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, hello, hello. We are talking about protein today. And I know that this is a popular topic because women are downloading my protein guide every day. And they're downloading it because they've heard how important protein is for us women over 40 and in Perimenopause. So today I want to spend some time talking about why it's so important that we eat enough protein, how to get it in, what you're doing now, and how to help with cravings. So first I want to share a message that I received on Instagram. It is from a new follower who said to me, I changed my eating style to focus on 100 grams of protein and 25 grams of fiber a day. My sweet cravings completely disappeared. It was the most beautiful and wonderful thing I've experienced in a long time. I want all perimenopausal women to know. If you are trying to eat healthier, you're cutting calories, skipping dessert, and wondering why you're still exhausted, craving sugar, struggling to lose weight, there's a good chance that you're not eating enough protein. Because, like this woman who shared this with me, once she started nailing her target protein goals, She was feeling so much better and not craving sweets. And I know that that's so difficult for so many of us. It's like we just, gosh, if I if I could just get rid of my sweet tooth, if I could just kick my my sweet habit, well, maybe if we just upped our protein, we might be able to do that. And I know what you're thinking, you probably are saying, But Jenny, I already eat a protein. And today I want to show you why there's a big difference between eating protein and eating enough protein. So let's start off with how much protein do women actually? need. And it depends. So some experts say that we need a we need to at least get in 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per ideal body weight a day. So if my ideal body weight is 145 pounds, 0.7 grams per pound of ideal body weight is going to be about 102 grams of protein. And that is really kind of what I target. I try to aim for every day. At least minimum a hundred. If you are shooting for one gram of your ideal body weight, then you're going to need about 145 grams of protein per day. You might be thinking, let's say that your ideal ⁓ body weight is 160 pounds, you're like 160 grams. You don't need to start off. Like you don't have to get that target every day if it feels like too much. Just at least get the minimum. And ideally that's why we always recommend about 30 grams per meal. So let me give you an example of what women are eating and they think they're getting enough protein. Some women are eating like two eggs and one breakfast sausage. Link one of my clients was doing that. She's like, I am so hungry all the time, but I'm eating enough protein. And I said, Girl, you gotta bump it up because it's only about 18 to 20 grams per meal. So one egg is about six grams of protein. So if you have two and just two eggs and toast, you're only getting 12 grams of protein. So that's why I like to mix my eggs with like some sausage or even some chicken, just trying to get enough protein at breakfast. You might be having a banana and like two tablespoons of peanut butter. That's only eight grams of protein. Or maybe flavored Greek yogurt, the single serve kind, and you're getting about 12 to 15. It really depends on the brand, but some are as low as 10 grams of protein. One slice of toast with peanut butter. That's about 10 to 11 grams of protein. One cup cooked oatmeal and ⁓ let's say some chopped nuts, that's about seven to eight grams of protein. So one cup of oatmeal is about six grams. And then the nuts, ⁓ you know, it just depends about one to two grams. So it's not a lot and and oatmeal is one of those breakfasts that a lot of doctors will tell diabetic patients to, you know, eat for your blood sugar and, you know, eat for heart health. And you're just essentially not getting enough of the macronutrients and then you're starving. And you know, maybe your blood sugar crashes and you're feeling cranky and irritable. So you really got to pay attention to the protein that you're getting, the amount that you're getting. So again, just paying attention, looking at the food sources and how much you're getting. There's a big difference between getting some protein and eating enough. And this is why you might be thinking, well, it doesn't like I it's not keeping me full, I'm hungry an hour later, I'm still craving sugar. It's probably because you're not getting enough. So right now, the recommended dietary allowance recommends that we get 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. So that's about 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So for example, a woman who weighs 150 would need about 54 grams of protein per day. That's not a lot. So it wasn't designed for optimal health. The RDA, the recommended ⁓ dietary allowance, is to help prevent deficiency. So ideally, we want to work towards 30 grams of protein per meal. So why is protein so important after 40? Protein is the building block for muscles, our bones, which are super, super special for us as we get to perimenopause and we start to age, we are at