UpLIFT You: Strong Body, Strong Mind
Join host Leanne Knox for an in-depth look at the stories behind the barbell, lifting and life. We give you the tools and resources and chat with the leading experts to help you build physical and mental fortitude for whatever stage of life you're at. Tune in every Saturday at 7 AM AEST and prepare to be Up Lifted.
UpLIFT You: Strong Body, Strong Mind
20 | Thriving Through Menopause: Nutrition and Fitness Insights with Chanel Stuck
Unlock the secrets to thriving during menopause with today's special guest, Chanel Stark, a seasoned nutritionist and health coach from Brisbane, Australia. Chanel's journey from an athlete in multiple disciplines to a passionate advocate for women's health during menopause is nothing short of inspiring. She offers invaluable insights into the hormonal changes women face around their 40s and beyond, emphasizing the critical role of fitness and nutrition in managing these transitions. Chanel also reflects on how societal understanding of menopause has evolved, providing a stark contrast to the limited knowledge available during her mother's era.
Today, you'll walk away with:
- Learning about the transformative power of protein in managing menopause symptoms
- Understanding the importance of a protein-forward diet in enhancing energy, mood, sleep, and body composition
- The essential role of protein and strength training in effectively managing midlife changes
- Knowing why women need to start their day with a lot more protein
- Knowing why not all protein is created equal
Learn how to optimize your nutrition specifically tailored for menopause and fitness. Chanel discusses the common hurdles women face in meeting their protein needs and stresses the importance of consuming two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. She highlights personal experiences and professional insights into why early education on proper nutrition can significantly improve health outcomes.
Tune in to gain practical tips and transformative advice on enhancing your performance and everyday life during menopause.
More on Chanel:
Web:https://chanelketocoach.com/thrive-in-menopause/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chanelstuck?igsh=cDBqY2U5MzRuZzU2
Pick up a sweet discount on Chanel's choice protein using the discount code Chanel10 for a 10% discount here.
Follow Leanne on Instagram @lkstrengthcoach
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Welcome to Uplift you, creating strong bodies and mind. Get ready to power up your day with practical strength training tools, inspiring stories and build resilience of body and mind. It's time to Uplift you, together with your host, leanne Knox.
Speaker 2:Okay, welcome back to Uplift you, the podcast that is dedicated to helping you create a stronger body and a stronger mind. Today, I'm excited to welcome Chanel Stark, that is dedicated to helping you create a stronger body and a stronger mind. Today, I'm excited to welcome Chanel Stark. Chanel is a 51-year-old mum of three girls, married to Gary, and lives in Brisbane, australia. She is a registered nutritionist and sports nutritionist, health coach and also a qualified keto coach. Chanel privately consults with clients to help with their health and performance goals. She is very active on social media, where she shares a lot of content and has a podcast Menopause Nutritionist. She also speaks on all things health and wellness when the opportunities arise, as today. She is the creator of the Thrive in Menopause program, a group for women on their menopausal journey to help master nutrition and lifestyle to get body composition results and manage menopause symptoms. Thank you so much for being here, chanel, to help our audience with their quest to understand, improve and thrive through nutrition and better health. Excited to be here. Improve and thrive through nutrition and better health. Excited to be here.
Speaker 2:And Chanel, I know we share a lot of common interests and one of those is our love of fitness and our passion in helping women navigate their lives through fitness and health. Women navigate their lives through fitness and health, and a common story I hear from my audience and the people that I coach is how women are struggling with energy because they're juggling family, they're juggling work commitments, they're looking after the house and in that process, they're also committing themselves. They understand the importance of fitness, fitness training in helping them navigate their journey and, in particular, what I'd like to really hone in on today is women who are in that perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause part of their journey. So I'm really excited to delve into your experiences here. Before we do that, can you please tell us how you discovered, firstly, your passion for health and fitness and, secondly, your passion for helping other women?
Speaker 1:Okay for sure. Well, firstly, I think I've always actually been pretty active, like from a kid, like I got into athletics, like when I was seven, and I was competitive from a young age and always did quite well in sports from a young age and always did quite well in sports. And then, as I got older, I actually, when I was kind of my late teens, I actually competed in windsurfing, which every time the Olympics is on gives me a bit of a resurgence because I get to see it. And then I did triathlons as a, you know, like early 20s. And then I've always run, you know, to stay active because I think I needed the happy hormones that came after, you know, going for a run. I kind of learned that early that I'd go for a run and I'd feel better, you know. And then once I actually I found CrossFit when I was 40 and when I when I which I'm super grateful for, but then I ended up competing in CrossFit as well. So it just has been like a natural progression that I tend to. I guess maybe I hyper-focus on what I'm doing. So I started competing in CrossFit and that's when, and when I'm talking to women, I say, from 40 plus, things need to change because not necessarily on the date of your 40th birthday, but that decade of your life, you will have some hormonal changes and unfortunately I learned that the hard way, with not understanding anything really about the perimenopause menopausal journey. All I I knew was really about hot flushes, you know, like that's the most. I saw my mother go through menopause. It felt like for 10 years she suffered. I didn't want to do what she did, but I didn't know anything else either and I think as a society we don't set our women up to know one know what menopause is Like. Luckily now, even in the seven-year period, I've been in this space personally dealing with this. There is so much more information now, which is so good.
