Why Women Over 40 Need More Protein to Lose Weight and Build Muscle

Are you eating enough protein to support fat loss, muscle growth, and healthy aging?

In this episode, Kristin Rowell is joined by Laura Schara for an honest conversation about protein, strength training, metabolism, and what women over 40 really need to thrive. From the common breakfast mistakes keeping women under-fueled to the simple habits that make hitting protein goals easier, this episode is packed with practical strategies you can start using today.

Kristin and Laura break down how much protein most women actually need, why lifting weights becomes even more important as we age, and the small nutrition shifts that can make a big difference in body composition, energy, and long-term health.

If you've ever wondered whether you're eating enough protein, struggled to lose weight despite "eating healthy," or felt overwhelmed by tracking macros, this episode will help simplify the process.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why most women over 40 aren't eating enough protein
• How much protein you actually need for fat loss and muscle growth
• The 30-gram protein-per-meal rule and why it matters
• Why avocado toast and a couple of eggs aren't enough protein for most women
• How lifting weights supports metabolism and healthy aging
• Simple ways to hit 120–160 grams of protein per day
• The truth about protein powders, protein bars, and convenience foods
• Why weighing your food can help you reach your goals faster
• The benefits of creatine for women, muscle recovery, and brain health
• Easy high-protein meal ideas and nutrition hacks

Connect with Laura:
https://www.instagram.com/lauraschara/

Watch on Youtube: youtube.com/@energeticallyefficient

Connect with Kristin:

1:1 Coaching: Apply here

The Top 5 Things I Actually Do To Stay Under 20% Body Fat: kristin-rowell.mykajabi.com/5-tips

Instagram: instagram.com/kristin_rowell_

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Make sure you're lifting weights, but don't lift too heavy because then you're gonna get bulky. Only lift the one pound weights because that's only gonna give you tone. It's all a mess. It's all so confusing. And actually, doesn't need to be.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

No. You just have to stick to a path and be consistent. Totally agree.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hey everybody. Hi, we are here. I'm Laura Sharon. I'm Kristen Rowell. We've been friends for a really long time. And there are lots of times where we are doing walks or doing phone calls where we say, God, we should have this recorded. As our friendship has deepened, and as we've gotten a little bit older, not revealing ages right now, but a little bit older. I have a birthday coming up. We felt like there's so much wisdom that you gain every single decade of your life. And so it's just fun for us to be able to share it. And again, we have so much in common. We were going to talk about everything from nutrition to energy to strength training to dog training and everything in between.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Everything in between. But I think today we're going to focus a little bit on protein because protein seems to be like a hot topic now. It's been a hot topic in our lives for many, many years, but it's finally on the forefront of all of this talk about how much protein you need to get in a day. And we were talking about this earlier. I had you on the Minnesota Bond podcast and we were talking all about the protein. And we hear a lot of times how people struggle to get the amount of protein that they need in throughout the day. And you and I kind of giggled because we're like, I feel like I could just keep eating it throughout the night.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

We do. So when people say, Oh my God, but like how do you get a hundred grams of protein? Laura and I are like, A hundred? What? A hundred. How do you not get a hundred?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Are you starving? Or are you only eating a hundred? And it seems it can be overwhelming. I have friends of mine that say it is truly overwhelming for them to get protein in by, you know, it's it's the weighted vest, it's the walks, it's how many steps during the day, it's the protein, it's the sleep, how many hours of sleep, plus kids and work and everything else. And the protein consumption seems to overwhelm people. But so today I think we're gonna give some tips. Let's give some tips on how people can get the amount of protein that they need. But first, I think it's really important to really understand like exactly how much protein do you really need? Because I think on average, as we know, people are under eating protein significantly and they're spinning their wheels, wondering why they can't lose weight, all those things. So there is a formula for this on how much protein you need.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

But we'll let you answer that. Yes, okay. And before I do that, I just have to say, because of what you just shared, have you seen that woman on Instagram, big time adulting? No, but I'll look it up. No, I haven't. I can't believe I haven't send you her before. She has these hilarious reels where she's like, ladies, are you trying to lose weight and menopause? And she does this very like dry, the way she speaks, but she basically says, don't forget about protein. She's like, you have to take your body weight, multiply it by all this number of stars in the sky.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

And so true. And why do they complicate or the the calculations have to be so complicated? Because the ton of hours.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Don't forget about your steps. And constantly joking. Totally. At the end of it, she's always like, and oh my God, if you're not getting at least eight hours of sleep, none of this matters. Totally. And all erases, all of it. And then do cardio, but don't do cardio.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Don't too much cardio. Make sure you're lifting weights, but don't lift too heavy because then you're gonna get bulky. Only lift the one-pound weights because that's only gonna give you a tone. It's all a mess. It's all so confusing. And actually doesn't need to be.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

