Jennifer Smith: Welcome to You're Not Crazy. It's Perimenopause. If you're a woman over 40 and feeling more anxious, not sleeping well, or disconnected from your body, this podcast is for you. I'm your host, Jenny Smith, Functional Medicine Health Coach, here to help you understand what the heck is happening in Perimenopause. Each week, we're diving into real-life conversations about how our changing hormones impact anxiety, sleep, and stress. And I'll share simple strategies to help you feel normal again. So grab a cup of tea or beverage of choice, get comfy, and let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to You're Not Crazy. It's Perry Menopause. Today we are going to be talking about why it's so difficult for us to stop craving sugar. It is one of the things that I hear about all the time from women that I'm working with, that I talk to, and there's reasons for that. So we're gonna talk about those reasons. It is something that I have struggled with my entire life. And it's something that I continue to struggle with off and on. And I'm gonna explain to you the things that really work to help get back on track and ditch those sugar cravings. I wanna start off with a little story as it relates to sugar and eating too much of it. I work from home and I wear a lot of stretchy pants. I feel like if you work from home, stretchy pants are a must. And I remember putting my jeans on for the first time in a while, and this was to head out to my son's football game. And when I put the jeans on, they were very snug. And jeans are usually snug after a wash. I get that. But this was extra snug. And I was like, I squeezed my my legs in there and I, you know, zipped it up and buttoned it up and it was tight and I had a baggy shirt on and I just remember feeling really like uncomfortable and just didn't feel comfortable in them because they were so tight. But you know, I went on my merry way and went to my son's game. And I remember coming home and taking off my pants to go take a shower and I saw that the jeans had ripped. They had ripped like in the back pocket side like where the pocket is, it had this big like rip. And I thought, my gosh, how embarrassing. Did anybody see this? Did anyone see this? Like, because I was kneeling down during the game and I was, I was, you know, jumping up and down and cheering because it was a playoff game. So it was a really exciting game. And I thought, ⁓ my gosh, did anybody see this? Like that is so embarrassing. And I remember telling my friend that like my jeans had ripped and I was like so discouraged. And she said, Where did it rip? And I told her like the back pocket. She goes, ⁓ they tend to rip there anyways. And I said, No. Thank you so much for trying to make me feel better. But this was clearly my jeans were too tight. So that's when I had to check in with myself and ask, like, what is going on? And at that time in my life, which was not too long ago, and if you're on my email list, you probably have been hearing my stories about what I've been doing to really real back on the sugar cravings. And so I was eating a lot of sugar at the time. And I was craving it. I was eating it while working at my desk. I was eating it right after work, going upstairs and grabbing a snack. I was eating it after dinner. I was eating it every day, several times a day. And it was catching up with me. And it's not that the weight, the weight is a the weight is an issue, right? The weight is an issue for a lot of us. We don't want to gain weight. We know that there's health problems associated when you have extra weight on your body. We don't feel good when we have extra weight on our body. We don't feel confident. Our clothes don't fit right. And that is usually the measure of how I'm feeling is the how my clothes are fitting and my energy levels. And so my clothes weren't fitting well and my energy levels were like bad. They were tanked. I had just really struggled with having energy in the afternoon. And I believe that's why I was going and grabbing the snacks from the pantry and and eating the chocolate and just and stress on top of it too, right? It's it was a compilation of of many things. And I'm gonna share with you some of the reasons why we do crave sugar. And the number on the scale isn't usually my main point of measuring how I'm doing. It's how my clothes are fitting and my energy levels. I hear from women so often they'll say, I have no willpower. And you know, they'll eat healthy all day long, and then dinner happens, and then the kids go to bed, and they are standing in the pantry and they're eating junk, and they're asking the question, What is wrong with me? And here's what I want you to know: is that there's nothing wrong with you. There's so many reasons that this could be happening. And so today I want to explain the top eight reasons. possible reasons why you're craving sugar, what's actually happening inside your body, and what you can start doing about it today