Latest / Empower Your Menopause / Episode 44: Why Meal Timing Matters – The Science Behind When You Eat

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Episode 44: Why Meal Timing Matters – The Science Behind When You Eat · Empower Your Menopause

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Empower Your Menopause, the podcast that helps you take charge of your health, home and happiness if you're a woman over 40.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's James and Julie here from Fabulous Beyond 40, and today we're going to dive into something that's I guess rarely talked about but can make a real difference for some people when it comes to their health and fitness.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going back to nutrition, and today we're going to talk about meal timing.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not about food rules or rigid eating schedules.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's also not about the kind of thing that you would do when it comes to meal timing if you were a professional athlete and you were trying to get marginal gains.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's more about understanding how your body can respond to when you eat, especially during perimenopause, menopause, and beyond.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just dive straight in without further ado by welcoming Julie in and saying, Julie, why could meal timing be important in midlife then?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's going on?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we talking about this this week?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's it's really interesting because I've been reading lately quite a lot.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um we are meant as human beings to work in alignment with our circadian rhythm, which is basically the way we adapt based on light and dark cycles that aren't natural to the outside world and to our bodies.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we actually have an internal body clock that's supposed to operate on a similar cycle where we wake up when it's light and we wind down and sleep when it's dark.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the other functions in our body also are sensitive to that circadian rhythm.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it it affects the way our digestion works, it affects the way our hormones are used and produced, it affects our metabolic function.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's an article in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, if we want to get all nerdy about it, talking about the things that are important about the way we eat and things like growth hormone, melatonin production, cortisol, leptin and ghrhrelin, our hunger and satiety hormones, they're really highly correlated with our sleep and our circadian rhythm.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So if we don't time meals correctly with the way our bodies are supposed to work in this cycle, um it can disrupt our energy.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, in the morning our cortisol is meant to be higher when we're waking up and we want to have energy.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if if we get that, if we start eating in alignment with where our energy flow is going, um it can help us with insulin levels and blood sugar management, um, it can help us with cravings, it can help us with a lot of different things.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: And energy is always a big thing that a lot of our clients are are struggling with.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: So when we get into midlife, there's that extra complexity of how our hormones are changing and how they affect our body.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, especially when it comes to insulin sensitivity and blood sugar balance, which affect a lot of things.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, once we've lost that protective effect of estrogen or we're having that massive fluctuation of estrogen in perimenopause.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um we see some pretty common patterns with this with our clients.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: You want to talk about that a bit?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, yeah.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you mentioned blood sugar balance because while you were talking there, I just penciled it in on my notepad here saying we're gonna talk about blood sugar balance.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, so yeah, it that is obviously really, really important at this time of life, isn't it?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because that protective effect of estrogen goes down.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk then about some of those undesirable potential habits.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, undesirable doesn't mean that these are things that you can't do if you're absolutely stuffed, but there are things that can affect the way you eat, the way you manage your weight, the way you affect that blood sugar balance, the way your hormones are affected as a result of it all.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I suppose one of the biggest ones that we see more than anything else is skipping breakfast or just trying to get by on coffee first thing in the morning.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I fully understand why this happens.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I see it a lot in our house.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about solutions later, I'll talk a little bit about some of the things that we brought in to help with this.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: But generally, if you're a woman, you're over 40, you've got kids, you've got a partner, you're going out to work, all that kind of stuff.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Mornings can be a real sort of like time-compressed time of the day, right?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's easier to just throw some cereal into a bowl and douse it in some milk and off you go.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to stick a slice of toast in the toaster, slap some butter on it, eat it in the car, going to work.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to convince yourself that because you've not got time in the morning to actually eat, that skipping breakfast is good, because on the other hand, somebody somewhere along the line has told you that internet and fasting is a really good idea, and cooking breakfast is a good idea as well.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're all things that come in.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not talking.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you're the kind of person who's worked out over the years that skipping breakfast absolutely serves you, and you're doing it intentionally, then that is very, very different to just being too busy to eat in the morning and letting that being too busy become your status quo.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's important to make clear.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that is number one, then skipping breakfast or just trying to get by on you know a cup of coffee or a mug of coffee, and then driving off to work and deciding that your first meal of the day is going to be about 11, 12 o'clock, whatever it may be.