Weight Set-Point Theory – We Can’t Fight Biology

Weight Set-Point Theory – We Can’t Fight Biology

Dec 12, 2019 | Nutrition

“I just need to lose this last 5 pounds.”  “I have hit a plateau and cannot get these last 10 pounds off.”  As a coach I hear this on a daily basis.  I get it and I have been there.  I have worked to lose weight in order to get to some magical number on the scale that will suddenly make me happy so I am by no means judging anyone who has these thoughts or feelings.  It is not our fault.  It is society’s fault.  Diet culture has done so much damage over the years and led us to believe that weight loss is our responsibility and that it is something that is doable and sustainable forever.  Diet culture has left us chasing a magic number on the scale that may be attainable but not sustainable or realistic over time, and has left us unable to listen to our body’s natural hunger and satiety cues so that we can settle at our natural weight range.  

In essence, we are set up to fail miserably every time.  What do we do about this?  How do we get to our desired weight and move on with our lives?  That is not an easy question, and the answer is not cut and dry, but read on and you may find some ounce of sanity that will encourage you to stop chasing that number on the scale.  

Enter set-point theory.  Your set-point weight is the healthy weight that your body aims for.  In other words our body weight is regulated at a set and genetically predetermined range that is controlled by much more than calories in and calories out.  We all have different settings that impact our normal body weight.  Some hover at a higher set point and others hover at a lower set point.  Experts equate it to our body being like a thermostat.  If your thermostat is high you are someone who tends to carry a little more weight and if it is low you tend to carry a lower set point.  Your body will fight anything that tries to push you out of this state of homeostasis, hence the rapid weight gain that you see after someone completes a diet.  

Think of it as a preferred temperature on a fat thermostat.  Your system works around the clock to do anything it can to bring you back into homeostasis.  The further your body veers from the set-point, the stronger the pull will be to get you back to your body’s comfortable range.  Just like a thermostat, this theory only works properly if you don’t mess with it.  Think about your grandmother who is always complaining about being cold.  She keeps going back to the thermostat to turn it up every few minutes, never giving it a chance to work the way it is supposed to to warm the house.  This is what diets do to your body’s natural need to find its set-point.  If you keep messing with it by restricting and dieting, your body fights back and forces you to regain any lost weight and will also try to protect itself by adding even more weight than when you started.  This is how chronic dieters end up with higher and higher set points because the body is protecting itself from future diets (famines).  

Just like breathing, digestion, and temperature control, we cannot control our set-point.  We don’t tell people to stop breathing so why is it normal to tell people to stop eating to fit into a size 0 jeans?  Just like your body maintains oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, blood volume, and blood sugar, in an effort to maintain homeostasis, it also maintains the proper amount of body fat that you need in order to function best. Controlling this through dieting just throws the system off and as mentioned above, increases your set-point.  

The Hypothalamus 

This region of your brain is the king and ruler of your weight set-point.  It picks up on sensations of food that smells good, the sensations of eating the food, and the fullness you may feel from eating too much of any food.  It is also in tune with how much body fat you have at any given point in time and does what it can to regulate this.  

For example, lets say you are losing weight and you get below your set-point.  Your hypothalamus will try to regulate your eating and activity levels to get back to where you are meant to be.  Hormones will be released to influence your appetite causing you to craver higher fat food so that you can gain the weight back.  Additionally, you will feel a lower drive to move and do physical activity.  This is your body fighting back thanks to the hypothalamus.  Sometimes our willpower is strong enough to fight this but not for long.  Eventually biology becomes more forceful and you may feel cold and lethargic all of the time.  These are signs of a slowed metabolism.  There are many studies to support these findings and they can be found in the groundbreaking book Health At Every Size by Linda Bacon.  

Identifying Your Set-Point:  are you above, at, or below your set-point?