No, you just have to stick to a path and be consistent. Totally agree. And I love the love that you just use the word consistent. Because honestly, that's what I see for sure. My clients have the most issue with. They try something, it's like, okay, I'm gonna try keto. And then after four days, they don't want to do it because it's too restrictive. Yeah. So then it's like, okay, I read vegan was good, so now I'm gonna do that. Okay, then they're not getting any protein. So then they're gonna try some sort of carb cycling. But I said, you're not doing any of this with any length of time. The only reason you and I have been successful for so long in keeping really good body composition is that we've been consistent. Years actually. Like years. Yeah. When did you start lifting weights?

SPEAKER_01 4:09

I started lifting weights 10 years ago now, like heavy. And I was on the cardio train since high school. Yeah. Cart I did aerobics and then all the group fitness classes. And I'm not throwing shade at them at all. They're actually a lot of fun. And if it does give you exercise, yeah, all the more power to you. I did all the spinning, but I for my body shape and my body proportions and all those things, I was just spinning my wheels and like literally. Yes, and getting injured and not ever really, and I was like starving myself, not starving myself, but really counting every calorie and and just not seeing any changes. And it's finally I I found a trainer and I had to believe in the system because when you start lifting weights, you're not gonna see results in a month, too much. You'll see some, but you're really not gonna see significant body composition changes where you're like, oh, my booty's looking really good in these jeans now. That's for sure a year. Or yeah, I mean, you have to really be honest with yourself, depending on how hard you're going to train. I think the average person, with the amount of time we really have, you can train really hard. And I started really training hard when I started discover strength. We'll get to that later. But it does take time and consistency is key. And actually, these boring workouts that are consistently uh progressive overload, which means keeping track of the amount of weight you're lifting, the reps, and actually increasing your weight. That's what progressive overload means for general terms. Yep. Yep. Because a lot of time you hear that word and you're like, what does that even mean? Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah. That's true. But just know it's gonna take time, but the results will show up. Yeah, one of my favorite quotes, and I don't remember who said that, so sorry, but it's if you like to work out, you're doing it wrong. It's like so true. Really anxious. So it's like, I kind of always say I have this lump hey with DS. Like I hate it when I'm walking in and I love it when I'm walking out. Yeah. But I've been so consistent for this many years, and I lifted before that. So I started lifting in like, I don't know, I was 14. And it was in part because I was hanging out in the weight room and I just wanted to get strong and I was always watching my dad lift and stuff. I wish I started when I was 14. Yeah. Yeah or 15. I always say it's one of the things is why I have such young muscle because I started so young, you know? And then I discovered discover strength when I was about 30. So I started lifting there when I was 30, which was just a game changer because I had a really busy law practice at the time. And of course, gone were the days of, oh, I'm gonna run for an hour and then I'm gonna lift upper body. And then the next day run for an hour and lift lower body. The next day run for an hour, upper body. No one has time for that. No. And so just to be able to do things more efficiently, and again, we'll talk about that later. But we just started this with getting back to protein. So yeah, we got you back to protein. Okay, so protein helps you build muscle. This is why it's so important. So when we're eating protein, what is it that you really need? What your body's getting from protein is amino acids. So that's really the substrate that's gonna help you build muscle. And a fun fact that I love to share about protein is protein cannot be stored on your body. Nope. So this is why it's so good for burning fat, because you can't store it. Like it doesn't go into your fat cells. Now, if you overconsume protein, and it's real hard to do, yes, you know, if you get to a threshold of like 200 grams of protein a day, which I've done before, you're gonna be like, ugh, because you just don't want to eat any more of it. But let's say you still do, it will convert into glucose in your body, and then that could get stored depending on your caloric intake. So it really can't be stored on your body. It's used to repair your tissues and to build muscles. So it's a recovery macronutrient. We call protein a macronutrient, we call carbs a macronutrient, and we call fat a macronutrient. And that's just because they're nutrients that we need to get in larger quantities in order for our health. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

And you're strictly talking about just the protein. So sometimes people think a ribi is all protein. Aribi is a lot of protein and also a lot of fat. So too much fat or too much carbs can also obviously be stored as some body fat on. Yeah. So protein, just straight protein. So that I think is just keep that in mind. You know, obviously that's why you may want to choose at times, depending on your your macros or whatever you're doing. Yeah. And how much that's why you weigh everything and add in the keep track of your calories.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