Speaker 1:But when I first started getting like so I was quite early. I was like 44. When, like, I started getting the perimenopausal symptoms, I was actually trying to qualify for the CrossFit Games. So as an athlete I was training quite hard. I actually just thought I was, um, you know, maybe having just overtraining symptoms.
Speaker 1:No one mentioned menopause because I was 44, and I didn't know really what was going on. So for me at that stage it was like a journey of learning, because I just didn't know anything about it. But I knew that what was going on in my body was not good, and anyone that has had menopausal symptoms will like, totally be like uh-huh, because it is not fun. Hot flushes, like waking in the night, heart palpitations, like all of the menopause symptoms there's 33 of them, apparently. They're not fun. You literally feel like the aliens have taken over.
Speaker 1:It's not a good time, and so when I went to the doctor to talk to her about it, she just talked to me about HRT, which, like I'll tell you right now, I'm not opposed to HRT, but I didn't know anything about it, and so I am a very kind of I won't do something if I don't understand it. And I didn't know anything about that. My mother hadn't done it. I really knew nothing, and so that was not helpful to me at all, because I was like, actually, have I got my lifestyle in check? And the irony of it is TikTok was the place where I started finding information about this. You know, I was on TikTok and a doctor popped up on there, and those of you listening might know her now. This was like seven years ago, so her name's Dr Mary Claire Haver, and I found her and she started talking about how you need to get your lifestyle in check and how you know you could use intermittent fasting. And like, cause I got this menopausal belly fat that just came out of nowhere, like I was training, I hadn't changed my food, like I was like I didn't know what was going on with my body, but like this I felt like I was pregnant, like four months pregnant, and I couldn't work it out.
Speaker 1:And so, in the process of this learning experience, I realized that I had to change my nutrition. Like the food I used to eat did not serve me anymore, I did start intermittent fasting because, you know, what I learned from her was that it's anti-inflammatory, it helps, like, change my metabolism, so I lent into her. Was that it's anti-inflammatory, it helps change my metabolism? So I lent into some of that. And then, really, as I started changing my nutrition, I realized that there was more to it, and that's what led me on the journey to actually become a nutritionist.
Speaker 1:So then I started studying nutrition and in the process of studying, I had to do a few case studies. Um, it's like part of the the course and, uh, we had to do like a one-on-one study where we had to do like a 12 week assessment on ourselves. So I actually chose protein and menopause and so I was the case study and initially I never really focused on protein in my diet. You know like, even though I've been an athlete, I'd worked with nutritionists in my sport. They just told me what to eat. I didn't understand why or what I was actually doing, I just was doing it.
Speaker 1:So when I started that 12-week process, the first two or three weeks I was like this is hard, like how do I get like 150 grams of protein in my diet? Like this is. I found it really difficult. But then I started feeling different, like my energy was like changed, like I had this like incredible energy across the day. My body composition started changing. So the short version of that is after the 12 weeks I had this incredible kind of transformation, if you like, with my energy, my mood, I started sleeping better, my body composition changed, and so I really realized how important protein was.
Speaker 1:Yet no one was talking about it.
Speaker 1:This was like a few years ago now.
Speaker 1:Now a lot more people are talking about protein. So as a nutritionist, I am very protein forward, because this is the area in helping hundreds of women that I see being missed, and I also know from my own personal experience that it's really like when you start it up, like it's actually quite challenging. You're like how do I, how do I get all of this protein into my day? So this is why, two or three times a year, I actually run like a free protein challenge to actually teach women that this is the key that you need to really focus on, because if you lead with protein, then everything else changes. And as like I'm 51 now, but when I'm 61, 71, 81, 91, 101, I'm going to live like till I'm 100. I'm going to still need 150 grams of protein. I might not be doing the same amount of CrossFit that I am at 100 that I am now, so I won't need the same amount of carbohydrates, but I still will need the same amount of protein, and this is what we don't get taught so in my journey.
Speaker 1:That is why and I'm sorry this is like a longwinded answer- to your question why I'm so passionate about helping women, because I've been right there in the hurt box and it's not a fun place to be. And, honestly, if you know what you need to do to change and like, adapt to this midlife period of your life, you don't need to go through that hardship when you're doing the strength training, like you teach. You need to shut the loop on that and eat protein, otherwise you will not grow muscle.
Speaker 2:So a lot of what you just said is very common to what I see and what I hear from our audience and from the people that I coach. Number one they're not educated, and when I just look into their nutrition and give them the basic two grams of protein per kilo of body weight, that in itself is one of the biggest challenges. I think they'd rather go and try and do a double body weight back squat to be honest than try and stick to that.
Speaker 2:And that's why I so wanted you on my podcast, because you can explain from a nutritionist point of view and from a point of view for women who are going through that whole menopause journey, which starts 35 or around 35 or even before some symptoms, depending. It's all individual, of course. That's why I wanted you on here, because it's it's almost like soft talk, acknowledged it is. It is forewarned, is forearmed and rather than get to the point, the place that you got to, and and even myself to it to a degree, um, as both of us started when we were 40 doing this really high intensity um.
