The Feed My Health Podcast

Master Your Metabolism: Unveiling the Secrets to Sustainable Weight Loss and Hormonal Balance

• Rosalind Tapper

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Discover the key to transforming your health and overcoming the hurdles of weight loss. Ever felt like your body is conspiring against you, especially if you're a woman over 30? This episode promises to unravel the mysteries behind hormonal fluctuations and the impact of restrictive dieting on your metabolism. We'll explore how estrogen and progesterone shifts affect fat storage and muscle mass, and why it's essential to "diet out of the diet" to avoid the trap of metabolic adaptation. Let your journey toward sustainable weight loss begin here.

Learn how to dodge common pitfalls in the quest for a healthier you. We'll explore how overtraining without proper recovery can sabotage your progress by spiking cortisol levels. Fad diets that offer quick fixes are critiqued for their inability to deliver lasting results. Instead, we'll emphasize the importance of a balanced approach that prioritizes proper nutrition, stress management, and hormonal health. Strength training and a diet rich in protein and healthy fats can upregulate your metabolism and provide the foundation for a transformative lifestyle change.

Celebrate the freedom of embracing a healthier lifestyle without the shackles of constant dieting or self-doubt. We're here to guide you through stress-reducing practices like meditation and yoga, as well as the importance of a consistent bedtime routine for optimal rest and relaxation. With a focus on small, sustainable changes rather than an all-or-nothing mentality, this episode encourages you to cherish your achievements and nurture your well-being. Life is too short to be bogged down by self-doubt, so join us in prioritizing self-acceptance and well-being on your path to health and happiness.

If you'd like me and my team to help you improve your daily habits, to lose pounds every week, and keep them off forever...

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Feed my Health podcast for you. If you are new here, welcome, welcome, welcome. My name is Rosalind and I help women over 30 stay and get and stay rather in amazing shape year round and achieve life changing confidence. I own Feed my Health online coaching and this podcast is for the woman who just wants to have it all. Quite honestly, they want to have a career, they want to manage their family, they want to have a great body, they want to have great health, they want to have security in knowing that they're doing everything, everything that they can, to support that and support the best version of themselves now and into the future, without anything ridiculous, without anything ridiculous, without anything faddy, without putting it all back on again. Right? If weight loss is your thing and the worry is that you're going to put it all back on again or you're going to fail, then this podcast is for you. There's so many episodes at this stage, so there's going to be something for everybody. But in today's episode, we are going to be talking a bit about why it can feel like your body is working against you, and this is something that I personally have experienced. I know it's what a lot of my clients have personally experienced. So we're gonna for the next sort of 30 minutes ish depends on how much I yell around and we'll break down the science behind why this happens, the mistakes you might be unknowingly be making and, most importantly, how you can turn things around. I'll also share some actionable tips that you can do to start making progress and to feel in control of your health again.

Speaker 1:

