How to Boost Your Metabolism to Lose Weight (for Midlife Women Especially)

Hi, and welcome to how humans heal. I'm Dr. Donnie Wilson, and in today's episode, I'm looking forward to introducing you to Nagina Abdullah. She's a weight loss coach for women in midlife and a founder of the website called masalabody.com. she helps women to improve and boost their metabolism naturally. I'm so glad you're here with me. This is so important, and so many women have questions around metabolism and body weight, especially in midlife. So I. This is so important and essential what you're talking about. Nagina, thank you so much for coming today.

Thanks for having me here, Dr. Donnie. I'm so happy to have this conversation.

Oh, my gosh. Since I first. We first met in the. In a hot tub at a conference. I love it. It's like. And we, we were just like, oh, my gosh. It's like friends, right at first sight. And to learn that you. Your background is in science. And I also studied my. My degree, my bachelor's degree is in science as well. So I. Total background of yours of studying all the science from cell biology to biochemistry. And you tell us more because, like, you took that science background and now you're. You found ways to translate that science of the body to help women with their weight and metabolism. Tell us more like, how did you figure out that that's something that you wanted to help women with?

Oh, thanks so much. Well, I had struggled myself with sugar cravings and with my weight for my entire life. And so I tried every single diet out there, from Weight Watchers to nutrisystem, south beach to just eating less, counting my calories and points, and then and exercising more. And I was able to lose a little bit of weight and feel slightly accomplished about what I did. But then I would just put it all back on because I didn't want to restrict myself from the foods that I loved. And so what I started doing is I started realizing I couldn't keep continuing my life where I was gaining and losing the same 10 to 12 pounds, and then gaining even more than I had lost every single time, because I just wanted to eat those foods that I had restricted. And so I went to my molecular and cell biology degree. I have a degree from UC Berkeley and a graduate degree from nyu. And so I went to the. The information, the scientific journals that I had access to, and I started looking at what were other ways to actually get to a healthy body weight that, that you really, really like, that is really good for you without restricting. And I started finding out that there was a concept about increasing metabolism instead of restricting calories. And by adding specific foods to our diet, we would actually increase our metabolism. And then even while sitting here, we can be burning more calories than, you know that than, than, than exercising, even if you have your metabolism high. And so I started looking into this, and I started finding that there were specific foods, also some spices that you could add to your diet that would really boost your metabolism. So I started doing this, and I could not believe it. I felt so satiated. I loved what I was eating, and I could not believe what happened to me. I lost £40 in nine months from adding in additional foods and never feeling restricted. And so that's really, you know, what changed everything. It started to feel so easy and very doable. And so I started really sharing what I was, what I was doing with other people around me. But a lot of people just started asking me, what are you doing? How did you lose that weight? After children, you know, you look better than you look 10 years ago. That's what people would tell me. And so I started my website, masala body.com to really teach other women how they can increase their metabolism and the foods to add, how to combine them, because that's a big part of it, and how to know that they were eating enough and not eating too little.

I'm definitely going to go into details about this. I can't wait for, to, for you to, to, for me to ask you more about that. And I wanted to mention that I also have a degree in nutrition, and I, I saw the same thing as a nutritionist. I saw that if we, if we just restrict and we keep counting cal, it doesn't actually work. The math doesn't come out. It doesn't actually help us maintain our weight. Most times when we follow those old dietetic guidelines, we end up gaining weight because it really isn't the way the body works. And I think so many of my patients are so surprised when I teach them how to actually eat more food, especially more protein, at regular intervals. And how then they end up losing weight. Right, because we're always thinking, oh, if I need to lose weight, I need to eat less. But the danger is when women eat too much less, the metabolism gets affected by that. Tell us, tell us the danger of eating too little. What happens to our metabolism?

Yes. Oh, my gosh. And I'm so happy that you are, that you know this. You're. You've seen this. Because until you actually experience it, it almost seems too good to be true. It doesn't seem like actually it could happen because we've been trained our entire lives to eat less, to burn calories. And so, you know, so what's happening is that if we start to eat too little, then our metabolism slows down. That means that our body needs less and less energy to, to, to really do its normal processes, but it's really just surviving. So if you eat too little, your body will use the food that you give it and store it, because it doesn't know when it's getting its next meal. It doesn't know how much it's getting and it's not getting enough. So it's just going to hang on to whatever amounts you're giving it versus when someone has an optimal high metabolism. You're feeding your body, you're actually hungry because you're burning that energy right away. Your body is burning it, and then you're able to eat more. And because you're eating more, you're able to burn fat because your body has enough to survive. So now it can start burning fat. It's not scared to release the fat. And the way that somebody would know that they have a slow metabolism is if you're eating, you know, you're dieting and you're staying stuck. If you're eating, if you're intermittent fasting, if you're cutting calories and you're not really seeing your weight drop, that means that your metabolism is slow. And so you definitely need to speed it up by eating more. But it has to be, Dr. Donnie, like you were mentioning, it has to be more of the right foods. It has to be the actual metabolism boosting foods that are going to get your body burning fat in the right way and burn it faster.

I love this. So we, if we can rewrite the programming in our minds to be like, if we need to lose weight, it's not about eating less necessarily as much as it is about eating the right foods at the right intervals in order to. Because what we want, really, what we're trying to do is burn the fat, get rid of some of the fat composition of the body, but we want to maintain the muscle composition of the body, right? So how do we maintain or increase our muscle mass while decreasing the fat mass? And that's the key. And that's what requires this other strategy. And so I invite women who are listening in to, to really be like, okay, if that, if that, it's because it's so ingrained, right? We're like, oh, I gotta eat less, I gotta eat less. I gotta restrict More and sometimes even fasting a lot because fasting has been so trendy that sometimes it can even work against women if the fasting causes them to disrupt their metabolism. What do you, how do you feel about that? What do you see when women are following different forms of fasting? Do you see that that disrupts the metabolism as well?

