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. Welcome back to you're not crazy. It's perimenopause. Today we are talking about food nutrition without food. We can't survive. And it is one of the most complex areas of a woman's health is how to manage food as far as what we should be eating. We're trying to lose weight. So we are wanting to restrict food. We know that we need to be eating better, but we don't know how to get started and we don't know how to do that. So I really want to talk about food today in a way that we can take it back in time in regards to our evolution with food from when we were little and the things that we were conditioned with to where we are now. So I really encourage you to if you have a chance, you might be driving, walking, what you can do is save this episode and come back to it. Because I'm going to encourage you to journal on some things that I talk about, you know, taking note and really going deep into kind of your conditioning and your relationship with food. We are going to talk about how we came up with our personal relationship with food, what we need to be doing now to support our body after 40 so that we are feeling our very best and not just because of weight loss, but to feel good in our body. And I'm going to share that with you today. So today is There's a lot of information and I just really want to encourage you to take notes and really reflect personally, go deep inside of you about some of these things that I'm talking about today. I'm going to apologize in advance. It is the end of April here in sunny Arizona and our allergies are just off the chain. Everything's in bloom. The dust is up. Like I just cannot get a break. from just feeling so stuffy and nasally. So just letting you know that that is what I'm dealing with right now. And I hope that you are not having to deal with allergies. I know so many people here in the United States, especially that this is just a terrible allergy season. And, you know, that just makes it so difficult to do daily tasks sometimes because we're always blowing our nose and our eyes are watering. So bear with me. I feel very nasally today. Okay, so I want to share a little bit about my story, my relationship with food. I grew up in the late seventies, early eighties in the United States. And let's just say that nutrition for me looked very different back then compared to how I'm eating now. And it's typical. I feel like kids just eat differently than some adults because we kind of, we have more awareness as we get older about how we need to take better care of ourselves. but also were influenced by our family. And growing up, my family did not eat well. My typical breakfast was cereal, cereal in front of the TV, watching cartoons, Garfield, ⁓ you know, just the cartoons to start my day. Snacks. My mom had a junk food drawer and it was within our reach. My friends would love to come to my house because when they opened up that junk food drawer, there was Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Hostess cupcakes, like they were just like, this is amazing that you have this junk food jar. And I ate that pretty regularly. Like that was in my lunch box for school was some kind of dessert along with my sandwich and chips. That was normal. And it was normal for a lot of people, not everyone because my friends were like, wow, we don't have this junk in our house. We don't have a junk food drawer, but typically like it was pretty common. That's how we ate as kids. And looking back, Now it makes so much sense to me why I struggled as a kid with mood swings, anxiety. And I remember feeling really blue a lot. Like I was kind of a grumpy kid. And now that I think back with everything that I've learned, I'm like, maybe that's why. Cause I really just ate terribly and my blood sugar was not stable. Like I was clearly probably on this constant roller coaster swing because Like I said, breakfast was cereal. Lunch was a sandwich and chips, maybe an apple or a banana. And then dinner, my mom cooked every night. So we had good home cooked meals, but I remember we had canned vegetables. Like we never had fresh vegetables and it wasn't until I got older when I started eating more fresh vegetables, I was like, wow, this is amazing. Why did my mom buy canned? And I don't know. I think it just was kind of like common back then. to serve canned veggies. So it's no wonder that I wasn't feeling my best. And if you caught my previous episode on thyroid health, it's probably no wonder I developed a thyroid condition too, based on my diet and how I was eating. So nobody talked about blood sugar, hormones, or how food actually impacts how you feel back then. I never ever heard that message ever. Food was A celebration food brings families together. When we came together, we ate, we ate a lot of good foods. It was special for birthdays. We had cake and you know, for most families back then and even now food is used as a symbol of love and celebration. When my daughter was three, she spent a lot of time with my dad before he passed away. And one of the ways that he spoiled her was with food. I would drop her off. He'd, ⁓ she spent a couple of hours with my dad. got to pick her up and I was like, she eat? He's all, ⁓ she had like five go-gurt. What are you doing? He's all, well, it's healthy. It's yogurt. You know, he didn't know, but he thought it was just really fun to spoil her with the yogurt. And I, my mother-in-law, she loves to spoil my kids with special treats and baking. It's like, a simple of love and it's very special and it's not anything that is considered to be bad or we shouldn't do food down to its core is meant to fuel us and sustain us for survival and to give us energy. And in today's day and age, we use food for so many other things. And so I just want to, ⁓ you know, encourage you that Look back at your childhood and look back on how food was used in your home. You know, it's not just what we're eating today. It's our relationship with food. And I have learned so much on my own healing journey about how, how we're feeling is directly correlated with what we're eating and how we're