So let's get started. So, first of all, why your body feels like it's working against you, right? So let's start with that big question. A lot of women will say it feels so much harder to lose weight as they get older, and it will often be thought of as it being an age-related thing, a hormones-related thing. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. So, number one, let's talk about hormones for a second. As we age, our hormone levels like estrogen, progesterone, they will fluctuate, and this affects every single thing, from fat storage to muscle mass, to your mood, and for many women, this hormonal imbalance can lead to weight gain around the middle and make it harder to lose weight. Okay, just remember that this is one piece of the puzzle. So for you it might be the whole reason, but honestly, it's never really the whole reason.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the second point of why it feels like your body's working against you can be and is often, metabolic damage. So years of years of restrictive dieting will not slow your metabolism, but it will down regulate your metabolism. And what that means is that when we drastically cut calories and we follow fad diets, or we're dieting on and off for years and years and years, our bodies adapt, and they adapt by burning fewer calories. And that's why you'll see people who do things like swimming world or Weight Watchers. They'll have real success because they're hyped upon motivation and they'll lose a load of weight, and then, as soon as they stop doing it, they'll put that weight back on and they'll put more on. And the reason is because their bodies have got used to working on lower fuel, like they no longer need as much energy as they did at the beginning. And so, of course, if you go back to your normal ways, you are not only going to put the weight back on again, but you're going to put more on. And at the end of a diet or you know, even if even a few weeks, months into a diet your fat cells are primed, ready to take on more, more fuel, more energy, more fat, and so as soon as you stop a diet, as soon as you stop following the thing that you were following and you start eating normally again, what you'll find is your fat cells are just basically going give me the food, give me the fat. You know, and that's why people see such massive jumps in um scale weight following on from a diet. So this metabolic adaptation is your body's survival mechanism, but it works against a long term weight loss, which is why it is so incredibly important that, if you are losing body fat, a you do it in a sustainable way and, b you diet out of the diet. Okay, if you come into the Feed my Health program and you go through our phases correctly, it will change your life.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it's not enough just to come in and lose the weight because, like I've said, if you just then leave, you haven't upregulated your metabolism and that is going to be a massive issue for you, because what that then means is that you are going to be chasing your tail. You're going to be always watching your back Every time you go out to eat, every time you order something from a restaurant, any time you go to a friend's house. You're always going to be constantly going. Oh, you know what's this going to look like on the scales tomorrow, the day after whatever. You really want to be able to go out to eat and order what you want and order what you love, without fear that you are going to put on loads of weight as a result. And the reason why a lot of women feel this way is because they don't diet out of the diet. Okay, and this is not something that you can do on your own either. It is a very strategic, science-backed process and it requires support. It requires really strategic guidance. So if this is something that you feel that you can relate to, like you're always thinking, oh my gosh, I'm gonna put the weight back on, or you've done years and years of dieting and you feel like you can only eat 1,200 calories to lose weight, then you definitely need to be following this process to get that metabolic damage gone.

Speaker 1:

The third thing is stress and cortisol. Now, chronic stress causes elevated cortisol levels and this can lead to increased fat storage, especially for women, around the belly. So if you're constantly juggling work, family life, stresses, then it's no wonder that your body feels out of balance. And then the fourth thing is loss of muscle mass. So after 30, we naturally start losing our muscle mass and since muscle burns more calories than fat, this slows sorry, this loss can slow your metabolism even further, okay, so it's so important that we resistance train so that we don't continue to lose that muscle mass. So it's not just about what you're eating or how much you're exercising. It is about understanding the bigger picture of what your body is going through and addressing the root causes. A lot of women think that they need to just sort their diet out and exercise more and, honestly, yes, they would help, as long as you're doing the right things for you and you're not just following some generic training app or you know program that you find on the internet or whatever. But you also understand how your hormones play into this, your stress levels, and you're actually holistically looking at your lifestyle as a whole. Really really important.

Speaker 1:

Now that we know why it's happening, let's talk about the mistakes that many of us make when we're trying to fix it. Okay, so number one mistake is focusing only on calorie restriction. Eating less isn't always better. Too few calories can further damage your metabolism and it will also make you feel tired and irritable and stuck. I felt so exhausted and so irritable. They were my two biggest symptoms and at the time I had very young children. So I thought it was to do with that. And yeah, of course there is going to be an element of that, for sure. But if I'm not fueling my body properly and I'm eating whatever my fitness pal churns out 1,200 calories and going to 25 million cardio classes a week of course I'm going to feel tired, of course I'm going to feel irritable and of course I'm going to feel stuck.

Speaker 1:

So you know we need to actually fuel our bodies, and the analogy that I like to kind of explain this to women is imagine that you have a log burning stove right, or a multi-burning stove, whatever, and open a fire let's go with that, that sounds nice and you put a sheet of a4 paper on that fire as fuel. It is going to catch light really quickly and then it's going to burn really fast and within maybe 30 seconds that paper will be gone and the fire will have gone out. Okay, this is what I see people doing all the time with food is they'll throw in some crap food, like some sugary snack or bag of crisps or something, and expect that to burn or fuel the fire all day long or until their next meal. And it doesn't work that way. That's the equivalent of you throwing an A4 sheet of paper on your fire and expecting it to keep you warm for four hours. Doesn't work. So yeah, calorie restriction is not the way.

