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Child: Welcome to my mommy’s podcast!
Katie: This podcast is sponsored by OneSkin, which is something that I’ve been getting to try for about a year now and I’ve been really impressed with. And here’s why. This is a skincare product and most skincare products are just surface level results. But OneSkin is different. They are founded and led by an all-woman team of skin longevity scientists, and they are working at a cellular level for deeper results. So they tested more than 900 peptides and developed one called OS01, which is the first scientifically proven one to interrupt a core aging process called cellular senescence. So this is basically when our cells stop functioning normally, stop rejuvenating themselves and producing collagen and elastin, and they can release inflammatory chemicals at this point. And this also is linked to our skin aging faster, deeper wrinkles, thinner skin, etc.
And OSO1 switches off these senescent cells, so it addresses the root cause of skin aging versus just a topical that doesn’t do as much. And since skin is our body’s largest organ, this is something I’ve been focused on, especially as I get a little bit older, and especially this time of year with cooler weather, drier skin. And when I noticed my skin gets drier this time of year, it’s because our skin barrier, which keeps moisture in and environmental stressors out, can be disrupted due to the change in weather. And so I found OneSkin is really helpful for that as well.
They have multiple products that were proven to increase barrier function and improve skin hydration. And I’ve noticed a big difference in my skin since starting it. I also love a simple natural skincare routine and they have made it so easy. You can check it out by visiting oneskin.co/wellnessmama and use the code wellnessmama15 to save 15% off your first order.
This podcast is brought to you by NativePath. And I love this company. I actually get a lot of things from them, but today I wanna specifically talk about their collagen. You might know that collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies. And it’s essential for the health of our bones, our skin, our hair, our nails, joints, digestion, and more. I know there’s been a lot of talk about the benefits of collagen, which I’m so happy to see, but specifically the benefits of collagen are that they support the growth and repair of cartilage tissue. Collagen can help relieve joint inflammation and pain, can lead to more youthful looking skin, healthier nails, and noticeably thicker hair. I’ve noticed that myself. It can lead to improved gut health and decreased digestive discomfort, as well as easier weight loss and more appetite control. I love NativePath because their collagen has 10 grams of collagen per scoop, and it’s easy to add to almost anything. My go-to daily habit is to add this to coffee or tea in the morning or a smoothie if I make one.
But another thing that is important to note here is that they use type 1 and type 3 collagen. So there are actually 28 different types of collagen, but you only will find type 1 and type 3 in NativePath. And this is because these two types make up over 90% of the collagen found in our bodies. So it’s crucial to maintain levels of those two in particular. I also love that theirs is certified grass-fed to make sure that it’s from happy, healthy pasture-raised cows. And when you consume grass-fed beef as opposed to grain-fed beef, you’re getting the best nutritional profile that is also free of growth hormones. And so I love that their collagen is a single ingredient from grass-fed cows, flawless sourcing, and is also flavorless, odorless, and tasteless, so it mixes into anything. NativePath is offering a BOGO of free collagen jars on every option, plus a free gift and free shipping to our listeners. Check them out at wellnessmama.com/go/nativepath/ and try out their collagen.
Hello, and welcome to the Wellness Mama podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and this solo episode is going to dive deep on a topic that is entirely a theory for me but something that has been really helpful and effective for me personally that I wanted to share Anecdotally in case it might also be helpful for you in some way.
And as always, this is always just for inspiration and information, never for comparison or prescriptive advice. I just feel like there’s always something to learn from every person in every situation we meet and wanted to share in a very just opinion oriented way something that has been really helpful for me and that took me a long time to figure out. And that is what I call sort of I need a better name, but my protein and micronutrient theory of health. And I will also be sharing a little bit of what I personally do in case that is helpful at all for inspiration. And if you are someone who has ever struggled with calorie restriction, or dieting, or losing weight, and done all the things you were on paper, you know, supposed to do, and felt like you haven’t gotten results, I feel like this might be a missing piece for a lot of people. And it’s not an either or, it’s very much actually a both and to a lot of the common information out there.
