells
them just like eat less food. And I was kind
of having that conversation with them why that long term
is counterproductive, because are you sending safety signals to your body?
(08:23):
Are you sending survival signals to your body and telling
it to hold on to things? And I think that
part you said about the demand for nutrients goes up.
To me, it makes sense like teenagers actually in a
growth spurt would have a similar demand for more nutrients.
But then we maybe don't pay as much attention to
that in midlife when we think about we don't think
of that as kind of almost like it's just as
(08:44):
much of a hormonal shift as puberty, even like a
lot changing And it makes sense to me that our
body would need more nutrients during that time. But let's
go deeper on that topic, because I feel like that
point alone might be a new concept for a lot
of people, listing that we actually need more food and
more nutrients especially.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yes, so it's really important that you know, to really
actually understand that if we're not giving our body nutrients,
our body can't process in the correct way. And one
of the biggest things that's help that's happening for women
in midlife is our gut health is declining. And so
what that means specifically is that when we're feeding ourselves,
there's a lot of foods and also hormones and also
(09:23):
toxins that are not able to be excreted from our gut,
and a lot of it is our liver function also
just other aspects of our gut, and what our gut
is crying out for is more nutrients. And so if
you underfeed your body because maybe you feel like you'll
put on weight, that's a really big reason that a
lot of women are under eating. Well, what's going to
(09:44):
happen is that your gut will start to decline in function,
and it's going to recycle foods, hormones and toxins, and
you're going to get more of that inflammatory feeling and
that inflammatory look. And so the thing is that it
can feel scary to eat more because because we've been
taught our whole lives that we are supposed to eat
less in order to lose weight, in order to be
(10:05):
healthier or look healthier from a losing weight perspective. But
everything is really shifting in midlife, and so there's a
few key things that are important to eat less of.
But when you start eating more of the foods we'll
talk about even more. What will happen is that you'll
have less cravings for sugar. And so more sugar will
(10:26):
cause a lower immune function, it will cause gut disruption.
And so of course we do know that it's important
to bring down sugar in order to increase metabolism in
order to lose weight and be in a healthier place.
But instead of just pulling back from sugar, the better
thing to do is to double down on adding the
right foods that are nutrient rich, and then your body
(10:48):
will feel like it has enough energy and it won't
be crying out for quick energy sources like sugar.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That makes sense to me, and also just seems like
i'much more positive mindset approach from the place of like
positively supporting the body versus restriction, which I feel like
psychologically like we're wired to kind of resist restriction and
resist loss and resist like kind of too much structure
and rules, and I feel like so much of diet
culture is centered around that, like restriction and avoiding and
(11:17):
will power, which only gets us so far, especially if
we're battling the body's like survival cues and things it's
legitimately asking for and in fact, for me, I'm not
fully in like a metopausal araa yet, but I did
have this when I was healing my thyroid was realizing
I had kind of worked myself into this cycle of
restricting more and more and more and more, because the
problem is once you start doing that, you have to
(11:39):
keep doing it more for it to keep working. And
then I was eventually eating so little that my body
was probably getting like complete stress signals all the time,
thinking it was in a famine. And part of my
healing was actually adding much more food and making the
mental shift away from macros and calorie counting and into
how can I maximize the nutrients I'm geting in any
(12:01):
meal that I eat. And so I stopped even like
thinking of calories or even macros other than just making
sure I got enough protein and healthy fats. But I
would say, like, of all the choices available, how can
I choose the most nutrients? And that was such a
more positive reframe to come from and to make choices from,
rather than like restriction.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Absolutely, and now you know you said something. Really you
know so many things that are so important, but one
of the key things that you mentioned is the stress
that you had been putting your body under. And this
is really important to talk about in midlife because we
are not able to handle as much stress as we were.
Our cortisol rises, which is our cortisols are stress hormone
rises much more quickly than it does than it did before.
(12:41):
But the thing is a lot of times we feel
that the only way that we can lower stress is
to lower stress in our lifestyle, but actually there's more
to it, because you know, one of the biggest reasons
I've seen that women in midlife are not losing weight
is actually because they're under eating. And it's not because
they're overeating. It's not because they're eating too many things
or they're not exercising. It's because they're under eating. And
(13:03):
what happens is when we under eat, we put our
body in a stress state. Our body is stressed because
it's not getting enough food, enough nutrients, and so it
has to hold on to the whatever calories we give
it and store it and weight because it doesn't know
when we're getting in our next meal. And so, for example,
like when you had a thyroid issue and you replenished
your body, your body was your thyroid was needing more nutrients.