I'm so glad you mentioned weigh everything because there was a lot of people that say, Oh, I just can't lose weight. And I said, Well, are you tracking? Are you weighing? And it's like, no, it's just too hard, it's too confusing. I just sort of guess. And I'm like, we've talked about what we've done with guessing. Yeah. And we're not accurate. No. Every time I go off plan, meaning when I don't track or when I don't weigh, every single time I gain weight.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Same. And actually, I also find that sometimes if I've been under-eating, you don't even realize it. Yes. Because when you weigh out chicken or beef or whatever protein you're eating, sometimes I've surprised myself on how much more I get to eat because I want to get to five or six ounces per meal. Yes. That I actually un if I was just to guesstimate, like one chick abreast, sometimes can be three or four, and you may not even realize it. Yeah. And you think you're eating more protein than you are. Yeah. So weighing is a very important. It's super easy to. I mean, a kitchen scale is what, $10?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Exactly. Yeah. You can get it on Amazon. The one I recommend is Ozari, O Z E R I. It's like a super easy scale. And I always tell people, once, especially when you start, I mean, you don't have to weigh your food forever. Laura and I are a little nuts. We like to weigh our food. We like to be intentional. But if you don't want to do it forever, just do it for a period of time. Do it for like a month. So you have a really good sense of what does four ounces of meat look like? What does six ounces of meat look like? You know, all of those different just so you can eyeball it. People say four ounces is like a deck of cards. No, I disagree. I agree too. I feel like it's it's I feel like four ounces is more than a deck of cards. I do too. That's what I say. So I'm like, you gotta weigh it because you don't want to shortchange yourself because, and this is research that I've learned from one of my friends, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon. She's sort of one of these doctors who put on the map this 30 grams of protein at each meal. And when I listened to her give a talk at a health conference I was at several years ago, she was saying, I want you to think of 30 grams in each meal as you can't be a little bit pregnant. So you either are pregnant or you aren't pregnant. So if you have 20 grams of protein in a meal, it doesn't count. It doesn't count. It just doesn't count. And I know that's so annoying. People think this is where it gets complicated. But if you just remember that, like every time I sit down to eat, I need to plan my meal around 30 grams of protein. So, and by the way, I can't wait to start talking about this because how many eggs, Laura, would we have to eat?

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Oh, here we go. The amount okay, can we just talk about avocado toast with one egg on it in the morning?

SPEAKER_01 10:20

It's so not a meal with protein on it.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

No.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

I've seen a lot of failures at breakfast. I will say that. And even in an omelet, there's probably not enough protein in the omelet you're getting at the restaurant, let alone the amount of oil they're putting on it. So that's not that, but correct. So you have to eat a lot of eggs to get a lot of protein in.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

It's fine. Yeah. Okay. For sure. Five eggs at least in one sitting, which most people are like, oh, I didn't do that. So if you want to get an omelet at a restaurant, tell my clients, and I do this for myself, I know you do this. We add chicken to it. Yep. We add sausage to it. Maybe you add beans to it, but you add a variety of sources of protein because I guarantee you no restaurant is going to give you a five-eg omelet. No. They're going to skimp on that because it's going to be too expensive for them. 100%. Yeah. And I'll order a whole chicken breast on the side with the omelet and just cut it up and throw that in there. No problem. And I'll usually add chicken or turkey or whatever meat they have back there into the omelet. And then I'll also add goat cheese. I like to add the avocado. Oh, yeah. Avocado's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Avocado's amazing. We always joke when I go to breakfast with Dan. I feel like the bill keeps getting higher and higher and higher because I can't we keep ordering sides of everything. A car. Yes. Side of the avocado, the side of the chicken breast, the side of maybe some peanut butter. You want a little bit of that too? Like I get a side of bacon every time, too.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Yeah, exactly. We're like, how are we spending this much of breakfast? Because we have a million sides at top of our meal.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Yeah. So big. Well, and everyone thinks that bacon is another source. Like, well, I had bacon. I had eggs and bacon for breakfast. Yeah. It's like you have to have a lot of eggs and a lot of bacon to get your 30 grams of protein in each meal. So we just want to make sure that everyone focuses on if you ate 30 grams of protein in each meal four times a day, you're getting 120 grams of protein. Yep. So that's all you would have to do.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

So we want so 120 grams of protein, that is, so are you going for a gram of protein per ideal body weight or are you calculating it based off of kilograms?

