The Power Of A Flexible Metabolism

Let’s talk about metabolism and if you have a FLEXIBLE metabolism” Many women tell me their metabolism is broken!! I have heard it time and time again! And they just don’t know what to do about it! They don’t know why their metabolism is doing what it is doing, and they don’t know how to fix it. So, I guess the real question is …. Do we EVEN know what metabolism is”

Metabolism is the chemical reaction in your body’s cells that converts energy to food. So, when it comes down to you are having a challenge within those chemical reactions. There are a lot of hormones that work when you break down food and if those hormones are not working properly either, then you guessed it. Metabolism is going to be out of whack!

So how does that work’ Your food gets converted into energy. Your body likes simple things. They like it easy. It is going to first look for any energy in your blood cells. Then it will tap into our fat stores. Then it will tap into our muscles. This is a cascade effect. And just like anything, our bodies run on energy. You are all capable of gaining energy in many other ways. But most of our energy is going to come from food and alcohol. We all have a baseline of what we need for our bodies to run optimally.

This is the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) – the number of calories you burn as your body performs basic (basal) life-sustaining function. And with this, your body can say I am going to burn sugar, or I am going to burn fat. It just all depends on where they are pulling it from and where it is stored.

Take a step back and understand how our body stores food. This means that it is readily accessible for my body… If there is food and alcohol in your system not used, it is shuttled away to fat, for storage. That is what your body does with excess calories. It puts them into storage. Fat is your body’s bank account. It just sits there.

BUT, if I eat sugar, it is the money in the purse, easy to burn through. It doesn’t take a lot for your body to burn sugar. So, what happens, when many of you eat in excess of carbs, sugary foods, or consume alcohol, our body doesn’t have to work hard. Your body never has to go to the bank because it always has cash on hand! You never have to go to the bank and take money out… You don’t take anything from your fat stores. And guess what…”” Most of us are sugar burners!!! But I am here to tell you that it’s not entirely our fault. It’s how we have evolved over time.

Many of us have gotten into the pattern of eating the same way and expecting to lose weight, expecting to jump-start our metabolism by eating superfood and reducing carbs, etc. As we learned to eat processed foods, our diet became higher in carbs. Carbs are easier to find AND processed foods are easier to find. We’ve made it easy to be sugar burners which also in turn, makes us always ALWAYS hungry!

How do we start to shift ourselves, so you can have metabolic flexibility’ The more metabolically flexible you are, the more likely you are going to sustain weight loss. Now, THIS doesn’t mean you are on a CONSTANT diet. At some point you have to break your diet. If I am always restricting and living in this 5×5 box, I am going to struggle, and eventually I am going to fall off the wagon! So how do we make the shift’

The first place you are going to start is to start by taking an inventory! Where the heck are you’ If I don’t know where I am, how do I know where I want to go”” This means that you have to TRACK something! But don’t get it twisted!! This doesn’t mean you have to do it for the rest of your life, but for right now, you need to figure out what is going in your pie hole!!!!

And based on your goal, I guarantee that you will probably see that you are overeating something or undereating something.

If you are trying to put on muscle and not eating a lot, then good luck! If you are trying to lose weight but eating an excess of calories, good luck with that! AND if you don’t know where you are eating, and you have always eaten this way. You need to take a look at what you are eating.

You need to take A LOOK AT YOUR BANK ACCOUNT! If you track your food for at least a month, you can start to see a pattern and we will be able to look at what is going on and where to go from there.

The second place I want to go is to stop eating 5 meals a day. I lived this forever until about 6 years ago when I finally saw the light. Ladies, IDK who came up with this shit that if you don’t do this you will die and you need to keep your metabolism stoked… That is BRO SCIENCE!! There is no study that anyone can point to that says you should eat 5 meals a day. [ If you have a study and PROVE that it will even out blood sugar and help me burn calories from the thermal effect. Then give it to me, I want to read it.] This is insignificant to the other things you can do to get that boost.

THIS right there desensitized our body to hunger and insulin. It flooded my bloodstream with food and instead of insulin levels dropping down, it made it constantly available. It is like a freaking Las Vegas buffet! I desensitized myself to realize real hunger vs eating by the clock. Not sure if you did the same thing and trained to yourself into these eating patterns.

Back in the day, when my clients ate 5 meals every single day, it was overwhelming for a lot of people. It became decision fatigue. “What am I going to put in my mouth 5 times a day”” So, what happened is sooo many fell off the wagon!