(13:27):
It was needing that food and that's what actually got
it going and really started the thyroid to function correctly.
And you know, specifically, the thyroid is an area that
many women struggle within midlife because when we're under eating,
our thyroid isn't functioning as well. As it should be,
and that's our metabolism boosting glant. So when it's underperforming,
(13:49):
our metabolism is lower. But it also comes into play
that we're stressing our gut, we're stressing our body when
we're under eating, because we're under eating the nutrients that
our body needs. We're humans, we need food and we
need nutrients. So when we look at it from a
restriction perspective, that actually doesn't come into play anymore when
our body is more more needing of nutrients in this
(14:13):
midlife stage.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I feel like this is of course, like most important
for the things that we've already talked about, of course,
like your gut health, your even bone density and not
losing muscle, like all of these vital bodily functions, and
seemingly also ties into the physical appearance of aging as well,
like if we're not getting basic nutrients, if we're not
getting enough protein and nourishing our body at a basic level,
(14:35):
the skin also ages faster. I don't think that's like
the front line or the most important thing to consider
at all, but I know that is important to a
lot of people, and so I feel like it's also
worth noting that, like not giving the body the nutrients
it needs will also make us look older faster than
we need to.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
That is so true, and you know, it's really important
to know that what we're putting in our bodies is
coming out in our skin and is coming out in
our hair. I know when I got of sugar about
fifteen years ago, and that's where I started adding a
lot of metabolism boosting foods to my diet, and I
naturally wanted less sugar, and so I actually lost forty
(15:11):
pounds in nine months and it's now stayed off for
sixteen years, and it feels it's completely a lifestyle. But
what happened during that process is that people started commenting
that I looked so much younger than I actually was,
and that those comments have continued for all of these years.
And it's because sugar also is a drug. It impacts
(15:32):
our skin, it impacts our energy, and it really brings
that out. So there's really no amount of creams that
we could put on our face that could cover up
a bad diet of sugar or other processed foods. And
so really starting with your diet, you're going to see
the effects on your skin. You're going to feel it
in your hair, and of course it's going to show
up in your metabolism increasing and you're releasing that unhealthy fat.
(15:54):
Especially that visceral fat is where it's often stored.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And that's something I see often the building where I
actually record podcasts and where I work, there's a dexa machine,
and that is something we see, of course as a trend.
Is often visceral fat increases for men and women, but
women especially in midlife. Like that's one place within the
body where fat tends to increase disproportionately, and like we
know statistically, visceral fat is much more dangerous than for instance,
(16:19):
fat on our legs or our glutes or places that
we would store it more from like a nutrient reserve perspective,
Like we don't want fat around our organs, and that
is something most women will encounter, like you said, if
we don't do something to be proactive around that, and
you mentioned sugar. I would love to go deeper on
the sugar topic and kind of a deeper explanation on
what it's doing in the body, what we can do
(16:41):
about it, especially I know we like our holiday culture
in the US, and there's just like a whole series
of sugar related holidays. But what are some of the reasons,
especially in midlife, that it would be worth like drastically
reducing it or avoiding sugar altogether.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yes. Absolutely, So the thing about sugar is that when
you have some sugar, it makes you want more sugar. Okay,
so this is really key. And sugar is truly a
drug where it's very addictive. So if we have sugar
in our diet, we're going to want different forms of sugar. Now,
sugar when you eat. When you eat it, your body
actually grows bacteria in your gut that responds, responds to it,
(17:17):
and it starts wanting more of it. So if you're
eating foods that break down to sugar, even if they're
healthy foods or marketed is healthy, but they have hidden
sugars in them, they will cause your gut biome to
grow the bacteria that is feeding off of sugar. But
when you actually transform this and you start feeding your
body foods like vegetables, like protein foods that have fiber
(17:39):
in it as well, then your body actually starts feeding
off of those foods and it starts wanting more of
those healthier foods. And you know, I used to feel
like I was born with sugar cravings. I actually felt
like if I walked into a room and there was
donuts or there was cookies, there was nothing that would
keep me from just straight going straight towards that table.