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of correlated with this because sometimes it's the flip-on from that in that idea of driving breakfast back, is going long stretches of food, and then finding yourself at a stage where you're so hungry, it's like just grab anything, right?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you've started off the day, you've not had anything to eat, you let that push on, push on, push on, you get to lunch time, and suddenly it's right, I'm going to eat everything.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't necessarily, of course, be in the morning, it can be reflected by some people who will have breakfast and then not have anything until dinner late at night.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And once again, if you've worked out that you absolutely thrive on two miles a day, and that's how you want sorry, two meals a day, and that's how you want to eat, then that's absolutely fine.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: But if you've not actually worked out intentionally, then let's look at trying not to go these long stretches uh without food, and then again flipping on from that is going, and we have some clients or had some clients before we writered their eating pattern somewhat who would actually go almost all day without eating, so it was like coffee in the morning, something to drink in the afternoon, and then they'd get home at dinner time.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And at dinner time, the last thing at night is like, right, I'm gonna pack all the calories in now.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a couple of hours before you go to bed, digestion is not uh working properly because you're ready to shut down for the day, so you're not having time to digest all that food properly.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're probably overeating on calories because despite the fact that you might have convinced yourself that during the day you've saved all these lovely calories up, then by the time you get to night time, you're probably gonna be so hungry you eat much more food, and therefore your calorific intake over the course of the day, despite the fact you're only having one meal, can be quite large.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then the flip side of all that the flip side of not eating um for long periods of time is actually constantly snacking, you know.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: This idea of just grazing constantly throughout the day can be a real challenge as well.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to try and avoid that and stick to some standard meal times if we can.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then the final one is again, leading on from that, is just not having an eating pattern that your schedule is so crazy that one day you're having breakfast at six o'clock in the morning, the next day you're having it at nine o'clock in the morning, one day you're lunching at eleven, the next day you're lunching at two.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, dinner is five o'clock on some nights, and at other nights it's eight o'clock.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, all those kind of things can really affect the results of our eating, and particularly for women in the menopause transition.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it might be boring, but our bodies craved some kind of consistency when it comes to food.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So trying to have evenly portioned meals, trying to have evenly balanced meals, trying to have our meals at the right time, trying to make sure that we're sitting down and enjoying food.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: All those kind of things that are a bit like, oh my god, it's so boring, are actually the kind of things that are absolutely what serves you.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of some of the patterns that we see.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And let's talk then about what the research has shown us, Judah.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you could just delve into that a little bit, delve a bit more into this idea of circadian rhythm eating, how it works for people, and what the research is actually telling us about that.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, one of the important things to understand is our insulin sensitivity is higher in the morning.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: That goes along with our circadian rhythm.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And research is showing there was a study by the NIH that showed some really interesting things that support the idea of eating earlier in the day to regulate our cortisol, to make sure our insulin sensitivity stays high enough to avoid issues with our blood sugar balance.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: And they were saying that several of these rhythms peak in the biological morning or early afternoon.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: So earlier in the daytime is the optimal time for food intake.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, in in our parents and grandparents' generations, it was breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper, right?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: To to have the majority of that food.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now, obviously, they had a much more active lifestyle than we do, so we don't necessarily need to follow that exactly.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: We have to find what works for our individual bodies.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: But the result of people not staying in alignment with this circadian rhythm and at least getting the majority of their calories earlier in the day, um, they related that to adversely affecting metabolic health in humans.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: So they said these interconnections among circadian system, metabolism, and behavior underscore the importance for preventing and treating diabetes, obesity, and hyperlipidemia.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: So these are some pretty common health risks that women face as we go again into this through this phase of life, I should say, from peramenopause to postmenopause.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: So understanding that eating earlier in the day is going to benefit you in a lot of different ways.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Energy, weight management, blood sugar balance, um, cortisol regulation, which is a big deal, especially you know, talking about our fat deposits and how cortisol affects our ability to lose weight, but just managing stress generally.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing is that fasting, intermittent fasting, and delayed eating can have very different effects on men and women.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: And for some women, intermittent fasting works great if you have a body and a and a lifestyle and a and health that reflects that this is a good thing for you.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's fabulous.