How do you know if you are at your true set-point?  According to Linda Bacon, author of Health At Every Size, your set-point is:

  • the weight you maintain when you listen and respond to your body’s signals of hunger and fullness
  • the weight you maintain when you don’t fixate on your weight or food habits
  • the weight you keep returning to between diets

You are above your set-point if:

  • you have difficulty recognizing when you are hungry and full
  • you often eat beyond a comfortable level of fullness
  • you go through periods where you eat out of control anticipating a diet coming soon
  • you skip meals to lose weight and then overeat later
  • you overeat and then figure you have blown your diet and eat even more
  • you fluctuate between periods of sensible eating and eating out of control

You are below your set-point if:

  • you are chronically cold
  • you feel like you are constantly preoccupied with food and are often desperately hungry
  • you wake up with an overwhelming urge to eat
  • you have difficulty sleeping due to hunger
  • you have a low sex drive
  • you have infrequent periods
  • you have apathy, fatigue, are irritable, and have depression

Doesn’t being where your body is meant to be sound amazing and so freeing?  It is!  I too, have suffered from trying to force my body into places it is not meant to be and I am here to tell you that it is possible to escape from that cycle.  My diet culture dropout series is for you if you want to be free.  Follow me and message me on instagram @eat_the_banana_nutrition to find out more!  

4 Hacks To Sneak In More Veggies

4 Hacks To Sneak In More Veggies

Aug 29, 2019 | Nutrition

Vegetables are one of the most important parts of nutrition in that they contain more vitamins and micronutrients than any other food.  They also contain high amounts of fiber which helps us with proper bowel function, lowers cholesterol, and may lower the risk of heart disease.  We know all of this yet we struggle so much with getting enough veggies in our system each and every day.  The USDA recommends 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies per day.  It is super easy to get those tasty sweet fruits in but vegetables definitely pose a challenge for most.  Myself included!  I love them but they take time to prepare and I do not always get enough into my day.  Below are 4 veggie hacks that I use to get most of my veggies in.

Smoothies

For some, the thought of a green smoothie is not appealing but I have found ways to add vegetables to my smoothies that taste amazing.  In fact, you can’t even taste them.  The two veggies that I put in my smoothies most of the time are spinach and frozen cauliflower.  I highly recommend buying the frozen cauliflower and fresh spinach and keeping both in the freezer.  This allows you to have that cold, ice-like texture in your smoothies and you do not even taste them.  I do not have an exact measurement for what I put in my “green” smoothies and I vary up the ingredients but those two veggies always make their way into my morning or afternoon smoothie. My go to includes:

  • unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • frozen blueberries
  • half of a banana (sometimes a full one)
  • 1/2 cup of oats if I need some extra carbs
  • handful of frozen spinach
  • handful of frozen cauliflower
  • 1 Tbsp of chia seeds
  • powdered peanut butter
  • scoop of chocolate protein powder of choice (I use Publix Greenwise most of the time)

Some other veggie options could include kale and zucchini but get creative and find something that is convenient and tasty so you will stick to it.

Oats

I eat protein oats almost every single day for breakfast.  I have to give credit to Annie at Power Up Nutrition for the “proats” (protein oats) that I eat almost daily but one thing I have implemented to increase my veggie intake is riced cauliflower.  You can make your own riced cauliflower or you can buy it pre-made or frozen.  As with the smoothie, you do not taste it amongst the other ingredients.

“Proats” (protein oats):

  • 2/3 cup water
  • 1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten free oats
  • 1/3 cup egg whites
  • 1/3 cup of pre-made cauliflower rice

Optional Toppings:  you can vary these and choose whatever you want to taste

  • collagen or other types of protein for extra protein
  • bananas
  • berries
  • Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
  • cinnamon or pumpkin spice
  • peanut butter or powdered peanut butter
  • granola

Frozen Veggies

It does not have to be as complicated as you might think.  Sometimes you may not have time to chop and prepare veggies to roast or cook.  That shouldn’t be an excuse to avoid vegetables.  You can find any type of vegetable in the frozen food section, microwave it up, and add butter and season it to your liking.  I like to use Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning or simply salt and pepper.  Easy peasy!

Wellness Greens

Now I know that some greens out there are absolutely disgusting and taste like you are drinking dirt but there are a few I have tried that are 4 veggie hacksreally good.  The best one is by Poliquin.  They have chocolate, strawberry kiwi, and even espresso.  I have put the strawberry kiwi flavor in shakes and even my oats.  The espresso I have mixed with ice coffee for an afternoon pick me up!  Right from their website:

These Wellness Greens are an easy-to-mix, great tasting, nutrient-rich superfood formula with whole food concentrates designed to provide synergistic phytonutrient nutrition. It provides a “super blend” of 100% natural fruit and vegetable extracts, vitamins, flax lignans, ionic trace minerals, enzymes, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and symbiotic intestinal flora.

