And you know what made it that way? Diet culture.

You’ve likely been told for decades: Eat less. Move more. Cut carbs. Track everything.
Meanwhile, your body’s over here whispering, “Girl, can I get a sandwich and a nap?”

Here’s the truth bomb:
Nearly 45 million Americans go on a diet each year. And most of them end up right back where they started—if not heavier.

Why? Because they’re so focused on calorie math, they forget about metabolic health.
That’s where the magic really happens.

Want to really dig into what’s dragging your energy and stalling your fat loss?
I’ve got a whole Metabolism Series on the Fit Girl Magic Podcast that breaks it down in real talk, no BS.

So, what is metabolism, really?

Metabolism isn’t just about how many calories you burn. It’s the full orchestra of chemical reactions happening in your body to keep you alive, energized, and thriving.

Let’s break it down:

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) – Calories burned doing nothing but keeping you alive. Think: breathing, organs, blinking.
TEF (Thermic Effect of Food) – Calories burned digesting food. Protein burns more than carbs or fats (reason #438 to eat more chicken).
NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) – Fancy term for everything that isn’t your workout: fidgeting, walking to your car, even chewing gum.
RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) – The total sum of all of the above. Your real “maintenance” level.

Why your metabolism might be dragging…

If you’ve spent years on the “eat less, burn more” train, your metabolism has likely adapted. That’s not failure—it’s biology. Your body’s just trying to survive on the little fuel you’ve been feeding it.

Enter: reverse dieting.
Not a new diet. Not a trick. Just smart metabolic rehab.

This approach—popularized by smart fitness pros helps you slowly add food back in while keeping fat gain minimal. You start by figuring out your true maintenance (not that sad, slashed version), then gradually increase food while teaching your body it’s safe to burn again.

Think of it like bringing a phone back to 100% after years of only charging to 10%. Your battery can hold more again—but you’ve got to stop draining it first.

A Quick + Dirty Reverse Dieting Game Plan

1. Track what you’re eating now – No judgment, just get honest.
2. Find your real maintenance – Based on weight, height, activity.
3. Increase calories slowly – Start with 50–100 extra calories per day every 1–2 weeks.
4. Keep protein high – It supports muscle and keeps hunger in check.
5. Give it time – You didn’t lose your metabolism overnight, and you won’t rebuild it that fast either.

✨ Want to hear more on this?
In Episode 304 of the Fit Girl Magic Podcast, I share exactly how I helped women rebuild their metabolism without fear of gaining weight. Trust me, it’s the anti-diet you didn’t know you needed.

Skip the Cheat Days. Try This Instead.

Cheat days? Cute in theory. But eating 6,000 calories to “shock your system” really just shocks your jeans. Your metabolism might get a tiny bump—like 50 calories—while you just ate enough to feed a small village.

A smarter alternative: diet breaks.
You go back to maintenance for 1–2 weeks after a long stint in a deficit. It gives your body a breather and helps prevent the dreaded weight-loss plateau.

The Bottom Line

Metabolic restoration is your secret weapon—not another crash diet. Reverse dieting, smarter nutrition strategies, and ditching the all-or-nothing mindset? That’s how you actually lose weight for good (without losing your damn mind).

Want to know if your metabolism is waving the white flag?
Take my 2-minute quiz: Is Your Metabolism Tired AF?

Because if you’ve been doing “everything right” and still feel like you’re spinning your wheels, it’s time to stop blaming yourself and start supporting your body the right way.

Let’s get that engine revving again.

The post Is Your Metabolism Tired AF? Here’s What to Do Instead of Another Diet appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

Let’s talk about something that’s not getting enough attention: your metabolism.

Did you know that nearly 45% of women over 40 are eating fewer than 1,500 calories a day… and still feel like the scale is punking them?

If that sounds like you, I need you to hear this:

You’re not broken.
Your metabolism is just tired AF.

Why Your Results Have Ghosted You

You’ve been doing “everything right”—eating clean, working out when you can, tracking your food. But you’re still bloated, burned out, and the scale won’t budge. It’s like your body gave you the finger, right?

Been there.

I spent years living out of a frickin’ Ziploc bag, weighing everything, chasing perfection. I ain’t going back. And neither should you.

The Muscle Loss No One Talks About

Here’s the truth:
After age 35, we start to lose 3–5% of our muscle mass every decade. Muscle is what gives your metabolism its oomph. It’s your built-in calorie burner. So when muscle decreases, so does your metabolic flexibility.

And if you’re not actively strength training? That wiggle room you once had with food and wine? Gone.

You can’t out-diet a tired, under-muscled body.
You can’t cardio your way out of a broken system.
And you definitely can’t keep pretending that less food and more stress is a long-term solution.

The Hormone Shift Hits Hard

Muscle doesn’t come on as easily after 40. Hormones start shifting. Progesterone drops. Stress tolerance tanks. And suddenly, the things you used to brush off now have you ready to flip a table.

