Wellness with Vanda
A women's health podcast where we'll be talking about hormones, mindset, motherhood, & everything in between. The host, Vanda, is a functional medicine nurse coach that helps women overcome hormone imbalance so that they can achieve optimal wellness. In her private practice she specializes in HTMA testing and DUTCH testing. Throughout this podcast she shares tips for boosting energy naturally, improve mood, recover from mom burnout, ways to increase fertility, ways to improve sleep quality, tips for pregnancy, tips for navigating postpartum and the fourth trimester, and more!
Wellness with Vanda
20: Why I Don't Care What You Eat
Are you tired of the endless cycle of macro-counting and feeling shackled by dietary restrictions? Let's break free as we explore the liberating world of tuning into your body. I promise you'll come away with a newfound appreciation for your body's wisdom and how it can guide your nutrition choices. We're shifting the focus from rigid dietary tracking to a more natural, stress-free relationship with food. I delve into the importance of listening to our body's hunger and satisfaction signals, and I talk about how to strike a balance that includes protein, fiber, fat, and carbs without obsessing over numbers. You'll learn that by honoring our cravings and hunger, we can fuel ourselves adequately and maintain a healthier, happier lifestyle.
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Alright, welcome back to the podcast. I am going to be talking about something today that, honestly, I'm having a little bit of trouble articulating and figuring out exactly what I want to say and how to make my point, how to deliver this education. I thought about I wanted to do a reel on it, I thought about making a post and I just I don't know, I just couldn't figure out how to do that, and so I thought I'm going to take this to the podcast and I'm going to record an episode about it, because it's something that I probably will also be doing a an updated training on for my VIP members, and that is the fact that I am a lot less worried about what you are eating and more so focused on you are eating enough, and this is a really I don't know. It's kind of a different perspective, I feel like, than what a lot of health coaches and practitioners and people are preaching right now.
Speaker 1:I think that there is a heavy, heavy focus on getting enough protein and how many carbs should you have, and kind of even still in this tracking mindset or people trying to teach you how to track these things without actually tracking them, and I think that it leads to a lot of confusion and it also leads people to feeling like they're still trying to follow this like very rigid recommendation or this rigid I was gonna say schedule schedule is not the right word plan of like what exactly they should be doing and eating every day. And I think that you guys have probably figured this out by now, but if you haven't, my approach to diet and nutrition is largely that we need to get back in tune with what our bodies are telling us, with what our hunger cues are, with what our cravings are and why we might be craving a certain thing, like what message that's trying to our body is trying to send us through that craving and how to manage those things. And I totally get that when someone is either brand new to maybe trying to like really be intentional with their health for the first time, or they have come from really strict dietary guidelines, like they've followed a specific type of diet, like maybe they've done Weight Watchers or Keto or I don't know, like the Atkins diet or something like there's very specific parameters around those things. And when they're transitioning to this world of like I don't really want to call it intuitive eating, because intuitive eating kind of teaches like you just eat whatever you want, whenever you want, however much you want. And I think that, like there definitely does need to be some some like guardrails on it a little bit, but it is much more of a intuitive I'm going to listen to what my body is telling me type thing that I really believe in and believe works the best. And I have said before many times that, like my goal for my clients and even people that are just like in my community, that are not my clients my goal for them is to be able to just eat like a normal person, and sometimes people don't even really know what I mean when I say that, and so what I'm, what I mean by that is like I don't think that it's normal necessarily for you to feel like you have to track everything you put in your mouth. I don't think it's normal to sit down and plan out your meal and be like, okay, do I have exactly 30 grams of protein here? Do I have exactly, you know, 10 grams of fiber or five grams of fiber? Like I don't think that that is how we were meant to operate. I don't think that's the way Jesus created it. I just think that we need to like.