(18:00):
I'm at a new place now where I just am
okay with it if I want it, but I'm not
craving it and it's not calling my name. And this
isn't because we are born with sugar cravings or we're
not born. It's because we can actually transform our gut
biome with what we're eating. And then the actual process
of losing weight and getting healthier is very easy, and
(18:23):
it's downhill and you're not fighting yourself. You're not creating
this relationship with willpower that doesn't work very well. Instead,
your body's actually craving foods like vegetables instead of sugar.
And that may seem so contrasted and so different, but
that's often what happens, and that's actually what happened to me,
is that my body craves vegetables at every single meal,
(18:44):
and I need it first before I can eat anything else.
But I still enjoy sugar. I'll still enjoy it when
I'm on the weekend. I still like dark chocolate once
in a while, but I'm not thinking about it all
the time. So now, the key thing about sugar. What
happens is when you're eating foods that are high in sugar,
is that your body, your bit quickly breaks it down.
(19:04):
It's a food that is that is broken down. There's
not a lot of other elements to it that causes
a slower digestion. So when your food is broken down
quickly and it transforms into sugar, your blood sugar rises.
This is really important for women in midlife to understand
because when our blood sugar rises, that's when our insulin
(19:25):
is released from our pancreas and brings that blood sugar
down and then stores it as fat. And it's often
happening first in our belly. And so you know when
we are eating foods that are spiking our blood sugar
and then we'll bring its coming down really quickly. You'll
experience this in your energy because you'll have a quick
sugar high and then you'll have a sugar crash and
(19:47):
you'll feel really tired, and you'll also feel more hungry,
which will make you want to eat more calories. And
so it's actually doing a double disservice to our bodies
because it's causing us to be really low energy when
many of us have a lot of things to do,
and we're also hungrier, so we're taking in more calories
than our body really needs. And so really understanding that
(20:09):
we can actually still eat foods that break down to sugar,
but we can eat we compare them and combine them
with other foods that slow down that digestion. That way,
we can still enjoy a lot of the foods that
we love, but we're going to be understanding what foods
to combine them with in order to have an even
energy throughout the day and to prevent that fat storage.
(20:31):
There's also a few ingredients that you can just add
to your diet that are going to cause your blood
sugar to be more stable and more of a straight line.
And so you know this one area of blood sugar,
really understanding it in midlife can completely transform your metabolism
because instead of it just being about calories and calories out,
you're really understanding what your food is made of and
(20:53):
what the impact is to you causing increased fat storage
or preventing that fat storage. And so this is why
it's really important to know. You know where sugar's hiding,
what to combine it with, what to pair it with,
and how to keep your blood sugar even throughout the
day because you can really increase your metabolism from that,
and also.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Your energy levels and how you feel. I feel like
improved drastically when you have stable blood sugar, Like I
remember feeling that shift when I was working on my
thyroid and have kind of being shocks between that and
like getting my coaline levels figured out, Like actually, like, wow,
I have so much energy. I forgot what it felt
like to have this much energy. And you've talked about
a couple of the like metabolism boosting foods, but I
(21:33):
would love to go deeper on these as well, because
I feel like social media, especially kind of has a
lot of strange ideas of the foods to focus on.
And I see it still advice of people getting like
the very like low fat or like processed versions of
high protein foods that have kind of a bunch of
strange ingredients. But from the language of our body, what
actually does our body prefer, especially this time of life.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yes, oh my gosh, thank you for asking that questions.
Such a great question and you know, the first food
I'm gonna mention is also one of the secret foods
that helps us get off of sugar. Imagine not having
any sugar cravings by adding a certain food instead of
taking foods away. And that's why, you know, really thinking
of this concept of adding foods can change everything, especially
(22:17):
your metabolism, and it can really become a lifestyle instead
of a diet. And so that food, the number one
metabolism boosting food is protein. And you know, we have
heard about protein, but I really want to break down
why this is so important and what amount of protein
we need as well. So the first thing is, you know,
for what protein does is it digests much more slowly,
(22:39):
and so when you're eating protein, it helps to cause
even blood sugar and especially if you're eating a food
that has sugar in it, if you eat it with
a protein, it will slow down that sugar digestion and
it will really really decrease the amount of blood sugar
spikes and as a result, decreasing the amount of fat
storage that you're having. So because protein digest more slowly,
(23:01):
it's really preventing those blood sugar spikes. The other thing
about protein is that it has the concept of thermogenesis,
where it is burning thirty to forty percent more calories
just as you're digesting it, like it takes that much
more calories to digest it. And the thing about protein
is that it's a very steady digestion, so it stays
(23:21):
in your body for longer and so you're not hungrier.