So what I find and what I, you know, I see this so frequently. So fasting can, can have its place. I've actually seen success with fasting. But the only time that fasting will actually help you release weight and it can be very healthy in the right, in the right situations is when you are eating enough so that your body has enough nutrients and you're really feeding your body up. And then you contrast it with intermittent fasting or with some fasting and because you're eating less for, for some time your body is able to actually wash away what's called zombie cells or, or senescent dead cells. But here's the, here's kind of the problem with, with fasting is that a lot of people have heard of someone or someone's cousin that's lost 30 pounds by, by doing intermittent fasting. And so a lot of people start doing fasting, they don't notice any differences with themselves, but they keep trying it. But it's actually leading in another direction. It's actually leading women to under eat and to actually slow your metabolism more. Because if you are eating very, if you're eating nutrient dense foods that are actually keeping your metabolism high, those are very filling, they're full of protein, they're full of fiber, it's really hard to eat enough within a small window every single day. And so if you have an eight hour fasting window, for example, there's, there's, it's really, really hard to get all of the, of the right foods enough calories, enough fiber, enough protein. And so you're really going to be putting your body in a defic it. But intermittent fasting, like I said, it has its, its place. Now for a lot of midlife women we have experience, personally, I've experienced this too. A lot of bloating and a lot of, of inflammation. And this is really different than fat gain. So that's the first thing. It's kind of confusing because it can look similar.

It's such a good point. It's such a good, like it's this because sometimes you're like, because women will say to me, I have this like I, I tend to use the word now of distension, right? Like Is this really fat around your belly? Which most common place for midlife women to gain weight? Right. It's whenever we're gaining weight, it seems to one go to our middle or waist or our hips and sometimes women will be like, you know, it feels like I have this belly. But the real question is, is it bloating like you're saying, or is it what's causing this distension of your waist?

Yes, and that's such a good, good, good term distension. And a lot of times like what you can, you can tell by the way that your, your stomach is, is shaped, but that bloating looks like. And so a lot of times if you see that the bottom of belly is more bloated, it's coming out. That's a symptom of gut health issues and that's very common in midlife. There's nothing wrong with it. It's very, very common. In fact, it just takes understanding what's going on to fix it. But when there's bloating happening, no amount of, of calorie cutting, no amount even if adding, like adding protein will help you, but you actually have to, to eat a lot of anti inflammatory foods that are soothing that will release that inflammation. And the reason that inflammation is there is because our H starting to decline and estrogen was very protective of our bodies and in having that inflammation released when we had our hormones so as they're starting to decline and then they're gone at menopause, we're going to, we're going to experience more inflammation. And so it's all about washing that inflammation away. So it's important to actually eat enough food and then you can do one or two days of intermittent fasting kind of to surprise your body. But the only way it will work is if you're eating enough. And most women have no idea that they can eat so, so much and that their bodies are actually going to feel better and you're going to get slimmer and you're going to wipe away not only fat but also bloating by eating enough of those right foods.

So I love, I love this message. Just to say it's not about having, not fasting at all, it's about how to fast in a way that's healthy for your metabolism and ensuring that you're still getting enough of your protein and calories and nutrients because otherwise you're going to be, it's going to throw things off. And so it's really important to have support to do this. You know, I think that a lot of people try to do it on their own and try to figure it. You think, oh, I'm just going to figure this out on my own. Especially because the doctor's office, they're not trained in nutrition. Medical doctors and most practitioners are not trained in nutrition. And so they don't know what to recommend with diet. Oh my gosh, I hear the most absurd things that the doctor told people to do. I'm like, no, no, no, no, not that. And so to be able to know that you're here as a weight loss coach to help people like this is an important thing to get support with. Don't just try it on your own. It can actually be dangerous to be trying to do this on your own. And maybe we can point out some of the other dangers of what can happen when you're trying various forms of weight loss on your own. You probably hear all kinds of stories of places people get themselves into just in an effort to lose weight.

Yes, yes. Well, yes. And I, you know, now it's very, it's very common to use GLP1s as kind of a quick way to lose weight. Or sometimes it's a last hope because someone's tried so many things and so they're thinking, okay, maybe this will work, you know, but what happens is, first of all, it can be also healthy in the right situation if you have, you know, if you actually are in the, in a place where GLP1s will help you. But usually what will happen is if you need to lose a little bit of weight or maybe you need, even need to lose 30 or 40 or 50 pounds, you know, you still have to create a healthy lifestyle. And so if you're taking GLP1s or if you're doing a quick, another type of shortcut like GLP1 specifically, they'll also decrease your muscle mass. And you know, it's, that is important for our metabolism for us to have a stronger muscle mass that we are continuing to develop. So if your muscle mass is going away while you're taking that, once you get off of it, your metabolism is going to slow even more. And so, you know, the other thing that I see a lot is that, you know, the fact of under eating or eating too little carbs. So car, no carb or low carb diets could definitely work in someone's 20s or 30s. That doesn't mean it's healthy. That doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. But it can absolutely, it can absolutely work. But starting in your late 40s, sometimes before that, and then beyond. Low carb doesn't even work anymore. In a lot of situations. If you were eating too high carbs, you might need to bring it down to the right place. But then if you go too low, what can happen is that we impact our body. Our body actually needs the healthy carbs like our thyroid, which is our metabolism boosting gland, thrives off of carbs. And so a lot of people will find that they have hypothyroidism in midlife. And a lot of it, some of it could definitely be because you're under feeding your body, especially not feeding yourself enough carbs. And the other thing, or, and the other thing is that when you're eating too little then, then you actually start to have more cravings for sugar because sometimes you need like your body needs calories regardless and it needs energy. So a lot of times if you've deprived yourself all day, for example, at night you're gonna find that your body catches up to you and then you start craving sugar and you really reach out for temptations because your body needs a quick energy source since you didn't give your body the fuel that it needed proactively during the day. And so this is why what you were saying even is about g yourself more protein during the day, also throughout the day, also giving yourself more fiber in the form of like chia seeds, adding, adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of chia seeds, adding half an avocado to your day, having veggies at every meal or fruit, low sugar fruit, you're increasing your fiber intake and that's going to keep you more full and satiated. Protein is going to increase your metabolism. And when you have that throughout the day, you won't feel that sugar crash in the afternoon or in the evening. And so by, by eating enough ahead of time, you're going to prevent yourself from being tempted from unhealthy foods.