Sound familiar?

You’re not crazy. You’re not dramatic.
You’re just in a different season—and your body is asking for a new approach.

Stress: The Silent Saboteur

Let’s go deeper.

Your metabolism isn’t just reacting to food and workouts—it’s responding to everything:

• Stress

• Sleep (or lack thereof)

• Your inner critic

• Your all-or-nothing mindset

Your body perceives all that as stress. And when stress goes up, your body hits the brakes—slowing digestion, cravings skyrocket, and your ability to burn fat nosedives.

This is what I call low battery mode.

Think of your metabolism like an iPhone. When it hits 20%, it dims the screen, slows apps, and conserves energy. Your body does the same. It shuts down non-essentials (like hormone production and digestion) to survive.

Your metabolism isn’t fighting you—it’s trying to protect you.

So How Do You Know If Your Metabolism Is Tired?

Here are the signs:

• You’ve been in a calorie deficit since 2007

• The scale goes up, down, and sideways—but never consistently down

• You’re exhausted, even after a full night of sleep

• Cravings are wild, energy is spotty, and hunger feels unpredictable

• You obsess over every gram of protein or step you didn’t hit

If that’s you, it’s time to stop with the food guilt and start with a rebuild.

You Might Also Be in a Holding Pattern…

Not everyone is totally tanked. Maybe you’re seeing some wins—your energy is decent, your weight is stable—but you’re still spinning your wheels with hunger, cravings, and inconsistency.

That’s a sign your metabolism is waving a yellow flag—not red—but still needs attention.

Or Maybe You’re on the Right Track

If you’ve got:

• Consistent energy

• Strong digestion

• Steady weight fluctuations (within 1–2 lbs)

• Resilience with food and workouts (i.e., no guilt over a slice of cake)

…then celebrate! You’re building metabolic flexibility. Keep going!

Your Body Isn’t Broken—It’s Burned Out

Let’s be clear. This isn’t about being perfect. It’s about recognizing that your metabolism needs support, not punishment.

Here’s what actually moves the needle:

• Eating enough to fuel your body and recovery

• Smart strength training

• Sleep as a non-negotiable

• Managing stress like your results depend on it—because they do

If you’ve been living in food jail, working out like it’s your penance, and still not getting anywhere, it’s time for a metabolism reset.

Want to Know Where You Stand?

I created a quick quiz to help you find out if your metabolism is:

• Tired AF

• In a holding pattern

• Or totally on track

Drop a comment with the word RESET and I’ll send it to you.

No more spinning.
No more guessing.
Just clarity on what your next step should be.

Let’s stop chasing smaller and start chasing stronger, healthier, more energized.

You with me?

Links:

Facebook group

Free Resources: https://www.fitgirlmagic.com/freeresources_podcast

Website:  http://www.kimbarnesjefferson.com 

The post What can you do revive your tired metabolism? appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

Luckily for you, I had Ali Damron on my last podcast who is full of informative knowledge on these things! , Ali is a wife, a mother to two sweet little boys, a licensed acupuncturist and a certified personal trainer. For the last eight years, she has run her own successful private practice as an acupuncturist. Over the last four years, she has also taken her message to the online platform where she does 1:1 consultations on women health and hormones and offers digital courses!  She also has a podcast called The Ali Damron Show that I highly recommend checking out!

Growing up Ali had no idea what acupuncture was or alternative medicine at that.  It wasn’t until college that she was exposed to holistic medicine.  She saw different ideas of using herbs instead of over-the-counter medicine and all of this started to pique her interest!  While in college she went to see an acupuncturist to get some work done and afterwards she had felt amazing.  The acupuncturist looked amazing, and she couldn’t believe how healthy and fit they look, and how amazing she felt leaving that session, and she knew that she wanted to study this.

After college Ali went to start her own acupuncture practice as a generalist, but it wasn’t until she started working with more women and having her  first child that she realized how floored she was with the act of becoming a mother. No one told her anything about any of this. Baby blues, babies are needy, etc! Everyone sugar coated it so much. And she struggled a lot with learning about breastfeeding and hormone things and it all made her wonder how to treat herself.  She realized that she wasn’t the only woman going through this. THIS was a universal thing that people were going through on a daily basis!

People started coming in to see her for menopausal stuff and postpartum period and menstrual issues and it made Ali realized that life is so demanding on women, mothers especially and how much work we needed to do for them. And she knew that she wanted to lead down the path of hormone issues and help women who were struggling day in and day out.