You actually feel less hunger. And this is the number
one food that when I happen to miss the amount
of protein that I know my body needs, I actually
start to feel really sharp sugar cravings. Sometimes in a
few hours. It could be that quick that it transforms.
And that's why it's so important to know the amount
(23:43):
of protein your body needs and to keep it steady
throughout the day, because the moment that you skip it,
you will start having more sugar cravings. And the thing
about sugar cravings is that our body is crying out
for energy in a quick form because it doesn't have
enough energy, and that's why it's crying out for sugar.
But when you actually front load your energy by giving
(24:05):
yourself protein before you get those hunger cravings, your body
will be very satisfied with the energy that it has
and you will no longer crave sugar because your body
has the energy it needed and you already gave it
to it before it was searching for it from a
quick form. So this is really a key concept to understand,
is that not to wait till you're hungry to eat,
(24:27):
but to actually eat protein ahead of time, and you
will watch your sugar cravings literally disappear, and you're going
to watch your blood sugar. For those of you that
wear a continuous glucose monitor, you know, I started adding
protein as I was wearing my continuous glucose monitor and
there was really no other hack. There was no other secret,
there was no other you know, really kind of trendy
(24:50):
food that brought down my blood sugar better than just
adding protein to my diet. And so remember, when you
have your blood sugar that's steady, you will or less
fat and you will burn more fat. And that's why
this protein addition is so important. So those are you know,
those are some key reasons for protein, but let me
tell you about how much and some examples of what
(25:11):
that would be. So for you know, to get started,
it's really important to really make sure you're have enough
protein at breakfast. This is because many women are either
skipping breakfast, usually either doing intermitt and fasting and likely
eating less than your body needs throughout the day, or
you may be just having a quick breakfast like grabbing
(25:33):
something or having some coffee on an empty stomach, which
actually increases our cortisol and causes more fat storage. So
really starting with your breakfast and making sure that you're
getting thirty grams of protein at breakfast is an amazing
way to start, and in fact, my clients, once they
start adding more protein to their breakfast in the form
of thirty grams, they start to see weight loss start
(25:55):
happening right away. In fact, two to four pounds is
normal to lose in one week when you adding the
right amount of protein during the day and making sure
you're having protein throughout the day and kind of taking
out those high sugar foods well. With some examples of
how to get that, because it's very possible to do
it is to do something like, for example, two eggs
as a start, but that's not where you stop because
(26:17):
one egg is only six grams of protein. So if
you're having two eggs and feeling like it is a
lot of protein, it's good that it's more protein, but
you still will feel sugar cravings, or you still will
feel hungry and your metabolism will be slow if you
stop at those two eggs. So a good way to
supplement those twelve grams of protein from the eggs is
(26:38):
to do something like greek yogurt, which often has twenty
grams of protein. You can also put some berries a
cup of berries into that greek yogurt or on the side,
because that also adds fiber, which is another metabolism boosting
food and especially important for women in midlife because it's
helping push food through our gut and it's also keeping
us mouth full and satiated because we can't digest fiber,
(27:03):
but it's a heavier molecule that keeps us full until
it's excreted. So it's really the secret of this protein
and fiber, which is really important. So you can get
fiber from berries and especially low sugar fruit like berries
are amazing to include. Another idea is if you don't
eat dairy or you don't want to have greath yogurt,
is to do two eggs with a half a cup
(27:24):
or a cup of egg whites and then still have
that those berries on the side. And then if you
don't eat eggs and you or your vegan and you
want it to have something quicker. You could also do
a protein what I call a metabolism boosting warning protein smoothie,
and that's where you have a cup of non dairy
milk or water, you add a scoop of protein powder.
