Latest / Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten / Stop Eating Less | Menopause in the Light, Part 3

Transcript

Stop Eating Less | Menopause in the Light, Part 3 · Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, faithful, welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast. In a moment,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: my dad, coach Alex van Houten, will help you honor
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: God by making the most out of the body God's
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  Speaker 1: given you. Today you can expect truth from the Bible,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: tools from science, and guidance for everyday life. So listen closing,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Get ready, Let's get one percent better today.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Hey there, Coach Alex here, Grace and peace to you,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: and welcome back to Part three of Menopause in the Light.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: This is our four part series on perimenopause, menopause and
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: what it means to faithfully steward a woman's body through
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: this season of life. And if you're new here, this
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: series is a little different from what we normally do
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: on the Faithful Fitness Podcast. Usually I'm sitting across from
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: somebody having a conversation, but for these four episodes, I'm
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: talking directly to you. And part one we started with
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: the foundation your body is changing, but you are not broken.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: We talked about what menopause actually is and what can
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: happen during the transition, then some of the things that
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: women lose and some of the things that women can gain,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: and why I believe it's time that we stop making
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: women walk through this season in the dark. Then in
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: part two we talked about training, and the message there
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: was right now, you need muscle more than ever. Lift, carry, walk,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: challenge your heart and lungs, load your bones, recover intelligently,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and keep asking something of your body. Because the goal
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: is not simply to stay skinny or desperately cling to
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: your youth. The goal is capacity, capacity to work, capacity
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: to serve, capacity to play, to endure, and to say
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: yes to whatever God still has for you in this season. Today,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: we're going to talk about the other side of that equation, nutrition,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: and I'm going to start with something that I've watched
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: women do for more than twenty years. Their body changes,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: their weight starts creeping upward, their ways doesn't look the
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: way it used to, Their clothes fit differently, and they
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: don't feel like themselves. So what do they do? They
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: respond the way the fitness industry has taught them to respond.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: They eat less, and if that doesn't work, they eat
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  Speaker 2: even less than that. Skip breakfast, cut carbohydrates, do more
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: cardio trianter minute fasting, stop eating after six, cut out, dairy,
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  Speaker 2: cut out gluten, buy some hormone balancing powder from somebody
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  Speaker 2: on Instagram, and pretty soon I've got a woman sitting
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: across from me who's exhausted, sleeping five hours a night,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: strength training in consistently eating almost no protein and saying, coach,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I don't know what happened, but my metabolism is broken.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: You know what, Probably not, It's more likely that your
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: nutrition strategy is broken, and today we're gonna fix that.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Here's something I want you to hear. Just because you're
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: going through perimenopause or menopause does not mean that your
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: body stopped obeying physiology. So let's start with this truth.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Menopause changes physiology, but it does not get rid of it.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Energy balance still matters. If your body consistently takes in
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: more energy than it uses, body mass tends to increase,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: and if it consistently uses more energy than it takes in,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: body mass tends to decrease. Hormones don't make those statements false.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: And this is the piece that most of the fitness
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: industry misses. The calories all that matter. Crowd does not
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: seem to understand that hormones can influence the system in
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: which the energy balance happens, and that's the rub. The
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: framework of the metabolism requires that the nutrients necessary to
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: restore the body are there, or it will shift in
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the direction of fat distribution. In other words, sleep, appetite,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: energy recovery, training, muscle and insulin sensitivity, as well as
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: the amount of spontaneous movement that you do throughout the
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: day can all be shifted by the hormonal changes of perimenopause.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: And meanwhile, aging itself can bring changes in muscle mass
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: and physical activity that affect how much energy your body
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: actually uses and how it uses it. So when a
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  Speaker 2: woman says I'm eating roughly the same way I did
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  Speaker 2: ten years ago, but my body isn't responding the same way,
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  Speaker 2: I know she's not imagining that. The menopause society makes
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  Speaker 2: an important distinction here. They say aging appears to be
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  Speaker 2: a major driver of midlife weight gain, while menopause itself
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  Speaker 2: plays an important role in where fat tends to be stored,
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  Speaker 2: particularly increasing central or abdominal body fat. So I know
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  Speaker 2: it might be hard to wrap your head around, but
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  Speaker 2: two things can be true at once. No, menopause has
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: not made weight loss physiologically impossible. And know your body
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  Speaker 2: at fifty two isn't necessarily operating the same way as
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  Speaker 2: it did at thirty two. And so that's why the
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  Speaker 2: answer isn't just eat less, it's let's build a better
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  Speaker 2: nutrition strategy. And before I tell you what you need
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  Speaker 2: to eat, I want to ask a more important question,
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  Speaker 2: what are we actually trying to preserve here? Because if
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  Speaker 2: the only goal is to make the number on the
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  Speaker 2: scale go down, there are plenty of ways to accomplish
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  Speaker 2: that badly. I have an old joke that somebody on
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  Speaker 2: Twitter asked me what the fastest way to lose weight was,
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  Speaker 2: and I answered with the truth, chop off your arms
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  Speaker 2: and legs. Obviously they weren't satisfied with that answer. Neither
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  Speaker 2: should you be, because there's a difference between watching the
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  Speaker 2: scale number go down and actually losing tissue that's not
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  Speaker 2: serving you well. They're not the same thing. There is
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  Speaker 2: a such thing as bad weight loss. It's possible that
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  Speaker 2: when the umber on the scale goes down, you're losing fat. Awesome,
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  Speaker 2: but you can also lose muscle tissue. You can also
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  Speaker 2: lose glycogen. You can also underfuel your organs so that
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  Speaker 2: they become lighter. You can become weaker, you can make
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  Speaker 2: your training worse. You can create a diet that you
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  Speaker 2: cannot possibly maintain, nor would it be healthy for you too.