more risk for osteoporosis and we're losing our bones. Our bone health. And so protein really helps with maintaining our bones and making sure that we're not dealing with any more bone loss. It's good for our skin, hair, nails, our hormones, neurotransmitters in our brain, our immune system. Your body is literally built from protein. And protein is an essential nutrient. So what that means is our body doesn't make it. We have to eat it. Like we have to find the source of the protein. To get it to be able to take care of us in those ways that I had mentioned with our body. Muscle is your metabolism. So when we begin to lose muscle as we age, that leads to slower metabolism, that leads to more insulin resistance, increased inflammation. We might not be as strong. It's harder for us to lose weight when we lose muscle. And we're at greater risk for chronic diseases. So when women are drastically cutting calories. Because they're frustrated because they have menobelly, which is, you know, drop of estrogen. We start to develop fat around our midsection. So women are like, ⁓ my gosh, I haven't done anything different and I'm gaining weight. So I better cut calories. And as you cut calories, you often lose muscle along with the fat. And when you lose muscle, that means your metabolism slows down, making it even harder for you to lose weight. So It's really important that we maintain muscle mass and we do that with making sure that we are getting enough protein. Protein also helps with craving control. It is the most satisfying macronutrient. Protein helps lower ghrelin, which is our hunger hormone. And I talked about this in the previous podcast episode about how to help us how we can stop sugar cravings. And so when you're eating enough protein, your ghrelin hunger hormone lowers so you're not as hungry. And it also increases the PYY hormone, which is the fullness hormone. And that's it the PYY sends a message to your brain that you've eaten enough, helping you stay satisfied longer, making you not wanting to overeat and not want to snack as much because you've had enough of that protein. It's stimulated to say, hey, I'm full. And this is why people like who I mentioned those breakfasts earlier, you know, oatmeal and some nuts. This is why you crave sweets after a meal, or this is why you're so much hungrier afterwards. So let's just say like for dinner you have a bowl of pasta versus chicken, vegetables, and potatoes. The protein tells your brain I'm satisfied. And protein also has a thermic effect. So your body actually burns more calories digesting protein than it does carbs and fat, which is another wonderful way, another wonderful reason why we should be eating more protein. It's also important to note that we need to make sure that we're eating complete proteins so that we get all nine essential amino acids. All of the nine essential amino acids are what are the building blocks for our body. It's super important that we focus on protein that contains the nine amino acids like chicken, beef, turkey, eggs, fish, Greek yogurt. cottage cheese. If you are someone who doesn't like animal-based protein and you're focusing more on plant-based proteins, you can get the nine essential amino acids from tofu, tempeh, tempeh, tempeh, I don't know, am I saying it right? Tempe? ⁓ edamami, and hemp seeds. So one of the amino acids is leucine. And leucine helps trigger muscle protein synthesis. So basically that's the process of building and maintaining muscle. And so ⁓ whenever you are consuming a protein source you really want to identify leucane and make sure that it's in there. Let's talk about easy ways to increase protein for each meal. So for example for breakfast, let's say you do want toast or oatmeal, add some eggs to it. If you don't want to have more than one or two eggs because of the yolk and the fat content, you can go ahead and add egg whites and that will increase your protein intake. Adding Greek yogurt And I recommend the full fat Greek yogurt versus the ⁓ yogurts that already have that have flavoring because they have a lot of ⁓ added ingredients in there that are not beneficial for us that can send us on a blood sugar roller coaster. We really want to keep blood sugar stable for our mood, energy, metabolism. So I always recommend adding your own sweetener to Greek yogurts like strawberries, blueberries. You can even add a little bit of honey, maple syrup. But Greek yogurt is a wonderful source of protein. Cottage cheese, you can add cottage cheese to scrambled eggs. That will help beef up your protein. You can even just add it to a side of meal. Oftentimes when I go out to breakfast, I always get the veggie omelet because I feel like, okay, I'm getting veggies added. I'm getting my protein. And then instead of having hash browns because I'm not feeling like hash browns or I really want to get more protein, I'll ask for a side of cottage cheese. A lot of restaurants will have cottage cheese on the menu. Also, you can add a protein smoothie to your breakfast and add a good quality protein powder. I like Equip Foods. Their prime protein powder is a no-bloat protein. Like I have some clients who can't consume whey protein because it causes