(27:46):
You can use any protein powder that you like, whether
it is plant protein, egg, white protein, weigh protein, whatever
your body responds to. And if you don't want to
use protein powder, you can use Greek yogurt is another option.
Add a cup of berry for the fiber, and then
what I call my secret ingredient two tablespoons of flax seeds,
and that gives you the fiber that will keep you
(28:07):
satisfied and really push food out of your gut. And
then if you want to add a little bit of
a flavor, you can add six mint leaves that are
muddled that if you use strawberries as your berry, I
love that smoothie. It's called my strawberry, mint and berry
smoothie and it's so delicious to get your metabolism going
in the morning. So those are some different options, and
you can also try having greek yogurt on your own
(28:29):
without the eggs and just adding some berries, adding a
little bit of nuts to it. Nuts are mainly a fat,
they're really not as much of a protein, which is
a myth that a lot of people have for four nuts,
but adding a little bit of that for a healthy
fat is also very satiating. So that's a really great
way to get started, is to increase your protein at
breakfast and then for lunch and dinner, try to have
(28:52):
thirty grams of protein, which is really easy in the
form of four to five ounces of chicken, salmon, seven
ounces of tofu. You can also have greek yoburt. Really
increase that protein during the day and add in some
veggies on the side for your fiber, and some healthy
carbs are also really important. But those are a few
examples of metabolism boosting foods that really get your fat
(29:15):
burning going.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
That's awesome, and like I said, I have felt the difference,
like when you're not getting enough protein and then you start,
it's like a light bulb turns on in your brain.
Your body's energy goes up drastically, And I feel like
this also of course ties into what we talked about
at the beginning of like focusing on the nutrient consumption
and like protein being a big part of that with
all the amino acids that we need for literally everything
(29:37):
that happens within the body. Are there any other key
nutrients that women are especially like prone to not getting
enough of in midlife?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yes, there are. Thank you so much for asking. So,
you know, I mentioned the fiber that's really key. But
another thing I really want to really share more of.
You know, it's really important that we each have all
of the macronutrients so we don't need to take out
we don't need to take out carbs. Our body needs
these foods. And though even though you may have found
success in terms of weight loss previously in life where
(30:08):
maybe you're low carb and you found that you lost weight,
this actually stops working in mid life, and so eating
healthy carbs are really important. And so healthy carbs are
carbs that have complex fiber in them, so they're not
just the typical complex carbs, but they actually have added
fiber in them. They're supercarbs or what I call slimming carbs,
(30:30):
because when you eat more of these, they help push
food out and you're also replenishing your body, especially you're syroid,
so healthy carbs are foods like sweet potatoes, beans, lentiles.
Also you can use ezekio bread or a sprouted grain bread.
And if you enjoy rice, instead of rice, I recommend
(30:51):
having what I call slimming grains, which are alternatives to rice.
So they are foods that they're not as high in
spiking your blood sugar. And these are foods like kinwa, millet, buckwheat,
and furrow. So if you still like grains, these are
really great alternatives. And when you add your protein and
have that first, you'll find that you won't be as
(31:12):
hungry for the grains. So have a little bit less
than you may have been eating otherwise, but still make
sure you're getting it at least one to two times
a day. And it's really important for you to do this. Now.
When I see women skipping carbs, what I see it's
very interesting, but it's a direct correlation to later that
evening they start having late night cravings that are uncontrollable
(31:36):
cravings for things like ice cream, peanut butter, chocolate. And
you know, it feels very frustrating because you may have
been healthy all day and then you're getting these uncontrollable cravings.
But I've seen this and traced it directly back to
not having enough carbs, especially at lunch. And so when
you add in the right amount of carbs and the
right quality of carbs like the ones I just mentioned,
(31:57):
your body will be more satisfied throughout the day. The
other macronutrient I want to mention that's really important as
well is healthy fats. And you know, healthy fats are
something that maybe we feel like we in the past,
you know, we felt like, oh, low fat was good.
The thing is, I agree, and I believe in moderate fat.
(32:18):
I've seen that have the best metabolism boosting effect for women.