But like I said, I feel like this is an overlooked missing piece that might be really helpful for a lot of people and have far reaching benefits beyond just anything to do with weight regulation. If you are on social media or you have been on the internet for any amount of time, I’m sure you’ve come across the kind of controversial hot debate about the calories in and calories out model. And often I will see things in reels on Instagram talking about it’s purely calories in, calories out. And if someone is not losing weight or experiencing issues, they simply need to be more honest with themselves about calories, and do better about tracking, eat less or move more.
And while I am not disputing that there are parts of this that are, of course, very relevant, I, like I said, feel that there is a both/and. That there is more to the story, and that when I learned to understand that, I actually saw much better results. So I’m not saying this approach is wrong. I’m simply saying from my own personal experience, it seems incomplete.
And that by understanding this other piece, we’re able to support our body in a more robust way and eliminate a potential source of stress on the body that we might not even recognize that we are experiencing. So like I said, I call this my protein and micronutrient theory, which is a nutrient focus versus a calorie focus while still being aware of calories.
So again, it’s not that I am throwing out that whole theory. I just have found that for me, there’s an additional piece that made it much more effective and that also led to other benefits like better sleep, like feeling much less stressed, and having more energy. And I know for moms, those can be really helpful.
So I wanted to share my personal experience here. And I feel that, from my own experience, this has been really helpful because it seemingly supports safety signals in the body and for hormones. Rather than just the focus on calorie restriction. And I’ve talked about this in other episodes a little bit but I wanted to really kind of expound on that today and go into some of the data I’ve seen and especially my own personal experience. As an overview, what I found is that when I prioritize the correct amount of protein, and I think there’s also a lot of kind of confusing information around protein consumption, but when I prioritize protein and especially micronutrients, which I think is the part that is too often ignored, is a really big detriment, especially to women.
And when I did this, I noticed drastically better energy, my metabolism changed and my body composition changed and is still changing from doing this. And I will also say going in I am by no means entirely consistent at this. I feel much better when I am really consistent, but I by no means do this perfectly either. And I’ll talk about this more later I think the other part of this that has been really helpful for me personally is the mindset shift associated with it because I find that for me this approach takes a more positive focus, which is getting enough nutrients the focus is on supporting the body and listening to the body and maximally nourishing it, versus what to me was a more negative focus, which was about restriction and reducing calories. Or trying to kind of eat less. That just was like, I feel like I’m coming from a much better mindset place with the way I do things now.
So I wanted to share, always happy to answer any follow up questions. So feel free to leave comments or reach out to me on Instagram if any part of this, if you’d like more information, but I’ll try to keep this a pretty concise and highly practical episode. And I would love to hear from you if you have noticed similar things or tried any of it and how it worked for you.
So, to start, I just want to dive a little into why I personally feel like focusing on calories alone falls short. And again, I’m not saying the calories model is wrong, I’m just saying it’s incomplete. Kind of built into that model are the idea that all calories and macros are equal. If you’re getting protein, you’re getting protein.
If you’re getting fat, you’re getting fat. And there’s a lot more to this story, I find. Because food is information. As my friend J.J. Virgin says, I love this quote, that your body is not a bank account, it’s a chemistry lab. And so while you might get the same amount of calories and even macronutrients, what is in those calories and macronutrients might make a drastic difference for your health, or at least it has for mine.
And so kind of the core premise of this theory for me, which again is just a theory, but is that overeating often stems from under nourishment. So this means it’s not just a willpower issue. And this is actually when we understand that, we can realize this overeating, this instinct, this very strong desire to eat more food that the body might have is actually a very important and helpful thing because it is a body attempting its best to get you to eat enough food to get basic nutrients.