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  Speaker 2: And it's entirely possible that your body weight can get
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  Speaker 2: lower and lower while you become less and less capable.
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  Speaker 2: That is not what I want. Remember part two, we're
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  Speaker 2: trying to build and maintain a woman who is strong,
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  Speaker 2: who's capable, who's metabolically healthy, who's resilient, well nourished, and
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  Speaker 2: ready to serve. So if we're going to pursue fat loss,
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  Speaker 2: I want to lose the thing that we actually intend
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  Speaker 2: to lose, fats while fighting to preserve the things that
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  Speaker 2: actually matter muscle, bone, strength, energy, health, performance. And that
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  Speaker 2: requires a very different nutrition strategy than just eat less.
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  Speaker 2: So where do we start. Let's first start with the
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  Speaker 2: nutrient that I imagine you've probably heard the most about. Protein.
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  Speaker 2: If your strength training, like we talked about in Part two,
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  Speaker 2: you're giving your body a signal, hey, keep this muscle around,
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  Speaker 2: build this tissue. I'm gonna use it, I need it.
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  Speaker 2: Protein provides the raw material in order to respond to
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  Speaker 2: that signal, and this becomes increasingly important as we age.
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  Speaker 2: There's a phenomenon called anabolic resistance. In plain English. Older
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  Speaker 2: muscle tends to be somewhat less responsive to a small
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  Speaker 2: dose of protein than younger muscles. That doesn't mean you
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  Speaker 2: can't build muscle. It just means that the signal matters,
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  Speaker 2: your training matters, and getting enough protein matters. For women
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  Speaker 2: over fifty, expert groups focused on healthy aging and musculo
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  Speaker 2: scale to health have commonly recommended the baseline protein intake
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  Speaker 2: to be one to one point two grams per kilogram
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  Speaker 2: of body weight per day, and then if you're active
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  Speaker 2: or actively training, recommending even more than that. So what
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  Speaker 2: does that look like practically for the average woman. I
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  Speaker 2: say it like this, A serving of protein is twenty
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  Speaker 2: to thirty grams, and I need you to get at
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  Speaker 2: least four of those every day. Now. Is that a
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  Speaker 2: perfect recommendation or does it meet everyone's needs? No, but
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  Speaker 2: it does give you a minimum to shoot for. Because
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  Speaker 2: here's what I commonly see. Breakfast being coffee, maybe some toast,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: maybe a little oatmeal, and god forbid a drive through
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  Speaker 2: at Starbucks, Lunch being salad with three decorative pieces of
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  Speaker 2: chicken on it, in dinner being the actual protein of
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  Speaker 2: the day, and somebody telling me I eat plenty of protein.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah maybe, but if you counted it, you'd find yourself
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  Speaker 2: eating about half, which is what the average woman does.
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  Speaker 2: Half of the protein that you actually need in a
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  Speaker 2: day to maintain good strength, good muscle tissue, and to
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  Speaker 2: respond well to your training. Because I eat high protein
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  Speaker 2: foods is not the same thing as saying I consume
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  Speaker 2: enough protein daily. So how do you get enough protein
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  Speaker 2: in a day? Here's a simple rule. Build your snacks
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  Speaker 2: and meals around protein. If you're about to eat, ask
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  Speaker 2: where's my major protein source here? Note that that's different
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  Speaker 2: from does this meal contain some protein like peanut butter?
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  Speaker 2: For instance. I've got nothing against peanut butter, but it
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  Speaker 2: doesn't count as a protein. It's got a little protein
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  Speaker 2: in it, but it's way more fat than protein, and
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  Speaker 2: so as a snack it doesn't pass the protein test.
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  Speaker 2: So what are our primary sources of protein? Eggs, greek yogurt, cottage, cheese, chicken, turkey, fish,
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  Speaker 2: which is highly underrated, lean beef, pork, which is a
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  Speaker 2: little harder to digest, but it's still protein, milk tofu
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  Speaker 2: or even tempe. You might even add some beans and
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  Speaker 2: lentils at meal time that can give you a bit
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  Speaker 2: more added protein, but again or more of a carbohydrate
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  Speaker 2: than a protein. You also might look into having a
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  Speaker 2: quality protein powder that makes it a little more convenient
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  Speaker 2: to boost your protein in a day. There are really
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  Speaker 2: a lot of options, but like I said, for most women,
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  Speaker 2: getting twenty to thirty grams of protein at meals and
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  Speaker 2: snacks at least four times a day, it's a very
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  Speaker 2: practical target. It's not a sacred number, it's not a commandment,
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  Speaker 2: but it's a useful way to stop accidentally eating only
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  Speaker 2: eight grams of protein at breakfast, nine grams at lunch,
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  Speaker 2: and trying to make up the entire difference at dinner. Ever,
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  Speaker 2: wonder why you're so hungry at night. It's time to
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  Speaker 2: stop wondering and getting enough protein in your day. And
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  Speaker 2: if you are resistance training, hard dieting or fasting, or
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  Speaker 2: trying to preserve lean muscle issue as you age, protein
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  Speaker 2: deserves even more attention than the average person needs to
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  Speaker 2: pay to it. Here's the great irony of midlife dieting.