And healthy fats also slow digestion, so they help you
so that your body is not increasing blood sugar and
they keep you full for longer. Now, the important, really
important thing about healthy fats is increasing what's called our
omega three fats. This is really important for women in
(32:40):
midlife because omega three fats and having the right balance
of them is going to decrease swelling and decrease inflammation.
And what's really important and helpful to know is that
you know there's these other fats called omega sixes that
are often found in processed foods. If you are eating
processed food and it has fat in it, it's going
to be an omega six fat. They're also found in
(33:02):
vegetable oils, soybean oils, a lot of restaurant food that's unhealthy,
and it's also found in healthy foods as well. But
there's a balance that we're supposed to have for a healthy,
lean body, and that balance is two to one omega
sixes to omega three, so two times the omega six
is to omega threes, and some people even say one
(33:24):
to one. But what's really interesting and really surprising is
that the typical American diet that balance is sixteen to one,
sixteen omega sixes to one omega three. And when you
are this off balance, that is what creates swelling and inflammation.
And so we really want to take a lot of
(33:45):
effort to make sure we're getting enough omega threes in
our diet because when you get that balance more correct
to the two to one that I mentioned, you will
notice your inflammation is going to decrease so quickly. I mean,
it's not about calorie cutting. This is really about getting
the right nutrients. And these ones are specific omega threes
and the way that we can get omega threes is
(34:05):
foods like salmon, foods like sardines. But the number one
food that you can add to get the most omega
threes is to use flaxseed oil in your day. And
flaxseed oil has three times as much omega threes as
salmon does. And so if you were to do something
like use two tea spoons of flaxseed oil and put
it over your food so that it doesn't have to
(34:28):
heat up. You doing this plus adding you know, foods
like salmon's other healthy using foods like avocados, that's going
to really help you decrease that inflammation. And so you know,
I put this together in something called the fat burning
food Framework, which kind of to make it really easy
to visualize is this isn't very complicated. It's really about
(34:49):
if you look at your plate, having about fifty percent
of it be protein, fifty percent of it be vegetables,
so that you're getting your protein in your fiber at
lunch and sometimes at dinner, have about a fourth of
your plate be healthy carbs, and then add the three
servings of healthy fats a day. Those are often in
the proteins we're eating so things like salmon has enough
(35:12):
healthy fats, beef chicken thighs tofu. So when you're eating
a fatty protein, that will be where you get your
healthy fats. Or you can always add a half an
avocado or two tablespoons of nuts or nut butter. And
an easy way to think about getting the right amount
of fat is fat three times a day. And so
you know, the number two reason I found that women
(35:35):
in midlife are not losing weight is because they are
mistakenly eating too much fat. So it's really important to
know the balance because fat is very caloric. So if
you mistakenly eat too much because a lot of women
maybe eating nuts or maybe eating a healthy nut butter
and feeling like it's a healthy food to eat, but
not realizing that it adds up very very quickly. So
(35:58):
if there's one food to really understand the portions for
it is any healthy fats that you're eating, and try
to have fat three times a day, and that will
really help you lean you know, get into that leaner place.
But try to have those fats be those omega three
fats as well.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
That makes sense, and that like fats are used in
hormone production, so we don't want to avoid them entirely,
like you said, but it's about threading that needle because
they also like they're very clerically done so our body
won't burn our own fat if we're getting too much.
It also seems to not if we're getting too little,
because that's another of those stress signals. This episode is
(36:36):
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from I know this is like a different sort of category,
and I prefer when possible to get everything from food anyway,
But I know for my own experimentation, like I have
(38:50):
felt better when I got my mineral levels in the
right range, both through food and I do supplement some
of those. I avoided eggs for a long time because
I was intolerant before I fix my guys, and I
was very very deficient and cooling personally because I hadn't
eaten eggs in like a decade at that point, and
so fixing a few kind of key deficiency for me
was a really big game changer. Are there any things,
(39:12):
either through food or through supplements, that women in midlife
commonly need more often that we're just not getting enough anymore?