to finally take back control of that. But first I want to start off by saying that cravings aren't the enemy. Our bodies are designed to signal when we're hungry. That's that's how we're built. That's how we're designed to signal when we're hungry and when we're hungry. The goal is to eat and satiate ourselves and to fuel our body with what it needs, because our body is asking for something. And that's normal. When we are hungry, but we're confused about why, because we just ate, that's where it gets a little like, what's going on here? Why am I always so hungry? I I just ate. And those are the things that I want to talk about today is that when we crave foods, we're trying to avoid and eat less of them. And then they're frustrated because they keep craving foods and they struggle to balance the sugary foods. So why do we care? And it's because when we eat more of the sugary foods, the processed foods, the you know what I call quotes, junk food, it we tend to not feel good. We we don't feel good after our energy is pretty low. And I'm gonna explain why that happens. Let's go through the eight reasons why you're craving sugar. So reason number one is you're likely not eating enough protein. I hear this all the time is women are like, you know, I had cereal for breakfast, or I had oatmeal, or I had a piece of toast, and maybe it was ⁓ yogurt with a banana. And that is just not enough protein. And when you're eating very little to start off your day, you're gonna Be hungry. You're gonna be, you're gonna have cravings. We need to eat enough protein at breakfast. We need to eat enough protein at all our meals, especially our first meal of the day, because that's what's gonna keep us feeling full and satiated. Because protein releases a peptide called PYY. Protein increases PYY. Peptide Y Y. What it is essentially is a gut hormone produced by endocrine cells in the small intestine and colon. And it's released into the bloodstream after eating. So PYY signals to the brain to induce feelings of fullness, to induce feelings of satiety and reduce your appetite, which helps you regulate how much food you consume. And so when you're not eating enough protein, you're not stimulating that PYY hormone. Protein also reduces ghrelin, which is our hunger hormone. So we need to make sure that we're eating enough protein. And I see it so often that women simply are not. And there's many reasons for that. And we'll go into that in little bit. But if you need protein ideas, I really encourage you to download my free protein guide because in the guide I show you how much protein women actually need as we enter into perimenopause, why protein becomes even more important during perimenopause, and simple ways to increase it without overthinking every meal and give you easy high protein meal and snack ideas. So that you can start using it right away. And I'm gonna go ahead and link the protein guide in the show notes. Okay, reason number two why you might be craving sugar. You're on a blood sugar roller coaster. So that goes with our breakfast. If we're just having toast or cereal or oatmeal, we are going to have fluctuations in our blood sugar, and that's gonna make us hungry, that's gonna make us have cravings, it's gonna make us anxious and irritable. And so you might be asking what does blood sugar mean? What is what does it have to do with anything? So blood sugar is simply the amount of fuel in your bloodstream. And your brain runs mostly on that fuel. So when blood sugar is steady, you feel calm, you feel satiated, you're feeling really good. When it drops too low or high, when it drops too low, especially your brain senses danger. And then that's when you're dealing with low mood, low energy, and then you might feel a little bit more irritable. And so what women are doing is like they said, they're having maybe just coffee for breakfast or you know, bagel or muffin or a granola bar or some of those protein bars are just full of like ingredients that really tank blood sugar. And even though it says protein bar or it looks healthy, if there's a lot of sugar in there, it's going to affect your blood sugar stabilization. And so that's why you might be having cravings if you're starting off eating meals that are not substantial, that are not loaded with enough protein and fiber, then come three o'clock. those cravings, you're gonna be like reaching for everything that you can because your body is hungry. It's starving, it's hungry, and you need energy. And so you wanna make sure that you are eating a balanced meal. And if you do have bagels, you do have coffee, have protein with it because that's really going to help with the digestion of the starchy carbs and sugars to keep it more even keel if you pair it with something like protein and a fiber. Okay. That can really help with keeping blood sugar stable. Okay, reason number three, you're restricting too much food. We're trying to lose weight. We are gaining weight because we're into