I completely agree. And again, this has like been the, the one thing that really helped me with my weight because I also struggled with my weight early in early years. And, and, and I use the same things you're talking about to this day with my diet as well. And, and I, this is what I talk about with patients and I, I say that I actually created a, I think of it like almost like a trick, but it's, it's some, it's like a rule that I have for myself that if, if I'm feeling like I want to eat something even is definitely if it's time to eat or If I haven't eaten for too long and I'm hungry, or if I have a craving for something sweet like a carb. My rule is every time I eat, there has to be protein there. And so if, if I follow that rule, I find like, and I'll say this to patients, like, no matter what, even if you're like, I just have to have a little bit of chips or I just like, I'm so much craving, like a little bit of popcorn. Although I really try to encourage people to avoid popcorn because it causes so much trouble in the digestion. But if you're just like, I just feel like I need to have this carb, then I literally will say to myself, okay, you have to have protein first. Then whatever you, then whatever you feel like you still want to eat, you can have, you know, so it's this protein first rule, protein every time you want to eat, eat, rule. And it makes such a difference. So I love that you're talking about protein and that you teach about protein.

I've done a lot of detoxes over the years and many of them made me feel a lot worse. Not only that, but I've had a lot of patients come in and tell me how after doing a detox, they have a stomach ache and headache and they can't sleep and they're feeling anxious and I'm like, I can't just recommend that my patients do a program that's going to make them feel worse. So I finally decided to design my own detox program. It's a 14 day detox program that's not like other detox programs out there in several ways. One is that I'm focused on helping you to get the toxins out in a safe and effective way, using nutrients, antioxidants, and supporting our natural detoxification pathways in the body. Also, I'm helping you to decrease your exposure to toxins by learning the ways that you've been exposed to toxins and how to change your day to day lifestyle to decrease your toxins over time. And I'm helping you to look not just at chemical environmental toxins, but also so emotional and energetic toxicity. And yes, it's possible to accomplish all of this in 14 days. I have so many patients who have done the 14 day detox and report back to me how much better they feel. And I think it's also because I help you to know what to eat, you are getting adequate food that tastes good, plus protein shakes that I developed that are, are good for your body, that your body knows how to use these nutrients and take them in and use them to help you safely detoxify without feeling worse. Also I help you to balance your blood sugar levels, get better sleep and introduce things like meditation, biofeedback and other types of stress recovery into your day to day routine. So I just am so excited about it. I want to make sure you know about this 14 day detox. I'm going to put the link, you can find it at drdani.com forward/detox-program but I'll also put the link below so you can find the 14 day detox program@drdani.com I look forward to guiding you through this detox so that you can actually fit feel better on your way to better health.

And the thing is, is that dealing with sugar cravings and carb cravings is such a common question and concern that I hear from women like you know, so often. It is, it could be that we haven't eaten for too long, but it can also be when we're under stress. Can you just share with us a little bit more like what, what is this deal with sugar cravings and how can women start to be, be changing that? How can you break that pattern of the sugar cravings?

Yes. Okay, so sugar cravings are something that is a huge struggle. And like I was saying before, I really struggle with sugar cravings. But first let me share what is possible. And this is possible coming from someone who I thought I was born with sugar cravings that could never be controlled. Now I choose sugar. And so when I want to have sugar I enjoy it, but I actually never, I don't crave it, I don't, I, I, if, if I have eaten the right amounts of food, if someone bring tray of pastries, you know, a tray of donuts, a tray of croissants or even chocolate in front of me, I will just say I'm okay, I don't need that right now, but if I want to, I'll choose to have it. And so this is a place that we can actually get to no matter how strong our cravings are. And this is the reason our cravings are there is not because we're born with it. It's actually because we're not feeding our body the right amount of energy. And so our body is needing fast energy and sugar gives our body fast energy. And so, you know, one of the most common, but I think worst advice to give to someone who has sugar cravings is just to take sugar out of their diet. Because the moment that you take sugar out. It's been proven. When we are forbidden from eating foods, the only thing that we can think of is those foods that we're forbidden from. And so I remember when I used to tell myself, okay, I'm not going to eat. I'm not going to eat any sweets. I'm not going to have. I'm not going to have chocolate. The only thing I would think about would be like a chocolate mocha from the coffee shop. And I would just think about it.

We can't have. Then our brain focuses on that.

