Balance Your Blood Sugar to Beat Cravings, Boost Your Metabolism, Energy and Mood

Posted on August 9, 2022August 11, 2022 by tmAdmin

Having unbalanced blood sugar can lead to poor health because —- it’s so dang stressful on the body.

When you’re, day-in-day-out, eating meals that are “unbalanced” – this causes high blood sugar which eventually crashes, known as low blood sugar, and leads your body to try and boost it back up as quickly as it can.

And guess what foods your body craves?
Sugars and simple carbohydrates because they boost energy levels up quickly.

The great news is that you can get off the “blood sugar roller coaster” and boost your metabolism and energy levels, beat cravings and banish those bad moods.

Beat Blood Sugar Crashes in three easy steps

Blood sugar (glucose) is the fuel for every single cell in your body. Eating balanced meals at regular intervals throughout the day is the most important thing we can do to keep our fuel supply stable. In order to know how to balance a meal, it is necessary to understand how different foods burn. I like to use a simple campfire analogy to explain this concept. Food burns a lot like a nice campfire.

Quality FATS…

are like the big log in the fire that burns for a long time. Fats are slow-burning fuels that help to stabilize blood sugar and allow you to go between meals without feeling so hungry. Fats also send a signal to your brain to tell you when you’re satisfied, so you know when to stop eating. This explains why people on low-fat diets are so hungry all the time. Eating fats at every meal helps to control your appetite. Good fats should be included with every meal.

Quality PROTEIN…

is like the teepee, which provides the support and structure for the campfire. Protein is the building block for every single cell in the body. It’s what the body uses to heal and repair. Protein also supplies the body with amino acids, which help to stabilize blood sugar and reduce cravings for carbohydrates.

Quality CARBOHYDRATES…

are quick burning fuels, which are like the kindling in the campfire. Carbohydrates that are high in fiber like fruits, vegetables and whole grains burn a little slower, like little twigs. Carbohydrates like white bread, sugared cereals, candy, cakes, cookies, crackers, pasta, and bagels burn up more quickly, like leaves and paper.

What would happen if you threw a bunch of twigs, leaves, and paper in a pile and lit them on fire? You’d get a huge blaze and then it would burn out quickly. The same thing happens when you eat a meal of nothing but carbohydrates, even the quality natural ones like fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

To keep your blood sugar stable, build a campfire at each meal.

Start with your protein “teepee.”
Add some carbohydrate (fiber) “kindling.”
And include your fat “log” to keep your fire burning long and strong!

Here are four examples to get your started:

Breakfast: Steel cut oats with raw almonds, chia, flax and hemp seeds (to boost protein and fat) with berries and cinnamon.
Lunch: Grilled chicken sandwich (protein) on whole grain bread or mixed greens + veggies (carbohydrates) + avocado (fat).
Dinner: Salmon (protein), baked sweet potato + steamed broccoli (carbohydrates) topped with butter (fat).
Snack: Raw nuts with Apple (protein and fat in nuts, apple for carbohydrate).

Of course, it’s important to remember, there’s no need for perfection as healthy eating isn’t perfect eating. Instead ask yourself – am I building balanced meals for the most part? If so, I bet you’ll notice feeling like your energy lasts throughout the day!

If you need help creating campfires out of your favorite meals and snacks, reach out. I’d love to hear from you.

To your happiness and health,
Tanya

Curb Your Cravings with Campfire Meals

Posted on August 10, 2022December 5, 2023 by tmAdmin

Fatigue. Cravings. Mood swings.

These are three common complaints that can be avoided by building healthy balanced meals. One of the most important strategies to improve your nutritional and overall health is to learn how to create meals that stabilize your blood sugar.

When Your Blood Sugar is Stable:

You feel stable.
You will feel more energized.
You will feel mentally grounded.
And your cravings will diminish.

Many of us gravitate towards meals that are mostly carbohydrate and sugar dense with minimal healthy protein and healthy fat, especially at breakfast. When we start our days with this type of meal, we put ourselves on the blood sugar roller coaster of energy, mood and craving highs and lows.

Curb Your Cravings With Campfire Meals

Let me explain how protein, fats and carbohydrates work in the body to create a steady fuel source throughout the day. Making stabilizing meals is like building a campfire:

PROTEIN

Quality protein provides the structure of your meal. It’s like the teepee at your campfire. Each meal should include enough protein to create satiety, that feeling of fullness. To learn more about protein timing and to calculate your individual needs per a meal, read my blog post, The Truth About Protein.

FATS

Quality healthy fats provide sustainable energy. It’s the log on your campfire. How do logs burn? Slowly and for long periods of time.

FIBER/CARBOHYDRATES

Carbohydrates provide quick energy. Quick energy is perfect for when you need it but it burns out quickly, like kindling on the fire. It gets your energy revved up, but doesn’t last long. If you eat a breakfast that’s mostly refined carbohydrates and sugars, you may find yourself craving more food within a few hours because your blood sugar has crashed and along with it your energy and mood.

So focus on adding in fiber-filled foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds.

Building balanced campfire meals with protein, fat and fiber is important to stabilize your mood, energy and cravings.

Like what you’re reading? Join my community to receive my free weekly newsletter, Redefining Wellness, sent directly to your inbox. Tanya

The Truth About Protein

Posted on August 10, 2022October 29, 2023 by tmAdmin

There are two truths about protein. One is the typical “masculine” approach to protein and the other is the “feminine” approach – one that you may have never heard of.

I hope you read through the end of this email because the “feminine” approach could be the secret ingredient you’ve been missing.