I know some might be hesitant but trust me, these taste good and the ingredients are amazing and beneficial for all kinds of good reasons.  Click their link above to read more.

Those are my easy and simple hacks to add more veggies to your life.  Of course, you do what works for you but challenge yourself to implement one of these and see how it goes.  Good luck!!! 

Four Reasons you NEED Carbohydrates

Four Reasons you NEED Carbohydrates

Aug 25, 2019 | Fitness, Nutrition

With the advent of the Atkin’s Diet in the early 1970’s most of us grew up in a time where carbohydrates were villainized and portrayed as something you need to avoid at all costs in order to lose weight or not be fat.  Over the years there have been numerous diets that revolve around this flawed thinking and somewhere along the way we lost sight of why we truly need carbs.  Think, Whole 30, Paleo, and Keto diets.   There are many reasons to eat carbohydrates but I am going to focus on the 4 reasons that they are a necessary part of your diet.

Brain Function

The brain needs glucose to function properly.  Since the body most easily creates glucose as it metabolizes carbohydrates, it stands to reason that without an adequate amount of carbohydrates in your diet you may experience brain fog and lower cognitive function.  In a 2008 study done by Tufts University this hypotheses was tested and showed that the women in the study needed carbohydrates to think more clearly.

While the brain uses glucose as its primary fuel, it has no way of storing it. Rather, the body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, which is carried to the brain through the blood stream and used immediately by nerve cells for energy. Reduced carbohydrate intake should thus reduce the brain’s source of energy. Therefore, researchers hypothesized that diets low in carbohydrates would affect cognitive skills. The data suggest that after a week of severe carbohydrate restriction, memory performance, particularly on difficult tasks, is impaired.  

“Although this study only tracked dieting participants for three weeks, the data suggest that diets can affect more than just weight,” says Taylor. “The brain needs glucose for energy and diets low in carbohydrates can be detrimental to learning, memory, and thinking.

In essence, if you deprive yourself of carbohydrates you are also depriving your brain of its main energy source and diminishing your ability to take in information and hindering memory and thinking abilities.  

Carbs are our main source of ENERGY

I have said this before and I will say it again.  You do not walk around with an uncharged cell phone, so why would you try to exercise or exist without our body’s main source of energy.  Glucose, which comes from carbohydrates, is the very first option that our body goes to when we exercise.  When we are doing high intensity interval training workouts like CrossFit, Orangetheory, or heavy weightlifting carbohydrates delay fatigue and allow us to compete at higher levels for longer periods of time.  

Without an adequate amount of stored glucose the body will turn to muscle protein for energy which does not allow protein to do its main job of building and repairing muscles.  High levels of training day in and day out without optimal carbohydrate consumption will cause fatigue and will not allow you to maintain and build new muscles.  

Recovery and Sleep

Along the same lines, we also need carbohydrates to recover from intense physical activity.  Just like we fill up our gas tanks when they are empty, we need to replenish our glycogen stores after we train hard.  Most of us will naturally reach for a protein shake after a workout, and this is also necessary, but carbohydrates are also something we need in order to get the most out of our training post workout.  My blog on pre and post workout recovery explains just how to fuel and re-fuel before and after your workouts.  

In addition, carbohydrates have been shown to help with sleep.  According to a study done in Australia, carbohydrates can help you fall asleep faster.  It was found that high glycemic carbohydrates such as potatoes, cereals, rice, and fruits eaten 4 hours before bed can boost tryptophan and serotonin, two brain chemicals involved in sleep.  Carbs before bed?  Yes please!

Carbs are delicious as f*@k! 