feeling our body. From a young age, we start forming beliefs about food. And I want to ask you these questions. want you to really think about this. And maybe this is where you kind of pause and you think about how food was used in your home and your upbringing and how it's kind of shaped how you see food today and how you create your meals and how you spend your time eating things like that. So when you were younger, were you told you're good eater versus a bad eater? I remember I was very picky as a kid, I wouldn't eat a lot of things. And my best friend at the time, she was not very picky and she would eat more things. And I would be like, Oh, this is like, this is gross. I don't want to eat it. And she said, God, you're so picky. No wonder you're a toothpick. And I, and I don't remember a lot of things, but I remembered that. And I was very, very skinny as a kid, very skinny and it was because I was very picky with what I was eating and she's like, no wonder you're a toothpick and that stuck with me. So I was considered a very picky eater and I think about with my own kids when I was raising them, like, Oh, she's a good eater or she, Oh, she was a good eater up until four and then she was very picky. Like I, I say those things and create those labels with my kids and those labels were created for me as a kid too. Or maybe you have used food as a reward or it was used with you as a reward. I did this with my kids. I remember when I was potty training my daughter, go, go potty in the big girl potty and you get a piece of candy, you know, or, know, just bribing them with you do this and you can get a cookie. That is common because it's just what works, right? Even teachers, they even teachers today, it's like, Oh, you know, you, you do your homework and you get something from the candy jar. my son would get touchdowns in his football game. And my husband said, off to Dairy Queen to celebrate. And that's a message that my son's receiving. I did well. I should go get a Blizzard at Dairy Queen. And it was like a conditioning. He's like, Hey dad, I got two touchdowns today. Can I go get Dairy Queen? That is like, okay, if I do this, I get this. So thinking about your life, have you had food as a reward for you? Or you might hear, I worked really hard today, so I deserve this cookie or I deserve this piece of cake or this caramel macchiato from Starbucks. You know, whatever it is, think about it for you. Do you use food as a reward? Many of us use food as comfort. When we're feeling sad or blue, we tend to eat more comfort foods. They, they talk about comfort foods, you know, soups and stews and big hearty meals are considered comfort food. Food is equal to love. Like I had mentioned, my dad would use food to show my daughter affection, like to shower her with love. Same with my mother-in-law loves to bake. It's, it's part of love. That's how she shows love to people. And it's one of the ways she shows love to people. My mother-in-law is amazing and she has love in so many ways, but she loves to bake and that is her way of showing love. So without even realizing it, these beliefs shape how we eat. for the rest of our lives. For the rest of our lives. And it's a conditioning. So think about this. Do you ever find yourself eating when you're bored, stressed, or anxious? I do. I am a stress eater. It is a default of mine that when I'm stressed, I want to reach for something salty, chocolatey, and I have to catch myself, and I have to... Catch myself in the moment and say, okay, what else can I do that's a little bit more productive to ease the stress that I'm feeling right now? What about, do you feel guilt after eating certain foods? If you're eating something that tastes good and you enjoy it, do you feel guilty after? Do you label yourself as good or bad based on the choices that you make? Think about all those things. Like, do you ever find yourself judging yourself about food? This is conditioning. This is why it is so difficult when you are making changes to your nutrition that you default back to old behaviors because you are conditioned in a certain way and you have to break that cycle. And in order to do that, you have to recognize that within you, what are the triggers? What is the reason why you default to this? Uh, you know, thinking about when you were little, how food was a part of your home and how the relationship with your food till now. There are so many layers to this. Our biology wires us to crave sweet foods. It's a survival instinct. From an evolutionary perspective, sweet taste often signaled energy. So if you like grabbed ripe fruit off the tree or going for a banana or sweet berries, it was quick carbohydrate fuel. It gave you quick energy. Sweet foods often signal safety because sweet in nature often means that it's not poisonous. Not always, but mostly we were safe with sweet foods. And so we are designed to want that and crave it. And let's talk about our emotions when we eat. We are happy when we eat in certain settings. So let's pay attention and let's talk about our emotions. We eat when we're happy, sad, stressed, lonely, celebrating. It's not just heart emotions. It's all emotions. So think about that for you. When are you eating? In what situations? So a lot of environments create conditionings when we go to the movies. What do you do when you walk into the movie theater? You smell popcorn. And when you go to the movies, we want popcorn. Many of us are conditioned to have popcorn when we go to the movies. Or you go to a ball game. What do you get at a ball game? peanuts and hot dogs. It's like conditioning, especially here in America to go to a ball game and have peanuts and hot dogs. What do you do when you have coffee in the morning? You add cream and sugar, go to the restaurant. What do they do? They bring out bread first or the chips and salsa. It's just part of the conditioning of our environment. And these learn patterns start to feel automatic. It's like an automatic, when we go to the movies, let's have some popcorn. And so Think about your family influence too. Did you guys all eat together as a family? Was food used as comfort in your