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying it's not something to be done, but there are some women who have to be careful about that because women can be more sensitive to hormonal changes during fasting, and that can lead to fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone levels, which of course during paramenopause is already happening.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just going to exacerbate that.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: For some women, uh fasting can have risks relating to menstrual regularity, fertility, pregnancy, um, and especially if your energy intake is too low, meaning you're not eating enough as it is.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: So the fasting can really magnify that.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And eating late at night, now we know this anyway, just um intuitively, I hope, or at least if you've been listening to us for any amount of time, you understand.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Eating late at night is not good for our body because it interferes with our ability to sleep when our body is going through all of our metabolic processes and repairing and restoring and doing all of the things that it needs to do to keep us healthy.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: So eating late at night also contributes to weight gain and metabolic syndrome in women.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: So when we delay, like you were saying, James, when we delay that eating window until late at night, it can really have a reverse effect of what it is that that we're going for.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now, intermittent fasting can have some benefits for conditions like PCOS.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there was a study done by the Cleveland Clinic that showed that showed that.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in menopause specifically, again, for some women, this can help with insulin sensitivity and weight loss, but it can also affect our estrogen levels, which is a concern because in menopause, we we are already battling with that.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: And knowing all of the effects that low estrogen has, intermittent fasting could be a problem.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it also can create nutrient deficiencies if you don't do it correctly.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people think intermittent fasting is just, I just won't eat for this period of time.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not what it is specifically.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: We have to really plan our meals so that we're getting enough of the right nutrients, you know, enough protein, enough of the vitamins and minerals that we need, enough servings of vegetables and fruits and fiber and all of the other things that our bodies need, especially during this, during this time of life.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: So regular meal timing really during menopause can be a great tool to use.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not doing this now, it you know, there are simple ways that you can experiment with this and and shift into this way of eating, I would think.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you want to talk about some of those?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know, the idea of you mentioned it before, it always amazes me how some of the things that you know our forefathers told us, whether it be our parents or our grandparents, etc., um told us things that actually turn out to be quite true, such as sort of like chewing 30 times each mouthful and to make sure the food's broken down and all that kind of stuff.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's stuff that you think is old wives' tales, isn't it?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it is they they are actually now more and more those old ways of doing things proven in actual science as well.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so that idea of eating more in the morning, eating a little bit less in the afternoon, eating even less in the evening is a really, really good place to start.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: So trying to front load calories earlier in the day.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now that won't work for everybody, but if you're not doing this right now and you're struggling with either weight gain or energy levels or whatever it may be, it might be a good idea to start thinking about trying to do that.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think eating earlier in the day is really really important.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Say within the first hour or so that you you wake up, how does that help?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we've talked about stresses on the body numerous times, we've talked about things like cortisol stress being the enemy of women in the menopause transition, and so cortisol naturally spikes early in the morning when you wake up, and so eating in line with that spike of cortisol earlier in the day, and then eating less as cortisol drops is a really really good way of looking at things.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, going back to the thing that we talked about earlier, whereby we appreciate that some people are really challenged when it comes to time first thing in the morning, and I mentioned that that is certainly something that happens in our house.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I normally get up early, take the dog out, go for a run.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Laura gets up a little bit later than that, then the kids get up, and then it's you know, for an hour and a half, it's kind of chaos trying to get the kids off to school, trying to do all the morning chores around the house and things like that.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were finding that breakfast, particularly for Laura and the girls, was a bit of a challenge because by the time Laura got round to eating, she'd just be jumping straight in the car and going to work.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And with the kids, they'd pretty much be just going down, doing the typical bowl of cereal, and and and off they'd go.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so, about three months ago, we introduced overnight oats.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Really, really simple.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we could prep it the night before.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: It takes us five minutes to prep.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's some oats, it's some uh Greek yogurt, it's a scoop full of protein, it's uh some some non-dairy milk, and then sprinkling some fruit on top, and maybe a little drizzle of honey, and just leaving it there overnight.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it takes 10 minutes to prepare in the night, and it's already waiting for as soon as people get up and they're ready to eat, they can eat.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Likewise, there's other things you can do.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do us.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: You could make a couple of boiled eggs the night before, so they're ready for you first thing in the morning.