So if you are reading this. How are you to know if it is your HORMONES that are affecting your life, or if it’s your LIFESTYLE that needs some tweaking’

When we think about the hormones, we need to think about it as a pyramid.  At the bottom of that pyramid is going to be your insulin, adrenaline and cortisol.  And we see symptoms throughout the day of hunger, being tired, etc.  So, we have to go to the bottom first to find out exactly what is going on.  Insulin and blood sugar all play a lot of roles in nutrition. This would have to do with your lifestyle decisions you are making.  Cortisol is our stress hormone. And we need this, but we need it in the right amount at the right time. This is a lifestyle as well. Sleep habits, exercise habits, nutrition habits, our mindset all affect our stress levels. Adrenalin which goes alongside cortisol, is our fight or flight response and if your brain feels like it is in danger of environment, thoughts, personality, etc. it will be in fight or flight mode.

It is a matter of what is affecting what, and where to start when it comes to figuring out what is going on inside and what you need to work on first.

Ali has five pillars that she uses for women when treating hormones. And the first one is mindset, stress management & self care. So we talk about our thoughts and are you filling yourself with garbage’ Are you watching the news all day’ Are you scrolling social media all day feeling terrible about yourself’ Are you scaring yourself all day with the thoughts that you’re telling yourself’  All of those things play a huge role in how those stress hormones react.

The second thing is nutrition. Third is sleep, fourth pillar is exercise and fifth we get into where some supplements, vitamins and herbs can help because yes, there are definitely things that can help all of these things. But I found this out the hard way. You can’t out supplement a lifestyle that is not conducive to what you’re doing.

Let’s say this again!!! YOU CAN NOT OUT SUPPLEMENT A LIFESTYLE THAT IS NOT CONDUCIVE TO HEALTHY BODY HEALTHY HORMONES!!!!

Our mindset and nutrition are NUMBER 1 and NUMBER 2 and we have to get those under control to have healthy hormones. We can’t just add in hormone replacement therapy and vitamins or whatever and expect things to be magical and work! Supplements are at the top of the pyramid. But you have to WORK YOUR WAY THERE! You have to take it step by step.

Let’s jump into mindset. Because this part plays a huge role when it comes to this. So, if I am always telling myself x y z and it’s all negative trash talk, that can have an impact on how my hormones respond in my body! It has a direct impact on your nervous system. The mind-body connection that you hear about, this is through your nervous system. If you are telling yourself, you are stupid and fat and inadequate on a daily basis. Your brain is going to be like a shit, there is bad stuff going on in there. This is a threat so let’s get the adrenalin running and amygdala is on high alert!!

When you fill your brain with this all day long your nervous system is going to be on high alert and throw off your adrenaline and cortisol and when that is thrown off it steals from your progesterone that makes us feel calm and sleep well.  Which means you are not sleeping well and you sure as hell ARE NOT CALM!

People constantly are saying that stress is their life, and they can’t avoid it Some of the stress, absolutely but our bodies are designed for the peaks and valleys of stress and if we are always pushing the button of OMG that button is going to burn out!  But remember Stress is different than stressors and you have to learn how to respond to them. Ali recommended this amazing book and you should check it out. It’s called Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle check it out it really has a ton of amazing information and strategies to help you with reducing stress in your life!]

If you go through tons of stress during your day, you have to learn to balance that out in the evening, etc. When you get home take it easy, stay relaxed and avoid stressful situations.  Ask yourself, what are your stressors’ Is it you or something truly outside of you stressing you out’  Takes time to get to self-awareness and the willingness to change your life some what willingness and patience!

When we talk about stress, I think many of us bring stress on ourselves because we caught up in the game. What it should be, what it should look like, should my kids always be clean, should the kitchen never have shit on the counters, should I have my Christmas tree up right after thanksgiving””’ But you know what”’ The gap between reality and expectation is where the anxiety lies!!!!!! Many people have unspoken expectations, and you arrive somewhere and, in your head,, it’s supposed to be something. But if you never articulated them to a person or an experience. How is it their fault’

Now I want to also talk to you about the nutrition part of this because this is a huge part of this entire topic. Many people come to me and they’re like ugh my hormones, I am packing on the weight my hormone is affecting me.  But we have to start somewhere before we leap into your hormones. an initial consult, she will ask them every single symptom. How’s your digestion, sleep, mood, hot flashes, period, energy, cravings’ They go through all of it and with women, if you have hormonal issues, you are going to have a lot of symptoms or several. Not just that I can’t lose weight and feel fine outside of that.

So, for this, it’s really important to track things. Track what you eat, how you feel, how you sleep, your exercise so that you can see what you are doing vs how you are feeling!  I always challenge people for 1 year or 6 months to track everything. Track everything I just said above to really take a look at what is going on. We all just want to jump to a pill to solve all of our problems and I blame tv and social media for that.. But we also have to control our lifestyle too!  It can be soooo empowering to lose weight and figure out what is going on. But it’s not empowering to just say we can’t lose the weight, or I can’t do this.

