Women Over 40-Resetting Hormones Habits and Hope!!

Isaiah 40:29–31 “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.”
finally ready to admit that your way just doesn’t work. Keep listening and take notes.

3 Ways to Lose Weight over 40.

1. Protein Timing & Quantity
 Aim for 100–120g daily, broken into 4-5 servings. Why? It stabilizes blood sugar and protects muscle. If you want to lean out, protein, protein, protein

2. Strength Training 2–3x Weekly in your zone 2 heart rate.

3. Nervous System Regulation
 Women over 40 lose weight best when stress is lowered. Cortisol, the stress hormone must be balanced, this is why dieting harder often backfires.

So here is a 3-Step Pause practice that will help you refocus.

When you feel the urge to emotionally eat:

1. Say out loud: “Lord, what do I really need right now?”
2. Whisper Scripture: “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all I need.” Ps. 23:1
3. Take 3 slow breaths.

Lord, You see every woman listening, her fears, her fatigue, her hopes. Father it feels hard to lose weight after 40 and we know that You ache for us to be our best self. Can you tell us what we need today Jesus? Will you put a word on our heart so we can take the first step. Lord, we’re tired of living in our excuses, help us break the chains keeping us tied to unhealthy thoughts and patterns, fill us what You Lord and remind us what we truly need, a heart sensitive to Your Holy Spirit. Thank you Father, it’s in Your precious Name we pray, Amen.

Are you sick of trying diet after diet and NOT losing weight?

Hey there friend, I'm Lindy Schlabach, Christian Fitness & Nutrition Coach. I gained 100 pounds in my late twenties and struggled for years to get it off. Seven years ago, I found a basic system that worked and has helped me lose 90 of those pounds. I’ve been working with women in online fitness and nutrition ever since to break chains of diet culture, embrace their bodies and fueling instead of dieting. 

 In this podcast, I'll teach you how to:

• • Lose Weight in a Way that honors God without obsessing about the scale
  • Meal Plan and Prep for Your Family
  • Follow a MACRO based plan that allows you to eat the foods you love.
  • Recognize and pray through triggers keeping you stuck.
  • I’ll help you Plan your week and schedule your self-care time.
  • Cultivate a spirit of self-discipline in your workouts you actually enjoy.
   
  It's time to give God your health journey and watch Him make you new, from the inside, OUT.

Join The Biblical Weight Loss Framework: https://www.herweightlossmindset.com/framework

Join my FREE Community: https://bit.ly/JoinTheChristianWeightLossCommunity

Join my Insiders List with weekly tips for weight loss for Christian women: http://herweightlossmindset.com/herweightlossmindsetinsiders

Transcript

Hey there, sister, welcome back. Oh, today we are pulling the curtain back on weight loss for ladies over 40. No gimmicks, no shame.

Not 20-year-old fitness advice that doesn't apply to your life anymore. Just truth. Physiological, emotional, and spiritual, woven together.

Listen, I had a hysterectomy at 37, and by the time I hit 39, I felt a complete shift in my body. There were so many days that I had to go to bed. Sometimes I'd sleep for two to four, five hours at a time.

I couldn't lose an ounce of weight to save my life. I was exhausted. I had zero energy, and I could not focus on anything.

I was a year away from my wedding, and I barely had enough energy to plan it. So I've been there. I know the struggle when our hormones are fighting against us.

I pray that today's message encourages you to keep going. So let's dive in. Are you sick of trying diet after diet and not losing weight?

Are you tired of doubting your ability to actually lose weight in a healthy way? Do you wish you could find a laid out for you plan that will help you stay accountable to your goals?

Hey friends, I'm Lindy Schlabach, Christian Fitness & Nutrition Coach. I gained 100 pounds in my late 20s and struggled for years to get it off. Nine years ago, I found a system that works and has helped me lose over 90 of those pounds.

I've worked with women in online fitness and nutrition ever since.

In this podcast, I'll teach you how to reframe your thoughts about weight loss and your ability to achieve lasting results and lose weight in a way that honors God without obsessing about the scale and meal plan and prep for your family.

So grab your pre-workout and let's chat. Don't forget to join my free community where I share all things Biblical Weight Loss. You can join the free community by joining my email list at herweightlossmindset.com.

And to your email, I promise I will never spam you. I'm just going to send you all of the good things along with a link to join the free community. All right?

So go hop in if you haven't already. So today's scripture comes from Isaiah 40, verses 29 to 31. It says, He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. It isn't your job to find strength. It's the Lord that moves us forward.

He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. That leaves the strive and try off the table.

And it leaves grace and humility for the taking. Your strength isn't conjured up. It's received from the Holy Spirit when you ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life.

So here's the honest truth. After 40, our bodies change. Our metabolism slows down, our muscle mass drops, our sleep shifts, our stress sits differently, emotional eating spikes during life changes, and we all willpower feels thin.

Most of us quit exercising. Like, we quit exercising, so our metabolism slows, which means our muscle mass drops, which means our sleep shifts. This is not failure.

It's physiology, but it's also life. So think about the activities that we do in our 20s and 30s. Like, it changes when we have kids.

So it's not always our hormones, if we're being real. Like, sometimes it's poor habits and not keeping up with self-care. But having kids plays with your hormones.

And for the infertile like me, not having kids really plays havoc on your hormones. They don't have anywhere to go because you haven't given birth. But it doesn't have to stay that way.

And if you're willing to do the work and truly make the change, you can lose the weight, but it's going to be uncomfortable because you're going to do things that scare you.