house? Was somebody always dieting in the background? I don't remember that in my house personally, my mom, my mom did have hypoglycemia. So I know she had to watch her diet, but she never talked about restricting food and my mom, she did not eat well, but she was not dieting to try to lose weight. But she had a relationship with food where she was very into sweets and sugar and probably why we had a junk food drawer was partially because of her and she loved it too. So really thinking about all of that can shape your current food habits more than you, than you think. And this is where I want to kind of transition to now where, you know, especially now with everyone focusing on losing weight and we have gone from body positivity to now let's see how thin we can get with GLP ones. That's what I am seeing online on the internet. So many people, celebrities are looking emaciated and bringing back that very thin frail look, which influences us. It's, it influences so many of us to look a certain way, especially our young girls. And in perimenopause, we start to gain weight because our hormones are fluctuating and Many of us are starting to restrict food. want to restrict because we are gaining weight, so we must be eating too much. So we need to restrict, but honestly, it's not that you're eating too much because you haven't changed anything. You're gaining weight because your hormones are shifting. So you have to be intentional about what you're feeding your body after 40. It is so important, especially if you're dealing with anxiety and mood swings and fatigue and you can't sleep. It starts with the food that you're eating. It is the foundation to feeling better. And this is where so many women get stuck. The more you restrict certain foods, the more desirable they come. So you start restricting food because you find yourself you're gaining weight and you want to lose the weight. And it's everywhere we see GLP ones are on the commercials. They're on the radio commercials. You see them from every influencer on the internet about how amazing GLP ones are. And then what happens when you start taking a GLP one is you start restricting food and that's just leaves you to feeling terrible. And I did not even think that I was going to be talking about GLP ones in this episode. I do want to talk about GLP ones in its own episode because it's very complex and there are some great things about it, but I'm just seeing so many things about how it's influencing people. And it's really kind of just sending women on a wrong path. so restriction is not the answer. The more you restrict foods, the more desirable they become. And you start thinking, I shouldn't have this. I can't eat this. And it actually starts fueling the cycle of losing control over food because you're feeling guilty for eating certain foods versus enjoying the foods that you're eating. And we need to take a different approach to it. And that is why I focus on the balance plate method. This is what I lead my clients on. I guide them using the balance plate method. I introduced this in my meal planning challenge last month that we did as a group. It is a great tool to create a balance plate so that you're fueling your body with what it needs for mood stability, energy, and a healthy weight. Because when we restrict food and we remove things that we're not allowed to have, then our body holds on to weight and it makes it more challenging to lose weight too. So we're, finding that women are just not eating enough food in perimetopause. We need to make sure that we're eating enough food. And the wonderful thing about the balance plate method is that it's not a diet. It's very simple. So let me walk you through what the balance plate looks like. 75 % of your plate should be non starchy vegetables. 75%, it's a big chunk. And think fiber, like that's fiber, nutrients, keeping you full. We're talking about anything that's leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, cucumber, colorful veggies. Just 75 % of your plate should be non starchy vegetables. And then about quarter of your plate, should be protein. And we are talking about 30 grams minimum, things like chicken, fish, eggs, beef. I am a big believer in animal protein. think we were designed, many of us were designed to thrive on animal-based protein. We get a lot of our B vitamins that way, iron. However, if you're not somebody who, let's just say you're more vegetarian vegan, then you want to focus on at least a quarter of your plate being plant-based options like lentils, tofu, anything that is getting you at least enough protein to keep you satiated because protein has so much to do with our hormones. When estrogen and progesterone start doing their roller coaster thing in period menopause, it can mess with the way our brain makes and uses those happy messengers like serotonin and dopamine. And so protein is the raw material that your body uses to build those messengers. And without enough of it, your brain can't send the I'm okay signal. And suddenly that's when you're irritable. That's when you're snapping at your partner. That's when you're yelling at your kids or you're feeling hangry is because you didn't get enough of those happy messengers. You didn't get enough of those building blocks to build those happy messengers. Think about when you're getting in a protein, you're giving your brain the fuel it needs to make those neurotransmitters, aka happy messengers, to keep your mood steady instead of riding the hormone mood swings. And it also helps prevent that short fuse feeling and all day energy crashes. So protein isn't just for muscles, ladies, it is for keeping you calm, steady, and actually keeping your hormones balanced. And it helps with weight loss too. The other part of our plate is healthy fats. one, at least one to two tablespoons. And so many of us are programmed to think that fats are bad because remember, I think it was in the nineties when there was that low fat craze and everyone started making these packaged products that were low fat. And just that's when we started developing all those diseases and chronic diseases was in the low fat