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  Speaker 2: A woman realizes that she wants to lose some fat,
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  Speaker 2: so she dramatically reduces her food intake across the board.
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  Speaker 2: As a result, protein goes down. Training quality goes down,
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  Speaker 2: Muscle becomes harder to preserve, and daily movement falls because
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  Speaker 2: she's exhausted. She might lose some pounds on the scale,
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  Speaker 2: and eventually the body she's trying to improve ends up
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  Speaker 2: with less important metabolically active tissue than when she started.
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  Speaker 2: That is not a wind. If calories need to come down,
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  Speaker 2: protein is one of the last things you need to sacrifice.
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  Speaker 2: So this brings me to something that I've had to
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  Speaker 2: tell so many women. Don't be afraid to eat. You
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  Speaker 2: still need food. In fact, it's really important that you
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  Speaker 2: quote feed the beast right now. And I'm not talking
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  Speaker 2: about the beast of mood. I'm talking about the beast
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  Speaker 2: that you can be in your workouts. I know that
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: sounds ridiculous, but I mean it. Some women have been
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  Speaker 2: dieting for thirty years. They went from low fat in
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: the nineties to Atkins clean eating, keto, inter minute fasting,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: or whatever the current hormone diet is right now, and
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: food has gradually become something that they're afraid of. Every
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: bite needs to be justified, especially if it tastes sweet.
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  Speaker 2: Every carbohydrate needs to be tracked and burned off. Every
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: vacation creates guilt, and every dessert needs punishment the next morning.
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  Speaker 2: That is not health and it's definitely not freedom. Your
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: food is fuel. Your food is also building material. Your
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  Speaker 2: food can also be pleasurable, and that's not a bad thing.
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  Speaker 2: Food is culture and social bonding. Food is something that
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  Speaker 2: we share around tables with the people we love, and
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  Speaker 2: scripture is filled with meals, feasts, bread and fish, wine
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  Speaker 2: and celebration, hospitality. Food is a gift, and like every gift,
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  Speaker 2: appetite requires order. Glutton is real, and lack of discipline
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  Speaker 2: is real. But the fear of food is not holiness.
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  Speaker 2: I don't want you to worship your appetite. I want
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  Speaker 2: you to order it. That's different. So while you're looking
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  Speaker 2: at your food in a day, prioritize protein and keep
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  Speaker 2: feeding the best in you. Okay, Alex, I hear you
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  Speaker 2: about protein. What about carbohydrates? All right, let's get into it,
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  Speaker 2: because the Internet has done some terrible things to carbohydrates.
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  Speaker 2: Can women in menopause eat carbs without it being unhealthy? Uh? Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: next question, I'm just kidding, but only a little. Carbohydrates
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  Speaker 2: are not required in the same biochemical sense that proteins
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: and fats are. But carbohydrate containing foods can be incredibly
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: useful to your body. Fruit, potatoes, rice, oats, beans, whole grains, vegetables, dairy.
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  Speaker 2: These foods can provide fiber and vitamins and minerals, and
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  Speaker 2: even fuel for training if you're lifting hard or pushing
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: it with intervals, running, cycling, hiking, carbs can actually be
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: your friend. Now, can someone overdo it on highly processed carbohydrates?
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Of course they can. And is it also true that
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: reducing carbohydrates can be a useful strategy for some people
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: with preferences or even specific metabolic needs.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, But that's completely different from saying women in metopause
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: shouldn't eat carbs. That's nonsense. You don't need to earn
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: a banana, and you don't need to be fried ined
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  Speaker 2: to potatoes. And if you're training hard but chronically under fueling,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: then cutting an entire class of useful training fuel because
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: the Internet told you to is not going to move
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  Speaker 2: you in the direction you think it will. Here's a
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  Speaker 2: better question, what kind of carbohydrates am I eating? How
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  Speaker 2: much am I eating? And do they fit my needs?
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  Speaker 2: I've often said carbs aren't bad for you, You just
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: got to earn them. A bowl of berries in Greek
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  Speaker 2: yogurt the same morning that you worked out is not
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  Speaker 2: metabolically the equivalent of spending the entire evening eating cookies
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  Speaker 2: while you watch television. We definitely don't need to pretend
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  Speaker 2: the two are the same. Here's a guiding principle for you.
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  Speaker 2: Know what classifies as fuel and know what classifies as food.