And I’ve said before, I’ll repeat here, your body is always on your side. That was a very important thing for me to learn and reframe. When I was coming from the place of autoimmune disease, was to shift away from thinking, my body is attacking itself. And realize if my body wanted to kill me, as Dr. Cassidy Huckabee says, it could in an instant. That our bodies are always on our side. They’re always working toward optimal health with the tools that we give them. So if we’re not getting the results we want, how can we learn to give our body better tools knowing that it was always on our side? And like I said, this is really what I find is the core of this theory for me is that if something’s not working, it might not be at all to do with just the calories or the macros, but that our body is undernourished somewhere.
And if we can learn to support the body correctly, we might start getting the results that we want. So it’s not that calories don’t matter. It’s just that there’s more to the story. And we do know that the body has nutrient seeking cravings. And you might have even experienced some of these. Because if we lack any key nutrients, even if we’re getting enough food, enough calories, enough basic energy units, hunger signals can persist and cravings can persist.
And I certainly noticed this. I’m curious if you have too. Some examples of this would be if we have cravings for salty foods. It could be related to something with low levels of sodium, magnesium, potassium, or potentially any other micronutrients. If we’re craving sweets, which is very common, this can point to things like not getting enough protein, or B vitamins, or chromium, as well as a lot of other micronutrients that can be related there.
So, personally, this was a huge missing piece for me, and I wonder if it might be for a lot of other people. The other thing I noticed when I started making this shift was how drastically this was tied to energy levels. I’ve shared before, as part of my 80 pound weight loss, that it did involve inner work and trauma release, a lot in the mental and emotional sphere as well.
But I actually began eating a lot more food. And on average, on a good day now, I probably eat about double, at least, what I used to eat. Back then, when I was having trouble losing weight, when I was very low energy, when my hair was falling out and I was still working through thyroid issues and when I am able to do this consistently and make it a habit, I notice I feel much more energetic, much more motivated. I’m not putting off projects because I’m tired. And so I feel like this is another untalked about benefit that really seems related to the nutrient density and the micronutrients present in our food and when needed, supplements.
And that the energy piece has actually been the biggest and most positive change I’ve seen. I also like this approach because it starts from a place of befriending the body, which I’ve also talked a lot about, but there’s something much more positive in the mindset of trying to nourish our body, and that being the focus, versus trying to restrict our body, and to kind of work against it to get it to do what we want to do.
And I will say, modern society, unfortunately, does not set us up for success here with the availability of hyper palatable foods, with the availability of processed foods that are largely devoid of nutrients. But at the same time with some tweaks I have found that this can be a pretty easy shift to make, that it can be budget friendly and that the changes and difference I noticed from it happened pretty quickly.
So that was really encouraging as well. I think that goes back to our body being on our side and really being able to thrive when we start giving it what it needs. And I’ll talk about this more later on in some of the specifics of what I do, but for now, I’ll just say for me this starts with evaluating food choices based on maximal nutrient density first and calories second and then supplementing when needed.
I posted on Instagram recently that an unpopular opinion that I hold is that all the supplements in the world won’t do as much good as they could if they’re not also in conjunction with a nutrient dense diet. But for me that this can be summed up in really evaluating food choices on a nutrient density basis first, and then still just making sure we’re within the appropriate range of overall calories that we need to consume. Which for some people certainly are over consuming calories, but also we know for some women, we have, as I was, been under consuming calories for a very long time, which does have metabolic consequences.
So I will also say going into this, that if you, like I did, had chronically dieted for a decade, it might take a little while for your body to internalize these safety signals and to rebuild its stores of nutrients in order for your metabolism to start healing. But, from what I have seen, it’s entirely possible.
And I’ll give you an overview of what worked for me here. Also, if you have specific questions, or you want kind of one on one help with this, or feel like you want more hand holding, I will also link in the show notes to my friend Justin’s program called Clovis, which is specifically for healing your metabolism from the damage of over dieting for too long.
So if you want to go really deep on this, I’ll make sure that’s linked as well. Here’s how I think that this protein and micronutrient focus changes everything. We know that protein is essential for, of course, muscle maintenance, and Dr. Gabrielle Lyon calls muscle our organ of longevity. We know that the more lean muscle mass we maintain as we get older, the less risk of dying we have from all cause mortality, the less risk of injury, lifespan extends.