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yeah, great question. So I do grams based on ideal body weight. Okay. Or even current body weight, depending. I mean if the person has a tremendous amount of weight to lose, they're not going to eat one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Of course. Right? Yeah. But if they're, you know, for most women, depending on where they're starting, I want them eating at least 120 grams of protein today to at least maybe 140. Yes. You know, if they want to lose weight. How much are you eating a day? I'm eating at least 140. I'm at least 140. Sometimes 160. I was going to say, sometimes I'm 150 or 160. And people are like, how? How do you do that? Because it's so satiating and it tastes good and I love it.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

For sure. And another thing I think is really helpful if is protein powder. If you need to sneak something in. So say you are going to brunch with friends, family, whatever. Even if you take a scoop of protein powder with water just to get something going and then go have the rest of your breakfast, I think is a little bit of a cheat there, but at least helps you get to your goal. Sometimes, even if I come home, like say I was at an event and they're serving appetizers, I'm probably not going to dive into the appetizers hardcore. Yep. I'll have some of the protein pieces, but none of the fried stuff, whatever. I'll skip it. Yeah. And I might get home and it might be not late, late, but later, I'll still decide to consume protein powder and some water or maybe with a tiny bit of some sort of fat source, not a ton, but a little bit, just to make sure I hit my protein goal every single night.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Yes. And the other thing, because you mentioned it, I think is so important. I've said this to clients in the past. If you are going to an event or a party or going somewhere where you know they're not going to have good protein sources, taking a protein shake with you to drink in the car on your way there, not only will you not then go head first into the nacho bar because you'll be satiated, but you're gonna make better, you're gonna make better choices. But you're also gonna, if you don't get enough protein, you already had that on the way there. So that can kind of count for one meal. So just in terms of like how much time should pass within your 30 grams of protein, you really want to eat that 30 grams of protein ideally within the hour. Yep. If you're getting past an hour, two hours, three hours, that's a totally separate meal. So now you didn't do the like I'm fully pregnant with 30 grams of protein. You only had 20, and then that wasn't that didn't really count for a meal.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Yep.

unknown 14:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

So ideally for women, these are total averages. Again, everything based is based upon your goals. But 120 grams for women, how much for men? I think men also under-eat protein.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

A thousand percent. Yep. I most of the men, I think the least amount of protein that I've ever put on a man's plan when I've created one for him was like 170.

unknown 14:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

So usually it's 170 to 200. Some it's over 200 if they're bigger men, but I shoot for 180 for most men. Perfect. And the reality is, you guys, if you start to focus on, okay, so let's do the math on it. I have my phone here. So 180 and you're eating four times a day. So you're gonna divide it by no. What am I doing? I'm dividing by 30. So that would be if you only had 30 grams in a meal, you'd eat six times a day. So if you need 180 grams of protein and you do 40 grams at each meal, that's 4.5 meals, or you could do 45, you know? Yep. So divided by 45, that's four meals. So 45 grams of protein four times a day for men. Or if you're like, I don't have time to eat four times a day, you know, you could do 50. So obviously, if you have 50 grams, 50 grams, and 50 grams, it's 150 grams of protein a day. That's dosed separately throughout the day. There is research that came out that said, remember, we don't have the supper protein threshold. Yes. So this was in the last year, maybe two years. I can't remember. I forget the timing, but we used to think like, oh my God, your body can only absorb this much protein. You're gonna kill your kidneys. Yes, you're gonna kill your kidneys, all sorts of myths that we've now discovered are not true. So, what the research shows is we actually don't have an upper limit. So if you can tolerate it, if you're I mean, I think this is havoc in your digestion, but you do you, you could potentially eat 150 grams of protein one sitting. I think you and I could do it. It's fine. It's fine. We love protein.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

So my protein shake has 50 grams of protein it every morning. Oh, yeah. It's like no problem. Yes, easy. So that is like a really great way if you can, if you're a smoothie person, get that 50 grams in. Do you want to share how you make it? Because I love it. Yes. When I stayed with you, I had it and I loved it. I I put a little bit of kefir in there. And usually it's grass-fed, either it's the full fat or the low fat. I don't care because I'll either add a fat source one way or the other. I add berries, either strawberries or raspberries. Yep. And then I'll add, I put it as far as grams, I put it on the scale and measure out the grams of protein to make sure I hit 50.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yeah, and by the way, here's this pro tip on that. And I tell people this all the time, it's like the best. Put your, if you're gonna make this in the blender, yeah, which you are, put your blender on the food scale.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

And then set it to zero. And then just pour the protein powder in. You don't need to like level out the scoop, measure the scoop. It's so much easier to just weigh it on the scale. Yeah, if anything, let that scoop heap a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

That's not good. Exactly. So a little more. And then I'll put in, oh, I should go get it. I found actually, I don't know if this is good or bad. I think it's good. Oh, good. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