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  Speaker 2: Food has lots of nutrients and some calories, but fuel
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: is a lot of calories with very little nutrients. Here's
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: an example. Eggs are food lots and lots and lots
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: of nutrients with some calories. Saltine crackers, on the other hand,
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: are fuel lots and lots and lots of calories but
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: very little nutrients. This balance between nutrient density and energy
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: density is something that we practice often in the Faithful
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Fitness Core. It teaches us not only to look for
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: protein in our meal, but also to think about our
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: day and say, hmm, do I need more fuel the
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: snacker meal or do I need to add some more
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: food Because at the end of the day, sometimes your
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: coach eats animal crackers to fuel a very long run,
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: and I wouldn't recommend that as a good food source,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: but it's a great fuel source, and knowing the difference
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: is very powerful for me and very powerful for my
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: paramount apozzal and menopausal clients. But one of my simplest
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: pieces of nutrition advice that I can give is this,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: make the majority of your diet out of the foods
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: that are recognizable as food. Does your protein look the
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: same way that it started before processing? A steak obviously
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: came from a cow, whereas that protein bar you're gonna
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: eat looks a lot like a candy bar and probably is.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: The same could be said of vegetables, fruit, whole grains,
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: nuts and seeds, healthy fats, the simple stuff. And here's
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: why I like this approach. Minimally processed foods and whole
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: foods tend to make several other problems way easier. To say,
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: instead of reaching for a protein bar, reach for a
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: piece of fruit or a vegetable. Protein intake improves, micronutrient
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  Speaker 2: intake improves your fullness, improves your nutrient quality, and your
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: meals improve. And you don't have to micromanage every biochemical
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: pathway in your body and count every calory. Just eat
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  Speaker 2: like an adult. Most of us roughly know what that means.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I just recently had a lady trade her protein bar
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: for a whole bell pepper and a can of sardines
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: between lunch and dinner. She looked at me funny when
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: I recommended sardines, but after adding a little mustard, she says,
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: it wasn't that bad. After one week, she'd lost four
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: pounds and she was blown away, especially since on her
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: nutrition journal the bell pepper and the sardines were actually
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: the same amount of calories as the protein bar. She
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: was eating alex with my protein bar making me fat. No,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: your protein bar is probably not making you fat. However,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: it doesn't have all the nutrients that a bell pepper
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: and sardines have, and those can feed your metabolism in
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: very powerful ways that affect you the rest of the day.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Your food food is more than calories, and then if
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: you eat this way on a regular basis, then you
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: leave some room for being a human being. You can
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: have birthday cake at your granddaughter's birthday and not feel
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: guilty about it. You can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with family
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: and friends. You can go out with your husband, and
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: the goal is not dietary perfection. It's the repeatable pattern
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: of faithfulness and your nutrition and allows your body to
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: be healthy at the same time. Now, I've mentioned plants
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: a couple times, so while we're talking about it, let's
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: talk about fiber. Now the nutrition world, fiber isn't sexy, Okay,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: nobody's selling one hundred and forty nine dollars per month
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: menopause fiber protocol. But fiber rich foods are useful for
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: digestive health. They're useful for fullness, cholesterol regulation, even blood
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: sugar regulation, and overall quality of your diet. Fiber comes
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: from vegetables and fruit, beans and lentils, oats and whole
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: grains and even seeds. And this is one of those
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: places where I would much rather see someone improve the
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: quality of their entire diet than to obsess over some
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: eggs xotic supplement. The more of these whole foods you
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: can incorporate into your diet, the better. That said, I
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: have a special note from my popcorn eaters. Popcorns a
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: great snack. It's got some fiber and is generally less
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: hard on your blood sugar than many other forms of carbohydrate.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: But popcorn is still one of those foods that classifies
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: as a fuel not a food. There's not a lot
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: of nutrients there. So while I want you to enjoy
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: your popcorn, make sure you earned it through training and
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: exercise today. Otherwise you're getting fuel in your system that
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: you don't really need and that's not good for you.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: There's still a lot worth talking about nutrition, so let's
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: keep going. Coming back to part two of this series,
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: we talked a lot about loading your bones resistance training,
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: weight bearing, activity, impact where appropriate, but exercise is only
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: part of the bone health question. Your skeleton also requires
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: raw materials to rebuild itself, and two of the nutrients
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: that you'll here discuss more than anything are calcium and
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: vitamin D. Current US recommendations put calcium at about twelve
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: hundred milligrams per day for women over fifty, and I
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: prefer a meaningful amount of that comes from food when possible,
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: rather than supplements. So where can you get calcium? Well,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: if your body's okay with dairy, makes it relatively easy milk,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: greek yogurt, cottage cheese, but there are some non dairy
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: options too, like fortified foods. Even certain greens like spinach
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: and even those sardines that I keep mentioning are all
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: great sources of calcium But here's where I want you
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: to avoid the supplement trip. More is not automatically better
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: if you don't know whether or not you're deficient, especially
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: with vitamin D. I want you to talk to your
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: healthcare provider about testing your supplementation that makes sense. Do
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: not turn this nutrition podcast into permission to start taking
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: giant doses of calcium or vitamin D. We're looking for sufficiency,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: not supplement roulette. And there's plenty of studies to suggest
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: that too much calcium and too much vitamin D can