Speaker 1:

Number two overtraining without recovery. So this was me again. Right, I did five classes a week, monday to Friday, and I did that because I thought that having that habit of going after the school run was going to help me stay motivated. It was going to give me some structure. But endless cardio is not the answer. Over training can massively spike cortisol levels, lead to burnout, and what I didn't realize at the time was your body repairs and grows, like muscularly, when you are like when you're resting. So when you go to the gym and let's say you're following a specific training program, you will be tearing your muscle fibers. That's the whole process of lifting weights. You're making little micro tears in your muscles and then when you rest so let's say on the tuesday you have a rest day and you focus on, you know, walking or whatever that day your muscle fibers will start to fuse together and repair and slightly grow. So if you don't rest, you're not allowing those muscle fibers to recover and repair, and so you're doing yourself a massive disservice. So not only that, but your stress level is going to be through the absolute roof. And if you've ever done any cardio where you've, like, maybe done some running or something like that, and you've actually looked at how many calories you've burned which is just the stupidest thing you could ever do, by the way if you're relying on that, you really burn a lot of calories, like literally, maybe 100 in one running session or, if you're lucky, it's not worth it. So overtraining without recovery.

Speaker 1:

Number three ignoring stress management. Weight loss isn't just about diet and exercise. If you're not managing stress effectively, it will sabotage all of your efforts. And I know a lot of women, because I did this too. A lot of women wear the fact that they can balance a lot of things and spin a lot of plates, and you know they are multitaskers. They wear that like a badge of honour, like, oh my god, I'm the best, I'm amazing, I can handle this. You shouldn't have to handle life. You should be creating a life that feels good, that feels effortless, that feels aligned. It's not a life that you do and then your health is kind of on the back burner because you're trying to juggle everything. Okay, so stress management is so important.

Speaker 1:

Number four chasing quick fixes. Fad diets, detox teas, um, intermittent fasting all of these things are marketed so well because they promise you a fast result and when you are desperate, when you've tried everything, you think that that's going to be the answer. But they rarely lead to sustainable change. They more likely leave you feeling frustrated and back at square one. I have never yet had a conversation and I've worked with thousands of women at this stage, I've never had a conversation with anybody who did a quick fix diet that said it was the best thing I ever did Never. And there's a reason why they're on the phone to me, right? So just bear that in mind.

Speaker 1:

Number five neglecting hormone health. If you're not addressing the hormonal changes happening in your body, you're missing a key piece of the puzzle. Okay, and this is why it's not enough just to focus on your training. It's not enough just to focus on your nutrition. Let's imagine you have the best training program in the world. If you aren't focusing on your nutrition and you're not focusing on recovering, you're not focusing on stress and on your hormonal health, you're not going to put the puzzle together because you've only got one piece, so it's really important that you have all of those pieces together. So, how to turn things around? What do you do to break free from the frustration and finally feel in control of your health again? So here are my top strategies. So number one upregulate your metabolism. Focus on building muscle through strength training and eat enough protein to support your muscle repair and your growth.

Speaker 1:

Let me tell you now, ladies, if you are in the Feed, my Health program and you are in a fat loss phase right now and you think this is amazing, I'm losing weight that I've not been able to shift for years. I'm starting to wear clothes that I've hidden in the back of my wardrobe. I'm starting to wear clothes that I've, you know, hidden the back of my wardrobe. I'm eating normal food, I'm going out, I'm still socializing. I'm not giving anything up, and you think that that's great. If you move on to the second phase, which is maintenance mastery, you will be like it will. It will blow you away. It will change your life in ways you would never believe.

Speaker 1:

For me when I took myself through my program, I mean, there is a reason why I have my program right Because I created it. But when I took myself through that program, it transformed my entire life. I was eating two and a half thousand calories a day, maintaining my weight, looking better than I'd ever looked, felt amazing. Honestly, you can't put into words what that feels like. As a woman, you know, when you have spent so much of your life struggling, always looking in the mirror, disliking something, or always going to the fridge and thinking, oh, I can't have that, I can't have that. It will change your life categorically.