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Yes, there are some things, definitely, and it's you know,
it's really important to know which of these things are
really important. Because there's so much conversation and so many
supplements out there, it can feel really overwhelming, and a
lot of times we're looking at supplements as the magic
bullet to increasing our metabolism. We're fixing the problem. So
you know, the number one thing to do to increase
(39:39):
your metabolism is to eat the right foods in the
way that I just shared, because that will completely shift
your metabolism. But we do need some support of certain
foods that are really hard, certain ingredients in minerals and
vitamins that our body can't actually get can't make as
much of anymore, And so I'm going to name a
few of the most key ones are really important. So
(40:01):
number one, magnesium. Having about two hundred milligrams of magnesium
is very helpful. A lot of women in midlife are
deficient in this, and it's also going to help you
with sleep, which is something that many of us notice
that we don't get as well. So having magnesium is important.
You can get it over the counter, and magnesium glycon
it is the one that I recommend, but other magnesiums
(40:23):
can also work, so that's really important. Vitamin D is
extremely important and ideally we should be between fifty and
eighty in our blood work. Now, if you are not
taking a vitamin D supplement, then you do have those numbers.
That's great, but it's one of the rare vitamins that
we will actually get enough of. So this is the
(40:46):
reason vitamin D is so important is it is a
precursor to our hormones. So the hormones that we're still making,
we want to be able to make them in the
right amount. It's also important for our bone health, and
so if you're not getting in a vitamin D, you
are going to see some things that are going to
decline more quickly, So that's really important. The other thing
that is also helpful is adding creatine to your diet
(41:08):
and what creatine does, and I want to dispel a
myss you know while I'm talking about this about creatine,
but creatine is very important for us to increase our joints,
really help us be able to lift heavier for those
of us that are lifting weights, and it just really
gives us a lot of support that as we age,
will help us in terms of our joint movement. Now,
(41:29):
creatine you only need to add five grams a day.
You can add this into your water, you could add
this into anything that you're having, And there is a
myth that it will help you. That what creatine does
is it creates water retention, and so a lot of
women are afraid to start using it, but it actually
would only do that if you were to bulk up
with it and add twenty grams a day in the
(41:51):
very beginning, which some people like to do so that
they quickly get the effects of creatine. But if you
just start off by adding five grams a day, you're
not going to see that water tension and you're going
to be able to really get that joint support that'll
be important. So those are a few that are really important.
I also recommend definitely getting your thyroid checked in a
complete panel, Katie. I know you're very familiar with that
(42:13):
as you've done so much work and just done amazing
had amazing progress with it too, But really getting your
T three levels checked, your T four, your reverse T three,
and then also of course TSH but not stopping at TSH.
Those are really important to understand if you may have
hypothyroidism or you may have hashimotives. By getting your antibodies
(42:34):
checked and really just taking action on doing it, sometimes
on your own or sometimes with the help of a
thyroid specialist, even if you're not getting that direction from
your regular physician in some cases. And then one other
area that is you know your personal preference to replenish
with is you know our hormones and our body will
(42:55):
not make the hormones that decline in midlife, and so
our estrogen is declining. But it's not just estrogen, and
it's estrogen declines at different rates for different women, but
it could be happening, you know, likely in your early forties,
around forty three is as kind of a magic age
where a lot of women start experiencing some changes and
(43:16):
they don't just they don't feel like themselves anymore. But
the other areas that you know, estrogen is very is
very known to be a horm on that declines. But
one that I find is so important to understand is
testosterone and knowing the effect of testosterone and getting your
testosterone levels checked because that can really cause a decline
(43:36):
in testosterone, which happens in midlife as well. If you
have a large decline in it will cause a brain fog,
will cause low energy, it will cause viera libido if
it goes down too low, and you also won't be
able to build muscle. So if you're working out, you'll
be able to build that muscle that increases your metabolism
and then of course progesterone. So I really advise women
(43:57):
to get a full blood panel of their omones as
well of their full thyroid, as well as just their
regular metabolic markers, and really get this more frequently in
midlife so that you are understanding what's changing and what
you can do about it. But you know, the supplements
that many women can take is you know, are those
ones that I mentioned magnesium, creatine and vitamin D and
(44:20):
those will be very helpful.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
I love that, and I will say anecdotally just because
anytime I get a chance to talk about the importance
of sunshine and natural light, I feel like that's another
area that controversially but in my opinion, we kind of
unfairly misunderstood or are demonized. So I'm one of the
people that do to genetics and VDR receptors. I was
taking vitamin D forever and it did nothing, And it
wasn't until I got sunshine, adequate sunshine that my level
(44:45):
started increasing, so I don't convert well from oral vitamin
D supplements and one other hack there I learned I
can put vitamin D supplements on my skin and absorb
them slightly better. But I know there is a subset
of the population that is kind of like odd like
I am when it comes to that. But I always
say like, there is a time and a place I
think for healthy sun exposure, and for me, vitamin D
was one of those categories, and my levels now eighty six. Naturally,
(45:07):
I don't take any supplements anymore. So I've seen firsthand
at work, and I just always love the chance to
step on the soapbox about the sunshine as well. I
also know this topic is so deep and nuanced, and
that you do a lot of one on one work
with people and even workshops to help women really understand
and apply this to them. Can you talk about your workshop,
(45:28):
and of course I'll link to it in the show
notes as well.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Oh, yes, absolutely well. I host a workshop called the
five Day Metabolism Boost for midlife Women, and during this workshop,
I tell you all of the next steps of everything
that I've shared today. Day one is the four part
metabolism Boosting Morning routine where I share four steps to
jump start your morning and really get your metabolism going,
and it's very easy to take action on these things.