Speaker 1:The most important thing that we can do for our bodies especially when we're in a state of trying to like, heal and maybe reverse some damage that we've unintentionally done to our bodies is to make sure that we're giving our body enough fuel. Your body is really smart. I don't think we give our bodies enough credit sometimes, but your body is really smart, it will. It will guide you and tell you and lead you towards what things that you should eat, within reason. I mean, I do understand there are times where we crave, you know, ice cream, and that may or may not be like the best decision for us to make that day, but but you know you will notice that you'll have periods of time in your life or throughout the month where you're like man, I should really want some vegetables. Well, that's, that is a signal from your body that you need more like micronutrients. Stop, or you know different things.
Speaker 1:And when we can learn to just like tune into that, it removes a lot of stress from our diet, because then you just don't have to worry about it as much, you don't have to plan as much. It's kind of like one of those things that you can just kind of take off of your to-do list because you don't have to sweat it anymore, you don't have to stress out about it anymore. You can just eat and not have to give it so much thought. And there are, you know, definitely, people that that give more thought to this than others, but there are some people that are literally obsessing over every single meal that they can consume, and that level of obsession is stress and, as you guys know, like the biggest culprit that I see in my clients, that is, like at the root cause of their symptoms, is really the amount of stress that we are under in our normal day to day. So, all of that being said, I do think you know when you go you go bowling and you know you have the option to put up the bumper pads, so they're either like these little plastic things or these things that blow up and they keep you basically can't get a dutter ball. I think with diet and nutrition, we have to kind of have the option for these guardrails.
Speaker 1:I think it is good for us to be aware that when we are looking down at our plate, that we should have certain components there should be protein, there should be fiber, there should be fat and there should be carb on this plate Every time that you go to eat. When you are having a meal, you should have all these components. Snacks are a little bit differently. Like in general, you're probably still gonna kind of have all of those components, but like maybe maybe for a snack you don't have as much like carb or something. Like maybe you really only have protein and fat or protein and fiber or something, but that's just for a snack. When you are sitting down to a meal, you should have all those components there. And I even think it's okay for us to have some general guidelines like 20 to 30 grams of protein, five to 10 grams of fiber. But I think that it has to be a range, and I think that that is what gives you room to tune into your body and be like okay, I'm super hungry right now, so I'm going to have a little extra protein. Or I know that I had like a really intense workout today, so I'm going to need some more carbs. Or I'm going to do a really intense workout here in just a little bit, so I'm going to eat more carbs to fuel that workout. I think it's good to have that knowledge because then you can make an informed decision about what you're putting on your plate.
Speaker 1:What I don't think is helpful is getting obsessed about the amounts and tracking and eating to merely hit those goals. And there was I have a friend that I follow on Instagram her name is Cindy Shadsman account. I would share it with you guys, but it's private. She was just talking this past week about how, for a period of time, she was eating protein just to hit a specific protein number and she was like I was overeating, like I wasn't hungry. Still, I was overeating, but I was eating it because I specifically thought in my mind, because someone had told me and taught me that, that I had to hit this certain protein amount. Well, that doesn't really serve us in the long run because, in the end, yes, calories and calories out does still matter and it is still impactful. It's not the only thing, by any means, it's not the only important piece, and in that scenario, calories are going to be less coming from protein than they are if it was, say, carbs, but it's still making an impact. It's still making a difference and it's just an example of how, even with the best of intentions, we can still not be tuning into our body and what our body is really telling us.
Speaker 1:You know, I do teach my clients when we very first start working together, especially if they have like no idea how much carb, how much fat, how much fiber they're getting in a day. I do teach them and tell them and advise them to track, for, you know, three to five days of just like however you normally eat, just eat like normal, put it in the app or whatever later, because that's going to help you learn where you're at. Like you, some of like you cannot just magically look at a piece of chicken and be like, yep, that's X amount of protein. You have to kind of teach that to yourself over time and learn that over time. But it's the, it's the obsession with hitting a specific number or having a specific guideline to go by.