Speaker 1:

Number two is balancing your hormones. So there was a time I can't remember how old I was, but there was a time when it was not good to eat fats, like we were told to cut out fat. And what a lot of people didn't realise at that time is that fats are incredibly important in your diet, and I'm not going to go into the details of the different kinds of fats, but there is a massive difference between fats in things like fried chicken, mcdonald's, kfc and healthy fats. What I will just say just as a caveat to that, just because I'm saying that fats healthy fats are like, imperative in your diet, they still contain calories and quite a high number per gram. So if you're trying to lose body fat, you need to have a specific amount for your body and for your hormonal health, and if you need help with that, just let me know. But too much of anything is not great. So just because an avocado is super healthy and it's amazing, it's full of of fiber you can over consume it and therefore put yourself out of a calorie deficit and you will either be maintaining your weight or you'll be gaining. So you do need to have a little bit of strategy behind this. But including healthy fats in your diet avocado, like I said, nuts, oily fish will all help to support your hormone production and then avoid extreme diets that cause blood sugar spikes and crashes. So, aiming for balanced meals with protein, with carbs, with fats we can be very specific about this. If you are a client, you'll know. If you're not, you probably won't know. But balancing your meals as a general rule of thumb is going to make you feel great. So aim for that. Don't cut anything out. Just look at your plate, see if there's as much colour as possible, as much diversity as possible, and you're probably onto a winner.

Speaker 1:

Number three is to manage stress like a pro. This needs to be like your full-time job. Okay, stress ages you more than anything. Stress really ages you. So practicing stress reducing activities like yoga, meditation, even just 10 minutes of deep breathing each day. So, for me, here's my new habit that I have taken on for 2025. So I am meditating as soon as I sit down in my office.

Speaker 1:

Okay, why my office? You might think Well. Well, because typically, for most people, whilst your office is, you know, a great place, it's a great source of inspiration. All the rest of it it can also feel sometimes like it's the place where you crunch the numbers, you do the work, all the rest of it. Sometimes it doesn't feel like a place to come and just be. I'm trying to explain what I mean. I love my job but, like with any job, there are good days, there are bad days, there are stresses, there are, you know, there's all kinds of things, and I want my office to be a place where I love to be in and enjoy being in.

Speaker 1:

And when you, when you designate certain places in your house for certain activities like, for example, if you designated your bedroom just for sleep, just for rest you'll really love and enjoy being in that, but if your bedroom's got like your washing pile in it, the ironing board, your laptop, you know you're charging all your devices, you've got the tv on. It's also going to be quite um noisy, like and I don't mean necessarily like actually noisy, but noisy, but like there's a lot going on and it will be very hard for your body to relax. So I wanted to create an environment where I could be in my office and feel a sense of relaxation, because when you're at your most relaxed, you're also your most creative, and my job is 50% being creative, right. So for me, I do my morning mindset work and then I get ready, then I go for my walk and then, if I'm not going to the gym that day, I'll come straight into my office and that's when, and even if I'm going to the gym, I'll come into my office after the gym and I will sit and I'll do my meditation. And that's because I want this space to not be feeling like a source of stress. I want it to be a source of inspiration and creativity. So and that has worked beautifully for me, the other thing that I do, which I would 100% say everybody needs to like if you took one thing from this, it's to do this next thing, and that is to prioritise quality sleep.

Speaker 1:

Aim for at least seven hours a night and create a bedtime routine to help you wind down. Treat yourself like a toddler. Put yourself to bed like a toddler. You need it. Honestly. If you struggle to switch off at night, you need it. If you struggle to get good quality sleep at night, you need it. If you wake up in the morning and you still feel groggy, you need it. So important. And will it just happen overnight, like if you decide on Monday you're going to go to bed at 10 o'clock but then on Tuesday you don't go to bed until half past 10 and then Wednesday it's 11. It's not going to have the same effect. We need to create consistency, and one of the big things that I hear a lot as well is people who work late or they're out and about taking their kids place and stuff.