This goes back to my anti-diet agenda.  Carbohydrates are a delicious and nutritious food group that has been villainized for long enough.  They taste amazing and they make you happy.  If you want potatoes, eat them.  If you want rice, eat it.  What is sushi without rice for god’s sake?  If you want a fun treat like a piece of candy or some cookies, eat them.  Deprivation leads to scarcity mindset which leads to bingeing which has long term effects both physically and mentally.  Life is too short to skip the carbs or skip the dessert.  Just eat it!  

Fruits and vegetables are the most micronutrient rich sources of carbs but things like rice, potatoes, pasta, oat, breads, cereals, quinoa, beans, and legumes are tasty and a filling addition to any meal.  Get creative and don’t fear the carbohydrate!  Happy eating!

Meal Preparation Made Easy

Meal Preparation Made Easy

Aug 13, 2019 | Life, Nutrition

One of the most popular questions I get is about meal planning and meal preparation.  You know the deal.  You start each week with all of the good intentions.  You plan to eat “clean” all week and make good food choices in order to feel your best and then Monday knocks you on the ass.  The kids give you a hard time getting their teeth brushed, your boss is breathing down your neck about a 24 hour deadline, and you spill your coffee on your lap on the way to work.  Lunch time comes around and you do not have anything prepared so you eat on the go and by the time dinner comes you are too tired to care so popcorn and wine become the easiest choice.  You are exhausted and feel like crap only to start over again on Tuesday.  This is not to say that some days you might not intentionally choose to go that route, no judgment if you do, but if you are being honest with yourself you would probably rather have great meals ready to go that make you feel great and taste amazing right? 

meal preparationEnter meal preparation.  To most this task seems so daunting and tedious so we just skip it and try to eat as we go.  The scenario illustrated above happens all too often and is not in our best interest for the most part so I am here to tell you that meal planning does not have to be that difficult nor does it have to take over an entire day of slaving in the kitchen.  Meal prepping can be very simple and very rewarding and you do not have to be an incredible Pinterest chef to plan your meals for the week.  Below is a very simple and painless way to handle meal prep, and it will allow you to be creative so that you do not get bored eating the same exact meals every single day for a week at a time.  

Grocery Shopping

Pick one day of the week that you like to shop and prepare your food.  If that is Sunday, cool, if it is Wednesday, so be it.  There is no hard and fast rule about when is best, just pick a day that works best for you and your schedule and family.  Also, you do not have to buy food for an entire week at a time if that is too overwhelming.  I personally like to go on Sunday and buy for 3-4 days at a time and play Friday and Saturday by ear as our family sometimes eats out on those days.  

When meal prepping you will want to make sure you have all of the macronutrients represented in each meal.  You will need protein, carbohydrates (including vegetables), and fats.  If you shop the perimeter of most stores you will find all of the ingredients that you need.  Every meal does not have to be some creative casserole or extravagant meal so for the purpose of this article I am talking just the basics folks.  Of course, you can reserve a night to make a special dinner for your family that will yield lots of leftovers but keep it simple if your life is super busy and there is not ample time to prep that much.  

While at the store purchase 3 protein sources, 3 carbohydrate sources, 3 vegetables, and 3 fat sources.  Ideas and options for that will be listed below.  No need to decide what will go with what.  Just focus on getting the basics and prepping them how you like and you can go from there.  This of course does not include snacks, fruits, and nuts you might need between meals but you get what I am saying.  

Preparation

Simply cook your protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables so that you have 3 types of each ready to go.  You can do this in bulk and it should not take more than a couple of hours at a time if you are just using simple ingredients.  Now, you have several different combinations of meals you can make.  You do not need to prep them all in perfect serving size containers like you see on Instagram.  Just put them each in their own designated container and portion out what you want when you want it.  

If you have to take a meal to work the next day get it prepared in a smaller container the night before with a serving of protein, carbohydrates, vegetables, and fats and voila, you have a meal ready to go!  You can mix and match thing so that you do not get bored, and you can change up the fat source for each meal if you wish too. Just make sure each meal is covering all of the bases.  Bring snacks with you for in between meals if you need and like to snack and you should be good to go.  Below are some of the food options you can rotate through week to week.