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: actually be really bad for a body, even if your
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: bones are a little less dense. But coming back to
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: our macronutrients, we've talked about protein and carbs, how about fats. Well,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: fats matter too. Hormones aren't made out of good intentions,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: They're actually made out of dietary fats. The question isn't
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: whether or not you should eat fat, it's where most
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: of it's coming from in your diet and how it
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: fits into your total energy needs. There are fats that
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: are way more productive for your metabolism than others. Olive oil, avocado, nuts,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: and seeds, fish, eggs. These can all fit beautifully into
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: a highly nutritious diet. But many of the women I
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: work with are getting the majority of their fats from
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: processed sources. And not only that, but they're consuming fats
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: and way higher doses than they think they are. Fats
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: are very energy dense. It doesn't make them bad, but
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: they add up quick and they can be way easier
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: to overeat than a lot of people realize. As an example,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I've seen people eat an enormous salad and throw some
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: protein on there, which is great, but then they add
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: a handful of cheese, Then they throw some nuts, and
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: then some avocado, and then a bunch of salad dressing,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: and before you know it, something that was a high
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: nutrient density food with some great veggies and some great
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: protein turns into a fourteen hundred calorie feast fueled mostly
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: by salad dressing, cheese, and croutons. Healthy ingredients don't make
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: the extra energy disappear. I don't want you to fear calories,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: but I need you to acknowledge that they exist, and
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: that fats are a very very abundant source of them.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: So if you're impairmentopause or menopause and you're looking to
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: lose some fat, and you know there's some nutrition that
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: needs to change for you. I hope you're getting the message.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: We're going to consume nutrient dense foods that feed the
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: best in us while eliminating any excess fuel that's giving
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: our body calories but not the nutrients it needs to
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: restore us and keep good tissue around. Because we're not
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: merely trying to reduce your scale weight. We're trying to
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: improve body composition, that is to say, losing fat and
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: gaining or defending the muscle you already have. And there's
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: a massive difference between the two. So I want you
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: to stop asking only how much do I weigh right
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: now and start occasionally asking what is that weight made
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: out of? Are you getting stronger right now? Is your
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: waist measure changing? Is your clothes fitting better? How about
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: your blood pressure? Is that changing for the better? Are
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: your labs improving? What's your energy? Like? How are you
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: moving right now? Do you feel like you can do
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: more now than six months ago? The scale is a
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: useful tool, but it's definitely not a judge, And this
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: is especially important when you begin strength training. So let's
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: say you clean up your diet a little bit. Maybe
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: you're not eating much less but you're eating way more
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: food rather than fuel. You're eating more protein, and you're
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: lifting three days a week while walking every day. After
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: six weeks, the scale might not change very much, and
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: you might get upset about that. But your waist is smaller,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: your genes fit better, you're stronger, your shoulders and back
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: are starting to look a little diff your legs are
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: feeling stronger and firmer, and you've added a little lean
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: tissue while losing fat. You might think it's not working.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: I'm not losing weight, but that's not the truth. Your
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: scale is not telling the whole story. And this is
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: one of the big reasons that I don't want a
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: woman in paramenopause or menopause to have an entire relationship
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: with her body reduced to the gravity pulling down on
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: her body against the earth. A good nutrition strategy shouldn't
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: worry about weight as much as the body composition and
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: the capability of the body it's attached to. Okay, no
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: nutrition podcast about perimenopause or menopause would be complete without
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: talking about fasting. Because on the one hand, I'm a Christian,
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: so I believe in the powerful spiritual discipline of fasting,
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: But I also work in the health and fitness world,
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: and those two different conversations sometimes overlap deeply, and fasting
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: is one of those places. Biblical fasting is not not
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: primarily a weight loss strategy. It's actually a spiritual discipline.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: It's about prayer and dependence. It's about ordering my appetite
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: and creating the space to seek God. That's very different
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: from I don't eat till noon because someone on TikTok
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: says it balances my estrogen. Please don't baptize every diet
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: trend all right now. On the flip side, can internet
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: fasting be a useful eating structure? Sure can For some people.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Limiting the eating window can actually make it easier to
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: develop good eating habits. For some ladies I've talked to,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: making the commitment that they won't eat after six pm
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: or until after eight am keeps them from rating the
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: snack cupboard where they would have done so in the past.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Some people like that, and some people feel great doing that.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: But the evidence specific to women in reproductive hormones, including
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: during menopause, is still developing with regard to fasting, so
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: we need to be careful about making sweeping claims. My
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: concern is actually more practical. If fasting quote unquote means
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: that most days, as you wake up, skip breakfast and
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: have a tiny lunch, and somehow you expect to get
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: enough protein and calories and calcium and fiber and micronutrients
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: in that four hour eating window, then maybe fasting is
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: not serving you anymore, especially at a time in your
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: life where your need for high nutrient density foods has
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: never been higher. The question is fasting good or bad?
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: The question is is this tool helping me to accomplish
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: what matters right now? Can you meet your nutritional needs?
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Can you train well? Can you recover? Can you maintain muscle?