Yes, yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. And so, so the thing is like, if you just take out sugar, you'll end up wanting it more. And so that's never going to solve your problem. And the, the aspect of willpower, of trying harder to control your sugar cravings, will you always feel disappointed in yourself because it's. Those sugar cravings are really strong. So instead of trying to fight those cr. The way that you actually get off of sugar is to no longer have those cravings to actually attack it from the root cause. And the way to do that is to give your body more of what it's searching for. And when our body is craving sugar, it feels like sugar, but what it's actually craving. This is going to seem so absurd even is it's actually craving protein. And because it's craving a form of energy, but it just needs something right away immediately. And you waited too long. And so, you know, even the advice that's given out there and we, you know, this is kind of back to the myths as well, that the advice that is, you know, wait till you're hungry to eat. I completely do not agree with that. We should eat at regular intervals. And when you know you're going to be hungry, eat a little bit ahead of that because then you'll be able to control what you're eating and not be, not be controlled by those, those really, those sugar cravings that are so strong that are requiring fast energy. And so, so the number one thing to add to our diet is protein. And when you eat enough protein, it is so surprising how you will no longer have those cravings. Or definitely not that the strong cravings. Now I know that this can switch so quickly. If there's a couple days where I don't get the amount of protein in that I usually eat, I immediately feel hungry and start looking for sugar. So it's, it's not really about how you were born. It's not even necessarily a habit. It's more about your. How you're feeding your body. Are you giving your body the right nutrition? And if you are, it won't be seeking out other forms of quick energy. It will just be content and happy. And this could change as quickly as tomorrow just by adding in a metabolism boosting breakfast by adding 30 grams of protein to breakfast, having something like two eggs with Greek yogurt berries on the side, you could sprinkle cinnamon on that, which helps lower blood sugar. And that also helps you with, with fat loss when you keep your blood sugar even in. And so, you know, there's a couple other examples I can give as well. Like a smoothie, if you have 30 grams of a protein powder or if you use Greek yogurt, use some plant based milk like almond milk or any other kind of non dairy milk. Add a half to one cup of strawberries, a half cup of spinach. If you add a tablespoon or two of chia seeds or flax seeds, that's going to give you some fiber and a little bit of healthy fats. It'll keep you full and satiated. So that combination, I call it a fat burning smoothie, is, is really going to keep you full. And you're, you're not going to crave sugar. It has a little bit of sweetness, but you're not going to crave sugar because you've given your body the energy that it needs. And so really understanding more about nutrition, understanding how to combine your foods and how to eat regularly along throughout the day is going to completely wipe out those sugar cravings. And you're going to be so excited and surprised at how easy it will be to lose weight and get to your physical goals if that's something you're looking for.

I completely agree. Absolutely. And I found the same things for myself. And so I'm so glad that this is where you're coming from. And we're going to be talking about how you can learn more from Nagina as well because she runs online workshops where she teaches, even in more depth, about how to boost your metabolism. And so we'll put a link down below about your, your upcoming workshop, the Metabolism Boost Workshop. But in the meantime, you already just mentioned a couple amazing examples of how to. Because a lot of people say, well, what am I going to have for breakfast? Right? Because breakfast is often the meal that if we do the American breakfast, it ends up to be again, like carbs are okay, but it's way too many carbs and probably not very much protein. Right. There's very little protein or no protein. In like, you know, even in, when it's a high protein cereal, it doesn't have enough protein. Or if it's a, a bagel, or if it's a croissant, or if it's a donut, or if it's a pancake or a waffle or toast, it's not going to have enough protein. So the, as soon as we start talking about, hey, how do we shift our meals to higher protein? I love that you're already saying, hey, for breakfast you can be getting protein from eggs or you can get protein from a smoothie, which is, by the way, my favorite. Also nagina. I have, I years ago, I didn't like smoothies or protein shakes before, but at some point, I think it was when my daughter was young and it was literally out of survival because I was like, I have to have protein and I have to have it fast. I don't have time to cook. I just need. And I could say, I would say to my daughter and when she was young, I'd be like, mom cannot do anything until she drinks her protein shake.

Don't ask me for anything.

And so she literally just knew, like my daughter would just be like, okay, mom needs her protein shake. And then we can do something else. Because if we don't prioritize our protein from early in the day, then we're going to end up in this vicious cycle that you're talking about where we end up just in the roll in the blood sugar roller coaster. And if we can start off the day with protein, we can prevent that. A lot of women will say to me, okay, as soon as I start talking about protein, they say, well, well, where am I going to get protein? And so I'm wondering if we, you and I might just go through a list of our favorite protein sources, both animal protein and plant based protein, so that people can, as you're listening as nagina and I talk about our favorite proteins, listen for which proteins are you already choosing in your diet? And which proteins might you then want to try bringing into your diet as a healthy way to get protein? Protein, whether for breakfast or any time of day. So tell us, like, what are your favorite nagina, what proteins do you recommend to people often when they're like, how am I going to get more protein?