There’s so many positive benefits to maintaining muscle as we get older. This also helps our metabolic rate. The more muscle we have, the more calories we need and use at rest even. And there’s many positive metabolic associations with this as well. This is also important, this is less talked about, but for hormone production, when we get enough protein, we support our thyroid and reproductive hormones. And also our metabolism through the hormone process as well. And many neurotransmitters also depend on certain amino acids to operate optimally and for their creation in our body. We know that the majority of our serotonin is made in the gut.
We know that we need certain amino acids for this to run smoothly. And when we get this piece dialed in, we also find that for this reason, it tends to reduce cravings and people often notice improved mood. I’ve talked about protein a lot before. I will link to other episodes where I’ve talked about that.
So I’m not gonna hone in on the protein too much in this episode, but I just wanted to make sure we kind of touched on those things to understand the importance of protein and lean muscle mass for a lot of aspects of health. Then there’s the part of micronutrients, and this is the part I feel like doesn’t get enough talk time, because I have seen personally how dialing in my micronutrients made a drastic difference in how I felt, how I looked, and my energy levels, as well as my body composition. And this is because, this is a topic I could talk for hours and hours and still barely touch the surface. But micronutrients are vital for so many things in the body, from enzymatic reactions. So we need certain micronutrients like B vitamins for ATP synthesis. We need certain micronutrients for hormones.
We need them for immune function, for brain health, for so much more. We need them for cellular repair. Some that you may have heard of linked to this are ones like zinc, vitamin C, and omega 3s for hormone balance. I’ve talked a lot about magnesium in the past, and I’ll link to some past episodes and blog posts on magnesium, as well as the right amounts of trace iodine and selenium for thyroid health.
And then some of the bigger ones you’ve hopefully heard of, like omega 3s, and while this might seem like a simple solution, there’s an estimate that up to 90 percent of Americans are currently deficient in omega 3s. And according to Rhonda Patrick, this carries as much risk as smoking. And this is not talked about enough.
So I find that like really listening to our body and learning to hone in on micronutrients can actually be one of the biggest levers we can pull for our health. One of the biggest needle movers. And certainly I have noticed that as well. Now there is some science actually to support some parts of what I’m talking about today, including kind of the science of safety signals in relation to our metabolism.
And basically the understanding is that when the body lacks protein and key nutrients, especially micronutrients, it perceives scarcity and stress. Even when we are getting enough calories. And again, this ties into why we might crave food. Even if we’re getting enough calories, it’s because our body is in need of those micronutrients.
When we get this signal of stress, when our body perceives this, even if we’re getting enough calories. It perceives that we’re still under eating and it also triggers things like increased cortisol, which is getting a lot more attention lately. And people are seeing some great results simply from getting their cortisol into a healthy range.
We know cortisol is tied to more body fat, especially visceral fat, as well as sleep disturbances and potentially a lot of other things as well. We also know that not getting enough key nutrients can affect thyroid function, which seemingly was the case for me. And this, of course, is linked to slower metabolism, to fatigue, brain fog, cold intolerance.
Certainly that was something I’ve talked about my experience with as well. And then, like I already said, this ties into hunger signals because the body is constantly seeking what it is missing. Conversely, when we meet our nutrient needs, not just our calorie needs, but both, we send the body a safety signal.
And I think actually this is a key part of health that could be really beneficial to focus on more is how can we simply send our body more safety signals and fewer stress signals. When the body feels safe, we have lower stress hormones, we have better sleep, we have stable mood. The metabolism normalizes, so fat loss becomes easier, even while eating more, which was my direct experience, and we have more energy, better digestion, and muscle retention.