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Can you adhere to it without becoming obsessed? If yes,
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: then it can be useful. If not, you don't get
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: bonus points for suffering. In my practice, I have trained
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: many of the women who I've worked with through perimenopause
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: and menopause to learn to fast one day per week.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: They might need to start small, fourteen or sixteen hours,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: and they might be able to work their way up
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: to fasting longer and longer periods, but that makes their
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: nutrition throughout the rest of the week paramountly important, because
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: if you're fast practice he's on average, pulling your weekly
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: protein intake down and making it harder and harder for
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: you to get nutrients and keeping you from fueling good
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: workouts and good recovery, and reducing your overall nutrition intake.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Then it might not be time to incorporate fasting into
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: your nutrition at all, especially when hormone levels are inconsistent. Fasting,
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: just like training, is a stress around your body. It
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: can be a great stressor that you can adapt powerfully to.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: But if you have a bunch of other stressors in
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: your life and you're not fueling your body very well,
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: adding fasting is definitely not going to fix things. It's
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: going to make them worse. Now, I've talked about fasting
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: in a lot of other places, so you can find
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: those resources all around faithful fitness. But that brings me
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: to an important question about breakfast. Let me pick on
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: it for just a second. Breakfast isn't magical. You don't
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: have to eat the moment your feet hit the floor.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: But for a lot of women struggling to get enough
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: protein and nutrients in their day, breakfast is an enormous opportunity.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: You could get twenty five or thirty grams protein at
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: breakfast and that changes the math for the rest of
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: your day. Eggs plus greek yogurt, or a protein shake
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: with some fruit, or cottage cheese, maybe even leftovers. I mean, really,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: who decided breakfast has to be cereal? You're an adult.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: You can eat chicken at eight in the morning, or
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: heaven forbid sardines. If fish and loaves were good enough
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: for Jesus. I mean, you can do it. No one's
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: going to arrest you. But if you routinely consume only
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: coffee until noon and then wonder why you're ravenous at
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: four in the afternoon, man, that all rhymed. I at
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: least want to experiment with another strategy. Sometimes the solution
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: isn't more willpower. Sometimes the solution is eat an actual
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: meal that would be good. Now, I can't end this
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: podcast without talking about something sensitive. Alcohol. I'm not here
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: to condemn you for enjoying a glass of wine, but
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: I think we need to be honest here. For some women,
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: somewhere along the road of middle age, alcohol quietly moves
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: from something I enjoy to something I use. I use
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: it to calm down, I use it because work was hard,
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: I use it because the kids are driving me crazy.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: I use it because my marriage feels distant right now.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: I use it because I'm anxious. I use it because
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: I can't sleep in particularly during perimenopause, when sleep may
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: already be disrupted. Using alcohol as a sleep aid can
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: become a terrible trade. It may even make you sleep initially,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: but that doesn't mean it produces good sleep. The ACOG
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: specifically recommends avoiding alcohol near bedtime when sleep is a problem,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: because alcohol can also trigger hot flashes for women and
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: make your sleep more shallow and less RESTful. So it's
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: worth an honest inventory, not for shame, but for truth.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: Ask why am I drinking this? Is it for enjoyment?
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Are you medicating something? Or do you feel it's a
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: healthful moderation. If the answer makes you feel uncomfortable, don't
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: hide it. Bring that to the light too. Now. For supplements,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: I know people love supplements. I have supplement recommendations myself.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: Actually there are supplements that I think are useful, but
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I want the order right. Diet first, supplements second, a
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: supplement supposed to supplement something. If you're sleeping terribly, eating
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: almost no protein, never touching a vegetable, not exercising, and
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: drinking glasses of wine every night. Then your magnesium supplement
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: is not the problem. You need to get the foundation right,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: then we can get more sophisticated. Pardon the metaphor, but
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: supplements are more like the icing on the nutrition cake
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: than the actual cake. But one supplement I do think
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: is worth discussing in the context of muscle and training
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: during paraimenopause and metopause is creatine. Creatine is one of
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: the most extensively steady performance supplements that we have, and
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: there's growing research specifically around women's health and postmenopause of
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: women that it's worth mentioning for an active woman trying
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: to support strength and muscle. Creatine monohydrate is powerful. For
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: many adults. A common daily dose is in the neighborhood
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: of three to five grams per day. Createin's not a steroid,
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: it's not a hormone, and I've covered it here on
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: the Faithful Fitness podcast before. You don't need a supplement
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: with a picture of a shredded twenty two year old
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: man screaming on the container. Either plain or creatine monohydrate's fine.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: But again, supplements are individualized. Kidney disease, medications, medical conditions,
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: and other factors matter when taking supplements like creatine, so
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: when appropriate, talk to your healthcare professional, and remember creatin
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: can't out supplement not training. It's not going to make
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: a difference in your muscle and bone if you're not
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: actively using it in the same way that protein powder
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: can't out supplement the not eating protein thing. Vitamin D
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: and calcium can't supplement not loading your bones. Remember foundation first.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: One quick nutritional side note for women and menopause. Periods
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: can sometimes become very heavy or irregular during this transition,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: and if you're dealing with significant bleeding and you're exhausted,
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: don't just assume, well, menopause makes me tired. Talk to
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: your doctor because heavy bleeding can contribute to iron deficiency
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: that may need to be evaluated. And on the other
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: side of menopause, iron needs to generally decrease after menstruation
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: has stopped, So don't blindly keep taking iron forever just
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: because it was in your women's multi Again. Test when
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: action is appropriate, and then treat what actually exists. Don't guess,
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: which brings me to another side noteworth addressing. Here's a
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: phrase I'd like you to be skeptical of. Quote hormone
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: quote balancing, it's a great marketing phrase, it's usually terrible
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: scientific description of food. Your endocrine system is extraordinarily complex.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: No smoothie is balancing your hormones today. Does nutrition influence
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: hormonal and metabolic health? Sure? Does adequate energy matter? Yep?