Speaker 2:I started in crossfit as well and you know, really training hard at the age of 40, right? So then, if we'd known at 40 what we know now, 11 years later, or for you, maybe six years later, it would have made that journey just so much more manageable and enjoyable. So can you please explain a little bit more what, what you know, the different periods of that menopause journey, and how women can adapt their nutrition to suit, you know, to suit that, that period that they're going through, um, and how the nutrition also doesn't just help their performance but it helps their everyday life. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:So, like you mentioned, like I think, if we can, the sooner we can get in front of it, the better.
Speaker 1:You know and this is what unfortunately, like I said before, as a society, we just don't set ourselves up for.
Speaker 1:So I have three daughters. They're all strength training now in their 20s and this is like you know, and you would be teaching as many women as you can how important this is. If we are not closing the loop on that training with eating enough protein, you won't have the fuel to grow the muscle. So you're doing the hard work in the gym and then you're not closing the loop because your body has no fuel to make the tissue. So this is, I think I I say all the time education is power. Like when we know better, we do better what I? I think a big portion of it is education. So women don't understand, like where the protein comes from. I don't think there's. Like definitely once you hit 40, you need to look at this stuff Like it's not a. It will happen in that decade where your hormones will start changing. It's not if or when you will go through menopause. So you have to at some point look at it. The sooner you get in front of it, the better. So, like my girls in their 20s are all hitting their protein. So it's never too early to start, but by 40, you can't get away with it anymore. Like it's going to happen, and it's going to happen sooner rather than later, right? So, like you mentioned, two grams, you know, per body weight, or, if you're working in pounds, one pound per body weight. And then really and truly it's understanding where the protein is coming from.
Speaker 1:So, as a nutritionist, everyone seems to want to tell me what they're eating all the time. Like you know, I had my protein this morning. I had two eggs on toast. I'm like okay, so let's break that down. An egg has seven grams of protein in it. So two eggs on toast is 14 grams of protein. If I'm trying to hit 150 grams of protein for the day, that still leaves a lot of protein to try and get in, right?
Speaker 1:So the first tip is hit a good amount of protein for your first meal. Now, it doesn't matter what time of the day that meal is like. If you're intermittent fasting and you're not eating till 11, doesn't matter. The first meal is the first meal. Doesn't matter if it's 6 am or 11 am. Right, it needs to be. I personally like to shoot for a minimum of 40 grams. Recently I've been hitting 50. That's like a third of my protein done for the day. But also the research shows that first meal and the last meal are the most important meals for getting the. The big amount of protein in um just for the first meal of the day actually regulates your appetite hormones for the rest of the day.
Speaker 1:So if you hit like 40 to 50 grams of protein first up in the morning, you'll find the cravings that you may have experienced will start going away, and the reason for that is hitting your protein stabilizes your blood sugars. So you. That's why you get such great energy, and the reason for this is because it triggers protein muscle synthesis. So what I will tell you is you need to make that first meal at least 30 grams. So the 14 grams we just talked about is not going to do the job. It's not good. We need 30 grams. So the 14 grams we just talked about is not going to do the job. It's not good. We need 30 grams to trigger protein muscle synthesis.
Speaker 1:So it has to be a minimum of 30 grams, and then that that process in the body is like a very energy, efficient, high intensity process that's going on and that's why, when you hit 30 to 50 grams, let's say, you don't feel hungry for like maybe four or five hours later, because your body is creating tissue, it's doing recovery, it's doing so many things with that protein. That is like carbohydrates and fats do not trigger these processes in the body. So there's a number of reasons why we feel full, we feel satiated, like we don't feel hungry again. Our body also is always looking for protein. Like I mentioned before, like at 101, I'm still going to need 150 grams of protein. But when I start the day and I hit like a minimum of 30 grams, my body is like good, we've just got some protein on board. We're happy, we can just focus and get on with what we're doing until we feel hungry again.
Speaker 1:If you are having like a high carbohydrate meal or let's just say you're missing your protein, which kind of equals high carbohydrates, it's just how it is you could be maybe having 600 or 700 calories and it might be higher in carbohydrates. An hour later you'll be hungry again and that is because your body has not got the protein it needs. So you get this vicious cycle and like insulin being required, the spikes in energy and the dips in energy. So then often what I see is that's what causes the cravings. So often when I'm talking to women, they're missing their protein and it's generally because and this may not necessarily go across all of your kind of listeners, but the women I'm dealing with they've had that belly fat like come on out of nowhere and they're trying to change their body composition.
Speaker 1:Where we grew up with the supermodels who were like stick and sex and we just knew we had to like eat less and exercise more.
Speaker 1:To like that does not work when you hit 40. If anything, it does the opposite and you think you're trying to lose the body fat and actually you're just going to pile it on because that situation doesn't work anymore. So what happens is we start eating less because that's what used to work and then we get to like you know, later in the day maybe, like we get home from work and we're stuck in the pantry or the fridge with cravings that we cannot get out of the fridge because our bodies are actually smart. They know we haven't had enough calories and the cravings just take over and that's what happens. But when you eat your protein and you hit that high protein first up. Your appetite, hormones are satisfied, the cravings go away, you don't feel that craziness like when you get home from work. You don't find yourself stuck in the fridge because you're satisfied and your energy is fine, blood sugar stable, all of these things. So it's really important.