Speaker 1:I see this with my clients. Sometimes they will want me to tell them exactly how much protein at each meal they should eat. They want to know exactly how much carbs they should be getting in a day and I can't tell you that like I can give general recommendations, general guidelines, but then it's it's really for like you to troubleshoot with your own body and figure out what works for you, because what works for you and what works for Sally and what works for Jane and what works for me are not going to be the same thing, because our bodies are all different, our activity levels are all different, our ages are different, our ages are different, our metabolism are different. It's all very unique and individualized and like yes, there is a ton of stuff that we learn from htma testing that helps us take an individualized and truly like customized approach to someone's care plan. But when it really comes down to the food that you're consuming and the amounts that you need of these certain like macros, it's kind of a play around with it and see what works, type of thing.
Speaker 1:But again, the most important thing that you can do, the most helpful thing that you can do for yourself, is to tune into your own body Really like what sounds good to me, like what of this meal you know, like, let's say, you go somewhere and they're having like a cookout or they are having like, I don't know, it's a birthday party, and there's like a big variety of foods, like what things that are available to you sound good and and you find yourself like wanting. And then it's also important to like after you have Consumed a meal, kind of take a second to take like mental note of like okay, how did that meal make me feel? Do I feel really sluggish and like I need a nap now? Do I feel bloated, like I ate too much, or do I feel good like? Do I feel Energized? I don't feel overstuffed like. I feel like my food is digesting well, I'm not hungry. Pretty quick after the meal, you know like it sustains me for a good period of time.
Speaker 1:Those are the things that you want to look for and start to notice about what you're consuming and then, as time goes on, that Is how you learn what works for your body and you can just Eat without all of the like thought and stress and planning and extra work that I see sometimes going into People trying to focus on their nutrition. So that is why, like when I start working With a client and even really when I have been working with them for a good amount of time, I am so much less concerned with how specifically how much protein you had at every meal and specifically how many carbs you had at every meal. Then I am looking at the big picture of, like the day or the week, did you fuel your body enough, because that is such a big thing that I see with so many, so many people are under eating and they don't intend to, they don't realize that they are, but they're under eating and that is like a big, big culprit of Mineral depletion, hormone dysregulation, slowed metabolism, like all the things that I work with clients on. That's a big culprit along with stress, but I I am much more focused on Did you eat enough and can you listen to what your body is telling you that it needs, or are you still so shut off from those signals and messages in your body that you're just worried about hitting a certain number or hitting a certain goal? So that's all that I have for you guys today. I just wanted to share that. I wanted to share that different like perspective.
Speaker 1:Maybe if you are someone that is still feeling the need that like you have to hit certain numbers or you have to track, or you just like completely go off the rails or you can't like maintain if you don't track, or even if you're just loosely tracking or you're just kind of mentally tracking, if that is still largely dictating what you're eating as opposed to kind of what you want to eat, what your body is telling you it needs, then I really encourage you to take a step back from the tracking and the obsessing about the numbers and just try to get in tune with your body, try to listen to what it's telling you, try to hear those signals and it takes time, I will give you that. It takes time, especially if that is something like that you have shut off and ignored and not paid attention to for a long period of time. It's not gonna be easy and, like I said earlier, it is hard sometimes when our body is screaming at us that, like, we need ice cream at bedtime. Well then you kind of have to step back and think okay, what is it about my day that I did today that my body thinks it needs this ice cream at night? And there's so many different factors, but you have to think through those.
Speaker 1:It's like, did I have a really emotional day today? And this is like an emotional thing that I'm seeking out, like some dopamine, because I've had a crappy day and I need something to make me like, get those feel good hormones, is it? I've had a great day, but I was really busy and I didn't eat enough. Or maybe I did eat my normal amount, but I was much more active today for some reason than I normally am, so it just didn't meet my like fueling needs as the day went on. So yeah, so that's all that I have for you guys today. I will be back next week and I hope you have a great week.