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or you could actually put everything you need into your morning smoothie, and we've got a smoothie formula for women in perimenopause that we can add in the show notes to this.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just put the link to the PDF in there for anybody who wants to grab it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can put all your stuff ready for your smoothie into the blender even at night.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it's literally stick it on the machine and press the button for 30 seconds when we get up.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, nobody can tell me they don't have 30 seconds to do that first thing in the morning as something to try.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that kind of covers the early morning period.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the next thing I think is trying to stabilize meal times.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: We've mentioned this before, but having breakfast, trying to be a similar time each day, trying to make your lunch time a similar time each day, and trying to make your evening meal at a similar time each day.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is the only way that's going to happen if you're really, really busy, is to start treating your meal times as a diary appointment.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: So actually saying to yourself, you know, if you look at my daily diary, 12 till 1 is my lunch break.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's blocked out.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't take calls from clients, I don't have meetings with anybody else.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: I make sure that it's sacrosanct, so I'm actually eating something in the middle of the day, and that's what I'd advise doing is making sure that you're actually scheduling those meal times into your schedule.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sure there'll be one time that something goes wrong, or you've got to attend something for work, or you can't make it, or whatever, where that might not be able to happen, but generally we want to be eating at the same time, so I think that's really important.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Two or three meals per day, and making sure that they're meals that actually fuel you, so that in between bit you can get used to things like your insulin raising after you've eaten, and then ghrelin kicking in the other hormone when you're ready to eat again, and so having that stability, making sure that that helps with your blood sugar balance reduces the need to having snacks.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are gonna have some snacks, you know, keep them with you and keep them relatively small and relatively light for those in-between bits, or if you're definitely going to be out and about in the day, just spend some time pre-planning things like snacks and meals beforehand so you know what you're eating.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then I suppose the final thing is try thinking about some batch cooking.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on my other website, Elevated Food for Life, we which is free by the way, for you to join elevatedfoodforlife.com.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have what we call some brilliant bases in there to help with batch cooking.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: The problem with batch cooking is it's a great idea of making sure that you're eating, but you know, if you make a big tray of lasagna on a Sunday, then you're probably going to be eating lasagna for the rest of the week.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And however healthily you've made that lasagna, you're going to have the same nutrients on a day-to-day basis.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: So on Elevated Food for Life, there's some uh what we call brilliant bases on there.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Those brilliant bases allow you to make uh a base recipe sauce or a dough or something or other that you can store in the fridge or freezer and then get it out during the week and make different offshoots from that thing.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the classic one would be you know a tomato sauce base that we call tomato fondue that you can make spaghetti bolognese one day, chili the next day, the next day you can use it as a background for some eggs, whatever it may be, but it helps you do some batch cooking without um having that idea of decision fatigue coming in coming into things.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so there's some shift you can make.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's just worth remembering that we're not talking here about trying to restrict things, we're just trying to talk about being consistent because the more consistent you are, the more stabilized your blood sugars are going to be.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Your blood sugars are already challenged by the lack of estrogen, so why not give your blood sugar balance and your east uh and your hormone levels the best chance possible to succeed?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I suppose the next step is to talk about why people, despite the fact they might even know all this stuff, not wanting to implement it.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, do you want to talk us through the I this idea of not being hungry in the in the morning?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then Julie.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know that you had a chair yourself in this one, right?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: This this was a big thing for me, and uh this could be caused by a number of different things.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, if you're eating late at night and you're not sleeping well, that's affecting your digestive system, and it would stand to reason that you might not be hungry in the morning because you're not fully digested from the late meal the night before.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um if you don't digest well or leave enough space in between meals, it could be that you just don't feel hungry regularly, not only in the morning, but especially in the morning, shifting those meal times and getting a bit more regular will help you regulate that appetite.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: I went through this myself.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I didn't used to eat breakfast, but by 11 o'clock, I was absolutely starving.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: I do my workouts at noon, and that wasn't really a very good combination.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: So now I've gradually over time I started introducing like just some fruit, um, you know, some lighter things in the morning and bringing my evening meals earlier and lighter.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And when I did that, I started to feel hungry in the morning pretty regularly.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay to feel hungry between meals.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's something I think a lot of people are afraid of.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to get hungry.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: What if I get hungry?