Yes. Oh my God. Such a good question. Because I know that's the, that's the struggle. It feels like, how do I do this? And it's true that the typical American breakfast is very high in carbs or it's kind of an intermittent fasting because of convenience where it's where a lot of people don't either aren't hungry or skip breakfast and then you're skipping the opportunity to fuel your body. It's really hard to get enough protein if you don't have breakfast. Breakfast. And, and you know, skipping breakfast because you feel like it will help you lose weight. If you're not losing weight, that means again that you're under, that you're under eating. And so, so, so, you know, some really easy things to do are to have two eggs. So if you have two eggs, first of all, two eggs is only 12 grams of protein. So you can't stop there. Every egg is only 6 grams of protein. We're looking to at least 30 grams of protein because that's going to make you feel full and satiated and help you get to the levels that you need to achieve for the day to really activate fat burning. Burning to really be able to give your body and what it needs in terms of the nutrients that it needs also. So, so what you can do is you can add a cup of egg whites to those two eggs and that's going to give you 30 grams of protein. You can add any kind of veggies to that. It'll just be a big scramble. If you, if you don't want to eat that many eggs, you can start or that big. If you feel like that's too big. A lot of times many people will feel like that's a lot to start with. But here's the thing. If you start with maybe two eggs and half a cup of egg whites, you're going to start to get hungrier because your metabolism is going to start increasing. Give it one week and you're going to start to want more. And that's a good thing. That means your body's burning calories and soon it will be burning fat. So if you start with, you know, the half cup of egg whites, that's great. Add on, add on another half cup when you are able to. So that's one option. Greek yogurt is really good Cottage cheese. Some of my favorite proteins are salmon. I love having salmon. I usually will grill salmon or I'll wr. I'll roast salmon in the oven in the beginning of the week and I' have it in the fridge. And then every day I'll take out about 4 to 4 ounces or so about from my fingertip to the bottom of my palm, just about a half inch thick. That's really it. And I'll have That for lunch with some veggies on the side. And, and salmon is incredible because it has more omega 3s, which is, this is something that's really important for us, especially women in midlife, to add more Omega 3s because that helps reduce, reduce swelling and if we're often getting too many omega 6 fats. And so when you get more omega 3s, it really brings that swelling down. So salmon is really great. I love seafood. Scallops, whitefish, turkey, chicken. Those are all great, great options. And some really fast options are hard boiled eggs, smoked salmon, even tuna in a packet or tuna in a can, or also crab in a can. They're, they're really high protein things that you can find at the supermarket that you can quickly add on and you start to get into a groove of it. Once you start just prioritizing having that and, and you realize how good you feel when you have it. So those are some of mine. What about, what about some of yours?

I love it. Those are definitely some of my favorites. In fact, like, I'm thinking of my refrigerator and, and if someone were to go open up my refrigerator, that's what they, that's what I optimally will have someone finding is like, if you look in the freezer, there should be some frozen wild salmon ready to be cooked or some frozen or you know, free range chicken ready to be cooked. So because I always want to, if I'm in a hurry and I haven't gone to the store to get fresh, I always want it frozen in the freezer. So it's like, okay, I got backup protein all the time. And then, then in the refrigerator part of it I like to have, I cook, I get like free range chicken and then I grill it or cook it and I have it always available so that I can use it in my. Usually I put that in my salad. So I have arugula with grilled chicken for lunch. And I always, in my refrigerator always have sliced turkey. Now it's tricky because there's a lot of brands of, of sliced turkey or deli turkey that are, that have a lot of preservatives and other junk in there that I don't want. So I'm very careful to get as clean a version of sliced turkey as possible because, and it's, and I try to go for the, the grilled chicken first. But I like to have some, some like Applegate for example, or you know, or nice organic free range turkey slices in my fridge because again, it's a nice backup. If I'm like, okay, I need protein. At least I can go grab a little turkey slice. And then I always like when my daughter helps me go into the grocery store. She knows because I've trained her from a young age. She's like, mom, what do you need at the grocery store? And I say I just write protein. And she knows that means give me chicken, give me turkey, give me some grass fed beef or a filet mignon, you know, at least once a week because I'm going to want the nutrients from healthy beef sources as well. Now a lot of people, people sometimes are surprised that as a naturopathic doctor that I eat animal protein, but it's because of exactly what you've been explaining. I know there's times where I'll eat a fully plant based diet, but the only time I do a fully plant based diet is when I'm in the Amazon on a retreat and I'm not in my usual work schedule or my usual movement schedule, right. I'm sleeping more, I'm, I'm in a, in a, more like a fasting, mimicking diet, but that's all plant based. Then I will do that for short periods of time. But when I'm in my usual busy life and physical activity, I know I'm going to need that protein. And so it's, it's very, yes, you can get protein from plant based sources and we can talk about those too. But, and, and some of my diet is from plant based protein. But it's. Would you say it's pretty hard to do this with a fully plant based diet?

Diet it is, it is definitely harder to do it. And a lot of times, you know, with plant based, it's, it's, it's possible. I do have vegetarian clients and vegan clients that have lost a very significant amount of weight, but you really do have to prioritize your protein. So it's important to have a protein powder if you're plant based that you're relying on at least once a day and then also other things like tofu. You might not want to eat it every day though. You can eat it, you know, a few times a week, but there's a few hacks like using nutritional yeast, using hemp seeds which have 10 grams of protein per serving, but really just making sure you're not eating too many carbs with your, as part of your protein. Because a lot of vegetarian proteins also have significant carbs in them and that's the reason that it also gets to be hard. So as it, it is definitely harder, but it's not impossible though if you are completely plant based vegan, it definitely, you're definitely going to be relying more processed sources. So. But, but you know that's what I, there's, there are a lot of, you know, I actually personally was. Became a vegan for a little while and then I just didn't feel, I didn't feel right. And, and I was very open to becoming a vegan but I felt low energy. I felt you know, a lot of things that, that had, that changed for me and so I can, I know there are a lot of benefits of animal products products. You know, it's just about eating high quality animal products which really makes the difference.

