Metabolic Made Simple: The Basics
Stop Skipping Meals
I know you're busy.
I know you're tired.
I know you've got a million things on your mind and your schedule...
but please stop skipping meals.
Set an alarm on your phone for every 2-3 hrs and eat. Feeding your cells, fueling your system, and nourishing your body should be a top priority. We need to eat in order to survive, heal, and THRIVE.
Because if you are feed regularly, your blood sugar is balanced and we are feeding our cells. If your blood sugar is balanced, you aren't hangry (the stress response that occurs when we are lacking the fuel to keep going, but we keep going anyway), and if you are eating regularly you are giving your body what it needs to maintain homeostasis (balance) and function optimally (metabolically healthy).
Break The Fast
Waking up without an appetite is a sign of a body under stress.
Breakfast is about "breaking the fast” from a night without eating.
We wake up in the mornings with our metabolism and glycogen stores at their lowest. Therefore, we need to be eating 30-60 minutes after waking to restore our bodies and give us fuel to tackle the day.
If you aren't much a breakfast person, start slow with some fruit and collagen in your coffee, and see if you can increase to a bit more every 1-2 weeks.
You should notice as time goes on that your body begins to signal more after some physiological stress is decreased.
Do you eat breakfast? What’s your go to in the mornings?
Mine is eggs, juice, fresh fruit, and collagen in my coffee with cream and sugar!
Protein-Fat-Carb
The combination of all three macros (P + F + C) are necessary for a balanced meal as they work together to keep blood sugar balanced and feed the cells.
Adding a bunch of extra fat usually isn’t necessary as animal protein and dairy contains fat, but most mamas aren’t taking the time to eat BOTH protein+fat AND carbs at each meal.
And that lifestyle habit will do a number on your ability to regulate stress in the body and heal.
The exact macro count per person will vary, and the combination of carbs with your protein that work best for you (roots, fruits, or roots + fruits) will also vary. So this takes a little practice and awareness on your part to find that sweet spot, BUT starting to balance the meals is always step 1!
Drink The Coffee
I am here this am to advocate for coffee - It gets blamed for so much and it’s just not coffee’s fault!
Allow me to explain:
For coffee to be the amazing metabolic drink it is, you need to have it AFTER a meal.
Coffee stimulates metabolic function, which is great, but without food in your stomach, coffee is triggers the body to burn through your backup energy stores.
Not ideal.
This is stressful to the body, and can shock the adrenals first thing in the morning.
You also don’t want to have it black, not only is that gross (kidding, kind of), but the sugar and fat help to further offset that adrenal shock, and allow for the minerals in coffee and the protective effect of caffeine to do its thing.
Lastly, coffee + caffeine aren’t meant to be used a meals or as fuel during the day. Again, adrenals are gonna go nuts on this low-carb high-caffeine craziness.
So let’s stop blaming coffee for our poor lifestyle habits.
Drink the coffee. After a meal. With the cream and sugar. AND fuel the body regularly with nutrient dense & easy to digest foods.
Eat A Bedtime Snack
I shared my bedtime snack last night and woke up to quite a few messages about it!
So let’s discuss…
The advice to not eat past a certain time is silly to me. If I am hungry, and I usually am needing a little something before bed, I eat.
We don’t ignore our hunger signals.
*Now being very hungry each night before bed probably means you are lacking calories or balanced meals during the day.
But a small snack of milk + honey, some salt, fruit, anything light but containing protein/fat/carb and salt about an hour before bed is actually very metabolically supportive.
Going long periods without eating at night is natural fasting, but on a stressed system even this kind of fasting is hard on the body. Having a little snack before sleep allows us to actually sleep better because there is energy available and the cells are fed. Think about babies and how much better they sleep with a full belly.
Waking between the hours of 2-4am is a sign your body could use a little bedtime snack to help you make it the whole night without the cells starving, stressing the system, and waking you up.
Moms - if we are waking a few times to soothe babies back to sleep or breastfeeding all night long, we’re no longer just sleeping, but expending energy. And that can be stressful without fuel in tank (food in the tummy).
If you are a breastfeeding mama, having a bedside snack to eat in the middle of the night is also supportive!
On hard nights with Lucca I often get up to drink an adrenal cocktail or milk.
Again, we don’t ignore our hunger.
Don’t be afraid to eat because of some silly cliche.