Protein (for the importance of protein click here)

  • Meats (lean or fatty) beef, steak, or wild game
  • Poultry – chicken, turkey
  • Eggs
  • Seafood – wild caught fish and shellfish
  • High quality deli meats
  • Jerky
  • Beans and Lentils
  • Tofu and Tempeh
  • Protein Powders and bars

Carbohydrates

  • Rice
  • Potatoes
  • Legumes
  • Fruit
  • Quinoa
  • Whole grains
  • Pasta
  • Oatmeal

Fats

  • Nuts and nut butters
  • Oils
  • Avocado
  • Cheese
  • Dark Chocolate
  • Chia seeds
  • Full fat yogurt

Like I said, you can buy different foods each week and mix and match as you see fit or based on your cravings on any given day.  Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to be overly creative and keep it simple y’all!  If you have any questions feel free to let me know and as always thanks for reading and sharing!  

 

Why Diets Do Not Work

Why Diets Do Not Work

Jul 28, 2019 | Life, Nutrition

Let me tell you why diets do not work!  For decades we have been chasing that magic number on the scale or that perfect figure that we see in the magazines and Instagram yet we are still running around in circles trying to fit into our skinny jeans or be able to see visible abs in the mirror.  In fact, the very first diet “book” that was ever published was William Banting’s “Letter on Corpulence” in 1864 in response to his weight loss success when he replaced sugar and carbs with mostly meat, fish, and vegetables.  From there fad diets began to appear in many different forms.  

It is easy to see that the “solution” is something we cannot seem to find when you scroll through facebook and see ad after ad about the newest and greatest diet trend that will “help you lose the weight for good”.  If diets worked wouldn’t we all be fit and thin?  If diets worked would we continue to see trend after trend of the latest and greatest way to lose weight?  The worst part is that diets leave us thinking that we are less than, that we failed yet again, and that it is all of our fault.  I am here to tell you that it is not your fault.  You did not fail yet again.  Diets just do not work long term.  In fact, most of the time you end up back where you started and then some.  

In fact, a comprehensive study done by Traci Mann, UCLA associate professor of psychology, found that people who diet will probably lose 5-10% of their body weight in the first six months of dieting but regain most of their weight back.  Also, one-third to two-thirds actually gain more weight on top of that within four to five years.  

“We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.”

“one of the best predictors of weight gain over the four years was having lost weight on a diet at some point during the years before the study started,”

I know that it is hard to believe because we are conditioned to think, if I eat less and move more I should drop the weight.  That is what we have been told our entire lives.  I ask that you open your mind and listen to what I have to say.  I want to also add that I am in no way saying that you should ignore health and nutrition.  If you want to that is your choice, but I do believe that we should be making sound choices that benefit our health in the way of food, fitness, mental health, and physical health.  

I get messages on Instagram all of the time asking what I mean by just eat what you want.  I mean just that, eat what you want, but I also think that we need to listen to our bodies and I am pretty positive that our bodies do not want to live off of ice cream and cookies all day.  I say eat the cookie or the ice cream when you want it, don’t treat it as if it is the devil, but also listen to your body and how it reacts to foods.  I guarantee your body will feel better if you fill it with nutrient rich foods most of the time but overall, your mind and body will function best if you do not demonize any food groups as well.  It takes practice but that is for another blog.  Now that your mind is open lets get to why diets don’t fucking work!

Dieting increases your preoccupation with food and leads to food obsession

One of the most famous studies that I see referenced in my reading and research is the Minnesota Starvation Study.  This study was done by Dr. Ancel Keys in the 1940s.  He recruited four hundred of the most psychologically and physically robust men to participate in a semi-starvation diet of around 1600 calories a day.  This is obscenely low, especially for a man!  At first many physical changes such as complaints of feeling cold, tired, and hungry presented themselves but the most dramatic issue was that suddenly the men were OBSESSED with food.  They obsessed over how they would eat, how they would distribute their calories each day, and some even started collecting cookbooks and obsessing over recipes.  They even began hoarding and sneaking food.  Not normal for men in their 20’s I would say!  

This same thing happened to me when I did my very first formal diet.  I was in my early 20’s and decided to try Weight Watchers.  While it did help me lose weight and opened my eyes to eating more vegetables, not for the nutritional value but moreso because they had a zero point value, but I became obsessed.  I thought about food all of the time, I couldn’t wait to eat my next meal, I cautiously planned each bite that went into my mouth, made sure to do an hour of cardio per day, and I had to give myself a cheat DAY every Saturday where I proceeded to eat everything I saw that had sugar and things I had restricted all week long.  Not healthy at all!  