Speaker 2:What other benefits can women experience from ingesting enough protein each day? So you've talked about energy not getting those sugar spikes, those up and down insulin dependent reactions to eating a lot of carbohydrate, for example, or the classic afternoon slump at around two or three o'clock in the afternoon. So we've talked about that. You've talked about that. What else does protein do for women's health and performance?
Speaker 1:Well, like we talked about before, it helps us build muscle. So, like you know, everyone's doing the hard work in the gym. If you're not hitting that 30 grams, you're actually not giving your body the fuel that needs to build the muscle afterwards, so you're missing kind of that process. It helps with recovery. So, like when we're training hard, we need to recover. If our body doesn't have the fuel, it won't recover. Well, then you don't back up and, you know, have the ability to train hard the next day.
Speaker 1:It actually that blood sugar stabilization actually affects our sleeping. So generally we sleep better. People think that good sleep just happens because we've worked out and we're tired. There's a lot more to it than that. If your food is not on track, it will affect your sleeping as well. It affects your skin, hair, nails, joints you know all of the bits and pieces in your body. It helps recover from injury, like from surgery. All of that is so important. There's just so many reasons why if you're missing your protein, it will affect you, like your mood, your focus, like just so many things.
Speaker 2:So if protein is one of the most important things for women to make sure that they're on top of, so they're hitting their protein, can you give us some examples of good protein choices when women are struggling to get the 150 grams? And also, the other thing that keeps coming to my mind, because of conversations that I have daily with women I coach, is the timing of the protein with regards to their training and even intra training protein. So having oh, sorry, intra, no, that's carbohydrates, so we're having protein before and after training. Can you give our audience some suggestions on what they can actually eat if they want to hit the protein, because I know a lot of women don't really like well, some of the women, sorry, don't really like the protein supplements, like protein powder. So if they're trying to get it from whole protein powder, if they're trying to get their protein from whole food, can you give us some tips?
Speaker 1:for that? Yeah, sure, I can definitely do that. I will speak to that really quickly from the fact that I do love a protein powder, and the reason I do is that, yes, it might have been processed. However, your body does not know whether you are having the protein from, protein powder from meat, from eggs, from fish. Your body does not correlate that. So protein powder is like having vitamin c. To me it is a. It is like I could go and have 10 oranges to get my vitamin c in, but actually it's a lot more convenient for me to take a vitamin c tablet right. So, not everything, not getting everything from like whole foods is actually, you know, doesn't always make sense, if you like, you know. So I personally love a protein powder. I also would say that you want to get a good quality one that you know doesn't have any rubbish in it. But that is my take on it, if anyone cares to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's very helpful. And on the protein powder if you are choosing to take protein powder to fill that gap, I do it myself. I can't do 150 grams of whole food. Because here's the other thing With 150 grams of protein in whole food, if you have whole food, along with that comes carbohydrates and fats. That's right. So the protein is combined with carbohydrates and fats and then sometimes that will tip you over like too much fat or too many sugars combined with the protein. So if we're going to use protein powder and you said good quality, what is a good quality protein powder? How do our audience know how to determine that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if you're okay with dairy, then whey-based protein powders are generally like the gold standard. And then when you're looking for a protein powder, then you're looking for you need all of the amino acids. So it's got to have the and it will tell you that on the packet. Um, and you just don't want any sugar or any. You know. You don't want any colors, additives, flat, you know, like flavors. From a clean point of view, you want it just to be whey protein. If it's going to have a sweetener, um, get a sweetener that is like a naturally, but like stevia, urethra. Tell the ones that don't spike your blood sugar, because in menopause sugar does matter like it just absolutely does. It's metabolically active in the body and it can disrupt sleep and cause all sorts of dramas, so we don't want any sugar in there. But if you're okay with dairy, then whey protein is kind of the standard. The same thing goes for plant-based.
Speaker 1:I personally am dairy free. I just can't do dairy, so I use fiber. That's my personal uh preference from all the different plant-based protein powders that I've used. It's the finest mill, so it actually is like. It's not gritty like some of the plant-based protein powders are. Uh, it also not only has been developed by a naturopath, but it has a gut matrix in it, so it helps you just digest it a bit better. So I am a big fan of their plant-based protein powders. But the same thing if you're looking for a plant-based protein powder, the same thing you want a good amino acid profile, so that means the nine amino acids. A good amino acid profile, so that means the nine amino acids and no fillers, artificial colours, flavours, no sugar, anything like that. So really important Okay.
Speaker 2:So, in saying that, we will put the link to the one that you recommended in the show notes in case people want to have a look at that because I know, because I have a little post, that they can get a discount that is probably helpful for everyone.