This will be fun. Yeah, because he and I have made protein jokes for each other. I went to stay with her in Austin. She's come to stay with me in Nashville, and we love sharing like the tips and tricks that we learn. Okay, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yes, okay. So if I want to add a little bit of this, it's our favorite peanut butter. We have no affiliation with any of these brands, by the way. Sorry, I should look here. Favorite peanut butter. It's called Fix and Fog. It's why is this our favorite? Because it's it's palm oil free, number one.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Yeah, so the ingredients and it's hyalic, as I recall. So it is it's only hyalic peanuts and New Zealand sea salt, which is amazing. That's it. So it doesn't have palm oil, not any other weird oils.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

We don't add no sugar, nothing. Oh, I did hear about this. I haven't tried it yet. This is what I add to my protein shake. So I this protein shake, it kind of tastes like a peanut butter and chili protein shake. It's really quite delicious. Yep. And this is called good, good. It's no added sugar and it's a fruit spread, so it's like a jam. However, one tablespoon is 10 calories. That's it. It's only two grams of sugar, and literally that's it.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Okay, so they sweeten it with stevia. So it's 66% raspberries, 17% apples, water, pectin, banana juice concentrate just for flavoring. Rowanberry extract. I've never heard of row and berries. I haven't either. Which one did I grab?

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Is that the raspberry? Yeah, raspberry.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Okay. Lemon powder, natural raspberry flavor, stevia extract and vitamin C. Amazing. So I have a peanut butter and jelly protein shake in my cookbook, you know? Oh, yeah. Because I use peanut butter and then raspberries. But if you want an extra berry flavor, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

It adds like a little something.

unknown 18:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Yeah, that's really good. Oh, it's brand new. And you can tell.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

And you can tell it's fine. I'll go through it, no problem. Yeah. It definitely is not obviously sweet. It does not have like a high sweet jam flavor, but that's okay. Oh, it's funny.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

It's not smart grease.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

No, yeah. Surprisingly, it's not going to rot your teeth. No. But this one is, I found this at Whole Foods. It's a brand new product, but I really do like it. It adds like a nice something to the protein shake.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

And so just because again, we're not doing affiliate stuff for this, but eventually I'm sure we'll have that. It's good.

unknown 18:54

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Amazing. It's good. That's great. So that's what I do with my steak. And then I use actually with that, I put in people who think you could put in a vanilla protein powder, which would be fine, but I actually use the chocolate one, a chocolate peanut butter with it.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

I do it what I use chocolate when I'm out of my vanilla, but I either like vanilla protein powder or that marigold peanut butter protein powder. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Marigold peanut butter.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

The peanut butter is good too.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

So it's basically kefir, berries. Frozen berries. Frozen berries. I did that too. Yep. Organic. Protein powder, peanut butter, and then a little bit of this, maybe as an extra.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Yes. And then I put a scoop of colostrum in it. Okay, so you got your clostrum? I didn't. I grabbed a colostrum. I I had tried all sorts of brands of colostrum. I know, me too. Just in my video. I know. Hi buddy. Bakey's here. Slick ready for his third nap. The classroom world, I feel like it's a little bit like the Wild West. I agree with you. Yes. So not all colostrums are created equal. I think some of the like the highly marketed ones are a little sketched.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

I agree with you. And not everyone tolerates colostrum well. It is dairy. There's dairy in it. So for people that don't do well with dairy, like you really have to be careful to not overdo colostrum. Yes, it can be very good for you. It can be equivalent nutritionally of like breast milk, goat's milk, those kinds of things. It's probably it's not gonna be like a hair growth miracle though. No, I don't know. It may help a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Collagen, I think, helps with that too. Yeah. Yeah. Again, like not a like a total miracle. I think we're gonna get into hair growth like a different day too. Because there's like a million things going on with hair growth, especially like with menopause stuff.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

And especially with people making lots of money off of supplements.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Yes. So again, there's no affiliation with this product. This is actually produced by two gentlemen who are supplement bodybuilding fanatics in the Twin Cities. It's called Regen. I haven't seen that one. And this is way cheaper than the Amras or the Wonder Cows. And they took those products and some other ones and had them third-party tested to find that the immunoglobins, yeah, the immunoglobulins. Yep. However, you say that, immunoglobulins is goblins, we'll call it for short.

unknown 20:53

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Had literally almost less than 30% or less than 20% in some of those products. You're kidding. No, that's this one is for sure guaranteed 50%. And literally, I think this was $35 compared to $100. That's again, no affiliation. I bought this on Amazon, payful price. I'm just starting it, but I know this has been 30 purchas tested. It says contains milk on it, of course.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