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Does your body composition make a difference, Sure does? Does
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: dietary fat matter? Yes? And does blood sugar regulation matter? Yes?
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: But beware of anybody who identifies one exotic berry or
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: seed or powder or tea or cleanse or protocol that
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: claims to fix menopause. The human body is not that simple.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: And whenever somebody tells you that you need their proprietary
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: product to make your body function normally, hold on to
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: your wallet. That's not how God made things. So let's
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: make this practical. If you came to me and said, coach,
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: forget all the internet noise, what should my meals actually
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: look like? I'd start here. First, a meaningful protein source
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: and build your meal around it. Then plants whole vegetables
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: or fruit often across your day, and then a useful
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: energy source based on your needs. If you're training hard,
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: you need some potatoes, some rice, some oats, some whole grains,
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: some beans, some fruit, and if you're not training very hard,
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: these are great fuel sources, but not as good foods,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: so adjust accordingly, and then take inventory of your healthy fats.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: If you're eating minimally processed foods, and chances are your protein,
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: your vegetables, and your nuts and seeds are supplying you
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: plenty of healthy fats. Prioritize feeding the best in you
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: with nutrients, and then adjust your fuel intake based on
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: your training. I know it's not sexy, nobody's going viral
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: with women eats chicken and potatoes and broccoli. It feels
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: pretty good, but boring works. Consistency works imperimenopause and menopause.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Remember something's happening on the inside that isn't very consistent.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: So the more consistent you can be with healthy nutrition,
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: the more you'll signal to your body a stable baseline.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: You don't need nutritional entertainment here. You need a strategy
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: that will still work for you next year. So in
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: real life, it might look like breakfast with eggs and
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: vegetables or some Greek yogurt and berries, and if you're
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: training that morning, add some oatmeal or a piece of
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: wheat toast. At lunch, a large salad or vegetable bowl
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: with a real serving of chicken or salmon on it.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: And if you've been really active so far today, maybe
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: you need some beans or rice or potatoes. And at dinner,
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: get some lean beef, some fish, some poultry or another
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: protein source. Put a bunch of vegetables on your plate.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: And again, if it's been an active day, grab some
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: fruit afterward. And if throughout the day you find yourself
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: needing something to eat, grab some cottage cheese, some greek yogurt,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: a protein shake, maybe some nuts and seeds. Again, this
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: is not a diet prescription for every woman. I just
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: want you to see how normal this can look in
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: a day. And it shouldn't take hours to eat healthfully
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: for yourself. That's not sustainable. That's a fitness influencer diet.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: I don't want you eating like a fitness influencer. I
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: want you to eat like someone who intends to keep
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: your body strong for the long haul. Now, let me
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: speak directly to the woman who doesn't just want to
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: eat healthy. You genuinely have some excess body fat, and
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: maybe your doctor's concerned for you. Maybe your blood sugar
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: is getting worse, and maybe your blood pressure is moving
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: in the wrong direction. Maybe you've even gained twenty thirty
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: or more pounds that don't feel good, and it's okay
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: to want to lose that. Body positivity does not require
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: pretending that excess body fat has no health consequences. So
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: here's what I want from you. Don't panic, don't slash
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: your calories tomorrow, don't decide that you're never eating bread again,
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: and please don't sign up for some miserable twenty one
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: day detox. Okay, Let's start by building the foundation strength, train, walk,
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: get some protein at every meal, clean up the obvious junk,
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: get your liquid calories under control, watch out for grazing,
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: take an honest look at alcohol, and eat mostly whole
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: food this week. This will create the energy deficit that
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: you need while feeding what's best in your body. And
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: then I need you to be patient and let it
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: do the work. You didn't gain twenty to thirty pounds
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: in seven days, you're not going to lose it in
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: seven days either. Let's build a body and a lifestyle
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: that still works after your diet period is over. And
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: for the lady who doesn't need to lose any weight.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: I need to say this too, because not every woman
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: in menopause has weight to lose. Please hear me. You
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: still might need to get stronger. You might need to
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: improve your cardiovascular health. You might need to be eating
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: some more protein and address your bone density. You might
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: need to be sleeping better. You might need to eat
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: some more food because you've been chronically underfueling yourself. Take
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: a serious look at your capacity, because when it comes
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: to menopause and perimenopause, the right answer isn't become smaller
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: or skinnier just because the fitness culture has done enough
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: damage here. You don't owe the world a smaller you
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: because you turn fifty. What I want for you is
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: a well stewarded body. Sometimes that does mean losing fat,
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: and sometimes it doesn't know where you're at. And if
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: you don't know, ask a professional. And now, like we've
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: done throughout this entire series, a word for the people
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: who love her, especially as please don't become the food police.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: Your wife doesn't need you looking at her plate and saying, uh,
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: are you supposed to eat that? That's not helping. Don't
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: do that. But you can make good nutrition easier. You