And this feeling of safety, of course, also is important to separate from emotional feelings of stress or safety. Because even if we don’t feel emotionally stressed, for instance, even if we don’t mentally, we’re not mentally experiencing stress and we wouldn’t say we are stressed. If the body is perceiving stress, we might still be in a stressed state, even if we don’t feel the emotion of stress.
So this could be stress our body perceives through things we are exposed to that are harmful, like, chemicals in our environment or our personal care products, plastics, heavy metals. It can also be this lack of getting enough nutrients. So I think really if we can learn to just be more aware of the stress signals, our body perceives as another factor, separate of just our emotions and our mental state around stress, we might get to learn how to support our body in some important ways.
Now, there are dozens and dozens and hundreds of micronutrients and it’s more than I could cover today. There’s also most whole foods contain a range of micronutrients. So this actually, I find when we make this the focus is a lot easier than one might think to actually really start getting enough micronutrients.
But I did want to touch on some of the big ones that I’ve talked about before, but I wanted to go a little deeper on today. You have certainly heard me probably talk about magnesium before. This is related to stress resilience, to sleep, to energy, to hormones, to so much more. We know that magnesium is used for hundreds of reactions within the body, and that even a low level deficiency can have kind of far reaching consequences.
Magnesium is present in food sources like dark leafy greens, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and dark chocolate, which perhaps is a reason that we crave dark chocolate at times when we are in periods of higher stress, or certain parts of our cycle when magnesium needs are higher. I do feel like, for me personally, and maybe for many people, Magnesium is something worth supplementing with, since we know that the vast majority of people are deficient in magnesium.
And even people like Chris Kresser, who was once very food based and encouraged people to get as much of their nutrients as possible from food, now has said that we are no longer at a point where this is feasible or possible based on the nutrients available in our food supply. So again, it’s a both and.
We need a very nutrient dense diet and seemingly this is a time and a place for supplementation. Magnesium is one of the few things that I take almost every single day. Um, you might have heard me say before, I don’t take anything every single day. I often cycle things or take the weekend off of all supplements.
But magnesium is one I do take very regularly. I keep it on my nightstand. I take it in the morning when I first wake up because I am an inverse modulator. Most people benefit from taking it at night to help sleep. I find it keeps me awake because of the inverse modulation, so I take it in the morning, but it’s one I consume regularly.
There’s also obviously a whole host of vitamins and nutrients in the category of B vitamins, which are directly tied to energy, metabolism, nervous system health, and much more. Now B vitamins are present in a lot of food sources, including animal based proteins. And again, for most of us, this is something that can be helpful to supplement when needed, considering it can be difficult to get enough of all of the right B vitamins from food alone.
I will say that I try to get as much protein as possible in my diet from whole food sources and to make sure most of the things I eat are single ingredient and not made with ingredients. So they’re all from whole food sources and I still personally supplement B vitamins. They are present naturally in grass fed liver, eggs, beef, and nutritional yeast.
And I personally also supplement a methylated B complex as well. Not directly related to B vitamins, but on the note of animal based proteins. They also contain some amounts of creatine and this is something else that I personally supplement. The data on creatine monohydrate is extremely strong.
It is present in our food supply naturally. It is very, it’s a natural recognizable substance in the human body and seemingly women respond better to creatine supplementation than men do even. And we know it helps maintain muscle mass as we get older. It may also have some benefits for bone health for this reason and there’s also a whole category related to mental health and brain health from taking the right amount of creatine. So this is something I take regularly in the morning.
Sometimes I even put in my coffee. Then there are lesser known nutrients like zinc and selenium, and I also mentioned iodine in trace amounts. These are helpful in the right ratios for thyroid function, immune health, and metabolism, and also not present in a lot of the common food sources that we consume the most in the United States.
Food sources of these are things like oysters, beef, and Brazil nuts. And statistically, the majority of us are simply not getting enough of these as well. So I often add liquid forms of these to water that I drink throughout the day, and I will link to these in the show notes. But I get a lot of bulk liquid minerals from a company called Eidon, and I can add these to drinks at my house.