The point is, when you restrict you will obsess and eventually find ways to binge on the food that you deny yourself.  Forbidding something intensifies the desire to have it and ends in bingeing and guilt.  Not your fault.  The scarcity mindset sets you up to believe you will never get that forbidden food again so you go overboard and vow to start over tomorrow.  A viscous cycle that harms us physically and mentally.  

Dieting eventually makes you eat more, not less

As mentioned above the restriction leads to bingeing and causes you to go overboard above and beyond what you might do if you had a healthy relationship with food.  You restrict, you binge, you are guilty, and repeat.  Studies have shown a causal relationship between dieting and overeating.  Dieters end up eating more in the end due to the restrictive nature of most diets and end up overcompensating.  This perpetuates the all or nothing mentality where you eat one cookie and think, “well I ate that cookie and should not have, so I may as well eat the entire bag”.  

Take me for example.  During my time with Weight Watchers I became obsessed with this sugary Chex Mix and made sure to down an entire bag every Saturday as a treat for myself.  Had I had a better relationship with this particular food item, I may have rationed that out in handfuls throughout the week and only go through half a bag per week rather than an entire bag in one day.  In essence, I was eating more than I would have had I felt more neutral around food.  

Dieting makes you lose sight of your body’s natural hunger and satiety signals

This one is the most detrimental result of chronic dieting.  Our bodies are hardwired to tell us when we are hungry and when we are full or satisfied.  We have actual hormones that tell us these things.  When we diet we ignore our hunger, ignore when we are full, and in essence ruin our relationship with our body.  We render ourselves unable to trust our body’s natural signals.  If we cannot trust our own bodies what can we trust?

Ghrelin is our main hunger hormone. Ghrelin receptors are located in the hypothalamus, an area of the brain responsible for appetite controls. The more you ignore hunger the more ghrelin is produced. So, the more you restrict, the more your body fights back basically.  Even more eye-opening, when you eat, ghrelin is suppressed, but if you are a chronic dieter ghrelin may stay elevated due to you being in an energy deficit. Studies have shown that ghrelin levels in someone who has been dieting can be elevated for up to one year!  Hence, the rebound weight gain!

On the flip side, Leptin is the hormone that tells your brain when you have had enough or when you are full.  If we are ignoring this we have a tendency to overeat past the point of fullness.  If we learn to stop and listen to this natural signal, we may not even need the amount of food that is designated by our macros, points, or strict diet regimen.  We learn to stop when we are full and save the rest for later.  When dieting we ignore these feelings and eat what we are told.  

Dieting is mentally stressful and exhausting

Studies have found that restriction can increase feelings of depression, anxiety, guilt and powerlessness.  Also, dieting can increase the likelihood that you will eat in response to these negative feelings rather than in response to natural hunger.  We have all had a bad day and gone home to down a gallon of ice cream right?  Not that there is anything wrong with that but if you are a chronic dieter you are more likely to handle your feelings of distress with food rather than in other more helpful ways like, yoga, meditating, exercise, or a good conversation with a friend.  

The moral of the story is, it is not your fault.  Diets may serve a purpose at first but the long term effects to your mind, body, and soul are not worth it.  Diets are scientifically set up to make you feel like a failure.  Learning to listen to your body and eating intuitively is the way to go.  It is empowering and healthy and you are allowed to be a real human when learning to eat intuitively.  You can make mistakes, learn from them, and move forward.  Contact me if you are ready to drop out of diet culture.  I have dropped out and have never looked back.  Join me!  

 

 

Hormones and Metabolism: An interview with Kim Schaper

Hormones and Metabolism: An interview with Kim Schaper

Jul 21, 2019 | Life, Nutrition

Nutrition and exercise are a huge part of the equation when it comes to overall health but there are often two things that coaches and doctors miss:  hormones and metabolism.  Hormones have a huge effect on us, especially women, as we age.  From the age of 30 things start to change and can have a negative impact on our mood, sleep, energy, metabolism, and a whole host of other issues.  I am no expert on hormones, although I do recommend that my clients get bloodwork so that we can know what other issues may be hiding in the background.  In an effort to bring awareness to this topic I am excited to share my interview with my good friend Kim Schaper, online hormone/metabolic reset coach.  

