Proper Fueling
The fitness industry is notorious for being at the center of harmful practices regarding weight and body composition. Often times, the things that seem too good to be true are just that. Fast fixes and trendy workouts have historically come with a slew of side effects or counterproductive outcomes.
While I feel confident that the industry is moving toward sustainability and true well being, capitalism continues to center the sexy thing- whatever grabs attention regardless of bodily implications. That being said, I continue to explore ways to peel my clients and my practice away from the myths that pop fitness have cultivated. Instead, my purpose is to lean in to the simplicity of self-awareness as well as the agency of self-determination in my personal and my client’s programs.
The Myth of Calories in/Calories out
I’ll start by (hopefully) debunking the toxicity of this one- energy balance. Myths, like conspiracies, proliferate because there may be even a nugget of truth within. Yes, consumption without utilization yields surplus. The urge to reduce nuanced functions in the body is a capitalist tactic to simultaneously commodify and maximize profits off of our inadvertent ignorance. It’s predatory and, when weaponized against humans simply trying to live better, harmful to success.
Instead of focusing on calories out/calories in, a high level understanding of nutrient function can be a powerful resource in your toolbox for planning fuel practices. This doesn’t have to be complicated. The quality of those calories-in matter more than the quantity- something we’ll discuss a bit more shortly.
In fact, the body has safeguards in place for lean-time energy management. Like a squirrel gathering nuts in for the lean winter months, the body will likely retain more of it’s energy sources when it’s uncertain that it’ll be fed fully and properly. Metabolism is suppressed and resources are used as efficiently (and minimally) as possible. This is diminishing returns.
Eat food with joy when you can, that returns in dividends simply because the body can appreciate and accept the associate state of mind.
Nutrient Timing & Quality
Nothing hard is ever successfully accomplished all at once. Success, instead, comes from first putting one foot in front of another. Our desire for change mixed with the easily accessible, generic content on the internet makes for a melting pot of high expectations paired with low effort output. It’s an equation for failure. The Cliff’s Notes summary of Nutrient Timing and Quality is as follows: Eat food, eat a bit of all kinds of foods, and try not to over eat.
Nutrient Timing
When we don’t eat, our metabolism is suppressed. When that happens, we break down and assimilate food stuff much slower than we would otherwise. Our bodies are smart and economical with resources. The body identifies lean time and behaves as such. It’s goal is to best assist operations with the resources it has and, without sufficient resources, the body goes into “saving mode”. Eat food that’s the message. More on timing to follow.
Nutrient Quality
Fats, proteins, and fibers digest slower than sugars. Please note, sugars are efficient and easy sources of energy- eat those. To avoid the negative experiences associated with frequent and intense spikes in blood sugars, eat sugars with fats, proteins, and fibers. Juices, smoothies, and easy-to-grab snacks tend to lack most, if not all, of those things. As a result, your sugar spikes. When sugar spikes fast, insulin spikes fast, too. Without a readily available use for those sugars, they get stored in the liver, the muscles, and the adipose (fat tissues).
There’s an interesting stigma around fruits but, for general populations, fruits are sugary with quality micronutrients that assist most all of the body’s processes. Vegetables are typically high in fiber and lower in sugars, but are still considered carbs, they’re just more likely to flatten that spike. A bit of toast with butter? a fat on a carb. Berries in yogurt? A fat, protein, and carb. Quality nutrients, no matter their composition, will win out of poor quality, highly manufactured foods- aim for those :)
Fasting 101
To end on a buzz-word, I’ll leave you with a brief note on intermittent fasting (time restricted eating). Intermittent fasting does not mean eating less. Fasting is eating your food within a restricted window, not restricting your intake. Folks that starve themselves until 1pm, eat a sandwich, have a salad for lunch, and snack on a handful of Oreos by 8pm aren’t going to reap the same rewards that someone who’s fueling properly will. For the person who fasts until 10am, eats 2-3 full meals within the window, and stops eating at 6pm? they’ll be nourished enough for the fast that they won’t end up on an insufficiency binge.
Fasting has shown to reduce inflammatory factors on the body which, in turn, increases what I’ll call “vitality” or a climate for “longevity”. You might be familiar with the unpleasant feeling of going to bed on an overly-full stomach or getting so hangry late in the morning that you develop a hypo-glycemic headache. You fast fully nourished like a squirrel with it’s nuts in the winter, so that the lean window does not lead to depleted resources.
All of this said, behavior change is hard. Identifying, vetting, and implementing change can be uncharted territory. When in doubt, reach out! Try a few things, hit up your friendly neighborhood wellbeing professional, and prioritize the things that feel great and empowered. Life’s too short to do otherwise.
The Power of Protein
In this age of information, it’s not hard to find research that corroborates any belief. Influencers and capitalism dictate which content you’re more likely to see and fund which research you’ll be fed. As a result, nutrition- something quite simple in it’s foundation- becomes overwhelmingly complicated.
