The Secret to a Stronger, Leaner and Healthier You Starts with Eating This for Breakfast…
I’m a numbers nerd and love objective information. I have a Lumen Device that tells me if I’m in a fat or sugar burning state. It determines this based on the amount of CO2 in my breath. The result is a number between 1-5: 1 means I’m mostly burning fat for fuel and 5 means I’m mostly burning sugar (aka carbohydrates). Ideally we want to wake up in a fat burning state, and then fluctuate between the two states during the day - that indicates what’s called metabolic flexibility. Since January 6, I’ve been regularly tracking again to meet my macro goals, and I have been consistently waking up in a 1 or 2. Wednesday was the only day I woke up in a 3 and I know why - Tuesday was a snow day and I had 5 kids at home, so I didn’t end up eating as much food as I had planned.
Not eating enough food can really affect your metabolism. It’s what I see with almost all of my FASTer Way clients when they start out. It takes intentional effort to eat enough, but it’s so worth it! It’s hard to know what eating enough looks like without tracking. Initially it’s a bit of a learning curve, but I can do it now in under 5 minutes/day (and so can you!). The FASTer Way app now has photo and voice tracking (that’s right - it can calculate the macros of your meal from a picture or by saying what you are eating!), which makes it so much faster and easier!
Protein is one macronutrient goal that many women struggle to meet. All macronutrients are important, but if I had to pick just one, it would be protein. In perimenopausal and menopausal women, it helps to support muscle maintenance and growth, burn fat, reduce cravings, support hormone balance and increase energy.
When just starting to work on your protein, I usually recommend aiming for at least 100g per day, spread out evenly throughout the day. Breakfast is often one area where many women struggle to get increase their protein. There’s actually good evidence showing that eating 25-30g of protein with your first meal is one of the best things you can do to set your body on a positive track for the day! Here are some suggestions on how you can do that:
3 eggs with turkey sausage
Protein Smoothie
Chia Pudding
Overnight Oats with a scoop of protein powder (this is a favourite of mine!)
Since focusing again on my macros, I have really noticed an improvement in my sleep and afternoon energy. I hear this often from my FASTer Way clients as well. This makes sense because eating enough protein helps to keep blood sugar more stable, which helps to stabilize your energy. It also provides the building blocks to make neurotransmitters that are important for sleep and positive mood. Both of those are game changers for your overall health.
It’s one thing to know what you “should” do and another thing to actually do it. Being stuck thinking about what you “should” do is a frustrating place to be. In my FASTer Way program, I will walk you through how to implement everything step by step, cheer you on, and give you encouragement when you need it. Let me help you learn how to create a healthy, sustainable lifestyle that includes eating in a way that allows you to enjoy life the way you were meant- lean, strong, confident and healthy.
Need another reason to sign up today? Until Monday, you can use the code FW50 when you register for $50US off your six week challenge that gets started tomorrow! Hope to see you there!