bloating. But Equip Foods is free from any dairy or dairy alternatives that many people contribute to gut inflammation or discomfort in the gut. They are a grass-fed beef protein powder. They have tons of flavors. I like their chocolate one. And I add that to my smoothies. I add it to my yogurts just to bump up my protein. I'll leave a link to Equip Foods in the show notes for you if you are interested in any of their protein powders. They also have protein bars. Let's move on to lunch. So, you know, you might go to the ⁓ salad shop and get a salad and the protein source is typically not enough. So you might want to ask for extra protein, double the chicken, turkey, whatever you're getting. ⁓ you know, adding just chicken, turkey, to whatever you're eating and making sure that you're getting 30 grams of protein at each meal. For dinner, ⁓ ideas would be, you know, anything like the animal-based proteins that I mentioned. You can also add other ⁓ sources like edamami, hemp seeds. There's Pastas now that they make, Kaizen makes a ⁓ protein pasta out of lupini bean. And so when my family does any kind of pasta dish, I avoid gluten. ⁓ I just don't do well on gluten, especially with my thyroid. So I do a pasta alternative. So kaizen is really high in protein and it's not bad. It tastes pretty good. I mean the texture is not going to be the same as regular pasta, but kaizen is one of the protein rice and pasta alternatives that I like to use. So that's also a great way to add in protein. You could do chickpeas, lots of lots of options. So I really do recommend that you build meals around protein first. And just looking at, you know, you might be wondering, ⁓ my gosh, you know, after I told you how much protein is recommended in our daily allowance, you might be thinking, How in the heck am I gonna get all that? Don't try to do it all at once. That is like a recipe for a disaster. And when we try to do all the things it can overwhelm us and we end up going going like just forget it I can't do it start with one meal a day I recommend your first meal of the day making sure that you get enough protein eating enough protein is going to help you with everything that we talked about your body especially as you're going into perimeter pause especially after 40 when you're at risk of losing muscle when you're at risk of losing bones and dealing with osteoporosis and you know god forbid you have a fall we've got to make sure that we are Feeding our body with the building blocks that it needs to keep us healthy, keep us strong, so that we live a good long quality life. And starting off with just one meal a day, make that your goal. Just try to add more protein at your breakfast. That's it. Do that until it that's like easy for you. Then move on to lunch or dinner, whatever you prefer. Just really doing the best that you can to try to add in more protein, minimum of 30 grams. So if you have Three meals a day, minimum of 30 grams. That's gonna give you 90 grams of protein. Most women need a minimum of a hundred. So you can throw in some beef sticks, you can throw in some hard boiled eggs, any protein source that you need to to make sure that you're getting extra protein. So as I had mentioned, I have my protein guide. If you download the guide, I show you how much is in there, like It when you download the protein guide, I show you simple ways to increase protein and give you meal ideas, high protein snack ideas, anything that's gonna help you. Like I give you a visual of a sample meal of what 30 grams of protein looks like. And 30 grams, when we're talking about animal protein, it's the it's the palm of your hand. It's the size of the palm of your hand. That's about 30 grams. Or a deck of cards visually. So you don't need to weigh anything, you don't need to measure anything. But visually, you can look at the palm of your hand. If that's the size of the protein source, then you're getting about 30 grams of protein. So go ahead, I'm gonna link the protein guide in the show notes. I have gotten great feedback on it. A lot of women are downloading it because they've heard protein's important. We need to eat more protein. And this guide makes it easy for you to do. So let's recap. Protein helps you reduce cravings, it helps you improve your energy, preserve your muscle. supports your metabolism, stabilizes your blood sugar so your mood is nice and calm, helps you stay full longer, and helps you age stronger. All right, that's all I have for you today. I know that protein is a hot topic and hopefully now you have a better understanding of why and why it's so important and why you need to be eating enough of it. If you have any questions about what I went over today, you can always message me. You can find me on Instagram at Jenny A Z underscore simple, or you can email me at health at genssmith.coach. Those links are in the show notes. And if you're loving this podcast and finding it helpful, it would mean so much to me if you could leave a rating and review. This helps the information get out to more women who need the support. Also, share it with a friend who might need to hear this information as well. Thank you so much for being here, and I will see you next week.