For most people, the complexities of nutrient timing aren’t nearly as relevant as nutrient quality and quantity. As you embark on your personal health journey, it’s important to tune out the nonspecific cacophony and tune into the basics.
Protein is pivotal in recovery/regeneration, glucose regulation, and ultimately makes up most of our structure-stuff, so it’s worth investigating a bit more.
As Building Blocks
There’s a reason we consume animal tissues in order to intake and assimilate protein. We are a network of collagen fibers. Fascia encapsulates the muscles and holds us together inside the skin. Fascia proliferates as it stretches and moves. Muscle is replenished and rebuilt stronger with adequate protein intake. The skin, the largest organ on the human body, depends on this sinewy protein to keep it all together.
As we age, our mechanisms for protein synthesis diminish. This results in the dread sagging skin and muscle wasting of old age. Proper functioning of both of these responsibilities is directly correlated to positive outcomes pertaining to longevity.
As Blood Sugar Support
Healthy muscle tissue not only contributes to over all strength and functional movement, it also serves as storage for glycogen. High muscle volume assists with blood sugar regulation.
When we intake carbs, the liver and the muscle tissue are the primary store-houses of any resultant free-circulating glucose. Our bodies tap into these reserves during physical activity to varying degrees dependent on the specific type of physical activity. When we’re relatively inactive, the stored glycogen goes unused. When we’re inactive and also continue to intake disproportionate amounts of carbs, what remains to be store is taken up by the cells that are associated with fat tissue.
It is important to me to qualify the mechanisms in action here because this one specific process gets all sorts of warped and distorted across platforms. Adequate protein intake not only typically blunts glucose spikes, it also supports musculoskeletal health which, in turn, aids in sugars regulation. That’s it. Please, for the love of God, eat carbs, they’re fuel. Just keep in mind the physiology that processes and stores the carbs, and use them to your advantage :)
Major Take-Aways
Much of our fast-and-easy food stuff is devoid of fiber and choc full of carbs. While carbs are essential to our health and operations, too much without enough of the other stuff can distort our energy management systems. Prioritizing protein intake benefits our regeneration and sugar regulation. Protein intake is generally recommended to be thereabouts 0.75g/kg of body weight. If you, like me, live within the imperial system, you’d take thereabouts half of your weight in pounds and remove a quarter of that. That’s it.
From there, you can identify plant, animal, and supplemental sources of protein to fill in the amount. Keep in mind that plant and animal-based proteins come with the added benefit of fibers, vitamins, minerals, and all the goodness that wholefoods have to offer. When investing in protein supplementation, do your research- some sources make you gassy, some are bulked up with non-protein content, and some may just be downright nasty tasting.
A high level understanding of protein (or really any nutritional building block) is likely to yield results for most normal people. You may find that you have increased satiety (feeling of fullness), that your body compositions shifts a bit, or that your energy levels change. If you’re looking for specific guidance for how much and how often re: performance goals or condition management, please reach out to a Registered Dietitian. Nutritionists (like me) are qualified to educate and inform, not prescribe or diagnose. Make smart choices, and make choices in favor of your future self, y’all :)
Soft Shell Tortillas
Makes about 6
what you’ll need
1.5 c Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
5 tbsp Salted Butter
0.5 c Hot Water
how you’ll prepare it
Combine “dry”s.
Add butter + water.
Knead for 5 minutes or until dough is smooth and bounces back.
Let sit for 10 min to rise.
Cut into 6 pieces- flatten/rollout.
Lightly fry in drizzle of oil (your choice) until bubbles appear- flip and repeat.
Let cool on paper towel.
ways you can consume it
In tacos, as a quesadilla, with some peanut butter on top.
March in Your Body
March is the real turn-of-the-leaf away from the dark time and into the light time. Once daylight savings Springs forward, the days get exponentially longer, the earth begins to thaw, and we’re drawn outward. You may notice that you crave less of the heavy sweetness that the Winter called for; you may even notice your appetite diminish significantly. Embrace that. Just like the cold, hard, and heavy winter gives way for the light, energetic, clearness of Spring, this time of year the body readies itself to shed an refresh.
qualities of the season
Here, in the throes of Kapha Season we meet the intersection of the dark time and light time. Between now and April, it’s not abnormal to feel slightly disconnected or pulled in two different directions. Fear not, this is the perfect opportunity to dial into your intuition. The body knows what the body wants, it’s just hard to feel fully aligned with it when we’re inundated daily with the things we’re told we should want.