Become self-aware or what you are eating every day.  Extra snacks off your kids plate add up daily.  And could be what’s causing you to hold onto those 10 extra pounds onto your frame.  Yes, hormone issues are 100% real, but before you make that leap, start to look at that lifestyle. It’s so important to look at this part because we don’t want you or our clients wasting their money or chasing windmills when it could be them just having a couple of bites of here and there

Alright so my foods on spot, I am working out great and I am still putting on the weight where does acupuncture come in’

Acupuncture is a comprehensive way to treat.  It can help your brain produce the right number of hormones at the right time to help balance everything out. It calms down the nervous system and calms down cortisol. The way that she diagnoses in Chinese medicine is really different from Western medicine, like using words like dampness and heat, and just things that you’ll never hear about at all. It can help rebalance your whole body. They look at your tongue and look at your pulse. And then they will again ask you 100 questions about patterns and symptoms and things like that. That way they can just put together a comprehensive treatment just for you.

The one takeaway I would say for a lot of people is that even though acupuncture can help you with everything, instead of chasing everything, decide what would make things a little more tolerable. And for me, my hot flashes were debilitating. I just could not stand in front of you and continue to just melt, I just couldn’t do it anymore!

Listen, you have to find your rock bottom and just say I cannot take myself anymore. You have to GET TO THAT PLACE to have the willpower to make a change.  We hear excuses a lot from women but it’s just that they are not there yet and it’s ok that they aren’t there yet, but we can get there!

Ali and I are both huge fans of slow habit change. Just start with 1 habit and focus on it and build on it. We can’t just flip our lifestyle on its lid all the time. Ali doesn’t focus on all 5 pillars at once because it isn’t going to work. We have to start 1 at a time and build ourselves up to the next.  Just like I tell you ladies! One small change at a time.  One thing that you know you can start and you can handle.  And as you go, you move on to the next and to the next.

Listen mamas, sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to really realize where you want to go.  And I know you got this.  I know you can do what you need to do to figure out what is going on.  And if you think your hormones could possibly be playing a role in what is going on in your body.  Reach out to Ali! She does most of her business via over the phone and Zoom and I know that she will be an amazing tool for you to guide you where you need to go next!

What is one thing that makes you feel magical’

I think when I am in my genius zone in my business.  I love to talk to women about their mindset and how huge of a role that plates on their health and on their hormones in general and they have an ah hah moment. That is amazing to me because it took me so freaking long to understand that and change that and its life work.  But it makes me feel so happy when people get that and it clicks for them.  – Ali Damron

LINKS

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FabFitSquad

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/

Website: https://kimbarnesjefferson.com/

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661

www.instagram.com/alidamron

www.facebook.com/ali.damron

www.facebook.com/groups/alidamron

promotion link www.alidamron.com/schedule

the book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle https://amzn.to/3oB83CY

The post Who else wants to balance their hormones naturally appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

I recently talk to Jennifer Harrington of Menopause Natural Solution and she shed some light on the fact of menopause – the hows, whys, and need to know of how to do more than survive menopause. Jennifer shares how she teaches her clients to cope and thrive through the change.

I won’t deny, menopause mostly deserves its bad rap, ripe with frustration-inducing symptoms like hot flashes, brain fog, weight gain, and mood swings. But take this to heart: The change doesn’t have to be this big, awful thing you fear or must suffer through. Unlike other hormonally tumultuous times like puberty and pregnancy, you’ve actually got a lot more control over how you weather this one.

Jennifer explained the correlation between puberty and menopause during our conversation. Think back to when you were a teenager going through puberty. You veered from anger and despair to laughter and happiness on an almost hourly basis. My guess that if you’re here reading this blog, you’re not an adolescent. If you’re at that time of your life when your periods are becoming erratic and your sleep patterns change and you feel more anxious, depressed, angry or irritable than before, the odds are your more intense emotional state is connected to changes going on physically. Same — or similar — to adolescence, then. Only in our teens the floodgates of our reproductive hormones are being opened and, in the run up to menopause (known as ‘perimenopause’), they are closing.

Our brains actually begin to change at perimenopause. Like the rising heat in our bodies, our brains also become fired up! Sparked by the hormonal changes that are typical during the menopausal transition, a switch goes on that signals changes in our temporal lobes, the brain region associated with enhanced intuition. How this ultimately affects us depends to a large degree on how willing we are to make the changes in our lives that our hormones are urging us to make. This is why so many women no longer feel the need to hide their feelings or suppress their words as they approach 40 and beyond.

But there are many factors that contribute to the levels of effect the hormones have on you. Stress, toxins, internal health conditions, and the amount of sleep and exercise you get, all play roles in the way your body reacts during perimenopause. Here are 3 tips from Jennifer Harrington for dealing with life during menopause.

Let’s start with stress.

Reducing stress is crucial for easing up the frustration of hot flashes. Aanxiety and stress preceded hot flashes among perimenopausal and post-menopausal women. Your typical stress-coping strategies may need to be adjusted because of the high levels of stress that may be occurring as a result of physical changes during menopause.