perimenopause. Some of us, like myself, are in menopause or postmenopausal actually. And we have that extra weight around our belly because thank you, estrogen, for declining. That is what's Causing some of this extra weight that's on our body, it's harder for us to lose it. And so women think, well, if I eat less, then I'll be able to lose the weight. And actually it backfires on you. That's what leads to when you're skipping meals and you're eating tiny salads and you're eating low calorie this and low fat that, then your body is literally screaming for energy. And then guess what it wants? Guess what it starts craving? Sugar, carbs. And it's just whatever's quick, right? Whatever, whatever you can get your hands on. Let's say you're driving and you're like starving because you barely ate anything during your workday, and you zip through the Chick-fil-A drive-through and you eat fries and breaded chicken nuggets, you know, that is going to just that that contributes to the craving of wanting those really high starchy foods because you need something quick and you want some energy. So we need to make sure that we are simply eating enough food and Getting enough protein, getting enough fiber on our plates, non-starchy vegetables, lots of colors, all of those will really help us with weight loss too. If that's why you're restricting food, because you want to lose weight, I really encourage you to look at what you're eating and ask yourself, am I really eating enough? And if you're not, you need to eat more food. It's just simply, simply ⁓ you know, the importance of that. And if you missed episode 11, I talk about what to eat in perimetopause. To help you feel your very best without restricting or without dieting. So that's episode 11. Okay, reason number four why you might be craving sugar, and that is poor sleep. So you ever notice after a bad night's sleep, you're a lot hungrier the next day? Or maybe you don't notice because you're not sleeping well hardly at all. I talk to a lot of people who just don't sleep well and I know how frustrating that is. It is so frustrating when you can't sleep. And this is, you know, when you are not sleeping well, your hormones are completely disrupted. And it's simply biology. When you don't get enough quality sleep, several things happen in your body. Your body becomes less sensitive to insulin, making it harder to keep your blood sugars stable. So when our blood sugar is not stable, we're hungrier, we're irritable, we're more tired, we're crashing. And at the same time, your stress hormone. Which is cortisol, it tends to rise, which can increase blood sugar, and that can make you crave quick sources of energy. So being having lack of sleep is a stressor on your body. And when you're stressed, your cortisol is elevated. And when cortisol is elevated, so is blood sugar, so is insulin. And then that makes you have those cravings. Sleep also affects two other important hunger hormones. And I mentioned ghrelin earlier. So ghrelin is the hormone that tells your brain, I'm hungry. And after a poor night's sleep, your body produces more of it. And then the other hormone is a leptin. And leptin is the hormone that tells your brain I'm full. But sleep deprivation lowers leptin levels, making it harder to recognize when you've actually had enough to eat. And so the result is that you're finding yourself thinking about food more often, you're reaching for something sweet after meals, you're snacking throughout the day, and feeling like you're never quite satisfied. Your brain is always looking for fast energy and sugar is the quickest source of that. And unfortunately, those sugary foods create another blood sugar spike followed by a blood sugar crash, leaving you craving even more. So it's a cycle that's easy to get stuck in. It's it's just the cycle of wanting, you know, more quick sugary foods. So this is why I always tell women to really prioritize your sleep, especially in perimenopause. We need more sleep as we get older. We just do. You know, I've talked I talked to a client the other day who said that they normally get up at five and they slept until six and they were they were mad at themselves because they had so much to do and they don't usually sleep in till six. And I thought, well, your body is clearly sending a message that it needs sleep. So sleep. If you can. I know not all of us have the luxury of being able to sleep in or, you know, but really trying to get to bed earlier. is so important to make sure that you're getting an enough good quality sleep and making sure that you're eating enough protein and vibrate your meals and managing your stress in addition to sleep, all of that helps with reducing cravings and helping you feel satisfied. So I also did an episode all about sleep and you can find that right after episode 11 in episode 12, sleep and hormones and why you feel so tired. So if you want to learn more about sleep and how to improve your sleep, I encourage