Speaker 1:I love a discount, you know. Yes, always happy to share that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is great shopping. This is the sort of shopping I like, like you know, protein powders, barbell weight plates, exactly, you know, knee sleeves. Don't worry about the dresses dresses are overrated, so all right. So protein, um, we've covered the bases there. We're doing that. We know how much we're getting in.
Speaker 1:Oh, one thing that I have one more question for timing do you want me to talk about the food, because we kind of like branch straight into the protein powders? Do you want me to talk about, like, how they would get it from whole foods as well, and then we can talk about?
Speaker 2:that whole food yep, whole food, and then another. Another really important thing that I am constantly talking to people about is the timing.
Speaker 1:Yes, the protein with regards to your training, yeah, okay, so from a whole foods point of view, and this is something that like, honestly, if anyone's tuning in and they're interested, I'm going to be running another free protein challenge soon, I think probably this month actually, so I can give you the details for that to share out, and that's like going to be really helpful for people to understand. I literally teach you how to prioritize. You've done it Leanne, so you know. But with whole foods, it's understanding where the protein is coming from. So, obviously, like I think this is where women can get very kind of confused. They're like, oh cool, 150 grams of protein a day, no worries, I've got 150 gram chicken breast here, no worries, I've had my protein. So this, though, 150 gram piece of chicken breast maybe has 35 grams of protein in it. So this is where we can sometimes get confused and when we understand, like, where the protein's coming from, it makes it easier for us to hit the protein amount. So, obviously, any meat like chicken, you know, steak, pork, any of our protein sources are going to be a high protein option. Dairy foods have a high source of protein as well, like Greek yogurt awesome. If you can't do dairy, then I personally, like I said, I'm dairy-free. So for me when I'm using you can use soy yogurt as a higher protein source, or I use coconut yogurt and add protein powder. So that's where those of you like leaning into protein powder as a tool, that's where you can add protein powder and up your protein amount. So if I'm maybe making overnight oats and I'm adding protein powder to it, that's where I'm going to make that dish like higher protein, because the protein powder is the way to do it.
Speaker 1:If you're vegetarian or vegan tempeh tofu. Now, beans do have some protein. However, I class them more as a carbohydrate Really important more as a carbohydrate really important. They're high in fiber, but you need to eat so much from a volume point of view to hit the protein amount that your calories kind of blow out. So unless you're eating 4 000 calories a day or something which most of us here are not, um, it's not going to be enough like you're going to have to that.
Speaker 1:You can add them to a meal, but they're not going to be enough Like you're going to have to that. You can add them to a meal, but they're not going to be the main source of protein, and I'll just touch on that really quickly. Vegans and vegetarians can totally hit their protein amount. They just need to be aware they're going to be eating a lot more volume. You generally need to be almost doubling the volume of food that you need to be eating, and if you love eating food then you'll be happy. But some people struggle with that just because of the size of the servings that you need to. But you can totally do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really helpful. Thank you, because I know I was vegetarian for a little while a few years ago and I really struggled with getting enough protein. That also didn't have all the carbs attached to it and I know carbs are really important. Me, being a strength athlete, I understand that's where I get the majority of my energy from, um, and it helps my recovery. But but it really sometimes those beans and vegetarian options really blow your carbs out in your effort to get the protein. So I went back to eating meat or predominantly chicken and fish, yes, okay. So now on the next point's, can we quickly go over the timing of the protein?
Speaker 1:okay. So generally the research shows it doesn't matter so much about the timing, as long as you're getting the protein amount across the day. So for me I'm hitting 150 grams of protein a day. It's not really specific that I have to have it in a certain window of time. There's like mixed kind of information out around this but from the research I've looked at the kind of like overwhelming. You know, consensus is that if you're hitting like for me, 150 grams a day, then I'm getting what I need.
Speaker 1:Now I just heard Dr Stacey Sims talking a bit. She actually recommends having a little bit of protein pre-workout. I have not ever really done. I mean I probably do. She says 15 grams. I don't have never really done that so much. I've always focused more on like the carbohydrates for for fueling for my workouts. So I can't really talk to that because I don't teach that as such.
Speaker 1:If you want to, then go for your life like I'm more or focused on making sure that today I'm taking 150 grams off.
Speaker 1:So the only reason I would kind of change my view on that is if maybe I've just done like a two or three hour training session and my body has obviously very depleted, then getting protein in straight away, you know, is going to make a difference. But generally, if we're just doing an hour session a day, I think focusing on that protein for the day amount is, and because what, like I was mentioning to you before, I try and hit, say, 40 to 50 grams in my first meal, Well, I'm spacing it out across the day. So every time I eat I'm actually eating protein anyway. So, like, for lunch, I would be having a minimum of 30 grams anyway. So if I was to eat between those times, every time I eat I'm eating protein, so I'm going to be getting protein in anyway, if that makes sense. So, yes, I think it just will like. Like, if you're going to be actually taking it seriously and hitting the two grams per body weight, you're going to have to eat protein all day to do it, so it's not going to matter.
Speaker 2:Okay, because that that Stacey Sims. Dr Stacey Sims also talks about the 40-minute window after training, which I know there's a lot of different research around. However, I do believe that different types of training induce different recovery strategies. True, so when I first started tracking my um I I actually worked with a company called fiercely fueled nutrition, and they predominantly work with power lifters and Olympic weightlifters. Um and they, um.