Jennifer suggests adding exercise to your routine. Though it may seem counter-intuitive (I mean you’re already hot right’), over time the exercising can actually help reduce the hot flashes.

Check your environment.

Have you ever thought of going plastic-free’ If not, now’s a good time. When you heat up plastic, it leaches toxins into your food. Those toxins are stored in your bones. While this isn’t good for younger women, Jennifer explains that it’s more dangerous as you get older.

“Your body’s really smart because if  it keeps toxins in your bloodstream, you’re going to die. Right'”  Instead it says, ‘Let’s put it into storage.’ Using lead as an example, that loves to be stored in your bones. And it’s not really safe in your bones because it’s displacing calcium and making your bones brittle but it’s not going to kill you instantly. But when you go through perimenopause and menopause, your estrogen levels start to lower, your bone mass starts to decrease and — yes ladies — re-released into the bloodstream and can cause symptoms very similar to menopause.”

Jennifer goes on to explain why you should bring this up to your doctor. ” for me, it’s so important to have a look what your toxic load is. Because at this point in life, it’s going to be released. And fat cells are another area that we really like to store fat soluble toxins.”

So now’s the time to start removing toxins.

On gaining weight

While you’re talking to your doctors about possible toxins in your system, ask about having your thyroid and adrenal glands checked as well. Many women going through perimenopause and menopause worry about weight gain. While it can be frustrating, it doesn’t have to be an inevitability. And the cause may not be your hormones. Jennifer suggested asking your doctor to check your thyroid and adrenals as both can contribute to weight gain, especially under stressful conditions.

As you begin to navigate your way through permimenopause and beyond, remember that have more control than you think. Rather than being swept away for the force of nature that is coming your way, decide. Decide that you are going to understand your body, what is happening, your options, and most importantly the kind of magic you want to create at this point in your life.

To listen to my whole conversation with Jennifer as we dive in deeper and she shares even more tips, check out this episode of Fit Girl Magic.

Links Website: https://www.menopausenaturalsolutions.com/ Menopause Quiz: https://www.menopausenaturalsolutions.com/   Socials: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/menopausenaturalsolutions/
Podcast: https://www.menopausenaturalsolutions.com/podcast

The post Who Else Wants To Figure Out Menopause appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

I am Kim Barnes Jefferson and I am your host of FabFitTv. I help women to break free of a doubt-free and rule-free life so they can live a life of infinite possibilities.

Today I want to keep on the theme of how do we diet in 2019, how do we get the results that we are looking for’ So, I want to talk about the dreaded plateau. We’ve all faced it, we’ve all had it, and we’ve all just been like, “What can we do'” And what I see time and time again is that when you hit that wall where the scales are not budging, you’re not seeing any change in the scale, you’re not seeing any change in your physique, you’re like, “Time to up that cardio, strap myself to that treadmill, and I’m just going to live off of diet coke and rice cakes.” Anyone’ Been there, done that, and I’ve got the multiple t-shirts for that.

I want you to think about how you feel when you increase all this exercise and you decrease all your calories. You are craving like a mofo. You might be a little bitchy, and you’re just trying to figure it out and you’re going nutso. And you’re clicking and scrolling. You’re asking everyone, and they’re all telling you to do these things. I’ll tell you that for a bit, dropping my calories and increasing my exercise is going to work. Until it doesn’t.

Your body is having a tantrum

Everyone talks about our metabolism — my metabolism is fast, my metabolism is slow, my metabolism is out to lunch, whatever is. But I want you to think about when someone pushed you to your limit and you just either lost your shit, or you dug in your heels and decided you’re not going to budge. That is what our body does when we try to force it into submission.

It’s just like, “No, I’m not going to do it. I don’t care how much you starve me, I don’t care how many hours of cardio you do, I don’t care how many hours you’re at the gym, I’m not moving.” It is like a stubborn two-year-old, it’s that kid that’s laid out on the floor and you’re just like, “I want to walk away right now and give this kid to the circus.” In order to get that kid up off the floor you’re going to do anything, right’ You’re like, “What can I do'” You’re just mortified, but then you’re also like, “But this is my kid, I can’t just walk away, can I'” That’s how your body is, so let’s pick your body up off the floor.

Do the unthinkable

And now I’m going to tell you to do something that you’re going to be like record scratch, like the earth has stopped spinning on its axis kind of thing. I’m going to tell you to eat less and exercise less. Yes, you heard me right. You’re going to eat less, and you’re going to exercise less. Now, you’re already into the eat less, you’re like, “Yeah, I got that. What are you talking about’ It’s all me, I can do that. But the exercise less, girl, you’re crazy.”