By the way, I'm listening to you, and Bacon is licking my leg my entire he does like to groom people. He's like, Auntie, you probably got to shower again. I promise I shower again. Oh no, he'll just sit and groom everybody. I literally didn't wash my hair. I you know what I need to do when I don't wash it? I need to like braid it or do something so it's not so stringy. Oh, I know. I did so good. It looks so good. Oh, this is this needs to be washed today. This is like a deadline.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

I'm just gonna kind of hide, hide my hair. You know, when COVID happened, we many of us are working from home. I work from home part time part-time. The hair washing, you realize it's not so good to wash your hair every single day. But then there's also a limit on how many days you should do.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Trust me, it's scary some days how how some weeks, how long days are.

unknown 21:58

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Also, creatine. Now creatine's finally on the map for it. I just actually did a whole episode on this, but I will tell you, I use this one sometimes too. And I used to recommend this one all the time. I now only use keon. And here's the only reason for that. Okay, let me know. I'll tell you why. So do you see how it says creatine monohydrate? Five grams of other ingredients, which is great. I think Thorn is a great brand. They make great supplements. And the Kian one is made with crea pure creatine nanohydrate. It's a registered trademark. Yes. And so the only reason I like creapure veterans, I don't get the bloating and stuff from it. If I dose this five grams too quick, I'll sometimes notice some digestive discomfort. You do. Okay. So if you don't, then don't worry about it. I don't. But crea pure, some people do. So I just tell them to get that one if they do. I did when I first started it, but I think I'm ramped up now that yeah, I don't. Well, it's interesting. Have you seen some of the research now? Women are doing like 10 grams a day. They're doing five, five at night because it's so good for your brain. Yes. There's so much awesome research coming out about creatine. You guys, creatine is the most studied, literally the most studied supplement in the world. And there are over, I mean, there's hundreds of clinical research trials. There's one that I send to all clients is a paper that came out in 2021 that I just love. Yep. And it cites over 300 papers in it. No, I always tell people it's called Creatine in Health and Disease. That's the name of the paper. It's from 2021. You can just search Creatine Health Disease 2021 PubMed. You will find it on Google. It is, they do have to do a disclaimer because it's partially funded by people who make creatine. Okay. But the fact that they cite so many other papers in it, it's like, it's, I mean, from lowering your triglycerides, improving blood sugar regulation, good for your brain, cardiovascular function, obviously muscle building and development. It's so awesome. And remember how many years they're like women shouldn't take creatine because it might make you retain water. Oh, I know. That was forever they were saying that. They did. And I do think the creatines that were made in like the 80s and maybe even the 90s, they used to make them add dextrose and stuff to them. Oh, yeah. There were fillers that probably did do that, but creatine monohydrate does not retain water in the belly of your muscle, but you won't retain water like in your. Because what it's doing is, and if you want to like nerd out on the science of it, I did a whole episode of it, but the short version of what it's doing is creatine, you can store five grams of creatine in every pound of muscle tissue on your body. Which is insane. Yep. Because we have well over 100 pounds of muscle in our bodies, right? So you can store five grams. What you can't store in very large quantities in your body is something called ATP. That's adenosine triphosphate. It is your body's energy currency, and it is what literally gives you energy during your workout. So when you're, I'll say, if you're in a shoulder press and you get to that rep and you can't do this anymore, part of what's happening is your body's running out of ATP. Creatine, because you can store so much of it in your system, it essentially re-phosphorylates ADP, which is a dynastine diphosphate, into ATP. So you get an extra gear in the gym, basically. Like, don't you notice it? 100% you notice it. Yes. So I was always taking it before my workout when I go into my workout. And I still do that most days, but some people say you can just refill your stores right after your workout. So if you take it before or after, it doesn't matter. I just like to put it in my morning workout, especially because there was some clinical research that came out about creatine is the most effective when you have it with electrolytes. So electrolytes are your magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, and phosphorus, and and I've forgotten one of them. Calcium? Sodium, calcium. Thank you. So if you have creatine with your electrolytes, so I just do my lemon water in the morning with my electrolytes and my creatine, along with 20 other supplements. A lot of supplements going there.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

I've tasted that water. I'm gonna give it like as far as flavor goes, I'm probably gonna give it a five, but I'm gonna give it a 10 as far as a booster. Yeah, yeah. There's some sketchy flavors. Okay, good. So that's like the morning protein regimen. But that doesn't easy way to get 50 grams of it. Easy. And I, by the time I get home from the gym or even close to lunch, I'm ready to eat again like that. Yeah. So quick. Yeah. 50 grams of protein, no problem.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