craze because we were eating packaged snacks and this is low fat. So eat it. It's heart healthy. And we need to really get out of that way of thinking because healthy fats is really good for us. So about one to two tablespoons on your plate at each meal, like olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds, butter, olives, you know, things like that. These help keep your blood sugar stable and it helps keep you satisfied. And then you also want to add in whole food complex carbs. Typically about one half cup is a serving and I try to keep my servings of complex carbs, at least two servings max a day, sweet potatoes, fruit, quinoa, beans. You know, this is just not eliminating the foods, but being intentional about our portion sizes. And this is really helpful. This whole balanced plate that I just reviewed with you, with the non starchy veggies, the protein, the healthy fats and the complex carbs. It works because it keeps your blood sugar stable. meaning you won't have those energy crashes. If you start with a good breakfast, eating the balanced plate method, you're not going to have a 3pm crash. Your cravings are going to be under control. You're going to have more energy throughout the day, not wanting like more caffeine to get through the afternoon, not feeling like you need to take a nap. And when you are feeling your body this way, you're not always thinking about food and thinking about your next meal. If you are eating half hour later, an hour later, you're hungry, you're ravenous again, your blood sugar is off and you should be able to go three to four hours in between a meal until you're hungry again with good energy. That is all about being, you might've heard the same metabolic flexibility. When you are hungry shortly after a meal, your body is reliant on sugar for fuel. And when you're eating, in a more balanced way and more stable way, then you're able to be more flexible with food versus having to constantly be eating to sustain that energy, if that makes sense. And this is just taking time to really get into the habit of eating a balanced plate to feeling normal again. And you probably have noticed that I didn't say restrict this and donate sugar and donate processed carbs. No, that's not what I'm saying. Start with the balanced plate. And then if you are still hungry and want your chips or you you want your bagel and cream cheese, then have it, but start with the balanced plate. And then you'll notice that when you design your meals with the balanced plate method, you're not hungry for those other things. Like you don't want those other things because you're satiated, you're feeling good. And that's why I love the balanced plate method. It works. And I just noticed so many of the women that I work with, they're not eating enough and especially enough protein. And that is why I created the protein fix guide. It is free and in the guide, I give you a visual of what 30 grams of protein actually looks like. And many women are not getting that minimum at each meal. I actually have quick satisfying balanced protein meals and snacks for you. They're like throw together recipes. You don't have to be spending hours in the kitchen cooking. So what I love about this guide is I show you how to throw things together. And then I give you easy tips to hit your protein goals without having to spend so much time cooking. So if you haven't downloaded that yet, I put the link in the show notes because when you're eating enough protein, you feel stronger, you're more balanced, you're just happier. Remember it's making those happy messengers in our brain. It's producing the serotonin and the dopamine to keep us happy and even keel. And when we're not eating enough of that protein, that's when we start to feel really bad. And so I really encourage you to, if you're going to start anywhere, to just start with that small shift of making sure that you're getting enough protein. Anchor your day with protein and fiber and just start noticing, start paying attention. And that's the thing is many of us aren't really paying attention to how the food is impacting us. And if we really just kind of like step back and say, how do I feel right now? Now that I've eaten this meal, how do I feel? Do I feel good? Am I still hungry? I'm feeling agitated, just paying attention and checking in with your body and seeing how you feel. So if you follow the balance plate method, I would love to hear how it's working for you. You can private message me on Instagram or you can email me at health at jensmith.coach. I have all of this in the show notes for you. I want to encourage you to answer these questions, like how it relates to you personally. What is your relationship with food? Do you notice patterns, habits, emotions that are tied to it? And really just think about how you were brought up around food. What was the messages that you were given as a child and how those messages have kind of stuck with you and how you are feeling around food today and nutrition today and how it impacts you because it really does make a difference when we are trying to change our habits and fuel our bodies and the way that we need to after 40. All right. Thank you so much for being here. Next week, we're going to be talking all about sleep. Sleep is my favorite, favorite topic because without good sleep, Eating the balanced plate method can be more challenging because we want more sugar and carbs for energy. We are designed when we're tired to grab those foods because it gives us that quick boost of energy. So I hope this episode helped you today. And if you found it helpful, please share it with someone who needs to hear it too. Sharing the podcast. If you like the podcast, rate it and review it. It just helps it get out into more people. Women do need to hear this message and being able to learn ways to care for their body so that they are feeling good after 40 and they are getting through perimenopause with as pain free as possible because we shouldn't have to struggle in this season of life. So that would be just so helpful if you can share it and share this message. That said, I will see you next week.