Now, hear me out. The strategy behind that is that our metabolism. Our body has just been beaten into submission. Do you know what it’s like when you’ve just had a week and you’re just dead on your feet and you can’t wait for the weekend and the whole weekend you’re like, “I am not leaving my couch, I am not getting out of my pajamas, I just want to chill and watch everything on Netflix until I have to call Netflix and say ‘You need more stuff because I just watched it all.'” Have you ever been in that state’ That’s the state your body gets when you have just been beating it into submission, it’s just like, “Uncle, I surrender, I can’t give you anymore, I need a break.” And when you go into the eat less, exercise less, that’s exactly what you’re doing, you’re giving your body this break. You are basically putting your body on the DL, you’re letting it rehab and recover.

It’s nice to make your acquaintance.

It’s letting you repair that metabolic damage, it’s letting you start to get reacquainted with your body.

• Reacquaint it with what hunger feels like.
• Reacquaint it with what rest feels like.
• Reacquaint it with how your body is supposed to function when you’re not trying to push it into a place it doesn’t want to be.

And so, when I’m able to give my body this rest my body, my hormones start to balance out, my mood starts to balance out, my sleep starts to increase. I am now a person that people want to be around. I am not feeling like I’m that girl with the rice cakes and the diet coke who’s on a diet and I can’t do a darn thing until my diet gives me the 30 pounds, or whatever you’re looking for.

Reset your expectations

I know for a lot of people this is like, “What’ What are you talking about'” But trust me, one of the things I’ll tell you is that it helps to reset your expectations of what your body is capable of. It helps you to chill out, it helps you to ease into, “I am where I am, and I can’t force change.”

Think of it like this – if you’ve ever saved for something, you’ve saved for a house, you’ve saved for a vacation, whatever it is, your paycheck is only as big as your paycheck is, and you can only allocate but so many dollars towards this vacation or towards this house. And when you want to save for a house, and you can only save say $100 a week, I don’t ever hear anyone marching into your boss’s office saying, “I need more money because I need to save for a house” and your boss is like, “Sure, here you go.” That doesn’t really ever happen. 

But that’s what you do to your body when your body doesn’t give you what it wants. You literally march down the office and you’re like, “You need to give me more results, and if you don’t give me more results, I’m going to do more stuff to force you to give me more results.” It’s like picketing your body, but you’re literally exercising your body into submission, and shockingly it doesn’t want to give it to you.

Give it a rest

So, with this eat less, exercise less, it’s giving your body a much-needed break. How does this work’ So, when you were growing up and you probably had three square meals a day: you had breakfast, you had lunch and you had dinner. And you had big spaces of time between each meal, and the big spaces of time between each meal give your digestive tract time to rest. It’s not always digesting – you eat, it digests, it has some rest, you eat, it digests, you have some rest time.

And so, I want you to pick a time that you’re going to stop eating in the evening. Now this isn’t about, “If I eat calories after [6:00] it’s going to go right to my butt.” Malarkey. I’m saying if I have dinner every night at [8:00], I try my best to get dinner on the table before [8:00], it just doesn’t happen. So, I eat at [8:00] and I don’t eat again until anywhere between [12:00] and [1:00] in the afternoon. So, I give myself a good 12 hours of my digestive tract just chilling out, but eight hours of those I’m sleeping, so it’s really only four hours that I’m not eating. And it’s literally just taking my digestive system and just giving it a big old rest. And I was that person, I ate five to six meals a day and I never really gave my metabolism or my digestive system a chance to rest and recover, only when I was sleeping. So, this is another way to kind of help reboot my system.

Then with the workouts. I know for a lot of people who like to work out this is going to be like, “Whoa.” And it was totally whoa for me. The workouts are going to be two to three times a week, that’s it. The rest of the time you’re going to just focus on movement. In last week’s episode I talked all about what movement is, in a nutshell if you’ve got a Fitbit trying to hit those 10,000 steps a day and just moving, active daily living. I go into greater detail, and I’ll put the link in the show notes so you guys can reference it. But it’s movement.

Rest and Restore

Then the other part is just really focusing on rest and restoration, and that is besides the leisure walk, getting your 10,000 steps walking at a leisurely pace, it’s doing infrared saunas, it’s doing cryotherapy. I know it’s winter and the thought of you going from a freezing cold outside to a freezing cold inside you’re like, “Why would I sign up for that'” Trust me, I’ve done it. Believe it or not, three minutes goes by pretty fast. And I’d say I’m cold, like my knees and my ankles get cold by like two minutes in and then I have like a minute, you can do anything for a minute, so I just power through.

The sauna on the other hand, I feel like I’m drunk when I get out of that. I’m just so chill 5,000 when I come out of the sauna. It’s a great experience, just 100% stress reduction. Rest and restoration is taking naps, being more mindful, loving your pets, loving your partner yup read between the lines (s-e-x), watching TV —  whatever you do to relax. Whatever it is, it’s all about how do I just rest and recover your body’ That’s the main focus during this period where you’re eating less and you’re exercising less. 