My kids also add them when needed. I already mentioned omega 3s, but I want to touch on this one a little bit more. Because the data is also really strong on omega 3s, we know that it supports brain health, it supports reduction in inflammation, and is helpful in upper hormone production. It is a little bit controversial because many supplement sources report show it can get easily rancid and oxidized, and we really don’t want to consume these foods when they’re rancid or oxidized.
So sourcing matters for supplements. There are ones like Fatty15. Which I don’t have any affiliation with, but are supposed to solve that issue of rancidity and oxidation and be a more potent way to sort of get Omega 3s into range. And I’ll link to that one as well. But food sources of this are of course seafood like wild caught salmon, sardines, which I eat often.
I learned to love sardines and it’s been really helpful because it’s an inexpensive protein source that also has a ton of micronutrients and omega 3s. But if you’re going to supplement this, just look for a high quality fish oil that doesn’t have heavy metal issues and that isn’t oxidized or look into something like fatty 15, which I’m still researching, but I am also experimenting with.
Iodine is another controversial one, and especially for the thyroid health crowd, this is something to navigate with caution, and I recommend working with a really good functional doctor or practitioner around this, because too much iodine can also be problematic for the thyroid potentially, and seemingly if we’ve ever had issues with fluoride buildup in the body, that switch over into getting our iodine levels correct can be stressful on the body. But iodine is naturally present in food sources like seaweed, fish, and even dairy in small amounts. And you can also supplement with very small trace amounts when needed and recommended by a practitioner.
This was something I avoided when I was in the autoimmunity part of thyroid issues, and now do supplement with in trace amounts. Another one for me that is very specific to my genetics, but seemingly a lot of people find helpful is choline. And I feel like this one is not talked about enough, even though it can be extremely helpful.
Choline helps with memory, with mood, with muscle control and heart and liver function. And statistically many of us are not getting enough. The main food source of this is egg yolks. With smaller amounts present in beans and some vegetables, and this is one I also supplement with regularly, personally.
And I’ve noticed a massive difference in my mental clarity, my energy levels, and how I feel from getting enough choline. It’s also one that I avoided eggs for a long time when I was having a reaction to them. I don’t anymore, but even now that I can eat eggs, in order to get the amount of choline where I feel best, I would have to eat a kind of insane amount of egg yolks that would be kind of calorically prohibitive. So I personally supplement with choline daily and that was one of my pieces individually that has made a huge difference. And this is when I say we’re each our own primary healthcare provider and that we all get to do the experimentation of figuring out what works best for us.
This is one of those pieces that was drastically beneficial for me. Now I want to talk about protein and micronutrient repletion, especially for metabolic recovery. So people can experience metabolic slowdowns after extreme dieting. This is something I experienced and I didn’t even realize I was experiencing for a long time.
And once again, this is an area where our body is always being on our side and attempting to do what is best for us at all times. Because if we have sent our body the signal for a very long time that nutrients are scarce and that we aren’t going to be able to get enough of them. It is doing what it needs to do by downshifting our metabolic rate to preserve resources to try to keep us alive in what it perceives as an insufficient food environment or a famine.
So, when we understand this and can carefully retrain our metabolism and work toward metabolic recovery, sometimes this process is called reverse dieting. We can help reverse this metabolic adaptation to a lower energy state. We can restore lean muscle mass. And again, the more muscle we have, the more calories we burn at rest.
We reduce stress signals that lead to rebound weight gain. You know, I see jokes online about how when someone’s on a diet, their body’s, you know, peasant genes activate and they hold on to all resources to survive the famine, but in some ways that’s really what’s going on. So we get to learn how to signal our body that we are safe, that resources are abundant, and that we no longer need to downshift our energy, hold on to weight, because we’re going to be getting regular sources of nutrients and calories.
So, an example of this, women who increase protein after chronic dieting, there’s data to show that they see body recomposition improvements. Even at the same calorie intake. And I know I’m certainly not the first to talk about the importance of dietary protein. We are seeing this all over the place and I’m really glad this message is more widespread, especially for women.