It does. And then you can feel good about the, the, the circle of life, so to speak, right of saying hey, this animal was taken well taken care of and now you know, and it's, and it's also does then you're not getting exposed to any kind of hormones or chemicals that might have been in, in a, you know, in a non organic source of animal protein. And I agree with you when I help patients who are fully plant based or vegan and so then we, it's doable but we just have to, we just have to then work. We're not going to give up. We're going to say let's find solutions. And there are for example pea proteins. A lot of my patients and even myself will you. I'll use sometimes pea protein for my protein shake or sometimes I'll use like a bone broth or beef based protein shake. But there's ways to get pea protein and even just a plain organic non GMO pea protein that you can either use for shake or you can add it to different foods. Right. To be able to get that extra protein. Or you can also like you said hemp seeds, but there's also hemp protein powder. So there's. If you, you just have to be creative and, and get these things and then start thinking about how can you incorporate it into your meals so that you're getting those grams of protein.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And you, and you have to be very intentional about it, about making sure you're getting that, that just like even if you, you know, for, for everyone. We have to also be intentional about getting enough fiber which is really, really important to be able to stay more full throughout the day and also push food out of our body, push inflammation out of our body. So the more intentional you are about protein, about fiber, about these really important foods, you will see results. It's not impossible because A lot of times in midlife, it kind of feels. It feels sometimes at moments, hopeless. Like, I have felt that where I'm wondering what is happening to my body? Why is this bloating happening? But once you start just getting a hold of it, understanding that you have to eat enough of these foods and being very intentional throughout your day instead of kind of leaving it up to chance, it's, it, it's. It's really hard to get healthy if you're just kind. If you're just hoping for it, you do want to plan for it and, and really know what you're eating throughout the day.

And I'm so glad that you're bringing up the gut health because like, like constipation, for example, if there's constipation not moving, that's going to make it really difficult to shift your metabolism. And so getting the bowels moving is such an important thing. So if anyone listening is like, if you're not having a bowel movement, at least one bowel movement every day, we need to get that happening first. And there's really good natural ways to support bowel regularity. Like nagina saying, like with fiber, like from ground flax seeds, chia seeds, and other types of fiber. Fiber. I find actually that a lot of times it's very unique to each person. Like, one patient will say, oh, I started doing this and my bowels started moving. And I'll be like, I never even thought of that. You know, So I don't know if you have some. I know you already mentioned the fiber, but do you find that this is a big part of what you do with patients is helping get their bowels moving?

Yes, getting there. And alleviating constipation, also alleviating other symptoms like eczema, which is so related to our gut health. And, you know, sometimes if you're feeling constipated or you're not able to get your bowels moving and you're. You may actually find that certain fibrous foods are difficult for you to eat. And if you're finding that there's definitely something happening with your gut health and this is directly going to impact your metabolism as well as so many other things, but you can, you can resolve it. So the best, the best way to go about that, if you're having any of these issues, is to start trying to try to find different sources of fiber and see which one works for you. So I have some of my clients who, they feel that it's uncomfortable to eat chia seeds or flax seeds, Seeds, but they are able to eat avocado and avocado is really high in fiber. So they start with that and then over time they were able to eat the other types of foods as well. They were able to add in some chia seeds and flax seeds. And you know, I have some clients who had eczema. And as they started adding more fiber in and started adding these, these making sure they're adding enough protein in and eating the right kinds of carbs, healthy carbs that also have fiber in them. So, so they're not spiking blood sugar. They found their eczema completely disappeared. I mean, it was incredible. And they'd been using lotions for their whole entire life. They didn't even need those anymore. And then also the constipation goes away. So many things can change and then your body is moving so much, so much more efficient, efficiently. And you can really get that inflammation out. You can really get fat burning going because you're eating these foods that are pushing other things out, out.

So yes, I love this idea that, because I, I believe this too, like so much. We just focus on, I want to lose weight and we get this like hyper focus on the weight part of it. And what you're sharing is that if, if we can also realize that it's about you getting healthier, like all of these things, the skin improves, the hair improves, that your mood improves, your digestion improves because your body's actually getting fat in a healthier way. And so the weight comes off as just a, sort of like a, a, an outcome as a result of, of feeding yourself better versus the, the main priority. Right. Is it like that?

Yes, absolutely. That's so true. You get, you feel so much better, you feel so much energy, your weight just starts just really melting away. And that's how it feels. It's true. And because this is where not restricting ourselves anymore in this whole concept of everything we're talking about, we're no longer fighting our body. Instead we're working with our body. We're helping our body to perform better, to absorb the right nutrients so that it can detox, so that it can release the right things so that we don't have that inflammation. And then when we're having a high enough metabolism, which is very easy to do, in fact, if you eat the 30 gram breakfast that we were talking about for even one week, you'll see that you could potentially lose 2 to 4 pounds just by eating 30 to 30 grams of protein along with having that low sugar Fruit, keeping your blood sugar even in the morning. And it's, it's, you know, and then when you start adding on lunch and dinner with these foods that are really nutrient dense, it's, it's so magical what can happen to our body. And it's no longer hard. It's actually freeing. And you can have so much more energy, fit into the clothes that you want to fit into and feel full and never feel like you're on a diet again because you've created a lifestyle. And that's, that's how this, that's how our lives truly change and how we're going to be healthy for decades beyond.

Because that's the thing. We don't want to just lose the weight. And then like three months later or a year later, it's back again. Because now you're just like, feel like you're constantly on the diet. Right. But what you're describing is learning how to feed yourself in a way that you can. That's. You're not restricting and you actually are enjoying your food. So you don't, you don't even feel like you're on a diet. You're more like in a. Right. You're like, hey, I'm okay with eating this way and continuing to maintain my weight this way.