Speaker 2:They explained um to me about the importance of the same as what you're saying getting the protein over. You know the course of a day rather than worrying too much about the timing. So I guess that's an individual thing, but what I was going to say about that is, as a powerlifter, I thought whoa, my total calorie or total macro requirements would be really high, and then when I looked into it, I thought actually no, they're not as high as a triathlete or even a CrossFitter who's training really hard. So you need to also understand your sport or your training regime and understand the energy requirements of that. Because I lift heavy, I thought I would have a really high energy requirement, but it's not as high as I thought yes, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1:So this is the sports nutritionist in me coming into play here. Sports nutrition is a little different to like normal nutrition, if you like, and so different foods come into play when we're talking about sports nutrition, as opposed to like regular nutrition, where we might be looking at like being in a calorie deficit to get rid of the belly fat or that sort of thing. So, um, yes, this, the sport, matters and definitely comes into play. So, like when I'm doing a plan for someone, their sport, the amount of hours they're training, the type of intensity, their heart rate, all of those things make up why we set them, you know, a certain amount of calories depending on what they're doing. And yes, unfortunately it can be upsetting when you think you can eat a lot more than you actually find out. It's not the case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I learnt that because I ticked high energy requirement and then I learnt very quickly that the sport that I do, because it has a lot of actual rest in it between sets, it's not as high as I thought and, talking on that, very close to the protein requirement which is our number one thing as we go through that menopausal journey, which is quite, quite a long time, it's like we're talking 10 or more years from, or more, from the beginning to the end. Um, the other thing that that comes up in conversation very often, and especially with women who are closer to our age, is carbohydrate and how much carbohydrate you need to be eating and what carbohydrate actually does for your body, your health. So can you briefly explain that as well?
Speaker 1:So carbohydrates are only in our body for activity purposes. So, whereas protein and fats do other things we talked about protein, muscle synthesis with protein Fats are very important for helping with hormones. Also things like vitamin D and vitamin E they're like fat soluble vitamins, so we need good fats to help us actually digest them. So fats have their job to do as well. Digest them, so fats have their job to do as well.
Speaker 1:Carbohydrates are only for activity purposes. So this is where what you do like you were just saying you know you thought you had quite a high level energy level um, the sport requires different levels of carbohydrates, so that is very important to know, and carbohydrates basically feel like what we do. So if we are not hitting our carbohydrate requirement and we have a, you know, high output sport, you will have an energy deficit. You know, and we call that like low energy availability in sports nutrition. We never want to be in that spot that can lead to reds and this causes where women start losing their periods or, you know, like these sort of symptoms. So, as you know, as athletes we want to be never in low energy availability. We need to make sure we have enough energy on board to fuel our workout and also our recovery. So, very important.
Speaker 1:And it's also the type of carbohydrates. So we want good quality carbohydrates. You know, no junk food Not that you can't ever have junk food, of course you can, but you don't want to be fueling your body with it and um, and then when we're competing that, that that nutrition actually changes. So we want faster acting carbohydrates, depending on what sport we're doing. So, uh, it's, it's, yeah, there's, there's a lot we can kind of, you know, go into there, but generally you want to be looking at what you're doing for your activity and making sure thinking of carbohydrates as your fuel and knowing you've got enough fuel to so having fuel on board before you do your workout, making sure you actually have some afterwards as well. We actually store glycogen in our muscle and our liver and we will burn through that when we're working out, so we need to replace that as well. So after we finish training, we still need carbohydrates in our body to replenish that glycogen as well. So very important.
Speaker 2:So what are your views on women who either aren't training very much they might be doing the bare minimum, they might just be going for a walk and they don't actually get into the gym. And so there's that one scenario because I'm sure there's some people listening that don't work out as such, like they might go walking or gardening, but you know they're not officially training. Then there's the other side of it, where people who are training have their recovery days. How does carbohydrate fit into those two scenarios?
Speaker 1:Sure, so let's take the first one. If you're feeling sedentary and not exercising much, then your need for carbohydrate is a lot less. So the difference and we're talking about protein before and like eating enough protein if you eat too much protein, your body treats protein kind of like gold, right? Whereas if we over eat carbohydrates it just gets stored as fat okay. So it's not like if we over eat carbohydrates and we're not backing it up with the energy, then, like output, then it will just get stored as as fat on our body. So there actually is a threshold of the amount of carbohydrate we can process.
Speaker 1:So a sedentary person can only process 40 grams of carbohydrates. I think it's actually 20 grams per hour. So it's like 40 grams really should be the amount you eat in that meal, because if you eat more than that and you're not like active, you will just store it. So if you're active, like you and I, maybe that goes up to 70 grams or something like that, or 80 grams. So we can eat a lot more based on, like our activity. So it just really means you just don't need as many carbohydrates because you're actually just not using them.
Speaker 2:So just so our audience is aware, a lot of people still struggle with when we say 40 grams. What does that actually look like in food?