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you get hungry, you're you're gonna be hungry, and that's really good because that means that those lectin and leptin and ghrelin levels are doing what they need to do, to let your blood sugar come down, tell you it's time to eat, and then eat again until you're satisfied, and then let that cycle continue to to go through.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: When we're stressed all the time, that can affect our hunger.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're stressed and you're not sleeping, and you know, some of the things that happen during paramenopause and menopause with night sweats and and other things that make our sleep a bit more uncomfortable, that could be affecting it.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: So finding ways to make your sleep a little more comfortable.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Our gut microbiome is affected by sleep, it's affected by what we eat, and it can influence our hunger hormones as well.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: So making sure that you're taking good care of your gut, that your meals do include, as we say, nourishing food that's going to fuel your body rather than grabbing a packet of crisps or a big bowl of pasta and not getting the protein that you need, not getting the fiber that you need.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: So this is something we can retrain ourselves to do gradually.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now I love my breakfast time.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I look forward to that in the morning.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I I find that that pretty easy now that I have that rhythm going again.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: And now my energy levels throughout the morning are really even.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I would just say take this slowly if you're not a morning eater, and start with something lighter like a smoothie or some little egg protein bites or a boiled egg.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it takes time and it takes practice like anything else and when we're making adjustments.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: What about workouts?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know you're an early morning workout person.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I I'm I'm somebody who works out early in the morning, and I think it's worth just saying that again, personalization is really, really important.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're an ultra-endurance athlete, faster training is a good way of getting used to burning body fat rather than burning uh glucose and training yourself for that.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not talking about those specialized cases here, we're talking more about this concept of I'm working out and therefore I won't eat anything before I work out first thing in the morning.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is that there's research that shows that fasted training might not be ideal for women in any case, and particularly in midlife, so that's worth thinking about.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I also think it's it's important to remember that you know, eating before training doesn't necessarily mean going the whole hog and having a full meal, it could just be something as simple as a handful of nuts or half a banana or you know a little piece of protein in some way, shape, or form.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um that pre-workout fueling really helps with muscle mass, uh, it improves performance when it comes to workouts in in women.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's just worth thinking about once again.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: If it's something you're not doing, try it out and see if it if it works for you.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: So then once you do try it out, you can tune into how you feel before, during, and after your workouts.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, do you feel fatigued?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Are you feeling dizzy?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have poor recovery?
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because all those kind of things can be red flags.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: So just use it as something to think about and potentially play with rather than carte blanche just saying, you know, I will never eat before a workout.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I suppose the next objection or barrier to this kind of thing is the idea of being too busy to eat at regular times.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're a woman, um midlife transition.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you talk to me about business.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: I know how busy you are.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how can people fit that into a regular schedule to eat at regular times when all this other stuff's going on?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, sure.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I one of the things that women are most guilty of, present company included, is that we prioritize everybody else but ourselves.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: We make sure the kids have a good meal, we make sure our partner has a good meal, we're we're steady with the dog's food and meal times, but somehow we don't carry that forward to ourselves.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we need to recognize that we are just as human as everyone else.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: We have just as many needs as everyone else, and it's fully okay to make that a priority, like James suggested, you know, scheduling those meal times into your calendar.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the other thing is eating well doesn't require a long break.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to sit down for an hour if you don't have that much space in your day, even though we'd love to see you at least schedule 30 minutes.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: But you can get a nourishing meal eaten within about 20 minutes.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: You can eat slowly and mindfully.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's that ideal time for your stomach to tell your brain that you've had enough to eat.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're able to do that, it can really help with your focus and your energy and the way you um the way you go throughout throughout your days.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there are some people with high demand jobs.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: I have friends who are teachers and they have very limited time.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: They have to often eat on the fly, um, or nurses who, of course, may get called up at any moment when they when they sit down for their break to eat.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: And again, honoring that time, it's always nice to have some social catch up with coworkers and whatnot.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: But really, when you're prioritizing yourself, we've been able to find ways to to work around those those professions.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: And if they can work around them, certainly if you're not in one of those professions, you you can do that too.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the biggest the I think the key here is planning ahead.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: So whether it's a thermos of soup or excuse me, or uh an insulated lunch bag with some pre-prepared food from that batch cooking that you might do, um, or things that you can prepare in five or 10 minutes the night before or the morning of, it it really helps reduce that overwhelm and it reduces that decision fatigue.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: It reduces the likelihood that you're going to reach for whatever happens to be available.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: So when you have, I know you have at least 10 minutes, you can find 10 minutes to sit down and eat.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: But ideally, if you can take a 20-minute break, sit down, focus on your food, enjoy it, prepare things that you like.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, don't force yourself to live on salad if if you aren't a big salad eater.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: There are lots of ways to eat nutritious meals, and we talk about that quite frequently, that that can be prepared ahead.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I know some people say to me, I like hot food, I like, I don't like cold food.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, find a way.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: They're insulated, there's every kind of lunch kit you can find on the on the marketplace now to help you get around those things.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: So so I I think the I don't have time needs to get set aside, and we need to do some advocating for ourselves and take the time that we need.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: What are some other objections that you've heard recently?