Speaker 1:

They come in later and they feel like they need time to wind down so they don't want to get into bed. They don't want to go up to bed because they haven't had that sort of wind down time. And I actually get that because I used to be a professional singer. I used to go out and sing a lot of gigs in the evenings, and I would come home I'd be very wired. You know music working, you know it keeps you up. It really really does. And so at that time by the way, that was when I was at my heaviest um I would want to sit on the sofa and kind of chill, and then I would go to bed late because I felt like I hadn't had an evening. So you know, the whole cycle then starts again and again and again and what. I would go to bed late because I felt like I hadn't had an evening. So you know, the whole cycle then starts again and again, and again.

Speaker 1:

And what I would say to anybody who's experiencing this is to actually start your bedtime routine and include it in your wind down routine. So winding down doesn't have to mean sitting on the sofa watching a TV show, can also mean going up to bed, putting on some nice relaxing plinky plonky music on your phone and doing a nice skincare routine and maybe putting a hair mask in, spraying your room with some lavender spray. You know, start to create a routine that is very romanticized but becomes your normal routine, becomes your life, and then suddenly you'll start to really look forward to those moments and your brain will go oh, I know what, know what's going on. Now it's time for bed and your quality of sleep will be so much better.

Speaker 1:

Number four is to ditch the all or nothing mentality, so focusing on progress, not perfection. Small, consistent changes lead to big results over time. You ask any single one of the ladies in the Feed my Health program and they will tell you that they did not get their results overnight. They focus on progress. They focus on small, consistent changes, and the reason why that that's so beneficial is because those small, consistent changes are gonna be more realistic to their lifestyle. If they like to go out on a Friday night with their friends and have a few drinks, or they want to have a takeaway, or they you know, whatever it may be, that's possible when you do it in the correct way and you focus on progress, and when you focus on small, consistent changes. If you focus on perfection and you focus on really quick wins, you will have to change something very drastic in your life in order to achieve that and you will not be able to sustain it. Okay, so celebrate every single win, no matter how small. Women are terrible at doing this Absolutely terrible, but I want you to. When you finish listening to this episode, I actually want you to think about one thing that you have done, that you can celebrate One small thing today that you have done that you can celebrate. It doesn't matter what it is. Maybe you got up when the alarm went off instead of pressing snooze. Maybe you went to bed before 10pm last night, like think of anything, but celebrate every single win.

Speaker 1:

Number five is to nourish your body. Do not punish your body. So stop viewing food as the enemy. Learn to eat real, whole foods that nourish your body and support your goals, and when you start to do that more and more and more, you'll realize how great you feel. Give yourself permission to enjoy the occasional treat without guilt, knowing that balance is critical. Balance is key to your success.

Speaker 1:

So if you've been feeling stuck, if you've been feeling overwhelmed and frustrated with your body, I want you to know this it is not your fault and you are not alone. These struggles you are facing are very, very valid and they're also very, very solvable. By working with your body instead of against it, you can rediscover your confidence, you can rediscover your strength and you can control your overall health. There are so many women who have come to Feed my Health, who have graduated from Feed my Health, that achieve things that they never thought possible because of the struggles that you may be facing, listening to this, and I promise you they are solvable, and it's not about drastic measures, it's not about impossible standards. Like I said, it's about small, sustainable changes. But honour where you are at right now and where you want to go, and you deserve to feel vibrant. You deserve to feel empowered and proud of the person you see in the mirror.

Speaker 1:

Life is too goddamn short. Life is too goddamn short to be on a diet all of your life, losing and gaining the same foot of two to five pounds, not wearing the clothes that you want to wear, feeling a little bit embarrassed, feeling a little bit ashamed. Life's too short, so maybe you need to send this podcast to somebody who also needs to hear this, but thank you for spending this time with me today. If you found this episode helpful, I would love for you to share it with a friend who might need to hear it, and if you're ready to take the next step, reach out to me. I'd love to help guide you on your own personal journey. So until next time, take care of yourself, remember to celebrate your wins and remember to please keep feeding your health.