So then what's another meal you might have? Because you and I talk about this. We do a lot of similar meals.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Oh, yes. I protein is always first. So I'm either rotating that around, I'll do beef, I'll do access deer that I hunted. That's an incredible source of protein. It's very lean. It's very lean. So I'll add fat to proteins that of course are very, very lean. So I'll cook with ghee, beef tallow, mainly those two. Sometimes, I don't know, coconut oil, occasionally, but not really. Yeah. And then I add some sort of fibrous vegetable. I love to eat kimchi, sauerkraut with meats. Um but I always eat the protein first. Like that is number one that I that I go to. And then if I'm having a carb, which I will because if I'm lifting, it will typically be fruit. And then also sometimes I will have white rice. Yep. I will have that, but I also make sure that I eat that last and I eat it cold. Yeah, of course. So one thing that I learned about rice is that if it's cooled rice, and I don't even reheat it very warm at all. I eat it's still no, I eat it's still pretty much cold. It's the lower glycemic.

unknown 26:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

So basically, when you cook and cool rice, the properties like the higher carbohydrates in rice turn into resistant starch, which essentially is almost like fiber. So it really lowers the glycemic index. And if you can test it on a blood sugar monitor, cooled rice is much better than hot rice. Yes. And it's much better than sushi rice. People think, well, if I go to a sushi restaurant, should I just have rolls? They put sugar water in their rice. And it has sugar on it, literally is like filled with sugar. Yeah. So you can you, I mean, yeah, you test it for yourself, but it is a cheap meal. Yeah, it tastes delicious, but it is, I don't ever consider that. I mean, how are you gonna get 30 to 40 grams of protein from sushi rolls? No, you're still full from the rice. I get sashimi when I go to sushi restaurants, but given all the parasite cleansing in the last few years, I haven't done that either.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

That's a whole nother topic. We'll get to it on a different podcast. It's like parasite conversation. Basically, that's it. I'm always just protein, veggies, and if I'm having a source of healthy fat. A source of healthy fat. And then usually my carbs, I'm eating them around at lunch because I lift before carbs in the morning with the fruit. Yep. Carbs at the afternoon, and my I take my carb content down as the day goes on, and I just replace that with fat.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah, I did because I lifted last night, which is unusual for me. I lifted at six o'clock at night. Well you're gonna burn that right away. Right. So when I came home, I can't remember what I had first. I had, oh, I made cauliflower, greens, and brown beef with olive oil in the skillet. It was so good. And I just don't felt like I still needed something after. So I just spread one tablespoon of peanut butter. You know, we are a few of them. I had to weigh it. I put the dim banana on the Stuart scale, weighed the banana first, and then did one tablespoon of peanut butter, and I was so sick.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Yeah, so good. Yeah, yeah. Banana likes for a little dessert with some healthy fat on it.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Oh, it's pretty good. So good. Banana's great. But I would never, ever, ever eat that by itself. You would eat it with protein. Yeah, you have to eat it. Oh, protein first. Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

And sometimes if I don't feel like cooking, if I get a little lazy, I will do the kefir chia seeds, protein powder, and a Greek yogurt. Oh mixed combo.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

I just made it before I left to come here. Perfect. Before we recorded, because I'll have that later today. I'll make the chia seed pudding. It's so good. And just if anyone wants to make that, I highly recommend this recipe, which is you just mix three tablespoons of chia seeds with so that's 30 grams. And I'd like to talk in grams because we weigh everything. Yep. So 30 grams of organic black chia seeds, 180 grams of my favorite kefir, which Laura already talked about, which is the Alexander Family Farms. I use the low fat one lately. I also like goat kefir.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Oh, goat kefir is so good. I don't know if I'm a little more tart, which I like. I love it. I've only done goat's milk. Oh, I love goat kefir. Where did you find goat kefir? Whole Foods or here in Minnesota at Lake One's Co-op.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Do you remember the brand? I have it in my fridge. Yeah, let me see it. Because I've only known that I've seen the goat's milk and the goat's yogurt, but I never buy the goat's yogurt because it's so low protein and it's runny. This is gonna change your life. So this Redwood Farms or is this the other one? No, Meyenberg? Redwood Hill. Yes, previously. That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

This is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

They do have a bathroom. Oh, I'm so excited. Yep. Okay, this is great. Previously, Redwood Hill. Yes, Mayenberg brought them. I did hear that. Okay. Okay, certified humane. It doesn't taste like goat cheese either, because I don't love if something gets too goat.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Goat milk doesn't taste like goat cheese eating. No, it's and it's great if you have any sort of dairy sensitivity. I'm so excited to see that.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Okay. That's my goat kefir. I'm gonna try that. So I've been using the Alexander Farm. So it's 30 grams of chia seeds, 180 grams of the kefir, whichever kind of use. And then you let I put a bunch of organic cinnamon in too because that's helps with fat burning. Yeah. It's just silly. And then you put that in the fridge for about an hour. You can even let it sit overnight because I think it's even creamier, which I love. And really dense like a pudding. Yes, it's very dense like a pudding. And then when I'm ready to eat it, I just put my bowl on the food scale and I add a serving of my protein powder, which depending on which brand, I usually use mirror gold. Yeah. But I have lots of protein powders. I've been trying, you know what one I really like now? Which one? Just ingredients. That girl, I can't remember her name.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