Speaker 1:struggle with with um. When we say 40 grams, what does that actually look like in food? Um so 40 grams of carbohydrates would be like half a cup of oats which isn't much?
Speaker 2:no, it's not much like half a banana.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay so that's really surprising, really surprising, when people think 40 grams, oh, that's got to be at least, you know, maybe two pieces of bread at least. No, um, yeah, so that's really interesting. Um, because that I think what a lot of people feel. What they feel is carbohydrates make them full. I know, we know that the protein lasts longer and is more. You know it satiates your hunger a lot better. We know that from the scientific point of view. But if a person is approaching it, they often turn to carbs as comfort food and they feel like carbs fill them up more than protein does so the reason?
Speaker 1:so what do you say? Well, the reason that they turn to carbs is because our bodies are actually just really smart and we know that the fastest form of energy is going to come from the carbohydrates. So you, we don't get like so like it takes this big process to like digest protein right, so it's not quick energy. We actually don't get like like like energy from protein. It does all the other things so, but our bodies know carbohydrates is what's going to give me energy. So that's why the packet of tim tams looks so tempting and then when we have one, we can't stop because it's like well, there's sugar involved there too, but, like you know, it's actually because that's the quickest form of energy. It might not be exactly what you need, but that's also what your body has probably had history with.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So this is why I'm bringing it up, because it's really good for women to understand the psychological reasons behind why they would prefer, you know, that higher carb compared to the protein and what's actually physiologically going in and psychologically going on when they make those food choices. Because, at the end of the day, we control what goes in our mouths and no one else can For sure.
Speaker 1:Well, another point there that I always find light bulbs kind of go off when I talk about this one, because I think as women we give ourselves a hard time because we get a craving for chocolate and generally this happens right Like there's, like I'm not having a period anymore, but when I was, you know most of my life because, let's face it, most of our lives we have periods that week before my period I would feel like chocolate and so then I would always have some not understanding that that week before your period is when progesterone is in your body. Progesterone needs magnesium and magnesium is in chocolate. So we generally are craving chocolate because we actually need.
Speaker 1:You know, the whole audience is the whole audience is gonna grab onto what you just said then and so then women then beat ourselves up because we're like craving chocolate and we've just had, like you know whatever, and then we feel bad because we've got like emotionally eating and blah, blah, blah, blah. We're actually our body just needed magnesium, because magnesium is required for progesterone, and that's what's happening that week of the month.
Speaker 1:And so then our whole lives with this emotional, you know food issues, where actually it's got nothing to do with emotional food issues. It's actually just that we needed magnesium.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if this is the value of understanding, we think it's all coming from, you know, our mind, but in fact it's coming from our body and there's no. If you're not educated, you don't understand what's happening. That's right. So if we can recap and honestly we could there's so many more things that we could talk about in this conversation but if we really hone in on that menopausal period for women long period for women yeah, it's like it's not. You know a lot of things. You know I can say to someone if someone comes to me and says, leanne, I'd really like to double or one and a half body weight back squat, how long will it take me? Now, of course, how long is a piece of string? However, you can look at, you know, the general trend of strength development in the average person and give them a range.
Speaker 2:What is frustrating for women is that menopause, the range of like. When are the symptoms going to end? When did they start? I didn't realize they'd started. Half of the most women are like oh why? You know I kept getting utis five years ago. Is that why I stopped sleeping? You know, I thought I had a psychological issue or um, but that that period is such a long time that if we can educate any of our audience now who are in their 20s and 30s so that they're prepared and can set themselves up, and the women who are already in the snowstorm, educating them and to understand the unique interplay of body and mind is also very important, which is what this podcast is all about. So if we can recap where we've got to now in this episode, we could come back and have episode number two. We might have to.
Speaker 2:To delve a little bit more into this. So we've got the protein and the importance of that and what it does for you, and the fact well, your view that as long as we get it over the course of a day, that's really important. Yes, and we've got the carbohydrate requirements and what carbohydrates do for you as well, which is energy and recovery, and we're basing our carbohydrates around our training or around our physical output. So the best time to eat those majority of those carbohydrates, is that going to be around before and after your, when you're the most active, like around your training, or is that going to be spaced out as well?
Speaker 1:so there's look, there's different trains of thought around this, like where some people will say it's just the same as protein, it just you can get it across the day. I personally, as a menopausal woman, like this is where I think you know I am a good nutritionist because I'm living it. I truly believe that we don't really need to be loading up at carbs at dinner when we're about to go to sleep. You know, unless you're training at 5 am the next morning. Then you know, like I'm not saying you don't have to have carbohydrates, like I still have like half a cup of rice with my curry, but I don't need to have two cups of rice.
Speaker 1:Like you know, my meal is mainly protein and veggie, dominated with maybe a small amount of carbohydrates. Most of my carbohydrates are in the day when I am active. So I don't know, is that the same with fats? Fats not as important, because fats is only real. We need about 30% fats, fats and honestly, that comes from quite a small amount of food. Um, fats have a lot higher calories, so we actually don't need to eat that much of it, um to get the 30 in. So you don't need to be worrying about the amount of fats so much just because they're a much smaller amount, whereas carbohydrates and protein are really what are dominating our plate. You know, protein first, carbohydrates, activity dependent, and then 30 fats.