So ladies.. HOW do we start to make the shift”
Well, we start by EATING when you are hungry! Yeah, I said it.. WAIT until you feel hungry! For me this was a slow process for me to break myself out of that clock eating and really listen to my body. I had to learn to eat when my body was hungry, NOT just because it was 1030.

You have to get this in check so that your hormones are working properly with your metabolism. And two of those hormones that control hunger are Ghrelin and Leptin. Leptin says I am full. While Ghrelin is the hormone that says okay brain, tell the stomach to growl because we are hungry and need food These 2 hormones need to get back in check.

How do we do this’ How do we get those hormones back in check’ This isn’t what you are going to do for the rest of your life, this is a process so we can step away and start to create this flexible metabolism.

Intermittent fasting.
I challenge you to create a schedule that works for you. Stop eating for 18 hours is one way. I work until 8 at night, so I am not going to be able to eat until 9 at night. So, I had to make a schedule that worked for me. Whatever time your last meal is, that is when you start your clock. You don’t have to follow the hard rules, just make up your own time. Can we go a certain amount of time without putting food in our tank’ The goal here is to break you of eating by the clock and start to clue in to are you hungry or not. This is not for you if you have ever had binge eating issues, pregnant or have an eating disorder.

Increase your fat.
I am not saying go out there and fill up with burgers and cheese! I am talking about good fat oils! Avocados, or any oil with the exception of corn oil, veggie oil, canola, soy. I would use olive sparingly, because in our American diet, we get a lot of Omega 6 and olive oil is rich in that, so scale back from that a bit and not rely so heavily on that.
It’s not just peanut butter and almond butter. Seeds, nuts, coconut oil, it’s those types of oils we want to put a little extra into our system!

Protein and Fiber.
I can’t stress this enough that many of us under-eat protein! Protein is amazing for 1) it is satiating. And 2) it takes a while for our bodies to digest it, so it gets your body working longer and keeps you fuller longer. Fiber fills the gut, so think fruits and vegetables. And certain fibers are good for gut health! So, the stronger our guts are, we are most likely going to be creating good bacteria and getting out some of that bad bacteria!

Last piece.. Cycling through our diet.
You cannot spend a year dieting. You cannot live a life of restrictions. It is always going to punch you in the face if you live in a tight bubble! Instead of having big swings of highs and lows, let’s start to cycle our diet so we can plan around days like vacations, birthdays, etc.

One of the first examples is during a time when you know you have a little bit more time on your hands, why don’t you open up your diet and add more calories. For 2 months add more food into our diet. (Not sugary treats. Add 300-500 more calories.) However, you are going to exercise more! 5 days a week of exercise. Eating more and exercising more. Do this for 6 weeks. You are doing this because in 6 weeks’ time, you will be going to be on vacation this summer and you want more muscle!

Now 12 weeks from now, you are going to go on a vacation. You want to lean out a little bit. So, you would eat a little less and start exercising a little less. So maybe you will pull your calories back by 500 calories. And workouts back to 3 days a week. Then you do that, go on vacation, it was fabulous, you didn’t go overboard, and you enjoyed yourself!

It is summer, and you are going to eat a little more and exercise less. 200 or 300 more calories but focus more on leisure walks.

Then another part of the year we are eating less and exercising less. A busy time of the year. You just don’t have the time or the bandwidth to be committed to our health at that point.

Do you see how it goes’ Planning out my year. It is called periodization, and this is what sports players do during the season and off season. THERE IS A METHOD TO MY MADNESS LADIES!!!

This isn’t for you to try and decide that on your own though. This is as a coach; we will work together to figure out what we are working towards! A lot of clients get mad when I always ask them for their goals. If you aren’t working towards something, how do I guide you’ What levers are we going to pull” Where are we going’ That is what a good coach does comes, you help you navigate the ups and downs of the system!

Ladies… You can’t always be on a diet. Because that diet will always find a way to punch you in the face! Your metabolism will always find a way to fight for energy. Your body needs energy. Your body needs food. And you can’t always be in a deprivation state! From time to time, you have to open your diet and add a little food! Here is me getting up in your face… If you want to see a change, you have to find a way to make a change!!!

If you don’t know how to do any of this, hit me up. That is why I am here! This is why you hire a coach, so you don’t have to sit on the sidelines and Google shit on your own to figure it out. Coaches are here to do this for you!!!

I GIVE A CRAP about you! And I want to make sure you are no longer spinning your wheels!

If you want to have a flexible metabolism, you have to start implementing these things. You CANNOT always be in a deprivation state. AND for the love of GOD.. Have a freaking carb!!!!

LINKS

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Kim Barnes Jefferson

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