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: can eat well with her you can cook a good meal.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: You can keep decent food in the house and keep
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: the junk out. You can stop acting like every healthy
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: dinner is some terrible punishment you're forced to endure. You
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: can say, let's go out tonight and enjoy ourselves, and
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: tomorrow we'll get right back on to what we normally do.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: You can help create a household where health is normal,
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: not obsessive or restrictive normal. The safest place to eat
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: healthy in the whole wide world should be your house,
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: And especially if she's struggling with body changes, Be careful
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: with your words. She probably already notices. She doesn't need
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: you reminding her that her body's different. She needs to
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: know that she's loved well she works toward becoming healthy,
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: and ladies, the same goes in the opposite direction. Don't
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: make your husband responsible for fixing how you feel about
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: your body. Let them encourage you, let them love you,
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: but ultimately, your stewardship belongs to you. There's something deeply
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: biblical about eating together. Jesus spent an extraordinary amount of
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: time around tables. Meals weren't merely nutrient delivery systems. They
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: were places of fellowship, teaching, celebration, reconciliation community, and I
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: think some of us need to rescue food from both extremes.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: Food's not God, and food is not the enemy. It's provision.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: It's something we're meant to receive with gratitude and steward
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: with wisdom. One Corinthians ten thirty one says, so whether
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: for the glory of God. I love that scripture. It
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: doesn't remove eating from the spiritual life. Instead, it puts
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: eating inside of it. Even this, something as ordinary as
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: breakfast can become part of faithful stewardship. Not because Greek
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: yogurt's healthy, but because intentionality is, because gratitude is, because
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: self control is, because caring for the body God entrusted
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: to you matters. I know it's been a long show,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: So here's what I want you to remember today. Your
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: body's not a math problem that you're trying to punish
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: into submission. Food's not something you have to earn, and
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: menopause is not permission to throw your hands up and
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: say nothing works anymore. I want you to remember the
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: truth instead. Your nutritional needs matter, Protein matters, and muscle matters.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: The amount of calories you consume in a day matters.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: Your diet quality matters, Your fiber matters, calcium and vitamin D, alcohol,
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: and how you fuel your training matters. In consistency matters
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: far more than whatever diet is dominating social media right now.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: So don't ask how little can I eat to survive?
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: Instead ask how do I nourish this body well enough
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: to become what I'm asking it to become. That's a
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: better question. When fat loss is appropriate, Let's create the
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: conditions for fat loss. But in the middle of that,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: we're going to fight to keep what matters your muscle,
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: your bone, your strength, your energy and capacity, and as
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: far as hormones go. Well, that brings us to Part
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: four because in Part one, two and three, we've established
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: a foundation, we understood the transition. We talked about training
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: the body, and today we talked about nourishing the body.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: And then the next episode, the final one, we're going
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: to talk about the stuff that tends to generate the
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: most questions and the most confusion, hormone replacement therapy, or
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: as some like to call it, menopausal hormone therapy. What
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: does the current evidence actually say, who might benefit, who
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: needs to be cautious. We're going to talk about several things, sleep,
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: sexual health, some more supplements, peptides, and some of the
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: newer things that women are being offered in this season.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: And most importantly, how do I know when this season
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: is no longer something that I need to try to
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: simply manage on my own? Because remember what I said
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: in part one, you don't get extra credit for suffering more.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: There are things that we can train our way through,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: there are things that we can eat our way toward,
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: and there are things that deserve competent medical care. The
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: wisdom is knowing the difference. And finally, before you go,
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: if this episode spoke to you, I want you to
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: join us for our live seminar coming up. Go to
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: Faithfulfitness dot co slash menopause, take our Faithful Fitness assessment,
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: understand where you're starting, and then reserve your seat for
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: our seminar. I'm going to teach you a framework for
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: taking where you are right now and building a program
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: to get you amazing results in the next thirty days.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: And we're not selling you some miracle supplement or crash diet.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: We're going to do the hard work of identifying the
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: things that matter most right now and then we're going
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: to act on them, So don't wait if you need
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: to make a change. Faithfulfitness dot co slash menopause. I
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: can't wait for you to join us. This has been
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: coach Alex van Houten on the Faithful Fitness podcast. Thanks
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: so much for joining me for part three of Menopause
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: in the Light next week. I'll see him part four.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: Until then, train hard, but pray even harder.
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: What's up, Faithful? This episode helped you share it with
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: someone who needs to hear it, and don't forget to
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: subscribe and need a review. Some more people can find
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: Faithful Fitness. My dad's devotional Faithful Fitness is available now
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: and you can join our Faithful Fitness community by clicking
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: the links in the show notes. We all have a
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: cross to carry. Put each lighter when we do it
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: together see how later Alligator. But until then, train hard
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: and pray even harder.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: M