You're going to do things that make you uncomfortable and may make you gain weight to start. It did for me. This is an insane mental shift.

So if you're not ready and you just want to stay stuck in your old habits, let's turn off this podcast right now. But if you are finally ready to admit that your weight just isn't working, keep listening and take some notes.

So here are three things that actually work to lose weight over 40. The first one is protein, timing, and quantity. So you're going to aim for a minimum of 120 grams daily, 100 to 120 grams daily.

If you break this down into four to five servings, it averages anywhere, again, 20 to 30 grams per meal. Why do we do this? Protein stabilizes your blood sugar and it protects your muscle.

If you want to lean out, if you want to feel full and stop with the cravings, protein, protein, protein. Let me say it again, protein. The second thing you're going to do is strength train two to three times a week in your zone two heart rate.

So for those of you that accepted the 21-day challenge that I talked about on January 1st, you should be in the middle of all of these things. Strength training two to three times, staying in your zone two heart rate.

You don't need a gym, but you do need resistance. So muscle is your metabolic engine. The more muscle that you have in your body burns fat.

It protects your joints. You can do bodyweight exercises. You don't need to lift heavy weights.

You can do lightweights, bar. These are perfect low-impact strength workouts that are perfect for women over 40. I have been doing bar and bodyweight workouts for the last probably three years at this point, two years maybe.

Amazing. Sometimes when you lift really heavy weights, if you're not eating enough, you're not going to lose weight. You're just going to bulk.

Okay. The third thing is nervous system regulation. Women over 40 lose weight best when stress is lowered.

Cortisol, that sneaky stress hormone, it has to be balanced. This is why dieting harder, starving yourself, always backfires. Here's a real life example from one of my clients.

Let's say she's 48 years old, she's busy, and she's not athletic. At 7.30 in the morning, she's eating 28 grams of protein for breakfast. At 2 o'clock, she's going for a quick walk.

At 4 o'clock, she's having a 30 gram protein snack. At 6 o'clock, she's having a protein center dinner, and she's doing three mini strength sessions per week. She lost 12 pounds in 10 weeks.

This is slow, this is steady, and this is sustainable. Now, listen, I said she's had breakfast at 7.30 and a 30 gram protein snack at 4. She also had a late morning protein snack and she had lunch, okay?

I'm just saying, these are some of the things that she's doing intentionally. And listen, I know for some of you, there's an emotional layer to this as well. Some of you are empty nesters.

So many women out there are facing kids moving out. Maybe you're caregiving for parents or experiencing the loss of a parent. Maybe you're transitioning in your marriage.

Maybe your identity is shifting. Food becomes comforting because these seasons are hard. And when we want something to make us feel better, we go to food, although it never actually works because then the shame sets in and it sets us back.

One step forward, 50 steps back. Like it's an exhausting cycle if we do not start to take responsibility for our actions and make new choices.

So I want to offer you a quick three-step pause practice that's going to help you refocus when you start to lean towards comfort food. When you feel that urge to emotionally eat, say out loud, out loud, Lord, what do I really need right now?

And then whisper, the Lord is my shepherd. I have all I need. Psalm 23, 1.

And then take three slow breaths. If you still want the food, eat it slowly, without shame. This builds trust and breaks that all or nothing thinking.

But the old, if you wouldn't eat an apple, you're not really hungry rule applies here. Like, if you're not actually hungry, like, you wouldn't eat an apple. If you're going for sugary craving, don't eat that.

If you're actually hungry, get out about a cup of plain Greek yogurt, plain Greek yogurt, the rest has a ton of sugar in it, add a quarter to half a cup of cottage cheese and sprinkle in with some applesauce and cinnamon or an apple and cinnamon.

And if that doesn't sound good, then you're probably not that hungry. Listen, Greek yogurt doesn't taste great by itself. You have to doctor it up.

I understand that. I eat plain Greek yogurt every single day, doctoring it up exactly the way I just shared with you. You have to start doing things that are uncomfortable.

I've hated oatmeal my entire life. Five years ago, after a workout, I asked the Lord what I should eat, and he said, make oatmeal. I said, Lord, I've never liked to eat oatmeal.

He's like, I'll make it good. So he led me on how to make it. I put a little cinnamon, a little honey, and then when it was warm out of the microwave, I put in half a cup of frozen blueberries.

It was delicious. I love oatmeal now. Don't be afraid to try new things.

He will make it work. So I want you to take a second and think about the hunger patterns that you have. Are they physical?

Are they emotional? We have to learn to put a name to them, to recognize them and pray over them. Remember that Psalm 139, 23, and 24 verse.

I want you to go look it up right now. I want you to seek the Lord and then let it go. Holy Father, you see every woman listening, her fears, her fatigue, her hopes, her struggles.

Jesus, it feels hard to lose weight after 40, and we know that you ache for us to be our best self. Can you just tell us what we need today, Jesus? Will you put a word on our hearts so that we can take that first step?

Lord, we're tired of living in our excuses. Help us to break the chains that are keeping us tied to unhealthy thoughts and patterns. Fill us with you, Lord, and remind us that what we truly need is a heart sensitive to your Holy Spirit.

We thank you, Father. It's in your precious name we pray. Amen.

Hey, sis, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with a friend? It lights me up to know this podcast is helping you.

Okay, it's time to go make a protein shake and get my sweat on. No more standing in the kitchen waiting for the next episode. I hope you enjoyed today's episode.

If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with a friend? Let me know in the comments below. I will meet you back here for another episode.

God bless.