you to go listen to episode 12. Reason number five, why you're craving sugar. You are dealing with chronic stress. You're just, you're just stressed out, stressed out to the max. And then what happens when we're stressed? Cortisol elevates in our body, cortisol elevates insulin, making our blood sugar higher, making us want and crave more foods. And that's when we lead that leads to stress eating or comfort eating. Emotional eating. I have shared on here before that I am a stress eater, and that is why my pants were a little tight because I had been going through a lot of stress, personal stress, work stress, and I was reaching for the chocolate. Chocolate just gives me that dopamine, gives my brain that dopamine hit. And then when I eat the chocolate, I want more of the chocolate. So it's like this cycle, right? And when your brain wants quick energy when it's stressed out, the sugar delivers and it delivers it temporarily. So we really gotta get a handle on our stress and find ways to relieve stress naturally. I also have an episode on stress, and that is in episode 15. There are so many ways that we can relieve stress, going for walk, making sure that we are breathing, taking breathing breaks, not just like breathing, but like really doing diaphragm breathing like. inhaling enough air into your diaphragm to help calm the to to take you out a sympathetic nervous system and put you into parasympathetic. So the sympathetic is the go go go mode like we're constantly going, the engine's running and we're pedaled to the metal. And then the parasympathetic is our calm mode. It gets our body into calm and a relaxed state. That's when we're able to digest. That's when our brain is able to ⁓ focus a little bit more that's when our blood sugar is more stable. So really doing exercises that can take you out of the sympathetic state and put you in the parasympathetic state. And I talk a lot about that in episode 15, if you want to go listen to that on stress. So reason number six of why you are craving sugar and oftentimes it's because of our habits. So one thing I see all the time is that women assume that they're craving sugar because they have no willpower. And that's simply not true. It it really is not. Willpower is never, almost never the issue. And I feel so bad because so many people are like, I have no willpower, I have no willpower. Well, it's not that you don't have willpower, is you probably have all these other things that are going on that need to be addressed. And then when those things are addressed and you're making sure you're prioritizing protein, you're making sure that you're getting enough sleep, you're making sure that you're managing your stress, then you don't need the willpower because you're not having those cravings. It's really working to settle those cravings down. So our habits have a lot to do with craving sugar. And so I want to share the definition of a habit. And I got this online: is a habit is a settled, automatic behavior pattern acquired through frequent repetition. These actions are typically triggered by environmental cues and occur with minimal or no conscious thought. So when we develop habits, It becomes so easy and effortless. We don't even know we're doing it half the time. Think about your drive to work. It's a habit. You're probably not even thinking about it. I'm sure you're doing it in a subconscious state the entire way there. Think about, you know, what you do in the morning. And what do you do when you get up in the morning? Do you go to the bathroom right away? Do you brush your teeth? Do you take your medicine? Are you thinking about it or is it just automatic because it's a habit? Ultimately, we want to create habits that are designed to be good for us and it happens when we do things in repetition. So we create habits with and through repetition. And so many of our eating habits have become automatic. We repeat them so often that our brain is like, am I hungry? Or is it just this is what I'm used to? Because for example, let me let me use this for an example. A habit is usually triggered by a cue. Okay. So when I get off work, my cue is to go upstairs and grab a snack. Because I'm hungry because I haven't eaten since breakfast. I work a half day. So I'm hungry, I go upstairs. That is a habit. So my cue is get off work and then I go upstairs and I eat. But I'm no longer asking myself, am I hungry? Am I am I hungry or am I just going to eat because it's a habit? It's what I do. So that's called a habit loop. So many of our habits are automatic. We repeat them automatically, and it's called habit loop. This is this is the loop of the habit I'm doing. So think about some things in your life that are habits. And how did you establish those habits? How did they become habits? And think about the cue that triggers the behavior. So I mean, here's an easy one. We get like an alert on our phone. We hear like our eye message or our our a text message comes through on our