Numbers Nutrition – The Masculine Approach to Protein

Let’s first dive into the pure numbers side of protein. Here I put on my nutritional therapist practitioner “hat.” I look at the numbers, the grams of protein intake. Looking at numbers is a masculine nutritional strategy and it should be legitimately considered.

The timing of your protein throughout your day is more important than the overall quantity of protein.

You see, our bodies can’t store excess protein. If we eat too much during one sitting, any extra will just get excreted. So, what we need to concentrate on is how well we’re spreading out our protein throughout the day.

According to sports nutrition researcher, Dr. Christopher Mohr, our bodies need 0.25 grams of protein per kg of body weight every meal.

Protein math

Take your body weight, divide it by 2.2 and then multiple by .25.

So if you weigh 125 lbs., you can assimilate approx. 14g of protein per meal or snack. You’d want to eat around 14 grams at breakfast, lunch and dinner and snack. The problem is that the typical diet usually lacks sufficient protein during breakfast (and sometimes lunch), and then grossly overdoes it at dinner.

Generally, 1 ounce of cooked meat gives you about 7 grams of protein. So if you eat a half-pound burger (8 ounces) for dinner, you’re consuming 56 grams of protein in one sitting!

Protein tips

Spread it out! If your typical protein intake at dinner is too high, cut your protein in half and eat it for breakfast or lunch the next day.
Replace the excess protein portion with more vegetables for extra fiber to help you feel full and satiated.
Not sure how much protein is in your portion size? Google it!

Your calorie burning potential is highest when the sun is highest in the sky. So lunchtime is a great time to have a hearty meal. During the evening, our metabolism starts to slow down. So, if you’re eating a huge burger for dinner and it’s more protein than your body can assimilate, some of it is going to remain sitting undigested while you sleep.

The Truth About Protein Takeaways – Masculine Approach

Start to notice if you’re generally overdoing protein at night and under-doing it in the daytime. If you eat a breakfast high in carbohydrates and sugars, it’s time to increase your protein at breakfast time and decrease it in the evening. Note that I used the word “generally”. No need to be hyper-focused on your “number.”
If you need to add more protein to your breakfast, try adding an extra egg or leftover protein from dinner. And don’t forget plant-based protein sources. You can add beans to your eggs or raw nuts and seeds such as chia, hemp, and flaxseeds to your oatmeal.
Add a protein source to each meal and snack throughout your day to build balanced meals.

Mind Body Nutrition – The Feminine Approach to Protein

Why the number of protein grams might not matter.

Most of us think we need pure nutritional facts to solve our food and body challenges. We are taught that if we eat quality “real” food in the right amounts we should be able to achieve a certain body size, shape or level of health. Right? Well, it’s not that simple. And that’s what I’ve learned as a Mind Body Nutrition + Dynamic Eating Psychology expert.

Yes it’s valuable to learn the nutritional facts and be aware of how many protein grams we are consuming, a masculine strategy, but the approach the nutritional world is missing is the balance with “feminine” nutritional strategies. Nutritional advice has become too one-sided.

The “Feminine” Approach to Protein and Nutrition

Considers the connection between our minds, our bodies and our spirits.
It looks at what’s driving our behaviors with food and body. This is a really big question that begs us to look deeper and consider our challenges with food and body as symptoms, not the root cause.
It has us take a softer more relaxed approach to food and our bodies.
It asks us to broaden our definition of good health beyond a number on the scale or a certain size or shape.
It asks us to question what the media and culture tells us is an ideal body image and instead take a realistic look at humanity and diversity.
It looks at how digestion, assimilation, calorie burning and all the nutritive functions of the body are literally and scientifically impacted by stress, relaxation, thoughts, beliefs, emotions, pleasure, eating rhythm, eating speed, awareness, our personal story, feelings of self-worth, our level of satisfaction with key relationships, careers, and more…

The Essence of Mind Body Nutrition

So what we eat is half the story of good nutrition. The other half of the story is who we are as eaters. Who we are bringing to the plate literally and scientifically influences how we digest and absorb a meal (and life).

The Truth About Protein Takeaways – The Feminine Approach

If you want to improve your health and wellness, consider the nutritional facts but also consider that you are human.

Human behaviors are influenced by a multitude of factors that aren’t usually considered. It’s time to evolve and grow the field of nutrition and tap into how we are nourishing our whole selves. It’s time to stop buying into the billion dollar weight loss industry. It’s time to stop buying into the messages from media and culture that we’re not enough and must change if we don’t fit perfectionist body ideals.

So consider both approaches to nutrition:

Masculine Approaches:

The following words describe masculine approaches to nutrition: left brain, logical, linear, one-pointed, goal-oriented, intellect, mind, hard, heroic, purpose, clarity, systems, hierarchy, protection, boundaries, order, commitment, will, strength, information, science, numbers, calculating, measurement, problem-solving, directional, singular, war, combat, fight, muscle, survival, king, prince, father, brother, warrior

Feminine Approaches:

The following words describe feminine approaches to nutrition: right brain, creative, nourishing, embodied, artistic, circular, emotional, musical, flowing, watery, colorful, connecting, associative, soft, loving, caring, food, body, earth, procreative, communicating, inclusive, intuitive, open, receptive, spacious, non-linear, dance, birth, mother, queen, princess, sister, goddess, unknown, mystery

While I know that what most of us want is pure “masculine” nutritional tips. We want the facts, the recipes, the plans, the protein grams, etc. But what I’ve found both personally and professionally is that what we need is a more well-rounded approach to protein and nutrition overall.

I’d love to hear your questions about the truth about protein. Tanya