And this period will last for four weeks, so for four solid weeks you’re getting in two to three workouts a week and you are eating three meals a day. And these workouts, they’re not like, “I only have three workouts, I need to hit it hard.” Yes, I want you to lift. I want there to be a little metabolic work in there, but it’s not like I’m going to the gym for two hours and I’m killing it. That’s not what it is about.

You are working out so that you maintain your muscle mass, so that you’re not just sitting around like veal. Read the Year of Yes, Shonda Rimes has a great story about that in her book. You are still lifting heavy weights to maintain that muscle mass so that when we get to the next phase (eat more, exercise more) you haven’t taken a few steps back. You’ve maintained the strength that you’ve had and now in this eat more/exercise more phase we’re able to start focusing on the muscle build. 

During the eat less/exercise less phase, the focus is on tapping into your body’s stored fat. By spacing out meals leptin levels reset,  hormone that tells your body that you’re full, reset ghrelin levels, the hormone that tells your  body is hungry, and lastly works to reset insulin receptors. When you have too much insulin hanging around all the time your body becomes less sensitive to it.  

The Next Phase

Now, in this eat more/exercise more phase, my focus is now let’s again keep the body guessing. This phase you are back to working out a little bit more. You’ll put a little bit more food into your system four meals equally spaced.

For your food think soups, scrambles, stir fries, and shakes. Your meals start with protein and vegetables as the first two components of your meal.

Then add fat, good fats. People are like, “Oh, I cook in my fat.” For this time, I don’t want you to cook in fat for your stir fries. Use chicken broth for your stir fries, and then afterwards, after you’ve cooked the vegetables then you can throw in some of your good fat in once the vegetables have cooked or once the meat has cooked. Focus on protein and vegetables, fibrous vegetables. Fibrous vegetables are like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, those that kind of have that hearty-sticking-with-you type vegetable. There’s no vegetable that’s off-limits to you. 

Then I’m going to move to my good fats, focus on oils versus the nuts and the nut butters. Use olive oil sparingly; olive oil is great but has a lot of omega-6, and in our diet we already get a lot of omega 6s. If you go to any grocery store, you’ll see a plethora of oils. Pick any oil with the exception of corn, vegetable, soy, and peanut.

Next, you can start bringing in some of your starchy vegetables. These would be beets, butternut squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, those kinds of things. I want you to focus on the protein and the vegetables first. Then pay attention to your hunger and your energy. They will tell you what to do with fat and what to do with starch.

And then the same premise holds true for the eat less/ exercise less, but with the eat more/exercise more I want you to make sure that because we’re exercising, you’re really paying attention to when you have that starchy vegetable. It should be in the morning and around your workout time.

I know for years you’ve been told to ‘avoid carbs’ it’s the “carbs” that helps start the chemical process get the energy in your body, and the protein helps after exercise when your muscle bellies are open for about 20 to 30 minutes post exercise for it to absorb the proteins that help you build and repair. 

You also want to pay attention to your hunger, your energy, and craving because that’s what’s going to dictate whether you add a little bit more food or you pull back a little on the exercise, because if you try to push your exercise and not do anything with your food, you’re going to be back in that craving cyclone, and that that craving cyclone sucks.

Increase how you workout

In the eat more/exercise more you’re going to go to four workouts. These are metabolic workouts; they’re strength workouts. But you’re also building in a little bit of plyometric work so that you’re lifting heavy weights. During your workout you should be breathing heavy and sweating. It’s not about I need to PR this workout, no, it’s just like I want to leave and just say, “I had a great workout” and leave the room.

While I’m increasing my exercise and I’m still keeping up with my movement. I still want to make sure I’m getting in those 10,000 steps every day. I still want to make sure that I’m managing my stress. I still want to make sure that I’m managing my sleep. Because I’ll tell you, regardless of what protocol you follow, if you’re not getting great sleep and you’re a stress ball, everything goes out the window. Your body does not do well with prolonged stress and prolonged lack of sleep. Your body is just like, “I don’t like it.” Sleep and stress are always going to be a focus because regardless of what else you do, if that’s not right, you’re not going to get the results.

It’s a process

And so, remember, as you go through these processes, the first phase: exercise less/eat less, is four solid weeks. And then you’re going to do two weeks of eat more/exercise more. Then you’re going to go to two weeks eat less/exercise less until you’ve reached your desired physique goals. And you’re just literally going back and forth, and the goal here is to keep your body going, “What is she doing’ What’s happening here’ I don’t know.”

Your body is very adaptive, and as soon as it figures out that we’re dieting it’s going to be like, “Oh girl, we’ve been here, I’m not giving you what you want. I’m just going to sit here on the side of the road and I’m going to smoke my cigarette and have a scotch and watch you run around the gym like a crazy person, and I’m not going to do a darn thing because you’ve put me through hell and I’m done being in hell.” That’s how your body talks to you. Your body is like an 80-year-old woman drinking Dubonnet and smoking like Pall Malls! So, you have to keep your body guessing.