Yes, exactly. You don't feel like you're on a diet because you love what you're eating. You also no longer have sugar cravings because you're eating the right way throughout the day. So you're not fighting yourself, but you're still choosing sugar. I still love having a chocolate for some croissant on the weekends. I'll have that. And then I'll also combine it by having some eggs with it. Because if you combine sugar with a, with a protein or with a healthy fat, then you don't, you don't elevate your blood sugar. And that's, that's the way that we gain fat is when we elevate our blood sugar and it goes up and down really quickly. So when you are balancing out your blood sugar, you're eating enough protein that increases your metabolism, eating the right amount of fiber, that's pushing, pushing inflammation out, keeping you full. You never feel like you're on a diet and you actually enjoy the food that you're eating. You know, and I talked a little bit about some spices too, like the spice cinnamon, which is really sweet. When you're adding spices onto your food, you're making it taste good, and that's adding another element of metabolism boosting because like for example, sugar or, or cinnamon. It helps keep your, your blood sugar even. It actually brings it down, down and it also helps you curb any sugar cravings.

And it's yummy. It makes everything yummier. And I'm sure this is a lot of what you teach in the metabolism boost workshop. We're going to put a link down below, but tell us like what happens at the workshop, like what can people look forward like if you're already learning from nagina and you're like okay, I'm ready to get protein into my breakfast. So what do you, where do you take us from there in your workshop?

Oh my gosh. So I have the five day metabolism boost for midlife women. And this is where I teach, I teach for an hour every day and I go into so much detail. The first day is your four step morning, morning metabolism boost, your morning routine for your metabolism boost. And so I talk to you about what liquids to have exact breakfasts that will give you that protein. I talk to you about what specific anti inflammatory deblo foods to add and drinks to add. And it's something that even if you do one of those moments of the metabolism boosting warning routine routine, you're going to find that you are starting to burn fat. I also talk about the fat burning food framework where I teach you how to combine your foods for lunch dinners and snacks so that you're getting your metabolism high and you're getting that fat burning going. And one of my best days is where I talk about how to get off sugar without feeling tired or restricted. And I talk about lots of food combinations where if you combine your favorite sugars with certain other food foods, you're not going to spike your blood sugar as much and you're actually going to lose weight while eating your favorite foods. And that's why this is a lifestyle shift. So yes, so I'm going to be having the five day metabolism boost. This one is starting on October 20th. And so we're, I'm so excited about that. And, and yeah, we're going to have the link below for you to join. And, and a quick way to get there is masala body.com forward/boost boost. It's a free five day metabolism boost and you're going to be able to get just get exact how tos about how to get your metabolism going that's working for midlife women right now.

I love it. And this is online so you can you just sign up then you have, you get to cut in your live so it has A start. And you do it every so often. So even if someone's listening to this, after October, definitely still follow the link because then you can get the latest one that Nagina is offering and this way you can like get it. It's so amazing how when we get into community online and then you start teaching us, hey, here's what you do to get over these sugar cravings and let's do it right now together, right? Because if we're sometimes when we're trying to do it on our own and we're like, oh yeah, I'm going to stop eating sugar. But it's very hard to just stop eating sugar on your own own sugar has this thing where it's like calling your name from the kitchen or something.

Right?

So, so it helps to like have like a support community to and for you to say, okay, here's how to shift that situation with sugar so you can win. You can, you can take control of your body and your, in your weight and your life and not let the sugar be the one in control role.

Yes, absolutely. It's. And you know, every day we're giving you homework so that like really easy homework action steps so that you're not just watching, you're actually taking action. Things that are really doable that you're going to be so excited about. And I also have replays in case you're not able to come live every day we do have a replay replay page that's going to be up for, for a limited time that you can watch. So no matter what, you won't be able to miss out. And we just see so many transformations that happen during this five day mattress metabolism boost. It's so, it's so amazing and so exciting. And yes, I do have them regularly. So if you are able to come to this one, then that's great. If you hear this afterwards, just definitely click on the link and you'll see the next one that's coming up too.

Oh, I love it. I love it. Thank you so much. Because already you've given. I'm sure the listeners are like, oh yeah, I could try that. And this, you know, feeling like, oh, it's too good to be true. To be able to eat our favorite food foods and still lose weight. And so I know sometimes it's hard to overcome that because of everything we've been taught from the past. But I'm here to say that exactly what Nagina is teaching you is what I do for myself for many years. And so I know that what she's saying is going to work because it works for me all the time too, and for my patients. So absolutely. If you're feeling stuck with your weight, if you've got that belly and you're like, how do I get this belly get to shift? And, and so many more keys that we've been talking about, including, I wanted to mention, if you've, like, we talked about the bloating and, and I want to emphasize, and I think you, you've talked about, you alluded to this a little bit too nagina, that we have to not only get the bowels moving and address the constipation, but if we find that there may be some bacterial overgrowth, like either. Right. Like sometimes we hear about C. But or even large intestinal bacteria. Because sometimes what happens is if we've been eating a higher carb diet and then the bowels are not moving, then that, that food that's not getting digested is feeding the bacteria. And then you get this overgrowth of bacteria that's causing bloating. And so sometimes that needs to be addressed. So if, if anyone listening is like thinking there we might also have. And then what happens is those bacteria end up making the metabolism issue worse. Right. And so it becomes this like, snowball effect. And so we want to get the metabolism reset happening, get your bowels moving. And if necessary, we can address those overgrowing bacteria. Not with antibiotics, but I had help women address that all the time with natural approaches with herbs. And you know, my specific protocol for bacterial overgrowth and for leaky gut. Do you talk about that some in your workshop too?