While the body reheats and re-energizes, it’s helpful to support the transition with easy to digest, light, simple foods. When Springtime hits, the lighter load requires the body to leverage its accumulated stores for fuel. Prioritize warm, light, dry, mobile, sharp, penetrating qualities and embrace bitter, stringent, and pungent tastes.
daily/practices
Like other animals, we too shed our winter layers in preparation for the upcoming warm season. In our case, it involves losing the insulating layers of fat beneath the skin, a natural process that differs from the modern concept of striving for a "summer body." Instead, it aligns with the natural order, orchestrating changes to set us up for success in each season.
As this shedding process unfolds, our blood and lymphatic systems may experience congestion or sluggishness, leading to feelings of heaviness and lethargy. This slowdown can contribute to mucous build-up, common during this time of year. Dry brushing remains a helpful practice to support the somewhat reluctant lymphatic system.
The idea of scraping, known as lekhana, can be applied in various ways throughout the season to introduce a rough and mobile quality when it's lacking. For example, tongue scraping is beneficial year-round but particularly useful now to clarify and assess the state of the digestive system.
While the body lightens up, there's an increased risk of irritants causing seasonal allergies due to changes in blood circulation. Regular Neti practice helps cleanse the sinuses, flushing out any trapped irritants and reducing immune responses.
Additionally, spending time outdoors and staying active is essential. Embracing our connection to nature on nice days allows us to return to its warm embrace. Engaging in activities like preparing spring gardens brings joy in witnessing new life. Our nervous systems greatly benefit from reconnecting with nature, aligning our vibes with the environment around us.
diet staples
March signifies the switch to bitter, pungent, and astringent tastes. Foods high in prana, or energy and life, are more easily accessible as farm stand season returns. Gone are the dark, cold months of root veggies and preserves- now is the time for berries, cherries, greens, and grains!
Pungent and warming digestive herbs like ginger, black pepper, and turmeric assist the digestion, or agni, to brighten up and reinvigorate. It’s the perfect season to re-introduce all sorts of grains into the diet. Grains like barkley, buckwheat, and millet are light and mobile enough to give quick bursts of energy that will help keep the system running efficiently with the longer days.
finally, beans and lean meats - particularly easy to digest beans and fish - nourish the system via their fiber and protein content. Because the light time encourages getting outside and getting mobile, it’s important to keep protein in a light and easily digestible form in order to ensure the body is supplied properly for regeneration.
what’s it all mean
The big takeaway is this: the sun is back, the body gets to movin in the Spring. Support your body's transition with easily digestible, light, and simple foods. As the body taps into its accumulated reserves for fuel, prioritize warm, light, dry, and mobile qualities, alongside bitter, stringent, and pungent tastes.
In daily practices, shed winter layers with dry brushing, scraping, and especially tongue scraping to assess digestive health. Combat potential seasonal allergies by incorporating regular Neti practice. Embrace outdoor activities for overall well-being, connecting with nature during this time of renewal. Circulation, metabolism, and circadian health are primary focuses as we transition out of the cool, dark, dry and into the warm, light time!
If you need support with planning for your unique constitution, tap on (me!) your friendly neighborhood longevity educator!
5 Simple Strategies to Elevate Your Nutrition
1. Menu Plan
Planning your meals in advance isn't just about healthy choices—it's your ticket to confidence and ease. Spend a little time on a Saturday or Sunday creating a weekly menu. This ensures a balanced mix of protein, carbs, and fats, along with a rainbow of fruits, veggies, whole grains, and lean proteins tailored to your nutritional needs. After a few weeks, you'll have a plug-and-play resource for busy days.
2. Become an Ingredient Household
Transform your kitchen into a haven of creativity and control. By sticking to basic ingredients, you'll not only avoid hidden additives but also make snacking a mindful experience. Build accountability by stocking up on whole foods, like fresh produce, lean meats, and unprocessed items. Experiment, have fun with food prep, and enjoy the journey of crafting your own delicious, healthier snacks.
3. Shorten Your Feed Windows
Unlock the secrets of weight management and overall health by embracing time-restricted eating. Understand the impact of extended feeding periods on digestion and recovery. Tailor your eating window to about 8 hours, aligning with your circadian rhythm for optimal results. Stay hydrated during fasting periods with water or herbal teas, giving your body the rest and recovery it deserves.
4. Prioritize Protein
Discover the superhero role of protein in muscle maintenance and overall well-being. From chicken and fish to tofu and legumes, include lean protein sources in every meal and snack. Distribute protein throughout the day, aiming for about ¾g per KG of body weight. Use labels and daily intake recommendations to hit your protein goals, unlocking the key to recovery and regeneration.
5. Cook for Leftovers
Transform your kitchen into a time-saving, cost-cutting haven. Batch cooking not only promotes portion control but also liberates you from the clutches of convenience foods. Embrace the art of excess by cooking a bit more than needed each night, effortlessly creating a lunch buffet for the next day. Invest in storage containers for freshness, and let creativity reign as you transform leftovers into exciting new dishes.