(45:53):
I also have a full day where I talk about
how to get off sugar without feeling tired or restricted,
and I share verypific food combinations and food timings that
will increase your metabolism. And then I also share the
four part fat burning food framework in detail, and I
show you what foods you can add to your breakfast, lunch,
and dinner and how to combine them and in what portions.
(46:16):
So my next workshop, I'm so excited, is starting next
week on January twelfth, so we will include the show notes.
I invite you it is complementary. It's five days. We
also do have replays if you're not able to come live,
and if you are watching this episode after that, I
have one coming up very soon after, and so you
can just click the link as well and you'll be
directed to that date. But we are going to show
(46:38):
you a very easy five step process to increase your
metabolism using delicious foods and by adding the right foods
that get your metabolism fired up amazing. Well.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
I will link to that as well as to your
website and so many other resources that you have available
in the show notes. I am sure this has been
inspiring and educational for so long many people listening, and
highly recommend all of the resources you have available, and
like the in depth guides on all of these things.
If you guys are interested. She goes so much deeper
on all of these I'll put all those links in
the show notes at wellness Maama dot com. Is there
(47:12):
anything else that we did not touch on that you
feel like as a vital pillar of this, or that
you would point women into looking deeper into.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
One other thing that you'll you know that you're going
to share. The link for which I think will be
really helpful for women is my sweet Spice cheat sheet.
And this is going to be a cheat sheet that
talks about one spice to add and it's a sweet spice,
and you likely already have it in your kitchen cabinet,
and so this really is helpful in the first steps
of getting off of sugar and knowing what to add
(47:40):
it to. And I also have a fat burning fire
tea that uses this sweet spice in it that you
can use at night to get your metabolism going and
help you sleep better. So you know, really coming from
the place of what foods to add, what ingredients to add,
is going to increase your metabolism further. And so really
just doubting on understanding that and moving away from the
(48:02):
restriction way of thinking is really going to help you
transform your lifestyle. And that's what this can be a lifestyle.
And this is what in mid life we really it's
our time to put ourselves first. If we don't put
ourselves first, things are going to change in a way
that we don't want them to. But if we take
this extra effort and really look at what we can
(48:23):
add and how we can make it enjoyable, it can
actually be so pleasant and so much fun to create
this healthy lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Amazing. Well, this has been such a fun conversation. Well,
like I said, put all those links in the show notes,
I took a lot of notes while you were talking
as well, So all of those in the show notes
at onnesswama dot com as well as ways to find
and go deeper with you. But for today, thank you
so much for your time. I know I learned a lot.
This was such a fun conversation to have I'm so
grateful for your time. Thank you, thank you, and thank
(48:53):
you as always for listening and sharing your most valuable resources,
your time, your energy, and your attention with us today.
We're both so grateful that you did and I hope
that you will join me again on the next episode
with the Wellness Mama podcast. If you're enjoying these interviews,
would you please take two minutes to leave a rating
or review on iTunes for me. Doing this helps more
(49:15):
people to find the podcast, which means even more moms
and families can benefit from the information. I really appreciate
your time and thanks as always for listening.
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