I’m not that person who ever believes that a food group is off limits. I’m more about at certain times, based on your goal, your choices change. But all food groups always will have a place in your diet.

Find your buffer

For me, I need to have fruit. It’s like a buffer food for me. Fruit keeps me from eating just junk and candy. So, if I have some blueberries in my house, if I have a banana in my house, I can eat that, and it takes the edge off of me seeking out know Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or M&Ms or jelly beans. If I have a handful of blueberries or I have a banana with some nut butter on it, I’m good. It takes away the craving monkey and I’m able to move forward.

But again, during this period is when you really start to become the investigator. I want you to think about CSI. They look at the chalk outline and they’re like, “The guy must have broken in through the window, and then he did this, then he did that.” That’s what I want you to think about when you’re going through the process. Remember that we’re focusing on repairing or rebuilding our metabolism so that our metabolism has that flexibility and we don’t ever hit these plateaus anymore. Or when we see ourselves getting into that plateau, we’re like, “I see the plateau ahead and I know how to make this left turn in order to avoid that plateau. I see another plateau, I know how to make a right turn.” And so, that’s where I want you to start thinking about. The more I can get in-tuned with my body, the more I can avoid plateaus in the first place.

When I work with my clients through this cycle, it’s not about the number on the scale. I want you to think about what does your physique look like’

Are you looking to reduce the size of your thighs’

Are you looking to reduce some belly fat’

Are you looking to get some more shape in your body’

And by shape, that’s where you build muscle.

Fat makes you fluffy, where muscle kind of like shrinks you in.

For a lot of my people, when they get to the exercise more/eat more, I want them really focusing on quality workout, so that the last few reps of the exercise they’re doing feels challenging with great form, so that as we go through these cycles, you’re starting to see maybe that hourglass is starting to uncover. Maybe you’re starting to see a little bit of a shoulder cap. Maybe you’re starting to see a little tighter tush. Sometimes, you’re able to see the results of your effort versus looking down at the scale and then being like, “It’s not adding up.” Or you’re losing a pound here and a pound there; take that away.

Judge it by measurements.

Judge it by how your clothes feel.

Judge it by how your hunger is, by your energy, and by your sleep. Those are the markers that are going to really give you the biggest bang for your buck.

That’s all I got for you today! So, it’s really how do you go about busting that plateau. It’s really turning what you think upside down, inside out, and left and right.

Definitely if you have any questions or comments about this, I’d love to talk it through with you to see how this could possibly benefit you.

Last Week’s Show: The New Rules of Weight Loss

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If you have a tough time cutting back on unhealthy fat and sugar, it may be because of the way your brain reacts to certain foods.

Study – Fatty Foods and Sugar as Addictive as Cocaine

A US government study suggests that processed foods and sweet, sugary drinks and snacks actually cause a reaction in your brain that creates addiction. Nora Volkow is the Director at the United States National Institute on Drug Abuse. She says that there is overwhelming data which has identified fatty foods and sweet treats as having the addictive power of cocaine, nicotine and other drugs.

This is relatively new knowledge, not really known by scientists in the 1990’s. Previously, if someone could not cut back on unhealthy fats, sugar and fast foods, that person was said to have a will power problem. They simply were not trying hard enough.

But now we know that is not always the case. If you crave doughnuts, sweet sodas and sugar-packed candy bars, it may be because your brain circuitry rewards you with an explosion of “feel good” hormones and chemicals when you eat them.

No fewer than 28 scientific studies on food addiction were published in substantial medical and health journals in 2011 alone. And they all revealed similar findings. This is not good news if you are trying to limit fat and sugar.

Because now that the food manufacturers have been alerted to this knowledge, sugar, fat and high fructose corn syrup are going to find their way into more and more foods.

And while fats and sugars have always been in the human diet, modern processing has created a new level of addiction. Extremely concentrated sugars, unhealthy fats and refined flour with little fiber or nutrients are being found in addictive fast foods and sweet treats. So what was already a problem in your brain has become even more difficult to combat.

Fortunately,

you can rewire your brain to lessen the effects of sweet and fatty foods
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. Slowly begin to limit the amount of high-fat, high-sugar foods and snacks you eat. Just remember that you have a natural tendency to crave these types of foods, since your brain will reward you with pleasure.

And remind yourself that too eating much fat and sugar can lead to diabetes, cardiovascular problems, stroke, heart attack, poor circulation and overweight. Cutting back is going to be difficult, but the health rewards are more than worthwhile.

Here’s also a great book that will help you understand this as well. Salt, Sugar and Fat. 

If you are looking to really understand hunger and hormones, join me for my webinar, click here to register 

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