Oh, yes. So we talk about inflammation, we talk about exact things to do for your gut health and really how it releases so much of the bloating. So I talked to you about foods to add and then also the fact that, yes, when you're feeding your body specific foods, it's growing that bacteria that's not good for your. For your gut. And because you're growing that bacteria, it actually causes more sugar cravings and more cravings for unhealthy foods. But you can actually reverse that by feeding your body more healthier foods. Like, for example, when you feed your body more more vegetables, then you grow the bacteria that craves vegetables. And so now this is so amazing to me, but I never thought it would happen. Instead of craving sugar, I now crave vegetables. Whenever I'm at a sitting down for a meal, I want to eat my vegetables first. I'm always looking for greens because my body is craving it and I'M so happy that I grew, you know, that that bacteria that is, that is wanting that because it makes it so much easier to be healthy when you actually want to eat those foods. And of course, making them taste good is part of it, too. That's why, you know, if you use spices on your vegetables, you want to use, you want to eat vegetables. But yes, you can reverse your, you can completely change over your gut biome, and it can happen in as little as three days where you can completely be off of sugar and want to eat healthy foods. All you have to do is, is know that you have to do it throughout the day. And you kind of have to know about where sugars are hiding because they're hiding in a lot of healthy foods. And so we talk about this in the metabolism boost. Also, I'm going to, I'm going to share an entire list of healthy foods that are hiding sugar. And when you are eating some sugar, even in the form of healthy foods, if, if it breaks down to sugar, it makes you addicted to more sugar because you're growing that bacteria. So once you're aware of what food sugar is hiding in and you, and you start to substitute with other things, this whole journey becomes easy. It truly becomes easy because your, your body is wanting healthy food.

It is, is really, Isn't that so interesting when the research came out that showed that actually our cravings can be created by the microbes in our gut. So if, if we're. And we're the ones choosing what to feed these micro microbes, it's not just that we're feeding ourselves, we're feeding them. Right? So every time we eat, we have to be thinking, where do I get nutrition for me and what do I want to be or not want to be feeding the microbes? Because, yeah, like you said, if you're feeding them vegetables, then you're going to grow the microbes that like vegetables and they're going to create cravings for vegetables. And so we, this is part of how we can break this whole code, right? Like break through this whole metabolism issue by, by outsmarting this, right? By realizing, oh, what I need to be intentional about what I'm putting in my mouth so that I'm feeding my body and I'm feeding the microbes that are going to help my health and not work against me.

Yes, exactly. Yes, absolutely. That's really what's happening. And that's so true that we have control over what we're feeding our body. And that's why you truly can change your Cravings you can get off of sugar, you can no longer have sugar cravings and you can just have an easy journey to getting healthy. And that's how you create that lifestyle shift when you start making these changes that are internal. So yes.

Oh, I'm so glad for, I'm so grateful for you coming today and sharing all of this with us even as a starting point so you can start to experiment with these things and then definitely to learn more from Nagina, go to her metabolism boost online workshop workshop so that you can learn more tips and start to implement and see hey what how this is working for your body in the short term, even in a five day workshop. And then how can you, what can you then do to help yourself implement going forward? Because it's, it's, it's so important. We know that, yes, there's so many reasons to be at a healthy weight. Part of it is, you know, the way we feel at a healthy, healthy weight. But it's also we know that at a healthier weight we're preventing other health issues. Right. Again, we're going to be preventing cancer, we're going to be preventing diabetes, we're going to be preventing heart disease, we're going to be preventing dementia. All like so also I feel like that sometimes is just part of it is like, like you said, it's a lifestyle. How do we eat in a way that actually not only helps us feel good in our body today and good in our clothes, but also helps our health going forward.

Forward. Yes. Yes. Yep. That's so true. And so when you do it the right way, it's not hard. It's actually so enjoyable. It's just about learning the steps. Learning what to add to your breakfast is a great way to start. And then to start just knowing some of the other key foods to keep adding into your day and you're going to start to see changes happen and then it's going to make you want to do even more.

And I work with a lot of people who, when we do a food sensitivity panel, they need to avoid, for example, dairy, dairy, gluten. And I'm sure this is something too. You help people with where they're like, okay, what if I need to avoid dairy, what if I need to avoid eggs because of a food sensitivity and leaky gut, then you, you've got other ideas for them.

Yes. Yeah. There's so many options. There's no strict menu plan. There is so many options. In fact, I teach a fat burning food framework where I teach how to pair certain kinds of foods like categories of foods but you, there's so many foods within that category so it's so flexible. It's not something that you only have to do at home either. You can do it when you're eating out, you can do it at family members or friend's house. You can do it all, all the time because it's a realistic lifestyle approach. And then also there's really good recipes that I also share and that I'll be sharing in the five day metabolism boost, especially really easy smoothie recipes. I have a flat tummy water recipe that I'm going to share right when, right when you, you sign up, you'll have the option option to get the flat tummy water recipe that can really, really debloat your belly. And, and so you know it can be as flexible but sometimes it's easy to have a few recipes or a lot of recipes to, you know, to, to as a resource. So depending on your preference those things are there. But, but, but really it's about you just learning and educating yourself on how to feed yourself so that you can have a higher metabolism and how to work with our, our midlife bodies.

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. Nahina. Is this, I'm so glad you're there helping people because you can help people wherever they are because this is online and your work as a wellness coach and weight loss coach is online. So no matter where you're listening from, Nagina can help you. And so I, I welcome you all to, to do her workshop and follow her so that you can, you know, continue to learn from her. And thank you so much for joining us here at How Humans Heal Today. Nagina.

Thank you for having me, Dr. Donnie.

I can't wait to see you again soon. And thanks everyone for listening in to How Humans Heal. If you haven't already, I welcome you to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. And I look forward to connecting with you all very soon.

Thanks for listening to How Humans Are Heal. If you liked this episode, leave a rating and a review and for more resources, visit drdani.com.