I just wanted to hone in on the fact that this is seemingly part of the metabolic recovery piece. And again, Justin from Clovis Culture goes really deep on the direct process of healing your metabolism after years of chronic dieting and the very specific ways to do that. But a big piece of this is consuming enough of the right sources of dietary protein.
I have found for me, it’s most helpful to consume these from whole food, animal based sources whenever possible and to not rely too heavily on protein powders. To only use those when traveling or when I’m really busy and I need them on the go, but not to make those a regular staple. I don’t have data on this, but my body seems to respond better and more quickly to whole food sources.
So that’s the protein piece. I have personally seen the best results and heard from others who tried this as well, that getting those two pieces really dialed in, the protein, and then really amping up the micronutrients from all food sources. Um, those two together led to really rapid results and lasting results.
Now, I also mentioned that the modern food supply lacks a lot of the right amounts of key nutrients that we need due to soil depletion due to selective farming that led to certain taste characteristics over nutrient characteristics in food and a whole host of other factors. Of course, even over spraying of crops reduces nutrient value.
And even, like I said, Chris Kresser says we’re at a point where supplementation is kind of not optional anymore. So, what supplements are necessary and how they signal safety? I feel like this is a very personalized thing that will vary from person to person and that the best answers happen when we each step into our own experimentation on this to figure out what works for us while paying a lot of attention to how we feel during that process as well as our genetics if we have that data.
But supplements can fill the gaps, especially when our diet is limited, like if we’ve had to follow a restrictive diet due to allergies or if we followed a vegan or keto or carnivore diet, those can be great. They certainly can have their place. And sometimes key nutrients can get missed. Um, if we’ve had periods of high stress or illness, this actually increases our nutrient demand.
An example would be when we are stressed, we go through magnesium more quickly. So that would be one we would need a lot more of in that recovery period. And also when we go through periods of stress, gut absorption is compromised. This can be related to things like low stomach acid, leaky gut, autoimmune issues, and more.
So, when needed, the right supplements can help support the safety signaling in the body, and nutrients like I mentioned, magnesium, zinc, and omega 3s can help with stress resilience. Adaptogens and amino acids can help balance hormones and neurotransmitters. And again, these nutrients are all present in food.
I find that it’s a both and, but that strategic supplementation for me has made a big difference. On the note of amino acids, I do try to get most of, or all my protein from whole food sources when possible. But I also do supplement with amino acid capsules to fill in the gaps. And I’ve noticed a difference from doing that.
So now I want to step into some practical tips for implementing this approach. Hopefully that was enough of an explanation of my theory of this. And again, it is purely a theory, but one that has had tremendous results for me personally. So I wanted to share it as a potential starting point for your own experimentation if you find it helpful.
My first tip would be to start with protein first. I don’t find that there’s a hard and fast rule that is exactly the same for everybody. What worked for me is about one gram of protein per pound of lean body mass or ideal lean body mass, per day, or at least 120 grams per day for most women.
That’s what worked for me. And I find that when I am consistent with this, I can easily get that from whole food sources by just separating that into a few 40 plus gram meals of protein a day that are also packed with micronutrients from other food sources like fermented foods, brightly colored fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, olives, etc.
I also now choose foods based on their nutrient density rather than their calories first. I do, um, occasionally still track calories just to see where I’m going and to make sure I’m getting enough more often than to make sure I’m getting too much. But I choose them based on nutrient density first, and then I fill in the micronutrient gaps with whole foods and supplements when needed
Not just based on the blind supplement approach, or what’s popular on the internet, but based on any gaps I see in my diet, or what my genetics specifically need. And then I track in a notebook now, my energy levels and my cravings. And I adjust those based on my body’s signals. So that doesn’t even require lab testing.