phone. We hear the alert. We hear that sound. We are triggered to go pick up our phone and see the text. That is that. cue of the sound of the phone triggers the behavior and your brain expects a reward that it's received in the past. So like for me, it's 3 p.m. So I'm gonna go ahead upstairs and get something to eat because I'm hungry. And then I'm like, ooh, there's some, you know, Hershey kisses in here or whatever. And then I just start eating it because it's a habit to just go into the pantry and start eating food. Or, you know, maybe you finish dinner and you immediately start looking for something sweet. That is a habit that so many people have because it's some of us is part of our childhood. Like what if we ate dinner, we usually got like dessert after or you know, we go out to eat. What does the waiter ask you? Would you like to see the dessert menu? So, you know, after dinner, it's sometimes it's a habit to think about what we're gonna have for dessert. And it's not that dessert is bad. It's not that we shouldn't have dessert. But if you're doing dessert every night after dinner, then that could contribute to your sugar cravings. Let's say you sit down to watch a movie at the movie theater. What is the trigger when you're at the movie theater? Well, you smell it as soon as you walk in, the popcorn, right? And it's you don't even have to think about it. It's like, ⁓ I gotta have popcorn at the movies. So it's just those are the things that we create. It's habit loops. So you know. Eating the sugar and and having the dessert does not necessarily mean that you're hungry. It's simply routine that your brain has practiced over and over and over again until it's become automatic. The goal is we want to change any of our negative habits or habits that have a negative impact on us and change them into more positive ones. But you can't just do the positive habit once. Let's just say, you know, you want to cut out dessert at night and you know, one night you don't eat dessert and then the next night you're You don't think about it anymore. Like it's you will have to interrupt that loop. You'll have to do repetitions of that over and over again before it becomes an automatic habit. So the first step is becoming aware of your habits. Once you notice the cue, you can interrupt it before it turns into the usual behavior. And so that's called a habit disruptor. So instead of like me going into the pantry at three o'clock. I could drink a big glass of water and ask myself, am I actually really hungry or am I just stressed from my day at work? And if I'm hungry, I need to have food ready to go that I know that I'm going to eat versus just aimlessly looking in the fridge, going, what is there to eat? Looking in the pantry, because when you're hungry, you just grab whatever's quick. And thinking about dessert after dinner, there's some behaviors that you can do. You can drink tea after dinner, you can go on a short walk, or one that works really well for me is go brush your teeth. As soon as you brush your teeth, you don't want to eat again 'cause you just brush your teeth. I can't tell you how many times I tell my kids, I made breakfast this morning, have this before you go to school. I can't, Mom, I just brush my teeth. Okay. So over time, you know, we develop these habits and it can be automatic and not necessarily willpower. It's just automatic. It's something our body is used to, something that our brain is used to. Okay, reason number seven why you might be craving sugar is your consumption of ultra processed foods. Now, ultra processed foods are usually foods that come in a box, a package, anything that you can buy on the shelf really tend to be ultra processed. They're formulated by manufacturing companies. They're not food that actually comes from plants, animals, the ground. So that's what we think about when we think of ultra-processed foods. And they are literally designed to make us want more of it. Food scientists get paid lots of money to make it so tasty and irresistible that you want more of it. Because if you want more of it, then you buy more of it. And when you buy more of it, the more money the companies make. It's that's that's what it's all about. And I asked Google, I was just curious, and ⁓ I mean I already know this, but I asked Google, is ultra-processed foods highly addictive? This is what Google said. Ultra processed foods are industrially formulated to trigger intense cravings by combining refined carbohydrates, fats, and salt. At hyper palatable levels, meaning very, very, very tasty. Once it hits our taste buds, it's hyper palatable levels. They bypass the gut brain satiety loop. And these foods are engineered for rapid absorption, lacking the fiber needed to signal fullness, which leads to compulsive consumption and addiction-like brain responses. So it's not, we're not craving these foods because we're weak. We're not craving these foods because we have no willpower. We are craving