Speaker 2:You know, okay, yeah, so very, so, very briefly, um, and we, we can, we can come, we can go into another episode to delve more into the types of food that can help women regulate their hormones, because I believe that's very powerful as well.
Speaker 1:Uh.
Speaker 2:I do, yeah, I do know from what research I've done that fiber and you've mentioned it once fiber plays a very important role in the menopausal period 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really does. Yeah, and that's another area that we probably see women missing. Look, we, as women in menopause, we need nutrient-dense food, because it's not just about the macros, the protein, the fats and the carbs, it's the micronutrients as well, and that's maybe what we can expand on next time as well. And there's a lot of plant-based adaptogens and like vitamins and minerals natural sources that we can add to help our menopausal journey there. Know, there's tons of things that you can do, and I think probably that's the thing. Like. Two things is, if you're post-menopausal because we haven't actually touched on this all of the stuff we're talking about today actually is for you as well. Like once this transition happens, it doesn't matter whether you're 60 or 70.
Speaker 1:I've got a lady right now in my program. She's 73. She does CrossFit four days a week. I'm like that's what I want to be like, but you know she's 73 and she's like, you know it doesn't matter, Like it's all of the stuff we've talked about today is completely relative to her as well at 73. So I wanted to touch on that because I'm sure there's some post-menopausal women listening. Everything we've talked about completely relates to you as well, and I can't remember what else I was going to say. There was two things I was going to tell you, and that was one of them. I've forgotten what the other one is.
Speaker 2:This is what menopause does to us. You know. This is what menopause Little did. I know 10 years, or probably a bit longer, about 12 years ago, when I created my Facebook name. My original Facebook name was Leanne Dory, dory being a funny name, you know because my lack of memory, you know, and after having six children, that's my excuse for that.
Speaker 1:However, it's a good excuse.
Speaker 2:Six children is a good excuse. So that's, that's good. I'm really. I think what we've covered today covers the very, very basics of good nutrition, especially as it relates to whole foods and macros, which is what I consider like the low hanging fruit. How we can help women going. You know, women of all ages, but especially women who are 35 through to 70, that's a large population of women, and so if we go into the, if we do another episode, we can then go into the micronutrients and the supplements and things like flax seeds and all of those other things that can help women regulate, you know, help them with their hormones and help them on a more micronutrient level. Yes, Right.
Speaker 2:Yes. So that can be the next episode and I'm sure everyone will be really interested in that, because that's sort of the next level up. You know your adaptogens and all that sort of stuff that I'm sure you have a lot of gems to share with people. So let's yeah, let's get on to how you can help people right now. So if they've listened to this episode and they're like I'd love to do some more work with Chanel, how do they go about that?
Speaker 1:So you can listen for free on my podcast. It's called Menopause Nutritionist I think you already mentioned that so I put out lots of free content. I'm really passionate about helping women just live their best life. Like I think, at 51, I feel better now than I did when I was 21. I have a lot more muscle in my body, I know what food I need to eat. Like I have the most amount of energy. Like I truly feel better now than I did then. So I'm really passionate about people understanding that this chapter of their life they can just go for it, like they should be actually happy, you know, and going for it. And weight, you know weight training and like and pushing outside the limit and giving themselves the best life they have, you know. So listen for free on my podcast. Um I you can grab me on my website if you want to.
Speaker 1:I obviously, like you mentioned, coach people one-on-one um if you want to kind of dive in and get your own personal nutrition plan. Um. And then I also do a six-week thrive program. I'm currently in the round, so I will run one more round of that. It will kick off in September so you can join the waitlist for that. That kind of goes through all of the stuff we talked about today in major detail, so you really learn exactly what's going on, exactly how to make the changes you need to. You get meal plans and recipes and all of all of the high protein recipes and yeah, and and because and I can well, truly you like I'm passionate about teaching women that you should look forward to eating, like food should be enjoyable. You shouldn't just be eating chicken and broccoli. You should be excited for eating your lunch and it should make you feel satisfied. And you know you should be looking forward to your dinner. And that still helps you get your goals and that's what I am best for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and and also, um, I can attest to that because I've I've known, I've known you for a while, back when you started with your keto, but also I've followed your protein, done your protein challenge, and one of the ladies that I coach, who's 62 and does olympic weightlifting, she went in it as well.
Speaker 2:She, she did the protein challenge and learned a lot from that. And also I know, because I get your newsletters you've got so many amazing recipes that are so creative. They're so creative. It's like you just create these amazing recipes from very basic, whole, great ingredients where you can get your protein in and you get the right amount of carbs, and they're amazing and um, so I highly recommend um, anyone listening to reach out to you and I know from this conversation we need to have another episode, so that will be happening soon, in the next couple of weeks, so that, while it's fresh on everyone's mind, they can delve into, into the next level, the micronutrients and the supplements. So thank you so much for your time and I'll make sure that all of those links are down the bottom, including your recommendation for a good protein supplement and everything else we discussed Awesome. So thank you so much, no worries, it's been a delight. All right, stay strong everyone.