Welcome back!
My name is Samantha Linden,
Also known as the Blissful Soul.
This is our series,
Happy Hormones,
A 30-day gut reset for women.
If you haven't started from day one yet,
I highly recommend doing so to maximize your success and understanding.
The other day,
We discussed some of the best eating strategies to support estrogen for days 1-10.
As you work on becoming metabolically flexible,
A few optional tools can be helpful.
I've found these tools quite beneficial,
From my experience,
Guiding people through this process.
The first tool is a carb manager app that you can easily download.
These apps are excellent for tracking your daily food intake.
We're moving away from the old calorie-in,
Calorie-out approach and focusing more on counting macros – proteins,
Fats,
And carbs.
Carb manager apps simplify tracking your macros,
Which is crucial for becoming metabolically flexible.
You'll notice a few important things once you start paying attention to your macros.
First,
Carbs,
Especially refined ones,
Can significantly spike sugar levels.
Spend a few days inputting your food into the carb manager app,
And you'll see how much those carbs can affect your sugar levels.
We aim to keep our net carbs at around 20 during the first 10 days.
You can calculate this by subtracting the grams of fiber from the total carbohydrates.
While you can do this from nutritional labels,
Natural foods don't have them,
So that these apps will do it for you.
For example,
A cup of broccoli has 5.
6 carbs and 2.
2 grams of fiber,
Making it 3.
4 net carbs.
You could do this manually,
But many of these apps are free and make it easy.
After a few weeks,
You'll learn these values and won't need to track them daily.
The second thing to monitor is protein.
Protein can help stabilize sugar levels for some people and lower them for others.
Aim for at least 50 grams of protein to ensure you get the right amount.
Getting enough protein is essential,
Especially if you're trying to build muscle.
Some menopausal women might not get the protein they need while trying to lose weight.
But cutting back on protein can slow muscle growth.
I do better with more protein,
Around 90 to 100 grams.
So find your balance,
Monitoring your protein intake and focusing on adding more healthy fats to your diet is crucial.
Fats are great because they help keep your blood sugar levels steady and can even help you burn fat.
If you're curious about your glucose and ketone levels,
A gadget that tracks both can help determine if you're in fat-burning mode.
Remember,
The most critical first step is to widen your fasting window.
My second tip is to invest in a glucose monitor to keep yourself on track.
As you have heard me mention a few times,
I think it is a great tool to investigate how our bodies respond.
However,
Fasting is free and has many health benefits,
So focus on that first.
For tomorrow,
Break your fast between 13 and 15 hours.
And if you have a monitor,
Continue to track your blood sugar in the morning to see your trends.
We will then move on to macronutrients.
See you then!