these foods because they are engineered that way. They are designed to make you want more. And once you kick the ultra processed food habit, you're like, ⁓ my gosh, real food tastes so good. Talking about sugar and thinking about like fruits, when you cut out refined sugars like ice cream or candy bars or you know, anything like that that has the white refined sugar, you cut that out for a few days. maybe longer, and you eat real fruit like a blueberry, you're just like, ⁓ my gosh, this is so good. This fruit is so good. And it's because when we're eating these hyper palatable levels, nothing compares to it. When we're eating the hyper palatable levels of refined sugars, carbohydrates, the salt, nothing else, whole food does not compare to it. So it's a r it's a matter of retraining the brain, kind of detoxing from the ultra processed foods. And getting back to the whole foods that your blood sugar is stable and you're not craving more of those foods and sugar. So I know it's really tough. There's so many there's so many ultra processed foods that I like and that are that are delicious. And then I have to remind myself that they're designed this way. They're designed to keep me a forever customer. So really think about some of your ultra processed food habits if you have any and what are some ways to kind of reduce the consumption of that and get more whole real foods into your diet. Okay, reason number eight why you're craving sugar is you're simply hungry. Sometimes, you know, you're you're just hungry. If you want to avoid sugar, eat a meal. And then if you really want something sweet, don't deprive yourself of it. Have something sweet. I always like to have dark chocolate nearby, and then I'll have a square or two to really satisfy that sweet and just get that like little treat. So if you are just wanting something sweet, do it. You know, make sure that you are eating enough protein, fiber, healthy fats, non-starchy vegetables, all the colors of the rainbow. Make sure you're getting a lot of that in first. And then if you still want something sweet, give it to yourself. Have it. Enjoy it. And then you'll realize you won't want as much because you're already satiated from food. Okay, so what works to kind of keep these sugar cravings at bay to really minimize that? And so I talked about it as I was going through the reasons why we crave sugar, but just a reminder, you want to make sure that you're eating protein, eating enough of it at every meal. At least 30 grams at each meal. You want to make sure that you're building balanced meals that include fiber, healthy fats, and protein. All of that increases satiety. All of that triggers the brain to say, hey, I'm full and I'm satisfied. So eat the balanced meals before the ultra-processed foods. You If you want the ultra-processed foods, make sure you're getting the protein and fiber in your diet and then have it. And then you might be surprised that once you're eating more balanced meals, that you won't be hungry for them because you're you are satiated and satisfied with real food. The other thing is you don't want to skip meals, like we talked about, skipping meals just increases those cravings, makes you more irritable, tired, and you're just gonna reach for foods that are gonna give you the energy, hydrate. Make sure that you are drinking enough water. When you're not drinking enough water, you have more cravings. You're more hungry. Sometimes we confuse hunger for thirst. So we're really just thirsty and dehydrated and we need to drink. So make sure you're drinking enough water and you're getting about half your body weight in ounces every day. Make sure you're sleeping. We talked about that. Get a good quality night's sleep as much as you can throughout the week. This will significantly lower your cravings for sugars and the high starchy carbi foods for energy. You can walk after meals. That is really good for stabilizing your blood sugar and keeping your blood sugar steady so that you're not craving foods. That is super important if you can fit it in, even if it's just five minutes, or let's say you're doing dishes and just do a couple of squats as you're doing dishes. I like to run around with my dogs. I have a golden doodle and he loves to play. So after dinner, a few minutes after dinner, I start throwing the his toy around and I chase him around the house. And that's really great for stabilizing blood sugar after a meal. And the other thing is to stop reliant on willpower because willpower is not a strategy. As you can see, it's just not it's not about willpower. It's about so many things. It's about biology. It's about the chemicals in our brain. And you know, we need to create habits and we need to focus on balanced meals so that we're not craving those foods that make us feel terrible and low energy and irritable and cranky and moody and our jeans rip because we gained a little weight. And it's such a bummer because those are my favorite pair of