 

Introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do and how you came into this line of work. In other words what is your why?

 
Hi, I’m Kim!  I’m an online hormone/metabolic reset coach and I love helping women get healthy, balanced and happy without the obsession.
I got into this line of work back in 2015 when I was burned out from training numerous clients a day within the confines of a small gym.
I knew in my gut I could reach more women and while I loved my clients, I was itching to get in the online space to make a bigger impact.  

 

Why have you made the shift into hormones and their importance to women’s health?

 
After being in the fitness space for a while I quickly realized there were many coaches and trainers missing the boat, myself included.
For many females, especially those who are 30 and above, hormones play a big role in overall health.  They feel as though they’re doing all the things like eating well and exercising enough and not seeing the results they want.
 
I dove into hormones because I had a series of hormonal issues that were not getting resolved just from eating right and exercising.  No matter how much I did, the weight would not budge and I hear this from so many women.  You’re not alone!
 
From women who experience adult acne to mood swings to weight gain, many coaches are not well educated on how to handle their clients health issues.  This is why I’m super passionate about hormones and metabolism because we’re all uniquely different and what might work for one person might not work for another.  
 
Hormones are essential for every woman.  I don’t care who says they’re not, they are lying and it’s mainly men who say it, lol.  Hormones and metabolism are the building blocks to our entire system.  If your thyroid is off, your mood will be dampened and your body will store fat.  If you are insulin resistant, you’ll struggle with excess belly fat and feel like you gained 20 pounds when you look at carbs.  If you have high stress, you can bet your cortisol will get elevated and you’ll hold onto inflammation and store more body fat.
 
No one talks about this stuff.  Most just think if they put you on a simple meal plan you’re supposed to lose weight right away.  Women feel discouraged, frustrated, and feel like a failure when they cannot maintain this level of dieting.  Our bodies don’t care if we want to fit in our skinny jeans, our bodies just want to feel balanced and they will do whatever they need to to get to that state. Even if that means slowing down your metabolic rate or keeping some extra weight on you because of the high stress.
 
I believe all hormones are important for any female.  To be honest, most women don’t know about their cycle, hormones, or endocrine system and to no fault of their own, we’re just told to trust our doctors and carry on.  

 

Which hormones do you believe are the most important to discuss and be aware of for a woman?  What tests should women ask for when going for bloodwork and why?

 
The ones I like to address the most are:
  • Thyroid
  • CRP-inflammation markers
  • Pregnenolone
  • Progesterone
  • Testosterone
  • Estrogen
  • DHEA
I’ve also found there are 4 main contributors to women’s issues: (not all but most)
  • High Cortisol
  • Insulin Resistance
  • Estrogen Dominance
  • Low Thyroid

How do you help women?

 
I really love helping women feel good in their bodies again and educating them on body intuition.  I also want them to know if they feel like something is going on, do not dismiss it!  We know our bodies better than anyone else.  I like to look at the entire picture.  
How’s my clients sleep, nutrition, hormones, exercise, and stress?  All 5 are important for optimal health and wellness.
 
I’ve gone through all of this and it has become my mission to help other women heal quicker than I did and give them access to top notch professionals.  As a female, we’re already wearing a million hats:  mom, wife, daughter, sister, boss, etc. and we don’t have time to run around and find doctor after doctor.  We need guidance and a one stop shop where we can get everything under one umbrella.  

 

How can people get in touch with you?

 
You can email me at info@kimschaper.com and I’m on Facebook and Instagram: Kim.Schaper.  I also have a FREE facebook group: balancing hormones naturally.
 
I met Kim when I was working in Atlanta back in the early 2000’s and an so thankful and honored that she has allowed me to interview her and share her with my following.  She is an amazing resource and I highly recommend reaching out if you need her services.  
 
As always, if you want to change your relationship with food and your body please reach out to me and I would be happy to help!