I just learn to really try to tune into my body and pay attention to trends over time and what seems to lead to the most energy over time. Some examples of what I do. And before I say the share of these, I will say I say on here often that we are each so bio individual and unique. I shy away from ever sharing an exact blueprint of what I do or an exact list of these or the exact supplements I take in what amounts because, due to those differences, I don’t expect those things would work exactly the same for you or for anyone else.
However, because this episode is a little bit more nuanced and I’m sharing my personal experience with this, I will share some of the specifics of what I do with the caveat that you might and probably will need to adjust these specific to your body. So these are purely just my experience and a starting point.
One of my big ones that I try to make a non negotiable is to get over 40 grams of protein at breakfast within an hour of waking up. I’ve talked about this in a previous episode, but instead of skipping breakfast, if anything, I will skip dinner now, which also gives me more digestion time before sleep.
So my breakfast will look like 40 plus grams of protein, which for me is often something as simple as ground beef along with some duck eggs usually, some brightly colored fruits and vegetables, a healthy fat like an avocado with olive oil, I’ll sprinkle hemp seeds on top, and I try to really, really up the nutrients.
At this breakfast meal, that’s also when I take supplements. Most of them is in the morning. I don’t drink coffee every day, but when I do drink coffee, I like to add collagen and creatine. And then I’ll eat two more meals at least throughout the day with a similar breakdown of that much protein and as much micronutrients as I can fit into the meal.
I, like I said, focus on whole foods whenever possible. And I save protein powders for travel days or busy days. And then my morning supplements, I rotate these. I don’t take them on the weekends typically. And I don’t take the same ones every single day, but they often include, for me, several forms of choline, fat soluble vitamins like K27, A, and E, a methylated B complex, different amino acids, including a broad one from Kion, including glycine, and then also inositol and magnesium.
Again, I take this in the morning only because I’m an inverse modulator. Most people do better with it at night. Probiotics, and then I’ve been experimenting with the neural RX from Wizard Sciences, which I find is great for focus throughout the day. I also take something called Pectosol in the morning when I first wake up and right before I go to bed.
As well as Masszymes. And these are for cellular cleanup. I found this was really supportive, especially during the weight loss process, because there’s cellular cleanup happening when that’s going on. I often also take Masszymes with meals for increased nutrient absorption, and I learned about this protocol from BIOptimizers, and I found it really helpful as well.
And then between meals, I make sure I’m staying hydrated and add things like Eidon minerals and B minerals to my water. That’s really just the food and nutrient piece. I also do a lot of things like dry brushing and vibration, walks with weighted vests, getting lots of sunshine, putting my legs up at night, other ways to send safety signals to the body.
And that will be something I go deeper on in future episodes, but related specifically to protein and micronutrients, those are kind of my key tenets that seem to work the best for me. So, in conclusion, and some key takeaways. In my opinion, calories do matter, but nutrients matter more. And by flipping the script to nutrients first while still taking into account calories, rather than calories first and ignoring nutrients, I think we can support our body more holistically and see better results.
Prioritizing protein and micronutrients helps reduce cravings naturally because we are actually giving the body what it needs. In doing so, we’re also supporting hormones and metabolism, kind of healing a broken metabolism if we have chronically dieted for years. And when I got this dialed in, I was able to eat, like I said, literally about double what I used to eat before while losing fat and had more energy in the process.
So as an action step, if you feel like this might be helpful for you, I would encourage you to just do your own experimentation. Use this only as a starting point to figure out what’s going to work for you, but try increasing protein and focusing on micronutrients for two weeks and pay attention to how you feel, to your sleep, to how your body is sending signals to you.
And I would love to hear, if you do that, what you experience and or if you’ve already done any pieces of this and notice a difference. I would love to hear your experience. As always, I read your comments. If you want to leave a comment on the podcast show notes for this at wellnessmama.
com. Or if you want to message me on Instagram with any specific questions or follow ups or your opinion related to anything I’ve said, I’d love to get that feedback, and I’d love to hear from you.
As always, I am so grateful for your time, your energy, and your attention for sharing your time with me today by listening to this podcast, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the Wellness Mama podcast.
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