jeans. But I'm sure I can patch it if I need to, or just wear a long shirt to cover it. You know, it's just a reminder that we're not perfect and we can get off track at times. And so it's important to just take a look at what's happening in your life, what kind of stressors you have going on. Is your environment set up for ⁓ success to help you avoid snacking and to really not rely on willpower? It is a terrible long-term strategy. So I want to share that in my coaching programs, I don't tell women to stop eating sugar because we have to address the reasons why you're craving it in the first place. And we look at all of those things. So just to recap, the reasons why we might be craving sugar is one, you're not eating enough protein. If you need help with getting protein in, do download my protein guide. I will link it in the show notes. Number two is you're on a blood sugar roller coaster. So making sure we're eating balanced meals and managing stress so that we keep blood sugar stable. Reason three, you're restricting too much food. Make sure you're eating enough good quality food. Reason four is poor sleep. We want to make sure we're sleeping well so that our hormones are stabilized so that we don't have those cravings. Reason number five is chronic stress. Doing our best to mitigate stress, to make sure that we make time for us to do fun things. To relieve stress, whether it's going to the gym. Reason number six is our habits, taking a good look at our habits. And is there any habit loop that we want to break and disrupt? And what new habits do we want to create? And really focus on doing that day after day after day after day. And I recommend starting one habit at a time. Reason number seven is ultra-processed foods. They are designed to be addicting. So making sure you eat a balanced plate first will keep you full so that you don't crave those foods. And then reason number eight why you're craving sugar is you simply want it and you're hungry and you want to make sure that you're eating enough food, balanced meals, and that you do enjoy in anything sweet when you want it and and making sure that you're doing all those other things first so that you keep it pretty, pretty controlled. So before we wrap up today's episode, I want to tell you about something that I created because I know how frustrating it is to feel like you're constantly battling sugar cravings. I created my 14-day jump start because I truly believe most women don't need another diet. They need a reset, a reset that helps their body work with them instead of against them. And so essentially, this jump start is resetting your balance plate, making sure that you're building balanced meals using my balance plate method to naturally reduce sugar cravings. So my balance plate method is all about making sure we have enough protein, fiber, healthy fats. and non-starchy vegetables. We increase our protein in this jump start without overthinking it to help stabilize our blood sugar that's so we're feeling fuller. In the jump start I'll help you have more energy throughout the day. I'm gonna show you how to meal prep in a way that actually fits your busy life so you're not spending hours in the kitchen. You're gonna learn which foods truly satisfy your body and you're gonna stop relying on willpower to get through the day. And one of my favorite things is hearing what women say when they finish the program. And it's usually not I lost weight. Although that is a wonderful side effect, and that is what happens to many women who do the jump start. But they'll say things like, I can't believe my cravings are gone. I don't think about food all day anymore. I finally feel in control around food. And that's exactly what I want for you too. Our next 14-day jump start begins on Thursday, July 16th. If you're listening to this before then, I'd love to have you join us. The link with all the details will be in the show notes. If you're listening after July 16th, 2026, don't worry, because I will be offering this program again. Just make sure that you're subscribed to the podcast because this is where I'll announce when enrollment opens for this program in the future. You can also follow me on Instagram at JennyA Z underscore simple or send me an email at health at gensmith.coach and I'll be happy to let you know when the next enrollment opens. If you're tired of feeling like sugar's in control, if you're ready to calm the cravings, and start feeling like yourself again, then I'd love to be able to help you because you don't have to do this alone. And remember, sugar usually isn't the problem. It is a symptom. And when we get to the root of that, we get to the foundation of why we have that symptom in the first place, by nourishing our bodies with what it needs, by getting good quality sleep and managing our stress, then those cravings start to get ⁓ a lot quieter. All right ladies, that's it for now. Thank you so much for being here and I'll see you next week.