On Instagram, I think that's her Instagram handle. I cannot remember her name up right now. It'll come to me. But she came out with, so I found them at Whole Foods, she sells them there. I bought the vanilla and I bought the chocolate. And one of them, I can't remember if it's a dilly chocolate, there's so much fiber in it, it's zero carbs. Oh, interesting. Because there's cheese, it's whey and pea, and chia seed. It's like a mix of all these proteins, so it's a really good amino acid profile. Anyways, I'm excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

And also, I think we should mention that when you're talking about whey proteins, I am a whey protein isolate. The whey protein world is also like the Wild West. I'm not an advocate of whey protein concentrates. It's agreed. I think it's the cheap whey protein.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

It's not as bioavailable. Is that correct? That's my understanding. Now I have heard some controversy on that because I do trust one of my really good scientific friends. Sure. He likes concentration. We'll come back to you on that because he says concentrate is actually better than isolate. He's told me that's isolate. And I thought you've got to be kidding me. I don't know the answer to that. I'm gonna have to look it up because I know that I watched a video on him talking about it, but it was like a year ago, so I've got to look that up. Because he he also manufactures protein, so hard of us could be self-interested because he's got concentrate in what he serves. But he he is deep in the science on it, so I don't want to speak out of school about it. Yeah, we'll dig into more of that. So then I said that and then I would add berries. Or I would add four ounces, six ounces. It depends. If I do raspberries, I mean the amount of fiber you guys in this chia seed pudding, if you add a bunch of raspberries on top of it, is outrageously good. It's so good for you. Well, there's 10 grams of fiber per tablespoon of chia seeds. Right. And then in a container of raspberries, like a six-ounce container, 11 grams of fiber. It's amazing. It's so good. And then I top it with two tablespoons of peanut butter or a fourth of a cup, like 28 grams of walnuts or other nuts. I'll use like a heavier fat nut. Walnuts are so good in it.

unknown 32:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

That sounds delicious. I've just tried the walnuts.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

It's so good. It's so good.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

And that's like you can eat that for dinner if you want. Like that's just easy. Yeah. It's fast. It's not necessarily cooking, cleaning, whatever. But I don't, I think that's like I think we covered a lot.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

And I think maybe get a plug for our favorite marigold bars because we love them. Yeah, marigold bars are very good. They're so good. And they do you do have to keep them in the fridge, but or freezer. Yeah. And I can't.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Which is not a bad thing because it does not have preservatives. I am the protein bar situation. That's another one. Those are yeah, that's totally Wild West. Consider that basically like a candy bar. Like if you flip it over, you're mostly either getting carbs and fats and very little protein. And the majority, anyone I flip over, I'm always like, no, no, no, no. You have to either take protein powder on the road with you. Yep. Yep. And like when I travel to remote destinations, sometimes I'm surviving on protein powder and water and some fibrous something for a couple days just to get through. Cause those the bars are not no, there's nothing. So like protein isolate chips in there. Yeah, they're like a candy bar. Yeah. Truly.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

Like I go to Whole Foods. There isn't one single one that I see on the shelf there that I'm like, well, I could recommend this to clients. Everyone. When I meet one, I'm oh yeah. The meat one's okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

But those are okay. And I've taken those. But those are the epic bars. Yes, thank you. Epic bars. And but that's only eight grams of protein for 130 calories plus the sugar they put in.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

So what I tell my clients instead is like the chomps beef sticks because they're grass-fed beef. Yep. And there's more protein in those sticks than they're 100 calories. Yeah. Those are better. But like have that with a marigold bar. And that could be a meal because then totally of protein, you know.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

That's like when you're in survival mode. They have the kids' version, which I really like. The chomps or whatever. Oh, yes. They have the pizza flavored ones. Oh, I have a lot of fun. And they're little, those are actually really good. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Okay, that sounds amazing. Now I'm gonna go get myself some pizza flavored chomps. Oh, this is fun. Super fun. Well, we're we're just getting started. We've probably rambled on. We would love it if you would give us your feedback on what you thought about this episode because we would love to bring you more episodes like this in the future. Bye-bye.