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've always eaten this way, and I'm fine, is always a favourite one.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's worth realizing that there's a real difference between what is habitual and what is optimum for your health at this time of life, right?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: So just because things have been fine in inverted commas don't don't doesn't mean that it's it's the best way for you to eat, and as we've explained all the way through this episode, midlife changes the game for for women, so and not just when it comes to eating in so many other things as well.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's worth thinking that if you've always eaten this way and you think you're fine, just question that.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself does this feel good?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Am I feeling energetic and full of beans and ready to go and managing my way what feels properly?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: All those kind of things are really, really important things to actually just think about and then make a decision based on that and just see if it isn't quite working for you, try something different.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't have to be radical change, just have to be something small, trying something else uh differently.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't skipping part of uh skipping breakfast part of intermittent fasting is another one?
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we've talked quite a lot about intermittent fasting so far, so I don't want to dwell on this too much, but it's just worth saying that a lot of research uh is based on a health inequality, and that is that a lot of research is done on men rather than rather than women, or has been traditionally.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's starting to change a little bit now, and there are more and more studies coming out that are showing not only does that previous research not translate very well to to women in perimenopause or post-menopause, but there are more studies showing that you know intermittent fasting isn't necessarily optimal.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then I suppose the other thing is some people just think that they don't like to be restricted, they don't like to be told what to do, this whole idea of being nanny by people.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think again, it's important to say this is not about sort of like sticking some massive rules into your life where you can do this or can't do that, it's just about trying to remove some of that ad hoc nature, some of that chaos that might be surrounding your life, and you and therefore your eating patterns, and trying to get yourself in a more consistent rhythm rather than saying this is an absolute.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, just sort of wrapping all that up, then you know, as ever, it feels as though this is the thing that we talk about most often than not.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's about trying to work with your body and not against it.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, those small shifts in timing can affect lots of different things, can affect your mood, it can affect affects your focus, it can affect affects your sleep, it can affect your weight loss efforts.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um eating regularly isn't necessarily a self-indulgence, it's more about respecting yourself and the way you want to you want to live.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the truth is your body's not really asking for more restriction, it's asking for for rhythm, right?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I think we've beaten this down enough.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: I hope, I hope that you've gotten some good takeaways from this so that you you can start giving this a try for yourself.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: And if this hit home for you, um, if you're the kind of person who's been doing these things, right?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: Running on caffeine, skipping your meals, wondering why your energy is tanking, wondering why you can't manage your weight, wondering why all of these things are happening and you're struggling with your health, then that that isn't necessarily how your life was meant to be, right?
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: Normal doesn't mean optimal, doesn't mean healthy, it doesn't mean it's right.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: So the great thing is we talked about today, you can shift a lot of this.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't take big steps, it just takes, you know, small incremental changes to add up to big things.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: So keep an eye out because we're coming out with another free workshop.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna help you take the stress out of eating and balancing your hormone and supporting your hormones and supporting your weight loss through midlife.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's coming up on June 6th.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, stay tuned for more information because we hope to see you there, certainly.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, we're coaches James and Julie from Fabulous Beyond 40, and we'd like to remind you to stay strong and stay fabulous.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next week.